nan | 楠木

District 9, which heavily employed viral marketing prior to its release, is a surprisingly satisfying sci-fi action film. The film’s brilliance is in its novel plot, which makes many not-so-subtle references to our real society and is therefore a great work of satire.

The basics of the plot is thus: 20 years ago, an alien space ship came down to Earth, and stopped hovering above Johannesburg, South Africa. When Earth scientists penetrated the space ship, they found a species of aliens starving onboard. (The aliens are hideous creatures that look crustacean.) These aliens were brought to the ground, and given food and shelter. They were placed in District 9, a designated part of the city. As the years went past and it became evident these aliens are here to stay, they became more and more of a nuisance to their hosts (and got the derisive nickname “prawns”). Fast forward to the present day, District 9 is a slum, with various factions holding interests. There is MNU (Multi-National United), the private corporation in charge of District 9. And there are the Nigerians, who operate shady rackets that exploit the aliens’ bizarre appetite for cat-food to stock up on alien weaponry.

MNU is about to carry out a mass eviction and relocation of the tenants of the district. The film’s central character, Wikus van de Merwe, is a paper-pusher who has been selected by his father-in-law to run the eviction project. Wikus comes across as a despicable person at first – shallow, selfish, cowardly – but after a freakish accident during the eviction, he starts a mutational transformation towards a “prawn”. This makes him ironically very valuable, as the much-coveted alien weaponry can only be operated by the aliens, and MNU has been conducting secret tests on aliens without success. As he frantically tries to get his body back to normal (and therefore get his life back), Wikus forms a strange alliance with an alien which he calls Christopher Johnson. Christopher is trying to restart the alien ship – and the two work together against the MNU mercenaries, which sets up the film for some very explosive action towards the end of the film (and yes, there is a kick-ass robot involved).

There are a number of interesting points regarding the film’s premise. The most central point is how the aliens are portrayed as the film elapsed. At first, the aliens are shown to be just mindless, crude and potentially violent, just as their appearances suggest. Then as the plot develops and Christopher is featured, and the cruelties of the humans are shown in great detail, we start to identify with the aliens and their perspective. Towards the end, we are fully rooting for the aliens and cheering whenever Wikus turns another human trash into ketchup (and there’s quite a lot of ketchup in this film) with his advanced weaponry. Simply put, we experience Wikus’ transformation, and while we may reject the notion of becoming ugly aliens, by the end of the film we do see mankind from a different perspective – and discover the irony that we are not any better, or perhaps even worse, than these creatures whom we loath so much.

Most critics have pointed out the film’s obvious references to apartheid in South Africa. (See Roger Ebert’s review for a pretty informational summary). This gives the film a poignant edge, and gives the audience some food for thought after all the CG eye candy has resided. District 9 is certainly one of the best sci-fis in recent years, and is immensely enjoyable.

P.S. This was the first film I saw in a US cinema. Not a bad first choice!

9/10

The Battle of Algiers is a two-hour long reconstruction of the Algerian War for independence in the ’50s and early ’60s. Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo takes a very even-handed approach, showing the brutal tactics employed by both the French army and the Algerian resistance. The now legendary Ennio Morricone is the man behind the tense score. The end-result is a film that is chilling yet fascinating to watch.

While this is largely a film that focuses on the general public as opposed to individuals, there are a few characters that drive the plot loosely forward. On the Algerian side, a few leaders of the FLN (National Liberation Front) are portrayed. For the French, a fictional Colonel Mathieu leads the effort to crack down on the insurgency. These characters, though, are really just the backdrop for the realistic portrayal of guerilla warfare, terrorist tactics, torture and interrogation, as well as general brutality in a police state.

Cliched as it may now seem, the film highlights a key question in political philosophy – can the end justify the means? As in, is it moral for a people to adopt terrorism (bombings targeting civilians etc.) in its fight for a moral cause (independence)? And is it justifiable to conduct torture to stop terrorism (a question that certainly has high relevance today)?

