ShanTeaTime

Engrave Your Way Into My Heart

I had to watch this film. I just had to, even though I knew it would break my heart watching it. Which I was correct, but it's still worth watching!

So the film takes place once martial law has officially ended in Taiwan. However, that doesn't mean that there weren't lasting impacts from the martial law. As well as some people wanting to maintain that way of living. That was interesting to see. We get our main character Jia-Han and Birdy, whom are both equally enjoyable to watch. Those characters are really well represented in their youth and I gotta give props to the actors!

We get to see an lgbtq persons first sexual experiences and first time falling in love. There's a scene early on where Jia-Han mentions when him and Birdy are cracking food that it sounds like heartbeats. Right there I was like, oh boy he got it BAD! The chemistry between these two actors was so freaking solid. They made me laugh and smile seeing their interactions. Theres a scene in the film where they go in a screening room and that whole interaction was so wholesome and lovely. Perfectly shows youth and wanting to just maintain innocence in such a rough time.

There's a brief showing of a man advocating for equal rights and gay marriage. Stating "homosexuality is not a sickness" that broke my heart. He gets taken away and Birdy actually tries sticking up for him, which isn't the first time he's seen standing up for an lgbtq person. That didn't necessarily mean he was gay himself, however those moments had me start to think he was. Birdy says "fools rush in where angels fear to tread" clearly referencing himself and Jia-Han.

So where this film shines the most is actually in the scenes between Jia-Han and the father. Those scenes had me tearing up all throughout. Jia-Han is trying so desperately to explain that he has love in his heart for Birdy, not just lust. Asing "is your love bigger than the one I give?" and what the difference is. Even saying maybe he'll be more understood in hell. Those are where the film feels the realest in a sense. Once him and Birdy do end up having some type of physical intimacy, its done so in a way of validation. Jia-Han wasn't forcing his affections onto Birdy, they were already there as shown when Birdy kisses him and then cries. Love is shown in many ways, not just the physical. Even when Jia-Han tries to take the blame for Birdy's "love affair" on campus. That's love. Or admits in front of his parents that he's gay and "what's wrong with being queer?" Powerful stuff dude.

Random side note. I saw Chris Wu in this for literally a second and KNEW it was him lol. I would know the side of his face anywhere!!! Moving on, let's get into the non-plot stuff. The use of red and green in this film was really nice, very striking in some scenes. The scene with the openly gay student talking to Jia-Han was really well shot, especially with the stained glass dove mural behind them. Dove's are used quite a bit in this film, probably as both a symbolic symbol but also for peace. It also just so happens that Birdy jumps from the balcony right after that scene. Like a dove. There's great use of rack focus in many scenes that I loved. The orchestral music with the brass instruments pulls at the heartstrings. Also later on when Jia-Han runs away to the beach, he screams into the void and then ends up swimming naked in the ocean with Birdy. This was great because it doesn't end up in anything sexual. It's just pure and free, they kiss and that's it. Still maintaining the theme of love and lust are seperate, and sometimes go hand-in-hand.

So...the ending. I'm conflicted. The scene with Jia-Han and Birdy on the phone was fantastic. Really well done. However, any scene with the older actors got iffy for me. The acting wasn't as good overall at the end. It felt too displaced from the rest of the film. I appreciate having it show how far the world has come in current day, but it didn't need to be that long. Jia-Han and Birdy are kinda implied to be given a second chance, which is nice but its up to interpretation. I'd like to think they remain friends, because the romance has died off. Also having the father ending up being gay himself felt kinda stretching it. It was the whole cliche of "not wanting the same for another person what he went through" thought process. I believe this movie is the directors real life story, so I can't really say it was unbelievable if that's the case. However, film-wise it would've been better to just have him become accepting overall towards Jia-Han. Because all he really needed was acceptance.

Overall, such an important movie. It's the first lgbtq film to be screened in Taiwanese theatres. Gained so much money and acclaim. Things keep changing for the better and I as a queer person always appreciate and feel strongly about films released like this. They hit me deeply and I will always support them. Watch this film and spread the word! Love isn't just one type of way

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Reality Competition TV Without The Excruciating Audition Process

Really solid reality competition show. Compared to one like ILAND which had many flaws, this was entertaining as hell. I'd never watched Queendom before this, so didn't really know how the competition worked beforehand. I do know that eliminations weren't really a thing in Queendom so that's interesting.

