LykeItRuff

Not much if anything that's current. I'm hate-watching Secret Crush On You and commenting on that page to annoy certain people. :) I recently enjoyed Cherry Blossoms After Winter, First Love, Again, Blueming, and Semantic Error, but they have all run their course.

Oh, I am watching DNA Says Love You and KinnPorsche.

Which show was on your "plan to watch" list? By all means don't let anything I wrote stop you from giving a show a shot. You never know; it might connect with you in a way it just doesn't work for me. :D I don't think I know of Star In My Mind. I will take a look. Thanks.

ALL fiction is fantasy, crib. Surely you knew that. I will call BL what I wish to call BL and you can order other people which shows fall under your prescribed label of "queer media," OK

Do YOU really know what BL is and where it came from? LOL Because we all know all BLs are exactly the same. And rough and tumble BLs are not just "recent." In fact, recently what's happening is SJWs trying to shut down transgressive story-telling in BLs and pre-censor what the rest of us get to see.

When did I write that "your opinions don't matter?" What the hell are "my threads?" I wasn't aware that particular commenters have ownership of certain threads. Could you explain that to me?

Athena, dear...I will repeat: I have watched exactly two and a half eps of this and put it on my dropped list. If that is "episode after episode" to you, then hey, I don't care. If I feel like coming back here to diss it again I will do so. Why do you care? Don't read my comments.

Ever heard of sarcasm, Athena? "Who cares" does not imply that NO ONE on Earth will like this show. It is simply a means of emphasizing how I feel about it.

I don't "hound" "people," Athena. I write my opinions in comments and then I post them. And NOT ONE SOUL has to read any of my comments if they don't want to. Skip right over, say "oh that asshole again" and move on, this is not a difficult concept to grasp.

Above you wrote "Criticize by all means. Make your opinion known. Leave a negative review." You forgot to add "just don't do it more often than this arbitrary number of allowable instances I have come to regard as appropriate in my own mind..." Thank you for you recs, but I don't care that you don't like my comments. I don't care that you're upset I'm hate-watching SCOY, which is the ONLY one I have done that to in a very long time. I'll do what I want here, just as you do.

Finally, I work for myself and only part-time. I set my own schedule and do what I want. I watch lots of Asian BLs and cinema. I very much enjoy writing about my perceptions afterward, positive or negative. I enjoy the thoughtful responses of others. Writing and reading in this way helps me understand WHY I feel the way I do about some things and why I don't about others. I am flabbergasted at the disaster that is SCOY. Guess what? I can write about it every week as many times as I wish and it is none of my business what you think of me doing that.

Comment sections aren't cheerleading sessions for K-Pop-style BL Army members who can't tolerate that ten out of a thousand comments under their pet show are negative. I get lots of messages from MDL members who love my comments and agree but don't like being torched on fanchild comment boards, thanking me for doing what I do. Deal.

Because the earlier popular BLs generally were not "fluffy." They featured themes such as bigotry, prejudice, coming-out, gossip, family resistance, bullying, internalized homophobia...you know, "un-fluffy" things like that.

Hmmm...I missed where I said there was no audience for it...because I didn't say that, did I? I'll say how and why I don't like it as many times as I want, got that? Finally, I've watched 2 and 1/2 episodes and dropped...but maybe I will come back and comment again just to annoy you, fangirl.

For me, the two leads in BIH were very appealing but it moved sooooooooooo slowly and went nowhere for a long time before bringing the two together. It does have a similar vibe to this, though. I just dropped "Mr. Unlucky Has No Choice But To Kiss" and now this one is teetering on the edge of my BL trashcan too. Bummer. Japan has completely lost its BL edge.

Just read thru comments. yeah, this is a pseudo-BL for fanpeople who want bunnies, rainbows, and sugar-plum fairies; no angst, or drama allowed. Gag me.

Episode 2. Didn't even finish it. Trying desperately to be funny but the slapstick is just stupid. The MC are cute but they're already a thing so where's the suspense in that? Doesn't even seem like a BL, just some director's idea of zany, cute and amusing. It completely misses the mark for me. Sato Yusuka is sexy but...not sexy enough to sit through a half hour for since he's not the main character. 5.5/10

Yes, he knows...but who cares? The pacing and plot exposition is sooooooooooooo slow, plus we have a boring, implausible side-couple taking up time. This show isn't very good right now.

