#kaleidoscope of death

[spicyvampire]

Fellowship of the ring [1/?]

THE SPIREALM (2024) EP. 2

[ruanbaijie]

Ono no Komachi & Izumi Shikibu, tr. by Jane Hirshfield & Mariko Aratani, The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu, Women of the Ancient Court of Japan [x]

THE SPIREALM 致命游戏 (2024) adapted from the danmei novel Kaleidoscope of Death 死亡万花筒 by Xi Zi Xu 西子绪 @asiandramanet apr creator bingo board ⎈ black & white + transition

[naughtynanzhu]

One piece for you, one piece for me.

Is it sweet?

[zishuge]

The Spirealm 致命游戏 (2024) | Ep. 43

[cuffs-crew]

The spirealm as an adaptation is interesting because it manages to get the environment from the book almost perfect but changes the characters a lot, technically making it a bad adaptation. On the other hand the changes make it a much better show. Ruan Nanzhu however is perfectly consistent and that is what matters the most

[shijiujun]

A Summary: The Spirealm | 致命游戏 (Kaleidoscope of Death 死亡万花筒 Live Action) & Why You Should (Eventually) Watch It

Talk about the most short-lived drama release ever, not even totalling two hours if I recall. Creating this summary as I've seen a handful of confused friends, so here it goes!

It's going to be a long review because I sped through all 78 episodes and only properly watched the first two doors, but I got you. You'll get both the brief book rundown and the drama parts!

If you just wanna see the bromance (LOVE) parts please skip to section 4!!!!

1. Overview

Title: The Spirealm (kinda awful I'm sorry it's a mouthful) or 致命游戏 which means fatal game

Adapted From: Danmei (BL) Kaleidoscope of Death by Xi Zixu

Novel Prints: There are GORGEOUS Thai, Vietnamese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese versions printed, AND Singapore publisher Rosmei has signed the license for the ENGLISH version, probably going on sale this year (preview is here). You can still access fan translations by Taida on I think wordpress and someone else on Tumblr sorry bad memory (they did half and half each) if you'd like to read it for context. It is one of my FAVE danmeis EVER and I am a die-hard OG book fan, check out my full danmei review here.

Total Episodes: 78 (20 minutes each with the exception of last episode which 10 minutes, with several BTS not that I think we will get to see all of them yet)

Where to Watch (LOL): Erm considering that iQIYI China AND International took the episodes down, there is no legal way to watch this, BUT thanks to some cnetz with super fast and great wifi, we managed to get ripped HD versions without subs. iQIYI is very hard on copyright though, they've taken down several subbed and unsubbed versions already on YouTube, but you should type the titles of show into Twitter and the top tags will tell you where to access the raws and very little subbed episodes, that may also be taken down at any point. I have the Chinese raws but as it's hosted on a cloud, I had to pay to access it.

Main Characters: Lin Qiushi & Ruan Nanzhu/Ruan Baijie (in the novel) and Ling Jiushi & Ruan Nanzhu/Ruan Baijie (in the drama)

Produced By: iQIYI so for SURE they won't film it fully BL even if the original is, but I've seen enough bromance cuts

Main Actors: Xia Zhiguang (Ruan Nanzhu/Ruan Baijie) + Huang Junjie (Ling Jiushi)

2. Summary

Book (drama follows closely if not removing the supernatural premises): Lin Qiushi, a designer, opens the door to his home one day from inside and sees 12 iron doors outside. Confused, he opens one of them and arrives at a snow covered village in the mid of winter, and meets Ruan Baijie, who's a pretty, unusually tall and whiny/timid woman. They realise that they're in a horrifying door game, and they'll have to find a door and a key to get out, while battling a long-haired, human-eating deity. They, along with a few others, have to survive day after day until they get out, and on the first night, two people have died in gory ways. Ruan Baijie and Lin Qiushi partner each other, and despite seemingly timid and crying all the time, she saves Lin Qiushi a few times mysteriously, and Lin Qiushi finds himself trusting in Ruan Baijie.

