etoks21

If you felt condescended to, I can't help you. However, I will definitely own my "snark." My blood content is 60% snark.

I did not waste time responding to your points for two reasons; I disagree with ALL of them and you didn't ask any questions, so what is it I'm supposed to answer?

So it is against your "morals" to see legally-aged minor actors in a scene where they are shown kissing just like teens their age do IRL because...morals. Could you express what it is that is against your "morals" in this context? Maybe I could learn that I too should be outraged at the immorality of it all but just don't get it. Meanwhile, this means you must consider everyone who is NOT disturbed by this to be immoral, is that correct?

Over and over and over I see commenters on MDL who are extremely "uncomfortable" with anything implying sex between characters in a live-action production, even when everything is above board and perfectly legal. And very few of them, like you, take the time to explain WHY they are disturbed and delight in saying things like "if you werent' a pervert you would be disturbed to!" or "It just IS, that's why!" which is kind of what I'm getting from you.

We went through a whole sexual revolution in the late 20th century but now here we are 50 years later and young people are turning back into prudes and panty-sniffers, afraid of their own sexual feelings. Again, just as there is nothing wrong with 14 year-olds kissing IRL, there is nothing wrong with 14 year-old actors doing likewise. We disagree. It's fine. I'm not out to change your mind.

Or just enjoy pretending to be outraged at things they secretly enjoy watching.

Did you see Ren's break-down scene after that bitch smacked him around verbally? Or the scene during which she did the smacking and he tried to act nervous and overwhelmed? I cringed so hard my spine fractured. I'm writing this from the hospital.

Wow, delicate much? I'm happy for you that your low standards allow you to enjoy whatever sludge is presented to you as a BL. Please do enjoy your watch.

Also, a production company pushing specific actors as part of a plan is known as a "marketing strategy," not a "plot." But thanks for your ineffective attempt to disparage what I wrote above.

I'm curious as to what you mean with "I can only commend them for playing such roles." Are you referring to GAY roles? You think low-performance actors who lower themselves to play gay are brave and commendable for that alone? Lord.

I am not "upset" and you know it. There is nothing abusive or profane in my reply to you. It was written in a very dispassionate style. You know that too.
But commenters who can't back up their position with facts often use the "you're upset" approach as a way to suggest the other commenter is being overly emotional and thus irrational. I am being neither.

BTW, another red herring you threw out is the implication I suggested you have no right to have or express your opinion. I wrote NOTHING of the kind, so why are you pretending I did?

I would suggest you take a look at why non-pornographic depictions of human, sexual interactions that take place in the real world make you "uncomfortable." LOTS of things in art and media are INTENDED to make you uncomfortable as part of the emotional journey encountered as you follow the story. I watch many shows that make me uncomfortable at multiple points in the plot. I LIKE those shows best. Experiencing that discomfort is essential if later in the story there is to be some sort of plot development that will resolve my discomfort and even turn it into joy.

Why is it sex that disturbs you so? Do you feel the same when murder, rape, robbery, kidnapping, physical abuse, war, false imprisonment, on and on, etc. are depicted onscreen? What is it about s-e-x that makes it the focus of your distress? It is a HUGE part of the human experience and effects many other aspects of our lives beyond the bedroom.

OK, so you're watching to the end a series you don't like. Got it. Enjoy your discomfort.

That's fine, don't agree.
I have to say I will never understand the strange willingness of BL viewers to make excuses for bad writing, acting and direction "because it's just a BL" and "they're newbies" and "there are other BLs that are worse." lol Newsflash: there are newbies who can actually act and do it well. Just because one is new to BL World doesn't mean they cant' have had other acting experience, however limited.

Which leads to questions of casting. How and why were these two newbies, whose acting is extremely flat and inauthentic, hired to play these roles. That is something we'll never know because the last thing a production company wants to reveal is how lame actors get plum roles.

Is it your belief there are NO qualified, talented, good actors of the age required for these two roles in all of Japan, a country of 125M people, who are seeking work and would have been great in these roles?

My guess is the production company is promoting these actors as part of some overall plan to turn them into money-makers for the organization because they're pretty. Don't get me wrong, pretty is good, though less important than core talent and hard work.

Here we go again:
There have been NO "sex scenes" in this series. There have been moments in which it was clearly indicated sex was imminent and then the scene ended. The sex you're seeing is in your mind, where it was intended to be, not on the screen.

FourTEEN year-olds are not children.
Dictionary definition of "child:" "A human being aged between birth and puberty." Most boys hit puberty by 12, girls by 10. The two TEENAGE actors in this series have clearly hit puberty. Thus, the "child actors" you are seeing are also only in your mind and not on the screen.

Fourteen year-olds by the millions all over the world kiss each other every day of the week and the Earth continues to turn on its axis. Why in the world should it be any different in a story about fourteen year-olds or on a set where fourteen year-old actors are working? Is this a homophobia thing with you? Would you have blinked an eye if male and female teenagers enacted a straight kissing scene? Because, you know, that's all we saw them do.

