All around excellent. Excellent writing, tight directing and editing, immaculate acting. Painful as fuck and a little difficult to bear but not numbingly so, it gives a really honest look on the micro level at humanity and societal pressure and the chain of hurt that comes from homophobia without seeming to really be about homophobia. I don't think I'll ever watch it again because my emotional fortitude is low, but I am glad I watched it once.
The way I know the storytelling was excellent is that I never thought about it while I was watching, but realized it wouldn't have been able to care as much if it was delivered differently.
I think all three main characters did amazing jobs. I hurt when they hurt; I hated them when they hated themselves; I loved them when they tried to heal.

Leia Mais

My primary issue with this season was the writing and plot. My secondary issue was that the acting & editing were often weird or poorly done; this was most frustrating as it hugely undermined the chemistry between the couples.

Writing: the poor actors were forced to say so many unnatural lines that people just don't say in real life that even if they were extraordinary, they wouldn't be able to believably deliver them. Next, the transition of fixation/anger into attraction was hodge-podged together out of weird, pretty stupid plot contrivances, and no deep thought on the characters' parts was seen to be put into the changing feelings. It just wasn't believable. Separately, the plot wanted so badly to be unpredictable that it relied on the most annoying, forced twists delivered in clumsy revelations whose timing make next to zero sense. Finally, THAT'S NOT HOW POLICE WORK WTFFFFF every time something totally unbelievable happened with regards to the police work, I was wrenched entirely out of the story. This is why I say it was a failure of ambition: they wanted to do something other than school setting, which is laudable, but didn't take the time or effort to do it well.

Acting/Editing: I combine these because I wonder if all the peculiar pausing in place was due to editing failures and because I really want to believe the actors had better takes than the ones put into the final product. One particular oddity was that the kisses never developed out of the wooden "one person's eyes stay wide and body stiff in surprise" stage, even after the romance developed to a mutually acknowledged stage. Another instance of bad acting or maybe editing is that in a particularly heated scene I couldn't stop laughing because the main actor looked like he got "petulant child" mixed up with "murderous rage". I'm laughing again as I think of it. The rest of my issues I'm willing to put on the writers hurting the actors with just frankly dumb lines/scenarios.

It would have been cute as a manhua, but the choice to put it to real life actors requires more realism, less lazy writing, and fewer dumb gags.

Leia Mais

Possibly the best BL I've watched

Very honest. The writers didn't hold back, and they gave us a painful, complicated, genuine, character-driven story to chew on. Unlike with (admittedly lovely) fluff, if there's a happy ending, it will be well-earned.
The pacing was perfect, they didn't rely on any stupid editing gimmicks or forced drama, the acting was impeccable, the cinematographic choices made sense and added to the scenes, and the writers had a firm and loving grasp on all their characters.
This story is not easy, but it may help you grow as a person. I love it. Actually my first review got deleted, but I love this season so much I found the patience to rewrite it.
You can't know this, reader, but I'm excruciatingly critical. I have no complaints, though, so hopefully if you're on the fence, that helps you leap over it and dive right into this experience.

Leia Mais

Nonsense plot and egregious script

The primary flaw was the script. Not a single interaction flowed smoothly, nor were any of them convincing. It's hard to explain how bad the script was because it was all so illogical.
Ok.
Imagine you were daydreaming and you were in a huge rush to get to the part where your daydream characters kissed, so you threw together not-quite-plausible, vague plot points like "char A tied char B up bc that serves my kinks but uhh the story justifies it because uhhh... char A's... trying to ...prove char B is ...his brother?? Yeah ok I'll come back to this later. Wait. Is that incest?? Nevermind char B ISN'T the brother he's just... ah whatever skip to them kissing". You might think, 'oh Rent343 what a ludicrous daydream, that makes no sense!', and you know what? I'd agree with you! Unfortunately, the SCRIPT WRITERS FAILED TO DO THAT REALISM CHECK AND JUST FKN PUT IT ON THE SCREEN. WHAT?!?! I cannot imagine how the actors felt receiving their scripts each day. Probably some mixture of despair and resigned gallow's humor. Like a prisoner receiving rations a corrupt guard spit on. Maybe they also felt some developing resolve to immediately fire their agents for letting/making them take the project on.
I cannot imagine how investors felt seeing how the showrunner just defecated all over their money. I really hope they found out who was at fault for writing that abject pile of steaming nonsense and told their entire network to blacklist the culprit.
I can't comment on the acting or the directing or the editing or the plot because the script was so overwhelmingly, mind-consumingly horrible.
Oh wait! I can comment on the plot: it rehashes the toxic, misogynistic tropes of ignored consent, abusive behavior and forgiving/accepting it uncritically, BREAKING AND ENTERING???, and women included in the story only to be evil man-stealing witches (luckily all of it was done in such a clumsy way that it produces zero emotional impact for the viewer).

As I write, it occurs to me that maybe it was meant to be a vicious satire on BL dramas in general. In that case I'd have to give it one extra star (for a shining total of 3 stars). Not because it was thoughtful, polished, or intelligent as a satire, but because it did make me hate BL as a genre for a solid hour (then I rewatched Where Your Eyes Linger and recovered :) ).

