Coming to terms with betrayal

Contrary to the impression given by the poster, this is not a horror drama! I am always so surprised when people whose job is visual and in the media, come up with such a horrible poster! The synopsis above is from the official site ( http://areyouok.jp/en/ ) and is just as incomprehensible and misleading! There are no clouds and nobody's getting married: it is just a birthday party! Basically, this short drama has been really badly promoted!

It is a story of Mikako, who shut herself up after discovering that her boyfriend and her best friend have been seeing each other for a year with all of their friends knowing it but no one telling her. This is an interactive drama: you are given choices to make for Mikako: does she leave the house or not and what does she do afterwards. The story is quite interesting: the choices she has to make all lead to a happy ending for her: she accepts the facts and decides to move on, stronger!

The concept is original and the story is well written. Actually, I wished it was longer! The playlist on youtube lets you watch all episodes without needing to choose!

The acting is surprisingly good. The cinematography is rather grey/blue depressing which they used for the poster! When she leaves the house, the colours change and the song's lyrics have a significant impact on Mikako's feelings: after dealing with the problem, she's OK now!

The web series has been made to promote a song "Are You OK?" by the girl band FAKY.

FAKY is a five-person Japanese girl group that debuted in 2013 under Avex's Rhythm Zone record label. The group has gone through two reformations and currently consists of Lil' Fang, Mikako, Hina, Akina, and Taki. The group name was derived from the word "fake" to challenge themselves to bring something "real" to the Japanese music scene. Their name also stands for "Five Ass Kicking Youngsters" and "FAntastic toKYo". The group defines themselves as a "Next Generation Girls Union" and tends to take musical inspiration from outside of Japan while incorporating Japanese culture and fashion.

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Road movie

I am judging this drama harshly because of a thing I utterly hate: a bad ending. And this one has it in the title and in the last episode. Fortunately, the manga author drew a special episode which actually gives us the ending any good BL should have!

I hate the end of the world trope: it is too depressing and it is giving me nightmares. Ever since I saw that Keira Knightly movie about it, I cannot watch anything dealing with the subject. But I have(almost) run out of BLs to watch and as I was looking for a short one, it was between this one and Kinou Nani Tabeta? Since I found that couple lacking any credibility in the romance department, I went with this one after making sure that the world does not actually end!

I also hate unclear endings. So did the end of the world happen or did a miracle happen like they showed in a ridiculous animation which looks like a 10 yr old did on his parents' computer! Fortunately, the manga author posted an extra episode of the manga as a direct continuation of the drama giving us the very much needed happy ending! Thank you!

And even though this drama comes highly recommanded (deservedly so) I wish the mangaka had found another reason for the plot to move in the desired direction. With the world coming to the end in 10 days, Misumi decides to spend it in the library, reading. But he bumps into Ritsu there. They used to date ten years earlier but they broke up because Ritsu cheated and Misumi never recovered from that. Ritsu asks him for help in disposing of a dead body in exchange for a pill of death. But the dead body turns out not to be dead but a strange highschool boy. The men decide to take the boy home to his parents and a road movie starts. Along the way they pick up another person.

This drama is a road movie. The characters reveal themselves, grow and mature as they travel. The story of two main characters is told through a series of flashbacks from their childhood onwards. Their relationship while they were students was doomed from the start since they were both damaged individuals: one shy and unassuming the other one flamboyant, cocky and irresponsibly superficial but hiding deep wounds. Neither is likeable but one makes you feel pity and the other rage and disgust. Time apart let them grow. Again, differently: while the first one remained stuck in time, hidden in his shell, the other one realized the error of his way, regretted his behaviour but continued on the self-destructive path he was put on by life circumstances.

I like the story a lot. They take their time to get to know and trust each other again which is a bit nerve wrecking because of all the world ending thing and not really having any time left! But on the other hand, they are very much aware of the urgency of the situation so even though they take their time, they do not waste it on unnecessary misunderstandings and jealousies. Was the end of the world as a premise really necessary?

