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cute but lacking
the best things about this series are the ost and the romantic moments between the second leads. other than that, i think because of the short runtime they couldn't complete any of the plot points. the parental pressure aspect was well-developed but the friendships are half-cooked. the main couple's ending felt extremely forced cz when did guang start liking him in that sense? he was giving bromance throughout: it was one-sided from qizhang. i felt bad for him bcz not only did the actor do a good job, but also cz the character is so likeable and his mother is a gem! i loved all of their scenes! i really wanted to like it but the direction was so incoherent and script so half-baked that i couldn't bring myself to rate it higher :(Was this review helpful to you?
Cute but so short
This is another drama that has so much potential, but it's hampered by short screentime. It really just needed more time for the characters to get to know each other — I felt like the characters became close friends five minutes after meeting each other for the first time, and throughout the drama it felt like they were skipping scenes and we had to fill in the blanks ourselves. We don't have nearly enough time to follow any story beats, whether it's Xu Qi-zhang trying to become school president for the scholarship, or his band. Some of these plots actually drop off completely, and the only one we do follow is Ye Guang's relationship with his parents, which is actually very powerful.The best part of this drama, however, is definitely the OST, particularly the title song — I've had it on repeat the entire week.
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Not a bad watch for when you're bored
This was cute and sweet, but the writing wasn’t very strong. It wasn’t boring, but it didn’t really make me feel anything while watching.The first couple was fine, but I definitely liked the second couple more. I even skipped scenes from the first to get to them, to be honest.
It’s a high school BL, with the cliche tropes. And just like the title, it was about youth. Some teenage boys with hard lives finding love.
There were way too many unnecessary characters. Why introduce them if they’re not important and just disappear? The show really should’ve focused more on the main plot and relationships.
That said, there were some nice caring moments, and the friendship and music/band elements were enjoyable. The OST was good too, though it got a bit overplayed.
Also, Ray was so pretty—like, seriously, what the heck?
All in all, it captured the essence of youth, so while it wasn’t great, it wasn’t bad either.
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Good Lightweight Series
Due to the heavy subject matters of parental death, and neglectful, abusive parents, I thought there would be more depth to this series. Since this is a mini series, I think my expectations were too high.The acoustics the band played in were horrible, so I couldn't get into the music numbers either. The only reason I enjoyed this series, was the relationship development between the two couples, Xu Qi Zhang/Ye Guang, and Ray/Jian. Both couples had different paths to love, and I thought the relationship progression was really well done. What I found a little interesting was, Ray allowed the first guy to mistreat him multiple times, yet he made a nice guy like Jian pay for his one mistake. Yet Ray did not try to use his previous relationship as an explanation to Jian, he just decided what was no longer acceptable to him, and acted on it.
Overall this is a light series, that does have moments of emotional abuse and one incident of a parent slapping a child across the face. This is not resolved in the end, so it's really disturbing to think that Ye Guang will be living in that environment for at 2 more years until he can go to university. Hopefully he can get stronger against his parents (father is the abuser, mother the enabler) with the support of Xu Qi Zhang and his mother.
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Simple and short drama yet deserving to watch
Hi guys, this drama is really short and can finish within few hours and the interesting is about the script how they covered each episode in effectively way and how 2 different bl couples developed feeling for each other , no toxic 3 rd party involved, just friends and starting to like each other very simple story and actors are good , they could have done 12 episodes of 45 mins but it is short like 20 mins still I enjoyed the drama and recommend to everyone to watch i mean just give a chance to watch this series and you will enjoy it all the best to the teamWas this review helpful to you?
