《河边的错误》你觉得怎么样？

近日，电影《河边的错误》（Only the River Flows）正在热映，你看了吗？

🤔️小作业：

1. What is implied about Wei Shujun’s storytelling technique in “Only the River Flows”?

a) Conventional and predictable

b) Artistic but confusing

c) Simple yet profound

d) Playfully multi-layered

a) It’s a mainstream action film.

b) It targets a general audience.

c) It focuses on aesthetic and thematic depth.

d) It is an adaptation of a famous novel.

a) Pessimistic  b) Uncertain

c) Optimistic  d) Critical

无注释原文：

'Only the River Flows': China's brightest up-and-coming director gets a mainstream release

From: The China Project

Only the River Flows, a stylish detective story set in 1990s China, won a Best Film award at the Pingyao International Film Festival that concluded on October 18. This was after it had its U.S. premiere at the Chicago International Film Festival on October 14. It then got a large domestic theatrical release, on October 21, and raked in a healthy 146 million yuan ($20 million) on opening weekend.

Not bad for an arthouse film.

Only the River Flows is the third full-length feature directed by 32-year-old Wei Shujun, whose three films — Striding into the Wind (2020) and Ripples of Life (2021), previously — have all shown at Cannes. Wei has earned himself quite the reputation, hailed as “the future of Chinese cinema.” But Only the River Flows marks an especially bold move: It is an adaptation of a short story by one of the most revered Chinese writers, Yu Hua, with Wei taking a bigger leap forward than in his previous projects. He abandons the linear plot for the sake of mentalscapes, and plays with details and structures that resist easy framing.

The film centers on Ma Zhe, a detective in a small town in southern China in 1995. Ma's professional and private life seems complete. He solves cases smoothly and returns home to a wife who is expecting a child. One evening, he is called to a crime scene by the river, where the body of an older woman has been found. At first, he approaches the murder case with an air of a routine. Soon, other murders by the riverbank follow. Ma Zhe's reliance on reasoning and logic is put to a test — from which he might not be able to recover.

The film goes far beyond the scope of classic literary adaptation. This characterizes Wei Shujun himself — he craves challenges and is not afraid to reinvent himself each time he takes up a new project.

A rapper-turned-filmmaker, Wei studied sound recording at China Communication University. He gained practical experience running a company, making commercials and organizing parties. It prepared him for the hectic realities of the Chinese film industry, in which the ability to make use of the constantly changing environment is key to getting things done.

All told, Wei was able to preserve the paranoia present in Yu Hua's writing. He accomplishes it through the careful construction of cinematic space. The film starts with a scene of kids playing cops and robbers in an abandoned building. The boy playing a policeman loses track of the others; he keeps opening different doors, and suddenly, appearing behind one of them is nothing but a precipice, revealing that the building is gradually being torn down.

The filmmaker adds many subplots and details that do not appear in Yu Hua's short story but make the storytelling palpably cinematic and metaphorical. One such detail is the chief of police's idea to move the entire crime department to an abandoned cinema theater. Ma Zhe's office is in the projection booth — the space as small, dark, and claustrophobic as the insides of the protagonist's brain. He spends days projecting photos from the crime scene onto the wall of what used to be the projection booth, going deeper and deeper into thought spirals. Wei's storytelling technique is playfully multi-layered, resulting in an in-depth reflection on the nature of delusions and mechanisms of cognition.

In the short story as well as its adaptation, we see the killer early on. But much like Ma Zhe himself, we refuse to accept it because not only does it go against the rules of the genre, but also disturbs the mechanisms of audience identification with the protagonist. In the scene of the first murder, the weapon emerges from behind the camera, as if the audience is the killer — turning the viewer into an unwitting accomplice. The knowledge of the world on screen is limited to the viewfinder of the camera, and no theories of realism will offer any consolation.

Wei loves mind games and paradoxes, but it remains to be seen if this level of playfulness will be accepted by audiences in China. At the recently concluded 7th Pingyao International Film Festival, young Chinese arthouse filmmakers discussed how contemporary audiences in China want closed endings and clear resolutions. Wei Shujun offers one, but fully with tongue in cheek.

