自卫

God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it? -- Nietzsche, The Gay Science

The film starts with our martyr whose name is Casey. Casey has been carpentering for a company diligently for 10 long years as a sensible accountant. But since he is in a surrealistic film, his coworkers deny him of everything. He is biologically alive but devoid of being-in-this-world. Even the narrator bullies him by expose to us his most private moment of musterbation. He is a slave, living in the antithesis, the denial of his own being-aliveness. Unable to act for himself, voluntarily disavowing all of his own liveliness. He lives his life as if his alivneess itself is a sin and a torment. And which is possibly due to an ancestor or his being tricked to bite a fruit.

He was crucified by four gangsters from Motorbike Ville. Life instinct kicks in. Resurrected on a hospital bed. He is reincarnated with the superpower of affirmation. Immediately he affirms his own life. He wants to be alive. He wants to protect himself. He doesn’t know how. The teller told him a hand-gun will do. Yes. The ultimate phallic signifier.

Affirming is, however, not easy. He bumped into a contender of his will of “to own a handgun” — it was the rule number 11 of the Karate Academy — “Guns are for the weak.” He acted like an orange peremptory bady. He stopped affirming his own life and began to affirm the reactive thought of “I am not weak.” He found himself a new passion. Yes, the Karate Academy will save him.

His protagonist sized life instinct propels him forward. After only two months of training, as a yellow belt, he defeated his brown-belt classmate. He is now ceremonially a real karate man.

But an antithesis can not exist by itself. It logically presupposes a thesis. And in our case the thesis is “Karate is for the strong” and it in turn presupposes the Karate Academy’s(the slogan giver’s) existence. His yellow belt is an amulet signifying the Academy. It empowers him. He can not affirm himself without it. He needs the academic affirmation to be a phallic-owning real man.

The Academy reels in, all of this is but the Sensei’s trap. The Sensei now demands our protagonist to serve him. Whatever Casey feels, whatever he wills, the Sensei overpowers him. He is again being bullied. Only this time with blood dripping down from his hand. He ceases to be a man, he is a tool willed by Sensei. He eventually ceases to be a human. The cost to be a real karate man is to give up his own life.

The acute memory of the Motorbike Ville woke him up. He wills again to be alive. He has learned his lesson. Using a pistol he killed the Sensei, took over the myth of the “index finger technique” which is the local phallic signifier in the academy and became the crowned king of a new dynasty.

The film ends here, and Nietzsche can only guide this far. There is no guarantee of a happily ever after. It's up to Casey to decide what to do next, and we have all seen how easy it was to fall into a trap. Our society is a web of traps weaved by those powerful but insecure people. “只能說當超人真的好難” said Jay.

Epilogue: Nietzsche the Nihilist. Nihilist, noun, “a person who believes that life is meaningless and rejects all religious and moral principles.” This can not be any further from the truth. The “nihilism” of Nietzsche is a two-fold formation. At its very core it a radical affirmation of one’s own life, of one’s own vitality, and of one’s own will to create personal values and to live by those values. It is in comparison to this stronger inner will to live that the outside laws seem afloat, hence can be rejected. This film is an excellent demonstration of the destructive potential of letting a social construct to take prior position over one’s own existence(Crusade, Fascism, Isis, to name a few in real life). And because of this rejection of all outside influences, this rejection of all fundamental law that can be used to judge one’s life, one’s life is then reciprocally said to be “meaningless.” The phrase “God is dead” should be followed by “long live the gods within.”

00:17:35 自截

《自卫的艺术》和《调音师》给我的感觉非常相似，都是有趣、刺激、血淋淋的，结局是看似弱势的一方成功反杀。它们在节奏上有所不同，前者会慢一些，但是如果你喜欢上述感觉，那么我相信你会享受《自卫的艺术》。更何况男主由Jesse Eisenberg这位金牌演员出演，他和融合了社恐、神经质甚至还有一点点可怜兮兮的神秘形象搭配起来，再完美不过了。

我历来不喜欢概括故事，也不爱看预告和影片简介，评分、口碑和演员是我“看”或“不看”的决定因素，所以原谅我没法在这里用情节吸引你们。不过请让我从另一个角度多安利一句：《自卫的艺术》简直长在我的笑点上。并不是说电影里满是一击必中的笑话，而是在某些场景里，你看见男主什么都没做、只是紧张地眨眼睛或者扭头就跑，就会很不体贴但情不自禁地大笑不止。黑色幽默向来是甲之蜜糖、乙之砒霜，希望这一次我有幸和你一起当“路人甲”。

看完之后有一些想法，但我要说明这纯粹是个人观点，也可以说是过度解读；我甚至不认为电影有这个意思。

世界有险恶的一面，大多数人会对此感到本能的排斥，但假如不逼迫自己去了解和适应，危险来临时逃跑无用，并且不幸的是，反抗也无用。体现在电影里的，是前半段的Casey逃不过被围殴进医院的下场；而即使龇出利齿，同样拥有德国血统（野性和无畏），德牧咬死了一个空手道黑带的男人（强大的迫害者），腊肠犬却在同样一个男人的拳下死在了温暖的家中。这二者的区别并不在谁更勇猛，而是谁更懂得自卫。

