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Worth watching and rewatching.
It was nice to see a wholesome drama with a great cast.My problem with it is how country people are portrayed as somewhat stupid, and then again, not. It was not something that made me dislike it but just something I thought a few times during the drama.
It is fun and not too much sweetness. It is a "Back to basic" drama with a lot of life choices. I would watch it again because I love the scenery and cast. The story is nice too. The cast is good.
In the end, it all makes sense, and when you follow your soul, all good things come to you.
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Refreshing dynamics is exactly what we all need from time to time.
Love Tractor just does not follow any of the cliché character portrayal and I love it.Is the story complex? No. Do any of the side characters have any depth? No. Is there any solid conflict? No. And that’s why it’s so good and serves as a perfect fun and relaxing watch. Each episode makes you fall in love with a new aspect of the drama. At first I just adored Yechan, then I started to appreciate the aesthetically pleasing shots of the rural area. Without me even noticing I started to like Yul more and more and by the end I was completely smitten by his dynamic with baby Yechan. It just gradually builds positive emotions and energy - I could not stop smiling as I was watching.
Some scenes and plotlines seemed a bit random, most were underdeveloped, but at the end of the day, the focus was on the growing relationship and trust between Yul and Yechan, and I’m fine with it.
The acting was great and I will even defend the village head chief (or however they called him). Was his presence extremely random? Yes. But somehow even that aspect was endearing and his friendship with Yechan was simply adorable. I loved how Yoon Do Jin was able to make extremely expressive Yechan feel natural and never over the top in an unrealistic manner. I appreciated how Do Won’s presentation of Yul showed you can have a more reserved character that does not come across as cold and distant.
Production value was great. The visuals were stunning - both in terms of cast and the scenery ;)
Overall, such a pleasant watch.
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well done countryside K-BL
Overall: although I wish it had more episodes to more fully flesh out the plot/characters, they did a good job in 8 episodes. Aired 2 episodes per week about 20 minutes each on iQIYI.Content Warnings: colorism, blood, vomiting, manipulation
What I Liked
- intro/OST
- bubbly guy Ye Chan and more serious guy Yul weren't unrealistic caricatures (though Ye Chan was maybe a bit too dense for my taste as a 20 year old)
- cute & funny moments
- the writers efficiently gave us important information about Sun Yeol without using a voice over or an exposition dump
- horror music/tone at the beginning was funny
- supporting characters (including the ex who wasn't a 1 dimensional villain)
- how Yul sought out communication in episode 6 and also they avoided something cliche towards the end
- decent kiss
- sound effects/music
Room For Improvement
- needed more screentime to fully develop the plot and the characters, could have made it more clear about what happened in high school with his dad and music
- the colorism remarks, I know this happens a lot in real life but that doesn't mean I want to see it in my fiction, both guys are gorgeous
- why did he throw the water? seemed to be a 'because the writer said so', they could have explained this a bit (there is more information in a comment so this could happen in real life)
- unrealistic, Yul didn't notice that harmonium on the ground immediately and comment on it???
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Love Bulldozer meets Icicle
This is a sweet, short easy binge as we meet mr. cold but sweet smiles as he ventures out in to the country side to escape his fathers pressure (and some other stuff), where he meets mr. tractor (also cutie smiles).Mr cold but sweet smiles is a walking talking lip gloss commercial. He is very a bit distant, angry, puts up walls but is shown to be sweet deep down inside. I guess we could say he is a popsicle melting in a water fight (the writers seem to have a thing for water-fights in this).
Mr tractor is probably more of a bulldozer portrayed a little bit to stereotypical, stupid country bumpkin for my taste, and I would be lying if I said it did not bother me. However he is really sweet and extremely lovable, the type who can tear down the wall of china with his smile.
The characters around them have limited screen time, most of them use that (limited) time extremely well and dare I say almost steal the show... other add on with a pretty face but an unnecessary twist. There is also an old dog, adorable farm animals and a whole lot of pretty scenery and splashes of water.
Definitely a drama I recommend, just be-were of the stereotype.
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BL Hometown Cha Cha Cha
It is one of the two things: either the recent months' BLs are average at the best or I have reached my point of BL saturation because I found this one, again, cute and excessively boring!The story is chock full of clichés and I finished it only because it was short and pretty otherwise it would have quickly landed onto the ever growing not interested pile. It reminded me very much of Hometown Cha Cha Cha! A world weary big city man comes to a cute village filled with quirky but nice and of course naive characters! Opposites attract and the ending is very much predictable. There is of course an ex who comes to stir the trouble, the wise town head offering sage advice (on the form of westerner: I could not find the name of the actor!). And last but not least, there is a usual bunch of rude and spoilt kids creating problems(running away!) with adults apologizing for being a bit strict and demanding that the kids have at least the basic manners. By the way, this is my latest pet peeve: kids in K-dramas: awful rude little monsters considered by everyone as cute! Not where I come from (Europe!).
