進念˙二十面體《東宮西宮》系列之香港文化論

Abstract

進念˙二十面體的《東宮西宮》系列，影射香港政治圈生態，創造了別具一格的政治嘲弄模式，也梳理出一種文化脈絡。本論文即試圖從十年的演出中理出香港「後九七」的一種政治面向，並評價如此的演出在文化上的意義。 本論文共分五章，筆者首先在第一章做文獻回顧。第二章回顧香港歷史，探討九七回歸與港人認同的文化處境，概略介紹「後九七」的定義及相關的戲劇介紹，並從進念和胡恩威的角度去看其所做的「文化建構」。第三章談《東宮西宮》系列演出前四集的概念、內容及其對香港社會文化的影響。第四章談第五集到第十集，開始獨自導演的胡恩威，走入風格發生變化及不穩定的時期，接連數集在劇評上都是毀譽參半的情況；《東宮西宮》對於社會的影響力也慢慢下降，但仍在表現上有亮點，尤其是挪用與諧擬的手法漸讓作品能夠達到娛樂與論述之平衡。第五章再針對《東宮西宮》系列裡的電視文化元素、英文與普通話的使用、曾經在台詞裡出現的「臺灣」、演員個別表現和議題的揀選做側面的觀察，並於末段提出整體結論及對未來研究方向之建議。 透過分析，《東宮西宮》系列是胡恩威導演與林奕華導演以各種不同的喜劇手法表現主題，諷刺歷任特首施政失誤的同時，亦追溯問題的根源。反諷與荒謬是這個系列演出的基調。整個系列作品發展至後期，胡恩威導演的個人風格和主觀性加強，其議題的揀選和批判引起不少與之意見相異的評論，未來進念˙二十面體如何開發題材與反映香港社會，值得關心香港處境者持續注意。

Zuni Icosahedron’s “East Wing West Wing” series, which allude to the audiences the current political ecology of Hong Kong has created a unique style of political mockery and provided a special way to analyze Hong Kong culture. This thesis is an attempt to sort out the democratic development of Hong Kong 'Post-1997' and redefine the cultural implications of these series by analyzing the performances that Director Mathias Woo and the performers made in a series of ten episodes in the last decade. This thesis is divided into five chapters. In the first chapter, the researcher firstly reviewed the relevant literatures collected during the research period. The second chapter is for history review - discussing the Post-1997 Hong Kong People identity and cultural situation, broadly introducing the definition of Post-1997 and related theatrical presentations and trying to view the “cultural constructions” made by Zuni and Director Mathias Woo. The concepts and contents of the first four episodes of “East Wing West Wing” along with their influences to Hong Kong society and people are discussed in the third chapter. In the fourth chapter, the performances performed in the fifth through tenth episodes are analyzed and discussed. These are the episodes that Director Mathias Woo directs without joint-directing with Director Edward Lam as they do the first four episodes. From this stage, Woo’s directing style has entered a changing and unstable stage. The performances successively got both praises and blames from the dramatic criticisms. The influences that “East Wing West Wing” used to have on Hong Kong society were found declined. However, there were still bright spots on the show, especially the uses of appropriation and parody that made the balances between entertainments and discussions. In the fifth and last chapter, the researcher described her observations of the TV culture element, skillful uses of Chinese Mandarin and English languages (Cantonese is the major language used in the shows), appeareance of “Taiwan” in their talks, performances of individual actors and selection of the theme used of the “East Wing West Wing” series. To close, she summarized her findings and overall conclusions of the thesis and made suggestions on the direction of future researches. Results of the analyses made in the research period revealed that while Directors Woo and Lam used various comedy techniques in the “East Wing West Wing” performances to show their “theme” of satirizing the consecutive execution blunders of all three Hong Kong Chief Executive Officers since 1997, they also traced back the root causes of the problems. Irony and absurdity are the fundamental performance tones. After the end of his partnership with Director Edward Lam, Mathias Woo’s personal style and subjectivity have strengthened in the development of new series. Nevertheless, there were also numerous disagreed criticizes about the themes chosen and critical comments made in the performances. How Zuni Icosahedron will develop their themes to reflect Hong Kong society phenomenon in the future deserve our continuous attention from people care about Hong Kong and the improving democratic development of this “fading” Pearl of the East.