Hell or High Water 非正常械刼案

動作巨星的成長都有一定的軌跡，像甄子丹浮沉于八十年代，直至1992年在「黃飛鴻之男兒當自強」做李連杰的對手才令他的名字讓觀眾記住；吳京出道于九十年代，一直半紅不黑，直至在2005年的「殺破狼」得到一個反派角色，在冷巷與甄子丹一場盤腸血戰，加上他金髮白衣的造型成功出位，奠定他的巨星地位！ All action movie stars have their long and uneasy journey to become famous, for instance, Donnie Yen was an unknown actor in 1980s, until he rose to fame when playing the rival of Jet Li in “ Once Upon a Time in China II” in 1992 ; Wu Jing entered the movie industry in 1990s but he was not widely noticed by the audience. Until he played an antagonist in “ SPL: Sha Po Lang” in 2005, there was a scene mentioned he fought with Donnie Yen fiercely at a cold alley. His memorable image of blond hair and white shirt at the movie establishes his celebrity status! 吳京的新片「戰狼II」以愛國掛帥，票房大捷，全片精心計算如何激起國人的愛國之心，當中亦有揭露中國經濟起飛過程中的眾生相，包括地產霸權壓迫平民百姓，中國商人混水摸魚及一朝得志語無倫次的醜陋百態！影片背景設定非洲某國內戰，叛軍與政府軍交戰殘殺手無寸鐵平民百姓傷及中國僑民，主角冷鋒被逼出手救傷扶危本來合情合理，但看他以一人之力對抗整個軍隊、機槍、大炮、坦克車，令人看得疲勞，所謂愛國情操只當是商品來硬銷罷了！ The recent hit movie of Wu, “Wolf Warrior 2” hits the box office excellently. The whole movie is meticulously calculated how to evoke the Patriotism of the national people, as well as revealing the multi faces of the economic booming process in China, including how the real estate monopoly oppresses the residents, the Chinese business people took advantages from a confused situation and their ugly side of being successful! The movie background was set in a civil war in an African country, where the joint army force of rebel army and national army kill so many innocent citizens and Chinese immigrants, the plot was supposed to make sense when the main protagonist Leng Feng fights for the innocent people. However, when I saw Leng Feng fought against the whole army, machine guns, cannons, tanks on his own, which is extremely exhausted to watch. The so called “Patriotism” is just a hard selling method for the product! 反觀他的上一部作品「戰狼 l 」的格局雖然比較少，但多了人情味，包括男女主角的微妙感情和軍人之間的互相扶持，動作戲多了戰術運用和團隊合作，雖然未算完美，起碼令人看得舒服多了!兩套電影都有中國白酒茅台出現，借豪飲白酒來展現軍人豪邁氣概，痛快淋漓，算是酒中有戲了! In contrary, Wu’s previous collection “Wolf Warrior”, has more touching scenes, including the delicate love between the main male and female characters, and the mutual support between army. The action scenes involves more tactics and team-work. Although the movie is not perfect, at least it makes the audience feel more comfortable to watch! Both movies embody the Chinese Baiju scene- Maotai, and reflects the heroic spirits of the soldiers.

Recently I tasted several premium sake at the new sake bar at Yaya in East Point City, including Sake N by Hidetoshi Nakata and Juyondai etc. My interest of sake was rising, which attracted me to watch a sake documentary called “Kampai! For the Love of Sake”. The film tells me how the producer attentively explain the sake culture. In fact the number of young Japanese people who loves sake is getting less. If sake is not being strongly publicized, it might fade into extinction soon! The movie shows the sake culture with the perception of three people with totally different backgrounds. The American John Gauntner came to Japan when he was young, he was influenced greatly under the Japanese food culture and fell in love to sake. He aspired to be the renowned non-Japanese sake professional, and eventually has brought the sake culture to Western countries. The English Philip Harper has a more legendary story. After university graduation, Philip participated Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme (JET) and taught English in Osaka, in order to experience the livelihood at oversea. At the beginning Philip was upset because of miscommunication with local people. He found that drinking alcoholic beverages can remove the obstacles between human, without any use of language. Later the English man became an apprentice at a sake distillery, and eventually revived a distillery from bankruptcy. Now he is the director of that sake distillery. The last person is a Japanese, Kosuke Kuji from NanbuBijin, who has inherited the company from his father. Kuji believed the reformation is the only way to leave the pessimistic situation of the declining trend of sake. Even his father and older generation members want to stop Kuji’s action, the film records how this ambitious Japanese used his ability and effort to overcome all the obstacles and won a grand award at oversea. Kuji has proven himself a successful man! Sadly, our local news always mentioned the old and famous restaurants could not afford the high rent and was forced to close their business. Each closed store represents an end of one culture. While drinking sake at the sake bar, I was memorizing the plot of the great movie and admiring Japanese how they strive as much as possible to keep their tradition. Kampai! 日前去了一田在東港城新店內的 Sake Bar，試了幾款超級清酒，包括中田英壽的 Sake N，十四代的龍之落子等，也吸引了我去看這部關於清酒的紀錄片「乾杯！日本清酒最高」，看製作人如何用心把清酒文化傳承，皆因在日本喜歡飲清酒的年青人愈來愈少，如果再不用力推廣，連清酒都有可能在不久將來湮滅！ 電影透過三個背景不同的人來看清酒文化：John Gauntner是美國人，年青時來日本闖蕩，受到日本飲食文化熏陶而愛上清酒，著書立說成為知名非日藉清酒專家，成功將清酒文化帶到歐美各地；英國人Philip Harper更傳奇，大學畢業後，抱着去海外體驗生活的心態，參與日本政府的國際活動JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme)，來大阪教英語，初時因言語不通而懊惱，後來跟本地人去飲酒場合，發現飲酒後可消除人與人之間隔膜，跟本無需語言，之後入清酒廠潛心學藝，後來更將一家瀕臨倒閉的酒廠復興，現在是這家木下酒造的釀酒總監；最後一個是日本人，「南部美人」的久慈浩介，繼承父輩傳下來的基業，心知日本清酒逐漸息微的趨勢，堅持創新改革是唯一出路，但受到父親及老一輩員工的阻隢，電影紀錄他事事親力親為，排除萬難，最終在海外贏得大獎，吐氣揚眉！ 我們經常看本地新聞說某某老牌食店因抵受不了昂貴租金而被迫結業的報導，每一間關門的老店都代表一種文化的終結，令人歎息！ 在一田 Sake Bar一面飲清酒，一面回味電影中飄來的陣陣酒香，一面佩服日本人如何落力地保留傳統文化，乾杯！

