This is such a wonderful post, and the screencaps are positively gorgeous! I love this scene with all my heart, both the walk-and-talk, and the finger-prick deception at the end with Shen Wei's adorable surprised little laugh and Zhao Yunlan's agitation that Shen Wei might get tetanus. SO MUCH LOVE!!!
I'll come back later with more. Right now, two things.
1. ZYL: If my mom knew I had an intellectual like you as a friend she'd be bursting with joy. Shen Wei: What's precious between friends is intimacy. If she saw you now, she would definitely be happy.
I love that SO MUCH! I love how economically Shen Wei is saying "our relationship is not about status" and "status isn't important, anyway" AND "our friendship is so intimate and precious, it would make your mother happy." (And this is in EPISODE FOUR!) *flails forever*
2. Shen Wei: "I'm sorry." (不好意思啊。)
I got curious because in Korean you never say "I'm sorry" about a bereavement -- "I'm sorry" is about taking blame/responsibility -- and I wondered if Chinese was the same. Here is a (random) page about how to express condolences in Chinese, and yeah, it looks like Chinese people generally don't say "I'm sorry" like we do in English. And the expression Shen Wei uses is more like "Excuse me", I think? (The expression discussed in that link is missing one character, compared to what Shen Wei says, so I might have entirely the wrong end of the stick.) Anyway, I'd guess Shen Wei's sorry might be "Sorry for speaking so lightly/carelessly about your dead mother!" rather than "I'm sorry your mother's dead." But I'd love to know what someone who, you know, actually knows Chinese and Chinese culture makes of it!
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I'll come back later with more. Right now, two things.
1. ZYL: If my mom knew I had an intellectual like you as a friend she'd be bursting with joy.
Shen Wei: What's precious between friends is intimacy. If she saw you now, she would definitely be happy.
I love that SO MUCH! I love how economically Shen Wei is saying "our relationship is not about status" and "status isn't important, anyway" AND "our friendship is so intimate and precious, it would make your mother happy." (And this is in EPISODE FOUR!) *flails forever*
2. Shen Wei: "I'm sorry." (不好意思啊。)
I got curious because in Korean you never say "I'm sorry" about a bereavement -- "I'm sorry" is about taking blame/responsibility -- and I wondered if Chinese was the same. Here is a (random) page about how to express condolences in Chinese, and yeah, it looks like Chinese people generally don't say "I'm sorry" like we do in English. And the expression Shen Wei uses is more like "Excuse me", I think? (The expression discussed in that link is missing one character, compared to what Shen Wei says, so I might have entirely the wrong end of the stick.) Anyway, I'd guess Shen Wei's sorry might be "Sorry for speaking so lightly/carelessly about your dead mother!" rather than "I'm sorry your mother's dead." But I'd love to know what someone who, you know, actually knows Chinese and Chinese culture makes of it!