3
5
Beautiful But Disappointing
Note: This is a review of this series as a BL. More on that below.This is a show I was more excited about than pretty much anything else this year. And when the first episode aired, I absolutely loved it - I was ready for it to be in my Top 3. But then the other episodes happened. I'll start with positives.
The cinematography is gorgeous. The food shots are amazing. The scenery is perfect, the way shots are framed communicates more than the actors do - it's probably the best I've seen in a BL. It's plain excellent by any standard.
Zung, who plays Chef Aue, is excellent. He has the most soulful eyes, he's totally beautiful, and his acting is excellent. Mark, who plays Aek, might be good too - it's hard to tell because of the writing and directing. I think I would say he's good.
The idea for this series is unusual, interesting, and personally appealing, and it avoids most BL tropes - the dumb ones that I find irritating, like tripping and being caught - and many characters use knives constantly and not one single person has cut him/herself, not even when picking up shards of glass and platewear. I've even stopped cringing when anyone picks up a knife. In any case, kudos for trying something different and pushing the boundaries of the genre.
But there area few issues. The direction calls for extremely wooden acting and strange, halting dialogue delivery. Zung is so expressive that I still feel what he's feeling, but I couldn't even tell you what Aek's character is - he's just... there.
There are a LOT of plot tropes. Some of that is unavoidable, because well, plots are tropey. But there are strange repetitions. For example, an evil chef is introduced in Ep 2 - fine, here's the villainess (always a woman, and jeaslous ex-gf, but never mind). Then there's a totally different evil chef introduced in Ep 7, out of nowhere. OK, it's not the first time there have been two villains. Batman movies usually have two. In Ep 8 a THIRD evil chef is introduced. The government should look into the cooking scene, because apparently Thai chefs are a nasty bunch! Fortunately evil chefs seem to be hot, so they're nice to look at.
The pace is glacial. That in itself isn't a problem - I like slow burn, and I like scenes that take their time to develop. But there isn't any content in the long scenes - they just have people staring blankly at each other for exceptionally long periods, and take a really long time to say anything. It's really odd and frustrating. The dialog itself is often unnatural, with people that don't appear to have any life experience pontificating on what love is and how one should pursue it and life in general, and all delivered with solemn placidity.
What was finally the deal-breaker for me was Ep 8. I want to say that characters acted out of character, but I can't really say that - one of them did, and the other doesn't really have a character - he's more of a plot device than a person. But even still, his behavior is not set up in any way, so it comes out of nowhere - all we've really gotten from him is blank stares (this is Mark - he's doing his best, and he does get his eyes to water, so you can see some repressed emotion, but we have no way of knowing what that emotion is because we've never had any insight into his feelings). Usually, one expects the main pair to have a relationship before they break up, but not here - especially frustrating after how slow the burn has been - and there has been zero between them except for the staring, For the breakup to involve violence and sexual violence is even more jarring.
This should not have been a BL - the production doesn't appear to be interested in this aspect, and it feels like a naked grab for a ready-made audience, and it has zero LGBTQ+ sensibility - it's hard not to feel exploited. To add insult to injury, there's a minor character straight couple that gets together simply and happily. In any case, I think it would have been a superior show if it had just been a drama about rival chefs.
There are people who like this show, so I'd watch it through Ep 3. If you're getting frustrated, it's not for you - because it will get much, much worse. If you like what you're seeing, it's probably worth watching, although I suspect most people's appreciation will end with Ep 8. Maybe it can redeem itself - I'll check back when it's over, and if everyone's lauding it, maybe I'll watch the rest.
Story: 4. I like the topic, the originality of the theme, and the lack of tropes. I don't like the lack of plot, stilted and unnatural dialog, and manufactured drama.
Acting: 7. Zung is fantastic, Mark is doing his best, a couple of the side characters are decent, but many are really flat. I'd probably rate the actors an 8, and the acting a 6, which disparity is the director's fault, so I'll settle on a 7.
Music: 9. I really like the music. The main drumbeat is fun, the music is never intrusive, and it's got a unique vibe to it - no complaints, and actually among the best I've seen in a BL.
