A malfunctioning brain visualized

I honestly have no words to describe this train wreck of a series, I'm not even bothering with my usual disclaimer which should tell you something about this. This isn't like my usual reviews, I won't be doing any deep analysis on it, I'll just point out what stuck with me as I zoomed my way through each episode:


- the concept of good posture is incomprehensible in this show apparently
- this series is brought to you by the pink vitamins drink thingy
- non existent chemistry between the couples
- a threesome with absolutely no context or warning....
- idol like, baby faced, fragile looking mafia boss who's apparently a 36 y/o man in the body of a 20 y/o dude
- a disgraceful portrayal of BDSM
- that one, side, non-cannon ship (y'all know who I'm talking about) having the most chemistry out of all the cannon and non cannon pairings we've seen and didn't see
- the plot said sike and yeeted the f out
- Kamol and Danai's guide to confusion 101 AKA the reason for my misery
- out of nowhere characters
- fight scenes straight out of the 50s
- disconnecting from reality 101
- I want the wasted 8 hours of my life back
- comedy is the main genre here, I'm very disappointed in them for not including it in the tags

And yeah, these are my "notes" on this series, or like someone else described it, car crash of a series. I honestly have no idea what I just wrote because my remaining brain cells were destroyed by the other monstrosity of a bl that shall never be named, but yeah, that's basically it. I'm sorry if my "review" wasn't able to offer any actual opinion or insight on this bl, but I really couldn't bother to write an in depth one. I suggest you check out other people's opinions on this because they're more likely to be helpful than mine, have a good day/night.

Citeste mai mult

The desperation is real y'all

¡¡Disclaimer!!
This review is not a positive one so read at your own risk. This is not meant to discourage/encourage you to watch this as it is based on my personal opinion, you're free to disagree/agree with it.


How can you ruin something that has already been ruined?
I honestly feel like the creators of this series got together and were really desperate so they tried to beat this already dead horse even more to make that extra money. This is truly the worst case of an interesting series with so much wasted potential and it just really saddens me, the only saving grace was the acting and the chemistry between tharn and type which seemed to gradually fade in season 2 for some reason until there was nothing left anymore. I wasn't going to review it in all honesty cuz to be frank, I just couldn't think of a good rating that would do it justice, but I decided to be generous and give them that 2 star rating because I really felt sorry for the actors and cast.


Plot/story:
There was absolutely ZERO plot in here, like legit no plot. I truly believe that the wedding was meant to be included in the last episode but because they really wanted to make that extra buck they decided to make it into a "special episode" instead for a whooping 13$ . This was around 80% of unnecessary flashbacks of the mains' MOmEntS from the past two seasons in the most random parts and almost 15% of screen time for the supporting characters cuz why would we care about the main leads, right? And finally, that would leave us with 5% of screen time for our main couple which consisted of either them doing "the deed" or just mew and gulf being kinda stiff around each other while reciting the same lines over and over again. If you removed the "recaps" of the whole series and the side characters' screen time, you'd be left with about 10 minutes of tharn and type doing really random shit and ending this tragedy with the oh so romantic wedding.



Actors/cast:
No comment. That's it. I'm really at loss for words and I genuinely feel sorry for the cast cuz they truly have been done soo dirty with this monstrosity of a series.



Music:
They gave us the same bgm and theme song from season 2 so I don't have anything to say here but how really saddening and really disappointing the very little amount of effort put into this is.



Product placement:
????????????


I really didn't want to watch this but because I don't like leaving something unfinished I decided to give it a go since I have already been through the whole thing, one more episode won't make much difference now, will it? My initial reaction while watching was just me cringing the whole time, being confused for around an hour, being angry at the price of this so called "special" and finally feeling nothing but relief when the credits rolled and it finally ended.


P.s: I tried to make this review as short as possible without spoiling anything (not like there was much to spoil anyways) but for real tho, if I was to talk about every single thing that has bothered me while watching we'd be here all night so, I'll just have to make do with this much.

Citeste mai mult

The healthiest relationship I've ever seen in a BL

¡¡Disclaimer!!
This review is based on my personal opinion/experience while watching, it's not meant to discourage/encourage you to watch this series. You're free to agree/disagree with it.



I'm gonna be honest here, when I first read the synopsis for Bad Buddy, it didn't really stand out to me, but somehow I couldn't help but look forward to it so I went with my standards set somewhere in the middle, especially since it's a GMMTV series, and after watching it, I must admit that it was a very enjoyable ride. From reading the synopsis, you might gather that it's a very cliche BL, nothing special about the enemies to lovers plot, however, once you start watching, you'll realize that it's not that usual of a series, especially among BLs.


Plot/storyline :
The storyline isn't something unique or unheard of, yet the way they portrayed it without making it too cliche really makes the difference. We start off with the two main leads being enemies because they were told to be so by their parents (classic cliche) but we soon come to realize that the two didn't seem to want to be enemies, so the two start growing closer through a series of, in my opinion, typical events. The two eventually realize they like each other and after a while, they start dating in secret, until one of the main leads's best friend (I hate this guy, and I'll get to why later) decides to out them in front of the whole place, and they're left to face the judgement of their friends and family. I won't spoil how and where their relationship goes, but I will say I was pleasantly surprised with how they decided to go with it because I expected them to either:
A) have a crappy ending where they're left/forced to break up
Or
B) have an open ending where we, the viewers, get to decide if they stayed together or not.
Surprisingly, they went with a little bit of either options with a side of something else that I won't reveal and honestly, despite how cliche it turned out, it still was something kinda unexpected and unique and I'm very much amused with how it turned out. The way the relationship between them developed was really one of my, if not my very, favourite relationship development in any series. There was no unnecessary love rival, no uncalled for drama, no unwanted side couples AND we actually get some of the healthiest relationships imo. With that being said, the plot did have some plotholes/questions that could have been easily avoided/answered, e.g. why did Pran's mother hate guitars so much really? Why did they hint at Korn and Wai being a thing but not go through with that idea? WHY did Korn (whether platonicly or not) start liking him even? How come that even tho the two [Pran and Pat] hated each other since basically before birth, they still communicated through these tin-phones? What's so special about that watch that Pran has other than the fact that Pat returned it to him? How long did these two disappear for during the time they ran away? There were so many things left hanging that I started losing track of what's happening sometimes. Regardless, the plot was executed really well and I'm quite content with how it turned out.


