Unknown

Masterclass on BL Dramas

How will I continue to watch BL series after this?

Suddenly you realize how a BL Drama can be if :
1. You have committed, good and well prepared actors (main and secondary)
2. You have a scenario in which a 2 second scene in episode 1 solidifies a major plot choice in episode 10
3. You direct it using the minimum appropriate time for a reaction aiming for the greatest impact
5. You deal with delicate matters very carefully and with great respect, giving the appropriate time to mature
6. You use EVERY available tool (actor, timing, light, music) in the service of the scene
4. YOU KNOW YOUR JOB AS AN ARTIST.

"Unknown" reminded us the basic and most profound codes for a good drama...
and that we have tolerated and support too many poorly crafted experimental works who tried to please an insatiable for shipping audience regardless of the artistic effect.

It's almost a shame to admit it, but "Unknown" should have been the rule and not the exception.

A great applause and many thanks to the director, writers, actors and crew of this exceptional work!

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Taiwan is BACK!

Unknown is a wonderful BL with a pitch perfect portrayal of long term pining, age gap, and the stepbrothers trope.

The acting and chemistry are ON POINT (especially from the leads) which made the resulting characters very believable.

When it dwells in intimate family drama, it's stunning. It's slightly less successful when it leaves the home and goes gritty. Its other few flaws are the result of curtailed length. It could have used more breathing room to deal with side plots, characters, and companion character development. The editing was occasionally choppy and packed with flashbacks that broke the emotional tension. Still, those are mere quibbles for me.

This is an excellent show based on one of my favorite old school BL tropes that I know I'm going to be recommending for a long time.

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it's a good bl

so speaking of the drama I like it a lot the acting the story line everything is good but what I don't like is the back story of yuan is not shown and the ending was a little unsatisfying for me and I wanted to see lilis wedding and stuff but they bombarded us with the accidental pregnancy trope in here
I like the family aspect of it and in my opinion it isn't incest ..
I loved the friendship between mr tan and quan but I didn't see any chemistry between lili and mr tan.
I liked this drama alot it's refreshing to see the plot in this not having a lot of toxicity and stuff
and I loved to see dr lin ( love him)...
in the end I liked this drama
so that's it

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A love story where life is more celebrated than love

Have you ever seen an infected wound? If we leave the wounds untreated, sometimes out of ignorance, sometimes out of fear, the wounds if severe enough can get infected. Now it smells. You will have the urge to leave it as it is as now it's hideous. When the pain gets too unbearable, we try to cure it and even if we cure it, it leaves a nasty scar. Some wounds are just too deep to cure on our own. It's where our hands can reach. Qian is carrying the heavy load alone throughout his life and he gets used to the weight. When Yuan wants to share his load, he loses balance. The only thing Yuan ever wanted was to support Qian, so it enrages him that Qian never shares his burden with him. It's not a review just my thoughts on the series.

It's harder to relate if you are not from a broken family like Wei Yuan and Wei Qian. The fight and flight response doesn't go away once you become an adult. Wei Qian learns to survive but no one ever teaches him how to live his life. Wei Qian is scared of becoming like his mother. He feels physically ill thinking about his mother. He feels somehow inside him somewhere his mother had imprinted her shadow and one day he will be consumed by it. He closed the curtains to let the darkness conceal the shadow.

"Don't be afraid of the cracks that's where the light comes in." Yuan came as a crack in his closed walls. He shook Qian's moral ground. For Yuan, Qian is his whole world which is not normal in any sense but nothing has ever been normal in their life anyway. Convention is something many people can't afford. I know  where Qian's Dilemma was coming from. I would have been disappointed if he never resisted. The 5 year gap seemed like a too long gap. But the distance was necessary for this dynamic. Yuan never has friends. He always worshipped the land Qian stood on. He would protect Qian at any cost. It's hard to tell if it's just simple gratification turned into infatuation or actual 'love'. And here comes Qian's Dilemma he knows if he commits he can't go back. For Yuan, love is as simple as wanting to stay by Qian's side forever, taking care of him. For Qian, it's complicated. He has been a brother to him, for times he has been a provider for him. After the gap, even though they have history, their relationship gets a fresh start.

