Blkittykat

A photo in the pocket

I like indecisive leads and indecisive plots as much as the next person, granted they do not like it at all.

Checkered Shirt is about a checkered shirt.. in the beginning because buying one catapults Jeong Woo and Hangyeol into each other's lives, and they're attracted to each other and the story picks up from there.

I can handle my indecisive leads, Jeong Woo is on the greener side of things when it comes to being an indecisive lead - he is kind of a jerk but he actually apologises and he seems like a standup guy in the little we see of him.

Hangyeol on the other hand is actually quite a well written character, especially when you factor in the fact that a lot of his backstory is yet to be revealed in S1.

Indecisive plots though? It's like they wrote the first seven episodes, and only then remembered the plot they established in episode 1 and at the very last minute, pivoted towards that. Which is not that frustrating knowing the second season is already out, but still a little irritating.

I'm hoping S2 provides better context and characters (not a fan of a lot of them here), but this was an okay story that made a panic jump at the last moment to be something good.

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Like a meet cute in a bus

This was um.. cute!

I genuinely do not know what else to say because the series was basically 10 minutes start to finish and was essentially about someone's car being in the shop and them meeting a future love interest thanks to public transportation.

There's some weird conversations with AI, some actual cute conversations between human beings and of course there's a happy ending, because why not!

It's as filler as filler can get. If you're looking to bridge your last completed show and your next watch but you're kind of stuck on which one to choose, and you just need to scroll for ten minutes - go with this one.

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Legends and non - linear logic

If you want a recommendation for a BL that gives Indiana Jones × Avatar: The Last Airbender vibes, do I have the one for you! Let me point you to this. It's not as good though but it's there!

The lore is this - there was an ancient city called Tambralinga, founded by four element benders - Wind, Water, Fire and Earth, that has been lost for centuries now, ever since one of the four founders of the city declared a rebellion in order to gain full control of the city and its neighbouring regions and by an extent, just absolute power. Knowing this, the three other founders managed to lock the soul of the fourth in an enchanted box and hid the city in the mountains of Nakhon Si Thammarat.
In the present day, there are multiple people and groups looking for the city, because inside it is a lost treasure that could help each of them with their pursuits - personal gain, a longtime dream or fulfilling a prophecy.

The story basically picks up from zero, with no real context and we get three seperate timelines - one of the founders in the past, the second of a past where some secondary characters tried to find the city and finally, the present, where the leads themselves hope to find it.

I'm always an advocate for a well written story, honestly, consistency over innovation for me because the faux - pas with having complete originality is that you often lose track of what makes it so. Even then, I have to give some points for the story they came up with, it was truly innovative and had some semblance of originality to it - but in trying to make something exciting they completely messed up the execution.

The most coherent timeline of the lot is set in the ancient city, even though the actions and motivations are inexplicable nonsense, it makes sense as a timeline. We get the backstory behind the fall of the city - including details of all the romantic pasts of the leads and supporting characters and a glimpse into what went down between the four founders as the city fell. It's not the most fleshed out but yes it made sense.

The other two - not so much.

The present is the timeline that is most important, it is a culmination of all the actions undertaken by different characters landing upon the heads of the leads, leaving them to deal with the consequences. We have Siwat - who is looking for the city because it was his father Michael's lifelong goal, because he believed there was something in there that could help Siwat. There's Khun - who wants nothing to do with the city because it was in pursuit of it that his father died. So when Siwat shows up asking for his help, he immediately refused and asks him to leave. Because it was by helping Siwat's dad that his father died.

This past - with both their fathers - is the worst one. It has no fantasy elements, it is simply a means to provide more context to the inner conflicts and motivations of the leads and other characters. But it makes no sense. They say they found the city in one episode, they say they didn't in another. They say that Khun clearly remembers that it was during the mission to find Tambralinga that Siwat's father caused Khun's father's death, and in another we find that Michael was nowhere near the country when it happened and the mission was called off at that point?? None of it made sense.

The story is non - linear, jumping between the three timelines and incredibly confusing. There are over ten characters who seemingly play an important role in the story but from the beginning that it's just the plot that's convoluted, but neither it nor the characters have any real depth.