But, let me get back to this Love Tractor drama everyone considers wholesome and cute! Well it probably is and that is probably why I found it so very boring. I really do not like this particular trope of country folk who heal the depressed city dweller by being naive and pushy and without respect for personal boundaries.
While Yechan is a 10yr old in a body of a 20yr old, Yul is a normal 27yr old adult. Why was he attracted to Yechan? Mystery!
They had zero chemistry and that childish behaviour together with that grating accent and loud voice made him very annoying by the end of the drama. As someone in comments pointed out: love works in mysterious ways, we do not choose who we fall in love with. I guess this can serve as an explanation as well as any other!
Fortunately, it was short! It was watchable, not memorable in any way and form. I would not recommend it or rewatch it!
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I loved this, and I hate everything.
I don't know where they found the actor playing Ye Chan, but he was amazing. It can be hard to play a reserved character, but it's also hard to play one who hides nothing. He could slide so effortlessly between happieness, outrage, worry, shyness, and smoking hot sexy all within a few seconds - what a vesitile man.The plot is sweet without being saccharine, and alhough it uses some BL tropes, it uses them logically, consistent with the characters, and seem like a natual extension of what was already going on.
There is no external drama thrown at the couple to keep them apart - everything doing that is organic to the characters, and not artificially inserted in the usual lazy writing that plagues BL.
The do start out with a mild enemies-to-lovers trope, but because they're realistic people, they quickly realize there was a misunderstanding and acknowlege their role in it.
I would do anything to have my own Ye Chan - how could anyone ask for a better boyfriend? 100% honest, 100% supportive in a selfless way, muscles all over the place, uncynical, and able to find happiness in simple things. And simultaneously cute and handsome, which is a brutal combination.
This is a story that could easily segue into a season 2, so here's hoping for that.
If I were to list negatives, it would be that Yul is not a very appealing character. He's a bit bland and often unpleasant, although that improved in the later episodes. Still, the actor was badly overshadowed by Ye Chan. It could have been longer, as the music issue was squeezed entirely into the last episode, and although it was set up earlier, maybe not enough.
Still, this was easily the most enjoyment I've gotten out of a BL in months, and you absolutely can't go wrong watching it
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This drama gave me a very calming, refreshing & healing yet unique vibe and great atmosphere.
Highly recommended especially for beginners. Refreshing. Calming. Healing. Amazing casts. Great OST. Cinematography is outstanding too. Lots of good great laughters. Simple story yet the vibe and approach for me is unique.I'm just smiling nonstop from first episode to last. I just hope there are more of them but it's also understandable that this is how KBL works. I just hope episodes will increase and be longer in the near future. This is top tier for me, yes, there are lots of better BL's in terms of storyline and such but to me Love Tractor hits different. No cringey moments. I especially commend the actor who plays Yechan (Yoon Do Jin), since after rewatching the drama, I appreciate more the way he projects his facial expressions. He and Yul also gave justice to their characters really well based in the manhwa version.
This made me realize that you don't need a drama where there are lots of daring and intimate scenes to keep yourself smiling all over.
I'm hoping there will be a season 2 though, since there are lots of possibilities too and other details in the manhwa version.
Definitely worth it! ~
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Hyung romance, puppy/cat pairing
Most of this country-set BL had me feral for the beautiful broken city boy and his hot young farmer. Hyung romance, puppy/cat pairing, open frankness meets jaded reserve, language play, water hose frolicking, only one bed, just all my favorite tropes. This show was basically a light-weight Restart After Come Back Home and I’m not even slightly mad about that.But (and you knew there was a “but” coming) something about the cringe of the final 2 eps and the impermanence of the ending (both of which highlight the fact that ultimately these 2 are I’ll-suited: too different and too far apart) left me with the feeling that they probably won’t last as a couple. However, in this case, rare for me, I forgive it this finale for my love of the rest.
I did dither a lot though, it’s not an 8 but not a 9 either. Better than Love Mate (8/10) not as good as The New Employee (9/10) but in the end I’m value adding up for the premise and the cast, which earned it a 9/10.
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Didn’t really care for this
I actually had this series on my watchlist for a long time and I was left highly disappointed. This is a very forgettable series IMO.I don’t know if that was a directional decision for the actor Yoon Do Jin to portray the character in that extreme manner but the overreacting/overacting/pouting and then combined with the loud voice was just so intolerable and off putting to me. I don’t know any 20year old male or female who talks and behaves like that especially in 2023 and I don’t care to know any either. I finished this solely because it was a short series, otherwise I would have dropped it.
