香港迴歸20週年 經典港片回顧

“Eating too much will cause hemorrhoids, don’t you know? Name one person with hemorrhoids who doesn’t eat.”

“飯吃多了會生痔瘡的，你不知道嗎？哪一個生痔瘡的人不吃飯啊。”

As their popularity snowballed from the early days of television broadcast, the iconic Hui Brothers team left behind a trail of vernacular comedy movies that struck a resounding chord with working class audiences. Easily one of the best from writer-director Michael, The Private Eyes immediately impresses with its wordless opening credit sequence showing only the characters’ feet – in which a private detective tails his subject in a pair of miserably broken shoes, only to have one of his soles accidentally ripped off before stepping on a beggar’s bowl and a cigarette stub with his exposed foot. A cheeky, stingy boss who’s all too ready to exploit his employees, Michael’s small-time private eye is nonetheless faithfully aided by an honest, kung fu-fighting apprentice (Sam) and a stupid, stammering assistant (Ricky) who will literally test a bomb for him. Together with the funky soundtrack by Sam and his band, The Lotus, the movie also tapped into our collective consciousness with a range of riotousgags, from aerobics for chicken to a Sammo Hung-choreographed, Bruce Lee-inspired fight scene with flour and sausages.

在廣播電視發展初期，許氏兄弟的名氣迅速攀升，他們留下了許多令打工階層深感共鳴的喜劇港片。《半斤八兩》堪稱編劇兼導演許冠文的最佳作品之一，這部電影的開場讓人印象深刻。片頭在播放演職人員字幕的同時，沒有對白，只有不同人物的腳走來走去。一名私家偵探穿着一雙破破爛爛的鞋子跟蹤目標對象，沒想到一隻鞋底掉了下來，這時他的光腳正好踩到一個乞丐的碗，然後又踩到一個菸頭上。許冠文飾演一個愛從員工身上揩油的厚顏無恥的吝嗇老闆兼三流偵探，他有兩個忠心耿耿的幫手，一個是會拳腳功夫的老實學徒（許冠傑飾），另一個是口吃的蠢蛋助理（許冠英飾），助理負責幫老闆測試炸彈。伴隨着許冠傑和他的蓮花樂隊創作的放克爵士樂，電影用一連串喧鬧的插科打諢喚起了人們的集體意識，從小雞健美操到麪粉和香腸亂飛的打鬥場面（洪金寶設計、靈感源自李小龍）。

“I’m not showing them I’m the best. I just want to tell them I can take back what I’ve lost.”

“我並不是表現給他們看我是最牛的。我只是想讓他們知道，我能拿回我失去的東西。”

To understand how this particular John Woo-Chow Yun-fat collaboration – instead of their more stylistically accomplished The Killer or Hard Boiled – captured the imaginations of a generation is perhaps to chart the history of cinephilia in Hong Kong. With a Chinese title that translates as ‘the true nature of heroes’, Wu’s seminal heroic bloodshed movie has indeed combined the best of several (movie) worlds: as a relatively faithful remake of Patrick Lung Kong’s The Story of a Discharged Prisoner (1967), it is further spiced up by the principle of brotherhood and the honorable code of yi stemming from martial arts epics of yesteryears – especially those by his mentor Chang Cheh, for whom Woo had previously served as assistant director. While deliciously pitting Ti Lung and Leslie Cheung’s brother characters against each other as mortal enemies on opposite sides of the law, the action classic is also exponentially enhanced by Chow’s charismatic portrayal of Mark, who could forget the sight ofhim lighting a cigarette with a burning banknote? His cockiness is exceeded only by his loyalty and heroism; in our approving minds, Mark is us.

要想明白吳宇森和周潤發合作的這部影片爲何能夠超越兩人合作的另外兩部在風格上更有成就的影片《喋血雙雄》和《辣手神探》而成功獲得一代人的關注，可能就相當於追溯香港的影迷歷史。吳宇森這部影響深遠的喋血英雄片《英雄本色》的確融合了電影領域的多個最佳賣點：該片是對1967年龍剛導演作品《英雄本色》的忠實改編，同時又添加了兄弟情以及過去武俠片中推崇的義。吳宇森受影響最多的是他的師父張徹導演的那些武俠片，他曾給張徹做過副導演。一邊是狄龍和張國榮扮演的兄弟倆站在法律的兩邊上演精彩對立戲碼，另一邊，周潤發扮演的Mark魅力十足，也爲這部經典動作影片增色不少：誰能忘掉他用點着的鈔票點菸的那個畫面呢？他的高傲自大隻會被他自己的忠誠和英雄主義超越，在我們的心中，Mark就是我們每個人。

“Sometimes, humans are more frightening than ghosts.”

