First episode 70 : 爱情公寓 iPartment

[pom45i]

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

Emule - viikii (English subs) - youtube - softsubs[1,2,3,4,6,8]&translations[5,7] -

Modern idol sitcom very similar to "Friends".

Scripts: http://book.ifeng.com/lianzai/detail_2010_02/21/350770_1.shtml

Vocabulary: Episode 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10

ATTENTION! The second season is running. Follow the discussion starting from this post.

Stream (2nd season): http://tv.sohu.com/s2010/aiqinggongyu/

Presentation

The drama follows the lives of seven young males and females from very different background who move into a rental apartment in the city of Shanghai. There are sparks of love that light up the light-hearted happenings of their normal, daily lives.

Characters:

Li Wanyu (Zhao Ji)

23 yrs old, female Fashion editor

Very idealistic and romantic about love

From a rich family, but left to live her own life

Lv Ziqiao (Sun Yizhou)

24 yrs old, Self-employed

A playboy, but lacking courage

Chen Meijia (Li Jinming)

21 yrs old, female Part-time job

ideal for love: Wants someone handsome. Someone really, really hot.

Guangyu Shenqi / Sekiya (Wang Chuanjun)

26yrs old, Cartoonist

a male Chauvinist, Japanese

Chen Xiaoxian (Chen He)

28 yrs old, male Radio Host

Hu Yifei (Luo Yixiao)

26 yrs old, female, Grad student, instructor

bold and fearless, especially in love. Zhan-Bo's half sister.

Lu Zhan-Bo (Jin Shi Jia)

23 yrs old, male, Web programmer

very kind, and simple, with a high IQ. Shy around girls.

First episode : The wedding chaos

Zhan Bo is a talented young graduate from MIT computer. He come back in China to work in an internet company as a network engineer.

On the bus from the airport he met by chance a rich corporate daughter who fleed home; Lin Wan Yu.

Zhan Bo wants to assist to a wedding htat his half-sister, Hu Yi Fei organizes. Wan Yu decides to tag along. But they took the wrong bus and ended up lost in the sparsely populated rural side of the road ... ...

Hu Yi Fei lives in Love appartment. She’s organizing the wedding. She’s short tempered.

Zeng Xiao Xian is a radio host, and take care of the syndicate building.

Lu Zi Qiao is an entrepener faillure. In the toilet he stumbled with the priest and ended up wearing his clothes. Hu Yi Fei mistakindly takes him for the priest. So he presides the ceremony.

During the wedding he met his ex girlfriend Mei Jia who he considered only as a night stand; She is here to enjoy the free food, and the personnal enemity between them make they intend to expose each other.

Suddenly accompanied by the police arrive the groom and bride, but those are actually Wan Yu and Zhan Bo arrives to the weeding before the bride and grroom and are mistakingly taken for them. While Hu Yi Fei and Zeng Xiao Xian are arguing.

The real bride and groom finally arrived. The ceremony proceded with Lu Zi Qiao as the priest.

The founder of Love appartment then announce that people in love can live in Love apartment with water and electricity fee free and with half the rent to pay as the celebration of the wedding.

Immediately, Mei Jia and Lu ZI Qiao take the hint, and staged a tacit agreement to exaggerate the "love at first sight", hoping to live in an apartment.

They propose so to call this apartments Love apartment.

My summary isn't really good, I just took it from here http://ent.sina.com.cn/v/2009-06-24/17272579807.shtml and made a rapid and innacurate translation. It is actually a lot funnier than what I wrote.

Language level: Upper intermediate They use some really recent expression/idioms who appeared on the internet. They keep speaking all along the episode so it might be hard to catch the meaning if you need a time to process what they said.

What make it easier is that they're using day to day language, so you don't need a specialised vocabulary to follow most of what they say (except the idioms, I spent hours trying to translate some )

Edited January 10, 2012 at 12:16 PM by renzhe

[renzhe]

Looks quite interesting. Basically, it's "Friends" in Shanghai. Thanks for starting the thread.

We haven't had many sitcoms, and this could be amusing, if quite cheesy.

I'll edit in some more links tomorrow.

[skylee]

I have watched the first 6 minutes of episode 1 and my impression is 裝模作樣 and 硬滑稽. I don't think I can go on.

PS - I have finished the first episode. It gets better.

