Universal story

Can I say I was a bit disappointed in this film? I expected more or different, and I found things I've already seen elsewhere!

Let me explain myself!
The documentary tells the story of homosexuality in modern China (from 1949) through interviews with activists, professors, journalists and artists. And it tells a very familiar story, reminiscent of what the west went through. Homosexuality had been banned, outlawed, punished, people have been ostracized, beaten, pushed into hiding. Slowly the laws changed, society's perceptions changed, decriminalizing sodomy and eventually homosexuality at the end of 20th century. At the same time HIV/AIDS epidemic struck China with its full force and the government had to do something in order to slow it down: prevention, condoms etc. This made the LGBT people more visible. The economic growth opened China, the people were given a taste of liberty and they used it to put forward the idea that gay people (or tongzhi) are just humans like everyone else. Gays and lesbians organized themselves into clubs and then they opened bars and gained more and more tolerance. These clubs were also used to promote protection and prevention from AIDS. There were classes at the universities in social studies about homosexuality, film festivals were organized, art exhibitions as well. The backlash from authorities seems to have been minimal. The movie ends on a high note. By 2008, the acceptance of LGBT community in China was high and they were even fighting for equal marriage (even though the majority of people interviewed here were against it saying why should they mimic heterosexuals?!?!?).

I do not know much about China but I expected this to show us a different story. It didn't! Should it be a comfort to know that we in the west went through the same motions as they did? Maybe! This is just to show that no matter which country, they were all at one time intolerant of different sexuality.

This film is divided in 8 parts, each covering a subject connected with the LGBT history with poetic titles like "From Pitch Black To Light Grey", "From Parks to Grassroots" etc. explaining the evolution of chinese society's views on homosexuality. There are some interesting interviewees: a 70yr old gay man talking about his recent promiscuity or the youngish blogger spending time proudly outing people who do not want to be outed who were the extremes (just to show us they do exist) while the majority were university professors, lawyers and activist.

What happened next? I wager that the story is different today! I would love to see a documentary about the last 15 years in China!

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Blast from the past

After the first, rather impressive Timeline movie where the plot actually justified the title, the three directors made a second one. This time it is just a simple omnibus movie featuring four stories. I watched it on youtube in appalling quality but since it had never been officially released, it is better than nothing!

The first story: Mind Reader is a typical early thai bl which takes place in high school and where pretty boys are followed around by fujoshis, girls and trans fans screaming. Amidst that noise, is Sun attracted by Boss's popularity and almost unaware that there is Kit, a boy with a crush on him. It is very cringy but the romance is cute and sweet behind the superfluous cringe. I almost dropped the movie because of it.
It stars Kritsana Boonroth as Sun and Phattaparong Chaibal as Kit.

I liked the second story the best: The Memory on Page 53. Nan is giddy with delight to go on a trip with Phu who had just broken up with his boyfriend. But this trip reveals the memories they are both trying to avoid remembering. They actually dated and broke up 5 years earlier.
This was a beautifully filmed story. The director Artistaya Bangpao filmed nature, their feeling and memories with sensitivity. The actors have great chemistry. The editing is amazing: the past and the present trips mixed together showing that nothing had changed in their feeling. The only issue I have is with the story itself: we never find out why they broke up since they were and obviously still are in love! I would love to see a longer version of this story by the same director with the story expanded and more details given.

The third story, Non-Verbal features a deaf character Ohm who meets the eyes of Tan (Chinoros Duangrat) and their gazes lock. But a misunderstanding almost ruins the beginning of a love story.
This is the shortest story in the movie. Fortunately they did not drag out too long the misunderstanding. The novelty is a deaf character who is on his guard because of his handicap and is quick to jump to wrong conclusion. Tan clears the issue quickly with the help of his doting, no nonsense mother.
Directed by Jitthinund Yodwongsakull

The fourth story circles back to school from the first one. Nine, a boy from that school, gets attached to Nong, a middle aged trans woman who holds a stand selling fried bananas Nine likes. Nong is affected by Nine's attention since he reminds her of her sister's son. Man, a boy from school who has a crush on Nine, finds this relationship suspicious and does everything in his power to ruin it. We eventually find out that Nine is the long lost nephew but the damage has been done and Nong moves away.
This was a good and a bad story at the same time. The good was having a trans main character (when in 2016 trans were just used as screaming over the top comic relief in bls). The very bad is the possible romance innuendo which was never really cleared and the conclusion we get to draw from her reactions in the last part is that there was more in her feelings that met the eye!
Cast: Jennifer Panot Ruangratanachinda as Nong and Natthaphong Charoenchaisombat as Nine. Directed by Passapong Throngprasit

The film was written by Passapong Throngprasit and Artistaya Bangpao. The stories are of different quality and each director's style is obvious. I definitely want to see more of Artistaya Bangpao: his direction is the most accomplished. The music is unremarkable pop songs which have the merit of talking about each story.

