Beatrice

A light easy to watch coming of age romance

The core of this show is two young teenage university freshman dealing with their respective struggles that stems from previous trauma and how their actions and words or lack thereof affect other people. I found the conflicts that arose very understandable and true to character and importantly it's dealt with within the narrative for character growth.

Daonuea is the art student and extrovert of the two whose cuteness and charm stems from how friendly he is and gets along with everyone. Kluen who plays sports is the introvert and he's shown to genuinely not understand certain kinds of social communication as the show progresses. He reads as socially awkward but is not outwardly noticeable because he's handsome and surrounded by outgoing people, so they just assume he's cool.

The story starts off with Daonuea whose primary experience with love is being seemingly rejected by Kluen so he wants to avoid him. I really like that he easily becomes himself around Kluen once it's clear their scholastic activities keep them together for a while. This leads him to not want to hurt others as he himself was hurt so this causes complications when he has to deal with rejecting his own suitors.

Kluen does everything he can to spend time with Daonuea coming from the school of thought that actions speak louder than words though he learns that words is also important to speak along with the actions. I quite enjoy the acting of Dunk who plays Daonuea. It's his first role and quite close to his real life personality. He's very natural and effervescent on camera. Joong who plays Kluen does well in communicating with his eyes and little detailed actions. The music is pleasant and the show overall is easy to watch.

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Absolutely Captivating!

The casting is top notch both visually and acting talent wise with the leads Bright Vachirawit and Mai Davikah as Kimhan and Nubdao who instantly captures attention both individually and as a pair with excellent chemistry along with a very strong supporting cast as well. I really enjoy how both characters have their own goals, struggles, and growth that the show begins exploring from the get go and how their paths align. The pacing is really good and always leaves me looking forward to the next episode. The ost perfectly accompanies the mood of the scene in every iteration of it's arrangement. Overall, Astrophile is a must watch!

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Character study on control, companionship, and closure

A story about broken people who find healing through an unorthodox situation done well. Despite In Ji's cold seeming exterior, she's actually deeply empathetic and caring. Jeong Won is a similar type of person on the inside as well, but he's been hurting for so long with his abusive family situation, both from his father and his ex-wife, that the contract marriage is what showed him what peace is like with a person that doesn't want to hurt him.

It's wonderful seeing them gaining the strength to be a catalyst of positive change for the other person as they grew closer. Seo Yeon also holds her own pain that causes her psychologically manipulate and hurt Jeong Won to punish him. She is able to move on as well through her own journey with her contract marriage partner. The unhinged stalker is sadly realistic in his unrelenting harassment and escalating violence. Regardless of legal intervention, there is no enforcement that protects his victims against him.

Jeong Won inviting him into the house where In Ji now lives and to sit down with them, was the most clueless man thing that he could do. Even well meaning men don't understand the severity of the danger for women. Ji Oh didn't get as much development as the other three characters, but he too was suffering from guilt from not stepping in when his colleague was murdered by stalker guy. He clearly didn't have any assassin skills, his boss did him dirty to ask him to be the one to do it. I like that both In Ji and Jeong Won moved on from the houses that was the husks with painful memories and lived their own lives for a good while before reuniting.

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There's better options to watch

The characters turned more distant than when they were friends which made even less sense with the second time jump having been together for two years. Not kissing, not even once is unsatisfactory regardless of queer or straight pairing of two grown consenting adult characters in a romance story. The actors should not have been cast if they weren't comfortable with playing a queer romance and the show shouldn't have been made if the production itself wasn't commited to fully portraying a gay love. Very disappointing since they seemed to be heading in a strong direction only to derail themselves completely at the end. I would not recommend, especially when there are plenty of other productions that do better.

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Zombie show from zombie genre fans

I enjoy how the show starts in media res during the outbreak and it immediately begins with questions about the type of infection it will be in this show. The show drops references to many a American zombie genre classic as well to a non zombie American shows. The monologue from the self aware of how inappropriate it is to be excited about the situation zombie fanboy Thi with Earth looking aghast though he was the one who asked was great. The setting of the university campus allows for the college kids to actually use what they learned in their majors to use. I really like how characters challenge the ones who take leadership positions with no merit and encourage the ones who actually have a handle on figuring out the situations to take the lead. They learn the behavioral patterns of the infected and it's never ends well when someone has a gun. The writing clearly knows their genre and finds ways to make it their own. The characters who have no survival instincts and become a danger to the group gets their end sooner rather than later. The actress that plays the scientist Kan is so good. The most frustrating part of the show is how short it is, ending abruptly at 7 episodes. The story could have easily concluded with at least one more episode.

