Eliot_Rulez

Too short to make it believable....

To tell a story of a man who has relation issues and compensates that with lot of sex with anyone he fancies can't be told in four ~8-9 minute episodes in my book. While we get an happy end, I'm not convinced that this releationship is stable. To create a fake profile online to check on a potential BF leaves a bitter taste. It would have been much better if Mr. Blonde one has talked about his issues before. It's only mentioned in a short scene in the middle of the final episode.

I did rewatch this short series again to find out if I missed something, but there was nothing. Production quality was surprisingly good and even the acting was not bad at all. So overall I think it's a nice watch but it misses some deeper story elements. But in 2025 we have to be glad, that we get at least some decent shows even when they are a bit too short for my taste.

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Short but great :)

Kiba-san works in a welfare-type facility for children with disabilities, where children who cannot live with their parents due to various reasons live together. One day the little boy Ritsu arrived who has been neglected by his parents, who does not speak but is drawn to Kiba. After some weeks of happy living Ritsu has to go back to his mum...

Overall a heartwarming movie, based on a true story, about a social worker who does care about all the children he is responsible for. Jun of course acts believable and he's heartbroken when Ritsu has to leave. I won't spoil the end, but it's not a bad one. So, if you have free 23 minutes, watch this short-movie!

Edit: This silly site has no way to add a youtube link, so if you are looking for this short-film:
https://youtu.be/mII6nUlTNZk

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vertical series are a pain to watch...

Besides vertical, the story is also not thought trough. The question my mind asked from the beginning is, why does Nam know that Han is a killer... And why is the title "next door" when they live together. There is no explaination or background.

Acting was decent, the "BL" parts are ok, but besides that, is quite stereotypical. There is not much to say, besides that the episodes are too short, the shortest just 45 seconds, that you NEED to binge-watch all of them otherwise it makes no sense and the better option would have been to make them at least 8 minutes long.

This is a series nobody needs to watch, if you do, you might like it and it's for sure not terrible. But I would have prefered much more episodes to explain the background and of course a better storyline. For a Korean productions this was weak.

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sensible, symbolism and real kisses ?

This was not on my radar, but good friends recommanded this series to me.

RANT: The worst part first: The subtitles. Who the fuck thought of this font and that they need to put pastel colored text on a pastel colored backgrond in the beginning of every episode? It's unreadable. Second the normal subtitles were a joke as well, it's 7pts and anyone, even with perfect eye-sight will have trouble to read such text if the person has a reasonable distance to the monitor/TV set. I needed to watch 50cm away from my 30" monitor which is annoying as hell! You can add normal subtitles on youtube easily and it would not have mattered. To hard encode subtitles is a crime as well. END OF RANT

Yeah, sorry I had to write the "real kisses" in the headline 🤣 This is a chinese production and I was expecting the censor-hammer coming down on them. In this case it didn't, which makes this a stand-out in itself. The good thing besides that, we get an actual story, with actual emotions. More or less a coming of age story but not from the gay lead but his soon to be boyfriend (soon means it's only 7 epsiodes 12-21 minutes long).

The cinematography was stunning, the symbolism worth noting and overall the actors did an excellent job. I won't spoil the story further, but it's sometimes painful (emotionally) to watch. Overall I can also only recommand to watch this, because it's an nice uplift compared to the crap thai companies are forcing on us (except two shows when I'm writing this review). I hope the extra episodes will be as good as this was.

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This show couldn't match the japanese charm and acting

Again a dispointing GMM-TV commercial with some BL show inbetween.
No elegance in the characters, all is very smooth and plain.
Reading some of the reviews, it looks like people do like shallow shows with outstanding production value.

Why we did need a third couple, I have no idea, but when u write superficial scripts, you need to fill the time with something. I also don't like BL actors playing hetero in a BL even when he and his "girl" were the best characters of all, which is sad for a BL, "Jinta" was stupidly over-acted because it's a thai "comedy" and the rest of them did not leave a mark.

