It is norrowing to one culprit now unless we have a plot twist. I would not mind. I agree the mystery is engaging.
I dunno,
After episode 7, I thought everyone was still in play, now that episode 8 has ended, I kinda feel O Sung is not the guy. He seems to have more of a Dangerous Liaisons type vibe with his sister. People who are spoiled and powerful that play around with others and pull strings behind doors. I think he did lose his or had his phone stolen and the killer has it. That's why he was so upset about it going missing again. Also, I do think he feels he is being framed and is lashing out because of it, thinking if they can take Soo Heon down then he will be cleared. He has too much against him too early to end up the big bad unless the show switches gears from a who-done-it and changes into a how-do-we-bring-him-down story. Which I really don't want to happen. He is a bad dude, no doubt, who needs some punishment and comeuppance and I am not rooting for him at all. But he has been the obvious suspect since episode 2 and they keep piling it on with him. But who knows maybe they will exonerate him just to switch it back at the last moment and say nope. it really was him...as a 1-2 punch.
His sister though, Ji Hyun, is a side character that causes lots of problems and has lots of access to his stuff, and seems to not like anyone save for Soo Heon. Is she just a nuisance to fill episodes and make a hurtle for our main character, and someone for us to hate, but is truly benign? Or will she evolve to be more by the end....
Jae Beom's character before his head injury is still unknown to us. He comes off nice now, but what was he like before? Even now, his niceness is a front. As he is not truly friends to our main lead. He is hiding that he knows who attacked her and lying to her face, in episode 8 even setting up a meeting that she claimed would be her apologizing to O Sung, all the while knowing that O Sung is the one who knocked her unconscious, used her phone to cause her to become a target, and also posted made-up photos of his own sister in order to get it all done. He also has lured her away from her home in order to search it, for what exactly? Why did he need to go through her house and also not have her be there to do so? Why is he so interested in Soo Heon, and trying so hard to be his buddy? What did O Sung mean when he said "So Soo Heon is the new one" when seeing Jae Boem start to become close to him. Of anyone in the school he is the wealthiest and most powerful, the only person above O Sung. Could some of the past crap (flash backs) that O Sung did been at the behest of Jae Boem for protection? He was on the bench and saw O Sung's phone in his bag. Did he take it. Did a memory cause him to use Won Seok's phone, or did he just find the phone and call the first number in the call log and happen to get our main heroine realizing that it was Won Seok's phone...also while O Sung got a call from his dad?
I dunno. I'm still even iffy about Soo Heon. His brother, Won Seok, and Jae Boem all took falls...there is a pattern. He also knows how to play the system at the school, begin popular and wanted, while being a so-so student, poor, and almost an orphan, things that would normally make him low man on the totem in any other Kdrama. He also hides a lot, tells half truths, and deflects situations and answers. I still feel something there. Also the "pregnant" starlet strikes me as suspect as well.
A cop-out ending would be that its a side character that we haven't spent time with in any meaningful way. I don't want that. Also the barista is borderline cop-out too...because its just easy and keeps any of the main players from having blood on their hands...
I have to say this is plotted well. While there is clearly a list of suspects, the show has done a good job at keeping its hand close to its chest on making a clear culprit. I hope it can keep its steam while also not revealing the who-done-it plot.
Just finished episode 7, and before I dive into 8.....
People bully people so its solved with the bullied being violent and bullying the bullies back.Ultimately, friends…
Thing is I don't hate it. Its fun and has some very strong winning aspects. I gave it a 6.5 which is my most common and average rating. I stayed up all night watching it in 1 sitting. And even in my first comment I highlighted its strong points. But I just didn't give it level 10 and also commented on its shortcomings and everyone seems to dislike me for it.
I did write this to be funny though, cause you can boil it down to this which I do find hilarious. But it is of course too simple a synopsis.
We all have our tastes and opinions so I'm definitely not trying to change yours but this drama is based on a…
As for this being a webtoon means nothing for the drama as I was not watching a webtoon, I was watching this show. For fans of both, compare, contrasting and critiquing between the two is a whole different ballgame and ultimately comes down to if they feel justice was served in the media crossover. Did they stay true to the source material, are the characters how they should be, did it follow the same story etc on and on.
However, as a show it has to be able to stand on its own. As for someone like me, who hasn't ever watched a webtoon and know nothing of the source material, was I able to come into this world and understand, enjoy, and relish what was here? Does it make me want to continue and even better does it make me want to go and watch the source material?
So in saying what I was expected to come into mindset or (as others on here have commented) saying that there is more story to come and much more for the characters to go through and time for them to change, doesn't really matter much. Because that is just another way of saying that this 8 episode series is not strong enough to stand on its own two legs. That it needs help in its storytelling from other sources. And that it was unable to establish its world solidly in what was given to me, a watcher of only the show.
While I will agree there was social commentary on the parents, adults, and law for the bullying, it was mild and just a nudge nudge without true exploration or depth. When the first act of the series finishes it is closed by the involvement of law enforcement and the players getting the police to do their job. The small mafia is taken down, the leader imprisoned and the entire story up to that point closed. This shows that police and law enforcement do offer a recourse and can solve issues.
When parents and teachers are involved in the initial episode and the first beat down at the school, the teachers ultimately remove our bully and allows our main character to come out unscathed. The fact that drugs were involved, the saving grace. While all of this is still far fetched considering he stabbed a student, strangled another, destroyed school property, and then beat his bully to unconsciousness-drugs or not- would garner his expulsion equally. Considering the bully came from wealthy parents something that would likely have further ensured that though their son may have to go, so does the other.
Yet all of this is still somewhat believable in how it played out and though stretches reality is still swallow-able as a viewer. And thus I was hooked, enthralled, and moving on to the next episode. (In fact, I watched this entirely in a single sitting from beginning to end.) Side note: there is a large difference between students being made into gofers, getting swirlies in bathrooms, and being made fun of, compared to out-rite beatdowns, stabbings, bone breaking encounters needing hospitalizations. Sadly, they are both their own types of torture and should be addressed but the difference from law enforcement, adults, and schools between the two is very great and the later is addressed much more head-on than the former in terms of not turning a blinds eye.
As for 1 dimensional characters, Soo Ho is the epitome. We learn nothing at all of what makes him. He is given to us as an instantly likeable, extremely charismatic loner with skill for hand-to-hand combat. (I loved him by the final credits of the first episode). However, that is all we ever get. The actor truly showing his skill in how he delivers such a simple character that is never given anything more to chew on and yet is still likely my favorite.
This is disappointing. Why is he a loner? It seems to just be his decision as he is respected by everyone and is a delight to be around. So why does he decide to not have friends? Why did he give up fighting since he is so strong in it? Why was he drawn or interested in our main lead from the get-go as he is more interested in him than anyone else? Why does he allow the bullies to bully others when he can stop them? How did he lose his parents or why was he raised only by his grandmother? Were his 3 jobs to save money for himself, to live off of currently, or to help his grandmother? If it was to save for his future what were his goals? On and on I can go, because we honestly learn absolutely nothing but base information on him and through out the entire show he is the same character from the moment we meet him to the moment he meets his fate. To the point we meet him sleeping in class that instantly becomes a fight when awoken and then lose him with a fight that puts him in a possible never ending sleep.
