WK1

E8 drops tonight.

I think there are more side couple relationships coming up.

To all who have been waiting for Eng sub and are wondering why there isn't any, here is the most likely explanation. Hope it will help you deal with your frustration a little.

This drama is jointly produced by Youku and Huace. That is why you see their names in those character posters that were release last week. Huace own Croton Media as of 2013, and Croton Media is the usual streaming platform we get to see, for many big hits coming out of China. They have a YouTube Channel, which is the likely source we get to watch this, when the subs are out.

For TBW, Youku is likely the biggest investor, and hence they got the distribution rights for the mainland Chinese market, which of course, is the primary market for a drama like this. Croton Media got the distribution rights for the international market.

Youku produced lots of dramas and therefore has many dramas that they need to release this year. In order not to jam up their release, the moment all post production work like dubbing, editing, CGI, etc were done for TBW, they quickly released this in China. There is also the high likelihood that Tencent may release Who Rules the World in April. So, from both internal and external perspectives, it was wise of them to release it in China on 17 March and to finish it by 1 April (for VIP viewers). This way, when they released Part 2 of TBW, likely no more than two weeks after the completion of this drama for non-VIP, which is 15 April, they would have gotten viewers in China hooked on to TBW and will not be afraid of any competition from WRTW, even if Tencent releases WRTW in April. In short, they killed two birds with one stone.

Unfortunately, Eng sub is likely the last part of the post production and it was not ready by 17 March. Because of the reasons mentioned in the previous para, they decided on a two-phase release strategy: For China market 17 March; for international market, as and when they finished their Eng sub.

There is also the high possibility that since the drama is ready for the China market, further delay in releasing in the international market is caused by their desire to collect feedback on its Chinese release. They may have extra film, so any mistake made in the Chinese release can be corrected in the international release, by adding those un-used shots. Or, they may well delete some unnecessary scenes from the China release. Hence, even if ready, they want to hold on till at least 1 April, when all VIP members in China have watched this and useful feedback have been gathered. Or 15 April, which is when the last episode will be aired for non-VIP members.

Hope the above explanation can soothe our disappointment, and make us feel less slighted by Youku and Huace/Croton Media. It is not we are unimportant. They were just ready for us, but were ready for the mainland Chinese market.

However, our wait should not be too long. We may well get it as early as 2 April, or around 16 April. If this prediction does not come true, please do not sue me. I am just like one of you, waiting for the Eng sub, hoping that it may come ASAP.

I think Youku paid for the rights to the novel on which TBW drama is based. Regarding outsourcing of the actual making of the film, all big companies (like Tencent and so on) do that. Some may even have their own film or drama making subsidiaries. So, whether they are listed in the production credits or not will depend on the extent of outsourcing.

The fact that Youku is also listed in the Production Credit on Dramawiki shows that they were more than just a silent investor in this drama. They did play some significant role in the production process, though we do not know the exact details. So, they are every bit a producer of this drama. It is not quite right to say Youku merely paid for the distribution right.

That is the ongoing rumour concerning WRTW. But, you may or may not be aware, lots of us here are fans of Dilraba. Even if we do watch other dramas, we usually do not go to their pages to comment. Just too time consuming. And some of them like to degrade Dilraba's dramas. We might get into unnecessary arguments with them.

Yes, she was imprisoned by some kind of spells, not poison.

I did not notice those. But someone in twitter mentioned about the colour coordination between her costumes and her eyebrows. When she wears green, those are shaded green; when she wears purple, they shaded her eyerbrows in purple. Such attention to details!

Greetings! Indeed it has been close to a year, since TLB and since they froze us on that page because their software just could not handle the number of our comments. And I still remember your good advice, when dealing with difficult people: Don't engage. Just leave them alone. And, at one point, we did have lots of those.

There are indeed lots of pals from TLB, and we would have set this place on fire too! But, you are right. pals from TLB, and lots of others, are now scattered, momentum and opportunities somewhat lost. Hopefully, when the subs are up, people will come back.

