Golden Blood (2021)

Gemezzz!!!

Menceritakan seorang pria bernama Sky yang merupakan putra seorang pria kaya (mafia) yang mempunyai banyak musuh, sekarang dia sudah berkuliah dan tinggal di sebuah komplek, karena ayahnya merasa khawatir kepada anaknya lalu dia mengirimkan seorang body guard bernama Sun. Bagaimana kisah keduanya? saksiksan series ini. Dari segi romansa ini bener-bener merupakan salah satu bL kasta tinggi, chemistry antara Sky dan Sun sangat menggemaskan, hangat, dan lucu ; sangat rekomendasi untuk orang-orang yang mencari moodbooster. Selain itu, karakter yang ditampilkan dalam series ini menurutku sangat cocok dan saling bersinambungan, saling melengkapi dan klop banget aja gtu bawaannya. Dari segi detail cerita mudah difahami dan mempunyai konflik yang ringan, walaupun terlihat seperti "rumit" dengan embel-embel "mafia" namun series ini lebih menekankan ke hubungan Sky dan Sun daripada ke bagian "mafia-nya" dan menurutku ini bagus. Selain Sky dan Sun ada maincouple kedua yaitu Bank and Pitch ; mereka merupakan bumbu pemanis series menurutku. Dari segi warna dan scenery menurutku sangat vibrant ya didominasi warna putih dan warna-warna terang bahkan untuk scene malam hari. Rekomended? YES VERY!

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It's nice

Ok, not going to lie I 100% went looking for this show because of Gun. He did such a good job playing Techno in Love by Chance 1 & 2 that I wanted to see what else he had done. He did a really good nib playing the good not good looking guy that I wanted to see what he'd do with the handsome lead character. The show wasn't horrible. Like was it the worst BL I've watch not at all but it wasn't Until We Meet Again or Love in The Air good either or was a solid medium good. The love story is good, slow to start but a decent show all together. I feel like if they had 12 episodes instead of 8 the could have flushed out a few more things but I'm not feeling like I wasted my time watching it. I REALLY REALLY wanted the other lead to be Mark and still can't understand how they tried so hard to ship Mean & Plan and not Mark & Gun.

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Script that tried to differentiate itself and a direction that didn't

The setting of a blunt bodyguard and a friendly and immature young master is Cliché, but the screenplay in it depicts delicate emotions. But the conflicts are so cliché. It's boring and meaningless.
The direction is too old-fashioned, and the direction of the action scene is especially bad. The sudden appearance of slapstick in the action scene was an escape from the context, and it seems to reflect the director's taste. Dare to say, it's not really appropriate.
Gun Napat's performance has evolved since "Love by Chance," and his awkward performance seems to be due to the use of facial muscles.

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please try watching this!

before watching this show, i kept seeing reviews saying that this show is really bad which made me hesitant to start. however this show isn’t as bad as i thought! it was pretty enjoyable and the casting was so good, especially for sun, i really liked how boat played his role. although gun’s acting was really bad, the great music and cute scenes made up for it a little. there were scenes that made me emotional and the chemistry between the pair is really cute. i unexpectedly quite enjoyed this show. anyhow, just give it a chance! it may not be for everyone but it’s worth watching at least once.

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Sun’s Attractiveness ESCALATED, also cute show

Ok!!! I have finished!!!
I don’t think I’d need to rewatch this one but it was pretty solid. I liked the storyline, I hate that the dad turned out to be homophobic but what do you expect from a mafia boss?!
Sun’s ATTRACTIVENESS went from like a 3 to a 10 for me from the first to the eighth episode!!! He bloomed so much! He also gained so much personality!!
I found Sky a bit annoying and dramatic but I also felt like he got handed everything he wanted and I felt as if I saw him grow through the series, and he really loved Sun so he was fine in my book.
PETITION FOR A BANK/PITCH sequel, I love the energy of these two!
I found the girls annoying. That’s all. Especially the one that was chasing Sun. BOUNDARIES, girl! But anyways overall it was a pretty ok drama. Really liked Sun the most.

