If a Tree Falls in the Forest

There's common sense and nonsense.

[wwxnana]

[katurdayss]

Y'all I have been on journey to watch this CDrama in full and I'm not even done with it but

I LOVE Zhang Xincheng as Pei Su. How he's the same person from Archives: The Nanyang Mystery is beyond me. This gif set is only the visible part of the iceberg that is the relationship of the two main leads and I haven't even SEEN this episode yet.

Also my boy eats Tootise Rolls. TOOTISE ROLLS. He can do no wrong.

[katurdayss]

Finished Archives: The Nanyang Mystery

[katurdayss]

....I kinda fuck with Dark Shrimpie/Zhang Haixia? (just finished ep 29)

Don't get me wrong, he's absolutely psychotic but like, in the best way. This man is the definition of a honey badger. He is the definition of Chaotic Evil. He is the feral cat leaving dead carcasses on the door step or in your shoe because he likes you more than anyone else.

Man is dangerous af and should be avoided at all costs, but respect for his exquisite competency and intellectual pursuit of his goals.

(I love Light Shrimpie too. The absolute tragedy of this character is beautifully heartbreaking and will leave me frothing at the mouth for months).

[katurdayss]

I had already decided a year ago that I wasn't gonna see Nolan's the Odyssey because

1) Matt Damon is not a believable Odysseus. Odysseus is supposed to be wily af and you think Matt Damon fits that bill? No thank you. I'd take a young Sean Bean instead.

2) the teaser was SO DARK and gritty feeling. It felt like he was trying to recreate his Batman movies which, if that's your style cool, but it doesn't work for ancient Greek epics imho.

and

3) I'm tired as shit of seeing ensemble casts. I want new faces in Hollywood, give some other people a shot at becoming a headliner.

Now apparently it has some of the highest Critic and Audience review scores, even with the complaints I've seen. Hot take, I think it's because its *Christopher Nolan* the man who made Memento, Batman Begins, Oppenheimer and Interstellar. Of course he can do no wrong (heavy sarcasm).

Look, Nolan is a skilled director. Adaptations are inherently subjective, and he's allowed to make his version, but to receive a 90+% I think your adaptation should be fairly true to the original source material as a base. Case and point. I LOVE me the LOTR trilogy. Like extended editions, comfort rewatch, mouthing along with dialogue love. Even I will hesitate to give it a 90% because of what they did to Faramir. That was a character ASSASSINATION and unnecessary in the worst way.

I don't remember every plot point in the Odyssey (been awhile since I read it) but to learn that they took out a pivotal point (Nobody) and also apparently made Odysseus not want to go home (?), 80 percentile AT BEST. Odysseus didn't even want to leave home in the first place and you made him not want to go home? And deemed 'Nobody' negligible when it is in fact, the inciting incident for all the woes that come afterward? Come on man.

[katurdayss]

Archives: The Nanyang Mystery is currently free on iQIYI, so I’ve finally been able to watch it.

Y’all, your gifs did not prepare me enough. I just finished episode 10 and stick my heart in a blender why don’t you? It’d be less painful.

Jesus.

[katurdayss]

Finished episode 17. And yes, I know how this ends from the gifs but ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!

Zhang Haixia I will die for you, you precious cinnamon roll. Zhang Haiqi we need to have some goddamn words. Zhang Hailou, I am so sorry for whats coming your way.

**In other news, Ding Yuxi is DOING THE DAMN THING. Gold star. Give this man an Oscar.

[katurdayss]

Archives: The Nanyang Mystery is currently free on iQIYI, so I’ve finally been able to watch it.

Y’all, your gifs did not prepare me enough. I just finished episode 10 and stick my heart in a blender why don’t you? It’d be less painful.

Jesus.

[xinyuehui]

If he thinks he can still be with you like before, the good in him still has hope to survive.

南部档案 Archives: The Nanyang Mystery · 2026

[katurdayss]

Absolutely feral over every gif I've seen of this show and the 5 episodes I've watched for free.

Debating on get iQIYI just to watch this but also....I don't watch that many cdramas to make it worth it.

Do we think this will get to Netflix?

[katurdayss]

its the type of heat outside where the sweat starts falling down in waterfalls and all you're doing is standing still and not moving

aka welcome to east coast USA summer

hope every visitor for the World Cup has a gallon of water (that's about 4 liters for you metric folks) today AT LEAST. I promise you'll sweat it all out.

You might also want a full change of clothes. Like down to the unmentionables. Everything will be WET if you just step outside.

[katurdayss]

Rewatching Chasing Jade/POJ and I think everyone is glancing over the fact that Gongsun Yin thought his best bud, the fearsome Marquis of Wu'an, first Marquis in however long, brilliant war strategist, who survived FALLING FROM A CLIFF AND AN ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT......could be forced to marry a woman he didn't want to marry.

Like, he had absolute no confidence in his bestie. The same bestie that was half dead in ep 1 and still ready to kill people with a broken stick (multiple times). 10/10 no notes, absolute friend trolling to the max.

[katurdayss]

Okay look, I rewatched the first episode of Pursuit of Jade on iQiyi because it’s free and I was hella curious about the difference in translation from Netflix and OMG y’all it 👏makes 👏so 👏much 👏more👏 sense

And I KNOW some people have issues with iQiyi’s translation but it is really soooooooo much better. Some of the sentences are the same, but a) they translate everything. I’m talking song lyrics, every written thing on screen, etc and it adds so many layers. Literally the first song you hear when Changyu is slaughtering that pig in the opening is about a female general going to war and not being held back by men. FORESHADOWING. And Netflix just was like ‘nope not important.’

