「Men and women can't be friends because the sex part always gets in the way.」
「男女之間不可能有純友誼，因為總有性因素作祟。」
Sounds familiar? This is quoted from Harry Burns in the 1989 romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally… Can men and women ever just be friends? Is Harry right? Let’s find out the answers in the film.
聽起來耳熟嗎？這是1989年的浪漫喜劇《當哈利遇見莎莉》中男主角哈利·伯恩斯的一句臺詞。男人和女人能成為朋友嗎？哈利說得對嗎？讓我們在電影裡找出答案。
When Harry Met Sally… begins rather unpromisingly — not the film, but Harry and Sally’s romance. It’s 1977 and they share a ride from Chicago to New York. She is fresh out of college, hoping to crack the journalism market; he is romantically involved and onward to a political consultancy career. Sally is 「basically a happy person」; Harry is dark-sided. At this moment, neither of them expects this ride is the beginning of their over-a-decade relationship.
哈利和薩利兩人並非一見鍾情——兩人初遇便言語相左、不歡而散。1977年，剛剛大學畢業的兩人一起從芝加哥駕車前往紐約。薩利想在新聞業大展宏圖，哈利是當時薩利朋友的男友，即將開始他的政治顧問生涯。薩利是個陽光女孩，而哈利是個陰暗的人。兩人誰也想不到，此次旅行會是他們十多年關係的開端，兩人幾次重遇，關係漸漸升溫。
After over 30 years of its release, many consider the iconic 1989 film the gold standard for romantic comedies. When Harry Met Sally… written by Nora Ephron and directed by Rob Reiner, is a masterwork of slow-burn romance and the humor of everyday life. The title informs audiences they will hear about the circumstances surrounding the meeting of Harry and Sally… but the ellipsis (n. 省略號) suggests it is not the meeting itself that is the story. It is all about what happens after, during all the moments seen and unseen as they grow up together and grow closer.
上映30多年後，《當哈利遇見薩利》仍被視作浪漫喜劇的黃金標杆。電影由諾拉·埃弗龍執筆，羅伯·雷納執導，是一部慢熱浪漫和日常幽默的傑作。觀眾從片名得知電影將呈現男女主人公的相遇。但省略號表明，故事並不是相遇本身，而是相遇之後兩人如何變化、其關係如何發展。
When Harry Met Sally… toys with stereotype and genre expectations for the love story by not making the romance feel like an inevitable conclusion. Both men and woman audiences can relate to the film, as Harry and Sally speak out some true feelings and struggles of the two sexes in a relationship. And the revelation can be shocking. When Harry first met Sally on their ride to New York, he asserts men and women cannot be friends and Sally immediately retorts (v. 反駁), claiming she has many men friends(「There is no sex involved!」). Ten years later, Sally says women sometimes fake orgasms, which is completely new to Harry. Then Sally puts on an impromptu (adj. 即興的) show to prove herself right.
《當哈利遇見薩利》巧妙地避開了大眾對愛情片的刻板印象和期待——電影在探討男女是否能只做朋友，浪漫關係不是唯一的結局。無論男女觀眾都能與片中角色產生共鳴，因為哈利和莎莉分別說出了兩性關係中男人和女人的真實想法，一方的坦白常常讓另一方震驚。哈利初遇薩莉時，他斷言男人和女人不能成為朋友，薩莉立即反駁說，她有很多男性朋友（「我們的友誼沒有牽涉上性！」)。十年後，莎莉說女人有時會假裝高潮，哈利對此難以置信。接著薩莉在餐廳裡上演了一場留名影史的即興表演。
This is not a story that ends in a perfect 「happily ever after,」 even if the characters are happy. Instead, it dismantles (v. 拆除、廢除) the whole idea of such an ending. In the final scene of the film, Harry and Sally tell an interviewer the meandering (adj. 迂迴曲折的) story of how they met, became friends, fell in love, and got married. The film ends as they are still in mid-conversation, perhaps the only appropriate ending to their love story. The rest of their story will just be left up to the audiences』 imaginations…
儘管電影未能免俗，哈利和薩利在相遇12年零3個月後結婚了，但這不是一個「從此他們幸福地生活在一起」的故事。電影顛覆了此類結局：影片最後一幕，哈利和莎莉向採訪者講述了他們相遇、成為朋友、相愛和結婚的曲折故事。電影結束時，他們仍在交談中，這也許是他們愛情故事唯一合適的結局，其餘的故事將留給觀眾的想像。
文案：陳思羽
排版：彭詩琪
錄音：萬佳怡
審校：胡水周
資料來源：豆瓣、爛番茄、filmdaze.net