时代杂志评《泰囧》:低俗小片如何成为中国最大票房黑马

Lost in Thailand is by any measure a ridiculous movie. Two Chinese colleagues race to find their boss at a remote monastery in Thailand, battling bad traffic, gangsters, a snake, a kickboxer and, most important, each other, all in an effort to win the rights to an improbable invention: Super Gas, a liquid that turns a little bit of gasoline into a lot. Somehow it is doing ridiculously well. With a budget of less than $6 million, the film has earned $193 million since it opened Dec. 12, making it China’s most profitable film and pulling in more viewers than foreign hits such as Avatar and the third Transformers, according to a report in the Caixin business journal.

不管怎么说，《人再囧途之泰囧》都是一部可笑的电影。两个中国人，同一个公司的同事比赛谁先找到泰国找到老板。而老板在泰国一个偏远地区的寺庙，他们要面对糟糕的交通、对抗黑帮、大战毒蛇、对决泰拳拳手，而最重要的是，双方都不遗余力要争夺一项发明的授权。这项并不完善的发明叫油霸，它是一种液体，能够使少量汽油倍增。不知为何，这部电影票房好得不可思议。据《财新》商务期刊的报道，它的预算不到600万美元，但自12月12日上映以来，票房收入已达19300万美元，成为最赚钱的华语片，比外国大片如《阿凡达》和《变形金刚3》的观影人数还多。

While those films all relied on big-budget special effects, the action scenes in Lost in Thailand look like something out of a Leslie Nielsen film. The plot feels like a rehash of The Hangover Part II and Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Without a terribly original script or eye-catching pyrotechnics, what has made Lost in Thailand such a hit? It’s a question that the rest of the film industry badly wants to answer.

那些大片依靠的都是昂贵的特效，而《泰囧》中的动作场面却与莱斯利·尼尔森电影的风格异曲同工。剧情感觉像是《宿醉2》和《飞机、火车和汽车》的翻拍。《泰囧》的剧本并非创意十足，艺术技巧也并不引人入胜，是什么让它这么火？电影圈的看客们都急于回答这个问题。

Part of the explanation is timing. The New Year’s period is when China sees its biggest blockbusters rolled out to coincide with holidays on Jan. 1 and the all-important Chinese New Year a few weeks later. Director Feng Xiaogang has been synonymous with the hesuipian, or New Year’s celebration film, offering lighthearted comedic fare like If You Are the One for family viewing over the holidays. But some of Feng’s recent works have been deadly serious. In 2010 he released Aftershock, about a pair of deadly earthquakes, and in December he released 1942, a film about wartime famine in central China. The other big release of this season, director Lu Chuan’s The Last Supper, about a power-mad Han-dynasty Emperor, is only slightly less grim. Lost in Thailand is a natural alternative for audiences looking for something a little happier, then. “This year’s hesuipianlike 1942 and The Last Supper are full of serious historical topics, and the repressed atmosphere leaves visitors feeling gloomy,” said the China Culture Daily, a state-run newspaper. “In a flash, the humor of Lost in Thailand makes viewers feel happy.”

有人说是因为档期。贺岁档包括元旦和几周后至关重要的新年档，中国最宏大的巨资电影都会赶在这期间上映。冯小刚导演一直是贺岁片，即欢庆新年的电影的代名词。节日期间，他常为观众献上适宜阖家观看的轻喜剧，如《非诚勿扰》。但是冯导演最近的一些作品非常严肃。2010年，《唐山大地震》上映，讲述了大地震中一对姐弟的故事，而今年12月上映的《温故1942》是关于中原地区战时饥荒的故事。同期上映的其他大片包括陆川导演的《王的盛宴》，影片讲述的是一个醉心权术的汉朝皇帝，基调之阴郁只比《1942》稍逊一点儿。而大部分观众寻求较为欢乐的影片，所以《泰囧》自然成为他们的选择。“今年的贺岁片，像《1942》和《王的盛宴》都充满了严肃的历史话题，压抑的气氛使观众感觉郁闷，”国营的中国文化报评论道，“《泰囧》的幽默搞笑很快就能让观众开心起来。”

Another popular theory among reviewers, social-media commenters and Chinese friends who have seen the film is that it cleaves to the experiences of average Chinese in a way that few films do successfully. The film is a successor to Lost on Journey, a send up of the tribulations that Chinese face each year when they travel home for the Chinese New Year. Lost in Thailand takes the same formula and transfers it abroad to one of Chinese tourists’ favorite destinations. Xu Lang, played by director Xu Zheng, is a savvy scientist transfixed on bringing his invention to market. He is racing his former friend and rival Gao Bo, played by actor Huang Bo, to find their boss at a rural Thai monastery to win approval of their respective development plans. On the flight, Xu meets Wang Bao, a simpleminded pancake maker from Beijing, clad in full tourist regalia, including the red hat from his tour group, and carrying a long list of goals for his voyage, including, of course, seeing Thai transvestites, or “ladyboys.” Wang, played by Wang Baoqiang, is something of a Chinese everyman, silly and easily mocked, wanting to photograph himself flashing a peace sign in front of everything, including the hotel chairs. But the obtuse pancake flipper has an honest heart and ultimately proves wiser than Xu or the comic villain Gao.