Characters/cast:
This section in all honesty, was either a hit or miss. Some characters were absolutely phenomenal and some I just wanted to kick in the shin. The main couple were very cute, and the fact that they didn't have the typical assigned role of husband/wife, one of them came out as pan, they respected each other's boundaries and didn't push each other to come out, made me really like the writer. Also the plot hinted at them being a switch couple (which is unimportant really, but very much unheard of in this genre) and that honestly made me like them way more with the fact that there was no such stereotypical feminine delicate bottoms and strong masculine tops. With that outta the way let's talk about the cast. I'm very happy with Ohm and Nanon's acting and the rest of the cast did a very good job, no overacting, no underacting, no cringy moments (imo) and most importantly, no dramatic ugly crying on a beach/near water in the most laughable manner for weird reasons like in some other shows *cough* tharntype *cough* *cough* still 2gether *cough* so overall Pran and Pat were a good pair, HOWEVER, they did suffer of what I call the GMMTV syndrome at some point where the main couple's chemistry somehow dissipates into thin air and they start acting more like brothers than lovers and their pre-dating era starts to look way more romantic and interesting than their current relationship. Now that we've talked about our main couple let's move onto that ONE (or two if you count Pat's dad) character that I could not stand for the life of me and that character, is Wai. This character made the least sense and I honestly feel like he had the most potential to be an antagonist, hell the writer was already going with this plan, yet sowehow they just randomly decided to turn him into a good guy and what, expect me to forgive him easily? Idc if people like him or think he had a redemption arc or whatever (which he didn't have) this guy was the most manipulative, trashy, annoying sleezbag that I've ever seen and I'm not gonna forgive his actions just because he suddenly became a good person. This mf guilt tripped Pran into taking up his place on the soundteam for that theatrical act, tried getting closer to Pa while still publicly cursing her brother out, tried to beat up Pat multiple times for no real reason other than him being annoying, basically outed his friend and his boyfriend as lgbtq+ with no right to do so and even went as far as cutting Pran out and making their other friends treat him like trash because he was HuRt and BeTraYed by him not admitting to him that he's dating his "enemy" because somehow being best friends entitles you to know every little detail about his private life, right guys? So after all this I'm just left here wondering, why did Pran cling onto their friendship this much? Why were they friends to begin with? How come his parents didn't see how terrible a person he is? And most importantly, why ISN'T this guy an antagonist? He did a complete 180 only after Pat literally took a bullet for/because of him, so now I'm expected to what, forget everything he did? Yeah, no chance buddy, although I must say, the actor wasn't that bad considering how horrible his character was, albeit a bit expressionless. I'm not gonna go into why I dislike Pat's dad simply because it's a waste of space really, and the fact that my reason for hating him is somewhat of a personal pet peev so yeah, opinions on this guy vary considering how you view him, I will say tho, the actor was kinda hilarious, he seemed so out of place and so not into his character I couldn't help but laugh whenever I saw him. Out of all the couples, InkPa were my favorite, these two were really cute together, although I did find their relationship a bit weird since apparently Ink liked Pa since she was in highschool, meaning Pa was barely in middle school back then considering the age gap between her and her brother so yeah, definitely not my favorite setting for those two, they were still a cute couple. In all seriousness tho, GMMTV should cut Drake some slack, my guy has been appearing in almost every series recently I'm starting to feel bad for him and how overworked he is lol.

Soundtrack/Music:
The soundtrack was really good, it wasn't my favorite, but I did like most of the songs, especially Nanon's "just friends?" I don't have much to say here since music is subjective and some might like the music way more than I did so soundtrack, a solid 8.

Production/Product placement:
The production on this wasn't bad really, but there were some time skips and some occasional cases of sloppy camerawork that had me scratching my head but otherwise, the production was ok. The product placement is everywhere, as expected of a GMMTV series, they had to squeez in a couple of seconds in every episode for promoting these products, nothing new here, it wasn't as bothersome as some of their othere series, but it was still evident enough to point out.


So overall, this was an entertaining series, it had the right amount of fun for me personally and I enjoyed watching it. I finished it in one go yesterday and I was left with only today's episode so I can't really relate to the rest of the viewers here who waited for it every week, although I did wait for it to come out for a whole ass year so, I guess now I can say it was worth the wait. For those of you hesitating to give it a try, I say go for it, if you want a fun BL but don't want a really deep plot, here's your show, I definitely recommend it if you want to pass the time with something enjoyable and amusing.

Citeste mai mult

An ending I anticipated but also didn't

¡¡Disclaimer!!
This review is based on my personal opinion/experience while watching. You're free to agree/disagree with it. Please note that this will be a really long review so if you're not into that go ahead and skip reading it.



First of all, let me start this by saying that this series is actually 6.7/10 for me personally, HOWEVER, the last 4-5 episodes carried this entire drama single handedly and I'll get to why in a minute, so because the last few episodes were what really saved this series (besides the stellar performance of cast and the production value) this became a 8.7/10 for me.


Plot/storyline:
If y'all don't already know, this series was promoted as a drama/romance with a bit of action on the side, so if you're going in expecting some legendary lovestory, please toss your expectations outta the window as this is the farthest thing from being a romance. This drama is a political/espionage/dark type of dramas, so if you're looking for something light and less gruesome, I advice you to pack your bags and leave as this is not the drama for you.
We begin our story with Eun Young ro, a naive goody-two-shoes college student who is currently living in the Husu dormitory for young ladies. She meets this guy, Lim Soo ho., through a blind date(?) and she crushes on him hard, however, said guy suddenly breaks into her room one night hurt and bleeding as the ANSP enters the dorm to look for a fugitive spy from the north. She along with her roommates (not gonna call them her friends cuz they've proven to be otherwise) decide to hide him and tend to his wounds until he's well enough to leave. After a chain of events he manages to leave only to come back later on as the spy with a couple of his comrades, and proceed to hold everyone in the dorm hostage along with a few ANSP agents. Another chain of unfortunate events occurs (it was mostly illogical writing on the writer's part here really) and somehow the northern spies and the hostage ANSP agents end up working together to escape and save themselves and everyone in the dorm, action and scheming ensues with a bunch of explosions here and there until eventually the hostages, the agents, some employees and one spy make it out alive, and the credits roll.
This is pretty much the plot in a nutshell, I didn't want to spoil the whole thing as to not ruin the fun of watching it, and now with that outta the way, I'd like to drop my two cents about this plot into the pile. The first 2-3 episodes started off strong with some minor issues here and there, but it was nothing too serious, HOWEVER, starting from episode 5, the plot plummets downhill reeaally quickly because what follows is one of the draggiest plots you'll ever see, and the repetitive agenda of "we thought out a plan! Oh really? Let me ruin it for ya!" Goes on until finally, FINALLY, the plot picks up again by episode 11 or so, so by then you're just really drained emotionally and too frustrated to actually feel anything regarding any changes that happen.
When I tell you that I was praying every night for this to end in tragedy, I literally mean praying on hands and knees people. Many of us, me included, expected them to throw in a classic Disney solution/ending or a Romeo&Joliet type of endings just and call it a day, but no, they actually gave us tragedy, and I've never been happier to be proven wrong. This sort of story was doomed to end up in agony and sadness from the very beginning, so to actually see the writer end it on a heartbreaking note was probably the only right decision they have made throughout this rollercoaster ride, so good job writer, you actually managed to restore my faith in you a little bit, very well done.


Characters/cast:
I'd like to mention this here before I go deeper into the cast and their roles, this drama is very much character driven, with that being said, the only reason I actually pushed through with this series, despite not wanting to continue it, is because of how absolutely astounding the cast, and I'd like to add that the chemistry between Hae in and Jisoo was pretty much nonexistent through 80% of the episodes, so the team decided to release the bts footage of the two actors to make up for the lack of chemistry between them, and it somehow managed to make the viewers fall in love with their sweet dynamic off screen and completely forget about the actual romance, or lack thereof, between the characters, but despite it being a pretty smart thing for them to do, they couldn't cover up all the issues the plot has caused with this plan. And now that this is out there, let's move on to the characters:

Lim Soo ho/ Lee Tae san/Taedong river 1: A+
First and foremost, let me get this out before it causes any confusion, Soo ho is very much the only main character here, don't try to tell me otherwise because no, Young ro sadly can't be considered a main character in here, a main character needs to play a role in moving the plot, and Young ro unfortunately didn't contribute much to the plot after episode 5.
Jung Hae in is an absolutely amazing actor, this man's ability to draw you in with his eyes and talent is on another level and I'm very much in love with him. After watching Soo ho and observing him throughout the course of the drama, I can see why Hae in said that the percentage of resemblance between him and Soo ho is only 50%.
Soo ho's character was the driving force of the story, and his role in the situation was the most vital out of everyone else's. In regards of his relationship with Young ro, I was one of the few that hoped for it to perish and be forgotten, because pointing a gun at her head, threatening to kill her multiple times, holding her hostage, causing her to suffer, indirectly killing her brother and finally using her as his ticket out, doesn't really seem all that romantic yk? And him being on the opposite side of the riverbank didn't help their case either, so their relationship was bound to end on a tragic note. On a brighter side, Hae in is a gorgeous man y'all, I couldn't help but pause the screen and admire him for a couple of seconds before continuing any further, boi is built like a greek god and I'm soo here for it, also, his smiles sent me into uwu mode way too many times lol.


