Ha ha ha America

[Mr. Duality]

Here's a link to a short film which won at the Sundance Festival, I think in the "documentaries" category. It has a point and is in no way mundane, which is why I didn't post this in MPSIMS.

Hilarious, yet deeply disturbing.

For broadband connections only.

http://festival.sundance.org/2006/watch/film.aspx?which=402&category=DOC

[Taber]

we give you good deal on disproportionate foam finger says we #2 we #2

[Ogre]

Wen Zhou more enormous than New York Fucking City! Who enjoying fragrant monkey tail now?

Who indeed? :D

[Ogre]

Actually, watching the whole thing, it's a surprisingly effective criticism of America...especially when you get to the end and they drop the broken Chinglish routine for the last sentence and you realize that the filmmaker is perfectly aware of how awful the translation is, and that he's making fun of us for feeling superior because of the mutilated translation.

[Hamlet]

Maybe my irony meter is broken, or my sense of humor is on the fritz, but I thought it was a stupid, senseless waste of film. It's annoyingly shot, the mistranslations were idiotic, and, given the huge amount of crap to make fun of America with, not very successful at even scratching the surface. It was unfunny, boring, and idiotic.

[Ogre]

Maybe my irony meter is broken, or my sense of humor is on the fritz, but I thought it was a stupid, senseless waste of film. It's annoyingly shot, the mistranslations were idiotic, and, given the huge amount of crap to make fun of America with, not very successful at even scratching the surface. It was unfunny, boring, and idiotic.It was a perfect "underdog" film. I believe it was shot that way entirely on purpose.

[Mr. Duality]

No tie shorts in complicated knot.

[RikWriter]

It was a perfect "underdog" film. I believe it was shot that way entirely on purpose.

Ah, the ultimate defense of the bad movie: "I meant to do that."

[lissener]

Actually, watching the whole thing, it's a surprisingly effective criticism of America...especially when you get to the end and they drop the broken Chinglish routine for the last sentence and you realize that the filmmaker is perfectly aware of how awful the translation is, and that he's making fun of us for feeling superior because of the mutilated translation.
Um, the last sentence is "Go fuck yourself," so not sure of your point.

[Zoe]

RikWriter: Ah, the ultimate defense of the bad movie: "I meant to do that."

Also great for whooshing folks who think that talented film makers would really talk like that in a film about China. The director is Jon Daniel Ligon who attended the University of Michigan. It deserved the recognition it got at Sundance.

[jayjay]

"You runt pig with no formal access to prosperity tit."


I think I pulled something laughing...

[Ogre]

Actually, the last line of the film at the end of the short credits) was, I believe, something along the lines of, "Thanks to [insert names here], the People's Republic of China, and to the industrious and devastatingly shrewd business people of Wen Zhou." This is completely atypical language in the film, being proper English. My interpretation of this is that the filmmakers used the broken Chinglish translation as a deliberate device to lull the American viewer into a sense of superiority, only to pull it out from under them in the end by saying, "Yeah, we fucked it up on purpose." after all, the director was Jon Daniel Ligon. No way is English this guy's second language.

I can only assume that it was this feature which got it into the Sundance festival at all, being that the rest of the movie barely rises above the level of a bad Flash-based web movie.

[Ogre]

Also great for whooshing folks who think that talented film makers would really talk like that in a film about China. The director is Jon Daniel Ligon who attended the University of Michigan. It deserved the recognition it got at Sundance.Yup. You got it.

[rjung]

An interesting premise, but waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long. You could have cut it down to 3 minutes and gotten the same effect. At least it'd reduce the chances of the music causing internal bleeding...

[GorillaMan]

An interesting premise, but waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long. You could have cut it down to 3 minutes and gotten the same effect. At least it'd reduce the chances of the music causing internal bleeding...
That's what I thought, too. Although maybe 3 minutes is two minutes too long.

On second thoughts, it was just rubbish. Boring, overly-self-aware drivel.

[Taber]

I thought it was genious. The entire Buddha Island part was hilarious "we can give you a job push button for self amusement. but wait. do you have prior experience push button? what button you push in 5 year?"

then to have the rug pulled under you by learning that "fragrant monkey tail" = sucks ass, and that the chinglish was intentional, and the author definitely intended the masturbatory connations of "push button for self amusement" is just brilliant.

Oh, and the connotations of the pipe laying guy.

[RikWriter]

Also great for whooshing folks who think that talented film makers would really talk like that in a film about China. The director is Jon Daniel Ligon who attended the University of Michigan. It deserved the recognition it got at Sundance.

You missed the point. It wasn't that ANYONE believed the mistranslations were accidental, it was that they thought they were idiotic.

[Ogre]

You missed the point. It wasn't that ANYONE believed the mistranslations were accidental, it was that they thought they were idiotic.I don't believe this for a second. I'll bet that most people who watch the movie have a smug sense of superiority over the comically ridiculous (and yet so typical) mistranslations.

[GorillaMan]

I find it hard to believe that many people would think it were a 'real' set of translations for more than a few seconds. They're mostly painfully-contrived attempts to be humourous.

[Ogre]

No they're not. They are fairly standard Chinglish fare of the sort frequently made fun of on pages like this (http://www.silverladder.com/literature/chinglish/chinglish.htm), among many, many others. We're all Netizens. We're all aware of the phenomenon.

[GorillaMan]

Oh, no, I'm perfectly aware of real Chinglish. But line after line, for minute after minute, each supposed to be a mistranslation, is massive overkill and makes it very obvious that it's all very scripted and calculating.

