Chains of Heart (2023)

A convoluted mess that even the handsome faces look confused

The poor leads are buried in this convoluted mess of a story, which is made worse by appalling editing choices and weak direction. No matter how good your actors are, which they just passably so, they look confused at times by the illogical decisions made by the characters. The villains are poorly cast, all coming off as caricatures with OTT acting. If the editor or director is reading this, please understand that what you may think is smart, such as multiple cliff-hangers and flashbacks, are just gimmicky devices that frustrate and alienate the audience. What is worse, these flashbacks don't even reveal any particularly smart twist or plot device. Do learn how to narrate a good story, for starters.

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Don't waste your time

I have been waiting for this series for ages. Everyday I stalking the page . When it didn't dropped for Christmas and I say February I was like 🤸‍♂️💃🤸‍♂️. So far am enjoying it. Saw the dad from KinnPorsche love to see him act btw . So far good. When I saw him saved him then came in the room I said that's the boyfriend who got shot😩. Well I waiting to see how this play out , hope after waiting sooooo long it will be 🔥. This have everything so far Action, grief and Looove. On episode here. Soooo every episode Ken will get his ass wash, or strangled and everytime we are close to figuring things out the person get killed. Wtmc I really watching here boi🤣🤣 and as for Nok🙄🙄🙄 knew the guy with the one eye is the villain but when are we going to get a kiss or that's for the last episode. This show just sending up my pressure 😒. Just Finished episode 6 and I still confused about this series . Finally finished and am like wtf did I waste my time every Saturday for. So after waiting am entire year that's the ending really.

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questions no answers , great couple terrible plot!!

what the hell is this plot? i mean when i watched the first few eps it had potential but it sinked like titanic?? omg ,the way they did get a good couple but wasted them on a horrible plot, whats a waste you all, this is upsetting!! the first eps got me excited, hot men, crazy chemistry,cinematography, great music ,mafia vibe too? you know ,i love all those things, but later on it turned to a huge mess, plenty of questions but no answer, i dont think the writer of this show even know what the answers are, this is the weirdest and most confusing plot i have seen? i did consider dropping it many times ,ended up skipping the silly fights, let me not get started with how Ken keep getting choked every ep, his poor neck attacked for almost half of the scenes fr, give his neck a rest and let it heal in peace ? i really want to see this couple in another bl but with a good plot this time, they deserve better than this!!

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Confusa

La manera de explicar la historia me parece confusa.

Me explico. Es verdad que en la trama hay mucho misterio, es normal que no se termine de explicar y quiera dejar al espectador con las ganas, pero a mi parecer, solo consigue que cueste seguir lo poco que cuenta.

¿Nos encontramos ante una buena historia con el peor montaje y dirección?

Si la trama ya de por si es complicada, la manera de contarla aún la lía más. Planos que cambian de repente sin sentido en una misma conversación, conversaciones vacías dónde parece que van a explicar algo y no aportan nada, falta de coherencia en algunos puntos, etc.
En verdad, me sabe mal, la voy a seguir viendo porque la historia creo que puede ser muy interesante. Espero que mejore.

La terminé y a mi parecer va empeorando... una lástima...

Puntos positivos: la historia, la estética, el misterio y los actores.
Puntos negativos: la dirección, el montaje, los diálogos...

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I had such high hopes...

I was so excited for this show. I think Haii (Ken) is one of the most handsome guys out there so I couldn't wait to see him in something besides TT2 where we could see if he could really act or if he was just another pretty face. Turns out he's a pretty good actor when he has something to work with. Sadly, this show only gave him a small amount of that.

This show was supposed to be released in late 2022 but kept getting pushed back, and while I was disappointed because I couldn't wait to watch it, I was hopeful that the delays meant they were really putting a lot of effort into making it great. That did not happen. I feel like after it was "complete" nobody actually watched it to make sure it was good before releasing it. I find it so hard to believe that any editor was okay with how this turned out because it was atrocious. I think they tried too hard to make it cinematic with pretty views and forgot about actually making a cohesive story,. There were a few scenes that I actually had to make sure my tv hadn't froze up because they were so long and still. This could have been 5-6 episodes (total) and been considerably better than it was.

Haii was amazing though and I hope he gets cast again in better shows, and what a great introduction to Boom (Lue). This was the first thing I have seen him in and will definitely keep an eye out for his future works.

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Interesting plot, but bad story writing and poorly written characters...

