Solferino

[cameronian]

its garbage ... but I thought I'd share ... sorry, recycle it 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wBZ2cjkXKA

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Bilge, but what do you expect of armies led by men in fluffy hats! Napoleon was never that fluent in German.

[Leman]

Yes, couldn't see any real attempt at portaying contemporary military formations. Austrian attitude appears to be, "If they can have furia francese then so can we!"

[KTravlos]

Bliah   . Its the classical Hollywood battle (and now Bollywood and Chinawood etc). Just two sides staring angrily at each other than just charge. It can be tolerably entertaining in anything before the 14th century "tolerably" being the stressed word. But oh my god it is disgusting to see our 19th century folks getting treated to it.

I must now go and look at the Les Svib mini-film for 1866 to wash the taste from my mouth. :p

[FierceKitty]

It's Chinatown, Jake.

[KTravlos]

Wuxia? 

[d_Guy]

Interesting example of sub-titling cursive not to mention the SciFi reference to the classic "Ten anvils of Mars!"

[Leman]

We'll, that lost me.

[d_Guy]

Sorry!

When Ktravlos called the movie "Wuxia" (an excellent comment btw) it made my brain do funny things.
I don't know about the UK but here cursive writing is becoming lost - not even sure if it is taught in schools these days.
I was amused that the title of the movie, "Solferino" was written in block print with exactly the same spelling to aid folks that can no longer read cursive.
The stranger comment deals with the Austrian commander saying in German "Angriff march!" which was then given the Dutch translation in the subtitle "Ten aanval mars". It stuck me that it could easily be a title of a 1950's pulp SciFi story, "Ten Anvils of Mars" - it probably isn't however - I made it up.

In any event I believe that my comments have become too strange for this board and plan to try to bring them into alignment with mainstream conversation - assuming I can 

On the other hand if your comment was about "Wuxia" then never mind.

[Leman]

No, it was about the Martian thing. No idea what or who Wuxia is.

[mollinary]

No, it was about the Martian thing. No idea what or who Wuxia is.

I thought it was a somewhat colloquial of version of "What is that? Old Fruit."  Or something like that!   

Mollinary

[Aksu]

No, it was about the Martian thing. No idea what or who Wuxia is.

Isn't Wuxia some sort of artsy kung-fu stuff? Wouldn't mind seeing a martial arts version of Waterloo or Charge of the Light Brigade. Generals leaping and flying and swatting musket balls and whatnots. And plenty of rather stern staring and glowering. And lots of chi-energy shouting. Ahem, I'll get my coat.
Aksu

[d_Guy]

I think you have it Aksu - "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is a popular example. I thought that KT's comment picked up on some stylized emements in "Solferino" Second your desire to see "Waterloo" in that style 
Although Ney meeting Napoleon on the road to Grenoble is close 

[Leman]

I am assuming now that it is not pronounced Wuxia but something like Woo Chia. Not really able to understand why, when a foreign language is written in symbols which we don't use, it is not rendered in a Latin characters form which is pronounceable. I get particularly narked when,e.g., the BBC make a huge effort to strangulate their throats to pronounce some place half way round the world, but then make no effort to pronounce Welsh or Scottish place names.

[d_Guy]

I think you are spot on about news reader attempts to correctly pronounce far flung exotic names but totally fail at local pronunciation.
This appears to be true on both side of the Atlantic. Woo Chi is probably right but I like "Wuck-see-ia" which sound like a Provence in Transylvania.

[KTravlos]

Its a catch all term for Chinese films (whether Hong Kong, Mainland, or Taiwan) that focus on kung fu acrobatics. They have been around for a long while, with Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon being the one to introduce the style to mainstream, and being a good film. A lot of Wuxia is like the US action direct to DVD market.

On the word, it is actually the Chinese word.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuxia

[Leman]

No it isn't because they don't use Latin script. In Latin script it is pronounced wucksia which probably means nothing in Chinese. This is why I can't understand why Chongching is spelt how it is in Latin script with Qs all over the place.

[clibinarium]

It might be rendered in Latin script, but that doesn't mean necessarily that its pronounced with Latin or English rules; there's a separate set of rules called Pinyin which allows Chinese sounds to be written in Latin script. Its the preferred system now over the older Wade-Giles Romanisation (which is why Ch is often rendered as Q now). In English writing with pinyin words cited,  Latin letters are usually written without indications of tone, sometimes these are added with numbers or diacritics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin

[FierceKitty]

".... which sounds like a Provence in Transylvania."

In my colonial ignorance I always used to think Provence was in France. Hell, I was even planning a holiday there!

[d_Guy]

  when I type I never look in the rear view mirror! Thanks for the correction. I think there is a thread about this too!