WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE熱帶叢林歷險記

This month’s films display how nature can evoke fear, bring comfort and wreak havoc大自然既能令人心生畏懼，亦可以帶來心靈慰藉與製造混亂，本月機上放映的多部電影讓你盡情體驗大自然的不同面貌

While shooting Fitzcarraldo, deep in the Peruvian jungle, director Werner Herzog described the setting as ‘a land that God, if he exists, created in anger’ and ‘the only land where creation is unfinished’. The mysteries of the deep wilderness have captivated explorers, scientists and storytellers for generations. That we still haven’t fully unlocked those mysteries makes them all the more alluring – and frightening.

Annihilation taps into this fear. A suspenseful and thought-provoking sci-fi horror film by Alex Garland, it tells the story of a biologist (Natalie Portman) who joins an expedition into a swampy forest covered in a mysterious and possibly alien force field called ‘the shimmer’. Within its bounds, everything – including the mind – is warped or transformed, and few make it out alive. Garland is no stranger to sci-fi, having written Ex Machina (which he also directed) and Sunshine, and Annihilation

similarly enraptures with its enigmas while raising philosophical questions about human nature.

While Annihilation shows the jungle as the source of stranger things, Leave No Trace depicts nature as a sanctuary. Directed by Debra Granik ( Winter’s Bone),

the film follows Will (Ben Foster), an Iraq War veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder living off the grid in a forest with his daughter ( Thomasin McKenzie). When the pair are discovered, Will is forced to face his past and reintegrate into society. Supported by her two stars’ brilliant performances, Granik takes a compassionate and tender approach to a difficult issue, even daring to suggest that nature is truly the best place for Will to escape his pain.

Finally, best known for its computergenerated dinosaur mayhem, the Jurassic Park blockbuster franchise may seem like an odd fit with these films, but it also asks provocative questions about mankind’s desire to control nature. The series’ latest film, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, starts out with an intriguing premise: if the manmade dinosaurs from the previous films are about to be wiped out by a natural phenomenon (in this case, an erupting volcano), should humans let natural selection take its course or save them? The film’s protagonists (Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard) choose the latter, heading into the wilds to save the creatures from extinction again.

Fallen Kingdom starts out as a jungle adventure, showing the rescuers’ attempt to outsmart dinosaur poachers. But Spanish director JA Bayona, best known for his acclaimed horror film The Orphanage, turns the second half into a scary funhouse ride, as the consequences of the characters’ misguided actions are unleashed. Nature, as it seems, cannot be reined in after all.

導演 Werner Herzog 深入秘魯的熱帶叢林內拍攝《陸上行舟》時，曾說過熱帶叢林是「上帝假（ 設祂存在）發怒時所創造的地方」，又說這是唯「 一一個尚未完成創造的地方」。蠻荒世界滿充 神秘感，長久以來令探險家、科學家與作家對此著迷不已。我至們 今尚未將荒野的神秘面紗完開全揭 ，這一點反而令這種地方更具吸引力，同時亦令人感到畏懼。

Alex Garland 在最新執導的《滅．境》中，正是利用這種對未知的恐懼拍出一部充滿懸疑又發人深省的科幻恐怖片。電影講述一名生物學家（ Natalie Portman 飾）加入探險隊，前往一座沼澤森林內考察；這森林被一種可能因外星而力場 產生的神秘光芒「the shimmer」所籠，罩 裡面的一切都變 Simon Cuthbert is Cathay Pacific’s entertainment, platforms and connectivity manager Simon Cuthbert是國泰航空的娛樂內容及平台、無線網絡服務經理