Heracin

Super entertaining with an amazing soundtrack

The story in itself was entertaining and well-paced. It is kinda reusing very known beats of storylines about knowing and trusting oneself, friendship and overcoming fears. But it does it with a touch of Korean culture, demon hunting magic and with a lot of energic girl power. Truly enjoyable even if I wish some of the relationships would have been explored further, it was enough to convey the overall message of the movie.

The OST is the strongest point of this movie with Golden by Huntrix and Soda Pop by Saja Boys being my faves songs from the movie, but honestly all of them are a vibes and are also kind of echoing very famous KPOP groups. The voice actors and actresses all did a solid job, I particularly appreciated Ahn Hyo Seop voicing Jinu in a super smooth way.

The animations style is not necessarily my favorite but I appreciate how different the characters design of the three members of Huntrix are. I wish the demons and the demon king design were more refined, as well as the fights scenes more varied. At some points the fights seems to all merge into a big battle again the same kind of puppets demons. I loved how colorful everything was and the care brought to the stage costume design for the heroines and the Saja Boys. Very reminiscent of what would actual KPOP stars wear.

I would recommend this to people looking for a very entertaining action anime movie. If you are fan of KPOP or are/have been part of a fandom, it will be for sure an enjoyable watch as there are myriad of references, moments, atmosphere that will resonate in the heart of fans.

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This SP lost all the entertainment value from the main series

It was so boring !!! Part of what made the main series entertaining was the high level of toxicity, the gaslighting and the overall mess. Here, what remains in this SP is empty storylines, cringe, poor acting and NSFW scenes which felt honestly lacking compared to the main show. Sorn, one of the ML, also became tamed and lost (most of) his unhinged and toxic side which was making the show crazy but entertaining.

The directing and filmmaking was very poor and the hair styling crew kept failing with their work on the series being even worse in this epilogue than in the main series, which I did not think was possible.

I would not recommend this unless you loved the main series and are just looking for something to watch with the actors serving some steamy scenes. For me it was even more a miss that the main series because of how tamed and empty it felt. The unhinged and entertaining factor went missing...And when that's gone from a trashy show, there is nothing left to have fun with...

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Audacious proposal but deeply flawed. Hua Yong is such a memorable character!

How astonishing is it that we got a CHINESE Omegaverse BL ?! It was on the 2025 bingo card of no-one and still here we are...Kudos to the production team and cast for this wild proposal.

Having said that, was it fully successful? Unfortunately, no. There were a lot of issues with this series and if I can give flowers for the daring choice to bring to light that relatively obscure universe, I cannot go past through some fundamental issues that hindered my enjoyment of the story overall.

There are some major issues :
- Pacing is atrocious. The series spent a tremendous amount of time on business talks rather than on the relationships progression.
- The secondary relationship is frustrating and has little to no screentime to the point I'm left to ponder if the series would not have been better without it.
- Ending is a real let down (and even more a deception for the ones that were fan of the secondary relationship).

There are also some minor flaws :
- The series does a commendable job explaining the lore as I found it pretty clear while being a complete newbie on the topic (beside just having watched Pit Babe). However, it felt a bit too much like a tutorial than really well interleaved into the story.
- Some of the special effects linked to the genre (the marking, the scent...) as well as the few fighting / action scenes felt really cheap and poorly executed.
- Casting is a mixed bag : Huang Xing (playing Hua Yong) is clearly the MVP of the series. He literally carry the show on his shoulders. It is a shame that I cannot say the same for his three costars that ranged from average to mediocre in terms of acting skills...

Of course, not everything is negative and there are quite a bit of positive as well.
- Following the series while it was airing was really entertaining.
- The universe in itself was quite interesting, even if I am still on the fence on some aspects. It was intriguing and felt fresh to me.
- Hua Yong character with his unhinged and obsessive love was amazing !
- Chemistry was quite good with the main couple. Even if I feel they tamed down some of the NSFW scenes, passion and feelings were quite believable.

Given all its flaws, I would not necessarily recommend this to people unless you are a fan of the genre and want to see it live-action. With a better pacing, less useless business stuff, more consistent storyline for the secondary couple and overall better writing, the quality of the series would have drastically increased.

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Difficult and painful process, hindered by scandals, rumors and bad editing but satisfying outcome

Given how impactful the season one of Boys Planet in 2023 was, the season 2 of Boys Planet was highly anticipated... Did it meet all the expectations from its predecessor? Not exactly. However, I am very satisfied with the outcome of this survival show.

