Slippery slope and slithery slime

[flemmings]

All that poking about at youtube is making me want to watch that Shunsui TV drama- err, The River Flows Eastward. I gather this is a twelve hankie tragedy in which a) rocks fall, everybody dies and b) Hu Jun does Someone wrong and ends badly (youtube is good about telling you how people end badly so there's no suspense.) So who does Uncle Ming play? and who's the woman in the cap?

The China Centre woman said region 1 DVDs won't play on a region-free DVD player. Does anyone know if that's true?

Comments

[mvrdrk.livejournal.com]

It depends. Region 1 DVDs won't play on a player set to region 0, which is sometimes thought of as a region-free player. What you more likely have is a region 1 player which can switch regions, so you should be okay.

[mvrdrk.livejournal.com]

Went looking it up. region-free = 0 it seems, the new term for a switchable region player being "multi-region" or some such thing.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

I probably have my regions wrong. What she meant was China region won't play in a region-free. My player isn't even that; it's firmly NAmerican and not AFAICS hackable to be otherwise.

So I need a multi-region, if those exist legitimately, and not a region-free?

[mvrdrk.livejournal.com]

Yeah, multi-region is pretty common these days. Let me know if you can't find one.

[i-am-zan.livejournal.com]

hmmm out here, due to so much international travel, the manufacturers sell region free players, the you got disc, we play it all kind of thing so it should play everything.

I know ours plays everything and it's considered fregion-free.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Next question- can LRD electric goods play on NAmerican electric current.

[i-am-zan.livejournal.com]

hmmm you know I'm not sure but the time we went to San Francisco to stay with Hubby's brother, I think we did ok. I had brought along one of those 'international' adapters. We use the UK 3-pin type plugs or the European 2-pin ones out here.

But yes not a problem if you have a suitable adapter. The one I had was similar to the one below, although not quite so bulky looking. It just might be the way the photo was taken.

adapter type thing (http://studenttravel.about.com/od/techtoys/gr/electricadapter.htm)

and and that icon kills me!!! ^___^ I love it!

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Malata, eh? Thanks. I shall... well, probably go looking in the local Korean electronic stores before checking down in Chinatown. And then getting my sister to hook it up through the various VCR and DVD players.

[feliciter.livejournal.com]

Rough synopsis: Zhang Zhongliang (Hu Jun), an honest and earnest village schoolteacher, leaves his devoted wife Sufen (Anita Yuen) to move to Chongqing and thence to Shanghai as part of the anti-Japanese war effort . There in the course of many vicissitudes he meets, among others, socialite Wang Lizhen (Carina Lau) and the 3rd son of the wealthy Wu(!) family, Jiaqi (Chen Daoming). Zhongliang manages with their help to get a job in a factory where he swiftly gains the world and loses his soul, roughly in that order.

Sufen comes to Shanghai after and thence more sufferings, including a suicide attempt and near-execution, from which she is saved by Jiaqi who is secretly in love with her, but alas! her heart still belongs to Zhongliang who has taken up with Lizhen though tiring of her as well.

After more stuff happening, including WWII, all of the above die in ways more or less expected of their behaviour thus far. There are other characters but memory fails. which woman in what cap?

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Sounds good. Need only appropriate region playable DVD and the appropriate DVDs.

Woman in tight-fitting shirt-like thing, not exactly a uniform, with a cap that matches the one Uncle Ming has on when he's wearing his bottle-dark-glasses outfit, always seen talking to capped Uncle Ming. Can go troll youtube for the clip again if needed.

[paleaswater.livejournal.com]

Btw, Jasmin is stupid, but possible more entertaining than The River Flows Eastward. You might like The Emperor Kangxi also. Yes, shaved heads and braids and all, I know, but he even manages to look good in them.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Jasmin? Don't see anything like that under his name in wiki. What's the hanzi? And the Emperor Kangxi is 康熙王朝? Must make a list and go ask the Chinatown merchants if they have them at all.

[paleaswater.livejournal.com]

Yes, 康熙王朝 is Emperor Kangxi. This does exist in a Japanese subtitled version, though I haven't seen it sold over here. Maybe check amazon.co.jp?

None of the rest of the tv series have subtitles though.

Jasmine is 茉莉花. Can be considered Woxin AU doujinshi set in 30's Shanghai. Too bad Hu Jun's not there. But Fan Li is, and most everyone else. Everyone is mad with lust for Uncle Chen's jasmine tea farm. Seriously.

http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/aid-11759/section-videos/code-c/version-all/pid-1004190923/

Another historical series is the TV version of Last Emperor (末代皇帝). It got really good reviews at the time, and was quite popular. So probably worth a look. It was made in the 80's, so his style was quite different back then.

He was also in 大汉天子, playing Dongfang Suo. Generally an okay series and an okay role, not brilliant like woxin. He also has a beard in this one, which I think is a plus for you.

Modern series
Black Hole, which is the one the fake Lu Yue preview is based on. Modern, and not sure how much sense it'll make without subtitles.

His best work is generally considered to be Winter Solstice 冬至, a bleak and haunting drama about a bank clerk caught up in a scandal in a small southern city. Very beautifully filmed, and a lot of overlap in casting with Woxin. Bo Pi's there again, and the reviled ambassador from Jin, and many more.

Chinese Style Divorce is another very popular one, and it has Fan Li as his best friend in it, though it's rather tedious by me, and it must be even more deadly if you can't understand it.

[paleaswater.livejournal.com]

To add:

Black hole is 黑洞. Uncle Ming plays the son of a high level official who uses his position to become the king pin of the criminal underground. He's really quite brilliant in it, though not in many scenes. It is is to Infernal Affairs what Woxinchangdang is to Hero.

Chinese Style Divorce is 中国式离婚. Exactly like what it says.

There are a bunch of other stuff, but these are probably of most interest.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Yes well, one can have Japanese subtitled 康熙王朝 for about $300 plus exorbitant shipping, which is far too much for shaved heads.

yesasia's 大汉天子 says it's in Cantonese, meaning he was dubbed? The River Flows East has English subtitles, though, as does the one about Empress CiXi.

And everything else has no English subtitles, occasionally no subtitles at all, and is frequently a VCD. Which would play on a computer, though not mine, and possibly a region-free DVD player?

Ahh, so much Uncle Ming, and so little of it accessible.

(Err, and why do the China versions of Woxin have 41 eps when the US release only has 40?)

[paleaswater.livejournal.com]

Yesasia usually has all the versions from the three Chinese-speaking territories as well as the North American edition, which you should be able to play and watch. Depending on the stock situation sometimes one or the other will disappear from the search, but definitely the TV series should all be available in a North American Region1 Mandarin DVD edition except for the really old ones like Last Emperor. Just check back periodically. Next time I go to Chinatown I can check for you, which ones would you like, in order of preference?

The subtitled ones are usually movies, but they are usually also not in a NA region 1 format. I'm kind of surprised that River flows eastward is subbed, but there's no accounting for it.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Mhhh- in order of preference 大汉天子, 茉莉花, and 冬至. Shan't mind puzzling through subtitles so long as I have a mandarin soundtrack.