You claim to have been "alarmed" by "graphic" scenes featuring young characters in the Manga, yet you finished reading it. You know those are just drawings and words, right?Despite your alleged distress over the content of the Manga, you are watching through to the end the series based on the Manga that caused your distress. Got it.

And now you are in comments on the page of the live adaptation you're upset by, based on the Manga you were allegedly distressed by, complaining that the acting and pacing are bad and that the show is not keeping you interested. lol Why are you doing this to yourself? Could it be you enjoyed the content of the Manga and thus wanted to see the adaptation in its entirety? Just asking.

Can we just agree to admit that as great-looking as he is, with amazing shoulders and great hair, Takamatsu Aloha simply does not have the acting chops to pull off the big, intense moments required to make this melodramatic plot at all believable. The scene where he pretended to break down after meeting with that psycho b***h was embarrassing. The director should have trouble finding another job too. Aloha (love that name) has trouble making a scene where he acts like he's saying goodbye to Kazuma on a good day seem authentic; there is no way he's up to the big moments in which Ren experiences great anguish/sorrow/fear/etc. His efforts are very amateurish and seem to be getting worse.

Sakurai Yuki isn't much better, but his character is much calmer and collected than Ren so his lame moments aren't as excruciatingly bad. Overall, their combined acting is high school-level and flat. Again, much of this lies at the feet of the director who is clearly not up to his job either.

For some reason, the one exception to the above that stands out is the scene where Kazuma convinced Ren to make love with the curtains and his eyes open in an earlier episode. Perhaps another director covered for the principal on the day of that shooting.

Also, if Ren's busy at the computer saving the world for sexually harassed women, why can't he pick up his phone and call Kazuma?

Too bad. This had a good vibe in the beginning.

IKR? lol

My guess has always been just absolute laziness on the part of set designers and dressers working the Thai BL Assembly Line. It's not as though they didn't have enough budget to go buy a bunch of 50-cent used books at the thrift store, or hell, even ask everyone on the crew to bring borrowed books from home. They just don't freaking care.

Ultimately, all those things are the director's fault but they're mostly lazy and lame at working with their actors so I suppose it's way too much to expect them to notice things like blank walls, empty bookcases and floodlight ceiling lights that stay on even when the characters go to bed.

Watching this one young man set up his little room with what he could scrounge together, carefully sweeping the floor to make it tidy and adding the Sunflower lent great authenticity and told us more about his character than most Thai BLs tell us in 12 one-hour episodes.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Actually, and especially for one with so little time onscreen in the prologue, I thought his interaction with the other actor was quite good, as in realistic and natural. I'm mostly talking about their quiet dialogue after the bed stuff. He was unhurried and relaxed with the few lines he had. Whatever it was that made it so, I noticed it, as there is often so much bad acting in BLs.

As for the budget, I noted too that they were likely working on a shoestring, and yet the apartment settings and the cinematography were very well done. In comments below, an MDL friend and I discussed what a nice contrast that is to the sterile, unnatural, furniture store-like look of so many BL sets out of Thailand and to a lesser degree depending on the show, Korea. Maybe it's a case where having almost no budget was a PLUS for the show as a whole. You don't need much money to set up realistically spare dwellings for impoverished characters.

But even so, the dwellings we saw were filled with objects and things on the wall, just as real people would decorate and accumulate objects/things over time, in whatever space they had. The young man who just moved in took the time to hang vinyl records and album covers on his walls, which tells us he loves music, perhaps is a musician, and is creative in making the most of what little he does have. The wall decor and the fresh sunflower told me that wherever he lives he likes to make it feel like home.

I grew up in the state of Kansas USA, known as the "Sunflower State" because so many of them are grown for their seeds there. Perhaps the character is also from Kansas. 😁😁😁

I used the word "seemed" for a reason...

No one was asking for this comment of yours either. Yet here it is. lol

Oh, don't worry about the tiny spoiler from the trailer. No biggie. Did we just have our first little tiff? 😉😉😉😉😉

Actually, the smoker-chick said it was an arranged marriage herself, and it indicates in the synopsis above that the gay guy Kelvin was married, so I thought that's how I put that together, but whatever. It doesn't matter, my dear. 😁😍😍

Assuming this story is pretty accurate as to what actually took place, these people were self-delusional, nearly psychotic losers. From student to protestor to "army" member to murder-cult to suicide-cult, it was play-acting all the way.

The silliness of what they were up to all along was their "military training" during which, instead of firing ammunition they actually yelled "bang" at each other. Jesus.

Human nature is a scary thing.

