“Even though it cost 120,000 US dollars, even though it has saddled us with a lifetime of debt, this creation of my father that he had worked his entire life on, this newborn baby birthed with such difficulty, it was worth it.”
— Lin Taiyi (林太乙), daughter of Lin Yutang (林語堂), on the Mingkwai (明快), the first Chinese typewriter (1947) that had a keyboard and worked almost like its Western counterparts.
Mingkwai, the Miraculous Chinese Typewriter that never lifted off.
n.b.: The Mingkwai's "failure” was not because it didn't work — although it did momentarily at a crucial investors' meeting, that was a small hiccup — but rather, it was a victim of bad luck (wars and politics — more politics than the wars) and timing.
(Done reading "The Chinese Typewriter: A History” by Thomas S. Mullaney and the chapters on the Mingkwai in particular moved me greatly; the ingenuity was on another level!
And the "input” methods for typing in Chinese, quite taken for granted today? Well, Lin Yutang and his Mingkwai can be said to have pioneered them! To quote the book:
"MingKwai marked the birth of ‘input.’ Central to the meaning of ‘input’, we recall, is a technolinguistic condition in which the operator is not using the machine to type characters per se, but rather to find them. As distinct from the act of ‘typing’, the act of ‘inputting’ is one in which an operator uses a keyboard or alternate input system to provide instructions or criteria to a protocol-governed, intermediary system, one that presents Chinese character candidates to the operators that fulfill said criteria. The specific characteristics of these criteria, be they phonetic or structural, are irrelevant to the core definition of input, as is the shape or design of the keyboard or device used in its operation.”
Not saying someone else wouldn't have come up with an input method eventually even if Lin hadn't but as it happened, Lin had/did, and we owe much of how we “type” (input!) Chinese with much ease today to him.)
↑ A replica electronic version of the Mingkwai put together by a group of tech enthusiasts, decades after the Mingkwai prototype was thought lost for good.
P.S.: All black and white photos taken from Mullaney's book.
Though I grew up with Mandarin and Cantonese, I realised I only have a vague understanding of what these words meant, and coming across this video post recently made me think deeper about what 「疼痛」 really means.
疼痛 (🥮 tang⁴ tung³，🀄 ㄊㄥˊㄊㄨㄥˋ/téng tòng)
「疼痛」 used together describes pain generally, but when you're describing physical pain in a specific body part, you'd use one character or the other.
e.g.: 頭疼/頭痛、胃疼/胃痛、牙疼/牙痛
Headache, stomachache, toothache; all can be described in English as some kind of "ache” but in Chinese, there's 「疼」 and there's 「痛」 and both can be/have been used interchangeably.
So what's the real difference between 「疼」 and 「痛」? Because in English, 「疼」 and 「痛」 can both be translated as simply “pain”, but from an Ancient Chinese view, 「疼」 and 「痛」 have nuances, and even native Chinese speakers may not know of the differences.
To paraphrase some parts from this site (and I've gone through a few other sites and videos that also more or less say the same things, but as always with the internet, take things with a pinch of salt):
「疼」 ～ clues can be found in the character itself; looking at the construction of the character, made up of 「疒」, the radical for "illness” and the character for "winter”, 「冬」. In winter, the bitter cold of winter causes all living creatures to naturally withdraw in body and spirit (figuratively speaking), and this “discomfort” felt directly from external environmental changes is the essence of 「庝」.
Simply put, 「庝」 refers more to external pain and the body's reaction to external aggravators.
「疼」 was also once written as 「痋」, with the character 「虫」 for “worm”, so it showed even more clearly that external aggravators are responsible for causing 「疼/痋」.
「痛」 ～ this character is made up of 「疒」 and the character 「甬」, which has the meaning of "flow through” in ancient times and with regards to the body, refers to the "flow of vitality” inside.
Thus, 「痛」 refers more specifically to internal pain, the kind of pain that affects the body's "flow of vitality”, in line with Traditional Chinese Medicine's (TCM) principle that 「痛」 indicates “obstruction somewhere in the body”, and that "unobstructed flow eliminates pain”.
