NOT believable characters, fake drama towards the end, but still worth watching
Why? Because of the lads. Not even their acting, which is not quite nuanced, just the lads. The only reason I see to watch the series, but it is more than enough for me.* * *
IS IT THE LAW of the genre that at least one of the lads is the straightest thing until he meets “the right lad” and all of a sudden turns gay?
Yes, it is. But no matter how often I see it, it does not cease to be ABSURD. This is the same idea that some ignorant parents have when their sons say they are gay: “you just did not meet the right woman yet”.
In reality no matter how good and “right” a lad or lass is, s/he can never change the sexual attraction the lad has. It is fully hardwired in the brain by puberty as the latest threshold, so you can never discover attraction towards a different gender than what you were attracted to initially at any later point. It is medically impossible.
The only believable scenario for all of those countless BL series with this nonsense is that every person within every BL pair has always felt the same sex attractions set since puberty — be it gay or bi — but the difference could be whether he was embracing it or trying to be in denial.
But whatever comes later can never be a surprise in the lads’ ages those series explore. The stories are not about 14 years old, except for maybe Love Sick (2014; 2gether is the same story but from a competing film studio) or Cause You Are My Boy (2018) with some characters.
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SOAP opera drag, but historic
This series, the first season of it, is the progenitor of the whole Thai BL series industry.The series has maybe the worst first episode of any series I have ever seen. It should be studied in film classes. But if you can survive to the episode’s end, it becomes quite good later.
The popular dubious tropes are already there, including lads discovering their gayness years too late, one of them repeatedly claims he is not gay except for the other lad, sponge baths, a bad girlfriend to hate, and the necessity to get money for a school club, which has latter appeared in Why R U? and My School President, among others.
But this series still had a good number females in it and hetero pairs, some are realistically messy, which was the first and the last time, apparently. The story was a bit more mature and physiological than platonic GMMTV series.
The series also has an equality advocacy, which is not a thing in the BL genre after that, though it is also because Thailand was pretty good about this and has become even better since.
And it was “toxic” because the main pair was dating lasses when they have first engaged. Besides the ridiculous premise, how love happens, not just fun, is shown accurately in the first season.
EDIT: some spoilers added in the first commentary to this review.
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This review may contain spoilers
MAJOR issues, though not horrible
1. Yes, do not kiss gay haters or anyone else without consent. If in the series the main lad does not apologise to the other one for this, then the series does not reach a good lesson as it confirms the myth that gays will take advantage of you.2. The show js saying that the bullies are like this not because they are bad people (which they are because no circumstances force you to be a bad person towards innocent people), but because they were raped by paedo gays.
3. The show is saying that a person has become gay himself after being raped in his childhood, which is another unscientific myth.
4. The raped lad has only ever shown interest in women, but all of sudden is converted to become at least a bi in college. This is also an absurd unscientific nonsense because people can only understand that they are bi or gay no later than puberty, not even remotely in college. Besides, this is the same myth some straight people tell to gays: that they simply did not yet find that special hot female that would make them straight.
5. The raped characters seems to only have two modes of operation: angry and soon to be angry. Not sure why lots of fans have shipped this pair and even got bitter when the main lad’s actor Mew has announced his real life partner.
6. Why did Tharn hide the issue with his ex and has event went to severely meet him? Why the police was not involved? Why is not criminal not in a life long imprisonment for his many severe crimes? This writing is really silly, the whole drama at the end is STUPID.
7. Basically,the main characters are not good people. Lhong is the cutest visually, though is the most evil. Techno and Tar’s brother are maybe the only two good characters.
8. Lots of characters are recast versus the previous series, Love By Chance. Some of their stories were changed.
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The main cast are all VILLAINS except one
Not going into spoilers, but yes, just one character from the main cast is actually a good person: Sun.I like that this is realistic, even though unintentionally, as the authors, of course, suggest viewers rooting for the characters.
Actors have played well. The main lad was playing a mentally challenged person well, with specific quirks that are accurate.
The issue came when he got a makeover, after which he had lost the quirks that can not be really lost by actual people like that.
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Not believable in a key aspect, but CUTE
There are parts of the story that are way more realistic in this series than most other BL.However, in one crucial aspect the series destroy its credibility and pulls you out of the submerging into the world the authors are building.
Namely, the lads’ celibacy, which so radically laughable that I was literally LOLing when the show has presented this point.
If you know how males work even the tiniest bit, then you understand that they think of engaging with any and all attractive potential partners nearly 24/7. This is just a hormonal thing, and it is even stronger for teens.
It would have been actually way more painful for the lads to be in the proximity of each other and not do anything than being apart.
The drive to engage is so strong that it makes the brain to flare up with desire and to stop most other thoughts or activities. Especually if the pair is a couple.
Absolutrly impossible to imagine the lads all of a sudden being abstinent. This whole plot line looks as if it came from censorship pressure.
Additionally, as basically everyone has mentioned, the script and direction often feel disjointed, and the sound quality is horrible too often.
