typical romcom :)

ah, the age old grumpy x sunshine trope! you know em, you love em! this was actually one of my first watches and it also introduced me to now one of my fave kpop groups, namely The KingDom (formerly called KINGDOM) because they wrote one of the songs on the soundtrack (Traffic accident by DANN & MUJIN from TKD).
but back to the actual series. this series was a great introduction to BL for me! it's cute and calm but also has it's obvious heart fluttering moments and made me root for the couple. the characters were endearing though a little predictable but then again the whole story setup is quite predictable: the mc meets the male lead and forcefully befriends him and then slowly falls in love whilst also trying to hide his ulterior motives and then comes at the point of where he needs to decide between his original goal or his new love. the story is enjoyable but not enjoyable enough for me to rewatch it if i'm honest because to me the acting, editing and pacing could've been better especially from the main couple. but for a beginning bl actor i think gongchan did pretty good! the second couple, dowoo and won tae min is is what really stole my heart. the tension and the drama between them was much more enjoyable to watch because of the comedy and the history of the characters (but the acting was also better).
the production value was great but i havent seen that many k-bls so i cant really compare. (edit: now i have and it's pretty good still so thats a win)
so would i recommend this series? yes, if you just started watching BLs and want something straight out of a romcom or just want to watch something that's light to digest :)

Lire davantage

can't believe i didnt watch this earlier

what an excellent series!
when i first started watching this i hadn't expected this series to touch on such serious and important topics such as the political climate in thailand. it felt very refreshing and made me think twice about things in real life. I think also that that's what makes this drama also very timeless because many of the problems the characters are experiencing are still relevant today and teach us the power we hold and how important justice is.

I mainly wanted to watch it for OffGun, but I'm so glad to say that they are not the saving grace of this series as this series has many good aspects. The plot itself was a little bit predictable at times, but the motives of all of the characters, not just the leads added a lot of depth to the story which was great and made the series feel more real. I'm also glad that the female characters weren't used as plot device but actualy had their own story and wants that didn't centre around just romance or the male lead. Of course, OffGun both did an excellent job :)
I also thought the music was beautiful and it makes me emotional just listening to the OST. The director also did an excellent job with the cinematography, it was a treat to look at.

Lire davantage

Surprisingly good

Am I 4 years late to the hype? Yes.
Do I care? No.

This was a drama I wasn't actually planning on watching when I first read the synopsis because it felt a little too familiar to other series I was watching at the time, like Semantic Error, 2gether, YRU?, between us etc. and I was honestly so done with college romances with potential that went nowhere.

Then a month or so ago I watched Perth's video about his experience with working on my engineer and the way he spoke so passionately about the project made me want to give it a try, because I love ma boi Perth and I thought that maybe I judged it too quickly at first.

And I did, but I also didn't!

Obviously bohnduen are the cliché couple but at the same time it is refreshing to see how forward and open bohn is about his feelings (most of the time) when most of the times this is kept intentionally ambiguous to keep the sunshine character on their toes (see 2gether, between us etc.).

I also adore how Duen also allows for Bohn to open up his heart - like they said they would do at the beginning :))) so i like that part as of now.

And of course,,,RAMKING <333 Goddamn theyre both so handsome i cannot,,,,like it is so unfair. Every time King does a hairflip I clutch my pearls. I think that the acting could've been a bit better and realistic, but it was fun to watch King yap and Ram just basically panic and black out not knowing what to say most of the time becuase he's shy.

Overall the acting of the ensemble cast is nice, not too much, not too little and pleasant to watch. the friend groups were equally funny to me, but i liked duen's chaotic tight knit group of freshman's a bit more.

I like the production and especially when they were at the floating market. However, idk who did the sound mixing and the sound design,,,,esp for my boy ryan's dubs...they need to be fired bc wth happened there??? oh well, you can't have everything.
and the OST was just too overused and annoying.

I do have to be honest and say that although there are a lot of positive things to be said about my engineer, I did watch all of it in at least 1.25x speed because i otherwise just couldn't bear it. some scenes really dragged on and there was often just not a lot of interesting thing happening making me skip through episodes and only watch RAMKING scenes. And I think that is the thing about this series: it drags. And as the series progresses there were more and more scenes that made me cringe...

I think that this series could've done without the whole top/bottom shenanigans and instead give us a bit more slow burn + conflict with mr. smiley (and always more ramking!!!)

