I'm not hating on this series, don't get me wrong. It's very suspenseful with good acting and good fights. But I feel there is not much substance and the whole story is more "fantasy" than everything else. That said, I have a serious question: Are you guys thinking the main lead is a good guy? I don't remember everything from s1, but I remember how the title was fitting: weak hero. He didn't have the physical strength or the skills for fighting. He fought with his brain, and his will to survive. He fought for his friends. In s2 I felt like he got physically stronger, and his fighting style - woah. Like his new friend said: He is a sneaky a**hole. He fights dirty, and his advantage is the will to kill the other person. That's why he almost can't be defeated. He doesn't hesitate to cause some serious harm. When he was fighting with Seong Je, the guy took the pen from him and threw it away. He could have used it as a weapon, but he didn't. His opponents don't use weapons, which would make them stronger. They are fighting with their abilities and their strength. I enjoyed s2 more than s1, but I must say: There is something seriously wrong with Si Eun, and he is not the poor victim. In s1 I could see how he was driven to extremes, because of this endless cycle of violence. He didn't ask for it. Everything got out of control. In s2 I thought he himself was the one who was too extreme. I know he has a trauma, but still.
I'm glad it's over, but I felt the same with s1. It's like a train wreck, you can't look away, but I never enjoyed this series. The whole violence seems pointless from start to finish, but that's the plot. Violence leads to more violence and so on and on and on. At least his friend survived, even though I highly doubt, someone who wakes up from a years long coma is behaving like this.
Indeed, also miscasting for Gawin here. Not a fan of his stiff-try-to-be-cute acting here. Sorry Gawin!!
Typecasting is not a bad thing. You have to find the right actor for a certain role. Obviously those two guys click well, and they are both hot, so the team just went with them. I think someone like Dunk would have been perfect for the role. He already played annoying and childish characters. He looks very young, has an awkward attitude which would fit the role, and he is objectively speaking mesmerizing beautiful, so all those sensual scenes about the golden blood, his sweat, the close shots of his face, eyes, mouth would have been great. Gawin has more of a manly mature mysterious beauty. He is a handsome man, not a beautiful boy.
They should just ignore those people. There will always be hate. I remember when Be My Favorite aired, they went…
I hope a talented team is behind it. Look at series like Peaceful Property or High School Frenemy - GMMTV has indeed talented writers and filmmakers. Be My Favorite was one of the best BL series, a clever and intriguing plot, terrific character development etc. I sooo hope the writing and directing isn't letting them down, because lately some BL series were rather disappointing. We already know the acting will be good. No worries there!
When I said a large fraction of peraya are misogynistic borderline homophobic fans that have been enforcing the…
They should just ignore those people. There will always be hate. I remember when Be My Favorite aired, they went crazy, didn't like Gawin, said there is no chemistry, this couple doesn't work, Krist is only back and doing BL because of the money etc. He killed it in Be My Favorite. Krist in general is one of the unfortunate BL actors who gets lots of hate. They accused him of being homophobic and escaping the BL genre. They even attack his character. I don't know how the guy survived until now.
I’ve seen some of the chatter around Gawin as Tong in My Golden Blood—and it got me thinking. Not about right…
What's the point of writing a whole essay to convince people that their feelings are wrong? Nobody will change its mind or heart. My first "BL-love" was MaxTul. So this is not about Gawin being too manly for the uke role or whatever. The writing sucks, the acting sucks, the directing sucks. Nothing works here. It's Kidnap all over again: a series with great potential, but nothing feels right. They failed to establish the OhmLeng pair (I know the crazy OhmNanon fans played a big role), I wonder if JossGawin will have a future. I lately felt in love with JoongDunk in The Heart Killers. Their older series are one of the worst rated on MDL of a more popular couple. I watched them, and whatever issue people may have with them, the quality was there. Good directing, occasionally good writing, some dialogues were smart, some scene very beautifully filmed. That's not the case here. It's boring. I mostly blame the writing and directing. There is no suspense, no artistry in the cinematography. The people who worked on this should look for another job. Like I said: Kidnap all over again. Just an overall low quality series. And talking about chemistry: Since the holy trinity is back, I thought about this a lot lately. How those guys back then were able to create such great chemistry, and still to this day, almost ten years later, they are loved. Their first series were silly and not high quality at all, but they were charming, and their chemistry killed it. Compare this genuine chemistry to couples they are trying to force on us like OhmLeng, PerthChimon or now JossGawin. At the same time we have SkyNani who don't do BL. Not everything works out for GMMTV, I guess.
