五部电影和张艾嘉的非凡人生

Sylvia Chang, Taiwan’s answer to Barbra Streisand, is lauded equally for her singing, acting and filmmaking. With a career spanning four decades and encompassing more than 100 movies, she has collaborated with masters like King Hu, Edward Yang and Tsui Hark, and starred alongside the likes of Chow Yun-fat and Samuel L. Jackson.

张艾嘉堪称台湾的芭芭拉·史翠珊(Barbra Streisand)，作为歌手、演员和导演取得了同样的赞誉。在40年的职业生涯里，她参与了100多部电影，曾与胡金铨、杨德昌和徐克等大导演合作，亦曾与周润发和塞缪尔·杰克逊(Samuel L.Jackson)等影星一同演出。

As the Metrograph in Manhattan begins a retrospective on Friday of her work both in front of and behind the camera, I asked Ms. Chang, 64, whether she was driven by ambition or challenge. “Honestly, I don’t have great ambitions,” she said by WhatsApp, speaking in Mandarin from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. “I really adore the cinema. I admire creative types. I venerate talented people. If I can be of any help, I want to support them. That’s my sole conviction.”

曼哈顿Metrograph影院于周五对她主演及导演的电影进行回顾展映，值此之际，我问64岁的张艾嘉，她的动力是野心还是挑战。“老实说，我是一个没有什么野心的人，”她在马来西亚吉隆坡通过WhatsApp接受采访时用国语说。“我其实就是很喜欢电影。我很喜欢有才华的人。我很尊敬所有有才能的人。如果能帮忙的话，我很希望支持他们。这个就是我唯一的想法。”

She added that she didn’t know what she was capable of. “If I can think up something, I’ll follow through. Even when everyone else deems it impossible, I’d say give it a try,” she said, adding later, “Even in failure, you can still learn something in the process. That’s important to me.”

她还说，她不知道自己能做到什么程度。“想到什么我可以去做，我就去做了。甚至有的时候，大家都说不能做的时候，我都还会讲说试试看嘛，”她说，“失败中间也还是可以学到一些东西。这个对我来说是比较重要的。”

For a primer on this extraordinary career, try these five films, including some in the series and some available to stream.

如果还不甚了解她非凡的职业生涯，可以从下面五部电影开始尝试，其中一些属于展映系列，还有一些可以在流媒体上观赏。

‘The Dream of the Red Chamber’ (1977)

《金玉良缘红楼梦》(1977)

Now a lost art, Huangmei opera adaptations steadily filled the Hong Kong studio-system pipeline for two decades. Adapted from Cao Xueqin’s classic 1791 novel, this Huangmei opera features Brigitte Lin (“Chungking Express”) as the male lead opposite Ms. Chang. Gender-bending turns were prevalent in Huangmei, but “people nowadays don’t have the expertise to properly stage Huangmei opera,” Ms. Chang said. The director of “Red Chamber,” Li Han-hsiang, was typical of the era’s filmmakers, she added. “Regardless of the genre, they evinced their affinity, prowess and mastery,” she said. “We don’t get that kind of training nowadays.” (Metrograph)

改编自如今已经衰落的黄梅戏的电影，曾在20年时间里持续占据着香港制片厂生产线。这部黄梅戏电影由曹雪芹1791年的经典小说改编而来，男主角由林青霞(《重庆森林》)饰演，女主角由张艾嘉饰演。张艾嘉说，在黄梅戏里，性别倒错是很普遍的，但“以现代的人来讲，已经没有什么人真的懂得或者是能够处理黄梅调的了，”她补充说，《红楼梦》的导演李瀚祥是那个时代电影人的典型。“他们对于京剧也好，对于各种不同的戏剧也好，都有某一种的热爱、认知，跟技巧，”她说。“像我们已经没有这样的训练了。”(Metrograph)

‘That Day, on the Beach’ (1983)

《海滩的一天》(1983)

An early example of the Taiwanese New Wave, this first feature from Mr. Yang (“Yi Yi”) reflected a generational quandary facing the island’s boomers: familial obligations versus personal fulfillment. It is a coming-of-age story told through flashbacks: Ms. Chang’s character recounts her maturation from love-struck student to desperate housewife. “The shadow of Taiwan during that era loomed large over the film in terms of its baby boomer generation and the divide between the islanders and the mainlanders,” she said. Ms. Chang, who had commissioned Mr. Yang to direct two episodes of a TV series she had produced in 1981, initiated “That Day” as a studio executive. “Taiwanese New Wave filmmakers used to hang out and exchange their ideals and aspirations. They were all helping each other out,” she said, adding, “To me, that truly was our golden age.” (Metrograph)

该片是台湾新浪潮电影的早期例子，是杨德昌(《一一》)的第一部长片，反映了岛上婴儿潮一代面临的世代困境：家族义务与个人价值的实现。这是一个通过闪回叙述的成长故事：张艾嘉饰演的角色讲述了她如何从堕入爱河的学生转变为绝望的家庭主妇，并在这个过程中走向成熟。“这部电影有台湾那个年代的影子，不管是讲婴儿潮一代，或者是讲到我们本省人和外省人的一个隔阂，”她说。张艾嘉曾委托杨德昌执导她在1981年制作的一部电视剧中的两集，她以制片厂高管的身份启动了《海滩的一天》的制作。“几乎这些所有新导演都常常聚在一起谈自己的理想啦、抱负、想拍什么戏啊，然后大家都很帮助对方，”她说，“对我来说，那个真的是我们的黄金时代。”(Metrograph)

