Legend of Fei (C-Drama) Review

What's this? A new post???? 

So I know it's been a while since I've posted anything - my year end reviews not counting. I mean, let's be real here - 2020 was a shit show. I did actually have posts planned, but eh. Life. A quick re-cap since I never ended up posting about The Untamed/CQL and my thoughts on Wangxian (tldr: I love them. They are my OTP of OTPs): I became a huge fan of Xiao Zhan right off the bat after watching CQL, and then about half a year later also became more interested in Wang Yibo--at least as an actor (although I do think he's hella cute in a "didi" sort of way). 

Which leads me to Legend of Fei! Which was a drama where Wang Yibo played the male lead, Xie Yun, opposite Zhou Liying who played Zhou Fei. 

I know it's been a while since I've done a drama review of any kind, but I really wanted to do one for Legend of Fei because it's one of those dramas where objectively it was not a great drama, but I loved one (1) thing about it so much that subjectively I don't care that it was not a great drama. Like enough that I would watch episodes raw because I was too impatient for subs and can't stop refreshing AO3 in the hopes that people start writing fic for this. 

Now. For those who don't know - Legend of Fei is based of a web novel by Priest who is famous for mostly a bunch of BL novels (Guardian,  Sha Po Lang, Mo Du, Tian Ya Ke). Guardian has also been adapted into a drama and the other ones I listed are already getting their own adaptations made, or will in the future. Legend of Fei is one of Priests few het novels, and was also widely popular. Unfortunately English translations of it so far only go up to chapter 6 out of 170 so I will never be able to read it, but from what I could tell people really loved it. When I saw the trailer for this drama and read the premise and details for it, I also got really hyped because it seems like the type of story I would love. Interestingly, even though the the name of the drama and novel appear to be the same when written in English, it is not the same! The TV drama is 有翡 and the novel is 有匪. It doesn't make a huge difference necessarily, but it does already kind of show that the adaptation... was definitely an adaptation. 

Onto my review (warning: potential spoilers for the entire plot - both from the drama and potentially the novel).  

My Brother's Husband [ENG softsubs]

Hello!

Fun story - I actually translated this drama way back when it first aired and then was much too lazy to do the timing for it when a very nice person amh1988 over at livejournal posted up pre-timed files over at Sub Sub Gakkou.

Which means I can now provide softsubs to you!

RULES: ...None. My name doesn't even appear on the subs. If you are going to re-translate or hardsub though, just give me a heads up ^_^.

Credits for timing go to amh1988@LJ who I'm also told moderates Ao no Michi (the subbing community). They'll also be uploading hardsubs of the drama (with my translations), so if you prefer that I'll provide a link to those as well when they pop up. 

The videos I used to time the file are from Nyaa torrents, but I think it's the same video file located in other places as well. 

Links
Otouto no Otto - soft subs [ep1-3]
Otouto no Otto - hardsubs (Ao no Michi)

---

By the way I really recommend this drama. It's super cute slice-of-life that touches on LGBTQ topics in one of the best ways - by just encouraging open-mindedness and the mindblowing concept that gay people are just.... regular people???!! WHAT.

But no, seriously, it's lovely. It revolves around Yaichi, his daughter Kana, and Mike, the husband to Yaichi's late brother Ryoji. It's super cute because it shows Kana's complete openness to Mike being gay which is adorable and really runs home the fact that children really don't care about sexual orientation - they're taught to discriminate, but if you just present being gay to them as something that just is, it won't be a big deal! It also deals with Yaichi who is an adult and has clearly struggled with the idea of his twin brother being gay, and how he slowly comes to accept and realize that it doesn't make a different either - that Ryoji was and will always have been his brother, and Mike is now his brother-in-law and that they're a family, gay uncle or not. The supporting cast and how they react to Mike is also really great.

It's just such a nice and heartwarming way to give representation. Check it out!

99.9~Keijisenmon Bengoshi~ sII [ENG soft subs]

Hello!

It's me again. So. I made a promise to myself that if there was ever a continuation to 99.9, I would definitely sub it. Now, when I made that promise, I assumed we wouldn't get anything more than an SP episode, but then they announced an entire season 2! Imagine my surprise.

And season 2 has now started.

For season 1, I had quite a steady schedule in terms of releases. Unfortunately this year, my schedule is very different. I am warning you in advance - I am going to be very slow with releases. If you are impatient and want subs ASAP, please check out the various livejournal communities. I know for a fact that one community has already released episode 1.

RULES: ...None. My name doesn't even appear on the subs. If you are going to re-translate or hardsub though, just give me a heads up ^_^.

