Learn Chinese with Movies - Cry Me a Sad River

Today’s newsletter was inspired by a request I received — and similarly if there’s ever a topic you’d like me to cover, just let me know!

Whether it’s something you’re struggling with in Chinese, or a specific movie you’d like to study with flashcards, just reply to this email or leave a comment. If I think other Chinese learners would find it helpful too (and I’ve got the time), I’d love to make it happen.

Last week, someone asked me to create Study Cards for the 2018 movie Cry Me a Sad River (悲伤逆流成河).

To be honest, I hadn’t heard of this film before. But after looking into it a bit, it really piqued my interest — so I watched it.

It reminded me a lot of Better Days, which I wrote about a couple of weeks ago. Both movies deal with school bullying as their main theme, and it’s interesting to see that they came out just a year apart, with Cry Me a Sad River being the first one to be released in Chinese theaters in 2018. While Better Days was a much bigger hit — both at the box office and with critics — Cry Me a Sad River is definitely still worth your time, especially if you liked Better Days.

It might not hit quite as hard emotionally, but it takes the subject seriously and sheds light on an issue that isn’t often shown in Chinese cinema — this time with a story set in Shanghai.

The film also includes lots of great words and expressions that are perfect for training your ears. So I picked out some of the more important ones and made study cards for you.

As always, you can head over to my Quizlet page to listen to the audio and play some interactive games with the cards.

The whole movie is currently also available on YouTube.

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