Maggi64

I just saw it -- thank you!

I just checked KissKh and Dramacool, and the do not have ep 9 yet. So how are you guys all watching this?

Thank you!

QUESTION

Which episode are we on (is it ep 9 today?)

Where can I see it other than Gagaloola?

Episode 4 was when the narrative stopped progressing. Nothing else happens for the next 12 episodes. I had high hopes for it based on the opening episode. But now I see why the ratings in Korea just kept dropping as weeks went by. By ep 16, the rating was a mere 2%.

TEDIOUS. PONDEROUS. PRETENTIOUS.

There is no message here. Just vapid, bumper-sticker platitudes posing as poetic depth. For instance, a character says that, "Youth is as lonesome as growing old," and yet the neither he nor the show gives any explanation or insight as to why this should be true (in fact, it's flat-out untrue, because the elderly statistically live uncared for and in isolation). The show's full of these bumper-sticker platitudes. But that's when someone in the show is actually speaking, rather than staring into space in utter silence.

It's the sort of thing where the director thinks having a character stare into space while saying nothing is tantamount to depth of character. Indeed, a good 6 hours of this 16 hour show could have been cut out simply by deleting all scenes of characters silently staring into space . Characters ask another character a question, and the other simply does not reply but, rather, stares silently. If someone failed to reply to my questions as often as the characters in this show do, I'd slap them.

When it's not utter silence it's only because, in lieu of dialogue, we're given long, circular internal monologues about how sad and confusing life is. Each of the characters gets to give one of these long (and often semantically nonsensical), interior monologues, and since they are all given in a low, lethargic tone of voice the viewer is supposed to assume that something poetic has just been stated. It hasn't. It's just a lot of mumbling about how life is bleak, empty and miserable. Why yes, it can be. Especially if strapped to a chair and forced to watch a freaking show like this for 16 hours. I only finished it because I wanted to know the answer to what was presented as a mysterious connection between characters who'd all met in a Suicide Club, only to find that the answer was as boring as the show itself.

As for the aforementioned Suicide Club, the show presents clinical depression as romantic. Let's just call it the "Sylvia Plath Complex," wherein legions of teenage girls have misguidedly romanticized this poet's suicide for decades. Worse, this show presents a 40 year old, unattractive woman's misery as the sole reason that a 27 year old, gorgeous-as-a-model man falls in love with her (it doesn't help that the real life actress is actually 50, and visibly twice her romantic costar's age). But age is not the issue, as lots of middle-aged women can be gorgeous and charismatic. The issue is that this particular woman is neither.

To the contrary, she has a pinched up, unpleasant demeanor. She is not depicted for one second doing anything generous, grateful, endearing, interesting, or realistic. Nay, she's so unrealistic as to sign a contract to ghostwrite a celebrity's book, but then stalks the celebrity demanding credit once the book becomes a bestseller (she clearly did not read her contract). She is not only delusional, but so catatonically depressed as to warrant hospitalization. Yet according to the show's narrative logic, it's her very misery that attracts the hot, model 27 year old guy.

Sorry Mr. Director and Mr. Screenwriter, but I'd always assumed only 13 year old girls thought that making displays of misery was so poetic as to attract the attention of hot guys. Frankly, I was surprised an adult male directed this. Then again, it began to make sense when I discovered he'd never done a drama series before and that, moreover, his background is in arthouse cinema. In short, the director's background is in pretentious, artsy films and now, with this, he's been given 16 hours, instead of the traditional 2 hour film time, to bore the hell out of his audience. There's a reason this show's Korean ratings dropped to a mere 2% by episode 16.

If you want a K-drama with true depth, and genuine insight on what it means to be human, try the splendid series, "My Mister."

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FINGERS TOUCHING WAS THE BEST BIT

The best chemistry generated in this entire show is in the closing credits when their hands are inching toward each other, and then each of them extends a finger to caress the other's finger ever so slightly. That was sexy and original in a playful way. We saw that in the closing credits of Episode 1. Alas, nothing else in the entire show held up to the promise of what we saw then.

It's Shin, but I don't get your question because he's the same age he is in all the episodes. He's 18 and just has his hair wet and no shirt on. He's got a towel over his shoulders, as if he just got out of the shower or something.

