Dawn of the Planet of the Apes in Chinese

Two weeks ago we went to see Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, (2014).

It’s a pretty confusing name, especially since the predecessor was called “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.” They definitely have too many “of the” in the titles. What will the third one be called? Rise of the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes!?

It’s part two of the rebooted franchise, which had already been (badly) attempted by Tim  Burton and “Marky Mark” Wahlberg in 2001 which itself was a remake of the 1968 Charlton Heston movie.

Anyway, the rebooted franchise is definitely a lot better than the 2001 version, and there were some really impressive motion capture going on in this one.

In fact, where this movie excels is that the audience develop more of an emotional connection with the apes than they do with their human counterparts. The problem with so many of these CGI heavy blockbusters is that the characters have no depth (insert any Transformer here).  I genuinely had a tear in my eye for some of the scenes involving Caesar (played by the wonderful Andy Serkis) and his family.

Anyway, without further ado, below is some Chinese to help you talk about this movie with your friends.

猩球崛起

Xīng qiú juéqǐ

黎明之战

Límíng zhī zhàn

Literal Meaning:

Ape Planet Rising

-The War of Dawn-

Character Breakdown

(Click the Characters to get even more example sentences, and native audio recordings)

• 猩 xīng  =  ape
• 球 qiú = spere/ball
• 崛起 = juéqǐ  (to a towering position) / to tower over / to spring up /to emerge suddenly / the emergence (e.g. of a power)
• 黎明 límíng = dawn / daybreak
• 之 zhī = (possessive particle, literary equivalent of 的)
• 战 zhàn = to fight / fight / war / battle

Example Sentences

S: 你从哪个猩球（星球）来的 ？

T: 你從哪個猩球（星球）來的 ？

PY: Nǐ cóng nǎge xīngqiú (xīng qiú) lái de?

E:What planet are you from? (play on words as planet/ape world sound the same).

S: 黎明时，我和一只猩猩一起喝咖啡。

T: 黎明時，我和一隻猩猩一起喝咖啡。

PY: Límíng shí, wǒ hé yī zhǐ xīngxīng yīqǐ hē kāfēi

E: At Dawn, myself and an ape had coffee together.

In Taiwan, the tag line is slightly different, and translates as “The Dawn of War”

Let me know your thoughts about this movie in the comments below, and if you can think of any funny sentences involving apes, please share.

See you next time my hominid friends

Gwilym

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Gwilym James

Executive Producer at ChinesePod

You probably recognize Gwilym as one of the co-hosts of ChinesePod. Gwilym hails from the U.K. but has lived in Taiwan since 2012. His interests include keeping abreast of technology news, going to the cinema, and playing with his lovely cats.

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