Pincolino

Wat who acted as Mark was GREAT. His acting felt so real and natural. As a gay character he was also pretty convincing. The story wasn't that great and felt sometimes rushed, but it kept me on the edge of my seat. The chemistry with Yin was okay, but not mind-blowing, mostly because of the difference in acting skills and the script. They made Yin a rather shallow guy.
But I enjoyed this series a lot and watched it in one go. I will rewatch it later just to see Wat's acting again. I'm very impressed by this guy.

On a side note: THEY KISSED. The kisses weren't mind-blowing either, but they were cute. Lately I saw a lot of BLs where it looked like the guys were uncomfortable touching and kissing each other. Mark and Vee never looked awkward.
I'm very picky lately and this rating may seem too high. But I liked this series a lot for the mentioned reasons. It made me excited about BL again.

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I thought about writing a comment, now I write a review. I watched this FINALLY. I have heard a lot about it. People are praising it and say "it's the best BL EVER". First of all, it's good. The cinematography is great, the OST is nice. This isn't a fanservice BL series like we know it from Thailand (and recently from Korea). It's not about pretty boys being cute and having mindless conversations and dramatic love problems. Oh no, I'm wrong, it is EXACTLY about that. No, seriously, the production is on another level and everything feels serious and real and pretty raw. But it is still a rather silly and overly dramatic series. After watching those 7 episodes (they have movie-length) I don't know anything about those two characters. I know that one of them is a good student, the other isn't. That's all. They have no other character traits. I wonder if I'm the only one who noticed this. Until the very end I couldn't get into the characters, but I could get into their "love". Mostly because of the actors being very intense and having a strong bond you can feel throug the screen while watching this series. Still ... the crying! So much crying! I think they did nothing else than cry in the last episode. It was too dramatic. And nothing was explained very well. It seemed like Oh got refused, because he wasn't a girl (they hinted in that direction), but then again, that wasn't true. They somehow made it look like being gay is an issue, and then again it wasn't, when we had a gay love confession in front of many people. Like you couldn't clearly understand what the issue was. Why all the drama? I'm pretty sure others have some thories about it (I have them too), but it was just too much. Still 8/10. This was pretty well made. I also have to add, that PP (the actor of Oh) looks 100% gay. His whole appearance screams GAAAAY, and that's a good thing. It made the series more realistic.

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Seriously, this was a mess. The first 10 episodes were FANTASTIC. They clearly had a big budget to spend. How the tomb looked, the leather figures, the village of the mute - it was stunning. BEAUTIFUL. The action scenes were great, the suspense unreal, and the chemistry between the "iron triangle" was very enjoyable. They had some emotional and dramatic scenes that really got to me. I was in awe and had the time of my life. So what happened? The series changed completely. The remaining 20 episodes take place in a boring looking warehouse. They had some budget left for the ceiling of this infamous warehouse, but that was it. The chemistry between Mr. Fatty and Wu Xei was really touching, but then their storylines went in completely different directions. Wu Xei spends his time with a tomboy, a very annoying and cringy woman, especially when she tries to act cute, and Mr. Fatty becomes the sugar daddy of a divorced boring woman with a child. I watched it to the end for the mystery, but the series tone (adventurous, exciting, suspenseful, beautiful looking) completely changed after the first 10 episodes. On a side note: I know that people ship Wu Xie and Zhang Qi Ling. The title of the series "Reunion" suggested that the iron triangle reunites, but even when they were in the tomb, they got separated. Those guys had maybe 15 minutes of screentime together. And later on the character completely vanished again. Why even put him in the opening credits? Such a waste ...

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Oh boy! I found this yesterday and thought I would give it a try. After the first 10 minutes I wanted to turn it off, I don't know why, I just felt this woudn't be worth it. At the end I watched until midnight, I was completely sucked in by the story. It's really, really good. The acting was superb, the story itself makes you think and almost haunts you. I coudn't get it out of my head even in my dreams. It's a psychological work and it's a great one. I can recommend it to everyone who likes good psychological stories. The BL is real, btw. There is no doubt about it. But the focus is on jealousy and obsession.
Give it a try!

