This show is totally bananas, basically like going headfirst down a slip 'n' slide lubricated with blood instead of water. I'm generally not a fan of gratuitous violence but the gore was so ridiculously over-the-top that I wasn't even fazed by it after the first ep. It started to seem cartoonish, it's *that* crazy.
Is it for everyone? Most definitely not. Did I enjoy it? Yeah, I guess I did in a sort of "wtf will they do next" sort of way. Did it make sense? Not to me, ultimately, but the sheer spectacle made it worth watching regardless.
Re: "The Cheater": An apt label if there ever was one. If you are skipping or fast forwarding through parts of the drama, you *didn't* watch the drama. You watched a highlights reel. Not the same (I honestly feel the same if you're basically not paying attention during the show i.e. spending more time looking at your phone, playing a video game, cooking, etc.).
Personally I have zero qualms about dropping a drama. All you gain for "sticking it out" with a show, especially one that you're *really* not enjoying, is wasted time you could've spent watching something better, and there's certainly no shortage of different shows to check out.
Man, it really grinds *my* gears when I see people complaining that they're not getting subs fast enough, especially when they're demanding them as soon as a new ep is out. It didn't used to be that way (or at least, not as commonly) but I think once K-dramas started (legally) streaming there was an influx of fans who act particularly entitled, perhaps b/c as newer fans they don't know any different. Subbing a show is so much work and it's generally done for free so imo if people don't like waiting they can sub it themselves or go without.
Rant aside, I just want to comment that even if you're not subbing something yourself, Aegisub is *incredibly* useful b/c you can pretty easily retime softsubs to match whatever raw video file you have.
This is kind of an aside, but thank you for reserving the term "old" for stuff that's 10+ years old. I die inside a little everytime someone refers to something from just 5 years ago as an "old" drama.
Wait, I'm confused... are they 10 years apart or only 4? (the character profiles give the ages as 31 & 35). A 4-year difference in your 30s barely qualifies as an age gap, imo.
This is definitely my favorite Taiwanese BL drama I've seen so far, just recently unseating its immediate predecessor (HIStory 2 - Right or Wrong) for the #1 spot on that list. My only real complaint is that I wish it'd been a full-length drama, but alas, that is not the nature of these HIStory series.
Now I'm definitely looking forward to seeing if the 3rd HIStory 2 installment, Trap, holds up to the high standards set by these series.
I just wanted to comment that I was rather taken aback by the use of actual footage of hunting with dogs in ep02. In two separate scenes they are shown hunting a rabbit (running it down and grabbing it in their jaws) and then attacking a boar in a pack, and it's definitely actual footage (different film quality, shown from a slight distance, etc.) and not CG or cleverly-intercut-but-separate footage. I'm not naive and I realize the meat they're eating comes from somewhere, and it's not enough to make me drop the drama, but I was really surprised that they felt the need to *show* the hunting process and I just thought I'd put that out there for folks who do not like to be surprised by this kind of stuff, esp. where they're not expecting it (i.e. a TV show).
(P.S. As a preemptive to any snide comments, yes I'm a vegetarian).
A kind soul has taken it upon themselves to finish subbing this series-- see the d-addicts thread for softsubs for the last 4 eps (and the link to the previous eps' softsubs):
(The only reason I know is I follow tumblr user blxqarlj, who posts links when a new subbed episode is out. I generally have little-to-no luck searching Daily Motion either.)
I feel like personal ratings really only serve to give someone a good way to gauge if another user's tastes align with theirs (and therefore they may like some of the other shows that person has rated highly). Lord knows that the overall MDL score of a show often has less to do with the actual quality (or lack thereof) of a drama and more to do with its popularity. So I don't pay any attention to that when trying to decide if I should check out a show. Glowing written reviews and/or comments mean 100x more to me in this regard.
I'm under no pretense that the any of the shows I've rated a 10 are actually "perfect" (the perfect show doesn't exist) but I do reserve the 10s (and 9s really) only for the shows that just *consumed* me as I experienced them. Otherwise a lot of shows get anywhere from 6-8 from me (which is still good!), not because I like everything but rather I have no problem dropping a show if I'm not feeling it (i.e. if I forced myself to finish shows that I wasn't enjoying, I'm sure I'd have a *lot* more 1-4 scores on my watchlist).
I'll second (really it's more like third or fourth by this point) those naming Suda Masaki (though maybe he's more handsome at this point? he was ''cute'' as Philip in Kamen Rider W) and add Murakami Nijiro (Dead Stock, Aogeba Toutoushi), Nishime Shun (Kamen Rider Ghost) and Inukai Atsuhiro (Kamen Rider Build).
There are lots of cute actors *outside* the shoujo adaptation world (as someone who doesn't care for the genre, trust me). Tokusatsu shows (including Kamen Rider & Super Sentai series), with so many roles for young men each year, are chock-full of 'em (and they often provide them their first starring roles-- see: Matsuzaka Tori & Fukushi Sota).
This is on my list but where are the subs for this?
Linja & SophieD have fansubbed both seasons so I'd encourage you to check it out on their DailyMotion channel instead of other streaming sites (just search for "Linja & SophieD")
Is it for everyone? Most definitely not. Did I enjoy it? Yeah, I guess I did in a sort of "wtf will they do next" sort of way. Did it make sense? Not to me, ultimately, but the sheer spectacle made it worth watching regardless.
Personally I have zero qualms about dropping a drama. All you gain for "sticking it out" with a show, especially one that you're *really* not enjoying, is wasted time you could've spent watching something better, and there's certainly no shortage of different shows to check out.
Rant aside, I just want to comment that even if you're not subbing something yourself, Aegisub is *incredibly* useful b/c you can pretty easily retime softsubs to match whatever raw video file you have.
Now I'm definitely looking forward to seeing if the 3rd HIStory 2 installment, Trap, holds up to the high standards set by these series.
(P.S. As a preemptive to any snide comments, yes I'm a vegetarian).
http://www.d-addicts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=163989&p=1797003#p1797003
Don't forget to thank them for their effort!
Ep.02 is at http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6exutv
(The only reason I know is I follow tumblr user blxqarlj, who posts links when a new subbed episode is out. I generally have little-to-no luck searching Daily Motion either.)
I'm under no pretense that the any of the shows I've rated a 10 are actually "perfect" (the perfect show doesn't exist) but I do reserve the 10s (and 9s really) only for the shows that just *consumed* me as I experienced them. Otherwise a lot of shows get anywhere from 6-8 from me (which is still good!), not because I like everything but rather I have no problem dropping a show if I'm not feeling it (i.e. if I forced myself to finish shows that I wasn't enjoying, I'm sure I'd have a *lot* more 1-4 scores on my watchlist).
There are lots of cute actors *outside* the shoujo adaptation world (as someone who doesn't care for the genre, trust me). Tokusatsu shows (including Kamen Rider & Super Sentai series), with so many roles for young men each year, are chock-full of 'em (and they often provide them their first starring roles-- see: Matsuzaka Tori & Fukushi Sota).