renzhe Posted January 8, 2011 at 06:40 PM Report Share Posted January 8, 2011 at 06:40 PM A part of the Grand First Episode Project -- See this thread for more info. A soap comedy about a high-tech Beijing company, written by the 武林外传 author. 姚晨 is in it, among others. Language level: Intermediate. Lots of vocab, but not hard to follow, save for the pretty ubuquitous Beijingering by most actors. Streams: Tudou: http://www.tudou.com/playlist/playindex.do?lid=6255102&iid=23800244 youku: http://www.youku.com/playlist_show/id_2593431.html (China only) joy.cn: http://v.joy.cn/teleplay/detail/70853.htm sohu: http://tv.sohu.com/20100724/n273729755.shtml Download: http://www.verycd.com/topics/2720847/ http://www.verycd.com/topics/420656/ The story follows a medium-sized high-tech company run by two childhood friends, 舒荣 and 贝志诚. They are not a couple, but something seems to be brewing deep down, something 佟俊, a mid-level manager in the company, is apparently not happy about. 舒荣 takes care of finances and business stuff, while 贝志诚 is a childish nerd genius who produces high-quality software and is envied in the sector, despite being difficult to deal with, missing deadlines, etc. The company must have some software ready for an important customer, but he messes up the electricity at home and needs to recover the data from the hard disk. This is where he runs into 宋玉秀, who is visiting her friend 大雄 in Beijing and carrying an important piece of art from their 师父 which should be auctioned (not sure what it is, but I'm assuming some type of ceramics). Upon arriving to Beijing, she loses her glasses and accidentally ends up in 贝志诚's car, mistaking it for a taxi. As a result, she destroys his hard disk with some magnetic prop for cheating on electricity meters, and loses the valuable art in the process. They spend the rest of the episode trying to find the suitcase, and 贝志诚 spends the rest of the episode trying to rewrite most of the software from scratch. The third storyline follows 佟俊 and his still-girlfriend 露露. He is overworked, envious of 贝志诚, and a hopeless selfish womanizer. Before the episode is over, he dumps her, and we catch him colluding with a rival company's manager, who is trying to steal the information about the company's upcoming IPO. 中央五 = CCTV5 视频请求 video request 二大妈 this is what he calls 舒荣 展示 exhibition 人工智能 artificial intelligence 程序 (computer) program 退魔猎人 some kind of action figure 麦克法兰 McFarlane, the toy manufacturer 设计师 designer 亲笔签名 autograph, personal signature 销毁 destroy 市场部 marketing department 刁 fussy 抓紧 (时间) hurry up 掉链子 to break loose (from being chained) 没辙 = 没办法 婆婆妈妈 hesitant 纵容 allow 口风 one's intention or view as revealed in what one says 贡献 contribution 依然 still 正规 standard 家族企业 family-owned business 恢复数据 to recover data 提名 nomination (counting word: 项) 诺贝尔奖 Nobel prize 原子能 nuclear energy 超导 superconduction 磁 magnetic, magnetism 中关村 high-tech district in Beijing 大兴 another area of Beijing 系 (pron. ji4) fasten (a seatbelt) 朝外 another aera of Beijing 堵车 traffic jam 慰问 express appreciation 敷衍 to go through the motions (here: reply without really listening) 没劲 uninteresting 钱柜 a famous karaoke bar 自助茶 self-service tea, probably involving a food buffet 神秘 secret 二环 second ring (the road) 印象派 impressionism 野兽派 fauvism 海淀区 another district in Beijing 海淀图书场 a famous bookstore in 海淀 美德 virtue 后背箱 boot/trunk of a car 如鱼得水 like a duck to water, in this case the name of an art work 拍卖行 auction house 市价 market price 备份 backup 函数库 software library 利润 profit 卷铺盖卷走人 pack up one's things and leave 米田共 poo (it describes the traditional character 糞 = 粪) 磨洋工 waste time, procrastinate 口红 lipstick 体面 dignity 龙舌兰 ＝ tequila 黑手党 the Mafia 评估 evaluate 回忆录 memoirs, recollections (a literary work) 黑方 = Johnny Walker Black Label The first 10 minutes of this are excruciatingly bad, but soon it picks up action nicely. The first episode introduces most of the main characters and the story, but is still quite eventful. The second one starts with the intrigue, listening devices, a policeman kickboxing brother, and many other things. This is not meant to be a side-splitting laughter-fest, but it has a nice atmosphere, and has so far managed to create interesting characters. The relationship between 舒总 and 贝总 is quite funny -- he refers to her as 二大吗 (behind her back), and she blackmails him with nerdy action figurines. Unlike in most other shows, 姚晨 here is a pretty useless 笨手笨脚. Knowing who wrote the script, I'm willing to give this a spin and see how it develops. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xiaocai Posted January 9, 2011 at 03:26 AM Report Share Posted January 9, 2011 at 03:26 AM Why do the commentators of 中央五 speak with Taiwan accent...? :unsure: And the back ground music can get a little bit too dramatic to me sometimes. BTW, I kind of like the nickname "妖晨" you gave her. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imron Posted January 9, 2011 at 10:46 AM Report Share Posted January 9, 2011 at 10:46 AM Hmm, watched this, and can't say I'm impressed. Especially as someone who works in software development, the whole situation was just too unbelievable to, well, suspend disbelief It may have been written by the same guy as 武林外传, but it would need to get significantly better if I was going to consider watching any more of it. Like xiaocai, I also found the background music too over dramatic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
renzhe Posted January 10, 2011 at 12:04 PM Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2011 at 12:04 PM After about 7 episodes, I pretty much agree. It's not that the show is bad, it's actually very average when it comes to Chinese shows. And that's disappointing, because there are some nice things about it. Some of the double crossing literally had me laughing out loud, and that's no small feat. But unfortunately, you get the average portion we're used to from Chinese mainland TV shows: overly dramatic music, the local language school non-English speaking laowai gathered together to pretend that they are in a US ghetto (I swear, only Chinese shows use this trick), ridiculous hacker nonsense, comedy, romance, stretching a bit of story over several episodes by using cheap tricks, the whole package. It's all been seen before. If it weren't for the US ghetto hacker angle, I'd probably keep watching, but that broke it for me. On the other hand, watching 佟俊 get seriously pwned several times made the watching the first few episodes worthwhile. EDIT: LOL at 妖晨 , fixed that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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