It would be completely ridiculous to make Pat head of the department and just set him up for dismal failiure as there's no way he's ready for that job. If a mean post-it note makes him bawl in public in front of everyone, how is he going to manage a whole group? They will loathe him because he was promoted over them because he's sleeping with the boss.
Why would you promote Pat over Chot? Because Chot is effeminate and thus not a real man and thus not leadership material. It's disgusting.
Pat is really hard to like - it's a good thing he's cute.
There are so many extraneous plotlines in this - who cares about the guy confessing to Ae? What possible plot purpose was there to that? What possible plot purpose is there to everything having to do with Ae? What is the Jaab/Jen storyline? It's so vague I really don't know what's going on (nor do I care). The writing is baffling.
It was a mistake to follow a scene of Chot crying with one of Pat crying - it only underscored the vast difference in acting ability. Speaking of Chot, FINALLY someone said it - it's much crueler to say you don't believe someone's confession than to turn it down. Thank you! Chot is the best character in this and the best written. Jeng is a close competitor, though.
I will say kudos to both main actors for their intimacy scenes - they did not shy away from it and were actually making out, not rubber-lipping it. Also, Man pressed his body against Ben's rather than planking over him like is usually done. Man is fantastic - his feelings for pat are totally believable and feel genuine.
I'm not sure I agree all the crying made sense - he's an adult.
But it's an especially good point about the shock at Jeng being gay - when you like someone, you tend to see more positive signals than are there, not less.
I don't really have the energy to say much but "non-consensual hug" is just so funny to me like genuinely what
You're using one single drama as an example for all these points, which suggests you've only seen one that has these tropes, which suggests these tropes are not as common as you initially thought.
Again, the problem isn't that there's a fantasy world where there's no homophobia, it's that ALL BLs feature fantasy worlds where there's no homophobia. If you're LGBTQ+ and had to struggle against homophobia your whole life, that's problemmatic.
Regarding the last point, implausible misunderstanding is the first recourse of a terrible writer. If your drama is based on the stupendous coincidence of someone showing up for a 1-second window to cause a misunderstanding, then you either don't know what you're doing, are too lazy to think of something that makes more sense, or lack any creativity and are just copying what you've seen in other bad dramas.
Misunderstandings themselves aren't a problem if the misunderstanding is organic to the characters - for example, in Naked Dining, A Taiwanese man lives in Japan - in a note, the kanji for "former work associate" mean "ex lover" in Mandarin, which caused a pretty serious misunderstanding. That's a "good" misunderstanding.
On top of that, that characters need to react like people react. If you see an obviously one-sided kiss between a girl and your bf, do you a) drop your lunch and take an immediate trip up a mountain without telling anyone while wearing an implausibly heavy sweater in sweltering heat or b) say something? Clear your throat, even. And there's this think called "peripheral vision" which is related to absolutely basic instincts we've evolved - things don't really escape your peripheral vision, yet Patts didn't see Tai standing out in the open. It's all nonsensical and not character driven. The author wanted to have a piggy-back ride, so all that contrivance was thrown in to get us there. And that's not to mention the impossibility of carrying a limp fully-grown man for any distance in sweltering heat. It's a set piece, not a plot element - a box on a checklist of cliches.
they are definitely going to pull a 'flashback' and tell us what Patts and Lomfon talked about. and of course,…
He's doing as good a job as anyone could with such a dull character in this series. Same with Pee, who is able to project menace effectively when he feels threatened by Lomfon, but without being OTT.
This is really unpleasant to watch with too many awful people in it. The cast remains beautiful - Xion Lim knows where to find hot guys, but the pacing, directing, cinematography, writing, and dialog all drain the energy from the series and make a chore to watch.
One thing I will say though is that James Ramada is much better in this than he was in My Story where he was overacting.
first ----- its a slow burnsecond-----It is realstic thrid-----if you don't like it (it is good,And it is not…
LOL, I meant slow burn is virtually the only option in a long series - this isn't SLOW burn, it's NO burn, which is not OK. So I'm right there with you on that. Except maybe that I want Jeng to find someone better and let Pat wallow in his childishness.
