Self-indulgent. Profoundly dull. What a waste of Hyun Bin.
I can totally get into a slow-paced, but gripping story where something interesting is going on beneath the surface. This isn't that story.
Out after 25 minutes of watching the husband wrap and then unwrap teacups as though he were assembling and disassembling a Swiss watch. Spare me the tedium.
Oh, and it's raining. That means what's going down in sad and portentous.
?? at least give a reason why you think it's bad...
I am not at all surprised you think my tastes are "weird." Considering that opinion comes from someone who thinks this show and its cast are "very good," I'll consider it a compliment. Like many other MDLers, you like things safe, pedestrian, and unchallenging.
You have every right to your tastes, but I don't have to respect them.
We start at a 10/10 rating, just on the basis of Byron Pang's physical beauty and all the time we're given to luxuriate in it throughout this film. Tom Price is a beautiful man as well, with a great butt, so I'll bump our starting point to 12/10.
Now I begin to take off points for spotty acting from the leads, Scud's sometimes good but sometimes atrocious direction, occasionally horrendous acting from supporting characters, absurd and nonsensical plot twists and turns, wildly uneven attempts to be artsy/fartsy, laughably fake sex scenes, cheesy special effects, etc. and we land at 5/10.
Oh...but I have to take off an entire point for the ridiculously goofy-looking, facial peach fuzz "mustache" and chin thing Kafka sprouts off and on, so now I'm at 4/10.
But then I think of Byron Pang's body again, along with the fact I really don't want to give this thing an "F," so I'll bump it back up to 6/10 for a solid "D" grade.
Wonder why Pang's career went nowhere after the few things he did with Scud. There were moments in this film where his acting was quite good.
The synopsis, reviews and other commenters keep telling me Kafka is "straight" in this film. No. No, he isn't. Straight guys don't stare at handsome men, and then stare, and then stare some more, and then flirt like crazy when they chance upon one another later, as Kafka does when he first sees Daniel and then runs into him at the temple. At the least, he is predominantly straight but somewhat bisexual; Daniel being the first man who has strummed the one gay string on his otherwise straight guitar.
On the list of Top 20 Best BL Bodies, Parker Mao occupies spots 1 through 10. WOW. I had to put my eyeballs back in my head.
Hsiao Hung (Fandy Fan Jr.), who also likely has a rockin' bod, is however, also a natural, comedic actor. Those faces he made at the secretaries in the back of the bus when The General Manager was cornering him, and while he was trying not to ogle The General Manager at the pool, were hysterically funny.
This show is a great combo of fluffy (which I normally retch at), sexy, and funny. It's light as a feather, but at its core are two good actors who have good chemistry and are easy on the eyes.
?? at least give a reason why you think it's bad...
Not really sure what you're babbling about. Apparently, you like this...thing, and I think it's crap. As people here always say, "we can have different opinions."
?? at least give a reason why you think it's bad...
Lame acting, neither lead has substantial charisma, the characters' behaviors are all over the place and wildly inconsistent from scene to scene, which is the fault of the writers; the direction the actors so desperately need is either not there or just bad so the actors are left floundering, etc.
No 25 year-old woman knows the thoughts and ways of gay or bi, closeted and struggling high school boys. It's absurd. So what we're getting here is a 25 year-old woman's fluffy fantasy of what such people are like. Which is sad, because I thought the Thais had the fluff market cornered, but I guess not.
I'm always an outlier on MDL. That's the status of everyone here who has good taste and high standards for acting, direction, writing, etc. Plus, MDL is dominated by Western fluff-lovers and prudes. So this show is right up their alley.
Hye Won: Most god-awful, unsympathetic, irredeemable main character in the history of Korean cinema. She is a cold-ass b***h and the film never explains in the slightest why she is the way she is from the opening scene.
I have to laugh at those below who somehow see this as a feminist movie, critiquing the horrible way women are treated by Korean society. The women in this flick are too busy shitting on each other to have time to be shit on by the men. Hell, the old broad with the butch haircut runs the island, not some dude.
Wow, Chang Chen and Janine Chang are stunning in this film. I felt her character's love and concern for her husband before she spoke a word. Plot felt a little all over the place at times, but well-worth hanging in there.
This show is unique and remarkable in the way this relationship is unfolding. The leads' inner monologues are spot-on to the thoughts of frightened, closeted gay teens. Handsome and talented leads are surrounded by very good supporting actors, which makes a huge difference in the quality of any show. Blondie has become my almost-favorite character. I was a tad suspicious of him at first, but the way he's turned out to be is a lot different than I thought. :D He's hot too.
The schoolgirls in this series are even more annoying than in most BLs.