Well, ep 4 was a waste. This is a short series; don't know why they are wasting time on a side couple when, if the story-line was interesting there should barely be enough time to tell that. And man, this has become just one super-cliche after another. I know it's BL, blah blah blah, but this genre has come far enough that I don't think original plotting and direction is too much to ask for. And I'm sorry but the laundromat guy is not the least bit attractive. Also, there is zero effort to make the environment and settings feel real. Li Gong is supposedly so busy but he's sitting at an empty table at the office picking his fingernails; that and fifty other little details distract from what little story there is. And now...wow! Gangsters with bats! lol

This flick is an odd-duck but I'm not sorry I saw it. Some aspects seem random but whatever. Lead is hot. His thru-line makes little sense but it doesn't really matter. 7/10

Cool. Thank you so much! I appreciate that. I wonder why it didn't come up for me on DC when I googled it...hmmm...

Where did you watch this please?

But don't you think he's in love with Ah Le, and AL with him? Is he going to just walk away from that? I hope Amber finds the courage to tell AL EVERYTHING, and it will be a lot to take in. Seems to me the series has been grinding its gears for at least two weeks. I hope the script is worthy of this important/challenging subject matter.

Second watch: For some reason I thought this ended sadly. Glad to see I was wrong.

As positive as the ending looks, I still have reservations about Kurata. First of all, someone buy the man a cheeseburger...with fries for god's sake! I feel like I know NOTHING about him. Where does he live? What does he do in off-hours? Does he read? Does he game? I don't know and neither does Tozaki. For all we know, Kurata is married to a woman and has two kids on the other side of town. Maybe he's a serial killer.

These actors are all too young for the parts as well. It looks like the three main male characters went directly from high school to the corporate world. That kept me at a distance from the story because I felt like I was watching some kids playing "office" and "apartment." :) Kurata's face is very interesting. Those protuberent lips and ski-jump nose...I kept vascillating from thinking he was handsome to thinking he was odd-looking.

Anyway, overall I still have a good feeling about this show. It has a melancholy tone throughout, even at the end given all the doubts I have about Kurata but I have a soft spot for damaged weirdos and he certainly qualifies. The best the couple could do is start therapy NOW so they can stay together, otherwise this drama will repeat itself endlessly until someone gets a butcher knife in the back.

oooh, thanks! You just talked me into watching this. "toxic this, toxic that..." I LOVE psycho/toxic characters who stir shit up and do awful things like, you know, some real people do. And those people make for the most engaging, fascinating dramas. I don't watch gay films or BL for moral teachings; I know what I believe and how to comport myself in regard to other people. When I watch a film with a murder in it, I really don't promptly go out and kill someone. Do you?

I love how stirred up this film got you; it's clear in your comment that you feel passionately what you're writing. Sounds like the movie got to you, like good movies do. So what if you believe you just watched a horribly "toxic" relationship? Are you now going to go out and seek someone with whom to have a "toxic" relationship yourself? I doubt it.

Seeing behavior we don't like onscreen can be a powerful reminder of WHY we feel the way we do about what we're seeing. It can confirm or challenge your biases. That's what good drama does.

I assumed they didn't show more of JT's backstory because they didn't have TIME to do so. But this third time I watched the show (yes, I've watched it three times...I hang my head in shame) I caught just a bit more from the dunce who was supposedly JT's bestie but who was also helping out the evil girlfriend on the sly. After she confronted JT and YC heard everything and ran off, this dude came out from behind the tree where he'd been waiting if needed for a physical intervention. lol He briefly mentioned how JT's "family" was that in name only, his parents gave him money but nothing else, pretty mcuh ignoring him...remember how when he was apparently nearly killed by the silly roll down the hill that his parents never showed up at the hospital or inquired as to his whereabouts after he was released. (Ridiculous, I know, but again I just rolled with it, also attributing it to the time limits).

