As a rape victim I have to say that by making every lip bump kiss, wrist grab and over passionate kiss 'abuse' then genuine rape and sexual abuse is being completely downgraded and will end up being ignored. At no point do these women fight back , which they would if they genuinely didn't want it. Most that do usually end up hurting the guy; yes it's often then made into comedy - oh look at the itty bitty girl knocking that big man to ground or pushing him into a load of displays' etc - but the fact is they DO fight back and DO hurt the guy.
In coffee Prince the female lead had driven Gong Yoo's character close to madness ; LGBT is NOT accepted in South Korea, he would've been thumbing his nose at his entire family, most especially his grandmother, and he would've done that because he loved the 'boy'. To then find out 'he' was a girl - had let him witter on about how he'd give up everything for 'him' and yet, at NO point, even attempt to tell the truth was the straw that broke him. I don't agree with what he did, if he'd done that to me I'd have belted him in the face, but I do understand what drove him to it. let's face it, if it had been him doing it to her, lots would've been on her side for doing the same. Well, equality means BOTH genders get the same "I don't agree with it, but I understand what made it happen" response from me.
Le Jun Kai and Sealed with a Kiss are the ones I take issue with - clearly the men have issues; SwaK he had a brain tumour and anger issues; I would also call his 'love' for the main girl as obsessive as his ex wife's was for him.....the fact he couldn't see the similarities between them did make me often roll my eyes. The abuse and rapes were just ridiculous - how they could call that a 'romance' beggared belief to me. I have to say I am fan of Lau Hawick's but I did question why he would make such a drama; at least she had a positive outcome.
LJK.......he was just a demented psycho; I didn't even really understand the revenge - or indeed the ending. But you couldn't see what drove either main lead in those dramas as clearly and obviously as you could in Coffee Prince. I really struggled to watch both of those; Coffee Prince, I got it - she'd really hurt him; so much it was almost a genuine physical pain to him and so he wanted to hurt her back the same way - and so it was a good drama for me.
Verbal abuse - yup been on the receiving end of that....and violence too. But the girls all put up with it in the dramas you show. They're MORONS - I mean seriously, I kind of got it with Mischievous Kiss: Love in Tokyo because my daughter's best friend has Asperger's and is identical in her behaviours to Furikawa Yuki's interpretation of Irie Naoki...and I mean IDENTICAL. So a form autism explained a LOT - him, I COULD forgive. He did NOT understand or follow vocal or physical cues from people, didn't understand facial expressions and had not filters to not hurt other people's feelings. He got angry when Kotoko forced him away from his controllable life and hit out verbally. Al traits of those with mild to moderate autism - many of whom, again like my daughter's friend, can also be very clever and with a high IQ (though hers wasn't close to Naoki's).
But the other two? Oh my God, I would've just gone looking for a shovel; seriously - the one in Miss in Kiss is even WORSE. But again, you don't put up with it - for me it was subtle and I didn't realise, but these boys were in her face nasty. Playful Kiss and Miss in Kiss had two with the least reasons - I mean they just seriously harassed their version of Kotoko for kicks and giggles.
BUT we really need to get away from screaming 'ABUSE!' at every little slight and touch, it's NOT. Abuse is when - like me - 30 years later you're still sometimes having nightmares and if I saw my ex-boyfriend in the street even now I would just freeze and brace myself for the blow and then to hit him back (which I always did, I got hit worse but at least I didn't give in).
Slap/kiss is only an issue when the girl 'falls' for it - I find that hard to believe . But then, as a Japanese friend told me recently, "no woman in her right mind would fall for guys who slap you and then kiss you or worse, kidnap and rape you. But the dramas make it because we like to watch it, Go figure". I've been told the same about why there's always SEVERE physical abuse and rape in Yaoi novels - apparently, according to an author I spoke to, women LOVE it. If she writes novels without it, they COMPLAIN. How is that right? But there it is - if the public want it, the producers, directors and writers will give it to them.
Don't complain about the dramas - complain about the people who watch them....which, of course, includes US. Thanks for a thought provoking article and sorry for the long post. I do tend to dig out the old soapbox when it comes to this. lol!
It's on Netflix UK and it's subbed if anyone's interested. I thought it was good. The story was completely OTT, but the acting was impressive and the action was good too.
So basically how to fall in love.....with booze. Blow off love, life and happiness.....just live for drinking. THAT was the message of this drama. I can only think it was paid for by an alcohol manufacturer. SUCH a WASTE - BRILLIANT cast, WONDERFULLY acted and a DIRGE of a plot....DON'T.WASTE.YOUR.TIME.
