etoks21

Wow, that's one big-ass block of text. Ever hear of dramatic tension OR paragraph indentations?

Part of your OP was in the form of a question: "I want to like this series but why did they make him 17.. liking minors when you 25ish is crazy"

You should have added that you didn't really want your question answered unless in a specific tone, so you wouldn't feel "condescended" to.

It's hilarious that you made a one-sentence, humongous generalization about 17-25 age gap relationships, then ended up writing a huge block of text full of exceptions to your own generalization.

Thanks for the entertainment.

Don't use big words like "alienating" unless you understand what they mean. It's not possible to "alienate" someone you don't know and have never met or had a discussion with. Just as I expected, you're highly defensive out of the gate. "I can think what I want and you can't make me change no matter what, so there!!!" is the reply of a child who's afraid if they consider other perspectives they might have to change their mind and they don't want to do that, no matter what. lol

I don't have to put myself in the shoes of someone whose opinion makes no sense. Are you saying all people are the same at 18 and again at 25? What about all the 27-year-olds who are less mature than some 18-year-olds? Would you object to the relationship if the younger guy was 19? 20? 21? Or do 25-year-olds need to date only 25-year-olds?

You DO seem to be of the mindset that magical things happen at midnight on our 18th birthdays...19th...21st...24th?

Generally speaking, women mature more rapidly than men, so in a straight relationship the female should always be four or five years younger, right? That way, they would be at roughly same maturity level in your black-and-white fantasy world of how relationships and psychological development works, correct?

The issue is that there is nothing illegal or immoral about this seven-year age difference, and if it works for the people involved why would anyone else care? Yet, you're objecting to it. Furthermore, given the highly specific, and very different circumstances under which different individuals develop, there are thousands of 17-25 age relationships that would work just fine.

Consider that complaining about this kind of age gap in a drama or film is really just you leaping at an opportunity to display your moral righteousness and superior understanding of human development. Your defensive reply to my comment indicates that to be the case.

I would love to read your comment. Could you please break it up into paragraphs? Looking at that solid block of text is intimidating. :D

Ever heard of dramatic tension? People often fall in love without checking each other's ID for age verification. Do you think something magical happens at midnight on a person's 18th birthday that suddenly alters their psychological makeup from child to adult?

Furthermore, the age of sexual consent in Taiwan is 16, so what is it that you object to? And no, "that's my opinion!" is not a justification, it's a childish, defensive refusal to consider why you believe what you believe.

Hi Phuwin's mom.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!

Korean espionage thrillers are the best in the world. Only the Korean versions of this genre can leave me tearing up DURING a vicious revenge scene wherein a despicable pos is cackling his ass off with glee as one spy he has trapped under his thumb approaches the hero from behind to kill him off. The twist here is a beautiful thing.

All the best, most kick-ass car chases I've ever seen are in Korean movies. Hollywood (I'm American) can suck it. Tom Cruise bores me. I never cared much for this kind of shit until I found Asian/Korean cinema. Now I can't get enough.

Gong Yoo, forever my badass zombie-killer, is the man. Park Hee Soon is excellent here, as is Jo Sung Ha, who makes my hatred and loathing for his character so delicious. Jo Jae Yoon and his bubblegum-chewing good guy, side-kick schtick is the best. Honestly, there's nothing not perfect about this flick, for what it is, other than the one time it seemed a hundred and fifty trained snipers could NOT seem to hit Gong Yoo even though he was running along the peak of a roof for 50 yards, outlined against the sky.

But OK, I'll let that slide. Just awesome. Highly recommended, even if I'm 11 years late to the party.

It's past time for the sequel, in which Gong Yoo's and Park Hee Soon's characters team up for another mission and become gay lovers, after which they raise Gong Yoo's little girl together.

9.5/10

I did not know that about Che. I'm well aware in a vague way, of who he was and what he did, but without much detail. Your statement doesn't surprise me though; I will do a little research.

In recent months I've been marveling at the far left in the U.S. (and I am pretty damn far left myself) supporting and idealizing Hamas and Palestinian Islam in general following its October 7th massacre of Jews and the subsequent Israeli response. Hamas and Islam, in general, would see all of us Allah-forsaken faggots thrown off buildings, hung upside down from cranes until dead, or having our heads chopped off, for the crime of existing. Meanwhile, the women out in the streets of NYC chanting their support for Hamas and Islam, were they to actually live under those monstrous mindsets, would be forced into the kitchen, shrouded in hijabs, and bearing children one after the other.

As grotesque as the "Christian" Right in America is, it is NOTHING compared to the anti-gay, anti-woman insanity of radical or even mainstream Islam. Whereas these "Christianists," as I prefer calling them, have little to nothing in common with the teachings of Jesus Christ, the prophet Mohammed was a murderous warlord responsible for the deaths, torture, and rape of hundreds of thousands of Jews, Christians and Gentiles.

Why are people so stupid? Well, because they've always been stupid.

I wish someone with a decent, feature film-level budget would get hold of this script, rewrite it as it so desperately needs, recast it, and do it justice on the big screen. There's a pretty steamy, solid noir plot going on here, but the straight-to-video look, a lot of lame acting, and that hideous sectional couch in the living room reduce the story to cheese.

6/10

How about an article tackling how Korean media/netizens/police/public regularly bully and drive to suicide its best actors, musicians, and other artists with intrusive, inappropriate, and over-the-top scrutiny of their private lives?

