By the time "I Promised you the Moon" came into my life, the number of "BL" series that I have seen without exaggeration amounts to hundreds and I had never come across a series that made me feel so many things, I have to make it clear that this is the best series I have seen, for many reasons, but we will get to that.
The first thing is that IPYTM seems to me that it is much more than a love story, if the love between Oh and Teh is the backdrop to the story, but in the background the story is about growing up, in the first episode we have Teh and Oh entering university life for the first time, everything they have within their reach is new, fascinating and at the same time terrifying, in that sense, the characters are parallels of how life turns out in the end; on the one hand we have Teh that his whole life seems to have been built for that moment, everything that surrounds him excites him, the new people he meets provoke him a deep admiration and he is ready to take over the world now; on the other hand we have Oh, to whom adaptation cost much more work, this new world seems alien to him, he cannot help but feel longing for the old one, for his family and friends and he has to deal with the strange feeling that others they move on without him, little by little he realizes that the profession he chose is not a consolation for all that he left behind.
This is the first great shock that their relationship experiences, and the truth is that it is not the fault of either of them, what they feel is rather a mix between who they are, what they have lived and what they expect, despite that, they make an effort to be there for the other, however, it is not easy, everyone has their own responsibilities and occupations and also everyone needs their space, so inevitably a small gap opens between them.
The great conflict of the series and the one that triggers many of the problems that Teh and Oh are going to experience is: when Oh realizes that he no longer wants to become an actor, I'm going to pause here, because I want to explore a little more this point and what it means to both of you. If we remember, from the beginning the fact that both want to become actors causes many situations between them, on the one hand it is the reason why they fight when they are children and on the other it is one of the reasons why they get together when they are looking to enter the University; it becomes something so big for them, to the point that Teh considers it their common “dream”, he tells him that one day they will be in a movie and they will achieve success TOGETHER; for Teh to some extent it is one of the reasons why he loves Oh.
I want to talk about a theory that I kept throughout the series and it is: Teh doesn't really love Oh, and up to there it sounds very problematic, but let me explain this point a little more, from ITSAY it is clear to us that Teh's personality leans towards people who have a perspective of the world similar to his, somehow people who seem to follow the same path, when you can overcome misunderstandings with Oh, that's what they have left, they both seek the same, they both worked hard to achieve it, Oh understands his dream since he was a child and much of his infatuation arises from here, at the moment in which Oh goes a little out of the way that he plans for both of them, his feelings for him begin to change, he no longer feels that he has things in common and stops making the effort to connect with him, instead he begins to be interested in other people in his environment who do comply with what he expects from "his ideal person", because not only does it happen with Jai if not also with the actress from the last episode, finally these links are also put aside, at the end of the day the great maturation process that Teh does in the series is to realize that people are not made for you, other people are themselves and they will not coincide with you and your view of the world all the time; that's when he can finally see that among everything, Oh is the only person who despite not being "his ideal" is the only person with whom he is willing to build something and I think that at that moment when he genuinely loves him; to say that before I did not do it may sound dangerous, I know, more because they were together a long time, but during all that time, Teh's expectations were always elsewhere, now I do not deny at any time he really had felt lot affection for Oh all that time, not only because of that, but because Oh was his refuge, his home and his friend during all that trip, but love, genuine love I think I can only feel it when he saw Oh for what he was and not because of what he expected it to be.
Returning to the plot, once Oh declares that he does not want to follow the path of acting, initially Teh shows an understanding attitude, but we quickly see that it is not like that, he publicly judges him and gradually separates him from his life; it is as if leaving the performance implies, for Teh, that is also leaving him; Oh for his part he finds comfort in a new group of friends where we see that he has the freedom to experience who he really is as a person, this is something quite common when you start to grow little by little you will discover that there are many things that you had not experienced not because you didn't want to but because you existed in an environment that contained you to venturing to try certain things and certainly this new path of self-discovery can take you away of which you were close, the thing is that life is like that, many special people in your life, it is special because they belong to a time and place that are no longer there, no one will ever take that away from you, but not all ties can continue forever, it may sound scary but it is part of growing up, everyone does it on their own path and its own time and rhythm.
