Tanky Toon

Three voice actors, four road trips, and one thumb begging for mercy

I had been ready to drop this drama before Episode 10, but someone convinced me to hold on to this snooze fest.

My thoughts about this will be better depicted by the time my thumb spent on the FFWD button. Breakdown by episodic stages.

Ep 1 to approx Ep 5. I felt slightly giddy, like a kid at a candy store, looking at all the pastel colors and tasting all the sweetness. Time spent on the FFWD button: 0 seconds.

Ep 6 to approx Ep 10. I was getting used to the slight buzz that went from “Love at first sound” to “Hi, would you be my girlfriend, after just meeting you a few of times?” Time spent on the FFWD button, maybe 5 to 10 minutes.

Ep 11 to approx Ep 20. This is the stage where, in their minds, they say, “Yes, we are GF/BF but we are still afraid to hold hands and have our first kiss.” While I quip, “maybe sometime this century.” Time spent on the FFWD button: probably half the time, roughly translating to 3 to 4 hours. Mostly on the first of 3 or 4 prolonged trips with friends that do nothing to the plot but serve as contrived instances so they can shoot star eyes at each other.

Ep 21 to approx Ep 30. Well, they finally got their first kiss out of the way. What now? Let’s just skip to talk about marriage, shall we? Time spent on the FFWD button: I think my thumb is glued to it, roughly translating to 75% of the time.

Ep 31 to Ep 33. Whew, are you sure this drama is at the end of its ropes? No more squeezing in PDAs and prolonged contrivances so they can all couple up and tie the drama with a neat bow? Are you sure there are only three people in the cast who are doctors, who are also voice actors, and are also capable of other things, like maybe singing, cooking, painting, sound-editing, guitar-playing, and what else? And they also happen to be good-looking but perpetually single, even with all their amazing talents? Wow, such a shocker! Time spent on the FFWD button: almost 90% of the time, pausing just to watch the Farewell concert and to check whether Mo Qing Cheng has anything else up his sleeves, maybe to announce he’s also a Nobel Prize Winner who invented the Pill to cure everyone of their illness.

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Story: Simple enough. A virgin buys a pack of condoms as a present for his boyfriend who turns out to be only interested in one night stands.

Premise is interesting because the condoms and sex toys are given voices, making this a quirky short.

Acting: Average. Not the greatest but not so bad either.

Music: Relatively funny

Rewatch value: If only for the short erotic scene.

Available on Vimeo and GagaOOlala.
Please support StrongBerry and Matchbox productions!
P.S. I am not affiliated with them nor am I gaining any type of renumeration for promoting these studios and their works but only a strong advocate for LGBTQ productions especially coming out of Asia.

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Story: This drama focuses more on Boss than on the romantic relationship between him and Win. It shows how Boss struggles with his feelings throughout his high school days into adulthood, whether it's a one-sided relationship, unrequited love, or a brief wind of romance. I liked also the dynamic between Boss and his mother in particular, about how they truly care for each other.

Acting: Pchy, from Love of Siam, delivers the role of Boss to the T. He plays with such a range of emotion from happiness of his first love and to the sadness of his mother's illness. The actor who plays Win, however, is bland. I believed the Pchy carried the role and made the story more believable as we see him going through the struggle of getting his family to accept his lifestyle choices.

Music: Nothing worthwhile to note

Re-watch value: If only to see Pchy's acting maybe, but otherwise, not really.

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This movie was "Meh" for me.

It looked like the creators THOUGHT they had a brilliant idea but couldn't expand further than what was shown.

Story: Supposed to be tragic but I just laughed inappropriately and that's not a good thing.

Cast: Good enough that they were men. That's it.

Music: As unmemorable as the movie:

Re-watch value: Was that a blip?

Can't justify a long review for a very short film that did nothing but take up 7 minutes of my time but apparently my review was too short to even be submitted so I had to add these last few words.

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The Extended Fashion Ad That Accidentally Became a Drama

This is one of those dramas where I *knew* better. I should’ve stuck to my drama restrictions like a sane person. But then I saw Ke Chun in the cast and thought, “It’s short, how bad can it be?” Answer: Oh, honey. Apparently, even a two-minute episode can test your brain’s pain receptors. What I got wasn’t a short series—it was an extended modeling commercial with dialogue slapped on like last-minute captions. Everyone looks great, sure, but it’s like watching perfume ads stitched together with recycled plotlines.

Let’s start with our female lead: a supposedly sharp, successful CEO who builds empires with a flick of her spreadsheet—yet can’t recognize the voice of the man she’s in love with. Yes, she’s that smart… except when she’s not. Toss in the fact that she also fails to connect that Cen Yu and Duan Qian Jie are the same person (again, not a spoiler—it’s literally in the cast listing), and you start to wonder if her real company sells suspension of logic wholesale.

