We deserve to walk in the sun

This one got to me alright, it got me right in my queer little heart.
It's such a beautiful, tender, deeply realistic story about two people who love each other but who are boxed in by invisible social barriers. It sends a loud and clear message about equal rights and the challenges queer people and specifically queer couples are confronted with in everyday life. It addresses these topics unflinchingly but nevertheless with great sensitivity.
There are no tragic deaths to underscore the suffering queer people have to go through, instead the characters get to stand up and face their troubles directly. They get to protest and fight and lend each other strength by simply loving one another.
It's a simple tale of resilience and love, expertly told.
If there really is a sequel coming, I can't wait to see more.

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They did it again!

I've been on an absolute binge of these shorts lately and every time I think "Surely this time it'll but just okay, surely this time I won't enjoy it as much" and every time I'm proven wrong.
The production value of this little film is excellent, as always, and I really liked the music.
I also think that some full-length dramas could take notes on romantic and sexual chemistry from this, very much censored, movie. I mean at this point the subtext is not so much subtext and more just actual text, it's really fun to see just how much these productions toe the line of what the censors will allow.
In short I'd recommend watching this. It's four minutes of pure fun and sometimes that's all you need.

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Short, sweet, and to the point

Man, but I wish it had been longer. Usually I'm not one to bemoan the shortness of, well, short films, but with this one I really would have liked to see just a bit more.
It's a visually stunning little movie with the tarot and fortune telling theme woven into the story line flawlessly.
I really liked how it serves as a vessel to deliver the movie's core message: coming out is hard. Love is hard. But often it's worth fighting for.
That being said, I really wanted to see what the reactions were to the coming out. It seems like such an essential part of the story and it felt a bit dissatisfying for it to just be completely dropped like this at the end.
I'd still say it's worth watching this film. It's beautiful, it's sweet, and it doesn't shy away from letting it's protagonists kiss like so many other shows and movies do.
All in all, this was five minutes well spent.

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Short, sweet, worth a watch

This is simply a lovely little roommate romance condensed into roughly 15 minutes.
It's a bit rough around the edges but it has that shoe-string budget charm going for it so I didn't really mind.
The characters are surprisingly easy to get attached to and the script, while it may not be a masterpiece of story-telling, gives them distinct personalities and quirks.
I also just thought quoting Chinese dramas at each other was cute, I'm easy to please, so what.
Until we get more actual full-length dramas starring queer women, these shorts will have to do and this one certainly makes the long wait easier to bear. Go give it a shot if you're curious, you might just like it.

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A little rough around the edges but still very enjoyable

I liked this one. It's a very simple, short story about reconnecting with someone who used to be important to you and is as such pretty much universally relatable.
The audio and editing are a bit choppy and the acting is a little rough at times, but given the short runtime they really managed to pace the movie well and tell the story they wanted to tell.
If you don't like the unpolished vibe of indie productions, this won't be for you, but if you're willing to overlook some superficial flaws I think you'll really enjoy this sweet little tale of young but enduring love.

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A gentle, understated film about humans endlessly, fiercely screaming and clawing for love

That's exactly what this movie is to me, a silent scream, a completely inaudible roar for love and happiness - and it is absolutely, unrestrainedly, beautifully joyous.

I love nothing more than quiet, profound explorations of the human condition (forgive my use of that pretentious phrase) so I already knew I was going to like this movie, but I had no idea just how much I'd love it.
It has fantastic writing, stellar performances from the entire cast, and the editing as well as the soundtrack (or more often the lack thereof) perfectly underscore the characters and their emotions and lend the film its distinctive, quiet atmosphere that lets it tell its story so effectively.

But more importantly than all that, this movie has things to say. About being human. About being happy. About love.
And is says these things in so many tender little moments that all build up to a big thundering shout, until every frame seems to scream about reaching for joy and happiness, about the clawing fight and the simple reaching out, about what it means to love someone, anyone at all, and why it is vital for us squishy, brittle, hungry humans to experience that love as the transformative force that it is and let it makes us bigger, and stronger, and kinder. About finding beauty and care and kindness in other people and allowing them to change you, but also about the kindness of being uncompromisingly yourself.
I could spend hours waxing lyrical about the wild joys and endless griefs of being human and why media exploring those themes is so valuable, and this movie certainly gave me ample opportunity for it, but I don't think that's necessary.

All I need to say is that if you like movies with authentic, believable characters, respectful yet unflinching exploration of queer topics, and heavy themes of love and joy and forgiveness and the journey the search for these things takes each of us on, then this movie is without a doubt perfect for you.
And if that doesn't sound like it'd appeal to you, I'd encourage you to watch it anyway; genuinely. There is so much to love about this film, so many wonderful ways it could be viewed, I think you might just end up loving it for a myriad of reasons that I didn't even touch on.
This is one of those films that makes your life slightly better for having seen it, so go watch it and give it the chance to do just that.

