This is a good but very serious and sometimes hard to watch movie. I couldn't complete it but I may come back…
Do you mind saying a bit about why you found it so hard to complete, despite its good story and acting?
On edit: Never mind. lol I just started the film and knew within 30 seconds why it was hard to complete. I'm not ready for that tonight. I'll come back to this when I think I'm in a frame of mind to deal with that level of authenticity regarding what it portrays. :P
Why should he be trained if he's already trained? ðŸ˜ðŸ˜
He is trained in Taekwondo, Judo, and Kendo. He is NOT trained in legally required police procedures of any kind. He is not trained in the use or proper maintenance of firearms. He is not trained in defensive use against firearms. He is not trained in the use of tasers. He is not trained in the use of mace. He is not trained in hot pursuit of armed suspects, including how to avoid/prevent harm to innocent bystanders. He is not trained in legal restrictions on use of force. He is not trained in arrest procedures. He is not trained in evidence handling to prevent contamination or invalidation. He is not trained in giving court testimony. He is not trained in writing reports. He is not trained in incident investigation and documentation. He is not trained in the use of police communications equipment and systems. He is not trained in the use of legal methods for search and seizure. He is not trained in the criminal laws he is supposed to enforce. He is not trained in the use of emergency vehicles. He is not trained in patrol/surveillance techniques and procedures. He is not trained in working as part of a team. He is not trained in interacting with the public, de-escalation techniques, or problem-solving approaches. He is not trained in first aid, CPR, or AED techniques. He is not trained in drug recognition or handling. He is not trained in dealing with domestic violence or sexual assault awareness. There are dozens of other areas in which this character is not trained or qualified to be on the street as a law enforcement officer.
Were someone like this released upon the public by a superior officer as stupid as the one in this film, he would be a time bomb of death, mayhem, botched investigations, and lawsuits waiting to explode. He and the people responsible for him being in such a position would end up in jail for gross negligence and many other crimes.
It was fun putting together this list off the top of my head. Do you have any other questions?
Three of my favorite Japanese actors in Matsuda Shota, Kora Kengo, and Ando Sakura (always brilliant). Only a few will like this film, and I'm one of them.
HE IS. Lily Alice is deliberately pretending he doesn't exist, as a continued persecution of Yoo following his…
Exactly. :( This morning, I emailed the mods about excluding Yoo from this article, but as you can see, nothing has been done about it, and likely won't be.
idk why she isnt fired yet.She is not allowed to let her personal thoughts and opinions into these articles but…
I have concluded that what she writes, or in this case does NOT write, reflects the editorial position of MDL as a whole. It is no accident that her garbage continues to be published here.
HE IS. Lily Alice is deliberately pretending he doesn't exist, as a continued persecution of Yoo following his wildly overblown drug trial and media-created "controversy." This is what Knetz do. Apparently, Lily Alice is one of them.
Hey Lily Alice! With this article, you have outed yourself as a vindictive Knetz, who shouldn't be writing for MDL or any other publication.
YOO AH IN IS ONE OF THE "HIGH FIVE," AS IN LEAD ROLE, AS IN ONE OF THE "FIVE" IN THE TITLE OF THE FILM. You deliberately cut him out of this trash article, including a mention and photo of the villain character/actor in his place. You DISAPPEARED him.
Yoo has been tried, charged, punished, and released from jail. The Korean public has resoundingly welcomed him back, as shown by the box-office records being smashed for his film, "The Match." What is your motivation for cutting Yoo out of this article? Please do the right thing and edit it to include him.
Its how asian looks. Only Idol have a mature look. The rest asian look so much younger compare to the West. But…
"...look as though they are in middle school." This is known as an" exaggeration," in which the writer overstates a situation or aspect to make a point.
This doesn't have the snap and clarity that most Strongberry productions have had. Things like the super-duper-soft focus, which we usually only get during the intro, but here are getting throughout, don't help. A lot of bits like the dude hiding his face from the customer while working the bar, aren't landing well. The director seems to be trying to make up for what's lacking here with an extra-loud and snappy jazz OST. It's not working. I hope this gets better fast. SB has a lot of nerve asking people to wait one week for each fifteen-minute episode. Absurd.
i actually don't think you like BL? 😠i'm not a super fan of this one specifically but i don't think a 3 is…
Thanks for taking a look at my list. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Of course, much of what we're talking about comes down to personal tastes and preferences. That said, I have a major problem with the Thai BLs since roughly 2020, and their fondness for these elaborate plots, overwrought OSTs, melodramatic spy stories, etc. I found the entertainment business side of Top Form to be laughably juvenile and simplified. That "The Sexiest Man" thing had me rolling my eyes at how ridiculous it was, particularly in portraying film fans as nothing more than psycho, squealing fangurls and boys. Also, you can't have an MC who on one hand says he wants to be a "great actor," but whose main focus is on "The Sexiest Man" contest. :) It is that type of moronic silliness that has turned me away from a lot of post-2020 Thai BLs.
