Well... I thought the NC scene was quite well doneđ.
Everyone's tastes are different. Frankly, I'm happy to see BLs getting more daring with intimate scenes, in general. Watching modestly shirtless dudes flopping about like mackrel on top a well-made bed gets a bit stale.
Welcome! Would like a beverage or snack during your stay on the chaos train?
Yes! This is a show best watched with two bottles of wine and an obscenely massive bowl of assorted chocolates and the sexiest fruits. Just full on decadence.
You guys may not understand but this series represent a gay lifestyle in Thailand pretty well. Well not the cringe…
That's what's so frustrating for me. It feels very close to being genuinely good but something went wrong somewhere. It really does feel like the production was muzzled, maybe by the producers or other investors. It gives "studio meddling" vibes from time to time.
If it weren't for that terrible wig, I might've crossed over to Kenji's side after that stupidity. Tew has had three opportunities to put Kenji down, despite Kenji repeatedly, actively trying to kill him. Almost makes you want Kenji to get him out of pure frustration.
"you told Guy to fuck off, and so off he fucked" This...this made me laugh so hard, thank you! And you're spot…
I mean, Tew is a grown man, not a pubescent teenager. If you tell someone to get out of your life, you have no further claim on them or their emotions. Whether they move on in two years or two days, that's their business now. Sucks to be you but you did it to yourself, you numpty.
On one hand, there is a dangerous thriller about poisonous paternal love, violent sibling rivalry, and the external/internal duality of self as symbolized by family power struggles.
On the other hand, is a condensed Wish version of every BL story ever written about having the hots for your oblivious idiot of a best friend.
Unfortunately, what we're watching is "My Dear Gangster Oppa", the congealed salad cobbled together from the most leftover of leftovers.
This series is like a deadly-serious parody of the early aughts psycho-sexual indie cinema fervour that gave us films like "Shortbus", "Wrecked", and whatever Scud was up to before he went international.
This series is trying to do and be three dozen things but it's absolutely unable to commit to any of them because it's so afraid of straying too far from the BL genre to become a legitimate work of LGBTQ cinemedia. It almost feels like the director was followed around on set by a nanny appointed to prevent every aspect of the production from becoming "too": too sexually explicit, too erotically charged, too explorative of sex work, too violent, too nude, too drug-laced, too psychologically twisted, too mysterious. Even the lighting and colour correction were prevented from becoming too vivid.
Somewhere behind the poor director's bridle is a potentially intriguing series of interlocking stories about the role of libido at the intersections of conflict theory and symbolic interactionismâand maybe even some decent sex scenesâbut this is not it. Alsoâis someone dead? Is it Nant? Is it even important?
I am going to keep watching because I have got to figure out what all *gestures at everything* this is.
The first episode NC scene was "meh"; this episode's was hilarious. All the frantic quick-cuts to avoid anything too overt, the misplaced public pool/gym shower water noises, the weird angles. Sex in any body of water is generally awkward but this was just silly; the boys over at "Be Mine Superstar" should be giving lessons. That show was utter nonsense but they fully committed to fucking in all the waters.
Nail was far less grating, that was nice. But I think this is one of the show's you check-in on every few weeks or else binge all at once. There is nothing engaging enough to warrant weekly watching. As an aside: I think fans of "Bed Friend" might really like this one, for those seeking recommendations. I didn't care for "Bed Friend", though I did watch most of it; perhaps why I'm less than lukewarm to this series.
I can't get past the character of Nail. Why would all these masculine gay guys be attracted to such a ladyboy?…
Well, you certainly put all that out there with your whole chest.
I am going to assume you're new to the genre. And to how people work. And possibly to being Human, in general.
BL, as a genre, was created by hetero women for hetero women. It's been screamingly heteronormative in its depictions of gay romance since its inception. It hasn't been very long since genre authors and the industry (particularly the Thai BL industry) started breaking away from those early tropes, and it's only recently they've started presenting femme-spectrum male characters as fully-realized complex individuals rather than insulting "comedic" relief. Further, one partner in a gay pairing demonstrating stereotypically gendered traits doesn't inherently make the coupling heteronormative. Men are men in all sorts of ways, and gay men have gay relationships in all sorts of ways without anyone involved looking to assume the "role" of a woman. Believe it or not, the HimNail character pairing is as much a sign of progress in actual LGBTQ representation in the BL genre as the MaxTul ship works were (two overtly masculine men being overtly gay together).
Men like Nail exist. Nail is not a ladyboy. Ladyboys exist. They have their own identities. And they all are attractive to and attracted by all sorts because they are people with personalities and preferences, just like everyone else.
