《金陵十三釵》影評：女性的光輝和英雄的悲壯
Based on Yan Geling's novel "13 Flowers of Nanjing," the Nanjing massacre plays front and center in director Zhang Yimou's tale. 根據華人女作家嚴歌苓的同名小說改編，張藝謀導演的最新電影《金陵十三釵》以南京大屠殺作爲故事背景和中心。
Zhang Yimou's great gift for stories of resilient women serves him well in "The Flowers of War," a uniquely harrowing account of the rape of Nanjing. Simultaneously florid and gritty, this fictitious drama about convent students and prostitutes hiding together from the 1937 Japanese onslaught is a work of often garish dramatic flourishes yet undeniable emotional power, finding humor and heartbreak in a tale of unlikely heroism in close quarters. Considerable advance hype and topliner Christian Bale should help the most expensive production in Chinese history recoup worldwide, though its grave subject matter and 141-minute running time rep not-insignificant obstacles. 張藝謀展現堅韌女性故事的傑出才華在金陵十三釵中展露無遺，這是一部展現南京大屠殺的獨特電影。本片兼具華麗與堅韌，虛構的關於學生與妓女的故事有強烈的戲劇張力，但亦有不可否認的情感力量，在後半段結局處的英雄主義段落裏還能找到幽默與心碎。考慮到前期炒作及克里斯蒂安貝爾的加盟，這部中國電影史上最貴的電影應能在全球收回成本，儘管其沉重的主題及141分鐘時長意味着一些不可忽略的障礙。
Set to open Dec. 16 locally and later this month Stateside for an Oscar-qualifying run, the picture will represent China in this year's foreign-language film race, an official endorsement that eluded Lu Chuan's more somber and nuanced Nanjing chronicle "City of Life and Death" (2009). Boasting a starry pedigree, a broad array of cross-cultural acting styles and enough English dialogue to make some viewers question its foreign-lingo designation, "The Flowers of War" is as total an antithesis to Lu's starkly realist treatment as one could imagine; still, as a rare attempt by a major mainland helmer to tackle a subject that remains an unhealed national wound, its cultural significance can be no more underestimated than its cumulative impact. 本片定於16日在中國上映，本月晚些時候也會有爲衝擊奧斯卡進行的放映，該片將代表中國參與今年的奧斯卡最佳外語片評選，這是官方的認可，他們並沒有選擇陸川那部更陰鬱微妙的《南京南京》。本片強調其星光正統，廣泛的跨文化表演風格的交融以及大量英語對白會讓觀衆質疑這部電影的奧斯卡外語片屬性。《金陵十三釵》恰是陸川電影中赤裸裸的現實主義的對立面；不過，作爲極少數大陸巨匠涉及的這一未癒合的民族傷口的主題，本片的文化重要性與其不斷累積的影響一樣不容低估。
Making his way through the bombed-out rubble of Nanjing, American mortician John Miller (Bale) arrives at a cathedral to attend to a recently deceased priest. To the dismay of the church's boy warden, George, and the dozen or so adolescent girl students in his care, Miller turns out to be a genially lazy opportunist who immediately plunders the communion wine supply. 貝爾飾演的殯葬師約翰米勒穿梭在遭受炮火轟炸滿目瘡痍的南京城，去一家天主教堂出席一位牧師的葬禮。但是他懶惰成性盲目樂觀，每天只會粗魯酗酒，讓教堂看門男孩喬治和在教堂裏避難的女學生們深感失望。
When a small army of courtesans barge into the church seeking sanctuary from the Japanese, who have overtaken the city, Miller is delighted at the prospect of his own personal harem and flirts aggressively with the only one who can speak English, Yu Mo (Ni Ni). Knowing the Japanese won't attack a white man, Yu demands that Miller help her and the other women escape Nanjing, while George similarly begs him to help shield the students. 日本人佔領南京古城，一羣妓女躲入教堂避難。米勒爲自己的豔福不淺的未來暗自竊喜，時常與中間唯一會說英文的玉墨（倪妮飾演）調情談笑。玉墨明白日本人不會攻擊白人，所以要求米勒幫助她和同伴逃離南京。喬治同樣請求他庇護這些無辜的女學生。
Zhang entertainingly tracks the tensions among this strange gathering of individuals, even staging a near-catfight between the indignant students and their diva-like guests. But the infighting comes to an end when Japanese troops invade the church and, not realizing there are courtesans hiding in the vicinity, try to force themselves on the students -- a sickening scene marked by the girls' screams and the sounds of clothing being ripped, all whipped into a frenzy of terror. Yet the attackers are momentarily held at bay when Miller, in a moment of moral courage finds a way to stop their assault. 張藝謀頗具娛樂性地處理了這些奇怪個體之間的緊張關係，甚至展現了憤怒女學生和尤物賓客之間的激烈爭吵。日本軍隊侵入教堂，他們沒有發現避難人羣中有妓女，而是企圖逼迫女學生。這是一幕讓人毛骨悚然的場景：女學生的尖叫聲，衣物被撕裂的聲音，都營造了恐怖的氣氛。米勒鼓足勇氣站出來阻止了日本士兵的暴行，但這也這是暫時的安全。
