#cantonese drama
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A show I rewatched every decade or less for the main romance and relationship. I love, love Maggie Cheung Ho Yee and her character here (and her short hair was stunning), and while the stories could be much better, they were still okay. The show aged quite well. I learned a few useful things from this show.
The main pairing here is still one of the healthiest, most mature and egalitarian (modern) relationship I have had the pleasure to feast onscreen, and some of the tropes are my favourites too, e.g., the main male character feeding his lady love with his excellent cooking skills, relatively straightforward commmunication/confession etc. The visuals were gold too (though am/was not much of a fan of Gallen Lo, they made for a beautifully striking pair).
The main pair’s dynamics were made even better by their contrast with the somewhat - not particularly healthy and often annoying - ‘stereotypical het’ relationship of the second leads.
A favourite which stood the test of time.
#mystery files#Cantonese drama#old TVB drama#Maggie Cheung Ho Yi#Gallen Lo#迷離檔案#the romance and dynamics portrayed here are a favourite#favourite canon OTP#relationship goals for real#healthy and mature#both people are trustworthy and reasonable#no unnecessary dramatics#soft and mellow#細水長流#張可頤 was beyond stunning and gorgeous#now too obviously#a favourite female character 文嘉利#for the many strains of misogyny and sexism in HK dramas they could be quite progressive too#even now more than 25 years after the fact#a bit disappointing that we are sliding as a whole in terms of progress and feminism#or basically fighting a similar fight from before 😭😔#just did a casual rewatch a few months back 🥰⭐️
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河國榮 Gregory Charles Rivers
(30 April 1965 — 2 February 2024)
Posted this on my Insta Stories a couple days back but decided I'd do a post here too because I realised I'm still feeling saddened by Mr Rivers's passing.
For people of certain older generations, especially those who grew up in the 1990s watching Hong Kong TVB series, Mr Rivers, aka 河國榮 (Ho Kwok-Wing) to HK TV viewers, was an easily recognisable and familiar face, having been (at that time) the only foreign/Caucasian face to appear consistently in HK television armed with an impressive fluency in Cantonese.
I guess his passing has affected me more than I thought it would because firstly, I'd admired him for his proficiency in Cantonese and subconsciously looked to him as an inspiration.
As someone who grew up being terrible at Chinese (both Cantonese and Mandarin) and got teased for being “the banana” (i.e. yellow on the outside but white on the inside), the constant presence of this Caucasian guy on TV who could speak better Cantonese than I, partly spurred me on to learn Cantonese better myself.
Secondly, he represented an age when HK and by proxy, Cantonese, was flourishing; Mr Rivers's story of coming to Hong Kong purely motivated by his love for Cantopop and the Cantonese language is (sadly) not the kind of story one will hear very often again…
With his passing, it's like yet another bit of the shine of “Golden Age” HK being taken away…and this “Golden Age” was part of my childhood, so it means another part of my childhood is gone…
Anyway, I'll end this post with this video of an interview Mr Rivers did (c. 2007), sharing briefly his thoughts on his experiences as a foreign actor in HK.
河生，對於學緊廣東話嘅我嚟講，
您畀咗我唔少不知嘅鼓舞。
呢一點，我會喺心裏永遠默默感激。
希望您而家搵到了安寧，同妻子一路走好！
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Zeng ShunXi -> Madman [Line Walker 3 Episode 20 -23]
#zeng shunxi#joseph zeng#line walker 3#madman#Yan Tin-hap#dmbj cast#my gifs#hong kong drama#this hidden gem of a crime drama where he was in a few episodes as a guest star and he spoke Cantonese#stand by for the queue#he has great acting range like he just improves with every role#this is a throwback but a good one
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Memory reach: Comrades: Almost A Love Story
OK, flying by the seat of my pants here, working on pure memory. I am one of those lucky people who knew what Jim was talking about when, in Moonlight Chicken, he told Wen about the movie Comrades: Almost a Love Story. I saw that movie many years ago here in San Francisco, either at a film festival or at one of the three theaters, alas, long gone, which used to show movies from Hong Kong. It's a great movie. I remember it in particular as the movie that showed me that Lai Ming (namesake of Li Ming in Moonlight Chicken) could act; before that, I had not been impressed by his acting abilities (although I'm not sure where I might have gotten that impression, as I can't seem to be able to figure out which of his earlier films I might have seen, so it may have been a false memory even at that time). But it really is a great movie and worth hunting down. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be available on any of my current streaming services.
