LykeItRuff

Also manipulative in withholding the fact that he was a cop from Xiang. Passive-aggressive. Also an asshole for telling Xiang to "listen to your father" when he'd just heard the bastard screaching at him over the phone.

How mature was it of Vic to withhold his big secret of being a cop? WTH?

I disagree. Vic is the immature one who withheld the fact that he was a cop even when he learned it could potentially bring them into direct conflict. There was no logical reason I can think of for his to not tell Xiang other than to mind-fuck him.

Why didn't Vic tell the other guy what his job is?

What does it mean?

Why didn't Vic tell the other guy what he does for a living? And given how much time they apparently spent together before the protest why wouldn't that have come up very naturally anyway. Manufactured conflict...weak.

Loses points with me because no explanation is given as to why Vic withheld that info other than to be a jerk.

But there's no plot other than that the older one withheld, for some unknown reason, the fact of his profession from the younger one so there was a confrontation. I have no idea, actually, what the screaming at beginning and end is supposed to convey. Yeah, I get no one can hear the other when both are screaming but where was the screaming before the end? I don't get it.

Vic should have at least told him what his job is so he was warned. No plausible reason he wouldn't have so the entire conflict feels manufactured. And hearing "listen to your father" from a BF who just heard the old asshole screaming at him on the phone would piss me off too.

The screaming in each others' faces at beginning and end just seemed artsy-fartsy to me. Maybe the younger couldn't hear the older because he withheld vital information he should have shared. No reason not to.

Visually, this is a beautiful piece of story-telling but the story is flawed: Why wouldn't the older one have told the younger what his profession is, other than as an inexplicable plot device that doesn't hold up to a close look? I hate when a story contains huge holes like that which undermine the integrity of everything else too.

Beautiful couple, love the contrasting body types. Love the use of that saturated lemon/forest-green throughout too. Don't know if has symbolism or meaning but sure was purty. :)

I liked it. Most by-the-book BL I've ever seen after Bad Buddy, the main difference being that this was good.

Nice vibe, chemistry, fairly ok acting, amazing that it was shot on phones. Cute!

7/10

And THAT is what is wrong with small towns!

I grew up in a town of 12,000 in a plains state in America which I suppose is a metropolis compared to the village this film is set in, but the problem is the same. I always felt like an outsider there; anyone who is colorful or too creative or too anything is looked upon with suspicion, justified or not it doesn't matter. And god forbid the townspeople decide you are strange or did something against the grain, you will be treated like the dog owner in this film, who after all was only trying to help the town. However, he stepped on some old fart's perceived territory to do it, so thus was ostracized. The nihilistic part of me enjoyed his last act.

Definitely the type of film that needs a rewatch from me to catch everything I missed the first time. I am sort of quietly blown away by it, and yet part of me feels like it was slower than it needed to be. Also, as much as I love Asian cinema and find it superior to its Hollywood equivalent I also find myself annoyed at people seeming to wallow in their fucked-upness, which is multiply compounded by the reticence with which engage each other. So much is never spoken and that which is spoken is done so only obliquely, that I just want to slap everyone a few times.

That old buzzard with the white hair is a good actor but I think every time I've seen him in a movie I've hated his character. :D

I do like Ayano as a screen presence and maybe it's that I haven't seen enough of his films yet, but the three or four I have seen him in, he seems to be the same sort of glum, expressionless type. Here he is intellecutally challenged but still basically the same.

Interesting...I didn't find the beach scene more than a tad amusing at the beginning and then it got pretty heavy. Needed to be a lot darker for that concept to work. The logistics and circumstances of that scene felt like something out of Shakespeare.

That poor girl needs a LOT more therapy before she messes with any more young boys too naive to figure out on their own why she is a pscyho. I mean, I think I understand why she is a psycho but even so, many of her behaviors are just annoying. I guess she's pushing people away by being a weirdo? Not a very good actor either, I got so sick of her sniffling little cries of outrage at people as if they had any way to know wtf her problem is.

The beach scene was interesting but needed to be at least half as well-lit for it to be at all believable. And a lot of sloppy writing, especially toward the end, just logistically speaking. Whole movie needed to be tightened up by at least half an hour. And my god, somebody feed Yoshida a hamburger. That kid is skinny! :)

I was looking at the movie's year, though and realizing these "kids" are not much younger than me. :D

Anyway, I liked it more than I didn't like it. The boys' classroom scene in the early stages was touching and I admired Ito's courage, Yoshida's too.

7/10

I have my guesses but that's all they are. To me the ending is pretty wide open for a variety of interpretations. You know, artsy and all that. :)

To a lot of people it would be boring. How is that a problem for you? If you enjoy it, watching from your perch up there on Mount Tastefulness, isn't that good enough? I mostly liked this film but it could have been tightened up.

You used "literally" again. No, I did not tell anyone they "can't have" a positive opinion of the show. They can have that, but if they do it is because they are deluded.

Sunny, it is not "rude" to state one's opinion of a show or any facet of it, just because that opinion is negative. I am not here to cheerlead the series, as you seem to be. Yes, anyone who thinks this mess is a great show is deluding themselves.

Also, using "literally" does not bolster your position.