Most actors did quite well, though some youth feels like not have a range as actors. Not the main couple, though. The thick eyebrows lad looks very interesting: as if he came from Dargon Ball manga.
Overall, the show offers so much cuteness that it is worthy to watch and rewatch.
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A dragged out student project
This is a middle-tier performer among series, I gave it 4/10.The story is only for an hour, but it lasts four hours. So unless you specifically like the main couple regardless of what is happening, there is nothing much to watch.
The project is filmed with phones and blue LED studio light that make the picture look really bad.
The show was made for $1000 in total or something, but the scenario weakness is inexcusable. Even film academy students do better, the professors would just not accept the scenario like this.
The actors in the project actually did a passable job, even though they did not have much to do. I only gave them a middle grade because of the film itself, not because of their abilities.
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LOTS of nonsense, but the actors are cute
SOME people say the series has turned to worse since the identity of “Enchante” was revealed, but it was not great to begin with. except for actors.* * *
THERE are dozens of series that depict “brothers” while casting actors that are not even remotely similar to each other, which is pretty annoying.
But here we have a few actors who could be bothers, but they are not in the scenario.
WHAT? Book’s character is written as a lass, so he is not interested in intimate fun? As almost always in BL series. Not believable at all. Also, the idea that they first become boyfriends and only then way later start to become intimate is completely backwards to how things happen in real life.
This tampers with the submerging into the story when you have to suspend disbelief in very basic truths of human life and relationships.
Other issues are covered in a spoilers tagged comment below.
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CUTE and worth watching but silly
The silly part is not just about the whole “curse” thing.1. Accidents with buses are decided by the road police, not by teachers.
2. Schools like this have entrance check points, so pupils can not enter if they are not in the uniform.
3. School pupil patrol does not have the right to violence, this would be a violation of the code.
4. Flower pots are never put in places where they can be dropped onto the heads of pupils.
5. Phones are said to be banned in the school, and yet they are shown openly used right in classes later.
6. The current level of social media development would not have allowed any events in the school to be hidden from the sponsors the management cares about.
7. the way how face damage from fights is shown in the series is the funniest ever because they use like one smallest bandage piece per a face for this, which is nothing like what actually happens.
A POSITIVE shocker: the lads are not written to be hardcore straights who are shocked to find out that they have all of a sudden become gay. And even when they are not friendly to each other in the beginning, they still throw assessing gazes, which is incomparably more realistic compared to lots of other series where the encounter is simply hostile because neither of the lads are written as bi/gay.
The Hollywood-style over dramatic music is a bit distracting.
A PSA: never accept friendship requests from unknown accounts as this series shows. Those are most certainly neural networks-enabled bots to spread spam or malware to rob you.
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FLAWED in the basis, but still strong in some important aspects
The music, the cast choice and the performances are superb, top notch. The main lad is a hundred peecent believable, and the villains did a perfect job.Even the stupidest and most unlikeable “good” character, the named brother of the main lad, was played perfectly.
As per the mainland Chinese tradition, nearly all of the cast was dubbed. Only the actor for Nie Huai Sang character has his own voice. Knowing how some of the actors actually sound, I do not mind the dubbing as the voice actors chosen have smooth, rich timbres. But the main actor could have totally voice his role himself.
Among important themes, the series shows massacres quite well. Things like this or worse have been happening in reality.
The show has managed to keep some secrets, making viewers guessing, to its very end, which is great.
Of course, the series’ scenario was censored to remove the BL content, but it still works because just normal strong friendship explains most of what is happening. Besides, the series has lots of cute lads and even a very beautiful lady. Actor Song Ji Yang wins the most beautiful mouth of all time category.
The series is a bit too dragged sometimes, so the optimal number of episodes should be maybe 40, not 50.
The directorial narrative is, at times, confusing.
I see no purpose of putting the first few episodes from the current time upfront only to go back to a giant flashback that makes you forget what was happening. The series would have been even better with a more straightforward narrative.
Sometimes you have to guess what is happening: whether it is a flashback within a flashback or it is something going on concurrently.
And even the timeline announcements make no sense. For example, the giant flashback story is actually starts 32 years ago before the current events, not 16 years ago as the show is titling it. But the series stack the timeline shift so much that you can get it wrong.
The last few episodes are too explanatory, which cheapens the narrative.
Some other drawbacks, among the extensive list of notes to took while watching the series, are below with a spoiler tag:
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THE SILLIEST script maybe, but the actors make it worth it
AN INCREDIBLY stupid script in nearly every of its plot moves.But the actors save it, as well as overall production values besides the scriptwriting. Also, it is not boring, which is a major plus. it is much better to have silly stuff happening than nothing happening at all as in many other series.
So all in all it is worth to watch because the BL genre is not about scripts that make sense, it is about the lads, and those are great here. And Pond has played well after being wooden in his first due with Phu (Fish Upon The Sky, 2021).
But I do wish the series would not contain any tragic events at all. Because it all is so silly that the series would look much better as a self aware farce.
Lots of details are covered in a comment with spoilers tags below.
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