9.4 is too much. There were many things wrong with this series. Many things. Especially how they portrayed the love stories, where the men were completely reduced to their role as servants and protectors of their women. No idea how someone can find this romantic. Those men were pitiful. All of them. That Gwan Sik would be the first to die - I f*cking knew it. He fulfilled his purpose of working himself to death for the family. But he got some good sexy times at least. How often have we seen Ae Sun and her husband turn off the lights? The jealous captain who asked if someone is waiting at home for Gwan Sik? Ae Sun telling her daughter, she should chose a good-looking man, because then they won't fight so much? We know why. Because she will be attracted to him, and they will f*ck a lot. Damn. I can't take this serious. I feel like the emotional scenes, the nice cinematography is putting everyone under a spell. Not only the romantic relationships were problematic, also the parents-children relationships. I already complained about the favoritism Ae Sun showed towards her daughter to the point that her son called his own parents Geum Myeong-mother and Geum Myeong-father. Or another example: the grandmother. Imagine your children and grandchildren are looking after you, but then you get dementia and forget about all of them - but not about your favorite son and his daughter. It's just wrong to favor a son after so many years, when you lost him early, and forget about the people who cared for you for decades. It's f*cked up to say the least. Same with Ae Sun's mother. She clearly didn't cherish her other children as much as Ae Sun. They were even written out of the whole story. Honestly, I could write a whole book about this series and what was wrong with it. Ae Sun telling her daughter she should have children, because otherwise nobody will look after her at old age, was the cherry on the top. Now we know why poor people breed. And how their "love" and their apparently superior mindset works. They are afraid of dying alone. That's it. They work themselves to death so they are vulnerable and weak at old age and can hold onto something. Whatever. I'm just putting out my thoughts, since I feel people are not critical enough, they are not questioning, what this series really tells you about life, love and family.
I have never seen a series that made me so depressed. It hits a bit too close to home. I'm the 3rd generation daughter in this series, my parents were the hardworking kind, I was the one who went to university. I see my parents in Ae Sun and her husband. I know about the financial struggle, about the silly and simple-minded attitude of those "boomer" parents. They just breed and stay hopeful, not caring if they even have enough money to feed their children. Their idea of love is also very simple, almost childish. They live for their children and grandchildren. Nothing else in their lives. No time for anything else either, since life is a constant struggle. I once said to my mother, I sometimes spend hours just thinking about how to make more money, how to be more successful - then she started laughing, because she never had the time to think about that. People stay poor, because of the constant struggle day in day out. They are in survival mode. For some f*cked up reason they are proud of making it, of not giving up, they seem to see beauty in the constant suffering. It's something I don't understand. What did Ae Sun really achieve in life? Sending her daughter to university? She did a lot of things wrong with her son, the other son died, and while accidents happen, it somehow was her fault. So she wasn't even able to bring all of their three children to adulthood. She published her poem book. Great. Just one book. Some poems. Her beloved daughter got out of poverty, but I wonder if the next generation will be poor again. We see it today, how the younger people don't have much, can't even buy their own home. So this is just a constant cycle. We can't get richer and richer. The daughter wasn't very special either. I honestly never understood what's so special about anyone of those daughters. I loved the 1st generation woman, the mother of Ae Sun. That woman had presence and power. Every scene with her made me feel something deep in my soul. She was the real deal. Kudos to the actress. Ae Sun herself was a character I couldn't understand to the end. She had a strong will, was pretty bold and good with words, but at the same time she was supposed to be the shy literary girl? She obviously was a hopeless romantic, who couldn't keep her legs closed. The exaggerated crying in her young years (her daughter was the same, the crying at the wedding was unbearable) made her look rather silly. At old age she became very traditional, and I would never call her a modern woman with a strong will. Honestly, there was nothing special about those women, and some may say that was the point. The husband had no personality until the end. Both actors (the young and the old) didn't, so it was intentional. I somehow felt at the end of the day this was a love story? I'm lost, really. I admit, this series even got me a bit angry, because they sell you this depressing tale as something beautiful and touching. I can image young people in their 20s, who can't relate to the story, because they haven't experienced something like that, are thinking this was uplifting and beautiful. If you have lived through it, you get bitter. The 2nd generation daughter lashed out to her parents occasionally, the son too. In those moments, I saw myself in them. The daughter was speaking my mind several times.
