Reviews

Controversial, But Hear Me Out

Well don’t know where to start with this one, but I will say this BL is a little controversial since it can be viewed in different ways depending on the person. I have a very “in the middle” opinion with this show so I will state what I think like if I’m writing an informative essay… kinda lol.

Some may state that this BL is considered incest while others will state otherwise. But as of now let’s focus on the first opinion.

Is this incest?

Well considering they’re not blood related, no it’s not incest but other factors play a major part into why this could be seen as incest. Other people have mentioned how the fact that since Qian raised Yuan since a very young age that he should not have those sorts of feelings towards Yuan. I read a review saying that it’s understandable that Yuan had those feelings considering his rough past and also him being young and taken care of by Qian could possibly confuse him and make him have feelings for Qian. But Qian reciprocating those feelings is just plainly wrong because for one he’s old enough to understand what’s right and wrong. And two he basically saw Yuan grow so you would guess they would only have a family relationship and feelings towards eachother. Now, this is something that I am confused about, though liking an adopted or non-blood-related person is very possible mostly if they’re adopted already while you’re in your teens or so. But if you’re growing up with them since little I would assume you would only see them as a family member. Like this is what I would see it as but if my family adopted someone when I was very young and I grew up with them I would never have such romantic feelings towards them since once again, I grew up with them and will only see them as a sibling. I’ve also never understood how in some shows best friends that grew up together also start having feelings with eachother because to me if we grow up together I will see you more as a family rather than a friend that could possibly turn into something romantic. You know? Now having a best friend that you grew up with since very young and having an adopted person that you grew up with are very different things because, one is adopted lol so that automatically makes you related to them. But it’s still something that seems to play a similar role to me because once again, if we grow up together, you’re family to me and I will see you as such. It’s not the same as meeting someone who was adopted by your family when you’re, let’s say 15 and they’re 15 too, and by the time you’re a bit older you realize you have feelings for that person because once again you met that person at a pretty mature age and didn’t technically grow up together.

Anyway, that’s all I have to say about that opinion. I side with both opinions being stated for this show. Because once again it’s controversial. But let’s talk about the second opinion and come to a conclusion.

Is it not incest?

Morally speaking it is, realistically speaking from DNA and so on. No, it’s not. No matter what anyone thinks they’re not blood related. So is it not incest? Before I keep going let’s search up what incest is. And from a quick search it states “ Incest is human sexual activity between family members or close relatives. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity, and sometimes those related by affinity, adoption, or lineage”. Therefore based on this definition what they did is incest since he’s adopted by Qian. But once again they’re not blood related. Since I can remember the word incest has mainly been used when actual blood related members of a family have a romantic relationship between themselves. Though when someone dates their stepbrother or stepsister it’s a little bit more normalized but by some it’s also considered incest. There’s a lot of shows/movies about stepsiblings catching feelings for eachother, but back to the age thing most of the times this is portrayed, the stepsiblings meet when they’re in their late teens and don’t necessarily grow up together. So it’s not as controversial. Cause it’s like a friend of yours or your crush suddenly becoming your stepsibling cause your parent and their parent decided to be together.

Ok that’s all I can think of to say for both sides, ngl trying to write out about this not being incest was a little hard because the way this BL is portrayed is very much incest coded.

