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This review may contain spoilers
Forget it; I did.
This show is forgettable. And I mean this in the most literal way: I first watched this series some time the summer of 2022. When I came across the title again in the autumn of the same year, I had no idea what story this was supposed to be -- only during watching had I the feeling that I knew it somehow. And that happened again a few weeks later.I have no idea why the series was such that I forgot about it -- even after I watched it a fourth time. This is what could have contributed:
* The storylines are stereotypes -- friends to lovers / trusting a new relationship after a bad one / secret identities; they all seem to develop slowly but fast at the sam time? Maybe three couples was a bit much for 6x40 minutes. I am not even able to give a description of the stories (see above).
* The actors all look the same to me. Not only those who are brothers IRL, but also Chris and Ton Fah looked rather similar.
* The music was amazing in itself but made the whole show feel a bit dreamlike and apart from reality. I think a second soundtrack for the more dramatic and the emotionally heavy scenes would have helped.
* It feels as if there's a lot of backstory that we don't see, and there are also several inconsistencies.
All in all, I don't think I've made a connection to the characters in the series, maybe due to one of the points above, maybe not.
That said, the show is not bad, even mediocre is not the right word for it, it's just ... bland.
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The tropes quickly come one after the other, and the whole drama is very fast-paced.
I loved all the side couples and the couples in the background. Also the parents really are the epitome of "mob"!
There is one, maybe a minor, point I did not like:
* I don't understand why "Mob" is so desperate to avoid a romance storyline -- I get it in the beginning, when he's reading about "Meriba"-endings, which I wouldn't like for me either, but after a while it just feels a bit homophobic, especially as he doesn't want his little brother to end up with a guy too! I wish we'd get a better explanation for that. As it is, the whole thing feels a little off for me especially regarding the ending, which kind of comes out of nowhere.
Recommended, if you need a laugh and if you know a lot of BL tropes.
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Not really about psychological cases
I must say that the title and the first episode deceived me as to the content of this series.I thought that this would be a more light-hearted series with interesting cases, like the one in the first episode, cases that actually could be considered psychological.
Mostly, cases in following episodes were based in familial conflicts, poisoning etc. -- they also felt samey after a while.
I did not care for the court intrigue at all, and so I needed about two months to get through the second-to-last episode.
I also wished that we got to see more of Gye's family, I think the characters could have been really interesting but they remained rather one-dimensional. Overall, I enjoyed the interaction between the family members.
One last addition: The poisonous plant ("Dansacho") shown seemed to be Cyclamen, which is native to Europe and to the east up to Iran, NOT Korea. If it is, the symptoms are not what characters experience in the series. That fact makes me question the reliability of other medical practices in the show.
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What I liked:
* The main lead's acting. I loved how he portrayed his character's emotional turmoil and, especially in the first half, his confusion about his feelings.
* I liked the pacing overall. There was a bit of a drag around the 2/3 mark, and the last episode felt rushed, but I really liked how the story, the parent's history and the love story, unfold.
* The action scenes were well done, and there was no excessive violence, only what was needed by the plot.
* I like the underlying message. Namely, that a free press (Free of politics and free of commercial restrictions) can be very powerful and that is why we need it.
* Something which I loved: At the beginning of each episode we were shown the last scene of the episode which came before -- which is not that new, but that scene always had something new, either just an extended version or the pint of view of another character, which sometimes even made me re-evaluate what I saw before. I don't think I've seen that done before, at least not that consistently.
What I did not like:
* Maybe I'm spoiled by dramas like "The Good Detective" or "Stove League", where there are multilayered characters and no clear line between good and bad, but I was disappointed by the "mystery", which was basically the "evil group who controls everything with an even more evil leader" trope. That trope is old and overdone, and I think audiences can and should expect more respect for their intelligence.
* I especially don't understand why they had to introduce a new plotpoint in the last two episodes. I'm sure they wanted to resolve the "item" and the murder of the first episode and maybe they wanted to finish with a bang, but it did not feel as an organic part of the rest.
