CursedXistence

You talked about a low budget not limiting a series, check out this Vietnamese bl series that's on youtube. It's a small donation based production company, that knows exactly how to use what they have. It just started so there's only two episode so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgDKbLp60jw

A few people have mentioned that there were two prequel episodes that set up the whole Nine Daonuea at the resort thing...whoever made the decision to not have those as the first two episodes needs to be fired for tanking the opening of this series.

Right at the beginning..."3 months after The Air.." WTF is the air and why in the hell should we care about it? So Tee and Daonuea decided to start dating / talking about dating or WTFever it was supposed to be and what just as quick as it started it ended or did they actually go for awhile? The directing, writing, and editing all assumed we knew the answers to these because we all saw the prequel episodes and would already have a connection to the characters so they felt no need to properly set that up for new viewers. What we got was a lazy hack-n-slash mess that did nothing to pull your interest or any type of initial connection to the characters or their situation.

This throws you in the deep end expecting you to already know how to swim and then does nothing to save you when you're drowning. Hopefully it gets better in the next episodes, but extremely poor start.

The problem with a storyline like this is that is needs to be perfectly written, it needs to have enough difference in the loops to make it not be monotonous, but also continue to develop and progress the storyline. This started off okay, but now that it's so many loops, episodes, and a longer loop time the writing is starting to spin itself apart.

There's two base foundations to this storyline, the first being Tin's prejudice against drunk drivers because of his sister's death and how it effected the way he treated Tol during the first loop when he thought he was just another drunk driver. The second foundation is uncovering the underground activities of Dr. Sak and his little minions.

Tol is supposed to be worthy of being saved, and Tin is supposed to learn not to judge something without the facts. The problem with this is Tol is a complete ahole and 7 episodes in and we still have no idea why. We're now over half way through the series and this episode should have been the one to reveal whatever internal or external circumstance is causing his behavior. Does he have a feeling that Mai is using him, is his parents putting too much pressure on him so he's acting out, or is it that he only has a few friends and despite their abusive personalities, he sticks with them because he doesn't want to be alone?? If this is dragged out for too long in a series then you don't have any vested interest in the character and the eventual redemption arc means nothing and therefore the also eventual relationship has no weight to it. It just ends up feeling like one lead completely forgets / dismisses all of the negative things the other has done, which in the end just makes you end up hating both of them.

The one and only positive thing about them dragging it out this long is that we've learned that Tee (Tol) is just as talented and capable of playing a complete ahole as he is the sweet fluffy type character that he portrayed in "The Miracle Of Teddy Bear"

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They keep flirting with this love/hate relationship thing with Sing X Gap, but again at this point there should have been some sign of progress or at least a "will they/ won't they", but yeah still nothing. This is something that should have been wrapped up in either episode 8 or 9 at the very latest, so either it's gonna be a "won't they" or they'll snap to being suddenly madly in love and f'ing like jack rabbits because you know...BL logic.

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The one interesting tid bit from this episode was the whole Art protecting Rit from getting hit thing. Either they're going for the lazy ass writing of "everyone is magically gay" or Art is suddenly growing a conscience and feels bad for the way they've treated Rit and that ends up preventing Rit from attempting suicide and then the eventual suing the hospital is how his money problems go away.

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There's still time for the writing to tighten up and for it to save itself from the same old issues a storyline like this has, but they'll definitely have to pull a rabbit out of their asses in the next episode or two to achieve it.

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Overall it's not an entirely bad series, but it definitely has it's issues and Tae's (Tin) acting definitely isn't up to carrying the series like it needs to, he's just too flat emotional wise and comes off way too stalker meets control freak.

Best was part of the writing team for "Bad Buddy" and "The Player" and Jojo was the director for "3 Will Be Free" and "The Player" so combined with the cast this could be really good.

If I was the production company, the second I got done reading the script for this episode I would have asked the writing firm for my money back and then promptly fired them.

The first 10 minutes should have been the press conference going on while the police showed up to cart NamNing off to her nice cold cell...or the loony bin and then been done with it. Then the rest of the episode just being Ram and LukChub basically just taking a breath and chilling out together. Hell Mick (LukChub) is Athletic irl, get him and the gang together playing basketball or something and show off some LukChub hidden talent. Something like that would have given his character a lot more depth and given the Main Leads a chance to develop some chemistry together. There should have been a turning point where LukChub starts to come out of his hell, but they missed so many opportunities for it, including in this episode.

Trying to humanize NamNing was definitely the wrong move, what she did was wrong on so many levels and there's no excusing it away. They should have gotten credit for being one of a very few BL series/movies where the villain actually faces some sort of consequences, but instead they pissed it away like this.