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Queer women, queer friendship, and a whole lot of charm

Finally, I've found it! A drama centering around queer women and their lives and actually has enough episodes to develop a story and allow the audience to really get to know the characters.
I really love this show. It's got great writing, amazing acting, and a sweet, uplifting story with an emphasis on how important community and safe spaces are not just for queer folk in general, but for queer women in particular.
You can absolutely tell that this show was written by queer people for queer people and I love it for that alone.
The story focuses on friendship rather than romance which I personally loved, but there are several tooth-rottingly sweet romantic subplots as well for all the rom-com lovers out there.
There really isn't all that much left I could say other than: This show is amazing, it's wonderfully charming, and just a plain joy to watch. I can't recommend it enough, go watch it already.

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Not for me, I'm sad to say

God, I feel really mean giving this show the lowest rating out of all the shows I've reviewed, but this just missed the mark so thoroughly for me.

I usually love slow-paced, character-focused stories with an emphasis on human connection and the varied queer experience, but personally I got none of that from this show.
I couldn't really connect with any of the characters, as sweet and harmless as they are.
The visuals and music were alright but nothing specifically stood out to me.
I didn't really like the pacing or any of the character arcs, they all just left me feeling indifferent at best and dissatisfied at worst.

But it's not like the show particularly does anything wrong either. Almost all of my gripes with it come down to taste and what didn't work for me might just be perfect to someone else.
And I'm really glad that this show seems to have a small but dedicated audience that clearly got a lot out of the story and really seem to love it with all their heart. It genuinely makes me happy to know this show is making someone's life a little better even if it did nothing for me personally

So if you like sweet, low-drama high school romances or Thai dramas that don't feel like an endless parade of product placements (not to rag on those types of shows too much, they've got their perks too) then I'd suggest giving this a shot.
There's clearly something worthwhile hidden in this show if some people adore it this much - who knows, maybe you'll find it even if I couldn't.

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A boss, an employee, and a whole lot of feelings

I wanted to love this one, I really did. I'm a sucker for a good office romance, but something about this just didn't hit quite right.
There isn't really any specific thing that's done wrong or any story-telling choices that I found offensive. Hell, I even quite liked the characters, especially Seo Ji Yeon. But despite it all, I just couldn't get into it.
Maybe it was the drunken kiss between the two leads (which I'd go so far as to call dub-con, despite how wholly consensual and reciprocal their relationship is afterwards) that put me off, or maybe it was Kim Jong Chan's somewhat exaggerated innocence.
Whatever the case, it simply didn't work for me.
If you're looking for a simple office romance with a happy (and admittedly very sweet) ending, you might find this an enjoyable way to spend 120 minutes. If you want something more complex then I'd give this one a miss.

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The colours! The needless melodrama! The genuine emotions!!

I had the time of my life with this show, let me tell you.
At first it intrigued me by taking an age-old soulmate trope (age-old to fanfiction writers anyway - thank you for your service, gentlefolk), giving it a bit of spit and polish, and turning it into an actual TV show.
Then it entertained me with its wonderful, over-the-top teen angst. When you're young all of your emotions are just way too big for your body to contain, every moment of joy is magnified, every failure evokes utter despair, and love... well, that feels just a little bit like the end of the world.
Really good stories know how to lean into this and provide thoughtful, realistic portrayals of youth that audiences of all ages can enjoy. Best-selling stories know how to take these emotions to their extremes and that's how you get delightful abominations like Twilight.
This show, I thought, is going to be gay soulmate Twilight and I am here for every ludicrous second of it!

But then, finally, the series completely hooked me by somehow being none and all of the above at the same time.
The plot is indeed something straight out of a fanfiction, but the general tone, pacing, and writing make it all seem fresh and new.
The characters and their emotions are intense, dramatic, and utterly, disarmingly sincere. Forget being shielded by a thick layer of sheer mirth, this show punched its way straight through all my silly, goofy expectations and demanded I actually care about its characters.
Yes, the story is still somewhat ridiculous and over-the-top, there's unresolved plot-threads galore, and most of the angst could have been avoided if only everyone involved just went to therapy.
But the characters feel real and there is such genuine care, love, and humour woven into the script it actually makes you sit up and listen. Someone clearly had a vision for this story, they knew what they were making and they pulled it off exactly as planned.
But why, why this combination of deep care and utter ludicrousness?
Well, to me it all starts to make sense if you consider the show as a parable. And I don't just mean the clear thematic metaphors of queer love and homophobia, though lord knows there's those as well.
No, I mean the drama as a whole. The vast and unfamiliar world we're thrust into and expected to accept unquestioningly. The extreme highs and lows of emotions, the hurried pacing, the picture-perfect happy ending, the COLOURS.
It's a parable, and a damn effective one at that, about fear and desire and a desperate, clawing search for love.
It teaches us that, though freedom, love, and identity can feel overwhelming and all-consuming if you've been deprived of them, there is nothing more important than opening yourself up to them anyway and that, once you do, you won't be swept away by some uncontrollable force, no, life just sort of... continues. It becomes ordinary, beautifully mundane even.

