kadie890

really good, appreciated their acting, and their chemistry. Chemistry isn't a strong enough word

I have watched a lot of romance shows, and I’m often more convinced by one character’s love than another. That was not the case here. The whole time I could FEEL ML2’s love for the ML, but when ML fell, I could FEEL his love for ML2. I was equally convinced. This manifests both from a terrific storyline, AND terrific acting. Thank you. You weren’t perfect, but you were one of the most special.

Also, since it seems like, for the first time I’m my life, I haven’t reached the word limit, I also wanted to add that I loved how both the main characters were NOT models. They were not the highest standards of beauty, and that made them all the more beautiful. Especially Roah, ML 2. Edit: second time around and Ro-a is beautiful in my eyes. Indubitably. And made that way by what I feel was simply good acting (when looking at Jiwoo 😂) so whether he’s physically handsome or not, I am unable to say, because it’s all blended together. ML 1 (jiwoo) isn’t pretty either, but he’s SO cute when folded in Ro-a’s arms 😆 and this is infinitely more important than physically beautiful actors.

More to the Edit; I’m back editing this review because I when I asked myself, what’s one of my favorite bl, this came to mind first. Why? Acting and well, embarrassingly, their chemistry. Like I’d always been suspicious of “chemistry” but for me, they … at the end, I really felt that their hearts were breaking for each other. And being mended by each other. Especially Ro-a.

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ML 1 is a wooden post, you should have left ML2 a brother and friend, ML3 ;) we love you Bi Wen Jun

ok, but with a cast full of extremely talented male actors (who were just as beautiful), why did they have to choose the acting wooden block Song Wei Long as the male lead? Bi Wen Jun was absolutely incredible and loveable. Please let it have been him instead! Even the villain, Wang Rui Chang was an absolutely incredible actor.
Of course we can't forget Ju Jing Yi herself. She and the other three male leads made up for the wooden Song blah blah, but STILL. Ugh

Also, the love "triangle?!" I wish it had just stayed with Zexin as a brother figure. He was the perfect brother, I felt the brotherly love and affection. The storyline was beautiful and the brotherly affection went beyond acting. Having him "in love" with her ruined his character, and it just ruined the last couple of episodes, though I'm glad that it was barely there. Making him fall in love with her was amatonormative, it was unnecessary, and it was short-sighted. Really, none of these words do justice to how disgusted and disappointed I feel.

The only other thing is, I wish she could have become a functionary or something equally prestigious rather than a role "befitting" a woman like teaching or wife. I mean I wish the goal of all these series wasn't marriage - as if that is the highest of goals a girl can wish for. Especially in this case, it completely wipes out any of the progress the story made in convincing the audience and the (male) characters of a woman's deservability to belong in the Yun Shang Academy.

So a 7.75. An almost 8 but Mr. Wooden Grrrrrrrrrr and all this protection sh*t. Hasn't she shown already that she can protect herself? Treat her as an equal you fense, you post, you port-a-potty - nah, a port-a-potty has more character than him.

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I'm... not sure this was consentual

I came here for a good love story, instead, I got something that ridiculed love stories and basically bashed gay relationships. I know it intended to bash BL, I came ready for that. I am a prodigious basher of BL (I can only watch and read it if I also recognize and vocalize its many faults and issues), but this one... it went too far. As someone who is queer, and is able to healthily bash BL, it feels very uncomfortable watching this. And it all boils down to this feeling that none of it was consensual. Like there was a higher power author playing puppet master with these men's lives ...against their will. hear me out. TMC spent 3.75 episodes not in love with anyone and very comfortable and fully in his non-BL life. Successfully fighting it with all he's got with no challenges in sight. THEN you see him confessing to a person he meets 1.5 times for a matter of seconds like a day ago, and has barely interacted with? While in his head shouting and struggling against it with all his might? Not only was it the worse love story BECAUSE IT WAS NON-EXISTENT, but it was so unbelievable he'd be in love with this stranger (who was your name?) out of thin air! And what makes it worse is this feeling that there is a higher power that is the author playing around with these men. Each of them "falls in love" instantaneously, with no pretext, no context AND there is that guy with the binoculars... and the fact that he's there in the final scene and says "you didn't escape." Ugh. But in the end, he doesn't want to fall in love, He doesn't fall in love, but all of a sudden he's confessing to someone (who is very cute by the way) protesting all the way? That doesn't seem like it's happening under his own will. And the one thing I hate most in this world is a lack of consent. Being forced into a relationship, to love, to have physical interactions with someone against your will. Nah-ah, not ok.
What's worse, is they could have made the falling in love consensual, or seem consensual. He could have actually MET the love interest. He could have slowly, obviously come to a decision that he loves the other dude and SHOWS he loves the dude for actually visible reasons or interactions, and he could have willingly, nay ENTHUSIASTICALLY come to confess his love. I came here for a good love story, instead, I got something that ridiculed love stories and basically bashed gay relationships.

