2009年8月15日 星期六

方大同 Timeless 可啦思刻 - 重溫經典的永恆



專輯: Timeless 可啦思刻

演出者: 方大同












很久沒有寫碟評, 因為沒有太多時間
除去沒什麼值得寫的外, 有些則要留待年尾十大一併寫

說回這張擺明車馬翻唱經典的大碟, 有驚喜同時也有失望的, 所揀選的曲目, 都經得起長久時間的考驗, 於是有了timeless classic的美譽, 但更重要是, 這碟帶領我們走了一趟方大同音樂啟蒙之旅, 是什麼歌曲的洗禮, 才打造出如此soul, 如此relaxing的方大同呢? 他如泉湧的創作靈感之源, 都在這裡找到答案.

不要以為經典曲目都是隨意挑選, 他們對方大同著實有不同程度啟發, 可是在兩首主打過後, 我開始想, 這十首歌到底有沒有連繫或共通之處呢? 也許, 有時翻唱專輯只是沒有以直接的方式去告訴大家其自身概念與風格而已.

時間與記憶, 碟名正正告訴了我們, 這張專輯的真正意思
不只代表了經典的永恆, 透過不朽, 存在已久的歌詞, 再一次提醒樂迷
有什麼價值與經歷, 是時間不會磨滅沖洗得走, 在個人內心或大世界中是永久留存的

首先出場第一句 已經是 You are the sunshine of my life, 太陽亮光就是可永遠照耀人內心
所以Thats why Ill always be around. 即使愛了千萬年, 還只覺是個開始
愛到最發光之時就是時間定格之時
Forever you'll stay in my heart. 陽光燦爛的愛戀是timeless的可啦思刻.
同樣情懷也在Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You之中找到
這次永恆在於至死不渝的承諾
I'll never ask for more than your love
有了愛就擁有一切, nothing gonna change就正正道中了愛不隨時間改變
承諾也是當下的可啦思刻
I'll help you see forever too, 又是另一個timeless既期許
bad也是timeless classic, 也許只因change都是另一種forever吧

狂潮掀起了大家庭恩怨情仇電視劇的潮流, 歌詞中每一字每一詞都是人生的真理
每個人不同經歷, 但喜怒哀樂的情緒都是一樣
每個人笑的時刻也許不一樣, 每個人哭的時刻也必不一樣
只是大家都在時代的狂潮中, 同樣真假難分, 愛恨交錯, 喜惡混雜
"是他也是你和我 同悲歡喜惡過一生" 是全碟最宏大的可啦思刻
每一個人自己的生命與感情也是timeless的, 幾許幾許一下子就會是一生

La Bamba 原是gathering, orientation所用的歌,
交新朋友或與好友暢眾的時間都是難得珍貴, 好應珍惜而狂歡一番
開心的起舞高歌便是另一段人生必經的可啦思刻
timeless是因為每個人在每個成長階段都會遇到la bamba的時候
當這曲旋律高奏時, 就請大家好好享受吧
可能是宴會, 可能是婚禮, 不論場合, 也該放輕鬆投入其氛圍吧

Red Bean 談時間流逝與永恆談得最有深度, 沒有什麼會永垂不朽的
再刻骨銘心的都有可能轉眼消失不見, 有時候我們也會悲觀的認為一切總有終結
很快就到盡頭, 然而我們終究相信, 這個世界是會有細水長流的
願意等待, 願意堅持, 願意放開, timeless的可啦思刻是存在的

經過red bean的頓悟後, 不再訴說浪漫激情的恆久
轉化成記憶的長存, 深愛的另一半未必永遠在身邊
但那感覺, 那在腦海中的回憶, 依舊是timeless classic
Georgia 可以永遠在我之中, 因為美好的已發生過, 及會牢牢記住
而且是平靜放鬆的, 因為千帆散盡, 激情已過
不需再時時提及you are sunshine, you are forever的甜言蜜語了

Remember 是這個永恆故事的另一註腳
分開了的留也留不住
誰還記得是誰先說 永遠的愛我
如果記不起當初的溫柔, 那曾經愛過傷過的也應早走過了吧
所以把所有留待時間印證
讓時間說真話, 看看這段過去的關係是否真的timeless
也在試驗過往的傷害是否也真的跟著一起永恆

兜轉轉又到原點
又記起了當下今晚墮愛河的陶醉
今晚是永恆的, 無論過多少晚上
你永遠過的都是今晚
而今晚永遠都是wonderful的
在我眼中, 在我心中, 就永遠記得這個今晚內的你
wonderful tonight, therefore, is another timeless classic

moon river一定是永恆中最佳的總結
走向永遠, 走向靜止定格的時間, 如同那條永不改變的moon river
世界這樣大, 夢這麼多, 就花一輩子的永生去追逐它去, 去跟隨它去了
每一個人前進著, 一直想走到彩虹的另一端, 可是只有逝去後才能到達那夢一般的天堂
於是就在等, 就在希望, 而這希望就變成永恆了...


