浮云游子

Opening with a subjective long take slithering through Soho’s Chinatown, which ends up in a close-up of a man died inside a telephone booth, British-Chinese filmmaker Leong Po-Chih’s PING PONG is a rara avis that plumbs into the head space of UK’s Chinese enclave.

The dead man is Sam Wong (K.C. Leong), a well-to-do restaurateur, but the film doesn’t intend to dwell on the circumstances of his death, but, in the wake of that, the execution of his testament, which falls on the shoulders of a tenderfoot law clerk Elaine Choi (Sheen), who is terminally stalwart to see that she can get the job done, including settling the legal procedures of sending Wong’s body back to Toisan, China, and finding out who is the mysterious legatee of Wong’s sportster, a woman named Sara Lee (Hammond).

But the lion’s share of her endeavor is involved functioning as an intermediary among Wong’s clan (he is survived by a wife, 3 adult children, one from a prior marriage), which is awash with internal strifes relative to Sam’s will, hence, the film’s title, alluding to Elaine’s oscillating role in her pursuance.

Political angle aside, sideswipes about China’s communist apparat are only to be expected, PING PONG primarily earns its stripes as a treatise about a young British-Chinese woman’s double consciousness in forging her own identity in an occidental capital without obliterating her ethnic roots, like the “woman warrior” she watches on television or reads in the picture-story books when she was young, Elaine is fascinated by her cultural background, but at the same time, as a modern woman, she is dismissive of its shibboleth, so revered by the older generation, perhaps, that is why she finds kindred spirit in Sam’s younger son Mike (Yip, the most naturalistic performer among the fold), who looks totally anglicized on the surface, which, in time, will be encroached by the oriental filial obligation.

Sporting a plummy British accent, Sheen’s Elaine is jaunty and confident when she is in the line of duty, but, like most of the rest cast, hokes a bit whenever Leong’s direction sags. The bum note is the erratic editing rhythm, sometimes, a conversation is cut short abruptly, or the camera overstays its welcome on the players who seem to have just finished his or her lines and their reactive impulse is unstimulated, for example, the sequences pertaining to a meshuga Mr. Chen (Robert Lee, in his swan song), the old friend of Sam, are taxing to sit through, not for its length, but an unmoderated monotony.

That said, PING PONG still can be ranked as a hidden gem of the world cinema, not merely on the strength of its subject matters, Leong’s dexterity (a well-concocted location shot taking place in the same place with different temporal slots is spliced seamlessly), but also for its prescience-laced mystique revealed in the coda, to its western audience, it introduces a mythical culture that cannot be more different from theirs, but for those who are from the east, it also hits the bull-eye of enacting a vicarious displacement that is one of the wellsprings of cinematic imagination.

referential entries: John Carpenter’s BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA (1986, 4.9/10); Lulu Wang’s THE FAREWELL (2019, 7.8/10).

不久前刚刚结束的奥斯卡，让我们见证了杨紫琼成为第一位华人奥斯卡影后的历史时刻，而华裔班底主导的《瞬息全宇宙》也完成了11提7中的壮举。这个颁奖季与《瞬》相关的各种奖项记录太多了，可以说是振奋人心的盛事。纵观好莱坞历史，其实华人的身影也是一直很有存在感，二十年代大火的女星黄柳霜，六十年代飘洋过海创出名堂的李小龙，八十年代开始把港式动作片推往好莱坞的成龙为代表的一众动作巨星，以及近年的《摘金奇缘》、《别告诉她》、《瞬息全宇宙》等大获成功也证明了美国本土华裔的创作力是好莱坞市场所需要的。

一般提到全华班底的主流英语片，我们一般会提到《喜福会》(1993)，高质量的众女群戏至今仍让观众津津乐道。但除了美国好莱坞，其实英国更早的时候也拍过全华班底的主流片，只是当时缺少明星加持让其成为了历史长河的细沙。

今天，字幕组的新作是八十年代的《浮云游子》（英文名Ping Pong）。故事讲述了伦敦唐人街富商王山姆，神秘的死在电话亭中，他在死前立下了一份非常奇怪的遗嘱，引起全家人百般的猜疑。女主作为见习律师，因为早期的交集而被卷入了这场遗产风波。电影以一个主观的长镜头在soho区的唐人街上滑动开场，然后以一个死在电话亭里的人的特写结束，但片子本身却是走轻喜剧+轻悬疑路线。通过一场遗产案，明线探讨西化的移民二代代和移民一代的家庭和解（这点和《瞬息》其实有共同之处）暗线则是关注一个年轻的英籍华人女性在西方世界的身份政治问题，同时又不抹杀她的民族根源性。

以下再简单介绍以下导演吧。梁普智，一个非常冷门的名字，但他和港片其实渊源甚深。1939年11月30日出生于英国伦敦，大学主修哲学，又曾在伦敦电影学院进修电影。1976年开始执导电影，第一部作品就是和萧芳芳联导的《跳灰》(这片也是萧芳芳几十年演艺生涯唯一执导的作品)，成为香港新派警匪片的先锋作。在周润发早年票房毒药时期，他执导的《等待黎明》给发哥带来了金马金像双料提名，最后发哥也收获了第一座金马影帝。其后的《杀之恋》也促成了张国荣和钟楚红第一次银幕搭档。本片则是他在港片时期抽空回英国的一次英语片尝试，以成品质量来看的话，这算是一次不错的尝试。