rje1

subs at skeweds translations

subs at skeweds translations

"Machine translation from russian to english with some editing."
First two episodes only as far as I can see.

My mark of a good drama is when I'm busting to get through the day until I sit down with my dinner and watch the next episode or two. I'll give a drama a second episode to prove itself, if it doesn't grab me in the first episode, or up to four if I'm uncertain. There are enough past and current series out there and enough reviewers who can steer me in hopeful directions, for me to waste time with a middling or bad drama. It's important to apply the evolutionary process. Dramas are memes, in the original sense of the word, and should only be allowed to survive if they're good.
But I don't understand how some people can fast forward or skip scenes. How do you know when you can? How do you know you won't miss something important? If there are characters or subplots that are clearly not worth watching, then I won't fast forward, I'll just give up on the whole series.

Cold Eyes \ Stakeout (2013) 감시자들 is a great heist/detective thriller, with an interesting female rookie detective who may have Asperger's Disorder. A couple of scenes of brief violence which don't dominate, and no sex. It's a high-budget remake of the Hong Kong original which is also rather good.

thanks from me too

Great article! Several of my favorites, some at the top of my queue, and now some I can add to my list. I have a preference for female-centric stories, since they tend to lack the violence and ugliness of many male-centred dramas.
I'd add the Korean version of "Mother" (and the original Japanese and the recent Chinese versions too) for being about motherhood, daughterhood, and sisterhood, and women's careers. "Desperate Motherhood" (Japan) is about a set of intensely competitive kindergarten mothers who have to find redemption amidst in this satire of Japanese society.
"Restaurant with Many Problems" (Japan) about an odd group of women who start a restaurant in the face of anti-female discrimination. There are several Japanese dramas about women starting their own shop or cafe e.g. Tsubaki Stationary Story, Bread and Soup and Cat Weather. "The Story of a Summer Experience" Japan is old (1985) but I've heard it's very good. There are many other Japanese dramas about women working together and playing together: Tokyo Tarareba Musume, Daisy Luck, A Girl's Breakfast, Atelier (a lingerie company). Also School Girls' Rock (an all-girl rock band), Seven Ms. Prisoners (seven women in jail). Wakako Zake about a working woman who loves to eat and drink alone after a long day at the office (short episodes about food). "Transit Girls" about two girls who move in as stepsisters and fall in love (no major angst and a happy ending).
We've have to include all the asadoras, the Japanese dramas that have been running for years, 150 short episodes each, airing each morning over half a year, as they all feature a central female character's life story. Also, several of the weekly historical taiga dramas feature female main characters: Hana Moyu, Yae no Sakura, Atsuhime.
The Korean webdrama available on youtube "It's Okay To Be Sensitive" is about women learning to deal with male sexual harrassment.
The Taiwanese dramas "A Taiwanese Tale of Two Cities" and "A Thousand Goodnights" have male characters but the main plotline is the lives of woman characters.
Note that the Chinese drama above "Youth" is an almost scene-by-scene remake of the Korean "Age of Youth" and just as enjoyable.
I've written a long comment here, which I hope will be seen as a tribute to your fine article. Has anyone written an article about female-centric movies?

There's a rather good script here, but it's almost ruined by the director who can't trust it and so at every dramatic moment throws in loud music, extreme close-ups, over-acting, and drags out the moment until it looks artificial and weird. But then that's typical of Japanese dramas and suggests that movie-makers can't credit viewers with being able to absorb a story and respond to the work of these competent and experienced actors. This drama is a critique of many aspects of Japanese family and married life. The supposedly wise sensei who at the end turns to the camera and tells parents to not compete with each other, and be kind to their children, doesn't seem to realise that it's a systemic problem. When there is cram school for kindergarten children, who have to sit an exam to get into the most prestigious primary school, what can a parent do? It's fascinating to see the process also includes an interview of the parents and child together (also seen in the movie Like Father Like Son), in which parents reveal their true colours, even when they try to just make up an answer to impress the examiners.

A layout comment: for some reason amateurs centre-space poems. It suggests your only experience of reading poems is in Hallmark greeting cards. If you look at any proper poetry publication, the poems are left-aligned. Remember the poetry you studied at school?

That's about the driest and most boring synopsis I have ever read.

I wanted to like this, the blurb was enticing, so many people loved it, but every episode there were numerous moments that pissed me off. It was full of stereotypes and cliches about psychiatry, masquerading as factual information. This is only going to further the ignorance of the general public about mental health. I don't think it makes any difference that it was made in Korea; the stereotypes are typical of Western popular media. Clearly the writer and director didn't do any research. The actor playing an autistic man did a passable job, it looks like he did some research, but some aspects of the story/directing such as his increasing physical affection were facile and unrealistic. Grabbing a knife by the blade might have worked the first time it was used, but it's a worn-out cliche and no sensible person would actually do it, no matter how fired up. The childhood friends who become lovers; another cliche as if it's the only way people can truly fall in love. The character playing the publishing manager was so highly strung, it's unbelievable that he could have worked effectively so that the female writer could become so wealthy. The hysterically cackling female serial killer was incredibly frustrating and is another cliche that has nothing to do with real life. She was a stereotyped wicked witch, which I suppose is in keeping with this story based on folk tales.

Thankfully I haven't seen that. My goodness, are those kittens in your profile picture yours?

Thank you for this link. I had the raw files downloaded but couldn't find subs at the usual sites.

This kind of thing is not going to help the increasing rate of anorexia nervosa in Asian countries, one of the psychiatric illnesses with the highest mortality rates.

Excellent drama. And as a psychiatrist of some 30 years experience, I found the depictions of mental illness and the associated social issues to be very realistic, much more than one sees in most other dramas.

Don't miss the flashbacks at the end! When the episode has ended, still frames are showing so you think the episode is over and you're going to fast forward to the next episode, WAIT! Every episode has a brief epilogue that reveals some of the background story.

Thank you for all your good work! Certainly translating is a good way to study a language, although I find it so slow. I spend about two hours and find I've only covered 15 minutes of an episode... Presumably you're much more efficient. Partly b/c I digress into reading up grammar, finding other interesting words etc. I don't know if I've ever watched any of your subtitles, but I always feel extremely grateful when I find that there are subtitles for a series that I want to watch.

I'm curious about what drives you to do all this voluntary work that benefits so many people. You don't need to do it for your own pleasure in the drama, and I wonder if translating it ends up spoiling your enjoyment of the drama? My Japanese & Korean & Mandarin are fairly basic and when I tried to translate a drama that no-one had subbed, I quickly got frustrated and gave up, even with the help of a tutor.

Looking forward to this. The original Japanese movies are amongst my favorite movies, a great source of calm and peace. The Korean remake is more lively and focussed on friendship. Let's see what the Chinese do with it - but I wouldn't be too hopeful.

You are not wrong, and in between was the Korean remake, which I think is better than the original Japanese version. Am watching this Chinese version now. It's good so far, but darker and colder than the previous two.