Blkittykat

That was strangely entertaining

That was so much fun and it was so funny. Not in the "I had a great time because it's quality work" kind of way, but the "it's so bad, it's good" kind of feeling.

The story was actually bonkers. I've seen plenty of revenge plot where their ideas are also completely over the top and dramatic, and this was just the same, but it was actually bonkers in the way they executed it. Badly, of course, each episode had a new plotline almost, and some of them didn't even bother being a continuation, it jumped to a whole new, unrelated plot. But it was so insanely executed that it was funny.
The guy basically has a one night stand with his professor, boss and aunt's fiancé (it's the same dude, he just has a lot of designations) and decides to keep seeing him because he wants to get revenge on his aunt for ruining his life.

And honestly? This, expanded upon, written well and given the same amount of dramatic vibes? I would absolutely watch it.
This plot, executed properly as a BL, I would eat it up. Just for the drama of it all, because they did have some genuinely feasible (and maybe even good) storylines and moments.

The acting was atrocious though. Pretty sure one of the supporting actors actually read off his cue card in a scene. Not good, sometimes all around terrible.
The leads kind of had some chemistry though, which was nice because they spent a lot of time focusing on their relationship and almost made me root for them as a couple (if not for the bad acting, I would have!)

The characters are all human trash. Except for one character, I hated every single other. But once again props to them for somehow making me almost root for two morally grey characters, yeah, they almost did!

And if you're wondering why the music has such a high score - it's because they used OSTs from Bad Buddy, I Told Sunset About You and I Promised You The Moon! The rest of the music was terrible and even the OSTs made no sense for the plot, but I just had to because I love the songs.

If you're looking for something to watch in the background, maybe not this one! I was somehow sucked into paying attention, even though it was terrible, and I actually enjoyed it lol.

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The best one yet

This is by far, the best entry into the franchise and it's surprising that it took so long for them to use the plotlines they did in this movie!

Pee Nak 4 follows First, Balloon, Min Jun and Nott from the previous movies as they both vacation and attempt to repair an old chapel that belongs to Min Jun's family. The repairs have stopped for some reason and when the four of them find themselves haunted by yet another Pee Nak, they need to find the spirit's identity and figure out what their connection to the chapel is.

This was the first movie that properly utilized the mystery aspect of horror movies, in the previous three, the huge reveals weren't as surprising as they were meant to be, and though this one didn't have that shocker of a reveal either, they did manage to create a ton of mystery while also using their tried and true Naga mythology story aspect. And the legend they used in this one was amazing as well, definitely my favorite of the four.

The horror was actually good! There were jump scares? I was surprised watching it and surprised myself again after I realized I watched a jump scare in a Pee Nak movie.

And the comedy was back. I genuinely enjoyed the comedy in this one, absurd, dark, and self - aware comedy? Yes please!

The thing they did best though - creating an emotional connection, I'm surprised it hasn't been done before. It's a tried and true way to get the audience invested and this one was executed beautifully. I genuinely teared up a bit, without giving away too many spoilers, the backstory in this was absolutely amazing and you could truly feel the emotions.

I would definitely recommend watching this one - as well as watching the others for continuity purposes, but if you had to pick one? This is my first pick. The plot was set up in movie three, but even without watching it, you won't be that lost. This was so very good and they did set up another sequel, which, considering the fact that I've pretty much binged the franchise, I hope is just as good.

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With You Always

That weirdly conveyed more emotions in eight minutes than I have seen full length series do..

The story is pretty straightforward, it switches narrative between the present and the past and finally back to the present, all in a span of eight minutes. We see the wedding of the leads, Siam and Nawanruk, and a majority of the film is just their first dance. They talk to each other about their love for each other, their marriage and what it means for them going forward while they dance, and the film aptly concludes on what happened after.

It was all quite emotional, I'm not going to spoil anything, but it was emotional. The acting, the way it was filmed, the music, all complemented that feeling of despair and sadness the movie itself portrayed very well, and by the end, I was actually moved to tears.

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Unfinished Sequel - Unfulfilled Potential

Was this almost unnecessary?
Absolutely
Did I still watch because continuity and Wi Ha Joon?
Absolutely

The set up was right there after season 1 for sure, but there was also no real need to have another season, let alone two. But I still watched it because despite my progress with not torturing myself by watching things I don't want to in the name of continuity, I thought this would be good. I liked the first season, why not this one

The seven episodes started out incredibly serious in episodes 1-2, started getting this comedic undertone in episodes 3-5, and by the time it got to 6-7, it was a joke. The tone was serious, but the plot was a joke.

