I Think I Watch Shows with My Ears

00:01 While browsing online recently,

00:03 I saw posts about two actors.

00:07 One of them—

00:10 quite a few people have probably seen

00:12 a recently released film

00:14 called Dear You.

00:16 This person

00:17 plays the film's lead character.

00:23 Oh—

00:25 if I remember correctly,

00:26 her name is Li Yitong, I think?

00:30 Or Li Yutong?

00:33 My goodness, I really—

00:35 I can't believe I forgot her name.

00:37 Okay.

00:38 When I first saw the post,

00:40 there was

00:43 a fan-recorded post-screening video.

00:49 In the video,

00:50 someone asked her some questions,

00:52 including how she had portrayed

00:54 the lead character so well.

00:56 And then,

00:56 she explained some of her methods.

01:00 As I listened to her,

01:03 I thought, wow.

01:05 She is still a student,

01:07 yet she acted in this film

01:09 with her own perspective

01:12 and ideas of her own.

01:16 In that moment,

01:17 I felt like, wow—

01:18 I'd found a hidden gem of an actor.

01:21 And then,

01:22 the other actor is Wu Kang-ren.

01:26 Taiwanese-drama viewers probably know him.

01:29 I don't know much about him,

01:31 but I do have

01:33 respect for his acting.

01:35 Whenever I see a film he's in,

01:36 I always think, wow,

01:38 he's actually quite good.

01:41 And in that film—

01:43 no, wait.

01:44 The post I saw about him

01:46 was connected to another work.

01:49 I think it was a film?

01:51 A film or TV series?

01:52 No idea.

01:52 I haven't seen it.

01:54 The work is called Dangerous Relations.

01:57 He stars in it with Sun Li.

01:59 The host asked him

02:03 about the male character he plays,

02:07 who emotionally manipulates women.

02:10 The host asked

02:11 how he portrayed him so well,

02:14 and why his performance worked so well.

02:18 The screenwriter said Wu Kang-ren

02:20 had thoroughly understood

02:23 so many aspects of the character

02:25 and thought them all through.

02:28 The host asked how he did it.

02:30 Wu Kang-ren then explained

02:32 how he had approached the role

02:34 and the thinking behind it.

02:37 These two actors

02:39 made me feel that

02:41 if an actor

02:42 truly understands a role,

02:44 then it won't make

02:45 the film feel

02:47 so hollow

02:48 or so flavorless.

02:53 Of course,

02:54 that's only my personal view.

02:58 I think

03:00 if a film

03:02 or a TV series

03:03 really feels rich and resonant,

03:05 if it feels

03:08 exactly right,

03:09 then it must contain the actor's own

03:12 understanding of the role.

03:16 Recently, for example,

03:17 I've watched a few TV series.

03:19 But I feel those series—

03:23 How to put it?

03:25 To some extent,

03:27 they may cater to audience tastes,

03:30 but they fail

03:31 to bring out the soul of the theme,

03:34 or they fail

03:35 to embody the soul of the character.

03:38 I find them awkward to watch.

03:40 Especially when a production

03:43 doesn't use dubbed dialogue

03:45 and uses the actors' own voices.

03:47 You know, when

03:49 I hear

03:49 a voice that doesn't fit,

03:51 I think,

03:51 wow, why does it sound like that?

03:54 It makes me want to stop

03:57 watching the production.

04:01 But suppose a film or series

04:05 uses voice actors for the dubbing.

04:09 Even if the on-screen acting

04:12 feels slightly off,

04:14 if the voice is right,

04:17 I can still tolerate watching it.

04:20 The problem is,

04:21 without that dubbing,

04:25 the force that draws me

04:27 to keep watching

04:29 is gone.

04:31 And I think—

04:33 How to put it?

04:34 Vocal performance

04:36 is truly fascinating.

04:38 Your physical performance

04:40 might be slightly off,

04:44 but if the voice is right,

04:46 your attention may shift to the voice.

04:49 To some degree, you'll overlook

04:52 the performance you're seeing.

04:55 What the voice adds matters so much.

04:56 I personally think it's very important.

05:00 And then—

05:04 speaking of sound reminds me

05:07 that in earlier recordings,

05:12 I also talked about sound.

05:19 For example,

05:22 consider some pregnant women.

05:25 If, before the baby is born,

05:30 while it is still in the womb,

05:32 the mother spends her time

05:36 in a very noisy environment,

05:38 then after the child is born,

05:40 they will feel that loud places

05:42 are safe for them.

