Angelica Gea

I totally agree with you, but...
If anyone just thinks something is bad , not likeable or simply poorly made, I mean, why can't they have the liberty to express whatever the f the like? I mean, I don't think it is unfair to have a bad opinion about a show you didn't enjoy, don't you think? It's not a matter of hate, but taste. Commenting here is on purpose, right? Sometimes is a good comment, sometimes is a bad one. That's all, I guess.
Then... yes, I am a woman, but I totally got what you were referring to. I got, sometimes, not always of course, the impression that many girls here, on this site, don't like tv shows too explicit. Honestly, I don't have a clue about why, but... who knows? Different tastes are different tastes , I guess.
I think I am a strongly opinionated feminist most of the time, and no, your comment wasn't misogynist at all, mate, it was just funny and, naturally, provocative. Who thought it was misogynist for real, in my personnel view, just got issues, dunno of what kind though.
Cheers!

You won a new brand doll!! Applause! Showstopper! Enjoy your victory, I am defeated! :(
I am kneeling before you.
I am such a bad little person.

@any_anka
You gotta watch this! It is simply wonderful. A real gem.

https://www.ordineinfermieribologna.it/2017/giovani-il-43-ha-rapporti-sessuali-completi-tra-i-12-e-i-24-anni.html#:~:text=Si%27%20alla%20contraccezione%2C%20ma%20con,media%20al%20primo%20rapporto%20completo.

It kinda makes me smile (not laugh) your dedication in finding data regarding this matter, I almost sense that maybe you are boy/man, could it be? Not that it matters, of course, but that could suggest to me that you are not fully aware of women issues about sex all around the world and in western countries too. I shall be barking up the wrong tree, defo. LOL
If you really think that the data you are collecting are even by far close to reality, well, I think you are mistaken by a long shot. Why? Cause this matter is a pure hypersensitive theme, the data you may find around are mostly based on medical examinations (so they are super limited) and hypotheses about getting true confessions from the young ones.
In no way, never ever, you will have true admissions from teenagers (not even anonimously) about their first sexual experiences, be they masturbations, first intercourses with another person or complete penetrations.
[Behaviour analysis is my professional field of work in Ethology. I have to study singular actions, patterns and sequences of actions that are typical of a particular species, just to give you a hint of me].
Now you get to sense the true reality when you talk to teenagers that really trust you. And even there, it is just a guess.

For women then, it is so much more difficult in comparison to men. Many of them are compelled to lie for their sake or for the fear that what they admit will be reported to their parents cause they are indeed underage.
The situation is very very similar, unfortunately, to the one about admission of being raped. If you disagree about this because you trust that you can find realistic statistics, it is a position I can understand but surely I can't share, simply cause there is no realistic stat about this theme. We can use all the algorithms you prefer, but still the results are gonna be poor.
Again, data in Africa is like talking about another planet, cause the lack of them due to war or poverty is incredible.

