Important Representation

I'm not gonna lie this is mainly going to be me giving opinions about the asexual rep found in this movie, since I'm an asexual myself. I'm going to try not to spoil things, but if you want to go in blind stop reading here, just go watch it becuse tl;dr this movie is good and the ace + poly rep is A+.

What makes me super happy about this movie is that beyond just being excited to see myself on screen, my identity was talked about in a caring, knowledgeable manner. I was worried going into this that they'd present the "solution" to the problem in their throuple as Minho just having sex with them regardless. Thankfully that wasn't the case, and we got good discussions about his boundaries, and what he was curious about/the things he wanted to try with them and what things were most likely off the table. The power was always in Minho's hands.

Side note, the first scene where we see he likes to take pictures of his partners was actually a really nice detail! The indication that he had aesthetic attraction towards them and expressed this through photography was something I appreciated. Some people who are trying to give asexual representation sometimes don't acknowledge the split attraction model, so seeing this director understand that he can still have aesthetic attraction was really nice.

Honestly, Minho is probably one of the best aces i've seen portrayed, because while he shone a light on the asexual experience, it never felt like an "Asexual 101" that some characters devolve into. He wasn't a vague ace, but he also wasn't a "teaching prop" ace. You could see him as a proper, fleshed out person. We saw him talk about his boundaries, we saw him express his love in other ways, he talked about his curiosity, and even the moments where he hated himself rang painfully true.

To talk about his partners, there's one whose name I didn't catch but don't have much to say on. He was the calm, caring one who was attuned to the feelings of both of his partners, and was definitely the glue. As for Seongjin, his behaviour at the beginning initially bothered me, because his frustration came out in the form of slight aphobia. Not in a strong sense, he knew what asexuality was and acknowledged that was part of who Minho was and he loved him, but he was was often frustrated that there were so many things Minho didn't like him doing and verbalized it and that made Minho sad which made the other partner upset as well. The more I watched though, I could see that it was because Seongjin's love language was physical contact, and so was at a loss of how to express his love towards Minho when kissing and sex were taken off the table. That wasn't put forward like an excuse, but I did understand the reasons behind his behaviour better. This died down later anyways as they all began to strike a balance, discovering the other ways they can all express their love for one another.

Is it odd to say the ending made me tear up a bit? I just really liked the fact that Minho wanted to try something, and felt safe to ask his partners to help him explore this. It was a great moment full of so much love..

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Ghosts of the past

I'd just like to preface this by saying that this isn't really a horror drama, it's more gothic, so you may end up disappointed if you're expecting to be scared while watching this drama.

Detention, an adaptation of the game by the same name (you don't need to play it before watching), isn't about scaring the pants off of you, but is more about topics of guilt and trauma. Mainly, how those feelings from the White Terror period in Taiwan still haunts people, with some clinging to that past, while others feel trapped by it (the living and the dead alike). A spotlight is shone on these things by following the main character Liu Yun Xiang and witnessing her own pain and struggles in the present, as it's through her feeling of connection to the ghost of Fang Rui Xin that we learn more about both girls and their past.

There are ghosts in the drama, but they aren't scary at all (though this depends on how good/bad you are with horror imagery in general), and they function more like "the ghosts of our past/our country's past" and the need to face that past and break free. Really, it's people in places of power that are scarier than the ghosts in this drama.

I thought the story was good and the main characters well acted. There are moments I wished I felt more of a connection between Yun Xiang and some of the other side characters in her life, but I think that's just how the story chose to go (probably to drive her to seek company with Rui Xin) and not so much an oversight due to poor writing... so it's just a personal preference.

Even though the topics in the drama can be serious, I liked that the drama still had small moments of joy/hope - it's not setting out to depress you at every turn, but more intends for you to witness, acknowledge, and then carry the information it gives you forward to make a better future, if that makes sense.

It was an interesting watch, and had me looking up more about Taiwan's history, but I can't say it's a drama I'll be sitting down to rewatch often. Still, I'm glad I watched it.

TW for this drama: suicide, grooming, sexual assault.

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It's simple: if it's from Strongberry, I watch it. I always enjoy the feeling of sincerity that underlies all of their works no matter how short they may be, so I always come back for more.

Fingers After is definitely short, clocking in at only 10 minutes long, but the production is good, as is the acting and the ost - nothing is awkward about this short. The story isn't wildly complex, you can't expect it to contain as much as a full 16+ hour kdrama, but it does serve as a nice little glimpse into the lives of these two men as they talk about why one of them suddenly wanted to shut the other out.

Looking forward to more of Strongberry's future works! I encourage everyone who is interested in watching this short to buy this properly on Vimeo so this studio can keep up with their good work making LGBT+ films.

