Saebit Boys' High School Council (2021)

Made me happy, made me laugh, made me anxious

The pace isn't fast, there is only mild unpleasantness, no action and the acting is sometimes short of totally natural...
But...
It is one of the best dramas of this type I've watched for quite a while. I fell in love with it.
I always moan that BL dramas out of S.Korea are not long enough and it feels like the genre isn't taken seriously, but seen as popular and therefore shows should be produced. This changed that completely.
The characters are so likeable and the actors came across as genuine friends.
Their different personalities were realistic, as were the problems some faced.
A lesson in fitting in, being different, learning to be true to ones self, taking responsibility for our own actions, forgiving and mending fences.
The cast fit their roles and I loved them. Lee Sae On played Woo Tae Kyung, so well; a loner by choice, socially awkward, disarmingly honest and (as described in one very funny scene), pretty. He was also strangely confident in who he was and I thought showed courage on several occasions.
I also thought Kang Yoo Seok made Noh Shin Woo into a character whose brusque personality was understood immediately; I liked him and wasn't put off by his behaviour.
In fact every main actor made me feel invested in the characters they portrayed so well.
My personal favourite was Namgoong Shiwoon (Go Woo Jin), whose effervescent, slightly crazy, yet actually mature outlook on things, was the glue that kept their student council group together and helped his friends to develop.
The teacher in charge of the Student Council was a model for real teachers ~ supportive, non-judgemental and frank.
Some might feel that it was too fluffy to seriously portray life in an all boys' school and tackling issues of coming out, being harassed for being gay and online bullying. However, whilst there are extreme cases of that in real life, I also believe it happens on a more low key scale too and those instances shouldn't be ignored or undermined because of it.
I laughed a lot and found scenes that were emotional and heart warming too. I also had no idea who Tae Kyung would choose to be with, until he did.
Would it win awards? No. Could it make you happy you watched? I hope so... it did me.

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Not super memorable

There aren't a lot of k dramas with queer romances. I can't really think of any aside from this one and I think Semantic Error. That being said, while I appreciate that this is one of few, I didn't really love this. It's clearly low budget - which isn't a knock on the show per se, but it did affect how small this world felt. There aren't a lot of scenes that take place outside of school. The humor was very muted, in my opinion. A lot of the acting was very muted, to be honest. Aside from Da On, who stood out as charismatic and charming.

It's an interesting situation where, while I feel that the guy chosen at the end was the nicer guy, I didn't really feel like the ML had chemistry with him. At least, not more than with Da On.

I liked the music. I immediately added the main song to my playlist.

So, since there aren't a ton of k dramas with queer leads, anyone looking for one will likely watch this one. However, I was not impressed.

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Cute!

I loved that this South Korean BL was actually a lot longer than most S. Korean BLs: ~30 minutes and 16 episodes! It's a full-on show! Not only that, but the sweetness of high school crushes and the bitterness of the truth of being LGBTQ+ in S. Korea was a really nice, realistic balance. I liked that they reacted in realistic, high schooler ways. Not only that, but we got an HE!! I didn't expect to get a kiss, and I was okay with that, but we got TWO kisses at the end, which was amazing. I loved this entire show (except for Lee SoHee... I feel like her character development didn't make sense) and will definitely rewatch in the future. I'm not normally a huge fan of love triangles, but I think they did it well here. Hope we get a season 2!

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Honestly Blown Away

I'm not really into BL dramas because so many of them aren't made very well or are rushed. You never get to connect to a character and many of the side stories don't add flavour to the show, it just adds some time to make the show longer. (Personal opinion)

However, that being said, this was one of my favourite shows and I really have to commend the writer, director and cast. They all did such a good job of telling this story and got me emotionally invested. It was well paced and they put effort into telling the story of representing the difficulties of coming out in Korea as well as genuinely representing LGBTQ+ love as a real love story.

The only reason why I haven't been a fan of BL is because they put 10% of the effort into BLs as they do on straight love dramas. My point being, I already want to rewatch this and relive the happy, sad and heart-fluttering moments. This is an absolute gem and I hope more shows like this, representing LGBTQ+ love correctly, will come out in the future.

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One of the only examples in BL I can think of where a love triangle is done right. 99% of the time, we know exactly who the main character is going to end up with - Light On Me did a great job with both of the potential love interests being likeable and rooting for both of them for different reasons. All of the three characters involved were mature about the love conflict and not messy - which was probably not realistic for high school students - but it was refreshing to see.

The issues I have with this drama are a variety of little things that add up. Why were Da On and Shinwoo so interested in Taekyung? He wasn't particularly interesting, nor did he have much personality. There was no background on any of the boy's lives whatsoever, except for a tiny bit with Da On, which made him one of the more easy characters to understand. By the later episodes I was ready for resolution, which felt anti-climactic and like it took too long to get there. Why did we need the only prominent female character to be a villain? How on earth could Taekyung have possibly won the prince competition? Did they ever actually do anything for student council? There was just a lot that didn't land for me.

Also, Namgoong carried this series. It would have been so much drier and more boring without him. Not only was he the comic relief, but he was the most rational and relatable character. There were times while watching I basically just waited for when he would show up and lighten things up.

