Ash

AI is doing too much heavy-lifting...

We all know why AI is used, but in this case, it was used too much. Of course I can't read chinese, but they state in the credits "AICG" and more people work for AI stuff then actors on set, which is a shame. When AI is used not to assist the creative process but to replace human actors/musicians/whatever it breaks a barrier it should not.

The story starts fine, but breaking down when Kingston has to shoot Leo. If a pistol is set on your heart, I doubt a lighter can stop you from dying. That was as unbelievable as it gets. The finale was also lackluster. I also expected a more action oriented finale with a big fight scene, but nope there was nothing. because the cute baddy has to kill himself. Maybe the script was also done by AI or the writer could not imagine another solution. I don't know if "Shawns" body makeup was also done with AI or not, but it did also not look quite right. Production lacked in cinematography and in the audio department. Of course I do not need to rant that some subtitles lines where only shown for a second or two and sorry, I can't read that fast. It's annoying when I have to go back and stop the video to read a damn subtitle, because it breaks immersion.

So while the chemistry and tension between Kingston and Leo are the highlight of this series, the rest is "meh". And because they use AI that much, the series itself is "meh". If you read reviews giving it a 10, because the reviewer can't put away his/her pink glasses and is not able to think about the consequences when AI does replace human actors, it's really a shame. Regardless if I like the use of AI this way or not, it will happen more and more to cut costs and optimize profits. The question is, should we consume such media? Everyone has to answer that question for her/himself but I might research first if a series uses AI in a heavy way. AI will constrain human creativity, because AI can't create something new, it can only combine things that already existed before. We have already too much AI-slob everywhere.

Read More

STOP AI!!!

people have to wake up!!! I don’t care if i’m seen as dramatic but please don’t normalise AI.

it’s not just a few minutes scene, it literally replaced actors. humans. and if you let this slide, companies will keep going, AI will be more powerful and we won’t even recognise/spot the difference between the real things or AI things and many people will lose their own jobs. we only will have AI everywhere, it’s already replacing artists, music, creativity, motivation, people’s work..
(i did see 4 eps not 9 i keep changing it to 4 but it won’t submit it at all…)

Read More

My First Hong Kong BL and What an Epic Premiere. Ash Has Action, Romance, Crime and Insane Chemistry

I grew up watching Hong Kong 🇭🇰 TVB dramas throughout my childhood, so I have always had a special attachment to Hong Kong dramas. When Ash was announced, I was incredibly excited because this is my first Hong Kong BL, and after watching first 3 episodes, I can confidently say this drama has exceeded my expectations. You can watch Ash on Youku or YouTube, with Episode 1 available for free. And despite the “Miniseries” tag, this definitely does not feel like a typical miniseries. Episode 1 is around 50 minutes, Episode 2 is around 45 minutes and Episode 3 is 43 minsutes, so we are getting a proper full length viewing experience.

And WOW, what an epic premiere! I already had a feeling Ash was going to be good after watching the trailer, but the first five episodes completely sold me. This drama gives us action, crime, romance, police investigation, undercover work, fighting, suspense and intense chemistry all in one package. We have Hui Leuk Tou, our CEO, and our undercover police officer. During his undercover operation, the police officer goes by Cheung Wai Keung, complete with his dyed hair and completely different appearance. Once the operation is over and he returns to his life as a police officer, he takes on the identity of Fei Foon. I LOVE this dynamic because it genuinely feels like we are watching two different versions of the same character. The change in appearance, personality and circumstances makes his character so much more interesting.

And then he meets Hui Leuk Tou. Their first encounter, especially the moment their eyes meet, immediately gave me love at first sight vibes. Their fighting scene together was also SO good. The action was well done, and I already knew these two were going to have incredible chemistry. Then we got the white singlets, and that scene alone deserves its own review. 😂 The chemistry between them was so hot and intense, especially when they were taking care of each other’s wounds. The slow romantic music playing in the background made everything feel even more intimate and sensual. And when they lit each other’s cigarettes? THE EYE CONTACT. THE TENSION. THE CHEMISTRY. I also love that this drama does not waste time dragging out the romance. Within the first 30 minutes, we already get an intimate moment and a kiss. There is no endless waiting around or unnecessary dancing around their attraction. The drama knows exactly what we came here for and gives it to us. And that intimate scene with the belt? WOW. The restraints, the kiss, the music and the chemistry all came together so well. It was intense without feeling disconnected from the story.

