LOL you have a point, but I confess I sometimes sulk, because it's a long standing tradition to create queer story…
I'm with you -- and I can't stand shows like UWMA and ITSAY for that reason -- but I don't think they quite did that here. HIV is not a death sentence, the death is not caused by sexuality, the suicide attempt was due to frustrations in love rather than homophobia, and if the protagonist is unhappy, it is due to his inability to love rather than his sexuality. In its quiet way, I think this show subverts those tropes.
What's holding you back from quitting the genre entirely?
Awww... That's very kind of you to say! You know how to flatter a girl, I mean, a guy.
You see, you bring up another reason why I haven't quit the genre. I love making people laugh, and I love to do that here by writing amusing reviews. I wouldn't suffer through half the shows I do were it not for that divine purpose.
On the other hand, having just gone back to Ozu and Kurosawa recently, and LITBC yesterday, I do see the virtue of taking a break from BL to make a strategic retreat, as you say.
Do me a favour, will you? If you come across a show that's worth a hatchet job, give me a shout. I'll get right on it!
I think you should drop the show, my friend. It clearly does not agree with you! And I'm not sure it'll get any…
It was in jest, which should be clear from how I have phrased the comment. Besides, etoks is not the type to drop something just because I tell him to. He'll watch what he wants, even if the watching in question is just hate-watching.
What's holding you back from quitting the genre entirely?
The chance of encountering something like this. (Or, earlier in the year, HOTE, of which I loved the first 6 episodes.) But I might well take a long break from it, and perhaps now is the right time. Only I'm sure everyone here will miss me tremendously! 😅
I have said a lot about the show below and in my review. But, allow me to add this:
After having seen an endless supply of BLs over the past few months, most of them mediocre, some of them atrocious, and a few that are crimes against humanity, it feels wonderful to come across a show that has reinforced the outlines of your taste, and reminds you of what resonates most with you in a show or a work of fiction. I almost want to hold out on watching more BLs for a while, lest I lose my bearings again, and lose my taste in a broth of bland mediocrity.
The final episode was on the weaker side, I must confess, but the ending was just beautiful and moving. For all its flaws, this is the best BL/LGBT series from Korea that I have seen. It will be, for me, the benchmark against which I'll measure all future output from Korea -- and perhaps Thailand & Taiwan too.
I'll go update my review now, where I'll give more of my thoughts, feelings, and ideas about the show.
P. S. Kudos to the Thai Tourism Board for riding this train to £town!
Alright. Done with Ep. 7. On the more mournful side, but full of quiet treasures, the overarching theme being: we don't always recognise love when we have it, nor understand it when we profess it, nor, most tragically, treasure it until we lose it.
So far, my provisional review stands. Going in for the final now! Wish me luck!
Alright, I've just finished Ep. 6, and have put up a preliminary review. I'm not vain enough to think that anyone's keeping tabs. But here goes:
Ep. 6 was brilliant. Madame Bovary is obviously a huge influence here (as alluded to in the first episode), and the idea that even the most romantic of loves fades away is something most of us in relationships have experienced. But, apart from Madame Bovary, it is rare for fiction to focus on the decay of a relationship than on its bloom. I'm glad this did so. The ending laid perfectly bare the simple truth that an act of pure or apparent selfishness can also sometimes be the most loving -- whether or not Yeong intended it to be so.
I've been posting my thoughts on the show episode by episode, and it has mostly been a rave.
Ep. 5, I think, is on the weaker side. On the whole, it dealt with its central issue quite well. Especially when our hero said: "It is nothing." I wish he had expanded on that, and said why -- but the show is not a PSA, and I would have hated it if it was.
The weakest point here was the new romance. It had a bit of a fairy tale quality (emphasis on the "fairy") to it. But that's not a minus in itself. The problem is, I think, with the characterisation of the bartender. Maybe it's the actor, maybe the script -- but he doesn't quite come alive.
There is also a conversation that needed to happen at the end of the episode, and which I wish had been hinted at in the earlier episodes. It could be/could have been a source of great dramatic tension. We shall see if the following episodes address it.
