any good TV series recently?

[zander1 117]

1 hour ago, markhavemann said:

Was Vancouver, Canada located in eastern Europe back in 1990, or has Canadian English pronunciation changed drastically in the last 30 years? Why are they calling American Football "rugby"? How does a father son football (rugby??) game show appreciation for the school's headmasters(plural)? Can he or can he not find someone to pretend to be his father for the match???

 

 

As a rule I always skip the obligatory opening set in the US/UK that these shows always seem to have. They never add much and fill me with rage.

 

Not only are there these glaring cultural mistakes but I cannot for the life of me understand why they seem unable to find a native speaker (or even someone with passable English) to play the foreigners. Honestly, Shanghai is full of Americans, go find one!

[zander1 117]

On 3/15/2019 at 8:07 AM, zander1 said:

我的青春也灿烂

 

 

I had a very lazy day yesterday and marathoned through this. As I expected it wasn’t life changing but I did enjoy it. Because each episode is 20minutes it was very content heavy for a Chinese show which is a nice change. It’s pretty easy watching so can’t honestly say I got much language learning out of it but oh well. 

 

[markhavemann 194]

On 3/19/2019 at 10:28 PM, zander1 said:

As a rule I always skip the obligatory opening set in the US/UK that these shows always seem to have. They never add much and fill me with rage.

 

Not only are there these glaring cultural mistakes but I cannot for the life of me understand why they seem unable to find a native speaker (or even someone with passable English) to play the foreigners. Honestly, Shanghai is full of Americans, go find one!

This was my first time seeing anything like this! Hopefully Chinese people don't take it too seriously as a model for their own English haha. 

 

Ironically, a few days later I saw an episode of Cartoon Network's Three Bare Bears and there were some Chinese people speaking some very questionable Chinese to each other.

[imron 5,246]

3 hours ago, markhavemann said:

there were some Chinese people speaking some very questionable Chinese to each other.

In the ABC sitcom Fresh off the Boat, the father (supposed to be from Taiwan) is played by a Korean American.  The occasional Chinese lines he has instantly peg him as not a native Chinese speaker.

[happy_hyaena 159]

On 3/23/2019 at 5:34 AM, imron said:

In the ABC sitcom Fresh off the Boat, the father (supposed to be from Taiwan) is played by a Korean American.  The occasional Chinese lines he has instantly peg him as not a native Chinese speaker.

 

Only in Mandarin

The little boy is quite good actually. But even the old lady sounds like she has a slight American accent IMO.

 

[Publius 1,615]

On 3/23/2019 at 12:34 PM, imron said:

In the ABC sitcom Fresh off the Boat, the father (supposed to be from Taiwan) is played by a Korean American.  The occasional Chinese lines he has instantly peg him as not a native Chinese speaker.

In the British spy drama Killing Eve, there is a Chinese military officer who is assassinated while visiting Berlin. The actor's Chinese is HSK 3 level at best. I mean, the guy doesn't even look like Chinese...

[艾墨本 705]

Started watching 都挺好 today. The acting, story, and script are all incredible so far. However, the plot really has a way for making me feel uncomfortable. It's a "who do you hate more" type of family situation. A not so wealthy family with three kids, the oldest son is trying to get into an American college for whom the whole family seems to serve, while another son is a kiss-ass, and the daughter is all but ignored and used as a maid despite her own ambitions. But this is all in the flashback. The first episode starts with the mother, who we slowly learn is actually the main antagonist, dying. And the series largely falls around a family trying to figure life out once the choke-hold she has on everyone disappears.

[amytheorangutan 178]

I just started episode one of 他來了請閉眼 which somehow has been translated to Love Me If You Dare 🤷🏻‍♀️ It’s not new but the synopsis sounds interesting, a psychological thriller I think. That is until I found out the second male lead seems to be 王凱. I like 王凱 so not ready to continue watching him as second lead now incase he dies or something🤦🏻‍♀️

 

 

[akdn 35]

The Economist's take on 《都挺好》

 

Conflicted Confucians: A hit TV series in China skewers cranky old parents. Defying the cult of filial piety thrills viewers.

