Being Touched 一點感觸

Flight from Hong Kong to Taipei is quite short and roughly takes about 120 minutes. Excluding activities like takeover, meal serving and landing, actual flight time is really short.

Since my previous trip to Taiwan lasted for more than two weeks, I had to settle all those ongoing issues before the trip. Having just few hours of sleep before leaving Hong Kong, I was a little bit tired after boarding the plane. As such a short flight time made sleeping or watching a movie not really feasible, I finally decided to take a rest and listen to some music instead.

十二月往台北的航程不算太長，約120分鐘的飛行時間，減去起飛、進餐、降落等，實際剩餘時間不多。

由於這次在台逗留時間較長，很多日常雜務都要事先安排好，也因此前一天很晚才入睡。坐在早班機位上已覺有些累，想小睡但稍嫌不足看，電影又未必能看得完，最後决定合上眼聽點音樂，稍作休息吧。

Looking through the directory of the inflight music programme, I noticed a song that I loved long ago – 未來的未來 (or The Future). This song brought back all those memories of the old days, good or bad, happy or sad.

未來的未來 was written by famous composer and singer, Lee Shou-Chuan, as the soundtrack of the film “Super Citizen“. A song that I known for more than thirty years but yet I have not watched the film before.

細看歌曲選單中有一首昔日我很喜愛的歌 – 未來的未來。一路聽著，一幕幕的記憶湧上心頭。

「未來的未來」是台灣音樂人李壽全為電影「超級市民」所作的主題曲，歌曲雖然聽了數十年，但影片卻從未看過，回港後決定要看一遍這套當年很有名的新浪朝電影。

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超級市民  Super Citizen

The story was centered around an illegal residential zone called「康樂里」in the Taipei. A young man came to Taipei from his home town Kaohsiung, looking for his sister who went to Taipei for works years ago. He could not find his sister but met her neighbour “Rolex” who sold fake gold watches. In the course of searching his sister, he had the chance to experience the dark sides of the city.

Feeling disappointed, he considered to return home. However, in the last-minute, the decided to stay in Taipei as a “Super Citizen”.

The film revealed the common scenes of Taipei in the eighties: the life of the working class, sad stories of the poverty, the rebellious teenager, people who engaged in theft or porn industry in order to earn a living. There were not much over-emotional portraits in the film and everything just came naturally as percieved by the audience.

Personally, I believed all those scenes are part of the evolution of a city. Frankly speaking, Hong Kong also carried those characteristics in the seventies and early eighties.

故事發生在1985年台北市違建區「康樂里」，青年李士祥從高雄來到台北尋找昔日北上找工作的妹妹。到達後發現妹妹已不知去向，卻認識了她的舊鄰居，賣假金錶的「勞力士」。在尋找妹妹的過程中，體驗到大城市不同的陰暗面。在失意之時，本打算回高雄老家，但最後一刻卻放棄了，決定留在台北做一個「超級市民」。

影片中透視了很多八十年代台北低下階層的生活，貧民的悲哀，反叛的青少年，為了生活而走上偷竊、色情行業的情節。沒有太多煸情的描寫，淡淡然的由觀眾去感受。

其實這種大城市進化的現像，七、八十年代的香港又何嘗不是一樣呢!

This film was the first part of the Super Citizen trilogy by Director Wan Jen, who was one of the influential figures of the Taiwan New Wave Cinema Movement of the eighties. The other two of the series were Super Citizen Ko in 1995 and Connection by Fate in 1998. I wish I could have a look of them in the near future.

The illegal residential zone「康樂里」was now where the Linsen Park and Kangle Park resided. Interestingly enough, I happened to be there during my last day of stay in Taipei.

導演「萬仁」還有另外兩套相關影片: 1995年的「超級大國民」和1998年的「超級公民」，合稱「超級三部曲」或「台灣三部曲」。有機會話，也要找來看看。

違建區「康樂里」就是今天的林森公園和康樂公園的所在地，碰巧在這次離開台北之前我也曾到訪過。

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By the way, one thing that really touched me while listening to the song in the flight, was a related song sang by artist Danny Summer. That Cantonese song 說不出的未來 was based on the same melody as 未來的未來 but the verse was entirely rewritten.

Despite the song was released more than 30 years ago, it truly reflected how frustrated or helpless that we are now, here in Hong Kong.

其實在飛機上那刻真正令我感觸的是夏韶聲的那首改編歌曲「說不出的未來」。三十多年前的作品，今天卻正正反影很多香港人的無奈。

說不出的未來
作詞：劉卓輝
作曲：李壽全
歌手：夏韶聲

霧裏看都市  憂傷與灰暗
人們在抱怨天氣  互說風光
我對你傾訴  但充滿了隔膜  似是我故作寂寞在一角

愛上了電視  不需要思索
模糊面對工作  日夜去奔波
偶爾看齣戲  漆黑裏歡樂  我愛你那歌曲天天播

曾話過  賽馬不禁  跳舞自由
曾話過  這裡不變  我會逗留
你問我  我為何
說不出  對未來的感覺

那個要包裝  青春與奔放
誰高呼空虛  觀眾便心醉
我聽到歌聲  醫不了飢餓  上帝愛你跟祂去天國

誰做錯  世界到處有難民
誰做錯  你要降世救罪人
你問我  我為何
說不出  對未來的感覺

今天我知  鄉村變了都市
今天也知  文明原來是這樣

告訴我  你會叫喊與淚流
告訴我  這個世界叫地球
告訴我  我為何
說不出  對未來的感覺

告訴我  你會奮鬥到盡頭
告訴我  看到了自由
告訴我  我為何
說不出  對未來的感覺

Sorry, no English translation here 🙇🏽‍♂️

Last but not least, here is a nicely prepared music video for the Cantonese song.

最後再送上一個製作得很不錯的video.

Enjoy.