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Not a pleasant watch

First of all, this is a copycat of Beyond Evil. In both series we have a small village, a murder of a teenage girl(s), a friend group of teenagers, a young guy who gets blamed for the murder, a corrupt police chief, an involved higher political figure. Sure, there is the difference, that in this series the boy was convicted and went to jail. In Beyond Evil they said, that regarding Korean law, no one can be convicted of murder if there is no corpse. In this series, it wasn't the case. He got 10 years without ever finding the dead bodies. I have no idea which series got it wrong, but that was one big difference. Sure, in Beyond Evil, the one who was accused of the murder became a cop himself, but overall, those two series are very similar. So I knew pretty fast that the police chief wasn't trustworthy at all, and the crime involved adults with higher social status and wasn't done by young boys on an impulse.
Well, my issue with this series, though, and I know this review is a mess, the characters were extremely annoying, even the mother of the wrongfully accused boy. In Beyond Evil they managed to make all the character likable, even the villains and the mentally ill friends. It was such an emotional roller coaster, while this series just got me annoyed.
I liked how the rather brute cop was fair enough to listen to the wrongfully convicted murderer and helped him solve the case. I liked their "bromance", but I also have seen better ones. Nothing really got me attached to those characters or their pain.
The main character did a terrific job with his acting, but that doesn't save much if every other character is just lame. Him crying about his dead friends got me emotional, just to find out later that those two girls were some annoying b*tches. The friends were rapist. The other one was sitting for 10 years beside a decomposing body.
Ugh.
I regret watching this, sorry guys. I still try to be fair with my rating.

EDIT: Apparently, this is based on a German novel. I know the author, since I am German, though I didn't read the book. Still, this is very similar to Beyond Evil in so many aspects that's the comparison is justified. I'm also sure they changed many things to fit the Korean police system and politics.

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You hate it or you love it. I was touched deep in my soul. The ending was beautiful. The whole series felt like a piece of art. I'm sure many people think it was depressing or the characters were not likeable. Maybe that's true, but so what? I'm an author and my latest book wasn't received very well. They said the characters were bad, they didn't like the development etc. What should I say? I thought it was one of the best books I ever wrote.
I watched this series years ago and now I'm back to write something about it. That proves how much I cannot get it out of my head. I'm not the biggest fan of romance dramas anyway, but this one was worth watching.

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Commercial madness

Okay, people will not like what I have to say. Ep 1 to Ep 5 were great. I would recommend those episodes to EVERYONE out there. Ep 6 was rather slow, but okay. But the end made no sense. The whole let's-compete-who-falls-in-love was too childish. After the legendary rooftop scene it was obvious they love each other. But well. Why not? Give them a chance to do some flirting. Ep 7 wasn't to my liking, but the end saved it. Since then the series got worse. And now, waiting for Ep 10, I'm not even sure if I will finish it. To make it short: It became shallow and too commercial. They did a great job in introducing the charcters, their personality, their past, their relationship, their feelings until everything culminated in the end of Ep 5. The storytelling was flawless, the pace just right, the character such likable und good people, their story so engaging. Even side characters were great to watch, also because the acting was soo good. The girls Ink and Pa are doing a terrific job, the chemistry between everyone is outstanding. This series is full of very beautiful, very emotional and very well-filmed scenes with some great background music. So what went wrong? They just overdid it. They overdid it with the product placement, they overdid it with the cuteness and fluff, they overdid it with the prince-charming-personality of Pat, the overdid it with the in-your-face-education about gay relationship and the wifey/hubby thing (show, don't tell! I get it), they overdid it with the action (gun shot), they overdid it with the humor (it's not funny joking about someone getting seriously hurt), they just overdid it. They even overdid it in real life. I'm not a fan of the way how they advertise the series, the merch, the "couple". They exploited their friendship (which is supposed to be a "soulmate" thing, if that's even true), just for attention and popularity. You can disagree about this, but I didn't like Ohm's sappy love confession on that podcast. The marketing is just soooo heavy. It should always be about the art first, but this really is mostly about the money. I blame the actors (especially Ohm for the exxagerated fan-service, which I first found cute and funny, now I find it a bit fishy), I blame GMMTV that can't milk those actors enough, and I blame the director for just holding the camera on them and letting them do their thing. It's not professional. You can do that once, or twice, but not constantly. It's pretty obvious when Nanon does those improvised kisses, because Ohm always looks suprised. I wouldn't give the green light for such a scene. The director and his friends in general seem to enjoy a bit too much how those cute and good looking straight guys are playing gay. What is this even about? The story? Really? There is no story to be found since the end of Ep 5 or 6. At this rate I expect the parents conflict to be stupid and silly. But well, I'm sure they will manage to show us in those last three episodes once again (and again) the Canon printer, and of course the Nivea make-up remover what every guy out there needs, not to forget the oishi green tea drink with so many vitamins, or those seaweed chips or whatever, and how can I forget the inhaler? This is madness. The director apparantly even called that "commercial art". I'm laughing, really. Don't tell me, they need the money so bad. GMMTV became pretty big over the years. They just saw that those guys are good at doing those commercial scenes and milked it. Like they milk everything to the last damn drop. I will change the review if it turns out that indeed they concentrate more on the story until the end. But I have my doubst. Nonetheless I rated it pretty high. It is too good compared to other BLs to rate it lower.