I would also like to credit Goshiki no Fansub for helping me time all the episodes. Hopefully with their help, and now that episode one is released, I will be able to release the subsequent episodes a bit faster.

UPDATES(09/13): Episode 9 has been released!

NOTE: The videos I am using are timed following the videos uploaded by chesutosakurai@LJ and also work with the DoA's 720p videos found @ nyaa torrents

You will need to adjust them slightly to work with the videos found at plotboxes@LJ and the 848x480 videos found at nyaa torrents but the timing should not be too out of place.

Links
99.9~Keijisenmon Bengoshi~ sII - Request #1 [extras]
99.9~Keijisenmon Bengoshi~ sII - Request #2 [extras]
99.9~Keijisenmon Bengoshi~ sII - Request #3 [extras]
99.9~Keijisenmon Bengoshi~ sII - Request #4 [extras]
99.9~Keijisenmon Bengoshi~ sII - Request #5 [extras]
99.9~Keijisenmon Bengoshi~ sII - Request #6 [extras]
99.9~Keijisenmon Bengoshi~ sII - Request #7 [extras]
99.9~Keijisenmon Bengoshi~ sII - Request #8
99.9~Keijisenmon Bengoshi~ sII - Request #9

As usual - feedback for these subtitles is appreciated. They are made entirely by me, which means there are probably a billion and one mistakes in them. I try my best to edit everything as well as I can, but things still end up slipping through the crack.

Also, for this season, I will be making separate posts to include all the Easter eggs that appear in the episodes instead of putting a bunch of T/N's in the subtitles themselves. My reason for this is that there are so many references and jokes in the episodes now, if I explained everything half your screen would be filled with text. So, please look forward to those as well :). 

Past updates

(02/04) - Episode 1 released
(02/18) - Episode 2 released
(03/03) - Episode 3 released
(03/25) - Episode 4 released
(04/14) - Episode 5 released
(05/07) - Episode 6 released
(06/13) - Episode 7 released
(07/09) - Episode 8 released

99.9~Keijisenmon Bengoshi [ENG soft subs]

Hello,

I know there are twofour other people on LJ who are subbing 99.9 (menimienaimono, eien_no_aidoru, amnoxjun, and kotomichi) and offering softsubs, but I needed a self-project to work on and decided making my own subs for 99.9 would be it!

I haven't had to time subs in a good 5 years and I've never done type-setting before so bare with me. The first couple episodes might be a bit shabby in terms of timing and styling, but hopefully I'll have improved significantly by the end.

I am timing these subs based off of the [848x478] raws provided by jdramacity. I will be releasing the subs every Saturday (JST between 12am-6pm). Occasionally, if you're lucky I might release them earlier, but I will never be later than Saturday at 6pm, so feel free to check back every Saturday so you can prepare yourself for the new episode on Sunday! :D

UPDATE(02/18/2018): All subtitles have been re-uploaded with typesetting to match season 2.

RULES: ...None. My name doesn't even appear on the subs. If you are going to re-translate or hardsub though, just give me a heads up ^_^.

Links:
99.9~Keijisenmon Bengoshi - Request #1
99.9~Keijisenmon Bengoshi - Request #2
99.9~Keijisenmon Bengoshi - Request #3
99.9~Keijisenmon Bengoshi - Request #4
99.9~Keijisenmon Bengoshi - Request #5
99.9~Keijisenmon Bengoshi - Request #6
99.9~Keijisenmon Bengoshi - Request #7
99.9~Keijisenmon Bengoshi - Request #8
99.9~Keijisenmon Bengoshi - Request #9
99.9~Keijisenmon Bengoshi - Request #10

Link to entire folder: episodes 1 - 10

Feedback on anything (timing is off, translation sounds weird or is just flat out wrong, courtroom language is inappropriate etc.) are all appreciated. That's actually why I'm putting these up for people.

I hope you enjoy the drama!

Past Updates
04/23 - Episode 1 released
04/30 - Episode 2 released
05/07 - Episode 3 released
05/14 - Re-uploaded edited subs of ep1-3 (major changes noted below)
05/15 - Episode 4 released
05/22 - Episode 5 released
05/28 - Episode 6 released
06/06 - Episode 7 released
06/15 - Re-uploaded all subs to fix a few small errors (I kept writing 0.01% instead of 0.1% -_-;;)
06/18 - Episode 8 and 9 released

(Major) Subtitle Changes

Episode 1 - Added fancy typsetting and tweaked a few lines. Changed the "telephone pun" to make an actual English pun and not just a direct translation of the Japanese.

Episode 2 - Fixed up the translation for the money pun. My "pun" is a reference on monopoly. This pun is re-used again in episode 4, which is why I felt the need to update it.

