Eccentric Romance (2024)

PecBros, or, Peccentric Bromance

This is how I imagine the pitch meeting for this show went:

WRITERS: So, we have a proposal for a new BL. One that is radical and fresh and new and innovative...
PRODUCERS: What is it?
WRITERS: It’s a Thai BL crossed with a Korean BL.
PRODUCERS: Brilliant!! Go nuts!
WRITERS: Great! How much money do we get?
PRODUCERS: Nothing.
DIRECTOR: Hang on... (To the writers:) Talk us through it.
WRITERS: Well, there's this Thai dude who comes to study at Korea, and he's best friends with this Korean dude because they grew up together, and...
PRODUCERS: In the same country?
WRITERS: Yes.
PRODUCERS: Which one? Thailand or Korea?

WRITERS: Exactly.
DIRECTOR: Well, which is it?
WRITERS: Which isn't it?
PRODUCERS: O... kay...
WRITERS: Anyway, the Thai dude goes to the same university as his buddy, and they decide to share the same room. Will they be more than friends? That's the story.
(Everyone sighs.)
CASTING DIRECTOR: So, I'm guessing we’ll need to find a Korean actor who speaks Thai, and a Thai actor who speaks Korean?
PRODUCERS: Who are also willing to be in a BL? Forget it. Too expensive.
WRITERS: What do we do then?
PRODUCERS: We get around it.
WRITERS: How?
DIRECTOR: By giving them a few language lessons?
PRODUCERS: Of course not. Let's just have the Thai guy speak Thai, and the Korean guy speak Korean. Easy.
WRITERS: But…
PRODUCERS: But what?

WRITERS: If the Thai actor cannot speak Korean, and the show is set in Korea, how will he interact with all the other Korean characters in the show?
PRODUCERS: What characters?

WRITERS (shuffling through their papers): Well, so far, we have a couple of university students, a gym teacher, and of course, a fujoshi.
CASTING DIRECTOR: That would be a problem.
PRODUCERS: Hmmm... Well, why don't we just say that all the students are majoring in Thai, that the gym teacher loves Thai culture, and the fujoshi… well, can’t she just love Thai food?

WRITERS: Yet none of them can speak a word of Thai?

DIRECTOR: Well, what are the boys supposed to be studying at college?
WRITERS: I think they’re studying… (They talk among themselves and fumble through the pages.) Ummm... something physical education-y.
PRODUCERS: In other words, something that gets them to the gym in order for us to see them topless.
(The writers remain silent.)
PRODUCERS: Then why the fuck does any of it matter?
Just throw them in the gym, take a few thirst traps, and give it a theme tune. Done.
DIRECTOR: Ummm… Not to be a wet blanket or anything. But is there a plot somewhere around the corner?

WRITERS: We’re still working on it.
DIRECTOR: What do you mean "working on it"?

WRITERS: We have an element of mystery. We think the gym teacher might be involved in a murder.
DIRECTOR: Might be? Surely you, as writers, should know what happens?
PRODUCERS: You a rookie? He's just a hunk of meat. (To the writers): Isn't he?
DIRECTOR: Well, you’re not helping matters. If we have good actors, or better scriptwriters... no offence...
WRITERS: None taken.
DIRECTOR: What am I supposed to do now?

PRODUCERS: Relax. This is BL 101. You need arms, pecs, abs, and ass. You need some “angst”, whatever the fuck that means, and you need a happy ending. Don’t tell me the girls won’t eat this up.
WRITERS: They have a point.
PRODUCERS (clapping their hands twice): Get to it, then. Make us some money.
CASTING DIRECTOR: This is going to be a fun couple of months.
DIRECTOR: What could possibly go wrong?


