[00:00.00] Unit four Movies from the east,views from the west
[00:-1.00]I think the basic message of this moveie is the power and importance of education.
[00:-2.00]Even though this village was wxtremely poor,
[00:-3.00]the adults felt it was so important to keep the school going.
[00:-4.00]They had children of all ages in one class,
[00:-5.00]hardly any supplies,a very poor building and an inexperienced teacher,
[00:-6.00]yet the kids learned something very important.
[00:-7.00]A hade stone is useless before it is processed;
[00:-8.00]a man is good-for-nothing until he is educated.-Chinese Proverb
[00:-9.00]Section 1 New words and ideas
[00:10.00]Li Ming's new pen pal talking about Chinese Movies
[00:11.00]From:Mary Carson<[email protected]>
[00:12.00]To:[email protected]
[00:13.00]Subject:Chinese movies!
[00:14.00]Dear Li Ming,Thanks for your e-mail.
[00:15.00]I'm happy to be your pen pal,too!
[00:16.00]I like your ideas about Hollywood movies.
[00:17.00]Guess what I did last weekend?I watched my firs Chinese movie with Jenny!
[00:18.00]I saw a Jacket Chan movie and I really enjoyed it.
[00:19.00]I was a little surprised,though,
[00:20.00]because it was different form a typical Western movie.
[00:21.00]Boy,Chinese movies have a lot of action in them,don't they?
[00:22.00]I couldn't believe how fast everything happened.
[00:23.00]There was so much kung fu in the show.
[00:24.00]Don't you guys ever get bored watching the same actions all the time:
[00:25.00]Chop!Whack!Kick!Fall down and roo?I think it gets boring after a while.
[00:26.00]And I get dizzy watching the people jump around so fast.
[00:27.00]The reason I liked the movie was that it was so funny!
[00:28.00]I laughed my head off all the way through the movie.
[00:29.00]I think it is good to watch a movie to relax
[00:30.00]and forget the real world for a while.
[00:31.00]Western movies are often so serious and realistic.
[00:32.00]When you watch them,you think a lot about the problem is in the world
[00:33.00]and sometimes you feel depressed.
[00:34.00]Sometimes the endings are very sad.
[00:35.00]I think Chinese movies always have happy endings.
[00:36.00]People who like Jackic Chan don't care if the ending is realistic.
[00:37.00]They just care that everything is happy in the end.
[00:38.00]The other thing I noticed about the movie was the fantastic special effects.
[00:39.00]The movie was very high-tech.
[00:40.00]Maybe Chinese filmmakers think that special effects
[00:41.00]and action are the two most important things in a movie.
[00:42.00]Different things are important to Western filmmakers.
[00:43.00]For example,in Western movies you can see a lot of scenic shots,
[00:44.00]beautiful pictures of the landscape,mountains,water,and the sky.
[00:45.00]In the Jackie Chan movie,
[00:46.00]the camera was moving so fast I had no time notice the scenery!
[00:47.00]But the most important thing missing in Chinese movies is romance!
[00:48.00]Why is there no romance in a typical Chinese movie?I like romantic movies.
[00:49.00]Actually,they are my favourite kind of movie.How about you,Li Ming?
[00:50.00]Well,it's time for me to go now.
[00:51.00]I have an assignment fo finish for class tomorrow.
[00:52.00]I have to do a movie review.
[00:53.00]Last week in class we watched a great movie called Pay it Forward.
[00:54.00]It was such a good movie!Now I have to write my impressions of the movie.
[00:55.00]I don't mind doing this homework because,of course,the movie was so romantic!
[00:56.00]Bye for now,Mary
[00:57.00]Song
[00:58.00]Section 2 meaning through practice
[00:59.00]C.Build your listening skills
[-1:00.00]Choose the correct answers as you listen.
[-1:-1.00]Section 4 Reading for meaning
[-1:-2.00]Responses to a Chinese movie
[-1:-3.00]To provide you with a true sample
[-1:-4.00]of how Western youth respond to Chinese movies,
[-1:-5.00]we organzed a group of North American high school students
[-1:-6.00]to watch Zhang Yimou's Not One less with English subtitles.
[-1:-7.00]Here's what they have written about the movie. [-1:-8.00]At first laughed when I the children were writing all the basic words...
