solipsism5

I know, but this acting is among the worst. I agree Thai BL’s are pretty bad but this series is in that league. I’ve watched dozens of Thai BL’s but I can think of only a tiny few where the acting/directing was this amateurish, especially coming from the big studios like GMMTV. I don’t like their plots but the acting is at least acceptable.

Mame is really helping to direct this thing. It's interesting to watch her: https://youtu.be/DyvYuJy9Exg . She's focusing on the details which is good, like the sunset for a scene had to be orange because that was Sailom's favorite color in the novel. I've never seen her in person before this series. She doesn't seem like that person that loves all that rape and trauma. She looks pretty pleasant and laid back.

This is a big improvement. Let’s cross our fingers that a rapist-ex doesn’t jump out of the shadows, or gangsters kidnap one of the ML’s.

Ok, sure. I think in the last scene, though, he was running after Ren who had just left their workplace. He caught up with him so it wasn’t necessary to get a cab.

I can see splurging for a cab in the previous scenes.

This was worse than a lot of Thai BL’s. The acting was some of the worst of any BL I’ve ever seen. The actors could only handle non-emotional scenes and total fluff. They were totally unsuited for these complex characters.

I thought the acting and directing was terrible - very subpar. The plot holes are everywhere. I’m not sure how this can rise to the level of being good.

Yes, it was probably a mixed reaction. He was angry at Ren, but not completely so. For someone in a prestigious position in an Asian country, it’s hard to give it up becsuse of something their kid did. I’m just saying his reaction was not totally one of abuse. I agree it was terrible and parents should be willing to make hard decisions like giving up a lucrative job for the sake of their children but it is understandable that a normal Japanese parent reacted the way Ren’s father did and that there is room for a small redemption arc for him - though there was none in the manga (perhaps in a future installment).

I didn’t like this at all. It is the worst JBL I’ve ever seen. People don’t use cabs in Tokyo, though. They just are used to walking everywhere because of the multi-use zoning. Cabs are also exorbitant. It’s just how weird and comical their running was that threw me off. I think the acting was some of the worst for any BL - even worse than most Thai productions.

She is just upset that Kozuma doesn't visit her more. I'm just going by the manga. She's a single mom, and she moved back to Japan from the US after divorcing her husband. She never liked that Kozuma hardly ever saw her because she's rather lonely living by herself in Japan. She was not really against their relationship. She's more jealous that Ren gets so much attention from Kozuma who she does, in fact, love like any normal mom.

In the manga the father says that he had to possibly resign from his job as director of the hospital because of what Ren did. The French school he sent him to was very prestigious, and the tuition was exorbitant. I think they were trying to convey the idea that the father felt he had no choice but to do that, and it wasn't because he hated Ren. In hindsight, he might still regret the decision, and it is not impossible for them to have a slight redemption arc - it seems like all they are talking about is some very limited contact.

That was truly awful. What a dismal ending. Even the actor who played Sanada totally fell apart. It was like I was watching the complete devolution of a great series into one that was completely amateurish. That running sequence with Ren and Kozuma has to be one of the most amateurish things I've ever seen in any BL - it was like a skit out of Saturday Night Live. This was truly embarrassing. The screeching Sanada was one of the least menacing villains in history, and Kozuma's wild overacting in that scene where he confronts him was just hysterically bad.

I don't know about the rest of the episode. I was watching it in a daze because nothing could make the stench of the opening scenes go away. I guess it was ok, and if you read the manga it was exactly what happened there. I liked the kissing scenes between Kozuma and Ren while they were sitting on the couch, so I guess it wasn't all horrible, but I can find scenes like that in any BL these days. Except for the lack of wacky sound effects, this was at the level of a Thai drama - it was sloppy and careless and shows little love for its content. I feel like I almost completely wasted my time with this drama.

BTW Kozuma did find Ren completely by accident. He searched the whole world, but he actually didn't find him because of that search. What a weird idea to have him search like that and still find Ren only by chance. Ren also runs into Kozuma's mom pretty much by accident while he's wearing the shirt that his lover gave him the night before. Ren runs into Sanada by accident while he's just trying to clear out his things. This is really a screenplay just full of impossible coincidences. Although the manga is much better, it's the source of this lazy writing. I don't mind coincidences in great works like Vanity Fair, where brilliant writing and wonderful characterization make you forget about these things, but for a movie full of terrible acting and poor directing, it takes you completely out of the story.

That's overthinking it. This is just a kind of farce with a lot of people that are drawn as caricatures.

This is very civilized for Mame. I was waiting for some savage savageness of some kind, but I think something has happened to auntie Mame and she's going for a whole new direction in life. I think the series couldn't be more pleasant, and I'm hoping nothing disturbs this placid, and fluffy drama which even seems to have some hidden depth to it. Perhaps Mame has turned all the melodrama into something more subtle and gentle and far more persuasive - she's eliciting the same depth of sentiment without her usual heavy handedness which shows some considerable growth on her part. I find watching this, the strength of Mame was always her pacing, and her vividly drawn characters. They aren't held back here by the tawdry theatrics of her normal screenplay.

