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Gray Shelter korean drama review
Completed
Gray Shelter
1 people found this review helpful
by Miriam LaTour
10 days ago
5 of 5 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 10
Story 10.0
Acting/Cast 10.0
Music 10.0
Rewatch Value 10.0
This review may contain spoilers

Beautiful Art House Mini-Series

I love the angst and ambiguity of this mini-series. The directing and editing choices are so fascinating. It’s very indie arthouse, aimed at a niche audience rather than typical BL fans. At first the messy jump transitions that skipped randomly through time and space felt like a mistake, but as it proceeded I realized that this is an emotion/character-driven series, and not at all focused on a plot line. The broken movement and unsettling feeling of being jerked throughout the story are definitely intentional.

This little art piece is about two broken men who have come from painfully unstable situations. Soon Hyuk tries to fight the chaos by assuming the role of caretaker for everyone around him, grinding himself into the ground with the burden of responsibility. Yoon Dae succumbs to the chaos by shutting down and becoming dysfunctional so that everyone has to care for him.

The men are drawn to each other by a strong sexual attraction and even stronger need for a stable family. But neither of them have a template for a stable relationship.

SPOILER⚠️

In the end, Soon Hyuk realizes that Yoon Dae has to be independent of his ambiguous (gray) “shelter” before they can even begin to develop a healthy relationship.

I think the cryptic ending will piss off some people, but I LOVE it. It’s perfect. Not only is it realistic and mature, but it leaves the series open for extension (or imagination). I adore that. A tight ending wouldn’t have fit the mood of the series at all.
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