“有時候，人比鬼更可怕。”

“Dawn, please don’t come…” As Sally Yeh pleads soulfully to James Wong’s iconic tune on the soundtrack, the forbidden love between Cheung’s scholarly tax collector and Wang’s glamorous ghost meets its heartbreaking demise. Based on a Pu Songling short story that has also been adapted into Li Han-hsiang’s The Enchanting Shadow (1960) and Wilson Yip’s eponymous 2011 film, this Tsui Hark-produced supernatural action fantasy spawned two hit sequels and remains a vital showcase of our cinema’s madcap inventiveness. It’s like a sensual Evil Dead romance!

“黎明，不要來……”伴隨着葉倩文深情的懇求，以及黃毅瑜標誌性的旋律，張國榮飾演的寧採臣和王祖賢飾演的聶小倩之間的禁忌之戀走向了終點，令人心碎。這部由徐克導演的超自然動作電影改編自蒲松齡的短篇小說，還衍生出了兩部熱門續集，是電影大膽創新的重要之作。該片有點像是1981年美國影片《鬼玩人》式的愛情故事！1960年李翰祥版本和2011年葉偉信版本的《倩女幽魂》也是根據蒲松齡小說改編。

“When you can’t have someone, the only thing you can do is not to forget.”

“當你不能再擁有的時候，唯一可以做的，就是令自己不要忘記。”

A Jin Yong adaptation, Wong Kar-wai-style. Structured with the concept of cyclical repetition from the Chinese almanac, the auteur’s impressionistic riff on the classic wuxia novel The Eagle-Shooting Hero is a desert-bound swordplay drama whose only concern seems to be its characters’ sentimental longings.

這是一部根據金庸小說改編、帶有濃厚王家衛風格的電影。影片以中國黃曆中循環的時間概念爲構架，導演對經典武俠小說《射鵰英雄傳》的即興重複頗具印象派風格，集中表現了沙漠中俠客們的情感與渴望。

“If I had to set an expiry date to my love, let it be 10,000 years.”

“如果要在這份愛前面加一個期限，我希望是：一萬年。”

From the genius casting of the irreverent Chow as the Monkey King to the masterstroke of letting Buddhist monk Tang Xuanzang burst into The Platters' Only You, Lau's wildly imaginative Journey to the West adaptation is deservedly recognized for its sublime wackiness. Yet beneath all the time-travelling and supernatural slapstick of this postmodern two-parter is a traditional love story so cheesy it's actually romantic. Also featuring the now-customary Wong Kar-wai spoofs.

玩世不恭的周星馳就是孫悟空的最佳人選，而唐玄奘突然唱起五黑寶合唱團的《Only You》簡直是神來之筆。這部後現代主義風格電影分爲上下兩集。劉鎮偉對《西遊記》的改編天馬行空，荒誕至極。但片中包裹在時空穿梭以及超現實的搞笑情節之下的，是一段瀟灑、唯美的傳統愛情故事。影片中也有現在爲人們熟悉的王家衛式的嘲諷。

“My aunt said, people will think you’re a Mainlander if they know you’re a fan of Teresa Teng.”

“姑媽說，給人家知道你喜歡聽鄧麗君，全世界都知道你是大陸人。”

Destiny is calling Lai’s new immigrant from northern China, who forms a ‘friendship’ – with benefits – with Cheung’s Guangzhou comrade out of loneliness and a shared passion for the Mandarin pop legend Teresa Teng. The catch? He has a fiancée back home and she has her materialistic ambitions to fulfil. Definitely a love story and certainly one of our cinema’s very best, Chan’s nine-times Hong Kong Film Awards winner charts the decade-spanning near-romance with acute cultural awareness and a sublime touch of emotional delicacy.

命運讓從中國大陸到香港打拼的李翹（張曼玉飾）遇到了同樣從大陸來到香港討生活的黎小軍（黎明飾）。由於孤獨寂寞，加之兩人都很喜歡鄧麗君，他們漸生情愫。然而，黎小軍在家鄉有個未婚妻，李翹則想追求更加優越的物質生活。這不僅是一部絕佳的愛情故事，更是一部最佳上座影片。本片獲得第16屆香港電影金像獎九項大獎，描繪了跨越近10年的愛情故事，具有濃厚的文化意識和超羣的細膩感受。

“He remembers those vanished years. As though looking through a dusty window pane, the past is something he could see, but not touch. And everything he sees is blurred and indistinct.”