And I say all this as someone who doesn't like Nail either (but because I don't like petty, not because I expect Queerfolk to Queer in specific ways that appeal to only my personal Queer sensibilities).
I would be perfectly happy if the series ended with Guy and Wahl together. It won't, obviously, but that ending would actually be more realistic and, I think, more mature than this show actually warrants. Now that Guy has figured out how to friends, and (assuming) Wahl has actually pulled himself together, they make way more sense as a couple. Dopey, a bit dull, averagely awkward University kids happily leading fairly routine lives without being kidnapped, shot at, or stabbed. That's their speed. It is a good speed for them. I wish them all the happiness in the world.
And I don't feel the slightest bit of sympathy for Tew. I understand why he did what he did but it stills boils down to: you told Guy to fuck off, and so off he fucked. You loved him enough to realize he's not cut out to survive in your world and you set him free (with some truly cruel if necessary words). Good for you, you mostly noble asshole. Now, let's leave Guy and Wahl to their world and get back to the actually interesting story stuff that's all about you, Tew.
What are you going to do about this Kenji mess? Are you sure you can actually start a new life in the territory of your old mob boss? Will you be emotionally prepared to handle it when Tul and Boss get together? Have you considered maybe executing your old mob boss, seizing the throne, and dismantling the organization from within? Or maybe even taking the whole outfit legit? I mean, if your boss stubbornly won't let you go, and Kenji ungratefully refuses to appreciate the mercy you showed him TWICE, well...start shooting these bitches in the face and just taking what you want. Diplomacy is not working. You've killed before, I think it'd be fine if you led one last bloodbath to break out of your chains. I certainly wouldn't hold it against you.
Also, I could be projecting a wee bit here. The MeenPing ship does nothing for me, and it feels like Ping is holding back the more talented and charismatic Meen. Neither of them are particularly good actors but I think Meen could grow with better material. Material it's clear Ping couldn't handle. And that's fine.
You won't like Hye Won; you're not supposed to. She doesn't like herself either.
It is obvious she is deeply traumatized by the society she tried to escape. It is a violently patriarchal one in which girls are raised to revere, obey, and subjugate themselves to males, and that patriarchy is maintained by teaching girls to despise their own gender. As a result, the girls on this island grow into women who hate other women, including themselves, and become participants in and perpetrators of their own victimisation. It's the type of aggressively internalized, cultish misogyny that is vital to maintaining the patriarchal power structure; it's exactly the type of sociopsychological manipulation that sees a mother sanctioning her daughter's honour killing for being raped, a grandmother ordering the murder of her daughter-in-law for wanting a divorce, entire villages of women upholding female genital mutilation as a sacred rite.
Hye Won knows that, she sees it clearly, and it's why she ran the first chance she got. However, she couldn't outrun the programming, and her character has been shaped by a conflicting set of issues: she's struggling against a taught morality she objectively understands to be destructive, and her own revulsion toward what she perceives as female weakness. Simultaneously, she knows that she, herself, is fundamentally a coward, and she is carrying a baggage cart's worth of guilt and shame (and possibly some latent homosexuality, depending on how closely one wishes to read the subtext in her relationship with Bok Nam).
Basically, the woman is thoroughly fucked up, just like all the others of her sex on that damn island, including the child, and she's not doing well in the battle she's waging to not become exactly like the female elders. Behind all the bluster is a lot of fear.
The only one here who deserves any sympathy, absolution, and reclamation is Bok Nam; that she doesn't receive it is entirely the point. Bok Nam defied the social order, attacked the patriarchial structure, and she paid the ultimate price. But, there is much to be valued in how it ended for her.
Hye Won is an unsympathetic coward, but she's aliveâand she alone will have to grapple with what that's worth.
The cases aren't particularly interesting or complicated but the characters are various levels of engaging. As is fairly typical for too many K-dramas, most of the women are short-changed, existing purely to facilitate romances (the romance elements are presented in blocks with no real connection to either the cases or the overarching storyline, meaning they are, thankfully, completely skippable).
The exception to that is the female villain, because that's usually how it goes: they are evil/evil-adjacent, so they get to be multifaceted, interesting, deeply flawed, and endlessly complex, since their purpose for existing isn't being a male character's love interest. I would watch a prequel just about her. The snippets we got of what drove her, of how and why she fell so far from grace, were the most compelling pieces of the series.
As a product of its time, the show flirts a bit with queercoding in a prototypical bromance that we don't get enough of. Park Tae Il and Ji Gook stole my heart, and the way the show depicts their mid-season breakup was simultaneously heartbreaking, heartwarming, and hilarious. The show fumbled on Tae Il's primary trauma but, again, given its time, it wasn't too terribly handled.