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I'd watch it again

Yes I skipped over the side stories, yes the character's chemistry held it up, yes First the character had huge gaps in development, yes the story needed a stretch of imaginations (but really, what BL doesn't), yes I did feel First was coming at Play a little strong without getting that yes (that's really not ok), yes I was there and only stayed there for Gameplay's acting, but that doesn't mean it was bad.

I enjoyed it. I even went back and watched a couple of my favorite parts. I gave acting/cast that high a rating because though the side *stories* were worthless, their acting wasn't. I particularily LOVED seeing the beautiful, glorious, and POSITIVE representation of the queer community here. Hence the 9.5. And of course, Play and First were fantastic, if only there was worthwhile story/development.

The low Story score is because of these sides stories that I had to skip. They were awkward. If they weren't there, maybe the story would have had the time to make First's actions/feelings make sense, patch up those gaping gaps in the storyline. Skipping the side stories definitely made an already short story significantly shorter. But short can be Sweet.

It was fluffy, cute, (except for that one part in the last episode. If you're ace you know what I mean. I can't say anything more ... explicit ... or I'll spoil things), and I want Usagi for myself so I can hug Usagi too.

Recommended if you want to escape far away from the constraints of reality, if you don't want to feel bad or sad, if you've had a (terribly) long day at work and you just want rainbows and butterflies and not thinking (key), and you don't mind skipping things (it doesn't make a difference, the sides stories are so irrelavent that you don't even know you missed them).

Also, there has got to be a sequal with an ending like that; additionally, I feel that D8 is new, and... short on resources and experience? (but again, what BL production company isn't)

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Great story, progressive ish content, bad acting in 2/4 MC

The title says it all, but I want to focus on what I found progressive. This is the first time where I watched a show that (sadly still) assigned top and bottom but this time the top took on many of the “womanly traits” like cooking and maybe stronger emotions, though that equally could have been the quality of acting. He was definite The cuter one, but still was the top. It’s bad to say, “oh it defied gender stereotypes,” because it still
assigned top and bottom. Or giver and receiver. But it twisted the “top = man” bottom = woman. Idk. I found it so refreshing in the moment that i wanted to write a whole review about it.
As for the story and acting, the acting was bad, but it didn’t really take away from the overall show other than to make me feel bad/ embarrassed for the actors. I really enjoyed the storyline, and it was compelling enough that I looked forward to the show every day. I would recommend unless you don’t like bad acting. And I mean bass. I have not seen acting this bad in living
memory. But it was cute and fun. Except for that one scene on the subway tunnel by Ren

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Like literally peeling an unsensored Japanese manga BL off it's pages.

Porsche's acting was incredible, I liked his little brother, Kim was good (his voice and storyline at least. Not sure about that acting). But They could have 1) not had rape, though surprisingly they almost admitted it was rape. 2) improved Vegas and Pete's storyline to be more clear (oh, Vegas's acting (and bi-lingual-ness) was also incredible). I think they could have added a couple lines that explained that Vegas loved Pete because he really saw him and liked him for who he was, both with and without the trappings that came with being part of the minor family (dude, you can actually be someone now that you're OUT of the minor family, you're free Vegas (facepalm)), and Pete, I think ... well I'm out of my depths, but I think Vegas opened him up to his sub/kink desires and let him embrace them and not be disgusted with himself for it. But without this context, it's kinda sick... and falls flat. With Porsche/Kinn they had such the perfect opportunity to break out of the uke/seme, top/bottom, male/female stereotypes/roles, I would have loved to see Porsche top at least once. And not for titillation, but because I came here (to a BL) to NOT see romantic and sexual relationships defined by gender roles, nay, I wanted to see them FREE of gender roles. How can I describe this. I want to see the potential of society to dismiss, nay, demolish the barriers and stigmatism that uses gender as an excuse to say women are lesser, emotionally vulnerable, subservient, and dependent, and men must be powerful and emotionless and violent. You give us a show that tells us gender doesn't matter in love, but assigning "gender roles" says that gender stereotypes do matter, that they must be maintained. It's like they're saying sexual and romantic freedom is free... but only in fiction because you have to stick to your place in your gender role. Completely reversing every freedom viewers often look for in these shows. Straight women look for sex without gender roles and a place where they can play out their desires without stigma. And queer people look for queerness. So stop assigning gender roles. Nothing but straight men are looking for that, and if they're watching this, they're hopefully questioning gender roles and sexuality as we speak. And not hate-watching something. Like what is that.

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Really good with a little too much discomfort.