So that was the life-long, low-grade "trauma" that had helped make him who he was. I mean, even in the original alley scene it is clear that he has deep feelings for YC as YC wails and asks "why" so pathetically. That's where it is hard to believe he wouldn't have broken and told YC about the fake marriage ruse. I mean, why not? Just bad writing.

This exchange with you has helped me understand what it is about the show that makes it a good watch for me despite its huge problems. It is all about Bernard's portrayal of JT and JT's struggle at being so fascinated/obsessed with this beautiful-lipped dude he hardly knew and feeling great love and desire for him. It's also silly in the way we have TWO campus hotties, both straight, falling for and having sex with guys all of a sudden and not thinking much of it. It is kind of charming but it just doesn't work that way.

I laughed the hardest during the love/sex scene between the side couple in whatever hell-hole they were in, looked like an abandoned concrete building, when YC's friend was looking at his new lover from under that blanket with only his eyes showing, batting them coquettishly in an insanely cute manner and driving the straight dude crazy with desire. SO cute and funny.

It amazes me how I can go on and on about these BLs as if they are great and legendary feature films, starring the best actors, directed by the best directors and established as great works of art. lol They touch something deep within me. I think I know what and why but that can be for another time.

oooh...nice summation/review. i'm glad you gave it another try. TOTALLY agree about the underlying reincarnation plot, which I found confusing as hell. He was hit by a car and reincarnated as HIMSELF but ten years earlier or something...? It seems to be a combo reincarnation/time-jump...thing. I chose to kind of ignore that altogether and focus on the tensions and predicament the lovers were in. I loved that JT is obsessed by YC but can't figure out exactly...why. And that is where I thought Bernard shined. He is at turns obsessed, angry, frustrated, physically aggresssive, resentful, arrogant, charming and deceitful, yet in that confession scene on the bed we see all of that facade crack to pieces and fall away when YC realizes, then confronts JT with why it is that JT acts and has been acting this way: He had loved YC all along, but his own fears and insecurities required he hide that fact from himself and everyone else. I just SO feel JT's desperation in that scene; it takes my breath away every time. It's not often we get to watch a bully melt into a puddle of pathetic confusion in response to the words of a much gentler lover, all in closeup. I love that scene.

The entire "the marriage thing is just a fake-out to fool my parents" thing was just stupid because if that were the case why wouldn't JT have simply told YC upfront what he was doing? Why wouldn't he at least have told him in the alleyway after dropping the bomb in the restaurant, when YC was so upset and weeping? And that ashes-in-the-pond scene near the end, which is I guess, what happened after the original YC's death and the hands of yet another BL car with bad brakes, added to my confusion.

I liked the side - couple a LOT. They managed to project a great deal of affection and humor with very little screen time.

OK, I don't know where you dropped it, as the version I watched had the episodes pieced together into a movie-length piece and you said you dropped it sometime in the second ep. BUT that is of course before the juiciest plot elements had developed and the two leads really had a chance to shine. I will not argue about its production values, they are low. BUT again, lol, it is the acting of the leads, especially the obsessed BF, and their chemistry that saves this.

Bernard He, as the obsessed, brings such incredible commitment and intensity to the role that I don't know how anyone could not be impressed. His character is arrogant and snotty but it is also clear that just under that surface is a vulnerable, frightened, damaged young man, and in that penultimate confession scene, in which the camera is right in there with the two of them on the bed but mostly in Bernard's face, you see him first angry, then lustful and aggressive, then as the other finally understands what is going on and calls him on it, you actually see the facade crumble and fall away as he is reduced to tears. Though it hurts a great deal to allow himself to be vulnerable, he is also deeply relieved that someone gets him and he can drop the act.

It really is one of the finest moments of BL acting I've ever seen. I'm sorry to not have seen more of this young actor since Obsessed.

As for "sexual assault," yes, Bernard's character is rough and sexually aggressive at least twice in trying to force sex on this guy he is so attracted to but doesn't know why yet. But, you know, sometimes real people ARE sexually aggressive in brief moments or even longer ones; they are human. BUT the other MC fights him off both times, Bernard backs off and there is nothing anywhere near a completed rape. It is also clear that the other lead, during those heated moments, is absolutely TORN, feeling both desire and angry revulsion. I love mixed feelings and gray areas in drama. They make for the most intense/best kind of feels.