Maggi64

May I say about Bu Xia, that I haven't seen such a cute tongue waggle since Shao Yi Liang's tongue waggle in Precise Shot.

Bingo. I had begun to lose faith in Taiwan's BL industry until this showed up. Taiwan started off with so many terrific ones (eg, "We Best Love" and a couple of great HIStory seasons), and then began to reflect Thailand's factory assembly-line brand of BL's. You know, where they're effortlessly cashing in on the BL fad with shows stuffed with SACs, bad acting and boring plots.

I see stepbrothers in so many BLs that I now consider it a common BL trope. I saw it in all the following:

"Addicted"
"Love By Chance" (Tum & Tar)
"HIStory: 1 Stay Away From Me"
"HIStory 2: Crossing the Line" (the side couple)
"HIStory 4: Close to You,"
"The Promise" (a V-BL).

I assume the BL authors keep using the stepbrother trope because they think viewers/readers like it. But I can't figure out what's so appealing about this. I have watched some GL's and they never use a stepsisters-in-love trope. It only appears in BL's for some reason.

Yes, I must concede that it was only partially a SAC. I mean, the whole chips thing was so original and funny, and something we've NEVER seen in the standard, cliched SACs. It's why I like this show so much. The quirky things that Bu Xia does unfold in such a natural, non contrived manner.

And about that book on the lap.....lol. Jiang Chi did look as if he'd been experiencing a spontaneous physical reaction other than that shocked look on his face!

Yep. I think that Su Yu knows Wu Bi is a rich kid from that watch, and had meant that comment literally on the 1st day of school. However, Wu Bi interpreted it as sarcasm, just as you'd said before and, hence, still does not know he'd been discovered. So on this point I yield to you, lol.

Yep. It took up so much screen time that I had to remind myself that this is a 24 episode show and can afford such filler scenes. But since the eps are only 30 min -- instead of 45-60 min like those Thai BL's that are packed with filler scenes -- I hope they don't have too many more of such filler scenes.

Thank you. Because I interpreted it as a literal comment based on the fact that Wu Bi was wearing nice clothes and a nice watch on his 1st day of school.

But I may have over analyzed this because I saw Addicted and, thus, knew that Bai Luo Yin later tells Gu Ha that he'd known he was a rich kid from Day One because Gu Ha was wearing an expensive watch on the 1st day of school. This is why I noticed Wu Bi's watch right away in that scene.

Spot on. As you know from our interactions on this site, I am also not a great fan of "fluff." But there are exceptions, such as "Our Dating App" which I enjoyed. I have a feeling I'm going to enjoy this one even more.

Bu Xia is freaking adorable! As you said, his goofiness is played with an endearing naturalness, such that he's entirely unaware of what a turn on it might be! He's also not playing his role with that over-the-top goofiness we often see in J-BLs (eg, the writer Tsuge in "Cherry Magic" and the kid in "Mr. Unlikely Has No Choice But to Kiss"). Those characters were so over-the-top as to be utterly unrealistic. Bu Xia, however, behaves in an offbeat manner that we've seen in real life. I've actually known lovable weirdos like him in my life.

And yes, Jiang Chi is disarmed by that quirkiness. He responds to Bu Xia's surprising acts -- such as kissing him during the arm wrestling, eating chips off his chest, and grabbing his leg for dear life (while hearing the ghost voices) -- with such a funny, surprised expression. You can see that every time Bu Xia surprises him with such an act, the crack in his armor gets bigger and bigger.

I don't usually like supernatural plots, but since this show is not taking itself seriously, and clearly designed to be received tongue-in-cheek, it works. For instance, I laughed when Bu Xia's sister flicked her finger on his photo and he simultaneously got hit in the head by a chestnut -- as if the photo were a voodoo doll!

It seems like we're going to get something similar to "Mr. Unlike Has No Choice But to Kiss" wherein one lead has relief from some annoyance (bad luck in "Mr. Unlucky," and no ghost voices in "Stay By My Side"), whenever they are in the presence of their beloved. But this is doing a much better job of it because Bu Xia is playing the supernatural in a quirky manner, rather than with hysterical zaniness as in "Mr. Unlucky." And there's a big difference between quirkiness and zaniness. One's endearing while the other is simply annoying.

Each lead is putting in a performance that perfectly matches the dictates of his designed character. I checked their MDL bios and, surprisingly, the guy playing Bu Xia (who's 23) has only been in one drama before this. The one playing Jiang Chi (who's 29) has been in 2 other dramas and 2 other movies, so he's a bit more experienced.

At any rate, they're both terrific and so is this show.