So for example, it would be more accurate to use 「手指疼」 and 「頭疼」 for experiencing something like a cut finger or a temporary headache from external stresses (like an extremely noisy environment for example), while it would be more accurate to define a chronic migraine that's caused by something internally as 「頭痛」.
A stomachache though is a little more tricky? Say you got a stomachache from food poisoning, it causes internal pain in your body, but because the source of the pain (bad food) came from outside, is it 「胃痛」 or 「胃疼」? 🤔 I guess it's truly interchangeable in this case?
That's my understanding/conclusion at least!
Also, because 「痛」 is "internal”, it is also used to describe emotional or figurative pain. So for example if you broke up with someone in a relationship, you'd describe your emotional heartache as 「心痛」, 「痛」 cannot be interchanged with 「疼」 in this case (and 「心疼」 means something else anyway — read further on) because you're describing a feeling that "goes through your entire body”, kind of an indescribable feeling, really.
Of course, in a hospital setting, when you say you are experiencing 「心痛」, that may literally mean your physical heart is hurting! 🙀😹
Another way to differentiate between 「疼」 and 「痛」 is having an idea of the 「陰陽」 — what Westerners may have only heard of as "Yin and Yang” ☯️ — philosophy in TCM.
Basically, 「陰陽」 can be very roughly explained as an ancient Chinese belief/philosophy that the world is made up of complementary and opposing forces, 「陰」 is seen as the “internal force” and 「陽」 is thus the “external force” (not a scholar here, this is just my really basic, layman's understanding of what 「陰陽」 is).
From this perspective in TCM, 「疼」 and 「痛」 can be understood as a manifestation of an imbalance between 「陰」 and 「陽」 in the body.
「疼」 (because it's about external pain) is thus a 「陽」 element and 「痛」 (internal pain) is 「陰」.
I find it interesting that in the phrasing 「疼痛」 (it's never said 「痛疼」 together), 「陰陽」 is now flipped around (it's never said the other way round too), and according to the aforementioned concept of 「陰陽」, 「陽陰」 further highlights the "imbalance of the body pain brings”.
Anyway, the Chinese influencer (in that video post) claims that Northern Chinese use 「疼」 more while Southerners use 「痛」 to describe physical pain, that the difference between the two is more a region thing.
I guess I half agree with this? I don't know about the North, but as a Southerner, I have used 「疼」 and 「痛」 interchangeably and have heard other Southerners use so as well, with about equal frequency but…I think it could be a generation thing? In the 1990s to noughties (and before I guess), I do recall hearing fellow Southerners using 「疼」 just as much as 「痛」, and speakers who grew up around that era do seem to know how to apply the different characters accordingly for the most part, even if going on just instinct (like me)!
But in later generations (Gen Z and after), the distinction between 「疼」 and 「痛」 seems to have been lost? People (Southerners, at least) seem to use 「痛」 to describe every type of physical pain nowadays.
The influencer also claims that Northerners and Southerners view using the opposite term of what Northerners and Southerners supposedly favour, as speaking or behaving immaturely. This, I totally disagree with. After all, it should be the action that determines behaviour, and not the word itself.
And in all my years of using 「疼」 and 「痛」 interchangeably, I have never thought I was describing pain in a childish manner because of a word choice, nor been thought of as so by others.
I do wonder how that influencer came to this conclusion…is this a generational thing too? Are younger people from both North and South assigning infantile perceptions towards pain now? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ But why would anyone want to do that‽
If one character is to be seen as more “immature” over the other, I rather think that would be 「疼」 because 「疼」 has the additional meaning of “dote on” (like doting on a small child) or “having tender feelings” for someone in words like 「疼愛」 and 「心疼」, meanings where 「痛」 cannot be interchanged for in these cases.
So, if you've read through this far, do you understand the nuances of 「疼」 and 「痛」 better now? Have you been describing your pain "correctly”? Which have you been using more?
