Lovely masterpiece

While not every element of this series is a "10", it all comes together in a way that "10" is the only possible rating.

This is not a straightfoward or linear story - a lot about it is puzzling, and you won't really get the last piece and see the whole picture until the end. The writing is beauiful and well-thought-out - there are no superfluous loose ends, and you should feel you got the full story in the end. The dialog is sharp, and the playful power struggle between the characters makes you feel like you're watching two boys intereacting naturally.

The acting is superb. Often in a BL when characters engage in a long mutual stare, you roll your eyes and wish they could just get on with it already. Here, you're sorry it's over - the range of subtle emotion that runs over Rossi's face could keep me enthralled for hours. In the first couple of episodes, Meen feels like he's over-acting and superficial, but it's deliberate - he's playing Tiew as cocky & teasing. When Tiew is being sincere Meen's acting is powerful and subtle.

The directing is wonderful, with the best performances pulled out of the actors, neither too reserved nor OTT. The cinematography is artful and always serves the stories, and never degenerates into pretentious artiness, and takes full advantage of the beauty of Chiang Mai and the breathtaking vistas of the surrounding mountains.

You'll be able to tell from the first episode that this isn't going to have the usual BL ending, but fear not, it's not sad. Or at least you will walk away feeling happy.

I can't recommend this highly enough - but if you're looking for a fluffy BL with a straighforward story, this might not be for you, although there's enough fluffiness to make just about anyone happy.

For non-Thai speakers, there's a note below under spoiler to explain something in Ep 2 that's confusing due to translation issues.

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Really lovely

There's a lot to praise in this - the characters are not formulaic, and the themes of the story are quite a bit more mature than the usual high-school/college boy story.

Our main character is about to hit 40, and lives safely and while he's not depressed, he's not happy either, just sort of going with the flow of life, doing the same thing every day, with only his younger employee Togawa to lighten his day. He's unaware that Togawa worships him and will do anything to make him happy. They draw closer and Togawa puts him on an anti-aging regimen which involves doing diffrent things all the time to keep him stimulated and force him out of his box.

It's a great dynamic, where the age diffrence, far from being a problem, is a plus for both of them. Togawa gets good guidance from a more experienced man, and Kozue is revitalized by Togawa's youth and unjaded perspective.

The other interesting quality is that Kozue is clearly the more passive of the two, so the power dynamic is interesting and more complex than the usual seme-uke dynamic. Kozue is older, more exprienced, and the boss at work. Togawa is always deferential and in awe of Kozue, but he's a little like a sheep dog, aggressively herding Kozue in the direction he thinks is best for him.

Where the series is a bit of a miss is that it shies from the physical aspect of their relationship - when you have a 30-year old and a 40-year old, it feels off for their interaction to be so high school, and this is underscored by a moment with a thumb that is tantalizingly domineering and one of the hotter things you'll see in a BL.

There is an inevitable comparison to Cherry Magic, and I must say I prefer this in almost every way. The dynamic between the characters is more natural, the humor is smarter and more understated, and Togawa is refreshingly weird in a sweet yet bossy way.

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this - it's well-acted and shot, it's got some good fluff without being about fluff, and the characters and their interaction is not as simplistic as the BL formula generally dictates. It's also a series that you're likely to rewatch, and I don't say that often.

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Ugh. I don't know what happened here.

My theory is that whoever directed Ep 0 died. Then they didn't want to spend the extra money to change the credits, so they just didn't get a director or pulled some homeless guy off the street to do it. Actually, that's unfair to homeless people, because I'm fairly sure all homeless people, everywhere, could have done a better job with this series.

Ep 0 was quite good - I had no expectations of it given this production company's previous work, which was mediocre at best and seemed like it was all commercials for products, but then Ep 0 came out and it was a fast-paced but not rushed romance between people with great chemistry and charm, so I got excited for the series. It's bad.

Here's what I think the problem is: There is only about 4 episodes worth of "plot", but they stretched it to 12 eps. Because they had Daonuea in a relationship with his first love, Tee (that seemed more based on habit than anything else), all the key characters were stuck in a holding pattern. Danuea was with Tee, so he was not free to be with Nine. Tee was with Daonuea, so he was not free to be with Ice, and Nine had a girlfriend so he felt free to f@#$ anything that could breathe.