Leia Mais

Cute but the romantic opposite has no personality

Assorted thoughts:

It was very sweet and cute, but when a romance leaves the boyfriend character as shallowly written as "infinitely patient, infinitely in love, and perfect", it's hard to invest much in the story. It's disappointing, too because I feel like the cast proved they could handle communicating complicated and difficult emotions.

We get a glimpse of some interesting side characters in Fujisaki and Minato, and the protagonist (Adachi) has some depth, though it takes time for that to become apparent. However, much of that potential rich character complexity is underutilized. I blame the writing — it wasn't bad! But they wasted a lot of opportunities for fleshing the characters out.

I have other thoughts/ frustrations but those are spoilers, so I won't tell.

Leia Mais

Short and sweet!

A delight to watch! Very much an innocent young love.

I liked the camera work; it felt personal and well paired with the story. The only scene I felt a little taken out of the story by the camerawork was one where one main char and his two friends were sitting on some steps together and his friends had to turn away from the camera to face him. I ended up trying to peek around the edge of my screen to catch the friend's facial expressions (unfortunately that's not how screens work).

The acting felt real. The tension, the lingering looks and touches, the comfortable friendships, and the main character's restrained disappointment in one interview scene - really the main character was very good in general.

The script made sense, which sounds like a minimum requirement but it's actually somewhat rare and hugely appreciated. I believed everything that happened on screen; at the very end there was a liiiiiittle bit of invented drama when one character could have easily said, and was motivated to say, something to prevent it, and then the character experiencing the drama seemed a bit like he overreacted. However! I have forgotten how scary young love is (I'm in my mid-twenties, my only love is my bathtub), so maybe the reaction was reasonable. Still. The hardship was unnecessary. The other main character could & should have just spoken up.

The editing was tight. I didn't feel like there was a wasted moment.

I would have loved more dancing scenes, but I'm biased.

I would say it's pretty light fare: I do not think I learned anything from watching this, nor did I change as a person. I do not think that detracts from the quality of the work! But if that's what you're looking for, maybe you might feel more emboldened to confess your feelings next time you have a crush (not a bad outcome!).
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Potential spoilers below:

I especially like that they include an apparently bi main character (from the translation I found). I think that kind of makes me a little braver about guys who have mentioned having crushes on women in the past. There's still a (small) chance!

Leia Mais

Beautiful in everything but the story

Everything was visually lovely - exquisite production value, but characters relied too heavily on the idea that depressed, self centered people who let their angst overwhelm their consciences are somehow beautiful. It's not endearing, and it's unhealthy to encourage ppl who have depressive tendencies to wallow in them and become self destructive.
I'd say watch it but only if you can keep yourself from getting invested because otherwise you'll be stuck with a bunch of very sympathetic peripheral characters and a pair of main characters it's really hard to root for.

Leia Mais

A slice of life. Like life, sometimes sweet, sometimes disappointing. We entered at the middle of a failing relationship, though, and the incompatibilities are clear, so the end was no surprise. Out with a fizzle, not with a bang.
I think it was well executed, but it doesn't really affect me or say something I want to remember. The theme of languages is interesting though.
Because I have to hit a character minimum: acting was good, writing made sense (not a guarantee), realism was a bit suffocating (disappointing job, dying relationship, a sense of resignation permeating the office worker character's entire being).

Leia Mais

Not innovative, but well executed

First off thank you to the writers for not turning the woman main character into a horrible target for fanhate. I judge BL often in large part on how they handle their women characters, and while there was some fujoshi stuff peripherally, the woman mc was likable and had a personality. 👍👍
I really liked the acting and writing. As my title says, it was not an innovative plot, but they did something much done very well. I always understood the layers of meaning the actors and lines meant to convey and they handled ambiguity well. I think also they did a good job balancing one of the main character's brattiness/manipulation with likeable qualities like humility (of a sorts, e.g., recognizing how nonsense the capitalist aristocracy in Korea is), ready forgiveness, and openness.

Leia Mais

Like a photograph, not a novel (Very light spoilers)

PLOT: This piece is less about any plot than about a feeling captured and depicted in snapshot moments. It's like a photograph or series of photographs in that way, which plays nicely upon the protagonist's occupation.

WRITING: It mostly makes sense and feels real, even the fanciful daydream sequence. I appreciate the casual pop culture references and efficient character building - we get to know the boss/friend and the new beau pretty well without spending much time on them. The only thing is I don't understand why the new guy stays with someone he knows is still hung up on an ex. That could have been made to make more sense, but he wasn't really the center of the story.

MEANING: The feeling is transmitted successfully, but it's specifically the feeling of lingering, melancholic heartbreak, so it isn't fun exactly. Perhaps it can be cathartic for the viewer to experience that trapped feeling externalized from oneself. Even if not, I think the short achieves something human and valuable in conveying without judgement or illusions the emotion at its core. We aren't asked to believe that the heartache made logical sense - in fact the color scheme in the daydream about the ex and later the literal gold gloss painted on the ex may have been a hint that the protagonist was deeply unreliable in how he perceived what he had lost (isn't that always how memory goes?). However, the point isn't that heartbreak was justified or reasonable; the point was capturing that specific flavor of it in a 25 minute container and gifting it (for 3-4 USD$) to the audience.

