You getting all the exercise you need by jumping to conclusions lol? WOW at he must have a communicable disease.…
I didn't know this word existed. Thank you!
When he/she said HIV/AIDS was something to be embarrassed about, I nearly lost my marbles. But this word empowers me to ignore this person with dignity and decorum.
Yeah I learned my lesson after Advanced Bravely. Ion fucc with Chinese BL, the only exception being Stay With…
Indeed. I do think people in the West -- and I now count myself among them -- are used to debating censorship and freedom, expression and repression, in starkly polar terms, but, in my view, this excludes a lot of nuance. For instance, some of the most exciting poetry and novels in the world are being written at the moment in China, and many of them seek to criticise the government and make fun of it -- but to do so, they have to resort to very creative codes in order to avoid censorship and imprisonment. Ironically, this can sometimes make the books more exciting than they otherwise might have been. (Alas, this is hard to do on television.)
I will tell you what though. Etoks would probably murder me for saying this, but I find Korea a lot more objectionable in this regard than China, because no one is officially censoring them, or threatening them with imprisonment, but man do they shy away from depictions of gay intimacy. It's changing now, thank god, but it was not long ago that every other KBL with an idol and a fish-eye non-kiss would drive me insane with anger. I still have some of that anger left to spare. 😂
Holy shit, this is so bad it's good. Yes, that kind of show.Thank goodness I had read through comments below and…
Alright, hear me out. I quite enjoyed this. Well, half of it. Well, maybe a third of it.
There was a period when chaste, homophobic KBLs were getting on my last nerve, and I decided I won't watch any BLs without at least some tongue-lashing, and I stumbled upon this. With generous skipping, I thought of it as a Thai Pinku Eiga. It made it a lot more fun.
Was I amused to see a virgin twin(k) ride a hot dude like an acrobatic rodeo two minutes after his first kiss? Yes.
Was I amused to see the other twin(k) be buggered by that other hot dude (my fave) on the kitchen table... twice? Even more so, yes.
Did I hate that horrible loincloth around one of the twinks during the stairway twoway? Absolutely.
But was I left quite happy at the end of it all -- something a lot of supposedly "good" BLs still have on their to-do list? You better believe it.
I just finished this yesterday and there wasn't anything sexual between the twins.
Well. Said.
Also, for what it's worth, I hate it when people here (and elsewhere) weaponise SA as a justification for sexual moralism and prudishness. As if SA makes healing impossible, and prevents victims from later having a healthy, fulfilling, sex life, replete with kinks and devoid of apologies. Guess what? I am living proof that it *is* possible!
But..., they aren't trans women? They are just guys who like other guys. Like, bro, is that hard to imagine?
Oh, my comment about being British was very tongue-in-cheek. But I am very, very sorry to hear about what happened to you. I know this is the easiest thing to say, and might not mean much, but I have had some experience with SA too, so I can only offer what this medium allows me to offer, which is sympathy.
On adaptations: well, if the writers expect the audience to already know the manga, then they are not doing their job. A TV show/movie must be self-contained. If people who make period dramas from Austen expected their readers to have read her book already, then Pride and Prejudice would not be as popular!
You are incredibly kind! And as a British person who gets mortified whenever anyone says anything nice about him in public, I'm glad you put it under spoiler! 😂
If you're going to confer the name Easter to a character, you should at least have the good sense to name his love interest Sunday. I'll also accept Christmas.
If you're going to name one of the characters Typhoon, it is only fair for his love interest to be called Super. I'll also allow Monsoon, Cyclone or Hurricane.
If you're going to call one of the characters North... well, the possibilities for his love interest are endless: Pole, Star, East, West, South. But might I suggest Earn?
1. Do you have a link to where a S2 is confirmed? I read an interview with the director, who said there's no funding…
Thanks for your message! I won't address your comments about the show, because I'm completely over it. I can't look at the poster without getting angry. But, I'll address two specific points in your comment.
1. MDL seems to be sponsored by a very conservative group, and has a blanket policy on not promoting any LGBT content anywhere prominent on the site. I have written about this at length elsewhere, but the site, as of now, is institutionally homophobic and transphobic. You can find the general e-mail address and the usernames for the admins on the About/FAQ page, and write to them, but none of us have gotten a reply. However, it is also true that most (but not all) people who love BL simply don't care enough to pressure MDL into changing this policy.
