《致青春2•原來你還在這裏》 中外影片裏的青春

I went to the movie theater the other day to see Never Gone (《致青春2•原來你還在這裏》). I knew it was probably going to be another film where actors in their late 20s pretend to be in high school. No surprise there.

前幾天，我去電影院看了《致青春2•原來你還在這裏》。我猜這大概又是一部讓20大幾歲的演員裝成高中生樣子的電影。事實上也果然如此。

The one unexpected part came in the casting of the characters. Typically, Chinese youth films tend to focus on the chemistry between a high school bad boy and his polar opposite, a *prim, upstanding female character. Never Gone switches the roles and turns it into the story of a rich, straight-A boy who meets an *underprivileged girl. But after a fleeting moment of surprise, I soon realized it was just the same Cinderella tale all over again.

令我沒有想到的是角色的設定。典型的中國青春片大多描繪的是在高中校園裏，一個壞男孩和一個端莊優秀的女孩之間的化學反應。之前還從來沒有過男女雙方的形象互換：一個成績優秀的富家男孩遇見了一個來自下層社會的女孩。但隨着驚喜感的消逝，我慢慢開始意識到，這不過又是一個灰姑娘的故事。

Youth-oriented films seem trapped in a fixed pattern: They all center on a *sensational love story, rife with anxiety about school and the future, and they all have to be told in the form of dramas–lots and lots of dramas. The clichéd and almost always predictable plot twists manage to kill all the fun.

青春片似乎都陷入了一個固定的套路：一場轟轟烈烈的愛情故事，以及對於學校生活和前途的焦慮。而這些都以戲劇化的方式呈現出來——大量戲劇化場面。而正是這些老套且幾乎可以預見的情節，抹殺了影片的所有樂趣。

Then a friend recommended an American film, Everybody Wants Some!!, released earlier this year. It was the work of the veteran American director Richard Linklater, and it had gotten largely positive reviews for its tale of college-aged *shenanigans.

於是，一個朋友向我推薦了一部今年早些時候上映的美國電影《各有少年時》。這部影片是老練的美國導演理查德•林克萊特之作，且因其講述的一個大學生惡作劇而廣受好評。

The story couldn’t be any simpler. In late August 1980, three days before the new semester starts at Texas Southern University, an 18-year-old freshman named Jake arrives in his new dorm and meets his roommates. Those three, short days form the time frame for the whole film, in which the boys get laid, get stoned, get bored–just being young and absolutely free. They also talk, play baseball and search for self-discovery.

影片的情節十分簡單。故事發生1980年8月底，在南德州大學開學前三天，一名叫做傑克的18歲大一新生來到新宿舍，並見到了他的室友們。這短短的三天便構成了整部影片的時間框架。在這三天裏，這些男孩們曾風流一夜，飄飄欲仙，也曾無所事事，百無聊賴——年少張揚而又無拘無束。他們也會一起聊天，一起打棒球，一起探求自我。

The whole time while watching the film I was waiting for something to happen–the usual *clunky plot twist, one that veered the narrative into the realm of *sappy teen dramas. But nothing like that did. The film has no climax and little drama. Everything seems to flow naturally, as if the characters are in an *eternal present. The film is about three days of youth, yet it seems to show all that youth is ever about.

在觀影全程，我都在等待着一些事情的發生——常見的繁冗的情節轉折，讓主人公陷入少年的多愁善感。但這些都沒發生。這部影片沒有高潮也極少有戲劇化的起伏。一切進展得都如此自然，就像角色們都身處一個永恆的現在。電影只講述了青春裏的三天時光，但那展示的似乎就是青春的全部。

If you have watched Linklater’s classic “Before” trilogy–Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004), and Before Midnight (2013)–or his 12-year-long project Boyhood (2014), you may already know that this is part of his unconventional storytelling style.

如果你曾看過林克萊特經典的“愛在”三部曲：《愛在黎明破曉前》（1995），《愛在日落黃昏時》（2004），《愛在午夜降臨前》（2013）；或是他歷經長達12年創作的《少年時代》（2014），你大概就會了解，這就是他突破傳統的敘事風格。

“Richard Linklater has never cared about plot in his movies, and he’s never really concerned himself with *adhering to genre, either,” wrote American reporter Bryan Bishop on The Verge. “What Linklater loves to do is simply hang with his characters.”

“理查德•林克萊特從不關心他電影裏的情節，他也從不將自己限於流派之中，”美國記者布萊恩•畢曉普在前沿網上評論道。“林克萊特喜歡的只是和他的角色們在一起。”

Some movie critics have called Everybody Wants Some!! another one of Linklater’s “masterpieces”. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that, probably because I failed to connect with the film’s setting. It’s clearly a *nostalgia piece, celebrating 1980s Americana, with its *mustachioed characters and bell-bottom jeans. But Linklater’s novel way of depicting youth is strangely appealing.

一些電影評論家將《各有少年時》稱爲林克萊特的又一傑作。我不會對這部影片有如此高的評價，大概是我無法從影片設定中找到共鳴。很顯然，這是一個讚頌美國80年代的懷舊影片，片中人物都蓄着濃密的鬍子，穿着喇叭褲。但是林克萊特描繪青春的新意，卻十分吸引人。

Perhaps the only word that I can think of to best describe the film is “different”–and not in a bad way.

或許，我能想到的，用來形容這部電影的最好的詞便是——“與衆不同”，而且這方法還不錯。