very sweet, but too short!
there are so many great factors to this series, but the most important one is the casting! both of the leads had incredible chemistry together, and they delivered in so many great ways in such a short time. it saddens me that this series was so short, and that we still have these small studios doing such heavy lifting when it comes to queer media in south korea. they have some of the most interesting stories, with some great castings, but ultimately are limited on how much they can do.as far as the story itself goes, it had some tropes that i personally would love to see more: older characters! there is a lot of college and university based series, and this story revolving around professional workplace situations and matured characters (in every sense), felt refreshing.
i hope that people can support the studio directly so we can get more great series from them with longer productions. we can take the initiative to get these studios funded, it's just a matter of putting in the work. i would love to see these actors get more work, both in queer media and outside of it. they both worked incredibly well and created a lasting impression!
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
loses focus, both on itself and with viewers
the way this series was produced makes the story feel like it's growth and development were not let to fully take place. there's a lot to these characters and their background that keeps getting presented in a way that doesn't allow for much of an emotional or informed audience. i understand what they were trying to do, but i think they relied too much on telling the present story through memories of the past and during it they lost a lot of the intensity, confusion, passion, fear, love, and affection that we were supposed to see.because of this, it's hard for the viewers to really understand highly emotional moments. times like that initial reunion, the food, gifts, or just even the tension are kind of flat since there really isn't much to go off of in regards to their relationship or history.
it was not a bad story overall, but wanting to keep surprising the audience just got boring and made everything a lot more anti-climactic for me. i would have rather seen them grow together and apart then heal from their misunderstandings. this is like getting a story through a game of telephone, except the lines are crossed and you don't actually know where you are in terms of the story.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
a gem in the rough, but a gem nonetheless
though the story starts off slow, confusing, and a little awkward, this series gets better as it progresses. i do also think we have to take into consideration the time that this was filmed in, there was COVID going on, restrictions in group gatherings, and a generally pretty rookie cast.you really see a lot of the challenges this production had to work with, especially in regards to the games, crowds, and how they used it to portray "loneliness" on the court. i wish they had gotten the chance to film this without a pandemic going on, but they honestly did a great job despite it all. i also think the cast, despite being pretty new overall, did a great job.
the only downside of this, is that the time skips were very jarring. one episode thorn gets hurt, and the next one he's already had a surgery (that he doesn't seem to be using any recovery medical equipment for?) and it felt like i missed an entire episode. honestly, i had to make sure i didn't actually skip anything... still, it was a great watch, and i think it highlighted the complexities that come in sports and relationships well.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
full of humanity in all it's forms
some films that give a gloss over feelings, but White Night brings you along into a whirlwind of chaos revolving one person's struggles, humanity, and an internal battles. it's the good with a lot of the bad, and the feeling of watching self-destruction take the wheel.the story focuses on one person, wongyu, his pain and journey through processing the trauma he has gone through. though there is no sugarcoating to any of this, his one night stand brings him the grace he had not been given by anyone else. you can see the recognition of kindness, how it's foreign to him after going completely numb to the world, and how he holds back from any kind of expectations. yet, this person, a virtual stranger, keeps coming back to him and keeps being the one to support him in exacting some pain onto the people that have destroyed a part of him that he won't ever get back.
he had hoped things would be the same, at least that is my guess, so when he returns and taejoon has moved on, wongyu's tears are what i interpret as regret. regret that he didn't call taejoon when he left or afterwards as years went by. even as he's grown, the trauma and pain still haunts wongyu and i think that also reflects the untold and unacknowledged discrimination and hate that the lgbtq+ community in south korea goes through even up to this day as not much has changed to help protect victims of discrimination, attacks, and homophobia. (and yes, this continues to be a worlwide issue)
this film is a journey from beginning to end. we get the fear, pain, and helplessness from wongyu but we also get the desperation from taejoon and his anger as well. anger at the world for it's cruelness, frustration with himself for not being able to just walk away, that he is not what the other needs and he's already too emotionally invested, and the feeling helplessness while watching someone struggle to open up again once he learns what wongyu is really doing with the constant back and forth they have going on that night.
the cast is phenomenal and truly gave life to the feelings of these characters to a degree that it makes you go through the rawness of their struggles just within that single night.