Unlike the first movie where the stories ended up being connected on a few levels here only the first and the last stories are loosely connected with the same highschool. As for the timeline, from the title, there is the influence of the past in present in the three stories (not the 1st one which is firmly anchored in the present)!

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Pretty but ordinary

There has only been a handfull of korean dramas which surprised and amazed me with their cinematography: Search:WWW, Into The Ring, Call It Love and this one.

Unfortunately that is the only thing this drama has going for it. The rest is just a repetitive, subpar storytelling using the usual high school topics: bullying, suicide, gossip, internet. Here they added prostitution, kidnapping and corrupt politicians. And to top it all there are two half hearted romances. All of this has been crammed into eight 30minutes extremely long episodes. Each episode felt like it was two hours long!

The acting was ok though I am still trying to figure out why the main lead had to have such a heavy accent. I suppose that it was to show he lives in another region but he is the only character in this drama with such a heavy, singsong, uncomfortable to listen to local accent. His father does sometimes but that's it. No one else speaks with this accent so, why does he need to? The other main character, was also a stereotypical mountain of a person, taciturn and menacing in appearance (I mean, don't start me on that upside down triangle haircut!). I liked how their bromance made them each personally grow.

The main characters were rather realistic, all too human with very ordinary, normal reactions faced with extraordinary menace (bullying, threats, violence, blackmailing). They are not heroes so they are easy to identify with!

The rest of the characters were very sketchy, superficial and often clichés: the unsatisfied teacher, school bully in a colourful jacket (he has to be seen to be different!), nerdy insecure friends (they were quite interesting: the three such characters dealt with their insecurities differently. We were shown what should and what should not be done in such cases!), one pair of loving parents (the other teens seem to be orphans: we never see their parents!) and of course the bad guy or to be precise the bad woman, who was again such a cliché.

The music was fine: heavy rock which suited the topic of the drama perfectly. There were a couple of funny scenes usually involving the MC's best friend (hypnosis and candles!).

So why am I rating this so high? Because of the cinematography. That is the only feature that actually made me finish this drama!

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Soulmates & misunderstandings

What I admire about japanese romcoms is the way they manage to create a whole long drama without one really bad character. I find it amazing. This cute little drama is such an uplifting, nice, optimistic watch.

The story follows Soramame and Oto who keep bumping into each other until they end up living in the same boarding house. Their connection, mutual respect, sincerity and friendship set them on the right path of professional success which unfortunately pushes the private life out of the way. After success tears them apart they meet again three years later.

The main characters are sweet and cute and have great chemistry. She is always looking on the bright side of life in spite of a number of mishaps. He is fascinated by her optimism which rubs off on him a bit helping him break the creative block. There is a cast of colourful support characters: the landlady enjoying the presence of youngsters in her house, the music producer, flamboyant and king, the fashion designer who almost caves in to temptation....

Though it is a romance, this drama touched superficially upon some interesting topics: child abandonment, creativity and inspiration, cutthroat entertainment and fashion businesses.

The drama is pretty to watch, the music is nice, pulling on heartstrings, the writing is solid as is the acting. For almost 8 episode it was a fairy tale about two lost puppies trying to find their way in this big bad world. And then suddenly, they became adults and everything changed. It was not a fairy tale anymore because the real life interfered, no matter how unrealistic (all of a sudden she discovers herself having a huge talent for creating clothes and after one month is better then a seasoned fashion designer?!?!?). The main couple spent most of the series circling around each other, pining and wondering. And even though I did not mind it most of the time, it became annoying towards the ending with unnecessary misunderstandings and a three year time jump. But they fixed everything and came back to the fairy tale territory with the post credit scene of the last episode and with that everything bitter I felt, just vanished. A lovely drama

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Basketball & Sleep

Inspired by the Japanese I think, Koreans have been definitely upping their BL game recently. The dramas they release are getting better and better: the production values are higher and the stories they are telling are better written. This one is definitely one of the best BL to come out of Korea.

