This review may contain spoilers
Pretty disappointing, overall.
The show was really, really slow. Even watching on 2x speed, there was a lot of standing around in silence during conversations. On 1x speed, it literally felt like it was in slow motion some times. A whole lot of nothing happened in most episodes, and the whole plot is based on a trivial high school misunderstanding, and I think it could have been boiled down into four 30 minute episodes. As it was, it was just boring.
Also, the acting from whoever plays Achi was pretty bad. He always had this same wide smile on his face, even when it didn’t fit the mood. Ji would be upset or angry and Achi would just be standing there with that dumbass grin on his face. He was so tone deaf too, like smiling and telling Ji to eat and think later when Ji is upset about a patient with cancer, considering that his mom died of cancer. The acting was just really one-dimensional and not convincing, overall. I didn’t buy that Achi was in love with or even attracted to Ji whatsoever.
There was a lot of consent / boundary issues on Achi’s part. He non-consensually kisses Ji in episode 2 and rightfully gets punched in the face for it. Ji tells him to leave him alone and that he doesn’t want to see him again, so Achi decides to show up at his house, coerce his way in, and then proceeds to refuse to leave for the entire day AND night. During which period he make further physical moves on Ji, such as dropping a face mask on his face and picking it up with his mouth (Ji pushes him off and is upset about this), and touching his face in his sleep. He was constantly showing up uninvited and unannounced and refusing to leave. Achi could have appealed to Ji by being kind, being friendly, just using open communication, but instead he kept violating his boundaries and sexually harassing him. Even during the high school flashback scenes, there was a scene where he stalked Ji on his date with Pear.
There were two scenes that I think had good consent. One was when Achi kisses Ji in the present in bed. When Ji stops him, Achi respects it and doesn’t try again. The second was the high school flashback NC scene. They’re watching an erotic movie, and Ji tells Achi to turn it off. Achi respects it and does. Achi puts his hand on Ji’s and when Ji doesn’t move away, Achi asks Ji if he wants to try it. Ji says no and Achi removes his hand and backs away, until Ji himself grabs Achi and initiates things. When they’re getting undressed, Achi looks to Ji and waits for a nod of approval before removing his shorts.
I didn’t understand why Achi having a girlfriend was at all necessary. I couldn’t understand the timeline of their relationship either. When Achi meets Ji in Chiang Mai, he says he has a girlfriend and her shoe is in his car. But he non-consensually kisses Ji minutes later. And the girlfriend says in an interview that they’re broken up the next day. So did he break up with her after kissing Ji or were they already broken up? If they were already broken up, then why did he lie? And if they weren’t broken up, why was he still with her, when he came to Chiang Mai with the explicit intent of chasing after Ji again? And speaking of, what changed after 10 years that he suddenly decided to go after Ji again? And Achi never tells Ji that he and his girlfriend broke up, so is Ji going along this whole time thinking that Achi is cheating on his girlfriend, and he’s just okay with that? The girlfriend added nothing to the plot and just made me uncomfortable with the whole emotional and potentially physical cheating that was going on.
There were other inconsistencies as well. In the high school flashback scenes, Ji says he likes Pear, but then he immediately tells Achi that he has a pretty face, eyes, nose, and mouth (in a clearly non-platonic way). He then goes on the pursue Pear and continues to talk about liking her. But then when Achi finds Pear “cheating” on Ji, Ji says they were never together and were just friends. And then he and Achi have sex. So what?? Did he like her, did he not like her, what was their relationship and at what point did his feelings change?
And in the finale, they show that Achi was aware that he hurt Ji and he was aware that the reason Ji was hurt was because he disappeared without a word right after they had sex. So why in the beginning, when he met Ji in Chiang Mai, was he acting like he didn’t know what was wrong and why Ji was acting cold towards him?
I felt that Achi, Ji’s friend, and Ji’s brother all scheming together to reunite Ji and Achi behind Ji’s back was really messed up too, considering that the friend and brother knew how much Achi hurt Ji. They never should have disregarded his feelings and wishes and prioritized Achi’s instead.
The side couple with Achi’s brother and the random farmer guy was also really pointless. They weren’t shown enough to really develop their relationship, what was shown was boring and not convincingly romantic, and it felt disjointed from the rest of the show.
Also, a side note that could be written off as a cultural difference or extremely problematic depending on your perspective: I believe Ji's family's butchering business sells dog meat. It was translated as "pork" in the subtitles, but it was clear based on his mom asking how they could keep a dog as a pet when they sell "pork" at the shop.