I think the eliminations in this made the competition more gripping. Even though I know learning more from the experience would've probably been nice to those groups who had to leave. Since yes they are established, but not as much as they could be. Like I went in knowing Pentagon the most and came out being OBSESSED with The Boyz. Whom did an incredible job every. single. round dude. Their choreo is some of the best I've ever seen in kpop!

All the groups had strengths though of course. So its fun to watch all of them even if you aren't necessarily attached to any of them. I also heavily enjoyed seeing behind the scenes stuff with producing the remixes of songs and rehearsal. I wish there could've been more time to interview some of the contestants from each group, but there's only so much time! Can't wait for "Kingdom" because that's when the big players come out and match up!

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Birth Of One Of My Favorite TV Characters, But Confused Face O_O

Okay so "Tale of the Nine-Tailed" was actually a really fun show to watch with others. My dad really got into it and I enjoyed watching it with him over quarantine. I think the series came out at the perfect time because more people streamed it due to being home. However, that also means that more people were invested and therefore pissed at the ending choices like I was. I'll dive into those at the end.

The actors all did a really good job. Each character was distinct, likeable in their own ways (even the Imugi) and layered af. I liked all of the characters, however I had my favorites. Lee Tae Ri as the Imugi was really good, super solid villain and even though he was hella evil I was kinda sad to see him be defeated. Hwang Hee as Shin Joo (Yeon's bff) was so wholesome and hilarious. I'm not gonna lie, I shipped him and Yeon a lot more than Yeon and Ji Ah half the time lol. Their relationship was so sweet! Yeon I actually liked better at the beginning of the series when there was an air of mystery to him. He became too good by the end because of "love" and whatever. So he went down on my list, but still very good character portrayal. But...now we get to THE BEST CHARACTER!!! Lee Rang played by the beautiful Kim Bum. My god this man was perfection. I love these types of characters. Sarcastic, whitty, gorgeous and edgy. I also love the brother arch in series, so seeing him and Yeon interact were honestly the best scenes. Both in acting and story telling. I want an entire series just about Rang because he deserves it! He became one of my favorite characters of television officially.

So the entire plot of TOTNT is wayyyy too convoluted for me to go over. It's got to many twists and turns that honestly it gets confusing sometimes to keep up. Especially once Ji Ah's parents are safe and the Imugi becomes a human form. It's a show you can't multi task during or you'll get lost. I enjoyed the effects in it and the filming quality. But that's Seoul for you, its a beautiful place. There's not much I can say about each plot point because again there are SO MANY, but I would say the whole reincarnation aspect didn't make much sense. It felt just random, like some people come back as exactly the same and others children again? (cough cough the Rang BS at the end). There should've been more variation I think. Also I didn't care as much about finding Ji Ah's parents, so once that ended I was way more invested because we had a solid villain to work off of. However, now we get into the ending. Ooh boy...

That ending was trash, I think we can all agree on that. I saw the twitter discussions and people were pretty unhappy as was I. One of the things I said to my dad while watching was "if they kill off Rang I stop watching" and I meant it. They set him up to be the best character, with the best storyline and a redemption arch. Which was all great, until the did the ever so stereotypical thing of "self-sacrificing himself" for his brother. NO, absolutely not! Listen I get the character loves Yeon more than anything but honestly 100% I would've rather Yeon stayed dead. Have him be the hero like they were setting him up to be anyway. That entire Ji Ah writing out Yeons story and Rang finally having a family was pretty good! I didn't hate it, so why kill off my favorite characters and many others favorite with zero need for it?! I hate the whole "self-sacrificial" storyline placed onto characters who have a redemption arch. It makes the point of all that character development useless. So when that happened I literally stopped watching and just read what happens after that because I didn't care I was so pissed. Then there's of course a wedding (big shock) between Yeon and Ji Ah, little baby boy Blacky is sad because his adopted dad died (f*** you show) and Yeon may still be a fox (HUH?). It was just poorly done and a sad attempt for the ending of a show that was trying to be different. But then they ended it with a predictable trash ending. I would say watch the show until Imugi and Yeon go down, then turn it off and pretend their aren't episodes left.

