frenchinos at home
  • stories
  • about

Of Cantonese Movies

5/4/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
One of the husband's achievements of late - in terms of assimilating in KL - is watching Celestial HD channel. For the benefit of our non-Malaysian friends, Celestial HD is like HBO but only in Cantonese and occasionally Chinese. One can sit all-day in front of the TV watching back-to-back movies. We don't do that, though, because we don't have much time together during the week so TV-time is minimized. 

Instead, we regularly scroll through the channel guide to record movies which we think may be interesting. If there is one improvement Astro could work on, it is to indicate the main cast of every movie in the write-ups. Only on weekend afternoons do we catch up on what had been recorded. If we can't sit through the first ten minutes, the movie is deleted. "Next!...."

I am so proud of the fact JL has watched all three parts of Infernal Affairs. And by the third installment, he was able to think like a Hong-Kong mafia boss and predict what is ahead. He loves saying "hai meh?" ("really?") in various tones of speech: sarcastically, sincerely, comically. And he makes the hospitable aunties at our regular Chinese eatery laugh when he says "mmmm goy..." ("please" or "thank you") and "mai dan" ("check please"). 

"So who's your favourite actor so far?" I asked him last night.
"Anthony Wong for a start. I think he's a good actor. Chow Yuen Fatt is not bad either." 

That's my man. He has good taste. But before I could say anything... 

"But I still prefer the girls lah!"

Oh gawd. But the funny thing is that he can't really name the girls because they all look alike. He only recognizes less than a handful like Cecilia Cheung, Sammi Cheng and Shu Qi. Oh yes, and the great Lydia Sum because she made him laugh along with Bill Tung. 

We love to share our account of watching The Last Tycoon starring Chow Yuen Fatt and Huang Xiao Ming at GSC Pavilion some months back. In Malaysian cinemas, Hong Kong movies are shown in its original language (unlike in Singapore where it is all dubbed in Chinese, sometimes diminishing its comical or dramatic effects, a true example of lost in translation). And being multi-racial, or rather, not wanting to turn away its non-Cantonese-speaking audience, the movies have subtitles in Malay, Chinese and English, usually in this exact order top-down. 

So when we bought the tickets for The Last Tycoon, we were assured that there will be subtitles in three languages. (Even though I am half-Cantonese, I can't understand 70% of what is spoken without referring to the subtitles.) Happily we went for lunch and looked forward to the movie, whose cinematography was really beautifully done, by the way. 

Here's the thing about Malaysia: remember in one of my previous posts when we said in Malaysia, you don't get what you expect, but what you inspect? Well it happened that day. The movie did come with subtitles. Here's the problem: the audience couldn't see any, except the TOP-HALF of the Malay subtitles. 

When I told my best friend about it, her first question was, "Which half-past-six cinema did you go?". Hey, Pavilion Golden Screen Cinemas, okay? We're not talking about the old Victory Theatre in Muar. *shakes head*
 
It turns out that the guy working in the projection room did not set the screen ratio correctly. So for the first fifteen minutes of the show, we were looking at probably 70% of the original screen size. Fortunately, one of the daddies among the forty-odd of us walked out seeking assistance. When he returned, two staff followed him and they radioed the projection guy. 

The movie stopped. The projector screen started to widen and shorten vertically. We watched the movie from the beginning again. This time it was all good. But again, nobody thought beyond rectifying that particular situation. Because even before our movie ended, the audience for the next movie had started strolling in. What a laugh. 

So there. A break from food-related posts. Malaysia goes to the polls tomorrow. Let's hope for a safer, cleaner tomorrow. 
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    briefly

    JL and S grew up in France and Malaysia respectively. They met while living in Singapore, stayed a year in the USA (Cambridge, MA) then the south of France, Malaysia, and are back again in the USA (New York, NY). 

    frenchinos at home is where we share some of our stories with friends, much like the living room, dine-in kitchen, or the timber-deck balcony which we've always wanted to have, which sounds most impossible where we live now. 

    Welcome and we're happy to have you here :)

    archives

    March 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    November 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010

    categories

    All
    15 Minute Meals
    15-minute Meals
    5 Minute Snacks
    All Things American
    All Things French
    All Things Malaysian
    All Things Singaporean
    Asian Recipes
    Baking Recipes
    Beef Recipes
    Carb Free Meals
    Carb-Free Meals
    Comfort Food
    Culinary School
    Desserts
    Easy Recipes
    Edible Mistakes
    Finger Food Recipes
    Fish Recipes
    Good Habits
    Hearty Meals
    Home
    Kitchenware
    Life
    Light Meals
    Marriage
    Noodles Recipes
    Pressure Cooker Recipes
    Salad Recipes
    Snacks
    Soup Recipes
    Stew Recipes
    Stuff
    Vegetarian Recipes

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.