Mr.Heart (2020)

Sets the Gold Standard in BL Dramas

"Mr. Heart" sets a new gold standard among the BL dramas I've seen. It hit all the right notes. There are some minor issues with the way the sub-plot of the loan sharks doesn't quite mesh with the rest of the story, but I'll give them a pass on that. Somehow "Mr. Heart" manages to dodge the usual pitfalls in these stories. For example, in formula BL stories there's always a scene like after a drunken night out the two guys wake up the next morning in bed together then freak out when they see each other naked. These scenes are just nonsense. Ironically, "Mr. Heart" overcomes this cliche perfectly with the two guys hanging out in a Jjimjilbang (spa). Excellent writing. What can I say about Lee Se Jin as Sang Ha. He nails this character. When he's not in a scene, you can't wait for him to appear again. While he's slightly less masculine than the Jinn Won character, he doesn't cross into the Uke stereotype. Cheon Seung Ho has the always thankless role of the bully love interest. Thankfully his character gets in touch with his feelings early on and doesn't go down the usual dramatic path of overcompensating. In fact, Jin Won's private enjoyment of Sang Ha's affections, as in the couple of bed scenes, is beautifully directed. We rarely get to see through the bravado of these bully characters until late in the drama. In full disclosure the English subtitles stopped working about 2/3 into the story, so I had to guess what happens from the action on screen. I hope to see the rest of this drama with subtitles some day. Korea could take the crown away from Thailand for BL dramas if they can keep this high standard. Update: I did get to see it with the rest of the subtitles. The film is cinematic enough that I guessed what the dialogue was pretty closely. The sub-story of the debt still seems like an afterthought, never fully in sync with the love story. Jin Won punching Sang Ha in the face in the final scene is out of character and undermines the audience's support for his character. No doubt the director wanted to show Jin Won's frustration but that could have been done just as well with a shove to the shoulder. Violence and love are an incompatible mix, like oil and water. That said, the final scene is very sweet. The movie is worthy of multiple viewings. I hope they'll release it on Bluray or DVD.

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Your Basic Fluff Story

For only 8 episodes, I don't expect much as Korean BLs are new to the market. Following the success of Where Your Eyes Linger which I find it pretty decent and okay (nothing special about that for the plot) this BL decides to go on another route providing us with a more light-hearted and fluff love story between a pacemaker named Sang Ha and a marathon runner, Jin Won who's very passionate about running and wanting to become a superstar, something I can never relate to because running doesn't exist in my dictionary.

I'm probably one of the minorities who aren't a huge fan plot-wise. The plot is messy and tried to add many things all at once which made me pissed off. For an 8 episode series, you don't need to ruin it, It felt like a bad taste of mashed potatoes. Super fluff stories are not really my thing because I like to give myself pain and angst when watching any shows basically (BL included) and go through the roller coaster of emotions with a happy ending included.

I didn't care much about the characters there, their relationship happened with a blink of an eye which made me not interested in their relationship LOL and it was so cliche. It was probably due to the lack of time given in the series so I can't blame them. The overdramatic debt scene ruined it and hence, I felt like their love story makes no sense.

Overall, I find it okay and I'm glad it's not unproblematic and it sticks to what the story plans to be all about for their theme, FLUFF. It's not my thing I guess. The music is good though. Korean BLs never fail to not impress me with that. BL Superfans can give this to support the Korean BL market but don't expect too much from it.

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All I can say is,,,, Huh?

This was sweet at first, then suddenly, everything started to mix up and it kind of got lost. They could have been being all cute and shit in the first scene, then suddenly someone was getting punched in the face in the next, that messed me up a little, some scenes just had completely terrible placing and just basically made the show feel like the editor accidentally grabbed parts off of two different shows, and jumbled them up together.

Now, I get that they had very few episodes that only went for 10-13 minutes, but I think that some parts were just thrown at each other without 2nd thoughts, and since they did have only 10-13 minutes, why didn't they milk it? Basically, the writing and formatting were kind of terrible. As for the cast, their acting was actually pretty good, my problem is, where is the chemistry? They are sometimes just so awkward and their relationship doesn't seem to exist at all in the series, which misses the whole point. I'm not asking for them to just abuse the actor's chemistry and use it as bait for people to watch the show like what happened in "2gether", nah, not like that, but, I expected it to be, less "meh" as the series progressed.

Though some scenes did give me a little giggle, it was still all over the place.

Like, I couldn't identify what their relationship was in the series during different episodes, it just completely confused me, cause they just didn't seem like anything at all. The concept was what brought me to watch it, and I think it could have been so much more if they gave more time to think of what actually happens cause it seems that ideas just clashed against each other and they planned to stuff it all into one episode, which literally just messes the whole show up since it's very confusing and sudden events were thrown at the watcher's face.