Daonuea is a bit whiny, which would probably have been OK because he's cute and has a hot body, but because he had to whine about the same things over, and over, and over, he was just irritating and unpleasant. Nine was a walking red flag - apparenly serially cheating on his girlfriend, and he went hard for Daonuea, who wanted to be faithful to Tee but is a weak person so he made out with Nine pretty much constantly then pushed him away in a oft-repeated pattern that just made him even more annoying. If you're going to cheat on your boyfriend on a daily basis, then just do it, or break up with him. But don't make out with some guy and then act like it's all his fault.

Tee did begin his relationship with Daonuea on false pretenses, and apparently cheated on him in the past, so he's not Mr. Perfect (but is a lot closer to it than Nine or Daonuea, and he's sexy and I want him for myself, but that's not important right now), and he does understand when to give up, so there's that.

Nine's girlfriend is crazy, but somehow relatable. The actress played her very well and made her a fully-realized character instead of an evil shrew. She's clearly unstable and insecure, but aware she's unstable and insecure, which is kind of refreshing because she would generally apologize when she crossed (way, way, way over) the line. And it's hard to fault her for being insecure, crazy and suspicious if her bf really will bang anything halfway attractive.

If this had been four episodes, it would have been a bonkers rollercoaster that was fun to watch, but because it's 12, it doesn't work. Crazy behavior, loss of self-control, forbidden love, etc. can be exciting, funny, or entertaining - ONCE. When the same crazy, selfish, and forbidden things are done several hundred times, it's boring, irritating, and you end up hoping everyone dies alone like they deserve.

The acting is probably decent. I say that because I'm not sure anyone else could have done better with this material, and nobody can say they didn't play their characters with consistency.

I might have rated this a bit too high, but the actors really did try, there was a story, even if it was thin, and it did conclude, albeit in a bit of a contrived happy group ending (with one of the most hilarious pregnancies you'll see. TBH, she should really go get an x-ray, because it looked more like she had a huge breast tumor than a baby).

Anyway, I'd watch Ep 0 and then pretend they met up when they got home and lived happily after. If you'd prefer a story where Nine ghosts Daonuea then shows up as a homewrecker with an insane girlfriend, makes everyone miserable, then Daonuea forgives him because he was randomly at an amusement park dressed as an assassin 10 years ago, and then they live happily for... I'd give them two months at best... then this is for you.

Suprise of the series: Ice and Tee, who had the only hot moment in the 12 eps.

EDIT: There is a special episode after the series featuring Ice & Tee, and it's also pretty good. It's a bit confusing about when it takes place, but it's apparently after Ice returns from Singapore. Anyway, those two have some serious chemistry and they're not afraid of getting physical - they were really making out, not just rubber-lipping it, and their NC-17 scene was possibly the best I've seen in a Thai BL, so I bumped up my score a bit.

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Yikes.

I'm not going to sugar-coat it. This was terrible.

I'll get it out of the way - the makeup artist is either a sadist or hates both actors. Han Gi Chan looks 10 years older than he is (which means he's going to be a hot daddy in 10 years) and Holland looks deceased. I kept thinking of Beetlejuice.

The problem with this series is that the story makes no sense. Essentially, an all-star chef moves to a hut on the beach to sell udon. A homeless undead person shows up and insinuates himself into chef's life. Undead-guy is good at everything restaurant-related except protecting jugs of aged soy which are left on the floor for no apparent reason. Chef inexplicably falls in love with Beetlejuice, who abandons him in the night, leaving him heartbroken and with nobody to wash the dishes. One year later he returns and Chef takes him back without any curiosity as to why he left or any concern that he might run away again, altough tears that look like they came from a squeeze-bottle fall down his make-up plastered face. Chef seems to have been hurt by his other ex too, but at least he was wealthy and hot, and doesn't flee into the night for no apparent reason.

I'm sure Holland is a wonderful person who has had to endure harships, but we can't be good at everything, and acting is not on e of the things he's good at. I suspect he'd be able to pull off an OTT outrageous character in a comedy, but as a romantic lead in a drama, no.