There is a bit of fantasy here as well with the high school kid he seems to have some special powers or abilities or everything is just a coincidence? Freak weather or Divine powers? Who knows? The mystery remains....

One thing was surprising for me in any case: with the world coming to the end, the people are rather well-behaved, polite, the looting and destruction are minimal. Or at least they did not show much: but there were no burned or abandoned cars, no houses broken into...you'd expect people to go crazy knowing they were going to die soon. Not so much!

The drama is well written: in spite of frequent flashbacks, there is no confusion about the timeline. The acting is superb. The cinematography standard and nature pretty. The song is amazing: Futatabi by Hiroba. I have found my latest favourite song!

This should have been a 10/10 drama if it had not been for the end of the world !

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Healing by manipulation?

First and foremost, thank you for the subs HPriest! Extraordinary work, as usual!

Second and the most important: this is MY opinion and MY feelings about this drama.

I really do not know how to feel about this drama. On one hand, the story is interesting and original, the characters are so quirky and fun but on the other hand I did not like the actress playing the main lead: she somehow did not fit the role. And the more everyone swooned in front of her, the more I failed to comprehend! The FL is supposed to be someone kind, sweet and pretty. What we got was someone bland and slouchy. I know I am going to get a lot of flack for this, but this casting decision really ruined my viewing experience: I just could not see what everyone talked about in her. The actress unfortunately did not manage to convey that vulnerability and kindness: all I got was an annoying doormat! Everything she did felt somehow off!

Following a motorbike accident for which she was held responsible by her friends, Sui becomes komoribito/hikikomori, shutting herself away from the world for ten years. Looking for a way to earn some money, her father a failed mangaka, accepts to draw a story in collaboration with the hottest writer of the day using Sui's story. As she comes out of her shell and gets in touch with her highschool friends, the truth about the accident and its aftermath slowly comes out. Behind the scenes, the writer listens to everything(a bug in Sui's phone) that's going on and gives direction by gently nudging Sui where he wants the story to go.

The story is well told: we go from past to present with past events in black and white, and the truth slowly being revealed. The characters are great: the funny father, the silly photographer, the uppity editor...they are all hiding their serious side behind the quirky exterior.

The main topic of this drama is Hikikomori (Japanese: ひきこもり or 引きこもり, lit. "pulling inward, being confined"), also known as severe social withdrawal, is total withdrawal from society and seeking extreme degrees of social isolation and confinement. Hikikomori refers to both the phenomenon in general and the recluses themselves. The concept is primarily recognized only in Japan, although similar concepts exist in other languages and cultures. Hikikomori have been described as loners or "modern-day hermits". Estimates suggest that half a million Japanese youths have become social recluses,as well as more than half a million middle-aged individuals. There is usually no other psychological problem.
I cannot say if it was represented well or if the healing process, is correctly presented but maybe, it not really being a mental disorder, the healing can be faster. Whatever it may be, the drama has made me aware of the phenomenon.

Anyway, the drama is more interesting to watch for all the support characters not the main couple! I liked the atmosphere of the drama, the laid back attitude everyone seemed to have and the fact that there was a 7yr old kid in the background of every adult conversation. They took him away only once when they discussed having kids!

Another issue I have with this drama is the music. But that is valid for the majority of j dramas: the background music which does not fit the mood of the scene. Why do japanese love classical music so much that they put it is, apparently, every single drama? Here, I learned to hate Debussy. The piano piece they featured is such a mood killer, heavy, depressing and making me want to throw myself out of the window. Figuratively speaking! But if I hear this piece never again, it will be too soon! So, why do they put in so much classical music? Don't they have any background music composers? And the only song they had was an old song by an american band The Hollies: "Bus Stop".

Watch it for the support cast and you'll have fun!

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Insecurities can wreak havoc!

I actually liked this a lot. It is very different from the majority of thai bls these days. The truth is, GMMTV has completely taken over the bl market churning out repetitive fare so when something a bit different comes along, people are lost. NightDream is shorter, dreamier and one of the better produced recent bls. But it ha such a distictive korean bl feel to it because of that.

