Golden Blood (2021)

Potential that fell down like a deck of cards

Let me first highlight that this is one guy's opinion. Opinion, in bold and underlined font.


This series had incredible potential. It had an interesting plot and a decent intro to the series. But it did not take long after for everything to fall apart. Now if this series leaned more into the rom-com category, with an addition of action, things might've changed. However that doesn't seem to be the case.

The acting is just downright terrible. Part of the reason was the cheesy, one-dimensional script and characters. The other part, though, is obviously the acting itself. A lot of the actors had the same dead-pan look throughout the entire series. A lot of the actors went over the top and overacted the scenes. A lot of the actors could not properly express emotions.

The characters were expected. As in, they were not fundamentally unique, just the usual stereotypical cast. Very boring, bland, and often hard to watch. You know what will happen next, and it is not the good kind. There wasn't a single character that struck me as "groundbreaking", and while it is OK to have a character not be unique or stand out amongst the rest, my problem lies with how every single one in this series didn't jump out to me.

The music was just downright terrible. It was either unfitting or distracting. Or both.

I lost count at how many times they added in a slow-mo effect, but it was annoyingly a lot.

This series just wasn't at all appealing to me. It had a cool idea that ran through the dirt.

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A bit disappointing...

I'll be honest, I was really excited for this series. Ever since the announcement of KinnPorsche last year, I was excited for more dramas to come out with this kind of trope! Then this show came along and I was excited to see another show pull this off! But after watching this drama, it really fell short of my expectations, which was really disappointing.

Story: 7/10

The story seemed simple yet intriguing. The idea of a mafia boss's son and a bodyguard is an amazing trope, but the story written with it was poorly executed. I was excited to see how they would face his father, but like others have said the reviews it is mainly the last 2 eps. The writing of the characters was poor (besides Pitch and Bank!) so sometimes I found myself laughing at "sad" scenes, especially anytime Sky started crying. Sky and Suns characters were okay, I found myself really liking Sun and seeing his development as a person, and not as much Sky (I partially blame the acting). As I saw others mention in the reviews, it was hard to like the two girls in the show, because they were never really written with any redeeming qualities! I kind of felt bad that Sky was leading them on...but that was probably about it. Overall, it was an okay story, but I'm sad it was so rushed at the end.

When Pitch and Bank at the beginning of ep 8 were like "yeah, were boyfriends!" it made me go back to ep 7 because I thought I had missed something, like I skipped a scene, but nope, that just came out of no where. I was really excited to see more of Pitch and Bank at the end but they didn't really get a chance to fully develop it. I understand 8 eps is a hard number to work with, but there were a couple of scenes they could have taken out or re-written to make the flow of the story better, personally. Despite their rushed story at the end, Pitch and Bank saved this series!! I like how a small enemies-to-lovers trope was included, and they were absolutely hilarious! They made the show 10000% more enjoyable, that's why the rating is a 7 and not lower than that.

Acting/Cast: 7.5/10

I saw that this has been said, so I'll keep it short here. Gun is not that good of an actor. His scenes where he was sad just made me feel no remorse. His facial expressions were a little over the top, and his crying seemed so emotionless. I wish they had casted a much better actor for someone in such an important role! Now Boat, for someone who I've never seen before in a series, he was amazing! As his character started to develop and change, I also noticed how his acting style changed too! He really made me fall in love with Sun and I think they couldn't have chosen someone better for this role.

Don't even get me started on Pitch and Bank, the saviors of this show. First Pitch, I fell in love at first sight honestly. His character had such development and the actor himself was amazing at portraying it! I really felt his emotions through the whole series, especially when it came to how confused he was about how he had feelings for Bank. He was able to show how he seemed so lost, but he was able to portray it perfectly, his acting was always top-notch! Now Bank, also fell in love, he's such a cutie! Bank appeared as a naïve, innocent, university boy, which the actor played super well. But I also loved how his character switched to being so direct when asking an answer from Pitch about how he really felt about him, because he also felt the same way. Their acting and chemistry together was amazing! The pond scene with the two of them gave me butterflies! It sad to hear a lot of their scenes were cut out because of run time, but maybe they will be cast together again!!

All in all *most* of the actors in this series were pretty well cast for their roles, so overall I gave it a 7.5/10 (but yes, it was mostly for Pitch and Bank).

