Korean side dishes, including different types of kimchi.
Posted on 11/21/2018 7:05:44 PM PST by Republican Wildcat
On October 16, a shocking blow was dealt to the K-drama streaming world when Warner Bros. Digital Networks shut down DramaFever without warning. Formed in 2009, the site licensed international television content with a particular focus on Asian television shows, and Korean ones in particular.
Popular around the world, K-dramas and Korean variety shows have a sizeable audience in the United States, and DramaFever was one of the most popular access points due to its substantial catalog. While not the only site dedicated to bringing Asian content to Americans, its sudden closure has been met with surprise and disappointment from fans, many of whom report being caught off-guard by DramaFever’s demise mid-watch.
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DramaFever’s primary competitor for years has been Viki. Founded in 2007 and launched publicly in 2010, the Asian television streaming site is currently owned by Japanese company Rakuten and closely operated alongside the English-language outlet Soompi, which predominantly focuses on the Korean entertainment world.
Viki, according to its brand and communications manager Clara Kim, has around 10 million users throughout the Americas with more than 5 million based in the U.S. A media kit on DramaFever's site before its shutdown said it reached around 20 million viewers.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Korean side dishes, including different types of kimchi.
I’ve found on Viki a few Chinese historical dramas that seem fairly well-written, although there are occasional gaping plot holes. The King’s Woman, Flame’s Daughter and Legend of Fuyao (kind of a Harry Potter ripoff in part, but involving Chinese-style palace intrigues in a fantasy setting) were all fairly diverting. The women were gorgeous, if your taste run towards Orientals, the costumes looked expensive and the sets were pretty substantial. I have no idea how accurate the subtitles were, but they were sufficient for me to follow the story lines. If Wikipedia’s historical entries are accurate, in at least one instance, the intrigues were true to history.
If you can find it, KBS had two great cop dramas; Mrs. Cop and Mrs. Cop II. I think they were 20 episodes each. Three Days was another good show.
I find with subtitle I am reading (or trying to) and missing what action is on the screen.
So why bother? I could read a book instead.
And whatever techs put the subtitles together need a better way. Too many times, the text is either in differing locations or it is light color text on light color background.
Netflix is bad about using half spoken English and half subtitles in some of their original series.
I once had a relationship with a beautiful Korean woman. We were both young and I regretted at the time that it did not lead to marriage.
The local Asian grocery store plays K-dramas and there is something special about the sincerity, moral message, and lack of political agendas. I shall have to take up K-drama as it is so much better than the Hallmark chick flicks where gay couples compete with multiracial couples as to who hates Trump the most while laying on vegan holiday meals where white people apologize for their privilege.
My wife and I have been watching K dramas for about nine years.
Cop /Action shows.
Heartless City : Cops and drug dealers.
From the same writer, My Beautiful Bride. Banker on a Revenge mission. Koreans love revenge, lol.
LIVE: Recent show. Follows rookies through training and on the streets. Really good family story .
Prison Playbook: A star baseball player goes to prison for beating a man. Stories of various prisoners and guards
Life on Mars: K version of UK show, really good.
A really good epic drama, GIANT. Follows the lives of three siblings seperated in childhood. Set in 70’s-80’s.
Try Nirvana In Fire. Viki has it. A guy seeks justice for a conspiracy that labeled his family as traitors 12 years prior.
The "official" subtitles for Knights of Sidonia (Japanese sci-fi/mecha anime) were horrendous. I have the first two manga for it; whoever did the subtitles didn't bother to look at the source material, as some of the words were entirely wrong.
My wife has been watching KDramas for at least 10 years, for me probably 3. We used to get 4 Korean TV stations here, although it is now down to two. She and I have used DramaFever and Viki as ways to access dramas, especially since cable has been cutting back access to Korean stations (surprise, our cable provider is also Time Warner). We have generally stayed away from the black market sites.
I haven’t watched American TV for a very long time, because I find American TV offensive and crude. Almost all American programming seems to push homosexuality and other sexually immoral lifestyles, and I am just not interested. Any time I see something bring up homosexuality I just turn it off.
I watched both Korean and Chinese dramas on DramaFever, both of which were of much higher quality and morals. I believe Warner Bros. bought and shut down DramaFever because it represented serious competition to American media crap, and I emphasize the word crap. DramaFever had 20 million subscribers, many of whom were Americans. All those folks had turned off American media for a better alternative on DramaFever. You can’t tell me that they couldn’t figure out a way to make money with that many subscribers. Also, DramaFever had a licensing lock on many of the big KDramas (which now appear to be gone forever). So they had to be making money from people who still want to watch those dramas.
We talk about censorship in China, but it is at least as bad in the U.S. if not worse. One of my Korean friends told me he believes Korea is actually freer now in terms of ability to speak freely. He said what is now going on in the U.S. in terms of political correctness and punishing people for saying something incorrect frightens him.
A Japanese friend recently turned me on to a Japanese alternative to DramaFever (no, it’s not Viki) that has Asian dramas subtitled in both Japanese and English. I will use that as an alternative now.
Well, it continues. I just tried to order a KDrama OST for my wife off of YesAsia (Hong Kong), and I get a message they no longer can ship to the United States.
bump
I owe you a ‘bump’!
Might be one of those things you can find randomly appearing on EBay.
It’s too bad...both of those shows were on viki and I was going to try them, but unfortunately they were locked unless you have a membership.
“For those of you unacquainted with Korean dramas... watch out... they’re very, very addictive. “ - Pravious from another thread
Recently found them and pinging you to this thread. I wasn’t sure about the whole subtitles thing with a foreign language but decided to give it a try - certainly glad I did. It has been quite nice finding new and modern shows that are actually worth watching and without leftist agendas inserted. They are very creative with their storylines and character development as well.
Now that’s bad. LOL!
Some terms to know - the word “Ajumma” is a formal term to call a married or marriage-age woman, “Sunbae” is a formal term for someone who either holds a senior position or was simply there before you, “Hoobae” is the opposite. They really have no English equivalent which is why they are often not translated and just appear in the subtitles as those words. I was confused at first - I thought they were a person’s name but then when multiple people were being called that I had to look into it.
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I had to do the same thing with “oppa.” I kept hearing it on the soundtracks and the DVDs routinely just put in the name of the character, which I knew I was NOT hearing.
For those who haven’t seen them, beware! Korean dramas are highly addictive. The first one I saw, years ago, was “Dae Jang Geum”. The most recent, which I finished today, oddly enough, was “A Prince’s First Love.” Then, of course, there’s stuff like “My Love From The Stars,” which I have a hard time imaging someone NOT enjoying tremendously. For those who are worried about subtitles - don’t be. You get used to them very quickly, and these things would just not be the same if they were dubbed.
Sometimes the live viewer comments on Viki are as fun as the show, especially when one of the typical KDrama clichès, like “amnesia” happen, or the dreaded “White Truck of Death”.
Recently found them and pinging you to this thread. I wasn’t sure about the whole subtitles thing with a foreign language but decided to give it a try - certainly glad I did.
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That’s great! Thanks for the ping. :-)
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