提醒:原文是英文,开头和最后的图片都是个人观影记录,都可以跳过,直接看每一段英文后面的中文翻译。后面括号里的是我的补充。
Lucy Gray16岁,女儿17岁,刚和她一起去看了这个片子。她非常喜欢《饥饿游戏》,原著三部曲和四部电影,都看过至少三遍。对这个片子她期待已久,而且特意在去电影院之前,故意先不看小说不看任何评论,希望能有全新的惊喜。
正好上周末是我的生日,看这部片子也成了我“众多生日活动”中的一个。前两年她都给我写了生日诗,这次我免除她的苦役,让她写篇影评“献”给我。看到我在短信上提出这个要求时,她差点把屁股都要笑掉了。
昨天下午我准备晚饭时,她坐在沙发上、小狗边敲字,一个半小时完篇。借用古人的话,大概可以说“下笔千言”、“倚狗可待”。
Villain origin stories are nothing new. Most seek to allow the audience to understand and sympathize with the protagonist, who eventually becomes villainous in the sequels. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which stars Cornelius Snow, future President of Panem and antagonist of The Hunger Games, is one of these tales.
“黑化故事”一点说不上新鲜。大多数这样的故事都希望让观众理解并同情主角,而主角最终在续集中变成了大反派。《饥饿游戏:鸣鸟与蛇之歌 》就是这样一个故事,主角Cornelius Snow一步步黑化,成为了《饥饿游戏》三部曲中的大反派——Panem的总统。
(注:看完出来,我说这一个片子相当于《星球大战》三部前传,她说她不是星战粉,但知道我的意思。英语没有“黑化”的说法,她的原文只是“反派起源”。)
Even in the first few minutes, it's easy to see how the young Cornelius we see becomes the President Snow of the trilogy. He's loyal to no one except himself and his family, haunted by the desperation and need for survival he experienced during the Dark Days.
即使在电影的最初的几分钟里,我们也不难看出年轻的Corneliu将如何变成三部曲中的斯诺总统。除了对自己和家人,他不忠于任何人,在黑暗岁月中经历的绝望和对生存的渴求,像噩梦一样缠绕着他。
(注:她告诉我,扮演姐姐Tigris的演员是trans,我说我没想到,只觉得她有点特别。我又说,那最初几分钟,俩人小时候应该是两个小男孩。她说变性的演员并不一定要演变性的角色。我同意,不然在角色选择上非常受限。)
There's some semblance of hope for him when he meets Lucy Gray, that love can inspire the loyalty he lacks. But even her survival is tied to his-after all, Lucy Gray's success gives him the prize money his family needs to pay rent. Still, it's hard not to be captivated by Cornelius. For one, Tom Blyth is charismatic and attractive, and pretty privilege is real. His affection for Tigris is endearing, and we want him to earn the prize money-if not for his own sake, then his sister's. And he's terribly intelligent. His ideas for the Hunger Games are sadistic and brilliant, as was saving Lucy Gray with the drones. As a result, he's easy to watch and root for, which is perhaps my greatest criterion for enjoying a film.
遇到Lucy Gray时,他看到了一丝希望,因为恋人间爱情可以催生和激发他从小缺失的东西——对他人的忠诚。但是,即便她的存活也与他息息相关,毕竟是Lucy Gray的获胜让他赢得奖金,支付家人所需的房租。尽管如此,我们还是很难不被Cornelius吸引。首先,Tom Blyth魅力四射,漂亮的特权是真实存在的。他对姐姐Tigris的爱令人感动,我们希望他能赢得奖金——即使不是为了他自己,也是为了他的姐姐。他聪明绝顶。他关于饥饿游戏的想法相当残虐,却又充满创意,就像他用无人机拯救Lucy Gray的那一幕。因此,他很容易让人共鸣、让人鼓掌加油,这也许是我享受一部电影的最大原因。
(看完这一段,我告诉她中文有个说法,叫“恃靓行凶”(最早看到是香港娱记用来形容李嘉欣),她觉得用来形容Cornelius蛮贴切。)
Lucy Gray is equally striking. Her actress, Rachel Zegler, has a fantastic voice (read about her casting for West Side Story) and radiates the magnetism that the character needs to make her success in the Hunger Games possible. Just as she charms the Capitol, so too does she charm the audience. We want her to survive, even more so than Cornelius, allowing us to forgive her final betrayal - even though her survival remains a mystery, her odds are better away from Cornelius than with him.
Lucy Gray同样令人瞩目。她的扮演者Rachel Zegler拥有一副美妙的嗓音(延申阅读:她在《西区故事》中的获取角色的故事),并散发出角色所需的磁性,而嗓音和磁性让她在饥饿游戏中获得胜利成为可能。正如她对都城群众的施展魅力一样,她也魅获了银幕前的观众。我们希望她能活下来,甚至比男主更希望她活下来,这让我们能够原谅她最后的背叛——尽管她的生死仍是个谜,但她离开Cornelius的存活概率,比和他在一起更大。
(注:她跟我说的Rachel Zegler的故事:本来只是在油管上发发唱歌视频的小女生,积累了一点人气,没想到斯皮尔伯格重拍《西区故事》海选女主角,一看到这些视频,就认定非她莫属。我说:这真是真人版灰姑娘啊!她大笑道:她马上要出演真人版白雪公主……)
The film is by no means perfect. For one, the pacing is too fast: there's little time to process what just happened before the next scene begins. As such, important moments like Snow's betrayal of his friend and the entire portion of the film set inside the arena don't have quite the impact they should. But that's what happens when creating an adaptation of a book - there's a lot more material than time. The producers were faithful to the original story (according to Twitter, at least) and the film was still easy to understand and carried emotional weight, so overall, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a successful adaptation.