此張專輯有的是認真, 有的是心意, 就靜待大家細心欣賞, 品味著經典的重新出發, 重新解讀
特別為狂潮背後的故事感動, 因為這是方媽媽愛看的電視劇
所以聽起狂潮來, 份外體會方大同的心意及情感
少了原作的盪氣迴腸, 卻多了一份滄桑無奈, 詩意的詞配上悠揚編曲太舒服了
當然也有較失色的, 如michael jackson的bad基本上無可超越替代
方大同的chorus也實在配合不了歌曲的型格,
而且方大同唱because i am bad不是太突兀了嗎? 怎聽khalil的聲音也不覺野性呀?
moon river一向深得本人喜愛, 方大同唱得也算動人
只是改動太少, 令新版本沒有突出之處
la bamba則前輕後重, 後段的拍子編曲破壞了懶洋洋歡樂的感覺
還有nothing's gonna change my love for you是唱得很好的,
不過mv拍得不理想, 令歌曲的甜蜜變得孩子氣, 大大扣分
而最大問題始終是每首歌都特意減短, 可能為了營造意猶未盡, build up歌曲的timeless
令我要不停loop局部金曲, 一聽再聽, 或許這也是可啦思刻的用心良苦吧~


推介: 狂潮, Moon River, You Are the Sunshine of My Life

2009年8月12日 星期三

《麥兜菠蘿油王子》的音樂

香港精神的logo, 音樂方向懷舊又好玩

過去, 現在, 與將來

麥炳為了追尋過去美夢, 甘願放棄家庭, 踏上征途
最後一切俱往已, 社會變化, 拆卸又重建
舊大角咀風貌只可於動畫中再現, 時空橫跨何止五十年

麥太失去命中唯一, 她寄望將來只是山頭墓地,

享受"悠悠的風" (原曲︰ Waltz In A Flat Op 39 No.15)

只有麥兜留在現在
對過去(殖民時代)一無所知, 對將來(回歸祖國)徬徨恐懼
孤獨寂寞

"咁咁咁" (Pancakes), "車衣女萬歲" (陳浩峰) 展現工廠妹的舊時代

過渡至今, 新一代的小孩, 都在春田花花幼稚園長大了, 是什麼光景?
像上一代的麥炳, 只懂沉醉過去嗎?
《春田花花同學會》給了答案

沒有昔日光輝感想, 更沒有遠大成就理想
消除了不切實際的白日夢, 代價是渾渾噩噩, 不思進取
兒時寫下"我的志願", 怎有人認真對待
校歌早照唱不想, 誰要做社會的棟樑?
打工一族, 但求安定生活, 符合大勢, 和諧穩定
未來的主人翁, 社會現實大過天
割肉義行大理想歸為異類,
平凡生命可愛, OL "fing fing下" (pancakes) 又一day
人生價值, 僅在於此?

麥兜, 一則又一則悲哀的成人童話~

今期介紹的是at 17 "我的心裏沒有他" 西班牙原曲
屬於麥太的歌 最愛這詞
Why did God make me love you To make me suffer more.

Ya no estás más a mi lado, corazón.
En el alma sólo tengo soledad.
Y si ya no puedo verte,
Por qué Dios me hizo quererte?,
Para hacerme sufrir más.

Siempre fuiste la razón de mi existir.
Adorarte para mi fue religión.
Y en tus besos yo encontraba,
El calor que me brindaba,
El amor, y la pasión.

Es la historia de un amor,
Como no hay otro igual.
Que me hizo comprender,
Todo el bien, todo el mal.

Que le dio luz a mi vida,
Apagándola después.
Ay que vida tan oscura,
Sin tu amor no viviré.

Es la historia de un amor.



You're no longer by my side, my love
And in my soul I have only loneliness
If I can no longer see you
Why did God make me love you
To make me suffer more.

You were the reason for my existence.
Adoring you, for me, was religion.
In your kisses I've found
The warmth that gave me
The love and the passion.

That's the story of a love.
Which has no equal
That made me understand
All the goods, all the bads

That gave light to my life
Then turned it off.
Oh what a dark life.
Without your love I will not live.

