Watching《哈利·波特与火焰杯》 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in Beijing
Finally a Harry Potter movie which manages to capture some of the excitement I felt when reading the books!
I didn't manage to watch episode 2x08 of Veronica Mars as planned because I decided to ride my bike to the cinema instead of catching the Smelly Mobile (the bus). It's been a while since I've ridden to the cinemas and there was a lot of traffic out today so it took me almost 40 minutes to get there. I was really cold .... Alisa had sms'd and I ummm made excuses about seeing the movie. She suggested eating together and I managed to get out of that, too. :P
They were having screenings of the movie almost every 45 minutes so I chose the 2pm showing which was in English with Chinese subtitles. The 3pm showing was dubbed into Chinese. When I bought my ticket, I was annoyed yet again by the fact that Chinese only has one phrase to describe both science fiction and fantasy. This phrase is 科幻 kē-huàn. 科 kē means science and 幻 huàn means unreal, imaginary, magical. Basically it means science fiction but as far as Chinese is concerned, they'll call Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings 科幻 kē-huàn and the movies in my mind are quite different. There is a phrase called 奇幻 qíhuàn which means fantastic and visionary but I notice that Harry Potter is still labelled as 科幻 kē-huàn.
There weren't very many people - I'd say the cinema was about three quarters full but it was a good crowd. For one, I only heard two mobile phones ringing. In Hong Kong and China, not only do people frequently not turn off their mobile phones but they will also answer their mobile phones and hold full conversations during a movie. It's absolutely infuriating and I have on many occasions said: "Do you mind? We're trying to watch a movie here?" In Hong Kong, people like Kevin used to answer their mobile phones in the cinema all the time even though I was glaring away my disapproval. :) As I said, today was good - no conversations and only two rings which were immediately silenced.
I really enjoyed this movie. Chris Columbus gave us acceptable but slightly bland versions of The Philosopher's Stone and The Chamber of Secrets, I thought Alfonso Cuarón's version of Prisoner of Azkaban was quite good but not enthralling. Finally, director Mike Newell comes along and doesn't just blindly regurgitate an abridged version of the novels. Instead, he manages to capture the flavour of the book - in my opinion anyway. True, there are a number of things I would have loved to have seen in there, but as a whole, I thought the movie worked beautifully.
We all know the story, Harry Potter is having his sleep haunted by rather ghastly nightmares which are related to the return of Voldemort. At the Quidditch World Cup, a rather disturbing incident takes place, yet another frightening sign that all is not well in the world of wizarding.
Harry, Ron and Hermione are now in their fourth year of study at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This year, the school is to host the "Tri Wizard Tournament," in which three wizarding schools each nominate a champion to compete on their behalf. Representing Hogwarts is Cedric Diggory, a popular and good-looking Hufflepuff prefect, played by Robert Pattinson who has now become something of a heart throb. Given that he was born in 1986, although he is undeniably good-looking, I think it would inappropriate for me to ogle him and there's also the problem that he somewhat looks like he should be Arnold Schwarzenegger's lovechild - there's something about his face which makes me think 'Arnie Junior' every time I see him.
Representing the French school Beauxbatons is the Kirsten Dunst-lookalike Fleur Delacour (Clémence Poésy). She doesn't get a lot to do except look pretty and frightened. Representing Durmstrang (presumably somewhere in Bulgaria) is Viktor Krum, played by Stanislav Ianevski. Unexpectedly for the characters, but of course expectedly for the audience, a fourth champion is chosen by the Goblet of Fire. Yes, Harry Potter although he has not yet reached the age of 17 is chosen to compete in an extremely dangerous competition in which participants in previous years have lost their lives. This creates resentment in his friend Ron (Rupert Grint) and concern in Hermione (Emma Watson).
I was really fortunate to be with a very engaged and enthusiastic Chinese audience who were clearly very entertained by what was going on. The opening scene was suitably creepy and scary, the first glimpse of the cute Cedric leaping out of nowhere and the buildup to the Quidditch World Cup were also excellent. It's a pity that we didn't get to see the game but part of me is glad to have been spared more CGI which still isn't quite up to scratch. I've felt that the Quidditch games in the past movies to be a little bit ho hum in terms of looking right.
