Michelle Topham

It's so frustrating, isn't it? I end up watching about 80% legal as I like to support the artists, and about 20% not legal as some dramas are just impossible to find on a service I will pay for (won't pay for Viki or iQIYI -- dislike both companies).

And ask YOUKU for a refund. If you subscribed for a drama they don't now have, they need to give you your money back :)

Hahahaha, that was another reason for me not to pay for Viki. Lived in California for 5 years and it's a woke hellhole that's now going to hell in a handbasket even more than when I lived there - Libs R Us is the right description :)

And haven't you noticed, the libs talk a good game about "diversity, equity, inclusion" and "treating everyone as equals" except... then they don't :)

You'd think they'd sit down WITH A PLAN, and then follow that plan, wouldn't you? It's not rocket science :)

I had a long conversation with DeepSeek the other week about Chinese licensing, and it's hilarious that whatever Chinese person/people programmed that AI engine, they have the SAME opinions about Daylight, iQIYI, YOUKU etc as I do -- got some very juicy information about all the companies, AND what they're all doing wrong. Very enlightening :)

Same. That's why I pay for a shit ton of subscriptions :) but I draw the line at companies taking advantage of other people and, sadly, that's both Viki and iQIYI.

(I don't think iQIYI will be in business for much longer though anyway -- they are HEMMORAGHING money, and have made some very very bad business decisions - so I may not have to worry about that one for much longer :)

And what I do do to support the artists is to watch a drama on a bootleg site and then, when it shows up on YouTube on a legal channel (because they almost always do), let it run on my phone WITH ADS running while I'm doing something else. Crazy, I know, but it does help the actors and the director so... :)

Viki? They're American. Headquartered in San Mateo, CA. Well, technically Japanese -- as they're a subsidiary of Rakuten. EDIT: Used to be Singaporean, Not any longer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rakuten_Viki

Yep that was my thought too, very likely AI translation -- which I don't mind if it's good (WeTV uses it quite a lot and theirs has been excellent). Daylight, however, are known to screw everything up, so no surprise here either. Such a mess indeed :)

To no surprise to anyone :) Daylight Entertainment are always garbage with everything they do once a drama has been produced. Eventually they'll figure it out, but it's taking them long enough. Meanwhile, they're losing money but... what can you do :)

Yep, that's why I won't subscribe to Viki. They refuse to pay their translators, but instead give them a $7 a month (or whatever it costs?) 'free subscription to Viki' if they translate enough episodes.

That's a HUGE amount of work for the translators, and Viki is a MAJOR company. So they're basically taking advantage of people and I won't buy anything from a company that does that.

I subscribe to EVERYWHERE, with only iQIYI and Viki who I won't subscribe to, and both are for ethical reasons.

They usually upload about 5 or so, and then the rest will require a sub. As I won't pay for a Viki sub, that's not an option for me.

And i did sub to them for a long time, but then found out they don't pay their translators and instead treat them pretty badly (they literally give them a $7 a month 'free subscription to Viki' if they translate so many episodes -- and that's bullshit ie: MAJOR corporation refusing to pay people who work for them -- bite me! :), so I won't pay for a Viki sub anymore.

A shame as their service is pretty good, but I hate companies that take advantage of people.

Daylight can't even get their act together to provide subs. The English subs start out in Episode 1, then disappear about a minutes into it, then they come back, then they disappear again :) Gave up and off to my favorite high seas site instead :)

It looks like YOUKU uploaded it mistakenly as they apparently don't have licensing for outside China. so they've had to remove it. It's available on Viki, but I won't pay for Viki (I'm also in Europe), so a bootleg site is my only alternative sadly. And maybe yours if you won't pay for Viki either?

Yep, a complete scam. They basically want you to pay twice and I'm not doing that. Not when they're the most expensive Chinese streaming service already :)

Daylight has it on their YouTube channel though. At least here in Europe :)

EDIT: Never mind -- completely unwatchable on Daylight Entertainment's YouTube channel -- has English subs for about 1 minute, then they disappear, then they come back for a couple of minutes, then disappear again. Sooooo typical Daylight -- they are so useless with this :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glg3OqXUxMw

For you it may be? I don't care about 4K so it's not for me. And not when they're such scammers with their subscribers. Last year, I paid 90 euros for an annual subscription, then 4 of the 5 dramas I wanted to watch were NOT available on iQIYI but WERE available on their YouTube channel for ANOTHER 8 euros a month. Nope, not paying twice :)

It's also available on Daylight Entertainment's YouTube channel with English subs (and other subs as well) -- at least here in Europe. Hopefully they'll upload every episode? :)

EDIT -- NOPE, not watchable. English subs come and go, so useless at the moment unless they fix it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glg3OqXUxMw

Hahahaha, that is so BIZARRE. They uploaded 4 episodes, left them for about 3 hours, then took them down -- hahahaha. Honestly, Chinese streaming services sometimes really do seem to make the weirdest business mistakes.

Thanks for the heads up. :)

Oh and btw, it's available on YouTube on Daylight Entertainment's channel, so I'll be watching it here :) Nope never mind -- Daylight's English subs appear/disappear/appear/disappear -- as usual, they're useless at this :) Off to my favorite bootleg site as life is too short to mess around like this for a DRAMA :)

Ooh, my apologies. I was actually going off Baidu, who has had YOUKU listed as one of the three producers for forever. Looks like they're not though, just one of the distributors so, yep, that does make sense. You were correct :)

Thanks! I'm going to stick with it through at least Ep 12. I've seen a few people complain they hated it and dropped it at around that level, so I want to see if I feel the same way. So far though it's really very beautiful, and every single main cast member is hotter than hell :)

That's who I always use if a drama is on Viki or iQIYI (i subscribe to everything else).

I won't sub to either Viki or iQIYI -- Viki treats their translators like they're indentured servants, and iQIYI is the most expensive streaming platform, but half the time their major dramas are only available here in Europe on their YouTube channel FOR AN EXTRA SUBSCRIPTION. - No, bite me :)

Hahaha, I know. I'm not really surprised though.

The director/screenwriter Edward Guo is detested by some Chinese viewers as he's a plagiarist (he was taken to court, the court ruled in the favor of the author whose work he stole, and Guo was forced to pay a huge fine to the author) and he's also been accused of sexually assaulting several of his male staff by a writer who used to work for him, so I think a substantial percentage of Chinese viewers will downrate his dramas regardless of if they're good or not.

Personally, I think he's a not-so-great writer (the plot in VoS makes little sense as it's confusing right from the first episode :), but he's a gifted director, and brilliant at knowing what visuals will grab an audience's attention. I'm still not sold on VoS (only on Ep 4 so I'll see how it goes) but there's no denying it's very very pretty :)