Big Dragon (2022)

Great Chemistry, Questionable Plot Execution

This drama was a mess and parts of it didn't make much sense, but I enjoyed it mostly because of Mos and Bank.

What I didn't like
This 8 episode drama had too many plot points packed in, none of which were fully developed. We had:
Child acquaintances
Dealing with the loss of a parent and a new step mother
Enemies to lovers
Playboys falling in love
Working together on a work project
Arranged marriage that the main character didn’t want
Studying abroad opportunity
Love triangle with the friend coming back from overseas
Going to the same university but in different faculties
One person falling in love with the other years before they actually fully met
Date rape (whatever happened in the first episode)

Any of these plot lines or maybe even 2 or 3 of them fleshed out properly would have given us a great drama but because they decided to include all of those plot lines, the drama was all over the place.

The editing could have been improved because scenes didn't seem to fit together and some felt unnecessary. There were also enough cliché shots to make it noticeable (like focusing on some kisses too long, the rain falling randomly during the fight and the lights at the claw machine). Some of the kisses were really good, but others not so much.

Don't even get me started on the messed up premise of the show, that they never even full addressed/ explored. Like I'm all for a dark storyline, but it needs to be done well.

What I liked
Mos and Bank's chemistry. I'm talking about the way the look at each other and the natural skinship that Mangkorn and Yai had in the series. Just beautiful.

The conversations about equality and same sex marriage in Thailand, even though not always well incorporated, these conversations are still important.

The OST is amazing, though it might not capture the vibe of the show, Bank has a beautiful voice.

The drama itself is visually pleasing in terms of the contrasting of colours Mangkorn and Yai wear, the expensives cars and the pretty locations.

So, if you are watching this show because you saw how adorable Mos and Bank are in their interviews and vlogs, then this show is worth a watch to support the actors or even if you want something to pass the time and don't want to think too much, then watch it. However, if you are watching it for a logical plot and good progression of the storyline, then I'd say skip it but watch ep 7. It's so cute.

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How To Turn A Crime Into A Romance...Badly

Watching the trailer for this drama, I got serious KinnPorsche vibes which, despite its own issues, I mostly enjoyed. What I imagined was a slightly dark, gritty, adult drama. What I got was a hot mess and not in a good way. Dark yes, but, again, not in a good way, actually very problematic. Not gritty and not adult, but your typical college BL with typical first world problems, an overpacked plot and very little substance. In short, a disappointment.

Let's start with the premise. Everything I read basically said that our two male leads get drunk and have a wild romantic night together. Yeah, not what happened. Yai gets jealous that Mangkorn is evidently vying for the affections of the same woman as him and more successfully at that, and decides to drug and rape him while video taping the whole thing in order to ruin him. Its a truly messed up and sadistic plan. The only hitch is that his bodyguard uses the wrong drug, I'm guessing some kind of aphrodisiac instead of the sedative that was intended, and drugs both drinks so they end up having sex on tape. Mangkorn takes the memory card and proceeds to use it to threaten Yai several times. And somehow, after all this, after making it quite clear how much they dislike each other, in an incredibly, unrealistically short amount of time, they've fallen madly in love. I understand shorter dramas make it necessary to speed things up, but this is borderline absurd. And this whole mess is portrayed as being hot and sexy when its in fact dangerous and criminal. Neither guy comes off looking good here, they're both morally corrupt characters, but Yai is definitely the worst and his behaviour and what he tried to do is really never addressed.

But then there's more. Mangkorn, a fifth year architect student, has apparently been in love with Yai since their first year. Besides the fact that absolutely nothing he does or says gives any inkling that he has romantic feelings for Yai prior to their drugged intercourse, he honestly treats him with derision and contempt for the most part, this is the man who is seen routinely hooking up with and casually flirting with women. So maybe he's bisexual? Both men actually since they're both seen with women. That would have been refreshing. But no, it's never addressed, and they both just suddenly stop being attracted to women apparently which goes into the whole "only gay for you trope" which is problematic in and of itself.

And speaking of women, they seriously did them dirty in this drama. I was so excited watching the trailer that it looked like there was going to be a lesbian couple. I'd never seen that before in a BL so I thought that was going to be a really nice addition. Nope, they screwed that up too. You could barely call them a couple. They didn't act like a couple and they didn't really give off that vibe. It seemed like production just didn't know what to do with them and they ended up coming off just as good friends. I'm not blaming the actresses, I actually thought they did pretty well with the scraps they had to work with. Another issue was the way Yai and Mangkorn, though primarily Mangkorn, treated women like sexual objects, hooking up in back alleys, and showing little respect. That coupled with the way some of the men talked definitely bordered on predatory. Like come on, you have to know that a large part of your audience is women, can you not treat the women in your story with some level of respect? Women in BL dramas are generally underutilized but Thai dramas are the ones that typically go the extra mile of downright disrespect and misogyny, this being one of the worst I've watched recently.

