The Island / 島 (Tuan Andrew Nguyen, 安德烈．阮俊)

The Island / 島

Director: Tuan Andrew Nguyen, 安德烈．阮俊

Duration: 00:42:05; Aspect Ratio: 1.778:1; Hue: 158.736; Saturation: 0.085; Lightness: 0.211; Volume: 0.145; Cuts per Minute: 8.530; Words per Minute: 0.024

The Island is a narrative film set in a dystopian future, featuring differentially articulated existential concerns between the last man on earth, who escaped forced repatriation to Vietnam from the island Pulau Bidong - the longest operating refugee camp after the Vietnam War - and the last woman, a survivor of the last nuclear battle that wiped out all civilization. Entirely shot on the island, which once had the highest population density on the planet, juxtaposed with archival footage from its past that also captures the artist’s familial history, Tuan Andrew Nguyen reaffirms individual agency against the backdrop of civilizational error, and presents the culmination of the grand narrative of modernity as rising from an ideological conflict with the past.

敘事電影〈島〉呈現反烏托邦的未來景象，描述地球上最後一名男人以及最後一名女人面臨的各種存活議題。比農島（越南戰爭後運作時間最長的難民營）上的男人逃離了被強制遣返的命運，而女人則是最後一場核戰的倖存者。影片從頭到尾都在這個曾經有全球最高人口密度的島上拍攝，除了運用歷史檔案，也隱含藝術家的家庭歷史。安德烈．阮俊透過作品重申文明錯誤當前的個人自主性，也傳達現代的各種宏偉敘事，其實都奠基於過往錯誤意識形態之間的衝突。

opening shot, ocean

海洋在其靈魂深處孕育歷史

人類創造神話來填補那些沉沒的歷史

越南人相信他們源自兩大神話生物

In this sequence of shamanistic dance, the film opens up its multi-perspective of Vietnamese’s bitter past: war and refugees. After the defeat of the U.S. Army in the Vietnam war in 1975, communist-led Northern Vietnam took over the Southern part of the country which led to a refugee crisis. The Bidong Island which is situated off the coast of Terengganu, Malaysia in the South China Sea became a major destination for the Vietnamese refugees to find shelters. By adopting the imagery of ocean and land, Tuan Andrew Nguyen reveals this historical trauma with an archaic tale about the origin of the people of Vietnam: they are the children of mountain fairy and sea dragon.

The customs and dance in this sequence can be read together with artist Natasha Tontey’s The epoch of Mapalucene (also screening in “Phantasmapolis: Looking back to the future”).

有一天，仙子嫗姬下山來到海邊

她在海邊突然受到海怪攻擊

隨後被來自海中的龍王給救下

祂們相戀並孕育出一個卵囊

　　
從中孵化出一百個孩子

不久之後，嫗姬帶著50名孩子返回山上

龍王則帶著50名孩子返回大海

這就是越南的起源

一個關於過往如何預測未來的故事

在那之後，我們就一直困於分離和流亡之間

近一百萬人永遠無法到達自由的彼岸

他們的遺體成為海洋生物的食物或海盜的犧牲品

死者消息充斥著越南，但仍阻止不了人們逃亡

《島》

是所有船民都知曉的比農難民營

《島》

Here is a mixture of old newsreels about the refugees on Bidong Island and footage of the landscapes on Bidong Island today. The image materials that Tuan Andrew Nguyen incorporates throughout the film are often inter-referencing, furthermore, in several cases, these image materials are serving as evidence for retracing the memories of the people who once lived on the island.

曾幾何時，這裡是地球上最密集的地方

地獄變成了天堂

一座變成避難所的島嶼

第二個國家，介於兩者之間的存在

Demolished church and the broken statue of Jesus are presented in black and white photographs. Later on in the film, we will find these photos symbolize the ruins of different beliefs because there were also traces of the Buddhist altar, the memorial figure of a hero, and the nameless cemetery on the island.

但這世界已經結束了

隨之所有的聲音也離去

上一場戰爭，從世界中創出難民

我現在是世上僅存的人背負著聲音的人

我坐在這裡，在迴聲中，在寂靜之間

在這空間裡，當人煙仍在未來吞食了一切

如今過去與未來成了相互安慰的反面烏托邦

At the beginning of this hybrid sequence, documentary footage shows a group of people revisited the ruined sites on the island, and a father recognized the location where his wife once worked and explained it to his son. Then, one found footage shows how the refugees’ living condition was back then, as well as their religious activities. Subsequently, Tuan Andrew Nguyen takes the viewers to the same location and there is a male actor who stands in front of the altar table. This male actor is a fictitious role who seems already know the history and in the meantime drifting in time like the angel in Wim Wenders's Wings of Desire.