[Gangster Octopus]

An interesting premise, but waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long. You could have cut it down to 3 minutes and gotten the same effect. At least it'd reduce the chances of the music causing internal bleeding...

That's what I thought, too.

[RikWriter]

I don't believe this for a second. I'll bet that most people who watch the movie have a smug sense of superiority over the comically ridiculous (and yet so typical) mistranslations.


Bet and believe whatever you want. It was overdone and idiotic.

[Ogre]

Puerile? Sure. Adolescent? Possibly. Hyperbolic? Definitely. Idiotic? Nope.

[CookingWithGas]

Thanks for posting this. They got my attention when they said that population of the US is just rounding error compared to the population of China. I don't know if I'd call it a great film, but it has a potent theme.

If you get past the music (ears are bleeding), the photography, the editing (trying to look amateurish on purpose?), the translations (which at times were amusing but not hilarious), the message should be a wake-up call to anybody paying attention: "America, laugh now, but China will have the last laugh. We're coming to eat your lunch." The US is using China to produce low-cost goods ("Those stupid Chinese work so cheap!"), but in doing so is fueling the Chinese economy. While Americans get fatter, dumber, and happier, China's economy will reach critical mass and become the next economic superpower.

I'm no economist but sounds plausible to me.

[Lemur866]

Y'know, this movie just proves that Americans are the most provincial people on earth. And only the most provincial people on earth would believe that Americans are the most provincial people on earth.

The movie isn't about China, it's about the director's obsession with America's status. If China manages to haul itself out of impoverished third world status to the level of prosperity enjoyed by, say, Mexico, it will be an enormous accomplishment. And what the fuck does that have to do with nationalist comparisons to America?

This film isn't about how China is progressing, it's an American's attack on globalisation. America, America, America. Y'know, I bet over in China they're sick about how Americans only care about America. I bet they sit around all day and complain about how much we suck and how soon they will surpass us. Because the most important thing in a Chinese worker's life is economic conditions in America. We suck so bad people the only thing people all over the world can think about is us, and how much we suck.

Y'know, for once I'd like to see an American criticize America in the age of globalization and for once take a fucking global perspective. Nah, to much trouble. America is number one! Number one! Even when we suck, we've gotta be number one at sucking! It's fucking pathetic.

[Gangster Octopus]

Somebody needs a hug.

[jackelope]

Great little film; I thought it accomplished something extremely difficult, making a complicated point about international trade without boring the audience to sleep. It could have been shorter, but I thought it was fine.

Moreover, we (Americans) should get used to hearing things like this.

The balance of world trade is going to shift dramatically in the next few years; China joined the GATT last year, and is about to explode commercially. (They're planning to introduce a Chinese-made car to the US market soon.)

Moreover, China keeps its currency artifically pegged to the dollar; it's something like 8.2 yuan/dollar, while currency experts suggest that the actual value of the yuan is more like 5/dollar. From here (http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060420/NEWS06/604200483/-1/ZONES04):Instead of letting the yuan "float" to reflect its real value in world currency markets, China deliberately holds it down, which enhances Chinese exports. A weak yuan makes the dollar comparatively stronger, and that makes China's exports cheap and plentiful in the U.S. That, in turn, drives up the huge China-U.S. trade surplus and allows China to out-compete more expensive U.S. products. Beijing notes it has had this policy for more than a decade, not always to its advantage.This is going to be a big deal for years to come. China is looking to leave the US sniffing Fragrant Monkey Tail.

As far as the pidgin English was concerned, I was reminded of the South Park episode with the Japanese businessmen plotting to take over America with the Pokemon-ripoff. Whenever an American would start to question them, they'd placate him by saying, in comically accented English, how big his penis was compared to their tiny little penises. The American would walk tall as he strode off, completely forgetting what they'd been discussing.

[Mr. Duality]

The laughing Chinese guy may give me nightmares.

[Speaker for the Dead]

Moreover, China keeps its currency artifically pegged to the dollar; it's something like 8.2 yuan/dollar, while currency experts suggest that the actual value of the yuan is more like 5/dollar.

I'm not sure this is what you meant to say. Wouldn't that be the government keeping the yuan artificially high?

[jayjay]

I'm not sure this is what you meant to say. Wouldn't that be the government keeping the yuan artificially high?

Not that I can see. If it takes 8.2 yuan to equal a dollar officially, but the market value would be 5 yuan to equal a dollar, that mans each individual yuan is worth less than what it's actual market value would be if it weren't kept at an artificial equivalency by the Chinese government.

[jackelope]

Not that I can see. If it takes 8.2 yuan to equal a dollar officially, but the market value would be 5 yuan to equal a dollar, that mans each individual yuan is worth less than what it's actual market value would be if it weren't kept at an artificial equivalency by the Chinese government.Correct. At 8.2 yuan to the dollar (as the Chinese government maintains), then one yuan = 12.2 cents. But at 5 yuan to the dollar, a yuan is worth 20 cents.

[levdrakon]

It was kinda cool actually. A music video a 7th grader might put together. Needs a techno beat, and MTV might even pick it up.

Won awards at Sundance? Oh, please. :rolleyes:

[GorillaMan]

Thankfully, it didn't actually win anything, or at least it's not listed here: http://www.sundancechannel.com/festival/history/?sContent=2006&PHPSESSID=e9b13758de7b20d911428eb14f27204a