Claudeville

This show is equal parts cute and horribly frustrating. Watch it if you have a bit of free time on your hands and you like food shows, but you won't be missing anything incredible if you do pass this one by.

The first few episodes of this show were a lot more stressful than I thought they would be. There is a weird disconnect between the generally light-hearted vibe the majority of this show has (perky characters, bouncy music, bright colors, comedic timing) and the violent and upsetting events that happen to the characters regularly in the first half of the show. I kept thinking it would be entirely comedic, and that Seo Poong's love rival (Seung Ryong) and the various rival gang members that pop up here and there would all just be bumbling fools, but no, they are legitimate threats to the main characters. (After episode 17-ish the violence is definitely toned waaaaay down, and the drama gets a bit cheesier villain-wise from then on out and the stress-level lightens.) Also, it does drag on a bit. Somewhat early on it felt like the characters had already been beaten down so much and begun to pull themselves back up, and it feels like things will finally smooth out and go right for the characters, but then you notice "oh god, I am only on episode 12 of 38...?! How can this possibly go on for 20+ more episodes?!"

I feel like you will either like the cute romance and workplace fun of this show, or you will like the childhood mystery plot and examining the psychology of the three mains' traumatized heads. Both aspects are fun and interesting on their own, but I feel like they didn't really mesh together well in this show (and especially because the fallout from the mystery plot is over and done with by ep 11 or so, and has no impact on the final episodes). Also, it feels like Mi So stays at the company waaay longer than the one month she is supposed to remain there to train Ji Ah. I kept waiting with anticipation to see the dramatics in the office when she finally leaves (or at least the buildup in the week prior), but it takes so many episodes for that day to come!

My dear lord, take every comment that praises Sehun and Kwang Soo seriously. They are the absolute best part of this show.

Tum and Tar have also been written out of TharnType s2, so it seems like that couple has been completely shot down. They are one of my favorite of Mame's couples, and I was hoping that in a show already as risque as TharnType they would be brave enough to tackle Tum and Tar's relationship, but I guess not...

This is a very interesting show, and I watched it for a little bit every night for over two months. The cooking scenes are definitely interesting to watch (though there aren't as many as I thought there would be), and I did enjoy the realistic look at how the palace ran (and the ins and outs of all the different people you meet throughout the series). I enjoyed the low level of tension the show maintained, but here is also where I find my main gripe: from very early on in the show a pattern sets in of something happening in the palace, Jang Geum getting blamed, and then Jang Geum getting out of it. You can began to guess where that episode's plot line is going, and then oh no, Jang Geum is getting cast out again, but wahoo, she gets to stay in the palace over and over and over again. It definitely became a bit monotonous and I think that is why it took me so long to finish the show. Jang Geum rarely stood up for herself (which, yes, I get, would be difficult to do in an environment that is so strict with its etiquette and hierarchy) but it became frustrating that these things kept happening to her over and over again and she could do nothing about it. It no longer was fun and exciting tension in the show, it was a subdued "ugh, here we go again..." kind of feel.

I loved this. I love that they didn't try to cram in wicked high-stakes dramatics, and that they kept the tension kind of low key. I like that we just briefly peeked in on them over a few years: I think for such a short runtime they nailed showing us how the characters grew and changed over those years. Also, cinematically it is just as pretty as the original season, and I especially loved the quick montages towards the end as they showed the opening of Hod Productions and their first film. Compared to other bonus sequel episodes (Live on the Beach, Reminders, some of the Our Skyy eps, etc) I think this one was quite good.

My dear lord yes, you need to find an uncut version if you want to see the more obvious romantic aspects to the relationship between Yaohua and Yusheng. I think the cut version is perfectly enjoyable as a crime/political thriller, and you definitely pick up subtle hints of a romantic relationship (like during their trip to Tien mountain, or the final scene at the train), but absolutely the uncut version has so many more suggestive scenes. There are scenes where the boys sleep together and spoon, a scene where they fight and end up in bed together, several scenes of them strolling the gardens and enjoying each other’s company, dialogue like “Won’t you come with me? My life means nothing if you are not by my side... can you bare to live without me?” or “She means nothing to me! I only care about you,” etc. There are also a lot of small suggestive details that are cut out of Tencent’s official release, like in the scene where Yaohua measures Yusheng for new clothing they cut out a shot of Yaohua sensually gliding his hands around Yusheng's waist to get a measurement, or suggestive looks given over sips of tea, or hand-feeding each other, or holding hands as they walk, or Yusheng refusing to eat because he got jealous of Yaohua interacting with Caiyi at the dinner table, and the list goes on and on. Seriously, so many little things are cut out.
--> Okay, and because I need to rant about it a little more, here is another example: In ep 1 there is a scene where Yaohua takes Yusheng to show off his Japanese bath. In the uncut version you see Yaohua pull Yusheng up off the couch by holding his hand, and then there is a quick shot of Yaohua leading Yusheng to the bathroom by pulling him along by his hand. That shot of them getting up from the couch and then going down the hallway was cut out of the official release. It is all the little tiny details like this that add up to make up a pretty big difference in tone between the cut and uncut versions.
The uncut engsubbed version used to be very easily found on youtube but it was taken down with a copyright strike. Nowadays it is much more difficult to find. This probably doesn't help if you need engsubs, but right now the only uncut version I can find is an indosub on dailymotion.