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It leaves you wanting for more
With the onslaught of multiple BL series coming out of South Korea, Japan and Thailand, I was delighted to find this gem from Taiwan. I watched this one right after finishing My School President and the plot is more or less the same with the roles a bit reversed.In this series, we have Xu Qi Zhang, a member of a band who is supporting and caring towards Ye Guang, a studious school student. The series attempts to highlight multiple issues faced by students and youth of today. First we have the overbearing parents of Ye Guang who takes control of his life in order to see his son succeed academically. They are so focussed on their son’s success in every field that they don’t realise that he has lost all freedom and feels trapped and unloved. Then we have the story of Ray, who is ill-treated by his boyfriend. He is shown with female attire and a wig while he is with his ex-boyfriend but loses the wig when he meets Ah Jian. There is a hint that may be his ex is making him wear it but that could just be my speculation. They have also added a dead father and an abusive uncle for good measure.
There isn’t much romance as the story focuses more on the relationship between Ye Guang and his parents and how he feels more like himself when he is with Xu Qi Zhang. There are multiple plots that the series introduces and then we don’t get to see any resolution there. There is certainly an attempt to give more depth to these characters but due to limited episodes we don’t get a satisfactory ending to those plots. We get to meet Xu’s abusive uncle but then no follow-up on that story. There is also Jun Wei who dislikes Ye Guang for some reason that isn’t explained but you can hazard a guess. He wants to see Ye Guang fail and takes active steps to do so but then he is forgotten. Then we have the whole plot of a school election where Xu Qi Zhang, Ye Guang and Jun Wei apply for. There is also a stake for Xu Qi Zhang to win this election but there is no conclusion to that plotline. There is also a professor that is supporting Xu Qi Zhang but she leaves the series by ep 2. I can chalk all this down to lack to time to flesh these plots out but not much would be lost if these plots were not brought up to begin with.
In conclusion, the story is simple and the relationship between the main characters is sweet. The OST is good and wouldn’t mind listening to it over and over. The acting has been satisfactory from all the 4 main leads although I would have liked to see more of Ray as his character had a lot of potential and there is a good story there waiting to be explored.
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Short and Sweet!
This Taiwan BL I watched on GagaooLala a couple weeks ago.Short and easy to watch. I've really love most of what has been coming from Taiwan in the past couple of years. This could have been longer with more to the story.
This drama is a romantic comedy at times. Seemed many scenes felt the same. Lacked scene creativity at times.
There were some hard things to watch between Main lead and his father. Hope this isn't too spoiling.
Loved the side couple. Wish there was more time to develop this relationship more.
I soooo loved the cameo from Wilson Liu as Sun Bo Xiang.
Theme song is addicting for sure.
All the actors were handsome and talented wish we could have had more development to see more.
Here's to hoping they give us more later on.
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If Disney made an LGBTQIA+ series
This series isn't anything groundbreaking or unheard of, it's quite cliche tbh. I consider this to be a little gift for those who are looking for a light watch, sure, it was flawed and wasn't anything awe inspiring and the whole family situation of Ye Guang was heartbreaking to see, but it was cute. It felt like a breath of fresh air considering the amount of mature/heavy series coming out recently, so to me personally it was a nice step back from all of that. The music was cute and the settings were nice, it was very aesthetically pleasing so that's a plus.The plot is fairly simple, just three teens and a barista hanging out and falling in love with some portrayal of the issues/problems teenagers face in their lives, it isn't hard to follow and there isn't any unnecessary love triangles, there were a couple of confusing moments/pointless scenes and the scene jumping had my brain reshuffling, but overall it was entertaining.
The cast is fairly young so their portrayal of high school teenage boys was believable, the main couple's romace definitely had a bit more depth compared to the other couple, the second couple felt abrupt and underdeveloped and tbf they added close to nothing to the plot, the main couple was slightly more developed, but their romance sometimes felt off, like one moment they're two teens with a crush and the other they're bros hanging around, it didn't bother me that much tho so I just brushed it off and continued enjoying it.
I honestly don't have much to say about this other than that it's a nice piece to kill some time, like you could watch it on the way to work or while waiting for your favorite series to begin, so if you're bored and don't really want anything that could potentially have your brain working, I recommend checking it out.
