better than the series (start at 17 min)

Overall: maybe because for once Dino wasn't a walking red flag and it was only 36 minutes (the rest is behind the scenes/talking with the cast) I found this easier to watch than the series. Aired on iQIYI (have to pay an additional amount, about $2.80 USD), heard it's also on Vimeo to buy but can't find it in the U.S.

What I Liked
- a few cute moments like the shopping trip

Room For Improvement
- the comedy sound effects didn't make anything funny
- almost nothing happened, watched it at 3x speed, they repeated almost the same conversation multiple times in a row

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better than the series...

Overall: these are slightly better than the series but maybe because it's just 2 episodes instead of 8. Each episode is about 45 minutes. Aired on iQIYI.

Watch Advice: final story 1, skip to 10 minutes and then 21 minutes; final story 2, skip to 8 minutes and then 39 minutes

Content Warnings: stalking, punch, non con video recording

What I Liked
- at least there is lip movement in the kisses
- a few sweet moments

Room For Improvement
- the first final story starts with Dino being manipulative and insecure and then later there is a random/not needed stalker plot, the second final story has a large chunk of the side characters talking about their own love stories and we never see their faces
- constant comedy sound effects

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feels dated (and not a BL)

Overall: this is a sitcom about two guys who pretend to be a couple for views/money. I did not interpret this as a BL or censored BL. There are maybe hints with one guy towards the other but it did not feel mutual. 12 episodes about 10 minutes each, on GagaOOLala.

Content Warnings: attempted self harm played as comedy, mentions of stalking, harassment, fight

What I Liked
- laughed 3 times
- abs
- the innuendo in the title (and at one point they cooked eggplant so maybe that was on purpose)
- translator notes

Room For Improvement
- did not see mutual attraction/love, definitely didn't see the same kind of hints/chemistry like in other censored things from China
- the laugh track, didn't find majority of their jokes funny
- making fun of masculine woman and effeminate men
- making fun of abusive contracts
- bad sound quality in episode 3

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sweet and fluffy moments from two couples of Coffee Melody

Overall: this is a follow up 1 year later of two couples from Coffee Melody the series. I rate the 1st episode 7 and 2nd 8 for an average of 7.5. Each episode is about 30 minutes long. Aired on YouTube.

Content Warnings: none

What I Liked
- the fluffy, domestic bliss and sweet moments (and there were quite a few)
- the teaching moments in episode 2
- same sex marriage advocacy in both episodes

Room For Improvement
- in both of these it felt like their dialogue and physical affection is what we'd see at the start of dating, not after 1 year, episode 1 had more physical affection but they felt unnaturally shy about it
- particularly in episode 1, scenes jumped around and lacked a coherent story line, episode 2 was less jumpy
- the road noise was a bit loud over some of the talking scenes outside
- the intro has a bunch of characters that aren't in either episode which seems strange (they were characters from the full series)
- a bit too slow paced for me which is reminiscent of the series

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a crack comedy

Overall: although this has some of the same characters and the overarching plot is similar, it's best to think of this as totally separate from Ossan's Love 2018 series. I laughed soooo hard at the ping pong and sumo scenes and appreciated the lack of the ex-wife character. There are several love triangles, rectangles? but it's really difficult to predict the ending. Watched on Viki.

Note with franchise:
Ossan's Love special 50 minutes long Japan 2016 (I haven't watched this but it's like a shorter movie)
Ossan's Love series Japan 2018 (expanded from the special), on Viki
Ossan's Love: Love or Dead movie 2019 (a continuation of the series and best to watch after the series)
Ossan's Love in the Sky series Japan 2019 (this is basically an alternate universe with differences in plot and characters), on Viki
Ossan's Love series Hong Kong 2021 (a retelling of Ossan's Love), on Viu in some countries

Content Warnings: manhandling, non con touching and kiss

What I Liked
- there were some real crack comedy moments
- also heartfelt moments
- I appreciated that characters communicated with each other (with some missteps lol)
- episode titles were cleverly integrated

Room For Improvement
- the intro and some of the editing was too frantic
- Haruta's character has a type of over acting, it's not really my thing but I have become used to it
- love triangles/rectangles are not something that I enjoy
- it did feel rushed especially towards the end, I think this was originally supposed to be a longer series

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The Love That Kind Of Speaks Its Name

Overall: These six 2-5 min episodes have a few cute moments but don't really satisfy in the end. Watched on Gagaoolala.