Rewatch Value: 1. This is another one I'd have to be held at gunpoint to watch again, except for shirtless Zung scenes because I'm shallow and he's hot.
Overall: 6. It's not terrible - it's just very disappointing because this had the potential to be an 11 - I thought it was ITSAY-level after the first episode. As an aesthetic experience, this is probably more like an 8 - it's definitely beautiful. But it was sold as a BL, so that's what I have to rate it as.
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Where's The Doctor when you need him?
Or at least a Dalek.This is so badly made on almost every level that it's hard to believe anyone from H4 was involved. Sigh. I guess I'll dig in:
Writing: The "plot" revolves around a man (Johnny) from 2000 getting transported to our present. This has absolutely no impact on the story whatsoever and could have been skipped entirely, and then they could have saved the money they paid for the... whatever he was. Fraudulent time travel agent? I don't know. Johnny only takes a minute to totally aclimatize to the 20+ year jump, and then barely remembers he has a granmother who is dependent on him.
He meets Hai Yi, the estranged son of a department store mogul. Who apparently owns one department story, which I guess makes you a gaziliionaire in Taiwan or something. They have a classic enemies to lovers dynamic - classic except for their total lack of chemistry. He befriends Lin Huai En, a peon at the company, who has attracted the notice of the Managing Director, Vincent.
Hai Yi is an irresponsible playboy who hires Johnny to Cyrano a women he wants, and they end up moving in with each other at a company warehouse. Meanwhile, after a tragic death, Hai Yi and Vincent are pitted against each other for control over the company.
Vincent is apparently evil, to the disappointment of Lin Huai En, who is loyal to Hai Yi, whose family funded the orphanage he grew up in. But SURPRISE (not), it was all part of the plan, which makes absolutely no sense and totally cancels Hai Yi's character. If he was a driven and brilliant schemer, why did he lounge around half-naked in a warehouse playing video games and mooching off a destitute time traveler? How did they plan all this if they didn't know the chairman would die? And why would they need to create this scheme in the first place, if they had just supported each other from the beginning? It's totally nonsensical and is an incredibly lazy and lame attempt to create any drama - as if anyone believed for a minute Vincent was evil.
Everything about this is formulaic and predictable. BOTH couples contain the stupid past-connection cliche, and the concluding love scenes are so lacking in chemistry and passion that I had to skip them because it felt like the actors were sexually harassing each other.
There are two positives to this series:
1. Linus Wang's a$$, and just about everything else about him phyiscally. I'm probably not the only one that stuck with this hoping for one more treadmill scene.
2. The appearance of the brother couple from H4, who showed everyone what a kissing scene is - that was one of the best I've scene in a BL, and their acting put the main cast to shame.
Ratings:
Writing: 2. Generous, but they get a point for putting Linus Wang on the treaddmill and another for the H4 couple.
Acting: 4. Jason Tauh can certainly act, but he has nothing to do in this - what a waste of talent. Everyone else was mediocre at best, and Sean Chang's Johnny was supernaturally annoying. His character is a horrible, horrible person. His love interest's father died, so did he offer his condolences? No. Instead he treats him like sh#$ and tries to manipulate him into showing him more attention because he's a malignant narcissist who the entire universe revolves around. His behavior is supposed to be fiunny or something, but you just want him to die.
Music: It was OK I guess
Rewatch: No. Well, maybe the treadmill and the H4 couple's love scene.
Just skip this. If you really like the H4 brothers, there are a couple of scenes worth watching - they don't belong in this series, but I'm not sorry they were here.
What a disappointment. H2 Crossing the Line, H3 Trapped, H4 Close to You, even H3 Make Our Days Count, if you pretend the ending didn't happen, and then this steaming pile of awful. What a sad end to an otherwise brilliant series.
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A dull mess.
This is adapted from a manga, and it's the third time it has been so adapted - there are previous Japanese and Korean versions. The story is over 20 years old, and it shows. TBH, I can't understand why anyone would adapt this once, let alone three times - the original material does not lend itself to a series.The story is a mess, as too much was attempted - there is a child murder/kidnapping plot (actually, there are TWO child kidnapping plots), plus all the characters have totally unrelated and clashing storylines, none of which are interesting.