That's the story of a love

2009年8月5日 星期三

Days of Being Wild - A True Timeless Classic (2)



Days of Being Wild 阿飛正傳

Director: Wong Kar-wai

Cast: Leslie Cheung, Carina Lau, Rebecca Pan, Maggie Cheung

Rating: 90/100

Remembering and forgetting is not only about the love stories and feelings of the characters, but also the history of the city and self identity. The 1960 setting for the story matches with the old songs featured in the films give audience impression of the era back into the past, the characters and the stories give the impression of youth and energy, they are still in the mood for passionate love with vigor and vitality. The film name also reminds us of an old film Rebel Without a Cause (1955), the era with a forever memorable star James Dean and his image similar with Yuddy. The setting also remind people of classic Hong Kong culture, the dance ball and nostalgic old song in the background, the local unique restaurant where the characters go to have lunch/tea, etc.

In the film, memory is explicitly discussed. Yuddy always claimed to be forgetful, evident by the dialogue with So Li-zhen that he forgot how long they met, and his direct mention of forgetfulness in dialogue with Tide. However, we would understand he remembered that particular minute with So Li-zhen at the end of the film. He actually cared but refused to acknowledge it and admit the truth.

When the subject matter is discussed broader in terms of city and homeland, it would reflect the people’s attitude and worries towards Hong Kong’s future. The colonial history would sink to the past and the hangover to China would come. Days of Being Wild is a film shortly after 1989 June 4 massacre and it brings us a question along with Yuddy’s comment at the ending of film: would forgetting actually be better than remembering? Forgetting may set us free but in reality is it possible to erase the memory in our own hands? The director brings us these puzzles and it may never come to full resolution as same story would apply to another set of people and all things would repeat again in the vicious cycle.

The importance of being remembered is also brought to table. So Li-zhen wanted to know if Yuddy remembered the moment, Yuddy’s foster mother would prefer Yuddy to hate her rather to forget her; Tide sighed So Li-zhen might forget him already when they met again. Hence in this way, the society (the city) could never forget, because she is the carrier of all these memories, and she records all these experiences and embraces it into the landscape. The city planning could change entirely and the buildings and houses would collapse or rebuild, this film already help shape the contemporary image of Hong Kong in her colonial period, when days could still be wild.

Search of root is a way to find one’s existing value and realize the self identity. The bird without legs is a legend, yet a cruel truth to Yuddy as well. Yuddy could not settle down at home because he was homeless since birth. The love from mother is the element he would never receive in his life. He did not choose to become the birds without legs, but the light steps following music and the shot showing his back without return already drive to the conclusion that Yuddy could only be flying till the end and the scene that Yuddy walk further and further away from the camera hints the character would die with the knot and never resolve his issue.

Other characters have the home issue more implicitly portrayed. The cop became sailor after his mother’s death, he began to be on the drift after he lost the closest family or home in Hong Kong; So Li-zhen had her real home in Macau and she experienced an inferiority living here when talking to the cop, like she never really belonged to here but Yuddy gave her the sense of belonging. That would possibly explain she would like to have permanent relationship with Yuddy in order to establish the self-identity in Hong Kong. She felt happy when Yuddy agreed to let her live with him while sad when Yuddy seemed uncared of the existence of relationship.

Encounter and miss would be another theme to express. People could not end up together because of wrong timing. Leung finally went to Phillipines and found the apartment, yet Yuddy already died; So Li-zhen finally called the cop, yet he already become a sailor and could not receive the call. People sometimes have chance to meet each other but could not develop further and deeper relationship. The director here uses camera techniques to show their brief encounter would end nowhere, like the cop and So Li-zhen, Leung Fung-ying and Zeb, the shot often focus on only one person in their together scenes. Leung danced in front of Zeb, or Tide waiting for So Li-zhen, the scenes show one person on the upper layer while another on the lower layer. It is another evidence for them not to be together. Furthermore, sometimes the narrow focus would mean the person who the character is talking to only acts as the background, like the scene of So and Tide’s talk about the one minute. So refused to eat Tide’s oranges while Leung refused to take Zeb’s car would be another evidence.

Finally, these love stories are not only occurring in these characters and they would pass along as they are common and all people would be haunted by loving the wrong person or missing the right person. Therefore, the film has allowed a continuity to send us a message about Yuddy’s death would not mean his personality’s death. Chow Mo-wan’s presence would be a metaphor for the society that there are a lot of people like him. In addition, when So opened her mind again and became ready for starting to love again, it has reinitiated the atmosphere for love to enter, meaning hope would continue and the character is still on the ride. Maybe there would be hurt in the journey, however after the event the characters, which resemble you and me, could still stand up and bravely strive for one’s own happiness.