05:45 But if, before giving birth,

05:48 the mother lives somewhere very quiet,

05:50 then after the child is born,

05:53 when they are in

05:54 a noisy environment,

05:56 they will feel that it

05:57 is unsafe for them.

05:59 It's a kind of—

06:03 I don't know how to explain it.

06:06 Of course, this is something I saw

06:08 while reading about the subject.

06:10 I found it fascinating.

06:12 It's like when I visited Thailand.

06:15 I noticed that

06:17 the motorcycles on the streets

06:19 were extremely loud.

06:21 The moment I stepped outside,

06:25 no matter how far from the main road,

06:29 I could still hear the motorcycles.

06:33 Even after I went indoors,

06:36 while sleeping in my room,

06:38 I could still hear motorcycles.

06:42 That made me wonder

06:44 about Thai people who spend years

06:47 in that kind of environment.

06:50 What do they

06:52 think of that sound?

06:54 Perhaps because

06:57 most of the environments I lived in

07:01 after I started school

07:03 rarely had motorcycle noise,

07:07 hearing it so often

07:08 made me feel

07:09 that it was a little too noisy.

07:12 Suppose, for example,

07:15 if you live

07:20 close to a metro station,

07:25 You can hear the faint sound

07:29 of trains passing through.

07:34 Those sounds aren't very loud,

07:37 but once they begin,

07:39 you still feel disturbed.

07:42 If someone adapts to such sounds

07:47 over a long period,

07:51 how might it affect their perception

07:55 or sensitivity to sound?

07:58 I really don't know,

07:59 but I find the question interesting.

08:03 Let's return to film and television.

08:07 I don't know why,

08:09 but when I watch a series,

08:12 I can sense very keenly

08:14 when something feels wrong.

08:17 Take the voice, for instance.

08:19 If it uses the actor's own voice,

08:22 and the actor lacks insight into the role

08:25 or vocal expressiveness,

08:27 that will definitely

08:29 make the performance feel off.

08:31 But if they instead

08:34 use a voice actor,

08:35 then even if the acting

08:39 doesn't feel entirely right,

08:42 the voice can partly

08:44 smooth over that feeling.

08:45 It can keep people watching.

08:51 And there's another layer:

08:57 beyond the dubbed dialogue,

09:01 or beyond the actors' voices,

09:03 a production also has ambient sound,

09:06 including its score and other music,

09:12 and other sounds.

09:13 If those sounds enhance the work,

09:17 then for the production,

09:18 that also counts as—

09:21 How to say it?

09:22 Perhaps they bypass

09:25 something else to capture attention

09:29 and focus us on what we hear.

09:36 Sometimes I wonder

09:38 how sight and hearing,

09:44 touch, smell, and our other senses—

09:50 or forms of perception—

09:52 guide us

09:56 in knowing and understanding things.

09:59 For me,

10:02 I feel sound draws me in

10:05 more strongly than images

10:08 or other

10:10 forms of expression.

10:15 My sensitivity to sound,

10:20 or the charm it holds for me,

10:22 its pull on me,

10:24 may rank above everything else.

10:27 When I try to understand,

10:29 learn, or get to know something,

10:31 I also prefer to begin with sound.

10:35 For many people,

10:40 when choosing reading over listening,

10:43 some prefer to read.

10:45 But while listening,

10:51 I seem to focus more deeply.

10:54 I find that rather strange.

10:57 Although most of the time,

10:59 I still prefer reading

11:00 instead of listening.

11:03 Listening, for me,

11:05 really demands

11:07 far too much of my attention.

11:09 If I want

11:11 to gain something by listening,

11:14 and I don't focus carefully,

11:19 so much will simply

11:20 float through my mind.

11:22 But with text—how should I put it?

11:25 I read very quickly.

11:28 Perhaps before I start reading,

11:30 I already know what to look for

11:33 or what my goal is.

11:35 So when I skim through something,

11:38 my eyes can glide over the words

11:42 and capture the key points I need.

11:45 So a lot of

11:48 what you might call noise

11:51 gets filtered out.

11:52 My focus,

11:53 my attention, falls on

11:55 what truly aligns with my goal.

11:59 Text is somewhat like this:

12:02 it lets me ignore noise unconsciously.

12:06 Sound doesn't.

12:07 It is a linear medium,

12:11 and we can't skip parts of it.

12:16 We have to listen

12:20 from beginning to end

12:23 before we can understand

12:24 what the entire audio is saying.

12:27 Could that difference

12:28 explain why sound

12:34 seizes our attention

12:37 more powerfully

12:39 than visual information does?

12:45 I'm not sure,

12:46 but I think it might.