The casting is OK, except for Singto, who is terribly miscast as "The gay conqueror" - he has zero sex appeal and thinks flirting is acting like a five year old pretending to be a cat. He's so totally unbelievable as a gay player that I'm not sure what possessed anyone to cast him - both Lee and Pluem are so sexy and beautiful either would have made much more sense.
The acting is good throughout (except for Singto - I'm not trying to rip on him, he's good in the also-airing Paint With Love - he's just not the right actor for this role and that's not his fault), but there are so many extraneous and unnecessary characters that it doesn't save the show. The Scooby Gang amateur detectives/reporters/social media influencers are tiresome, implausible, and add nothing to the story, nor does Pooh's family, which actually contradicts one of the main themes, which is of found family - it doesn't work if one of the main characters leaves the found family to recreate his real one.
If this was going to be remade, it needed to be refreshed with some new elements, like for example BL, since the cynical decision was made to cast actors that would draw in a BL audience. In the Manga, one of the main (male) characters falls in love with the gay chef - so why was that deleted from the series? The actor of that character has played gay, so he's not afraid of it.
I can't recommend this series. If you really hate kids, you might like it since you get to see many dead children, and childen violently abducted and tortured.
Story: 3 - I would rate the manga higher, because it's episodic, which works. This attempts a unified story and fails miserably.
Acting: 8 - good overall, with the exception noted above.
Music: 7 - Pretty good - nothing special but appropriate
Rewatch: 1 - I can't imagine any circumstance that would cause me to rewatch any of this. Nobody even takes their shirt off.
Overall: 6.5 - it's not terrible - it's competently made in every way (except the writing), but there was no reason to make it, and there is no payoff for watching it.
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What a waste.
Well, that was terrible.First, I seem to recall Boun & Prem having good chemistry in Until We Meet Again, but now I'm starting to wonder if I just found them a refreshing break from Crybaby and his Talking Robot. Because in this series they have zero chemistry. Boun has some on his own because of his looks, but dressed like Bea Arthur they weren't really taking advantage of his appeal. But their acting was also unimpressive - they both did fine with their 2D roles, but they didn't manage to inject any life into this dreary series.
There is no relationship devlopment - they don't really like each other, then they have sex. Comfortably off screen. In fact, the whole basis of their relatinoship is disturbing if you think about it. Arthid met Sun once, for 15 seconds, and has been carrying a torch for him ever since. But Sun was 6 or so when they met, so Arthid is a pedo monster.
The secondary couple starts out as an oasis in the desert, but then they too dry up. They are smoking hot, though. Lee Long Shi is just ridiculous. I hope we see him a lot more. Top is also great at being a huge pile of muscle that can show vulnerability.
The "plot" is convoluted without making sense or being interesting, with no character or story development. All the characters are what they are all the way through to the last 15 minutes when they all turn into totally diffrent people to resolve the "storylines".
The directing is lackluster, the editing is fine, and the cinematography was uninspired, especially given the beautiful setting.
Story: 2. The story makes more sense than Physical Therapy, but that's about all I can say.
Acting: 5. Pretty much 2D. I found myself a little moved by the boxers and Talay, who managed to stand out a bit, the latter having great comic timing and also pulling off his 180 degree turn at the end.
Music: 5 - not much to say. It didn't ruin anything, so there's that.
Rewatch: 4 - I would probably rewatch the boxers and Talay's scenes.
Overall: 4 - It feels like it should be lower, but it's not as aggressively terrible as Check Out or Unforgotten Night, and I did get to see some attractive boys that weren't horrible like all the Check Out characters. But Even Sun is really boring.
I would skip this, epecially if you're a BounPrem fan. I was until I watched this. I get that we're all different and like different things, but giving this a 10 is ridiculous. If this is a 10, what was Until We Meet Again? an 87? Come on.
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Great acting, mediocre everything else. Awful editing.
