客途秋恨（粤语版）

秋日上海观影之《客旅秋恨》

   
     04814917 藤井树 发表于：01-09-30 13:13
  


 
 
　　上海观影之《客旅秋恨》
　 9月29日，国庆长假前的最后第二天。很多人都在上班。下午，上海南塘浜路有一个原先是婚姻介绍所的地方放映香港独立影展。
　 这个放映活动是继101上海艺术放映后的第二个在上海办的民间观影活动，选择的片子往往比101的通俗些。101比较侧重大师级的经典名作，只是有时候这样的大师电影看上去很美却常常让人耐不住寂寞无法坚持。我承认自己是一个潦草的人，并且越来越潦草。
　
  相比之下，这个在许多人根本没有听说过的南塘浜路放的电影在可看性和艺术性方面比较容易接受，至少我的感觉是这样。
　 9月29日是我第二次去这个地方看片。上一次去看的是《鬼子来了》。
　 这次整个下午一连放了三部香港艺术电影，其实晚上还有。晚上是放香港独立制片人的试验短片。可惜我晚上有事，走出去的时候心里满是不舍。
　 下午放了许鞍华的《客旅秋恨》，一部讲述香港法制疏漏的《等候董建华发落》还有陈果早已著名的《榴莲飘飘》。
　 而我最喜欢的是第一部：许鞍华的《客旅秋恨》。
　 吴念真的编剧。说母女关系，说隔阂，说分离，说寻找，说回归还有理解和宽容。
　 充满了人文关怀和淡淡的感伤，吴念真最擅长的叙事风格，许鞍华特有的情绪把握。看的时候不时想起杨德昌令我感慨万千的《一一》，有的人说文艺腔十足，假了。可是我说电影就是这样，来源于生活而高于生活，让人感到了疼痛或者忧伤，就是好电影。或者无奈或者喜悦，都是值得珍惜的情绪。
　 《一一》里故事背景很单纯，人物关系也很简单，所以显得平实朴素些。相比之下，《客旅秋恨》的故事被安排在战乱年代，人物牵涉到中日两国，探讨家庭关系的同时还有国家民族的情绪瓜葛。整部影片给人感觉内容充实丰满，张曼玉的风韵气质已露端倪，而扮演她母亲的那个女演员更是演的情真意切。
　 开始的开始是母女间的疏离与隔阂，日本人的母亲独自在丈夫家里生活。丈夫却不在身边，只有女儿是自己的骨肉亲人。可是女儿却跟爷爷奶奶亲。这个女人严肃拘谨，寂寞度日。好不容易等到了丈夫回来是无论如何不能再放他走了，要走也是跟着男人一起走。只是女儿已经跟父母渐行渐远，她没有跟他们走。留下来还是跟着爷爷奶奶生活。
　 多年后，女儿大了，来到了父母身边。这时候她有了一个妹妹，而妈妈已经不再是印象中独自流泪的女人，变得跟周围的世俗女子毫无分别。整日打牌聊天，不做家务不关心任何人。但是父亲对她说爸爸从前欠妈妈太多，所以现在要补回来。年少气盛的女儿在15岁的时候再次离开了家，离开了父母。从此一个人念书一个人悲喜。
　又是很多年过去。
  妹妹出嫁了，跟着丈夫去了加拿大，而父亲早已去世。这个世界上在母亲身边的却是当初离的最远的大女儿。所谓宿命。
  还是争吵还是易怒，性格刚烈的母亲想到了回家。回她年轻时为了爱人而离开的故乡，日本。
　她带上了大女儿回她原来的家。
  家里来接她的是大哥，当初同意把妹妹嫁给那个中国翻译官的就是大哥。
　 对于女儿来说，这是一块完全陌生的土地。说自己听不懂的话，吃自己没有吃过的菜。但是对母亲来说，这里是自己出生成长的故乡。有小学老师，有初恋情人，还有一起长大的小姐妹。
　 母女间的对话从这里展开，女儿终于开始明白母亲的寂寞偏执是因为什么。家意味着什么，亲人意味着什么，故乡是什么，爱与不舍是什么。
　 最后的最后，当初最远的变得最近，当初疏离的重新靠近。这个世界太多冰冷，所以我们要紧紧依靠。血缘的牵连是一辈子无法放下的结，我们谁也无法割舍。
  很多感触积在心里，一时难以言表。只是在昏黄平缓的镜头下，可以清晰的感受到暗涌的激情和起伏。走到哪里，家与亲人都是一辈子的心事和想念。
  感谢吴念真，感谢许鞍华，感谢张曼玉，在这个初秋让我觉得很温暖。
谢谢你看完了我的字。
藤井树
01/9/30　午后

