The Eighth Sense (2023)

La découverte de l’amour et de liens d’amitié qui seront les racines d’une vie d’adulte.

Je vais commencer par dire que le genre BL ne m’attire pas, non que les amours homosexuelles me dérangent, mais dans les quelques uns que j’ai vus, le plus souvent l’intrigue pauvre et la psychologie maigre ne servent que de prétextes à des scènes d’un érotisme soft.
Mais pas ici ! Les deux héros ont une vraie personnalité, qui se découvre petit à petit, laissant entrevoir une enfance difficile, un deuil ineffaçable et la charge mentale d’un héritage à assumer obligatoirement pour Jae Won, qui sera bien moins solide qu’on ne l’aurait supposé, face à l’apparition inattendue d’un amour qui bouleverse tout. Quant à Ji Hyun, au contraire, cet amour va éclairer sa vie, lui permettre de s’affirmer, car il comprend tout de suite par intuition puis par raisonnement l’importance capitale pour lui de ce sentiment. Il l’assume sans se poser de questions oiseuses, et ne se laisse pas démonter par la réaction de fuite de Jae Won. Contrairement à ce qu’on aurait pu croire, c’est le plus jeune, le plus innocent qui va donner à l’autre la force de s’assumer.
Le réalisateur a eu la grande intelligence de placer la rencontre initiale et l’étincelle amoureuse dans le cadre de la mer, dont nul n’ignore la charge érotique symbolique, et qui en plus donne de très belles images, sans oublier le bruit envoûtant des vagues ! Ce n’est pas gratuit non plus que Ji Hyun découvre aussi le mondé de l’université, sa liberté, son ouverture, qui donne un cadre idéal à un épanouissement personnel. La réalisation est délicate, nous permet d’entrer sans brutalité dans le cœur et l’esprit des protagonistes. Les rôles secondaires sont bien écrits les personnages féminins ne sont pas des silhouettes insipides de faire-valoir mais sont réelles, particulièrement l’amie Ae Ri et la chef du club de surf. C’est une équipe de débutants, j’espère qu’on les reverra !
Bon jusque là, on se dirige vers un rama parfait ! Mais la perfection n’est pas de ce monde et je relève deux défauts à mes yeux :
- Une abondance de très gros plans, assez obscurs, qui rendent les scènes d’amour un peu trop indéchiffrables (ou alors c’est ma cataracte débutante ! ^_^)
- Et la fin m’a déçue, car en un épisode tout devient je ne dirais pas « rose bonbon » mais doré comme un couchant de carte postale ! Tous les problèmes si bien évoqués ont disparu, et la vie semble tout à coup d’une extrême simplicité ! J’aurais aimé (et je crois que c’est la première fois que je dis ça !) au moins deux épisodes de plus, avec la présence du père de Jae Won, de la famille de Ji Hyun, une réaction de l’environnement un peu moins bisounours que celle qu’on nous donne.
Ces deux (petits) défauts n’empêchent que ce soit un très bon drama dans le genre BL, pour la bonne raison que ça a failli ne pas en être un, de BL, mais simplement un drama sur la jeunesse, la découverte de l’amour et de liens d’amitié qui seront les racines d’une vie d’adulte.

Je le conseille fortement !
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Parfois, une personne suffit à changer votre perception de la vie...

Vous savez ce moment où vous venez tout juste de terminer un drama et vous n'avez qu'une envie, le recommencer ? Pas nécessairement pour capter tous les détails manqués du premier visionnage, mais parce qu'il est d'une telle justesse et d'une émotion si brute qu'on ne demande qu'à le revoir. Et c'est exactement ce qui se passe avec The Eighth Sense.

Il ne s'agit pas d'une simple romance universitaire. Ce drama renferme bien plus qu'on ne peut le croire et toutes les thématiques qu'il met en scène sont abordées avec intelligence.
D'un côté, nous avons l'adorable Ji Hyun. Un étudiant effrayé dans une ville beaucoup trop grande qui voit sa vie devenir très différente, une fois sortie de sa petite ville rurale. De l'autre, le charismatique et meurtri Hae Won qui revient de son service militaire obligatoire. Il accuse encore les répercussions d'un passé qu'il ne peut oublier. Chacun va devenir le pilier de l'autre. Le duo fonctionne ensemble, mais aussi individuellement. L'histoire ne tourne pas autour de la romance, bien qu'elle soit un fil rouge important.
Ji Hyun devient le phare en pleine tempête de Jae Won. Tandis que Jae Won devient la boussole dans la ville de Ji Hyun. Et c'est beau !