* The female characters (apart from "Ajumma") also stayed remarkably passive during the whole show. The plot was mainly driven by Healer and the male reporter, while the young female reporter and the lady in the wheelchair usually followed behind, although both women's lives were equally, if not more, affected by the bad guys. Also, they are meant to be reporters! I expected them to take the lead at least in the later episodes.
All in all, it wasn't a bad watch but I'm not sure if it's worth a rewatch.
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A drama about contemporary societal problems not only in South Korea
Topics in this court drama are sexism, corruption, greed, power imbalance and the question of how to make a just and lawful decision.I think as a European person, I probably was not able to understand the intricacies fully. South Korea is still young as a liberal democracy, but within an old, patriarchial and strictly hierarchical society. So, some themes, like how the old order between younger people (and people in lower status) and people with more seniority (higher status) clashes with a new system of ethics, where everyone is equal in front of the law, are things I will probably never really understand.
What I liked:
* I loved the team dynamics, and that every one of the recurring characters had their own personalities.
* The romance between the judge of court 43 and the secretary was cute. I liked that they both changed for the better during their courtship, and neither of them -- especially not the female character -- lost their core personality traits.
* The cases were, for the most part, interesting.
* It was also fascinating to see how the judicial system in S.Korea works. According to Wikipedia, the script (and the book it was based on) was written by a senior judge himself, so I don't expect there to be any glaring inaccuracies.
What I did not like:
* The last episodes were too cheesy for my taste. That happy ending felt too forced for me. Two main points:
* Especially the relationship between Ba Reun and Oh Reum could have remained platonic -- until the second to last episode, I loved their dynamic, and how they were learning to listen to the other. Sometimes love remains unrequited, and men and women can work together as nothing more than colleagues.
* They could also have left the story arc about NJ group more ambiguous. In real life, you don't have this kind of closure.
All in all, I don't regret watching it, although the last episodes made me change my rating of a solid 9 to a disappointed seven.
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This review may contain spoilers
I have not seen the Korean drama or read the original webtoon, so I cannot compare them to this Japanese version. Nevertheless, this version has a distinctly "Korean feel" to it. Especially the love triangle (quadrangle?) and the fight against a power-hungry chairman of a huge conglomerate are plot points I've seen in several Korean dramas.(But I trust that the story was Japanese enough for the Japanese producers to make an adaptation.)
I liked the basic idea of a young man seeking revenge for a wrong done to him and his father -- with the help of friends he makes along the way.
(I wonder; if this had been an original idea, what would a Japanese writer have done with it? More friendship and group action, less love triangle, I hope.)
Also, the pacing and story managed to keep my interest until the four-year time skip. After that, I found a lot of the plot points superfluous and the rest dragged on.)
--spoilers start here--
I also did not like most of the characters:
* Aoi who was introduced as a high school brat, is suddenly a more than capable manager? At twenty? I find that not believable, especially as her main motivation is her "love" for Arata -- which feels more like a childish crush to me.
* Arata who is supposed to have strong morals, and put people before profit in the first episodes, becomes more and more ruthless and lives only for his revenge -- he even has no answer to the question "What are you going to do after?" for most of the series. That character devolpment could have been interseting but then they should have addressed it more.
* Riku, who was fine as a character, but until her surgery looked more like a FTM transgender person than a MTF transgender person. Also, why did they choose a biologically female actress? Were there no adequate male actors willing to play her? (I have no idea whether there are actual transgender actors in Japan who could have taken the role, which would have been the best choice.)
* Yuka was interesting for a lot of the episodes, because her actions were rather ambiguous. She was a character with shades of grey -- but unfortunately she was also too passive, waiting for Arata to "save her", whatever that meant.
* Ryota, the ex-criminal, had not enough screen time to develop his character. He's an example why I am not fond of time jumps -- what happened to him in the time when RC grew and he had to change his position? He started a an uneducated ruffian -- how did he manage to change to managing director?
* The one I felt the most sympathy for was Ryuji, who was the most likeable among the bunch. But why does his only reason for doing what he does have to be his "One True Love"(TM)? There are so many other motivations than that!
