I loved Season 2 and found it emotionally gratifying as the cases grew increasingly existential. What is family? What is marriage? What is justice? What's the line between criminal and contractual disputes? How do we live and die with dignity? Season 3 can't come soon enough.
I haven't seen S1 so IDK the background but Qiu Hua and her husband gotta be one of the dullest newly weds I've…
Oof—It was PAINFUL to watch Qiu Hua's indifference towards Zhang Quan Quan. (Many times I yelled at my screen, "You're not telling him? You're not f* telling him?!)
I think Quan Quan represents a transactional understanding of "family" to Qiu Hua. He feeds her. He f* her (at least in the beginning). He unwittingly funds her partnership buy-in. But he's NEVER her partner. (I howled when she said, "We're not a team.") She doesn't admire anything about him and its unclear if she even likes him.
Qiu Hua is a brilliant woman who's had to fight against bias towards her rural roots, her sex, her poverty. I suspect she's been in "fight mode" her whole life. Her true partner is her "work wife," Luo Ying Zi!
The purpose of this marriage is to contrast against Luo Ying Zi and Chen Shuo's hard-won love. Those two crazies still have a bit of trauma to work through but their relationship is grounded in mutual respect and understanding.
The only thing Qiu Hua and Zhang Quan Quan share is a hometown.
can i understand season 2 without watching season 1?
An alternative to watching Season 1 is reading Cyn-Lyn's charming recap of the series: https://cyn-lynn.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-fearless-recap-and-review.html. She's a lot of fun to read, and I often scan her recaps to select specific episodes I want to watch. Her insights into Chinese language puns and witticisms also enhance the audience experience.
Ten episodes in and I'm happy it's back! I'm mostly here to cheer on "Unscrupulous Chen's" long game pursuing "Righteous Luo." As much as I want them together, her caution is the most realistic element of the show. In some ways, Fearless 2/Unbreakable 2 is gǒuxiě (dog blood)—I'm either guffawing at moronic behavior or gasping at outlandish greed and cruelty. Heel-clicking Han Zhi Tong is still the buffoon we love to hate and he promises to be a rich source of sweet Schadenfreude.
I completed the series over 10 days; it was a welcome break during a challenging work period. 8 stars for me.
My favorite moments of the series were when Hua Zhi empowered other people—releasing her staff from indentured servitude, encouraging her family's skills to shine, educating _all_ the kids.
Every c-drama is a court drama at heart—even contemporary workplace ones—and this miserable court almost begs for a prequel of its own. How did we get here?! Prince Xian did not leave a shred of scenery behind and I was there for it! I also admired Hai Yi Tian's performance as the terrifying, mercurial Emperor.
The enemies to lovers trope is my absolutely favorite and I liked how Hua Zhi and Gu Yan Xi overcame many obstacles together. I can't tell if the ML is stoic or if the actor is wooden but he made a pretty pair with the FL.
"No. 6" and Shao Yao were my favorite supporting characters. It was lovely to watch them flourish under challenging conditions. But Hua Rong's story was heartbreaking and frustrating.
While the last five episode's scenarios became increasingly absurd, the show didn't go completely off the rails. It was delightful to have Zhi's aunties remind her that she isn't the ONLY one with brains in the family! No (stupid) unilateral decisions allowed!
Honest question: Who cares about ratings when it's only 1 season dramas and the episode count is set? It also…
Excellent question. Ratings = money, even for shows already "in the can."
• Money from increased advertising (aired between episodes). Probably better product placement too. • Money for increased budgets for that show's (and future shows) production budgets. • Money from increased cable subscriptions because more people want to see the "hot" show.
For shows that are still being produced as they're broadcast, poor ratings can lead to a shorted episode count. In 2019, The Running Mates: Human Rights was cut at episode 14 due to low ratings. Last two episodes were never made. I really liked the series and—like most viewers who were still watching— was frustrated by unresolved storylines. It just ended.
I doubt they'll cram the remaining 44% of the manhwa into the last four TV episodes! It looks like the nasty Yoo Ra's storyline will get simplified. There's just tOo MUCh happening! ;D
Manhwa HAN YI JOO is far more assertive than the TV version. For example, in Ep. 67, YI JOO directly challenges the office gossips face-to-face. And in Ep. 68, YI JOO is the one who goes to the police station to confront her ex's slanderous sister.
