Whew, 3 episodes and we're 800+ comments deep! Usually the fun part about watching currently airing shows is dropping by the page each week and discussing the last episode, but there's so many emotions in here that I'm beginning to dread scrolling down... yikes. It's a rollercoaster of feelings, so I'm just dropping by to remind everyone to take care of yourselves and not burn out your emotional labor in comments! Life on the internet can be just as exhausting as real life. Enjoy your week!
I went back and watched Part 2 of Episode 2 again, because there were some comments about the fine line this show is treading between flirting and Type's trauma. The changing moods of the scene are more apparent on a second watch for me: 1) Type, angry and embarrassed at being almost "caught" doing something in the room, lashes out at Tharn and insult's Tharn's dad AND Tharn's sexuality to deflect. 2) Tharn, just talking regular smack up to this point, is now actually mad, and gets in Type's face, holding him down to see if Type is brave enough to insult his dad again and daring Type to kick him. 3) Type is still trying to act tough but is now triggered by being restrained by Tharn. But Tharn thinks that Type is just backing down from a fight and possibly fighting a little attraction. 4)Tharn sees Type's hands moving on him and misinterprets these touches, and his own attraction kicks in. He starts making a real move on Type, offering to help Type "relax" thinking he's just dealing with shyness, and caresses Type, while also moving close for maybe a kiss. 5) Type is now fully triggered and actually thinking of his past trauma, and pleads Tharn to not harm him. 6) Tharn now looks at Type's face and realizes something is wrong, backs off and asks Type if he's okay, but Type is back to acting tough again, and lashes out.
Tharn's actions don't seem that out of hand when considering he's completely ignorant of Type's trauma, and thinks it's just a battle of wills where he can use flirting to his advantage, because he hopes Type actually returns his feelings eventually. I'm dreading when Tharn finds out the truth because it'll probably devastate him, but also hoping for it so he'll understand what's going on.
Random question: is there an easy way to determine which GMM One shows go to Line and which ones show on Youtube? I follow the YT channel but I'd love to have a way to spot which other shows Line will post links for their international audience without scrolling Line's twitter feed endlessly...
Shout-out to Mae for finishing that up (even though how did she know where they were..?)."Can't I love you both…
But as a glasses wearer, 10 episodes with Shin having his glasses nearly falling off his nose, peering over them like a old man with bifocals has been suuuuuch a peeve for me. Are those readers or what? Ugh when you have money there's no reason to not have your glasses adjusted!
Well, that was something else. This was also my first encounter with pansori narration, so it took me a minute to get used to it. I want to look up the historical figure this was based on, as well. Very, very raunchy explicitness, but also a high production value - it was well-done, but even as a "mature" movie vet, it can be difficult to sit through without blinking. Like another commenter noted, you can feel the satire/dark comedy in some points. There were a lot of beautiful scenes around Dan Hee and Im Sung. However, I watched a copy with absolutely awful subtitles, so I'm hoping to watch it again with better ones.
Am I the only one who found it kind of funny in a satire way?
I definitely found it satirical, especially when the women were getting lectured/trained - seems like they were aiming for that in certain parts of the movie, for sure.
I'm not sure why "extreme sexual content" is a tag here: if this is extreme for you, you might want to compare it to Empire of Lust, Royal Concubine or even Obsessed, none of which use this tag. I'm guessing it's an inconsistently used tag. Anyway, I liked the first third of this movie the best. It's a fascinating look at a fledgling actor, and how method acting can go wrong (or right). They did a good job of laying out his flaws, and it was darkly amusing. The rest of the movie was okay, but didn't strike me as much. His downfall was a little predictable, but they did an interesting job of framing it in an almost Greek tragedy kind of way by the end.
Took me a little bit to figure out what soured this movie for me. By having Hong Rim in the end declare he never loved the King, it threw into question his identity as a bisexual character, given the power imbalance in their relationship, and sets you up wonder if he had any agency at all in becoming the King's lover. Why just say, "I don't love you any more" or "Not as much as I love her"? More importantly, having Hong Rim fall for the first woman he sleeps with feels like this film is darkly whispering that old "maybe you just haven't found the right person" theory that's thrown in the face of a lot of the LGBT community as a way to question the validity of their identity. So, they made Hong Rim's romance with the King possibly non-existent, and also set up the one true gay character in the film as the villain. Not that this situation could *never* have happened, it's just not a good look, and icked me out.