"Don't you love Wei Yuan or don't you dare?" There's a term in philosophy called "Porcupine's dilemma". Porcupine is a rodent with sharp spines. In cold days, porcupines want to get closer as it's craving the warmth but whenever they get closed the sharp spines pricks them. Deep down Qian is afraid that he will hurt Yuan if they get closer but after all these years he understood that it's equally hard for him to stay away from Yuan. Qian all these years couldn't comprehend his feelings for Yuan. He still doesn't understand. So he gave up. He allowed himself to be happy without the veil of conventionality.

The story about unconventional love is very tricky. If it's not handled well, it can be downright disturbing. But here we get the psyche of each character and we root for them. Once upon a time I would stumble upon a book that will make me angry at myself that I don't know the language. The translation is bad yet it has kept me captivated so it's the proof of its supreme plot. It's a love story where life is more celebrated than love. I love this kind of story. It makes the love that much epic.

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"Don't be afraid of the cracks. That's where the light comes in."

I really enjoyed the main love story featured in this BL series. It is a forbidden romance concept well done in terms of sorrow and angst...It firmly tugged at all my heartstrings. Unfortunately, the scenario is not without flaws regarding the build up of the secondary romance as well as some stupid decisions made by characters (...yeah my pet peeve aka noble idiocy is back once again). There were also some pacing issues in addition to some shift in tones not always very successfull.

What really made me forget about these little defaults is the excellent chemistry between the two main actors who are pretty good together. They sell super well the main concept of "Didi's puppy love for his Gege who is blind to his feelings". Kurt Huang impressed me so much as his character grows the most during the show. He is very compelling to look at and his evolution was very well acted. Given his charisma, I will be for sure looking forward for more series with him in the future. Chris Chiu is a solid counterpart as well. The secondary cast made less of a lasting impression on me, except for Sam Lin whose I wish the character had more screentime.

I liked the production: it has a very raw style on some scenes that I enjoyed (especially in its first episodes). The filmmaking of most of the romantic scenes had my heartbeat increasing. There so many pretty and exciting moments between the leads. The office setting was more mundane and standard but very suitable overall. I truly enjoyed the OST, especially the ending song which is so charming and fitting perfectly with the thematic of the series.

I would recommend this to people that are looking for a forbidden romance concept with a lot of angst and chemistry. I watched it week by week but I think it would make an excellent binge watch. The script is not without flaws in terms of pacing as well as narrative choices but overall the payoff in terms of love story is so good that it is really worth it and you forgot all the defaults thanks to the good acting and chemistry of the two main male leads.

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Best Step-Brothers BL I''ve seen

As a fan of the forbidden step-brothers trope, I feel like Unknown is both the best and most realistic BL that tackles this situation. When compared to other BLs like Brothers and Cherry Blossoms After Winter, the character development, specifically the two main character's pasts are well developed compared to the aforementioned BLs. Which makes the viewer much more invested into the lives of Qian and Zhi. The stakes are higher after witnessing and knowing just how close as siblings they are through their shared experiences. Which is why the response of Qian sending Zhi away abroad after having been confessed to is justified and understandable. We see just how hard he has brought up his siblings all on his own and doesn't want to ruin that relationship for a romantic one. Sure, its not the first and only step=brothers BL to do this, its the only one that has shown me why instead of simply saying its because they're step brothers and its wrong.

Despite the messy beginnings of their love with Zhi's confession, when their relationship actually begins its very cute. A sweet and rewarding 12th episode showing the two happily together while still keeping their family a loving and caring one was the sweetest of cherries on top. Especially after how dramatic and messy (in a good way) the first 11 were. Overall, if you are not a fan of the step brother's trope, I don't think this BL will convince you. But if you don't mind it and are in the mood for a dramatic BL with strong messaging of family, heartfelt and interesting story, and well thought out characters. Then I would suggest Unknown for you.