Story: 2. Bad, but I gave it a point for not throwing in stock BL cliches.
Acting: 6. This is kind. Han Gi Chan is pretty good, and the two other minor characters are decent.
Music: 8. Holland sings the theme song, and it's pretty good.
Rewatch: 2. I'd say 1, but Han Gi Chan does take a shower, and I would rewatch that.
Overall: 5. It's not good. It's not embarassing (except the makeup and writing), but I did find myself hitting the +10 seconds button quite often.

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Trainwreck - but semi-redemptive Special Episode

EDIT: Post-Special Episode comments added.

This series started off well. The acting for the main pair is good, they're very attractive & hot-bodied, and while there wasn't anything ground-breaking, it was nice that the main couple were both guys - fairly equal (although with a cute size difference - and It was a bit unusual for the uke to fight off a gang to rescue the seme from being beaten). Their interaction was refreshing & natural, and all-in-all it was a pleasant watch.

Until it wasn't. First, the secondary couple looked like it might be interesting at first, but it was a dreary slog, with very dull acting and an uninteresting story. Eventually I just FF'd though all their scenes.

Then, the main couple imploded. I should have known that when they got together too early. Instead of exploring the frictions caused by being friends since childhood and then becoming a couple, they opted for the most stupid and tiresome means of generating drama imaginable, the "mercilessly and cruelly break up with him so he can attain happiness with a good woman" trope. Ugh. By the time they emerge from that (by sprinting a mile toward each other wearing business suits in full sunlight without breaking the slightest sweat), you just don't give a flying f@#$ if they get together or just die horribly while crossing the street (which is usually fatal in BL). Although it turns out being run over by the White SUV of Death is survivable, apparently (you'll understand if you make it to the finale).

If I'd stopped watching after Ep 8 I'd probably rate this an 8.5, but unfortunately I continued watching. The plot turn doesn't even make sense - it's implied at first that one of their fathers was so against them being together that they couln't be, but he wasn't. At all. Other than initial surprise, which just about any parent will feel if they've never been given an inkling their kid was gay until walking in on him with a guy.

I will say that the kissing & love scenes were good. Max Lin looks about as good as one can with his shirt off, and Shi Cheng Hao is beautiful, and both commit.

The music is bad - it's like something you'd hear on an afternoon special from 40 years ago about a waitress falling in love with a prince that she doesn't know is a prince. It spoils the final love scene. There are nice cameos from three past series in this "universe" - Be Loved In House (the main couple in this series are divorce lawyers, so it's interesting to see a perfect BL couple having problems), H3 Make Our Days Count, and H4 Close to You.

I would skip this, or if you watch it, stop at the end of Ep 8. The rest is dreck. What a disappointment. Hopefully we'll see these leads in something better, because they were cute together in the first two-thirds.

EDIT for Special Episode: this was added, which really helped and got rid of the sour taste the latter part of the series left for me. Most of the episode is Ze Shou passing out after the wedding and dreaming he's back in high school but with his 28-year old memories - it's sweet, cute, and clever. The Sailor Moon outfit... Also, their English teacher is hot. Note what's written on the black board - it seems to reflect how Ze Shou feels about the girl.

They could have stuck with this idea instead of the pointless drama after Ep 8 and it would have been so much better - in fact it would have been fun for Li Gong to have his own similar dream - maybe with him being a lot more aggressive knowing Ze Shou returns his love.

There are also three new Behind the Scenes episodes that I enjoyed (still ff-ing through the secondary couple) - the actors are so comfortable with each other, and they're both so smart and funny - there's also a lot of shirtless lingering for the filming of the love scenes. It's sweet how teary-eyed they got after the wrap.

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One reviewer said he thought this must have been made at gunpoint - I agree, and I had to practically be held at gunpoint to watch it. I only slogged through it so I could get the backstory for Love Mechanics, the next in the series.

Gun is so supernaturally unappealing that it was totally incomprehensible that Bar would ever go for this creepy stalker, especially when he had the 1,000 times more attractive Mark after him too. To be honest, my skin crawled so badly whenever Gun was onscreen that I started fast-fowarding through all his scenes.