We have a bunch of villians - Siwat's step mother and her lover, and an evil tweed wearing professor Thakoon, who very clearly come off as cartoonish. The only thing the evil professor didn't do was twirl his faint mustache while deep in thought, otherwise they read as Looney Tunes characters.

Then the protagonists. With Siwat and Khun we have Thara and his mother (in the present), and both their fathers (in the past) who are all presented as the absolute good who can do no wrong, and though I was pleasantly surprised to see some cracks in the stereotype, all of the writing just felt very one - dimensional. Things happen because the script said so - there's no internal conflict (when there clearly should be) and they missed a massive chance to make a romance of epic proportions because Siwat and Khun? Yeah, they're reincarnations of Wind and Fire elementals, along with Thara, the Water elemental.
I know this was a soulmates kind of story but it's unacceptable that the plot moves along because they've recognised that fact. There needs to be depth there - pain, anguish, the push and pull between past and present feelings and events. Maybe it was because Thara was salty about being the third wheel in both timelines but we got a severely watered down version.

The character motivations are one - dimensional when they shouldn't be, the story is both extremely clear but the logic is not clear enough, it's all a very rich tapestry. There's no huge plot twists, it all moves along for the sake of it.

The romance too, most importantly, it moved along because it needed to be moved along. I love a good soulmates story but falling in love just because you were in love centuries ago doesn't work. The chemistry between the leads was decent but again, if you want me to believe they're in love, I need to see it develop, even just a bit.

That ending though, worst part of the series by the longest shot, it was laughable because you do not write endings like that that for stories like this. Maybe you do but with this particular kind of execution it was entirely unexpected and unnecessary, I mean I'm not even angry, I'm just.. well maybe I am. That should have been such a sad ending but ooh boy, it was just incredibly bad - so bad it actually made me bring down my rating.

But there's no way they manufactured this series intending for it to be as unintentionally hilarious as it was, it was mostly fun and a nice glimpse into what "could be", but there's still a long way to go as far it comes to blending myths and legends with fiction.

6.75/10

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Found family trope done well

I quite enjoyed this movie, between the found family dynamics and the well executed visuals of ice sculpting, it was a nice watch.

The show starts off in a juvenile detention centre where one of the instructors Chom, is dissatisfied with her job and wishes to go visit her father in Japan, the person she looks up to most. But the way to get there is through an ice sculpting competition for which she recruits four boys in the centre - Jab, Toom, Win and Jo - who along with another instructor, Boy, all try to gain a scholarship and fund to travel to Sapporo and participate in the competition.

Through the movie we get to see the group grow closer, and move forward from their pasts while training for and participating in the competition. It's got all the tropes you would expect of a found family story, and perhaps that's why it didn't make as much of an impact on me as I had hoped it would.

But I really enjoyed the bond between the six of them, it was light hearted yet deep, and despite stemming from a place of enmity or spite or selfishness, it grew into something incredibly beautiful.

It was a nice movie overall, a good one time watch.

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It's not bad

Yeah.. this was better than the original.
In terms of story atleast which seems like an outright outlandish claim, but hear me out.

The basic plot was exactly the same
Beach - NC scenes - City - Unnecessary drama.. and what would come here would be "rushed ending to the actual emotional core of the story". But here, as a pleasant surprise, it didn't feel quite so rushed.
I'm going to say that's because they managed to get a concise plot from the mess that was actually Love Sea.

This version was much better balanced, five episodes in an island setting and the rest in the city - and while I still carry the complaint that an abrupt tone and genre shift will bog things down, the reduced filler scenes actually helped make a more continuous plot. Again, it's the exact same story, just executed better.

The chemistry was not bad either - not better than Fort Peat though (their chemistry was pretty much the sole thing that saved Love Sea for me), but not bad I guess.

Even the side couple was much more palatable in this version, a lot of unnecessary scenes and characters were cut out or had reduced screentime.

Add to that the only constant in all possible version - beautiful beach and ocean cinematography, always a win in my book.

So yes story, okay chemistry, not a bad production after all.

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The kings of romantic chaos return

No one does chaotic comedy like Japan, and no one can seamlessly combine chaos, comedy and romance like I Became the Lead in a BL.