The character development overall felt pretty minimal. Yes, there was some, but when you have characters talking about how much they've changed when they really haven't changed that much, its eye rolling. I know 8 episodes is short, but I was hoping for more. I'm also going to throw in here that the attempts at comedy, mostly with the bodyguards just really fell flat. There were one or two moments that were moderately funny, but I was mostly wondering how two such idiots could possibly be considered bodyguards. If there was ever a legitimate threat on Yai's life, he'd be dead in two seconds flat.

The problems the lead couple faced were equally eye rolling. I mean, talk about first world problems. Okay, not so much the arranged marriage, but even that was blown massively out of proportion. I get being nervous talking to your parents, but seriously, the fact that neither of them had the guts to talk to their dads was a little ridiculous and then it turned out to be no big deal. And maybe because the whole "I have to go abroad" trope is used so frequently, I just really didn't have much sympathy for their separation. It seemed like they made a much bigger deal of it than was necessary. Planes are a thing, Yai's family is absurdly rich, you visit each other. I don't know. I was pretty over them and their petty drama by that point. Their constant fighting and miscommunication and refusal to act like adults, mostly on Yai's part, was incredibly frustrating to watch.

There was also just far too much packed into this drama for 8 episodes. It may have been slightly more successful if they had pared it down and focused on two or three plot points instead of ten. It made an already messy story even more so and added conflict and side stories that served little to no purpose. Was it kind of cute that they actually met when they were kids? Sure. Did it do anything to further the story or really serve a purpose? No. It could have very easily been cut out and almost nothing would have been lost.

There was just so much potential here. Enemies to lovers is always going to be popular and it could have been good here if it hadn't been so dark and downright sinister. There's sexy and then there's wrong and disturbing; this was definitely the latter. And if its done in a way that's at least somewhat believable. There were also some things that were hinted at but never allowed to fully develop. The lesbian relationship was one, but the BDSM aspect was another. It was briefly toyed with, mostly in the first episode with Yai's bondage gear and his friend, and then never seen or mentioned again. That definitely would have added some interest.

There were a very few things that I did like. The smaller cast was nice. Thai casts almost always seem too big and cluttered and its impossible to keep everyone straight. I was thankful they didn't do that with this drama. I was also surprised, but again, thankful at the lack of secondary couples. Again, normally Thai BL dramas are clogged with three or four additional couples to the main and I liked that they didn't do that with this one. Aside from our poor lesbian faux couple, there was no competition, though I kept suspecting they were going to put the bodyguards together. As there's evidently going to be a season 2, that may still happen. The OST was overall good. In particular ISBANKY's song was gorgeous. It embodied everything I had hoped this drama would be in a song but so completely wasn't. I love it, its the one good takeaway. The acting was overall pretty good. I really am going to blame the production and writing for pretty much everything wrong with this drama at this point.

All that being said. Don't waste your time. If you were one of those who thought this was going to be KinnPorsche 2.0, it's not, not even close. It's not even a good knockoff. The only reason I'm rating it as highly as I am is because I didn't think the acting/casting was bad for the most part and I did like the music. The story was a mess though and as for rewatch value? Don't make me laugh.

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started with a bang, ended with a whimper

Overall: I was hoping for two flawed and aggressive characters having a lot of consensual BDSM NSFW scenes with eventual character change/growth and...I got none of that. Based on a book which I haven't read. Eight episodes at about 45 minutes. Aired on YouTube (cut), GagaOOLala and iQIYI (uncut).

Content Warnings: drugging, attempted sexual assault, non/dub con, death in a flashback, grief, manipulation, blackmail, slap

What I Liked
- that the two main characters were not innocent/angels
- the intro and OST
- I did laugh a couple times with the two bodyguards
- some of the content warnings weren't as bad as I feared (from watching the trailer)
- color symbolism (one character frequently wears red and the other wears green)
- good discussion about marriage equality
- a f/f couple though they didn't have much screen time
- production value*

