I enjoyed it much more than the manga, now I feel like I need a reread because I don't remember the story being this engaging, so they must've made some changes for the better in the adaptation. Very Old Fashion Cupcake, - cute, moving, a bit more in the feels (my single ass was sobbing at times). Definitely worth a watch.
I love how attentive Yako-san was to everybody's emotions, how caring and supportive not only of the main pair, but of the baby neghbour as well, she could read them all like a book. Also, yay for ace representation (although she did seem a bit otherworldly at times, like a sage monk locked in her seclusion and only occasionally descending to grace the world with her wisdom, if you know what I mean).
The relationship is sooooo slow burn, but I'm totally in love with this polar opposite of the majority of BL - the series is 98% female characters, main and secondary, and their relationships are just pure gold, the topics they cover and the conversations they have are giving me life <3
This was a first for me, I typically hate infidelity as a plot device, but this was so good to watch! It was nuanced, neither of the relationships was cliche or easy, I love how all the dynamics got explored rather than focusing on the two main leads and neglecting their respective partners. It was (mostly) gentle and understated, not at all what I expected.
From your description I was expecting there to be a huge age gap between them, but it's only five years.
Like I said, the gap wasn't big but the boss' behaviour made it seem bigger. He was disturbing in general, even without considering their respective ages.
I'm not a horror person but I am a religion/myths person and this was almost entirely in my lane (save for the ring of fire colossus). I really wish the story got more development, this world they built of shamans and rituals got me hooked (I have zero idea how factual it was as a non-Korean) and I would love to see it expanded on. The cast was amazing, the sountrack - to die for (by the way, has it been released oficially? there's no sign of it on spotify). Overall a very decent piece of cinema, if you weren't expecting a typical slasher horror type of thing.
I watched it back to back with the series, and it was a very confusing experience. At first I thought they just shared the title, then I got suspicious because of the dj boyfriend and the religious mother, and finally I knew when I saw the blueberries xd I'm assuming since the series has screenplay by the book author, it's more faithful to the original than the movie. And boy are they different!
Not only the focus of the movie is a lot different than the series, it felt like the male lead was a totally different character (which I'm not super into, I liked that he wasn't ashamed of himself in the series, the movie felt like a step back in a sense). This story was a lot lighter, which I guess is fair for a mainstream attempt at queer cinema, and since it was only 2 hours long they probably had to choose their focus more selectively than the series. I appreciated the series for poking at difficult subjects, but the movie was a lot more cohesive with its storytelling. Plus the open ending felt like an actual ending and not just a random cut without tying anything together. In my opinion the movie made better choices considering the time they had to utilise, compared to the series, but I understand that's probably for the price of departing significantly from the source material.
The plot progression was definitely... a choice? I don't know, it felt like alongside the main character the story also slowly lost its spark. The beginning was very promissing, I was invested, but at some point it all faded into blah-ness. I appreciate the realism, but I like my stories with defined, well, SOMETHING. This was a poorly structured mix of too many plot points that kept fighting for my attention and all of them lost somehow.
The timeline was very confusing, the HIV story was frankly ridiculously executed and not at all foreshadowed in any way resembling good storytelling - he knew about it for five years and only then did they decide to drop it on the audience, as if he never thought it to be important enough to matter before he got with this one specific person? Bullshit. It's as if someone thought "we need to make this relationship more dramatic, they can't be star-crossed lovers by just arguing about damp laundry and empty water bottles". Let's reveal this big thing that is impacting his entire life but for some reason was never mentioned before, makes total sense.
Also, the way they broke up and none of that got resolved? Even though they dropped the hints with the drink and Gyu Ho coming back to Korea? If it was supposed to be a season 2 setup, it was really badly done. Overall the resolution was nonexistent. So Go Yeong became a professional writer and moved flats. So what? It seems like none of the relationships amounted to anything, he repeated the same mistakes with Gyu Ho as he had with Nam Gyu ("I realised too late we could've been great together forever"), all the boyfriends stories were just so badly resolved, it makes me angry. First one conveniently died after his heart got ripped to pieces (we all know we were thinking the same thing and that thing was not a car accident, or at least not just that). Second one pulled a mean one and left the continent, presumably to make Go Yeong hate him and not want to dig any deeper in his life, which clearly warranted some digging. Third one threw an airport tantrum and disappeared without any contact, even though he promissed they would always make up after a fight, but I guess it doesn't count when the main character needs clear road ahead to continue his self-discovery or some other crap.