Was this review helpful to you?
nothing notable
although i love both of the leads cast here, i can't say this is a good representation of either of their skills in acting. i also do not enjoy the way the story was written/directed here. there's a lot of lack of connection for both the characters, and it's hard to understand how exactly they developed feelings. part of this boils down to just how incredibly short the episodes are, but also the lackluster script & storytelling abilities from the producer.this could've been a lot better, but oh well. it's just a casual watch so i don't recommend this to anyone looking for something engaging or with substance.
Was this review helpful to you?
loses itself too much
although I love the cast, it’s the same issue again as far as writing goes: the story sucked.chemistry is everywhere with everyone, but when the story just never really connects, it turns into a jumbled mess of bits and parts that never really give you the full picture.
the racing ends up being a background detail in general, which I was a little saddened about. we also never really get the full story on any of the characters, not even the main ones, so that was also just incredibly disorienting when trying to come up with theories (you can read the novel, I personally have zero interest in it). most of the characters were as complex as a cotton ball, so I wish the series would’ve changed that at the very least (north and sonic genuinely deserved better). there were a lot of unnecessary parts, but with the ending this series had, I don’t think im interested in a second season here. there’s not really anything left for them to do now, but I am still really impressed with a lot of the cast. Lee in specific I am really excited to see act in more series, he has one of the best scenes in the entire series and it left a huge impression on me.
Was this review helpful to you?
too much
the first episode was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever made myself sit through. it was a constant fight to finish and I kept dropping the show.it took about five episodes for me to see any appeal to tutoryim, though i found leotai a lot more interesting. the script was all kinds of bizarre, the comedy was laid on a bit too heavy for me, and the times I did enjoy anything, it was really just a quick scene and would be over before I knew it.
it may just be that I don’t enjoy this type of comedy, but it bugged me that it had the potential to be a lot better. I do hope to see more of Leo and tai though.
Was this review helpful to you?
realistic to a fault
though it is dated, with some rather questionable language, this movie was easy to fall into. all of the boys did a great job and fell into their roles pretty seamlessly. The lack of a significant budget was visible (and audible) but they made it work. And though it likely was not part of the plan, this made it feel like you’re there hanging out with them too.Overall it was enjoyable, though at the end I wasn’t really sure what was going on. Still, I think this is a good watch if you’re just looking for something to fill a boring night. Found myself laughing at some of their antics, reminded me of my high school days as well with some of the crazy ideas we get as teenagers lol
Was this review helpful to you?
new life to a tiring series
though I personally dropped the Thai original, I found this interpretation entirely more enjoyable! there was some nice, low simmer tension going on between the pairings that didn’t leave me thinking more was needed.though I personally wished we could see a better amount of intimacy (hand holding, conversations, small moments between a couple) I can’t truly complain about the roles.
one thing I kept getting annoyed by was the bad sound engineering. the voiceovers were really loud and not mixed well so they would take me out of the scenes too much.
other than that, I found the series enjoyable! it was kind of funny seeing max & nat too lol. not sure what that was about but they were cute to see.
Was this review helpful to you?
needed a little more time
the story was interesting, and I’m frankly still surprised such young children were allowed to act in this. still, they conveyed the story and emotions very well. i found ren’s younger version to be done incredibly well.as far as the series goes, I think it deserved more time/episodes. it was pretty complex, so it did suffer a little in terms of storytelling. there were too many wrinkles for the audience to truly feel like we got to know these characters or their stories completely. we learned quite a bit about ren, but the same can’t be said about kazuma. I would’ve liked a lot more story wise, but I do think this was very well done overall.
Was this review helpful to you?
too much chaos, not enough connection
this series was hard to get through. there’s a lot of chaos, many unnecessary layers of drama, and characters that kept taking me out of being immersed in the story. Inn did incredible acting that would draw me back in, but the random outbursts of violence against him would sour the good for me. nut was borderline abusive to everyone and I found it hard to feel much sympathy for him most of the time.I do have to admit that the dragging out of the main story made it hard to connect to nut & his feelings. by the time we get the real picture of his life, the show is basically over. maybe I expected a lot more from the constant high praise I see for this series, but I can’t say I feel like I enjoyed this all too much. I am still giving it a high rating because the acting was good. I hated the parents/twins 97% of the time, so that was good on the actors.
overall, a very frustrating series that left me unsure I even connected to any of the characters.