Difficile d'ignorer une des thématiques les plus importantes : l'exploration de la santé mentale. Traitée avec respect et pudeur, ces moments délivrent de beaux messages. Notamment le fait que la guérison est un processus qui prend du temps et qu'il n'existe pas de recette universelle.
C'est une véritable histoire qui prend vie, pas seulement un tranche de vie. C'est l'histoire d'une guérison, d'une adaptation dans un monde inconnu, d'une découverte, d'une aventure, d'un amour naissant et vivant.

Et tout cela sans jamais imposer une morale forcée ou sans essayer de nous convaincre. Inu Baek (To My Star) signe un projet incroyable dans lequel on aime se perdre. Malgré un montage parfois déroutant et des ambiances pas toujours subtiles, The Eighth Sense est une vraie pépite dans le K-BL. Assurément l'un des meilleurs jamais vus pour ses personnages, son histoire, ses messages et bien plus encore.

Bref, c'était magnifique !

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It’s more than just a romance drama…

And that can be either a selling point or a red flag, depending on what you are looking for. Personally, I loved it.

The Eight Sense starts as a story mostly focused on Ji Hyun, a student that moved from the countryside to Seoul to attend a university. Trying to fit into a larger and fast paced environment, working part time and taking classes - having just one friend from the same town. And then he comes across Jae Won. And that’s when the romance starts, Ji Hyun slowly starts to get out of his comfort zone and the plot starts to shift more towards Jae Won.

For me, Jae Won is the star of the drama. His character just resonates with me more. Initially presented as this popular guy who just got back from the military. Guy that has it all: friends, girls liking him, rich and influential parents and an extroverted personality that makes his daily life so much easier. But there is so much more to this character and we slowly see the unhealed wounds as the plot starts to focus on his side more and more.

Both characters went through enormous change throughout this short drama. Both matured and learned more about themselves. While the romance was amazing, organic, well paced and perfectly delivered, the individual stories were the aspect that made me love the drama more. Creating your characters as more than just a pair, making sure they are presented as individuals with their own stories, social circles. Not locking them inside the romance bubble where they are never seen interacting with other people in a context that is detached from their relationship - that’s when you know there was some proper effort put into writing.

I cannot compliment The Eighth Sense enough on how they presented and dealt with mental health issues. This might be one of the best representations in k-bls we have seen so far. It showcases how complex of an issue it might be. How at times we don’t even know how much people around us are struggling, because they learned how to mask it. How the healing takes more than just occasional visits to a specialist. How the system of social support and having people you trust around you is also a vital aspect of recovery. How there is no one solution, magic pill that can fix it all - it’s a long process that needs many elements working together to have a positive and long lasting effect. But also, how it’s obtainable, how it’s not impossible to get out of that dark place, no matter how hopeless it might feel at the moment.

As for the acting - no complaints. Both Im Ji Sub and Oh Jun Taek did justice to their characters and delivered a realistic and believable performance. The Eighth Sense also has an amazing cast of vibrant supporting characters. I adored the female-male friendships thanks to Yoon Won’s and Ae Ri’s fun personalities and great delivery by Lee Mi Ra and Seo Ji An. I hated Eun Ji and Tae Hyung with all my passion and it was also possible only because of how well acted the roles were - props to Park Hae In and Jang Young Joon. It also made me think how we all have flaws, some just have a bit more than others… But we still need to learn how to coexist with them, otherwise it will just make out lives harder.

All that said, here comes issues I had. The editing was at times truly painful. I understand that in some cases it was probably a stylistic choice that visually represented the state the characters were in, but it did not really feel like it. It just felt like a messy and jumpy editing. In most cases the directing and editing was okay. Opening two episodes had an amazing indie feel to it and I fell in love with it right away, but the middle part of the story just felt a bit sloppy. Some scenes felt on the nose, but I don’t think it was the issue of the scenes alone, but rather the fact they were played one after another.

