外媒看中国:《一步之遥》用力过猛

　　Maverick¹ actor-director Jiang Wen continues to jab at Chinese history with a satire² about the fallout of an over-the-top beauty contest in '20s Shanghai.

　　不按常理出牌的导演，同时也是演员的姜文，用20世纪20年代上海言过其实的一起选美比赛的改编电影，继续在中国历史上猛敲了一记。

　　"We should struggle less at home, and expand more ashore," says a character during Gone With The Bullet's first section, in which a Chinese diva triumphs over her US and European counterparts in a rigged beauty pageant³ in Shanghai. Director Jiang Wen, who co-penned this film with eight other screenwriters, has certainly walked the talk in this line: Gone with the Bullets is an extraordinary mélange of seminal⁴ stylistic tropes from abroad, a two-hour-plus journey taking in nods to newsreels, silent slapstick, musicals, film noir and even New Hollywood - not to mention the specific pastiches⁵ of The Godfather, Chicago, The Italian Job and even the Bogart-Bacall whistle moment in To Have And Have Not.

　　“我们不能在家里挣扎，而要去开拓更多的天地，“《一步之遥》第一部分的一个角色这么说道，这位国人女星在上海一场内箱操作的选美大赛中，击败了她美国和欧洲的竞争对手。导演姜文，和他的八位编剧真的是言出必行：《一步之遥》是外国创意体裁隐喻非凡绝伦一锅炖，两个多小时的电影向新闻片，喜剧默片，音乐剧，玄色电影，甚至是新好莱坞电影致敬——且不说《教父》，《芝加哥》，《偷天换日》甚至还有《江湖侠侣》里比歌的吹口哨场景。

　　But a mish-mash of references a masterpiece does not make. Unlike his brilliantly barbed, sensitively structured and meticulously⁶ multi-layered 2010 hit Let the Bullets Fly, Gone With The Bullets -  described as the second installment⁷ of a trilogy of gun-slinging satires⁸ set in tumultuous, 1920s China  - is a sprawling⁹, episodic spectacle reading less like a j'accuse of social malaise, and more like a record of a self-styled auteur's ego¹⁰ going completely into overdrive, as he indulges in shaping his lead character (played by himself) as a misunderstood and victimized idealist, while unleashing¹¹ a torrent¹² of supposedly clever bites at the hands who feed him.

　　但是这部致敬杰作的混合物没有任何意义。不像他才华横溢的佳作《让子弹飞》（2010年）里绝妙的讽刺，敏感的结构和一丝不苟的多层次构架，《一步之遥》——作为其子弹三部曲的第二部——用吵吵闹闹喧嚣不堪构起一部讽刺诗集，20世纪20年代的中国——笨拙的前行，插话式的场景看起来不太像是社会疾病的抨击，更像是自封为电影导演的自负到彻底失控的一次记录，因为他沉浸于塑造他的主角（他自己饰演）成为一个被误解的，受到伤害的理想主义者，他用释放才华激流的方式在饲养他的这群人手上狠狠咬上了一口。

　　And the hands have seemingly bitten back, as Jiang has finally gone one step too far with his misanthropy, a trait which used to amuse with his more skilful¹³ portrayal¹⁴ as the masses as self-seeking and unwashed in his previous outings like the second-world-war drama Devils on the Doorstep and Let the Bullets Fly.

　　看上去他是咬回去了，而姜文在他愤世嫉俗的道路上终究是做的太过了，他越发灵巧地刻画了追逐私利，愚昧不堪的大众人群——一如他之前的二战电影《鬼子来了》和《让子弹飞》里那样，是他带有取乐意味的特质。

　　Jiang's character in the film, Ma Zouri, carries a similar life trajectory¹⁵ to Yan Ruisheng, a middle-class man who plotted the murder of a prostitute in Shanghai in 1920.