However, supported by the star power of Zhu Yilong playing Ma Zhe and Yu Hua himself claiming to be Wei Shujun's fan, Only the River Flows has a chance to change perceptions of arthouse cinema in China, possibly helping secure future arthouse films bigger theatrical releases.

- ◆ -

注：完整题目见本文开头；中文文本为机器翻译并非一一对应，仅供参考

含注释全文：

'Only the River Flows': China's brightest up-and-coming director gets a mainstream release

From: The China Project

Only the River Flows, a stylish detective story set in 1990s China, won a Best Film award at the Pingyao International Film Festival that concluded on October 18. This was after it had its U.S. premiere at the Chicago International Film Festival on October 14. It then got a large domestic theatrical release, on October 21, and raked in a healthy 146 million yuan ($20 million) on opening weekend.

在10月18日闭幕的平遥国际电影展上，一部以20世纪90年代中国为背景、风格独特的侦探故事片《河边的错误》（Only the River Flows）荣获最佳影片奖。此前，该片于10月14日在美国芝加哥国际电影节上首映。10月21日，该片在国内大规模上映，首周末票房高达1.46亿元（约2000万美元）。

stylish /ˈstaɪ.lɪʃ/ 表示“气派的；格调优雅的”，英文解释为“of a high quality in appearance, design, or behaviour”举个🌰：The film's direction is subtle and stylish. 这部电影导演手法精巧细致、格调高雅。

premiere /ˈprɛmɪˌɛə, ˈprɛmɪə/ 可以作动词和名词，表示“首映，首演，首次上演/映”，英文解释为“the first public performance of a play or any other type of entertainment“。

📍这里要注意的是这个词去掉末尾的 e 就变成了 premier“首相，总理”；另外，premier作为形容词则表示“首位的，首要的”（best or most important），举个🌰：He's one of the nation's premier scientists. 他是该国最重要的科学家之一。

表示“轻易赚（很多钱）；赚大钱”，英文解释为“to earn or get a large amount of money”举个🌰：He rakes in over $200,000 a year. 他一年能挣20多万美元。

Not bad for an arthouse film.

对于一部文艺片来说，这一成绩还不错。

arthouse /ˈɑːt.haʊs/ 表示“（专演实验性电影、纪录片或外国电影的）艺术影院的；（电影）严肃的，艺术的，非娱乐性的”，英文解释为“used to refer to films that are of high quality but may not be extremely popular or successful, such as foreign films or ones made by small film companies”如：an arthousecinema 艺术影院。

Only the River Flows is the third full-length feature directed by 32-year-old Wei Shujun, whose three films — Striding into the Wind (2020) and Ripples of Life (2021), previously — have all shown at Cannes. Wei has earned himself quite the reputation, hailed as “the future of Chinese cinema.” But Only the River Flows marks an especially bold move: It is an adaptation of a short story by one of the most revered Chinese writers, Yu Hua, with Wei taking a bigger leap forward than in his previous projects. He abandons the linear plot for the sake of mentalscapes, and plays with details and structures that resist easy framing.

《河边的错误》是32岁的年轻导演魏书钧（Wei Shujun）的第三部长片，且三部电影（之前两部作品为2020年《野马分鬃》、2021年《永安镇故事集》）都入围了戛纳电影节。魏书钧已赢得了极高的声誉，被誉为“中国电影的未来”。然而，这部新作是一次尤为大胆的尝试：该片改编自中国最受尊敬的作家之一余华的短篇小说，与之前作品相比，他在这部新作中有了更大的突破。为了更深刻地呈现心理层面，魏书钧摒弃了传统线性的剧情，转而在细节和结构上进行了一些难以简单界定的创新和尝试。

feature 1）作名词，原意表示“特色；特征；特点，功能”，英文解释为“something important, interesting or typical of a place or thing”，此前在iOS 14来了!文中就出现了多次的feature，介绍iOS 14各种新功能，新特点，举个🌰：Which features do you look for when choosing a car? 你挑选轿车时要着重哪些特点？

2）feature = feature film表示“（电影）故事片，正片”，英文解释为“a film that is usually 90 or more minutes long”