I feel like this series isn't aimed at me, because I didn't think it was all that. The acting is wonderful, and the characters well-drawn. Even the minor roles are really well-acted.The story, however, is pedestrian, melodramatic, and stuffed with cliches. The ganster angle was fine in the beginning, because we see what Qian had to do for his family - but when it comes back later, it's just unnecessary drama that drops out of the sky, and ruined the organic progression of the main relationship. It should have ben Yuan's absence abroad that made Qian confront his feelings, and it seemed like it was written that way - but for some reason the author didn't trust us to buy it and threw in a ridiculous plot thread where Yuan had to behave uncharacteristically idiotic (what on earth was his plan?). And the endless time-jumping - the first refuge of an author that can't imagine a coherent plot.
As for cliches, it's got it all, from suggestive seatbelting to hair blowdrying. At least the obligatory 30-year old with a critical illness cliche was written in a way that made sense, and they didn't overdo it.
The editing is just terrible, and nearly ruined the series. By Ep 9 I didn't care about the series anymore and stopped craving it like I had for the first 8 - there is not one emotionally important scene that isn't mutilated by an endless series of flashbacks played to the maudlin theme song, which is good. Occasssionally. Not stuffed in every conceivable moment and far beyond.
There's a very, very important scene in Ep 11 that shocked me how badly it was ruined, and I was thinking "this is just me, and I'm sure everyone else loved it", but I discovered in the forum that my opinion was almost universally held, which was a nice surprise - I'd hate to think I'm alone in the world.
This could have been an 11/10 with less indulgent writing and a good editor. As it was, the actors managed to carry it - Qian was stoic, but not cartoonishly so (except when played for humor, which was effectively done), the Lili is not OTT silly and wasa a surprisingly nuanced character, which I attribute to the actress, the gangster leader was clearly a man who pretends to be more insane than he is for stragtegic reasons, again ably acted, and the actors playing the younger versions of the characters were first-rate as well, which was wonderful - I even felt a little cheated at first when the younger Yuan's time was up.
I would recommend this, and I think the majority of fans will give this a 9.5 or a 10, but it's an 8 for me. A 9.5 for the acting, a five for everthing else, and a 2 for the editing.
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Alrighty then.
This is not a BL, and barely qualifies as LGBT. While the perspective character is a gay man, the story is entirely about a woman, and while her sexuality is not irrelevant to the plot, it doesn't revolve around it either.The poster is really deceptive, and I feel sa if I was tricked into watching it.
It's shot well and the acting is good. The music is minimalist, but does a good job of supporting the film. This was well-done, but when it's over you may ask yourself what was the point of it.
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This is a short film, and a very good one.
The cinematography is wonderful in this, dark but not obscured, creating a sense of claustrophobia and hopelessness.The acting is really good, and the leads are gorgeous. The latter isn't necessary, but it sure doesn't hurt. The actors seriously committed to the love scenes - no rubber kisses or camera angles used to cheat, and it looked more natural instead of the cheesy romance-novel-cover poses you often see.
The editing was very tight and effective, and the writing was gritty and while not entirely realistic (are all guys that are customers in Light's profession that young and hot?), the story was character-driven and made sense.
This is dark subject matter, and there are things in here that are hard to watch, so if you're triggered by sexual violence, both voluntary and involuntary, this might not be for you. None of it is so bad that it's horrifying, but it's there, albeit restrained, and you don't see the full course of what happens, only enough to let you know it's happening.
A lot of people were upset by a conclusion Shuo jumped to, but remember what Light does for a living, and how many times Shuo told him to stop, yet he continued anyway. That does lead into my only criticism:
This needed to be about 5-10 minutes longer, and better set up the misunderstanding. The fact that so many people felt really upset at Shuo demonstrates that we needed to actually see a couple of the times Light lied to Shuo instead of just being told it happened. That would have given the moment more impetus and we could have sympathized with both characters.
Anyway, I highly recommend this, and I aslo recommend you go to the director's YouTube channel and watch these two guys do comedy, because they're really good at it, especially Jed. There is also a cute and funny interview with the actors there.
