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.
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The Korean Art of Styling
Korean productions are famous for their stylish remakes of other asian drama, c-drama in particular. This is the second time I'm watching a Korean BL drama that has its origin in Chinese BL.Story
Where Your Eyes Linger follows the Chinese BL trope Young-Master-Falling-In Love-With-His Servant. There are several versions on the market, with body guards, butlers, marketing managers, usually with a tragic or open ending. The main question is: will the Master and Servant end up as a real couple? In this case they surely have the support of the mother of He Mi, the embodiment of the female BL stan scene.
Acting/Cast
Jang Eui Soo combines real acting with a sturdy body, ideal for the body guard/servant role. Han Gi Chan has been put forward by his company as try-out for BL-Heartthrob, and why not? With his fine body and feminine features he fits the bill, appealing to men and women alike. Their mission is instant chemistry, because this is one long BL commercial with 8 short episodes, and they deliver. The female roles are exactly what they're supposed to be, not intervening too much.
Music
Leave it to k drama to present us with some catchy pop tunes. This series is like any other.
Rewatch Value
I've started watching Where Your Eyes Linger because I was impressed with the short series Long Time No See (2017) This Korean BL drama combines bloody scenes with steamy scenes, filmed in an aesthetic, yet glamorous style. Where Your Eyes Linger is too slick and stealthy to my taste, like I'm guilty of prying when I see those guys wrestling and washing each other's hair.
Overall
I guess I'm fed up with stories about boys who are supposed to be straight, but feel amorous about a certain guy, like homosexuality is not a way of life, but just an accident. When will the time come that I can watch gripping drama with well rounded characters where the leads just happen to be gay? Now I'm feeling used by Rakuten testing the waters for Boys Love as another marketing formula. Where Your Eyes Linger is bound to bind the main target group, hard working females who are willing to pay a Viki pass to watch implied male sex, unhindered, and in style points too.
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wonderful progress
it warms my heart that such progress is being made for lgbt representation in kdrama. i hate the term "BL" and i don't usually even attempt to watch dramas such as this because they're usually overly sexualised and portrayed as some sort of perversion. however, i do think this strayed away from this a lot and i appreciate that it was short and wasn't dragged out with heaps of fanservice and unnecessary plot. the ending was rushed and no explanations were really made, but i'm ok with that. it was still history in the making and i was proud to witness it.onto the negatives, i guess? the acting wasn't the best i've ever seen. at times the leads didn't seem to have very good chemistry. one of the first scenes that stood out to me was the ear touching one? very awkward and cringe worthy. i don't think 'BL' always has to be about sexual chemistry... i HOPE the "top or bottom" joke was a mistranslation. why are gay couples always hypersexualised? i rarely see this in any other drama. i guess i should just be happy that progress is even being made at all... and hopefully this is a good building block for more to come.
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Good Enough
" Where your Eyes Linger " was a pretty good romance.The pacing, for most of it, was nice, smooth and the inner dialogues just created the perfect angst atmosphere for a dramatic love story that had a huge climax in the end. They actually wrapped things up masterfully and gave the drama a satisfying conclusion that ended all loose ends.
However, towards the middle of the drama, the story was way too fast for the progress of the love story. It felt a bit chopped and rushed.
But, other than that, the performances were great and the story strong.
So, overall, seven out of ten.
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A brief moment of enjoyment that didn't linger
This one left me with a profound feeling of "Yup, that sure was a show I watched!"It's one of the lightest, easiest to watch dramas out there and I'm sure many people will, understandably, love it for that.
The writing is solid, the actors deliver fun and believable performances, and the visuals and editing work well.
And that's about it.
The main leads have an engaging and enjoyable dynamic which leads them approximately nowhere.
Don't get me wrong, I love a good "nothing really happens" story and slow, quiet explorations of life and what it means to be human delight me like nothing else, but that's not what this show gave me.
There is such a profound lack of plot, such a wealth of characters doing nothing more than vaguely existing together that after each episode I just found myself asking "Okay, and?"
So if you're in the market for a show that's nice to look at and will certainly help you while away some 80 odd minutes, this one will deliver. If you're looking for something more you probably won't find it here.
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This review may contain spoilers
for a short drama like this with a plot that's not entirely unique, it seemed to be done pretty damn well. i have to give it up for the actors for this one because wow oh wow the emotions in each episode were explosions after another.... the chemistry is good. i'm convinced with the portrayal of the characters. one is sure of their feelings and one is running away.
han tae joo's actor truly made some stunning expressions and wowie does this boy give you fEeeLinGs.
the main leads' tug of war sort of pull or push kind of thing really intrigued me and i squealed a lot ngl. yes, i'm guilty.
the ost???? fAMMM the ost in this is glorious it's absolutely godsent. the vibe the songs had were haunting, sentimental, badass, boPS.
y'all know what i liked? the fl was not annoying or a villain. i liked that she asked kang gook "do you like tae joo?" on their first date. i also loVe that she didn't come in between the two when she found out about kang gook's true feelings. it felt refreshing.