Night and Dream were best friends in high school but they lost touch after the death of Dream's parents. They meet again five years later.

The plot is very basic but it is well executed and beautifully filmed. There are usual tropes galore: friends to lovers, a girl best friend who wants to be more, disapproving parent, bullying schoolmates, helpful friends. The story is firmly centred on the main pair: there are helpful side characters but we do not know or need to know anything about them: so no annoying second couple taking up precious time.
Night is a character deeply conflicted and insecure, and therefore closed off. He has an older brother who is held in high esteem by their father, while he, himself, is regularly criticized for his choices and actions. So even though he has been attracted to (and probably in love with) Dream, he never dared to confess his feelings, afraid of his eternally disappointed father's reaction. Night even managed to convince himself that having feelings for another man is wrong, not normal and unacceptable: he is very scared of his father thinking that he would never accept him, basically!
Dream, on the other hand, has had a crush on Night forever but never dared confessing because he thought that Night was in love with their girl friend. Unlike Night, he is very much at ease with who he is.

Growing up is hard, coming to terms with one's feelings is difficult but once you decide which path leads to it, the happiness is within your reach.

This was a nice quick watch: not your usual thai bl and so much better for it! Added bonus: not one single PPL! Incredible, right?

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Game of love?

How can a short film tell more in 9min than many others in 90? The director's skills are amazing: the writing is original and the cinematography stunning!

A man has to find his mysterious and quirky girlfriend every night by 3:01 AM based on a photo she sends him. If he does not, he will never see her again. His wanderings around HK at night are filled with light, shadows, foreboding and challenge. But he is getting tired of her not letting him get any closer: he realizes he does not really know her and one night he misses her by a few seconds and never sees her again. He is resigned never to see her again but a lingering regret remains: he does not remember her face any more but the memory of her is still overpowering. he moved on but he is still somehow stuck on her....

This short film is a testimony to how charismatic people leave a permanent trace behind them and how difficult it is to get close to them and at the same time break free from them!

The cinematography, here, beautifully illustrates the fleeting nature of the girl: it is fast, fuzzy and interspersed with flashed of light.

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The King of Flashbacks strikes again!

I'm sorry but I have an axe to grind with this director. I decided to call him the King of Flashbacks while he calls himself Jedi....really?!? This is the third story he directed (and the main character is called Third! Ha, ha...get it?) and by now a pattern emerges. The screenplay is so thin that he needs to fill up 90min with something. And that something are flashbacks, very long silent shots and recaps of the things we had just seen. Here he went even further: the second episode starts with the 10last minutes of the first one! So basically, there is enough footage to make a lazy 30min episode but since he was asked to do two 45min episodes: this is the result. To be frank, even though this is pretty bad, it is not as bad as his previous two specials (Friends Forever and Fake Love) and I am scared to watch the last two episodes of this anthology series because he directed them!

The story is not that bad. Pai works as a travel companion for hire for an app. His girlfriend wants him to quit his job and when he refuses she breaks up with him. He drowns his sorrows in beer and is picked up, dead drunk, by his next customer, Third, who takes him camping and bird watching. It turns out that Third's girlfriend is also a travel companion who is spending the weekend camping with a customer at the same place. That customer is Pai's girlfriend. Realizing that the girls are actually dating, Pai drowns his sorrows and the boys console each other. Will they become more than friends?

I quite liked the story. The issue I have are with the director and writer. Lazy writing and even lazier directing. And even though there were fewer long silent shots here, the director's penchant for long flashbacks of the events we saw two minutes earlier, is still strong. It has been so long that I have not seen such obviously fake car driving as well. And even though I liked the final split screen scene as it announced the future, it was ruined by how fake it looked. The music is getting worse by the episode: I am fed up with the title song: they rearrange it differently to give it a different tone but it has become annoying.

