• If you're here for vtubers, I highly recommend you go to The Virtual Asylum instead.
    They'll love you there

Discussion East-Asian Media

hzp

varishangout.com
So recently I've started to watch more and more Chinese and Korean live action media. And I was wondering if anyone else got into it, too? Or if you have any good shit to share with me.
This started with my Netflix sub, after seeing the few worthwhile shows on there I was bored and dared to watch international shows.
The JP content on the platform isn't very large and frankly speaking disappointing. Aside from million yen women (which I saw before getting on Netflix) and Giri/Haji (which is actually from the UK :hinata-hyper:, but I do recommend!) it's almost all live action adaptations from anime. 3DPD with stupid haircuts trying to imitate anime quirks and tropes just doesn't do it for me. Most of the time I cringe hard and quit. I guess the Naked Director was fun...

So I tried a gook show first, and boy was I pleased. When I read the tags and synopsis for Signal (detective, drama, fantasy), I really thought I'd hate it. The trailer was intriguing though and I had nothing to lose. My only exposure to korean media on netflix were series taking place in the joseon era (equivalent of late middle-ages in Europe) and I just couldn't bear the stupid hats...
Anyways, back to Signal, that shit was very very entertaining. The actors were good too. And korean has its charm to my ears.
I then got into Stranger, which is around a prosecutor rather than a police officer. It was pretty okay, entertaining enough and better than 95% of the other shit on Netflix! And then Extracurricular, about some nerdy high school student who turns out to be a fucking pimp; if you like "wild rides", this one is really good.

I then recently stumbled upon The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity, now that title sounds goofy as fuck, and after watching the trailer you'd expect the usual extremely generic, bland and boring (sometimes cringe) fantasy movie which I'm used to quit after 20 minutes and forget. Also it's Chinese... And that's what I thought too, I watched it nonetheless because I watch a lot of stupid shit, I have a deep love for fantasy. I also thought that since I never watched any chinese fantasy before, I have no idea what "generic" over there is, maybe it's different enough to entertain me. But here I was decently surprised! Far from being extraordinary though, the CGI was good, it all sounded relatively original and convincing, it was entertaining. I wasn't bored and I didn't cringe! And most importantly I realized something. It was the first fantasy (you can even count sci-fi in it) I saw in years that wasn't plagued by the Marvel/The Hobbit virus where there has to be some comic relief every fucking minute nor GoT bacteria - twenty sex scenes per movie (far from being a puritan, I just don't see the point of having everything become muh adult flavour by adding extra blood and sex). I also love to hear mandarin tbh.
There's also The Rise of Pheonixes that I started and was genuinely impressed. Really like it so far, aside from the length (season 1: 70 episodes I believe)

I think I exclusively watched Korean media at some point (ignoring anime ofc), on or off of netflix. The majority isn't really worth mentioning, but was still entertaining enough for me. Personally this feels like a breath of fresh air and I hope these countries cinematographic industries will continue to thrive. All of east asia has an extremely big mythos and history as well as their own take on modern society that they can build upon for producing good shows and movies. I feel like there's a lot of HQ shit out there but that just isn't very popular over here.
If you're still only sticking to western live action media, I perfectly understand, but I just feel like you're missing out on something and hope you'll give it a try.
 
Last edited:

Funfetti Cake

varishangout.com
Ever since 2018 or so my mother has been pretty deep into the whole Asian drama scene.
It all started when she stood upon a K-Drama on TV and she started following that series until the end, then proceeding to wait until the next one started airing on that same channel.
A few months later she started going to drama streaming sites and by the time we got Netflix again she pretty much devoured as much Asian media as she could.
I'm also surprised at the fact that her backlog is almost non-existent, since she's getting old now.

Despite that, I've never watched them. Maybe it's time for me to actually enter that rabbit hole once and for all.
It might also cure my autistic bias against anything that comes directly out of China.
 

Alty_Namere

varishangout.com
Not long ago I have been watching anime (I don't know if I should call it that) from other Asian countries like China and Korea and... oh boy ooooh boy. I have found incredible things. Of the Chinese I noticed that they are very focused on their culture so there are always many strange oriental clothes and men tend to have long hair, I also noticed that they use the 3D style of video games more than the common 2D in the anime. From China I'm watching Hitori no Shita: The Outcast, all thanks to this video that I found by chance:


Synopsis "One day, on his way to visit his grandfather's grave, Zhang Chu Lan is attacked by zombies in a cemetery. In the midst of this situation, he is saved by a mysterious girl, who wields kitchen knives to kill her enemies. The girl tells Chu Lan, who is saved, to face his difficulties and leave. However, Chu Lan sees that girl again at his university. From that moment on, Zhang Chu's Lan fate begins to change (Doesn't even look like the same series from the video :hinata-hyper: )." But is really cool, believe me.

Also saw the movie Big Fish & Begonia. It is strange but pretty. Trailer and synopsis below.

"A sixteen-year-old girl turns into a dolphin and a boy sacrifices himself to save her, but she uses her magic to resurrect him. However, the young woman realizes that using such powerful magic comes at a very high cost."

English Dub (ugh):

Chinese with subs:

In the Korean side things are more popular, I've only been seeing Tower of God and Noblesse.


Are you guys seeing something that is not Japanese or Western?

Edit: My English is bad but I'm too lazy to make it better so, sorry.
 

hzp

varishangout.com
Nice, never heard of hitori no shota, but came across Big Fish & Begonia which I haven't gotten around to watch yet.
Definitely gonna try hitori no shota too.
 

PhantomXero1x

varishangout.com
Regular
So since i'm really into the Parasite Eve series having played most of the games, and even reading the light novel it was based on. I gave the movie a watch not too long ago and it was certainly quite the mind trip. Not the best adaptation but still pretty enjoyable.
 
  • Like
Reactions: hzp

hzp

varishangout.com
I started The Heaven Official's Blessing, an anime produced by bilibili based on some famous novel apparently.
It's ok. It feels a bit amateurish sometimes, like how famous anime quirks are like inserts in a rather not very subtle manner.
But it's really interesting, it's also quite a distinct animation style, a bit like ATLA

Also saw the movie Big Fish & Begonia. It is strange but pretty. Trailer and synopsis below.
Also watched this, and boy I agree, it was pretty cool!
 
Top