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despise step brother trope but it was enjoyable nonetheless

I am not one to indulge in shows about prohibited romances of the sorts. I watched this show cause it had a good rating. Was it a hard watch? certainly. Did I enjoy it? Well yes! From a story perspective, this show does a great job at setting up the reailty of the characters and why they exist in the way they do. From the beginning you can genuinly feel the sense of family and union from the 3 siblings who are living together alone due to unfortunate circumstances, and for this reason it is very easy to understand their strong bond and love for each other. I gotta say from the way the story develops, although you could say it's unsettling, I can perfectly view and sympathize with both of the brothers who are caught up in this uncertainty brought by their conflicting feelings for each other. zhiyuan has romantic feelings for qian who he doesn't necessarily view as a brother per se but due to how they grew up together qian cannot view him as anything else other than his little brother he wishes to protect. I do have a little bit of a problem with how their romance progresses because we basically followed zhiyuan and his whole development with his feelings regarding qian which led to him being very open and unapologetic with those feelings but I feel like they could've done the same for qian. His acceptance and change of perception felt sudden and rushed. We never understood exactly how he felt toward zhuyuan leading up to them basically getting togther other than the fact that he felt confused and needed time to understand his feelings. Did he get that time? no! cause the next scene was basically them making out. Like he feared this relationship so much till this point but within a second being able to just make out and do the do with zhuyuan felt odd and rushed.

Lili and Peng on the other hand were quite an interesting and surprising couple. Although it is never stated how old Peng is with regards to Lili and the rest it is insinuated he is quite older considering how zhiyuan joked about him changing her diapers when she was little. Were this a real life situation I'd say it is pretty odd and unsettling for them to get together but in the context of the show they make quite a cute couple in contrast to the other two. One thing about lili and just the overall progression of time in this show was just that it was pretty confusing. The show did an awful job at establishing a timeline with how much time would pass between moments in the show, and especially with lili it was confusing cause she maintained the same actress who's character acts in a childish and playful/immature way regardless of how old she is and how much she has grown. Other than that I really appreciate the acting and just overall relationships in this show. They all feel so genuine and so entertaining to watch, almost like real family and friends which so many other shows fail to capture. The small and slight comedic moments add so much charm to this show and that made me really enjoy it regardless of me being uncomfortable with the main trope of the show. It is honestly quite commendable and I'd totally say this show is worthy of its high ratings.

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Gradually from ugh to aww.

Might contain a spoiler, and english is not my first language. Aside from how the storyline itself is quite "home sweet alabama" moment, except they're not related by blood, overall it was fine. Yeah.

The story itself started from when they're still young, where you'll see a lot of abuse, violance some sad moment and it was until episode 2 or 3. Personally, I keep on tapping right-arrow button on my keyboard to make it fast forward as I was not able to keep up with its slowness. It was slow for me and was an ugh (personally).

However, those slowness was explaining a lot on how Yuan developed his feelings for Qian. Which then also explains a lot with whatever things happened next as when they became an adult.

Until they finally became adult, this is where I start to develop my proper interest in this story. I don't want to spoil a lot of thing, but I'm really happy with the character development of everyone here. As day goes by in the story, my aww -insert cute face- also grows a lot.

Lots of lesson can be gained through the story itself, which honestly touches me up a LOT. It shows a lot of love from a sibling, along with shows love from partner as well. It might be questionable because of how Qian and Yuan who are technically a sibling (but they're not related by blood) went from stranger to siblings to lovers. But oh well, I'm fine with it.

All I can say is that, yeah it's worth watching. But, if you're that type of person who can't keep up with the slowness of this story, then it's totally up to you if you want to rewatch it or not. Personally, I would just skip first few episodes and start watchkng the episode where they're all finally became an adult.

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Could've been better

The best thing about this drama :
- The acting : the main were amazing and they portrayed the emotions of their characters really well.
- The chemistry was amazing
- The music

But, I feel like it dragged and the end was really rushed. So I was disappointed.
I was expecting their first kiss so much, but how it was filming and edited, it wasn't good in the end. And I didn't really feel it.
Feel like also it was so sudden, they spend the night together and they are already boyfriends. Also, very rush in the last ep with the illness. They showed us nothing and at the very end we assumed that he got his surgery and he is fine. They live happily together. And I'm disappointed there wasn't an actual scene with the sister and her child.
Also, it felt like a mashup of scenes together of them dating to give us something. The flow and editing was weird.

Also, the love scene was disappointing for me, the loud music and the flashback in between.

So, not the best bl I've scene, but it has some good

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