I understand this drama is truly Huayong and Sheng Shaoyou's love story, and I respect that. But I'm still sad about LangTu's limited screen-time. I mean they literally titled them as main roles in the credits. If they had just named them the supporting role at the start people wouldnt have so much expectation for their story. But I digress.
However, if I'm thinking as a marketing person, I get why their production team are promoting the show with all four actors. Ive watched all their lives and I notice both Huang Xing and Qiu Ding Jie have mellow personalities and kinda soft spoken, especially so when its just the two of them together. They are quite sweet together. But maybe to their production team they arent fun enough to watch for lives.
So, they had to add both Li Pei En and Jiang Heng together so it's more entertaining to watch them. Jiang Heng is good at starting conversation and bringing up the mood. And Li Pei En becomes more active when the rest of the boys tries to interact with him, who in turn gets embarrassed and clumsy during game time. Huang Xing also gets more feisty when Jiang Heng bugs him. And Qiu Ding Jie gets more competitive during games when he's not against Huang Xing.
Otherwise, a live with just Huang Xing and Qiu Ding Jie would be of them smiling and looking at each other while talking softly. And I'm sure there are fans who'd love that. But it appears their production team has bigger plans, so just promoting two of them isnt enough anymore.
This really be those dramas that doesn't get good till like the 4th or 6th episode. Then your like, oh, yes, bitch, give more of this. NOW!
Because honestly, when i finished the first 2 episodes in the midle of the week i was hesitant to continue. But then i was having a shitty weekend and decided to browse all the BLs thats airing now. And this one really hit the spot once i got to the epic episode 6. Definitely worth continuing after the editing and cinematography and story got better.
Honestly, for an omegaverse themed bl drama they've been pretty tamed. I've read ABO fanfics and mangas for a decade, and their world is very sex and pheromone (scent) oriented. And that predator/prey, dom/sub mentality is prevalent not only between couples, but between family, friends and workplace too. If this was done by a thai production, I bet there'll be an NC scene every episode.
I actually had a similar theory at first—that maybe Ze Fang just had a bad head injury and was imagining being…
Thats why im still hoping its a blood clot personality swap rather then a soul swap. Plus its called an adaptation for a reason, maybe the story will have some changes. Plus Joe Tsai, this screen writer and director have had made some great BL projects before so id hope she'll have some sense to turn this story around.
I actually had a similar theory at first—that maybe Ze Fang just had a bad head injury and was imagining being…
Well, thats a little bit of a bummer. But I'll stick with the show since it's still a fun watch. It's too bad many people are bailing out because of the grandpa soul swap thing. Yea, it still weird but the actor's handsome faces makes up for the odd story plot
The best scenario would be if they are planning to air all the episodes by the end of July or end by the beginning of August. That's why they need time to edit the show.
I remember back when Word of Honor aired. The last big b-romance released direct from China. The BL was so obvious. The china fujoshi were crazy over the show. And fans demanded more episodes to be aired per week. The show was so big the government was taking notice. And people were afraid it'll get banned like Addicted was back in 2016.
So the production team decided to release the whole show within a months time instead of the scheduled 3 month airing time. Even shortened the number of episodes.
They were hoping the faster the show finished airing the faster the hype will end. But the show got too popular. Both male leads got a lot of love but a lot of hate at the same time. And they got a lot of brands wanting to sign them. People in the industry weren't happy and tried to end their careers with baseless rumors. In the one of the leads career ended. It was horrible to watch it happen at real time back then.
I really hope this time both TXN and ZY will come out of this safely because I don't want history to repeat itself.
Am I the only one who notices that the monologues when ZeFang is thinking to himself is in ZeFang's voice, instead of in Grandpa Xia's voice.
I'm not buying this body swap plot. I think after the fall ZeFang hit his head real bad, kinda died, but came back to life with a different personality and only thinks he is Grandpa Xia. In reality, he must have like a blood clot in his brain after the fall that's causing this change in his brain chemistry. There has been documented cases of patients with changed personalities after a bad head injury or even from a stroke.
