這夜闌靜處，獨看天涯星──再看《流星語》
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Written by戀棧加多利
Date 2007-01-22 20:31:43
Translated by Daydreamer on January 29, 2007
I once categorized "The Kid" as a rotten film, just like my belief that watching stars is a very stupid thing to do. It has never occurred to me that a movie could convey to me any message because I believe that actual life is more real and true than movies.
Last year, I went to Hong Kong. I wandered around the curving alleys in Sheung Wan. When I arrived at the Ladder Street, it was already dark. That was the spot where the movie “The Kid” was filmed. Among the various outdoor movie sets of Leslie’s films, this one could be regarded as well maintained. Even the little stall at the head of Chun Feng Lane was still there unchanged. I asked the proprietor of the stall whether she saw the shooting of the film seven years’ ago. She excitedly told me that she did see Mr. Cheung. Unfortunately, my Cantonese was so poor that I could only understand her first sentence. However, she became more and more intense and at the end, she simply took out a piece of paper, wrote on it several gigantic Chinese characters and drew out a map. She was eager to tell me something….something that she had hidden in her heart for many years.
With this “Treasure Map” in hand, I started to look for the places that Gorgor often went in the neighbourhood. Some of the small taverns were dim, dingy and cramped, yet those were the places where he had enjoyed some carefree and leisurely moments after work. Sheung Wan was not as prosperous and lively as other places in Hong Kong, however, it had the aroma and quietness of the 60s, even the street lamps gave out a red and yellowish dizzying light as if trying to console the souls of the tired people.
In 1999, merely judging by his outward appearance, it was the year that Leslie possessed the strongest middle-class flavour, with some soft curly knots appeared at the end of his hair and occasionally keeping a beard on his face, a very English aristocrat feel. Who would believe that in this year, Jacob Chan boldly asked him to play the role of a misfortunate jobless man, and what is even more unbelievable is that this film had to explain how “an actor whose image would never be that of a father” turned to become a father. Therefore, for his fans like us, this image was as rare and unusual as a shooting star. After seven years, I walked back and forth on this quiet movie set, but the shooting star had already streaked through the sky. I did not find the roof where Lee Shiu Wing [the character in the movie “The Kid”] watched the stars, but at the long staircase where Ah Wing sent Ming Jai off, I saw many many stars. Perhaps it was because I was standing at a high point that night, I felt those stars were very close to me. The moment when I raised my head, I suddenly felt that the movie was actually far more realer and truer than actual life.
I decided to watch “The Kid” again. Late at night two days ago, I finally watched it one more time. Looking at the flashing screen, I felt as if I was remotely watching the glittering starry sky. It turned out that this movie would keep you awake at night after watching it. The next day, it started to affect my diet because for these two days, I had continuously been eating the kind of noodles that Ah Wing cooked for Ming Jai, I wanted to savour those details which were as pale and light as water; only the simplest things could bring back the most wonderful memories.
Many of the Hong Kong movies were shot in Chun Fung Lane, and this movie was of no exception. This was the best place to observe the life of Hong Kong peasants: hawker stalls, people playing majongs, children running all over the place; perhaps only this type of scenes showing insipid and ordinary life could reflect the most mellow and rich sentiments. Jacob Cheung was the kind of director who liked to lighten and soften the emotion which was originally deep and profound. In this movie “The Kid”, he intentionally turned the earthshaking plot into a light and adventureless one. Perhaps this kind of “gurgling-stream type” of narration could drip into people’s mind much easier than the “perilous and stormy type”.
After the chaotic introduction was over, the movie started with a sharp crispy cry of a baby. That baby’s cry was quite a notch. It did not merely make Lee Shiu Wing who was heavily drunk awake, it was also like a shooting star streaking across the sky, making Lee Shiu Wing start watching stars from then on. When one did not possess anything anymore, the thing he owned at that very moment would become incomparably precious, no matter whether it was only an abandoned baby, or a quiet starry sky that no one cared to pay any attention to.
After four years, Ming Jai was like any ordinary kids. Throwing a plastic sheet over himself as raincoat, he shuttled around the streets. Here we saw how bright and happy life really was. At this time, Lee Shiu Wing’s name was no longer mentioned, instead Ah Wing, who was accustomed to doing odd jobs in order to earn a living, appeared. I marvelled at an actor’s ability to change irregularly. If you knew well of Leslie’s talent and natural beauty, the role that he played in “The Kid” would surely gave you a very big impact, but strange enough, very quickly he would put you into his character. The most charming thing about this role that Leslie played was that even at his most difficult time and lowest point in life, he still could reveal life’s sense of reality that touched people very much. It seemed to be of no concern and made no difference to him any more as to how he spent the days; seeing him enduring the hardship of life would still make people envy. For him, even a job such as painting was still an ideal one. I did not know what it would be like if this role was played by someone else, because not everyone could ride on a huge Model 28 crossbeam bicycle yet still reveal the flavour of life as strongly and clearly as he could.