2. On your point about BL/LGBT not being a separate genre. I would agree with it, IF we already had equality, equal marriage, and strong anti-discrimination laws around the world. In most parts of the world, including many states in the US, we don't have that. So, we need to be visible, and conspicuously so, in order not to be ignored, and in order for our voices to be heard. LGBT erasure is a grave thing and MDL is actively contributing to it. So, the existence of LGBT as a genre is a political necessity, just as Black/Latino/Asian voices need to be heard in the US and Europe, where they are marginalised. If we want to call out racism, we cannot do so without the existence of a distinct set of racial identities -- which, alas, white people have historically created for us. Same with LGBT rights. I wish it weren't so, and it is far from perfect. But we have to start somewhere.
I recognise your wonderful desire for a world in which love is love, and where we don't need LGBT as a genre to celebrate that love -- but that is an aspiration rather than a reality. Otherwise, our existence risks being ignored, forgotten, or even suppressed. That's my view of things.
But..., they aren't trans women? They are just guys who like other guys. Like, bro, is that hard to imagine?
Are you perchance British? I am, and my pasttime is to apologise things when I haven't done anything wrong, or even done the right thing. It is a national characteristic, as in Japan.
Also, the assumption that we need to know anything in the manga is a silly one. Why adapt a series in the first place, if it just reproduces the manga frame by frame, you know? "But that's how it is in the manga" is not a satisfactory explanation for anything. They are two different media, and there is no law against infidelity.
To be fair, your reviews are more proper reviews than mine! I doubt mine help people. I mostly write to amuse others, which, given the seriousness of the website, might be a good thing -- but, as someone pointed out the other day, that's not what people want from reviews.
That said, I'm glad to be able to make you laugh. People should not take serious things seriously, and ridiculous things ridiculously.
The first 6 episodes were, for all their flaws, exceptional. I now pretend that episode 7 doesn't exist, and only the quiet, moving parts of episode 8 exist. That way, I can cushion my disappointments.
I've just been reading some of your reviews. I think our tastes align quite well. :)
I'm just reading through some of your reviews, and it seems we have similar tastes.
I started watching this, because the moralists of Reddit wouldn't stop going on about how "toxic" Ming was. So much so that, I could only hope that Ming was as at least half as bad as they claimed he was. Meh. At least he was responsible for Joe's death. So, one point for toxicity. And then, they had to go redeem him, in the most unconvincing way possible. He was ready to go to rags from riches in order to reclaim the love of the man whom he (indirectly) killed, whose soul was lodged in a man far less attractive, and whose new appearance must remind him of his crimes and his guilt every single day. Yet, we see none of this. How neat, and convenient, that it was Joe's back all along, which means he had always been in love with a two-dimensional poster, not a person... Joe, whose passivity throughout the show was maddening, should feel very flattered indeed!
There was the potential for a beautifully destructive love-story there in the first half of the show, but they squandered it all in the second.
In any event, whoever styled Up in the show should be fired. If Ming is a fashion model, then I should be on the cover of Vogue.
I watched it last month after succumbing to the hype, just like you. And I don't get it. This is another Taiwanese BL by the numbers, only filtered through a sepia tint (borrowed from JBLs), and with the prettiest possible actors. It had it all: stepbrothers, an uke who cannot put on a seatbelt, towelling a wet body while the hair remains perfectly combed, a river outing, forced separation, trip abroad, a built-up love scene ruined by editing & a loud soundtrack -- and then, of course, the mafiosi who are really bad at their jobs. I kid you not, I had a checklist going, as I did for The Only One.
The worst thing is, people aren't upset by how unoriginal the story is, or how annoyingly it is told. Instead, people clutch their pearls at non-existent "toxicities" like incest and grooming. Sigh. Chacun à son goût, I suppose.
10 
4 
3 
1 
When he/she said HIV/AIDS was something to be embarrassed about, I nearly lost my marbles. But this word empowers me to ignore this person with dignity and decorum.
I will tell you what though. Etoks would probably murder me for saying this, but I find Korea a lot more objectionable in this regard than China, because no one is officially censoring them, or threatening them with imprisonment, but man do they shy away from depictions of gay intimacy. It's changing now, thank god, but it was not long ago that every other KBL with an idol and a fish-eye non-kiss would drive me insane with anger. I still have some of that anger left to spare. 😂
https://kisskh.at/profile/sasameyuki1950/reviews/394604
There was a period when chaste, homophobic KBLs were getting on my last nerve, and I decided I won't watch any BLs without at least some tongue-lashing, and I stumbled upon this. With generous skipping, I thought of it as a Thai Pinku Eiga. It made it a lot more fun.
