Dark Matter 暗物質

導演：陳士爭 Chen Shi-Zheng
主演：劉燁 Liu Ye、Meryl Streep、Aidan Quinn

It is a film inspired by Gang Lu's story. Given that the writers and the director have made significant changes of the character of the protagonist, Liu Xing, I think it is fairer to regard it as a story concerns power issues and the potential tension between different cultures in a competitive academic atmosphere. It’s interesting to see there seems a cultural division between the responses of the Chinese and the US audience as well. Without the knowledge (or the shadow?) of the 1991 shooting, the Chinese reviewers show more sympathy for the tragedy of the protagonist.

To me, the screenplay is sharply written. Some might feel uncomfortable watching it, but in many ways, I think it delicately catches the lives of the graduate students who are struggling to adapt in an alien environment. The acting is good. Liu Ye and Meryl Streep have some great moments, exposing the subtleties of their cross-cultural friendship. Liu’s performance is in particular impressive. It is a challenge to act in a foreign language. Liu does not surprise me with fluent English, of course. What surprises me is that he acts with the language capacity so close to my own experience as an international student, which makes his portrayal of Liu Xing very convincing and appealing. His “Liu Xing” is beyond my expectation.

Dark Matter is a tragic but well said story, and it encourages people to think more about how communication and understanding (within or beyond one’s own culture) may come deeper than what we take for granted. It challenges, in a good way though.

Interview With Chen Shi-Zheng by Michael Guillen

A Tale of Power and Intrigue in the Lab, Based on Real Life by Dennis Overbye

What (not) to do when the system is broken by Janet D. Stemwedel

導演創作這個故事的靈感來自一九九一年中國留學生盧剛的校園槍殺事件，但也僅止於此，電影中主角劉星的個性設定與盧剛有很大距離，這個故事著墨更多的關懷其實是在不同文化族群之間的差異與理解上頭，背景放在博士班研究生這個少有人觸及的領域，衝突自然就包含了學院中教授與博士生間的權力關係。雖說這是導演的電影處女作，觀看起來卻不見生澀；劇本本身很好，放在九零年代時空中看算是相當寫實，搭配優秀的演員，讓觀眾感受到不同文化在接觸時的那種緊張關係，一頭是嚮往美國學術自由的中國留學生，另頭是因為丈夫的緣故對中國文化深感興趣的美國貴婦，碰在一起導演讓我們看的卻是理想與現實之間的距離。

劉燁演得尤其出色，他將留學生這個沒有「完全」融入當地社會的角色演得絲絲入扣，最讓我印象深刻的是他的「外國話」：跟仰慕的教授會面時講出來的外國話、興高采烈跟別人分享自己鑽研的學術議題時講出來的外國話、跟心儀的女孩搭訕時講出來的外國話、站在講台上報告自己論文方向時講出來的外國話、在驚慌的情況下擠出來的外國話等等，在不同脈絡下他相應的語言能力與表現看起來非常貼近我所知道的留學生處境﹝當然不是唯一一種，就像劇中也有其他不同的留學生表現﹞。劉燁在這部片中的演出實在好！

另一個讓我感到有意思地方是，就像中國人與美國人對盧剛事件有著不大相同的觀感，我在網上找到這部片子的影評，在中國觀眾與美國觀眾間也存在明顯的觀感差異，似乎不清楚盧剛事件的中國觀眾看起來更能同情劉星的處境多些，而美國的觀眾則有不少會提到電影扭曲了盧剛事件﹝這種反應很情緒化，因為這並不是一部傳記電影，可是校園槍擊事件在美國確實很挑動大眾神經就是﹞。美國影評人對這部電影的評價普遍沒有太高﹝文化的差異無所不在﹞，但我個人認為這是一部相當值得一看的電影，特別是它對異文化接觸與溝通過程中那種難以言說的脆弱與無力感的拿捏，應該可以算是處理這類議題影片中的佼佼者了。



[Jeff Schmidt has a more sympathetic perspective on Gang Lu’s case in his book Disciplined Mind (pp. 257-9).]