The Grand First Episode Project. . .

[renzhe]

Anyway, I've added 白色巨塔 The Hospital to the project based on Skylee's recommendation.

[renzhe]

Anyway, here is a shortlist of shows I'd like to have a look at in the near future. The shows we've covered already are greyed-out.

重案六组 A modern police show. Regular coppers, not super agents

给我一支烟 Seemed like a somewhat edgier Fendou

家 No idea if this is good, but I loved the book

少林寺传奇 Shaolin monks doing what you expect them to do, supposedly excellent fight sequences

碧血剑 Sword Stained with Royal Blood, well-received wuxia adaptation

神雕侠侣 Return of the Condor Heroes, Jin Yong wuxia adaptation

半生缘 Based on an Eileen Chang story

我的团长我的团 A war drama recommended to me recently

Of these, I'll probably finish a couple. Since I'm trying to finish several of the older shows right now, I don't think that the pace will be too fast. Yeah, there's more wuxia, but I've really enjoyed that in the past.

We have English subtitles for two of them too, which is always good.

If somebody stumbles on a really cool show in the meantime, feel free to start a thread on it.

Edited September 26, 2009 at 09:02 PM by renzhe

[muyongshi]

给我一支烟 Seemed like a somewhat edgier Fendou

Definitley interested. Sorry I don't have anymore to contribute.

I had looked at this one on SoHu called 暗香 but after watching just the intro, it looked very far away from my tastes so I didn't even watch the one episode. Has what's her face from 奋斗 {陆涛's stalker ex girlfriend... sorry my brain just ain't clicking right now}.

What the story line looked like was that there was a rich family, she falls in love with the one guy, lots of guns, kind of mob feel, kidnappings, and a LOT of crying. That turned me off. Might interest someone else though.

[rob07]

神雕侠侣 Return of the Condor Heroes, Jin Yong wuxia adaptation

I'm interested in watching 倚天屠龙记, to round out the 射雕三部曲. I see that 张纪中 is working on a new version right now and it seems that the best guess is that it will be on TV by next March.

Does anyone know if shows on Chinese TV are on Tudou etc pretty much straightaway?

[renzhe]

I have to admit that I didn't like the latest version of 倚天屠龙记, despite skylee's recommendation

So I'm looking forward to the new version.

I'm stuck at work and busy with other things, so I haven't had much time for the project recently. I'm slowly making my way through "My Youthfulness", but I have no time for annotating fresh stuff, sorry about that.

[muyongshi]

Here is a new one that has caught my eye- I don't have time to watch it but will get around to it at some point. It's called 地上地下 and they describe it as "后潜伏时代" and it seems that it is actually being called the second set of 潜伏 {"潜伏升级版"} but not any relationship at all.

Description:

解放前夕，我党“地下”工作者刘克豪成功打入国民党保密局沈阳站。在沈阳，刘克豪凭借过人的个人能力和人格魅力，不仅赢得了沈阳站站长徐寅初的信任，而且捕获了“军统之花”林静的芳心。但刘克豪深知自己的身份和任务，对林静的示爱和追求总是虚与委蛇，巧妙回避。

东北战局逐步明朗，国民党部队步步溃败，徐寅初为效忠党国，命令沈阳保密局所有特工将家眷悉数接到沈阳，“与东北共存亡”。由于假扮刘克豪妻子的伍珍同志意外牺牲，为不引起徐寅初的怀疑，一路上承担护送任务的游击队长王迎香便走进了沈阳保密局，成了刘克豪的妻子……

作为临时顶替的非职业特工，王迎香的出现给刘克豪的生活带来了无尽的麻烦；同时在工作....

Link to Sohu's 高清 version.

When I get around to watching it I'll start a new thread for discussion or if someone else beats me to it....

[daofeishi]

I've found a pretty interesting TV-series appropriate to those at an intermediate/upper-intermediate level: 我是一棵小草. A drama from the mainland.

岳峰 leaves home to go to college. While at college, a romantic relationship develops between him and 杜娟. She gets pregnant, and they plan to get married. However, 岳峰 must go back home and tie up some lose ends. Among other things, the sleazebag must break up with his other girlfriend 小草, who has been waiting at home for him for 4 years, working as a taxi driver to support him financially through his studies.

岳峰 gets back home, but finds himself suffering from dizzy spells of increasing intensity. As he is about to lay everything in the open with 小草, he suddenly faints, only to wake up in a hospital. The doctor has a difficult message for the family.

The story unfolds from there.

The whole series is available at 56.com

I have compiled vocab lists for the first and second episode, if anyone would be interested

[renzhe]

Yes, we are interested. If you've collected the vocab list, links for watching and a short summary/intro, it's worthy of a first episode thread. Remember that this project also serves as an index into Chinese show people have enjoyed.

Please start a thread on this show, and put in your vocab list, and I'll add it to the project.

I'm quite busy these days, so the output from my side is going to trickle in slowly, so it's great that other people are starting threads about interesting shows and collecting vocab lists, so we can all have something out of it.

Edited September 5, 2009 at 05:43 PM by renzhe

[heifeng]

给我一支烟 Young succesful guy is after a girl, her friend is after him, she was hurt once, there's night clubbing. Could be interesting, or it could be terrible, any bets?