Eun Young ro: A-
I absolutely love Jisoo and I think she's a wonderful singer, but honestly, her acting is just sub par. While she managed to pull off some scenes exceptionally well, her acting fell flat on many occasions, and I mostly blame it on how horribly her character is written. This character was definitely an afterthought and her role literally ended after episode 7 or so, and she became a plot device to make Soo ho shine through. Her character suffered from the most horrendous transition from being a FL to being a background character added in there for the sole purpose of pleasing the fans. I don't actually have much to say about her BECAUSE we barely saw anything from her as opposed to everyone else, I will say tho, Jisoo is quite the convincing crier ngl, even if it took her 14 episodes to get her emotions right and into the characters.


Kang Moo: A-
What was wrong with this guy's character? His personality was out here doing acrobats every god damn episode until it eventually settled on the kicked distrustful puppy button for the majority of the plot. Also, what happened to "I wanna kill Lee Soo ho for killing my buddy" agenda? They literally forgot about this and decided to develop his bromance with Soo ho instead. And don't get me started on his relationship with Ha na because that one was just.......yeah. the actor (I'm unfamiliar with him) did great in portraying him tho, his conflicted eyes were probably my favorite thing about him.


Kang Cheong ya/Moran hill: A+
One question, why isn't she Soo ho's LI? There was soooo much potential for their relationship you cannot fathom how sad I am they didn't actually go with this idea. Yoo In a is an amazing actress, her portrayal of Moran hill was just fascinating, and it made me respect the actress even more. A lot of thought seemed to be put into her character and it shows, she had the strongest writing among the female characters and I'm actually satisfied with the writing for her, even if she did suffer from the internalized misogyny that effected the writing for the other female characters. Cheong ya was my favorite character beside Soo ho, so I'm really curious as to what actually happens to her later on.


Boon ok: A
This woman was seriously amazing. Ik that so many viewers hate her but honestly, it's because of this fact that I actually like her. When an actor makes you hate a character, you know damn well they portrayed that character amazingly. She was a perfect example of how a person is the product of their environment, that is until they decided to ruin it by having her intervene with every plan for no apparent reason than to drag on the situation. Her redemption arc wasn't long enough and it made everything she did seem so empty, I wished they could've shown her mulling over her position in this situation more then slowly try to fix her mistakes instead of just suddenly deciding to be on Soo ho's side, OR they could've left her as a bitter horrible person and had her have a somewhat befitting ending for all her actions, but alas, it is what it is. Kim Hye yoon is a spectacular actress, she honestly stole the show in terms of acting so kudos to her for being this amazing, absolutely loved her.


I won't go any further into the characters because of how really lengthy this review already is, I will say that the cast was just mind blowing so hat's off to the actors, even if they lacked character growth or development, I blame it on the plot really and the fact that it's a one setting type of situations with one arc taking the majority of the plot.


Soundtrack/music:
The music was really really good, I loved all the songs that were used and I have them all added to my playlist, despite the unbefitting tracks used in a couple of scenes, it was still very nice so the soundtrack is a solid 9/10 for me.


Production:
The production was really good on this one, they used their budget nicely and the fighting and action scenes were really well choreographed. The way they used the lighting in certain scenes really contributed to how well a scene was filmed too so props to the production team for a job very well done.


And finally, after this really long rant, I'd like to finish this review by saying that I went in expecting something and I was presented something totally different, so don't be fooled by the tags. I had to shut my brain off for the majority of the episodes because of how nonsensical and illogical the plot was, and the controversy surrounding this drama played a huge role in my earlier thoughts on it, so I advice any new viewers to go in with an open mind and to set your standards somewhere in the middle so as to not be disappointed if it doesn't turn out how you expected it to be.

Edit: I realize that my review didn't turn out as satisfying or as thorough as I wanted it to be, mainly because I was fighting sleep while writing it so I'd like to elaborate on a few points here:

- My initial thoughts on the plot where very different, I was very skeptical about the script as it somehow started off very cliche but delved into a darker/unrelated direction, I don't think that they were going to go with this specific route and it shows through the messily written script. This feels more like the drafts version rather than the final proofread product, I truly believe that because of the controversy and as to not cause any more damage to the team and cast, they decided to change many things in a rush, hence the illogical writing.

- This type of plots is usually either put into a movie or shortened to be one of the many arcs in a drama, however, they decided to stretch it out to take up the entirety of the drama, so it feeling draggy could've been easily avoided. I am unsure of their reasons behind such decision, but I guess not much can be done anymore.

- Many people complained that most of the characters felt very underdeveloped and lacked any growth or prominence, while I agree with this sentiment, I should point out that this drama was portraying a very short period of time with the first time skip in the first episode being 6 months, the dorm arc barely reaching the 2 weeks mark, and finally the ending being a time skip to the summer of the year that followed. You need a certain trigger or incident to change someone's nature/views in life, the hostage situation would've been the perfect trigger to show us how it effected each character and how they all turned out moving forward, but because of the previous point that I talked about, they couldn't go through what I would call "the searching/discovery phase" so now we're left with one dimensional characters who can't go through that phase and can't be developed because they didn't have enough space/time to do so.

- The plot twist they tried to include were very predictable. I could see the betrayals and the lies from a mile away. The old man was very obviously a spy, Gyeok chan and Eung chul were clearly going to die, it became very apparent later on that Soo ho's adoptive father will abandon him, his biological mother and the fact that he actually dies (I actually hoped for it to happen, but given the fact that it's a kdrama, I didn't count on it) were pretty much the only twists that I didn't actually see coming, so I guess it's nice to be surprised sometimes.

- The last few episodes proved that the writer can actually make some logical and intelligible decisions, the way things spiraled downhill soo quickly and how they portrayed the change of loyalties and emotions was very reasonable, and it's most likely the only reasonable thing they've done, but it just goes to show how rushing an ending, even if it was in a very logical way, when your entire world was built on a slow paced story makes everything you've done up till now very muddled and unbalanced.

Citeste mai mult

Jack o' Lie

(╭☞•́⍛•̀)╭☞ Disclaimer:
This review is based on my personal opinion/experience while watching, it's not meant to change yours so feel free to agree/disagree with it.


Honestly, going in, I had no expectations, so I can't say I was disappointed or anything. On one hand, this was cute on a superficial level, on the other hand, this series failed to keep me engaged and I honestly couldn't connect with anything in it, I wasn't able to invest in any of the characters which is a shame really considering how beautiful everyone was. I didn't know what to rate this at first, but I settled on 6.5/10 because I feel like overall, this wasn't that great, but it wasn't horrible either, it was an ok watch, not memorable but it was nice for killing time and if you want to watch something that's essentially a fanfic coming to life.


This story is actually something I have already seen done once in a manga, not sure what the title of that manga was but the plot was very similiar, in retrospect, this is quite the common story, very predictable, and every bit the cheesy cliché you'd expect from such situation. The amnesia aspect was handled the most questionably out of everything, it almost feels science fiction-y, no matter how hard I thought about it I couldn't classify this type of amnesia so I settled for the scientifically fictional explanation, that said, Ritsu didn't give me the feeling of someone with amnesia, it felt more like someone high going through a very tripy dream and eventually waking up from it, this plot wasn't fleshed out enough, I can blame it on the limited time but honestly, they could've made it work if they got rid of the meaningless filler scenes and the pointless time spent on the side characters who brought close to nothing to this plot.


