180 Graus de Longitude Entre Nós (2022)

Astoundingly Beautiful

A lustrously gorgeous story, quiet and told in glances and body language and silences as much as it is told in words.

The realities upon which this series shines light are all too real, raw and heartbreaking. Each character tells their own part of the story and how decisions of one person weaves into the lives of those around them. We have a story about how the force of one person can impact another and how the mores of society can be a detriment for some.

Mol is someone whose personality is almost like a force of nature. She is loud to cover her loneliness. She is bright and personable so no one notices the cracks leaking her sadness everywhere she goes. However, she is also the epitome of the parent who wants the best for their child without listening to their child. This is the parent who loves you without actually loving you because to love a person is to accept and embrace who they truly are. This is a parent who “does everything for” their child, yet makes everything about themselves.

She is selfish and self-centered. She wanted a man and made him hers, only to refuse to see the truth: that he was closeted and in love with his best friend. She wants to be the center of her son’s world. She will not give him up because she needs him to fill a void in her that a child should not be asked to fill for their parent. She will not listen to what her child actually wants, too busy wanting the happiness she has decided will make him happy. Even at the end of the last episode, she is talking all about herself while he cries quietly in the passenger seat beside her.

Mol is an abusive parent and a narcissist (and I mean this in the clinical sense not the colloquial sense). While there are times she evokes sympathy, she is ultimately the detriment to the happiness of three people. All to center herself and her wants.

In is the heartbreaking illustration of what internalized homophobia does to a person. He avoids, as long as possible, to admit the truth. In fact, even by the end of the last episode he had never voiced his love for either of the men he has loved. He won’t even bring himself to voice the fact that Siam loved him. He skirts around it, speaking of it only to Wang without stating it outright. It is ultimately up to Wang to put words to what In wants to leave in the silence.

We also see the effect others have on someone who has internalized the deep shame of loving someone of the same gender of themselves. He lives with regret, blaming himself indirectly for Siam’s death (though I’d argue he probably should blame himself more directly, as should Mol), but we never hear him state a wish to have done things differently. He clings so hard to the idea that he did what he thought was right, what would make everyone (except himself) happy. Not only could he not accept the love of a man he loved in return, not only could he not give that man the love he had for him, but he cannot admit to himself that their own happiness could have saved Siam’s life.

Watching In open up to Wang as he relays stories of the man he loved is breathtakingly beautiful. You watch his walls thin and lower, though they never disappear. He’s filled with an agonizing, all-consuming fear. But you watch that fear get quieter when it’s just the two men. When the only thing in his world is himself and Wang, who gently but fearlessly moves forward. And you watch it all crumble because of the guilt and shame he carries regarding Siam and Mol when she asserts her will and manipulates his emotions to give her what she wants. It’s clear, to me, that while he was not prepared to declare his love prior to that conversation, he WAS prepared to accept Wang into his life and build something with him as Wang desired.

Wang…beautiful, brave Wang. It’s impossible to not adore this character. He is caught between grief for his father and exhaustion from his mother when we meet him. It is clear he is the emotional caretaker of his mother who has a codependent relationship to him. However it’s also clear he wishes to escape her, to not be responsible for her happiness and be allowed to find his own.

He is relentless in pursuit of answers. You can tell early on what he suspects and knows but isn’t saying. He isn’t pushing people to give him the information he craves but rather gently leads them to disclosing it bit by bit. He’s headstrong and passionate but I don’t think he’s idealistic. He knows the darkness that lurks in the world for someone like him (queer folks). He isn’t ignorant to it but he learns, as he falls in love, to be undaunted by it, to refuse to allow it to steer his life.

We see Wang falling in love before he even realizes himself that’s what is happening. The magnetic draw In has on him is captivating to watch just as much as In captivates him. He is admirable in his willingness to stand and fight for the love he has for In even when In isn’t willing to fight beside him. He is thoughtful and careful in ways he doesn’t even notice.

What is more heartbreaking than In deciding he should leave is Wang seeming to fall back into role of Mol’s protector, caretaker and babysitter. When he tells In that she’s done nothing wrong for wanting him to be happy and it isn’t fair for her to lose (if he decided to refuse to leave so he could win) it feels like the abuse cycle is starting over, the victim of the abuse giving into the path of least resistance. Watching him cry silently as they drive home while his mother centers herself in her one-sided conversation once more was more heartbreaking than the scene with In the night before.

While one could nitpick little things that are not spelled out but generally assumed (i.e. the “coincidence of them ending up there, for example), those things do not make this story any less to me. The soundtrack and cinematography complement the emotions of the story so well. (I’m in love with the color palette.)

I think Mol could be genuinely triggering for people who have suffered from a narcissistic parent or similar types of emotional abuse from a parent. Her reaction to Wang disclosing he’s in love with In could also be triggering. But I think the series is more than worth watching even so.

The typed out messages on the screen at the nd just made me cry more.

I wouldn’t change anything about this series. Not a single thing.

Leia Mais

A story just for me, but not for me

This show seem to have been made just for me..

The acting is everything I have ever wanted, when you put three people in a house and just scream action and they manage to pull through then you know that's perfection...