Scene by scene, "The Flowers of War" is an erratic and ungainly piece of storytelling, full of melodramatic twists and grotesque visual excesses, which are nonetheless delivered with startling conviction. Zhang has no interest in sparing the viewer's sensitivity, and his willingness to push past the limits of good taste is what paradoxically lends his film a curious integrity. 金陵十三釵的敘事並不規則，故事充滿誇張的曲折和怪誕的視效。張藝謀讓觀者深陷感性情感中，而他將過去的美學品位推向極致的意願使電影成爲矛盾的整體。
On the surface, the most problematic element of Liu Heng's screenplay (adapted from Yan Geling's novel "13 Flowers of Nanjing") is the familiar manner in which it uses a white American character as an entry point for Western audiences. Yet Miller turns out to be just one figure in a panorama that distributes dramatic weight evenly across the board, and allows the students and especially the courtesans to perform unexpected, deeply moving acts of decency and self-sacrifice. While not every character is individuated in the film's large ensemble, the viewer emerges with a sense of a vibrant and varied human tapestry whose colors glow all the brighter in the wake of impending catastrophe. 表面上看，劉恆劇本（節選自嚴歌苓的小說《金陵十三釵》）的問題在於用一個熟悉的美國白人套路作爲連接西方觀衆的橋樑。但是米勒（貝爾飾演的角色）只是作爲一個充滿戲劇性的角色爲整部影片的平衡性添彩，預留了空間給女學生和妓女的出人意料的表演，尤其是妓女們的高尚和自我犧牲令人動容。在羣像塑造上，並不是每個角色都有個性化表現，觀者能感受到在災難發生前愈加光輝、生動而豐富的人性臉譜。
Twenty-four years after starring as a young lad trapped in Japan-occupied China in "Empire of the Sun," Bale has fun playing Miller as a loutish, liquored-up rascal early on before slowly becoming a figure of integrity and fatherly tenderness, a transformation managed by sheer force of movie-star charisma more than anything else. The actor blends in surprisingly well with the mostly non-pro distaff cast, including 23-year-old newcomer Ni, who comes off as stilted in her English dialogue scenes but charges her other moments with a quiet, radiant dignity. 貝爾曾在日本侵華題材電影《太陽帝國》中飾演一位小男孩。24年的今天，貝爾這個角色由早期的粗魯酗酒的流氓慢慢轉變爲正直而充滿慈父光輝的形象，這種塑造轉變主要歸功於演員的個人魅力。貝爾和這些非專業演員的融合出乎意料得好，包括23歲的新人倪妮，她在英文對話場景裏略顯青澀，但在其他場景裏擁有安靜而閃耀的尊嚴。
Other thesps who register strongly include Atsuro Watabe as a Japanese colonel with a deceptively kind, cultured appearance; Tong Dawei as a heroic Chinese soldier who protects the church with his dying breath; 13-year-old Zhang Xinyi as the brave young student who narrates much of the drama; and Cao Kefan as her desperate, hapless father, a role virtually identical to the one played by dead ringer Fan Wei in "City of Life and Death." 其他演員還包括渡部篤郎塑造的看似善良有教養的日本軍官，佟大爲塑造的英雄赴死保衛教堂的中國士兵；講述電影獨白的13歲女學生張欣怡，以及飾演她那絕望不幸的父親的曹可凡：與範偉在南京南京裏的角色很像。
The film's reported $100 million budget is entirely evident in its large-scale battle sequences, shot and staged with intense verisimilitude and impressive spatial coherence. Yohei Taneda's production design, particularly his set for the cavernous cathedral space, reps a staggering feat of period reconstruction in the streets of Nanjing itself. Chan Quigang's score is effective but goes a bit heavy on the violins. 報道，電影的1億美元投資充分體現在大規模的戰鬥場景上，高度逼真且擁有很好的連續性。種田洋平的設計，特別是教堂的空間感，完成了還原金陵古城的驚人壯舉。陳其鋼的配樂起到了效果，但小提琴部分略顯沉重。
