loladesu

Ah, you misunderstand me (sorry, didn't see much point in providing a list of citations to 'prove' my knowledge of Asian cultural history in a throwaway comment on MDL) - fully aware that the red thread stems from Chinese folklore a long, loooong way back and was disseminated throughout East and South-East Asian cultures, and then to the "West" via Chinese/Korean/Japanese/Vietnamese diaspora.

My point is more that more writers from younger generations (who've grown up consuming most of their culture online via fanfic and webtoons) are more likely to have been inspired or influenced by this type of media rather than due to reading the original source material (folk stories). And that the red thread has been so heavily used in this context with a lack of innovation/transformation that it's become tropey and tired.

AO3 was easy to reference because it's the largest and best-known central repository of fanworks, with a tagging system that made a quick check pretty simple. AO3 doesn't "invent" things any more than a library full of books "invents" things.

So pretty much "Red Thread of Fate", but make it sexual? Sure, I guess...

Developed from a webtoon that's likely heavily inspired by the thousands of fanfic centred on this trope (just checked AO3, and there are 6500+ fics tagged with "red string of fate").

Gotta love the VP of Korean Content villainising the international kdrama fan community for illegal distribution, and bitching about us not paying for it. Korean networks (same goes for Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese, Thai, etc.) didn't distribute abroad back in the day, so it's not like we could've just bought a "legal" DVD/VHS. Trust me, been in this since 2006, and spent a lot of time searching for a way to support the creators by buying official copies. They literally didn't exist back then.

So people recorded the raw dramas, and volunteer teams spent weeks or months transcribing, translating and creating subtitles for fans abroad. This wasn't bootlegging - no one asked for money (beyond possibly a few donations to cover bandwidth and storage costs when increased demand led to heavy server needs). The availability of subtitles massively increased the awareness and popularity of Korean dramas, expanding the market. Effectively, these fans provided years of unpaid promo.

Then in swoops a bunch of rich American companies, seeing a market ripe for the picking. They paywall everything, pay some poor translators a pittance to create lower-quality subtitles under time pressure, and then demonise the very people who created the demand (for free!) in the first place.

Late stage capitalism, ladies and gentlemen,

"For", not "Four". This is how Viki has it listed.

Either way, an awful and confusing title choice, given that there are five brothers. I get that the Korean title is a cumbersome mouthful in English, but surely they could've come up with something less awkward/more natural...

Your personal ratings still have meaning. They help you remember - years later - which dramas you enjoyed and could potentially rewatch. They also act as a great recs list for other users who might read your comments on a drama and see you have similar taste : ) Honestly, using the overall rating as a guide has always been fraught with danger, as it's so easy to game the system.

IDK why MDL hasn't introduced a feature to at least restrict access to rate a show until after it's aired (preferably on streaming platforms, because the vast majority of MDL users aren't domestic viewers). Not sure whether it's laziness, incompetence, or $$ changing hands behind the scenes (like the "news" section, which is almost all PR/promo and advertorials at this point). It's a pity, I used to come here for balanced reviews, but it's been overrun with burners and bots.

I think, generally speaking, these shows are made with the domestic audience in mind, and the budgets are too slim to waste time and money on a language coach when most Japanese viewers can't tell the difference. Happens most of the time in most countries, I've noticed.

I might put it on the Plan To Watch list, but I'm still recovering from Love Next Door's bad English (Netflix did us dirty there, too - I had to use Korean subs for the English scenes) 😂

Whew, thanks - this is what I came to check out before watching. Happens all the time in both jdramas and kdramas, and it immediately pulls me out of the story, so now I'm on high alert as soon as the backstory for one of the leads includes the fact that they're "fluent" in English. Might skip this one.

Agreed! AoS in particular takes a lot of cues from Chinese historical dramas/historical fantasy. Great show, but not historical - Under The Queen's Umbrella or Jewel In The Palace would be better picks for that. They should really just update the heading on that category.

