弄巧成拙 吓得筛糠 一句话都说不出
“Tried to be clever, scared stiff, he couldn't say a word.”
THE DIALOGUE REEL
将作丞怎么说？
“What did the Assistant Director here say?”
弄巧成拙 吓得筛糠 一句话 都说 不出
“Tried to be clever, scared stiff, he couldn't say a word.”
带回去 明日再审 - 是 - 是
“Take him back. We'll question him tomorrow. - Understood! - Understood!”
Direct spoken expression in this communicative setting.
In historical court dramas, mid-level officials often show extreme physical panic when caught in political conspiracies, knowing imperial punishment is severe.
LEARNING CHUNKS & PARTICLES
to outsmart oneself / cleverness turned to folly
A classic four-character idiom (chengyu) describing an attempt to be clever that ends in a clumsy failure.
shaking like a sieve with fear
A vivid figurative expression describing uncontrollable trembling caused by sheer terror.
unable to say even a single word
Emphasizes absolute speechlessness or paralysis from shock or fear.
VOCABULARY & EXPRESSIONS
Parallel Spoken Cinema Scenes (语义近邻切片)
“She fell for such a clumsy trick.”
“No, no. We can't make it worse.”
“What a coincidence!”
“will backfire?”
“And just by chance,”
“We have no plot of land to build anything.”