Because I really can't be sticking around if we are to believe a 20 year old is going to fall for a literal grandpa stuck in his grandson's body. Plus, it's obvious HaiYuan would have never fallen for past ZeFang due to his problematic personality. He was probably spoiled rotten by Grandpa Xia, is my guess.
😭😭 The fact that no one in the BL industry can ever come up with something like this but are always using…
All they had to do is keep it simple. And I dislike how they're making Choi Jun display these stalker-ish and perverted behavior. Just have them hangout and become friends again. Then Lee Jun has a reason to fall for Choi Jun's caring and charismatic side.
And thank you, I had been a fanfic writer for 10 years (retired now, lol), had some hits and misses so I've learned from mistakes. These writers they hired though has questionable experience.
The only reason I'm still watching is for Choi Jun's face.
The story line is messy. They should had kept it simple. For one, Lee Jun's idol past was unnecessary. They can keep Lee Jun and Choi Jun as childhood friends. But then Choi Jun left without a word bcuz his rich family sent him abroad for studies and didn't want him to associate with low class people, so the boys lost touch.
Fast forward like 15 years, Lee Jun gets referred to work at his favorite senior's company, who's Lee Joo Ha from his college days instead. Yes, it's Choi Jun's company, who came back from abroad. Naturally, Lee Jun and Choi Jun should reintroduce themselves like normal people do and recognize each other as childhood friends. And then naturally rekindle their friendship.
After a month's time (at least, please) Choi Jun recognizes Lee Joo Ha likes Lee Jun and proceeds to confess his feelings to Lee Jun before the assistant manager gets to. They go on 2 cute dates. But before they got their third date Lee Jun discovers Choi Jun is engaged via office gossip. He then confronts Choi Jun, who explains it's his family's wish, not his, and that they can work things out. Lee Jun assumes means he'll become Choi Jun's mistress and wants out before he really falls for Choi Jun. He even thinks about leaving the company but times are rough, and he was actually rejected by every company he applied to previously.
Long story short, Choi Jun's fiancée falls in love with another man (on her own time) that was richer than Choi Jun's family so their engagement is broken. Choi Jun confesses to Lee Jun again, by saying he was actually in love with him since they were kids and that was his only happiest time in his childhood was being with Lee Jun bcuz he hated his family life. Lee Jun is touched by the confession and accepts Choi Jun as his official boyfriend, as he already has fallen for the latter as well.
Choi Jun decides to officially hire Lee Jun as his personal assistant so they can always be together. Choi Jun also promises once he's made enough money on his own name, he'll leave his family's fortune behind and make his own company and take Lee Jun with him. The End.
Writers and producers I don't mind you taking this as a better story plot for next time.
This drama is packed jammed with rom-com troupes. But overall really the one of the cutest BL drama I watched this year. It's nice to watch after a stressful week and not take everything so seriously.
If ya'll like it too, do give them high-stars on VIKI. It helps the production team get more interest and investors for future projects. Sad to see they only have a little more than 600 reviews while worst drama have 10k+ reviews.
Saw the trailer. Yup, feels like a straight version of Addicted Heroin. China won't allow bromance with any romantic innuendos anymore so its gonna emphasis on just being bros. I just wonder why gagaoolala picked it up?
Let's be real. Looking back at the beginning of the final episode, seeing who had a voiceover and who didn't they already determined who won. The live-voting meant nothing. *cough*rigged*cough*
As for the debut lineup, I believed only half of them deserved it, namely: Junwon, Hanbin, Hikaru, Lingqu, Sungmin and Hyeontae (still think he's too young, but quite skilled)
Oh, and the way the judges look so worried when they realized Gyurae was actually in the top 2 and that Kaedan made it at 12th was kinda funny. And you could tell they were trying so hard to only give out nice, encouraging comments. You could tell by their faces at the end, they know this group is not gonna do well after debut.