And this is how I imagine the post-production meeting went:

PRODUCERS: Remind us, which one of you was the editor on this project? (A hesitant hand goes up.) You're fired. And who did the cinematography? You’re fired too. Now, who did the music? (Another hesitant hand goes up.) Give the man a raise. He knows how to trap that thirst. (A long pause.) Now, where are the screenwriters?
WRITERS: Here.
PRODUCERS: Tell me, have you ever considered writing for gay porn? Because your talents are wasted here.
WRITERS: Oh! Wait... what?
PRODUCERS (sighing): It's one thing to have no plot. Which is what you came to us with in the first place. But now, you have given us a murder mystery in which the real villain was... drumrolls please...
CASTING DIRECTOR: Oh, you want us to do the actual drumroll?
DIRECTOR: Interesting.
PRODUCERS: The fat guy! The fat guy!! You know, the one who steals other people's food, who can't control himself or his feelings, and who therefore deserves to die? Him. This is what you were going for. In 2024.
(The writers are silent.)
PRODUCERS: Tell me, was he meant to be gay as well? Not that we acknowledge the existence of gays in KBLs, of course. Or did you make that vague on purpose, so that your audience wouldn't have to think of him as a sexual being?
WRITERS: No... It's just...
PRODUCERS: You do realise you've managed to write a show in which a YouTube influencer is *not* the worst person in the world? Now that’s an accomplishment.
DIRECTOR: What are you so mad at them for? You green-lit the project!
PRODUCERS: Yes, back when we thought it was about two cute boys hitting the gym, bonding over Thai food, and lip reading in different languages. We didn't expect a bibimbap of anti-fat prejudices and pro-protein-shake propaganda. Didn't we have enough of that in Blueming?
DIRECTOR: What do you want us to do then? Pull the project?
PRODUCERS: No, of course not. (Sighs.) When you've been in the business for as long as we have, you'll realise that people will watch anything. Most BL is queer-bait-and-switch anyway.
DIRECTOR: What then?
PRODUCERS: Send it to focus group -- but make sure there's no one gay, fat, or above 40 in it -- and see how often they say 'fluffy' or 'cute'. If it's more than 50%, release it.
WRITERS: So you want us to release something that you yourself hate?
PRODUCERS: Of course. Haven't you seen the Producers?


Reader's (Google Translated) Digest:
DO SAY: Krub, C̄hạn rạk khuṇ, Annyeonghaseyo, Salanghaeyo.
DON'T SAY: H̄yud ley. Kkeojyeo.

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ECCENTRIC SHOW FOR SURE

First of all let me just ask why title the series Eccentric Romance? The term eccentric literally means unusual, odd or strange. Do the makers hate same sex love stories that much to actually call whats happening odd and/or strange? Is it supporting BL genre or mocking it?

The series is actually not that bad but it isnt actually good as well. At least it was better than that last Thai-Korean show starring Mew.

Lets discuss the biggest elephant in this show. This is not the first (or the worst) multi-lingual drama created, but for the love of the heavens above, could the producers just stop doing this now? It is not fun to watch series with leads speaking different languages and we as watchers should pretend that they understand each other. JUST STOP THIS INSANITY. Nothing about it is funny and watcheable. It just screams cheapness and the inability of the budget to actually afford bi-language actors.

My next gripe is this - i am so tired of watching BLs with girls objectifying the leads screaming "ohmygod hes so handsome" as if its their first time seeing a guy. Even worse, ive seen a few BLs doing this same shit and i am like who the f are they screaming at? They want us to believe that they cast the hottest actors in the world and maybe if they keep saying and doing it over and over we as watchers would believe it too. I mean the actors in this series are not bad looking but to be honest they dont look like someone who would stop people in their tracks. Stop doing this writers, this is just lazy lazy lazy writing.

Anyway, no need to recap, not worth retyping it, just read the synopsis here in MDL. I actually feel bad for this series. It is a show wanting to be different but isnt. The main story is quite unique in the BL world, conceptually, but the mediocre execution prevented it from actually being good. The acting is very amatuerish and the chemistry between the main couple is lacking. The sets are awful and screams low-budget. It feels like they shot the entire series within a day or two. The main twist and ending felt so rushed. Its a slice-of-life drama with no backstories and no real depth.

