jpny01

So a remake of a remake of an adaptation of a Manga from the 1990s. Sounds great. (That was sarcasm.) But I like the cast a lot, so I'll punish myself and watch it. Maybe they'll gay it up. But I doubt it.

Who is Nanon?

Ugh, I couldn't remember the name Kieta Hatsukoi and I was going crazy. Thank you! I'm off to go catch up on it.

It's not bad to be slow. It's bad to be slow when the story goes nowhere and neither do the slow scenes. A well-written and executed slow-burn doesn't feel slow, and when it gets somewhere, it's all the more satisfying. Two of my favorite BLs, and probably on most people's Top 10 lists, are ITSAY and Gaya Sa Pelikula, both of which were slow, especially ITSAY, but I didn't once feel frustrated with the pace or story.

But what really happens in Bite Me? The central contest was no big deal and had no impact on anything. There were three evil chefs introduced. Nothing happened with them. And the romance - after nothing happening except endless staring for 8 eps, they had a violent breakup without ever even getting together, then they made up immediately as if nothing happened. How would you describe the plot of this? Guys meet and cook. The end.

Slow pacing works because it builds tension which then resolves into a satisfying conclusion. If that never really happens, it feels like a waste of time and is frustrating, especially when a series has enormous potential like this one did.

That's fair enough.

I totally agree about PDA - it's totally unnecessary in many cases, and lack of it here is not the problem. One of my favorite BLs is Hello Stranger, where there was one hug, and that's it - but it was more than enough. Or for a shorter example, Country Boy has no overt affection at all, but it's beautiful and romantic.

I don't know why everyone always jumps to the conclusion that we're expecting softcore porn whenever there's a complaint. It's condescending and weird, and frankly borders on homophobia.

I haven't seen Ep 8 yet, but it wasn't THAT bad. I'm glad they didn't drag the angst in Ep 7 out, although it would have been better if they'd spent the time wasted on the standard "long flashback sequence set to sappy ballad" on actual plot development - that would have made the whole thing smoother. All-in-all it's just forgettable, not really bad.

The purpose of the scheme was that Laura wanted Jung Woo to learn the recipes before she fired Do Gun, which makes sense I guess? But is still really weak - why not just keep Do Gun if you like his cooking so much?

A short drama like this can work fine if you write it competently - I'd rather have something short and good than a meandering long drama.

JES is not a hot guy? My goodness, you must have very exacting tastes!

I was joking too. :)

Do you think cheating on your man is funny?

I'm right there with you.

Thank you too - you said things for me to think about. And you're totally right about the raging over the toxic thing. I don't know if you're aware of it, but carrying the bride over the threshold is a Roman custom that commemorates the Rape of the Sabine Women, wherein the early Romans kidnapped the virgins of the surrounding areas because they didn't have enough women. So bridal-style is a rape symbol - NOW what's toxic? Saving people from fires, or abducting virgins? (To be fair, the Sabine women eventually forced the men to stop fighting and unite into one people, but still.)

LOL, totally true about bridal style. If you watch behind-the-scenes for Addicted Heroin, even a really in-shape guy was really struggling to carry a guy like that just across a room. Piggyback isn't really suitable for long-distance carrying either, unless it's a child - the way you really carry someone is over the shoulder. Here that's called "fireman" carry.

MOD was starting to suffer from a WTF? element to its plot, but that's better than nothing happening, for sure. Also, they had Inspector M in that skin-tight uniform, so that made up for a lot. :)

I understood you're not attacking - no worries. But if you think about Thai BL, there are trends that are imitative, as if the author is afraid that if something isn't there that it won't be good. Something as specific as blowdrying hair or giving someone a piggy-back ride are not suitable for endless repetition, because it's copying someone else's idea.

SOTUS was successful, so we had an endless stream of engineers. Brothers had cute hair-drying, so now that's a requirement in every BL. I'm not sure where piggy-back rides started, but it started suddenly and now it's in everything (and replaced being carried bridal-style, a previous overused imitative trend). The best BLs don't rely on rote imitation, they come up with something different. ITSAY was well-acted and filmed, but it also had an innovative plot with original quirks, like Teh sniffing ink, and the acting rivalry.

If it's enemies to lovers, that's different - that's a plot trope that's as old as fiction and it works. It's something that can be done over and over and it will still work. But not really specific things, and there are times when the story is twisted in a strange direction just to have the imitation. In Brothers, they shared a room and bathroom, so hair drying made sense, and it was written as a sublimation of their desire, so it served a specific plot purpose. In all the copying, it doesn't have a purpose - it's just there to be there.

To use your analogy, you go to a restaurant with your boyfriend (or whatever) and have a great dish. Then he copies the dish, not as well as the restaurant did it, and cooks it for you every night for the rest of your life. At some point, you'll scream "ENOUGH ALREADY!!!"

The copying is also usually symptomatic of a larger lack of creativity, and series that imitiate everything are usually the least memorable.

Well, he's certainly not good at showing he likes m/m action!

"Let's be Romeo & Juliet with nothing standing in our way". I don't think whoever wrote that really understood the play. (Note how well that rhymed. I am THAT good.)

I'm going to say it. Japan wins BL. Everything in this is so well-done. The acting, the comedy (dry and intelligent, not stupid and slapstick), creativity, attention to detail (even the dog's facial expressions were perfect), the economy of force in the writing - we've had five medium-length eps and more has happened than in most 12 long episode productions from... elsewhere, and just the general quirkiness.

Anyway, I love this.

On the one hand I'm excited for a more mature story with adults and adult life, and I like that the characters are average-looking instead of chiseled perfection. On the other hand, the trailer is so convoluted and confusing that it got boring. I'm definitely going to watch this, but I'm not developing any expectations.

It's not that these things aren't cute, it's that they're terribly overused to the point that they're just something on a checklist. In Brothers, the hair drying was a special thing between them, and it was super-cute. But now, it's copied by every BL to the point that it's silly and meaningless. It's like if every couple stood at the prow of a ship and spread our their arms and shouted "I'm the king of the world!" it would be stupid, not romantic. Likewise with the hair-drying.

If a writer can't be bothered to come up with something original, why should I be bothered to care about her story?