MovieChat Forums > Seung sing (2006) Discussion > Hope I don't seem mean but...

Hope I don't seem mean but...


I watched the trailer (OMG so scary!!!), and Takeshi and Shu Qi have such annoying Cantonese.
I know they are very good for the average non-Hong Kong speaker, but still, maybe they should be dubbed instead, or have half the movie in Mandarin, half in Cantonese?

Takeshi has good Cantonese, but not so good as to not be still a bit jarring to the ears.

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>>I watched the trailer (OMG so scary!!!), and Takeshi and Shu Qi have such annoying Cantonese.
I know they are very good for the average non-Hong Kong speaker, but still, maybe they should be dubbed instead, or have half the movie in Mandarin, half in Cantonese? [] <<

I agree- Takeshi does have good and fluent Cantonese but even as a non-speaker (only just began to learn Mandarin) I can hear the accent, and it's quite strong. Why wouldn't they dub him, like they seem to with Tony Leung in his Mandarin roles?

Nadine :)

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I just attended the world premiere two nights ago, and strangely, all the actors are dubbed in the movie. Some dub themselves, such as Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Shu Qi. Others have their voices dubbed into Cantonese from Mandarin such as Jinglei Xu. It's a big jarring having everyones' voices being slightly off.

And for anyone who's wondering, the film was slightly disappointing. It was beautifully filmed, but the plot was just way too far-fetched.

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I watched an earlier cut, so I don't know if it has the same audio as the current release or at the premiere you attended. The audio was not mixed well in some key scenes... Leung's fiance/wife was dubbed as it is apparent she was speaking in mandarin. I wished Takeshi would have just spoken in Mandarin, and maybe belt out a punchline or two in cantonese instead (make his character someone who grew up partly in Taiwan to justify the accent/dialect fluency).

As to your comment on the film, I largely agree -- the story is solid, and is apparent that Felix Chong again took his inspirations from Seishu Hase (he's big into dark crime novels) and possibly from Park chan-woon films, and the filmmakers then added their inspirations from the likes of COLD CASE & CSI in the execution. I say the story is solid bc the plot all makes sense, but in adapting strong plot elements/scenes and turning it into a film, the scenes that lead up to and are used to fill in between the key scenes in each act of the movie just didn't work well.

The one thing they did do well IMO was in the last act (scene in the hospital between Kaneshiro and Leung -- which was surprisingly touching)... I wish they would have faded to credits after we see Takeshi's reaction in the slow-mo shot...

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Agreed, the plot is solid and good, but I think the direction gave too much of the story away too early, leaving the audience too much time to work out what the story is about.
Takeshi Kaneshiro is very good-looking indeed, unfortunately the same cannot be said about his acting skill. Seems to me the directors are more concerned about how good the film looks than whether the actors are really doing their job right.
Don't get me wrong, I think it's quite an enjoyable movie, it's just that it promises more than it actually delieveres.

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[deleted]

the dubbed mand version was fine

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You are so right. Takeshi and Shu Qi's cantonese is really jarring to the ears. It is really inexcusable in my opinion. They have been in the business for such a long time, expecially for someone like Takeshi, who somehow has the title of 'super star'. They should have gotten themselves a voice coach and work on it already! That is really unprofessional.

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