The Nagayas (father and elder son) were fantastic enemies though! No complaints here!
All in all, I do not regret watching it, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to others -- there are better dramas out there.
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A light-hearted, cute simple little love story about two marathon runners in college
While this is not my favourite BL of all time, it is one of the go-to BLs whenever I need a short pick-me-up.The series and the drama are identical, there are just a few scenes swapped around where the episodes end / start, probably for narrative reasons.
What I liked:
* They chose a story line that is adequate for the length of the series. Anything more complicated, and it might have become frustrating (again).
* The series is focused on the two main leads, which are supported by only a few other characters, which also fits the drama's length. I loved all of them, the coach was like an exasperated but loving uncle, the friend insightful, the two loan sharks hilariously cute.
* They did almost everything to keep the story light-hearted, from the sometimes cheesy dialogue to the upbeat music.
* The story, though straightforward, shows quite a bit of character development for BOTH main characters.
What I did not like:
* To keep it consistently light-hearted, I would have liked if the scene with the loan sharks' boss could have been less violent -- I'm sure there was another way to put pressure on SangHa than to beat him up.
Overall, a sweet and short drama.
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Not even Pond could save this
I will admit it, if not for Pond Ponlawit, I wouldn't have even considered starting this, and I could have spared myself hours of bored suffering.I do like the occasional Thai college BL; and didn't even expect much in the way of originality. But this one has several points I don't like, and in combination these are deadly for a series: stereotypical "top" and "bottom" characters, nonsense story, bad directing.
This will be somewhat of a rant although I tried to write it like I would for any other drama, so if you loved "Fourever You" and/or North and Johan's story, go back and stop reading *now*.
The four (potential) couples very obviously follow every stereotype there is: Each of the "tops" is older, richer, more popular, more into sports, taller, more masculine in looks than their "bottom" counterpart. The "tops" are also stereoptypically cold on the outside, while the "bottoms", at least the two we saw most of in the first episodes, are childishly over-the-top emotional.
That alone is a warning sign for me -- I do know that a lot of people like these dynamics.
The first couple -- Ter and Hill -- is at least mostly balance in their power dynamics, but that gets offset by Ter's 13-year-old mentality, which creates drama where there shouldn't be none. And where Ter is over-the-top, Hill is exceptionally bland; after six episodes with them at the center, I know *nothing* about him, except that he seemed to be in love with Ter since forever, and that he's quite well-off and does well in his studies. Their story is quite nonsensical -- we get told their backstory in short flashbacks; those are not shown chronologically, which would be fine on itself, but if we put the information together, it doesn't make sense! It seems that Ter thought Hill was dating a school mate at the same time as he had a crush on Ter's sister. Up to epiosde 8, we also saw two short scenes that don't fit into anything else. Maybe those wil be picked up again later, and I would love to know how this is explained, but it's not worth it to suffer through North's and Johan's story.
Because the second couple (North and Johan), which I have heard is beloved by fans, has the same kind of power dynamics that made me drop "Perfect 10 Liners" earlier: The "top" has some kind of power of his love interest, and abuses it to make him do things he would never do, like spending time with him, doing errands, making life decisions. Here, the power imbalance is a (fictional) debt of several 100 000 Baht North has to pay back to Johan, and it's made worse by the fact that North makes it very clear that his livelihood depends on the money he gets from his part-time jobs. Of course, super-rich Johan doesn't care, and keeps North away during working hours, which could have cost North his job. And no, Johan, buying your love interest an iPhone does *not* make up for your abusing your power.
So, I can deal with boredom, I can deal with nonsense stories, but I cannot nor will I ever be able to see how a mutually respectful relationship can ever come from a starting point like this.
And as a last point, the directing.
As I said, I started this drama for Pond Ponlawit. I noticed him first in "The Death of Khun Phra", and in "Century of Love" -- and after that I saw him in "180 Degree Longitude" and "Reset", as well as the short edutainment series "Criminal People 5G". In each and every one of these, I was blown away by how *different* the characters are. If not for the same face, I would never have guessed that this is the same actor. I wanted to see what he would do with a standard Thai BL "top" character.
