lilili

Thank you for writing this, I've been thinking the same thing especially because there's a Cdrama airing about Unit 731 which was the Japanese unit that conducted human experiments (really torturing people to death) from 1936 to 1945. It upsets me that most people are either unaware or don't care about the history.

Because the origin of BLs was stories written by women for women in Japan (yaoi). To build on the definition of BLs, a lot of BL stories, especially in the early days of the genre, dealt with problems of womenhood but without female bodies present. A good example is the "We didn't even kiss" line in Heated Rivalry, that's a very woman coded experience.

But now that we have years of live action BLs being made with directors who are mostly gay men the genre is evolving and the lines between BL and LGBTQ series are blurring. It's not necessarily easy to distinguish them anymore. For example Only Friends is a BL but it also had a lot of experiences that are very much what young gay men go through because the director is a gay man who said he wanted to make a horny series.

FYI, Google translate is a great tool for translating lyrics and subtitles that appear onscreen. It's a bit tedious but below is a link to a video on how to do it. At 1:26 the video covers how to translate text in a different language. Unfortunately for some reason I can't translate that easily, I have to copy the text and then paste it into Google translate which is a tedious extra step but it does work:

https://youtu.be/-Wt7gN6jE8E?si=u6U7fhO5YXzioQp_.

Another thing: if you're looking at a lot of Chinese language websites you should install the Google translate extension on your browser. It will automatically translate web pages for you:

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/aapbdbdomjkkjkaonfhkkikfgjllcleb?utm_source=item-share-cb

Finally, if you're looking for LYN content, you should install the Xiaohongshu app. If you set your language to English the app will automatically translate all of the posts and comments. The translations are mostly accurate and you will get access to a lot of LYN info that isn't available in English language media.

I hope this helps and I haven't overwhelmed you :)

I've been reading XHS posts too, I love seeing what people are saying about it. What is it that you think you're missing?

Thank you for laying out exactly why Song Yi Meng mistrusted Nan Heng for so long. Not only did he try to kill her five times and lied to her about being Li Shiliu, he even threatened to harm LS to manipulate SYM into doing what he wanted! She had every reason to be angry with him and mistrustful for a long time. And I say this is someone who adores NH's character.

I admire this drama for how unsparingly it depicts the brutality of corporate life. If you've ever worked in a big corporation you've known many Mr. Kims, company men who undergo countless humiliations before being discarded by the system. The acting, directing and OST are all top notch and the writing was mostly brilliant with the exception of Su Gyeom's storyline. But watching this drama felt like I was being dragged through a hedge. It was one of the most unpleasant viewing experiences I've ever had. I gave the drama an 8.5 because it's so well done but it's definitely not one I'll ever revisit. I left corporate life for a reason and don't want to experience it again in a drama. I suspect this is why the rating is so low. Even though I felt deep empathy for Kim Nak Su at the end, this isn't exactly a feel good inspiring story.

I want to know how he keeps getting around the censors, his work feels so raw that it's a miracle it gets a pass

The reason Nan Heng is constantly misunderstood and blamed for everything is because in real life Liu Yuning suffered so much during the filming of A Journey to Love when he was subjected to a vicious online hate campaign. ADWAD was the production company's response to whoever was funding the online "black water" campaign and Nan Heng's character was written for LYN. The ep 1 script reading scene has a lot of very specific references to the rumors about LYN and even shows Nan Feng watching a scene from AJTL on his phone. You can also see the influence of LYN's life story on the idea of fighting fate since he grew up very poor and never went to college yet has achieved enormous success as an entertainer. That's why Nan Heng is such a compelling character: for LYN and the producers it was personal.

Unfortunately, because the entire production is pretty much centered on the injustices suffered by LYN/Nan Heng I think the FL got a little screwed. Li Yi Tong is hilarious in this but she needed to show more vulnerability and ambivalence toward Nan Heng in the middle section. It was too strong for too long (and I absolutely love this drama but I can acknowledge its flaws). Once she lets go of her prejudices and fully accepts him they make a fantastic team and the final episodes had me cheering but the progression from hate to love should've been presented better.

It's directed by Nuchy (can't remember her last name) who directed Not Me with OffGun, First and Gawin. She's an award-winning film director with serious credits. GMMTV generally does invest in some high quality projects every year like Moonlight Chicken, Be My Favorite, and F4 Thailand.

She's not a professional reviewer, she's a fan with a platform who spent a brief time in the industry. So I don't expect her to do deep analysis even though sometimes she does. See her videos on The Bad Kids and A Dream Within a Dream.

Also isn't sexual tension in a drama a good thing

I had the same question but it seems like on MDL Cdramas that are cliche romances get rated 8.9 but anything innovative gets rated much lower.

Avenue X likes this one. I don't agree with her on everything but she's very stingy with her good ratings so I'm definitely planning on at least trying this one for a few episodes

Yes

Yes but it's a side plot, the main theme of the show is adultery and misogyny and how it hurts women. Having said that, the romance is actually pretty sweet.

Somebody play that song "Fancy" made me choke omg

Finished ep 1 and if I weren't watching with two online friends I don't think I'd continue, not because it's bad but because it's painfully realistic. It's an illustration that you should never love the company because the company will never love you.

I'm doing well! I basically took a drama break the past month so I haven't been posting much anywhere.

The last dramas I watched were two Cdramas that I loved: A Dream Within a Dream and A Journey to Love. Highly recommend both even if you aren't a Cdrama watcher normally.

How are you? Hope all is well!

I was thinking wow OP this is so insightful and then I realized it was Cora because of course it was 😆 you convinced me to start this

Oh I didn't mean they should literally use CapCut, just that the quality is below what some random person could do with it but point taken about the templates

I'm still boggled by the quality because you can rent lavalier mics very cheaply and shoot on an iPhone and get better quality then you're seeing in this drama. Plus those opening graphics are terrible, a typical TikTok user could edit a better intro using CapCut.

I read the comments before watching but I still was NOT prepared for how bad it was. The intro gave 1990s soap opera and the audio sounded like it was recorded with a mic under water. The tongue kiss looked like the director told them to pretend they were a toilet brush and the toilet.