The Grand First Episode Project. . .

[roddy]

Actually I think we're doing ok, considering that a) Chinese is hard, and B) you need to download stuff, or deal with online video from China, which can be uselessly slow. I also still suspect more people are watching than are posting.

Edit: Oh, and welcome back to muyongshi.

Edited February 2, 2009 at 07:22 AM by roddy

[renzhe]

First Episode 42: 射雕英雄传 (Legend of the Condor Heroes) is now up.

I've started watching this, as I'm close to finishing the book. I've resisted the urge to watch for so long, but now I can't hold it any longer

[muyongshi]

Google search didn't turn up this one as already listed but I think it would be good (per recommendation of a friend) 潜伏.

SoHu

Description from random website

抗日战争胜利前，军统人员余则成不满国民党腐败，被发展为我党地下工作者，潜伏在军统天津站，代号“峨眉峰”。因工作需要他和女游击队长翠平做起假夫妻，翠平不适应做官太太，险象环生。而余则成的恋人左蓝也到天津执行任务，他受到特务们的怀疑,余则成和左蓝等联手除掉和赶走了天津站的马奎、路桥山，完成了潜伏任务。左蓝的牺牲让翠平理解地下斗争的重要，她和余则成的配合也更加默契，他们拿到了天津的城防计划，但一次致命失误让翠平四处逃亡。解放前夕，余则成千方百计拿到国民党潜伏特务名单却苦于无法送出，在去机场的路上他发现了翠平并将名单交给她。二人从此分别，余则成继续执行潜伏任务..

[roddy]

New one, Love in a Fallen City.

潜伏 I seem to remember a little bit of - I think I watched some but found it confusing and gave up.

[roddy]

No. 44, 与青春有关的日子. One more for the list.

[renzhe]

Actually, we've covered that one already.. You can merge with the older thread.

[roddy]

Gargh. Must have completely missed that one, and never thought to check. How daft, will merge them.

[roddy]

Here's a few I'm about to download and potentially even watch. I won't put a schedule on these as I don't know if and when I'll get around to this, but if anyone wants to give them a shot as well you're obviously welcome to start new threads for them.

I've just scanned very quickly the verycd pages for these, so not 100% clear on what they actually are. I also scanned the listings here - don't think we've done any of these before.

秘密图纸 Secret Map, spy drama, remake of a 60s movie

http://verycd.com/topics/2741584/

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/20800-first-episode-45-%e7%a7%98%e5%af%86%e5%9b%be%e7%ba%b8

雾都魅影》(Phantom of the Fog City) spy drama again

http://verycd.com/topics/2740653/

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/20786-first-episode-44-%e9%9b%be%e9%83%bd%e9%ad%85%e5%bd%b1-phantom-of-the-fog-city

《大生活》"底层小民的苦辣生活" - set in Chengdu, has lots of dialect apparently

http://verycd.com/topics/2737818/

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/20801-first-episode-46-%e5%a4%a7%e7%94%9f%e6%b4%bb

延安锄奸, war with the Japanese drama

http://verycd.com/topics/2737696/

杀虎口, war with the Japanese drama

http://verycd.com/topics/2734878/

我们生活的年代, urban white collar drama(?)

http://www.verycd.com/topics/2724796/

暖春, 1980s rural 1980s poverty.

http://www.verycd.com/topics/2722939/

十万人家 ,urban business war!

http://www.verycd.com/topics/2723310/

浴血坚持 more war.

http://www.verycd.com/topics/2721897/

俞净意公遇灶神记, historical.

http://www.verycd.com/topics/419056/

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/293-teaching-english-in-china21

Edited June 3, 2009 at 02:05 AM by roddy

[imron]

我的青春谁做主 - My Youthfulness.

[roddy]

Just added discussion links to my list above in the cases where I've actually watched the shows concerned. I think I also watched 延安锄奸, 杀虎口 and 浴血坚持, but as they were pretty generic and I didn't write them up immediately, I have little recollection of what they were actually like. The others either failed to download or are resting on my hard drive. Of that I recall I'd say only 俞净意公遇灶神记 is worthy of a closer look. 秘密图纸 wasn't too bad initially though, and Renzhe's enjoying 雾都魅影.

[renzhe]

I have updated this thread in two ways:

- I've added all the previous shows to the first post, with links to the discussions. All the shows from the first episode project are now listed.

- I've moved the difficulty ranking from the other thread into this one, now it's on the first page.

I didn't mean to devalue the work that went into the first thread, but I've felt that we didn't have a single point of reference that we could send new people to. Now we can send them to this thread, and they have all the information in one spot, including links, download sites and difficulty level.

[roddy]

Wow, great stuff.

