He's not straight. He says he doesn't care about gender.
Oh Namily...you're just like Family these days. 😁😁😁
Really, I had no idea there are bisexual people in the world. Silly me.
My point is, I don't believe Kazuma is one of those bisexual people. I see him as going through a stage in coming to terms with being gay that many, many of us gay men go through. Raised to believe being gay is the worst thing ever, we often begin our march out of the closet with a tentative tiptoe, testing the waters so to speak, seeing if the world will come to an end if we admit to being Bisexual as a first step.
"Oh, well, yeah, I'm hot for men now but I am still strongly attracted to women" is a lie millions of us have told ourselves and others along the way to freedom. Then, once we realize the universe has not imploded at that admission, we finally get to a point where we step ALL the way out into the sunshine and say "oh, alright, dammit, I'm f**king gay and hot for c**k and guy ass. There, I said it."
To me, that is where Kazuma is. Saying "I don't care about gender" is one of his tiptoe steps to "I am romantically attracted only to men." There is absolutely NOTHING in this series, other than his declaration of gender-free romantic inclinations, to indicate Kazuma is into women, emotionally or sexually. So I perceive him to be gay but with one foot still in the closet. I also perceive him to be a terrible actor, but that's another issue.
You are, of course, free to perceive whatever you see fit.
Multiple, fascinating possible story lines here, but they're all mushed up in and around and over each other until none of it makes sense. Any movie requiring this much exposition while people stand around pointing guns at each other but yakking instead of shooting, is a dud. Too bad for all of the above, because there are good actors and lots of good acting here; it's just that the story they're acting out is ridiculous. Part of my inability to completely immerse myself in a plot like this, even if it DID makes sense, may be due to my Western-ness: This idea that children or relatives of someone who has done a terrible thing are somehow responsible for it or irrevocably tainted by it, which crops up in a lot of Asian cinema, is absurd to me.
The two actresses playing Jung Hyun as child and young adult, are exquisitely talented and beautiful; their true resemblance to each other gave the film a lot of extra angst.
Even more beautiful is the talented Son Ho Jun, who my favorite nose of all my favorite Korean actors.
The movie was almost made entirely worth the watch despite all the above, by the extraordinarily powerful and well-acted scene of forgiveness and kindness by the bereaved parents to the devastated fiance.
The reference to Africa is disparaging and so ignorant. How is it a country (SK) doesn't think Africa is a nation/continent…
Ummm...how many characters in this film refer to Africa as a "country" and believe it not to be a continent with many countries inside it? I'm guessing no more than THREE. But this one reference inspires you to climb the self-righteous tree and pronounce your moral superiority and grand knowledge of politics and geography. Are you desperate for such opportunities?
Very good. Well-acted, directed, and produced. I almost laughed at the electric candles that lit-up sequentially like an airport runway as the bride and groom came down the aisle. I wonder why the hearing-disabled guy doesn't wear a hearing aid? He already has a small amount of hearing capability; it seems an aid would help a lot. I recently saw Son Kuk Yu in the second season of the Netflix short series "D.P." He has matured and changed a lot since this film was shot. Even more handsome now.
It frustrated me here that the ML waited so long to "say" what he finally did at the wedding. Once things have gone that far, why say anything at all?
This should've expanded this to a series with the same actors. I love this kind of unrequited love stories.
I like them too...but sometimes think it's as a result of having masochistic personality disorder. lol It is interesting that many of us find it somehow pleasurable to watch films that cause us pain, though this is hardly a new phenomenon.
I try to mix in a few happy endings to keep me totally going over to the dark side.
Can we pls stop making these kind of short films? It just makes me feel dumb. I dont get the message they want…
So why not just stop watching the ones you don't like? lol
Just because the film doesn't speak to or touch you doesn't mean you're dumb or that it doesn't touch a lot of OTHER people. Just doesn't work for YOU and that's cool. Lots of films lots of other people love don't work for me.
In this case, wow, I was powerfully reminded of feeling these same emotions as a young man. This is a beautiful film.
