There are borderline BLs. Then, there are upper-borderline BLs and lower-borderline BLs. This BL is of the latter variety.
Bad: Plotting/writing/casting/direction/acting/Nishiyama Jun/the two ugliest men's coats on the face of the Earth: Sakae and Mizuki outside the Squash court in episode 10
Good: Kan Hideyoshi's beauty and fairly good acting chops
I can't believe I ended up confronted with yet ANOTHER "I am going to hurt you in the worst possible way to prevent you from being hurt" BL breakup excuse. I can't believe the best solution they could come up with was going BACK to the stupid long-distance relationship idea, which was already proven to be unworkable. The solution is for Soga to work in the local branch where he was ALREADY working. All the horse shit about why that wouldn't work is just that, horse shit.
So, this gets a 5.5/10 rating, which is a D- grade. KH's cheekbones saved it from an F.
Problems: Both leads are in loveless/sexless marriages, one with a bipolar/suicidal spouse. Both leads have a child with special needs, which makes leaving the marriage extremely difficult.
Solution: Both leads remain in their loveless/sexless mariages for the sake of their children, but carry on a long-term, committed, and carefully-planned affair on the side. The nut-job wife already knew, and the husband SHOULD have known, given that he and his wife have not been intimate for a long time.
The IS no perfect solution here, so you choose the most logical. Both leads had been desperately lonely and miserable as human beings. The need/desire for love and affection does not disappear because you have a special-needs child. I would argue that the ongoing affair would allow both of them to have that need met while still doing the best for their kids. Especially in the case of ML, his heartbreaking loneliness was hard to see.
The only thing he did that was shitty was his cowardly act in the hotel near the end.
This world consists of infinite shades of gray. This film's black/white perspective is the saddest thing about it.
I don't want your advice, so consider it ignored. I don't need you to tell me how or what to write. You are the one who has difficulty expressing yourself through the written word.
Any insult inferred by you in the use of the word "Lesbian" is your hangup, not mine. I am a gay man. I know and have known a lot of Lesbians over the years. Many of them would not hesitate to tell you they have a negative view of men, especially straight men, in general. That's a fact. Deal with it.
Furthermore, I did not use the word "Lesbian" in any way having to do with the movie. I used it referring to YOU. If you find that "insulting," that too, is your hangup, not mine. :)
You did not write "this kind of guy," nor did you explain what "this kind of guy" would mean. You wrote "typical MAN," implying ALL men, which is a sexist statement.
Moral of the story: ADULTERY Is bad….it leads to broken homes…..STOP ADULTERY
yeah, uh huh...THAT will definitely happen. Many times, the home is already broken. That's why one of the spouses is vulnerable to an affair; they're unhappy.
The self-righteous judgmentalism on MDL continues to amaze.
Meh...bored. Too many names/offices/cops/gangsters/corrupt politicians/blah blah blah to bother keeping track of. Seems to me they mostly sit around talking without much happening, except for the occasional dismemberment or murder. Can't believe there's two more hours of this to go...
How many similar yakuza/politicians/corporate corruption movies does the Korean film industry think it can make before it's maxed out? I feel I've seen a hundred variations of what's going on here.
Can any Korean actor portray a character without smoking cigs as a crutch? All my favorite movies and actors are Korean, so I get to ask this.
Kissing is important in bl but some are fine if they give us proper chemistry,I have seen so many good kissing…
Are you referring to K-Dramas? I have never watched a non-gay/BL K-drama and from what I have read about them over and over, I'm not about to start. lol I watched three or four episodes of a popular, mainstream K-Drama three or so years ago and couldn't believe how melodramatic and lame the story was.
More than anything else though, I was shocked by the low production values, which included that cheap, straight-to-video look of the final print that you only get with inexpensive cinematography onto whatever the current equivalent of what we used to know as a VHS tape is. Horrible.
And I know from snippets of other dramas I checked out because I liked an actor or actress who I learned to be in the show, that the cheap cinematography is the standard in the K-Drama world. These were dramas featuring major stars I knew of from the movies I'd seen. I watch lots of Korean/Japanese/Hong Konger/Taiwanese feature films, so I was shocked that these big stars were also doing cheap-ass TV dramas. I'd be horrified to see one of them in a mannequin kiss.
But the Asian film/drama industry is way different than here in the U.S.
The only Asian dramas I've watched are non-romantic, thriller-type shows commissioned by Netflix, which are all first-rate in quality.
Kissing is important in bl but some are fine if they give us proper chemistry,I have seen so many good kissing…
ugh. Cherry Magic had me going but that older actor's refusal to do real kissing, and the resulting tease kisses where they moved in as if to kiss and then the scene cut, turned me off to the entire series. Kissing in a BL is no more or less important than it is in a straight romantic drama; I would feel the same way if a couple kissed like this in a straight movie or drama. But the ONLY genre in which I've ever seen mannequin kisses is BL, which tells the whole story right there. It's bizarre.