I wasn't a big fan of the couple's relationship dynamic, their whole relationship seemed off, Fumiya felt like such a coward and pre-amnesiac Ritsu was just a very vague character I couldn't decide if I liked him or not but from their very brief description of him he appears to be a selfish jackass, the present-time Ritsu we were shown was cute, but also very confusing, Fumiya was even more so, it felt like he regretted dating him in the first place but also wasn't willing to see through his decision of breaking up with him, he was giving such mixed signals and that's probably what I disliked about him the most, his reasons for hiding their actual relationship status from Ritsu was just BS, he could've tried to start over by being honest with him, but noooo he had to lie, because how else would the writer find enough material to cover a 6 episode series that essentially had plot for only 2-3 episodes at max? I should also mention that the acting was sub par, the chemistry wasn't chemistry-ing for me personally (at least not all the time) and the emotional scenes felt very hollow, also this might sound like me nit picking but Kyoya trying to cry and ultimately failing is kinda hilarious, same could be said for Kosuke, A for effort tho.


Production wise the bgm was nice, the styling was very much up my alley and the settings were very beautiful, the camera work was a bit shaky and the angles a tad bit off but all in all the production wasn't bad.


So in conclusion, this wasn't a terrible watch so to speak, but I feel like this appeard to be much more interesting in the trailers, would I rewatch it? Not willingly, no. Would I recommend it to others? If they're very bored and this happens to be something they might like then sure, who knows, they might like it more than I did. And with that, my two cents on this series have been dropped into the pile, please excuse how incoherent and disjointed this review might be but I'm very much out of practice here and was quite sleepy while writing it, hope you have a nice watch.
Have a good day/evening everyone.



P.s: Very unrelated but I can't be the only one who thought that Kyoya looks so much like Pond who plays Wang in 180 DLPTU, it took me a couple of hours to realise who he reminded me of, probably because of how very sleep deprived I am currently but yeah, I couldn't help but notice the similarity.

Citeste mai mult

A sweet ending to a beautifully done series

!!Disclaimer¡¡
This review is based on my personal opinion. It is not meant to encourage/discourage you from watching. Please feel free to agree/disagree with it. This is going to be quite a lengthy review, it also might contain a lot of spoilers so if you're not into that go ahead and skip reading it.


Ok, first of, let me start off by saying that this series has officially made me fall in love with Thailand and its absolutely gorgeous nature. I've seen the bts of this series and I want to give all the people behind this amazing series a big hug for their amazing work. Although there were some parts of the plot that didn't make sense and made my head spin a little, I was able to ignore these little things because the positives outweighed the negatives in this one so thank you GMMTV, for not ruining this one.


Story/plot :
Let me say this first, as someone who has not read the novel and only discovered this drama a couple of months ago, I didn't know what to expect from it, and I literally just dove in headfirst (which is a rarity since I don't like going in blind) and I must say that it really exceeded my expectations and left me feeling very much contented. The script was written really well and you could really feel the efforts put into it. The way they presented each scene and how they introduced each character was very good and I'm more than happy with it. The series tells the story of Tian, a rich college student with a terminal illness who gets a second chance at life after undergoing a heart transplant surgery. While still unconscious, he dreams a strange dream and upon waking up, is curious about who was his heart's donor. His parents try to conceal the identity of the donor from him but he finds out anyway after secretly looking at his medical file. He tries to know more about his donor who turns out to be a woman named Torfun, a volunteer teacher at a remote village, and discovers that her death was caused by an accident. He gets hold of her diaries and after reading it, decides to become a volunteer teacher at the same village she was in and finish what she had started. While there he struggles to adapt to the very unfamiliar environment and the very closed people of said village, while hiding Torfun's death and his identity from the villagers. There, he meets Phupa, the chief of a group that protects the village, who helps him adapt with the help of a few friends as he aides and protects him while he teaches the kids of the village. Phu and Tian start off on the wrong foot but they slowly start to get closer and eventually fall in love, but as time goes by and the closer Tian gets to Phu and the villagers, his secret starts weighing on him and it leads him into dangerous situations, and eventually he reveals his secret and faces the consequences of it. That is a very summed up version of the plot.
When I first watched the trailer for it, I was very skeptic about how such situation would be portrayed considering it is not your usual romantic drama nor is it college/school life originated. However, I was pleasantly surprised with the final results. The way they presented the difference between social classes, the importance of money and influence in our modern society, and how someone's life can change in the span of a day was very believable, so a big shout out to the screen writer and the creators for this great plot.
Now that we've got that out of the way, let's talk about some of the very minor plot-holes that really annoyed me personally. How on earth did no one ask for Tian's last name? How was Doc able to get hold of all this information on Tian? Isn't that illegal? Why did Phu have to out Tian like this? Was it really necessary? And a few other things. I really wanted to give the plot a perfect rating, but these very small details really bothered me so I had to deduct 2.5 stars from the final rating, but apart from that, the plot was very unique and I enjoyed it very much.

Acting/cast:
Every single actor was gorgeous. I really loved the cast and I think everyone did a really great job in playing their own character. I loved the main couple and their chemistry throughout the show and I really liked how everyone interacted with each other. The supporting cast on this series is one of my favourite supporting characters of any Thai drama out there ( especially Lhongtae, Khama and Tul) BUT, I must say I did dislike some characters (like Tian's mother and his friends back home expect for of course, Tul) and I found them really annoying tbh. But yeah, with that out of the way, let's move onto our main characters.

~Tian: A
Mix is an amazing actor and I'm honestly really shocked that this is his first time acting, like I'm legit stunned by this fact. The way he played his role and how he brought Tian's character to life is fantastic and I'm officially in love with him. I must admit, I did dislike how his character's personality lacked in some aspects and how he acted in some situations. But yeah apart from that, I really liked his character and I think he did an amazing job in portraying it. Also, mad respect for Mix since he continued filming even though he was very tired and fainted eventually from exhaustion. Also also, can we talk about Tian coming out as gay instead of him going with the usual overused "I'm not gay I just like this guy" line? Cuz whoever is behind that scene needs a freaking raise cuz FINA-FREAKING-LLY!!

~Phupa: A
I have seen Earth act before in LBC and I honestly didn't really like his portrayal of Type back then. However, I think the role of chief Phupa really suits him and he does an amazing job in portraying him. I loved how his stoic face completely differs from his gentle and caring personality. What I didn't like tho is how they removed the part where Doc tells Tian that Phu is gay (I heard it was a scene in the novel and was really excited for it) and how he acted irrationally in episode 8, contrary to his usual self, which resulted in me being kinda disappointed and angry at him and doc for a while, but I got over it eventually. It did irk me tho so I had to point it out. But that aside, I really liked his character and I'm very proud of EarthMix.


Music/soundtrack:
I'm officially obsessed with the soundtrack. This series has one of the most beautiful soundtracks in the history of Thai dramas imho. I loved the ost, especially Aye's version of it and I loved how the soundtrack fit in and how it enhanced the overall feeling of the episodes. They really outdid themselves with this one ngl.


Production:
Two words, true effort. That's it. When I tell you I was stunned by the amount of effort put into this, I literally mean it. The fact that they literally built everything from scratch and it took them 3 years to make this speaks for itself. So hats off to everyone involved making this masterpiece, you guys rock.


Product placement:
The product placement in this was surprisingly decent. It wasn't great and you could tell that some scenes were filmed in certain ways to advertise some products, but it wasn't that excessive or bothersome. And they didn't try to cram in that many products in one episode like other shows did (yes, I'm looking at you 2gether).


And finally, if you've read this far, hats off to you! Thank you for sitting through this long ass review. You're a beautiful, kind, great person and I really appreciate your patience.
My final thoughts on this show is that it was a very nice rollercoaster of emotions lol. I loved the pacing and how natural it felt and I really liked the message that this series is trying to send, I'm also a big fan of the little quotes at the end of each episode. I'm honestly really liking the new Thai BLs coming out lately, I really like how they're slowly breaking the mold and starting to relate to real life a tiny bit more. And with that being said, I hope other people like it as much as I did and I highly recommend giving it a try, cuz even if you don't really like the storyline or the characters , you'll at least like the gorgeous scenery and sets of this series.


