A short film that makes good use of its 16 minutes or so

The acting of the actor who plays Fan is rather good. The character's eagerness and longing as he meets his ex, Tien, for a meal is effectively conveyed. He hasn't gotten over Tien and doesn't really understand why they have broken up, but just as he broaches the question to Tien, the waiter serving their food interrupts the conversation. And it is clear that Tien is all too eager to evade the issue and the awkwardness that would ensue. The dialogue is seemingly casual, but it reveals the dynamics of the relationship between the two. Fan is the one who cares and gives: he would order the food Tien likes (even after they have broken up), and we can see that he is the one who thinks about and talks about the past whereas Tien is more concerned about getting his passport, and comments on stuff like the food. The only thing Tien really does for Fan seems to be eating the onions that Fan doesn't like, and even then, he seems to be doing so out of guilt. And eventually, almost immediately after getting his passport, Tien initiates a hug only to tell Fan to take care (which basically ends the meet-up).

It's perhaps not that Tien is meant to be the bad guy in the relationship. His actual emotions are often opaque. He does seem to realise Fan's feelings and he cares for Fan as a friend rather than as a lover. His facial expression during the embrace is not one of callousness. If nothing else, at least he doesn't give Fan false hope? Ultimately, what the film shows is that when it is time to move on from a relationship, it is time to move on. We see how Fan tries to connect his Bluetooth earphones to his phone unsuccessfully (a symbolic unsuccessful pairing). At the end of the short film, we see him deleting the device which fails to pair properly, signifying that he has finally given up on the relationship and is moving on even if it is not without sadness.

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Unusual premises in this BL with the BL mostly repressed

A series like this makes me lament the BL censorship in China. It has some rather unusual BL materials, and without the censorship, the BL series from China would be rather fascinating. (Imagine The Untamed without censorship.)

The story with the shape-shifting cat is the cutest. And it's just as well that the BL is more or less censored--some may find it discomfiting to see a human-cat relationship even if the cat is able to change its form. It's cute how the character's dislike for cats changes.

The story of an author and the character he creates also has an interesting premise. It may be a little strange, though that the siblings in the author's story are parallels to the author and his own sister. In a way, it's like the author's relationship (romantic or not) with his own alter ego. Of course, another way to look it is to see that the author has created a character he subconsciously wishes he can be, so it may explain why he would ultimately have a soft spot for the character.

The third story is a more conventional story about two athletes who have known each other from the time they are children but whose relationship have soured due to a misunderstanding. While this story doesn't share the quirkiness of the other two stories, it's a decent addition.

Despite having the BL tamed, this series doesn't simply turn the relationships into bromance. But don't expect the level of ingenuity we see in Word of Honor when it comes to circumventing censorship either. It just leaves things ambiguous or use dramatic conventions to suggest romantic feelings.

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Quite good but has a happy ending that isn't all that well done

Despite the flaws of the series, I love the two BL couples in this series. I think Bank and Pitch are the cuter couple to watch but Sky and Sun (the main couple) understandably have the better story.

The story has strong potential that is sufficiently but somehow not totally fulfilled. The unfolding of the events in the story is quite well executed for at least the first seven episodes, which salvages the series from being one of those BLs with potential but fail. Though there is BL fluff, we don't get the sense that nothing all that significant happens until the last two episodes.

Gun and Boat performed their roles as Sky and Sun really well. I thought Boat would simply be quite expressionless throughout given his role as Sky's bodyguard and someone who cannot or does not want to betray his emotions. But we see the moments of tenderness in Sun that cannot be too obvious too. The transition of Sun from someone who largely hides his love for Sky to someone who no longer hides his love is convincingly portrayed without affecting the coherence of the character.

The flaws of the series, unfortunately, are also significant. The early characterization of Pitch is bewildering, for one. He's practically presented as a toxic relentless bad guy in the way he pursues the Toktang but suddenly becomes a rather sweet and helpful guy who would stand up for his juniors. The tensions between Pitch and Sky/Sun/Bank at first are not only unnecessary but also confusing.

The two female characters, Toktang and Juno, seem like possibly important characters at first, but turn into jokes by Episode 2 when it becomes clear that the two guys they like are going to be paired with the other two guys around them. And Juno, who is simply a stock character at first, inexplicably becomes quite brash is her behavior, going all out to pursue Sun who shows no interest in her.