Our main character has a bit more to him, but is still a stock creation. An outcast "nerd" who is top of his class and has no friends. He is poor and has absent parents who don't really seem to want him. He focuses solely on school seeming to use education as a route to change his future (though without any goals of that future which is highly realistic for his age.) The only point outside of this simple stock character is that he has an inner rage that boils behind his dead eyes which he unleashes when the only thing going for him (his grades) are threatened.
In the middle of the series he has growth as he creates a "found family" and actually starts to have human connections which soften him. However, this is taken away and his trust is betrayed and by the stories end he is back, to being a lonely individual at another school, friendless with his dead eyes and rage boiling behind them. His character ready to go for round 10 at the drop of a hat. Thus, it ends exactly where it began and his character seeming to learn nothing from the constant circle of violence that just finished, his mighty pen gripped again in his fist. Making him not only born from stock tropes but also a stunted character without growth. Which begs then why did I go through all this with him to begin with? What did I learn from it or take from it? Since he is unchanged and the story is set to simply begin again then I suppose there was nothing for me to extract from the last 8 hours either.
Then our third character, is an incomplete creation. One could argue a foil to our main lead. Except he is neither the exact opposite nor the same. He comes from money and power unlike our lead, but suffers from nonacceptance at being a weakling and adopted, paralleling our main leads parents non-wanting of him to an extent. However he is not simply forgotten about or left to his own devices but is instead watched constantly and beaten ferociously by his father, again unlike or main male lead. He too has travailed the inroads of being bullied, however it is his past, while our main lead is his present. Meaning their lives have played out differently. For as much of little backstory we do get of our main lead non of it so far until now seems to hold abuse or bullying as part of it...making his rage different.
When we meet him, he is wall flower who is saddened by the act that he is forced to be a part and then tries to gain redemption by stopping the surmounting danger posed to our main lead. In doing so he finds a small band of friends to which he seems utterly delighted to be a part. Has he always been friendless, we can infer possibly but the story never lets us know. However at the flip of a switch he switches sides and becomes the ring leader in destroying the very friends that stood at his side.
Why? Well, its for us to guess or have "discussions" over. This is where his character and the overall story just falls apart. From one episode he is putting his life on the line unwilling to let harm come to anyone and picking up lost cell phones and dusting off his friends backpacks. He's thrilled to have his buddies and be part of the "good guys" and then the next episode he has a 10 minute montage where he is not in some Instagram photos and feels like a third wheel between a newly brought on female side character and one of his buddy group, and then he is a rage filled teen who stands tall next to the very bullies that up until now were his enemies.
This is not an example of "leaving stuff on the table" for the audience to digest but a whiplash underdeveloped character arch for the sake of plot. That is, the second half of the series he has to be the bad guy and so it is going to happen, sense be damned. You could argue 1) He may be secretly gay and finding his crush spending time with a girl threatening his intimacy causes him to fly into a rage. (Which also has some strong homophobic connotations). 2) He wanted to be the ring linger and center of attention and seeing that not happening made his friends expendable and what he had done for them moot. 3) This is a cycle, that his previous bullies where actually once his friends that he turned on to which they beat him over and forced him to a new school and his adoptive father is done with dealing with the cycle. 4) He simply has snapped due to just "everything" and is now a raged beast though it doesn't explain why de directs his rage towards his only friends. 5) He just wanted to be popular and thought they would get him there and seeing it not happening decided to join a different gang, but again why such rage for Soo Ho? 6) He is simply a sociopath. 7) He is a megalomaniac who ultimately wasn't getting what he felt he deserved so decided to destroy those that didn't see his greatness. 8) His character is simply supposed to shine a light on how a "good kid" goes "bad." Whatever, the point is that the show simply didn't take the time to develop him or this change in any meaningful way. You can argue all of them or non of them because its simply not there. He was simply a plot device.
Even when the final moment is given between him and our main lead and he is asked "why?" Is answer is he doesn't know. Which may seem deep but is honestly a cop-out. We all secretly know why we do everything even if we won't openly admit it. Unless, we are unhinged. Which he may be. And it is followed with "you should understand." Why? At what point has our main lead shown he didn't understand how to restrain his anger? He has it, he may not understand it, but he knows how to swallow it and releases it only towards those who have wronged him. As and audience member, I also do not know why I should understand, even as someone bullied heavily in my youth, I have never wanted to do the things he did. So make me understand...
This also results in the last 3 episodes being simply 3 revenge plot lines that are nothing but repetitive. First our third lead trying to destroy our enigmatic Soo Ho but instead beating down our main character who becomes hospital bound. Then Soo Ho finding out about the beat down and doing his own revenge for it against all the same people and ending with him in the hospital. To then again our main lead getting revenge for Soo Ho and going super human as his head is bashed into racks of weights (he can shake it off) and beating a highly skilled multi-year fighter because he remembers a 5 minute lesson by the river. He smashes bones, stabs, and knocks people unconscious with fire extinguishers for the sake of what exactly. Will beating these people change anything as they all have been beat-up about 6 times at this point and here still are. And he is again saved (like the drugs from episode 1) by a "deux ex machina" video that ensures no one will touch him. And so he goes to a new school.
Where is the commentary on the weak versus the strong? Conversations on how bullying can be changed and fought against? Where are the themes of good versus evil? All of them were present in the first half of the series. Wasn't this supposed to be the focus of the story. How one becomes a hero for the downtrodden. But instead it is just hours of revenge and the tale of how a group of friends devolves into infighting. In the end did the last 4 episodes have anything at all do do with bullies or just a war between two groups of people?
It could have ended on a note of true discussion as his father says "You did nothing wrong" as he goes into a new school and he turns with his dead eyes and sighs. Fade to black. Did he really not do wrong? Is the fact he remains unpunished and his father says this to him validate all the violence he caused? Or does the sigh and dead eyes show that his father saying that shows how the violence will never end because people aren't held accountable for it? But it doesn't end here and it seems he feels justified as it instead shows him again, being the same person as a new bully emerges. Which seems more to just be a set-up for look season 2, than to say this story actually has anything of importance to say on the topic at hand.
I'll end this very long write up (which I didn't and was not intending to do a whole review) All I did was write what 8-10 sentences on how I felt about the show, simple straight to the point and focused fully on just what I saw and felt. I did not degrade or berate anyone for liking or disliking this. It was just a quick opinion that highlighted what I thought was great about this and what didn't work. It was not a statement towards anyone or their taste. A 6.5 is my most rated score which I explain in my profile. 6.5 = C+,3 1/4-Stars. Just North of Average. At it worst entertaining. (Most Common). Is what you will find.
Ironic that a show about bullying has left me getting constant dings about how I'm a hater, didn't understand it, or how everyone else can see what i just can't. So I read through some reviews and found this one
While she gives it an 8 because she simply enjoyed it she claims its story and characters really make it at best a 7 (i gave 6.5) and she highlights briefly almost everything I also found lacking. And has received 8 likes. So at least, I guess, I am not alone.