One of my favourite emotional moments was when they had been missing each other and finally reunited in the alley. I also love how the drama plays with perspective. At the end of Episode 1, we see the events from Hui Leuk Tou’s perspective, and then Episode 2 begins by showing things from Fei Foon’s point of view. That was such a clever choice because we get to understand what both men were experiencing and feeling rather than simply following one side of the story. The flashbacks also work really well and gradually give us more context about their relationship and everything happening around them.

One thing that made me especially happy is hearing both leads speak fluent Cantonese throughout the drama. They are Hong Kong actors and the series was actually filmed in Hong Kong, so seeing the familiar buildings, taxis and streets immediately gave me that nostalgic Hong Kong drama feeling. 🇭🇰 There is something so satisfying about watching a BL that genuinely feels connected to its setting. The Cantonese dialogue makes the interactions feel so much more natural, especially because the actors are using their real voices. Unlike Sammy’s Children’s Day, where the actors’ voices were dubbed, Ash lets us hear the leads speaking in their own voices, which makes the performances feel more authentic and natural to me.

Both actors are absolutely stunning. This is my first time watching Kingston act, and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that he grew up in the UK and Canada while being fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin and English. Pairing him with Leo Peng, who is also a model and actor, was such a good choice. They look incredible together, and their chemistry is already one of the biggest highlights of the series for me. They have the looks, the acting ability and, most importantly, the chemistry.

It is honestly so difficult to find a BL that manages to combine intense kissing scenes with a genuinely interesting plot, good action sequences, fighting, crime, thriller elements and police investigation. Ash is ticking every single box for me. The story is not simply about two men falling in love. There are secrets, dangerous connections, an undercover operation and a much bigger criminal situation unfolding around them. The deeper they get involved, the more complicated their relationship becomes, and that is exactly the kind of BL I love. I want romance, but I also want an actual story that keeps me invested between the romantic scenes.

And we can talk about episode 3? The hair washing, the forehead kisses, the soft cuddles, the sleepy good mornings, the kitchen hugs, grapes fed from one hand to another, white singlets and stolen kisses on the sofa.
Every little moment feels like a love poem, so warm and intimate, like they have already built a little life together.
And then they kissed for so long their sausages got burnt 🥵They are ridiculously hot, ridiculously cute, and so effortlessly married. I could watch hours of them and still never get enough.

If I had to mention one criticism, it is the use of Anime AI in the flashback. Yes, I agree it would have been better to use real actors, but it was less than two minutes and honestly did not take away from my enjoyment of the series. The plot, chemistry, acting and overall production are far more important to me, and this series delivers on all of those. It may also have been a budget decision, and I would rather have a short anime flashback and still get the show than not have the show at all. Plus, this was not Kingston and LeoPeng's decision, so I would hate to see people dropping their ratings over a couple of minutes when these actors worked so hard to bring this story to life.

Ash has exceeded my expectations. It has everything I want from a BL: intense chemistry, gorgeous leads, passionate kissing, romance, action, crime, suspense, undercover police work, fighting and an actual plot that makes me want to know what happens next. Most importantly, it finally gives me something I have been wanting for a long time: a Hong Kong BL that actually feels like a Hong Kong drama. The Cantonese, the locations, the atmosphere, the action and the overall style make this such a refreshing watch.

And those two leads? I am already completely invested in them. Ash gets a 9/10 from me. If you enjoy BLs with strong chemistry, intense romance, action, crime, undercover police work and a more mature atmosphere, PLEASE add this to your watchlist.

