A Chinese Crime Drama TV Series + 25 Downloadable Study Cards

A few months ago, I recommended the 2023 Chinese TV show The Long Season, which I consider one of the best TV shows ever created in China. If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend starting with that; the entire season is available on YouTube. After finishing The Long Season, I discovered that its director, Shuang Xin, had created another TV show back in 2020 called The Bad Kids, which I missed at the time. I finally got around to watching it, and while it doesn’t quite reach the heights of The Long Season, it’s still one of the better Chinese crime dramas out there. It also features quite a few familiar actors and actresses from The Long Season.

之前为大家推荐了《漫长的季节》，这是一部非常值得看的悬疑剧。就是因为对辛爽导演这部剧的喜爱，我才发现了他的另一个相同题材的作品：《隐秘的角落》。《隐秘的角落》早在2020年就播出了，不过我最近才看完。我觉得它虽然比不上《漫长的季节》，但依旧是一个不错的国产剧。两部剧的部分演员也是一样的。

Story-wise, The Bad Kids and The Long Season share some similarities. In the first episode of The Bad Kids, a murder also takes place. However, unlike The Long Season, where the mystery revolves around who committed the murder, The Bad Kids reveals both the identity of the murderer and his motivation early on. As the murderer becomes involved with the three child protagonists, the story takes several unexpected turns. Much like in The Long Season, no one is safe, and the writers aren't afraid to kill off important characters, even early in the story.

剧情上也有相似的地方，同样都在最开始讲述了命案的发生。不同的是《隐秘的角落》在第一集就告诉了我们凶手以及他的作案动机。在凶手知道三个小朋友有他作案过程的录像时，他与这三个小孩之间的故事由此展开，甚至由于他们之间的纠葛发生了很多意外。

For Chinese learners: The language in this TV show is relatively easy to understand, as many of the main characters are children. This makes it suitable for beginner and intermediate learners of Chinese too. The story is set in a fictional seaside city called 宁州 (Ningzhou). Although there is a real 宁州 in Yunnan Province, the 宁州 in the show seems to be located in Guangdong Province, as many characters have Cantonese lines too in the episodes. However, the main characters almost always speak standard Mandarin, so don’t be discouraged by the regional accents.

故事的主角中有三个小朋友，所以相比于其他电视剧，这里的中文更简单，尤其适合初中级学习者用它来练习中文。故事中的城市叫宁州。虽然云南有一个地方也叫宁州，但这里的宁州是导演虚构出来的一个海滨城市，根据剧情的推断应该位于广州，因为有的场景中人们在使用粤语，不过粤语的部分非常少。

To help you understand the TV show better, I’ve created 25 study cards featuring carefully selected words and phrases that frequently appear in the show, have special significance to the story, or that I found interesting. You can download these cards in both PDF format and video format with audio. Even if you’re not planning to watch the show, you might find some intriguing new words or phrases that you haven’t learned yet!

这次我也制作了这个电视主题的卡片，卡片包含在剧中多次出现的短语和句子。欢迎你下载使用PDF和视频。即使你不打算看这个电视剧，也可以用它来丰富你的中文表达。

Happy watching,

Sandy

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