Blkittykat

All for being the Sexiest Man

I do love that they've somehow managed to make an eleven episode plot out of probably the most insignificant award ever, and what I love even more is that fact that it worked.

It worked very well. Is the plot a thinly veiled excuse to have Boom cry almost every episode? SURE! But did I also eat it up like it was no one's business? You bet.
Because by all means the plot was the most scattered and random thing ever, the entire series was based on the fact that one lead absolutely loved and adored the other and thus decided to become exactly like him. What followed that was a bunch of unprompted jealousy, weird entertainment company politics and just a whole lot of crime. I don't even know what happened there, it was the most random stuff ever and that was the way you could always tell that this was actually based on a manga. None of it individually, or together for that fact, should make sense, but boy does it.
But the plot was absolutely the most random thing ever, no doubt about that.

The glue was Akin and Jun. Jin.
Their love story was the entire point of watching and making this series, it carries the plot and was actually very, very nice. They had a complicated dynamic right from the beginning, teetering between attraction and pure detest, but it worked. You never have to ask yourself why they're attracted to each other or like each other, I guarantee that.

And with the romance comes chemistry. SO MUCH CHEMISTRY.
Boom and Smart, I mean.
The honey scene?! Come on.
And they had all kinds of chemistry, not just the intense kind, they had cute chemistry, the 'I'm dating my best friend' kind of chemistry and of course, they had the 'I want to kiss you with the force of a thousand waterfalls' kind of chemistry in spades.
Just so good together.

But.. but.. this review would be amiss if I didn't mention one person..
BOOM
What-
Akin was written for him. I think that quite a bit about a lot of characters, but that statement has never held more true in any other case. The nuance with which Boom played Akin.. I mean.. it was perfect. No words would be enough to describe just how perfect he was, hats off. Just brilliant.

My only real complaint is the scattered plot, if it had been a bit more solid, would've been great but like I said, this worked, so I'm not complaining much.
Oh, I have one more complaint. The amount of times they made Akin cry. Why?

This is actually a very good series, it captured my attention and kept it until the very last scene, and might I say they set up a sequel? I don't know, if you know let me know.

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The clichéd art of subtlety

I want to say something about how they subverted the clichés of the romance genre by creating clever twists or by doing the unexpected, but let's get honest, this was as clichéd as clichés can get and I enjoyed every bit of it.

Let's clear one thing up, the lead is not an actor in the lakorn, he's actually the director who inadvertently has to direct something in the format he most detests after what happens at the beginning of the movie. And while having someone do something they both love and hate is not quite the revelation, the execution was actually genius. The leads usually try to fight it and do things their own way, but here, he has no choice but to do it like someone else wants.

Whether it's by force, or because the another lead, his girlfriend, absolutely loves lakorns or even because he's actually starting to fall in love with the job, the neverending clichés start presenting with some sort of charm, while usually this kind of barrage would feel outright like the writer hated writing the script. I know the last sentence is quite confusing but I'm not going to clarify anything on purpose because that aspect I'm keeping secretive was one of the best of the movie.

As you keep watching, you fall in love with the clichés, all of them, and whether you saw the twists coming or not, you've just thoroughly enjoyed an entire movie about something you usually scoff at after seeing too much on the screen.

It just works. You can tell everyone who worked on this had fun with it and to that effect, so did I. I was looking up movies on Netflix and randomly came across this one and just reading the synopsis, got myself prepared for either a lot of scoffing or a pleasant surprise. I'm glad it was the latter.

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A pleasant surprise

I don't know if this was because I started the series when I was desperately in need of something light and fluffy, or because it was genuinely good, but I am so pleasantly surprised by how good it was.

It's your basic pretend relationship but I was sold from the get go. Add to that Thomas looking like he does and chemistry between the leads, and I was double sold. The story moved at a brisk pace (bar the little lull in episodes 8-10), and it wasn't repetitive. They actually stuck to the pretend relationship instead of completely forgetting about it at some point like I've seen other shows do with their main plotline, which I really appreciated. The relationship between Rak and Fah developed very nicely, again surprisingly the writing was pretty solid.