Finally, as problematic KSOUL is from international watcher's stand point, like myself, I can't deny he's interesting to watch. Plus all the news about the group has always involved him. As they say, bad PR is better than no PR in the entertainment business. And we all know this group is not gonna be famous for their musical talents, since half the group lacks it. And the fact #KSOULOUT was actually trending a little bit on twitter was probably the only interest I saw about this show on twitter. This says his existence in the group actually matter for better or for worst.
ksoul also did a CA so it's not helping him either
I heard about the photoshoot with the dreads. But he's from China, and that country isn't exactly educated in Black History. So I believe he just thought of it as a "hip-hop" hairstyle. All we can blame him for is ignorance. Because I didn't even know dreads and cornrows were considered cultural appropriation until the mid-2010s when people said it was actually tied to slavery.
I was only going to watch the first (2) episodes for the auditions, but then an intriging character appeared. K-SOUL.
He is sassy, loud, nacissitic, selfish, an attention-seeker and overall annoying. I don't like him. But I also don't hate him. He's like those characters you want to keep watching to see what happens. I feel like his villian-arc is starting to happen in the show, and it's not even from evil-editing. It's just him being himself and I'm here for it (or until I get sick of him).
But honestly, I hope he grows as person after this. He wasn't like this when he was in another survival show in China back in 2020. I think now he's just more desperate to debut again because his first time didn't go so well. And he kept being hated on for his looks, whether it being real or fake. So the main judge from the last show told him to act confident to build his confidence. I think he went overboard and now he's just become an annoying narcissist. With all this said, I don't think the production will actually debut him even if he gets the votes because the other trainees don't seem to like him either.
As for the other participants. I see MyungJae as a wild card for now. He's known as the sickly boy (with Asthma) who tries to be tough on stage. The production team also seems to be intrigued by him, they always give him random screen time.
GyuRae, the giant baby child who always looks lost, and had only a month of training and has minimal skills. I don't agree with debuting underaged kids. But the production team and fans think he's cute, so he'll get in either way.
Wooseok gives off good vibes since his audition and he's a trainee from the production company of the show, so he's a sure in either way.
As for the visual trio: SungMin, Taeseon and Junwoo, I think they are overplaying their visuals too much. Especially for SungMin. But I guess it's because he's the face of the show now and also a trainee from the production company of the show.
And Santa is a sure in with all of Thailand and the BL community's support. He has the potential. I'm just wondering how long it's gonna take him to learn Korean. Because I haven't heard him even spoken a complete sentence of Korean, even though everyone keeps saying he has always dreamt of being a kpop idol.
If the actor is the problem they should cast different ones. Not surprised though, the other guy is Golcha Jaehyun,…
I'm actually fine with theses idols and newbie actors who wants to get attention. As long as they genuinely can act and get into their characters properly. Like no awkward stares, skinship and kisses. Just respect the character you are playing. But some of these casting directors are just choosing pretty faces without talent or understanding of the character.
If the actor is the problem they should cast different ones. Not surprised though, the other guy is Golcha Jaehyun,…
I'm sorry about the Golden Child comment. Kpop comes out with a new group like every other month the pass few years, I can't keep up anymore.
I get you on the lgbtq+ media though. I've been watching queer content for 18 years. I know the tragic movies era well, especially the Asian ones. It's probably only gotten less tragic in the late 2010s.
What's annoying this situation is people are still saying they'll watch this drama because of their favorite actor. They don't get that by watching this drama and giving it views, it's basically telling the producers and everyone in the industry that it's okay to keep taking all originally gay stories and turning them straight for their "better" profit. Which only belittles the BL fandom.
So just found out Lee Seo Jin plays the gangster role. It all makes sense now why they removed the BL elements from the show. Lee Seo Jin is a veteran actor and TV personality. Very popular with the older generation which are "conservative" aka not gay friendly.
It's very obvious now the production choose to keep these actors for their fandom to promote the show.
With the cast they chose no wonder they remove all the BL elements out of the original story. No thank you, will not be supporting their homophobic companies.
