OK, so in searching for the actor's name who plays Sam, I developed mixed feelings about the teacher. On the one hand, he's a little creepy. On the other:
I'm so sorry about your personal parental situation. Hugs!
I'm always glad I read your posts, no matter how long they are.
But it's important in any situation to get all the facts before rushing to judgement. All we saw was a divorce certificate and a couple of photos, not the full story. And if you've seen Ep 9, now we have the full story.
Was that the super-hot photographer? I feel like I've seen him before, but I can't place it. He feels a little more like Mr. Tonight than Mr. Right, but I'd take whatever I can get.
Not liking the pacing. None of the relationships have progressed very far and with 2 episodes to go they drop…
This was a family drama from the beginning, so the conflict of the last two eps was central to the main plot. Chon & Prab have developed to the point that they didn't let this ruin their relationship, whereas a few eps ago, Chon would misdirect his hostility at Prab.
This show never really seem to descend into melodrama, which I really appreciate, and presents realistic scenarios (except for the magical high school where the entire student body and all the male faculty aer gay. Where was this HS when I was that age?) and believable characters.
But it does need to get moving on the relationships - if we don't see some progress next ep, I'm going to start to get impatient.
So it turns out that Chol (and a lot of people here) were wrong about their parents. (Cont'd below under spoiler…
My assumption was that there was a lot we didn't know and that as this is a very rated G show that there would be nothing sinister. It's interesting to see how it really turned out.
This was an eventful episode, and I think the theme that seems to be central to the series is that life is complicated, with lots of shades of grey, and every situation had to be looked at individually without rushes to judgment. For example, if the teacher has feelings for the student, there's nothing wrong with it - you can't control things like that. If he acts on it, that's where there would be a problem. If he channels those feelings into mentoring, that's constructive. It was less constructive when his feelings caused him to react the opposite way. But notice mom is uneasy.
Folk's acting was downright good this ep. He's really improved a lot. Phu, not so much change, but his role is basically to be adorable and he's got that down. I also like that Chon is a teenager who is inexperienced in life, shy and awkward - usually BL characters are obviously in their 20s while playing high school kids and have adult confidence and perspective, which is fine and inevitable, but it's refreshing to have someone who nails being 16 - although the actor is 18, so it's not like he has to reach deep into his memories or something.
I guess arranged marriages are still a thing, and for some people they probably work, but how can you think it's…
I don't think we can judge the student/teacher thing until we see how it resolves. The central theme of this show is that life isn't simple or black & white.
I know it won't change many minds, but a quick point - I didn't realize it until dllmzca gave me a time stamp, but a lot of people have mentioned that Xing Si had his eyes closed throughout the scene - he absolutely did not. I watched it on a large screen, but rewatching on a small screen, I can see how it looks that way on a laptop or phone.
When Yong Jie says "It's you", he opens his eyes and never shuts them again except to blink and when he's being kissed. You can see him blinking throughout.
In fact, the camera perspective is deliberately Xing Si's POV through much of it - Yong Jie even looks directly into the camera in those moments (e.g. 37:15).
That's why I've been so astonished at people saying Xing Si was blacked out. I know some people think consent can't be given when drunk, but I just can't ever agree - if that's the case, almost the entire human race is raping itself constantly. Just before COVID I visited my ex and we raped each other repeatedly for four days. Actually, mutual rape has occurred in almost every sexual encounter I've had in the last 25 years, except during relationships, although frequently then too. And it's common in relationships to be woken up in a very pleasant way, but since I would be asleep when he started, also rape.
The point is that consent is a complex subject and different in every circumstance. A black-and-white edict is not useful (I mean about whether or not there's consent - "no" means "no", period). Maybe it's a good idea to inculcate that in teens, but it's just not that simple for adults.
Sib said he's 20 in the audition and he's 26 (his mother said he and Gene are the same age), which was a lie to…
There's no way he's 6 years younger. He says he's going to university, but he's a proven liar. We've never seen him in class or even so much as carry a book or laptop, nor have we seen him study or do homework. But even if they haven't shown that because of time constraints, it would be easy to pretend to be an undergrad if you're a grad, and 26 is not too old for that. I could buy him being 24, but when you're kids, you aren't generally close to people 6 years younger, or even 4. You might be friends in a group, but parents would be freaked out if you were spending a lot of time 1:1.
You're right, it would be a lot of effort to pretend to be a student - like it's a lot of effort to become an actor just to get close to someone. The whole point of Sib is that he's willing to plow over any obstacle to get Gene.
Sib lied about his age to get the part (he's 26, not 20), and he knew who Gene was, knew Gene didn't recognize…
I agree with almost all that - the lack of demand for explanation is the biggest problem here, and the failure to deliver one a close second. The car scene didn't sit right with me either. Sib announced he was 20. Try fudging your experience on a resume by 6 years and see what happens when HR finds out, even if you're a top-performing employee. People that lie generally don't just do it once. If a close friend of yours lied to you several times about important things that have to do with your life, would you just shrug it off? How about someone you're in love with and are sort of with? And the lie is that he's a completely different person than he claimed to be? Without trust there's nothing. And in this case, there's obviously something big that happened between them in the past, which makes it even worse. If it turns out they were just childhood neighbors that lost touch, then yes, Gene's reaction would be OTT (I would probably tell him this isn't going to work and ask him to move out as soon as he can, and stay at my other house until he leaves, if I had another house like Gene.) - But this is a BL, so that's unlikely, I think.
