This BL drama is about the encounter of emotionnaly closed-off almost 40 years old Jim (the owner of a Hainanese chicken rice diner) and charming late twenties Wen. There are multiple storylines as the drama follows the evolution of their relationship as well as the ones of their entourage.

I had some issues with the pacing of the scenario as well as the distribution of the scenes between the various relationships. I truly enjoyed most of the secondary stories but it was to the detriment of the main relationship of Jim and Wen. I love the ensemble cast but clearly some of the secondary storylines interested me more than the main one. I particularly liked the Li Ming and Heart story: they kinda stole the show for me. I also found myself caring a lot about some other sides characters: Kaipa, Alan and Saleng...much more than the main couple.

Regarding the main relationship, Mix managed to make Wen a likeable and endearing character. He is beautiful and sincere that you can completly understand why the other male main lead would fall for him despite his messy arc. The opposite was less true to me. Jim is a hardworker with seemingly good intentions but he is really closed off and has big walls (for good reasons). However, it is really difficult to root for him and to understand why Wen is so smitten by him. I wonder if the script would have given more room to them, it would have made a difference in making the growth of the relationship more romantic. Here, it felt that the relationship was working thanks to Wen hard work, in a rather unilateral and sometimes frustrating way.

The whole cast did a good job. Khaotung is once again very impressive and full of nuances: even in a side role, he made me care so much. Some of his scenes are gut-wrenching and I know that it is thanks to his great skills that the emotions flowed through so well. I also found First amazing in a very different and difficult role : he carried it very well given the context of his narrative arc. Fourth and Gemini chemistry continue to be really excellent, they had the best romance.

I liked a lot Mix performance but I wish that Earth would have been more charismatic in the role of Jim. He was not helped by the script but still, he was clearly the weakling in terms of acting skills among the main cast. I also wished that the age gap thing would have been better adressed. Here, it was a bit strange as Earth does not seem to have a 10 years age gap with Mix (in real life, they are only 4 years apart and are both still in their twenties)...Earth's character is supposed to be going on forty but sometimes his character talks like he is 70+ years old and that any change is impossible like he is at the end of the road...This creates clearly a disconnection in the story because you really need to suspend your disbelief when you look at Earth attempting to play that part...

I loved the cinematography despite some editing hiccups between scenes...Sometimes, there are jarring cuts in the music when switching from one scenes to another...The soundtrack is rather average outside of the generic which is very nice because of the song as well as the images displayed with it.

I would recommend this to people looking for a more slice-of-life BL with nuanced storylines and very good ensemble cast. The cinematography is good despite some editing hiccups and there are some really memorable scenes in terms of acting and stakes. The pacing could have been better and the main romance is a bit lacking story-wise (especially compared to the other storylines) but the series has enough qualities despite its flaws to be worthwile.