He has been busy with shooting commercials, shooting for magazines, working for UNICEF as well. Also, I've found…
OH I really hope it is - he was truly wonderful in Goblin, but he acted his socks off in Train to Busan. Has he done his military service yet? I know they have stock 2 years to do. I hope so. He's been off our screens too long already. :)
I'm British and I HATE sad endings too, especially BL sad endings - I always expect more from Thai BL dramas as,…
Hi Tian Qi, thanks for replying. I don't judge all the people of China, any more than I do the people of Russia or South Korea, on the anti LGBT or general intolerance of individuality and non conformity carried out by their governments.
In cases such as yours, where there is no real democracy any longer, the people cannot be held responsible can they? How on earth are you meant to illicit change, when a peaceful, democratic way is no longer available?
I think we here in the UK are teetering on the brink of becoming a 21st Century version of anti semitic 1930s Germany if we vote in Jeremy Corbyn and his thuggish momentum followers which is why me and mine, though lifelong labour voters and workers rights supporters (we were even Chartists back in the day) will NOT vote for labour whilst he is in charge. I refuse to look back and I realise I voted a tyrannical genocidal dictator into power. BUT here in the UK WE do have that power of a democratic vote and a chance to avoid, peacefully and impartially, that horrible outcome happening.
I think China, and it's people, as a whole is a wonderful place. I watched a documentary about a group of elderly British celebrities going there to see how the elderly lived - and it was refreshing to see how much freedom there was generally. Sadly some of the celebrities weren't very polite, one in fact was shockingly rude and nasty. I believe if I visit a country I should know at least conversational levels of their language, respect their customs and abide by their rules and laws. None of the people who went there did; it made me ashamed to see them behave with such disregard for other people's language and customs.
So I do understand your point - but, sadly for me, and as someone with a lesbian and a gay cousin, I do not like the government's attitude to the LGBT community. ALL the BLs I've seen have ended badly or been cancelled - it's got to the point where I'm expecting one of the lovers to die of a paper cut whilst the parents commit sepuku out of horrified shame, assuming the shame itself doesn't kill them on the spot, such is the dire way the storylines go. Moreover, and perhaps you'd be kind enough to verify this for me, there's been talk on the internet that two main characters from the Addicted (aka Heroin) series are STILL banned from talking to each other and being seen together in public.
I would indeed rather the government and the censors DID completely ban LGBT entertainment (as I thought they had judging by the new draconian 'modesty' laws) so the makers and actors would go to Taiwan and Thailand, etc than just continue with the soul destroying sad endings and cancellations subsequently being churned out.
Living in the shadows; having to hide who you are - just to survive day to day - is not really the answer. To me the LGBT community is no different to my heterosexual one - except I love the opposite gender in my husband, and they love the same gender as themselves. But we all still love and are loved in return. We all struggle to find that love in the first place.
Thank you again for taking the time to reply, it's nice to talk to someone who actually lives in one of the countries we hear about - it's rare to get a first hand account of what's going on rather than just our own medias versions of it.
My late mum often told me she should've made Trouble my real middle name!! XD My Irish grandmother went from laughing at me when I was 4 & calling me her 'rapskallion' (little mischief maker) to shaking her finger at me and scowling calling me 'the hellion' (leader of trouble) by the time I was 8. I always felt both names were hard earned and proudly kept - I was the only girl amongst a family of cousins (over 20 in total) - ALL boys and I could beat everyone of them in a fight! ROFL!!
I can't watch it if has the same sad ending as the book and the original movie - basically everyone ended up miserable and/or dead. I can't go through that again....but if a different ending then I'll watch, but I'm going to wait until it's finished and then get the dirt on whether it's hankies or popcorn.
I will be watching for one reason only, even if I end up hating it, Lee Sun Gyun. I saw him Coffee Prince and then proceeded to hunt down as much of his work as I could. I even sat through the entire dire series of 'My Wife is Having an Affair This Week' for his acting, his voice and those puppy eyes. So I don't need to be told this drama is good - hell, he could sit in a bare room and read a telephone book and I'd watch it! He's probably one of the best, and most underused, actors I've seen in a long time.
I really hope this isn't going to have the same, or similar, ending as the original movie, that was too sad. Does anyone know if it's going to follow the original movie ending?
Mostly E's - The lovable Second Male Lead...but, whilst I'm a 52 year woman, it DOES explain my almost constant SLS!!
