美国国家公共电台 NPR--《驾驶我的车》获奥斯卡四项提名

Japanese film 'Drive My Car' scores 4 Oscar nominations¹, including best picture

Transcript²

Academy Award nominated Drive My Car builds on a story by celebrated³ Japanese author Haruki Murakami and his trademark⁴ themes of loss and guilt⁵ — and the interplay of art and life.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

The Japanese film "Drive My Car" scored four Oscar nominations this week, including best picture. The movie is adapted from a short story by one of Japan's most celebrated writers, Haruki Murakami. NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports on how the film builds on some of the writer's trademark themes of art and life, loss and redemption.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE⁶: The film begins in a dimly lit, dreamlike state. Kafuku, an actor and theater director, is in bed with his wife, Oto. They lost their young child, and they cope with it through a kind of creative therapy, making up stories during and after sex. Actor Hidetoshi Nishijima plays Kafuku.

HIDETOSHI NISHIJIMA: (Through interpreter) My character is a person who loves and understands his wife more than anybody.

KUHN: One thing Kafuku doesn't understand is why his wife has been sleeping with other men.

NISHIJIMA: (Through interpreter) You think you understand each other better and trust each other more than anyone. But still, there is a place in the heart that you cannot understand.

KUHN: Oto seems about to confess her infidelity, but before she can do it, she suddenly dies. Then the story fast-forwards two years. It's 40 minutes into the movie, and only now do the opening credits roll.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

KUHN: Kafuku deals with his pain through acting⁷ or pretending to be someone else. Among the roles he plays is the lead in the Anton Chekhov play "Uncle Vanya," about the frustrated⁸ caretaker of a Russian country estate. Kafuku's mobile stage is an old red two-door Saab Sedan, which also serves as a rolling shrine⁹ to his wife. He practices his lines on the way to the theater with a recording¹⁰ of his wife reading the other parts. Later, Kafuku takes up residence at a theatre festival. For insurance reasons, they assign him a young female driver named Misaki.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DRIVE MY CAR")

NISHIJIMA: (As Yusuke Kafuku, through interpreter) Sorry, but I still haven't agreed to having you as my driver.

KUHN: ...He says, barely controlling his irritation¹¹. Actress Toko Miura talks about playing Misaki.

TOKO MIURA: (Through interpreter) She says she is sensitive to when people are lying. I think that means she can understand people's feelings, and that way she can choose her words to suit the person she's talking to.

KUHN: Misaki starts out tough and frosty, but Miura says she's actually an honest and empathetic character.

MIURA: (Through interpreter) In many ways, I wanted to be like her, and if I were to meet her, I'd say, let's be friends.

KUHN: Misaki listens as Kafuku practices his lines from the play. The lines are like a subtext or a story within a story, echoing or reflecting what's happening between the movie's characters. Sometimes they're clear. Sometimes they're ambiguous. Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi explains.

RYUSUKE HAMAGUCHI: (Through interpreter) These are two very self-controlled personalities¹². They're not the type who speak out. So I started with Kafuku speaking Uncle Vanya's lines so that the audience would think Vanya's words represent Kafuku's emotions.

KUHN: In conversations in the Saab, Kafuku and Misaki gradually open up to each other and discover their common feelings of loss and guilt. Kafuku later admits that Misaki's driving is so smooth he forgets he's in a car. At the theater festival, Kafuku directs "Uncle Vanya." He makes an unusual choice for the lead role, a young actor who happens to be his late wife's former lover. Kafuku speaks with the actor over drinks at a bar.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DRIVE MY CAR")

NISHIJIMA: (As Yusuke Kafuku, through interpreter) This is what you're thinking. He and I share the same pain because we loved the same woman.

KUHN: In fact, both men reveal facets¹³ of the wife the other had not known. The young actor ends up giving Kafuku some advice about his wife's inner demons¹⁴, as well as Kafuku's own. Actor Hidetoshi Nishijima says perhaps Kafuku cast the young actor partly as a kind of revenge.

NISHIJIMA: (Through interpreter) I think he gave the role to the actor out of a feeling which was rather dark and clear and deep. As I was acting this scene, I had such an indescribable feeling.

KUHN: Later in the rehearsals¹⁵, there's a dialogue between South Korean and Taiwanese actresses. Kafuku tells the actors, stop. Something important just happened.

MATTHEW STRECHER: To me, that was one of several really big moments in this film.

KUHN: Matthew Strecher is a professor of modern Japanese literature at Sophia University in Tokyo. He says this scene touches on a frequent theme in the works of Haruki Murakami, from whose story the film was adapted.

STRECHER: Because that was the moment when the barrier between reality and fiction broke down, which is something that's always happening.

KUHN: When that barrier breaks down, you may find yourself forgetting that the people you're watching are actors and that they're acting in a play and not talking directly to you.

STRECHER: But I think that's true with all Murakami writing. You go through the story, and then you end up rewriting the story anyway in your own image and discovering that it's also about you because all of his stories deal with stuff that we all deal with.

KUHN: Kafuku directs "Uncle Vanya" using actors from several countries, each speaking his or her own language with subtitles¹⁶. Strecher says this is one way Hamaguchi brings to life Murakami's writing, which transcends¹⁷ language and nationality.