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Mostly age appropriate sweet coming of age romance
The make up, hair, and styling for the show is very nicely done. The cinematography and the editing could be better, but I appreciate that they tried to do something a bit different. The casting of the three high school leads are very nicely done, they're new comers with a lot of great chemistry with each other and good presence. Qi Zhang and Ye Guang's relationship is really lovely, two gentle boys that actually get time to get to know each other. I like that it's not an opposite personality attracts situation and they are both kind and nice to each other. Ray's chosen pronouns was unclear, but their storyline is the edgier one dating adult men and being more physical quicker. I dislike the trope of high school teenagers dating grown men being shown as normalized. Ah Jian's age hasn't been stated, but I hope he's only just a year or two older. The surprise double date scene was immensely cute and the most natural all the actors were as their characters. I really like how the main high schoolers aren't portrayed as too childish or too adultified, outside of the cartoony guy that was bullying Ye Guang that disappears from the story.This show definitely had more story to tell than it had time for with it's 22nd per ep runtime. Most of the plot lines feel finished still in media res like it was meant to continue for another season, but that's not usually how asian dramas work. The storylines introduced are usually wrapped up in one season and have new storylines even if there is a second one. The rivalry with that bully kid that's too obsessed with his sister joining the student council elections went nowhere. Ye Guang didn't have a final face to face understanding talk with his parents, though it could be that they could only reach one with space between them via phone as they had been suffocatingly controlling to their son. There's a lot of potential for more of this story, but it doesn't look like that will happen. It's still a good watch for folks looking for something wholesome and sweet that doesn't talk down to the audience.
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Cute show when having nothing to watch
I was really looking forward to this series since its trailers came out a while ago, and honestly it didn't really disappoint, though I do feel its lacking in certains aspects thanks to how short it is. It was an overall fun watch to kill time and very cute and nice vibes.The characters are all really likeable (ofc except the parents of Ye Guang but that's what the writers intended). I was really looking forward to seeing how the main and secondary couples developed, which on one side was a bit let down because of how lacking of depth the second couple was, I did felt like it was missing a bit more to get to know their relationship but it's nothing really serious. The chemistry of both of the couples was really great and I was really anticipating the kiss from the main couple, which was really cute as well.
It handles topics that can be heavy to an extent but its nothing too drastic, the characters act with a good level of matureness which doesn't make their conflicts last for long.
It's soundtrack goes hard especially in the intro, and it's rewatch value is great as it's easily digestible and entertaining overall. It's a nice series though I do feel like it was way too short for the story overall, I do recommend though!
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A Cute BL with a couple of plot holes left unanswered that thankfully don't ruin the experience
Now, don't get me wrong, I really do like this series and it definitely has a lot going for it, though sometimes certain points we were left guessing at what happened and it was never fully explored.The plot occasionally jumped to some strange locations or jumped to another couple in a completely unrelated scene, though in saying that it was fairly straight forwards and didn’t deviate too much from the usual BL storylines and certain plot points were abandoned as the series went along, as well as a few of the characters that you felt would be major sticking points, but in the end were inconsequential, popping up just for a moment, such as the Head Boy line.
The controlling nature of Ye Guang’s family was something that I’ve seen a lot in dramas, but they were even harsher than most, and the sudden reversal of opinion they had seemed a little too dramatic. I felt like if there were more episodes, we'd be able to see a more gradual understanding of Ye Guang's feelings and have a more natural shifting of how his parents would react to situations. You can't unlearn controlling behaviour just on a whim.
The acting I felt was nice and sincere, even if occasionally their reactions felt a little out of place. But I feel like the actors for the two major couples did a great job, I also had no problem with how the music was incorporated into the series, even if sometimes i could be a little bit of a distraction to the scene, but it didn't harm my viewing experience at all.
Overall, I think this is a cute BL, but it could have done with a couple more episodes to allow time to explore some of the dropped plot points, but the acting help cover up some of these problems. Hopefully there could be another season or maybe a couple of extra episodes that go into these plots, such as if Xi Qizhang makes it to be head boy and onto Berkeley and if their relationship could survive such an adventure.
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