Synchonicity

One of the worst BLs out there

This was a complete trainwreck, I can't remember feeling so happy to be finished with a series. Here are my pros and cons:

PROS

FILMING. The series was indeed beautifully filmed.

HIA/DIAO SEX SCENES. Total soft porn. Hawt.

CONS

STORY. While I appreciated the families' acceptance and support of same-sex marriage, the idea of arranged marriage of any kind is so antiquated and frankly... gross. Besides that, there wasn't all that much to the story, and much of what was there made little to no sense.

KUEA. Was he ever NOT crying? Okay, that's an overstatement, but his constant whining (mostly about nothing) made me want to remove my own appendix with a knife and fork. He was too immature to be in a relationship of any kind. What Lian saw in him was beyond me.

THE THIRD COUPLE. They got a total of maybe three minutes of screen time for the entire series. Why were they even there?

I could go on, but I don't wanna.

It's a 3.5 from me.

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Intense, unpredictable and... fabulous!

What a great end of the year surprise! After Eps 1 and 2, I wasn't really sure what I thought about this series but, for anyone else feeling the same way, my recommendation is to stick with it! Here are my pros and cons:

PROS:

UNUSUAL BUT COMPELLING STORY. Misfit Hira is persecuted by just about everyone at his school. He even has a stuttering problem that is schoolmates cruelly make fun of. Along comes handsome, mysterious, aloof and popular Kiyoi, who attracts everyone (including Hira) and, while he appears to have a soft spot for Hira, Kiyoi treats Hira abominably, hurling insults at him left and right. But, as the story continues, there are plot twists that take us all on a wild ride.

KIYOI'S APPEARANCE. Damn, the guy is stunning and has a killer body!

SYMPATHETIC LEAD CHARACTERS. Without giving too much away, I'll just say that I ended up sympathizing with BOTH Hira and Kiyoi as the series progressed.

A LOT PACKED INTO SIX EPISODES. Many BL series tend to drag on with 12, 14, 16 or more episodes and, along with that, the stories can drag as well. Not here! This one manages to pack in all the feels in just six, 25-minute episodes. Kudos!

CONS:

"TOXIC" BEHAVIOR. Yes, I realize that "toxic" is today's go-to word for describing challenging relationships but, for my taste, they went just a little too heavy on the toxicity. Not a dealbreaker, but it could have been dialed back a bit and packed even more of a punch.

KIYOI'S BACKGROUND STORY. What we got was okay, but I would have liked to know more of Kiyoi's backstory.

Overall, I loved this one. 9.5/10 for me.

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Interesting, but flawed

Peach of Time arrived on the scene at the end of the summer of 2021, which, at least for me, had aired (mostly) one disappointing BL after another. I was excited after Episode 1, as this appeared to be a series with more quality and on a higher level than previous series. After three or four weeks after excitedly anticipating each episode, my interest began to wane. By the end, my feeling was "okay... might as well tune in to see how this all turns out." Here are my pros and cons:

PROS:

THEME. The supernatural theme is an interesting one which, of course, has been explored in BL before (i.e., He's Coming to Me). This one had a different feel to it... more dramatic.

MUSIC. Really great! Yoon Oh (sorry, I forgot the actor's name) has a great singing voice. (And an alluring speaking voice as well.)

ACTING. The boys were all okay. But big kudos to the actress who played Yoon Oh's mom, she was a real pro and elevated the whole series.

CONS:

STORY. Too many scenes showing Peach publicly conversing with Yoon Oh and/or Mario. Anyone witnessing this would think Peach was batshit crazy (talking to himself), but no one batted an eye. I never fully understood the Mario character... what happened to him at the end? There were some other wtf moments interspersed throughout the series.

That's pretty much it. Pretty sure I'll forget about this one in time. The ending was open-ended, which might suggest a sequel, but I don't feel we really need one. What would it even be about? I suppose it could be more about Mario, but does anyone really care?

7.5/10 for me. It's that high because it started out very well.

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Different.

Color Rush was unique! Here are my pros and cons:

PROS:

INTERESTING TOPIC. We really got a look at what it could be like to live in a world of grays, without color. I began to believe that a "probe" exists! Upon research, I see that it is a fantasy. But it's a great "soulmate" kind of fantasy. I also liked the plot twist at the end (Yoo Han's prosopagnosia).

YOO JUN'S ACTING. As Yeon Woo, Yoo Jun's acting was very effective.

OST. I really liked the theme song.

CONS:

ACTING. Aside from Yoo Jun as Yeon Woo, I was disappointed in the acting. Heo Hyun Jun, as the probe Yoo Han, was pretty stiff and colorless (no pun intended!). The actress who played Yi Rang (the aunt) was constantly mopey and seemed depressed, but what could have been a sympathetic character just came off as cold, boring, and bitchy.

