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shijiegongzi · 4 years

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All the Chinese Dramas/Movies I’ve Watched or Started (85 Listed Here)

Painted Skin 1 (Hua Pi 1) (movie)

Painted Skin 2 (Hua Pi 2) (movie)

She Diao Ying Xiong Zhuan 2008 (Legend of the Condor Heroes)

Shen Diao Xia Lv 2006 (Return of the Condor Heroes)

Xiao Ao Jiang Hu 2013 (The Smiling, Proud Wanderer)

Tai Zi Fei Sheng Zhi Ji (Go Princess Go)

Huan Cheng (Ice Fantasy)

Hua Qian Gu (Journey of the Flower)

San Sheng San Shi Shi Li Tao Hua (Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms)

Chu Qiao Zhuan (Princess Agents)

Shuang Shi Chong Fei (The Eternal Love)

Legend of Fu Yao

Yan Xi Gong Lve (Yanxi Palace)

Ruyi Zhuan (Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace)

Zhen Hun (Guardian)

Zhifou Zhifou Yin Shi Lv Fei Hong Shou (Story of Minglan)

Xu Ni Fu Sheng Ruo Meng (Granting You a Dreamlike Life)

Bian Cheng Lang Zi (Border Town Prodigal)

Xia Zhi Mo Zhi (Rush to the Dead Summer)

Shuang Shi Chong Fei 2 (The Eternal Love 2)

She Diao Ying Xiong Zhuan 2017 (Legend of the Condor Heroes)

Xiang Mi Chen Chen Jin Ru Shuang (Ashes of Love)

Dong Gong (Goodbye My Princess)

Mei Zhe Wu Jiang (Bloody Romance)

Legend of Yunxi

Dugu Tianxia (Legend of Dugu)

Xiao Nv Hua Bu Qi (I Will Never Let You Go)

Qin Shi Li Ren Ming Yue Xin (King’s Woman)

Huan Le Song (Ode to Joy)

Huan Le Song 2 (Ode to Joy 2)

Qin Ai De, Re Ai De (Go Go Squid)

Ying Xiong 2002 (Hero) (movie)

Shi Mian Mai Fu (House of Flying Daggers) (movie)

Zhi Wo Men Dan Chun De Xiao Mei Hao (A Love So Beautiful)

Bai Fa (Princess Silver)

Zhen Huan Zhuan (Empresses in the Palace)

Bubu Jing Xin (Scarlet Heart, Chinese version)

Zhi Wo Men Nuan Nuan de Xiao Shi Guang (Put Your Head on my Shoulder)

Bai She: Yuan Qi (White Snake) (animated movie)

Chen Qing Ling (The Untamed, live action)

Mo Dao Zu Shi (Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, donghua)

Jing Ying Lv Shi (The Best Partner)

Qing Yun Zhi (Noble Aspirations aka Legend of Chusen)

Qing Yu Nian (Joy of Life)

Meng Hui Da Qing (Dreaming Back to the Qing Dynasty)

Legend of Hao Lan

Jiang Ye (Ever Night)

Fa Yi Qin Ming (Medical Examiner Dr. Qin) (2016 version with Zhang Ruoyun)

Wu Xin Fa Shi (Wu Xin: The Monster Killer)

Gu Hua (Talking Bones)

Xin Ling Fa Shi (The Listener)

Jiu Zhou Tian Kong Cheng 2016 (Novoland Castle in the Sky)

Wu Dong Qian Kun (Martial Universe)

Wo Zhi Dao Ni De Mi Mi (I Know Your Secret)

Da Song Bei Dou Si (Plough Department of Song Dynasty)

Ai Qing Jin Hua Lun 2018 (Evolution of Our Love)

Da Wang Bu Rong Yi (King is Not Easy)

Qing Ping Yue/Gu Cheng Bi (Serenade of Peaceful Joy/Held in the Lonely Castle)

Lang Ya Bang (Nirvana in Fire)