I really really cant understand why this has to be 12 short episodes with almost nothing happening. Add the fact that the 15minute episode is actually just about 12min when you have more than 90sec recap/opening credits and another 90 sec end credits. It is so obvious that the material they have and shot is just enough for a full-length movie and just divided it into 12 episodes and that they intend to re-release it in a movie version later on to milk it as much as possible. Please Im begging you Korean producers, if you want to make a series, please MAKE A SERIES. How difficult is it to add maybe 5 or 10 minutes to each episodes to fully develop your stories and characters?

Would i reccommend it? Not particularly, but if you have time to waste binge it in 1.25 speed, that would certainly make the experience better. Would i rewatch? Not even if you put a gun in my mouth. im giving it a 6.5 out of 10.

Lire davantage

jarring and nonsense plot elements (watch suggestions)

Overall: the writer/s spent too much time on a love rival and the very serious side plot didn't work for me. 12 episodes about 15 minutes each. Sometimes there was an extra scene during the end credits. Aired 2 episodes per week on Viki https://www.viki.com/tv/39807c-eccentric-romance and GagaOOLala (Southeast Asia) https://www.gagaoolala.com/en/videos/4853/eccentric-romance-2024 This production company also produced Love is Like a Cat and Peach of Time.

Content Warnings: past murder, attempted murder, blood, kidnapping, blackmail, manipulation, fight

Watch Suggestion for the last 4 episodes (I don't have the energy/desire to go back thru beginning episodes and write suggested timings, these suggestions focus on sweet moments with the MLs)
- episode 1 start at 1:40
- episode 2 skip 10:30-12:25, stop at 14:40
- episode 3 watch 3:20-8
- episode 4 watch the beginning to the intro
- episode 5 watch the beginning to 6:30
- watch episode 6
- skip episode 7
- episode 8 watch 13:45-end
- episode 9 watch the very beginning and 4-6:30
- episode 10 watch 2:40-3 and 7:40-10:15
- episode 12 watch 14:30-end

What I Liked
- dynamic between the leads
- sweet moments
- non cliche female character
- visuals
- language was realistic as people are generally more comfortable listening vs speaking, update: it was a bit unrealistic that all the side characters understood Thai but they did give explanations at least
- a bit better than dead fish lip presses

Room For Improvement
- the opening scene was confusing, it was actually a flashback not a flash forward as I originally thought
- exposition dump introductions for the characters, villain exposition dump, exposition dump at the end
- seemed to be a made up class (let me know if that's actually a class available in South Korea and I'll remove this)
- too much time spent on the love rival
- cliche drunk and didn't remember the night before and also drunk kiss
- should have put the scene at the end of 2 at the end of episode
- a lot of nonsense stuff, ie the hug was awkward with the trainer, why weren't police called sooner, the serial killer joke, the villain "plan" at the end etc
- the title didn't make sense but I didn't take off points for it (eccentric doesn't have a negative connotation)

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What?

The main character serves me a lifetime's worth of second-hand embarrassment. Everything is so incredibly underwhelming... This doesn't feel like it's made in 2024 at all, it's worse than Color Rush.

No but actually, what was this supposed to be? Really, what was the point? Korea, we talked about this, we have to have a plot in mind before starting to film a new series, the characters being gay isn't enough. This will now enter my top list of the most Gacha Life mini movie-coded dramas I've seen. Forget worse than Color Rush, this was even worse than Love Class; It's like they're cousins or long-lost siblings. I really wasted my time watching this, so I'm not going to waste even more of my time writing a longer review. There was no depth or emotions conveyed through this series, and I don't think I even spared a smile or a giggle even once. This just wasn't entertaining in any way.

Lire davantage

exccentric but not even medicore.