“The typewriter was invented to suit the English language, not the English language the typewriter.”
— “Judging Eastern Things from Western Point of View”, 1913
The (A) prototype survived‽
I'm currently reading “The Chinese Typewriter: A History” by Thomas S. Mullaney (fascinating book by the way, if anyone's interested in the history behind Chinese typewriters and how we got to Chinese typing on modern computers today, I'd highly recommend this book!) and it led me to wondering in particular about the 明快打字機 (Mingkwai Chinese Typewriter).
Have been fascinated by this particular invention for some time, maybe because of its underdog history, that it never got the recognition it deserved in its inventor's time, and that led me to be more biased for it…
Anyway, one thing led to another and I went down the rabbit hole to discover the (hopefully ‘a’, and there are others yet to be found?) prototype of the long thought to be lost Mingkwai had actually been found! 😻 Fairly recently (c. early 2025?) to boot!
Invented by Chinese linguist, translator inventor, novelist and philosopher, 林語堂 (Lin Yutang), this invention of Lin's may not have been the first Chinese typewriter around — others had paved that road before him— but the Mingkwai (which means “clear and fast” by the way, 「明快」) certainly made the road to Chinese typing in modern times much, much smoother and contributed greatly to the 倉頡 (Cangjie) input — a particular favourite input method of mine — invented by Chu Bong-Foo, decades after Lin.
The prototype Mingkwai is currently housed at/by Stanford University Libraries.
Edited to add: Found a comparison image between the Mingkwai and the Remington. Apparently the Mingkwai is not any bigger than Western typewriters from the same era.
In regards to Lin Yutang, a bit of trivia really, but I found it interesting that his given name 「語堂」 ‘Yutang’, means quite literally, “language hall”, 「語」 ～ language, 「堂」 ～ hall. With a name like that, I was thinking it couldn't have been his given name and I was right! The name he was born with was 「玉堂」, same pronunciation, different tone and meaning for the ‘Yu’; 「玉」 can have a variety of meanings like "jade”, “beautiful”, “graceful” and “esteemed”, and it's usually used in names for women (not that it can't be used for men too).
Well, he certainly chose a good name for himself! ｡◕‿◕｡
I just remembered the existence of the 🥮 mooncake emoji. Going to use it to denote Cantonese 粵拼 (Jyutping — Cantonese Romanisation) in my language posts henceforth.
I think it's perfect to represent Cantonese too, because there's a pun in 「月」 from 月餅 (🥮 jyut⁶ beng²) — the Cantonese pronunciation for "mooncake” and 「粵」 from 粵語 (🥮 jyut⁶ jyu⁵) — a term for the Cantonese topolect.
Frankly, I have always been a little uncomfortable with using region flags' emoji to represent or denote what languages I speak/am writing/am learning, because the usage of region flags can be so…politically charged — not that anyone has given me grief for using flags' emoji so far — and in the case of the Cantonese I am self-learning, it's not exactly the same as the Cantonese from 🇭🇰 Hong Kong or 🇲🇴 Macau either, so to use those regions' flags seems inaccurate to me.
But because the language community seems to have generally embraced using flags' emoji to represent languages, and I couldn't think of anything better to use before, I mostly went along with it, until now that is!
I had the same dilemma with Mandarin, but gleefully had the brainwave to use the 🀄 mahjong emoji for a while now, and I think it turned out a fortuitous choice!
Going to be using more neutral emoji to denote the other languages, English (🇬🇧 → 🎩 top hat) and Japanese (🇯🇵 → 🍙 onigiri) as well; Mandarin will remain the same 🀄 mahjong emoji.
This has been a PSA I guess? (If anyone cares for my posts.)
And I thought a post like this (similar to a post on Zhùyīn done by linghxr) may be of interest to some.
Edited: 10 Sep 2023
This post has gotten a little popular lately and on scrutinizing my own post again, I've come to the conclusion that I had made some mistakes in my given character examples.
Amended now. Namely, 「唔」 and 「龍」 have now been swapped over in the examples.
