Regarding Voice, Plot, Translation-- answering "Whaleking"

Rating: 10/10 (29 March 2001)

I loved this movie and end up watching it twice in the theater in my midwest town. It is definitely worth the time and cost for me. I would not say it is 100% perfect-- no movie is perfect. However, it is a very oriental, very sincere & beautiful film, so different from the other films we usually got to see in this side of world.
I was also quite shocked when I read a post by "Whaleking" on March 28. He "claim" he is from Taiwan but he post some points that I just have to totally disagree, being myself a Taiwanese, and I speak Mandrin very well.
1. "Whaleking" say this movie has "no plot". I almost drop my jaw on his ignorant comments. To me, this movie has main plots, has sub-plots, and even have 'hidden plots'. What more can you ask? I can only say this movie is a subtle and intelligent movie. If the viewer is sensitive and intelligent enough, he will feel these plots are working together nicely, like many of my friends feel. If the viewer did not catch the sub or hidden plot, he may think this movie has little plot or 'bad' plot. It is mainly the problem with the viewer, not the movie itself. You may not like the style of this movie but it did have very good plots. ( I work in a university and I have talked to several PhD level movie goer and they all agree with me on this.)
2. "Whaleking" say this movie has "bad translation". I strongly disagree with that. First, this movie was based on an old Chinese novel, but the first screenplay was written in English by James Schamus with the help from Ang Lee (surprise, right?). It is then passed to an Taiwanese screen writer Wang Hui-ling to creat the Mandrin version of screen play. They do not intend to "translate everything from Mandrin to English" AT ALL, as Whaleking "imagined" !! An intelligent movie maker know these two cultures are so different, you have to sometimes use different way of expressions in order to touch the hearts of viewers from different cultures. Also the subtitle need to be very concise so you can't cover every word the actor was saying.
3. He claim he can't stand the Mandarin audio of Chen Chang (Lo). Again, I, as a native Mandrin speaker, just have to strongly disagree. Yes, Chen Chang's role (Lo) is a bandit, so his voice acting is maybe too "gentle" as a desert bandit. But remember, Lo was a young bandit and he was in love with a teenage beautiful girl! How can he be rude and rough (like a bandit?) while bathing with his young lover?? After all, the story is describing him as a "lovely young bandit who was sincere and true to his first love". About his Mandrin, I can not pick any really flaw. He may has light asscent, but every actor in this film has it one way or another, and I think that's more realistic than dubbing their voices. Many serious movie goer already say that it is a blessing that Ang Lee insisted keeping the movie's original audio, and not dubbing it! So please let's stop repeating it here. ( However, for people who prefer listen to English, there will be an English Audio in the DVD version. :-) )
I was from Taiwan and I am so happy that CTHD actually win 4 Oscar awards, including a "Best Foreign Language Movie" for Taiwan. It is especially hard, because there was no Asian movie winning that Award in the past 40 years, if my memory is correct. It is also very impressing that a movie from East can be so broadly accepted and enjoyed in US, to become a 100+ million film and still going.
Thank you all movie lover who make this happen! The earth is truly on its way to become a world-village. and thank you Ang Lee for making such a good quality movie for us to enjoy!