Episode 4:Damn, this is good.Love the darkness raising its feral head...Speaking of which, check the spoiler for…
The rape(???) of Yichen by Lufeng in the latter's office was a bit lame in a couple of ways
Given that the actors/director went pretty far, by Chinese standards, with the first sex scene, they needed to take this further also, to make clear that it was forced sex. I'm not asking for a ten-minute S&M scene, but there are ways that with a few more seconds and some additional blocking, it could have been made painfully obvious what happened. As it was, cutting away so soon lessened the impact of the sexual assault, if indeed that's what it was. Because what they showed us was just some rough aggression and a hand gripping the desktop, which tells me only that the director chickened out.
Secondly, if that was a rape, right there in an office with tons of people on the other side of a frosted glass door, why wouldn't Yichen have cried out, thrown something against that wall, or kicked the desk, anything to make NOISE that would draw attention? Doing it early on would have stopped Lufeng cold for fear of being caught.
Instead, we find them cuddled up on the couch afterwards, with everyone's pants back on and Yichen's mouth and hands unbound. I also would have had him show some bruising/redness around the neck/shoulders/mouth. Might as well make things clear. As it was, Yichen was far too silent and clear-faced, with no sign of having wept or fought back, which his character definitely would have.
My perv mind suggested that were I the director, and since Lufeng is being shown as a brute anyway, I would have had Lufeng put his hand over Yichen's mouth, then tape it shut with tape from his desk. Maybe even have his tape Yichen's wrists together before stripping him and doing the deed.
Final bitch: Lufeng never locked the fucking door, at any point after he barged in. Thus, we're to believe that not one person came to see the president of the company during an extended rape going on. Ummm...no.
For the first time, I wasn't entirely convinced by an aspect of Ayden Sng's acting as Lufeng: The transition from remorseful, pleading lover to rapist was not done well. I saw nothing in his character to that point, in four episodes, that gave a hint of this rapist person lurking within. Thus, when the moment came, it felt unrealistic, plus he didn't seem to have gone far enough into anger and frustration to explain this psycho behavior.
Episode 4: Damn, this is good. Love the darkness raising its feral head... Speaking of which, check the spoiler for thoughts on the Lu Feng/Yicha office scene. Love little brother standing up to Lufeng and even pushing him around. Lufeng taking that without responding physically is a sure sign of his guilt. Damn again, the little brother's BF/bar owner is handsome too; a spicier version of Lufeng.
Speaking of Lufeng, the actor playing him has a future as a leading man in mainstream films, assuming having played a gay role and kissed a man doesn't make him a non-person in homophobic China. Remember what they did to the costars of the original "Addicted" series.
Episode 3: The dubbing continues to amuse. Obviously, they dub in all the sound effects, such as footsteps, which leads to hilarious scenes where people are walking outside but make footstep sounds like on a tile floor. :) I liked it when Lu Feng's mom was crying, and the dubbing actor was making sighing/whimpering noises that in no way corresponded with mom's face or mouth. :) Also amusing is the younger brother playing on his little plastic guitar and singing, and the music/vocals in no fucking way match his hand movements or mouth. The mirror image aspect of the two relationships, from looks to personal dynamics, is...kind of boring, in that it feels like seeing the same scenes a second time.
Little brother's puffy gay lips are driving me to distraction.
Can someone explain this to me? Why does this series say it is from China when we know that the PRC would never…
This. Lu Feng is smoldering hot. Great casting opposite the delicate Yi Chen. I'm hoping against hope for a flip-flop development in which Lu Feng shows his love for Yi Chen by bottoming for him. :D Wouldn't that be an awesome scene?
I haven't read the Manga.If you like extremely boring plots with stereotypical JP characters who would rather…
I LIKE slow, contemplative plots and pacing when they are well-done. In those cases, I don't feel bored whatsoever. This is not one of those cases.
I suppose the acting is adequate. It's the script and direction that make the show boring. Very little actually happens. Characters do very little. They don't grow or change; they exist.
The first episode intrigued me. I was up for a great watch. I've devolved to near hate-watching.
Please let me know what you think of the show after you've gotten into it.
