Pincolino

I have no issues with San Pang. He is the voice of reason, and since Qian was cowardly hiding, someone had to talk to Yuan, and I'm glad he did. Yuan was desperately wishing for a reaction from Qian, and San Pang was the messenger. Since Yuan is still young, for an outsider, this may really look like he is just confused about his feelings. San Pang didn't put into words, what's wrong with the whole relationship, but he didn't have to. He saw them growing up, Qian cared for Yuan much more like a father than an older brother, it's just weird. I think everyone can agree on that. San Pang is protective of both: Qian and Yuan. I especially like how much he thinks about Qian's hardships. There is a scene in the trailer, where he asks Qian if he has feelings too. San Pang is quick to understand the situation. At the moment, it's obvious Qian doesn't want to be involved romantically with Yuan, but later on, when that changes, I'm pretty sure San Pang will support their relationship. They can be glad that they have him. He wants the best for both.

I'm a big fan of the writing and the characters, but Qian not talking to Yuan was very, very questionable and childish. Not even looking at him? I mean, I get Qian 100%. There are some things you just can't deal with. Nobody is perfect, I don't blame him. But I'm surprised about Yuan's strength. His love seems so pure, but that rejection was brutal. Qian should have found a better way to deal with the situation. I'm pretty sure he knows that himself, but again, that was brutal. How is Yuan supposed to feel after that? At least he got him the bracelet.
I loved how Lili was holding onto Qian and not letting him go, until they both talk. How Yuan stepped in and tried to calm her down, so Qian could go. He protected Qian. He behaved much more mature in this situation than his older brother. I also love that, when he kissed him, he was not only drunk, he was also feverish. So he really wasn't right in his head. When watching this scene in the trailer, it looked like the younger brother is obsessive and forceful. He isn't.
And seriously, when he was sitting at the table, Qian came down the stairs, how he immediately looked at him like a puppy, so hopeful he would talk to him - it broke my heart.
Great acting from Kurt Huang throughout the whole episode.

lol, for real?

Good to hear! I honestly don't remember when I watched the last time a Korean Drama with kisses. I'm more into the action/horror genre lately.

I was responding to the wrong person. I just wanted to say that there are some good kisses in Korean BL, very rare, but since even in hetero Korean drama we get fish kisses, they are doing not so bad.

Semantic Error had good kisses, and there is this couple (watch it to the end):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5dVybNsmFs&ab_channel=TaotiLychee

Oh, I honestly can think of many good actors. First (Moonlight Chicken, The Eclipse, Only Friends, Not Me) is a favorite of mine, Krist is also good (though BL isn't really for him), Sam Lin and YU did a good job in We Best Love, Louis in Kiseki Dear to Me is very talented, War from Love Mechanics is good, Gun and Off are good (Off was exceptional in Not Me), Fourth caught my eye in My School President, Mark and Neo are also pretty versatile in their acting ... I wonder who I forgot?

But Kurt Huang's performance in this series as Yuan is really on another level. I'm normally not a superficial person, but I disliked him from the trailer, I don't find him very attractive and something about him was very off-putting, but my opinion about him changed completely. Best casting ever. I like Chris too, but Kurt is stealing the show.

Well, that explains it. Because no, I think we haven't seen that before. But the scenes in MODC were pretty heavy as far as I remember. Especially that first scene between the 2nd couple took me by surprise.

After watching KinnPorsche, Love in The Air, Only Friends I wouldn't know what's the next level ... But those were Thai BLs of course.

Their claims that they will show us such hot scenes like never seen before in Taiwan BL is confusing me a bit, to be honest. I mean, we have seen a lot in other BLs ... how will they top that?

Not sure about best acting (I have seen many good actors), but best script, without a doubt. No competition at this point. The emotions are raw, the characters realistic, the story deep. You're on the edge of your seat and feel with those characters. Their inner turmoil is real, the problems are real, how they handle them is real.

??
You mean it gets worse?
He has a lung issue because of the beating, does he have some brain issues too?
Hopefully not!

