少年派的奇幻漂流:文藝範兒的3D

Before the world premiere of Life of Pi at this year’s New York Film Festival on Sept 28, director Ang Lee joked that his latest film in three years hit the four most notorious “vices” in the moviemaking process: kids, animals, water and 3-D.

在今年9月28日的紐約電影節上，影片《少年派的奇幻漂流》舉行了全球首映，而在此之前該片導演李安曾打趣說，他這部歷時三年的新作撞上了業界最糟糕的四大“惡行“——水、小孩、動物，還有3D。

Although we will discover how that turns out when the film releases on Nov 22, early reviews have said Lee’s adaptation of Life of Pi is “one of the year’s most beautiful, original and adventurous pictures”.

雖然我們直到11月22日這天才能揭曉最終答案，但早前的評論聲紛紛將這部由李安改編的《少年派的奇幻漂流》稱作是“今年最出色、最新穎、同時也是最具冒險精神的佳片之一”。

Based on the best-selling novel by Yann Martel, Life of Pi tells the story of Pi (Suraj Sharma), a young man who gets stranded at sea with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker after the ship carrying Pi’s family and his father’s zoo from India to Canada sinks.

《少年派的奇幻漂流》一片改編自作家揚•馬特爾的同名暢銷小說。影片中，少年派同家人，以及父親動物園裏的動物們一同乘船從印度出發前往加拿大，途中遭遇沉船事故，派和一隻名叫理查德•帕克的孟加拉虎被困在海上。

On the surface, the film is about Pi’s tale of survival – yet Life of Pi holds so much more within its two-hour running time.

表面上，這部影片講述的是派的生存奇蹟，而《少年派的奇幻漂流》在兩個小時中講述的遠遠不止這些。

“Visually, Life of Pi, which mixes real tigers with computer-generated effects almost seamlessly, is like nothing seen onscreen in some time,” movie critic Justin Chang wrote in his review for Variety magazine. “And the 3-D in particular is the best since perhaps Avatar.”

“就視覺而言，《少年派的奇幻漂流》將真實老虎同電腦特效結合得近乎天衣無縫，有些鏡頭完全顛覆我們的大銀幕體驗，”影評人在美國《綜藝》雜誌中評論道。“特別是3D效果，或許是《阿凡達》之後最好的了。”

Lee told the New York Film Festival audience following the screening that Life of Pi was exceedingly hard to make. Due to weather conditions and the difficulty of controlling animals, he said, only one-eighth of his planned shots were actually filmed.

在紐約電影節上，李安在該片的首映之後向觀衆表示，《少年派的奇幻漂流》讓自己吃盡苦頭。他稱由於複雜的天氣狀況，再加上各種難以駕馭的動物，只排出了計劃完成鏡頭的八分之一。

Despite arduous conditions, Lee was able to push an excellent lead performance from Sharma, a newcomer who originally accompanied his brother to the audition before landing the role of Pi himself.

儘管狀況十分棘手，李安卻能夠令該片的主演、還是新人沙瑪獻上一幕精彩的表演。他起初只是陪弟弟去試鏡，最後竟意外地獲得了“少年派”這個角色。

“By the end of it, I didn’t feel like I was acting anymore,” Sharma recently told Hollywood Reporter. “I was an instrument, of sorts, and Lee pulled the emotion through me. It just went in and came out.”

“拍攝後期，我已經不再覺得自己是在表演了。”近日，沙瑪在接受好萊塢記者採訪時表示。“我彷彿各種各樣的儀器，李安導演在我體內灌輸情感。然後情感便如此收放自如了。”

The film isn’t perfect, though. The New York Times said there’s “a clunky moment of exposition at the end that feels entirely too on-the-nose”. But we know what to expect from Lee, one of the most successful Chinese directors in Hollywood. One thing is for sure: he never disappoints.

但是該片也不盡完美。《紐約時報》評論道，“影片結尾的呈現手法略顯笨拙，讓人覺得點題有些過於用力”。而我們也很清楚能從李安那裏得到什麼樣的期待。作爲好萊塢最成功的華人導演之一，有一點可以肯定的就是：他從未令人失望過。