自卫的艺术

Sophomoric feature film of US director/writer Riley Stearns, himself in real life is a practitioner and instructor of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and THE ART OF SELF-DEFENSE gets the jumping-off point right there.

Eisenberg is in his usual saddo form as the lonesome Casey, a 35-year-old accountant has no one but a pet dachshund for company. After being savagely mugged one night by a motorcycle gang, he balks at going out at night, and tries to buy a firearm for self protection but ends up in a dojo where karate is instructed by the upright Sensei (Nivola).

Beginning as a tabula rasa white-belt, Casey apparently makes goodly progress and soon earns his yellow-belt and gets an invitation to the night class, where the training becomes more combative, he witness Anna (Poots) mercilessly beats up fellow student Thomas (Terada) after losing a promotion to black-belt to him, and another student Henry (Zellner) has his arm viciously broken for attending the class unheralded, a sinister vibe of hierarchy and sexism rightly supersedes the hitherto more lighthearted tone, to say nothing of the wanton violence on show.

Motivated by Sensei, Casey successfully morphs from a beta male to an alpha one (even if it costs him his job), or he eagerly pretends to be. After socking an innocent lush under the insistent instruction of Sensei, he begins to have doubts (why Sensei keeps filming him with his camcorder for his assault?), and in the wake of his pet’s premature death (dachshund is deemed not masculine enough for a man), an action betrays the evil-doer’s rashness and inopportuneness, and an accident of barbaric battery that he literally clocks a plainclothes policeman to death, Casey needs to burrow into the 411 (including the belated revelation that Sensei and his co. are actually his attackers) and face a final showdown with Sensei. Only this time, he will not play by the honor-bound rules, the brainwashing needs to be put paid to, once and for all.

Bracingly, the story mines into the touch-paper issue of toxic masculinity, a ubiquitous stigma breeding on the male sex and should be answerable for a big chunk of the scourge that plays havoc among human species, but Stearns’ troubling standing on the gun control (it is such an ill-conceived decision for the clincher occurs like that in the movie), that obfuscates itself with the “guns are for the weak” message and the rising-of-an-underdog trope, takes some shine off its offbeat, effervescent veneer, and when Casey finally vouchsafes a new leadership to the sole member of the weaker sex, it is too condescending an ending to stomach, however good Stearns’ intention is, yet, that ill feeling is thankfully alleviated by Poots’ steely resolution and undimmed asperity, only if the film could allocate more room to dwell on Anna’s story, that’s why we need female filmmakers now more than ever.

Shot in an overtly frugal budget with subdued lighting, mostly interior, THE ART OF SELF-DEFENSE’s most prudent movie is to assign a charismatic Nivola the role of Sensei, the amiable mentor figure who can simultaneously telegraph earnestness and dispassionateness in the same breath, despite of Sensei’s blinkered bigotry, we cannot blame Casey for knuckle under his mental indoctrination because Nivola makes him impossible to resist, even after we are fully convinced that he is the bane of any sane being’s life, on the off chance, we still wish he might have some justification up in his sleeves. Slowly evolving into one of the most versatile actors of his generation, Nivola has his brilliance seep into Sensei’s every ruthless action, manipulative ploy and assertive delivery, could he be a cult leader, devotees would be come running.

In toto, the film is a black comedy welded with a frivolous brutality that might be queasy for some to watch, but underneath everything, it is a magical realism allegory about the prototype of dichotomic masculinity, gives the lie to its poisonous core but runs away with a quirky conceitedness that needs some modulation.

referential entries: David Zellner’s KUMIKO, THE TREASURE HUNTER (2014, 6.8/10); Richard Ayoade’s THE DOUBLE (2013, 6.1/10).

你今天的拳脚缺乏信心

Your kicks and punches lacked conviction today.

也许是我错了

Maybe I was wrong.

也许你还不够黄带的资格

Maybe you weren't ready to be a yellow belt.

不

你不该这么做你该维护自己

No. You're not supposed to do that. You're supposed to stand up for yourself.

可你说得对我今天一个板都没打破

But you're right though. I wasn't able to break a single board today.

为什么你就因此不再是黄带了呢

And that stops you from being a yellow belt how?

如果熊的森林着火了熊依然是熊

If a bear's forest catches on fire, the bear is still a bear.

即使一条船在海浪中倾覆

Even if a boat capsizes in rough seas

沉到了海底

and sinks to the bottom of the ocean

无人生还

with no survivors.

它也还是一条船

it is still a boat.

你至死都会是个黄带

You will be a yellow belt until you die,

除非你升为了绿带

or until you're a green belt.

那么你会

直是绿带直到你成为蓝带

And you'l be a green belt until you're a blue belt.

以此类推

And so on.

你知道我也教夜校

As you know, | teach a night class.

这是给你的邀请

This is your invitation.

我从不让黄带上这个课

I've never opened this class up to yellow belts before

但我给你破个例

but I'm gonna make an exception for you.

一是几点的课?-是在夜晚是夜校

-What time is the class? -It's at night. It's a night class.

我来不了

| don't think I can.

我不会逼你做什么但就像你的黄带一样

I won't make you do anything, but like the color of the belt,

这黑条纹是你应得的

you've earned this stripe.

这邀请将永远都是你的

This invitation, it will be yours forever.