One decent actor doesn’t make up for a really bad actor and a story line that makes you severely uncomfortable. I’m hella queer too. It made me uncomfortable as a queer person. Queerness was never mentioned but kuta shuddered all the time at the thought of liking a guy. He had to always force himself. And forcing yourself to be “gay” is just like a gay person forcing themselves to be straight.it made me sick. Naoya’s really bad acting made it exponentially worse. But I do love Japanese bl. I love how noya was so respectful of his boundaries and wishes. There was just so so so much potential. That’sa huge part of why I’m grading it so harshly

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It had its strengths! ...I swear

It was a little too cliche. There was nothing new, and it fell in all the same awkward trope/potholes as so many other japanese BL, but what got me through? Good acting. Side and main characters alike. It carried an unimaginative story. I did like the exploration of the difficulties beautiful people face in life.
The best acting? Watari's. He created chemistry that just bounced off the other male lead like a brick wall, buuuuut this isn't the first drama with that - and especially not the first BL (people like their uke's clueless, I guess, but it still wasn't there after he confessed his love as well...)
The MAIN reason I'm reviewing this: I loved that they didn't have a sex scene. I'm allowed to say it. Everyone else can be sad, but you've got all those new BL coming out that are having more and more sex scenes, and more and more explicitness in your sex scenes, so I can enjoy this cute fluffy PG BL to my heart's content and fan the producers with palm fronds, praise them to the high heavans, all that I can in order to thank them profusely. BLs are relying more and more on sex to sell and it's coming at the expense of stories and acting, so I'm going to sit here and bask in this sex scene-less BL for as long as I can.
Also Hitori or whatever his name was was absolutely gorgeous in a dress. Props to him.

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Was it good?

I’ll start out by saying that the male love interest’s acting is incredible and brought the story up from “cringy and stupid” to “I-actually-want-to-know-what-happens-next.”
There’s a problem, though. You might be asking, “which male lead?” I’m asking the universe, PLEASE GIVE ME LESS MALE LEADS!! I’m not one for love triangles, and this story was a love pyramid. And the love pyramid was 🤢 and yet, it was what the whole story revolved around. So the worst part of the show was also the plot mechanism. In other words, that which was driving the plot, was actually ruining it - so much so that the drama would have been better without it. Yep, take 75% of the show out and you actually have something good. That’s how I would describe this drama.
However, this directive makes it really easy for those who don’t care about watching the whole thing ans just want to watch the good parts. Just watch the scenes with Taek Kyeon and you’ll have a stellar drama at your fingertips.

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I don't think I liked it.

The acting was good, but the story was not great. Not only was it about one character being very controling of the other character, and if he says it was all for love, and he didn't have any other way to express himself, then, what, do we fault society for not giving men, and this man in particullar, any emotional intelligence or healthy ways to express themselves? I would have liked to see him apologize more, and make it up to the kid. Show he can be an emotionally intelligent BF who no longer controls his BF - doesn't stop him from seeing others, doesn't control his actions... I think if we saw a behavior change, then that would be great, but these are short episodes in a short show with parts of the story only restricted to subscribers. I don't fault them for this. They gotta make money. It's a great strategy, too. However, when your last episode cuts off so abruptly that your audience spends ten minutes trying to figure out what happened (ok, I knew it was the end of the drama because the video's title was literally 4/4), you know it was really bad, really unfortunately abrupt. And not in a way where I still wanted to know what happened and pay to watch the additional part (good financing strategy), but in a way where I felt like I went to take a step and found out there was no ground under my foot and my foot was over the edge of the canyon.

Oh, the main reason I wrote this review was because I really liked the closing song! And I rarely notice the music. It wasn't even that it was pleasant and fit the theme of the drama, but I wanted to listen to it on it's own and tried really hard to find it. (but no luck yet.

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Eh

The positives: 1. Andrew Chien's acting, 2. the beautiful scenery 3. acceptance? 4. How easy it was to skip over the second couple. I didn't have to even try.
Negatives: 1. hello? The student-teacher relationship that was completely unaddressed. I mean, at least mention passingly the moral and legal issues. I can only say that Xu Luhui was probably of age because there were some scenes where he was drinking, but still! The brother was like, Go for it! This seems to be a thing for Taiwanese BL that I really don't need. I guess if we're going to create a fantasy world where everyone is gay and happy and homophobia doesn't exist, then we can have a world... ok, never mind. Still not ok. There were some things they could have waited for until he wasn't literally his teacher anymore. I mean, it was only a month.
2. out-of-place, graphic sex scenes. I know this is the MO for a lot of BL, but please don't rely on this now to sell BL. Please give me a good storyline and acting first.
3. Episodes 6-8 were completely unnecessary (honestly, I pretty much didn't watch them.) If you're going to get your main couple together barely more than halfway through, please think about how you're going to keep your audience engaged. Or don't get them together so early - in all the senses of the word. You could have used those three episodes to let the main couple simmer while responsibly waiting for the ONE MONTH where they were teacher and student to be over. And maybe let the high schooler graduate. Just maybe.