Even the main character, Sky, begins to act somewhat out of character when he pretends to date Toktang just to make Sun jealous. This is simply not the sort of asshole behavior that I was expecting from this guy who may be a little bratty but has a sense of justice and fairness.

Another flaw in the series is in the less than skillful handling of the last part of the story involving the objection of Sky's father to his relationship with Sun. The father's objection, while quite plausible, is written in too clumsily as the final obstacle to their relationship. You can practically see the the heavy hands of the writers adding it into the plot. First, the father seems to want to go as far as killing Sun (he's a mafia figure, after all). But perhaps someone realizes that this would make the father too much of a villain, so, very quickly, the father's tactic turns out to be one of wanting to "test" the relationship and see if Sun is worthy of Sky. This unconvincing and quite obviously added to bring closure to the story. If he really just wants to test the relationship, it means that would actually accept their relationship if they truly love each other. But he still seems to hope to break them up.

The second half of the last episode is unnecessarily draggy. I would have liked to see more of Bank and Pitch in the episode. Though the fact that Sun and Sky are still in love with each other despite being separated for six years by a manipulative father is supposed to be touching. But it wasn't some inevitable tragedy that separates them to begin with, so their reunion isn't exactly moving. There's a similar turn in the plot in the Taiwanese BL, We Best Love, and it's better handled because because one of the main characters do not really know what his father has done. In Golden Blood, Sky and Sun agree to be separated without being able to contact each other. Really, both of them are adults, and could have just rebelled against the father's "test" but decided to submit to the test of this homophobic, unreasonable father who may not even be serious about letting them be together after passing his "test".

The series would actually have ended quite well without the homophobic father part of the plot. The crisis created by the enemy of Sky's father is sufficient to bring the story to a climax and could have been more prolonged. The father's objection isn't really necessary to form the material for one episode either since more could have been shown about Pitch and Bank becoming a couple while Sky's father could have "redeemed" himself by at least just accepting Sun and Sky's relationship.

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Would have been better if it didn't leave so much unresolved

This is probably one of the more unique series from Hong Kong's TVB in recent years. It's pretty solid in many ways, but roughly halfway through the series, it gets unnecessarily complicated and leaves too much unresolved (the "cliffhanger" for a Season 2 starts way too early for the ending to be satisfactory.

The series adopts an unconventional approach to several conventional elements. In a way, it is a series about a serial killer and also a detective series that has several mysteries. It is also about mental illness. The unconventional approach: the identity of the serial killer is revealed surprisingly early, and he is also caught but we are kept guessing if he might be the main villain of the series. There is no single straightforward detective figure--even the serial killer is at one point one of the detective figures. And there is a surprising load of mental illnesses featured in the series, with various characters suffering from them at some point, including the (apparently/likely) good guys. It's not the same old "killer with multiple personality disorder" plot for sure.

It seems, unfortunately, that the HK audience has not taken very well to the series, finding it confusing. Actually it is not confusing--perhaps the ending is a tad confusing because it deliberately leaves major questions unanswered, but it is quite easy to follow most of the time. To me, the problem is that, halfway through the series, that narrative trajectory suddenly splits into several mysteries (as though the series itself is getting a sort of multiple personality disorder). It isn't confusing, but it is quite a risky way of telling the story. It demands patience from the audience, and the fact that some of the mysteries do not get solved by the last episode may upset those who patiently follow the series.

If there's anything that makes the series worth expending patience on, it's Kara Hui and the character she plays. Her performance is remarkable throughout in her role as someone with schizophrenia. She convincingly portrays a pitiful victim of mental illness, a fiercely loving mother afraid that she would harm her children but also willing to go to extremes to protect them, and even a person with a somewhat sinister and menacing presence at times, all in one character. She has to be convincing as a victim and as someone who might just be playing the victim at the same time. It's a very difficult role to handle, especially when she is a character who has secrets right to the very end: if she overdoes one facet of the character, the overall effect would be compromised.

I was also interested in how the police would be portrayed in the series, given the controversy surrounding the HK police since 2019. Glamorizing the police would perhaps make people upset while an overly negative portrayal may cause the series to be more politically provocative than it wants to be. The portrayal turns out to be somewhere in between. Some of the police characters are flawed and self-centered, but they can also be smart and competent. I don't see any overt political messages, just a number of complex characters motivated by different things.

I still feel a little cheated that so many things brought in so early in the series do not find closure by the last episode and there's no promise of a sequel. But the series is also intriguing enough to keep me watching.