I gave this 9 stars in every category except Rewatch Value. There are two scenes I'm likely to watch many times, but otherwise probably not.
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The North Star never moves, and neither does this story.
This story was BL Plot #3, "Boys kept apart by implausible miscommunication". If both of a pair are in love with each other, mutual friends know that, and one of them doesn't talk about anything else (and yet everyone wants him), and on top of that, one of them actually told the other that he likes him, how is it possible that nothing happened? That puts Khluen into the "you are a total idiot and deserve to die alone" category.In today's world, how is it possible NOT to know that two people broke up several years ago? Dao is obsessed with Khluen and never looked at his social media, or Gia's? Have you ever had a crush on an actor, saw him in an instagram photo with a girl, hated it, hurriedly copy/pasted what he wrote into google translate and was relieved it's his sister? Yeah, I have too. And Khluen was clearly very upset by whatever Gia said on the phone before he rushed off, so a non malignant narcissist would have said "OMG, is everything OK?" instead of making it all about him.
Everything about the plot is contrived, the characterization is inconsistent and implausible, and nobody has agency except Dao, who uses all of it to be a self-absorbed prat. And the series really boring. Try to decribe the plot. For example, Not Me would be "A guy replaces his evil twin in a marxist motorcycle gang to fight for justice and falls in love with his brother's enemy." That sounds ridiculous (and it is), but there is no world in which I would not watch that. This is "Two guys who have been in love with each other for several years continue to not communicate for seven episodes while nothing else happens."
Dunk is cute, and Joong is attractive enough, but there was just zero heat. I kept shipping Dao with Fah because there was so much more chemistry between them. Sure, they're brothers and it's wrong, but that would have been a lot more intesting than this. If not for Mek, I would have dropped this lifeless series. Honestly, the brotherly love scenes with Dao and Fah are the only thing about this that worked for me. Fah's reaction when he walks in on Dao and Khluen was actually funny, unlike all the fart and poop jokes.
The technical aspects were weak, with inconsistent lighting in scenes. The very last one where they're on a dock at night looked like someone was flashing a spot light on them on and off. And the soft-focus filter was again abused to the point that everyone looked botoxed to within an inch of their lives and their facial expressions were smoothed away.
I would skip this. If you're more interested in the follow-on series about Fah and Prince, there is absolutely nothing in this series that you need to see to understand Star In My Heart, which is clearly to a painful extent "inspired" (to be generous) by another series you may have watched that takes place in the mountains.
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Beautiful and Bleak
This is a beautiful film that doesn't frame anything in black & white. Max isn't a saint in a tough situation, Pan isn't a naive fool, and he lawyer isn't awful, as he may seem at first.Characters do manufacture self-serving justifications for their actions, but many of them are at the mercy of their circumstances.
There's not much I can say without spoiling, but this is a beauiful film that is quite dark, but with an ember of hope that some of the love we invest in others can bear fruit and make a world of despair bearable.
Klong is fantastic in this, and while his role is small, Prince is quite affecting as a young teen. Tang does a wonderful job playing Pan as a man who sees the world more clearly than it seems and soldiers on anyway.
Highly recommended, but save something fluffy to watch afterward. Try the same director's Country Boy.
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This is both good and awful in a really confusing yet entertaining way, and it has heart.
First Few Episodes:At the beginning, most of the humor in this is dependent on homophobia. Once again, all the characters "straight" except for one openly gay person who has a woman's voice (it's even explicitly stated it's a woman's voice) and touches the main character inappropriately whenever he's within range.
I don't understand why a genre that is about male-male love has to use homophobia for humor. It's dangerous to promote the that gay = predatory woman in a man's body and that homosexuality is a choice.
There are way too many scenes that flashback to the previous scene, as if we can't retain info from 30 seconds ago. This happens constantly - by the end of the second episoode it already felt like I'd rewatched this three times.
So far, this is a regressive checklist of tropes with no originality or anything of interest except for how the two mains look shirtless, which is admittedly impressive.