3）feature作动词，表示“以…为特色；由…主演；以…为主要组成”，英文解释为“to include a particular person or thing as a special feature”，作动词往往可以理解为“有...”（功能/特色），举个🌰：Many of the hotels featured in the brochure offer special deals for weekend breaks. 小册子列举的多家旅馆都有周末假日特别优待。The film features Cary Grant as a professor. 这部电影由卡里·格兰特饰演一位教授。

📍在英文歌中会经常看到这种说法，xxxa feat. xxxb，此处feat.实际上就是feature的缩写，大概意思是歌曲中穿插另外一个人的演唱或表演，xxxa和xxxb共同演绎，合作演出。据百度百科，feat.的是后面这个歌手（或者组合）他在这首单曲里面或者这张专辑里面并不是主角，前面那个人才是这首歌的灵魂或者主人。

hail /heɪl/ 1）表示“招呼，呼喊”，英文解释为“to call someone in order to attract their attention”举个🌰：Shall we hail a taxi? 我们要叫出租车吗？

2）hail sb/sth as sth 表示“把…称赞为，把…誉为”，英文解释为“to describe sb/sth as being very good or special, especially in newspapers, etc.”举个🌰：The conference was hailed as a great success. 会议被称颂为一次巨大的成功。

revere /rɪˈvɪə/ 表示“崇敬”，英文解释为“If you revere someone or something, you respect and admire them greatly.”举个🌰：The Chinese revered corn as a gift from heaven. 中国人将谷物奉为天赐礼物。

📍形容词性：revered，受尊崇的，如：some of the country's most revered institutions 该国一些最受尊崇的机构。

linear /ˈlɪn.i.ər/ 表示“连续的，连贯的；线性的”，英文解释为“involving a series of events or thoughts in which one follows another one directly”举个🌰：These mental exercises are designed to break linear thinking habits and encourage creativity. 设计这些思维训练旨在打破线性思维习惯，激发革新所需的创造思维。The movie has a non-linear plot. 这部电影的情节是非连贯性的。

frame /freɪm/ 表示“（图画、门、窗的）框，框架”，英文解释为“a border that surrounds and supports a picture, door, or window”如：a picture frame 画框，也可以表示“帧；（摄影胶片的）画格；（电视或电影的）画面，镜头”，英文解释为“one of the pictures on a strip of photographic film, or one of the single pictures that together form a television or cinema film”

📍time frame /ˈtaɪm ˌfreɪm/ 表示“（安排进行某活动的）时间框架，时间范围”，英文解释为“a period of days, weeks, months, etc. within which an activity is intended to happen”举个🌰：Have you set a time frame for completing the job? 你给这项工作定完成时限了吗？The time frame within which all this occurred was from February 2015 to September 2023. 这一切都是在2015年2月到2023年9月的时间范围内发生的。

作动词，frame 1）可以表示“（措词谨慎地）表达，说出”，英文解释为“to express something choosing your words carefully”举个🌰：The interview would have been more productive if the questions had been framed more precisely. 如果当时问题提得更确切些，采访就会更有成效。

2）表示“给（图画等）装（镜）框”，英文解释为“to fix a border around a picture, etc. and often glass in front of it”举个🌰：I keep meaning to get that photo framed. 我一直打算给那张照片镶上框。

📍framed /freɪmd/ 表示“加外框的”，英文解释为“surrounded by a border”如：a framed photograph 用像框装起来的照片。

The film centers on Ma Zhe, a detective in a small town in southern China in 1995. Ma's professional and private life seems complete. He solves cases smoothly and returns home to a wife who is expecting a child. One evening, he is called to a crime scene by the river, where the body of an older woman has been found. At first, he approaches the murder case with an air of a routine. Soon, other murders by the riverbank follow. Ma Zhe's reliance on reasoning and logic is put to a test — from which he might not be able to recover.

