Written by Jenni Li
Translated by Jennifer J. Lau

萬聖節快要到了，我們想為大家推薦兩部十分應景的電影：驚悚片《灼人秘密》和劇情片《陽光普照》。這兩部影片在今年的影展上亮相時均獲得了高度的關注和熱議。

Hallowe’en is around the corner and we’d like to make recommendations for two psychological Taiwanese thrillers — “Nina Wu” and “A Sun.” These two films were also screened at international film festivals this year and garnered significant attention.

《灼人秘密》 Nina Wu

驚悚劇情片《灼人秘密》講述的是吳可熙飾演的妮娜離開小小的鄉下劇院，搬去城市追尋演員夢的故事。尋夢之路並不順利，孤獨和壓抑的生活令妮娜患上了抑鬱症。為了能接到電影角色，妮娜不得不無所不用其極，才如願成為電影《諜戀》的主演。拍攝期間，導演的污辱、經紀人的不作為、助理的不專業，令妮娜幾度瀕臨崩潰。終於成名後，妮娜的生活中卻發生了一連串不幸的事件，令她陷入無盡的苦惱：究竟要繼續堅強戰鬥下去，還是接受殘酷世界的現實？

The winner of the TFI National Film Centre’s Excellent Screenplay Award in 2019, Nina Wu is a thriller you don’t want to miss. Nina, the title character, leaves a small local theatre in the country to pursue her dreams of stardom in the city. But this search was not smooth – loneliness and pressures contributed to Nina’s depression, which she was already predisposed to due to her family. However, on a fateful day, she obtains the role as a heroine of the film “Espionage Love” after much devotion. During the filming, she faces sexual assault and gender inequality  from the director, manager, assistants, which leads to Nina almost losing her mind. After achieving fame, her life continues to be filled with a series of misfortunate events. It begs her to ask: how do I keep fighting against these odds? Can we ever escape from the cruel world?

妮娜的扮演者吳可熙一直希望能夠挑戰自己作為演員的可能性，在這部作品之前拒絕了許多同一類型的性感角色，也因此經歷了兩年失業期。其間，她開始為雜誌寫稿，但寫旅行時尚類的內容久了，吳可熙有時候也想寫不輕鬆的東西。部分取材於她的個人焦慮和曾經遭遇的不公待遇，部分取自她對好萊塢引發#metoo運動的醜聞的思考，《灼人秘密》於是誕生了。

用電影接力#metoo運動，吳可熙的驚悚劇本展現了如鬼故事一般繪聲繪影的演藝圈，和那裏高舉夢想旗號的權勢與暴力每天都在上演的黑暗戲碼。第一稿劇本完成後，導演趙德胤覺得「這個劇本沒有學過劇本的邏輯，毫無章法，卻有​​很強韌的生命力與狂野。」，於是決定將這個劇本搬上大銀幕，並一同參與編劇。

吳可熙說，「直到進了坎城，法國媒體採訪，說我很勇敢，我才意識到這件事情。他們說，這些女星是直接講出來。但我則是用藝術作品，讓世界知道她們的感受。很少人光讀文字，可以理解她們有多痛苦。」

As an actor, Wu Kexi had always hoped to challenge herself but rejected many roles that she considered typical. Because of this, she experienced a boycott leading to two years of unemployment. During this time, she began to write columns but travel and fashion did not seem to satisfy her craving for storytelling. After a while, she knew she wanted to write about things which were not easy to talk about. “Nina Wu” was born because of this desire stemming from personal experiences of anxiety and inequality and from her observations of the Hollywood scandals in the news.

In the entertainment industry, the storyline of young aspiring women being exploited by violence and power is the dark reality. After finishing the draft of the script, the Taiwanese-Burmese director Midi Z, he felt that the script did not follow a particular logic and had no pattern, but it had a strong will and was untamed. And that is why he decided that this script must be brought to life on the big screen and joined in the script writing with Wu.

