Because of my audio processing disorder, I read lips often and, even though I don't speak either language, I find it very distracting when the sounds don't match lips. Not to mention, the background sounds that always get overamplified in post-production dubbing.

I understand what they were going for, using the language of the time and place, but I don't actually think it was necessary or adds anything meaning to the story. Suspension of disbelief.

mysans:

Because of my audio processing disorder, I read lips often and, even though I don't speak either language, I find it very distracting when the sounds don't match lips. Not to mention, the background sounds that always get overamplified in post-production dubbing.

I understand what they were going for, using the language of the time and place, but I don't actually think it was necessary or adds anything meaning to the story. Suspension of disbelief.

I think the decision was to add to the atmosphere, as there is an audio drama already made of the series in Mandarin, I think the production company wanted to use Cantonese as a way to distinguish itself from prior adaptations.

Wasabi:

Poll / Discussion

For those currently watching, I’m curious does the voice dubbing affect your viewing experience? 

1. Yes

2. No

If so, do you speak Mandarin, Cantonese, Both, or Neither?

Yes. I grew up speaking both Cantonese and Mandarin with Canto being my first language. Liuyi and Chusan's Cantonese is proper but I do take issue with the accents of the dubbers for Xiao Ma and Dong Dong where it was so bad at times that I had to read the English sub to understand them. It almost made me drop the drama after the first episode but thank goodness I stayed on because it got so good that I was able to look past that.

There had to be a reason for hiring dubbers with accents (not like they couldn't find native Canto dubbers from all of mainland and HK for the drama). Maybe accents are trending now in HK for one reason or another?

Wasabi:

Intro

I’ve noticed quite a few comments about the lip-sync in this series, so I figured I’d start a discussion so we can talk about it all in one place.

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Background

Post-production voice dubbing is very common in Chinese productions, as filming environments are often loud and not ideal for clean audio.

This series is dubbed in Cantonese, which makes sense given that the story is set in Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong. Using Mandarin throughout would feel less authentic for a Hong Kong based gangster setting.

That said, not all cast members speak Cantonese. Because of this, there are moments where the lip-sync doesn’t fully match the spoken dialogue. In many cases, Cantonese dubbing is layered over lines that were originally delivered in Mandarin, which can create noticeable discrepancies.

⸻

Poll / Discussion

For those currently watching, I’m curious does the voice dubbing affect your viewing experience? 

1. Yes

2. No

If so, do you speak Mandarin, Cantonese, Both, or Neither?

It bothered me in the beginning, but I got used to it in the end.

Neither. However, I am learning Mandarin.

R3x61:

Wasabi:

Poll / Discussion

For those currently watching, I’m curious does the voice dubbing affect your viewing experience? 

1. Yes

2. No

If so, do you speak Mandarin, Cantonese, Both, or Neither?

Yes. I grew up speaking both Cantonese and Mandarin with Canto being my first language. Liuyi and Chusan's Cantonese is proper but I do take issue with the accents of the dubbers for Xiao Ma and Dong Dong where it was so bad at times that I had to read the English sub to understand them. It almost made me drop the drama after the first episode but thank goodness I stayed on because it got so good that I was able to look past that.

There had to be a reason for hiring dubbers with accents (not like they couldn't find native Canto dubbers from all of mainland and HK for the drama). Maybe accents are trending now in HK for one reason or another?

Yeah native speaker here, some of their accents really were just bad, not sure if that was a conscious decision, or maybe they were short on choices for some reason