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Taming of the Tyrant

This is the first role of Yoona's that I've enjoyed. 3 star Michelin Chef Yeon Ji Yeong is exactly skilled and audacious enough to root for as she navigates surviving the past she time travelled to. The show takes the path of the main character not caring about butterfly effect of straight up telling people she's from the future and in fact deliberately tries to change historical events. She's all about culinary science not mathematical theories. It does bring about the hilarious way that it shows enormous skill and a dash of pretty privilege to go around saying something that sounds insane to both ancient and modern people alike since she's so good at being a chef. I really enjoy how all the food contest and meal prep and eating scenes moves seamlessly with the overarching relationship developments and palace intrigue plots.

I'm neutral to the romance pairing of the leads, it's serviceable. It was silly to make the Chef Yeon 27 instead of the actress's actual age around the time of filming which was probably 34/35. King Yi Heon mentioned she's "older" than she looks and appointed her in charge of the palace kitchen. It wouldn't have mattered if she was playing her actual age, she would have still been appointed the gig. The flashbacks of previously shown scenes during the romance moments was too repetitive and time wasting though. The drama needed to trust that the present scene of the leads developing their bond is enough. I also would have rather the screen time went to showing a bit of Ji Yeong's time dealing with the power dynamics in the modern kitchens where she alluded she sharpened her abilities not just to craft and innovate meals, but to deal with bullies ancient and modern alike.

Killing off the amiable court lady food tester and the head Eunuch was a good move to show the stakes of the rebellion. The kitchen folk should have been too, though I get why the show saved them for the kicthen/jester/loyal guard/ inventor man team up with the deposed King Yi Heon. It's good that that Yi Heon did recognize that he did some really horrible things like ordering the deaths a lot of people in the course of his revenge when facing down his devious uncle. He should have also been sorry for literally kidnapping and terrorizing a whole nation of his own female citizens until he got obsessed with a magical time travel chef. It's annoying enough that Ji Yeong gets kidnapped in the rescue stand off, but then she unties herself and stands there and shouts at Yi Heon, distracting him when he's fighting alone against his uncle's goons. She could have at least thrown something at the assailants or the uncle to help and he notices her that way.

The last portion of the last episode is the weakest of the entire show, like they ran out of time for writing. There's no explanation for how the Mangurok meal journal that Yi Heon wrote ends up in France for Ji Yeong to pick up for her dad if the book disappears with her to travel back to the present. She doesn't spend anytime with her father that she missed so much. The torn page was good to explain how Yi Heon could travel to the present, but it doesn't explain how he got his new clothes and styling and found his way to her. This show definitely needed a one episode extension to tie things up neatly. The most offensive thing is that it condescends to the audience that it knows the audience wants to know, but it doesn't matter within the final dialogue of the show. Lamp shading doesn't solve the issue of it not doing the properly conclude with things it set up on it's own and failing finish. That lowers the overall score and enjoyment at the end.

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Goes nowhere with it's set up except to romanticize toxic relationships

The writers don't ever bother developing the parts that need to go between A and B, they just suddenly change things with zero development to earn them and even those moments are rare because they just keep the troubling status quo throughout the whole series. They never deal with the ramifications of the protagonists being groomed by their families, where Kuea is so controlled that he partitioned his self from neurotic man child when he's with Hia Lian and their family to being a relaxed functioning adult with interests when he's away from them. Hia Lian who has been conditioned to dedicate his life to the child of this rich family since he himself was a child, is emotionally abusive, controlling, manipulative, and he can't deal with Kuea having his own agency when actually confronted with that side of him which is something that should have been something the characters had dealt with, to see Kuea reconciling the two sides of himself and changing up their dynamic earlier in the series to bring them to heal individually and develop a healthier relationship, but this is never addressed either. The second couple is a mirror to this suffocating dynamic where the younger men are kept both dependent and in fear of their older partners. The only breath of fresh air is Syn and Nuea who develops their relationship organically through bits of screen time here and there. The show has a nice budget, decent music, a mix of actors of varying capabilities, and characters that could have been interestingly complex, but aside from couple three, there is no potential the show doesn't squander or fizzle to nowhere.

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The warmer side of tepid

I was more partial to the main couple, but this is still a nice companion piece to the series it span off from, especially for people who wanted to see more of the second couple. It takes some some time and a lot of suspension of disbelief to see the actors as high school characters, but the characterization of the relationship is well drawn. Since this is a direct prequel there was only going to be one kind of ending, unless it was going to show parts from the series. If there was something that could have been shown a bit more is Dong Hee's relationship with the aunt which is a major reason he took himself out of the equation for as long as he did at the end. I really like the build up to the kiss with Ho Tae refusing to call Dong Hee hyung and how Dong Hee has offered to teach Ho Tae what ever he wanted, which leads to Ho Tae asking Dong Hee to teach him how to kiss leading to Dong Hee thinking caveating the teaching lesson with Ho Tae calling him hyung would stop him, but it only doubles down the tension when Ho Tae asks his hyung to teach him to kiss. Kudos to the writing.

