Two Friends Moaning On Every Bite Of Food.

If you like watching other people eat while exclaiming their exaggerated pleasure loudly then I would recommend this, otherwise there's not much there. It's kind of cute but I mainly found it annoying. 50% of it is over-the-top "OMG" noises when eating and 40% is yelling/screeching so the 10% when anybody talks normally I had to briefly turn the volume up for before turning it back down again.

EVERY bite of food (or drink) is the SAME level of moaning/squealing inducing "orgasmic", lol! Rice with mayo is just as amazing as a gyoza with kimchi and cheese, or a sip of beer, or a sundae, or ramen with vegetables, or a plain baked sweet potato, etc. It's ridiculous and boringly repetative. The only thing that got a normalized "yum" was the corn soup (likely because it had an emotional tie-in with the characters' joint history).

General Spoiler below.

The movie also felt like only part of a story. It's a slow burn bromance that barely grows before the movie is done. The characters individually come to some conclusions about how important the other is to them in a way that is alluded to vs spelled out. With each other, they confirm they will continue on together as they have been without really saying why. And that's it. The movie does stop at a good pausing point, but that's not very satisfying as an ending.

The acting is decent except Aki is vocally childish. There's not much plot or script that isn't noise for the actors to work with so it's a bit difficult to ascertain their talent.

Cinematography was good and soft.

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Cute & Fluffy With Manga-style Acting & Humor.

An easy 84 min watch; low plot and low angst fun with a happy ending. As it's based on a manga, it's not surprising that they employ a purposeful silliness in telling the story. The exaggerated situations and acting are not everyone's cup of tea, but it's done fairly well here even though it's a low budget production. It succeeded in making me smile and quietly chuckle multiple times. (The slippery sock chase around the sofa was my favorite bit.)

Mahiro (as Izumi) is the strongest actor. Even within the acting style chosen he shows range and some nuance. The others are flatter in their abilities but no one really drags the story down.

The camerawork needed work. Everything seemed hand-held (even still shots) and any panning movements were slightly jerky/stuttering. I was able to ignore it most of the time but I would not have wanted to watch a full series of this as too much of it would give me a headache (but my eyes are sensitive to this kind of thing).

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Cute And Mostly Realistic.

29min and enjoyable. Believable attraction and love, lots of cuteness, and an amazingly realistic heavy make-out scene. Also realistic hyper-awareness of interactions and pda around others.

FYI there is a tiny scene after the credits.

General Spoilers below.
There was one spot where the cinematography was very memorable; the mom and the boys along the fence after she finds out about their true relationship. Very striking and emotional.

What didn't work for me:
-The disturbly weird thing the mom says about her chest and her son. Just, why??? What parent would say that?
-What was the point of the guy sleeping outside his boyfriend's home if he wasn't going to stick around to talk to the mom?
-Seok Yi didn't cry at all believably in the scene with the girl drinking. But it's a very short moment.
-Cuts between scenes were always abrupt.
-The song montage at the end. Apart from the fact that the version I found didn't have subtitles for the song, it was still weird; it felt like a completely different film all of a sudden. It went from a realistic slice-of-life feel to a surreal symbolic feel.

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Adorable And Comforting Despite Toxic Parenting.

General Spoilers below.
This slice-of-life series is adorable and the relationship between the two lead highschool boys is so healthy and sweet. Mutual support and care, interest, attraction, and communication. Their one-sided crush to friendship & mutual crush to boyfriends was so lovely and realistically portrayed. The two leads were only 19-20 yrs old yet are already great actors. They were natural, nuanced, charismatic, and held emotions in their eyes. I'm really impressed by them and would easily watch them in whatever they do next. The secondary couple was initially interesting but their story wasn't given much depth.

Trigger warning for emotionally abusive parents.
There is one parent that's a great example and another set of parents that are completely emotionally abusive (insane pressure for school performance, overly controlling and oppressive, guilt-tripping and shaming, and threatening). The toxic parents are written and acted one-dimensionally and their abrupt almost 180 degree turn around in the last episode was sooo unrealistic, but did allow the series to end on a lighter, more hopeful note.

There was too much plot introduced for the time constraints of eight 22min episodes and a lot of threads aren't followed up on.

