PPBongi

A Beautiful Love Story

A profound series. There are only 8 episodes, consisting of about 15 minutes each. It is amazing what great story telling can do in a short period of time. How could one not fall in love with this series? Its pace is swift, intense, and utterly believable. There are no wasted scenes here or fillers. Just raw drama and an intensity of feelings that develops. Also, the chemistry between these two (very handsome) actors is a thing of beauty. This is truly a must series and I hope people watch it. (There are not many of these from Korea, so enjoy!) Each episode has an aptly named title and you will get the message clearly. I very much want to see more of their story because in the end, love is really what matters no matter how you define it.

Read More

A Feel-Good Series

This is a lovely simple story of almost instant attraction leading to love. It is different from other Korean BL series (of which there are not many) in that there are no fatalistic or painful roadblocks to hinder the fruition of love. And they made it a part of the normal makeup of living. And the added addendum to making this series so good was that these two can actually SING. They are professional singers and it showed. Their singing and the songs in this series were quite good. If you want to review my complete review of this charming BL series, please go to ppbongi.medium.com. Feel free to comment. Thanks.

Read More

Soft, Sincere, Emotional

This really is an amazingly beautiful love story told softly, subtly, and with great understanding of male bonding. Not every relationship starts with a big bang but more like a slow burn and is almost metaphorically like cooking. All the ingredients must be there and prepared just right for the final outcome to be indelible. These guys are very good actors and conveyed a deep sense of commitment to their roles. This could have been fatalistic, but it does not go there and in fact feels hopeful. These guys are also stunningly handsome with such a boy next door charm about them. These are hard roles because they must carry the whole series since there are only very minor characters otherwise. You can read my full review of this nice series at ppbongi.medium.com.

Read More

Surprisingly Charming

This is actually a pretty good series. It was charming, sensitive, and had some very good characters in them. I loved the unusual story line about the married man and his companion. That was quite interesting and they made it plausible. It is a sweet love story that culminates in family acceptance as well. You can't get any better than that. Thanks for the English translation. I just love these off-the-wall series with no real big budget but great story lines. They were also not afraid to show some everyday scenarios between gay couples that I really liked (sneaking a peek of his friend naked body; the guy invading the shower space surprising him doing something creative). It is entertaining but could have done without the over-the-top male gay character in the story. A bit much. I also found using 'Fatty' to describe/call one of the female store clerks cringeworthy. This may be a translation issue but those terms are just not appropriate and should not be used. I have posted my complete review of this cute little BL on my (free) blog at ppbongi.medium.com if you are interested in reading it. Hope you enjoy!

Read More

FourEver Bad!

Honestly, is it not time for a revolt against BL series wasting time on drivel? This is one of the most mindless, childish, dumb, cliché-driven, and trope-filled stories I have ever seen. In addition to being one of the more rancidly acted series, mainly because it exposed an incapacity to display the protagonists (as well as other major characters) adroit at growing, thriving, maturing, or even becoming an adult let alone being able to face any type of trauma or drama without completely falling apart or reverting to child-like behaviors. Most acted emotionally as if they were somewhere between 5-to-15-year-olds in bodies that are supposed to be young men. And do not get me started on how infantile, pre-pubescent and frankly non-existent they treated the whole concept of gay relationships.

Read More

The Likay dance portion: Great; BL portion: Poor

Here again is another BL that I desperately wanted to like. And oh, did it have some fine moments in it. While I do not know if the performers were master crafters, they made it look professional and very accomplished. For that, the production ought to be commended along with all the performers. I am sure it took many, many hours of practice to display the nuances and subtleties of the dances and movements and I for one am deeply appreciative of those efforts. So, the story around the Likay dance was exceptional. Unfortunately, the romance and drama around the protagonists, sorry to say, was a whole different story. It was unfortunately weak. It got tropey, cliché, and formulaic. Then it took a deeply dark turn that it did not need to take; as a main theme for one of the protagonists was already somber. As long as the story remained on course to the development of Likay, it made sense and was entertaining. You can read my full review at BLBliss.com.

Read More

Cringey, but...