In the same vein, I loved how the characters themselves and the romance between the leads were written. I'll admit, overly cutesy characters are not my favorite, mostly because they can never seem to get some kind of depth written to them. Their cute and that's it. But Rak was more than that, and I got to see this through a storyline I thought was unnecessary but turned out to be really important. Same with Fah, he's supposed to be a stoic character, but throughout the series, there were moments where he didn't take himself too seriously and showed his vulnerability which I loved to see.
And every other supporting character was written just as well, I found myself appreciating their presence on screen and in the lives of the leads with every passing episode. They were entertaining, endearing characters.

The romance between the leads was also written so well, they showed the character development clearly without being too explicit, created scenarios for us to see just why they liked each other, what's not to appreciate? I would have appreciated more screentime for both of the side couples though, I feel like that's a complaint I have with every rom com I watch though.

The acting was good, there were some unnecessary scenes and some of them were dragged out too long, but for the most part the pacing was steady and crisp, and the music was pretty cute as well.

The series was nothing new, it had the same ten clichés every romance title has and yet I enjoyed it to the fullest extent. It was truly a pleasant surprise.

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Are you happy in the end?

When I describe a "hard watch", it's usually something I had a tough time getting through, for whatever reason, but when I say this is a hard watch, do no take that lightly.
This is brutal, raw and downright disgusting at times, and that made it so hard to watch, so hard that I had to constantly take breaks, watch a lighter, more easily palatable show in between watching episodes of this just so I could finish the series.

But don't let that put you off either. Watching this, you definitely need to be in the right mind space, and you could even do the things I did to calm yourself. The brutality and morbid reality of this series are no joke, but don't let that put you off.

This series perfectly depicted an interdependent relationship that teetered between comfort and toxicity. Where another person is your comfort zone in a world that's oùt to get you, but they may very well be the reason the world is oùt to get you. Chihiro and Haoren are pitiable characters but I don't think they were written to be viewed as just that. They're not wonderful people, no one in this series is, but they're flawed in a likeable manner. You want to root for them. Each episode makes you root for them even more because you realise that their actions are the consequences of other people's actions. The decisions they made weren't devised to be evil by nature, they were more like coping mechanisms to adapt to their surroundings.

They are messed up, yes, but it's also so much more complicated than that. With each episode, you can see each of their perceptions of love and life change and grow, the twisted comfort the two of them bring to each other are the only good things in their lives. And no matter how toxic or twisted it seemed, there was no denying that they brought each other happiness.

This is such a complicated series to write a review for, because it was dark, uncomfortable and harrowing, but the thing that kept me going were the little glimpses of Chihiro and Haoren being each other's lights. The light at the end of the tunnel. I stuck with it, and it was worth it. Be prepared before you venture into this, watch it concurrently with a lighter drama if you need to, or even convince someone to watch it with you, whatever you need, and just focus on Chihiro and Haoren asking each other, 'are you happy?'

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Is the multiverse.. real?

You can dissociate the idea that MAME came up with this story when you first start it because by all means, why not?! Come on! I did it! It completely slipped my mind that this is a MAME series before I started it because there seemed to be an actual story and I was enjoying it, coming up with theories, basically having fun with it even if a lot of it didn't make much sense.

Then I watched episode five and I couldn't delude myself anymore. This is a MAME production alright because those ten or so cliches in every one of her series became more and more prominent. The things that previously didn't make any sense suddenly felt like such obvious clues to the twist in that episode and I couldn't do it any longer, I could no longer make that dissociation.

For a couple of episodes after that the story dragged on a bit before it picked up again and I was once again shocked that an actual semblance of a story was present in a MAME production but again, so were all the clichés and toxic characters and behaviour. It's like a pattern, and if you have noticed the events in that pattern, you know they're genuinely atrocious.

Which is where my problem with the series lies. The premise of the story and the latter few twists, in retrospect, were actually pretty good. They felt like a fresh take on the genre (I'm surprising myself writing these words), but there was that one plot point, that one twist that kind of cheapened the entire story. It was a good twist, I won't lie, it caught me off guard and I was shocked and angry at it, and now it's just a bitter aftertaste.

