YES I can finally blog properly.

Why did I keep wanting to blog? Well, I had much to say about "The Interchange" (zhuan3 huan4 zhan4). For a person who has watched it, it is too good not to talk about.

The whole thing is made up of 4 parts. 1 short drama, followed by 1 crosstalk (xiang4 sheng), followed by another short drama, followed by interval, then big drama "The Interchange".

The first 2 were corny. And funny.

First one:

When they tried to be funny they were funny, and their mandarin is better than that in "lai2 ye4 fang1 chang2" I watched in sec 3(cannot be helped though, considering where the actors came from). However, the whole thing was so corny that the ending felt very... abrupt when they talked about less and less kind people in the society. It doesn't really matter though, the moral values part didn't seem to be important. I don't think Haoran would be very concerned about morals.

Second one:

Starring Deng Yufeng! Cool! I didn't know he would be playing such a major role. Recited some powerful tongue twister.

Third one:

Wasn't really impressed, because the mandarin was not pleasing to the ear. It's not their fault though, it is meant to be that way.

THE INTERCHANGE:

Okay... I admit I coined this term. There was no mentioning of any interchange in the ticket or advertistments, but nvm its zhuan3 huan4 zhan4 used literally. They were there waiting for some transport to send them to heaven or hell, so its an interchange nonetheless.

Anyway, the first thing that blew my mind away was the setting and the lighting. They had this white coloured eye drawn with one spiral on a black background, so even when the lights go out there is this afterimage of an eye. Pretty cool effect.

In the beginning the lights were flashing. Flashing very fast. They had people prancing around in the flashing light, so there was this stroboscope effect, where the people looked like they were moving in discrete units. (you could also say that their movements were quantized)


Some of the more memorable characters:

The Ah Beng. Or Ricky. Very interesting character. Very cheerful, despite being an unfortunate character. He was only important to the story towards the end, but he still managed to make the whole thing very comical throughout. He only became more serious when he discovered something about himself, and the moment he became serious the whole show was serious. Comic deflation at its best.

The Old man from hell. Extremely cool guy. When he speaks people would listen because he makes a lot of sense, and he seems very wise.

The Havard Graduate(alive). When I saw his parents hug his photo crying I couldn't share their misery because he had this huge grin in the photo which made me laugh.

The female Genie. It obviously came from Fiona Xie's role in "wo3 ai4 jing1 ling2". Good attempt. Close enough. Especially the voice.

The Mistress. The Mistress is a her(obviously), and Lian Sheng is a he(not-so-obviously).

And of course, the Mother! Two minute scene, scary enough. It would be interesting if her future child chances upon the videotape of this scene.


Some of the more memorable scenes:

When the Ah Beng saw that he was denied the prize meant for him, and the lights dimmed, the effect was... woah... could imagine the boss getting ggxxed. It was kinda sad for the ah beng.

The moment the bad guy walked into the office of the Havard graduate you could tell he is a bad guy. From his looks, the way he behaves, the way he talks. He just has the whole xiao3 ren2 feel. I hope he is not like that in real life. Imagine him trying to buy something from 7-eleven at 3 am in that make-up.

When the Havard graduate confessed to his online date. The memorable part was not all about the two of them, but also the Ah beng and the boss.


Some of the very impressive things was that they managed to move the props very quickly. When the lights were dimmed I couldn't see anything. They were not just moving black boxes, but also things like office desks(withs lots of stuff on them), sofa, arm chairs etc. They moved them quickly and silently. Good crew.


Overall, it was good! Worth the money and time. Time is money, so it was absolutely worth the money.