Completed in 2025

Oh, this was good; I regret waiting to watch it for so long. I'm glad I went in not really knowing much, and while I definitely have a preferred interpretation for the ending, I did like how open it was. The perspective change/time skip towards the end was a little jarring (I genuinely think I blinked and missed it), but other than that, I really liked the married couple's relationship; the eerie tone throughout (there were some comedic moments that I also liked); and the way this movie chose to dole out bits of information. I do wish I could have been watching this as just another one of Lee Sun Kyun's roles instead of one of his last ones, but I appreciated seeing him on screen again. He always made it look effortless and had a way of immediately drawing viewers in that is sorely missed.

This was nice! I did do a I Told Sunset About You rewatch right before but this was lovely coming off of that.

I watched this just in time for the leads to leave their company :') Anyway, this is the first Thai GL I ever finished and binged. The leads were so good together. I absolutely loved the weaponization of "guy with a guitar". Wa being so level-headed was also a treat, and the reveal for Four was pretty cute. Also the little sister! Drama little siblings tend to be annoying, but that was never an issue here. I loved whenever she would pop up and was genuinely glad to see her again after her brief disappearance.

So sorry I let this sit on a shelf for two years! While I've never seen so many people so willfully determined to be unhappy, I sped through this in a week. This reminded me of all the things I liked about Boys Over Flowers (rollercoaster ride pacing, good callbacks, so 2009 it hurts) but by way of The Love You Give Me. I loved the leads even when they were getting on my nerves and also their kid was so cute. I did fast forward through some of the SML's scenes for the Ci Xin plot since that is when he was at peak nuisance (also why didn't he just call the freaking cops?!) but once he and everyone were all focused on making the leads stop misunderstanding each other, he was fine. Oh, also this is maybe the only time I've seen these big family member betrayals work out in a way that them being forgiven felt believable and I actually wanted everyone to be one big  happy family instead of going no contact.

This definitely felt like a webtoon with many subplots shaved off to fit into a two hour movie (things that felt like this: intern guy, FL's mom, FL's friend/that guy, the way the ex-girlfriend just kind of walked out of the movie), but overall I really liked it. The missing parts mostly felt like extras and not like I was getting half a story like most webtoon adaptations. The cute moments were surprisingly cute, and the other moments were also surprisingly good at being those too. I also just really liked these leads? I've never seen them in main roles (and I'm only passingly familiar with them from their idol days, their groups and I are like ships passing in the night) so I was expecting some growing pains but no, liked them right away, could have watched them even just working in an office for hours. Anyway, another one I'm sorry I let sit on the shelf for so long.

These leads! A secret kid (well, kids) plot! Only a couple episodes spent wondering if this ML tried to kill the FL's dad instead of it being the whole show like it usually is! Also the Maid's Revenge music popping back up again! Anyway, this was good. A little draggy once we transitioned into the 'okay now that we've solved most of the present day problems, it's time to dig up old problems' section of shows like this but again, thankfully it was pretty short.

Another absolutely crushing installment in this series.

Cute, but a little slow, which was how I felt about the manga too.

It was torture watching this because my interest in these shows almost immediately takes a nose dive a few episodes in due to my inability to latch onto contestants who don't get voted off, but I did manage to finish it since I didn't want to start another, possibly even longer show for the watch challenge I was doing.  I don't know if I could ever actually finish another season but I would at least attempt it! I liked the judges and the majority of the contestants all seemed so polite and competent. Even if I could do with shorter episodes, it is really a joy to watch people with these skills (I'm envious of a lot but the knife skills! especially the knife skills!) cook in such interesting ways.

Nice to see the guy from Isa Pa With Feelings again! I always get a little worried about this premise (because I am worried it will end sadly, and I cry easily) but this was pretty cute for most of the time. The reveal was a bit ruined by my recognizing the male lead too soon; I thought one thing was going on when I should have just waited so I wouldn't be disappointed by what was actually going on, but that's on me. The ending was a little unsatisfying for me, but I can imagine how someone would really like how open (and more than a little sad) it is.

I knew this was going to be watching a couple I really like have a terrible time (and it was!), but I think I liked it as much as I could. Not as much as the first part but I was still invested. I think my problem with this one is that the world felt a little empty? Maybe that's just city life vs. rural life but it was about the time the old friends all got back together that I realized I could barely remember the names of most of Teh or Oh-aew's new friends, let alone what they were like. Maybe I'll really appreciate this on a rewatch someday.