I found that I started getting quite absorbed and excited when the Beauxbaton and Durmstrang students entered the dining hall - as did the audience. They exclaimed in admiration when the pretty girls in pretty blue walked in striking a pose and then exclaimed again when the Durmstrang students ran in, leaping and spinning. :)
As for the adult actors, I have to say that although I thought Michael Gambon's Dumbledore was quite good - what was with his accent? Due to his accent slippage, I seriously thought he was an American until I got home, Googled him and found out that he's Irish! I counted about five spots where his accent went even weirder than mine does :) Nonetheless he was very good. Maggie Smith as Professor McGonagall is always good, I've never liked Hagrid's character but that's because he's boring and not because I blame Robbie Coltrane. It's such a pity that Alan Rickman didn't get to do much with Snape this time except look kind of effeminate. Did they give him extra powder for this one? He looked like a refugee from Black Adder.
I liked Brendan Gleson's portrayal of the new Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher, Mad Eye Moody and did think it was such a shame that his storyline had to be chopped so much but you know - it's a movie. I feel a bit sorry for Jason Issacs. Lucius Malfoy is supposed to be so incredibly evil but it must be hard to feel sufficiently evil when he kind of looks like a Poor Man's Yanni albeit sans moustache and with his hair ironed.
I didn't find a single moment of this film boring. The scenery was amazing and the music was good although I notice they ditched John Williams and took on Patrick Doyle who has composed some of my favourite soundtracks (A Little Princess, Much Ado About Nothing, the Gabrielle Byrne movie Into the West). As mentioned, I found some of the CGI in some of the earlier movies a little painful to look at but this movie was very beautiful. When Harry was fighting against the Hungarian Hornback I was feeling seriously tense even though I've read the book a few times and know exactly what happens. It's possible that I was just absorbing the tension of my neighbours. :)
The ball was beautiful and Katie Leung and Robert Pattinson looked lovely together. I think that the three lead actors are still not entirely convincing in their roles but in this movie they appeared to be much more comfortable - I suppose they're growing up with these characters so even if their acting is still a little raw, they know the characters well by now. When Katie walked on wearing her beautiful ball gown, the audience was very appreciative, in fact they loved it whenever she was onscreen. They were also very entertained by Hermione's embrace of Harry. I have to say, the movie certainly implied a lot more Hermioine/Harry sentiment than I expected. If you hadn't read the books, you could believe that Hermione had romantic interest in Harry whereas of course we know that they have pure friendship and her heart has pretty much always belonged to Ron.
The people on either side of me flinched when Wormtail cut off his hand - I had my eyes covered so there was no flinching from me but this is so embarrassing to confess but not only did I feel incredibly awful and apprehensive before Cedric got killed, but at the "Kill the spare" line, I think I flinched. Also when Harry returns to Hogwarts with Cedric's body I started crying :) Yes, it's true - it's so embarrassing, I cried in a Harry Potter movie. I never thought it would happen but I did. So did most of the people my row but you can understand that given that this is China.
The scene when Amos Diggory is screaming out in agony: "My son" caused many sniffles around me. In Chinese this translates as: "我的儿子wo de érzi". In a country where each family can at law only have one child and the aim of most families (not all but most) is to have a son - the greatest tragedy which can befall a family is to lose their son. Yes it's a tragedy in any culture but it's particularly significant in China - a son is the most precious treasure of a family and represents the family name.
As I sniffled away, I was thinking: "Great, so next year I'll have to sniffle through the death of Sirus and the year after that it will be Dumbledore. Great". To be honest though, for me Cedric's death was always the most sad because he was completely innocent and uninvolved in the 'battle'. He was collateral damage and his death was so meaningless. "Kill the spare" always made me feel so awful. In Chinese spare is 空余 kòngyú
Some other vocabulary .... I was trying really hard not to read the subtitles because I wanted to enjoy the movie and pretend there were no Chinese subtitles but sometimes I just couldn't help looking. When Ron tells Harry to 'piss off', the Chinese said: "Go away and die". :) Goblet of Fire has been translated as 火焰杯 huǒyàn bēi. 火焰 huǒyàn means flame and 杯 bēi means cup.
