etoks21

Why do love triangles upset you so much? Love triangles happen all the time IRL. The problem is how badly this one is written. Not an ounce of originality or believability.

The ex's sleaze is the only thing making this watchable.

yup

After episode 6:

Thank goodness for the platinum-blond ex and his shamelessly sleazy manipulations and transparent motives. He's the only interesting thing about this show. Is it possible he's behind the appearance of that hot little fuck-up at Hisashi's office whose fuck-ups, which keep Hisashi away from Sakae, are perhaps not so incidental? I hope so. That would be a delicious development.

At this point, I'm hoping the shady ex wins out. There is NOTHING that explains Sakae's supposed attraction to Hisashi. There is nothing to be attracted to.

At least this episode made me laugh a few times, early-on.
What's with the huge weight machine at Sakae's house? He's a beautiful man, but those scrawny arms make it clear he does NOT use the machine. lol I mean, why even have the weight machine in the story?
How can you make a living off a restaurant/bar that seats 12 people?
Is it just me, or was this filmed through a wad of cotton candy? The picture is so fuzzy (fluffy?) I keep wishing I could adjust the contrast. The only time it suddenly got sharp was when Hisashi was filming Sakae's cooking video. Then we were back to super-soft focus.

Clearly, this show was written for the MDL 13-year-old girl crowd. We're edging into the fluffy territory of some of the most egregiously gushy BLs out of Thailand, like "Secret Crush On You." (oops, I just threw up a little in my mouth).

Enjoyed this one. Lower-key, less-frenzied, less-ninja fighting than your basic Korean crime thriller, but no less interesting. I was with it all the way. Excellent acting for the two MLs.

A couple of plot hiccups. They aren't huge, but enough to notice and bug me a bit. I will never understand why such things can't be corrected before or during a film's production.

Recommended.

8.5

I'm guessing English is your fourth or fifth language. You need to work on your comprehension skills. "Juvenile" in the sense I used it, means "childish, psychologically or intellectually immature," and it refers to how the show is written, directed, and produced, not to the age of its characters or its viewership. lol

Go look this word up in your ESL dictionary: "Dunce" You may well find your photograph there.

Oh, I forgot: JBOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

Wow, for someone who doesn't "care about my opinion," here you are replying again. lol Who cares when a stupid comment was left? It was still left and it's the first I've seen it.

You know what's dumber than someone responding to a weeks-old comment? Someone replying to a reply to a weeks -old comment and then whining that the comment is old. hahaha

As I wrote above, as a viewer you are disabled, in a sense, and in need of help. You "felt nothing" during this excellent series, but see "Bad Buddy," a juvenile, moronic after-school special for children, as a "masterpiece." omg, the jokes write themselves.

You are one of the biggest problems with the MDL BL audience, which generally prefers fluffy crap over quality shows.

"Blueming" simply flew over your head. You're too immature for it to register on your quality meter.

I look forward to your reply to my reply to your reply to my reply to your "weeks-old comment," which was so lame of me to leave, and to which you still, you know, replied.

"back up" lol You're ferocious!

I don't care if you care about my opinion or not, my opinion is that you are, as a viewer and critic of live-action storytelling, significantly impaired. Next show you watch, be sure to have a qualified, compassionate caregiver at your side.

Bad Buddy. Good God.

Wow. Clearly, your taste level is dreadfully low.

I'm betting you think "Bad Buddy" is a "masterpiece." Am I right?

Good on you for noticing!

I find it impossible to look at The Novelist and its prequel, Mood Indigo, which I like even better than the former, as "BLs," along with the other shows on this list. They are so much more mature in every way, feature mature characters, and feel so cinematic, that I decided to regard them as movies instead of dramas, and moved both of them over to my best gay-themed feature film list. Mood Indigo is #10 there, and The Novelist sits at #14.

Nice cinematography.

Frustrating, cliche story, but young actors were pretty good.

6.5/10

Lame and stupid, but also kind of cute.