Overall, highly recommended, but not to people who just want a romance driven story with little to no distraction from that aspect. This show does not even have that many scenes of leads together, compared to other dramas in that genre. It’s more of the characters walking next to each other rather than characters walking together. Sometimes one person stops for a moment. Sometimes one person picks up the pace leaving the other behind. There are individual detours before they can both reach the destination.

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Take NOTES THAILAND

This is ACTING.. this is CINEMATOGRAPHY. this is chemistry without PUSHING it in our face.. it's subtle. it's unspoken. I grew up watching shows like skam and skins and despite me loving the fluff of Thai BL's... I love gritty lgbtq stories and I believe shows like this will open the door and kick it wide open for more Asian countries to do more lgbtq esque shows like this and what 180 degree longitude did a while ago as well. how are these actors ACTING without even speaking...they don't even need dialogue and it's so powerful between them that they don't even need words.

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a must watch series

Overall: this series is unique and beautiful and I hope to see the leads again soon. 10 episodes about 35 minutes each, aired on Viki (cut movie was in theaters in South Korea)

Content Warnings: see my comment with a spoiler

What I Liked
- chemistry and tension
- sweet moments
- how Ji Hyun is inexperienced/timid but goes after what he wants/takes risks/stands up for himself
- supportive people: Ji Hyun's roommate (who is oddly not listed on the MDL page), Ae Ri, the restaurant owner, Yoon Won & the therapist
- production style/value
- that we actually see therapy (gone to voluntarily) and medication however, it still felt like a fictional "love cures all" by the end
- characters discussing how respect is earned not deserved due to age (which is only 3 years difference anyway...)
- that the co-writers/co-directors were trying to solve copyright issues with social media posts promoting the series

Room For Improvement
- I wish they had lit the actors' faces a little bit more during the night scenes, sometimes it was so dark that I couldn't see what was happening
- I believe they purposefully went for a choppy vibe but it came across as jarring instead of artistic, one example is the beginning of episode 3 did not pick up where episode 2 left off, they should have re-shown a few seconds of episode 2's ending and then gone from there
- unless it was a translation error misleading the audience for half of episode 7 was not needed and felt like a betrayal instead of a neat plot twist
- Eun Ji was a cliched evil ex character who was not needed at all, they could have cut that character and that other dude and then spent more screentime in other areas
- not everyone deserved a character redemption, sometimes a person does something so bad that no apology can absolve them and they lose friends, two characters should have had this happen to them instead of the happy/ish endings they received
- we actually never got the entire story with Jae Won
- odd things, a bar owner can't speak Korean in Seoul? there wasn't a swim test? odd conversation in ep 3 about kissing and consent (you don't have to ask but it's nice/a good idea to get verbal or non-verbal consent), Ji Hyun says he'll stop prying or leave Jae Won alone but then doesn't do that, the joke about Halloween/Itaewon was in poor taste as was people laughing at the guy cross dressing
- that the production crew still does not have an official release for SE Asia 3 weeks, and that those in South Korea only had access to an apparently a very choppy movie

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THE CHEMISTRY, THE STORIES

TBH IT'S REALLY SOMETHING NEW FOR KBL, LIKE HOW THE STORIES CAN MAKE ME FEEL LIKE I'M IN THE STORIES LINE????? THIS IS GONNA BE MY TOP 1 KBL. TBH. I'M TYPING THIS WITH MY TREMBLING HANDS. IT'S SOOOOO FUCKING GOOD. IT'S MUST BE HAVE A LOT OF AWARDS.

THE WAY THEY EXPRESS THEIR LOVE, THE WAY THEY LOOKING AT EACHT OTHERS LIKE THEY ALREADY FALL IN LOVE. NOT IN THE DRAMA BUT IN REALITY. THEY ARE SOOOOOOO MUCH IN LOVE. I LOVE ALL THIS DRAMA, STORIES, HOW THEY ACTING AND HOW THEY EXPRESS THEIR FACES.

THIS IS THE FIRST TIME MY 10/10 REVIEW OF KOREAN DRAMA. I KNOW MAYBE THEY WILL BE ANOTHER STANDARD FOR KOREAN BOYS LOVE DRAMA.

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I have fallen in love with the story and characters, so I am personally offended by the execution.

My title came off a little strong, so here’s the short answer: this drama is definitely amazing for a gay romance coming out of Korea, but has really poor editing that was consistently jarring and some loose ends.