Sereno literally means serene in Spanish (there is a lot of Spanish influence in the Philippines) which this series displays very little of. It is an attribute sorely missing in this series. Lately, there also seems to be a rash of BLs about mermen with none piquing an exotic imagery. Most were cringey. While this series initially offered an interesting premise, it ultimately focused on the lowest common denominator – mainly sensationalism and titillation. The saga of mermen is ironically only instrumental; not integral. Admittedly, however, the graphics for the introduction to each episode and the music score are the most serene moments of this aberrant series. Overall, this series is unfocused and unhinged. Perhaps, if it had stayed to one theme, maybe it would have been a better series. Initially, its attention to the theme of merman was promising, but it soon got bogged down in tangential trivialities and/or silliness. Frankly, I am not sure what the intent of this series was. There is a lot and I mean a lot of innuendo and down-right silliness in this series. But secretly I did find myself surprisingly entertained when it got campy and off-the-wall gay (call me crazy). If the production seriously went campy totally or concentrated on telling a risqué gay story with a sharper script told in a tongue-in-cheek style or off-the-wall method, you might just develop an outright cult following, as no one and I mean no one is doing that. Keep refining what you are doing. Honestly, focus on one thing and make it really, really campy, nuanced, and above all melodramatic. And allow the actors to show their talents besides their bodies; you then just might have a hit. This theme could have been it. The male performers were all certainly eye-poppingly handsome and many were decent actors. Next time, do not be so trashy.

Read More

ReReReReReloved!

Sometimes story ideas come along that are so dumb and so mind-numbingly bad, you wonder how you sat through it without completely losing your own sense of reality. Honestly, this is one of the dumbest ideas for a plot I have seen and even adding adorably cute kids to the mix could not salvage this mess. You know you are also in trouble when throughout the series, flashbacks while the protagonists were in college 5 years previously looking the same as they do now. When a series that relies so heavily on days-gone-by without considering that they might have changed in 5 years, you know you have a weak story, and this is one of the most mediocre BLs I have ever seen. Regrettably, this is yet another saga of miscommunication—this time, at its very worst. The story carried this cross to such an extreme that I wanted to jump into the story personally and just scream in the very first episode, will the two of you simply sit down and talk to each other as adults! Sanely. Rationally. And stop with the artificial drama. If they had done so, the story then perhaps would have been forced to have a theme worth exploring. Instead, it droned on and on and on about missed windows of opportunities. All because basic, and I do mean simple basic questions from the beginning were not ASKED.

Read More

More Touching Than Funny

This series started out in the traditional sense of most Thai BLs. Initially, I almost thought it was a spoof on Thai BLs because it seemed like the characters were more like parodies than representatives of real people. However, as I got into this series, I found it to be intriguing and fascinating, maybe unintentionally? While most perhaps found this series humorous with tongue-in-cheek situations, as it is billed as a ‘comedy’. However, I found it utterly sad and melancholic. It represents one of the dolefulest stories I have watched in a very long time. Admittedly, I cried more than laughed through most of this telling. Honestly, this series could have been an early contender for Top Ten for 2026 honors, but as usual it took the low road to simply making it cute rather than completing the story behind the story. ALL four of the protagonists are astonishingly sad characters whose lives have not been destined by their actions but by the antics of others. This was not a comedy but a serious study of very sad, stunted young men who miraculously found love with each couple, meriting all the happiness that a fairytale ending should give them. They deserve one. Their lives have not been necessarily easy ones. More importantly, they seemingly understand that but are willing to give back to society tenfold more than society gave them.

Read More

Good Series; Really Lousy Script

The allegory behind this theme is fascinating. Its screenplay is where it fell flat. If they had followed the initiative of the story, the saga would have been a way more compelling BL. Instead, it became spasmodic. The receptivity behind this story is very good; the screenwriting is simply awful. Frankly despite its awful screenplay, this is well acted, and the actors and actresses did the best they could with a lousy script. This series is deeper than what it is given credit for. It gets lost in the endless and totally unnecessary cat-and-mouse, ‘enemies-to-lovers’ fiasco. Thai BLs absolutely need to get out of the rut of being formulaic. This series was a shameful waste. This was good; it just was not great. But it could have been.

