This review may contain spoilers
Wooden Acting 101 - A series that was only good when the MC was not in it
MOONLIGHT CHICKEN - REVIEW
I must admit I have no idea what standing this series or the MC (Earth/Mix) have, but to be frank, while the series had some merits, I felt this was really a low end of sheer boredom, wooden acting and uninteresting MC couple of many BLs (which are not many) I have seen so far. You know me dear beloved father, who passed away 10 years ago, when hearing a joke used to say "if you pull out a toenail maybe that will make me laugh" when he found something meant to be funny unfun.
I don't know how many Gods I must have offended to be punished by this series. Since I feel it was a milestone and Earth-Mix used to be a name often spoken about, but most important for it, it was the first BL role as far as I know with Fourth and Gemini, and I had not continued if I had not seen Fourth in Episode 2. In this Episode 2 and the entire series Fourth Nattawat really shows he is BORN an actor and a star. His sheer presence overshines the entire series like a sun suddenly rising at midnight and driving the shadows of bore and wooden acting away. Just a gaze 10 seconds of him are condensed energy of an entire hour of the rest of each episode. Honor points also for the stellar acting of Gemini playing a deaf character very lovely.
As to the rest... I am sorry, but Earth Pirapat is the most wooden actor I have seen in BL and outside and I have no idea who cast him. He cannot act, he looks mediocre so there is nothing to see, and Gods above if people called me "Uncle" so many times instead of my name I would go crazy. There is Mix, playing Wen, who is in love with Uncle. Gods know why, I mean they had sex and I cannot see any charming quality of Uncle. He face is like a frozen Asian business smile. When he is sad, when his ex betrays him, when he is dead, when he is angry with Li Ming (Fourth) I feel like when God created him he forgot a bucket full of face muscles someone just Jim Carrey got extra.
And then starting the entire starting with seggs and Wen living with his ex... I mean seriously, that is probably THE most disqualifying thing I can imagine in any gay guy I would consider dating material. He broke with Alan, lies to himself it is "good for Alan" instead of it is just good for him not being all alone, and still seggsing around meanwhile, but hey lets keep doors open and maybe that Lung whose only quality is to make chicken is good. Why... I'll never know. What do they have in common? What connects them? What chemistry is there. Wen (Mix) is a bit better at acting, but honestly not really a lot. He has a neutral face, a somewhat off smiley-flirty face and swaps between those two and that's it. And I notice it so strongly every time the story moves to Fourth and Gemini making the contrast so unbelievable to me that I can only think, well people probably love it out of nostalgia. I mean each to his/hers.
Then there is First/Alan one of my favourite actors, because from others series I know, BOY HE CAN ACT. Like so different characters with so different layers. As much as I like Fourth for the radiance, First is IMVPO the most capable actor in terms of... well acting. He can play multi-layered characters and have so many different emotions run over his face, which I know from other series he played it. Maybe Earth and Mix can that and it was just not desired by the director, but when I expect someone to go through so much shit as Uncle Jim went through, it would SHOW on my face.
And then this forsaken restaurant. Even in the end, Uncle had to admit, he didn't even know why it was important or what he wanted to do. Like yeah, that fits with your acting, man! I didn't know why I should care. It wasn't a nice place, the menu was chicken... and chicken... and he was just drifting or rather not, he was just ... existing there. Now look, I lost a husband to a car accident, a boyfriend to lung cancer and another to a woman he married and had a kid with, so trust me, I know about life's misfortunes. But locking yourself into a chicken diner and staring at life is not a reacting. You cry and break, you become a monk or a killer to avenge or a sage or whatever, but it DOES something to you that MOVES your feelings. And I just did not see that. I don't mention that for pity points or to brag with what I got through but to say, I KNOW such things as in this series, and Earth's acting as well as the story around Uncle and Wen reflect nothing of that, neither in acting nor in any way how they come together.
There were some good points. The late story around Li Meng's mother, the closure - though I had hope we would have see some more about Alan and Gaipa. In the last episode it is said how much Uncle and Wen grew, but sorry I didn't believe it. The others, yes. But I don't buy a change which is said. And then the worst happens at the end which I personally vividly hate. Gay guys which are unable to say "I love you."
See, I am scarred with this. I had a boyfriend 4 years, and he never said it, and when after 2 years I argued with him he said what is so often a trope in BL "my actions tell you."
NO. NO. NO. There are things you want to hear. Period. Paragraph. I don't buy this. A man who can't say he loves you is a red flag. (This was the guy who left me for a lie of a "normie life" out of fear, so you get why I am so passionately against this *thing*.) Humans are not mind-readers. And even to deaf people we can "talk."
