本文從史考特．希克斯 (Scott Hicks) 執導的電影《雪落香杉》(Snow Falling on Cedars, 1999) 節奏太慢的問題出發，探索「時間」在電影形式與意義建構上扮演的角色。論文首先釐清，《雪落香杉》的「慢」，不是因為鏡頭剪接速度太慢、攝影機移動速度太慢、或是演員動作與場景調度太慢，而是畫面與敘述分離，造成感知與情節脫鉤，時間因此逸出觀影者的視聽與思維統合而四處漫延的「慢」。論文第二部分細讀《雪落香杉》片段，說明希克斯運用了畫面剪輯與聲音的不連貫，創造一種記憶不支撐現時╱現實 (the present/reality)，時空斷裂，記憶主體粉碎的聲、畫不同步經驗，於形式上挑戰觀影者的鏡像「快」感。第三部分轉至創傷理論，說明《雪落香杉》一片的時間能量，其實來自影片傳衍 (transfer) 創傷的意圖。《雪落香杉》拍死亡、拍戰爭、拍種族矛盾、拍日裔美國遷徙營 (Japanese American relocation camp)，其漫延過情節和敘述的時間，正是「創傷時間」的具形呈現。筆者主張《雪落香杉》之「慢」，除了實驗一種電影美學形式，更有延展創傷時間「後遺」(belatedness) 與「延遲」(prolongation) 效應的意義。「慢」可以是一種倫理，讓《雪落香杉》在創傷「時延」(duration) 之中探索一個人我交會、記憶交融、跨越膚色界線的思維，讓二戰創傷滲入影片中每一個族群，而遷徙營也不再只是專屬於日裔美國人的歷史記憶。

This essay expounds the aesthetics and meanings of Scott Hicks’s feature Snow Falling on Cedars (1999) by attending to criticisms on this film’s slow pacing. First, I argue that it is not lengthy shots, motionless camera, lagging movement, or visual/aural minimalism that slows down Snow Falling on Cedars. The film feels slow because of the disintegration of its images and narrative, and the disconnection between its senses and plots. As the film’s signifying structure falls apart, time drifts away and overflows. The second section analyzes sequences selected from Snow Falling on Cedars to reveal the incoherence and discontinuity of images and sounds, of reality and recollections. I argue that Hicks splits narrative and characters, thereby undermining spectators’ screen identification and visual pleasure. The third section turns to trauma theory and contends that Snow Falling on Cedars is loaded with traumatic time. Filming death, wars, racial conflicts, and the forced relocation of Japanese Americans during the Second World War, Snow Falling on Cedars seeks in traumatic duration opportunities to explore and generate social logics and meanings. I conclude that Snow Falling on Cedars does not simply experiment with an aesthetic style of slowness; being slow is an ethical move to obtain the time needed for probing into self-other encounter, past-present convergence, and cross-racial communication. Snow Falling on Cedars ultimately introduces a vision in which the trauma of Second World War brings together people of different colors and the memory of mass relocation no longer belongs exclusively to or affects only Japanese Americans.