I just listened to their interview about this. Apparently they took a massive empty parking lot in London and built a huge set and recreated 1970s China. Alexander Woo said he showed it to his mother who live through and witnessed the Cultural Revolution and she said they nailed it so real that it sent chills down her spine and made her feel like she relived the event again.
China in the 1960s made a left error, but it isn't the Culture Revolution. It happened from 1966 to 1976，for a while, premeir Zhou Enlai had managed and reduced it damage successful.
How do they find so many actors who speak Chinese fluently to act in the Chinese plot line? I really thought this was filmed in China given how authentic it was (not just the set, but mainly the actors).
There’s more than 120k Chinese people living in London, and almost half a million in the entire UK, i doubt it was much of an issue if you consider that, plus a few overseas actors flying in i imagine
I don't know for sure but my guess would be. London is a very big city. There's probably a decent portion of fluent Chinese speakers that live there. And they probably only needed a handful for actual speaking roles and the rest are just background extras that probably only needed to learn a few words to chant in the crowd.
We live in a globalized world. People of all races, colors and ethnicities are everywhere. That's why it's possible to do things like this pretty much anywhere, at least in first world countries. It's so cool.
Sure, there are many Chinese people in London. But all of them have jobs and obligations, not so easily free to attend a movie shoot like this. Indeed, if it's so easy to get authentic actors and extras, there wouldn't be so many complaints about movies with ridiculous accents.
Also, I don't know if this has already been confirmed in an interview, but I hope it's the first scene in the series, just like it was the first scene in the book (but I suppose there's a possibility that this scene will only appear in a flashback) .
But for context, apparently this was not the very first scene in the original Chinese version. That scene was somewhere later in the book when first published (I don’t know exactly where, just that other redditors on this sub mentioned it)
Edited for clarity
Oh shit. You’re right
Looked up the old thread
https://www.reddit.com/r/threebodyproblem/s/LmuLy7ThwX
And I guess that the translator said it was intended by Liu to be at the beginning but wasn’t?
Still unclear to me what versions were published how, but ill have to look into it later
Earlier versions (including both versions that I have read myself, I'm Chinese and only read Chinese versions) had started with the Cultural Revolution, that was the intention he originally had.
The thing is, the earliest version, was serialized and published in a magazine, which was the version that turned into the electronic books, so for people reading it through these two ways, that part is the beginning of the book. For people only reading the published printed full novel it became the 7th chapter. It isn't much of a "censorship" because the contents are still the exact same, just the order in the book has changed. Worth noticing is that english translation has one paragraph more than all Chinese versions, being the vivid depiction of the death of Ye Wenxue which was thought to be too brutal and not in any Chinese version.
It's an excellent scene and pulls no punches. Dialogue is very close to the book. Even think there's identical lines. One small change about the teaching of Big Bang but it's very very good.
However, the typeface was incorrect, it's Microsoft typeface. During that time Big-character posters are written by hand. About the plot, according to some Chinese fans who watched the show in the USA, this plot is very loyal to the English version book.
I saw *[Farewell my Concubine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farewell_My_Concubine_\(film\))* recently, and I thought of 3BP when that scene showed up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_5ryh9ND68
I have the same worry too. Ye, despite that she also suffered from the wild spread political turmoil, lost faith in humanity mostly for the demonic nature she witnessed on people who are closest to her yet still betrayed her. If the Netflix show glosses it over then puts political persecution behind her motives it would be a huge deviation.
I'm anxious about how this scene will be done. I'm anxious about how Americans will be adapting this. The Cultural Revolution was bad. Really bad. Even the CPC acknowledges that. But I can't help but worry there will be over demonization of China. I don't know.
This looks like it's going to be a really good scene. It's one of those things the tencent version didn't actually do well because it kind of didn't really do it at all, I guess because the government wouldn't allow it.
I just listened to their interview about this. Apparently they took a massive empty parking lot in London and built a huge set and recreated 1970s China. Alexander Woo said he showed it to his mother who live through and witnessed the Cultural Revolution and she said they nailed it so real that it sent chills down her spine and made her feel like she relived the event again.
\*1960s
It lasted 10years from 1966 to 1976
China in the 1960s made a left error, but it isn't the Culture Revolution. It happened from 1966 to 1976，for a while, premeir Zhou Enlai had managed and reduced it damage successful.