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Flowers, colours and love

So with a cryptic title like this, I needed to do a bit of research. Here it is:

Tuberose symbolizes attraction, lust, and obsession for someone else. It can send a message that you're having a hard time letting go of someone ...
In many cultures, Tuberose flowers are considered a symbol of good luck and prosperity...
The blue tuberose flower represents fidelity, reliability, security, and extravagance.
The light pink tuberose flower stands for excitement, ecstasy, and promises of a great romance
Contrary to the typical interpretations of white, the white tuberose (carnal) flower is the ultimate symbol of lust and gratification. Its long-lasting sultry scent is guaranteed to sinfully and treacherously enchant your partner. It indicates anticipation of rapturous times and is commonly used to decorate the bridal room of newlyweds in Asian cultures.
The yellow tuberose flower embodies a love that flourishes openly and bravely under the sun and breaks away from the secrecy of closed curtains...
All in all, the tuberose flower symbolic meanings are: passion, obsession, decadence and dangerous pleasures!

What does all of this has to do with this short film?

Ming has been in love with Song, his sister's boyfriend ever since he met him ages ago. There has always been a certain hesitancy in their relationship then but Ming lacked courage to pursue him. Suddenly, Song shows up at Ming's door after not being in touch for ten years. He wants a relationship. Now. Ming has never been able to get over his crush. Now that Song is back in his life, will he finally find the courage and move forward with Song?

The film is very ambiguous about everything, the basic story including. And the ending leaves you with the impression that everything that happened was just Ming's wishful thinking. There is a lot of symbolism going through this film: firstly the flower tuberose I mentioned above, but also the colour yellow (yellow balloon, yellow envelope). Yellow is the practical thinker, not the dreamer. Yellow is non-emotional, coming from the head rather than the heart. - this applies to one side of Ming. The way the director showed us Song mostly as a shadow, I think also confirms in a way that the whole story is just a dream.

The film is made in a rarely seen format now days 4:3, the colours a bright and oversaturated, the sound is rather badly recorded and the acting is correct.
Interesting short film by a creative and talented director which can be taken in a few different ways.
Either it is this symbolic meaning through the flower(Ming's heart) showing one man's difficulties of letting go and the colour yellow (Ming's head) indicated his having made peace with reality....
Or is it really just a love story that finally came to its happy ending, suddenly, after 10 years?

What do you think?

Cast:
River Watcharapong Kanjankrit starring as Ming, short film written and directed by him as well.
Teerajate Somboonaburana starring as Song

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Do not try to understand everything. Sometimes....

...it is not meant to be understood. Just accepted.

This is a quote on the wall behind Tod and Nick. I liked it. So I put it here as well.

The stories in this anthology series are all of different quality, and this one is definitely one of the best. It follows or it takes place at the same time as the previous story, Pisces of Me with the same characters. While there Tod was a third lead, here we get to know his story and why he was the way he was in the previous episodes.

I like the synopsis above: it is poetic and completely incomprehensible if you have not seen these two episodes.

Tod was an unruly high schooler so his mother got him a tutor, Nick who managed to set him straight. They click together, they are close and spend a lot of time talking and confiding in each other. Tod likes and admires NIck. If ever there are feelings brewing between them, they are never told or explicitly shown. When his parents need to move away from Bangkok for work, the boys keep in touch, with Tod even planning to go back to finish high school there and live with Nick. But Nick has his own dreams and when they become reality, he is torn as to how to make everything work, how to keep his promise and how to live his dream. When Tod finds out the truth, he realizes he had been selfish and lets Nick go through a small white lie.

The title of the episodes, 1626, refers to their respective ages. This is a story of the first love which doesn't say its name. Nick is being a responsible adult and never crossed the line (there is a parallel story in Pisces of You: a tutor actually crossing the line and aggressing the admiring pupil!). Tod's feeling are never really clear, almost until the end: is he in love with Nick or does he want him for an older brother? Tod only admits to incredulous Kun when he tells him the story of Nick, that they only ever touched twice during the time they knew each other and both times was to apply ointment!

The parents are surprisingly open and warm even though they seem too busy, they notice more than Tod thinks they do which comes as a huge surprise to him. They are not judgemental and accept Tod's decisions within the realm of possible. They do not impose their opinions on Tod but let him make his conclusions as to what to do by giving him the facts.