They get through the door together and when they leave successfully, Lin Qiushi realizes that the people who died in the door will die in real life by some freak accident too - car accidents, forced suicides, a robbery gone wrong, a lift trapped in the air and going ablaze, and more. That night, Lin Qiushi wakes up to see a super handsome and tall Ruan Nanzhu at his bedside and this man feels familiar to him, but he can't put a finger on it. All he can think of when Ruan Nanzhu says his name is Ruan Baijie (ahem he would later find out who it is of course). Ruan Nanzhu takes him to his mansion in the suburbs where he meets a group of other people just like them, who're forced to go through the doors for survival. Ruan Nanzhu then invites him to join Obsidian, his organization.

Through various doors, Lin Qiushi grows and supports a super intelligent and powerful Ruan Nanzhu, falls in love with him, gets through many many scary doors with him and some of their other team members, makes friends, loses them to the cruelty of the doors as they ponder over what the door means, and what being alive/dying means.

And at the end of it, at the end of of it all, when they're all good and living their life, Lin Qiushi also finds out what Ruan Nanzhu's secret is, and the lengths to which Ruan Nanzhu went to, just to be with him.

Drama: Ling Jiushi is a VR game designer who gets pulled into a game, and he meets Ruan Baijie (in his male form) right off the bat (SO NOT CROSSDRESSING I AM SAD). All the parts are actually the same as the novel, albeit with the game setting and Ling Jiushi and Ruan Nanzhu's identity adjustments to suit the game premise. Most of the other doors and their lines are the same, just that the ending is a bit more confusing than it could be. There's a big bad as well and they actually show the opposing organizations when in the novel, these other organizations aside from Obsidian didn't even actually have a face or goal to them.

3. Characters

^ Them in the book (based on manhua that never got to go live LOL) (RNZ/RBJ left, LQS right)

^ Them in the show (LJS left, RNZ right)

Ruan Nanzhu/Ruan Baijie: MY HANDSOME CROSSDRESSING INTELLIGENT ALOOF BUT WHINY (WHEN IT COMES TO LIN QIUSHI) SASSY BOSS!!!! He's super mysterious and super thick-skinned too, and all he wants is Lin Qiushi's attention the moment he meets him. He's intrigued by Lin Qiushi's calm and his brains and the way he handles things, and has a lot of trust for him right from the get-go. This is also shown in the drama itself. As the leader of Obsidian, he cares a lot for his team members and his friends even if he doesn't show it most of the time, and the last thing he wants to do is lose Lin Qiushi, and he would do ANYTHING for Lin Qiushi, ANYTHING!!! Just look at him whining:

Ling Jiushi (Lin Qiushi): In the novel he's super calm, has quite a lot of brains, a little bit of a blur in the beginning but he's super smart as well. Worries a lot for Ruan Nanzhu and is also a loyal friend to some of his only friends, and feels a lot when he loses them. Falls gradually in love with Ruan Nanzhu in the novel, like they just belong together. In this drama, Ling Jiushi holds that same trust for Ruan Nanzhu, but in demeanour he seems a bit more like a klutz and and not as cool as he was in the novel, but I guess it's acceptable. Literally like the only thing he loves more than RNZ (maybe) is his cat Chestnut LOL and RNZ is NOT really happy about that but Chestnut LOVES RNZ

Yixie and Qianli: CUTEST TWINS ;-; WHO TREAT RNZ and LQS as their big brothers LOOK AT THEM BOWING AND RNZ/LJS like parents LMAO

A handful of other characters who will keep turning up and get your hearts ;-;

4. ALL FAVE BROMANCE MOMENTS + TROPES

THEY TOUCH EACH OTHER A LOT LIKE HOLDING HANDS AND TOUCHING FACES, PIGGY BACKING?!?! DID I MENTION FACE TOUCHING

WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP THEY HELP EACH OTHER WHEN HURT OR GET HURT FOR EACH OTHER

AND WHEN THEY WAKE UP IN BED THE OTHER IS AT THEIR BEDSIDE

AND DID I MENTION HE FEEDS HIM IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE

AND THAT THEY DATED UNDER THE FIREWORKS LIKE THE NOVEL DOES NOT EVEN HAVE THIS SHIT

AND THE KABEDONS

AND FINALLY RUAN NANZHU RIZZ OMG

5. Settings

They REALLY OUTDID THEMSELVES. THIS JUST FROM DOORS 1-6:

THEY LOOK EXACTLY LIKE THE NOVEL DESCRIBED!!!!