That twist then shifted things not only in the rest of the story, but also in the romance and the dynamics between all the characters. Which was a pity because Boss and Neoul had good chemistry, and the series would have benefited a bit more if the focus had been on them and certain other supporting characters rather than the ones they actually focused on. Even with the good chemistry, the dynamics in the romance changed with the twists in the story and the viewing experience felt hot and cold.

The brightest spot in the series for me was the second couple. They didn't have much screentime together, but even individually they stole the show and I loved their energy as a couple and as individuals. Especially Jin. My sweet cloud photo taking prince, I loved his character.

After all that buildup, let me just say this isn't some mind altering series. It's stupid and fun and sometimes very inappropriate but it's not going to change the landscape of dramas about parellel/multiple universes. You go into it prepared for some amount of absolute nonsense and maybe like me, come out of it liking it a bit more than you thought you would.

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Joke

Twas a joke.
I'm the joke.
What did I just watch?

I cannot believe I spent two hours on this, I am pissed and I did not think Yin and War could disappoint me like this. I mean, I would watch trash for them because I've come to expect that they will always deliver something brilliant. Even if it was just for the nostalgia of watching all my favourite characters from Jack and Joker on screen again, isn't that what special episodes are for after all? But what was this?

I thought the first hour and a half was not bad. Nothing brilliant either, I just wanted a few more romantic moments between Jack and Joker than we got in the twelve episode series, maybe some actual movement between Tattoo and Aran, some family bonding moments for the Deck of Cards..
They decided to double down on the plot though, which okay, again not the worst thing, expectations don't always pan out.

They continued the plot from the original series seamlessly, so points for that, and we did get a few romantic and really cute moments! Sure, the story felt a little stilted and rushed, but I convinced myself that that's what happens in specials! Sure, the fighting felt extremely staged and the mystery wasn't exactly mystifying, but hey! It's a special. You don't need a brilliant story or a massive plot, you need good continuation and a ton of moments between the couples that we didn't get in the series. And for the first hour and a half, we got all that, and it was not bad.

It can only go up from there because special episodes don't shock you by adding unnecessary twists and turns, it's supposed to be a happy episode, correct? WRONG
Oh boy was I wrong, and how..

The last half hour ruined it all. Just ruined it. I spent those thirty with my mouth open and just repeating the words "please let it all be a dream, please".
I think we can infer the direction the episode took from that sentence. I'm not even going to say anything about those thirty minutes because I am furious right now, absolutely furious. Of all the things they could have done, this was the worst possible one. One scene at that hour and a half mark led to scenes that got worse and worse and I kind of want to cry now thinking about how badly they ruined it.

Yin and War's chemistry was great, so was Mark and Prom's, everyone in the cast acted their hearts out as they usually do, but ugh! I would like nothing more than to forget this exists because it feels like an insult to the actors and the audience if I'm being honest. The full length series was actually good, and I refuse to acknowledge that this special episode is a continuation of the series. I don't care if they've set it up for a sequel, I don't care, as far as I'm concerned, episode 12 was it and any sequel continues from there, even if the story doesn't make sense.

Oh I'm so angry.. it physically hurts to give it such a low rating but I cannot physically rate it any higher either

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I've never needed to hear you say you love me

The notion of expressing your love through more than words holds just as much, sometimes more, meaning than saying the words I love you. These thirteen episodes were a brilliant representation of that.

Romance can be plot driven, but more often than not it is character driven, through and through. The character writing and development gets a perfect, beyond perfect score from me. Often we see two flawed characters help each other grow, but it was so pleasantly surprising to see two characters, one who is seemingly imperfect and in his and many other's opinion, useless and another who is seemingly perfect, seen as strong and invulnérable by everyone around him, help each other grow out of the boxes they've set for themselves.
Because love can mean seeing the best in someone, but also getting to see someone in their worst moments.

It was refreshing to see Zi Xiang push himself, better himself, and at the same time see Shao Pang realize that he does not need to be strong and happy all the time. The two of them helped each other grow into more vulnerable yet fulfilled versions of themselves and I loved watching them just communicate through all the issues that cropped up along the way, because thankfully, misunderstandings can actually be solved by good communication.