Side note - if you enjoyed the ending song "Spark", STAN A.C.E! Extremely talented and underrated k-pop group that deserves the world.

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A love triangle that was actually good

I have to say Light on Me is still one of my favorite BLs even though I’ve seen so many I still think this is one of my favorites. I really loved the character Taekyung because he kinda reminds me of myself of being an introvert and very quiet and I just loved his throughout the series. I feel that this was also one of those enemies to lovers concept, but it is one of my favorite ones since of how they became enemies. There may be spoilers so be aware.
I really loved the plot of Light on Me which was Taekyung is the total definition of an introvert and has no friends until the student council adult who was Haetbit and he invited Taekyung to come meet and join the members of student council and he already met Shinwoo by sticking a plastic thingy in his butt which was absolutely hilarious, but also embarrassing at the same time and then Taekyung met Da On who is the president and Namgoong who is basically just their. Overtime Taekyung develops feelings for Da On and it grows stronger each time he sees him, but Da On made it seem like he could really careless about his feelings and instead made Sohee carry her feelings for him and he payed more attention to her. While Shinwoo has feelings for Taekyung and while Taekyung felt that Shinwoo hated him, it was how Shinwoo shows his feelings because he’s like a black cat that shows no emotions. I really loved the scene where Taekyung accidentally opens the door so hard that his head starts bleeding and once everyone saw it Da On was going to help him until Shinwoo grabbed him a cleaned his wound. My other favorite scene was when Taekyung was nominated to be the person who the class votes to speak on stage and promote that one class, and when Taekyung froze and didn’t know what to say until he saw Shinwoo wearing a flower in his hair that’s when he started to gain confidence to talk on stage just by seeing Shinwoo even though Da On thought it was because of him. Also can we mention how good Taekyung looks in that beret because I want to look as good in it as him. Also Namgoong and Sohee are actually a good couple that if I saw them in a drama I think I would watch them. Overall I really loved Light on Me and it’s a show you cannot miss that I would literally watch over and over again because it’s that good.

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Tente não amar e falhe miseravelmente

Desde ontem estou revendo essa série para poder fazer a resenha, pois eu assisti ela em 2021, no lançamento, e queria ter todos os detalhes bem fresquinhos na mente antes de falar.

Primeiro, lembro da sensação maravilhosa que tive quando vi um BL coreano de 16 eps, normalmente eram apenas 8 e com poucos minutos, e infelizmente eles não mantiveram esse padrão, mas de vez em quando surge uma série de 12 eps, um dia eles chegam lá. Eu não curto os webtoons, mas lembro perfeitamente dos comentários acerca da semelhança com a obra original, até mesmo nas cores, e acho o máximo quando a obra original é respeitada na adaptação.

Sobre o roteiro, temos um grupo de amigos adolescentes que estudam na mesma escola (e uma amiga chata que vem de fora) e se dão muito bem, e com a chegada de um novo membro começam a experimentar sentimentos diferentes. Há quem ache que o ponto mais interessante é o triângulo amoroso, por sinal feito de forma genial, pois até o penúltimo ep eu não adivinharia com quem Tae Gyeon iria terminar, mas no meu ponto de vista, o diferencial e ponto mais interessante da série foram as personalidades de cada um deles.

Tae Gyeon era totalmente antissocial, não tinha amigos e nem fazia questão, vivia isolado. Um dia ele decidiu se abrir para essa possibilidade e depois que a agarrou não largou mais, foi interessante o fato dele insistir pela amizade, sendo que era ela que não gostava de interagir.
Namgung é uma das personalidades mais complexas na minha opinião. Por trás da aparente atitude insolente, ele realmente "sempre sabia de tudo", entendeu os sentimentos de todos antes que eles se dessem conta, mostrando que ele tinha um lado muito sensível às necessidades e sentimentos dos outros, muita empatia, coragem para defender os amigos e era muito observador. Seu lado brincalhão fazia com que as pessoas não o levassem muito à sério, mas por fim ele era realmente o mais inteligente emocionalmente. Maior prova disso é que só ele conseguiu ver que na verdade Lee So He não amava verdadeiramente Da On, que na verdade ele sim, era mais compatível com ela, e apesar do circo estar pegando fogo ele soube esperar. Ele e Lee So He não terminaram juntos, mas com certeza a melhor leitura dos sentimentos dela foi feita por ele.
Ele também viu antes de todos que Shin Woo gostva de Tae Gyeong, mesmo com a aparente rabugice, e também percebeu os sentimentos de Da On e sua confusão mental.
Shin Woo fugia de Tae Gyeong e fingia não gostar dele. Isso deixou algumas pessoas chocadas, mas ficou claro que ele fazia isso justamente por já amá-lo. Ele confessou num ep, que já tinha gostado de um garoto antes, ele se entendia, não estava confuso sobre sua sexualidade. Mas ele experimentou a parte dura de ser LGBT, o preconceito! Quando ele falou que entendeu que esse assunto não deveria ser conversado com ninguém, partiu meu coração em mil pedaços. Entendi que ele só queria proteger Tae Gyeong da maldade das pessoas, e quando ele pensava em abrir o coração, era altruísta o suficiente para levar em conta que Tae Gyeong gostava de Da On e era recíproco, então ele preferia sacrificar sua felicidade a se colocar entre seu amor e seu amigo. Foi lindo ver o processo dele tomando coragem para agir e se abrindo, foi lindo de se ver...
Da On... eu o amei, depois o odiei, depois senti compaixão por ele. Ele era um garoto que não sabia dizer não a ninguém, exceto a ele mesmo. A necessidade de ser o filho perfeito em busca da aprovação de pais que não lhe davam a mínima, fez com que ele adquirisse uma personalidade disposta a agradar a todos e não se indispor jamais com ninguém. Quando eu percebi a pressão externa que ele sofria, que obviamente repercutia internamente, foi que entendi o porquê dele tentar anular sua sexualidade... ele tinha medo de decepcionar os outros, e preferia decepcionar a si mesmo. Fiquei sinceramente chateada quando ele decidiu se declarar, pois ele já conhecia o sentimento de Shin Woo, seu amigo que respeitou o espaço dele e só se abriu para Tae Gyeong pq ele próprio disse que não faria nada a respeito, ele se encontrou tarde demais, mas isso não justifica trair um amigo.
Lee Soo He. Qie personagem chata... infantil e narcisista, que acreditou que seu objeto de desejo era um produto pessoal dela, a que só ela deveria ter acesso. Não perdoei as atitudes dela, na série o amor é lindo, ela teve sua "redemcão", mas se fosse comigo eu não queria alguém assim na minha vida novamente.