The subplot of the grandmother being someone who gave profoundly important performances of plays on a tiny stage in front of a few people on folding chairs, being nationally renowned for her work, was absurd. That made me laugh, too. The actress was quite good in her scenes with Akin, though; I was deeply moved by those two together.
To me, these sometimes hilariously amateurish but complicated plots in which the romances are set pull tons of focus from what ends up being a weak, supposedly central love story. Far more often than not, there is simply no budget to portray the world the show makers want to create believably, so we end up with a cartoonish facsimile like the entertainment industry in Top Form. The eeeeeevil film producer and the eeeeeeevil music that blared to let us know how eeeeeevil he was, had me laughing. I hit fast-forward a lot through this thing.
I have only been watching BLs for five years now. It's just that when I discovered this odd and wonderful little universe, I binged all the Thai classics pretty quickly, then began branching out into Asian films. At this point, I am much more into Asian gay/mainstream feature films, especially from Korea, than BL, largely because most recent BL is crap.
The reason for early BLs such as Together With Me and Tharntype being on my top 30 list has more to do with their significance as steps forward in BL storytelling than with having magnificent screenplays and acting. That said, I was far more moved by those shows than TF. Both shows pioneered showing full-on lovemaking and deep kissing between actors, instead of the fish-kiss/mannequin poses we got in the earliest BLs like SOTUS. The first time I saw a mannequin kiss where the camera swirled around dramatically to hide the fact that the actors weren't even touching mouths (SOTUS), had me going "wtf is happening?" lol And you could tell from their head positions they weren't even close. :) So distracting.
"Love Sick" is on there for its significance as one of the trailblazers in gay romantic story telling; and for the tender performances of its leads. I have watched the BL cut of LS three times.
None of my favorites feature elaborate spy/murder mystery/yakuza plots. In my preferred BLs, it is usually a high school, college, or straightforward business setting, and it functions as a stage for the main event, the love story. The business drama in Top Form is embarrassingly naive, like children pretending. I laughed again when, near the end, Akin was transformed from an actor to a...DIRECTOR! of a major feature film, in a magical, split-second. lol Again, like children playing "feature film industry" and staging a melodramatic, pretend meeting among business heavyweights.
No...let's leave all that stuff to the feature films with the budgets to portray those worlds in a believable way.
Finally, Thai films are guilty, over and over, of portraying fem gay men and trans women as screeching stereotypes, not real, individual, people. That little queen who threw the tantrum in the business meeting in ep. 11 is a horrendous example. That scene alone set gay rights back ten years. ;)
OK, that's far more than you wanted to know about my BL preferences, so I'll wind it up here.
i actually don't think you like BL? 😠i'm not a super fan of this one specifically but i don't think a 3 is…
I love BL when it is well-done, but not when it's poorly done. But that goes for any genre. If you're interested, below is a link to my custom Top 30 Best BLs list.
Episode 11: A struggle to finish this thing...and for the love of god, get that hair out of their eyes.
Top Form ended up being primarily a fairly typical Thai bad BL, the kind I would be mortified to watch with my non-BL World friends. Every cliche in the book, silly screenplay, lame acting from the Smart half of the lead couple, on and on. Reading the fangirl comments below is a cringe-fest. It saddens me that Thailand put out ALL the early BL classics I love, but has devolved to a level where cheesy pablum like Top Form is considered great work.
Top Form isn't the stinkiest by far, but it's still a Turd Out Of Thailand (TOOT).
Korea's last few BLs have been meh to blech, Japan isn't doing anything, Taiwan has disappeared, but the TOOTS just keep coming down the river. This is the first Thai BL I've watched any part of in a long time. I did so on the recommendation of an MDL friend. It will be a long time until I watch another.