After all, everyone would experience the same struggle and painful memory in different ages of their life, however, to remember or to forget is up to everyone’s free will. Remembering the experience and learning from it would help shape a better handling of relationship in the future while forgetting the feeling would help relieve the emotional burden of your own self.

Days of Being Wild - A True Timeless Classic (1)



Days of Being Wild 阿飛正傳

Director: Wong Kar-wai

Cast: Leslie Cheung, Carina Lau, Rebecca Pan, Maggie Cheung

Rating: 90/100



Days of Being Wild is a film about hope and disappointments, remember and forget, the search of one’s own root, own home, and encounter and miss. Also it talks about the continuation of the journey for love, it is all the same when people are young and it applies to all people despite the generation gap or changes in the society.

Disappointment always emerges after a high expectation is given. Leung finds Yuddy’s house is not special after a long-time expectation, it would mean without the initial expectation, disappointment would be avoided. However people would always live with expectation, especially throughout the whole film. So Li-zhen hopes for marriage with Yuddy, Leung Fung-Ying hopes to be together with Yuddy while Zeb hopes to be with Leung, Yuddy wants to get along with his biological mother and Tide hopes to receive the phone call from So Li-zhen. Everyone has his or her own hopes but finally all of them are disappointed.

A lot of close-up shots are used for the characters when they experience disappointment and loss, like Yuddy’s foster mother had sadness in her face when Yuddy left with the truth of whereabouts of his mother. These shots are usually static and stay for a long time to magnify and emphasize the power and emotional level of disappointment.


There are also a lot of rainy days portraying the characters not satisfied or feeling a significant loss in their lives. So Li-zhen wanted to be together with Yuddy again only to be rejected and the rain poured heavily, the more obvious example would be Zeb drove the car to follow Leung and they both could not get who they loved, it could be resembled by the scene of heavy rain.


Nevertheless, after the rain, all the characters may not immediately recover from the pain, yet they all seem to rediscover their directions of life, they all made their choices which they would take action. So Li-zhen decided to start over, Leung decided to go to Philippines to find Yuddy while Zeb decided to sell the car to help Leung, meaning his decision for abandoning (or hiding) the love for Leung. The rain resembles a period for people to rethink and try to figure ways out of the maze they brought to themselves. The character who has no chance to experience the rain is Yuddy, he continues the journey without landing or stopping at anywhere. He is not going to land even after his death since the train is still heading forward. Therefore, the ultimate disappointment which cannot be recovered is not about the long-lost love between lovers, yet it is about the love devoted to home, to your own blood line.


The film name is actually reflecting days of youngsters and frivolity when young people would freely choose what to do without a price. They would not realize the end of life is coming, and they would try their best to go forward to search for more possibilities. No mentioning of responsibility and moral burdens would keep them move on and on, like the birds without legs said by Yuddy in the film.


The “Cha-cha” dancing in his room earlier already shows Yuddy’s personality which is so relaxing and light with mix of rhythm. “Cha-cha” does not contain the typical “rise and fall” motion and it perfectly matches with birds flying without landing. Furthermore, the panning of camera from left to right over the forest resembles a bird. The plot that Yuddy would not like to be financially supported by Leung would match with the free-flying birds as well. Yuddy’s death in the moving train would perfectly resemble the birds, and he still could not land on the ground when he died.

Another recurring theme in Wong Kar Wai’s films is the motif of time, which is directly referenced in characters’ dialogues, like So Li-zhen and Yuddy built up their relationship by the one-minute to 3 pm while Yuddy and Leung finished establishing their first sexual relation at around 3 am. Yuddy met Tide in the Philippines, and the time was also around 3 am. Both time periods are the same but distinct in terms of day and night. 3 am, or 3 pm, is at the middle of day/night, approaching sunset/sunrise, resembling the period of depravity and disorientation.

The sleepless nights of different characters and the dark cinematography of scenes would be evidence of an intoxicating and restless status of the society and people living in there. Tide and So Li-zhen talked the whole night and later he talked with Yuddy when Yuddy wanted to drink until dawn. The static shot shows that time seem not to pass away so easily at these nights; a lot of establishing shots would be used to capture the features of the city (Hong Kong but not Philipines) which expresses a feeling of loneliness in the characters and time of pain and being alone would not easily leave.

(con'd)