I'm four episodes in... It is far above any KBL/KLBGT series I have ever seen. (And, save a Japanese series or two, perhaps all BLs.)
Everything feels *real*. Not necessarily realistic, but *real*. Many gay men in the West who grew up in the 90s will be familiar with the scenarios, the sentiments, the conflicts, and the sorrows that this series provokes. We have all had our philosophers and our nerds and our missionaries and our executioners. And we have all fallen hopelessly in love, and have had our hearts ripped out, just because people couldn't be themselves.
I'm all for fantasies and tropes and fairy tales that are the stuff of standard BLs. But this... this is the stuff of real life. And sometimes, that's the hardest thing to write about, or recreate. So, while the writing is not always good, and the series has its flaws, it delights me and moves me immensely.
I can only hope that the last 4 episodes continue in this vein.
10 
4 
3 
1 
You see, you bring up another reason why I haven't quit the genre. I love making people laugh, and I love to do that here by writing amusing reviews. I wouldn't suffer through half the shows I do were it not for that divine purpose.
On the other hand, having just gone back to Ozu and Kurosawa recently, and LITBC yesterday, I do see the virtue of taking a break from BL to make a strategic retreat, as you say.
Do me a favour, will you? If you come across a show that's worth a hatchet job, give me a shout. I'll get right on it!
And I know how to read! Thank you for checking in!
After having seen an endless supply of BLs over the past few months, most of them mediocre, some of them atrocious, and a few that are crimes against humanity, it feels wonderful to come across a show that has reinforced the outlines of your taste, and reminds you of what resonates most with you in a show or a work of fiction. I almost want to hold out on watching more BLs for a while, lest I lose my bearings again, and lose my taste in a broth of bland mediocrity.
https://kisskh.at/profile/sasameyuki1950/reviews/398482
The final episode was on the weaker side, I must confess, but the ending was just beautiful and moving. For all its flaws, this is the best BL/LGBT series from Korea that I have seen. It will be, for me, the benchmark against which I'll measure all future output from Korea -- and perhaps Thailand & Taiwan too.
I'll go update my review now, where I'll give more of my thoughts, feelings, and ideas about the show.
P. S. Kudos to the Thai Tourism Board for riding this train to £town!
So far, my provisional review stands. Going in for the final now! Wish me luck!
Ep. 6 was brilliant. Madame Bovary is obviously a huge influence here (as alluded to in the first episode), and the idea that even the most romantic of loves fades away is something most of us in relationships have experienced. But, apart from Madame Bovary, it is rare for fiction to focus on the decay of a relationship than on its bloom. I'm glad this did so. The ending laid perfectly bare the simple truth that an act of pure or apparent selfishness can also sometimes be the most loving -- whether or not Yeong intended it to be so.
Bracing myself for Eps. 7 & 8.
Ep. 5, I think, is on the weaker side. On the whole, it dealt with its central issue quite well. Especially when our hero said: "It is nothing." I wish he had expanded on that, and said why -- but the show is not a PSA, and I would have hated it if it was.
The weakest point here was the new romance. It had a bit of a fairy tale quality (emphasis on the "fairy") to it. But that's not a minus in itself. The problem is, I think, with the characterisation of the bartender. Maybe it's the actor, maybe the script -- but he doesn't quite come alive.
There is also a conversation that needed to happen at the end of the episode, and which I wish had been hinted at in the earlier episodes. It could be/could have been a source of great dramatic tension. We shall see if the following episodes address it.
Everything feels *real*. Not necessarily realistic, but *real*. Many gay men in the West who grew up in the 90s will be familiar with the scenarios, the sentiments, the conflicts, and the sorrows that this series provokes. We have all had our philosophers and our nerds and our missionaries and our executioners. And we have all fallen hopelessly in love, and have had our hearts ripped out, just because people couldn't be themselves.
I'm all for fantasies and tropes and fairy tales that are the stuff of standard BLs. But this... this is the stuff of real life. And sometimes, that's the hardest thing to write about, or recreate. So, while the writing is not always good, and the series has its flaws, it delights me and moves me immensely.
I can only hope that the last 4 episodes continue in this vein.