Downloading movies with subtitles

[LaoDing]

I've found watching Chinese movies a highly enjoyable way to improve listening, and to learn more about Chinese culture as well, but I've run out of movies. Actually, I don't know if I can write this here or not but I've been torrenting older films like Red Sorghum and Farewell my Concubine, and I can get both Chinese and English subtitles with them. But now it seems the well is dry.

I've heard you can download movies for free from Chinese servers but it's been pretty frustrating. For one thing I'm using a Mac and almost all utilities seem to be .exe. I found a pretty cool site through QQ (I believe) called PPTV and I could download a client for Mac even. I started watching King of the Children 孩子王 and the streaming was excellent. But no English subs! It did have '普通话‘ (I presume) subs though. But it was way over my head, and it seemed to me that there was a lot of dialect in the subs as well (the movie's set in Yunnan I think). Anyway, I couldn't hardly catch a thing.

I found a plugin called PPTV Downloader so I thought I might be able to convert movies to .avi or .mpv4 or something and then find an SRT ENG file for the film. But the utility is only for Windows. It seems nearly all the downloads in China are Windows only.

 

I hope this post might help others in their search for movies, and I would love to hear suggestions on how to improve mine with my Mac (without Boot Camp or emulation). I don't mind paying a nominal price for older films, but at my level in Chinese, Chinese subtitles aren't going to be of great help unless the conversation is really simple, or quite standard. 

 

Thanks.

[lling]

电影天堂 http://www.dytt8.net/

 

里面大多数是中英双字幕，但是你需要用迅雷软件下载里面的电影。

[LaoDing]

I've checked out a few sites, and most come with a some hassles, and/or no subtitles. I also find it hard to find full movies. Actually, even more than torrents, Youtube has been the best so far. I finally could watch Beijing Bastards!

[LaoDing]

Just another comment re movies. For me, a beginner, I find it a waste of time and a source of confusion to try to read Chinese subs with Chinese movies unless it's REALLY simple stuff. I just read the English as fast as possible and then listen intently. I find my listening improving little by little, depending on the movie too of course.

[LaoDing]

Well, I guess no one really cares about this thread, LOL, but I'm still enthusiastic. I've run out of torrented movies (unless I want to watch kung fu movies or something), have run out of Chinese movies with subtitles on Youtube, and have migrated over the far more robust Chinese streaming channels like Youku. Trouble there (obviously no English subs) is that I can't find '普通话' subs either. I know I said earlier I found Chinese subs confusing, but now that I'm watching movies like 巴山夜雨 with no subs at all, I think Chinese subs might be nice.

It would be great to hear from someone with experience in this. 中！

[Angelina]

I am enthusiastic too. The problem is that not only is it difficult to find high quality subtitles for Chinese cinema, it is also extremely difficult to find high quality films to watch.

[ithinktoo]

subtitleseeker.com is where i get all my subs.  The chinese movies are out there too.  Kat.cr has many good ones...

[LaoDing]

 

 

I am enthusiastic too. The problem is that not only is it difficult to find high quality subtitles for Chinese cinema, it is also extremely difficult to find high quality films to watch.

Yes! Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_China) does a great survey until around 2000 and then just peters out. Are we in the 'blah' years for Chinese film? Say it ain't so! I just have no idea how to search for good movies. Most of the movies out there are cold 小米. Much worse than Hollywood. So where are the good ones? 

 

subtitleseeker.com is where i get all my subs.  The chinese movies are out there too.  Kat.cr has many good ones...

I'll check it out! I just downloaded 'The Black Cannon Incident' (黑炮事件). I'll let you know how it was...

[Angelina]

The last paragraph is on film companies, it says it all, lots of money and technology, no stories.

[mouse]

 

 

Are we in the 'blah' years for Chinese film? Say it ain't so! I just have no idea how to search for good movies. Most of the movies out there are cold 小米. Much worse than Hollywood. So where are the good ones? 

 

The Chinese movie industry has grown to the point where it doesn't necessarily have to keep on eye on international prizes, so there are lot more films that cater to the domestic general audience. That means a lot of frothy pop cultural stuff gets put out, but this kind of thing is exactly what you should be seeking out to study, because they're full of everyday words and expressions.

 

But anyway, some good films of recent years would be Let The Bullets Fly and Stephen Chow's The Mermaid. Both huge blockbusters and both really great films.

[Angelina]

Domestic audience knows how to appreciate good films too. Unfortunately, not much to see. I will try Let the Bullets Fly.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072913/soundtrack?ref_=tt_trv_snd

(cries a little inside)

[mouse]

 

 

Domestic audience knows how to appreciate good films too. 

 

I'm aware of that. I'm saying that more films are being made for general audiences who don't have patience for arthouse cinema and prefer light entertainment. Like in all cinema markets, there's bad and good. Sometimes, very good films become hits, Let the Bullets Fly being a perfect example. An example of the limits of the patience of general audiences can be seen in the reaction to Jiang Wen's subsequent film.

[LaoDing]

I wonder why China, with its huge population and surging affluence, doesn't have (at least to my knowledge so far) a healthy underground film movement. It has movements in all the other arts. They are tons of Chinese intellectuals who are neither crass nor anti-intellectual cretins, so I can only guess that the Chinese intellectuals are watching other nations' films. To be honest, Beijing Bastards was a great film compared to the junk my students recommend to me! As for study, if I don't like the film I just can't get into it for that. I'd rather study my textbooks and listen to real life conversation.

It's odd, and forgive me for saying this, how poverty and suffering can bring about great film like Salom Bombay, Iranian films, and the great Chinese tragedies (活着，鬼子做了，菊豆 etc.) and also odd that despite a lot of crap, Hollywood continues to produce fantastic cinema. 