P.s: I know that Torfun really effected the villagers and that everyone really loved her, but the fact that they kept bringing her up was really insensitive of them. I also really disliked how Phupa wasn't the one to break the news to the people and how he and everyone around him, kept comparing Tian to Torfun, it really annoyed me tbfh....

Citeste mai mult

If your pet best friend came back from the dead

(╭☞•́⍛•̀)╭☞ Disclaimer:

This review is based on my personal opinion/experience while watching, it's not meant to persuade you or change your opinion/thoughts on this series, you're free to agree/disagree with it.


Fine, I admit it, the thought of your dead pet coming back to life as a human is both the most amazing and terrifying thing you would ever experience, the absurdity of the situation is off the charts, but that aside, you cannot tell me that we didn't all wish for that to happen at some point. Sure, we wouldn't want our puppy to come back as a handsome beefy guy, but the idea of having your best friend back even if it's just for a couple of minutes is really intriguing and exiting. As someone who knows the pain of loosing your furry friend all too well, this was both heart warming and sad for me, romance and comedy aside, this show portrayed the feelings we experience when we loose someone or something precious impeccably well, the never ending spiral of what ifs and should'ves, feeling like this was our fault because we didn't notice the signs, even the small moments where we call out for them only to realise they wouldn't answer, all were shown very well. I don't necessarily believe in an afterlife, but the idea of my puppy running around happily and watching over me from somewhere in the sky sounds very nice to me, it makes it less hard on me when I miss him or when I see my pictures with him so I really appreciate that conversation between Jungwoo and Choco when he asked him to leave, that being said, the way they showed how Jungwoo was dealing with grief and their absence and the emptiness we feel coming back home and not finding our dog or cat running to great us at the door was just fabulous and I applaud whoever was behind this plot, even if the thought of romancing your dog weirds me the f out, I loved this nonsensical fluffy take on this heavier topic. The ChocoMilk dou's shenanigans were the best, I laughed my ass off at their back an forth and their chaotic energy when they're put together.


Acting wise, I fell in love with both the cast and characters, the casting was very good, too good actually, especially for that of Choco and Milk, I find myself forgetting that these are humans sometimes, they made me believe that they are a cat and a dog inhabiting human bodies and not actual reincarnated souls. At first, I was very iffy about the romance, and I had a hard time getting behind the ChocoJungwoo pairing, I had to completely disregard the fact that Choco is originally a dog for me to enjoy his moments with Jungwoo and their lovestory, for the uncle and Milk, not so much, maybe because they didn't have the pet owner relationship but yeah, they were a lot easier to digest and let their story into my brain when I told myself that these two are not pets anymore, even if their behaviour and mannerism said otherwise. The little side story with the ex was really nice, I was thrilled to see a relationship that ended on good terms for once, no obsessive horrible ex boyfriend, no toxic relationship, no cheating, it was the definition of right one wrong time, Jongwoo's ex is a wonderful breath of fresh air and I really enjoyed how they concluded that chapter of their story. My favourite character was definitely Milk, I was slightly bummed that we didn't see as much of his perspective but I really appreciated it in episode 10 so the show gets a pass for this one but yeah, Kim Seonghyeok did fantastic in this role and I really look forward to his future projects.


BGM wise, the music used was honestly some of my favourite from any series. It had that nostalgic melancholic vibe to it when needed and the upbeat fun tone when the mood shifted. The product placement was hilarious but not in a bad way, also, the food lowkey made me hungry, except for that sad sad popcorn in episode 8, it looked like it was dunked in water and thrown in a bowl and served.


All in all, this was an absolute delight to watch, it's very entertaining and funny all while handling a heavy topic quite well, was it perfect? No, but was it a really good watch? Hard yes. Watching this one episode at a time is impossible, once you start you won't be able to stop, it's one of the most bingeable miniseries ever, I highly recommend it especially if you don't know what to watch and want something short and sweet to pass time, and if you're like me and have gone through the loss of your pet whether a long while back or more recently, this series will put a smile on your face and it will hopefully make it a little easier to cope with their absence.
Enjoy your watch everyone.

Citeste mai mult

I'm seriously questioning my sanity after this lol

I advice you to strap on your seatbelts cuz boy this is 'bout to be a long ass rant.


¡¡Disclaimer!!
This review is based on my personal opinion/experience while watching, you are free to agree/disagree with it.


First of all, lemme start with saying that this series made no sense whatsoever imho, like at all. HOWEVER, despite the somewhat infuriating ending for some characters (I'm not spoiling it lol) and the weird writing on that script, I absolutely adored this series for some mysterious reason.


Story/Plot :
If y'all are going in, expecting some deep complex plot, than this is not the series for you, just move onto another one. In all honesty, I really couldn't make out what the main plot was in here at first cuz the pacing and the editing didn't make that much sense to me. But the plot summed up is basically two guys who didn't know they were gay (or at least one of them didn't I think?) Started off on the wrong foot and eventually became lovers with a bunch of side characters sprinkled here and there, some of which I absolutely adored and some I couldn't stand to look at. The first few episodes were really off putting but it gets kinda better afterwards. There isn't really much depth to the plot, especially in the beginning but it gets kinda dark by the last 2-3 episodes so I guess it has...some......depth? Idk man, I just couldn't decipher what I was watching after a while lmao, but I guess some plots aren't meant to be that deep. Like seriously, the director could've changed the plot mid production and you literally won't realize because it was just the two main leads' daily life and interactions and how it led to the confession, then you have a bit of their life as a couple, the "issue" on ep 11, the finale, and then the credits roll.


Acting/Cast :
I'll start off with my thoughts on the cast in general. I personally liked the cast and I really liked the main couple. The side characters were good, especially Sky's family and Kim (goddamn how I wish I had a kim in my life lol) also, you know when an actor/actress had done their job in portraying the villain/antagonist when you hate the character they're portraying. I absolutely hated Moira(?) (we weren't spared from the ex-lover who doesn't know when to back off trope sadly) and Ace's Dad (whom I didn't bother to remember his name lol) but yeah, overall I liked watching how our main couple interacted with the other characters and was quite amused for the most part.
Now, onto the main point in this section, our main couple. The relationship between those two and Ace's character in the first 3-4 episodes didn't make sense at all, BUT, I would say that it got better after episode 4. Now let's talk about the chemistry between those two. Holy smokes the chemistry was through the ceiling! *cough* especially *cough* *cough* episode 11 *cough*, but the way they go from almost zero flavor to off the charts, steaming sweet cakes, face sucking vacuums cracks me up in all honesty. But anyhow, the actors did great considering the weird script that was presented to us as the final product.


Music/soundtrack :
Not much to say here, the music and ost were ok, not that great, but still quite cute. Some bgm did get on my nerves tho but that was me, you might enjoy it more than I did so there's that.


Production:
For a series that was done on somewhat of a low budget, this one has done quite well. They really did try to utilize every bit of their limited budget to the max so hats off to the production team!


Product placement:
Gmmtv's 2gether ain't got nothing on this one lol. They legit use a new bar of soap for everytime they shower and the way they had Sky's brother, Ken, promote products through his yt channel was kinda funny, still a better way for promoting tho lol.


And finally after all this looong long rant, you might be wondering, why do a lot of people like it if it's this messy? Well let me tell ya...... I have no clue why. Is this series great? No not necessarily. Is the storyline all over the place? You better believe it is, it also had me scratching my head here and there....yet somehow I couldn't bring myself to hate it, I just found it really amusing and I literally binge watched it in one day (that says a lot about me as a person hahahaha...ha) but anyway, it's literally like what another reviewer said, a guilty pleasure no one would admit to liking.