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It was quite boring...

The first few episodes were not so bad because of the construct of the relationships so it was not too cliche but just a moment after I couldn't bear it.
Let me explain why:
The actors are not so good at playing, Gun (Sky) especially, I can't take him seriously I'm sorry, it was also kinda the same at some moments with Sugus (playing Pitch) who tended to overdo it but his play got better over the episodes.
We can see they were on low budget and some scenes just weren't believable but it wouldn't have been a problem if the main couple worked. For me they didn't.
The story for the main couple went too fast, they were in love way too early and did so much couple things, being sometimes too cheesy (even for me) from the beginning but are not a couple until the end? I can't believe it. Because of that, the story became really boring later on as they got so much screen time.
Maybe my opinion won't be shared by some but I think the main couple didn't have any chemistry so romantic scenes were just too long with awkward silence.
I really liked the girls in the first episodes, especially Toktang but they just became love interest after that (literally every of their scene is to talk about their love interest or being an obstacle to the ship), too bad...

However!!
I think the strong point of this drama really is the second couple: BankPitch.
I loved their story line! It evolved step by step and we really could see the relation develop naturally.
They also had some good chemistry! It's such a shame they couldn't get more screen time because they just stole the show completely. I had a great time watching them bickering, being cute, being sassy. They were really fun characters and I honestly continued the show just for them (advancing twice faster in the scenes they weren't there at some point.)
They really deserve their own series!

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Potential that fell down like a deck of cards

Let me first highlight that this is one guy's opinion. Opinion, in bold and underlined font.


This series had incredible potential. It had an interesting plot and a decent intro to the series. But it did not take long after for everything to fall apart. Now if this series leaned more into the rom-com category, with an addition of action, things might've changed. However that doesn't seem to be the case.

The acting is just downright terrible. Part of the reason was the cheesy, one-dimensional script and characters. The other part, though, is obviously the acting itself. A lot of the actors had the same dead-pan look throughout the entire series. A lot of the actors went over the top and overacted the scenes. A lot of the actors could not properly express emotions.

The characters were expected. As in, they were not fundamentally unique, just the usual stereotypical cast. Very boring, bland, and often hard to watch. You know what will happen next, and it is not the good kind. There wasn't a single character that struck me as "groundbreaking", and while it is OK to have a character not be unique or stand out amongst the rest, my problem lies with how every single one in this series didn't jump out to me.

The music was just downright terrible. It was either unfitting or distracting. Or both.

I lost count at how many times they added in a slow-mo effect, but it was annoyingly a lot.

This series just wasn't at all appealing to me. It had a cool idea that ran through the dirt.

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A bit disappointing...

I'll be honest, I was really excited for this series. Ever since the announcement of KinnPorsche last year, I was excited for more dramas to come out with this kind of trope! Then this show came along and I was excited to see another show pull this off! But after watching this drama, it really fell short of my expectations, which was really disappointing.

Story: 7/10

The story seemed simple yet intriguing. The idea of a mafia boss's son and a bodyguard is an amazing trope, but the story written with it was poorly executed. I was excited to see how they would face his father, but like others have said the reviews it is mainly the last 2 eps. The writing of the characters was poor (besides Pitch and Bank!) so sometimes I found myself laughing at "sad" scenes, especially anytime Sky started crying. Sky and Suns characters were okay, I found myself really liking Sun and seeing his development as a person, and not as much Sky (I partially blame the acting). As I saw others mention in the reviews, it was hard to like the two girls in the show, because they were never really written with any redeeming qualities! I kind of felt bad that Sky was leading them on...but that was probably about it. Overall, it was an okay story, but I'm sad it was so rushed at the end.