Anyway- I too will check out Let the Bullets Fly and the Mermaid, thanks. 

[Naphta]

 

I wonder why China, with its huge population and surging affluence, doesn't have (at least to my knowledge so far) a healthy underground film movement.

 

There is an underground film movement in China since the nineties. It currently goes through very difficult times (the government has closed all independent film festivals, something that makes it very difficult to develop a real audience) but it still has lots of talented filmmakers and a huge potential. Just search for "independent Chinese cinema" and you'll find lots of hints. These people for instance distribute films that are produced without authorization and that aren't arty enough to really work in international film festivals. If you take a look at their catalog you'll probably find some directors whose films (or a part of them) could eventually be found online. And if you are into documentary, there are really good things made in China.

[LaoDing]

Thanks. I quite enjoy documentaries. Maybe someone could start a thread??

Can you find interesting documentaries (not CCTV!) that are subbed? I'd be very much interested.

 

Often I'll see Chinese movies that have documentary like elements to them and that's always a plus. One move that I personally liked (though I can understand how it could bore some people to tears) was Oxhide. I think it could stand as a documentary giving us a very intimate look at a small Beijing family. I also thought it was quite touching, despite being about as minimalist as you can get and still have dialogue. Another documentary like film that I liked was Beijing Bastards, though that was all over the place. I liked it though.

 

There's major films too like Nanjing! Nanjing! and Not One Less that take on documentary perspectives. But other than that, I've never really seen a 'good' documentary made in China, though I've seen tons made about China with footage inside the country. I did see one however- Wild China I believe it was called that was fantastic on the level of 'Planet Earth.' I don't remember if it was made in collaboration or not though. What I'd really like to see are honest and simple takes on the day to day realities of 'Chinese people' (Han and non-Han) everywhere. I can't really see an end to filming possibilities.

[Angelina]

CCTV documentary

http://tv.cctv.com/cctvdocumentary/

[LaoDing]

Ack. Don't you find CCTV doc's extremely, what's the word, 'devoid' maybe? Like pretty wrapping with nothing inside? I mean, I would never say that CCTV is hard-hitting- no Vice News like stuff. I guess the more cynical among us would say it's just a bunch of propaganda designed above all to make China not look bad, but I don't know if I'd go that far. Maybe I just don't where to look. I'll check out the link, thanks!

Have you ever listened to Lazlo Montgomery's China History Podcast? Now there's good stuff! To me anyway. I tried to watch Early 中原 (I think that's the right term) civilization on CCTV and almost cried with boredom. Then again, the Yunnan special on wild mushrooms was really cool. CCTV is a skinny chicken though- pickings are few. 

[Guest realmayo]

Maybe the mainstream Chinese taste is different from the mainstream Western one. Chinese films, whether they're blockbusters or arty ones, often seem to me to have nothing like the sense of plot, development etc that you get in most Western films. Instead you just get lots more disconnected chunks served up in front of you. It's not what I'm used to and I don't like it.

But then it would be in keeping with traditional Chinese art or poetry where the viewer or reader has to fill-in-the-gaps, or at least do some of the work, to turn - say - reasonably abstract brushstrokes into a coherent whole. And I quite like Chinese art and poems. Hmm. Maybe Chinese cinema, despite borrowing heavily from the West in some respects, still feels no obligation to tie things tightly together like you'd expect in a Western film. Maybe I'm too used to being spoon-fed direction by, well, movie directors. Who knows. What I do know is after 10 minutes or so of a mainland film I realise I've been given no reason to care at all about what is coming up in the next 90+ minutes. So I don't continue watching.

[Angelina]

Of course, you can't expect people from different parts of the world to think in the same way.

I once read an interesting interpretation of The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston.

http://utpress.utexas.edu/index.php/books/aldtow

Chapter Seven. Cross-Cultural Mind-Reading; or, Coming to Terms with the Ethnic Mother in Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior (Klarina Priborkin)

The mother used to avoid spoon feeding her daughter direction. The daughter was growing up in America, she was unable to understand her mother's avoidance of explicit narration. The thing is, the daughter was growing up in a society where you are expected to have a mother who will be spoon feeding you direction (instead of the fill-in-the-gaps approach she got from her Chinese mother).

It is the same with cinema.

[Naphta]

@LaoDing There are lots of very interesting Chinese documentaries, not mainstream, don't expect linear narratives and voice-over explanation.

 

 

What I'd really like to see are honest and simple takes on the day to day realities of 'Chinese people' (Han and non-Han) everywhere. I can't really see an end to filming possibilities.

 

You can try Wang Bing's films, although they are very long they are a real immersion into "day to day reality" of different han and non-han people. For instance, Three Sisters. From the point of view of film aesthetics, Wang Bing's films is the most important thing "China" has produced in the past twenty years (he's completely marginal in China though). His best film, West of the Rails, is an amazing 8 hours long experience on the disintegration of a big industrial complex.

Wu Wenguang, another documentary film maker, launched a project ten years ago called "Village Documentary Project". They taught peasants how to make films, gave them equipment and the result is a series of home made documentary films about daily life in Chinese villages.

Some other important documentary film makers are Xu Tong, Gu Tao... Zhao Liang's Petition is quite important as well. I like very much his Paper Airplane on Beijing junkies. Hu Jie's documentaries research on the victims of the Cultural Revolution, although from a "formal" point of view they are less challenging. Even Jia Zhangke documentaries are worth watching...

I think that on the documentary side, Chinese independent film is very rich.

I'm not sure you'll be able to find these films on streaming. Most of them are just unauthorized in China, so you won't find them on Chinese websites. But if you dig a little bit, they aren't really that hard to find