Room For Improvement
- I heard the novel was 90% nsfw and 10% plot and I honestly would have liked it better if they had kept it that way because the plot they created was cliched and boring
- the BDSM aspect oddly vanished
- the NSFW scenes were mainly flashbacks/short
- multiple dead fish lip kisses
- awful communication skills
- their relationship dynamic kept shifting rapidly for no reason
- the flash forward start was a bit confusing, I'd rather they had shown a flashback from a year ago to set up why they hated each other so much, they kind of explained it later on but not really
- confusing things, they seemed to spend too much time in some parts (like the interviews) but then went too fast/didn't properly explain other things (going from bedroom to the bar, are they on the same level???)
- unrealistic stuff: a super rich person has two incompetent bodyguards, keeping your supplies like that, not stepping on broken glass all over the floor, seems like it took too long for what they ingested to take effect
- them getting frisky with two women and pursuing a woman makes this feel like a "gay for you" trope is around the corner, would have liked if at least one, preferably both had been with other guys
- comedy sound effects
- *bad camera angles

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Looks over substance

It looked nice?

I can't think of anything else positive to say. Oh! Well, there was a brief side Lesbian couple! Yeah . . . That's all I got *shrugs*

There were itty bitty teensy tiny pieces of a somewhat good drama that could have been. I feel like the writers and directors were really indecisive. They couldn't decide whether to have their characters be toxic and mysterious or sweet and silly. Like, you can have some of both but you have to do it well! Seems like they just couldn't make up their minds let alone execute their vision properly.

And the writing . . . It was just bad.

Another thing, I have to be honest, for the majority of the runtime the acting of the leads . . . Sucked. I generally put the onus on the director[s] for not directing them correctly. But even if they had I still think these actors just didn't know what to do with their faces or hands most of the time.

This is a definite skip from me.

Side Note: Really? The "wife" line again? Can't we let that die already?!

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I adore MosBank both on and off this series. They are so much fun to see interacting together. I love all the adventures they take us on with their YouTube channel, and I've actually suggested them to Mame for Techno and Kengkla in a stand alone series on the How to Secretly LURE my Boys Heart book. The Big Dragon series itself is coming along beautifully. The only reason I can't give the storyline full marks is because it's very reminiscent of The Tuxedo series to me, and it falls just shy of an original concept. However, the visually are quite stunning and the acting is on point. The OST is isbanky singing Dancing with the Devil, and while I do like the song very much and have added it to my favorites playlist; I think doing the entire thing in English was a mistake. English is far from Bank's first language, so some of the lyrics are hard to understand with audio alone. I think a mix of English and Thai would have made for a smoother and more elegant sound. All around, I'm very much enjoying this series and am looking forward to seeing where we end up in the final episode.

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Tries to be too many things

The novel from which this series was adapted was apparently porn, and fairly transgressive at that. I can't help but ask if that was really the most suitable material.

This starts of as an Enemies to Lovers story on steroids, with the two being so awful to each other that it's hard to imagine coming back from it. Later on it emerges that Mangkorn has liked Yai for years. You mean like when you drugged and raped him, filmed it and used the footage to blackmail him? I might have started out by asking him on a date, but I guess we all have our playbooks.

Do note that Mangkorn discovered that Yai planned to do that to him and turned the tables, so It's not like Yai is some innocent victim.

Anyway, they fall in love, of course, and have all the typical BL problems from demanding fathers, arranged marraiges, inapporpriate jealousy, and implausible lack of communication, before the most inexplicably dull finale imaginable. One commenter called them "matured". Yes, matured if you mean married for 40 years and no longer have any passion left between them. There's a large chunk of their conversation that revolved around who was ordering flowers. There's even a flashback to provide the backstory to who was ordering flowers. Do we watch dramas to listen to people have a conversation like our elderly parents might have, or do we watch it for, I don't know, drama?

I don't necessarily need a realistic portrayal of what would happen if two 20-something men who are passionately in love and haven't seen each other for a year came together (hint: tons and tons of sex), but I do want to see the joy and passion and chemistry, not discussions of who ordered the flowers and career goals.

The transition from mutual attempted rape/blackmail to Disney princess is non existent - we really don't see the progression in their relationship, they just go from firey hatred and a desire to destroy each other to waiting up for the sunrise when they've been apart for a year (note: airliners have WCs and people have been brushing their teeth on them since the dawn of flight. Airports also have WCs, and if you're rich and flew Business, the lounge even has invidual fully-stocked private bathrooms).

There's apparently a Season 2. Joy.

The acting is quite good in this - I didn't notice at first, but both leads are considerably above average. There is good cinematograpy, but there are times when a shot is so obviously set up that it takes you out of the moment.

My intial reaction to this series was quite negative, and then it steadily grew on me, before taking a downswing with the finale where everyone started talking like greeting cards. It's not the worst series - I'm not sure I'd recomment it, but if you can get past the first three episodes it starts to get better. If not for the finale, I would have given this a 7.5.