But to conclude, this BL is gonna be seen differently by many different people depending on their own personal views and opinions. I myself will admit that I’m in the middle about this show, although I do see why it’s seen as incest I can also accept why it’s not. Yes, it’s more to the incest side because of different factors such as age gap, the fact Yuan was adopted by Qian, the fact that he was very young when he was adopted by Qian, and the fact that Qian played a father, mother and older brother role for both Lili and Yuan throughout the years, and not only until Yuan confessed his feelings did Qian suddenly start having those feelings for him as well which leads me to think that before Yuan showed signs of liking Qian and also confessed, Qian had no such feelings for Yuan. And that thought makes it a bit weird but also not? Once again, controversial as fuck. Very complex to actually put a label on it as either incest or not incest. At the end of the day, they were both kids when they met eachother, there was an age gap but possibly no bigger than 7 years, but still they were kids when they met. They both had hard lives and tough pasts. A lot of trauma and no therapy or anything that could’ve emotionally helped them. Even Qian would have nightmares about his mother, therefore he isn’t mentally stable to make more mature reasonable decisions such as not dating your adopted brother. Both need therapy and need help mentally, and the fact that they liked eachother isn’t 100% their fault, most likely not their fault at all. For one you can’t control your feelings, and second they’re both not mentally stable to possibly understand how weird it actually is. And the fact that everyone else accepted it so easy didn’t help this case either. Because in reality this probably wouldn’t have been so easily accepted by people mostly coming from a gay relationship. But that’s just how this show turned out to be and we must accept it as it is. Overall I will admit it was a good show, the acting was good, the story was decent, and everything else was good too. It’s just a little controversial but that shouldn’t be something you let ruin your watching experience, mostly when you consider the other factors as to why things turned out the way they were. Was it a little unrealitc in some parts? Yes. But this whole show is a little unrealistic and controversial all over. But also realistic and relatable in certain parts.

Final thoughts

Have an open mind when you watch this show, your opinion is valid whether you think this is incest or not, or both. It’s up to you to let this show be a certain experience for you wether that be a bad, good or both. But let’s not lie, the chemistry was good, and so was the acting, casting, and directing.

Overall: 8.8/10

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A Serious Question of Attraction

We often don’t realize how little we know about a person until we are in constant proximity with them.

Living with Him, an adaptation of Miyata Toworu’s manga of the same name, explores just that: the complexities of friendship and attraction through the shared living arrangements of childhood friends Tanaka Kazuhito (Sato Ryuga) and Natsukawa Ryota (Sakai Sho) upon entering university. Ryota is reserved and accustomed to responsibility, whereas Kazuhito is outgoing and universally liked. Despite Kazuhito’s popularity and striking looks, his inability to sustain relationships confounds Ryota and sparks a journey of self-discovery. As Ryota probes the reasons behind Kazuhito’s fleeting relationships, he confronts his own emotions and insecurities.

Read the complete article here-

https://the-bl-xpress.com/2024/04/27/living-with-him-first-impressions-ep-1-2/

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A Somber Love Story Hinging on Desperation

Shelter.
A place to be.
A roof.
A resting place.
A place to–what?

Shelter. What exactly is it? And why is it so hard to hold onto? Why is it so hard to define? Why is it so hard to understand?

Starring Lee Jae Bin as Lee Yoon Dae and Jang Woo Young as Cha Soo Hyuk, the Korean BL Gray Shelter is all about finding a haven amidst life’s storm, amidst domestic violence and emotional abuse. Yoon Dae is a domestic abuse victim who learned to avoid anger by becoming angry at himself and others, all while fearing being alone. Soo Hyuk is trying desperately to survive while supporting a family whose income is being sucked dry by his gambling-addict father.

And both are looking for the one thing neither has ever truly known.

Read the complete article here-

https://the-bl-xpress.com/2024/04/26/gray-shelter-series-review-ep-3-to-5/

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Could Have Been Better

This is the real thing. Acting that does not look like acting.” – Quote from The Star

There is honestly so much to unpack here in this short series that goes way beyond the plot or story. Reality and fiction merge together to make this series unique. As the abstract states, this series is based on a ‘true story’. Perhaps a more apt description might be closer to a docudrama.

It begins with a hapless and sad young man, ironically named Hope (Night Yodsakon), who sets up his vendor cart selling fried meatballs in front of a BL production company. He looks and acts defeated and forlorn. Yet maintains a sense of optimism outwardly; merely for show. Inwardly, he seems to have given up ‘hope’.

One day he is approached by the owner of the BL production company who asks if he would like to star in a BL series. Indeed, there is something enticing about Hope that draws you to him. His face tells it all and there is something about his demeanor that is raw and organic. If he could learn to act, channel his difficult life experiences into real meaningful and believable enactments, he could evoke a freshness about a series. Hope knows nothing about acting or even what a BL is but is willing to try.