To at least reach towards a more bright side, they had their moments during the show that did bring the biggest smile on my face when everything starts to ease up and they did make me cry too, which is good cause I at least felt something while I was watching, but also(sorry, I have to bring this up), punching the boy you were about to confess to? Well, it was an unexpected confession, but you punch the boy in the face and suddenly kiss him and confess, it happened way too quickly and suddenly, everything went back to normal? I said this was going to be a nicer and positive part but that thing confused the shit out of me.

It seemed like they stuck that scene in there last minute to give the watchers some gay shit.

Maybe this really just wasn't my cup of tea, but if you are a big fan of fluff and short dramas, then go ahead and watch it, cause you may as well enjoy it. :)

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Meh...

I was excited when I first heard about this series as it was from the company as Where Your Eyes Linger. Unfortunately, I was let down. It was very different from the grounded, serious Where Your Eyes Linger, and felt more like a typical K-drama with its cuteness, editing and music. The story though was a mess with plot points and character actions that didn't make any sense.

I don't get Sangha's reasoning for not wanting to sign the contract at all! It literally didn't make any sense. Because getting paid would take away from his love for running? What?! He can pay off his mother's debt and run alongside his crush. That's literally the perfect deal. And why do the debtors want Sangha to finish the marathon? Yes, he can win a lot of money, but wasn't his debt just $10,000 (which was what his pacemaker contract would have given him). And all of a sudden, Sangha was able to run long-distance (something that he was never able to do before) just because of the debtors. Yeah... okay. Makes perfect sense. And why would Sangha backstab Won Jin by beating him in the marathon? And if Sangha did need to win to pay off his mother's debt, couldn't he have told Won Jin beforehand? He at least owes him that.

In addition, it was quite jarring seeing debt collectors assaulting a kid in a series that is supposedly light-hearted and fun. And the love between Sangha and Won Jin at the end was random, unearned and rushed. Hopefully, we get better K-drama BL's soon as even Where Your Eyes Linger (which was very good) had some logic flaws...

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Dissapointed

I do not even know where to start. This seris left me speechless but not in a very good way.

I was excited to watch this series because I have watched "Where your eyes linger" from the same company. The bar was very high and I expected something as good as "Where your eyes linger". But I know it is wrong to compare these dramas because they are two different dramas.

Let's begin with the most disappointing part : the story. The writting was messy. Sure, the story was cute and light. That's a fact. But there were a lot of incoherences, plot holes which resulted in cringe scenes. For example, how he ended up in his bed in the beginning like ? You can't tell me he didnt see he was sleeping to someone else bed, can you ? I mean what ? I still don't get it. The fact that he give MILK in every single scenes, it was cute the first time, but after it was just cringe (very cringe) and it just felt like the brand sponsorised this show. It was forced. At the end, the cherries on top of the cake, when they though running on their first date was cool. No guys, it was cringe sorry.

On a positive note, the actors and the OSTs were good ! The reason why I gave it a 6.

Overall it was meh. This drama had limted budget and was shot during the confinement measures. It is important to keep that in mind when watching because it may have been difficult for them. I hope they will not repeat the same mistakes.

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To kill time.

Usually I don't expect that much from a drama with 11 minutes per episode, that's why I don't feel this confident to heavily and arshly criticize it... But I would describe it as a kill time when you're not in the mood to watch something serious, that's it. The storyline was really messy, the interactions weren't natural and JinWon character was scripted such in a mean way that I felt bad for SangHa for the whole show.. The loan sharking moments were totally senseless, for some reason.. funny, I think? But then the second after we see punches and all.. lol. Did they put that in the show just to add some spiciness or something? I honestly don't know.. The only good thing about this show at this point was just SangHa, and so his very good acting. The sexual tension between the two characters was cute, but some scenes were cringe and unnatural like the classic tripping over the bed one above the other.. Would I reccomend this show to someone? If you just want to chill while watching something funny/cute and all, then go for it. At the end of the day it's enjoyable even if the story is totally senseless.. But I am happy to see SK being more open and condiscending in making lgbtq+ contents.

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Cute story That Derails Itself

It is an enchanting story between two young students. Both guys are so adorable and cute and exude such charm on the screen that they could probably just recite a telephone book and I would watch them. But the story itself takes strange twists that are just not realistic or believable. But then it goes south for me very fast. I simply have a hard time at one point in the story where physical abuse is used to convey anger and frustration. While I understood the anger, I did not and will not accept that as a reason to resort to hitting to convey one's level of hurt feelings. It seemed incongruous and unnecessary and degraded the story. It is a beautiful love story to be ruined by physical abuse? I understand anger issues and even hurt feelings but to resort to hitting just seems so wrong to me and sends a bad and unhealthy message. . I loved the two main actors and the first part of the story. Just make the story about their relationship. It does not have to be complicated and you do not have to cheapen it by abuse in any form.

