MovieChat Forums > The White Countess (2006) Discussion > Unintentionally funny

Unintentionally funny

posted 18 years ago by phoenix34
6 replies | jump to latest

I don't want to be too hard on Western actors who have to talk Chinese, but Fiennes's Mandarin was hysterical! Sometimes he sounded like he had lockjaw, while at other times he put the accent on the wrong syllables in the most absurd and incomprehensible ways.

It's probably not his fault. He seems to have a fairly good ear for language. Maybe the director didn't think it was worth the trouble to correct, maybe the accent coach had already left before the scenes were shot, but for people who speak Chinese it just makes you laugh when you're supposed to be paying attention to a serious scene.

And how come one of the Chinese guys at the Shanghai club was speaking Cantonese to the Russian friend of the countess?

[–] Sors 18 years ago

I only speak about 10 words of Mandarin so I wouldn't know what Fiennes' pronunciation was like, but surely if he spoke with a bad accent it's no different from what it would have been like in real life anyway? There would be no point in making him speak perfect Mandarin IMO.

"I hope I never get so old I get religious" - Ingmar Bergman

[–] phoenix34 18 years ago

I understand where you're coming from, but let me explain what I mean.

He's speaking Mandarin at a fast enough clip to indicate fluency. Now I have heard many many Americans speak Mandarin at all levels of fluency - I've heard good accents and bad, accurate tones and tonelessness, fast speech and slow, but I have never heard any American speak that rapidly while at the same time pronouncing words with that degree of incoherence or ignorance of basic stresses. Like when he lays the stress on the second syllable of ear (erduo) instead of the first.

As for the "lockjaw" .... the way he would barely open his mouth when talking to the nationalist generals was just bizarre.

Like I said, I think Fiennes probably has a good ear for language, I'm not trying to give him a hard time. I only mean to say that his Chinese-speaking scenes caused me to laugh when I wasn't supposed to.

[–] fanaticita 18 years ago

I guess if the director's thought it was that important they would have dubbed in the Chinese-speaking scenes. Nothing in the script indicated that Fiennes spoke Mandarin fluently. He was an American. In the story he would probably have spoken Mandarin elementary at best.

[–] LOVE17THEE 18 years ago

Well the problem is that I cannot understand a single Chinese word he said in the film, whilst I can even make out what Christian Bale said in Japanese in Empire of the Sun.

When we fall, we fall hard. - James Leer Wonder boys

[–] redwoods168 17 years ago

I just finished watching this film and yeah, the way they handled Mandarin made me laugh, too, LOL! It's even funnier considering that this film is a joint venture with a Chinese film co.

But then again even a distinguished director like Zhang Yimo makes ridiculous blunders with films of his native language and his own culture, so what do you expect from a film that deals with themes concerning multi-culture, multi-nationality, and multi-language, made by people who don't know all those cultures and languages?

[–] LeofricsBeloved 17 years ago

Well, I can forgive his Mandarin. I can forgive anyone who speaks in a foreign language s/he had to learn in a short period of time. But his English, whatever accent Ralph was trying to do, was the most hysterical.

They always hire Cantonese speakers even if the movie is located in Western China! I've seen many Western films with stories in China with hire extras who don't speak the dialect that concerns the story's location - The Painted Veil is an example. Well, honestly, you can be sure that most people who will see this movie won't know the difference between Cantonese, *beep* Hokkienese, Mandarin, etc.