6. Overall Thoughts

PROS: This was NOT a cheap production, I'm telling you, they followed the cases very well and there're a lot of super recognisable lines, if not ALL of them, even if they changed the cases a little. I think they did it because in the novel originally, the author DOES leave a lot of details hanging like someone dies and you know he had a background and there are some shady things happening but the author NEVER actually goes into detail. So the drama did their best to cover these loopholes, even if it felt a little awkward at times. Money went into settings and attires and every damn thing, this looks EXPENSIVE. And if you've ever imagined each door and the bosses inside in your head, you might have felt chills go down your spine because damn did they really colour the book's settings for me (despite its differences). DID I MENTION that Xia Zhiguang really got the damn memo and he was a passable Ruan Nanzhu/Ruan Baijie who knew how to turn on his BL eyes. PLUS they really did some of the character deaths really well - they're technically some of the biggest parts of this story so ;-; (not two main of course)

CONS (maybe): They did away with the supernatural/horror premise and replaced it with a GAME premise, which means that there's a scientific element to it and the try to explain away stuff with the game, including the ending. I don't 100% get the ending, but the feel/vibe is about the same. Might not be for hardcore reader fans tho! They skipped out on a couple of doors, some of which were my faves, but it's fine, it's long enough LOL. They give away/explain some of the clues and surprises super early which means you don't get that added boom at the back as well. Despite that, I have to say they tried to round up the loopholes from the book as much as they could and give it an explanation while tying elements/conspiracies across doors (probably also to save cast fees LOL). And as always it's not a solid ending, it's an open confusing one, and even more confusing than the book itself because THERE IS NO CERTAIN HAPPILY EVER AFTER WITH HUBBY for it (there is in the book tho, they live together happily every after). Secondl,y, I'd say HJJ's acting is a bit stiff and OOC compared to the novel, but Xia Zhiguang really made up for it.

-------

HOPE THIS HELPS YOU GUYS!!! But I guess if you need subs it's going to be a long LONGGGG ride, considering that iQIYI doesn't seem to be going to be able to put it up anytime soon CRIES.

[snarkspawn]

some KoD/Spirealm sketches

[zhivchik]

[shaofeis]

THE SPIREALM · EP7

[kolachess]

Ruan Nanzhu being shamelessly possessive over Ling Jiushi (The Spirealm / Kaleidoscope of Death)

Just throwing together some fun moments (nothing too spoiler-y) from the episodes I've watched thus far! Jealous and pouty RNZ is the best lol. He's got a wealth of tools at his disposal that's he's unashamed to employ to monopolize LJS.

Ep. 10 - RNZ invoking Confucianism to prevent his boi from sleeping away from him 🤣

Ep. 16 - RNZ performing 'sa jiao' or acting 'moe' to reclaim his boi's attention

Ep. 22 - RNZ invoking 'professionalism' to block any attempts to get close to his boi

-

Please pardon my low quality gifs and crappy sub overlay lol. I don't blog gifs that often... just wanted to share some fun moments in advance since I know the subs are going to take a bit to come out!

[spicyvampire]

When you tryna hit but it's a miss

THE SPIREALM (2024) EP. 11 (+ EP. 7)

+ Bonus : LJS did end up with a cat afterall

[ruanbaijie]

I will never let you go, wishing to return to the end of the world you will always be in my eyes, until day and night are blurred I Know - Gao Jiayi 高佳依

THE SPIREALM 致命游戏 (2024) adapted from the danmei novel Kaleidoscope of Death 死亡万花筒 by Xi Zi Xu 西子绪 @userdramas event 16 fools (in love) @asiandramanet apr creator bingo board ⎈ lyrics + blending

[darcyfirth]

when lanzhu says ‘for you i was born and for you i will disappear. i don’t have a future, i don’t even have a past’ i die a thousand times inside

[zishuge]

Hello besties,

I come bearing all the sources I can find on English subs for The Spirealm, the live-action adaptation of the danmei novel Kaleidoscope of Death because I need more people to freak out with me over this. A lot of people (me included) have been suffering through the sometimes-unintelligible MTL subs on dramacool, but now that some time has passed, some wonderful people out there have done some amazing fansubs and I thought I'd share some links that @naughtynanzhu and I have found.