Despite the weaknesses, this series was very enjoyable and left me with a smile and a warm, fuzzy feeling.

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Disappointing In Every Aspect, But Not The Worst.

Every aspect is disappointing (it's hard to believe it's the same director as HIStory4), but it’s not the worst, and I did manage to watch the whole thing though I started to think about dropping it by episode 5. I hung in to see what happened with the secondary couple.

I wouldn't recommend this series, but you may enjoy it if you're in the mood for something kind of silly with a lot of angst and a happy ending that doesn't require a lot of brain power to watch. If you're craving skinship and physical romance/intimacy, I suggest looking elsewhere because there's not much here.

The plot is all over the place, repetative, cliche, and with a ton of contrived, unrealistic, and unnecessary miscommunication and angst. To the point that it's ridiculous. And the main couple become annoying idiots who go around in endless hot/cold circles yet are somehow in love with each other.

The dialogue, camera work, and music were all basic. The acting was okay (I preferred the two secondary male leads who were more natural), but the chemistry... just didn't have the same feel or believability as previous series of this franchise. I felt the most pull of attraction and longing between the secondary couple. Anson Chen as Liang Wen Hsen was good; he had a calm, focused intensity that was believable as actual physical attraction for the character Lin Huai En. Everyone else came off as actors attempting to pretend attraction, in my opinion.

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Interesting Enemies To Lovers With Some Character Complexity.

Seven 30min episodes. My rating ignores Ep 7! Fantastic Ep 1-6; engaging and evoked a wide range of emotions. Ep 7 was an epilogue of awkward fluff that had a different feel from the rest, wasn't satisfying, and wasn't needed. I recommend treating Ep 6 as the end and avoiding the let down of Ep 7 (it detracts instead of adds to the story).

For Ep 1-6: Story 9 (was tightly woven & at a good pace, interesting, and had me mentally & emotionally invested in the characters quickly), Acting 9, Chemistry/Magnetism between leads 8. Moderate amount of skinship but no sexual intimacy beyond a couple of almost-kisses. High angst (mostly resolved or at least making positive progress).

The characters are more complex than many BLs of this length, as are the issues raised. I liked that both lead characters had things to work through individually as well as together. There isn't time to explore everything in-depth, or fully address past traumas, but the story is thoughtful and I didn't feel like anything was left hanging (except in Ep 7). The characters feel like actual high-schoolers and there were no weak links in acting. The effects of trauma were realistically portrayed.

GENERAL SPOILERS below.
Ep 7:
The words at the end of Ep 6 set up my hope and expectation to see that scenario play out in Ep 7. But it didn't really happen, and there was a weird push & pull dynamic around physical intimacy, which also didn't happen. I don’t always need sexual intimacy in a romance (queer or otherwise), but the script made such an awkward dance around it that it turned things UN-romantic; they regressed to bromance instead of continuing the romantic progression set up in the previous episodes. The epilogue has some aimless cute fluff and shows that they ultimately remain together over time, but it felt lackluster and wasn't a fulfilling resolution.

SPECIFIC SPOILERS for Trigger Warnings:

Most prevalent: depression, PTSD, and a mentally abusive family member.
Less prominent (are briefly shown only once or twice): self-harm, miscarriage, and suicide.

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Awkward Script And Tedious Overall.

Review for both Part 1, a 3/10 (19min), and Part 2, a 2/10 (17min). Found on YouTube (Nov 2023 in the USA).

Very poor writing and mediocre acting. Both parts felt tedious even though they were so short.

The interactions between the two leads are written very simply and are kind of cute but mostly boring. The 2nd lead is pretty wooden and I didn't feel much chemistry or magnetism between them.

The girl character is more a creepy fujoshi than a friend. The second season has a contrived love triangle. The way the new rival interacts with the the guy who can't figure out his feelings is so bizarre and laughably unrealistic.

The music (especially in part 1) and audio quality were good for a low-budget production. Cinematography was basic.

Felt like a waste of time to me.

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Thoughtful New Topic, Great Ep 9-12.

It starts off weakly and builds really slowly, but at the same time I want to encourage people to watch it because it's a thought-provoking queer story and the romance is beautiful!