And as for expectations, I knew nothing of this or its webtoon nor had I even seen a trailer. It just kept popping up on MDL main page with like 10 star reviews so I hit play. Episode one had me and as I said I stayed up all night. But it ultimately didn't deliver after its strong start.
Could someone tell me what happens in the drama? I've never read the webtoon and from the comments below beom…
People bully people so its solved with the bullied being violent and bullying the bullies back.
Ultimately, friends turn to enemies because of not getting in Instagram photos.
Which sends the story into a spiral of gangland violence where people become immortal and adults, police, or consequences no longer exist, let alone story or character development.
This show makes ZERO sense, and has no credibility at all.
While the acting was fantastic, the style and direction strong, and the action nicely choreographed, the characters are 1 dimensional with only the slightest hints of any type of development. Nothing is explained in any cohesive manner or makes any sense except for basically saying it happened, "just because."
Having people walking around multiple schools Terminator style during mid-day dispatching students in a personal vendetta without any police, security, or adult involvement (Let alone any recourse taken afterwords) is simply preposterous. (And I'm from the US where school shootings happen on the regular.)
The beginning was palpitating, stressful, and taunt, it catches you hard and seems plausible. But by episode 4 the believeability escapes the drama like a deflating balloon and with it all the stakes, urgency, and tension.
By the end it is as brain dead as straight to streaming action movie with little meaning, over-the-top sequences, and violence begetting more violence while solving nothing for any of the characters involved or allowing any character to grow in any way, let alone even attempt at explaining the motivations of half the cast.
A very very lenient 6.5 is the best it gets from me and its basically for the winning acting by our main duo.
Ending Explained:SeungCheon and Ju Hee meet at the beach after leap. 3 years back, when SC left the mansion after…
While there is a good chance this is right, especially since the camera zoomed in on him leaving the mansion with the spoon in his pocket, Didn't the story make plain that the unique "gifts," or skills a person has get shifted as well.
This is why the real TY could still draw and play the piano even once SC. And SC gift was his brain, and business sense. To the point that he did homework for others and impressed even the rich evil dad before making the swap by doing the original TY business reports. Thus, him knowing how to play stocks and teaching it to others as well, would be just the original gift that he had no matter what body or life he possessed?
As for him not contacting anyone, since he was switched yet again with an impoverished nobody, and no-one would be after him with also all the "bad guys" being dead or punished, how would he be protecting anyone by not coming forward?
Instead everyone had to mourn his death. The two that knew who he really was, thinking they had lost him forever, including his life's love. People did suffer because of him, even moreso with them now having to grieve his loss. This is something that he could have saved them from if he knew who he truly was all along.
His mother, from their last interaction, when he was hiding in his families home to how she looked watching the new SC be interviewed over his now famous comic book. To of course, the storyline of the comic itself as well as learning that TY had been paying her rent for her house and store for years...seems to suggest she has an inkling of what happened. The sister then turns to her seeing her mother saddened watching the tv and saying to her, everything worked out of the best anyhow. Which makes the mother perk up and become jovial.
This I find interesting if you interpret the scene and information this way, as she was even more steadfast against the wealthy and their way of life than even SC father had been. Could she really be okay thinking her son was dead as he had chosen wealth and the SC being interviewed was another person, but a good man that loved and cherished her and the family. It is a dark thought but an engrossing one.
To me, IF the original SC went and ate a meal immediately with the spoon and has always known everything, but just left everyone behind, it means he only learned half the lesson. He still focused on himself and let everyone think he was dead as his own punishment not thinking of the pain and suffering it would cause others. He felt he didn't deserve them, which might seem noble, except it is still him thinking of only his place in the world and not how his actions affect others. He seemed to force himself to live a pious and good life (or 3 years) to find wealth the honest way and help others in poverty find wealth as well, thus proving he had changed and become a good person. Yet, this still makes his focus success and money. He isn't as rich, and he is sharing wealth with others, but he still was driven to riches again. Once he proved himself and has decided he has paid his penance and made wealth again, he is now reintroducing himself to the only person he has ever shown to have a true attachment to, his lady love......it is still all about him.
I like to believe he doesn't know who he is. It makes him a better person if he doesn't know.
In the beginning, I felt for his hardships. His life, as portrayed, was quite rough and saddening. However, his personality was still very very off-putting. I found him a lustful greedy person who treated almost everyone with disdain and cared only for himself. Except for the poor friend who didn't last past the first 20 minutes of the show, he honestly didn't seem to see anyone or anything as valuable and only saw the horribleness in his life.
The show has made him lower and lower as it progressed. I really haven't a single good thing to say about the character. While the series has been set-up (Like Scrooge and his Ghosts) to show him how much he honestly had, and how money wasn't everything or even happiness, he seems to not care. He has grown ever more selfish. Thinking that because he manages to get his family a shabby roof and an income that it is enough to wash away his sins. He still values money and power over everything, only Joo Hee seems to have worth. Yet, even this feels it is him just wanting to have it all. Take the 1 thing he liked from his old life and get to have it in his new rich one as well. Only then does he think he will be happy, and prove that he is better than Tae Yong.
The show in episode 14 seems to maybe be launching him on a redemption arc for the last two episodes, but I really could care less about him at this point. He is detestable. There are only 2 outcomes that would make me happy as a viewer and I doubt (As everyone always forgives him for whatever he does which is why he likely became the person he is already) that I will get either.
1) He stays rich, and is forced to live his life surrounded by backstabbing, money hungry, corrupt people. His life a constant consumption that is never fulfilled. Always trying to stay on top and willing to do anything for it, like his rich father. Never knowing love, companionship, true friendship, in a marriage for show and cut-off from all the people that were once good to him, and cared about him, or loved him.
Or 2) Loses everything, like the homeless woman running around screaming for another golden spoon. Destitute with nothing and no one. Having to live in the misery that he burned every bridge anyone gave him and spat on the love people had for him. Now just a man who truly must live a life of nothing.
They both are equal hellscapes at each end of the spectrum and what he truly deserves at this point. But it is a Kdrama, so he will likely be forgiven by everyone for everything and find peace and happiness and live a nice life as he watches sunsets and reflects back on the time he was an awful person. But I hope I am wrong, and I get one of the endings above, it would knock the wind out of me.
Hi, I've just finished Roommates P304 and I've read your pretty accurate and analytic review. I agree with some…
Hey there no apologies needed and it is awesome to get feedback.
I will admit generalizing was a risky move on my part, and when I was writing this I even thought of editing some of the statements. But, at the same time , I thought it an interesting angle for explaining why I was giving the series the score I was, and to my core I feel the statements made have a ring of truth.
Thailand is BL King, and for most is where we have spent the longest part of our BL journeys. And for the past few years, they seemed to be getting better and better. I focused on "KinnPorsche" here because when it aired its original 9 minute trailer (and before are the covid and production woes as well as bankruptcies) "KinnPorsche" was representing a huge shift in type of content and the way BL's in Thailand could possibly move. You had the riveting ITSAY and its sequel and even (Though again not perfect) Lovely Writer bringing to the surface underlying trends in BL as well issues with the genre as a whole while handing us a BL drama. "Manner of Death" which I didn't love like so many others, but at least it was fresh angle of murder mystery medical mayhem. And even when "Not Me" premiered at the end of 2021 heading into this year, it seemed the arguably biggest name in Thai BL GMMTV was also willing to venture into edgier different genres and territories and that was after giving the very soft, beautiful, and romance sweeping "1000 Stars" earlier in the year.