[renzhe]

I heard that 潜伏 is all the rage on the mainland nowadays, had it recommended by some people. Another spy show set in the 40s. Stars 孙红雷 (from the stewardess show) and 姚晨 from 武林外传. Got the prize for the best TV show this year or something to that tune.

http://www.verycd.com/topics/2739635/

Could be worth checking out.

[zhen_shuai]

List of shows in order of difficulty (using Renzhe's original list):

49 - 局中局 Elementary - VS

31 - 花樣少年少女 Elementary (traditional subtitles) - VSE

38 - 丑女无敌 Lower Intermediate

40 - 锁春记 Lower Intermediate - S

17 - 金婚 Lower intermediate - VS

18 - 狼毒花 Lower intermediate - VS

33 - 意難忘 Lower Intermediate - VS

2 - 空镜子 Lower intermediate (Beijing accent) - VS

9 - 家有儿女 Lower Intermediate (but a wide range of topics, often new vocab) - VST

16 - 北京人在纽约 Lower intermediate (but no subtitles)

47 - 俞净意公遇灶神记 Lower Intermediate (classical language in later episodes) - S

7 - 落地请开手机 Lower intermediate (some gangster-speak) - VS

20 - 美味关系 Lower intermediate (Taiwanese accent, trad. subtitles) - VS

23 - 上海灘 Lower Intermediate (trad. subtitles) - S

24 - 孽子 Lower Intermediate (trad. subtitles) - S

4 - 微笑Pasta Lower Intermediate (traditional subtitles, Taiwanese accent) - S

10 - 康乾盛世秘史 Lower intermediate (with some English and Italian) - S

39 - 子夜 Intermediate - S

44 - 雾都魅影 Intermediate - S

15 - 中国式离婚 Intermediate - VS

19 - 5号特工组 Intermediate - VS

34 - 笑傲江湖 Intermediate - VS

45 - 秘密图纸 Intermediate - VS

21 - 狂花凋落 Intermediate (but the first 10 minutes are hard) -VS

8 - 魔幻手机 Intermediate (but with references to 西游记) - VS

48 - 我的青春谁做主 Intermediate (colloquial Beijing speech) - S

11 -奋斗 Intermediate (colloquial Beijing speech) - VST

37 - 野蠻奶奶大戰戈師奶 Intermediate (dubbed, trad. subtitles) - VS

28 - 醉侠张三 Intermediate (mostly simple, but with some classical-style language) - VS

27 - 双面胶 Intermediate (Shanghainese accent, some Shanghainese dialect, fast) - VS

41 - 我们俩的婚姻 Upper Intermediate - S

36 - 与青春有关的日子 Upper Intermediate - VS

5 - 神探狄仁杰 Upper intermediate (classical language, chengyu) - V

12 - 好想好想谈恋爱 Upper intermediate (fast, colloquial) - VT

13 - 暗算 Upper Intermediate (military/political vocab) - VS

1 - 士兵突击 Upper intermediate (non-standard accent) - VST

29 - 走向共和 Upper Intermediate (political language, chengyu) - V

46 - 大生活 Upper Intermediate (simple vocab, strong accent, bad sound quality) - S

50 - 潜伏 Upper Intermediate (spy/political vocab, complex plot) - VS

42 - 射雕英雄传 Upper Intermediate (wuxia, no subtitles) - S

22 - 天龙八部 Upper intermediate (wuxia, some classical phrasing) - VSE

6 - 我爱我家 Advanced (Beijing accent, fast, cadre language) - VT

35 - 皆大歡喜 Advanced (chengyu, older vocab, unclear) - VS

30 - 少年包青天 Advanced (classical language, chengyu) - VS

25 - 亮剑 Advanced (heaps of military/political vocab) - VS

14 - 编辑部的故事 Advanced (no subtitles, colloquial) - S

32 - 大明王朝 Advanced 1566 (imperial/historical language, complex plot) - VS

3 - 武林外传 Very advanced (cultural references, classical language, fast) - T

26 - 雍正王朝 Very advanced (imperial/historical language, complex plot) - VS

43 - 倾城之恋 n/a - V

Apologies in advance if this has been done before!

grand_first.xls

[muyongshi]

I got a new recommendation: 我们的八十年代

Soho

It's a good one with some episodes being really simple to some with a lot of 成语‘s, technical language and the such. Story line is not over done but has elements of intrigue, love story, practical jokes, etc all throughout it. Feels kind of slow at first but it moves fast despite not being fast paced.

You'll like most of the characters except probably the "bad guy" and man it's even up to the last episode that he is able to keep his nice guy act up. I hated him. It made me mad

Soho's description:

那个纯真美好的年代不可复制，只能怀念！

那个时候，都市里能闻到田野里飘来的青草味道，穿着白衣红裙的女孩走过工厂水泥板小路，塑料凉鞋叩击出轻快的响声，一群呼啸而来的青工，把自行车转铃摁得有如冰雹落地，那会儿的冰雹都是透明的......

