Loving You

I watched this in very poor quality video on youtube so if you know of any other service providing a better quality please do tell! I'd love to watch it again because the story is fascinating.

It is a story of two photography students. Noboru is an immensely talented but introverted and barely talking to others. The other one, Hayase is impressed by Noboru's talent and intrigued by his personality and even though he tries to be friendly, he is met with an unbreakable wall every time he tries. One day Noboru saves Hayase from drowning. A few days later Hayase bumps into Noboru's twin brother Ryu, who is the complete opposite.

They do not make them like this anymore: the authors managed to tell a complete, complicated story of Noboru and his twin brother in a 1h movie. On the other hand, we know absolutely nothing about Hayas: I guess he is just an ordinary student coming from an ordinary family. But surrounded by a bunch of annoying friends starting with the noisy and nosy girl hitting hard on Hayase of which he is completely unaware.

The best scene and the most original was a photography shoot duel in a studio. Amazing idea! Fun and it tells a lot about the characters' relationship with each other and tou can actually see Noburu's walls cracking....

The movie is 15 years old and it shows in costumes and flip mobile phones (aaahhhh, good old times!?) but what is important
here is the story well told with an interesting twist at the end! I wish it were longer in order to elaborate more on the issues involved and how to deal with them. This is the problem here, just like in a lot of bls where they mention mental health issues quickly solved by falling in love.

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Righteous warriors

First and foremost: what is a dead animal doing on Suda Masuki's head? It is so distracting!!!!

This "case of the week" series has an original premise and colourful characters telling a story of a company who deletes sensitive content from their client's devices upon their demise. Bur sometimes these deletes are not as simple as they seem.

The series features Kai, a wheelchair bound CEO computer wiz suffering from an unknown illness and the aforementioned carrier of a dead furry animal Yutaro helping Kai in his investigations to right the wrongs. They are a kind of righteous warriors with Kai slowly reconsidering his cold and rigid rules in contact with "happy go lucky" Yutaro.

The series has 8 episodes dealing with some sensitive issues such as suicide, corruption and bullying (don't asian producers just love making dramas about bullying! It must really be a huge problem in their societies? Though it is probably the case everywhere where teens and social medias are in play!). Through these cases we get to know slightly, ever so slightly, until the last episode, the main character's background stories. As I was watching it I had lost hope that we'd find out more about our warriors. The last episode explained a lot eventually.

I really have a bone to pick with the writer about Yutaro: everything about him is just so over the top. Starting with the dead furry animal on his head, clothes found in the bin, posture worthy of Hunchback of Notre Dame. Was it really necessary to make him such an ugly sight to see. And even though he was kind, smart and really perceptive, I was still really surprised anyone wanted to talk to him when he approached them with his unkempt looks. And I am a Suda Masaki fan but here I prefered the actor playing Kai. While Suda Masaki was bouncing off walls as Yutaro, Yamada Takayuki as Kai was the essence of calm and intelligence, who, in contact with Yutaro, starts showing cracks in his armour.

My pet peeve is hair and all three main characters had awful hairstyles and wigs?!?!? Why? Especially Yutaro with his furry pet on his head!

On the other hand the music was unusual. The main theme that kept playing reminded me of those US shows from the 70/80s: heavy on guitars ant every time it played I expected to see those colourfully dressed US shows' characters strutting around (i.e. Miami Vice, Shaft etc.). That is another issue I have with j dramas: the music is very often used wrongly. That bothered me very much in Mystery to Yunakare but it was more bearable here.

Anyway, I liked this drama a lot though still one question remains: what was that dead furry animal doing on Yutaro's head?

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Beauty and the Beast

I have a big issue with a majority of manga adaptations which is that often they keep that manga feel: the over the top behaviour, screaming, making faces which, having its place in drawn form, should not be seen in live adaptation in my opinion. Couldn't that be one of the reasons that j dramas are underrated on this site and generally speaking? The rule is: you don't like, you don't watch, nobody's forcing you! I dropped so many J dramas so far!

