Sparrow 《麻雀》- Li Yifeng, Zhou Dongyu, Zhang Luyi

[creidesca]

My vietnamese reading skills aren't as well as my listening skills. It's so sad but since the internet facilitated the creation of english subs, I've stopped watching dubbed dramas altogether. But yeah, I would probably alternate between the subbed and dubbed. Though, I think I prefer the dubbed more bc the subbed ones are using the TV version, which takes a lot from the old episodes. ALSO, one thing that makes it really hard to find the viet-subbed version is that I rarely know the name of the vietnamese title. Sighs.. Drama addict issues.

It depends on how the drama is dubbed. I couldn't watch Nirvana in Fire dubbed at all (tried several times)--they practically removed the majority of the background sound/music to do their dubbing. Ended up sticking with the viet-subbed version because the translations were more thorough than the English one.

Gone are the days where vietdubbing was done in a professional manner.

[psychoanalyst]

It depends on how the drama is dubbed. I couldn't watch Nirvana in Fire dubbed at all (tried several times)--they practically removed the majority of the background sound/music to do their dubbing. Ended up sticking with the viet-subbed version because the translations were more thorough than the English one.

Gone are the days where vietdubbing was done in a professional manner.

IKR?! OMG, I miss those days, where they used ACTUAL actors to do the professional voices. I admit, I hate dubbing too. Like when the romantic scenes come on and I'm like, NOPE, I'm going to deal with subs because I don't want a woman's voice when he says "I love you" or something. Awks. There aren't that many series that I have to watch dubbed or subbed as much since VERY FEW, and I MEAN FEW, chinese dramas catch my interest lately. Legend of Chusen was a rarity (even if I'm still bittersweet about the ending) and Sparrow (since he looks REALLY good in this series).

[creidesca]

IKR?! OMG, I miss those days, where they used ACTUAL actors to do the professional voices. I admit, I hate dubbing too. Like when the romantic scenes come on and I'm like, NOPE, I'm going to deal with subs because I don't want a woman's voice when he says "I love you" or something. Awks. There aren't that many series that I have to watch dubbed or subbed as much since VERY FEW, and I MEAN FEW, chinese dramas catch my interest lately. Legend of Chusen was a rarity (even if I'm still bittersweet about the ending) and Sparrow (since he looks REALLY good in this series).

There's two types of viet-dubbing: "Thuyết Minh" is where they only use 1 voice throughout, the other is "Lồng Tiếng" which is the use of many voices (even if it may end up being only 2 voice actors changing their voices). Some online sites use the word "Thuyết Minh" for both, but you will know which when you watch it.

I miss the days when the "Lồng Tiếng" was done right--original BGM or background voices/noise are not removed when it gets dubbed (or it gets put back in after the dubbing is done). But I guess back then those dramas were licensed as opposed to now where majority drama copyright/licensing rights have not been purchased.

[psychoanalyst]

There's two types of viet-dubbing: "Thuyết Minh" is where they only use 1 voice throughout, the other is "Lồng Tiếng" which is the use of many voices (even if it may end up being only 2 voice actors changing their voices). Some online sites use the word "Thuyết Minh" for both, but you will know which when you watch it.

I miss the days when the "Lồng Tiếng" was done right--original BGM or background voices/noise are not removed when it gets dubbed (or it gets put back in after the dubbing is done). But I guess back then those dramas were licensed as opposed to now where majority drama copyright/licensing rights have not been purchased.

I prefer long tieng as well, but also, I'd rather hear the actor's voices. Well, not really since MOST chinese dramas are dubbed with a different voice anyhow. Regardless, I guess now I can just get the vietsubbed.

[luna_lucid]

I see. I’m afraid I find that somewhat lacking in professionalism. But that is just my uninformed opinion (I'm afraid I know little about the entertainment industry and their practices).

I read that filming was split into two teams (A and B), with both teams filming concurrently. And so when Li Yi Feng was at A, B would have to use his body double for scenes with his character in them and shoot from the back of/behind Chen Shen.

It appeared quite a few of his scenes were body doubles, not him. From walking up the office hallway to him feeling sad about

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Li Xiao Nan.

I noticed them particularly in Li Xiao Nan’s part of the story. Unfortunately, they created a disconnect of sorts for me. The result for me was that I ended up feeling sadder for Su San Xing than for Chen Shen.

I know, right? I found his

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execution scene

a powerful one.

Even in that state, it appeared she did not forget her duty,

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using Morse code to communicate with Chen Shen about work-related matters.

She was good at her job, above suspicion and fooling everyone. No other agent in the show came close to matching her level, I felt.