B) The flow of the English is 10000 times more comprehensible. They feel like normal fucking sentences instead of someone’s broken pottery puzzle badly pieced back together sentence that is Netflix.

And c) I picked up SO MUCH MORE CONTEXT CLUES because the word choice was better. Like I generally got that the Fans were poor af from Netflix (money stress is sort of universally recognizable) but iQiyi’s translation literally was like ‘girl is poor and has to spend a coffins worth of money on medicine for this dude when she is ALREADY spending a shit ton on her sisters meds, how is she gonna do this’.

TLDR my brain had to work less and got more out of it. They still translate the familial relationship words weird though like people have been saying.

Side note, is it possible to buy DVDs of these shows? Because I am Millennial and need physical copies of my favorite things.

[katurdayss]

Uh, WTF is going on with the Southern Archives/Archives: The Nanyang Mystery.

I can only watch cdramas on Netflix so I can’t watch IRL with y’all but from what I gather on here one of the ML is dead?! But it sounds like it’s in the middle of the drama? And there is razor blades?

This originally caught my eye because a)1920s and b)it reminds me of the The Librarian movie franchise with Noah Wyle so of course Tumblr is serving me gifs on my For You page and I…have no idea what’s happening.

[katurdayss]

Yo, Teach You a Lesson starts off as more of a comedy but then is get real dark real quick. Like holy shit. (Also, I can't believe that kids be sharing accounts that use REAL MONEY willy nilly like its nothing and I'm over here refusing to use digital wallets and trying to make shit as dumb as possible because I don't trust corporate privacy policies.)

[katurdayss]

If trying to watch a show with my mom has taught me anything, it’s that audiences can miss things easily (or interpret them very differently if we’re being grown up about it)

The Vampire Lestat is the perfect example. My mom read the books back in the 90s because she saw the movie and LOVED Brad Pitt as Louis. She has had a hard time watching AMC’s IWTV because Jacob Anderson is not Brad Pitt and she also thinks changing the race of a character destroys the book (note here for internet judgey people, my mother is not racist but is very things are a set way and that’s what you should work with. She can change her opinion but it takes a LOT of discussion and reference points).

I asked her to watch the first episode of The Vampire Lestat with me anyway because she was never happy with Tom Cruise as Lestat and I was hoping she’d enjoy it without the hurdle of a movie comparison. Good News, she said Sam Reid is Lestat. Full Stop. Bad News, she missed like everything else. She didn’t understand the plot structure, telling a story after events have happened. She didn’t understand that TVL is Lestats perspective and story. She didn’t remember the details of the books that Rolin has set as his foundations. She only made it halfway through before she was like eh. There is more but I am still reeling. I am not optimistic.

I do however, now understand how people can make some of the crazy ass takes I have seen floating around on the internet. Of this show and others.

So next time you’re absolutely appalled by someone’s take on something, remember my mother, take a breath, and maybe slow your roll.

[zhanglinghez]

The Princess Royal episode 19, 2024.

[katurdayss]

Straight up laughed so hard I cried at this scene. Man was full on like ‘I gotta look cute af. Lingerie, show off the cleavage, bat the eyelashes. Check, check, check. Okay favorite foods on table, check. I got this on lock, she gonna totally drool all over me.’

Only to be totally ignored for the food. Man can scheme/play 3D chess with the best of them but can’t seduce his own wife. I love him.

[katurdayss]

Okay, I've watched 2 C-dramas. You have GOT to know what you're going into it for before you start. Example, Pursuit of Jade/Chasing Jade was said to be visually stunning. They were correct.

Someone said The Princess Royal was excellent if you like palace intrigue. VERY CORRECT.

Did Zhang Linghe win me over in both shows? Yes (btw he's really good at disappearing into a character) but I didn't watch either just for him or romance. If I had, I would definitely have been disappointed in both.

So yeah, choose your c-drama's wisely.

[katurdayss]

Dived into a cdrama because I wanted to avoid The Vampire Lestat spoilers online and still caught a stray bullet.

Normally I don’t care but this time I’m really pissed. This show has historically had a lot of layers that can be missed or misconstrued and I don’t want any influence on my first watch. Which means I’m gonna have to avoid the fun side of the internet for the entire season.

Jesus Christ y’all there is a spoiler tag for a damn reason.

[katurdayss]

Y'all I started watching The Princess Royal because of Zhang Linghe, and I have another complaint about the translation. It's better this time, not as obviously off BUT they keep using 'kowtow' instead of 'bow' or 'genuflect' and its making my eye twitch. 'Kowtow' has a negative connotation in English, it signals a cowardly subservience lacking any respect or adoration.

Genuflect is a legitimate English word that is used to describe EXACTLY what they want when they use 'kowtow'. Sure, its one knee instead of two, but English speakers will get the idea! And that's IF the translator found 'bow' too common. 'Bow' would also work extremely well in the same circumstance.

I understand wanting content Netflix but where the hell is Quality Assurance? Especially in this economy. If I'm going to be spending my hard earned dollars that lack the buying power of just four years ago you better believe I'm spending it on quality items instead of junk. I've already had one suggestion to buy a sub to iQiyi VIP because their translations are better and I've only watched 1 other cdrama. Not a good start