etoks21

I'll be crucified here for saying this, but as I've told you already Maggi, I want to see a well-made BL in which the lovers already know, or figure out later somehow, that they are full-on blood brothers; and none of this half-brother shit either. :) Half the fun would be watching the heads of half of the BL commentariat explode into tiny pieces. :) Because after all, does the concept of "incest" matter if you're not going to have two-headed children as a result of sex?

Thank you for all that work, Myles. You helped me get a much better grip than I had on what was said in that scene. When Q first made the "family" remark I thought at first he had just figured it all out and was telling Z to back off.

Has anyone ever told you you might be more than a little bit of a b***h?
It doesn't get any more passive-aggressive than ending a comment as snotty and condescending as yours with "love and peace."

So, are you saying Qian FORGOT that Yuan is not his bio-brother? "...not being aware the Yuan is not his real family..." It slipped his mind while fishing that he found Yuan on the street and brought him home? Ummm...no.

Myles and Maggi's theory makes a lot more sense than that does.

Overall, Qian knows and feels a hell of a lot more than he lets on, even to himself. Sometimes it pisses me off a little that, because he now knows, whether or not he admits it and because of San Pang's remarks, that Yuan may be sweet on him, he nevertheless sort of leads him on. He may be playing dumb but we know he's anything but.

I feel Qian KNOWS and FEELS a great deal more than he is ready to admit to himself.

The feels onscreen between Qian and Yuan are the definition of "chemistry." I find myself tearing up at the way Yuan looks at Qian. The latter is in extreme denial. The kind of denial where you deny something to yourself even, but you know what you feel and you can't change it, but you're not anywhere near admitting it yet. Sometimes it even feels a bit like he leads Yuan on.
Lili is adorbs.
San Pang is hot and his baritone voice is slaying me, but the "your future sister-in-law" remark was cruel, given that he knows what's going on.
I could have done with some more creative writing rather than the ankle injury/headaches stuff, but this is top-tier stuff otherwise. Acting is excellent across the board. Qian and Yuan are both beautifully understated and real in their characterizations.

Lots of pretty people here, but I find Kurt Huang as Yuan intensely and distinctively, beautiful. That nose and mouth...

So you're saying the sex scenes went too far and muddied the waters? Your issue is the sex scenes? Lee went into too much "detail?"
I disagree that relatively explicit sex scenes necessarily mean the director had "erotic demons" to exorcise. Judging from the sex scenes in this movie, what demons do you feel Ang Lee was exorcising?
Do detailed scenes of preparation for a bank robbery indicate a need to exorcise "planning demons?"
You use the word "overexpose." How much of the human body can be shown before it is "over" exposed?
As for Tang Wei, she knew what she was doing and where she was doing it, namely Puritanical China. As an unknown, it could be argued that her notoriety derived from this film boosted her career after the period of punishment ended.
The problem with this film is the sloppy plotting and implausible character behaviors, not the sex scenes.

Yocchi and Makato, or the two guy friends?

Hmmm...meh.

Why waste ten years and all that planning, and complicated effort? Just kill the bitch immediately upon finding out. But then we'd have no movie.
Lame acting from Nakamura Anne, but I wasn't especially impressed with the other three either.
Several significant plot holes and unrealistic behavior.
No real chemistry between Makato and Yocchi, which took all the air out of their alleged romance.

6/10

What makes you think Samuel didn't love WooJin any more?

You can have sex without "emotions" or love, as I assume you mean by that.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with having a friend you can talk to, that you clean with, who is not your spouse. Thoughts and actions are entirely different things. It's call self-control and integrity.

Once the apartment filled with water and it was raining from the ceiling, I began to lose focus. Like something from an entirely different movie.

Self-righteous.

Well...they CAN do that, can't they?

Yeah...no.
First two episodes had me all in, then it was downhill fast from there.
I read an episode-by-episode synopsis and skipped 3,4,5, and half of 6. It was a good choice.
The last episode was a tad interesting as revelations were made, but then the director lost his mind and went all artsy-fartsy, absurd in a way totally out of sync with the rest of the film.

I'm a huge Ahn Jae Hong fan, but...no.
5/10

Allah has been doing a really bad job of that for centuries.

And why are you watching movies that "...spoil the atmosphere of the society?" lol
Typical MDL hypocrite/prude/self-righteous Church Lady who thinks people's moral teachings come from the movies they see. Do yours?

That is correct.

Did you walk pigeon-toed? :)

As for the show, that's when I realized it was time to drop: I too had been curious as to the weirdness surrounding Minami, but suddenly, the level of my boredom rose above the level of my curiosity, so I was out. Plus, I was sick of watching the gay kid mooning over the straight one.

If you're sticking with it, enjoy!

The flour sack clothes and pigeon toe thing is odd of course, but no, "not recommended" because the show is terrible. I should have made that more clear. If the plot/acting/direction were good, I would overlook the KAWAII thing, as it shows up even in well-done shows.

If you don't believe me about the pigeon-toe walking and "KAWAII," please simply google it.

Totally agree. A huge percentage of the MDL commentariat is extremely judgmental, self-righteous, and unforgiving, as if they themselves live flawless lives. But when it comes to "cheating," and MDLers ALWAYS call it "cheating," people here lose their minds. Any sense of compassion and recognition of our shared, flawed humanity goes out the window.

After four years around this place, I get a feeling that this hyper-judgmentalism surrounding infidelity is mostly a defensive mechanism by which people think if they condemn and denounce a "cheater" (also known as a "human being") in the strongest possible way, this will insulate them from ever having a partner IRL cheat on them. It's insane, I know, but the over-the-top self-righteousness here is over-the-top too.

I've shared this perspective many times on many different pages here, and have frequently been accused of being a "cheater" myself, because of course, why else would someone advocate understanding, love, and forgiveness unless they too were a "CHEATER," the lowest form of scum on the planet? lol

The simple truth is I have NEVER, not once, been unfaithful to a partner or someone I was dating. Ever. These MDL Church Ladies, however, cannot conceive of someone feeling compassion for someone who has stumbled and wishes to admit their faults and start anew. I speak here only of folks who have had one-night-stands or brief affairs, who then feel remorse and wish to make sure it never happens again. I am NOT defending serial-cheaters or those conducting long-term or multiple affairs, who have no intention of ever coming clean. That is a WHOLE other subject.