The story is nothing new: highschool friends see their feelings for each other grow but scared of the consequences, they separate. They meet again five years later and restart the relationship. Will they be more successful this time around?

The drama started surprisingly well. It was not the usual ugly korean webseries: the cinematography is excellent, the rain, the sunlight, the basketball field, the overall aesthetical impression is extraordinary. It is worth the watch just for that. But, fortunately there is more to it than just good looks. The story is well written: starting in the present and slowly uncovering their pas connection in a series of flashbacks which are not in chronological order and may confuse some. The actors had decent chemistry and their kissing scenes were really butterfly inducing which is so rare in K-dramas not only BLs!

Now for the reasons this is not getting a 10/10 from me. First and foremost: it is too short, there are so many things missing in this story. Insomnia was never really explained: why was he suffering from it. I really don't like it when the solution to a psychological problem is LOVE. I wish life was so easy! Another problem stemming from the previous one is lack of communication. It did create a slight conflict, kind of blink-and-you-miss-it which was solved by "I'm sorry! I love you!" Really?!? Main characters were not as likeable (one a liar and one naive) as they should have been but they are very human so...let's settle with reality! The only girl in the cast, was all kinds of annoying, loud, intrusive and a busybody. And the last but not least issue I have with this (I'm nitpicking here! LOL) is the very last scene: the cringefest! I am still shuddering while I'm writing this!

Well, all in all it is a nice binge watch, not too angsty, rather cute but too short!

Oh and I almost forgot a nod to TharnType and icecubes in the last episode.

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Because you are you

If you need to watch something short and cute in order to cheer yourself up, this is a nice example of comfort bite size movie.

Directed by Supakhit Povarasoonthorn
Starring: Aksornkorn Jariyakhuntorn
Jaruphat Sareeniwat

Having broken up with his latest girlfriend, Two seeks comfort with his best friend Kenji and they end up spending the night together. The day after, while Kenji, at ease, enjoys their outing, Two is torn and keeps changing his mind.
This is nothing new or revolutionary. The story is as old as time: best friends who become lovers. The question is whether they are going to stay friends, as Two wishes or it is already too late since the lines have been crossed, as Kenji thinks.
The story is well written though the production looks a bit cheap, camera work is good but the sound is not. I guess they couldn't afford to record the sound after filming in a sound studio. On the other hand, the fact that they recorded sound while filming made the final scene on the highway overpass, a location extremely noisy, all the more real since the actors had to shout to be heard. This added unexpected poignancy to the events!
The acting was noticeably better as the story progresses: while at the beginning the actors were obviously uncomfortable and the dialogue delivery was stilted, as soon as they left the room, their acting skills were revealed! In the final scene on the bridge, they show a range of emotions, especially Two as he tries to figure out how important Kenji is to him. Kenji himself is very sure of his feelings and the actor manages to portray that really well.
The piano music accompanying the film was sweet and it fit the events ! They even used the piano version of My Love and..., which was part of the soundtrack to the Kdrama The King:Eternal Monarch! Nice!

I have no idea who made this film. There is a youtube channel Boom Pictures Official but it is in Thai so I could not understand anything. But this short movie is a promising effort, not too amateurish, with some good acting and writing. And at 22min, short and sweet, nothing to regret!

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Amazing plot BUT....

Disclaimer: I do not usually watch chinese dramas and I must have seen about 3 out of over 400dramas I'd completed so I am writing this as a complete ignoramus as far as the c-dramas usual tropes are concerned!

Reset comes highly recommended so I decided to give it a go.
I am a sucker for a good time travel/time slip/time loop story which are notoriously difficult to write without plotholes or illogical events!
No such problem here! They managed to write a believable plot, create complex characters, introduce a strong and smart FL, present beautiful songs (mostly in english! Why is that?).
What we have here is "Groundhog Day" on a bus where two people get stuck inside a time loop and must find out who the culprit is, why is he/she commiting a crime and stop him/her without casualties! It is just a nailbiting rollercoaster ride of a plot!

BUT I wish another country had made this drama which had been completely ruined, IN MY EYES, by chinese official propaganda!
I come from a former socialist country and I can recognize brainwashing when I see it! And I had been brainwashed in my childhood! Here, I could see the same slogans on the walls, the same fidelity to state and party proclaimed all over the place, the same, selfless people fighting for the greater good of the society! And of course: the police, here to protect everyone but you have to tell the truth they want to here, police commissioners thoughtfully looking at slogans on the wall for inspiration, all present surveillance making sure everyone understands that they can run but they cannot hide anywhere! Unbearable!
There are CCTV in Korea and the police dramas use them a lot but not to this extent!

