jpny01

OMG, this is so funny - it's the series I've been desperately needing for years. The scene where the blond guy walks in and the light shining from him blinds Mobu - this is so cleverly written.

And his desperation to remain an "extra" - when he turns down the drinking invitation - "Wait, that could make me a lone wolf!"

YNEH Was wonderful - I've been meaning to watch it again, but it was on the heavy side so I've been waiting to be in the right mood. It's a little close to home, so I need to feel optimistic about the future before I watch something that makes me regret all my might-have-beens.

HIStory 4 is polarizing because of one issue that Xing Si is the only person qualified to judge, and he does not agree with the harsher judgments I've seen here.

I enjoy the cute BLs too, where perfect people that never make mistakes are cute to each other, but they're in the end forgettable - things like this series that make you think stay with me. I need to go rewatch it before the next ep to pick up everything I missed.

Gaya Sa Pelikua and ITSAY were layered with symbolism & visual metaphor too - that and the overall quality of both put them on my favorites list.

Actually I think the ending was largely a literal cartoon as well as a figurative one. I really wish I'd stopped just before "5 months later", which would have been a perfect ending. The series might have been stronger as well if the thing that happens that the title is from didn't happen - a little ambiguity would have given it more poignancy. Not everyone is a believer, and this was bash you over the head-type religious.

I grew up Catholic, and I love the idea of an angel behind you smacking you in the head to keep you awake through a Rosary.

Another brilliant analysis! That's why I love shows like this that are so laden with visual symbolism - you can watch it several times and still be picking up things you missed. I'm 100% certain you're right about this - that is absolutely what that means. Of course now that I said that it will end up being the other thing.

Nobody is looking for sex. We're looking for the characters to actually interact. The first kiss was not welcome, and the last one was only necessary because the first one wasn't welcomed.. It was fine - in fact it could just was well have been done verbally, or a hug, or just the hand-holding.

What we want is to see the "L" in the BL. The couple didn't really meet until over a third of the way though the series, and they had only a few minutes of interaction which was never overtly romantic.

The movie version did fix the problem by actually showing them working on the song together, then after the rejected kiss there's a scene of In Soo alone at home thinking of Sang Yi which shows us how he feels and makes it a love story, as opposed to what it was before, which was one-sided pining until the last 30 seconds.

The problem is almost never lack of sex or even kissing - it's a lack of anything to make it a love story instead of just a bromance with a romantic ending stapled to the end of the last scene.

Everyone always says that, so I loaded the entire comments section for this series, and the only people who even mention the word sex are you and flypsyde, and there are zero occurences of "love scene". And Crescent Moon sort of said it but said "bed". It's actually always someone saying "See? BLs don't need sex!" Yes, obviously, because almost none of them have any, nor is anyone really clamoring for it. It's frankly bordering on homophobia to insist on further desexualizing a genre that's already usually one chaste kiss from being bromance. And by desexualizing, I mean stripping the characters of their sexuality. We're people, you know, who have to suffer and fight for basic rights, not a fetish to squeal over.

I mean isn't it sort of strange to congratulate a gay love story for having no gay love in it? Other than one apparently unwelcome chaste kiss near the end and another in the last few seconds, which is when you finally find out feelings are mutual.

However... while the webseries didn't work for me, the movie version had one crucial extra scene which tied it all together - it was just a few seconds, with In Soo imagining Sang Yi there with him singing, before the scene in the offices. If that had been in the series, I'll bet 90% of the negative comments below would not be there. And no kiss, no imagined kiss - just a brief flash into In Soo's head which made this a love story. We already knew it was, but that's tell, not show, whereas this is show, not tell.

I think it's time to stop assuming everyone is complaining about a lack of sex. That's a big assumption to make about people you don't know with no data to back it up. We're complaining about a lack of overt romance in a genre that is by definition about love between boys. Almost all the complaints below are about the lack of interaction between the couple, not calls for sex. The main characters didn't even really meet until a third of the way through the story.

