Golden Compass

	His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass) Philip Pullman ISBN: 978-0440238607 Pub. Date: September 23, 2003 Publisher: Laurel Leaf
	The Golden Compass Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Dakota Blue Richards Director: Chris Weitz

Cross posted at http://blogs.sun.com/syw

Excellent books, disappointing movie. But is it possible to produce a good movie of such a richly written book? There has been two attempts to cinematize Dune; both failed too.

What an interesting concept that everyone has three parts: body, soul, and spirit. These three parts can exist independently — body can live on without spirit, soul goes to hell/heaven after body dies. Pullman made the spirit exist in the form of an animal that has to stay close to the body. When the tie between the body and spirit gets severed, two things happen: a great amount of energy releases and the person either dies or becomes very dull.

Lyra, the main character, reads the Golden Compass, an oracular instrument. That skill comes from the rare ability to intensively focused on emptiness. With that, and Golden Compass as the channel, Lyra communicate with Dust, a substance both generated by and stimulates human intellects. Human becomes more creative when exposed to Dust; the creativity also generates Dust. Apparently, multiple cultures discovered the same and created their own version of the instrument. Chinese’s I-Ching is one of them. Astrology, Tarot cards, crystal ball, and other fortune telling skills are all the same thing.

The movie ends up with incoherent fragments and under-developed characters. Nicole Kidman, however, almost perfected the role. I cannot think of a better actor for Mrs. Coulter. But maybe it is not fair to criticize the movie as a book reader. Only Lord of the Rings, after all, met my expectation as a successful adaptation. I watch Harry Potter movies mainly just to reminisce: like a quick re-read and recollection of the details.

同步上网于http://blogs.sun.com/syw_zh

书很好看，电影却令人失望。然而真的有可能把内容如此丰富的小说拍成一部好电影吗？有过两次拍《沙堆》，两次都败的不堪。

书中有合很有趣的概念：每个人都有肉体、灵魂和精灵三部分。各别可以独立存在－－肉体失去精灵可以继续存活，灵魂则在肉体死亡后去往地狱或天堂。在小说中精灵成动物型像，而必须常伴肉体左右。一旦肉体与精灵被强行分离，打破后释出巨大的能量，使得失去精灵的人，变为行尸走肉，甚至死去。

主角莱拉可以虚空而不忘我。这罕见的天分让她读的懂黄金罗盘。由此她能感知未知世界。通过这种能力，并藉由黄金罗盘，莱拉能够与星尘沟通。星尘既激发人类智慧，也是创造力的副产品。人类一旦触及到星尘，就会变得更加富有创造性，而创造的过程又会再次产生星尘。实际上，各文明都意识到星尘预言能力。中国的《易经》便是预言工具其中之一。星座解析、塔罗牌、水晶球，以及各种预言技巧都属于这一类事物。

影片交待不清情节，人物也不深入刻画。无论如何，妮可·基德曼的表演还是堪称完美，我想不出还有谁能把科尔特夫人演绎得更加出色。或许从小说读者的立场评论影片有失公允。想来，只有《指环王》系列电影满意。《哈利·波特》的电影只是来追忆故事情节罢了。