時代雜誌評《泰囧》:低俗小片如何成爲中國最大票房黑馬大綱

Lost in Thailand is by any measure a ridiculous movie. Two Chinese colleagues race to find their boss at a remote monastery in Thailand, battling bad traffic, gangsters, a snake, a kickboxer and, most important, each other, all in an effort to win the rights to an improbable invention: Super Gas, a liquid that turns a little bit of gasoline into a lot. Somehow it is doing ridiculously well. With a budget of less than $6 million, the film has earned $193 million since it opened Dec. 12, making it China’s most profitable film and pulling in more viewers than foreign hits such as Avatar and the third Transformers, according to a report in the Caixin business journal.
不管怎麼說，《人再囧途之泰囧》都是一部可笑的電影。兩個中國人，同一個公司的同事比賽誰先找到泰國找到老闆。而老闆在泰國一個偏遠地區的寺廟，他們要面對糟糕的交通、對抗黑幫、大戰毒蛇、對決泰拳拳手，而最重要的是，雙方都不遺餘力要爭奪一項發明的授權。這項並不完善的發明叫油霸，它是一種液體，能夠使少量汽油倍增。不知爲何，這部電影票房好得不可思議。據《財新》商務期刊的報道，它的預算不到600萬美元，但自12月12日上映以來，票房收入已達19300萬美元，成爲最賺錢的華語片，比外國大片如《阿凡達》和《變形金剛3》的觀影人數還多。

While those films all relied on big-budget special effects, the action scenes in Lost in Thailand look like something out of a Leslie Nielsen film. The plot feels like a rehash of The Hangover Part II and Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Without a terribly original script or eye-catching pyrotechnics, what has made Lost in Thailand such a hit? It’s a question that the rest of the film industry badly wants to answer.
那些大片依靠的都是昂貴的特效，而《泰囧》中的動作場面卻與萊斯利·尼爾森電影的風格異曲同工。劇情感覺像是《宿醉2》和《飛機、火車和汽車》的翻拍。《泰囧》的劇本並非創意十足，藝術技巧也並不引人入勝，是什麼讓它這麼火？電影圈的看客們都急於回答這個問題。

Part of the explanation is timing. The New Year’s period is when China sees its biggest blockbusters rolled out to coincide with holidays on Jan. 1 and the all-important Chinese New Year a few weeks later. Director Feng Xiaogang has been synonymous with the hesuipian, or New Year’s celebration film, offering lighthearted comedic fare like If You Are the One for family viewing over the holidays. But some of Feng’s recent works have been deadly serious. In 2010 he released Aftershock, about a pair of deadly earthquakes, and in December he released 1942, a film about wartime famine in central China. The other big release of this season, director Lu Chuan’s The Last Supper, about a power-mad Han-dynasty Emperor, is only slightly less grim. Lost in Thailand is a natural alternative for audiences looking for something a little happier, then. “This year’s hesuipianlike 1942 and The Last Supper are full of serious historical topics, and the repressed atmosphere leaves visitors feeling gloomy,” said the China Culture Daily, a state-run newspaper. “In a flash, the humor of Lost in Thailand makes viewers feel happy.”
有人說是因爲檔期。賀歲檔包括元旦和幾周後至關重要的新年檔，中國最宏大的巨資電影都會趕在這期間上映。馮小剛導演一直是賀歲片，即歡慶新年的電影的代名詞。節日期間，他常爲觀衆獻上適宜闔家觀看的輕喜劇，如《非誠勿擾》。但是馮導演最近的一些作品非常嚴肅。2010年，《唐山大地震》上映，講述了大地震中一對姐弟的故事，而今年12月上映的《溫故1942》是關於中原地區戰時饑荒的故事。同期上映的其他大片包括陸川導演的《王的盛宴》，影片講述的是一個醉心權術的漢朝皇帝，基調之陰鬱只比《1942》稍遜一點兒。而大部分觀衆尋求較爲歡樂的影片，所以《泰囧》自然成爲他們的選擇。“今年的賀歲片，像《1942》和《王的盛宴》都充滿了嚴肅的歷史話題，壓抑的氣氛使觀衆感覺鬱悶，”國營的中國文化報評論道，“《泰囧》的幽默搞笑很快就能讓觀衆開心起來。”