Music: 8/10

I'm not gonna be a super tough critic on this part. I mean, the opening was good, but sitting here right now righting this review I have no idea what it sounds like off the top of my head. But music they used as background music or during certain scenes was pretty well placed. I never really noticed any scenes where the music was disrupting/distracting. So, I thought an 8/10 was reasonable.

Rewatch Value: 6/10

I'll be honest, I think I'm being generous in this section. I will probably never re-watch this show in its entirety. I will probably look up a Pitch and Bank cut on YouTube and re-watch those scenes. This show (especially the last 3-4 eps) just really were hard to get through, because the story just started to get so STALE. Now, especially since I have seen this super predictable show, I am not going to sit through Guns acting just to watch Pitch and Bank, no thanks!

Overall: 7/10

AGAIN, I think I'm being super generous with this rating, but I feel like its not quite in the 5-6's. Taking into consideration; the budget, how quickly they seemed to have filmed this, and casting, I think its pretty good all things considered. What lowers the rating is some things that could have been fixed beforehand. The story wasn't properly written, so it was well paced for the first 4 eps, but then SUPER RUSHED in the other 4! Also if they had taken time to do more workshops, they could have maybe tried and re-casted someone in Gun's place (I'm sorry Gun you're probably a wonderful person but this role was just not for you). Personally, Pitch and Bank could have passed as the main couple, and they had outstanding chemistry for being a side couple! Besides the main four characters (both couples) any other character that shows up was poorly written and seemed to never have a purpose, they were just was a clear plot device for something to happen. So, if you want to watch this you have been warned, but honestly I would watch it for the second couple! Don't expect anything too high quality but its a simple watch.

SIDE NOTE:

I also wanted to mention something about another drama, I saw no one else mention it so I thought I would bring it up. There's a show that has a very similar story to this one, its a Korean BL called "Where Your Eyes Linger" and it essentially is the same story, VERBATIM. After I finished Golden Blood I felt like I had watched a bad version of this show. "Where Your Eyes Linger" is the same plot (except without the blood thingy in this show) and it has the same ending, with the traveling abroad and coming back. I just thought it was interesting that all shows with this type of trope follow the same track. Wouldn't it be nice to see some more variety? It might have just been me who was this but I wanted to bring it up! I'm not saying they copied it because of course this show has some clear differences; this one is double the length, different small issues, but the main plot points were strikingly similar to me!

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Don't waste your time, unless you have time

So... I've finished this series in two days and there is a lot of good but a lot of bad as well...

Let me start with the good things:
- The start of the series was really interesting. As a whole, the main plot (and I'm not talking about the romance plot line) is quite enjoyable to watch.
- The fight scenes are really well-done. I'm not an expert in fighting but I can notice when the production has made an effort to train their actors when they have fight scenes, and here is the case. I wouldn't say it is realistic because we still have things like an enemy who is waiting for his turn to fight the main character or the villain that waits before pulling the trigger. However, Sun's fight scenes were believable and really nice to watch.
- Pitch and Bank's couple. This is the only thing that I didn't expect from the story! I really didn't see it coming and was pleasurably surprise to see them getting together. I absolutely loved their scenes together and they actually had the best kiss scenes from the series.
- Boat's acting. Unlike Gun that I know from LBC, I discover Boat in this series and he's really good! He really knows how to act, fight, cry... He is convincing in his role.

Now, I'm going to talk about the bad things:
- From the middle of the series to the end, it gets boring. Maybe because they focus more on the romantic relationship between Sun and Sky but I found it a bit boring. And I really dislikes the end (I'm afraid to reveal too much but for those who have watched the series you'll know what I mean). Sky's father and the number of years were totally ridiculous.
- The clichés... I know a lot of BL shows use them but in this show, it was ridiculous and cringe. I really disliked watching them and was rolling my eyes everytime I saw one. They really should stop with that and try other ways to get the two main characters close.
- The fact that the boys used the girls' feelings. Ok, Juno was a bit too much hitting on Sun but at least, she gave him clear signs that she was interested in him. So why didn't Sun tell her that he was not interested in her? At least, she would've clearly known (even though it was pretty clear he was not interested but I don't blame Juno for continuing pursuing him if he didn't say anything). Sky, on the other hand, was clearly using Tortank (forgot the spelling, sorry) to get Sun jealous and I didn't like that.
- Gun's acting. I don't hate him as an actor. I kind of liked him in LBC but when he has to pull off emotional scenes, he's not really convincing (sorry). Someone already pointed that out in the reviews but everytime he has to cry or be angry, he shows his teeth and it kind of became ridiculous. Especially when he cries (if he really cries because I couldn't see any tears).
- The singing scenes. It was boring to watch the two actors sing, especially because they sing the whole song and we have flashbacks. Also, I'm really not sure they are the one singing and the instruments used in the series don't correspond to the ones we hear from the audio. It was really poorly done.