The idea was there, the vibe at first was also very promissing. The acting was really good, the characters had decent, sometimes great chemistry. But that script (or the way it was edited?) was full of holes and bad decissions. With each episode of the second half I was more sad and disappointed to see the initial spark disappear.
I really wanted to enjoy it, but it just felt so icky :/ I'm usually ok with office romance, I don't mind the age gap or the boss/subordinate relationship if it's done right, but here it honestly felt so so wrong. The boss was in his thirties, yet he acted like an old perv with the coffee requests and the neck massages and all the pushy stuff. Take away his somewhat appealing face and there's nothing there to excuse his behaviour (is my way of saying you wouldn't see it as romantic if it came from someone less handsome). The progression of their relationship felt forced to me - the boss was pushing, the employee was not happy about any of it, for the longest time they only bonded when drunk... I guess that kind of dynamic has its fans, but it's definitely not my vibe :/
The reason why Orca has that kind of hairdo is because they can only afford one box of hair dye and Ting Fri already…
My guess was he was supposed to look like an actual orca, as in black and white, but nobody knew how to make blond spots in his hair attractive so they went for a tail
Ok, so first of all, they should've invested in more freaking songs. The last one was the best one and it only got played once (plus credits) while all the others were on constant repeat, whyyy
Second, where do I even begin with Orca, who was supposed to be the "most effortlessly charismatic" or whtever they called him when he first appeared on screen? He was the opposite of that. Effortless? Try effortmore :/ He was so bad on stage, that whole global superstar persona was impossible to believe in. So bad. I wanna know who sang his song tho, that was some dope vocal.
Overall there was potential but something was missing. Those music bls seem to always be a bit off for me, first "Wish Me" and now this... I can't quite put my finger on what that thing is, maybe I'm expecting too much in terms of soundtrack and their vocal performances and it's never quite as good? It can be done, just look at the "Given" anime, music there is the bomb and it carries the entire plot so damn much! But anyway, I digress.
To sum up: no to Orca the world idol, no to the soundtrack, no to falling in love in two separate languages, yes to Michael's precious acting and the last song, major yes to whoever sang the driving 65 song.
I honestly feel like they mostly did what they could with this version to make it work in a different context (I'm not a huge fan of the Thai version to begin with, so don't come for me). It's somewhat more easy to digest if you don't like dub-con and stalking, but at the end the source material was what it was.
I'm glad they chose someone looking older to play Fuma, it cracked me up in the Thai version that we were supposed to believe that Prapai was the adult one with a steady job, looking like a literal baby. Kai somehow looked older than all the other characters (I thought he was around 30), even though factually they're all roughly the same age - because of that I couldn't believe in his character as much as I did with Sky (he was my fave in the Thai version).
Overall I'd say I enjoyed this version more than the Thai one, but it still was only decent in my opinion. Nothing outstanding about it. Maybe that's because of the source story, maybe they couldn't do too much to the script, but yeah. Passable, nothing more.
interesting idea to help me understand more about Asexual people, but I need more highlights to make me blend…
If that's a topic you're into and you haven't seen it yet, you should definitely check out Koisenu Futari. Other than one annoying subplot, it's a very good representation for the aro/ace people, and quite adorable as well :)
I have to say, the rating got my hopes up and I ended up slightly disappointed. The secod half felt like they were grasping at straws to find more drama with every episode and the choices were somethimes odd. And the random time-lapses were just plain lazy.
why are people so obsessed with age difference? as long as they are two consenting adults, why does it mater how…
The OP was just asking, don't see why this angered you so much? And honestly, too big of an age difference can be a bad thing, just because someone is legally an adult does not mean they are actually a grown-up.
The gym thrashing scene depicts letting go of your past traumas for a new fresh beginning. The gym symbolizes…
I understood the meaning, it's just the way it was shot felt disconnected from the rest of the series for me, like it didn't really fit. Its form rather than the idea.