Despite of it being dragged down by various scandals and rumors, as well as having its core principles of "2 Planets" shattered for unknown (but certainly failed business deal motivated) reasons leading to very poor editing choices...They still managed to bring to light some talented participants that I am delighted to follow.

If casting was solid overall, it felt that it lacked personnality at some point because of the way the editors had probably to scramble and redo some episodes to avoid highlighting contestants under controversy. It also felt like there was a conscious choice to show less interactions between participants than in previous season and I am left to ponder about that curious decision. Strategy to influence the votes probably but too bad it was to the detriment of showing the various relationships between the participants. Very few were shown compared to season 1. Even if I am happy with the outcome of the group, I feel that I know much less about the winners that I knew for Zerobaseone members pre-debut.

In terms of performances, there are overall less iconic than the previous season. In addition to a couple of memorable auditions, my fave performance that I will certainly rewatch is Whiplash. Other than that, I feel that for some of the original songs casting could/should have been different in order for them to be more successful. As for season 1, I find it a shame that the finale is never live-singing. It is so obvious that it is fake that I truly don't see the point.

I would recommend this to people that enjoy survival show and are really good at tolerating Mnet hijinks and manipulation. If you see through the thick ropes and can take what is shown with a grain of salt, it does make a difference in the viewing experience (even if it can be very frustrating of course). There are really amazing guys that participated in it and really I cannot wait to see their debut !!! The debut of the ones that made it through as well as of the others(*).

(*)Some who might even first go through another competition as a new survival show with Chinese contestant has been announced. It seems after the fallout of C-Planet, Mnet found an arrangement to still make a Chinese group. I will probably give it a shot to see if some of the Chinese participants I liked and were eliminated in Boys II Planet are now trying again for the spin-off. Best of luck to all of them.

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Poorly written : noble idiocy and miscommunication were on the driving wheel

A BL featuring a forbidden romance betwen two (soon-to-be) stepbrothers is usually a storyline that I enjoy, mixed with a dash of cohabitation trope and my interest is picked for sure. However, this drama contained so much pet peeves of mine with noble idiocy and miscommunication at the forefront of it that I completed it feeling very disappointed regarding the overall romance and the way the fantasy element was badly layered into the story. It was just poorly written.

Regarding the acting, I have also mixed feelings. Kou Wei Long was quite good and committed in the angsty scenes but his chemistry with Li Yi Mu (whose acting was really average) was lacking. As the central romance is supposed to be a rather taboo one, it is essential for the viewer to feel the passion and the "impossible to repress feelings, despite all of the obstacles". Here it was a miss. A cute love interest at first that remained mid and devoid of any depth despite the fiery nature of the relationship.

The overall production value was pretty average with some of the painful moments looking almost parodic in the way it was filmed. Budget was probably quite limited and it shows.

I would not recommend this as it was just too frustrating to me to see the poor writing choices made and rules of the fantasy elements making so little sense.

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High school cohabitation BL that left me unsatisfied because of its open ending and lack of focus

This BL drama which features the budding romance between two newly step-brothers as they are forced to cohabitate and go to the same school. In itself, the series contains a lot of classical romantic tropes that I like but spend too much time on elements irrelevant for the romance to really maintain the interest. There is too much plot at school and even if it is important to establish the characters and develop their relationship, it also take too much place in the storytelling. When I look back at the 12 episodes and the open ending, I can only regret the choice of the production team to spend so much time on school plot rather than on family and romance, especially with the cohabitation aspect of the series being the best part of the story.

Acting wise, the main actors Liu Dong Qin and Benjamin Tsang did both an overall good job portraying the shift in feelings of their characters as well as the emotional trauma they carry. I wish there were a bit more tension and fiery chemistry between them, but it is far from being the worst that I have seen. Especially given the fact that the material they play does not contain a lot of intense moments of passion. The remainder of the cast is doing an okay job but nothing outstanding. The lack of charism of some of the "adults" part made me not care at the side characters storyline, especially the one of the teachers. I wish they would have removed from the script all the "teachers" stories because it was just a distraction on the main plot, without any real rewarding pay-off.

