Are you a fan of Chinese-language movies? Join the crowd! Get comfortable with hosts Tim and Paz and their guest, XXY, host of XXY梗你看電影, which covers everything related to movies. Learn what differences are disguised by the common comparison of the Golden Horse Awards to the Academy Awards. Find out what the range of nominated films and people reflects, and more. Then discover some interesting cat’s meows, pet peeves, and borrowed terms: popcorn, blockbuster, MacGuffin, schadenfreude, and deus ex machina!

—Vocabulary

nickname綽號 (n.)

XXY’s nickname is not related to the movie of the same name or to a chromosomal anomaly; it’s an abbreviation created by the initials of the pinyin reading of his Chinese name.

dialect方言 (n.)

The Golden Horse Awards used to be exclusively for movies only in Mandarin, but in recent years, the Awards has become more inclusive and now considers Mandarin-based movies that include regional and indigenous dialects.

essence本質；實質 (n.)

The current crop of films with numerous nominations epitomizes the evolution of the narrative essence of Taiwanese cinema towards more serious themes.

nominate 提名 (v.)

“Snow in Midsummer”, the film nominated in nine categories at this year’s Golden Horse Awards, is a collaborative effort between Malaysia, Taiwan, and Singapore.

marching orders逐客令 (n.)

After an actor slapped a presenter at last year’s Academy Awards, the Academy gave him his marching orders, banning him from attending its events for ten years.

MacGuffin麥高芬（指推動電影情節發展，但本身並不重要的細節）(n.)

MacGuffin and deus ex machina are both names of plot devices that serve to move a story along, hopefully without confusing or alienating the audience.

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