IMO there was zero chemistry between the leads, it felt more like older/younger brother relationship to me. I also agree with some other reviews, who are questioning why Yul will not only fall in love but also want to date YeChan, I too cannot for the life of me understand why Seon Yul will fall in love with YeChan but to each their own. Someone else in their review said that love works in mysterious ways, so I guess I will take that as the explanation for this, even though I’m not buying it.
This is obviously a no rewatch for me and I really regret not dropping this. I highly do not recommend.
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Nostalgia of TOTS is Why This Series Means Everything And More to Me
If anyone knows me, you'll know my incredible love for TOTS (A Tale of Thousand Stars) which aired back in 2021. Even still to this day, TOTS is my favorite BL of all time, and nothing has surpassed it. Some series have come close, some even teetering over the line, but at the end of the day, TOTS came first. It drove something in me so hard that I still had never felt what I felt when I watched that series. And boy oh boy, has Love Tractor rekindled some of those feelings.Let's Dive In.
Now, Love Tractor was amazing times 10, but still, TOTS comes in first, only because TOTS had more detail and just a tad bit more story to tell than LT did. And if my comparisons of the two series haven't made sense yet, then let me clarify. Both TOTS and LT involve my all-time favorite trope -- city boy meets country boy. We don't often get these kinds of tropes, so when we do get them, I'm all over that shit like butter. And what makes it better is when they take place in the very rural countryside where the wifi half works and motherfuckers are feeding cows and shit. Both shows even had similar characters (Tian's dad/Yul's dad, Yod/the-white-dude-who's-name-I-can't-remember-and-he's-not-listed-on-MDL), similar plot moments (Leads helping with the children, playing in a river stream, fainting, playing music at night hoping to serenade the other, etc), and similar settings (Countryside, city boy learning to adapt to a rural lifestyle, fruit/vegetable harvesting, the nice villagers that welcome the newcomer). My love for this trope will never die, and I think it's actually impossible for me to ever rate a series like these ones lower than a 9.
Anyways (and I'll try to stop comparing things to TOTS because both series are still very opposite of one another as well) Love Tractor immediately grabbed my heart in the first episode. I was actually here for the mildly terrifying setup of Yul embarking on a dark and stormy night in the middle of nowhere (Cause sadly I've been there), and as a viewer, it drew me in immediately. But what drew me in more is getting to really meet Yechan for the first time and learning that he's a big ass teddy bear stuck in a macho man's body. No seriously, I want more Yechan's in my life and in my series. I can't describe to you how much love I have for him. This quirky, kind, loving, nurturing, perfect man who is down to do anything for anyone with the fattest smile on his face, whilst walking around with a God-like figure. And bravo to Dojin (Yechan) who blew his performance clean out of the water. The best I've ever seen an actor perform a character. His facial expressions, his postures, the emotions in his words -- like literally magnificent.
This series doesn't have much more time than the usual K-BL (about 20 minutes each 8 eps) but still, everything was well set up, from the beginning to the end. No plot holes, no bad pacing, and the best slow-burn money could buy you. I know lots of people hate a slow burn, but I, for one, am never going to turn my head away from amazing yearning, longing stares, simple touches, and underlying dialogue of confessions. And Love Tractor gave all that to me wrapped up in a pretty bow.
I also appreciated how this series gives us very minimal conflict given that we don't have all the time in the world, because again, the series is a bit longer than most K-BLs, but it's still not long enough to have a fully flesh-out conflict. The conflict that we did have was resolved rather quickly, and without deterring the connection between the two characters. Yul's ex-boyfriend's plot made sense (a little out of the blue), however, I wish we would've seen the flashback to him and his boyfriend before we see Inseo visit. Honestly, that's my only critique. Also, they had some colorism going on there between Yechan and his mom, which was *an image of finger guns to my head*, but this is Korea, so I'll give it a scoff, and just walk away.
One more thing, the series does an amazing job of not paying too much attention to Yechan discovering that he likes a man, or is queer, and it's literally just a cute little series with him having gay panic, but make it fluffy.
Ratings:
Story - 8.5/10 - flowed like a perfect wave. The only argument I have is the ex-boyfriend setup.
Acting: 9.5/10 - spectacular! I think Dojin outshines Won who's like our main main character, but he still did a good job too.
Music: 8/10 - paid attention this time. Really good! Especially Yul's song!
Recommendation Value: 10/10 - I would recommend this in a heartbeat. It's going on my potential of being my favorite for the year, already being placed as my favorite K-BL of all time. Beautiful storytelling, gorgeous actors, and a light-hearted romance. What more could I ask for?
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