I also found the editing of the scenes and the overall making quite clumsy. The way they filmed some of the interactions and moments supposed to showcase the sparkles of feelings between the main leads was sometimes awkward. My biggest regret was that the production team decided to only adapt half of the story of a novel, thinking that they could have a season 2 to finish it but without greenlighting it. It seems that this second season will never happen, leaving the viewer with a relative bittersweet feeling given to the quite open ending. While it does not end on a cliffhanger, it left me hanging enough to feel frustrated about the big picture of the story told.

With S2 seemingly not happening, I would not necessary recommend this to people. If a season 2 was planned, I would probably say it is worth a shot if you enjoy slow burn cohabitation romance and are not allergic to a lot of sides plot and slice-of-life aspects.

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Steamy kisses, forbidden relationship, unrequited love, unhealthy choices: super enjoyable cocktail!

This very bingeable Japanese series features the relationship of two highschoolers that decide to satisfy their physical needs with each others while being in unrequited love that are totally forbidden. I really liked this series, it is far from perfect but really captivating to follow as the toxicity is litteraly oozing from every pore of the show. It takes the viewer on a journey, without never being boring.

The two main leads Yoshimoto Miyu and Sakurada Dori had a really good chemistry. The kisses were very good and the tension was there. Yoshimoto Miyu brought quite a bit of nuance to her role and Sakurada Dori, while a bit more limited at times, still convinced me. Aizawa Rina nailed a quite unlikeable part. Among the quatuor of actors playing central roles, it is definitely Mizuta Kouki the weakest link, probably because his character is the less developped and remains quite at surface level.

I would recommend this to people that are looking for an angsty and steamy series, featuring torturous relationships and a few psychological elements. The show features age gap and really twisted love (or rather lust), so if it is not your thing, you might want to avoid it. Having said that, the ending wrap the series in a rather healthy way, not justifying or romantising red flags. I would have been onboard with an alternative ending, but I found the life lesson really adequate to conclude the story, making it more memorable.

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Could make an interesting series

This very short movie of only 9 minutes features what I feel could be a very interesting starting point for a good romantic series. I liked a lot the dynamic between the couple and the idea of the game they play together as well as its consequences.

Production felt very indie in a great way, with some beautiful shots of the city. The acting was quite good even if it is a bit short to judge the full range of skills of the limited cast. Music plays a relatively important role in this short film, it was pretty effective at complementing the vibe of the movie.

I would recommend this to people that enjoy short film. It has a pretty interesting plot in a short span of 9 minutes.

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A profound and heartfelt movie, an intangible win for its viewers soul : impactful !

This movie centered around a Thai family and more particularly the relationship between a grandmother and her grandson was a huge critical and box office success, setting up record for a Thai movie release and rightly so ! The story is very deep but relatable and anchored in a reality that is both sad, full of pain but also full of love and moments of joy. The family bounds around which the movie articulates itself is complex and can resonate I think with most human beings as we are all confronted to life's thematic faced by the characters, as parents and grand parents gets older.

Acting was excellent, especially on the male lead part with Billkin playing the grandson. He is really good in it: he maneuvers a greyish character with blurry motivations at first as he grows into his own individual and learns. It is extremely interesting. The grandma is amazing in this: the writer and director choose to make her a very nuanced character, flawed both with good and bad which I found particularly judicious. You love her for her quality and all the good she brings, but you also need to bear a lot of things while trying to help her, her personality being not so easy to handle.

The production was very good, pretty real and gritty with the house in which the grandma live being almost a separate character. You learn also a lot of cultural elements that are not often depicted (or at least not in so much details) regarding the culture of Thai family of Chinese descent, care of elders and so on. I love a lot the soundtrack, the ending song (sung by Billkin) is beautiful.

I strongly recommend this movie if you are looking for a movie that is both heart wrenching and healing. It is really worth a watch and it relates a lot to our common human life experience on earth. The viewer certainly get out of the watch having won something intangible, not measurable but that leaves a mark.

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Average but entertaining, I was there for the hot moments between the leads but not much else

While entertaining for sure, this drama had also a very nonsensical scenario that made me roll my eyes more than once. The numerous hot moments between the leads were satisfaying but not much else. I wish the world building, magical elements and all the scheming would have made a bit more sense. Here, the writer drop a lot of diseases, poisons, healing sessions a bit like it arranges the plot to foster tension between the characters and to amp the stakes. It is often done without logic and feel very deus ex machina.

