Honglou Meng

See my comment below!

Nice to know I'm not alone. Maybe let me know if it gets better in the 10th episode, if you have the time?

Alright, much as I enjoyed the first 8 episodes of this show, for all its flaws, I'm thinking of dropping this now, for the following reasons:

1. There is no earthly justification for the existence of the 9th episode. None whatsoever. The one point of promise was the development of Jiahao's character -- but they botched it up so spectacularly with that whole Jenny-from-the-block plotline that I think the writers must have lost their marbles. (Also, what exactly is going on between Xi, Beiting and Jenny? Are they just friends? A potential throuple? Bisexual aliens? For fucks' sake, we're near the end! Show us!)

2. I'm all for showing high-schoolers schooling, which other BLs seldom do. But what exactly did all those sports-day shenanigans accomplish? (Except for the mooning, which I thoroughly approve of.) When Tiang's dad showed up, I thought, "oh, finally", but then that faded out as quickly and as frustratingly as fireworks put out by a mere drizzle.

3. The further we have gotten into the series, the more bloated it has become, and I came away from the ninth episode convinced that the writers had forgotten to take their Dulcolax. It seems to me, given the slowness of the series so far, that they can't resolve the plot -- certainly not the romance -- in any satisfactory manner in just three episodes. Which leaves me to fear one of two things. Either they are going to pull an "Addicted" on us, and leave us with a cliffhanger -- only for us to find out, months later, that the investors have pulled out and there will be no second season. Or, the ending is going to be so precipitously wrapped up that even if we do get a happy ending, the payoff wouldn't feel justified or earned. Either way, it doesn't inspire confidence.

I don't know if others feel the same way. But I wonder if it's worth the effort to keep going...

Have you seen Burning yet? etoks and I love it, and think it a cut above Parasite.

I discovered Gonin and Teiichi from your list, and loved both. Cure is one of my favourite Japanese films of all time. (Have you seen Pulse, by the same director?) Blue Spring is on my watchlist, but I've promised myself that I'll get through the Ozu films first.

Maggi! I'm so glad you have already raised HOTE to the top! (I just put up a review of it basically saying the same!)

I haven't seen half of this list -- yay, new stuff to check out! -- but I share your love of The Novelist and OFC. (I do think Mood Indigo might be the best of the franchise.) The only thing I didn't care for in the list was Blueming. It wasn't bad -- it just feels so overrated. I was really bored, and couldn't understand the fuss. Until I found the comic, and realised how over-the-top both protagonists were meant to be, and how the humour stems from both deliberately trying to one-up each other. Only, I didn't laugh once in the show... Anyway. Thanks for the list!

I haven't seen any of these, except Burning and Train to Busan. Ooh, lots of stuff to check out!

We might not agree on the "best" list, but my god we agree on the "worst" of the worst. Bad Buddy, We Best Love, To My Star (esp. the sequel), Gaya sa Pelikula (we get it, you have taken a course in queer theory), and above all, A Shoulder to Cry On -- which made me want to quit KBL for good. I was so excited about Kinou Nani Tabeta, because I loved Nishijima Hidetoshi in Drive My Car, but Japan is still in its Ellen era, so, if you're gay, you must be a cantankerous little miser...

Maggi, you and I are long-lost sisters. These three are on my most overrated/worst list, and I couldn't suffer Light on Me.

I think I have seen everything on this list. Etoks, I agree with two-thirds of your list, of which many go into my top 15 or twenty. However, the remaining ten, I think, are wildly overrated. (Don't hate me!) Can you guess what they are?

I'll leave this out here, for anyone who thinks "attention-seeking" is a bad thing:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jul/06/adam-phillips-interview-attention-seeking

Help me out here, Etoks. If Bad Buddy is rated so highly by "the community" (whatever that is) and outside it (again, whatever that is), why is this person so bothered by the one person who doesn't care for it? Shouldn't they just be happy? (Actually, I hate BB too, but then, you and I are supposed to be the same person.) I don't get it. If a show is so popular, and they are on the popular side, doesn't that mean they have won? Why do they then get worked up so much as if they have lost? Even if you were being contrarian, why should it matter, if 99% are on their side?

Seen this way, the comparison with Trump is not so inapt after all. He won, and yet made a fuss about not winning by enough. Hence his obsession with the size of the crowds. He says he *didn't* lose the second time, yet constantly throws temper-tantrums as if he did. So winning doesn't make him any happier than losing, unless he gets absolute love and absolute power.

I suppose they think it speaks to your character if you dislike a show that they like. On the other hand, I think it speaks to their character if they dislike *you* (as a person) for simply not liking a show they like. But then, would such reflections be of any benefit here? I wonder.

Thank you! This is very illuminating, and explains why Haoren's name is such a recurrent theme throughout this show.

Thank you! That makes me happy to hear.

I'm fascinated by the Kanji readings you offer above. Is the reading given by Chihiro wrong in the fourth episode wrong? I thought his "mother" also said "Haoren" than "Haorang", though of course, that might depend on dialect, and being an immigrant in Japan. But the distance is indeed symbolic. The fact that Haoren had never left Shinjuku -- shocking by itself and almost unbelievable -- is also symbolic.

For anyone who wants to read a fuller review of my feelings about the show than is possible here, here it is:

https://kisskh.at/profile/br011185/reviews/390645

Summary: This is an amazing show, possibly the best of the best.

I'm going to put up a preliminary review of it later today, because I need to write about this show in greater length than is decent here -- but I basically agree with everything you say. I haven't been this impressed with a BL (or LGBT series) since Mood Indigo, and if they can keep it up next week, this might surpass it in my esteem.

Lol. I sort of know Tilda through a friend of a friend. She has said it's one of her favourite roles! (And yes, she is a ridiculous person.)

As to the observations on race, class, etc. you might say I've drunk the Kool-Aid. And it's a terrific action film. Exquisitely shot.

Burning is just brilliant. It is based on a Murakami short story -- so I kind of knew what was coming, but the film made it something more profound and disturbing. Every scene, every shot, every line seemed thought through. It made Steven Yeun scary as fuck, and I think was far more subtle in its interrogation of class and wealth in SK than Parasite. But Burning is elusive where Parasite is accessible, and I do see why people love Parasite more. Strangely, I've seen both films twice, but only Burning improved on second viewing...

Are there mutual likes here?

I am in two minds about the Wailing, because the main character is so insufferable, and the whole film is a series of bad decisions made by him. At the same time, I think it has some genuinely interesting things to say about the nature of fear, about xenophobia, and the shadow of Japan in Korea's recent history. I still cannot erase the ending from my mind.

Snowpiercer and Oldboy are masterpieces, in my opinion.