I would recommend you jut skip everything except the 5-10 minutes or so with Mark so that you have the background you need for Love Mechanics, although you don't really need to see it because there's a brief flashback that tells you everything you need to know in the second series. This is the worst BL I've ever watched - What the Duck is a work of high art compared to this. The acting is terrible - Gun manages to be the creepiest "handsomest guy on campus" imaginable and Bar is passable - it's hard to blame him given what he had to work with.

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Wow, this was really lovely

Warnings : NO WARNINGS. Just plain loving and beautiful.

I was not excited about this given how Skinship is a long ad. There is definitely product placement in this too, but it's wonderfully integrated into the plot and non-intrusive.

Anyway, this is both hot and adorable, with wonderful chemistry between the characters - it's rare that you instantly feel two people are perfect for each other without reservation so quickly. I'm really excited for the full series. Both actors really inhabit their characters - especially Chahub, who does a wonderful job as the mischievous Nine - his not-very-subtle flirting was really funny and sexy, and I really felt his character.

The plot progression is natural and believable, and the way they drew together was romantic and beautiful.

One thing, though: that female employee was so obnoxious that I seriously almost stopped watching this. Note to producers: characters like that are not funny - they're intensely annoying and that behavior borders on sexual harassment, and she should be fired immediately. I would leave and demand my money back if someone treated me that way at a resort.

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It's not bad, but pretty forgettable.

I really thought something was wrong with me today, after seeing all the rave reviews and comments, and I just wasn't seeing what everyone else was seeing. I even read 9 chapters of the webtoon to see if that would solve it. (More on that below).

The actors are competent, but they seemed to be directed to under-emote, Thai style, which de-Koreanized the series a bit, which is a pity. But still, they were solid, and this was beautifully shot. All the side characters had good actors too.

But the story didn't make a lot of sense emotionally. We never get a sense for why Siwon was so hostile to Daun - I kind of understood why, but it wasn't really demonstrated. And then his turnaround is sudden and unmotivated. All of this made it a little difficult to invest in the romance, and it didn't help that their chemistry was not very heated.

I think part of the issue is the original story is a comedy, and they turned it into a drama, and in the process stripped it of everything unique and interesting. In the manwha, Siwon is an outrageous, OTT narcissist, and Daun is an even more outrageous and more OTT narcissist - Siwon is already funny enough, but that Daun suffers from such severe narcissistic delusion that even Siwon finds it incredible is LOL funny. The other issue is that the first two eps are really slow and dull, and because I binged it I never really recovered from that.

But turning it into a very conventional romantic drama just makes Siwon an unpleasant person, which is unfortunate because he's kind of plain when he's hostile and really lovely when he smiles. Daun, instead of being kind of crazy is just a conventionally sweet guy, and Diwan's hostility is strange and assholish. In the comic Daun really is stealing his spotlight, which Daun takes for granted as the natural result of his beauty (he actually glows).

So the end result is a reasonably pleasant but dull and forgettable series. If it hadn't been released all at once I probably would have forgotten about it.

People in the comments section are saying things like "Korea's answer to ITSAY" - I certainly hope not, because I have very high expectatons for what a full-powered Korean BL can accomplish, and this series doesn't even approach ITSAY - this is more like Korea's answer to Fish Upon the Sky. I thought it was markedly inferior in every aspect except cinematography to the same director's Where Your Eyes Linger - which is not at all surprising as she's extremely talented (we need more female BL directors!) and she wrote the screenplay for WYEL as well as directing it.

As a minor note of no importance, I wish Asian dramas would stick with their original names - e.g. Cherry Magic's Japanese title is hilarious - and attempts at wordplay often fall flat. Because "blue" and "Ming" are both words, and Ming-dynasty porcelain is characteristically blue, putting them together just comes out blue Ming (i.e blue MING instead of BLUEming).

Summary: good and worth watching, but don't go in with expectations of an 11/10 or you'll be disappointed. Maybe watch the first two eps one day and then wait a while and binge the rest.