On 10 girls of 16 y.o., asked about masturbations, you will never have the truthful number, cos culturally masturbation is a sin, also in non-religious environments, it is still something seen as bad, while, instead, it is a simply phisiological need as any others.
So that is why every number you can find will always be unrealistic and too high in age than in reality.
Many NON-asexual people MUST lie in order to make their life easier or simply bearable, that is why many asexual persons are sometimes not believed. They are not believed, not just cause they are seen as freaks, but because they are mistaken for the ones who need to hide their truth. All of that is easily understandable.
From a different point of view from yours, saying to be asexual is could be received as saying to be a saint; while, instead, saying to love and to make a lot of sex is the equivalent of saying to be a slut. If you only think these two stigmas carry the same weight, the same social condemnation, you will be literally a fool: basically cos in a lot of religious countries you would be comparing abstinence, that is righteousness (meaning purity), to consumption, which is (seen as) corruption, depravity, sin.
In the worst possible scenario, in the first case you can be seen as a harmless freak, a joke to isolate; in the second case you can be condemned to death or, even faster, be stoned in a public square.
Again, how can you possibly even imagine collecting realistic data from Muslim countries about women? Countries where, even when it is already forbidden by the law, in many places the customs and traditions still suggest or ask to practice infibulation or excision of the clitoris.
So, what the hell are we talking about?
I would really like to ask you where you grew up... LOL
That is why I firmly sustain that whatever statistics you can put on the plate, they can only be assumptions, estimates that are only ballpark figures, not even close, by any chance, to reality.
Then, if that isn't enough, we should try to understand if the scientific publications, that affirm a specific result, is backed up by that government or not.
If you watch Korean dramas, the romance type, where the main target is composed by women between 12 years old to 60 (?), along with an infinite number of cliquè, you have, most of the time, characters who are very poorly interested in sex; like you will find, very often and presented like if it were the rule, like if it is the normality, a situation where normal people about 30 years old are virgin, when this would obviously be an exeption.
Why? Because it is almost a suggestion, it is a hope, it is the moral teaching they would like to pass. But that doesn't have anything to do with reality. That is simply a bad attempt at moral education for women. It is a kind of censorship and a way of cultural control. So in those entertaining products the rule is a romantic asexuality, cos, evidently, that industry needs to push it that way.
Thank God I do not live in Korea! LOL
You can think one thing has significant material consequences, I think other things have actually more severe consequences. The fact that you care to fight for queers while I fight for women doesn't mean your fight "actually" counts more than mine. And again and again, it seems like you are engaging yourself in missing the bigger general picture that the issue is still the same, no matter the target. Indeed, the censorship on this series regards especially 2 elements: homosexual intercourse and straight one.
Having different age ratings according to different countries proves me right in thinking European teenagers culturally grow much faster than Asian ones, no matter what we like best.
But, in the end, if my upsetting appears misplaced to you, frankly, it is not really my business.
Take care and goodbye.

PS: You maybe would like to check again the meaning of "anomaly", cos what you wrote is your denigratory interpretation, not the first meaning of the word that , indeed, according to the Oxford Dictionary, means:
"anomaly (in something): a thing, situation, etc. that is different from what is normal or expected".
I often make mistake in choosing the right words but not so often, believe me. I definitely was sarcastic about my English LOL

Hi Ryn, No, I was not being sarcastic at all. I honestly sent you my regards and greetings as a goodbye cos I thought the problem was indeed about not being able to communicate. I would never hold a grudge about something like this anyway.
Let's see, though, what the word "normal" means. If it means "usual", "habitual", "common", or "conform to convention", then my answer is "no": being asexual or ipersexual are not normal traits, they are indeed exeptions, but that doesn't mean they are not natural, cos they are, exactly like every other manifestation or expression of someone's inner self. Just like being gay or bi or whatever. Being an exeption, meaning "out of the usual rule", doesn't mean bad or right, good or evil; there isn't any kind of moral judgment about normality or exceptionality, unconventionality. They are simply different aspects of reality and nature. Nature is full of exceptions in every corner of the living, they are essential as well as the ordinary, so it is simply stupid to try to assert what "should be" and what "shouldn't be". Nature itself couldn't care less about the opinions of insignificant human beings. Do you get me so far?
The morality about diversity is often brought by religious people, whatever the religion might be, and that is something light-years far from me.
Now, cos i do believe in democracy and in equality of human rights for every human being (and not only human, but that is a whole different story... lol), I also believe that exceptions are natural and "embraceable" like any other majority form. Exeptions must be protected and included cos they basically represent a bigger richness in life, biologically and culturally speaking. So, "anomaly" does not have any derogatory meaning, never ever; variety = richness , in every species.
When, about teenagers, I say "all" of them is because puberty normally, usually, brings along different dosages of hormones throughout the whole body and girls and boys are able to procreate. Even if they only practice autoerotism, the desire for sex can be overwhelming and constantly present. Then, are there many different sexual orientations, preferencies and all kind of shades in sexual fluidity? Of course there are! Are they fine? Certainly they are! But you cannot pick an obvious general speech and make your case based on the exceptions. In my opinion, it is not so logical. You cannot bring an asexual teenager as a representative sample of the average teenager.
Then, again, I don't know where you got your stats about average age, sincerily. In my country it is 16,4 years old, according to the Order of Nurses of the University of Bologna. I guess the saying must be true: " Italians do it better" , just kidding naturally LOL
In addition to all of that above, the possibility for a teenager to watch anything they want doesn't justify a rating of censorship so randomly given, cos the message of forbidden material, allowed only to adults, carries the meaning of "dangerous or shocking stuff" and this series surely does not deserve this title.
I don't understand, for real, why you trace a difference between "my getting upset" and "your getting upset", when eventually they have exactly the same root: preventing someone from becoming more emancipated, more knowledgeable, and more aware.
The rating of a product does always matter cos it is representative of a cultural push behind it. I don't think I have to talk about how much censorship and propaganda are the most effective tools in mass control, do I? I am sure we agree on this.
Could we speak Latin, maybe?
Se comprendi il Francese e lo Spagnolo, sono sicura che capisci anche l'Italiano... LOL
Ciao ciao.