What you’re watching is a blender of overused tropes: mistreated daughter, blackmail, scheming sister, rich guy pretending to be poor, double identity hijinks… all rolled into one shiny, glittering mess. If they’d added amnesia and accidental incest, I’d have just nodded like, “Yep, checks out.” And yet—I watched every second. Call it rubbernecking. Call it gluttony. But if watching this train wreck means more screen time for Ke Chun’s face? Then maybe I didn’t lose, I just… aesthetically suffered.

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She brought brains. He brought trauma. The script brought confusion.

As I’m still quite new to the world of “duanju” dramas (having watched fewer than two dozen), I don’t recognize many of the actors. But I was instantly captivated by Wang Yi Lei and Zhu Xiao Xue’s respective performances as a top lawyer and an ambitious law student. Clearly, they tried their best to work with the material they were given, which I must say wasn’t the greatest to begin with.

Their mutual dependence and the way they “cured” each other was heartwarming, but their initial encounter left me unconvinced. However, I think the show unfairly portrayed “cheating”, making the ex-boyfriend seem far worse than Wen Yue, despite their similar actions. Granted, Han Sheng kissed Wen Yue, despite her not being his partner, an act that could be interpreted as forced. In this situation, I’m unsure why we’re expected to excuse them simply because they’re the endgame.  

Regardless, I think a stronger focus on Wen Yue’s prowess as a law student would have improved the show. We got a glimpse of her intelligence at the beginning, specifically when she first met Han Sheng at that party. I wished they had explored that more fully in the drama, maybe even having her help Han Sheng with his cases. Time constraints likely prevented them from doing so, but the plot contains too much unnecessary redundancy, such as the ex-boyfriend’s interactions with the socialite.

Overall, my feelings about this drama are a bit conflicted. Its quality is unremarkable; neither good nor bad, so I will settle for a “decent effort,” mostly kudos to the main leads.

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Because one lifetime isn’t enough to solve your romantic issues

I have been waiting for this pairing of Leo Luo and Bai Lu ever since I watched them in “Love Is Sweet,” and their on-screen chemistry was off-the-charts. I am glad this time it’s a historical drama that brought them together, as both were formidable in their past projects, “Ashes of Love” and “One and Only.”

“Till the End of the Moon” lives up to its title, as it tells of the searing saga and intertwined fates of the Demon Lord Tantai Jin and the Immortal goddess Li Su Su, going through several lifetimes and reincarnations until eternity. Here lies my contradictory feeling about the concept of “everlasting” love: while it’s commendable that these two managed to “resolve” their conflicts or despite their opposite goals, and still love each other years and years later; how many times should I see them cycle through different lives in various identities, without getting bored with it?

Back to the story, granted that it’s a complex one, but here we see Tantai Jin as the anti-hero. Was he really born evil or just a product of his cruel environment? Sure that he had the “evil bone” or whatyoumacallit planted inside of him by the spirit of Evil, making him more devil than the evil itself with his evilness. They had to make sure that we know he’s the devil, despite his insistence on the contrary.

But hey, look who’s here: the fairy goddess turning mortal to save the day, like she fell down from the sky, literally. Not only that, Li Su Su is arguably the most beautiful human being that graced the heavens, but apparently, she’s the only one who possesses the power to stop the Devil from destroying the world. Maybe by seducing him with her flawless white skin and virginal attire, will make the almighty Devil shake in his knees.

Throw in five or a hundred supporting characters, then you complete this saga. First, you must always have the jelly-bitch of a step-sister, ala Cinderella. Then you must also have a trusty side-kick or two. Don’t also forget to include the meanie mother, in this case, father, who destroys everything like your hopes and dreams. A comedic-relief character is also necessary in any story, so you have that. Add in an army of villains to do your bidding, and Voila! You have a cast list that is longer than the roll of tissue in your bathroom.

What really made me (or probably you) overlook all the craziness of time- or life- warping back and forth, not sure what is in whose memory of where it takes place is the beautiful cinematography that razzles and dazzles, so you just go with the logic and forget that you stepped into plot holes that you magically come out of. You won’t wonder: did that just happen, because no, it didn’t? It’s just in your dream, in your mind, and you are not supposed to see that rip in the fabric of time.

Aiding in this mesmerization are the two key actors whose job is mainly to act like their lives depend on it. Bai Lu expertly balances between the innocent yet formidable; soft in her expressions, yet firm in her direction while making sure that her hair and make-up is not out of place. For his part, Luo Yun Xi employs micro-expressions to portray his role as the Demon God. In this drama, Leo’s eyebrows made a strong appearance to make sure that you know they mean business. Leo’s lips did a lot of the work too, especially when he coughed up so much blood and making it look as normal as brushing his teeth.

