Millennium Actress (2001)

Hôm nay tôi may mắn được đi xem buổi chiếu Millennium Actress, tác phẩm của Satoshi Kon-một trong những đạo diễn tôi yêu thích nhất, với sự tham gia của ông Masao Maruyama, người đồng sáng lập hãng hoạt hình nổi tiếng Madhouse, một trong những cộng sự thân thiết của Satoshi Kon và là người được đạo diễn dành cho những lời hết sức chân trọng và cảm động cuối đời. Nói là "may mắn" vì sau buổi chiếu tôi được chứng kiến tình cảm của ông Maruyama dành cho người bạn đồng nghiệp của mình thế nào, ông lặng lẽ lau nước mắt (có lẽ ông đã khóc nhiều khi xem phim) rồi cúi gập người xin lỗi khán giả vì không thể cầm lòng được khi xem lại một trong những tác phẩm ưng ý nhất của Satoshi Kon, người đã qua đời tháng 8 năm ngoái vì bệnh ung thư. Tôi có hỏi ông rằng khi còn sống Satoshi Kon cảm thấy hài lòng nhất với tác phẩm nào của mình, Maruyama trả lời rằng Satoshi Kon, hay bất cứ nhà làm phim nào khác, đều chỉ hài lòng nhất với tác phẩm mình dự định làm trong tương lai. Riêng cá nhân tôi thì trừ phim bộ Paranoia Agent (vốn cũng cực kì xuất sắc) thì hai tác phẩm tôi thích nhất của Satoshi Kon có lẽ là Millennium Actress và Tokyo Godfathers, hai bộ phim có nhịp độ cực kì nhanh, gồm nhiều câu chuyện nhỏ lồng vào nhau tạo thành một cốt truyện tương đối rắc rối cho người xem nhưng lại rất đơn giản nếu như người xem nắm được tinh thần chung của tác phẩm, đó là câu chuyện về những con người đi tìm lại chính mình (identity).

Millennium Actress kể về cuộc đời của Chiyoko Fujiwara, một ngôi sao sáng của làng điện ảnh Nhật Bản nhưng đã từ lâu rút về ở ẩn và chỉ nhận lời thuật lại cuộc đời mình cho đạo diễn Genya Tachibana, một "fan hâm mộ" cuồng nhiệt của bà, vào những ngày tháng cuối cùng của cuộc đời mình. Là một con người của điện ảnh đúng nghĩa, cuộc đời của Chiyoko-san được bà kể lại cũng thông qua những bộ phim bà từng trải qua, những vai diễn mà bà từng cống hiến hết sức lực và tâm trí để thể hiện, và trên hết là thông qua cuộc tìm kiếm người họa sĩ bí ẩn mà bà gặp lúc đầu đời và là lý do thúc đẩy bà dấn thân vào nghiệp điện ảnh. Suốt cả bộ phim, sẽ là rất khó cho khán giả nếu họ cố tách biệt đâu là "phim", đâu là "đời thực" vì cuộc đời của Chiyoko cũng chính là một bộ phim lớn với đủ cung bậc cảm xúc, với đủ loại "kịch bản" và "vai diễn", với cả những nhân vật phản diện độc ác và cả những vai phụ thầm lặng (như ông đạo diễn vụng về Tachibana), và có lẽ bản thân Chiyoko cũng chẳng thể phân biệt được đâu là đời thực, đâu là vai diễn cho tới giờ phút bà lặng lẽ rút khỏi màn bạc.

Maruyama-san trong buổi chiếu

Với Millennium Actress, đạo diễn Satoshi Kon đã đem lại cho người yêu điện ảnh Nhật, đặc biệt là những người yêu thích Giai đoạn hoàng kim (thập niên 50, 60), một món quà vô cùng quý giá - tình yêu điện ảnh thể hiện qua sự hết lòng vì nghề nghiệp của Chiyoko, của Tachibana, và nhất là qua vô số những hình ảnh gợi nhớ các bộ phim, các diễn viên nổi tiếng trong quá khứ của nước Nhật. Người xem có thể cảm thấy hơi thở Xứ tuyết từ Mizoguchi, từ Naruse và nhất là từ Kurosawa (trong phim có hẳn một trường đoạn tương tự như Kumonosu-jo, hay Throne of Blood, bộ phim xuất sắc của Kurosawa) hay hình ảnh của những ngôi sao huyền thoại một thời như Hideko Takamine (người vừa qua đời trong những ngày cuối cùng của năm 2010) hay Setsuko Hara. Ông Maruyama hôm nay có khẳng định rằng Satoshi Kon sáng tạo nên Chiyoko-san dựa trên sự tổng hòa của những ngôi sao trong quá khứ, để với mục đích duy nhất là đưa tới người xem sự gợi nhớ quá khứ, gợi nhớ tình yêu và sự chân trọng đích thực đối với điện ảnh. Tuy cũng biết như vậy nhưng cứ mỗi lần xem bộ phim này, tôi lại nhớ đến nét đẹp "mãi mãi xuân xanh" của Setsuko Hara, diễn viên tôi yêu thích vô cùng qua những bộ phim của Yasujiro Ozu nhưng cũng là người tôi chẳng có lấy một thông tin nào kể từ ngày bà lui về ở ẩn sau cái chết của đạo diễn Ozu năm 1963. Vì thế câu hỏi đầu tiên mà tôi muốn hỏi ông Maruyama hôm nay là thông tin về Hara Setsuko - liệu bà còn sống hay đã chết? - một lần nữa tôi lại nhận được câu trả lời giản dị từ Maruyama, đó là báo chí Nhật, và người làm điện ảnh Nhật không tìm hiểu về những thông tin đó, vì họ muốn giữ nguyên cái nguyện vọng ẩn vào quá khứ của Setsuko Hara cũng như muốn giữ mãi cái hình ảnh đẹp đẽ và trong sáng mà bà đã thể hiện trên màn ảnh nửa thế kỷ trước.

