Shaw Brothers vocabulary

[roddy]

Given the context of a Shaw Brothers' movie I'd assume it to mean something along the lines of 'who's school / sect / gang are they in?'

[character]

Thanks roddy, but I thought one's kung fu style always made that clear.

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你找我有什麼事 ?

Why are you here?

I guess I'm just curious if that whole sentence is a set phrase.

[character]

如果你能接我三掌

If you're able to defend [yourself from] my 3 punches

Should 掌 be 拳 ?

[renzhe]

I guess I'm just curious if that whole sentence is a set phrase.

Almost. 有什麼事 is a very common phrase. The whole sentence is quite common. Think of it as "what 事 made you come and 找 me?"

Should 掌 be 拳 ?

No. 掌 is palm, 拳 is fist. Both are common when describing martial arts moves in wuxia novels.

[character]

Thanks renzhe!

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老夫讓你嚐嚐易筋錯骨的苦頭

I'll let you try my skill of disassembling the joints

Is 易 used to mean change, specifically change the 筋骨 for the worse?

[character]

元帥精兵撤退 吾軍必能直摀黃龍

If the General's troops can retreat our troops can head straight to the capital

摀黃龍 / 捂黃龍 -- is this a set phrase?

Edited June 27, 2009 at 03:09 PM by character

[skylee]

should be 直搗黃龍.

[character]

Thanks skylee! I messed up writing that character. About 90 screencaptures to go and we're done. Well, then I need to write a program to replace the ABC defs with CEDICT ones before I can post the list, but that won't take long.

[renzhe]

Make sure you get the very latest version of CC-CEDICT from mdbg.com.

Some of the older versions are too limited.

[character]

你預備怎麼樣

So what?

Is 預備怎麼樣 sort of set phrase?

[renzhe]

No. Give us context.

預備 means "to prepare".

[character]

renzhe, this is the exchange:

1: 大師伯

Uncle

1: 密函是你偷的吧?

Did you steal the secret letter?

2: 是我拿了, 你預備怎麼樣?

Yes. So what?

[renzhe]

The way I understand this exchange, the 师伯 made him steal a secret letter because he's planning to do something with this secret letter.

So the answer would be more like. "Yes, I've stolen the letter. What are you planning to do?" 你预备怎么样 literally means "How/what have you prepared?"

You could possibly translate it as "what now?"

EDIT: Actually, on a second reading, it seems like 师伯 is asking him "was it YOU who stole the secret letter?", and the answer is more like "Yes, what are you going to do about it?"

Hrm, need more context

Edited June 27, 2009 at 11:18 PM by renzhe

[character]

renzhe, sorry for the confusion. 1 and 2 are two different speakers. 1 is saying Uncle, did you steal the letter? and 2 is saying so what?

I'll be posting the vocab list, such as it is, in a few minutes.

[character]

I posted the vocabulary list as an attachment on the first message of this thread. I'm not sure how useful the list will be to anyone, as the cc-cedict definitions lack the focus I was able to bring by hand-picking the appropriate definition from the list ABC would provide for a word. Still, compressing a movie down to ~640 vocabulary items feels like it has some value, and I really appreciate all the help y'all have given me to create the list.

[renzhe]

Hey, great work.

I hope it ends up being helpful for you too.

[stonelee]

Is 乖乖 used as an insult, or does it have another meaning?

乖乖的 is means 听话的

乖=听话

So 乖+乖=乖乖=听话+听话 乖乖 is emphsize to be obedient.

[character]

I hope it ends up being helpful for you too.

It's been very helpful. Knowing that the amount of vocabulary in such a film is so limited is a great psychological boost. Creating the list has helped me recognize a lot of new characters. At the same time it's clear I will have to put in a lot more work to get the full benefit of the list.