The show was really, really slow. Even watching on 2x speed, there was a lot of standing around in silence during conversations. On 1x speed, it literally felt like it was in slow motion some times. A whole lot of nothing happened in most episodes, and the whole plot is based on a trivial high school misunderstanding, and I think it could have been boiled down into four 30 minute episodes. As it was, it was just boring.
Also, the acting from whoever plays Achi was pretty bad. He always had this same wide smile on his face, even when it didn’t fit the mood. Ji would be upset or angry and Achi would just be standing there with that dumbass grin on his face. He was so tone deaf too, like smiling and telling Ji to eat and think later when Ji is upset about a patient with cancer, considering that his mom died of cancer. The acting was just really one-dimensional and not convincing, overall. I didn’t buy that Achi was in love with or even attracted to Ji whatsoever.
There was a lot of consent / boundary issues on Achi’s part. He non-consensually kisses Ji in episode 2 and rightfully gets punched in the face for it. Ji tells him to leave him alone and that he doesn’t want to see him again, so Achi decides to show up at his house, coerce his way in, and then proceeds to refuse to leave for the entire day AND night. During which period he make further physical moves on Ji, such as dropping a face mask on his face and picking it up with his mouth (Ji pushes him off and is upset about this), and touching his face in his sleep. He was constantly showing up uninvited and unannounced and refusing to leave. Achi could have appealed to Ji by being kind, being friendly, just using open communication, but instead he kept violating his boundaries and sexually harassing him. Even during the high school flashback scenes, there was a scene where he stalked Ji on his date with Pear.
There were two scenes that I think had good consent. One was when Achi kisses Ji in the present in bed. When Ji stops him, Achi respects it and doesn’t try again. The second was the high school flashback NC scene. They’re watching an erotic movie, and Ji tells Achi to turn it off. Achi respects it and does. Achi puts his hand on Ji’s and when Ji doesn’t move away, Achi asks Ji if he wants to try it. Ji says no and Achi removes his hand and backs away, until Ji himself grabs Achi and initiates things. When they’re getting undressed, Achi looks to Ji and waits for a nod of approval before removing his shorts.
I didn’t understand why Achi having a girlfriend was at all necessary. I couldn’t understand the timeline of their relationship either. When Achi meets Ji in Chiang Mai, he says he has a girlfriend and her shoe is in his car. But he non-consensually kisses Ji minutes later. And the girlfriend says in an interview that they’re broken up the next day. So did he break up with her after kissing Ji or were they already broken up? If they were already broken up, then why did he lie? And if they weren’t broken up, why was he still with her, when he came to Chiang Mai with the explicit intent of chasing after Ji again? And speaking of, what changed after 10 years that he suddenly decided to go after Ji again? And Achi never tells Ji that he and his girlfriend broke up, so is Ji going along this whole time thinking that Achi is cheating on his girlfriend, and he’s just okay with that? The girlfriend added nothing to the plot and just made me uncomfortable with the whole emotional and potentially physical cheating that was going on.
There were other inconsistencies as well. In the high school flashback scenes, Ji says he likes Pear, but then he immediately tells Achi that he has a pretty face, eyes, nose, and mouth (in a clearly non-platonic way). He then goes on the pursue Pear and continues to talk about liking her. But then when Achi finds Pear “cheating” on Ji, Ji says they were never together and were just friends. And then he and Achi have sex. So what?? Did he like her, did he not like her, what was their relationship and at what point did his feelings change?
And in the finale, they show that Achi was aware that he hurt Ji and he was aware that the reason Ji was hurt was because he disappeared without a word right after they had sex. So why in the beginning, when he met Ji in Chiang Mai, was he acting like he didn’t know what was wrong and why Ji was acting cold towards him?
I felt that Achi, Ji’s friend, and Ji’s brother all scheming together to reunite Ji and Achi behind Ji’s back was really messed up too, considering that the friend and brother knew how much Achi hurt Ji. They never should have disregarded his feelings and wishes and prioritized Achi’s instead.
The side couple with Achi’s brother and the random farmer guy was also really pointless. They weren’t shown enough to really develop their relationship, what was shown was boring and not convincingly romantic, and it felt disjointed from the rest of the show.
Also, a side note that could be written off as a cultural difference or extremely problematic depending on your perspective: I believe Ji's family's butchering business sells dog meat. It was translated as "pork" in the subtitles, but it was clear based on his mom asking how they could keep a dog as a pet when they sell "pork" at the shop.
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