etoks21

Interesting to read your perspective. I feel 180 degrees opposite.

You're wrong. The dad hates that Shin is gay. And though he pretended to be angry that Shin never comes home, it's clear he never reached out to Shin to tell him he was MISSED at home. And he is extremely uncomfortable with visible emotion in males. He sees it as a sign of weakness. My dad was the same way. It is soul-crushing to grow up being told to stifle your feelings all the time.

And yes, many gay men feel emotions more deeply than straight men, and there is nothing wrong with it. On the contrary, that emotionality is often part-and-parcel with the creativity/sensitivity/compassion for others that makes us who we are. Being told to stifle that is pure abuse. I would have preferred a slap across the face.

Oh wait, I got that too.

It won't do for me. That was no apology. See my comment above for more on this, if you're interested.

You are correct.
It is downright off-putting how prudish and frail Shin still acts at this point in their relationship. The story tells us there has been growth, but it's not being SHOWN by the actions/behaviors/demeanors of the characters, where it should be self-evident by now. So, there's a feeling of oddness in scenes like near the end where they sat on that bench for a snack while waiting for the boat, THREE FEET apart. Then, that weird kiss where they were supposedly leaning in from THREE FEET apart, but we all knew something would prevent the kiss, and of course, a pudding cup fell to the ground! And we're supposed to think it was cute.

It wasn't.

Episode 11:

"I'm just a stubborn old man." Truer words were never spoken.
I'm kind of sick of the old JP BL trope regarding rigid, shut-down, emotionally abusive dads who snarl and yap at family members like frustrated Yakuza, but who we're expected to sigh and go "awww..." at when a mother or sister says, "In his own way..." blah blah blah. Yes, in his own way, he's a douche bag and needs to snap out of it and change, or stfu. And no, that process does NOT happen during one sentimental/nostalgic chat by a charming, gurgling stream.

Mom and sis joining Shin for an impromptu slumber party in his room was a delightful, authentic-feeling surprise. Thank god for the females in our families, or most of us gay men might not have made it.

Sadly, I've liked Shin and Kosuke less and less with each episode. I don't DIS-like them; but they aren't the weird-ish, lovable goofballs I initially found them to be in episodes 1-4. And they continue to act awkwardly uneasy in their physical interactions. The charm is gone, and it's been replaced by frustration that they don't seem to have grown much. Shin seems like this pasty, slightly creepy, shrinking violet, who never goes out in the sun. It would make more sense if they worked in a vampire subplot to explain that issue.

What on Earth are you on about?
I am not the least bit "upset," but you seem to be. lol
What "page?" I'm not a drama or movie; I don't have a "page."

You intruded on THIS page with a long, punctuation/capitalization/sentence-free rant, spewing spittle at the moon. Why would I "respect" that? Perhaps you should have ranted at whoever recommended the flick to you. :D

I responded, light-heartedly, with two lines of Taylor Swift lyrics that fit your comment perfectly. But, here you are ranting again, though this time with sentences, punctuation, and capital letters. Were you high when you left the original comment, which contains none of these compositional elements?

Never mind.

Ranting like a crazy person about this film, in one endless sentence with no punctuation or capitalization, when you could easily have just stopped watching at any point.

Yes.

This was somewhat better as a movie than a series, but still needed more sex. :) Showing us some really passionate, intimate, emotionally connective sex, would have made it hit much harder when Seung Hyun found out what he found out about Jong Chan's past.

And speaking of that...the issue was a pretty lame one to hang out there as a reason for SH to pull back. Doing so made him seem exceedingly immature and petty. The character IS somewhat the former, but not at all the latter. At most, it might be something a reasonable person would feel a little icky over for a couple days, but if you're falling for someone like JC, it doesn't ring true as a reason to put off the relationship. Needed a higher-stakes reason for that pull-back.

Also, SH's cutesy/shy/little boy schtick/affectations were somewhat cute at the beginning, but wore thin as the film progressed. He was growing professionally and personally; it made no sense for that goofiness to last right up until the last frame.

Finally, it was wild to see in the after-credits scene, how much just putting him in sweats and a ballcap changed Kwon Hyuk's looks from hard-ass manager to young, average (but very handsome) Joe. :D

8/10

Needed more sex.