EDIT: The parents conflict wasn't as bad as I thought. They also toned down the adverstisement a bit in the last episodes. To sum it up: 10 episodes would have been enough to tell this story. There were just too much fan service and filler scenes. Still the last episode fitted the whole series and they did a decent job. I won't change my rating. The series was enjoyable. Far from perfect, but enjoyable. Compared to other BLs the rating sure is justified.

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Wasted potential ... could have been mind-blowing great

I have a different take on this as many others.
First, I had a hard time getting into the story, mostly because I disliked the cop's acting so much. Not Ji Chang Wook's acting, but the character's acting. He was supposed to be a cop, not an actor, but this was still extremely annoying. He behaved like some hot headed, not very smart brat that wanted revenge. I have no idea how the mafia boss could trust him. Every time he opened his mouth, he sounded so damn fishy. He was impatient and pushy. It made zero sense that the mafia boss kept him around and trusted him. He did try to dig up his past, and he remained cautious of him, but it wasn't enough. I know he was blinded, since he trusted the woman, and she knew his new subordinate. But the mafia boss was too weak. I honestly don't recall a single scene where I felt he is that fierce, dangerous and murderous guy he was supposed to be. Or maybe I just wanted him to be like that. Honestly, he was soft and composed most of the time. The more the story progressed, the stranger it felt, when the cop called him "boss", because they changed their positions. It 100% felt like the cop was the "boss" and not the other way around. So for me, this was a major flaw in the story, that the mafia boss was too soft and too trustworthy. After all, he build a big business, so I expected him to be smarter and more ruthless.
Second, and that's the biggest problem I have with this series: It was not possible to understand what those characters felt for each other. People praise the acting in this series, yes, it felt intense, but was it really that good? I don't blame the actors, more the director or writer, because I assume it was intentional. But there was no real depth in their performance, no real connection between the characters.
So let me go into detail: We have 4 main characters and main relationships.
** The relationship between the wife's cop and the mafia boss **
I never felt for a single moment that she genuinely liked him (in a romantic way). I felt she had some positive emotions towards him since she knew him for so long, and she remembered him when he was young. There was some nostalgia involved. But that woman was so damn plain and everything about her was boring. She was just looking pretty the whole time with that soft expression on her face. The relationship between her and the mafia boss was very creepy. I honestly have no idea how he could think this would work out since she is a cop. He should have known, she is not that naive. What she witnessed - how could she ever be okay with it? Those two together on screen made me uncomfortable. But then at the end, she was desperately sobbing? What were the writers trying to tell us? Was she sad for herself and what she did?
** The relationship between the cop and the drug cartel girl **
That was the only relationship where I felt there was something genuine going on. He even admitted at some point (and I believed it), that he may like her even more in the future. But the focus was on his emotions and his struggle to give in since he is married. So there was not enough room to really develop this relationship. I also didn't understand why the girl liked him in the first place. The qualities of his mafia persona were being loyal, she called him a "soldier". Well, he is attractive, that may have helped. The girl came across very smart and tough, despite being a small and beautiful woman. So it ruined her character that she failed her job so badly, just because she trusted that guy (who wasn't trustworthy at all). I felt in love with Ji Chang Wook watching K2, but in this series he wasn't attractive all (not physically, but his whole personality and attitude). So it's even harder to understand why she was so into him.
