SU Hui-Yu recreates and reshoots missing scenes from original script details of the film made by CHIU Kang-Chien, The Glamorous Boys of Tang, introducing a new dynamic between history and the present moment. With the four-channel video installation in the form of a folding screen, and a highly stylized video and audio language, the artwork reinvigorates a piece of forgotten film history in Taiwan. Another significant achievement of The Glamorous Boys of Tang (1985, Chui Kang-Chien) is to look back at the suffocating control over eroticism and desire during the martial law ruling period. The artwork responds to a sense of urgency about the liberation of human desire, body, and gender in Taiwan, while presenting a transcendent artistic vision.

The Glamorous Boys of Tang (1985, Chui Kang-Chien)

SU Hui-Yu

Date:2018.09.22 – 2019.02.10
Venue:National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts

Jury’s Comment

SU Hui-Yu recreates and reshoots missing scenes from original script details of the film made by CHIU Kang-Chien, The Glamorous Boys of Tang, introducing a new dynamic between history and the present moment. With the four-channel video installation in the form of a folding screen, and a highly stylized video and audio language, the artwork reinvigorates a piece of forgotten film history in Taiwan. Another significant achievement of The Glamorous Boys of Tang (1985, Chui Kang-Chien) is to look back at the suffocating control over eroticism and desire during the martial law ruling period. The artwork responds to a sense of urgency about the liberation of human desire, body, and gender in Taiwan, while presenting a transcendent artistic vision.

Comments on the Finalist

This work is a multi-channel video work that revisits Taiwanese cinema, which artist Su Hui-Yu creates in the name of re-shooting. Nevertheless, the re-shooting of the transient details and the end missing from the script beckons at something more than a paean because the artist has indeed converted and expanded the potentiality of the unfinished film through this work. As the roles, their bodies and the time in the work are transformed and blurred in a continual and fluid manner, the Tang dynasty of this contemporary era ushers in a new opportunity for the artist to initiate a dialogue with history. The four-channel video installation that adopts the style of a folding-screen gives the lurking shadow of desire a chance to manifest on the foldable, juxtaposed screens. In Su’s time of marriage equality when almost nothing is considered a taboo, the concerns that once hindered Chui Kang-Chien from publishing his film completed in the era of the martial law have already morphed into the full liberation of the body and desires as well as the deconstruction of public order and good morals. Seductive and tempting, The Glamorous Boys of Tang (1985, Chui Kang-Chien) reminds us of a carnivalesque LGBTQIA Pride charged with electronic music and can only be wilder, freer and unrulier than the original version.

(Commentator: SING Song-Yong)

Artwork Introduction

In recent years, Su Hui-Yu has used the method of “re-shooting” to reinterpret historic texts. This work is based on the homonymous film, The Glamorous Boys of Tang, directed by famous poet and playwright Chui Kang-Chien in 1985, which was a highly experimental, atypical film that did not enjoy a great box office and much positive feedback. However, the same-sex male sexual tension, combined with scenes of violence, death and orgies as well as incongruent sound effects generated by synthesizer, bizarre settings and costumes, revealed its creator’s ambition to create dialogues with Western cinematic classics, rendering the film a fine example of the cult film. More than three decades later, Su’s The Glamorous Boys of Tang (1985, Chui Kang-Chien), created using the method of re-shooting with new resources and film techniques, brings together a spectrum of different body images and subcultural communities in today’s contemporary pluralist society, supplementing, reinterpreting and recreating the original version from 1985.

About the Artist

SU Hui-Yu
Su Hui-Yu holds an MFA from Taipei National University of the Arts. His recent work revolves arounds ancient books, old films and his collection of anecdotes and unofficial histories, which he re-reads, re-interprets and re-constructs to gain new insights into existing topics of body, existence and history. His works have been shown in various renowned art galleries and museums in Taiwan and abroad, including Museo Jumex in Mexico, Kunstmuseum Bonn in Germany and Power Station of Art in Shanghai, and have been featured in international film festivals, such as International Film Festival Rotterdam, Buenos Aires International Film Festival and Moscow International Experimental Film Festival, etc.

Production Team

Director/artist | Su Hui-Yu
1st Assistant Director | Chan Ki-Yan
Cast | Chocorockxin Lee, Popcorn, Huang Hsu-Wei
Producer | Huang Ching-Han
Cinematography | Chen Kuen-Yu
Production Design | Su Hui-Yu
Music/Sound | Braire Ko, Su Hui-Yu
Costume Design | Huang Ching-Han
Post-production supervisor | Tomi Kuo
Colorist | Chian Yi-Hsun/Cinema 4

藝術家對談

藝術家 蘇匯宇

《唐朝綺麗男》是已故詩人、劇作家、電影編導邱剛健1985年的電影作品,集結張照堂、麥顯揚、沈聖德及梁正居等多位藝術家合作,以及鈕承澤、陽帆與女星夏文汐擔當主角,講述貴族少年崔俊男與街頭小混混郭豐樂一見如故,與神秘少女宋念奴展開的一場異色之旅。故事由兩位俊美男子開展,隱匿的情慾魅惑、殺戮、死亡場面,獨特音樂設計與光怪陸離的美術場境,顯示出與西方藝術電影對話的實驗意圖,即便從今日看來,仍相當鮮明激進。