There are very few positive things I have to say about this series so I will get them out of the way first. First of all, the sets look amazing (for the most part) and the camera work is really nice and sets the mood. Ultimately, I rated this series so low because of the script and story writing. The plot is interesting, but it was executed so badly, and all the characters are poorly written. Because of that, there were so many awkward moments....

The acting from some of the side characters wasn't good at all. However, a thing that everyone including the main cast is bad at, is the fighting/action scenes. Oh my god were they horrendous it looks like no one even tried to make it look realistic. I found myself chuckling every time a fighting scene came on, I just couldn't take it seriously. Another disappointing factor is that the main couple had like 0% chemistry. At times it was hard to watch, their 'love' looked very forced. I think this was due to the bad writing. Another thing to note is that a lot of the props were misused especially the weapons. Also the ending was so unsatisfying, there were so many things left without an explanation.

I will say this series was at least somewhat entertaining, but by no means a must watch. I would suggest you save your time and not watch this. However if you do decide to watch this show, don't go in with high expectations because you will only leave disappointed.

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Imparfait, mais ça fonctionne

Malgré les critiques assez mitigées et négatives autour de Chains of Heart, c'est un drama que j'avais prévu de regarder avant même sa diffusion. Je suis toujours enchantée lorsqu'un drama s'éloigne des bancs d'école ou souhaite nous proposer quelque chose de différent. C'est vrai que Chains of Heart n'est pas parfait, semble confus plus d'une fois et est une blague de mauvais goût quant à son final, mais il reste une proposition franchement honnête si on accepte de fermer les yeux ici et là.

À trop être sur le qui-vive, il devient plus facile d'assembler les pièces du puzzle. Chains of Heart n'est qu'un 1000 pièces, donc les contours sont assez rapides à faire. Par la suite, la confusion peut rendre la tâche plus ardue, mais on fini toujours par soit essayer et réussir, soit attendre que le drama réponde à sa propre confusion. Malgré tout (et ce n'est que mon avis de faiseuse de puzzles de 1000 pièces) l'histoire tient la route grâce à une pointe de subtilité sur certains aspects de l'histoire.

Certes, certaines scènes sont vraiment trop théâtrales. Plutôt que d'être prise dans le feu de l'action, j'étais plus secouée de petits rires. Mais si vous aimez le BL, alors vous êtes désormais capables de prendre une majorité des intrigues et scènes d'action avec le sourire plutôt que trop de sérieux. La proposition de départ était honnête et nous change des décors de ces dernières années, donc je suis toujours preneuse dans l'idée.
D'ailleurs, les décors sont superbes. On quitte les grandes villes pour de magnifiques plans en forêt. C'était très agréable et rafraîchissant.

Pour remettre dans le contexte (et parce que je ne reprends que le résumé et ne mentionne rien que vous ignorez à ce stade). Ken et Din étaient ensemble. Din disparaît et Ken se retrouve donc seul. Deux ans plus tard, Lue croise la route de Ken.
Afin de placer l'histoire, on assiste à de nombreux flash-back sur la relation entre Ken et Din. J'ai eu quelques regrets quant aux flash-back de Ken et Din. C'était beaucoup de scènes intimes. Si au fil des épisodes ça ne reste pas cantonné aux roulades dans les draps, c'était un chouïa de trop. La détresse constante de Ken depuis la perte de Din est clairement montrée. Cela montre également que leur relation n'était pas seulement charnelle. Au travers de petites scènes quotidiennes, on sent tout l'amour qu'ils avaient l'un pour l'autre. Même si, encore une fois, la détresse de Ken est trop accentuée après six épisodes. Mais je chipote.

Je ne vais pas m'étaler sur la romance par crainte de spoiler sans le vouloir. Je vais seulement dire que l'histoire entre Ken et Lue manque un peu de subtilité. Une réplique hilarante dans l'épisode 07 envoie clairement balader la subtilité dans toute sa splendeur ahah. Mais c'est une romance qui fonctionne et qui est très plaisante sur son évolution et qui trouve son apogée lorsque les masques tombent.
La famille de Din envers Ken est exceptionnelle. C'était une très belle relation avec tellement de bienveillance et d'amour. En temps normal, les belles-familles sont diaboliques, mais ici, c'était juste rafraîchissant d'avoir une entente aussi saine.
Les antagonistes sont un peu (beaucoup) caricaturaux, mais d'un autre sens, les héros aussi, donc dans l'idée ça fonctionne.