Now here comes the long answer (starting with the good of course!):
I really do appreciate this drama because it made an effort to tell a genuine gay love story, and I would say they succeeded. I especially appreciated this effort because the homophobia of Korean society tends to encroach on the acting and direction of some other BL series I’ve seen.

From the script alone we already have a good starting point, but the actors definitely took this drama to the next level. Im Ji Sub and Oh Jun Taek were stellar lead actors. You could always tell how their characters felt just through an expression or exchange. The chemistry and tension between them was on point. You could always feel a tangible mutual romantic curiosity between the two of them. It never felt stiff or awkward, or like they were forcing themselves to “act gay.” The effort and care put in the acting and direction gave the romance an authentic feel.
The setting and story were both quite nice. The school setting felt realistic, and the surfing aspect worked with the story surprisingly well.

The main characters themselves were both interesting. I liked to learn more about them, and see them grow and change throughout the series. I wasn’t a fan of Eun Ji or her writing. It wouldn’t have hurt anyone if they put a little more effort into making her a little less of a one-dimensional villain archetype, but in the end she served her purpose.

Now for my main complaint, and the achilles heel of this entire show: the editing.

I wish I was being dramatic when I said the editing made me die a little on the inside. As someone in visual arts who has experience with video editing, I genuinely started to wonder about the vision from the director and editing team, or if there was an editing team and if they got paid. Possibly they were held at gunpoint to make some of the most questionable editing choices of all time. The look of the first two episodes was alright, but the editing lost its way at episode 3 and barely managed to find its way back by episode 8. The coloring and filters were too exaggerated and varied. It very rarely did anything to add to the mood or tone of the show. At worst it was very distracting and at best it was tumblr-esque and outdated.
To be fair, there were a handful of shots I thought looked lovely.

Now if you're someone who doesn’t care about the aesthetics of a show, there is still a reason to care about the quality of the editing. The transitions. This was where the editing really started to hinder the storytelling. It made the story convoluted and hard to follow. I often had to skip back to see if I missed something, only to realize I hadn’t missed anything at all. The transitions are really just that jarring. It didn’t help that they would often throw in random scenes without context and then move on with very little explanation.

Overall, I would still recommend this show and I think it is a step in a great direction for Korean BL dramas. The integrity of the story and characters holds up, even if the transitions and editing made me want to pull out my hair.
The story also leaves me wondering about the character’s futures. I felt that we missed out on some of the development of Jae Won that the story was hinting at. I’d like to know more about our main character’s families and backgrounds, which are still partially unexplained. I would definitely tune in for a season 2. I may even rewatch it eventually now that I’ve come to terms with the horrendous editing.

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Great start, somewhat lackluster finish

I liked this story and thought it had great potential, but I wasn't entirely thrilled with the redemption arc readily granted to very devious characters. It felt forced and didn't really do justice to the story. I also feel that Ji Hyun forgives too easily. Jae Won offered no explanation and that felt wrong. I was angry on Ji Hyun's behalf. I understand Jae Won's trauma but he was projecting on Ji Hyun and also willingly conniving with Eun Ji in the process. I don't know! I felt that his return to Ji Hyun required a little more effort on his part. He just shows up and is forgiven.

Ghosting someone also causes anxiety. Ji Hyun exhibits no signs of insecurity. The makers were so determined to wrap this happily that they hurriedly tied the ends together but the ends are loose and unsatisfying.

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Only two episodes and I'm already obsessed with them.

Oh my God,
A masterpiece or A legendary drama or what..?? ? What I just saw man. ? I just got mesmerized by this Series. I don't know how this story will turn further, only thing I know that I can't wait for the next episodes to be aired.

Both the main characters is likable and not just only the main but the supporting characters also quite fun to watch. When it comes to main characters chemistry and sexual tension between them that is also super fine. I thoroughly love this series .

Just please don't be a sad series don't know why but i'm getting sad vibes. ?

Nothing much for now, I'm just in love with this series ❤️ and waiting for more episodes.

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Blooming like Blueming

The Eighth Sense was a masterful lesson in care and vulnerability that pulled no punches and went all out, not just in terms of outstanding cinematography and immersive storytelling but also diving into the mindset created by depression, trauma, and anxiety as well as the behaviors that result from tackling them alone and with support.