Anyway they managed to tone down a bit that manga behaviour, not completely but just enough to make this movie watchable.

Shizuku is a high achiever in her high school. All she's interested in is studying, she has no friends nor she's interested in having any. One day teacher sends her to deliver some school material to Haru who hasn't been to school since the first day. When he meets he, he falls for her and goes back to school. The two of them attract attention of other students and soon enough a group of friends is created. But there is mystery behind Haru and his behaviour!

I came upon this movie on Feeds here recently and frankly I wouldn't have watched it if it weren't for Suda Masaki. He is extraordinary here playing Haru as a wild child raised by animals in the jungle something of Tarzan including hunched posture, wild jumps and animal growls. Afterwards we discovered that all this is a rebellion against his father.
Shizuku is a serious, very serious girl, who manages to tame Haru but also makes him run away because she fails to understand why he wants to run away from things she craves to have.

The main theme of this movie are actually the parents who often fail their children: Haru and Shizuku both have serious issues with their own parents mostly the abandonment be it physical by moving away or emotional. The kids' attitudes are direct result of that abandonment.

Since this is a movie, we did not get to see much of the friends group's development and there are some interesting side characters. The first friend Haru & Shizuku make is a girl fed up with her own online popularity but without real friends.

The cinematography is too bright but pale with only red school uniforms standing out. There were a few rather unconvincing special effects. The music is nice but nothing remarkable. Don't forget to watch the final credits: that is the real ending of the movie.

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Trust to be able to love

I have not read the book or followed the filming turmoils on social medias. I just started watching this on a whim, a bit reluctantly, fearing the worst because of the steamy title. Before the first episode was finished, I was hooked. The characters were working adults dealing with serious problems all the while falling in love and showing how steamy it can be!

And steam we got, loads of it. But also, so much more! So much more!

This is the story of Uea and King who falls in love with him at first sight but due to his bad reputation Uea accepts only to become friends with benefits. Uea's calm and immovable face, hides childhood traumas he buried deep not letting anyone come close to him. After the initial macho attitude, King realizes there was more than meets the eyes about Uea and starts respecting the lines Uea drew for their relationship. This respect King shows, breaks down the defenses Uea so painstakingly built over the years and he starts healing.

The story deals about the abuse within the family and in the workplace. Respect for family members (parents) even if they are violet and abusers is so deeply ingrained that it is difficult to move and do something about it. Harassment at work is also difficult to fight against especially when the abuser is the boss. Uea just takes everything upon himself and breaks down only when King is around. He trusts him. The series dealt with mental health, how to trust the people around you, how to protect yourself and how to accept that the healing process will take time. For once in a bl, love is not a miracle cure. It helps, but the real solution is to ask for professional help and let time do its job.

The main actors are extraordinarily talented and they portrayed King and Uea with brio. Net, as King, was all in nuances and the expressions in his eyes were telling so much. James as Uea made me think of Lee Joon Gi, light and almost transparent and still leaving an indelible impression. They were so in synch that they completely made me forget I was watching a BL. It was not a bl any more for me, it had become just an extraordinary love story. The chemistry between them is off the charts! They are so perfect together!

The cast of side characters was miscellaneous: creeps were creepy, friends were nerdy, the mother was venomous. The scenes of abuse were raw and real and scary and frightening and infuriating. Very hard to watch!

A lot of people found issue with the editing, saying it was bad and messy. No, not true! I had no problems following the story. There were a few instances when they went flash forward flash backwards but I was OK with that. That made me pay attention more to what was happening on the screen so doing something else at the same time or fast forwarding was impossible: where is absolutely nothing you can skip. The cinematography was a bit basic: while there were some beautiful shots of sunset all warm orange and pink, the shots of the city and the office were gray and cold! Songs were boring but I liked the orchestral background score which was a perfect reflection of feelings changing. Costume designer did their job perfectly: dressing King always in black while Uea was always dresses in silk and colours, which was a good representation of their characters' hiding behind a shield made of clothes.