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maybe not the rep you're looking for

I was very excited for another GL but in the end was left disappointed.

I'll start by saying, the acting was good, and I especially loved Huang Pei Jia - I've watched her before and I love seeing her play strong characters. However a few being particularly good at acting doesn't change the writing.

Here's the first big thing I didn't like, and I don't think it's spoilery to warn people about it: I didn't like the drag queen/trans jokes in ep 1 and 3. Even if we think that there are cultural differences, those types of jokes were transphobic and I didn't like seeing other gay people use them. And also the fact that they made the chairwoman of the KK Fashion Group out to be bisexual, and on the heels of that had her saying that love is free and she doesn't have to be loyal to her 2 other boyfriends and doesn't care if she's cheating or if Holly cheats on Meng Lian with her....... that type of writing just encourages biphobic tropes. Despite being an LGBT+ series it seems the writer still has some prejudices that came through too often in the drama the way they talked about members of the community.

SPOILERS BEGIN HERE:

The plot was fine, but nothing special. Meng Lian and Holly get together after knowing each other for only an evening, and Holly impulsively quits her job and follows Meng Lian to Singapore. Early on we get a couple talks about the differences in LGBT+ rights in Taiwan vs Singapore, the denial of cross border marriages or foreigners participating in pride parades (where even if you're from Hong Kong you can't go to the Singapore pride parade), etc, which I thought was good to include since it shone a light on the LGBT+ community in these areas. Holly becomes a stewardess which also opens up a discussion of workplace harassment of the staff, primarily women (but we see it also happening to the men once). However when Holly switches to a man's uniform she's suddenly alright flirting with all the women on the flight who were previously harassing the men - despite having a girlfriend I might add.

The topic of harassment and objectification continues, but Holly's behaviour towards the women fliers, who she is mutually flirting with, obviously bothers Meng Lian and Holly doesn't notice or care. She actually flaunts it in front of Meng Lian, saying she enjoys being a part of women's fantasies. She also begins to lie and deflect about who she's spending time with and doesn't even seem to notice she's leaving Meng Lian out of her life, or that lack of honesty isn't good for a relationship. Her explanation when she was caught was literally just "look at your reaction I knew you'd react like this so I lied". She doesn't even pay attention to Meng Lian, and doesn't take the hint about her birthday, and isn't present for Meng Lian to talk about her concerns regarding the MMA competition. (The fact that Chuan remembered Meng Lian's birthday while Holly THE GF not only didn't remember but went on a flight to Europe the same day and didn't even realize why there was cake in the house). The only time they do talk, Holly dismisses Meng Lian's desire for stability and shouts at her calling her weak. Meng Lian gets upset at Holly yelling put downs at her and lashes out, accidentally hitting Holly. Not to excuse Meng Lian, but that time really did read like a reflexive thing from her training and not purposeful abuse, but I still do really hate that they added in this element where a partner gets hit (and it seems to try and make Meng Lian out to be the bad guy despite like... everything else). Basically after this the plot keeps rolling showing us they're on entirely different paths and Meng Lian doesn't want to be with Holly anymore.

Meng Lian's own plot didn't shift dramatically with or without Holly: she's an athlete fighting the stay in the game despite a sexist society telling her not to go for it, and an injury that prompts her to change sports. Her side of things doesn't feel as well developed, and I wish we got to see more of her conflict since she's a lesbian in Singapore, not feeling comfortable coming out to her parents and feels like she's risking stability being openly out in society in general. A lot of her decisions are motivated by growing up in such an environment, but the plot doesn't get into it properly. It seems more like they use Holly to be dunk on Singapore like "you're so stiff here you're so behind us i'm going to rail against all of this" because she grew up in Taiwan - it isn't helpful to Meng Lian's plot to just criticize her and not empathize with the environment she lives in. I also wish we got to see more of Chuan and the other gym members around Meng Lian, I liked them a lot but they weren't given a lot of time at all compared to Holly's coworkers.

Straight up, I didn't like the relationship between Holly and Meng Lian. They seemed like different people who want different things who got together without knowing the other. To me, the plot didn't give us any reason to care about their relationship - we barely even got time where they were together! They were always apart. The drama seemed to keep driving home that they had different wants and needs. Neither are entirely wrong in their pursuits, but they do seem incompatible - mostly because they don't talk about these things as a couple at all and find a way to understand the other or compromise. Holly is carefree and loves to challenge society, which distresses Meng Lian, and Meng Lian likes stability and people who are down to earth, which frustrated Holly who thinks she's being weak for not taking more risks.