Satoshi Kon không rút lui vào quá khứ, ông qua đời quá sớm với một bộ phim vừa xong kịch bản và storyboard, nhưng có lẽ nhiều năm nữa người ta vẫn sẽ nhớ tới những bộ phim của ông, cũng như nhớ tới tình yêu điện ảnh của Satoshi Kon thể hiện qua bộ phim này, hay qua những lời cuối cùng ông dành tặng cho các khán giả của mình:

Sayonara (Goodbye)

How could I forget, May 18th of this year.

I received the following pronouncement from a cardiovascular doctor at Musashino Red Cross Hospital.

"It's the latter stages of pancreatic cancer. It's metastasized to several bones. You have at the most half a year left to live."

My wife and I listened together. It was a fate so unexpected and untenable, that the two of us together could barely take it.

I used to honestly think that "I can't help it if I die any day." Still, it was so sudden.

To be sure, there were some signs. 2 to 3 months before that I'd had strong pains in several places on my back and in the joints of my legs; I'd lost strength in my right leg and found it hard to walk, and I'd been going to an acupuncturist and a chiropractor, but I wasn't getting any better. So after having been examined in an MRI and a PET-CT and such advanced machinery, came the sudden pronouncement of the time I had left.

It was as if death had positioned itself right behind me before I knew it, and there was nothing I could do.

After the pronouncement, my wife and I researched ways to prolong my life. It was literally a life or death situation. We received the support of staunch frends and strong allies. I rejected anti-cancer medication, and tried to live with a view of the world slightly different from the norm. The fact that I rejected what was "expected (normal)" seemed to me to be very much like me.

I've never really felt that I belonged with the majority. It was the same for medical care, as with anything else. "Why not try to keep living according to my own principles!" However, as is the case when I'm trying to create a work [a film], ones willpower alone didn't do the job. The illness kept progressing day by day.

On the other hand, as a member of society, I do accept at least half of what society in general holds to be right. I do pay taxes. I'm far from being an upstanding citizen, but I am a full member of Japanese society. So, aside from the things I needed to do to prolong my life from my own point of view, I also attempted to do all the things necessary to "be ready to die properly". I don't think I managed to do it properly though. (But) one of the things I did was, with the cooperation of 2 friends that I could trust, set up a company to take care of things like the measly number of copyrights that I hold. Another thing that I did was, to insure that my wife would take over any modest assets that I had smoothly by writing a will. Of course, I didn't think there would be any fighting over my legacy or anything, but I wanted to make sure that my wife, who would remain behind in this world, would have nothing to worry about - and besides, I wanted to remove any anxiety from myself, the one who was going to take a little hop over there, before I had to leave.

The paperwork and research necessary for these tasks, which neither my wife nor I were good at doing, were taken care of speedily by wonderful friends. Later on, when I developed pneumonia and was at death's door, and put my final signature on the will, I thought that if I died right then and there, it couldn't be helped.

"Ah...I can die at last."

After all, I'd been brought by ambulance to the Musashino Red Cross Hospital 2 days before that; then brought back again to the same hospital by ambulance the day after. Even I had to be hospitalized and undergo many examinations. The result of those examinations: pneumonia, water in my chest, and when I asked the doctor [straight out], the answer I received was very businesslike, and I was in a way grateful for that.

"You may last 1 or 2 days...even if you survive this, you probably have until the end of the month."

As I listened, I thought "It's like he's telling me the weather forecast", but still the situation was dire.

That was July the 7th. It was a rather brutal Tanabata for sure.

So, I decided right there and then.

I wanted to die at home.

I might inconvenience the people around me, but I asked them to see how I could escape and go back home. [I was able to do so] thanks to my wife's efforts, the hospital's cooperation despite their position of having given up on me, the tremendous help of other medical facilities, and the coincidences that were so numerous that they only seemed to be gifts from heaven. I've never seen so many coincidences and events falling into place so neatly in real life, I could barely believe it. This wasn't Tokyo Godfathers after all.

While my wife was running around getting things in place for my escape, I was pleading with doctors "If I can go home for even half a day, there are things I can still do!", then waiting alone in the depressing hospital room for death. I was lonely, but this was what I was thinking.

"Maybe dying won't be so bad."

I didn't have any reasons for it, and perhaps I needed to think like that, but I was surprisingly calm and relaxed.

However, there was just one thought that was gnawing away at me.

"I don't want to die here..."

As I thought that, something moved out from the calendar on the wall and started to spread around the room.

"Oh dear, a line marching out from the calendar. My　hallucinations aren't at all original."

I had to smile at the fact at my professional instincts were working even at times like this, but in any case I was probably the nearest to the land of the dead that I'd ever been at that point. I really felt death very close to me. [But] with the help of many people, I miraculously escaped Musashino Red Cross and came back home, wrapped up in the land of the dead and bedsheets.

I should emphasize that I have no criticism of or hatred for Musashino Red Cross Hospital, so don't misconstrue me.

I just wanted to go home to my own house. The house where I live.

I was a little surprised that, when I was being carried into my living room, as a bonus, I experienced that deathbed experience everyone is familiar with of "looking down on your body being carried into the room from a place high above". I was looking down on myself and the scene around me from a position several meters above ground, through a wide-angle-ish lens and flash lighting. The square of the bed in the middle of the room seemed very large and prominent, and my sheet-wrapped body was being lowered into the middle of the square. None too gently it seemed, but I'm not complaining.

So, all I had to do was to wait for death in my own home.

However.

It seems that I was able to overcome the pneumonia.

Eh?

I did think like this, in a way.

"I didn't manage to die! (laugh)"

Afterwards, when I could think of nothing else but death, I thought that I did indeed die once then. In the back of my mind, the world "reborn" wavered several times.