　　姜文在电影中的角色马走日，原型就是阎瑞生——这个中产阶级男人在1920年于上海密谋杀害了一名妓女。

　　What makes Yan's case legendary¹⁶ is not the crime itself, but its fallout: the case at once scandalized and mesmerized¹⁷ the city's chattering¹⁸ classes, with the man's trial and subsequent execution leading to entrepreneurs staging plays, stand-up comedy shows, musicals and even making a film out of the incident. It's perhaps ironic¹⁹ that Jiang is to mock those transforming the so-called Yan Ruisheng affair into entertainment by, well, making a film which transforms the incident into a film comprising scenes reminiscent of stage plays, stand-up comedy and a musical.

　　让阎瑞生案名声大噪的不是因为这起犯罪本身，而是其附带后果：上海那些爱好八卦的中上级阶层马上被这个案件震惊和迷住了，由于这个案子，阎瑞生的审讯和随后的死刑被改编成企业家编排的舞台剧，单口相声表演，音乐剧甚至是电影。也许讽刺的就是，姜文想要嘲笑这些所谓的，把阎瑞生一案变成娱乐笑料的改编，将这起案子编成了由怀旧的舞台剧，单口相声和音乐剧的杂烩电影。

　　Now that Jiang has committed an auteur's inevitable²⁰ ego-driven project about himself and his history - Ma's recollections of a Gallic romance mirrors the director's eight-year marriage with a Frenchwoman, while the materialistic²¹ Wanyan Ying and the artistic²² Wu Liu (played by his own wife) could be seen as Jiang torn between commerce and culture - maybe it's time for Jiang to step off his pedestal, cast his cynicism aside and engage with the real crossfire²³ beyond his own comfort zone, and to reveal the state of mind a population who think they are calling the shots, but are actually only being stood there to be shot at.

　　如今的姜文已经证明了一位电影导演对于其自身和他的历史，会有无可避免自尊心驱逐计划——马走日法国式的浪漫回忆映射了他和一个法国女人八年的婚姻，而唯物主义者完颜英和艺术家武六（由他妻子饰演）可以被视为姜文在商业利益和文化追求上的进退维谷——也许是时候让姜文从他的基座上走下来，把他的玩世不恭扔到一边，离开他的安全领域去加入真正的火线战争，如揭露某些人的心理状态——那些自认为在发号施令，实际上却在站在那被射击的人。

1 maverick   

adj.特立独行的；不遵守传统的；n.持异议者，自行其是者

参考例句：

• He's a maverick.He has his own way of thinking about things.他是个特异独行的人。对事情有自己的看法。
• You're a maverick and you'll try anything.你是个爱自行其是的人，样样事情都要尝试一下。

2 satire   

n.讽刺，讽刺文学，讽刺作品

参考例句：

• The movie is a clever satire on the advertising industry.那部影片是关于广告业的一部巧妙的讽刺作品。
• Satire is often a form of protest against injustice.讽刺往往是一种对不公正的抗议形式。

3 pageant   

n.壮观的游行；露天历史剧

参考例句：

• Our pageant represented scenes from history.我们的露天历史剧上演一幕幕的历史事件。
• The inauguration ceremony of the new President was a splendid pageant.新主席的就职典礼的开始是极其壮观的。

4 seminal   

adj.影响深远的；种子的

参考例句：

• The reforms have been a seminal event in the history of the NHS.这些改革已成为英国国民保健制度史上影响深远的一件大事。
• The emperor's importance as a seminal figure of history won't be diminished.做为一个开创性历史人物的重要性是不会减弱的。

5 pastiches   

n.模仿作品( pastiche的名词复数 )；拼凑的艺术作品；集锦；模仿的艺术风格

参考例句：

• They were pastiches of other people's work. 这些作品都是根据其他作品模仿而来的。 来自互联网

6 meticulously   

adv.过细地，异常细致地；无微不至；精心

参考例句：

• The hammer's silvery head was etched with holy runs and its haft was meticulously wrapped in blue leather. 锤子头是纯银制成的，雕刻着神圣符文，而握柄则被精心地包裹在蓝色的皮革中。 来自辞典例句
• She is always meticulously accurate in punctuation and spelling. 她的标点和拼写总是非常精确。 来自辞典例句

7 installment   

n.(instalment)分期付款；(连载的)一期

参考例句：

• I shall soon pay the last installment of my debt.不久我将偿付我的最后一期债款。
• He likes to buy things on the installment plan.他喜欢用分期付款法购买货物。