The more I see of Bank, the more it infuriates me that he isn't with a better company that knows how to use and develop his talent.

Overall not a bad series considering it's coming from Star Hunter Entertainment, but there was also a lot of weak points in the writing...which I'm guessing some of that could be attributed to it being a first time writer.

As long as there's one kidney that's healthy and functioning well enough to not cause any complications.

I think a lot of the low ratings have to do with the evolution of the BL genre and that fact that this series is a very slow burn / slice of life. It's moving beyond the yaoi trappings and evolving more towards solid LGBTQ+ story telling, and not everyone is happy about it. The focus isn't just on the cutesy moments anymore and that seems to be what a lot of the fans are still expecting. The stories are getting deeper, the focus isn't necessarily just on the main couples getting together, and thankfully we're getting better writers/directors that actually "get it" when it comes to LGBTQ+.

Personally for me this is one of a handful of series lately that have really stood out above the rest.

No matter what happens to Ram and LukChub the second they're near each other they just sink into this "You are my safe place" lovey-dovey trance, and that really says so much about the talent of Pop and Mick. That type of chemistry is something very hard to pull off without it coming off as artificial, especially if it's the opposite of their real personalities.

I just watched the episode and yeah they butchered the translation pretty bad.

I think what the series was trying to go for with the Gladiolus was the remembrance meaning attached to it.... in this case not only his promise to him, but also his name....and some other stuff that it appears we'll find out next ep.

With this only having 8 episodes I really wish they didn't drag out the Mayom, Teng, Khun love triangle for so long. Bank and Bonus always have such great chemistry together (especially when in couple mode) so it's a shame we won't get to see more of it in this series, especially given how improved the quality of the material is compared to other Star Hunter series they have been in.

Okay, it's not that I dislike this series, but I think it suffers from being chopped up into episodes and it makes everything feel disjointed. I think when/if the movie version that typically follows is released and the transitional scenes added back in that it'll flow much better.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, they could make multiple seasons of this series, have it be just as much of a slow burn, and I'd still be happily awaiting every episode.

If you haven't already watched it, try the series "Would You Like a Cup Of Coffee?". It's another slow burn but really good (not bl thou) series.

Personally I liked the slow bits and think it fit the overall story well. They really needed to build the relationship between Le and Amber to give some weight to the later realizations.

There's such a perfect duality to this episode. Le loves and missed We-wen, Le loves and missed Amber, realized he loves Amber no matter what and not just because he is Wen-Wen.

There is so much complexity to the feelings and conversations they needed to have and with the short episode length it would have been easy for it to feel like they just skimmed the surface. The way they did it thou, you feel the slurry of emotions they have and you know they have a lot more to work though so it doesn't feel like a "snap, everything is resolved in 2.2 seconds" thing like it does with so many other series.

It's quite an accomplishment for a series with such a short runtime to be tackling so many different topics like they are. Finally a side couple who actually bring something to the story other than just being there for filler. All of the hardships they have gone though are now the lessons for what Le is facing, not only in his own self discovery, but for what the future may hold with him and Amber, and how to deal with it all and his mother.

Erek Lin has done such an amazing job playing Amber, he conveys so much emotion in his facial expressions and his eyes. That whole scene in the cafe was just a perfect example.

The same thing goes for Lukas (Le) with the "what have I done!?" scene in the cafe. That could have so easily come across as like someone trying to pretend to be surprised by a surprise party they already knew about, but instead you really felt the "OH F$#%!!" realization he had.

And yet again, absolutely perfect implementation of the soundtrack to really enhance the whole thing, they use it like a surgical instrument instead of a blunt object like some do.

Finally an episode that doesn't feel tonally bi-polar, and it was really, really good. Until this point this series has felt like it was trying to fight itself to figure out if it's a comedy or a drama with some comedic bits tossed in. When it loses that "Mafia Mockery" feel is when it really shines.

If this entire series was just the two groups being a bunch of little dweebs together I'd still be perfectly fine with that. This whole cast (minus the villains obviously) gel together so well like they've all been friends for years in real life.

I'd love to see behind the scenes stuff of how they really are when not in character. I have a feeling that set was a mad house of fun. lol

That's very true, but more times than not those are a combination of new and experienced. The Idol Factory for example, new production company that has the benefit of Saint being the owner, where "Secret Crush On You" could have been a total dumpster fire or like with Meen and "The Yearbook".

That was like a boy kissing a girl on the playground and her screaming "EWWWW YOU'VE GOT COOTIES!!!!" lol

That was like a boy kissing a girl on the playground and her screaming "EWWWW YOU'VE GOT COOTIES!!!!" lol