The story of this movie was very simple. It was about the sentiments of the father and son. Both Jacob Cheung and Leslie Cheung tried very hard to annotate, in a light and unintentional way, the kind of pure yet turbulent emotions. In the movie, although bearing the relationship of father and son yet they were not blood kin. If having the same kind of blood flowing in their bodies, it would become equally rigid and cruel. Without this layer of relationship, the sentiment between the two would not be as strong and hot, yet the sentiment would contrarily be deeper. However, even though the sentiment that we saw was so light, yet the two Cheungs still felt that was not enough, they deducted the father and son as brothers: fighting over an icipop, and snatching to climb the staircase, everything was so relaxed and ordinary. Although there were two short separations in the movie, the kid did not cry and the father did not weep: when Ah Wing was taken away by the policemen, Ming Jai was in the bath tub holding a toy as a walkie-talkie looking for Ah Wing who still had not returned home. He did go to the senior home inquiring about Ah Wing’s whereabouts, however, all the thing that this weak and little body could do was not worthy of mentioning; when Ming Jai was not by Ah Wing’s side, Ah Wing, looking out the window watching the kids play in the neighbourhood, deeply lost in thought. That was an expression we saw in a father’s eyes showing how deep a concern and innermost restless feeling he had towards his kid, so quiet and tranquil yet it really frightened the audience. At the end of the movie, after he sent off Ming Jai, one of the kids appeared again while he was walking back to his place, but this time, we did not see Ah Wing’s expression. All these small details made the movie bloomed brilliantly, they temporarily flattened the emotion that was strong, as if sending out to the audience some light yeast powder, once fermented, the people’s tears could not be held back from falling down their face.
The scene which was the soul of the movie was after Ah Wing watched the shooting stars at the beach with Siu Kwun and Wing Jai. After returning home, Ah Wing sat on the gliding stool and then threw away the enrollment letter received from the Observatory. A man who had experienced ups and downs in this world finally calmed down at the lowest point of his life. He was ready to face the pure starry sky, look at his own life and think seriously what was the thing he treasured most. At the moment he saw the streaking through of the shooting stars, he finally understood that people should live true to their heart, and treasure the purest thing one possessed, because in this world, everything passed by like a flash. He finally chose Ming Jai, he chose his truest feeling, until at the end, he put Ming Jai and “The Big Nearsighted [the gold fish]” in the vehicle and saw them off. That simple farewell scene was like the moment when the shooting stars disappeared from the sky, but this time it did not happen on the beach but lively in his heart, and this was life. Having lived together for four years, their relationship was as thick as blood, yet at the end of the movie when we looked at Ah Wing’s soundless sobbing, it made our heart broke for the first time.
I like to look at the cool and tranquil performance of Leslie in this movie, greedily feeling his deep yet unrevealed emotion, loving the joyous moment he shared with Ming Jai lying on the roof of the seniors home watching the stars, remembering well the phrase “It’s cloudy” that he suddenly burst out while walking on the beach, yearning madly for his subtle smile as he said “you want more?” when lying on bed with his t-shirt ripped open revealing his shoulder; until at the end after he and Ming Jai separated, seeing his disorderly steps and the sight of his back – a back that we could not see any expression, I then covered my face and let my tears fall down.
Like Leslie in the movie, he loved to watch the stars, for me over this past year, I loved to look back at him. Perhaps there was a shooting star in everyone’s own world hiding somewhere in the still and quiet darknights waiting for us to discover. This time, looking at “The Kid” again, my eyes were blinded by the brilliant rays. In that split second, I seemed not to be able to distinguish between “Lee Shiu Wing” and Leslie. If this had to do with the director, then perhaps Jacob Cheung had successfully grabbed the most perceptual side of Leslie. I remember that once when talked about Leslie, he said, “He is a very perceptual person, he acts according to his perception, if he thinks it is good, he will persist until the end. If he is the type of person who only takes action after carefully calculating the end results and the gain and loss, then I don’t think he could go that far.” And “Lee Shiu Wing” was exactly of this type of personality: perceptive, ready to rediscover himself, did not care about pompous things, treasured natural instinct; perhaps in the deepest part of his heart, Leslie once again interlinked with the character that he played. Lately, I accidentally came across a news report type of article on the internet, one of the paragraphs reads as follows:
“As a result of the Asian financial crisis and the rampant video piracy, Hong Kong’s movie industry fell to the lowest point. In 1999, Jacob Cheung along with some other movie workers took the initiative in setting up a creative alliance. The twenty directors who joined in were supposed to each raise their own funds, find an actor and then make a high quality movie. They were to receive nominal remuneration in order to inject all the funds into the production, hoping that this method would boost up the market. However, at the end, almost all actors refused to participate, except for one person……”
and this person was Cheung Kwok Wing, and this movie was called “The Kid”.
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