HBO adaptation of Game of Thrones - will this be just for nerds? (NO SPOILERS PLEASE)

One of my favorite claims is that the actors in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" apparently hail from such radically different places in Asia that for Chinese speakers it was like watching an American movie where one actor had a Boston accent, another Texas, another New York, etc.

Michelle Yeoh's Mandarin is unintelligible in CTHD.

oh there's also Jack Gleeson who's from Cork (but bears the mark of his south Dublin schooling) and plays Joffrey as a generic English posho

One of my favorite claims is that the actors in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" apparently hail from such radically different places in Asia that for Chinese speakers it was like watching an American movie where one actor had a Boston accent, another Texas, another New York, etc.

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, May 9, 2014 5:54 PM (48 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

what an unimaginable scenario

trying to picture a movie where one actor has a boston accent and another has a new york accent and the cognitive dissonance is just too much

If they're all supposed to be from the same family, then it would be disctracting.

Yeah, sorry, I meant like in a movie where it would stick out for no reason.

One of my favorite claims is that the actors in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" apparently hail from such radically different places in Asia that for Chinese speakers it was like watching an American movie where one actor had a Boston accent, another Texas, another New York, etc.

― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, May 10, 2014 5:54 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

There is way more linguistic variation in China, to the point where two people can be from different towns only separated by a few miles, but will be mutually unintelligible to each other

like actually truly unintelligible or like "naive midwesterner hearing a really, really thick scottish accent for the first time" unintelligible

Truly unintelligible

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Min_Chinese

Min is usually described as one of seven or ten groups of Chinese dialects but has greater dialectal diversity than any of the other groups. The varieties used in neighbouring counties, and in the mountains of western Fujian even in adjacent villages, are often mutually unintelligible.[2]

Of course these days everybody understands basic Mandarin, especially the young kids

But most people still speak their local dialect first and Mandarin second

It's changing though w/ the younger generation and I think more & more parents are emphasizing Mandarin

There was a study that showed that linguistic variation increased as you went South in China

That's because Southern China is extremely mountainous and it'd be hard to make it from one village to another w/o hiking many days & c

People'd stay in their lil villages and talk to each other and make up cool new words

The North is all relatively similar like Dongbei people have their own 'dialect' but it's pretty much the same as Mandarin

That's cause all that separates Dongbei and Beijing is a big flat plain that you can gallop across!

i wanna chill in the mountains and make up cool new words

there was once a Coen Brothers movie set in a part of Arizona that was seemingly inhabited entirely by people from Kentucky

One video of Lucia Micarelli (Annie from Treme) in Jethro Tull covering a Led Zeppelin tune. She doesn't look Game Of Thronesy.

Here's the trailer for Treacle Jr, the Aidan Gillen film I mentioned upthread. The trailer isn't great but I like the film...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPKpq3UoEx0

yeah I'm going to call bs on that article

Roose Bolton is a northman through and through, but uses an actorly RP accent as played by Michael McElhatton, who's Irish.

lolno

― gyac, Friday, May 9, 2014 5:39 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

is this not right? what's mcelhatton's accent?

man shay is a bummer

That Yara, such a well-mannered lady, sez thanks to the guard for leading them to Theon before cutting his throat.

who is tyrion going to fight?

i would guess kings guard, so jaimie?

dunno who but that was an awesome ending.

I heard something that Yara (Theon's sister, can't remember if that's right) going after Theon was a deviation from the novels and if that's how they're going to deviate then ugh it's so pointless.

The way that scene works is unintentional slapstick.

yeah good ep but the notion of ironborn hightailing it over a couple of dogs and shirtless ramsay bolton was just weird. also the notion that he could go toe to toe with anyone who wasn't already tied to a cross.

was i missing something there?

I heard something that Yara (Theon's sister, can't remember if that's right) going after Theon was a deviation from the novels and if that's how they're going to deviate then ugh it's so pointless.

you are correct, in the books she doesn't really give much of a shit about him. I was irritated by the way they changed it.

I guess it was just to show how completely in thrall 'Reek' is to Ramsay Snow, but it was a clumsy way of doing that.

Other than that, absolutely top notch episode.

