AudienceofOne

My Ahjussi wasn't a romance...

By your own argument. this is an Ahjussi romance yet it's weirdly not billed as that. Why? Because large age gaps with older man are normalised by Asian dramas while "noona" romances are apparently so inordinately weird they need to be advertised as such. I don't like it. Sue me. I knew this nonsense would pop up as soon as I had the audacity to ask this question. But I got my answer and will happily not watch it.

Thanks, I'll skip. So tired of Asian dramas acting like a female lead 2 years older is a 'Noona romance' but normalising old guys hitting on young women. Hard pass.

Is this a romance? The age gap is making me feel ill. So if it's romance i'll skip, thanks.

They have video of him assaulting Type. Why isn't he in jail?

I have written an addendum about the ending. I didn't want to spoil it so it is still a bit vague. As bad as the drama was until that point, that ending took the cake.

This is the story of an emaciated orphan kid who spent his whole life dragging himself out of poverty through sheer hard work and perseverance who then gets killed – off screen – for the character arc of a bully who harassed him into a relationship.

I was almost speechless with how awful it was.

This is why, as I said to Aryan below, we've created our own alternative ending where XiGu faked his death and ran far far away. He's now happy, well fed, in a healthy relationship and is busy planning how to get Phoebe out too.

IMHO both of these relationships were extremely problematic but Hao Ting's and XiGu's was abusive and that did not change at any point. Friends and I have honestly rewritten this ending to say that Xi Gu faked his death with the help of his Aunt to get out and is somewhere living happily Hao Ting free.

I would be interested in what you think of my review on this issue, since I agree with you and yet have been giving the show credit for trying. It's under my account but I did do a more comprehensive review on my blog
https://invisibledragon.home.blog/2019/12/03/752/

Your perspective would be welcome as i was also deeply uncomfortable with the consent issues in the first few episodes of this drama.

I'm glad somebody else noticed that Khai's problem was not the womanising but that he was a terrible terrible friend. Forget the unrequited love and the romance angle, Third and Khai had a toxic friendship long before they had a toxic romance. I haven't shipped a couple less since I watched Make it Right.

Wow, this is a really great article. I had similar issues with the first History series - in fact I initially refused to watch Obsessed because it just sounded awful and wish I'd stuck by my guns -and have struggled with supporting the series' LGBT representation and criticising some of its elements.

If there is one point I disagree on it's My Hero. I had issues with the show portraying a gay man as having a woman inside him, especially since there were seme/uke overtones to the relationship.

I feel like History1 in particular suffered from trying to remake other popular BLs rather than forging their own path. Obsessed had shades of Addicted. Stay Away From Me was every stepbrother romance ever made (and with an audience-insert fujoshi girl to go with it). History2 was a definite step up.

Hi I'm so sorry you've been through such a terrible experience. I don't know whether this drama would be a trigger for you or not but I would err on the side of caution. I don't think it's worth it if it could bring back bad memories.

Oh, yes, how could I miss 'rape' in my list of his abuse - along with the stalking, lying, manipulation, imprisonment, gaslighting and ...

Over a week later, I still can't believe people keep reviewing this show as if it's a "cute romcom".

Sometimes i think we all forget how crazy the live shoot schedule is. We maybe expect too much of writers in the back half. So you're right - given the timeframes it's expecting too much for them to scramble around and come up with something good when they lose their male lead.

But looking at the show as a whole, I do think the first half wasn't that well written either and KJH's gravitas was hiding it.

He didn't just lie - he faked hospital records, made her believe she was dying, had her undergo fake surgery and fake chemo and set himself up as her saviour.

And then it was revealed that he'd been stalking her for two years and all because she bought him a birthday cake. It's deranged.

What's wrong with asking a girl out for coffee?

It was so popular it's getting a season 2! What is wrong with people? How could they think this is okay?

Yes the ToD is the Truck of Doom.

Thanks so much, both for reading the review and for commenting. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I loved this flawed little mess of a show. I had a smile on my face every episode, even as the writing veered off course.

Thanks for that. I had heard there was a second film. I guess they decided to do that rather than a second series.

Honestly, both of these endings are just weird and treat Bank as a child who can't be told that Santa Claus isn't real. That's why I thought his portrayal in the TV series was much better.

At first I found the family centred nature of it jarring. So much of Thai BL is about loneliness and in the film these two boys were left completely alone with only each other to rely on. I didn't see how they'd fall in love without that neglect. If anything, the series sold their love to me far more than the film did for this reason. Love within the content of everyday life is more lasting than love in a vacuum,

I found the tragic ending of the movie to be random - almost bizarrely random in fact. And the way the other characters dealt with that tragic ending was equally as bizarre. I almost wasn't sure what the film was trying to say, except that love is good and Bank is so fragile he needs to be protected from everything, including reality.

In that respect, the film fell down at the end while the series had more space to examine the issues fully. Except of course it didn't, relying on a season 2 that doesn't seem to have eventuated.