A New Year film took five billion at the box office and left nothing behind. Art films, meanwhile, are shown at ten in the morning.
Xiaoyu
春节那部片子你看了吗？票房五十多亿。
Chūnjié nà bù piànzi nǐ kàn le ma ? Piàofáng wǔshí duō yì.
Did you see the New Year film? Five billion-odd at the box office.
Chen Hao
看了。热闹是真热闹，看完什么也没剩下。
Kàn le. Rènao shì zhēn rènao, kàn wán shénme yě méi shèngxià.
I did. Lively it certainly was, and once it ended nothing was left.
Auntie Wang
我跟老伴儿去的。笑了几次，出了门就忘了。
Wǒ gēn lǎobànr qù de. Xiào le jǐ cì, chū le mén jiù wàng le.
I went with my husband. We laughed two or three times, and we had forgotten it by the door.
Zhang laoshi
这几年都这样。过年的片子靠合家欢，别的档期基本没人。
Zhè jǐ nián dōu zhèyàng. Guònián de piànzi kào héjiāhuān, bié de dàngqī jīběn méi rén.
It has been like that for some years. New Year films rely on family comedy, and for the rest of the year the seats are empty.
Xiaoyu
我倒觉得有几部文艺片拍得很好，就是排片太少。
Wǒ dǎo juéde yǒu jǐ bù wényì piān pāi de hěn hǎo, jiùshì páipiàn tài shǎo.
I think, on the contrary, that several art films have been very good, they simply get too few screenings.
Chen Hao
一天两场，还都排在上午十点。下了班根本赶不上。
Yī tiān liǎng chǎng, hái dōu pái zài shàngwǔ shí diǎn. Xià le bān gēnběn gǎn bù shàng.
Two showings a day, both at ten in the morning. Coming off work you cannot possibly make it.
Zhang laoshi
影院也难。上座率低，它就撤。一撤，更没人看。
Yǐngyuàn yě nán. Shàngzuò lǜ dī, tā jiù chè. Yī chè, gèng méi rén kàn.
Cinemas have it hard too. Low attendance and they pull it; once pulled, still fewer people see it.
Auntie Wang
我年轻的时候，一个厂的人一起去看，散场了还在门口说半天。
Wǒ niánqīng de shíhou, yī gè chǎng de rén yīqǐ qù kàn, sǎn chǎng le hái zài ménkǒu shuō bàn tiān.
When I was young the whole factory went together, and after the showing we would stand outside talking for ages.
Xiaoyu
现在散场了，各看各的手机。电影还没演完，就有人在刷了。
Xiànzài sǎn chǎng le, gè kàn gè de shǒujī. Diànyǐng hái méi yǎn wán, jiù yǒu rén zài shuā le.
Now when the showing ends, everyone looks at their own phone. The film is not even over and some are already scrolling.
Chen Hao
而且在家就能看，谁还专门跑一趟。
Érqiě zài jiā jiù néng kàn, shéi hái zhuānmén pǎo yī tāng.
And you can watch at home, so who makes a special trip?
Zhang laoshi
所以电影得给出家里给不了的东西。不是特效，是一屋子人同时安静下来的那几秒。
Suǒyǐ diànyǐng de gěi chū jiālǐ gěi bù le de dōngxi. Bùshì tèxiào, shì yī wūzi rén tóngshí ānjìng xiàlai de nà jǐ miǎo.
Which is why a film has to give what home cannot. Not special effects, but those few seconds when a whole room falls silent at once.
Xiaoyu
这句话比那部片子好。可惜一句话卖不出票。
Zhè jù huà bǐ nà bù piànzi hǎo. Kěxī yī jù huà mài bù chū piào.
That sentence is better than the film was. A pity a sentence does not sell tickets.
Auntie Wang
那下回你们带我去看文艺片。
Nà xià huí nǐmen dài wǒ qù kàn wényì piān.
Then next time take me to see an art film.
Chen Hao
阿姨，您可别睡着了。
Āyí, nín kě bié shuì zhe le.
Auntie, mind you do not fall asleep.
Auntie Wang
睡着了也是在电影院睡的，比在家强。
Shuì zhe le yě shì zài diànyǐngyuàn shuì de, bǐ zài jiā qiáng.
And if I do fall asleep, it will be in a cinema, which beats doing it at home.
Adjective + 是真 + the same adjective: you grant the quality fully, and announce that it will be the only one. The turn is close to 有倒是有 met in lesson 11, but livelier, and what follows is almost always unflattering. English does it with "it certainly was", which plays the same part.
各看各的手机: each looks at his own phone. The construction doubles 各 on either side of the verb and expresses that each acts on his own, without coordination. It is very productive: 各走各的路, 各说各的. It often carries, as here, a regret at the scattering.
一撤，更没人看: pull it and still fewer people watch. The 一 at the head sets the action up as a trigger, and 更 amplifies the consequence, which describes a vicious circle exactly. Without 更 the sentence would state a simple sequence; with it, it says the remedy makes the illness worse.
