twiz aka unagibento

If you love a bodyguard romance, or beautiful scenic vistas (where exactly was their castle filmed, anyone know??) or just women dressed to the 9's Jackie O-style, then this is a drama for you. Honestly the first episodes sold me because Alice was so tough! I loved that they made her as competent fight-wise as the ML. It's such a refresher after so many weak heroines. However, this should be tagged as slow burn, because it is the slowest, most chaste romance I've seen in quite awhile. It's very sweet, and if not for some more intense action scenes, it could be family-rated. Sara also did a fantastic job as Princess Kate, a way better role than the one I'm currently seeing her in on Theory of Love, so there's that, too. I love the main pair and want to see more of their dramas together.

"I don't want to love you anymore. It hurts!" Man, I felt that line in my soul. This show is like pure distilled misery. Even though I'm really rooting for this couple to go their separate ways in the last episode, I do commend this show for its quality and hitting every single emotional raw nerve. It's more than sad, it's triggering. Sometimes I don't even remember what past miserable crush/relationship made me feel a similar way, but I clearly recall how that pain *felt* and this show pushes all of those buttons. Apparently this is a 12 episode cautionary tale. I hope Two's love works out, and I'm going to need a seriously happy BL series to follow this up with.

I loved the first episode! I'm glad it's starting off as good as it looked in the trailer. Not gonna lie, it felt like Christmas came early when that dancing started about 5 minutes in. :) Watching this while it airs will be so painful but oh well. The english subs appeared on the official youtube vids on Monday after a Friday airing, so I probably won't bother checking before Monday every week.

Whew, I may need to go back and watch that fight again. That whole office scene went from 0 to bananas fast. I love Ke Huan and want the happy ending for them, but I also think he needs to take the smallest step back further and let WeiWei breathe for a second. She's going through a really messy breakup after a 3 year relationship. I know he wants to be there for her, but also maybe don't call her multiple times on the day you got in a fist fight with her ex at her office? A part of it feels like fear/insecurity that she'll slip away, but he's in danger of being the rebound boy. You don't want to get your dream girl on the rebound, or YOU might be the next guy she needs to step back from so she can clear her head and figure out what she wants. Let her come to you!

This is a fluffy watch for sure, but fun. The title sums up pretty well what you're going to get. Fon's childish FL character is a bit grating in the first few eps, but the chemistry with Fon and Mond is so good, and her character mellows out around the 3rd episode. Overall, both couples have great chemistry. Lee is a pretty guy, but damn, I kept cutting my eyes on Mond's abs... I think I'm watching Fabulous 30 after this to see more of him right away! If you're more musically inclined, you might appreciate some of the songs, but those parts were a bit draggy for me. I got a kick out of Liz's hair changing from brown to black several times an episode/scene: apparently it was filmed out of order, and the actress seemed to have changed her hair color halfway through (I prefer the black, personally :p). And yes, on the official GMM TV Youtube streams, parts 3&4 of the last episode (12) appear to be missing subs, but if you closely watch the scene previews at the end of parts 1&2, it's very apparent what's happening. I feel like I only missed a bit of banter, but I caught everything that was happening.

I'll set aside a meager 2 cents of sympathy for Hao Yi. It is super annoying when people show up in the middle of your work without notice, especially if it requires lengthy airport pickups. WeiWei only showed up out of guilty panic because she could subconsciously feel her relationship ending. Moving on. But having seen him at the karaoke club, it's obvious what little value Hao Yi has for her. That's how it is when you just don't care about your partner anymore. Everything they do annoys you, and you can treat everyone else as worth your time. I'm so glad she went back to Taipei and moved out! And he was financially stupid - it sounds like he maybe took out a 2nd mortgage to invest in his new company? Are you #$%&^ serious?! He should be glad WeiWei left without drawing blood. But did everyone see the preview for Ep 11?! OMG the tall tales that WeiWei is shouting at Hao Yi. No wonder he and Ke Huan get in a fist fight!

Thanks for explaining this! I was excited for this but super bummed that Earth won't be in it.

I agree with one of the reviews filing this under something to watch when you don't have something else to watch, but mildly enjoyable. The comments on this are really, really mixed and left me expecting way worse while watching. Oat/Pop while their story is a VERY slow burn, I really enjoyed them by the end. Their 2nd kiss was really good! I was a little frustrated at where this couple left off and annoyed that I may have to watch S2 to see more of them, because S2 by all accounts is awful. I think Pent was really fascinating as a chaotic element. Pree & Rambo do have some explicit love scenes, but with BL whenever I see shock about "explicit" I can divide comments into 2 groups: those who've seen Like Love and those who haven't, hah. Anyway, I appreciated the darker, mature story line of this couple and applaud them for their acting in some difficult, truly miserable emotional scenes. Afterwards I did peek into a bit of the behind the scenes drama with this couple's actors, Mew & Art, and... yikes. That's enough youtube for me today. So overall, not amazing, but not terrible, watch when you're bored and don't watch it at work. :p

"Pent aka Serpent- don't ever change you whore bag ^_^ you may not have a ton of fans but I like you, I like you a lot" lol same

However, Choi Jin Hyuk's departure really bummed me out. From scanning the comments below, it sounds like the show was extended and he couldn't commit to ~2ish more episodes due to schedule conflicts? Still, really? NOT EVEN 2 EPISODES?!! I was exasperated at how his end was done, such an anti-climax, and there may have been a few better ways to do it (pretend to be dead, have him send a letter and later reuniting with his love interest after the dust settled), but oh well. OUTSIDE of that, I think it finished up strongly enough on all other loose ends, though I was surprised with Yu Ra's fate, too.