P.s: you might lose a few brain cells while watching so be prepared lol. I'm also writing this review while half asleep so sorry if my thought process ain't that coherent.

Citeste mai mult

Where life leads to at the end of the day

If you're looking for a slice of life/relatable series where you can sympathize with everyone despite not agreeing with everything they've done or are doing, you've come to the right place. Moonlight chicken is the perfect portrayal of how we go through each stage of our lives and how vastly different each stage is, how our mindsets change and our outlook on life differs as we grow older, how generation gaps affect our relationships with our families and the people around us, how complicated human relationships are and how sometimes, life just doesn't go the way we expect it to.

The cast did wonderful each in their respective role with the exception of Earth who I feel like was casted as the ML simply because fans wanted to see him and Mix paired up again. Don't get me wrong, I adore his acting and he definitely tried his best, but you cannot tell me this man is anywhere over 30, sorry that's not happening, at best he could be 35. I literally had to ignore Jim's age every time it was mentioned (which happened quite often for some goddamn reason) so as to not take myself out of the story, they did try to age him up a bit with styling and the lighting, but they could only do so much with someone who borderline looks like he'd appear in Forbes magazine for 30 under 30, also, hot take but I low-key high-key didn't want Wen and Jim to get together that quickly, Wen wasn't in the right space of mind for a new relationship, especially not after coming out of one that lasted as long as his and Alan's did and had eventually ended on such note, they could've gone with something similar to ATOTS and had them be separated for a while, cross paths after a couple of years and then start their relationship, but apart from that, I liked their relationship when it actually turned into one, which reminds me, GMMTV, why haven't First and Mix been paired up for a project yet? These two have so much potential to be the next great pairing (no offense to the EarthMix and FirstKhao fans, I love these pairings too, but I really wanna see them shine individually more and be partnered up with others too). Honestly First is such an amazing actor, I'm constantly in awe of this man's talent, same could be said about Khaotung who should've been given a bigger role, such small role is an injustice to such talent, and as someone who hasn't started MSP and didn't really know anything about FourthGemini, I've officially adopted this dou and will be binging every single piece of content they come out with.

These are my two cents on this series for now, I contemplated whether I wanted to write an in depth review like I usually do with series that I enjoy or just write down some of my "clearer" and more prominent thoughts on it like I've been doing recently, but I decided to go with the latter simply because I'm still not too sure about what I feel about certain aspects of this series, I might come back and re-review it later, but for now I'll make do with this much, I advise new viewers to check out other reviews and decide for themselves how they feel about this mini series, hope y'all have a nice time watching it.
Have a good night/day everyone.

Citeste mai mult

A parody's worth of ridiculousness

!!Disclaimer¡¡
This review is based on my personal opinion/experience while watching. You're free to agree/disagree with it.


Where do I even start here? I'm not entirely sure what the purpose of such plot was. And in all honesty, you can't do much with this type of ideas as it isn't really something realistic nor is it logical because while I did find myself enjoying some parts, I was literally just going "huh?" at almost everything else, regardless, I don't regret watching it as I really like the cast and I watched it solely for them, the plot however, is legit like something out of a wattpad or ao3 novel. It was all over the place, and sometimes the plot just seemed to vanish(?) in a sense. The whole idea of a guy going undercover as his sister so his family name won't be tarnished and her marriage ruined is just really bizarre to me, like, I have way too many questions and way too little answers, why did home girl wait till her wedding day to pack up and yeet? Why didn't she just refuse to get married? Couldn't she just ask her dad to somehow break off the engagement? Why didn't she inform the poor guy of how she felt? How come only him and his dad had seen her before this whole mumbo jumbo happened? How on earth did the dad just agree to sending his son in her place? In what world would that work?......etc.
Almost nothing made sense in here, not even the weirdly forged love triangle. It was just so in your face it was honestly hilarious. I did like the parts with the second main lead tho, his persistence made me SnORt. Also the fact that our main leads didn't show prominent feelings for each other until maybe the ends made me laugh harder than it should have. So, is it some great masterpiece? Nah, more of a messy draft of some fanfic. Is the plot that bad? In some ways it it, but it was unintentionally funny (at least to me) so can't fault them for that.

For the characters/cast I just wanna ask one thing, was there even a script here? Cuz it sure as hell didn't feel like it. It's like the director went "alright, I need you guys to pretend like you're some chaebols from ancient korea and just improvise the rest" when they started filming. I didn't understand the motives behind anything the characters did or said, it was always just confusing to me. The actors did their best to make this.....whatever this is work sooooo yeah, cast/characters : a solid 6 and that's me being kinda generous.

For the soundtrack, I honestly have no opinion on it. Nothing special about it cuz there was literally one ost throughout the whole thing so.....yeah.

In conclusion, this isn't a show to be taken seriously, more of an hour worth of unintended comedy. The show wasn't made to be funny, but the amount of flaws in it and the sheer ridiculousness of the situation the whole plot is revolving around made it feel like a circus show or some parody of some sort lol. So, do I advice against watching it or do I encourage giving it a try? I say if you have nothing better to do and you're looking for something to laugh at, give it a watch, but if you're looking for a serious series with lgbtqa+ themes I suggest you don't cuz you'll be disappointed.

Citeste mai mult

How on earth did this series pass china's censorship?

¡¡Disclaimer!!
I'm writing this review from personal perspective. It is not meant to encourage/discourage you from watching. This is going to be quite a lengthy review so if you're not into that go ahead and skip reading it.


Why did I postpone watching this for this long? This is by far one of the best chinese series I've ever watched. Like literally there was barely anything that I've hated while watching. I've seen quite a few reviewers complaining about the lighting/props and styling/acting/plot changes....etc, and while I understand where they're coming from and I do agree with a lot of what they had pointed out, I can't help but disagree with a few things.


Story/plot:
I'll talk about the romance in here for the most part cuz there's more to point out in this side than there is in the plot as a whole.
For those who didn't know, this is originally a same-sex relationship type of novel. While the drama stayed true to the novel for the most part, the script and plot were changed quite a bit to pass the chinese censorship policy because china sadly has some (unreasonable) issues with lgbtq+ content being aired/advertised so they removed the love confession and a lot of the intimate parts. For me, this is probably my favorite version, and that's probably because I'm not that keen on skinship or sexual themes in romances, so this drama was very much up my lane especially since there was no kissing or any of the very touchy feely scenes. Some people didn't like this adaptation because of the absence of straightforward romance between WWX and LWJ, people mostly referred to it [their relationship] as platonic rather than romantic (to which I disagree) so having said this, a lot of people rated the plot a bit low for that reason. I personally think the director was playing with fire while making this, like I legit can't comprehend how this show passed the censorship policy. This did a good job in portraying how love doesn't need kissing and/or sex to be romantic/true, and the chemistry between the two leads was definitely there throughout the second quarter of the show all the way till the last episode. While most people couldn't see the very obvious signs/actions pointing at their relationship being a same-sex romance, I couldn't help but giggle at those very same actions/gestures and their meanings (LWJ tying his headband on WWX wrist, the ost literally being named wangxian, LZ giving WY two chickens/roosters while he was drunk, LZ letting his hair down while with WY, WY riding the donkey while LZ leads it.....etc) having pointed that out, the only reason that I could think of for this show to get the pass is that the one who gave them that pass was secretly an lgbtq+ supporter.
Now with that out of the way, let's move on to the plot as a whole. There were a few plotholes here and there (e.g. where was WY in the last 16 years? What happened to his parents exactly? What happened to LZ and ZJ's dad? Why did SL lose his eyes?) And I couldn't help but wonder why these aspects of the plot were left unexplained/unaddressed but apart from that, I really liked the plot and I could immediately tell who was the mastermind of everything (I won't spoil who but his very innocent act and the way he behaved was a dead giveaway and I'm not talking about JGY lol)