(Edit: Worldcat lists Comrades' availability in various editions.)
So yes, having to go on a memory of a movie I probably saw about 25 years ago as well as the description on MDL. I've reconstructed my memory about it from two important real world events which happened during the course of the movie: the 1987 closure of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for four days and the 1995 death of Teresa Teng. Please forgive me for errors of fact in describing the movie.
I also suggest reading @telomeke's post on the connection between Comrades: Almost A Love Story and Moonlight Chicken and @waitmyturtles' post on the same subject, as they will likely be much more coherent than my post which follows. Nevertheless, I am thinking about that movie, want to discuss it here, and will plunge forward with my two Hong Kong cents.
Basically, it's about a long time flirtation between two people who meet after emigrating from mainland China to Hong Kong around 1985 or 1986. Qiao, played by Maggie Cheung - who does a great job as well, and always has yes - knows Cantonese, the language of Hong Kong, and is a bit of a schemer. Jun, played by Lai Ming, is a bit simpler and speaks Mandarin. After Qiao's attempt to cheat Jun, they somehow wind up attracted to each other. However, Jun has a fiancé back in China and Qiao falls in with a mob boss, so although – if I recall correctly – they do have an affair, they never fully connect or wind up with each other. Not sure the exact sequence, but at some point in the film the 1987 stock exchange debacle happens and Qiao is wiped out financially. Possibly that is the trigger for her winding up with the mob boss. And Jun marries his fiancé. I think. Again, my memory of the film is hazy.
Full disclosure: Although I have long known and like the song which opens every Moonlight Chicken episode, I am not a Teresa Teng fan and don't recall that aspect of Comrades beyond: the one scene that I will mention in the forthcoming spoilers, and that the Cantonese title of the film is a title of one of her songs.
The theme of the film seems to be that even that if people might be right for each other, the time may not be right for them to be together. Jim echoes this explicitly in his dialogue with Wen in Moonlight Chicken.
Although the focus of this post is the movie and not the series, I do want to give a side prop to Khaotung for being willing to be caught on screen singing that song badly. This goes hand-in-hand with Ohm's destruction of If You Don't Love Her You're Crazy in that bar scene in He's Coming to Me, another Khun Aof series.
Before we get to the spoilers, another Maggie Cheung film I can recommend is Alan and Eric: Between Hello and Goodbye. Warning: it's a weepie. I've also seen her in Days of Being Wild and Behind the Yellow Line but I don't find it either of those films particularly memorable.
Spoilers follow
Back to the movie:
Flash forward 10 years. Both of them wind up in New York City, both now single, still separate and unaware that the other is not far away. Qiao is picked up by immigration authories but escapes. She winds up in front of an appliance store with a window full of televisions. A news story is playing about the death of Teresa Teng. She turns, and also watching the story is Jun. They recognize each other and smile. End of scene.
The film then flashes back to one of them arriving in Hong Kong on the train from China. They get off the train in one direction. The camera pulls back and we see the other one get off the train in the other direction.
So the film is kind of a variation on the idea of people who are destined to meet. In this case they meet very quickly, but just can't manage to be together because the timing is wrong. We don't even know whether they get together this time because the film has cut away. We hope they'll succeed this time, but technically it's an open ending.
It is truly a beautiful film and I recommend tracking it down and watching it if you can.
While there are some parallels between Comrades and Moonlight Chicken, an open ending is not one of them. Please don't let the potentially ambiguous ending stop you from watching Comrades.