Sam-I-Am's review above really sold me on this show, and this show definitely delivered on the crazy! Otherwise the premise never would have caught me, even though I love Jang Na Ra. You really have to go into it knowing that it's bananas and an absolutely outrageous makjang. But the opponents were so well-matched, and I can't count how many times I outright screamed at my television, even when a villain was triumphant (maybe especially so). It kept up that energy until the end, even though one character's end bummed me out (I'll note below). Maybe it was my constant screeching but I got two other family members who never watch kdrama watching this with me until the end.

While the final episodes moments with AePete were a bit slow and dragging, I REALLY loved watching them develop as a couple. I usually avoid series that I know will have syrupy sweet romances (I like mine a little darker and more tense), Perth (Ae) played the part of a completely non-self aware guy amazingly. "Guys who don't realize they're gay/bi but can't stop flirting with their friend" should be a searchable sub-genre of BL on MDL, lol. The TinCan story... there's a lot to unpack. The writers were definitely a bit heavy-handed on that ending. They could have left it at them being friends, and I'd have been satisfied, because that's just real life, sometimes. At least Can was upfront about his own confusion. Tin needed 2 things to get over his trust issues - love but most importantly, friends, and the latter didn't really develop. I think he tried to make Can all of those things at once, and that's a lot of pressure. He stole kisses all day, but Can looked unsure for 90% of them (except the last 2), and not everyone falls for a person just because you kiss them and give them what they want (food). For me, I want Tin to have SOMEONE but even though he liked Can and had chemistry, I don't think it was enough on Can's side. Can was emotionally immature, and honestly, he struck me as an asexual character. He cared about food, and his friends, defending them, sports, and not much else. His back and forth with Tin, while interesting, just left him looking mostly confused. Not all confusion pans out to be enough for a relationship. Tin needs to open up and try having genuine friendships before love, but that awful ending looked like he's back to square 1 with trusting no one.

I usually ignore little specials like this, but it was nice to spend more time with them, and it gave it a more satisfying finish than the end of the series.

Ping Jun's talk with Han Fei at the end was so touching. It was worth the watch. Imagine meeting someone and having that kind of spark, and when you meet again it's like no time has passed! So many people wish for that. After the first encounter, the story slooooows down, like you're going to know everything about both couples' everyday lives before it speeds up again. It was probably for the best, because it shows that love isn't black and white, and a lot of steps and pain go into the decision stay together or move on.

The sad version was a bit of cruel slap in the face, so I'll take what I can get with the "happy" version , though I still felt like... was that really a happy ending? I guess? Kind of unnecessarily complicated? After watching Part 1, I feel like I loved this story riiiight up until they kissed (I hear this might have been excluded in the non-happy version) and the kiss just felt so underwhelming and stiff. With all the restrained attention Xie Yan was dishing out in Part 1, I was so sure the kiss would be an explosive passion fit for both of them, but Shu Nian looked stiff in every "consensual" physical contact for the rest of Part 2. Was I the only one that felt Xia Jun's whole storyline was unnecessary? When she reappeared in this Part 2, the entire plot just got confused and murky. I was a bit disappointed, since she looked so intriguing and mysterious that I thought she'd contribute more to the plot! Is she an idol that I don't know about and was just there to draw viewers? Her story fell so flat and then dropped off the map. The ending was.. . what? why? They could have saved a few bucks on special effects makeup for a twist that no one wanted. Why do gay relationships still have to be punished in "happy" endings?

Rating this one separately from Pt. 2, which I have different feelings about (the happy ending version). Part 1 was my favorite. So many feels, and very well executed. Shu Nian suffering from the pain/pleasure of Xie Yan's attention was so beautifully done. Jiang Yao wasn't too overdone as a villain, and Ke Luo was just the right level of competition without confusing it too much. Seriously, I loved this first half so much.

...Not at all.

The leads' personalities complemented each other very well. A lot of folks mention Mai Ding's annoying personality, but I think Zi Yan's calm confidence really foiled it well. They have a bit of a Dom/sub dynamic going on that's sexy, although a few times it felt more like Mai Ding was venturing into littles territory, hah. The love scenes are pretty graphic if you're watching the uncut. I wish so much of S2 hadn't been devoted to family strife, but it makes more sense considering there was supposed to be a S3 that was cancelled. The writers probably thought they had a lot of time for more story. :( S2 ends in a weird cliffhanger and I wish I'd stopped watching right after the family drama was resolved so the ending could feel more satisfying. I liked the couple, but not enough to hunt down the books.

Just caught up on episode 9, and I still feel how I did around episode 4 - like I'm watching an emotional trainwreck in slow motion. The production value/acting is so good, but the relationship between Third and Khai is so toxic, even from a pure friendship perspective. Third deserves to experience a healthy love somewhere else, so that he can come back and make an honest evaluation of what Khai is offering. And Khai needs therapy to figure out himself so he can be a worthwhile partner to anyone at all; just discovering you've fallen for someone you've emotionally abused for years is not personal development. I feel dread for any in the audience caught in their own toxic dynamics like this IRL and seeing this as hope that their own crush/relationship will stop being toxic. Third cried like 3-4 times an episode for most of this show (superb acting), but if this is your experience in real life, RUN. I want good things for both Third and Khai, but not each other. I'm also not feeling their chemistry together. I mean, I guess if by "chemistry" you mean "pain" then I guess? They have good pain chemistry?

This was a lot of fun, with the spiciest opening scene ever! I enjoyed all of the characters, and Yihwa was the absolute BEST. I really want to see more with her character, but I'm going to actually follow the advice in the comments for once and leave both Bad Romance and the Next Chapter related series alone, as it sounds like the continuity is inconsistent, and some other issues.