Edited February 10, 2010 at 02:44 PM by skylee

[daofeishi]

I have watched the first 6 episodes of the series. If you get past the first episode, which to me was annoying and full of overacting, it gets gradually better. Guangyu Shenqi is a good reason to watch the show alone

[renzhe]

Honestly, the first episode is not really good. It is very derivative, and feels like a combination of an idol drama and "Friends". The atmosphere is much like 丑女无敌, except there really mean it here

That said, it does get better as it progresses, and there are a couple of laughs in there. If it improves a bit in the later episodes, it could become a decent one to have a quick watch at from time to time, as the episodes are mostly unrelated to each other. Let's face it there aren't that many Chinese sitcoms out there and a distraction from time to time could be interesting.

I have 5 episodes mostly downloaded and I'll have a look at one or two more, but I'm not expecting wonders. At the moment, I think that 丑女无敌 is unmatched when it comes to camping it to the max and getting away with it.

变态 biàn tài * metamorphosis / abnormal / anomalous

刷卡 shuākǎ * swipe a card, pay with card

投币 to throw in money

滚蛋 gǔn dàn * get out of here! / beat it!

公交车 gōng jiāo chē * public transport vehicle / town bus

黑客帝国 Hēi kè dì guó * The Matrix (movie)

寻宝 xún bǎo * treasure hunt

藏宝图 cáng bǎo tú * treasure map

计程车 jì chéng chē * taxi / cab (Taiwan)

睿智 ruì zhì * wise and farsighted

温暖 wēn nuǎn * warm

红地毯 hóng dìtǎn * red carpet

时运不济 shí yùn bù jì * fate is unfavorable (成语 saw); the omens are not good

听众 tīng zhòng * audience / listeners

走运 zǒu yùn * to have good luck / lucky / in luck

隔壁 gé bì * next door

物业 wù yè * Property

保安 bǎo ān * public security

部门 bù mén * department / branch / section

一级战备 yìjízhànbèi * first-degree combat readiness

全副武装 quán fù wǔ zhuāng * fully armed / armed to the teeth / fig. fully equipped

警犬 jǐng quǎn * police dog

哈巴狗 hǎbɑgǒu * Pekinese

杂毛狗 zámáogǒu * multi-coloured dog

雪橇狗 xuěqiāogǒu * sled dog

老鼠 lǎo shǔ * rat / mouse

礼金 lǐjīn * a gift of money

结晶 jié jīng * a crystal / to crystallize

保健品 bǎojiànpǐn * health product

澳大利亚 Aò dà lì yà * Australia / Australian

营养 yíngyǎng * nourishment

元素 yuánsù * element

榔头 láng tou * hammer / large hammer / sledgehammer

卡丁车 kǎ dīng chē * kart racing

拖拉机 tuō lā jī * tractor

撞 zhuàng * to hit / to strike / to meet by accident

裤衩 kùchǎ * underpants

团队意识 tuán duì yì shí * team spirit (my guess)

紊 wěn * involved / tangled / disorderly

报幕 bào mù * announce the items on a (theatrical) program

流程 liú chéng * course / stream / sequence of processes

假洋鬼子 jiǎ yángguǐzǐ * fake foreigner (derogatory)

墨西哥 Mò xī gē * Mexico

上坟 shàng fén * to sweep the tombs (of one's ancestors) / the Qingming festival

天经地义 tiān jīng dì yì * lit. heaven's law and earth's principle (成语 saw); fig. right and proper / right and unalterable / a matter of course

圣洁 shèng jié * pure and holy

粉丝 fěn sī * bean vermicelli / mung bean starch noodles / Chinese vermicelli

毛病 máo bìng * fault / defect / shortcomings

耽误 dān wu * delay / hold-up / to waste time

神父 shén fù * padre (title of Catholic priest) / (spiritual) father

立竿见影 lìgānjiànyǐng * produce instant results

磨蹭 mó ceng * to move slowly / to dawdle / to work sluggishly

宝马 bǎo mǎ * BMW (car company)

方向灯 blinker

变道灯 blinker

讲稿 jiǎnggǎo * the draft or text of a speech

结巴 jiē ba * to stutter

新潮 xīn cháo * modern / fashionable

笔录 bǐ lù * to put down in writing / to take down notes / transcript

台词 tái cí * an actor's lines / script

超度 chāodù * redeem lost souls by making offerings and saying prayers

陈圆圆 http://baike.baidu.com/view/28599.htm

大褂 dàguà * unlined long gown

汤姆孙 Thompson or Thomson (don't ask me why it's here)

