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電影

Enchanted 魔法奇緣

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Enchanted 坐沒有私人電視的舊式飛機有一個好處﹐就是會看到些平常自己不會選擇的電影。反正在長途飛機沒有其他事情可做﹐抱著不妨一看的心情﹐有時也許偶有驚喜。「魔法奇緣」是迪士尼出品的愛情童話﹐觀眾對像大慨是十多歲的小女生﹐又或者是幾十歲人但不願長大﹐整天幻想自己是公主的老女人。雖說這套電影是愛情故事﹐但劇中的愛情觀純過蒸溜水﹐絕對老少咸宜適合一家大細欣賞。

電影開始那一段是正宗的迪士尼卡通﹐故事是老土到點搞笑的王子救公主﹐惡毒後母施魔法阻止婚事﹐把公主送到一個沒有快快樂樂地生活下去結局的地方﹐這個地方就是現代的紐約曼克頓。接下來鏡頭風格一轉﹐從卡通變成真人演出﹐上演一齣童話公主紐約街頭落難記。男主角是前妻走路﹐獨力撫養小女兒的律師。他從來不相信童話故事﹐認為世界只有殘酷的現實。男主角與女兒回家路上公主﹐駁不過心地善良的小女兒﹐於是好心收留落難公主。現實與童話交錯相遇﹐男主角幾乎以為公主有精神病﹐不過這個公主又真係顛得幾渾循。另一邊廂王子發現不見了公主﹐於是與 小松鼠追來紐約救人。後母發現公主竟然未死﹐於是派出下手帶同毒蘋果追殺公主。正如所有童話故事的壞人手下一樣﹐永遠也是撞板多過吃飯。後母最後還是要親自出馬﹐從老遠的童話世界跑過來紐約。童話故事當然例牌大團員結局﹐有情人終成眷屬﹐快快樂樂地永遠在一起。咦~ 不過到底誰才是公主的真命天子呢﹖

說這套電影是童話故事只說對了一半﹐這套電影同時也在惡搞大家耳熟能詳的童話故事。平時在卡通中看那些老土情節﹐換上了真人很認真嚴肅地演出﹐間中加插現實的吐嘈諷刺﹐竟然意外地很滑稽惹笑。白雪公主唱歌叫動物幫手做家務﹐戲中的公主也有樣學樣﹐不過在紐約能只請老鼠烏鴉蟑螂來幫手。戇直王子上演巴士屠龍記﹐壞蛋手下千方百計送免費蘋果給公主吃﹐也同樣生鬼有趣。最抵死是公主要去舞會﹐現實世界找不到仙女幫忙變身怎麼辦。小女兒人細鬼大說有樣東西比仙女更管用﹐原來是偷爸爸的信用咭帶公主去買晚裝。

這套電影可以說為迪士尼七十多年的公主卡通作一個總結。在戲中落難公主身上﹐觀眾可以找到經典公主﹐白雪公主﹐灰姑娘﹐美女與野獸﹐睡公主﹐小魚仙等的熟悉影子。故事劇情雖然老老土土﹐但混入新鮮的現實元素﹐效果卻出人意表地討好。這套電影始終是迪士尼的作品﹐不會像史力加般瘋狂惡搞童話故事﹐只是在美化王子與公主故事之飾﹐在細微處讓人會心微笑。特別值得一讚的是女主角Amy Adams﹐雖然只是藉藉無名的新人﹐她完全演譯出童話公主應有的氣質﹐讓觀眾信服那個真的是從平面世界跑出來的難落公主﹐她可以說是這套電影的靈魂。城市人也許不再相信童話﹐但仍然愛看童話式的電影吧。

Daily Scribble

Vacation at home

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After over 24 hours of flying, finally I arrived at the Vancouver International Airport.  The long flight from India to Canada is though, taking off at 3a.m. make it even worse.  Usually when I take vacation, I will fly away from home and spend my times off in some where else.  This is the first time I fly back home for vacation.  I have a 2 weeks break in between my 2 months India assignment.  Life would be quite miserable if I have to stay there for 2 months continuously.  Actually it is not really a vacation, I still have to come to work in the head office.  However, comparing to working in India, going to work in Vancouver already seems like a vacation to me.

