东风破 – 周杰伦

I saw the new Green Hornet trailer for the movie coming out next year, and I was just floored.  While everybody else is confused whether or not this particular regurgitation of a previously used intellectual property of a major entertainment franchise will be successful — as in: Green Hornet – bad Batman rip-off, Seth Rogen – funny, Cameron Diaz – over the hill, gadgets and CGI – unlike, Diaz, doable — this just had me depressed. Jay Chou is in it starring as Kato.

The original Green Hornet was a star making vehicle for Bruce Lee, who made it so popular the show became re-named “The Kato Show” overseas.  However, the reason is pretty obvious: it was popular because Bruce Lee was in it.  Mr Lee could have starred in a piece of trash and it still would have succeeded.  Ladies and gentlemen, Green Hornet is that piece of trash.

While Jay Chou will now be seen as stepping into the role that made Bruce Lee a star, I think people forget Bruce Lee is a star because he just is.  Instead, people should see this movie for what it is: a movie and a story that succeeds on the back of a Chinese person carrying it.  Kato is the manservant that stereotypically serves his white master faithfully, even going so far as to be the better hand-to-hand combatant in both movies; on the other hand, the original Green Hornet fights like he looking for his keys while he juggles two bags of groceries outside his apartment door, and Seth Rogen is, well, fat and funny.  Also, while the original is solely memorable because of Bruce Lee, this current reiteration also has a Chinese person carrying more than his fair share of responsabilities: that is, Jay Chou is going to attract a lot of attention to this movie for being one of the biggest stars in Asia.

Yep, I’m not saying there isn’t other talent in this movie; this isn’t Jay Chou’s movie so much as it is Seth Rogen, who was funny in Superbad and 40 Year-Old Virgin and nothing else.  However, even if this is an astounding smash and breaks open the western market for Jay Chou, he’ll forever be known as Seth Rogen’s bitch.  Bruce Lee didn’t have this problem because he’s Bruce Lee.  Meanwhile, Jay Chou’s character in the movie is a motorcycling-kung fu-bad ass who is still loyal to some white guy he’s never met?  People are always going to remember you for being the yes-man to some fat funny loser, just as they are going to remember you Jay for being in that terrible Shaolin Soccer rip-off, Kung Fu Dunk.

(I’d honestly post the video here of the new Green Hornet movie to let yourselves decide, but as I just spent the last half an hour trying to learn how to embed video into a blog that seems fruitless, I’d just as soon not keep promoting a movie that doesn’t star me)

It wasn’t always so bad. Jay Chou is famous for writing really good songs like this one. This song brings back a lot of memories for me as I spent an inordinate amount of time learning the lyrics of this song.  I would be remiss to say that I honestly looked up every single word of this song in order to “crack open the hard outer shell ” to get at the “brains of soft, nougat meaning” within.  Yes.  Every. Single. Word.  Needless to say, it took me a long, long time to do.  As well, this was before I got savvy to using the internet to look up words (which is still actually not that great as compared to a book dictionary).

Compared to all the other songs that I was (am) still learning at the time, this song really had a lot of enjoyment and meaning to this.  I don’t quite completely understand all of the lyrics to this song (especially “荒烟漫草的年头”）but that okay – it a poem.  It’s up for interpretation.  This song alone gave me hope for Mandopop that there could possibly be some “art” to be had within the realm of modern popular culture.  I dug the way he kept a traditional Chinese five-tone harmonic scale and “jazzed” it up with a modern harmony with many chord substitutions (I don’t quite remember, but I think it’s a ii V of the seventh degree).

All the same, this is a “relaxing” song about how a man, once again, misses a woman because of a mistake he has done.  Traditional, you are here again.  Anyways, enjoy.

东风破 – 周杰伦

一盏离愁孤单伫立在窗口
我在门后假装你人还没走
旧地如重游月圆更寂寞
夜半清醒的烛火不忍苛责我

一壶漂泊浪迹天涯难入喉
你走之后酒暖回忆思念瘦
水向东流时间怎么偷
花开就一次成熟我却错过

谁在用琵琶弹奏一曲东风破？
岁月在墙上剥落看见小时候
犹记得那年我们都还很年幼
而如今琴声幽幽我的等候你没听过

谁在用琵琶弹奏一曲东风破？
枫叶将故事染色结局我看透
篱笆外的古道我牵着你走过
荒烟漫草的年头，就连分手都很沉默

盏zhan3 a small container
离愁li2chou2 sorrow caused by departure
伫立zhu4li4 to stand still for a long time, motionless, stand still
游（遊）you2 to walk, to tour, to sight see, to travel for pleasure, to swim, to wander, to roam
烛火zhu2huo3 candle flame
苛责ke1ze2 criticize severely
漂泊drifter, wanderer
浪迹天涯lang4ji1tian1ya2 to wander all over the world
浪迹lang4ji1 to lead a wandering life
天涯tian1ya2 the ends of the earth, the remotest part of the Earth
喉hou2 the throat, larynx
弹奏tan2zou4 to play music
岁月sui4yue4 time, time and seasons
剥落bo1luo4 to peel off, to strip, exfoliate
犹you2 just as, just like, as if (also: 犹如）
幼you4 young, immature
幽幽you1you1 faraway, faint, distant
枫叶feng1ye4 maple leaves
将jiang1 FUTURE TENSE, to support, bring; to do sth, to handle a matter; etc
染色ran3se4 to dye to color
结局jie2ju2 ending, final result, outcome
看透kan4tou4 understand thoroughly, see through
荒烟漫草
荒huang1 desolate, barren; waste
烟yan1 smoke, mist
漫man4 unrestrained, free
草cao3 drafted, not final; grass

The East Wind Breaks

A container, sad from departure, stands still alone at the window sill
From behind the door I pretend that you haven’t gone yet
The old familiar place is as if the moon has roamed over it even more silently
At midnight the sober candle flame can not bear but to criticize me severely

A wandering pot that has travelled all over the world is hard to drink from
After you have left the wine has gotten warm and my memoires of you have become dim
When the water flows to the east it is difficult to steal
Once flowers bloom they are mature just once, I however have still done wrong

Who here is using the pipa to play the “East Wind Breaks”?
The years peel off the wall to reveal our childhoods
As if to remember that year when we were still very immature
But these days the instrument sound is very dim, you have not heard my waiting

Who here is using the pipa to play the “East Wind Breaks”?
By the way the maple leaves have used the story made up of dyes, I have seen clearly the ending
I held your hand as we walked down the old road outside the hedge
The desolate smoke and restrained growth of the early years has made even breaking up seem very silent