《一代宗師》:王家衛的優雅迴歸

It’s more than fair to say that Wong Kar-wai’s movies are not easy to understand. The Hong Kong director rarely focuses on narratives in his works. Yet, he is undeniably an excellent storyteller who always feeds audiences with a visual and emotional feast.
說王家衛的電影難懂，這一點都不誇張。這位香港導演在其作品中很少強調敘事手法，然而不可否認的是，他是位優秀的敘事大師，總是能夠爲觀衆帶來一次又一次打動人心的視覺盛宴。

His latest effort, The Grandmaster, is another of Wong’s typical movies: light on narrative, but full of his trademark elegance, the movie weaves the director’s familiar themes of love, loss and the corrosive nature of time around gorgeous martial arts sequences.
他的最新力作《一代宗師》又是一部典型的王氏電影：對於敘事輕描淡寫，卻充滿了王氏特有的優雅印記。該片用一系列美輪美奐的武打片段，編織出王家衛所駕輕就熟的主題——愛與失去，以及歲月無情。

When Wong first announced his intention of creating the movie in 2002, it was described as a biopic of Ip Man, a real-life master of the Wing Chun school of martial arts. Even though we know that Ip will eventually prosper, Wong’s version of Ip (Tony Leung) is a portrait of a sad, isolated figure, and much less accessible than director Wilson Yip’s portrayal of the same character in the Ip Man series.
2002年，當王家衛首次宣佈將拍攝這部電影時，該片被稱爲詠春拳一代宗師葉問的傳記片。儘管我們清楚葉問勢必大火，但王家衛版本的葉問（梁朝偉飾）卻刻畫出一個孤獨的悲情人物形象，比導演葉偉信在《葉問》系列影片所刻畫出中的那個葉問形象要難懂得多。

In The Grandmaster, the narrative is framed by Ip’s perception of the world, outlined in voiceovers explaining his background and his observations of life and the people around him.
《一代宗師》以葉問對世界的認知爲敘事框架，畫外音則解釋了葉問的背景，以及他對生活和周圍人的觀察。

The movie, however, also dedicates a lot of screen time to Gong Er (Zhang Ziyi), the daughter of Gong Yutian, a martial arts master from northeastern China. Other masters weigh in with their philosophical and physical presence as well.
而本片也將大量鏡頭對準了由章子怡飾演的宮二（章子怡飾）這個角色。宮二是中國東北武術大師宮羽田的女兒。其他幾位武術大師也憑藉各自的武術精神和造詣現身片中。

Wong is a fan of recurring themes and The Grandmaster is no exception. For example, time proves once again to be the greatest enemy, causing people not only to grow old but also to forget the things they hold dear. In this movie particularly, the idea that age makes them weak and less able to defend themselves troubles the martial arts masters.
王家衛鍾愛重複使用的主題，而《一代宗師》也不例外。比如片中再次證明了時間是最大的敵人，不僅令韶華老去，還讓人們遺忘了那些曾珍視的東西。時間讓人變得脆弱，無力自護，該片尤其表現了這點是如何令一代宗師身陷困境的。

Ultimately, the movie poetically delivers the wisdom of martial arts tradition in which Ip was deeply entrenched. But it’s not always easy for the audience to understand what Ip is thinking or what the story is trying to convey.
最終，影片用詩意手法傳達出對葉問影響深遠的那份傳統武學智慧。而對於觀衆而言，要明白葉問的想法或電影所要傳達的內容並非易事。

As a line in the movie goes: “They say, live without regrets. But how boring life would be if there was no regret.” The culture of martial arts is entrenched in a profound philosophy of life. Its interpretation by Wong cannot be embodied in exquisite action sequences and breathtaking visuals just to make it “easy to understand” — that would be boring, too.
正如電影裏的一句臺詞：“說人生無悔，那都是賭氣的話。若真無悔，那人生該多沒趣啊!”武術文化深植於對人生哲學之中。對於這點的詮釋，王家衛並未動用精良的動作場面或令人驚歎的視覺效果來使之“淺顯易懂”——若真那樣，也太無趣了。