Manhwa DO GUK and YI JOO are pretty horny for each other. Outside of their electric kiss, the TV show is rather chaste by comparison. We don't even get cozy fully-dressed-in-silk-pajama bed scenes. ;D
I don’t understand why the grandpa is in a nursing home - when he seems rich enough to afford home care in his…
Yes! I thought the same. If I've learned ANYTHING from kdramas, it's that VIPs get palatial hospital rooms. Grandpa's grim little room barely qualifies as "assisted living." And why is he always in hospital pajamas—when he's not running around with bag$ of money?!
Is the sub really bad? I couldnt understand korean so, i have no idea, only got to 2nd episode so far. I'm enjoying…
The subtitles are okay—I've seen worse. One long festering irritation I have in general is how honorifics are either ignored or incorrectly translated. Why not just write "hyung," "noona," "eunnie" when speakers use those particular words. Translating to "bro" or "sister" isn't quite right, you know? I don't speak Korean either but these are phrases any regular kdrama watcher will know. And if a character says, "I love you," isn't it weird not to translate that?
**The worst subtitles I've recently seen were for LIVE YOUR LIFE, a 2021 Chinese romantic drama that streamed on MGTV. Two female character names were transliterated by robots as "Land Tendrils" and "Shrimp Paste" —for all 40 episodes!
Every thing in this series is a big cliche. But what is exciting to see is the cast. The ML is hot after finishing…
It's an interesting question.
With non-tonal languages like English, I try to avoid conflating "accent" with "fluency." Ahn Hyo Seop is fluent because he was able to go to school in his target language, from age 10-17.
Perhaps he hasn't focused on _practicing_ an undetectable North American accent in the past ten years he's been back in South Korea. Motivation plays a big part in accent acquisition.
RESET was very satisfying, in _every_ regard. And it was the first c-drama I watched with my whole family! (They don't have the patience for 45+ episode dramas like I do.)
Although this was a time loop fantasy, I was struck by the fact that the surveillance technology is very real. There's no country in the world that tracks its citizens like China and it was sobering to watch this in action. In reality, the surveillance goes much deeper—this series is essentially a PPL demonstrating just a fraction of the state's massive surveillance apparatus.
Liu Tao's conehead wig was the only thing that briefly took me out of the show; otherwise, I loved it!
I was able to just fine, but you could try downloading it from a streaming site instead of the torrent file. I…
Good tip, thank you. Got it now. The hoops we jump through to watch this wonderful show! I also found Ep. 4 on dailymotion. I love this show so much I'll watch it raw and happily wait for subs later.
But today, KaizenSub's Google drive wasn't accessible. I can't download Ep. 3 subs; will see what tomorrow brings. The torrent link for Ep. 3 is at nyaa.si.
I wish this show were on Netflix. Not just because of laziness but because this show important should be as accessible as possible. The subbers are angels, for sure, but it's still a LOT of hoops to go through. It's like hotwiring a car, for heaven's sake.
Using Google Translate has allowed me to enjoy the blog posts featuring the show's three aroace consultants, the production designer and director. Really insightful: https://www.nhk.jp/p/ts/VWNP71QQPV/blog/bl/pe6M8agVJ5/
She describes it as "Diamonds mixed with sh*t." If only someone could edit a whittled-down 20-episode version with the essential characters. (Pretty much what I say about most c-dramas.)
I think Quan Quan represents a transactional understanding of "family" to Qiu Hua. He feeds her. He f* her (at least in the beginning). He unwittingly funds her partnership buy-in. But he's NEVER her partner. (I howled when she said, "We're not a team.") She doesn't admire anything about him and its unclear if she even likes him.
Qiu Hua is a brilliant woman who's had to fight against bias towards her rural roots, her sex, her poverty. I suspect she's been in "fight mode" her whole life. Her true partner is her "work wife," Luo Ying Zi!
The purpose of this marriage is to contrast against Luo Ying Zi and Chen Shuo's hard-won love. Those two crazies still have a bit of trauma to work through but their relationship is grounded in mutual respect and understanding.
The only thing Qiu Hua and Zhang Quan Quan share is a hometown.
My favorite moments of the series were when Hua Zhi empowered other people—releasing her staff from indentured servitude, encouraging her family's skills to shine, educating _all_ the kids.
Every c-drama is a court drama at heart—even contemporary workplace ones—and this miserable court almost begs for a prequel of its own. How did we get here?! Prince Xian did not leave a shred of scenery behind and I was there for it! I also admired Hai Yi Tian's performance as the terrifying, mercurial Emperor.