This is a very good one so far.
Haven't said this in a while and it bears repeating: I wish MDL would disallow ratings until a series has completed its air run. Doing otherwise makes zero sense. The rating above is not labeled "thus far," and implies an assessment of the complete show, which it is not, nor can it be.
How odd. When you discovered it had a gay element to the story, why didn't you just stop watching it? Must not…
You need a brain cell!
Why am I not surprised the bigot tries to claim Jesus is on his side?
But hey, could you quote me one word from the Bible where Jesus had anything whatsoever to say about gay people, male or female? Thanks, I'll wait.
Don't try to out-Jesus me, homo-hater. I was raised going to church every week plus eight years of parochial school. But do go ahead and make a fool of yourself, please.
How odd. When you discovered it had a gay element to the story, why didn't you just stop watching it? Must not…
Ah...the homophobic, closet case viper shows its fangs at last. A snake that's "okay without gay stuff!" but watches full-length movies about "cocksucking dudes" anyway. Hmmm...Islamic, perhaps?
Not concerned about you at all. I am, however, concerned for the millions of "mentally didsabled" gay people snakes like you make life miserable for. Take your hatred and shove it, snake-eyes.
How odd. When you discovered it had a gay element to the story, why didn't you just stop watching it? Must not…
OF COURSE, I was turned on by "the gay stuff," lol, moron, I'm GAY! I clearly stated in my first reply to you that the only thing that almost made this movie OK were the pretty hot sex scenes.
That I'm gay is how I know what I'm talking about. I've met LOTS of gay men who married women and pretended to be straight until they couldn't do it anymore, got honest, and came out/got divorced.
I've met LOTS of gay men who remain married to their wives, and have constant gay sex on the side, or keep a male lover for years, never being honest with themselves or their wives, who they continue to lie to. Of course, many of those wives suspect or know what's going on but keep their mouths shut for their own reasons. I avoid BOTH types, though I'm guessing you'd approve of their behavior, as long as they remain married and continue doing the "moral" thing.
As for Dennis and Jason not ending up together, didn't you notice Dennis asking Jason where he was going and when he'd be back? If Jason doesn't come back to look up Dennis to renew the romance, it will be Dennis leaving his wife to go hunt down the man he loves in Taiwan. Either way, just a matter of time,
Judgmental, self-righteous and closeted isn't a good look on anyone, even you, assuming you're a dude. If you are, and you want shows to watch when you get away from the wife, there are thousands of gay ones on the Internet, many of them with pages on this site. No, I'm not talking about the gay porn you regularly watch, I'm talking about actual, gay-themed movies and dramas. Get with it.
How odd. When you discovered it had a gay element to the story, why didn't you just stop watching it? Must not…
It's clear you are out of touch with reality and unwilling to face facts in a mature, sensible way. It is also clear you are a morally backward person who passes judgment on other people's behavior when you've no right to do so.
If he and that dumb, crybaby girl had any sense, first of all, they'd have used contraception. Second of all, when she turned up pregnant they would have gotten her an abortion and not told anyone.
As Dennis explained to Jason after telling him about the pregnancy, there was a lot of things he wanted to accomplish, many things he wanted to do in life. Now that is all gone, and he'll be tied down to some lousy job to feed wife and baby. Sounds like a great life to you, I'm sure.
By the way, please note that after telling Jason what was going on at the beach and all about his wonderful new wife and baby, which he doesn't want, he proceeded to have sex with Jason because THAT is where his passion lies.
Dennis is gay or bi, not straight. He has entered into a fake marriage with a woman he will never love as he loves Jason. He will try to fake it as well as he can for however many years it takes until he reaches his psychological limit of living a lie. At that point he will start having outside affairs with men or leave his wife altogether.
It's the marriage and the baby that are a fantasy. Sure, it all looks pretty on the wedding day and then the shit will start hitting the fan as Dennis tries to live life with most of his heart and soul shut down, pretending to be someone and something he is not.
The dumbest homophobic plot cop out in this movie is that, even though Jason and Dennis knew Abby would die soon and that marrying the pregnant girl was not the only option, they never considered going forward as a couple.
If she wanted to have the baby anyway, then he could provide monetary support as he pursued his career separately. Absolutely NO sensible reason to marry this girl he doesn't love, especially without telling her about his sexual preferences so that she would be going into it fully aware of what she's taking on.
Let me guess: You're Catholic or from some other religious background.
Also, I don't buy you were "disgusted" by any of this gay stuff. I think you were turned on by it. People who are disgusted by a film's subject matter don't keep watching, and they especially don't put all the energy into evaluating and discussing the film that you have.