#Moonlight Chicken#Comrades: Almost a Love Story#Hong Kong films#ql series#ql drama#thai ql#cantonese film
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／／Wind's blowing, flower's falling
࣪ Burning incense and praying
Dear God, if you really foresee this tragedy Would you look after him on that bumpy road he's going to walk?／／
#狂飙#the knockout#kuang biao#chineseartistsinc#asiandramasource#dailyasiandramas#cdramasource#chinesemedia#cdramaedit#cdramanet#cdramagifs#chinese drama#cdrama#chinese culture#caps#ep24/25/27/36#compiled the praying scenes! its very uniquely Chinese (specifically Cantonese) love me some xuan xue#ive wrote ID for each gif as well which hopefully gives a bit more info on what gods they are praying at
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okay this has gotta stop
the stupid puns just go on and on damn😂
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Thinking about how I would probably never recommend the Hong Kong remake of Ossan's Love to anyone for a variety of reasons, but that drama also marks the first time I heard the phrase "coming out of the closet" in my native language, and that means something to me
#gay people in cantonese *sobs*#im so dramatic#i actually liked a lot of that drama#the mc was an idiot (affectionate) and all the women were pretty well done#but my issues were more about how most of KK's character was written off in the traditional hk slapstick comedy style#when there was so much more potential for exploration 🤧🤧🤧🤧#ossan's love hk#ossan's love#yea idk how to tag it to differentiate it from the japanese one lol#anyway would highly recommend perceiving queer stuff in your native language 10/10
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Anis x Sadie: Bilingual Humor
Anis: Hey Sadie, you're smart right? How do you say Corn in Cantonese?
Sadie: Corn...粟米? (Suk Mai)
Anis: ha-ha! Suk Mai nuts!!!
Sadie: [...] I'm gonna disown you~
[Reference Here]
This is purely just for laughs, just Anis being cheeky.
Anis is Bilingual. She is fluent in, Malay and English. She knows a little bit of Mandarin and Cantonese. Mostly by watching and learning from Bad Chinese and Hong Kong Dramas. Perks of a bilingual. The jokes transcend pass one language.
#murder the crow#kingshavenacademy#kingshaven#sadie mac lir#anis#anis the sulur bidar#sulur bidar#humor#jokes#malay#english#mandarin#cantonese#dramas#chinese dramas#hong kong drama#anis rusli
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don't question this i just want apollo hong kong
#apollo justice#jove justice#you can tell my friends aren't very responsive to this#but here i am!#who wants to talk about cantonese apollo shenanigans with me rn#or my android au#or my angel au#or my (Extremely specific) bank drama au#IF YOU KNOW YOU KNOW THAT JDRAMA IS FUCKIN ICONIC BRO#in japan at least. havent heard of an englihs fandom here though.#claps hands TIME TO BUILD ONE ON MY OWN#yeah this entire hc is nonsense but do i love them? yes. leave me the fuck alone#also do any jove fans wanna draw him in some noice poses i may be able to provide 👁👁
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this is not a real show. theres no way someone wrote this
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oi
a typhoon
Big White Duel 2
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Am a fan of the character of 蔣簥 and despite my many issues with the show and its unremarkable writing, am rediscovering the reasons why it left an impression in my mind. Quite a few lessons to be gleaned here.
#TVB drama#Cantonese drama#AMBITION#孽吻#Amy Kwok#Gallen Lo#Michael Tao#old drama#there is something to be said about this very average drama#a show with lots of lessons acquired with the right framing#a whole dissertation could be written about red flags#ambition of class mobility#the fallacy of ‘choosing better’#intersectionality#this is not a tightly written or memorably performed show#but still offers quite a lot to ponder on#halfway through and yes#still love the main FC and her name here#thoughts on narcissistic psychopathy#and ‘masking’#and how it is quite impossible to avoid it if one is targeted#and yeah#no matter the villain’s sympathetic backstory#he is fully responsible for his many crimes#and he should have been punished more#he got off too easily#and stop putting blame on mothers#especially his mother who did her best with her circumstances#all faults lie with the villain himself and no one else
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「大妹，呢本書呢原來好多料爆㗎！」
“Dai-mui*, this magazine actually has so much juicy gossip!”