BTW, I noted that you used, "Minato" while some people in these comments used, "Akira." The characters on the show use his first and last name interchangeably. Yet when it comes to Shin, it's always "Shin." What's up with this?

Wait a minute, I just noticed that this is you Tim! You changed your profile avatar. I should've known it was you just based on the witty "funeral director" comment.

LOL, I am with you on the teacher and his brother having been begat by a couple of funeral director parents. I had said last week that the teacher had all the sexual allure of cold, lumpy oatmeal, but yours is better. Meanwhile, Shin is seething with sex appeal! Sure, he's the younger one, but when it comes to physical contact, Shin is the master. Indeed, so masterful that every time he touches Akira, why, he simply sets his boy's body aflutter! I mean, that bit with the sheet last week. Did you catch how he tucked his hair behind his ear and licked his lips? Let's face it, Akira was trembling for reason.

Totally agree.

Exactly. The show was wonderful, with mature characters and a great theme about 2nd chances, which was why it disappointed me all the more that, in the end, they were cowards about the kiss.

The fact that Cupcake chickened out on the kiss in the alley really disappointed me. In fact, I regard the show as having NO kiss between the couple.

You see, the kiss that Togawa planted on Nozuo during his confession does not count because it was a quick, closed mouth kiss. This show clearly did not want to show an open mouthed, slow, tender loving, male-on-male kiss.

I hear you, because I also want Shin and Akira to just hook up already. But my feeling is not boredom (because the show is highly entertaining), so much as frustration. It's frustrating to wait week after week for a mere 20 minutes of the plot to unfold

I am sure I would not feel this way if they had dropped all 12 episodes at once and we got to see the whole plot arc unfold in one sitting. If we saw it all at once, it would not feel like there were too many characters being introduced, because this is a 12 episode show of 22 minutes each, meaning it's 4 hours in total. A 4 hour show can easily contain all the characters that were introduced today.

I loved how they dropped all 15 episodes of Blueming at once, because we were able to see that plot arc unfold in one sitting in 2 hours (all 15 eps put together came to a total of 2 hours). Those eps were only 15 - 18 min each, and I would have grown sooooo frustrated with that show if I had to wait 15 weeks for episode to episode.

In short, the problem with "Minato's Laundry" is not the plot, but with the way we are being forced to see it chopped up into 12 different episodes of 22 minute each, and that we have to wait a full week to see each new episode, which ruins the plot flow for the audience. A series works much better if it gives the audience at least a 45 min episode each week. Otherwise, this is sooooo frustrating. But I would not call it boring.

I also liked that he mistook his remote control for a phone, and did not realized that his niece's drawing was on his back. But those 2 little things were the only ones that gave him a bit of quirkiness. Otherwise, he's bland. If the teacher's character in the manga is supposed to be quirky, then this actor needs to step it up to portray the character that way. But hey, it's still pretty early in the show, so maybe he'll surprise me and his character will get more interesting as the show progresses. After all, this show is 12 eps, and it's only ep 5 so far. :)

The only BL in history where continual Slip & Falls do NOT result in accidental kisses!

Oh, we all adore him, and talked a lot about him in prior episodes. Especially last week when he was so funny and rolling his eyes at Shin when Shin was pushing his way into Akira's house and offering to bath and feed Akira cuz Akira was sick, lol. It's just that so much else was going on in this episode.

But I love Asuka so much that I want to see him in his own show some day.

SCORE ON THE RIVALS: SHIN VS TEACHER

That teacher has the sex appeal of cold oatmeal. Wait, it's worse than that. This guy is oatmeal to which you've added too much water such that it's all thin and runny. What the hell was the casting director thinking when they chose him?

And then we have his rival: Shin. Who is not only beautiful, but who is also seething with sexual heat. And whose every bodily touch against Akira is so masterfully played for full sensual effect that it sets his boy aflutter.

The score between these 2 rivals? Christ, I say there isn't even a competition.

Well that was short and oh-so-hot! lol. But I still don't quite get it. Is this just a one-off short 5 minute film? Or was it made as sort of a preview of a longer show that is to come?

Either way, thank you for showing it to me.