any_anka

Yeah, she was dubbed over. Both Jenny and SW are played by Chinese actors. In case of Liu Dong Qin they didn't dub him over (thank goodness!), because - I would assume - the setting for SW's character kinda explained why he had a different accent (came back home after years living in China). However, apparently, it was necessary for Jenny to be dubbed over because her accent was too much unlike a Taiwanese teacher would've had.

I didn't like it, either. I generally am not a fan of dubbing in any form other than Japanese dubbing in Japanese anime 😜 Here, I think, it was done with detriment to my immersion level (I'd always gets distracted during a Jenny scene). It was fairly well-done, I'll give them that (I've seen worse, the mouth and sound generally matched most times), but it still bugged me. Not to the point that I'd consider it a big flaw of this drama, but something I would've preferred to just not be there 😜

I mean, there's remaining half of the novel to be covered... 😉

I think Patrick Liu tried to give this drama an ending that could be on the one hand, open enough for people to wonder about what's next, but at the same time not a typical cliff-hanger, in case season 2 never happens. Personally, I think he almost succeeded (but the insertion of JT's childhood flashback kinda went against it, because it left us with more questions that answers, or at least I felt so).

The push for season 2 could probably be attributed to a couple of things (amongst them, people not liking the ending without a clear closure + people being aware there's a continuation of the story in the book, where protagonists actually get to date etc.), but I think that Patrick played a big part in it himself. He teased season 2 since the beginning of this drama's airing, and he never stopped till now 😉

I was one of the folks who was ok with season 2 not happening (and very sceptical about the possibility of it actually being filmed and released). That was the truth until episode 12. I guess I can admit openly that I most definitely let myself be manipulated by that ending and felt so heart-broken by it, now I just need a continuation. I don't need the second season to have "a lot of kisses", I just want SW and JT to get back "together" (and maybe confess).

What? Ep 18?!? I'm on ep 7 and was expecting him to soon make an appearance...

I enjoy this drama *a lot* (might become my favourite contemporary cdrama if it maintains its quality), but funny how him being the cast was in great part the reason why I even started this show, and yet he's not present for most part of it 😜

Well, I think it happens, but in my impression mostly with Japanese dramas. Some get not only a 2nd season, but even a movie continuation. Are they good? I actually enjoyed My Beautiful Man s2 more than s1, so there's that.

If we're talking Taiwanese dramas, though, I can only think of We Best Love and I personally think the second season was really bad. I gave it 6/10 stars on MDL, but frankly speaking, if not for that one stellar angsty scene of drunk Sam Lin crying (if you watched it, you know what I'm talking about and probably agree about that scene's greatness, as it's universally admired/loved), I would've given it way less (one star goes for Sam's acting, and another one for camera work, which was great).

I think the situation with The On1y One is a bit different, though. If it actually gets greenlit, they get the funding, the actors are available etc., I think it should maintain the quality of season 1 or maybe even satisfy some viewers who were unhappy with season 1 ("it's going nowhere, it's just a bromance" people). There is actually source material in a form of 2nd half of the novel, so s2 wouldn't just be some random weird story attached to an already concluded plot in order to get more money from the viewers.

Plus, if just the acting alone was on the same level, it'd probably be at least somewhat decent 😜

Gosh, I wish I could relate. I wasn't able to go through this episode again 😜 I just watch the first couple of cute/funny moments of SW thirsting over JT and then, the further it goes, the sadder I feel and I simply don't have it in me to watch both of these boys bottle their pain up (and for JT to have this heart-breaking release with a punch at a wall). Just. No.
Even for all the amazing acting and beautiful cinematography, I can not bring myself.

Yeah, I've seen others suggesting that SW was acting out of internalized homophobia, but honestly... I'm just not convinced. Granted, I am not a gay man. I also don't intend to invalidate someone's experience. I just feel that in case of this particular drama, there was not enough pointing to that being the reason.

I am more willing to believe that in case of Xi's weird behaviour it could be the case, but even then I could still see some other possible factors.

However, when it comes to Sheng Wang, I genuinely believe that the main problem is that Jiang Tian is supposed to be his stepbrother (sure, their parents are not married yet, but both SW and JT have been constantly told they should act like brothers and their entire environment is treating them as such). Another reason is, he thinks JT is not reciprocating his feelings. The fact that they're both guys definitely makes it even more complicated for SW, but I never got the impression it was at the forefront of his worries.

