Cast:
Chu T’ien-wen
Chu T’ien-hsin
Genre:Doc
Runtime:124
Language:Mandarin Chinese
Subtitle:Chinese, English
Country:Taiwan
Year:2022
導演:林俊頴
演員:
朱天文、朱天心
類型:紀錄片
片長:124
語言:中文
字幕:中文、英文
出品國家:台灣
年份:2022
I Remember / 我記得

The legendary writer sisters have each carved their own paths in literature and life. One lifetime, one craft

The husband-and-wife literary duo, Chu Hsi-Ning and Liu Musha, sustained their family through their literary endeavors, nurturing two daughters—Chu T’ien-wen and Chu T’ien-Hsin—who grew to be addicted to words as though their lives depended on them and became legendary in their own rights. Although fallen from the same tree, the sisters have each conquered their own cities and realms within the grid of the manuscript paper, building formidable literary countries that differ greatly in style.

Chu T’ien-wen, the elder sister, is reserved and quiet, with a keen sense of perception. Inheriting her father Chu Hsi-Ning's approach to writing, she continues to explore innovations in her literary style and with new possibilities, as though she were a prophet-sorceress wielding the power of alchemy to transform words into gold. She came to know director Hou Hsiao-Hsien through her short story Growing Up, which he made into a film and launched a decades-long collaboration between the two. Creating literature thus led her to a second career in screenwriting, with her screenplays winning nominations and awards in the Golden Horse Awards and international film festivals.

Chu T’ien-Hsin, the younger sister, is romantic and direct, like a warrior woman who upholds justice. Songs of Rustic Pleasures, written when she was in high school, was a manifesto of freedom and became a must-read for youths of an entire generation, catching on like a wildfire spreading on the plain. While she writes of feelings and observations garnered from roaming city streets and alleys, she also turns her attention to social activism and issues of ethnic identity. Though history is sieved by time, her memory shines through bright and clear, and what has been carved with her pen shall survive and matter.

I Remember, directed by novelist Lin Chun-Ying, documents the growth of the Chu sisters from the intimate view of a longtime family friend. It begins in their family home under the osmanthus tree, where the sisters studied with their mentor Hu Lan-cheng, met like-minded friends, and started the San-san Jikan (“double three journals”). The camera follows them as they visit their old home in the military dependents community at Fengshan and cross the sea to pay their respects at Hu’s grave in Tokyo, all the while talking and laughing, sharing their thoughts on each other’s writings. Also captured on camera are the sisters weaving through streets and alleys to feed and take care of stray cats. They bare their hearts in the film, offering vignettes from their lives behind the literary achievements, lived as ordinary people in a way that is spontaneous, affable, warm, and three-dimensional.

文壇傳奇姊妹,姝途刻畫人生。

 稿紙糊成的文學朱家,孕育出嗜字如命的傳奇姊妹——朱天文、朱天心。這對姊妹雖同根共生,但各憑本事在稿紙格線攻城占地,建立起風格殊異的強大文學國度。

姊姊朱天文在內斂靜氣中帶有高度敏銳的感知力,繼承父親朱西甯的書寫態度,不斷試探文風的翻新與可能,是鍊字成金的先知女巫;因發表〈小畢的故事〉與導演侯孝賢結識並長年合作,文學創作牽引她跨足電影第二人生,劇作數度叩關金馬獎與各大國際影展。

妹妹朱天心,一身俠氣、浪漫直率,高中時期寫就的《擊壤歌》是青春世代必讀的自由宣言,如野火燎原般燃起閱讀風潮;她筆下有都市街弄裡漫遊觀察的感觸,也聚焦社運參與、族群認同的議題,時間雖淘洗歷史,但她的記憶明亮,以筆刻下的都算數。

《我記得》由小說家林俊頴執導,以長年友人的貼身視角,紀錄朱家姊妹的成長軌跡,從桂花樹下的家作為記憶的場景出發,在此雙姝少年師承胡蘭成、廣交才俊創立《三三集刊》。鏡頭隨著她們的腳步移動,走訪鳳山眷村故居,渡海祭拜東京胡墓,談笑間分享對彼此作品的見解,也錄下她們穿梭街頭巷尾照顧流浪貓的身影。姊妹倆在片中毫無保留地坦露內心,展現文學成就背後,如同常人一般隨性親和、溫暖立體的生活光景。

PHOTOS