Tag: Chinese

C-Drama Reco: Decoded (解密)

C-Drama Reco: Decoded (解密)

by eastasianlover ♥ 9 Comments

I have been quite into mystery genre these days. Lack of good series in anime world in this genre has turned me towards dramas and I have had a mixed experience so far. From absolutely brilliant to what the fuck just happened, I have seen a whole lot of series. One of them I came across while searching about the main lead Chen Cheney (Chen Xue Dong) was ‘Decoded’. I have become a fan of his acting after watching some episodes of another drama called Rush to The Dead Summer (Dropped it coz I read some spoilers). However, do take my advice, all the synopsis about the series I read on net were wrong. Like really flawed.

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(Image Credits: Viki)

Plot: The story is set in first half of 1900s I think. Rong JinZhen is supposedly an autistic person who is genius at Maths. He was adopted by the principal of the university he is studying at. They have blood relation with each other, but still JinZhen’s past is majorly unknown. He is recruited by a division working for Chinese government on breaking codes used by enemies to communicate with each other. This division has been dealing with a pretty nasty code called purple code which has not only not been broken yet, it has driven the principal person working on the code earlier, mad. Rong JinZhen is their only hope now.

He faces difficulties initially because he’s unable to bear the harsh life of military, not to mention people who doubt his abilities. However, he is able to overcome everything thanks to his friends and supportive seniors. In the end he finds that this code he is trying to break is related to his former teacher John Lee. He discovers more and more about himself and his teacher through his assignment as the decoder.

Inconsistencies: Now, about inconsistencies in the plots all over the main drama websites. Some say he joined a spy organization. No, he joined a division with Chinese military. They do some spy stuff but they are more than a spy division. Then some say he discovers more about his family, especially mother while decoding the code. No, there is definitely a mention about his family in some initial episodes but he doesn’t discover huge secrets about his past like mentioned. I don’t know about the novel, but certainly not in the drama.

Also, it’s never explicitly mentioned if Rong ever had autism. He does appear to be lacking in daily functions and social interactions, but I am not sure if that could be called autism at all. Not blaming the acting, it was pretty good. It might be that less was understood about autism in that period and hence he is just taken for a stupid person. Again, not sure about novel.

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One of the best characters of the series
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Another one of my favorite characters

Bad stuff: Now inconsistencies about the drama plot itself. The ending, I felt, was too rushed. The story builds up so much and ends in the last episode just like that. I was disappointed by the rushed ending but not by the ending itself. Hence, it’s a recommendation and just not a review.

Also, as I said above, they never mention autism explicitly. As far as I know about autism, the people get triggered by any ‘change’ around them and hence act harshly towards people around them (please do correct me if I am wrong anywhere. My knowledge about autism comes from articles read online and the manga called Hikari no Tomo ni). But Rong accepts it all, without much fuss.

Also *spoiler starts* it seems like that behavior corrects itself quite a bit in the second phase of the series. Again, not sure how representative that is of autism in real life. I tried reading some more articles but stats are really not in favor of autism correcting itself with age it seems *spoiler ends*.

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That annoying person who’s still one of the most important in the female cast 😐

Another thing I dislike about the series is, they don’t really show the logical thinking of Rong while solving the code. (Any numb3rs fan here?) Give something to the nerd in me!! I wanted to see some Maths ;-; And, some characters were chucked out just like that after building up a fancy plot around them to make them seem like an important character. I don’t really know what to do with that. They could have omitted some of the additional details to have less episodes than 41 probably. I really wanted to skip the part just before Rong’s second phase of life started. Now I think about it, the second part of the drama really sucked and dragged too long. I just wanted to skip to the end, but I still did not give up, must have watched the series at 4x speed, I think.

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He looks so cute ❤

Good stuff: Despite all these loopholes, the drama has made quite an impression on my mind. Apart from the plot, the character delivery by each and every person is powerful. I especially loved the seniors in the division, their conflicts and confidence with regards to Rong are portrayed beautifully. Character development is good as well. Sound track goes amazingly well with the series. It is full of laughter and tears as usual.

My favorite part is when Rong gets to meet the previous principal investigator of purple code who is now unable to solve anything and spends his days playing chess. The bonds formed at the division are so relatable that it reminds you of school or may be college days, not as harsh of course. But peers, doubts on the friendship, fights over one girl, that one especially helpful senior/teacher etc. etc, I totally reminisced about my school/ college days somehow.