Interestingly, another film that I watched last week, the brilliant biopic Gandhi, shows a contrasting path to achieve independence. While Mr. Gandhi’s methods and morals are highly commendable, it is certainly true that not all peoples can use peaceful non-cooperation to fight their oppressors. Gandhi’s success in India is deeply connected to the circumstances under which the struggle was fought – namely, the demise of the British Empire after the two world wars, changing global political climate, and the unique characteristics of British rule in India etc. And just to go off-topic a bit further, Gandhi’s methods were later shown to be not so successful when it came to the issue of Muslims and Hindus coexisting in India – that India was split into India and Pakistan is somewhat of a twisted ending to a glorious (and mostly peaceful) struggle for independence.

But back to the film under review. The film doesn’t answer these questions it poses – it is an observation, not a argument. The objective view taken is perhaps the most important attribute, since this allows viewers of different backgrounds to appreciate the film, instead of judging it as propaganda. Very watchable for anyone interested in political struggles.

8/10

已经开学了，顿时变得无比的忙。以前工作的时候好像一天也没有这么多邮件要处理。日历上总是满的，跟两个不同班的同学想约个时间讨论个事情，竟然发现要排到下周才有空。更是无暇来写周记了，不知不觉又快三周了，赶紧补一下。

8月10日到8月14日这一周，继续是暑期学前班。印象比较深的是教会计的老师Suneel Udpa，一个曾经在印度实战多年之后才转入教学的老师。他讲课非常非常幽默，段子横飞，期间从不忘展示其对会计这个行业的深厚热爱。课程的最后他给我们简单分析了一下Enron当时做假账的方法，之后意味深长地来了句”so many frauds in the world, and so little time (to analyze)!”

8月15-16这个周末，orientation的活动正式开始了。15号是旧金山一日游，我们从码头的周六市场开始（类似于早市，就是吃的东西比较多），而后到Alcatraz（就是《勇闯夺命岛》里的那个岛）废弃的监狱参观。这里的故事有很多，相关的电影也很多，除了《勇闯夺命岛》，我比较推荐Clint Eastwood主演的根据真实越狱改编的Escape From Alcatraz。

晚上跟室友及其原来的一帮同事去泡吧，接连走了两三个地方。最后一个酒吧The Cellar比较有趣，两个舞厅一个是80年代音乐一个是嘻哈，都是很讨巧并适合集体娱乐的。而后凌晨2点我们去了一家韩国ktv，嘻嘻哈哈地到了4点多才坐朋友的车回了伯克利。

8月17-21日这一周，是orientation week。也就是说开了很多讲座，做了很多集体项目。周一的亮点是给我们安排了一个神秘演讲嘉宾，是英特尔的CEO。讲的内容是比较类似面向分析师的报告，所以倒不是特别的有新意，但是显然是给足了学校面子。相关报道可参考同学的博客。活动最累的一天是周三上午的义工活动和下午的Cohort Olympics。上午我们去一个社区做了些体力活（除草之类的）。下午到一个草地公园办了一系列户外比赛，从传统的球类到一些趣味游戏。比较损的是大家刚刚吃完中饭，组织者就告诉我们要开始吃蛋糕比赛。视频如下：

周四晚上在我们隔壁的公寓里几个邻居办了个小型派对，室友怂恿我穿着睡衣去（我当时正准备换上牛仔裤）。我想了想遵从了室友的建议，果然大受欢迎，算是赢了不少面子。于是意识到，在这边果然是不能太把脸面当回事，你越是放得开就越会让别人另眼相看。

周五晚上是盛大的最后派对。二年级组织者们也是下了很大力气，出动了五辆大巴，每辆车一个不同主题（迈克尔·杰克逊，80年代，啦啦队等等）。每辆车先分别去两个不同的酒吧，最后在一个酒吧会师。过程搞得很复杂。本来我们每辆车是应该要有个正经的节目要表演的，但到了表演的时候大家已经大多烂醉如泥。另外，请来的乐队（据说一晚上收了我们$5,000）非常棒，因此大家也更愿意他们表演而不是看我们自己自娱自乐。

