Achievement II

I’ve unlocked another achievement.  While in China, I saw The Great Wall.  No, not that one.  The movie.

It’s about Jason Bourne (doing a sketchy Irish accent) and Oberyn Martell in China defending the Great Wall like it’s Helm’s Deep.  It’s directed by Zhang Yimou who uses a color scheme cribbed from his movie Hero.

The villains are a swarm of creatures that look something like wargs from Jackson’s The Two Towers or the Nexu from Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones.  The Chinese audience I saw it with seemed to perk up when it was explained that they were 饕餮 (tāotiè) which are gluttonous beasts from Chinese mythology known for devouring humans.

But then — just a few minutes later — the movie seemed to lose the guy sitting behind me when it subtitled Matt Damon saying “thank you” as 多谢 (duōxiè) because even I know that that’s a Hong Kongism and not something said on the Mainland!

Fun fact:  In one of the (many, many) intermediate versions of Everest, the animated yeti movie Oriental DreamWorks has been trying to make for years and years, the villain was an avaricious 饕餮.

Another fun fact:  See how many strokes 饕餮 has?  That’s how you know it’s an ancient term.  It was never simplified.