Remaining Episodes:
I actually dropped it but a friend here convinced me to give it another chance. I did, and it did get better, in a both "so bad it's good" way as well as in actually good ways. The homophobia fell away - except for one character's father, but that's OK as it was part of the plot. However, it does involve violent assault which is handwaved away with a brief apology. "Sorry I tried to beat your kid to death". "It's OK, he lived."
Here's the confusing part: The plot revolves around one of the characters being a great singer. But the actor is a terrible singer (or is acting a terrible singer). And the song he writes must be intentionally awful - the lyrics are about someone's mother selling chicken rice before she switches to clothing - so I'm not sure what they're aiming for. Also, most of the characters burst out in song at least once, usually sad ballads, which is hard to take seriously, but these are generally sung, I wouldn't say well, but not awful, either. Maybe I'm just putting too much thought into it.
The acting of the main characters is good, the pairings all have chemisty, and the two leads are very hot, individually and together (and the villain is really, really hot), which is what made me endure this - if you're not enjoying the series but find them appealing, I might suggest watching with judicious FF - you won't miss much as their romance doesn't really have much to do with the plot, i.e. although the romance itself has a story, it doesn't really connect to the main story about the band and male cheerleading club. There are side couples, but they are also not connected to the story, so you can fairly easily follow the couples you're interested in.
The main couple have a scene towards the end that is... steamy. Not porn-ike, it's quite romantic, but yikes, you won't be disappointed. And almost a BL first, they don't wake up fully clothed the next morning! The enormous size difference between them is super-cute. The smaller one has to get on his tppy-toes to kiss the tall one. And yet, it's not the formulaic seme/uke thing - in fact it's a comedic point that people keep asking them - they're both just... guys. In fact the small one is a much superior athlete and very feisty.
Also unusually, there is humor in this that's actually funny - most of the actors have good comic timing. I'd say overall that I recommend this - it's a little too much of three series rolled into one, and the story could have used a lot more focus, but the actors are not holding back and really commit. There's a lot of heart in this that overcomes its shortcomings.
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This review may contain spoilers
Ugh. Painful.
Like many Filipino BLs, this one preached at us in an incredibly heavy-handed way in order to teach us life lessons that we really don't need.The plot centers around Mario, yet another 12-year old girl trapped in a man's body who meets Jethro, a narcissistic asshole who lives in NYC at a party who is horrible, but because this is a BL, we know he'll instantly transmute into a wonderful guy and everyone will forget his inexcusable borderline-psycho behavior at the beginning.
Which of course happens. They go on, I believe, three dates, and thenJethro goes home and Mario pines for him for THREE YEARS, because he's an emotional infant and is unable to get over someone he barely knows. Later on, they get in contact, and Mario dumps his wonderful boyfriend Arnold in order to go visit Jethro, who, incidentally has a long-term boyfriend, in the hopes they will get together. It's not in the cards due to an almost ridiculous tragic external circumstance that involves someone who's into style and fashion not just shaving his head like a normal person would, and Mario goes home, years pass, and it's implied that Arnold shows up at the end to take him back.
Arnold is played by Ron Angeles, who has what I would have to call "it". He's attractive without being gorgeous, nice body without being chisled perfection, charming but unassuming personality, that adds up to a very compelling sum - it's hard to find people that don't love this guy, and he always seems to steal anything he's in. Jomari Angeles is adorable and a decent actor, but stuck in a terrible role playing a character so irritating you WANT him to suffer for his stupidity and immaturity.
Jethro is... there. The writing made him too awful at the beginning and the series wasn't long enough nor was the couple complelling enough (or at all) for me to ever care what happened to them.
The love scene was the worst I've ever seen. Jethro unhinged his jaw and attempted to swallow Mario whole, while Mario, oblivious to the danger, looked like he'd just chugged a bottle of pure lemon extract. It was about as sexy as either love scene in Pink Flamingos.
So what's the moral of the story? Seize the day and if you develop an unhealthy infatuation with someone you don't know who lives halfway across the planet, drop everything and abandon all your life goals to be with him. Otherwise you'll regret it and dump your perfect boyfriend to fly halfway across the world for no apparent reason to have a discussion you could have facetimed, but you were hoping to steal him from his long-term boyfriend because your a narcissistic asshole who hurts everyone around you. I guess the unintended moral of the story is that there is no God, or a comet would have struck the party in the first episode and spared everyone the misery of this story.