Was this review helpful to you?
A bit of a let-down
I generally like to go into shows completely blind, so you can imagine my surprise when the story barely even advanced. Ping really sold the show for me, so he was the only reason I watched all of it.what bothers me the most about this series is how uninteresting most of the cast is. Bua was also questionable for me, as she was portrayed as being someone plotting something… or I could’ve just had the wrong idea about her… who knows. I’m not that interested in knowing.
what I did truly love was how good both guitar and ping sing, they compliment each other so well musically.
other than this random praiseable moments, Low Frequency is only a casual watch. I was hoping for so much more, it’s a shame these series with high potential aren’t being written out thoroughly.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
better as it progresses
the first couple episodes were hard to understand and a little too boring for me, but once you power through them, the stories really start to come through. it takes close to the end to really get the essence of the main pairing, but i found it to still be enjoyable.for the main pairing's story at the last couple episodes, chin in particular had a lot of insight into his character, but i'm disappointed it took so long to understand him. U is a great character, and i found dong to give a really close aura to mix so it was interesting just watching his acting. though i did find him a little flat at times, he gave a bit of sass that i think made up for some of the lack of development. as for the love triangle bit, it was frustrating to see since patt was so sincere. he was a little overbearing for my taste, but it makes sense in this story. just wish he had been given a better storyline, he was a genuinely nice character.
the only other couple i really enjoyed was zeemai and zo. they had such a great little funny bit in every episode so they were genuinely fun to see. and it's a real shame but i would love to see a spin off of just jang and ano. i didn't really see anything between them during the series, but at the end it just felt right to see them together.
overall, i think this series is good, though the sound production is off in a lot of parts and makes immersing into the story hard. i also didn't like most of their wardrobes, so it was distracting seeing such ugly shirts on some of them lol there were some moments where the acting was stiff, but it might just be the nerves getting the best of some of the cast. still, worth a watch, just don't expect groundbreaking production in this. i do think that dong and pie have great potential if either of them wants to continue acting.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
has its flaws, but still shines
story-wise, there’s a lot of unnecessary stuff. the general idea is great as-is, so a lot of the additional weird characters was distracting in a bad way.you get so engrossed in the main characters, that suddenly dealing with the supporting character having some kind of history with aliens ruined the vibe for me. and I’ll be honest that I did not care for any of the other characters’ storylines.
I only watched it for the main leads, so I skipped a lot of things.
anyway, I actually enjoyed this a lot despite everything I hated in this. ended up crying at the ending too. genuinely felt glad that at least we get closure in this bl. I loved phob, he made it so hard during the last episode because I kept tearing up. supanut is a gem, I would love to see a lot more from him.
Was this review helpful to you?
a float serve at best
you start this series and think it’s going to go a certain way and try to track it, but it ends up just dropping in front of you without making it to a real significant point.I am still giving this a high rating because frame and ryan genuinely carried the entire series, both in acting and promotions. more so that frame being able to pull off two roles, and make me feel very different things for each character, deserves to be praised. they both poured so much into this and don’t deserve to be overshadowed by some of the worst writing to exist. it rivals mame in the sense that there is minimal critical thinking from characters, no world building, dialogue is not a thing, and production that just accepts bare minimum in editing, filming, and sound.
which leads into my second point: there’s too many couples. I would let sam and that other guy get a pass if they actually had chemistry, but team always looks so tense it was actually uncomfortable watching him. I had hoped he would loosen up a bit or even give some unscripted type of improv but it didn’t happen. I hope he gets more comfortable if he continues in this industry, but that couple should’ve been written out of the series or changed how their scenes went. generally, I find second lead couples to take my interest, but this one was a hard pass.
overall, it’s fun but suffered a lot from keeping zee as a relevant part of the plot. this needed more thought put into it from an outside party or something. disappointing, but I still think it was a good watch just to see rising actors like frame and ryan.
Was this review helpful to you?