** The relationship between the two guys **
I disliked the cop from the beginning to the end. He wasn't a good guy. He was a cop, and he was hesitant to kill people = good guy? For that damn promotion, he was willing to do everything. And don't get me started about that bloodbath, because then it was clear who the real monster was. They made it look like he did all of it to protect his wife, bust since there was no chemistry between those two, it was just hard to believe. Not to mention that he let that guy die in this alley, when he could have called an ambulance. He would make a good gangster! That the mafia boss decided to make him the new boss wasn't that far-fetched, I may admit it. It's true the cop got things done, he wasn't murderous, he kept a clear head even in difficult times, and he was a hell of a fighter. Still, he was fishy and unlikable until the end. Those two had not a single genuine (!!!) bromance moment. It was the naive mafia boss who reached out to him emotionally and was open with him.
** The relationship between the cop and his wife **
There is not much to say about this: boring, no spark, no chemistry. I couldn't sense any love here, it was more like some obligation. They could have made her his sister, wouldn't change anything. But they deserve each other, that's for sure. And they deserve their fate. I was applauding (not crying) at the end. Serves them right. They shall feel guilty as long as they live. Despicable human beings. All of them. Until the end I have no idea - and not because I don't get it, nope, it wasn't shown clearly - what the cop and his wife felt for the mafia boss. How they reacted to his death, why the cop shot him in the first place. I read different theories, none makes much sense. I personally think, he just did it, so he can get the promotion since he caught the mafia guy. Sounds better than: He came to my home and shot himself in the head.
So to sum it up: The mafia boss was too naive. The supposedly good guys not good at all and not likable. I couldn't root for them, also the other cops. They made a big deal out of the death of one of those cops, when that guy also was such an annoying and unlikable character, and we didn't even know much about him. And the drug cartel girl was blinded by love, which made her look rather stupid.
Yeah ... I don't know. The cinematography was great, the actions scenes too, everything was intense and interesting, the pace was just right, the music was great. It was a very intriguing experience, and not a bad series at all, hence my high rating. But I'm not head over heels in love with it, because there was potential for a really, really good bromance, and for three really intense love stories. But they didn't go there. Nope. None of those relationships felt genuine, deep, or passionate. You just couldn't feel much love here, despite "love" being the downfall of the supposedly bad guys.
While I'm writing this, it really hit me hard, what this series could have been. Just make the cop more emotional, more of a good guy, so his "change" into a monster is more heart-breaking, make his wife less plain, and this could have been a wonderful series that would make me sob like a baby at the end. I didn't dislike the end at all, but it had not the emotional impact on me, it could have had.

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The rating is currently, while I write this review, around 8.4. I'm a bit suprised.
Let me start with saying this series was pretty charming. There also were nice intimate/kissing scenes. They were able to create a certain atmosphere and feeling that was very enjoyable. Despite that, the plot was messy. This was mostly about the main characters insecurity and rather a coming-of-age-series than a BL. That wouldn't be a problem at all, but unfortunately they somehow forgot to develop the personality of the second lead. He was extremely bland. Also the side characters were boring and not interesting at all. The plot in general was very confusing. I couldn't really figure out what they were studying or doing. They worked on a film project together, but ... I don't know. It was just not presented in an engaging way. I felt lost most of the time. Still the feelings between the leads were well presented and enjoyable to watch. Despite the actors being rather weak. The main guy had the same face most of the time. The second lead was even worse. But ... yeah. I don't know why everyone seems crazy about this. It lacked a good plot, good characters, good acting and good film-making.

