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男人不醉: A new mould-breaking TV drama


StChris

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Got behind, only just watched to the end of episode 7.

 

Why do Chinese shows/films dub adults performing painfully obvious voice acting parts over child actors? Children don't sound like 撒娇ing adults when they speak, they sound like children.

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It's not just child actors who receive the dubbing treatment. If you're only up to episode 7 then you've got quite a bit of dubbing goodness to look forward to!

 

The worst offender for dubbing imho is 爱情公寓. They completely dubbed the voice of a fairly major character (Nuolan). I can understand that they might discover some problems with the sound during post production and want to dub a small section to make it clearer, but I really don't understand the casting process whereby they choose someone for the role while disliking their voice so much that they feel the need to dub it over. I can only assume that they thought her voice was fine during the audition, and then decided later that it didn't really suit the character. It must have come as a blow to the actress concerned. The way you say your lines pretty much accounts for half of your performance as an actor!

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Hi hanola, glad you're enjoying the show.

 

I think good textbooks are essential when you're first starting out but, as you said, it's always good to supplement that with some real-life Chinese. I starting watching Chinese TV shows pretty early on in my learning process too, but I always watched ones with English subtitles and was just happy to be able to understand the odd word or phrase here and there (对不起, 我肚子饿了, 你活该 etc). It looks like that with your Japanese you have the advantage of being able to jump right in and start reading hanzi.

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Episode 19: 真的完蛋了

 

After spending the entire series wrangling, Claire and 叶军 finally go to the registry office to get divorced; only Claire's temper gets them into bother again and results in a trip to the local 派出所.

 


 

 

围城                            wei2cheng2                          besieged city

百般                            bai3ban1                              a hundred different ways/kinds

共存                            gong4cun2                           coexist

姘头                            pin1tou0                               have illicit relations

秧歌                            yang1ge0                             a type of rural folk dance

老三届                        lao3san1jie4                         refers to people who were at high school during the years 1966, 1967 and 1968, and so were sent off to the countryside without having the chance to take their 高考 exam (this was the period of the Cultural Revolution). Many would get the chance to take the exam and continue their education once it was reinstated in 1977.

插队落户                    cha1dui4luo4hu4                  (of urban school graduates) be sent to the countryside to become members of a production team

孽债                           nie4zhai4                               be guilty if an offence, for which one has yet to be punished for

梅干菜                        mei2gan1cai4                        some kind of dried pickled vegetables made with leaf mustard                    

净身出户                    jing4shen1chu1hu4               to leave a marriage with nothing (no possessions of property)

赖                               lai4                                        the fault of, to blame 都赖你=it's all your fault

罪状                           zui4zhuang4                         charges or facts about a crime

招商银行                    zhao1shang1yin2hang2        investment bank

奥特莱斯                    ao4te4lai2si1                         retail outlet (what an ugly sounding word!)

陈坤                           chen2kun1                            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chen_Kun

钟馗                           zhong1kui2                           a mythological figure supposed to drive away evil spirits)

钟馗伏魔                                                                  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3585004/

徐静蕾                       xu2jing4lei3                            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xu_Jinglei

王朔                          wang2shuo4                           https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Shuo

陈凯歌                       chen2kai3ge1                        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chen_Kaige

头一回                       tou2yi1hui2                            for the first time

骚货                          sao1huo4                               slut

碰瓷                          peng4ci2                                someone who deliberately tries to get themselves hit by a car so that they can exhort money from the driver

周润发                      zhou1run4fa1                         Chow Yun-fat

口头语                      kou3tou2yu3                           pet phrase, a expression or turn of phrase that a speaker repeatedly uses without being aware of it

沪语                          hu4yu3                                   Shanghainese

结实                          jie1shi0                                   solid, sturdy

捂                             wu3                                         to cover with one's hand

胃口                          wei4kou3                                appetite

监控                         jian1kong4                               CCTV camera

抄                            chao1                                       make a turning move

治安                         zhi4an1                                    public order

水瓶座                     shui3ping2zuo4                        Aquarius (zodiac sign)

倒流                         dao3liu2                                   flow backwards

趾甲                         zhi3jia3                                     toenail

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Some tricky bits in this episode:

 

1. The conversation with the woman in charge of granting divorces. (from 05:18 onwards)

 

I'm not 100% sure what she's getting at here. She seems to think that their divorce is fake, and that 叶军 is preparing to go abroad. The only scenario I can imagine is that she thinks they want to immigrate and that 叶军 will divorce Claire, have a sham marriage in the other country, then divorce and remarry Claire once he gains the right to permanent residency. She warns Claire that most men in this type of situation never come back ("十个里有十一个是不回来的"). She also warns 叶军 that since he has agreed to sign over all his property over to Claire, he'll be left with nothing (净身出户) should Claire catch him having an affair (小花头). That's the best I can come up with anyway.

 

2. 五册那 (13:38)

 

Definitely a Shanghainese insult. Anyone care to translate?