the ending is your average "the other becomes casper the ghost and is summoned after a few years" but i'm not really mad about it? at least they're alive and kicking skjdjjd
hmmm...... about the kiss..... this is korea? we rarely get BLs so i'm just going to take a seat and be greatful lol
them smiling after the kiss was cute^2 thoooo
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The Best BL of 2020
The production quality is on another league of its own. Everything about this series is just perfect. The acting is great (no cringe), that is why i have a hard time liking Thai BLs because most of them have cringey acting. The chemistry, tension and intimacy are overwhelming. The story is very well delivered considering the time constraints. And it has he best OSTs that i have been playing on repeat. While it's the first mainstream BL series that came out South Korea it has already beaten most of the BLs from other countries.Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
i started watching a few thai bl series this month bc i wanted something new to watch for a change and when i heard of this, i was pleasantly surprised bc we all know how conservative s.korea is when it comes to homosexuality as compared to thailand who's generally more open. i hope the international attention this series have gathered will pave the way for more lgbtq+ centric kdramas. while i applaud that there have been gay representation in kdramas in recent years (e.g. hoya's character in reply 1997 and oh je in at eighteen), they're still mostly cast aside in the drama's storyline.i thought that the bodyguard-boss premise was a bit too fanfic-ish but as the series went on, this distinction between tae joo and kang gook actually played a part to their hesitation to get together and unravelled their insecurities and uncertainties. the story between two bestfriends who have known each other since young and fell inlove was executed well and the chemistry between the two leads were overflowing. their eyes say what they want to but can't. while i do appreciate the short duration of each episode as it allowed the series to solely just focus on the two leads' relationship and not create any unnecessary parts, i think it could still be extended to at least 20 minutes to show some clarity to certain situations tae joo and kang gook allude to like what exactly happened during tae joo's 1 week trip to japan? why is tae joo's mother not with him? what is the family background of kang gook and how did he become tae joo's bodyguard? nonetheless, i still enjoyed watching it and the ending justifiably portrayed the notion that the right thing will eventually happen at the right time.
not even just as a bl, but i can say that where your eyes linger is one of my fav kdramas this year. the storyline, acting and soundtrack (it's so good, one of the best kdrama OSTs i've heard this year tbh) all fit together like puzzle pieces and i'm excited for the director's cut version as well.
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I've talked before about how I don't really like BLs because they fetishize and make gay romances really fanservicey. (this isn't a bad thing alone but when it's the ONLY/MAJORITY rep lgbt romances get then it's an uncomfortable problem that sadly I don't see changing anytime soon bc these shows are damn popular).
Well, this cute little web series is a breath of fresh air! I gave it a chance mostly because it was so short so I knew my time wouldn't be wasted and partly because of that one adorable picture I saw on twt of the leads holding pinkies which was all sorts of uwu.
The drama basically has every kdrama trope: ridiculous plot set up (in this case we have chaebol teen and his same-aged bodyguard who live together bc of... reasons?), lingering looks, stupid amounts of pining, third wheel who obviously has no chance, meddling parents. Even the finale is textbook Korean romance trope.
Which is why I adored it. Cliches are only like that when we've seen them done a million times in the exact same way over & over. But in the same way for example, it's a lot less cliche when we watch a romcom here in the west like Crazy Rich Asians after being bombarded with basically 99% white people romcoms, the set-up feels fresh despite the story following all the same beats.
Basically this is my roundabout way of saying that I liked this drama *because* it had the same format as a classic kdrama romance. Because of that, it felt like a normal kdrama that happened to star gay leads instead of a BL set out to fetishize their gay leads. The boys were adorable together and I'll mostly forgive the ridiculousness of the plot because it's such a short web-drama there's no time for me to think about it.
BL fans will love this for sure. But so will fans of kdramas who fell into them because when it comes to heart fluttering romance, Korea really is unmatched. Now imagine they make a mainstream show like this. Imagine an office romcom with gay or lesbian leads.
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A short review ;)
I loved this drama...I realy did..and I wish I can give it a 10 out of 10 but I cant. Why? Well.. because of side actors and their dialog. Lets be honest..it was ridiculous. On the other hand dialog betwen main actors was great. And not to mention their acting...waaaauuuu. AMAZING. Chemistry betwen them was great. We realy did not need much from them...just few meaningful and lingering looks and teasing touches. That said it all. Production of the drama was also good but OST was AMAZING, better than in some biger dramas. All in all, it was short and sweet and it made my heart jump many times. I definately recomend it. ☆Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
I wish I could have seen a little more development in the relationship than one simple peck. I would have preferred 9 episodes than 8. They have been in love with each other and forced apart for 3 years and that kiss is all they do? I don't buy it. It doesn't have to get X rated, but, nobody in a moment like that kisses like that. Especially, if the feeling is mutual. I loved this drama for the most part, my favorite part was when Gang Gook was beating up all the guards, but, the ending? No. I refuse to accept that kiss. That was kiss was bullshirt. Nope. I also don't understand why they didn't kiss before he left for England, but, I assumed I was just missing some kind of big taboo or something. I haven't been watching K-Dramas for that long, but, why didn't they try to find a way around it? Why didn't their friends help? They accepted them. Why was there all this tension and then the emotional release was such a letdown? There were a lot of ways this could have been different. I would even go so far as to say the more loving scenes felt less real than everything else. I hope there are more BL K-Dramas in the future and I would be happy to watch them even if they are like this, but, I hope it improves. Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
I started watching mostly because of curiosity since there are almost no lgbtq+ kdramas, but as I continued, I became enthralled in the story. The reason I didn't give it a 10/10 was because there was so much potential in the story but it seemed a bit rushed. It was a wonderful show but I think that it could have been even better if the show was longer and had some more development. It would have been really cool if there were episodes showing flashbacks of Tae Joo and Gang Gook. I also feel that the ending could have been stretched out over more episodes(showing parts of Gang Gook and Tae Joo's separate lives after Tae Joo left). Overall, this was a great show and I highly recommend it. This another step towards further normalizing lgbtq+ relationships in South Korean media. Was this review helpful to you?
