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Fell Apart At The End
Undoubtedly no one is going to like my review. I LOVED 95% of this series. It was charming, witty, and magical. But then they ended it on such a ridiculous note to simply please the audience. As a gay man, I found the ending insulting, degrading, and yet again forces gay relationships to fit into the mold of straight relationships. All I can say, since I do NOT want to reveal any of the story lines, is I quite literally cried. Here was what could have been a BL fantasy masterpiece that simply became a logical farce. It forced the story into societal norms rather than personal norms. If you want to see why this series so upset me, you can read my entire review of this what-could-have-been masterpiece at ppbongi.medium.com. I am sure that there will not be a lot of people who will necessarily agree with me and perhaps I analyzed it to its extreme, but this series just missed it for me. I was deeply saddened.Was this review helpful to you?
Chosen Masterpiece!
The best way to describe this series is that it is off-beat and quirky. It is also warm, gentle, loving, peaceful, reflective, tender, devoted, relaxed, reverent, nurturing, and supportive. Have I left anything out? Oh yes, it is joyful! And underlying it all, is a powerful message for change. A change that will come. I could have quickly finished this series, but I deliberately did not want to. I wanted the warm snuggly feeling that came over me while I watched each episode to not leave me; so, I spaced out the timing to watch this series as long as I could to feel that pleasure.This is a story about a ‘family’ that serendipitously forms almost by fate. It looks like all the members are lonely but in reality, they are not. They are unique individualists who have carved out singular spaces in society for themselves. But there does come a time when companionship becomes a necessity; this is their journey to amity. While the story may seem simple, it is uncommonly intense. It covers so many planes of human connections that it almost becomes overwhelming in scope.
This is one of the best gay stories I’ve seen, blending gentle storytelling with thoughtful commentary on outdated social norms. The narrative was presented in soft, off-beat tones not meant to offend anyone. It powerfully suggests that gay people and other marginalized silent classes deserve full inclusion in the culture and perhaps it is time for them to be seen as part, and whole, of the society to which they belong.
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Good-bye Old Friends!
Watching the final installments of this trilogy, though, was like going back to your high school reunion. Filled with fond memories worn with age, and maudlin, all at the same time. It was also like finding out that your best friend from back when, had passed away. As with all things that end, there is sadness in the journey to revisiting this story. While it floods you with vivid memories and allows you to fondly remember the highlights, it was also traveling towards a conclusion to an inevitable finality. Hence, it permits you to properly languish and prepare for what is going to happen. The appeal of this series is that it is a saga about individuals who are misfits, struggling to find not only their place in society but more importantly also trying to find themselves and who they are. All are astonishingly lonely for a variety of reasons, mostly centering around being gay. Or being different. Painfully hard especially in a society that craves conformity. No doubt, anyone who watches this series will find at least one character that they can identify with and follow their path as the one closest to their own. This series, actually the whole trilogy, has a way of making all these characters quirky but so, so human and thus vulnerable. We understand them all from the beginning. We get to see, perceive, discern, and sense each even if only a number of them are with us briefly. No one here is different from us. No one. They are us.Was this review helpful to you?
Magnum Opus & A Masterpiece!
I believe this is a series that might be flying under the radar which is unfortunate. Rarely do I ‘binge-watch’ dramas, but this is one that I simply could not break away from. Without sounding flippant or disingenuous, this is THE best Thai series that has graced us this year and perhaps for a very long time indeed. Simply put, it is a preeminent and impassioned diary of human drama and emotions. It is original. One cannot watch this series passively. It will not allow you to do so. In toto, it is an experience. One could write volumes about this series and still not be able to adequately describe its effect or impression on you. It is that powerful. Maybe the best way to define this saga is to tell you what it is not. With great effort and prudence, it keeps clear from being your typical, tropey, cliché-driven BL. Yet there is a love story. Several romances, actually. Fervent. Intense. Erotic. Freeing. Fleeting. All deeply moving. Done in the moment – only for and in the here and now. Yet, will remain with each paramour for the remainder of their days. You will understand their extent once the full depth of this series is felt by you.The real, unfeigned story - the whole story - is about the era known as the 60’s. A point of history where the attitudes and way of life clashed and conflicted proactively with the customary social norms. This story is reflective of the kinds of individuals who were present during that counter-culture revolution. Take the story at its face value and watch it from the perspective of the individuals who were participating in the human experiment of wanting to change ‘the system’. All the characters are deeply rooted in the times.
