The Cinema

It took me three years to actually go but I’ve been to the cinema six times in the past few months and I’m bloody loving it. For people who have resided in China for a while and are keen on learning Chinese and taking lessons going to watch a Chinese movie can be a great way to learn, admittedly watching Chinese TV for free is a lot cheaper but you’re missing out on that cinema feel….the stale popcorn, Fanta with absolutely no fizz and Chinese people talking loudly on the phone in the middle of a movie.

As not much of a film buff my tastes don’t go much beyond a Christopher Nolan blockbusters but now I’ve dipped my toe into the world of Chinese and Hong Kong cinema there is no going back. I can safely say I have witnessed the worst acting imaginable whilst watching Chinese movies and they make the cast of Eastenders look like Oscar nominees, nevertheless it’s still a great way to learn.

I have been asked by various applicants the value of learning local dialects, each town or city has their own each dialect which differs greatly from standard Chinese. Of course there are similarities but it’s not just contrasting accents but often different words completely. Of course it’s useful to learn some local dialects especially as some of the older generations will only speak their local dialect, so conversing with shop owners for example can be difficult without any grasp of the dialect….but at the same time its relatively pointless in the grander scheme of things. If you are looking to learn Chinese to further your career or converse within business you’ll only ever need to use standard Chinese and eventually local dialects will die out. It’s best not to complicate things for yourself and focus on standard Chinese. Going to the cinema is great for this as the actors speak very slowly and clearly using standard Chinese, it can be good practise.

In terms of foreign films, there are usually a couple on at the cinema at any one time. Off the top of my head in the last year “The Hobbit”…”Skyfall”…”Gravity” have all been shown in Wuhan, both dubbed into Chinese and subtitled. The cinemas are really nicely furnished and the same as what you would expect in the U.K, Imax screens and 3D films are shown with the best thing being there are no adverts! The film always starts in accordance to whichever time is shown on the ticket, sitting through 20 minutes of adverts really bugs me. There are also no trailers which I find a little disappointing but maybe that’s just my preference and many of you would also be viewing that as a bonus. Staying in touch with movies from back home is not an issue and for anything that isn’t shown at the cinema you can buy on DVD from one of the many shops and street sellers…the legality of these DVDs is questionable may I add.

One thing you may find in some Hollywood films is that the Chinese will censor them and change the films ever so slightly as they don’t want anything to depict China in a bad light. If there is a movie where the villain is Chinese they will have that changed so the nationality of the villain is of another Asian country. In Skyfall for example there is a scene in Shanghai where Bond kills a Chinese guard to get into a high-rise building, in the Chinese version the guard being killed is completely removed from the film, I’m not really sure why. Films that depict sex or violence they will absolutely not be shown, also anything political would never successfully pass the Chinese censorship tests. The Chinese are very careful about what types of films they show and most of Chinese Cinema is based around trivial topics or Chinese history.

The hardest thing about the Cinema is dealing with the Chinese people sitting around you, there can be a lot of talking and disruption throughout a movie so best to try and find showings at more obscure times. Enjoy!!