Yeah it looks bad... but you have to watch with your heart ❤??

I have finally done a proper re-watch of this series and I'm very happy to finally do this show justice. I fucking love Unforgotten Night. There's so many things that are absolute trash about this show. Like Kamol's giant, ugly tattoo of a tiger, the way they portray bdsm, the twilight filter, the fact they hired boysompob for the soundtrack instead of some linkin park type shit. If the nc scenes look like 2008 dragon ball youtube edits, you better go all the way!

To really appreciate this show, you have to understand the key parts where they went wrong. You can just tell the direction is lacking. There are many shots that feel awkward and hard to watch. There are dynamics and entire dimensions to characters that basically become easter eggs because they are not emphasized in the proper way. For someone like me who is a fan of this show, it's devastating watching the show fumble what could have been selling points again and again. So, for your viewing pleasure, I recommend watching the show by paying a little more attention to the acting and the words actually being said.

It's honestly such a shame. Unforgotten Night is truly a diamond in the rough for its characters and story. The cast is brilliant and even though you can tell they've been thrown under the bus, they're working overtime.

There are a lot of nuances (aka things that shouldn't be nuances but ended up being underemphasized for god knows what) in this show that you would really only be able to pick up on if you watched it an unearthly amount of times like I have. In order to take away that step so you can adequately enjoy the show on your first watch I would recommend keeping these things in mind:
1) Kim is having a great time, please don't worry. Source: trust me.
2) Kim is really smart. Or at the very least very cautious. He takes into full account the actions of the people around him
3) Kamol is fucking stupid. He is so emotionally unintelligent- The only person he ever understands is Kim, and that's only sometimes true
4) Kim is a brat. He says a lot of reasonable things when he's being bratty, but you also have to trust me when I say that #1 is true and therefore he's just being a butt all the time
5) Kim and Kamol engage in banter. Like so much banter. Please understand it's banter T____T

The re-watch value comes from the fact they simply didn't spend enough time on a lot of fun and interesting points in the show. Maybe the 12 episode format wasn't enough to communicate everything properly, but thankfully a show can be rewatched forever :)). I have the most fun going back and discovering some new thing I hadn't noticed before. I'm not exaggerating by saying I notice something new every time, one of the blessings of a production made by lots of different people.

Since the music also never matches the nc' scenes or is entirely missing in places where it's needed to create mood, a fun game I like to play is picking out my own music to put over scenes. This seemingly small change can honestly make the difference and make scenes more cohesive. This is something I actually do with many shows I re-watch, but I definitely get the most value out of it with this show because there was really so much good work done by the actors.

At the end of the day, this show has my whole heart. There's a lot you have to have grace for, but it's worth it tho, I always come back

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Just Really Really Good

Everything is handled almost perfectly. Every shot is stunning, the music chosen is on point. The actors truly understand their characters. Often times when I'm analyzing a story, I look for details in choices made by pretty much everyone else except for the actors. These two carried this story so purposefully and so well done, you could look into their faces at any given scene to find any hidden context or further meaning.

Often times I find that bl's with some sort of overarching message tend to be a bit heavy-handed in delivering it to the audience. They usually tend to feel like afterthoughts instead of parts of the story. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Let Free The Curse of Taekwondo is not just a bl with a message, but also one that is deeply and intrinsically a part of the romance and characters. Every element that is there serves a purpose.

I'm also really happy about the ending. For me, it's so rare that bl will have a good and satisfying ending. A terrible ending can ruin a whole series for me, especially since it's the last impression. Even if the ending is sad, there's a proper way to handle it so that the story reaches a proper conclusion. Whether or not it has a happy or sad ending I won't reveal here, but I will say that this show's ending makes sense and closes out the story of it's characters in a satisfying way.

My only complaint would be that they kind of overcomplicated a lot of things in the end. I don't think it needed to be as convoluted as it was. I think this also lost me a little bit, making the second half of the story feel a little dry and unsatisfying to watch. I couldn't tell if it was an issue with translation, some cultural things I just wasn't picking up on, or if I'm just really dense T_T but the second half being hard to follow kind of killed a lot of the joy I got from this show for me.

//the only spoiler-y thing I will say, is that I do really love how one of the messages from this story is that imperfect people deserve to be loved too. as an imperfect person (rarely represented in bl), i really appreciate that :)) //

It's a really beautiful work and everyone who was a part of it was at the top of their game. If you're thinking about giving this series a try, please don't hesitate because it's very worth it.

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So Toxic, So Good: tl;dr don’t watch without a healthy understanding of abuse

Ahhh, where do I start? Well, I really won't mince words here; the relationships in Jazz For Two are abusive.

They're written with the sort of hope that keeps people in abusive relationships; the hope that deep down we understand each other and can make it out on the other side. There's something astonishing , and honestly, magical to me about the way this is so perfectly captured while maintaining this strong aura of soulmates.

Seheon gets hurt physically and emotionally regularly by Tae-I, who only apologizes once. Doyoon is also later found out to be enduring regular abuse from Juha. The act of enduring pain and abuse is treated like a type of pure or higher love. Both Seheon and Doyoon let these things happen to them because they have some sort of understanding that this person they love must also be battling something deep inside them. Their true selves, they naively believe, are hidden somewhere inside of this person who repeatedly does them harm and one day they will see their earnestness and open up to them.

This kind of hope for change in someone’s actions and willingness to “wait out” abusive behavior keeps people in abusive relationships. Guys, this shit is really serious. If someone reveals this kind of behavior to you, understand and believe that this IS their true self. The extreme highs you might feel with them will always be accompanied with extreme lows. If someone hurts you, that’s your sign to go. If you’re not sure, talk to someone you trust about it. Most importantly to remember: if someone really loved you like you deserve, they wouldn’t ever think it was okay to hurt you.

Anyway, it’s still a really good show.

Keeping these toxic themes in mind and understanding that relationships in this show shouldn’t be mimicked in real life, I can honestly say this show is a really enjoyable watch. Leaning into some of our worst impulses and rewarding them with the love story we wish could be; it’s like junk food. It’s good to have something fucked up like this to enjoy every once in a while. Don’t get into the ingredients too much tho.

The story is kinda meh. The whole thing with Tae-I and his brother is kind of done like a second thought and leaves you kind of wanting more. Obviously though, it becomes apparent as you watch this show that the story isn’t actually the important part so I’m not too hung up over it.

The direction is fucking beautiful, every scene is stunning. The acting is really good too, and you get all the subtleties of their emotions in all of the important parts and then all of the humor in all of the funny parts. The show is incredibly re-watchable. I actually am doing this review now because I’ve just re-watched it lol :)

I think my biggest complaint (besides the blatant toxicity of the relationships) is the fact they didn’t have enough jazz! The songs were jazz, sure, but it wasn’t really jazzy. The show is literally called Jazz for Two, can’t we get some of that punchy, spunky vibe from jazz? There wasn’t a lot of that fun energy we like to associate with jazz, incredibly disappointing. And then there were some crucial scenes that didn’t even utilize jazz in the background at all that really set me off.

Or at the very least juxtaposing jazz with classical music. With how much this show was putting jazz on a pedestal and putting down classical music I really thought we’d actually get to explore these mediums. Instead, we did get to see a small glimpse into what it’s like to be a musician, but it did leave much to be desired. Again… not the point of the show though, ultimately I understand.

Jazz be damned, the music was still very good.

Summary: The relationships were toxic as shit. Be mindful and watch with caution. The jazz wasn’t jazzy enough for my taste. Everything else was really beautiful though, and it was very enjoyable.

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