Overall, it was an ok series but the end really made me angry and disappointed (it is a happy ending but I hated some elements). I would still recommend watching the series if you have nothing else to do but once is enough!

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I blame the director

I would like to start by saying that I blame the director. All my major problems with this series basically boil down to the director not directing properly.

Premis is a forbidden romance I can get behind.
Bodyguard falling in love with the boss's son.
Love & duty on the line.💃🏾

For the most part even though the mc starts off as a little spoiled brat, he does get better as it goes on.

The bodyguard is just kinda sad with his kind of adoptive father taking advantage of him the way he does. He is generally good if a little stoic most of the time.

I liked the 2nd couple, they were funny & cute and really deserved a more well developed story than what they got.

The mob bosses and their henchmen were okay. I laughed at them more than I probably should have but they weren't terrible..

The acting overall was okay until the more emotional scenes which is when the director needed to direct the actor better because his acting went from decent to...
The emotional scenes just fell flat coz I couldn't get past his acting which again someone should've flagged & helped.

It was rehearsed, shot multiple times, edited and reviewed and NO ONE thought that maybe they should re-shoot those scenes after giving some helpful feedback to the actor? No one😭

In conclusion: Direct damn it. He wasn't a bad actor, he just needed better direction!

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Watch for Pitch and Bank.

Story, 5.5 :
I liked this series in the beginning and I really enjoyed watching Sun and Sky for the first few episodes. But their story became annoying really quickly. The lack of communication on Suns part really pissed me off and Sky was too hot headed and dramatic for my taste. I would have stopped watching if not for Pitch and Bank. Not gonna lie, Pitch kinda sucked in the first episode but second episode on, he was great. He and Bank were so funny and I think their story was much better. Their drama was more understandable and was resolved much quicker, which I enjoyed a lot. If only they'd had more screen time to show more of their relationship building and some more cute couple scenes.

Acting, 6.0:
Sky wasn't very good at dramatic scenes, Sun was a bit too stony for my taste but that is more of a charecter critique than an acting one. Pitch and Bank were pretty good, not incredible but good enough.

Music, 5.5:
I didn't pay much attention to the music so I can't really say much.

Rewatch Value, 4.0:
I would not watch this again. I will watch Pitch and Bank edits because I really do like them but they don't have enough screen time to justify watch all the episodes again.

Overall, 6.0:
I enjoyed it but I think that it's not worth all the hours it took to watch. That being said, I really like the first few episodes and Pitch and Bank are cute so I'm giving it a higher rating than I would had Pitch and Bank not existed. Watch this if you want but if you want Pitch and Bank alone without Sky and Sun's annoying drama, just watch edits on YouTube.

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It's better than you'd think.

I do have to admit the cover image threw me off from this drama at the beginning. It was giving "editing is my passion!" meme vibes. That being said, after giving it a go, this wasn't nearly as bad as I thought It'd be.

