欲望之流：陳子謙電影《4：30》中的視覺愉悅(in English)

Flow of Desires: Visual Pleasure in Royston Tan’s 4:30

新加坡新銳導演陳子謙所編導的《4：30》（2005）講述一對父不父、子不子的主角各自所面對的寂寞與孤獨，全片瀰漫著濃厚的憂鬱情緒。片中刻意被隱沒的女性角色令人不禁想問：蘿拉•莫薇（Laura Mulvey）所指異性戀男性觀者的視覺愉悅從何而來？本文試著由兩方面來分析《4：30》：一方面討論電影藉著女性角色的空缺來凸顯片中角色對其更強大的欲望，同時也是女性角色的缺席激發觀眾偷窺的欲望，吸引觀眾窺視那「看不見的女人」如何使片中的男性角色發展出對彼此的欲望，但導演卻又刻意安排他們的欲望無法被彼此滿足，因此這部電影不斷地挑戰觀眾的期待，也不斷地激發觀眾的欲望。另一方面，本文著重在四點半這個時間與整部電影的關聯，根據導演所說，四點半是由夜入晝的分隔點，黑暗與光亮，不見與可見，除了隱涉《伊底帕斯王》（Oedipus theKing）悲劇中所探討的見與不見，更有另一層涵義。光使人看得見，卻也驅散在黑暗裡才得以發生的各種可能。夜裡欲望橫流，晝裡法理為尊，晝夜交替下隱含的是欲望的見與不見，而欲求不滿正是這部電影所帶來的快感。

The Singaporean feature film 4:30 (2005), scripted and directed by the talented filmmaker Royston Tan (1976-), illustrates solitude, loneliness and melancholy of two male characters connected by their pseudo father-son relationship. How does the lack of female characters in this film assume a visual pleasure, which as Laura Mulvey observes, arises from a heterosexual male spectator’s perspective? This paper attempts to analyze 4:30 in two aspects. Firstly, the lack of the female magnifies the male characters’ desires and intrigues audiences’ voyeuristic desire. Audiences are watching how the unseen women stimulate the male characters to develop desires for each other, which end up unsatisfied. Secondly, focus will be put on the moment of 4:30. How does this particular instant of time function for the narrative in this film? 4:30 is the break between night and daytime. The distinction of darkness from lights as well as the unseen from the seen activates the alternation of scenes. Lights allow people to see, but meanwhile dissipate possibilities lurking in the dark. Desires flow at nights, while reason and decency dominate the daytime. Beneath the rotation of nights and days is the visibility and invisibility of desires. It is the unfulfilled desire that engenders the visual pleasure in this film.