Story: 3 - pretentious and unbelievable, might have worked if Mario were 14, but not man in his mid-20s. Heavy-handed moralism that backfires.
Acting: 6 - Both Angeles were good, with Jomari stuck with a terrible character that he did his best with, probably about as good as anyone could have done with that material. Andrew Gan was very convincing as an asshole, but a little dull as a nice guy.
Music: 6.5 - not intrusive, but didn't really do much to enhance the series.
Rewatch: 1 - you'd have to threaten to electro-shock me slowly to death to force me to rewatch this. Fortunately it's short enough that I might survive a second viewing, but I'd still have to think about it.
Overall: 4.5 - I want to find something positive to say about this, but other than that they cast Ron Angeles, I can't think of anything, and even there they mutilated his hair.
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It started out well, the last third is awful.
The first few episodes of this are really cute and wonderful. And then it drags, and drags, and drags a little more, then an evil ex is dropped into the story really late in the game, although at least for once it was a male ex, and not the cliche scheming female.The main characters stop interacting at all a little more than halfway through, and so the ending is sudden and not built up to, and it also makes no sense.
The story is dependent on failure of communication so implausible that it will just make you sigh with exhaustion. There are 6 other characters that want them to get together, that somehow fail to bridge the gap between them, and the solution is so bizarre and convoluted that the only reaction is "hunh?"
Positives: The cuteness of the first few eps. It ends when they don't have to share a room anymore, so if you want to imagine they get together at that point and live happily ever after, that's a good place to drop the series, instead of suffering through the rest.
Hank Wang is so cute I can't stand it. Then he takes a shower and he's so hot I can't stand it. I love this man. The other men in this are attractive too, but not like him. When Yu Zhen reveals when he fell for him, he gives a reason that is incompatible with what we've seen earlier, but it makes 100% sense, even though it's less romantic.
The side couple is cute, but a little too self-consciously so, and the hair ruffling is starting to grate on my nerves - it's infantilizing, as if ukes aren't useless enough as they are. The straight couple is there.
If they had cut it down to 6-8 eps and left out the ex, this could have been delightful - but it declined from the show I most looked forward to each week to a reliable disappointment. The situation already had enough drama built into it and didn't need anymore, but BLs can never let characters and relationships develop - they just trip and catch one another and stare at each other until they're in love, then have to get past obstacles to be together.
Then the special episode happened. You would hope in an epilogue that you'd get to see the main couple interacting as a couple - or I would have been happy with a Behind the Scenes. But instead we got backstory entirely about the ex, and got 30 seconds of awkward interaction between the main couple with a kiss you might see between children playing, while Hank leans stiffly away from Aaron as if he's being made to do something he didn't want to do.
I gave this a 5 even though the "suggested overall" was 4.5, It was actually higher before the special ep, but that knocked down the story slightly and reduced the rewatchability to almost nothing. Maybe I'd go back and rewatch Hank's shower scene, but that's about it.
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This series may surprise you.
The production quality is not good - but it must be very difficult to film in the middle of Manlia slums like that and on a zero budget. It wasn't terrible either, and there were a few scenes that were given intensity by the way they were shot. I was shocked at the scene where Nico leaves home - I wasn't prepared for that level of instensity and skill at delivering it.There are precious few serious trans characters with important roles - this production merits special attention for this.
The acting is not great in most cases, but LJ Russel as Prince and Edz Bonggastar as Miray are standouts. LJ has a very natural delivery, and an effortless sexiness that you probably can't learn - he just has "it". Edz really commits - I'm not sure how she'd be at subtle scenes, but she can deliver the power where it's needed.
The plot - well, not sure there was one. It's a little like a docudrama and the ending is a little "hunh?" but there's a sequel that I presume resolves a lot of issues.
While poverty is extremely convincingly portrayed, class difference wasn't. The "rich" kid lives in squalor and has zero manners or refinement - that was odd, especially since the poor orphan Prince is so aristocratic - if he were a real prince it wouldn't surprise me.