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Quirky and funny

(AKA: A Man Who Defies the World of BL Season 1)

This is one of the BLs about BLs that are released this year. It has quite an interesting premise: the main character realizes that he exists in a BL world and tries his darn best not to be “contaminated”—which means that he has to avoid falling in love with a man. Of course, we know where this is going: if he even has to try not to fall in love with a man, he might as well give up.

There is potential for this short series to both entertain and disappoint. The main character’s efforts to avoid falling in love with guys are funny. Sometimes his attempts cause other characters to become couples (so there’s good deal of BL even though there isn’t a focus on a particular couple throughout), and his attempt to prevent his brother from being “contaminated” are a total failure.

On the other hand, some may not fancy watching an hour and a half of the main character’s gay panic only to have a cute part at the end in which he does fall in love with a guy anyway. There is supposed to be a second season that promises further development for this relationship—I don’t know if it will eventually be made, but I think the series is one of those that will be better when you get to watch all the seasons at one go.

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7 stories, the series gets better from Story 3 (Ep 5) onwards

I thought the series would be a confusing mess with seven different couples, but luckily it simply focuses on one couple at a time for Episodes 1-14. (Ep 15 features all of them but is rather pointless.) This approach is similar to the En of Love approach, but Y-Destiny does it better as it sufficiently introduces characters in the later episodes before the focus is on them.

I find the first two stories the weakest though the couples are cute.

1. Tue and Ake: The line between tension and attraction is blurred as two boxers’ hostility towards each other suddenly turns into attraction. Sometimes Tue looks bashful, but the dialogue is full of sexual double entendre, with references to “itchy”, “blowing” away the itch on chickenpox blisters, treating chickenpox with “injections”. I don’t mind this but wish there had been more subtlety.

2. Sun and Nuea: Sun is given an assignment to tutor a wealthy brat (they are both college students though) who is hoping to get an internship. Despite his initial dislike for Nuea, Sun starts finding Nuea cute, but it’s harder to tell whether Nuea really likes Sun or is playing a prank. The “story” seems more like an excuse for lots of BL scenes.

3. Mon and Team: A playboy competes against others of his ilk by trying to score maximum points in their depraved game (of seeing who can score more victories in bed). Managing to get an innocent virgin scores the most points, so this is what Team sets out to do. Oncewe know the premise, we can predict most other things, including how the playboy will fall in love for real and how he has a sob story of his own. Despite the cliched story, the two episodes of this story are competently made and the best of the three episodes so far.

The story is largely coherent and paced well. The acting and cinematography are quite on point too. Mon can be rather exasperating in that he isn’t even really being cheated because he has been warned about Team, but the actor manages to convey the foolishness of someone in love and arouse sympathy for him. The second episode could simply have ended happily at the point when Mon and Team patch up, but an additional scene after it helps to end the story more nicely, hinting at the trust issues that can continue to plague a relationship after the trust has been breached once. (There’s still a happy ending, but it’s not a simplistic one.)

4. Thurs and Pao (Pae): a ghost story with a dash of time travel. Thurs (Mon’s friend from Story 3) meets a ghost but soon enough falls in love with the ghost. Pao is cute though the cutesiness may have been overdone. There is a happy ending though the explanation of the events is a too reliant on the revelations of an apparently all-knowing monk. There seems to be some inconsistency in the script as sometimes Pao seems to be so clueless that he doesn’t even know who he is (Thurs gives him the name) but at other times seems to know more than he is telling Thurs. (It could be because his ghostly powers increase with all the merit that is accumulated for him, but there’s no clear explanation.)

This story has the cutest couple of the four stories so far, dispensing with the sexual tension in the earlier stories and presenting an innocent and sweet relationship instead. A pity that the subtitles were a little confusing, with a tendency to turn singular pronouns into plural pronouns and (I think) even reverse the subject/object of sentences (e.g. “I seem familiar to you” instead of “You seem familiar to me”),

5. Puth and Kaeng / Payu: Puth and Kaeng are both promiscuous players. Surprisingly, the focus seems to be a bit more on Kaeng – despite his reputation for being promiscuous, he is obviously in love with Puth, his sex buddy (a relationship that they can barely conceal from their friends). We see his inner thoughts and jealousy as Puth begins to fall for Payu. The characterization of Puth is a little baffling for he is a multi-timing promiscuous guy but he also appears shy and innocent when he is with Payu (and doesn’t seem to be pretending).