The last 3rd of the series (Ep 9-12) was a gem! The first 2/3rds were mostly slow, sometimes boring, and with an annoying secondary couple. The episodes are only 20-30 mins though so it was bearable with some fast-forwarding. Ep 9-12 were more tightly written, thoughtful and insightful, well acted, and extremely emotional.

The series sensitively explores a topic I've never seen in a show before. I knew beforehand what that topic was and my curiosity about that character, and the way he was well-acted, kept me watching through the first 2/3rds, and I'm really glad that I did! The last 1/3 was both heart-wrenching and heart-warming and ended very satisfyingly.

The cinematography was beautiful at times and the music was ok but not memorable.

TOPIC SPOILER and explanation below.

I know that translation can be difficult when there aren't exact matches for words, but I think 2 things are worth mentioning.
1) The English translators use the term "disease" when it isn't one; "condition" would have been more appropriate.
2) They didn't actually use the term intersex anywhere so I would have been a lot more confused with Amber's brief explanation if I hadn't read it in spoilers beforehand!

It's obvious to the audience early on that Amber has some kind of connection with Wen Wen, the childhood friend of Le Chien and Yu He. I had trouble getting into the series but the reviews were so passionate about it that I intentionally read some spoilers and learned that the character Amber is intersex. Intersex people genetically have both male and female chromosomes and often some combination of male and female internal reproductive organs and external genitalia. This is sometimes not noticeable until a child reaches puberty and their body starts to develop differently than expected. That's why Amber and his family thought he was female until puberty (genetic gender and gender identity are different things.)

The magnitude of what Amber and his family had to navigate mentally and socially, and how it effects his friends too, is really eye-opening and thought-provoking.

Side note: I strongly disliked how Yu He handled the information over time, but it's realistic too; I'm sure there would be some people who would make the same decisions in the situation she was in. I personally had a hard time forgiving her though.

I'm really glad I stuck it out and watched the whole thing; I feel that overall it was time well spent.

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Cute, Funny, And Fun With One Secure-Attachment Lead.

jpny01's review says things well. I'll add:
GENERAL SPOILERS included below.

I liked how Naoya was comfortable with his sexuality; it was never brought up, it just... was. His actions were consistently green flags and he had a very secure attachment style. After the first episode, he was also good at asking or waiting for consent for physical intimacy (unfortunately, the writers kept him and us waiting).

I loved how Kota told Naoya the truth fairly early on and by his own choice. It wasn't by forced circumstance; he did so because he genuinely felt bad and thought that it was the right thing to do. That is so rare and I was so glad the writers didn't follow the usual clichés with that plotline.

The writers did, however, use the inane cliche of one of the romantic partners resisting affection because it made them feel awkward all the way the to the end. At least it wasn't disgust, but still, that made it drop a full star for me because their relationship arc didn't feel truly satisfying. Even just cuddling with smiles at the end would have been more heart-warming than the peck on the cheek followed by a tickle fight.

The series made me laugh outloud a lot, the actors were good, both leads had good comedic sense, especially the one playing Kota, they had good chemistry, there were good messages without being preachy, and the whole thing was engaging and cute and fun. I can see rewatching this again at some point.

I would have given a 10/10 through Ep 6, then the rehashing of the same internal questions and conflicts in Ep 7& 8 lowered my rating to a 9/10. Though I was glad to see Kota and Naoya talking things out, it didn't actually make their relationship progress at all, which was weird to me. So that ffrustration and the relatively unsatisfying, clichéd ending (more bromance than romance) brought my rating down to 8/10.

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Watch The Director's Cut For An Extended, More Satisfying Ending!

Realistic, honest, and overall heart-warming.
General spoilers. The biggest thing is that the director's cut has an extra 10 min that makes the end immensely more satisfying than the rushed & abrupt series end! 2 mins of slightly extended scenes (without dialogue) within the series and then 8 mins at the end that's a mix of extensions and completely new material!

The cinematography and coloring were symbolic and beautifully done. Yuuki is like the sun and brings soft orange warmth. When he and Akira aren't together, life is a lonely cold-blue.

The mental conflict Akira went through was so realistic and hit home for me. Though it was hard to forgive the character it was an honest portrayal of a struggle that, sadly, not everyone conquers. At least Akira finds a way through it, as messy as it is for multiple people's lives.