这部影片围绕1995年中国南方小镇的警察马哲（Ma Zhe）展开。他的工作和家庭看似都十分美满。他顺利地破获案件，回到家中，妻子怀上了孩子。一天晚上，他被叫到河边的一个犯罪现场，在那里发现了一具老婆婆的尸体。起初，他只是例行公事般地处理这起谋杀案。但不久，河边又接连发生了几起谋杀案。马哲一直依赖于推理和逻辑来解决问题，但这次他面临的考验可能会让他无法恢复到原来的状态。

熟词僻义，表示“怀上；怀孕”，英文解释为“If you say that a woman is expecting a baby, or that she is expecting, you mean that she is pregnant.”举个🌰：She was expecting another baby. 她怀上又一个孩子了。

reliance /rɪˈlaɪ.əns/ 表示“依赖，依靠；信任，信赖”，英文解释为“the state of depending on or trusting in something or someone”举个🌰：The region's reliance on tourism is unwise. 这一地区依赖旅游业谋发展是不明智的。

reasoning /ˈriː.zən.ɪŋ/ 表示“推理；推断；推论”，英文解释为“the process of thinking about something in order to make a decision”举个🌰：The reasoning behind her conclusion is impossible to fault. 她得出结论的推理过程无懈可击。

The film goes far beyond the scope of classic literary adaptation. This characterizes Wei Shujun himself — he craves challenges and is not afraid to reinvent himself each time he takes up a new project.

这部影片远远超出了经典文学作品改编的范畴。这也是魏书钧本人的特点——乐于接受挑战，每次接手新作品时，都不惧重塑自我。

A rapper-turned-filmmaker, Wei studied sound recording at China Communication University. He gained practical experience running a company, making commercials and organizing parties. It prepared him for the hectic realities of the Chinese film industry, in which the ability to make use of the constantly changing environment is key to getting things done.

这位从说唱歌手转型为导演的年轻人，毕业于中国传媒大学音响导演专业。他通过经营公司、制作广告和组织活动，获得了实际经验。这些经验为他应对中国电影行业中忙碌和多变的现实做好了准备。在这个行业里，能够灵活适应不断变化的环境是成功的关键。

...-turned-...，字面意思也是很好理解，xxx转变为xxx的，turned可以解释为“...出身的”（someone who has done one job and then does something completely different），比如，English-teacher-turned-founder of ...英语老师出身的xxx公司创始人，an actor turned politician 演员出身的政治家，a housewife turned author 家庭主妇出身的作家。

hectic /ˈhek.tɪk/ 表示“繁忙的，忙碌的”，英文解释为“full of activity, or very busy and fast”如：a hectic schedule 满当当的日程表。

All told, Wei was able to preserve the paranoia present in Yu Hua's writing. He accomplishes it through the careful construction of cinematic space. The film starts with a scene of kids playing cops and robbers in an abandoned building. The boy playing a policeman loses track of the others; he keeps opening different doors, and suddenly, appearing behind one of them is nothing but a precipice, revealing that the building is gradually being torn down.

总之，魏书钧通过对电影空间的精心构建，保留了余华笔下的紧张氛围。例如，影片以孩子们在一座废弃建筑物里扮演警察抓小偷的场景开始。扮演警察的那个男孩找不到其他人；他不断打开不同的门，突然，出现在其中一扇门后面的是残垣断壁，这表明这座建筑正在逐渐被拆除。

paranoia /ˌper.əˈnɔɪ.ə/ 1）表示“疑神疑鬼，多疑”，英文解释为“an extreme and unreasonable feeling that other people do not like you or are going to harm or criticize you”举个🌰：There's a lot of paranoia about crime at the moment. 现在人们十分多疑，总是害怕会有犯罪发生。

2）表示“患妄想症的人；偏执狂”，英文解释为“Someone who has paranoia has unreasonable false beliefs as a part of another mental illness, for example schizophrenia”.

precipice /ˈpres.ɪ.pɪs/ 表示“悬崖，峭壁”，英文解释为“a very steep side of a cliff or a mountain”举个🌰：The film opens with a shot of a climber dangling from a precipice. 电影开始时是一个登山者悬在峭壁上的镜头。

2）表示“险境，危局”，英文解释为“a dangerous situation that could lead to harm or failure”举个🌰：This latest tax increase may push many small companies over the financial precipice. 最近的这次增税可能会使许多小公司的财务陷入险境。

The filmmaker adds many subplots and details that do not appear in Yu Hua's short story but make the storytelling palpably cinematic and metaphorical. One such detail is the chief of police's idea to move the entire crime department to an abandoned cinema theater. Ma Zhe's office is in the projection booth — the space as small, dark, and claustrophobic as the insides of the protagonist's brain. He spends days projecting photos from the crime scene onto the wall of what used to be the projection booth, going deeper and deeper into thought spirals. Wei's storytelling technique is playfully multi-layered, resulting in an in-depth reflection on the nature of delusions and mechanisms of cognition.