How odd. When you discovered it had a gay element to the story, why didn't you just stop watching it? Must not…
Um, YOU are the one who needs to calm down. You said you were "disgusted" by the LGBTQ content of this movie, yet you watched it to the very end, and then wrote a paragraphs-length reply to me about your emotional reaction to the plot, which was absurd.
Yes, now the baby will find out her dad is gay/bi when he leaves her mom to save himself from losing his mind by suppressing his authentic self. That makes a LOT of sense. The deceased wife's husband IS lonely because the guy who promised to "take care" of him for her totally ignored that commitment, entered into a sham marriage, and apparently pawned the necklace somewhere.
Terribly written, absurd plot, which you were enthralled by, despite the homophobia indicated by your OP.
Pretty bad flick. Sir Jason and Dennis are hot though. Typical Filipino gay flick where all the homos end up miserable. Ummm...have these people not heard of abortion? She was only one month along. Why tell your freaking families? And why bitch and moan about it when there was no attempt to use contraception? lol So two little kids get married to raise another little kid, and the dad is miserable for life and will end up doing what Sir Jason did. No lead-up to the central relationship. How weird that Abby and her friend decided Jason would be handed over to her when Abby croaks. How weird that Abby entrusted her husband after death to a guy who, for all she knew, was a one night stand on the beach? Then Dennis promised to take care of Jason, but got married and walked away as if he'd never talked to Abby at all or been given her necklace. Really bad writing. Some of the acting was good, sporadically. But Jason and Dennis were hot.
1 
1 
I can totally get into a slow-paced, but gripping story where something interesting is going on beneath the surface. This isn't that story.
Out after 25 minutes of watching the husband wrap and then unwrap teacups as though he were assembling and disassembling a Swiss watch. Spare me the tedium.
Oh, and it's raining. That means what's going down in sad and portentous.
Dropped like the bomb it is.
1/10 and the 1 is for Hyun Bin's face.
You have every right to your tastes, but I don't have to respect them.
Now I begin to take off points for spotty acting from the leads, Scud's sometimes good but sometimes atrocious direction, occasionally horrendous acting from supporting characters, absurd and nonsensical plot twists and turns, wildly uneven attempts to be artsy/fartsy, laughably fake sex scenes, cheesy special effects, etc. and we land at 5/10.
Oh...but I have to take off an entire point for the ridiculously goofy-looking, facial peach fuzz "mustache" and chin thing Kafka sprouts off and on, so now I'm at 4/10.
But then I think of Byron Pang's body again, along with the fact I really don't want to give this thing an "F," so I'll bump it back up to 6/10 for a solid "D" grade.
Wonder why Pang's career went nowhere after the few things he did with Scud. There were moments in this film where his acting was quite good.
The synopsis, reviews and other commenters keep telling me Kafka is "straight" in this film. No. No, he isn't. Straight guys don't stare at handsome men, and then stare, and then stare some more, and then flirt like crazy when they chance upon one another later, as Kafka does when he first sees Daniel and then runs into him at the temple. At the least, he is predominantly straight but somewhat bisexual; Daniel being the first man who has strummed the one gay string on his otherwise straight guitar.
Hsiao Hung (Fandy Fan Jr.), who also likely has a rockin' bod, is however, also a natural, comedic actor. Those faces he made at the secretaries in the back of the bus when The General Manager was cornering him, and while he was trying not to ogle The General Manager at the pool, were hysterically funny.
This show is a great combo of fluffy (which I normally retch at), sexy, and funny. It's light as a feather, but at its core are two good actors who have good chemistry and are easy on the eyes.
No 25 year-old woman knows the thoughts and ways of gay or bi, closeted and struggling high school boys. It's absurd. So what we're getting here is a 25 year-old woman's fluffy fantasy of what such people are like. Which is sad, because I thought the Thais had the fluff market cornered, but I guess not.
I have to laugh at those below who somehow see this as a feminist movie, critiquing the horrible way women are treated by Korean society. The women in this flick are too busy shitting on each other to have time to be shit on by the men. Hell, the old broad with the butch haircut runs the island, not some dude.
Lame.
6/10
I felt her character's love and concern for her husband before she spoke a word.
Plot felt a little all over the place at times, but well-worth hanging in there.
8.5/10
Naturally, the MDL rating is high. lol
Dropped.
The schoolgirls in this series are even more annoying than in most BLs.
This is a very good one so far.
Haven't said this in a while and it bears repeating: I wish MDL would disallow ratings until a series has completed its air run. Doing otherwise makes zero sense. The rating above is not labeled "thus far," and implies an assessment of the complete show, which it is not, nor can it be.
Why am I not surprised the bigot tries to claim Jesus is on his side?