Was I amused to see a virgin twin(k) ride a hot dude like an acrobatic rodeo two minutes after his first kiss? Yes.
Was I amused to see the other twin(k) be buggered by that other hot dude (my fave) on the kitchen table... twice? Even more so, yes.
Did I hate that horrible loincloth around one of the twinks during the stairway twoway? Absolutely.
But was I left quite happy at the end of it all -- something a lot of supposedly "good" BLs still have on their to-do list? You better believe it.
Also, for what it's worth, I hate it when people here (and elsewhere) weaponise SA as a justification for sexual moralism and prudishness. As if SA makes healing impossible, and prevents victims from later having a healthy, fulfilling, sex life, replete with kinks and devoid of apologies. Guess what? I am living proof that it *is* possible!
On adaptations: well, if the writers expect the audience to already know the manga, then they are not doing their job. A TV show/movie must be self-contained. If people who make period dramas from Austen expected their readers to have read her book already, then Pride and Prejudice would not be as popular!
Sending you virtual hugs. 🫂
I'll thank you properly in a private message.
If you're going to name one of the characters Typhoon, it is only fair for his love interest to be called Super. I'll also allow Monsoon, Cyclone or Hurricane.
If you're going to call one of the characters North... well, the possibilities for his love interest are endless: Pole, Star, East, West, South. But might I suggest Earn?
1. MDL seems to be sponsored by a very conservative group, and has a blanket policy on not promoting any LGBT content anywhere prominent on the site. I have written about this at length elsewhere, but the site, as of now, is institutionally homophobic and transphobic. You can find the general e-mail address and the usernames for the admins on the About/FAQ page, and write to them, but none of us have gotten a reply. However, it is also true that most (but not all) people who love BL simply don't care enough to pressure MDL into changing this policy.
2. On your point about BL/LGBT not being a separate genre. I would agree with it, IF we already had equality, equal marriage, and strong anti-discrimination laws around the world. In most parts of the world, including many states in the US, we don't have that. So, we need to be visible, and conspicuously so, in order not to be ignored, and in order for our voices to be heard. LGBT erasure is a grave thing and MDL is actively contributing to it. So, the existence of LGBT as a genre is a political necessity, just as Black/Latino/Asian voices need to be heard in the US and Europe, where they are marginalised. If we want to call out racism, we cannot do so without the existence of a distinct set of racial identities -- which, alas, white people have historically created for us. Same with LGBT rights. I wish it weren't so, and it is far from perfect. But we have to start somewhere.
I recognise your wonderful desire for a world in which love is love, and where we don't need LGBT as a genre to celebrate that love -- but that is an aspiration rather than a reality. Otherwise, our existence risks being ignored, forgotten, or even suppressed. That's my view of things.
Also, the assumption that we need to know anything in the manga is a silly one. Why adapt a series in the first place, if it just reproduces the manga frame by frame, you know? "But that's how it is in the manga" is not a satisfactory explanation for anything. They are two different media, and there is no law against infidelity.
That said, I'm glad to be able to make you laugh. People should not take serious things seriously, and ridiculous things ridiculously.
I've just been reading some of your reviews. I think our tastes align quite well. :)
I started watching this, because the moralists of Reddit wouldn't stop going on about how "toxic" Ming was. So much so that, I could only hope that Ming was as at least half as bad as they claimed he was. Meh. At least he was responsible for Joe's death. So, one point for toxicity. And then, they had to go redeem him, in the most unconvincing way possible. He was ready to go to rags from riches in order to reclaim the love of the man whom he (indirectly) killed, whose soul was lodged in a man far less attractive, and whose new appearance must remind him of his crimes and his guilt every single day. Yet, we see none of this. How neat, and convenient, that it was Joe's back all along, which means he had always been in love with a two-dimensional poster, not a person... Joe, whose passivity throughout the show was maddening, should feel very flattered indeed!
There was the potential for a beautifully destructive love-story there in the first half of the show, but they squandered it all in the second.
In any event, whoever styled Up in the show should be fired. If Ming is a fashion model, then I should be on the cover of Vogue.
The worst thing is, people aren't upset by how unoriginal the story is, or how annoyingly it is told. Instead, people clutch their pearls at non-existent "toxicities" like incest and grooming. Sigh. Chacun à son goût, I suppose.