Some fluffy scenes don't make a good BL, This show is highly overrated, but you could have watched a worse show. Still, I would recommand to watch the japanese version and you won't miss anything if you skipped the thai version.

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A weak manga improved but it could not reach "the proper way"

The story starts as revenge story, but even half way through the series we all know it's not about revenge anymore. It's about the struggles and misunderstandings of Hiro who has to come to terms of his feelings. It's more a coming of age story then anything else. In contrast Natsou always was clear in his feelings but he did most things wrong to the person he already loved in school. Not only by peer pressure but he could not express his feelings at all.

The original manga was just a side story and a very short one at that. It did not really explain a lot or had a big scope to go on. So this series struggles a bit to fill in the gaps. It seems that Hiros only changed his appearance to be another person, but he also changed to be more outgoing and to be able to talk to people. That's why I think he choose to be a hairstylist/hairdresser because he has to interact with people. He emanates confidence in his job but he is still struggeling outside of it.

While we got two episodes per week for 1 through 6, we had to wait a week for the finale. At least the finale did boost this show in the end and the NC scene was more than unexpected from a JBL. No dead fish kisses was refreshing after some shows lately, which failed to go "the extra mile". A special bonus for me is that the height difference and characters impressions were reversed for the top/bottom expectation. That was a nice touch.

Production was well done, acting was very good even when I thought Natsou looked a bit old compared to his partner even when they are the same age in real life (The story plays out 4 years after graduation, so they should be around 22). Or the other way around, Hiro was the more believeable character in looks and acting. The story struggeled a bit doing a good job, because Natsou seems a bit too dumb not to catch on early and also the pacing is sometimes choppy in some episodes. The struggles for Hiro were very well expressed. Overall an enjoyable show which did not do the stereotypical BL things and even when you could count it as "enemies to lovers" tropé. It tried very hard not to go in any clichés. For me it feels more realistic compared to other shows and that's why it's worth a watch.

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Low production, cute/handsome actors

Sukfilm is known for their short series with few actors. While I feel some tensions between the actors, it's not the best chemistry. The series is partly steril. That's the fault of the settings. Even the bar feels lifeless. The locations besides the appartment are not choosen well and as always they can't fill the void with extras.

The story is cliché as usual. Childhood friends reunite and at least one of them is (still?) in love after 15 years! It's a bit much imho. I can't say it's bad, but it's also not good from a story telling view. It also makes the story not believable when you have no background at all. The clumsiness of the "writer" is partly cute but partly annoying. So I'm divided on this series. At least it felt not cringe or childish. You have to deceide yourself if you like this series or not, at least it felt not a waste of time.

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A drama wrapped as BL

This was a very unusual series. The "BL" aspect of this drama was NOT the focus of the series. So we were "robbed" of the romance aspect of this series. Maybe an episode more would have helped, maybe it's not as detailed in the novel too and it's close to it, I have no clue. What we got was a drama about euthanasia which is one of social questions the world has to solve. Only in a few countries this is legal, in most countries it's not and I feel in Asia it's a taboo.

The production value was outstanding, camera work, lighting and of course the music was top notch. Also the acting was strong. I liked the feeling that Mr. Policeman never trusted Dr. completly. The part with Mr. Pharmacy was a bit odd and did not really fit this series. I thought without him, the series would have been as good as it was. Of course it was shocking to see his relationsship revealed but I'm not sold on him murdering his love-interest. And to not have a happy end, was the right choice.

All the not so good story-aspects can be overlocked, but so it's not a 10 for me. It lacked in the romance aspect, some things didn't make much sense, but to have this social question asked in a drama is very important. To bring awareness to the public is important. For this reason alone, I recommand anyone to binch-watch this series.

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I wish I could like this more...

While the chaos and comedy was quite funny in the first installment, it felt over the top in the 2nd. Especially after they ended up together they made no progress at all. That felt disappointing...