But hey, could you quote me one word from the Bible where Jesus had anything whatsoever to say about gay people, male or female? Thanks, I'll wait.
Don't try to out-Jesus me, homo-hater. I was raised going to church every week plus eight years of parochial school. But do go ahead and make a fool of yourself, please.
A snake that's "okay without gay stuff!" but watches full-length movies about "cocksucking dudes" anyway. Hmmm...Islamic, perhaps?
Not concerned about you at all. I am, however, concerned for the millions of "mentally didsabled" gay people snakes like you make life miserable for. Take your hatred and shove it, snake-eyes.
That I'm gay is how I know what I'm talking about. I've met LOTS of gay men who married women and pretended to be straight until they couldn't do it anymore, got honest, and came out/got divorced.
I've met LOTS of gay men who remain married to their wives, and have constant gay sex on the side, or keep a male lover for years, never being honest with themselves or their wives, who they continue to lie to. Of course, many of those wives suspect or know what's going on but keep their mouths shut for their own reasons. I avoid BOTH types, though I'm guessing you'd approve of their behavior, as long as they remain married and continue doing the "moral" thing.
As for Dennis and Jason not ending up together, didn't you notice Dennis asking Jason where he was going and when he'd be back? If Jason doesn't come back to look up Dennis to renew the romance, it will be Dennis leaving his wife to go hunt down the man he loves in Taiwan. Either way, just a matter of time,
Judgmental, self-righteous and closeted isn't a good look on anyone, even you, assuming you're a dude. If you are, and you want shows to watch when you get away from the wife, there are thousands of gay ones on the Internet, many of them with pages on this site. No, I'm not talking about the gay porn you regularly watch, I'm talking about actual, gay-themed movies and dramas. Get with it.
If he and that dumb, crybaby girl had any sense, first of all, they'd have used contraception. Second of all, when she turned up pregnant they would have gotten her an abortion and not told anyone.
As Dennis explained to Jason after telling him about the pregnancy, there was a lot of things he wanted to accomplish, many things he wanted to do in life. Now that is all gone, and he'll be tied down to some lousy job to feed wife and baby. Sounds like a great life to you, I'm sure.
By the way, please note that after telling Jason what was going on at the beach and all about his wonderful new wife and baby, which he doesn't want, he proceeded to have sex with Jason because THAT is where his passion lies.
Dennis is gay or bi, not straight. He has entered into a fake marriage with a woman he will never love as he loves Jason. He will try to fake it as well as he can for however many years it takes until he reaches his psychological limit of living a lie. At that point he will start having outside affairs with men or leave his wife altogether.
It's the marriage and the baby that are a fantasy. Sure, it all looks pretty on the wedding day and then the shit will start hitting the fan as Dennis tries to live life with most of his heart and soul shut down, pretending to be someone and something he is not.
The dumbest homophobic plot cop out in this movie is that, even though Jason and Dennis knew Abby would die soon and that marrying the pregnant girl was not the only option, they never considered going forward as a couple.
If she wanted to have the baby anyway, then he could provide monetary support as he pursued his career separately. Absolutely NO sensible reason to marry this girl he doesn't love, especially without telling her about his sexual preferences so that she would be going into it fully aware of what she's taking on.
Let me guess: You're Catholic or from some other religious background.
Also, I don't buy you were "disgusted" by any of this gay stuff. I think you were turned on by it. People who are disgusted by a film's subject matter don't keep watching, and they especially don't put all the energy into evaluating and discussing the film that you have.
Yes, now the baby will find out her dad is gay/bi when he leaves her mom to save himself from losing his mind by suppressing his authentic self. That makes a LOT of sense. The deceased wife's husband IS lonely because the guy who promised to "take care" of him for her totally ignored that commitment, entered into a sham marriage, and apparently pawned the necklace somewhere.
Terribly written, absurd plot, which you were enthralled by, despite the homophobia indicated by your OP.
Typical Filipino gay flick where all the homos end up miserable.
Ummm...have these people not heard of abortion? She was only one month along.
Why tell your freaking families?
And why bitch and moan about it when there was no attempt to use contraception? lol
So two little kids get married to raise another little kid, and the dad is miserable for life and will end up doing what Sir Jason did.
No lead-up to the central relationship.
How weird that Abby and her friend decided Jason would be handed over to her when Abby croaks.
How weird that Abby entrusted her husband after death to a guy who, for all she knew, was a one night stand on the beach?
Then Dennis promised to take care of Jason, but got married and walked away as if he'd never talked to Abby at all or been given her necklace.
Really bad writing. Some of the acting was good, sporadically.
But Jason and Dennis were hot.
5/10