「唔」 is really the “3-parts”, and 「龍」 is indeed a “2-parts” character! Amendments are reflected in orange.
What (and who) is Cāngjié?
For those who may not know, Cāngjié is another way to input 漢字/汉字 (Hànzì — Chinese characters). It is way less popular than Pinyin (or even Zhuyin) but it still has its fans, and has a few advantages over the other two.
Cāngjié is also the name of the mythical figure in Chinese legend who is said to have been the inventor of 漢字/汉字, for which Cāngjié (the input system) was named after.
Would I recommend it?
Yes, if you think you have already acquired a good (enough) understanding of 漢字/汉字, and/or just like a new challenge.
(TL;DR at the end)
Why am I learning Cāngjié (and why you may like to, too)?
1. Mostly for fun.
Have long been intrigued by both Cāngjié and Zhùyīn, and since I finally mustered up the courage to tackle Zhùyīn not too long ago, I thought I'd finally give Cāngjié a try.
While learning Cāngjié does require more effort than learning Pinyin or Zhuyin, it can also be really fun! Inputting 漢字/汉字 with the Cāngjié method is almost like doing a jigsaw puzzle.
The euphoria derived from figuring out and piecing together the radicals that make up a word is something that learning Jyutping (Cantonese equivalent of Pinyin), Pinyin or Zhuyin can't quite match.
And while I know I'll never be as adept with Cāngjié — my knowledge of 漢字/汉字 is nowhere near good enough to ever use Cāngjié efficiently — as I do Jyutping or Pinyin (or to some extent, Zhuyin), it'll still be fun to use Cāngjié every once in a while!
2. Helps with thinking and typing in Chinese.
The upshot of relying too much on using Jyutping/Pinyin/Zhuyin is, I'd tend to think in Roman letters or ㄅㄆㄇㄈ before I'd even think about the actual 漢字/汉字.
But with Cāngjié, because it's based on knowing radicals and joining them together to form actual characters, it'll encourage thinking of 漢字/汉字 first, so I think that would help some with 漢字/汉字 memory retention.
Now you may be thinking, why not just you know, practise actually writing then? That is the tried and proven method to better remember 漢字/汉字 after all?
Yes, of course I can do that — and am doing so occasionally — but we live in a digital age now, and the probability and opportunity to type things out is much higher than actually writing stuff by hand.
The idea here is, more looking to think of and envision characters fully in my head, and trying to lessen over-reliance on Jyutping/Pinyin/Zhuyin.
And this is where I find Cāngjié can be useful, which leads to my next point…
3. Haunted by “What if” scenario.
What if there comes a day (however improbable) where I'm presented with only a Cāngjié keyboard to use for typing Chinese? It has happened with Zhùyīn for me!
That means, no Pinyin or Zhuyin keyboards, no Handwriting tools/touchscreens to write with fingers/mouse, no speech-to-text, and no option to copy-and-paste characters from somewhere else either! What then?
4. Able to type without knowing pronunciation, and with more accuracy.
Cāngjié is shape-based. Unlike Jyutping/Pinyin/Zhuyin, where you have to know what a character sounds like before you can type it out, with Cāngjié, you can type out (again assuming no Handwriting or other tools available) characters without needing to know how to pronounce them at all.
With shape-based typing, you'd also get more accurate hits in the first few 漢字/汉字 that show up, versus sound-based methods like Pinyin where for e.g., typing out “wan” will get you a whole list under the same sound and you may have to scroll through a whole lot to get the exact “wan” you need.
You can also type both Traditional and Simplified characters without having to toggle something or switch keyboards.
So how does one begin learning Cāngjié?
Install a Cāngjié keyboard.
Duh…but of course! Heh! Gboard offers one, banded under Cantonese language input (Android user here, don't know about iPhones, sorry).
There are two versions of Cāngjié that are prevalent currently. Cāngjié 3 and Cāngjié 5. Cāngjié 5 is supposed to be an improvement over version 3 but I don't find there's much; having a slightly altered version just adds to the confusion and unnecessarily complicates matters, in fact!