Xia Tan Jian Buzhi (Ancient Detective)

Gu Jin Da Zhan Qin Yong Qing (Fight and Love with a Terracotta Warrior)(movie)

Shen Tan (Detective L)

Min Guo Qi Tan (My Roommate is a Detective)

He Shen (Tientsin Mystic)

Zui Ye Wu Jian (Evil Nights)

Jue Ji Lin Jie Tian Xia (LORD Critical World)

Xiong An Xian Cheng (The Truth)

Wei Zhuang Zhe (The Disguiser)

Chuan Shuo Zhong de Chen Qianqian (Romance of Tiger and Rose)

Ru GUo Wo Niu You Ai Qing (When a Snail Falls in Love)

Xi You Ji 2019 (Tian Zhen Pai version) (Journey to the West)

Dian Xia Gong Lue (To Get Her)

Hong Lou Meng (Xiao Xi Gu version) (Dream of the Red Chamber)

Ming Xing Da Zhen Tan (Who’s the Murderer)

Hong Lou Meng 1987 (Dream of the Red Chamber)

Xiao Huan Xi (Little Reunion)

Fei Ren Zai (Non-human) (animated series)

Da Song Shao Nian Zhi (Young Blood)

Lang Ya Bang 2 (Nirvana in Fire 2)

Hei An Zhe (Death Notify: The Darker)

Hen Ji (Trace)

Jin Yi Zhi Xia (Under the Power)

Wai Ke Feng Yun (Surgeons)

Shao Nu Da Ren (Maiden Holmes)

Ren Zha Fan Pai Zi Jiu Xi Tong (Scum Villain Self-saving System)

#shijiegongzi #recs

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dilirebas · 5 years

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Hi! Are there any Wuxia or fantasy historical dramas you recommend? Thanks!

Sure! I’m not sure what style you’re looking for and whether or not you need English subs, so I’ll just throw out everything that comes to mind.

For the great classics, there are a few Jin Yong novel adaptations I would recommend. Legend of the Condor Heroes is one of Jin Yong’s best known stories and the 2003 adaption of LOCH is great, if you don’t mind watching something older (and with pretty bad video quality lol). I also started watching the 2017 version, which is more modern, and I really like it so far. There’s a 2008 version with more of an idol drama style but it was a real drag to watch so I wouldn’t recommend it.

Return of the Condor Heroes is another classic but unfortunately the 2006 version is the latest one worth watching because the 2014 version is pretty terrible, and I don’t have a good feeling about the 2019 version. And again if you don’t mind watching older stuff, the 2003 version of Demi Gods and Semi Devils is quite good too.

The Flame’s Daughter is a wuxia drama I’ve recommended a few times. I was expecting yet another mediocre idol drama take on wuxia but I ended up loving it, and even rewatching it. The story and characters are well-written and memorable, and the fight scenes are fantastic. It’s a sweet idol drama with a proper wuxia feel. I also recommended Bloody Romance a lot because it’s an incredibly good drama overall, but the action/fighting/abilities are not as well-developed, so as a wuxia production it leaves me a bit cold.

I would also recommend Princess Agents, which isn’t strictly wuxia in plot, but it does have that type of action and conflict. The production quality is very high, the characters are well-written, and the 2nd male lead will break your heart.

The King’s Woman also isn’t strictly wuxia because it’s an idol palace drama in many ways but it mixes in the martial arts world and action. I’m throwing this in here because the chemistry between Dilraba and Zhang Bin Bin will leave you with your jaw dropped.

And on the topic of wuxia/xianxia with a more idol drama feel, the production company Tangren has made some iconic ones. I actually think some of their lesser known dramas are better than their most popular ones. Strange Hero Yi Zhi Mei is about a group of four heroes solving cases and it’s a really fun watch. It has a more realistic fighting style and the cast is simply brilliant. Xuan Yuan Sword: Rift in the Sky is a fun xianxia drama with meh CGI but an enjoyable story and a strong cast.