If you are a Thai major in a university and you have a native speaker there, would you not speak thai? :)
This different language and it's explaination made no sense at all. And if you are friends and grew up together, would you not be able to speak each other languages after a time?

I would have wished, they would have not the "murder" case in it, which was clumsy and unrealistic and concentrating more of the MLs opening up their feelings for each others more in detail. They could even save money by only have eight episodes. 🤣

The show was ok-ish, besides the fluffy moments and some character growth of the MLs, it did not have anything special or worth remembering. Again a show which did not need to exist and if you do two languages, just don't explain it at all and nobody would care so much about it.

Lire davantage

I Like It but it's not good .

This is one of the most cutest and funniest BL series I ever watched. I am so happy that South Korea is now making lots of good BLs .

POSITIVE- The story is unique, I never watched a BL series which is about muscle growth, workout, gym etc . People who doesn't like to do workout , will definitely start to exercise after watching this series. The friendship between ML and MC is so strong. As they are old friends so this story is so interesting because best friends to lovers always hits differently. And most amazing thing is the last few minutes of each episodes. I mean the romance with that beautiful song or music will take you in world of BL . The ML and MC both are so handsome and cute . The visuals are good. And you can understand the languages quickly if you know Korean language slightly.

NEGATIVE- Somehow something is missing. Sometimes they always talk about workout, gym , muscle building which make me tired. Only at the end of the episode they added some romantic moments but this is a BL series so they should add more . But seems like they are not only focusing on love between the ML and MC which is sometimes annoying.

OVERALL- For me this is a solid 7.5 series as I am noticing everything from this series. If you are not a picky watcher then this is only for you . You can try some episodes.

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Work-out murder mystery romance done alright

Note: .5 of my rating is me being generous for no reason. I don't know what to tell you, it just felt right.

It was a bit awkward in terms of pacing/line delivery from the side characters, but when they focused on just the two leads bouncing off of each other, it was quite natural. I could buy that they were not only incredibly close friends, but so close they were edging toward the line.

And for a co-production between Thailand and Korea, it wasn't half bad. And compared to past offerings, it was leagues above them. Sure, Jay's entire circle of friends/acquaintances conveniently understood Thai perfectly while he understood Korean, so they almost never spoke the other's language, and thus, conversations were never a hassle for him. But it was honestly SO easy for him to communicate with everyone that it felt like the drama was aware of how ridiculous it was and was playing on it.

As for the "murder mystery," it was pretty ridiculous. But this drama was never meant to be some cinematic masterpiece or truly balance surprising darkness in an otherwise light story like either season of Love Class. No, it was created to be something silly and entertaining. And, you know what? I'm okay with that. Overall, I had a decent time.

I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend it. But I won't yell, "You're making a mistake!" if you decide to spend your time watching this instead of something else.

Lire davantage

Had So Much Potential Which Was Wasted

Eccentric Romance starts strong, quickly grabbing attention with its intriguing mix of romance and mystery. The first episode set a thrilling tone, opening with a murder scene that transitions seamlessly into the lighthearted friendship between Jay (Save Saisawat) and Seong Hun (Yoon Jun Won). The initial chemistry between the two leads creates an intimacy that anchors the series, even as the alternating language shifts occasionally feel awkward. However, despite its promising setup, the series quickly loses focus.