I thought the story could head towards a sad ending, but it doesn’t.

6. Sat and Choke: another story with supernatural elements, An eleven-year-old boy makes wishes that are granted by a wish-granting gundam. After wishing that he is a popular grown-up, he wakes up in a world where he (and everyone else) has aged by seven years. He does not remember what has happened in the last seven years, and visits his best friend, Choke. He has forgotten why he has stopped being friends with Choke (which doesn’t make sense since the broken friendship happens before he makes the wish to be an adult). This story is somewhat slow-moving at times, but it is fairly nice to watch. Nonetheless, it can be a little disturbing that Sat, who magically becomes eighteen years old but is still mentally eleven, starts doing adult stuff with Choke.

7. Masuk and Tir/Jia: This story gives quite a different feel from the rest of the stories in the series and one may wonder how much of a BL story it really is. The decision to put it as the last story may be because of this. The drawback, however, is that putting it as the last story may cause audiences to dislike it because it isn’t what they are expecting.

My opinion may not be shared by many, but I think this is the most serious and mature piece in the whole series. It is rather slow-moving in the first episode, but this helps to bring across the grief that Masuk feels after the death of his boyfriend Tir. Masuk’s grief is mixed with remorse as he feels that he could have prevented Tir from dying had he been punctual for their date. The story doesn’t let him change fate like the characters in in Stories 4 and 6, but he manages to find out something that helps him get over his remorse and move on even as he cannot forget Tir. Thematically, this story echoes Stories 4 and 6, but is more nuanced in the theme of the good being rewarded. It’s also surprisingly realistic in terms of how Masuk doesn’t just suddenly get over Tir and lovey-dovey with Jia.

Overall:
My favorite stories: Masuk X Tir/Jia, Thurs X Pao and Puth X Kaeng
My favorite couple: Thurs X Pao

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The potential could have been fulfilled if this had been a time travel drama instead

I find the story fairly interesting though I also find it more difficult to suspend my disbelief compared to when I watch dramas in a similar genre.

This is not a time travel drama though it is similar to one. The protagonist simply tests out a newly developed VR game. How a bug in the game could cause her to be unable to simply exit the game by simply removing the VR device is possibly one of the first questions we may ask, but we can possibly assume that the technology is so advanced that the human-device connection is something much more complex than we can imagine today.

For a number of episodes, the game premise disappears and it seems no different from a time travel drama. I think this is the best part of the series. Unfortunately, the game premise returns with a vengeance, which makes things a little odd. For selfish interests, the bad guy (or the closest to one), who is the boss of the company creating the game, wants to end the game by letting one of the fictional game characters die. The protagonist (of the series) is against this, but the bad guy actually has a fairly convincing argument: nothing in the game is real, including the characters, so one should have no qualms letting the characters die. The behaviors of the game characters are determined by algorithms. (Yeah, I guess falling in love with one of the game characters is like falling in love with a chat bot.)

The only argument I can imagine using to support the protagonist of the series is that the game characters are sentient and have a mind of their own--perhaps they can even comprehend the idea that they are game characters in a computer program. (It's like if we one day find out the entire world we live in is a sort of simulation. Would our lives not matter then?) It does feel like this in some ways, but the series does not really push his point of view. This issue marred my enjoyment of the series at least a little.

The characterization of the game characters does not always help. I like the two generals in the game, but the emperor and the princess he is supposed to marry are less compelling. The princess is, at first, interesting because she's not the clear-cut villain (of the game) I had guessed she would be. However, her descent into complete villainy isn't convincing. Because of the portrayal of the game characters, I end up being reminded that they really are just game characters, as the boss of the game company says.

I suspect that the story would have been much better if it had simply been a time travel drama, so perhaps we have yet another potentially excellent series compromised by the need to comply with censorship laws.

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Occasionally nice cinematography, weak story

The idea of using mathematical references in relation to the love between the main characters is interesting though I must admit to being a little lost.

There isn't that much of a story here though. Sine and Tan are two good friends who are in love with each other but neither dares to express his love. Since this is a relatively short and lighthearted BL series, there is probably only one reasonable way for the story to proceed, which is that they eventually express their love for each other and end up as a couple. Unfortunately, this trajectory seems to be dragged out a little too long. This is a complaint I rarely have (usually the complaint is that some episodes suddenly become ridiculously short, like in Cupid Coach), but I suspect that the story has been extended needlessly for the sake of product placements.