Lastly, Novoland: Storm of Prophecy is actually such a well-made drama in so many ways. The world-building is great, the production quality created such a unique atmosphere, the entire cast is brilliant, but you really shouldn’t expect too much. Idk if they were hoping for a sequel or if it was budget issues, but the storylines simply don’t get resolved. Everything is set up brilliant and then you have no idea how it gets tied up.

Other than that, I still haven’t watched Martial Universe and Legend of Fuyao, but I’ll definitely get to those, so I’ll keep you guys updated about my thoughts!

#cdrama #my thoughts #ask

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the-wintry-mizzenmast · 6 years

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I am very sad to hear of the passing of Louis Cha, known to most as Jin Yong 金庸. He was the grandfather of the wuxia literary genre. His works (or rather, their 80's era TV adaptations) imprinted on me hugely as a child, as stories where young female characters had just as much agency, intelligence, fighting capability, and importance as the boys in tales of martial arts derring-do.

His leading ladies in his Condor Heroes Trilogy will forever epitomize some of the ideals of positive representation of women in fiction. He always wrote a lot of wildly different women with different personalities, but he very rarely denied them their agency or their role to play in the unfolding story, or even their historical importance in the canon of his world. I will never fail to point out that Huang Rong 黃蓉 is remembered one hundred years after her death, equally alongside her husband, Guo Jing 郭靖 , not only for her cunning and intelligence, but also for her heroism and valor in defending Xiangyang against the invading Mongolian forces. That in his history, a woman is remembered for her deeds and her character, and never as man’s wife or a character’s daughter or mother, meant more to me as a little kid than I could have imagined or articulated at the time.

In this world of institutionalized racism and sexism, I don't think I would have gotten as far as I have now without the confidence that Jin Yong's characters instilled me at an early age. Though he wasn’t really writing more in his later years, his work still had a huge impact on the formation of my identity (and countless other young Chinese or girls of Chinese descent), and he will be missed.

RIP. If you’re interested in checking out Jin Yong’s wuxia world, there are a couple of ways it has now been accessible to English speakers. The first act of the first book of the Condor Heroes Trilogy, known colloquially as “Legend of the Condor Heroes” or “Legend of the Eagle Shooting Heroes” is officially being translated as A Hero Born. More is supposed to coming soon.

Fan translations are available as well of all the books in the series, and more, are available at WuxiaSociety.

There are a lot of adaptations of the TV series, which on average some production company remakes once per decade. The 1980′s versions are the best, but more difficult to find to English-speakers, so I recommend checking out some of the more recent versions (2003, 2008 or 2017 for Legend of the Condor Heroes, 2006 for Return of the Condor Heroes, and 2009 for Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber) which you might be able to find on Youtube or other sites.

#wuxia #jin yong #louis cha #condor heroes

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preachingandtalking-blog · 7 years

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#the legend of the condor heroes #2008 #ariel lin

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loverofallthingssmart · 3 years

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i came here listening to the song to talk about how legend of the condor heroes (2008) so far is a banger and now i am crying about the future again !

OMG!!! i saw ur posts about it its on my increasingly long to watch list!! and SAME beloved!!! its okay ink we'll get THROUGH this mwah!

#mitski my beloved must you hurt me so #but also legend of the condor heroes sounds fun im glad ur having a nice time!!!!!#ask me anything #anna tag

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dangermousie · 7 months

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This is one of my favorite sequences in the whole drama, and for once this actually gets addressed in a vengeance narrative. Do you realize how rare this is?

Thank YOU!

God, young Hu Ge was gorgeous! But on a less shallow note, it's such an interesting part of the narrative how this gets challenged and/or held to for GJ. Because as of now, forgiveness as a concept is easy - his father is an abstract to him (he died before GJ was born), he feels sad for his mother's pain and he feels a duty about his father but his emotions aren't personally engaged - a lot of this narrative is how much both GJ and YK can hold on to their morals (or how much they can abandon) when pushed and when things become personal. The concept of vengeance is no longer abstract for GJ when he discovers his masters slain. Rage and betrayal and the cost of forgiveness aren't just concepts for him when Yang Kang turns against him. This is a much less bleak narrative than eg The Myth and he emerges with his soul intact and his heroic journey heroic, but I love that it isn't easy and it costs him.

