Recommendations Author/ Reader Transported Into a Book

Discussion in 'I'm Looking For...' started by Wujigege, Nov 7, 2019.

  1. Wujigege

    Wujigege *Christian*SIMP*Comedian

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    Hahhaa you are right although I think we are both right
    I know my friend from China can now easily use Whatsapp although he needs a VPN to send and view pictures.
    I know this wasnt the case a decade ago, maybe I am wrong. I dont think the firewall is as strong as it used to be
    With the news I read recently about Cambodia, as long as people are making money, no one really cares so much
    They will just get their kids to get educated overseas or get born in US or Canada to get the citizenship
     
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  2. ToastedRossi

    ToastedRossi Well-Known Member

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    The production values in King's Avatar are ridiculous but there's a reason for this. First off, it's produced by Tencent, and Tencent has all the money so spending a bit isn't a problem. Next, the show is also sponsored by a number of eSports teams and some of it was shot in the gaming houses of these teams. Like this:

    [​IMG]

    I don't watch Korean shows, but I don't think that Chinese dramas are necessarily that bad. For one thing, they've been getting better and better in a lot of different aspects, and the only place where they're still terrible is the usage of terrible CGI. Some areas like editing and lighting can use some improvement but other areas like costuming and set design are often amazing. The writing tends to be all over the place: some shows have good to excellent writing and some shows are complete trash. But this isn't exactly dissimilar to variable TV shows can be in Hollywood as well.

    Honestly, I vastly prefer Chinese TV shows over Japanese live action shows. I can't stand the acting in the latter whereas there are tons of watchable Chinese shows out there.
     
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  3. Wujigege

    Wujigege *Christian*SIMP*Comedian

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    I have to disagree about Japanese TV.
    There are gag stories and Stories with unique Japanese comedy styles that are hard to follow but there is a reason, the biggest Korean, Taiwanese and even Chinese dramas are remakes of Japanese dramas eg Meteor Garden.
    If you watched this : http://asianwiki.com/The_Best_Friend_of_Beautiful_Anna

    Then you would think Japanese dramas are all crap but there is a reason Netflix and Korean equivalent of HBO and Showtime in tVN and jtbc are adapting WOWOW shows
    http://asianwiki.com/Marks_no_Yama

    If you want artistic excellence in TV, Japan stands number 1 in Asia. The point is that you can get anything and everything from critically acclaimed to http://asianwiki.com/Jyouou

    From Mother which got a Korean adaptation recently to Unubore Deka

    I guess King's Avatar is a great example of product placement at its finest.
    Sadly, there wasn't really any plot. I only stayed for the music to be faIr
     
  4. ToastedRossi

    ToastedRossi Well-Known Member

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    It's not that I think that Japanese dramas are crap; it's that I find the acting in them to be stylized to the point of being stilted and unnatural. I can't stand watching them but that doesn't necessarily mean they're bad.
     
  5. Wujigege

    Wujigege *Christian*SIMP*Comedian

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    Well, most of the easily available dramas are idol dramas since agencies like Johnny Associates have a strangle hold on the industry but like I pointed out with WOWOW TV shows, you can find method actors and quality stories too but the mainstream are idol dramas.

    What are examples of good Chinese dramas? Preferably non historical? Good modern setting TV shows?
    I Cannot Hug You was pretty hard to watch even though I am a big fan of the lead actress
     
  6. kkgoh

    kkgoh Well-Known Member

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    Nah, not putting down Chinese drama, just pointing out that they are objectively worse relative to Korea. Dramas specifically. Poor cinematography, overacting, awkward scripting. While there are a few good dramas, they are far and few between. It's hard not to compare to kdramas that set the standard (although there are plenty of bad kdramas too).
    Just need to accept that the Korean film industry has a lot of macro factors that give them a much bigger headstart over other countries. Their willingness to commit significant resources, easier regulation, better financing structure for media, strong public support, no requirement to pander/promote ideology, etc. Just like Hollywood beat out the British film industry despite starting out almost 30 years later. Heck, Charlie Chaplin was British but went to America where all of the aforementioned factors made it the place where money/fame was.
    And sure, Hollywood has plenty of bad dramas, but that's because of the sheer volume of content they put out.
    The better standard of comparison between countries' film industries isn't how much bad content they have. It's how much good content they create.

    From a micro perspective, just look at how Netflix and HBO are so far ahead of the game because of their early willingness to allocate big budgets on content. People don't talk about how much bad content they have, but how many "Game of Thrones" type hit dramas they can create. This also isn't like building a house where it can be done quickly if you throw enough money at it. I doubt Apple can catch up to them anytime soon on content.

    If you've ever watched a Studio Ghibli film with their deep poignant storylines, you're also going to compare every other animated film to them. Disney/Pixar gets away with a lot of boring stories because they spend ridiculous amounts on dressage ... esp with their musical ensembles.

    I'm not sure if the issue for Japanese film/drama is their origins from kabuki theater. Seems like their "overacting" is a result of adhering to theatrical performances. i.e. because theater used to be on stage where audience vision is limited, they have to over express themselves to get the emotions across. Same thing with Chinese troupe theater. But TV/film media has removed that need since cameras can offer close up shots.
     
  7. ToastedRossi

    ToastedRossi Well-Known Member

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    I can't stand these either. The problem is less the acting than it is the style of direction. All of the actors enunciate their lines totally differently from how they would speak in real life, and it makes watching them very off-putting. I had a similar problem with the dubbing in Mainland shows so I avoided them for years.

    That'd be a tough one since I watch Chinese shows because of the historical stories. Hell, that's the same reason I read Chinese novels as well. I don't watch all that much TV to begin with but there are a couple of shows I can recommend:

    Bu Bu Bing Xin
    The Deer and the Cauldron 2014

    I don't have any problems accepting that the Korean film industry is better than the Chinese one. But I'm talking more about the TV industry and there, the Chinese shows that are good are actually pretty decent. Unless you have a lot of familiarity with it, it's hard to definitively say that the Korean one is better.
     
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