Reviews

Hardly anyone will understand this movie the first time. I didn't understand much either. And this, I think, is the biggest disadvantage of the entire film, when from the outside it seems unclear, rambling, but at the same time it tells us so much. This piece requires reading about it BEFORE and watching it a second, third time and not immediately condemning it. So I give it, even if I rate it decently overall, "REALLY NOT RECOMMENDED", because many people just want to quickly watch it, skim through it, and I don't take seriously the opinions that the film is only about the physical dimension. I understand that the film has a lower rating on world servers, because heterosexuals did not give it because of the complexity and 100% gay component. That's why I give the Story the lowest rating for the targeted "outrageousness". It is based on the theme of a Chinese novel from the 18th century. Dream of the Red Chamber, which is also the second title of the film, transformed the story from the Chinese imperial court into the present day and the current capital of Taiwan, so it must adhere to certain prescribed rules (more characters, not creating a comprehensive dramatically graduated plot, etc.). That it is such a deliberately non-story and its development can be read by everyone, I liked the film after the third viewing, there are several gaps in it that the viewer can guess and it shows gays as they are without napkins (not all of them are saints, faithful to one partner until death, do not smoke, drink, or fart). There is beauty, love, hope, selfishness, ignorance, irresponsibility, ruin, sickness, death, just everything that life brings. As the greatest strength of the film, I cite the fact that the cast played it extremely well, humanly, UNTWISTED. Now I don't mean that most of the actors were handsome Taiwanese including the main trio of Josh, Lin, Sean, which is true, that's an added bonus. One of the main roles (Lin) was played by the star of the great series Dark Blue and Moonlight (this series is also shown here on MDL) - Eric Chen. I wanted to give a nine for the processing, but I reduced it by one for the fact that many scenes were dark, dark, I know that was the intention of the creators, but it made me uncomfortable.
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Pets are a life long responsibiliy, and a lesson for life

I watched this drama slowly, on the one hand because of interruptions by other activities, on the other because of more interest in another small drama. I never skip but it is true that there was much repetition and that the "secret" was out of the bag too early to be really thrilled by the second half development.

The purpose of raising awareness about responsibility for adopted pets was worthy. It was developed into "case studies" that really showcased the chosen pets.

The drama could perhaps have been more realistic about some vet care, but on the whole, it pinpointed some facts. For instance, the relatively small number of guide dogs in China, but also a warning against seeing those as "workers" that could be used for years in demanding jobs such as guiding paralympic runners. Some care that actually amounts to mistreatment...

For those who want to know more about the "guest star animals", I have added a list of them, with episode number, and pictures, in the Discussion section, with an appendix listing the pets of some chosen Chinese celebs.

https://mydramalist.com/discussions/loving-you/120713-pets-my-precious-ones-and-those-of-c-drama-actors-actresses

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For the newbies and some hailang, on the eve of Singles day 11.11
here is an introduction to Z.Tao's music and a first Profile of the ML of "My Precious " (who played a role he is familiar with in real life!), illustrated, with links to more music and some fashion, luxury (incl. explanation of what some saw as a cryptic line in the song "Promise").

These are parked in the (always hidden, newbies have to be curious to find it, although it is not that difficult) Discussion section of "My Precious" drama. (Since MDL provides the introductions to dramas and shows, I have not (yet) added descriptions and links to those in this Profile, but you might nevertheless find it more useful than the ultra short bio and list of screen appearances on Z.Tao's page). I may expand on that in the future, and move the resulting Profile somewhere else later.
Direct link to these two other "companion pieces" :

https://mydramalist.com/discussions/loving-you/120711-z-tao-playlist-and-some-xu-yiyang-thrown-in

Enjoy!

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Best Quality Thai BL to Date

This show is definitely the best quality Thai BL to date, and it also outshines many other countries BL's for the quality of the story, acting and production value. Let's break it down:

THE GOOD:
- With regards to acting, they all had their designated roles and respective range of emotions to portray and they nailed it.
- For casting, no one was lacking, honestly. I personally really liked Jom, he was a mature ML the likes of which is very rare in BL's in general. In BL's the ML's (especially the 'sub' ML) are usually overly emotional, foolish, unreasonable or just don't have much control over doing things sensibly and sometimes they even lack dignity, but Jom was very centered and self respecting which was just fantastic imo. I really think we should see more of that.
- The story felt very complete imo and the production value was good for the show too, the location for shooting was very suitable and believable.
- The characters in this are all very likeable, honestly, and their relationships and relationship developments were so well paced and portrayed. From the 'higher class' to the 'slaves', all of the relationships and friendships had their own depth and importance to the story.
- The supernatural nature of this story was well written, and it was just enough to be a little eerie and interesting, but subtle as well, not overdone.
- The ML's chemistry was spot on. A sensual approach to intimacy more than a sexual one, so it was sexy but also emotional and quite beautiful.
- The secondary couple was GL, which was such a nice change and so well portrayed as well, also good chemistry.
- The choice Ueang Phueng made to terminate her pregnancy was well written and portrayed well, it was also an important story line with a final decision that was totally understandable and I think it was another very mature detail in this show.
- There was no overly predictable scenes and especially no awkward, comical long drawn out slow mo scenes. Also, everyone wasn't conveniently in everyone else's business all the time for no good reason.