#cdrama #hu ge #the legend of the condor heroes 2008 #legend of the condor heroes

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culturalgutter · 6 years

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Jet ‘s Chang Mo-Kei’s kung fu has been struck by the Jinx Palm, blocking his chi, destroying his ability to perform kung fu and causing him to need constant infusions of chi from Taoist priest Chang San-Fung (Sammo Hung). But Chang can only be cured by a massive infusion of yang energy, which he receives after falling off a cliff and meets a hermit chained to a bolder who teaches him the Great Solar Stance to get back at the hermit’s own enemies. Afterwards, Chang is super-skilled and learns kung fu with the ease of Jet Li. Then things get crazy with everybody flying and chi all over the place, a Mongol princess, the King of Green Bat, all the martial arts schools fighting each other, hundreds of people running around with flags, the not-evil Evil Cult, Hermit Chained to a Boulder Fist. And then, as it gets to the big end fight, it just stops, teasing a sequel that was never made. And I was filled with wonder.

Wong Jing’s Kung Fu Cult Master (1993) is the first time I know that I watched something adapted from a Louis Cha story. It is based on the third novel in Cha’s Condor Trilogy, Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre. I probably saw it at the old Golden Classics Cinema in Toronto. It was when I was watching all the Jet Li movies. This one was memorable and, having no familiarity with the source material, I found it difficult to follow. That didn’t stop me from pretending later I had been struck by a Jinx Palm. (What do you expect me to do when you give me charcoal powder toothpaste, people?). I was filled with wonder.

Since then I have made sense of what I saw through translated comics adaptations, in particular Ma Wing-Shing’s Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre (Comic One, 2002), the novel Kung Fu Cult Master adapts. It seems fitting that I would first read Louis Cha via the comics of Ma Shing-Wing and Tony Wong’s The Legendary Couple (ComicOne, 2002), an adaptation of Cha’s Return of the Condor Heroes. It parallels how I first encountered him in a way that I remember in Kung Fu Cult Master, rather than Chor Yuen’s elegant Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre (1978) or Wong Kar-Wai’s deconstruction and sorta prequel, Ashes of Time (Redux or not) (1993; 2008).

Behold this wonder! Gold Lion and Green Bat in Kung Fu Cult Master

Slightly more elegant Green Bat in Chor Yuen’s 1978 Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre

The comics and the 1983 television adaptations allowed me to become familiar with Cha and these stories. They allowed me start to understand stories that assumed familiarity with the story, whether Kung Fu Cult Master, Ashes of Time, or Jeffrey Lau’s Lunar New Year parody of The Legend of Condor Heroes, The Eagle Shooting Heroes (1993), shot with the same cast and at the same time as Ashes of Time. Please note Tony Leung Chiu-Wai in each film.

As the Blind Swordsmani in Ashes of Time

Suffering from a painful allergic reaction as Duan Zhixing in Eagle Shooting Heroes

In the early 1990s, Louis Cha was what Ip Man movies are now.

I watched some of the 2000s and 2010s tv adaptations in non-subtitled form, but by then I could understand who and what I was seeing. In fact, I was pleased when I could actually get the joke that the landlord and landlady in Stephen Chow’s Kung Fu Hustle (2006) were the ill-fated lovers of Return of the Condor Heroes, Yang Guo and Xiaolongnü played by Andy Lau and Idy Chan in the 1983 tv adaptation I borrowed from a good friend and have since gotten for myself.

Andy Lau as Yang Guo and Idy Chan as Xiaolongnu in 1983

Carman Lee as Xiaolongnu, Lois Koo as Yang Guo and giant condor friend in 1995.