Despite its flaws, I enjoyed this drama. It had its strength and weaknesses. I would follow the pairing of Leo Luo and Bai Lu till the end of the moon, if only the moon isn’t too far and requires three lifetimes of dreams.

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This drama will only appeal to a select few. If you are morally appalled at the thought of an emotional affair between a 20+ yr old man and a much older woman, run from this drama. Otherwise, it is a beautifully crafted love story between two people who have similar interests but opposing ambitions. It is the story of two people's journey and the choices they make in life: whether to be poor in love but wealthy in life. ..or to be poor in life but rich in love. Can you really have both? Yoo Ah in is perfect as the piano prodigy as his fingers weave through the keys. Great acting from both leads. Only drawback from the drama is it could be draggy at some parts.

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How to rate a drama where the first part had me at the edge of my seat, while the second part almost lulled me to sleep? Hence my dilemma with Alchemy of Souls. I wasn’t sure where part two went wrong, or was it because part one was so amazing, it was hard to replicate the same excitement when I watched it?

The bad of Part 2:

- Though the leads are physically attractive, Jang Uk and Bu Yeon didn’t have the same spark as Jang Uk and Mu Deok.

- The pacing in this one dragged endlessly despite its short length. They spent more time wallowing than fighting.

- All this soul-shifting back and forth, like jumping from one body to the next, that defies the laws of fictional logic? How can the drama just explain away why in this instance, it’s okay to shift, but in that instance it’s not? I can’t keep up anymore with whose body belongs to which soul and whose soul is now inside which body.

- As for the secondary characters, it looked like everyone was just there for the sake of being there and going through the motions. You know which character that caught my interest? The god-damn turtle!

- And all the reminiscing. What’s the point? Am I supposed to believe that Jang Uk grew fond of Bu Yeon, because she’s Bu Yeon, or because she exhibits Naksu’s mannerisms and thoughts?

Part 2 Verdict: A shadow of Part 1. (8 out of 10)

Combined score: 9 out of 10.

Overall impression: Should have stopped at Part 1.

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Out of the Club Friday Stories that I've watched with a gay theme, this is easily my favorite out of them all. I almost did not watch this drama
because Tao who plays Todd, annoys me with his pencil thin excuse of a mustache (I'm quirky like that). But after watching a few episodes I got used to it, (I just used one eye to look at him). And Toni who plays Meng is a hot tamale and his chemistry with Tao/Todd is sizzling hot.

Speaking of which, I have to give both of these actors credit, as Tao managed to make me want to punch him in the face because of his childish antics. He played the role of a free-spirited rambunctious guy who does nothing but cause trouble for Meng. But when push comes to shove, Tao as Todd delivers and becomes the responsible adult that sometimes Nuch wished he was. Toni was also believable as the conflicted Meng, who believes he is doing everyone a favor by being nice. On one hand, Meng tries to cater to his girlfriend's unreasonable whims, and yet on the other, he tries to keep his best friend Tod close to his hip whenever Nuch is not watching. Nuch, meanwhile, is really annoying as the bitchy and jealous girlfriend who does not seem to think about other people except herself. I was so annoyed that I wanted to boot her to the curb faster than you can say "sayonara."

The story is interesting as it took me through a journey where I also felt confused about the actions that Meng took, because it seemed to me he was the center of the drama, and also the center of the problem as he could not seem to make up his mind about what he wanted. It looks to me that he wanted his cake and eat it too, but we all know that couldn't happen. The story however left me hanging and felt that it was not resolved either way, but maybe it is a good thing and this is one of those dramas that I am OK with an ending that is up to interpretation.

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The romance sprinted out the gate, tripped over communication, and face-planted in dysfunction

The synopsis of this drama looked promising, so I watched it, not expecting much from a low-budget, short length drama.

While it started out hot and heavy, the show veered into a territory that is toxic for my taste. I enjoy noona romances if done well, but I dislike them when they show the couple’s incompatibility, particularly if the male lead is too immature for the older female. Don’t get me wrong: their chemistry is sizzling on screen, but that does not justify a union that lasts. Although the quick development of their relationship is due to the show’s short length, I’ve seen other dramas do it better in the same time frame.

Instead of open communication, they gaslight each other and play stupid mind games. Not one character here is likeable, and though I know humans are flawed and are not perfect, but there’s nothing savory about trying to control another by using dirty tactics. I think it’s unfair to criticize Jiang Nan’s ex-boyfriend for being obsessive and stalker-y, but excuse Shi Jie for behaving similarly just because he’s attractive and the main lead.

In my opinion, the fundamental issue here is cramming too many story arcs into a short drama, preventing proper character and plot development. A more effective approach would have been to focus on two or three key aspects and delve deeper into them.