So I'd say I was very excited for 2022 and what it would bring. But was smacked with a virtual about face with the largest watched, highest rated, and greatest quantity of BL's from the country falling back on the same old storytelling, in overly bright, white, soap-opera school, hes so hot and cool I want him, stories. And it bummed me out. While Korea came out swinging (with many a miss amongst those swings) with the largest Bl helping it has ever given and Japan throwing down some truly different, bazaar and new spun series. ("Old Fashion Cupcake" from Japan and "Bleuming" from South Korea are both fighting it out for my #1 BL of the year (And "Bleuming" is a college romance but very very very well done.)
I also did watch "Teddybear" (or most of it) as well as "Triage," and "Dear Doctor Coming Soul," from Thailand this year which were also more original or at least went with different: types of stories.
So yes my Thailand criticism is not 100% accurate but an overgeneralization. I admit that.
As for the series you mentioned"
"The Eclipse," I'm on episode 6 and haven't as of yet gone further. I do think it is a stronger series, but it seems lost in itself, with the plot spending a lot of time in silliness, but made to be dramatic. I haven't written it off, and at the start was interested but it fell flat for me. I have started the episode 3 times now and not finished it. But, I haven't written it off completely.
I will admit I did 100% forget about 180 degrees and do agree that it is massively different. And should maybe edit that, cause of any of them it does stand out.
Ghost host ghost house, I haven't watched, but have kept my eye on it. The premise didn't catch my interest and so I was waiting on feedback and that feedback has been very mixed to poor, so I have not jumped to view.
On Cloud Nine is another one that received extremely mixed feedback to some hating it, but as I understand it is almost dreamlike in its story telling, or non-linear etc, which rubbed many the wrong way and left them perplexed. The trailer has kept me from watching as it didn't provide any details on the story, just some beautiful visuals and two young boys meeting each other, which wasn't enough to make me think, ehh this is a must watch. HOWEVER, if you tell me its worth the time, I will make it my next series, since you were kind enough to reply and lend me your thoughts and ears. (or I guess eyes)
As for Taiwan.
Taiwan has always been an undercover powerhouse. While it produces far fewer than Thailand, many of its productions are among my favorites. "We Best Love", "History 3: Trapped and Make Your Days Count" Etc. To the point that I get excited with every Taiwanese release in hopes it is another great entry. But, this year has been mostly barren, with short underfunded series that are not near the quality of what has come before them, and none have come close to capturing the BL zeitgeist in any meaningful way.
Papa & Daddy is a different series, and much more LGBTQ than a BL. So I don't really categorize it as such.
I've seen 1 episode of "Plus and Minus," and can't really remember it. I just now I didn't have the urge to continue, but that might have been my mood at the time. (I have dealt with a lot of change and loss this year so my headspace needed true escape which is why I think my attention span for some shows was shorter than normal.)
My Tooth your Love I am keeping up with and like it well enough, but again, I am not in love with it. It is enjoyable enough much like P304 but has started to lose me a little as it lags here in the middle falling on the hes sick, now I'm sick, let's fix wounds shtick.
I've also watched half of "About Youth" and 2 episodes of "DNA says I love you." Both of which have been very throw-away for me.
Maybe Taiwanese series have set a higher bar for themselves in my eyes, I dunno. I just haven't been feeling them this year.
BLUEMING IS KOREA'S 6th BL IN SPRING 2022!1 Blueming2 Semantic Error3 Cherry Blossoms After Winter4 Kissable Lips5…
You've missed a few Korean BLs in there, not only for last year, but this year as well...Tinted with You and Final Cut among them for this year...Peach of Time and Light on Me among those not mentioned of last year...and the entire Strong berry collection of BLs are not talked about...and yet there are still even more.
Also To My Star did NOT have just 1 simple kiss at the end. But mutliples kisses over the last 2 episodes and the first kiss "or cardboard" kiss was even before this in the series. It also ended with a "bed scene" that had full on make-out leading to...well more...it does not at all belong in the same one kiss and done category as the others mentioned..at all. Also written and in the same universe as WYEL btw.
With that said Blueming is my highest rated Korean BL and likely my favorite. Semantic Error was also very good and in my top along with To My Star which was my favorite and still in my top 3. Season 2 I have high hopes for.
Woohoo SK. This is most definitely one of the stronger BL's of current releasing. Up there in my list with the heavy weights of Korean BLs like WYEL and TMS.....
This is so incredibly laughable.This entire Mad Dog bunch are complete losers. I mean they have hospital workers,…
Oh and I've also heard really good things about this one
Hometown (2021 South Korea) If you like mystery/gore/horror type stories...I haven't watched it yet.
And though it is straight BL
30sai made doteida to mahotsukai ni narerurashi (Cherry Magic) Its a light hearted Japanese comedy one that is on the top of a lot of lists, mine too. For an easy fun, but good watch.
This is so incredibly laughable.This entire Mad Dog bunch are complete losers. I mean they have hospital workers,…
I'm trying, but you've seen so much. MORE than me. HAHAHA.
I'm trying to look stuff up on your list and see if you've watched it yet.
Taxi Driver (2021 South Korea) Action anti-hero story doesn't seem to be there.
History 3: Trapped ( 2019 Taiwan BL) But action/mystery dealing with a cop and a mob boss, one of my favorites, Starts a little rough but finds its stride.
Two Cops (2017 South Korea) Is a buddy cop/supernatural action one that is okay not great but okay.
Catch the Ghost (2019 South Korea) Detective/serial killer comedy/romance/drama mix that is decent.
Signal (2016 South Korea) Detective Violent Crime thriller that crosses eras of time in a nifty way. (People love it, I have some logic issues with it and some other qualms but its not bad. Highly rated on MDL)
Circle (2017 South Korea) I haven't finished it yet, but its also pretty interesting telling a story of science fiction and murder mystery across two different time periods with a possible Alien subplot....Again don't know if it ends well.
Currently airing
Not Me ( BLThailand, is political anti-hero revenge gang plot with bl romance that has been better than I expected.) On episode 11 of 14
Kei x Yaku: Abunai Aibou (Japan Bromance/Maybe BL Yakuza and Special Forces detective team up on a covered up terrorist plot connected to a murder of mutual friend that I've really been enjoying.) On episode 8 of 10)
This is all I could come up with that isn't straight up romance or BL. Though there are a few you seem to be missing there too. And a lot of what is currently airing in BL. BUT most of my favorites you have already watched. You can always scroll through my list. I rate everything I watch and write a lot of reviews too...
The romance constantly builds through out. And there is kinda a love triangle...but it all takes a back seat to the case-of-the-week, and overarching serial killer story. The romance is entwined in the comedy and playfulness of the characters...then jumps to full-on for the big finish. But it is always there.
