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).

不久前剛剛結(jié)束的奧斯卡，讓我們見證了楊紫瓊成為第一位華人奧斯卡影后的歷史時(shí)刻，而華裔班底主導(dǎo)的《瞬息全宇宙》也完成了11提7中的壯舉。這個(gè)頒獎(jiǎng)季與《瞬》相關(guān)的各種獎(jiǎng)項(xiàng)記錄太多了，可以說是振奮人心的盛事?？v觀好萊塢歷史，其實(shí)華人的身影也是一直很有存在感，二十年代大火的女星黃柳霜，六十年代飄洋過海創(chuàng)出名堂的李小龍，八十年代開始把港式動(dòng)作片推往好萊塢的成龍為代表的一眾動(dòng)作巨星，以及近年的《摘金奇緣》、《別告訴她》、《瞬息全宇宙》等大獲成功也證明了美國(guó)本土華裔的創(chuàng)作力是好萊塢市場(chǎng)所需要的。

一般提到全華班底的主流英語(yǔ)片，我們一般會(huì)提到《喜福會(huì)》(1993)，高質(zhì)量的眾女群戲至今仍讓觀眾津津樂道。但除了美國(guó)好萊塢，其實(shí)英國(guó)更早的時(shí)候也拍過全華班底的主流片，只是當(dāng)時(shí)缺少明星加持讓其成為了歷史長(zhǎng)河的細(xì)沙。

今天，字幕組的新作是八十年代的《浮云游子》（英文名Ping Pong）。故事講述了倫敦唐人街富商王山姆，神秘的死在電話亭中，他在死前立下了一份非常奇怪的遺囑，引起全家人百般的猜疑。女主作為見習(xí)律師，因?yàn)樵缙诘慕患痪砣肓诉@場(chǎng)遺產(chǎn)風(fēng)波。電影以一個(gè)主觀的長(zhǎng)鏡頭在soho區(qū)的唐人街上滑動(dòng)開場(chǎng)，然后以一個(gè)死在電話亭里的人的特寫結(jié)束，但片子本身卻是走輕喜劇+輕懸疑路線。通過一場(chǎng)遺產(chǎn)案，明線探討西化的移民二代代和移民一代的家庭和解（這點(diǎn)和《瞬息》其實(shí)有共同之處）暗線則是關(guān)注一個(gè)年輕的英籍華人女性在西方世界的身份政治問題，同時(shí)又不抹殺她的民族根源性。

以下再簡(jiǎn)單介紹以下導(dǎo)演吧。梁普智，一個(gè)非常冷門的名字，但他和港片其實(shí)淵源甚深。1939年11月30日出生于英國(guó)倫敦，大學(xué)主修哲學(xué)，又曾在倫敦電影學(xué)院進(jìn)修電影。1976年開始執(zhí)導(dǎo)電影，第一部作品就是和蕭芳芳聯(lián)導(dǎo)的《跳灰》(這片也是蕭芳芳幾十年演藝生涯唯一執(zhí)導(dǎo)的作品)，成為香港新派警匪片的先鋒作。在周潤(rùn)發(fā)早年票房毒藥時(shí)期，他執(zhí)導(dǎo)的《等待黎明》給發(fā)哥帶來了金馬金像雙料提名，最后發(fā)哥也收獲了第一座金馬影帝。其后的《殺之戀》也促成了張國(guó)榮和鐘楚紅第一次銀幕搭檔。本片則是他在港片時(shí)期抽空回英國(guó)的一次英語(yǔ)片嘗試，以成品質(zhì)量來看的話，這算是一次不錯(cuò)的嘗試。