Episode 3 - Changed the name of the racehorse Sada-sensei keeps talking about from "Sadanouin" to "Sada-no-Win"

Episode 7 - Changed the note for "Shuhan Juttai" - I totally forgot it was also a drama that was airing on TV -_-;;

Episode 9 - A ridiculous amount of typos and errors, I am so sorry. I have no idea how I missed so many of them when I was checking the file. I wonder if I just forgot to save it when I uploaded it...

SekaMuzu episode 6 [Spoilers?]

I haven't been the biggest fan of Ohno's drama, Sekai Ichi Muzukashi Koi. I enjoyed the first episode a lot and thought the drama had a lot of potential, but the following episodes... really made me realize that romance dramas are not my thing at all. But I stuck with the drama because I have a TV and it's not that hard to turn it on and do something else to support the Arashi members, so that's what I did.

Then episode 6 aired, and well... I think I'm finally on board the ReijixMisaki train. Kind of. With a lot of hesitations, but I do think they are super cute together right now.

Let me backtrack a bit first though.

Once Upon a Time - Ranting about Season 5 (SPOILERS!!!)

So last year (wow, only last year) I got into the ABC drama Once Upon a Time. One of the very few English dramas I watch, and besides Modern Family, the only American show I have ever followed while it was airing. Basically, that means that I like this show a lot. 

Or at this point, I am very tempted to say that I liked it. Why? Because season 5 has been such a train-wreck. (SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT - LIKE REALLY SERIOUS ONES - YOU  HAVE BEEN WARNED)

Once Upon a Time

So... this is what has been taking up most of my time (and reading The Digitalian concert reports - and yes, I've seen FNS and Best Artist) - but this is what has been taking up most of my time.

I don't normally watch American shows, but it's a modern fairytale AU, how could I not watch? So I did, and I am enjoying it a lot. I mean, some times it gets a bit draggy, especially with the extended story of Charming and Snow's romance together and their adventures and what-not and it's just like "eh, I could do without" and in general I tend to skip through a lot of the past stuff. Let's be real here - I'm in it for the modern. I love seeing the characters in the modern world.

Also, this show is so sassy. It has some of the best lines between the characters - especially between Regina and Snow. Like, they have the best dialogue and just work so well off each other.

So where am I at so far? I haven't caught up, still mid-way through season 3 (Neal just died - I CANNOT BELIEVE HE DIED WHAT ABOUT TRUE LOVE?!). This season feels really long for some reason. Maybe it's because the whole first part was the Peter Pan thing and now they did the 1 year restart so it feels like I'm starting a new season, when I'm not? I'm not sure.

So, why do I love this show so much? It's really just the take on the characters. How they've made some tales darker, how they've merged certain tales together - how the characters have turned out in modern day. I love it all. And the sass. So much sass. And sure the show has its corny moments but it's based off of fairy tales. What should we expect? Normally I am not one for corny romance "true love" stuff, but in the context of fairytales it works and I'm just drinking this stuff up.

Random thoughts?

In season 2 I really gravitated between thinking Regina was a total bitch and feeling sorry for her. In season 3... well since she's not technically the bad guy anymore, I am beginning to like her more. I mean, I liked her as the bad guy too but like I said, this is all fairytales and happiness and I was just like "OMG WHY ARE YOU BEING SO UNREASONABLE". Although honestly - Emma and Regina need to stop fighting. When Emma didn't believe Regina at first about re-casting the curse, I was like are you serious Emma? Are you two really going to go through all this shit over again?

Rumple and Belle is cute but at the same time kind of weirds me out - not sure why yet.

Henry has the most fucked up family ever. His grandfather is Rumple, great grandpa was Peter Pan, father is Neal. Hook also took care of Neal (and potentially sees him as a son?) yet this same guy is now interested in Emma who is Henry's father. Regina is Henry's adopted mother but also his step-grandmother and thus Cora would be his step great-grandmother. And then you have Snow White and Charming. This kid. That line Charming made about Thanksgiving dinners honestly killed me, because I would love to see that. Like, with the fairytale context but without the drama. As in if the characters really were just a regular family and came together... can you imagine  how fucked up that would be? (Hook included).

What else? NEAL DIED. WHAT. Still kind of miffed because I liked Neal and Emma. At first I kind of liked Emma and Hook too, but once we got Emma's backstory and Neal came back... they just look so much better and happier together. Hook and Emma are all hot and steamy, but Emma and Neal are love. Love.

Also Regina and Robin Hood - she needs to get one that ASAP (although I hear this falls apart later - WHY?).

And do I have more to say? Not really.  Just wanted to get some thoughts of the show out of my head and in general just talk about how much I am enjoying it. 