Amazingly, after then my life-force was rejuvenated. From the bottom of my heart, I believe this is due to the people who helped me; first and foremost my wife, and my supportive friends, the doctors and nurses, and the care managers.

Now that my life-force had been restarted, I couldn't waste my time. I told myself that I'd been given an extra life, and that I had to spend it carefully. So I thought that I wanted to erase at least one of the irresponsibilities that I'd left behind in this world.

To be truthful, I'd only told the people closest to me about the cancer. I hadn't even told my parents. In particular, because of various work-related complications, I couldn't say anything (to people) even if I wanted to. I wanted to announce my cancer on the internet and report on my remaining life, but if Satoshi's death was scheduled, there might be some waves made, however small. For these reasons, I acted very irresponsibly to people clear to me. I am so sorry.

There were so many people that I wanted to see before I died, to say even one word of greeting to. Family and relatives, old friends and classmates from elementary and middle and high school, the mates I met in college, the people I met in the manga world, with whom I exchanged so much inspiration, the people in the anime world whose desks I sat next to, went drinking with, with whom I competed on on the same works, the mates with whom I shared good and bad times. The countless people I was able to know because of my position as a film director, the people who call themselves my fans not only in Japan but around the world, the friends I'd made via the web.

There are so many people that I want to see at least once (well there are some I don't want to see too), but if I see them I'm afraid that that the thought that "I can never see this person again" will take me over, and that I wouldn't be able to greet death gracefully. Even if I had recovered, I had very little life force left, and it took a lot of effort to see people. The more people wanted to see me, the harder it was for me to see them. What irony. In addition, my lower body was paralyzed due to the cancer spreading to my bones, and I was prone on my bed, and I didn't want people to see my emaciated body. I wanted most of the people I knew to remember me as the Satoshi that was full of life.

I'd like to use this space to apologize to my relatives, friends and acquaintances, for not telling you about my cancer, for my irresponsibility. Please understand that this was Satoshi's selfish desire. I mean, Satoshi Kon was "that kind of guy". When I envision your faces, I only have good memories and remember (your) great smiles. Everyone, thank you for all the truly great memories. I loved the world I lived in. Just the fact that I can think that makes me happy.

The many people that I met throughout my lifetime, whether they were positive or negative, have helped to shape the human being that is Satoshi Kon, and I am grateful for all of those encounters. Even if the end result is an early death in my mid 40s, I've accepted this as my own unique destiny. I've had so many positive things happen to me after all.

The thing I think about death now. "I can only say, it's too bad." Really.

However, even though I can let go of many of my irresponsible actions [by not telling people], I cannot help regretting two things. About my parents, and about Madhouse [founder] Maruyama-san.

Even though it was rather late, there was no choice but to come clean with the whole truth. I wanted to beg them for forgiveness.

As soon as I saw Maruyama-san's face when he came to see me at home, I couldn't stop the flow of tears or my feeling of shame. "I'm so sorry, for ending up like this..." Maruyama-san said nothing, and just shook his head and gripped both my hands. I was filled with thankfulness. Feelings of gratitude and joy, that I'd been lucky enough to work with this person, came over me like a landslide. It may be selfish, but I felt as though I had been forgiven in that instant.

My biggest regret is the film "Dreaming Machine". I'm worried not only about the film itself, but about the staff with whom I was able to work with on the film. After all, there's a strong possibility that the storyboards that were created with (our) blood, sweat and tears will never be seen. This is because Satoshi Kon put his arms around the original story, the script, the characters and the settings, the sketches, the music...every single image. Of course there are things that I shared with the animation director, the art director and other staff [members], but basically most of the work can only be understood by Satoshi Kon. It's easy to say that it was my fault for arranging things this way, but from my point of view I made every effort to share my vision with others. However, in my current state I can only feel deep remorse for my inadequacies in these areas. I am really sorry to all of the staff. However, I want them to understand, if only a little bit. Satoshi Kon was "that kind of guy", and, that's why he was able to make rather weird anime that was a bit different. I know this is a selfish excuse, but think of my cancer and please forgive me.

I haven't been idly waiting for death, even now I'm thinking with my weak brain of ways to let the work live even after I am gone. But they are all shallow ideas. When I told Maruyama-san about my concerns about "Dreaming Machine", he just said "Don't worry. We'll figure out something, so don't worry."

I wept.

I wept uncontrollably.

Even with my previous movies, I've been so irresponsible with the productions and the budgets, but I always had Maruyama-san figure it out for me in the end.

This time is no different. I really haven't changed.

I was able to talk to my heart's content with Maruyama-san. Thanks to this, I was able to feel, at least a little, that Satoshi Kon's talents and skills were of some value in our industry.

"I regret losing your talent. I wish that you were able to leave it for us."

If Madhouse's Maruyama-san says that, I can go to the netherworld with a little bit of self-pride after all. And of course, even without anyone else telling me this, I do feel regret that my weird visions and ability to draw things in minute detail will be lost, but that can't be helped. I am grateful from the bottom of my heart that Maruyama-san gave me the opportunity to show the world these things. Thank you, so very much. Satoshi Kon was happy as an animation director.

It was so heartbreaking to tell my parents.

I'd really intended to go up to Sapporo, where my parents live, while I was still able to, but my illness progressed so unexpectedly and annoyingly fast that I ended up calling them on the telephone from the hospital room as I was closest to death.

"I'm in the late stages of cancer and will die soon. I was so happy being born as a child to Father and Mother. Thank you."

They must have been devastated to hear this out of the blue, but I was certain I was going to die right then.

But then I came back home and survived the pneumonia. I made the big decision to see my parents. They wanted to see me too. But it was going to be so hard to see them, and I didn't have the will to. But I wanted to see my parents' faces one last time. I wanted to tell them how grateful I was that they brought me into this world.

I've been a happy person. Even though I must apologize to my wife, my parents and all the people that I love, that lived out my life a bit too faster than most.