UNCONVINCING. For me, while I liked the show, I wasn't jumping with excitement to see what would happen next. The whole series had an element of unhappiness to it (which can be really effective in a drama) but this seemed rather weird and not compelling enough to draw me in. Despite a "dead fish" kiss, it was nice to get a happy ending, but even that came off as too rushed and almost misplaced.

It's a 7/10 from me.

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I liked the actors, but this was WAAAAAAAAAAYYY too long, with 36 episodes. The story dragged on and on, it could have been done in half the amount of episodes.

What I liked: Noh and Phun have a good chemistry. Ohm is adorable and so are most of the other boys. The girl that played nasty Jead was really good. There was some beautiful cinematography.

What I disliked: the Noh/Yuri "relationship." I know a lot of fans found Yuri sweet and adorable, but I thought she was annoying. And Noh took way too long to end things with her (not that there was any actual relationship in the first place). The scene just after the breakup in the photo booth, where Noh was shown crying for something like ten minutes, was kind of ridiculous. First of all, he wasn't actually crying, there were no tears. Second, he was never into her. I get that he was sad that she was sad, but the reaction was overkill.

I'm glad that I was able to binge watch this, way after it aired, as opposed to having to wait for each episode, week after week after week after week after week after week...

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Love, love, LOVE this series! It's got comedy, drama, silliness, poignancy and heart. Even better, the actors here are REAL actors and play their roles beautifully.

Kei Tanaka steals the show as Haruta, a comic genius with major acting chops. Kotaro Yoshida is spectacular as the "Ossan," totally believable as an older gentleman who has become head-over-heels smitten with a naive and much younger man. One of my favorite moments is the surprise proposal scene in Episode 7: Haruta's reactions are priceless and the whole thing is just great.

My only complaint is that the storyline sometimes moves ahead a bit too quickly, but the pros definitely outweigh the cons in this fantastic series.

I will rewatch this again and again. Can't wait for the sequel!

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Exceeded my expectations

As a drooling fanboy of the Japanese version (and still am), I watched this while expecting it to fail. I was wrong. Here are my pros and cons:
This could h
PROS

STORY. The story is, of course, wonderful, which is what made me such a fan of the Japanese version. But, in some ways, the Thai version was better. For one (and this is a BIG one), the MC actually kissed, and several times! That was SO much needed in the Japanese version, as opposed to two wonderful actors who made it seem clear that "we're not actually gay, okay?" Blecch.

ROCK/WHAT'S HER NAME. Sorry, I've already forgotten her name. I realize that the female counterpart in the JP version was asexual, and that's fine. But I appreciated the straight couple here. They were adorable.

EXTRA INFO. I liked that Achi/Karan had real interactions with both of the families, which was missing in the Japanese version.

TAY. He really brought it. I appreciated how he made Karan/Kurosawa an even more deep character than what was shown in the JP version. He even cried.

CONS

ACHI. New did a respectable job here. But I missed the comical Adachi from the Japanese version.

LACK OF COMEDY. More lighthearted moments, please.

After the HUGE success of the Japanese version, this could have been a complete fail. It was not. And, in many ways, it improved on the earlier version. Kudos to Cherry Magic Thailand!

10/10 for me.

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Like most fans, I've become addicted to Love by Chance. While it's not my favorite series, I've been thinking about what it is that makes me like it as much as I do.

I like Ae (and he is a good actor). I think everybody dreams about having (or being) a head-over-heels in love superhero from time to time, and Ae fits that character. Other characters I like are Pond (he's so hilarious and really attractive), Tin (probably the hottest guy on the show and plays the jerk so well), the girl who plays Pond's girlfriend and Trump... yes, I actually enjoy him (although not his character, I realize he's the villain).

There's a good balance of romance, comedy and drama. While homophobia is part of the show (Trump; Tin), it's a small part, with a good deal of tolerance and acceptance of same-sex relationships. This is a good thing.

For me, the downsides of the show (not a dealbreaker) are the over-the-top-oh-so-cuuuuuute scenes between Ae and Pete... I like them but can we tone down the sugar overload just a bit? I know Pete is a fan favorite but, for me, his shyness/cuteness/weakness is so exaggerated that his character doesn't seem real. The Tum/Tar relationship bores me... possibly because the younger guy looks 12 and it's hard for me to imagine him in a serious relationship of any kind. Can makes me laugh (especially when he walks around blabbing to himself out loud in public), but his character is so weird... is he supposed to have some kind of mental disorder?