~Story:
Let's get the elephant in the room out of the way: Yes, this is definitely inspired by the *really good* Korean BL "Where Your Eyes Linger." However, am I mad about it? Hell to the no! And I'll talk about this in a bit.
Back to the point, the story was very well written for the mains and the mains only. I personally really liked it because it felt very complete from beginning to end (and because I love WYEL). We had so much plot about both characters there is literally no questions left to ask. That attention to detail is something that A LOT, and I mean WAY TOO MANY dramas of the BL genre fail to deliver today.
I do think it was a little cheeky and cringey at some points but, on the good side, it was well balanced. There was a bit of action, a bit of comedy, a bit of angst, a bit of drama, a bit of gay shit to clench the thirst, and a bit of cringe. I kinda wish the cringe was minimal, but once the main started singing I had to leave the room cuz I couldn't take it. Episode 7 is one of the most cringey yet hilarious shit Thailand has given me so far.
Everything else in the drama was definitely lacking on screen time to the point I wish it wasn't there. There was little to no room left to care about the friends and their relationship, and the mafia storyline was weak. They weren't well integrated, unfortunately.
Now, as a fan of WYEL, I have to say that this is what I needed. Honestly, WYEL was too damn short for a story that deserved more depth and Golden Blood became all the filler WYEL was missing. When I started looking at it from this perspective, I wished so badly the company behind WYEL could go back and create a full drama to give the story justice. Despite the fact Golden Blood had its faults, it is still superior due to how complete it is.

~Cast/Acting:
It is just as good as it is bad. I'm tired of repeating the same thing, but it's just that these Thai actors are all making the same mistakes over and over again.

Sky: It's satisfying to see how Gun has grown as an actor. The first time that I saw him was a couple years ago in "Love by Chance." His role there was... awkward, to say the least, but it has evolved into something a lot more natural. There were some parts in which he gave us way too much intensity, but I can live with it. At least it was watchable, you know.

Sun: I keep wondering if his "beard" was real or not. Either way I want him to eat my ass like it's his life source. This guy, Boat, was giving me everything my gay ass looks for in a man. Hard nipples, bitch. That is all. Okay, but he did a very good job for the most part. I kinda wish he had made his voice sound a little deeper, though.

~Editing, pacing, direction:
For something that doesn't seem to have a big budget, I think they did the best they could and it paid off a lot better than I was expecting. I once read a review that said the fighting scenes were bad but, honestly, they were the best fight scenes Thailand has given us within a BL. Except episode 7. Please let me forget the entirety of that episode.

Sis, this show has everything: Mafia, action packed lifestyles, college students acting like elementary schoolers, a beard that makes your asscheeks tingle when he's going down on it, that bitch with the chopped hair, unrequited love, past traumas, nurturing feelings, and more. I recommend it, SPECIALLY if you have seen WYEL.

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A Mafias son And his Bodyguard

This Story Evolves around a son who's father would do anything for his son, While the son loves His father he feels Controlled by his fathers best wishes to keep his son safe, the struggles of being a son of a mafias father has made the son want to experience what life has to offer but feels his father is strangling his search for the experience of the outside world away from the mafia life, But before you get to caught up in the type of mafia life his father leads, its far from a tyrannical strangle hold demanding mafia boss that you would think of when you hear the word mafia. The son has decided he wants to be schooled away from his father to give himself some sort of freedom to experience life for himself. reluctantly his father agrees to let his son take more control of his own life and lets him move to a location where he can fend for himself. however unknown to the son the father has taken to have a bodyguard live with the son. From the first moments they meet the son is confused as to why this guy is standing in his doorway. after they exchange heated words the son lets the Bodyguard into his home. From there on they both will be tied together like the bodyguard is his cousin in disguise they are both enrolled at the same school and take the same classes and are stuck together.

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Good idea and that's all

Got to say - I didn't finish it and I doubt I will. Why not? Well, this review is basically the answer to that question.

Let's start with the story - the idea of rich student who's father is a mafia boss and sends his son a bodyguard due to problems with other mafia boss - very good, I haven't seen that in other Thai BLs yet. But as soon as I thought ''maybe it's a non-schematic BL'' the plot hits with tons of typical stuff we all saw in many other series: one of the main lead falls and his future boyfriends catches him, a date that isn't clearly a date, singing a song to each other, going on a university trip, straight girls falling for main leads and causing problems, one is getting drunk and the other one takes care of him... And many more. Besides relationship young master-bodyguard we don't get anything we don't know.
We get a lot of plot holes, unrealistic, I mean completely unrealistic scenarios that could never happen in real life and constant switching between sad, overdramatic moments, cute romantic interactions and typical Thai comedy. Actually the last one isn't that bad although I find it pretty funny how one second we have guns, fights, blood and the other we get normal school life and joking around.

