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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
BEIJING, Dec. 19 (Xinhuanet) -- A new film about one of the most heartrending episodes in recent Chinese history leaves more to be desired.
The Flowers of War is not the first Chinese movie to tackle the painful subject matter of the Nanjing Massacre1, and it won't be the last.
For many Chinese writers and artists, the tragedy that took place 74 years ago is the litmus test for their art and consciences.
Coincidentally, Chinese-American writer Ha Jin came out with his rendition of the events in the dark December days of 1937.
Like Ha Jin's novel, Nanjing Requiem2, Zhang Yimou's new film is based on a few details in Wilhelmina "Minnie" Vautrin's diary.
Vautrin was an American missionary3, who saved the lives of many Chinese women at Ginling Girls College in Nanjing, then spelled "Nanking" and the capital city of China. An entry in her diary mentioned a group of prostitutes took the place of female students in attending a "party" thrown by the occupying Japanese soldiers.
Anyone with a modicum5 of dramatic sense would see the potential in this fact for a full-blown dramatization.
As a matter of fact, a film of a similar story was made in 1988. Sanctuary6 was co-directed by none other than Han Sanping, currently the boss of China Film Group and, by extension, the reigning7 godfather of Chinese cinema.
It features Oscar winner Christian9 Bale in the lead. Bale plays an American mortician, whose talent for touching10 up dead bodies found an unexpected use later in the film.
John Miller11 is a fictional12 character, nothing like the Westerners who were heroes in the massacre, also known as the "Rape13 of Nanking" in the West. He is almost a caricature of typical movie roles assigned to opportunistic Americans - greedy and licentious14 in a playful way.
Obviously designed for the Western market, the role of an American "jerk", so-called by the church boy who sought his help, is to provide an angle into the chain of events that is accessible for a worldwide audience.
However, that poses a big challenge when Miller turns into a reluctant hero - a maneuver15 that is bravely handled by Bale with his star power but is still less than convincing.
They descend17 on the Winchester Cathedral in their full florid garb18 and selfish frivolity19 - as if they were totally oblivious20 to the rampages of war engulfing21 them.
Even Yu Mo, the most intelligent of the bunch, displays a haughtiness22 that beauty alone would not endow in the circumstances as much as a self-delusion about the harrowing nature of war.
The cast is divided into four major camps: the Chinese soldiers, the Japanese soldiers, the courtesans and the schoolgirls.
Except for one or two "representatives" from each group, the minor23 characters are rarely given unique portrayals25, so they blur26 into the background like wallflowers. This seems to be consistent with the melodramatic style employed by the filmmaker: Everything is heightened - not for authenticity28 but for a better yarn29.
Although all Chinese troops die in the film, the accuracy and the scale of damage they are able to inflict30 on the invading Japanese is so amazing that it can only happen in a feel-good adventure flick31.
One is constantly waiting for a superhero to vanquish34 all the bad guys and reverse the historical chapter that lingers so achingly in the Chinese national psyche35.
In the scene where the last Chinese soldier dies in an explosion, the store across the street from the cathedral where he has been in hiding happens to be one that sold colored paper.
That provides an excuse for a firecracker-like effect for the final blowup, which looks splendid on screen but reminds me of the Beijing Olympics rather than wartime horrors.
Still, this soldier, played by Tong Dawei, comes across more believable than he would have been if he had picked a fight with Bale's character.
Their confrontation37 is brief, and Tong shows much restraint in entrusting38 a very youthful fellow soldier to the courtesans.
The soldiers' sacrifice is directly linked to the fate of the schoolgirls, yet receives just the right amount of screen emphasis.
On the other hand, the courtesans' sacrifice, just like their initial selfishness, is played up to a tee so that it borders on melodramatic overkill. There is a lot of contrast for the sake of contrast, with the humanity of the courtesans glinting from only a few scenes.
Not all flourishes are over the top, though. The dream sequence where they sing their brothel song in a showgirl-style lineup is unexpectedly powerful as an emotional climax39.