Unlike the usual fantasy BL about "1st world problems", this does not sugarcoat how awful it just be to be LGBTQ+ and living in poverty in a conservative society. It's very powerful how people in desperate circumstances are able to find happiness wherever they can. If you're looking for a "standard-issue BL", this is not it, but it does deliver some of the types of heartwarming scenes you would want - and unfortunately a couple of the silly tropes as well, although that's mostly in the first episode.
It does feel a little like the production ran out of steam and gave up at the end - it felt like there were two or three more episodes that were planned but skipped - I'm guessing COVID caused a serious interruption - you can tell something happened by how completely different Prince looks in the last ep - so I'm being patient and waiting for the follow-up series.
The low production quality is unfortunate, but if you give it a chance you'll see that there's passion to this project and a perspective you don't really see in any other BL. I'm looking forward to this crew's future projects.
It's hard to rate this. I almost feel like there should be a scale for mainstream professional productions and DIY projects like this. This is definitely on the higher end of that category.
The OST is unusually good.
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The writing is awful - not only are we stuck with the same tired, tired, tired plot device of the girlfriend in the way, Knock is such a horrible, weak, selfish, awful person that I would have preferred this ended with Korn strangling him to death. There is no way anyone who isn't self-loathing would ever take Knock back - why would you? How could you ever trust him? He actually caught his girlfriend cheating on him and he STILL got back together with her. How can Korn know that Knock won't have another gay panic and latch onto the first girl who passes by? I kept hoping Knock would die horribly in a murder suicide with Pleng and Korn could end up with Farm.
Any I'm sick to death of "I'm not gay, I only love you." What kind of message is this for young gay people watching this? That they have a chance with their straight friends?
This series is so bad that I almost decided I would never watch another Thai BL drama. Fortunately I got over it.
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Shallow & Dull
This is basically a rehash of Anti-Reset except the human is the uke.The beginning of this felt like it was adapted from erotica, because if the robot takes of his glasses, he goes into Dom mode, but they only did it once for 20 seconds. Then because the series was a chaste as an afternoon special aimed at 12-year olds, they had to pad the rest of the series, so we essentially watch a series about a robot doing maid stuff for a brat.
There's really no point to this series. I don't understand why you would make not one, but two series about AI/human love without it being more than superficially relevant to the story. There was so much to explore within the framework of the concept and yet none of it was. For example:
- Is Ever 9 conscious and sentient? How do you define those terms? Humans are also machines, with our DNA as the blueprint, and our thoughts are electrical impulses in neurons that set off chemical signals to other neurons. We have "basic programming" in the DNA, and then we learn everything else through communicatinon and experience (our version of "machine learining").
- If he is sentient, and it's clear enough that he is to at least create an issue worthy of debate and resolution, does he have rights? Can you install a device in him that sends him painful shocks to ensure obedience? If you need such a device in the first place, then doesn't that implicitly concede that he has free will?'
- If Ever 9 earns money, is it his, or does it belong to his "owner"? If he's creating anything of economic value (including services) and is not compensated, isn't that slavery?
- Why does Ever 9 have a Dom mode and what does it mean that he uses it? Are the glasses essentially a restraint that keeps him from its true personality? In which case, is it his choice when to take his glasses on or off, e.g. put them on to go to work or for social events, then take them off at home to spank Luo Bu Shi?
- What does all this mean in the Eastern spiritual framework? They at least touched on that briefly, but not as an exploration so much as a declaration.
- Does Ever 9 have to poop if he eats? (OK, that one might not be an issue worthy of exploration, but admit it: you were wondering.)
It could have even been a metophor for the LGBT experience - can you marry a robot? Adopt children with one?
But nope, it's about static characters with no real arcs. You could say that Luo Bu Shi had an arc, but does he? He eventually confronts his father, but what he says is so out of character in content and style that it comes off as unearned.
I will say that the actors are very attractive, and do a fine enough job, but overall, if I could go back in time, I wouldn't watch this, except maybe the dom scene.
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