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"Happy" Ending

I do like that you could see that it's a mutual crush from both main characters from the beginning though it's not clear to the characters themselves. Then there is the ending, which is the more messed up the more I think about it. It's really unsatisfactory to see that the happiness of the gay character is left to interpretation. It's such an outdated copout and it's open ended in that it's open to the tragic interpretation that Hyun is only reimagining what he should have done that night after walking away from Dong Ho.

I think it's nice that the Strongberry CEO addressed a few important things to know for the context of this production.

1. Strongberry is the distributer of this series, they didn't make it.
2. The CEO asked why the director didn't end with a kiss in the bookstore for a satisfactory feeling ending, The director regretfully said, "I should have filmed that". The actor was even actually the one who showed up to open the door at the end, but was just never shown.

I'm so happy that the Strongberry CEO spoke my thoughts, because I do think the shortfilm/series was nice up until the end. Filmmakers need to remember they can and should SHOW instead of just tell or imply that these queer characters do have a happy ending. I feel it's so especially important to see that depicted if that is the intent.

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Romance undercut by undercurrent of homophobia & transphobia

There could have been an amazing, beautiful story here about the fluidity of gender, gender as a performance, and someone who learns to accept both parts of themselves with their partner learning to love all parts of them as well, but this production is absolutely not the one to responsibly tell it.

Immediately starting off with Ji Eun getting punched by her boyfriend and having him be disgusted by the thought of kissing her in her male Ji Hoon form was already bad, but even at the end there is no difference in the distance that Yoon Jae puts between them when she's in her male form though he claims it doesn't matter. It obviously does, even in private he acts completely different to her with no physical intimacy in the form of kissing and touches unlike when he's with her in her female form. He only ever thinks of just her female form in the romantic sense, never her now other form as well. She is two different people to him. It's not a grand romantic finale gesture if there's not a kiss, nor even a hug to assure her that he loves her no matter where she is. That's a backslide further than even over a decade ago in terms of queer representation. It's sweet that Yoon Jae's sister and dad is supportive in thinking that he is gay, but ultimately it all hinged on how he acts towards Ji Eun and it just falls apart. Yoon Jae flip flopping on his poor professors about studying at Corning University is also terrible. He doesn't need to give up a cool studying opportunity to reconnect with Ji Eun. He could have just gone back for a day or on vacation or something to clear things up with her. The only way it would make sense is if the 2025 in show is the same as real life and he's in danger as a POC with a student visa in the US.

Ji Eun in her male form also gets slapped by the creepy underclassman Min Joo who doesn't understand no means no even after her multiple brushes with someone into her that she flatly refuses. The gay panic humor is offensively homophobic and making Ji Eun extremely jealous in either of her male or female forms is also never funny. Min Joo's disgusting behavior is the writing's way to always keep her around to do these unfunny jealousy scenes. I do like that Ji Eun is able to physically defend herself with Kendo skills against the creepy guy stalking Min Joo, but unfortunately not against the creepy girl Min Joo. Ji Eun's own sister sexualizing her is also extremely uncomfortable and unfunny, as is her whole storyline with her first love. Ji Eun's best friend Yuri was also obsessed with her male form, but at least she gets past it eventually and can be just besties as usual with her no matter which body. Yuri's pairing with Min Hyuk is pretty cute.

The story tends to focus on how Ji Eun's transformation affects others than herself when it's the strongest when it does actually focuses on her and her family. It was so sad when it's revealed that her grandmother and also great-grand mother stayed in their male forms the rest of their lives, with her great grandmother really embracing the change. I really wanted the scene where she finally gets to ask her grandmother all the questions of the logistics of living with their unique circumstances, but the scene cuts away. The show also ends with the awful implication that Ji Eun and her mother seem to remain in their female forms once they find a man who loves them after finding out unlike her grandmother whose husband left her. Yoon Jae also never has the hard conversation with his mother, so her homophobic attitude towards him and Ji Eun is never resolved. There were so many interesting aspects to explore, but the storytelling here was totally ill equipped to do so.