Wu Kexi herself said, "Until the film entered Cannes, when I was told that I was brave by French media, I realized this. They said female actresses may directly divulge this, but I used artistic work, to allow the world to understand their feelings. Few people may only read the text, but they can understand their pain.”

《陽光普照》 A Sun

《陽光普照》講的是一家四口的和他們面對的混亂不安。家裏的小兒子阿和受好友慫恿犯罪後面臨拘留，而父親阿文只把正在備考醫學院的長子阿豪視為家中希望，對小兒子已經完全放棄，甚至要求法官審判時盡可能判重一些。就在這時，阿和十幾歲的懷孕女朋友突然出現在一家人面前，並堅持要生下孩子⋯⋯令人出乎意料的劇情層層展開。《陽光普照》的導演鍾孟宏表示，電影片名代表了全片的核心，他說：「這世界上唯一公平的就是陽光，但炙熱的太陽其實沒那麼容易擁抱，你會發現所有人都躲在陰影底下。」溫馨的家庭故事背後，電影的核心是關於複雜的人心。

“A Sun” tells a story of a family of four. The father has high hopes for their elder son, A-Wen, to become a doctor. The younger son, A-Ho, has been arrested and the father has given up all hope for his younger son. However, the pregnant girlfriend of A-Ho appears before the family and the story unravels from there. This film is a work of art by director Chung Mong-hong, who describes the Chinese title (literally. The sun is brightly shining) as the heart of the film: “The only fair and just thing in this world is the sun. But the blazing sun is not easy to embrace and you will find that everyone will hide under the shade.” Behind every family story lies a complicated heart of humanity.

飾演小兒子阿文的巫建和在劇中有著令人印象深刻的出色表演。他在屏幕上的表現總是很有爆發力，這或許跟他練習散打和搏擊的經歷有關。上中學時，一度學習成績還不錯的巫建和，不知何時開始慢慢對書本失去興趣，變得無所事事。當時學校的一位老師為了讓這些不肯讀書的孩子們回歸校園，成立了校散打搏擊隊。在競技場上，巫建和表現出極高的搏擊天賦，兩年內先後拿下全國前三名和第一名的驚人成績，並接觸到了拍戲的機會。有人形容巫建和是很專注的演員，鏡頭中，巫建和的每一個眼神和每一個動作都很有張力，與他平日里緩和的語速和安靜的樣子形成鮮明對比。巫建和說，「演戲跟散打很像，都是要非常專注在當下，專注到除了眼前的對手，看不見身旁其他的事物」。

在這個藝人把拗人視作工作一部分的時代，巫建和的為人處事卻十分真誠和實在，讓人無法不去欣賞和喜歡。直到今天，巫建和仍然非常感激學校里拉了他一把的貴人老師。以興趣為動力，現在的巫建和熱愛著表演事業，用搏擊一般的專注精神，在演藝生涯中走下去。

Wu Chien-ho (pinyin: Wu Jianhe) plays the younger son in Chung Mong-hong’s psychological thriller. He is described as being sincere and practical in his work, leading people to greatly appreciate his work ethic. Wu’s on-screen performances are always explosive, which may be related to his experience of practicing Sanda (known as Chinese boxing). When he was in high school, Wu had a good academic record in the beginning. Later he began to lose interest in studying and grew idle. At around the same time, a teacher at the school established a Sanda Fighting Team in order to entice the children without the desire to study to return to school. Here, Wu found that he had a talent for the sport. Within two years, he won the top three and a first place medal in the country. Soon, an opportunity for film was presented before him.

Some people describe the 26 year-old as a very dedicated actor. In each shot, the look in Wu Jianhe's eyes and his every movement are explosive, which starkly contrasts his moderate and quiet appearance. Wu Chien-ho claims, "Acting is very similar to Sanda. Both focus on the present moment; focusing on the opponents in front of them and choosing not to see other things beside them."

To this day, Wu is still very grateful to his teacher at school who used his interests to motivate him, which led to his acting career. Now Wu loves the performance career and uses the fighting spirit to focus on his career.