My parents followed my selfish wishes, and came the next day from Sapporo to my house. I can never forget the first words out of my mother's mouth when she saw me lying there.

"I'm so sorry, for not bringing you into this world with a stronger body!"

I was completely speechless.

I could only spend a short time with my parents, but that was enough. I had felt that if I saw their faces, that it would be enough, and it really turned out that way.

Thank you, Father, Mother. I am so happy that I was born into this world as the child of the both of you. My heart is full of memories and gratitude. Happiness itself is important, but I am so grateful that you taught me to appreciate happiness. Thank you, so very much .

It's so disrespectful to to die before ones parents, but in the last 10 plus years, I've been able to do what I want as an anime director, achieve my goals, and get some good reviews. I do feel regret that my films didn't make a lot of money, but I think they got what they deserved. In these last 10 plus years in particular I've felt as though I've lived more intensively than other people, and I think that my parents understood what was in my heart.

Because of the visits by Maruyama-san and my parents, I feel as though I've taken a big burden off my shoulders.

Lastly, to my wife, about whom I worry the most, but who has been my support until the end.

Since that time-left pronouncement, we drowned ourselves in tears together so many times. Every day was brutal for both of us, physically and mentally. There are almost no words for it. But the reason why I was able to survive those difficult days was because of the words that you said to me right after we received the news.

"I'll be at your side [run with you] until the end."

True to those words, as though you were leaving my worries in the dust, you skillfully directed the demands and requests that came rushing towards us like a landslide, and quickly learned how to take care of your husband. I was so moved, watching you deal with things so efficiently.

"My wife is awesome."

No need to keep saying that now, you say? No no. You are even more awesome now than you ever were - I truly feel this. Even after I have died, I believe that you will send Satoshi Kon to the next world with grace. Ever since we got married, I was so wrapped up in "Work, work" that I was only able to spend some time at home after the cancer - such a shame.

But you stood close to me, you always understood that I needed to immerse myself in my work, that my talent was there. I was happy. Truly happy. During my life, and as I wait for death, I just can't express my gratitude to you enough. Thank you.

There are so many things, countless things, that I worry about, but everything needs an end. Lastly, to Doctor H who agreed to see me to the end in my home, even though it's something not done these days, and his wife and nurse, K-san, I would like to express my deep gratitude. Medical care in a private home is very inconvenient, but you patiently dealt with the numerous aches and pains that cancer brings on, and endeavores to make my time until the final goal called death be as comfortable as possible. I can't say how much you helped me. And you didn't just deal with this difficult and arrogant patient as if it were just your jobs, but communicated with me as human beings. I cannot say how much of a support you were to me, and how much you saved me. I was encouraged by your qualities as human beings several times. I am deeply deeply grateful.

And, this is really the last, but from shortly after I received that pronouncement in mid-May until now, I've been lucky to have the cooperation, help and mental support, both personally and in business, from 2 friends. My friend T, who has been a friend since high school and is a member of KON'Stone Inc, and producer H, I thank you both from the bottom of my heart. Thank you so much. It's hard for me with my measly vocabulary to express my gratitude adequately to you both. My wife and I have both received so much from you.

If you two hadn't been there for us, I am sure that I'd be anticipating death while looking at my wife here as she sits by my side with considerably more trepidation and worry. I am really in your debt.

And, if I may ask you for one more thing - could you help my wife send me over to the other side after my death? I'd be able to get on that flight with my mind at rest if you could do that for me. I ask this from my heart.

So, to everyone who stuck with me through this long document, thank you. With my heart full of gratitude for everything good in the world, I'll put down my pen.

Now excuse me, I have to go.

Satoshi Kon

Rừng Na Uy (2010)

Như nhiều bạn (chủ yếu là trẻ, tôi nghĩ vậy) Việt Nam, tôi rất thích Rừng Na Uy, không phải thích vì cái không khí buồn bã, đôi lúc là tuyệt vọng, mất phương hướng của tuổi trẻ mà Murakami đã tạo ra, cũng không phải thích vì những chiêm nghiệm về cuộc đời của Toru, của "The Great Gatsby" Nagasawa, tôi thích đơn giản vì qua Rừng Na Uy, tôi nhìn thấy lại một phần cái tuổi 18-20 đầy biến động của mình, nhìn thấy lại những bóng hình mà tôi từng rất yêu quý qua Naoko, qua Midori, hay nói cách khác tôi trân trọng cuốn tiểu thuyết này vì nó như một chiếc cầu thời gian để nối người đọc, ở đây là tôi, với những cung bậc cảm xúc của quá khứ.

Cung bậc cảm xúc, đó cũng là những thứ tôi muốn tìm thấy thông qua bộ phim của Trần Anh Hùng, một chuyển thể mà qua những gì tôi đã đọc trên báo chí hay nghe từ những "fan hâm mộ" của Rừng Na Uy thì là không được thành công cho lắm. Quả thực Rừng Na Uy có nhiều điểm, tạm gọi là khiếm khuyết, kết cấu phim khá rời rạc, có cảm giác Trần Anh Hùng đã cố gắng chắt lọc những khoảnh khắc tinh túy nhất của tiểu thuyết để đưa vào bộ phim này, và vì thế đã bỏ qua nhiều trường đoạn dẫn dắt hay những backstory vốn rất cần thiết để tạo dựng nên từng nhân vật trong truyện. Tất nhiên thời lượng hạn chế của một bộ phim không thể đủ cho đạo diễn đưa vào mọi tình tiết của tiểu thuyết, nhưng nếu Trần Anh Hùng chọn một cách tiếp cận khác thì có lẽ Reiko đã không phải chịu cảnh "bất công" như trong bộ phim này, đó là thoắt ẩn thoắt hiện với những hành động (đặc biệt là phần cuối cùng của phim) khiến người xem không thể hiểu nổi, không thể cảm nổi nếu chưa từng đọc truyện. Một điểm khác tôi không thích ở Rừng Na Uy đó là cách sử dụng âm nhạc, bản thân từng đoạn nhạc trong phim là tuyệt hay, nhưng cách đặt nó vào trong các cảnh phim khiến tôi có cảm giác Trần Anh Hùng đang cố ép cảm xúc của người xem theo sự sắp đặt, theo cách cảm thụ của ông, đặc biệt là ở phần đầu của phim (tôi sẽ nói thêm một chút về nhạc ở phần sau).