Maybe I'm reading to much into it all, maybe this really is gay soulmate Twilight and if you enjoy it that way, that's fine too.
But to me this is a really rather clever little drama which uses a highly stylised format to incisively analyse the terrors of love and desire from a distinctly queer viewpoint.
There are honestly endless ways to enjoys this series so give it a try - watch it and see, maybe you'll get something entirely different and unique out of the experience.

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A true genderqueer show? - Some thoughts from a trans person

Let me start off by saying I have extremely conflicting feelings about this one.
The production value is great, as is to be expected from most Taiwanese shows these days.
The casting is good as well, and the acting is honestly my favourite part of the entire thing and the biggest reason why I managed to watch until the end.

But none of that, to me, made up for the way this show approaches genderqueer people's lives and intersex people's experiences in particular. Now, I am not intersex myself so I recommend you take what I say with a grain of salt, but as a trans person myself I do think I am somewhat more qualified than the average viewer to judge the story's take on intersexuality and trans-ness as a concept.
I do highly commend the writers and producers for attempting to not only do something different from the average gay romance, but to address the struggles of a highly marginalised group of people that are almost never talked about in media.
But as good as I believe their intentions were, they completely missed the mark.

If we approach this show from the perspective that Amber is a trans man who, while he did get diagnosed as intersex, didn't claim that identity but rather chose to use the opportunity this diagnosis provided to start his transition, there are certain plot points that make a lot of sense.
Amber's family moving away, the endless doctor's appointments, the deliberate cutting off of all contact to his former friends, etc.
And there are, admittedly, one or two moments in the show that I really connected with. Amber tearing up over the orange cake he loved as a kid is a great portrayal of the complex, heartbreaking joy of a trans person reclaiming bits of their childhood that they thought they lost due to their transition.
But that's where the good ends. Nothing about the way Amber interacts with his friends and family, with his surroundings in general, and certainly nothing about the way his friends interact with him seems true to what life is actually like as a trans individual. Of course there is no singular, one-size-fits-all trans experience, but there is a difference between depicting an authentic trans character and depicting a character who is trans for plot reasons only.
The way Amber is constantly misgendered by the people around him after it's revealed that he is in fact Wen-Wen - that alone made me so deeply viscerally uncomfortable that I just can't feasibly imagine Amber as a trans man.
I know (since I was kindly informed by a commenter replying to this review) that this misgendering is due to choices the translators made, since in Mandarin there are no gendered pronouns, which does make it easier to stomach, but unfortunately still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Most international viewers (like myself) likely won't know about Mandarin pronouns and therefore have only the translations to go by and those, as previously stated, set an uncomfortable precedent.
This is not the show's fault by any means but should still be taking into consideration in my opinion.

So, the trans man theory is out. What else is there?
If we approach this show from the perspective that Amber is an intersex person who got diagnosed late in childhood rather than at birth, then there is an immediate, massive red flag that gets raised: the way Amber's transition is handled.
Yes, some intersex people choose to transition to a binary gender identity, but that doesn't erase the long, dark history intersex people have with the medical industry. To this day intersex children are often forced to transition to either male or female, mostly through surgical intervention - so-called "normalising procedures".
These experiences are extremely traumatising to the intersex people who go through them and the continued prevalence of such procedures is a clear human rights violation (and is even classified as such by the UN)
So the fact that Amber, who was forced to transition and repeatedly states how traumatic and agonising the entire process was for him, even if he is admittedly content with or at least indifferent towards his current gender identity as a man, has nothing but good things to say about the family who put him through such an ordeal and the show never so much as attempts to condemn forcible transitions, is at best a massive oversight on the show makers' part and at worst endorses the continued violence against intersex people.

I don't mean to sound inflammatory, but these issues are deeply serious. So even assuming that the show runners had nothing but good intentions, what their efforts resulted in is a show about sensitive queer issues written by people with little experience in such matters for an audience who are largely unfamiliar with these topics.
And while I do think that it is important for there to be shows about queer people's issues that are written to appeal to and be understood by non-queer audiences in order to educate them, this isn't one of those shows.

