One of the nice things about the Chinese film industry is that it makes you a lot more tolerant of films that plummeted off track abroad after being panned by critics. Our selection for today is one of these: hardly the sort of film you write home about, but still an entertaining two hours with some gorgeous cinematography. Or that's David's opinion at least. Neither Echo nor Brendan have seen this one, which might be why they spend a lot of time talking about anything but the film: China's environmental problems, how to get your online video fix and much more.

As always, we're offering a free month of premium access to Popup Chinese to one lucky listener. If you can guess our mystery film from the short clip presented here, get your guesses in to echo@popupchinese.com. Good luck.
Lunetta
 said on
February 27, 2009
Would love to listen to it but where's the audio?
KTV Wednesday
 said on
February 27, 2009
Hey, no audio! Ark.
Film Friday
 said on
February 27, 2009
Thanks for the catch Lunetta. Uploaded. :)
stratman1
 said on
February 27, 2009
Youku sucks if you live outside of China, way too slow. Anybody use 迅雷看看? Better quality, better speed, and a better interface. You'll watch bad television like never before.

kankan.xunlei.com

Speaking of, I think I actually figured out what movie this is.
orbital
 said on
February 27, 2009
Youku rocks here in Shenzhen. Thanks for the link stratman. Haven't used the player but am always up for some bad television.
jied
 said on
February 28, 2009
I've downloaded xunlei for my dad in hawaii he uses it to watch a lot of movies although, I've never really checked it out, felt a bit overwhelmed looking at the interface. But I think it works for my dad :)
imron
 said on
March 1, 2009

我才不要你的杯子呢 :-P

P.S. Dennis Quaid doesn't have a patch on Harrison Ford.
marco64
 said on
March 1, 2009
Innerspace was pretty awesome and if you take away Ford's Han Solo / Indiana Jones trump card they're pretty level as actors.

That said, the judging criteria clearly needs to be spoken mandarin. I've heard Ford in Temple of Doom ("See you in hell, Lao Shey") and it wasn't pretty. Someone needs to cast Quaid in a turn of the century Shanghai Triad thriller. Then we've got a fair basis for comparison.
imron
 said on
March 1, 2009
Innerspace was pretty awesome - but a large part of that was Martin Short :-)
Echo
 said on
March 2, 2009
@imron,

Welcome back, Imron !

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
maxiewawa
 said on
March 3, 2009
哇-！不知道！
Echo
 said on
March 3, 2009
@maxiewawa,

看来你的功力还是不如imron啊，加油啊！前几次都猜得很好嘛~

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
maxiewawa
 said on
March 3, 2009
告诉你们哦请你不要用那个讽刺的态度录这个Film Friday...

It's confusing enough being in another language, but when you start making jokes, and mix them up with clues, and do them in CHINESE, it really mucks you up.

Like are they REALLY in Beijing? Or are you joking around? What's that in the title about Mongolia then? Is that a clue? A reference to something in the movie? It really throws your head in a spin.

Like the other week, in the first line someone said that it starred their favourite actor. Someone interrupted with "Andy Lau" and everyone laughed... you see, it was funny because he WASN'T in the movie, but for those of us listening hard for clues, that just makes you really confused.

And the other week (the one with the "Andy Lau" line) throughout the podcast I was racking my brains for movies with Andy Lau, but when I listened again, the answer hit me full in the face. You see, it turned out to be quite easy in the end. (And it IS quite funny to compare the actor with Andy Lau, now that I know who it is, but for the purposes of film friday it's very confusing)

I don't mind joking around at all, but it always just does my head in during Film Friday.

热力反抗讽刺态度！

Didn't mean to rant!
stratman1
 said on
March 3, 2009
@maxiewawa

I think listening to a Film Friday with more of a 'what can I learn from this' mindset will mean you can take something from the experience whether you guess right or not. And really, that's what it's about, the contest is just an excuse to get us to carefully listen to a clip in Chinese.
trevelyan
 said on
March 3, 2009
Andy Lau has been a bit of a running joke around here since this podcast (I like the guy and Echo doesn't have anything against him, so Brendan is clearly crazy). The rest are all clues although they are often contradictory and indirect. It clearly can't have been filmed in BOTH Inner Mongolia AND Beijing. And who's to say it was filmed in either at all?

I've actually been to a place in Inner Mongolia that looks a lot like where they filmed this movie. Memorable since the trip ruined my digital camera. I don't know how many people will get that one, since it might require more familiarity with the geography of northern China than most people probably have, but there are other clues scattered throughout including a line in the selected clip itself.

We're aiming to have all of the nonsensical and scattershot references fall into place when people figure out the film. In the age of IMDB, being a bit oblique probably isn't a bad thing either. That said, we *do* try to be fair picking the clips - so that anyone who understands the Chinese 100% should have a fair shot at guessing the film even if they haven't necessarily seen it.
Brendan
 said on
March 3, 2009
@maxiewawa: Sorry -- the Andy Lau jokes are my fault, as were the references to this movie being set in Beijing. (Not that I'm saying it isn't -- and David is clearly trying to throw you off by claiming that a film couldn't be shot in both places.) In my defense, at least in this case, I had never even heard of the movie before, so I couldn't think of much else to talk about.

@imron: OK, so you got the Dennis Quaid references, but did you actually guess the movie? (No IMDB allowed!) If so, color me impressed -- you deserve much more than a Youku mug.
imron
 said on
March 4, 2009
@imron: OK, so you got the Dennis Quaid references, but did you actually guess the movie?
Haha, actually I didn't get the Dennis Quaid references at first and had to look at the film's page on the IMDB to see who was supposed to be the next Harrison Ford.