You must watch this series at all costs. It is unmistakenly on my Apotheosis List and is a very serious contender for Top Series for this year. This is a Magnum Opus. A masterpiece! You can read the full review of this fantastic series at BLBliss.com.
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Epic For Sure But...
Unquestionably, this is a cinematic masterpiece. Its production value and cinematography are top-notch. Its storytelling is assuredly first rate. Yet, with all of that, I simply was not as enamored with all its artistry as so many others were. While it is great, I found the story pedestrian and frankly I got lost in its minutiae. I know we are not supposed to say that, but I honestly did. I found the entire story confusing to follow and at times pointless. That does negate the quality of this series; it simply means that I just could not get into it as much as others since I did not find the overall story all that engaging. This is a hazy arching love story that from the very beginning I did not understand and maybe that is why I could not and did not invest so much excitement in the expansion of the story as I should have. While the love relationship between the two protagonists was somewhat absorbing, I found the development oddly inconsistent. You can read my full review at BLBliss.com.Was this review helpful to you?
10 Things I Want to Do before I Turn 40
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A Deeply Redemptive Story
While I have no way of scientifically testing my theory out, I am guessing that this series will be way more poignant for individuals OVER 40 than under. Moreover, its cogency will also be greater for those of us who are way, way over 40, even if it takes 12 episodes to get there. This is one time when the belaboring to get to its efficacy is worth the wait. For the journey to get to the moment of love is the ethos and thus worth watching: it is reflective, pensive, wistful, bittersweet, yet so astonishing fulfilling. Indeed, this is one of the best BLs to come out of Japan in a long time. This is an astonishing and touching love story that is more deeply discerned by those of us over 40. Yet will be understood – someday – by those under 40. Give it time. You may eventually see yourself as Suzume. This does end up being a redemptive story. You can read the full review of this fantastic series at BLBliss.com.Was this review helpful to you?
A Dark Comedy Worth Your Time!
Don't let the naysayers sway you! I found this to be full of dark humor with a good sprinkling of sadness to puncture its levity. It is a story about two astonishingly handsome yet despondent young men. Full of life yet both having given up on it as well. Although this series is short, it portrays an acutely innermost story between two men that were never meant to meet, yet did. Forced circumstances allowed them to fall in love. Although they were not supposed to; they did anyway. I thoroughly enjoyed this series. It let us look at two rather pleasing-looking guys in the here-and-now that I could believe in. And these two actors put it all together and made it work and made it feel genuine and honest.Was this review helpful to you?
THE Most Intellectually Honest BL This Year!
This series starts and ends with an intellectual bond. The two of them begin confabulations to present to one another who they are. As they deliberate, their walls break down and what we see is an organic attraction that leads to a physical intimacy not nurtured on an emotional level but purely an intellectual one. The storyline is breathtaking and the dialogue between the two is smart, witty, stimulating, although not always easily understood. Or I should say, perhaps not easily translated into English. Obviously, what they said to each other in Korean touched them more deeply and profoundly than we could possibly understand. All we can see is their journey to loving one another on a different level than we are used to. These guys are just two ordinary individuals who met. They are not your typical or traditional BL archetypes. They are us. Two very lonely young men whose presence stimulated their minds before it stimulated their bodies. What we are watching is a marriage of mind and body in tandem. Simple. Basic. Passionate. Love that covers and encompasses each of them and both of them.Don't let the naysayers dissuaded you from watching this. If you truly love BLs, this one is for you!
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One of The Best!
This is one of those dramas that, once you begin to reflect and remunerate, it more deeply affects you than perhaps it did when you were watching it in the moment. Indeed, this is a remarkable and almost surreal symphony of emotions. Feckly brooding and doleful, yet somehow sympathizable and relatable. My initial reaction was to label this series as ‘almost getting’ there, but as I started to write this review, and began to conjugate my thoughts, I realized the narrative was way more than an ‘almost’. It was epic. I found myself thinking how deeply this series acutely affected me and understood that its quintessence was supposed to do exactly that. It felt emblematic because if you see the characters and sense who they were, you grasp their temperaments. Suddenly, I completely understood them and their natures. More importantly, the story transposed me to being both protagonists. That is rare when I could identify and relate equally with both leading figures. I saw myself in both at various times within my own life. The key to its magic is to see it as a chronicle of peeling back the layers of the personas of the characters. One of the best this year!Was this review helpful to you?
An Exceptional Story & Misunderstood!
