第148章 愤怒可能让一切变得美好

'Beef' Review: Mad in America

《怒呛人生》剧评

By James Poniewozik

“I'm so sick of smiling，“ says Danny Cho (Steven Yeun) in the first episode of Netflix's “Beef.“ You may have noticed that he's not alone in this. Blame it on the pandemic， the culture， the economy， but people are mad right now， on planes and on trains and— like Danny and his car-crossed antagonist， Amy Lau (Ali Wong)— in automobiles.

“我实在是笑够了”，在网飞剧集《怒呛人生》的第一集中，Steven Yeun所饰演的角色Danny Cho这样说道。你可能已经注意到了，他不是唯一一个有这种想法的人。我们大可把它归咎于疫情、文化或者是经济，但无论如何，当下人们都很愤怒：不管是在飞机上、火车上，还是在汽车上；剧中，Danny与Ali Wong所饰演的对手Amy Lau也是因开车结下梁子。

“Beef，“ a dark edy about a road-rage incident that careers disastrously off-road， has good timing， but that's not enough to make a great TV series. What makes this one of the most invigorating， surprising and insightful debuts of the past year is how personally and culturally specific its study of anger is.

《怒呛人生》是一部黑色喜剧，故事由路怒而起，两人一路横冲直撞，矛盾以灾难性的方式从公路蔓延到了其他领域。这部剧适逢其时，但光凭这一点还不足以成为一部优秀的电视剧。它之所以成为过去一年首播剧中最令人振奋、最令人惊讶又最具洞察力的作品，是因为它对愤怒的诠释，既关照了个体的处境，又反映了一种特定的文化。

That nearly all of the major characters in “Beef“ are Asian is both a casual fact of the setting and integral to its themes. These are characters given less social permission for anger in America， in part because of “model minority“ stereotypes of docility. But they're also shaped by their family and upbringing. Amy describes learning to repress her emotions from her father—“Chinese guy from the Midwest， I mean， munication wasn't his forte“— and her mother， a Vietnamese immigrant who “thought talking about your feelings was the same thing as plaining.“

《怒呛人生》中几乎所有的主要角色都是亚裔，这不仅是这部剧一个不经意的设定，而且对主题表达来说也是不可或缺的。这些亚裔在美国社会中没有被给予足够的“社会许可”来表达自己的愤怒，其中部分原因是社会对他们带有“模范少数族裔”的顺从性刻板印象。不过，除此之外，他们也是被家庭和成长环境所塑造出来的。剧中，Amy描述了自己从父母那里学会压抑情绪的经历：“来自中西部的中国男人——我是想说，沟通不是他的长项”，而她身为越南移民的母亲则“认为谈论自己的感受就等同于抱怨。”

As philosophy， self-help and “Star Wars“ have taught us， anger is a destructive emotion.“Beef“ provides ample evidence of this， but also pushes past easy cant to explore the idea that anger— even petty， stupid anger— can be liberating. At the end of the first episode， Amy and Danny meet face to face， and it does not end well; she winds up chasing him down the street on foot. He， despite having bought himself trouble he can't afford， wears a wide， childlike smile. She， planning her next countermove， relaxes into a tiny grin.

正如哲学、自我疗愈和《星球大战》教给我们的那样，愤怒是一种破坏性的情绪。《怒呛人生》为此提供了充分的佐证，但是，它并没有止于简单的说教，而是试图去告诉我们愤怒，哪怕再琐碎、愚蠢，也可以产生令人解脱的效果。在第一集的结尾，Amy和Danny正面相遇，结果很糟糕；最终，Amy在大街上狂奔着去追Danny。Danny尽管给自己惹了一身难以应付的麻烦事，脸上却挂着一个大大的、孩子般的笑容；而Amy一边计划着下一步的反击，一边却放松下来，脸上也露出一点笑意。

It's the first lightness you see on either of their faces. Their dispute will prove to be the worst thing that has happened to either of them， but in the moment， it is also the best. They fight not just out of pride but also out of their seeming belief that their rage might somehow make everything right.

这是我们第一次在他们脸上看到放松的情绪。接下来，他们之间的矛盾很快就会成为发生在两人身上最糟糕的事情，但在当下这一刻，这就是最好的安排。他们之间的斗争不仅出于尊严，也出于两人似乎都抱有的同一种看法：不知为何，愤怒可能会让一切变好。