First episode 99 - 渴望

[rob07]

This TV series was made in 1990 and apparently back then it was the biggest thing since the Chinese culinary equivalent of sliced bread. I told a Chinese friend I was watching it, and his reaction was "Haha, 渴望, you leave no Chinese-cultural-stone unturned in your quest, do you?".

At the start of the series, the main character 刘慧芳 is a factory worker in her early twenties who had dreams of going to university but had to drop out of school and start working to support her family several years ago. Her boyfriend, 宋大成 is her foreman at the factory who has been a mentor to her since she started working there. 宋大成 is an all round good guy and is on the fastest career track available to working class Beijing men. Everyone apart from 刘慧芳 agrees he is prime husband material, particularly 刘慧芳's mother and her best friend/co-worker at the factory.

刘慧芳 however, can't stop herself from thinking of 宋大成 more of a brother than a husband. She is more interested in her apprentice at the factory, 王沪生. 王沪生 comes from what was a very privileged background, his father was a high ranking politician. However the father is unfortunately now in jail due to political problems, so 王沪生's background is now a liability, which is why he is working in a factory. His girlfriend is not being supportive, his mother is extremely sick and his sister is in the process of becoming extremely screwed up over her own issues.

"沪生" means "born in Shanghai" (he was) - in a very Beijing TV series, you can draw your own conclusions about whether 王沪生 is likely to turn out to be a bit of a flake or not ...

I am not sure exactly what year it is at the beginning of the series, probably mid to late 1970s. I'm 60% of the way through the 50 episodes at the moment, my guess it will end in 1990 (the present day as at the time it was made).

I'm enjoying it, for me it is a good compromise between my interest in historical shows where no one drives an Audi and shows with at least somewhat modern language.

Youku link: http://www.soku.com/search_video/q_渴望

[gato]

This was kind of the 「蜗居」 of the 1990s. My parents were big fans and watched it on video (VHS) in the US when it first came out.

Btw, I ran into the director of this series at an acupuncture clinic in Beijing. He was a very nice. down to earth guy.

[imron]

I'm enjoying it, for me it is a good compromise between my interest in historical shows where no one drives an Audi and shows with at least somewhat modern language.

If you haven't seen them already, when you're done with this, consider 《我爱我家》、《空镜子》and 《编辑部的故事》

[rob07]

I really liked 空镜子. I watched a bit of 编辑部的故事 a while ago but I don't really like sitcoms that much, never really got into 武林外传 either. Maybe part of the problem was that with no subtitles it was a bit hard, possibly it is time to revisit it and/or give 我爱我家 a go.

[gato]

武林外传 is good fun.

我爱我家 is modeled after Growing Pains, the old American sitcom, and has a similar type of humor. I suspect that it won't be that interesting for you after a few episodes.