罗马浴场

Whopping temerity abounds in Hideki Takeuchi’s THERMAE ROMAE, an adaptation of Mari Yamazaki’s massively popular eponymous manga series, which is parlayed into a gigantic box-office smash hit, Japan’s second highest-grossing domestic film in 2012.

In this time-travel cock and bull story, an Ancient Roman architect Lucius Modestus (Abe) multiply stumbles upon present world in Japan through magic watery portals which the movie gives no explication whatsoever. Lucius takes his cue from mod cons to improve his design of Roman baths, which is pertinently yoked to the historical process of the Roman Empire under the reign of the peripatetic Emperor Hadrian (Ichimura), not only does Lucius’ copied private bath console the emperor’s loss of Antinous in 130, but his discovery of therapeutic hot springs is able to miraculouslyheal the wounds and dissipate the fatigue of jaded Roman warriors as well, which in turn, secures Antoninus (Shishido)’s standing as Hadrian’s successor, to the chagrin of the obnoxious skirt-chaser Ceionius (Kitamura). It is all thanks to Japanese bathing culture, that human history doesn’t go astray in the wrong hands, temerity, yes, but also innately droll.

Its ostensibly palatial, substantially specious (in a closer look, its CGI work seems pointedly shoddy) Ancient Roman set is recreated and shot in Rome’s Cinecittà studio, and the acting method is in full cothurnus mode while Latin lazily abdicates its throne of the official language to Japanese in a defeating way. Piped up by a smorgasbord of western operas to indicate the intermittent spatio-temporal changeover, actually it is Lucius’ fish-out-of-the-water adventures in the modern world tickle viewer’s funny bones, but the addition of an aspiring manga artist Mami (Ueto) feels slipshod and banal, who basks in limerence over Lucius, for his Greek-statuesque physique mostly, and becomes a proxy of oodles of audience’s Freudian admiration over Hiroshi Abe’s beefcake allure and un-oriental good looks, which induces a wry perversion with the movie’s none-too-subtle innuendo of Lucius’ impotence.

A gleeful if frivolous potboiler mining into Japan’s prevalent kuso culture but freshness starting to run out of steam once the story stuck in a far-fetched groove, THERMAE ROMAE is not without its merits, for instance, the dismay when Lucius painfully realizes the technology of those disparaged “flat-faced clan” has far exceeded his proud empire, strikes home sardonically in its unuttered connotations.

referential entry: Shinobu Yaguchi’s SURVIVAL FAMILY (2016, 7.4/10).

贾科莫·普契尼:《图兰多< 今夜无人入睡>》

Giacomo Puccini:Russell Watson/Nessun dorma！from Turandot

朱塞佩·威尔第Giuseppe Verdi:Aida-Traditor!

朱塞佩·威尔第Giuseppe Verdi:Rigoletto,Act3-La donna e mobile

加布里埃尔·福莱Gabriel Faure:Cantique de Jean Racine,Op 11

贾科莫·普契尼Giacomo Puccini:Tosca-Presto,su!Mario!

朱塞佩·威尔第Giuseppe Verdi:Messa da Requiem II Dies lrae

朱塞佩·威尔第Giuseppe Verdi:Aida Pieta ti prenda del mio dolor!

贾科莫·普契尼Giacomo Puccini:Madama Butterfly ACT2-Un bel di vedremo

朱塞佩·威尔第Giuseppe Verdi:Messa da Requiem II Dies lrae:Rex tremendae majestatis

贾科莫·普契尼Giacomo Puccini:Tosca E lucevan le stelle

朱塞佩·威尔第Giuseppe Verdi:Aida Danza di piccolo schiavi mori

朱塞佩·威尔第Giuseppe Verdi:Aida Vieni sul crin ti piovano

朱塞佩·威尔第Giuseppe Verdi:Aida-Gloria all'Egitto

贾科莫·普契尼Giacomo Puccini:La Fanciulla del West Ch'ella mi creda libero e lontano

贾科莫·普契尼Giacomo Puccini:La Fanciulla del West Act III-Ch'ella mi creda libero e lontano

贾科莫·普契尼Giacomo Puccini:Madama Butterfly Un bel di vedremo

朱塞佩·威尔第Giuseppe Verdi:Don Carlo Spuntato ecco il di d'esultanza

朱塞佩·威尔第Giuseppe Verdi:Aida Glorai all'Egitto,ad lside

许多日本观众看出， 贯穿全片的是对比路线：（以下内容概括自日本那边的博客) 古代与现代的对比。（现代许多小物件相对于古代是进步） 西方（个人主义）和东方（儒家和武士道熏陶下的集体主义）的对比。 发展与停滞的对比。（片中不止一次提到女主人公自家的温泉旅馆行将倒闭，而哈德良则为罗马帝国出了位有创新能力的浴场设计师倍感欣慰） 昭和一代（热心地帮助男女主角的亲切的老人）和平成一代（不甘接手祖业闯东京的宅女漫画家，把老人推给看护的编辑，不断训斥人的课长）的对比。 冷漠的都市（女主在东京打拼饱尝世态炎凉）和行将消失的温暖的传统乡间（温泉旅馆即将倒闭，老人们心地善良）的对比。 路西斯虽然身为罗马公民十分自傲，但他和明治和战后前期的日本人一样，看到外界的新鲜事物，那怕是扁脸族的文化，总能虚心学习。还有哈德良的那一番表白：“国家并非越大越好，而是要给庶民一个安心的居所。”（很明显是编导研读哈德良皇帝生平史实之后的概括）也令日本观众唏嘘不已。 最后说一句：路西斯那句：“我们有权力吸收属州的文化！”实际上是罗马人对待被征服者的写照。只要被征服者不与罗马发生大的冲突，罗马人是乐于吸收和保全被征服者的文化的。参见罗马人如何学习希腊文化和接受被征服民族的神祗。