Occasionally, something comes along that touches your soul in a way that you were not expecting. I am quite old, and I have buried many experiences in my life, but this small gem helped me to evoke lost memories that were uncannily close to the content of this story. Perhaps I am alone here, but I simply loved this story for its romance. It paints romance in its purest form – carefree, youthful, deciduous. In a way that only happens once, if ever, in one’s lifetime. If you are fortuitous enough.The intimacy is serendipitous, intense, fervid, and fills your life with a burst of joy that you will never ever experience again. It is your first love. But your first love with a person who is everything you dreamt that paragon would be and wanted to be. He was your knight in shining armor, your Prince Charming. Your Romeo. Your Adonis. Everything you imagined a fairytale love affair would be. I remembered mine and my experience was such ecstasy and therefore, I understood this BL series at its core. While my ending was certainly not as dramatic, my fervor was. Despite the diegesis’s many flaws, I only saw its beauty and the passion for the underlying message of its storybook love. I wish others would see it in this light as well.
This is a fantasy love story. It starts out that way and ends that way. Unfortunately, that point was missed or overlooked. Maybe the realm of fantasy based too much in today’s tangible world is too much for many to believe, or perhaps it just does not/cannot exist anymore. In any case, I am deeply saddened. You can read my full review of this remarkable BL at BLBliss.com.
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ONLY One Reason To Watch!
Overall, this was one of the worst BL series I have seen this year. It had no serious plot. A lot of the characters are cartoonish if not caricatures. Most came across as wooden, stiff, dull, and lifeless. The story meander pointlessly. And every cliché and trope imaginable was used to try and create links between storylines to keep this silly mess of a story going. There is ONLY one reason to watch this fiasco. Everything, and I do mean everything, is centered, linked, and focused on the bond between Jun (Oak Pasakorn) and Sorn (Boat Yongyut). Nothing else matters. I honestly did not care about anything that did not pertain to Jun and Sorn. All I cared about was watching them. They have a screen chemistry and a magic that is simply off the charts. It is too bad that I could not separate out only the segments where Jun and Oak are in. I would give that story a rating of 5 stars!Was this review helpful to you?
Made Me Feel Icky
Just plain weird. Honestly, there are not many instances that give me the ‘willies’, but watching this series frankly did. Everything about this story left me disquiet. And the way the narrative was fashioned felt like what the two protagonists were somehow involved in, between the two of them, was ‘dirty’. Therefore, the whole drama felt – unclean. Sadly, it did not need to go down that road. Overall, this feels a lot like another stepbrother trope BL series, only more obscenely because the direction made it feel that way. Rather than being an adult story, they made these ‘brothers’ caricatures – one almost angelic while the other demonic. Completely unnecessary. What would have been so wrong with treating them in average terms, more relatable to the everyday world, rather than truncating them into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ personas? Not everything is either a yin or a yang. Why can we not have something more genuine and real for a change that is relatable? The real question here about this series is an obvious rhetorical one: What would have been the outcome of this series if the plot had been that the protagonists were not labeled ‘brothers’ but something less salacious? Would we still want to watch it?Was this review helpful to you?
Entertaining, Enjoyable and Escapism par excellence
I downright fall under the spell of certain themes in either movies or series. This series had two of my favorites. Time travel and swashbuckling epic times full of exotic and romantic lore, legends, and traditions. And especially given my naïve Western upbringing, I am heart and soul smitten by Chinese fable and mythology. This series transported me back into time, like with the character, where I too could imagine myself beside them. This is a very short series and fast paced. The editing is very abrupt, and it feels as if a lot of the story is ‘missing’. While the narrative flows linearly, how it gets there is perplexing. Transitions between scenes are choppy and there seems to be gaps. But honestly, the acting is very good as well as the cinematography. The special effects were both good and bad, in the sense they were sometimes amateurish. The costumes were excellent and so were the overall scenes. This is a very enjoyable way to spend an hour of escapism. For those of us who still dream and use this as our flight of fancy, it was captivating and romantic. Perhaps I got too carried away, but I do not care. I am smiling as I write this. I think you will smile also.Was this review helpful to you?
One Of The Best Anthologies!
This anthology is like the first warm summer breeze that sweeps over you after a long cold winter. It is refreshing, gentle, and so enveloping that it makes you feel good all over. This anthology is composed of 4 unrelated love stories told so delicately that you might miss the intensity that lies underneath each of their love stories. Overall, these stories are nimbly told with no overused drama, no destructive love triangles, or cheating plots. It is solid stories with excellent acting in each. All four-love tales are different in terms of poignancy and message. Some are meant to be quite powerful while others are presented as examples of slices-of-life contextures.Was this review helpful to you?