Let's Talk Merlin S1 (BBC)

Hello, it's been a while and as predicted, I haven't actually posted any of the posts I said I would talk about. Like my huge rant on Shitsuren Chocolatier. Which I will probably write up because the DVD was released... yesterday? Two days ago? And well - that huge mess of a drama was just so ridiculous there is no way I can't NOT talk about it. But first of all, let's talk about another show I've started to watch.

Merlin.

And this show is also a huge mess.

I started this show thinking it'd be very interesting. I love Arthurian Legend and seeing it played out in a full length BBC drama seemed awesome to me. I saw .gifs all over tumblr and the cast seemed awesome and amazing. Freakin GILES is King Uther Pendragon. I was excited. And I'll be honest, I am enjoying this show so much. But, I'm not going to say that it's totally awesome. This show is a mess. And I only just finished season 1.

This post isn't going to be long, I just want to point a few things out about season 1,

Starting from episode 1 the show seemed a bit cliche, but it had promise. I found the interaction between Merlin and Arthur amusing. Also King Giles - come on. And the voice of the dragon! One thing I noticed right away though was..... super bad CGI, but this show is from 2008 so all is forgiven. Another thing that I can't forgive is why the hell does Arthur (and everyone else) constantly swing their sword around in such a dramatic fashion whenever they're fighting? Like, really - I would've just stabbed the guy if I was fighting them and they kept swinging their sword around. Honestly.

Also Merlin x Gwen is so cute. But I realize that Gwen is going to end up with Arthur, but still - Gwen and Merlin are so cute. And up until the second last episode I loved Morgana too, but then she did this weird face-heel-turn thing (TV Tropes) and like... what. I mean, I get it, because let's be real - Uther Pendragon is an asshole. I would gladly kill him. He's so irrational and such a tyrant. Like, by the time it hit the second last episode and he killed Thom I was just... yeah - go kill Uther, Please. BUT Morgana's sudden like.. "YO I WANT UTHER DEAD" and then her sudden "Oh nvm, he apologized, aw, love you!" was just... it was just so sudden. All of it. Where is the build up?

And now I'm on to the last episode (still watching it) and it doesn't feel like a season finale at all. It's also just.. ridiculously overly dramatic? Like Arthur's "death" in which Uther carries him and collapses in the courtyard. Merlin yelling at the dragon. It's just.. like, all the episodes before this had been relatively light in comparison and there's honestly been no... real continuation of story? And then we get this. I don't even know what to call this episode because it's hardly emotional. It's just... dramatic. But not in a way in which I really feel anything. I mean, I guess maybe because I know there are 4 other seasons and thus everyone lives, and everything "turns out okay".

Actually - yeah, the thing that probably bugs me the most is the lack of continuation in this series. I wouldn't say each episode is... entirely episodic, because you can slowly see character growth and I would argue that is the story of Merlin. Growth. Arthur and Merlin's growth. BUT at the same time, there doesn't seem to be a real central storyline throughout the season. So it's just.. like yay, enjoyable, light-hearted, amusing drama that is a retake on the Arthurian legends, but at the same time it's like "you have go to be kidding me".

I guess I just need to continue taking this show with a grain of salt and not invest myself too deeply in hoping it will eventually make sense. I've heard that Morgana's "storyline" into evil kind of.. just happens, which will disappoint me so much. I cannot wait until Uther dies though - although he is Giles so that's going to make me sad anyway. Giles :( Annnndddddd.... what else? I can't really think of anything. The last two episodes have just made me think about how much Uther should die, how silly Merlin is and how he honestly makes terrible decisions (and how has NO ONE FIGURED OUT HE HAS MAGIC YET LIKE REALLY?!).

But anyway, enough of that. I just really wanted to talk about this show because... honestly, what a mess. *snort*

Onto season 2!

What's Arashi been up to? (Singles, TV Shows... they're still busy as hell)

It's been a while since I've mentioned Arashi at all and it's mostly because I haven't been keeping up with them as much as I used too - which does not mean I love them any less, but with school and other hobbies it's kind of hard to always stay on track you know? With that being said it's not like Arashi has been lacking in the 'activity' department lately - if anything they're still going as strong as ever and boy has it been hard for me to keep up. Honestly without tumblr I would've been lost.

On to topic though - the big things that have occurred and that I remember and actually checked up on were Jun's drama, new singles Bittersweet, GUTS, and the other song for Ohno's drama (daremo shiranai? - my guess was correct!). Also some random VSA and AnS episodes I've caught up on... so, pretty much a lot to talk about within the first half year of Arashi activities - let's get started shall we?

