新闻周刊:电影《摘金奇缘》如何改变亚裔美国人在好莱坞的游戏规则(3)

In the film, adapted from Kevin Kwan’s best-selling novel of the same name, Wu plays Rachel Chu, a down-to-earth Chinese-American professor at New York University who is invited to a Singapore wedding by her boyfriend, Nick (Golding). She soon discovers he’s filthy¹ rich, and Rachel falls victim to the snobbery² of Singapore’s elite³, including Nick’s controlling mother, Eleanor (Michelle Yeoh), who disapproves⁴ of her son’s “mainland” girlfriend. A psychological game of chicken ensues.

这部电影改编自凯文·关的同名畅销小说，吴恬敏在剧中扮演纽约大学一位脚踏实地的华裔美国人教授朱瑞秋，她的男友尼克(戈尔丁饰)邀请她去新加坡参加婚礼。不久，朱瑞秋发现尼克的满身铜臭，瑞秋成为新加坡精英谄上欺下的牺牲品，包括尼克控制欲极强的母亲爱莉（杨紫琼饰演），爱莉不同意儿子的“大陆”女友。一场斗鸡博弈的心理游戏就此展开。

Unlike the broadly funny immigrant Jessica on Fresh Off the Boat, the challenge with Rachel was adding nuance⁶ to a “straight woman” surrounded by big personalities⁷. “When you play someone from the outside, you can make that character sing, because they’re either a badass or funny—one thing or the other,” she says. “You’re painting with just blue, but there’s a lot you can do with that blue. This time,” she adds, “I had more tools, which is great, but it also came with more responsibility.”

和《初来乍到》中的有趣的新移民杰西卡不同，瑞秋这个角色的挑战是给有很强个性的“直女”增加些细微差别。“当你扮演一个来自外部的角色时，你可以让这个角色唱歌，因为他们要么是坏蛋要么是搞笑的——不是这样就是那样，” 吴恬敏表示。“你只用蓝色作画，但是蓝色可以用来做很多事情。这一次，”她补充道，“我有了更多的工具，这很好，但它也带来了更多的责任。”

Director Jon M. Chu is cautiously optimistic about how the film will be received following early test screenings. Audiences cried “not because of what happens in the movie,” he says, “but just at the idea of the representation.” And representation that offers a full spectrum⁸ of contemporary Asians, rather than simple clichés. Many are fabulously⁹ wealthy and entitled, like a Singaporean, played by Ken⁵ Jeong, who tells his son to finish his food, because “there are a lot of starving child in America.”

导演朱浩伟对该片在早期试映后的反响持谨慎乐观态度。观众流泪“不是因为电影里发生了什么，” 朱浩伟表示，“而仅仅是呈现出来的概念。”这种呈现提供了当代亚洲人的全貌，而不是简单的陈词滥调。很多亚洲人都很有钱有权，就像由肯·郑扮演的新加坡人，他让儿子不要剩饭，因为“美国有很多孩子在挨饿。”

Chu and screenwriters Peter Chiarelli and Adele Lim actually downplayed the over-the-top wealth in the novel. “Our budget wasn’t big enough for all those designer labels,” Chu says with a laugh. (Wu jokes that white viewers might question the legitimacy¹⁰ of such consumerism: “Hey, they didn’t buy designer clothes in Crouching¹¹ Tiger, Hidden Dragon!”)Instead, the writers focused on the emotional journey any Asian-American takes when traveling to Asia for the first time—like Chu’s own trip, when he was 9. “Your cultural identity splits,” says the California-raised director, with a Taiwanese mother and a Chinese father. “You think you have to make a choice, whether you’re Asian or not. But then you get to remix your cultures—reassessing the philosophies of each and deciding what to carry on.”

朱浩伟和编剧皮特·基亚雷利和阿黛尔·林实际上在小说中淡化了过度的财富。“我们的预算不够用上所有的设计师品牌，”朱浩伟笑着说。（吴恬敏开玩笑说，白人观众可能会质疑这种消费主义的合法性:“嘿，他们没买《卧虎藏龙》里的名牌衣服!”） 相反，两位编剧关注的是亚裔美国人第一次到亚洲旅行时所经历的情感之旅——比如朱浩伟9岁时的第一次旅行。“你的文化身份分裂了，” 这位在加州长大、母亲是台湾人、父亲是中国人的导演说。“你认为你必须做出选择，不管你是不是亚洲人。但之后你要重新整合这些文化——再次评估每种文化蕴含的哲学，并决定要继承哪一种。”

1 filthy   

adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的

参考例句：

• The whole river has been fouled up with filthy waste from factories.整条河都被工厂的污秽废物污染了。
• You really should throw out that filthy old sofa and get a new one.你真的应该扔掉那张肮脏的旧沙发，然后再去买张新的。

2 snobbery   

n. 充绅士气派, 俗不可耐的性格

参考例句：

• Jocelyn accused Dexter of snobbery. 乔斯琳指责德克斯特势力。
• Snobbery is not so common in English today as it was said fifty years ago. 如今＂Snobbery＂在英语中已不象50年前那么普遍使用。

3 elite   

n.精英阶层；实力集团；adj.杰出的，卓越的

参考例句：

• The power elite inside the government is controlling foreign policy.政府内部的一群握有实权的精英控制着对外政策。
• We have a political elite in this country.我们国家有一群政治精英。

4 disapproves   

v.不赞成( disapprove的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She disapproves of unmarried couples living together. 她反对未婚男女同居。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Her mother disapproves of her wearing transparent underwear. 她母亲不赞成她穿透明的内衣。 来自辞典例句

5 ken   

n.视野，知识领域

参考例句：

• Such things are beyond my ken.我可不懂这些事。
• Abstract words are beyond the ken of children.抽象的言辞超出小孩所理解的范围.

6 nuance   

n.(意义、意见、颜色)细微差别

参考例句：

• These users will easily learn each nuance of the applications they use.这些用户会很快了解他们所使用程序的每一细微差别。
• I wish I hadn't become so conscious of every little nuance.我希望我不要变得这样去思索一切琐碎之事。

7 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。

8 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。

9 fabulously   

难以置信地，惊人地

参考例句：

• The couple are said to be fabulously wealthy. 据说这对夫妇家财万贯。
• I should say this shirt matches your trousers fabulously. 我得说这衬衫同你的裤子非常相配。

10 legitimacy   

n.合法，正当

参考例句：

• The newspaper was directly challenging the government's legitimacy.报纸直接质疑政府的合法性。
• Managing from the top down,we operate with full legitimacy.我们进行由上而下的管理有充分的合法性。

11 crouching   

v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• a hulking figure crouching in the darkness 黑暗中蹲伏着的一个庞大身影
• A young man was crouching by the table, busily searching for something. 一个年轻人正蹲在桌边翻看什么。 来自汉英文学 - 散文英译