A roundup of the year's "best" domestic films will set you on a collision course with those with different tastes and yardsticks. This is especially true when the year's best vary widely from the year's best-selling. In other words, a cinephile's picks are bound to diverge from one who focuses on the bottom line.
因為每個人的品味不同，衡量標準也存在差異，所以如果你想對國內的年度“最佳”電影進行盤點，就一定會引發口水戰。又因為“年度最佳”與“年度最賣座”之間的嚴重錯位，所以口水戰更是難免了。換句話說，影迷的選擇一定會與那些看重影片質量的人產生分歧。

So, here are some of the Chinese-language movies that I feel represent 2015's height of artistic achievement.
所以，接下來列舉的是一些我認為可以代表2015年最高藝術成就的華語電影。

Hou Hsiao-hsien's Assassin is the only one that made it into some prestigious international lists. Yet it was very polarizing on the domestic front. Its elliptical narrative left many audience members scratching their heads.
侯孝賢導演的《刺客聶隱娘》是唯一一部入圍了多個知名國際獎項候選名單的國內影片。然而它在國內的口碑卻呈現兩極分化。它的過于隱晦的故事情節讓很多觀眾覺得“燒腦”。

For me, it is ambitious but falls short of the standard of Shanghai Flowers, an early work by the master with a similar stylistic approach. The dense plot distracts from the texture of the visuals, where the brilliance definitely lies.
在我看來，《刺客聶隱娘》雖然雄心勃勃，卻不及侯孝賢用相似手法創作的早期作品《海上花》。它緊湊的情節淡化了人們對視覺效果的追求，這正是電影出色之處。

Jia Zhangke's Mountains May Depart is neatly divided into three time periods. The first two, set in 1999 and 2014, find him in familiar territory, but it is the last one, set in 2025Australia, that is jaw-dropping in both positive and negative ways.
賈樟柯的《山河故人》恰好根據時間節點被分為三個部分。設定在1999和2014的部分，主人公還待在熟悉的故土，2025年的部分卻跑到了澳大利亞。不論從正反哪個方面看，這個設定都令人瞠目結舌。

The twist is audaciously conceived, but testifies to a fundamental lack of understanding of the Chinese diaspora, and the May-December relationship is shallow in its Freudian implication.
情節轉折構思大膽，但也顯示了對中國聚散觀念的理解不夠，以及對忘年戀在性心理層面的理解過于表面。

The year's most satisfying work belongs to Deep in the Heart, the directorial debut of Xin Yukun. It was titled The Coffin in the Mountain when it first ran on the festival circuit in 2014.
今年最令人滿意的作品當屬忻鈺坤的處女作《心迷宮》。其實這部電影最初是以《殯棺》為片名于2014年出現在電影節上的。

Made with a paltry budget of 1.7 million yuan ($269,800), the dark drama takes on crime and punishment with a verve and aplomb befitting a veteran.
這部驚悚劇情片僅僅用了170萬元的成本，就讓老謀深算的主人公給你沉著演繹了一出罪與罰的戲碼。

As a matter of fact, one of its early champions was Cao Baoping, whose film The Dead End has an overlapping theme yet leaves several narrative holes in the story.
其實曹保平才是犯罪懸疑類電影的早期先鋒之一。他的電影《烈日灼心》就是這方面題材的代表作，他還故意在情節中留下了許多未解之謎。

Cao's crime story has a stronger drive, and at its heart it attempts to plumb the depths of the human psyche. More significantly, it broke several taboos, including a passionate male-on-male kiss.
曹保平的犯罪片懸疑感更強，能直擊人的靈魂。而且，他的影片不避禁區，比如充滿激情的男男之吻。

The Dead End won an acting award for its male ensemble at the Shanghai International Film Festival, but the year's most eye-opening male performance belongs to a renowned director.
《烈日灼心》男演員憑借該片在上海國際電影節獲得了最佳表演獎。不過，本年度最讓人眼前一亮的表演卻是來自一位知名導演。

Feng Xiaogang's cameo appearances have been so memorable he ranks among the best character actors in the nation.
馮小剛在電影中客串的角色令人印象太深刻了，他可以稱得上是中國最有性格的男演員之一。

In Mr. Six, he turns his formidable acting chops into a character study so immersive it blew me away when I first saw the film. This is a portrayal that goes beyond technique and into the innermost part of his soul.
在《老炮兒》中，他對人物角色的演繹如此到位，以致于我初看影片時被驚到了。他對這個角色的揣摩已經不能只用演技好來形容了，那種感覺是從骨子里散發出來的。

Ostensibly about a former good-for-nothing, it is imbued with a quiet heroism and evokes a way of life that is fast receding - echoing the somewhat cruel generational shift that is happening in today's film industry.
這個故事表面是在說一個被時代拋棄的人，但實際上蘊含了一種無聲的英雄主義，能喚起人們對上個時代的記憶，也從側面反映了當下電影業正在發生的代際轉變過程中的殘酷。

Not since Zhang Yimou played the male lead in 1986's Old Well has an ace director trumped actors of his profession with such on-screen and off-screen poignancy.
自從張藝謀在1986年的《老井》中擔任男主角以來，再沒有哪個大牌導演能像馮小剛這樣對角色把握如此到位，讓專業演員汗顏。

Xu Haofeng's The Master seems to be a scaled-down version of The Grandmaster, which he co-wrote. It is certainly different from the norm, but his familiarity with the material could be holding him back from a full filmic vision.
徐皓峰的《師父》就像是精縮版的《一代宗師》（后者的劇本徐皓峰也有參與）。這當然是一種劍走偏鋒，不過，正因為他對選材細節的過于精熟，反而阻礙了他對影片的整體把握。