Now certainly this is not the show that is going to stick with you for a long time or anything of the sort, chances are, you watch it and it's almost forgotten in half an hour.
But this is the kind of show that can captivate you every single time you watch it, no matter how many times you do.

I was clutching at my sides laughing at Akafuji and Hajime return as their chaotic selves, and the comedy and romance were at a peak. It's kind of insane that the entire premise of season 2 was silly panic, but on brand, they made it work.

It's just good fun, you laugh, you kick your feet in pure bliss because they're a joy to witness on screen and you revel in the happiness that this quirky chaos has brought, of course I loved it and I hope you do too.

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Buy the Lactosoy

Umm.. I don't know how to write a review for this or how to rate this..

For story - much like Boys in Love, there was none. They played a different game every episode and by the end, Shane and Kit revealed they had feelings for each other. Sorry, Shine and Gem.
I guess you could say the story was getting them to realize their feelings for each other through the games, but the description itself says it's an ad for Lactosoy, what do I say?

For cuteness factor - yes, it was cute. Kind of nice to see the leads from Boys in Love, and they were as sweet and adorable as they were in the 12 episodes series.

For the advertisement - for being a straight up ad, they didn't really have much promotion did they? Couldn't tell if this was to promote the recently concluded series or Soy Milk, but I'll take it, I'm sick of PPL and for a series about PPL, this had barely any. When it did, it couldn't have been more obvious.

So yeah. Buy the Lactosoy and go watch in Boys in Love. Simultaneously or separately.

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The thrills and tribulations of being a teenager

Being an actual teenager, it is no way perfect - but that's exactly why it is perfection. And that's exactly why Boys in Love is a perfect ode to being a teenager.

The story didn't quite catch on, at least for me. As I see it, there was no real plot - the entire series was based around being a high school senior. Not saying that it's not a good prompt, but I like it when my stories have a direction. The series sort of chronicles that weird time between being a student in school and a university student called 12th grade, but even just as a diary/journal series, I think the plot could have been better explained and executed.

But the true charm of Boys in Love lies in nostalgia - that feeling of first love, the stress of studies, the smallest of achievements that felt monumental and the stakes, which in retrospect, were not all that high. You're transported to those days when you were taking pictures with your friends when you could because phones weren't allowed in class, when you had all your plans neatly co-ordinator on your journal or pinned up on your poster board. It just feels incredibly transportive, even if the things the characters are going through in the series aren't the ones you personally went through, the emotions are the same.
Those moments of growing up, of change and confusion that made you happy, sad, angry - seem wonderful all the same.

Now, this was primarily a romance, even with it's moments of the life of teenagers, so coming to the actual couples:

Shane and Kit - they were really cute. Started out with a classic enemies to lovers storyline and by episode 12, they actually had quite a bit of depth to their relationship. They communicated quite well, but they are teenagers after all. And because of that, a lot of their relationship was focused on the eventual outcome of things. Ton of emphasis on the outcome of their relationship, the outcome of their studies - it was always about an end goal in all their conflicts and honestly? Understandable. Every decision made during that time feels like a "this is it" decision and I like the way they had both Shane and Kit be unreasonable but still have the strong sense of wanting to move forward and grow. Their love story reminded me of so many people I know, but their relationships were a little more dramatic than Shane and Kit's.

Mon and Kim - they had a decent start, a very cute love at first sight - strong infatuation love story, but beyond that, I just felt it to all be very surface level with Kim and Mon. They were cute, of course, but unfortunately, their arc didn't do much for me. They had some great moments, for example, there were plot points about being more open and trusting, about being more self sufficient in a relationship. The thing is, a lot of it was Kim and Mon growing as individuals, not really as a couple. And I love individual character growth - I do, so unbelievably much, but I didn't really see their dynamics as a couple grow, they were literal teenagers in love and I wish I enjoyed their love story more than I did. It was all in from minute one, and not having the opportunity to see how their bond developed was a bit of a disappointment.

