DJariya

Hey everyone
I've become a fan of Maggie Q (the gorgeous Hawaiian-Vietnamese-American actress) and was wondering something about her dialogue in her movies.

So far, I've seen Gen Y Cops and Naked Weapon and both films had her speaking english. I just bought her latest movie "Magic Kitchen" and noticed that her characters dialogue was completely dubbed in cantonese. With the exception of the 2 that I have seen, does she act in english and the producers dub her dialogue in cantonese? This sounds very similar to Michael Wong's earlier HK films when he was fresh from the States.

Trigger

She's a pretty....bad actress. My roommate is in love with her. It's pretty common - especially in HK movies to dub over actors. It wasn't until the past decade or so that they even recorded sound on set. Movies in HK have to end up in at least 2 languages anyway, so it was just easier to not record sound until later. And since some actors would be speaking Mandarin and others would be speaking Cantonese, some voices would match the lips while others wouldn't depending on which language you listened to. I don't know enough about Maggie to say what languages she speaks.

khai

I don't believe she's fluent in Cantonese or Mandarin.

dleedlee

I know you're referring to the 'modern' era of the last few decades. But for clarification, all the HK films of the '50s and '60s that I've seen were recorded with live sound. Hell, you can even see the boom mic shadows occasionally. And on the really cheap productions, you can hear that distinctive hollow echo from footsteps on flimsy wooden sets.

Trigger

Oh that's true - I hadn't even thought about films that far back. Weird.

DJariya

I kinda figured that she is only an english speaker.....I think it would be very difficult for a non-native chinese to learn a completely new language and let alone learn her dialogue in chinese. I know Michelle Yeoh had to speak Mandarin in Crouching Tiger when she doesn't read chinese or speak Mandarin. Also Michael Wong was born in New York and speaks horrible cantonese and always mixes english with his dialogue.

pat00139

Yeah, she doesn't speak any Cantonese. Michelle Yeoh did learn Cantonese, though, so it can be done. Miss Q is cute but I find something's strange about her face. I don't know why, though, considering she was a model for face cream, or whatever she got a job for. Mr. Wong even makes fun of the fact that he can't speak Cantonese in some of his movies, so I find that pretty funny.

Christy Chung really impresses me: Cantonese, Mandarin, English, Vietnamese and French. I speak 2 and trying to learn 2 more and it's REALLY FRIGGIN HARD.

dleedlee

Don't forget the babe-alicious Karen Mok: Cantonese, Mandarin, English and Italian (and who knows what else, some bios say French and Japanese).

thelefteyeguy

omg christy can't act if her baby was in danger.
I watched 10 mins of Astonishing and had to turn it off...worst asian actress ever...before it was tolerable cause of the cans but now she's looking really awful...esp with heavy heavy makeup.
Technically, she doesnt speak cantonese...terrible

Shu Qu was very good in the Eye2
Karen Mok is also very good.