All in all, it's a seres that you can watch, and if you're doubting whether you should or should not, just give it a shot! But do it in 1.25x speed

Lire davantage

it's ok (but frustrating & a bit boring)

As of now I haven't finished watching it yet but I couldn't wait to write this review - unfortunately not for a good reason. At first i was really excited to watch it, it had been on my watchlist for some time now and i had heard good things about it! The storyline seemed simple and typical and i was curious as to how this drama would interpret the highschool romance story that we all know and love so much!

There's the typical damsel in distress ML and the shining knight in armour love interest, the wacky friends, the bullies etc. etc. nothing wild over there or particularly interesting or outstanding. and that's not a problem at all! what was a problem was the execution of it. I think perhaps because of the title and the synopsis i was expecting some darker themes and some more drama and personal conflict between the two ML which we were not given. I blame this on the short runtime.

And with this I don't mean the episode 11 curse thai BL have but i mean that i would have liked it if they showed more of what the characters were feeling and what that made them do or think.., which brings us to the acting. The acting was alright for the story as it did not delve too deep so it didnt require a lot and it is watchable but sometimes leaves you wanting more. the two ML are handsome enough to save it but it saddens me that they didn't use their full potential. there is some chemistry between the two ML and plenty of fluff, but i think the tension and the chemistry could have been more present if some of the scenes where we feel this tension and chemistry, weren't cut off so soon!!! for example, the part where they share the cream bun: it was cut off very suddenly and not discussed at all in the next episode! we as the audience do not get 'closure' from that and we do not know how the characters feel after that which is frustrating. It made some of the transitions feel too rushed and the pacing was also affected by this in my opinion. It also left me unable to connect properly to the ML. Why give us chemistry/tension if it will not have consequences for their relationship? shouldn't it drive the story forward?
Perhaps an uncut version would have shown us more? Who knows...
I did like the ensemble cast a lot! the bullies were believable, the friends really did seem to like each other and had great banter, but also cared about each other and the mom was amazingly sweet and admirable, especially for taking in the son of one of her friends - I would've loved to see more of her and haebom's mom.
what i also liked was the lighting and the setting. It was a pretty series.
All in all, it is not the best bl drama out there, but still a fun watch if you're not looking to invest too much and just like fluff. it's just kind of boring (which is worse than being offensive tbh).

Lire davantage

worth it?

This is a very good series! And i would reccommend peopl to go watch it! However, i do have to say that my expectations weren't fully satisfied (but are they ever?) because i saw sooo many good things about this i kind of went in with very high expectations about the game aspect of the series.

Short version of Things I liked:
- Cinematography/Production
- Acting
- Music score
- Story

Cinematography/Production:
The production value is unlike any other series I've seen, with a lot of long shots that create 'calm scenes' that contribute to the world building and really help immerse the viewer, instead of advancing the plot.
I especially love/hate how alone they make Cha Yeon Woo look in all his solo shots. *sobs* it's so masterfully done that it made my heart ache everytime he was in that kind of scene, just utterly alone...
You could really see how every shot was taken with care and precision to make it really feel as if you're in a game that at the same time is not just a 2D simulation, but for the characters is very real.
The camerawork, lighting and directing was so great, it really made me feel a lot!
I can't believe that at the end when they reveal tae myun-ha's memories how alone he looks instead of cha yeon woo...the parallels??? insane. they really hurt me :,)

Acting: I think the cast was great at conveying the mood and emotions. it's been a while since i was really moved by a dramaseries...and oh brother...*sobs*
The small ensemble cast also did great. They really fit their charactertypes too
I only wish they'd given cha woong ki a different haircut.

Music score: I think this is also one of the things that can help immerse a viewer into the world. Not every scene needs background music to show what's happening! For me this was also part of the 'calm scenes' and world building.

Story:
The story is a classic Isekai story except with a modern setting of a videogame instead of a romance novel. Nevertheless, it was executed very well.
I believe they could've leaned in more to the existential crisis part because I think they could've pulled it off well but Isekais rarely do that so I don't really mind but there were a lot of unanswered questions. there's also the fact that there is mentally a large age gap between the two male leads. the ending did feel a bit rushed and too quickly resolved but alas, there were only 8 eps of runtime so i understand. the past life of tae myun-ha was a sudden twist.. i didnt mind it too much but i can see how it can bother some people and also from a storytelling perspective it doesnt really make sense so i did deduct some points for that. i kind of wish that we could've seen more of the video game world (how is it an exact 1-on-1 of tae myun-ha's life (complete with granny & mother)) and more NPC interactions would've been fun i think.