Read More

fantastic chemistry with some flawed writing/editing

Overall: an obsessed character I was rooting for, but I wish they had not used AI (it appeared they took out the AI for the final flashback scene perhaps due to feedback). Aired on Youku https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPaeoMTI75s

Content Warnings: murders/deaths, manipulation, kidnapping, beaten up/violence, non con kissing, suicide (shown episode 9 33:45-34:45

What I Liked
- chemistry & dynamic
- intimacy
- mystery
- a character was pretty good at his job
- Leuk To's character growth (I.e. ep 9 "I just want him to be safe")

Room For Improvement
- too much AI usage
- I understood a character was upset, but he did not need to ghost for that long
- nonsense stuff (no way that stopped a bullet, no one suspicious with a lack of blood, etc)
- love rival, could have cut that whole part out to focus more on the relationship
- how they cut the kiss at the end

Read More

vibranium lighters, discombobulated AI, & microphones that belong in the ether.

well, another disappointment for the books. i was first drawn to the scene of mok foi foon handcuffing hui leok to in the alley then it was leo & kingston's real life chemistry that kept my excitement to watch this rumbling.

the production decisions and execution of this BL absolutely overshadowed what this cheap storyline could have been. so many things did not make sense and left me pausing in cringe. firstly, the AI usage in BL is an abomination. its use was brought to new heights when whoever decided that three separate trash AI animations were a good idea. the thing with AI is that it is often easy to differentiate from human work. was the opening credits not enough AI? why did viewers need to see those backwater cartoons? a more lackadaisical approach would always be more favorable over furthering the death of our planet.

i caught a cameraman twice, in aired episodes. the opening fighting scenes were not believable. at one point of the first fight with the leads a table was thrown at one of the goons and they just softly fell over. all of the wounds inflicted onto a character were never actually visually represented. so, hui being cut by a machete in the first episode never even happened, for example. uncle to's finger cut was obviously fake; the actor bent his finger backwards and the cut finger did not even look realistic either. the script dialogue in the first few episodes was of low quality; meaning generic AF. the microphone quality was a disgrace. every episode the audio captured sounded too low, too loud, in or out focus, or dubbed over. several of the episodes ended on something in between a conclusion and a cliffhanger which i have never seen before, like in episode four. at one point, foon PRETENDED to light a cigarette. for what? then he pretended to light it again some minutes later. when foon shot leok to point blank with a real bullet, they wanted to sell to the viewer that a LIGHTER could stop that. what? how about when foon came back to see if leok to was still alive. huh? that shot should have killed him and you would have been coming back to a corpse. who wrote that and do i need to say more? at this point of my watch career, it is like i need to treat BL like trashy television instead of professional work creatives should be proud of.

the acting in this was subpar. the intimacy was mediocre especially the kissing. i only felt butterflies once and that was during the beautiful morse code scene [i do not know morse code, hope it was correct]. hui coming upon foon's body was probably the best scene in this entire work. sing, leo & some of the older actors were the only compelling storytellers in this. leo and kingston have a more convincing romantic relationship in reality comparatively. their being in love was not sold to me at all. by the end, their feelings were more authentic feeling but otherwise, them loving each other did not have enough build up or logic. kingston needs to do more work as his partner delivered on the nuances of acting well for it being his first drama too.

to conclude, if you like low budget dribble soaked in low effort delivery with substance-less exchanges then this is for you.

Read More

I Almost Dropped It — I’m So Glad I Didn’t

Review after finale:
Ash had one of the strongest turnarounds of any drama I’ve watched recently. I nearly gave up in the first couple of episodes because some of the production choices were actively working against the story: the dubbing did not always match the actors’ lip movements, the music was often wildly tonally wrong for romantic or intimate scenes, and there were a few strange old-fashioned comic-strip/AI-style sequences that felt completely disconnected from the visual language of the rest of the drama.

Thankfully, those problems became much less noticeable as the series continued, because the actual story just kept getting better.

At its core, Ash is not simply a romance with a crime plot attached. The police investigation, organized crime, family loyalties, corporate power struggles, undercover work, and romance become increasingly intertwined, and the story grows more complicated without becoming difficult to follow. Mok Fei Foon is an especially strong protagonist: intelligent, resourceful, emotionally grounded, and consistently written as someone who actually thinks his way through dangerous situations rather than surviving because the script suddenly makes everyone around him stupid.

The relationship between Fei Foon and Hui Leuk To is complicated, beautiful, messy, and central. Their chemistry is excellent from the beginning, but it is not dependent on kissing or NC scenes. It is there when they argue, talk quietly, walk beside each other, or simply look at one another. As the story progresses, their relationship gains real emotional weight because of everything they have gone through separately and together.