The story is well written, subtle and emotional, a slow burn kind of story. I loved the space references: Pluto and Black Hole were the names the MCs gave themselves, explaining how they felt about their lives. The whole drama special has a poetic, ethereal feel about it, like a dream parenthesis in the harsh reality.
The characters grow and change and mature as the story progresses. The acting is better than in the previous episodes. The production is good: the cinematography, the sets... The editing is a bit messy: to story goes back and forth, past and present and sometimes is difficult to know when a scene is taking place. But that is just a minor flaw. I probably was not paying enough attention, or at least not as much as I should have since these four episodes(Pisces Of Me & 1626) demand and deserve full attention. The endings are open: the boys are young and they will grow and mature and meet new people and have new loves.

But these moments were those which formed their characters for the better!

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Lies and love

A girl almost gets into and accident and the scare makes her develop dissociative amnesia. She discovers she has three boyfriends and starts dating them again but it turns out to be too difficult.

Apparently!

If you judge this drama by its start, it is boring, repetitive, annoying and nonsense. The FL is cute and pretty. The three guys are handsome and sweet. As she dates them, her life becomes extremely complicated since they all work in the same office. Her feelings for them were always rather superficial, she admired their kindness towards her but when she started developing deeper feelings for one of them she found herself in a conundrum. What to do? How to tell the truth to the guys?

And then we are hit with a major twist which puts the story in a completely different perspective. And I suddenly sat up and paid attention: how is she going to sort the mess out? Or is she?

The FL is a complex character hiding deep insecurities behind a huge smile and a few white lies. She is the only main character here, this is a drama about her and the way she decided to lead her life.

This is your usual k web drama, with the production values a bit higher than usual. But only a bit! The story flow is smooth but one needs to really pay attention to clothes because, eventually, you realize the timeline is not as straight as you'd like it to be. The ending is also very ambiguous, happy or just apparently happy? Did she tell the truth to all of them in the same way or not?

Nice watch though, a bit draggy and full of tropes (damsel in distress who cannot pick up pieces of a broken cup without cutting her finger and screaming " ottoke? ottoke?"). And what happened to the fish? When did she pick them up after breaking the aquarium and staring long time at the broken glass....

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Grudges and money

Why do they insist on ruining perfectly good dramas with incomprehensible titles? Here they took it a step further and capitalized all letters! Shouting? An abbreviation? What does it mean? Well, you'll find out sometimes halfway through the drama when it becomes obvious that a number of characters unwittingly helped the murderer. They chipped in and therefore the title!

And the drama is short and so worth the watch. It is reminiscent of many Agatha Christie's novels where the events are limited in time, location and characters: everything here takes place over a couple of weeks in an isolated house and with eight people! One of those is murdered. Who killed him? Every person had a motive, a very personal motive brought on by a grudge. The reasons for those grudges are all different, but they all stem from the awful nature of the murdered person and his wealth.

There are a lot of secrets revealed as the investigation unfolds, the characters show their real faces and there is no redemption even for the victim, who by all evidence brought in on all by himself. The best and the most likeable character was the victim's mistress, flamboyant, direct and naive in a good-natured way.

The red herrings abound: the wife is suspected on and off the most, there is a lot of backstabbing and lying, so much so that it gets a bit draggy but I guess most characters had to go through "suspect" phase at least once! The only one never suspected was the victim's niece, an apparently self-centred social media addict constantly filming herself but very much aware of what's going on behind her indifferent facade.

Finally, the revelation of the murderer is not as important as the reason for the murder, which turned out to be unexpected!

The production value is high: the acting, the costumes, the cinematography - everything is just right! Some people say it should have been shorter, like a movie kind of short. Yes, possible but it was just fine like this as well since we got to see the characters in depth, they were better fleshed out than any movie could have done. And even though they were mostly clichés, they were clichés well-formed!

Good watch!