We're now 8 episodes in, and Ae/Pete are now officially a couple. Yay! They will have sex very soon (it's the big buildup right now) and probably move in together. Then what? If there's a Season 2, I'd prefer for them to be a "happily ever after" couple, and not the main focus, because that would mean a new set of intense drama for them. As for the rest of this season, I'm looking forward to what happens with Trump (you just know he's going to show up), as well as Tin/Can.

Edited to add: my review stands, but the ending absolutely ruined LBC for me. Hence, the reason for my somewhat low ratings. Because of the finale, I feel like I wasted my time watching it. It pains me to say that, because I really liked LBC.

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I actually liked it. However...

Okay, I guess I'm the odd man out. Despite its many flaws, I enjoyed it. Here are my pros and cons:

PROS

DIFFERENT. They actually went there, exploring BDSM with young guys. It happens, folks. And, while many viewers were horrified by the young ages of the actors, let's remember that BurgerKing was just a cute little non-story, and SaintHida just involved a crush of one kid on his non-blood related stepbrother. It was all quite vanilla, there was nothing sordid involved with any of them. The BDSM triangle involved only the older actors, and even that wasn't particularly explicit.

ACTING. Okay, they weren't all good. But some were. The two nasty girlfriends did a great job, Art was a welcome addition, the veteran actors were good, and the boys did pretty well for being rookies. The awful trans teacher made us all hate her, so kudos to her!

CONS

STORY. That was the most convoluted mess I've seen in a long time. None of the couples had any connection with each other, other than being friends on some level, I guess. And who died?

ENDING. Big points off for ending with a "To be continued." We all know that many promises of a Season 2 never happen in BL (My Engineer, etc.), and it's unlikely that this series will get the 1 million supporters to make it happen. And we're left with nothing but questions. Unacceptable and shame on the producers.

I'm giving it a 6.5.

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Three Little Wigs

I started out liking this but my enthusiasm fizzled as the series went along. Here are my pros and cons:

PROS

CHOMPU. I appreciated the feature of a disabled character, and that Nan sincerely fell for her.

THEME SONG. I thought it was catchy and I liked the background ensemble singers.

SERIOUS ISSUES. Especially the Name story.

CONS

WIGS. Wth? Seriously. It was a battle of the wigs and the wigs won. Their evil plan is to take over the entire BL industry and star in their own series. Seriously, the wigs were beyond stupid.

CHAMP. Sorry honey, you're just boring. Way too much time devoted to him, and his sister was weird. She turned her own wedding into a funeral service for her grandfather.

TOO MANY CHARACTERS. There were so many characters that it was impossible to "know" any of them. I suppose we got to know Name more than anyone else.

5.5 from me.

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This film seemed promising at the start, but ended up being incredibly slow moving and, in the end, disappointing.

The actor who played Toy was probably the strongest but, as the story continued, I felt less and less interested in Toy and Nack as a couple to root for. As a rule, I'm not a fan of the "I'm only gay for you" bullshit that BLs often perpetuate, but that's not why I'm not a fan of the film. For me, it was just boring and without a compelling plot/resolution.

I did enjoy the pool and swimming scenes. Thailand looks so gorgeous I will have to make it a priority to visit soon!

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A guilty pleasure

Yes, my headline pretty much says it all for me. As many have noted in the comments, this series had a lot of troubling issues, and I agree with that. Still... I will admit to enjoying it. Here are my pros and cons.

PROS:

ACTORS. For me, each actor played his/her role pretty much perfectly. Special mention to the actress who played Chon's mom. Loved her!

PODD'S BODY. Whoa! How'd I miss that before? For me, his "Sun" character in DBK was my least favorite, I thought he was boring. And I NEVER expected to see that body underneath. Wow!!

AI, NAI, MIRIAM. Sure, they were silly, but I enjoyed their"Three Musketeers" escapades.

NA. Loved him. Would have preferred him with Chonlatee. But I'm happy he found love in the end.

THEME SONG. I liked it.

CONS:

TON/AI/NAI. So Ai and Nai spend half the series (and a few years) hiding their relationship from Ton, because they're sooooo afraid of his homophobic behavior. Then, when Ton finds out, he's perfectly fine with it. So what was all THAT about?

THE EARLY EP AT THE BAR AND BROTHEL. Worse than ridiculous. I can't imagine anyone going along with that, just to suck up to a friend.

FLYING AROUND IN THE ANCIENT COSTUMES. What the hell?

AMP. She makes everyone's life miserable but, somehow, she talks Chon into drinking with her, and Ton into kissing her. Just... no.

