Skibelo

I like your reviews but I find all this talk of "red flags" to be an irrelevant imposition of fashionable Western ideology on a foreign culture with different values. It's also inconsistent: people who fuss over sexual peccadillos they disapprove of calmly watch murder, torture and violence in a series like KinnPorsche without a murmur.

Insufferably slow and pointless.

Written and acted by juveniles for juveniles. Nothing here for grown-ups.

You can watch this (as well as the prequel) on Youtube on the channel https://www.youtube.com/@kaiblxhhofficial in the form of four videos each containing 10 eps. The English subtitles are amateurish but fairly complete.

This is translated in the version at https://youtu.be/a22U5lZoIOA – so maybe it would be an idea to watch that version instead or as well.

Also here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a22U5lZoIOA

S2 is called "Happy" here in MDL. There is a link to it above. I watched it on Youtube.

Have a look at https://youtu.be/9Of2lGTZsbg
I think it's the same thing, although it's twice as long as the 48 minutes you'd expect from the information here on MDL.

I watched first 10 episodes on Youtube and found it very unsatisfying, not because of the credits and end titles every two minutes but because no scene or song ever lasts longer than two minutes (actually, somewhat less). That's a huge limitation for a work lasting 80 minutes, and for me a fatal one. I also don't really want to watch a 80-minute drama with only two characters, however cute one of them may be.

Puerile drivel. Skip this and look for something for grown-ups.

Mahasamut is cute. Tongrak is a silly queen. The story is puerile nonsense, with sound effects.

You're not paying attention. He didn't call the comment ridiculous. He called its author ridiculous, which is patently true.

And so it should.

I just watched it on Viki.

If you search MDL for "Happy Ending" you'll find six dramas with that title. So clearly most people don't think of the slang meaning. When someone mentions "Gone with the Wind" do you immediately think of flatulence?
The subtitles should not just have been better timed. They should have been better written. The translator wrecks tender and serious moments by throwing in vulgar slang. Has no idea about English speech registers. This drama deserved better.

Thanks for the historical background – that was really very helpful to me. Your notes on "phô" also provide really useful historical and cultural background: now I understand Yai's attraction to Jom much better. What you wrote on the cinematography also helped me understand what I had been experiencing without realising it.

In the English subtitles on Gaga it was obvious that reflection and shadow are the same word in Thai, and the hapless translator (unbelievably) picked the wrong English synonym every time. But Gaga's translations are always bad and can be depended on to mangle the finer points of any screenplay. I thought it was brave of the production team to have English dialogue – just a pity that it always sounded to cringy. Could they really not have found a coach for the actor playing Robert – or do you think he was meant to sound like a Frenchman struggling with English? Whatever the intent, it was a small disaster.

I agree with everything you say about the ending. But time travel stories are always wildly illogical, and bound to frustrate anyone with functioning brain. I hope they won't attempt a second season, because it would really have nowhere to go.

If you're asking about The On1y One, I can only say it's extremely well acted, cleverly written, and directed by a genius. It tells its story in a very subtle manner, by which I mean you need to pay close attention to nuances of the main characters' words and behaviour to work out what's going on with them. In fact, I would say you need to watch it twice to fully understand every detail. But it's well worth it. Because the script has a lot of depth it's important to watch a version with good subtitles (if you don't understand Mandarin, that is). Viki's subtitles are much better than GagaOoolala's, as always – but even then, the Viki translators are out of their depth in quite a few places.
You don't need to worry about "nc" scenes and other ideological sins because it's the story of two boys in their late teens slowly waking up to new and confusing feelings. The first series ends when they haven't got very far, though there are a couple of really tender moments. Everyone is on the edge of their seat waiting for S2.

It seemed to me that the kiss at the end happened after Tokl had graduated (he had some kind of scroll-thing in his hand to symbolise this). The point being that they waited until he wasn't in high school any more.

I completely agree with you about the cliché of a character being about to say something but interrupted by a mobile phone. I curse the invention of the mobile phone. There's scarcely a BL to be found that doesn't use it half a dozen times as a cheap way of creating plot tension. It seems never to occur to anyone in a BL that answering a phone is optional. Actually, worse than the cliché interruption is just how rude young BL characters are when their phone rings. They'll interrupt anyone at any time to answer the stupid thing. [End of rant.]
I agree with all your other points too. Especially regarding the wonderful Haruna, and cute little Ryota doing just a bit too much silent wide-eyed gaping.

I watched it on Daily Motion, also free but with ads.