時(shí)報(bào)專(zhuān)訪侯孝賢談新片《刺客聶隱娘》

Cannes Film Festival: Hou Hsiao-Hsien Takes a Detour Into Martial Arts

時(shí)報(bào)專(zhuān)訪侯孝賢談新片《刺客聶隱娘》

Beijing -- It has been eight years since the Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s last feature-length film, the elliptical “Flight of the Red Balloon” starring Juliette Binoche, opened the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes International Film Festival.

北京——臺(tái)灣導(dǎo)演侯孝賢的上一部長(zhǎng)片是八年前朱麗葉·比諾什(Juliette Binoche)主演的《紅氣球之旅》，它風(fēng)格簡(jiǎn)潔，曾在戛納國(guó)際電影節(jié)上充當(dāng)“一種關(guān)注”單元的開(kāi)幕影片。

During this time, the renowned arthouse director dedicated much of his energy to building up the independent cinema scene at home in Taiwan, serving as chairman of both the Taipei Film Festival and the executive committee of the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival.

在這期間，這位著名藝術(shù)導(dǎo)演花費(fèi)大量精力，在家鄉(xiāng)臺(tái)灣扶植獨(dú)立電影場(chǎng)景，此外他還出任臺(tái)北電影節(jié)主席和臺(tái)北金馬電影節(jié)執(zhí)行委員會(huì)主席。

But Mr. Hou, 68, said there was another reason for his prolonged absence: He was recreating the Tang Dynasty.

但是68歲的侯孝賢說(shuō)，他之所以那么長(zhǎng)時(shí)間沒(méi)有新作，另一個(gè)原因是他忙于重現(xiàn)唐朝的情景。

In a Skype interview from Taipei last week, Mr. Hou spoke of the painstaking research efforts undertaken for his newest film, “The Assassin,” a Tang Dynasty-era martial arts epic set to premiere on May 21 at the 68th annual Cannes festival.

上個(gè)星期，侯孝賢在臺(tái)北通過(guò)Skype接受了采訪，談起他為新片《刺客聶隱娘》所做的艱苦的研究工作。這是一部以唐朝為背景的武俠史詩(shī)片，將于5月21日在第68屆戛納電影節(jié)上首映。

The film, which features the actress Shu Qi in the title role, is the director’s seventh film to compete for the Palme d’Or, the festival’s top prize. Previously, Mr. Hou took home the Jury Prize for his 1993 film “The Puppetmaster,” the second in his trilogy of films dealing with modern Taiwanese history.

主角聶隱娘由舒淇飾演，該片是侯孝賢第七次角逐戛納電影節(jié)最高獎(jiǎng)金棕櫚獎(jiǎng)。1993年，他的《戲夢(mèng)人生》一片曾經(jīng)獲得評(píng)審團(tuán)大獎(jiǎng)，該片是他以現(xiàn)代臺(tái)灣歷史為背景的三部曲系列電影中的第二部。

Based on a popular legendary tale from the Tang Dynasty, “The Assassin” or “Nie Yinniang” in Chinese, takes place in the year 809 and tells the story of a young girl who is kidnapped by a nun and eventually trained to become a skilled assassin (Ms. Shu).

《刺客聶隱娘》根據(jù)一則廣受歡迎的唐代傳奇故事改編，它發(fā)生在809年，講述一個(gè)被尼姑拐走的女孩慢慢被訓(xùn)練成職業(yè)殺手(舒淇飾演)。

After failing a mission, she is sent by her master back to her hometown, 13 years after she was taken away, and is given a new target: the most powerful military governor in the North, a man who also happens to be both her cousin and her childhood love (played by Chang Chen).

一次執(zhí)行任務(wù)失敗后，她被主人送回闊別13年的家鄉(xiāng)，執(zhí)行一項(xiàng)新任務(wù)：刺殺中國(guó)北部最有權(quán)力的武將，他正好是她的表哥和童年時(shí)代的戀人(張震飾)。

The film represents the first foray into the traditional martial arts genre for Mr. Hou, who first rose to prominence in the 1980s as a key figure in the New Taiwan Cinema movement. He is best known for his layered meditations on Taiwanese identity within the context of the island’s turbulent 20th-century history.