藤井树的论坛
 
 

    本来打算写《The Books Of Secrets》的评论，不知为什么却想起了这部电影，事实上，这部电影在我的记忆里，从来没有被抹去。

    5年前的大年初一，我在家看这部电影，泪流满面，被妈妈狠狠教训一通。那时的我，在异乡求学，和父母一年团聚一次。时隔多年，电影的情节已经忘记，但正值青春年少的张曼玉灿烂的笑脸和看这部电影时被触发的悲伤的心情却至今不能忘记。

    一个坏毛病，真正深深打动我的电影从来不看第二遍，看完以后在心底一遍又一遍的回味，直到再也想不起来细节。离那个泪流满面地大年初一已经五年，在今天的这样一个夜晚，远离家乡的我，想了起来。

喜欢的细节：
15岁的晓恩在菜场看到买东西的老人，回忆起和爷爷一起逛菜场的情形。

夏日午后，小女孩趴在爷爷肚子上午休。长大后的晓恩看着中风在床的爷爷，想着：这样苍老的肚子恐怕再也承受不了这个孙女的重量了。——泪奔

母亲在家乡的车站轻声地用日语道：“我回来了。”旋即觉得自语有些失态——那一刻，才不会记得计较自己的生活是否体面。

墙上山口百惠的海报。

现实和回忆在相关情形的引带下交织，揭示故事的全貌。很经典的叙事。

不大理解的：

母亲的变化（从澳门的小媳妇，到香港的麻将师奶，再到后面虚荣的师奶），父亲的态度，其中的矛盾和复杂交待的不够，母亲因为一次归国之旅后的痛哭暂得解脱（让晓恩回去看爷爷奶奶）显得太轻而易举了。

舅舅的中国话突然长进了。

也可以看得出以母女关系为主线想顺带的东西也很多，父辈的对乡土的向往，红小兵对父辈的反咬，香港时事的变化等等，包得太多太紧。

这周林老师让我们找一个影片出来讲讲时间。恰巧今天为写剧本重看一遍《客途秋恨》，再看，感动更深。

这是一个有关救赎的故事啊！是现今的女儿对母亲一生的救赎；是母亲对自己过去的救赎；是透过爷爷，是新一代对中国历史的救赎。看到最后，看的泪流满面。这样的家庭与历史氛围孕育出来的善意、感悟、营养、启蒙、救赎......无怪乎成就一代有情怀、关注时事和民族命运的作者导演——许鞍华。

全片是从女儿晓恩的视角出发看妈妈的，从对妈妈的隔阂到理解为线索，贯穿起整个看似凌乱的时间与空间。观众与晓恩的视点重合，对母亲的理解有以下几个层面：
一，现在的母亲控制欲强，性情古怪，讲话酸气十足，动辄闹情绪；
二，曾经的母亲沉默严肃，被公公婆婆欺负，被街坊邻居蔑视，被亲生女儿拒绝，压抑而伤心；
三，两人来到日本，女儿重游一边母亲故土，就是重新发现母亲历史的过程：母亲当年在故乡失恋失意而负气出走，几十年未归；母亲当年被弟弟拒绝归乡，被人指为不贞；母亲当年在澳门语言不通，处境困难，正如现在的自己；母亲现在的房子要被卖掉，真正的无归土可言......
一层一层，对于晓恩而言，日本解释了中国的母亲，通过过去理解了现在，亲情里面，你只有我，而我理解了你，终于[最远的变成了最亲的]。

