last week of school coming up!

…too bad I still have one year as a supaaah senior. But I suppose I don’t have to brood over the unpleasant task of searching for employment during this bleak economy.

On a lighter note, KAJ’s new drama begins this coming week! It will be repetitive and cliche, but I sure don’t care! I need a fix.

JB, I love second the aqualung choice for song of the day. I love them…My favorite is Brighter Than Sunshine. Right now I’m getting into Kings of Leon’s new album. I love the song “Use Somebody”…soo heartfelt.

What a beautiful morning here in NY. This morning I woke up to a K-TV program that previewed upcoming movies and dramas, and wouldn’t you know it, but Won Bin and Kim Hye-ja were being interviewed for “Mother” and it was pretty cool to see them talk about their characters. Also previewed was Level 7 Civil Servant (7급 공무원), and it looks pretty darn funny. I love previews of things I’ve seen on Dramabeans. It’s like JB and K-TV are synergistically linked.

After some reflection and maturation of tastes, my list of favorite dramas has changed a bit. Full House took a dip, falling one tier from “don’t miss it” to “others found it worth watching,” as Bi’s acting relative to other korean actors I’ve seen recently has started to pale by comparison. My Love Patzzi and Gourmet switched places, as I am beginning to appreciate brevity more. Coffee Prince got shifted down one spot, while My Girl moved up one spot. This last move reflects only my personal preference, and not anything inherently “wrong” about Coffee Prince. But it came down to one question, really. Did YEH or LDH touch me more, as Go Eun Chan or as Joo Yu-Rin…. wow… on third reflection… now I want to switch them back maybe…. maybe they should tie for second???

The Best:

1. My Name Is Kim Sam Soon
2a. My Girl
2b. Coffee Prince Shop #1
4. Snow Queen
5. Bad Family

Worth watching, fun to watch, don’t miss these:

6. Super Rookie
7. Delightful Girl Choon Hyang
8. Goong
9. My Love Patzzi
10. Gourmet (식객)
11. Save The Last Dance For Me

Others found it to be worth watching:

12. Evasive Inquiry Agency
13. Full House
14. Bimil

Only if you are on a desert island with a tv and a dvd player and no other DVDs:

15. Sweet Spy

***

For us, this week has been a hodge podge of movies and bits and pieces of various things.

1. I’ve been sneaking around at night after my wife goes to bed, watching Temptation of Wife, and I feel a little bit guilty for doing so. But the creators of this series apparently have figured out that making a compelling drama really only requires a sympathetic figure whose life is torn to shreds by cowardly evil tools.

How will Eun Jae build herself back up? How will she take revenge? Will the cowardly tools ever be sufficiently punished? In last night’s Temptation of Wife episodes that were on late night TV, a homeless, penniless Eun Jae nearly throws herself off a bridge but then changes her mind, screaming that she will survive and live and get stronger (in hiding), if only for revenge for her baby, Eun Jae’s family swears that they will continue to work hard and live despite their sorrow and thinking that Eun Jae is dead, and the coward tools continue acting cowardly and without any conscience.

If I weren’t firmly grounded in reality, I would have bought a plane ticket to go to Korea and give Eun Jae money to assist her in getting revenge. I would even participate. I want blood!

2. In joint watching with my wife, we started Snow Queen, so that my wife and I can both be on the same page. Her reaction after 5 episodes – “Hmmf. There is nothing redeeming about Bora.” I am not shocked, considering that’s apparently the majority opinion. But, then I asked my wife if she liked Snow Queen, and she said “yes.” Yay !!! ^o^ That’s me raising my hands in victory, sort of like what we did when watching the last episode of Super Rookie.

Btw, the hardcover box set for Snow Queen is simply gorgeous. The best box set we have.

If my wife has time today at work, hopefully she can jump on this thread and give a summary of what she thinks of Sung Yuri.

3. We watched Antique Bakery. Joo Jihoon was fantastic, which took me by surprise since he was Mr. Static Sourpuss in Goong. I had no idea how talented he was.

4. We tried to watch the movie, Seduction of Mr. Perfect (with Daniel Henney as the main character), but I couldn’t watch it and we had to stop. It wasn’t as bad as Sweet Spy, but I’m not going through that fiasco again.

