又看了个删节版,123分钟。
作为一个强迫症患者如何咽得下这口气?于是上天入地内网外网找剧本,Youtube上花3.99刀看了130分钟的英文原版。被删掉、最具代表性的台词是下面这段:
So there's this guy Walsh, do you understand? He's tired of screwin' his wife... So his friend says to him, "Hey, why don't you do it like the Chinese do?" So he says, "How do the Chinese do it?" And the guy says, "Well, the Chinese, first they screw a little bit, then they stop, then they go and read a little Confucius, come back, screw a little bit more, then they stop again, go and they screw a little bit... then they go back and they screw a little bit more and then they go out and they contemplate the moon or something like that. Makes it more exciting." So now, the guy goes home and he starts screwin' his own wife, see. So he screws her for a little bit and then he stops, and he goes out of the room and reads Life Magazine. Then he goes back in, he starts screwin' again. He says, "Excuse me for a minute, honey." He goes out and he smokes a cigarette. Now his wife is gettin' sore as hell. He comes back in the room, he starts screwin' again. He gets up to start to leave again to go look at the moon. She looks at him and says, "Hey, what's the matter with ya? You're screwin' just like a Chinaman!"
辱不辱的。。。反正这段刻板印象,就象亚裔丁丁小一样,没有任何统计学数据支持。
但是把让人无能为力的黑暗现实比喻为唐人街,这就不得不让人沉思。
Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown.
这句台词已成经典,在100佳中排名74。甚至当人们对好莱坞本身的潜规则和无理可讲的现象无可奈何之时,也会用到这一句。
整个剧本都是经典,成为影视专业的必修教材。1975年的奥斯卡本片同《教父II》一样获十一项提名,最后只有原创剧本获奖,在最佳影片和导演两项都输给了后者。就像二十年后《肖申克的救赎》输给阿甘一样,旧年代佳片叠出,人们总是在几部影片中艰难选择;如今也艰难,难的却是在平庸的片子中努力选出一个比较像样的。
拍摄这部电影之前的五年,发生了著名的曼森邪教杀人事件。导演波兰斯基怀孕八个月的妻子,Sharon Tate,被残忍杀害。案件之后波兰斯基远离美国,这部《唐人街》是他回归好莱坞之后的第一部作品。整部影片的阴郁气氛,黑暗悲惨的结局,都反映了导演自身那种绝望、悲伤和无可奈何的心境。
影片中的隐喻很多:
开场Jake的第一个顾客说要杀了自己的老婆时,Jake答:“ You've got to be rich to kill somebody and get away with it.”就已经说明了本片的主题。
Evelyn死时被射穿了一只眼睛,与娶了自己母亲的俄狄浦斯一样,都处于乱伦的关系中。俄狄浦斯在得知真相后用母亲的胸针刺瞎了自己的双眼,是一种比死还要悲惨的结果。
Evelyn的父亲名叫Noah Cross,Noah来自诺亚方舟,与一场洪水有关;而Cross的一个含义是“十字架”。
影片中有很多成对的东西,但是其中一个遭到了破坏:Jake跟踪时用的两只怀表,一只被汽车压坏;池塘里发现的老花镜,一个镜片碎了;Jake的鼻子,一边被划破(拿刀子的无名配角是波兰斯基自己演的);Jake弄坏了Evelyn汽车的一只尾灯;Evelyn一只眼睛的虹膜是flawed,最后被射穿一只眼睛;Katherine看上去就是Evelyn的复制品,却是乱伦的产物;Evelyn丈夫的尸体被发现时,少了一只鞋,同样后来的Jake也被大水冲掉了一只鞋。
几句得以重复的台词:
I think I would've remembered.
It's an innocent question.
As little as possible.
My sister/my daughter.
虽然打了五星强力推荐,但并不推荐看太监版的。