For me to enjoy a series, I need good characters. I can get over the laziest, most stupid and most boring plot, if the characters are interesting, charming and have a nice dynamic. The dynamic and the tension between them is very important to me. This series doesn't have interesting characters. Mark comes across very lifeless, maybe that's his role as a vampire, but I'm bored. Tong is over the top, but not in a good way. He seems rather stupid. Everything we learned about them until now, their past, their story is just lame and lacks depths. I'm dropping this, because there is nothing I look forward to. The humor isn't funny, their interactions aren't exciting - I don't care about them getting closer or kissing, because there is no chemistry. People have different perceptions, some are excited about those two, some are not. But I'm pretty sure both of them being hot, is adding to the charm some see in this series. Imagine those actors would be newbies and wouldn't be so good-looking (especially Joss) - would you really care? The dialogues are dire, the pace is too slow, the plot is wattpad-style, where you have an idea (vampires, golden blood etc.), and then the characters play house, before the plot can even develop, because that's what attracts readers/viewers early. They try so hard to create interesting scenes between them, but they fail miserably. It feels so artificial, deprived of any real emotion. The bad background music isn't helping. Honestly, even Neo is bad and boring in this series, and we all know Neo is a good actor and knows how to do his job.
I tried watching this, and I just can't get into it. But people talk about it like it's the best thing since sliced bread. I guess I will try again. I don't want to miss out.
Let's be real for a moment ... So, first of all, great series, terrific writing. So what I say now is not criticism. But let's be real for a moment. They try to sell us this touching and beautiful family story. What it really is: It's a story about 3 generations of daughters. The daughters are in the center of the story. So let's focus on Ae Sun's family. This family is extremely dysfunctional. She had to give up her dreams, and now she wants her daughter to succeed. The daughter was always more important than the boys. The brother knows it, and is suffering because of it. Ae Sun itself admitted she is embarrassed by him. The old ladies gave her the advice, to never show favoritism toward the children. The daughter also feels the pressure. This is not healthy, it's tragic. Ae Sun has some kind of 7th sense when it comes to her daughter, that's why she was able to save her life several times. Why wasn't she able to save the life of her boy? I don't blame her for what happened, but seeing that she had to save her daughter so many times, what am I supposed to think about the connection she had with her other children? Not to mention, that even her daughter told her, she has to live her own life. Ae Sun's happiness and ability to keep going depends on her daughter succeeding. Then let's look at her husband. He was always that fool, madly in love with her, who worked hard for her and the family. This man is like a mule, just plowing the field until he drops dead. Is this romantic? It was even mentioned, that the love between him and is daughter is one-sided. Both parents are worn out, physically and mentally, and you wonder what they achieved in life? They got two bratty children. Nothing special. The girl isn't some kind of genius, either. This is life. This is family. I get it. But would you want it? I lately think a lot about it, how they tell you in TV and everywhere else, life is all about family and love. Do you want THAT? For real?
have you seen the first ever trailer for the first season of Only Friends? cause it was just as bad if not worse.....…
I didn't compare any series to any other. I compared the TRAILERS of a series. Those series have a concept trailer/teaser, then weeks before the series airs the 2nd and final trailer comes out. In my humble opinion, 1st trailers are often more captivating as the final trailer. The series I mentioned are some examples.
That said, I have a serious question: Are you guys thinking the main lead is a good guy? I don't remember everything from s1, but I remember how the title was fitting: weak hero. He didn't have the physical strength or the skills for fighting. He fought with his brain, and his will to survive. He fought for his friends.
In s2 I felt like he got physically stronger, and his fighting style - woah. Like his new friend said: He is a sneaky a**hole. He fights dirty, and his advantage is the will to kill the other person. That's why he almost can't be defeated. He doesn't hesitate to cause some serious harm. When he was fighting with Seong Je, the guy took the pen from him and threw it away. He could have used it as a weapon, but he didn't. His opponents don't use weapons, which would make them stronger. They are fighting with their abilities and their strength.
I enjoyed s2 more than s1, but I must say: There is something seriously wrong with Si Eun, and he is not the poor victim. In s1 I could see how he was driven to extremes, because of this endless cycle of violence. He didn't ask for it. Everything got out of control. In s2 I thought he himself was the one who was too extreme. I know he has a trauma, but still.
At least his friend survived, even though I highly doubt, someone who wakes up from a years long coma is behaving like this.
You have to find the right actor for a certain role.
