《父母心》是獨立電影人約翰.卡薩維蒂於六十年代遇上荷里活製片之產物。故事講及精神科醫生畢蘭加士打聘請了來自音樂學院的朱迪.格蘭,於兒童精神病院利用嶄新手法教導外界認為無可救助的精神病兒童吉娜.羅蘭茲。片中兒童皆來自加州其中一間兒童精神中心,將這班被遺忘的一群真實地呈現在觀眾面前。都市人面對種種生活壓力,大量社會問題備受關注。當面對社會的陰暗面時,主流社會最初會以迴避的態度面對,而經過大量之社會運動、媒體報導等以令社會更多元、開放,以積極的態度去面對。這種社會心態轉變可能用上半個世紀,甚至更長時間。其中兒童問題從來都是一個敏感議題,而卡薩維蒂早在六十年代已利用光影之間揭示社會鮮為人知的一面,廣泛引起主流社會討論。卡薩維蒂是一位極具才華的獨立電影導演,游走於荷里活製作和獨立電影之間,利用偏鋒路線打破固有荷里活電影記事模式,注重強烈的演員性格去反映現實社會。本片被評為卡氏最為大膽作品之一,其寫實性令人嘆為觀止,創新起用精神病兒童在作品中表演。深刻地勾勒出這批非主流兒童的困境,打破大眾對他們的形象。而憑藉這齣先驅作品,我們更可以反思現時香港社會在這方面的缺失。As a result of co-operation between Cassavetes and Hollywood's producers, A Child is Waiting was shown in the 1960s. Burt Lancaster, a psychiatrist, hires Judy Garland to work at a psychiatric facility for children. Garland uses an innovative method to teach a mentally retarded child, Gena Rowland, who the world has turned its back on. Patients in the film were from a real life psychiatric institution, where this group of forsaken children was being honestly presented to the audience.City life is filled with all sorts of stress and problems. When facing the dark side of society, the mainstream community usually takes refuge in escapism. It is only after waves of social movements and media coverage that the people's attitudes about these problems would change and that they would take affirmative action about it. This process might take half century or longer. Children issue has always been a sensitive subject, yet Cassavetes has already chosen to show its untold stories in his film in the early sixties to arouse public discussion.Cassavetes was a talented independent filmmaker who also engaged in Hollywood productions. His works emphasized on his actors, and through their characters, instead of traditional storytelling techniques, explored the realities of society. This film was hailed as the most daring piece of Cassavetes' works. Its realism was praised, especially of his inclusion of real life patients. The patients' difficulties were profoundly illustrated so as to eradicate the public's prejudice against them. From this avant-garde work, we can even reconsider the situation of these issues in Hong Kong.source: Hong Kong Arts Centre
*Shinjuku Mad* was one ofKoji Wakamatsu's six films from 1970. Grim and gritty, stark and steady, burdened with anti-moralizing, generously padded with sex, and totally redeemed by a soundtrack that needs to be released NOW. I knew nothing about this film, loading it up on to my laptop, and every last one of this film's sixty-sixty minutes kept me riveted.Bear with me. The film opens with the band cycling through a jazzy rave-up, the black and images depict dead Japanese throughout a modern city. From the alleyways of the slums, to center of the park, you catch glimpses of bodies everywhere. This introduction is capped off by a lingering shot of a blood-soaked naked woman, face down. By this point, the band has reached a sort of peak. There's a cut, the band changes the direction of the song a bit, and then we're treated to a series of exterior shots from downtown, the lunch hour, maybe. You see a lot of storefronts and stairwells, people moving about. All of the people in these splices are done in negative image.What follows can only be described as harrowing. After the credits, the reel switches to color. We're treated to the on-screen stabbing of a young man in a toga, his attackers strip his special lady-friend of her toga, spend about two minutes smearing her breasts with still-warm blood, and then take turns raping her. She doesn't seem to put up much of a fight. The scene is lensed with all of the enthusiasm of a television spot for a whole foods market.Well, that's a fucked up way to start a movie. If you're still reading, I'll