The character of Jae Won embodied depression and trauma recovery so well:

Looking out at the world and your own choices from a fishbowl view. What you want to say and do and what you don't become blurred like water. And even being able to see it clearly doesn't mean you can reach out; grasp it. You're sitting outside yourself, numb to the world and unable to express what you truly want to because everything is just so heavy, and how could you drag someone else into that and weigh them down with you?

And then there's someone like Ji Hyun, not a savior or an angel but a person unexpectedly possessing gorgeous boldness and frankness, who understands and even when he doesn't is there to push when the net is wound too tight and listen when it's suffocating but Jae Won needs to undo it alone.

The Eighth Sense is more than a romance. More than a Queer drama. It's cinema at its finest.

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If you ask me what romance as a genre really lacks then I'd say: authenticity. And maybe I'd be wrong according to a lot of viewers but I really do get surprised when I come across stories like these which by the sheer force of authenticity bring out those emotions in me–and let me tell you that's hard given what a crudgy watcher I am.

And it doesn't have to be a pulpy show of chastity or, on the other side of that scale, terribly unnecessarily raunchy; it can be something as small as hands brushing, smiling when the other isn't looking (gosh I hate that! BUT it works here, it works). The Eighth Sense really doesn't have a lot to offer on this metric, it does not have full-blown NC (it's not wrong to have sex scenes, except i mostly feel it's a terrible substitute for plot) yet it left my insides in a happy state of “butterflies”!

Ji Hyun and Jae Won are the perfect opposites attract trope. Ji Hyun, newly moved to Seoul from a remote part of the country feels quite lost and he understandably develops a sort of reverence for the senior who takes him under his wing and (seems to) have his shit together. Then, a feeling Ji Hyun can't understand, emotions heightened after he and Jae Won kiss. But let's stay friends, a poor, poor follow through.

An important part of the story is Jae Won dealing with emotional trauma of witnessing (and believing himself to be the cause of) what is the most painful event in his life. It's been years, he's almost thirty and has been going to a doctor regularly. This unhealed trauma is a source for grief to both parties later in the story and there are so many ways this can go wrong.

The Eighth Sense doesn't go down the path of "loves fixes everything" but that we can experience the same excruciating pain in safety and support. While Ji Hyun becomes a sort of safe space for Jae Won, JW himself recognises the problems of that (and even discusses it with his doctor). This a very positive depiction of the importance of mental health not just from the perspective of the sufferer but also Ji Hyun’s side, how he must try to understand him in a different way.

Secondly, I loved that Jae Won as a character is not defined by his trauma. Neither is Ji Hyun merely a puppet, a stand-in "love healer". There is an inherent kindness in both of them that they protectively branch out to each other (and to me, any relationship be it family/pets/friend/romantic comes with kindness). The side characters supplement the story with being draggy fillers.

Coming to the production itself, beautiful acting. I found myself holding my breath in a few scenes (eagerly leaning into the screen, nose touching pixels and all). Jun Taek (Ji Hyun)in episode 9: wrecked my heart. His happiness is my happiness, his grief is my grief. And normally that would imply grief for the one who brought grief to my aggrieved child but Ji Im Sub (Jae Won) stole my heart too. Man he's got that hollow look down pat, and that way he visibly kind of lights up when JH is around.

My major problem in the show were the openings, that wannabe edgy look is something I dislike but I got over it. There were many blackout scenes and sudden cuts which I again attribute to the "wannabe edginess" but okay, not a major issue compared to the other wonderful thing about this show: the soundtrack. I don't listen to music, I have a reason for that, but I recognise very well that showmakers often don't know shit about choosing the right music. And they unlike me cannot–should not–cite mysterious reasons for their ill choices of music (basically playing the ost over and over or different parts of it sometimes slower and sometimes faster. This is why shows like the eighth sense and kinnporsche and i told sunset about you stand out to me in the bl romance genre).

I think I've accomplished my mission rant abt The Eighth Sense. Hopefully it's going to make some more crudgy souls happy like it has made me for the last 5 weeks. (Also that poster has a whole new meaning when you get past that scene, awesome choice).

PS: when I say no NC I don't imply a lack of sexiness because damn that tension and their dynamic? fire. hot. (and I do mean it, I'm a crudgy soul remember?)

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