Acting/cast:
I had a love-hate relationship with the acting and cast and I'll get to why later but I'll rate the actors for the leading roles' work first.
~Xiao Zhan: A
I really liked his portrayal of WWX and I think he embodied the character surprisingly well. I honestly believe he did slightly better than yibo in terms of expressing his emotions and getting into character. I was a bit dubious at first about his abilities and if he'll do the character justice or not, but I was pleasantly surprised so, props to him for that.
~Wang Yibo: A-
A lot of people seemed to dislike his acting in the very beginnings, calling it emotionless and whatnot, but they all seem to forget that LWJ's character is exactly like this given the way he was raised and how he was treated, so I think yibo did pretty well in portraying him. He did a very decent job considering both him and zhan were not even actual actors but idols, so props to him too. I also applaud him for trying his best even tho he had quite a few trips to the hospital while filming.
I personally think that the casting was pretty good, especially the females' casting cuz those were probably my favorite thing in the whole show. What I didn't like tho, was that some actors seemed to struggle to get into character and how some extras looked so out of place especially during fighting scenes, hence the two stars that I've dropped from the rating. Also, I have to say that the best male actor among all those actors (for me at least) was Yu Bin. Like I literally die everytime WN is on screen and I can't gush enough about how adorable his character was.


Music:
The music was everything. I have nothing to complain about in here and I'm literally obsessed with the soundtrack on this, part of that comes from the fact that I don't have any specific preferences sound wise, if I like an audio then I like it, regardless of the genre of the music so from beginning to end, the bgm and osts were a hit.


Production/props/styling:
Ok, here's the downside of this drama (and almost every other xianxia/wuxia adaptation) the props and the sets are quite low quality. The styling on this one in all honesty wasn't that great either. The lighting in some parts was very awkward and the contrast/saturation was a bit of an issue in here. The angles of the camera were kinda funny in some parts, and the way they had the characters flying around like they're doing the naruto run midair was hilarious. But since I've gotten used to these loopholes in chinese historical dramas, it didn't bother me as much cuz I've sadly seen way worse. What bothered me the most was the random bleeding/spitting blood and the very wobbly swords given to the extras and some side characters. Also the fact that sometimes the weapon doesn't even graze them and they drop dead had me cracking up so many times.


All in all, this series was a huge step forward for chinese series/dramas in terms of portraying a same-sex relationship. And considering that it is going to take quite a while for china to become more open to stuff like this, I believe they're going in the right direction for now. I must admit, I was a bit skeptic about how this was gonna turn out taking into consideration the fact that the original novel was big on the romance part and that the two leading roles were given to amateur actors, but I still found myself enjoying their interactions, the very little touches and the way their eyes expressed everything. And finally, I definitely recommend giving it a try, and if you can get past the low quality in designing and props, you'll quite enjoy the show.


P.s: I liked JC's character in here way more than in the novel/donghua for some reason, they made him a slightly better person/brother and his personality was definitely more likeable. Also, I'm still mad that WQ and JYL died in the novel and all adaptations, but I also can't imagine them staying alive for some reason so I'm a bit confused here lol.


Edit: so I edited the part where it said that MDZS is a BL because it has been bothering me way too much tbh, I feel like saying that it's a BL is selling it short and isn't really befitting for such a masterpiece. This has exceeded the realm of BL and ventured into a completely different level of greatness. You rarely stumble upon such magnificent storyline and absolutely stunning characters, more importantly, this is not just a romance-originated storyline, it's much more than that, it's fricking god tier levels of genius complexity and beautiful simplicity simultaneously. MXTX is really just that great and for any fans of The Untamed, I recommend you read the original novel and check out the author's other works, cuz their work is just *chef's kiss* so yeah, I really advice y'all to read their novels. Also, I recommend the audio drama and the donghua, especially the latter cuz let me tell ya, the animation is just otherworldly and it's definitely less censored than the drama. But the audio drama? HOLY turnips that one yeeted censorship all the way into burial mounds lol, so I definitely encourage giving them a watch.

Citeste mai mult

A unique series with a newer approach to BL

¡¡Disclaimer!!
This review is not meant to encourage/discourage you from watching. It is simply based on my personal opinion/experience while watching.


This is probably one of my favorite Thai bl series out there, definitely not THE best series but it's up there, for me at least. This is honestly such a breath of fresh air. While it might have had it's flaws it was still way better than most of the Thai series I have seen so far that are rated R and that says a lot in itself.


Story/plot :
Departing from the usual school/collage life story line, the story is about a doctor, bunnkit, who moves to this little town that he used to live in when he was younger, and is immediately hit with the mysterious case of his childhood friend, janejira, whom he believes was murdered and that her case wasn't just suicide. The first suspect, whom bun seemed to develop an attraction to, is jane's coworker and close(?) friend, Tan. The two don't seem to get along at first with tan being the very mysterious and dark guy which resulted in bun being overly suspicious of him. One night, bun is attacked and threatened by someone to conceal the truth about jane's death being a murder, to which he refuses to do and insists on digging deeper into this case. The police decides to conclude the case as suicide, so bun starts investigating on his own with the help of tan, who's trying to prove his innocence. The two uncover a bigger scheme going farther than jane's death and into the territories of human trafficking, illegal sex and drug use all being done by the least suspicious people (who were kinda obvious? Idk it just seemed so obvious to me who the villains were since the very beginning) and as time goes by the two form a very strong bond which later blossoms into deep love and trust. This is , very roughly, the summed up plot, I have emitted the biggest spoilers from this summary as I didn't want to take out the fun and mystery of this series. Now, onto my thoughts on the plot. This is by far one of my favorite plots of any BLs (the untamed, of course, being fisrt place, followed by color rush, where your eyes linger and nowmanner of death being my newly formed guilty pleasure) despite lacking in the delivery of some parts and the unanswered questions left hanging out there. I'm a huge sucker for mystery/thriller/medical related shows and this honestly is such a big step forward for Thai BLs plot wise, and I'm really looking forward to similar concepts in the future. Now what I didn't seem to enjoy about this, was the way the case was handled, like some things dragged on for way too long and one of the antagonists' ending (I'm not saying who) really irritated me because Ik shit like this doesn't actually happen irl, but yeah, this was my biggest problems regarding the plot. There were many things that didn't make sense and some things where really predictable but not in a good way sooo, yeah, I kind stopped paying attention to the plot after a while lmao.


Acting/cast:
I must admit I had never seen any of max's or tul's works before so I didn't know what to expect from them. I wouldn't say they were that great at execution, especially max who seemed awkward/stiff in some scenes, but regardless, they played their characters surprisingly well and the tension and chemistry between them was pretty good. The character whom I have, surprisingly, found myself falling in love with was doctor fai I believe her name was? Although she was such a minor role I just couldn't help but fangirl over her and I just really liked her character's personality. The characters that I have hated the most were rungtiva and peud, no surprise in that, their actors did very well in portraying them. Overall the acting was good, not that great but definitely better than average.



Music:
The music sadly was kinda forgettable for me so I had to rate it kinda low, so to any fans of the music, I'm sorry lol. It just didn't grab my attention and I couldn't find myself enjoying it as much as I thought I would so, yeah there's that


Production:
They've put quite the thought into this one so props to them for investing in it and making it into the final product. I don't have much to say here honestly sooooo, yeah.


In conclusion, this is a really good series and I actually really enjoyed watching it. I will say tho, I rated it a bit higher than it deserves because honestly I'm not a fan of romances which include sexual themes, I'm more of the very subtle romance but I do like stepping out of my comfort zone every once in a while, so instead of rating it lower because of my very specific preferences, I gave it an extra star. Whew! This was long, sorry if you had to read this till the end lol, I'm writing this with my eyes half closed cuz I'm really exhausted so I apologize if my english looks like gibberish instead.