The supporting characters are also more important than I expected, particularly Shawn, whose role becomes increasingly important to both the crime story and Fei Foon and Hui Leuk To’s relationship.

The early production hiccups keep this from being flawless for me, and I thought the finale could have landed with slightly more emotional force. But overall, Ash became a genuinely compelling crime drama with a strong romance at its center, excellent chemistry, and two leads who carry increasingly demanding material very well.

Happy ending for anyone who needs to know before watching.

Update at episode 5: it gets better as it goes. Even the music is better. The story is awesome, the acting is great, and the chemistry between leads is outstanding.

Initial review after a few episodes:
I watched the available episodes and I like the premise; it is genuinely good. I haven’t had a cop show to watch in a long time. I love the tension. The chemistry is outstanding. The actors are handsome and are perfect for their respective roles. It is interesting and the plot pulls you in fast, not to mention the delicious tension between the leads right out of the gate.

BUT…

The music is the worst. And I don’t mean in a “well I don’t like that song” way but in a “this music choice is so mismatched with what is happening on screen it is actively pulling me out of the story” way. I stopped halfway through episode 2 because it is jarring. I picked it up again, but for now I’m left wondering who chose this music and if they watched a playback of the screen-ready scenes before they released it. The music playing during romantic or NC scenes is especially mismatched.

If you aren’t sound sensitive, the music might not bother you. But the tonal mismatch I’m finding hard to ignore. It isn’t enough for me to drop it - yet.

Read More

Full-length True Hong Kong BL with an Interesting romance, but with low budget production issues

I am happy to check out “Ash” as my first full-length Hong Kong BL, played by actual Hong Kong actors who speak Cantonese. I’ve seen a few short ones, e.g. “Stay Still”, but it’s a nice change from all the Chinese ones who claimed to be from Hong Kong.

It’s a low budget BL, so my expectations are low. There are definitely areas I can pick on. I think the pacing is on the slower side. There’s more they could pack into 9 episodes in terms of the plot. But instead, we have extended looks and conversations that don’t really add much to the plot. The acting is average. I’ve seen worse, definitely, but I wouldn’t call the acting amazing here. However, since we are talking about first-time actors, we could probably cut them some slack. Kingston’s acting is probably the best of the bunch. The police aren't that smart. The undercover sting operation is laughable, but let’s give this opportunity for Kingston to shine. Well, the biggest complaint and elephant in the room is the AI-generated flashbacks. I am on the more lenient side with the use of AI in low-budget production but that doesn’t mean I am not going to dock a point off my overall rating.

On the positive side, I am really digging the romance. Yes, the chance encounter and the start of their story was cheesy and intentionally rom-com like. But the progression of their relationship is interesting. I like that both are strong individuals with their own stubbornness and perception of their relationship. Given their socio-economical differences and especially Mok Fei Foon’s profession as a cop and Hui Leuk To as the CEO of a big company, you know their relationship is not all rainbows and roses. I like the argument and confrontation, the harsh words spoken and the guilt after. The push-and-pull and the separate-and-not-separate going back and forth. I like that they are both so incredibly in love with each other, yet trying not to, or don’t know how to show that until they are facing dangers to their relationship and lives. Hui Leuk To might have a learning curve on how to be a good lover, but I like that he’s possessive but not truly a toxic partner. In a way, their relationship is actually pretty fun, sweet and open (after the first couple episodes).

My other complaint is the kisses! LOL The leads have such great chemistry and they look so good together. There are so many loving looks, longing looks and hungry looks. Yet, their kisses are mainly very sweet and cute. I love them, too, but I think there are a few scenes where a more passionate kiss is called for. They could have gone further with the ‘passionate’ scenes but they didn’t. I also am not a fan of them always wearing the white tank tops. They should just go topless. But of course, that’s just my personal pet peeve.

Overall, I have a good time watching “Ash”. I like the good-looking leads and the romance, thus I am giving this a high 8.0. I thought about lowering the rating a little more, but it’s a celebration of my first true full-length Hong Kong BL in Cantonese and not dubbed, especially for a Cantonese speaker myself.


Drama Completed: 10/4/2026 Review #728

Read More

I Came for Vincent and Fei Foon, Stayed for the Plot

Yes, AI was used in some scenes. I tallied it up, and including the intro, those scenes barely total 15 minutes.