In the end, I did not know where to put it. It wasn't a total disaster, but that was because there were other people than the MC in the story. Like my view or hate it, that's how I felt. Given the screen time measuring both the MC's presence which I felt nothing about and the sometimes fantastic other parts when it wasn't about them, but the ratio is still so much time about Uncle and Wen I have to give it heartfelt
3/10
I must admit I have no idea what standing this series or the MC (Earth/Mix) have, but to be frank, while the series had some merits, I felt this was really a low end of sheer boredom, wooden acting and uninteresting MC couple of many BLs (which are not many) I have seen so far. You know me dear beloved father, who passed away 10 years ago, when hearing a joke used to say "if you pull out a toenail maybe that will make me laugh" when he found something meant to be funny unfun.
I don't know how many Gods I must have offended to be punished by this series. Since I feel it was a milestone and Earth-Mix used to be a name often spoken about, but most important for it, it was the first BL role as far as I know with Fourth and Gemini, and I had not continued if I had not seen Fourth in Episode 2. In this Episode 2 and the entire series Fourth Nattawat really shows he is BORN an actor and a star. His sheer presence overshines the entire series like a sun suddenly rising at midnight and driving the shadows of bore and wooden acting away. Just a gaze 10 seconds of him are condensed energy of an entire hour of the rest of each episode. Honor points also for the stellar acting of Gemini playing a deaf character very lovely.
As to the rest... I am sorry, but Earth Pirapat is the most wooden actor I have seen in BL and outside and I have no idea who cast him. He cannot act, he looks mediocre so there is nothing to see, and Gods above if people called me "Uncle" so many times instead of my name I would go crazy. There is Mix, playing Wen, who is in love with Uncle. Gods know why, I mean they had sex and I cannot see any charming quality of Uncle. He face is like a frozen Asian business smile. When he is sad, when his ex betrays him, when he is dead, when he is angry with Li Ming (Fourth) I feel like when God created him he forgot a bucket full of face muscles someone just Jim Carrey got extra.
And then starting the entire starting with seggs and Wen living with his ex... I mean seriously, that is probably THE most disqualifying thing I can imagine in any gay guy I would consider dating material. He broke with Alan, lies to himself it is "good for Alan" instead of it is just good for him not being all alone, and still seggsing around meanwhile, but hey lets keep doors open and maybe that Lung whose only quality is to make chicken is good. Why... I'll never know. What do they have in common? What connects them? What chemistry is there. Wen (Mix) is a bit better at acting, but honestly not really a lot. He has a neutral face, a somewhat off smiley-flirty face and swaps between those two and that's it. And I notice it so strongly every time the story moves to Fourth and Gemini making the contrast so unbelievable to me that I can only think, well people probably love it out of nostalgia. I mean each to his/hers.
Then there is First/Alan one of my favourite actors, because from others series I know, BOY HE CAN ACT. Like so different characters with so different layers. As much as I like Fourth for the radiance, First is IMVPO the most capable actor in terms of... well acting. He can play multi-layered characters and have so many different emotions run over his face, which I know from other series he played it. Maybe Earth and Mix can that and it was just not desired by the director, but when I expect someone to go through so much shit as Uncle Jim went through, it would SHOW on my face.
And then this forsaken restaurant. Even in the end, Uncle had to admit, he didn't even know why it was important or what he wanted to do. Like yeah, that fits with your acting, man! I didn't know why I should care. It wasn't a nice place, the menu was chicken... and chicken... and he was just drifting or rather not, he was just ... existing there. Now look, I lost a husband to a car accident, a boyfriend to lung cancer and another to a woman he married and had a kid with, so trust me, I know about life's misfortunes. But locking yourself into a chicken diner and staring at life is not a reacting. You cry and break, you become a monk or a killer to avenge or a sage or whatever, but it DOES something to you that MOVES your feelings. And I just did not see that. I don't mention that for pity points or to brag with what I got through but to say, I KNOW such things as in this series, and Earth's acting as well as the story around Uncle and Wen reflect nothing of that, neither in acting nor in any way how they come together.
There were some good points. The late story around Li Meng's mother, the closure - though I had hope we would have see some more about Alan and Gaipa. In the last episode it is said how much Uncle and Wen grew, but sorry I didn't believe it. The others, yes. But I don't buy a change which is said. And then the worst happens at the end which I personally vividly hate. Gay guys which are unable to say "I love you."
See, I am scarred with this. I had a boyfriend 4 years, and he never said it, and when after 2 years I argued with him he said what is so often a trope in BL "my actions tell you."
NO. NO. NO. There are things you want to hear. Period. Paragraph. I don't buy this. A man who can't say he loves you is a red flag. (This was the guy who left me for a lie of a "normie life" out of fear, so you get why I am so passionately against this *thing*.) Humans are not mind-readers. And even to deaf people we can "talk."
In the end, I did not know where to put it. It wasn't a total disaster, but that was because there were other people than the MC in the story. Like my view or hate it, that's how I felt. Given the screen time measuring both the MC's presence which I felt nothing about and the sometimes fantastic other parts when it wasn't about them, but the ratio is still so much time about Uncle and Wen I have to give it heartfelt
3/10
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