So, I *know* he has talent. I *know* he has the ability to pull it off. But it seems that not even he could make a bland character without personality into something interesting.
And, watching him, it felt like Pond was directed to forcibly stop himself from acting -- sometimes there are slight movements of arms or the whole body that he stops, and then he goes back to an awkward stance with his arms hanging down at his side. This can only be because the director wanted it to be like that, I cannot think of another explanation. Maybe the director had a vision of the character that unfortunately the script didn't support (as I said, Hill has no personality at all)? I wonder what Pond would have made of Hill, if he could have acted the way he wanted under another director.
The same goes for Earth Katsamonnat, who also has shown his abilities in previous productions, although his character is already written as if Ter is a 13 year old girl, so he didn't have much leeway. And it's also very obvious that Bas Hatsanat as North did his best to give his character a well-rounded personality.
Which brings me to my last point of contention: This is one of those BLs that are very obviously aimed at very young teenaged girls, who can identify with the "bottom" roles and crush on the "top" roles -- which might make money and might also honour the heritage from Japanese BL manga -- but makes for such unrealistic behaviours that it's really hard to watch, especially if the rest is already making me want to drop it.
Was it good?
The only saving grace of the first five and a half episodes was Pond Ponlawit trying to make the best out of a character without personality.
Did I like it?
No. The drama uses stereotypes I hate, and doesn't even try to give them a bit of a twist. Once Hill became a background character, my interest droppped sharply, so I dropped the drama.
Who would I recommend it to?
I don't want to recommend this at all.
Okay, maybe to hard-core Pond fans.
And maybe to people who also liked "Perfect 10 Liners".
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Ten minutes in, and I already checked the comments here if I was the only one who was reminded of mflow productions or maybe "A Secretly Love".
Thirty minutes in, and I was ready to stop watching. To give this drama a fair chance, I finished the first episode (which means I've seen 20% of the whole drama), but no more.
So, what made me drop it?
* The show introduced too many characters too fast. If I hadn't read the synopsis, I wouldn't have known who the main characters were for a while -- and it's not very clear how many of the side characters will even be important. Having that many side characters in a series with five episodes can only mean that either most of them are not important or they won't have any personality or their own story at all.
* It feels as if too much happens at once, and at the same time, nothing at all. Scenes that could have told us something about Cake and Kla felt rushed, while other scenes seem to have no purpose at all.
* The acting is miserable. There were two or three small instance where it was good, but overall -- have these people taken acting classes at all?
* If you're doing a drama with high school flashbacks that are more than a minute long, you should choose actors who can pass as a teenager.
* I don't usually mind Thai sound effects, but there were at least two scenes when the sound effects did not match the tone of the scene at all.
* Also, in a scene with Game and Boon doing a live stream, there was an obvious cut while they were sitting in front of the camera. These kind of scenes should only be shot as one long take, or, if you can't avoid cutting for whatever reason, show something else for a bit.
* Game wears glasses without lenses.
* I couldn't build a connection to Cake and Kla at all. Who are they? Why should I care about them? It's a bit better for Kla, but Cake is completely bland -- they obviously tried to make this character fit into the "bottom"-mold with cutesy behaviour but forgot to tell us about his personality.
If it had been only two or three of these problems, then I might have continued or, at least, not give na rating. But all of these combined make for a poor drama.
I did like the setting before and during the Covid epidemic (gave a point for that), and a lot of details reminded me of that time -- but there are also questionable choices, for example, why did Kla meet with the client in person? Shouldn't have that been a video call?
We also don't get a good time line here. I thought that we were still at the beginning of the pandemic, but then Kla did a home test -- those were only available after months and months of the epidemic (at least in my part of the world).
After the first episode, I already have enough of this drama. For those who like it, enjoy!
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Might be better for viewers during a second watch
tl;dr: A simple story told in very subtle ways, with excellent acting and interesting camera work.The first episodes make this series seem like a more depressing version of "BL Drama no Shuen ni Narimashita" but it is not -- the dynamics and the background stories are very much different.