Teh's perspective, we can see it not only in his behavior with Oh, but also with Kim, whom he initially admires for hers dedication and from whom he is brutally disappointed when finds out that Kim has decided to put acting aside a bit as hers main job he is unable to understand Kim giving up and does not listen to what she has to say; unfortunately adult life is more complicated than we expect, not all dreams come true and sometimes for more effort and dedication that we put into something, things simply do not happen, despite this Kim give one of the phrases that I think is more valuable of the series: "that's not my only dream", and that's the way it is, even though you can't achieve everything, you can always go back and dream new things, the thing is that you have to play in reality; Kim needs money, she needs to help support his family and she still does not deny that he will keep trying if it is within his means, Teh's inability to understand and empathize with her speaks of how immature he is still at that point.
From here we find a paradigm shift, as the gap between Teh and Oh becomes bigger, each one finds his way in other areas, Teh begins to work on the production of Jai's thesis: " I promised you the moon” and Oh finds his true passion in advertising which together with his group of friends allow him to maintain a stable life more and more; Teh and Jai start to spend more and more time together and Jai's whole personality is just what he is looking for, he is passionate, loves theater more than anything and is willing to do anything to deliver a good production, as Teh he goes deeper into his character more evident his distance with Oh becomes for everyone, to the point that he does not remember key moments in their relationship and admits for the first time his feelings for him have changed, Jai realizes all that and explodes those emotions in order to make his acting better but in between it causes confusion in Teh's emotions.
Teh is quite attracted to Jai that is no secret, and I know that this is a controversial point, but I do not think there is anything wrong at the end of the day these things happen, you may have loved someone a lot, but if you end up walking away of that person and you find someone else, it is normal to feel attracted (obviously I am not justifying deceiving anyone, I think these things should they be talk and finished if it is the best for the parties involved), what if it seems very ugly is what happens next because although clearly the person that he feels emotionally and sexually attracted to at that moment Teh, is Jai, he still goes with Oh to satisfy these needs, giving Oh the idea that everything between them is fine, this is one of the scenes that made me feel bad the most, because it is a moment that does not mean the same for both of us and that far from romance I find it very selfish.
Even with all this, I can understand that Teh was confused about his feelings, but after the kiss, not, especially after Oh confronts him directly and he has the opportunity to cut for the sake or fix his problems with him with a honest talk, but no, he decides to keep running away from what he feels and then if I can't justify it, when everything explodes in his face, I think it's the moment when Teh wakes up a little and realizes the damage he's doing to Oh, firstly because Jai tells him that everything he did was solely for his work and secondly because Oh gets fed up with the situation and leaves him, now before talking about the ending there are some points that I would like to touch upon.
Jai, there are many opinions about this character, one thing I appreciate is that the series does not have heroes or villains, they all act like people who to a greater or lesser extent have moments of selfishness and Jai has a very big one with his work, when he tells him Teh the background of the story of his work gives depth to the character and as the plot goes by we can see how he experiences some guilt, however I do not justify his actions, although probably at first he wanted not "harm" anyone, when Oh faced him no I try to clarify things with Teh, which is doubtful, however, the series never clarifies whether or not Jai had feelings for Teh, I do not rule out that in fact it could be so, what I find most interesting to analyze, however, is his work; it is very curious that the work is called exactly like the series, I think we all thought that this referred in a certain way to Teh and Oh but in reality it was not the case, it was a reference to what would finally end up separating them, in the end I think Jai It is a good parallel for Teh, their personalities are very similar, we can see it when Jai finishes his work and it was a success but he is not really happy and on the contrary he feels longing because the person that he once loved is not with him and he didn't have the courage to make the effort to stay, which is just what Teh will experience later on.
Now yes, let's talk about Oh, my favorite character from the whole series, the reason why I like Oh so much is because we see him change and mature a lot throughout the series, he experiences strong things, beyond Teh, like feeling lonely when entering university, we can see him genuinely sad or when what he thought he wanted to do all his life did not full him in the way he expected or that the people around him did not accept that he was changing and despite everything, he was strong, he remained firm in his decisions and juggled to achieve stability between his school and sentimental life even in moments when he was going through a crisis; when Oh discovers that things with Teh are not right, he confronts him, tells him honestly what he feels and asks for an explanation and when he sees that that does not get him anywhere, despite all the pain he feels and how much he loves Teh leaves him and continues with his life; I am very grateful that the series has given him the friends it gave him, because despite the difficult moments and the pain and all that he had to fight he was never alone, the people around him truly love him and are willing to be his support, few groups of friends so good I have seen before, my favorite scene will forever be the group hug from episode 4 if I can keep something, let it be that moment, please; and besides, if it wasn't enough we have that in the end he does not even feel a grudge or something like that towards Teh and on the contrary he is happy for his success and he is proud of everything he has achieved.
