Courtroom drama

[geraldc]

To prevent myself going mad from my normal office based job, I occasionally take holiday time and work as an extra when the UK film industry needs Chinese extras, so previously I've sat in a fake casino for Skyfall, and marched around in armour etc.

Well now they're upping the ante, and they need me to audition for a TV courtroom drama. The only problem being, is that the dialogue is in Mandarin and we have to translate it ourselves from the English script. I've never seen a mainland courtroom drama so don't even know what the vocab would be, I've seen cantonese courtroom dramas, but that's all cantonese and English. So I have until tomorrow morning to translate the following lines for my casting audition for the role of court bailiff, my notes are asterisked.

"Is your name Li Jun?"

*would you use 你是不是 li jun?

"Answer the question"

*basically the defendant nods a response and I need him to confirm verbally

"Li Jun, you have been sentenced to death for the murder of Nigerian trader Chike Olutye on the 25th of April. You will now be taken to the execution chamber. Before your execution, you have the right to make a last statement, do you wish to make a last statement? "

So a chance for you all to chip in and see if my appalling Mandarin will make it to the TV screen. I don't know if the casting agent tomorrow speaks Mandarin or if they even care about authenticity but feel free to make suggestions

[xuexiansheng]

I suggest you negotiate a writing credit and make some serious $$$!  

[Demonic_Duck]

I'm not remotely qualified to translate these, so instead I present for your consideration the joke translation, which you can always use as a backup if no-one present knows any Chinese anyway.

 

"Is your name Li Jun?"
你大爷是不是李俊?

"Answer the question"
*basically the defendant nods a response and I need him to confirm verbally

你是个哑巴，还是只是个蠢蛋？

"Li Jun, you have been sentenced to death for the murder of Nigerian trader Chike Olutye on the 25th of April. You will now be taken to the execution chamber. Before your execution, you have the right to make a last statement, do you wish to make a last statement? "

李俊，因为你跟尼日利亚的商人Chike Olutye谈了场恋爱，然后冷血地通过短信和他分手了，所以你的刑罚是每天不停地听“喜羊羊”的主题曲到疯为止。然后，你的鼻毛会一根一根地被拔起来。这些恐怖的刑罚之前，你还有几句话想说吗？

[陳德聰]

"Li Jun, you have been sentenced to death for the murder of Nigerian trader Chike Olutye on the 25th of April. You will now be taken to the execution chamber. Before your execution, you have the right to make a last statement, do you wish to make a last statement?"

李浚，因四月二十五日参与谋杀尼日利亚商人Chike Olutye而被判处死刑立即执行。行刑之前，法院给你最后发言的机会。你还有话要说吗？

 

Not gonna lie, I've never watched a courtroom drama. The closest thing I can remember is the scene in 温州一家人 when she's like 我是什么什么公司的法人！

[Nathan Mao]

"Is your name Li Jun?"

*would you use 你是不是 li jun?

It depends on what you want to emphasize.

"你是不是 li jun?" works, but it sounds like you just want to distinguish him from his brother or confirm his identity.

 

You could also say:

你的姓名是不是li jun?

That would be if you want to determine his legal name. Perhaps because you have evidence that "li jun" did something, and you want to make sure that is his name, or perhaps that would actually be the legal certification that he is Li Jun, the person currently under indictment and/or on the witness stand.

 

So I would go with the second because in my mind it matches the formality of confirming a legal name.

 

"Answer the question"

*basically the defendant nods a response and I need him to confirm verbally

用声音回答！（ or, 答案）

or a nice sarcastic answer would be: "大一点儿声音！”

a polite way would be something like:

因为我们在录音，请您说话回答

 

 

"Li Jun, you have been sentenced to death for the murder of Nigerian trader Chike Olutye on the 25th of April. You will now be taken to the execution chamber. Before your execution, you have the right to make a last statement, do you wish to make a last statement? "

It's going to be something like this:

Li Jun, 因为法官确定你在本年4月25号谋杀那位来自尼日利亚的商人，chike olyute， 而被判死刑。你马上到行刑室去。 你有权利说最后一句话。 你想不想说？

But I'll bet that isn't correct, and there may be some set speech given for this kind of sentence.

Between the native English speakers and native Chinese speakers on this board, we should be able to come up with something that captures all the nuances of both languages and societies.

 

(I just saw that someone else replied while I was typing. This may have made my response unnecessary or inadequate)

[陳德聰]

Please let us know how your audition went, I'm very curious!

[roddy]

C'mon gerald, when do we get to see you on TV?

[geraldc]

Update time:

 

Audition was a laugh for me, They wanted a Brian Blessed type delivery, and I was happier reading it from the paper ( I didn't know "prepare" means learn the lines. Oops!), I then asked the casting director if they'd ever been to China, as no one in an admin job seems to care or give booming deliveries when reading stuff out. She then said it was drama, and I should act as such. Audition ended promptly afterwards. So I'm putting down not getting the part down to creative differences rather than my total ineptness as an actor.

 

I also think they've given up on finding actors who can speak mandarin, other than ni hao.  

 

Still I got a role as business man in hotel buffet scene a few weeks ago, where Chinese babies were being given to American families, and this week I'm back on set as either a prisoner or prison guard.  I don't think this show is going to be showing China in a good light, so I'm going to be keeping my head down.

[geraldc]

Keep forgetting to update this.

 

The set. Fairly amusing pun for lovers of UK prison comedies

 

 

The uniforms, least likely prison officers you'll ever see. I'm the one closest to the camera.

 

 

We are all of HK extraction, but it was set in Guangzhou, so they were happy for us to mangle Cantonese. I didn't get to speak. The world is not ready for my mandarin acting.

 

Has anyone ever been to a Chinese prison? No but the Gung an once stopped me for not dismounting my bike when crossing a gate...

 

Should be hitting the small screen sometime in Nov or Dec

 

[roddy]

I once visited someone in a Hong Kong clink. 

 

Excellent photos, loved the pun as well. Thanks for posting!

[geraldc]

 

I'm the guard escorting the prisoner. It's on TV next week in the US, and sometime this winter in the UK. 

 

Reviews don't look too good so far

http://www.sfgate.com/tv/article/One-Child-review-Melodrama-lost-in-overkill-5921706.php

[Guest realmayo]

Do you have a link to the full review? The one above doesn't mention you at all. 

[roddy]

Having met you, I find it odd that casting directors apparently look at you and think "wow, this guy is PERFECT to play some kind of uniformed guard character." Do you feel there's a risk of this stereotyping hampering your career?

[Lu]

The uniforms, least likely prison officers you'll ever see. I'm the one closest to the camera.

The one second from right actually has the pose down. That's how the 'plainclothes' guards at the 人大 sit. It's scary because you just know they can kill you with their bare hands if the need arises.

And how cool you get to be on tv!

[geraldc]

To be fair, the casting guys thought I would be good to proclaim the death sentence in court, So they thought I'd be a lawyer type. Only I had one of the worst auditions in history, so relegated to a uniform filler.

[Guest realmayo]

Having met you, I find it reasonable that casting directors apparently look at you and think "wow, this guy is PERFECT to play some kind of hanging judge."