However, if I'm thinking as a marketing person, I get why their production team are promoting the show with all four actors. Ive watched all their lives and I notice both Huang Xing and Qiu Ding Jie have mellow personalities and kinda soft spoken, especially so when its just the two of them together. They are quite sweet together. But maybe to their production team they arent fun enough to watch for lives.
So, they had to add both Li Pei En and Jiang Heng together so it's more entertaining to watch them. Jiang Heng is good at starting conversation and bringing up the mood. And Li Pei En becomes more active when the rest of the boys tries to interact with him, who in turn gets embarrassed and clumsy during game time. Huang Xing also gets more feisty when Jiang Heng bugs him. And Qiu Ding Jie gets more competitive during games when he's not against Huang Xing.
Otherwise, a live with just Huang Xing and Qiu Ding Jie would be of them smiling and looking at each other while talking softly. And I'm sure there are fans who'd love that. But it appears their production team has bigger plans, so just promoting two of them isnt enough anymore.
Because honestly, when i finished the first 2 episodes in the midle of the week i was hesitant to continue. But then i was having a shitty weekend and decided to browse all the BLs thats airing now. And this one really hit the spot once i got to the epic episode 6. Definitely worth continuing after the editing and cinematography and story got better.
I remember back when Word of Honor aired. The last big b-romance released direct from China. The BL was so obvious. The china fujoshi were crazy over the show. And fans demanded more episodes to be aired per week. The show was so big the government was taking notice. And people were afraid it'll get banned like Addicted was back in 2016.
So the production team decided to release the whole show within a months time instead of the scheduled 3 month airing time. Even shortened the number of episodes.
They were hoping the faster the show finished airing the faster the hype will end. But the show got too popular. Both male leads got a lot of love but a lot of hate at the same time. And they got a lot of brands wanting to sign them. People in the industry weren't happy and tried to end their careers with baseless rumors. In the one of the leads career ended. It was horrible to watch it happen at real time back then.
I really hope this time both TXN and ZY will come out of this safely because I don't want history to repeat itself.
I'm not buying this body swap plot. I think after the fall ZeFang hit his head real bad, kinda died, but came back to life with a different personality and only thinks he is Grandpa Xia. In reality, he must have like a blood clot in his brain after the fall that's causing this change in his brain chemistry. There has been documented cases of patients with changed personalities after a bad head injury or even from a stroke.
Because I really can't be sticking around if we are to believe a 20 year old is going to fall for a literal grandpa stuck in his grandson's body. Plus, it's obvious HaiYuan would have never fallen for past ZeFang due to his problematic personality. He was probably spoiled rotten by Grandpa Xia, is my guess.
And thank you, I had been a fanfic writer for 10 years (retired now, lol), had some hits and misses so I've learned from mistakes. These writers they hired though has questionable experience.
The story line is messy. They should had kept it simple. For one, Lee Jun's idol past was unnecessary. They can keep Lee Jun and Choi Jun as childhood friends. But then Choi Jun left without a word bcuz his rich family sent him abroad for studies and didn't want him to associate with low class people, so the boys lost touch.
Fast forward like 15 years, Lee Jun gets referred to work at his favorite senior's company, who's Lee Joo Ha from his college days instead. Yes, it's Choi Jun's company, who came back from abroad. Naturally, Lee Jun and Choi Jun should reintroduce themselves like normal people do and recognize each other as childhood friends. And then naturally rekindle their friendship.
After a month's time (at least, please) Choi Jun recognizes Lee Joo Ha likes Lee Jun and proceeds to confess his feelings to Lee Jun before the assistant manager gets to. They go on 2 cute dates. But before they got their third date Lee Jun discovers Choi Jun is engaged via office gossip. He then confronts Choi Jun, who explains it's his family's wish, not his, and that they can work things out. Lee Jun assumes means he'll become Choi Jun's mistress and wants out before he really falls for Choi Jun. He even thinks about leaving the company but times are rough, and he was actually rejected by every company he applied to previously.