STRECHER: He does it through his writing style, writing this incredibly translatable Japanese, and he does it by setting his stories in places where it could be any place. They're set in Tokyo, but they don't have to be.

KUHN: Hamaguchi also manages to turn Murakami's roughly 40-page short story into a three-hour-long movie. This might appear to be like building a small house into a sprawling¹⁸ mansion¹⁹, but Hamaguchi describes it differently.

HAMAGUCHI: (Through interpreter) I don't think Murakami's story is a small house but a big story, of which only little bits are shown and other parts are hidden. And my work was to dig out that important hidden part, like excavating²⁰ ruins.

KUHN: Hamaguchi says another director once described the act of revealing what is hidden this way.

HAMAGUCHI: (Through interpreter) The camera has X-ray eyes, and it can even film a person's soul. I never used to believe it, but now I do.

KUHN: But Matthew Strecher says that in Murakami's works, there are no easy answers to problems such as loss. All people can do is go on living, which is also what the characters in "Uncle Vanya" conclude. Perhaps that's why "Drive My Car" ends not triumphantly²¹ but ambiguously, summed up on Misaki's face with just a faint hint of a smile.

Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Seoul.

(SOUNDBITE OF EIKO ISHIBASHI'S "DRIVE MY CAR")

1 nominations   

n.提名，任命( nomination的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Nominations are invited for the post of party chairman. 为党主席职位征集候选人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Much coverage surrounded his abortive bids for the 1960,1964, and 1968 Republican Presidential nominations. 许多消息报道都围绕着1960年、1964年和1968年他为争取提名为共和党总统候选人所做努力的失败。 来自辞典例句

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

4 trademark   

n.商标；特征；vt.注册的…商标

参考例句：

• The trademark is registered on the book of the Patent Office.该商标已在专利局登记注册。
• The trademark of the pen was changed.这钢笔的商标改了。

5 guilt   

n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责

参考例句：

• She tried to cover up her guilt by lying.她企图用谎言掩饰自己的罪行。
• Don't lay a guilt trip on your child about schoolwork.别因为功课责备孩子而使他觉得很内疚。

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

8 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 shrine   

n.圣地，神龛，庙；v.将...置于神龛内，把...奉为神圣

参考例句：

• The shrine was an object of pilgrimage.这处圣地是人们朝圣的目的地。
• They bowed down before the shrine.他们在神龛前鞠躬示敬。

10 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

11 irritation   

n.激怒，恼怒，生气

参考例句：

• He could not hide his irritation that he had not been invited.他无法掩饰因未被邀请而生的气恼。
• Barbicane said nothing,but his silence covered serious irritation.巴比康什么也不说，但是他的沉默里潜伏着阴郁的怒火。

12 personalities   

n. 诽谤，（对某人容貌、性格等所进行的）人身攻击； 人身攻击；人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There seemed to be a degree of personalities in her remarks.她话里有些人身攻击的成分。
• Personalities are not in good taste in general conversation.在一般的谈话中诽谤他人是不高尚的。

13 facets   

n.（宝石或首饰的）小平面( facet的名词复数 )；（事物的）面；方面

参考例句：

• The question had many facets. 这个问题是多方面的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A fully cut brilliant diamond has 68 facets. 经过充分切刻的光彩夺目的钻石有68个小平面。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 demons   

n.恶人( demon的名词复数 )；恶魔；精力过人的人；邪念

参考例句：

• demons torturing the sinners in Hell 地狱里折磨罪人的魔鬼
• He is plagued by demons which go back to his traumatic childhood. 他为心魔所困扰，那可追溯至他饱受创伤的童年。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 rehearsals   

n.练习( rehearsal的名词复数 )；排练；复述；重复

参考例句：

• The earlier protests had just been dress rehearsals for full-scale revolution. 早期的抗议仅仅是大革命开始前的预演。
• She worked like a demon all through rehearsals. 她每次排演时始终精力过人。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 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

参考例句：

• subtitles for the deaf and the hard of hearing 为耳聋和听力不佳者打出的字幕
• a Polish film with English subtitles 附有英语字幕的波兰影片

17 transcends   

超出或超越（经验、信念、描写能力等）的范围( transcend的第三人称单数 )； 优于或胜过…

参考例句：

• The chemical dilution technique transcends most of the difficulties. 化学稀释法能克服大部分困难。
• The genius of Shakespeare transcends that of all other English poets. 莎士比亚的才华胜过所有的其他英国诗人。

18 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

19 mansion   

n.大厦，大楼；宅第

参考例句：

• The old mansion was built in 1850.这座古宅建于1850年。
• The mansion has extensive grounds.这大厦四周的庭园广阔。

20 excavating   

v.挖掘( excavate的现在分词 )；开凿；挖出；发掘

参考例句：

• A bulldozer was employed for excavating the foundations of the building. 推土机用来给楼房挖地基。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A new Danish expedition is again excavating the site in annual summer digs. 一支新的丹麦探险队又在那个遗址上进行一年一度的夏季挖掘。 来自辞典例句

21 triumphantly   

ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地

参考例句：

• The lion was roaring triumphantly. 狮子正在发出胜利的吼叫。
• Robert was looking at me triumphantly. 罗伯特正得意扬扬地看着我。