第一遍看的时候，我只看到这第一层，然而，救赎不仅仅于此，对于母亲来讲，时间扮演着更加暧昧，更加折磨人的角色。
是年轻时候日本生活的不如意逼她来了中国，而在中国数十年的苦闷和压抑却使母亲的心时时回到日本。日本是好的，日本的房子大，日本有亲人...日本在一年又一年的母亲的幻想里。然而真正回到日本，事实是日本还在那里，而时间早已悄悄将母亲变成了一个中国妇人。母亲穿着中国的时装，不着木屐，母亲发现日本的房子没有那么大了，洗澡也那么麻烦，日本的饭菜生生冷冷，不好吃了......时间改变了一个人的身份，改变着她的心理归属，而不回来，她自己也不知道。
但是，时间没有化解怨恨，没有让她与过去和解。她怨恨的面对旧情人说，他过的哪里有我好；他和弟弟大吵，你忠，你战后为何不切腹；她对每一个故乡的故人说，这是我女儿，刚刚从英国拿了硕士学位；她面对曾经的情敌，好像瞬间穿越到过去......时间很神奇，时间又好像没有让任何事情改变，它还让情敌之间互相嫉妒着，尽管那个男人早已娶了别的女人变成了老头子；它丝毫没有化解怨恨，反而让积怨越来越深...面对母亲的背影，女儿独白道：“当我看着妈妈走远的背影，我觉得我好想了解了她的心情，一度，我不是也曾经绝望的背弃过什么吗？只是那一年我才十五岁，而妈妈已经是快五十岁的人，她还能有机会像我这样得到抒解吗？”
影片走到最后，我们都为母亲这个角色心酸心疼，时间没有让她纾解，却让她变老了，却让她对人生这么个东西放弃了挣扎。回到香港的母亲变了，忽然间变老了，变得沉默而拘谨。她为了给女儿传达爷爷生病的消息等了一整天，你说这算原谅吗？或者，这算退一步吧。时间让妈妈变老了，时间让她停留在怨恨的过去，时间把怨恨放在那里，不多不少。

爷爷心心念念回到了祖国，回到了广州，却在文革中受尽了压迫。却看着孙女语重心长的说：不要对中国失望啊！镜头停留在看着母亲背影远去的脸庞，停留在爷爷病床前张曼玉那年轻的脸庞，哦不，许鞍华年轻的脸庞，那一刻，我觉得我对了许有了更深的理解。战争，文革，中国，日本，香港，历史，亲情，这些跟人有关的厚重沉甸甸的都落在了这个年轻女子的身上，带着爷爷的善意，父亲的勇气，母亲的救赎，面对未来，面对香港和大陆，面对电影和千千万万的观众。

据说，当年这部片子公映的时候，许特意将母亲安排回日本住一段时间，可知后来母亲又把电影借回家自己偷偷看，看的泪流满面。我想许鞍华借着拍《客途秋恨》的机会让自己得到纾解，但这对于她的母亲何尝不是有着重大意义。在影片里，直到最后陆小芬都没放下心里的郁结，我想那时荧幕前许的母亲应有所变化吧！

Song of the Exile reveals its veil with an extreme close-up of a bicycle wheel, accompanied by Hueyin’s sentimental narrations. Hueyin, the narrator and one of the protagonists, isa Sino-Japanese (ethnically) studying in London. Aiko, Hueyin’s mother, is a Japanese who has been living in Macau and Hong Kong since the end of the Second World War.Hueyin’s grandparents, in reliance of their illusionary imagination on Mainland China, choose to settle down in Guangzhou in the shadow of Cultural Revolution. Seemingly all the main characters in Song of the Exile are in displacement from motherlands and resettlement in host lands (Yue). This essay will analyze the displacement and its reconstruction of identity in the context of Song of the Exile.

As to Hueyin, a subtle implication on her contradicted ethnicity and nationality arises when she is typing another resume after she receives the rejection letter from BBC. The heading of her resume indicates that she was born in Hong Kong (“Place of Birth: Hong Kong”) but she is a British (“Nationality: British”). The scene not only epitomizes the colonial history of Hong Kong, but also portrays the discrimination Hueyin encounters as an ethnical Chinese. She should have been treated equally as her local friends on application to BBC in terms of nationality. Yet more often she is isolated in the pub and unintentionally alienated when her friend mentioned about using chopsticks, which symbolizes a classical imagination of orientalism. All these subtle fragments pile up, Hueyin gradually realizes that although she lives in London and speaks fluent English, she still belongs elsewhere. She is indeed “an exile in a foreign land” (Erens).

