Languages in 2046

[citambulos]

I just saw the movie 2046 and noticed Zhang Ziyi (章子怡) speaks beautiful crystal clear mandarin. But what is Tony Leung speaking here? Cantonese, Shanganese? And how and why do they understand each other?

http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=R_oTpuUjtX8

http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=ePU0KP5vHfo&feature=related

[HashiriKata]

But what is Tony Leung speaking here? Cantonese, Shanganese? And how and why do they understand each other?

I guess it's Cantonese. And do they need to understand each other?

[xiaocai]

It's Cantonese, and I think maybe they didn't really understand each other...

[Lu]

There's been a thread on this before, where one poster (Ian Lee?) told how his father? or someone he knew really used to have such conversations, with different people speaking different languages.

It's easier to understand the various dialects than to speak them, so it's possible that they understood each other. In the movie at least they do.

[skylee]

IIRC they were in HK and Zhang's character was a working girl who I suppose had to understand the language of the place. And HK was a migrant city with people from different places in China so it should not be surprising that Leung's character understood Mandarin.

[sebhk]

Such mixed language conversations are actually not uncommon in Hong Kong. For example my wife usually speaks Cantonese to her parents, but they reply in Hokkien. Also, when I speak English to my wife she sometimes replies in Cantonese or Mandarin (without even noticing). Another example is a friend of mine who has a Japanese girlfriend. He usually speaks Cantonese and she uses Japanese or Mandarin, and the communication works just fine.

[Hofmann]

Leung probably understands Zhang. Zhang has probably read the script and understands what Leung is saying, but even without reading the script she should understand some Cantonese from acting in so many HK films. The characters obviously understand each other.