這是侯孝賢第一次挑戰(zhàn)傳統(tǒng)武俠片。他在20世紀(jì)80年代成名，是臺(tái)灣新電影運(yùn)動(dòng)中的重要人物，他擅長(zhǎng)把對(duì)臺(tái)灣人身份認(rèn)同的多重思考置于該島20世紀(jì)動(dòng)蕩不安的歷史背景之中，這是他的影片最為人熟知的特點(diǎn)。

“I’ve always had a dream to make this story into a film. I first came across the Tang Dynasty legendary tales when I was in university studying film and before that I had read many wuxia stories when I was a child,” Mr. Hou said, referring to China’s rich tradition of martial arts stories. “But I could never make the film because it required such a large amount of financing.”

“我總是夢(mèng)想著能把這個(gè)故事拍成電影。我第一次讀到唐傳奇故事是在大學(xué)學(xué)電影的時(shí)候，小時(shí)候我還看過(guò)不少武俠小說(shuō)。”侯孝賢提起中國(guó)武俠故事的豐富傳統(tǒng)，“但這部電影一直沒(méi)能拍成，因?yàn)樾枰罅抠Y金。”

Now, a string of internationally acclaimed films later, Mr. Hou has less difficulty finding investors. With a budget of around $14 million, “The Assassin” is the director’s biggest production to date. Costs were split between Sil-Metropole Organization, a Hong Kong production company, and Mr. Hou’s film studio, 3H Productions.

如今，在拍出了一系列享譽(yù)國(guó)際的電影之后，侯孝賢終于可以不那么費(fèi)力地找到投資者了。《刺客聶隱娘》的預(yù)算大約在1400萬(wàn)美元，是他目前為止最大手筆的制作。這筆錢(qián)由香港制片公司銀都機(jī)構(gòu)有限公司與侯孝賢自己的電影工作室3H Productions分?jǐn)偂?/p>

In taking on a wuxia film, Mr. Hou is joining a growing number of commercial and arthouse directors from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Prominent examples from recent years include Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon” (2000), Zhang Yimou’s “Hero” (2002), and Wong Kar-Wai’s “The Grandmaster” (2013). Even Jia Zhangke, China’s top independent film director, is said to be preparing a big-budget martial arts film. (In the meantime, Mr. Jia’s latest film “Mountains May Depart,” his first to be filmed partly outside of China (in Australia), will be competing alongside “The Assassin” at this year’s festival.)

中國(guó)大陸、香港與臺(tái)灣的不少商業(yè)與藝術(shù)導(dǎo)演都拍過(guò)武俠片，其中近年來(lái)的著名例子包括李安的《臥虎藏龍》(2000)、張藝謀的《英雄》(2002) 以及王家衛(wèi)的《一代宗師》(2013)，如今侯孝賢也加入了他們的行列。就連中國(guó)頂尖的獨(dú)立電影導(dǎo)演賈樟柯也說(shuō)自己正在籌劃拍攝一部高成本的武俠片(與此同時(shí)，賈樟柯的新片《山河故人》將與《刺客聶隱娘》一同在今年的戛納電影節(jié)上展開(kāi)角逐。影片有一部分在澳大利亞拍攝，是賈樟柯首次在中國(guó)以外的地方拍片)。

Still, Mr. Hou’s decision to make a martial arts film has aroused interest among followers of his work, many of whom are wondering whether he has abandoned his signature contemplative style for high-intensity subject matter.

但是，侯孝賢拍攝武俠片的決定仍然令影迷們非常感興趣，很多人都在猜測(cè)，為了拍攝這種高度緊張刺激的主題，他是否會(huì)放棄自己招牌的沉思風(fēng)格。

“It’s hard to imagine a director with Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s particular style — distant camera, slow takes and long takes — doing a wuxia film, which is very fast-cutting,” said Shelly Kraicer, a film critic in Toronto who is a scholar of Chinese cinema. “It has to be a different procedure for him, so it’ll be fascinating to see a director of his stature approach this experiment.”

“很難想像侯孝賢這種喜歡使用遠(yuǎn)景、慢鏡頭和長(zhǎng)鏡頭的導(dǎo)演會(huì)去拍快節(jié)奏的武俠片，”多倫多影評(píng)人兼中國(guó)電影研究者謝莉·克萊瑟(Shelly Kraicer)說(shuō)。“這對(duì)他來(lái)說(shuō)肯定是一段完全不同的經(jīng)歷，但是看到聲望這樣高的導(dǎo)演來(lái)做這種嘗試，還是挺刺激的。”

Mr. Hou, who began working on the screenplay in 2012, said that it would be different from other directors’ wuxia films and that he had remained true to his long-established approach.

