Finally someone has the same take as mine at Mol's reaction when she found out the love is mutual between In and Wang. As much as Mol frequently said homophobic remarks, I really do not think she would have said In "disgusts" her because of his sexual orientation. She is "disgusted" because In fell in love with the son of the man with whom they loved each other, and that is what In apologised for too, not for loving a man. For being the love of both her husband and her son, the two most important persons of her life who apparently were both ready to choose him over her.
Those saying that Mol got what she wanted and things like homophobia won are missing the point and stuck on the surface. Mol did not win.
She has been living with the consciousness that her husband loved In all his life since forever and from now on this is reinforced with her son's love for the same person. She was babbling nonstop about superifical stuff like sunglasses, because that is her defense mechanism. She has been running away from the truth into ceaseless chatter. That is why she does not stop blustering in the car either, but she exactly knows that her son is still thinking about In. When she is left alone with her wine again, those two demons return to haunt her forever. She is anything but a winner.
She could wreck this relationship but only because Wang chose the person who is still afraid of following his instincts. But she still has a headstrong son who, although he promised not to leave her, is determined to follow his dreams, live a life he wants to live and proclaim his sexual orientation bravely. And that is not gonna change. Wang is not gonna live in a lie for her.
It was still open in a way. In keeps trying to cross the bridge and be true to himself even if it is an uphill…
That was not completely closed out. In told him that this 52HZ whale will always be there for him. Wang doubts In will ever be able to free himself, but as we saw him at the bridge, he keeps trying. A middle-aged man who isolated himself from his instincts for decades cannot change in a few days for good.
This show could not have possibly ended more beautifully. While I was dissapointed with In cuz he has never showed…
It was still open in a way. In keeps trying to cross the bridge and be true to himself even if it is an uphill fight and we know Wang is determined to free himself from Mol even if he does not break ties with her. They may never end up together but they both try, while Mol is forever locked in her faux life.
Wow there's a surprising amount of hate for In which sort of feels like some of you all have missed the entire…
They just wanted to see In and Wang walking hand in hand to the sunset, leaving the hissable Mol behind. But this series has always been more than that since episode 1.
Realistic and fitting ending to a fantastic series. Wang is the new generation who will finally break away from the hypocrisies of the older generation. In is a self-admitted coward who still cannot be true to himself but after their departure he may keep trying at least, as we saw him trying to cross the bridge. Wang is going to be free, In might keep trying even if he fails and Mol stays in her false fantasy world forever. The perfect representation of three different mindset in a changing world. Those who hoped for fluff will be disappointed, but this series was made for adults in the first place.
It’s partially a matter of audience. BL, at least in the West, is consumed mostly by young people and largely…
My problem is not that it is not liked by everyone. It is natural, nothing could be liked by all. Btw the comments are overwhelmingly positive here (rare thing for this site) and wherever I have come across this show being discussed in BL groups nearly everyone praises it. My problem is that for some there is no arty only artificial, and there is no highbrown or downbeat just pretentious. And most of all, when they picture their personal dislike for a certain genre/kind of entertainment as an objective failure of the show. I have seen similar under the comment section of On Cloud Nine, where people were pissed at the show being precisely what it aimed to be.
The comment of the year: "I watched the entire series on fast forward." and then " There were occasions I was confused couldn't understand what was going on." Facepalm.
Conversation piece is a very common cinematic genre. Specifically in those the heavy dialogue gets as much dramatic impact as the visual presentation. The dialogue in those is necessarily somewhat remote from reality and more cunning, downbeat or scintillating than how it would be in real life, but just because people don't talk like Joe down the pub in a drama does not make it pretentious. Directors like Robert Bresson, Eric Rohmer or Woody Allen made a life's work out of such productions. The dialogue-driven narrative is a perfectly legitimate - and as one could learn reading most of the comments, to most of us also a very effective - way of entertainment. If that is not your cup of tea, that is totally fine but making it seem like it was an objective drawback or shortcoming just because you have a personal hangup about this sort of thing is quite immature.
Also I wonder if those who say the dialogue is too much and the whole enterprise should have been cut to its half of its running time or whatever, what parts they exactly think should be binned? I am subbing this series for a foreign group, so I need to rewatch every episode several times and I could not find one instalment that would not have been on point and put there with purpose. Even the seemingly trivial interludes like Wang's all-in-noodles reveal a lot about his childhood past and the way how In understands that at once what it means to him and how Mol does not. Every little conversation whether it is about politics, honorifics, food, drink give more and more insight into these characters and elaborate who they are, who they were, what they are afraid of, what demons they fight with. All the metaphors and allusions they utter they do with purpose. They chew every word. Every sentence has hidden double meanings, repressed emotions, grudges, untold truth, and boiling passion. I cannot recall one convo that was not in a way another factor to let us know one more layer of them. Every single line glued me to the screen, but certain dramatic ones still haunt me, like In's remembrance to his childhood then college mate friendship with Siam up until the tragic revelation of their mutual feelings and its aftermath, Wang's bone-chilling story about his relationship with the bullied kid in the boarding school or Mol's nightmarish memory of the night when Siam drove away and never came back . I could not delete one sentence without doing serious harm to the cinematic narrative. There was one part - when In and Wang jumped over to the other side - when I felt Wang's inner monologues a bit over-abundant, but even those were meaningful and had a point. I have never felt a moment of idling. I cannot help but feel those saying "all talk and no action" are not interested in the main concept of how a tragic death of one person traumatized 3 lives and lead them to the path they are struggling now with guilt, unhappiness and disappointment, they just want to see In and Wang make out.