Khru Tan and Khru Nut - looking at me going from not appreciating two teenagers in love to raving about two adults who behaved like two teenagers in love. I loved these two together, they were awkward and sweet and watching them in a series about twelfth graders didn't feel out of place because it genuinely felt like they were each other's first loves and were figuring out romance for the first time. There wasn't much we saw of them (they were not one of the main couples), but what we did was two individuals grow more confident and self sufficient, while developing a relationship - which is where they nailed it. Even though I would have liked for their story to be more fleshed out, I did appreciate their cute and weird bond.

Per and Tar - weirdly enough, my favourite couple was the couple that wasn't a couple at all. They had their cute romantic moments, they were the epitome of old married couple and they stole the show everytime they showed up on screen - almost literally not a lot of times, but boy did they steal the show. Their friendship was absolutely beautiful and it wasn't smooth sailing, Per and Tar's entire thing was a "will they - won't they" situation, which even they seemed to recognize. Their's was an established friendship, so you could completely understand where the strong bond came from, and even when they had some misunderstandings, they talked it out very maturely while still maintaining their adorable banter and easy dynamics. They were my absolute favorite, a couple of friends, with the old married couple vibes and a few romantic moments.

Genuinely though, this made me happy. Even without a plot, this made me happy and that's all you want sometimes, to just smile through a drama and I guarantee this can do that. I hope the review convinced you to give this a chance because it's worth a watch, just go for it ♡

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With great responsibility, comes greater respect

I was all prepared to go ballistic when I finished the movie because I saw the plot twist coming ten minutes in - but I sat through it, because I could feel that I was in for something that was truly worth the watch.

It did not disappoint.

The story is pretty straightforward - Bambi, our lead, is an OFW in Taiwan who returns home for her birthday and to her family who have been documenting the home she's asked them build in her stead with the money she sends home. Only, no new house and the family's spent all the house money on other projects.
A bunch of mishaps take place and somehow everyone believes Bambi is dead, but when they discover she's not, the entire family decides to scam the insurance company out of the life policy under Bambi's name.

The narrative is kind of here and there, they went hard on the comedy in the first half, heavy with the emotions on the second, a thing I've noticed in quite a few Filipino titles. The comedy was decently executed, I found myself chuckling a bit at times but it was the emotional second half that really got to me.

We get bits and pieces here and there that clues us in on the complicated family situation the characters have going on - five siblings who all have different visions and needs for their lives, and a ton of baggage amongst them are suddenly under one roof, but we never really get the full story. Until, of course, this huge blown up argument between all the family members that lasted around 20 minutes.
Every grievance they have against each other is all out in the open and it's kind of information overload, but it doesn't really matter, because they deliver on what they banked on while writing the script - emotions.

The story relied heavily on the audience sympathizing with the lead and maybe even the supporting characters, and they nailed it. Especially since all the actors delivered in aces. The acting was actually so incredible that I was moved to tears.

A couple of things that could have been worked on? The choppy narrative and I did think the characters could have been fleshed out a bit more, it would've enriched an already great movie.

This was a genuinely good movie, perhaps not something quite so innovative, but certainly worth it if you're looking for something emotional and melancholic.

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The best biology lesson I've gotten

Biology was one of my favorite things to learn when I was learning biology and stuff, but this may be the single best lesson in biology and the human body that I've gotten. Helps that it's a movie that's got the quirkiest anthropomorphic characters and a surprisingly emotional storyline, but it still counts.

Especially since it didn't really shy away from the theory or the details, I always say this, but titles from Japan never shy away from the technicalities of it all, and while they were present here as well, it wasn't too overwhelming for a movie, nor was it glossed over considering this is a movie that's literally about "Cells at Work"!

I haven't watched either of the animes the movie is based on, but just off a general sense I could tell that a lot of hard and passionate work went into making this. Whether the storyline was true to the original or not, I can't say, and it doesn't matter much either because this one was funny, emotional and heartwarming.

All of the actors did a great job, just the right amount of quirkiness and seriousness to balance it out and bring out different sides in the characters, and the cast is filled with so many wonderful actors. The CGI was pretty good as well, and once again, while I cannot vouch that all the scientific facts were correct (it's me, I don't have all the facts and details), I can say that the facts I know were in the movie, and all of them were right! Points for technicality and research as well.

This was a fun, well made film that is definitely worth a watch, and for anyone wanting a science lesson, or looking to do some revision, it would be especially useful! Have fun watching!