周六陪一个韩国老朋友（05年在一个中日韩学生商业竞赛上认识的）在旧金山玩了一天。大暴走，从码头走到市政厅。期间路过了晚上非常不安全的Tenderloin区域，见识了旧金山最穷的几个街区之一（感觉Mission区都没有这么赤裸裸地贫穷）。周日去现场看了场棒球赛。主要的亮点不是比赛，而是比赛前的餐饮（所谓tailgate）。但凡体育比赛日，比赛前似乎美国人都会聚在一起搞点烧烤什么的。很多人也不是比赛快开始了就赶着进场，而是在外面多晃悠一阵子。棒球赛节奏是比较慢的，错过半个小时也不会错过什么。

Freeman是今年一块从大陆过来的同学，他的博客比我更新得快多了，并且有图有真相，在此推荐一下：中文，英文。

另外就是我们学校学生撰写的群体博客。

Das Boot was the film that put Wolfgang Petersen’s name on the map, and is probably still the German director’s best work (which highlights how hard it is for foreign directors to be both commercially and critically successful in Hollywood – just compare John Woo’s body of works in HK and the US). Running at three-and-a-half-hours long, the Director’s Cut is a intense viewing experience which literally brings the audience underwater and into the greasy, smelly confinement of a German U-Boat in WWII.

Technically, the film is astounding to watch. It is easy to see how meticulously the sets were constructed – and very early on the moving camera work (which was a smaller scale version of a Steadicam, according to Wikipedia) beautifully establishes the space of the U-Boat in a long take.

The ensemble cast gave a magnificent performance. So much of the film’s tension in its action sequences hinged upon close-ups of the crew’s expressions, and the tension was real. It was as if you could breathe and smell the claustrophobic surroundings and the immense fear of the unknown – in this case, where the British destroyers lurked above and when will the depth charges descend. The germans’ only defensive strategy seemed to be “wait until they run out of depth charges”, so the fear was tremendous.

The film’s ending, which felt like a small twist but was also logical given the grand scheme of things, strengthens the core theme that war is ugly and there can be no victors. The last shot before the credits reminded me of the black and white era – I don’t exactly know why – and the sheer chaos and myriad emotions conveyed in that one scene is simply haunting.

8/10

接上次，讲完在美国的第二周。

第二周就有“学前班”了，即学校的夏季课程。主要内容是数学和语文，数学即一些数学方法、金融与会计，语文即沟通技巧。数学是每天上午三个小时，一共十天。语文是下午三个小时，共六次。

我们这一届生源貌似正好240人，而参加“夏令营”的大约有100多人。到现在为止基本上在晕头转向地认识同学，大多数人都需要聊过两三次以后才能记住名字，所幸大家记人名的能力貌似是差不多的，也没有特别大的压力。没有去过别的学校，不能比较，不过单就我们学校的生源，的确可以看出来性格方面大都是比较随和的，少有印象中非常飞扬跋扈之典型MBA学生。有一些同学个性非常鲜明，譬如说一位以色列大叔（他应该不读中文，嗯）Daniel，我立刻便觉得非常亲切。

上课不必多说（以后估计有很多可说的）。第一个老师看来就是来镇我们的，一个在商学院教金融和战略等多门课程、同时还在法学院教法律的教授。颇有几分幽默，这是当老师的必备能力。