The cast was excellent, every single one of them. The scripting let them down a little too often but they delivered in every single scene. Worth at least one watch.
The case-of-the-week stories are interesting and I might've stayed with the series if not for the unnecessary, insipid budding romance. Is South Korea allergic to the notion that colleagues of the opposite sex can just be colleagues? I'm definitely not checking out season two, as apparently the romance will be cranked all the way up and the FFW button likely won't save me the aggravation, and the series isn't really engaging enough to suffer through it.
Three stars for the acting and another for the humour elements. I did chuckle quite often.
Dew is so expressive, and his character seems fun while not being completely frivolous. I've liked Dew in the support roles he's played, nice to see him get a lead. Shame about the hair.
I don't like Nail. I know "sassy" is popular but I just detest catty, petty behaviour. I hate it when it's chicks, I hate it when it's guys, and I especially hate it when it's grown Adults behaving that way. It is neither endearing nor cute; leave that shite in puberty where it belongs.
The NC scene was fine. I caught only one badly angled shot where the underwear was visible, so it's got that going for it.
Well. That was certainly an episode of things happening in a sequence.
Look, if Rain's completely unthreatening self managed to talk all that smack while tied up and in arguably greater danger, surely Guy could've managed even a single "Fuck you" to Kenji. Watching him yelling for help like that was embarrassing for everyone involved. I wanted Kenji to just hurl him off that roof. Die with some dignity, Guy.
And Wahl: why are you still here? People are getting drugged, kidnapped, blackmailed, knifed, shot, and terrorised by the people responsible for Thailand's epidemic of horrendous wigs. Nobody has time for you, Wahl. Go away, and please take Guy with you.
This didn't need to be made. It certainly should not have been made without the director and writers of the first movie.
The replacement actor for Rak is a poor casting choice (the actor simply lacks the sinister gravitas that made the role so engaging in the first movie); he looks, sounds, and behaves like a cherub-faced University kid in over his head. Not for one minute is he believable as a cool, calculating, dangerous mastermind effortlessly manipulating everyone around him. He never seemed like a man with a plan, as we know Rak to be. I legitimately expected him to piss his pants in his first encounter with Keunkal.
Speaking of KeunkalâI ultimately had to fast forward through her scenes. HHJ did a fine job, absolutely, I just find the character archetype irritating. This version of women narcotraffickers annoys me. I had the same issue with Ma-Ma in "Dredd" and Boss Yong in "Bad & Crazy". All three are compelling characters whose affectations were just downright distracting.
I find it aggravating when applied to male characters as well but it seems so much more egregious in these cases. Like you can hear the (generally male) directors just off-screen screaming, "Grimier! Grosser! Let your mouth hang open for no reason and do something pointlessly aggressive with your tongue!"
And what did they do to Jo Won Ho? Yes, in the first movie he was obsessed and reckless but in the sequel he's just outright stupid. He actually did learn from his tragic mistakes over the runtime of the first movie and tried to temper his zeal, but I guess the new director and writer decided that was entirely too much character development on their watch.
As for the story itself: well, in short, never before have I seen a sequel so thoroughly squander the potential of a previous movie's ending set-up. Just wow.
This should've been a limited series. As it is, it feels less like a movie and more like a pitch pilot for a TV drama. As a movie, it's rushed, underdeveloped, oddly edited, weirdly paced, and just outright disjointed.
The characters are barely defined but the acting is great; would expect no less from this cast. 10/10, even the supporting roles. Madame Kim had maybe 12 total minutes of screentime but she commanded every second of it.
The concept is decent, the action is ok, the story is almost engaging. However, the script just fails to deliver, and the production around the script tries but fails to hide it in a series of stylized and stylish choices.
"Kill Bok Soon" does this all much, much better, and is actually the movie "A Special Lady" wants to be. Just go watch that movie.
Almost.
On the other hand, is a condensed Wish version of every BL story ever written about having the hots for your oblivious idiot of a best friend.
Unfortunately, what we're watching is "My Dear Gangster Oppa", the congealed salad cobbled together from the most leftover of leftovers.
This series is trying to do and be three dozen things but it's absolutely unable to commit to any of them because it's so afraid of straying too far from the BL genre to become a legitimate work of LGBTQ cinemedia. It almost feels like the director was followed around on set by a nanny appointed to prevent every aspect of the production from becoming "too": too sexually explicit, too erotically charged, too explorative of sex work, too violent, too nude, too drug-laced, too psychologically twisted, too mysterious. Even the lighting and colour correction were prevented from becoming too vivid.