I really liked the look and sound of this, and the leads were great. It's probably by design given how one thread of this movie is how unreliable your perspective of a situation can be, but whenever I got glimpses of other characters (or well...just the dissertation professor), I found myself wanting a bit more of that.

Very nice to see the Maid's Revenge leads together again! These little mini melodramas are not masterpieces, but they are pretty fun.

Dai Gao Zheng is why I picked this up. He still looks and acts like he was created in a lab to be in these, no notes. I did miss his co-star from Forever Love and Maid's Revenge, but this actress wasn't bad, just different. This, of course, had a big family murder mystery plot but I just couldn't care about it. Much less of that, much more of the plot with the villain, who was a delight to watch. I did feel really bad for him instead of him just being an evil crazy guy like what seems to be the norm with these. His revenge was very misdirected, but it's against the law to just talk with people so I get it. Still, ML had two hands and always seemed on board with having his wife and boyfriend sworn brother side-by-side, so even though it couldn't have ended that way, I still kind of wish it did. The ending was also a little abrupt? Maybe a side effect of there being so many characters popping in and out of a plot with very little time for all of them, but I would have liked a little bit more time between the villain's death, the little scene with his sidekick, and then babies ever after for the leads and the two people who were just around to make the leads jealous for a bit.

This had an okay start, an iffy middle, and then an ending that was somewhere in between. Some quick rankings:

Lead Couples: Faifa/Wine > Arc/Arm > Yotha/Gun

Couple OSTs: "Love Suspect" >>>> "No One Else" > "Trial Love"

Side Characters (by each set of eight episodes): Part 1 >>>>>> Part 2 > Part 3

I didn't dislike any of the lead couples, but Yotha's, and to a much lesser extent Arm's "is it really love, how can I know when I was broken up with before" thing was tiresome. I was so happy once I realized that Faifa hadn't ever dated anyone and Wine wasn't the one who was broken up with, since it meant everyone could finally talk about something else. Also it was nice to watch two people date without one of them sabotaging themselves, purposefully (Yotha, there were times where I literally had no idea what he was even trying to do) or not (Arm).

The side characters and focus/connection between them and the leads is where this show fell flat for me. The first eight episodes had a huge cast between the Perfect 10 Liners, Arm's friends, and Arc's friends, and I felt like I got to know all of them. They go to school together and interact. Gun's friends were around for his eight episodes, but had little to do with the people Yotha knows. By the time we got to the last eight episodes, Yotha's acquaintances are still hanging around even though most of them have even less to do with Faifa, and Wine's friends were like wallpaper. Every time the show stopped to check in at the bar or see what Klao and Wa were doing during the last eight episodes, it felt disconnected from the story. I did like how often I could play "where do I know this person from" but why are all these people here if it's not in service of telling a story about the people whose group name is the title of the show? 

Very fun! This is definitely not a live action adaptation where nobody is trying. Everyone here wants to be as over the top and crazy as the characters they're portraying and it really helps sell all of the various games and monologues.

Fun, but missing something. I've seen the leads in other shows (Exo Next Door, Racket Boys) and liked them here too. I might have even liked the second couple a bit more but I'm biased because I've had eyes for Kwak Si Yang since his quiet guy with a crush role in Oh My Ghostess. I did think that this felt...maybe shortened is the word? I'm sure there's someone out there who is glad this was only 12 episodes in a world where everything is longer with a sequel for $$$, but I'd have liked more time for side character interactions and pre-accident flashbacks. The grandmother was always going to be a hard sell for me because I knew that her redemption scene was just going to be "I'm sorry for being terrible for so long, there's no way to fix this. Anyway I'm your grandma" but maybe I'd have been more willing to buy into it if I had any idea about the dynamics between her and ML's dad/mom, or even her and ML, before the accident. Like was she ever even remotely nice or even normal to ML? To her husband? To her son?  If so, I'd have liked to have seen it so that I could imagine why ML would even want to work this hard.

I would say "are vampires back" but I think I've never really gotten good vampires out of any dramas. Maybe 2025 can be the year, starting with this? This was great and also had a nice surprise story-wise.

I almost dropped this because it took a while for the story to really start (which was by design) but I'm glad I stayed with it. This was good but also very sad.