補拍作為創作方法

2016年,蘇匯宇發表《存在與虛無(1962,張照堂)》,後經張照堂介紹,接觸《唐朝綺麗男》。看完這部電影,蘇匯宇想起小學時常在自助餐廳牆面看見各式牛肉場宣傳或異色電影海報,其中就包括有夏文汐持劍半裸的《唐朝綺麗男》。有趣迴返勾起藝術家模糊記憶,2017年他到國家電影中心找出原著劇本,進而發現電影與原著劇本的落差。「邱剛健原著可能更為大膽或有更多想法,可是在電影版本,也許因為社會風氣、電檢制度或預算限制,沒有辦法完成某些我認為很有趣的畫面或劇情橋段。」

蘇匯宇著手對這部電影進行「補拍」。「補拍」是電影常用手法,對缺漏或不完美的鏡頭修補或重拍,在電影產業中稱為Pick-up或Re-shooting,前者指單一鏡頭或場景的重拍,後者意為較大規模的重攝。蘇匯宇認為,藝術史上有許多重置(remake)作品,錄像藝術對電影的重製也一直存在,但較為整體或後設翻新做法,甚至解構或重新詮釋文本;相對於此或是簡化的「致敬」,他的創作在了解原作後進行補筆,稱「補拍」更為精準,或者如孫松榮所說的「複訪」影像。

回顧蘇匯宇2012年至今作品,包括《存在與虛無(1962,張照堂)》、《超級禁忌》或《屁眼・淫書・速克達》,大抵延續著此創作方法的延展。在《唐朝綺麗男(邱剛健,1985)》,他對照劇本,尋找電影中因故無法留存、於觀眾眼前稍縱即逝的畫面,或者不夠精細描寫或更激進表現之處,再進行視覺發展,「也像是替他完成了某段當時不能進行的旅程任務。」時隔三十年的補拍有其時代意義,在現下社會詮釋寫於戒嚴時代的劇本精神,替其開創當年時空下未能想像的感知,另外,也以當代技法發展劇本裡的視覺經營。

視覺性的延展與角色的多重擴張

「邱剛健原作看似娛樂大眾、帶情慾味道的奇幻片,故事軸線凌亂錯綜,但若宏觀來看,會發現基本都在強調某些事情,如青春、肉體、好看的男人、嬉戲人間、多元關係、性與殺戮,對死亡、雜交、戀屍癖也相當程度碰觸。」蘇匯宇重新拆解元素後,回頭看電影裡的角色,發現他們代表任務各有不同。如郭豐樂是花花公子,而純情浪漫的崔俊男追求精神性,「但每人都有多重慾望或相違背的人格:純情男最後去嫖妓,花心男可能為理想做出部分犧牲,或者,追求精神性的和尚最後墮入女體妄念。」他拆解主角成數個分身複現,但以符號串起觀眾聯想。如原作中男主角舔劍段落的性暗示,被拆成三個分身幻象舔過劍鋒流血,創造新的知覺感受;又或者,原作中男主角牽馬匹畫面,轉而由黃栩薇女扮男裝與馬匹上分身男子同行,強化氛圍感性。

在其他片段,原著的視覺性得到擴展,如李幼鸚鵡鵪鶉被抓腳倒身旋轉,回應原作裡男主角與妓女嬉鬧的隱晦;割喉及性愛場面,放大性與暴力的並存,流血意象隱喻慾望溢漲;末段,黃栩薇在花樹盛綻、煙霧繚繞的場景中被萬箭穿心,呼應原著結局華美死亡意象,也放大「戳入」這充滿暗示的動作話語。人物服裝以快速時尚拼裝,穿插如3D眼鏡等現代元素,反映當下時代,也呼應當年視覺設計於唐朝背景呈現台灣80年代造型的概念。蘇匯宇也依序將電影或劇本不斷出現或提示的元素重新結合,如儀式性的儺舞、男男四目交接、牽手逛街等畫面,或和尚慾望和冥想的衝突,用高速攝影技法,緩緩將邱剛健的概念串連,場景選擇在山林,也帶有一鏡到底意味。

美麗男子在三十年前並非主流,是邱剛健對身體的重新想像。蘇匯宇在選角時,進一步打開此可能,透過劇場朋友及次文化社團尋覓特別演員。例如巫祇祇是提倡肥胖女體美學翻轉的網路名人,Popcorn則是變裝皇后社群的知名表演者。有趣的還包括影評人李幼鸚鵡鵪鶉,從作品顧問成為一角。成員在開拍前透過工作坊及全裸排練熟悉彼此,進而在複雜自然環境中走位、拍攝。蘇匯宇回憶,拍攝最末日是颱風前夕,殺青後眾人直接跳進一旁河流玩耍,「好像不經意變成一場派對、辛苦卻享受在自然環境中⋯⋯」作品無法呈現的一幕,讓蘇匯宇深刻感動。

短片與錄像裝置的雙重發表,與大製作開啟的影像挖掘

《唐朝綺麗男(邱剛健,1985)》的製作分為兩種形式,一為17分鐘、四頻道錄像的折疊屏風裝置,回應原作元素,也符合作品在美術館展出時的空間特性與觀者感知;參展鹿特丹影展的15分鐘短片版則更著重小方塊的經營,強調可閱讀性與豐富性。乍看差異不大,拍攝過程與後製實則需要嚴謹進行。本作是此前未有的大規模、大預算製作,為蘇匯宇首次正式利用電影技法,總結回應他近四年不斷探索的創作方法,除了是他第一次以特定電影為題進行製作,也為他開啟重探台灣80年代異色電影、新電影或社會寫實電影的興趣。延續自身創作,蘇匯宇期待挖掘更多文本,將隱匿的文化脈絡重新探勘。

(採訪撰文/許祐綸)