The initial set up of wanting to take down the game from within the game is a pretty bad one by the way, Gi Hun was the winner last time and knows the game inside and out. For someone who knows how it works, he sure made a lot of decisions based on the humane nature of the participants. And for someone who knows that the people controlling the games can see literally everything and manipulate it as they wish.. he really didn't think anything through.

That's the problem with this season, the core concept just feels all wrong and what it relies on instead is the bread and butter of season 1 - getting you emotionally invested in the characters. The new cast is awesome, so many wonderful and endearing characters (amongst the usual jerks because I guess there always needs to be characters as the opposition within the contestants, because meta I guess) and they are one of the few reasons I'm looking forward to season 3.

The returning characters as well, written pretty well. Gi Hun is battered and scarred from the last games and it shows, his only intent the entire time is to make sure the games end and to protect as many people as he can. This kind of backfires (see: section that talks about the bad writing), and we're left on a cliffhanger.
Jun Ho is used very sparingly despite being a lead and that choice is very paradoxical because the way they've written the series makes sure that his character can't do much. He could've if they'd changed the plot accordingly at certain points, which I hope they do in the sequel.
In Ho aka The Front Man had the best development this season, at least for me. Not in terms of character or anything, in terms of playing a role in the plot and I'm definitely curious how they'll take that forward.

There isn't really much to say until season 3 is out because I hope the plot can recover from the kind of dive it took in the last couple of episodes. I don't know how they're going to do it, but I hope for our sakes and theirs that they actually find a way to end the game because even with Wi Ha Joon, this doesn't need a fourth season.

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The horror!

Wasn't actually that scary now that I think about it, sure it had it's fair share of jump scares but overall, am I much impressed? Let's find out!

Episode 1 - Our Little Sister
Story factor - 8.0
Scare factor - 1.0
Standout performance - Aye (Cherprang)
This was a fairly good story with a solid plot twist, it was a bit creepy and a bit sad and was quite the start to the series, the best one to start with as well I would say, they made a great decision to have this be the first of the anthology.
Final score - 7.0

Episode 2 - Wedding Dress
Story factor - 5.0
Scare factor - 3.0
Standout performance - Milk (Care)
This is one of the stories I thought would have benefited from a longer runtime, a full length movie perhaps, because while it was sad and scary, it didn't really create the impact it could have. Nevertheless, a solid entry, not the best
Final score - 5.5

Episode 3 - Ode to My Family
Story factor - 8.5
Scare factor - 1.5
Standout performance - Chawin (Poon)
This was my favorite episode and even without my obvious biased opinion, this is one of the best episodes in the series. Good suspense, psychological horror as opposed to just gore and a plot twist I genuinely did not see coming. The only one I didn't see coming by the way, other episodes did have plot twists that were predictable to an extent but this one I didn't anticipate.
Final score - 9.0

Episode 4 - The Vow
Story factor - 7.0
Scare factor - 1.5
Standout performance - Nat (Gee)
This was one of the episodes that was good, but compared to others, just felt a like bit of a letdown. Nothing wrong with the episode itself to be honest, just not my personal favorite. It was psychological horror and I believe the only one that was inspired by an urban legend, so props to that.
Final score - 7.0

Episode 5 - Spectral Class
Story factor - 1.0
Scare factor - 2.0
Standout performance - Nik (Prince)
This.. what on earth did I witness with this episode? I hated it. I'm sorry but I absolutely hated it. I know that horror stories don't necessarily have to make sense but come on! This was nonsense. Unnecessarily violent and gruesome nonsense. Just.. ugh.
Final score - 1.0

Episode 6 - Girl Next Door
Story factor - 8.0
Scare factor - 3.0
Standout performance - Bird (Nat)
This was the saddest episode of them all, I was actually tearing up toward the end of the episode. The set up was sad, the twist ending was sad, everything about this was quite emotional and what I thought would be one of my least favorites when I started the episode turned into something that impressed me
Final score - 7.5

Episode 7 - Dear Granny
Story factor - 5.0
Scare factor - 5.5
Standout performance - Nulek (Sydney)
This was definitely the scariest episode and a close runner up for the position of episode I hated most. No, not because it was scary. It was again, just not very believable or coherent. The twist ending was not explained very well, even if it had to be ambiguous, there are definitely ways to clear stuff up for the audience and this was not it. Again, pointless gore with a hint of a story.. not a fan
Final score - 4.0