5. Hong Gil Dong should be waiting for us when we get home tonight. Fun times!

-Samsooki

Wow, the Hallyu really keeps on going strong…it feels kinda warm to realize, that one is having the same taste, opinions and feelings as people on the other side of the globe. I discovered this site only recently but I really enjoy it – here in Prague opportunities to get my hands on anything korean are kinda sparse ) but I don´t give up – hail the internet.

I have a question about subbing, maybe it’s a little vague.

How do you decide what dramas to sub? Is it just the ones that are popular or the ones that the subbers want to sub? What about older dramas? Do they remain unsubbed until someone who likes them decides to sub them?

And how long does it usually take? I mean, you probably have to watch the episode a few times, right? You wouldn’t be able to get it all in one take, I assume. And I always see at the end of the episode, timing by sosoandso. It’s not all done by one person?

Just curious about the process. Sometimes I take it for granted that I have subs available and then sometimes I think , wow, this must have taken a long time to sub.

(Something I noticed about j-drama subbing which I really like. A lot of j-dramas like to put the inside jokes at the top, which I really enjoy. I don’t know if this exists much in k-dramas, or if there’s even a lot of inside jokes that are there. I know that from what I see in j-dramas, there are a lot of puns that I get explained to me, which are always nice!)

hi mishane,

to answer some of your questions, projects done online by fansubbers are decided on their own. there’s no one handing out assignments or anything. a lot of groups have favorites in terms of actors and stuff, or even storylines i think, and somehow the many groups manage to work things out so they don’t overlap (some of the time). also, i think groups call dibs. and the more well-known you are, the choices come to you first (in j-doramas, SARS always seems to do the great shows – and they are excellent).

the older dramas generally do remain unsubbed because 1) they’re less known, and 2) someone has to decide to do them, but there are a lot of new dramas out that people are more interested in.

as for how long… my first project it took me a total of 3 hours per episode to create soft subs. i would watch it once (1 hour), and then sub for 2 hours. it wasn’t the best quality ever but it was super quick and people appreciated that (i think that’s how english-to-korean or japanese-to-korean subbers do it. they always have it out almost immediately after the episode is available.). however, some dramas it is impossible to do that because of the amount of dialogue. i tried hardsubbing my 2nd project, and it took me 8-10 hours to translate and timecode one episode. so it really depends.

and subbing groups these days do work in teams. you’d have your timer, translator, editor, etc. doing it all on your own is NOT recommended (it’s a ton of work and trust me, you’ll get sick and tired of it). sometimes people will double up and do two jobs, but it’s probably easier to do it as a team.

when i was subbing, i tried to put in korean cultural references and explain things that non-koreans wouldn’t understand. as for puns, koreans are not as huge on the use of puns in dramas.

seems to be the j-dorama subbing is still the best out there. the sheer amount of time and effort they put into it, especially with the ending song, is amazing. but k-subbers, too. it’s all voluntary. sometimes i think people forget that subbers do it all for free. ^^

whoops

me too, love ‘brighter than sunshine’

this blog has got me really wanting to watch ‘queen of housewives’ and ‘story of a man.’ a couple of people i know really like ‘cinderella man’ too. but. takes up so much time! and youtube is so unreliable. so i’ve been spending a lot more time watching variety shows, family outing being my fave right now. but with hype from sarah’s recaps, i’m going to give ‘story of a man’ a try!

@ Samsooki

It is pretty common for people to watch dramas online since they are usually available subbed faster than they are on television. A good site to watch subbed dramas online is dramafever.com

@ mie

Thank you for explaining that! It must be a time consuming thing and makes me really appreciate it more now.

Yeah, I’ve noticed that jdramas seem to be more in depth with their subs. The songs are always subbed, and usually prettier (?, does that make sense). I think I only remember one issue where I was confused with a jdrama sub, and that was for one episode of Hana Yori Dango 2 where what Domyouji said in the rain changed. As in there were previews of it (I think the two prior episodes had previews for it) and in each preview what he said was different and then in the actual episode, it was still different. So it was said in three different ways.

But anyways, I do enjoy the subbing that everyone does. Thank you!

