jpny01

And cue the freak-out. 3... 2... 1...

That was really wonderful until that horrifying kiss at the end. It looked like they were holding guns to the actors' heads - so awkward and unwilling. I would have preferred a hug or a high-five to that squirm-fest.

Who is the super-sexy guy in the yellow tank top? I've seen him in something but I can't recall what it was.

The preview makes the series look really straight - I wonder if the LGBTQ+ label is for lesbian characters. It's probably for the best - asbestos is illegal where I live.

Well, it could just be that the actor playing Shou Yi thinks Sam Lin is hot and it bleeds into his acting - I'm not sure I could control myself... :)

I think it's a lot more than that, and Zhen Xuan pretty much explicitly spelled it out this ep. I thought it was very obvious Shou Yi was in love with Shi De in S1, and it seems even clearer now.

Would he be the first person who's into his cousin? It's not that weird - it's pretty common.

Just because something's legal doesn't mean it's societally accepted. Taiwan might be more accepting than the mainland, but that doesn't mean parents want their children to be gay.

My problem with this series has always been the poor connection between it and S1. Both are brilliant as independent works, I just don't think they should have called this series a continuation of the previous - it would have been better just to make this a totally different story. This ep went some way to repairing the problem, to the point that the almost comical plot holes don't bother me too much - but the way this was handled left me pretty cold to the previous episodes.

This is in every other way top notch - I love love the costume design, the acting is great, I even love the "villain" (basketball to make him taller!), the cinematography, set design, directing, everything.

I was intensely disappointed by this episode, and I wasn't at all moved by it when I know I was intended to be, but it's not like I'm going to drop the serires - I'm hoping it gets back on track, but the problems set up in this ep don't seem like they can be resolved in the time left and leave any room for the kind of interaction between Tian and Pha that have made this show so special. Maybe they'll wrap up the messes from this ep faster than I'm expecting - we'll see!

I agree with all of that - I guess objectively it's not great, but by BL standards it doesn't seem that bad, especially with the larger volume of lesser-quality BL out there these days. For all its flaws, this show has some heart. And I do really love that EVERYONE is gay. I keep thinking Prab's mother should keep a close eye on her husband. Certainly don't let him attend any parent-teacher meetings at that school without her presence.

I'm so amazed at the ubiquity of this objection (to the "incest") that I wonder if there is a totally different system of values at play, but there seems to be a generational move toward more puritanical thinking. Maybe parents have come on a bit to strong with the "bad touch" speech.

I know - but that's the second time he happened to be in Bangkok at just the right place and moment.

The line about forcing him to play basketball to make him taller was a classic.

You better be careful - whenever I say something's missing I get gang-piled by the chastity police.

It's a pity they've stopped offering subtitles - I was enjoying this series. I'm surprised - I would think it would be worth the effort to reach international audiences. Actually, don't they need subtitles to reach all Filipino audiences?

Here's my theory. Most likely they had to film at locations before hours, probably fairly early in the morning. Korean culture is stiflingly authoritarian, and heating hours are X:00 to Y:00, PERIOD, even if the cold will cause a zombie apocalypse, because rules are rules are rules. You want to pay for additional heating time? TOO BAD, it's NOT DONE. Or if it is, you'll need to submit a request that needs to be circulated through an unnecessarily complicated approval process wherein even the most trivial expenditure has to be signed off on by the CFO.

As for the coats, COATS ARE WORN AT ALL TIMES FROM NOV TO FEB. Violators will be prosecuted. And you must have a scarf or you will be shot on sight.

I'm exaggerating slightly, and my personal experience is probably a little extreme (best friend's family is Korean 7th Day Adventist and I worked at Samsung), but I don't think this is the most flexible culture I've encountered. That all flies out the window once the soju is out, though. Then there's a lot of shouty singing and lots of rules are violated.

This is not a criticism, just curiosity, but what about the characters didn't you understand properly? To me they were consistent and well-drawn.

I'm kind of confused by all the comments about the length. It was film-length (a fairly long film), which is plenty of time to tell a story. The pacing was good, the relationship development economical and effective, and it took as long as it needed to and no longer. It's better than the mess most BLs are where you end up FF through all the parts that bore you and the side plots you have no interest in.

Maybe we become used to the formula used in most BL, and that becomes comfortable, and so when a story doesn't follow the formula, it seems off? Most of the criticisms I'm reading below are generally about ways this doesn't fit the formula.

Anyway, I thought the chemistry was great, the acting very good, the production quality high, and the story coherent with consistent characterization and well-paced development.

Thank you! When something strikes me negatively like this, I try to distance myself and think about it before commenting. In this case there were so many things that I didn't really need to think about to recognize that it was a little easier.

Thinking about what you said, I think you're right - Tian's character was a bit weak. It's hard to see him being so passive about everything, although because nobody had any follow-up questions to his incredibly vague statements, there wasn't much room for him to do anything. I just can't accept that nobody would ask for clarification about what he meant by "I have her heart." Wouldn't you assume a figurative meaning? Is the first place you'd go be "Oh, he must mean he has the beating heart ripped out of her body in him." That sort of implausibility is more problematic than the time inconsistencies, which were only an issue because they kept piling on.

None of his private parts will suffer anything but friction burns. OK, sorry, that was crude even by my standards.