Oh hey, one of the guys from Egoist was here. Weird. Anyway, is it possible that Kiwatari acting like a total lunatic is what keeps this series on the rails? The reveal of his "look at the pretty flower" thing being a bit he was doing was so funny, and very welcome after season 2 which, like him after joining The Village, was kind of boring.  I'm sure whatever it is The Village is doing is super gripping and compelling in the manga but I can't even begin to imagine caring about it. Also they have Inuhachi who is somehow the only person in this entire series who manages to be annoying. Overall, this movie went back to what was good about this to begin with: people being crazy about gambling (special mention to Inuhachi's kidnapper, who turned out to be the craziest of all), Yumeko and Suzui teaming up (well, as much as Suzui can, anywhere else he'd be the whiny main character guy, but this series puts him in his rightful place as sidekick), and Mary having things to do.

Watching this felt like someone showing me the abbreviated version of a longer drama. This is not always bad; I think I got everything out of this that I was going to get out of it at its current length. Leads were fine (the one with the personality disorder reminds me of someone...just can't place it though), side characters all did their part, the ending song is going on my playlists... It can be that simple sometimes.

For me, this needed to be sillier; it was a rough watch of something I've already seen. First time watching TayNew acting instead of playing around on a variety show so that was fun. I did like the additions to the story for Rock and Pai. Nice to see where Junior and Mark came from, though I don't think this plot worked for them. It's an age gap couple, but Junior is a whopping one year older than Mark, even if he's wearing big glasses.

Man, I miss f(x). Anyway, I liked this well enough. Krystal is fun, and I haven't seen Kim Jae Wook play a guy who didn't belong in prison since Coffee Prince. The villains were all pretty dumb, but that didn't hurt my watching experience too much.

This started strong and then got kind of confusingly edited/paced after episode 6. I think this was because this show does have a reveal so they couldn't just put those events in chronological order, but wow did it make it difficult to follow. The leads were good though, and I did like the premise. These never really get to be longer but that probably would have helped. Still happy I watched it, a little sad I let it sit on my PTW list for so long.

"I have not seen Bed Friend so I didn't have any idea about anybody else, those guys seemed alright I suppose." -- me when writing my thoughts on The Middleman's Love

Okay now having watched those guys for about ten hours, I think I would have been okay not knowing more. I don't think there's anything wrong with the leads (they look good separately/together), but the pacing/handling of the non-FWB plots was just weird. Obviously we couldn't leave any of the make out sessions out (only partially a joke), but the remaining time was not used wisely. It felt like we were speeding along just fine, and then nothing was happening in any of the plots for like five episodes, only for King to basically press a button that made all the bad people go away (Uea's mom, step-father, uh..the boss they had? I've watched two series about this company and I couldn't tell you anything about the structure) or decide they just changed their minds about what they wanted (King's mom). Granted by the last episodes, I wasn't complaining about things not being drawn out, but I also wouldn't have complained if these developments had just taken place over the course of all the episodes relatively equally (or well, over the course of all but the last episode, and then last episode is a victory lap/proposal episode). The only other character that really stood out to me is Jade and....man did I not remember how much of an acquired taste that guy is. I know I watched a whole series just about him and it was fine but I think whatever immunity I gained from that has worn off, and I did find myself fondly remembering how quiet Yim's character was in Cutie Pie. Still, the Tutor cameo moment at the end was cute.

Another absolutely tragic case of 'this actually isn't a romance' that seems to follow me around whenever I find a jdrama to watch. Anyway, I liked this! The mysteries were interesting, and also I felt very smart when I could figure out what happened before ML did. This would probably be a 7.5 if I didn't watch it with the looming specter of knowing the FL isn't in the sequels.

This was a fun and quick watch with some actresses that I really like seeing. The ending is right on the cusp for me since I do love commitment to a bit (I did find it pretty funny) but I also would have liked things to be wrapped up. It's definitely not that kind of show though. 

I would like to see everyone here in something else with a little bit more going on. I think this would be a great starter BL though.

Not as fun as the first season. I really do like watching these characters talk but it just felt like there was not a lot going on, and characters just kept showing up with no time to really go into them. It did feel a bit like my fault for not watching the anime or reading the manga but...I don't want to watch the anime or read the manga, I want to watch the live action.

I think I had a copy of this lying around because I was just saving anything that was tagged with Takarazuka. Anyway, not a bad watch; this felt like something I might have caught part of on TV and been too hypnotized by how pretty it looks to change the channel. I might go find one of the many translations out there because I kept getting confused with the back and forth between the Genji story and the Murasaki story, and after two hours I am interested in how this story is supposed to go. Could have done without these odd musical interludes that kept popping up.

