空镜子 Kong Jing Zi 'Nothing in the Mirror'

[tetsuo500]

I'm currently watching a series called 空镜子 (Nothing in the Mirror). It's relatively new. It's set in Beijing, so it's not too hard to understand for us standard Mandarin learners. Also my VCD version has subtitles alongside the speech. Not English subtitles - simplified characters. So when I can't understand the speech, I can read the characters, and if I still don't know I can pause it and look up the characters. I find it a great learning tool. There are 20 episodes that are 1 hour long each.

It's a well made drama, with quite a lot of humour as well. I just finished 2nd year, so I can't understand everything that well, and I've only watched a few episodes but basically it's the story of two daughters. I think one represents the 'traditional Chinese girl' and the other represents the more 'wild Western girl'. It also follows the stories of their parents, (who are the best characters imo) friends and boyfriends.

Has anyone else seen this series?

[badatpool]

空镜子 is one of my favorite TV dramas, and now I’m trying to watch another one everyday, which called 家有九凤. The same director as空镜子, and the same style as well—funny, touching and still focus on the women. But this time, it’s the story of nine daughters in a family.

[roddy]

I've been catching bits of 家有九凤 on BTV4, and I've got to say I'm enjoying it and am sorely tempted to get hold of it on disc so I don't have to put up with the random insertion of adverts into the middle of sentences. It's a bit sad, I have to admit, that I have such barriers up to Chinese TV that it probably takes me three episodes of having something on in the background to notice it might actually be worth watching . . .

Roddy

PS And it's a million times better than 生死邂逅, the police drama on after it - do these people study 'Falling Over Slowly After An Explosion' at drama school, or what?

[roddy]

Anyone else watched this? I've been plodding through the first few episodes, up to no. 5 now I think - enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would, very well done. Dialogue is all good fun with some characters you can actually get interested in. Don't think anyone would be likely to pick up a wide range of advanced vocabulary from it, but you'll certainly learn lots of different ways of talking about your boyfriend with your sister.

[roddy]

Verycd link for Emule users - 20 rmvb episodes, with subtitles. Go on, give it a shot . . .

[gougou]

I remember buying the discs back when we were talking about the Trashy Soap Opera of the Month Club. If I still can find them (moved three times since), I'll give it a shot.

[roddy]

Did you get round to watching it? I just finished the last episode - thought it was pretty good, didn't get silly to the end - only one car accident and a couple of emergency hospital visits through the whole thing if I remember correctly. Was glad the older sister was out of the way for a lot of the time though, didn't think she was such a convincing character as the younger, and when she came back from the US she was just annoying.

I was hoping to hear a bit more of the parent's story though - would even have tolerated a flashback or two. Pity we never got to really see what he got up to in Tibet.

Anyway, if you'll excuse me I've got to go and watch the first episode of 女公安局长 before probably deleting the whole series of my hard disk. I've also got 家有九凤 which is mentioned above, but much as I enjoyed 空镜子 I think I could do with a break from all the dating, introduction, engagements, marriages and divorces.

[gougou]

Did you get round to watching it?

Are you kidding? It hasn't even been a month since I said I'd watch it. Things like this take years for me!!

[roddy]

Well, done yet?

Just wanted to add a couple of links in here. First, there's an audiobook of the novel the TV show is based on - I listened to the first part and the characters are the same, plot is similar so far, but events seem to happen in a different order. verycd. Also, there's a new show out by the same director called 大浴女, which you can find more info about here, or download.