Yuen Qiu as Xiaolongnu and Yuen Wah as Yang Guo in Kung Fu Hustle. Ha, I get the joke now! I can laugh!

And it helped a lot watching those shows when I read Tony Wong’s Legendary Couple, because the translations of the names were so different, but I recognized a disreputable Taoist when I saw him.* Sometimes the Wudang Clan is something to mess with.

Cha’s most adapted–and possibly referenced–books are the Condor Trilogy: Legend of Condor Heroes; Return of the Condor Heroes; and, Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre. They are sequels, but follow family and kung fu school lines more than the adventures of any one protagonist through three novels. And luckily for us, McLehose Press is planning on translated the whole trilogy into English. The first volume, Legends of the Condor Heroes: A Hero Born, translanted by Anna Holmwood, is now available. No English speakers will ever need to struggle like I did again. The kung fu fantasy works of Louis Cha will be available to us all–or at least some of them.

Dr. Louis Cha Leung-yung was born in 1924 in Haining, Jiaxing, China and lives in Hong Kong. That’s right, Cha is still going at 94. He has worked as an editor editor and journalist, but it was his wuxia novels, written between 1955 and 1972 under the pseudonym “Jin Yong,” (Kam Yung in Cantonese) that brought him a tremendous success. According to Holmwood, “sales of his books worldwide stand at 300 million, and if bootleg copies are taken into consideration, that figure rises to a staggering one billion.”

Cha got his start as a copy editor in 1947 at Shanghai’s Ta Kung Po newspaper. He became deputy editor of Hong Kong’s Hsin Wan Po. He left journalism briefly to work as as screenwriter for Great Wall Movie Enterprises, Ltd. In 1959, Cha co-founded Hong Kong’s Ming Pao newspaper. And it was primarily Ming Pao that serialized his fifteen wuxia stories. His first was The Romance Of The Book And The Sword (1955). His last was Sword of the Yue Maiden. He retired from writing fiction in 1972 and he’s been updating and revising the work ever since. There was a time in the 1970s when his books were simultaneously banned in both the Mainland–because it was seen as satirizing and criticizing the Chinese government–and in Taiwan–because it was seen as somehow pro-Communist, anti-Kuomintang and critical of Taiwan’s one-party rule.In 1995, he retired from his position as editor-in-chief of Ming Pao. Cha has been active in Hong Kong politics, helping draft the Hong Kong Basic Law and then working on the Preparatory Committee in advance of the handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to China in 1997. And he’s spent much of the new millennium pursuing higher education. He studied at St. John’s College in Cambridge, receiving a doctorate in Chinese history in 2010. And the South China Morning Post reports that Cha (might have) received another doctorate, this one in Chinese literature from Peking University in 2013. Of course, this doesn’t even begin to cover his probable knowledge of martial arts like the Nine Yin Manual and 18 Dragon Palm. One assumes Dr. Cha is cultured in all things.

Dr. Louis Cha via the South China Morning Post

Whenever I think of Louis Cha, I think of Tony Leung Chiu-wai in Wong Kar-Wai’s In The Mood For Love (2000). Sure, there is lovely music and melancholy love with the sartorially unstoppable Maggie Cheung, but it is easy to overlook that not only is Tony Leung a writer, he is a writer of wuxia novels. I’m not saying that Wong made a movie about Louis Cha’s love life, which I hope is less depressing, but I think Cha and writers like Gu Long and Wang Dulu were in the background. Especially after Ashes Of Time. And Ashes of Time is a lot easier to follow if you realize it is a deconstruction of the Condor Trilogy. It relies on the same kind of familiarity that Peter Greenaway relies on people having with The Tempest in watching Prospero’s Books (1991). I love that the touchstones for both extremely artsy-fartsy directors are different. I love that Wong works with a serialized wuxia writer. It would be like Greenaway deconstructing Tolkien or Robert E. Howard**—but all wrapped up together. The high and low brow have a common enemy. God save us from the middle brow.

