电影里的西雅图：中国人眼中的美国浪漫之都

Seattleis rarely the first US city that comes to Chinese minds. In fact, few people could probably tellWashington state from Washington DC.

一提起美国的城市，很少有中国人会首先想到西雅图。其实，很多中国人可能根本分不清华盛顿州和华盛顿特区的区别。

Two romantic comedy films have irrevocably shaped the image of Xiyatu, as the city is known in Mandarin, among the Chinese public, and as a result it would not be a stretch to say Seattle is seen as the American capital of romance, somewhat akin to how the world perceives Paris.

两部浪漫喜剧无疑塑造了西雅图在中国公众心里的形象。因此，可以毫不夸张地说，西雅图被国人视为美国浪漫之都，有几分类似世界对巴黎的看法。

In Sleepless in Seattle, Nora Ephron's 1993 runaway hit, Tom Hanks' character, Sam, moves with his young son from Chicago to Seattle for a fresh start after the death of his wife. The movie portrays the largest city in the Pacific Northwest not as a canyon of high-rises, but as a bohemian enclave of artists and designers, which possibly did not impress Chinese at the time.

在诺拉•艾芙伦1993年执导的热门电影《西雅图夜未眠》中，山姆(汤姆•汉克斯饰)在妻子离世后带着年幼的儿子从芝加哥搬到西雅图，寻求一个新生活的开始。影片将这座美国太平洋西北地区最大的城市塑造成了一个放荡不羁的艺术家和设计师的聚居之处，而非高楼林立之都。当时或许并未给中国观众留下什么印象。

This image may have been altered recently by the screen adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey, which is largely set in the Seattle area and includes frequent aerial shots and the less-than-tasteful flaunting of wealth and kinky sex.

最近上映的小说改编影片《五十度灰》可能改变了人们对西雅图的认识。这部影片取景地大部分在西雅图，包含很多航拍、低俗的炫富和性虐的元素。

The narrative setup in Sleepless is almost Chinese to the core: Sam and Annie, played by Meg Ryan, fall in love before actually meeting each other in the flesh. Imagine all those Chinese couples in arranged marriages who were denied the right to face-to-face encounters before their wedding night. This story could have been their silver lining and inspiration.

《西雅图夜未眠》叙事设定很中式：山姆和安妮(梅格•瑞恩饰)在素未谋面的情况下就相爱了。试想那些接受包办婚姻的中国夫妇，在新婚之夜前都没有见面的权利。这部影片有可能给他们带来了一线希望和鼓舞。

By contrast, the Chinese movie Finding Mr. Right- the title in Mandarin translates as Beijing Meets Seattle - is very Hollywood in its dramatic arc. The 2013 sleeper hit employs the opposites-attract strategy: Boy meets girl and nothing works out, but we know they'll end up together because we've been conditioned by the genre.

相较之下，中国影片《北京遇上西雅图》(Finding Mr. Right)则极具好莱坞戏剧的风格。这部2013年的票房黑马采用了异性相吸的故事策略：男主与女主相遇却没有走到一起，但是我们知道他们最终一定会在一起，因为我们早已习惯了这种题材。

Like with Sleepless, the boy and girl in this story are no youngsters in puppy love. Frank, played by Wu Xiubo, is similar to Sam in that he has a child from a previous marriage, but Tang Wei's Jiajia has nothing in common with Annie. She is a gold digger who is in Seattle to give birth to a child by her wealthy, married boyfriend. The father, who remains unseen, is a symbol of the nouveau riche, whose opulent residence stands in sharp contrast to middle-class living in the Emerald City.

与《西雅图夜未眠》一样，这部影片中的男女主角并非初涉爱情的年轻人。吴秀波扮演的弗兰克(Frank)同山姆一样，带着一个跟前妻生的孩子;不过汤唯饰演的佳佳和安妮的经历完全不同。她是个拜金女，来到西雅图是为了给已婚的富豪男友生子。孩子的父亲是暴发户的象征，并未在影片中露面。他豪华的住宅与西雅图中产阶级的住所形成鲜明的对比。

For financial reasons, the movie was actually shot in Vancouver, while the generic English title does not even hint at the promotional power of a movie that made 500 million yuan ($78 million) at the box office in China.

由于预算原因，影片实际上是在温哥华拍摄的。而这部在中国的票房收入达到5亿元人民币(合7800万美元)的影片的通用英文标题也完全没有显示出这部影片会有何等的广告效应。

The movie Finding Mr. Right is predominantly set in Seattle and even references Ephron's classic when the female protagonist is questioned by a US immigration officer who waves her in as another Sleepless pilgrim.

《北京遇上西雅图》的故事背景主要设定在西雅图，美国入境处官员向女主角挥手、准许她入境的情节借鉴了艾芙伦执导的影片的经典桥段，也是对《西雅图不眠夜》的又一处致敬。

The movie, also written and directed by a woman, is neither a remake nor a sequel to the 1993 classic, but it pays almost slavish homage by setting the final scene in New York's Empire State Building. If I were the mayor of Seattle, I would have persuaded director Xue Xiaolu to change the location to the Space Needle, which would have cemented the city's reputation as a magnet for true love.

这部影片的编剧兼导演薛晓路也是一名女性。但该片并非那部1993年经典电影的重制或续集，但是影片将最后一幕场景设在纽约的帝国大厦，几乎是对经典最原汁原味的致敬。如果我是西雅图的市长，我一定会说服薛晓路将最后的拍摄场地改到太空针塔，那么这座城市的真爱磁铁之名就会更加巩固了。

It may not have been necessary anyway. There was reportedly a spike in the number of Chinese tourists in Seattle after the movie was released, and that enthusiasm is unlikely to abate anytime soon, with a sequel on the way next year.

也许大可不必这样做。据报道，影片上映后前往西雅图的中国游客数量激增。而明年《北京遇上西雅图2》即将上映，这股热情近期不太可能减退。

Vocabulary

irrevocably：无法改变地

flaunting：炫耀

kinky：(尤指性行为或性癖好)反常的

nouveau：新近产生的

riche：暴发户

opulent：豪华的

abate：减弱