Sobre a atuação, apesar de um elenco jovem eles deram show. Cada um deles ficou muito bem em seu personagem, a experiência não fez falta e eles conseguiram transmitir muito bem os sentimentos. A ost é maravilhosa, a filmografia também.
Se eu pretendo rever a série? Com certeza! Se eu indico? Não apenas indico, como também panfleto ela. Todos devem ter a chance de conhecer essa obra tão linda.

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A hollow show where nothing ever happens.

What I liked: The love triangle was well done, quite heartwarming, and somewhat realistic. Didn't fill me with frustration like the trope often does.

Why is it a 5: I feel this show is somewhat a compilation of all the worst aspects of K-Drama.
It does the weird thing of making you feel like the story is progressing, the characters evolving, and the plotlines thickening. And then, after finishing the episode, you look back and you realize absolutely nothing has happened. The story is stuck in the same mud. The characters are the same depressed ghosts.
The whole show feels completely hollow. I do not believe for a second that this is a real group of friends, they quite simply never seem to be having fun with each other. For the entire first half of the season, the entire friend group is convinced the MC and ML hate each other and the whole atmosphere is decidedly bleak. Yet they act like they're having fun, and continuously force the two characters to make up. They were never friends in the first place, just stop trying so hard - noone is having fun!
The characters are all far too well-behaved. They speak only when spoken to, never interrupting each other. They all have incredible posture, not moving or fidgeting even slightly. They keep to their timelines impeccably and do all their chores. They even volunteer to do many extra chores. And when teased, or pushed to do something against their will, they all just resign to their fate.
And then of course, when they finally get together, they are together for about half an episode. The kissing is fake, the chemistry is non-existent, and the whole show has been for nothing. What a waste of time.

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Slow, slow, slow

Maybe being a western bl follower, I am expecting a faster development from each episode...I have written before that I am tired of the highschool trope...other more mature series, like trapped and to my star, are about young men in their 20th or 30th, with working careers and real life, not stuck in uniforms (with the exception of ' where your eyes linger' which was a pleasure)..as to ' light on me' I find myself loosing patience with the weird ( yet actually smart...) Main character wondering about what each gesture of the other students mean...it's true the triangle makes me
want see more, but on the other hand, I have resigned myself to binge watch it when it will be more advanced.
I am surprised at the high rating from other viewers, but it really may be due to different expectations or cultural differences re: speed of developments in hormone driven teenagers...lol.
Anyway, I plan to finish watching it in installments of 3-4 episodes at a time.

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Be a Gentleman and acts nicely and Love may come.

1. Korean web series are getting better (plot+ acting) esp this drama comparing to dramas of those national television networks (KBS, MBC, and SBS) which are heavily advertised and turn out to be disappointment.
2. These actors are not famous but their acting is so on point
3. Each line is meaningful
4. Time of each episode is enough to keep you yearning for the next episode. They can be 1 hour long like mainstream dramas but trust me you will feel they dragged the show and skip scenes or even loose interest in watching if the editing is bad
5. People usually blame actors for bad drama but director+ Screen writer+actors (main and supporting roles also) must work well together. After all it's the director decision if a scene is NG aka No Good or not
6. This drama give positive feeling during These Challenging Times dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
7. Shin Woo doesn't let own feelings turn him into a vindictive person towards Da On or manipulate Tae kyung by giving him "bad advice". You can see in episode 9 that Tae kyung believed in Nam Goong who gave his "words of wisdom to those who have never dated"

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