The enemies to lovers trope is my absolutely favorite and I liked how Hua Zhi and Gu Yan Xi overcame many obstacles together. I can't tell if the ML is stoic or if the actor is wooden but he made a pretty pair with the FL.
"No. 6" and Shao Yao were my favorite supporting characters. It was lovely to watch them flourish under challenging conditions. But Hua Rong's story was heartbreaking and frustrating.
While the last five episode's scenarios became increasingly absurd, the show didn't go completely off the rails. It was delightful to have Zhi's aunties remind her that she isn't the ONLY one with brains in the family! No (stupid) unilateral decisions allowed!
• Money from increased advertising (aired between episodes). Probably better product placement too.
• Money for increased budgets for that show's (and future shows) production budgets.
• Money from increased cable subscriptions because more people want to see the "hot" show.
For shows that are still being produced as they're broadcast, poor ratings can lead to a shorted episode count. In 2019, The Running Mates: Human Rights was cut at episode 14 due to low ratings. Last two episodes were never made. I really liked the series and—like most viewers who were still watching— was frustrated by unresolved storylines. It just ended.
I doubt they'll cram the remaining 44% of the manhwa into the last four TV episodes! It looks like the nasty Yoo Ra's storyline will get simplified. There's just tOo MUCh happening! ;D
Manhwa HAN YI JOO is far more assertive than the TV version. For example, in Ep. 67, YI JOO directly challenges the office gossips face-to-face. And in Ep. 68, YI JOO is the one who goes to the police station to confront her ex's slanderous sister.
Manhwa DO GUK and YI JOO are pretty horny for each other. Outside of their electric kiss, the TV show is rather chaste by comparison. We don't even get cozy fully-dressed-in-silk-pajama bed scenes. ;D
As of today, the regular free Korean page is up to ep. 124: https://comic.naver.com/webtoon/list?titleId=775631.
The member-only exclusive previews of the final episode #125 is here in Korean: https://series.naver.com/comic/detail.series?productNo=6350567).
**The worst subtitles I've recently seen were for LIVE YOUR LIFE, a 2021 Chinese romantic drama that streamed on MGTV. Two female character names were transliterated by robots as "Land Tendrils" and "Shrimp Paste" —for all 40 episodes!
With non-tonal languages like English, I try to avoid conflating "accent" with "fluency." Ahn Hyo Seop is fluent because he was able to go to school in his target language, from age 10-17.
Perhaps he hasn't focused on _practicing_ an undetectable North American accent in the past ten years he's been back in South Korea. Motivation plays a big part in accent acquisition.
Although this was a time loop fantasy, I was struck by the fact that the surveillance technology is very real. There's no country in the world that tracks its citizens like China and it was sobering to watch this in action. In reality, the surveillance goes much deeper—this series is essentially a PPL demonstrating just a fraction of the state's massive surveillance apparatus.
Liu Tao's conehead wig was the only thing that briefly took me out of the show; otherwise, I loved it!
https://www.nhk.jp/p/ts/VWNP71QQPV/blog/bl/pe6M8agVJ5/bp/pp1Nxq4qBK/
Rebroadcasting Ep. 1-4 on Sat. Feb. 19 (Fri. midnight)
Ep. 5–Mon. February 21st
Ep. 6–Mon. February 28th
Ep. 7–Mon. March 14th
Ep. 8–Mon. March 21
At this point, I've watched the raw streaming video elsewhere and read @KaizenSubs's .ass sub file in Dreamweaver to follow along. Blargh.
Ep. 1-2 raw MKV files are directly downloadable from https://jraws.com/drama/1666566182/
But today, KaizenSub's Google drive wasn't accessible. I can't download Ep. 3 subs; will see what tomorrow brings. The torrent link for Ep. 3 is at nyaa.si.
I wish this show were on Netflix. Not just because of laziness but because this show important should be as accessible as possible. The subbers are angels, for sure, but it's still a LOT of hoops to go through. It's like hotwiring a car, for heaven's sake.
Using Google Translate has allowed me to enjoy the blog posts featuring the show's three aroace consultants, the production designer and director. Really insightful:
https://www.nhk.jp/p/ts/VWNP71QQPV/blog/bl/pe6M8agVJ5/
She describes it as "Diamonds mixed with sh*t." If only someone could edit a whittled-down 20-episode version with the essential characters. (Pretty much what I say about most c-dramas.)
Alas, dramaland is littered with countless coffees, treats, and savory banquets abandoned by angry characters ...