Although Jiang Nan and Shi Jie might have redeemed themselves towards the end, it wasn’t enough for me to applaud them. Otherwise, this drama is mainly for the eye candy and gratuitous intrigue.

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When the cross-dresser steals the spotlight and your skincare routine.

I was intrigued by this drama the moment I saw the trailer—cross-dressing man meets tomboyish woman? Yes, it’s a rom-com cliché, but sometimes I need a palate cleanser from all the emotional carnage of melodramas. The premise promised light-hearted chaos with a dash of gender play, and I was ready to indulge. What I didn’t expect was how much of that indulgence would come from simply watching Matsumoto Leo steal every scene with his fashion game.

What really surprised me was Matsumoto Leo. I’ve seen him floating around as a supporting actor in a few BL dramas, so I didn’t expect this level of transformation. But damn, he owned it. He looked so good in those feminine outfits that I found myself genuinely jealous — the styling, the grace, the confidence. Matsumoto didn’t just cross-dress; he embodied the role with both charm and sincerity. I spent half the drama just admiring his fashion game and the effortless way he carried himself. He was easily the standout — the kind of actor who makes you rethink how underused he’s been in past roles.

Osaki Ichika as Haruka had her moments too. I liked the concept of her character — a rough-around-the-edges tomboy with a heart of gold — but sometimes her acting tilted a little too far into over-the-top territory. She was much more engaging when she wasn’t trying so hard to impress Kurotaki. Maybe it’s the writing, maybe it’s the direction, but Haruka worked best when she was just being herself, not performing femininity for someone else’s approval. Still, Ichika had good chemistry with Matsumoto in the early episodes, and that’s what carried the show for me.

Surprisingly, the supporting cast added real texture. They weren’t just filler—they were flawed, funny, and occasionally endearing. It’s rare to see side characters who feel like they have lives outside the main plot, and Cinderella Closet gave them just enough dimension to matter.

The only letdown for me came toward the end. The romantic chemistry between Haruka and Hikaru fizzled out, and the rushed time skip didn’t help. I actually preferred them as best friends who uplifted each other rather than as lovers forced into a predictable ending. Hikaru seemed more authentic and confident presenting as a woman, and that aspect of identity was far more compelling than the sudden romance. And let’s be honest—the “kiss” that wasn’t really a kiss didn’t help sell the connection. If you’re going to pivot into romance, at least commit to the emotional and physical payoff. Still, I appreciate how they brought out each other’s growth — even if it came at the cost of what made them so unique. I just wish the drama had trusted that to be enough.

Cinderella Closet might not be groundbreaking, but it’s stylish, sweet, and unexpectedly thoughtful — a cozy fairytale about finding yourself, even if the glass slipper doesn’t quite fit at the end.

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A slow burn with dreamy vibes and a finale that forgot the match

I am not much of a fan of time splits, time travel or variation of the sort, but the premise of this drama sounded promising. In the beginning, I enjoyed the banter between the leads. Z. Tao carries enough pizzazz as the domineering boss whose mission in life is to torment his employee/former classmate/ex-rival/secret crush. Song Zu Er, on the other hand, was inconsistent. Sometimes, her portrayal of Qian Wei can come off as whiney and unlikeable, but I wasn’t sure if that’s the way her character was written, or if the acting wasn’t up to par.

Adding to my initial annoyance is this self-proclaimed hero, Li Chong Wen. As far as Second lead goes, he’s not exactly a formidable contender, except perhaps that the ML should learn from his persistence. Probably if we mix Chong Wen and Lu Xun’s personalities, we would find ourselves somebody more balanced. But it is what it is, and despite saying that, he’s not the worst SML in the history of SMLs.

The rest of the characters were not very memorable for me, and through no fault of the cast. They were mostly fillers in the drama whose roles were only to propel the plot of the protagonists’ forward. The only saving grace here really is Lu Xun’s character. His quiet, and yet unwavering support of Qian Wei over the years, was equally sweet and heartbreaking to watch. Although he’s prickly and seems indifferent sometimes, he actually cares a lot about Qian Wei.

The story progressed naturally until Qian Wei wakes up from the coma. From here, you can see all the efforts she tried to get Lu Xun to confess his feelings. But instead of confronting him outright, she employed some sneaky tactics to achieve her goal. I temporarily lost interest at this point. Instead of trying to confirm his feelings for her, I think she should show more reciprocity to do things for him as he did for her all these years. Although she attempted to do so, work-wise, helping him with the case; outside of this, there’s very little else to show that she indeed fell in love with him out of her own accord, and not because of him being nice to her.

After finishing this drama, I felt it somehow anticlimactic. While the drama was in the coma state, I couldn’t wait for Qian Wei to wake up. But once she did, I couldn’t wait for them to go back to that dream state. Although this drama isn’t bad, you will have to suspend your disbelief and just go with the flow in order to make sense of it.

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