Overall, acting was alright. The main villains were too caricatural to my taste (in the writing as well as the acting) but given the lack of nuance of the script, I don't see how it could have been done otherwise. I quite enjoyed the chemistry between the two main leads. Richard Li looks towards the heroine were really hot and He Xuan Lin was very good as his counterpart. Overall, the couple was quite smart in their actions (even if helped a lot by the writing) and it helped rooting for them.

I felt the editing was a bit all over the place, the succession of sequences felt abrupt, not letting a lot of time for characters development and growth. A bit more room to breath bewteen heavy moment would have helped the series to feel less absurd and to be more connected to the fate of the characters. Similarly, ending felt too rushed. The soundtrack was okay: nothing remarkable and quite repetitive, but not bad.

I would not necessarily recommend this to people as I feel there are too many issues to really warrant a watch. There are some exciting and hot moments between the leads but it cannot save the drama from its writing and editing issues. I feel that the format of 20 minutes episodes was not exploited properly, the numerous events faced by the characters in quick succession made it both entertaining but also completly nonsensical. To be noted: a couple of points of some of the storylines can be triggering so be mindful of the tags if you have any triggers.

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Vanilla despite what the script tried to convey...I got bored halfway through it

I quite enjoyed the drama in its first third, but then the series quickly lost me, especially from its second half. I felt that they dragged some aspects of the main relationship, giving the viewer constant fluff but also very one note plot as they maintained the status quo on the fake boyfriends aspect for much too long to make any sense.

I was very surprised and entertained at first by the fun take the production team decided to follow regarding the story. It worked on some level but as the story progressed the vibes of the series made it impossible for me to get invested into the seemingly more traumatic storylines...I did not feel the tension or angst at any point because of the way the filmmaking made it is so over-the-top cute and vanilla. Despite the fact that there were definitely some steamy scenes featuring the actors, it was definitely more a vanilla angle than a gripping / passionate take on the friends with benefits relationship. I'm left to wonder what an another production company and director would have been able to make with the same plot. A darker and more mature take on it would certainly be interesting.

The casting was doing an okay job but nothing exceptional. Great was my favorite, not sure if it is because of his acting or simply because he was the best part of the show. Inn was alright as his counterpart, maybe a bit too rigid. As his role was supposed to be withholding and not going all in the relationship, it might be a voluntary directing choice though. The side characters were really bland. I did not feel any of the secondary relationships and I really did not appreciate how the second male lead got seemingly redeemed.

I would not recommend this to people as there are better BL out there. The beginning was very entertaining but it got very boring. I can't help to hope that the production made other directing choices and that the writing would have been better. I think that a darker and mature version of the story where a doctor falls in love with a boxer would have been more exciting.

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Memorable slice-of-life story, beautifully acted and filmed

I really enjoyed the story. It follows the character of Hirayama who finds joy and light in the simple things of everyday life. It addresses strong societal but human issues: loneliness, shadow workers, can you feel surrounded but alone, can you be alone but satisfied...There is very little dialogue in the first half of the film, and it is the part that seduced me the most. The second arc allows more introspection on the character and also calls a lot of things into question. The ending scene shook me and was memorable in its simplicity... It is bittersweet and concludes in a sober but strong way the film which values ​​the concept of Komorebi all throughout.

The acting performance of Yakusho Koji is incredible. His acting is the cornerstone of the film. There are so many moments that are solely relying on the way he looks at the world and the people he meets. As there are not that many dialogs, without an excellent actor, the ideas that the script conveys might have not be transmitted as well as it was. Nakano Arisa (in her first role here) was very good as well and brought a fresh breeze to the story through her part.

Music is an important part of the movie. Our main character listens to a lot of tapes while he rides, and it is so acutely fitting with the vibe of the film. It is a common thread to the story and I really enjoyed being carried on by the music which is part of the life of Hirayama. The piano pieces also contributes to the masterfully crafted cinematographic experience that this movie provide. The filmmaking is beautiful, very atmospheric with some sets I found really interesting.

I would recommend this movie to people that enjoy slice-of-life genre and introspection. It is a very chill film in its pace, very simple in its story and therefore which might not please everyone. That said, the poetry that pores through this slice-of-life story, the fact that I got so attached to the main protagonist as well as the beautiful filmmaking featuring stunning shots of Tokyo (and more precisely Sumida) make it for me an excellent discovery really worth the watch.

