Rockbund Art Museum 上海外滩美术馆

Perfumed Nightmare, Kidlat Tahimik’s first feature-length film, depicts in an authoritative manner the purity and disillusion of an American Dream, but the truly remarkable aspect of the film is the reconstruction and re-creation it achieves through its particular method of collecting images, which may be understood as an attempt to “recover the lost time of the Third World.” In the film, the image of the “bridge” is ever-present, and depictions of economic development show that such progress serves as only a beginning and not an end, as it becomes the path that runs from the Third to First Worlds, and symbolizes displays or recessions of political power within the world of international politics. Portrayals of the pursuit of freedom in the film also demonstrate the ambiguity and double-sided nature of such ‘freedom’. The film’s narrative structure humorously alludes to the “westward pilgrimage” towards freedom, which is in reality a journey full of uncertainty and twists and turns, with Tahimik taking us through the film at his special pace — at times at a slow crawl, at other times in large and quick strides. Perhaps we could even say that the film is itself a two-way channel between the First and Third Worlds, demonstrating that the latter is not simply and purely “heading westward”, and that the film provides a wide spectrum of possibilities in interpreting the construction of a nation’s history and the collective memories of its people. And so even when the film speaks of the past or of the present, it still points to the future. Tahimik’s Perfumed Nightmare is a model for utopia, as it constantly salvages and reconstructs memories along the axis of history.

《甜蜜的梦魇》作为Kidlat Tahimik首部长片作品，宣言式地叙述一场美国梦的纯真与幻灭，但真正难能可贵之处在于他同时藉由「试图找回第三世界的时间」的影像採集方式，进行另一种重建与再创造。影片中，“桥”的意象无所不在，进步的象徵仅作为起始点而非终点，并幻化为连接在地与国际、第一世界与第三世界的途径，政权更迭下权力关係的展示与反转，以及通往自由的意象，却也同时清楚展示其暧昧与双向性。如同电影中，叙事架构幽默地影射了“向西行”（Go West）奔向自由的朝圣意味，但实质上是一条充满不确定性的蜿蜒路径，Kidlat Tahimik以他特有的步调带领我们时而匍匐时而跳跃前进。或许我们可以说，《甜蜜的梦魇》本身即承载了第一世界与第三世界双向通行的媒介，证明了在各个面向都并非单纯的「向西行」，也在构筑国家官方历史及庶民集体记忆的过程中，反向投射出多样性解读的彩色光谱，因此即便是处理过去与当下，却始终充斥著未来性，而电影也蜕变成为某种乌托邦载体，在历史的轴向上不断积极进行记忆打捞与重建。

CHEN Huei-Yin, Master’s graduate in Film Studies from Columbia University. Previously worked as assistant curator and chief research officer at the Video Art and Experimental Film Festival in New York; currently works as film selector and program manager at the International Women’s Film Festival in Taiwan, and as a freelance writer, interviewer and translator.

陈慧颖，纽约哥伦比亚大学电影研究硕士毕业，曾任纽约录像与实验片影展助理策展人兼研究执行长，现任台湾国际女性影展选片人兼节目经理，亦从事自由撰稿、人物访谈及翻译。