An irony to somebody conceited

The paper chase, we Chinese translated it as寒窗恋，or 力争上游、平步青云、纸追，an old movie shot in 1973, scored 8.3 in Douban movie. Considering the harsh words people use in movie commenting and they prefer negative attitudes to the movie they take, it’s a relative high mark, which means a good movie. However, what disappointed is, it’s not wonderful movie, what we saw the students done in the movie is familiar to what we know, or what we’ve heard about, nothing special.

Different to our native classroom, the classroom is hemicycle, a conference center, the relationship between the professor on platform and students in the classroom are equal, teaching method here is Socratic approach, there even are insulting language between them, what we can’t imagine in we Chinese classroom.

In 1973, American director James Bridge shot “The paper chase” according to the practical situation in Harvard Uni. law school, which translated ”寒窗恋“ in CCTV, or “力争上游”、“平步青云”, some people translated it “纸追“ literality, which tell us life situation of students in law school, what they read, what they think about, what they chase and many other things they want. Frankly speaking, actors and actresses in the movie are not famous, while it achieved great success, many law schools in the U.S. consider it “the first required course” in tens of years later.

Chase, we Chinese translate it “追击” or “追逐“, frank, and directly implies us competitions in law, “平步青云” or “寒窗恋” are not related to what the director wants to show us, “纸追” is more like a joke, maybe the translator think students had entered law school are sure to have a decent life after graduation, what so called “chase” is worthless, sadly to say, the translator misunderstood the essence in the movie or ignore it consciously. In life Harvard law school have, what most important is combatant spirit in their daily life, but not what they would get in the future, after all, what they learned in law school is limited, but the combatant spirit they cultivate is everlasting, keeping their excellent ability in the future life. Kevin, a IQ 190 boy, attempted to suicide and even quit school under learning press, some other students had many problems too, we may call somebody madness, considering their ambition and confidence at the beginning, especially Kevin, a IQ 190 boy, the end in the movie is more like an irony to somebody conceited.

——TO BE CONTINUED