Edit: I had to look up this series on 13 May 2022 because I couldn't remember it. I kind of do now, but only vaguely. So I guess I was right and it's forgettable. At least for me. I do remember the Manwha, though because it was really funny.

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It's not terrible.

There are some positives to this, including that the author clearly has enough life experience to write characters that act like people. The plot doesn't depend on tropes and accidental kisses, it's just a straightfoward attraction between two people.

What the author does not have, however, is any sense of pacing or dramatic plotting. There really isn't much point to the premise as it doesn't really factor much into the story and has nothing to do with the ultimate resolution. There is a mystery at the beginning that could have been drawn out and made more terrifying, but instead the audience is let in almost immediately and it's played mostly for laughs.

The two main failings are the plot holes and the general lack of energy to everything. The end result is that I really never had much idea what was going on because nothing impressed itself on me stongly enough to remember, like in the finale when they reveal their coke-can tabs. I have absolutely no memory of anything involving those. Kevin has an ex that's important somehow, but that's never fleshed out. Also, How is it possible that Kevin wouldn't know the state of his aunt's family? Wouldn't his mother know the truth? Or if not, wouldn't he have to tell her?

Also, the story depends on a three-year time jump, during which the main pair don't see each other. What? Why not? Kevin has the resources to fly back & forth from the US, and Pluem's new job would certainly pay enough for him to travel. Why did Kevin even go home? All he does is live stream - it's not like he can't do that from anywhere.

But most of all, none of this has anything to do with the premise of the show, which isn't in the end a premise, it's just a "schtick". It isn't integral to the plot like in the masterful Something In My Room, and has nothing to say - it's just a shallow and unmemorable romance.

The dialog isn't vapid, but it's infected by the Thai-drama-endless-pauses-while-speaking disease which I take it is supposed to lend serious scenes gravitas, but instead makes them dull and stilted, because nobody speaks like that or we would slap them. The pacing of the series is too fast, but the pacing of every individual scene is too slow.

There are also other strange choices - in the final episode, where Pluem is being seductive (highly, highly, successfully), this could have been one of the hotter scenes in a while, except instead of being turned on, Kevin appears to be terrified, which is really a buzzkill and makes it creepy. It's odd, because when the camera shows us his perspective, he's staring straight at Pluem's pecs, which are ably outlined by the fantastic outfit he has on (speaking of which, the wardrobe in this series is first-rate), so why is he acting like a 12-year old girl facing his first time when he's a man in his late 20s? It drained all the energy out of the scene.

You can see that Boy and Tod have the potential for chemistry, but it's never really allowed to go anywhere, and this whole series feels like it was created with a hand tied behind its back - as if the creators were embarassed by feelings and felt they had to exercise unnecessary restraint.

This isn't a terrible series, but if you remember anything but Tod's short shorts a few months from now, or maybe Boy's sexy smirk, I'd be surprised.

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Not so much bad as unbelievably boring.

EDIT: Do not be tricked by the fake 10/10 ratings. The show is awful and is too huge an investment of time to slog through.

The story setup is not innovative, but it is at least fertile ground for development. Unfortunately, the glacial pace of that development and the ridiculously boring characters does not exploit this opportunity. First, it seems clear to me that Wil was intended to be the villain, but because viewers inexplicably loved him so much, the producers reversed themselves and made him good, which drained the show of all interest and drama as there is no antagonist.

Second, the best actor, who plays the unstable psycho Nuan, is wasted playing an unstable psycho - which should be interesting, except his instability is too stable and never develops or goes anywhere. But at least you feel something when he's on screen. The actor playing Jimmy is good too, but it takes a long time to get over what a dick his character is at the beginning - they laid it on too hard and so the audience misunderstood that he wasn't the villain, Wil was (well, supposed to be).

The acting overall is fairly good, although nobody is really given much material to work with. Some of the acting is cringeworthy, but to their credit, a lot of the inexperienced actors showed improvement as the series wore on. And on.

Third, it's almost comical that every single male character (and all their family members. I am not joking) in the show is hot for the supernaturally average Joey, when Nuan and Jimmy are like, right there.

I can't rate the plot because there isn't one. I'm not joking.

