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This review may contain spoilers
Well, this hurt my feelings
Dear lord, where to start.
Once upon a time, I saw the trailer for this, shortly before it aired, and not being acquainted with the OG manga, I seen a specific scene between Akin and Jonny and noped out of there like a cartoon character, leaving a trail of petrified black glitter everywhere, with old fans laughing at me because, duh, how could I not know what this show was about?
Fast forward to a few days ago, and upon reading the comments and reviews and deciding that it was safe to proceed, I did. And I can see why it got so much hype while it was airing.
I don't have to know that this is a live action remake of a manga because I can see the yaoi manga tropes in the show. Most of the time they are there to hurt your feelings and that can be exhausting. But thankfully, since the show, and thai bls in general, only have 12, in this case 11, episodes to get to an end, they cant dwell too long in that misery because they just dont have the air time.
(glares at cdramas)
On a whole, the editing is pretty seamless. We start off with Jin's perspective and then before you know it, we're looking at everything through Akin's. His pov is the main narrative. This poor man gets the typical yaoi treatment of being the master of his craft and everyone either loves him or hates him. It's a wonder he has never been habitually abused as pretty much everyone is salivating the moment they see him and then run for the hills whenever he is in trouble. No loyalty in show business.
The honey scene was a surprise to me because I expected to hate it, and found that it was very artfully done. For the first few episodes, everything has a very sensual artsy approach.
Once Jin and Akin manage to get together, every episode afterwards it's just another method of torturing Akin emotionally in some way and the editing/filming style switches to a shaky hand cam zooming in and out of the characters faces, at emotional moments.
I had no issues with the SmartBoom chemistry. I didnt feel it as strongly as others did but I still felt like they were comfortable with each other and worked well together.
On a darker note - What Jonny did to Akin was not ok. It may not be considered a 'rape' by some, it was still assault. He undressed him, left hickeys and even told Jin that he was not in the mood anymore after Akin kept calling Jin's name. So he still meant to rape him. He also tried to drug Jin.
I've read enough japanese yaoi's growing up to know that there is a serious fetish happening in them and I'm very repulsed by it. It shouldnt still be a thing. But since the creators were likely just following the general narrative of the OG, I am willing to give them a pass. Jonny I will not.
This has clearly been left open for a season 2 and considering how popular it is, I'm not surprised. But I will not be caring for Jonny. They can pair him up with the cutest little twink they can find, I will not be interested. The character needs to be seriously redeemed in someway. Big time. I would need to see some serious karma for his behaviour.
Speaking of the ending, I'm assuming that in a season 2, Jonny and Naru will be the competition against Jin and Akin. They appeared to have hinted at that in the last scene.
What really had me looking forward to a second season though was the snippet of Producer Jade telling Akin he had bought the rights for another show. When Akin replies with 'but I've left the industry', Jade does the classic glasses character motion of pushing up his glasses with a smile, replying with 'oh I heard'.
My all time favourite eff you line to use in my own life. - "Oh I heard you, and I don't care" =)
To be fair, as far as we know, Akin didn't sign anything. His agreement with Sigma's head honcho was purely verbal, which isn't legally binding. Akin could absolutely return to acting, now as a director as well, and there would be nothing Sigma could do about it, other than retaliate in some other underhanded means. But I'll still be clapping for the big middle finger from Jade, and I would love to know who 'LIT' is.
Music was in English a lot of the time, and I enjoyed what I heard. I even recognised one song, to my surprise.
The styling I thought was beautiful and very Japanese. Another sign that this is a Japanese OG work.
I was also really impressed with the chinese outfits the leads had on at one point for a show they were working on. The wigs were exactly like how they are styled in cdramas and I appreciated the attention to detail by the stylists.
Overall, this started off as an artsy, trendy bl and very quickly sped into a rollarcoaster of common bl tropes that had me stressing. I'm not sure how often I would watch this again, but I did enjoy it a lot and I will definitely be back for second season.
