路邊的手榴彈

今早晨運在路旁檢回來的像手榴彈的綠色果實。

The sick Yen

According to The Economist, which cites a modelling exercise by Morgan Stanley, the Japanese Yen is 12% undervalued against the US$ and 30% undervalued against the Euro. In comparison, The Chinese Yuan is only 7% undervalued against the US$.

A weak Yen coupled consistent deflation (i.e. falling prices) in the country means that the real trade-weighted value of the Yen has fallen to its lowest since 1982.

The article lists a number of theories which purport to explain why the Yen is so sick, including "interest rate differential", "carry trade" and "global funnelling hypothesis".

All these are a bit too hard for me to digest.

I don't really care why the Yen is weak. All I want is further weakness, at least until the end of this year, since I shall be travelling around Japan for 2 weeks in late November, early December.

Already, it costs less to buy a Big Mac in Japan than anywhere else in the developed world - not that I am desperate to chew Big Macs whilst in Japan, though.

我站在雞蛋一邊

村上春樹與南方周末的書面訪談：

所謂故事，應該突破所有制約，完全自由，這是我強烈的信念。講故事和小貓散步是一樣的，去喜歡的地方，做喜歡的事就好。

基本上我非常重視和尊重個人的自由。就像是有一堵結實的高牆，如果有撞上高牆而破碎的雞蛋，我往往是站在雞蛋一邊的。

我喜歡的女性，在現實世界中幾乎不存在。還是貓和音樂更輕鬆，更好些。

要一動不動地坐在書桌前寫小說，無論如何都需要集中力和持久力。當然，不是說有了集中力和持久力就能寫小說，但是體力這東西，有總比沒有好得多，因此我一直堅持運動。

對於現實的人生，我已經有太多疑惑之處。如果再加上“如果那時候……”的假定，簡直是不可收拾了。

----------

Perfume, or sewage?

My Frankfurt-based friend Cathy has already watched Tom Tykwer's much anticipated new film Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, which is adapted from the novel of the same name by Patrick Suskind.

I have read the novel but may have to wait months to watch the film. When Cathy suggested reading a longish Spiegel article on the film, I hesitated. Like the case of Tony Takitani, sometimes it's hard to give due justice to a film adapted from a well-known novel, if the viewer has read the novel and known too much background about how the film is made. (See my two blog entries on Tony Takitani in Chinese: 觀影讀書流水賬 24/9 and 《東尼瀧谷》基本上是「演述」原作)

Still, I couldn't resist the temptation of having a quick look at the article. One paragraph caught my eyes:

Tykwer's fondness for expressive images gives the film energy and style and a sort of ornamental bravura, but the fact that Tykwer has to struggle with its weightiness is a result of the constraints imposed by the need to remain true to the original literary work. There are too many instances where images parading past in a succession of fireworks illustrates piecemeal what the booming voice of the narrator (Otto Sander) then brings into context. As a result, the production rarely manages to liberate itself from the constraints of someone else's fantasy.

So, it seems like the filmed version of Perfume is having more or less the same problem as Tony Takitani!

I'll have to "wait and see" though.

觀影讀書流水賬 1/10

上週還是忙於籌劃年底的旅行，只看了兩部電影：

Anders Thomas Jensen 《Adam's Apples》
Diane Bertrand 《The Ring Finger/L'Annulaire》

----------

《The Ring Finger》跟上週看的《東尼瀧谷》一樣，都是改編自日本作家的短篇小說。

小川洋子今年剛憑《米娜的行進》獲得第42屆日本谷崎潤一郎文學獎。據城邦讀書花園介紹：

小川洋子 Yoko Ogawa 1962年出生於日本岡山市，畢業於早稻田大學第一文學系文藝科。1988年以〈毀滅黃粉蝶的時候〉獲得海燕新人文學獎。1991年以〈妊娠月曆〉獲得第 104屆芥川獎。主要著作有《不冷的紅茶》、《溫柔的訴求》、《愛麗斯飯店》、《沈默博物館》、《安娜?法蘭克的記憶》、《貴婦人A的重生》、《偶然的祝福》等。

其筆鋒冷斂，早期作品多以描述人性陰暗面和殘酷見稱；三十歲後，為《安妮的日記》前往德國奧茲維斯集中營採訪，感受到「人類可以那麼殘酷，卻同時也那麼偉大」後，寫作風格也因而轉變，「不再尖銳刻畫、曝露人類深藏的惡意，而能夠以一種『人類是善惡共存體』的態度去看待他人」，並且開始撰寫與記憶有關的主題。其作品在歐洲受到極大的迴響，有法、德、西、義等諸國譯本，其中三部作品在法國改編成電影。

在法國改編成電影的其中一部，就是改編自《無名指的標本》的《The Ring Finger》。

由於我沒讀過小川洋子的作品，我看《The Ring Finger》時的心情跟看《東尼瀧谷》時是很不一樣的。因為對我來說，《The Ring Finger》很單純地只是一部電影。

簡單地說，《The Ring Finger》影像養眼，內涵貧乏，雖然難懂，但不難捱。

----------

無名指改編小川洋子同名小說（聯合追星網）
同居陌生人（藍藍的movie blog）
L'Annulaire (2005) Also known as : "The Ring Finger" (Rotten Tomatoes)

《無名指的標本》試讀本