En revanche, la fin est indigne. J'ignore si c'est le cas dans le roman original, mais c'est franchement décevant de s'impliquer tant pour cette fin. Paf, générique ! Ok... Au départ, je voulais mettre un 8/10 à l'histoire, mais le final me fait retirer un point.

Bref ! Est-ce que je le recommande ? Oui, mais tout en ayant conscience que la fin pue. Autrement, ça reste un drama entraînant qui sort des sentiers battus avec un très bon équilibre entre famille, amis, romance et action.

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Ridiculously simple yet makes zero sense

From the first episode you already know that Lue is Din. With that in mind, you understand this is a simple story about revenge. Yet nothing makes sense for the entire series. Things just happen and 90% of the supporting cast does nothing. Sometimes it looks like Lue is in two places at once or can teleport. He changes in and out of his disguise quicker can Superman. I was expecting the plot twist to be that Lue is actually a pair of twins.
For the supporting cast, don’t even need to learn their names, it’s not all that important. Ken gets beat up every episode, and so does Lue. Yet, their bruises disappear and reappear at random times. This show does not have 1/10 of what was needed to pull off that ending with them separated, this is not Trapped. the weirdest part is that money was not an issue. This show is just bad because the plot is terrible.
Overall, the cast does a good job considering the plot and dialogues are horrible. The main actors have chemistry and could work well together in a better show.

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Story with potential, but...

When I saw the trailer back then, I thought, wow I have to see this. In the end, as is often the case, the series didn't deliver what the trailer promised.
Don't get me wrong, all in all it wasn't bad, but there were too many inconsistencies. And the ending? Well, I didn't get it.... it just stops abruptly. I hate it when there is no happy ending, even though the characters have already suffered in the beginning. I think a happy ending makes more sense here. Or maybe it's just me being too romantic, I don't know.
A second season would have to round off the story, especially because Ken travels to Bangkok again in the last scene. Unless I have misunderstood something. The ending is really a bit confusing for me...
The main couple didn't convince me, unfortunately. They looked so good together, but somehow the spark did not jump over. I liked the general story, but it was only halfway satisfying.

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Confusing, but it had me coming back

The trailer looked really interesting, and I was excited to give a try to a BL series that seems more complicated and with a crime related plotline. I am a sucker for a good mystery. The beginning was a little jump into the past to let us know what and how it happened, which was nice as it put some things into perspective.

However, what happened going forward made me quite confused. I have questions, a lot of them. I feel like we were bombarded with a great number of people all at once, so I found it very hard to keep up with who everyone is exactly. It got a bit easier as the story progressed, but there were still characters that I didn’t know where to put throughout the series. But no matter how confusing it is, it does have its charm. I was looking forward to watching new episodes. So, they must have done something right.

Ken is… a mess. I am not really sure what they were trying to do with his character. I understand his personality and the way he acts, but I feel like the writers couldn’t decide how they want him to be – is he supposed to be this badass character who can handle whatever gets thrown at him or is he supposed to be character in constant need of saving? He got almost chocked to death in like half of the episodes!

Mr. Lue is interesting. At times I think he might be Din – either some sort of reincarnation of him or a heavily operated on version of him. But then at other times I think he might be just someone who got involved with Din in the past. (These were my thoughts watching the series. I now know what is and what isn’t true). All I was sure of was that he likes Ken, a lot. And I think the actor is doing a great job showing emotions through his eyes.

The chemistry between Boom (Mr. Lue) and Haii (Ken) is amazing though. They look so good together! The scenes between them were very tense, but in a good way. I do hope they get another series together. Also, yay for giving mature roles to mature actors.

I do not like the “villains” though. They seem very cartoon-like, they don’t really fit into the series that well. Also, it’s a bit annoying that they don’t always continue the next episode where the one before ended.

And while certain things were kind of obvious and easy to predict, there were certain plot twists that I did not expect. There are characters I thought were connected to the villains when they were actually good guys. I really like it when a series tricks me into seeing a character differently than what they actually are. That is a good quality for any sort of mystery / thriller show.

The ending seemed kind of rushed though. It was very abrupt. I am not the biggest fan of the ending either. However, I do like the fact that the “good” guys didn’t get a free pass for their criminal actions. Often, that gets overlooked. I was happy it was different this time.

The OST fits the story very nicely, I really liked it.

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