Maybe this goes under the category of guilty pleasure. I think everyone THINKS they should hate it, but for me…
It's a bit of a missed opportunity - with a more competent production crew it could have been one of the better BLs instead of a guilty pleasure.
I was really happy about the lack of seme/uke - I was just rewatching a little of My Engineer, and come on - at camp, the ukes would get lost in the woods and be helpless to do anything but collapse and cry until the seme found him, or fall deathly ill when touched by water.
In a "standard" BL, there would probably have been a lot of audience outrage if the main couple had met how Tae & Nite II did - it took me a while to realize that really happened and wasn't a fake-out like it usually is, because BL alcohol erases your memory instead of just lowering your inhibitions.
Tae is just a guy. Sometimes he's thrown around by events, others he's fairly aggressive, and he's not dependent on some fantasy man to fulfill him, even though in this case the man is literally a fantasy.
That was better than the first ep. Everything was improved, and there weren't any unnecessarily long scenes. The story moved along quite a bit, and the central theme and conflict were established so I know what I'm watching.
The subtitles were OK, but a little effort to follow, which made it hard to keep up. Ironically, sometimes I got most hung up on English slang - it took me a few seconds to get what "resto" meant, but that's because I'm old. Also, I actually followed it nearly as well when the subtitles gave out near the end because there's so much English sprinkled in the dialog.
When it's tighter and faster-paced like that, technical issues are much less distracting, and even cute - like when "mom" glanced at the camera at the end of her scene.
As for the acting, I was blown away by the realism of the portrayal of the mini-mart cashier. It didn't feel like acting at all - flawless and seamless. I'm just kidding. There were a few clunky line deliveries, but considering the volume of dialog this ep and all the distractions around the actors, it was pretty good overall.
Also, it's not every day that you see someone butt-raped by a trans fairy (I mean the supernatural kind). If it sounds upsetting, it's not. Trust me on this.
3 
5 
1 
https://www.facebook.com/BrothersGTE/photos/188252949713564
I think the other hand would win if I were in the same situation.
I can't find the name of the actor who plays Sam. If anyone knows, please let me know!
But it's important in any situation to get all the facts before rushing to judgement. All we saw was a divorce certificate and a couple of photos, not the full story. And if you've seen Ep 9, now we have the full story.
This show never really seem to descend into melodrama, which I really appreciate, and presents realistic scenarios (except for the magical high school where the entire student body and all the male faculty aer gay. Where was this HS when I was that age?) and believable characters.
But it does need to get moving on the relationships - if we don't see some progress next ep, I'm going to start to get impatient.
Folk's acting was downright good this ep. He's really improved a lot. Phu, not so much change, but his role is basically to be adorable and he's got that down. I also like that Chon is a teenager who is inexperienced in life, shy and awkward - usually BL characters are obviously in their 20s while playing high school kids and have adult confidence and perspective, which is fine and inevitable, but it's refreshing to have someone who nails being 16 - although the actor is 18, so it's not like he has to reach deep into his memories or something.
When Yong Jie says "It's you", he opens his eyes and never shuts them again except to blink and when he's being kissed. You can see him blinking throughout.
In fact, the camera perspective is deliberately Xing Si's POV through much of it - Yong Jie even looks directly into the camera in those moments (e.g. 37:15).
That's why I've been so astonished at people saying Xing Si was blacked out. I know some people think consent can't be given when drunk, but I just can't ever agree - if that's the case, almost the entire human race is raping itself constantly. Just before COVID I visited my ex and we raped each other repeatedly for four days. Actually, mutual rape has occurred in almost every sexual encounter I've had in the last 25 years, except during relationships, although frequently then too. And it's common in relationships to be woken up in a very pleasant way, but since I would be asleep when he started, also rape.
The point is that consent is a complex subject and different in every circumstance. A black-and-white edict is not useful (I mean about whether or not there's consent - "no" means "no", period). Maybe it's a good idea to inculcate that in teens, but it's just not that simple for adults.
You're right, it would be a lot of effort to pretend to be a student - like it's a lot of effort to become an actor just to get close to someone. The whole point of Sib is that he's willing to plow over any obstacle to get Gene.
I was really happy about the lack of seme/uke - I was just rewatching a little of My Engineer, and come on - at camp, the ukes would get lost in the woods and be helpless to do anything but collapse and cry until the seme found him, or fall deathly ill when touched by water.
In a "standard" BL, there would probably have been a lot of audience outrage if the main couple had met how Tae & Nite II did - it took me a while to realize that really happened and wasn't a fake-out like it usually is, because BL alcohol erases your memory instead of just lowering your inhibitions.
Tae is just a guy. Sometimes he's thrown around by events, others he's fairly aggressive, and he's not dependent on some fantasy man to fulfill him, even though in this case the man is literally a fantasy.
The subtitles were OK, but a little effort to follow, which made it hard to keep up. Ironically, sometimes I got most hung up on English slang - it took me a few seconds to get what "resto" meant, but that's because I'm old. Also, I actually followed it nearly as well when the subtitles gave out near the end because there's so much English sprinkled in the dialog.
When it's tighter and faster-paced like that, technical issues are much less distracting, and even cute - like when "mom" glanced at the camera at the end of her scene.
As for the acting, I was blown away by the realism of the portrayal of the mini-mart cashier. It didn't feel like acting at all - flawless and seamless. I'm just kidding. There were a few clunky line deliveries, but considering the volume of dialog this ep and all the distractions around the actors, it was pretty good overall.