I have a good chat with an old friend tonight. I told him I was taking philosophy. He said he is quite interest in eastern, especially Chinese, philosophy too. We talked about the difference between western and eastern philosophy. Both philosophy originated around the same period, 2500 years ago. The two most famous scholars are Plato in Greek and Confucius in China. Both of their teaching comes lots of things and enlightened later generation. However the development of the two philosophy is very difference since then. Eastern philosophy seems got frozen in time without getting much further development, we are still reading the same ancient books people read thousand years ago. On the other than western philosophy has fully developed into a system covers almost everything knowledge man had ever known. I think one the of key difference is that in western philosophy, philosophers are like scientist, their work is to discover the ultimate truth. People respect the great philosophers, they learn from their works but they don’t take the works for granted. In eastern philosophy, people regards the philosophers as the absolute standard. Instead of trying to make improvement and discover more truth, they focus on figuring out what did Confucius really said in his books. No one even bother to challenge whether the content of Confucians teaching is applicable. It is important to understand the teaching of the great philosopher, not only that we want to learn from them, it is more important that we want to surpass them. A forward looking culture brings progression and strive for greatness. A backward looking culture always points to a golden standard in the past can only be deteriorated and slowly rotted away.
Cooking Mama
I played Cooking Mama for Wii last night at my friend’s place. Although the graphic is quite primitive, I found this game is really fun. As you can see from the title, it is a cooking game. You may wonder what’s fun about cooking through the TV screen, there is no food to eat. This game is basically lots of mini games sharing a common cooking theme. It has over 100 recipes for dishes from all over the world. In each recipe, the procedure to make the dish is breaking down into small steps focusing on a few basic motions. Some complicate dishes has over 20 steps, from cutting the ingredient, mixing the sauces to timing how long the strove should be on. The presentation of the game is quite girly, cute cartoon character giving you the cooking instruction, most of the graphics are in pink, yet I think this game is suitable for both boys and girls. The cooking in the game is far from real cooking, but you can still apply the recipe to make some real dish. Moreover, it is always a good thing to raise the interest of cooking among players. There are still some concern for feminine image for the male who play this game, maybe Nintendo should make a Iron Chef version for male game players.
校園槍擊錄影帶與傳媒責任
美國維珍尼亞理工發生的駭人槍擊時件﹐美藉韓裔學生在校院槍殺三十多人﹐時隔兩天NBC電視台收到兇手寄來的郵包﹐內有殺戮宣言錄影帶和槍手的照片。NBC在晚間新聞時段播出一小段影帶﹐並把影帶內容和照片發放給其他傳媒。影帶的內容沒有什麼特別﹐只不過是一個精神病人對社會的暴力控訴。不過NBC的做法卻引起非議﹐認為他們播出兇徒的錄影帶會傷害死者家屬﹐也有專家認播出影帶達成兇徒的心願﹐可能引起模仿效應引起更多槍擊事件。另一方面也有人認為NBC播出錄影帶是正確的決定﹐因為公眾有知情權﹐而影帶也有助認清事情的真相。