Episode 8 - Viral Curse
Story factor - 6.0
Scare factor - 5.0
Standout performance - Ple (Nina)
This had both a decent story and some good scares, but unfortunately I was kind of over it by the time I got to this episode and my interest just plummeted. It was a very meta and well executed plot but much like the second episode, needed more time to develop. It wasn't bad, but I was just not into it.
Final score - 6.5

The acting in almost all the parts really impressed me, they did have some standout performances I liked but I did think the acting was solid all around.
The direction and writing.. definitely could have used some work.

Adding all the scores and finding the average.. came out to a score of around 5.9.. let's round up to a 6..
So did it impress me? Almost? Some of them absolutely did, others disappointed, and a rare one actually made me want to chuck something out of a window.

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Watch me reap the consequences of my own actions

I always say that I can look past bad acting, cinematography or editing, the one thing I can't look past is bad writing. On the off chance, I can look past those two plotholes or insane storylines in scripts that are mostly airtight, but when they are gaping enough for you to fall through, that's where I draw the line.

Let me clarify, the writing isn't abysmal here, there were a few amazing twists but the story either needed to be way crisper or way more fleshed out than it was. I still don't have answers to some of the biggest mysteries they introduced and it just felt sloppy at points. I won't fault it for starting off slow and then picking up the pace, some of my favourite dramas are that way. What I will say though is that the change in pace was so abrupt, it took me a second, because after pretty much nothing happening, there was way too much going on.

The character writing.. was a little better. I couldn't really root for any of them except for Do Hyun, because really, he was the only character who didn't do something absolutely deranged, horrifying or hypocritical. You can obviously root for imperfect characters but they either need to be immediately likeable or have some character development. The development also came much too late for my liking, so there goes that.

The acting was what impressed me the most. While I did not understand the reasoning behind writing the characters to be the way they were, I genuinely felt like all the actors carried out the brief to the tee, maybe even better.
I did want a bit more of the development on interpersonal relationships between the characters, they did drive the family theme hard on this one, so I see no reason why they couldn't have done that.

Psychological thrillers aren't my favourite, sure, but I do enjoy them once in a while. Unfortunately, the thrill never really arrived for me and the psychological aspect was much too mild to make anyone uncomfortable like I usually see people say they expect. It was a decent watch with it's moments, but personally, nothing really clicked enough for me to be completely invested.

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How do I even rate this?

Let me preface by saying I love a good pun.
A Perfect Match 🎾
A Perfect Match 🧑‍🤝‍🧑
Huh?
My bad pun is probably better than this series was.

I imagine they shot this based on a scene breakdown instead of an actual script. Indications of what the scene would be without any real dialogue.
Or perhaps this is the cut version of an uncut version that doesn't exist, they just edited the cut version and then lost the hard drive which had the full, makes sense version.

The story had every single drama trope I can think of, even if they didn't show it on screen. Nothing made sense, absolutely nothing. There was a vague outline of a story that got lost in the hundreds of clichés seen and unseen and it was a hot mess.

The acting was pretty bad, the characters were pretty horrible. I guess the chemistry was decent, but overall this was around 100 minutes of literal nothingness.

And for a series about tennis, there were four scenes where they played tennis. FOUR

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The multiverse.. is real

Nevermind that this episode didn't answer any of my doubts from the original series, it left me with even more questions. This was not a special episode, this was a set up for another half written and executed season because a special episode would've provided answers to the several questions that went unanswered in the series, not introduced another storyline that felt like a pilot episode.

The new storyline reminded me a bit of Secret Crush On Your and a lot of The Boy Next World itself, but because it was more or less a pilot episode and a continuation of the original series we got a lot of mindless fun moments and fluff.
The characters felt different but familiar, the story felt half written and I cannot emphasize this enough, currently I have more questions than I do answers.

But yes, it was a cute episode, I found myself laughing and chuckling at how cute it was during some moments, plus there was a lot more of the second couple in this than I've seen in any other special episode. So yes, not a bad one, but also not something that tied up loose ends like I wanted it to.