Nhưng nếu như Trần Anh Hùng chọn một cách tiếp cận khác, có lẽ tôi đã không thể thỏa mãn đến vậy với những trường đoạn cảm xúc lắng đọng của phim. Ngay cả khi tách riêng bộ phim và tiểu thuyết, theo tôi Trần Anh Hùng cũng đã quá thành công trong việc tạo nên đủ mọi cung bậc cảm xúc khác nhau của những người trẻ và của những tình cảm, những giấc mơ dang dở. Thích nhất có lẽ là những phân đoạn có sự xuất hiện của Naoko (Rinko Kikuchi), nhiều người cho rằng cách tạo hình của Naoko trong phim là quá già so với cái forever 20 của cô, nhưng đối với tôi nó không quan trọng, quan trọng là nhìn vào Naoko, người ta thấy cả sự trong sáng, nhạy cảm với cuộc đời, với sự quan tâm của Toru dành cho cô, lại vừa thấy ở cô có chút gì đó khó hiểu và cực kì mỏng manh, mỏng manh như ngọn cỏ luôn phải rạp mình trước gió nơi thảo nguyên mà Naoko và Toru thường đi dạo. Về phần Toru, tôi nghĩ Kenichi Matsuyama (người từng rất thành công với vai L trong Death Note) cũng đã hoàn thành vai trò của một người-quan-sát, người chứng kiến nỗi đau, sự mất mát của những người phụ nữ quanh anh để rồi chính mình cũng chìm dần trong "cái giếng" vô định. Tôi rất ấn tượng với trường đoạn Toru cô đơn một mình bên bờ biển và đoạn trống trải hoang mang ở cuối phim, một sự trống trải cô đơn đến cùng cực của một người trẻ lạc mất phương hướng cho cuộc đời và tình cảm của mình. Khi đọc Rừng Na Uy, nhân vật mà tôi yêu quý, đúng từ là "yêu quý" chứ không phải "yêu thích" nữa, là Midori Kobayashi, một làn gió lạ tươi mát giữa những tâm hồn tuyệt vọng, "màu xanh" có lẽ là duy nhất của Rừng Na Uy. Kiko Mizuhara thực sự không làm tôi thỏa mãn với cách diễn của cô trong vai Midori, vẻ đẹp mong manh và cách diễn hơi "hiền lành" của cô đã làm nhân vật Midori bị chìm hẳn đi sau cái bóng của Toru, của Naoko và thậm chí là của Reiko (Reika Kirishima đã diễn rất thành công vai diễn này, bất kể việc đất diễn dành cho cô không nhiều, cô thực sự đã tái hiện được hình ảnh của một Reiko mà tôi từng tưởng tượng ra khi đọc truyện). Tuy Trần Anh Hùng đã không "chăm sóc thích đáng" cho "Midori của tôi", nhưng nói chung tôi không mong đợi gì hơn những hình ảnh mà các diễn viên của Trần Anh Hùng đã đem lại cho Rừng Na Uy, họ đã tạo nên được một the lost generation với những giờ phút lạc lối, tuyệt vọng nhưng vẫn gắng sống, sống hết mình của tuổi trẻ-giai đoạn mà ai cũng đã từng trải qua và muốn nó ở lại mãi trong cuộc đời mình.

Một điểm khác của Rừng Na Uy khiến tôi ngưỡng mộ đó là phần hình ảnh. Vốn đã từng được chiêm ngưỡng sự tinh tế của Trần Anh Hùng trong việc chọn góc quay đẹp trong những bối cảnh hẹp nơi thành thị với những gam màu đậm giàu cảm xúc, tôi không ngờ rằng Trần Anh Hùng vẫn giữ nguyên được sự tinh tế của mình khi chuyển bối cảnh ra không gian rộng lớn hùng vĩ của thiên nhiên nước Nhật, với đồng cỏ xanh mướt mắt mùa xuân và trắng xóa màu tuyết trong mùa đông, với những khu rừng mờ sương buổi sớm (cảnh có lẽ là đẹp nhất, và là cảnh tôi thích nhất trong phim) hay là những ghềnh đá sù sì như cảm xúc đã trở nên chai sạn của Toru. Mùa thu năm nay tôi may mắn có cơ hội đến Nhật Bản, để dựa đầu vào cửa kính ô tô ngắm những cánh rừng hùng vĩ trải dài miên man hay đứng bên ghềnh đá nghe sóng vỗ không ngừng đúng như những gì tôi từng đọc trong truyện, nhưng phải đến khi xem những cảnh quay tuyệt đẹp của Rừng Na Uy-của-Trần Anh Hùng (và nhà quay phim Lý Bình Tân, cộng tác viên "ruột" của Hầu Hiến Hiền và là người quay In the Mood for Love sau khi Christopher Doyle bỏ phim) tôi mới cảm nhận được cái vẻ đẹp thực sự của thiên nhiên nước Nhật đã gắn chặt với số phận, với tình cảm của những nhân vật trong Rừng Na Uy như thế nào. Bổ sung vào nét đẹp của cảnh phim là phần nhạc phim lắng đọng, tuy đôi lúc khiến tôi thấy khó chịu vì bị "ép cảm xúc", đặc biệt là ở phần đầu phim, nhưng cách Jonny Greenwood (người đã tạo ra phần nhạc tuyệt hảo cho There Will Be Blood) đan xen những khúc nhạc trầm buồn của một thời đã qua với những giờ phút tĩnh lặng bao trùm cũng đã thực sự khiến cho người xem được cuốn theo dòng cảm xúc trong phim. Nói về dòng cảm xúc, có lẽ nhiều người xem sẽ không thích cách Trần Anh Hùng kể chuyện chậm rãi, để rất nhiều không gian và thời gian cho những góc quay cận đặc tả khuôn mặt (và đằng sau đó là rất nhiều tầng cảm xúc) của các nhân vật. Nhưng với riêng tôi, đó là cái phong cách tôi rất thích ở Trần Anh Hùng, vì nó trầm mặc rất Á Đông, và vì nó còn làm tôi gợi nhớ đến Ozu, đạo diễn tôi rất yêu thích, một bậc thầy biểu đạt cảm xúc qua cái tĩnh lặng. Có thể một đạo diễn khác sẽ chọn cách dẫn phim đi nhanh hơn, bao quát được nhiều chi tiết hơn, kể được nhiều hơn về các nhân vật của Rừng Na Uy, nhưng tôi chẳng cần đến thế, bởi những cảm xúc của Rừng Na Uy-của-Trần Anh Hùng đã là quá đủ để tôi hình dung lại cuốn tiểu thuyết mà tôi yêu thích, và nhớ lại về những cảm xúc mà mình đã từng có trong quá khứ.