Teh achieved what he always dreamed of now he is an actor on the way to fame, but we see that he has a somewhat lonely and stressful life and Oh is working for a major advertising agency still surrounded by his friends and at peace with himself, it is in this environment in which they meet again, I really liked the way this moment was handled because first of all we must remember that these people were friends since they were children and spent years together, so when they see their interactions again It feels natural and somehow we are given to understand that the two have managed to reconcile with their common past; at the end they say goodbye again and it seems like their story is completely closed. However, from this meeting Teh reflects on their relationship and the mistakes of the past, which he decides to capture in the work exhibited for his thesis to which he invites Oh, In it you can see a recapitulation of the bond they have had since children and how everything changes when Oh leaves the acting, where Teh, motivated by his selfishness, gradually lets his love die until he realizes that it was always Oh. Despite this, Oh puts a stop to him, he wishes him success, but he clarifies that he does not want to trust him again; later after some reflection he decides to give it one more chance.
I know a lot of people didn't like that he came back, or at least not the way they did, but I don't know to me it seems to me that it is very consistent with everything that the story and the characters pose, when Oh talks to Bass he tells him: “there are people for whom it works to go back and things are better, there are others for whom it does not.” At the end of the day, going back implies having to trust again that they can do things well and when the two of them speak at the end everything which Oh says is the perfect conclusion to his maturation cycle, "you don't need to promise that you will love me forever or that nothing will change, let's just be together as much as we can, let's try to solve problems together and don't give up so easily"; Oh I always love Teh, whether we like it or not that is the reality and if he is willing to put his faith in his love once again, I too, trust how much he has grown.
This series completely stole my heart and the main reason for it is that it is realistic, life is not easy, it is not a walk in the park where things will always turn out well for you, many moments of my life I have been Teh and many others Oh; it is easy, much easier than it seems to hurt the people around you even if that is not your intention and sometimes it is easy and other impossible to solve it and it is something you have to learn to live with, trying to be a little better, each day, another thing is that no matter how much effort you make in life, not everything will turn out as you want, no matter how good or competent you are, sometimes the fortune factor is not with you and the series is honest about it, it's not that magical ending where Kim finally gets the role of her life, no, but as you grow you discover that it is not the end of the world either and what gives you the energy to live is more than just one thing; another point I saw is that some people were offended because everything went well for Teh, but at this point the series also seems realistic to me, they have nothing to do with whether or not he did things well with Oh the reality is that work hard to become actor and from ITSAY we are told that he is someone with talent, he cannot magically be successful, we saw his journey and the truth is that you don't have to be a wonderful human being to be successful. That is precisely why I like it so much, there are too many series that are complacent as viewer, they give you exactly what you want to see, few series dare to tell what they want from such a personal vision, at the end of the day I didn't want the series to go one way or another, I wanted to see what they had created.
It is not usual to see a series where you feel that each moment is thought-out as part of a movie, but here we have that, each shot is so careful that you can stop at any chapter at any time and have a new wallpaper, all the resources that the cinema makes available to tell a story here they are used in a masterly way, to start the color palette the whole series is used to make you feel this constant feeling of longing, very similar to watching a story from past, which It only drives more and more the emotions of the characters, no moment in this series is a coincidence, everything was planned with great care to convey a certain type of emotion and message, the direction is impeccable.
Regarding the performances, there is not a single main character, secondary or extra, who does not do an incredible job, no matter how large or small their participation was, it was clear how committed they were all to the project and how well chosen they had been to play their roles, obviously Billkin and PP steal the whole show, each of their moments feels so genuine and when they suffer you suffer, if they are happy you are happy, the characters manage to connect with you in a very powerful way.