Read the complete article here-

https://the-bl-xpress.com/2024/04/25/the-star-series-review-ep-1-2/

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A Love Story Full of Yearning & Longing

Sometimes beauty is born out of tragedy, out of a broken place that doesn’t seem capable of growing something beautiful.

And yet, even roses have thorns.

The Taiwanese BL Unknown, adapted from the web novel Da Ge by Priest, is a stunning example of a relationship built from a broken place. Starring Chris Chiu (Wei Qian) and Kurt Huang (Wei Zhiyuan), it delves deeply into a story about two boys who don’t belong anywhere but whose hearts seek a home and family in each other’s brokenness.

And it succeeds.

From the moment a young Yuan follows Qian from the darkness surrounding him in the streets to the warmth of Qian’s home, Unknown becomes a story about finding light in a period of darkness. It’s a concept that threads well throughout the series; from youth to adulthood, strangers to brothers to lovers, light and darkness balance each other, intertwine, and then become one. It’s a transformative experience that grips the soul and doesn’t let go.

Read the complete article here-

https://the-bl-xpress.com/2024/04/23/unknown-series-review-ep-3-to-12/

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My Favourite Watch in 2024

Adapted from the web novel “Xi Hua Zhi” (惜花芷) by Kong Liu (空留), “Blossoms in Adversity”, this drama isn’t a one man show. No, rather it chronicles the individual journey of each character. It could be the main leads, Hua Zhi or Gu Yanxi, each of whom had their own struggles; or it could be the female residents of the Hua Family whose sudden fall from grace led them to live a life of misfortune, something they could have never imagined before. Even though they had their disagreements, blood is obviously thicker than water. They argued, fought and yet stood together when the times were worst. How far can a bunch of women hold out when the Emperor of the nation is out for their blood? The story line beautifully weaves a redemptive recourse with a somber romance. Neither overpower each other, they exist in perfect harmony, blending through motions. For now, let’s talk about the main characters and their journeys!

Read the complete article here-

https://kcdramamusings.wordpress.com/2024/04/27/blossoms-in-adversity-series-review/

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In the mood for laughter and love

If there's one thing I appreciate about cdramas it's that, from time to time, they manage to produce a story with characters behaving their age but also showing a pleasantly surprise maturity to their actions. In recent years, youth dramas like Love O2O, Our Secret, You Are Desire or When I Fly Towards You come to mind. Everyone Loves Me falls into this category. We are presented a group of characters who are young enough to make mistakes, but old enough to be aware of their limitations, of their missteps, and learn to grow from them.

I really liked both leads. Particularly Ling's spitfire personality, which is a breath of fresh air and I loved every minute she made Gu Xun sweat. But he didn't lose against her. Gu Xun was charming and overall had a great presence, boy needed to be taken down a notch tho. And thanks to the fact both leads are written as equals through their entire journey together, at the end of the drama it feels like they have come out as better people. I even dare say, it feels like their story it's just beginning.

Lin Yi and Zhou Ye have great chemistry and managed to portray their characters really well. They clearly had a lot of fun working together and with their character's development. I would love to see them work together again in the future.

The rest of the cast was also very good. The supportive characters hace each a function in pushing forward the story at the workplace and the leads's personal lives, which made for some very interesting office tension and hilarious interactions out of it. For example, at the beginning of the story leading man it's arrogant enough to know a good quantity of girls are crushing on him but for someone who claimed to be so popular, he spent a good portion of the story dealing with loves rivals from right to left, up and down. Everyone Loves Me? More like Everyone Loves Her. The results were awesome.

This was a very fun and easy going drama for me, with lots of re-watch potential. Every time I watched a new episode, it put me in a good mood and that's enough for me to recommend it.

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MY MANNN. lin yiyang aka WU LEIIIII UGH. watched this for him. he’s SUCH a good actor… like his eyes … shows he’s in love UGH. makes me want to watch love like the galaxy againnnnn❤️❤️❤️

ok this drama was meh. the beginning was better! very cute but lowkey kinda cringey but UGHH WU LEI LOVED HER SMMM. such a green flag he’s SOOO acts of service 😭😭😭😭he’s so sweet like would do ANYTHING for her . i need a man like that. but lowk was kinda boring … like i watched 2x speed and skipped a ton of scenes. PLUS LIKE WU LEI WAS IN IT… he was THIRSTING for yinguo LMFAOOO . i don’t rly like the FL actress so maybe that’s why…. also i wish they developed the side couples better and i could not tell who was who lmgao. the billards part was boing they basically won every match LOLL but yea.

