Grande Dragão: O Seriado (2022)

Waste of a great art team

Uhmmm, so much to say...

About the plot and story: LORD HAVE MERCY what a lousy plot, the idea of a sex tape and revenge porn and everything it's horrible, but it's fun how after all THAT DOESN'T EVEN MATTER. It's strange, rushed, and you don't even understand how the fuck they started to be friends and eventually fuck. It's very very very weak as a series.

But, if something it's on point, it's their chemistry. Mos (Mangkorn) and Bank (Yai) have insane chemistry. The fact that they knew each other before the series probably helped a lot. But their acting... ermmm. They are both mid, especially Mos, they really have to improve a lot. But I think that they are going in the right way.

I have things that I liked a lot in these series, but in the end of the day, it doesn't help very much in my opinion about the series:

- OST: Very good, I loved Bank voice in the main soundtrack. Added to my playlist.

- Photography, filmography, and colorimetry: INSANE. IT'S FUCKING BEAUTIFUL the color scheme for the characters and their relationships and feelings are FUCKING BEAUTIFUL. Yai has a warm color scheme, normally with red and orange, and that says a lot about his personality too. While Mangkorn has a cold color scheme. When they are together, the colors merge in beautiful scenes. It has beautiful shots too, and the way that they play with the symbolisms of YinYang and the four sacred animals of Chinese mythology it's great. The YinYang scene on the floor that appears in the opening is one of the most beautiful shots that I have ever seen in a Thai production.

Unfortunately, that beautiful photography is wasted with VERY POOR screenwriting. Very. Poor.

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chaotic good

that wasnt my fav, too much enemies to lovers for me. i just found the main couple to be too quick with shifting from absolute hatred to lovey dovey, considering that they literally blackmailed eachother lmao. there were almost none side plots, and for me the acting was not it (even the children seemed to be better than some of the main cast). still though, its a nice series. the soundtrack was cool (isbanky♡), the traditional aesthetics were really pretty, and the main couple had few cute moments. my biggest pain tho... WHY NO PROPER KISS SCENE IN THE LAST FUCKING EPISODE? i think their dynamic after their reunion was totally not it, comparing to the screaming crying throwing up when they were separating. that was geniunely touching, but the absolute upresence of any fucking emotion in the "one year after" meeting made the whole scene so flat... well, hoping for the season 2 ig

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"Love is like choosing a pair of shoes..."

It was when these words were spoken that I realised this series won't be entertaining anymore.
This was a hotchpotch of all the different ideas or tropes that you can imagine a generic love story can have. And the same ideas were contradicted by subsequent scenes.
1. Rivals to Lovers: The series starts with showcasing how the two protagonists (Mangkorn and Yai) are womanizers and are eyeing to get the same girl. They meet and try to one-up each other leading to a drinking competition and ending with spending a passionate night together a result of spiked drinks. Strangely the glasses of both the leads were spiked which made me wonder is it still rape when both are under the influence of drugs albeit due to the clumsiness of one of the male lead's bodyguards? After coming to their senses, Mangkorn keeps annoying Yai by bringing up that night and the recording that he possesses. He practically blackmails him to be his friend and in no time they fall in love. But in the later episodes we are told that Mangkorn liked Yai for a long time. So there was no reason for antagonising Yai.
2. Female Love Interest: Mangkorn's dad wants him to get married to his friend's daughter Hong. This plot is introduced while Mangkorn is trying to win Yai over. It made for an intersting twist as we now have a potential love traingle. This plot is later destroyed when we are introduced to Hong's girlfriend. So there was never a love triangle to begin with and Yai losing his mind over this was for naught as it could have easily been explained to him.
3. Male Love Interest: Yai has a friend Nine who returns to Thailand and starts showing interest in Yai while he and Mangkorn are having a bit of a misunderstanding. They also show Mangkorn and Nine fighting over Yai's affection. But in the final episode we find Nine actively helping Mangkorn to stay with Yai. No reason for Nine to give up on this pursuit. But now he is helping Mangkorn and it appears that the love rivalry had no reason to be presented other than extending an episode. BTW the second season has been teased to run on the same plot of another male love interest of Yai. If its anything like what they had for this season then please have mercy.
4. Multiple couples: Other than the 2 main leads we are shown a relationship between Hong and a girl student. They have a few dialogues in the penultimate episode and then we dont see them again. Their relationship is mentioned in passing and looks like they were introduced just to resolve a minor misunderstanding between the 2 leads. They also tease us with a potential budding relationship between Yai's 2 bodyguards. But nothing comes of it and for a good number of episodes we dont get to see them on-screen at all. May be they will using this as fodder for season 2
The story needed a lot of working on to make it more coherent. Instead of the mandatory 3rd act break-up being about Hong, they should have rather concentrated on Mangkorn's plan to travel to New York for 2 years for his Master's degree. This would have helped in showing the budding romance between the 2 leads and a genuine concern of losing each other.
In conclusion, the acting by the 2 leads and the supporting characters was great. If you are a fan of enemies to lovers genre then you should go for this series.