 

3. Conversation with the policeman (20:03)

 

The policeman says: 我年轻的时候和你一样,眼睛里没沙子。可年纪大了才发现,很多时候啊,坏就坏在没沙子。这做人呢,包容点,谁能一辈子不犯错啊? I think to not have sand in your eyes means to believe you're pure and innocent, and have never done anything wrong. Maybe someone can correct me on this if I'm wrong.

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It's not just child actors who receive the dubbing treatment. If you're only up to episode 7 then you've got quite a bit of dubbing goodness to look forward to!

 

The worst offender for dubbing imho is 爱情公寓. They completely dubbed the voice of a fairly major character (Nuolan). I can understand that they might discover some problems with the sound during post production and want to dub a small section to make it clearer, but I really don't understand the casting process whereby they choose someone for the role while disliking their voice so much that they feel the need to dub it over. I can only assume that they thought her voice was fine during the audition, and then decided later that it didn't really suit the character. It must have come as a blow to the actress concerned. The way you say your lines pretty much accounts for half of your performance as an actor!

 

That sounds awful, but at least if both the voice actor and the poor unfortunate whose voice was deemed too 难听 to remain on the finished product are broadly within the same age range, the result seems like something that person could concievably produce without dramatic physical changes to their lungs and vocal cords.

 

An adult woman dubbing a little girl's part will never sound natural unless she's a highly talented voice actor (and China seems to be sorely lacking in talented voice actors... think of all those hundreds/thousands of dubbed western shows where every male part is dubbed by a single guy making minor alterations to his voice. It's like your dad telling you bedtime stories... and the weirdest thing is it seems to be the same guy for all of the shows).

 

I guess a woman dubbing a girl's part is better than a man dubbing a boy's part.

 

You're doing a sterling job with all these vocab lists, by the way. I still need to catch up with this show. I'm not sure "mould-breaking" was quite the right description, but it's certainly entertaining enough.

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Haha, well I did concede that I might be exaggerating a little with the whole "mould-breaking" thing in my first post, but I still maintain that this series is a cut above your average Chinese show (not that there's tough competition mind).

 

My favourite ever Chinese drama is still probably 空镜子:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/16969-first-episodes-2-%E7%A9%BA%E9%95%9C%E5%AD%90-empty-mirror/

 

The show I mentioned with the really bad dubbed character 爱情公寓 is actually really good and definitely worth watching (renzhe did some good work on with the vocab lists)

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/24159-first-episode-70-%E7%88%B1%E6%83%85%E5%85%AC%E5%AF%93-ipartment/

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  • 2 weeks later...

I watched about 13/14 episodes of this and never noticed any dubbing...  I was concentrating pretty hard on following what was happening though.  Which characters voices were dubbed?

 

While I enjoyed some episodes I kind of gave up on this for two reasons.  Firstly, the product placement was outrageous, I'd rather they just have an advert break, although that was essentially what was happening when a character would stop mid-conversation to launch into an aside on the merits of 人马头.  Secondly, I found pretty much all the characters to be fairly unlikeable.  安东尼 was a big sop, ling was super aloof to the point of having no personality, 叶军 just seemed to look p*ssed off the whole time.  Admittedly though, Claire was kind of interesting and 小年糕 (apart from her voice).  However, 胡超 was by far the best character and had me laughing out loud on a regular basis, especially the episode where they first meet 小年糕 outside the restaurant.  If you told me that all remaining episodes were about his character then I'd watch them right now.  Pretty much every time I watched an episode I had my fingers crossed it was going to be about him.  Actually, I'd be interested to know if anybody knows if there are any other (comedy) shows that he's in...

 

Of course, the upside is that it was good listening practice and I learnt some pretty interesting vocabulary, thanks again for all the effort you put in StChris, good job!

 

 

(p.s. A couple of days ago I met up with a friend of mine from back home who is on a 2 week trip of China and I took him to a nightclub, just to show him what it was like really, and anyway the cheapest thing on the menu was some kind of Remy Martin.  I have to say, it didn't make me feel like a 真男人 when I was drinking it, probably because it was fake and the club was full of questionable folk.)

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Episode 20: 狗熊与荷包蛋

 

In this final episode it finally looks as though 胡超 might be on the straight and narrow as he gets a job in the local coffee shop. Meanwhile 家皓's fugitive friend's days could be numbered as the police start looking for a killer.

 

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTI4MTY5MzkwNA==.html?from=y1.2-2.4.19

 

物欲                         wu4yu4                          craving for material things

纵横                         zong4heng2                   length and breadth, all over

身不由己                  shen1bu4you2ji3            involuntary, under compulsion

狗熊                         gou3xiong2                    black bear, coward

荷包蛋                      he2bao1dan4                poached eggs

黑名单                      hei1ming2dan1             blacklist

麦乐送                      mai4le4song4               McDonalds delivery service

暗无天日                  an4wu2tian1ri4              an abyss of darkness, a world without justice

失传                         shi1chuan2                    lost (not handed down from past generations)

以下                         yi3xia4                           the following

播报                         bo1bao4                        to announce, to read (the news)

通缉                         tong1ji1                          to order the arrest of someone

侦查                         zhen1cha2                     investigate (a crime)