Read the complete article here-

https://the-bl-xpress.com/2024/11/22/eccentric-romance-series-review-ep-3-to-8/

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We had a murder mystery, plot twist, and had relationships

At first I was really afraid to watch this show since it’s a show where one male lead is Thai and the other one is Korean so their speaking two different languages and we had ‘Love is like a cat’ come out this year and that show was really bad. I will say that this one isn’t as bad as ‘Love is like a cat’, but it had way more chemistry and I felt like I was watching a normal drama since whenever Save (Jay) spoke Thai it seemed normal and when Jun Won (Sung Hoon) spoke Korean with the other cast members it just seemed like their wasn’t any difference between the languages so the show seemed good. I will say this plot is actually really hilarious. I will warn you that there may be spoilers so be aware.
I really enjoyed the plot of Eccentric Romance which was a school drama, but also a mix with murder mystery and a mix of friends into lovers trope because one of their classmates got murdered as we saw once the show started. Jay is Thai and moved to Korea so he can hang out more with his best friend which is Sung Hoon. Everyone was really welcoming to Jay so he felt comfortable, but we also know that their main class is a type of fitness class which is where we meet Seung Ju who is a YouTuber and could probably know about what happened to his classmates death since he is always recording and Kihyeon who is sort of Seung Ju’s best friend. The main point in being in their class that they’re taking is that you need to be fit and healthy so everyday they all go to the gym. One day Jay tagged along to Sung Hoon to go to the gym, but while Sung Hoon worked out by himself Jay got to buy a membership for the school gym to have a personal trainer which is Jin Wook. Sung Hoon felt that Jay shouldn’t be needing to pay money for a trainer when he can teach him himself, so Jay canceled his membership with Jin Wook, but is still very friendly with him until one day Sung Hoon overhears Jin Wook on the phone and he was acting suspicious and then he found the weapon that was used to kill the student, so he kept telling Jay to be aware and to stop hanging out with him, but Jay didn’t want to do it unless he had proof of it. Overtime they both slowly forget about it until Ki Hyeon mentions that there could be the murder around them since where they were doing service things was near the location of the students death. Then Ji Won who works at the gym and saw on Seung Ju’s camera a video of the student who died and Jin Wook fighting so she became scared and told Sung Hoon, but once she told him he had to go rescue Jay because Jin Wook wouldn’t leave him alone and kept chasing after him, but she ended up disappearing. Then we find out in ep 9 that Seung Ju and Ki hyeon are the murders, but it technically wasn’t a murder in my opinion because Seung Ju had a crush on the classmate who got killed, but it was him who fell on the item that he was killed with so that made Seung Ju feel like he killed him, but we know that Ji won, Jay, Jin Wook, and Sung Hoon aren’t the suspects, but they did get kidnapped and Sunghoon did get stabbed, but in the end Seung Ju and Ki Hyeon are arrested and the rest are still working out, doing photo shoots, and Sung Hoon and Jay are showing their relationship publicly. With all of this happening in the plot we do get to see a whole lot of friendships being formed and one relationship which was Jay and Sung Hoon. I do feel they have chemistry, but I feel that this storyline doesn’t fit them if they wanted them to be a couple because sometimes they would be boring and even the actors got boring after some time, but I got over it. I do feel they have more chemistry than ‘Love is like a Cat’ so I will give them that because Love is like a Cat was a whole other show that I don’t want to talk about. Overall, I feel the show was good and definitely way better than Love is like a cat, but it does need some improvements in the plot. I do feel it was a good show overall but it definitely wasn’t the best one I’ve seen, but I do recommend this drama.

Lire davantage

It’s not that great, but it wasn’t that bad either.

