Constant craving

In his best selling autobiography Life, the Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards recalled in minute details how he was addicted for over a decade to heroin and how that constant craving for a sniff had ruined a good part of youth.

Over the weekend, I experienced that constant craving, for Korean drama and (modern) cinema.

The incident was triggered by a faulty hard disk storing all the Korean dramas uploaded from a friend's latest collection. I was watching Lie to Me last Thursday when a message on the screen said that it could not read the files. Within 10 minutes, everything disappeared and soon the laptop could not even identify the hard disk. Given that hard disk costing some S$200 barely five years ago, it was the last thing I had expected.

That was when I gave it a try to visit the two internet sites that appear to store thousands of dramas and films from the globe, catering especially to the growing communities in East and Southeast Asia of cineasts and drama lovers. My effort was awarded by an early success with an episode of Lie to Me, and despite the annoying advertisements every 15 minutes and the poor quality of the English subtitles, its sheer availability eased my hunger a bit. Since then however everything went downhill. First I found that not all the listed episodes are available for download, then I realised even if you have the luck watching one segment of an episode, there is no guarantee that the full episode can be downloaded within the limit of your patience. It is an perpetual testing and stretching of one's stamina. In addition, the battery drains real fast.

The Chinese site is even worse; most of them are dubbed in the most put-off phoney Chinese, an offence to most fans.

I persisted, wishing that even if I failed at one drama, the chance might be better with another. But my stamina didn't get me anywhere; all I could see was but the revolving circle; a tell-tale that it is getting nowhere.

OK, no pain no gains. Four days, I lived in hope that things might turn for the better if I avoid the 'rush hours' or the hits. Four days I was told that I should not keep my hope high.

Watching media products on line has been the major source of entertainment and, to a large extent the only means to keep up for my friends back in China. Now that I have tried it, I wonder how much time have been wasted collectively and how come they can put up with it all; the poor quality of dubbing or subtitling, the snake speed downloading if at all, etc. Is it a case of better than none? Perhaps I am not that addicted after all.

After ranting this out with the friend who introduced me to Korean drama, I tried a 'quality' site she hence recommended. This one is dedicated to Korean drama and has in comparison, very limited stocks. So far though, it seems that it offers a much better option. Fingers crossed.

PS: I learnt from another long term 'drug addict'that if you have an iPhone, then you can subscribe to follow the latest Korean drama live! 'How do you manage? The screen is so small!' 'It is OK for me', the drug addict responded. To her, I am still an 'fair weather supporter'.