A case of style over substance. Basically a standard coming of age story centered around two guys dealing with…
Wow. lol I agree with everything you wrote except for "style overtaking substance..." To me, this is style used to perfection in service TO substance.
In my youth, I felt everything this young man feels here. and the main reason I connected so deeply with the film is the style in which the simple story is told. After all, every story has already been told, so HOW we tell them is the only avenue for originality.
Thanks for all that. I appreciate it. Are you in China I guess?
I like all the raping stuff if it's well-written. That's the problem for me. Most of the Asian source novels I've started reading online have horrendously BAD translations. Comes off like a five year-old wrote it, only it's about adult material.
I don't mind victims falling for their rapists but it has to be BELIEVABLE, which means well-written and the ones I've tried are just awful. lol
Oh god, this was terrible. I'm much more interested in reading the novel now that I know it's riddled with nasty, down and dirty sexual perversion. The Chinese always take out all the good stuff when they adapt novels into plain, vanilla pablum like Stay With Me.
Question: Why don't Chinese production companies make smutty BLs for international distribution, and release a censored version of THAT within China? They can't make gay stuff even for distribution OUTSIDE China?
Either way, it's a bizarre situation. It's always seemed weird to me how Puritanical so-called "Communist" governments are. It's not as though they ever had the original "Puritans" from England landing on the shores of America back in the 1500s and polluting the culture to a degree that affects us here still today. What is it about Commies and sex that doesn't mix?
Forget a wedding, I thought they went riding dressed as if they were going to play a tuba for a marching band…
lol, hahaha
You're right...those outfits DO look like old-fashioned marching band uniforms! hahaha So what the fuck was that about? Seriously, I think for fans of these weird censored BLs, you're supposed to look for that sort of thing and find great meaning in it. Thus I thought, well maybe this is as close to a gay wedding scene as this show is going to get.
You know, I actually liked the whole vibe of that hair-cutting scene between SY and Doorknob...when Doorknob was cutting SY's hair and leering over his shoulder there was a passing air of real creepiness and physical threat in the room. Had the show generated that kind of weirdness surrounding the Evil Bro a lot earlier it would have helped a lot. What watered down the EB threat for me was that he didn't seem to like WB much, let alone lust for him (even though EB was clearly not into women), nor did he enjoy his company. He merely wanted to control him. But why?
Oh...the haircutting scene lost its sense of danger when we noticed Evil Bro was fake-cutting around in the air below SY's actual hair, not doing a damn thing. The crew actually did put some hairs on SY's shoulders but pretty sure it wasn't from real cutting. lol
Also, I laughed when Evil Bro said, "Oh sure, while I was in college, graduate and doctorate school and even though I was filthy rich and my family paid for everything, I took up lots of odd jobs to scrape by. One of them was barber-shopping!" lol
Well, in a BL made in another country we would KNOW why: He had the hots for WB and was a frustrated closet queen. But in these sad, censored BLs, where viewing one is all about detecting and analyzing little hints and clues here and there and filling in the gaps to come up with a fantasy interpretation in your head, all the urgency or angst is filtered out because they can't show anything to truly generate it.
Two more examples: 1. When WB went psycho about Mao Chong's headphones being left in SY's room, after which they were wrestling oddly on the living room floor. I don't care whose belt was off, that was not an attempted rape. lol They were "wrestling/fighting" in that silly way siblings do when they aren't serious about it and are laughing. The dad came in and SY ran out of the room. So that was supposed to be some intense, meaningful occurence. But the next time we saw SY and WB together they were on the couch joking around as if nothing happened and that was the end of it. 2. When WB overheard SY telling MC at school that "I tell WB he is the most handsome but I don't mean it; you have been the most handsome man in my life since childhood..." We see WB overhearing this and staring daggers at SY like a future serial killer. NOTHING comes of that; it's just dropped. 3. When Mao Chong decided he was in love with SY and wanted to sleep with and apparently f**k SY while WB was out of town. He spent the night, flirted, talked about how handsome each other was, then went to sleep. Again, NOTHING comes of this potentially interesting twist. It is just dropped.