The budget for this one is non-existent. The music was low rent and generic...but fine. The story from episode 1, simple and bottled. The sets basically a room. The directing doing the best that it can with the limitations. This is verging on as independent as cinema/tv gets.
Yet, the actors do well with their material, (outside of the robber who seems like a 1 episode and done affair). The core group quickly and effortlessly display the "caricatures" of their designs. The lines delivery have life and seem real enough to make spending time here worth it. The characters interactions come off believable and real in a comedic way and the show gives off a "Stage Play" vibe.
Not to mention the main leads are attractive and will be fun to watch....so major props to the casting directors.
This is the exact opposite of so many other productions (especially Thai) like Bite Me, Don't Say No, Second Chance, etc (There are so many) where there are lavish sets, expensive houses, nice cars, polished production, everything looks beautiful and expensive...but the cast can't act to save themselves, and thus the characters and story feel clumsy, boring, stilted, and cardboard-ish. Not to mention everything feels forced, unrealistic, and comes off flat.
Or some of the more recent Korean BL's with similar to slightly larger budgets (Tasty Florida, My Sweet Dear, Tinted with You, Behind Cut) where only certain cast members seemed able to pull off what was asked of them, and it made scenes awkward with the gap of acting abilities in play.
1 
2 
After episode 7, I thought everyone was still in play, now that episode 8 has ended, I kinda feel O Sung is not the guy. He seems to have more of a Dangerous Liaisons type vibe with his sister. People who are spoiled and powerful that play around with others and pull strings behind doors. I think he did lose his or had his phone stolen and the killer has it. That's why he was so upset about it going missing again. Also, I do think he feels he is being framed and is lashing out because of it, thinking if they can take Soo Heon down then he will be cleared. He has too much against him too early to end up the big bad unless the show switches gears from a who-done-it and changes into a how-do-we-bring-him-down story. Which I really don't want to happen. He is a bad dude, no doubt, who needs some punishment and comeuppance and I am not rooting for him at all. But he has been the obvious suspect since episode 2 and they keep piling it on with him. But who knows maybe they will exonerate him just to switch it back at the last moment and say nope. it really was him...as a 1-2 punch.
His sister though, Ji Hyun, is a side character that causes lots of problems and has lots of access to his stuff, and seems to not like anyone save for Soo Heon. Is she just a nuisance to fill episodes and make a hurtle for our main character, and someone for us to hate, but is truly benign? Or will she evolve to be more by the end....
Jae Beom's character before his head injury is still unknown to us. He comes off nice now, but what was he like before? Even now, his niceness is a front. As he is not truly friends to our main lead. He is hiding that he knows who attacked her and lying to her face, in episode 8 even setting up a meeting that she claimed would be her apologizing to O Sung, all the while knowing that O Sung is the one who knocked her unconscious, used her phone to cause her to become a target, and also posted made-up photos of his own sister in order to get it all done. He also has lured her away from her home in order to search it, for what exactly? Why did he need to go through her house and also not have her be there to do so? Why is he so interested in Soo Heon, and trying so hard to be his buddy? What did O Sung mean when he said "So Soo Heon is the new one" when seeing Jae Boem start to become close to him. Of anyone in the school he is the wealthiest and most powerful, the only person above O Sung. Could some of the past crap (flash backs) that O Sung did been at the behest of Jae Boem for protection? He was on the bench and saw O Sung's phone in his bag. Did he take it. Did a memory cause him to use Won Seok's phone, or did he just find the phone and call the first number in the call log and happen to get our main heroine realizing that it was Won Seok's phone...also while O Sung got a call from his dad?
I dunno. I'm still even iffy about Soo Heon. His brother, Won Seok, and Jae Boem all took falls...there is a pattern. He also knows how to play the system at the school, begin popular and wanted, while being a so-so student, poor, and almost an orphan, things that would normally make him low man on the totem in any other Kdrama. He also hides a lot, tells half truths, and deflects situations and answers. I still feel something there. Also the "pregnant" starlet strikes me as suspect as well.
A cop-out ending would be that its a side character that we haven't spent time with in any meaningful way. I don't want that. Also the barista is borderline cop-out too...because its just easy and keeps any of the main players from having blood on their hands...
Just finished episode 7, and before I dive into 8.....
I did write this to be funny though, cause you can boil it down to this which I do find hilarious. But it is of course too simple a synopsis.
However, as a show it has to be able to stand on its own. As for someone like me, who hasn't ever watched a webtoon and know nothing of the source material, was I able to come into this world and understand, enjoy, and relish what was here? Does it make me want to continue and even better does it make me want to go and watch the source material?
So in saying what I was expected to come into mindset or (as others on here have commented) saying that there is more story to come and much more for the characters to go through and time for them to change, doesn't really matter much. Because that is just another way of saying that this 8 episode series is not strong enough to stand on its own two legs. That it needs help in its storytelling from other sources. And that it was unable to establish its world solidly in what was given to me, a watcher of only the show.
While I will agree there was social commentary on the parents, adults, and law for the bullying, it was mild and just a nudge nudge without true exploration or depth. When the first act of the series finishes it is closed by the involvement of law enforcement and the players getting the police to do their job. The small mafia is taken down, the leader imprisoned and the entire story up to that point closed. This shows that police and law enforcement do offer a recourse and can solve issues.
When parents and teachers are involved in the initial episode and the first beat down at the school, the teachers ultimately remove our bully and allows our main character to come out unscathed. The fact that drugs were involved, the saving grace. While all of this is still far fetched considering he stabbed a student, strangled another, destroyed school property, and then beat his bully to unconsciousness-drugs or not- would garner his expulsion equally. Considering the bully came from wealthy parents something that would likely have further ensured that though their son may have to go, so does the other.
Yet all of this is still somewhat believable in how it played out and though stretches reality is still swallow-able as a viewer. And thus I was hooked, enthralled, and moving on to the next episode. (In fact, I watched this entirely in a single sitting from beginning to end.) Side note: there is a large difference between students being made into gofers, getting swirlies in bathrooms, and being made fun of, compared to out-rite beatdowns, stabbings, bone breaking encounters needing hospitalizations. Sadly, they are both their own types of torture and should be addressed but the difference from law enforcement, adults, and schools between the two is very great and the later is addressed much more head-on than the former in terms of not turning a blinds eye.
As for 1 dimensional characters, Soo Ho is the epitome. We learn nothing at all of what makes him. He is given to us as an instantly likeable, extremely charismatic loner with skill for hand-to-hand combat. (I loved him by the final credits of the first episode). However, that is all we ever get. The actor truly showing his skill in how he delivers such a simple character that is never given anything more to chew on and yet is still likely my favorite.
This is disappointing. Why is he a loner? It seems to just be his decision as he is respected by everyone and is a delight to be around. So why does he decide to not have friends? Why did he give up fighting since he is so strong in it? Why was he drawn or interested in our main lead from the get-go as he is more interested in him than anyone else? Why does he allow the bullies to bully others when he can stop them? How did he lose his parents or why was he raised only by his grandmother? Were his 3 jobs to save money for himself, to live off of currently, or to help his grandmother? If it was to save for his future what were his goals? On and on I can go, because we honestly learn absolutely nothing but base information on him and through out the entire show he is the same character from the moment we meet him to the moment he meets his fate. To the point we meet him sleeping in class that instantly becomes a fight when awoken and then lose him with a fight that puts him in a possible never ending sleep.