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How to escape toxicity and self-loathing in the midst of (b)romance

This very short BL series brought me a lot of conflicting feelings. I really enjoyed the ending of the story as it showcased the growth of both main characters. Some steps were taken towards less toxicity and self-loathing overall and that's clearly a win in my book as I was really afraid of a conclusion lacking nuance and realism.

On another side, I kind of wish the series would have been longer because even if the point of the scenario is very clear, the fundamentals of the relationship are a bit brushed off. There are a lot of elements that felt rushed and the storytelling definitely was more about a bromance than a romance to me. I indeed think that to go into a more romantic territory, the chemistry would have needed to be bigger and the scenario did not really provide a lot of opportunities for the actors to get there.

I love the opening generic of the series: the drawing effect in addition to the song was a winning combination. Overall, the production value was okay. The budget was not there but it had a strong indie feeling perfectly fitting for the drama.

I would recommend this to people looking for a more serious BL story. Rather than being about a romance, it is more a bromance to me and what makes it really worth it is its realistic and nuanced ending. I wish there had been more time to develop the romance but I appreciated the overall take of the scenario regarding the evolution of the characters.

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A beautiful journey to heal yourself thanks to music, brotherhood and 1990's vibe

This youth drama with a fantasy twist and set mainly in 1995 provides a great nostalgia throwback feeling as you follow a group of high schoolers starting a band together. The drama approaches in a wholesome way profound topics about friendship, family, as well as differences and disabilities that overall resonated well with me as the characters grow and learn. Though both romances were pretty cute, it is the brotherhood within the band and especially the father-son relationship that really got me invested.

In terms of storytelling, I truly enjoyed the set up and introduction. However, I cannot help to think that the conclusion would have deserved more time to reap properly all the rewards of the set-up done in the show. I was expecting the way it ended, there was a lot of satisfying emotional payoff but it could have gone deeper on the aftermath for all the characters following one of the major event happening in the last episode as well as regarding the evolution of the main protagonists and their relationships (especially regarding the female leads where it felt a bit short).

Overall, the quatuor of main characters work very well together, and I am pretty satisfied by the performances of the ensemble cast (especially for some of the more secondary characters). Choi Hyun Wook delivers a consistent and reliable performance in the role of the frontman of the band. I loved him in Weak Hero Class 1 and I love him as well here. The only little flaw I see is that his character tends to be very shouty. I think it is both bound to the role as well as to some of the directing. It is not at all detrimental to the story but it prevents some range in the acting as the character is always at 100%. Despite this, he (and his character) was clearly my favorite part of the show.

The filmmaking is pretty great with a colourful and boyish atmosphere perfectly fitting for the scenario. I love the soundtrack with its "older indie rock" feels. Every song done by the band is super catchy and the musical scenes each time delighted me.

I would recommend this to people looking for a very solid youth drama set in the 1990's. If you enjoyed movies like "Back to the Future" and dramas such as the "Reply" series, you will for sure immensely enjoy it! If you are a fan of musical genre shows, this one is also clearly made for you. I personnally really loved it despite some issues with the pacing of the script and the way I would have liked a bit more development on some elements, especially towards the ending.

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An exciting game show that will put your brain on fire in a very entertaining way !!!

I loved the concept of this TV show: teams of students from different universities face each other around games requiring a lot of brain power. Some games are more exciting than others, but the showrunner managed to have a nice variety and rythm all throughout the lenght of the show.

I enjoyed the casting: there were clearly some players that had a bit more screen time but overall it was quite well-shared between the universities and the various students. My favorite team wins which I highly appreciated. I was expecting it given the editing which made it relatively obvious, but in any case it was in overall very satisfying to watch and super exciting to follow as the competition unfolded.

Production was adequate in conveying the essence of the games, with the rules being very well explained and allowing the viewer to even participate and try to find the solutions as well. The soundtrack was not very noticeable (neither in a bad or good way). The budget felt a bit limited at some point as I think the producers could have let students use more hi-tech and technological means to take notes and define strategies in order to make it even more visually appealing for the viewers.

I would recommend this to people looking for an entertaining competition show with a lot of mind games and exciting intellectual battles. This show is really all about participating with your skills foremost and your brain power. There is some strategies but no tricks nor manipulation nor hidden alliances...The objective is clearly to prove yourself with your intelligence alone and that's really refreshing overall.

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