系                             xi4                                 to concern, to relate to

缉捕                         ji1bu3                             to arrest

线索                         xian4suo3                       clue, thread

属实                         shu3shi4                        verified, to turn out to be true

刑警                         xing2jing3                      criminal police (short for 刑事警察)

档次                         dang4ci4                        quality, class

盗墓                         dao4mu4                        to rob a grave

盗墓笔记                                                         https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daomu

弄堂                         long4tang2                     alley

盯梢                         ding1shao1                    to shadow someone (follow them)

反悔                         fan3hui3                         to renege on a deal, break a promise

蟋蟀                         xi1shuai4                        cricket (insect)

娘们儿                     niang2menr                    wife

两小无猜                 liang3xiao3wu2cai1         innocent playmates (of a boy and girl)

挂                            gua4                               to die

寻思                        xun2si0                           to think to oneself

接缝派                     jie1feng1pai4                  welcome back party

放哨                         fang4shao4                    be on patrol

旮                            ga1                                 nook, out of the way place

提心吊胆                  ti2xin1diao4dan3            be on tenterhooks, be on edge

犊子                         du2zi0                             calf (baby cow)

枉费                         wang3fei4                      to waste, in vain

穷凶极恶                  qiong2xiong1ji2e4          extremely vicious, utterly evil

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somethingfunny, the guy who talks to the girls in the bar in episode 13 is definitely dubbed, and also 安东尼's dad in episode 18.

 

Yeah, 安东尼 is a total wet blanket. If they film a second season of this hopefully him and Ling will take that job in Singapore. 胡超 is my favourite too, but I think 梅婷's no-nonsense attitude provides good foil for his overall rascalliness. I like his friend 家皓 too, although the show never explains how a person who was so poor in university that he needed handouts from his friend to survive suddenly becomes so rich in the span of just a few years that he can give away his house and car and still be splashing the cash, despite only being a piano teacher. I know there's some kind of law that every Chinese show has to have a really rich guy in it, but still...

 

If you've already made it to episode 13 then you might as well carry on and finish the lot. As far as I can remember there's only one more 安东尼 episode and lots of 胡超 goodness in the remaining 7. If you like the actor who plays 胡超 then you can check out his other works here:

http://www.youku.com/star_page/uid_UMTI4NTkyNA==.html

 

Let me know if you find anything decent.

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Poor Remy Martin. All the product placement and advertising to establish themselves as the high-end sophisticated choice for today's young city slickers, yet they still end up as the cheapest thing on the menu in some sketchy club.

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Well, that's it (until series two at least). If you've managed to make it to the end as well, then join me for a bottle of 人头马club, as we congratulate ourselves on being 真男人.  (ladies, don't feel excluded, that includes you too. "真男人" is a marketing concept that transcends mere gender).

 

If anyone's interested I did the whole vocab thing with a different series last year:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/43679-chinese-drama-with-vocab-%E6%88%91%E4%BB%AC%E6%97%A0%E5%A4%84%E5%AE%89%E6%94%BE%E7%9A%84%E9%9D%92%E6%98%A5/

 

Like 男人不醉, it's pretty short (for a Chinese drama) at 24 half an hour episodes.

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If I've got some down time I'll check out the remaining episodes.  You're right, 胡超 and 梅婷's interplay was a pretty good aspect of the show.  And yes, 家皓 was also pretty good, especially in that episode where they meet 小年糕.  His endless wealth does seem a bit suspect though.  It's funny, I lived in Shenyang for 3 years and that episode where his 东北 friend turned up was a little too close for comfort - in other words, I found the story line much more believable before he admitted he was lying about killing that guy.  And just like 乔杉 who turns up as the token 东北人 in comedy sketch shows, he manages to turn something long like 干什么玩意的 into just one syllable.  Incredible.

 

Thanks for the big effort on this one.  I'll check out that link and see if anything turns up.

 

(Also, like any high class liquor, there are a lot of different coloured labels they can charge you different prices for, I'm sure the 真男人 in this show only drink the priciest.)

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  • 1 month later...

I haven't seen any official confirmation yet, but the articles that I have read seem to imply that there will be a second series. The show was a joint venture between youku and tudou (I don't think it was ever broadcast on regular TV). It seems to have been fairly successful, so hopefully there'll be more.

 

You're right about it not seeming finished yet. Pretty much all of the storylines are still at a loose end (will 叶军 and Claire divorce, does 家皓 and 小年糕 ever get it together etc).

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Fingers crossed; I find it difficult to find truely enjoyable Chinese media and this show was quiet fun. I did not "study" the show and probably misunderstood a lot of things that were going on. I did read your vocab lists so thanks for that and the recommendation. :)

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This thread has an index of the different shows covered on the forum with a brief description for each, I'm sure you can find something you like out of all of those. Apart from the ones I mentioned above, another series I quite enjoyed was 蜗居.

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/24097-tv-series-recommendations-and-index-thread/

 

If not then films tend to be better quality than TV shows. The last Chinese film that I really liked was 有话好好说  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5toOYMdx1bc

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