人們慶幸自己還活著

但過去已深深刻在心靈中

面對眼前的未來，記憶變得沉重

我也是一樣

未來總是太遙遠，又總是近在咫尺

Encountering a god in a forest is a common folktale plot. In such a plot, we often see gods asking questions and mortal beings answering. In this video, human is the one asking the questions, but this person is someone who has long lived on the island of Pulau Bidong and is a person that feels very much like a spirit. The questions he raised to the gods are similar to the questions asked of humans by gods in folktales. Through overlapping the two scenes, it seems that from the beginning, it was the human soul asking questions about the human’s own corporeal body.

與神明在森林中相遇，是民間譚（folktale）中常見的情節。在這樣的情節中，我們常可看到的是神仙提問，人物回答。在此影片中，可見提問的是人類，雖然是人類，但卻是常駐在比農島的（Pulau Bidong），宛如靈魂的人類。他對神明所提出的問題，猶如民間譚中神明對人提出的問題。通過將這兩個場景重疊，彷彿從一開始，就是人的靈魂，對人自身的肉體提出問題。

我向天地、諸神和比農之父祈求

我祈禱所有曾駐足這座島嶼…

以及所有漂流在海上的人，皆能安息

我有個問題

已經在腦中存在已久

不管祢是否相信我，都不重要

但事實是…

島嶼正在下沉

我只是想做好準備，未雨綢繆

像我父親一樣

祢認識我父親

我已詢問祢多次

或許祢忘記了，我只是想提醒祢

我可以幫祢建個木筏

如果祢想離開，或是…

我嗎？

前幾天我本打算爬回山上

在那裡待到我死去

但現在我卻想著要做個木筏

或許我想得太遠了

祢可以航行大海

祢可以成為第一個獨自環遊世界的遺跡

祢可以想去哪就去哪

由祢自己決定

重要的是，祢想要去哪裡？

A folktale plot appears again here: A woman covered in glistening clothing appears by the sea. In the story, the woman hails from up above; in the video, she’s from another land. As the woman remains on the island, the extraordinarily shining garb that she was wearing is never seen again.
此處再次出現民間譚（folktale）的情節：在海濱出現身著光亮衣著的女子。在故事中，這女子是天上來的，在影片中，這女子是從異地來的。而當這女子留在這島上之後，身上的那件異常光亮的金色衣服也就不再出現。

沒有人在上岸時淹死，就因如此有些人感激涕零

E: In Hanae Utamura’s film, she touches upon the limits of empiricism, and scientific reasoning in being able to understand the world through the Incompleteness Theorems of Kurt Gödel. If the greatest spectacle of modernity is the mushroom cloud lingering in our collective memory, marking the onset of the atomic age, this annihilatory destiny continues to be merely deferred as nuclear technology advances within the confines of diplomatic understanding. As Utamura speculates upon the latent, and perhaps dormant uses of nuclear energy towards peaceful endeavours, it continues to fuel those arsenals that anticipate the ultimate warfare, one that plays out in the apocalyptic imaginations of Tuan Andrew Nguyen’s film The Island. If science and technology have always been in the service of war and surveillance infrastructures, only repurposed as an afterthought to other ends aiding the global free market capitalism, we see one such instance in Angela Su’s animation-based work which identifies simultaneities in gaming and warfare infrastructures. In This is not a Game, to counter authoritarianism and neo-colonialism, we are forced to retort in the logic of its own machinations, an effect that wipes out the cause for revolution. An understanding of the fascist legacy of scientific enhancement, and the limits of empirical, material perspectives hold back technofetishism in this exhibition’s consideration of the future. Especially as we remain aware that traces of the failed project of Cosmism were nourished by fascist agendas in favour of supremacy, and in perpetuating inequalities through selective advancement of life as we have witnessed with the near collapse of healthcare infrastructures in the wake of the pandemic.
E: 宇多村英恵的影片處理的主題是經驗主義的侷限，以及透過庫爾特．哥德爾的不完備定理（Incompleteness Theorems）來理解世界的科學推理。倘若現代性最偉大的奇觀是徘徊在我們共同記憶中、標示著核子時代開端的蕈狀雲，那麼這種走向毀滅的命運只會隨著核能科技在外交諒解範圍內的進展被持續推遲，但不會消失。就在宇多村臆測核能潛在的、或是蟄伏性地用於和平事業時，核能仍持續地為那些期盼最終戰爭的軍火庫提供燃料，這場終極戰爭在安德烈．阮俊的影片〈島〉的末日想像裡上演。倘若科學與科技總是為戰爭與監控的基礎設施服務，那麼它們唯有在事後為了協助全球自由市場資本主義發展才會有其他用途，徐世琪的動畫作品提供了一個實例，我們可從中發現遊戲與戰爭基礎設施的同時性。在〈這不是一個遊戲〉中，我們為了對抗威權主義和新殖民主義，被迫依據其奪權陰謀邏輯來反駁它，進而徹底消滅了革命事業的火種。這檔展覽對未來的思考由於理解到科學進步這種法西斯遺緒以及經驗主義物質性觀點的局限，因而抑制了科技拜物主義（technofetishism）。尤其是我們依然意識到崇尚優越的法西斯理念以及透過選擇性的生活改善所延續的各種不平等滋養了失敗的宇宙主義計畫之痕跡，如同我們目睹在當前全球疫情下幾近崩潰的醫療基礎設施。