It's pretty good, and the narrative will give you some chengyu and vocab to look up, so it's not completely mindless. (Ie. looks like there was indeed a plot/script and etc. when they went into production:mrgreen:)

The description above is sorta accurate, except the key girls involve are/were 小姐. The first half of this series is great! ( I got my friend addicted to it and I think she watched the whole series in less than 2 days) The second half is a bit annoying (watch at x2 speed is perfect)..but then it has a slight twist towards the end. If it wasn't for the dip after the first half it would be one of my favorite series..even though somehow it makes me a lil' depressed watching it though...

[daofeishi]

Please start a thread on this show, and put in your vocab list, and I'll add it to the project.

Thy hath been done

[renzhe]

Great work!!!

[roddy]

Here's a few shows I've got in the queue to watch in case anyone else wants to take a look. There might be first ep topics for these already, not sure.

冷箭 - doubt I'll stick with this one, looks a bit generic war-y.

长恨歌 - I'm actually up to ep.4 of this, but I'm going to go back and watch 1 again to try and do a write up (don't think anyone else has) as I really quite like it. Very slow download though.

西游记 (this one)

I'm also downloading the first few eps of 编辑部的故事 with a view to maybe watching all 25 eps.

Been rewatching some of 武林外传 lately, but again it's a slow download. It's a pity you can't buy these shows on some form of recorded media, such as a disk.

[renzhe]

Sounds great.

I've been really busy recently, and I'm still making my way through 我的青春谁做主 and 丑女无敌. I haven't had the time to start new shows.

Maybe it will get better in a few weeks.

[imron]

Been rewatching some of 武林外传 lately, but again it's a slow download. It's a pity you can't buy these shows on some form of recorded media, such as a disk.

What do you mean? I've got the box set. Your local DVD store will probably have them, if not, try a larger chain store. I bought mine at the Lotus center in Wudaokou, which for some reason worked out to be cheaper than the smaller DVD shops.

[muyongshi]

Yeah, I've been swamped recently too. Also nothing seems to be grabbing my attention. But just the name of 长恨歌 has me intrigued. See what Roddy writes about it before I take the plunge though.

[rob07]

But just the name of 长恨歌 has me intrigued.

This is based on the 王安亿 novel presumably? I really liked that book, I think there are a few posts about it on this site. The title was originally the title of a 白居易 poem I think.

[roddy]

I did it!.

[renzhe]

OK, I've been quite inactive recently, and my Chinese studies in general have been suffering. I've just been too busy in the past few months.

I've put all the latest episodes into the main thread, so it is complete again, I'll try to tie up the loose ends in the coming weeks. I'm currently watching "Family" and "Give me a smoke" and I'll try to finish them. I don't think I'll finish "Ugly Betty".

Looks like I haven't seen 7 of the episodes. I'm taking a few weeks' holiday over Christmas, so I'll try to get through those. I'll also try to start a couple of new ones, time permitting.

As before, if someone sees a cool show, please feel free to do a short writeup and start a new thread.

[HerrPetersen]

Hi there, my Chinese studies were pretty much restricted to reviewing for the past half year or so. Now there is only the thesis left so it will still be light for the next 4 month... anyhow I came across this:

一起来看流星雨

http://v.sogou.com/play?w=06060500&query=%D2%BB%C6%F0%C0%B4%BF%B4%C1%F7%D0%C7%D3%EA%201&tq=%D2%BB%C6%F0%C0%B4%BF%B4%C1%F7%D0%C7%D3%EA&&i=-1&j=1

definitly not everyone's pair of shoes - but I had some good laughs.

Edit: Here a rough synapsis from the Wikipedia page:

Chu Yuxun, the lead character of the series is a poor, hardworking, smart high-school girl. One of her biggest dream is to enter the most prestigious school in the country, Aliceton University where only the richest and the best students can study. With the help from her uncle, she finally gets in unbearingly that she might meet the group H4.

Murong Yunhai, Duanmu Lei, Shangguan Ruiqian and Ye Shuo are the four richest students of Aliceton and known as the campus popular group H4. They became the idols of all the girls and even boys in the campus because of their attitude, power and looks. However, they are unsatisfied with their life as their parents put too much pressure on them being the richest in China. In order for them to be kicked out from Aliceton University, they perform a series of pranks.

I personally find the acting way too exaggerated, and there are some serious wtf-moments. I mean this in a good way. I guess it is a show aimed mostly to please teenage girls, but (at least for the first couple of eps) the exaggerated acting and strange happenings overplayed the girly-factor. It is also a nice show if you are still starting out to watch Chinese TV. I just picked up some frequently used phrases here and there, and it was still funny - so it is definitly beginner friendly.

Edited December 22, 2009 at 05:53 AM by HerrPetersen

[Li Shen]

A show I really like, and think would be great for the First Episode Project, is 东方朔, about the eponymous eccentric official under 汉武帝.

It's a combination of comedy and the usual courtly intrigue shows, with Dongfang Shuo managing to combine the brilliant strategist and slapstick comedian roles! One of the few Chinese comedy dramas I actually like ;). I think it gets more serious in later episodes, only saw three myself so far...

I think I will even write a summary and 生词 page for the first episode, if that's how it's supposed to work here . I really love that show, though it might be because I saw it after ploughing through a much more serious literary adaption of the character in class (智圣东方朔, by 龙吟, if anyone should happen to know it).