動漫

Paprika 紅辣椒

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Paprika 隨著上一代的動畫大師如宮崎駿﹐大友克洋等相續封筆退出江湖﹐今敏可謂動畫大師的新一代接班人。「紅辣椒」是今敏執導的第四套動畫電影﹐前作 Perfect Blue﹐「千年女優」和「東京教父」等﹐叫好又叫座﹐曾奪得無度日本年度動畫大賞﹐這套「紅辣椒」自然也不會例外。今敏的動畫電影完全展現出動畫的魔力 ﹐鏡頭表達出真人電影沒可能拍攝到的超現實意境。

電影的主題是夢境與現實交錯﹐畫面的表達上完全沒有限制。片頭女主角在畫中畫裏左穿右插﹐戲中不斷重覆出現的嘉年華巡遊﹐男主角穿越一個又一個的夢境﹐每一組鏡頭的運用﹐每一個場面的交接﹐均為觀眾帶來全新的視覺體驗。平沢進創作的配樂風格華麗﹐完全配合著奇異眩目的畫面﹐把觀眾帶進疑幻疑真的電影世界。「紅辣椒」把動畫從單純娛樂的層面﹐提升至視覺藝術的層次。

雖然「紅辣椒」的藝術含金量極高﹐但不等於這套一定是導演花巧賣弄鏡頭的悶藝電影。電影主線十分是扎實的科幻故事﹐女主角和天材肥仔男友發明了讓人進入別 人夢境的機器﹐讓醫生進入病人的意讓中進行深層心理治療。女主角的一個身份是在現實地界中的冷艷心理醫生﹐另一個身份則是在夢境中化名為紅辣椒﹐為病人進 行心理治療的開朗少女。電影情節發展緊湊懸疑性強﹐開場不久發生夢境機器失竊事件﹐接二連三出現夢境被入侵而變成神經錯亂的受害者。女主角不斷追查偷走夢 境機器的元兇﹐揭發盜夢者背後的大陰謀。

可惜我不是讀心理學﹐不懂容格(Carl Jung)的夢境理論﹐不然看這齣電影時必定會很有趣﹐可以分析角色夢境與現實的關係。戲中每個角色也有不同的夢魘﹐最後他們都能在夢境中找到出路﹐解開 他們多年內心中的困繞。女主角在現實與夢境中擁有兩個截然不同的性格﹐一個她心底裏其實喜歡肥仔男友﹐但另一個她沒法接受男友三百磅的身型。在夢境與現實 交錯的時空﹐兩個她整合成為同一人﹐讓她解開心結接受肥仔男友的愛。肥仔男友雖然是天材科學家﹐但心境則像一個長不大的兒童﹐於是在夢境中他化身為巨型玩 具機械人。女主角對變機械人肥仔告白那一場戲﹐與開場時肥仔給夾在電梯那一場戲首尾呼應﹐讓肥仔明白到身為成年人應有責任。戲中第三個主要角色是本來是紅 辣椒病人的警探﹐無辜給牽涉入這盜夢危機當中。他不斷受到同一個惡夢的纏擾﹐是他年輕時朋友死亡留下來的陰影。他闖進盜夢者的夢境勇救女主角﹐補完當年沒 法完結的電影故事﹐亦從過去的陰影中走出來。

有些人會說這齣電影的故事太複雜看不明白﹐其實只要明白導演的思路﹐夢境與現實沒有明確的分界線﹐兩者可以互相交錯的重覆畫面﹐就不難跟隨理解劇情主線的 發展。「紅辣椒」在藝術性和故事性兩方面都拿取滿分﹐不喜歡或不俏看動畫的人﹐說不定看完後會改變對動畫的偏見﹐發現動畫不只是哄小孩子的卡通﹐也可以是 與電影分庭抗禮的藝術。

Daily Scribble

Goodbye Bangalore

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Tomorrow night, I will be flying home leaving this stinky (literally) city.  This is the end of my first month work assignment in Bangalore.  It is an eye opening experience.  I see many new things and learn to look at the world from a different prespective.  Although I am not interested in any of them in particular.  It is just totally out of my imagination that a whole country or culture can be this screwed up.  My India experience confirms my believes that some culture are indeed better than others.  We can actually measure the evolution progress of different cultures by measuring how advance they are.