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Production Value On Point As Well As Everything Else

I don't want to go too much into this series, because honestly knowing as little as possible is the optimal way to watch it. Just go in expecting some fantastic cinematography and set designing, that clearly had some production budget to back it up even if the show only really shows few filming locations. As well as really well done musical score, thought provoking dialogue and scenes acted out by stellar actors in the series (our main 2, so freaking good). The series felt like a more indie-ish project done by an up and coming talented artsy film student, it's probably not the case but that's the vibes it gave me which I love. Like I could see "The Novelist" getting awards in festivals if people actually took the time to sit down and watch it for what it is. Which is basically a layered character study. Rather than classify it as "BL" which it definitely isn't ya'll, trust me. Just because a series has a "gay couple/romance arch" in it doesn't mean it's immediately "BL" material (like for example, "Call Me By Your Name" is not a BL film). That's more its own genre (which is totally valid in its own right of course) and that's why I would just say LGBTQ related content instead for this.

It's funny because as much as I really really enjoyed this series, I don't think I'll be watching it again any time soon (though I have seen it twice already haha). Strictly because it is so emotionally draining (even if the ending is emotionally fulfilling) in some ways because of Kijima's character and how he functions, as well as having to follow around and see how badly Kuzumi has it for him. Let's just say its highly ironic how the two's relationship could very well be something written about in one of Kijima's novels to an extent. However, it's not lighthearted, it's actually quite sad all the way around. Yet also very erotic. There's a lot of very graphic sexual wordplay discussed within this (obviously since Kijima writes pornographic novels) and pretty graphic scenes as well. Nothing too crazy, but done in ways where it can be alarming so I need to prepare myself for them lol. I do really suggest watching this series though, at least once since it is incredibly well done! Though watching it for a second time, you will see some clever hints and clues to the plot and characters that you wouldn't see the first time around.

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SOTUS S Is Superior Fight Me

Yep as predicted, I liked this season much more than the first! First off, our main actors look a lot better in this season. I don't know if it was the hairstyling and makeup done in the first season, but this one was vastly better especially for Arthit. They looked great! Anyways, right off the bat Kongpob and Arthit are way more coupley than the first season ever showed. Which says a lot because there still isn't a whole lot of that until the latter half of the show.

It's 3 years in and Arthit is still struggling with affection. I understand that PDA can be difficult though, so both sides are valid. Kongpob does have the patience of a saint though I swear, he is best boy and I love him so much. He's also a much better orientation leader than Arthit ever was, a lot kinder in nature. We see a lot of that world again, but unlike the first season this goes back and forth between hazing and Art's new job. So it's A LOT more balanced and interesting to watch! Amongst that we get Arthit missing college while getting into the workforce, which is very relatable. That was a nice touch.

Random question. Was Off in the first season of SOTUS? Lol because I cannot remember him being in that season for the life of me. I know my mans Green (Gun) wasn't as Cherry, whom btw was my favorite character besides Kongpob and I'm totally not biased. He was so funny and I wanted more and more of him! Now amongst the cute scenes we get (like the beach kiss, skipping studying to "chill" in rooms, etc) I got kind of frustrated with Arthit. It felt very blamey to me how he treated Kongpob throughout the show by getting mad even though most of the time it wasn't his fault at all what was going on. I personally would put up with none of that nonsense, but he does have massive change at the end with his big confession scene so I give it a pass. Also his mannerisms throughout the show were hella cute, so I couldn't stay mad at him for too long.

Final thoughts include, poor Bonus needed a better life man than that tiny freaking tank he was stuck in. Also I saw a comment somewhere saying that Singto and Krist are the "forefathers of BL" and this made me bust a lung. The end.

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Should've Been Called Bronze Blood

So with this series, at first it felt like there was no wasted time which I liked! When you have an 8 episode series, you kind of have to rush things a little bit. We had moments at the beginning that really felt like they would pay off. But alas, they really didn't. This series became very stale very fast, and without our side couple Pitch & Bank I would've probably stopped watching.

Positives first. Gun is wayyyy better in this than in LBC. This character suits him (for the most part)! The chemistry is sweet and some the moments are well done . Mostly between Pitch and Bank though. Which I was not expecting at all! They felt so out of nowhere but then I ended up really liking them. They stole the show basically! Both girls in this irritated me, but they really weren't given much to work with to be likable. The storyline with the dad I could care less about. The Reveal about the gold blood was kind of cool, I didn't know that that existed. But it is very rare!I liked that Sky is taking an actual initiative now because he doesn't want Sun getting continuously hurt. That's some character growth! I also really liked Boat's song in this. He has such a nice voice! Gun's was good too, but I kinda wish they hadn't overplayed the crap out of both of them.