The only thing I dislike about this series is how they portray Qian as someone who is in his mid 40s and his bad lifestyle in the past is now catching up to him. He constantly looks tired, has headaches, takes pills, doesn't sleep enough, can't take alcohol and is miserable, because of that. I personally think they are just overdoing it. He is supposed to be in his mid or late 20, come on! Even the worst life doesn't take such a toll on you until you're at least 35. I hope they make him stronger in the later episodes.

Let me guess, they are vaccinated?

Nice to see people have finally woken up. I remember a year ago after such news everyone would be "Stay safe!" "Hopefully she gets better" "Covid is dangerous!"

It's like Weak Class Hero. Never ending misery. Power games. Strong vs. weak. Rich vs. poor. Lots of violence. I personally don't see the entertainment value is this. I dislike all the characters, good or bad. In Weak Class Hero at least the main guy was such a terrific actor, that I had to keep watching.
So bottom line: It's not bad, if you like such stories. I don't.

Dropped. Life is too short for this misery.

I think you should understand the characters and putting yourself into their shoes, rather than looking at everything from your point of view. That's a big problem regarding how people perceive a story. They aren't willing to really engage into the characters and their story, they just want to see characters who behave like they should regarding THEIR morals values. That's a big issue you see in Hollywood nowadays, where a movie isn't judged by its value, its depth, its good writing, but only praised if it's "politically correct", as if that is the only scale on which you can measure its worth. Back to Unknown:
This is based on a rather old Chinese (!!) novel. Sure they can make some changes in the adaption, but certain things have to be the same.
Like I myself and many others said: Being gay is nothing to be celebrated. You're either brainwashed or just plain naive to think there is ANY society ANYWHERE who doesn't give a gay person a hard time. I personally know some stories from Canada, although you would think this is one of the most liberal countries in the world. Being gay means you're different. And being different is always difficult. If you go against society's norm, some hardships come with that.
So Qian is not really caring about Yuan doing sexual stuff with some other guy, he is only focussing on the impact this will have on his life, how he will find his place in society. You can argue Qian is old-fashioned, but since he has seen the gangster life (and there are also certain societal rules applied), he wants to create a better life for his family, a successful life, which means (for him) succeeding in society. Not once was he grossed out by Yuan coming near to him, embracing him etc. Part of the reason may be, because he indeed enjoys his company, deep down he likes Yuan taking care of him. But at the moment he doesn't want to think and accept that Yuan may be in love with him, because this means PROBLEMS. They are a family after all, he may not be sure about his own feelings at this point, and last but not least, he was ALWAYS worried about Yuan being too fixated on him, so he may think this is just an extension of this fixation and very unhealthy. Since he himself was emotionally and physically abused by his mothers, he may have some extra fear that he raised him wrong. There are so many issues those two have to deal with. So many!
It's honestly just naive and annoying to scream "He is homophobic!" Also, I said that before, Qian doesn't seem to be a romantic person, he isn't very interested in relationships/love, so I wonder how they will make this work. But such people exist: Who don't revolve their whole well-being about finding your love and being in a relationship. It's obvious that caring for his siblings and helping them build a successful life is more important to him than having his cute little Disney-romance.

I trust the editors, they did a good job until now. This series has such a nice flow to it. The kiss scene at the lake was very nice, and since it took many takes to get there, the end result was great.

I'm a sucker for NC scenes, but I'm very picky. I need two good actors who are both committed, well written characters, aesthetically pleasing kisses etc. I really loved the NC scenes of the 2nd couple in Kiseki Dear To Me. Louis and Nat did a terrific job. Sensual, romantic, beautiful looking boys, beautiful looking kisses. I felt blessed watching those two, haha!

This is Taiwan after all, they do great NC scenes. But for some reason I thought this series won't have them. The trailer looked like this will be a very soft and tender story.

??
Qian said it's hard to accept homosexuality, especially when it's your own kin, not being aware that Yuan is not his real family, since he always thinks of him as a brother. Yuan took the opportunity to remind him, that they aren't blood-related. He wants Qian to stop seeing him as a brother, since he wants to be his lover. Qian took it the wrong way, and judging from his face, he felt bad, since he didn't want that Yuan felt like an outsider and not part of this family. He didn't want to push him away.

There was a lot going on in this conversation, but it had nothing to do with adopted children not as valued as biological ones.