It's a slow-burn romance and does have the often used tropes of non-communication, self-deprecation and mutual pining -- so if you're not a fan of these tropes, you might want to give this one a miss.
The narrative choice to tell only Shirasaki's point of view first and to show Hayami's story then only later, in episodes 7 and 8, is something we've seen in other J-BLs (Mr. Unlucky, Senpai This Can't Be Love or the newer Living with him come to mind). Usually, it works fine. In this case though, I think it was not a good choice.
When we meet Shirasaki first, he is at his lowest, full of self-deprecation -- he is not at all a reliable narrator. Hayami, on the other hand, is quite unreadable -- not because the actor is bad at his job but because this is part of the character (Hayami's friend tells him exactly that in episode 7). So, for the first six episodes, we only get one (skewed) side of the story.
Because of real life issues, I had to take a break in episode 8 -- and after that I restarted the whole series. With the knowledge of Hayami's backstory, I was able to see things differently -- and what seemed depressing and a bit flat the first time, was actually just very subtle acting by both main actors.
Regarding the acting, the main actors are, in my opinion, excellent. Minuscule movements and facial expressions show the inner life if a viewer cares to look closely. Quite a few scenes have been taken in one single shot -- which shows the how good the actors really are.
Speaking of shooting the drama: I was intrigued by some camera angles -- we look through windows and through cameras, sometimes we are in vey tight spaces, feelinga bit claustrophobic -- and then some sces are wide-angle shots, and everything is only seen from a distance. Use of hand-held cameras in some scenes show the instability of the actor's emotions. Even just finding out how these choices relate to the character's emotions would make a rewatch interesting.
While I don't like the opening song, I do love the background music -- the piece itself was lovely, melancholic but strangely uplifting at the same time. Silence also played a big part in enhancing the scenes.
Overall, I think this series is not one to watch and forget immediately, rather it is to be savoured, and deserves a close look at its details.
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Third time's the charm? Not here.
They say "third time's the charm" in English, so I watched it up to the third episode. I won't watch any more.This is now almost to the one-third mark, and I still have made no emotional connection to any of the characters whatsoever (maybe the hat guy, but that's just because I like hats).
The script is formulaic -- there's the secret crush from highschool, the womanizing tsundere alpha-male-type "top", the spurned ex-girlfriend, the comedic sidekicks, the engineering setting, the sick family member and subsequent money troubles etc.
The acting is bland and uneven -- it's probably mainly the script, but also I think directing choices.
The sets show the low budget, especially in the university spaces.
The GL couple also feels as if someone said: "Oh, GL is all the rage now, let's put that in." and nobody gave even the smallest thought on how a girls couple could work. All their interactions are so ... bizarre.
The roles for the main actors feels like they tried to squeeze into ill-fitting jackets -- especially for Konprot, who they tried to make into a typical "bottom"-type of character with his gentle demeanor, soft voice and the haircut. Thing is, he shouldn't have to: "Manly" men can also have secret crushes, and just because one is the "alpha-male" type, doesn't mean the other cannot be. (That's not to say that bulky and tall men can't be soft-spoken or gentle or shy or whatever, it's just so obvious that the people responsible here thought there should be a stereotypical "bottom").
I wonder what happened here. Did they not find other actors for the script? Did they not find another script for the actors? Or was it initially planned as a parody, and that information got lost somewhere?
Because this series could have been a great parody of the Thai college BLs of past years. Everything is already so over-the-top stereotypical. Then you get a cast that is actually not at all suited for the roles -- which could be played as a strength in a parody. If the director and the actors would have been just a bit more daring to really get into the absurd side of things, I would have had a great time.
As it is, this series is one I won't finish.
Edit: Please note how I did not say a word about subtitles -- even if those were better, the drama's problems would stay the same.
Edit 2: I watched episode 8 with half an ear. "I like women. I like Konprot now." The writer *actually* did a Gay For You and wasn't even ashamed to let Pluem say it out loud?! Unbelievable...
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