Movie Madness #4: A Matter of Fisticuffs

The first rule of Movie Madness is that you always follow a “chick-flick” with a “guy film”. And this week’s installment isn’t as easy as last week’s either. Elementary students might get the gist of what’s going on, but we’re guessing you’ll need to be a healthy Intermediate before most of the dialogue falls into place. This is a great movie by Dave’s favourite American director: part four in Mystery Movie Madness.

As before, your challenge is to recognize the Hollywood film based on a short audio clip. We try harder (hypothetically) not to give away the answer this time….

LINK TO DOWNLOAD THIS EPISODE (right-click, save as):
movie_madness_4.mp3 (4.5 MB)

7 Responses to “Movie Madness #4: A Matter of Fisticuffs”


  1. 1 Matt Jun 20th, 2007 at 4:40 pm

    **SPOILER**

    Would I be right in saying that the movie is 搏击俱乐部? I wasn’t entirely sure. Very interesting!

  2. 2 kmk Jun 21st, 2007 at 12:51 am

    Yes the official translation of the title is 搏击俱乐部

    I really don’t know where Dave get this dubbed chinese version, from my sources I could could’t find anything apart the english version.
    As this movie praise Anarchy against “humanist” values, it should be difficult to find in mainland China.

  3. 3 Art Kho 许冠俊 Jun 21st, 2007 at 8:02 am

    How about choosing a funny movie next time? I want to see how jokes are translated in Mandarin.

  4. 4 trevelyan Jun 21st, 2007 at 11:17 am

    @Matt - The second rule of Movie Madness is to hint obliquely about the answer in the write-up….

    @kmk - Just picked it up at a local store. For what it’s worth, I don’t think the film is nihilist. Project Mayhem is as faceless, impersonal and franchise-ridden as its commercial counterparts. It’s a brilliant film though: if Edward Norton’s behavior at the climax is interpreted as a metaphoric suicide (the ultimate act of self-destruction) rather than as a rejection of nihilism itself (as presented narratively), we have a film that moves in opposite directions narratively and symbolically. It follows the dramatic convention of comedies by ending with a wedding of sorts, but it’s a symbolic marriage of death (Helena Carter had her death ritual earlier). Add a closing dash of pornography, cigarrette burns and the Pixies - this is an endorsement of nihilism?

    It actually confused me to read reviews claiming the film was fascist. Chuck Palahniuk seems to be a pretty straightforward nihilist in the book though, so maybe people were just focusing on the book.

  5. 5 Bazza 白锐 Jun 22nd, 2007 at 6:17 am

    My guess was the good, the bad and the ugly. LOL It sounds like a Western.

  6. 6 trevelyan Jun 23rd, 2007 at 5:54 pm

    That’s a good movie too. I think next week is John’s turn.

  7. 7 Bazza 白锐 Jun 24th, 2007 at 4:01 am

    If you did a line out of Friends, I could probably tell you which episode it was. :)

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