Yes, they sort of have bargain-basement versions of the missing characters - it feels like it was written with them in it.

I loved how the next morning after the drunken sex scene in S1, Sek's only complaint was soreness due to how monster-hung Tak was - "Are you even human?" and then he basically just left without all the usual agonizing. I think new Sek is cuter, and a better actor, but I agree - I liked old Sek better. He was more my type.

That sounds 100% correct - thanks for putting it all together for me. I'd forgotten about that first conversation you referenced.

"I'll just go the field and let a cow headbutt me to death." Even my mother is no match for this guy in guilt-tripping. Normally jealousy plots really get on my nerves, but this is basically a 1980s sitcom, so it's hard to be bothered.

If the misunderstanding with Ball had happened in 1,000 Stars, I would be ranting and raving at how they ruined something special with silly writing like that.

Here, I call it Monday. Disappointingly standard BL trope, but whatever, this is light entertainment. Teng looks better this season. Maybe he has a better haircut or something. Ko doesn't look better. Because that's not possible.

I'm a little at a loss to understand why a woman oggling your bf gets you that bent out of shape - I would think it's funny, but also be proud that I have a hot bf.

Also, why is the teacher younger than the students? That "mustache" isn't fooling anyone.

I've only noticed one cast change so far. Or do you mean the characters that are gone, like Tak's henchmen?

I went back to look - I was about to reply again. I mixed up the sequence - you're right. My only disagreement is that I don't think he was angry about the potion not working, he was hurt that Teng's song was to ask that girl to be with him - he explicitly says that, and to his friends, and that's the way they reported it to Teng as well. Ko shouldn't have ghosted Teng, but it's not very easy to say "I need space because I'm in love with you and you just got a gf and it hurts." They're also high school students, not adults - I think the way he behaved was more realistic than inviting to to coffee to talk about their feelings. It's not mature, but I think it's a bit much to say that he doesn't deserve happiness because of it - are you saying people that have flaws or make mistakes should suffer alone?

In the sex scene, Teng was not drunk, and he should not have gone along with it - he's the one cheating. It doesn't matter if the friends called him hoping that would happen - he's still in relationship, and he's still responsibile for his own actions, and he said he couldn't be with Ko, so there's really no excuse for him having done that. Are you saying that Teng could not have stopped it? He's larger and was sober - he didn't even say "no" or push Ko away. How is that Ko forcing him?

I hadn't even thought of that. I feel like the two teachers have been in the same scene together, but I don't know if I'm remembering it correctly. I'll have to go back and check.

Yong Jie did say that part of his plan was to assume blame for the situation to make it more palatable for their father, and he's definitely cast himself in a fairly negative light, I'd say, so mission accomplished on that regard. He seems to have thought everything through, but I'm not sure anyone else would have come to the same conclusions. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

I totally get what you're saying - but it's not the skinship I'm lookin for- half of real BLs don't have any either. I agree it's the emotional connection that's what is important, but overtly denying it's anything but friendship is queerbaiting, which is essentially a marketing technique that exploits the desire for m/m romance while still denying our existence. It's throwing a bone to starving dog and smirking that you didn't actually have to give it food.

It just happened - he hasn't had any time to process it, and Li Cheng seemed to feel guilty that he an erotic dream about it. What do you feel was romanticized? I thought the whole thing was portrayed as rather disturbing. I'm not criticizing, I just want to understand.

LOL, yes, you're asking for too much. BL fans but football fans to shame when it comes to how far they're willing to go.

Got it. Thai humor is really slapstick and doesn't really do much for me in general, so I get what you're saying.

I'm kind of confused by this. The shaman was a fraud and the potion had nothing to do with anything. It's of course wrong that he even thought of doing something like that, because he thought it might work. But he wasn't angry, he was heartbroken, and then Teng had sex with him and made it worse - why wouldn't he be upset at Teng for that? Teng is the one who did something wrong in the end - he cheated on his gf and gave Ko hope again. How is cheating on your gf not something wrong? I can't understand what Ko did wrong that you're so upset about.