8 satires   

讽刺，讥讽( satire的名词复数 )； 讽刺作品

参考例句：

• Some of Aesop's Fables are satires. 《伊索寓言》中有一些是讽刺作品。
• Edith Wharton continued writing her satires of the life and manners of the New York aristocracy. 伊迪丝·沃顿继续写讽刺纽约贵族生活和习俗的作品。

9 sprawling   

adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着）

参考例句：

• He was sprawling in an armchair in front of the TV. 他伸开手脚坐在电视机前的一张扶手椅上。
• a modern sprawling town 一座杂乱无序拓展的现代城镇

10 ego   

n.自我，自己，自尊

参考例句：

• He is absolute ego in all thing.在所有的事情上他都绝对自我。
• She has been on an ego trip since she sang on television.她上电视台唱过歌之后就一直自吹自擂。

11 unleashing   

v.把（感情、力量等）释放出来，发泄( unleash的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Company logos: making people's life better by unleashing Cummins power. 公司理念：以康明斯动力建设更美好的生活！ 来自互联网
• Sooner or later the dam will burst, unleashing catastrophic destruction. 否则堤坝将崩溃，酿成灾难。 来自互联网

12 torrent   

n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发

参考例句：

• The torrent scoured a channel down the hillside. 急流沿着山坡冲出了一条沟。
• Her pent-up anger was released in a torrent of words.她压抑的愤怒以滔滔不绝的话爆发了出来。

13 skilful   

(=skillful)adj.灵巧的，熟练的

参考例句：

• The more you practise,the more skilful you'll become.练习的次数越多，熟练的程度越高。
• He's not very skilful with his chopsticks.他用筷子不大熟练。

14 portrayal   

n.饰演；描画

参考例句：

• His novel is a vivid portrayal of life in a mining community.他的小说生动地描绘了矿区的生活。
• The portrayal of the characters in the novel is lifelike.该书中的人物写得有血有肉。

15 trajectory   

n.弹道，轨道

参考例句：

• It is not difficult to sketch the subsequent trajectory.很容易描绘出它们最终的轨迹。
• The path followed by a projectile is called its trajectory.抛物体所循的路径称为它的轨道。

16 legendary   

adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学）

参考例句：

• Legendary stories are passed down from parents to children.传奇故事是由父母传给孩子们的。
• Odysseus was a legendary Greek hero.奥狄修斯是传说中的希腊英雄。

17 mesmerized   

v.使入迷( mesmerize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The country girl stood by the road, mesmerized at the speed of cars racing past. 村姑站在路旁被疾驶而过的一辆辆车迷住了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• My 14-year-old daughter was mesmerized by the movie Titanic. 我14岁的女儿完全被电影《泰坦尼克号》迷住了。 来自互联网

18 chattering   

n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The teacher told the children to stop chattering in class. 老师叫孩子们在课堂上不要叽叽喳喳讲话。
• I was so cold that my teeth were chattering. 我冷得牙齿直打战。

19 ironic   

adj.讽刺的，有讽刺意味的，出乎意料的

参考例句：

• That is a summary and ironic end.那是一个具有概括性和讽刺意味的结局。
• People used to call me Mr Popularity at high school,but they were being ironic.人们中学时常把我称作“万人迷先生”，但他们是在挖苦我。

20 inevitable   

adj.不可避免的，必然发生的

参考例句：

• Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
• The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。

21 materialistic   

a.唯物主义的，物质享乐主义的

参考例句：

• She made him both soft and materialistic. 她把他变成女性化而又实际化。
• Materialistic dialectics is an important part of constituting Marxism. 唯物辩证法是马克思主义的重要组成部分。

22 artistic   

adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的

参考例句：

• The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
• These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。

23 crossfire   

n.被卷进争端

参考例句：

• They say they are caught in the crossfire between the education establishment and the government.他们称自己被卷进了教育机构与政府之间的争端。
• When two industrial giants clash,small companies can get caught in the crossfire.两大工业企业争斗之下，小公司遭受池鱼之殃。