STEREOTYPICAL/OUTDATED TROPES. 1) "I still like women, I'm just gay for you." No, no, no, no, NO. At least call yourself bisexual. So sick of this "gender doesn't matter." Umm... yeah, it kinda does. 2) The homophobia was so overdone, to the point of being laughable. 3) I can enjoy a bitchy ex-girlfriend character, but this was ridiculous, and we didn't get the satisfaction of seeing Amp get what was coming to her at the end. 4) Neung assaults Chon in what looked to be an attempted rape, and no one calls the police? Yeah... riiight.

Ai/NAI'S (hidden) KISSES. So they show a number of "almost" kisses between Ai/Nai, but the camera always conveniently cuts away. At first I thought it could be because of caution due to COVID, but Ton/Chon had plenty of kisses. So what was up with Mike/Toptap? Did they refuse? I'd have rather seen NO kissing attempts between them, than this weird camera cutting away.

BL is evolving in many countries, but Thai BLs appear to be stuck in an old school, formulaic rut. It's not working well anymore, but I did enjoy the actors in Tonhon Chonlatee.

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One of a number of mediocre Thai BLs this year

2022 looks to be the Year of Mediocre Thai BLs. That said, Star and Sky: Star In My Mind fits right in. Here are my pros and cons:

PROS

CUTE BOYS. That's all.

SHORT. Thank goodness, they got everything done in 8 episodes. Although it could have been done within a 90-minute movie.

MAITEE. I liked him. And I would date him.

CONS

DUNK. What was the casting director thinking? They give Dunk a character who cries in just about every episode, and he can't act. (It's been awhile since I've seen an actor that stiff.) He never shed any real tears, he just got a silly, pained expression on his face that looked more like he was having problems passing a bowel movement.

BOOOOORING. Even watching this at 2x speed, it managed to drag on incessantly, and there wasn't much of a cohesive story.

LACK OF CHEMISTRY. There was no chemistry between the main leads, and that kiss in the last episode was about as dead fish as a kiss can be.

But not the worst thing I've seen. 4.5 from me.

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Some cuteness, some drama... some flaws

My Sweetheart Jom stars Saint, after a lengthy hiatus from BL roles, and Poom as Yo. Here are my pros and cons:

PROS

POOM. I am a fan. This kid has charisma and swag! He's a natural on screen.

GRANNY. Sassy and sweet. Loved her.

CINEMATOGRAPHY. Beautiful scenery captured throughout this series.

CONS

YO/JOM. It wasn't the age difference (although I thought Jom looked better with Tee and Yo could have hooked up with one of the Three Musketeer boys). It was the power imbalance, with Jom being Yo's mentor. I'm glad that was addressed in the show and Poom behaving like an absolute boss while pursuing Jom made it somewhat believable. Too bad the two had no chemistry.

SAINT. Really very little emotion one way or another. I never felt Jom had any kind of sexual attraction to Yo. And then he goes all "porn star orgasmic face" in the one sex scene, which is what Saint does in every role. He's obviously spent a lot of time on PornHub.

STORY. Okay, what happened to Yo's popstar girlfriend from Ep 1? And her weird stalker boyfriend? He came back, caused some trouble and then just disappeared. Earn was super annoying, but even worse was that high school girl who thought she was all that (the one who bullied other girls and chased after Yo). I really wanted her to get it, but she didn't. And what was Jom's dad about? I got the feeling he was a bad guy with mafia friends, but then at the end he was made out to a good guy. Too many plot holes.

FINALE. Unnecessarily melodramatic, with Yo announcing he's leaving, and with no explanation. A stupid turn of events that just wasted time. And the "five years later" thing doesn't work, when NOBODY ages at all.

It's 7.0 from me.

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Beyond bad

Falhanruk is the story of two college-age boywhores who have drunk random sex with one another in the bathroom of a bar. They go back and forth in a toxic relationship where one of them constantly slaps the other in the face. At the end, the slapee confesses that he likes it and the two of them turn into Walt Disney characters as they ride off into the sunset on the Bangkok Transit System. The End. Here are my pros and cons:

PROS

MUSIC. The theme song perhaps the best thing about the series.

REALISM. Well... the truth is that most young gay boys ARE horndogs and indulge in lots of meaningless sex. That part of the series was believable.

PING CRYING. Although it got really old watching Ping in tears, I will say that he was good at turning on the waterworks. I got the feeling that the producers/directors had the actor cry as much as possible... only because he COULD.

CONS

STORY. There was a story. It was bad.

SHER THE SLAPPER. I wanted to bust through the screen and slap him myself. You know you did, too.

PINK. You're annoying, honey. And far too old to be buying into the whole "shipping" thing. Find a lover or, at least, buy a vibrator.

This was just really terrible. I'm giving it a 3.0, and the only reason it's that high is because of Ping's real tears.

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