Today, our dear Dilraba crossed the 77m hurdle. She now has more than 77m followers in Weibo.

We are completely on the same page!

Can always do a re-watch, when the subs are out. Right now, it is just too beautiful too miss. Even in raw, well worth our time. I can handle about 50% of the dialogues; the action and acting helped me understand the rest. When the subs are out, I will likely watch this at least another 3-4 times, as there will not be another Reba drama till LOA.

Very nice to see you here, my old friend!! I was on the verge of sending you a personal message, to remind you about TBW, but I held back, after knowing that the Eng sub will not be out, just yet.

Do we know this for a fact?? That Huace and Croton made this drama, without any involvement from Youku? That Youku merely bought the broadcasting right to broadcast in China? All the character posters released show the Youku brand in big prints, whilst those for Huace and Croton were only in small prints.

When I checked the dramawiki page for The Blue Whisper, both Croton Media and Youku were listed in the Production Credits segment, showing that Youku did have a role to play in the production.

While Youku may not have an in-house production capabilities, I would like to think that Youku were involved, at least in the form of paying for the salaries of all cast members, paying for the drama adaption rights to the author of the novel, etc. even if actual filming came under the charge of Croton Media. Croton Media does have in-house production capabilities, hence all the camermen, etc are already under their regular payroll, and, will of course count toward total investment in this drama.

Youku is a big company, owned by Alibaba. No reason why it cannot be the biggest investor for this drama, and merely the hosting network in China. That is why their brand name is shown in huge bold letters in all the posters, whilst those of Croton Media and Huace are shown in smaller prints. I checked wikipedia, which shows that Croton Media is actually owned by Huace. Hence, we can see that this is a joint Youku and Huace/Croton Media production, with Youku being a bigger investor between the two.

Even in Weibo, The Blue Whisper comes under the Youku brand.

In terms of broadcasting, it is split between the two. Youku will do it in China, while Croton Media will do for international viewers like us. Hence, people in China will watch it in Youku apps, whiles we will watch this in Croton Media's YouTube Channel.

Those are my humble observations and opinions.

Who is the she you are referring to?? The bird or Ji Yun He?

And view count is the 'normal' metric used by broadcasters to charge product owners who want to place advertisements during any broadcast. Apart from subscription fees that people pay to watch a drama, money from advertisements is next biggest source. So, total view count is always a key number that any producer will look at.

Even if Youku wants to sell this to Netflix later, the higher the view count in China, the higher the price they can sell this to Netflix. Of coure, all those popularity ranking and so on, will also play a role, but view count is most important, as it shows how many people actually watched all the episodes.

You take total view count divide by number of episodes, you get average number of people who watch each episode, and hence number of people who may have watched all those advertisements.

Total viewership will be dependent on two main groups of viewers: Fans of Reba and Allen in one group; another group, what I will term as neutrals (not a fan of either of them).

We know the number of followers Reba and Allen have in Weibo. We can make an estimate how many of them will watch TBW. Let's just say 50%? Or whatever number you wish to use. Once you fixed that, the total viewership become dependent on the neutrals.

Whatever the breakdown between fans and neutrals, the higher the view count, we can easily say that more fans and more neutral are watching this.

I cannot think of any other metric that will measure the reach to the neutrals, other than total view count. You said there are other ways. What other ways?? What other metric??

On screen, their relationship has merely started. So, if you are looking for romantic kind of CP, it is premature.

If you are looking for on-screen chemistry, how they interact with each other, look at each other when they talk and so on, it has been great thus far. Great eye contact; no discomfort whatever, when they interact. They are both great actors and they deliver what they have to, at the right time and right place.

I think you read the novel?? So even watching the raw episodes should be fairly enjoyable. You may not be able to understand much of the dialogues, but, from all the action sequences, I am sure you will be able to figure out what is happening. And mean time, also enjoy the fantastic CGI. They made all the trees and sceneries really beautiful, and the fighting scenes are really wonderful to watch. All Xianxia lovers will love the CGI used in TBW. Really top class.

More will be coming.

Well, he is half a fish, after all.