Now onto the negatives. Again, our main couple fell flat by the end. Especially when we find out that the dad doesn't approve. And then they have to wait six years to be together basically. Wtf even was that!? I hate that in storylines, ain't nobody got time to wait around like that! Like c'mon dude lets be at least a little realistic. The chemistry between Sky and Sun dwindled out to basically nothing by the end. Which is a shame, especially since none of their "cute moments" felt cute lol. Like the kissing was so bad! Again Pitch and Bank were superior in every regard. I'm sure most will forget about this series in about a month, probably less. Watch for the Pitch Bank stuff if anything, but its not a lot lol.

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For A Series Called "Oxygen" It Didn't Take Away My Breath Once

Don't get me wrong this is a cute series starting off, but even right of the bat it's kind of slow. Then it got even slower and holy crap it was dragginggggg at parts. It put me in this dream-like state whenever I watched it, which sometimes was nice because it's a pretty chill show but other times I almost fell asleep. Solo and Gui were really all I cared about in this, their relationship and their storylines respectively. The actors didn't give me many major chemistry vibes, but they were okay. Solo (played by Nut) was actually the most interesting character throughout. If he wasn't in this I would've dropped the series pretty quickly, he also was the best actor when it came to emotional scenes. Though he was stiff during most of the rest. Kao and Phu were...huh? I honestly don't understand what the point was with them. Just to fill up space I guess? But literally nothing ever happens and it was super cringe. I'm sure some fans will love the cutesy (kinda aegyo) stuff for them, but it's not my style. I need more than fluff to like characters and couples.

Khim and the doctor I absolutely hated. That storyline was so stupid with her kinda trying to force a sexuality on him and then him falling for her? Wtf was that about? Then everyone was falling for him and he kept lying to get her. Dumb, really dumb. I literally ended up skipping all of their scenes I couldn't stand it. So like I said before, it didn't feel like much was ever happening in the show so I didn't understand it. Then all of a sudden why is Solo's dad literally the godfather? What the hell is going on with locking your child away with no food. Literally go to jail. By the end the dad didn't even get in trouble for doing any of that. He literally was gifted a new adopted child? Who the hell would give this man another kid to terrorize and psychologically damage!? What even did this show want to be?

So basically for me the only saving graces of this show were; Solo's storyline, a few scenes between him and Gui that were cute, the big Mama stuff was pretty interesting with the kids and the theme song of the show. That's about it. I would skip this one, or skip around it HEAVILY to certain scenes worth watching.

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Could Barely Get Through This One

Holy crap this series was slowwww and its only 4 episodes which is really bad. First of all the 2 main actors I didn't buy at all. There was zero chemistry between them, unless I missed something? The story was boring as hell, nothing is really happening besides cheating, drunk cheating and passive aggressive conversations. This mini series needed something, ANYTHING to spice it up and it just never got there. I know its only 4 episodes but I would say watch any other series besides this one. It's rare that I ever get so uninterested in a drama to the point where I pretty much drop it completely. The only positive thing I can say about it is I appreciate that we didn't have to sit through another "but I'm not gay!" plot point.

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Stubborn Or Stupid?

I knew nothing of this show going in. I just knew a friend of mine was watching it and I wanted to ultimately see what people were talking about. So I can say with certainty the novel sounds far better than whatever this was. The entire concept of friends with benefits isn’t new, the “being a teacher” towards someone younger who isn’t as experienced sexually as you…new but huh? These 2 definitely weren’t even friends for this entire show and even by the end I don’t think they really should’ve been endgame with the amount of crap Sorn pulled. Even Boat the actor doesn’t like Sorn’s character which says a lot! I also found Jun’s character incredibly annoying for most of this show and the chemistry just wasn’t really there between the 2. There’s more chemistry between the actors when outside of the show! The side couples also apparently don’t exist in the novel, which I can understand with how random they felt placed into this plot. I just didn’t see much in this show worth really watching, including the spice which often felt awkward.

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