Dumbledore's name is transliterated - 邓布利多 - pronounced deng boo li dwor. As Sirius is an astrological term, there is actually a pre-existing word for 'Sirius' in Chinese which is 天狼星 Tiānlángxīng which literally translates as the Sky Wolf Star.
巫师 wūshī means wizard or sorcerer. Voldmort's name is transliterated - he is 伏地魔 Fu Di Mo. There's no 'vo' sound in Chinese and I was wondering why they didn't go for 'wo' but then I realised that Voldemort would sound too much like the Chinese word for Walmart.
Cedric's name is also transliterated as 塞德里克 - pronounced Sigh Der Lee Ker. A death eater is 食死徒 which means 'eating death follower'. For those who read Chinese or wish to practise reading Chinese, the Wangfujing Cinema page is hilarious. Clearly no one ever told them about spoilers because they set out the entire plot of the movie. :)
As mentioned, the audience were very entertained by Cho Chang (Katie Leung) and I was very amused to note that on the cinema's blurb about the movie, the only actor named apart from the 3 leads is Katie Leung who pays Cho Chang - just because she's Asian :) Most Chinese articles refer to Cho Chang as 华人女孩张秋 - Cho Chang, the girl of Chinese origin. :) They've translated Cho as 秋qiū which means autumn.
I must say that it's the first time in my life I've heard a Chinese girl with such a pure Scottish accent. It made me blink. It made me realise why people stare at me so strangely when I speak in an Aussie accent. I still would really love to hear an Asian with a pure Irish accent - I've still never seen that :) I Googled and found out that her accent is real. She's Scottish which explains the accent. This article here explains it: "My broad accent Scot me a job as Harry Girl".
There are an unbelievably large number of articles in Chinese about Katie Leung. I guess little Chinese girls like having a role model? I found the following article in Chinese. It was an interview she gave when Katie Leung was in China.
The trailers today were for 如果爱 Perhaps Love which I discussed here. That movie looks amazing. I went and bought the soundtrack today - probably the only person in China who has bought the legitimate rather than the pirated copy but it's so rare I see the legitimate editions that I felt compelled to buy it! :)
They had a trailer for the new Chen Kaige 陈凯歌 film 无极Wú Jí which looks amazing. 无极Wú Jí in Chinese means limitless, a mind completely devoid of worries, thought, or desires. The English name is "The Promise" and "Master of the Crimson Armour" which refers to the character of General Guangming played by Japanese actor Hiroyuki Sanada. There's more about the movie here and the trailer I saw is here. Unfortunately the Internet version is kind of small and cruddy but on the big screen it looked very impressive. I can't wait. To be honest I'm still not entirely certain about the storyline but it looks great :)
One of the other movies being screened in the cinema was a German film called 《火线战将》 Der Clown. It make me blink because the name in Chinese is "Warrior of the Battlefield / Firing Line". What does that have to do with a Clown?
Also, I've read that Zhang Yimou is directing a third martial-art film called Autumn Remembrance which will star Chow Yun-Fat and Gong Li. Apparently they will play star-crossed lovers (is there any other kind?) who fall in love within the borders of a kingdom. She plays Phoenix, an imperial bodyguard and he plays Prince Ping. All sorts of forces including Ping's stepmother, who is also in love with him, attempt to keep the lovers apart. They embark on a dangerous journey where secrets of the imperial family are uncovered ..... It should be entertaining even though I'd better keep my uncle away from it. He finds the sound of Chow Yun Fat's Hong Kong-accented Mandarin agonising.