Một số phim muốn xem trong năm nay

01. Blue Valentine



Phim có trailer quá hay, có lẽ sẽ nói về một mối tình đau đớn với sad ending - đúng gu phim của tôi.

02. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2



Tuy không hào hứng lắm với loạt phim HP nhưng tôi rất chờ đợi phần 2 của Deathly Hallows để xem đoạn flashback về cuộc đời của Severus Snape thế nào (đoạn tôi thích nhất trong cả bộ truyện HP) và diễn xuất của Alan Rickman (diễn viên mà tôi rất yêu thích) trong đoạn này sẽ thế nào.

03. Don't Go Breaking My Heart



Đã lâu mới lại thấy Đỗ Kì Phong quay lại với phim tình cảm, không biết liệu sẽ có một Needing You hay Running on Karma mới không.

04. Paul



Nick Frost + Simon Pegg = something unique and hilarious, and worth watching.

05. Hanna



Sau Kick-Ass, Hollywood lại cho "ra lò" thêm một sát thủ nhí nữa - Hanna. Hy vọng là sau thất bại của The Lovely Bones, Saoirse Ronan sẽ chứng tỏ được khả năng của mình qua vai diễn này.

The Complete Agatha Christie Rating

Một trong những niềm yêu thích lớn nhất của tôi mấy năm vừa qua là đọc tiểu thuyết trinh thám của Agatha Christie. Từ một quyển, hai quyển, rồi tới mười quyển, và cuối cùng tôi quyết định phải bằng mọi cách đọc cho bằng hết toàn bộ tiểu thuyết và truyện ngắn trinh thám của nữ tác gia này. Và đây là kết quả của cái kế hoạch đó, một trong số rất ít kế hoạch mà tôi thực hiện được từ đầu đến cuối (thực ra là chưa "đến cuối" vì vẫn còn tới ba tiểu thuyết tôi chưa đọc - They Came to Baghdad, By the Pricking of My Thumbs và Passenger to Frankfurt). Năm hết Tết đến rồi, post cái "công trình" này lên coi như là kỉ niệm một năm nhiều biến động:

1920	The Mysterious Affair at Styles	♥♥♥♥
1922	The Secret Adversary	♥♥
1923	The Murder on the Links	♥♥♥♥
1924	The Man in the Brown Suit	♥♥♥♥
1925	The Secret of Chimneys	♥♥♥
1926	The Murder of Roger Ackroyd	♥♥♥♥♥
1927	The Big Four	♥♥♥
1928	The Mystery of the Blue Train	♥♥♥
1929	The Seven Dials Mystery (The Secret of Chimneys part II)	♥♥♥
1930	Murder at the Vicarage	♥♥♥♥
1931	The Sittaford Mystery	♥♥♥♥
1932	Peril at End House	♥♥♥♥
1933	Lord Edgware Dies	♥♥♥♥
1934	Murder on the Orient Express	♥♥♥♥♥
1934	Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?	♥♥♥♥
1935	Three-Act Tragedy	♥♥♥♥
1935	Death in the Clouds	♥♥♥♥
1936	The ABC Murders	♥♥♥♥♥
1936	Murder in Mesopotamia	♥♥♥
1936	Cards on the Table	♥♥♥♥
1937	Dumb Witness	♥♥♥
1937	Death on the Nile	♥♥♥♥
1938	Appointment with Death	♥♥♥
1938	Hercule Poirot’s Christmas	♥♥♥
1939	Murder Is Easy	♥♥♥
1939	And Then There Were None	♥♥♥♥♥
1940	Sad Cypress	♥♥
1940	One, Two, Buckle My Shoe	♥♥♥♥
1940	Sleeping Murder	♥♥♥♥
1941	Evil Under the Sun	♥♥♥
1941	N or M	♥♥♥
1942	The Body in the Library	♥♥♥♥
1943	Five Little Pigs	♥♥♥♥♥
1943	The Moving Finger	♥♥♥♥
1944	Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case	♥♥♥♥♥
1944	Death Comes as the End	♥♥♥
1944	Towards Zero	♥♥♥♥♥
1945	Sparkling Cyanide	♥♥♥
1946	The Hollow	♥♥♥
1948	Taken at the Flood	♥♥♥
1949	Crooked House	♥♥♥
1950	A Murder Is Announced	♥♥♥
1951	They Came to Baghdad
1952	Mrs McGinty’s Dead	♥♥♥
1952	They Do It With Mirrors	♥♥
1953	A Pocket Full of Rye	♥♥
1953	After the Funeral	♥♥♥
1954	Destination Unknown	♥♥
1955	Hickory Dickory Dock	♥♥♥
1956	Dead Man’s Folly	♥♥♥♥
1957	4.50 from Paddington	♥♥♥♥
1958	Ordeal by Innocence	♥♥♥♥
1959	Cat Among the Pigeons	♥♥♥
1961	The Pale Horse	♥♥♥
1962	The Mirror Cracked from Side to Side	♥♥♥♥
1963	The Clocks	♥♥♥
1964	A Caribbean Mystery	♥♥♥
1965	At Bertram’s Hotel	♥♥♥
1966	Third Girl	♥♥
1967	Endless Night	♥♥♥
1968	By the Pricking of My Thumbs
1969	Hallowe’en Party	♥♥♥
1970	Passenger to Frankfurt
1971	Nemesis	♥♥
1972	Elephants Can Remember	♥♥
1973	Postern of Fate	♥♥