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Gaslighting and film making

Romances is an extraordinarily well written web drama with the unusual plot device: a film within a drama. the drama takes place at university film school, where the student are making a short film as an assignment. But that short film seems to be heavily based on real life: it tells the story of an actress making a short film who discovers her boyfriend has been gaslighting her into keeping their relationship secret while dating another woman at the same time. The actress decides to take revenge with the help of her film co star.

The drama has very interesting structure because the line between the reality and fiction is completely blurred. We don't really know which parts of the story were from the film they made and which are from life. Or whether the film was written as the real life drama unfolded. Everything is unclear, though the outcome of the film the students made mirrors perfectly the real life!

The characters are cliché but the FL shows amazing growth: when she realizes that she had been lied to, she does not fold though she's tempted; but with the help of a friend decides to have her lying and cheating secret boyfriend admit his mistakes. He's a creep! A beautiful shell of an empty, lying person. Charming but a creep, The actor did an amazing job in portraying him like a human, a real person and not just a caricature!

The actors are all stellar and I hope to see more of them. The music boring and unremarkable and the sound editing all over the place (sometimes we could barely hear the actors because the background score was so loud!). Cinematography is just as bad, correct and nothing more.

All in all, this was an excellent mini drama and I can see myself rewatching it in order to find other minute details differentiating between fact and fiction.

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Bluebird and origami

Well this was cute, quick to watch and utterly forgettable. Taiwan can definitely do better than this but I guess they must have somehow lost their touch in 2023 to produce a string of misses and a rare hit. This was a miss!

VIP Only is a love story between a chef and a novelist living above the chef's restaurant. It is wrought with tropes: falling into your arms, accidental kiss, helpful best friends, a third party, childhood connection, a mother-in-law from hell......there is nothing fundamentally wrong with tropes as long as you find a novel way to use it. Here, they just put one after another and called it a series! While I was watching it, I had a weird impression that, originally, the script was for a straight M/F romcom and they just cast a man as FL because his behaviour, his actions, his attitude, the way he talked and the way he was dresses in flowing oversized clothes, all screamed woman! I don't know, maybe the character is trans? Did I miss something? I know, those codes come from mangas! They'd tried and tested and we are fed up! Come up with something new, shake up the genre!!!!

More interesting than the main pair were their friends. They pushed and connived to get the chef and the writer together, and their interactions were funny. I would not mind watching more of them! When the writer's college crush reappears in his life, the chef feels threatened, and the way they bicker over the writer is silly and funny!

The cinematography was all over the place: from scenes that were too sharp and cold to dreamy scenes with lighting obscuring faces (really pretty) to some weird camera angles. The same goes for editing: sometimes smooth and other times jerky. And then there was the omnipresent music, all the time in the background, that boring elevator music not adding anything to the plot, just annoyance! The actors were there, going through the motions, chemistry rather weak but the cringe was minimal. Except for the surprise visit of the couple from a parent drama. The main actor Stan, reminded me so much (doppelgänger) of the ML from Hello Stranger(I have to find his name...), a pinoy bl!

Surprisingly so, I think I might rewatch this when I need something simple and silly to cheer me up.

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Lonely hearts

Present Perfect, the feature movie which was based on this short film, was my first thai movie and I liked it very much but I never saw the original before. It is different as it takes place in Thailand and not Japan like the feature. But the core story is the same.

Two men meet in the middle of nowhere. One is escaping a broken heart, and the other is trying to muster up the courage to get married. The first one is openly gay, the second one is still hiding in closet, or at least his gay side! They become friends and then more while healing and growing.

The opening credits have Bangkok University logo so if I remember correctly this is a student movie. And for a student movie it is beautifully made: the production values are high is spite of limited budged. The cinematography is stunning, the sets are beautiful (those little houses have amazing architecture), editing smooth and the music correct. The actors seem inexperienced but they pulled it off nicely in spite of minimal chemistry. There are no explicit scenes, everything is in the glances and gestures: the hottes scene we got is a chaste hug but it is fairly obvious what happened. This only proves the fact that good writing does not need in-your-face NC scenes to make a story about love. Nevertheless, the story draws the audience in and we wish to see more of these characters. Which we got in two feature films, I recommend you watch!