妳什麼意思，都結束了？

貨船嗎？

失火？有燒到妳嗎？

那一定很可怕

如天堂與地獄和好了

這世界能再擁有一次機會嗎？

穿越叢林時，我試著要分辨

哪些是過去，哪些是不久前遺留下的

很多東西顯然是越南人之後出現的

很多則是在越南人之前

或在這裡的期間留下的

這些是遺留在此的舊衣服？

所有人必須要去汲水，然後再運來這裡嗎？

這裡的水沒了，是嗎？

你們喝這個水？

但有味道！

除了聯合國難民署配給每人每二天八公升的水

船民挖了逾百口井，才能有足夠的水

In this sequence, we see different photographs of this bizarre monument and how it changed, renovated, and vandalized through time. This monument consists of one main sculpture depicting a man (the Old Father of Bidong) who dragged a woman out of water in motion and many signboards with the written slogans (mainly to praise the Old Father of Bigong) that piled as a base for the sculpture. Today, people consider it as the most visible landmark on the island that symbolizes how Vietnamese boat refugees suffered from fleeting on the sea. In addition, it is worth mentioning that in some states in the U.S.A. such as California the “Vietnamese Boat People” monuments also exist to commemorate Vietnamese people’s struggles.

“An image of the past attempting to save the future (一個來自過往的畫面企圖拯救未來),” this is how the voice-over comments on the memorial sculpture of the Old Father of Bidong. The reconciliation between the past and the future is a recurring concept throughout the film. Here, we can see it in the way how Tuan Andrew Nguyen facilitates the conversations between two fictitious characters: a male actor (who speaks Vietnamese) and a female actor (who speaks English).

我一輩子

聯合國在1991年關閉了難民營

資格不符的人都會被遣返

我父母不想被遣返，所以躲了起來

未來？祂說未來總是姍姍來遲…

比農！

這就是比農，整座島就是比農

妳可以稱祂為比農之魂或比農之父

祂就是把女孩從海中救起的人

未來能拯救過去嗎？

這就是比農，把女人從海中拉上來的老人

一個來自過往的畫面企圖拯救未來

我總猜想，他救的是他女兒還是陌生人

難道是山仙與龍王的轉世？

這個島對許多人來說是一個神話

代表慈悲、庇護和失落的形象

位在生與死、陸地與海洋，過去與未來之間的空間

這兩個雕像如今已支離破碎，但仍然緊緊抓住對方

誰來拯救它們？

未來能拯救過去嗎？

或者遺留廢墟能拯救我們？

Here is another reference to the other monument maned that was built on the island. The sail of freedom is a set of sculptural monuments which contains five pieces of sail-shaped stones. The shape of the sail is made an analogy to a spaceship by the voice-over in this clip. An association between memorial time and sci-fi speculation is presented here. Especially, when the narrator desire to resist the linear progress of time through the spaceship/monument, we can see the expanding imagination on recollecting the past and communicating with the future. It is not uncommon to read the ruins of a monument as a fictitious space in the context of literature and sci-fi movies because of the diverse connotations of time that one monument can bear. But in Tuan Andrew Nguyen’s approach to this topic, he confronts the historical facts through vividly intertwining visual archives and turning the landscape itself into a living monument.