Definitely a bit of a loose plot, many things don't get wrapped up well, and honestly after watching the whole thing I still don't really know who some of the characters are or how they were related to each other... Also, a lot of the characters are pretty shallowly fleshed out and at times even the main boys felt a bit flat. That being said, this is definitely a gay romance playing out against the beautiful background of wuxia/"historical" costumes and sets so it is pleasant enough for a short watch.

Youtube is getting rid of the feature that allows viewers to provide subtitles, so if this show relied on fan-submitted translated subs, then that is probably why it won't be able to release eng subs for a while. It is likely that the larger channels (like GMMTV, or Studio Wabi Sabi) will still have eng subs because they likely sub professionally, but it is probable that a lot of the smaller channels will really slow down on their subbing without the help of viewer-submitted subs.

Lu QiMeng is killed unexpectedly, so he is allowed to return to the human world as a ghost in order to tidy up his unfinished business. He is given a time limit though: he can only remain until the end of winter, after that he must return to the spirit world to be reborn again. As the movie ends, so too does winter draw to a close. With his business completed and the season over, Lu QiMeng leaves Ye XiaoOu as is necessary to continue the cycle of life and death.

This is happy and sad. Sad, of course, because XiaoOu must now continue living without QiMeng by his side. But happy, in a sense, because both boys believe that QiMeng will be reborn. It is commonly believed that soulmates/lovers will continuously choose to be reborn in order that they might have the chance to meet each other again in some new life. So even if they miss each other in this life, or like in this story their lives together are cut short, they will jump back in again and again at the chance to find each other again someday. So… a romantic ending, but somewhat blue.

At the very end, it seems as if everyone —except XiaoOu— has forgotten about QiMeng. This could be for two reasons: A) It was a clause in the contract when QiMeng came back as a ghost that after he leaves the human world everyone who knew him would forget him, or B) This was actually a life of XiaoOu’s where he hadn’t met his soulmate again yet, so he had remembered the entire experience (of the movie) from a past life of theirs.
—> I guess it is also possible that XiaoOu was crazy, and the whole movie was just a figment of his imagination, but I like to think that is not the case.

Both Yong Joon and Tae Kyu (presumably) die at the end of the movie. Tae Kyu had this bad habit of hiding and shooting people with an airsoft gun, and at one point prior to the start of the film he had accidentally hit a teenage boy in the eye, blinding him in that eye. The boy and his father demand money from Yong Joon to pay for the boy’s medical expenses, but then continue to blackmail and extort more money from Yong Joon throughout the course of the film. At the end of the movie, after Tae Kyu sees Yong Joon and Jae Seong together, Tae Kyu grabs his airsoft gun and holds it up to his own eye. He asks Yong Joon to come meet him, but on his way there Yong Joon is assaulted (presumably killed) by the angry blind boy. Because Yong Joon never makes it to Tae Kyu, Tae Kyu pulls the trigger (at such a close range, the plastic bullet most likely caused death).

While I don’t like deaths in film pretty much ever, I do have to admit to this movie pulling it off well. I knew going into it that two people died, but I didn’t know which two, and this movie keeps you guessing as the tension rises towards the end. Even in the final minutes I was unsure of how the deaths would play out. I wouldn’t say I was heartbroken that these characters died —I never really felt all that attached to any of them— but I can definitely say that watching Yong Joon run to try to reach Tae Kyu in time was pretty hard to watch.

Ok, so the bulk of this movie takes place a few years after Yong Joon ran from North Korea, leaving behind his lover, Jae Seong. Yong Joon has managed to assimilate well into South Korea: practicing the local dialect, holding a job, and meeting a new boyfriend, Tae Kyu. When Jae Seong also deserts from North Korea he heads to Seoul to find Yong Joon: the focus of the movie then shifts to how Yong Joon is torn between the two men. In that aspect I really liked this movie. I could never tell for certain whether Yong Joon would stay with Tae Kyu or return to Jae Seong, and honestly I also couldn’t parse out my own emotions about which man I wanted him to end up with.

