Transcending Text: The Past and The Future of Film Adaptation
Date: 20 September 2023 (Wed)
Time: 20:00 – 21:30
Venue: H6 CONET (Large Multi-Function Room ACD)
Moderator:
Joyce YANG (Film Critic, Member of Hong Kong Film Critics Society)
Guests:
HONG Heng Fai (Director, Kissing the Ground You Walked On)
Dr. LI Mei Ting (Lecturer, Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, CUHK)
The 3rd edition of the Eye Catcher Incubation Programme 23/24 has added the new category of Literary adaptation, 3 guests with various backgrounds in research & teaching, directing, and film criticism, were invited to discuss the past and the future of film adaptation in Hong Kong. What do we mean by a literary adaptation? How broad can the scope be? How to balance the literature with the director’s style and theme of the film? Why is the adaptation trend in Hong Kong not as prevalent as in foreign markets? These discussions on various issues in the context of adapted films are believed to be endlessly fascinating.
Dr. LI Mei Ting quoted Prof. Leo Lee Ou-fan’s argument, suggesting that the process of visualizing text essentially entices creators to make changes. Film language is relatively realistic, and for many audiences, film is a kind of entertainment. Therefore, whether it is an adaptation with intellectual property (IP), such as popular works like One Piece and Harry Potter, or it is an adaptation from independent filmmaking, the dialogue and visuals cannot be too detached from our reality. This kind of cultural production can be seen as a form of art in interpreting and reading, as well as an understanding of the world and contemporaneity.
Director HONG Hing Fai used his work Kissing the Ground You Walked On as an example to share with us his view on literary adaptation. the way of narration in Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull made Kissing the Ground You Walked On a special case in film and adaptation: it’s a theatre script that provides space and layers for theatre actors to perform. After reading many of Chekhov’s scripts, the vibe and atmosphere of The Seagull inspired the director, leading to an overlap between the protagonist in Kissing the Ground You Walked On with the character Nina in The Seagull, as well as the 2 different ways in expressing the dialogues from The Seagull, have created what now as Kissing the Ground You Walked On that we watch on screen.
In conclusion, our moderator Joyce YANG mentioned the metaphor director HONG talked about at the beginning of the talk, where the spirit of adaptation, is the ability to find the “crucial point.” Through continuous observations from different angles, whether it is to select or to condense, the core spirit of the text, just like the life, the soul, or the bones and blood of a cow, needs to be hit at once to better transform the distant feeling of the text into another form of visualised art.
文字變幻如光影：香港改編電影的前世今生
日期：2023年9月20日（三）
時間：20:00 – 21:30
地點：H6 CONET－大型多用途活動室（Room ACD）
主持：
喬奕思（香港電影評論學會會員）
嘉賓：
孔慶輝（《海鷗來過的房間》導演）
李薇婷博士（香港中文大學文化及宗教研究系講師）
第三屆奪目影像孵化計劃新增了「文學改編」的組別，更邀請到從研究學者、導演及影評人三位不同背景的嘉賓來到這場講座，與各位一起探討香港改編電影的前世今生。怎樣才算是改編，範圍可以有多廣？如何平衡文本與導演動機及風格？香港改編的風氣為何不如國外市場盛行？種種在改編電影脈絡中議題的討論，相信都讓人樂此不疲。
引用李歐梵教授的論點，李薇婷博士表示文本影像化的過程，基本上文字就如同在引誘創作者去改變一樣。電影是一種相對寫實的語言，甚至對不少觀眾而言是一種娛樂，因此不論是具有IP（Intellectual Property）性，如《海賊王》及《哈利波特》這類流行作品；抑或是較為獨立製作的改編作品，當中的對白、畫面都不能夠與現實很抽離。這種文化生產，可謂是一種閱讀的藝術，一種對於世界和現時性的理解。
孔慶輝導演以自己的作品《海鷗來過的房間》作為例子，分享了他對於「改編」的看法。誠然《海鷗來過的房間》比較特別的是，本來契訶夫的《海鷗》並非純粹敘事體的文字，而是劇場劇本，亦給予不少讓劇場演員可以發揮的空間和層次。在翻閱許多契訶夫的劇本後，是《海鷗》當中的氣質來給導演靈感，從電影中角色與《海鷗》的角色妮娜的重疊，到在影像化後兩種運用契訶夫《海鷗》台詞的方式等，造就了現在大家看到的《海鷗來過的房間》。
總括而言，主持喬奕思提及一開首導演提出那個關於日本導演伊丹萬作與編劇橋本忍對話間講過的比喻：改編的精神或論述，就是找到「要害」的能力。持續不斷的、從不同角度的觀察，選段也好、濃縮也罷，那個如同牛的生命、靈魂、血肉般的核心精神，需要被一擊即中，才能更好的把距離感較遠的文字，延伸成另一種藝術。