We're not talking about the same kind of information here, Maggi. A skilled critic knows how to write a review without detailed plot spoilers. To me, what you are talking about is general background information and I totally agree about having more of that enriching the first viewing experience. A big reason I get so much enjoyment out of good WW2, WW1, Korean War and Vietnam War movies is that I know so much about the history of those conflicts, which is vastly different from me knowing specific details of the plot of a film and what happens to its characters as a film unfolds while SET WITHIN one of those conflicts.

Perhaps I overstated my position on going into a movie knowing as little about the SPECIFIC PLOT of that film, but I don't think so. Knowing that generally speaking, a lot of closeted gay men marry straight women, have kids and then divorce is background/context information. Knowing going in that a specific character in a specific plot in a specific film has already married, had kids and divorced, when that information is not presented in, for instance, this prologue we just watched is something else.

I don't understand people's desire to predict and assume major plot points before they encounter them on the screen during the film itself. Setting, time frame, historical context, etc. is one thing. Specific character attributes and what is going to happen to those characters is another. It's like MDL commenters constantly announcing in comments what is "going to happen next" because it's in the Manga or Manhwa or or novel or whatever they read. They even tend to throw hissy fits if a writer/director/etc. dares to change something in an adaptation. How DARE they?!

Even if the basic events in the plot and the characters are basically the same in an adaptation as in the source material, there is no way they are going to be IDENTICAL to what the individual reader of a novel or Manga has pictured in their mind as they encountered the story the first time around. No two readers/viewers perceive a story in exactly the same way, even if they're looking at pics along with text.

So yeah, background on time/place/context/overall setting, I'm OK with knowing. Specific plot elements, not so much. No reason for me to want or need to know that ahead of time. To me, it's the equivalent of insisting on reading a novel's outline before reading the novel.

Finally, I don't get the purpose of spilling in a trailer for a second ep. information we weren't provided in the preceding ep. or as here, in a prologue. I have never thought of trailers or god forbid, Youtube interview and fan-service videos as PART OF the content of a film or series, but that's me.

Can I call him "Mr. Chips?" :D

Maggi, you know I shy away from trailers. I will never understand why some trailers give away major plot points. Even if a show basically starts with a situation like you say, what is gained by giving out that information ahead of time? I'm sure there's enough intriguing action in other scenes/episodes that could be used as bait in a trailer without conceding plot points.

I like to sit down to a new BL show knowing as little about what I'm going to see as possible. Which is interesting, as when I used to go to big-screen movie theatres I always liked seeing as many trailers as they would dish out before the film started. However, perhaps Hollywood is better than BL World at whetting one's appetite without spoiling one's dinner. The best trailers make me think "wait...what?" not "oh, OK, so THAT'S what's going to happen and when."

Just my measly, little opinion.

Yes, it was a real, intentional kiss, that is true. But the script found it necessary that one of them be in a black-out drunk or a hallucinatory delirium. lol

I don't care much though, this looks to have promise at least, and I noticed the realistic set decoration just as you did. God, all the Thai BLs are peopled by characters who live in floodlight-bright furniture store showrooms with nary a phot or painting on the walls. And those weird overhead ceiling lights NEVER go out, even at 3am. :)

The one that always comes to mind is My Bromance 2, in which one or both of the brothers live in a house as uninhabited-looking as the moon. No pictures, no books, no tchotchkes, no nothing. Well, OK, maybe ONE tchotchke. Downright creepy.

I'm holding out that it's a "fever," from which he has fallen to the floor in a delirious state of hallucination, lol Whether that or a drunken fall, it's an unfortunate sign that so many BL tropes are being employed in the first 15 minutes.

That said, the episode had a nice look and feel to it and I'm hopeful. Also, I enjoy hearing the Hong Kong speech patterns again. I like the way they hold out the last words of some sentences in a kind of sing-songy manner.

Well...I was thinking she was telling the story of her groom-to-be's life in the past, as it was leading up to the present in which she is sharing the story with "Shawn," the guy in bed. So my theory would be that she is GOING TO marry one of the gay guys in the story she is telling, sadly enough. She is fully aware her soon-to-be husband is gay but she and he feel there's no way out.

Yes, I'd agree with your second paragraph about Asia/Kansas and gay men marrying women. However, don't kid yourself that every day, in every state in this country, there aren't still lots of closeted gay men marrying straight women in the hopes they can pull it off. Unfortunately, in most cases they are headed for a lot of pain all-round.

Plenty of those women will eventually discover their husband is gay, but there will be children involved and they'll choose to stay together, both for appearances and to raise the kids. LOTS of those women will suspect but never ask. And LOTS of those men will have either a steady male lover on the side or be involved in a never-ending string of one-night stands. Keep in mind how easy it is to live a double life now with the Internet as a factor.

I went through my own story in this regard just before online social media became a thing. Actually, I'm glad it wasn't around yet as it would have been very tempting to just hookup on the sly a lot instead of facing the truth and setting myself and my ex-wife free. My guess is that we would have come to the same end but social media would have drawn things out significantly before I broke.