Headline confused the heck out of me - was wondering when Chae Soo Bin got a record deal...!

lo_ve, i know you constantly have music on the brain, but these actors aren't "labelmates". Label = music label, for recording artists. These two belong to the same actors' agency (King Kong By Starship), not a music label.

I feel bad for Zoomers/Alphas. So many of you seem to be out on the internet turning conversation into debates that need to be won or lost. Seems exhausting to me.

Go back and look at the first sentence of my previous comment, and realise that I wasn't arguing with you, just providing nuance, and there's nothing here you need to "win".

Peace out 🫡

Not saying the plagiarism claim is valid in this case, but jsyk, that's EXACTLY how plagiarists operate - steal concepts/scenes/dialogue (often almost word-for-word) from less popular, more obscure sources. Why? Because fewer people will have read/seen it, and you're less likely to get called out on it.

No worries~!

Technically it's out. Studio X+U have the first five scenes released here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFaVlc8NSbbG2p25WwkVA6T1q2j-_sgGJ

Fragile is a remake of the Norwegian series SKAM, using the same release format, so they upload a scene a day, and then combine all the scenes into a single "episode" at the end of the week.

Will keep an eye on this show out of curiosity. SKAM was a real zeitgeist a decade ago - perhaps waiting was a smart move by the Korean production team? Goodness knows all the European versions (and the US one) that followed on its heels were just pale imitations.

Looking at what's already out on YT, looks like they're following the SKAM model pretty closely...? One short video covering a single day, and an episode length digest of the aired eps together at the end of the week. Even looks like they're starting with the Eva+Ingrid storyline out of the box.

If they're following the SKAM plot (which it looks like they might be), the gay Isak thing was sort of a plot twist at the end of S1. Wouldn't make sense to spoil it in the relationship chart...

"Lies, damned lies, and statistics."

No one with any intelligence and discernment is going to be convinced by the sort of cherry-picked stats you're belching out here.
Korea sends people to jail for taking drugs (not dealing, nor for the actions they take under the influence, but simply for the act of taking them). But chaebol heirs can buy their way out of the same situation, and the companies they inherit routinely ruin lives, families, communities, the environment and the economy, and the law won't lift a damned finger.

Korea has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. North Americans (who are not "the West", sweetheart, they're just two countries in it) dull the pain of living with drugs. Koreans, sadly, opt for a more permanent arrangement. Neither option is positive. All of these countries are responsible for creating societal conditions that cause people to harm themselves en masse.

There are a huge number of factors that contribute to drug overdose - it's largely not people taking recreational substances for funsies. There are chronic pain sufferers who had opiods pushed on them by doctors getting kickbacks from pharmaceutical companies. There are veterans from the armed forces - often a lower socioeconomic cohort lured in as a guaranteed job, subsidised or free education, and other benefits - who are tossed aside after discharge, often irreparably physically or psychologically damaged by war.

US society in particular is structured in a way that makes it difficult for those doing it toughest to get off the bottom of the ladder, and both cultural conditioning in their community and entrenched intergenerational trauma can lead people down dark paths, or which substance abuse is often part of the equation.

Get off Twitter, Full Veracity. Create a new YouTube account, and fill your subscriptions and recommendations with positive, constructive content. You've sent yourself to a dark mental place with the crap you allow yourself to consume on socials.

What you watch and read is ALWAYS your choice. Choose wisely.

Saw you mention Boxing Day + Test, and thought there must be two big cricket matches on that day...! Whoops.

I wonder if there are any other sports where the two opponents call the same match different things 🤔 😂 (It's the Boxing Day Test for us - same date and venue every year, just a different opponent.) Either way, this'll be waaay more interesting than Squid Game.

Same. The litmus test for me was that it was popular among non-kdrama viewers, but my fellow diehard kdrama fans weren't hyped about it. Checked the synopsis, and it was a hard pass. What a pile of negative brain poison.