“Dunkirk” is the latest work of the talented Christopher Nolan, and it gains excellent comments from a number of foreign critics unanimously, nearly without any poor reviews! Before watching this movie I suggest everyone should understand the background, Dunkirk was the key incident of the history in WWll. A lot of people will discuss this movie with “Saving Private Ryan” together, and find out Dunkirk is more miserable than the former one or not? The answer is NO! As it does not belong to any war. When the German army attacked France in 1940s, UK formed an alliance with several countries to block the force of Germany. Unfortunately, the alliance lost one after one, there were around 400,000 forced to confine at the beach in Dunkirk, where no roads to leave and the enemies were following behind. Based on normal situation, there will be vigorous wars of defences happened immediately, but the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill ordered to retreat the army for the reserve of military strength. Actually this is a real incident in our history, Hitler stopped the attack from German army ground force, and ordered sporadic attack by sending a few air force. Therefore, we can see the jointed army awaited helplessly for reinforcement at the beach, while German air force attacked occasionally — The attack is not as miserable as we think! As usual, Christopher Nolan still produces a spectacular work in terms of brilliant photography and sound effect — The opening battle gives audience a fierce, real and exciting feeling, the shooting sound vividly portrays a scene to allow them feel as if they are participating. You can imagine a heavy pressure nearby you. The aerial warfare seems to be extremely realistic—the fuel consumption of a plane can only be used for an hour, fortunately the pilot is patient enough to fight the enemy, and persist to consume the final drop of fuel before he gets caught. That moment I realise he is Tom Hardy; the another storyline indicates numerous citizen open their boat to save the stranded army at Dunkirk, which shows the noble sentiment of the normal people! You might be disappointed if you think it is a war movie. Although Dunkirk does not involve many war scenes, actually you nearly cannot find any German troop appear inside the movie. The biggest issue is you cannot think about a memorable face, a signature scene, and even an unforgettable dialogue! If you do not mind to watch a documentary with movie technique, Dunkirk is worthy to watch! I score 4 stars! 這是大導演Christopher Nolan的新作，外國影評一面倒讚好，幾乎沒有劣評！ 看這片前建議大家先了解它的背景，鄧寇克這段歷史是第二次世界大戰中的關鍵事件，很多人會將這片與『雷霆救兵』相題並論，它會否比前者更慘烈，答案是否定的，因為它本身不算是一場戰役，在1940年德軍攻入法國，隔岸的英國為了阻止德軍的攻勢，與各國組成聯軍與德軍對戰，卻節節敗退，40萬聯軍被逼到了鄧寇克的海灘，前無出路，後有追兵，英相邱吉爾為保存軍力，下令撤軍，按一般常理應該是連場激烈的攻防戰，但由於這是真實歷史，當年希特拉卻無故停止了陸軍裝甲步隊的進攻，只派空軍零星的攻擊，所以在這電影中我們看見聯軍在沙灘上無助地的等救兵，德軍飛機間中來攻擊，戰況並不如想象中慘烈！ 論導演功力依然交出功夫，攝影與音效都精彩絕倫，開場時的槍林彈雨，真實而刺激，從前後左右來的槍聲令觀眾如親歷其境，極有壓迫力；這片的空戰拍法很有實感，由於燃油只夠飛一小時，機師冷靜迎戰，堅持到用盡最後一滴油而被擒，這時才知他原來是Tom Hardy；另一條線是講很多平民百姓自發開船趕往營救，展現『拔義每多屠狗輩』的偉大情操！ 如果你抱著看戰爭片入場，可能會有點失望，它沒有太多對戰場面，事實上整套片幾乎沒有看到有德軍出現。最大問題是看到完場時似乎想不起那一個面孔令人有印象，沒有那一場戲特別深刻，沒有那一句對白令人特別回味！不過，如果你不介意看一部用電影手法拍攝的紀錄片，它非常值得看！ 我給4粒星！