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HOW in the seven hells did I end up here?

!!DISCLAIMER/WARNING¡¡
This review is based on my personal opinion/experience while watching, you're free to agree/disagree with it.
If you are under the age of 17 or suffer from PTSD/Anxiety disorder, please refrain from watching it as it is very explicit and contains r@pe, some BDSM related scenes, heavy implications of Stockholm syndrome, mentions of death and attempted su¡cide. With that being said, my review is NOT meant to encourage/discourage you from watching in any way, shape or form, this is just my opinion/advice so you're definitely not obligated to agree with it or to take it to face value.


Holy hell, this was the longest disclaimer that I've ever written in my entire life, however, it is definitely not unnecessary or uncalled for. This movie is definitely NOT for the faint of heart and I honestly highly advice against watching it, mostly because of how hardcore and unsettling it is and how very uncomfortable I felt throughout the whole thing so, yeah I very obviously didn't like it, I'm gonna try to keep this brief because honestly, I don't even have the capacity to write a full on review like I usually do so yeah, this review is more of a rant rather than a review, and with that outta the way, let's proceed with this "rant".

>The plot was all over the place and the beginning of the movie were very iffy. I had to pause it not even 20 minutes in from how uncomfortable it made me feel.
>The acting wasn't great and it fell flat in some scenes. None of the actors stood out to me and the script just felt hollow. Ik some people liked this movie and ik that it has its audience, but god the script just felt very meh, like they tried to throw in too many different things at the same time it just ended up in a mess.
>the music was almost none existent and the bit of music thrown here and there felt very odd especially when it's paired with such visuals.
>the production was surprisingly good, the overall vibe and the lighting definitely stole the show here lol, I will say tho, the transitioning between scenes confused me a little but yeah, I really hope it was just me here.


And yeah, these are my two cents on this movie. I apologize for not being able to give more insight on this but I seriously don't have the energy to do so, you can read other people's opinions on this if you want more info on this matter. I hope you won't be traumatized after watching it too. Thank you to anyone who was able to stick around to read this unhelpful "review" and decided against throwing rocks to my head lol, really appreciate it.

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Meet me at the pride parades in China

(╭☞•́⍛•̀)╭☞ Disclaimer:
This review is not meant to change your opinion nor discourage/encourage you to watch, it's simply my personal opinion and you're free to agree/disagree with it.

Damn it's been a hot minute since I typed this disclaimer but hey it's not about me here it's about the series.
Let me preface this review by saying I'm not going to actually review this series yet, mainly because my opinion of this drama is highly influenced by the social and political significance this series holds regarding the lgbtq+ community in china and the loopholes the company/creators had to go through in order to come out with this drama, so for now, this "review" isn't going to be my actual thoughts on this drama as a drama.
Now, some of you might be confused about my overall rating not matching the rating for the different sections in this review, and I can tell you there's a legitimate excuse for this, and that being that this is the first explicitly lgbtq+ chinese content we've had in years. I'm sure many will find my reasoning for this rating very superficial/illogical, but I've mentioned this in a comment before and I'll say it here again, this isn't about the series anymore, this is about the chinese lgbtq+ community finally getting something after years of being oppressed and deprived of representation in their own media. This series is by no means an Emmy worthy project, but it's hopefully the first of many future stepping stones for the chinese entertainment industry. Throughout the years, we've had some pretty dang good shows/movies coming out in this genre, but the number of chinese lgbtq+ series has dwindled down to almost 0 no thanks to the dreadful ban, and the magic of the wuxia/xianxia genre has sorely been missed in these productions, so to see a chinese gay costume drama after all these years (irregardless of the fact that this is co produced by multiple countries) has basically been the highlight of my media consumption this year, after all, we all need to start somewhere, the start most definitely isn't perfect, but at least it's a start and the writing and acting in future projects will definitely improve as more companies start taking up such projects (keeping my fingers crossed we'll get more in the future) so yeah, until more projects come out, my rating for this drama will remain high, I'll come back to edit this review to include my actual thoughts on this drama once more shows/movies come out (again, really clinging onto hope here).
Before I conclude my little rant, I would like to add something. As I had stated in my disclaimer above, this review is not meant to sway your opinion, you absolutely don't have to take it to face value, but if you encounter any reviewer overly praising this show, I would hope you would keep these points I've listed above in mind for the time being.
And with that, I rest my case, I hope my review doesn't come off as pressuring or nonsensical for any viewer who genuinely didn't or don't enjoy this series (I'm most certain your reasons are valid because quite frankly, this series has been walking on reeaally thin ice plot/acting wise, not to mention all the non con/dub con and thinly veiled toxicity it contains) and as for those who actually like this series, I hope your further endeavours in the genre continue to be joyful.
Enjoy your watch and have a lovely day/evening everyone <3

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It's cute......that's it

!!Disclaimer¡¡
This review is based on my personal opinion, it's not meant to encourage/discourage you from watching and you're definitely not obliged to agree/disagree with it.


To be fair, I had no expectations whatsoever for this and I literally watched this series for Holland because goddam I missed this guy. There really isn't much to say about it, it's cute, the scenery is nice, really liked holland's song, he definitely improved a lot music wise. There isn't enough material for me to write an actual in depth review so I'll just point out what stuck with me as I watched this with my brain on autopilot:

>I pretty much spent the first 4-5 episodes confused, I just couldn't find the plot anywhere people, and the weird time skips where sending me into reshuffling mode. The amount of plotholes is enough to form a literal underground mine. I have so many questions and zero answers, it's like the writer got drunk one night and like any reasonable drunk person with a great amount of brainpower, decided to write a script on a whim. I don't know what to say about this plot in all honesty, so plot gets a 5/10 and that's me being generous.

>Honestly, none of the actors stood out in this, their acting seemed so monotonous and lacked any actual personality, the chemistry between the two main leads felt off, there were a couple of moments here and there that made me smile, but the rest got a " 'k next " from me that's if it was able to elicit anything from me at all. If I had to pick the best out of the few characters we have, it would be the grandma who looked nothing like a grandma, her acting was *chef's kiss* super convincing, so much that my fried, chemistry crammed, sleep hazed brain cleared up in ten seconds, legit miraculous work y'all. On a serious note tho, I think Holland did ok considering the low budget this series had and the fact that this is his first series, he still has a lot of room for improvement, but honestly compared to the other almost expressionless main lead (who suddenly had a soul swap or something in the last 3 episodes) he had a bit more personality to his character.

>I'm actually surprised by the music choice for this, I liked most of the tracks used in it, especially "everything" by Roni bar hadas, such an underrated gem honestly.

>production wise, they were definitely working with a tight budget, the camerawork slightly sloppy in some places and the weirdly advertised soju was very interesting to put it mildly. The styling was ok, there were some uh "artistic" choices made and I'm not gonna comment on them cuz it's really not my place, everyone has their own personal style, regardless if I agree with it or not.


And that's basically it for this review. There's really not much to it, if you want something to pass time with but don't want anything that could eventually cause you to turn on the lightbulb in your head, this is for you, other than that, I don't really recommend it unless you want to discover some new nice songs, then then I do.

Ps: I wanted to add that I was kinda amused with the play on words here with naming the series <"바다" likes me> since 바다 was both the name of the main lead who was the inspiration for Tommy's song and the meaning of ocean in korean. I also liked that they casted Holland, an actual gay guy, for this role instead of dragging another straight one into it.

Ps2: I literally just realized that the main lead was Han Gi chan y'all, sir what happened to you? I Ioved you in where your eyes linger, what prompted this sudden change? Like, I can understand Holland's lack of delivery or skills, but to think I had to witness him like this? Damn this series is cursed or something.

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