What I really like about this series are the casts specially the main characters. Sung hoon’s acting is not that bad it’s more natural than Jay, jay is a little bit awkward and sometimes i can feel that he’s uncomfortable. Specially in their kissing scene, sung hoon is kissing him moving his lips and jay’s lips were stiff and didn’t move. But I like how their love story grew from friendship to lovers even though we didn’t see when their friendship starts and how jay decided to go to korea to study and to stay with sung hoon also their courses I think it’s not realistic though it’s a fiction we didn’t see enough story about them, I think understand why they decided to use the title “Eccentric Romance” because of unusual theme of bl maybe because the series is about the friends turn lovers but there’s a murder thing involved because the suspect and the victim is having a conflict cause one them have feelings, and the unexpected romance between the friendship of 2 different nationalities . There’s a lot of room for improvement for the story and the way they execute it, they could’ve done a lot better. They were trying to give a different or unique storyline which they did but the outcome wasn’t that great. Although I was entertained and smiled because I was hooked up by the leads I mean they could’ve done better they and showed better. I have no problem with 2 different language speaker leads however if you’re going to show to the peple this kind of set up at least make a clear story or explanation about it and make it more realistic. Overall I’ll give this a 7.5/10 bc of sunghoon and jay i think they did they’re part it’s just that their producers and writers are not creative enough to make this series more beautiful and reasonable. That’s why I said the story wasn’t great but it wasn’t bad either I think the producers need to be more creative in the future if they still have a plan to create a series with a theme like this, I like Peach of time which they also created, but Im not really that satisfied though it was good but still something’s really lacking the way they create and produce a series with a theme like this I just feel bad for their casts they are good but the producers writers and directors are such a waste. Maybe I’ll rewatch this if I miss jay and sunghoon’s cute moments.

Lire davantage

Decent series for a one time watch - Very very minor spoilers

This was an interesting storyline and though it's definitely not my favorite, it was a pretty good series. I don't feel like the pacing was always the best, it didn't always flow very well, and it was very predictable in my opinion however I did enjoy watching it. There was at least one twist I didn't see coming right away, I didn't catch on until the episode before it was revealed, so at least there was that.

As for the romance, I really enjoyed the friends to lover's plot. I love that it used the murder mystery to create a mixture of jealousy and genuine concern coming from Seong Hoon. And while the main two actors didn't have the strongest chemistry, it was good enough that I really enjoyed their scenes together and especially of them struggling with their feelings for the other. Especially when it came to Jay! Watching him slowly develop feelings, realize that he was developing feelings for Seong Hoon, panic, and then accept it was a joy. Again, not the strongest chemistry I've seen, but they were cute together. I'm also really glad we got a genuine kiss between the two of them because I was going to be slightly irritated if all we got was two drunk kisses.

I will say, the language thing was done oddly in this series. I get the point of them making some of the characters Thai majors was to explain why they could all understand Jay speaking Thai. However, in my opinion that actually made it worse than if they'd just not explained it. The only reason I say that is because by making them Thai majors it put more emphasis and focus on Jay being Thai. Considering nobody in the show spoke it but him, you wouldn't really want to put even more focus on it. By having none of them speak to Jay in Thai, especially when he is alone with them, made the language part of the series stand out more to me. With them being Thai majors, you would expect them to speak to him in Thai at least occasionally. Same thing with him to them. It's not something I super care about I just thought it was odd.

Overall, this was a decent enough series and, at least in my opinion, is good for at least a one-time watch. It had its cute moments, had its angsty moments, and even had a pretty good mystery even if it was mostly predictable. I don't think this is one I would ever watch again, but I don't feel like my time was wasted either. This was an enjoyable watch.

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Solo hace una cosa bien

Cuando me encontré esta serie y vi que era otra coproducción Tailandia-Corea no pude no recordar "Love is like a cat", lo que me hizo tener escalofríos. ¿Se vendría otra oportunidad perdida? ¿Otra narrativa en la que todo el mundo se entiende aunque no hablen ni el mismo idioma?

Y sí. Y sí también.

Pero en este caso al menos han buscado el tiempo para justificar por qué todo el mundo parece entender Tailandés. Se ve que hay una moda por el idioma en Corea y no teníamos esa información.

En cualquier caso, la serie se siente apresurada, muchas de las escenas cortan a nuevos momentos sin conexión alguna, la relación entre Jay y Seong Hun pasa de 0 a 10 en una transición, la motivación de los personajes no queda del todo clara... y encima la amiga con la que estaba viendo la serie se vio venir el giro argumental en el capítulo 3 (yo no tanto, seré idiota o es tan solo el autismo).

En fin, otro despropósito en 2024.

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