《桃姐》  A Simple Life

Learning Objectives

In this section, we will introduce an award-winning Hong Kong film, 《桃姐》(Táojiě "A Simple Life"). The film portrays the life of elderlies in Hong Kong. We will use the Mandarin Chinese version of the film to study the following:

• how to write a film synopsis as a genre.

• learn the written style of Chinese--very different from spoken style!

• learn some subtle ways that Chinese people interact with each other, meaning more than what the words literally mean. 

• gain views of the Chinese society. 

• gain practice with natural conversational Chinese at the discourse-level.

• practice speaking and listening, reading and writing at the advanced level. 

Anticipate the Film through Movie Posters

The film we are going to learn about is 《桃姐》 (English title: A Simple Life). It is a Hong Kong film, directed by 许鞍华 ( Xǔ Ānhuá, Ann Hui). Here are two posters for this movie. Please think about the following: 

Watch the Trailer in Mandarin Chinese

我们来看看电影的普通话预告片 (yùgào piàn, movie trailer)。看预告片的时候，想一想：

1. 电影和你想象的一样吗？

2. 电影里的桃姐和刘德华(Liú Déhuá, Andy Lau)演的角色 (juésè, character, role) 是什么关系 (guānxì, relationship)？

3. 刘德华的角色是做什么工作的？

4. 桃姐住进了什么地方？为什么住进了这个地方？你觉得她喜欢这个地方吗？

Click the audio player above to listen to these questions in Chinese. (If any words are unfamiliar to you, you can use our corresponding Quizlet vocabulary flashcard set to practice. (Go to Flashcard) 

Getting to Know the Characters  (A Film Synopsis Example)

Component #1: The 3-min Youtube video below is a narrated PPT that I created to show you a synopsis of the film in Chinese. Practice your listening and reading along with these slides. Hope you find them helpful. 

Component #2: If you would like to study the synopsis with Pinyin, below are a PDF file of the script with Pinyin, and a companion audio recording. 

Watch Film and Think Critically 

Watch the Mandarin version of the film. Think about the following questions. Take notes and be ready to share your thoughts with others or in your class. Practice speaking about your thoughts in Chinese in response to these questions. 

Regarding the beginning of the film: 

1. 电影开始的时候，罗杰的生活有意思吗？你觉得他开心吗？为什么你这样觉得？

2. 电影开始的时候，桃姐每天做什么？

3. 电影开始在介绍桃姐的时候，暗示了一些对老年人生活的担忧。你能举一个例子吗？

4. 电影开始的时候，我们看到桃姐去菜市场买菜。菜市场的人为什么要戏弄她？

5. 为什么桃姐和罗杰像亲人一样，但是他们不怎么说话，罗杰自己吃饭，桃姐自己在厨房吃饭？

6. 罗杰说好久没吃牛舌了，桃姐说好久没吃就不要吃了，罗杰有没有听？下次为什么桃姐还是做牛舌给他？

Regarding the trajectory of the film:  

1. 养老院里的形形色色，像一个小社会。举一个例子。

2. 养老院的坚叔是一个什么样的人？桃姐对坚叔的态度原来是怎么样？后来变了吗？你觉得会什么有这样的改变？

3. 桃姐去世以后，坚叔来参加葬礼，为什么他给桃姐鞠躬？

4. 有人说，桃姐是香港传统文化的象征。你觉得为什么人们会这么说？举一个例子。

5. 桃姐后来想吃腐乳。这个情节对应了电影前面的一个情节。你看得出来吗？

6. 吃东西是中国文化里很重要的东西，电影里有很多关于吃的细节。找到两个关于吃的细节，说一说你觉得这两个细节想表达什么？

Your reactions:

1. 电影中你最喜欢的一个地方是什么? 为什么？

2. 电影中有没有你看不明白的地方？

Study Speech Acts and Culture in the Film 

Below is the script for this scene with Pinyin, word-glossary and translation added. 

Learn to Write a Film Synopsis 

In this section, we will use film synopsis to practice language, specifically, practice:

• reading non-fiction in Chinese. 

• specific register of written Chinese.

