Hi calkin,

I also love this poem and the classic song “但愿人长久” sung by 邓丽君 (Teresa Teng). She recorded several beautiful songs featuring 宋词(Song poems). This song is the best among them.

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=1xcxCv06tXk

Yeh 2046.. I thought the first half was pretty amusing still.. even though I know it's not a comedy.. :)

Here is the 王菲 version:

我爱王菲！

Ahh.. I recognise her face from a movie I like: tian1 xia4 wu2 shuang1 天下无双 （2002).. It's the funniest Chinese movie I have seen, except for Jackie Chan movies. Most of the time the Chinese humour is lost on me.. or may be now I am just starting to understand more than just the language and I can understand the humour a little more.

I'm also waiting for another movie, nü3 ren2 bu2 huai4 女人不坏, to be finished and released. I think it might come out later this year... it's another comedy but with Gui Lunmei (桂纶镁). She is another of my favourite Chinese actresses.. :)

Light, if you like Wang Kar-wai movies, I highly recommend 2046.  It also has Wang Fei and Tony Leung (one of my favorite actors).  The entire cast, as with most Wang Kar-wai movies, is phenomenal (also includes Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi, Maggie Cheung, etc.).

It's a great movie.  Rent it if you haven't already seen it!

Changye, thanks so much for this!  I just listened to the Teresa Teng song and realized it's also one of my favorite songs by 王菲 (Wang Fei).  I had no idea it was this poem...now I will enjoy it even more!

Shower (Xizao) is a good comedy with a bit of a tug at the heart strings. 

I can't find a trailer on it, but it takes place in Beijing and shows the togetherness/oneness of Chinese families.  Sounds kind of boring, but it's actually really good (funny and touching).

Well I have now a copy of "2046".. it seems to be a proper special edition version with bonus postcard type "tickets" inside. It comes with 2 DVDs, one is the "making of" and the other is the movie itself. Comes in two flavours of Chinese audio (Cantonese and Mandarin) and 3 flavours of subtitles (Simple, Traditional and English). So far I have only watched the first 40 mins or so but I have already laughed more than a few times. The comedy comes mainly from the main male character and the two main female characters.

I recognised Faye Wong immediately.. I just love the way she speaks.. and not too familiar with the other lead female actress but I also love the way she speaks as well. It's also very culturally rich in more than a few ways and plenty of day-to-day type dialogue happening.

Unfortunately I was unable to get a copy of "Shower". In fact the guy at the store seemed a little annoyed that I had asked for it.. may be a lot of people ask for it and he never has it so he is sick of people asking for it. He is not the usual guy that is normally very helpful so may be he has a thing about non-Chinese people.. I do notice this attitude a lot from the Chinese men around Sydney... but it could be that they have been treated poorly by Australians and have a bit of a resentment against us.. and I wouldn't be surprised at all if that was the case. As nice and multi-cultured, and open-minded as Australia is.. there is a lot of backward thinking people.. and a lot of racism.

Anyway.. I made sure he didn't have the movie before paying for my copy 2046 and leaving..

light and calkins,

Thanks very much for the movie recommendations.I'm gonna have to try and track some of these down.I very much enjoy a good movie.I love Jackie Chan movies too ,but haven't seen the others you refer to.I enjoyed the youtube clip above which I hadn't seen before.I'm about to go and watch Beijing Bicycle.Have any of you guys seen it? I don't know if it's any good,but it's the only one I could find at my local dvd rental store.I'll let you know if it's any good.I'll have to start searching a bit wider for some of these other movies.

Ok.. soo I have watched the whole thing now.. just so you know it's not funny all the way through the movie.. it gets a little melancholy towards the end. I think the times I laughed are more about the cuteness of the gestures and play on words in the movie..

Light, are you talking about 2046?  It's a drama, not a comedy :)  Shower is the comedy/drama.

I'll just buy it on thursday and add it to my growing Chinese movie collection.. :) I usually buy 2 movies every 2 weeks.. got a suggestion for the other one? May be a comedy with a bit of culture added value?