Even by the end, Holly should just let Meng Lian go, but continues to chase her despite, honestly, being the one who messed it all up. What they both need in a relationship seems to be very different, and Meng Lian concludes this and goes forward alone by the end, but Holly won't let go and we see her repeat what she did at the beginning and go after Meng Lian.

I do appreciate the ending that didn't try to fix everything and let them separate - even though it's shown Holly keeps going after her. Not all relationships work out, and for this one I saw nothing that convinced me they were good for each other. I actually was rooting for Chuan, who seemed more compatible with Meng Lian, despite the limited screentime/development the drama offered all the side characters.

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Decent

The 1st half was decently interesting, with great production, acting, and atmosphere - and I do love a good serial killer case. However the 2nd half was boring as hell. Honestly the 1st half and 2nd half are almost different seasons of the same drama that just so happened to air all together.

However what WAS good throughout was the acting of the 2 leads - they were amazing, and even without a lot of insight into them as people their scenes always felt so intense/charged. The other actors did a good job, but were ultimately forgettable characters because, again, the drama gave us the barest of insights into their who they were as people and their emotions. I won't say that was an acting flaw, because honestly for things like that that's a writing flaw, and ultimately they did well with what they were working with. Even for the leads, there are some things that they did that just were never really explained - like why Joo Won latched onto this 20 year old case in the first place (I think it's so he can solve it and coast back to Seoul victoriously, but still even then... why this case? why the obsession? why is he SO convinced it was Dong Sik??). I think the drama would've delivered a more emotional punch if they just took a moment to look at their characters more closely.

Overall as a drama, this wasn't as mindblowing as I thought it'd be based on what I read here, and I never really experienced a shocking twist, but this was still a decent crime drama with great atmosphere (mostly in the 1st half), production, and acting that's worth a watch for the dynamic between Dong Sik and Joo Won alone. Han Joo Won especially was my favourite, and honestly was a major player in keeping me watching this drama.

Focusing on the drama as a whole, I think it deserves a 7.5 for being in the end somewhat average but not horrible with good production and acting. Besides the inexplicably electric dynamic between Joo Won and Dong Sik, I think this drama is somewhat forgettable, especially the 2nd half which honestly made my feelings towards this drama cool a lot. However like I've said before I did enjoy the acting from the leads and the 1st half was interesting so I'll give it an 8.

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Spooky!

A good way to pass the time if you're looking to watch something creepy. I watched this alone at night and I found it spooky with a good tense atmosphere! I honestly I kept looking around the edges of their cams for ghosts lol. The found-footage style suited this movie well, as it obviously made it seem more real. We got a good combo of go-pro, camcorder, and static cams, and even at times a drone. Ha Joon being in the tent directing and replaying footage/comparing shots for the viewers was great too because 1 looks real 2 let's me take another look. I'm one who tends to like terror over horror (atmosphere/fear over what you don't see vs scares thrust right in your face [although there were definitely some of those too in the 2nd half]) so this suited my tastes.

As for the acting, I thought it was top notch! You could totally believe these are just a bunch of young adults who are in it for the thrills and have no idea just how in over their heads they're going to be. They felt real. They also totally weren't taking it seriously at the start, so you might not be interested at that part, but I think it's necessary to build that atmosphere and establish the characters. Then once we're past that things slowly started taking a turn ahh.

I think the only thing I was a bit let down about was that there was no kind of lore drop. Probably a big ask since this is "live" and shit started getting real for them so it's not like they're going to have the time or presence of mind to investigate ~the truth~ behind it all, but I wanted to know more about why things were fucky! So don't expect some great investigative found-footage film, because they don't really get into that much they just make speculations based on the rumors around Gonjiam.

Anyways, moral of the story: don't play around with spirits for views!

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Fun but lacks impact

I have to start by saying, as a big positive, I love how this movie expanded the world, and gave us even more visual delights with everyone's spells and the monsters/familiars. The world presented to us in this movie is a much wider, richer, more colourful world than in The Yin Yang Master: Dream of Eternity. However, when it came down to character's emotions and connections with one another, I found myself not feeling anything.

Not only did I feel nothing for these characters, but I couldn't understand their feelings for each other either. We were told they cared, but ultimately what I saw couldn't convince me - they felt poorly developed. Even the villain's motivation felt super weak to me... Comparably, while Dream of Eternity was much more constrained in terms of world-building, emotionally it knew how to make us care about the characters and show how they cared/began to care for one another.

Overall it's a fun movie, but eye-candy alone isn't enough for me, I need meat in the story, and sadly I felt like that's where this movie faltered. Watch if you want a fun 2 hour movie that looks good, but if you're looking for a similar emotional experience you may have had watching Dream of Eternity, you may end up let down.

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