Danh sách này có lẽ cũng sẽ có ích cho những bạn muốn tìm hiểu về Agatha Christie nhưng không biết đâu là tiểu thuyết thực sự hay để đọc (thay vì phải đọc cả bộ mấy chục quyển), đây cũng từng là khó khăn của tôi trong giai đoạn đầu đọc Agatha Christie - không ai recommend cho tôi những tiểu thuyết nên đọc khiến cho tôi đôi khi "vớ" phải những tiểu thuyết rất dở như Postern of Fate hay Elephants Can Remember.

Cùng nằm trong loạt bài về Agatha Christie:
- Agatha Christie và phim hình sự
- Miss Marple

Roger Ebert's 2010 Best Films

Đã lại năm hết rồi, một năm bận bịu tối mắt tối mũi tới mức không có thời gian để xem phim chứ đừng nói là viết review. Thôi kỷ niệm cuối năm đành post cái danh sách của bác Ebert lên vậy:

1. "The Social Network." Here is a film about how people relate to their corporate roles and demographic groups rather than to each other as human beings. That's the fascination for me; not the rise of social networks but the lives of those who are socially networked. Mark Zuckerberg, who made billions from Facebook and plans to give most of it away, isn't driven by greed or the lust for power. He's driven by obsession with an abstract system. He could as well be a chess master like Bobby Fischer. He finds satisfaction in manipulating systems. The tension in the film is between Zuckerberg and the Winklevoss twins, who may way have invented Facebook for all I know, but are traditional analog humans motivated by pride and possessiveness. If Zuckerberg took their idea and ran with it, it was because he saw it as a logical insight rather than intellectual property. Some films observe fundamental shifts in human nature, and this is one of them.

David Fincher's direction, Aaron Sorkin's screenplay and the acting by Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake and the others all harmoniously create not only a story but a world view, showing how Zuckerberg is hopeless at personal relationships but instinctively projects himself into a virtual world and brings 500 million others behind him. "The Social Network" clarifies a process that some believe (and others fear) is creating a new mind-set.

2. "The King's Speech." Here, in a sense, is a first step in a journey that could lead to the world of "The Social Network." Prince Albert (Colin Firth), who as George VI would lead the British Empire into World War Two, is seen in an opening scene confronting a loud-speaker as he opens the Empire Games. He is humiliated by a paralyzing stutter. The film tells the story of how his wife Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) involves him with a rough-hewn Australian speech therapist (Geoffrey Rush), whose unorthodox methods him to eventually face a BBC microphone and forcefully inform the world that the empire was declaring war.

All of the personalities and values in "The King's Speech" are traditional (and the royal values are too traditional, the therapist believes). Tom Hooper's filmmaking itself is crafted in older style, depending on an assembly of actors, costumes, sets, and a three-act structure. The characters project considered ideas of themselves; "The Social Network," in contrast, intimately lays its characters bare. From one man speaking at a distance through the radio, to another man shepherding hundreds of millions through a software program, the two films show technology shaping human nature.

A difference between them is that we feel genuinely moved by the events in "The King's Speech." We identify. While some people may seek to copy the events in "The Social Network," few, I think, would identify with those characters. Mark Zuckerberg is as much a technology-created superhero as Iron Man.

3. "Black Swan." And now we leave technology and even reality behind, and enter a world where the cinema has always found an easy match: Fantasy. That movies were dreamlike was understood from the very beginning, and the medium allowed directors to evoke the psychological states of their characters. "Black Swan" uses powerful performances by Natalie Portman and Vincent Cassel to represent archetypal attributes: Female/male, young/old, submissive/dominant, perfect/flawed, child/parent, good/evil, real/mythical.

Tchaikovsky’s "Swan Lake" provides a template for a backstage story that seems familiar enough (young ballerina tries to please her perfectionist mother and demanding director). Gradually we realize a psychological undertow is drawing her away from reality, and the frenzy of the ballet's climax is mirrored in her own life. This film depends more than many others on the intensity and presence of the actors, and Portman's ballerina is difficult to imagine coming from another actor.

4. "I Am Love." In this film and "Julia" (2008), Tilda Swinton created masterful performances that were largely unseen because of inadequate distribution. Is it an Academy performance is no one sees it? Here she easily clears a technical hurdle (she is a British actress speaking Italian with what I understand is a Russian accent), playing Emma, a Russian woman who has married into a large, wealthy and guarded Milanese family.

She isn't treated unkindly, at least not in obvious ways, but she doesn't -- belong. She is hostess, mother, wife, trophy, but never member. Now her husband and son are taking over the family dynasty, and her life is in flux. When she learns her daughter is a lesbian, she reacts not as an Italian matriarch might, but as the outsider she is in surprise and curiosity. She has heard of such things.