我個人支持NBC播出錄影帶的決定﹐但原因不是因為公眾知情權。公開錄影帶不會有助公眾認清事情的真相﹐反正會持槍入校院大開殺戒已百份百精神有問題﹐這個簡單的事實不用看兇手的宣言公眾也清楚知道。新聞傳媒的責任是盡可能客觀地報導事件的全部真相﹐兇手寄來的影帶是這次槍擊事件的一部份﹐傳媒有責任如實地報導出來。NBC在報導上處理得十分好﹐在影帶播出前警告觀眾將會看到的內容﹐亦沒有用煽情跨張的手法去抄作新聞。新聞傳媒的責任不是照顧別人的感受﹐播出影帶會傷害死者家人的感情﹐這是無可避免的事情。雖然播出影帶是正確的決定﹐履行了新聞傳媒的責任﹐但NBC還是應該向死者家人致歉。正確的決定不代表一定全無痛苦﹐無可奈何地忍痛作出播帶的決定﹐也是迫不得爾的事情﹐希望死者家人能夠諒解明白。
防止罪案發生的責任在政府﹐教育市民奉公守法的責任在學校﹐傳媒的責任只是如實報導。若有可能引起模仿效應﹐或以影響社會安定為理由﹐就作出新聞封鎖不許報導﹐只為一時方便的權移之計﹐沒有把社會的潛在問題決解。好像駝鳥般以為不講不說﹐問題就會消失不再存在。只要新聞報導不偏不倚以事論事﹐沒有歌頌兇徒的暴行﹐公眾是足夠有理性和能力去分辨是非﹐不會引起模依效應。相信民眾有獨立的思考能力﹐是推行民主制度的先決條件﹐只有在家長式的極權國家﹐才會認為民眾青紅不分﹐說出真相就會引起社會問題。當然不排除有極少部份的人﹐看到報導後會東施效顰﹐不過會想進行大屠殺的人精神很有問題﹐已經不能用常理去推斷。稍微有理性良知的人﹐絕不會受到報導的影響而作出相同的暴行。至於剩下來的變態殺手﹐ 看不看報導大慨對他們影響不大﹐要變態的始終是會變態。
大佬愛美麗
馮德倫是香港發展最多元化的藝人﹐在幕前他曾經與雷頌德合組Dry樂隊﹐可惜他的歌藝平平﹐樂隊最終以拆伙收場。他曾參與多部電影和電視劇的演出﹐同樣他的演技也不甚出色﹐只靠賣靚仔怎樣也紅不起來。除了業餘表演魔術做得比較出色外﹐他看來沒有什麼觀眾緣。他在幕後倒有不錯的成績﹐他為很多紅歌星擔任唱片監製﹐不過我認為他最勝任的工作是當導演。他是少數能夠拍出叫好又叫座電影的香港新一代導演。「大佬愛美麗」是馮德倫第一套執導的電影﹐當年上映時票房不俗。他在照顧商業需要之餘﹐還展現出一些導演的個人風格。讓人意想不到的幽默橋段﹐大眾但不低俗的搞笑點子﹐奠定了馮德倫日後作品所走的路線。
單看片名中大佬二字﹐就知道「大佬愛美麗」選用是港產片最熱門的題材﹐黑社會。那年流行法國電影「天使愛美麗(Amelia)」,愛美麗二字顧名思義代表女性化﹐兩者合組起來就成為這齣搞笑黑幫片的名字。故事講述黑幫大佬去世﹐欽定在海外留的兒子當接班人。飾演兒子的吳彥祖不想插手社團事務﹐他的好友陳奕迅則自細發夢要當大佬﹐誤打誤撞下被誤認是接班人﹐吳彥祖於是陪陳奕迅回港讓他一償心願。劇情編排特別的地方﹐就是原來吳彥祖是同性戀者。於是一個基的真大佬﹐一個扮基的假大佬﹐捲入一場瘋狂惹笑的江湖仇殺中。諧星杜文澤與羅家英在戲中飾演黑幫高層﹐忠心為主替大佬保守性取向的秘密﹐他們在戲中有很多機會發揮爆笑威力。莫文慧是競爭對手社團的千金﹐對方大佬想用政治婚姻加強兩幫的合作﹐一邊廂女主角愛上真基佬﹐想盡辦法幫他回復正常。另一邊廂假基佬愛上女主角﹐但又要欲拒還迎以免被識破扮基的身份。劇中溤德倫也一過戲癮飾演反派﹐他的戲份不多﹐主要功用只是向一眾主角尋仇﹐好讓打敗壞人來個大團員結局。老實說他真的不懂演戲﹐還是專心當導演好了
同性戀與黑社會這兩個慨念好像格格不入﹐社團中人只會聯想起無惡不作的紋身大漢﹐又或者古惑仔主角的型仔師哥﹐絕不會與娘娘腔的基佬扯上關係。江湖漢子間很著重講義氣兄弟情﹐每每兄弟如手足﹐妻子如衣服﹐比自己的老婆還重要。可是當他們當中有同性戀出現﹐仿忽就會污染肝膽相照的關係﹐越過那一條禁忌的底線﹐在純潔的情義中蒙上黑點。大家一同去按摩焗桑拿肉帛相見會尷尬是小事﹐心理上承受不了被同性愛慕才是大件事。奇怪的是他們可以為兄弟上刀山入火海﹐有今生無來世連命也可以不要﹐卻不能夠接受兄弟的同性愛慕﹐可以為他去死﹐但寧死也不做他的人。所謂的情義其實並不是真心對兄弟好﹐只不過英雄形像的自我意識投射﹐命也可以不要﹐錢也可以不要﹐不過是用來滿足自私的虛榮心罷了。雖然同性戀是這齣戲的主題﹐但劇中吳彥祖除了說話硬裝陰聲細氣外﹐他左看右看也不似基佬﹐未能拍出同性戀者在黑社會中遇到的處境。反而在「江湖救急」中﹐替大佬梁家輝擋了槍的保鏢﹐倒在大佬懷中作愛的告白﹐那個反錯喜劇效果的震撼力則強大得多。
這套電影不是精緻的藝術電影﹐只是一套笑位計算得十分好的商業電影。可是單憑大佬變基佬這條絕橋﹐加上充滿喜劇細胞的導演和演員﹐就已有足夠吸引觀眾收看的魅力了。
Professional sport
I met a professional tennis player over the weekend. He ranked number 120 in the world and he plays in open competitions. I thought with his ranking, he would get at least some sponsors. The reality is tennis is not a very well off professional sport. Other than his racket, T-shirts, shoes, bags, he does not get any sponsor’s money in his pocket. There are not much money in tennis. Individual sport’s pay out is not as good as team sport. Think about how much money number 120 hockey player or soccer player will make. Golf got the most sponsorship money among all the individual sports. The reason is the sponsors get to play golf with the professional players. Probably golf is the only game the armature can play with the professional at the same time, actually although they are in the golf course at the same time, they are really playing their own games. When I have kids, I will select carefully on what sport to train him on to maximize the return. Look at all the professional sports, probably baseball has the best return. Soccer or hockey player has to retire early, and tends to get lots of injuries, but baseball player can still stay in the field even they well into middle-age and have a big tummy. Look at how much an average professional tennis player makes, tennis training is not a very good investment on the children.