Trashy Soap Opera of the Month Club

[roddy]

We had some discussion here about the potential for a Soap Opera Watching Association, similar to the Book of the Month thing, where a bunch of us watch the same TV series (not necessarily a soap opera) roughly in step, helping each other out with plot / language details.

I'm going to chuck out a few suggestions for the first one. These are by no means comprehensive, it's mostly just stuff I happen to have heard of, or has been recommended elsewhere.

Bearing in mind that whatever we watch is going to need to be fairly easily downloadable (while not condoning piracy ) and have (Chinese) subtitles.

中国式离婚

Probably the most soap-opera like. Middle-class couple go through an incredibly complicated divorce, which is complicated by their having a son, and further complicated by infidelity. Was very popular water-cooler TV when first shown. Analysis here, VeryCD.com for download links (while not condoning piracy ) here, YesAsia.com also has it, but in a few versions. Not sure which one is best. I'm not sure about the fidelity thing, as I've only watched the first episode, but I bet there is some. 23 episodes (or maybe 22, I've seen both figures quoted).

东北一家人

Suggested by Wushijiao, Northeastern family sitcom. I've watched one episode and it was pretty standard afternoon sit-com fare. Over 100 episodes, it seems, so we'd have to draw a line somewhere. VeryCD.com, (while not condoning piracy )

家有九凤

This is the most recent one and I caught a few episodes on TV, as detailed here. I looked for 空镜子, by the same director and couldn't find it, but 家有九凤 seems to be available (downloading the first episode now to see if it has subtitles, (while not condoning piracy ) ). As far as I know, which isn't very far, it's the story of an elderly woman living in a provincial town and her 9 daughters. Of the three, this is probably the one with the most claim to be 'quality' television. YesAsia. 20-something episodes.

Those are the only three I'm going to suggest. Please note that I haven't even watched more than an episode or two of any of these, and I am hoping that there will be other suggestions. If we get to episode 3 and discover everyone starts talking in thick Sichuan accents, tough luck.

Of these three, I would go for 中国式离婚 or 家有九凤. Reasons:

a) 东北一家人 is a sit-com, and as such the episodes don't follow on from each other - ie, there's no reason to stick with it and keep watching like with a soap opera / drama which develops over time. Also, do you really want to wind up speaking like a soap opera character?

of the remaining two, I'm not sure which I would go for. My impression is that 中国式离婚 is faster paced, but also a bit more melodramatic and generally silly, while 家有九凤 is calmer and relies more on strong characters than constant plot twists. Perhaps melodrama and a constantly twisting plot are what you need to keep you interested when you are working in a foreign language? But these are just impressions.

Any comments, other suggestions, etc?

Roddy

[wushijiao]

It sounds like 家有九凤 might be a good choice. One problem with 东北一家人 is the subtitles are in white, and are fairly small. Anytime a whole dialogue takes place in a light setting, the show can be hard to follow.

I'd also wonder if anyone has watched any other TV series that have helped to improve Mandarin levels, a thus may be worth suggesting.

[geraldc]

Well 中国式离婚 looks good to me. The opening titles are perhaps a bit too classy, I was really hoping for something a little trashier, but this will do.

Nice clear subtitles, on black background for once, so there's no real excuse for not looking up anything I don't understand.

I think this soap club will be very good, not just in respect to the language but also in regard to Chinese society, i.e. are Beijing ambulances really just minimally adapted minibuses? It does slightly jar with everyone using state of the art mobile phones, and the ambulance is just a minibus without the central seats being utlilised...

[roddy]

(while not condoning piracy ) the version of 家有九凤 available on Emule does have subtitles, but they aren't the clearest and are over the picture, rather than below the picture with 中国式离婚. I guess that's a slight vote in favour of the melodramatic nonsense - perhaps wiser to wait a while for 家有九凤.

I would also have liked to suggest 大宅门, which is a kind of bizarre costume drama with dialogue that's been pulled right off the streets of Beijing today. I have no idea how historically accurate it is, but it's good fun. Only trouble is that I can't find a version online with subtitles. If anyone wants to take a look though, start here

Roddy

[randall_flagg]

Although my Chinese might not be sufficient yet, I would sure at least like to try and join this fun soap-opera group. What a perfect idea! I never really thought about doing something like that, but come to think about it, this is what I have been looking for all along! Having fun watching a soap AND learning spoken Chinese? Great!

