#Guang yuan

[yinyuworld]

Then he said, “Oh, my phone’s lockscreen code is…”

“I know,” Luo Wenzhou said absently. “That date… The day you discovered your mom’s suicide.”

Fei Du’s footsteps paused a few steps away from him. “No.” Luo Wenzhou looked up in surprise.

Fei Du was watching him. Suddenly, he displayed a somewhat indistinct smile. Because he had his back to the light, it wasn’t clearly visible.

“It’s the day I met you,” he said.

📌 Zhang Xincheng in Justice In The Dark

✨ this quote is from book Mo Du Silent Reading by Priest (book 5 chapter 26)

[shijiujun]

OMG THERE IS HOPE FOR JUSTICE IN THE DARK THE MODU LIVE ACTION THAT WE GOT 8 EPISODES OF AND THEN WAS CUT OFF!!!!!

THEY WILL BE OFFICIALLY AIRING IN JAPAN IN MARCH?!?! DROPPING ON MARCH 7 IN JAPAN!!!

JAPANESE SUBS BUT SHOULD BE CHINESE VO

IT EVEN HAS ITS OWN OFFICIAL JAPANESE TWITTER CHANNEL

ANNOUNCEMENT HERE

DOES THIS MEAN THERE IS A VIABLE ROUTE FOR HYX, WIK, TGCF LA?!?!!

[xiaosean]

justice in the dark | pei su looking like a dream

[mutantfactor]

Justice in the Dark | Pei Su & Luo Weizhao

[zhouszishu]

– You’re fussier than my cat.

JUSTICE IN THE DARK 【光·渊】 (2023): EPISODE 03

[notfreetoday]

China's censorship of Justice in the Dark - some FAQ

photo cr @ 白夜飛行家 on weibo

Also known as The Abyss/Mo Du/Silent Reading (link goes to a great carrd made by a Mo Du fan) by Priest, the same author who brought us Guardian. The show was dropped on Youku China on the 18th of February and is now on Youku International (VIP needed from ep 3 onwards). 8 episodes have been released. There is no official release schedule yet, though the rumour is 5 episodes every Saturday at 10am China time. Total of 30 episodes, ending on the 11th of March (Yes rumours are this specific).

The English subs are AI generated, and they are not great. I hope they improve the subs as the show gains traction. (I watch on the China ver of the app, but I'll post any egregarious subbing errors if I come across them)

Changes made from the novel

The title, character names and premise has been changed. The ages of the some of the side characters/victims have also been changed. It's clear that scenes have been re-edited and re-dubbed, because some dialogue doesn't match the lip movements (WOH flashbacks anyone?) This is all to get pass censorship. A lot of the story, including the dialogue, has been preserved, and the changes aren't jarring.

Seems like there was a lot of uproar regarding the changes?

The show has been trending on weibo every day since it dropped, for good and bad reasons. Many book fans were upset with the changes on Day 1 and didn't bother watching pass the introduction of the premise, and there were complaints about the suitability of the actors' looks. By Day 2 the comments turned to "hey this isn't so bad??" And now everyone is just badgering youku for the next few episodes, cause they've literally released nothing else about the show since they dropped the episodes.

Has the story been sacrificed to pass censorship?

After watching 8 ep, I don't believe so. The novel covers sociopathy and the darkness of humanity - the show uses a "nuclear accident" as a reason for "genetic changes" in 1.3% of the population - causing these people to lose the ability to empathise with others. This is actually a very smart move because by blaming everything on a fictional, genetic mutation, the show can actually get away with showing the darker, more questionable parts of humanity, without having to censor it too much. The first case of the show mentions drugs and even has a short clip that heavily implies someone seizing from an overdose (you'll miss it if you aren't paying attention). There are underaged victims, and if they continue in this vein there will be more trigger warning worthy scenes from the book included. These things just don't get shown or talked about in c dramas - even if we don't talk about the BL, it's pretty crazy they managed to get this stuff out after the recent censorship changes.

Is the BL still.... there?

There are 8 episodes out so far and to me, it's working. We're not talking WOH level of chemistry here, but ep 3 onwards is when our CP starts paying more attention to each other. There is more than enough "candy" to find if you know what you're looking for. That said, it is not and will never be BL, just an adaptation.

Ok what am I looking for?

Glad you asked! Take for example the show's name change - from 深渊 (shen yuan) to 光•渊 (guang • yuan).

深 - deep 渊 - deep (often referring to a pool, so a deep dark pool, like in a cave) Shen Yuan comes from the novel and is translated as The Abyss, and represents Fei Du (Pei Su in the show)

光 - bright light Guang•Yuan is not a proper term by itself - it's a mash up of the words for bright light and deep pool. The light represents Luo Wenzhou (Luo Weizhao in the show), the one beam of light that penetrates Fei Du's darkness. Hence the English name "Justice in the Dark" is a pretty good translation.

The new names of the characters are Pei Su 裴溯 and Luo Weizhao 骆为昭. See the last character of each name? Su has the radical 月, for Moon in it, and Zhao has the radical 日, for Sun in it. The moon is considered Yin, and the sun is Yang. Together, they are Yin and Yang.