Okay so... I'll add my generic thoughts here then a spoiler in another comment. The set was beautiful, the costumes…
Somewhere below this was confirmed as a happy ending, and I should have read down further because that's debatable. The last 10 episodes should have been titled "Court Politics: You can't fix stupid." Which is fine, it wasn't badly done, just frustrating. But the last couple episodes stopped making sense to me. Honestly, I was rooting more for the Empress and Lang Kun more than the main leads, so that was such a punch in the gut. I wanted them to retreat to that beautiful place he built for her. Ugh... just why? It felt like a pointless loss. Also, Ning leaving that tiny child *alone* to go into exile over public sentiment that would have faded eventually, if the Emperor gave a tax break regardless, makes zero sense. Seeing how vulnerable the Emperor had been as a grown man, why would she leave at the risk that the wrong person might influence a child that way? And then 10 years in exile wasted, not contributing in any way? TEN YEARS? I'd forgotten how much time jumps annoy me in romance. It happens whenever there's social taboo involved in the romance (older woman/younger man, one or both were married or widowed, somehow "belonging" to someone else, etc) like they need to serve prison time apart before they're allowed to enjoy their romance. And not even an embrace at the end? Even Chinese BL or "bromance" dramas have more romantic endings, and that's saying a lot. Rant over now.
Okay so... I'll add my generic thoughts here then a spoiler in another comment. The set was beautiful, the costumes gorgeous, and by the halfway point I was wondering why I was not taking full advantage of all the red lipstick I've burned money on. Like a reviewer said above, this is great for strategy and court intrigue, but the romance is quiet. It develops quickly but stays quiet, so I wouldn't watch for just the romance. I also forgot how exhausting historical dramas can be. I even took a *long* break at the midpoint for a few months, and I still feel tired. I wouldn't call this a binge watch, more of a slow watch when you want something pretty and quiet as a break from other shows.
Definitely an oddball dark comedy. There were some amusing moments, but also some where I wondered if I should go watch something else. Some vampire-themed works are more on the squeamish side, and this was one, for me. This is not usually my genre, but I was pulled in by the taboo romance theme. Since the story was a bit bold, I was surprised when it fell back on well-known trope in vampire stories. It flattened the story a bit for me. I feel like it could have tried something less cliche by the end for a stronger finish.
I wanted to see if I'd agree with the MDL score after watching, and... yep. Just about the score it should have. I love Seung Heon and while it did have some moments that made me spit my drink and I liked the fight scenes, other scenes felt too young, too silly, or just disjointed, especially in the second half where it went into love triangle mode. I'll file it under "needed to have been there" just like "Mary Stayed Out All Night" - a different era, and maybe more relatable to younger viewers. If it were a series instead of just a movie, I would probably have dropped it, and I think it really could have been shorter, too.
Oh... my god. That was just... everything. It was so well executed, and Seung Heon's acting is just *spectacular* in this. You could have replaced the FL with a potted plant and Seung would still convince the audience that the plant is his soulmate. Yes, it's quite explicit with the love scenes, but they're also well-done (but very detailed; I'm always amazed at how kdramas can be so chaste but Korean "mature" movies can be so woah). I love the attention given to the romance. So many stories around infidelity go downhill so quickly and you end up watching a whole movie/series where everyone is absolutely miserable all the time. So if you want to see a powerful, moving love story, watch this, if you can handle the mature content.
Really enjoyable Dom/sub dynamic. The prequel is good but this one is the *best*. Still, I wouldn't skip the other one because it adds context. Then this one dropped a lot of the goofiness and a lot of the FL's too-awkward shyness, and the romance became just plain sexy - I was a little surprised. I could watch this several times - super high rewatch value and maybe in my top 3 movie couples. That final piano scene - ahh.
The most unrealistic thing about this was that woman hugging a fluffy white persian cat in a black outfit with not a cat hair in sight! Anyway, I put off watching this because even though I wanted to see Max & Ten, I didn't want to wade through so many other characters just to see them. Then I found out that BL supercuts are a thing (even GMM puts them out for their own shows), so I made my own by skipping on Netflix to only the Max/Ten scenes because fortune favors the brave, right? (Well, except for that towel dance somewhere in the first couple episodes because lol wait what) *Just* watching the Max/Ten story, it only takes a few hours and is a pretty solid series. The chemistry was off the CHARTS. Neither of them have a single bad angle on camera and they have such charisma that you even smile when they're with love rivals. It was so nice seeing Max again after TWM and even Tul had a couple cameos?! My only gripe is that I wish Max/Ten had gotten about 5 more minutes to their story. It runs nearly up to the credits and is a bit too generic. As though the writers were like, oops, we're out of time...
I watched the BL supercut GMM posted on YT (thanks for posting the link below) just to watch Kao & Pete. It's SO weird seeing both Mild and Tay in these totally different roles than 3 Will Be Free! Kao & Pete are cute, and lol, I swear most of their scenes were with bruises on their faces - I've never seen so many punches thrown in one series, but I have a stronger attachment to other couples. Still, props to GMM for even making that cut of only their scenes - a surprising awareness of their audience.
Tharn's actions don't seem that out of hand when considering he's completely ignorant of Type's trauma, and thinks it's just a battle of wills where he can use flirting to his advantage, because he hopes Type actually returns his feelings eventually. I'm dreading when Tharn finds out the truth because it'll probably devastate him, but also hoping for it so he'll understand what's going on.
"Can't I love you both equally and at the same time?"
YES NEO, YOU CAN. I LOVE ALL THREE OF YOU