How come nobody's talking about that little kid screaming and crying All Day Long in front of Su Yu's house? Or am just a bitch because he annoyed the hell out of me? lol.

I know what you mean about the SA in Addicted, but not the incest. After all, they did not grow up together as siblings. They were two kids about 18 who just met each other, the same as any other strangers would just meet at that age and become a couple.

The BL that struck me as incest was HIStory4 "Close to You," where the 2 guys had been in the same family for over a decade, and both called the same set of parents "mom and dad." Most stepkids only call their biological parents "mom and dad" and the stepparents by their first names. But the guys in HIStory4 were clearly in one family unit, with no living stepparents, and just one cohesive set of parents whom they shared. That meant they were FAMILY, making that relationship more like incest to me.

Exactly, it's only in Chinese dramas! BTW, what country are you from? I am American.

I must agree that most BL's fall into the macho seme versus feminine uke stereotype. Then there are the rare exceptions that you cited. There's also Addicted, where both Gu Ha and Bai Luo Yin were macho. In fact, there was that terrific scene of them about to have sex the first time where Bai Luo Yin says, "Why don't you let me top you?" and Gu Ha says, "Sure, I don't care." I loved how he was happy to go either way. lol.

As for Tokyo in April, yes, I suppose Kazuma is more buff. And there was the scene of him taking off his shirt the first time when Ren even commented on his physique and Kazuma replied that he played American football. Now nothing can be more macho than American football! LOL. I know Asians play a lot of basketball like Americans do, but I have never seen an Asian movie/show where they play American football. Do you think the average Asian viewer knows how macho this sport is?

As for my comments on class disparity, I think this show handled it better than "Addicted." In that show, Gu Ha followed Bae Luo Yin home, and took it as an opportunity to tease him by buying him a new pair of underwear. In this show, Wu Bi had a whole convo with Su Yu's dad that made him realize how tough it is to be poor before even knowing about Su Yu. So when he followed Su Yu home and noticed he was poor, he reflected on it, and subsequently felt compassion. As a result, he bought Su Yu a new school uniform. He even did it in a way to spare Su Yu's pride by spilling sauce on Su Yu so he could pretend the new uniform was to make up for that. The whole thing was handled very well.



QUESTION: why did Wu Bi tell Su Yu's dad not to reveal his situation as if he thought Su Yu did not already know he was rich? I mean, Su Yu already called him a "rich kid" in Ep 1 when they first met and Wu Bi wasn't wearing a uniform but, instead, nice clothes and a pricey watch. Maybe I misread this. If so, can someone explain it to me???

I've only seen up to Ep 3 so far, so I'm not sure whom you mean by "the girl." Do you mean the pigtail girl or the daughter of the woman whom Su Yu's dad likes? Because the opening credits show that little girl in a lot of forthcoming scenes. I have the feeling she'll be in the show a lot more than the son of the woman Bae Luo Yi's dad liked in "Addicted." They've made a number of changes, and I'm glad. Because who wants to just see the same thing all over again?

The strange thing is that I've never seen this depicted in a movie/show from any other country except China. I wonder if it's something about the culture of Communism and the teachers' low pay resulting in them in just not caring if kids sleep in class?

At any rate, glad to hear you have a respectful attitude in school!

I'd love to see them in a BL too, but I suspect they wouldn't even dare do one abroad after all the hell China's govt put them through after "Addicted." But even if it's not a BL, at least both their careers flourished after "Addicted." I checked their MDL bios after this convo about their ages and noticed that they've both gotten lots of work since then. However, Johnny Huang has gotten twice as much as Timmy Xu for some reason.

I just watched Ep 3 and thought the opening scene of Su Yu's dad talking to Wu Bi was very well written. It revealed a lot about both characters via action and dialogue, as a good scene should do. I won't give spoiler specifics, but I'll say that in general, it involved class disparity in ways that made a rich person recognize how poor people live, and in ways that I found very touching. In short, the writers are doing an excellent job depicting the theme of class disparity.

As usual, we agree. I was not that into Ep 1, but I now realize that this was because they were laying the groundwork in that ep, and since these darn eps are only 20 min long, we got little forward movement at that point. But as the show continued it's developed both character and plot in ways that have me truly invested.

I know! I've seen this in a number of Chinese shows and movies about high schoolers, so it must be permissible there. I teach college kids and would throw them out of class if I ever caught them napping. Heck, I throw kids out of class just for checking cell phones. It's so disrespectful. But napping with your head flat on the desk? I don't know what's up with Chinese instructors allowing this.

That's interesting. Because I was wondering why a Chinese production company would even bother remaking a show based on such an overtly gay novel. But now that I know it was a non Chinese production company, it makes sense. So thanks for the info.