Content Warnings: none

What I Liked:
- for what I'm assuming is low budget, I thought the production value and acting is fairly good. I watched the Making Of video and it was one of the actors' first time acting.
- there is an apology in the story which I always appreciate

Room For Improvement:
- I wish they had had the flashback in episode 3 be the first episode so the viewer better understood their relationship from the beginning.
- In episode 4 why was one in a bed and the other sleeping on the floor? If they only had 1 bedroom, wouldn't they either have separate twin beds or a large bed and sleep in the same bed???
- why did they stop living together? It would save money and they were good friends...
- I would have liked the ending more if they had just reversed it, if the other guy had been the one to initiate things

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Enjoyable movie about living organ donation

Overall: an enjoyable movie that tackles a realistic and not frequently told story of organ donation. It switches between two characters (the female doctor & the male wedding planner), with the two characters interacting with one another several times. It is apparently based on a true story.

Content Warnings: homophobia combined with a slap, graphic side character death

What I Liked
- a unique story, I don't think I've ever seen something about living organ donation
- I enjoyed both characters' plots
- happy to see a strong, professional female character with a caring and supportive fiance
- I really liked the wedding planner's mom and her questions: since when did you have this boyfriend, how come I didn't know, for how long, where does he work, what does he look like, how come you didn't bring him home for me to see?

Room For Improvement
- the m/m relationship was very lowkey, I didn't need NSFW but just a tad more to show that they are in a relationship
- I was surprised that the doctor never talked about concerns about pregnancy after a living organ donation. In my super brief research, it looks like there is a slightly elevated risk/there is a need to wait to become pregnant after donating. I would expect a doctor who wants to have children to think/discuss this.
- not really thrilled with the "solution" from the one story, seems kind of shady/grisly, though I'm sure this does happen

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A beautiful story about family, love, self-acceptance, regret & atonement

Content Warnings: (not between m/m) character death, suicide (not shown and not sure if that's what happened)

Overall: I was moved to tears by a beautiful story about what it really means to be family (it's more than biology), how to accept oneself, and trying to right past wrongs. FYI the title on GagaOOLala is "On The Way Home."

What I Liked
- the themes of the story that I mentioned: family, love, self-acceptance, regret, atonement/2nd chances
- the friend's reactions were realistic, almost like going through stages of grief such as disbelief, anger, sadness and acceptance

Room For Improvement
- the m/m relationship was too off screen for me. It was a major factor of what happened, but if I hadn't read the synopsis, I wouldn't have even known anything until too far into the movie. I'm not saying that I wanted NSFW scenes, just to show the love between the characters and how the daughter was feeling left out (see below point)
- I realize the daughter was going through quite a lot, but there could have been additional motivation (like showing what was happening at school for example, was she being bullied? did she see classmates display homophobia and it made her worried?) to give her actions more reasoning behind them

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Short film about two best friends

Content Warnings: none 

Overall: This is basically the same story told in two parts with the difference being the setting and the endings. It gives a bit of art film vibes. There's nothing amazing here, but it doesn't make me scream into a void so maybe worth a watch...

What I Liked
- I generally like a best friends to something more plot
- the actors are cute
- music in the 2nd part was nice

Room For Improvement
- 1st part had music that I know I've heard before so they need something more unique
- the voice sound in the 2nd part wasn't as good
- wasn't totally convinced by the crying acting

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Had Potential and Then Took a Nosedive

Content Warnings: none

Overall: small budget production with a realistic story that had promise but ruined the ending

What I Liked
- the 2 main guys say what their sexual orientations are and their preferred pronouns (Sam is gay and Andrea is bisexual with an ex-girlfriend who is a trans woman)
- Sam and his ex actually have a mature conversation/resolution
- the beachy vibe/location
- for being low budget, the production value was decent, subs had some errors but very understandable with 1 exception at the end