Then for JT, the *only* moment that could suggest internalized homophobia is the memory of his father. But I have my issues with seeing it as such as well. While that particular "very moment" was shown afterwards SW attempt at kissing JT (which could suggest there is some truth to the "internalized-homophobia-theory"), Jiang Tian's behaviour afterwards really don't support that theory in my eyes.

After his initial reaction, he is not behaving in any way "weird" around SW. He already knows SW tried to kiss him, and later on, even catches SW staring at his post-shower half-naked body. Yet he doesn't try to create any distance between them. I'd even suggest (that is my interpretation, but I'm not 100% certain, if that's what was happening) that after he caught SW staring, he deliberately doesn't put his clothes on immediately.

Then after knowing all that (and putting together some additional info he got from Shi), he is still taking care of SW, he's buttoning up his clothes, he doesnt like when Pepper is touching SW. Then finally, after SW messed up the test, he fights hard for SW to open up to him, and is there for him all the time, even if just to assist him in his transfer. So, I detected no internalized homophobia from JT.

I haven't read the book (or to be precise, I read some 10 chapters covering them confessing and being together, but I dropped it, as I didn't wanna be spoiled more) and I don't know what Patrick has in store for us, if the season 2 actually happens. However, from what has been shown to us, I personally didn't feel the internalized homophobia was an issue. At least not in SW and JT's case.

You have *a lot* to catch up with 😉
But to sum up, aside from people just discussing abt the drama and sharing how they can't get over it, there were a couple of "big events" happening:
- The petition (I dont know if you're aware there is one) asking for 2nd season got over 16K signatures.
- IMDB rating went up to 9.0 after fans of the drama flooded the review page. It also got from like 1,5K to over 4K reviews in a manner of days 😜😜😜I saw someone on IMDB say they're bots. I mean... I can't blame them for drawing such conclusion 😂
- Yesterday Patrick Liu (the director) went live on IG and (sort of, kind of, I'm still not celebrating) assured the audience about second season actually happening. The filming should commence within next 5 months.

So I read the entire thing (I really command the person who translated it so quickly for international fans) and I have just a couple of casual comments:

- I'm happy that Patrick is debunking any rumours about cast changes. I want the entire cast to remain the same (ofc not including new characters), and I especially *can't* imagine anyone else as SW, JT (obviously), GTY, Pepper, JT's mother (she doesn't have that much screen time, but is fantastic every time the camera's on her) and... Qi Jia Hao. I know we all kinda hate the guy 😜 but regardless, I already can't actually envision anyone else as him other than Tim.

- Dong Qin has a pretty voice and can sing quite decently, so I'm all for him performing any of the songs.

- I really think Mou Mou fans are in a way lucky to have Patrick doing the IG lives instead of usual conventional promos done by actors. This man will *always* uncover something funny or embarrassing from behind the scenes 😂

- Also, I am totally not surprised by Patrick's remarks about Dong Qin and how prepared he'd be to the point of being able to perform other's parts (would love to see that). You can tell by watching this guy perform, every detailed facial expression or tone of his voice has purpose. I mean it when I say it, the guy just jumped into my top favourites just like that in a manner of less than a month. He is so frigging good. (And I never hype actors up just for good looks)

Oh, btw, so I requested it the second time on Netflix today😜Nothing popped up saying I can't do it, so I guess theoretically, a person can spam them about it multiple times. Just dont know how it'd be counted in the end if it all comes from the same account

It's not weird at all. BLs are not officially aired there, but local fans still find ways to watch them. And then they spend a lot of money on fan meets and merch. So from a purely capitalistic point of view, it make a lot of sense to target that market.

Wasn't WBL actually successful in China? And how about The Unknown? I think they were pretty successful as well...

I don't mind it being released in a year or longer as long as it gets released and the quality is maintained. I even prefer for them to take longer but not cut corners. I can wait. I loved the first season, I wish the second one complements it beautifully 😊

I hope you don't mind me referring you to an answer I made under someone else's comment who made a similar question.
https://kisskh.at/68995-mou-mou#comment-18942018

That's how I understand it and it was really heart-breaking for me.