The last episode ruined a little bit the series for me. It was just a piece of fluff, completely unnecessary since every conflict and problem had already been resolved in episode 9. The bad people had been punished, the good people talked and sorted themselves out. So the last episode was just the honeymoon! Pretty but boring! Happy people are boring! It is a fact!

This was an exceptional series I did not expect and that I ended up loving so much. So it depends what you are looking for in a drama? If it is just fluff and romance, this is not it. If it is something serious but still a romance, this is for you. this is a drama for adults not teens!

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Nothing new but so much fun!

A classic tale of a cold rich man who falls for a sweet country girl. They clash. They kiss and live happily ever after. THE END

When I discovered web dramas a few years ago (I am a fairly recent drama watcher!), this drama was practically on top of every list. So I started watching it and dropped it immediately after about 10min. >The overbearing CEO and the goody two shoes country bumpkin were too much to bear. I never planned to pick it up again until recently I read a review which changed my mind. Maybe at the time I was not ready to watch it due to the utter lack of familiarity with Korean entertainment. This time around, it is so different.

The overbearing cold man is hilarious. The country bumpkin is not as naive as she seems to be. Their push and pull, the bickering with side characters, the idols in training, the rival producer: everything was perfectly synchronized. The CEO & his secretary have an amazing relationship (the bromance is top notch!) and their comic timing is just perfect. I usually do not like comedy dramas from Korea: not my kind of humour with too much slapstick (which I find totally cringy!) but here it was just rather universal, smart with a minimum of body humour and mostly chatter!

The cast of secondary characters was outstanding: from the psychiatrist to the company staff to the idols and even the rivals, they were all fully fleshed out and not superficially just introduced. They were there to help move the story forward but not only: they also changed in contact with the FL.

I loved the FL saying ancient proverbs to encourage herself and the others.

This is a very positive drama, not a single toxic or evil character (the rival producer was just ...funny!), no love triangle, some misunderstandings but solved rather quickly. The story is pretty much straightforward full of usual clichés but dut to its format (15min episodes) no time was wasted on useless plot devices. And even though it did take them 20 episodes to finally get together, it flowed naturally, it was not annoying or boring.

High End Crush is a comedy and should be viewed as such: do not look for a deeper meaning or a criticism of korean idol industry (all idols in training here are kind and sweet and friends with each other!). The music is setting the tone for a comedy.
It was a nice quick watch. If you ever need a palate cleanser after a heavy drama, this one should do the trick!

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I have only discovered these micro web dramas and apparently there are so many of them.

I chose to watch this one because I needed something starting with Q for my Alphabet Challenge.

It was short, and therefore rushed. The concept was interesting: a modern girl dies and is sent to game set in an ancient world where she has to complete tasks in order to go back home. But instead of only becoming the empress she falls for the emperor.

There is some average acting by the entire cast and some pretty scenery and sets for the ancient China. But it looks and feels limited budget and filmed with a single digital camera!

I kept thinking of Moon Lovers while I was watching it: time travel by body swapping and meet again in present!

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I won't run away any more!

I have to give it to Korean bl producers: the webseries they make are either excellent or unwatchable, there is no middle! When they are good, they are very very good, when they are bad, they are awful! Well this one is of the first kind.

It is a friends to lovers story, filled with tropes and still so charming, sweet, fresh and a joy to watch. Main characters start off as clichés but reveal unexpected sides to their personalities. The cocky Eddie has a vulnerable, insecure side while the apparently cowardly Ian who keeps running away, has a decisive and strong side. The chemistry between them is spot on and the story keeps the usual misunderstanding provoking problems to a strict minimum solving them rapidly. Fortunately the drama is devoid of any "blast from the past" in form of an ex boyfriend (though here, they went for the usual virginal K-drama couple, first love and all that jazz!) I loved the short scenes at the end of episodes applying their dating sim to their own story.