And both OST main songs were made with STUTS, so dreamy and sad and beautiful 🫶I also prefer these kinds of…
When you get some time, consider taking a look at the mental/emotional/artistic contortions you're putting yourself through to excuse/explain the retro-homophobic storytelling style of this series.
You're clearly delusional.Join your fellow, gay-baited delulu brethren below.Johwan is attractive? You're into…
I'm plenty calm, just disgusted and annoyed by this series and what its style of storytelling promotes.
I don't know that you "need" to know this, but yes, but Ok Tae Yeon, who plays Johan in this mess, who is a Korean Kpop idol (Which is likely a huge part of why the gay was excised from this show. Korean idols do NOT do openly gay characters in gay productions. They are notorious for playing kinda-sorta-wink-wink-nod-nod gay-adjacent characters who strangely, never express their character's natural sexuality, leaving the shows they star in sterile and homophobic.), has had half his nose removed.
It's (almost) always easy to spot bad Korean nose jobs (Korea has the highest per-capita rate of plastic surgery in the entire world.). It's as though they all go to the same Gangnam District alleyway plastic surgeon. The dead giveaway is the ski-slope-like downward, inward curve of the nose's bridge, which OTY has in spades. It is massively obvious when he turns to profile.
The other giveaway, which is more subtle, is that after the nose jobs, these idols' faces look...off, to a discerning eye. I think I spot it easily because I am a portraiture artist who has always been fascinated by the human face. After nose jobs, MOST people, but not those who have extremely subtle and well-done surgery, their faces appear too large overall for their, new, hacked-off nose.
We all have the same basic features: forehead, eyebrows, eyes, nose, mouth, yet these FIVE features show up in 7 billion distinctive arrangements/proportions around the world, to the point that almost no one looks exactly like anyone else. That fascinates me. How is it possible? :)
Well, Koreans don't like that. Even the ones who are naturally attractive, like OTY, think they need to tinker with their faces, especially after they became famous. So many Korean celebs look like siblings/cousins, it is scary.
I believe he also had double-eyelid surgery, the saddest plastic surgery in Asia. I say that because it's intent is to eliminate the epicanthic fold and single-eyelid that most but not all Asians are born with. It leaves the patient with a Western, "double-eyelid" crease above the eye. That's the goal: They want to look more Caucasian.
What's really sad, but hilarious, is that even after the eyelid surgery and nose jobs, these neurotic plastic surgery addicts STILL look Asian, but now, they look like Asians who have had plastic surgery. lol
But I digress. That nose job bugged me every time OYT turned profile in SM.
Episode 2: Wow, I can't believe I'm totally into a C-BL.
The dubbing is absurd, of course, but the actors are overcoming it with their performances. I'm not at all used to C-dramas, as I avoid them like the plague, so other cheesy aspects leap out at me. However, the great acting of the MC is making all that bearable, so far.
That is one of the most beautiful love scenes I've seen in a BL.
It must suck to be a Chinese actor, putting your heart and soul into portraying a character, only to have some random voice actor compromise your work with artificial-sounding dubbing. :(
Episode 1: Whoa...that smooch caught me by surprise. I guess this really isn't an old-fashioned Chinese censored bromance! :)
The Chinese dubbing usually puts me off to the point that I drop shows just because of that, but for some reason, it's not bothering me too much here. The goofy/silly dubbing fits the goofy vibe of the overall show, so it's OK.
I can't believe you just wrote that the masterful, and clearly gay af, film "Night Flight" is a bromance,…
Night Flight is my #1 fave gay-themed flick, which is why I lost my shit. Sorry. :P
My take is that the crush is bi but identifying straight, and the love of the gay character gradually brings him over to the gay side of his bi side. :) Honestly, I'm self-aware enough to call BS on myself if I thought I was being delusional. But, there is no way I can watch the bi guy's balls-out decimation of the gang of rapists in that epic fight scene, and then his tearful pleading for the gay guy to wait for him while he's in jail in the hospital scene, without concluding that he is indeed in love with the gay guy.
Which does not mean he's not still bi. It means he has found his love...on the gay side of bi.
