Dead Souls 2018
死灵魂
In Gansu Province, northwest China, lie the remains of countless prisoners abandoned in the Gobi Desert sixty years ago. Designated as ultra-rightists in the Communist Party’s Anti-Rightist campaign of 1957, they starved to death in the reeducation camps. The film invites us to meet the survivors of the camps to find out firsthand who these persons were, the hardships they were forced to endure and what became their destiny.
Vocabulary
Filter the words you want to study before watching.
| 钥匙 鑰匙 | key | |
| 监控 監控 | to monitor | |
| 革命 革命 | to withdraw the mandate of heaven (and transition to a new dynasty) (original meaning); revolution; revolutionary; to revolt (against sb or sth); to revolutionize (sth); (separable verb sometimes used in the pattern 革noun的命) | |
| 尿 尿 | to urinate; urine | |
| 码 碼 | weight; number; code; to pile; to stack; classifier for length or distance (yard), happenings etc | |
| 淘汰 淘汰 | to wash out; (fig.) to cull; to weed out; to eliminate; to die out; to phase out | |
| 灵魂 靈魂 | soul; spirit | |
| 拨 撥 | to push aside with the hand, foot, a stick etc; to dial; to allocate; to set aside (money); to poke (the fire); to pluck (a string instrument); to turn round; classifier: group, batch | |
| 唉 唉 | interjection or grunt of agreement or recognition (e.g. yes, it's me!); to sigh | |
| 设 設 | to set up; to put in place; (math.) given; suppose; if | |
| 尸体 屍體 | dead body; corpse; carcass | |
| 狼 狼 | wolf | |
| 哎 哎 | hey!; (interjection used to attract attention or to express surprise or disapprobation) | |
| 许 許 | to allow; to permit; to promise; to praise; somewhat; perhaps | |
| 不知 不知 | not to know; unaware; unknowingly; fig. not to admit (defeat, hardships, tiredness etc) | |
| 文 文 | language; culture; writing; formal; literary; gentle; (old) classifier for coins; Kangxi radical 67 | |
| 同志 同志 | comrade; (slang) homosexual | |
| 德 德 | Germany; German; abbr. for 德国 | |
| 情 情 | feeling; emotion; passion; situation | |
| 未 未 | not yet; did not; have not; not; 8th earthly branch: 1-3 p.m., 6th solar month (7th July-6th August), year of the Sheep; ancient Chinese compass point: 210° | |
| 哦 哦 | to chant | |
| 以 㕥 | to use; by means of; according to; in order to; because of; at (a certain date or place) | |
| 之 之 | (possessive particle, literary equivalent of 的); him; her; it | |
| 争权夺利 爭權奪利 | scramble for power and profit (idiom); power struggle | Idiom |
| 家破人亡 家破人亡 | family bankrupt and the people dead (idiom); ruined and orphaned; destitute and homeless | Idiom |
| 呕心沥血 嘔心瀝血 | lit. to spit out one's heart and spill blood (idiom); to work one's heart out; blood, sweat and tears | Idiom |
| 命在旦夕 命在旦夕 | to be at death's door (idiom) | Idiom |
| 独断专行 獨斷專行 | to decide and act alone (idiom); to take arbitrary action; a law unto oneself | Idiom |
| 文质彬彬 文質彬彬 | refined in manner; gentle | Idiom |
| 拔尖 拔尖 | top-notch (colloquial); to push oneself to the front | Xiehouyu |
| 扯皮 扯皮 | to wrangle; wrangling | Xiehouyu |
| 不成 不成 | won't do; unable to; (at the end of a rhetorical question) can that be? | Xiehouyu |
| 庄稼人 莊稼人 | (coll.) farmer | Colloquialism |
| 嘛 嘛 | used in 吽; (Tw) (coll.) what? | Colloquialism |
| 有没有 有沒有 | (before a noun) Do (you, they etc) have ...?; Is there a ...?; (before a verb) Did (you, they etc) (verb, infinitive)?; Have (you, they etc) (verb, past participle)? | |
| 转业 轉業 | to change one's profession; to transfer to civilian work | |
| 百分之 百分之 | percent | |
| 批斗 批鬥 | to drag sb before a public meeting to denounce, humiliate and physically abuse them (esp. during the Cultural Revolution) | |
| 窝子 窩子 | lair; den; stronghold | |
| 博文 博文 | blog article; to write a blog article (netspeak) | |
| 反党 反黨 | anti-party | |
| 糊糊 糊糊 | viscous; gooey; sticky; indistinct; thick congee; porridge | |
| 党代会 黨代會 | party congress (of the Communist Party of China) | |
| 炊事员 炊事員 | cook; kitchen worker | |
| 大鸣大放 大鳴大放 | (idiom) to freely air one's views; to be heard far and wide; to attract a lot of attention | |
| 油脂 油脂 | grease; oil; fat | |
| 统购 統購 | state purchasing monopoly; unified government purchase | |
| 不清 不清 | unclear | |
| 阳谋 陽謀 | to conspire openly; overt plot | |
| 教条主义 教條主義 | dogmatism |