你无视它不等于它就不存在

Just because you ignore it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

最近我想了很多

I've been thinking a lot lately,

关于在杀了你之后要对你说什么

about what I would say to you after I killed you.

我也不想以后再后悔我的选择

and | don't want to second-guess my choice later on,

我就把两句话都说了

So I'm going to say both.

第一句话你会说用枪会使我软弱

First, you would say that using this makes me a weak man,

的确如此

and without question, it does.

但我活着你却死了

But | am alive and you are dead,

所以我会说这使你软弱

so | would argue it makes you the weaker man.

第二句话是来自我曾看过的一部电影

The second thing I came up with is from a film I saw once.

我不按规矩来

I didn't play by the rules,

但从来都没什么规矩

but there never were any rules.

4星，超低成本影片，但很有意思。 搞笑，悬疑，翻转，处处精彩。 前期搞笑博人同情，后面话风一转黑色幽默了，一本正经的恶搞太逗了。 影片中不乏哲理， 自卫的本质就是能够保护自己，击倒敌人，这跟软弱用不用枪没有直接关系。 而艺术就比较深刻了， 那种自卫更有艺术性，每个人的理解不同。男主的良顺， 女主的坚韧，还有教练的暗黑形成了鲜明对比。

据说这个电影的投资方是卖枪的资本家。

如果是真的，那逻辑上就很清楚了。

主角凯西是个弱逼，孤独，被人抢劫，要自卫。本来是要买枪的，空手道馆的宣传给吸引了。

背后的寓意是隔绝的个体和看似强大的国家。美国宪法说，人民有获得武器保护自己的权力。凯西本来只是想自卫，但是他却加入了一个别有用心的团体，让渡自己判断的权力，想获得保护。结果呢，结果他伤害了无辜的醉鬼，杀掉了一个无辜的警察。最终才想明白了自卫和国家是两回事。最终他用武器干掉了暴力的制造者，干掉了伤害自己的人。然后让空手道馆也就是国家恢复正常。

空手道馆的运行，必须靠等级制度，必须靠神话，必须靠信仰，这就是它运行的内在逻辑。但是人的自卫不需要，不需要什么特别技能，也不需要扩大打击面，就是简简单单的自卫就可以了。

枪支资本家的用意也在于此，空手道馆的人为了招生，为了锻炼学员，去伤害无辜的人，随意侵犯一个人的人身权利（企图强奸女学员）和财产权（杀死凯西的狗），还性别歧视。人民当然有权利拿起武器自卫，不扯那些复杂的东西。

凯西的狗被打死了，医生怎么说的 ，这个狗身上的伤是脚踢的，但是是被拳头打死的。那个亚裔面孔的空手道黑带一定用脚踢虐狗，狗狗为了自卫，咬到了他的手，他一怒之下，打死了狗。这就是自卫，而上升到艺术，就是没有规则。

电影有个桥段看不懂，为什么他要复印那个男性杂志，还反复看。自己买一本不行？偷走不行？还有撸管的对象是最小号的胸部？大的遮住？大号的吼不住？

哈哈哈哈，笑死我了。

一、男主弱小但不弱势，大小是个小白领，比较怂罢了，应该能引发大面积的共情效果；

二、序幕，法国人用法语侮辱其实正在学习法语且程度较高的男主，不断拿男主生殖器大小做文章，这一幕看似闲笔，实属高能，漫不经心间为后面剧情埋下多处伏笔，比如男主的逆来顺受，赏图自摸，购枪，男学员互相按摩，食指（字幕组很调皮，译为一指禅。。。）等；

三、腰带不是简单的社会等级隐喻，对男主而言，无腰带，不雄起；

四、枪的联想不言自明，但很丰富，作为男主的致胜武器，完美反讽第十一条规则：The gun is for the weak. 是相当危险的政治隐喻；

五、强弱转换在于认清规则，反转规则（好了，不能再多说了，点到即止）；

六、卡车司机是典型的霸凌者，看碟下菜，外强中干，不然干嘛要问男主的空手道段位？自杀的那位学员则是货真价实的霸凌受害者；

七、办公室政治，圈里圈外，都不容易，职场人士意淫一下就好了，别轻易付诸实践；

八、没人觉得道场教练魅力非凡么？觉得可以出前传；

九、关于两性的刻板印象，倒没提供多少新意，有人说该片还有同性恋的内涵，可能我直，感受不深；

十、冷飕飕的笑点，不一而足，且配乐极棒，因为几乎没有；

十一、中文片名中的“自卫”二字虽是忠实直译，但内涵远超英文片名，国人自然懂。

勉强凑足十一条，算是致敬道场十一门规吧。顺便提一下，那位用英文写影评的朋友，就是大谈尼采的那位，英文漂亮，影评相当到位，真心话。

红衣祖师死于猎人误杀？

新增的第十一条规则：用枪的都是弱者？

午夜课堂袭击路人？

一定要先问问对方有没有枪？

红衣祖师就是死在午夜袭击的时候吧，被带枪的路人反杀，而黑衣老师当时就是身旁的帮凶，也亲眼目睹了自己老师被反杀。

所以整个道场从根儿上就是个犯罪团伙吧。

整部影片观感不错，黑色成分并不剧烈但也让人觉得“吃饱了”。女主美丽可爱。