Don't you love the continuum of sexual identity? :D
Who's gay? Oh, Arata, who disappeared after attempting suicide...and Johan (supposedly), who comes down with a terminal disease and disappears, as all decent, gay, terminally ill characters should do...
1 
1 
Given that the actors/director went pretty far, by Chinese standards, with the first sex scene, they needed to take this further also, to make clear that it was forced sex. I'm not asking for a ten-minute S&M scene, but there are ways that with a few more seconds and some additional blocking, it could have been made painfully obvious what happened. As it was, cutting away so soon lessened the impact of the sexual assault, if indeed that's what it was. Because what they showed us was just some rough aggression and a hand gripping the desktop, which tells me only that the director chickened out.
Secondly, if that was a rape, right there in an office with tons of people on the other side of a frosted glass door, why wouldn't Yichen have cried out, thrown something against that wall, or kicked the desk, anything to make NOISE that would draw attention? Doing it early on would have stopped Lufeng cold for fear of being caught.
Instead, we find them cuddled up on the couch afterwards, with everyone's pants back on and Yichen's mouth and hands unbound. I also would have had him show some bruising/redness around the neck/shoulders/mouth. Might as well make things clear. As it was, Yichen was far too silent and clear-faced, with no sign of having wept or fought back, which his character definitely would have.
My perv mind suggested that were I the director, and since Lufeng is being shown as a brute anyway, I would have had Lufeng put his hand over Yichen's mouth, then tape it shut with tape from his desk. Maybe even have his tape Yichen's wrists together before stripping him and doing the deed.
Final bitch: Lufeng never locked the fucking door, at any point after he barged in. Thus, we're to believe that not one person came to see the president of the company during an extended rape going on. Ummm...no.
For the first time, I wasn't entirely convinced by an aspect of Ayden Sng's acting as Lufeng: The transition from remorseful, pleading lover to rapist was not done well. I saw nothing in his character to that point, in four episodes, that gave a hint of this rapist person lurking within. Thus, when the moment came, it felt unrealistic, plus he didn't seem to have gone far enough into anger and frustration to explain this psycho behavior.
That's my take, anyway.
Damn, this is good.
Love the darkness raising its feral head...
Speaking of which, check the spoiler for thoughts on the Lu Feng/Yicha office scene.
Love little brother standing up to Lufeng and even pushing him around.
Lufeng taking that without responding physically is a sure sign of his guilt.
Damn again, the little brother's BF/bar owner is handsome too; a spicier version of Lufeng.
Speaking of Lufeng, the actor playing him has a future as a leading man in mainstream films, assuming having played a gay role and kissed a man doesn't make him a non-person in homophobic China. Remember what they did to the costars of the original "Addicted" series.
The dubbing continues to amuse.
Obviously, they dub in all the sound effects, such as footsteps, which leads to hilarious scenes where people are walking outside but make footstep sounds like on a tile floor. :)
I liked it when Lu Feng's mom was crying, and the dubbing actor was making sighing/whimpering noises that in no way corresponded with mom's face or mouth. :)
Also amusing is the younger brother playing on his little plastic guitar and singing, and the music/vocals in no fucking way match his hand movements or mouth.
The mirror image aspect of the two relationships, from looks to personal dynamics, is...kind of boring, in that it feels like seeing the same scenes a second time.
Little brother's puffy gay lips are driving me to distraction.
Lu Feng is smoldering hot.
Great casting opposite the delicate Yi Chen.
I'm hoping against hope for a flip-flop development in which Lu Feng shows his love for Yi Chen by bottoming for him. :D Wouldn't that be an awesome scene?
I was fooled until somewhere in the third episode.
I suppose the acting is adequate. It's the script and direction that make the show boring. Very little actually happens. Characters do very little. They don't grow or change; they exist.
The first episode intrigued me. I was up for a great watch. I've devolved to near hate-watching.
Please let me know what you think of the show after you've gotten into it.
You didn't notice Ok Taec Yeon's ski-slope nose job?
It's obvious in profile.
So, I thought maybe you were his surgeon, here to drum up more business, even though your work is shoddy and readily apparent.
Quite an accurate thing to say, actually.
Such direct comments are only considered "rude" by fangirls.
