First Episode 37: 野蠻奶奶大戰戈師奶 (Wars of In-Laws II)

A part of the Grand First Episode Project -- See this thread for more info.

Wikipedia - tudou

mysoju (English subs)

Language difficulty level: Intermediate

A geeky policewoman falls in love with the son of a leading fashion magazine editor, leading to all sorts of trouble.

The major characters in short, for more info refer to the wikipedia page:

戈碧 (Ophelia) - in charge of the Elva fashion magazine

戈德 (Kyle) - her son, the heartbreaker

高家寶 (Coco) - her personal assistant

Donna - runs a competing magazine

Helen - some famous model

嘉嘉 － the swimsuit model

周麗敏 （周丽敏）- the overly motivated policewoman

--- Plot Summary ---

There's lots of fashion going on here. Ophelia 戈 is an iron lady running the "Elva" fashion magazine. She uses a funeral of a designer to attack a rival (Helen). Another rival (Donna) tells her that they got an interview with some hot-shot, something she failed to do, so she's not very happy. On her way from the funeral, she gets stopped for not wearing a seatbelt, so she fires her driver. But the policewoman (周麗敏) is a tough one, she won't let them leave before Mrs. O. buckles up. Her assistant, CoCo tries to explain that she can't buckle up because she's wearing a fancy flower, but it doesn't fly, and she has to buckle up. Back at work, she distributes some assignments.

Then she meets a model (嘉嘉， who is going to do swimsuit photos for her magazine), she mentions something about the girl's abortion feigning sympathy. The fearless policewoman 周麗敏 happens to be outside and overhears a mobile phone and mistakes a gift for a bomb, so she runs into the pool party and creates a scene. It turns out she's wrong and gets a lecture from her boss.

She then meets the handsome Cantopop star Kyle who works for Mrs. O, and after mistaking him for a child molester, she saves the day by chasing a bus which stole a little girl's teddy bear. Yes, she really takes her job seriously. Unfortunately, she lands on her face in the end, and the girl doesn't want the teddy bear anymore (she keeps it). Later, in the office, we find out that Kyle is indeed very silly. A romance developing here? In the next scene, we find out that Kyle is Mrs. O's son. Yeah, most likely a romance developing here. The mother wants him to get back with his ex girlfriend (they broke up 2 months ago).

The next day, the Elva offices are vandalized, and guess who is the policewoman on duty... Her colleague wants to seal off the office during the investigation. 周麗敏 manages to break something again, but nobody notices, so she returns later to replace that broken vase with another one, and soon afterwards, she arrests Kyle. Unfortunately, she doesn't have the keys for the handcuffs either, so they're stuck together. She finds the video he made of her on his mobile, and thinks he's some sort of pervert. Then she feels like a failure, and he comforts her (yes, a romance developing for sure). Then, they walk outside looking for a key, and run into a dog. She is terrified of dogs, and she ends up in his arms. Yeah, they love each other already.

Later, the colleagues start lecturing her again -- her ninja skill teddy bear video is on the internet. She fears the worst, but apparently, the embarrassing fall at the end was edited out, so she looks cool, and the colleagues are really proud. She attempts to apologize to Mrs. O the next day, but she's quite a godzilla. Kyle attempts to help. Mrs. O tells her not to waste her time with Kyle, because he recieves huge amounts of fan-mail. Then Mrs. O gets captured by some psycho who is in love with that Helen girl from the beginning, and is threatening to kill Mrs. O. 周麗敏 figures out that the kidnapper wants Helen on the front cover of Elva magazine, and orders for Helen to be brought there. She then convinces the kidnapper to let her enter the room and beat Mrs. O, and he agrees. She then makes her agree not to interfere in her relationship with Kyle if she frees her. Mrs. O agrees, not thinking he would ever go out with a girl like her, and she frees her. The end.