Actually, I finally laughed this episode. I never found any of the humor to be amusing before. Maybe they're hitting their stride. It's really so campy. No one should take this series that seriously and it's just lighthearted fun. No one can seriously believe that Ja could be a grown man the way he acts, but it's totally fine in this sort of comical scenario.

Does anyone know if the manga has progressed any further? It was stuck like somewhere at the end of Season 1 for the longest time, and I still can't find an update.

This has to be the most Victorian drama ever made. Even Queen Victoria would be exasperated. It's so asexual that it is in fact comical but perhaps not in the way the creators of this series intended. I tried to find some reason for Minato to act the way he does, and I'm lost. I can't understand why he's so embarrassed all the time. The Bento Box that his old crush Sakuma sees should not be that embarrassing - Minato kissed Sakuma so a cute Bento box with the words I Love You shouldn't mean anything.

This series carries this miscommunication trope to its ultimate extent - some visionary saw the limitless potential of this trope in this drama. I hate that trope but it's become comical with what I believe is its intentional overuse. Asuka's relationship with the human robot Sakuma is just so wrapped in this miscommunication trope that it envelops every interaction of theirs. When I see Sakuma watch Asuka going on a date, I was wondering can a robot feel jealousy? Can this robot articulate why he feels jealous to his partner? I doubt it, and we are in for some more ridiculous mangled miscommunication madness.

Apart from this drama being so uniquely weird, I actually like revisiting the old neighborhood of Minato's laundromat. I'm almost watching it just for all that because I missed the characters, and some of the characters, like Shin, are worth watching. I'm sure Minato and Sakuma will come around by the end, so I'm going to be patient and watch this to its conclusion.

These are all points several other people have made below. I should include the excessive use of flashbacks, especially using the same ones that were just used in the previous episode. I also don't understand how Yagami was a saint in the past, and is weirdly cynical and cruel in the present. How does Yagami know what Ren likes sexually when he never got anywhere with him due to Ren's panic attacks? There is hardly anything that makes sense in this series at this point. BTW all of Sanada's victims have been women in the past. I know he hates Ren but to sexually assault him when he's not into gay sex is just weird. I guess that is a time honored Hollywood depiction of how gay men are supposed to be punished, but I've always found that to be rather bizarre.

This series has totally crashed this episode. I think Kozuma's running is just so comical - I just have no idea how training someone to run like a normal person could have been so hard. I know some of you are wondering why he doesn't take a cab, but, actually, no one uses cars in Tokyo. You would take the subway if anything. Tokyo is set up really well so everyone can walk to virtually any destination that they need to go to because of the multi-use zoning policies that allow businesses and homes to be in the same district.. People just walk everywhere - part of the reason everyone is so healthy is because they walk ten times more than people in the West. You usually live near where you work so Kozuma shouldn't need a cab - he's just running for dramatic effect, I guess.

I just don't like anything in this episode. What was with that ridiculous punch that Ren gives Yagami - again, how hard is it to choreograph a simple punch to the abdomen? The continued lack of coherence in the plot just lingers on in this episode. Why won't Ren just call Kozuma? It's just insensitive and out of character.

What was with that terrible crying scene with Kozuma and Yagami? That couldn't have been more unemotional if they had tried. Kozuma almost feels disembodied, completely disconnected from his surroundings while a random tear just streams down his face.

Sanada slamming Ren to the ground and just attempting to rape him while Ren crawls away from him like a crab is just comical. Sanada looks like he weighs all of 100 lbs., and his arms look like they would have a hard time lifting a 5 lb dumbbell.

They really emphasized that Kozuma was straight in the Manga, but I think they should have dropped that whole concept in the series - they spent the time to develop the idea in the manga, but the series makes no attempt to do so. They just keep saying that he's straight out of the blue. Nothing that Kozuma does makes him seem straight, and it's just odd when they mention it. Of course we all hate that trope, but it doesn't even feel like it fits here. Kozuma never had a girlfriend, has sex with Ren when he was 14, and only dreams of sleeping with Ren for 10 years afterwards, so what is the point of even bringing up that stupid trope?

I don't know what happened here, but it's a hot mess right now. There's no way they're going to clean this up in the last 20+ minutes. This could have been great but the execution has become terrible.

The manager, Sanada is really much bigger than Ren in the manga. You could see him being easily able to dominate Ren. Since these manga adaptations seem to religiously follow the script in the mangas, Sanada is still trying to do the same things to Ren though he's just a shrimp - they definitely cast the wrong guy for this role.

I love your points, and the manga is definitely much darker than this adaptation. Sanada is literally raping Ren before Kozuma gets to him.

If only this were a movie, and they could have dived deeper into the sexual elements, and the dark psychology of Ren's sadomasochistic side, this could have been much spicier, and impactful. This has just become a hum-drum soap opera with plot elements that are unintelligible.

If you haven't already found it, here you go https://mangatoto.com/chapter/2251827
The story is better constructed in this as well.