我細個嗰陣，仲係個細路女……我就係個麻煩。
When I was little, still a little girl... I was trouble.
Slow. She is telling a bedtime story. The pause before 麻烦 is the whole line.
麻烦 not 问题, the word a tired parent actually uses, not the literary one.
唔係我有麻煩。我本身就係。
Not that I had trouble. I was it.
The correction matters more than the sentence. Tiny pause before it.
爸媽日日都話：你就係嚟討債嘅。
My parents said it every day: you're a little debt collector.
Almost amused. Quoting them, not hurt by them.
讨债鬼 is the classic thing Chinese parents say to a hard child: you came to collect a debt from a past life. Affectionate, exhausted and genuinely dark at once. She grew up to become one literally.
佢哋欠我嘅，都唔少……咁咪扯平囉。
But they owed me plenty too... so we're settled.
Flat. Bookkeeping, not bitterness.
两清 / 扯平 is an accounting term. The debt is closed. It answers 讨债鬼 from the line before. This pair does not exist in the English.
我想要嘅，不過係有人咁樣攬住我。好似隻貓仔咁。好細隻，毛茸茸，有人惜嗰種。
All I wanted was for someone to hold me like this. Like a kitten. Small. Soft. The kind someone dotes on.
The softest lines in the piece. She is stroking a real kitten while saying this.
疼 / 惜 means to dote on tenderly. 爱 would be flat and wrong here.
不過，凡係嚟同我搞事嘅，最後都明白我爸媽早就知嘅嘢。
But everyone who came to make trouble found out what my parents already knew.
The temperature drops here. Same volume, colder.
找麻烦 echoes 麻烦 from the first line. That rhyme is not in the English.
喺西方，佢哋鬧人叫 pussy。意思係你軟弱。
In the West, they call you a pussy. It means you're weak.
She names the foreign word the way you'd name a strange dish on a menu. Curious, not offended. Say the English word plainly inside the Chinese.
The English insult only works if you accept that being a woman is the weak thing. She is about to point out that Chinese never agreed to that.
中文冇呢句話。貓就係貓。
Chinese doesn't have that sentence. A cat is just a cat.
A small shrug in the voice. She is not defending anything.
我哋只會話：老虎唔發威，你當我係病貓。
We only say: the tiger hasn't roared, so you took me for a sick cat.
The wisdom beat. The room is listening and she knows it, but she still says it to herself.
The proverb every Chinese speaker knows. 病猫 is a SICK cat, not a cute one. It is the harmless-looking thing you misjudged. Where the English insult is about being female, this is about being underestimated. That gap is the point of the whole scene.
不過呢……“I am not a cute little pussy.”
However... “I am not a cute little pussy.”
The line of the film, and the only full English sentence she speaks. Cold, flat, final. Do not push it. The film cuts away right after. Do not sell the joke, the cut does it.
It is in English on purpose: her own language cannot say it. The code-switch is the argument.
……就好似佢噉。
...Like that one.
A beat later, completely flat, with the smallest glance. The film cuts to the artwork on this line.
我小时候，还是个小姑娘……我就是个麻烦。
When I was little, still a little girl... I was trouble.
Slow. She is telling a bedtime story. The pause before 麻烦 is the whole line.
麻烦 not 问题, the word a tired parent actually uses, not the literary one.
不是我有麻烦。我本身就是。
Not that I had trouble. I was it.
The correction matters more than the sentence. Tiny pause before it.
爸妈天天都说：你就是个讨债鬼。
My parents said it every day: you're a little debt collector.
Almost amused. Quoting them, not hurt by them.
讨债鬼 is the classic thing Chinese parents say to a hard child: you came to collect a debt from a past life. Affectionate, exhausted and genuinely dark at once. She grew up to become one literally.
可他们欠我的，也不少……那就两清了。
But they owed me plenty too... so we're settled.
Flat. Bookkeeping, not bitterness.
两清 / 扯平 is an accounting term. The debt is closed. It answers 讨债鬼 from the line before. This pair does not exist in the English.
我想要的，不过是有人这样抱着我。像只小猫。小小的，毛茸茸的，有人疼的那种。
All I wanted was for someone to hold me like this. Like a kitten. Small. Soft. The kind someone dotes on.
The softest lines in the piece. She is stroking a real kitten while saying this.
疼 / 惜 means to dote on tenderly. 爱 would be flat and wrong here.
可是，每个来找我麻烦的人，最后都明白了我爸妈早就知道的事。
But everyone who came to make trouble found out what my parents already knew.
The temperature drops here. Same volume, colder.
找麻烦 echoes 麻烦 from the first line. That rhyme is not in the English.
在西方，他们骂人叫 pussy。意思是你软弱。
In the West, they call you a pussy. It means you're weak.
She names the foreign word the way you'd name a strange dish on a menu. Curious, not offended. Say the English word plainly inside the Chinese.
The English insult only works if you accept that being a woman is the weak thing. She is about to point out that Chinese never agreed to that.
中文里没有这句话。猫就是猫。
Chinese doesn't have that sentence. A cat is just a cat.
A small shrug in the voice. She is not defending anything.
我们只说：老虎不发威，你当我是病猫。
We only say: the tiger hasn't roared, so you took me for a sick cat.
The wisdom beat. The room is listening and she knows it, but she still says it to herself.
The proverb every Chinese speaker knows. 病猫 is a SICK cat, not a cute one. It is the harmless-looking thing you misjudged. Where the English insult is about being female, this is about being underestimated. That gap is the point of the whole scene.
不过呢……“I am not a cute little pussy.”
However... “I am not a cute little pussy.”
The line of the film, and the only full English sentence she speaks. Cold, flat, final. Do not push it. The film cuts away right after. Do not sell the joke, the cut does it.
It is in English on purpose: her own language cannot say it. The code-switch is the argument.
……就像它。
...Like that one.
A beat later, completely flat, with the smallest glance. The film cuts to the artwork on this line.