[jeremyj99 3]

@amytheorangutan It's such a good show! Really solid acting from the main characters. Hilarious acting from the supporting crew. 

[roddy 5,435]

On 3/9/2019 at 8:37 AM, zander1 said:

北京女子图鉴

Thanks for the recommendation. Took a bit of time to get round to watching one, but wasn't bad. Not sure how keen I'll be, will probably try the other one you suggested then maybe choose one to watch a few episodes of.

[mouse 195]

On 3/24/2019 at 8:56 PM, Publius said:

In the British spy drama Killing Eve, there is a Chinese military officer who is assassinated while visiting Berlin. The actor's Chinese is HSK 3 level at best. I mean, the guy doesn't even look like Chinese...

 

I thought the exact same thing! As if a middle-aged PLA guy would shave his head in that way. Comb-over and jet black hair dye or go home.

 

Edit: Oh wait I just realised I'm mixing up the guy who was killed and the intelligence officer. Never mind.

[imron 5,246]

3 minutes ago, mouse said:

As if a middle-aged PLA guy would shave his head in that way. Comb-over and jet black hair dye or go home.

It's like the director of the Chinese space agency in the move 'The Martian'.  There's no way the head of a government agency has a head of silver-white hair like that.

[imron 5,246]

《我們與惡的距離》(The World Between Us). 

 

I just watched this recently and really liked it - in fact, it's the first Taiwanese drama I've seen that I liked (though I haven't watched that many, so it's not really saying much).

 

It discusses mass shootings, what (if any) rights the people who did the killing should still have while in jail, the death penalty, mental illness and how it can be a factor in such shootings (and whether that changes the answer to the previous question about rights and the death penalty), the role the media plays in such shootings, and the effects on the family members - both of the victims and the perpetrator.

 

As a bonus, it's only 10 episodes (~55 minutes each) so it doesn't require a massive time commitment like some other series.  It doesn't seem to be on Youtube, but there are torrents of it about if that's your thing.

[sekkar 43]

3 hours ago, imron said:

《我們與惡的距離》(The World Between Us). 

 

I just watched this recently and really liked it - in fact, it's the first Taiwanese drama I've seen that I liked (though I haven't watched that many, so it's not really saying much).

 

It discusses mass shootings, what (if any) rights the people who did the killing should still have while in jail, the death penalty, mental illness and how it can be a factor in such shootings (and whether that changes the answer to the previous question about rights and the death penalty), the role the media plays in such shootings, and the effects on the family members - both of the victims and the perpetrator.

 

As a bonus, it's only 10 episodes (~55 minutes each) so it doesn't require a massive time commitment like some other series.  It doesn't seem to be on Youtube, but there are torrents of it about if that's your thing.

 

I was just about to write about this show as well. I really like it as well, feels much more like a Western TV show than most of the stuff that gets produced in Taiwan and China.

 

Here's a link if anyone wanna try it. (Are we allowed to link stuff like this on the forum?)

[imron 5,246]

5 hours ago, sekkar said:

feels much more like a Western TV show than most of the stuff that gets produced in Taiwan and China

Agree.  The production quality is very polished.

[StChris 781]

Any recommendations for a drama heavy in business vocab? I watched 《创业时代》 a few weeks back, and that had a decent amount of IT/business vocab (alongside a really dumb love story - probably unavoidable in any TV show), and would like to watch another.

[imron 5,246]

It's not heavy on business vocab but

On 4/29/2019 at 11:23 PM, imron said:

《我們與惡的距離》(The World Between Us)

has quite a few office scenes.

[Wurstmann 176]

Everyone go watch 长安十二时辰. It's very popular in China right now and has pretty high production values.

[drungood 20]

I finished watching all 46 episodes of 都挺好. I thought it was pretty good. There were plenty of implausible/ridiculous plot devices, but the acting was great and the overarching story was a good one. It's a good show for learners because the vocabulary is not too difficult, and every episode on YouTube has English subs if you need them.