Its how asian looks. Only Idol have a mature look. The rest asian look so much younger compare to the West. But…
lol Are you saying all "asian" look like they're made of white candle wax? I have watched about a thousand Asian films. This is NOT how the "rest Asian look." I agree that the average Asian adult looks younger than the average Western adult of the same age, but they don't look like they're in middle school. It's the overuse of white makeup/face powder I object to the most. Don't tell me they're not wearing any. They are.
Episode 1: Not the greatest start to a Strongberry...
...but it's Strongberry, so I'll stick around. Why do most of the actors look as though they're made of white candle wax? Why do most of the actors look as though they're in middle school?
This is one of the most delightful, ultra low-budget shorts I've seen. In 17 minutes we get right to the point and tell the story. Cute actors who do a good job under the circumstances. Great characters, including the adorable stalker fujoshi. Cliches galore, but in a good, fun way.
1 
1 
On edit: Never mind. lol I just started the film and knew within 30 seconds why it was hard to complete. I'm not ready for that tonight. I'll come back to this when I think I'm in a frame of mind to deal with that level of authenticity regarding what it portrays. :P
He is NOT trained in legally required police procedures of any kind.
He is not trained in the use or proper maintenance of firearms.
He is not trained in defensive use against firearms.
He is not trained in the use of tasers.
He is not trained in the use of mace.
He is not trained in hot pursuit of armed suspects, including how to avoid/prevent harm to innocent bystanders.
He is not trained in legal restrictions on use of force.
He is not trained in arrest procedures.
He is not trained in evidence handling to prevent contamination or invalidation.
He is not trained in giving court testimony.
He is not trained in writing reports.
He is not trained in incident investigation and documentation.
He is not trained in the use of police communications equipment and systems.
He is not trained in the use of legal methods for search and seizure.
He is not trained in the criminal laws he is supposed to enforce.
He is not trained in the use of emergency vehicles.
He is not trained in patrol/surveillance techniques and procedures.
He is not trained in working as part of a team.
He is not trained in interacting with the public, de-escalation techniques, or problem-solving approaches.
He is not trained in first aid, CPR, or AED techniques.
He is not trained in drug recognition or handling.
He is not trained in dealing with domestic violence or sexual assault awareness.
There are dozens of other areas in which this character is not trained or qualified to be on the street as a law enforcement officer.
Were someone like this released upon the public by a superior officer as stupid as the one in this film, he would be a time bomb of death, mayhem, botched investigations, and lawsuits waiting to explode.
He and the people responsible for him being in such a position would end up in jail for gross negligence and many other crimes.
It was fun putting together this list off the top of my head. Do you have any other questions?
Cute emojis, by the way.
You guess correctly. :)
Not a single one.
9/10
This morning, I emailed the mods about excluding Yoo from this article, but as you can see, nothing has been done about it, and likely won't be.
YOO AH IN IS ONE OF THE "HIGH FIVE," AS IN LEAD ROLE, AS IN ONE OF THE "FIVE" IN THE TITLE OF THE FILM. You deliberately cut him out of this trash article, including a mention and photo of the villain character/actor in his place. You DISAPPEARED him.
Yoo has been tried, charged, punished, and released from jail. The Korean public has resoundingly welcomed him back, as shown by the box-office records being smashed for his film, "The Match." What is your motivation for cutting Yoo out of this article? Please do the right thing and edit it to include him.
Thank you.
This is known as an" exaggeration," in which the writer overstates a situation or aspect to make a point.
You must live a sheltered life.
This doesn't have the snap and clarity that most Strongberry productions have had. Things like the super-duper-soft focus, which we usually only get during the intro, but here are getting throughout, don't help. A lot of bits like the dude hiding his face from the customer while working the bar, aren't landing well.
The director seems to be trying to make up for what's lacking here with an extra-loud and snappy jazz OST. It's not working.
I hope this gets better fast.
SB has a lot of nerve asking people to wait one week for each fifteen-minute episode. Absurd.
Of course, much of what we're talking about comes down to personal tastes and preferences. That said, I have a major problem with the Thai BLs since roughly 2020, and their fondness for these elaborate plots, overwrought OSTs, melodramatic spy stories, etc. I found the entertainment business side of Top Form to be laughably juvenile and simplified. That "The Sexiest Man" thing had me rolling my eyes at how ridiculous it was, particularly in portraying film fans as nothing more than psycho, squealing fangurls and boys. Also, you can't have an MC who on one hand says he wants to be a "great actor," but whose main focus is on "The Sexiest Man" contest. :) It is that type of moronic silliness that has turned me away from a lot of post-2020 Thai BLs.