The dating sim was totally incomprehensible for me (maybe it was just gibberish used as a backdrop, I don't know, I don't speak start-up tech language!) I do not like the start up setting as well: their coolitude, casual Friday dress code every day and having English nicknames...I find all that ridiculous but I do not know anyone working in such an environment so maybe that attitude is helpful in workplace. The music was unremarkable, the side characters colourful and present just enough but not too much . I guess with only 2h of drama, they did not have the time to expand upon them, and the drama is all the better for it: no unnecessary baggage!

All in all, this was two hours well spent on a sweet, slightly boring and angst free journey.

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Cute palate cleanser!

Considering this is an idol web drama, it was a cute and short watch with a simple reverse harem plot.

A girl gets a part time job in a convenience store and meets four guys who end up having a crush on her.

There is nothing new of surprising in this short drama. The girl is a ditzy teenager, a cliché nice pretty and a bit silly girl. The four guys are the extreme examples of clichés, so stuck in their types, cute though with a few out of character, unexpected scenes. And of course, what would a drama be without a jealous mean girl? So they put in two! The funniest part was the girl's relationship with her sister, their banter was so sweet!

The actors are cute, the music is non existent, the filming is standard...nothing original!

Anyhow, this is a easy one hour watch. Nothing surprising and nothing much annoying so if you need a quick palate cleanser between two long dramas, this one fits the bill perfectly!

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In a bubble....

I love a good melodrama and this one was one of the best: short and to the point.

This drama takes place within the world of japanese sweets makers, bound by the rigid rules of japanese society. It is a world unlike any I have seen previously: it is apparently taking place at this day and age but their behaviour and the way of life is out of another era. They are wearing kimonos all the time and I have not seen a single mobile phone anywhere: when they needed to talk to someone at the distance, they used the old fashioned land line! Even the characters themselves admited to be strange: "There is something wrong with us!" they say repeatedly!

So into this world comes a young woman, an expert sweets maker with a revenge on mind and shakes everything up!

The story is a usual melodrama one: betrayal, lies, murder, fight for inheritance, back stabbing...everything is there and is so much fun to watch!

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What is your dream?

Would you like the person you like to ask you this question? Well the main character did, and the woman fell for him hook, line and sinker! Why? Because he thought only of her needs not his own, or theirs for that matter!

Love Is Science? is a very ordinary noona romance. Very, very, very ordinary! So ordinary that it is boring! The ML has been carrying the torch for the FL since primary school. She has never been aware of it. And he never managed to forget her ! When they meet again she does not recognize him. But he recognized her immediately. She is a strong woman, he is in adoration before her and even though he manages to stand up for himself in workplace but with her it is a different story. There is an ex husband who comes back but is chased away by her. He is just standing by, steadfastedly!

What saves this dramas skin is the second couple and a half. The MMF combo is well written and brilliantly funny, smart and cheeky. And of course the third couple formed by a farmer and a banker: opposites attract so yes, love is science!

There is no toxicity, problems are talked about and resolved as soon as possible, secrets are shallow. Everyone is nice and kind. And everyone assumes their choices gladly and without a doubt!
The music is awful and I hated the main theme with all my might: it sounds like alley cats singing! I do not want to rewatch it: it is far too long. Though I could be persuaded to watch the second couple cut! Now that was a story worth telling!

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Teens in love do silly stuff!

