1945, Chongqing, undercover
So I've been posting about Lurk, lots of text, and I thought pictures would be a good idea. Because the way it's filmed is really quite lovely, dark, with understated tension and halflit rooms and longing.
Oh wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. Lurk (潜伏 Qian Fu) was a 2009 TV series in China, based on a spy novel. I'm watching it without English subtitles -- just Chinese subs. Because what I am, is a masochist. Noo, I don't pick the easy shows, I pick this one because it's really, really interesting. Even though I don't understand a lot of what's going on.
No actually, I'm trying to get better at listening comprehension. One way I do that is by watching a show in Chinese without English help, and just listening. But it needs to be something that holds my attention. So...
It's 1945 and the war ends. Scattered across China there are Nationalists (KMT, Guómíndǎng) and Communists (Gòngchǎndǎng), as well as people who did business with the Japanese during the war.
Yu Ze Cheng is a KMT agent pretending to be a Communist... or is he a Communist pretending to be a Nationalist? Or... some combination. You know, here's where having no English subs was hurting me, because I kept getting confused.
Ze Cheng wasn't supposed to be a spy, really. He just kind of ended up that way, but his persona is definitely working for him. He appears to be harmless, hesitant. And now he's been assigned a partner, Cui Ping, who plays his wife as part of his cover. She's from the mountains, and kind of new at this.
But she's learning as time goes on.
The show looks fantastic. The period shows I watch tend to take place centuries ago. Lately I'm watching this and Bridal Mask, so I'm getting lots of early 20th century... which is a nice change.
Now I'm going behind a cut, because I have a few pictures.
In the last couple of episodes, Ze Cheng is at a gathering when he happens to see Zuo Lan, the woman he was supposed to marry. It's a wonderfully intense scene, because they can't speak to each other, or even acknowledge that they know each other.
So they keep stealing glances.
Until later, when they're able to meet in private.
After he gives her information -- very fast and professional -- they have to part again.
This isn't an actiony spy story. The tension is situational and emotional. Quiet conversations, difficult situations, having to be someone else on a day to day basis, unable to speak to the one you love for a long time, checking every time you enter your room to see if someone came in while you were gone. Knowing that the walls have ears and there's a car parked across the street, waiting.
I love the look of it. Sun Honglei is wonderfully understated, and Yao Chen is... wonderfully not, as she plays a rural woman learning the city and her role in it, and becoming frustrated.
I'm watching this slowly, because it takes a lot of work. There's a lot I don't understand in the dialog, and I know I'm missing most of the sutblety. But it's worth the effort.
I don't see myself using much of the new dialog vocabulary in daily conversation, though...
特务 tèwu = spy, secret agent, operative
情报 qíngbào = intelligence, information-gathering
...and so on.
I'll keep watching.
Oh wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. Lurk (潜伏 Qian Fu) was a 2009 TV series in China, based on a spy novel. I'm watching it without English subtitles -- just Chinese subs. Because what I am, is a masochist. Noo, I don't pick the easy shows, I pick this one because it's really, really interesting. Even though I don't understand a lot of what's going on.
No actually, I'm trying to get better at listening comprehension. One way I do that is by watching a show in Chinese without English help, and just listening. But it needs to be something that holds my attention. So...
It's 1945 and the war ends. Scattered across China there are Nationalists (KMT, Guómíndǎng) and Communists (Gòngchǎndǎng), as well as people who did business with the Japanese during the war.
Yu Ze Cheng is a KMT agent pretending to be a Communist... or is he a Communist pretending to be a Nationalist? Or... some combination. You know, here's where having no English subs was hurting me, because I kept getting confused.
Ze Cheng wasn't supposed to be a spy, really. He just kind of ended up that way, but his persona is definitely working for him. He appears to be harmless, hesitant. And now he's been assigned a partner, Cui Ping, who plays his wife as part of his cover. She's from the mountains, and kind of new at this.
But she's learning as time goes on.
The show looks fantastic. The period shows I watch tend to take place centuries ago. Lately I'm watching this and Bridal Mask, so I'm getting lots of early 20th century... which is a nice change.
Now I'm going behind a cut, because I have a few pictures.
In the last couple of episodes, Ze Cheng is at a gathering when he happens to see Zuo Lan, the woman he was supposed to marry. It's a wonderfully intense scene, because they can't speak to each other, or even acknowledge that they know each other.
So they keep stealing glances.
Until later, when they're able to meet in private.
After he gives her information -- very fast and professional -- they have to part again.
This isn't an actiony spy story. The tension is situational and emotional. Quiet conversations, difficult situations, having to be someone else on a day to day basis, unable to speak to the one you love for a long time, checking every time you enter your room to see if someone came in while you were gone. Knowing that the walls have ears and there's a car parked across the street, waiting.
I love the look of it. Sun Honglei is wonderfully understated, and Yao Chen is... wonderfully not, as she plays a rural woman learning the city and her role in it, and becoming frustrated.
I'm watching this slowly, because it takes a lot of work. There's a lot I don't understand in the dialog, and I know I'm missing most of the sutblety. But it's worth the effort.
I don't see myself using much of the new dialog vocabulary in daily conversation, though...
特务 tèwu = spy, secret agent, operative
情报 qíngbào = intelligence, information-gathering
...and so on.
I'll keep watching.