看过该片的影评人、社交媒体评论人和中国朋友则普遍认为该片贴近普通中国百姓的生活经历，而很少电影能够做到这一点。这部电影是《人在囧途》的续集，第一部以滑稽的风格再现了每年农历新年中国人回家不得不面对的旅途痛苦。《泰囧》采用了同样的套路，但把故事搬到了中国游客最热衷的一个目的地。徐朗由徐峥导演饰演，是一个精明能干的技术员，一心想把他的发明推向市场。他以前的朋友、现在的对手高博，由黄渤扮演。徐朗与高博比赛谁能先到达泰国一个农村的寺庙找到老板，并让他同意授权自己的开发计划。在飞机上，徐朗遇到了王宝，他来自北京，头脑简单，是卖葱油饼的。王宝的一身典型观光客的装备，包括头上戴着的旅行团的小红帽，手里拿着一张长长的旅游心愿清单，清单当然包括看泰国变性人，就是“人妖”。王宝，由王宝强扮演，一定程度上就是普通中国人的代表，笨笨的，常被嘲笑，到哪儿都要比个V字照张相，连旅馆的椅子都不放过。但这个傻傻的葱油饼小贩心眼实在，最终事实证明，他比徐朗跟那个反派高博都要高明。

Not everyone loves the film. Xiao Su, an author and professor at the Central China Normal University School of Chinese Language and Literature in Wuhan, said at a meeting of the city’s legislature that Lost in Thailand was “vulgar, debased and commercial.” He added that Chinese films “should not just be focused on ticket sales but should emphasize a cultural orientation and pay attention to lifting ordinary people’s cultural qualities and tastes.” An op-ed in the 21 Century Economic Report, a Guangzhou-based newspaper, called the criticism elitist and said it denied average people their right to the pleasures of a lighthearted movie. “When a few intellectuals who think they are the elite and filled with an enormous sense of superiority criticize [Lost in Thailand], people can’t help but think of experts in the past who said that peasants lacked the necessary qualities for a modern democracy,” wrote Zhu Naijuan, an editor for the newspaper.

并非人人喜爱这部电影。武汉华中师范大学文学院教授、作家晓苏在市“两会”的一次会议上批评《泰囧》“低俗、庸俗、媚俗”。他还说中国电影“不能只紧盯票房，而应该注重文化导向，注重提高老百姓的文化素质和品味”。广州报纸《21世纪经济报道》的专栏评论称这一批评是精英主义的表现，剥夺了普通人看轻松电影找乐子的权利。该报纸的编辑祝乃娟写道：“一些自认为精英化的知识分子充斥着极大的优越感，他们（对《泰囧》）的批评，让人不由自主想到以往一些‘专家’断言农民缺乏现代民主需要的基本素养”。

The film has been largely well received in Thailand, which has cringed at the portrayal of over-the-top Bangkok nightlife in films like The Hangover Part II. But because of Chinese censorship, Lost in Thailand couldn’t get that crazy even if the filmmakers wanted to. So ladyboys are the subject of just one joke that cracks more fun at the wild imaginations of the Chinese characters than at Thai transvestites. A Bangkok Post columnist wrote that while it was easy to assume Lost in Thailand was “a mindless, lowbrow slapstick comedy with calamity, insensitive jokes against other people (and sometimes other countries),” it turned out “the movie is comparatively culturally sensitive.” A lesson, perhaps, for Hollywood.

这部电影在泰国非常受欢迎。它对泰国夜生活的描绘打了折扣，并不像《宿醉2》表现得那样没有节制。考虑到中国的审查制度，制片人即使有心，也不可能把《泰囧》拍得那么疯狂。所以人妖只是一个笑点，让观众对中国的主角们产生更多搞笑的遐想，而不是停在泰国人妖身上。《曼谷邮报》一个专栏作家评论道虽然人们很容易把《泰囧》看作“一部肤浅、粗俗的打闹喜剧，其中充斥着囧事，以及不顾及他人（有的是对其他国家）感受的笑话”，但是事实证明，“该片对其他文化还是很敏感和尊重的”，这一点，也许是好莱坞应该借鉴的地方。