The characters' behaviors after they become aware of each other's feelings are a little inexplicable. They could have just kissed and lived happily ever after. Instead, some conflicts are added in a little haphazardly: despite having no romantic feelings whatsoever for Lin, Tan behaves affectionately towards her for a moment and Sine sees it. There are nicely filmed scenes (especially in the last couple of episodes), but the cinematography doesn't make up for the weak story.

I think the filming ran into problems halfway, so the intended product could have been significantly better. It's not "better not touch it" sort of bad, however. I guess this is something I don't really mind watching though I'm not really bowled over by it.

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A rather compelling story with excellent storytelling

Apart from being impressed by how such good performances were coaxed out of the young actors, I was impressed by the story-telling, particularly in the first two-thirds of the series.

From the start, the series makes the character of Chaoyang rather intriguing by portraying him as a guarded person who may or may not be as vulnerable as he appears to be. He takes in his friend (Yan Liang) and a girl (Pupu), but is also guarded against them. The two friends he takes in are more straightforward characters, but because of their relative simplicity, their moral dilemmas appear more compelling.

There are also many other interestingly complex characters ranging from Chaoyang's divorced parents to his father's new wife. At first, the father sees the son occasionally and does not pay him that much attention apart from giving him money or things money can buy. The increased attention the father gives to the son may be due to his guilt for not trusting the son, but is it truly fatherly love if it stems from a sense of indebtedness? The mother vacillates between being controlling and caring, but she, too, may be caring so much because of what it shows about her parenting. She does not quite get over the child's father's affair and her own divorce.

The story starts with a crime, but as far as crime is concerned, we know the criminal from the very beginning of the series, so it's not a whodunit series. Still, one may be pulled into the story by the question of how he is going to be exposed and whether the kids, who end up blackmailing him, will succeed. The story goes rather well until the last few episodes where both the story and the storytelling itself get weaker. In the last few episodes, when certain things are not revealed, it becomes too obvious that they are deliberately not shown (like what happens to Pupu after her asthma attack and what happens after the murderer is about to stab Yan Liang). The police suddenly start to connect the dots in the last episode (how timely!) and that's after a few more body counts in the murderer's ledger.

The story is complicated by the occurrence of an accident leading to the death of Chaoyang's half-sister. While it does not appear as though a crime has caused her death, the death of the girl plays a big part in the story as it causes her mother to accuse Chaoyang and his mother of murdering her. Even Chaoyang's father tries to secretly record a conversation with him to find evidence while ostensibly having a meal with him. Chaoyang finds out by accident, and perhaps his character takes on a darker turn here as he finds it harder to trust others from this point on.

In the last episode, the accident seems to take another turn as Pupu says to Chaoyang in her letter to him that she has not told Yan Liang about what happened in the Children's Palace (where Chaoyang's sister falls to her death). However, in Episode 3, we see Yan Liang being told about it in Chaoyang's presence. Is this a continuity error or deliberately added in to show that things may not be what they seem?

Chaoyang is ultimately the most intriguing, if perplexing, character. He may seem vulnerable and innocent, but he is also a smart and guarded person. He may well be selfish at times, perhaps understandably--like how he does not wish his friends to report to the police the events leading to the death of his sister because he is worried that his father will not forgive him for the indirect role he plays in causing her death. Despite having incriminating evidence of the murderer killing people, he does not duplicate the video evidence (or has he really not done so?), perhaps because he is also in the videos and will have a lot of explaining to do to his mother. He can even be manipulative--after discovering his father's attempt to record their conversation, he guilt-trips the father into spending more time with him and giving him more attention.

The focus of the series in, finally, not on crime but on human nature. The almost-psychopathic murderer may not be ruthless all the time. The innocent kid may not be all that innocent. People have the capacity to be self-centered and go to extremes as a result, but perhaps parenting makes a big difference. The killer's character may have been shaped by his childhood experiences, and Chaoyang may well end up like him without proper parenting. On the other hand, the jealous, self-centered girl in Chaoyang's class appears to become better over time after her father's assurances that it does not matter whether it's the top student.

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Starts off fine but becomes increasingly far-fetched

Another drama set in the Chinese Republican era, Dream Detective starts off as a somewhat fine mystery series, but it eventually ditches the detective/mystery genre in the biggest story of the series. The shifts in genre are not a problem in themselves, but the story does become weaker towards the end as the greatest villain is revealed.