Long story short, Choi Jun's fiancée falls in love with another man (on her own time) that was richer than Choi Jun's family so their engagement is broken. Choi Jun confesses to Lee Jun again, by saying he was actually in love with him since they were kids and that was his only happiest time in his childhood was being with Lee Jun bcuz he hated his family life. Lee Jun is touched by the confession and accepts Choi Jun as his official boyfriend, as he already has fallen for the latter as well.
Choi Jun decides to officially hire Lee Jun as his personal assistant so they can always be together. Choi Jun also promises once he's made enough money on his own name, he'll leave his family's fortune behind and make his own company and take Lee Jun with him. The End.
Writers and producers I don't mind you taking this as a better story plot for next time.
If ya'll like it too, do give them high-stars on VIKI. It helps the production team get more interest and investors for future projects. Sad to see they only have a little more than 600 reviews while worst drama have 10k+ reviews.
As for the debut lineup, I believed only half of them deserved it, namely: Junwon, Hanbin, Hikaru, Lingqu, Sungmin and Hyeontae (still think he's too young, but quite skilled)
Oh, and the way the judges look so worried when they realized Gyurae was actually in the top 2 and that Kaedan made it at 12th was kinda funny. And you could tell they were trying so hard to only give out nice, encouraging comments. You could tell by their faces at the end, they know this group is not gonna do well after debut.
Finally, as problematic KSOUL is from international watcher's stand point, like myself, I can't deny he's interesting to watch. Plus all the news about the group has always involved him. As they say, bad PR is better than no PR in the entertainment business. And we all know this group is not gonna be famous for their musical talents, since half the group lacks it. And the fact #KSOULOUT was actually trending a little bit on twitter was probably the only interest I saw about this show on twitter. This says his existence in the group actually matter for better or for worst.
He is sassy, loud, nacissitic, selfish, an attention-seeker and overall annoying. I don't like him. But I also don't hate him. He's like those characters you want to keep watching to see what happens. I feel like his villian-arc is starting to happen in the show, and it's not even from evil-editing. It's just him being himself and I'm here for it (or until I get sick of him).
But honestly, I hope he grows as person after this. He wasn't like this when he was in another survival show in China back in 2020. I think now he's just more desperate to debut again because his first time didn't go so well. And he kept being hated on for his looks, whether it being real or fake. So the main judge from the last show told him to act confident to build his confidence. I think he went overboard and now he's just become an annoying narcissist. With all this said, I don't think the production will actually debut him even if he gets the votes because the other trainees don't seem to like him either.
As for the other participants. I see MyungJae as a wild card for now. He's known as the sickly boy (with Asthma) who tries to be tough on stage. The production team also seems to be intrigued by him, they always give him random screen time.
GyuRae, the giant baby child who always looks lost, and had only a month of training and has minimal skills. I don't agree with debuting underaged kids. But the production team and fans think he's cute, so he'll get in either way.
Wooseok gives off good vibes since his audition and he's a trainee from the production company of the show, so he's a sure in either way.
As for the visual trio: SungMin, Taeseon and Junwoo, I think they are overplaying their visuals too much. Especially for SungMin. But I guess it's because he's the face of the show now and also a trainee from the production company of the show.
And Santa is a sure in with all of Thailand and the BL community's support. He has the potential. I'm just wondering how long it's gonna take him to learn Korean. Because I haven't heard him even spoken a complete sentence of Korean, even though everyone keeps saying he has always dreamt of being a kpop idol.
I get you on the lgbtq+ media though. I've been watching queer content for 18 years. I know the tragic movies era well, especially the Asian ones. It's probably only gotten less tragic in the late 2010s.
What's annoying this situation is people are still saying they'll watch this drama because of their favorite actor. They don't get that by watching this drama and giving it views, it's basically telling the producers and everyone in the industry that it's okay to keep taking all originally gay stories and turning them straight for their "better" profit. Which only belittles the BL fandom.
It's very obvious now the production choose to keep these actors for their fandom to promote the show.
Still, this is a no views from me.