The second couple were interesting as well, they complemented each other's energy very well and provided each other with what I think the other person was looking for, one for safety and comfort, another for someone to match his energy, someone solid and persevering.

The plot was a little uneven at times, but for the most part was very well written. The plot points about discrimination in the workplace based on disabilities and the conversation surrounding the 'normalcy' of disabilities were especially poignant, relevant and well written. Since it was mostly a character and romance driven plot, the chemistry between the leads would be the focal point to get it to work, and yes, the chemistry was flawless.

Overall, it was an incredibly sweet and genuine love story that had me crying more times than I anticipated I would because their story genuinely moved me. So many moments that made me sigh in happiness, so many that caused me to hold back a choke or two just witnessing how happy the two of them were. Be prepared for a ton of emotions and go for it.

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None of my damn business

The best thing about this was the chemistry between the leads, it just worked. And when you have seven episodes, around 10 minutes each, you're kind of depending on the chemistry to pull through and lucky for them, it did.

Because the story tried to fit ten different tropes into one series and I honestly couldn't right up to the finale if they resolved everything or not. You had your phone call misunderstandings, you're jealousy of an ex who's not really an ex, the kiss after a drunken night out, and of course, the moment where your boss discovers an 18+ webtoon on your pen drive which was supposed to have documents. And I'm racking my brain to see if they resolved everything as I write this review, and I guess they did..? Kind of, because once you get past the point where the writer and the audience (me), stops bothering about the story, you hinge on good acting, and good chemistry, which two thumbs up.

It's a K BL, the cinematography was obviously beautiful and it's so incredibly short that it can be watched in one sitting. Or you can take your time. It's just basic, trope filled fun and.. yeah. It's good, fun and you can watch it or not, it's none of my damn business.
(See what I did there? Yeah?)

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Sweet and chaotic

I'm so pleasantly surprised by this, it was a simple and uncomplicated love story made so complicated and funny because of how chaotic the leads were.

And not just that, they avoided so many tropes I thought would definitely crop up, there was no love triangle, no exes popping up without reason, and while there was plenty of miscommunication and misunderstandings, it was most definitely part of the story's charm.

Though it got frustrating at times, Hiroko and Ayaka made it worth the watch. The charming mix of hopelessly crushing on each other inadvertently turning into panic in both of them was amazing to watch, and the tight script that made time for not just this but delved into their backstories, friendships and workplace histories meant that there wasn't a lot of time being spent on one storyline to the extent of it becoming boring and repetitive.

Hiroko was definitely the more frustrating lead, at least for me, because despite the fact that I could see where she was coming from and what she meant to express through her confusing actions, the lack of communication on her end sometimes made me genuinely angry.
They had a good balance though, Ayaka definitely knew what she wanted and went for it, and her positive, sunshine attitude was so refreshing to watch.

Even the supporting characters were exceptional, though we didn't get to see much of them, their presence in the story was irreplaceable and just made me more invested in them and the leads.

There was just so much to this series that I enjoyed and I highly recommend.

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Childhood friends, neighbors,

Lovers..?
Yeah, they didn't have enough time to develop it fully either way.

There was nothing extraordinary, mostly because they didn't have enough time to cover the basics, but they got somewhere, and established something, so not all bad.

Like I said, childhood friends and neighbors, have had a crush on each other for the longest time but just won't open up to each other for.. reasons. It's not like they were being subtle either, so it makes me wonder why neither of them caught onto the fact that the other person had a crush on them, but that's a question for another time.

What followed was a lot of flirting, wound dressing and the pettiest of all misunderstandings, leading up to them almost becoming a couple. Still can't tell what happened despite the fact that it was very clear.

It was cute though, I enjoyed their banter and they were very sweet together despite insisting they hated each other. There were literally just three other characters and they weren't bad either. But I cannot not bring up the music, I believe they literally got one of the leads to walk up with a mic and just sing while the footage ran and used that as music. It was not good.

It was very short and unsubstantial, so it would make a good background watch.

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Blue Boys + Bad Guy

Oh.. they really need to invest in some writers..

Let's get this out of the way, we're not here for substance or depth, while it is entirely possible to make it with just eight episodes, that's not why you watch this.