When Pitch and Bank at the beginning of ep 8 were like "yeah, were boyfriends!" it made me go back to ep 7 because I thought I had missed something, like I skipped a scene, but nope, that just came out of no where. I was really excited to see more of Pitch and Bank at the end but they didn't really get a chance to fully develop it. I understand 8 eps is a hard number to work with, but there were a couple of scenes they could have taken out or re-written to make the flow of the story better, personally. Despite their rushed story at the end, Pitch and Bank saved this series!! I like how a small enemies-to-lovers trope was included, and they were absolutely hilarious! They made the show 10000% more enjoyable, that's why the rating is a 7 and not lower than that.

Acting/Cast: 7.5/10

I saw that this has been said, so I'll keep it short here. Gun is not that good of an actor. His scenes where he was sad just made me feel no remorse. His facial expressions were a little over the top, and his crying seemed so emotionless. I wish they had casted a much better actor for someone in such an important role! Now Boat, for someone who I've never seen before in a series, he was amazing! As his character started to develop and change, I also noticed how his acting style changed too! He really made me fall in love with Sun and I think they couldn't have chosen someone better for this role.

Don't even get me started on Pitch and Bank, the saviors of this show. First Pitch, I fell in love at first sight honestly. His character had such development and the actor himself was amazing at portraying it! I really felt his emotions through the whole series, especially when it came to how confused he was about how he had feelings for Bank. He was able to show how he seemed so lost, but he was able to portray it perfectly, his acting was always top-notch! Now Bank, also fell in love, he's such a cutie! Bank appeared as a naïve, innocent, university boy, which the actor played super well. But I also loved how his character switched to being so direct when asking an answer from Pitch about how he really felt about him, because he also felt the same way. Their acting and chemistry together was amazing! The pond scene with the two of them gave me butterflies! It sad to hear a lot of their scenes were cut out because of run time, but maybe they will be cast together again!!

All in all *most* of the actors in this series were pretty well cast for their roles, so overall I gave it a 7.5/10 (but yes, it was mostly for Pitch and Bank).

Music: 8/10

I'm not gonna be a super tough critic on this part. I mean, the opening was good, but sitting here right now righting this review I have no idea what it sounds like off the top of my head. But music they used as background music or during certain scenes was pretty well placed. I never really noticed any scenes where the music was disrupting/distracting. So, I thought an 8/10 was reasonable.

Rewatch Value: 6/10

I'll be honest, I think I'm being generous in this section. I will probably never re-watch this show in its entirety. I will probably look up a Pitch and Bank cut on YouTube and re-watch those scenes. This show (especially the last 3-4 eps) just really were hard to get through, because the story just started to get so STALE. Now, especially since I have seen this super predictable show, I am not going to sit through Guns acting just to watch Pitch and Bank, no thanks!

Overall: 7/10

AGAIN, I think I'm being super generous with this rating, but I feel like its not quite in the 5-6's. Taking into consideration; the budget, how quickly they seemed to have filmed this, and casting, I think its pretty good all things considered. What lowers the rating is some things that could have been fixed beforehand. The story wasn't properly written, so it was well paced for the first 4 eps, but then SUPER RUSHED in the other 4! Also if they had taken time to do more workshops, they could have maybe tried and re-casted someone in Gun's place (I'm sorry Gun you're probably a wonderful person but this role was just not for you). Personally, Pitch and Bank could have passed as the main couple, and they had outstanding chemistry for being a side couple! Besides the main four characters (both couples) any other character that shows up was poorly written and seemed to never have a purpose, they were just was a clear plot device for something to happen. So, if you want to watch this you have been warned, but honestly I would watch it for the second couple! Don't expect anything too high quality but its a simple watch.

SIDE NOTE:

I also wanted to mention something about another drama, I saw no one else mention it so I thought I would bring it up. There's a show that has a very similar story to this one, its a Korean BL called "Where Your Eyes Linger" and it essentially is the same story, VERBATIM. After I finished Golden Blood I felt like I had watched a bad version of this show. "Where Your Eyes Linger" is the same plot (except without the blood thingy in this show) and it has the same ending, with the traveling abroad and coming back. I just thought it was interesting that all shows with this type of trope follow the same track. Wouldn't it be nice to see some more variety? It might have just been me who was this but I wanted to bring it up! I'm not saying they copied it because of course this show has some clear differences; this one is double the length, different small issues, but the main plot points were strikingly similar to me!

