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i was planning to drop this but eps 4&5 werent half bad. i like hae ge and his very expressive eyes, and the leads interactions feel more natural

my theory is that sometimes lower budget productions end up having more/longer episodes because they dont have editors to tell them to cut down lmao

thank you so much for playing, i also really enjoy your quizzes!!

i havent read the book but honestly i think this portrayal of fang chi is even more insidious because he comes across as well-meaning enough to where you almost forget how incredibly controlling and manipulative hes being. like is he really helping gao zhun heal or is he just making him 100% dependent on him

the constant flash forwards and flashbacks are incredibly confusing i have no idea where their relationship stands but i guess theyre back together(?). also not sure how i feel about the reveal the luqing was trying to protect xiaofan like its giving noble idiot. i think his friend put it best like why couldnt he just tell xiaofan about his mom and spare him the humiliation rituals

glad you think so! mdl does not make it easy to make these kinds of quizzes so i had to get creative. i definitely have a newfound appreciation for quizmakers haha it's so much trial and error

i really liked this at the start. the leads had great chemistry . however somewhere along the way it lost the plot. the time skip at the end completely killed any momentum. it feels like they couldve fit an entire season in what was skipped. like whats the point of an epilogue when the main story is still unresolved? the entirety of episode 7 rang hollow and it didnt help that their interactions suddenly felt insincere (and not even because of the lack of intimacy). disappointed because this felt really special at the start but fizzled out just like flat soda

the effort is admirable but this was way too short for the story they were trying to tell. it took several episodes for me to make even a bit of sense of what was going on and by the end i still felt befuddled. even the bl parts just felt randomly sprinkled in when i didnt understand the stakes or really cared about the characters at all. still there was at least some interesting cinematography and an intriguing plot

youre not alone i guess i should make the next easier haha. and thank you for playing!!

also at this point the son aka mr song seems so suspicious it feels like a red herring. he definitely had something to do with the koryoin man's body being disposed of, but im not sure hes a murderer just yet, especially since he couldnt have possibly murdered the husband and the obgyn. im interested to see where things go because hes expressed resentment for both his parents. so i wonder if it turns out he has information on the real killer(s)

eps 7&8 were really good! i like how we're getting more of the investigation and all the different threads. and of course i cant get enough of their dynamic like the two-way devotion of it all

thank you so much for playing!!

these are fun! though i have to make a lot of educated guesses haha

very short but very sweet. i really love snapshots of stories like these that show sometimes less is more. characters felt very believable and good performances from the actors

i think this is decently compelling as far as found family goes but not so much as a romance... i think theres just not enough chemistry/buildup to them becoming lovers and the romance always felt very one-sided. still i liked the characters especially wei qian (and felt bad the way his siblings were stressing him out the entire time lmao). overall the show is well-put together i just expected more from their relationship

this was pretty cute overall but the plot suffers from some weird pacing and editing. scenes often feel randomly strung together like something will happen at the end of one scene and the characters act like nothing happened in the next. i also dont know what was up with that tacky fade effect used 80% of the time. i think the ending wouldve landed better with a couple more episodes because it felt like certain conflicts were resolved way too easily

i wish id trusted my gut and skipped this one. i was somewhat interested at the start but the whole "director who buys me dinner" part is literally for like 2 episodes before the plot goes off the rails and is downright incomprehensible. character motivations make zero sense. it feels like they went with the first draft, first take etc. for everything... the only saving grace is actors that are pretty to look at and some good bits here and there.

im conflicted about this. while i liked the premise and setup there were a lot of strange pacing and editing choices especially in the first half. it feels like we speedran through what shouldve been crucial development of the leads relationship by fast forwarding through the shooting days. like we went from pei jia not caring about xiao su at all to suddenly having a crush on him in the span of a single episode. then once the main antagonist is revealed this started to feel more like a drama about abuse in the entertainment industry than a bl. still though it deals with some very heavy topics i think they were handled with grace, and what love story is there is deeply moving and impactful. overall id say i liked it but it takes a couple episodes to really find its footing

great analysis as usual!! youve even inspired me to start (over)analyzing the episodes hahaha. i really like your reading of the private and public narrative and how perception is everything. that reminds me of the scene where the girlfriend sees them holding hands and later dismisses it as just fanservice for the film (even though they were alone at a hotel lol). it almost feels like they re already setting up how zhang zhun and zhen xin's relationship is going to be explained away and/or buried by the press. theres a cruel irony in the fact that in the same episode where they start being more openly affectionate with each other, confess, agree to break up with their girlfriends - all the signs of them becoming official - we get the bombshell right at the end. im equal parts anxious and excited for the upcoming eps!

- the opening scene: i find it interesting the way we transition out of movie mode before the scene is actually over and the director yells "cut!" fang chi is on the phone hearing gao zhun's vo, and yet we focus on zhang zhun's face. why? (this goes into my next point)

- the next "Cut!": i see now the intention in having so many episodes focusing on the film back to back; it trained us the viewers to get used to seeing the very clear transition + aspect ratio change whenever we switch to the movie story. but the next scene they start filming, there is no transition. as the scene went on, i realized this was the first time i genuinely couldnt tell whether it was gao zhun and fang chi or zhang zhun and zhen xin in control. lo and behold, when the director yells "cut!" he immediately slips up and says zhang zhun's name when he meant to say gao zhun. if even the director is losing the plot... i just love how this moment shows how the line between the film and reality is now eroded beyond repair.

- the distinction between wives and girlfriends + their autonomy (or lack thereof): zhang zhun's conversation with his senior sets up a great bait and switch at the end of episode. up til now the elephant in the room that was both leads' girlfriends felt like chekhov's gun ready to go off. but this convo tells us that unlike wives, girlfriends are an easy to problem to solve in bl land. they just need to break up. so when our favorite cheaters finally confess their feelings we expect the girls to fade away offscreen again. which seems to be exactly what happens as zhang zhun's girlfriend accepts that her drink was too strong and shes better off with another one... but zhen xin's girlfriend instead literally flips the script on its head; now she *is* the main character as far as the public is concerned. im usually not a fan of the clingy scheming girlfriend trope, but the execution of that last minute twist was just too good.

- more parallels between gz/fc and zz/zx: as always i enjoy the parallels between the two couples and how their progression is inextricably linked. eps 6&7 sees both of them reaching the point of no return and crossing over into (ab)normal relationships. its not nearly as simple as patient-therapist and costars anymore.

- post credits scene: zhang zhun's question about intimate dreams is another tell that zhen xin wasnt the only one too deep in. shoutout to @oddsare for pointing out how the red dream from ep 5 was as much representative of zhang zhun's feelings as it was gao zhun's.