Read More

A Secret Pleasure of Mine

This is such a feel-good series particularly currently. Honestly, I should not have liked this, but I did. It is slow, predictable, filled with the usual suspects but so much fun. I could not help laughing at its silliness and cuteness at the same time. If it were not for these actors, this would have been a total disaster. They made this series so real, so comedic, and just a joy to watch. I did not care that it had no depth to it or great message. It was just entertaining. It is a thing of beauty to watch. The ending is as unrealistic as this entire plot but so in synch with the rest of this series. This was a comedy and indeed has a happy ending (well you know what I mean). Everyone wins in the end. Do not read too much into this series. This is not a slice of life; it is essentially asking you to suspend your reality and simply enjoy a feel-good series about love between guys. There are a lot of flaws in this series from ridiculous characters, such as Amp, to crazy plot lines, like a surrogate pregnancy. But for me, it worked. Why? Because I believed the characters.
However, there were some situations in this series that made me shudder. One is the overuse of ‘hubby-wifey’ connotations. Again, I am NOT Thai, and I do NOT even pretend to know the Thai culture or customs, but for me these terms are simply cringeworthy. I am hoping we can stop using these terms to define gay relationships. I know that they might help make them more relatable to societal norms, but these terms are simply outdated and literally have no and should not have meaning in the gay world. They make it sound as if these are your assigned roles and duties, thus perpetuating the stereotypical roles of each gender.
The words that Chon's mother is so apt here and we should all remember them, “It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.” If you would like to review my full review of this series, it is posted on my free blog site at ppbongi.medium.com. I have to caution you that I actually liked this series, despite its flaws.

Read More

A Solid & Effective LGBTQ Story! Told Well!!

I was indeed pleasantly surprised and found this story to be exceptionally well done. It is not just entertaining, it is contemporary, relevant, and quite consequential. This story is a tale of their redemption along a journey involving major growing adjustment pangs between the two of them. However, it also created a path to learn about each other through the eyes of the other members of the team. Because no matter how much you might want to deny it, we influence others sometimes in ways we least expect it. So, it is not just a story of restoration, it becomes a story of acceptance also. This is above all also a story of misfits. If you are familiar with the Christmas tale about the island of misfit toys, then this story will make more sense. To some degree, it is even more relatable because each member of the volleyball team represents an oddity from a world of nonconformists. This is a deeply personal series to watch because we notice how others see them and frankly how they view themselves. It is painful and sometimes sad but always idiosyncratic particularly if you are a member of one of their sodalities.

Read More

What is Its Point?

Some things simply should not be extended. And this is one series that should not have been prolonged. While I was not particularly enamored with the first season, I thought its concept was an interesting one and found it reasonably entertaining. So, I took a ‘chance’ on this second season. What a complete disappointment this was! Wow! It took me by surprise how inept and really substandard this story became. Not only is this story bad; so was the acting. Overall, this is an astonishingly dumb plot with zero growth in the characters. The main actors have no real chemistry either individually or even less as a couple. Both seemed only half-hearted in their attempts to portray their personas. Worse than all of that is that there is no emotional payoff either. Not for one split second did I believe they were a ‘couple’ in any way, shape, or form, and did not for a New York minute ever believe they were in love. Their acting was rote and perfunctory.

Read More

Deserves A Class Unto Itself! A Masterpiece!

This series is so near perfection that it almost belongs in a separate category. Wow! (However, I do think it is infelicitously titled). I had almost given up on Thai BLs until by happenstance, I came across this discovery. I was so enthralled from its beginning that I binged watch it from start to finish with just a small break in between. An exceptional rarity for me. It captured me on every level and seized every fiber of my being. I cried. I laughed. I felt joy. I encountered pain. I understood. Most of all, I regarded each and yet both. I perceived two individuals destined to be together. They made their journey so credible, real, genuine, and most of all sincere. They gave us passion, devotion, and an unwavering sense that the only thing that mattered was each other. And they did it without sacrificing their own sense of who they were or diminishing their own connection to humanity.

Read More