The subplot of the grandmother being someone who gave profoundly important performances of plays on a tiny stage in front of a few people on folding chairs, being nationally renowned for her work, was absurd. That made me laugh, too. The actress was quite good in her scenes with Akin, though; I was deeply moved by those two together.
To me, these sometimes hilariously amateurish but complicated plots in which the romances are set pull tons of focus from what ends up being a weak, supposedly central love story. Far more often than not, there is simply no budget to portray the world the show makers want to create believably, so we end up with a cartoonish facsimile like the entertainment industry in Top Form. The eeeeeevil film producer and the eeeeeeevil music that blared to let us know how eeeeeevil he was, had me laughing. I hit fast-forward a lot through this thing.
I have only been watching BLs for five years now. It's just that when I discovered this odd and wonderful little universe, I binged all the Thai classics pretty quickly, then began branching out into Asian films. At this point, I am much more into Asian gay/mainstream feature films, especially from Korea, than BL, largely because most recent BL is crap.
The reason for early BLs such as Together With Me and Tharntype being on my top 30 list has more to do with their significance as steps forward in BL storytelling than with having magnificent screenplays and acting. That said, I was far more moved by those shows than TF. Both shows pioneered showing full-on lovemaking and deep kissing between actors, instead of the fish-kiss/mannequin poses we got in the earliest BLs like SOTUS. The first time I saw a mannequin kiss where the camera swirled around dramatically to hide the fact that the actors weren't even touching mouths (SOTUS), had me going "wtf is happening?" lol And you could tell from their head positions they weren't even close. :) So distracting.
"Love Sick" is on there for its significance as one of the trailblazers in gay romantic story telling; and for the tender performances of its leads. I have watched the BL cut of LS three times.
None of my favorites feature elaborate spy/murder mystery/yakuza plots. In my preferred BLs, it is usually a high school, college, or straightforward business setting, and it functions as a stage for the main event, the love story. The business drama in Top Form is embarrassingly naive, like children pretending. I laughed again when, near the end, Akin was transformed from an actor to a...DIRECTOR! of a major feature film, in a magical, split-second. lol Again, like children playing "feature film industry" and staging a melodramatic, pretend meeting among business heavyweights.
No...let's leave all that stuff to the feature films with the budgets to portray those worlds in a believable way.
Finally, Thai films are guilty, over and over, of portraying fem gay men and trans women as screeching stereotypes, not real, individual, people. That little queen who threw the tantrum in the business meeting in ep. 11 is a horrendous example. That scene alone set gay rights back ten years. ;)
OK, that's far more than you wanted to know about my BL preferences, so I'll wind it up here.
If you're interested, below is a link to my custom Top 30 Best BLs list.
https://kisskh.at/list/3rWQjk74
Top Form ended up being primarily a fairly typical Thai bad BL, the kind I would be mortified to watch with my non-BL World friends. Every cliche in the book, silly screenplay, lame acting from the Smart half of the lead couple, on and on.
Reading the fangirl comments below is a cringe-fest.
It saddens me that Thailand put out ALL the early BL classics I love, but has devolved to a level where cheesy pablum like Top Form is considered great work.
Top Form isn't the stinkiest by far, but it's still a Turd Out Of Thailand (TOOT).
Korea's last few BLs have been meh to blech, Japan isn't doing anything, Taiwan has disappeared, but the TOOTS just keep coming down the river. This is the first Thai BL I've watched any part of in a long time. I did so on the recommendation of an MDL friend.
It will be a long time until I watch another.
Meh/Bleh
3/10
Are you saying all "asian" look like they're made of white candle wax?
I have watched about a thousand Asian films. This is NOT how the "rest Asian look."
I agree that the average Asian adult looks younger than the average Western adult of the same age, but they don't look like they're in middle school.
It's the overuse of white makeup/face powder I object to the most.
Don't tell me they're not wearing any.
They are.
...but it's Strongberry, so I'll stick around.
Why do most of the actors look as though they're made of white candle wax?
Why do most of the actors look as though they're in middle school?
Just asking.
In 17 minutes we get right to the point and tell the story. Cute actors who do a good job under the circumstances. Great characters, including the adorable stalker fujoshi. Cliches galore, but in a good, fun way.
Highly recommended.
9/10