However, this is how it broke down for me - 6 Es, 3Js and then 1 each of F, D, G & K. So yeah, mostly the lovable SML, but also a bit of a mix of the others....so I could also double as the Loyal Sidekick....and you know what? I'm good with that! LOL! :D
Can someone spoil this - with the usual 'hide spoiler' provisos of course - but I'd like to know what the ending is for this before watching it as people really are like marmite with it. :)
There won't be a Part 3 now - ALL LGBT projects have been banned in China now. the only hope they have is to go…
The only positive I can think of is at least we won't have all the ridiculous sad endings the censors forced on us for the BL and Gl webdramas, etc........but that's all. Hopefully the LGBT movie and drama making community will just move to more open countries and not allow themselves to be shut down.
read my reviewIt's like there were 2 brother-twinsone of them commits suicide and the other one blames himselfthen…
Thank you! That is brilliant. I couldn't work out how he could be dead but clearly alive. I didn't click they were twins. Gosh that must've been so hard for him to lose his identical twin in that way. I will definitely watch it again with subs. It was such a good movie and I tried my best to follow it with my VERY basic Japanese, but failed - so your healp is genuinely appreciated. :)
I agree!!! Most interesting when both heroes & villains have some of each other's traits w/in them. They're complex,…
For me my favourite 'villains' are :
1. Park Hae Jin as Lee Jung Moon in Bad Guys 2. Park Bo Gum as Jung Seon Ho in Hello Monster 3. Takizawa Hideaki as the Mysterious Man in 'Innocent Curse' 4. Matsuda Shota as Akiyama Shinichi in Liar Game
All the above had moments of compassion; some had good reasons for awful acts and others mellowed and became less harsh and cold as dramas progressed. But NONE were solely heroic or solely evil - that makes them so much more interesting the black and white usual villains and heroes.
I gave it an 8 because I didn't like Jung Yoo Mi's character who was the lead female. Han Yeo Reum was just someone I couldn't warm to - in fact most of them were not the warmest, but she was most definitely the worst. I really didn't want her to end up with either Eric (who played her ex Kang Tae Ha) or Sung Joon (who played her boyfriend Nam Ha Jin) - I think they BOTH deserved better than her. I found from episode 9 onwards was better, expecially the last episode - not for the lead female who I still didn't like, but the two male leads made me warm to them and a lot of the other characters too.
In coffee Prince the female lead had driven Gong Yoo's character close to madness ; LGBT is NOT accepted in South Korea, he would've been thumbing his nose at his entire family, most especially his grandmother, and he would've done that because he loved the 'boy'. To then find out 'he' was a girl - had let him witter on about how he'd give up everything for 'him' and yet, at NO point, even attempt to tell the truth was the straw that broke him. I don't agree with what he did, if he'd done that to me I'd have belted him in the face, but I do understand what drove him to it. let's face it, if it had been him doing it to her, lots would've been on her side for doing the same. Well, equality means BOTH genders get the same "I don't agree with it, but I understand what made it happen" response from me.
Le Jun Kai and Sealed with a Kiss are the ones I take issue with - clearly the men have issues; SwaK he had a brain tumour and anger issues; I would also call his 'love' for the main girl as obsessive as his ex wife's was for him.....the fact he couldn't see the similarities between them did make me often roll my eyes. The abuse and rapes were just ridiculous - how they could call that a 'romance' beggared belief to me. I have to say I am fan of Lau Hawick's but I did question why he would make such a drama; at least she had a positive outcome.
LJK.......he was just a demented psycho; I didn't even really understand the revenge - or indeed the ending. But you couldn't see what drove either main lead in those dramas as clearly and obviously as you could in Coffee Prince. I really struggled to watch both of those; Coffee Prince, I got it - she'd really hurt him; so much it was almost a genuine physical pain to him and so he wanted to hurt her back the same way - and so it was a good drama for me.
Verbal abuse - yup been on the receiving end of that....and violence too. But the girls all put up with it in the dramas you show. They're MORONS - I mean seriously, I kind of got it with Mischievous Kiss: Love in Tokyo because my daughter's best friend has Asperger's and is identical in her behaviours to Furikawa Yuki's interpretation of Irie Naoki...and I mean IDENTICAL. So a form autism explained a LOT - him, I COULD forgive. He did NOT understand or follow vocal or physical cues from people, didn't understand facial expressions and had not filters to not hurt other people's feelings. He got angry when Kotoko forced him away from his controllable life and hit out verbally. Al traits of those with mild to moderate autism - many of whom, again like my daughter's friend, can also be very clever and with a high IQ (though hers wasn't close to Naoki's).