And Cha is being compared to Tolkien and George R. R. Martin in many of the reviews of A Hero Born. In fact, right on the cover a blurb from the Irish Times reads, “A Chinese Lord of the Rings.” And I get it. It’s short hand. People need some kind of reference before they’ll pick up the book. That’s fine. There will be plenty of time for pedantry later. Once people have read the book and become Cha fans, they can start arguing on the internet, “Hey, Louis Cha is a much more prolific author than Tolkien ever was with a more profound influence on Chinese language literature and readers.”

I would probably make those comparisons myself if my first encounter with Cha’s characters and stories hadn’t been Kung Fu Cult Master. Then again, Kung Fu Cult Master is the first half of a projected two-art adaptation but, like Ralph Bakshi’s animated Lord of the Rings, there was never a part two. So. Yeah. It’s just that I don’t know what other comparison to make.

In an interview with South China Morning Post, Anna Holmwood describes Legends of the Condor Heroes: A Hero Born as “China’s Walter Scott mixed with The Lord of the Rings fantasy things. That’s exactly what it is.” For their part, the SCMP copy editor chose a title comparing the trilogy with George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice And Fire. A Hero Born is wuxia at its best. It’s 1205 CE and the Jin are encroaching on the Song Empire. The emperor is unworthy and the people are oppressed. Itinerant heroes try to make things right. Two of them, Skyfury Guo and Ironheart Yang encounter a grumpy Taoist priest Chu Qiuji*** who, while heroic, is a jerk. He avidly demonstrates why the Wu Tang Clan is nothing to mess with. Guo and Yang become involved in a fight with soldiers and must flee. Their children, Guo Jing and Yang Kang grow up on different sides of the conflict. Plus, there’s Genghis Khan! And a secret beggar sect! And one of my favorite characters keeps his wife’s body in a frozen cave! I wish I could do better, but I’ll just suggest you read the book, read the comics, watch the tv shows and movies.

Oh, yeah, and there’s plenty of fantastic kung fu move and school names and action. Comics, while also working in a static medium, don’t face the same kinds of challenges a novel does in depicting action. Comics creator Ma Wing-Shing in particular captures the force of the martial arts masters moves. I am particularly fond of his chi lines. But Holmwood has some interesting thoughts on translating the names of the various stances, fists and swords as well as conveying the choreography of a fight sans images.

“The name [of these moves] is very evocative and it’s part of the creating of the world, but what really matters to readers is can they follow who is doing what, what the actions are, who is hitting whom, and how they are hitting them,” she said. “When you are translating, you have to read on such a careful and deep level. You are constantly asking yourself: is the hand going there? Is it going up or down? How is this move working? That’s the most challenging part – is to be able to express what the actions are in a way that is going to be vivid on the page and people can clearly understand and follow what’s happening.”

“You can shorten sentences to make the action move, and use some short punchy verbs that make the actions very fast,” she said. “When you want to draw attention to the moment for dramatic effect, you add more details, slow it down, and make the sentence a big longer.”

And I have to say it works. Right from the start of A Hero Born, I easily imagine Chu Qiuji’s unnecessarily brutal fights with the heroes he mistakes for scoundrels. Does it help that I’ve read Ma Wing-Shing, Tony Wong and seen film and television adaptations of Cha’s stories? Maybe. But Holmwood does a good job of taking readers into the martial world. I can’t wait for the next translated volume of Legend of Condor Heroes finally presented if not in its original serial format, something close. McLehose is planning three more volumes of Legend of Condor Heroes before starting on Return of the Condor Heroes–making this a burly “trilogy.”

Ma Wing-Shing demonstrates how to draw punching.

I wrote more about Ma Wing-Shing and his adaptation of Hero here.

*This Taoist is no Chang San-Fung / Zhang Sanfang.