The screenplay did a great job with that moment one realizes the ideology behind their thoughts and actions are not actually their own, but rather learned from family or society. And then also with the moment where something snaps and the determination to finally accept and choose what's best for oneself leads to the resolve to stop pretending to be "normal" and stand up for oneself.

For those struggling to understand certain actions of Akira, keep in mind that in Asian culture especially, there is tremendous pressure to marry and have children because society (and even status) is extremely family-oriented. This pressure is not emphasized in the screenplay because, I believe, it is already a cultural understanding.

Raiku as Yuuki was perfect. Yuuki didn't have as big of an arc in character growth to go through, but Raiku embodied all of his emotions deeply. It came through in his face, voice, and body. Every emotion he felt, especially when he was hurting, I felt deeply too.

Shirasu Jin was very good but his emotional experience as Akira felt flatter even though the character had more emotional arcs to go through. There was just a little something missing in nuances and behind the eyes for me. It was largely because of this that the shorter series end wasn't satisfying. Continued below but there is a spoiler on the ending...

ENDING SPOILER.
I needed to see more than 1min of them being happy in their life together to be able to feel their happiness myself after the 8(?) years of pain Akira put Yuuki through before going back to him. The director's cut gave me that.

The music fit well and was often beautiful. There were two specific songs I added to my playlist.

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Director's Cut Completes The Story (watch this, not the series!)

Realistic, honest, and overall heart-warming.
General spoilers. The biggest thing is that this director's cut has an extra 10 min that makes the end immensely more satisfying than the rushed & abrupt series end! (There's a great & helpful review by MusicalVeggies too.)

The cinematography and coloring were symbolic and beautifully done. Yuuki is like the sun and brings soft orange warmth. When he and Akira aren't together, life is a lonely cold-blue.

The mental conflict Akira went through was so realistic and hit home for me. Though it was hard to forgive the character it was an honest portrayal of a struggle that, sadly, not everyone conquers. At least Akira finds a way through it, as messy as it is for multiple people's lives.

The screenplay did a great job with that moment one realizes the ideology behind their thoughts and actions are not actually their own, but rather learned from family or society. And then also with the moment where something snaps and the determination to finally accept and choose what's best for oneself leads to the resolve to stop pretending to be "normal" and stand up for oneself.

For those struggling to understand certain actions of Akira, keep in mind that in Asian culture especially, there is tremendous pressure to marry and have children because society (and even status) is extremely family-oriented. This pressure is not emphasized in the screenplay because, I believe, it is already a cultural understanding.

Raiku as Yuuki was perfect. Yuuki didn't have as big of an arc in character growth to go through, but Raiku embodied all of his emotions deeply. It came through in his face, voice, and body. Every emotion he felt, especially when he was hurting, I felt deeply too.

Shirasu Jin was very good but his emotional experience as Akira felt flatter even though the character had more emotional arcs to go through. There was just a little something missing in nuances and behind the eyes for me. It was largely because of this that the shorter series end wasn't satisfying. Continued below but there is a spoiler on the ending...

ENDING SPOILER.
I needed to see more than 1min of them being happy in their life together to be able to feel their happiness myself after the 8(?) years of pain Akira put Yuuki through before going back to him. The director's cut gave me that.

The music fit well and was often beautiful. There were two specific songs I added to my playlist.

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Major Slow Burn (falling in love with souls, not appearances).

General spoilers only. For enjoyment, I'd recommend watching for the interactions between characters and not taking the plot too seriously. Despite the weaknesses in plot, pacing, and some of the dialogue, I only fast-forwarded through some blatent product placement scenes and some of the secondary couple (which weren't a large focus anyway). The way they tried to determine who was their portkeys was drawn out in odd and contrived ways, and I could see that getting a bit annoying for some people. Overall I found it entertaining and enjoyable and easily binge-watched it.

The story was intriguing but it took a couple of episodes for me to get invested in the characters. Once I did, I was along for the ride and able to shrug off the weaknesses in the screenplay. I liked and cared about all of the main and secondary characters, everyone was cast well, I smiled a lot, it tugged at my heartstrings multiple times, and was resolved satisfyingly.