‘My Favorite Season’ (1985)

《最想念的季节》(1985)

Ms. Chang said this is one of her favorite films. “For its time, the subject matter was very fresh and very modern,” she said of this dramedy about a go-getter seeking a temporary marriage so she can fill out the birth certificate of her unborn child, conceived in an affair with a married man. “We think we all have an ideal type, but in real life and in a marriage that’s not so practical. I really like the film’s treatment of this.” The director, Chen Kuen-hou, struggled to cast the male lead, she said, because most actors were too handsome and possessed too much star quality to play the earnest simpleton who was also a bit of a cheapskate. The part ultimately went to Jonathan Lee, the songwriter and producer behind many of Ms. Chang’s hit records. The film seemed like a natural extension of their musical collaborations, anthems among women in the Taiwanese work force. (iTunes)

张艾嘉说这是她最喜欢的电影之一。“在那个年代来讲，那是一个非常新，非常现代的主题，”这部充满戏剧色彩的电影讲述一个有上进心的女孩和已婚男子发生了关系，怀上了他的孩子，为了给腹中的孩子填写出生证明，她想找个人临时结婚，“我们自以为我们最理想的男人是某一个类型的，可是在真实的生活当中，还有婚姻(当中)，那个是不实在的。所以我很喜欢他整个戏的处理。”她说，导演陈坤厚费了很大力气寻找男主角，因为大多数男演员太帅了，太有明星气质，演不出片中那个有点抠门的热心傻瓜。这个角色最后给了李宗盛，他也是张艾嘉许多大热唱片的词曲作者和制作人。这部电影似乎是他们音乐合作的自然发展，为台湾的职场女性献上一曲颂歌。(iTunes)

‘Xiao Yu’ (1995)

《少女小渔》(1995)

This New York-set, Ang Lee-produced movie directed by Ms. Chang centers on a marriage of convenience between a writer mired in gambling debt (Daniel J. Travanti of “Hill Street Blues”) and a Chinese sweatshop worker in dire need of a green card (Rene Liu, a singer, actress and director in her own right). It’s a quintessential New York story about city dwellers too often overlooked by filmmakers. Ms. Chang was no stranger to the city, having spent three years in Riverdale, in the Bronx, as a teenager. “Films about intercultural and interracial relationships often struck me as bogus. I dreaded that inauthenticity,” Ms. Chang said. “I kept thinking of how two people from disparate cultures could reach common ground. They might have different attitudes and approaches, yet they must share the same humanity. What drew them closer wasn’t something facile, but mutual understanding and respect. That’s what I set out to capture.” (Metrograph, iTunes)

这部影片由李安任制片人，张艾嘉执导，故事发生在纽约，讲述了一位深陷赌债的作家(《山街蓝调》[Hill Street Blues]的丹尼尔J·特拉万提[Daniel J. Travanti]饰)和急需绿卡的血汗工厂华人女工(刘若英饰，她本人也是歌手、演员兼导演)之间的交易婚姻。这是一个典型的纽约故事，关注这座城市里那些经常被电影人忽略的居民。张艾嘉对这座城市并不陌生，十几岁的时候，她曾在布朗克斯的里瓦戴尔住过三年。“我常常看很多人拍中国人和外国人生活在一起(的电影)、或者是讲两个不同种族的人在一起的戏的时候，我都觉得有点假。我很怕那种假的感情，”张艾嘉说。“我就一直不停地想说，这两个不同文化的人碰在一起，可是他们一定有相同的地方。他们就算可能态度、做法是不一样，可是他们的心、他们对人性的东西，一定是有相同的地方。所以那个东西是让他们可以接近的、可以感受到对方，然后最后变成那么亲密的人的时候，并不是来自于很表面的东西，而是来自于对对方的某一种认识和尊重。这个是我想抓到的。”(Metrograph，iTunes)

‘Murmur of the Hearts’ (2015)

《念念》(2015)

Fully establishing herself as a visionary, Ms. Chang invoked magical realism in this tale she directed about Taiwanese millennials haunted by childhood trauma at the hands of absentee parents. “To me, filmmaking is soul searching,” she said. “I feel there’s a void among people today, and it’s my wish to fill it.” In her view, in a world “overloaded with information, there are lots of anxieties,” she said. “We don’t know how to mollify ourselves. Some resort to therapy. Some numb themselves with vices such as drugs and alcohol, but those provide only temporary escape. Ultimately, one must face oneself.” (Metrograph)

张艾嘉导演的这部影片关注了父母缺席的童年给台湾千禧一代造成的创伤，已经证明了自己的超前意识的她，在片中采用了魔幻现实主义手法。“拍每部戏对我来讲是一个自我反省，”她说。“我觉得现代人就是少了这一块东西，所以我一直很想填补。”她认为，在一个“信息非常多，引诱也特别多，所以很不安”的世界里，“我们有的时候不知道怎么样去让自己安静下来。那很多人就去看心理医生，或者很多人吃药、或者会酗酒，用很多东西来让自己麻痹，可是那个并不是一个最好的方式，只能带给你暂时的逃避。那我觉得一个人还是要面对自己。”(Metrograph)