jpny01

It was just riveting to watch people talking about marketing for 20 minutes. Still. I could stare at Choi Jun all day and use myx-ray vision to look under his clothes.

I've only seen the first episode so far, but I really liked it. It tries things, both in terms of story and the music & cinematography, most of latter of which are effective.

The subtitlist should be spanked, though. Why did they keep translating the word "Casanova" into "playboy"? They're not quite the same thing, and do they think Casanova is a Thai word? That's so bizarre. I mean, it's in the title!

Really? All the people in the gang repeatedly valued self-control and punished or scolded anyone who was rash. Eddie is a loose cannon and the gang can't afford that.

That last episode was tedious. There was 5 minutes of content dragged out to 40 minutes. Most of the dialog was extraneous, like the bickering at work, or the multiple repititions of Lom saying something that's a mild come-on, and Nuea saying "you're getting crafty".

I did love that pink jacket, though. The wardrobe in this has been fantastic, and it's more dynamically shot than most BLs. Also, Lom shirtless.

We come back because it started well and we hope it will get good again, but probably mostly we just can't look away from Ki Hyun Woo, who is so gorgeous that they could just have him sit and watch paint dry and it would be compelling.

What's with all the posts with people claiming the makers of bad BLs are actually geniuses that are so subtle that nobody can detect their satire? This is like the fifth one. Are you satirizing the satirists?

No, Zhang Tang, the guy who slit that guy's throat. Eddie is a great character, although he's going to ruin everyone if he's not brought under control. That is, if you were referring to my last paragraph. If you meant my first paragraph, then yes, Eddie.

Someone needs to kill the psycho bleached blond. People that impulse-driven always pull down everyone around them.

I'm enjoying this series a lot, and the cameo from our Be Loved In House couple was welcome - but I'm a little nervous about where the synopsis seems to indicate that we're going - and seeing Ze Rui as a teacher wearing glasses didn't help.

Still, this is meant to be crazy and mission accomplished. Taiwanese & HK-ese crews go to better film schools than the Thais do, or at least they pay more attention. This is beautifully and effectively shot.

I was worried about how OTT Wayne Song was with his lollipop, but I think now it's on purpose, or at least I hope so, because doing what he did should make him scary, but it make me laugh.

Maybe not a coincidence, exactly - it's hard not to have that reaction with that awful wig. Why would anyone do that to him? So he has a military haircut - I'm sure he'd look fine.

I think there are big differences in quality between many of these series. FUTS and especially I Will Knock You were relatively well-written and consistent in tone (as usual they tend to drag in places - I think they're just a bit too long. You could probably cut two episodes out of most series and make them better [and cheaper]).

This series and Love Syndrome III seemed to have an identity crisis and the technical quality is much lower. It's not just budget-related things, which I never judge - it's the camera work, directing, editing and writing, which can be just as superlative in a low-budget production as a mainstream one. It's just not funny. FUTS and IWKY were very funny. Comedy is difficult, and can easily fall flat. Japan gets it - Japanese comedies are hilarious both situationally and in characters and have a keen satirical edge. Thai comedy, at least in BL, suffers from the production formula that uses amateur actors and permanent pairings, the latter taking people that auditioned for parts they were suited to and then sticking them in series they're not well suited for.

I do agree that many people take them way too seriously, like how mad people were over the Indian stereotypes in FUTS and missed the point of it.

Thanks.

My problem was that FN didn't go far enough. Thai series don't seem to be fully comfortable with the idea of comedy or camp - they always seem to insert discordant drama, and they leave camp to very uncomfortable histrionics from trans or effeminate characters.

Like in Love Stage - the manga is 100% comedy, and way OTT and manic, but they turned it into a dull drama with a few laughs here and there.

OK, what are we not understanding that we're watching? (For the record, "garbage" is too strong and I don't agree with anyone who says that.) That's not an attack - maybe I'm wrong and and will change my mind.

And Laws of Attractiong isn't really a BL - it's more of an LGBTQ+ themed lakorn. Maybe that's why it's good.

Sorry, I made a similar comment about Frank's hairstyle, but you did it first.

There's a lot of vague commentary about the audience not knowing what they're watching. We know what we're watching - a boring and poorly made attempt at a comedy.

Even if you argue the dubbing is bad on purpose, the directing is so grey that he manages to make excellent and charismatic actors like Lee Long, Frank, and Kokliang seem dull. If the bad dubbing were intentional, the words wouldn't always match their lip movement instead of being just a fraction of a second off, which isn't funny, it's just obviously a rush-job.

It may just be that the sound went wrong and they didn't have time or money to reshoot or get access to a proper studio. There may be subsequent episodes that aren't dubbed.

Also, Frank really needs to find a stylist that doesn't hate him. I didn't think they could find a wig worse than the last one, but they managed to dig up one with an 1980s mullet. Just leave him with the military cut, or give him a hat.

Anyway, if this was directed by the guy who did Unforgotten Night, we at least have the potential for something so bad that it's good. Watch for stoned tigers and bodyguard shower orgies.

Well, that was terrible. The synching got better in the second half - hopefully the rest of it has proper sound.

Poor Frank and his wigs - he can't win. But OMG does he have a hot body now. Yikes. Anyway, this goes on my "ff for shirtless scenes" list.

I think they are - but I don't think Phumjai knows, so if he finds out he'll be upset, because that means his brother put him there to spy on him, and that's why Phojai is afraid of people seeing them. I think.

Is nobody going to say anything about Saifah's arms?

I was thinking they made Kang way too evil for him to ever be redeemed, and I have to grant it to the writers for turning it around - making him realize how petty he's been compared to the problems Sailom faces was good writing and maybe the only way they could have made it work - plus it made what he did seem less out of the blue. Plus it helps to have two of the best BL actors in the main roles. I don't know why it's so hard for producers. It's a simple formula. Good writing + good actors = gold.

I hate to be harsh, because I really loved Offroad in Our Days, but this is nearly unwatchable. His character is annoying, behaving like a child, and Yang is too cold. A character like that still needs to show us what he feels - it requires some acting skill, but we've seen it done many times. Here he's just dull and uninteresting.

The plot - so far it's been about Phumjai mooning over a girl, which is not my favorite thing in a BL, and the only "BL" thing that's happened was a particularly stupid "faces-too-close-so-he-notices-a-man-for-the-first-time-as-a-love-object" trope, so I can see this is going to be another poorly-written story where all the drivers of their relationship will be external rather than organic between the characters.

I'm also not a big fan of stupid misunderstandings like between Phumjai and his brother - all he needed to say was "I wasn't involved and you should just ask them."

Finally, infantilizing the uke is another thing that irrittes me. A grown man could have learned how to ride a bike by now, but even pushing that aside, he can't open the flavor packet of instant noodles by himself? Come on.

His brother planted Munchkin as an employee to keep an eye on Phumjai, who would not react well if he found out - the chances of his brother randomly being Munchkin's bf are near zero (although it's a BL, and if Yang & Tammy are connected, that's even worse).

That's what I thought it was about, but maybe it's internalized (or external) homophobia. BL usually doesn't do that, though.