如何懂得自卫？

——当我说到“了解和适应”，并不意味着要将自己同化成不道德的模样，而是要在知己知彼之后对不同的情况做出不同反应，这就是懂得自卫。在平时，一个理性的人受他本身具有的道德观所控，举止和思想依然是他所追求的真善美，就像电影里Casey最终为武馆带来和谐；但面对威胁，他也需要拥有能给对方的小脑袋瓜“开天窗”的能力。

自卫艺术是好人必备技能，然而谁规定艺术都是纯净的，好人一定只能做好事？毕竟身体才是传道受业的本钱。

01:35:00 自截

最后是我对《自卫艺术》的一点不满意。诚然，一部具有启发性的作品就是好作品，这部电影本身的内涵也足够丰富——观众从中看出了鼓励挣脱桎梏、看出了要全心投入你所热爱之事、看出了讽刺刻板印象、某种空手道、法西斯式统治、兄弟会等等，但它们都并不深刻，原因是没能很好地和剧情结合。

我从整部电影里读出来的重要观点有二，一是积极共建文明美好社会，二是要力排性别偏见，尤其是针对女性的偏见。第一条太空泛太鸡汤了，观众对这样一部几乎可以说是神展开的作品有更多、更高的要求，这样一个轻飘飘的结尾升华让电影整体失重；第二条则太生硬，平权问题切入的时间太晚，给予的篇幅太短，唠这个反而显得离题。

所以总的来说，按照五星满分的话，我觉得它是一部介于三星半和四星之间的作品，离优秀只差一点点，很遗憾。

……话说杰西真是演得超绝赞好可怜可爱好想把他抱住搓搓喔（捂脸，溜了

你今天的拳脚缺乏信心

Your kicks and punches lacked conviction today.

也许是我错了

Maybe I was wrong.

也许你还不够黄带的资格

Maybe you weren't ready to be a yellow belt.

不

你不该这么做你该维护自己

No. You're not supposed to do that. You're supposed to stand up for yourself.

可你说得对我今天一个板都没打破

But you're right though. I wasn't able to break a single board today.

为什么你就因此不再是黄带了呢

And that stops you from being a yellow belt how?

如果熊的森林着火了熊依然是熊

If a bear's forest catches on fire, the bear is still a bear.

即使一条船在海浪中倾覆

Even if a boat capsizes in rough seas

沉到了海底

and sinks to the bottom of the ocean

无人生还

with no survivors.

它也还是一条船

it is still a boat.

你至死都会是个黄带

You will be a yellow belt until you die,

除非你升为了绿带

or until you're a green belt.

那么你会

直是绿带直到你成为蓝带

And you'l be a green belt until you're a blue belt.

以此类推

And so on.

你知道我也教夜校

As you know, | teach a night class.

这是给你的邀请

This is your invitation.

我从不让黄带上这个课

I've never opened this class up to yellow belts before

但我给你破个例

but I'm gonna make an exception for you.

一是几点的课?-是在夜晚是夜校

-What time is the class? -It's at night. It's a night class.

我来不了

| don't think I can.

我不会逼你做什么但就像你的黄带一样

I won't make you do anything, but like the color of the belt,

这黑条纹是你应得的

you've earned this stripe.

这邀请将永远都是你的

This invitation, it will be yours forever.

你无视它不等于它就不存在

Just because you ignore it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

最近我想了很多

I've been thinking a lot lately,

关于在杀了你之后要对你说什么

about what I would say to you after I killed you.

我也不想以后再后悔我的选择

and | don't want to second-guess my choice later on,

我就把两句话都说了

So I'm going to say both.

第一句话你会说用枪会使我软弱

First, you would say that using this makes me a weak man,

的确如此

and without question, it does.

但我活着你却死了

But | am alive and you are dead,

所以我会说这使你软弱

so | would argue it makes you the weaker man.

第二句话是来自我曾看过的一部电影

The second thing I came up with is from a film I saw once.

我不按规矩来

I didn't play by the rules,

但从来都没什么规矩

but there never were any rules.

Sophomoric feature film of US director/writer Riley Stearns, himself in real life is a practitioner and instructor of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and THE ART OF SELF-DEFENSE gets the jumping-off point right there.

Eisenberg is in his usual saddo form as the lonesome Casey, a 35-year-old accountant has no one but a pet dachshund for company. After being savagely mugged one night by a motorcycle gang, he balks at going out at night, and tries to buy a firearm for self protection but ends up in a dojo where karate is instructed by the upright Sensei (Nivola).

Beginning as a tabula rasa white-belt, Casey apparently makes goodly progress and soon earns his yellow-belt and gets an invitation to the night class, where the training becomes more combative, he witness Anna (Poots) mercilessly beats up fellow student Thomas (Terada) after losing a promotion to black-belt to him, and another student Henry (Zellner) has his arm viciously broken for attending the class unheralded, a sinister vibe of hierarchy and sexism rightly supersedes the hitherto more lighthearted tone, to say nothing of the wanton violence on show.

