etoks21

lol

Agreed. It is terrible.

Dropping 25 minutes in. Absolutely terrible and embarrassing, from cheesy special effects, utterly predictable plotting, and bad acting from supporting cast to annoying characters like the spoiled/bitchy daughter, over-the-top stupid shit like not calling the cops the minute you see your new neighbor's house is full of mutilated animals, and on and on. Had I watched five more minutes, this list would be three times longer.

I like actor Bae Sung Woo a lot and he's done some great work. WTF was he thinking when he took this part?

2/10

Your Name Engraved Herein is #16 on my Top 30 Best Gay-Themed Feature Films list. I love it. :)

Part of my take on the ending is that there is a lot of work and "sorting out" to be done going forward, and they both know that. That ending did not have the vibe of "ok, well everything's fine now" at all. Oh Aew and Teh accept that they do and will always love each other and that love is worth fighting for, but love alone doesn't solve every problem.

I definitely felt that there is therapy in Teh's future if they are to survive as a couple. Oh-Aew needs it too, if only to strengthen himself for the possibility of one day having to let go of Teh completely despite loving him so intensely. Hell, maybe the fact that he "loves" someone whose neuroses have caused him such pain needs a look at too. He needs to understand that forgiving is something one does for oneself and doesn't necessarily include keeping the forgiven in one's life.

To me, their reconciliation feels more like a cease-fire with future negotiations ahead and a lot of work to be done. This is no fairy tale ending. I thought that much was obvious.

However, here on MDL, the judgmental, self-righteous, and vindictive ones among us are never satisfied until a transgressive character is drawn and quartered after being flogged in the town square. "Once a cheater, always a cheater" is a common sort of refrain here. That is simply not true of all those who stray. If it turns out to be true of Teh, then Oh Aew will have to be ready to do that letting go.

"Cheater" is only one of the thousands of things Teh is, and there is much good in him. I think his attraction to that unscrupulous teacher is a symptom of his tendency to always be looking for the greener grass beyond the fence. If he can come to understand that he has that tendency and WHY, there's no reason he can't evolve into a trustworthy romantic and life partner.

Original. Intriguing. Over your head.

STRONGBERRY RULES.

This comment is far from being worth a response anywhere near its length, so I'll keep this brief.

You need to work on reading comprehension, and stop putting words in others' mouths so you can react to what you made up.

I don't give a whit if you think I'm rude or not. I don't care if you dislike my "manners." People who get their fee-fees hurt in BL threads need to stay out of BL threads. I called no one names, I questioned no one's mental faculties. You and others like you interpret having your assumptions questioned as rudeness, when in fact, it's having your assumptions questioned. lol

I'm not here to tip-toe around other people's overactive sensitivities. If you don't like a question or comment, ignore it, don't answer it, block the commenter. It's easy.

As for all your nonsense about all BL directors having to be gay men, I never said any such thing. You imagined I did. Yes, straight women are the original source of most BL, and the industry itself. Which is probably why many of these women write and direct shows with incredibly ignorant BS about the physical/emotional/mental aspects common to gay men. BL began, and often continues to be, mostly a straight woman's FANTASY of what goes on with gay men, straight men, and all the possibilities between them.

Finally, if you want to respect uninformed and laughable opinions, go right ahead. I won't. Respecting someone's right to post whatever they want to post is not the same thing as having to respect the content of what they post. Someone posts that the sky is vomit-green today...you gonna "respect" that? Probably.

Far from "standard." Much more intense than most, and much better overall.

"Twisted" is very often "good."

"triggering." Is that anything like, you know, just "reacting," "feeling things," "responding," "being surprised," etc.?

So you have access to the director's notes on the script? lol Just kidding!

I JUST now left you a PM about this film and as I was writing about this in my list of questions I came to the same conclusion, though I had two other suspects. After writing out my thoughts, I concluded just as you did, although I momentarily had another horrifying suspicion.

I did have a couple of second thoughts however, as I considered this character's feelings for the person they would hurt the most with such an act.

The actress who played the scarf-knitter did a great job in this film. The moment when the camera showed her from outside the window as she observed Haruna and her "boyfriend," standing three feet apart on the lawn (clearly hot for each other, lol), just the angle at which she was holding her head as she watched them made her look threatening and ominous. It was a very small thing very well done.

However, it was in the scarf scene, with its close-up of the maniac eyes, that I thought the director went overboard. I practically heard slasher/stabbing music in the background.