Your solution sounds like a MUCH more interesting approach than what we got here. I liked this pretty well (7.5/10), but a higher-stakes plot, as you describe, would have been even better. :)

You need to calm down.
You're bein' too loud.

P.S. I just did a little googling. It has been tested and proven that pig pheremones have no effect on humans. :) Sorry. Makes for a great plot point, though. :D

Hi. Thanks for the reply. :)

Two years later, I recall the pheremone scene only vaguely if at all. If I ever decide to watch this again, however, I will know what's going on thanks to you. :)

Another soulless Baby Boys Love drama for squealing Little Girls who want gay men in stories only as sexless Teddy Bears with nothing at all where their man-junk ought to be, like Ken dolls; basically safe pretty boys with none of those threatening, dirty, sexy-sex cooties going on.

Ridiculous trash for the GMMTV crowd.

1/10

Which isn't saying much. lol

lol

I wish writer/director Boss Naruebet Kuno (I Told Sunset About You, The Paradise of Thorns, Gelboys, Project S: By My Side, and others) would take on a rewrite/remake of this show.
I know he could make the solid bones of this plot over into something remarkable.

OK, second watch finished.

Yeah, no... there's so much wrong with the last 20 minutes that everything positive before then, goes right down the toilet with it. Leading up to then, there are a great many moments of fine acting, done in spite of bad writing, and some deeply moving ideas/themes. However, the twisted nature of the family dynamic surrounding alcoholism/codependency, and how the ending makes the case FOR enabling/continuing a fucked-up situation like that and drawing your kid into the middle of it at the cost of his personal relationship and growth, as a GOOD/healthy/beautiful thing, is total BS/crap.

But worst of all, is how the director plays that last 25 minutes to make us believe one thing is about to happen and then sadistically pulls the rug out from under us just because he can.
Tong: "I love you Mew, but here, go shove this red nose up your ass and cry on your bed all alone."
Mew: "OK!"
Tong's mom: "Oh, Tong, I'm so glad I've kept you all to myself and safe from that little queer boy who was about to destroy your ability to give me grandchildren, which after all, is all that matters!"

But there are lots of bad acting, awkward writing, and other production issues leading up to that to make this an overall fail, even without the shit ending. TLOS gets credit for kicking off the BL phenomenon, but let's not get carried away and pretend not to notice how deeply homophobic that ending is: The alkie/codependent family, a trinity of dysfunction, the future grandchild-maker safe at home from the gay kid, and the queer sobbing alone in his bedroom.

The "Love" of Siam, my ass.

STILL 1/10

"my dude...." good god.

The MDL sop that we should not take major clues about the perspectives of other MDL members directly from the words they put down for others to read is as lame as the idea that the father in this story is secretly pro-gay and only wants to help his son come to accept himself and be happy. lol I'm not "attacking" you personally, I don't know you. I am evaluating the mind-set of a stranger based on what he has written here about the content of a drama I'm watching. I am "attacking" your mind-set, not your soul.

OF COURSE we have major indications of the "father's point of view." They are all over his words and actions right there on the screen in front of us. You're all about making excuses for him, so you choose to pretend not to see them, which does not mean they aren't there.

As he was berating his son for not visiting home, did he mention how many times he had NOT reached out to invite Kanade or ASK him why he wasn't coming home? Or is it that he DID do that; we just don't know it yet? It would be just like a show as badly written as this one to reveal to us next week that really, truly, he'd been calling Kanade every week; the writers just chose to conceal that from us. :P

Judging from the preview of this show's finale, you may get your hoped-for conclusion. We will discover that Kanade's repressed family and Imperial JP homophobic father were really, truly, all along only trying to help him come out of the closet, accept and love himself, and be happy. And that conclusion will be entirely unearned and bogus.

Are you suggesting that the Land of the Rising Sun is not a lot more homophobic and repressed than most of Europe, the Nordic countries, the USA, and Taiwan? That it is not conservative and backward regarding gay rights? As suggested, perhaps you've lived there too long and think this is normal, which explains your take on the dad and his bigotry/cruelty.