Sherlock [BBC Series]

So I took a bit of a break from Asian Entertainment to watch the much-talked about and loved BBC show Sherlock. A lot of people had told me to see the show, it seemed like something right up my ally and I remember as a kid I absolutely adored Hound of the Baskervilles but I had seen one episode (ironically while on vacation in Japan) and while it was interesting I didn't find it as impressing and amazing as everyone made it sound. When I told a few of my friends this (who love the show) they told me I had seen "the most boring episode"... truthfully I was a bit skeptical but finally I relented and decided to watch the show once and for all. Also I absolutely loved Martin Freeman in The Hobbit.

The verdict? It's OK. I don't understand everyone's fascination with the show, or Benedict Cumberpatch. In fact, truthfully, I'm honestly not that fond of Sherlock and if it weren't for Martin Freeman's spectacular jo as Watson I would've dropped the show almost instantaneously. I know Sherlock Holmes is supposed to be slightly arrogant, and cold but in the books he never actually came off as rude, maybe stand-offish but Watson is correct when he says that Sherlock in this series is an absolute dick most of the time. Also Sherlock Holmes' moral compass in the books is generally understood but in the BBC series they make it slightly more ambiguous which I don't like and will elaborate on in the next paragraph.

Reply 1997 [Korean Drama]

I'm not a fan of Korean dramas. I'm only seen 5 (including this one) and although I've enjoyed all of them they're all a bit too melodramatic for my tastes. With that being said, I'm not much of a Japanese drama fan either, nor .. really, any sort of drama fan. BUT - I was in the mood for a cute, sweet, innocent romance and I'd seen gifs of this show from tumblr from a friend, who also told me about how cute it was etc. etc. and I thought "why not?" so I tried it out.

Truthfully... I pretty much decided to watch the drama smiply because within the first 2 or 3 minutes or so we see Yoon Jae and Joon Hee playing DDR, and I absolutely LOVE DDR - and they were playing one of my most favourite songs Butterfly so naturally... I was like "ok, this drama seems awesome - let's check it out".

With that being said it was a great drama and I really enjoyed it. I don't know much about KPOP, especially anything pre-2010 so I was a bit confused but I realized that it didn't really take away from the enjoyment. This was a truly simple and light drama and I'm a sucker for friendships, and also Shi Won's relationship with her dad/her parents in general is just absolutely hilarious and endearing. Hak Chan was like a giant teddy bear for me... one that was obsessed with porn, but nonetheless a total teddy bear. He was just so awkward, yet adorable, and of course he did the stupidest things as a boyfriend but I can see why it was hard not to get back together with him when he had such a natural puppy dog face. Like those basset hounds.

I was kind of... creeped out by the fact that Tae Woong liked Shi Won. I mean, she was 18 years old! Huge age gaps where one of the people is in their teens/early twenties kind of weird me out. I'm not sure why, I think it has to do with the maturity level one generally has at that age. Granted I realize people in their early 20's can be very mature (my sister being one of them) but it still creeps me out a bit. Once both people are over 25 I'm pretty much OK with it. But yeah. That whole thing just made me severely uncomfortable. At first I thought they were still dating 6 years later and I was like "OMG WHAT NO" but then I realized that wasn't the case and felt so relieved. But yeah. His first meeting with that nurse was amusing and I clued in right away - that's his wife.

Overall, I found that after they got to Seoul and had all grown up I was rolling my eyes a lot. The first 8-or so episodes, when they were still in High School it was generally pretty light and innocent and yay great but then all the lead up for Yoon Jae and Shi Won getting together just made me roll my eyes. How dramatic can you get? And that episode... (14?) where the whole theme was about brotherly love and Yoon Jae just sobbing at the table at the end and I was like "... really?". Was I not the only one that felt that was ridiculously overplayed and like.. come on.

ALSO - how they kept playing that "So. Who is her husband?! :O" game, that also made me roll eyes. Way to dramatize something which everyone already knows the answer too. I found it cute when they got together though. Shi Won and Yoon Jae's relationship is just hilarious. In fact, all the relationships in this drama is pretty much the girl beating up on the guy. ALL OF THEM. Talk about Girl Power!

And can we please talk about Joon Hee. My god the entire time I was hoping he'd find somone nice to be with. Even just a mention, or a glimpse of a figure, and they finally did give him someone at the end and that made me so happy. I wanted him to find someone so badly. He really is one of the sweetest people, and I just felt so bad for him. But of course, everyone gets a happy ending.

So. If you're all looking for a cute, innocent, sweet romance drama about growing up, youth, and your "first love" and also something REALLY predictable (because damn this drama was predictable) then this would be the one. =D