然后便是夜生活。从这周的周三开始，夜生活开始丰富起来─周三在伯克利市中心的酒吧，学生自发地组织了个聚会。周四是在旧金山的Mission District，给某个同学过生日。在一个天台上的酒吧，可以看到旧金山的夜景，就是那天空气很冷。回来的路上大家（我们“寝室”三个男生，以及跟我们一层的另一间的两男一女这个六人行─我们经常一起混）决定吃墨西哥宵夜，结果比晚上的日本料理吃得还多。。。周五晚上则是在室友Chris的率领下我们这个六人行（除去一个去了旧金山）到Oakland，参加一个奇怪的露天活动。地点在Oakland的加州博物馆，现场有乐队表演，还有美式职业摔跤（就是WWE那种，但是是一个比较不知名的组织），另外有一些所谓艺术家的摊位。之后到一个酒吧喝酒，是一个钢琴酒吧，就是有个老头子弹钢琴，钢琴边围坐着一帮人就着钢琴伴奏唱卡拉ok。歌唱者主要是老头老太太们，倒是搞得氛围非常悠闲。

到了周末，依然很多活动。周六大赞Yang同学的邀请，跟她的朋友及朋友的朋友一起在湾区出海。成员非常有趣，船长是一个美联航的机长，以前经常飞中国航线，如今比较多飞夏威夷。关于本次航行Yang同学的blog已经详述。

总之是一次胜利并团结的出海。

周日继续是忙。当年清华同系同届的Hao同学拉上我开车去Palo Alto接上Yang同学，而后在Fremont附近吃了“麻辣诱惑”。跟国内的应该没有关系，不过菜还比较地道。再之后，纠集了一众中国留学生，向北到Richmond的大华超市，这里有家“音乐隧道”之类命名的KTV。。。如此便腐败过了第二个周末。。。

7月26日踏上了赴美的航班，至今已经15天了。一直很忙，这里疏于打理，这才意识到之前有多么悠闲。我怀疑以后的日子也都会很忙，所以双周记可能是一个比较合适的形式。

到的第一周其实没有那么忙。落地是7月26日，周日。早上到的SFO机场，气温清爽。拖着两个拉杆箱踏上湾区的轨道交通BART（Bay Area Rapid Transit），好像70年代搞出来的，基本上就是轻轨/地铁。从旧金山南部，穿过旧金山，进而往东过海到达东湾。再向北，便是伯克利。车程总共1个小时，实在很方便。

从轻轨出来，到旅店大约是500米。我的方向感真的很好─在路口我并没有搞清楚该往哪里走，但是第一反应就是正确的。到了这家motel，入住。（之所以要住旅店，是因为房子8月1日才入住，而我的机票有种种不足为外人道也的原因是26日的）。旅店就在东西主干道式的University Avenue，离伯克利市中心大约1英里。此后的一周我便时常步行“进城”。

周日无所事事，想去银行开户，方才意识到这里是美国，银行周日是关门的。摸索出了周边的一些餐馆、超市等等。

之后的一周其实也比较平淡。倒时差，常常是中午才起来，所以旅店的免费早餐始终没有享受过。银行开户，把带来的现金存了起来。买了个iphone 3GS，16G黑色的断货了，手机又是必需品，实在不想等，便入手了黑色32G。（与3G的变化不大，外观一模一样，多了个指南针软件，可以拍视频。最重要的是CPU和内存都升级了，快很多）由于没有社保号码，只能拍下$500押金，导致买手机一下子就出手了快$800。不过这笔投资很值得，从此出门除了手机和钱包什么都不用带，去哪儿google maps一查，公交、地铁几点有等等都很清楚。

这一周比较有趣的是去旧金山的两趟。先是周二中午跟清华同学Yang在旧金山金融区吃午饭（顺带感谢Yang请客。。。），之后展开旧金山大暴走，把唐人街（下图是唐人街入口）走了个来回，Union Square等等。有些地方后面学校会组织观光（譬如说North Beach），因此我便回避了。Yang同学送了我一个“旧金山50条步行线路”，稍微走了走我才意识到作者的良苦用心─这么小的城市居然能遍出50条来，可真是把每个“胡同”都翻出来了。

