This will not go away

A very compelling movie about the 1991 Supreme Court of Justice Nomination Hearings.

Yale University Law Professor Anita Hill came forward to tell the world that Judge Clarence Thomas sexually harassed her 20 years back, when they worked together in two offices.

Sexual harassment cases in court are inevitably caught in the he-say-she-say whirlpool of accounts. The most ridiculous reasons of indictment, narratives that anger the public, but the grand jury still votes otherwise. It happens just too often. But when it comes to Nomination Hearings at the Senate, for which there is no judicial verdict of being guilty or not, it becomes pure political drama.

Evidence and witnesses can be ignored, rather, dismissed completely. Council members can make long biased speeches, present 'evidence' as absurd as the novel "The Exorcist", and tailor the proceedings of the hearings to their best interest.

When it happened on live television in 1991, who did you believe? Have a go at the movie. I am very sure you will find a lot of things that did happen but you did not notice, because you were too focussed on "Long Dong Silver" and "High Tech Lynching".

There is no surprise to the ending of this story. It is forever a part of Supreme Court history that Judge Clarence Thomas was confirmed as Associate Justice. But the impact remains. The movie acknowledged how votes for senators swayed towards female senators in the succeeding election, and how the general public was reeducated about sexual harassment not simply being an act but can also be an intention.

There are also the negatives that follow. At his current seat as Associate Justice, Clarence Thomas was accused of multiple incidents in which he should have recused himself, but did not. Thomas was also caught in the delicate matter of disclosure of funds, specifically on the account of his wife. The excuse he gave was embarrassing. He claimed that he did not understand the reporting form.

Allow me to boldly conclude that Clarence Thomas hijacked the term "High Tech Lynching" because he saw the opportunity. He was in an era when race was an uneasy topic, especially in politics. Today, after 25 years, we see much more clearly that it should have been about his integrity, and not his race. But we are disheartened still. Words like "erotomania" flood the table to discredit all accusations, because ultimately, it is not the truth that is important, but the political agenda.

This movie is a clairvoyant reminder, as the US presidential election approaches, that everything we are about to experience might just be a reinvention of the game of politics; we might never know how we reached our conclusions now, until some 25 years later, a movie reenacts it for us to examine.

吃得下的人性

（如果本身喜歡黑色劇場，直接買票看明年1月的演出吧。在完全不知道故事講什麼的情況下，光是第一場兩個角色之間的對話，就足以吸引你看下去。

2017年1月14日－1月23日，上環文娛中心，香港話劇團黑盒劇場

下面的第一句已經是劇透，看了就不好玩囉）

如果有一家餐廳，在用餐之前可以讓你先跟食物聊天，彼此了解，你會有興趣光顧嗎？

那如果是一隻會講話的雞呢？在吃牠之前，可以說說話，會提高之後餐點的整體印象嗎？

那又如果是一隻⋯⋯一個人形的雞，會聊電影、政治、古典名著，可是終究是那個⋯⋯那隻你待會會吃掉的雞，你會去一嚐那風靡全城的「雞批」嗎？

《慾望號雞批》正正是這樣的一個科幻故事。

聽起來很像電影橋段，可是這偏偏是一個劇場作品。在劇場這個密閉的空間裡，沒有電腦特技，沒有分鏡，就那麼即時即場，赤裸地顯現在眼前，把觀眾和故事的距離拉得很近，更為震撼。

之前去香港話劇團的讀戲劇場聽過劇本，覺得特別有趣。故事、人物的設定固然跟常有的劇場不一樣，一開始就挑戰觀眾接受認知上的殘酷 － 吃一隻自稱是經過基因重組，但外型談吐舉止根本和人類沒兩樣的「雞」。

讀劇當天，有觀眾明言這個概念太噁心。Cannibalism，食人。飢荒的時候為救生，被迫吃人肉，有些人尚且能理解或原諒。可是吃「人」為樂，則視為變態。人的外形，雞的內在，其實跟「糞便味道的巧克力／巧克力味道的糞便」的矛盾同科，又不致於要大驚小怪。

而且現在已經有lab-grown meat － 試管培植的食用肉。跳過大自然界的食物鏈，人類自己製造純粹為了食用的肉，是好是壞？如果這些光為了被食用的肉有思想、可以講話、弄成人形，不就是《慾望號雞批》的那些「雞」嗎？牠們外形花巧，也只是人類強加到牠們身上的「價值」而已。

（延伸閱讀：Lab-grown meat）

純粹的食物。雞是純粹的食物嗎？可能世界上還有那幾個依賴雞啼起床的人，除卻他們，雞就是生雞蛋，被食用。雞是不折不扣的家禽。雞的Natural Habitat (自然生態環境) 是何處？把牠們放到熱帶雨林、北極南極、山上、島上、火山旁，甚至動物園，都格格不入。我沒有要合理化「雞只是食物」這件事，但雞這種動物的存在的確詭異。《慾望號雞批》的編劇也是抓著這一點，所以選擇了「雞」為故事中的新型食物。

劇中的「雞」抱持著這一份純粹，一邊跟你研究村上春樹，一邊卻跟你說牠為了終於能夠被你吃掉而感到非常開心，因為牠的唯一存在價值就是被吃。如此純粹，讓人不寒而慄！有了思想，被灌輸單一的自我價值，你會毫無疑問地接受嗎？

可能在某一個深山裡，有一個群居的雞部落，牠們懂得耕種，自給自足。

更有可能在某一個國家城市裡，有一群由基因界定的話是人類的生物，他們相信自己純粹是為了推動國家經濟而生，為了可以一直賺錢到死而很開心。

I love your lips only, so don't lose it

What is the most fundamental element of a romantic relationship?

If the question means what is love built on, then a multitude of answers apply. Mutual trust, company, passion, sex, the right timing, monetary investment, guilt. The list goes on.

But if you strip down a relationship, what is the one thing that can cause everything to crumble down if it was taken away?

Let's consider commonality.

Yorgos Lanthimos' feature film "The Lobster" explores a world in which commonality is the only thing that matters in a relationship.

The story of David, starred by Colin Farrell, does not seem to be portrayed as an evolutionary result of the future. The tone of the film is so close to reality that it constantly challenges the audience to discern what is fiction and what is not.

There are no futuristic buildings or creepy robots. You need food and water to survive. You can order pancakes from a diner. You drive to a mall to buy stuff. You will bleed if you get hurt. Everything is just like how it is now, except you cannot be "single".

You must have a partner, otherwise you will be changed into an animal of your choice.

To implement this, or rather, to eliminate singleness effectively, all single persons would be admitted to a hotel for a process we might have given the name "speed dating". "Couples" get paired up if they can agree on one commonality. Children could be assigned to them if problems arise thereafter.

Back to David, the main character. So as all main characters are usually, they stand out. So yes, he finds love. He is capable of feeling the desire to get intimate with another person. His romance is almost lyrical in a cold and selfish world.

Oops, the truth is cruel. The director tricked us into believing David to be unique, to be heroic.

This is not an easy film to sit through. There is no excessive violence or gore, but the director sustained an uneasy ambience that is both intriguing and disturbing. {Yorgos Lanthimos is the director of the 2009 movie Dogtooth}

I am quite impressed by Colin Farrell's performance in the film. It was very different from his usual action-heavy front. Another interesting performance comes from Léa Seydoux. Vividly remembering her as Emma in Blue is the Warmest Color, Seydoux becomes this ruthless leader who manipulates emotions for survival.

"The Lobster" will be showing in Hong Kong cinemas from 12 May onwards. Not to be missed. Jury Prize Winner of Cannes Film Festival 2015.