solipsism5

One of the worst tropes in BL's is the screeching ladyboys. I feel they have been transformed in this series into revolutionaries - the most buffoonish characters were transformed into the most serious ones. I've been tired of seeing femmy gay characters treated so demeaningly in other BL's and even if it feels a little odd having them play this totally different role here, it is worth it. Thank you GMMTV for finally doing something to alleviate this stereotype. And overall there is a very positive LGBTQ vibe in this show, including the depiction of the diversity cafe.

Huh? I'm not a child. If you read what I just wrote, I'm conceding a lot of what I had said previously, and I said it is quite possible that they could be justified in breaking up. I'm done discussing this. Have a nice day.

This is a really engaging BL. I'm really fascinated at the complexity of the various characters. Ayan has to be the most interesting because he is so vulnerable while possessing granitic strength. I thought the one scene where he was crying while First is holding him was just a ruse, but he continues to cry after First has left. He's really going through incredible pain while fighting everyone in the school. It has to be a super difficult trial to be singled out by all the teachers. The cruelty of the principal to force all those teachers to go after him was truly evil - it just reminds you of an analogy of dictators using any means to achieve their ends. Other people would be driven to suicide, or would go into a deep depression being harassed like that by adults who are supposed to act as the guardians of the students, not as the bullies themselves. I know we see action films where one man takes on an army of opponents, but this is more of a realistic scenario, and you have to feel the immense weight of what Ayan has to go through. How he even has the energy to help his friend Thua with his own bullying issue is surprising, but you feel Ayan is capable of it - it's just the great acting of Khaotung that is able to capture this fierce, yet sensitive character that is just wonderful. What is also great is First's acting which captures the quandary he has siding with Ayan while fighting for the school, but I think Ayan is really winning him over in this episode. Akk sees how incredibly unfair the prinicpal's plan is, and how Ayan deserves all his sympathy. As Ayan says, he needs to show them what these people are really like, and that certainly includes Akk. I feel Akk's investigations of Ayan have almost become a form of stalking with him trying to find out the motivations of his lover, rather than discovering any secret plots Ayan is involved in. When he does go after Ayan, it is only to discover things like he is acting as a true friend to Thua, or he is remembering his lost mentor, and it must occur to him he is uncovering only good things about Ayan, so why keep following him? I think his mixed motivations in looking after Ayan is done well in the screenplay, and just reveals a thoughtfulness in this series that is way beyond the norm for BL's.

The character of Thua was also done well this episode. I might have seen a hundred types of stories about bullying of gay kids, but Louis captures this with finesse. He plays the vulnerable, reticent kid that is the victim of bullies perfectly. I think you can really feel Thua's quiet sadness, and his defensiveness with Louis' subtle portrayal. It's a character that is totally different from the one he played in Fish Upon the Sky, and does show some good range.

Overall, this series continues to be great in all ways - it's suspenseful, dramatic, unique, serious, complex, and constantly entertaining. Hopefully it can sustain this great momentum.

I guess it's good to know they're on good terms. I don't really follow it that closely, but it does seem that Chang Min didn't make much of an effort to keep the relationship going. Any relationship I've had lasted for many months to years, so I guess I'm not familiar with such casual relationships. I think relationships are important and shouldn't be handled so lightly. But it is quite possible that they saw the relationship would never work and ended it quickly before any damage could have been done to their friendship, if that is what it is.

I love Wuthering Heights! It's absolutely stunning, and so much more gripping than most any other Victorian novel. It's so much more gothic than any other novel from back then. I love Jane Eyre as well. Middlemarch is also one of my all time favorites. I seem to like the female Victorians quite a bit. But I really love the adaptation of Trollope's The Way We Live Now on BBC if you've ever seen it. I also love the adaptation of Bleak House from them as well. I wish someone would do a passable version of Vanity Fair, because it would be just spectacular if it was done right. Kubrick's version of Barry Lyndon is just the most exceptional adaptation of any Victorian novel for me personally.

I know Tim very well - I knew him under several other monikers other than Snowregret on MDL, and he's just a wonderful writer, and probably a great actor as well. I will definitely have to check out Double Mints and Dangerous Drugs of Sex. Have you ever seen Aphetamine from the Hong Kong director Scud? That has a pretty dark sensibility. I'll send you others by message. If you could return the favor I would appreciate it.