Our main character has a bit more to him, but is still a stock creation. An outcast "nerd" who is top of his class and has no friends. He is poor and has absent parents who don't really seem to want him. He focuses solely on school seeming to use education as a route to change his future (though without any goals of that future which is highly realistic for his age.) The only point outside of this simple stock character is that he has an inner rage that boils behind his dead eyes which he unleashes when the only thing going for him (his grades) are threatened.
In the middle of the series he has growth as he creates a "found family" and actually starts to have human connections which soften him. However, this is taken away and his trust is betrayed and by the stories end he is back, to being a lonely individual at another school, friendless with his dead eyes and rage boiling behind them. His character ready to go for round 10 at the drop of a hat. Thus, it ends exactly where it began and his character seeming to learn nothing from the constant circle of violence that just finished, his mighty pen gripped again in his fist. Making him not only born from stock tropes but also a stunted character without growth. Which begs then why did I go through all this with him to begin with? What did I learn from it or take from it? Since he is unchanged and the story is set to simply begin again then I suppose there was nothing for me to extract from the last 8 hours either.
Then our third character, is an incomplete creation. One could argue a foil to our main lead. Except he is neither the exact opposite nor the same. He comes from money and power unlike our lead, but suffers from nonacceptance at being a weakling and adopted, paralleling our main leads parents non-wanting of him to an extent. However he is not simply forgotten about or left to his own devices but is instead watched constantly and beaten ferociously by his father, again unlike or main male lead. He too has travailed the inroads of being bullied, however it is his past, while our main lead is his present. Meaning their lives have played out differently. For as much of little backstory we do get of our main lead non of it so far until now seems to hold abuse or bullying as part of it...making his rage different.
When we meet him, he is wall flower who is saddened by the act that he is forced to be a part and then tries to gain redemption by stopping the surmounting danger posed to our main lead. In doing so he finds a small band of friends to which he seems utterly delighted to be a part. Has he always been friendless, we can infer possibly but the story never lets us know. However at the flip of a switch he switches sides and becomes the ring leader in destroying the very friends that stood at his side.
Why? Well, its for us to guess or have "discussions" over. This is where his character and the overall story just falls apart. From one episode he is putting his life on the line unwilling to let harm come to anyone and picking up lost cell phones and dusting off his friends backpacks. He's thrilled to have his buddies and be part of the "good guys" and then the next episode he has a 10 minute montage where he is not in some Instagram photos and feels like a third wheel between a newly brought on female side character and one of his buddy group, and then he is a rage filled teen who stands tall next to the very bullies that up until now were his enemies.
This is not an example of "leaving stuff on the table" for the audience to digest but a whiplash underdeveloped character arch for the sake of plot. That is, the second half of the series he has to be the bad guy and so it is going to happen, sense be damned. You could argue 1) He may be secretly gay and finding his crush spending time with a girl threatening his intimacy causes him to fly into a rage. (Which also has some strong homophobic connotations). 2) He wanted to be the ring linger and center of attention and seeing that not happening made his friends expendable and what he had done for them moot. 3) This is a cycle, that his previous bullies where actually once his friends that he turned on to which they beat him over and forced him to a new school and his adoptive father is done with dealing with the cycle. 4) He simply has snapped due to just "everything" and is now a raged beast though it doesn't explain why de directs his rage towards his only friends. 5) He just wanted to be popular and thought they would get him there and seeing it not happening decided to join a different gang, but again why such rage for Soo Ho? 6) He is simply a sociopath. 7) He is a megalomaniac who ultimately wasn't getting what he felt he deserved so decided to destroy those that didn't see his greatness. 8) His character is simply supposed to shine a light on how a "good kid" goes "bad." Whatever, the point is that the show simply didn't take the time to develop him or this change in any meaningful way. You can argue all of them or non of them because its simply not there. He was simply a plot device.
Even when the final moment is given between him and our main lead and he is asked "why?" Is answer is he doesn't know. Which may seem deep but is honestly a cop-out. We all secretly know why we do everything even if we won't openly admit it. Unless, we are unhinged. Which he may be. And it is followed with "you should understand." Why? At what point has our main lead shown he didn't understand how to restrain his anger? He has it, he may not understand it, but he knows how to swallow it and releases it only towards those who have wronged him. As and audience member, I also do not know why I should understand, even as someone bullied heavily in my youth, I have never wanted to do the things he did. So make me understand...
This also results in the last 3 episodes being simply 3 revenge plot lines that are nothing but repetitive. First our third lead trying to destroy our enigmatic Soo Ho
but instead beating down our main character who becomes hospital bound. Then Soo Ho finding out about the beat down and doing his own revenge for it against all the same people and ending with him in the hospital. To then again our main lead getting revenge for Soo Ho and going super human as his head is bashed into racks of weights (he can shake it off) and beating a highly skilled multi-year fighter because he remembers a 5 minute lesson by the river. He smashes bones, stabs, and knocks people unconscious with fire extinguishers for the sake of what exactly. Will beating these people change anything as they all have been beat-up about 6 times at this point and here still are. And he is again saved (like the drugs from episode 1) by a "deux ex machina" video that ensures no one will touch him. And so he goes to a new school.
Where is the commentary on the weak versus the strong? Conversations on how bullying can be changed and fought against? Where are the themes of good versus evil? All of them were present in the first half of the series. Wasn't this supposed to be the focus of the story. How one becomes a hero for the downtrodden. But instead it is just hours of revenge and the tale of how a group of friends devolves into infighting. In the end did the last 4 episodes have anything at all do do with bullies or just a war between two groups of people?
It could have ended on a note of true discussion as his father says "You did nothing wrong" as he goes into a new school and he turns with his dead eyes and sighs. Fade to black. Did he really not do wrong? Is the fact he remains unpunished and his father says this to him validate all the violence he caused? Or does the sigh and dead eyes show that his father saying that shows how the violence will never end because people aren't held accountable for it? But it doesn't end here and it seems he feels justified as it instead shows him again, being the same person as a new bully emerges. Which seems more to just be a set-up for look season 2, than to say this story actually has anything of importance to say on the topic at hand.
I'll end this very long write up (which I didn't and was not intending to do a whole review) All I did was write what 8-10 sentences on how I felt about the show, simple straight to the point and focused fully on just what I saw and felt. I did not degrade or berate anyone for liking or disliking this. It was just a quick opinion that highlighted what I thought was great about this and what didn't work. It was not a statement towards anyone or their taste. A 6.5 is my most rated score which I explain in my profile. 6.5 = C+,3 1/4-Stars. Just North of Average. At it worst entertaining. (Most Common). Is what you will find.
Ironic that a show about bullying has left me getting constant dings about how I'm a hater, didn't understand it, or how everyone else can see what i just can't. So I read through some reviews and found this one
https://kisskh.at/profile/Shini/review/242721
While she gives it an 8 because she simply enjoyed it she claims its story and characters really make it at best a 7 (i gave 6.5) and she highlights briefly almost everything I also found lacking. And has received 8 likes. So at least, I guess, I am not alone.