There is a houseplant that has more scenes than most of the main characters. Still not joking. It is also in more conversations than most of the main characters. It is also more interesting than most of the main characters, and a better conversationalist. There is more chemistry between the houseplant and both Joey and Wil than they have with each other. The chemistry between Joey and Wil is so non-existent that when they touch it feels like the actors are sexually harassing each other.

The music is bad. If the music is not noticeable it's at least doing it's job, which would earn it a five. But there is one bar of music that is run over an over again to the point that you want to poke out your eardrums so you don't ever have to hear it again.

The production values are unacceptably bad - like a child with an iPhone could have done a better job of filming this. The camerawork was terrible, the sound was worse, and the editor is clearly a sadist.

As for rewatch value, I doubt even the most ardent JoWil enthusiast has ever rewatched a scene. Maybe the one in the bathroom where they're both in towels. Wil looks pretty good in a towel, so some people might want to see that again. If you held a gun to my head, I'd probably prefer a bullet to watching this again.

Overall rating: Worse than COVID, not as bad as the Holocaust.

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By far the best Oxin series to date.

There are some surprising things in this - the story is relatively focused, the cast is beautiful, and the story, while not very original, it fairly well-written - until the last episode.

It built up to a climax in Ep 7, but then deflated like a sad balloon. The fallout from what happened is barely touched on - what was the end result? The marriage was a business deal important to both families - that plot element was just dropped.

The climax itself is caused by Briggs and Shao being incredibly stupid and reckless, but I suppose first love can do that. The problem is that Briggs behaves totally out of character afterwards. If you're willing to derail a wedding to get your man, shouldn't he follow through instead of ghosting Shao? He's a horrible person - ruining someone's life then shrugging and going on his way. I know that's not how it's meant, and he does provide his reason, but it's unconvincing.

The whole finale is taken up by a replay of the entire climacitc sequence, followed by a lot of static scenes of people laying in bed moping. Given how short this was, it spoiled the story to have a filler ending episode that didn't make too much sense. The didn't really "earn" being a couple - it just happened, and was hard to invest in.

The acting is good, not stellar, with the exception of a few of the female roles, a recurring failing of Oxin productions. There is FINALLY a trans character that isn't a humilated for cheap comedy and is actually smart and wise.

If this is the new standard for Oxin, I'm happy because it shows a steep upward trajectory, and perhaps we'll see even better productions in the future.

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It's OK. A bit repetitive

This is a forgettable series with a solid first episode and a pleasant Ep 7 & 8, but the rest of it was a dreary repetitive mess, with the character of a reclusive writer being absolutely horrible to a charming, generous, and extremely good-looking director who he obviously had a troubled past with. The writer is so awful, though, that it was hard to care if they got together or not.

And as more and more is revealed, it's clear that the writer was totally in the wrong, but also the plot hinges on yet another implausible misunderstanding - how could Woo Jae have been unaware of Yeon Woo's mother's death? It didn't make much sense.

The kisses are the worst I've ever seen, even by Korean standards - it was really uncomfortable to watch, and it would have been better to just do a hug.

6 months from now I'll come across this review and have no recollection of having written it or watched the series, except I'll probably remember writing that I wouldn't remember writing this.

The acting is good, especially Yeon Woo - Woo Jae is flatter, but he delivers in the climactic scene in Ep 7. The music is also pleasant enough, and Han Jung Wan is very hot. The wardrobe is particularly good, to the point that I looked forward to scene changes to see what the characters were wearing. If you can stay awake through the middle episodes, the ending is nice. Except the kisses.

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I wanted to love this and did my best

I didn't hate this. But it's not good.

There is no story, or at least not anything coherent enough to really merit the word "plot".

The "story" revolves around a failure of communication so utterly preposterous that it never really recovers from it and meanders all over the place, including a huge amount of time being wasted on an irrelevant corporate espionage subplot obviously written by someone who's never had a corporate job and who's knowledge of technology is minimal, and spends no time at all on one of the romantic pairings - I didn't even know they were a pair until the last scene.

