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Thread: The Little Nyonya 小娘惹

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    Senior Member convoy's Avatar
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    Default The Little Nyonya 小娘惹

    The Little Nyonya 《小娘惹》

    The much hyped blockbuster about the Peranakan culture in Southeast Asia. It's mostly about the tough life of a girl with a lowly status in a Peranakan family in Malacca and how she managed to survive and even prosper.

    What is Peranakan? Generally it is a term used for the descendants of the very early Chinese immigrants to Malaya, Singapore and Indonesia and who had partially adopted the Malay culture.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peranakan

    I think this is the first time Mediacorp produced a Chinese series using the Peranakan culture as the background? The story is quite cliche, but the setting alone is refreshing and unique.

    After watching the first episode, it felt ok. It is quite weird to hear them speaking Mandarin as the Peranakan mostly do not speak Mandarin at all, but then this is a Chinese drama... haha. The first half of episode 1 felt more like a documentary than a drama.
    Last edited by convoy; 11-25-08 at 10:47 AM.

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    Senior Member Guo Xiang's Avatar
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    Didn't get to catch the first episode, as I was in school. So what did the first episode touch on to feel like a documentary?
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    Senior Member convoy's Avatar
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    click to show/hide spoilers

    The episode started with Felicia Chin visiting her Nyonya grandma in Malacca with her admirer Nat Ho in tow. Nat Ho's character was a Hong Kong Canadian, so they explained the Peranakan culture to him and also to the uninitiated audience in front of the TV.


    That's why it felt like a documentary. Haha.

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    Quote Originally Posted by convoy View Post
    click to show/hide spoilers

    The episode started with Felicia Chin visiting her Nyonya grandma in Malacca with her admirer Nat Ho in tow. Nat Ho's character was a Hong Kong Canadian, so they explained the Peranakan culture to him and also to the uninitiated audience in front of the TV.


    That's why it felt like a documentary. Haha.
    Wahahaha! No wonder. So strange. They could have done it along the show.

    What's with the Peranakan wave anyway? Mediacorp seems to be promoting the Peranakan culture aggressively nowadays.
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    i love it!! jeanette aww can't talk, i think it makes her act better for some reason. and dai yang tian is sooo handsome as yousuke-kun, am glad mdc didn't cast elvin in the role in the end. Think this is a classic cinderella story that has mass appeal. Oh, and mrs chen acts really well!
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    Senior Member Guo Xiang's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by muddy_paws View Post
    i love it!! jeanette aww can't talk, i think it makes her act better for some reason. and dai yang tian is sooo handsome as yousuke-kun, am glad mdc didn't cast elvin in the role in the end. Think this is a classic cinderella story that has mass appeal. Oh, and mrs chen acts really well!
    So is Pierre a Japanese or Baba?
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    Quote Originally Posted by athlee View Post
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    Senior Member convoy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Guo Xiang View Post
    So is Pierre a Japanese or Baba?
    Pierre is a Baba. The Japanese is played by Dai Yangtian, and yep, he's handsome

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    I heard taht Jeanette act very well in this series. Have not seen it though.

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    Senior Member convoy's Avatar
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    There were some illogical scenes in episode 8.

    click to show/hide spoilers

    - Juxiang somehow managed to hear the gunshot even though she was deaf.

    - The Japanese soldiers asked Juxiang to cook for them and even actually went to help her gather all the ingredients enough to make so many dishes?

    - The two Japanese soldiers helped Yueniang buried her parents' bodies and even bowed in front of her father's grave. Would the Japanese soldiers do that given that her father was a deserter and a traitor to their cause?

    - How in the world did small Yueniang managed to go from Singapore to Malacca, which is around 300km apart, on her own? How did she find the Huang house when Juxiang never mentioned anything about the Huang family to her?

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    agreed with convoy. a number of loopholes. i can accept the sloppy way which showed yueniang's return to her grandma. sure she's smart, but THIS SMART? is she a walking compass?

    could have been a result of massive editing cos they were originally trying to squeeze everything into 30 episodes. a bit weird since they drag those long-running family dramas, and then chop up something on tradition and legacy such as little nyonya.

    there were actually a number of plotlines which they could have explored further i felt. eg. would be the emotional tangles of the jap guy - on his divided patriotism between japan and singapore. it is never explained how or why he set up home in singapore (in search of peranakan culture seems contrived). i liked how they showed the other side of japanese in the face of war -- that the jap army on top of inflicting harm on other colonies, also tortured people of their own nationality, so it was not a war on cultural imperialism but a war of selfish gains. reminds me of "the price of peace" from 1997 which also did the same.

