tw_4ever

What a shame he turned out be a CCP-loving renminbi worshipping ass kisser. Tear up your Taiwanese ID and move to China instead if you love them so much!

I actually don't find Taiwanese BLs all that great. The acting and dialogue delivery is usually subpar, and the storylines border on the ridiculous. I often find that they're horribly miscast as well - the actors don't even come close to passing for their character's supposed age. For me, Korean BLs are still a league above the rest.

Taiwanese cinema on the other hand have a consistent record of putting out solid films. In that regard, I much prefer watching a good Taiwanese film then pushing my way through an entire BL series.

A really beautiful film. I like to think that while South Korea is globally known for k-pop and k-drama and Japan is renowned for anime and manga, Taiwan has managed to find its own little niche with its filmmaking especially in the LGBTI field. We first had "Your Name Engraved Herein", then "Marry my Dead Body", and now 2024's "A Balloon's Landing" - three different films each poignant in their own different ways.

For those questioning whether this is BL or not, I think Fandy Fan's character literally sums up the entire film in the last act when he says "Tian Yu, you have come through a thousand years to meet the destined one, and then returned." I really don't think it gets much clearer than this! A story of two lost souls who are fated for each other, the gender of the two characters really isn't the point of the movie. That we get two stellar performances from two actors who understood their characters is just the cherry on the cake.

I also quite like that the fantasy elements of the film - the red letter box and how the letters changed the timeline - wasn't really emphasized in the film and that they didn't spend too much time trying to explain the unexplainable. Perhaps as it was for the most part set in modern day Taiwan with scenes of its idyllic coastline, it would have been hard for us Taiwanese to suspend disbelief when we are so used to the norm - such as that tour group at Saint Ocean Bay which I thought was hilarious!

Two other things I liked:
1. ) At 24.09 when they both had their arms out the car window, Tian Yu simply holds his arm out while A Xiang is rolling his arms like a wave. It was a nice way to show their different personalities.
2.) The last scene in the train with Leslie Cheung's A Balloon's Journey playing the background and the two characters finally meeting again was so cinematic. A really great ending scene.

And finally, my favourite quote in the movie:
天使, 收到請回信
😭😭😭

Minseon just nonchalantly walking by: Jaesung cries more than I thought. Ah... will I cry that much when I get older?

AAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAAHAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There's a couple of old Tik Toks floating around of MK and YJ being playfully intimate with one another from years ago. When you see those clips contrasted with what's happening between them now, it's clear something drastic must have happened between them for YJ to have cut contact with MK completely. For MK to walk into the house on his first day and come face to face with the person who ghosted him for over a year would have been really hard. Then it becomes easier to understand and sympathise with his perspective because I think deep down inside he just wants to know what he did so wrong for YJ to have cut him out of his life completely, especially when it's clear that MK still has residual feelings for YJ. He just isn't good at expressing himself.

AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I don't know why but I found MG just casually eating his way through a whole giant snack while YJ was going off at him to be hilarious!! 🤣🤣🤣

The last BLs I watched from Thailand were
Bed Friends.
Middle Man's Love, and
Love Syndrome.
and I literally couldn't sit through any of these, didn't bother finishing.
Currently watching The Sign which is quite good.

The last BLs I watched from Taiwan were
Kiseki Dear to Me, and
Plus and Minus
both of which were pretty average. Nothing spectacular.

The last BLs I watched from Japan were
More Than Words,
and Mr Unlucky Has No Choice but to Kiss (rewatch)
More Than Words is amazing, though probably not everyone's cup of tea.

The last BLs I watched from Korea were
Our Dating SIM,
Bleuming,
Choco Milk Shake,
and Love for Love's Sake.
These were clearly leagues above the rest, at least for me.

For me the country that produces the best BL shows by far is Korea, followed by Japan, Taiwan and then Thailand. Who would have thought that the most conservative of these 4 countries would now be giving us the most solidly written, beautifully acted, and beautifully filmed shows? If only Thai BLs could learn from Korea!

Episode 11 was a really poignant episode, especially with the anonymous chatrooms.

In my opinion....
I don't know if others picked up on this, but the person who Seon Woo was most attracted to right from the start was actually Jun Seong. Seon Woo was never really attracted to the clean cut, cute or fresh type. I always felt that he only expressed interest in Sung Ho simply as a way to try and attract Jun Seong's attention, which ironically he did when JS started seeing him as a rival, and that his sadness at the end was in losing them both.

This season was so much more complex in many different ways than the first season. It almost felt like we were able to watch some of these contestants go through a full journey, from beginning, middle and end, all in the span of a short, short week.

Dropped this after the first few episodes and not just that, it made me start to completely lose interest in Net and James, probably the only ship that I was following. Sorry, having pretty faces for your actors just doesn't cut it - Thai BLs consistently show that they are incapable of solid storytelling, let alone addressing such serious topics as sexual assault and rape which in the case of this drama just trivializes it into lame plot devices.
Both Net and James need to broaden their acting versatility, I honestly couldn't tell the difference between their acting in "Catch Me Baby" and their acting here, they might as well have been playing the same character i.e. themselves. Being young and good-looking doesn't make you a star (even though I'm starting to feel that's all you need in the Thai industry.) I'll give Middlemen's Love a try but I'm seriously not holding my breath.....

After having just binge-watched the whole of "Our Dating Sim" plus the first two episodes of "The Eighth Sense", I'm literally just fast forwarding my way through this mess of a show....

In Episode 7 when Makki leaves before the baby is born, how much time passes before he sees Mieko and Eiji again?

Cute little film to wrap up the series but not much to it either. There was no real conflict and not much of a story, the trailer makes it seem like Adachi's job transfer is the main storyline but it literally only takes up 30 minutes of the film. The supporting characters also have very little screen time as well which was a shame as Adachi's relationship with each of them was what helped make the series so enjoyable.

This is in my opinion one of the most beautifully crafted BLs released to date, everything about it - the cinematography, the lighting, the color palette, the acting, the story - is on a level that few other BLs have reached (in my opinion.) I know a lot of people here were expecting and wanting something light and fluffy but you would probably be better off sticking to the Thai BLs if that's more up your alley.
But honestly, if you pay attention, the clues are right there before your eyes. The main story in this season is not about Seo Joo's heartbreak, it's about Ji Woo's. And his heartbreak is not for his ex-gf. JW's decision to make a clean break from SJ probably hurt him more than Seo Joo, and the final episodes of the season will finally reveal why.