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The acting is terrible. Terrible. Terrible. Terrible. I may be biased because I in general have a hard time getting into Japanese Drama. While I love anime and manga, I'm not into their "drama style". The mood is depressing most of the time and the acting is so exaggerated, it doesn't feel natural at all. Talking about this series in particular: The main character's acting was the worst. He made such strange faces most of the time, but what was even more annoying: he had no charisma. He was friends with the other two guys, but they had zero chemistry. Zero. Later on he met a girl, and it was the same: zero chemistry. The older actors who were also friends (I don't want to spoil the twist) had much more chemistry going on. Also, their friendship seemed deep and genuine even though we didn't get much background information about them. To sum it up: horrible characters, not likable at all, horrible acting most of the time. The film-making was good, though. Nothing special, but decent. The reason why I rate this so high is the plot. It was pretty intriguing. The games were nice. It's the kind of plot where you want to know what happens next, and you will watch it to the end for sure. I forgot: there was ONE good character - the trans girl. The portrayal was very refreshing, the actress did a good job. She was my favorite. I will watch season 2, despite finding those characters very annoying. But like I said: the plot keeps you watching.

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After watching the first episode, I was like WOW. High production, great acting from War and Yin, interesting heist plot, I have never seen before in a BL, super exciting main characters, charming side characters, great fight scenes. I was hooked. Watching the second episode, I understood the writing was silly and weak. So watching this series feels like being in a bad relationship, but despite all the red flags, you're in love and keep telling yourself it's not that bad.
It is that bad.
The writing is bad.
The overall plot ideas aren't that terrible, but the execution is more than lacking. I was willing to overlook a lot, but when I finally understood (and it was confirmed much earlier than I was willing to see it), that even the characters were badly written, I had enough.
I don't care about Jack and Joker, despite War looking beautiful when crying. I don't care. This is one of the most boring romances I have ever seen in my life. If people love it - great! I'm out of this relationship. No more excuses for this snooze fest.
To be precise (since people will hate my review anyway): Joker is not the mischievous thief they were advertising him. He is a con man with some luck and stupid sidekicks. Jack has no balls. He is not a dangerous loan shark, but a boy who can't make the right decisions. He is a coward and still salty about his bad luck in life. I also highly disagree with the social criticism they are trying to show us. The basic idea is: poor people remain poor, because the rich exploits them. While this isn't all wrong, the "poor" people in this series make wrong decisions, are lazy and stupid like Tattoo and Hoy. So I don't see how this is really helping them to bring their point across. It's a black and white world, when I expected a gray one. It's oversimplified and childish, but well, that sums up the whole writing, from the silly plot developments, to the silly and boring characters to the silly moral and social criticism. This is a series for young impressionable minds, not for those who love complex writing and characters.

