First Episode 5:神探狄仁杰, Mystic Detective Di Renjie

[bagz007]

Just finished episode four--am not seeing the slow down, yet, but I'm totally prepared to believe you. I'm gonna keep going just to finish the first case. Actually, a lot of these mini-series end up getting dragged down in plodding finishes, especially the historical ones. I had a real hard time finishing Kangxi Diguo a few years back, despite the fact that it initially sucked me in and kept me riveted a good ways...

[bagz007]

Finally got around to watching the rest of the first case (through episode 13)--Roddy, you're definitely right about things slowing to a crawl. Still, I ended up enjoying it for the most part and was willing to overlook a lot of flaws, I guess. One driving factor was seeing the downfall of the big baddie...god, she was a b$#.

One thing I would love some interpretation on is the closing moment of episode 13 where Wu Zetian and Di Renjie share a huge laugh after staring each other down. So what the hell is the take away? That Wu Zetian knows he's full of crap? Or that Wu Zetian has been fooled and Di Renjie is merely placating her by laughing along? This ain't high drama, but it seems like there's a message in here...(and they sure do seem to be showing the ruthless side of Wu).

Not sure what I'll watch next--you guys have posted a lot of options!!

[roddy]

Glad you enjoyed it, but sounds like I didn't miss too much by dropping out.

I tried to find the section you talked about, but the episode 13 I found doesn't seem to have that at the end - didn't watch the whole episode to try and find it.

[bagz007]

Well, it's definitely in the last five minutes. No big deal--just curious if anyone else made it this far and has an explanation.

[ajax]

I was a bit confused when they started laughing at the end too. My take was that she knew he was putting her on and he knew that she knew, but what are they gonna do other than laugh? Seemed kind of ambiguous, though.

About the only impression I took from this series is learning that there were people named Wu Zetian and Di Renjie and they they were both pretty badass.

[renzhe]

Bump for the vocabulary list in post #5 (based on roddy's list in post #6).

There are several words I couldn't find. Any takers?

[roddy]

You're a vocab engine at the moment . .

五鼓 - either the five of the two-hour overnight watches, or the final fifth one.

清浊 - I remember looking this one up at the time - it's 'the clear and the muddy' or something like that. If I remember the context it's 'the clear and unclear mixed up' - ie disorder?

明鉴 - polite way of saying someone is very perceptive.

英伟 heroic looking

黎民百姓 the masses, common people

顺天应人 in accordance with heaven and the people

兵戎相见 to meet at arms

帝业 emperor's reign

然也 totally, dude

传旨 pass on emperor's orders

挨户 - door to door

房梁 beam in the roof

龙体 emperor's body / health

息怒 calm anger

白药 medicine for wounds

客官 polite form of address for guests

[renzhe]

I found that some of the older threads had transcripts and vocab lists you posted, so I thought I'd give it a quick go.

Good stuff with filling the blanks!