又中又英 | A slow burn | 褚簡寧

　　There is an old song called Sad Movies Make Me Cry. I sometimes come across different versions of this song when I search on Spotify for songs of different periods. I watched a sad movie called Omaha on the Internet a few days ago. It didn't make me cry but it depressed me. The 2025 movie was not a big hit, but critics gave it very high marks. In my previous column I wrote about the 2026 movie The Devil Wears Prada 2 which one movie critic described as flat champagne.

　　As I explained, the expression "flat champagne" when used to describe a movie means a movie that looks appealing but is in fact boring. One movie critic described the tearjerker movie Omaha as a slow burn. A tearjerker movie is a movie that makes people sad or cry. A movie that is a slow burn means a movie that develops slowly but still builds up interest until a climax that deeply affects the emotions of audiences. The expression "slow burn" can be used for a book or a play as well.

　　It can be used in an entirely different way to describe a person who gets angry very slowly instead of immediately over something. I do not want to spoil the ending of Omaha for people who intend to see it. It's about a widowed father with two young children who could not pay the mortgage for his house after he lost his job during an economic recession. The bank takes back the house. He drives his children and their dog across the US to the city of Omaha thinking about what to do with his children.

＊      ＊      ＊      ＊      ＊

　　有一首老歌，叫 Sad Movies Make Me Cry（悲傷的電影使我落淚）。我在Spotify上搜尋不同時期的歌曲時，有時會遇到這首歌的不同版本。幾天前，我在網上看了一齣悲傷的電影《奧馬哈》。它沒有使我落淚，卻也令我很難過。這齣2025年的電影不算賣座，但評論人都給它很高分。在我上一篇文章裏，我便寫到2026年的《穿Prada的惡魔2》，有一個電影評論人稱它為「走味的香檳」（flat champagne）。

　　正如我所解釋過的，用習語flat champagne來形容電影時，是說那套電影看上去吸引，實則沉悶沒趣。一名電影評論人形容tearjerker movie《奧馬哈》為slow burn。A tearjerker movie是賺人熱淚的電影。A slow burn的電影是指一套電影緩慢地推進但仍能提起觀眾興趣，直到電影高潮一刻，深深地撼動觀眾的情緒。習語 slow burn也可以用來形容一本書或一場戲劇。

　　它亦可以完全不同的方式使用，去形容某人的怒氣慢慢累積，而不是立時爆發。有些人可能會計劃收看《奧馬哈》，我不想劇透它的結局。電影是關於一個喪偶的父親帶着兩個年幼的孩子，在經濟衰退期間丟失了工作，未能支付房貸，銀行把他的房屋收回。他駕車載着他的孩子和狗，穿越美國到奧馬哈這個城市，想着跟他的孩子下一步可以怎麼辦。

[email protected]
Michael Chugani褚簡寧
中譯：七刻