There was no BAD or UGLY in this.

HIGHLIGHT:
- The emotional depth of this was great and wasn't buried under the idea, and in favour of, the show technically being a BL.

I would 100% recc watching this.

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"It was whole five years. I healed the wounds of his .He fulfilled my first young love "

It had the best writing ,best acting,best music ,best everything !

Firstly about all the actors ,they did very well with micro expressions .Apart from the leads ,I loved the acting of the ' sang yan ' and the 3 other friends of sang zhi .

coming to the writing , it was damn realistic and yet interesting . I need to appreciate the attention to detail . I know that it is adapted from novel but still the team did very well in adapting the story into a drama and making it very memorable .

genreally music dominates the scenes mostly ,which diconnects the viewer ,but here it's completely contrast ,music blends with the visuals and uplifts them .Music at the emotional breakdowns of sang zhi and Duan 'll make viewer emphatize with them . I could write pages about the music of this drama .

I repeat everything about this drama is so perfect ! It is a one such drama that a keen drama watcher should never miss at any cost !


I just want to brainwash / erase my brain and want to join Duan and sangzhi 's story from the very start again !

I think there'll be no sequel but i'll be very greatful if there is something like that ,just i want to see them again ?

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I'm not sure why the rating is this high

This is my first ever review because I am genuinely very confused, this drama was made for someone like me, I enjoy student teacher romances when fictional, and i was really excited to see a new series exploring that dynamic. But I have to be honest, for a lot of it i was bored, it felt like there wasnt much of a story at all and what story there was, was extremely simplistic. Not only that, I felt there wasnt much of a reason for the two to like each other, they liked each other since episode one and we were just supposed to accept that a student and teacher would somehow have crushes on each other without much interaction outside of the classroom before the attempted suicide in episode one, students have crushes on teachers all the time, but what good reason does the teacher have to have a crush on a student other than she was obedient in class and he found her attractive? Not really a good base for a healthy romance to me. But okay, once they do get to know each other outside of the classroom and their feelings are cemented as real, the whole relationship comes across as predatory and down right creepy, and thats coming from someone that likes this trope! I say this because their big connection is feeling like they dont belong, and being suicidal and lonely, which can be things that bond people, but it makes a relationship that is already inappropriate seem even moreso when you have a young and impressionable girl, struggling with her mental health, and a teacher who is using that as an excuse to spend time with her, and get closer to her, all the while being pretty jealous of those she gets close to, and being overall very immature and irresponsible. I understand that this is all a part of his character, and he uses humor/flirting to make her feel better, and at times it actually was effective and sweet, but i do think with this kind of topic the teacher does need to retain some level of responsibility and seriousness because it is a serious situation, and i dont find recklessly flirting at school, charming, even if it is meant to be a comedy, its also meant to be a romance, and i dont think its romantic to put someone you love at risk of being expelled, and throwing away your career. So i guess a lot of my problems came down to his character specifically, i didnt like that he constantly called her highschool girl, as it made it seem like a fetish and that any girl fitting her profile would have sufficed, and i didnt like the whole back story with his highschool teacher, it threw off the whole story. The assumption I made was that they are paralleling his romantic relationship with his HS teacher with his relationship with this highschool girl, as they were literally doing the same scenes as he did in the past, but no, they throw a curveball and say that his teacher was like family to him. What?? You do realize when you parallel scene by scene with this new relationship with Mikoto, it comes across that he views her as family as well, right? I just think it was a waste of a storyline and a failed attempt to make Mikoto and Jin's relationship seem like it had more depth than it did, just because she finally knew one thing about him now.
I think part of my disappointment is that there actually was some stuff I liked about the drama, i did think some scenes were genuinely funny, and I think the acting was pretty good, and they looked good together and there were a few sweet scenes, but i almost think the drama didnt know what it wanted to be. I believe that if there was no romance, and instead Haiba was more of a goofy, fun loving big brother figure, the constant "Highschool girl" and the confusing parallel to his own teacher being family, would make a lot more sense narratively, but i think they knew there's less people interested in a story like that, so they made it a romance, even when it didnt fit the characters personalities, and general vibe. Because here's the thing, a teacher helping a struggling student find friends, happiness and providing guidance sounds like an amazing plot! But when you add in the fact that he has romantic feelings for her, rather than professional or familial, it makes his intentions a lot less pure and kind of ruins that storyline altogether for me, its kind of like you have to pick and choose, and they didnt do that here, it was just a weird mash up of stuff that never felt satisfying. But clearly, based on the rating, im in the minority on this one!