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Okay, I'm pretty sure people will not like what I have to say, but this season is a mess. To make it short: everything that I enjoyed in Season 1 is ... gone. Season 1 was fun, cute, innocent, emotional, charming. Season 2 is dark, depressing, sappy, overly dramatic and cold. Watching Season 1 I felt in love with Shu Yi. The character was so lively and cute, vulnerable and strong at the same time. A bit cocky on the outside, but with a big heart on the inside. Yu did an incredible job bringing this character to life. In season 2 I don't see his charms anymore. It's not Yu's fault. The author decided to make a stupid time skip just to put two characters with the same name in a different environment. And this environment is booooring. I HATE this cold apartment with those concrete walls, the white kitchen with the transparent chairs, that dark sofa, that depressing bedroom with the depressing decoration. I HATE the office environment with the boring workers, the boring colors - they are constantly wearing blue, gray, beige, black or brown. It's all the same color scheme - and it's COLD. It didn't bother me watching the first two episodes, but after that it annoyed me every time a bit more. The story about their jobs and the companies is boring too. It's just done to move the plot forward, but it's not presented in an interesting or engaging way. They both were very talented in school, Shi De was good at drawing, Shu Yi played the piano, they were good at swimming - and now we see them doing boring office work. While I know they were studying for those kinds of jobs and Shu Yi had to take over the company of his father - it's still depressing to watch. Enough talk about environments and colors. The characters changed a lot. Season 2 starts with Shu Yi being angry and Shi De behaving like he saw him just yesterday - despite being separated for YEARS. They seriously messed this first meeting up. Shu Yi isn't the kind of guy to get angry like this. Being cold and arrogant/cocky towards Shi De would have made more sense. Shi De on the other hand - how stupid can you be? We then get one piece of the puzzle after another, so we know what happened. It doesn't make sense. They started the plot somewhere in the middle, and then they tell the story backwards with short and cryptic flashbacks and those sappy dialogues where they slowly solve all those misunderstandings. This is just lazy storytelling. I like some good angst (I love it!), but knowing everything that happened - it feels so unnecessary. All the drama - for what? This became so dramatic, and I have a hard time to relate to it. There is no emotional depth. There was none in season 1 either, but there it didn't matter, because they weren't trying to be so serious. Sam and Yu are still enjoyable to watch with their very unusual chemistry, and especially Yu has a way of embracing and kissing Sam ... it's really heart-warming and beautiful. But yeah, the characters, the plot, even the production went downhill. They still gave us some beautiful scenes (the kissing, the embracing, the cuddling!), but the flow of the story became strange, and I must admit I skipped some scenes. I hope to see Sam and Yu in another production. I don't want to see season 3 of this. Will we get more stupid misunderstandings? I also don't want to see them happy and domestic. This kind of plot lacks any excitement. They should just do a different series with a more mature plot. But knowing that apparently there is no good BL writer out there, I don't have much hope. About the other couples: They are doing an okay job. Nothing mind-blowing, but they are enjoyable to watch. I want to rate it higher, but I can't. I enjoyed episode 1 and 2. Episode 3 was okay, I disliked 4 and 5, and now I'm tired and wonder if I will even watch episode 6, because I couldn't care less about that Alpha that was stolen or whatever. Sam and Yu's story was finished in episode 3 anyways. It's a shame that the author ran out of ideas so early.

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Very disappointing development. It started out as a rather serious and dramatic series despite the humor. In the first 3 episodes the plot focused on bullying and our two main characters were involved. At the end of ep 3 YXG was kneeling in front of XHT and begging him to spare his life. At this point there was a very concerning power difference between those two characters and I was HOOKED. I wanted to see how this turns out. How they can ever trust each other and being in a balanced relationship. This was such an interesting concept. I expected XHT to feel remorse, guilt and later on to understand YXG better, to respect and admire him and finally falling in love with him. In fact he felt in love so suddenly that I'm still not over it. Apparently he developed feelings in ep 3, but I didn't get it back then, because it just didn't cross my mind at all that he could fall in love so out of the blue. But I was willing to overlook the bad writing and the missed opportunities to make this a great psychological work. The relationship developed rather slowly which I guess wasn't a bad choice. But how "being in love" was portrayed was just crazy. XHT behaved like a teenage girl. It was very exaggerated. The humor was also too much. And later on the series became so incredible cheesy that I didn't enjoy it anymore. In this show everything was too much. I prefer serious, deep and smart written stories with good humor. But this was just very simple and exaggerated in every possible way which resulted in a portrayal of emotions that lacked any real depth. They just were in love for what ever reason and then it was so serious they wanted to move in and spend their whole life together. I just didn't feel the connection between the two main leads at all. I constantly asked myself "Why are they together?" The actors have much more chemistry in real life than they had in the series. I enjoyed the second leads more, but I was surprised by the rather explicit sex scenes they showed us. It was back then such a strange contrast to the rather innocent love between the main characters, even though those two showed us also more intimacy later on. It was funny seeing how people liked this, but when it became very cheesy and explicit suddenly everyone was over the moon. Honestly speaking, if this would be my very first Asian BL I can imagine liking it too. It was cute and sexy after all with some typical BL cliches. My first BL was Addicted/Heroin and I went crazy even though the story was completely messed up. But if you're looking for something deeper, that's better written, then this HIStory is not for you. The writing was a mess like in Trapped, the last HIStory series. They just mix up everything and have some serious issues balancing out the mood of a story. Maybe because they are desperately trying to please the audience? No idea. The result is just not good. If people want to give this a 10: go ahead. But this is no 10, sorry. Ah, the end, I almost forgot. The end was an odd choice too, but looking back it made sense, I guess. But it proves again that there is no balance. Everything is just too much. In this case it was too dramatic.

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