From Sina

月流逝，上世纪80年代在我们的记忆深处却愈渐清晰——

　　那个时候，都市里能闻到田野里飘来的青草味道，穿着白衣红裙的女孩走过工厂水泥板小路，塑料凉鞋叩击出轻快的响声，一群呼啸而来的青工，把自行车转铃摁得有如冰雹落地，那会儿的冰雹都是透明的……

　　干部家庭出身的女大学生满晓星毕业分配到天海化工厂做团干部，厂里有名的捣蛋鬼段玉刚看上了满晓星。这个精力过剩、浑身充满匪气的青工夸下海口，要让满晓星一周内成为自己的“马子”。满晓星则从侧面了解到这个青年工人中的“老大”有着一个坎坷的身世，她决心要感化和帮助段玉刚。两个家庭背景迥异、人生阅历相差悬殊的年轻人开始了针尖对麦芒的较量。

　　绰号“小寡妇”的丁惠茹一直暗恋着段玉刚，三年前的初恋，留给她的是未婚先孕和恋人自杀的创伤，是段玉刚一直在像对待姐妹一样保护着她。满晓星的到来让丁惠如感到了恐慌，因为她逐渐意识到段玉刚分明是对满晓星动了真感情。

　　技校毕业的闻安是个绰号叫“脆弱”的男孩，一直幻想着自己能够像小说里写的那样去拯救“堕落”的丁惠茹，让她开始新的生活。而这个念头又让闻安无法面对自己心目中的“老大”段玉刚，因为他知道丁惠茹一直以段玉刚的“马子”自居。

　　与段玉刚水火不相容的二师兄秦光明是车间副主任，他并不满足于只是满晓星的知音和兄长，他通过追求满晓星成为市工委副书记家中的座上宾。

　　就是这样一群年轻人，在那段青涩而淳朴的岁月里，开始了一场混沌与成长的挣扎、一场爱与恨的纠缠……

It is basically about a salt factory in the eighties and how a college graduate comes there to work for a short period before going into a better job. The relationships are very deep and complicated by the main male lead 段玉刚 is kind of the cool guy that takes care of everyone. That part of the plant was built by his father and his 师傅 [his father died when he was a child] and an explosion that had happened a few years before plauged him as it was blamed on his 大师兄 and he can't accept that. He suspects his 二师兄 秦光明 who seems to always be plotting stuff behind people backs was the true cause. Of course these two guys are fighting for the 大学生 [yes they call her that] 满晓星.

If renzhe watches it I know he will do a lot better job at summarizes what happens.

I'm actually still torn in the end whether I really liked it or not. But I think I did. Anyway...

[renzhe]

Well, why don't you start a thread then?

Anyway, I've been sifting through that "current TV dramas" thread and I'm downloading a couple of recommended series (well, the first episodes, anyway), so I'll probably start a few threads in the next few weeks.

[muyongshi]

What number we be on? 51?

[muyongshi]

Started the thread- not sure what number it is so if an admin could add that to the title at some point [i think my format was wrong too now that I think about it] it would be appreciated.

[roddy]

Anyone fancy throwing a few documentaries into the mix? Couple of the top of my head:

北京记忆 which Outofin posted about recently.

And 故宫, on the Forbidden City.

Any other suggestions?

[Outofin]

世界遗产在中国 can be an option too.

Wild China focused on geography and animals, this one focuses on cultural heritage, so it’s a good supplement.

I mainly use it as a travel guide. “Wow, the place looks gorgeous. I’ll definitely go there before I die. How much does a 苏州园林 cost? I want to buy one. (One more empty dream.)” Or, “What? The Temple of Heaven has so many stories? I didn’t know a thing! Last time it was a friend who just broke up with his girl friend dragged me there. He was complaining and sobbing all day. That was my only memory of the Temple of Heaven.”

However, despite its HD format, picture quality in term of colorness is disappointing. Is it because

- CCTV’s equipment isn’t good enough. Comparing this series with other HD programs, it reminds me the differences between point-and-shoot camera and SLR. I doubt cheap equipments are the reason, considering CCTV just burn down a hotel for fun.

- Their style is different. They like more realistic Discover Channel feeling. Possible.

- Their working attitude is questionable. According to my limited experience of photography. The first critical factor is equipment, second is light. You see big differences between “I’ll wait here until I get perfect light” and “My plane is leaving in 6 hours. Let’s get it done and move the next city.”

As for 北京记忆, there are more reasons to watch it. Each episode covers one aspect of life, all independent to each other. You can just pick the ones you’re interested in. Thick cultural atmospheres of the 80s. There is saying that people were more liberal than now. That is true.