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You are my soulmate in every storyline

What I thought would be a series about soulmates turned out to be just that, but delivered in an entirely way than I expected. This was a very innovative and fresh anthology, but the fact that the leads remained the same throughout and so did a majority of the cast made for a really interesting watch.

The eight episodes are split into five storylines and each of them is almost like a representation of some kind of romance trope or that's what I thought. The more you watch, the more the story develops and the huge reveal comes slowly and surely. It is a multiverse series, but not really, and the plot progression is so simple yet makes complete sense.

The individual stories were really nice as well, some of them were simple fun, some others completely wrecked me and for the most part, they were all written very well. My favourite one was probably the fourth storyline (episodes 5-6), but that's not a reflection on the plot itself, more on my personal preference.

But the best part was the chemistry between the leads. They portrayed so many different characters and did that seamlessly of course, but I was so impressed with the fact that the chemistry never really dwindled. The chemistry they had changed based on the kind of plot their characters were a part of, some them required emotional chemistry, some physical chemistry and considering each storyline was only an episode or two, I think they did an excellent job portraying the chemistry and connection between their characters without taking too much away from the story itself.

I very much enjoyed the series and the great chemistry between the leads, they pretty much carried the show and did a wonderful job at that.

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A nice start to the anthology

Sometimes we tend to get wrapped up in the idea of fantastical romance with the grandest, strangest meet cutes, the hilariously charming leads and the mind blowing romance in series.
But there is also something about a story as simple as two people meeting and falling in love. Maybe it's me, maybe I've gotten hung up on the idea of watching two people fall in love in slow motion while music plays in the background, but watching the cringey pick up lines the female lead hit the male lead with, or watching the two of them sit together and finish their assignments or have dinner together was also kind of fun.

There was a ton of angst of course, not a lot of communication going around but the romance and chemistry between the leads was too good not to root for. Their past dynamics paired with the present "will they/won't they" relationship they had was not only sweet and angsty, but kind of relatable.

I did have a few things I would have liked to be developed better. I won't say further because I know there are like three (five?) more parts of the anthology, but better because they pertain to the leads in this series Luna and Kalix, or because they would have been helpful for setting up the rest of the parts.

First was the character development. I'm guessing each part is going to focus on one couple based on how this was executed, and I would have liked if the character development and explanations came before the last two episodes because coming at the last moment it felt like a last ditch attempt to get Luna and Kalix together.
Second, I would've loved to see more of their Ride or Die gang interact with Sevi. They were all Luna's friends and leads of their respective parts, and I don't know how the source material had written their friendships, but I personally would've loved to see more of all six of them interacting as a group.
Third, and this is more of a me thing, I wanted a bit more depth to the characters. Similar to the character development but also kind of different, but I wish both Luna and Kalix had more to their personalities than just being incredibly ambitious and driven individuals. Especially Kalix, I don't think his character had much progression beyond that character trait and his love for Luna, and Luna's was ambition, love for Kalix and a past experience that left her unable to completely trust someone. I thought I saw glimpses of other personality traits but they were never fully developed and I would have liked them to be.

Overall, this was a nice start to the "University series" with good chemistry and romance.

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Aww..

I didn't think I was the target audience for this, but you know what, I absolutely was, lol. A cute love story, adorable leads, and a story with a PSA that actually worked? Nothing about this sounds unappealing to me.

I've also never watched a drama about animal trafficking before, and it just worked out perfectly because in the first few episodes, my immediate thought was that the animal transformation aspect wasn't quite necessary. But that aspect added quite the depth to the PSA part of the story and to the depth of the leads relationship. Who were quite adorable together, might I add. The execution was also up to the mark on the same front, it had the right amount of focus without taking away too much from the leads themselves.

The romantic relationship between the leads also had a well crafted development, but before we get to that, let's talk about the leads themselves. Junior was adorable. His penguin truly penguined and I loved it. His mannerisms, his confident yet guarded demeanor, his adorableness, and his awkwardness, at times were the absolute best. Sun was the exact opposite, and just as adorable. Introverted, but with this aura of strength and bravery and completely awkward as opposed to Ju. Made sense, since they were a penguin and black panther respectively before they transformed after all.