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Some promising story arcs but not well executed

The series is enjoyable enough in parts. Some of the acting is good. Some of the interactions between the leads are credible. The story has its moments. Overall though the series suffers from lack of continuity or arc. We come to undersand Mangkorn's motivation to some extent (an early crush), but Yai's transition from rivalry and disdain to sexual dependency to affection is just bizarre. We aren't given enough story to make sense of it, nor are the actors given enough of a story to build believable emotional arcs on.
Some moments are interesting and generally well done, e.g. Yai's flashback to his childhood while eating with Mangkorn's mom.
Too many of the scenes suffer from manneristic acting where more realism is required, and most of the story suffers from lack of depth.

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L’8.5 sulla fiducia

Allora, se cercate un BL questa è il prodotto che fa per voi. In che senso, se cercate un BL… insomma una proposta così generica? Perché questo prodotto non lo consiglierei a chi vuole qualcosa con trame estremamente complesse o qualcosa di leggero… perché è un mix fra le due cose e la riuscita non è stellare, però è carino e le scene smut sono intense, perché il punto forte di questa rappresentazione è la chimica fra i due attori protagonisti. Ecco, per il resto zoppica fra un enemies to lovers e un bad boy slash good boy (che poi, voglio dire, uno dei due protagonisti cambia nel bel mezzo della storia, ma è più come una modifica completa del proprio carattere) che riesce si e anche no. Però è comunque un prodotto abbastanza valido, perché i due hanno la chimica sia per fare il BB/GB sia l’ETL. Detto ciò, addentrandoci un po’ più nella trama possiamo dividere la storia in due: fino al quarto episodio, dove troviamo la trama di BL moderni, con cose losche, droghe e anche la componente smut molto “pesante” (perché quello che fanno all’inizio insomma), e poi se ne va la sua dominatrice, i protagonisti parlano senza urlarmi contro per cinque minuti e ci troviamo in uno dei classici BL vecchio stile, università, interesse amoroso rompiscatole, problemi familiari vari ed eventuali. C’è una dicotomia nella storia molto interessante…? Comunque diciamo che appunto la storia non ha nulla di veramente nuovo da proporre (tranne che finalmente invece che vedere uno studente di ingegneria ne vedo uno di architettura), però (problemi già citati a parte) lo propone abbastanza bene. Kudos anche per gli altri personaggi, quindi le due guardie del corpo, il padre di Yai e sopratutto la madre di Mangkorn (che per quanto mi riguarda è la madre di BL). L’unico vero problema è il tempo: mettono un sacco di carne al fuoco che risolvono si, ma troppo rapidamente, quindi se solo fossero magari state 10 puntate, avremmo potuto avere delle sub plot più costruite. La storia, la consiglio vivamente comunque, anche solo per il fatto che la parte BL (quindi i due protagonisti o e basta in sostanza) è valida. Da qui l’8,5 sulla fiducia, che magari la prossima stagione sia un po’ più studiata

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A Mediocre Mess

Everything about this show is meh. It was promoted as a steamy BL but does not live up to that promise whatsoever. The plot is completely lost after the first like 3 episodes and scrambles to add another drama which is obviously just added in to give an excuse to have more episodes. The chemistry between the two leads is the best part of the show. Mos and Bank do have a great off screen relationship with each other that does transfer into the show’s more romantic scenes. However it is not enough to make up for the shortcomings of most other parts. So while I don’t view it as the absolute dumpster fire that other reviewers think it is, it is definitely lacking in many ways that I hope the next season can improve upon.

