Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2014 April 9

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April 9

Chinese film about separated siblings?

I'm not completely sure if this is a good place to ask, but I'm trying to figure out the title of a film that was in Mandarin Chinese. It was probably before 2006 (I think I saw it in 2006 or 2007 at the latest on VCD) and involved four siblings who'd be separated for some reason. One of them is adopted by some Westerners and ends up becoming a conductor (or possibly some sort of classical musician). She travels back to China for a performance during the non-flashback portions of the film, and the siblings reunite at the end of it. Morningcrow (talk) 03:56, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

"Roots and Branches", released in 2001, starring Gigi Leung. I found some information on it here: http://www.nextjourney.org/Dianying/dianying.html

OttawaAC (talk) 23:11, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

"Never tell me the decimals!"

One of the funnier lines from Spaced Invaders. Googling it gets me only the TV Tropes page for it. Having never watched a single Star Wars movie, I see I may have missed the funniest part altogether. I can't figure out what the allusion/shout out means through Google. Something about decimals...probably. Help?

Han Solo in at least one of the film (though it may have been more - it has been a few years since I screened them) says "Never tell me the odds." I feel sure other editors will be able to tell you which film and at what point in that film that the lines are spoken. MarnetteD | Talk 04:26, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

The "little gray cells" just remembered that he delivers the line to C3PO but they haven't come up with the film yet. MarnetteD | Talk 04:31, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

It's The Empire Strikes Back. Here it is. HiLo48 (talk) 04:33, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

Indeed. Thanks! The Invaders line came while the ship was failing. One guy kept relaying all these vital stats, like velocity, angle, whatever. All the math exasperated the pilot. Other than that moment and the duck, not a great movie. This Star Wars clip is the second longest I've seen from the franchise (after the Vader battle). Looks decent. Still don't think I'll watch any full ones, though. InedibleHulk (talk) 04:40, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

In the original Star Trek, Spock was always giving an absurd number of significant digits, obviously well beyond the accuracy you could really get, due to error stack up. StuRat (talk) 05:08, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

Songs about donkeys

I need help fast. I'm involved in a debate on another site and I need to come up with a couple of songs about donkeys. My mind's a blank at the moment. Thanks a million.--Jeanne Boleyn (talk) 13:55, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

Little Donkey, Donkey Riding, Dominick the Donkey, Cranky Doodle Donkey, Donkey Serenade, The Wonkey Donkey.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 14:03, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

"Donkey Serenade". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 14:11, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

Here's Allan Jones singing it for Jeanette McDonald.[1] Never mind that they're confusing mules with donkeys, and that nearly the whole thing was shot in a studio with rear projection screens, except for a few fleeting outdoors shots. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 14:17, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

It would be helpful if you could list the songs in that video, so we don't all have to watch it to determine which ones were already listed. In my case, I can't even play videos on the old Windows 98 PC I'm using at the moment. StuRat (talk) 16:30, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

If mules are acceptable, the folk song "The Old Grey Mare, She Ain't What She Used To Be" sometimes uses "Mule" in place of "Mare". StuRat (talk) 16:34, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

Google [songs about donkeys] and there are a number of hits. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 14:12, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

Donkey Hoty? - Cucumber Mike (talk) 15:18, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

jackass ... ---Sluzzelin talk 16:09, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

A pretty funny song about donkeys was inspired by a really poor piece of branding by PriceWaterhouseCoopers. At the time it made quite a splash in the advertising world. See here. --Dweller (talk) 20:55, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

Low Bridge (song) mentions Sal a mule hauling barges on the Erie Canal. This is often a clue and answer in crossword puzzles. MarnetteD | Talk 20:56, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

Mules are not donkeys. But if you're including them, there's "Mule Train", a hit for Frankie Laine. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 20:59, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

Oops my mistake. Thanks for mentioning the Frankie Laine song. Sang that one a time or two in my honky tonk days last century :-) MarnetteD | Talk 21:02, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

Deep Purple had "The Mule", but it wasn't about donkeys or mules. Here is a song by a lonely donkey, about one. InedibleHulk (talk) 21:05, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

And Donkey Riding isn't about donkeys, but I didn't know that until now.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 07:20, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Mules are half donkeys, so those songs are half of what the OP is looking for... --Jayron32 22:17, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

G K Chesterton wrote a poem, The Donkey, which I see was set to music by Gregory Short, part of “Silver Moon” Cycle of Seven Songs for Tenor and Piano. Alansplodge (talk) 13:07, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Currently getting airplay on a number of country stations is the simply titled "Donkey" from Jerrod Niemann. --McDoobAU93 17:30, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Jeanne Boleyn, you can see and hear Hughes Aufray singing Le Petit Âne gris at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km4hdtZ7Iyg (2:53). Unfortunately, his voice has a vocal fry. The lyrics are at http://en.lyrics-copy.com/hugues-aufray/le-petit-ane-gris.htm.

—Wavelength (talk) 17:48, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

The request reminds me of Matthew 21:5, in reference to Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey.

—Wavelength (talk) 21:41, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

A bit tangential (and far too late), but there's also the band Gov't Mule. They had an instrumental named "Birth of the Mule". Like any instrumental, we're free to interpret it as about a donkey. InedibleHulk (talk) 00:15, 11 April 2014 (UTC)

If You Could Read My Mind

What did Gordon Lightfoot mean by "I'll walk away like a movie star who gets burned in a three-way script"? —Tamfang (talk) 17:11, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

I've always taken that to mean that a screenplay written "by committee" (3 people, in this case) tends to be rather poor quality, and a movie star working off such a script is likely to have a flop of a movie, and thus suffer damage to their reputation, career, and future salary. So, it means "I'll leave as quickly as a movie star who faces the prospect of performing to a poorly written script". StuRat (talk) 17:18, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

I think the line refers to the odd man out in a love triangle. This is reinforced by the next line, which describes "number two" as a "movie queen". - Eron^Talk 17:38, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

(your link isn't working for me, not sure if typo, or the content went down) SemanticMantis (talk) 22:41, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

Typo, fixed, thanks to Bus Stop for the additional correct link below. - Eron^Talk 18:11, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Link to lyrics. Bus stop (talk) 23:08, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

I thought of the love triangle possibility, but our article says the song is partly about his own infidelities, so he's not the one "burned". —Tamfang (talk) 02:40, 11 April 2014 (UTC)

It's probably still true. Poetic license and all. Mingmingla (talk) 02:46, 11 April 2014 (UTC)