导演在电影中加入了许多原作中没有但让故事更具观赏性和隐喻性的支线情节和细节。其中一个细节是，警察局长决定将刑警队办公地点搬到一个废弃电影院里。马哲的办公室就在放映室里——空间狭小、黑暗、幽闭，犹如主人公内心的深处。他花了好几天时间，将犯罪现场的照片投影到曾经的放映室墙上，陷入了越来越深的思维漩涡。魏书钧的叙事手法富有层次且充满戏谑，从而深刻地反映了对于幻觉本质和认知机制的思考。

palpably /ˈpæl.pə.bli/ 表示“明显地，触手可及地”，英文解释为“in a way that is so obvious that it can easily be seen or known, or (of a feeling) in a way that is so strong that it seems as if it can be physically felt”举个🌰：The system was palpably unfair. 该系统显然是不公平的。

metaphorical /ˌmet.əˈfɒr.ɪ.kəl/ 1）表示“使用隐喻的”，英文解释为“Metaphorical language contains metaphors.”举个🌰：Her second novel is written in a very metaphorical style. 她的第二部小说中运用了大量隐喻。

2）表示“比喻性的，比喻意义上的”，英文解释为“not having real existence but representing some truth about a situation or other subject”举个🌰：A metaphorical ocean (= extremely large area of disagreement) lies between the two groups. 两方之间存在着海洋般巨大的分歧。

booth /buːð/ 表示“小亭，小房间”，英文解释为“a small space like a box that a person can go into”，如：phone booth 电话亭，polling booth 投票亭，photo booth 照相亭。也可以表示“临时货摊（或放映棚等），展台”，英文解释为“a small tent or temporary structure at a market, an exhibition or a fairground , where you can buy things, get information or watch sth”。

claustrophobic /ˌklɒs.trəˈfəʊ.bɪk/ 表示“（因地方非常狭小）导致幽闭恐怖症的”，英文解释为“A claustrophobic place is small and closed, and makes you feel uncomfortable when you are in it.”举个🌰：My room's a bit claustrophobic. 我的房间小得有点幽闭恐怖。

protagonist /prəʊˈtæɡənɪst/ 表示“（戏剧、电影或故事的）主要人物，主角，主人公”，英文解释为“the most important character in a play, film, or story”；

类似的表达还有：

📍lead 表示“（戏剧、电影等中的）主角；扮演主角的演员”（the main part in a play, film/movie, etc.; the person who plays this part），如：the male/female lead 男/女主角。

📍main character 主要人物；主要角色；

📍star表示“主角，主演”（the person who has the main part, or one of them, in a film, play, show etc）；

📍hero和heroine分别表示“男主角/男主人公”（the man or boy who is the main character in a book, film, play etc）和“女主角/女主人公”（the woman or girl who is the main character in a book, film, play etc）。

delusion /dɪˈluː.ʒən/ 表示“幻想；错觉”，英文解释为“belief in something that is not true”举个🌰：He's under the delusion that he will be promoted this year. 他怀有自己今年会得到晋升的错觉。

In the short story as well as its adaptation, we see the killer early on. But much like Ma Zhe himself, we refuse to accept it because not only does it go against the rules of the genre, but also disturbs the mechanisms of audience identification with the protagonist. In the scene of the first murder, the weapon emerges from behind the camera, as if the audience is the killer — turning the viewer into an unwitting accomplice. The knowledge of the world on screen is limited to the viewfinder of the camera, and no theories of realism will offer any consolation.