Now she meets a young chef named Antonio (Edoardo Gabbriellini), a friend of her son's. A current passes between them. They become lovers. There are many ways for actors to represent sex on the screen, and Swinton rarely copies herself; here as Emma she is urgent as if a dam has burst, releasing not passion but happiness. She evokes Emma as a woman who for years has met the needs of her family, and discovers in a few days to meet her own needs. She must have been waiting a long time for Antonio, whoever he would be.

5. "Winter's Bone." Another film with its foundation on a strong female performance. Jennifer Lawrence plays Ree, a girl of 17 who acts as the homemaker for her younger brother and sister in the backlands of the Ozarks. Her mother sits useless all day, mentally absent. Her father, who was jailed for cooking meth, is missing. She tries to raise the kids, scraping along on welfare and the kindness of neighbors.

When the family is threatened with homelessness, she must find her father, who skipped bail. She sets out on an odyssey. At its end will be Ree's father, dead or alive. Unless there is a body her family will be torn apart. She treks through a landscape scarcely less ruined than the one in Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Debra Granik, the director and co-author, risks backwoods caricatures and avoids them with performances that are exact and indelible, right down to small supporting roles. Ree is one of the great women of recent movies.

6. "Inception." A movie set within the architecture of dreams. The film's hero (Leonardo DiCaprio) challenges a young architect (Ellen Page) to create such fantasy spaces as part of his raids on the minds of corporate rivals. The movie is all about process, about fighting our way through enveloping sheets of reality and dream, reality within dreams, dreams without reality. It's a breathtaking juggling act by writer-director Christopher Nolan, who spent 10 years devising the labyrinthine script.

Do dreams "have" an architecture? Well, they require one for the purposes of this brilliantly visualized movie. For some time now, I've noticed that every dream I awaken from involves a variation of me urgently trying to return somewhere by taking a half-remembered way through streets and buildings.

Sometimes I know my destination (I get off a ship and catch a train but am late for a flight and not packed). Sometimes I'm in a vast hotel. Sometimes crossing the University of Illinois campus, which has greatly changed. In every case, my attempt is to follow an abstract path (turn down here and cut across and come back up) which I could map for you. "Inception" led me to speculate that my mind, at least, generates architectural pathways, and that one reason I responded to "Inception" is that, like all movies, it was a waking dream.

7. "The Secret in their Eyes." This 2009 film from Argentina won the Academy Award for best foreign film of 2010. But it opened in 2010 in the U.S., and so certainly qualifies. It spans the years between 1974 and 2000 in Buenos Aries, as a woman who is a judge and a man who is a retired criminal investigator meet after 26 years. In 1974 they were associated on a case of rape and murder, and the man still believes the wrong men were convicted of the crime. The whole case is bound up in the right wing regime of those days, and the "disappearances" of enemies of the state.

Although the criminal story is given full weight, writer-director Juan Jose Campanella is more involved in the romantic charge between his two characters. No, this isn't a silly movie love story. These are adults -- experienced, nuanced, survivors. Love has very high stakes for them, and therefore greater rewards. Soledad Villamil and Ricardo Darin have presence and authority that makes their scenes together emotionally meaningful, as beneath the surface old secrets coil.

8. "The American." George Clooney plays an enigmatic man whose job is creating specialized weapons for specialized murders. He builds them, delivers the, and disappears. Now someone wants hi to disappear for good. A standard thriller plot, but this is a far from mainstream thriller. Very little is explained. There is a stark minimalism at work. Much depends on our empathy. The entire drama rests on two words, "Mr. Butterfly." We must be vigilant to realize that once, and only once, are they spoken by the wrong person -- and then the whole plot reality rotates.

A few of my colleagues admired this film by Anton Corbijn very much. Most of them admired it very little. I received demands from readers that I refund their money, and messages agreeing that there was greatness here. "The American" reminded me of "Le Samourai" (1967) by Jean-Pierre Melville, which starred another handsome man (Alain Delon) in the role of an enigmatic murder professional. The film sees dispassionately, guards its secrets, and ends like a clockwork mechanism arriving at its final, clarifying tick.

9. "Kids Are All Right." There are ways to read that title: Kids in general are all right, these particular kids are all right, and it is all right for lesbians to form a family and raise them. Each mother bore one of the children, and because the same anonymous sperm donor was used, they're half-siblings. The mothers and long-time partners are played by Julianne Moore and Annette Bening, and like many couples, they're going through a little mid-life crisis.

Their children (Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson) unexpectedly contact their birth father (Mark Ruffalo), and the women are startled to find him back in their lives. It was all supposed to be a one-time pragmatic relationship. Ruffalo plays him as a hippie-ish organic gardener for whom "laid back" is a moral choice. He thinks it's cool to meet his kids, it's cool their moms are married, it's cool they invite him for dinner. I mean…sure, yes, of course…I mean, why not? Sure. In a comedy with some deeper colors, the film is an affirmation of -- family values.

10. "The Ghost Writer." In Roman Polanski's best film in years, a man without a past rattles around in the life of a man with too much of one. A ghost writer (Ewan McGregor) is hired to write the autobiography of a former British Prime Minister so inspired by Tony Blair that he might as well be wearing a name tag. He comes to stay at an isolated country house, in which everyone is a potential mysterious suspect. His wife Ruth (Olivia Williams), smart and bitter, met Lang a Cambridge. His assistant Amelia (Kim Cattrall), smart and devious, is having an affair with him. The writer comes cross information that suggests much of what he sees is a lie, and his life may be in danger.

This movie is the work of a man who knows how to direct a thriller. Smooth, calm, confident, it builds suspense instead of depending on shock and action. The actors create characters who suggest intriguing secrets. The atmosphere -- a rain-swept Martha's Vineyard in winter -- has an ominous, grey chill, and the main interior looks just as cold. The key performances are measured for effect, not ramped up for effect. In an age of dumbed-down thrillers, this one evokes a classic tradition.