First Episode 23: 上海灘 (The Bund)

[renzhe]

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

A young Chow Yun Fat stars in this extremely popular 1980s series

youku (has traditional subs) - Emule

This is a 1980s Hong Kong gangster/gongfu series about a newcomer to Shanghai. He stays with a poor guy and his mother the first evening, before making contact with a rich businessman he knows. The businessman runs a cinema, and a gang steals the film, causing him financial harm. Soon, our hero shows some notable gangster skills as he recovers the film.

Stylistically, this feels like a Shaw Brothers movie, with cheesy closeups, loud sound effects, gongfu brawls and everything you'd expect. Quite frankly, it's not terribly good, but a large reason for this is the age. It feels dated, and I wasn't terribly interested in the story, to be honest. It even has a Pink Floyd background at one point, which really confused me, but was cool.

There is one really good thing about this, though -- it has no subtitles, but is at a lower intermediate level. In fact, one of the easiest shows we've had so far. So for the people who compulsively read subtitles, this is an excellent way to test your listening skills. So far, the shows without subtitles were all quite advanced.

Other than being a good listening practice for less experienced learners, there is very little to recommend here. The series was really popular back in the day, though, and if you invest the time to get into it, it might turn out to be interesting.

Edited February 9, 2010 at 02:08 PM by renzhe