If the plot is true to the novel, the author is no less than George R R Martin, many of your favorite characters will die. But well, it’s a war drama, cannot do without the deaths of good people. Every encounter cannot be all happy. Each side loses some things and some ones before good triumphs the evil. Sacrifices are essential, otherwise the work would lose reality and depth. Cannot do anything about it. The deaths in the series also remind me of Maes Hughes in FMAB (I still cry on the gifs of that episode). I am pretty sure, if you’ve started watching this series already and know about FMAB, you would definitely know whom I am hinting at.

So anyway, recommended, not highly, but still if you’re into mystery and thriller, you should give it a try. It is officially available on YouTube with English subs. Watch here (thank God they’re official, will not have to think about copyright issues ^^;):

Short Story 1: As some of you might know from my twitter whining, I have fractured my ankle (it’s been almost a month). I was going to start writing regularly as I have accumulated quite a few series to write about (and some English novels as well, I am reading a few books these days, thanks for the influence my library *blows kisses*). All my plans went down the drain. It’s so tiring to use crutches. I sincerely salute all the people who have to use crutches/ wheelchairs and similar aids, for any reason, from the bottom of my heart.

Harder is putting up a brave front in front of my family. They are sitting halfway across the world worrying about me which makes me sad. And my OCD is setting in because I am practically helpless and cannot clean my room. All the books are lying around like anything and only I know how I fight between the urge to clean it all and having to rest my foot ;-; Despite everything, I ended up cleaning my bathroom which was in utterly devastating state.

Short Story 2: Working on my internet addiction, I decided to just not switch on my laptop at all when I come back home from campus. It’s been quite a successful strategy so far. I have left all the dramas and anime I was watching, for now, might start with Habaek on Monday. I have been able to finish 3 novels in a week, reading during just that time. I am also giving some time to Duolingo as well, given that they have added Japanese, gotta brush up my prior knowledge, I have forgotten everything. So, this is how I am spending my summers. How about you?

Manhua Recommendation: Once Again (初.末)

Manhua Recommendation: Once Again (初.末)

by eastasianlover ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

So, I’ve appeared with another review and this time it’s a manhua. You know what’s a Manhua is, right? No? Manhua is chinese version of manga. Many of those are colored and they are generally done by hands and not computer softwares, is what I’ve heard.

This manhua has been written by Feng Xi Shen Lei. Also called, The Beginning and the End: Once again, this particular piece reminds you that humans get so busy in work, that they forget why they were working in the first place.

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Plot – The manhua follows the story of a guy named Yuan Ge who is handsome and at a high post in some company. He sees everybody in the terms of gain the relationship with that particular person will bring to him. He travels in subway trains despite him being on a higher position because he thinks that traffic jams are a wastage of time.So you can basically see what kind of Scrooge he is!

Story opens with him ignoring the news of his wife’s death while being in a company meeting. Apparently he makes all the arrangements for his wife’s funeral but is unable to attend. On the top of that, he thinks that he has completed his duty towards his emotionless wife (which he thinks she was). He can’t even remember her face well.

After some days, he starts noticing a 14-15 year old girl in the train he takes. He has been shown intelligent enough to deduce what a person’s profession and position might be in their respective companies by their clothes (pretty much same as Sherlock Holmes, no, it’s not shown like that though). But this girl is mystery to him. He sees her everyday but as soon as he is distracted by even one thing, he loses sight of her.

Since he never gets to talk to her, she slowly starts driving him nuts. He goes as far as to get checked for pedophilic tendencies in him since the girl is way younger than him and he takes his feelings for love.

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*Spoilers start* – Can’t do without the ending can I? But if you’re still tempted to keep it unknown, I must say that it’s pretty interesting. So you can go and read the manhua yourself to uncover the girl’s identity.

He finally decides to chase her and reaches his old school where past memories come to him and it is revealed that the girl is his deceased wife only. Earlier, he blames his wife for everything but now he discovers that it was him all along. He had promised the girl that he would earn a lot of money to buy precious gifts for her. As he starts becoming ambitious and rising the ladder in his company, he asks his wife to change for him. She has to leave her job of kindergarten teacher, shun her cute image to be able to blend among the wives of higher ups, suck up to them for his husband and ultimately along the way, she falls sick. On the other hand, Yuan Ge stops coming to home, or comes late at night and goes early in the morning and such and such. The wife has been shown pretty caring. She prepares food for him as early as 4 o’clock. This finally breaks him and he realizes his mistake of ignoring her completely.