And as for expectations, I knew nothing of this or its webtoon nor had I even seen a trailer. It just kept popping up on MDL main page with like 10 star reviews so I hit play. Episode one had me and as I said I stayed up all night. But it ultimately didn't deliver after its strong start.
Ultimately, friends turn to enemies because of not getting in Instagram photos.
Which sends the story into a spiral of gangland violence where people become immortal and adults, police, or consequences no longer exist, let alone story or character development.
While the acting was fantastic, the style and direction strong, and the action nicely choreographed, the characters are 1 dimensional with only the slightest hints of any type of development. Nothing is explained in any cohesive manner or makes any sense except for basically saying it happened, "just because."
Having people walking around multiple schools Terminator style during mid-day dispatching students in a personal vendetta without any police, security, or adult involvement (Let alone any recourse taken afterwords) is simply preposterous. (And I'm from the US where school shootings happen on the regular.)
The beginning was palpitating, stressful, and taunt, it catches you hard and seems plausible. But by episode 4 the believeability escapes the drama like a deflating balloon and with it all the stakes, urgency, and tension.
By the end it is as brain dead as straight to streaming action movie with little meaning, over-the-top sequences, and violence begetting more violence while solving nothing for any of the characters involved or allowing any character to grow in any way, let alone even attempt at explaining the motivations of half the cast.
A very very lenient 6.5 is the best it gets from me and its basically for the winning acting by our main duo.
This is why the real TY could still draw and play the piano even once SC. And SC gift was his brain, and business sense. To the point that he did homework for others and impressed even the rich evil dad before making the swap by doing the original TY business reports. Thus, him knowing how to play stocks and teaching it to others as well, would be just the original gift that he had no matter what body or life he possessed?
As for him not contacting anyone, since he was switched yet again with an impoverished nobody, and no-one would be after him with also all the "bad guys" being dead or punished, how would he be protecting anyone by not coming forward?
Instead everyone had to mourn his death. The two that knew who he really was, thinking they had lost him forever, including his life's love. People did suffer because of him, even moreso with them now having to grieve his loss. This is something that he could have saved them from if he knew who he truly was all along.
His mother, from their last interaction, when he was hiding in his families home to how she looked watching the new SC be interviewed over his now famous comic book. To of course, the storyline of the comic itself as well as learning that TY had been paying her rent for her house and store for years...seems to suggest she has an inkling of what happened. The sister then turns to her seeing her mother saddened watching the tv and saying to her, everything worked out of the best anyhow. Which makes the mother perk up and become jovial.
This I find interesting if you interpret the scene and information this way, as she was even more steadfast against the wealthy and their way of life than even SC father had been. Could she really be okay thinking her son was dead as he had chosen wealth and the SC being interviewed was another person, but a good man that loved and cherished her and the family. It is a dark thought but an engrossing one.
To me, IF the original SC went and ate a meal immediately with the spoon and has always known everything, but just left everyone behind, it means he only learned half the lesson. He still focused on himself and let everyone think he was dead as his own punishment not thinking of the pain and suffering it would cause others. He felt he didn't deserve them, which might seem noble, except it is still him thinking of only his place in the world and not how his actions affect others. He seemed to force himself to live a pious and good life (or 3 years) to find wealth the honest way and help others in poverty find wealth as well, thus proving he had changed and become a good person. Yet, this still makes his focus success and money. He isn't as rich, and he is sharing wealth with others, but he still was driven to riches again. Once he proved himself and has decided he has paid his penance and made wealth again, he is now reintroducing himself to the only person he has ever shown to have a true attachment to, his lady love......it is still all about him.
I like to believe he doesn't know who he is. It makes him a better person if he doesn't know.
But, it did have a nice final twist. I will give it that. Even though....
In the beginning, I felt for his hardships. His life, as portrayed, was quite rough and saddening. However, his personality was still very very off-putting. I found him a lustful greedy person who treated almost everyone with disdain and cared only for himself. Except for the poor friend who didn't last past the first 20 minutes of the show, he honestly didn't seem to see anyone or anything as valuable and only saw the horribleness in his life.
The show has made him lower and lower as it progressed. I really haven't a single good thing to say about the character. While the series has been set-up (Like Scrooge and his Ghosts) to show him how much he honestly had, and how money wasn't everything or even happiness, he seems to not care. He has grown ever more selfish. Thinking that because he manages to get his family a shabby roof and an income that it is enough to wash away his sins. He still values money and power over everything, only Joo Hee seems to have worth. Yet, even this feels it is him just wanting to have it all. Take the 1 thing he liked from his old life and get to have it in his new rich one as well. Only then does he think he will be happy, and prove that he is better than Tae Yong.
The show in episode 14 seems to maybe be launching him on a redemption arc for the last two episodes, but I really could care less about him at this point. He is detestable. There are only 2 outcomes that would make me happy as a viewer and I doubt (As everyone always forgives him for whatever he does which is why he likely became the person he is already) that I will get either.
1) He stays rich, and is forced to live his life surrounded by backstabbing, money hungry, corrupt people. His life a constant consumption that is never fulfilled. Always trying to stay on top and willing to do anything for it, like his rich father. Never knowing love, companionship, true friendship, in a marriage for show and cut-off from all the people that were once good to him, and cared about him, or loved him.
Or 2) Loses everything, like the homeless woman running around screaming for another golden spoon. Destitute with nothing and no one. Having to live in the misery that he burned every bridge anyone gave him and spat on the love people had for him. Now just a man who truly must live a life of nothing.
They both are equal hellscapes at each end of the spectrum and what he truly deserves at this point. But it is a Kdrama, so he will likely be forgiven by everyone for everything and find peace and happiness and live a nice life as he watches sunsets and reflects back on the time he was an awful person. But I hope I am wrong, and I get one of the endings above, it would knock the wind out of me.
I will admit generalizing was a risky move on my part, and when I was writing this I even thought of editing some of the statements. But, at the same time , I thought it an interesting angle for explaining why I was giving the series the score I was, and to my core I feel the statements made have a ring of truth.
Thailand is BL King, and for most is where we have spent the longest part of our BL journeys. And for the past few years, they seemed to be getting better and better. I focused on "KinnPorsche" here because when it aired its original 9 minute trailer (and before are the covid and production woes as well as bankruptcies) "KinnPorsche" was representing a huge shift in type of content and the way BL's in Thailand could possibly move. You had the riveting ITSAY and its sequel and even (Though again not perfect) Lovely Writer bringing to the surface underlying trends in BL as well issues with the genre as a whole while handing us a BL drama. "Manner of Death" which I didn't love like so many others, but at least it was fresh angle of murder mystery medical mayhem. And even when "Not Me" premiered at the end of 2021 heading into this year, it seemed the arguably biggest name in Thai BL GMMTV was also willing to venture into edgier different genres and territories and that was after giving the very soft, beautiful, and romance sweeping "1000 Stars" earlier in the year.