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When the rain hits your face, my hands hold up an umbrella

Rain can be sticky, make you uncomfortable, but in the right moments, it can be freeing. Even then, you sometimes just want an umbrella close by, because even if the rain is liberating, you can want that it only surround you, outside the shield of your umbrella.

One missent email shakes up the lives of both the leads, and what begins as pure courtesy and politeness, soon turns into the rain in their lives. Sometimes sticky and uncomfortable, but those emails carry the freedom their lives do not mirror. Emails turn into real life but the two of them are still under the umbrella, and their real lives are ultimately going to catch up to them, but their lives are intertwined in a way that is going to be difficult to cut off or ignore because what they share with each other are not just their thoughts, or fears, or aspects of their lives, they've essentially bared their heart to each other.

The drama, much like my explanation, is as complex as complex comes. Both leads are in precarious situations with their love lives and one email sparks a whole conversation where after each email, you get the feel that those two finally found someone who gets them. Whether we as the audience understand their conversations is not the point, it's that they understood. They share their pains, and troubles and deepest thoughts with each other because they need not worry about being judged or worry about slighting each other. They are strangers after all.

As the drama progresses, them being each other's safe space, each other's liberty is the only thing that goes unchanged because every other line they unconsciously set is erased. This of course means, a whole lot of drama, but that was expected. Nothing in here was ever not going to be complicated.

I loved how every important moment between the leads happened when it rained and I loved how whether they did it consciously or unconsciously, the rain signified something for their relationship. I love that the leads actually spoke to each other, no misunderstandings, no silly arguments, the drama came when it was supposed to and it wasn't because they refused to talk to each other. I love that they were always open with each other, no matter how their situation changed. I love that they noticed things about each other, and that they took the initiative when they needed to.

It may seem like I'm describing things that are normally there in some senses in a relationship and in dramas, but this was a plot that needed a whole lot of development, and they did that while also doing all this. I wanted a little more though, that's my only complaint, I wanted a little more closure, a little more of a deep dive into Hagiwara and Sei.

But believe me when I say I ate this series up, I was completely obsessed with it while I watched, and for good reason. This series was like a summer rain, a light enough drizzle to cool you down, while the sunshine warms you up, and when that happens, you can't help but love it.

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My brain is burning but it was worth it!

Aside from the fact that I have a headache from all the thinking this show made me do, this was such a good watch! Watching people do something they're good at while you also try to figure it out is a weird kind of fun I enjoy.

What I loved:
1) The Teamwork! I live for the teamwork on variety/ survival shows. Though most of the games were mind power based, the preparation and strategy needed to figure out the solutions needed a lot of teamwork and I think for strangers (it did seem like they met on the first day of the show), all the teams worked together incredibly well.

2) The Games. I tried to play along but it's hard when the focus keeps shifting to the people actually supposed to be playing! I guess that was the point though, but the games they picked were genuinely so interesting. It was a mix of very common games, made much more complicated than they usually are and I loved it.

3) No betrayals or backstabbing or deceit. Strong words, but this may have been my favorite part of this show. There's always this aspect of having to betray someone you form an alliance with in elimination style competition, but I loved that each university was a team, and there was no need to form alliances and break them to get ahead in the game, just their skills.

What I didn't like:
1) MATH! So much maths!
The only thing I didn't like, like throw some trivia in there or something. They did have some games based on strategy, reasoning and probability, but a solid chunk of it was maths.

I had a great time with this, it was the break I needed from all the thinking I had to do for my assignments, projects and such.. more thinking.. loved it.

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For the friendships we formed along the way

I've come to find that I'm more invested in the friendships formed in dating reality shows than I am in the relationships, which is a beautiful paradox but the friendships are just so pure!!

I will also always maintain that what the audience sees is probably less than a quarter of what happened and that we have no way of telling what exactly happened behind the scenes and to what extent, and at the tip of it all, these people were just trying to find a good connection.

So obviously we'll laugh and cry with them, get annoyed at times and relate to them at others, as I'm sure the contestants themselves did. And this was a genuinely surprising experience, watching this, because I got to witness some incredible people tell their stories and share their experiences and I got to see them develop incredible connections with everyone else.

The sensitive topics were handled with care, and the host was genuinely wonderful at being supportive of the contestants. And despite a few ups and downs, I'm hoping they got something good out of their time on the show.

There was some romance, a lot of drama (a lot) and even more amazing friendships, which was definitely my favorite aspect. Whatever they choose to take forward, I hope they choose to take those friendships forward.