On the plus side we have a show which does take itself seriously, we had the manager couple which are gorgeous and the finale where we had a mature scene between the two MLs were they talked about their feelings. On the negative side, of course for me, they still did not really kiss. WTF? If you do a BL, do it right and not half assed. That annoys me tremendously.

So if you like a comedy setting, this is for you, even if sometimes did felt cringe for me. On the other hand the script was not bad, they only did everything over the top. I mostly enjoyed the show but for me it did not come close to the first season and I wished they would have more time invested in both couples interactions.

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a very well handcrafted show

Some people are pissed because they axed the BL part. I have not read the original story (which was not BL), neither the novel (which was BL), but I can't understand why people are sooooo dumb on concentrating only on this aspect. I guess they had a spot on the china market and when money talks you don't have a choice if you need financing of your project. But who really carez, everyone should judge a show on it's own merrits.

We got a great show. The story was interesting, the dynamics between the different people where interesting and the vibe of the show to have a gangster improving the lifes of the people around him was great. The side characters like the chairman, the "witch" and the four boys did not leave a mark for me, they were neither very prominent in the scenes (except in the beginning for the four deliquents) and we did not get a good background on them.

We see a character developing which is not seen often nowadays especially for Se Kyung, Jae Min and even his mother. We also see a redemption arc for Jae Min and great chemistry between Se Kyong and Deuk Pal. You feel the admiration and tension between both leads. The production quality was good as well even when they did not have a big budget, the OST was nice too.

Even with some flaws this was a refreshing drama depicting real world problems like bullying, abuse of power, depression and non existing parental skills. I also liked the light scenes inbetween a quite dark story. Overall I can recommand anyone to watch this show.

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Neither fish nor fowl...

A typical Sukfilm short series, but in this case too short... We already know that appartment and that "bar". Especially the bar is lifeless because it's just a wall with a table... Also the story is on the shallow side even when the premise from the outset was good. But I feel they would have needed two more episodes to make the story stick. Also in typical Sukfilm manner, they use some clichés which are annoying.

So this is neither bad nor good... it's a bit over average because the leads did a good job. Because there are only four episode each around 8 minutes long, it's just an half hour to watch through this and which makes this ok.

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many clichés, great acting

I only saw the prequel movie of this series some years ago and this series went along without I'm noticing it. Luckily I got to see it now.... So before you watch this series, you should watch the movie "The Boy Foretold By The Stars" first.

I'm a bit split with this series, because I really hate all the clichés they put into the series, and especially the bitchy mother. Also the more comedic bits with the fortune teller I could life without. On the other hand the relationsship development was well thought out, the acting was great and believable. While there are always some fluffy sequences there always comes the punch in your stomach which will give you pause and the couple faces a bigger problem. It's really an emotional rollercoaster.

While this series is not perfect, the important parts of the storyline are always there. I guess philipino BLs are glanced over easily which they should not. Compared to the crap nowadays (2025) especially from Thailand, this series has many redeeming qualities. So I would recommand to give it a try. Because this is a continuation of the movie, I would urge you to watch that first to get more context. Overall, I enjoyed it.

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An unsual love story...

There are still productions out there which are not full of crap.

This is one of the examples. It begins quite harmless and gets more emotional with every episode.
While concentrating on the main couple with only some minutes with side characters, the story can develop between two people, their feelings, their fears and their understanding each other.

It was a very nice story with some fluff and both actressess did a very good job. Also the production quality was not bad either even when I guess they had not that much of a budget. Overall a series to recommand.

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low budget, but quite good except the final...

Sorry, I'm late for this review, because Weak Hero Season 2 took precedence in my time-budget :)

Here we get four different love stories in one series. The first was typical what you would expect from a BL, childhood friends growing into love. The second one is the most interesting one as it involves time-travel. The third one was a very sad one and last one was so weak I asked myself why to include it and "ruin" the series with it.

While the budget was low, the episodes short, the acting was good except the last one but overall miles ahead of most of the thai BLs we "have" to watch. So even the independent small studios can produce a good series with a low budget. I would suggest you skip the last two episodes and enjoy the first six episodes.

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