So I'd say I was very excited for 2022 and what it would bring. But was smacked with a virtual about face with the largest watched, highest rated, and greatest quantity of BL's from the country falling back on the same old storytelling, in overly bright, white, soap-opera school, hes so hot and cool I want him, stories. And it bummed me out. While Korea came out swinging (with many a miss amongst those swings) with the largest Bl helping it has ever given and Japan throwing down some truly different, bazaar and new spun series. ("Old Fashion Cupcake" from Japan and "Bleuming" from South Korea are both fighting it out for my #1 BL of the year (And "Bleuming" is a college romance but very very very well done.)
I also did watch "Teddybear" (or most of it) as well as "Triage," and "Dear Doctor Coming Soul," from Thailand this year which were also more original or at least went with different: types of stories.
So yes my Thailand criticism is not 100% accurate but an overgeneralization. I admit that.
As for the series you mentioned"
"The Eclipse," I'm on episode 6 and haven't as of yet gone further. I do think it is a stronger series, but it seems lost in itself, with the plot spending a lot of time in silliness, but made to be dramatic. I haven't written it off, and at the start was interested but it fell flat for me. I have started the episode 3 times now and not finished it. But, I haven't written it off completely.
I will admit I did 100% forget about 180 degrees and do agree that it is massively different. And should maybe edit that, cause of any of them it does stand out.
Ghost host ghost house, I haven't watched, but have kept my eye on it. The premise didn't catch my interest and so I was waiting on feedback and that feedback has been very mixed to poor, so I have not jumped to view.
On Cloud Nine is another one that received extremely mixed feedback to some hating it, but as I understand it is almost dreamlike in its story telling, or non-linear etc, which rubbed many the wrong way and left them perplexed. The trailer has kept me from watching as it didn't provide any details on the story, just some beautiful visuals and two young boys meeting each other, which wasn't enough to make me think, ehh this is a must watch. HOWEVER, if you tell me its worth the time, I will make it my next series, since you were kind enough to reply and lend me your thoughts and ears. (or I guess eyes)
As for Taiwan.
Taiwan has always been an undercover powerhouse. While it produces far fewer than Thailand, many of its productions are among my favorites. "We Best Love", "History 3: Trapped and Make Your Days Count" Etc. To the point that I get excited with every Taiwanese release in hopes it is another great entry. But, this year has been mostly barren, with short underfunded series that are not near the quality of what has come before them, and none have come close to capturing the BL zeitgeist in any meaningful way.
Papa & Daddy is a different series, and much more LGBTQ than a BL. So I don't really categorize it as such.
I've seen 1 episode of "Plus and Minus," and can't really remember it. I just now I didn't have the urge to continue, but that might have been my mood at the time. (I have dealt with a lot of change and loss this year so my headspace needed true escape which is why I think my attention span for some shows was shorter than normal.)
My Tooth your Love I am keeping up with and like it well enough, but again, I am not in love with it. It is enjoyable enough much like P304 but has started to lose me a little as it lags here in the middle falling on the hes sick, now I'm sick, let's fix wounds shtick.
I've also watched half of "About Youth" and 2 episodes of "DNA says I love you." Both of which have been very throw-away for me.
Maybe Taiwanese series have set a higher bar for themselves in my eyes, I dunno. I just haven't been feeling them this year.
Also To My Star did NOT have just 1 simple kiss at the end. But mutliples kisses over the last 2 episodes and the first kiss "or cardboard" kiss was even before this in the series. It also ended with a "bed scene" that had full on make-out leading to...well more...it does not at all belong in the same one kiss and done category as the others mentioned..at all. Also written and in the same universe as WYEL btw.
With that said Blueming is my highest rated Korean BL and likely my favorite. Semantic Error was also very good and in my top along with To My Star which was my favorite and still in my top 3. Season 2 I have high hopes for.
https://kisskh.at/profile/soundinfinite/reviews/198521
A strong cast trapped inside a low-budgeted banal story equals mediocrity.
It is mostly spoiler free and straight forward. Hope it helps some.
https://kisskh.at/profile/soundinfinite/reviews/197087
Here is my spoiler free full review!
Hometown (2021 South Korea) If you like mystery/gore/horror type stories...I haven't watched it yet.
And though it is straight BL
30sai made doteida to mahotsukai ni narerurashi (Cherry Magic) Its a light hearted Japanese comedy one that is on the top of a lot of lists, mine too. For an easy fun, but good watch.
I'm trying to look stuff up on your list and see if you've watched it yet.
Taxi Driver (2021 South Korea) Action anti-hero story doesn't seem to be there.
History 3: Trapped ( 2019 Taiwan BL) But action/mystery dealing with a cop and a mob boss, one of my favorites, Starts a little rough but finds its stride.
Two Cops (2017 South Korea) Is a buddy cop/supernatural action one that is okay not great but okay.
Catch the Ghost (2019 South Korea) Detective/serial killer comedy/romance/drama mix that is decent.
Signal (2016 South Korea) Detective Violent Crime thriller that crosses eras of time in a nifty way. (People love it, I have some logic issues with it and some other qualms but its not bad. Highly rated on MDL)
Circle (2017 South Korea) I haven't finished it yet, but its also pretty interesting telling a story of science fiction and murder mystery across two different time periods with a possible Alien subplot....Again don't know if it ends well.
Currently airing
Not Me ( BLThailand, is political anti-hero revenge gang plot with bl romance that has been better than I expected.) On episode 11 of 14
Kei x Yaku: Abunai Aibou (Japan Bromance/Maybe BL Yakuza and Special Forces detective team up on a covered up terrorist plot connected to a murder of mutual friend that I've really been enjoying.) On episode 8 of 10)
This is all I could come up with that isn't straight up romance or BL. Though there are a few you seem to be missing there too. And a lot of what is currently airing in BL. BUT most of my favorites you have already watched. You can always scroll through my list. I rate everything I watch and write a lot of reviews too...
https://kisskh.at/profile/soundinfinite/reviews/195237
It is a bit biting, but also free of any major spoilers, and I hope is a little fun to read.
The budget for this one is non-existent. The music was low rent and generic...but fine. The story from episode 1, simple and bottled. The sets basically a room. The directing doing the best that it can with the limitations. This is verging on as independent as cinema/tv gets.
Yet, the actors do well with their material, (outside of the robber who seems like a 1 episode and done affair). The core group quickly and effortlessly display the "caricatures" of their designs. The lines delivery have life and seem real enough to make spending time here worth it. The characters interactions come off believable and real in a comedic way and the show gives off a "Stage Play" vibe.
Not to mention the main leads are attractive and will be fun to watch....so major props to the casting directors.
This is the exact opposite of so many other productions (especially Thai) like Bite Me, Don't Say No, Second Chance, etc (There are so many) where there are lavish sets, expensive houses, nice cars, polished production, everything looks beautiful and expensive...but the cast can't act to save themselves, and thus the characters and story feel clumsy, boring, stilted, and cardboard-ish. Not to mention everything feels forced, unrealistic, and comes off flat.
Or some of the more recent Korean BL's with similar to slightly larger budgets (Tasty Florida, My Sweet Dear, Tinted with You, Behind Cut) where only certain cast members seemed able to pull off what was asked of them, and it made scenes awkward with the gap of acting abilities in play.
So kudos.