Film synopsis is a particular genre. It is typically formal, so a Chinese movie synopsis is a good way to practice formal speech register in Chinese. Modern written Chinese is greatly influenced by classical Chinese, which makes written Chinese very different from spoken Chinese. The following features particularly are common in written Chinese, but not common in spoken Chinese.

• two-character and four-character words (idioms and fixed expressions) -- which give written Chinese the classical Chinese rhythm. 

• special word choice--there is typically a more formal word-choice for the same idea in speaking than in writing. 

• connecting words. Sentences in writing are so much more compact than in speaking. One way to make sentences compact is to use connecting words.

(Tip: Click the audio player to listen to the companion audio. If any words are unfamiliar to you, you can use our corresponding Quizlet vocabulary flashcard set to practice. (Go to Flashcard) If you'd like to read the text with Pinyin, see the embedded PDF below.--Red-coding indicates formal-register two-character words; blue-coding indicates formal-register four-character words. Yellow highlights indicate conjunction words to create compact structure. These features contribute to the written, formal register of Chinese. 

Practice: Write a Synopsis for a Film of Your Choice

Component #1: Although we don't usually find ourselves in a situation to write film synopsis, this genre is a small-size practice with written Chinese and become more skilled in understanding the particular word-choices and sentence patterns of formal written Chinese. So, let's practice! Using the two authentic models of written film synopsis based on 《桃姐》(one from wikipedia Chinese and one from douban.com), in the following video, I will explain the three discourse features in written synopsis: 

1. two-character and four-character word choices marking formal context and written communication.

2. connecting words to make sentences compact; 

3. sentence patterns useful to expression information needed for a synopsis. 

Component #2: Write your own synopsis of a film that you liked. Follow these steps: 

1. Think of one favorite movie. 

2. Write out a synopsis as your first draft, including all the information typically included in a synopsis: title, year, director, main actors, plot, main characters and their relationship, audience reception. You can make it more personal by adding your brief assessment. For this round of drafting, write as fluently as you can. Don't worry about word choices. 

3. Now work on word-choice: are there any word choice that you can replace with two-words or four-words expressions that sound more formal? Use a dictionary if necessary. This is a practice to expand your vocabulary. 

4. Now work on sentence patterns. Incorporate the genre-specific patterns to introduce information as you see in the model texts. 

5. Now work on making your sentences compact. Locate two adjacent sentences and see if you can combine them if it makes the text sound better. Also add some transitional phrases and adverbs such as (就...，才， 于是, 渐渐, etc.) 

6. Read aloud your text and see if everything flows well. And 完成了！

Practice: Writing Assignment

Writing Prompt (写作文）

Write an essay in which you describe the film and write your personal reactions and analysis. In your essay, include these two main components: 

1) identify one theme from the film and talk bout how you understand this theme in the film.  Examples of a theme that runs through the film could be: food (preparation of food, what people talk about when they talk about food, food related memories ); the cat theme (the moments where a cat appears in the film, what are the subtle meanings about the presence of a cat); a particular type of dialogues and conversation. In your writing, include specific scenarios as the basis of your analysis so your analysis is concrete and interesting. 

2) relate the theme to something outside of the film, such as similar expressions in another film, your personal experiences, elements of the society, other art media, etc, etc. 

The genre of your essay is a film reaction piece. Include a synopsis and then expand along the line of the two components mentioned above. Practice writing in the three features of the written style that we learned.

Enjoy! 

Resources and Credits

Good reviews to read:

• • http://movie.mtime.com/142351/reviews/7317647.html

Sites to buy the film or watch snippets:

• • http://www.amazon.com/Simple-LIfe-Andy-Lau/dp/B00AN5LCV8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1461807669&sr=8-1&keywords=a+simple+life

Sites to learn about the film: 

• • Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/A-Simple-LIfe-Andy-Lau/dp/B00AN5LCV8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384800700&sr=8-1&keywords=a+simple+life

  • Wikipedia：http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%A1%83%E5%A7%90

  • 豆瓣电影： http://movie.douban.com/subject/5977835/

  • IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2008006/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Image sources:

•  http://www.movieposterdb.com/poster/18547f9e

• 豆瓣电影： http://movie.douban.com/subject/5977835/