*Dai-mui is not actually her name, more a nickname used within (the character's) family.
「嗰個李吸塵*呀原來同佢女朋友同居咗三年㗎嘞！」
“That Vacuum* Lee has actually been cohabiting with his girlfriend for 3 years already!”
* 李吸塵 (pron. Lei⁵ Kap¹ Can⁴ — 李 can sound like 你 nei⁵, meaning “you”, and 吸塵 means “suck dust”, so this joke name means, “you suck dust”) is a pun on singer/actor Hacken Lee's Chinese name 李克勤 (pron. Lei⁵ Hak¹ Kan⁴).
The actual spoken dialogue was on point but the subs actually got the pun wrong! orz 😹 吸 should've been used in place of 克 for the joke to have been effective in Cantonese!
「仲有呀，嗰個撈麵*呀一氣買五疊樓呀！」
“And that Lo Mein*, buying 5 properties in one go!”
* 撈麵 (pron. Lo¹/Lo⁴ Min⁶ — a type of Chinese noodle dish, more commonly known to Westerners/globally as Lo-mein) is a pun on actor Lo Mang's name, 羅莽 (pron. Lo⁴ Mong⁵).
「仲有嗰個郭小人*呀住喺佢哋樓下呀嘛！」
“And that Petty Kwok* is living in the same apartment block as them both right?!”
* 郭小人 (pron. Kwok³ Siu² Jan⁴ — 小人, which literally means “small person” can mean an “ungracious and petty person”) is a pun on actress Florence Kwok's Chinese name 郭少芸 (pron. Kwok³ Siu² Wan⁴).
↑ L: Hacken Lee, R: Lo Mang, both also star in this series.
↑ L: Florence Kwok
「醒目！」 “Clever!”
《師奶強人》 (1998) 第二集
#It's puerile perhaps but…it's also rather funny whenever#TVB#Sneaks inside jokes into their series#At least they can laugh at themselves!#HK Drama#As Sure as Fate#Cantonese#Florence Kwok#Cutie Mui#Hacken Lee#Lo Mang#Chinese Language#Language
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Guys who do you watch on YouTube i am watching the wrong people because someone just came out as a SATANIST while screaming on stream i need people who pretend to be normal 👍🏻 i like art mostly or super niche accounts from others on tumblr but i can dabble in it all..
#im planning on getting into that shark vtuber i forgor his name#and nyanners#< there were some mandarin / cantonese speaking ones i loved a lot but i forgor name#the art (drama) cc makes me want to never have a social media presence on x or yt.... im terrified...
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In English, the stories and beliefs from North American TV shows came most quickly, without translation. If I had to communicate something in Cantonese, lessons and characters in Hong Kong dramas (and Korean dramas, dubbed in Cantonese) came most quickly to me.
#AsianWriters
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you've gotten me to watch several shows because of your gifs, and I'm curious: which are your favorite shows? I've always wondered if the ones that end up hooking me are also the ones you like the most 😅
You're most likely right Anon! If I like a certain show I probably post about it a lot which may have convinced you to watch it at one point ヽ(✿ﾟ▽ﾟ)ノ generally speaking if I've made 3+ gifsets for it, it's a favourite! eg. The Blood of Youth, The Starry Love, Three Body (recent examples) which ones are your faves Anon??
Although the ones that hit close to the heart, I rarely talk about on my blog, mainly because there isn't a fandom on tumblr. Some cdramas just don't make it out here, I might make a post or two about it, if there's little to no responses, I don't bother with it. I too, as a gifmaker, isn't immune from chasing clout (˚ ˃̣̣̥⌓˂̣̣̥ )づ
#ask#anon#a lot of my faves are hongkong dramas its only recent years i watch more mandarin dramas (i used to be anime trash#when i was growing up it was all about hk films/dramas (also bc im cantonese) but now hk dramas suck#not to say mandarin dramas dont suck but the pool is bigger and you can ignore the bad ones but hkdramas is just dying out 😭😭
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