I am a Japanophile as well. I hope to get a place there someday. They are wonderfully weird, as you say, and usually obsessive with details which I really love. I just am very fond of Sushi and ramen as well, and the number of Michelin star restaurants in Tokyo is really vast. Well I hope this wasn't too long. Are you currently writing a novel, or short story? Just curious. I really do like your writing style :)

I would kill to have someone as beautiful inside and out as Jeong Hyun. To just let him go like yesterday’s trash is beyond me. Chang Min has no idea how lucky he was, and he’s really unworthy of such luck.

Huh, I wouldn’t tend to agree. Although, occasionally MDL commenters dogpile bad reviews on a good drama, they usually get it right. Even I’ve been criticizing this drama though I really love it. I think the comments on this show are pretty split because it is actually one of the rare dramas that has good and bad moments. Most BL’s are really good or bad all the way through.

Sorry, was at work. Thank you for the long reply. I’m actually a man from an Asian background. I was once an English major, lol, and have always loved Victorian novels, especially Jane Austen. I love a lot of the Russians as well. I actually write science fiction - I’m finishing a novel in the next couple of months. Strangely, I’ve been writing BL screenplays, hoping to get one done some day. ‘I’m obsessed with Japanese culture so these BL’s are always my favorites. Eating at a sushi restaurant right now writing this. The Japanese don’t have much physical affection even in their straight dramas so I’m thinking you’re right concerning the ending.

I find the attraction of the graphic novels is the beautifully stylized drawings of men, but it’s also due to the marketing to the massive manga/anime crowd. I like anime myself so they do appeal to me. I keep thinking of the great anime Akira when I see Minato , lol.

I actually run a mental health business and a pharmaceutical business as well. If you are ever looking for a travel companion to Japan or Korea, let me know, lol. I’m going next year with a friend of mine.

Again, I love reading your comments whenever I see you on here. You seem very witty and natural. I must admit I’m very stiff on here. I’m just not good at writing in a more personal way. Hope to see you around and feel free to message me anytime.

Yes, if you love someone you wouldn’t be so casual about it

I wonder what the writers of the manga did. I looked up how well the manga was doing and it's ranked in the 500's this week, which is up from being in the thousands from before, so it doesn't seem that popular. It's a typical practice to give screenwriters your notes on how your book will end so they have some idea where this should go, and given that the Japanese want to keep to the script, as you say, they might request it. I'm guessing the manga writers also sold their rights to the production company because they really aren't making that much money on the manga, and need to make some side income.

BTW I loved your review of To My Star, my favorite along with one by Freshkicks. I still have PTSD from that awful series. I hope your writing is going well, and really enjoy reading your comments. Sorry, it took me a while to get to your comment - I think it appeared at like 2 AM in EST [I'm from Ohio].

If you're interested in someone you make time for them. I think this excuse of Chang Min is just that. Ok, you might be busy with your career, but life is always about the balance between work, family and friends. Some people over do the work part and they end up lonely, unhappy people. Chang Min is maybe still too young to realize that people are actually more important than work, and, in fact, they are the reason you work. Sometimes you delude yourself into thinking I'll do this down the road, but you really have to make it a top priority. I know you have to spend at least 8-10 hrs. a day at work, but let's put the rest of the time to good use. Take some time out, make less money, and make some special time with your friends and loved ones. I know this sounds like obvious stuff but so many people never really learn this.

I loved this episode. It redeems a lot of the past, and I finally exhaled after waiting breathlessly for 100 episodes for Minato to get those freaking words out to Sakuma. It reminds me of a technique in music where you never resolve a chord to keep the listener constantly tantalized, and it did work here. I was thinking that what was so refreshing in this episode was that Minato fell in love with someone who was the only person that was kind to him when he was growing up, and his passion for Sakuma was completely unrelated to how cool or sexy he was. I think the way they did this in this screenplay was actually done well because it brings home the fact that we constantly judged Sakuma based on his looks, and sex-appeal (mostly the lack thereof), but it seems that the important point was that Sakuma, who did not have any attraction to Minato, did not judge or condemn him for a kiss that was really inappropriate. He really is a great teacher who loves his students like his children, and is like the parent that shows nothing but love to his kids. Just that look on his face while he lets Shin vent was just so generous and compassionate - I really fell in love with this character at that point. Minato fell in love with Sakuma because all he saw was an understanding, sympathetic, and totally open person who gave him the only love he ever had, even if he misunderstood what kind of love that was.