Nice to see that you didn't get a single thing of what I wrote. And I mean not even one! Wow, really encouraging... Oh, and, attention, not only haven't I been understood, but even it completely overturned all the meanings of what I wrote. Good job.
Next time I will write directly in Italian, avoiding the effort of a foreign language, seeing the results I had. I am so so disappointed by my English.
Whatever, agree to disagree and Amen.
My best wishes and have a nice life.

I loved it, but it left me with a feeling of unfinished business, too much still in potential.
Am I the one who is missing the fact that they are making a second season and the show is not ended?? I am asking just in case... LOL

I don't believe for a moment what you've just reported; if your sources are Google and Wiki, well I am sorry, I don't even start the discussion, cos it already says you might want to attend some universities first to learn how to get reliable data resulting from serious and scientific studies.
Anyway, I am sorry, but I don't think you travelled the world enough, surely not the majority of Africa and definitely not Europe.
Talking about an anomaly like someone axual is like talking about another anomaly like someone with ipersexuality or nymphomania. It simply doesn't make any sense talking about these matters because they are rare cases. Nevertheless, I can be asexual and still not tolerate the censorship when I reach a certain age where I can think and evaluate things by myself. The fact that I can be already sexually active at 15 or 16 y.o. or not should not interfere with the knowledge of sex and sexuality in general. If I must study the abominious of wars in my history books, I can surely watch two human beings making love.
If you or the youth in your country live in a bubble or a candy under a crystal dome, well, that's your limit, not mine, fortunately. And that usually happens in countries where women do not hold any power and where "feminism" is just a word read in some forbidden magazines or books; just saying...
The thing that you don't know why I am upset about this rating explains by itself the lack of freedom in education that you believe to be right, and that is exactly the anti-values I will always fight against.
And, yes, biology and ethology do have their course in every freaking species of this planet and it is the result of an infamous process called Evolution. LOL
That doesn't mean that there is no space for minority cases: indeed we evolve through mutations, which are very often also positive and adaptive. So the variety in every species is absolutely needed, but that doesn't mean it is the rule and surely doesn't carry a moral value of right or wrong, rather than good or evil.
To me, everything that exists in this world has its worth and its reason to exist, be the rule or the exception.
Ending... My grandparents were born in the 1920s and they would be the first to laugh at such a censorship of minors; certainly my parents have done it already in my presence.

One of the best Korean TV series I have ever watched in my life, surely in my top 3. Finally, Korea in the Big League of international TV series. The matter that this is also a gay series is merely circumstantial, IMHO.
Flawless.

Rating this 18+ is ridicolous! I would understand a 15/16+, definitely not an 18+, when all teenagers around the whole freaking world start to be sexually active before 18 y.o. It is just pure hypocrisy and lame bigotry.
I have just checked: indeed, in my country it is rated 16+.
I really can't get why in all Asia they try to deny so strongly the teenagers' reality in all matters...
Biology has its course in all human beings, regardless of where you are born. Refusing to admit that is just for suckers.

Absolutely perfect. Great short.

The R 18+ is totally Scy-fy, i dunno if who rated this short was a noun or a priest, but the show fits perfectly any teenager 15+, at least on planet Earth! Personally, I would let my my 13 y.o. niece watch this without the blink of an eye, but that is surely subjective of my family's educational values.

Why, for God's sake, would this be unacceptable now?! On which planet do you live?

Hello dear friend! Sorry, I was caught up in R life, and I haven't had a single minute for writing back to you. I am speechless noticing how much has been written already by countless people in just a bit more than a week, OMG!!!!
No one would ever say that the series got a half-hearted reception LOL.
Anyway, ASAP, I ll try to keep up! ....easier said than done... hahahah

Hi dear Any, first of all, thank you for reading my endless post before <3
It is always so impressive to see how different people get different meanings from the same scenes: figure that I got the opposite meaning of what u said about the scene in their room with Shi. I perceived the issue was the same genre and not at all being stepbrothers. Maybe cos I don't and I didn't consider that to be a real issue, cos to me they are perfect total strangers to each other. I thought that way cos Sheng seems pretty flustered and shaken when he catches the two teachers kissing at night. But you are definitely right about his inner monologue: yes, there the brotherhood theme was the point, dunno why, but I took it as a secondary priority. 

