Much Better Than I Expected

First, the bad:

- The plot is not particularly fast-moving. I like slow burn, but sometimes it goes around in circles bit too much.
- Scene cuts. When you watch Ep 12, try to find an uncut version, or at least watch the cut scenes after you view the episode. For some reason, the LineTV broadcast cut the most important scene in the entire series, making much of the 12th and all of the final episode totally incomprehensible.
- The acting is uneven. It's not bad by any means. You do get a solid sense of who the characters are, and that's the most important. Folk, who plays the older step-brother, Prab, is a bit too good at being a smarmy dick, so he's not very likeable at first. He's even better at being the sweetest and most loving person in the world, so you're likely to adore him by the end.
- Subtitles. They're nowhere near as bad as So Much In Love, but at times they're confusing, not helped by references to scenes that have been cut.

The good:
- The main couple are so cute it killed me. If the bunny scene doesn't win you over, this show probably won't work for you.
- Everyone is gay. For some, this is a negative, but I liked a world where every single boy is pursuing other boys, and it's totally normal. I was half expecting someone to come out of the closet as straight, and be bullied by his classmates and rejected by his parents. There is only one heterosexual male character (alleged) in the entire series: Chol's father, and I have my doubts about him. Prab's mother should certainly never let him attend a parent-teacher conference at that school unaccompanied.
- There are no implausible failures of communication. People talk things through. As an example, I'll give a minor spolier. Prab and Chol have to visit their father in the hospital. Nick, who had been casually dating Prab, wants to come. Prab, concerned that it might bother Chol, asks for his permission, although not needing it. Chol's response is ambivalent, so Prab disinvites Nick to make sure Chol isn't hurt. That's it. In a "standard" BL, Nick would come along, Chol would be jealous and sulk for two eps, there would be several montages of good times spent together to bad music, before some crisis forces communication. In another case, a guy blows up unreasonably at his bf and stalks off. (Cue two eps of sulking, montages of good times to bad music.) He goes to class, cools off, goes straight to his bf and apologizes for his behavior, they discuss what happened, and it's resolved.

There are two central bits of drama - both are likewise handled with communication, empathy, and and love. I spent half my time staring open-mouthed at my screen wondering where all the sulking and montages were. It was really wonderful.

This is not the best BL ever by any means, but it's in my handful of favorites just because it was invariably a joy to watch. If you can be patient with it for a couple of eps, I don't think you'll be disappointed. If you like BLs where cute boys are cute to each other, this is a gold mine, because not only is it that, it's logically written and not full of fan-servicy elements. When people behave poorly it's understandable why they did, and they almost always recognize it and make amends and apologize.

I don't hesitate to recommend it. There will be times you'll ask "why am I watching this?" But you'll likely want to continue.

Note: Don't stress over the student/teacher thing - nothing bad happens.

Read More

So bad it's good.

This is so awful, but in the most hilarious way. This vies with The Room for best worst thing ever made. If you're here for a great storyline and acting, run as far and fast as you can. But if you want a story that makes no sense, with melodramatic scenes of irrelvant side characters dying of grief, then you are in the right place.

It's sort of weird that there's a fairly graphic fantasy sequence (nothing is actually shown, but what happens without the camera shining on it goes really far by BL standards and is actually really hot) but the actual kiss is the most fake I've ever seen.

And the music. There's a scene in the finale where the type of music that's playing in the final boss battle of a fantasy game accompanies a tiny paper shirt floating down a stream for like 5 minutes, and then a main character spends abut 5 minutes trying to unfold it (because it's soaked and falling apart) to the same music. which somehow reveals the feelings of the other character even though the guy unfolding it is the one who wrote the message inside. He then runs up the 3 ft-wide stream forever instead of just jogging alongside (maybe he wanted a cardio workout?) to get to someone who managed to drown in six inches of water. Sometimes the romantic music is so loud you expect Celine Dion to jump out from behind a bush.

There's a scene where they do the ultimate BL trope of tripping and falling into each other (can we form a committee and get a petition signed to retire that ridiculous and spectacularly overused POS nonsense?) - later there's an episode-long slo-mo memory sequence reviewing all their interaction where you see that the actor is laughing through it, so at least he recognizes how stupid it is.

Anyway, this is so bizarre and melodramatic that if you have a drink before watching and view it in the right mindset, you'll be very entertained. Maybe watch it with a bunch of friends and make it a drinking game. Whenever anyone shouts "WHY!?!?!?" and pounds their fists, or rolls around in the sand sobbing, you have to take a shot.