Jimmy and Sea have good chemistry but it comes across differently than many BLs. The focus is on their growing affection for each other as humans and not on physical attraction because they are in other people's bodies for most of the series. This purely mental-attraction type of slow burn was something new and I enjoyed it. It added emotional impact when they did finally kiss. I thought the story could have done something about them getting used to each other's physical appearances once they're back in their own bodies though, and maybe introducing physical attraction. I feel that was something obvious that the screenplay missed entirely.

The production handled the body-swap between universes very well. It's very clear and easy to follow. What I loved is that once they made it clear that Sea and Jimmy were in the bodies of Ohm and Nannon, they transitioned back to Sea and Jimmy playing their characters. You know they look different in that universe, but you get to see the actors play their character all the way through.

They did okay with world building and kept to the "rules" they established. The dialogue got a little cheesy with a couple cliche lines in the last couple episodes, but it was bearable. Music worked well but nothing really memorable for me. The coloring of scenes was often pretty or appealing. I'll certainly be more aware of this aspect of post-production going forward (the series prompted me to learn more about colorists and their job).

The thing that dropped this from a feel-good 8 to a 7.5 is the screenwriter's inane decision to make one of the leads (Talay) averse to affection after they confess to each other. I hate this trend in BLs. It's a cheap, unrealistic, and ineffective way to create sexual tension once a couple gets together. Seriously, "I love you but I'm going to freak out if you try to be affectionate, let alone kiss me" just does NOT make sense if you love someone and they love you too. They could be shy, sure, but not constantly uninterested, avoidant, asking "what are you doing", and giving bombastic side-eyes. Sigh.
At least Sea only acted moderately put-off and didn't act disgusted (like many actors do when it's written like this).

Overall there's some skinship and a couple good kisses.

I could see myself rewatching this in a few years.

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Adorable & Fun Though Screenplay Has Weaknesses.

Adorable & Fun Though Screenplay Has Weaknesses.
Watch when you want something simple to digest yet interesting, with some really cute moments, and also some angst with emotional performances (that gets resolved). Don't take it too seriously and enjoy!

Six 20min episodes. FYI watch past the title page at the end of episodes; most of them have another short scene. For Ep 6 there's a small scene with a kiss right before the credits roll.
There's also an hour long special (Ep 7 on Viki) of the two lead actors watching the series, reacting, and talking.

The screenplay is more like a 6/10, however, my overall enjoyment makes it 7/10. It's just so cute & adorable and funny in spots! It's also an intriguing premise. It made me smile alot, tugged at my heartstrings and made me tear up despite the shortcomings in the screenplay (mostly due to time constraints), and left me with a warm feelings.

The acting is good, an 9/10 overall. There are micro-facial expressions and line delivery feels natural. Jin Gun is especially watchable and I'd give him a 10/10. He has good comedic timing, his facial expressions and reactions while his character is confused are so good, his crying is realistic, and he nailed the depressed hollow feeling in a later episode. I would watch this again at some point mainly for him.

The biggest weaknesses are with the arc of the relationships in the story and the timing constraints of such a short series. Character emotions evolve super quickly and the plot is very rushed. If you can shrug this off and go with the flow you might enjoy it for what it is, if you want something that's well fleshed-out this isn't it!

It's not high budget but the audio was clean and mostly consistent and the camera work, though fairly simple, was smooth. The music wasn't noticeable but didn't distract either.

There's some skinship and a couple light kisses that actually look sweet and like both characters are engaged (a couple steps above a dead-fish-kiss).

There's so much potential for more to be done with this premise, but I can recognize that time constraints curtailed this. While the writers could have decided to do a deeper exploration with only the first half of the plot, that might not have been a satisfying point to end at either. That makes it easier for me to forgive the screenplay's shortcomings and just enjoy what is there.

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So Much Potential But Super Rushed Last 2 Episodes.

General spoilers. Eight 16-20 min episodes. The first 6 episodes completely drew me in and tugged hard at my heartstrings. I was fascinated to see how things would unfold. It perfectly explored pining and unrequited love. What this did differently, and what I found special, was that it also explored how a friendship could be effected by this from BOTH points of view. In addition to that, it realistically portrayed how struggles with family and money can effect kids and sometimes strain their interactions with even their closest friends. (The kids in this case are seniors in high school.)