在原短篇小说及改编影片中，我们一开始就看到了凶手。但就像马哲本人一样，我们都不愿相信，这不仅打破了侦探片的传统规则，也让观众对主角的认同感受到冲击。在第一起谋杀场景中，凶器是从镜头后面出现的，仿佛观众就是凶手——观众变成了不知情的帮凶。屏幕上展示的世界仅限于摄像机取景器的视野，任何现实主义的理论都无法带来任何慰藉。

genre /ˈʒɑːnrə/ 表示“（尤指艺术的）风格，类型，体裁”，英文解释为“a style, especially in the arts, that involves a particular set of characteristics”举个🌰：What genre does the book fall into - comedy or tragedy? 这本书属于什么体裁——喜剧还是悲剧？

unwitting /ʌnˈwɪt.ɪŋ/ 表示“不知情的；无意的”，英文解释为“without knowing or planning”举个🌰：The two women claimed they were the unwitting victims of a drug dealer who planted a large quantity of heroin in their luggage. 这两个妇女声称是一个毒贩在她们不知情的情况下把大量的海洛因放进了她们的行李。

accomplice /əˈkʌm.plɪs/ 表示“共犯，同谋，帮凶”，英文解释为“a person who helps someone else to commit a crime or to do something morally wrong”

表示“安慰；慰藉；给人带来安慰的事物”，英文解释为“something that makes someone who is sad or disappointed feel better”举个🌰：If it's (of) any consolation (to you), you're not the only one he was nasty to. 他不仅仅对你一个人粗鲁，这也许能让你略感安慰。

Wei loves mind games and paradoxes, but it remains to be seen if this level of playfulness will be accepted by audiences in China. At the recently concluded 7th Pingyao International Film Festival, young Chinese arthouse filmmakers discussed how contemporary audiences in China want closed endings and clear resolutions. Wei Shujun offers one, but fully with tongue in cheek.

魏书钧喜欢心理游戏和悖论，但目前尚不清楚这种玩味是否会被中国观众接受。在最近结束的第七届平遥国际电影展上，年轻的中国文艺片导演们讨论了当代观众更偏爱明确结局和解决方案的现象。魏书钧虽然给出了一个结局，但却是以一种戏谑的方式。

paradox /ˈpærəˌdɒks/ 表示“自相矛盾的情况；似非而是的说法，悖论”，英文解释为“a situation or statement that seems impossible or is difficult to understand because it contains two opposite facts or characteristics”举个🌰：It's a curious paradox that drinking a lot of water can often make you feel thirsty. 大量喝水经常会让人感觉口渴，这是看似矛盾而正确的奇怪说法。

tongue in cheek = with your tongue in your cheek  表示“开玩笑地;说着玩地”，英文解释为“If you say something tongue in cheek, you intend it to be understood as a joke, although you might appear to be serious.”举个🌰：He said that he was a huge fan of her, although I suspect it was tongue in cheek. 他说自己对她极为仰慕，而我认为他是在开玩笑。

However, supported by the star power of Zhu Yilong playing Ma Zhe and Yu Hua himself claiming to be Wei Shujun's fan, Only the River Flows has a chance to change perceptions of arthouse cinema in China, possibly helping secure future arthouse films bigger theatrical releases.

但凭借男主角朱一龙（Zhu Yilong）的明星效应，以及余华本人对魏书钧的高度认可，这部影片有望改变中国观众对文艺片的看法，甚至可能为未来的文艺片开拓更大的市场。

1）表示“认识，观念，看法”，英文解释为“a belief or opinion, often held by many people and based on how things seem”举个🌰：These photographs will affect people's perceptions of war. 这些照片会影响人们对战争的看法。

2）表示“知觉；感知”，英文解释为“the way you notice things, especially with the senses”如：visual perception 视觉；

🎬电影《失落的大陆》（Land of the Lost）中的台词提到：he has terrible depth perception 他的深度感知力很差。

1）熟词僻义，作动词，表示“获得；设法得到；争取到”，英文解释为“to get something, sometimes with difficulty”举个🌰：He was disappointed by his failure to secure the top job with the bank. 他因没能得到银行的高层工作而失望。

2）表示“使安全；保护；保卫”，英文解释为“to make certain something is protected from danger or risk”举个🌰：This form of investment is an excellent way of securing your children's financial future. 这种投资方式是为你的孩子提供日后经济保障的极佳方式。

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