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.
so weird that the first thing you thought because his face isn't all sucked that he must be unwell and went searching…
I won't address your motivations here because I don't care what they are.
So weird that you're pretending he doesn't look unwell in The Match and Alive. So weird that your first thought upon reading my comment was to figure out a way to tell me to STFU. So weird to encourage ignoring the symptoms of ill health in those around us, and in the entertainers we see in films and series. So weird to promote the silence and pretense that often enable self-destruction in others. How many times, after someone dies of an overdose, succumbs to anorexia, or kills themselves, do we hear morons around them claim not to have noticed "anything was wrong." They are lying to distract from their complicity.
I'm not sure what YOU are doing. I'll leave that conclusion to others.
I'm only hearing about the news now, but why is everyone in the comments acting like they know what happened.…
These weirdos don't care about neutrality of opinion or innocence until guilt is proven. They want to take part in the sadistic thrill of taking down another entertainer NOW. Assuming the worst and cancelling celebs is what they live for.
She's not a victim, she's an accuser. An accuser who claims to have been "inappropriately touched." The world…
It would be great if that were true, but the reality is that media and KK's agency have already tried him, rendered a guilty verdict, and meted out punishment. He has been yanked from his Jpop group, fired by the agency, and lost endorsements. And we both know he will never get those things back, regardless of his innocence. There is no justice in any of the above.
It's not as though July 30th will decide and end things one way or the other. KK has to wait two agonizing months for the trial to BEGIN, not end. He is only 25 years old. Can you imagine the psychological/mental/emotional pain he is experiencing?
That is the opposite of justice; it is barbaric. Not that CJKTnetz care; for them, his pain is all part of the entertainment package. And should he take his own life, as so many CJKT celebs have well, that's an even juicier thrill.
I see we have a frustrated Cnetz here who doesn't want its supply of thinly-sourced, entirely irrelevant but potentially career-destroying, trashy articles cut off.
NO ONE needs to be writing a story, get it? There is nothing here. Someone faked a recording of this actress trashing Chinese people, so now, before anyone knows what's going on, Lily Alice and her type will have spread the "news" across China/Asia, and most of those who hear of it will only remember what the actress was ACCUSED of, not that in the end it fizzled into nothing.
Note to the wise: Lily Alice doesn't "know" anything about this. All she thinks she knows is what she read, authored by some other trash-spreading writer on some other trash news source. That's how this works; they all print each others' garbage, using ass-covering words such as "reportedly," "some say," "many people," blah blah blah. The trash swirls and swirls, until the celebrity's career and reputation are destroyed, and they kill themselves.
But don't you worry yourself about a little thing like that.
No, Lily Alice, Eleanor Lee did not "find herself" in this "controversy;" you and other disseminators of fabrications, rumors, and half-truths, PUT her there with loose, fact-light articles like this one. Have some decency, and just stop.
I wish someone would remake this film. There is an intriguing, romantic, and tragic story here, which is unfortunately rendered with countless absurdities and ridiculosities. The latter are too numerous to mention, but just for fun, I'll give it a go:
The hilariously bad artwork, which we are to take as the product of a budding genius. That painting is one of the ugliest I've seen. Takumi as a famous and upcoming model, though of what we have no clue. This famous model is nevertheless an average Joe high school student. This famous model is nevertheless a promiscuous mess, not at all picky about his sex partners. This famous model leaves his door unlocked most of the time. The psycho, obsessed friend is apparently the spawn of Satan himself. The bruises to Takumi's face after the attack were on the wrong side of his face. Yoshikazu carried a corpse from Takumi's apartment to the train, then from the train to the beach. Yes...apparently, all hospitals and ambulances were shut down that evening. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Takumi and Yoshikazu ever had sex, though Takumi had already done so with half of Tokyo. Too much bad acting to list, but perhaps the worst is Takumi's dry-eyed sobbing near the end. However, these actors were all young and green at the time, so I blame the director. The stabbing itself...hahahahahahahaha I could continue, but why...?
Good stuff: Basic story line. Beautiful leading men. Beautiful leading men in black Speedos. Takumi's butt. The toilet scene, early on. Nice moments here and there.