[-1:-9.00]water,air,flower and then one wrote diligence.
[-1:10.00]It seemed hilarious.But then I realized that is an important theme in this movie.
[-1:11.00]The young teacher kept trying and trying;
[-1:12.00]she never gave up,even when everone told her she was wasting her time
[-1:13.00]and she would never succeed.
[-1:14.00]The movie encourages me to open my eyes and perhaps,
[-1:15.00]next time,I will choose a Chinese movie in the video store
[-1:16.00]instead of only American movies.-Hailey
[-1:17.00]I think the basic message of this movie is the power and importance of education[-1:18.00]Even though this village was extremely poor,
[-1:19.00]the adults felt it was so important to keep the school going.
[-1:20.00]They had children of all ages in one class,
[-1:21.00]hardly any supplies,a very poor building and an inexperienced teacher,
[-1:22.00]yet the kids learned something very important.
[-1:23.00]This movie had a very slow plot
[-1:24.00]that led up to a small climax and a quick ending.
[-1:25.00]This was very different.
[-1:26.00]The ending was not as developed as Western movies usually are.
[-1:27.00]An ending like the one in this movie would not go over well in Western countries.
[-1:28.00]The part about the flag was interesting to me.
[-1:29.00]Chinese people seem to be more patriotic than we are.
[-1:30.00]The mayor stopped the kids from singing the anthem
[-1:31.00]until they actually put up the flag.
[-1:32.00]They couldn't jsut go through the motions.-Jolene
[-1:33.00]I found this movie more different than what I am used to.
[-1:34.00]It helped me to understand China and Chinese entertainment,
[-1:35.00]and also to understand the differences
[-1:36.00]between their behaviour and actions and ours.-Allan
[-1:37.00]I found this to be an interesting movie.
[-1:38.00]It showed me that the way of education in Canada
[-1:39.00]is quite different from that in China.
[-1:40.00]Young people are young people though.
[-1:41.00]As I watched the film,I slowly became aware of the fact
[-1:42.00]that even though everything seemed so foreign
[-1:43.00]-the culture,the language,the way of education
[-1:44.00]-when I looked really closely
[-1:45.00]I could understand the young people and their teacher.
[-1:46.00]Take away the language barrier and cultural differences,
[-1:47.00]and you find a group of students and their teacher
[-1:48.00]working hard to have a quality education.
[-1:49.00]I think I could learn quite well in a class such as theirs.-Sandy
[-1:50.00]On the whole,I found the movie somewhat interesting,
[-1:51.00]especially the character of the teacher.
[-1:52.00]She was so young;was she even a teacher?
[-1:53.00]But then,of course we see that it didn't really matter
[-1:54.00]if she was a real teacher or not.She taught the children.
[-1:55.00]I don't even think she knew how to do math as well as the kids
[-1:56.00]but she kept asking them to do the calculations and so they learned.
[-1:57.00]It made me ask myself"What makes a good teacher?"
[-1:58.00]When she first came to the school and the old teacher asked what she could do,
[-1:59.00]she just said,"I can sing."That's not true.
[-2:00.00]She did much more than that.-Renee
[-2:-1.00]Charlie Chaplin
[-2:-2.00]Ninety years ago,the life-cardboard figure of a small tramp
[-2:-3.00]would appear every few weeks outside the movie theatre
[-2:-4.00]in almost any American town.
[-2:-5.00]The figure wore torn,baggy pants,a cutaway coat and a vest.
[-2:-6.00]It had huge,worn-out shoes on its feet,and it wore an old,
[-2:-7.00]damaged that on which was written I AM HERE TODAY.
[-2:-8.00]The cardboard figure represented Charlie Chaplin,
[-2:-9.00]the most famous and loved actor of his time.
[-2:10.00]An advertisement for a new Charlie Chaplin film
[-2:11.00]was a promise of happiness and of laughter.
[-2:12.00]His fans knew they would leave the theatre
[-2:13.00]smiling even when Chaplin played a sad or lost character,
[-2:14.00]as he often did.He gave Americans something precious and beautiful. [-2:15.00]He gave them the gift of art.
[-2:16.00]Ninety years later,long after his death,Chaplin is still winning fans.