I'd kind of like to see the smaller actor in something else - he's got an uncommon sex appeal. He's not hard to look at for sure. In the sex scene, his 'come-hither' look would put any porn actor to shame. (Again, it's not a porn scene. You don't see anything, but you know what's going on.) In any case, I would certainly not go thither.

Read More

Daring and Different

To get it out of the way, the production values are not high. This is forgivable given an almost total lack of budget - with the exception of editing. There's a love scene that's expertly done, so someone involved has the ability, and this series could have been much better with proper editing. It's too obvious sometimes that the actors aren't talking to each other as there are unnatural pauses between lines.

The acting isn't bad - there's something oddly compelling and sexy about Mark. Maybe it's the very boyish looks combined with the solid body and languid smirk and the way he moves. The dialogue is more like a play than a film, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, and there's more depth and realism in the conversation even if it's a bit stagey. It does need to be condensed and avoid repetition. I realize real conversations can be repetitive, especially relationship discussions, but extraneous dialogue can be tiresome if it's not driving the plot or characterization.

I have to commend the production for trying something different - BLs in general are getting frustrating as they're all loaded with the same old tropes. In Hook UP there are no accidental kisses, evil girlfriends, nobody says "I'm not gay, I just love X", there's no weird obsession with top & bottom (with the bottom always the less masculine and in a Victorian female role), and the antagonist is an interesting (and incidentally, smokin' hot) character - not your usual 2D villain.

If you're looking for cute boys being cute together with no real substance or story, then this is probably not for you - there is no fan service here - but if you want to see something ambitious and different, you won't feel you've wasted your time.

I'm looking forward to seeing more work from Jace. More shirtless Marky won't drive me away either.

Can anyone explain to me just how many roosters there are in the Philippines? Are the chained to every building or something? WHAT IS WITH THE ROOSTERS.

Read More

A Good First Project

The writing is a bit meandering, introducing a whole new character without any preparation near the end of the series and never really answering any questions - I don't need everything to be explained, but it wasn't clear at all what happened between Mark & David, whether David even knew he was talking to Mark, or whether or not David was serious or playing along.

The acting was fine, not spectacular, but Marky is good at playing cute and sexy (or maybe he's just plain cute and sexy) and was a standout for me. The role didn't really stretch him as an actor, so it's hard to tell how good he is - plenty good for this role, though.

The prodcution values were just too low - there are basics of sound, lighting, and continuity that are flubbed. With only one actor on screen at any time, it should be easy to retake and edit to avoid some of the mistakes. There does seem to be basic artistry in the cinamatograhy, so with improvement in technical execution there seems to be some potential for this production crew.

Anyway, while this isn't going to make your list of favorite BLs, it's not a waste of time, and the characters continue on in Hook Up and Where We Were, so maybe some of the holes in this story will be filled.

Read More

I thought the movie would be better than the meandering mess the series was, but I feel cheated out of the time I spent watching this. I understand these types of films are directed at younger audiences, but in a romance, the two leads have to kiss AT LEAST ONCE. The most we got was a hug. That's it.

Nothing where the boys don't kiss get higher than a 5. I only gave it that much because the actors were excellent - both the leads drew consistent and believable characters, and the side actors were also good. The girlfriend was inconsistently written and it was hard to get a feel for her character.

The technical quality was not bad, although there were some sound issues.

Read More

Unwatchable

This is the dullest BL I've seen - it's unwatchable. I just dropped it after Ep 3, which was almost entirely people messaging each other with a couple of phone calls thrown in, and it was entirely people telling each other they passed their college entraince exams. Riveting.

This is incompetently made. The camera work is good, but the editing is miserable. First of all, there are ways to quickly communicate the characters' excitement about going to college other than each character calling every other character to tell them they passed. The music editing is even worse. The background music is way too loud, and it's the same single bar of pizzicato strings downloaded for free played over and over. There's a scene where someone calls someone who's standing outside a club (to tell him he passed his entrance exams), and every time the perspective shifts to club boy, the same chord from the club track is played - it's so awfully edited it's astonishing.

Title and Man from The Yearbook are quite good, but nobody else stands out - I know what First and Ja look like because I punished myself for my sins by watching Don't Say No, but I honestly can't recognize anyone else from ep to ep. Well, I guess Mean, but he's unrecognizable because his "hair" keeps changing radically and tragically.

I honestly can't understand how anyone can get through this before falling into a coma. Well, I suppose the loud music might keep your brain from shutting down, but the metal spike you shove into your ear to make it stop will have the same effect.

Run away.

Read More