7.5/10

On edit: I just watched this a second time after two years and thoroughly enjoyed it. Didn't feel "lame and stupid" this time around, but very, very cute and funny. Actors are a great contrast in face and body, and both did a good job. Very natural. Even the drunk scene was quite convincing. I'm surprised Han Sang Gil hasn't had more roles than what I see on his bio. I could see him as a strong leading man.

A couple of minutes of making out would have been nice at the end, but this is Korean, after all.

New rating: 8.5/10!

Hi, do you have a link to where I could watch this with english subs? It sounds hilarious.

Wow. Is that character some kind of germaphobe?

u r a vile individual.

Your review says you look forward to watching it again, eventually. Is it that you want to watch again but don't want anyone else to see it...what?

If you were "uncomfortable," why didn't you stop watching?

Newsflash: Lots of MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS have sex. This movie is about two of them.

If you wanted to see a movie about HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS who have sex, you should have searched for one on IMDB. This is not a movie about those characters. Had the students been "aged up" to high school or college then it would be an entirely different story, with different implications, situations, and consequences. This is not that story.

Finally, just so you know, you were NOT "watching them have sex." You were watching two actors pretending to have sex because, they are...like, actors and stuff. Having sex is not "weird." It is one of the most natural things in the world.

It's hilarious that you do all this prudish bitching about actors pretending to have sex at 15, and then you finish your review by saying "I do want to eventually watch it again...' lol Apparently you didn't mind all that nasty, uncomfortable, unnecessary teenage sex all that much.

We haven't discussed the fact Meiko and Eiji kept banging each other for weeks after she stopped banging Makki. Seems to me they had stopped trying to get her knocked up, or at least Makki thought they had stopped, but Eiji and Meiko kept fucking, which is why the dates she gave Makki regarding her pregnancy and what he figured out from his reading didn't match up. Makki is unambitious but far from stupid.

Or am I missing some other explanation for the source of betrayal Makki spoke of feeling toward them? I think Eiji kept doing her because he wanted to please his father with a kid, which is insane to begin with, AND he wanted to keep playing out the fantasy of this new, romantic love he claimed to feel for Meiko.

Thanks so much for all your replies. You've given me a lot to think about, and helped me see connections and metaphors I missed even on a second watch.

However, I still strongly disagree about what choices Eiji will make going forward. Do you recall the desperate sorrow and LOVE in his eyes and on his face when he and Meiko met up with Makki at the restaurant and he sat across from Makki at the table. The acting was oscar-worthy in that the only words he could get out were "I'm sorry..." but his face, eyes and tears spoke an entire novel's worth of passion and longing.

As Makki walked them to the car afterward, it was all Eiji could do not to stop himself from getting in that car and scooping Makki up in his arms, or going to his knees in front of him and begging forgiveness. Returning to his daily life of lies was the last thing he wanted to do, but for now, he did it.

But then that was followed by the weeping into the bathrobe scene back at the apartment. First he sat and smiled as he looked at pics of his daughter, then he looked at pics of Makki, then he sobbed into the bathrobe.

My point here is that a person like Eiji can't go on indefinitely stifling all that love and passion on a daily basis, as well he shouldn't have to, no matter what has gone before. Eiji is not the type to be comfortable with living a double life; one as a straight, married man with a kid and the other out in gay bars on weekends picking up one night stands. If he keeps doing what he's doing, he will implode/lose his mind. So, I see it as a matter of when and how this would happen, not IF it would happen. That feels like a given to me.

Of course, the question then becomes, will Makki still be available? I really like the hairdresser and his slow, gradual falling in love with Makki. I loved how he told Makki he was "dear to me." This is only a small part of the reason this story is ripe for a sequel.

A few things before I go:

Eiji and Meiko CAN'T be living some straight, married fantasy in which they actually believe they're in love and that this is the way they should live the rest of their lives. They both know all too well what went down before. So why, when they all met at the restaurant, and when Meiko saw clearly the reluctance with which Eiji joined her in the car, wouldn't she have been the one to speak up and say "this isn't right. We need to figure something out that includes you two together as a couple?"

