How good is Chow Yun-Fat's Mandarin?

[stelingo]

I was reading an article about how characters speaking foreign languages are handled in (mostly American) films.

http://www.cracked.com/article_18721_the-5-stupidest-ways-movies-deal-with-foreign-languages.html

In the article the writer makes the following statement:

'Keep that image in mind when you consider how American audiences raved about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, while Chinese audiences winced as they watched Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh, Cantonese speakers, stumble through their Mandarin lines. To non-Chinese speakers, the dialogue comes across as nuanced and flowing, while to a Chinese speaker, it is like watching Arnold Schwarzenegger's voice come out of a Chinese martial artist'

My Mandarin isn't anywhere near good enough to judge. Would other people agree with the writer?

[roddy]

发哥's on record as saying he struggled with speaking Mandarin, so yes it was an issue. But while I've heard Chinese people say they didn't like the film that much, I've never heard any complain about the accents. He would hardly have been harder to listen to than Zhao Benshan giving it the full villager.

[Lu]

Perhaps Chinese people are fairly tolerant of accents? Wang Lihong was said to have a pretty strong ABC accent in Lust, Caution (I usually can't hear it, but a native speaker probably can) and The Promise had a Korean actor with a very strong Korean accent. That crossing-over of movie stars is quite common, surprisingly so if you compare it to Europe. I can't imagine a French or German actor with any accent at all to be acceptable in a Dutch movie.

[gato]

Michelle Yeoh's Mandarin was terrible in Crouching Tiger. Chow Yun-Fat's was fair.

[Ruben von Zwack]

I've heard Taiwanese people voice all sorts of different opinions on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and on the Curse of the Golden Flower, but I never heard someone complain about the accents. Who knows, probably the author and her pals were wincing when they watched the movie, so this is could well be her empiric data.

[roddy]

At the very least, it's inspired me to write a new article, 5 reasons not to read articles from websites where every headline begins with a number.

[Lu]

As far as I've read Cracked, their articles are not worse than the average Dutch newspaper in terms of reliability. Which is not too bad.

[Guest realmayo]

Would love to read 5 reasons why Chinese people don't like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.

[Silent]

He would hardly have been harder to listen to than Zhao Benshan giving it the full villager.

I feel that easier or harder to listen to/understand is only part of the issue. At least as important is how well the accent fits in the context. Is it reasonable/credable that the character has a strong/weird/foreign accent?

I don't look many Dutch movies, but depending on the context it definately is acceptable though the accent has to fit the role. A foreign actor with strong accent won't be accepted for a native Dutch role. On the other hand, in Hollywood foreign actors are very common but granted most speak decent English and with very poor English skills landing a role other than that of a foreigner/migrant is probably tough.

[Ruben von Zwack]

I read that it's common practice to dub Wuxia movies, for different reasons, but one being so that there won't be any wildly inappropriate accents (like, the actor is from Taiwan, but plays someone from northern China, for example).

[陳德聰]

Despite being "Cantonese speakers", I don't think the comparison to Arnold is realistic at all. Of course the article is hyperbole.

[Preet]

I quite dislike watching Asian films dubbed in English, they make me cringe! Often I'll listen to the original language be it Mandarin or Cantonese and read the sub-titles. Considering Mandarin is neither Michel Yeoh or Chow Yun-Fats first language I feel they did a decent job but I'm not a Chinese national so perhaps they feel otherwise. I'm a little surprised to read that people in China where not so fond of the film. I consider it a classic and a must-watch for those who haven't seen it.