Hey maybe you think that's pushing it, but welcome to the life of a BL adaptation fan 🤣🤣

[tianmijun]

Justice in the Dark Ep.7 (2023)

we got pei su serving ✨lewks✨ and LOOKS

[ms-three]

[gravitydefyingtears]

(Justice in the Dark / Guang Yuan / Mo Du Live Action first impression…)

I was planning to wait for more episodes to air before binging but alas my self-control is non-existent so I’ve watched all 8 eps that are out. Disclaimer, I only listened to the audio drama and haven’t read the novel yet which I hope to correct sometime in the future. And obviously these are my own personal opinions.

Pros

Good acting! Good chemistry between main cast!

I like the aesthetics! (and I know nothing about cinematography etc. but I have nothing bad to say about this aspect)

Is following the original plot MUCH closer than I expected!

Lang Qiao (now Lan Qiao)! I love her.

Tao Ran (now Tao Ze)! Cute!

Cons…?

So that whole thing about genetic predisposition for crime…when that intro popped up, I was like “oh NO” buuut so far, I think I see what they’re trying to do with that and hope they can pull it off well.

The name changes. I guess it was for c*nsorship reasons that I don’t fully understand. I’m conflicted about this but it’s not preventing me from enjoying the show.

Weird inconsistent audio quality, i.e., you can hear when they dubbed over some parts and there is an obvious change between one line and the next. Not uncommon in cdramas but ugh. Though I do appreciate the main actors using their own voices.

So far, I like the dynamic between the main pair. However, I am not feeling any romantic chemistry and don’t feel any urge to ship them. Will have to wait and see if this changes as their relationship also develops.

Yeah, so I saw mostly negative reactions from both the EN and CN fandoms which is not surprising. After watching, I hope minds are changed? People were joking/complaining about it turning into a “sci-fi” but this is not the case?? There are no sci-fi elements…unless I’m missing something… It’s just that they’ve done that AU thing a la Guardian but it’s much more innocuous than Guardian’s fantasy to sci-fi lol.

And the name change thing… On one side, you might consider this disrespectful to the author and original material. On the other hand, if novel fans prefer more separation between the novel and drama, this may be a good thing? Like if someone says Pei Su and Luo Weizhao, you know they’re talking about the drama and not the novel. Tbh I see the benefit of that, especially if there are some more major changes in plot later on…

Anyway, I hope the drama can keep up a good quality so I can enjoy it as a crime mystery show, at the very least. It probably helps that I have low expectations for the romance aspects so I will just wait and see how far they will go with that.

[zhongwans]

bruh do you know what's up with silent reading live action? they haven't dropped any other eps. i'm just terrified that they were asked to take it down 🫠 nobody on twitter seems to know anything either. any info on weibo???

(Sorry for the very late reply 💀)

Don't worry if they were asked to take the show down then they wouldn't leave any episodes up. They'll have to remove all the episodes and so far that hasn't happened so don't stress about that *yet*

Nobody knows for sure wtf is happening over at Youku but according to the rumours:

Youku is spacing out episode releases to keep the hype/popularity in check (there's a rumour that platforms are being allowed to air their dangai but they must make sure it doesn't get too popular (yeahhh good luck with that one buddy😂) and that's probably also why Youku isn't marketing it too much)

Youku higher ups allegedly can't decide how to deal with the show's promotion. They'll normally want to promote it like crazy but so far Youku is being extremely lowkey when marketing the show. This is why we think the rumours that platforms were told to avoid promoting their dangai shows too much is true because there's just no way these greedy platforms won't milk their dangai shows for all they're worth.

They're waiting until the Two Sessions/两会 end (meeting of NPC and CPPCC). If this is really the case then the rest of the episodes probably won't be released until the end of March.

Youku was allegedly ordered (by the NRTA? idk) to stop releasing episodes for the time being and nobody knows why. Some are speculating that they were asked to make more edits/cuts and some think they were asked to wait while the higher ups make a decision on...stuff.

Again remember those are all just speculation and rumours I saw on weibo & douban. I'm just a humble melon vendor it's up to you to chigua responsibly

[shijiujun]

Pei Su: I don’t eat 🍆🥚🌶️🍅🧄🧅

Luo Weizhao: How am I supposed to feed my cat boyfriend in the future

[xiaosean]

justice in the dark | too heavy for meow meow to carry (so officer luo has to do it)

[mutantfactor]

Justice in the Dark | Pei Su & Luo Weizhao

[zhouszishu]

Pei Su wearing Luo Weizhao’s jacket. 

JUSTICE IN THE DARK 【光·渊】 (2023): EPISODE 04

[notfreetoday]

"You can teach a child to be wary of strangers, to be more alert, but you can't let her be afraid of wearing floral dresses. Encountering a murderer is not the fault of the victim. If it was, then what's the point of having us?"

-- Luo Wei Zhao, Captain, Special Investigations Department Justice in the Dark, previously named The Abyss Based off the novel Mo Du/Silent Reading (eng trans), by Priest (jjwxc)

[movielosophy]

A Journey To Love |  I want to help too