If someone tells you they're in love with you and you conclude it's a straight guy messing with you, then you're an idiot and deserve to die alone. That was a little mean, but he's a fictional character.
they are definitely going to pull a 'flashback' and tell us what Patts and Lomfon talked about. and of course,…
Sometimes they give a character a personality trait and then really overdo it. Like in Enemies to Lovers stories, the seme is often so horrible that it's difficult to get over it. Remember the beginning of Big Dragon? I can't stand the overused word "toxic", but that gave it new meaning. That was only saved(ish) by both of them being equally horrible. If only one of them tried to rape-blackmail the other, we'd never accept them as a couple. As it is, I give them 2 weeks at best.
Those are basically the things I commented about. Tian's reasoning for his guilt didn't make sense. (Unfortunately,…
There ain't nobody on earth that could have carred Tai down the mountain on his back. Tai is +/- 180 cm & 70 kg, and an unconscious human is much harder to carry than a heavy backpack, not to mention it would be impossible to carry someone piggy-back for even a short distance if they aren't helping by holding on and keeping their weight evenly distributed. And it's not like Patts was wearing hiking boots.
There was too much like that - I kept rewinding thinking I'd accidentally skipped over stuff - what is the danger? Why is only Tai vulnerable to sun and rain (answer: he's an uke). What is specially about that mountain... well, low foothill? If Tian realized he'd missed that Tai would go up the low foothill, would he bawl hysterically until Lomfon attempted to die just to escape the torture, or, I don't know, maybe go get Tai? If Patts knew Tai was up the mountain, since there was a road, could he not have gone in his car, or borrowed a SUV? No, because then we wouldn't get the implausible and formulaic poggy-back ride.
I don't really have the energy to say much but "non-consensual hug" is just so funny to me like genuinely what
I didn't say the soulmate thing was irrelevant, just the hearing in the rain.
He could have done the other thing people do constantly in BL, which is grab him by the wrist, I suppose, but it is certainly not normal and common to do a back hug, in that context. If you're standing somewhere together with a significant other, you might come up behind them and hug them. You would not grab someone who's upset and trying to leave - that would be overly aggressive and just piss them off more.
This is 100% a BL. I'm not sure what you mean by "stands alone as a series", but if you mean it transcends genre, then no, it really doesn't.
There are characterics of a BL that are more or less universal.
- Characters are wealthy - There is a fantasy element - There are stock cliches, like behind hug, piggy back ride, uke fainting/getting fever when touched by sunlight or rain, accidental kisses, damp towel wipedown, etc. - The Seme is usually straight(ish) and has a female ex that causes a problem. - The story has virtually no LGBTQ+ sensibility - it's a magical world where there is no homophobia except occassionally from villains. None of the characters can display effeminate behavior unless they're pathetic or a "comedic" carrier that screeches and paws at every half-attractive man. - The uke behaves like the seme's sexual desire is perverse and withholds wherever possible. Fortunately, becoming less common that he has to be forced - or gotten drunk (which is still common). - There is a past connection between the characters that one or both doesn't remember. - Drama is dependent on implausible misunderstandings caused by showing up at the precise moment to generate one that could be easily solved by a 30-second chat, and jealousy, usually regarding a woman.
There is absolutely nothing that distinguishes this in any way from a "standard" BL except that the cast is considerably more talented than average. The checklist of tropes like back hugs are symptomatic of formulaic thinking, but are individually unimportant - although they do diminish the story when there are too many. What is central to the laziness of the writing are plot devices like Pat showing up at just the right moment to see a one-sided kiss (and then run off wearing a heavy sweater to faint from heat stroke that doesn't affect anyone else).
That's a cheap external impetus for drama. Drama organic to the characters (and thus not lazy) is Tai's resistance to his soulmate because of his parents or Tien being wary of Lomfon's pursuit of Tai.
I don't really have the energy to say much but "non-consensual hug" is just so funny to me like genuinely what
Yes, but not from behind where they can't see you. Also, while it's certainly true that a hug can be used to calm someone down, it shouldn't be used to restrain someone from leaving. As for consent, Lomfon & Tien aren't really even officially friends - they hated each other until an episode ago.
It would be nitpicking if it were just one occurrence, but it's in ALL BLs - another in the long list of pointless tropes that are thrown in just to throw them in. It's symptomatic of a lack of creativity that leads to formulaicism. What have they really done with the hearing-soulmates-in-the-rain thing? Pretty much nothing, until Lomfon in this episode where it actually mattered, but wasn't really essential. Would it really have much impact on the story if that whole aspect of the story didn't exist? Not really. What we have is a story that's based on silly misunderstanding and jealousy, the two elements BL is entirely dependent on, although points to La Pluie for not dragging it out or making the girfriend evil.