Together, they just fit. The middle pieces of the puzzle, and everything about them complemented the other person. Watching them go from awkward friends to awkward maybe lovers to cutest boyfriends was a genuine pleasure, truly. They had an incredible support system in the side characters, who were always around to directly or indirectly push them towards each other.
The supporting characters were no joke either, by the end of the ten episodes, it wasn't just Ju and Sun who had clearly grown up, every single supporting character had grown in some way or another, and that's not something we see in a lot of dramas.

By the end, I was absolutely into it. Did it maybe get incredulous or a little off track sometimes? Absolutely, but it did nothing to take away from the enjoyment of the story. It was fun, a little campy and just a whole lot of sweet.

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Worse than the title suggests

I truly don't want to write a review of this, because it can essentially be summed up this way.

IT IS TRASH.

But here we are. And I will write an actual review because I need explain just how bad it is.

Imagine a bad What's Wrong With Secretary Kim knockoff. Now imagine it's nothing like WWWSK except for the fact that there's a boss who doesn't want his secretary to quit. I haven't watched the K Drama, but I've been told that's the basis of the story and it's the same here, and that's also where the similarities end.

The story is horrible, the characters are even worse. It's like a power struggle between all the characters, it doesn't matter what kind of relationship they have, it's a relationship where one person is trying to one - up the other at all times. That's basically your story and an overview of the characters. You have your usual beach trips, your jealousy, your Stockholm Syndrome, and gun wielding businessmen. The usual. Characters come and go, the story shifts from one storyline to another abruptly and they're all trying to outplay each other all the time. Whether it's two people in a romantic relationship, work rivals, exes, whatever. We get to watch the world's most boring chess match where no one is even following the rules.

And the characters..
I've watched a lot of dramas where every character is beyond horrible. But there's at least one, just one character, who you can root for. And even if all the characters are utter trash, they're entertaining. You can see where I'm going with this.
All the characters in this series needed therapy, that's what they needed. A ton of therapy and no contact with any of the other characters.

I would've dropped this like a hot potato if it wasn't for me not being able to drop dramas, but if you're stuck in the middle or if you're stuck in the first episode, or stuck deciding if you should watch it, toss it. It's like that pile of laundry just sitting in your room, waiting to be washed. Toss it. Not the laundry.

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Good story, bad writing

That headline pretty much sums up everything about Kidnap by the way, the sheer amount of potential a story like this had was ruined by the horrible writing. I'm assuming it's based on a novel and I'm a little scared to find out if the source material itself was this bad, or if it was just somehow messed up beyond recognition while being made into a script.

The weirdest part is how fragmented the story was, it was like watching three or four completely different shows, that was mashed up into one series haphazardly. There was romance and comedy, mystery and thrill, and in the same vein but not really, trauma, moving on and moving ahead. Even just saying it this way would make it seem like these genres won't work great, all together, but let me save you some time, it didn't work.

The genre shifted multiple times in an episode, there was comedy at moments where it made no sense and the whole kidnap plot was the weakest thing in a series called Kidnap. The audience is also left to connect the dots for most scenes, it's never outright obvious how the characters and the story got there, but you think hard enough and you can make the connections. But sometimes you just have to say eh- I guess it just happened that way, so let's move on.

I was genuinely shocked with the amount of potential this story had, I mean, written well and this could have been a masterpiece. But writing it in a way where you introduce different conflicts every episode only for them to be solved (or mostly solved) by the end of that episode, whereas you have the main conflict show up when it's convenient for you.. that's not how you keep the audience invested.

Most of my dissapointment is with the writing though, because despite that weak plot, the chemistry was actually decent, I did find myself invested in the characters to an extent and the acting was pretty good. Min and Q had this great loser in love energy between them and despite the weird way in which I think they started out (it was incredibly fast), they did have that soulmates thing going for them, but the story.. what could have been.

Technically, I should rate this lower than I actually did, but I have a soft spot for Ohm, he was amazing in this. And Title. He was amazing as James, James gets a 10/10. But even with them, I can't give this a high score, a kind of high score I genuinely thought I would be giving this before I started, and even a bit after I started.

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