I think the writing trapped itself with the famous preview where Shu Yi strides in to a corporate office and slaps Shi De. They really didn't know where to go from there, so intead an incredibly convoluted and tedious backstory was cobbled together to explain it.

If they wanted to have this start out with them as enemies, there are so many better routes this could have taken. Imagine this: they are comically horrible to each other, but the smouldering chemistry is still there. They end up having hate sex, after which Shu Yi tells Shi De "I hate you. I never want to see you again. Starting one hour from right now." Hate isn't the opposite of love, indifference is. It would have been funny and hot if they'd end up having crazed hate sex every time they were alone beacause they couldn't control it, until they hated each other back into love.

The acting is very good, the costume & production design are stunning, the cinematography was beautiful... there were so many first-rate ingredients - it's just the chef had no idea what to do with them.

There is only one scene I will ever rewatch, and those of you that have seen it can probably guess which one - I don't think I will ever tire of it. Well, maybe two. There's also a gratuitous scene where Shi De takes off his shirt for no apparent reason and stares out the window for a couple of minutes. Pointless, but not unwelcome.

If you want to watch a bunch of unusualy attractive men on your screen for a few hours doing incomprehensible things, you might like this. If you're expecting anything connected to the charming story of S1, you may be disappointed.

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This was fantastic

When you get a first rate director, cinematographer, and editors, find a good script, and cast talented actors, then throw in some love, and you get something like this.

This is a story about a young man, Wang, who engineers stranding himself and his mother seemingly in the middle of nowhere, but in reality at the house of his dead father's closest friend, and his journey of self-exploration that results. This is not really a BL, and if you try to engage with it as a BL, you will not fully appreciate it. I think I saw some of the reviews call it heartbreaking, and it really isn't - but it's about Wang's journey and what he learns about life and himself. In that light, the story isn't at all tragic, because in the end he is wiser, stronger, and knows who he is.

My favorite thing is when a series takes advantage of the visual medium - every shot of this tells a story and supports the story. Sometimes it's obvious, like the role thee screen in In's room plays, or the bridge, and other times it's more subtle, with lighting and framing.

This felt like a play, and in reality it was - almost all of it takes place in one room - but it never ceases to be a film, never becomes static or tired, and every episode feels like it zips by. Every scene is allowed to develop, and is never belabored or rushed.

And I can't tell you what a huge breath of fresh air it is for romantic feelings to develop through normal interaction rather than accidental kisses or one boy tripping and the other catching him. Here it's a real connection, deep and rooted, and it has a power I haven't felt in a long time.

The acting is fantastic - with Pond as Wang it's obvious, but Nike and Mam are both wonderful in their roles as well.

There are a couple of things that were issues for me. While Nike was great, casting a 34-year old to play a 45 (ish)-year old is cheating a bit, and it also distorts the story because it makes Wang and In seem like a no-brainer because the generational difference is not visually obvious - if it were, In's hesitation might make more sense. The second is that Wang's mother is a bit much. Judging by the comments, the audience found her to be the villainess of the story, and she's not - but she's so histrionic and melodramatic that it's a bit too hard to feel sympathy for her.

Also, many people in the comments called In a coward - but is he? I can tell you for sure that I wouldn't let myself be strong-armed into a relationship with someone half my age (and the child of my best friend and my One True Love on top of that) that I'd known for only three days. That's not cowardice, it's just sensible. Wang wanted all or nothing and came on like runaway truck with a deeply introverted person - if he'd approached it as "let's get to know each other, he would likely have gotten what he wanted.

Anyway, this is one of the best series I've ever seen and I can't recommend it highly enough.

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Truly Awful

This is not just bad, it's offensive. About 75% of the story is Trans & queer shaming, with anyone not masculine depicted as awful, predatory, ridiculous, or otherwise pathetic and bad. There is no romance between the main couple - they're barely in it, and they have obligatory sex at the end that only one of them appears to be into - there is zero chemistry.

There is no reason for anyone to watch this - even though Jennie is in it. Just awful and regressive in every way. Seriously, I feel like someone needs to be charged with a crime it's so bad. I gave it a 3 for Jennie and several of the actors who did their best.

It really deserves a negative 10, but I feel bad for the poor cast.

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