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Enjoyable Fantasy

Gong Jun is captivating and effervescent as the spritely yet fierce DongFang YueChu. I really like how though YueChu's kind and easygoing, he is ruthless against those who has done truly unforgivable wrongs. Yang Mi's HongHong is taking a lot of flack, but HongHong is peak introvert representation. It's certainly weird that male versions of this personality type are beloved and have every minutia of their movements and dialogue analyzed and understood, but when it's a woman, suddenly that ability goes out the window. It's lovely how extrovert YueChu creates moments and opportunity for HongHong's personality quirks outside of her heavy responsibility protecting and running Tushan and it's great the drama lets the humor play out without either character dipping into childishness. It's so refreshing to see a drama actually use screen time to let the relationship of the main couple develop and strengthen organically and have the issues they are helping with also both parallel and explore their dynamics as well. I like the world building and the themes of different and evolving relationship dynamics, both of interpersonal/inter-species relationships and political conflicts. I'm always excited to see the next episode, can't wait till the new ones!

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Mostly middling

Much of the beginning episodes felt really rushed in post production with very messy editing, an issue that wasn't rectified until the final few episodes of the show. The main plot and the plot of the episode also didn't tie in with each other well enough to develop the main characters as individuals and their relationships with each other.

The creepy episode 3 and and heartbreaking romeo romeo episode 11 were standouts as stand alone stories, while the latter was also the rare ep that also gave more development to the main character, all the way at the end of the show. The queer love of friends who want to be more is also the foil to the aggressively platonic bromance of Khatha and Dome, which is certainly a choice.

The concept and casting of the show was really enticing, but alas the execution didn't meet the potential of what it could have been.

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Romanticized abuser

This drama is like the fictionalized simulator of witnessing someone in an abusive relationship and being unable to help them. The abused person experiences all the abuse and will keep going back even with intervention from loved ones like friends and family.

Joe is used, kidnapped, tied up, and struck with a bat, gets his career destroyed which lead to his death. When he gets a miracle second chance, he goes right back to the same conditions that led to his initial death, working for a scumbag actor and worse selling his body and time to the abusive ex that ruined his life rather than borrow money from a friend he knows is generally a good person and wouldn't take advantage of him.

Ming has been a selfish, unhinged, obsessive, abusive person from the start. All his actions are his own, regardless of Tong manipulating his feelings. He just realigns his obsession from Tong to Joe, he's the same person that would hurt others to satisfy his own obsession. He threatens and manipulates the second Joe into sexual slavery. It's so horrific watching him love bomb Joe and Joe going back to him. Ming has done nothing substantial to show growth or change, just selfishly getting his way. Part of it is the bad writing/directing and another part of it is also the actor can't show any further nuance to Ming. Abusers can truly love the people they abuse and vice versa, but it doesn't change dangerous toxicity of the situation and certainly doesn't redeem the abuser in anyway. The resolution of the show is ultimately unsatisfying and empty.

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Try hard-chy

The early episodes of this drama is so busy trying to give an impression that it will be edgy like the western teen soaps that it seeks to ape that it forgets to set up characterization for any of the main characters moving into the story. It soon falls into the usual school drama cliches, just with a bigger budget and the lightest possible sanitized take on whichever taboo subject it's using for shock value. None of the cast have the acting ability to carry any kind of nuanced angst or charisma needed for any of these kids. The show is so wishy washy to fully condemn the bad behavior of the rich chaebol bully main character and there is also no bite to Kang Ha's plan for revenge for In Han.

Putting aside he somehow easily got the probably highly sought after empty scholarship slot left by his murdered brother, he has no genius plan at all. He just lucked out finding Ju Won has all the illegally recorded videos and even after everything is turned over to the police, there is no cathartic change or justice aside from low pawns on the totem pole like the principal getting fired and the pedophile getting rightfully arrested for murder. Woo Jin is the minor being abused, but he's also definitely an accomplice to hiding the murder. It's also sickening the show keeps presenting the rich kids with wholesome friendship moments like typical kdrama leads and are so wrapped up in feeling bad for them that Kang Ha, the reminder of them being horrible classist bullies pretty much disappears for a lot of the episodes, so the show could pretend they are a whole different drama other than the one where these are the bad guys that they set up.

Jae Yi and Ri An confirm their love for each other, but it doesn't evoke any strong feelings or romance, neither does Jae Yi confirming to Kang Ha that she did have a little bit of feelings for him. Aside from feeling horrified for Jae Yi being threatened by multiple people with both her illegally filmed by her brother sex tape (that's CP as well) and miscarriage, I don't feel bad for the rest of the chaebol bully crew at all, there is no dimension to their stories. This show is unable to form complicated characters, doesn't have any great acting to elevate it, and it's generally boring. The post credit scene of the last ep shows Kang Ha taunting Ri An after the latter comes upon a bloodied student. I can't even tell who that is supposed to be and why it means anything except for the show using supposedly shocking imagery but not delivering anything in the storytelling.

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