克鲁斯 Cruise or Cruz (don't ask me why it's here)

乔装 qiáo zhuāng * to pretend / to feign / to disguise oneself

恐怖分子 kǒng bù fèn zǐ * terrorist

两败俱伤 liǎng bài jū shāng * both sides suffer (成语 saw) / neither side wins

劲爆 jìnbào * strong and powerful

策划 cè huà * plot / scheme / bring about

坠入情网 zhuì rù qíng wǎng * to fall into the web of love

召唤 zhào huàn * beckon / call

眸 móu * pupil of the eye

激动 jī dòng * excite

孔武有力 kǒng wǔ yǒu lì * to be mighty and powerful

宽广 kuān guǎng * wide / broad / extensive

伟岸 wěi'àn * tall and sturdy

刀枪不入 dāoqiāngbúrù * (of a human body) arms-proof

依靠 yī kào * to rely on sth (for support etc) / to depend on

强暴 qiáng bào * violent

米华 mǐ huá * popped rice

土豆泥 tǔ dòu ní * mashed potato

肯德基 KFC

pom45i's language rating (upper intermediate) is spot on. I really expected it to be easier, but the rapid fire of vocabulary in here makes it upper intermediate stuff.

On the other hand, if you have a decent vocab, you'll recognise many of the characters and figure out much of the new vocabulary -- this stuff is not hard to follow.

Some of the words above were new to me in this form, but I could understand them straight away.

Edited February 11, 2010 at 01:46 AM by renzhe

[skylee]

粉丝 fěn sī * bean vermicelli / mung bean starch noodles / Chinese vermicelli

It is also a translation of "fans".

强暴 qiáng bào * violent

It can also mean "rape".

I think the line "Ladies and 鄉親們" is quite hilarious.

[renzhe]

The whole English segment was quite entertaining.

[renzhe]

The second episode is surprisingly entertaining. Give this one a shot, basically, it's better than the first episode suggests.

The acting is overdone, but most of the humour is based on banter and word games. It will be tricky for beginners.

[doraemon]

I didn't really think the overacting in episode 1 was annoying, it's what made me laugh so hard that gave me a stomach ache for several hours. I especially enjoyed the part where Lv Ziqiao was doing the wedding thing in "English" and the bit at the end where Lin Wanyu orders KFC over the phone.

She’s filipino

Where did you get this from? Is the actress Filipino (which I somewhat doubt) or is the character Hu Yifei Filipino? I remember watching this episode twice and not picking this up.

[pom45i]

No you're right she isn't. I don't know where I took that idea from. I think it's by using google translation and not checking everything with the chinese that I messed this part up. Anyway it's edited.

[renzhe]

I don't know if she's supposed to be Filipino, but she is faking an accent (see second episode: 浪漫! Rrrrrrang man!)

[skylee]

She is not faking an accent. She is trying to make the audience laugh.

[daofeishi]

Talking about funny clips, I thought the first clip with 关谷君 here was hilarious

[imron]

I laughed at the 很行 part

[renzhe]

Yeah, that made me laugh out loud. 中国很行, 中国农业很行....

[imron]

Guangyu Shenqi is a good reason to watch the show alone

I hope they get over the whole "your Chinese is so good" stage. I just finished watching the third episode (the only one I've watched), and definitely his lines or the jokes directed at him were the funnier ones, but I'm not sure I really like the stereotyping and the fake accent. *sigh* I guess this is how Germans must feel watching Hogan's Heroes and the like.

[skylee]

the 很行 part is funny. but it is very unlikely for a Japanese (the word is the same in Japanese) to make that mistake really.

[renzhe]

The Japanese 银 is not simplified, so I assumed that he mistook it for 很 as he's used to seeing 銀行.

Of course, someone as good at Chinese as him wouldn't make that mistake, but it had to be a foreigner, and he's the only one around

[chrix]

yeah, I don't think that's very realistic either. Someone who grew up with characters can process a simple component substitution (though I haven't watched the show and can't judge how believable the scene is, of course)...

[renzhe]

Nothing in this show is believable