I just don't get that it was SO important to have that particular actor in Cherry Magic, that the director compromised the integrity of his entire show so that he could include him. Why not just cast someone non-homophobic or closeted? But then, who knows what went into putting any show like that together, how the casting came about, etc.
Cherry Magic also annoyed me because the popping of the dude's "Cherry" near the end was glossed over as if unimportant. Jesus.
I thought both were in J-Pop groups, but only the actor playing Akihiro is an idol. The other guy appears to be only an actor. My guess, from experience, is that it is the first guy's status as an idol that required these mannequin kisses. I think you're right though; it seems there was a more convincing kiss in episode 1, which makes it odd too; why more normal kisses in one episode and then mannequin kisses in the next?
Who knows? Either way, nothing takes me out of a scene like a mannequin kiss and all its implications. The first time I saw a BL mannequin kiss after I discovered BL Land three and a half years ago, I truly was like "what the hell is going on?" lol
Meh...kind of boring. People below complain about short episodes, but I found myself wishing time would move faster. There's just nothing engaging or intriguing going on.
Akihiro keeps playing hard to get, but he keeps accepting slithery invitations and there's no real dramatic tension. We and the characters know exactly where this will end. The "bitch" thing was supposed to be...funny? Sassy? It felt out of left field to me, and not in a good way. The assistant doesn't read as the kind of queen who would say that, so..wtf?
Finally, the mannequin kisses, designed to protect the ostensible, alleged straightness of the two J-pop idols, along with their marketability, ruin every scene in which they are resorted to. No one, anywhere on Earth, kisses like that. Fake mannequin kisses ("eeeeeewwwwww...don't move your lips! People might think we're gay!) are a direct insult to the audience.
Don't want to kiss a guy? Don't accept a role in a BL...bitch.
I'm not trying to force you to do anything. I'm asking simple questions about why you say the things you say and do the things you do. But you won't answer because you don't HAVE to. Well, questions and answers are part of any discussion, and if you can't handle that, it says plenty about your perspective.
So, let me get this straight: You have repeatedly referred to the "Lust, Caution" sex scenes as "porn, utterly graphic, in-your-face crude, and gratuitous," yet now you claim you're not "offended" by them. Alrighty then...I guess twisting yourself into a pretzel reasoning like that allows you to both call out such scenes as a negative aspect of certain films AND enjoy watching all that naked sex at the same time. lol
Question: Why in the world do you not spell out words like "porn" and "sex?" Why are sex scenes a bad thing? You keep describing them as negative, yet you won't say why.
As expected, you are unable to answer sensibly any of my questions, and you watched the entire movie, start to finish, including all the "crude and utterly graphic...porn culture" sex scenes, even though you claim to find them offensive.
You're a childish, sexually repressed hypocrite.
I love that you're so pure you can't bring yourself to spell out the word "porn." lol
I was mostly on board with the first half, which gradually revealed more and more weirdness about the teacher and his past, but the entire second half with the festival decor and all the shootings was just...lame. I sat watching all this shoot-em-up, graphic gore while intermittently rolling my eyes and forcing myself to watch until the end; after all, I'd come that far, why not waste another 15 minutes?
The exact same act of violence was repeated what, 30 or 40 times? It just got monotonous. I guess Miike Takashi thought he was being clever and ironic or something. NOT. Maybe he thought that was the point: we're so used to this kind of killing (especially here in the U.S. with our daily mass killings by gun) that it ceases to have any significant impact. Whatever; it was stupid. MT often thinks his trash is meaningful. It's not.
Absolutely terrible. Highly not recommended. I'm going to give the first half an 8, the second half a zero and average things out at 4/10.
1 
1 
There are borderline BLs.
Then, there are upper-borderline BLs and lower-borderline BLs.
This BL is of the latter variety.
Bad: Plotting/writing/casting/direction/acting/Nishiyama Jun/the two ugliest men's coats on the face of the Earth: Sakae and Mizuki outside the Squash court in episode 10
Good: Kan Hideyoshi's beauty and fairly good acting chops
I can't believe I ended up confronted with yet ANOTHER "I am going to hurt you in the worst possible way to prevent you from being hurt" BL breakup excuse.
I can't believe the best solution they could come up with was going BACK to the stupid long-distance relationship idea, which was already proven to be unworkable. The solution is for Soga to work in the local branch where he was ALREADY working. All the horse shit about why that wouldn't work is just that, horse shit.
So, this gets a 5.5/10 rating, which is a D- grade. KH's cheekbones saved it from an F.
Highly not recommended.
Both leads are in loveless/sexless marriages, one with a bipolar/suicidal spouse.
Both leads have a child with special needs, which makes leaving the marriage extremely difficult.
Solution:
Both leads remain in their loveless/sexless mariages for the sake of their children, but carry on a long-term, committed, and carefully-planned affair on the side.
The nut-job wife already knew, and the husband SHOULD have known, given that he and his wife have not been intimate for a long time.