Motivated by Sensei, Casey successfully morphs from a beta male to an alpha one (even if it costs him his job), or he eagerly pretends to be. After socking an innocent lush under the insistent instruction of Sensei, he begins to have doubts (why Sensei keeps filming him with his camcorder for his assault?), and in the wake of his pet’s premature death (dachshund is deemed not masculine enough for a man), an action betrays the evil-doer’s rashness and inopportuneness, and an accident of barbaric battery that he literally clocks a plainclothes policeman to death, Casey needs to burrow into the 411 (including the belated revelation that Sensei and his co. are actually his attackers) and face a final showdown with Sensei. Only this time, he will not play by the honor-bound rules, the brainwashing needs to be put paid to, once and for all.

Bracingly, the story mines into the touch-paper issue of toxic masculinity, a ubiquitous stigma breeding on the male sex and should be answerable for a big chunk of the scourge that plays havoc among human species, but Stearns’ troubling standing on the gun control (it is such an ill-conceived decision for the clincher occurs like that in the movie), that obfuscates itself with the “guns are for the weak” message and the rising-of-an-underdog trope, takes some shine off its offbeat, effervescent veneer, and when Casey finally vouchsafes a new leadership to the sole member of the weaker sex, it is too condescending an ending to stomach, however good Stearns’ intention is, yet, that ill feeling is thankfully alleviated by Poots’ steely resolution and undimmed asperity, only if the film could allocate more room to dwell on Anna’s story, that’s why we need female filmmakers now more than ever.

Shot in an overtly frugal budget with subdued lighting, mostly interior, THE ART OF SELF-DEFENSE’s most prudent movie is to assign a charismatic Nivola the role of Sensei, the amiable mentor figure who can simultaneously telegraph earnestness and dispassionateness in the same breath, despite of Sensei’s blinkered bigotry, we cannot blame Casey for knuckle under his mental indoctrination because Nivola makes him impossible to resist, even after we are fully convinced that he is the bane of any sane being’s life, on the off chance, we still wish he might have some justification up in his sleeves. Slowly evolving into one of the most versatile actors of his generation, Nivola has his brilliance seep into Sensei’s every ruthless action, manipulative ploy and assertive delivery, could he be a cult leader, devotees would be come running.

In toto, the film is a black comedy welded with a frivolous brutality that might be queasy for some to watch, but underneath everything, it is a magical realism allegory about the prototype of dichotomic masculinity, gives the lie to its poisonous core but runs away with a quirky conceitedness that needs some modulation.

referential entries: David Zellner’s KUMIKO, THE TREASURE HUNTER (2014, 6.8/10); Richard Ayoade’s THE DOUBLE (2013, 6.1/10).

记得小时候放学被逃课和辍学的拦在校门口要钱的时候，搜刮一遍之后还要打上两耳光或者给上一脚，当年被打被抢后懦弱的一批，和电影中杰西.艾森伯格所饰演的凯西是一样的感受，又羞又怒，不敢和大人说，就暗地里学武术，还异想天开的想去“少林寺”学武，然后行走江湖，惩恶扬善。懦弱带来的自卑感是尚武精神的的原动力。只有以暴制暴才能消除被欺凌的耻辱，才能自我认同。从这一点出发，sensi既是施暴者，又是救助者，乍一看有点像在路上洒满钉子的补胎行老板，过路的司机爆胎漏气只能去他那里，可这种操作得限定在方圆周围“只此一家”的条件里，影片中，凯西被打后，凯西第一次走进的是枪店，只是“注册要等审核”使日益恐惧的凯西有点等不及。无意间看见“道场”的授课，抱着试一试的心态，报了课，结果被“sensi”的灌输的“荣誉感，等级制，成长机制所激励”更加专注于空手道的课，甚至扔掉工作全身心投入其中，因为这令他找回自信，一步步的强大起来。可他万万没想到是是，“道场”还有另一幅面孔：为了考验学员，通过随机杀人而获得晋级行动里，凯西这才明白：sensi才是始作俑者，自己只是碰巧成了sensi考验学员成长的工具，在自己不知情的情况下又成了他继续施暴的工具。故事讲到这里，凯西似乎也确实从空手道的学习里变的强大，一枪结束了叨逼叨逼还装腔作势的sensi，脸不红，心不跳.这部小成本电影以其特有的喜剧特质呈现，是2019年比较难得一见的小成本喜剧，在如今的疫情之下，远在美国的学子们还是买把枪靠谱。

红衣祖师死于猎人误杀？

新增的第十一条规则：用枪的都是弱者？

午夜课堂袭击路人？

一定要先问问对方有没有枪？

红衣祖师就是死在午夜袭击的时候吧，被带枪的路人反杀，而黑衣老师当时就是身旁的帮凶，也亲眼目睹了自己老师被反杀。

所以整个道场从根儿上就是个犯罪团伙吧。

整部影片观感不错，黑色成分并不剧烈但也让人觉得“吃饱了”。女主美丽可爱。