The turmoil Minato felt growing up alone was just so strongly brought out by Kusakawa's acting, and I felt the pain acutely because I grew up in a similar way, and thinking how he would just go on to work in a horrible sweatshop to compound his torture, made me feel the last scenes in this show very strongly. As always, Shin shows up to comfort him, and I think I finally feel Minato has opened up enough to accept his consolation. Earlier in the episode Minato reveals how he has accepted Shin as being inseparable from him no matter where he is, in another beautiful scene where every expression of his points to how poignant it is for him to be away from Shin as he studies in Tokyo. This was an episode where the beautiful acting of the leads was supported by the dialogue and direction, and was one of the most glowing segments of any BL I've ever seen.

Thank you! As a lover of science fiction, this has to be the worst science fiction adaptation I've ever seen in my life. As a BL it's not even up there with Star in My Mind, probably because the science fiction part distracts the screenwriters too much. I fell into the trap door of Vice Versa because it seemed to have so much promise. I might just FF through the rest to see if anything is done with the portkey, but it's more idle curiosity than any real interest in this series.

Dear Producers, Directors, Screenwriters et al. at GMMTV,

As one of your typical BL viewers I must say I feel a little insulted. I was expecting a science fiction drama, but the science fiction just feels like window dressing. It’s sad that Jittirain spent so much time researching the fifth dimension, the multi-verse, port holes, etc. with a team of physicists from MIT and Cambridge, just to have it thrown out the window. I feel like there was some meeting with the screenwriters after episode 2 and the general consensus was this port key thing was just too annoying to keep going on about, and someone reached for the random trope bag to finish the rest of the screenplay.

Also, I want to know what magical superpowers this universe conveyed on Tuen to become the lead screenwriter in his group. Wasn’t he an actor, or something? I know you guys think anyone can write a screenplay judging by how 90% of GMMTV screenplays turn out, but it really does require something other than just a knowledge of words. Getting back to acting, I have to savor the irony that Jimmy is playing an actor. I’m afraid that even though I am super impressed by his biceps, abs, etc., his acting makes him feel rather reptilian. If I was doing this, and considering that this is a science fiction drama, I would have cast him as a robot struggling to muster a single emotion after months of ceaseless work. I think everyone would have been sympathetic to his character if that was the case, but as a human, he is sadly disappointing.

Considering world construction in a science fiction work, can we at least try to not just make up random rules for how this universe works? I mean snowfall in a place where there is obviously lush tropical greenery in the background makes little sense. I don’t know why all the other stupid variations in this universe occur either. Obviously no one really thought about them, and they were generated by some random algorithm - just like the plot.

Why do these guys wait a year doing virtually nothing? They don’t even fret about their family or friends. It’s like someone forgot to pass around the post-it note that told everyone this BL was not set in a university, but in another universe. No, you can’t just get straight to the fluff. You have to explain this. There has to be at least a few milliseconds of angst here, for the painful loss of all things familiar to them. Can we agree on that? One other thing we can agree on, no sentient organisms in any universe would tolerate that many commercials in their dramas. Please make it stop GMMTV!

While waiting patiently for this drama to move forward, I just wanted to comment on the manga vs. the series, because someone said that they were very similar. I don't think they're that similar at all. The manga is very light and hardly has any angst in it. The relationship is all fluff with just a few hints of underlying turmoil. There is no girlfriend from Minato's old job, and that job is hardly mentioned at all. Akusa is straight and is usually surrounded by a bevy of adoring girls that treat him like he's a member of a JPOP band. I don't think the character of Shu-shen even exists. The manga took me a little over an hour to read so it's very brief which explains why this drama feels so stretched. It's also not finished and ends at a visit to an amusement park, but I don't know if it will even be related to the ending here. Now there are some similar plots, like the Sakuma story, and Minato's first rejection of Shin at the pool, but the mood is always so light that you don't feel anything - a perpetual cuteness pervades everything. I think the characters have much more complexity and depth in the series, but the lack of any extensive plot in the manga should have led the screenwriters to work on some new plot lines, but they just ended up using a lot of filler instead of creating anything substantial that could have extended the story in a way that would have gone beyond the manga.

I like history in general and most anything about SE Asia either relates to the Khmer empire in the medieval era or the Vietnam war in the present. Since watching a lot of BL's I have to admit I started reading a lot more about Thai history, and it's always rather interesting. I find the history of the modern era totally confusing with all the different coup attempts. It's nearly impossible to say who is in power because there are all these business dynasties, and military leaders constantly seeking to dominate the political landscape, and the royal family is always involved to some degree. If someone could untangle all that they would have to be one of the best historical writers of the century.

Thank you so much!! That was quite a big list to get started. Hope you are enjoying vice versa- I think it needs a little work, but it might become better in the next few episodes.