Character driven plots is why I watch jdramas, people sitting standing, screaming crying out long dialogues as the go through life and all you can do is sit there and watch them go through these emotions because that's all you can do for them...

The way this drama was directed the music this drama used is why I go hunting for dramas like this it gives you a nostalgic longing feeling of something you can't remember something you can't have but yet you still want... That slice of life sombre feeling that you get knowing that this story could be happening next door to you...

You see this drama was made in perfection, my lecture lr use to say everyone starts off with 10 out of 10 and then from there we minus, so let's go into something I feel played an even bigger role in how I rated this show...

That child is barely out of his teenage years, and that man is his uncle, as a mother when I introduce an uncle to you, he remains an uncle to you THAT IS A NIN NEGOTIABLE.... there is a +-20 Yr gap that will never sit well with me and made this show impossible for me to watch I had this sinking unsettling feeling as the show went on and even more so when no-one else seem to feel the same... Fiction or not I stand by a fact 5 yrs age gap max as long as we are both above 20 and from the age of 30 we can argue the numbers... I would never let my girl child in such a relationship, not to talk of my boy child (even the casting department had to cast actors with 9 yrs difference in real life to sell this story, how about trying the actual 20??) this I give a - 5... I wonder if the gender played a role in this acceptance??

My next big no is the relationship In shared with his parents... I know the universal message is love conquers all, I know "love is patient, love is kind, it does not boast, it does not envy and it most definitely does not happen to father and son who share some similarities"

Me being wangs' mother or wangs' father and the type of past I shared with In as a lover (s*x or no s*x) ?? Or a best friend I could never comprehend this relationship, if I put you in my child's life early in or later on its not for you to screw them, the role I expect you to play has nothing to do with you screwing them... I could have looked past the age gap in the name of fiction if this man was a stranger, but the messiness that is the parents and In's relationship makes it impossible for me to lol past this relationship for what it was ... So - 5 (I have more to say on this topic but am trying to make this short)

So my three points go as follows
Wang, In, mol +1

The story and how some issues where looked into to the pint that despite my dropping skills and reservations I watched to the end... +2

Leia Mais

A MASTERPIECE! JUST BRILLIANT!

Let me call this series what it is. A complete and total masterpiece. It is brilliant from beginning to end. Riveting, soul-searching, and a classical intellectual metaphorical representation of life. It displays truth, obsession, pain, illusion, weakness, strength, and heaps of sadness.

It is the best BL drama certainly this year and perhaps ever. Brilliantly acted with a sharp, crisp screenplay. Outstanding.
Thailand's version of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

This is not your formulaic BL series at all. It is, in all honestly, one of the finest acting series I have EVER watched. I was riveted, absorbed, and found it so utterly unique and one of a kind.

This is worth your time. I would rate this higher than 10 if I could.

You can read my full review of this series at BLBliss.com.

Leia Mais

A Gem

You will experience a range of emotions while watching this series. I said spoilers are contained, but not exactly. As it relates to spoilers, all I'll say is the "mother" never grew on me and although I did understand her plight, the sheer realness of her character made it hard to watch and accept during the series. I hoped that once her son confided that she was smothering him - she would back off. not the case. he illness only worsened.

Who could I identify with the most - the son. The son did everything for his mother and an independent life was not to be had. Which i think was the greatest tragedy. In the end, I hope there would be a happy ending. Still not to be had. Well I guess depending on who you ask, it could have been a happy ending. For me it was not a happy ending. For me I felt joy during the the short courtship, but mostly sorrow.

Leia Mais

almost perfect !

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its almost perfect for me , i love the characters , the whole story and specially the script superb !!! the series taught me about life ..


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Leia Mais

????

*This is my first review on this site and I’ve been watching BL’s for 2 years, while using this site to record my watchings. I haven’t been this determined to give feedback on a series until now..*

While every episode kept me on the edge of my seat… by the ending of the series, I realized that some of the messages that were trying to be conveyed were controversial to say the least. Wang’s character may have been written and portrayed in a good light, but he obviously didn’t get his happy ending. So in conjunction with the hidden messages and the story’s ending, it left a bitter taste in my mouth. I can’t deny that the acting was amazing, but the plot as a whole is tearing down its value, in my opinion.

Leia Mais

Impressive and Beautifully Executed

I am very thankful for this contribution to the genre and am glad I chose to watch it.

I feel it is cerebral and poses deep questions. Although the topic is taboo, a lot of great works are and it really depends on what and how it is executed. 180 degrees is a superb example. It's beautiful, simple and complicated at the same time, true to life, full of action and inaction, demonstrates bravery and fear, and differences in dealing with significant decisions. I especially loved the mature way it incorporates diverse ideas, feelings, and decisions of both MLs, while trying to be respectful of opinions/actions that may not be satisfying to others. On top of that, it offers what I felt was compassionate insight as well as clever and amusing banter.

I agree with many that I don't understand why it has such a low rating.

Pond and Nike were simply amazing in their roles. It was very well written. I loved the monologue. Cinemtography was great. I highly recommend it.

** Although the actors are very attractive, this isn't an eye candy or skinship show.

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