This movie is definitely a bit confusing in the beginning, especially about the blind-boy plot. Also, I could never understand why Yong Joon was so angry with Jae Seong, when it was Yong Joon who left Jae Seong behind all those years ago. I think part of my confusion had to do with the subbing I watched, some things definitely weren’t translated directly.


Detailed spoilers for the tragic ending under the cut.

Ok, for the first half of this movie I honest to goodness couldn’t tell if this was supposed to be a cute/sexy movie about a quirky romance between a human and vampire, and if we were supposed to admire Wine for all the trouble he goes to to help his new beau, or if this was supposed to be some kind of horror/thriller where we watched Wine descend deeper into madness. Either way, I giggled through pretty much the whole thing.

Ichiyo is a mentally unstable high school student who becomes obsessed with his new roommate Sora, thinking they are automatically friends (and later, should be lovers) just because they room together. When Sora refuses to sleep with Ichiyo, Ichiyo kills himself.

Riku (Ichiyo’s childhood friend/bully/fuck buddy) then plots revenge against Sora in the form of a brutal gang rape and assault that leaves Sora in a coma in the hospital, potentially brain dead. Sora wakes up, but is paralyzed from the neck down.

A lot of reviewers like Ichiyo and Riku, and say things like “if only Riku had realized his love for Ichiyo earlier, none of this would have happened!” or “if only Sora, Aoi, or Riku showed their affection for Ichiyo, he wouldn’t have died!” but I don’t think that is the case, and blame shouldn’t be placed on any of the other characters for Ichiyo’s actions. Friends and lovers have no duty to, and should not be expected to, play therapist for those they are close to. Yes, they should check in every now and then, like Aoi did, but the burden of someone else’s emotions and actions should not be placed on their shoulders. In the end it was Ichiyo who took his own life, and all the blame lies with him. I also don’t think that Ichiyo and Riku loved each other in any manner of the word. It almost feels like they are both a bit crazy, and bonded to each other in something of a folie a deux. I doubt that even if Riku had said “Of course I love you, we have known each other so long, surely you know that by now?” Ichiyo would have let go of his obsession with Sora. Perhaps Ichiyo would have remained alive, and maybe Sora wouldn’t have been raped by Riku, but I doubt things would have suddenly become sunshine and roses.

Ok, so I didn't read any of the reviews before watching this movie, so I went into it thinking I had stumbled on an exciting, dramatic, forbidden-love relationship between a student and teacher. Since it is Japanese I was expected some solemn moments, or some quiet and impactful scenes, but I absolutely was not expecting any of the extreme drama and tragedy that is in this movie. This movie is quite depressing, even with its "happy" ending. Complete spoilers under the cut.

Wow, this show was really hecking adorable. Min Soo and Seok Yi are just so cute, giggling and whispering to each other: their faces really light up when they look at each other and it is so pleasant to see. All the fluff is balanced by a good dose of more serious moments where the boys talk about their future (in love, military, and work), and when they speak unapologetically to Min Soo's mother.

And do you want their full snogging scene? Of course you do. Make sure to find an uncensored version, like here on youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vyWC3R2Otc), or on Dramacool (https://www2.dramacool.movie/drama-detail/just-friends-2009-).

Hi! The answer is .... sort of? Some places which air the drama (like CNDrama on youtube) show an edited version of the show. There is often no rhyme or reason to which scenes they edit out: some are suggestive, some aren't.

You can find an uncut version on 中剧经典 (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjjPL6UFQG6pWfJ8UoREcRPcdXPz-RC8h), or go to Dramacool for my preferred subs from Kiyoshi Ryota (https://www2.dramacool.movie/drama-detail/advance-bravely). However, this version still won't show any explicit bl (still no confessions, kisses, or sex scenes). I still suggest watching this uncut version because sometimes the edited version is just plain confusing (due to strange time skips due to all the missing scenes).

As for an explicit bl cut, there isn't one yet. However, we can have some hope that one might be released, because the woman who wrote this novel, Chai Jidan, also wrote Addicted. Addicted's bl cut was released about a year after the show finished airing, so there is some slight hope that AB's bl cut will also eventually be released.

Oh my god, and they were roommates.

All in all, watch this show for the cute boys and ludicrous amount of kissing and heavy petting. Any other aspects (plot, character development, pacing/timeline, audio, etc) are pretty lacking.