Not as well told as the first season or the special. I preferred Emi's story over Runa's since it just felt like there was more to it. Ths is my first time seeing a cult in any drama, but putting that alongside the sex industry felt right. Runa's story felt a little empty in comparison, made worse by her half having the cameos in it, so that I spent some time wishing I was still watching their stories instead. It also suffered from having Hayato played by a guy with no presence whatsoever, to where even though I was interested in seeing the idol industry through this story's lens, I didn't even want it at the cost of him being around more. Unlike every other instance in this show where I am fooled by a romantic set up that I know will not work out, I was just waiting for this guy to quit making her life worse and go away.

I really liked both of the leads, with Hyeri really carrying this (very surprisingly, I've only seen her in Two Cops and a bit of Schoolgirl Detectives, this role was not like those roles), and overall the show was great until maybe episode 9 or 10? After that, I had no idea what was going on. With so many "no, but you see this was actually part of a plan that we agreed to earlier"/"but actually, they already knew this because of a hidden camera" reveals, it was hard to care about what was going on in the main plot, since every ten minutes it was all fake or half fake or someone knew something the whole time or whatever. I finished this since I wanted to see where everyone ended up (I was way more interested in the side plots than the main one).

Creepy, but I also don't think I really got it. There is probably a fairly scary manga out there that people probably like a lot more than this adaptation.

I needed much, much, much less of the side characters. Still a good watch for the leads and also if you like watching people cook.

This maybe should not have had romance in the title; it was a little lacking in that aspect. The relationship between the leads was kind of odd. Now, MC was kind of like looking into a mirror for me, so I can understand how it turns out that the guy he's liked since college doesn't seem that special to me, because that's just kind of how that is. The person you've secretly liked since college is special to you, and explaining what's so great about them to anyone who doesn't have the same unique blend of experiences is kind of impossible and besides the point. But that aside, that guy was just kind of strange? I think the thing about him suddenly offering life insurance (?) to MC was such a weird moment that it soured me on him early on, and then even them talking it out was weird too. Their relationship just seemed like "I love you" (romantic)/"Same bro" (platonic), and never seemed to go beyond that (possibly because we're so stuck in MC's head but like...you have to give the audience something we can notice even if MC can't, I think), and then the lockdown really limited how much characters could literally do, so after about an hour, it just felt like the movie was spinning its wheels until it ended. Having seen a few of these found footage-y rom coms that came out of this era, the ending was kind of disappointing. I'm assuming they just weren't able to film a meeting, but like...the leads have to meet up, it seems crazy that they had the weakest "oh I always knew" conversation (still felt like "I love you, bro" to me) and then the movie just ended. I did like the conversations between MC and the friend, and I am a sucker for this concept, even if it wasn't a vehicle for anything that great.

I don't know, I didn't even like The Sixth Sense,  and maybe that's what this was going for? I think I would have liked just a more straightforward horror movie; (what I could see of) the scarier scenes were pretty well set up. I did want to know what was going on the entire time, but then it ended and I still feel like I'm just waiting to find out what was going on. The leads were fine, no one else really stood out mainly because I feel like I could never get a good glimpse of any of them (one of them died (maybe?) and when their body was found I wasn't shocked because I had no idea who it was). I almost want to say maybe this would better if it was shorter/tighter but I think that version exists and people aren't crazy about that either so who knows.

Nice to see the guy from AI Love You/Pee Mak and one of the leads from The Secret of Us again! Anyway, this had a very cute lead couple with a plot that was paced pretty good for the first couple of episodes, and then stalled until the last half. The show kind of tried to do episodic (various events at this foundation that helps victims of abuse) and one big story (overarching plot tied to multiple generations of abuse and social connections between abusers and victims) without having the time to do both/transition smoothly from one to the other. I can't say I wanted this to be longer, but that might have helped.

I had high hopes for this one since it's one of those classics that I've never seen, but a lot of fast forwarding happened here. I couldn't care about the arranged marriage plot or any of the ML's rich family problems at all. I also don't think I liked the leads that much? Once they were properly together it was a bit more bearable (granted I was crying non-stop at that point so that might have helped), but I wasn't invested in the process of them getting together. I did enjoy when the focus was on pretty much anyone else: the mom and her second chance love story; the younger cancer patient with her crush; the tango club; even the leads just with other people like FL with her best friend and the eventual friendship between ML and  SML. And speaking of him, the doctor was the main character who kept me from dropping this. I know FL wanted the kind of whirlwind romance she got with ML, but I just wasn't buying it, whereas I was immediately sold on "we met as classmates, she was my first love, 25 years later we're meeting again as doctor and patient". I also would rather watch a doctor doing doctor things than a business guy doing business things.