Anyway this is a great drama if you can look past propaganda! I could not and therefore my note is rather low!

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Be polite or.....

I am trying hard to figure out whether this is a short film or the first episode of a series. The producers are asking for support in order to make new episodes in the multiverse!

The story is simple: when Te wakes up after a nap at the lakeside, he finds out his shoes are gone so he goes looking for the thief. The first person he meets is wearing shoes very much like his own so he gets so angry that that person hits him and he finds himself back in time, rebooted to the beginning of the conversation. The reboot happens a few times until he is politely asking about the missing shoes. Eventually, it turns out that the reboots were just a bad dream!

Parallel universes are an intriguing concept: here the different outcomes of the same situation were shown as if they were a dream. Be nice or you risk to miss out on important things: like a new and solid relationship!

The actors are super cute and they work well together even though they are obviously rather inexperienced which shows. In the end, even though a dream theory is delivered, a doubt remains. The drama is filmed and written well: there is a cute scene when Te trips and falls on the other guy also called Te, we see a heart shaped cloud in the sky! Tropes done well are priceless!

All in all, this is a cute short watch!

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Wrong time, wrong you?

After the vaudeville that were two previous episodes of My Universe, this is another theatre play but a drama not a comedy. Single setting: a house and three protagonists: Mai, her younger brother Mhok and her best friend Phat who came to stay with them after his boyfriend beat him up again. The synopsis is a bit misleading: there is no black magic involved!

Phat seems a happy person, always smiling and quick with a quip but all that is a mask hiding a person deeply hurt and having trouble leaving an abusive relationship. We have all heard the cases of women being beaten up by their spouses while drunk, stressed and in bad mood and women often excusing them when they came begging for forgiveness and promising to change. Phat had been enduring such a relationship for six years and then decided he could not bear it any longer.

In order to help Phat deal with the situation and take the right decision, Mai uses her hobby: witchcraft and tarot, through a series of healing rituals (burning and drinking and talking). She's helped by her brother who has had a crush on Phat for years and who thinks that now is the right time to make a move!

Unfortunately, no it definitely is not the right time to start a new relationship when the old one has not been finished properly. That is the major issue I have with this drama: Mhok is stubbornly forcing his way in when Phat keeps refusing him gently. Mhok does not want to accept that Phat may need time to recover. Now that he is free, Mhok won't let him breathe.

Frankly, I do not like how this ended but on the upside, I do not think they have a future together. Phat ended up by accepting to date Mhok but he has absolutely no romantic feelings for him! I am afraid he is in for another wrong relationship because Mhok does not look like someone willing to compromise or accept the refusal. It definitely is the wrong time and the wrong person for a new relationship!

The acting was superb: all three of them were extraordinary. The production values are high: well filmed, soft warm colours, hazy feel about it. Very slow burn but masterfully directed!

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Depression & bullying

People like to believe that this is a BL. No it is not really. It is a slice of life, fantasy drama with characters who may or may not be gay...it is not really clear.

The story follows two broken idividuals. Koki is alone, friendless, inert and depressed, surviving and not living. The main cause of his unhappiness is his brother, lost to yakuzas because of him. One day an amnesiac angel moves in with him. Spending time with the angel and helping him, as if he is finally helping his own lost brother, makes Koki see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Every time there is a teen in a drama, there is also a bullying subplot. Though not only! There is homophobia as well! And of course the nefarious influence of the internet anonymity. The angel, a teen before becoming one, was pushed over the limit of endurance and gave up the fight. Spending time with Koki, basking in the kindness even Koki was not aware of having, the angel comes to terms with his passing and is finally happy.

I did not really like it very much. Mostly because Koki's character hits too close to home but also because of the bullying plot. I am really bored with dramas about it. Don't get me wrong, it is a hugely serious issue that needs to be deals with on ground, in schools and on the internet.

The actors were all excellent. The actress playing the mother looks so young: I thought she was the sister. Especially since the actor playing her 30 yr old son looks much older than her. He is also depressed and unkempt which does not help him look his real age....The production correct, though the angel wings looked uncomfortable and extremely fake (the limits of the budget, I guess!). The ending starts as rather optimistic since Koki had decided to sort his life out but apparently they quickly meet each other so I'm guessing Koki dies(he probably forgot to put the brakes on in his white van!) and they meet again in heaven.

The only thing this drama has going for it is the cute angel and the short length;

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