But i have to disagree about his early thoughts, cos i remember , maybe more than once, when they kept repeating that the kissing jokes were not a big deal also cos they were both boys and just 4 lips touching each other.
About Xi and Benny, you are suggesting that maybe what we saw, about Xi being ridicolously slow on getting the hint, is Xi's need of denial of reality cos he is not ready to face the recent shift that has just happened, right? I can work with that!  
Although then, why does he need to put pressure on Benny to know his feelings? I mean, not very coherent, but I guess his jealousy is stronger now.
I totally agree with you about the "coutionary tale". You nailed this 100%, which is also why the series shows us Sheng busting them kissing. Plus, the correlation works both sides: you can catch how much Xi and Benny look at "their younger selves".

About the motives under Sheng's choice, of course he is afraid about jeopardizing their relation and he wants to act in the subtle way possible (just saying LOL), but to me it is more cos he knows he can't hold it any longer, he feels he is gonna lose it, realizing how much he likes JT. So, again, if that is what you are experiencing, then remaining in a shared room might not be the smartest strategy XD. I mean, when do you actually feel the issue at its most when you are in a class full of people and teachers or when you can see him half-naked, wet, asleep and right below you where u can peak at him any endless moment of the night? Huh? LOL LOL

Then, they both think their love is unrequitted, but they know very well what is going to make the other angry or disappointed. Sheng knows it much more than he shows LOL and JT is not buying anything Sheng is saying, that is why he is so heartbroken and furios (to the extent of punching the wall): he is sensing Sheng's distance now, he is desperate they are gonna be lonely again and terrified they are gonna lose each other. But there could have been lots of regrets and sense of guilt too, like "I wasn't able to keep him near me, I should have said something more", what-if stuff. In a way, even if JT is supposed to be the one that was traumatized by his father, he appears to me as the one who is ahead in the acceptance of his own feelings, like a dude who says: "Okay, I can deal with that." It is just my personal impression by instinct. Maybe it is going to be the opposite in the story. 

You are so right when you say Sheng should have seen it coming from JT, so much more! 

In the end, what bothered me the most was the unclear, ambigous and shady turn the show took in the 12th episode about being or not the very end or just a season finale, but you know this already ahahahaah.

Thank you very much for sharing all your ideas Anka!

Jyd , thank you very much, My Italian friends are indeed telling me the same thing today, I really hope this is gonna be true. They still could have made a better effort though in closing this season, IMHO.

Spectacular series, awfully wrapped up... unless they are messing with us.

What the hell happened? I mean, is this the finale for real? 
Cos honestly, it doesn't make any sense: you, screenwriter/s, create a gay series just to end up suggesting that it's better to nip things in the bud and put distance in order to forget that you like your own genre friend?! OMG! 
This ending could be easily the most anti-LGBT thing I have ever seen in my whole life! 
Not even the Pope himself or Mohammed could think of such a strategy of reverse psychology, Wow! LOL
Basically, you spent 12 episodes in view of teaching how to give up the one you love and how to renounce and avoid temptations, trying to correct yourself like if it were a possible choice for a gay person?! Are you fking kiddin' me?! 
Except for the very end where you give us the ridiculous sop of "Pass the next exam"/"Okay" thing?! Whaaaaaaat?

So, now: I get it all wrong, right? RIGHT? Tell me I got it completely wrong, because unfortunately that is the message I received from the finale of the series and right now I am astonished! I cannot believe what I have just seen, I must be drunk or stoned without even knowing.

Though, if I got it wrong as I hope, then my production's friends, you really don't know how to create, write and film a season finale, and I am talking about the presentation and the form of the narrative development, not about the content of the plot. So again, the fault is yours. LOL
Because what the hell happened to the male teacher couple?!
We got a confession (as if it were ever needed, I mean, your mate has just kissed you on your mouth 2 days before and you, for real, ask him now if he does like the female teacher? How stupid and slow you must be! What did you need? Two meters of his tongue in your throat to get the message? I am shouting this to the screenwriter, of course).
And then nothing else?!  SERIOUSLY?!  It is just finished this way! How is that even possible?