I'm not rude, I'm direct. And you interpret questions about why you think the things you do as "rudeness," when in fact they're just questions about why you think the things you do. Do you expect no one to ever dare ask about the basis of your opinions? Do you consider questions in general to be rude? I called you no names, nor questioned your intellectual abilities. The rudeness is in your head. You think you are owed a world where no one challenges your assumptions, thus anyone who does so is "rude."

It's telling that you answered zero of the questions I asked. Of course, you are under no obligation to do so, but it might also be that you don't have coherent answers for them.

You have no right to a life free of discomfort. It happens.

Also, this last comment of yours makes me uncomfortable. Please delete it. Thanks.

Great movie. So much to think about, questions to ponder. So I'll do that for a couple of days and come back to comment. Excellent acting from all players though.

First reaction: 9/10

Why is it OK for minors to see people murdered, kidnapped, robbed, beaten up, and emotionally abused, but the sight of a man's butt or a woman's beautiful breasts is somehow too much for them to handle?

ummm...have you thought of NOT reading comments that upset you? Why would you read thru a thread of comments once you see what's going on? That's on you.

Also, why in the world would a contentious comment thread between two Internet randos who strongly disagree "ruin the show for people like me?" If that's really the case, you're not very secure in your opinion that this is a good show.

Finally, you will feel "uncomfortable" many times in life. It is not the responsibility of other people or society to make sure you feel "comfortable" all the time. Jesus.

For instance, your comment here makes me uncomfortable, so I'd like you to delete it. Thank you.

Sorry, you don't understand the concept of "projection," and I'm not going to explain it to you. I'll just chuckle at your feeble attempts to make this all about my emotional state rather than the bogusness of your perspective, which is the problem. lol

I despise this idea that every show has to be a PSA "learning lesson" for you, teaching the audience what is right and what is wrong by making sure every character that makes a bad choice is duly punished.

This show has already shown plenty of sub-surface angst going on with Yamato. The only person who thinks his aggressiveness with Kakeru came out of nowhere would be YOU. (There, more all-caps to emotionally upset you. Perhaps you should look into why all-caps disturb you so. Were you abused in some way by a person in your past who used all-caps a lot?) I do so hope you get the help you need.

Only Friends is terrible. Of course you love it.

Finally, as to Yamato being duly flogged for his rape of Kakeru, I guess you missed the horror on his face when he finally snapped to and realized what he was doing. Apparently, you didn't notice or hear his profuse apologies and immediate feelings of shame and regret. It seems you were asleep when he stammered more apologies, gathered his stuff and went running from the room in distress.

Or was that all not enough for you? Did he need to stumble on the curb outside, fall into the street and have a car roll over his head and smash it like a tomato? Would that satisfy your need for him to be severely penalized for the horrendous crime of pushing his crush onto a bed, as happens IRL a thousand times a day?

Do you really look to BLs for your moral instruction? I guess so. That's sort of...sad.

I'll say it again: All kinds of bad things happen in life that are NEVER punished, though Yamato already has been. Murders are never solved, kidnappers never caught, rapists (which I suppose you think Yamato is one of those now) go free, on and on. All these things serve as key elements in art across all media and they're not going away anytime soon just so you won't have your attitudes challenged.

Go watch some lame BL with trigger warnings included.

Agree 100%. Both leads were boring as characters and as actors. I was hoping Kentaro would go full psycho but after 20 minutes we were back to just the two boring leads.

Perhaps the limpest, wet dishrag of a so-called romance I have ever seen. I thought it would never end. I kept watching because I thought surely something, anything would happen, and I couldn't quite believe someone built a 140-minute movie around these two boring characters and these two dull, lifeless performances by the leads. Awful.

If you don't mind waiting until the 1:40:00 mark or thereabouts for something to happen, this might be the film for you.
Thankfully, Ono, played by the amazingly hot and talented Sakaguchi Kentaro, began to show his character's psycho side at that point, and I perked up a bit. But he was the focus for all of 20 minutes and then it was snooze-ville again.
The leads were not meant to play star-crossed lovers in this lifetime. No chemistry, no spark, no charisma, no presence, and no reason for either one to be smitten with the other.
The teacher's choice at the end made zero sense, so of course it was a fitting fizzle of a climax to a mess of a movie.

5/10

The pomposity in question was more a reference to their STYLE of writing in that paragraph, not to the content of what they were saying. It sounds like a college freshman trying to sound like they imagine a long-tenured professor would write. Perhaps I'm paranoid, but I detected some condescension there, too.

BTW, I was supposedly born in the last year considered part of the post-war Baby Boom in the U.S., even though I was born 12 years after the war ended. But hey, my dad was a GI returning from war in Europe, so I guess my siblings and I ARE Baby Boomers, every one of us.