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Beast Mode Activated

Picked this up on a whim when the air date was announced as I had seen HYT (ML) in two republican era detective dramas and this was a totally different genre plus a romance so was interested in how he'd do. I'd heard of ZJY before but never seen her in anything and was familiar with some of our supporting cast especially the main villain lol. This was a female-centric drama about going through hardships and evolving. Not to mention ML's ability to go from quiet and kind to beast mode activated.

Pros: I have to give the martial arts of ML or GYX main pointers here; it gave this review a title. At 6'2 or 6'3, GYX towered over everyone including emperor psycho aka his own uncle (which baffled me when I saw it in the first episode as I had seen the actor who played big bad twice before and thought he was monster sized but here he looked like a mouse in comparison lol), so when he deployed his martial arts be it sword or fists, he could destroy a human in seconds. This was also funny to me because his fat guard in the brigade who could carry two people at once and the guard he killed upon assuming his post as commander; both actors played bad guys in TLB (ironically the aunt who was raising the kid of the concubine played the main antagonist in TLB too lol; reunion!), and they were huge there; yet here they paled in comparison. Props to HYT for doing the stunt work himself. The chemistry of the leads was on point as well. The story was nice about the FL and how she leads her female family out of disaster after disaster while they evolve from dependency on men to independence as the men are exiled north and just in general because once the men returned, they learned of the new normal very quickly lol. GYX also led the bureau to a change from barbaric to a brotherhood that was united and supported each other. Was also great that his three guards (my favorite was spider monkey guard though CQ was good too), always protected HZ and her family too however they could. It was like the Hua family and them became a massive family. Called the entire bureau the Spider-Man brigade; their ability to assassinate goons in a midst of a food competition at the restaurant while picking up blood drops took the cake. We're talking Cirque du Soleil meets Special Ops action here.

This drama was not short on comedy be it intentional or not. There was always something that made people laugh at any given point. The comment section here was lively. The OSTs and BGM really fit most scenes especially the beast mode ones. Favorite single character was actually very hard but both leads fit, wish we saw more of the SML as he spent like 30 episodes studying lol. The secondary couple (SY and SH) was adorable, SY stole everyone's heart (and boy is her actress versatile; from a cunning seductress spy in MJTY to a young woman with high functioning autism as it seemed here), Ah Jian, empress dowager (who I wish went to the wedding) as mentioned guards, all aunts and cousins of HZ, one uncle, grandpa and grandma (grandma's death was the saddest thing of the entire show other than Hua Rong's).

Let's talk about our main antagonist; emperor psycho as I dubbed him. Actor never disappoints; you hated his guts from the first episode to the second he died in the last one. Hell has never had a more deserving candidate from a drama. A narcissistic psychopath that only with death could people be free. Though I loved how HZ finally took him to town in 38 and GYX let himself be heard too, the man himself was the absolute monster and played it very well. Costumes and sets were nice as well.

Cons: I wish the script let the leads emote more as HZ was far too perfect and could get through any turmoil without so much as an eyebrow lift. Only saw her really show negative emotions twice, when she was told by the emperor she couldn't redeem the men through money and she went from catatonic to ballistic in under 2 minutes and when GYX took on the palace guards and got himself severely injured, she was shrieking and crying. Same went for GYX, the actor has a difficulty emoting in general apparently as his are very subtle; but when he's fighting, he's not playing around. But his negative or even positive emoting was rare i.e. breakup scene and when emperor psycho croaked were the only two times he cried, I think I saw him really smile maybe three times in the entire show. He smiled more in their BTS when they did the actual scenes; so wonder why director didn't use those scenes.

