【明報專訊】The cinema house was cold during the screening of Mr Jones at a local fancy mall. Modern cinematic techniques, as well as the comfortable surroundings, sometimes give me a strange sense of guilt. Arts faculties around the world run lessons about films and critical theories, as the use of simple film editing like fast-forwarding the train scenes makes the film good fodder for verbose academic discussion. But left-leaning scholars seldom reflect on their hypocritic compromise with the brutal crackdowns by the Soviet Union, only criticising the corrupted systems of the West. All this is cliché though, as people living in a democracy are no longer interested in self-reflection. At most they read books about famine in Ukraine and know similar things happening elsewhere. Granted, as long as they live a comfortable life style, why bother thinking about things happening outside their own countries?