現在的電影行業, 多以金錢掛帥. 荷里活最普遍有三招, 第一, 以最紅的明星為主角, 因為他們是票房保證, 本土以至全球性收入不會太差, 但這招力度漸弱, 慢慢比不上以下兩招; 第二, 改編漫畫, 以家傳戶曉的character和背景創作新故事, 所以Superman, Wonderwoman, Batman, Spiderman, Ironman等等逐一成電影焦點, 漫畫迷基礎不可忽視; 第三, 以電腦特技掛帥, 只要CG做得夠悅目, 沒有明星不緊要, 劇本犯駁不緊要, 觀眾入場只希望沈醉在電腦才做得到的fantasy. 君不見<2012>這套爛到不堪的CG片, 以災難片命名, 但只是在一個沒有思想的劇本中充斥大量特技, 卻輕易做到本年度香港及中國大陸的票房三甲.
港產片呢, 一年產量由以往以百計減到這幾年只有五十套左右, 還要顧及十三億同胞的大陸市場, 小本製作不划算. 就是因為要照顧相對封閉的中國大陸市場, 還有越來越多合拍片, 很多超級大製作都涉及歷史題材如<英雄>, <赤壁>, 或小朋友都認識的人物故事. 就算是2009年的聖誕及2010農曆新年檔期, 隨便數數便有與國父有關的<十月圍城>, <花木蘭>, <蘇乞兒>和<孔子>.
我喜歡的電影, 並非那些千篇一律為票房而戰的電影. 其中一類是cult movies. 以下是節錄了蘋果日報介紹港產cult片時引用的定義:
Cult片的定義，以為爛片便是 Cult，其實爛片未必一定 Cult， Cult片未必一定爛，但多數有以下特徵：
1.低成本製作（ B片， Budget Film）
2.非主流，受小眾（ Minority）狂熱追捧
3.剝削（ Exploitation）
4.次文化（ Subculture）
5.元素大雜燴（驚慄、科幻、靈異）
6.票房慘淡
(From Apple Daily)
Cult是一種意會, 很難用文字簡單來定義. 無厘頭本身也是一種次文化, 很cult的, 但星爺把他帶到成為主流, 票房大賣, 一般觀眾接受之下令這種文化不再cult了. 除了次文化和非主流思想外, cult片還通常有大量暴力血腥, 色情, 靈異, 欺凌虐待等的一種或多種元素. 這些片種題材, 起碼不會是一家大細或拍拖時入戲院看戲的首選.
我看cult片, 還有點獵奇心態的. 正如剛才提到, 很多電影商都是因為題材受觀眾歡迎便一窩蜂去拍某類型電影, 但cult片因為較小眾, 它們的題材往往是比較少有的. 另外, cult片的拍攝手法是專去特寫或誇張一些禁忌的情節, 如殺人這種常見的劇情, 主流電影會很模糊的帶過某某被殺, 但cult片經常會很詳細描述這些劇情, 還會別出心裁地設計令人嘩然的殺人手法.
愛cult movies, 是因為它們與眾不同, 帶來的觀能刺激極強, 但老實說, 有時也會看得肌肉繃緊, 甚至連胃口也倒了.
To a certain degree I agree with what your (or Apple Daily's) description of "cult movies". However, these are more the commonalities among cult movies, rather than what define a cult movie, meaning that you would found these elements in many well established cult movies.
回覆刪除For me, cult movies are movies that have a loyal following but they are not converted to the cult through conventional promotional machine. Rather the movie has a life of its own to attract new followers, mostly through words of mouth among cultists. Therefore movie like "Star War" can still be considered a bona fide cult movie (whenever you have audience dressed to the characters in the movie to watch the it is definitely a sign of cult movie) even if "Star War" is one of the highest grossed movies of all time.
I only discovered the term "cult movie" after I came to U.S. and to my surprise, a lot of obscure movies I caught on TV or some matinee theater when I was a kid actually have some really loyal cult following in U.S. and they have become a quirky pasttime for me. Naturally they are mostly in English language and I don't get the chance to discover those Hong Kong has to offer. Maybe next month I am in Hong Kong you can show me a pointer or two.
Just curious, are you only interested in Hong Kong cult movies?
shangri_la, I watch all kinds of movies from all around the world. It's just that I decided to put a HK theme on here so I only blog about HK movies :)
回覆刪除