Oh, an extra-hilarious touch was in the last episode when SY/WB are in the car. The footbrakes AND handbrake go out, so WB says to SY, "well, we have no brakes and will likely be killed within minutes, but I've got this, take a nap." And SY fucking TAKES A NAP!!! omg
Maybe if anyone cut the doorknob of Evil Bro's head he would drop dead. It is the source of his evil power....
1 
1 
Really, I had no idea there are bisexual people in the world. Silly me.
My point is, I don't believe Kazuma is one of those bisexual people. I see him as going through a stage in coming to terms with being gay that many, many of us gay men go through. Raised to believe being gay is the worst thing ever, we often begin our march out of the closet with a tentative tiptoe, testing the waters so to speak, seeing if the world will come to an end if we admit to being Bisexual as a first step.
"Oh, well, yeah, I'm hot for men now but I am still strongly attracted to women" is a lie millions of us have told ourselves and others along the way to freedom. Then, once we realize the universe has not imploded at that admission, we finally get to a point where we step ALL the way out into the sunshine and say "oh, alright, dammit, I'm f**king gay and hot for c**k and guy ass. There, I said it."
To me, that is where Kazuma is. Saying "I don't care about gender" is one of his tiptoe steps to "I am romantically attracted only to men." There is absolutely NOTHING in this series, other than his declaration of gender-free romantic inclinations, to indicate Kazuma is into women, emotionally or sexually. So I perceive him to be gay but with one foot still in the closet. I also perceive him to be a terrible actor, but that's another issue.
You are, of course, free to perceive whatever you see fit.
Any movie requiring this much exposition while people stand around pointing guns at each other but yakking instead of shooting, is a dud.
Too bad for all of the above, because there are good actors and lots of good acting here; it's just that the story they're acting out is ridiculous.
Part of my inability to completely immerse myself in a plot like this, even if it DID makes sense, may be due to my Western-ness: This idea that children or relatives of someone who has done a terrible thing are somehow responsible for it or irrevocably tainted by it, which crops up in a lot of Asian cinema, is absurd to me.
The two actresses playing Jung Hyun as child and young adult, are exquisitely talented and beautiful; their true resemblance to each other gave the film a lot of extra angst.
Even more beautiful is the talented Son Ho Jun, who my favorite nose of all my favorite Korean actors.
The movie was almost made entirely worth the watch despite all the above, by the extraordinarily powerful and well-acted scene of forgiveness and kindness by the bereaved parents to the devastated fiance.
5/10
Well-acted, directed, and produced.
I almost laughed at the electric candles that lit-up sequentially like an airport runway as the bride and groom came down the aisle.
I wonder why the hearing-disabled guy doesn't wear a hearing aid? He already has a small amount of hearing capability; it seems an aid would help a lot.
I recently saw Son Kuk Yu in the second season of the Netflix short series "D.P." He has matured and changed a lot since this film was shot. Even more handsome now.
It frustrated me here that the ML waited so long to "say" what he finally did at the wedding. Once things have gone that far, why say anything at all?
8.5/10
I try to mix in a few happy endings to keep me totally going over to the dark side.
Glad to have ruined your mood, kid.
Quit trying to use English until you can do so coherently.
Nothing new about the story, but the stunning way in which it is told left me near-breathless. I have felt everything in this film.
Just because the film doesn't speak to or touch you doesn't mean you're dumb or that it doesn't touch a lot of OTHER people. Just doesn't work for YOU and that's cool. Lots of films lots of other people love don't work for me.
In this case, wow, I was powerfully reminded of feeling these same emotions as a young man. This is a beautiful film.
In my youth, I felt everything this young man feels here. and the main reason I connected so deeply with the film is the style in which the simple story is told. After all, every story has already been told, so HOW we tell them is the only avenue for originality.
I laughed like hell for twenty minutes, then...it got boring af.