Pick your poison:

This google drive contains all 78 episodes, 23 of which have English subtitles (as of 3/21/2024). New episodes are being added but slowly. Video quality up to 1080p. (Note: there are some cute English subbed bts videos at the bottom!) Credit to twitter users @mwsdrama and @xianguang0104 who I believe are the fans behind these fansubs.

This google drive contains all 78 episodes, all of which have English subtitles. However the English subtitles overlap a little bit with the Chinese ones so it can be a little bit hard to read. Video quality up to 720p.

This google drive has all 78 episodes of English subtitles in the form of srt files. You can download them and play the video in your choice of player that allows you to load in srt files (VLC, KMPlayer, etc.).

Retro_fiction on bilibili has English subtitles up to 56 (as of 3/21/2024) and is updating fairly quickly (daily I think), but a VPN may be required depending on where you are.

I can't vouch for the quality of the subtitles for all 78 episodes across all three links, but I scanned through a few episodes in each drive and they're all quite good as far as I can tell, and definitely a million times better than the MTL ones.

Personally, I would download the video files from the first link and the srt files from the third and play them in KMPlayer together for the video quality and lack of overlapping subtitles.

Thank you to the wonderful fansubbers out there who worked hard on these. Please share and enjoy!

[web-novel-polls]

Writing propaganda is so difficult for me bc, like, how do I even begin to show it better than lines like “You are the breath-taking view of mountains and lakes in the remaining years of my life, the rising clouds tinged in sunset colours. Now and forever, I will keep on loving you a little more” (4 o’clock flower) or “He loved him so much, missed him so much, he missed him in the barracks, he missed him in battle. In the depths of his shattered memories, he loved him, thought of him, missed him.” (Yuwu) or “If it’s with you, if I can be together with you… I am fearless.” (Where is Our Agreement to Be Arch-Rivals?) or “Only after having met you did I discover that its such a simple thing to be happy” (TGCF) or “In this life, you will be the only one in my heart. In the next life, and the life after that, I will forever remember you, so long as my soul hasn’t scattered.” (Qi Ye) or “To place my life in your hands, even if my end is death, it is something I’ll never regret” (Peerless) or “You are just like my reverse scale. You live, I live. You are my life. Therefore, no matter how difficult things are in the future, or how arduous life becomes, I want you to live” (Nan Chan) or “As long as this ending can be changed, I am willing to die for him a thousand times” (Mist) or “I fantasize about seeing my reflection in your eyes on day, just one look, I’ll be willing to do anything that is asked of me, even pulverizing my body and shattering my bones no matter how many times…” (LHJC) or “Whatever he wants, I’ll give it to him. If he wants my life, I’ll stake my life for him… there’s no betrayal to be had.” (Liu Yao) or “I will always be with you. Life or death, I will bring you home” (2ha) or “This love has always been doomed. Yet, knowing that it’s perpetual doom, that it’s infinite destruction, the moths still throw themselves into the fire until they meet their very deaths” (Cold Sands) or “I hope that you will hate me all your life” (Golden Stage) or “Won’t you turn back and look at me? If you turn back and look at me just one time, even if you were to ask me to climb up to the roof and jump off, I’ll do it.” (GuoMen) or “Whereas Ruan Nanzhu sat at his side, gazing at Lin Qiushi with admiration in his eyes, his whole look a litany of I love you I love you I love you” (Kaleidoscope of Death), or…

[shijiujun]

FACE-TOUCHING!!!!

The Spirealm 致命游戏 (2024) | Kaleidoscope of Death 死亡万花筒 Live Action