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    Quote Originally Posted by wkeej View Post
    I heard taht Jeanette act very well in this series. Have not seen it though.
    i actually agree with some reports that jeanette was a better actress cos she's acting as a mute. not being biased but jeanette's speaking voice isn't appealing.

    acting as a mute helped add emphasis to her conveying emotions through her eyes and gestures, a similar tool deployed by producers of "stepping out" when they chose ivy lee to act as the long suffering virtuous wife of xie shaoguang. look where that role got her?

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    Senior Member Guo Xiang's Avatar
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    That Robert Zhang is a psychopath. How could the Huang family marry Yuzhu off to him when they know he's not a good person? It's so sad to know she was sacrificed for the sake of business and money.

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    Yuzhu's family married her off to Robert Zhang also partly because they were afraid no one else would be willing to marry her.

    Until Guo Xiang's post, this thread had been dead for the last three weeks. Surprising considering that the show is such a big hit in Singapore. In fact, it's not just a hit, it has become a phenomenon. Just look at yesterday's turnout at the roadshow at Compass Point. The pre-telecast hype must have worked.

    That's not to say the show isn't good to watch. In fact, I think it's very entertaining. Apart from the somewhat-rushed war years, much of the story has been pretty absorbing. On the whole, so far, I find the show about as entertaining as last year's year-end blockbuster, The Golden Path. The ratings, though, show The Little Nyonya to be the clear winner. Perhaps the cultural element helped.

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    Senior Member Guo Xiang's Avatar
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    I didn't watch all of it, because I don't dig tragedies anymore. But the times I watched it, I quite enjoyed it.

    Did Chen Xi's grandma know about the rape? 'Cos when she called in the medium to 'heal' Chen Xi, she mentioned Yuzhu and still wanted the marriage to go through.

    Making Yuzhu marry her rapist was a big mistake, no matter how you look at it. First thing, the guy proved that he could not be trusted. Second, the Zhangs were made to agree to the marriage, which was more than a obvious sign that it was not going to be a successful union because neither the son nor father cared a toot for Yuzhu.

    Ironically, Zhenzhu preferred to marry Robert Zhang than the close-to-death Chen Xi. She should have!

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    Senior Member convoy's Avatar
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    I seldom watched any more because I was not home on most weekdays nights due to work or other activities.

    But from the few episodes I had watched, I think it is an enjoyable series in spite of the mistakes. Many of the actors and actresses performed well. Lin Meijiao is fantastic as the vicious, petty, cold-hearted matriarch of the Huang family that the audience hates. Xiang Yun is wonderful as the extremely timid and weak second mistress who was bullied by everybody in the family, including the servants. Huang Hui is commendable as the loyal servant too.

    The theme song by Olivia Ong, 《如燕》, is soothing and gentle.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr3N4JFgOO0
    Last edited by convoy; 12-28-08 at 11:51 AM.

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    Senior Member Guo Xiang's Avatar
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    The preview for tomorrow's episode totally freaked me out. I really can't take anymore Yuzhu-Robert scenes.

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    Robert Zhang's English is incomprehensible.

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    Only started watching the last few episodes after hearing all the hype about it. As nice as it is, the plot is very typical of a mega-production- tons of drama and tragedy.

    Quote Originally Posted by Guo Xiang View Post
    That Robert Zhang is a psychopath. How could the Huang family marry Yuzhu off to him when they know he's not a good person? It's so sad to know she was sacrificed for the sake of business and money.
    Exactly! I think Yuzhu's parents, especially her father is sick. He is fully aware of what his daughter is going through but chooses to ignore it and let her continue to suffer. It's amazing that Yuzhu doesn't kill herself after going through so much pain and torture.
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    Quote Originally Posted by sunnysnow View Post
    Only started watching the last few episodes after hearing all the hype about it. As nice as it is, the plot is very typical of a mega-production- tons of drama and tragedy.



    Exactly! I think Yuzhu's parents, especially her father is sick. He is fully aware of what his daughter is going through but chooses to ignore it and let her continue to suffer. It's amazing that Yuzhu doesn't kill herself after going through so much pain and torture.
    The dad is just a useless man. You can really tell that he doesn't care for his daughter at all, and it's just so sad the way her family condemned her life. Her mother was the only one who cared, but too bad she did not go to Singapore... if she did, she would have insisted to get Yuzhu back to the Huang family.

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    Quote Originally Posted by jo_punkrocker View Post
    Robert Zhang's English is incomprehensible.
    talk about it. but jeanette's mandarin isn't that good either. My ears!!
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