I'm not one of them, so I say what I want.
I don't know that you "need" to know this, but yes, but Ok Tae Yeon, who plays Johan in this mess, who is a Korean Kpop idol (Which is likely a huge part of why the gay was excised from this show. Korean idols do NOT do openly gay characters in gay productions. They are notorious for playing kinda-sorta-wink-wink-nod-nod gay-adjacent characters who strangely, never express their character's natural sexuality, leaving the shows they star in sterile and homophobic.), has had half his nose removed.
It's (almost) always easy to spot bad Korean nose jobs (Korea has the highest per-capita rate of plastic surgery in the entire world.). It's as though they all go to the same Gangnam District alleyway plastic surgeon. The dead giveaway is the ski-slope-like downward, inward curve of the nose's bridge, which OTY has in spades. It is massively obvious when he turns to profile.
The other giveaway, which is more subtle, is that after the nose jobs, these idols' faces look...off, to a discerning eye. I think I spot it easily because I am a portraiture artist who has always been fascinated by the human face. After nose jobs, MOST people, but not those who have extremely subtle and well-done surgery, their faces appear too large overall for their, new, hacked-off nose.
We all have the same basic features: forehead, eyebrows, eyes, nose, mouth, yet these FIVE features show up in 7 billion distinctive arrangements/proportions around the world, to the point that almost no one looks exactly like anyone else. That fascinates me. How is it possible? :)
Well, Koreans don't like that. Even the ones who are naturally attractive, like OTY, think they need to tinker with their faces, especially after they became famous. So many Korean celebs look like siblings/cousins, it is scary.
Here's the best before/after photo of OTY's nose job I could find. Notice the slimming of the bridge. The ski slope effect doesn't show until he's in profile.
https://kpopplasticsurgery.blogspot.com/2016/06/2PM-Plastic-Surgery-2PM-Taecyeon-Plastic-Surgery.html
I believe he also had double-eyelid surgery, the saddest plastic surgery in Asia. I say that because it's intent is to eliminate the epicanthic fold and single-eyelid that most but not all Asians are born with. It leaves the patient with a Western, "double-eyelid" crease above the eye. That's the goal: They want to look more Caucasian.
What's really sad, but hilarious, is that even after the eyelid surgery and nose jobs, these neurotic plastic surgery addicts STILL look Asian, but now, they look like Asians who have had plastic surgery. lol
But I digress. That nose job bugged me every time OYT turned profile in SM.
Wow, I can't believe I'm totally into a C-BL.
The dubbing is absurd, of course, but the actors are overcoming it with their performances.
I'm not at all used to C-dramas, as I avoid them like the plague, so other cheesy aspects leap out at me. However, the great acting of the MC is making all that bearable, so far.
That is one of the most beautiful love scenes I've seen in a BL.
It must suck to be a Chinese actor, putting your heart and soul into portraying a character, only to have some random voice actor compromise your work with artificial-sounding dubbing. :(
Whoa...that smooch caught me by surprise.
I guess this really isn't an old-fashioned Chinese censored bromance! :)
The Chinese dubbing usually puts me off to the point that I drop shows just because of that, but for some reason, it's not bothering me too much here. The goofy/silly dubbing fits the goofy vibe of the overall show, so it's OK.
Don't you know only those raised Christian, like me, are allowed to take his name in vain? :)
Why are you asking Jesus?
He's unlikely to drop down and give you reading lessons.
My take is that the crush is bi but identifying straight, and the love of the gay character gradually brings him over to the gay side of his bi side. :) Honestly, I'm self-aware enough to call BS on myself if I thought I was being delusional.
But, there is no way I can watch the bi guy's balls-out decimation of the gang of rapists in that epic fight scene, and then his tearful pleading for the gay guy to wait for him while he's in jail in the hospital scene, without concluding that he is indeed in love with the gay guy.
Which does not mean he's not still bi.
It means he has found his love...on the gay side of bi.
Don't you love the continuum of sexual identity? :D
Oh, Arata, who disappeared after attempting suicide...and Johan (supposedly), who comes down with a terminal disease and disappears, as all decent, gay, terminally ill characters should do...
A vision of delusion and fantasy.