Compare that to Triage, where the "schtick" of repeated time was essential to the plot. Even if it fell apart near the end, the writer was acutally trying instead of throwing a paint-by-the-numbers BL onto the screen.
I'm starting to think the writers shoulda went hard with comedy and just had fun with it. I mean, you can hear…
Yes - BL seems to be afraid of comedy, even though there are some good comic actors. Even when they're adapting a comedy, like Love Stage, they turn it into a drama, which drains all the energy out of it.
The source material for Love Stage was really funny and OTT, but they made it into a standard BL drama, which didn't work at all.
For La Pluie, they can apparently only hear each other but have no sense of the context, so there was plenty of opportunity for funny misunderstandings - like one of them getting a massage and what their moans sound like, or trying to give a presentation at work while the other is having a bad visit to the toilet (since BL is obsessed with toilet humor).
I'll start with the positive: the episodes are only 20 minutes long. End of positives.
Actually, the mixup over the different meanings of the Chinese characters was clever and the way Souta embarassed himself was funny. But then they ruined it So you've been in love with some guy for 10 years, and he confesses to you. Do you:
a) Run into his arms b) Treat him like he has a nasty communicable disease
I don't know if it's the directing or the acting, but I don't get even a teensy hint of Mahiro's attraction to Souta. The actor playing Souta does manage to display some sensuality, and I can belive he's into Mahiro, although God knows why, since he isn't mature enough for junior high school.
The setup for the confession was good, but the result was such a letdown that I can only sigh wearily that I've endured 11 episodes and this is all we get.
3 
5 
1 
Why would you promote Pat over Chot? Because Chot is effeminate and thus not a real man and thus not leadership material. It's disgusting.
Pat is really hard to like - it's a good thing he's cute.
There are so many extraneous plotlines in this - who cares about the guy confessing to Ae? What possible plot purpose was there to that? What possible plot purpose is there to everything having to do with Ae? What is the Jaab/Jen storyline? It's so vague I really don't know what's going on (nor do I care). The writing is baffling.
It was a mistake to follow a scene of Chot crying with one of Pat crying - it only underscored the vast difference in acting ability. Speaking of Chot, FINALLY someone said it - it's much crueler to say you don't believe someone's confession than to turn it down. Thank you! Chot is the best character in this and the best written. Jeng is a close competitor, though.
I will say kudos to both main actors for their intimacy scenes - they did not shy away from it and were actually making out, not rubber-lipping it. Also, Man pressed his body against Ben's rather than planking over him like is usually done. Man is fantastic - his feelings for pat are totally believable and feel genuine.
But it's an especially good point about the shock at Jeng being gay - when you like someone, you tend to see more positive signals than are there, not less.
Again, the problem isn't that there's a fantasy world where there's no homophobia, it's that ALL BLs feature fantasy worlds where there's no homophobia. If you're LGBTQ+ and had to struggle against homophobia your whole life, that's problemmatic.
Regarding the last point, implausible misunderstanding is the first recourse of a terrible writer. If your drama is based on the stupendous coincidence of someone showing up for a 1-second window to cause a misunderstanding, then you either don't know what you're doing, are too lazy to think of something that makes more sense, or lack any creativity and are just copying what you've seen in other bad dramas.
Misunderstandings themselves aren't a problem if the misunderstanding is organic to the characters - for example, in Naked Dining, A Taiwanese man lives in Japan - in a note, the kanji for "former work associate" mean "ex lover" in Mandarin, which caused a pretty serious misunderstanding. That's a "good" misunderstanding.
On top of that, that characters need to react like people react. If you see an obviously one-sided kiss between a girl and your bf, do you a) drop your lunch and take an immediate trip up a mountain without telling anyone while wearing an implausibly heavy sweater in sweltering heat or b) say something? Clear your throat, even. And there's this think called "peripheral vision" which is related to absolutely basic instincts we've evolved - things don't really escape your peripheral vision, yet Patts didn't see Tai standing out in the open. It's all nonsensical and not character driven. The author wanted to have a piggy-back ride, so all that contrivance was thrown in to get us there. And that's not to mention the impossibility of carrying a limp fully-grown man for any distance in sweltering heat. It's a set piece, not a plot element - a box on a checklist of cliches.
One thing I will say though is that James Ramada is much better in this than he was in My Story where he was overacting.
If someone tells you they're in love with you and you conclude it's a straight guy messing with you, then you're an idiot and deserve to die alone. That was a little mean, but he's a fictional character.