Having exposure to oversea outsourcing management is an asset nice to have.  However only time can tell whether it worths sacrificing two months living alone in a strange city away from loved ones.  My main objective is accomplished in the first two weeks of my trip.  The rest of the time, I am just sitting there answering stupid questions.   Ok.  There are a few real questions, but most of the questions are just plain dumb or can easily deal with over the phone or via email.  At the same time I am trying to get my own work done at 50% productivity or less.  I am sure I would be much more efficient staying in Vancouver than in Bangalore.

It seems my life in Bangalore is so pointless than the only highlight of my day is to go out for a  nice dinner.  I am trying out all the expensive restaurants in town.  I bet I have been to more non-Indian restaurants than most local people.  I am already suffering from having Indian food for lunch, I got have some real food for dinner.  I am sure the company had saved a lot of money from outsourcing to India, so I am just helping the company to utilize some of the saving.

Sigh.  I have to come back for another month after two weeks break back home.  Let’s see how can I make my next stay in Bangalore less unpleasant.

Daily Scribble

Dine out Bangalore

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There are many nice restaurants to have good food in Bangalore. I have been trying out new restaurants every night after work. The company has save a lot of money by outsourcing to India, I figure I should help them spend some of the saving on gourmet food. It is nice when you can expense your dinner to the company account, you don’t have to worry about whether the dish worth the price, you only have to worry about whether the food taste good or not.

Eating local food in Bangalore is very cheap. A very nice Indian dinner is only 200 rupee, about $5. However, having real food in Bangalore is relatively very expensive, the price is still slight cheaper than Vancouver. It cost $30 to have dinner in a fine dining restaurant and $50 in a 5 star hotel. The average daily wage in India is 100 rupee, so my dinner costs an Indian’s salary for the whole month. Well, the company is paying for it, who cares about the price?

In Bangalore, most restaurants only open for dinner after 7p.m., some restaurants won’t even open until 8p.m. The guest house is located in the out skirt of the city, so it is about 30-45 minutes away from most of the good restaurants. Even though I have to spend an extra hour stuck in traffic to have some nice food, the long journey definitely worth the long journal.

Here is the record of my quest for good food, highly recommend to all business travelers to Bangalore: I only list the name of the restaurant and my comment here. Please look up the address and phone number in Google, it should be easy to find.

Blue Ginger in Taj West End Hotel – Taj West End Hotel is like a forest inside the city. You can enjoy real South East Asia food sitting next to a beautiful lagoon under the tree. The air quality in the hotel is really good, you don’t suffer from the pollution on the street.

Mainland China at Church Street – This is probably the best restaurant in Bangalore you can find real Chinese food, instead of crappy Indian-Chinese food.

Mandarin Room in Grand Ashok Hotel – Another restaurant with real Chinese food. It is on the top floor of the Grand Ashok Hotel overlooking the whole city. Very nice view.

Sunny’s at Lavelle Road – Nice French and Italian cruise. I had my first steak in Bangalore here.

Windsor Grill in Windsor Manor Hotel – Pool side BBQ in a luxury hotel. Yes, you can also order steak here.

Zen in Leela Palace – Leela Palace is the most luxurious hotel in town. Go figure.

Fiorano at 100 Feet Road – Nice Italian restaurant close to the Forum Mall, which is next to the guest house.

Via Milano at 80 Feet Peripheral Road – Another nice Italian restaurant close to the Forum Mall.

I.T.Alia in Park Hotel – Probably the best Italian restaurant I had so far. It is very small, don’t forget to make a reservation.

Bangalore Bistro – This roof top restaurant offer an unique dining experience with close-enough French cruise.  The tables are carved out of stone and have a peddle of water in the middle with floating rose paddle and candle.  It is very hard to find, better call them to ask for direction.