First Episode 25: 亮剑 (Drawing Sword)

[renzhe]

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

Overview - Emule - youku

A series about Chinese army and their efforts to repel the Japanese army during the Second World War.

--- PLOT SUMMARY ---

The Japanese commander gets orders to occupy and hold a strategic peak in the Yun mountain range, and annihilate every last enemy in the process. The Chinese are evacuating, but it's a trick to draw the Japanese in. A discussion between the commander 李云龙 and one of his assistants 张大彪 within a batallion (新一团) of 八路军 (Eighth Route Army) reveals that this same Japanese division (坂田联队) prevented a sweep action of some kind during a previous altercation, during which the delegation head 孔捷 was wounded. Apparently, they are an elite unit, but the main commander wants to attack anyway.

While preparing the attack, they notice a tent, which looks like a command tent. The commander thinks about shooting it, but it's out of the cannon's range. The artillery guy could hit it if he could get 500m closer, but they only have two shells left, so he gets scolded for not saving some. If he doesn't hit the tent, he gets the firing range.

Cut to a different unit, run by a Guomintang commander. They have also met this 坂田联队 and fought them, and lost almost 300 people in an hour of fighting. Things are looking dire for the 八路军, who are facing them right now and are pinned down. They can't help them, it's a direct order, but if they're annihilated, it's bad for the morale.

Back at the front, they are planning to attack the Japanese in hand-to-hand combat, to neutralise their inferiority in terms of artillery. And order comes to retreat, but the commander wants to disobey it. The surprise attack completely confuses the Japanese. This allows the artillery guy to hit the tent, but he gets killed immediately afterwards. A free-for-all ensues, they go to pick up a surrounded captain.

This impresses some of the superiors who wonder where this guy came from, but the head of the 八路军, 首长 is not amused about disobeying orders. Back at the front, we find out that although their action was good, they will be punished for disobedience instead of giving them a medal, as they seem to be expecting.

Cut to 丁伟, officer of the 八路军 escaping from somebody on horseback (referred to as 鬼子, but speak Chinese, so I have no idea who it is). He is rescued and told to report to 首长, where he finds out about 李云龙's shennanigans. He meets 李云龙 (an old friend) who claims he was in the right.

The Japanese try sneak past a 八路军 division. The first group will try to clear the way. The second will provide cover, the third will watch the back. (I got the impression that they were cut off and were trying to find their way to the bay which was 2 km away, but the commander said to prepare to fight against 八路军). The first group is discovered and fighting ensues. The Japanese commander orders them to withdraw.

李云龙 is dispatched to fight, but we find him behind a sewing machine, serving his sentence, and he doesn't want to cause he's upset. His superior 旅长 comes and they argue, 李云龙's condition that his troops don't get the punishment, which gets rejected, he then requests to see 张大彪, which is granted.

--- SUMMARY END ---

八路军 bā lù jūn the Eighth Route Army

队长 duì zhǎng captain

主力 zhǔ lì main force

司令 sī lìng commanding officer

占领 zhàn lǐng to occupy (a territory); to hold

漏网 lòu wǎng to escape unpunished

营长 yíng zhǎng batallion commander

师部 shī bù a military division

撤离 chè lí evacuate

扫荡 sǎo dàng to mop up, to sweep

政委 zhèng wĕi political commissar

特性 tè xìng characteristic

对头 duì tou (longstanding) opponent; enemy

琢磨 zhuó mó refine, think over

号称 hào chēng (v) be known by reputation as

精锐 jīng ruì picked troops

刺刀 cì dāo bayonet

命令 mìng lìng (an) order

仔细 zǐ xì careful, attentive

进攻 jìn gōng attack (militarily)

老天爷 lǎo tiān yé God; Heavens

兔崽子 tù zǎi zi little bunny rabit

帐蓬 zhàng peng tent

超出 chāo chū (v) overstep; go too far

射程 shè chéng range

指挥 zhǐ huī command

把握 bǎ wò assure

炮弹 pào dàn (artillery) shell

柱子 zhù zi pillar

牢骚 láo sāo discontent; complaint

枪毙 qiāng bì (v) execute by firing squad

交手 jiāo shǒu (v) fight hand to hand

将近 jiāng jìn almost

交火 jiāo huǒ fire-fight; shooting

围困 wéi kùn pin down, beseige

战区 zhàn qū war zone

书面 shū miàn in writing; written

滋味 zī wèi taste

白刃 bái rèn naked sword

掩护 yǎn hù shield, cover

后撤 hòu chè to pull back (an army); to retreat

突围 tū wéi to break out of encirclement

薄弱点 bó ruò dian weak point

违抗 wéi kàng to disobey

不可思议 bù kĕ sī yì inconceivable; unimaginable

马夫 mǎ fū groom

整顿 zhĕng dùn rectify

嘉奖 jiā jiǎng (v) award an honor

I admit that I didn't look up all the difficult vocab, especially towards the end of the show. After 6 minutes, I had already had to look up 20 words or so, and it simply wasn't feasible. Grammar and language-wise, this is intermediate to upper-intermediate, but the vocabulary is far beyond an HSK intermediate level, and there's so much of it that I'd rank this as advanced. The good news is that the speech is clear and subtitles are very legible, so it's a good choice for advanced/upper intermediate guys who want to pick up a lot of military vocab -- and there's plenty. Upper intermediate people will be able to follow along, but will definitely miss a lot of the details and need some patience.

The show itself seems interesting. There are plenty of characters that get introduced, you can see some politics within the military structure, and it will probably be very interesting for the fans of the war genre, but this is a bit too tedious for me at the moment -- it took me 3 hours to write this post.

Edited February 9, 2010 at 02:09 PM by renzhe

[rivercao]

This series is very 爷们儿, I watched three times and still feeling impressive,I really adore Li Yunlong, he is a man, he is a warrior,爷们儿. He has something that is lacking in Chinese people's character. Every single women should want to marry him.