There have already been a million comments about this during the on airs, so I'm not going to spend this review debating the broader AI controversy. I do, however, want to talk about whether its use actually added anything to the story, because I think that's a more interesting question from an artistic perspective. I'll get into that later.

But if you're here for a good time, handsome men, guns, high stakes, and enough angst to keep you emotionally invested for nine episodes... stick around.

My First BL
Ash was my very first BL, and not for one moment do I regret it. As a C-drama/K-drama lover, I typically avoid watching shows while they're airing because I prefer to binge everything without the stress of waiting for the next episode. Somehow, Ash broke that rule. The drama had fun TikTok edits, so I thought, Why not? Before I knew it, I had watched the first two episodes and was spending the next two months anxiously waiting for Fridays so I could get my hands on the next episode. The addiction got so bad that I started watching reaction videos from the male leads and even their livestreams. I was hooked.

Now, onto the characters and plot, without giving too much away.

***Minor Plot Spoilers Ahead***

Vincent/Hui Leok To
Let's start with Vincent/Hui Leok To because... wow.
He is probably the most delicious looking male lead I've had the privilege of ogling. I could write an entire epistle about his looks, but I'll keep it simple: the camera literally could not find a bad angle.
And the versatility! Look out for the CEO look, the college heartthrob look, and, of course, the heartbroken look. Every era somehow came with its own flavour of handsome.

Character wise, however? Vincent, my man, please learn to think before you speak. This man acts and speaks first and thinks later, and it inevitably comes back to bite him in the ass. You wouldn't know he was a lovestruck fool if he could just keep his mouth shut for five minutes. Halfway through the show, I had written an entire mental epistle listing all his offences and explaining why Fei Foon absolutely did not deserve to be subjected to this man. And yet... Only a saint like Fei Foon could love him. However, he did finally redeem himself which I’m glad about.

Fei Foon
Fei Foon, on the other hand, is a baddie. A classic beauty that put the term “damsel in distress” to shame. I loved him through every era: thug, cop, wanted criminal... every time he appeared on my screen in a new phase of his life, I genuinely thought, Surely he cannot get any more handsome and somehow, he did.

Character wise, Fei Foon was the more consistent of the two. You could tell that all of his patience, tolerance and softness were reserved for one particular person: Vincent. Regardless of how undeserving Vincent was. Regardless of how many times Vincent hurt him. Regardless of how much frustration this man caused... One simple "I'm sorry" and Fei Foon would be right back there.
Sigh! Fei Foon. Please stand up. But honestly, that's also what made their relationship so compelling.

The Plot
One of the things I loved most about Ash was that romance wasn't the sole focus of the story. It wasn’t just a story of two handsome men falling in love or lust… There was an actual plot involving both Fei Foon's and Vincent's worlds, and those worlds eventually became a source of conflict for their relationship. I loved trying to make increasingly ridiculous guesses about where the story was going with every episode. And the funniest part? I was actually wrong surprisingly often. I also appreciated that there weren't really any wasted characters. Almost everyone who appeared on screen served a purpose, whether it was moving the main plot forward or contributing to the romance.

As someone who grew up watching Hong Kong shows, I also enjoyed seeing elements of familiar Hong Kong storytelling and culture woven into the drama: wealthy families treating marriage as a transaction, the concept of mistresses, pineapple buns, and other little details that made the world feel familiar.

The Limitation of Nine Episodes
This is probably the biggest "what if?" I have about Ash. With only nine episodes, each running around 45 minutes, I think the production team had to make some very difficult decisions about what to show and what to cut. And in many cases, I felt they chose to tell rather than show. We get glimpses of so many different storylines and character histories that, in a longer drama, could probably have been expanded into episodes of their own. There was so much potential sitting underneath the surface. Ms. H is probably the best example of this for me. We're told that she is this incredibly tough woman who is willing to sacrifice even her own family in her pursuit of power. That's a pretty ruthless description. But when I actually watched Ms. H on screen, I sometimes struggled to reconcile the character we were told she was with the character I was actually seeing. This is where I really wish the drama had had more time to show us her deeds rather than tell us about them. Give me the scenes. Show me what she did. Let me watch her make those decisions and see the consequences. Let me understand for myself why everyone is so afraid of her and Ms. H isn't the only example.