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It was like watching two different series

Where to even begin? The trailer looked extremely promising. It was messy, but it looked like the good kind of messy, you know? I love a good enemies to lovers story, the chemistry was amazing in the trailer already, so I was really looking forward to it.

To start with the good, I am absolutely in love with the OST. I think it fits the series really nicely, I absolutely love the rhythm of it too. I only later learned that Jeff Satur was the composer of it. And to be honest, Jeff never misses when it comes to music. Plus, Isbanky’s voice is absolutely amazing!

Another thing that I really liked were the colors of the series. I really like how they used red in many scenes. Red is the color of anger, hate, love and lust. All of those do fit the relationship between Mangkorn and Yai. The two of them start with hating each other, which soon reaches the peak in lust before developing into love. We often see Mangkorn (and later Yai) wearing red in the scenes that portray any of those emotions, lighting tends to be red in those scenes as well. I think it was a really nice touch.

The chemistry between MosBank is out of this world! I swear you can see the sparks fly whenever the two of them look at each other. They are also incredibly good at showing emotions through their looks and touches.

I found the two bodyguards, Phong and Park, absolutely adorable. They can appear a bit clueless and easy to be talked into doing silly things, but they are just trying their best. I also think that giving the two pink and blue as their colors was super cute.

Now, to the not so good parts. The whole storyline was a mess. It started really promising, but I feel like I was watching two different stories. The first 2-3 episodes seemed quite intense, there was a BDSM aspect to their relationship, a lot of pent-up emotions, angst… it appeared like the series will be messy in the way I like it. And then suddenly, the two are together, being all lovey-dovey, throwing a bunch of extra love-interests into the picture. I feel like they tried to cram in too much for a series that only had 8 episodes. It made things seem rushed and not making much sense.

But what I hated the most was their first time together and everything that followed. There was absolutely nothing consensual about it. First off, Yai drugging Mangkorn and planning to sleep with him for revenge and filming it? That is wrong on so many levels. But Mangkorn apparently saw through that and switched their drinks, so now it was Yai that was drugged and Mangkorn the one that took things to another level. Also, the whole sex tape thing… no, just no. That’s not something you do. Like film yourself if that’s what gets you off, but it’s meant for your eyes only and not as a way to control or blackmail the other person. And later saying that it was all done in the name of love. That’s a toxic image of love right there. You do not hurt the person you love, and you do not take advantage of them in such way.

The ending was a bit disappointing. It teased the second season and some more complications for Mangkorn and Yai. I hate the fact I will probably end up watching it too because I want to know what happens next. I really hope the plot part improves going forward.

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Not the best pairing

This is going to sound bad. I shipped nine and yai more than than the main ship. Nine and Yai made more of a forbidden couple because Nine seems alot wiser and older. Overall i didnt have any emotions attached to this drama i was like who cares if the mains date. This is a very bad thing especially in boy love. Normally you want the main together in this case i didnt. The story is okay not the best. Its just dry with the family drama and marriage stuufff. However the actors were good . The only reason why i watched until the end was to see if it was a happy or sad ending.

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Great start, the chemistry didn't last...

I knew from the start that it was going to be a bit toxic so I won't comment on that, I don't mind a toxic plot sometimes if you are going to have a story that explains why the characters behave in a certain way, but from episode one I could see that there is a problem with the character's personality. I had a problem with Yai's character the most, he started off being really mean and afterwards he is suddenly very cute and kind?? Mangkorn was more stable but he was doing some questionable stuff.