I quickly skimmed and read major parts of this discussion, but it's clear I'll never be on board with that show as a good one. To me, it presents a severely depressed, self-destructive neurotic who regularly, as a symptom of his illness, shits on the people closest to him because he doesn't feel in his bones that he deserves anything good in life, least of all love.

Making things even worse is his belief that anyone who would be so stupid as to love undeserving him is clearly unworthy of respect. So naturally, he drives them away. And he does this over and over. I know what this is about, because I was just like him for two and a half decades of my life before my depression and self-hatred was diagnosed and treated.

The problem is that in the show, his depression is NOT diagnosed and treated, it is used as a repetitive plot point but never called what it is, and nothing is ever done about it. And yet, at the last second, they have some sort of weak, in-the-moment, happy talk and that's it. All I see coming for this couple is years of misery as the same pattern repeats itself. But even that revelation is not presented in the show.

The guy who is a star is of course, also mentally ill or he would not be so passionately drawn to the abusive, self-hating, incapable-of-love Jiwoo in the first place. Or he would be initially attracted but soon realize how unhealthy Jiwoo is, and for his own health and happiness, he would let go of him. Instead, he pursues Jiwoo to the ends of the earth, living in a fucking camper so he can be treated like shit on a daily basis.

This is not romantic love. It is sickness. This could have been a remarkably powerful show if it had had the balls to confront that reality and make a story arc out of the MCs' efforts to deal with it. Instead, we got monotonous, depressing episodes of watching two guys dance around the problem, paying attention only to the symptoms, not the disease.

Seems to me a lot of MDLers think that simply presenting depression, self-hatred, and all the damage it does over and over and over again, is somehow a revelation; that this is a "masterpiece" because it's relentlessly SAAAAAAAAAAAAD, so it must be profound. It's not profound. It's extremely shallow in its one-layer version of mental illness.

So, TMS2 presents two mentally ill protagonists, going round and round in circles for hours on end, then ends where we started because Jiwoo is in a slightly less depressed mood the last episode of the show. It's such a strangely monotonous plot in which our lovers experience almost no character development; we watch the gears of depression and misery grind two people into pulp the, boom, the end.

Thanks for the opportunity to rethink why I have such a negative view of this show. But as I said, it is not my purpose to change your mind. Enjoy! I'll probably try to watch season 2 again someday when I'm feeling especially masochistic, on the off chance I'll see something I missed before.

Well-said.

The script has hinted numerous times that she's a big-time model. She has "gone abroad" on modeling assignments. That magazine she was "featured in" had her on the cover.

I can search for that discussion, but do you have a link I could follow? I would appreciate that.

If that's the case, they better get on it fast. :D

It wasn't just that Jiwoo "frustrated" me. I don't mind frustrating, strange, weird, hideous characters if the plot/script explains their actions and that's where the second season fell short for me. He just kept treating the other guy like shit, over and over and over again, until all of a sudden, at the end, it was all suddenly "OK!"

I understood that apparently, he was severely depressed, correct? But he was never treated for it as far as I recall, and yet at the end the other guy took him back as though it wouldn't all just happen over and over again, which IRL it would. I've fought depression all my life and it doesn't just go away.

Oh well, I'm not trying to change your mind. I'm glad you liked it.

If he didn't "care about himself," he would have fallen apart when Qian ordered him out of the house, Instead, he used the money Qian had saved for him to get his education and begin to succeed in America. People with no self respect, who don't care about themselves, don't act like that.

I tried to the no-subs thing once because an MDL friend watches lots of shows we can't find sub for, "raw," so I thought I'd try. It drove me crazy. All I could think was "what the hell are they SAYING?!!!!," especially in big, emotional scenes. I'm not cut out for watching raw. :)

Interesting...I am not a fan of "To My Star," and especially not of the second season, which is, in my opinion only, one of the worst K-BLs I've ever seen. Production and acting was good, but those two guys made me crazy, always doing or not doing things for what seemed to be no reason other than that it was in the script. Are you a fan of the second season as well as the first?

I don't pay attention to almost anything Chinese. They can take their gay-ban and shove it up their Puritanical asses. That's another thing that has always seemed odd to me: That Communist countries have generally been extremely prudish and backward regarding sex of any kind, but especially gay sex. Communism rejects religion, which is usually the source of such prudery, so I don't get where it comes from.

I HAVE been watching "Unknown" and completely agree about its quality. Watched episode 7 today and it may have been the best yet. Well-written, well-acted, well-directed...I have no complaints. But with two and a half hours to go, I'm nervous. :D

I live for angst, drama, torrid, upsetting tragedy and all that, but it feels like these two have already been through the ringer. When Qian sent the text today, "Come back if you miss home," I cried. :)

So the ghost of Champ answered the phone at home...TWICE? Once to take a message from Ton's mom, and another time just after that to receive news of his own death? I mean, he physically picked up the phone with his hand. Also, why is Ton looking all spooky and dead upstairs when Champ goes to the bedroom, as if he IS dead, when it's Champ who is dead?

After reading other comments, I think it's just poorly written and doesn't really make sense.

Too bad, because there was nice chemistry between the leads, and a nice, spookiness going on in the second half, even if the music crossed the line into slasher/stabbing shrieks a couple times.