I would have loved to see more of coming to terms with internalised homophobia, the psychological toll of being undercover or how watching the people you love being killed by your own family shapes you as a person. These are the kinds of things that were touched upon, but there was clearly much more underneath them. Honestly, I could probably name several other storylines that made me think, "If this were a 16–24 episode drama, this could be an entire episode on its own." But at the same time, I don't necessarily see this as a failure of the drama. It's the limitation of the format.

The production team had a finite amount of time and had to decide which parts of the story deserved the most screen time. Given that constraint, this may simply be the best version of Ash we were going to get and I'm totally fine with that. Would I have loved more? Absolutely! Do I think the story suffered because some things were told rather than shown? Maybe? But did it stop me from enjoying the drama? Not even remotely.

The Use of AI
I think it's important to talk about the use of AI in Ash, but I want to approach it from the perspective of artistic valuerather than the broader debate around AI.

The question for me is simple: Did the use of AI bring something to the story that traditional human effort couldn't have achieved? In Ash, I unfortunately don't think it did. There were two particularly important scenes where AI was used to introduce the backstories of major characters and for me, these were probably the worst places to use it because these scenes were supposed to carry emotional weight. Rather than being absorbed in what I was being shown and feeling the emotional significance of these moments, I found myself going oh that’s what happened but emotions wise I was unmoved. The emotional impact I should have felt was therefore almost nonexistent which saddens me as I believe those were very important moments.

Ironically, I think this is one of those situations where telling rather than showing might actually have worked better. Earlier, I talked about the limitations of having only nine episodes and how the production team sometimes had to choose between showing us something and simply telling us about it. In these particular scenes, I think leaning into that approach could have preserved more of the emotional weight. Sometimes, you don't need to physically show a character's past for the audience to feel it. A well written conversation, narration, flashback using the actual cast, or even carefully constructed dialogue can allow the audience to fill in the gaps themselves. Our imagination can sometimes do a better job than a visually distracting representation.

So while I don't have an issue with the mere existence of AI in the production, I do question the artistic decision to use it in these particular moments. For me, the issue isn't simply "AI was used." It's "Did using AI make this scene better?"
In these two cases, I personally don't think it did.

The Romance
Another thing I really liked was that we don't begin with the two leads meeting for the first time and slowly falling in love. They're already in some form of relationship when the story begins. That's not something you see as often in dramas, where the usual formula is: they meet, they fall in love, obstacles happen, they get together, happily ever after. Ash does things differently. In fact, the nature of the "relationship" between Vincent and Fei Foon is itself an important part of the plot. And I really enjoyed that.

Were There Plot Holes?
Hmm… Episode 7, I'm looking directly at you. Would I call this a plot hole or a poorly reasoned concept? We all know the scene I'm talking about. 👀 Was I questioning the laws of physics and common sense? Absolutely. Did I still keep watching? Obviously.

At some point, you just have to suspend your disbelief and let the fiction do its thing. Thankfully, for me, this moment wasn’t enough to detract from the overall story.

The Directing/Editing
In some scenes, the choice of the cut had me questioning the skill level of the director/edit team. For the NC scenes, I’m willing to forgive as I can convince myself maybe censorship led to them making questionable choices as to how to show them. If you watch the BTS clips, you would know how much better they were and those scenes never made thee Final Cut. However, for actual scenes that had nothing to do with the NCs I was so annoyed about the continuity errors. I don’t want to be nit picky but surely the edit team could have done better….

Final Thoughts
Ash will always have a special place in my heart because it was my very first BL and honestly? What a way to enter the genre. I came into this drama expecting to watch a couple of episodes because of fun clips I saw on TikTok. Instead, I ended up spending two months looking forward to Fridays, watching reaction videos, checking out livestreams, obsessing over the characters, and developing very strong opinions about a fictional man's inability to keep his mouth shut. The emotions it evoked inside me reminded me of when I was 8 years old watching Mexican telenovelas with my mom. The cliffhangers every episode almost drove me crazy. I found myself watching episodes multiple times which is something I’ve never done for any airing shows .

So no, there will be no downscoring from me
I also desperately want to see Leo and Kingston on my screen together again, so if this drama does well enough to make that happen, I'll consider it a personal victory.