I'm a big fan of Lee Min Ki but he can't save this turkey.
Awful.
Dropped
1/10
I like all the raping stuff if it's well-written. That's the problem for me. Most of the Asian source novels I've started reading online have horrendously BAD translations. Comes off like a five year-old wrote it, only it's about adult material.
I don't mind victims falling for their rapists but it has to be BELIEVABLE, which means well-written and the ones I've tried are just awful. lol
When good actors play out bad scripts.
Dropped
1/10
Question: Why don't Chinese production companies make smutty BLs for international distribution, and release a censored version of THAT within China? They can't make gay stuff even for distribution OUTSIDE China?
Either way, it's a bizarre situation. It's always seemed weird to me how Puritanical so-called "Communist" governments are. It's not as though they ever had the original "Puritans" from England landing on the shores of America back in the 1500s and polluting the culture to a degree that affects us here still today. What is it about Commies and sex that doesn't mix?
I like Neo and Khaotung as actors.
I don't like this show.
Out after 32 minutes.
Dropped.
1/10
You're right...those outfits DO look like old-fashioned marching band uniforms! hahaha So what the fuck was that about? Seriously, I think for fans of these weird censored BLs, you're supposed to look for that sort of thing and find great meaning in it. Thus I thought, well maybe this is as close to a gay wedding scene as this show is going to get.
You know, I actually liked the whole vibe of that hair-cutting scene between SY and Doorknob...when Doorknob was cutting SY's hair and leering over his shoulder there was a passing air of real creepiness and physical threat in the room. Had the show generated that kind of weirdness surrounding the Evil Bro a lot earlier it would have helped a lot. What watered down the EB threat for me was that he didn't seem to like WB much, let alone lust for him (even though EB was clearly not into women), nor did he enjoy his company. He merely wanted to control him. But why?
Oh...the haircutting scene lost its sense of danger when we noticed Evil Bro was fake-cutting around in the air below SY's actual hair, not doing a damn thing. The crew actually did put some hairs on SY's shoulders but pretty sure it wasn't from real cutting. lol
Also, I laughed when Evil Bro said, "Oh sure, while I was in college, graduate and doctorate school and even though I was filthy rich and my family paid for everything, I took up lots of odd jobs to scrape by. One of them was barber-shopping!" lol
Well, in a BL made in another country we would KNOW why: He had the hots for WB and was a frustrated closet queen. But in these sad, censored BLs, where viewing one is all about detecting and analyzing little hints and clues here and there and filling in the gaps to come up with a fantasy interpretation in your head, all the urgency or angst is filtered out because they can't show anything to truly generate it.
Two more examples:
1. When WB went psycho about Mao Chong's headphones being left in SY's room, after which they were wrestling oddly on the living room floor. I don't care whose belt was off, that was not an attempted rape. lol They were "wrestling/fighting" in that silly way siblings do when they aren't serious about it and are laughing.
The dad came in and SY ran out of the room. So that was supposed to be some intense, meaningful occurence. But the next time we saw SY and WB together they were on the couch joking around as if nothing happened and that was the end of it.
2. When WB overheard SY telling MC at school that "I tell WB he is the most handsome but I don't mean it; you have been the most handsome man in my life since childhood..." We see WB overhearing this and staring daggers at SY like a future serial killer. NOTHING comes of that; it's just dropped.
3. When Mao Chong decided he was in love with SY and wanted to sleep with and apparently f**k SY while WB was out of town. He spent the night, flirted, talked about how handsome each other was, then went to sleep. Again, NOTHING comes of this potentially interesting twist. It is just dropped.
Oh, an extra-hilarious touch was in the last episode when SY/WB are in the car. The footbrakes AND handbrake go out, so WB says to SY, "well, we have no brakes and will likely be killed within minutes, but I've got this, take a nap." And SY fucking TAKES A NAP!!! omg
Maybe if anyone cut the doorknob of Evil Bro's head he would drop dead. It is the source of his evil power....
Curious: Are you an international fan or do you live in China?