Once upon a time, I saw the trailer for this, shortly before it aired, and not being acquainted with the OG manga, I seen a specific scene between Akin and Jonny and noped out of there like a cartoon character, leaving a trail of petrified black glitter everywhere, with old fans laughing at me because, duh, how could I not know what this show was about?
Fast forward to a few days ago, and upon reading the comments and reviews and deciding that it was safe to proceed, I did. And I can see why it got so much hype while it was airing.
I don't have to know that this is a live action remake of a manga because I can see the yaoi manga tropes in the show. Most of the time they are there to hurt your feelings and that can be exhausting. But thankfully, since the show, and thai bls in general, only have 12, in this case 11, episodes to get to an end, they cant dwell too long in that misery because they just dont have the air time.
(glares at cdramas)
On a whole, the editing is pretty seamless. We start off with Jin's perspective and then before you know it, we're looking at everything through Akin's. His pov is the main narrative. This poor man gets the typical yaoi treatment of being the master of his craft and everyone either loves him or hates him. It's a wonder he has never been habitually abused as pretty much everyone is salivating the moment they see him and then run for the hills whenever he is in trouble. No loyalty in show business.
The honey scene was a surprise to me because I expected to hate it, and found that it was very artfully done. For the first few episodes, everything has a very sensual artsy approach.
Once Jin and Akin manage to get together, every episode afterwards it's just another method of torturing Akin emotionally in some way and the editing/filming style switches to a shaky hand cam zooming in and out of the characters faces, at emotional moments.
I had no issues with the SmartBoom chemistry. I didnt feel it as strongly as others did but I still felt like they were comfortable with each other and worked well together.
On a darker note - What Jonny did to Akin was not ok. It may not be considered a 'rape' by some, it was still assault. He undressed him, left hickeys and even told Jin that he was not in the mood anymore after Akin kept calling Jin's name. So he still meant to rape him. He also tried to drug Jin.
I've read enough japanese yaoi's growing up to know that there is a serious fetish happening in them and I'm very repulsed by it. It shouldnt still be a thing. But since the creators were likely just following the general narrative of the OG, I am willing to give them a pass. Jonny I will not.
This has clearly been left open for a season 2 and considering how popular it is, I'm not surprised. But I will not be caring for Jonny. They can pair him up with the cutest little twink they can find, I will not be interested. The character needs to be seriously redeemed in someway. Big time. I would need to see some serious karma for his behaviour.
Speaking of the ending, I'm assuming that in a season 2, Jonny and Naru will be the competition against Jin and Akin. They appeared to have hinted at that in the last scene.
What really had me looking forward to a second season though was the snippet of Producer Jade telling Akin he had bought the rights for another show. When Akin replies with 'but I've left the industry', Jade does the classic glasses character motion of pushing up his glasses with a smile, replying with 'oh I heard'.
My all time favourite eff you line to use in my own life. - "Oh I heard you, and I don't care" =)
To be fair, as far as we know, Akin didn't sign anything. His agreement with Sigma's head honcho was purely verbal, which isn't legally binding. Akin could absolutely return to acting, now as a director as well, and there would be nothing Sigma could do about it, other than retaliate in some other underhanded means. But I'll still be clapping for the big middle finger from Jade, and I would love to know who 'LIT' is.
Music was in English a lot of the time, and I enjoyed what I heard. I even recognised one song, to my surprise.
The styling I thought was beautiful and very Japanese. Another sign that this is a Japanese OG work.
I was also really impressed with the chinese outfits the leads had on at one point for a show they were working on. The wigs were exactly like how they are styled in cdramas and I appreciated the attention to detail by the stylists.
Overall, this started off as an artsy, trendy bl and very quickly sped into a rollarcoaster of common bl tropes that had me stressing. I'm not sure how often I would watch this again, but I did enjoy it a lot and I will definitely be back for second season.
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