The special skill of the "detective" in the series is his ability to enter dreams and solve cases (as well as other problems). Because of absurd censorship rules in China, this ability must be portrayed as being scientifically explainable and akin to hypnosis even though it would make more sense to just write it as a sort of superpower or supernatural ability. (This is uncannily similar to Psych Hunter.)

Some of the detective cases are fine even if a little predictable. The one involving someone with a multiple personality disorder isn't great on its own, but is fairly standard detective story material. It also hints at the possibility (for later in the series) that the main character has a multiple-personality issue too. However, it is easy to guess that the same plot device won't be recycled unless the writing is really, really dismal.

From early in the series, the set-up is done for the entry of the main villain (the masked person) in the show who is involved in some of the cases investigated, so the story of the masked person is intended to be the main draw from the start. It's not just a weak segment of the story but weakens the story as a whole.

A few interesting side characters are created and they could have had a greater role in the story. Bai, the warlord, is killed just as the character reaches a rather interesting point. His daughter, Ling Xi, could also have had a more interesting story as a deceptive, power-hungry psychopath, but this is dropped about the same time her father is killed. Bai and his daughter are more like red herrings, as are the police officer Guan Yun Qi and the pathologist Liu Zi Ren, who are imbued with an air of mysteriousness for no other purpose than to keep the audience guessing.

By the time the masked man's identity is revealed, the plot becomes excessively convoluted and the explanations of his motivations are labored. The last three episodes are a little too draggy with dream sequences that feel a little to long (made worse by the dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream scenes, though the dragginess of these scenes may be better than the worst of Psych Hunter). The one good thing that comes out of protracted dream sequences is the clever suggestion at the end of the final episode that the good guy didn't win and is merely still in a dream--he has lost his watch, the last-resort tool he uses to get out of the dreams he enters. (Also, he has used his skills so much that he is on the verge of dying in one scene, but in the next scene, he is already well.)

The gun battle scenes in the final episode are laughable (though somewhat stylishly filmed)--not only does it seem impossible that some of the characters emerge unscathed, it's funny how they do not seem to run out of bullets despite being policemen on the run (and they are fighting against army troops with abundant ammunition). Or perhaps this is really meant to be an indication that the occurrences are really taking place in a dream too. (But does this really make the story any better?)

Perhaps the series has tried too hard to be different. Abandoning the masked man angle altogether and focusing on developing the stories of the warlord family would have been more conventional but also more satisfying. It deserves some marks for effort, but the effort has not yielded great results.

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Cute and Sweet Add-On to Why R U?

I believe this three-part "series" consists of scenes that would have been in Why R U? if not for the pandemic. If it is watched alone, it may not make much sense even if the scenes are cute.

It would be fairer to review these three episodes as part of the Why R U? story, which has Saifah and Zon as a side couple. The three episodes here keep up the sweetness and cuteness while also filling in some of the missing gaps in Why R U?, like how Zon overcomes his resistance to his own feelings for Saifah. It is best watched at one go. Ideally, the scenes should be edited into Why R U?, but the audience may not want to watch Why R U again for the missing scenes.

Perhaps there could have been an attempt to inject more to this add-on to Why R U so that it work a bit better as a standalone mini-series, but I guess there are constraints in budget and all. If you've enjoyed the Saifah and Zon segments in Why R U, you will want to watch this for a sense of completion.

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BL "nonsensical" comedy that gets somewhat serious with the BL

This is not a typical series, let alone a typical BL. Its brand of nonsensical comedy is probably not everyone's cup of tea though I actually enjoyed it. It isn't nonsensical in a truly bad way, but you have to be prepared for random magic-realist events, including people disappearing into a washing machine, apparently teleporting and traveling in a spaceship. The anarchy resulting from this sort of comedy can be really fun especially if executed well. I guess this series is a bit of an experiment, and the makers haven't gone all the way with the peculiar brand of comedy, which is a bit of a letdown though it may have saved the series from losing fans.

There are plenty of allusions in the series (I'm pretty sure I didn't get a huge chunk of them) and a lot of self-reflexive moments. Porpla the landlady appears in a different costume in almost every scene (including as Annabelle the horror-movie doll), and Nott the main character muses about what love is in semi-serious moments only to be asked by Porpla at one point whom he's talking to.