***Or finally making my long hoped for film, Peter Greenaway’s Batman and Robin.

*There is one disreputable Taoist and then there is Chu Qiuji, who is extremely reputable, but incredibly judgmental and harsh. I am afraid to think of what Chu Qiuji might be without Taoism.

~~~

Cured of the Jinx Palm, Carol Borden has retired to Peach Blossom Island to study Nine Yin White Bone Claw.

The Many Forms of Louis Cha’s Condor Heroes Jet 's Chang Mo-Kei's kung fu has been struck by the Jinx Palm, blocking his chi, destroying his ability to perform kung fu and causing him to need constant infusions of chi from Taoist priest…

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ultra-violet-heart · 6 years

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Thanks so much!!! I loved loved loved Moonlight Drawn by Clouds, and I never thought I'd love another drama again until I came across Princess Weiyoung and General and I. And then I felt the same way looking for new dramas, so bless you for the recommendations!!!

No problem, Anon! I’ve watched more historical Cdramas than Kdramas though, so I cannot exactly offer more recs on the latter [my favorite historical Kdramas are Queen Seondeok, The Princess’ Man, Empress Ki, and we all knew what happened with those three haha]. Sungkyungkwan Scandal has a happy ending and it has my favorite actors Park Min-young and Song Joong-ki, but I hate Park Yoo-chun with a passion so it’s not exactly a favorite of mine. On Cdramas, I think many Jin Yong novel drama adaptations have good versions? I liked the The Legend of the Condor Heroes (2008) with Ariel Lin and Hu Ge, but maybe that’s just me, though I haven’t watched The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber [the Condor Heroes trilogy novels are good though]On Jdramas, I’ve had enough of watching Japanese history in anime/VNs so I refrain from watching Taiga dramas as much as I can. I haven’t finished this yet (I haven’t finished getting the eps) but Yae no Sakura is a great drama [I loved Moribito better though] though I saw Haruka Ayase’s versatility here as an actress :)

#sungkyungkwan scandal #jin yong #legend of the condor heroes #heaven sword and dragon saber #yae no sakura

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rigelmejo · 10 months

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how my language levels feel right now:

japanese:

if I have seen it/played it before in english, then watching a lets play or playing it is understandable for overall main idea in japanese. i can also understand some details. i can understand maybe 75-95% of details too if I look up words about every 3 minutes. comprehension if i look up words is definitely at or above the 95% range for some materials (easier ones). So for things like Kingdom Hearts 2, Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core... I can either watch a lets play, play it in japanese, or read a script and understand enough to be fine without word lookups.

if it is brand new media in japanese: if there is text i can read along to with audio and visuals, then i understand the main idea maybe 80-90% of the time? i can rely on kanji that are similar meaning to hanzi to kind of bullshit my way through guessing what each sentence is about, and then audio helps me distinguish any japanese words i already know, resulting in mostly understanding the main idea. comprehension is NOT at 95% or better yet because i CANNOT follow main idea enough to simply read extensively yet if it is brand new material. i can read and look up words every so often though, and do fairly well. ***Oddly, I do fairly well with audio+text+visual combos without word lookups even on new media. I was watching Miu404 in japanese and although its HARD, i grasp enough to follow the main idea. Watching ‘Old Enough’ was much easier though, i can comprehend over 95% of that easily without word lookup. And for some reason Yakuza Ishin is fairly easy for me to follow the main idea of as well, although i don’t understand many details (and frankly im shocked my understanding of what’s going on is as HIGH as it is considering all the dialect words I wouldn’t know even if i had a higher vocabulary). I’m honestly really surprised how much i grasp when doing video games...

if it is brand new media and JUST audio: i’m absolutely useless. i have to listen to material for beginners such as Nihongo Con Teppei. Anything thats brand new media, audio only, has too many unknown words.