The glamorous40 role of Yu Mo, played by newcomer Ni Ni, has received the strange combination of underexposure and over-hype - that is, by keeping her public appearances to the minimum yet leaking praise of her so-called breakthrough performance.
While it is an auspicious41 debut42, it hardly measures up to what Tang Wei achieved in Lust43, Caution, which is what the publicity44 machine has been touting45.
If a scene requires only one emotion, she is quite competent. Also, crisp as her reading of English lines is, she seems foreign to the art of the pause.
Speaking of foreign language, the film has at least half of the dialogues in English. The use of modern terms like "whatever" as an American teenage colloquialism48 or "makeover" in the subtitles49 can be distracting to discerning native speakers.
Don't get me wrong. My nitpicking does not push me to the conclusion that The Flowers of War is not a good film.
It is quite good and worth a trip to your local movie theater.
It just fails to attain50 the greatness this filmmaker and this subject deserve. It is not a masterpiece, such as on a par4 with Schindler's List by Steven Spielberg or The Pianist by Roman Polanski.
For my taste, it is not as agonizing51 or soul-searching as Lu Chuan's City of Life and Death - even though both share quite a few character types like the whore with a heart of gold and the unwilling52 collaborator53.
For a subject of such emotional intensity54, The Flowers of War is strangely deficient55 in emotional impact. It was more calculated than inspired.
Many of the above-mentioned flaws could have been forgivable if the movie had more spontaneity and did not flirt56 with bathos.
However, melodrama27 is popular with a wide swathe of the populace, people who are cushioned by a daily dose of television series and, therefore, may well embrace such treatment.
Overall, Zhang Yimou's master craftsmanship57 is on full display here.
The story is tightly knit, and 141 minutes do not feel long at all. What everyone can expect is the visual splendor58 that Zhang serves so abundantly in almost every one of his oeuvres.
Whether this adds to the gritty portrayal24 of the brutality59 of war or curtails60 the power of narration61 is another matter.
A team of Chinese soldiers is depicted64 as falling one by one so that the last one can get close enough to the enemy tank to blow it up. This amazing act of ultimate heroism65 is preceded by a voiceover explaining why they choose to do so - an intrusive66 voiceover rather than a natural dialogue among soldiers for exposition. Is it the result of underestimating audience intelligence or over-reliance on a bag of old tricks?
In the end, one has to ask: Does this movie shed new light on humanity and make you a better person? I'm sure many people will say yes.
Unfortunately I'm not one of them. I think Zhang Yimou could have done better.
点击收听单词发音
1 massacre | |
n.残杀,大屠杀;v.残杀,集体屠杀 | |
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2 requiem | |
n.安魂曲,安灵曲 | |
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3 missionary | |
adj.教会的,传教(士)的;n.传教士 | |
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4 par | |
n.标准,票面价值,平均数量;adj.票面的,平常的,标准的 | |
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5 modicum | |
n.少量,一小份 | |
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6 sanctuary | |
n.圣所,圣堂,寺庙;禁猎区,保护区 | |
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7 reigning | |
adj.统治的,起支配作用的 | |
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8 lavish | |
adj.无节制的;浪费的;vt.慷慨地给予,挥霍 | |
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9 Christian | |
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
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10 touching | |
adj.动人的,使人感伤的 | |
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11 miller | |
n.磨坊主 | |
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12 fictional | |
adj.小说的,虚构的 | |
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13 rape | |
n.抢夺,掠夺,强奸;vt.掠夺,抢夺,强奸 | |
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14 licentious | |
adj.放纵的,淫乱的 | |
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15 maneuver | |
n.策略[pl.]演习;v.(巧妙)控制;用策略 | |
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16 nuance | |
n.(意义、意见、颜色)细微差别 | |
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17 descend | |
vt./vi.传下来,下来,下降 | |
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18 garb | |
n.服装,装束 | |