The IS no perfect solution here, so you choose the most logical. Both leads had been desperately lonely and miserable as human beings. The need/desire for love and affection does not disappear because you have a special-needs child. I would argue that the ongoing affair would allow both of them to have that need met while still doing the best for their kids. Especially in the case of ML, his heartbreaking loneliness was hard to see.
The only thing he did that was shitty was his cowardly act in the hotel near the end.
This world consists of infinite shades of gray. This film's black/white perspective is the saddest thing about it.
8/10
Any insult inferred by you in the use of the word "Lesbian" is your hangup, not mine. I am a gay man. I know and have known a lot of Lesbians over the years. Many of them would not hesitate to tell you they have a negative view of men, especially straight men, in general. That's a fact. Deal with it.
Furthermore, I did not use the word "Lesbian" in any way having to do with the movie. I used it referring to YOU. If you find that "insulting," that too, is your hangup, not mine. :)
The self-righteous judgmentalism on MDL continues to amaze.
How many similar yakuza/politicians/corporate corruption movies does the Korean film industry think it can make before it's maxed out? I feel I've seen a hundred variations of what's going on here.
Can any Korean actor portray a character without smoking cigs as a crutch? All my favorite movies and actors are Korean, so I get to ask this.
Dropped at 1:03:00
More than anything else though, I was shocked by the low production values, which included that cheap, straight-to-video look of the final print that you only get with inexpensive cinematography onto whatever the current equivalent of what we used to know as a VHS tape is. Horrible.
And I know from snippets of other dramas I checked out because I liked an actor or actress who I learned to be in the show, that the cheap cinematography is the standard in the K-Drama world. These were dramas featuring major stars I knew of from the movies I'd seen. I watch lots of Korean/Japanese/Hong Konger/Taiwanese feature films, so I was shocked that these big stars were also doing cheap-ass TV dramas. I'd be horrified to see one of them in a mannequin kiss.
But the Asian film/drama industry is way different than here in the U.S.
The only Asian dramas I've watched are non-romantic, thriller-type shows commissioned by Netflix, which are all first-rate in quality.
I just don't get that it was SO important to have that particular actor in Cherry Magic, that the director compromised the integrity of his entire show so that he could include him. Why not just cast someone non-homophobic or closeted? But then, who knows what went into putting any show like that together, how the casting came about, etc.
Cherry Magic also annoyed me because the popping of the dude's "Cherry" near the end was glossed over as if unimportant. Jesus.
Who knows? Either way, nothing takes me out of a scene like a mannequin kiss and all its implications. The first time I saw a BL mannequin kiss after I discovered BL Land three and a half years ago, I truly was like "what the hell is going on?" lol
People below complain about short episodes, but I found myself wishing time would move faster. There's just nothing engaging or intriguing going on.
Akihiro keeps playing hard to get, but he keeps accepting slithery invitations and there's no real dramatic tension. We and the characters know exactly where this will end.
The "bitch" thing was supposed to be...funny? Sassy? It felt out of left field to me, and not in a good way. The assistant doesn't read as the kind of queen who would say that, so..wtf?
Finally, the mannequin kisses, designed to protect the ostensible, alleged straightness of the two J-pop idols, along with their marketability, ruin every scene in which they are resorted to. No one, anywhere on Earth, kisses like that. Fake mannequin kisses ("eeeeeewwwwww...don't move your lips! People might think we're gay!) are a direct insult to the audience.
Don't want to kiss a guy? Don't accept a role in a BL...bitch.
So, let me get this straight: You have repeatedly referred to the "Lust, Caution" sex scenes as "porn, utterly graphic, in-your-face crude, and gratuitous," yet now you claim you're not "offended" by them. Alrighty then...I guess twisting yourself into a pretzel reasoning like that allows you to both call out such scenes as a negative aspect of certain films AND enjoy watching all that naked sex at the same time. lol
Question: Why in the world do you not spell out words like "porn" and "sex?" Why are sex scenes a bad thing? You keep describing them as negative, yet you won't say why.
You're a childish, sexually repressed hypocrite.
I love that you're so pure you can't bring yourself to spell out the word "porn." lol
I was mostly on board with the first half, which gradually revealed more and more weirdness about the teacher and his past, but the entire second half with the festival decor and all the shootings was just...lame. I sat watching all this shoot-em-up, graphic gore while intermittently rolling my eyes and forcing myself to watch until the end; after all, I'd come that far, why not waste another 15 minutes?
The exact same act of violence was repeated what, 30 or 40 times? It just got monotonous. I guess Miike Takashi thought he was being clever and ironic or something. NOT. Maybe he thought that was the point: we're so used to this kind of killing (especially here in the U.S. with our daily mass killings by gun) that it ceases to have any significant impact. Whatever; it was stupid. MT often thinks his trash is meaningful. It's not.
Absolutely terrible. Highly not recommended. I'm going to give the first half an 8, the second half a zero and average things out at 4/10.
Don't bother.