If anyone was interested Field Marshall Plaek described in the history class was the dictator of Thailand from the late 30's who brought Thailand out of absolute monarchy into a constitutional monarchy. He is also the one that changed the name of the country from Siam to its present form Thailand. In the history class, when the students say that he brought about some equality, they are referring to his overthrow of the monarchy, and for the fact that he brought about some democracy. At first he was a fascist in the style of Benito Mussolini, but then set up a limited democracy after WW2 [really a facade of democracy]. The wearing of hats was part of the Thai Cultural Revolution which was initiated by Plaek. It consisted of 12 mandates for behavior which are still followed to this day, including the oft seen singing of the national anthem at various parts of the day. This was all a campaign to promote his ultra-national and progressive agenda, and has some bearing on modern Thai politics. The current dictator has modernised these principals in 2014 and students are required to recite them by rote to this day. They have even been made into a song to help promote them, lol. I found it interesting that Wat is actually taking the dictator's side in this discussion, promoting the idea that he was going against the norm, when in actuality he and the current dictator are for strict adherence to their laws. The history teacher was probably closer to the truth when she laughed at the silly idea of the hats, because it was just a phony attempt at promoting equality. But Ayan was right in saying that if the teacher was mocking the hats, then why should school uniforms that represent the same idea as the hats, be promoted?

I really love this series so far. I'm not much into superstition but let's take the premise of the show for granted and see how it is utilized in the story. If we can love shows with dragons and wizards, we can easily stomach a few supernatural elements in this show. I find the characterizations very complex and fascinating for the mains. The acting is just really the best which is no surprise because First and Khaotung are among the best in GMMTV, or any other studio, for that matter. This show is helped enormously by their nearly perfect execution of every scene. And these characters are hard to get right. First's character has multiple motivations - he's slowly falling in love with Ayan, almost against his will, while fighting him as his main antagonist. He's loyal to the school and is the principal's main enforcer of the schoold's strict etiquette guidelines, but he is also sympathetic to the rights of the students and basic principles of ethics (which also ties him to Ayan). Ayan is motivated by revenge, but also hopes to fulfill the principles of his former mentor, so even as he wants to destroy the school he's in, he wants to make it a much better place. Beyond these motivations he is also falling in love with First, while working against him and the principal (as well as the school board).

So far, the drama revolves around the school and their strict regulations. School uniforms are strictly regulated in Thailand and it is not a silly fight these kids are involved in. It's really a story of revolution, like a metaphor for a coup d'etat in Thai politics, which is being brought up a lot, especially in the history class. There have been 30 coup attempts in Thai politics since after WW 2 [the most of any country in the world], and about a dozen successful ones, so it's like a feature of life here. Even in the present, the current dictator has recently been suspended by the courts, and we'll see how that plays out, but it's similar to what's going on in this school. A coup takes place by questioning the center of power and leading a revolution where people assume that the revolutionaries are already firmly in charge. This is probably Ayan's motivation and he's using the kids to drum up media support for his coup by emphasizing the brutality of the current regime. I think this is played out wonderfully with the protest of the students after they have been attacked by the school. The school regime could be toppled by the bad press involving their handling of the students. What's amazing is Ayan has a will of steel to take on everyone by himself while just using a handful of helpers who are not really sympathetic to his ultimate goals. He is even cocky about it, telling Akk, what's he got to worry about from a small, weak kid like him? Ayan is actually like a lion in sheep's clothing, and he knows it. Khaotung really captures this aspect of Ayan strikingly well, and you can almost feel that this little kid is really up to the task of taking on the whole school by himself as an equal. It's with the power of his ideas and convictions that he will take over, and that is what is done so well, like a parallel of so many revolutionary leaders.

This is what is so interesting so far in this drama, and I'm waiting to see how the supernatural element plays into it. I think the roles of Neo's character and Louis' are also done well. Neo and Louis are also in a parallel situation with Akk and Ayan as they struggle with their school loyalties and their belief in basic ethics and the rights of the students. Their involvement with Akk and Ayan as both their sympathizers and, in the case of Akk, being loyal supporters, is also interesting to watch. The power of Ayan to draw these two out who are Akk's closest friends, to join his cause, is really done well. The acting is, again, really first rate by Neo and Louis.

So far an amazing beginning to what I think will be one of the best series of the year. It's also very serious with very few of the most pernicious tropes. It has a wonderful sense of drama and suspense with a lot of elements of mystery. I'm really looking forward to seeing how this plays out.

The ideas are rather difficult. He's explained this in as simple a manner as possible, but there is hardly any way of simplifying this any more than this. What part don't you understand? Or start with a few simple questions - I can help a little bit.