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Don't waste your time, unless you have time

So... I've finished this series in two days and there is a lot of good but a lot of bad as well...

Let me start with the good things:
- The start of the series was really interesting. As a whole, the main plot (and I'm not talking about the romance plot line) is quite enjoyable to watch.
- The fight scenes are really well-done. I'm not an expert in fighting but I can notice when the production has made an effort to train their actors when they have fight scenes, and here is the case. I wouldn't say it is realistic because we still have things like an enemy who is waiting for his turn to fight the main character or the villain that waits before pulling the trigger. However, Sun's fight scenes were believable and really nice to watch.
- Pitch and Bank's couple. This is the only thing that I didn't expect from the story! I really didn't see it coming and was pleasurably surprise to see them getting together. I absolutely loved their scenes together and they actually had the best kiss scenes from the series.
- Boat's acting. Unlike Gun that I know from LBC, I discover Boat in this series and he's really good! He really knows how to act, fight, cry... He is convincing in his role.

Now, I'm going to talk about the bad things:
- From the middle of the series to the end, it gets boring. Maybe because they focus more on the romantic relationship between Sun and Sky but I found it a bit boring. And I really dislikes the end (I'm afraid to reveal too much but for those who have watched the series you'll know what I mean). Sky's father and the number of years were totally ridiculous.
- The clichés... I know a lot of BL shows use them but in this show, it was ridiculous and cringe. I really disliked watching them and was rolling my eyes everytime I saw one. They really should stop with that and try other ways to get the two main characters close.
- The fact that the boys used the girls' feelings. Ok, Juno was a bit too much hitting on Sun but at least, she gave him clear signs that she was interested in him. So why didn't Sun tell her that he was not interested in her? At least, she would've clearly known (even though it was pretty clear he was not interested but I don't blame Juno for continuing pursuing him if he didn't say anything). Sky, on the other hand, was clearly using Tortank (forgot the spelling, sorry) to get Sun jealous and I didn't like that.
- Gun's acting. I don't hate him as an actor. I kind of liked him in LBC but when he has to pull off emotional scenes, he's not really convincing (sorry). Someone already pointed that out in the reviews but everytime he has to cry or be angry, he shows his teeth and it kind of became ridiculous. Especially when he cries (if he really cries because I couldn't see any tears).
- The singing scenes. It was boring to watch the two actors sing, especially because they sing the whole song and we have flashbacks. Also, I'm really not sure they are the one singing and the instruments used in the series don't correspond to the ones we hear from the audio. It was really poorly done.

Overall, it was an ok series but the end really made me angry and disappointed (it is a happy ending but I hated some elements). I would still recommend watching the series if you have nothing else to do but once is enough!

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I blame the director

I would like to start by saying that I blame the director. All my major problems with this series basically boil down to the director not directing properly.

Premis is a forbidden romance I can get behind.
Bodyguard falling in love with the boss's son.
Love & duty on the line.💃🏾

For the most part even though the mc starts off as a little spoiled brat, he does get better as it goes on.

The bodyguard is just kinda sad with his kind of adoptive father taking advantage of him the way he does. He is generally good if a little stoic most of the time.

I liked the 2nd couple, they were funny & cute and really deserved a more well developed story than what they got.

The mob bosses and their henchmen were okay. I laughed at them more than I probably should have but they weren't terrible..

The acting overall was okay until the more emotional scenes which is when the director needed to direct the actor better because his acting went from decent to...
The emotional scenes just fell flat coz I couldn't get past his acting which again someone should've flagged & helped.

It was rehearsed, shot multiple times, edited and reviewed and NO ONE thought that maybe they should re-shoot those scenes after giving some helpful feedback to the actor? No one😭

In conclusion: Direct damn it. He wasn't a bad actor, he just needed better direction!

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