[-2:17.00]In a 1995 worldwide survey,
[-2:18.00]film critics voted him the greatest actor in movie history.
[-2:19.00]He was the first,
[-2:20.00]and to date the last,person to control every aspect of filmmaking process.
[-2:21.00]He founded his own studio and produced his own movies,
[-2:22.00]including the casting,directing,writing,scoring and editing in every film.
[-2:23.00]Chaplin was born on April 16,1889 in London,England.
[-2:24.00]His father died when he was young.
[-2:25.00]His childhood was marked by poverty,hunger,and loneliness,
[-2:26.00]which later became major thems in his silent movies.
[-2:27.00]At the age of 21,Chaplin became a memeber of a travelling music hall company.
[-2:28.00]Later he went to America,where he began his career in the movie industry.
[-2:29.00]It was in films that he created the famous image of the lonely tramp
[-2:30.00]that people love to this day.
[-2:31.00]Here's how the character was born,according to Chaplin himself.
[-2:32.00]Mack Sennett,the movie producer,
[-2:33.00]was looking for some fun stuff for one of his shows.
[-2:34.00]"I was in my street clothes and had nothing to do,
[-2:35.00]so I stood there where Sennett could see me,"said Chaplin[-2:36.00]The producer noticed Chaplin and said,
[-2:37.00]"Put on comedy make-up,anything will do."
[-2:38.00]"I had no idea what make-up to put on,"siad Chaplin.
[-2:39.00]"However,on the way to the wardrobe,I though I would dress in baggy pants,
[-2:40.00]big shoes,a cane and a hat...I had no idea of the character."
[-2:41.00]But the moment Chaplin was dressed,
[-2:42.00]the clothes and the make-up seemed to have turned him into the character
[-2:43.00]Sennett was looking for.
[-2:44.00]In the years to come,Sennett and Chaplin would work on 35 films together.
[-2:45.00]Chaplin starred in many silent and black -and-whiet movies.
[-2:46.00]In 1972,he won and honorary Academy Award for lifetime achievement.
[-2:47.00]Read on Movie industry in China
[-2:48.00]It is believed the movies,also called motion pictures,
[-2:49.00]were introduced in China near the end of the 19th century.
[-2:50.00]The Chinese movie industry,however,did not start until the early 20th century.
[-2:51.00]In 1913,Zheng Zhengqiu and Zhang Shichuan made the first Chinese movie,
[-2:52.00]called The Different Couple.It was a silent,black-and-white movie.
[-2:53.00]In 1931,China produced its first"talkie" film,Red Peony,starring Hu Die.
[-2:54.00]The film was produced by the Star Studio,
[-2:55.00]at the time the largest film production studio in Shanghai.
[-2:56.00]During the 1930s,a number of movies produced by the more progressive filmmakers
[-2:57.00]established a solid base on which a Chinese film industry could grow.
[-2:58.00]In the 1940s,a number of films now regarded as classics were made.
[-2:59.00]These included Spring River Flows Eastward(1947),
[-3:00.00]Light of Million Hopes(1948),and Crow and Sparrow(1949).
[-3:-1.00]They set a higher standard for Chinese movies in terms of screenplay writing,
[-3:-2.00]performing,directing,music,and art design.
[-3:-3.00]With the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949,
[-3:-4.00]the Chinese movie industry experienced rapid growth.
[-3:-5.00]In the 1950s and early 1960s,over 600 feature films and more than 8000 newsreels
[-3:-6.00]and documentaries were made.
[-3:-7.00]Chinese movies entered a new era in the nid-1980s.
[-3:-8.00]A new generation of directors came onto the stage.
[-3:-9.00]A series of experimental films,including Zhang Junzhao's One and Eight(1987),
[-3:10.00]Chen Kaige's Yellow Earth(1984)and Zhang Yimou's Red Sorghum(1987),
[-3:11.00]brought worldwide attention to Chinese cinema.
[-3:12.00]Since then,many Chinese movies have own various awards
[-3:13.00]at international film festivals.
[-3:14.00]Meanwhile,movies made in Taiwan and Hong Kong,
[-3:15.00]such as Crouching Tiger,Hidden Dragon(2000)by Ang Lee,
[-3:16.00]have achieved international fame. |