Room For Improvement
- the pacing was a bit slow
- Sam's ex's stupid "plan" to get Sam back
- episode 7 doesn't make much sense since Andrei seemed very romantically interested in Sam, but then did a 180.
- the final episode (6 minutes and a large chunk of flashbacks) was very confusing. It says "1 year ago" but I think they meant "1 year later." We see Andrei driving and talking about going to a wedding of someone he loved so I assumed it's Sam's wedding, but maybe it's his ex-girlfriend's wedding??? Then Sam has flashbacks about how it was the wrong time then and he concludes by saying it's the right time now and the visuals are Sam & Andrei getting married? Then Andre has the happiness jar in the car and says 'maybe.' Finally, there is a scene where Andrei gives Sam the jar and they hug. WTH???? They should have gotten together in episode 7 and then done a 1 year flash forward with a nice wedding in episode 8.

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Break Up While You Can

Content Warnings: tragedy

Overall: I absolutely hated the "moral" of the story which is to stay in a non-working relationship and hope that magically one day it gets better (spoiler alert, that very rarely happens in real life)

What I Liked
- I think basically everything was well done like production, acting, etc. I recognized one actor from In Between.

Room For Improvement
- I really disliked the terrible "moral". This couple had a huge deal breaker in their relationship which was shown to be a problem that they both acknowledged. They should have broken up, not spent 5 years being unhappy with the other person. Breaking up isn't necessarily bad, it can be the best thing for one or all people involved...

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Be Loved in House: I Do... want the plot to progress faster

(minor spoilers)
Content Warnings: none that I can think of...

Episode 12 bumped up my score to 7.5/10 overall. If you want super slow pacing and breathtaking visuals, then this is the show for you. Otherwise watch the 1st two episodes, imagine in your mind every single romance/bl trope multiple times (accidental falls, getting out of the shower, healing time, etc) then skip to ep 11 to watch most of those happen in flashbacks and then episode 12 for the ending. 

What I Liked
- amazing visuals
- acting
- the cat
- production
- the cameo
- the love triangle (I think the only 1 I've ever liked)
- the coworker/friend stopping the other coworker/friend from taking a picture of an intimate moment without the participants' knowledge
- the 12th episode
- the intro song*

Room For Improvement
The pace is sooooooooo slow. I watched it on 1.5-2x speed and it still felt slow. There is so little progression with either couple. I can like a slow burn done well, but this was not it. There is also little sense of time. Is this taking place over days, weeks, months? Why does the 2nd couple go soooo slow and then rocket ahead???

The plot - I'm used to plot holes and non logical things but this drives me nuts. So basically the new boss (Jin Yu Zhen) puts up a rule that no employees can be in a romantic relationship with anyone (even outside the office, is that even legal??) A m/f are about to get engaged so they want him to get rid of the rule. Logical response by the other employee/manager (Shi Lei) should be to get the boss to fall in love with him and then he has to remove the rule, right? Nope, I honestly can't even say what their plan was. Get more intel on the boss???

Boss - is attracted to Shi Lei. Logical thing, don't put up that rule and instead try to win him over. Actual response - move in with him, make some moves, then reverse your moves over and over again. Basically a ton of mixed signals. Also disappear off to places with no follow up explanations. Things are kind of explained in the last episode, but it still didn't do it for me.

Poor characterization of the boss - he started out super cold, then he went to really awkward/nervous, then he went to a pursuer, whaaaatt, I got whiplash. 

Music - there is legit one and only song that plays over and over again. It's a nice song but it's like "This Is The Song That Never Ends..." song. 

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too many characters

Overall: I wanted to give this indie (aka low budget) production a chance but there are just too many characters/confusing/non existent plot and I don't want to watch the remaining 7 episodes. 12 episodes about 16 minutes each cutting out the credits. Aired on KMD Studios YouTube Channel.

Content Warnings: fight, (possibly more)

What I Liked
- OST
- the school nerd and the guy who wants to make money seemed promising (not much movement by ep 5)
- consent, asking for a kiss

Room For Improvement
- there were way too many characters, who are they, who do they like, what is their relationship with one another? I wish they had focused on just 2 characters and made it shorter instead of having so many characters/relationships
- music was too loud and it drowned out the dialogue, though in ep 5 it seemed not as bad
- intros/outros too long

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