这部电影离完美还相差甚远。首先,影片的节奏太快:在下一个场景开始之前,观众几乎没有时间消化刚刚发生的事情。因此,像Cornelius背叛朋友这样的重要时刻,以及在竞技场内的整个段落,都没有产生应有的效果。但这就是改编长篇小说时发生的状况——素材比时间多得多。制片人忠实于原著(至少推特上是这么说的),影片依然容易理解,情感饱满,因此总体而言,《鸣鸟与蛇之歌》是一部成功的改编作品。
(注:长篇小说压缩成两三小时的电影不容易,在她看来,最成功的改编非《指环王》三部曲莫属。我说超越长篇小说原著的电影,排名第一当属《教父》。不过她只看了《教父》小说,电影她觉得太过古旧。)
Some backstory is also missing, although it doesn't impact the audience's understanding of the film. The details of Cornelius' father are confusing, but what the audience needs to know that he had hatred in his eyes, that he had a fractured relationship with Casca Highbottom, that he came up with the Hunger Games is all covered. It's also unclear what happened to Lucy Gray's family. We know she's an orphan and wears her mother's dress, but little else. Explaining these details would have perhaps provided further insight into the two's motivations.
影片还缺少了一些背景故事,尽管这并不影响观众对影片的理解。Cornelius父亲的具体情形让人困惑,但观众需要知道的是,他眼中充满仇恨,他与Casca Highbottom关系破裂,他提出了“饥饿游戏”。Lucy Gray的家庭发生了什么也不清楚。我们知道她是个孤儿,穿着母亲的衣服,但其他就一片空白。如果能叙述这些细节,或许能让我们更深入地了解两人的动机。
(注:吃饭时我还没有看她的影评,我也提出了对Cornelius父亲的疑问。她说她会看小说里是怎么写的,看完告诉我。)
But at the end of the day, the movie's most prominent theme - that the need to survive can make monsters of us all - is all we need to understand Cornelius and Lucy Gray. They're both trying to live, and although their love both hinders and aids their survival, it can't last in the face of their opposing backgrounds. She's District, he's from the Capitol. But love is unrealistic, and the chemistry between her and Blyth is enough to convince the audience that something could have happened under better circumstances.
但归根结底,这部电影最突出的主题,“对生存的渴求会把我们变成怪物”,是我们理解Cornelius和Lucy Gray所需要的一切。他们都想活下去,虽然他们的爱情既阻碍也帮助他们的生存,但面对他们完全对立的生活环境,他们的爱无法持久。她来自叛区,他来自都城,爱情是不现实的,她和他之间的化学反应足以让观众相信,如果被置于在更好的环境下,有些美好的事本可以发生。
(注:我说这是一个黑化故事,同时也是一个富公子爱贫女的故事,和三部曲最不一样的是,Katniss是个英姿飒爽、箭术超群的“大女主”,而Lucy Gray只有魅力,没有战力。她说:那是因为前传的主角是Cornelius,主线是三部曲中“饥饿游戏”的起源,没法把女主写得太强大。)
The most implausible thing about the movie is the idea of a "university." Why would the Capitol need a school for training Mentors? It's not like the Mentors - Cornelius excluded, and even then, helping her resulted in his punishment - did anything useful for their Tributes. The film could have scrapped the whole idea of a school and the story would remain intact. Consequently, though, this flaw is easy to ignore.
影片中最难以置信的是 “大学 ”这个概念。都城为什么需要一所培训导师的学校?除了Cornelius,其他人并不像导师,他们没有为参赛者做任何有用的事,而Cornelius对Lucy Gray的帮助直接导致他受到惩罚。片子完全可以取消“大学”这个概念,而故事依然保持完整。当然,这个缺陷很容易被忽视。
(注:我说除了大学,片中的一些其他设置也有点牵强,比如蛇和鸟。她同意,同时表示架空创造一个世界,面面俱到很难,作为“硬造”出来的前传,故事编得不错。)
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes doesn't hold quite the character appeal or dramatic tension that The Hunger Games trilogy evoked, but its long runtime quickly passed. The performances and music were the best part, and although the plot falters upon further inspection, on the whole, the film was enjoyable. I would give it an 8/10.
虽然《鸣鸟与蛇之歌》的人物吸引力和戏剧张力都不如《饥饿游戏》三部曲,但是两个半小时的漫长的放映时间很快就过去了。表演和音乐是最出色的部分,虽然情节在细品后有点站不住,但总体而言,这部电影还是赏心悦目。满分10分,我打8分。
(注:加上前面得预告片和最后的歌曲,将近三个小时。片中男女主在12区的原野上相会时,我说:肉麻戏开始了,我要去卫生间了。她很喜欢Olivia Rodrigo的片尾曲,回来的路上和吃饭时一直在循环播放。)