--- Summary End ---

培植 péi zhí - to cultivate / to train

人工 rén gōng - artificial / manpower / manual work

山茶花 shān chá huā - camelia

品種 (品种) pǐn zhǒng - breed / variety

凋謝 (凋谢) diāo xiè - languish

亦 yì - also

同時 (同时) tóng shí - at the same time / simultaneously

保持 bǎo chí - to keep / to maintain / to hold / to preserve

装 zhuāng - to adorn / dress / to pretend

觸覺 (触觉) chù jué - touch / sense of touch

總編 (总编) zǒng biān - chief editor (of newspaper) / abbr. for 總編輯｜总编辑

過獎 (过奖) guò jiǎng - to over-praise / to flatter

髮型 (发型) fà xíng - hairstyle / coiffure / hairdo

一身 yī shēn - whole body / from head to toe

印象 yìn xiàng -impression

抄襲 (抄袭) chāo xí - to plagiarize

設計師 (设计师) shè jì shī - designer

出道 chū dào - to finish aprenticeship and start a career

創意 (创意) chuàng yì - creative / creativity

葬禮 (葬礼) zàng lǐ - burial / funeral

穿戴 chuān dài - to dress / clothing

派對 (派对) pài duì - party

歡送 (欢送) huān sòng - see off / send off

以及 yǐ jí - as well as / too / and

坊間 (坊间) fāng jiān - street stall / bookshop

模仿 mó fǎng - to imitate / to copy / to emulate / model

莎士比亞 (莎士比亚) Shā shì bǐ yà - William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

宣傳 (宣传) xuān chuán - to disseminate / to give publicity to / propaganda

卑鄙 bēi bǐ - base / mean / contemptible / despicable

妥 tuǒ - secure / sound

訪問 (访问) fǎng wèn - to interview

封面 fēng miàn - cover (front cover of a magazine)

安全帶 (安全带) ān quán dài - seat belt

交通規例 (交通规例) guī lì - traffic regulations

駕駛 (驾驶) jià shǐ - to pilot (ship, airplane etc) / to drive

編號 (编号) biān hào - number / serial number

專訪 (专访) zhuān fǎng - exclusive interview

化妝品 (化妆品) huà zhuāng pǐn - cosmetic / make-up product

廣告 (广告) guǎng gào - to advertise / a commercial / advertisement

預算 (预算) yù suàn - budget

墮胎 (堕胎) duò tāi - to induce an abortion / induced abortion

影響 (影响) yǐng xiǎng - an influence / to influence / to affect (usually adversely) / to disturb

粉身碎骨 to have one's body turned to powder and bones smashed (die a gruesome death)

炸彈 (炸弹) zhà dàn - bomb

妄謬 (妄谬) wàng miù - absurd

警覺 (警觉) jǐng jué - vigilance

反駁 (反驳) fǎn bó - to retort / to refute

提早 tí zǎo - ahead of schedule

退休 tuì xiū - retirement (from work)

鬼鬼祟祟 guǐ guǐ suì suì - sneaky / secretive

虛名 (虚名) xū míng - false reputation

封鎖 (封锁) fēng suǒ - to blockade / to seal off

雜誌 (杂志) zá zhì - magazine

欣賞 (欣赏) xīn shǎng - to appreciate / to enjoy / to admire

巡邏 (巡逻) xún luó - to patrol (police, army or navy)

暗戀 (暗恋) àn liàn - unrequited love

不自量力 bù zì liàng lì - to overestimate one's capabilities

失陪 shī péi - Excuse me, I really must go. / (modest set phrase on taking leave)

Well, I guess this was entertaining enough. It's very cheesy, like so many of Hong Kong comedies, which kind of turns me off, though. But it has some likeable characters, and some funny moments, even if it is coated with enough sugar and caramel to ruin your teeth.

It's very easy to watch, which is a good thing.

With the language, there are some caveats -- the original show is in Cantonese, so the Mandarin version is dubbed. Dubbing is not bad (though it's always harder to follow dubbed stuff for some reason), but it doesn't follow the subtitles exactly -- they will often sub a similar word in, or slightly change the sentence structure. Not too bad, but enough to throw you off. So, although this is basically lower intermediate stuff, you'll have to rely on listening more than with other shows.