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Dramatic boys

Jeez. How?!
How did they manage to create more drama and even more chemistry, with a new character no less?!

I'm dumbfounded, because this could have technically been concluded with five episodes, those last three episodes were completely unnecessary. I guess technically it was needed to set up Bad Guy, but that's all just parallels, the story was complete after episode 5.

Which sucks because they had chemistry. Good chemistry, I was invested for a minute there because more than half of the second part focused on Jae Min and his new love interest, and a half of the leftover half was spent on fixing the messes from part 1.

Although they concluded it pretty neatly, a lot of it just felt unnecessary. Other than the fact that I am way more invested in Bad Guy now, it didn't really do anything for me story wise. The acting was still good, chemistry was good all around, and if I didn't find out that the MC and the SL are the leads in another series, I would've been angry about the wasted chemistry, but they are, so eh-
This was a confusing experience.

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Blue boys, you make me a mad girl

Now, first off, it was almost perfect for most of the runtime. I watched the compiled version of the first four episodes, and by my calculation, it was almost perfect until what would be the last episode in part 1.

They set up the connection between the leads very quickly and very well, and the conflicts they introduced were new and played very nicely into the set up. Even until the ‘last’ episode, the story building was incredible, I'm just angry with the way they handled one aspect of the conflict.

For a short series, they managed to stuff in conflicts about work, economic disparity, sexual experiences and unwarranted jealousy, but of course the one that caused the most damage was the oldest page in the book, the love rival.
The character is of course completely unreasonable and coming off borderline stalker - ish, but they're just doing it because they like one of the leads! Ugh-
In a matter of a few minutes, they managed to overshadow the good chemistry and connection the leads built over the past few episodes. All that hard fought connection, down the drain.

Finally coming to the second point, I'm not going to reduce my rating since I know there's a part 2, but I get how frustrating it must have been to watch a series end like THAT. Come on, you don't do that.

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Cute, simple and fun

That's pretty much it though but it had me invested.

There truly isn't much to say because essentially the story is about a green flag introvert and a green flag extrovert falling in love with each other. The only real red flags are seemingly connected to their “introverted/extroverted” behaviours and tendencies, but take even that with a grain of salt, it's not all there is to those certain scenes.

They solved all misunderstandings pretty quickly, there was a sort of gradual and steady progression to their relationship every episode, and both the leads had quite astounding character development. It was nice. Yeah. It's all complimentary but I can't exactly rave about their relationship either, it was nice and a bit more nice.

The second couple though, had more drama and oomph to their relationship, and with their very limited screentime and extreme chemistry, I was way more invested in their up and down. Yes, yes, I loved the drama that came with their friends to lovers arc, but it managed to create a good balance between the extensive cuteness and slowness of the lead couple.

The only complaints I have are about little things, really nitpicking if I think about it, like the angel/devil stuff (made no sense), the thing with the ex, and why Khun Shy could never get out of his apartment! Get the turtle a lead role please! I could practically feel the desperation to escape that fish tank in every scene he was in.

Honestly, this was a perfectly decent watch, for when you're in the mood for minimal drama, a lot of cute moments and a little golden retriever of a male lead.

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Hardwork and heartwarming moments

These are the feelings evoked in someone when they watch their favourite team or the underdog team, hey, even their own high school basketball team play.
You've seen where they started, everything they had to go through, you feel their joy, frustrations, exhaustion and exhilaration. You find yourself cheering for them at every moment, and that's when you know, they have your attention.

This was more than just your underdog, rag tag team coming together to form a wonderful team, more than just being a plot device to generate some awws and sighs, no this felt so realistic. Be that it is based on real life events, there was so much heart in this movie that it felt like I was watching the actual people it was based on on screen, not just the actors.

All the characters had equal focus, another thing I love seeing in sports based titles. There was no star player, the coach wasn't the lead amongst the leads, this may have been one of those rare instances where everyone listed as a lead, genuinely felt like one.
It's hard to get the audience invested in a lot of characters without revealing much about them, but the amount of focus they each got, their actions on the court, the way they played as a team, it was more than enough to absolutely love them all.

The acting was great, the cinematography was great and I truly felt the word “rebound” as I watched. The meaning of the word, which I thought would be lost in the rest of the story, was indeed the most important thing after all.

The uplifting story, the subtle comedy and the sense of togetherness and familiarity this brought to me are just some of the reasons I would highly recommend.

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