I subtitled (English subtitles) what he said for you on OneDrive. (This is a scene from the last episode so those who have not watched it and do not want to be spoiled, please refrain from tapping or clicking the play button.)

https://1drv.ms/v/s!Atin389X9Fd1gmrtoSRlM7UBRgWR

Rather sad and hurtful words, but Bi was

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dying and given their relationship and the affection they had for each other, I suppose Chen Shen did owe it to him to let him know the truth.

Such a shame things between them had to come to such a pass.

Hey, sorryy .. just got back here.

Wahh, thanks a lot for the translation! Really! I've read the recaps and my friend had explained the conversation to me, but it is still better if I understand words by words. Thanks, really appreciated it!

Anyway, it was so sad when Chen Shen said :

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If they were next life and we were ordinary people, then lets be brothers again. ...

They were protecting each other between their differences. Chen Shen tried to stop him being arrested by the Japanese, while Zhongliang was trying to 'catch' Chen Shen by himselff, before reporting to the Japanese. I love their bromance and family relationship with Bi Tai Tai. I was really touched when Bi Tai Tai said to Chen Shen that she would defend Chen Shen over Zhongliang,in the hospital. Really glad that Chen Shen had people who really considered him like family.

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About the body double, well, I also don't really know how things work . I only read that 1 article about the Director's thought.

Anyway, I don't have anything else to watch right now, so I'm just rewatching Sparrow and other series. I also watched the BTS, and everyone seemed to be happy and the shooting atmosphere seemed to be nice (it's rare to find ZRY smiled and laughed a lot) . Here is one of them in spoiler tag, because it contains spoilers of important scenes :

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Never thought that Sparrow would be the drama that I like the most in 2016.
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Even in that state, it appeared she did not forget her duty,

click to show/hide spoilers

using Morse code to communicate with Chen Shen about work-related matters.

She was good at her job, above suspicion and fooling everyone. No other agent in the show came close to matching her level, I felt.

Yeah, that was cool!!
People have been saying that this series lacks cool female characters, but the fact is otherwise.

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It's just the focus of the story was the boys, and the females were working behind the scene so we couldn't see what they were doing all this time. We could only realized it after they were discovered. That part when Xiao Nan told everyone about what she had been doing all this time (mixed with lies) was cool. Yeah, Xiao Nan was really smart. And she had the advantage of acting like a normal harmless girl since the beginning. Actually, the smart Chen Shen had suspected her several times, but she always noticed that and pretended to be weak, so that Chen Shen would not suspect her anymore.

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Regarding the OST, which one do you have ? I have :
- the one I posted in this thread, by K Will(?) *sorry, forgot :P*. That one was my favourite . Other songs that I like are the instrumental ones. I don't really like the ones with lyrics.
- the opening theme by SENS.
What I've been looking is the other versions of the opening theme. They were my favourites too, but I couldn't find it.
- Forbidden love by SENS, the usual version and the piano one

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Oh,another thing that I really like was :

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1.The telegram sending case.
It was started from how the Japanese sent that sophisticated car (that could intercept telegram messages). That was quite intense and cool, especially while Bicheng has been sending messages and Zhongliang tried to decrypt that. I was holding my breath *lol*.

And they mixed the action/tension and romance together pretty well, with Shanhai gave Bicheng's hand to Chen Shen. I was quite surprised when he did that, and I sympathized with those 2 boys.

2. The scene in the prison when Chen Shen secretly helped Bicheng with hand signals. That was cool, although there was a part that was very difficult to do in reality *lol - when Shanhai was present*. Anyway, still enjoyed that

[luna_lucid]

I see. I’m afraid I find that somewhat lacking in professionalism. But that is just my uninformed opinion (I'm afraid I know little about the entertainment industry and their practices).

I read that filming was split into two teams (A and B), with both teams filming concurrently. And so when Li Yi Feng was at A, B would have to use his body double for scenes with his character in them and shoot from the back of/behind Chen Shen.

It appeared quite a few of his scenes were body doubles, not him. From walking up the office hallway to him feeling sad about

click to show/hide spoilers

Li Xiao Nan.

I noticed them particularly in Li Xiao Nan’s part of the story. Unfortunately, they created a disconnect of sorts for me. The result for me was that I ended up feeling sadder for Su San Xing than for Chen Shen.

Sorry 1 more thing about body double.
Honestly, I personally didnt notice too many body doubles while watching *lol*. I realized it after reading people's comments about it, hahaha. I only noticed the ones that I mentioned in my previous post. Dunno why, probably because I was busy trying to understand the story. As you know, I didnt understand Chinese (only understand sooooooo little about it), so I always tried to understand the story based on their gestures and my understanding of the previous plot. That's why I wasnt being bothered by the body double