This is a whole lot of drama, a whole lot. That, plus some good chemistry is the equation for this series.
And obviously Blue Boys + Bad Guy
Take the story of Bad Guy, but replace ex with best friend, and then add the story of Blue Boys part 2 to this. It doesn't make much sense just reading it, but you can make the parallels as you watch.

All the aspects were the same, there's always three or more people in the relationship, one person always ends up getting hurt, there's definitely morally questionable relationship behavior and of course, a ton of drama. Watch it for the drama and you just may enjoy it, but it's hard when you've watched two other series just like it right before you watched this.

I will say, the chemistry itself scored a couple of extra points from me, and hey, at least this time they didn't have a weirdly ambiguous ending.. who am I kidding? It was.. it was weirdly open ended even though it wasn't.

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Red flags but chemistry?

I'm incredibly confused by this because by all means this was one of the most morally ambiguous things I've watched in a while, but sometimes you just want to watch dramas like that.

Look at this objectively and the basis is just so bad. The leads meet each other (for the first time I'm assuming) after their breakup and start seeing each other again despite the fact that one of them is engaged. Obviously this leads to a ton of cheating, morally questionable behavior from both of them and just a lot of frustration all around.

So why did I enjoy this? The two of them should by no means be in a romantic relationship, the amount of self destruction and co - dependence actually made me scoff, red flags flying all around but sometimes you just want to watch something that makes you a little uncomfortable, but also entertains you. The chemistry was great, the production value was good, so was the acting and even though the plot was, I'm saying this again and again, so morally ambiguous, they way they wrote it to be angsty with that open ending just felt right.

It's a very short series and if you're just looking for something that will invoke a lot of feelings in that short span of time, give this a try!

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A cute special

Ugh, damnit. I weirdly enjoyed that.

Like with all specials, it was just an epilogue kind of deal, four years later, what's going on with the characters, all that, and they tried to incorporate newer fantasy elements regarding the dreams, but besides that aspect being new in a special, this was as tried and true as it gets.

I would've liked, just like the series, if the fantasy aspect had been developed more. I actually think the added complexity of Ai being able to control his dream, Yu being able to venture into Ai's dream would have been so interesting to explore and they should have done that in the series itself. The fantasy aspect overall was just very underdone, thirteen episodes and I wanted a little bit more, even though I loved the romance.

That being said, I have no complaints about the romance. It did take me by surprise when they said they've been dating for four or five years, and that's only because I didn't bat an eyelid when I thought Yu was proposing to Ai after maybe a few months of dating, lol. I don't know what happened there, but both the couples had plenty of moments and the chaos and comedy that comes with these catch ups.

It's nothing new and nothing brilliant, but it was sweet and funny and they wrapped up what was already well wrapped up, even better.

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Tried to be chaotic and heartwarming, but didn't really come across that way

First off, this would've worked way better as a miniseries, there was just way too much going on for it to be a good hour and a half movie without it feeling like one character got too much screentime and an another got too less.

Second, making it a miniseries may have helped with getting the audience more invested in the characters because by the end, I didn't really care much about any of them. Maybe one or two, but they were focused on way too little for me to actually determine just how well they could have been developed.

Even the story came out very rushed and a little insensitive. The points they were trying to make and the things they tried to address were quite serious and genuine, and while there is a way to talk about them and develop comedy from other aspects, they pushed it all together and it just came out quite badly at times.

I love a good chaos comedy, but you need to do it well for it to be enjoyable and unfortunately, this didn't hit all the marks for me. Some better writing and longer runtime may have helped because I have no complaints acting wise. The rest? Should've been better.

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It feels like I can hear only YOUR voice..

Watching the movie after I've already watched the series made me see sides of the story I didn't think I could discover and gain more respect for Kohei and Taichi as characters.

The movie in itself was a beautiful story and represented the experiences and struggles of those with hearing disabilities while having an incredible bond between the leads develop steadily.
When you look at it as a parallel to the series, you can fill in some gaps that I think would have been left up to interpretation in the movie and have more dialogue for certain scenes in the series that I thought could have been explained better or rather, clearly.

This was a great watch, for the story, the emotions, the thoughts it provoked and simply for Kohei and Taichi ♡

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