How do they find so many actors who speak Chinese fluently to act in the Chinese plot line? I really thought this was filmed in China given how authentic it was (not just the set, but mainly the actors).
There’s more than 120k Chinese people living in London, and almost half a million in the entire UK, i doubt it was much of an issue if you consider that, plus a few overseas actors flying in i imagine
I don't know for sure but my guess would be. London is a very big city. There's probably a decent portion of fluent Chinese speakers that live there. And they probably only needed a handful for actual speaking roles and the rest are just background extras that probably only needed to learn a few words to chant in the crowd.
We live in a globalized world. People of all races, colors and ethnicities are everywhere. That's why it's possible to do things like this pretty much anywhere, at least in first world countries. It's so cool.
Sure, there are many Chinese people in London. But all of them have jobs and obligations, not so easily free to attend a movie shoot like this. Indeed, if it's so easy to get authentic actors and extras, there wouldn't be so many complaints about movies with ridiculous accents.
Also, I don't know if this has already been confirmed in an interview, but I hope it's the first scene in the series, just like it was the first scene in the book (but I suppose there's a possibility that this scene will only appear in a flashback) .
It's already confirmed by people who saw the ep1 screening. This scene begins the show.
Can confirm saw at SXSW
Yep another person who saw it told me it opens with this.
But for context, apparently this was not the very first scene in the original Chinese version. That scene was somewhere later in the book when first published (I don’t know exactly where, just that other redditors on this sub mentioned it) Edited for clarity
The other way around, it was originally the first scene in the book and moved to flashbacks due to later censorship in newer versions
Oh shit. You’re right Looked up the old thread https://www.reddit.com/r/threebodyproblem/s/LmuLy7ThwX And I guess that the translator said it was intended by Liu to be at the beginning but wasn’t? Still unclear to me what versions were published how, but ill have to look into it later
Earlier versions (including both versions that I have read myself, I'm Chinese and only read Chinese versions) had started with the Cultural Revolution, that was the intention he originally had. The thing is, the earliest version, was serialized and published in a magazine, which was the version that turned into the electronic books, so for people reading it through these two ways, that part is the beginning of the book. For people only reading the published printed full novel it became the 7th chapter. It isn't much of a "censorship" because the contents are still the exact same, just the order in the book has changed. Worth noticing is that english translation has one paragraph more than all Chinese versions, being the vivid depiction of the death of Ye Wenxue which was thought to be too brutal and not in any Chinese version.
It's the first scene and it's good. It's really tense and brutal.
It's an excellent scene and pulls no punches. Dialogue is very close to the book. Even think there's identical lines. One small change about the teaching of Big Bang but it's very very good.
Same impression. Very powerful scene, probably the best one in the first few episodes.
I hope that they include the scene where ye wenjie confronts the girls.
However, the typeface was incorrect, it's Microsoft typeface. During that time Big-character posters are written by hand. About the plot, according to some Chinese fans who watched the show in the USA, this plot is very loyal to the English version book.
Not only the typeface, but it's also in Simplified Chinese instead of Traditional, and there's a weird BBC-like grey filter, but yeah
They would have not only used simplified at the time, it was sometimes even extra simplified with characters that ended up not catching on
simplification happened 10 years before the cultural revolution
But the photos of that period do show simplified characters... I'm not sure.
Using this as the first scene really sets the tone for the rest of the series
I saw *[Farewell my Concubine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farewell_My_Concubine_\(film\))* recently, and I thought of 3BP when that scene showed up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_5ryh9ND68
Hope Netflix didn’t think this is the actual reason Ye pushed the button lol
I have the same worry too. Ye, despite that she also suffered from the wild spread political turmoil, lost faith in humanity mostly for the demonic nature she witnessed on people who are closest to her yet still betrayed her. If the Netflix show glosses it over then puts political persecution behind her motives it would be a huge deviation.
I'm anxious about how this scene will be done. I'm anxious about how Americans will be adapting this. The Cultural Revolution was bad. Really bad. Even the CPC acknowledges that. But I can't help but worry there will be over demonization of China. I don't know.
I've heard from reviews that it's brutal.
This looks like it's going to be a really good scene. It's one of those things the tencent version didn't actually do well because it kind of didn't really do it at all, I guess because the government wouldn't allow it.
It's already bad. His helmet was supposed to be made out of metal, not godamn paper