Lire davantage

dreaded ep. 11 curse...

Last Twilight is a thai drama with a refreshing and promising premise touching on subjects such as prejudices against ex-inmates, mental health topics, single parents and visually disabled people. And all that with a stellar cast and award-winning director should have made for a perfect series. And it was up until episode 9!
So first the good:
Acting: acting of the cast was superb with a seasoned and experienced ensemble cast and undeniable chemistry between JimmySea. I also loved the relationship that existed between Day and his brother Night. The development between these two also felt very natural. Mhok and his ex were also a wonderful pair adding a lot of nuance to Mhok and his life which hasn't been easy.
Music: a beautiful OST sung by the talented william jakraptr from LYKN with lyrics that matched Mhok & Day's dynamic and story completely. the song literally tells you what's going to happen. wonder why the director and screenwriters didn't stick to that?
Story: here's where it goes wrong...
The first part was beautiful and interesting to watch with Day struggling to come to terms with his disability and being depressed and basically trying to navigate his way through life as a disabled person. Eventually Mhok comes along and pulls him out of that depressive slump, helping him appreciate life again and accept himself. A story arc that they completely dissolve and destroy at the end for no apparent reason, giving off a very toxic and offensive message at the end, which is the complete opposite of the start of the series. it hurts me to give this series such a low rating because it could've been great. unfortunately it became okay-ish. it's still a good watch but it's also disappointing.
my advice? just stop watching after ep 9 or so when they reach their last twilight. like in the damn song.

Lire davantage

Why did I watch this?

Its been a while since i watched this but I never wrote a review because i was recovering from how bad this was. But also I thought i already had left a review, but i can't find it lol. so sorry if you see me critique this series 2x.
The story was all over the place and just not enjoyable! It started alright, but became repetitive, boring and convoluted, and for what?
It could've been a simple meta-BL like 'man who defies the world of BL' but instead YRU turned around on its heels after the first episode to become just like any other college BL...very disappointing since I had quite high hopes for this.
My main issue is that I had no clue who was supposed to be the main character until after i checked the MDL details. Imagine my surprise when zonxsaifah were just the supporting cast! Saint and Zee were both great actors and often better than saifahxzon, so i did enjoy that, but the writers did them dirty...
like c'mon, SA and homophobic parents? really? let's go back to the writing room and come up with a more interesting plot alright?
Speaking of the plot: why the fuck were there so many side couples??? it really took away from the main couple's screentime and didnt add to my enjoyment. except the guy with the cats and saifahxzon were kinda cute
So yeah, I dropped it at the penultimate episode because the whole SA scene with tutor and fighter just left a bad taste in my mouth.
Don't watch it, it's not worth it.

and another note: i'm so sick of people being like 'oh yeah well the series is a product of their time period so for that time it was quite good!' and like first of all: that might be true, but it doesn't mean you can't criticise a body of work. second of all, YRU IS FROM 2020!!! I get that a lot of things have changed since the first few y-series, but you can hardly call YRU a product of its time when 2gether and my engineer were released in the same year (not that those are my favourites but they are better). Besides, i'm also done with people characterising older BLs with bad writing because there are plenty of well-written BL dramas from that same period. Like a new BL series is not suddenly immune to bad writing (looking at you last twilight!!!)
anyways...drama queen out!!!

Lire davantage

just an ok pie

so cutie pie was a fun series im. not the best, but pretty enjoyable - just a bit repetitive and dumb at the end, but i happily ate the pie you know?
then i tried to watch cutie pie 2, but i kept putting it off and now i dropped it.
why? it just wasn't that interesting to me tbh. like ok, kuea gets an offer as qirin and starts hiding it again from his fiancé. feels familiar right? the cinematography was alright, and the acting from nunew has improved! and zee <3333
they did destroy my fave side couple, nuer and syn which made me very sad. i have no clue why they suddenly changed the direction of acting of syn...maybe to make him 'cuter'? i didn't like it AT ALL. It just made Syn look like a child and like he was some lost puppy, which in the original series, he isn't. Like his whole schtick is that he's a devout buddhist and that may make him somewhat more 'naive' because he always tries to see the good in people/things, but at the same time it also makes him wise beyond years. and here that's just completely gone?

Lire davantage