As for the BL segments, they start off rather randomly but get quite serious. Don't expect the couple Nott/Pun to become a classic BL couple though. There isn't that much of a story though there are plenty of BL moments. Which makes it a little hard to critique using the usual criteria. True, the story isn't exactly strong in the usual way, but this is not a usual series. It's quite a different creature altogether and the conventional categories of evaluation won't work. If it's your cup of tea to watch a somewhat coherent but thin BL story with random elements that have been hallucinated by someone high on drugs, then you should absolutely go for this. Otherwise, watch it with an open mind and you will find at least something enjoyable.

Strangely enough, the mostly bizarre characters end up being rather likable to me. When they bid Pun farewell in the last episode, acting all emotional, I actually felt like I wanted to see more of them. Season 2 has been announced, and I'm not sure how it will go. Will the nonsense comedy elements be toned down to appeal to more people? Or does the series have a strong enough fan base to get away with taking the hilariously nonsensical elements further?

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Angel Beside Me could have received more attention from international viewers, but it seems that despite having English subtitles, there may be countries where the official videos are blocked.

The story is relatively lighthearted and perhaps nothing extraordinary, but it is unraveled very nicely. It is basically a love story, but it deals with issues like poverty and parental neglect quite sensitively, without making things too heavy for the viewer. There are a few minor plot holes like how Lin manages to get Somchai from the dorm to the hospital after Somchai is badly beaten up (usually he has to dress up as a girl to trick the person in charge of the all-girls dorm), but these don't really get in the way of the story.

The acting is surprisingly good, especially for the supporting roles of Thong (Pongkool) and Punpun (Jamie). Jane is natural as the unhappy Lin who hardly smiles (when Lin becomes happier, it feels genuine) and JJ has portrayed Somchai/the fallen angel well, switching between his vain, playful and earnestly good-natured sides effortlessly. JJ's role is somewhat challenging because it is by turns comic/exaggerated and serious, but he does put up a convincing performance. Finally, Mek also plays the role of Luke very well, giving off somewhat sinister vibes from the start yet at the same time also seeming plausible as a good person (Luke is the devil, and the devil is good at deception, after all).

We can't take the supernatural/religious aspects too seriously though--there is no coherent religious perspective in the story. The concepts of angels and devils may echo Christian beliefs, but there are supernatural aspects that are purely made up (e.g. the concept of doing good and gaining merit doesn't quite gel with Christian beliefs about salvation), so I would treat any religious references as allusions rather than an attempt at a consistent religious worldview. This isn't a bad thing for there is no need to court controversy here.

Oddly enough, I don't have that much to say about the series although I find it enjoyable. Maybe that's the secret of its appeal: it doesn't try too hard to be complex, it tells a nice but simple story well, and the actors have done a very good job overall.

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The Story

At a young age, Tantawan gains a magic that allows her to call out to the person she loves and let the person teleport to her. That's also how the romance between her and Peng starts. Flashforward 15 years: Peng is now a doctor and Tantawan seems to have nothing to do but devote her life to taking care of Peng. However, Peng has become a doctor thoroughly dedicated to his work ever since an incident in which he caused a patient to die because he was in a hurry to meet Tantawan. He still loves Tantawan, but seldom expresses his affections and hardly has time for her.

After a car accident, Tantawan falls in love with a young houseman who treats her reassuringly though she loses her memory of the accident for some time and is puzzled by why she has romantic feelings for the young houseman, Chalan. However, she still loves Peng, and a love triangle ensues.

Besides the romance plot, there is also the revenge subplot in which a grieving brother wants to kill Tantawan because she is the driver causing the accident that leads to the death of his sister.

The Characters and Relationships

At first, I found the older Peng to be rather unlikable as he is cold to Tantawan. However, he turns out to be the best written character in the series apart from a couple of issues. The initial portrayal of Peng as someone who seems cold towards Tantanwan is a good thing, as we can easily understand how Tantawan may feel neglected. But the reason behind the change from his youthful self and older self is explained: as a houseman, he hurriedly gives the wrong treatment to a patient as he has a date with Tantawan, causing him to die. The deep sense of guilt causes him to resolve to be a serious doctor who spends most of his time working and learning more. His love for Tantawan is soon shown when he tries to shield her from the truth that she is the driver who has caused a girl to die. However, it is unconvincing that he would so quickly be interested in Paebii after he breaks up with Tantawan though it is Paebii that causes him to realize that he should balance his dedication to his work and his love life.