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This was a very cute web drama with not much going on, but with very cute leads that made it fun to watch. What I like about short web dramas is that the story doesn't need to be deeply developed, yet it usually manages to be very nice; the conflict is never too strong and it gets solved fast. Go Sang Ha was the sweetest boy ever, I couldn't stop smiling whenever he was on screen. Jin Won was a bit too annoying at times, but at the end he was cute too. Their cuddling scenes were also really soft, whenever they hugged and kissed I couldn't help but smile. They had a lot more chemistry than many leads in het dramas in prime times. The story was dull and confusing, I didn't understand GSH's actions sometimes but it's a web drama anyway and their acting and chemistry was nice.

I like that BLs are becoming more common day by day, despite them only being short web dramas in the meantime. Hopefully there will be more, as well as GL too.

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I don't get the positive reviews

Have I watched a different show than everyone else? (No, I haven't.) Or why are there so many high reviews of this? The story is shallow, super rushed and mediocre at best, the chemistry between the couple in my opinion non existent, Jin Won is super rude most of the time, Sang Ha gets treated badly but lets it happen anyway and continues to love Jin Won regardless of how many times he gets shouted at or gets treated poorly.

(a little bit of a spoiler for a scene follows)

One scene I found particularly weird was when Sang Ha refused the contract in Ep. 7 and Jin Won ran after him to convince him to take the contract after all. In the background, a loan shark shows up, Sang Ha runs away, the loan shark follows. Jin Won SEES all of this but doesn't find this suspicious, let alone reacts to it? If he already has feelings for Sang Ha at this point, then why in all the seven hells would he not react to a scary adult man chasing after the guy he loves / likes? Even if it was just friendship, it he should have checked what was happening there.

Apart from that, I found the milk motive that keeps on returning quite repetitive and boring at some point and the fact that Sang Ha keeps on kissing Jin Won without consent rubs me the wrong way too, even though it' portrayed as playful. No consent is still no consent.

All in all, I would not recommend this show and I really, really do not understand the overwhelmingly positive rating of this drama. I've watched a lot of BL drama and this might actually be the worst one for me personally.

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One of the earlier South Korean BLs that I would still rewatch in 2022

Runners often have a special relationship with their pacers. The relationship between a runner and his pacer is one that is built on trust, respect and consistency because runners know that their pacer can be counted on to run that perfect pace. And usually, many runners end up becoming very close with their pacers, even off the track, because of all the time they’ve spent together.

I would have wanted to see more of Jinwon & Sangha’s training process, but Mr. Heart doesn’t really delve too deeply into this aspect. It chooses to focus more on the backstory between Jinwon and Sangha in high school, their blooming relationship in college, as well as Sangha’s financial woes.

Jinwon can be a bit of an asshole at times so if you require absolutely perfect men as BL leads, he’s definitely not it. I would argue, though, that these little flaws add to the charm of his personality, and make any form of character development all the more rewarding.

On that note, my biggest complaint is that you don’t actually get much emotional depth or character development from this series. The special relationship between an athlete and his pacer could have been the perfect opportunity to build intimacy between athletes and explore the emotional side of sports when it comes to competition and training.

One series that touched on this really well was You’re My Sky, a sports BL from Thailand. The delicate relationships between athletes and how it influenced them as sportsmen was captured beautifully ⁠— something that wasn’t quite highlighted in Mr. Heart.

Nevertheless, for a pretty short series that can be binged in just 87 minutes, it’s a great filler for when you’re craving a quick fix.

Full review: https://asianblreviews.wordpress.com/2022/05/09/mr-heart-korean-bl-review/
More BL content: https://asianblreviews.wordpress.com/

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Heartwarming story

This drama was short, sweet, cheesy and heartwarming, and that's something I think everybody needs sometimes!
I liked the fact that they kept things fairly simple, and didn't stretch the story for too long. I hate when dramas sometimes try to stretch the plot too much. Thankfully, this drama did not do that.
The story was adorable, with a little twist of angst in there. I enjoyed it, and bingewatched the whole thing in one sitting. (Which wasn't that hard considering the fact that the episodes are only 10 minutes long.)
The cast was good, and I enjoyed the friendships between the characters a lot. I especially loved the fact that there were purely platonic friendships without unnecessary drama, unlike many other dramas..
But since of course nothing is perfect, I gave it overall 8.5 stars. I took a small amount of points off because the story and acting *could* have been better than they were at some points, but that's just me nitpicking to be honest. I sincerely think I could watch this again sometime, and I'll gladly recommend this to anyone who wants to watch something short and sweet!

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