The last 2 episodes were rushed, introduced more plot than it had time for, and took the focus away from the evolving connection between the lead characters. It was slice-of-life and following the interactions and emotions between the two friends so I expected that to continue. Instead, the story started to jump large spans of time in episode 7. We go from not knowing how things will actually work out romantically to being 62 days into their dating, and then 100 days.

The ending was happy but unsatisfying because we didn't get to see/experience Jo Yoo Jae's emotions progress into romance. I couldn't help thinking the character might have decided to date Seo Han Joon just to keep him in his life. Which I don't think is the intended message, but the script and editing didn't really give us examples of it being much more than that. Episodes 7 & 8 showed us romantic milestones but didn't actually show the characters being romantic with each other.

The acting was very good. Especially Kim In Sung who conveyed so much through his face, eyes, and voice. Very natural, a lot of micro facial expressions, and captivating.

I would have been fine with the one lead-up to a kiss and not getting more if the script, directing, and editing had shown examples of them being sweet with each other. Even just staring into each others eyes and smiling. Something! Their physical interactions didn't change at all once dating. We especially needed to see something from Yoo Jae to believe his feelings had grown past platonic affection.

I would easily watch the first 6 episodes again so I'm really disappointed with what they did with the last 2 episodes. Feeling this unsatisfied by the end brought my rating from a potential 9 down to a 7.

Nothing remarkable or distracting about music or cinematography.

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NEW Take On 18 Yr Old, Bodyguard, Rich-Kid-Poor-Kid Story!

Overall 8.5 rating. Story 7.5, Acting 8.5, Chemistry 9, Music/Audio 9, Cinematography/Lighting 9, Rewatchability 6.5, Secondary Characters 9, Suspension of disbelief required is moderately high, Emotional angst level (mostly resolved) 9, Character emotions & psychology make sense.

Not a typical highschool, bodyguard, or rich kid poor kid story! The dynamics and interactions between multiple characters really kept my interest and the script was mostly written well. What didn't work for me is mentioned in the "general spoiler" section at the bottom of this review.

I really liked how they showed the class divide between Nuengdiao's world and Palm's through everyday examples; in both big and subtle ways. It really ties into the psychology of Nueng and Palm and their actions/decisions throughout the series stay true to character and are believable (especially for 18 year olds in love).

There is a definite magnetism between Nueng played by Phuwin and Palm played by Pond. There is a lot of great physical tension between them as they fall for each other, then a lot of skinship and some very emotional kisses.

This series had a fantastic secondary cast. Both of the moms are wonderful (yet very different from each other), Uncle Kit is an antagonist who feels like a real person (not just a one-dimensional "villain"), Chimon as Ben is charismatic, and Perth as Chopper is phenomenal with inner conflict and emotional depth.

I especially loved the dynamic between Chopper and his dad (Uncke Kit). They were both completely emotionally convincing in some very high-tension scenes.

Sound and silence were were utilized really well to enhance emotions and tensions. There were 3 songs I loved and have added to my playlist. Many of the songs have English lyrics so it was easy for me to tell how well they fit the scenes. What was odd is that there were 2 or 3 times (brief) where instrumental Christmas carols were used as background. That seemed really out of place to me and mentally took me out of the moment each time.

Pond and Phuwin are strong actors and easily had me invested in their characters quickly. They felt a little bit flat or not quite comfortable, however, in scenes that required panic (of which there are a couple). It wasn't a big detraction, but it was noticeable to me.

I really appreciated the little scene about gun safety that was added in as the young adults were training.

I will likely rewatch this at some point. I'll probably view episodes 1-8 and 12 the most frequently.

GENERAL SPOILERS below

My biggest issue with the story was how unrealistic it was about some very common-sense things. Some examples:
A very wealthy family has members who are injured or threatened yet no professional bodyguards are hired, at all? But then late in the series they are? Things pertaining to safety come up multiple times so this had me rolling my eyes.

When various people are shot the first, second, and third instincts are NOT to apply pressure on the wound to slow bleeding. Facepalm.

Palm refuses monetary payment or assistance multiple times yet later in the series is somehow able to obtain what he needs when he needs it.

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