I had more issues with the script than the acting; though the breakup scene lacked gravitas especially given it was a nobility arc for a change and not a dumb misunderstanding. It just seemed that many important scenes where angst was required, were never given a pause but just rolled along to the next whatever it was. The spy astronomer and last adult prince were more like plot devices to get to the death of emperor psycho; I forgot who he even was. Felt very disjointed from the rest of the show. The last 6 episodes were a sprint to the finish line as for a story that large you needed to pack it in. Especially the very last episode. They really sacrificed quality for quantity here, sadly. Instead of focusing on many smaller characters and story lines, they could have chosen less of those and really fleshed out the leads, second couple, SML, a few others and stuck to more conducive storyline. Then at the end, you have a dizzying amount of people whose loose ends need to be tied and it's done in 30 seconds or less for each batch while the leads are forgotten for a bit.

Wish the Jurassic sized AI dolphins didn't take up the ending of the leads as they were unnecessary and made that scene laughable for the wrong reasons. Continuity and dubbing were also visible issues during the show, the CGI wasn't that great either though thankfully rarely used and mostly for the background and I wish the music didn’t drown out some of the conversations as well.

Would I recommend it? Yes, I would. Despite the running around and kinks, it was an enjoyable series and one I would recommend especially if you like female-centric with sweet chemistry types of dramas.

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Almost trope free, and the drama has a female CEO

Imagine a world where meat is biotechnologically generated and cultured. This eliminates the need to slaughter animals. Of course, such an advancement could solve world hunger. BF Company has hopes that in the near future all food will be cultured using biotechnology. Blood Free does not have many of my usual circle of acting friends in it. However, since it met my “Love it or Leave it” 15 minute criteria in 2 minutes, I thought it best to investigate further. Blood Free has a high technology driven plot-line. CGI and cinematography are through the roof.

I love a great romance drama. This ain’t it. However, the intelligently written story will keep you in suspense. Therefore, some should try to get out of their comfort zone and add Blood Free to their shopping list. Now for the guys. You have been asking for this Korean Drama. I think that you will enjoy Blood Free. For the girls. I know that actor Ju Ji Hoon starred in Kingdom, a drama I did not see, but wow, where did he come from?

The ML is Ju Ji Hoon (Jurisan, Kingdom) and FL is Han Hyo Joo (Moving, W:Two Worlds, Happiness).

I am excited about this drama Blood Free. The drama does not follow the usual Korean Drama tropes. The story is innovative and exciting. That acting and action are great.

A company has learned how to culture fleshly meat products and this company is poised to take over the world market. Can life be that easy? Not in a Korean Drama. I like Blood Free a lot. This drama is a total change of pace. The use of video gaming tools and drones to fight the bad guys is sure to please. CGI and Cinematography are great, with a great OST

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The Perfect C-Drama from beginning to end

Overall, the story line is great. It had a good pace - keeping us wanting more at the end of each episode. The relationship build up was also so exhilirating and did not create any unneccessary love triangle - all were necessary for their character build up. Absolutely loved this c-drama.

I am not sure why others commented that the ending sucks, or that they don't understand why they had a divorce. I think the last 3-4 episode explained it very well, multiple times why they divorced. Thankfully, I did not read those and give up on the series.

I think the character build up was great, the rivalry and frustration, as well as the swoonworthy moments. The only couple I thought wasted my time (while somewhat necessary), was the FL's 2nd elder brother and her best friend. Their relationship was necessary because it demonstrated the toxic nature of the relationship that scared the FL from getting married.

Another thing I really don't understand is why ML looks so tired and worn out in this entire series, when all he has is time (lol). The ML always looks impeccable in other c-dramas, so was a little curious why despite his best and lowest moments, he still look haggard.

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BORING

First episode, we got all these characters thrown out on us. Onto the 4th episode, I felt no connection with anyone of these characters. Very little info on the characters. I didn't feel a connection with any of the characters and after 4th episode, I didn't care much if any of the characters die.
Plot was all over. They didn't do a good job of showing the flash back. You don't know if it's a flash back or the present. So confusing and so boring.
Episode 1-4 just all about drugs and human trafficking. So boring how they took up 4 episodes on just that.
I don’t think this will have a season 2. Lol

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