The Star (2024)

After trailer - WOW! After actual series - WTF?!

There are many independent production teams that don't have many sponsors or rely on YouTube subscribers donations. There are also many BL movies/series/mini-series worth watching despite apparent small budgets or newbies actors. Unfortunately, The Star is not one of them, and here's why.

Good cinematography is largely about money. Production team, actors, equipment, etc. all require some resources - without that, not a move. You just need money to make a series. But if you think the main problem here is a small budget - better think twice.

For me, the failure of this series is the wrong business decisions. When the trailer consisting of super hot 18+ scenes was released, I thought The Star could aspire to be the hottest series of the year (!). But then I noticed that it's not a series just a movie, which means that international viewers will have to wait several months from the day of release. Tough luck, I'll wait. Then it was change - from a movie it became a mini-series: 2x25 min, and I was like: WTF? How can a movie be edited into two short episodes?

The story itself had potential, but the creativity here was lacking. The lousy first 25 minutes do not encourage you to watch the second part, which (note!) is only 17 minutes long. Why? The remaining promised 8 minutes are "exclusive content" available only to subscribers of the company's YouTube channel at certain levels. You need to pay at least 7(?) dollars to see what they have prepared for us. And guess what? I'm all for supporting young creators and actors as much as possible. Their work is sometimes worth more than the "works" released by well-known studios. But this 8 minutes content - it's just not worth it. This is not an uncut episode as one might expect. It's 8 minutes of cut NC scenes that couldn't appear on YouTube. Yes, the notable sexy scene from the trailer is also there.

If you've already seen The Star - I'm sorry you had to watch it. If you haven't yet - let it go. The low budget stings all the way through, But even money won't help if you don't know how to make the narrative interesting. The actors give it their all, but the dull script, weird editing and general lack of sense don't help the reception of this series. There's nothing interesting here, and it's not a matter of difficult subject matter as some claim, it's more of a really bad execution.

Perhaps I had too high expectations, but this is completely not what I expected. The Star turned out to be one of those productions you look forward to, only to rub your eyes in amazement later, wondering: what am I even watching? It seems that all the potential of the series was stolen by the one-and-a-half-minute trailer, the rest is better left out of silence.

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Could Have Been Better

This is the real thing. Acting that does not look like acting.” – Quote from The Star

There is honestly so much to unpack here in this short series that goes way beyond the plot or story. Reality and fiction merge together to make this series unique. As the abstract states, this series is based on a ‘true story’. Perhaps a more apt description might be closer to a docudrama.

It begins with a hapless and sad young man, ironically named Hope (Night Yodsakon), who sets up his vendor cart selling fried meatballs in front of a BL production company. He looks and acts defeated and forlorn. Yet maintains a sense of optimism outwardly; merely for show. Inwardly, he seems to have given up ‘hope’.

One day he is approached by the owner of the BL production company who asks if he would like to star in a BL series. Indeed, there is something enticing about Hope that draws you to him. His face tells it all and there is something about his demeanor that is raw and organic. If he could learn to act, channel his difficult life experiences into real meaningful and believable enactments, he could evoke a freshness about a series. Hope knows nothing about acting or even what a BL is but is willing to try.

Read the complete article here-

https://the-bl-xpress.com/2024/04/25/the-star-series-review-ep-1-2/

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