I have to say, the threesome dynamic was a bit confusing at times, and the story was not perfect (that gym thrashing scene, what was that?), but it did check all my Hwang Da Seul boxes anyway. I feel like she has a knack for wiriting those characters that you really dislike at first but grow to understand and appreciate as the plot progresses. Is that a thing? Hate them till you love them? I don't know. They grow on you like mould, those boys of hers xd I honestly just love how each time HDS manages to pick people with the greatest of chemistries for her projects, and find space for tiny, cozy acts of love between them. It's a gift.
Not only the focus of the movie is a lot different than the series, it felt like the male lead was a totally different character (which I'm not super into, I liked that he wasn't ashamed of himself in the series, the movie felt like a step back in a sense). This story was a lot lighter, which I guess is fair for a mainstream attempt at queer cinema, and since it was only 2 hours long they probably had to choose their focus more selectively than the series. I appreciated the series for poking at difficult subjects, but the movie was a lot more cohesive with its storytelling. Plus the open ending felt like an actual ending and not just a random cut without tying anything together. In my opinion the movie made better choices considering the time they had to utilise, compared to the series, but I understand that's probably for the price of departing significantly from the source material.
The timeline was very confusing, the HIV story was frankly ridiculously executed and not at all foreshadowed in any way resembling good storytelling - he knew about it for five years and only then did they decide to drop it on the audience, as if he never thought it to be important enough to matter before he got with this one specific person? Bullshit. It's as if someone thought "we need to make this relationship more dramatic, they can't be star-crossed lovers by just arguing about damp laundry and empty water bottles". Let's reveal this big thing that is impacting his entire life but for some reason was never mentioned before, makes total sense.
Also, the way they broke up and none of that got resolved? Even though they dropped the hints with the drink and Gyu Ho coming back to Korea? If it was supposed to be a season 2 setup, it was really badly done. Overall the resolution was nonexistent. So Go Yeong became a professional writer and moved flats. So what? It seems like none of the relationships amounted to anything, he repeated the same mistakes with Gyu Ho as he had with Nam Gyu ("I realised too late we could've been great together forever"), all the boyfriends stories were just so badly resolved, it makes me angry. First one conveniently died after his heart got ripped to pieces (we all know we were thinking the same thing and that thing was not a car accident, or at least not just that). Second one pulled a mean one and left the continent, presumably to make Go Yeong hate him and not want to dig any deeper in his life, which clearly warranted some digging. Third one threw an airport tantrum and disappeared without any contact, even though he promissed they would always make up after a fight, but I guess it doesn't count when the main character needs clear road ahead to continue his self-discovery or some other crap.
The idea was there, the vibe at first was also very promissing. The acting was really good, the characters had decent, sometimes great chemistry. But that script (or the way it was edited?) was full of holes and bad decissions. With each episode of the second half I was more sad and disappointed to see the initial spark disappear.
Second, where do I even begin with Orca, who was supposed to be the "most effortlessly charismatic" or whtever they called him when he first appeared on screen? He was the opposite of that. Effortless? Try effortmore :/ He was so bad on stage, that whole global superstar persona was impossible to believe in. So bad. I wanna know who sang his song tho, that was some dope vocal.
Overall there was potential but something was missing. Those music bls seem to always be a bit off for me, first "Wish Me" and now this... I can't quite put my finger on what that thing is, maybe I'm expecting too much in terms of soundtrack and their vocal performances and it's never quite as good? It can be done, just look at the "Given" anime, music there is the bomb and it carries the entire plot so damn much! But anyway, I digress.
To sum up: no to Orca the world idol, no to the soundtrack, no to falling in love in two separate languages, yes to Michael's precious acting and the last song, major yes to whoever sang the driving 65 song.
I'm glad they chose someone looking older to play Fuma, it cracked me up in the Thai version that we were supposed to believe that Prapai was the adult one with a steady job, looking like a literal baby. Kai somehow looked older than all the other characters (I thought he was around 30), even though factually they're all roughly the same age - because of that I couldn't believe in his character as much as I did with Sky (he was my fave in the Thai version).
Overall I'd say I enjoyed this version more than the Thai one, but it still was only decent in my opinion. Nothing outstanding about it. Maybe that's because of the source story, maybe they couldn't do too much to the script, but yeah. Passable, nothing more.
I honestly just love how each time HDS manages to pick people with the greatest of chemistries for her projects, and find space for tiny, cozy acts of love between them. It's a gift.