But, again, computer troubles won't let me do what i want. I can't download any of the episodes because the file name is in Chinese. I've had this problem before: if I have images, songs or movies with Chinese file names, my computer cannot save or let alone open them. Too bad. Is there another way to download these files?

This stinks, but I guess I'll have to live with it? I'll buy my next laptop in China, that's for sure.

If anyone out there can help me, I'd appreciate it. If you are tired of helping me out, Roddy, I understand. No worries, you've done a lot for me. Thanks.

Randall

[roddy]

You're on your own with the file issues, but if you start a new topic in Computing with full info - OS, etc - then you might get some help.

Last call for other suggestions, I think, otherwise GeraldC and myself at least will carry on with 中国式离婚 and we can open discussion on the next target.

[johnmck]

You can get the files here:

http://www.chinaportal.com/chinaportal/html/modules/content.php?subcatid=&citemid=174

Edit: I spoke to fast, they are protected by DRM

[roddy]

While not condoning piracy . . .

The VeryCD link in the first page will take you to a page of Emule links. Obviously you need to install Emule first. Alternatively, use Emule's own search function to search for 中国式离婚 and it should come up - you may need to select the 'Unicode Search' option.

Downloads might be slow, so plan ahead.

Roddy

[roddy]

I've gutted this thread to start a few new topics for the episodes we're watching so far. I'm currently thinking we should have two topics for each episode, one plot and one language (so that you can look up language issues in advance without spoiling the plot. However, this seems a bit over complex - any thoughts?

How many people do we have participating? There's at least myself and geraldc, but I know a lot of people have been looking at this and thinking about it - anyone else watching? waiting for downloads to finish? I'd be open to the idea of putting it on hold for a week or so if people are waiting for DVDs to arrive.

If you're interested but not able or willing to watch, let us know why and perhaps we can rearrange things or help out somehow.

Roddy

[gougou]

I couldn't ask you to put it on hold for me alone, but if it was to be suspended for a while because there's more people interested, I'd order the DVD's (or I'd convince my ISP to configure port forwarding...)

[roddy]

If you're in Beijing as your location says, you should be able to pick up a box set in a DVD shop pretty easily. I'd be happy to wait a while though, as it'll be more fun with more people and we did move pretty quickly from 'is this a good idea' to 'well, I've finished episode 2'.

Roddy

[roddy]

Incidentally, 当当 has the original book, VCD and DVD versions, and also a report on divorce on China (for background )

Roddy

[gougou]

Oh yeah, that's right, they do have brick-and-mortar DVD shops around here... Gosh, those coupons 当当网 keeps on giving me really do serve a marketing purpose!

[gougou]

OK, found a place that does have port forwarding configured (and for the first time I feel this internship is actually rewarding...)

I'll be watching the first episode tonight!

[johnmck]

Gougou, how did you get the files? This the first time I have ever tried to use emule and all I do is wait (I've modified my firewall to allow the TCP and UCP on the correct ports).

[gougou]

I used bittorrent (BT), not Emule. Getting fantastic D/L rates here (more than 100k, not sure how much you can get in France). Download a client somewhere, for example BitComet, then go here, choose one of the links with file size around 3.7 gig (might take a while for them to show, even after the page has finished loading), and you're all set.

Oh yeah, and of course I am not condoning piracy , either

[geraldc]

I have all the episodes now, so if anyone in London wants a copy, PM me.

[roddy]

I may 'tidy' this thread up in a day or two (sh).

Anyway, I can't wait any longer. Starting episode three now . . .

Roddy

[johnmck]

While not condoning piracy I carn't get the damn files to download! It is simplier just to buy the DVDs, it will take a few weeks for delivery but with my poor level of Chinese it would not be very long before I would be a couple of weeks behind the forum anyway:lol:

Does anyone have any experience ordering from YesAsia.com?

[wrwills]

Yes, I've used them and they're fine though it does take a while for their products to arrive (I guess that's because they're based in America). It'd be nice if there was a UK-based or European version.