I am fully aware that the majority is not always right and sometimes on the contrary. But if an entertainment touches so deeply so many others (not just amuses), I would certainly wonder and consider whether it is me who probably has a problem, and not thinking everyone else is stupid and I am the helicopter. I hardly ever comment on MDL anymore, because I got so tired that almost every comment section here is angry, negative, nitpicking, ageist, gatekeeping and rating shows by how "healthy" and ideal the relationship it portrays in the progressive axis and not by quality. But I could not resist commenting here. This show has had such a lasting impression on me both visually and spiritually, that all I can say with due respect, if you have not experienced what I have detailed in my second paragraph, it is indeed your loss.
While I am pretty much certain that the ending leaves all 3 characters reasonably unhappy, I somehow doubt it is going to be tragic.
Simply because it would not resonate with the vibes, the general storytelling and the atmosphere of this narrative so far. That would turn the plot it into melodramatic and somewhat clichéd, and that is what this production has successfully avoided until now.
We have often compared this to a theatrical chamber piece, so I would say an Edward Albee-type or Chekhovian doom-ending is more in line and consistent with what we have seen so far.
Same. The pacing could have been much better if they worked with 12 episodes. Or, they could add flashbacks from…
For instance. Or Wang's face when he talks about his relationship with the boarding school kid. Or Mol's face when she talks about her last night with Siam before he drove to die.
She has been living with the consciousness that her husband loved In all his life since forever and from now on this is reinforced with her son's love for the same person. She was babbling nonstop about superifical stuff like sunglasses, because that is her defense mechanism. She has been running away from the truth into ceaseless chatter. That is why she does not stop blustering in the car either, but she exactly knows that her son is still thinking about In. When she is left alone with her wine again, those two demons return to haunt her forever. She is anything but a winner.
She could wreck this relationship but only because Wang chose the person who is still afraid of following his instincts. But she still has a headstrong son who, although he promised not to leave her, is determined to follow his dreams, live a life he wants to live and proclaim his sexual orientation bravely. And that is not gonna change. Wang is not gonna live in a lie for her.
My problem is that for some there is no arty only artificial, and there is no highbrown or downbeat just pretentious. And most of all, when they picture their personal dislike for a certain genre/kind of entertainment as an objective failure of the show. I have seen similar under the comment section of On Cloud Nine, where people were pissed at the show being precisely what it aimed to be.
"I watched the entire series on fast forward." and then " There were occasions I was confused couldn't understand what was going on."
Facepalm.
Also I wonder if those who say the dialogue is too much and the whole enterprise should have been cut to its half of its running time or whatever, what parts they exactly think should be binned? I am subbing this series for a foreign group, so I need to rewatch every episode several times and I could not find one instalment that would not have been on point and put there with purpose. Even the seemingly trivial interludes like Wang's all-in-noodles reveal a lot about his childhood past and the way how In understands that at once what it means to him and how Mol does not. Every little conversation whether it is about politics, honorifics, food, drink give more and more insight into these characters and elaborate who they are, who they were, what they are afraid of, what demons they fight with. All the metaphors and allusions they utter they do with purpose. They chew every word. Every sentence has hidden double meanings, repressed emotions, grudges, untold truth, and boiling passion. I cannot recall one convo that was not in a way another factor to let us know one more layer of them. Every single line glued me to the screen, but certain dramatic ones still haunt me, like In's remembrance to his childhood then college mate friendship with Siam up until the tragic revelation of their mutual feelings and its aftermath, Wang's bone-chilling story about his relationship with the bullied kid in the boarding school or Mol's nightmarish memory of the night when Siam drove away and never came back . I could not delete one sentence without doing serious harm to the cinematic narrative. There was one part - when In and Wang jumped over to the other side - when I felt Wang's inner monologues a bit over-abundant, but even those were meaningful and had a point. I have never felt a moment of idling. I cannot help but feel those saying "all talk and no action" are not interested in the main concept of how a tragic death of one person traumatized 3 lives and lead them to the path they are struggling now with guilt, unhappiness and disappointment, they just want to see In and Wang make out.
I am fully aware that the majority is not always right and sometimes on the contrary. But if an entertainment touches so deeply so many others (not just amuses), I would certainly wonder and consider whether it is me who probably has a problem, and not thinking everyone else is stupid and I am the helicopter. I hardly ever comment on MDL anymore, because I got so tired that almost every comment section here is angry, negative, nitpicking, ageist, gatekeeping and rating shows by how "healthy" and ideal the relationship it portrays in the progressive axis and not by quality. But I could not resist commenting here. This show has had such a lasting impression on me both visually and spiritually, that all I can say with due respect, if you have not experienced what I have detailed in my second paragraph, it is indeed your loss.
Simply because it would not resonate with the vibes, the general storytelling and the atmosphere of this narrative so far. That would turn the plot it into melodramatic and somewhat clichéd, and that is what this production has successfully avoided until now.
We have often compared this to a theatrical chamber piece, so I would say an Edward Albee-type or Chekhovian doom-ending is more in line and consistent with what we have seen so far.