The cast
Oat - Supaponpong Jarin
Toey - Tarathon Noylean
May - Nanthawon Sriwisanpob (the resort owner)
Faii - Suyanee Jaemmankang (Oat's fiancée)

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Searching for love to win a bet

I watched the edited, movie version of this drama.
There is nothing much to say about this low budged endeavour: the eagerness and the will are ok when you are starting out but WayuFilms have been at it for a long time now and, frankly, a couple of years ago they managed to use shoestring budgets admirably well, crafting beautiful short movies with a good story. Not any more!
Recent offerings follow the same structure in a 30min format separated into three distinct parts: introduction with a lot , and I mean A LOT of awkward, OTT acting. Next is a silent montage of the couple being lovey-dovey, getting to know each other, etc. etc. accompanied by elevator piano music. And finally the third part, when they come out and the problem from the introduction part has been solved and the acting is suddenly much, much better.
There is nothing much to the story: a girl makes a bet with her brother and in order to win enrols into a Family class. That does not work, so another girl, she barely noticed, offers to help her. This reminded me of the plot of a couple of Korean web dramas.
The actors are young and still learning. The bickering siblings were well done and the gl couple had decent chemistry. For once they filmed outside a couple of scenes and the drama suddenly became warmer and mellower.
This short offering is not going to change the world but it is a cute watch and, anyway, independent producers need to be supported and cheered on. I just wish they'd find the creativity they lost!

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Pretty paintings and crime

DISCLAIMER: My opinion, that's all!

The concept of this drama reminded me very much of many US shows, police procedurals in which they usually pair up a gruff but extremely honest policeman and a quirky highly intelligent civilian (mostly mathematicians or psychology professors or some such profession) who comes up with the right remark/discovery at a crucial moment thereby solving the case gaining admiration by everyone!
It is the same here: this time an art history professor and highly skilled painter is brought in to help with investigations. At first there is animosity between him and the detective but that quickly vanished when the painter skilfully solves the case in the nick of time, impressing the detective who becomes his main fan.
I was actually a bit disappointed that the conflict was resolved so quickly: I hoped for the tension to last a bit longer. From episode three onwards, we were on the full bromance(not chines censors' one though which it could have been seeing the physical differences between two characters who looked like they just came out of a shounen ai manhua!LOL).
Once their relationship was firmly established, we were treated to a series of "case of the week" episodes featuring different stories: murders, scams, suicides (the slightly GL overtone one did not sit well with me: it sent the very wrong message!)
Over these 20 episodes we did not find much about the main characters: their past and their families are barely mentioned.
And this is where the plot holes come in: the detective comes from a well off family but was caught being a delinquent in a gang fight. Painter looks like he was a homeless kid, taken in by a kind art teacher but still living as a rebel? He was nearly drowned to death (who saved him the first time?) and forgot the face of the woman who asked him for a sketch (that too: why did she have a photo of a 3yr old to find someone easily found 30 years later?I must have missed the explanation!LOL). A psychologist told him he needed to have another near death experience to jog his memory but he had had another such event just a few days previously and nothing happened to his memory. As the plot progressed, the painter got to have many new capabilities: highly observant, highly knowledgable in anatomy, highly competent in psychology (the way he manipulated the computer baron was amazing and of course chess master and extremely talented painter.Makes you wonder how the police managed to catch anyone before he joined with his drawing skills.
Last but not least, the police is painted in such a positive light; everyone is nice, honest, competent, trustworthy and cheerfull, supporting each other for the greater good! Amazing!

The paintings and the drawings were beautiful: in the last scene we are shown sketches of characters from the cases they solved and each sketch is in a different style! There are some really pretty pictures! The painter who did these for the drama production is a very talented individual!

I must admit that as much as I enjoyed this at start, I was getting bored with it by the end. It is not half bad, a fun watch but I just have trouble getting used to c dramas. Again I had the impression they first filmed everything, edited everything in a block then chopped it up into 40min pieces: sometimes the episode would end mid-sentence. They should really learn how to make a cliffhanger cliffhangy!

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