If you have a choice, I'd recommend selecting Cāngjié 3 as that is more supported. Some operating systems may not be too compatible with Cāngjié 5 still, for some strange reason.
You may also come across something called “Quick” (速成) aka, “Simplified Cāngjié”.
This is simply a scaled down version of Cāngjié, it's still based on Cāngjié's formula. So you still need to know how Cāngjié works in order to use “Quick” efficiently.
You'd then need a chart like this. ↓
* the 重 (Z) key doesn't really come into use. I don't really know what it's for, but it seems to be used (paired with other keystrokes) mainly to type out various punctuation marks.
There are variants out there, some having a little more, or less, radicals shown than in the above example, but I'll say the chart here is one of the more comprehensive ones I've found so far (and sufficient enough) — other charts often fail to highlight the 難 (X) key and what it corresponds to.
You don't have to memorize the chart all at once. Just always have a chart like this on hand to refer to and with enough typing practise, you'll eventually remember which key corresponds with which radicals.
Remember the rules. ↓
“1 part” character (e.g. 寫) = first 3 & last (radical).
“2 parts” character (e.g. 唔龍) = first & last, first 2 & last.
“3 parts” character (e.g. 難) = first & last, first & last, last.
e.g. 寫 ↓
With radicals 宀，丿，臼 (first 3) and 灬 (last).
Corresponding keys: 十，竹，難 and 火。
寫 → 写 ↓
With radicals 冖，卜，㇆ (first 3)，一 (last).
Corresponding keys：月，卜，尸 and 一。
e.g. 龍 ↓
With radicals 亠，月 (first & last), 卜，コ (first 2)，ヒ (last).
Corresponding keys: 卜，月，卜，尸，and 心。
龍 → 龙 ↓ (Simplified 龍 → 龙，a “1 part” character)
With radicals 丶，ナ，ヒ (first 3).
Corresponding keys: 戈，大，and 心。
e.g. 難 ↓
With radicals 廿，人 (first & last)，亻(first & last)，土 (last).
Corresponding keys: 廿，人，人 and 土。
難 → 难 ↓
With radicals ヌ (first & last)，亻(first & last)，土 (last).
Corresponding keys: 水，人，and 土。
Occasionally, you may get a character that looks like a “2 parts” but is actually a “3 parts”. ↓
e.g. 唔 ↓
With radicals 口 (first & last)，一，一 (first & last)，口 (last).
Corresponding keys: 口，一，一 and 口。
Or looks like a “1 part” but really a “3 parts”. ↓
e.g. 奪 ↓
With radicals 大 (first & last)，亻，土 (first & last)，丶 (last).
Corresponding keys: 大，人，土，and 戈。
奪 → 夺 ↓(Simplified 奪 → 夺，a “1 part” character)
With radicals 大，寸 (first 3; the 丶 is the 3rd component).
Corresponding keys: 大，木，and 戈。
But these are exceptions, and don't occur that often.
And you can start practising!
You can try out this pretty good app called 『五色學倉頡』 (learning Cāngjié with 5 colours), for practise. It's on Playstore, just search for “Cangjie Dictionary” and it should show up.
You have to pay to unlock higher levels, unfortunately. ↓
Anyway, each character comes with colour coded hints and you can opt to turn them off if you like more of a challenge. There are also hints (提示) and the chart (字根表) to refer to if you're really stuck. Also has a dictionary component (查字典) to check out the Cāngjié input for characters.
Another option would be a website called HKCards. ↓
You can use it to check the Cāngjié input for any 漢字/汉字, and there's section for practise (倉頡輸入法練習) as well. After inputting your answer with Cāngjié keys (手田水口廿卜), you can click on the “Answer” (答案) button to see how right or wrong your answers were. ↓
There are 8 characters each time, and you can just hit “Practise Again” (再做練習) to refresh for another 8 to practise with. I've yet to hit a limit.
Unfortunately, this website has lots of ads popping up. And it only supports searching in Traditional characters (Cāngjié was initially catered more for Traditional).