I didn't hate her quite as much as I remembered doing before when I saw, this time around, the urgency with which she expressed a desire to see Makki, to get his contact info from the hairdresser. However, it seemed very odd to me that when the three of them met at the restaurant, neither one of them had anything to say. Eiji COULDN'T speak, but I expected there to be some concrete, well-thought-out points they'd want to get across. hell, they've had years to think about it.

Hell, Makki did most of the talking. The other two sat there weakly tearing up.

Also, do you have a clue on what went down between Eiji/Meiko and Eiji's parents, that was so negative? It was first referenced in a phone call between a still-pregnant Meiko and Eiji's sister when the sister asked if they had met up with the parents and the conversation became weird. Then the parents showed up to meet the baby, but it was clear they didn't know if they'd be allowed in, and Meiko had to give permission for that to happen.

Do you think they simply knew the whole story, and it was too weird for the dad to handle at first? Meiko banging both guys to get knocked up and all that?

As for the dad, I try to give them some slack because I know it's a cultural issue, but these Asian parents who are all about what THEY want and how THEY feel about everything, really upset and piss me off.

Again, thank you for all the new perspectives you have given me on this show. It won't be long before I'll watch it again. Have you watched only once? If so, I am truly impressed with your grasp of the writer/director's intentions, meanings of related scenes, etc.

What I mostly took away from my first watch was how much I loathed Meiko for coming between the guys, especially her and Eiji banging each other after she stopped sleeping with Makki. I mean, I hated her so much I could hardly breathe. When she had entered her last couple months of pregnancy and was on the phone with Eiji's sister, that scene especially drove me insane. She seemed so smug in what she had accomplished and completely unbothered by the fact Makki had been driven out of their relationship and was gone.

Now I think I misread some things. Not that she's blameless, not by far, but she may also not be the witch I recalled from my first watch. And yes, on their beach "let's get pregnant" trip, she was the one who said "no turning back," and her insistence really bugged me, but no one put a gun to Makki and Eiji's heads either.

That slow, silent scene in which they inch their way into bed together and eventually begin...having sex (I guess? It felt much more clinical than even that.) was so powerful on the second watch. There was dread, discomfort, weirdness, even creepiness going on. They were all proceeding together with this insane plan that two of the three didn't even want to do...and yet the went ahead. And the way Meiko lay there, absolutely motionless, as Makki and Eiji began to make out so they could get turned on enough to do her, was eerie. It made it so clear that she saw herself as simply the receptacle of their sperm, and wasn't even really going to engage with how she got it inside her. Yuck, but ooh, good stuff. :) I like weird, dark, troubling things like that.

God knows I've done plenty of things in my life I didn't really want to do, but I went ahead anyway for my reasons at the time.

See, to me, his dissolving into tears over Miiko's bathrobe is the confirmation that he IS gay, DOES love Miiko and not Mieko, and has now put himself in a horrible jam he's going to have to try to live with the rest of his life.

I'm all for happy OR sad endings, as long as whatever it is comes organically out of what went before. To me, that's the case here. Asian films have made me a lot more comfortable with open endings like this.

A great sequel could be made to this story, because Eiji is too good-hearted a man to keep living a lie forever. I see him as eventually leaving the bitch and either hunting Miiko down or just starting a new life on his own, living honestly as who he is. Which means there'd be a showdown with his selfish, horrible father, with Meiko, and potentially with Miiko, if he were to find him.

I am just about to start episode 7 of my second watch of this show. And after seeing it this time around, I don't disagree with you about the ace thing, maybe even aro. Either way, I despise Meiko's character. I know she's fucked up from her background but that doesn't excuse what she deliberately did, in my opinion, to the guys.

I think she's kind of a psychopath, in that she doesn't know how to interact with people emotionally on an intimate level, and so she wreaks destruction in her wake. To me, from the moment she said "I will have your baby," she knew at least subconsciously, what she was up to. And when both guys wanted to back out on their beach trip, and she said "No turning back..." that's when I understood her to be fully aware of what she was up to.

I began to dislike her with the first statement, and I began to hate her with the second.

It's a very unique show, especially for the BL genre, which is a big part of why even though I hate the FL, it's in my top 30 best BLs list.