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A remake please!

I love the story of Otomen and I enjoyed this drama immensely but….it’s kinda old -made in 2009- and I doubt I can find sites where I can rewatch. So far I’ve been getting my Otomen “fix” at Dramacool but this site is getting banned a lot and also the film quality seems to be getting worse. I hope that one day someone in the film industry will have the idea of remaking this story…and perhaps add more kickass scenes, especially the one where both ML and FL fought the hooligans off.
(I was quite upset when that episode ended without showing the fight, and the next episode didn’t pick it up where it ended previously)

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So nothing actually happens?

So how does this story go from Yoh being a sugar baby/housewife to just the same exact spot? I hoped he would have sold that manga and made some money to live on his own for a bit and get out of there. And the toxicity of this relationship, just from episode one. But yeah, I'll never hear the word "sunny" the same way ever again.
I also really wish they put Mizuki's perspective earlier on, and that for the love of whatever god everyone believes, can they actually tell each other how they feel??? The miscommunication is just so very wrong. His jealousy of Manju, or the fact that Yoh actually has friends, and Mizuki doesn't at all, his possessiveness and need to control Yoh is very uncomfortable, that I feel bad for Yoh and that he has to deal with such a shallow person.
And the fact that he could not even tell Yoh that he actually loved him, which he could have just said. and was not reading from the manga pissed me off. Like how was he supposed to take it with all of the mixed signals you were giving him all of the sudden? And I'm sorry living for someone for about 3 years and just being obedient to whatever they say? That's a red flag to me. I get that Yoh was basically already in love with him, but usually you starting dating someone before you move into their house and make curry on demand.

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Languid Countryside Friendship

Cute and simple, but it used clichéd short-cuts to tell the story and was ultimately not that memorable. I didn't feel like I wasted my time on this, and it did bring a gentle smile to my face, but I won't watch it again. You might enjoy it if you're in the mood for something gentle, innocent, straightforward, sometimes cute, and with a focus on parental figures and finding purpose.

The acting was decent but the actors weren't given that much to work with. Most characters are pretty 1-dimensional. We learn more about Yamato by what other people say about him in exposition than anything else. That's telling and not showing a story, so it's hard to feel emotionally engaged with it. The main character, Mitsuomi, fairs a bit better because the story follows him, but his character arc is, sadly, very predictable with nothing new.

The pacing is languid, which suits the characterization of the countryside vs the city, but the end wraps up so quickly that there's a noticeable imbalance in the arc of the story, character, and relationship progression. The soft cinematography with naturescapes as cut scenes suits the mood, but I can easily see why some people find this movie too slow.

The lead actors are able to convey a basic, growing friendship with unexpected curiosity for more, but the screenplay gives them very little beyond that. The character interactions are written simply so there's not much depth to their self-discovery and not much sense of romance.

Using instrumental British Isle folk songs (like The Water Is Wide) for the background music was an interesting choice. It goes with the countryside theme, but it felt odd to me. Probably because my mind could'nt disassociate what I recognized from the culture it came from to let it blend fully with this Japanese story.

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Too draggy and boring to continue after 12 episodes, dropping it.

"Stay Young Stay Passion" is yet another republican era melodrama about three siblings who were separated at young ages after their parents were murdered. They were brought up by 3 different families and tried to find and reunite with each other and avenge their parents' deaths.

I watched 12 episodes, and the cinematography is good, but the acting is okay. The storyline is draggy and boring, so I am dropping this drama.

I used to like Zhang Han's acting and dramas, but lately, after Sunshine of My Life, his other dramas were okay and not as good like:
- One Boat, One World
- Farewell to Arm
- Gentlemen of East 8th received a lot of backlash.

I am giving this drama a 5.0 rating.

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Good acting but I found the drama too draggy and boring.

Ripe Town is a historical crime investigation of the Ming Dynasty, where the apprentice Qu San Geng, Judge Song Chen, and Gao Shi Cong tried to find out who murdered San Geng's master, Captain Leng.

The first 5 episodes were interesting, and the acting was good, but it got draggy and boring. I have watched 7 episodes but could not find myself to continue. After I listened to the review from the AvenueX YouTuber, she did not give it a high rating. I am dropping this drama and giving it a 6.0 rating because the plot is not interesting, and the scriptwriters and director did not make the drama engaging.

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autism representation!

I can't emphasize enough how much I adore this show. It became the highlight of my day. The overall plot and characters are incredibly endearing. As a psychology student, I appreciate the nuanced portrayal of the main character's autism. Despite some negative reviews claiming stereotyping, I believe it accurately represents the diverse spectrum of autism. The cases were consistently intriguing, making each episode more captivating. The only drawback for me was the somewhat inconclusive ending; I expected more closure. Nevertheless, it's a fantastic show, and I particularly enjoyed the authentic depiction of autism.

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