Saturday, June 7, 2008

Chinese Lesson - First Episode 12: 好想好想谈恋爱: - From Beijing Chinese School.com > Chinese Culture > Films and Television > Chinese TV Shows - The First Episode

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First Episode 12: 好想好想谈恋爱:
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roddy -

11th May: 好想好想谈恋爱: The Chinese Sex in The City, everyone says . . .
emule youku

Ok, I haven't actually watched this one myself yet, but we're running late so here's a topic
anyway. I did watch five minutes of it a few days ago and it certainly looked well done. We've
also got a transcript for this one, and the dialogue seems to be slow and clear, so this might be
an ideal opportunity for anyone who finds the idea of watching a proper TV show a bit daunting to
jump in and have a go.

Transcript attached.

Edit: Adding a quickly knocked together wordlist I made up from the transcript (which incidentally
I now see seems to cover at least part of episode two as well.) 70 words or so, just the ones that
stuck out as possibly useful.

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imron -

I dunno, I thought in general the characters spoke a lot faster compared to those in 奋斗,
especially when you have all 4 women chatting together. It also stars the wife from
中国式离婚 and 金婚, in what seems to be a break from the role she played in those shows
(bitchy wife).

Although I have only seen a couple of episodes of Sex in the City, I can see why the comparison is
made. At a superficial level, they seem quite similar.

roddy -

To be honest my appraisal of the language was made on the basis of a five minute clip, so . . .

Am planning to watch this one, just need to find the time and the inclination.

roddy -

Watched it - not bad at all, the dialogue is pretty snappy (and not as easy as I originally
thought) and the characters are fairly interesting. Will likely give the next few episodes a shot.

Have added a vocab list to the first post.

imron -

Watching the end credits of this series, you almost get the impression it's supposed to be a
murder mystery thriller. One thing I like about it, is that the opening credits (at least on the
youku links) are thankfully short (10-15 seconds maybe?). If only all Chinese shows were like this!

I'm still seeing boom mikes entering the occasional shot though. I don't think there's been one
series so far in this project where this hasn't happened.

renzhe -

I've seen all of this, and I found it extremely well done. Good acting and directing overall,
colloquial modern language, believable characters (even if they'd fit better in Manhattan than
Beijing), etc.

If you can get into daily life of four women in modern-day Beijing, then you'll probably enjoy it.
I couldn't really, but overall I found the show OK, there are interesting characters in there.
It's an interesting contrast to "Empty Mirror". Whereas Empty Mirror is intimate, melancholic and
slow-moving, this one shows more of a fast modern-day metropolitan cosmopolitan, west-influenced
life.

The lead actress plays difficult women in all shows, and she plays a difficult woman in here too.
Her 谭艾琳 is a classy bookshop owner with a difficult personality, looking for the perfect
man. Probably the most developed character in the series, but one of those whom rob07 would slap
upside the head.

陶春 is the type of person that probably only exists in Asian TV shows, the 12-year old woman in
the body of a 17-year old woman, who is supposed to be 30, believes in teletubbies, eternal love
at first sight and sleeps with 700 plush animals. the most annoying person in the series, even
though most will probably find her cute.

毛纳 is pretty, knows it, and lives for today. Interesting character with interesting storylines.

黎明朗 has a successful career in a TV studio. She is outspoken, cynical, direct, and has a
hard, confrontational personality, but a soft heart. Probably my favourite character of all of
them.

I'd say that the similarity to "Sex and the City" is more than superficial. The characters were
obviously modelled after their western counterparts (the successful main character who's into
writing, the hedonist love-queen, the one who dreams of the prince on a white horse, the cynical
one), and each episode concentrates on a certain aspect of relationships. The show itself is quite
different, though, which is a good thing.

The language is not very easy, it's fast and colloquial, and I'd put it at upper intermediate.
It's more difficult than Empty Mirror and the Magic Mobile Phone, but much easier than, say,
我爱我家.

renzhe -

Quote:

I'm still seeing boom mikes entering the occasional shot though.

imron, the boom-mike hunter

imron -

The thing I liked about Empty Mirror compared to both this and Fendou, is that Empty Mirror seems
more realistic, or at least more representative of daily life. Fendou and 好想好想谈恋爱
both seem to be set in a magical world where everyone is rich, successful, and lives in a nice big
spacious apartment. In that sense, I personally find these shows a little removed from reality.
Ok, it's TV, it's not exactly supposed to be real, but it does make it harder to identify with.

roddy -

Yeah, this and (parts at least) of 奋斗 are very much aspirational.

One thing I find distracting is that 黎明郎 reminds me far to much of Karen Mok's role in the
utterly fantastic So Close - 那英 looks like her anyway, and in this at least she acts like her
too. I keep on expecting her to kung fu someone out of a window.

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