I saw that video snippet! The amount of second-hand embarrassment I experienced was real... but I didn't skip, so I can't say I'm qualified much to judge the person who asked, I guess 😜 I thought Benjamin dealt really good with that question. He got so technical and descriptive about answering, the whole thing turned into comedy 😁

I remember Tim from My Tooth Your Love and VIP Only, and I think The On1y One was his best performance yet. He really creeped me out with his facial expressions (which I'm sure was the goal in all those scenes were he's portrayed like a looming source of danger).

I wasn't too crazy about his scene in ep 9 (but I generally wasn't too crazy about ep 9, minus the sports' festival, cause that was fun). I felt his monologue was too sudden and too much of an exposition dump, while the acting felt off (but that could very well be due to the abrupt editing in that scene, I've witnessed choppy editing and weird camera angles destroy decent performances from actors before). Other than that, I think he did a nice job.

No problem. Hope you'll enjoy, if you decide to watch it (personally, I highly recommend this series 😉)

The On1y One is an adaptation of a different novel. These stories look similar on the surface, but have a rather different vibe (and generally the relationship in Mou Mou is way healthier, imo). Why both have stepbrothers trope etc. (which, btw, the protagonists of The On1y One are *not* stepbrothers, the description is somewhat misleading) - I don't really know. I suppose, it's a popular theme in Chinese danmei novels.

At the risk of being a complete killjoy, I honestly feel for Benjamin. He's an obviously talented actor who just gave a ste-llar performance. It's a bit of a bummer that it's not enough alone to maintain fans' support and he is expected to do all that parasocial stuff now... (and I know that fans' interest in his social media activity is most likely all positive and there's no malice in their interest). Still...

In the same reddit thread there is this one comment that I wholeheartedly agree about how back in the day, a good work could stand on its own (or, in this case, an actor could rely on his skill). Of course it's not entirely true, actors or singers always needed promotion force, connections, agency backing them up etc., and the audience was always interested in their personal lives.

But at its core, when you were an actor, or a singer, or a writer, you could just generally be that. Now, everyone needs to be a social media personality. And I'm not saying social media are bad. Surely there are some celebrities who definitely benefited from them tremendously, but it kinda sucks it's the standard now.

I'm both an introvert and a shy person. I used to be shy to the degree of borderline social phobia. And while I managed to have my shyness somewhat under control, I still need to recharge in the comfort of my own company after every social interaction 😜 So yeah, I do feel for Benjamin, if he's expected to do live streams or post videos of himself regularly now. Poor guy 😜

Yeah, they couldn't interact in public. I remember watching one of award shows that year. They were both present, even had some spotlight on them (if I remember correctly, one was performing, the other one had a short interview conducted with him) but they sat sits apart and had no interactions whatsoever. So yeah, there was clear "hush-hush" attitude about the drama itself.

Still, you can hardly call what happened to them detrimental to their careers, since even back then, they were receiving attention/promotion, just not in relation to the drama. People here were worried that LDQ might not be a part of the season 2 because it could hurt his career, so my post was an answer directly to those claims about career-hurting influence of BLs.

I don't know anything about the author being "exiled". But in all fairness, not a fan of her works and didn't really follow what she was doing in the direct aftermath of the ban. I do remember that Advance Bravely was released not such a long time after. However, it was already bromancified at that point.

On your second point, I understand what you're saying. I suppose it all comes down to how I wish things were... as you called it yourself, "an aspiration". I acknowledge my "idea" to be somewhat utopian.

As for MDL: arguing discrimination in promoting certain type of content might be difficult, as it's more elusive, but I think asking about exclusion of one (fairly popular) platform is a legit question. But anyway, since you wrote to them on multiple occasions, I feel I'm just speaking the obvious and wasting your time.

Looking for "allies" amongst "BL crowd" might be a bit misguided... Some watch it for the... let's call it aesthetics, some because they're tired of regular straight romance plots and its tropes, some attribute those "straight characteristics" to two men being together, some have their own ideas about being supportive, some are just gay. You might find people who would, as you say, care, but ultimately, consuming BL as an entertainment is just that - entertainment. There's no activism in watching two guys kiss.

I'm using the search function for the algorithm, too. Even though it sits there in my "Continue Watching", my Watchlist, my review lists...

I felt so silly doing it. I'm happy I'm not the only one 😜 (no pun intended)

Thank you so much!

So the director seems to be really set on this IMDB rating, huh?

I laughed at point "8. PE Teacher with no IG account: Thank you for the support everyone". So I guess people were thirsting over this guy outside of Viki comments as well 😂