Somewhere behind the poor director's bridle is a potentially intriguing series of interlocking stories about the role of libido at the intersections of conflict theory and symbolic interactionismâand maybe even some decent sex scenesâbut this is not it. Alsoâis someone dead? Is it Nant? Is it even important?
I am going to keep watching because I have got to figure out what all *gestures at everything* this is.
Nail was far less grating, that was nice. But I think this is one of the show's you check-in on every few weeks or else binge all at once. There is nothing engaging enough to warrant weekly watching. As an aside: I think fans of "Bed Friend" might really like this one, for those seeking recommendations. I didn't care for "Bed Friend", though I did watch most of it; perhaps why I'm less than lukewarm to this series.
I am going to assume you're new to the genre. And to how people work. And possibly to being Human, in general.
BL, as a genre, was created by hetero women for hetero women. It's been screamingly heteronormative in its depictions of gay romance since its inception. It hasn't been very long since genre authors and the industry (particularly the Thai BL industry) started breaking away from those early tropes, and it's only recently they've started presenting femme-spectrum male characters as fully-realized complex individuals rather than insulting "comedic" relief.
Further, one partner in a gay pairing demonstrating stereotypically gendered traits doesn't inherently make the coupling heteronormative. Men are men in all sorts of ways, and gay men have gay relationships in all sorts of ways without anyone involved looking to assume the "role" of a woman. Believe it or not, the HimNail character pairing is as much a sign of progress in actual LGBTQ representation in the BL genre as the MaxTul ship works were (two overtly masculine men being overtly gay together).
Men like Nail exist. Nail is not a ladyboy. Ladyboys exist. They have their own identities. And they all are attractive to and attracted by all sorts because they are people with personalities and preferences, just like everyone else.
And I say all this as someone who doesn't like Nail either (but because I don't like petty, not because I expect Queerfolk to Queer in specific ways that appeal to only my personal Queer sensibilities).
And I don't feel the slightest bit of sympathy for Tew. I understand why he did what he did but it stills boils down to: you told Guy to fuck off, and so off he fucked. You loved him enough to realize he's not cut out to survive in your world and you set him free (with some truly cruel if necessary words). Good for you, you mostly noble asshole. Now, let's leave Guy and Wahl to their world and get back to the actually interesting story stuff that's all about you, Tew.
What are you going to do about this Kenji mess? Are you sure you can actually start a new life in the territory of your old mob boss? Will you be emotionally prepared to handle it when Tul and Boss get together? Have you considered maybe executing your old mob boss, seizing the throne, and dismantling the organization from within? Or maybe even taking the whole outfit legit? I mean, if your boss stubbornly won't let you go, and Kenji ungratefully refuses to appreciate the mercy you showed him TWICE, well...start shooting these bitches in the face and just taking what you want. Diplomacy is not working. You've killed before, I think it'd be fine if you led one last bloodbath to break out of your chains. I certainly wouldn't hold it against you.
Also, I could be projecting a wee bit here. The MeenPing ship does nothing for me, and it feels like Ping is holding back the more talented and charismatic Meen. Neither of them are particularly good actors but I think Meen could grow with better material. Material it's clear Ping couldn't handle. And that's fine.
Everyone has to find their right speed.
It is obvious she is deeply traumatized by the society she tried to escape. It is a violently patriarchal one in which girls are raised to revere, obey, and subjugate themselves to males, and that patriarchy is maintained by teaching girls to despise their own gender. As a result, the girls on this island grow into women who hate other women, including themselves, and become participants in and perpetrators of their own victimisation. It's the type of aggressively internalized, cultish misogyny that is vital to maintaining the patriarchal power structure; it's exactly the type of sociopsychological manipulation that sees a mother sanctioning her daughter's honour killing for being raped, a grandmother ordering the murder of her daughter-in-law for wanting a divorce, entire villages of women upholding female genital mutilation as a sacred rite.
Hye Won knows that, she sees it clearly, and it's why she ran the first chance she got. However, she couldn't outrun the programming, and her character has been shaped by a conflicting set of issues: she's struggling against a taught morality she objectively understands to be destructive, and her own revulsion toward what she perceives as female weakness. Simultaneously, she knows that she, herself, is fundamentally a coward, and she is carrying a baggage cart's worth of guilt and shame (and possibly some latent homosexuality, depending on how closely one wishes to read the subtext in her relationship with Bok Nam).
Basically, the woman is thoroughly fucked up, just like all the others of her sex on that damn island, including the child, and she's not doing well in the battle she's waging to not become exactly like the female elders. Behind all the bluster is a lot of fear.