ACTING: Believable! I like the contrast between how tense and uncomfortable the exes are in reality versus how sweet and easy they were in the daydream.

DIRECTING & EDITING: I have no complaints, so it must have been good ;)

TECHNIQUE/STYLE: I think part of my high rating comes from the symbolism of color and lighting in the piece. It's not super deep, but it's intellectually fun to recognize the way the protagonist seems to live, especially right after his daydream, in a sort of grave-light world. He looked honestly like a corpse as he was resurfacing from his rosy remembrance back into his real life. While there was not (to my perception) any light effect when he revisited the grassy place with the new guy, you can feel the black-and-white, washed-out sentiment carried into that scene through his acting. Also, it doesn't take a genius to catch onto this symbolism - it's actually spelled out in a comment the ex makes to the protagonist near the end of the piece. A freebie smart person moment for viewers like me who like to feel clever.

Leia Mais

Wayne was captivating as Haoting. Yu Shigu's actor I think was disadvantaged by shallower writing for his character's dialogue; it left him a little as a foil for Haoting rather than a character in his own right, which I think is a waste of the opportunity to meaningfully watch him learn and struggle with being less serious. It wasn't drastic; he wasn't two dimensional, but he was definitely not fully fleshed out and certain plot choices made sure we never got to see how he might further have grown. As a result we only got to see Haoting's growth, which was still a delight, just less than it could have been.

On the the topic of slightly shallow writing, I generally wish some of the characters relied less on cheesy grins in lieu of characterization or dialogue. I blame the script writers more than the actors. The actors/directors could have let the emotions be a *bit* more variable. The grinning all the time was exhausting to watch - people in love don't have to always give full-blown, huge smiles or a meek, cheerful "嗯!" every time something nice happens.

An indisputably excellent show up to the end of the 9th episode (of the 10 Viki episodes)!! After that, a questionable plot choice is shoehorned in and some weird contrivances are added for? The Drama? Dunno. They tacked on a weird message about making each moment count but they didn't give the characters the chance to do so, really? In fact, we find out that one really important character wasted 6 FULL YEARS of moments that didn't get to count. So. Idk maybe it was deliberate irony.

Leia Mais

Incoherent and irrational, but somehow it dragged me screaming to the finish

The actors did the best they could with a REALLY spotty script. It's... It's not good writing. It's not good plotting. It's not good pacing. The dialogue is passable.

What I don't understand is why the producer or the director or the actors or their agents - why no one forced a rewrite. It's not a coherent screenplay.

I finished it. It's intriguing enough to finish, but it was... it felt like when you eat something despite not liking it because it's so alien, so nearly right but perverted in a direction that doesn't exist in our universe, that you can't stop.

Leia Mais

Thoughtful, complicated

I accept that people who carry themselves like Rio did throughout exist, and therefore accept the character's portrayal in this drama, but I don't like that type of person (jaded but not funny about it, just really cold and haughty - we get it you're wounded. You're missing out on all the funny pain can make you).
Kido was an entire character. He is painfully, thoroughly riddled with his defining flaw. It's a juicy role and the actor made sure we had a lot to bite into.
It tangentially makes you think about the way you navigate the world, but I wouldn't say it's life-changing or inevitably perspective-shifting, though I can see some people feeling very confronted by this piece and maybe growing from the exposure! Good for you if so!
The story doesn't really moralize at you; you might grow in one way or another and no direction is really depicted as correct - every virtue is excruciatingly entwined with its paired vice.

It was fun to watch, but it made me think a bit, and I only like thinking three (3) times in one day so I can't say I'll re-watch anytime soon. I wouldn't say it's cerebral, but it's thoughtful: you get no answers so you walk away still grappling with the questions posed.

Leia Mais

Cute premise, but that's it.

This was probably the worst I've seen from strongberry/matchbox.
The plot didn’t make sense, and not in a "ghosts aren't real" way, but in a "if ghost were real they should still feel emotions that develop from the situation instead of being forced onto the audience without basis" way.
The acting was sloppy and uncomfortable to watch - I never really knew what was supposed to be conveyed in the actors' faces.
Was there a point to the story?? I didn’t get it. I felt like the whole ghost bonding sequence was entirely wasted by a nonsensical script and poor direction/acting. It could have been a really interesting point to make about? Idk not wasting your life? Solidarity between groups oppressed by heterosexual patriarchy? Anything would have been better than the weird, abrupt crying and hugging.
The camerawork and soundwork was messy and inconsistent (did they not have a boom operator on this shoot?), and not to good impact - shaky camera work can communicate something if done well, but done randomly, it just distracts from the (in this case not very good) action. The sound was tinny in a number of scenes.
I hope the team on this project has made a lot of progress since producing this piece.

Leia Mais