Obviously those two guys click well, and they are both hot, so the team just went with them.
I think someone like Dunk would have been perfect for the role. He already played annoying and childish characters. He looks very young, has an awkward attitude which would fit the role, and he is objectively speaking mesmerizing beautiful, so all those sensual scenes about the golden blood, his sweat, the close shots of his face, eyes, mouth would have been great.
Gawin has more of a manly mature mysterious beauty. He is a handsome man, not a beautiful boy.
I sooo hope the writing and directing isn't letting them down, because lately some BL series were rather disappointing. We already know the acting will be good. No worries there!
He killed it in Be My Favorite.
Krist in general is one of the unfortunate BL actors who gets lots of hate. They accused him of being homophobic and escaping the BL genre. They even attack his character. I don't know how the guy survived until now.
The writing sucks, the acting sucks, the directing sucks.
Nothing works here. It's Kidnap all over again: a series with great potential, but nothing feels right. They failed to establish the OhmLeng pair (I know the crazy OhmNanon fans played a big role), I wonder if JossGawin will have a future.
I lately felt in love with JoongDunk in The Heart Killers. Their older series are one of the worst rated on MDL of a more popular couple. I watched them, and whatever issue people may have with them, the quality was there. Good directing, occasionally good writing, some dialogues were smart, some scene very beautifully filmed.
That's not the case here. It's boring. I mostly blame the writing and directing. There is no suspense, no artistry in the cinematography. The people who worked on this should look for another job. Like I said: Kidnap all over again. Just an overall low quality series.
And talking about chemistry: Since the holy trinity is back, I thought about this a lot lately. How those guys back then were able to create such great chemistry, and still to this day, almost ten years later, they are loved. Their first series were silly and not high quality at all, but they were charming, and their chemistry killed it.
Compare this genuine chemistry to couples they are trying to force on us like OhmLeng, PerthChimon or now JossGawin. At the same time we have SkyNani who don't do BL. Not everything works out for GMMTV, I guess.
There were many things wrong with this series. Many things. Especially how they portrayed the love stories, where the men were completely reduced to their role as servants and protectors of their women. No idea how someone can find this romantic.
Those men were pitiful. All of them. That Gwan Sik would be the first to die - I f*cking knew it. He fulfilled his purpose of working himself to death for the family.
But he got some good sexy times at least. How often have we seen Ae Sun and her husband turn off the lights? The jealous captain who asked if someone is waiting at home for Gwan Sik? Ae Sun telling her daughter, she should chose a good-looking man, because then they won't fight so much? We know why. Because she will be attracted to him, and they will f*ck a lot.
Damn. I can't take this serious. I feel like the emotional scenes, the nice cinematography is putting everyone under a spell.
Not only the romantic relationships were problematic, also the parents-children relationships. I already complained about the favoritism Ae Sun showed towards her daughter to the point that her son called his own parents Geum Myeong-mother and Geum Myeong-father. Or another example: the grandmother. Imagine your children and grandchildren are looking after you, but then you get dementia and forget about all of them - but not about your favorite son and his daughter. It's just wrong to favor a son after so many years, when you lost him early, and forget about the people who cared for you for decades. It's f*cked up to say the least.
Same with Ae Sun's mother. She clearly didn't cherish her other children as much as Ae Sun. They were even written out of the whole story.
Honestly, I could write a whole book about this series and what was wrong with it. Ae Sun telling her daughter she should have children, because otherwise nobody will look after her at old age, was the cherry on the top. Now we know why poor people breed. And how their "love" and their apparently superior mindset works. They are afraid of dying alone. That's it. They work themselves to death so they are vulnerable and weak at old age and can hold onto something.
Whatever. I'm just putting out my thoughts, since I feel people are not critical enough, they are not questioning, what this series really tells you about life, love and family.
I see my parents in Ae Sun and her husband.
I know about the financial struggle, about the silly and simple-minded attitude of those "boomer" parents. They just breed and stay hopeful, not caring if they even have enough money to feed their children. Their idea of love is also very simple, almost childish. They live for their children and grandchildren. Nothing else in their lives. No time for anything else either, since life is a constant struggle. I once said to my mother, I sometimes spend hours just thinking about how to make more money, how to be more successful - then she started laughing, because she never had the time to think about that. People stay poor, because of the constant struggle day in day out. They are in survival mode. For some f*cked up reason they are proud of making it, of not giving up, they seem to see beauty in the constant suffering. It's something I don't understand.