This isn't a bad movie but the lead is a guy who is too dumb to know his own birthday without pulling out his ID card. It's not the first thing that happens (it's in fact much closer to the end of the movie) but it did feel very character defining. Nothing really stood out about this one, it was just okay.

Oh, the things I've watched for Johnny Huang. This needed to be about 10-15 episodes shorter. Highlights were Johnny Huang still looking like Johnny Huang, and the bad guy absolutely losing his mind for the last six or so episodes.

This feels like a television version of what those AI chat bots read like to me. I only barely have an idea of what is going on,  but I also cannot stop watching even after finishing what I set out to for a watch challenge. I think if I were watching a version without the music edited out (and also like...the sound of anything? this can't be normal so I'm guessing this is a side effect of where I'm watching it) I would be completely swept up in this even with the really bad translations. The parts that I do understand (reincarnated sister bickering, the leads being in a "just for business until oops not really" marriage) are enjoyable. There is still like the whole rest of it (any relationship or most conversations the leads have with another person) that is completely incomprehensible though.

If this was just a rating for the last five or so episodes, this would be maybe a 6.5. The low rating is for the first eight or so episodes, where way too much time was spent on the older sister, a pretty boring internship at a fashion magazine, and her cartoonishly evil boyfriend. The only bright spot of that plot was  occasionally seeing Gun, who similarly kept me from fast forwarding during 2gether whenever he was around. Once more things were happening in the Sandee and Thada-focused plot, the show kept going at an enjoyable pace. I can see why this ended and people actually wanted more of it at that point. I also appreciate how even though I was definitely too late to be surprised by the Pete/Kao reveal, this show still was able to surprise me with a different reveal.

Anyway, Kiss Me Again, let's go (if I get around to it this year)! Also hope they fired whoever edited this series before Kiss Me Again was made!

For the second part, they took out all of the parts that were fun and just replaced them with like...assault. I guess that element was present in the first half too but it was not the focus, whereas here I feel like that was the only thing that was happening, and sometimes they would break to mention past lives again. I still liked the leads but I feel like they were barely together in this half. Oh well. I'll probably give vertical dramas another try someday if I can figure out how best to watch them, but until then I have those 10 minute episode Chinese mini dramas.

Second verse, same as the first except this was completely charmless. I didn't buy a bit of the relationship between the leads. This movie was so long but the set up for these two felt totally rushed. They met up a couple of times as kids, she left, and that was supposed to mean something to me as a viewer when she came back, but it definitely didn't.  I also didn't really care about the hunting/healing the monster plot so I did a lot of fast forwarding through this. I thought the main point of making ML able to heal people was that he could  heal her?  We tried all these medicines but this guy/love was the real cure? But no, we just did the first movie all over again, or well, ML definitely died, anyway.

"No, this is the biggest disappointment of 2025 /so far/". I wanted to like this so much but I think you can't do "nothing happens but for laughs" in Japanese GL considering nothing happens in these already. I liked the lesbian bar regulars and the office gang, but didn't care for the leads.

Oh wow, vampires are not back! It takes place in a world entirely populated by people whose brains are turned off. So many times I would think a character knew something extremely obvious only for it to be a big reveal for them, or watch one of them take something totally insane at face value. I remember being excited based on the teaser. I've seen the leads before in Not Me and uh...the other one was good-looking in an episode of Off Gun Fun Night, and like...they do look great together! I would love seeing them in something better than this. I just couldn't get past how much I hated the characters Mark and Tong. In addition to being dumb like everyone else in the show (tied for dumbest, common sense always escaped these two), they were just so boring. I liked when they were just being a fun/happy/cute couple but as they became Mark and Tong Facing Whatever Dumb Problem They Have, that's when the fast forwarding started. A couple episodes in, I started to dread moments where side characters would go away and I was stuck with just the leads. It was especially rough towards the end, when we're down a Neo and left with Mond playing the only guy with a personality (even if he does undergo a personality switch about three fourths of the way through, would give anything to know more about this guy who was a comic book villain-level weirdo completely against his own interests for most of the show only to just go 'actually...nvm’ and be normal for the end). The world building was also garbage. At the end of this I understand less than I ever did about how vampire powers work: why a vampire can tell the future but get tricked multiple times, or how a healing vampire can't heal someone, or why you'd want to kill the golden blood people instead of locking them away to drink from, or why no vampire who was trying to actually protect a golden blood person wouldn't just turn them into a vampire to render the whole thing moot and...just...god. Just the absolute worst.