更新时间:2006-06-26
听候清退旧精魂 • 鬼狗杀手:Accessible-yes; shallow-no
Those who feel this is a slighted film than other Jarmusch didn't get the point: this movie is about the intimacy of one's belief system, private, eccentric, but all the more touching for that. Here one Afro-American man picked up the "Way of Samurai", totally alien to his ethnic and cultural background, and made it the bedrock of his whole existence.
To me, the movie is about the inevitably arbitrary nature of any conviction, and the remarkable strength of it, however outlandish it may be. If one really wishes to believe in something, then against all odds, it will become part of you, even when it becomes very, very, inconvenient; even fatally inconvenient.
And the choice of such a conviction can transcend all boundaries. I always believe that one's birth, into a particular culture, is a mere accident. Whether one chooses to be faithful to it, or rebels against it in favor of an "alien" cultural identification, is amoral; "beyond Good and Evil", if you will. One Italian-American mobster in this film, for example, sees himself as a connoisseur of Rapper, Flavor Flav, and talked and sang just like his Black idol. The Wittaker character's identification with a Japanese feudalist samurai's honor system is, therefore, not as unique as it may sound.
The interesting argument Jarmusch seems to be making here is, what is admirable is not the category of such a conviction, but the strength of it. Can't agree with that myself; but it sure provides some antidote to our soul-less consumerist incilnations.
To me, the movie is about the inevitably arbitrary nature of any conviction, and the remarkable strength of it, however outlandish it may be. If one really wishes to believe in something, then against all odds, it will become part of you, even when it becomes very, very, inconvenient; even fatally inconvenient.
And the choice of such a conviction can transcend all boundaries. I always believe that one's birth, into a particular culture, is a mere accident. Whether one chooses to be faithful to it, or rebels against it in favor of an "alien" cultural identification, is amoral; "beyond Good and Evil", if you will. One Italian-American mobster in this film, for example, sees himself as a connoisseur of Rapper, Flavor Flav, and talked and sang just like his Black idol. The Wittaker character's identification with a Japanese feudalist samurai's honor system is, therefore, not as unique as it may sound.
The interesting argument Jarmusch seems to be making here is, what is admirable is not the category of such a conviction, but the strength of it. Can't agree with that myself; but it sure provides some antidote to our soul-less consumerist incilnations.
鬼狗杀手Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai(1999)
又名：幽灵狗：忍者之路
上映日期：1999-10-06片长：116分钟
主演：福里斯特·惠特克 / 约翰·托尔梅 / 克里夫·戈曼 / Dennis Liu / Frank Minucci / 理查德·波特诺 / 翠西亚·维西 / 亨利·席尔瓦 / Gene Ruffini / 弗兰克·阿多尼斯 / 维克多·阿尔果 / 达蒙·惠泰克 / Kenny Guay / Vince Viverito / Gano Grills / 杰米·埃克托 / 查克·杰弗里斯 / Vinny Vella / 伊萨赫·德·班克尔 / Camille Winbush / 加利·法梅尔 / Clebert Ford / 哈里·谢尔 / 罗伯特·菲茨杰拉德·迪格斯 / 斯科特·布莱斯 / 保罗·迪奥梅德 /
导演：吉姆·贾木许 / 编剧：Jim Jarmusch