侯孝賢自2012年開(kāi)始為該片撰寫(xiě)劇本，他說(shuō)這部影片和其他導(dǎo)演的武俠片都不相同，他仍會(huì)保持自己長(zhǎng)久以來(lái)的一貫風(fēng)格。

“I rarely do costume pictures,” he said. “The Tang Dynasty element will be very new but I think people will see that my filming process is the same. It’s still long takes and a static camera. The actors have just changed their clothes and altered their accents a little.”

“我很少拍古裝片，”他說(shuō)。“唐朝元素非常新鮮，但我想人們會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)我的拍攝手法還是一樣的。仍然是長(zhǎng)鏡頭和固定機(jī)位。演員們只是變了衣服，變了一點(diǎn)口音。”

He added that he made minimal use of computer-generated effects. “I didn’t want the actors to be flying here or there,” he said, referring to the acrobatic feats in wuxia films like “Crouching Tiger.” “There’s essentially no flying.”

他還說(shuō)，片中他盡量沒(méi)有使用電腦特效。“我不希望演員們飛來(lái)飛去，”他指的是《臥虎藏龍》等武俠片里那些雜技般的武打場(chǎng)面。“片子里根本就沒(méi)有飛來(lái)飛去。”

Hwarng Wern-Ying, the film’s production and costume designer and a veteran member of Mr. Hou’s creative team, said this time around Mr. Hou seemed even more meticulous in his attention to detail than she had seen in the past.

影片的制作人與服裝設(shè)計(jì)師是侯孝賢創(chuàng)作團(tuán)隊(duì)內(nèi)的資深成員黃文英， 她說(shuō)，和以往相比，這一次侯孝賢甚至更加謹(jǐn)慎小心地對(duì)待細(xì)節(jié)。

“He might film only one scene in one day, and then he would film that scene five or six times in one week,” she said. “Then a few months later he’d ask us to go back and film that same scene again but I had already dismantled the set.”

“他可能一天只拍一場(chǎng)戲，整個(gè)一周都拍這場(chǎng)戲，重復(fù)五六次，”她說(shuō)。“然后再過(guò)幾個(gè)月，他會(huì)讓我們回過(guò)頭來(lái)，把這場(chǎng)戲再拍一次，但我都已經(jīng)把布景拆了。”

Mr. Hou said that he endeavored to make the film as realistic as possible, a culmination, he said, of several years of scrupulous research into historical accounts of the Tang Dynasty, which ruled China from 618 to 906. It is often referred to as the “golden age” of Chinese civilization, a time when trade and culture flourished and Chang’an, the cosmopolitan dynastic capital, was the largest city in the world.

侯孝賢說(shuō)，他竭盡全力讓這部電影盡可能寫(xiě)實(shí)，這是他花費(fèi)幾年時(shí)間悉心研究唐朝歷史的結(jié)果。唐王朝于公元618至906年統(tǒng)治著中國(guó)，經(jīng)常被視為中國(guó)文明的“黃金時(shí)代”，貿(mào)易和文化極為繁榮昌盛，其首都長(zhǎng)安是世界上最大的城市。

“Everyone has a different understanding of what the Tang Dynasty was like and I think this film will be a very pure representation of Hou’s vision of that time,” Ms. Hwarng said.

“每個(gè)人都有自己對(duì)唐朝的理解，我覺(jué)得這部電影把侯孝賢心目中的那個(gè)時(shí)代純粹地呈現(xiàn)出來(lái)了，”黃文英說(shuō)。

In the film, the actors speak classical Chinese, a decision Mr. Hou said he made to enhance the period feel. The language also turned out to be the “biggest challenge” during the filmmaking process, said the director, since classical Chinese was mostly used for literary texts and almost never spoken. The final version includes Chinese subtitles.

片中演員們都用古漢語(yǔ)說(shuō)話，侯孝賢說(shuō)，這是為了增強(qiáng)歷史感。他說(shuō)，最后古文對(duì)白成了影片拍攝過(guò)程中“最大的挑戰(zhàn)”，因?yàn)楣艥h語(yǔ)目前已經(jīng)不在口語(yǔ)中使用，只出現(xiàn)在文學(xué)當(dāng)中。最終影片會(huì)有中文字幕。