Analysis – From life point of view, I think that the author has shown a proper present life scenario. I mean, I don’t know if it happens everywhere around the world, but it does apply to Asian countries, especially patriarchal societies where they think that it’s a girl’s duty to look after the household and related chores.

Even if we don’t go to that side of the story, it in general depicts how the life has become so fast paced that we forget every thing, including our relationships. There is no time for talking, for sharing emotions, for anything. We’ve become too busy in earning our bread.

Thus we need to rediscover ourselves because we’re missing a hell lot as this guy Yuan Ge realizes. We need to re-remember main purpose in our lives which we have lost sight of, becoming too entangled in the society and material life.

Other things –  Art is good. Plot is awesome. I loved the self discovery thing and the author doesn’t fail to compare the thoughts of the guy pre and post his realisation of the truth like he hated the monotonous breakfast she used to keep for him every day on the table and later he finds out that even though she was sick and coughing all the time, she would get up every day to prepare fresh food for him. So he basically lives his life once again, through memories, to get to know that had he cared for her health earlier, she may have been alive today. But they say that we realize value of something or someone when we lose it. It’s the fact of life and that’s what has been shown here.

In just seven chapters author has shown all kind of emotions and I respect that. Oh, now I realize, this one also has seven chapters. In the end, I would say, highly recommended!!

Read here – http://www.mangahere.com/manga/once_again/

The story

The story

by eastasianlover ♥ 2 Comments

Greetings,

This is the story about how my love (or obsession?) for East Asia bloomed.

This all started when, one day, one of my classmates back in my school (I think it was 6th class) suddenly said that I looked Chinese. I mean, come on. Having small slanted eyes doesn’t mean you’re Chinese (no offence to anyone). But let it be!

Around the same time, a variety of anime started on Cartoon Network. Cardcaptor Sakura was one of the first anime I watched. After that came Pokemon, Beyblade, Captain Tsubasa, Ranma 1/2, UFO Baby etc. etc. and then started Naruto and One Piece. (Me and my sister used to get up at 6 on Sunday mornings to watch One Piece at 7 am!) Their old houses, falling sakura leaves and martial arts used to intrigue me as a child. I was so amused by their culture that I made it my aim to go to Japan once I grow up.

Later, I found a Japanese language learning book in my school’s library (It was due to envy towards my best friend who got French learning book from her brother as a gift but that is another story) and it was the final blow. I couldn’t get it photocopied because it was quite thick and I was afraid of my parents (Of course, it was my 10th class and if you are a good student, your parents would like you to concentrate on studies rather than “wasting” your time on such things). I used to copy the book in a diary myself during the time my mother used to go for her walk ( hehehehe ^w^). They still don’t know I have such a copied book!

Then my college. Now BITS Pilani is a place where, once you get your laptop (I got mine in 2nd sem as most of the people did here), you get access to vast variety of media. A lot of downloaders (I thank such people from the “bottom of my heart”) download movies, series and ANIME (and much more as you can expect and guess!). The old series which I could not complete because they stopped airing and some series I wanted to revisit, were all there. Now, my most enjoyable time started. (I did screw my grades due to that)

And then I was introduced to manga. After that, I started devoting around 16 hours(!!! <My poor Roomie>) to these things (f*** studies) and my curiosity and love for Japanese language and culture (and  people especially handsome guys appearing in J-Dramas) kept increasing. I started listening to Japanese songs (OSTs) and learning the language. It was fun.

Now since there is manga, manhwa and manhua (Korean and Chinese versions of manga respectively) can’t be left and it takes some time for a beginner to figure out which is which. So before I read manga, I read manhwa. Then came webtoons, K-dramas and ultimately K-pop! Chinese was almost the same too.

Its amazing how these things keep introducing you to other related things and you keep getting absorbed. Now I am all into K-pop and considering how their songs are copied in India, it increases my interest more (I am totally against it. These people just ruin the songs!). I think I should add frustration in the name of the blog……

I have written a lot more than I had planned to but it can’t be helped. Once I start on this topic, I can’t stop (I am the same with my friends here and they are now irritated >:-) ) In due course, I’ll keep posting J and K-pop songs and may be some of my fandrawings. Now that I have introduced you to my story, I can start for real from my next post. (I still haven’t figured out what specific things I would write – maybe reviews and more stories?)

Thank you, Gomawo, Arigatou, Xie Xie for reading this and here is a song from one of my favorite boy group, Super Junior (I found it yesterday and I am totally hooked to the song) :