have you know the brutality eases up a little, but the camera's tendency to seek out each scene's more lurid details is relentless. The band never lets up, either. Another constant feature of the film is the protagonist's alienation from society. That's a pretty dated-concept, in a way. This film is cashing in on what could loosely be called the Existential demographic in 1970's Japan. Parts of it could have been written by Oe. Others by Mishima. It definitely, at times, addresses a bit of that lingering air of revolution, but more on that later.The father of the kid stabbed in Technicolor shows up in the nest reel, in the same apartment his son was murdered in. This confused, grieving father asks a totally baked Shoko Asahara for information about the events leading up to his son's death. The long-haired no-goodnik is toking on a Sharpie-sized doobie. He gets so fucking high he passes out and the dad is left there in the empty apartment, getting a major contact-buzz.So, the plot is basically that kind of exchange in larger and larger settings, intercut with glorious shots of the disillusioned father walking through industrial slums. The father, searching for the "Why" to his son's death goes on his quest and pisses just about everyone he comes into contact with off. He goes into subway stations and totally kills some beatniks' buzzes. Then he bullies a Hare Krishna ROCK AND ROLL SUPERSTAR and his belly-dancing percussionist at a park. Then he heads off to a bar, and we're treated to what must have been Tokyo's Greatest Garage Band getting low-down and sleazy here. This scene pretty much sums up what the film is about. As you dig the scuzz and the fuzz, the camera catches all manner of degeneracy and wanton reefer-use. And the bar has no less than three groups of people making out. And they get excessive with the groping.Eventually, the father catches the ringleader of the vicious band of murderer-rapists. "Shinjuku Mad," is his name. After an unbelievably long and convoluted exchange between the protagonist and Shinjuku Mad, it comes out that Mad and the boys are rebelling against all of Japan. It's open season on everyone but them. His son was only a casualty, nothing personal. Their intent is to go on rebelling against society through random acts of violence against people and property.After going through all the trouble of finding Shinjuku Mad, the old man's mind is blown by revolution for revolution's sake. After a few pummellings, he manages to turn the fight around. He winds up leaving with a nude girl that had been tied to a post for the entire scene.He goes back to the apartment his son was murdered in to find his special lady-friend naked with six other dope-smoking cats grooving on free love and blue balls.He decides he's happier with Shinjuku Mad alive and kicking, the band is at another one of its high points, and the camera pans out to the railroad yard, telephones wires, and the bare sides of modern buildings.That was Japan, thirty-seven years ago.
影片通过一爱国艺人的奋斗经历及其壮烈牺牲,表达了反帝的主题。故事始于1929年,北平中学生袁文光爱好京剧,常因观 剧深夜逾墙回校,因此触犯校规,被 开除后入京剧科班习艺,又因反抗班 里的封建制度被逐,后为老伶工黄月 楼收留,改名袁少楼。一年后,少楼 搭班赴关外演出,与班里花旦柳艳云 结下友谊。不久,九一八事变爆发, 东北为日本帝国主义侵占,当地警务 局长郑荣依仗权势,欲纳艳云为妾。 少楼憎恨郑荣媚敌卖国,在演出时借 角色之口加以讽刺,被郑荣拘捕,遭 受酷刑。艳云为救少楼,向郑荣求情 ,被郑荣乘机污辱。少楼出狱后,回 北平从事旧剧改革工作。不久艳云回 北平,因敌伪势力日盛,旧戏遭受挫 折,乃与少[更多信息...]楼同赴上海,重新搭班演 出。艳云为生活所迫,不得已下嫁一 颜料商人。少楼深受刺激,不幸倒嗓 ,改行编写剧本。八一三全面抗战开 始,艳云摆脱家庭束缚,偕少楼赴内 地作救亡宣传演出。后因艳云母病, 两人返回上海。戏院经理要艳云搬演 《大劈棺》之类色情戏招徕观众。少 楼闻知其事,编演《新大劈棺》,一 反旧剧色情内容,并自饰二百五一角 ,深受观众欢迎。这时,汉奸黄某自 编一媚敌剧本招待敌伪大员,强迫戏 院演出。艳云称病拒演,改由其他演 员演出,少楼在三楼观看时,被媚敌 剧情激怒,高呼口号反对演出,激起 观众响应,结果被日本宪兵枪杀。这部影片是田汉集自己多年来从事戏剧改革工作的经历和目睹艺人生活的感受而写成的。影片塑造了具有反帝反封建思想的忠贞艺人的形象,在众多的反映戏曲艺人生活题材的影片中,这是一个新型的人物形象,具有较高的思想价值和艺术价值。