這裡矗立著自由之帆紀念碑

五張內轉面對面的帆

自由之帆紀念碑是在難民營成立不久後建的

它不是遠洋帆船

而是我的太空船

幫助我對抗時間重力的飛船

紀念碑晚間會被點亮，宛如一顆引路星或燈塔

引導在海上迷途漂流的船隻，找到前往島嶼的路

馬來西亞軍隊不知道紀念碑的真正目的

我晚上仍然點亮它

我想要相信我們留下的痕跡仍存有阻力

不管這些痕跡看起來有多脆弱和短暫

This sequence includes three parts that demonstrate the senses of loss in the memorial establishment. The first part is the documentary footages of how the people react to the destruction of the memorial of the Vietnamese Boat People, the second part is the two fictitious characters pass by the site of cemeteries and the memorial board, and the third part is the male character’s attempt to reconstruct a monument from tattered branches but failed in the end. The combination of these three image materials intensifies the collective desire to engage with the island’s forgotten past. Like the narrator’s one touching line goes, “I want to believe there is resistance in the traces we leave behind.”

就算在消失之際

五個月後，比農上的船民紀念碑遭摧毀

我們向登嘉樓官方要求復原紀念碑的許可

他們說，內容必須經由越南當局批准

因此，我們決定不恢復船民紀念碑

這是個記憶的戰場

一群人跑來摧毀了這座紀念碑

有人要來修復紀念碑

有人要來破壞紀念碑

但我已經很久沒見過任何人了

沒有，我只是遠遠的看

我會在死之前再建一個

紀念成千上萬死在自由之路上的越南人（1975-1996）

儘管他們渴死、遭性侵、受累而死或其他原因

我們祈禱他們現在已安息

他們的犧牲不會被遺忘

感謝聯合國難民署、紅十字會

馬來西亞紅新月會和其他各國救援組織

以及馬來西亞政府與人民和首先提供庇護與安置的國家

我們也感謝所有盡力幫助越南難民的人

我最遠只游到這裡，這就是盡頭，該回去了

我們游再遠一點，大海就會生吞了我們

是比農老父救了妳

因為如果大海沒要妳的命，鯊魚也會

我以為只有這裡的魚消失了

我已經好久沒看到魚了

但每天都一樣，很難去記錄過了多久

野菜，有時候老鼠肉

以前，要一包泡麵才能換一隻老鼠，無論死活

當時老鼠跟人一樣多

現在沒有老鼠了，但有很多昆蟲

我說過我哪裡也不去

沒有船妳也飄得很遠，妳做得到的

也許我們長時潛水，核爆的輻射線

會將我們變成海洋生物，讓我們永生

每當有人抵達或離開島上都會唱這首歌

明天你將離開

大海呼喚你的名字，招你歸去

呼喚垂柳之靈

呼喚夜中白砂

明天你將離開

群山傾斜倚靠等待

岩石時刻思念著你

我聽見你流浪步伐中的憂鬱

明天你將離開

大海不忘回歸天地的你

呼喚海洋來填滿你靈魂

雙手為你遮風擋雨

明天你將離開

前往有著午夜之眼與珀色之光的城市

蜷縮著的靈魂，招喚著悲傷

聽著外面波濤洶湧，我的悲傷更加深沉

當你回歸

舉手放棄航行

敲響的和弦迴盪不斷

憂鬱在荒涼中迴響

明天你將離開

大海呼喚你的名字，招你歸去

露水浸透的晚霞

高聳的天空緊貼著山脈

明天你將離開

悲傷覆蓋滿是苔蘚的石堆

雨中的路燈在絕望中退去

感受滿天的雲彩

明天你將離開

迷茫大海是否會輕聲呼喚你

雨天旱月，我依然悲痛

我渴望收到來自遠方的消息

明天你將離開

前往有著午夜之眼與珀色之光的城市

春天轉眼已過半

感受寒風始吹拂

我淹沒於悲傷之中

鬼魂

我們的鬼魂住在未來

因為我們都被未來吞食耗盡

我們是彼此的鬼魂

總需要離開，一次又一次地出發、到達和離開

妳選擇哪個國家？

妳為什麼逃離妳的國家？

你是間諜嗎？

妳有沒有犯罪紀錄？

妳和家人一起旅行嗎？

第三國家為什麼應該接收妳？

世界？

這就是我的世界，我對這個世界負責

我不需要妳的世界

還會有其他人

所以，這是最後一個難民營了

妳以為這是像山仙和龍王一樣的神話嗎？

誰的未來？

妳親眼目睹過人類的殘暴

我們會結束這種殘暴

用最溫和的方式

我們存在於我們遺留的痕跡中

那些痕跡只迴盪於我們的記憶中

遺跡、神話、謎團和紀念碑

全都在消逝記憶的海洋中

我們該抓住哪些好避免沉沒？

我們一定不能沉沒

Pad.ma requires JavaScript.