Hi everyone,
Please welcome Marci, our new editor. Here’s a few words from Marci.
Hello. I’m Marci, the new editor. I hope I catch all the grammatical mistakes in the chapters. But if I don’t, feel free to point them out, so I can wallow in sadness and grief knowing that I have failed… Anyways, I’m glad to join the Rotten Translations team!
Now, the translations of SSMD will be better quality. 🙂
Now, for the recommendation…
This time, I’m going to recommend the wildly popular Grave Robbers’ Chronicles or known as Daomu Biji (盗墓笔记) in Chinese. (For those who read I’m Really a Superstar, you know what I’m talking about.) It’s a very interesting story about grave robbers and supernatural.
This novel, which was originally a qidian web novel, is now a licensed serie of nine volumes with the first six volumes available in English on amazon.
The serie is so popular in China that it renew the passion for the tomb raiders with supernatural genre. It was also remake into different type of medias such as audio drama, TV drama, movie and manhua (english version could be found here).
The TV drama was named Lost Tomb which has 10 episodes and 2 pilot episodes. As you might suspect, it’s not the whole story of Daomu, just part of it. It’s quite good, but doesn’t completely follow the original plot and added some characters. I want more of it since it left me a bit unsatisfied, BUT lo and behold! The prequel of Lost Tomb, The Mystic Nine, which is out this year, seems to follow the storyline, has 48 episodes in total and is quite badass. There are more than 20 episodes out already in original language. Check out the trailers 1 – 2 – 3.
I already watched 6+ episodes of Mystic Nine in vietnamese mono-dubbing. I can assure you that hearing one female voice dubbing for all the actors is horrible. The point is, it’s still pretty much the same addicting feeling I got from watching Nirvana in Fire despite the horrible dub. You can check out the english subs of Mystic Nine and Lost Tomb on Viki.
Furthermore, the OST of the drama is quite good. The theme song of Mystic Nine is quite touching.
English translations of the lyrics found from youtuber Laymerence-‘s video. The fan-made video has spoilers in it, so if you want to watch this version instead, you’ve been warned.
Opening, the doors of hell
Without invitation, nor carnal desires
An impermanent road, ransom for a life
Living creature or animal, see you in the underworld
In front of the doors to the underworld, make a wish
Don’t set a date, see you next lifetime
That which can’t be stolen, is called eternity
That which can’t be opened, are the doors to one heart
That which is most beautiful, are one’s dying words
That which is ugliest, are one’s promises
What cannot be changed
Are things in between what we let go, and what we take up
The greatest lie, are tears
The truest things, cannot be seen
What cannot be changed
Are things in between what we let go, and what we take up
If you’re less of drama series fan, you can check out the movie version called Time Raiders which is already out three days ago. Here’s the trailers 1 & 2.
See you on August 15th for the next release.
Continue reading →