In general, it started with a sexy, enemies to lovers plot, and the intimate scenes were really good, but afterwards the characters started to act cutely with each other, it was like seeing two different stories in one series. They could keep going with the enemies to lovers plot for much longer, in that way it wouldn't feel that weird. They threw many cliche scenes and plot twists so they could add some drama, like, rain while they were fighting, love triangle and one of them having to go abroad.

It was difficult for me to finish it even though I was hooked on the first three episodes.The best thing from this series was the OST for me. I definitely recommend you to listen to this song and watch the MV too, it was really beautifully shot with great cinematography. I wished all the drama had this aesthetic.

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Not as bad or as good as it could have been!

I'll start by saying I haven't read the original, I've only read what was mentioned about it in the comments here, so my judgement is based solely on the show. Here we go;

THE GOOD:
MAIN ACTORS:
YAI - I noticed there's a lot of commentary against Yai, but I actually think he was the best actor in this show. He wasn't too over the top when he was happy or when he was crying, in general, his range of emotion didn't seem too extra. I also liked that when he was hot, he was hot, and when he was cold, he was cold, and when he decided with finality to be with Mangkorn, he didn't waver. He wasn't wishy washy or moon eyed or overly confused, and he wasn't annoying to me at all. He didn't even second guess himself about Nine, he was like 'Yo, no.' and that was that. I personally think that was great. Additionally, he is actually pretty adorable looks-wise. The rest of the cast was likeable too, I have no hard objection to anyone. Some of the casual interactions felt a bit stiff but nothing so bad it made the show unwatchable.
MANGKORN - He was fine. I didn't get any 'Big Dragon' vibes from him, but he was fine.

VISUALLY - It was nice. Easy on the eyes. But Asian dramas generally go in for that 'perfect' look on their actors all the time. I've accepted that, even if it's very unrealistic and looks silly sometimes. I'm also not a fan of the disjointed cuts during the sex scenes, because scenes that go from a bedroom to a bar to a bedroom again, or a table to a window to the floor and back to the table, it doesn't flow too well, but it also didn't particularly hurt the visual aesthetic they were going for.

THE BAD:
STORY: It's only a little bad, insofar as there are too many unnecessary dialogue scenes dragged out waaaaay too long, too many silences and a time lapse that smacks you in the face out of nowhere at one point. The last episode dealt far better with the time lapse, not sure what happened before that with the writers. Also, because of the short amount of episodes, I also think they could have skipped things like Yai's BDSM kink (because ultimately it didn't make much of an appearance anyway), and also the skateboarding thing was, well, why? Relevance? I dunno, for all that it had a use in the story, it could have a mentioned in a conversation and it would have been the same imo. And showing Yai and Mangkorn as seemingly womanizing, bad boys, and then Mangkorn breaking out a Dom vibe on Yai randomly, only to make it turn out to have no place in the story over all. Just, basically, there was a lot of 'but why did you include that' moments. I can only assume that it had something to do with the source material? I actually have no idea, it just seemed pointless.
But I didn't dislike the overall story. Yai and MangKorn communicate quite well (albeit very slowly), especially after they get over their initial speed bumps, and I think that was enjoyable.

THE UGLY:
DUH, the opening rapey vibe. Ugh. It's never gonna' be sexy to try to drug and then rape and/or assault and blackmail someone, and then write that they end up together. If they were changing the story (according to what comments suggested) they should have just gone ahead and changed that too. Like they did in 'Together with Me', they avoided all the 'ugh' from the original. Something less vile would have been for Yai to maybe get Mangkorn drunk and then set him up in an embarrassing situation. It's still a hostile start to a relationship, but at least it's nothing gross or illegal. This trope, for me, is never gonna' fly. Also the hitting each other for no really good reason, could skip that.

HIGHLIGHT:
I loved the scene in ep 5 when Mangkorn's mother walks in on them eating the snack together. That was probably my fave moment in this show. Sometimes writers miss the fact that the small intimate or cute touches and moments between pairings can carry a lot of weight in making a couple seem 'in love'.

Over all looking forward to Season 2. Hoping for less tropes and a smoother flow and much more established relationship vibes and scenes from Mangkorn and Yai.

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