Director(s): 杜琪峰, 韋家輝
Screenplay: 韋家輝, 游乃海, 歐健兒, 葉天成
Main Actor(s): 劉德華 (大隻佬)
Main Actress(es): 張柏芝 (李鳳儀)
Last week I watched 'Running on Karma' the second time. It's one of the best movies that I have seen this year and it definitely deserves all the major film awards (Best Film, Best Screenplay, and Best Actor in the 23rd Hong Kong Film Awards and Best Screenplay, Best Actor, and Best Actress in the 10th Annual Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards).
I didn't know the term 'karma' so I asked google about it. Karma is the accumulation of effects from the goods and bads that we bring with us from the former lives, as well as those that we make in this life. In Buddhism, we have lived countless lives already. We are not born as blank pages, but pages on which countless impressions have been made. So when we give birth to a baby, we don't 'create' a being; we just 'wake' up a soul. If we talk about it in computer science, we don't fork a process; we just send a signal 18 to it. :-P
In one scene, Andy's teacher persuaded him not to attempt to save Cecilia anymore since the negative balance of her karma was too huge. Andy replied that he helped her because she was compassionate. So ultimately it's not he who helped her; it's Cecilia who was putting effort. It's exactly the idea of karma:
1. It's chain of reactions, not immediate cause, that matters.
2. We have freedom to change our karma.
Under this interpretation of life, we have a more active role in controlling our way. The optimistic message delivered by this movie is one of the main reasons why I love this movie so much. ;-)
The film song, 身外情, is another element that I can't forget in the movie. During the one-minute stroll, the lyrics helps to develop the heavy atmosphere:
帶走傷感 帶不走哭得轉紅了的燈
記憶隨身 延續欠你的戲份
帶走開心 卻帶不走拖手時的體溫
微暖質感 留在臉上還未吻
給一分鐘我靜靜回味
將一生一世翻天覆地
明日已被今天處死
淚存在原為反映天理
這一分鐘我站在何地
怎麼竟跟你活在一起
緣是鏡中花 留在鏡中死
原諒我不記得忘記
帶走身影 帶不走裝飾你曈孔的星
放手無聲 沉默也等於約定
帶走心境 卻帶不走分手時的風景
雲過天清 忘掉我們曾盡興
文章定位：