Well, she didn't have a lot of men with her. I was hoping she gave up on saving Theon after seeing him but is now ready for war?

i would guess kings guard, so jaimie?
--sitting on a claud all day gotta make your butt numb (forksclovetofu)

From earlier seasons - can't he ask for a volunteer to stand in his place? Or is this case different in some way?

Surely it's the guy who has been traiing jamie and is the only one that knows he can't fight?

When Oberyn said 'I have an ear for accents' I really wanted Littlefinger to show up.

re shae's acting ability - i found it impossible to read any subtlety or nuance into her testimony in this last ep. was she angry that tyrion harry and the hendersoned her? was she being threatened? bribed for her testimony? who knows! everything she says she delivers w/ the same monotone.

Yeah I was expecting to detect some emotion underneath her testimony, too. I'm saving any disappointment with her performance until I learn what her motivation was. In case that matters.

Surely it's the guy who has been traiing jamie and is the only one that knows he can't fight?

― Popture, Monday, May 12, 2014 10:08 AM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Bronn. Not sure if he'll do that for him AGAIN

Fight for him that is. I initially misread your post

xxp I read the monotone awkwardness of Shae's testimony as her reciting a story someone else fed to her. But then again, that actress has given a lot of awkward monotone line reads.

Why does Varys testify against Tyrion? What's his motivation there? All the other witnesses had some kind of grudge, but I can't recall that Varys does.

My guess for what's next is that Tyrion will again choose Jaime as his champion in combat because there's no way Tywin would let Jaime get killed.

Whatever happened to Gendry? Is he just row-boating in circles?

"I read the monotone awkwardness of Shae's testimony as her reciting a story someone else fed to her."

Yeah but she also threw in a lot of personal digs

I get if Varys is just trying to get points, but he didn't have to mention that he thought maybe Tyrion was sympathetic to the northern cause...

oh boy now we get TWO trials

until I learn what her motivation was.

If someone was making her say it, you'd expect her to show some pain delivering the testimony. If her primary motivation was that she is pissed at Tyrion anyway to the point that maybe she volunteered to be a witness (maybe! she was devastated so she hates him now possibly) than it's more understandable that the delivery was totally cold and detached.

So that's why I'm saving the criticism until I learn which or if it's a combination of both etc

what? why would she show pain? who would possibly care? the people who are forcing her and who are controlling whether she lives or dies, given the whole thing is blatantly rigged?

she threw in some between her and Tyrion personal digs, too. She was extremely dedicated to him despite the danger of it that she acknowledged, so you would think there'd be some difficulty just completely fucking him over that you would of heard in her voice.

why would there be difficulty when the choice between supporting someone who's been set up to lose and refusing means her death? It's not like anyone there doubted how much Tyrion's own family wanted him dead, so where would be the benefit in testifying for him? she's been positioned as someone interested in her own survival since the beginning.

I'm only saying she'd show some remorse underneath what she is forced to say. That's what I mean by difficult. I'm not saying she would say anything different (except maybe she wouldn't have humiliated him during it as much)

I wasn't advocating she would support him instead or something. So I'll judge the acting once I learn how the Shae character actually feels about Tyrion.

I think you missed the scene in a previous episode where he called her a useless whore in an attempt to drive her from Kings' Landing and she lost her shit.

I remember that, she'd be heart-broken and betrayed but maybe still conflicted? Their dedication to each other wouldn't necessarily be totally wiped away. Her delivery was so cold in the testimony but you'd expect a little remorse to show through, no?

Did you miss all of the rage episodes leading up to that where she'd demand that he acknowledge her and he'd deflect because it would be too dangerous for her and she took it as him not valuing her as woman?

True! So yeah maybe she's completely over him. But right before he broke up with her, in that same scene, she was pretty crazy about him still. That's all.

If there's one thing I think the show has done well, it's the planting of the seeds of discord in the Tyrion/Shae relationship; I don't see how, given the brutality of the rejection he landed on her combined with all of the perceived and real slights on their relationship and her status that have been going on, anyone would expect someone as steely and unbending as Shae to dissolve into a sentimental weepy mess when faced with the opportunity to give back the pain and rejection she's been taking pretty much since they set foot in King's Landing.