if it’s brand new and JUST text: for some particularly easier manga i can read and follow the main idea (Neon Genesis Evangelion, Junji Ito Comics, Hikaru No Go) but get confused on details. on much easier manga like Ranma 1/2, Yobatato, i can read and grasp main idea and most details. if its a novel with no pictures? Hahaha hahahaaaaaaaaa haaaaaa. I have no chance of grasping anything more than a very vague “this is probably the main topic” unless i at least look up some prior context like a novel summary. I’m sticking to game scripts i’ve played before, books i’ve read before in other languages, and novels for elementary students right now for that reason.

chinese:

if i’m watching a brand new show: comprehension is sufficient to grasp main idea and at least 50% details. After a few to several episodes, comprehension goes up and i am understanding nearly as much as in english depending on the show and can start looking away from the subtitles/browsing my phone doing other things while watching. if the show is modern, then i can grasp nearly everything quicker. if the show is ancient china/historical/heavy wuxia or heavy on less conversational speech, then it will take me several episodes and i may still be around 92-95% comprehension at my best. For example: Humans cdrama felt like watching english within 3 episodes, as did Ice Fantasy. But the 2008 Legend of the Condor Heroes, and Word of Honor, felt like maybe 92% comprehension after 4 episodes and i still needed to pay full attention to the chinese subtitles to follow the details.

if i’m listening to audio of a show i’ve seen before: easily 98% comprehension, if it’s lower than that i just need to relisten to the audio a few times.

brand new audio only media, such as a brand new audio drama: i grasp the main idea of scenes the first listen. upon multiple listens to one episode, i can grasp maybe 80-95% of the details too depending on HOW difficult the material is. For example, i’ve been listening to Lie Huo Jiao Chou’s audio drama and it took about 3 listens to fully understand all of the first 15 minutes details. it probably would’ve taken 2 more listens to grasp the last 5ish minutes that were focused on Xuan Ji. So in one listen i’m grasping just main idea, upon maybe 6 listens i can grasp nearly all details.

for audiobooks i’ve read the novel of: i can grasp maybe 80-95% of details if i listen 4+ times to a chapter. upon the first listen, i grasp the main idea of scenes and Some details but not all (maybe 50% of details). if the novel is written quite simply, i may only take 2 listens to grasp most details, and i may catch 80-95% of details on the first listen.

for brand new audiobooks i’ve never heard before: i generally grasp the main overall idea of scenes within 1 listen, but if the novel is written complexly then it may take 2-3 listens to follow the main plot. details, as usual, are not caught much the first listen. and then on repeated listens i tend to understand much more, 80% of complicated novel details and nearly all details in easier written novels.

novel reading, no audio, brand new novels: i do much better than with audio only. for some reason when i actively read something where i purposely do NOT look anything up (including not looking up audio pronunciation), i have better reading comprehension. i’m guessing it’s because my brain works hard to recall Everything it knows since it has no tool to lazily rely on. if the novel is easier: i may easily understand 92-98%+ (dmbj, zhenhun, saye). if the novel is harder, i’m still generally comprehending around 90% (think can ci pin, 3 body problem). if the novel is Significantly outside of what i normally read (such as a historical set novel with very different writing style, or a novel from say the early to mid 1900s) then my comprehension can tank to 80%... still enough to follow the main idea, but i am much more lost considering details. in the cases of those novels, i generally avoid buying print copies and try to read them digitally to look words up.

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It’s interesting to me that my japanese comprehension goes up specifically when playing video games. i’m going to chalk that up to “in order to be as lazy with using tools as i prefer, i HAVE to remember everything i know to play in a timely way and move forward and do what i’m required to.” i feel like i also use all my “guess from context” skills very heavily when playing a game, so i just make a “best guess on what words mean” then move on. whereas with a more static media like a show or book, i feel i can rewind or reread so i take much more time trying to guess the most correct meaning before moving on... which slows me down ultimately.

with chinese my comprehension is probably best with text in novels. while shows feel the ‘easiest’ with the least effort required to follow, novels have the densest language practice and i can pause to take my time really “guessing the meaning” of anything unknown as well as possible.

#progress #Chinese progress #japanese progress #rant

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