But the other two? Oh my God, I would've just gone looking for a shovel; seriously - the one in Miss in Kiss is even WORSE. But again, you don't put up with it - for me it was subtle and I didn't realise, but these boys were in her face nasty. Playful Kiss and Miss in Kiss had two with the least reasons - I mean they just seriously harassed their version of Kotoko for kicks and giggles.
BUT we really need to get away from screaming 'ABUSE!' at every little slight and touch, it's NOT. Abuse is when - like me - 30 years later you're still sometimes having nightmares and if I saw my ex-boyfriend in the street even now I would just freeze and brace myself for the blow and then to hit him back (which I always did, I got hit worse but at least I didn't give in).
Slap/kiss is only an issue when the girl 'falls' for it - I find that hard to believe . But then, as a Japanese friend told me recently, "no woman in her right mind would fall for guys who slap you and then kiss you or worse, kidnap and rape you. But the dramas make it because we like to watch it, Go figure". I've been told the same about why there's always SEVERE physical abuse and rape in Yaoi novels - apparently, according to an author I spoke to, women LOVE it. If she writes novels without it, they COMPLAIN. How is that right? But there it is - if the public want it, the producers, directors and writers will give it to them.
Don't complain about the dramas - complain about the people who watch them....which, of course, includes US. Thanks for a thought provoking article and sorry for the long post. I do tend to dig out the old soapbox when it comes to this. lol!
In cases such as yours, where there is no real democracy any longer, the people cannot be held responsible can they? How on earth are you meant to illicit change, when a peaceful, democratic way is no longer available?
I think we here in the UK are teetering on the brink of becoming a 21st Century version of anti semitic 1930s Germany if we vote in Jeremy Corbyn and his thuggish momentum followers which is why me and mine, though lifelong labour voters and workers rights supporters (we were even Chartists back in the day) will NOT vote for labour whilst he is in charge. I refuse to look back and I realise I voted a tyrannical genocidal dictator into power. BUT here in the UK WE do have that power of a democratic vote and a chance to avoid, peacefully and impartially, that horrible outcome happening.
I think China, and it's people, as a whole is a wonderful place. I watched a documentary about a group of elderly British celebrities going there to see how the elderly lived - and it was refreshing to see how much freedom there was generally. Sadly some of the celebrities weren't very polite, one in fact was shockingly rude and nasty. I believe if I visit a country I should know at least conversational levels of their language, respect their customs and abide by their rules and laws. None of the people who went there did; it made me ashamed to see them behave with such disregard for other people's language and customs.
So I do understand your point - but, sadly for me, and as someone with a lesbian and a gay cousin, I do not like the government's attitude to the LGBT community. ALL the BLs I've seen have ended badly or been cancelled - it's got to the point where I'm expecting one of the lovers to die of a paper cut whilst the parents commit sepuku out of horrified shame, assuming the shame itself doesn't kill them on the spot, such is the dire way the storylines go. Moreover, and perhaps you'd be kind enough to verify this for me, there's been talk on the internet that two main characters from the Addicted (aka Heroin) series are STILL banned from talking to each other and being seen together in public.
I would indeed rather the government and the censors DID completely ban LGBT entertainment (as I thought they had judging by the new draconian 'modesty' laws) so the makers and actors would go to Taiwan and Thailand, etc than just continue with the soul destroying sad endings and cancellations subsequently being churned out.
Living in the shadows; having to hide who you are - just to survive day to day - is not really the answer. To me the LGBT community is no different to my heterosexual one - except I love the opposite gender in my husband, and they love the same gender as themselves. But we all still love and are loved in return. We all struggle to find that love in the first place.
Thank you again for taking the time to reply, it's nice to talk to someone who actually lives in one of the countries we hear about - it's rare to get a first hand account of what's going on rather than just our own medias versions of it.
I hope we can talk again. :)
However, this is how it broke down for me - 6 Es, 3Js and then 1 each of F, D, G & K. So yeah, mostly the lovable SML, but also a bit of a mix of the others....so I could also double as the Loyal Sidekick....and you know what? I'm good with that! LOL! :D
1. Park Hae Jin as Lee Jung Moon in Bad Guys
2. Park Bo Gum as Jung Seon Ho in Hello Monster
3. Takizawa Hideaki as the Mysterious Man in 'Innocent Curse'
4. Matsuda Shota as Akiyama Shinichi in Liar Game
All the above had moments of compassion; some had good reasons for awful acts and others mellowed and became less harsh and cold as dramas progressed. But NONE were solely heroic or solely evil - that makes them so much more interesting the black and white usual villains and heroes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xqidak4tK0A