What happened to the boys' parents? What about the Granpa?
And also... what is the use of failing the exam for splitting up if you are still in the same freaking room as him?! Didn't it occur to the writers to let the audience know that maybe Sheng Wang was about to go back home, for example?! You know, just for adding a little bit of logical sense to this foolish end!

We are not talking here about some sort of open ending, this is not, cos there is no end of any kind here! Not a chance.
This finale just cuts abruptly a storyline and it is not for debate: if you stop the story-telling at its peak, on its climax, you just kill the story itself, and you can't even call this a cliffhanger, cos generally in this industry you get a cliffhanger AFTER the main narrative arch is concluded, for introducing a new plot that is super interesting and breathtaking; or you can have nice cliffhangers between episodes, for instance. But that, again, is not the case here! 
So, WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PRODUCTION?!
DiD YOU GET BORED TO FILM ALL OF A SUDDEN? LOL

UNLESS —and here is where I have been waiting for you since the start— you did all of that cos you guys had already signed this project for 2 or 3 seasons.
If that is the case, then stop being ridiculous and just announce it to the desperate public. Anyway, there you should have put well-designed and smart cliffhangers instead of cuts and walls all over the place. You make yourself clear through your filming that a second season will follow.

But, otherwise, IF you are NOT SURE you can pull it through, if you just casually took the shot without having a clue if the series would get a renewal for a second season, then shame on you! We have seen this attitude already countless times in old western TV series and in current Japanese anime, so... WTF!
Therefore this finale is simply bad from a film technical standpoint: awful structure, absurd chapters division for the lack of time balance (you were on drugs while creating the storyboard) and in conclusion, apart from the main leads, all the other characters simply disappear from the end of the story and basically they can go suck it; I dunno what else I may add! 
Pros should never work this way; they should always have a decent respect for the audience, if not, make ourselves a favor: keep the half story for yourself if you are not able to tell one entirely and let others have the job done. Thank You.

I am pissed off as hell, cos I give a super vote to this fantastic series, one of the best gay series on TV of the last 30 years worldwide, both Asian and western TVs; I am dead serious.
It is marvelous: realistic, believable, sensitive and deep, amusing and poor of clichè. All the characters are very well characterized and defined, 3D persons; all the actors, and i mean it, are great: the entire cast plays spontaneously, never overacting.
The dialogues between Little Chili and Gao Tian Yang are superbly written and their back-and-forth exchanges are amazingly performed by the actors. Andy Chen really did a splendid performance throughout the whole series: his naturalness in playing that role makes me think of him as any of my old classmates still beside me.
Beautiful directing, nice editing, maybe not original or innovating but still very good, cos the pace of narration is amazing: great rhythm, peaks and pauses that create a beautiful dynamic in the story-telling speed, with the result of having you addicted, greedy and eager for every tiny detail in every episode.
The attunement and the chemistry between the leads are really good, so much that they totally remind you of "Your name engraved herein" (Taiwanese cinema docet indeed) with several contact points. The building up of their bond and their attachment is really well thought out; it follows natural and realistic steps, giving this way real substance to their story.

In short, literally everything was great and stunning... until... the finale arrived... my goodness...
It is just neither a proper series finale nor a season finale. No matter how you put it, cinematically speaking, it just sucks. 
If someone had told me yesterday, I would never believe that I would have managed to find a worse TV-show finale than the "Game of Thrones" one! LOL

Damn you, TV's contracts, you create prostitutes amongst authors... sigh.

Please, someone helps me out here to understand what the fck of a finale I have just watched!

Defo, Meg, I agree with u too: something else that caught us up :)

So much better than the parent story!
Better acting, better characterization, and deepening of the leads. better chemistry: definitely much more realistic, loyal to what real boys are in real life. Full of passion and both emotional and sexual tension as it is supposed to be between boys of that age.
Absolutely much more credible dynamics and storyline.
Intimate, sensual and pure at the same time, in the script and through the frames as well
Good job!

LMAO! Never heard such an amount of total BS before these on MDL . Geez, what a communist propaganda! Not even during the '80 and the whole cold war! LOL
Really, I don't know if they are a chinese person or a Russian one faking, in order to be mistaken for a chinese user LOL
It's hilarious!