唐人街入口

唐人街的美国国旗

唐人街的花旗银行─这条街上的银行都很中国

著名的Union Square─很多画家。我的摄影很烂。Union Square周边集中了Chanel / Hermes / LV之类的奢侈品牌专卖店

Union Square街边的画家

周三在Yang同学的介绍下参加了一个关于中国的活动，在一个非盈利组织的场所。演讲人是旧金山亚洲艺术馆的馆长，一个上海人。讲了些关于他们明年要借世博会之际办的关于上海的艺术展。碰到了很多学中文的外国人，以及不少华人。有些人是从San Jose等地赶过来的，所以还是挺热闹的。聊得不错。

这周的后几天就是在跟宜家做斗争。前后去了两次。租的房子是没有家具的，所以要备齐一套。第一天看的头晕眼花，并且决定不能出手，因为还没有看过房间的尺寸（是美国室友找好的，我房子都没有进过）。事实证明这个决定无比英明，当然这也主要是我那几天实在很昏，做事完全没有规划。

跟房屋中介打交道，发现美国人的死板，或者说，这边规矩是什么就是什么，很难有变通。费了些嘴皮总算可以周五下午拿到房子钥匙（我们的租约是从周六开始）。周五去预付房租，发现必须要支票，而我之前是指望用国内的信用卡把这三千多美元的房租刷掉。于是到银行，小折腾了一把，总算凑出了个$3000的支票（长话短说─用国内信用卡提现了$1000，还是单日的上限，之后把美国帐户上我带来的那点钱几乎都拿出来了。。。）。之后一下子变得很穷。

嗯，于是拿到了钥匙。已经下午三点了。去看房，幸亏看了一下。发现已经有衣柜了，心里很爽，省了几百美金。量好了尺寸。坐公交车去宜家。血拼。百密一疏，居然书桌和书架忘买了。于是有点小郁闷，因为连送货的标准重量都没有达到，因此有点亏（$79美元送300lb）。更郁闷的是告诉我周六的送货表已经满了，只能周日上午送。也就是说我周六要打地铺。

周日搬家。叫了辆出租，花了$10让印度大叔司机把我送到了房子。唯一能做的就是把衣服整理到衣柜里去，很快就完成了。下午两个室友陆续赶来，两个运动员身材。Chris有1米9多（我们的老电梯里他脑袋碰天花板），Jon 1米85的样子（意大利后裔，所以踢足球）。他俩都是加州人，Chris是南加州长大的，读书工作都在San Diego，之前工作是能源领域的M&A。Jon跟我一样是做咨询的，高中以前是在加州，大学是在西雅图，工作是在德勤的西雅图办公室，不过一直来加州出差。两个室友人都很好，大家年龄也相仿，都是25-26，还真是巧（班上大多数人都应该要大一些）。

周日上午，一大早就送来了家具，导致我原来取消的访友之行恢复了。到西伯克利坐上了Amtrak的Capital Corridor线路，一路往东北方向，一个小时多一点就到了Davis，下了车就看到了一个院子里长大（小学、初中同班）的Yue同学。在Davis吃了日本料理的自助餐，又是朋友请客，哎呀不得不感叹我命真是好啊。

之后我做了一件很勇敢的事情，就是坐Yue同学的车。。。我们本来说去看向日葵，结果开了一路也没有看到，径直开到了加州首府Sacramento。于是到了施瓦辛格的办公场所。之后到老城区，餐馆了加州火车博物馆。

加州州政府

Sacramento老城区的糖果店

老城区的街景─那排机车是一个摩托车党

晚上坐火车回家。Amtrak这趟线路一直沿着海岸线，风景非常漂亮。我一度觉得铁路修得好奢侈，因为铁路会紧贴海岸线的每个小弯（离海距离不过10米），后来猜想，这可能是因为地皮的原因，当初修铁路倘若从内陆走，难免经过很多农场之类的，大概征地比较贵。当然这仅仅是我的猜想，并未深入研究。

火车上的日落

回家后装家具。费了九牛二虎之力才搞定床，还是少装了些螺丝的情况下（因为工具不好，螺丝很难上。）有床了，睡觉。第二天要上“学前班”。

我现在的猪窝

附：发布之后决定把编号改为0，取“元”之意，也是因为这篇只写了一周。。。