Daddy Love (2021)

Daddy love

Antes de tudo, sempre gosto de lembrar que as Filipinas entraram de cabeça nas produções BL na época da pandemia, antes do Covid-19, tinham pouquíssimas produções. Essa série em específico, é bem melhor do que boa parte das "séries de quarentena" produzidas nas Filipinas. Percebe-se que, apesar de não existir uma produção grandiosa, também não é das piores. Os atores conseguiram desempenhar os papéis razoavelmente bem, inclusive a beleza do "Daddy" rouba a cena. O enredo também é um meio termo, mas gostei que foram inseridos temas importantes, como a AIDS, estupro, proteção sexual, a discriminação com determinadas profissões, também gostei do fato de trazer algo diferente, um casal com grande diferença de idade que pode se amar, independente do preconceito por causa da profissão do garoto.
As locações são apenas as casas dos atores principais, que aliás são os únicos (com excessão do estuprador) que aparecem em cena. Como a série é muito curtinha, achei que deu para trabalhar todos os temas de forma interessante, apesar de rápida, sem longos e enfadonhos enredos se arrastando sem fim. A ost é coerente com o tema, eu amei a música "Hiling", na voz de Drake Manatad. No geral eu indico a série, capítulos curtinhos que vc pode maratonar rapidinho.

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Poignant Yet Beautiful and Outstanding

A simple basic story of an individual down on his luck who happens to meet someone who will change his life. But the road to his happiness is detoured by an unexpected trauma. This trauma happens often to individuals who are marginalized or society thinks of as unworthy. This trauma carries with it a stigma that will never leave you and you must carry it alone. But it does not mean that you need to be alone. The depth of a love for someone shines brightly in this series and is a beautiful example of what love truly is and its power of commitment in healing the soul. This is an outstanding series of great inner beauty. It has rawness, guts to tackle the issues it does, and a strong sense of great story telling. While sad, it is not maudlin. But it is real. A beautiful story with stunningly handsome lead actors in roles that had to have been emotionally draining to do. I applaud their commitment to making their roles real and genuine.
This breaks the mold of the stereotypical BL series. It is not at a college. It involves a young man with an older. And it deal with REAL issues still facing the gay community today. This is outstanding BL series. I shall (shortly) post my full review of this awesome series on my website at BLBliss.com.

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Okay but lacks follow-through on some aftermaths.

Okay for 1 watch but lacks details in general and follow-through on some aftermaths. The idea of the story is better than it's written/directed execution. 6 episodes.

The two spoilers that I discuss below and the complete lack of follow-up on them REALLY sours my feelings about this series. The flow of the story and editing were consistently choppy, but it raises some good issues and the acting is good (Kiko especially was very natural).

I don’t know if I would recommend this. It's a more realistic, adult story, which I appreciate. However, while it raises some good issues to think/talk about, it also doesn't properly address some of the things it brings up. It just doesn't quite feel finished or complete.

Other reviewers list the positives of the series well, so I won't reiterate. Because the story sensitively handles some other complex issues, it is especially disappointing that the two assaults get swept under the rug.

Spoilers on Trigger Warnings below.

Ep 1 & 2 uncut makes a little difference because there's more of Kiko and Mark's initial interactions during massages that show their growing attraction to each other. But the uncut versions of Ep 4-6 don't add much, except for a few more lines about getting tested and more shots of the rape scene in Ep 6.

Some of Kiko's distress about it is shown when he has flashbacks in Ep 6 but the rape issue is never addressed beyond that. It's not talked about, the perpetrator has no reprocussions (apart from feeling guilty), and Mark never comforts him despite Kiko's line that 'what happened was nothing I wanted' (approximate line, I don't remember the exact wording).

Instead, Mark aggressively goes after Kiko with a hand on his throat in a jealous rage. His scary physical abuse is also not addressed beyond Mark saying sorry for that day in general.

That scene also played up the imbalance in their relationship in an unsettling way; Mark holds all the power in and outside of work and is physically much stronger. At that time, the surest way for Kiko to have a good job and better way of life is to forgive Mark, at least to the extent where Kiko can continue working for him. Even if Kiko wants to forgive because of love, the fact that he doesn't have many options really casts a shadow over that decision.

A decent low-budget production. Apart from the editing, the only technical thing that was distracting was the lighting/coloring. Sometimes one angle would have a blue hue while another angle looked orange (of the same scene). Or the tint/filter on a shot would flicker.

Spoiler On The Ending:

The ending is abrupt; right after a pivitol decision is made by a character, all of a sudden the story jumps years ahead. The characters are in a good place and happy, but it didn't really feel satisfying because it didn't quite feel earned, if that makes sense. It feels like a fairytale ending slapped onto what was a more realistically-approached story. Kiko deserves it certainly, it's just that we aren't shown any of the couple working together to get to that point.

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a more realistic BL featuring an age gap

Overall: I would have given this an 8 but I took off .5 for the choking and .5 for being too choppy (for the free YouTube version). Watched on YouTube.

Content Warnings: sexual assault, rape? (not shown), drugging, manhandling/physical violence

What I Liked
- good supportive ex girlfriend
- discussion around HIV
- he did at least apologize for the physical violence*
- live action series with large age gaps are not that common and this age gap did not bother me (26 and 40)
- the main actors did a good job

Room For Improvement
- *I saw red flags in episode 4 with the physical violence/controlling behavior
- choppy, some series do the shorter free vs. longer paid versions well like KinnPorsche but this and Something In My Room did not do this well and it ends up hurting the plot/flow
- time jump of 5 years, the main character went from despair to living his best life and it was jarring
- the intro was confusing as I was not sure if those were flash forwards or flash backs

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I already know Rex Lantan from other Pinoy projects. Here, with an angelic face, even though he is no longer a teenager, he portrays Kiko, who has already experienced a lot in his young life, but was overshadowed by Viktor Sy (Mark's character), who looks great for his age and the whole project is focused on a young masseur from the physics point of view he (unintentionally) "stole", that is, at least for me. In terms of story, I value the series with adult themes the most, it's short, it doesn't run away, of course you can tell the Pinoy processing. Definitely above average by Philippine standards.

Rexe Lantana znám už i z jiných pinoy projektů. Tady s andělskou tváří, i když už dávno není náctiletým, ztvárňuje Kika, který už za svůj mladý život toho hodně zakusil, ale tělíčkem málo vysportovaným byl zastíněn Viktorem Sy (postava Marka), vypadajícím na svůj věk skvěle a celý projekt zaměřený na mladého maséra z hlediska fyzična (nechtěně) "ukradl", tedy alespoň pro mě. Příběhově si seriálku cením nejvíce s tématy dospěláků, je to krátké, neodbíhá to, samozřejmě je znát pinoy zpracování. Rozhodně na filipínské poměry nadprůměr.

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