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A Really Good Storyline

I watched this a second time and liked it more than I did the first time

I think at first I was expecting it to be something different, more mafia based or something; so I maybe was disappointed.

The second time I watched it, of course I knew more of what to expect, although I hadn't seen it in a while.

The actors are very handsome and the acting is quite good, in my opinion. The chemistry between them was believable, and some of the scenes are hot!! (Not for under 18).

The only thing that I really thought could have been hyped up a little more was the last episode. It's not bad or anything, just fell a little flat.

Anyway, I guess I recommend maybe watching it through a second time, not right away, see if it hits you the way it did me because I revised my rating from 7.5 up to 9.5

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Boring and empty BL story: could have been torrid but was torpid instead

This show was very disappointing on many aspects. Given its length (8 episodes of about 1 hour each), it was surprisingly boring and dragging. The first episode was quite fun (even-though non-sensical) and had some super hot scenes but the remaining of the drama felt totally flat and quite of a snore-fest. All the side plots were utterly annoying and I really cannot find any redeeming quality to the writing.

I did not enjoy the chemistry between the 2 male leads. The acting was generic and average at best but the plot is to blame foremost for preventing any credible development in the relationship. Both main characters were unlikable: too much pouting from one and too much grovelling from the other...nothing was working for me. I also did not find believable at all the abrupt switch from enemies to lovers: it was impossible to understand how their feelings were developing so fast. I would have preferred them to go on a dark and more brutal path (especially given the "kinky-side" of the video) rather than this very vanilla romance which did not make sense in the context of the starting point of the show.

I would not recommend this to people, I have seen much better BL series and would advise to not waste too much time with this one.

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Like Vegas-Pete, but both leads are Vegas and they have no chemistry

I have complained repeatedly about the lack of consent and poisoning the audience with harmful ideas like ''I fall in love with my rapist'' (Kinn-Porsche) or ''I fall in love with someone abusive/cheating'' (Love Mechanics) etc. NEVER DID I EXPECT TO SEE A BL WHERE BOTH MALE LEADS ARE ENGAGING IN SEXTORTION, SEXUAL ABUSE AND DATE DRUGGING!

A NEW NEGATIVE RECORD!

The story could have been written by a poorly made artificial intelligence that spent one afternoon reading smut and another watching sappy Thai lakorn and then combined the 2.

EXTREMELY problematic parts:

1. Both men casually engage in sex with prostitutes and random women in back alleys, similar to stray cats in heat. Dehumanization and instrumentalisation of women, that a guy can just fuck and dump without even knowing their name, no care or mention of STDs, unwanted pregnancies etc. Normalization of prostitution and calling it ''womanizing'' when it is pure predatory behavior coming from 2 rich privileged men.

2. The 2 men in the story want the same woman and when Yai finds that the woman cancelled their meeting to have dinner with Mangkorn (the other guy), his idea to solve it is to lure Mangkorn in the bar, drug his drinks, rape him while he is unconscious and then send the tape to everyone to ruin his reputation. This is the biggest, most dangerous nonsense I have seen in a long time and it normalizes several crimes, from illegal drug purchase, to poisoning someone's drink, sexual assault, sextortion etc. Yai isn't a sexy, upset man, he is scum who should rot in jail for his ways.

3. Shockingly, Mangkorn knows the plan and instead of reacting like 99% of normal humans (call police, escape etc) he decides to rape Yai instead (!!), steal the file showing the rape and then blackmail Yai with it!
I feel nausea just from recalling this sick shit.

Somehow (no one knows exactly how), these pair of rapists/blackmailers fall in love (some of the time and then fight the rest of the time and the scenes end with random awkward sex).

Weren't these men supposed to be at least bisexual, since they were originally interested in the same woman? Heavy tendencies to promote the ancient ''gay for you only'' trope, although it happens extremely rarely in real life and it's insulting for queer people.

There are 2 bodyguards who have maybe 1 brain cell each, but I won't write about their unecessary, unrealistic comedic nonsense scenes.

I am on episode 6 and the episode has ZERO developments, more like 40 min of nonsense and 5 min of plot development.

The problems aren't real problems. Mangkorn is torn over taking a scholarship abroad and doesn't know what to do with Yai and we will see the first world drama unfold in the next episodes. The female characters are extremely forgettable and it's been 6 episodes and I still don't know their names.

I had great expectations from the trailer and I was expecting a dark, adult BL for once and I got a disappointing cheap knock off of Vegas-Pete full of cringe and nonsense and nothing is getting resolved.

AVOID.

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