@Samsooki,

well i think the general process happens like this:

1) the show is aired in korea.

2) someone captures it and transfers it onto their computer.

3) that person(s) then uploads it online (a lot of clubbox in this case)

4) people download it and subbers start to work on it.

soft subs are files that you watch in sync with the video file (common file names are .smi, .srt, etc.). they can be edited and usually have an “unfinished” feel to them (like someone whipped it up in their free time) – though i have seen some pretty professional looking soft subs. the bad thing about soft subs is that they can be edited by anyone and then rereleased – so you see some stealing happen sometimes.

to prevent this, subbers often do hard subs. it’s when you actually put the subs onto the video so it cannot be separated and is now part of the video. it adds another some hours for the encoding process, but at least you know your work is protected. generally if you’re willing to spend the time to encode and hardsub, subbing teams will put in more effort into the subs (yay, more colors!).

does that answer your question?

Ugh, I’m in a curious mood today!

Another question, to anyone who can answer.

Does Japan or Korea take into account overseas viewers? I know they have ratings for their countries, but I also know that with satellite TV, people in other countries are able to watch the shows and they are being streamed online.

So do they take that into account? Or are the ratings strictly based on in-country viewings?

happy friday!!! great song as always.
my school had the opening night of little shop of horrors today. it was SO awesome!! there were these two absolutely hilarious side characters and my friends and i were laughing so hard… i was literally crying, i was laughing so hard! XD eventually, our principal came up to us and told us to be a bit quieter because our close proximity to the back wall of the auditorium makes the sound echo. LOL

… on another note, i’d just like to say that ap test time is fast approaching and i am taking calc and us hist and i am going to die. yayyy….. OTL

Last day of finals for meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee~ I have a paper due in 5 hours that I haven’t really started on, but that’s alright.. Now that my other finals are over I can concentrate on it.

I’ve had Big Bang’s “Number 1″ stuck in my head since Tuesday, but just the part where he goes “Girl, I love your style, love your smile,/wish that you could be/only mine,/be only mine./I can’t let it go, but I know/what you’re doin’ to me./You’re so fine/ooh, you’re so fine..” Over. And. Over. It’s driving me crazy. I’m not even really a Big Bang fan, it’s just this song and “하루 하루” that get stuck in my head all the time.

BACK TO MY PAPER. And then I’m going to join in this interesting discussion about fansubbing, if it’s still going when I come back.

At javabeans and mie, thanks for explaining! It’s always nice to know the process behind something (part of why I geek out over the Discovery channel show ‘How Thigns Are Made’. That’s how you make a stove? Cooooolllll!).

@ mie. Yeah, that HYD2 scene almost made me pull my hair out. I remember being so confused because in each different translation that I had seen, everything was different (but I think it’s because, like you said, context. When it was first translated, it probably didn’t fit into the context of what Makino was saying to him). But yeah, I remember being extremely confused for that. So I guess what was shown in the actual scene was what was the real thing, not the preview scenes.

@ javabeans, I’ve seen where it says that WITHS2 doesn’t like streaming sites. I’m just curious as to why. Are people taking the subs? What is shady about it? And I read somewhere that they don’t do hardsubs anymore, but isn’t it better to do hardsub so that no one will take the video or subs and claim them as their own? Wouldn’t hardsub mean that it couldn’t be messed around with?

I only ask about streaming because when I first got into doramas, that’s what I used and it was so helpful to me because I didn’t know how to download anything yet. I didn’t know there was anything ‘shady’ about it!

Ahhhhhh, thank you so much mie!

That explains so much.

This is fascinating.

@21, Mie-

Thanks for explaining!

@25, JB-

Thanks as well. I understand much better now.

@32, Mie -

This is one thing that I am not quite comfortable. Copywrite and protecting intellectual property is something that, over the years, I’ve waffled over tremendously, especially with respect to mp3′s and music in general. Many many years ago, I would be fairly lax about what I dl’ed and what I kept, mainly because I was too poor to afford anything. These days, I try to be as supportive towards the music and drama industries, mainly because my money helps make those things better by rewarding good stuff, but also as a “penance” of sorts.