The only one here who deserves any sympathy, absolution, and reclamation is Bok Nam; that she doesn't receive it is entirely the point. Bok Nam defied the social order, attacked the patriarchial structure, and she paid the ultimate price. But, there is much to be valued in how it ended for her.
Hye Won is an unsympathetic coward, but she's aliveâand she alone will have to grapple with what that's worth.
The exception to that is the female villain, because that's usually how it goes: they are evil/evil-adjacent, so they get to be multifaceted, interesting, deeply flawed, and endlessly complex, since their purpose for existing isn't being a male character's love interest. I would watch a prequel just about her. The snippets we got of what drove her, of how and why she fell so far from grace, were the most compelling pieces of the series.
As a product of its time, the show flirts a bit with queercoding in a prototypical bromance that we don't get enough of. Park Tae Il and Ji Gook stole my heart, and the way the show depicts their mid-season breakup was simultaneously heartbreaking, heartwarming, and hilarious. The show fumbled on Tae Il's primary trauma but, again, given its time, it wasn't too terribly handled.
The cast was excellent, every single one of them. The scripting let them down a little too often but they delivered in every single scene. Worth at least one watch.
Three stars for the acting and another for the humour elements. I did chuckle quite often.
I don't like Nail. I know "sassy" is popular but I just detest catty, petty behaviour. I hate it when it's chicks, I hate it when it's guys, and I especially hate it when it's grown Adults behaving that way. It is neither endearing nor cute; leave that shite in puberty where it belongs.
The NC scene was fine. I caught only one badly angled shot where the underwear was visible, so it's got that going for it.
Generally, a decent first episode.
Look, if Rain's completely unthreatening self managed to talk all that smack while tied up and in arguably greater danger, surely Guy could've managed even a single "Fuck you" to Kenji. Watching him yelling for help like that was embarrassing for everyone involved. I wanted Kenji to just hurl him off that roof. Die with some dignity, Guy.
And Wahl: why are you still here? People are getting drugged, kidnapped, blackmailed, knifed, shot, and terrorised by the people responsible for Thailand's epidemic of horrendous wigs. Nobody has time for you, Wahl. Go away, and please take Guy with you.
The replacement actor for Rak is a poor casting choice (the actor simply lacks the sinister gravitas that made the role so engaging in the first movie); he looks, sounds, and behaves like a cherub-faced University kid in over his head. Not for one minute is he believable as a cool, calculating, dangerous mastermind effortlessly manipulating everyone around him. He never seemed like a man with a plan, as we know Rak to be. I legitimately expected him to piss his pants in his first encounter with Keunkal.
Speaking of KeunkalâI ultimately had to fast forward through her scenes. HHJ did a fine job, absolutely, I just find the character archetype irritating. This version of women narcotraffickers annoys me. I had the same issue with Ma-Ma in "Dredd" and Boss Yong in "Bad & Crazy". All three are compelling characters whose affectations were just downright distracting.
Is making them look like they shower once a month and don't wipe properly supposed to make them scary? Is the languid physicality meant to make them seem blasé and hardened? Is all the weird mouth/tongue/grody teeth stuff aimed at being intimidating? Why is everyone's hair so raggedy? It all just feels so try-hard. You can be a terrifying, powerful, unmitigated badass and also maintain decent hygiene. Everytime Big Knife got her tongue rolling about all I could think was, "She's poking at an open cavity, isn't she? Bet she can't chew on that side".
I find it aggravating when applied to male characters as well but it seems so much more egregious in these cases. Like you can hear the (generally male) directors just off-screen screaming, "Grimier! Grosser! Let your mouth hang open for no reason and do something pointlessly aggressive with your tongue!"
And what did they do to Jo Won Ho? Yes, in the first movie he was obsessed and reckless but in the sequel he's just outright stupid. He actually did learn from his tragic mistakes over the runtime of the first movie and tried to temper his zeal, but I guess the new director and writer decided that was entirely too much character development on their watch.
As for the story itself: well, in short, never before have I seen a sequel so thoroughly squander the potential of a previous movie's ending set-up. Just wow.
The characters are barely defined but the acting is great; would expect no less from this cast. 10/10, even the supporting roles. Madame Kim had maybe 12 total minutes of screentime but she commanded every second of it.
The concept is decent, the action is ok, the story is almost engaging. However, the script just fails to deliver, and the production around the script tries but fails to hide it in a series of stylized and stylish choices.
"Kill Bok Soon" does this all much, much better, and is actually the movie "A Special Lady" wants to be. Just go watch that movie.