Or you can just try practising randomly with a Cāngjié keyboard and check for mistakes with a Cāngjié dictionary (『五色學倉頡』 app's dictionary comes in really useful here — it appears to support searching in Simplified too).
TL;DR
Cāngjié could be useful (and fun) to know if your 漢字/汉字 knowledge is already adequate, and/or you just like a new challenge.
And if watching videos is more your thing, here's a really helpful YouTube tutorial on how to use Cāngjié (has English subs)!
Was looking up the original 《尋秦記》 novels and came across this cover edition ↑; couldn't help thinking the artistic rendition of (who I assume is) main character 項少龍 (Hong Siu-Lung) on the cover seems like a mashup of 古天樂 (Louis Koo) and 林峯 (Raymond Lam)'s characters ↓ from the 2001 series adaptation! LOL
Currently reading but, alas! The edition I have does not have this 靚仔 (pretty boy) on the covers, hahaha…. Anyway! I'm still on the first couple of chapters of the first volume — each chapter is rather long, there are six volumes, and my poor Chinese reading skills only make them seem even longer — so far and I've got to say that *SPOILERS*
項少龍 in the books is quite the 鹹濕仔 (perv)！Barely into his first few days in the past, barely managing to communicate — suspension of disbelief needed here; have to buy into him being able to communicate with a Warring States period woman with hardly much difficulty — with the first pretty lady he encounters and he's already bedding her‽ 🙄
If I thought Louis Koo's 項少龍 in the 2001 series adaptation was an incorrigible flirt and womaniser and pretty annoying in that respect, well, he's an angel in contrast to book 項少龍! 😹
From what I've read so far (and skimming through the list of characters on the Wiki page) the books are going to be a fair bit drastically different from the series adaptation (no surprise, really), and I definitely won't be able to finish reading them before the new sequel film drops, not that I'm aiming to anyway…just going to read at my own leisurely pace! 😺
In the meantime, the final, longer trailer for the sequel film — which will be opening real soon on 31st December 2025 in Hong Kong and some other parts of the world first — is out now and filming techniques wise it looks good (to quote Jurassic Park's John Hammond, “spared no expense!”), has the appropriate big budget movie feel, but the plot does raise my brows…to be frank it sounds/looks rather insipid.
More people from the future invade the past to do…what now? Seems like story wise, it's basically a rehash of the original plot point, just instead of one Future Disruptor, we now get a whole bunch of Future Disruptors?
The original story (at least going by the 2001 series) cleverly weaved and tied key historical events and characters into our protagonist's journey and concluded with his shenanigans satisfyingly woven into the fabric of the history of Ancient China he unintentionally (or intentionally) tried to change.
It was really quite a perfect ending. So unless this sequel has a really clever plot that can top the first story…plot wise, I'm quite doubtful it can surpass the ideas first put out by (author) 黃易 (Wong Yee) in the books, but, i shall remain hopeful!
So! Here's the final trailer before the film opens. No English subs unfortunately, and I don't know how to add them, sorry!
A review (of sorts, but more a rambling opinion piece that veers off the main subject occasionally).
So I've watched R I P L E Y (2024), all eight episodes of it. One word: Bravissimo!
As someone who loves the Ripliad series of novels by Patricia Highsmith immensely, and having watched all the Ripley film adaptations there are thus far — Plein Soleil aka Purple Noon (1960), The American Friend aka Der Amerikanische Freund (1977), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Ripley's Game (2002), and Ripley Under Ground (2005) — I went into this new series (released on Netflix on April 4th) with expectations…
Not high, for I've learned it's never good to have high expectations or you'll more than likely just be setting yourself up for disappointment…but with expectations all the same!
Thus far, my favourite Ripley film adaptation had been 2002's Ripley's Game starring John Malkovich as an older Ripley. Had been. Until this series that is! I still love Ripley's Game a lot of course! (heh!) And there really should be no comparison given it's two different mediums and the two Ripleys are portrayed from different times of the character's life.