I’m not looking to start a battle here or proclaim holier than thou status or anything, since my hands are no cleaner than anyone’s, but I am interested in knowing how other people feel about:

1. watching dramas online but not at official sites like KBS; and

2. buying bootleg DVDs either in places like chinatowns / k-towns or through websites that promote bootleg DVDs.

-Samsooki

@ mie

Please excuse a stupid question, but did not the work of ‘subbers, seeders and streamers’ help the Japanese Anime Companies wake up to the huge markets waiting in other counties. Even I can walk into our local DVD Retailer and pick up Anime, some JMovies and the odd OST. As sales increase so the amount of titles grows. Of the DVDs from Korea – not even showing on the Database to be ordered via their US counterparts. It may not be instant but the potential market is there as proved by the fact streamers exist.

lurker here. hi everyone!

i prefer soft-subs over hardsubs because i take screencaps to use for making graphics, icons, etc. so i wouldn’t want subtitles over the images/scenes that i want to cap ^^

hardsubs are great if you’re going to encode the files to DVD – less work.

@Beige

I do agree. that’s why i support fansubbing. particularly since fansubbing is free. the market in the states is proving to be quite lucrative, though even japanese products aren’t in the clear yet. i think when people translate/sub/scanlate japanese products, it works out because they have a certain amount of respect for copyright. for example, when tokyopop releases a certain series, most scanlators will stop working on the project and urge people to go buy the books. if that respect is maintained, i don’t really see a huge problem.

right now, buying korean products is very limited. they are, however, available at their us counterparts. it just takes a little more searching and effort. send an email to them and they’ll probably sell the dvds to you over email. they’re just not available yet in the mass. but the awareness is growing, thank goodness.

After BOF – I’m drained for dramas for awhile. However – while I was waiting for each new episode of BOF, I did get hooked on High as the Sky, a daily drama. Love Park Hae Jin!!!

Am slowly recovering interest with Story of A Man…but I’m going to wait to see how the second half shakes out. I’m sick of being disappointed with some of these dramas.

I like dramafever.com but man, its been slow getting the dramas and latest episodes. I know they’re working out licensing issues, but man!!! I really wish they’d hire more fansubbers! Seriously, they could pay the fansubbers by the episode, right? Love mysoju.com!

Here’s a couple of questions:
1. Did Dramabeans ever do a recap of the last episode of Return of Iljimae and I missed it???

2. The boxed sets of kdramas have been really disappointing with the Eng subs. I really like the fan subs better. The question is, is there a fan subbed version of the dramas for downloading, either free or selling? I’d pay to get good quality subbed dramas.

3. I’m so in love with MC Yoo JaeSuk of Family Outing, Come to Play, Happy Together, Infinity Challenge!!!! Does anyone know where I can download the subbed versions of some of these shows? I already have a site for Family Outing,(thanks ramensoupsubs!!!), but I’d love to see earlier episodes of Infinity Challenge.

Well I think most people probably start with sites like mysoju, because they are easy to find and easy to use. I did so myself. Once you start to get into the matter (I asked all the above questions and tried to find out about it on the internet), you notice that mysoju is not well-liked in the subbing community. So I found out who is well known in that sector and visited their sites instead to support them. When I like a drama and it is available, I buy it at YesAsia which let to my current collection of nearly 70 dramas on DVD. This is probably not perfect, but a solution my conscience can live with. I mean buying supports the industry and leads to (hopefully good) new productions, so it is a bit shortsighted not to buy at all.

Everybody enjoy your weekend!

I was wondering how everyone else watches K-Dramas on the television. I usually watch K-Dramas online because I can get a lot more variety of what I want to watch and stop and pause whenever I need to. A few years ago I finally forked the money to get Direct TV and added the Korean package just so I could feed my K-Drama addiction. Unfortunately, DirectTV only has MBC and SBS channels. So any dramas that were on KBS (i.e-Boys Over Flowers) I had to rely on streaming sites to watch them. I do believe that Dish Network has KBS World in their Korean package but that would just be a little too much for me to get both carriers. Just wish I could get all three major Korean networks in one package. I’m not sure if thats the same for everyone else but that’s how it works for me here in Eastern Washington State.