Shiagi

I will see if I can access it via a VPN then via WeTV as sometimes dramacool annoys me for various reasons. A Man Who Defies the World of BL and the bit after it is the Japanese name of it?

Nah, in my opinion this writing for this story and its storyline is not good enough to bring the type of thought provoking uncomfortable you are talking about. I can watch stories about step-sibling love and the uncomfortableness and unsettlingness around that if its done well but I don't feel this drama is as clever or thought provoking to bring out that level of analysis. They are using it purely as a trope as much as the other themes in this story are just BL tropes. Nothing more and nothing less. This story isn't making me feel challenged or stirring anything to that level (and I do like getting stirred) other than to question why HIStory writers have gone backwards in time and bringing up these tropes and then not even executing them well enough as to encourage healthy discourse about it. They've not actually taken the conversation further at all. They go only so far to introduce the trope, put out a few light hearted apologies that resolved everything and then everyone is hunkydory and having a good time and everything else is forgotten without any lasting impact.
The script is also so-so. But I don't want to comment about it because I know I am reading translations so it's not always accurate.

Is it on Youtube or am I looking for dramacool and the likes?

Yeah, that scene is so famous its almost everywhere so you can get desensitised to it and no imitations can get as close to that level of heat as the original.

I had the same thought! LOL

Word of warning. If you ever watch Grey Rainbow....
Let s just say, I watched it 4 years ago ish and I am STILL traumatised. BUT its sooooo goood and poignant and beautiful and poetic, but it will break your heart to pieces. Not even MODC traumatised me as much as GR did.

Yeah you brought up a sore spot for me because I was thinking Lovely Writer was also heading that way but they back tracked on that too so yeah. I have learned my lesson that BL is not ready for that level of breaking the 4th wall yet.
I stopped reading because I don't know what it is your are going to spoil as I've not heard of it so I don't know if I want to be spoiled yet.

With regards to the mom, I will wait and see because I don't feel characters in this story are settled. They seem really random to me, at least the side characters like the mom. The divorce paper thing was just crazy. That's a lot of work to prepare for such a thing and preparing to break up a family and treating it like such a simple and unimportant thing to do. She is unhinged. We shall see if she does anything else that's questionable but my feeling is that she is pretty much done now with her mini arch. There shouldn't be too much more for her to get involved with at this point. This show is writing of every insane behaviour with an apology and she doesn't seem to care because it's her son and he just loves too much. But yeah, because she's a side, they aren't doing anything heavier with her as its not as important as the main event. But the fact that I can feel that they are rushing things in this drama to pave the way for the ending bother's me a little because these little things are a bit problematic. It may also be that the English translations aren't really doing justice to what they are really saying though. I am also aware of that so I try to make allowances.

It's a really famous movie from back in the early 90s that was famous for that pottery shaping scene. Demi Moore, Patrick Swayze and Whoopi Goldberg. It was pretty intense and sensual too. I am sure you can find the scene on youtube if you search for ghost clay pottery scene.

I dunno what drama's you are watching where "progressive" means PC and sexless and censored?! LOL. I am glad I am not watching those! Phew!

I am all for dark themes, but only when done well and make sense. Not just thrown in as a trope like they've done here.

Only because they called the dad to return because they knew he was gonna try something, so he didn't have the chance and then they prevented the dad from leaving the house all day...

Same in Korea and South Asia
For this scene and a few others in this drama...'Unsettling' is the correct word.

I agree, he is a loose nut job of a canon. It also worries me because he doesn't seem to have changed or calmed down at all and he's a med student?! Xinsi told him not to tell their dad yet and he still goes and waits outside all day for the opportunity to tell him??? WTF!!

There are things in this particular drama that make me go "eh?", and that was one of them.

To play devil's advocate, the Chinese call all younger males "little brother" whether they are related or not. It is a hierarchy thing. Same with calling close older males "big brother" and the same goes for females. I just couldn't feel confident, in what exactly he imagines by saying that though. Was he referring to their familial relationship or the fact that he is indeed a younger male and making a play on words/ meaning? My brain hurt too much in that scene trying to make myself not feel uncomfortable about that moment.

When I first started watching Asian dramas, I had a lot of western mindset to get over and it was all good. But over the years dramas from across Asia have been getting more progressive and the BL ones are also catching up. So I was quite taken aback by this particular drama as HIStory tends to be pretty solid and realistic in their treatment of LGBTQ issues. I really feel we've gone backwards a little with these storylines in Close to You. At first I thought they were trying to be clever and playing with how some people treat BL genre and the weird fujoshi fetish, but now its evident it wasn't leaning that way. I mean, I still watch it and kind of enjoy it, just not as much as the others because sometimes I feel I am reading a wattpad novel rather than a HIStory drama on TV. I am a little more easy going with trashy wattpad novel than my tv dramas. LOL. We shall see how things continue to unfold.
I still find the 'mother' to be the most troublesome mother on tv. She's as warped in the brains as her son.

Exactly!!! I am not a Super Junior fan either but I distinctly remember him in She Was Pretty (which I last saw years and years ago) and he looked exactly like this! Every episode I just see it more and more! LOL

Oh dear.

"You are so plain and not that attractive" everyone tells the most beautiful girl in the show..... lol

It's getting to the point for me that I cannot NOT see Siwon every time Charles Tu is on screen. The character personality is so similar to characters Siwon plays as well and it's getting confusing.

Haha so true!

I mean, it's right there in the summary of the plot that it was gonna happen....

Yeah I am surprised with people taking issue with it when its so common. So many period dramas have concubines in it. Most of the time they just focus on two or three and make a brief mention of there being more but we don't ever see them as main players.