There was too much like that - I kept rewinding thinking I'd accidentally skipped over stuff - what is the danger? Why is only Tai vulnerable to sun and rain (answer: he's an uke). What is specially about that mountain... well, low foothill? If Tian realized he'd missed that Tai would go up the low foothill, would he bawl hysterically until Lomfon attempted to die just to escape the torture, or, I don't know, maybe go get Tai? If Patts knew Tai was up the mountain, since there was a road, could he not have gone in his car, or borrowed a SUV? No, because then we wouldn't get the implausible and formulaic poggy-back ride.
He could have done the other thing people do constantly in BL, which is grab him by the wrist, I suppose, but it is certainly not normal and common to do a back hug, in that context. If you're standing somewhere together with a significant other, you might come up behind them and hug them. You would not grab someone who's upset and trying to leave - that would be overly aggressive and just piss them off more.
This is 100% a BL. I'm not sure what you mean by "stands alone as a series", but if you mean it transcends genre, then no, it really doesn't.
There are characterics of a BL that are more or less universal.
- Characters are wealthy
- There is a fantasy element
- There are stock cliches, like behind hug, piggy back ride, uke fainting/getting fever when touched by sunlight or rain, accidental kisses, damp towel wipedown, etc.
- The Seme is usually straight(ish) and has a female ex that causes a problem.
- The story has virtually no LGBTQ+ sensibility - it's a magical world where there is no homophobia except occassionally from villains. None of the characters can display effeminate behavior unless they're pathetic or a "comedic" carrier that screeches and paws at every half-attractive man.
- The uke behaves like the seme's sexual desire is perverse and withholds wherever possible. Fortunately, becoming less common that he has to be forced - or gotten drunk (which is still common).
- There is a past connection between the characters that one or both doesn't remember.
- Drama is dependent on implausible misunderstandings caused by showing up at the precise moment to generate one that could be easily solved by a 30-second chat, and jealousy, usually regarding a woman.
There is absolutely nothing that distinguishes this in any way from a "standard" BL except that the cast is considerably more talented than average. The checklist of tropes like back hugs are symptomatic of formulaic thinking, but are individually unimportant - although they do diminish the story when there are too many. What is central to the laziness of the writing are plot devices like Pat showing up at just the right moment to see a one-sided kiss (and then run off wearing a heavy sweater to faint from heat stroke that doesn't affect anyone else).
That's a cheap external impetus for drama. Drama organic to the characters (and thus not lazy) is Tai's resistance to his soulmate because of his parents or Tien being wary of Lomfon's pursuit of Tai.
It would be nitpicking if it were just one occurrence, but it's in ALL BLs - another in the long list of pointless tropes that are thrown in just to throw them in. It's symptomatic of a lack of creativity that leads to formulaicism. What have they really done with the hearing-soulmates-in-the-rain thing? Pretty much nothing, until Lomfon in this episode where it actually mattered, but wasn't really essential. Would it really have much impact on the story if that whole aspect of the story didn't exist? Not really. What we have is a story that's based on silly misunderstanding and jealousy, the two elements BL is entirely dependent on, although points to La Pluie for not dragging it out or making the girfriend evil.
Compare that to Triage, where the "schtick" of repeated time was essential to the plot. Even if it fell apart near the end, the writer was acutally trying instead of throwing a paint-by-the-numbers BL onto the screen.
The source material for Love Stage was really funny and OTT, but they made it into a standard BL drama, which didn't work at all.
For La Pluie, they can apparently only hear each other but have no sense of the context, so there was plenty of opportunity for funny misunderstandings - like one of them getting a massage and what their moans sound like, or trying to give a presentation at work while the other is having a bad visit to the toilet (since BL is obsessed with toilet humor).
Actually, the mixup over the different meanings of the Chinese characters was clever and the way Souta embarassed himself was funny. But then they ruined it So you've been in love with some guy for 10 years, and he confesses to you. Do you:
a) Run into his arms
b) Treat him like he has a nasty communicable disease
I don't know if it's the directing or the acting, but I don't get even a teensy hint of Mahiro's attraction to Souta. The actor playing Souta does manage to display some sensuality, and I can belive he's into Mahiro, although God knows why, since he isn't mature enough for junior high school.
The setup for the confession was good, but the result was such a letdown that I can only sigh wearily that I've endured 11 episodes and this is all we get.