“他記得那些逝去的年華。就好像透過一扇蒙了塵的窗戶看出去，他能看到過去，卻無法觸及。他看到的一切都模糊不清。”

The quotation from writer Liu Yi-Chang’s stream-of-consciousness novella, Intersection, loosely inspired Wong Kar-wai into capturing the tentative affair between two would-be lovers who cross paths briefly before parting forever.

劉以鬯的意識流小說《對倒》中的這段話給王家衛帶來一點靈感，讓他得以捕捉到生活有短暫交集、最終又各奔東西的兩個人之間可能產生的那一點情愫。

The year is 1962, and as next-door neighbors living in a crowded apartment complex, Mr Chow (Tony Leung) and Mrs Chan (Maggie Cheung in a cheongsam showcase) gradually discover their spouses are having a clandestine affair. Alternately finding solace by spending time with each other, and masochistically toying with the other’s emotions by rehearsing imaginary breakups, the two soon consummate their mutual longing by role-playing as their cheating partners.

故事發生在1962年，周先生（梁朝偉飾）和陳太太（張曼玉飾，整片上演旗袍秀）兩家是某棟擁擠公寓樓裏的鄰居。兩人都發現自己的另一半在外面有私情。於是，兩人經常在一起互相安慰，還上演假裝分手的虐心橋段。後來，兩人通過扮演各自出軌的伴侶滿足了對彼此的渴望。

“The jianghu underworld is filled with crouching tigers and hidden dragons, but so are human feelings.”

“江湖黑道里臥虎藏龍，人心又何嘗不是。”

After spinning our heads for decades with its delirious showdowns and romanized notion of chivalry, the wuxia genre finally conquered the world with – of all stories – a poignant romance about two pairs of would-be lovers perpetually repressing their feelings. Looking to his sword and settle down with his longtime muse (Michelle Yeoh), a mighty swordsman (Chow Yun-fat) is sucked into another one-last-job scenario as an aristocrat's daughter (Zhang Ziyi) recklessly juggles the thrills of the martial arts world, her secret affection for a bandit (Chang Chen), and the wish of her family to set her up for an arranged marriage. Described pertinently by Ang Lee as 'Sense and Sensibility with martial arts', this visually stunning, gravity-defying masterpiece won four Oscars (including best foreign language film) and ushered in a new era of traditional Chinese movies made with a global audience in mind.

多年來一直靠緊張激烈的對決以及古羅馬式的騎士精神刺激觀衆神經的武俠電影，終於有一部用一段悽美的愛情故事征服了全世界。片中，兩對心生愛慕的男女始終壓抑着自己的情感。一位劍術高明的劍客（周潤發）希望能收起寶劍，與愛慕已久的女神（楊紫瓊飾）隱退江湖，但他在退隱前的最後一票中卻捲入了另一場漩渦。一個貴族人家的小姐（章子怡飾）在冒失闖蕩驚險的江湖時，偷偷愛上了一個土匪（張震飾），但她的家族希望包辦她的婚姻。李安將《臥虎藏龍》稱爲一部“《理智與情感》式的武俠片”，影片視覺效果震撼，是一部具有創意的傑作。這部電影收穫了4座奧斯卡獎（包括最佳外語片獎），開啓了帶着全球視野拍攝傳統中國電影的新時代。

“It's three years after three years, three years after three years. It's been almost 10 years, boss.”

“三年之後又三年，三年之後又三年，都快十年了，老大！”

If you really think about it, they should have put a spoiler warning on the promo posters of this exemplary undercover cop thriller: after all, what's the point of a suspense noir when even your elderly neighbor – and her maid – knew that Tony Leung is going to put a gun to Andy Lau's head at the movie's climax?

仔細想想，經典臥底警匪片《無間道》的宣傳海報上應該加一句劇透警告：畢竟，當你隔壁的老人和他家保姆都知道梁朝偉將要在電影高潮掏出槍指着劉德華的頭時，又有什麼黑色懸疑可談呢。

“We don’t need to do everything in one night.”

“有些事情不用一個晚上都做完。”

From the hazy ambiance of its KTV lounge parties to its uncannily realistic portrayal of Cantonese banter’s amusing ways, Pang’s bittersweet romcom about two chain-smoking would-be lovers looks reality square in the eye: while urban romances may be capricious, our city’s indoor smoking ban is permanent.

從KTV包房派對中的朦朧氛圍，到對廣式玩笑幽默的詭異寫實刻畫，彭浩翔的這部悲喜交加的浪漫愛情喜劇講述了兩位相互愛慕的菸民之間的故事。他們兩人都看得很明白：都市愛情可能充滿變數，但這個城市的室內禁菸令可是長期不變的。