10/10 solely because of the actors and the plot.

And did I mention that I LOVE the intro song?

Read More

The Potential Was There

I won't discuss the AI usage or the actors' looks, as the former has been discussed extensively here and the latter adds zero value to the plot. As my title suggests, this show had immense potential that went unrealized by the finale.

The series has two interesting elements going for it:

👮🏻 The Tumultuous Romance 🧑🏻‍💼
This dynamic involves two key players:
• Fei Foon: A brilliant undercover cop taking on dangerous missions.
• Hui Leuk To (Vincent): A wealthy, closeted young CEO with appearances to keep up. He hooks up with Fei Foon (initially mistaking him for a criminal) and eventually falls in love with him, while simultaneously battling severe internalized homophobia.

IMO, this show would have benefited greatly from diving deeper into these two characters, their romance, and their psyches. I wanted to see how Fei Foon dealt with his feelings every time Vincent hurt him. Vincent was physically violent toward Fei Foon twice when threatened with exposure. The struggle of loving a man who refuses to be seen with you due to internalized homophobia deserved more screen time.

Furthermore, we missed seeing how Vincent dealt with his feelings—not just toward Fei Foon, but also regarding the burden of his family’s underworld ties. That said, his internalized homophobia and selfishness were the most interesting parts of the show for me. He loves and cares for his boyfriend but dares not be seen with him. He sees no issue with marrying a woman for appearances while keeping Fei Foon a secret. Let's also not forget his violent tendencies when backed into a corner about their relationship. Vincent consistently puts himself first until Fei Foon finally leaves without a word, forcing him to realize his mistakes.

Unfortunately, the drama’s frequent time jumps do a disservice to the romance. Because many major milestones and emotional turning points happen off-screen, the emotional beats feel shallow. I will not deny that these two had some really cute moments when they were happy. It just felt a little empty when I remembered all the things that'd been glossed over

🔫 The Organized Crime Aspect 🔫
This plotline had so many layers: Fei Foon's undercover assignment, Vincent's family mafia history, and the Eastern Hall + Shwan counterfeit money business. Done well, it could have been an engaging blend of crime, thriller, and romance. Yet, the show somehow managed to make it incredibly boring. Whether it was the script, the acting, the odd makeup, or a combination of all three, the crime elements failed to hold my attention. It is incredibly disappointing because I could feel the potential just out of reach—blocked by poor execution.

Final Thoughts
Would I recommend this...? Truthfully, I don't know. I left a note for myself at the end of episode 7 stating, "The last two episodes have been such a bore. And I'm really not warming up to Vincent. He's like a possessive child who doesn't like the word no." Looking back, the story started going downhill for me after episode 5. Between the boring crime plot and a romance I couldn't connect with, the whole thing just left me disappointed in what it could have been. I'll likely never rewatch this

Read More

The Chemistry Did the Heavy Lifting

Ash had the ingredients for a compelling crime romance: an undercover police officer, a businessman connected to the criminal underworld, and two men falling for each other while hiding the truth about who they really are. Their relationship could have been a natural extension of the suspense, with attraction, mistrust and conflicting loyalties all working against them.

Unfortunately, I never felt that the writing made the most of that potential. The romance and the crime storyline often felt as though they were competing for space rather than strengthening each other. The criminal investigation and power struggles should have given the story a sense of urgency, but I found myself increasingly disengaged from the actual plot. Even when the stakes were high, the writing didn't always make the developments feel convincing or particularly impactful.

What kept me watching was Leo Peng Ziye and Kingston Yi Xuan. Their chemistry is incredible, and they bring an energy to their scenes together that the writing doesn't consistently manage to sustain on its own. Whether they're flirting, clashing or simply sharing a moment, there's something about their dynamic that kept me invested even when the story didn't.

In fact, I might be even more interested in their interactions outside the series than in the relationship they portray on screen. Their behind-the-scenes dynamic has only made me more curious about them as a duo, and I'd genuinely love to see them work together again — ideally in a project with a stronger script that gives them more to work with.

For me, Ash is a case of the leads carrying a story that never quite lives up to its own potential. I finished it because I wanted to see more of Leo and Kingston, not because the plot had me desperate to find out what happened next.

Read More