Clearly, I don't hate this movie, which is why I just watched it for the third time. I enjoy Saito Takumi's general gorgeousness, combined with the air of danger/sleaze he carries around with him in every project. Yoshikazu is easy on the eyes and a good enough actor. But yeah, I do wish someone would rewrite the screenplay and shoot a remake. If you do, please contact me. I have casting suggestions.
Um…Anyways trans women are women and trans men are men. The trans community is valid no matter the transphobic…
Your "both sides" schtick is even stinkier than it was 25 years ago when John Stewart first fished it out of his toilet.
Your sad, wildly out-of-proportion hatred for the one-half of one percent of the population who are trans speaks for itself. It's called punching down.
1 
1 
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
So weird that you're pretending he doesn't look unwell in The Match and Alive.
So weird that your first thought upon reading my comment was to figure out a way to tell me to STFU.
So weird to encourage ignoring the symptoms of ill health in those around us, and in the entertainers we see in films and series.
So weird to promote the silence and pretense that often enable self-destruction in others.
How many times, after someone dies of an overdose, succumbs to anorexia, or kills themselves, do we hear morons around them claim not to have noticed "anything was wrong."
They are lying to distract from their complicity.
I'm not sure what YOU are doing. I'll leave that conclusion to others.
It's not as though July 30th will decide and end things one way or the other. KK has to wait two agonizing months for the trial to BEGIN, not end. He is only 25 years old. Can you imagine the psychological/mental/emotional pain he is experiencing?
That is the opposite of justice; it is barbaric. Not that CJKTnetz care; for them, his pain is all part of the entertainment package. And should he take his own life, as so many CJKT celebs have well, that's an even juicier thrill.
Appalling.
NO ONE needs to be writing a story, get it? There is nothing here. Someone faked a recording of this actress trashing Chinese people, so now, before anyone knows what's going on, Lily Alice and her type will have spread the "news" across China/Asia, and most of those who hear of it will only remember what the actress was ACCUSED of, not that in the end it fizzled into nothing.
Note to the wise: Lily Alice doesn't "know" anything about this. All she thinks she knows is what she read, authored by some other trash-spreading writer on some other trash news source. That's how this works; they all print each others' garbage, using ass-covering words such as "reportedly," "some say," "many people," blah blah blah. The trash swirls and swirls, until the celebrity's career and reputation are destroyed, and they kill themselves.
But don't you worry yourself about a little thing like that.
Have some decency, and just stop.
There is an intriguing, romantic, and tragic story here, which is unfortunately rendered with countless absurdities and ridiculosities. The latter are too numerous to mention, but just for fun, I'll give it a go:
The hilariously bad artwork, which we are to take as the product of a budding genius.
That painting is one of the ugliest I've seen.
Takumi as a famous and upcoming model, though of what we have no clue.
This famous model is nevertheless an average Joe high school student.
This famous model is nevertheless a promiscuous mess, not at all picky about his sex partners.
This famous model leaves his door unlocked most of the time.
The psycho, obsessed friend is apparently the spawn of Satan himself.
The bruises to Takumi's face after the attack were on the wrong side of his face.
Yoshikazu carried a corpse from Takumi's apartment to the train, then from the train to the beach.
Yes...apparently, all hospitals and ambulances were shut down that evening.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Takumi and Yoshikazu ever had sex, though Takumi had already done so with half of Tokyo.
Too much bad acting to list, but perhaps the worst is Takumi's dry-eyed sobbing near the end. However, these actors were all young and green at the time, so I blame the director.
The stabbing itself...hahahahahahahaha
I could continue, but why...?
Good stuff:
Basic story line.
Beautiful leading men.
Beautiful leading men in black Speedos.
Takumi's butt.
The toilet scene, early on.
Nice moments here and there.
Clearly, I don't hate this movie, which is why I just watched it for the third time.
I enjoy Saito Takumi's general gorgeousness, combined with the air of danger/sleaze he carries around with him in every project. Yoshikazu is easy on the eyes and a good enough actor.
But yeah, I do wish someone would rewrite the screenplay and shoot a remake. If you do, please contact me. I have casting suggestions.
So, once again: 8/10
Self-important, much?
Reading four lines of text IS a lot to ask of anyone.
Your sad, wildly out-of-proportion hatred for the one-half of one percent of the population who are trans speaks for itself. It's called punching down.