So saying, this new series definitely sets a new standard for a Ripley adaptation! And as someone who love the books a lot, I'm glad this series is very closely adapted from the first book!
The decision to go for a black and white cinematography, I was skeptical about that at first but after looking at the trailers and reading on the director's reasoning for going B & W with this, I can understand why, and generally agree with his decision.
Though at times, especially when looking at the wonderful interior sets, I'll be wishing I could see it in all its colour glory and thinking what a waste it was not to have it in colour, but that is but a minor hitch, for the B & W cinematography is done with superb mastery and skill, and it's hard to find fault with going this route. And it does contribute to getting into the film noir feel from films of yesteryear.
On the actors, I was skeptical on Andrew Scott as Ripley at first, but I'm happy to say he has proven me wrong and his Ripley, while not as young as Ripley should be at the start of the novel series, is one that is characterised the closest, and if Showtime/Netflix has any plans to adapt the rest of the novels, Scott will be perfect as an older Ripley, I think!
Maybe that was/is the plan…that's why Scott was chosen even though age wise, he doesn't quite fit in the beginning…one can hope! (heh!)
Moving on, just a brief rambling on the other main actors/characters because I'm getting tired:
Love Dakota Fanning as Marge Sherwood, she was exactly how I imagined Marge to be as I read the (first) book. A superb performance by Fanning I'd say!
Johnny Flynn as Dickie Greenleaf was underwhelming for me partly because in my eyes, Jude Law was/is the perfect Dickie (even if his — Law's — American accent was/is questionable), but partly also because I find Flynn is lacking charisma (sorry, Flynn fans!), I didn't get the sense of what was so fascinating about this Dickie that Ripley would be so enamoured with him or his lifestyle, enough to kill for it.
Perhaps the fault lies partly with the script too for I felt we the audience didn't get to see more of what drew Ripley to Dickie, besides his obvious wealth and status.
Eliot Sumner as Freddie Miles. Now this was the character that underwent the most drastic change as compared to the book and the 1999 The Talented Mr. Ripley film adaptation. In both the book and the 1999 film, Freddie was described (and portrayed to perfection by Philip Seymour Hoffman in my opinion) as an American with carrot-red hair, stocky, loud and all round obnoxious from miles away sort.
2024 Freddie is slim-built, androgynous looking, with a cherub face and British…he's practically a whole different character except in name.
As such, it's unfair to compare I guess, but having envisioned Freddie as described in the book for so long, helped along by PSH's award-worthy performance, I'll just say this is not the Freddie for me.
But, that doesn't mean Sumner's Freddie was bad. In terms of being almost a foil to Ripley, Sumner's Freddie is still quite effectively annoying.
Special mentions to Maurizio Lombardi and Margherita Buy as Inspector Ravini and Signor(in)a Buffi (Ripley's landlady) respectively! I enjoyed watching these two characters.
Also a special mention to Lucio (Signor(in)a Buffi's cat), who, had it been able to speak, Ripley would certainly have silenced! (heh!)
Last but not least, a special mention to John Malkovich as Reeves Minot.
I was so excited when I first saw Malkovich in the trailer because not only is his casting a nice tribute to his turn as Tom Ripley in Ripley's Game (2002), I thought he would be playing Herbert Greenleaf at first, but he turned out to be playing Reeves Minot! Even better! Gives more hope that new seasons of R I P L E Y (2024) may happen!
Those who have read the books will know that Reeves Minot is a recurring character in the later books — I can't really remember how many exactly, it's been some time since I last read them (and I should again!).
To sum up, I did enjoy this series tremendously and will definitely rewatch many times to come, and I hope we'll get further adaptations of the other books with the same standards as set for this one!
P.S.: I've seen a few people mention “this (R I P L E Y) is like Saltburn!”. I never heard of the film Saltburn before looking at some opinion pieces, but after looking it up, dare I say, Saltburn ripped off the Ripliad stories and its characters (the Ripliad books first came out in the 1950s) and I think it's more appropriate to say “Saltburn is like Ripley”!
