Saturday, January 21, 2012

陣頭 - Din Tao:Leader of the Parade - Upcoming



陣頭 (Din Tao:Leader of the Parade) is released in Taipei over the weekend. The movie stars Allen Ko and Alien Huang. The movie follows two competing Din Tao (drum) troupes in rural Taichung (臺中). The the drum battles begin.

I think I am skipping this one and I doubt it'll make it to LA in DVD.


Friday, January 20, 2012

新天生一對 - Perfect Two - Upcoming



新天生一對 (Perfect Two) is being released in Taipei today. The movie stars Vic Chou, Ella, and Benny Wen. The movie seems to follow the down and out life of Vic. Vic is handed a son and tries to woo Ella. Sweet! I guess.

If it makes it to LA in DVD form, I'd buy it and watch it.

Friday, January 13, 2012

痞子英雄:首部曲:全面開戰 - Black And White Episode 1: The Dawn of Assault - Upcoming 3



OMG! 痞子英雄:首部曲:全面開戰 (Black And White Episode 1: The Dawn of Assault) is now in the theaters of Taipei! Dood, I have a bad feeling that this movie won't be available on Blu-ray until the end of 2012.

If you're Taiwan this month, watch it! I think the cast is far different than the TV series that it won't even matter if you saw it. It'll be enough of a standalone to bring the rest of the world along for the ride.

I still have my doubts about Angelababy and Huang Bo. Very sad that Janine Chang, Ivy Chen, and Vic are not part of the movie.

Alright Taiwan, let's make 2012 a bang up year for Taiwanese movies.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Learning Zhong Wen

Back in 2006, I posted about wanting to learning Zhong Wen. And from September 2006 to about June 2007, I was up to around 600 characters. I was getting good at it. But it took its toll on me. The review of the words went from 15 minutes to 1.5 hours per night. The opportunity to use it my daily life was very hard. Even in the Heights, I don't spend hours on end at places with Zhong Wen.

Back in elementary school, while being schooled by my momz, I was at roughly 900 characters or at 3rd grade level. But its really the lack of opportunity to use it.

If I were living in a country where Zhong Wen was everywhere and I had no choice but to see it daily, I think I would make much better use of it.

I suck and it will be life long struggle to learn, re-learn my zhong wen.

On another note, my daughter is in an weekday Chinese school and her Zhong Wen is now far superior to mine.

This post was inspired by a blog post from Christine about her inspiration to learn Mandarin in Beijing for 6 months. She has a great table of the % of understanding. However, at 100 characters, 42% is close to useless. Even with me at 600 before, 79% was pretty useless. I suspect that you really need to get to that 1500 threshold. Good luck. The major hurdles are to learn tones, pronounce sounds your mouth isn't use to, and use it daily among a people that use it daily. I can tell you first hand how quickly it goes.