So-called“The Third Party”
大学时的英语影视欣赏课作业
自己写的英语原文在下面，估计有很多用词不当orz翻译也是自己后来翻的。
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所谓的“第三方”
——《太阳帝国》
这部电影并没有包含多少“反战”的意味。所有的暴力场面都是克制的，人性之恶仅仅从几个中国人身上可见一斑。讽刺的是，那些来自扶桑国的侵略者在男孩眼中反而成为了英雄。毕竟诚如他父亲所言，“发生在中国的一切并不是我们的战争。”中日战争和英国公民并没有任何关系，和斯皮尔伯格这个犹太人也没有任何关系。
所有的艺术家和观众都有他们自己的立场，尤其是涉及到历史问题时。关于这一点，斯皮尔伯格拍摄的另一部电影《辛德勒名单》就是个很好的例证。德军的残忍和犹太人的绝望都被鲜明地集中放大。随时可能到来的死亡更激起了难民求生的欲望。“一切的战争都是反人类的。”《辛德勒名单》成功表达了这个观点。
但当你回溯《太阳帝国》这部电影时，你就会发现它对这个观点的表达非常晦涩。这个故事也同样不能被归类到“成长”的主题之下。Jamie这个小主角的言行处处充满成年人的世俗气息，而少有孩童固有的天真和纯洁。他是这场战争中的“第三方”的某个代表。这也是他经常惶恐地对日本军队高喊“我投降”的原因。更有意思的是，他崇拜那些士兵和他们的飞机。在他心中，只有强与弱，没有正义与邪恶。他仅仅把战争当成了一次探险。单纯的孩子不会在目睹那些飞机的袭击时表现出兴奋。无论如何，Jamie足够“幸运”能够保持着他对日本士兵的尊敬，他始终没有看到太过血腥的场景。
虽然这个孩子有过悲惨的俘虏经历，但与其他孩童比较，当他回到家人身边时他却没有表现得惊讶或欣慰。他的探险走到了终点。他梦想中的帝国也走向了穷途末路。看着这个场景，我回忆起了探索频道播放的一个纪录片，讲述了一个从非洲丛林逃脱出来的幸存者，他说“当我被直升飞机救起时，我确实为这趟惊险的旅程感到有些遗憾，因为我明白从此刻起我又将面对平淡无趣的生活了……”
简而言之，Jamie不过是个迷失在渴望见证伟大帝国的梦想里的人物。这个角色是电影的一个败笔，因为他不过是一个投机者的缩影。他的存在使得主题更为模糊。
电影的第二个缺点是无处不在的标签化。英国人保守，固执且怀揣理想主义，美国人开放、现实，日本人则有着坚强的意志且非常勇敢。但中国人却是自私、贪婪和粗俗的。这些刻板的印象都来自于殖民者的偏见。即使这个故事是从一个孩子的视角来展开，这些价值观也依然只是西方社会深入人心的腐朽之物。
第三个缺点，电影实在太长以至于它不够震撼。多余的细枝末节使得剧情冗长乏味。
然而，有一点可以公认的是，Christian Bell，这个饰演Jamie的小演员，的确有着非凡的表演天赋。即使这个角色的性格表现有着不符年龄的违和，结局处他眼中的阴郁确实令人动容。
——————————原文
So-called“The Third Party”
About Empire of the Sun（《太阳帝国》）
This movie does not contain an anti-war theme.Because all the scenes about violence in this movie are restrained,the evil of humanity are just limited in a few Chinese people.On the contrary,the invaders,are recognized as heros in the sight of the little boy.After all,like his father said,”Well, China isn't our war.”He is certainly right.The war between China and Japan has nothing to do with English citizens,the same as Spielberg,a Jewish.
It is a truth universally acknowledged,that all the artists and audiences have their own positions,especially when it comes to the history.With regard to this truth,Schindler's List,another film directed by Spielberg,can be setted as an example.The cruelty of German army and the desperation of Jewish civilians were quite obviously expressed.Uncertain forthcoming deaths around strengthened refugees’ desire to survive.”All kinds of wars are against humanity”,Schindler's List succeeded to express this point.
But when you reflect on Empire of the Sun,it does not share the point below clearly. This story can not be classified into a story of growing up either.Instead of innocence and purity,what Jamie(the leading role) manifested was more like an adult,a representative of a third party in this war.That’s why he always shouted“I surrender”to Japanese army.What’s more interesting is that he adored these soldiers and their planes.In his mind,there was only strong and weak,neither good nor evil.He just took war as an adventure.I think a simple child would not show excitement rather than fear during those attacks of planes.Anyway,Jamie is enough “lucky” to maintain his respect to Japanese soldiers without seeing any bloody scenes made by them.
Although this boy has experienced such a misery,compared with other children,he didn’t seem to be surprised or relieved when he came back to his family.His adventure came to the end at last.His ideal empire was also going to be destroyed.On watching this scene,I remembered a documentary released by Discovery Channel,in which there is an injured survivor who was trapped in jungles of Africa.He said,”When I was rescued by the helicopter,actually I was a bit regretful for the end of this thrilling journey,because I realized that I had to face a boring life again…”
In short,Jamie was just a figure who was lost in his dream of witnessing a great empire.I regard this role as a defect because this child is no more than a miniature of speculators.His existence make the theme obscure.
The second defect is that this movie is full of Labeling.English are conservative,stubborn and idealistic,Americans are open-minded and realistic,Japanese has strong will and they are brave,while Chinese are selfish,greedy and vulgar.These stereotypes are all originated from the colonists’ prejudice.Even this story was filmed through a perspective of a child,those values are still the values which spread in western society.
Thirdly,this filmis too long to be striking.Extra trivia made the plot stupid and dull.
However,it is widely admitted that Christian Bell,the actor of the little boy,has a great talent to make such a performance.In spite of the strange characteristic of the role,the gloom in his eyes at the end was really touching.