Well, this was a surprisingly original experience I ended up enjoying immensely! The ratings for this series are very low and I am reluctant to watch anything rated below 7.5. But some of my favourite reviewers recommended it so I decided to take a plunge and watch it! Luckily it is short and really good!
Love Poison is a story of two brothers finishing high school, Ko and Sek and their love lives! It takes place in the countryside in the north of Thailand and it is pretty to look at and has a local colourfulness that is charming.
Actually this countryside setting is reminiscent of a many vietnamese BLs I'd seen. This one could have easily been one of them, because Thai bls for the most part are in urban setting. Here we get to see village, rice fields, dusty roads and the beauty of that region. The actors are very much at ease with each other so the skinship is natural and not forced.
The story is fun to watch. And even though the first episode is messy (just like viet bls!) and then there is that completely unnecessary weird ghost scene in the second episode but once you figure out who is who, it is a joyful ride!
The actors were excellent! Each of them fitted their roles perfectly: handsome net idol Ko, serious broken voiced (so sexy!) Sek, tall, handsome and dense Teng and pretty hot Tak. And then there were the support roles: the three single girls gang and Ko's best friends, were hilarious. Tak's two sidekicks, following him around, talking suddenly in stereo and sounding like a greek comedy chorus. Not to mention the boys' father, who was very quickly aware of his sons' preference and accepted it without a doubt "They are my sons and I love them!". This father was so cool!
I was expecting that, this being a low budget production, they would take the easy way out using cheap tricks, cringe, tropes and humour! No way! This was well written and filmed. It flowed smoothly. The fansubbed version I saw was of a bad quality (definitely not HD) which could have ruined my fun, but once you get used to it, it's ok. Takes you back in time when all dramas were like this (blurry and pale!)!!!
The music is something I have never heard of before: it sounded like a mix of pop and local folk music! Interesting but it fit well with the local setting.
Watching this, you see how the BLs have changed in a few short years: Love Poison is full of teens getting drunk and having sex! And hurting afterwards, and complaining about it and suffering in silence, for a long time! It can't get more realistic than that! Brilliant! Well, teens in real life like to live dangerously and experiment with limits. The teens here fels real and true. Diamonds in the rough! They are not polished, boring, rich kids from recent BL (MSP, I'm looking at you!).
That's why, this has been such a revelation! Shall I watch the second season too?

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I Will Do It In The Next Life...

Or more likely in the next season!

So we take the same and we do it all over again! A bit more profound though!

Momoe is almost 27 years old and apparently it is the age when everything ends! She is starting to realize the futility of her sex friends relationships but is still unwilling to let go of them. On the other hand, Ken has made a giant leap and broke up with all his girlfriends: it had became clear to him that his existence is pointless and that he needed to change. Momoe and Ken are drawn to each other and are seriously considering starting something but the habits die hard and they are torn between the memories and the promises.

We also get to see the glimpses of the other three members of the team: one is still so in love with the soap lady, the other one is looking for a virgin, falls for a soap lady and end up with a transvestite and the third is ACE fujoshi dreaming to become a plant in a BL story.

This season shows a slight development of the main characters . In the first season already it became obvious that even though on the surface they seem to be happy and content with their respective lives, both FL and ML are deeply unhappy, unsatisfied but do not know how to get out of the well of despair.
The rest of the characters is really only used for comic relief.
Speaking of which: this drama was really funny.

The main actress looked different in this season: there was something off with her! I wanted to see more of Nobi, the transvestite who just passes through unfortunately. He is a fascinating character. There are three side stories telling us a bit more about side characters. A must watch since they are hilarious!

The intro is still the cast as band members singing out of tune. Interesting!

This second season continued where the first one left off giving us additional character development but very little contemporary japanese society criticism: family pressure and marriage are just vaguely mentioned and quickly dealt with. It is as if these characters lived in their own bubble!

Well it was worth the watch; On to season 3 with hopes for a conclusion.

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More, please!

What a cute series! Warm, cuddly, charming, just what the doctor ordered!

Coffee Shop is ran by a man with seemingly magical powers: you choose a glass and he will tell your fortune in love! And he is never wrong! Every episode deals with a different love story: straight, gay, trans...human ! And every story is represented by a different coffee drink!