So there you go. When I emerged from the cinema, there was a sudden cold snap and I almost died when I rode home! I want to see Harry Potter again but I think I'll go and check out the quality of the dvd tomorrow. If it hasn't been dubbed into Russian and is of decent qualty, then I'll get it :)
I didn't manage to watch episode 2x08 of Veronica Mars as planned because I decided to ride my bike to the cinema instead of catching the Smelly Mobile (the bus). It's been a while since I've ridden to the cinemas and there was a lot of traffic out today so it took me almost 40 minutes to get there. I was really cold .... Alisa had sms'd and I ummm made excuses about seeing the movie. She suggested eating together and I managed to get out of that, too. :P
They were having screenings of the movie almost every 45 minutes so I chose the 2pm showing which was in English with Chinese subtitles. The 3pm showing was dubbed into Chinese. When I bought my ticket, I was annoyed yet again by the fact that Chinese only has one phrase to describe both science fiction and fantasy. This phrase is 科幻 kē-huàn. 科 kē means science and 幻 huàn means unreal, imaginary, magical. Basically it means science fiction but as far as Chinese is concerned, they'll call Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings 科幻 kē-huàn and the movies in my mind are quite different. There is a phrase called 奇幻 qíhuàn which means fantastic and visionary but I notice that Harry Potter is still labelled as 科幻 kē-huàn.
There weren't very many people - I'd say the cinema was about three quarters full but it was a good crowd. For one, I only heard two mobile phones ringing. In Hong Kong and China, not only do people frequently not turn off their mobile phones but they will also answer their mobile phones and hold full conversations during a movie. It's absolutely infuriating and I have on many occasions said: "Do you mind? We're trying to watch a movie here?" In Hong Kong, people like Kevin used to answer their mobile phones in the cinema all the time even though I was glaring away my disapproval. :) As I said, today was good - no conversations and only two rings which were immediately silenced.
I really enjoyed this movie. Chris Columbus gave us acceptable but slightly bland versions of The Philosopher's Stone and The Chamber of Secrets, I thought Alfonso Cuarón's version of Prisoner of Azkaban was quite good but not enthralling. Finally, director Mike Newell comes along and doesn't just blindly regurgitate an abridged version of the novels. Instead, he manages to capture the flavour of the book - in my opinion anyway. True, there are a number of things I would have loved to have seen in there, but as a whole, I thought the movie worked beautifully.
We all know the story, Harry Potter is having his sleep haunted by rather ghastly nightmares which are related to the return of Voldemort. At the Quidditch World Cup, a rather disturbing incident takes place, yet another frightening sign that all is not well in the world of wizarding.
Harry, Ron and Hermione are now in their fourth year of study at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This year, the school is to host the "Tri Wizard Tournament," in which three wizarding schools each nominate a champion to compete on their behalf. Representing Hogwarts is Cedric Diggory, a popular and good-looking Hufflepuff prefect, played by Robert Pattinson who has now become something of a heart throb. Given that he was born in 1986, although he is undeniably good-looking, I think it would inappropriate for me to ogle him and there's also the problem that he somewhat looks like he should be Arnold Schwarzenegger's lovechild - there's something about his face which makes me think 'Arnie Junior' every time I see him.
Representing the French school Beauxbatons is the Kirsten Dunst-lookalike Fleur Delacour (Clémence Poésy). She doesn't get a lot to do except look pretty and frightened. Representing Durmstrang (presumably somewhere in Bulgaria) is Viktor Krum, played by Stanislav Ianevski. Unexpectedly for the characters, but of course expectedly for the audience, a fourth champion is chosen by the Goblet of Fire. Yes, Harry Potter although he has not yet reached the age of 17 is chosen to compete in an extremely dangerous competition in which participants in previous years have lost their lives. This creates resentment in his friend Ron (Rupert Grint) and concern in Hermione (Emma Watson).
I was really fortunate to be with a very engaged and enthusiastic Chinese audience who were clearly very entertained by what was going on. The opening scene was suitably creepy and scary, the first glimpse of the cute Cedric leaping out of nowhere and the buildup to the Quidditch World Cup were also excellent. It's a pity that we didn't get to see the game but part of me is glad to have been spared more CGI which still isn't quite up to scratch. I've felt that the Quidditch games in the past movies to be a little bit ho hum in terms of looking right.