All in all I cannot in good conscience recommend this show. Yes, it has some good, even great, elements, but I believe that they are massively outweighed by its serious flaws. I'd suggest skipping this drama and, instead, looking for some genuinely thoughtful and well-researched stories about trans and intersex people. There aren't all that many, but they do exist and they are worth your time more than, I am sad to say, this show is.

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A cross-over that works

I actually really like this one! I know it's not what a lot of people imagined it would be, but personally I found it highly enjoyable nonetheless.
It gives the audience more Bad Buddy (my deeply, deeply beloved), perfectly recapturing the magic of Pat-Pran dynamic while incorporating it pretty seamlessly into the ATOTS universe, which is no mean feat considering how tonally and thematically different the two shows are.
It also helped soothe my anger over the last three ATOTS episodes a little by focusing once again on what made that show great to begin with: Tian, Phu, and their complicated relationships.

It's not perfect by a long shot, some of the plot points are fairly ridiculous and, much like in the original show, the ATOTS half of the special introduces an interesting theme (how small annoyances and miscommunications can put a heavy strain on a relationship, as well as Phu's self-worth issues concerning the relationship) which it then fails to follow through on.

All in all though I think these episodes work a lot better than I expected them to and they are definitely worth watching at least once.
The ending is also pretty damn delightful, if that helps sway you.

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Completely head over heels in love with this show

I cannot overstate the extent to which I adore this show. The first season was already fantastic, but season two has exceeded all of my expectations.
Without ever taking away from the comforting, delightful bond between Nomoto and Kasuga, this season introduces a range of new characters who each serve to further the story in their own unique ways.
In addition to further explorations of the importance of female friendship and the power of good food, season two also focuses on the exploration of queer identity and community, the difficult realities of living as a queer couple in modern day Japan, as well as the social and societal pressures and challenges women face in their day to day lives.
All told through the medium of bubbling hotpots and adorable desserts. Truly, it's magic.
I also greatly appreciate Nagumo's character and the different perspective on food and humans' complex relationship with it she provides.
Oh yeah, and did I mention there's ace rep now??
In short, just go watch the show already if you haven't, I'll be here on my hands and knees, begging and pleading for a season 3 in the meantime.

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A show that shoots for the sky - succesfully!

Oh but I adore this show! I expected to like it just fine, but I never would have thought I'd fall as head over heels in love with it as I did. Miracles upon miracles, it even made me start to care about basketball!

From the very first episode it's clear that this series is different from other Thai productions - the lighting and cinematography are absolutely gorgeous, the script is expertly written and feels true to life, and the pacing and editing are unique but utilised to their full effect.
I've seen a lot of people complain about the show's pacing and its use of time skips and while I understand why these choices weren't everyone's cup of tea, I personally think they worked perfectly and added a lot of nuance and depth to several important story-lines.
Even the sports aspects, which I expected to enjoy the least, are well thought-out and serve to establish and advance story and characters, as well as being very engaging to watch.

If I had to sum the atmosphere of the series up in three words I'd describe it as quiet, warm, and sincere.
Instead of comedy sound effects, we get an understated, often purely visual type of humour that I personally greatly enjoy.
Instead of dramatic plot twists and evil villains, we get a cast multi-faceted, flawed, yet deeply likeable characters whose personal journeys of growth drive the plot. There is no antagonist for the characters to go up against, there are no highly tragic outside circumstances they have to fight.
Any conflict stems from the characters' complex relationships - to themselves, to their dreams, to each other - which are all treated with an astonishing amount of care and respect.
Even the topic of cheating (a trope which I usually deeply dislike) is handled exceedingly well here without degrading or vilifying any of the characters involved.
Another thing this show excels in is its depiction of queerness. Instead of viewing its characters through a strictly hetero-normative lens and forcing them into rigid boxes and relationship dynamics, it depicts sexuality as something fluid and complicated. While it doesn't go into great detail on issues of homophobia or the complexities of labeling one's gender or sexuality and these topics clearly are not the show's focus, there is still a lot of care put into exploring the various difficulties young queer people face every day; from figuring out who you are, to coming out, to navigating a first relationship.
And of course there is Fluke - a trans character who breaks the mold by simply... being a whole, three-dimensional human being with their own goals, their own struggles, and their own personality. I won't lie, after the years and years of enduring trans characters depicted as nothing more than caricatures with no purpose other than providing comic relief, seeing someone like Fluke not only existing, but *thriving* was incredibly meaningful not just for me specifically, but for trans viewers in general.

So if you want a well-written, highly character-driven romance drama with beautiful camera-work, good music, and a whole host of lovable, authentically queer characters, then give this one a go.
I'd also recommend anyone who enjoys classic, sports-themed coming-of-age stories give this show a shot, I think you might just love it!

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