Kuragehime

A beautiful drama that I probably won't rewatch

The part WITHOUT spoilers:

It's beautiful but just too heavy - the series deeply influenced my mood for quite a while. This's the only reason I rated rewatch value so loe - it doesn't reflect show's quality. I fell in love with cinematography, the ost, the overall vibes.
I wish the series were longer - unpacking all this trauma and abuse could lead to more character development.

SPOILERS AHEAD:

My only beef with the show is tha fact that Haoren never apologised to Chihiro, although his face displayed regret when he saw Chihiro leaving the room crying. Since he gradually fell in love with Chihiro wouldn't it be only natural to try to make it up to him? Providing Chihiro with food and shelter after beating him up and dumping him on a pile of trash doesn't make him entitled to treating him like an actual trash. I understand that Haoren hasn't known better, but what his actions on episode 3 and him later blaming Chihiro for being a parasite are a serious character flag. He's just too mu h a red flag. Another missed opportunity is Chihiro not being able to develop a sense of self-esteem and self-love - I get why he's the way he's, I just wish the series were longer and showed him being able to stand up for himself and set boundaries.

Great show overall, acting was just impeccable.

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Such a unique show!

I LOVED it. I honestly don't get negative reviews. Such a unique setting of filming a movie, actors playing actors, cinematography, plot - it all just came together. In a way it's a show for introverts, with its slow pacing, great dialogues and no exagerated drama. There's not a single cringe or trivial moment, everything is mature and quiet in the best way possible. I only wished actors could "act more with their eyes" - but I guess they have a whole life ahead to hone their acting skills even more. I'm definetely gonna rewatch it later.

A bonus point for great skinship, kisses and NC.

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Short enough to watch

The production with soft lightening and some atmospheric shots, some dialogues, main leads' chemistry and acting were good, but the story used roundabout ways to achieve the plot goals.
The "mystery" part added no value as we knew nothing about the stalker at all. Plotwise it basically served the goal to make Ji Woo walk Yoo Na home + add some tension, post anonymously on the forum. And there're so many more creative and time-consuming ways to do that, because the only relevant plot point was post on the forum, and you don't need a stalker for that - anyone could have done that.
Kim Hye Won's character was annoying and totally irrelevant to the plot. Her crush on the teacher and their resolution was too out of place. As a "friend" character for Yoo Na a simple supporting character would be more than enough.
Kim Nam Joon's character was interesting, but his subplot was left dangling. I looked forward to some development with him abd tge "third roommate", but no - that roommate just vanished from existence. Why was he even introduced? It wasn't rational at all.
So basically much stronger and tight plot for 6 episodes would have the post incident around episode 3, exploration of Ji Woo's uncomfortability, Lee Ro A supporting him but also realizing Ji Woo's far from being ready to come out, and complication of their relationship in the next 3 episodes, with a proper breathing room for falling action. Needless to say without all those irrelevant side characters.
There could be a stalker subplot if these 2 terms were met: the stalker is a character present in the story, whom we follow closely and the series is at least 8 episodes long.

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I have dropped it after Episode 1, but people were praising the show, so I've decided to give it a chance. Actually, I did like the second couple, although their subplot wasn't explored at all. But everything about this show, it all was like a soap drama. And the romance between main leads was rushed. It made zero sense for Ashi to decide suddenly to spend his whole future with Pun, no matter how good Pun took care of him for the past month he got to know him, even if Pun he loved him for 9 years. How can you know you want to spend your life with someone when you just started dating literally a couple of days ago? And the way he suddenly made up his mind and they jumped right into NC scene made even less sense.
Besides, Pun's character gave off autistic vibes, with Ashi being his hyper fixation - at first I was looking forward to it, it would be so interesting if plot actually described him as an autistic character - but no, he was not on the spectrum, he was just acting like a teenager for no good reason. And besides, that sad melancholic soundtrack during each NC scene between main couples was so off-putting, like it didn't fit the mood and vibe at all. I think the cast was actually quite fine, and they did a good job with roles they were given, but the writing, the plot, it was so cliche and so expected. After Episode 7, I just kept skipping all episodes, and each time I paused on a scene from just a sentence from a dialogue, I could know what is happening and what is going to happen next. I even checked my assumptions, I literally read what happened in each episode, and I was right. Sprinkling in NC scenes doesn't make for a good BL show.

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Beautiful production of an angsty teenage drama

Production was top notch, as well as soundtracks. Their chemistry was great, as well as acting, But I had to deduct 2 points for Teh's ugly crying. Ugly crying could be powerful if used once or twice only when it's appropriate. But for the last half of the series Teh broke into weeping too many times - I stopped empathizing with him, it was just downright cringy. Another thing that irritated me the most was his mother's lack of tact and acting in general, but it's a good thing she got so little screen time. I loved the show but I'd probably never rewatch it, because last 2 episodes were quite frustrating to be honest.

On a side note, I was quite surprised by how well Tam's character was written - bls rarely build up a thought through female support character, her acting seemed so authentic. But the most impressive part was production - every scene was just so beautiful, I couldn't take my eyes off the screen.

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I fell in love

Part WITHOUT spoilers

I enjoyed every second of this series. I couldn't believe I found a Thai bl without a bunch of side couples and drawn out dialogues between irrelevant characters. The plot was PLOTTING, and acting was on such a high level, especially Ming. Even support characters like Wut and others were enjoyable to watch and contributed to the plot. It's rare to find series with thought out plot AND character development. I loved how the story was from Joe's POV, this is what lacked for me in Love Mechanics. In comparison of 2 stories of toxic relationships, My stand -in did it right, allowing us to form our own perception of Ming's character, not sugar coating his behavior with sob stories and his dialogues with support characters. This series let the story unveil Ming's reasons behind his actions and only in the last episodes showed us his struggles.

Even production was beautiful, and all this on the background of filming set was so refreshing to watch. Another thing, main leads had a strong chemistry and authentic tension, all NC scenes were beautiful. Heck, there was even humour and funny moments, this show was perfect.

SPOILERS ahead

I deducted 0.5 points from the story as it lacked the backstory of Ming's character, especially his love for Thong. It's evident that Ming is an obsessive and possessive man, but it wasn't clear how Ming still couldn't get over Thong even after 4 years of studying in USA. And revealing later on that he fell in love with Thong's charisma in fencing scene (his back actually) did a disservice to his character. I get that a teenager could fall in love at first sight with a cool fighting scene and idolize the actor later on, but him breaking into tears and drinking himself to oblivion just because Thong proposed to his sister, while Ming himself was living together with Joe and even bought couple mugs made zero sense. It would make more sense if how Thong was low-key flirting with Ming, making his heart flutter, hence making him misunderstand, but Thong was portrayed as a heterosexual character, not even bisexual, so it wasn't clear what Ming was hoping for.. That's my only beef with the series. Overall, I fell in love with Ming's character and his way of hurting other's with his words. Finally a toxic, red flag character done right.

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