I found that I started getting quite absorbed and excited when the Beauxbaton and Durmstrang students entered the dining hall - as did the audience. They exclaimed in admiration when the pretty girls in pretty blue walked in striking a pose and then exclaimed again when the Durmstrang students ran in, leaping and spinning. :)
As for the adult actors, I have to say that although I thought Michael Gambon's Dumbledore was quite good - what was with his accent? Due to his accent slippage, I seriously thought he was an American until I got home, Googled him and found out that he's Irish! I counted about five spots where his accent went even weirder than mine does :) Nonetheless he was very good. Maggie Smith as Professor McGonagall is always good, I've never liked Hagrid's character but that's because he's boring and not because I blame Robbie Coltrane. It's such a pity that Alan Rickman didn't get to do much with Snape this time except look kind of effeminate. Did they give him extra powder for this one? He looked like a refugee from Black Adder.
I liked Brendan Gleson's portrayal of the new Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher, Mad Eye Moody and did think it was such a shame that his storyline had to be chopped so much but you know - it's a movie. I feel a bit sorry for Jason Issacs. Lucius Malfoy is supposed to be so incredibly evil but it must be hard to feel sufficiently evil when he kind of looks like a Poor Man's Yanni albeit sans moustache and with his hair ironed.
I didn't find a single moment of this film boring. The scenery was amazing and the music was good although I notice they ditched John Williams and took on Patrick Doyle who has composed some of my favourite soundtracks (A Little Princess, Much Ado About Nothing, the Gabrielle Byrne movie Into the West). As mentioned, I found some of the CGI in some of the earlier movies a little painful to look at but this movie was very beautiful. When Harry was fighting against the Hungarian Hornback I was feeling seriously tense even though I've read the book a few times and know exactly what happens. It's possible that I was just absorbing the tension of my neighbours. :)
The ball was beautiful and Katie Leung and Robert Pattinson looked lovely together. I think that the three lead actors are still not entirely convincing in their roles but in this movie they appeared to be much more comfortable - I suppose they're growing up with these characters so even if their acting is still a little raw, they know the characters well by now. When Katie walked on wearing her beautiful ball gown, the audience was very appreciative, in fact they loved it whenever she was onscreen. They were also very entertained by Hermione's embrace of Harry. I have to say, the movie certainly implied a lot more Hermioine/Harry sentiment than I expected. If you hadn't read the books, you could believe that Hermione had romantic interest in Harry whereas of course we know that they have pure friendship and her heart has pretty much always belonged to Ron.
The people on either side of me flinched when Wormtail cut off his hand - I had my eyes covered so there was no flinching from me but this is so embarrassing to confess but not only did I feel incredibly awful and apprehensive before Cedric got killed, but at the "Kill the spare" line, I think I flinched. Also when Harry returns to Hogwarts with Cedric's body I started crying :) Yes, it's true - it's so embarrassing, I cried in a Harry Potter movie. I never thought it would happen but I did. So did most of the people my row but you can understand that given that this is China.
The scene when Amos Diggory is screaming out in agony: "My son" caused many sniffles around me. In Chinese this translates as: "我的儿子wo de érzi". In a country where each family can at law only have one child and the aim of most families (not all but most) is to have a son - the greatest tragedy which can befall a family is to lose their son. Yes it's a tragedy in any culture but it's particularly significant in China - a son is the most precious treasure of a family and represents the family name.
As I sniffled away, I was thinking: "Great, so next year I'll have to sniffle through the death of Sirus and the year after that it will be Dumbledore. Great". To be honest though, for me Cedric's death was always the most sad because he was completely innocent and uninvolved in the 'battle'. He was collateral damage and his death was so meaningless. "Kill the spare" always made me feel so awful. In Chinese spare is 空余 kòngyú
Some other vocabulary .... I was trying really hard not to read the subtitles because I wanted to enjoy the movie and pretend there were no Chinese subtitles but sometimes I just couldn't help looking. When Ron tells Harry to 'piss off', the Chinese said: "Go away and die". :) Goblet of Fire has been translated as 火焰杯 huǒyàn bēi. 火焰 huǒyàn means flame and 杯 bēi means cup.