While I applaud his innovation, I was not emotionally involved or thematically curious.
我贊賞這種創新，但本片無法勾起我的情感共鳴，影片主題也不是我感興趣的領域。

12 Citizens, a Chinese remake of 12 Angry Men, resolved the biggest conundrum - that China does not employ a jury system - with a stroke of genius. But it was marred by several clumsy touches, such as the eventual certainty of the suspect's innocence and the secret identity of the Henry Fonda character, here played by stage veteran He Bing.
《十二公民》改編自美國電影《十二怒漢》。影片讓一群精英解決了中國最大的難題——沒有陪審團制度。不過影片對個別細節的處理還是差一點意思：比如確定嫌犯無罪的過程，以及對亨利·凡達（由舞臺經驗豐富的何冰扮演）秘密身份的處理上。

The moral of the story, in my opinion, should be: There is not enough evidence to convict the guy, not that he was the wrong target.
我個人覺得這個故事應該這樣：沒有足夠證據證明那個人有罪，而不是他是錯誤的目標。

Other art-house offerings that I have missed but may be worthy of mentioning include: Wang Xiaoshuai's Red Amnesia, a revisit to the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), Li Ruijun's River Road, Tibetan filmmaker Pema Tseden's Tharlo, and the work of a possible whiz kid, 26-year-old Bi Gai's Kaili Blues, which won several cineaste-circle awards.
其它我沒看過但我覺得也許值得一提的文藝片：王小帥的“文革”題材影片《闖入者》；李睿珺的《家在水草豐茂的地方》，藏族導演萬瑪才旦的《塔洛》，以及來自26歲天才青年導演畢贛的《惶然錄》，該片已斬獲多個電影獎項。

Not a single one of the aforementioned output grossed more than 100 million yuan at the box office. Their cumulative takings may not have reached this figure either. Which makes this year's blockbusters all the more astounding.
上面提到的電影沒有一個票房過億，甚至把它們的票房都加在一起也沒達到這個數。這讓我們對其他票房大豐收的影片越發好奇了。

Monster Hunt, a family film in the fantasy genre, set a new box-office record at 2.4 billion yuan. It was bankrolled by Bill Kong, of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon fame, and directed by first-timer Raman Hui, who hasHollywoodexperience.
魔幻題材的《捉妖記》適合全家一起觀看。它創下了24億元的票房新紀錄。該片由曾監制《臥虎藏龍》的江志強出資，由曾闖蕩好萊塢的新人導演許誠毅執導。

Monkey King: Hero Is Back was the sleeper hit of the year when it became the best-selling animated film in the Middle Kingdom.
《西游記之大圣歸來》是今年的黑馬，成為最賣座的動畫電影。

Although the subject matter was from the classical novel, which has always been a treasure trove for adaptations, the treatment was more inspired byHollywood.
中國古典小說是改編電影挖不完的寶藏。盡管該片主題源自《西游記》，但影片的制作卻頗有好萊塢風范。

Pancake Man and Goodbye, Mr. Loser are the twin winners with Internet genetics. The screwball comedies feature newcomers who are more plugged into the sensibilities of the millennials than the practices of the film community.
《煎餅俠》和《夏洛特煩惱》的成功得益于它們的互聯網基因。這兩部無厘頭喜劇采用的都是新面孔。與老一輩電影人相比，這些人更懂千禧一代的口味。

Their boffo success (1.16 billion and 1.44 billion yuan respectively) marks the emergence of the new filmmaker generation, who may hail from anywhere but the film academy.
這兩部片子的風行（分別拿下11.6億元和11.4億元的票房）意味著新一代電影制作人的出現——他們可能來自任何領域，但絕非科班出身。

Lost inThailand, at 1.62 billion yuan, was about the only franchise movie that climbed over the billion-yuan bench. That, of course, is not counting Mojin: The Lost Legend, directed by Wuershan, which is hot in release and has just exceeded the billion-yuan benchmark by the time this article goes to print.
《泰囧》票房16.2億，幾乎是唯一一部拿下“十億”級票房的系列電影。當然，這不包括由烏爾善執導的《鬼吹燈之尋龍訣》。這部電影剛一推出就廣受歡迎，到本文付印時票房已超過十億大關。

Mojin is adapted from the eight-volume Internet best-seller, which has a huge built-in fan base. The first four volumes were sold to another director, Lu Chuan, whose Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe debuted just three months earlier to 680 million yuan and general critical panning.
《尋龍訣》改編自網絡暢銷書《鬼吹燈》八部曲，有強大的粉絲基礎。頭四卷改編權賣給了另外一個導演陸川。他的《九層妖塔》三個月前剛剛上映，票房6.8億元，口碑不佳。

It is worth noting that 2015's best-selling movies received mostly decent (if not stellar) reviews while the terrible movies that made lots of money, in terms of return on investment, tended to fall into the range of 100 million to 500 million yuan.
值得注意的是，2015年最賣座的電影大部分都收獲了口碑，而那些相對投資而言獲得了巨大收益的爛片，總體票房只在1億至5億之間。

An uptick in maturity for Chinese cinema can be detected from the commercial side of the business, with more diverse genres and higher production values. But for the time being, artistically ambitious fare is still swimming in the danger zone of the sharks.
中國電影市場的成熟度，能從影片的商業化程度顯示出來——片子類型正越來越多樣化，投資回報率也越來越高了。但就目前而言，文藝片想要追求更高的藝術性，仍然是一件很危險的事情。

Vocabulary
yardstick：衡量，評價的標準
cinephile：影迷，電影愛好者
diaspora：(任何民族的)大移居，大遷移
boffo：風行一時的

英文來源：影評人周黎明
譯者：Jogible
審校&編輯：杜娟