Another popular theory among reviewers, social-media commenters and Chinese friends who have seen the film is that it cleaves to the experiences of average Chinese in a way that few films do successfully. The film is a successor to Lost on Journey, a send up of the tribulations that Chinese face each year when they travel home for the Chinese New Year. Lost in Thailand takes the same formula and transfers it abroad to one of Chinese tourists’ favorite destinations. Xu Lang, played by director Xu Zheng, is a savvy scientist transfixed on bringing his invention to market. He is racing his former friend and rival Gao Bo, played by actor Huang Bo, to find their boss at a rural Thai monastery to win approval of their respective development plans. On the flight, Xu meets Wang Bao, a simpleminded pancake maker from Beijing, clad in full tourist regalia, including the red hat from his tour group, and carrying a long list of goals for his voyage, including, of course, seeing Thai transvestites, or “ladyboys.” Wang, played by Wang Baoqiang, is something of a Chinese everyman, silly and easily mocked, wanting to photograph himself flashing a peace sign in front of everything, including the hotel chairs. But the obtuse pancake flipper has an honest heart and ultimately proves wiser than Xu or the comic villain Gao.
看過該片的影評人、社交媒體評論人和中國朋友則普遍認爲該片貼近普通中國百姓的生活經歷，而很少電影能夠做到這一點。這部電影是《人在囧途》的續集，第一部以滑稽的風格再現了每年農曆新年中國人回家不得不面對的旅途痛苦。《泰囧》採用了同樣的套路，但把故事搬到了中國遊客最熱衷的一個目的地。徐朗由徐崢導演飾演，是一個精明能幹的技術員，一心想把他的發明推向市場。他以前的朋友、現在的對手高博，由黃渤扮演。徐朗與高博比賽誰能先到達泰國一個農村的寺廟找到老闆，並讓他同意授權自己的開發計劃。在飛機上，徐朗遇到了王寶，他來自北京，頭腦簡單，是賣蔥油餅的。王寶的一身典型觀光客的裝備，包括頭上戴着的旅行團的小紅帽，手裏拿着一張長長的旅遊心願清單，清單當然包括看泰國變性人，就是“人妖”。王寶，由王寶強扮演，一定程度上就是普通中國人的代表，笨笨的，常被嘲笑，到哪兒都要比個V字照張相，連旅館的椅子都不放過。但這個傻傻的蔥油餅小販心眼實在，最終事實證明，他比徐朗跟那個反派高博都要高明。

Not everyone loves the film. Xiao Su, an author and professor at the Central China Normal University School of Chinese Language and Literature in Wuhan, said at a meeting of the city’s legislature that Lost in Thailand was “vulgar, debased and commercial.” He added that Chinese films “should not just be focused on ticket sales but should emphasize a cultural orientation and pay attention to lifting ordinary people’s cultural qualities and tastes.” An op-ed in the 21 Century Economic Report, a Guangzhou-based newspaper, called the criticism elitist and said it denied average people their right to the pleasures of a lighthearted movie. “When a few intellectuals who think they are the elite and filled with an enormous sense of superiority criticize [Lost in Thailand], people can’t help but think of experts in the past who said that peasants lacked the necessary qualities for a modern democracy,” wrote Zhu Naijuan, an editor for the newspaper.
並非人人喜愛這部電影。武漢華中師範大學文學院教授、作家曉蘇在市“兩會”的一次會議上批評《泰囧》“低俗、庸俗、媚俗”。他還說中國電影“不能只緊盯票房，而應該注重文化導向，注重提高老百姓的文化素質和品味”。廣州報紙《21世紀經濟報道》的專欄評論稱這一批評是精英主義的表現，剝奪了普通人看輕鬆電影找樂子的權利。該報紙的編輯祝乃娟寫道：“一些自認爲精英化的知識分子充斥着極大的優越感，他們（對《泰囧》）的批評，讓人不由自主想到以往一些‘專家’斷言農民缺乏現代民主需要的基本素養”。

The film has been largely well received in Thailand, which has cringed at the portrayal of over-the-top Bangkok nightlife in films like The Hangover Part II. But because of Chinese censorship, Lost in Thailand couldn’t get that crazy even if the filmmakers wanted to. So ladyboys are the subject of just one joke that cracks more fun at the wild imaginations of the Chinese characters than at Thai transvestites. A Bangkok Post columnist wrote that while it was easy to assume Lost in Thailand was “a mindless, lowbrow slapstick comedy with calamity, insensitive jokes against other people (and sometimes other countries),” it turned out “the movie is comparatively culturally sensitive.” A lesson, perhaps, for Hollywood.
這部電影在泰國非常受歡迎。它對泰國夜生活的描繪打了折扣，並不像《宿醉2》表現得那樣沒有節制。考慮到中國的審查制度，製片人即使有心，也不可能把《泰囧》拍得那麼瘋狂。所以人妖只是一個笑點，讓觀衆對中國的主角們產生更多搞笑的遐想，而不是停在泰國人妖身上。《曼谷郵報》一個專欄作家評論道雖然人們很容易把《泰囧》看作“一部膚淺、粗俗的打鬧喜劇，其中充斥着囧事，以及不顧及他人（有的是對其他國家）感受的笑話”，但是事實證明，“該片對其他文化還是很敏感和尊重的”，這一點，也許是好萊塢應該借鑑的地方。