荣获奥斯卡奖项的电影都会引起我想看的动机。少年 PI，是荣获多项奥斯卡奖项的电影，导演为电影界鼎鼎有名的李安。这部电影实是由 Yann Martel 的探险小说《Life of PI》（2001）而来。

 

电影张力十足，一开始就从各宗教入手，经过精心铺陈之后，才开始到精彩的部分，尤其是大船在狂风暴雨的深夜里失故，少年跳入海水时一片漆黑，伸手不见五指，唯有看见的，就是眼前依然亮著光的大船斜斜的沉入海底。

 

印度少年在海上漂浮时，几回远视镜头由高往下看，汪洋上的一叶舟显得格外无助，令人深深觉得大自然的力量不可抗拒，而人的力量又是多么的渺小，渺小得为了生存，我们必须违背自己的原则，甚至是道德或精神上的良心，做出许多自己没办法想像的事情。这是一种突破，抛开先前的观念或一直以来的生活习惯，尝试前所未有的事物，启发生活技术上的智慧，没有所谓的好坏，只为活下去的意志，只因为，人的生命就是如此的卑微。

 

印度少年获救，对日本官员叙说船沉事故，当他选择说第二个故事时，让人惊讶的是他的脸上毫无撒谎飘忽之色，一切好似真的发生一样，我还真不明白为什么他可以如此淡定，清楚的说明厨师杀了他的母亲，而他以同样的方式杀掉厨师等等。一开始我以为这里隐喻著人们宁可选择相信听起来很像事实的故事，而不去理会也不想听另一个明明就是真实的故事。

 

后来好友告诉我一些网上的影评，有人说，其实第二个故事才是真实事情。厨师真的杀了少年的母亲，而少年也杀了厨师，还吃了自己的母亲等等，第二个故事才是真正发生的事情。怎么说呢，从另一个角度来看，老虎其实就是少年本身的形象，投射少年当时的野性，它有可能只是少年野性的幻化，是少年想像出来的幻影。我想也是，因为少年小时候曾经见证老虎吃小羊的残忍现实。这也解释了为什么到后来少年与老虎安全到岸、抵达岛上时，老虎尚未告别就离开了他。赫然想起电影快结束的最后一个镜头，老虎转身，向草丛行去，不告别，不回首，我个人认为这象征著人们的野性依然存在，而现实的残忍将会推动内在隐藏的兽性。

 

叙说第一个故事的时候，少年口述船上有老虎、人猿、斑马等动物，而实际上这些动物就是他在第二个故事里所提到的人物。为什么他要把真正的人物，包括自己的亲妈妈想像或转化成动物呢？或许他无法接受现实的残酷与悲剧的发生，而潜意识里把他们通通想像成动物，因为只有透过动物的食物链，才能为人类的互相残杀铺上一层薄雾，透雾看实情，或许心里比较好过。毕竟经历了这一串不幸事故，失去了家人与见证人类互相残杀只为生存的事实，从不碰荤的他被迫持刀杀肉吃肉，这些都是心灵与精神上的折腾，少年或许就是透过转化与想像来安慰自己受伤的心灵。

 

镜头几回拍深夜的汪洋，让我觉得深夜里的海总是神秘与变幻莫测，有时平静有时狂风暴雨，除了再次强调人们无法掌控或操控大自然的变化，更透露了人们的无知。这个世上还有多少事情是我们不知道的？我们根本都不晓得我们不知道的还有什么。感觉起来，海洋似乎象征著少年的潜意识。他在船上看透海水，看见妈妈与家人，甚至是宇宙与宗教信仰的部分，而这些通通都是构成我们心灵与实体的元素。

 

以上我所提到的都是有关人类生命的卑微与无法掌控大自然的部分，我想跟电影一开始就从宗教切入的部分做链接。这位印度少年小时候活在一个多元宗教的社会，有回教（伊斯兰教）、基督教与他不本身的印度教，而通常多元宗教的社会里，各宗教总会互相排斥，或是独门立户，不想跟彼此扯上任何关系，因为大家都坚信只有自己所信仰的宗教的神才是唯一的，而这位印度小男孩却像只小鱼穿梭在珊瑚群与海藻里，融入各种宗教的文化，甚至自行融合各个宗教的元素，而创造出某种独特的、专属自己的，以及本身愿意全心全意的相信的精神寄托。

 

当然，这种现象总会被世俗认为不伦不类，而世人总是以自己过去的经验与眼光去判断所面对的事情。就像少年的爸爸一样，总是提醒他勿接近老虎，更希望他以冷静理智的批判性思考，勿轻易相信所有的事情（提醒少年勿轻易相信各宗教）。我想说的是，看完这部电影，我的第一个感想就是，人们的生命是如此的卑微，而当我们剩下什么都没有的时候，甚至是不知道能不能够侥幸活著的时候，我们根本不相信任何东西，就连本身也开始怀疑自己，只能相信的，惟有宗教信仰，那是一种精神上的寄慰，是提醒我们继续向上进取、往正面方向思考的支柱。

 

看完电影，深感震撼，何时再有一部如此引人深思的电影？

 

以下是从《Life of PI》小说摘下的小文，蕴含引人深思的哲理：

 

1）To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.

 

2）I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unnerving ease. It begins in your mind, always ... so you must fight hard to express it. You must fight hard to shine the light of words upon it. Because if you don't, if your fear becomes a wordless darkness that you avoid, perhaps even manage to forget, you open yourself to further attacks of fear because you never truly fought the opponent who defeated you.

 

3）If we, citizens, do not support our artists, then we sacrifice our imagination on the altar of crude reality and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams.

 

4）Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can. But life leaps over oblivion lightly, losing only a thing or two of no importance, and gloom is but the passing shadow of a cloud...

 

5）It is true that those we meet can change us, sometimes so profoundly that we are not the same afterwards, even unto our names.

 

6）When you've suffered a great deal in life, each additional pain is both unbearable and trifling.

 

7）If you stumble about believability, what are you living for? Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer. What is your problem with hard to believe?

 

8）It's important in life to conclude things properly. Only then can you let go. Otherwise you are left with words you should have said but never did, and your heart is heavy with remorse.

 

9）Dare I say I miss him? I do. I miss him. I still see him in my dreams. They are nightmares mostly, but nightmares tinged with love. Such is the strangeness of the human heart.

 

10）You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it.

 

11）To lose a brother is to lose someone with whom you can share the experience of growing old, who is supposed to bring you a sister-in-law and nieces and nephews, creatures who people the tree of your life and give it new branches. To lose your father is to lose the one whose guidance and help you seek, who supports you like a tree trunk supports its branches. To lose your mother, well, that is like losing the sun above you. It is like losing--I'm sorry, I would rather not go on.

 

12）The world isn't just the way it is. It is how we understand it, no? And in understanding something, we bring something to it, no?

 

13）All living things contain a measure of madness that moves them in strange, sometimes inexplicable ways. This madness can be saving; it is part and parcel of the ability to adapt. Without it, no species would survive.

 

14）Life will defend itself no matter how small it is.

 

#少年PI #Life of PI #movies #critiques #analysis #电影赏析 #Joe Theng #邓凯柔

（文/小柔）