《流浪地球》:中国电影业加入“太空竞赛”

BEIJING — China was a latecomer to space exploration, and in the movies, it has been a latecomer to science fiction, too. That is about to change.
北京——中国是太空探索的后来者，在电影领域，也是科幻片的后来者。这种局面即将发生改变。

The country’s first blockbuster set in space, “The Wandering Earth,” opens Tuesday amid grandiose expectations that it will represent the dawning of a new era in Chinese filmmaking.
中国首部以太空为背景的超级大片《流浪地球》于周二上映，外界对此寄予厚望，认为该片代表着中国电影制作新时代的曙光。

It is one in a series of ambitious, big-budget films tackling a genre that, until now, has been beyond the reach of most filmmakers here — technically and financially. Those movies include “Shanghai Fortress,” about an alien attack on Earth, and “Pathfinder,” about a spaceship that crashes on a desert planet.
这是中国即将推出的一系列雄心勃勃、耗资巨大的科幻电影中的一部。迄今为止，这个类型的电影无论从技术上还是投资上，都是国内大多数电影人难以企及的。这些影片包括，关于外星人袭击地球的《上海堡垒》和讲述一艘太空飞船在沙漠星球坠毁的《拓星者》。

“Filmmakers in China see science fiction as a holy grail,” said Raymond Zhou, an independent critic, who noted that Hollywood had set the technological standards, and thus audience expectations, very high.
“中国的电影人把科幻片视为圣杯，”独立影评人周黎明说，他指出好莱坞已经树立了技术标准，因此，观众的期待值非常高。

“The Wandering Earth,” shown in 3-D, takes place in a distant future in which the sun is about to expand into a red giant and devour the Earth.
3D电影《流浪地球》发生在遥远的未来，太阳即将膨胀成一个红色巨星，吞噬地球。

The impending peril forces the world’s engineers to devise a plan to move the planet to a new solar system using giant thrusters. Things go very badly when Earth has to pass Jupiter, setting off a desperate scramble to save humanity from annihilation.
迫在眉睫的危险迫使全世界的工程师制定了一项计划，利用巨型推进器将地球送到一个新的太阳系。当地球不得不经过木星时，形势变得十分危急，从而引发拯救人类免于灭亡的奋力一搏。

The special effects — like the apocalyptic climatic changes that would occur if Earth suddenly moved out of its cozy orbit — are certain to be measured against Hollywood’s, as ever here. And the preliminary reviews have been positive.
就像中国过去拍摄的科幻片一样，影片中的特效——比如假设地球突然移出它的舒适轨道将引发的灾难性气候变化——肯定会被拿来和好莱坞电影进行对比。但初步反响是正面的。

“It’s like the coming-of-age of the industry,” Zhou said.
“这个行业正渐趋成熟，”周黎明说。

“The Wandering Earth” opens with the Lunar New Year, the beginning of an official, weeklong holiday that is traditionally a peak box-office period in China. It has a limited release in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
《流浪地球》上映于为期7天的农历新年法定假期开始之时，在中国这是传统上的黄金档期。该片在美国、加拿大、澳大利亚和新西兰做有限上映。

At home, it will compete with “Crazy Alien,” a comedy inspired by “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” about two brothers hoping to capitalize on the arrival of a visitor from outer space.
在国内，它将和《疯狂的外星人》竞争，这部受 《E.T.外星人》(E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial)启发的喜剧片，讲述的是两个好兄弟希望借外太空访客谋财的故事。

Both “The Wandering Earth” and “Crazy Alien” are adapted from works by Liu Cixin, the writer who has led a renaissance in science fiction here, becoming the first Chinese winner of the Hugo Award for the genre in 2015.
《流浪地球》和《疯狂的外星人》均改编自刘慈欣的作品，这位作家在中国引领了一场科幻小说复兴，2015年，他成为首位获得雨果奖的中国作家。

His novels are sprawling epics and deeply researched. That makes them plausible fantasies about humanity’s encounters with a dangerous universe. Translating them into movies would challenge any filmmaker, as the director of “The Wandering Earth,” Guo Fan, acknowledged during a screening in Beijing last week.
他的小说叙事宏大，同时研究深入细致。因此，这些作品在讲述人类在危险宇宙中的境遇时，幻想似乎是可信的。《流浪地球》导演郭帆上周在北京的看片会上承认，把这些作品搬上银幕，对任何电影人都是个挑战。

That has made the film, produced by Beijing Jingxi Culture & Tourism Company and the state-owned China Film Group Corp., a test for the industry.
这使得由北京京西文化旅游有限公司和国有的中国电影集团公司联合制作的这部影片，成为行业的试金石。

Guo, who uses the name Frant Gwo in English, noted that Chinese audiences have responded coolly to many of Hollywood’s previous sci-fi blockbusters. Studios, therefore, have been wary of investing the resources required to make convincing sci-fi.
郭帆指出，中国观众对好莱坞此前的很多科幻大片反应平平。因此，电影公司对于投入资源制作有说服力的科幻电影一直很谨慎。

The film’s budget reportedly reached nearly $50 million, modest by Hollywood standards but still significant here in China. More than 7,000 people were involved in the production. Much of it was filmed in the new Oriental Movie Metropolis, an $8 billion studio in the coast city of Qingdao, built by the real estate and entertainment giant Dalian Wanda.
据报道，这部电影的预算接近5000万美元，以好莱坞标准来看不算高，但在中国可以说是大手笔。7000多人参与了制作。其中大部分拍摄于新建的东方影都，这个影城位于沿海城市青岛，由房地产和娱乐巨头大连万达耗资80亿美元打造。