That’s probably why Hueyin erases her resume and instead types a farewell letter to her friends in London. The opening scenes depicting the landscapes and culture heritages of London, especially appealing to most people in Hong Kong at 1990s after the demonstrations on Tiananmen Square. The image of London is somehow embellished in the diffusing suspicion of returning to socialistic China. In terms of Hong Kong, the model of One Country Two Systems “includes Hong Kong as a part of China but excludes it from legal structure” (Yue) and economic coordination. All those British culture and heritages left in Hong Kong cannot be simply replaced like the replacement in nationality derived from the handover, not to mention the reconstruction of recognition of Chinese identity. It seems that Hong Kong itself, like Hueyin, also lives here but belongs elsewhere.

The same displacement occurred to Aiko,Hueyin’smother, who has been living in Macau and Hong Kong for most of her life. She tells her older brother how difficult her life is in a “foreign country” upon reaching her hometown in Japan. As a Japanese living in Macau and Hong Kong after the Sino-Japanese War, Aiko was prejudiced and even despised by Hueyin’s grandparents and neighbors. She speaks Japanese. She is more in favor of Japanese cuisine. She always reminds herself and Hueyin of the reputation and wealth of her family in Japan, which constitutes an explicit contrast to her floundering life in Hong Kong and Macau, trying to adapt to local lifestyle. When returning to Japan, she picks up her mother tongue, her Japanese name and all other Japanese ritual habits, thus reaffirming her identity as Japanese. She seems to be no longer the “otherness” but one of “the same” with similar social practices and collective acknowledgement of identity.

However, the authenticity of favorite food, the familiarity of language and the comfort of coming back home do not last for long. When Aiko deliberately shows off her well-educated daughter studying in London to her relatives in an attempt to create a “glorious return”, her relatives respond in indifference and ethno-centrality. The Japanese food she used to favor feels cold and tasteless. She even complains about the traditional hot baths for their impracticality and inconvenience. Those yeas living in Macau and Hong Kong unselfconsciously alter he cultural identity. “The years of acculturation in Hong Kong have changed her attitude towards the homeland” (Yue). For Aiko, the journey to Japan is supposed to be a resume of her original identity, but it turned out to be a reminder of her new cultural intimacy towards Hong Kong created by her life of displacement.

At the end of Song of the Exile, Hueyin’s grandfather, who is severely beaten by the Red Guards in Cultural Revolution claiming to topplebourgeoisie, mentions about sending the book of Song Poetry to Hueyin in case she forgets the profound traditional Chinese culture. His reference to this particular period of divine Song Dynasty infers “the national sentiments of modernity, exile and reunification” (Yue) in the horrific shadow of Cultural Revolution. The poverty, brutality, and disorder in Guangzhou smash Hueyin’s grandparents’ fantastic illusion on homeland when they are in Macau. The distance from home procures an ideal to restore the original identity. Yet Hueyin’s grandparents have already become the “otherness” when they return. Only marginalization and hostility towards the Kuomintang’s nationalism embrace them.

In Song of the Exile, the elements and implications of displacement and resettlement constantly affirm and reshape the characters’ recognition of their own ethnic and cultural identities. As for Hong Kong, 15 years has passed by since the handover, seemingly it still belongs elsewhere. In a time of globalization, borders and boundaries may be easily blurred out and they are no longer obstacles for commerce and communications. However, frequent communication does not directly lead to mutual understanding between Mainland and Hong Kong. Conflicts may also arise. The recognition and reconstruction of Chines identity are far more difficult than the reconciliation between mother and daughter in Song of the Exile. As for Hong Kong cinema,local contents (food, language, cultural heritage) in Song of the exile seem to be “a nationalistic response to globalization” (Teo). Nonetheless, maintaining and distilling local features in the pressure of globalization“would not have been and still is not easy” (Yue) in 21st century.