Two Unrelated Brothers, Older Uke and Younger Seme
Who said love was easy? Just ask the protagonists of 'Moon and Dust'.The queer Chinese miniseries delves into possessiveness, toxic relationships, frenzy, and the mental effervescence of two individuals who are highly dependent on each other.
Song Qi was taken in by Song Li as a child. They grew up together, dependent on each other. Song Qi's dependence on his older brother gradually turned into paranoid love and possessiveness, even going so far as to protect him by any means from those who bully him. However, for fear of hurting him, Song Qi has refused the idea of confessing his feelings to Song Li.
In this play, young actors Zhang Yongbo and Liu Xuan Cheng play Song Li and Song Qi, respectively, the gay couple conceived by writer 1 Bite, the author of Bugoo Reading, creator of the literary phenomenon on which it is based, and which goes by the title "Bad Dog".
The relationship between Song Li and Song Qi captivates many viewers with its passionate component, the stormy and problematic, complicated and fiery —in every sense— love relationship between these two boys.
Those behind "Moon and Dust" care little or nothing about the motivations of the possessive and paranoid character. On the contrary, they go all out to highlight his physical beauty, sense of freedom, easy-going nature, people skills, melancholic character, caring spirit, selflessness, loyalty to his partner, and love for the boy he's been linked to for almost his entire life. In short, one doesn't know whether to reject him or want to be his friend.
Its six episodes, each approximately 15 minutes long, tell the story of the complex and deep emotional bond between the cute, shy, insecure, and gentle Song Li and the handsome, obsessive, and affectionate Song Qi, two brothers who met as children and whose friendship evolves over the years into something much deeper.
The story reveals its creator's interest in characters full of complexities, insecurities, and anxieties who must face sad and dramatic moments in their lives in the pursuit of their dreams, which he observes, essentially, through the sensations that accompany their actions.
Much more than studying them from a psychological perspective, 1 Bite is drawn to catching a glimpse of the world of emotions upon which Song Li and Song Qi build the vibrant, stormy, and unstoppable story of their adventures. All this without realizing that what they were looking for was right under their noses all along.
On the other hand, those behind the miniseries are more interested in telling a true story, even though these are often more scandalous than anything you'd see in a work of fiction.
Subjugated by such environments, figures, and sensory states, the creators of Chinese miniseries often walk a —sometimes dangerous— fine line of complicity with their subjects of analysis. This undoubtedly reminds me of other queer series, such as the Chinese "Addicted" and the Taiwanese "Unknown", with which "Moon and Dust" shares its interest in depicting tropes: two brothers not related by blood, one possessive and the other timid, one more open to acknowledging his sexuality and the other afraid to admit his sexual identity, uke older and seme younger.
While the bar is set too high, this new approach to the story of relationships in which one of the two boys in the couple shows toxic, paranoid, and possessive qualities, yet nevertheless possesses a good heart, falls short of the aforementioned series. But this doesn't mean it's not worth appreciating.
Remember that in China, "brother" or "sister" doesn't just mean "sibling", it also means a term of respect or an expression of intimacy and flirtation.
With solid performances by Zhang Yongbo and Liu Xuan Cheng, the series showcases the maturity and subtlety of Chinese BL production, capable of creating a very different impact from similar Taiwanese, Filipino, South Korean, Thai, and other similar products.
'Moon and Dust' will also remind us of other Chinese dramas, such as 'Uncle Unknown' and the Taiwanese 'History 4' and 'The Only One', among others.
With well-chosen music that validates feelings of joy and euphoria, as well as loneliness and melancholy, the series boasts beautiful cinematography and a lack of the overused, overly embarrassing sound effects typically found in most BL dramas.
With only two episodes aired so far, we still have to find out the ending. In case you haven't started watching it yet, we just advise you to have a handful of tissues nearby. Believe me, you'll need them.
I'll come back later to complete the review.
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This review may contain spoilers
This is how it end???
Un-logical ending, un-logical storyline.How can you love someone all your life and refuse to accept their love in return. On top, kick them out of your life when they confess because they don't understand why you proposed to a woman while writing in your journal about him?
So, unless hey doing an other part, this drama ending made no sense at all!!!
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Made Me Feel Icky
Just plain weird. Honestly, there are not many instances that give me the ‘willies’, but watching this series frankly did. Everything about this story left me disquiet. And the way the narrative was fashioned felt like what the two protagonists were somehow involved in, between the two of them, was ‘dirty’. Therefore, the whole drama felt – unclean. Sadly, it did not need to go down that road. Overall, this feels a lot like another stepbrother trope BL series, only more obscenely because the direction made it feel that way. Rather than being an adult story, they made these ‘brothers’ caricatures – one almost angelic while the other demonic. Completely unnecessary. What would have been so wrong with treating them in average terms, more relatable to the everyday world, rather than truncating them into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ personas? Not everything is either a yin or a yang. Why can we not have something more genuine and real for a change that is relatable? The real question here about this series is an obvious rhetorical one: What would have been the outcome of this series if the plot had been that the protagonists were not labeled ‘brothers’ but something less salacious? Would we still want to watch it?Was this review helpful to you?
How many times does one expect the 'cute brothers in love' clickbait to work? Mostly lame
Ok, you were probably like me - jumping into this just looking at China and BL, well, don't. The first episode was pretty lame. The only good thing are the production values and to an extent, the cute boys, But it ends there.BL-needle score: 7.5 Reasonably high BL-ness
I mean how many times does one want to do the step-brother/grown-up together-brothers being in love with each other!! And even if you do, wouldn't all the precedence of it need you to make it extremely compelling for people to want to watch it?? This has none of that. The script is all over the place and so is the logic (ok, I still discounted that since a large number of BLs anyway defy logic). I clicked on it with a lot of interest only to have cold water poured on me. Avoid :/
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AND WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO LEARN TO WRITE THE END WHEN THE SERIES END?????? or should we guess when it's over??? The ending here is illogical, but everything is illogical. Don't drop $100 on a 6 episode series
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Resenha
Não recomendo. Foi um BL que, sinceramente, não me agradou. É curto — e ainda bem que é, porque se fosse mais longo teria sido um sacrifício continuar. A história é confusa, desconfortável e mal desenvolvida. Em vez de explorar um romance de forma sensível ou cativante, o dorama acaba caindo em situações problemáticas que não foram bem tratadas.O único personagem decente foi o irmão mais velho, Song Li, que pelo menos teve a consciência de perceber que tudo aquilo estava errado. Ele foi o único ponto sensato em meio a uma história que parecia não saber muito bem o que queria dizer ou como desenvolver os relacionamentos de forma saudável.
No geral, é um drama que não me trouxe nada de bom. Não senti emoção, conexão nem empatia. Só assisti até o final porque era curto mesmo — e pra poder afirmar com certeza: não vale a pena.
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