A series like this can go on forever because every episode is standalone with the barista owner the fixture while the clients change! I personally love these omnibus stories: they are easy to watch and can be very varied!

The acting here is hit and miss: the barista is OK while some others probably need additional acting lessons! The production is on the cheap side: a single very empty and not very convincing set! Music is there, I think!

Coffee Shop is a nice filler drama without the beginning or the end it is just there! Lovely!

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Colourful

NB: I haven't read the manga or watched the anime so this review is solely based on the drama.

Just like the drama's title says Rokuhodo is a colourful place where you spend colourful time surrounded by colourful people eating colourful food. Everyone is nice and the problems are not really problems but sligh, very very slight miscommunications blown out of proportions solved over a tasty colourful meal.

Rokuhodo Colorful Days is a story of a café restaurant ran by a group of four men. Each has its distinctive character and a difficult backstory and are brought together by Sui, the owner, who is so saintly good and kind. Actually, everyone in this drama is so good and kind! And that's why I had a huge problem with this drama. I am a cynic and have trouble believing that good intentions are just that and that there is nothing but kindness and willingness to help behind them. So as I was watching Sui on his quest, I was waiting for the moment the shoe will drop and we'd get to see the real reasons behind everyone's action. To my great surprise, that moment never came! But there were a few stories my cynical head had a lot of trouble wrapping itself around.
There are four men living and working together, they appreciate each other very very very very much and they are friends. Only friends?!? They have great chemistry together! Then, there is the second pastry chef, so fake laughing out loud and jumping around all the time, never serious but that is just a mask he hides behind which is obvious. He was weird to begin with especially when we found out he was friends (another friendship?!?!? Allow me to doubt!) with the café owners twin brother and manipulating the two of them! And then there was the fake italian barista covered in muscle, who picks up stray teens in park and takes them off the wrong path. It is so weird to see that in today's society which is full of suspicion and scary people roaming around.

This drama mainly teaches us that it is important to communicate and tell people where the problems lay! Oh how I wish real life was like that!

The actors were perfectly cast: everyone of them looks exactly like their character. Kudos to the casting director for finding two actors so alike to play the twins! Impressive! Music was just your usual fare, nothing remarkable and the cinematography was all in muted tones, very agreeable to watch! And of course, the cooking was just mouthwatering. And speaking of which, why do they take such huge spoonfuls of food?

Everything is nice and lovely, people are good and there is never a real problem that a tiny chat cannot resolve. The drama is light and fluffy(and I am a sucker for the fluff well made!) and still I has so much trouble watching it! Franky, I think I was ill at ease with so much saintly goodness which made it unbelievable and since it is a slice of life drama, all of it just felt unreal and wrong.

Watch it for the lightnes, optimism and fluff. I'd say it is a make believe slice of life.

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Fiction & reality

Boys is a short (in all about 40min) drama made in connection with Gay Games Hong Kong 2023. every episode ending with a couple of minutes of promotional talk!

The story is a simple one not trying to explain anything or deal with serious societal issues.

Ho Yin, a university student, wrote a play about his high school failed relationship. During the rehearsals, he falls for the actor playing opposite him, Boris. They start a relationship until one night they cross paths with the ex boyfriend. After the play closes, Ho Yin realizes that his feelings for Boris were not real and they part for good with Boris seriously brokenhearted.

This whole production looks very amateurish, the actors are mediocre(the actor playing Boris had every muscle on his face continuously moving, trembling which was so disconcerting to watch and annoying to boot!), the cinematography almost non-existent (except for the nice shot of HK in the credits and different screen ratios in order to differentiate from "real life" scenes and those "fictional, from the play" ones ), music is OK.

Well it is a curiosity from Hong Kong and as such worth a look though it is nothing extraordinary it still is a romance about the thin line between the fiction and reality and the need to be careful how to tread that line and try not to hurt anyone by prolonging the misunderstanding!

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