What did Ae Sun really achieve in life? Sending her daughter to university? She did a lot of things wrong with her son, the other son died, and while accidents happen, it somehow was her fault. So she wasn't even able to bring all of their three children to adulthood.
She published her poem book. Great. Just one book. Some poems.
Her beloved daughter got out of poverty, but I wonder if the next generation will be poor again. We see it today, how the younger people don't have much, can't even buy their own home. So this is just a constant cycle. We can't get richer and richer.
The daughter wasn't very special either. I honestly never understood what's so special about anyone of those daughters. I loved the 1st generation woman, the mother of Ae Sun. That woman had presence and power. Every scene with her made me feel something deep in my soul. She was the real deal. Kudos to the actress.
Ae Sun herself was a character I couldn't understand to the end. She had a strong will, was pretty bold and good with words, but at the same time she was supposed to be the shy literary girl? She obviously was a hopeless romantic, who couldn't keep her legs closed. The exaggerated crying in her young years (her daughter was the same, the crying at the wedding was unbearable) made her look rather silly. At old age she became very traditional, and I would never call her a modern woman with a strong will.
Honestly, there was nothing special about those women, and some may say that was the point.
The husband had no personality until the end. Both actors (the young and the old) didn't, so it was intentional.
I somehow felt at the end of the day this was a love story?
I'm lost, really.
I admit, this series even got me a bit angry, because they sell you this depressing tale as something beautiful and touching.
I can image young people in their 20s, who can't relate to the story, because they haven't experienced something like that, are thinking this was uplifting and beautiful. If you have lived through it, you get bitter. The 2nd generation daughter lashed out to her parents occasionally, the son too. In those moments, I saw myself in them. The daughter was speaking my mind several times.
This series doesn't have interesting characters. Mark comes across very lifeless, maybe that's his role as a vampire, but I'm bored. Tong is over the top, but not in a good way. He seems rather stupid. Everything we learned about them until now, their past, their story is just lame and lacks depths.
I'm dropping this, because there is nothing I look forward to. The humor isn't funny, their interactions aren't exciting - I don't care about them getting closer or kissing, because there is no chemistry. People have different perceptions, some are excited about those two, some are not. But I'm pretty sure both of them being hot, is adding to the charm some see in this series. Imagine those actors would be newbies and wouldn't be so good-looking (especially Joss) - would you really care? The dialogues are dire, the pace is too slow, the plot is wattpad-style, where you have an idea (vampires, golden blood etc.), and then the characters play house, before the plot can even develop, because that's what attracts readers/viewers early. They try so hard to create interesting scenes between them, but they fail miserably. It feels so artificial, deprived of any real emotion. The bad background music isn't helping.
Honestly, even Neo is bad and boring in this series, and we all know Neo is a good actor and knows how to do his job.
So, first of all, great series, terrific writing. So what I say now is not criticism. But let's be real for a moment. They try to sell us this touching and beautiful family story. What it really is: It's a story about 3 generations of daughters. The daughters are in the center of the story.
So let's focus on Ae Sun's family. This family is extremely dysfunctional. She had to give up her dreams, and now she wants her daughter to succeed. The daughter was always more important than the boys. The brother knows it, and is suffering because of it. Ae Sun itself admitted she is embarrassed by him. The old ladies gave her the advice, to never show favoritism toward the children. The daughter also feels the pressure. This is not healthy, it's tragic. Ae Sun has some kind of 7th sense when it comes to her daughter, that's why she was able to save her life several times. Why wasn't she able to save the life of her boy? I don't blame her for what happened, but seeing that she had to save her daughter so many times, what am I supposed to think about the connection she had with her other children? Not to mention, that even her daughter told her, she has to live her own life. Ae Sun's happiness and ability to keep going depends on her daughter succeeding.
Then let's look at her husband. He was always that fool, madly in love with her, who worked hard for her and the family. This man is like a mule, just plowing the field until he drops dead. Is this romantic? It was even mentioned, that the love between him and is daughter is one-sided. Both parents are worn out, physically and mentally, and you wonder what they achieved in life? They got two bratty children. Nothing special. The girl isn't some kind of genius, either.
This is life. This is family. I get it.
But would you want it? I lately think a lot about it, how they tell you in TV and everywhere else, life is all about family and love.
Do you want THAT? For real?
In my humble opinion, 1st trailers are often more captivating as the final trailer. The series I mentioned are some examples.