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19 frivolity | |
n.轻松的乐事,兴高采烈;轻浮的举止 | |
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20 oblivious | |
adj.易忘的,遗忘的,忘却的,健忘的 | |
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21 engulfing | |
adj.吞噬的v.吞没,包住( engulf的现在分词 ) | |
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22 haughtiness | |
n.傲慢;傲气 | |
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23 minor | |
adj.较小(少)的,较次要的;n.辅修学科;vi.辅修 | |
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24 portrayal | |
n.饰演;描画 | |
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25 portrayals | |
n.画像( portrayal的名词复数 );描述;描写;描摹 | |
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26 blur | |
n.模糊不清的事物;vt.使模糊,使看不清楚 | |
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27 melodrama | |
n.音乐剧;情节剧 | |
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28 authenticity | |
n.真实性 | |
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29 yarn | |
n.纱,纱线,纺线;奇闻漫谈,旅行轶事 | |
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30 inflict | |
vt.(on)把…强加给,使遭受,使承担 | |
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31 flick | |
n.快速的轻打,轻打声,弹开;v.轻弹,轻轻拂去,忽然摇动 | |
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32 pathos | |
n.哀婉,悲怆 | |
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33 innately | |
adv.天赋地;内在地,固有地 | |
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34 vanquish | |
v.征服,战胜;克服;抑制 | |
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35 psyche | |
n.精神;灵魂 | |
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36 sprightly | |
adj.愉快的,活泼的 | |
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37 confrontation | |
n.对抗,对峙,冲突 | |
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38 entrusting | |
v.委托,托付( entrust的现在分词 ) | |
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39 climax | |
n.顶点;高潮;v.(使)达到顶点 | |
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40 glamorous | |
adj.富有魅力的;美丽动人的;令人向往的 | |
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41 auspicious | |
adj.吉利的;幸运的,吉兆的 | |
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42 debut | |
n.首次演出,初次露面 | |
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43 lust | |
n.性(淫)欲;渴(欲)望;vi.对…有强烈的欲望 | |
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44 publicity | |
n.众所周知,闻名;宣传,广告 | |
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45 touting | |
v.兜售( tout的现在分词 );招揽;侦查;探听赛马情报 | |
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46 glamour | |
n.魔力,魅力;vt.迷住 | |
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47 conceals | |
v.隐藏,隐瞒,遮住( conceal的第三人称单数 ) | |
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48 colloquialism | |
n.俗话,白话,口语 | |
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49 subtitles | |
n.说明字幕,印在外国影片上的对白翻译字幕,译文对白字幕;小标题,副标题( subtitle的名词复数 );(电影的)字幕 | |
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50 attain | |
vt.达到,获得,完成 | |
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51 agonizing | |
adj.痛苦难忍的;使人苦恼的v.使极度痛苦;折磨(agonize的ing形式) | |
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52 unwilling | |
adj.不情愿的 | |
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53 collaborator | |
n.合作者,协作者 | |
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54 intensity | |
n.强烈,剧烈;强度;烈度 | |
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55 deficient | |
adj.不足的,不充份的,有缺陷的 | |
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56 flirt | |
v.调情,挑逗,调戏;n.调情者,卖俏者 | |
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57 craftsmanship | |
n.手艺 | |
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58 splendor | |
n.光彩;壮丽,华丽;显赫,辉煌 | |
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59 brutality | |
n.野蛮的行为,残忍,野蛮 | |
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60 curtails | |
v.截断,缩短( curtail的第三人称单数 ) | |
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61 narration | |
n.讲述,叙述;故事;记叙体 | |
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62 virtuosity | |
n.精湛技巧 | |
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63 tampered | |
v.窜改( tamper的过去式 );篡改;(用不正当手段)影响;瞎摆弄 | |
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64 depicted | |
描绘,描画( depict的过去式和过去分词 ); 描述 | |
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65 heroism | |
n.大无畏精神,英勇 | |
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66 intrusive | |
adj.打搅的;侵扰的 | |
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