情感是一種奇妙的東西，彷似真實，卻總無法親手握住。當我們以為確實擁有著一些感情，到頭來，竟發現原來這一切一切，只是被植入的「資料」，我們的 身心能否承受這瞬間的掏空?感情落空了，吞噬內心的，是另一種虛無的感覺: 無盡的空虛。然而，同樣也是一份感覺，空虛卻彷彿確實地永恆存在。

在人類無止境地虛耗地球能源後，危機終於得到解取: 能源公司成功利用月球上的石頭攝取太陽能量，再從石塊中提煉所需。能源公司遂於月球建立基地。利潤雖大，開支卻也不少，為節省成本，榨取更多的錢財，於是在基地裡，只用一名太空人。其他工作，都由機械人Gerty代理。

經年累月的月球工作，只有冷冰冰的Gerty作伴，再豁達的人也有思家之情。合約即將介滿，歸期將近，興奮之情更溢於言表。一次外勤工作時，卻不幸發生意外。而這一次意外，使平淡而沉悶的月球工作徒起波瀾。

2009年的科幻作品中，Moon堪稱年度佳作，由Sam Rockwell演月球上的人，在廣闊無垠的月華中演獨腳戲，除了一台機械，就只有自己和自己。他的演釋方式可說是難上加難的，其演出卻能貫穿全片，一人 多面，賦予了電影生命的起伏，也勾劃出那種寂寞無邊的傷感，演活了那份只能獨自面對的無可奈何。

當活到了人生的盡頭，才發覺自己原來一無所有。當一直在默默造福人群，卻發現原來自己只是個可有可無的泡影。當你隱隱意識到，電影裡的這些傷感，不過是把你我的人生放在月球上的一個剪影。寂寞，並沒有因為你處身地球而離你而去。

果醬

Shot in saturated colour, Confessions is a stylish, compelling, multi-lay……ered film by Kamikaze Girls director Tetsuya Nakashinma based on Kanae Minato’s acclaimed national-bestseller Kokuhaku (Confessions).

Confessions has echoes of Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange, a thinking man’ film that tackles a murder mystery and a morality tale on the social issues of AIDs, bullying, overprotective or negligence in parenting and suicide and in Japanese society.

Actress Takako Matsu (K-20, Villon’s Wife) plays a dedicated teacher at a junior high school who’s young daughter is found murdered. Believing two of her own students are responsible, she decides to leave the school, but not before a final chilling confession to her class in which she informs them that she’s already enacted her plan for vengeance. A series of further confessions bring other incidents regarding students to light, leading up to a shocking plot twist.

Takako gives a chilling performance in her limited screen time as the teacher bent on revenge her daugher’s murder in her own way. The supporting class of teen brats is equally impressive, with the two murders and one of their moms stand out as we witness their life falling apart.

The series of confession vignettes keep us glued to the screen as the main characters - the teacher, the killers, the mom and the sympathizer - take turn to justify their action through their confession, culminated in a shocking finale that will leave you either disturbed and thinking for days to come.

Confessions is a beautifully crafted designer thriller, with hypnotic visuals underlined by a mersmerising score. Radiohead fans should be happy to know that Last Flowers is the movie’s title song.

Elven Ho

In spite of the Andrew Lau-Gordon Chan-Donnie Yen triangle and a stellar cast to boot, Legend of the…… Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen is a formulaic action flick with heavy-handed nationalistic sentiment. The patriotic overtone is very popular among the audience in Hong Kong and mainland China in recently year. One can trace the history back to Bruce Lee’s Fist of Fury and Jet Li’s Fist of Legend, with the two legendary martial artists in the same role that Donnie now reprises (in between, Yen played the role in a TV series). The combination of nationalism and martial arts in movie reached its height in Ip Man, a critical and commercial success. The Legend is a bit of a let down. Box office grosser The Legend will no doubt be, but as an action film on an epic scale, it is rather disappointing. The story is set more than a decade after the previous Chen Zhen installments by Bruce Lee and Jet Li. Chen turns up in Shanghai and infiltrated the influential circle of a club owner (played by the always reliable Anthony Wong) and uses it as his cover to take on the Japanese. The plot thicken, with a parade of characters come and go, but without much clarity. Even the beauty of Shu Qi and her competent performance as the hostess-singer cannot save the day. All would have been forgiven if only the action sequence live up to the standard of Yan’s best work. The opening sequence with gravity-defying stunt (most likely partly shot with a Yan bodydouble) was about the most impressive, but it was downhill from there, with the rest of the fighting done without the crispness of Yan’s past opus (I miss his classic fight with Jet Li in Once Upon a Time in China). The much anticipated final battle between Yan and the Japanese villain was an anti-climax when filmed with so much close up. It is like shooting a dance sequence from the waist up. There is an abundance of movie references, from Yen as the Masked Avenger ala Bruce Lee in Green Hornet. He hovers over the city like the Batman. Fault aside, an action epic that is part war, part superhero and part spy genre still has an universal appeal to audience worldwide.