Dumbledore's name is transliterated - 邓布利多 - pronounced deng boo li dwor. As Sirius is an astrological term, there is actually a pre-existing word for 'Sirius' in Chinese which is 天狼星 Tiānlángxīng which literally translates as the Sky Wolf Star.
巫师 wūshī means wizard or sorcerer. Voldmort's name is transliterated - he is 伏地魔 Fu Di Mo. There's no 'vo' sound in Chinese and I was wondering why they didn't go for 'wo' but then I realised that Voldemort would sound too much like the Chinese word for Walmart.
Cedric's name is also transliterated as 塞德里克 - pronounced Sigh Der Lee Ker. A death eater is 食死徒 which means 'eating death follower'. For those who read Chinese or wish to practise reading Chinese, the Wangfujing Cinema page is hilarious. Clearly no one ever told them about spoilers because they set out the entire plot of the movie. :)
As mentioned, the audience were very entertained by Cho Chang (Katie Leung) and I was very amused to note that on the cinema's blurb about the movie, the only actor named apart from the 3 leads is Katie Leung who pays Cho Chang - just because she's Asian :) Most Chinese articles refer to Cho Chang as 华人女孩张秋 - Cho Chang, the girl of Chinese origin. :) They've translated Cho as 秋qiū which means autumn.
I must say that it's the first time in my life I've heard a Chinese girl with such a pure Scottish accent. It made me blink. It made me realise why people stare at me so strangely when I speak in an Aussie accent. I still would really love to hear an Asian with a pure Irish accent - I've still never seen that :) I Googled and found out that her accent is real. She's Scottish which explains the accent. This article here explains it: "My broad accent Scot me a job as Harry Girl".
There are an unbelievably large number of articles in Chinese about Katie Leung. I guess little Chinese girls like having a role model? I found the following article in Chinese. It was an interview she gave when Katie Leung was in China.
The trailers today were for 如果爱 Perhaps Love which I discussed here. That movie looks amazing. I went and bought the soundtrack today - probably the only person in China who has bought the legitimate rather than the pirated copy but it's so rare I see the legitimate editions that I felt compelled to buy it! :)
They had a trailer for the new Chen Kaige 陈凯歌 film 无极Wú Jí which looks amazing. 无极Wú Jí in Chinese means limitless, a mind completely devoid of worries, thought, or desires. The English name is "The Promise" and "Master of the Crimson Armour" which refers to the character of General Guangming played by Japanese actor Hiroyuki Sanada. There's more about the movie here and the trailer I saw is here. Unfortunately the Internet version is kind of small and cruddy but on the big screen it looked very impressive. I can't wait. To be honest I'm still not entirely certain about the storyline but it looks great :)
One of the other movies being screened in the cinema was a German film called 《火线战将》 Der Clown. It make me blink because the name in Chinese is "Warrior of the Battlefield / Firing Line". What does that have to do with a Clown?
Also, I've read that Zhang Yimou is directing a third martial-art film called Autumn Remembrance which will star Chow Yun-Fat and Gong Li. Apparently they will play star-crossed lovers (is there any other kind?) who fall in love within the borders of a kingdom. She plays Phoenix, an imperial bodyguard and he plays Prince Ping. All sorts of forces including Ping's stepmother, who is also in love with him, attempt to keep the lovers apart. They embark on a dangerous journey where secrets of the imperial family are uncovered ..... It should be entertaining even though I'd better keep my uncle away from it. He finds the sound of Chow Yun Fat's Hong Kong-accented Mandarin agonising.
So there you go. When I emerged from the cinema, there was a sudden cold snap and I almost died when I rode home! I want to see Harry Potter again but I think I'll go and check out the quality of the dvd tomorrow. If it hasn't been dubbed into Russian and is of decent qualty, then I'll get it :)