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Worth watching, but a mixture of good and bad

I loved the general idea and follow-through of two of the three storylines. (hopefully not a spoiler) but I'm a huge fan of the "I'm in love with my straight, oblivious best friend who makes my life all miserable" and they did a pretty good job with it. I felt Min Woo's pain, but then it became a little choppy/rushed.

I loved Lee Hyun and Kim An's storyline because of Lee Hyun's unwavering devotion to Kim An despite all he had been through, slowly showing him he can let love in. But Kim Yong Seok (rightly) just had enough with his character by episode 9 (you could see it in his acting/characterization of his character). His character had seemed like a strong character who was fighting through so much sh*t, and it seemed he was in reach of making it out the other side, and then... well that would be a spoiler, but in general, I feel like the "weakness" and dependence the character showed later on was out of character, and Kim Yong Seok (and I) were not fans of how weak and dependent he became.

The last couple was just ... present? I'm sure there was a story being told, but I can't really isolate it.

Nevertheless, Jung Woo Jae was one of the best actors in the show. (I was surprised that J-min was the best actor. Should I be surprised that an idol is an incredible actor? Or am I being partial?

(other?) Complaints:
Like what was it with the boom mikes floating along the top of the screen at least two different times - the first time they were in front of Kim An's house, and the second was in Ep. 9. I don't know a lot about filming, but I Can't think of anything more unprofessional and easily fixed. Like, that seems like the biggest no-no.

While I enjoyed the individual storylines, the ending of each (especially Maru and Min Woo) seemed rushed, but what was worse, they then stretched out the ending - also known as who-even-knows-what-is-happening-after-everyone-got-together-but-let's-make-it-as-awkward-and-poinless-as-possible. >>i.e. Episode 10 should not exist.<< It was the epitome of awkward cringe. I watched it because the characters' stories and actors had pulled me in and I wanted to stay with them until the end. There were still little cute moments in the mix, but it still was painful to watch. You could tell Gim An/Kim Yong Seok had had enough. (somewhat of a spoiler) Forcing all storylines to converge in a nonsensical way, and have six men sit and talk in a circle about each other and nothing while glamping together? Nah, man.

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Great representation

I liked how there were no tropes. It felt like a real story. It was very accepting of queer identities, they talked about queer identities instead of brushing them behind a bush like some other BL dramas coughKoreacough. I especially liked what the dad had to say at the end and how there was a bit at the end for SOGIESC (Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression, and Sex Characteristics) by the PHILIPPINE ANTI-DESCRIMINATION ALLIANCE OF YOUTH LEADERS.
I LOVED IT. It was maybe my favorite part. Imagine if a Koran BL with two members of a kpop boy group had a section on the definition of bisexuality put on by a LGBTQIA group?! In other words, let's support all the Filippino dramas! They're far ahead of other countries and their media. OMG, imagine if the US tried to make BL. I think hollywood would get razed to the ground by angry fujoshi (me included. It'd just be a capitalist move/gimmick anyways).

Good story, some plot gaps, odd scene placement, fantastically diverse characters, some very beautiful characters. Thanks producers! I got pleasure out of this show and from some of the most unexpected places.

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Good story, great acting, no chemistry, and plot gaps

Idk what the hulabaloo was about. Story was interesting but had its plot gaps. Especially in the end. But, sorry, THERE WAS NO CHEMISTRY. They spent most of the time trying to it make Tin appear like a creep to Tol. Like WE knew Tin wasn’t a creep, but the characters like Tol and co didn’t and we’re rightfully creeped out. There was just never a jump to romance or romantic chemistry. He looked like a creep to Tol and then he looked like less of a creep. And it’s nothing on the plot or acting. The acting was fantastic, the story good, the romance and spark was not. Maybe because of everything else. It was a fantastic time leap show that forgot it was a bl too. I love good stories in BL I hope the greater market sees it and appreciates it. I just selfishly wanted chemistry.

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SO much better than En of Love

It was short, shorter even than En of Love, yet it was so much better, and it all came down to the pacing, directing and storyline of the show. With En of Love, you could tell they were trying to fit a longer story into a couple episodes and not only could you not do the story justice, it was butchered so badly, I almost wish they hadn’t tried. I had to scour reddit to be able to understand En of Love, whereas here, the story was clear, short and sweet, and the characters and actors (War) got to shine. I highly recommend watching this and rooting on these actors for the bigger and better things they deserve.

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