Elven Ho

《精武風雲—陳真》犯下三個嚴重錯誤令這套電影的可觀性只有一個——閣下是「宇宙最強」的子丹派門生。

故事背景是上世紀二十年代的中國──渡過了曾被西方列強凌辱欺侮的腐敗滿清；再經歷軍閥割據瀕臨內戰邊緣的無能民國，正受內憂外患壓迫：國內學生運動令新舊思想交替，備受新革命主義浪潮所沖擊；而東洋日本正積極推行「大陸政策」，欲先征服支那以建立「大東亞共榮圈」進而掌控全世界，在時勢推波助瀾下，拯救人民於水火之中的民族英雄──「天山黑俠」誕生了。

「天山黑俠」就是陳真。這個虛構出來的人民英雄可塑性甚高，更且深入民心，但編劇捉到鹿不懂脫角：一面要營造他是化腐朽為神奇；將不可能變成可能的大俠，但只懂放不懂收──當人人也以為「天山黑俠」是打不死的時候，陳真就在大街上輕易被日本人伏擊成功。或許編劇是想說明陳真其實也是一個人，也有脆弱的時候，這本是應該的，因不要神化任何人。但以劇中之前「天山黑俠」之能，有可能在突然被包圍後瞬間失卻戰鬥能力而被人一招擊倒於彈指之間嗎？

更奇情的還在後頭：日本皇軍的力石猛大佐在知道陳真真正身份的情形下命令部下將他放生，目的是要與陳真手底下見真章，親手報卻父親戰敗及殺父血仇。這本無可厚非，但就不應安排前述那段眼高手低的不合邏輯劇情，編劇上這明顯是作繭自縛──因勢形格禁下，力石猛自願將陳真放虎歸山已是事在必行了，除非師父霍元甲死而復生吧！

另外，日本皇軍故意泄露一份反日格殺名單以圖在上海製造混亂恐慌，但那些「金榜題名」的人卻「馬照跑舞照跳」，還悠閒地去理髮店剃鬍子。這不是製造機會給日本人殺自己嗎？

最致命的是：故事主幹由陳真貫穿整個脈絡並以已於早年在法國戰死沙場兄弟的身份，幫助抗戰組織探查日本皇軍的陰謀。但劇中只交代了陳真在發現那兩個日本女卧底的身份後，就能準確地「琢磨」出日本皇軍設於上海的秘密司令部，這是否有點匪夷所思？就是這樣，整個故事架構便如一組滑輪失去其中一個齒輪般蕩然無存。劇本的鬆散犯駁是此套電影的第一敗筆。

眾所周知，丹爺也是李小龍的忠實粉絲。他的動作場面確實能使人血脈沸騰，但他有一組「甄三腳」及一招「旋風後腿」在影片中於不同場景曾出現不下兩次。這代表著什麼？究竟是丹爺是心有獨鍾喜愛這兩招，還是其實他已黔驢技窮，再也想不出其他武術招式？還有他太模仿李小龍了，這套電影大概只是為了滿足丹爺的自我偶像崇拜而拍攝的。動作設計是此電影的第二失敗元素。

最後，不得不說說導演的主理手法。《精武風雲—陳真》內的武打，除了丹爺的功架外，導演還利用學生運動的場面去推高觀眾情緒，以令尾段丹爺單槍匹馬力挑「虹口道場」，以一夫當關之勢力敵數十「㗎仔」時更敵愾同仇。雖然畫面極之痛快淋漓，但這會否是導演藉此宣洩中國近代屢被列強欺壓的百年屈辱而濫用了民族情意結？而從外國人眼中看來，會否令他們產生一個感覺：中國人其實極端自卑？

到了最後決戰，陳真原本不敵皇軍大佐，但經一輪「思想激勵」後卻突然「師父上身」地將皇軍大佐輕易擊倒於吹毛斷髮間，這不是日本動漫「聖鬥士星矢」的情節嗎？而且那組鏡頭是用近似萬花筒式影像去交代，只集中刻劃丹爺的強勁臂彎和皇軍大佐中拳的面部特寫，這樣了斷會否過於兒戲？

《精武風雲—陳真》內唯一的驚喜是那個上海警察廳探長──黃渤的演技配以杜汶澤的聲演，是此片最別出心裁的神來之筆。

但願香港的電影製作人不要再重蹈覆轍，會認真地審視劇本的創作與及資源的調度。電影人是應懷著廣闊胸襟、包容態度與及敏銳觸覺而與時並進的。

這樣，香港製作的電影才能再次於世界上任何角落大放異彩。

三少