“I really hope that this movie will not lose money at least,” said Guo, whose previous film, “My Old Classmate,” was a romantic comedy. “As long as this one does not lose money, we can continue to make science-fiction films.”
“其实我个人来讲是特别期望这部科幻片它至少不赔钱，“郭帆说，他之前的电影《同桌的你》是一部浪漫喜剧。“它只要不赔钱，我们就可以接着去拍科幻片。”

The popularity of Liu’s novels could help. So could two recent Hollywood films, “Gravity” and “The Martian.” Both included important plot twists that, not incidentally, cast China’s space program in a positive light, and both were huge hits here.
刘慈欣的小说大受欢迎可能也有所帮助。最近的两部好莱坞电影《地心引力》(Gravity)和《火星救援》(The Martian)也起到推波助澜的作用。这两部电影中都有重要的情节转折，从正面展现了中国的太空计划（这绝非偶然），它们在中国都成了卖座大片。

The openings also come as China reached a milestone in space: the landing of a probe on the far side of the moon in January. Although decades behind Russia and the United States, China has now put astronauts in orbit and has ambitious plans to join — or even lead — a new age of space exploration.
这部影片的上映也正值中国太空计划取得里程碑成就之际：今年1月，中国的一个探测器在月球背面着陆。尽管落后于俄罗斯和美国几十年，中国现在已将宇航员送入太空轨道，并制定了雄心勃勃的计划进入太空探索的新时代，甚至要在其中发挥领导作用。

“I think there is a very close connection between Chinese cinema and the nation’s fortunes,” said Sha Dan, a curator at the China Film Archive, who moderated a discussion with Guo.
“其实我觉得中国电影和中国的国运之间有非常紧密的一些联系，”中国电影资料馆的节目策划沙丹说。他主持了和郭帆的一次讨论。

He cited the most popular film in China last year: “Operation Red Sea,” an action drama loosely based on the Chinese rescue of several hundred civilians from Yemen when war erupted there in 2015.
沙丹提起去年中国最受欢迎的电影《红海行动》。这部动作片大体上取材于2015年也门内战爆发时，中国从也门撤出数百名平民的故事。

“When we have the ability to go to war, we can make movies like ‘Operation Red Sea,’” he said, alluding to China’s military modernization in recent years. “Only when China can enter the space era can we make works like ‘The Wandering Earth.’”
“比如说有战争这种打仗能力的时候，我们才能拍出像《红海行动》这样的电影，”他说。他指的是中国近年来的军事现代化。“中国可以进入到太空时代，我们才能拍出像《流浪地球》这样的作品。”

Unlike “Operation Red Sea” or the two “Wolf Warrior” movies, which featured a Rambo-like hero battling Western villains, “The Wandering Earth” is not jingoistic, though it does star Wu Jing, the hero of the “Wolf Warrior” films, who put up his own investment in the project. He plays an astronaut aboard an international space station who has to contend with a HAL-like computer.
与《红海行动》和两部英雄痛打西方恶棍的兰博式《战狼》不同，《流浪地球》并不带有沙文主义色彩，尽管该片中也有《战狼》系列的主角吴京，他本人还投资了该片。吴京在《流浪地球》中扮演一名国际空间站的宇航员，必须和一台有点像哈尔(HAL)的电脑做斗争。

Guo said he consciously avoided making Wu’s character a do-it-alone superhero. The fight to save Earth is fought instead by an ensemble, including an affable Russian cosmonaut who explains why his country prohibited alcohol in space, at least officially. (To say more would be a spoiler.)
郭帆说，他有意识地避免让吴京的角色成为一个单打独斗的超级英雄。相反，拯救地球的战斗是由一个团体进行的，其中包括一位和蔼可亲的俄罗斯宇航员，他解释了为什么俄罗斯禁止在太空饮酒，至少官方规定是这样。（再说就剧透了。）

“The Wandering Earth” takes for granted China’s central role in future space exploration, but it also has a vision of the international collaboration necessary to cope with the threats facing the planet, a theme that runs deeply through Liu’s fiction. Liu, who attended a screening last week, noted that science-fiction films in China dated as far back as the 1930s, when the director Yang Xiaozhong made ones like “Exchanged” and “Visiting Shanghai After 60 Years,” but those were largely forgotten here after the Communist revolution in 1949.
《流浪地球》默认中国在未来的太空探索中扮演核心角色，但它也看到，要应对地球面临的威胁，国际合作是必需的，这一主题在刘慈欣的小说中贯穿始终。上周刘慈欣在参加一场放映会时指出，中国的科幻电影可以追溯到1930年代，当时导演杨小仲拍摄了《化身人猿》 和《六十年后上海滩》等电影，但1949年共产主义革命之后，这些电影在中国基本上被遗忘了。

A 1980 movie, “Death Ray on Coral Island,” was a campy, propagandistic flop. There have been few attempts since.
1980年的科幻电影《珊瑚岛上的死光》是一部做作、充满政治宣传的失败之作。从那以后就很少有人尝试这个类型了。

“This is mainly because Chinese society is relatively closed and conservative,” Liu said in a written response to questions. “There were not the conditions for science-fiction movies to have an impact.”
“这主要是因为以前的中国社会较为封闭和保守，”刘慈欣接受书面采访时说。“科幻电影不具备产生较大影响力的条件。”

A film project based on Liu’s best-known work, the trilogy that began with “The Three-Body Problem,” was optioned and even filmed in 2015 but has since languished in postproduction, reportedly because of technical challenges and costs.
将刘慈欣最著名的三部曲《三体》改编为电影的计划于2015年被选中，甚至进行了拍摄，但是据报道，由于技术上的挑战和成本问题，后期制作一直处于停滞状态。

The conditions now seem ripe. Seeing the “The Wandering Earth” on the screen, Liu said, was “soul shaking.”
现在条件似乎成熟了。刘慈欣说，在大屏幕上看到《流浪地球》，“震撼心灵。”