Moving to characters, some of them were pretty well written, like Sun or Pitch. Sun was a character that made me feel like he actually had some ''layers'' and was not a shallow character who's just cold on the outside and soft in the inside while Pitch had absolutely amazing charisma and he brought so much life to the show. I really liked his face expressions, those eyebrows added a lot more to his character.
The worst things I have to say are unfortunately about Sky. Some of the scenes made him look like a boss, but in fact he's just a big child. Literally. Also, giving money to random kid in act of ''kidness'' and going out of the car then looking around and sighing, smiling like an idiot - it all screams main character complex. Going back to him being a big child, no one can say that his actions towards Toktaeng weren't childish. He straight up started to fake his interest just because he was jealous and wanted to make Sun feel bad. He was also acting very strange in the last episodes, changing his mood from happy little puppy to angsty teen in a matter of seconds. Annoying. The only good thing about him was his opennes about his feelings and emotions, he didn't try to hold everything in himself too long like Sun did and he strived for communication. At least with Sun, because when it comes to other people it wasn't so easy for him.
The last - Bank & girls. Bank was fine for me, kind of cute, while Toktaeng and Juno, especially Juno made me lose my mind. I felt pity for them though. Juno was so thirsty for Sun, breaking his privacy and making physical contact when he clearly didn't want to, that's not something I wanted to see. But in the end we all know they were here just to play the roles of straight girls liking male leads, so we could have more drama.

Acting was fine, not the top tier but just OK. I especially liked Sun's microexpressions as well as Pitch's eyebrows lmao. Boat and Sugus did such a great job here.

Music - as in every BL. Literally, nothing to add here.

So, if you usually enjoy Thai BLs - I recommend this one. Slightly different from the rest, might be cool for you. On the other hand, if you just found out [like me] that you cannot stand schematic BLs any longer, it's not for you.

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El guardaespaldas (versión bl)

ACTUALIZADO AL FINAL
Me gusta bastante esta serie, esta historia de amor entre un joven guardaespaldas y el hijo universitario de un mafioso. Había leído mangas BL con esta temática pero en cuanto a series thai bl de este tema creo que es la primera y para mi era refrescante ver algo diferente dentro del cliche bl universitario o escolar. Y me he enganchado, la pareja principal tiene química, son muy dulces y bonitos, y la secundaria sorprendentemente también (qué guapos son!). Las chicas no son entes malvados antagonistas de los protagonistas ni fujoshis locas que ven gays en todos los sitios sino veinteañeras normales que se enamoran de su compañero de clase sin toxicidad. El romance es slow burn, y por eso se ve más realista. Estamos a la mitad de la serie y creo que podremos ver un correcto desarrollo de las dos parejas y bonitas escenas de besos. En cuanto al misterio "mafioso" y las escenas de acción, hemos visto por ahora algunas correctamente realizadas y otras no tanto pero no nos rasgaremos las vestiduras por ello. Estamos aquí para ver romance y si nos dan un poco de intriga y acción pues no vamos a decir que no , jajaj. Vamos a ver como se desarrolla , por ahora y pese a que el guión es sencillo y hay algunas lagunillas, las interpretaciones son correctas, la historia se deja ver muy bién, es entretenida y abundan los momentos dulces y románticos. Una de las cosas que me gusta más de esta serie es que NO tenemos múltiples posibles ships potenciales que después quedan en nada (véase: Nitiman, arghhhhh), esta serie no engaña, hay dos parejas protagonistas (principal y secundaria) y su ship ya está a punto para navegar, veamos como les va en mar abierto!!
11 agosto: hoy he visto el último capítulo y sigo pensando que esta serie, aún con sus lagunas y (creo) su poco presupuesto, es entretenida y mejor resuelta que otros bl thailandeses recientes (vease Nitiman, Oxygen, Tonhon Chonlatee...)aunque inferior a la joya que es Where your eyes linger ( miniserie bl coreana con el mismo tema). La historia es agradable de ver, la pareja protagonista tiene mucha química y la secundaria también, el final es precioso y te deja con una sonrisa en la boca. Sigo pensando que falta trabajar más los momentos dramáticos y emotivos para evitar la sobreactuación. Hay actores de bl que no saben llorar y cuando lo hacen gesticulan y gritan demasiado, da un poco de cringe de ver.

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