Tantawan, on the other hand, vacillates between being a rather irritating character and being one that we can sympathize with. At her worst, she seems ditzy, unreasonable, or too emotional. At other times, she is a good natured person. In yet other moments, she turns into a melodramatic comic character.

Overall, I found myself more interested in the side characters' relationships: 1. the houseman, Liwan, and his relationship with an older nurse, Tikka; 2. the houseman, Dao, and his friendship (or possibly more) with Tantawan's brother; and 3. the friendship between the people in the Emergency Department. Even the vengeful Taai is a more interesting character than the most important character, Tantawan.

Strengths and Weaknesses
Like the character of Tantawan, the drama is inconsistent. Sometimes it is lighthearted comedy. But it can suddenly become a drama about life and loss that leaves you with a heavy heart. Then it can also morph into a love story. The series can be rather good in its individual bits, but the bits don't seem to be particularly well-mixed. It kills off an ambulance driver's grandmother for no compelling reason except perhaps as a device to move the plot forward. The death of Dao in the second last episode is also unnecessary drama that I can't appreciate. In the end, I find that the series aspires to be more than it can possibly be but ends up being less as a result.

The ending of the love triangle has also got a number of viewers upset because Peng's love for Tantawan is steadfast and deep, but Tantawan chooses Chalan in the end. Personally, I think both Peng and Chalan truly love Tantawan, so no matter whom she chooses, it won't be satisfactory. It is just that it is especially saddening that despite the 15-year love between her and Peng, Tantawan chooses not to give their relationship another chance.

My problem isn't with who deserves Tantawan more (as some viewers put it) but with how Tantawan still seems to love Peng in the end. Based on her final lines, she seems to love Peng and doesn't want him to change for her, and yet she won't be happy with him if she doesn't change--not to mention that he has, in fact, already changed. That's still OK--if she doesn't want to continue her relationship under such circumstances, we can't really judge her for it. But she chooses to be with Chalan even though there is still someone else in her heart, which doesn't seem very fair to Chalan.

The ending is also self-contradictory: Tantawan tells Peng that the person she chooses will somehow have his teleporting magic diminished (??). Also, Tantawan is supposedly letting the magic reveal whom she really loves since she can't decide (but she seems to know what the magic will reveal as she cooks something for Chalan even before the magic reveals that Chalan is the one who still has the magical connection with her).

I guess she is ultimately not letting the magic decide, but has simply chosen not to be with the person who can't devote more time to be with her. As she says, Peng is her ambulance, but he is also everyone else's ambulance. Her decision may not be a selfish one--perhaps she loves him so much that she wants to let him go so that he can be himself (just like how Peng breaks up with her so that she can be with Chalan in the middle of the series). But again, if her love for him is so deep, I can't see how she can be with someone else and love him as much. The ending thus fails to satisfy.

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Summary:
It is not simply a boy loves girl story or even a boy loves boy story. It is a story that is positive about homosexual attraction and transgender identity and sensitive about gender dysphoria if we go beyond the surface.

Full Review:
It's easy for BL fans to be irritated by shows that lure fujoshis and fudanshis with false promises of BL only to disappoint them with what is ultimately just a "boy loves girl who is dressed as boy" story.

The good news: this show is different.

To be sure, there isn't a conventional gay couple in this series, and there is hardly a male/male kissing scene, let alone male/male sex scenes. If these are deal breakers, then the show isn't for you.

However, this isn't a show that toys with the idea of homosexual romance only to disappoint by normalizing heterosexual relationships.

In the story, Love is a girl who is granted a wish but unexpectedly transforms into a guy. She then enrolls in the same school for boys as her crush. If your prediction of the story is the same as mine, it will be: Love's crush then falls in love with her and becomes anxious about why he is turning "gay" but is eventually relieved to realize that he's straight after all because she becomes female again; then happily ever after.

No, that's not what happens. (Thankfully.)

In fact, Love's crush does not fall in love with her. Another male student does. And she falls in love with him too.

Now, you might be thinking: that may be a bit of a twist, but it substitutes the original crush with a different love interest, right?

Well, no. Tangmo, the male student who falls in love with Love (who has transformed into a guy) neither identifies himself as a gay person at first nor exhibits the run-of-the-mill "OMG! Am I becoming gay?" hysterics. Later in the story, he does not shy from *very* publicly admitting that he is in love with a guy and doesn't deny it when he is described as a gay person.

Unlike shows in which the main female character disguises herself as a boy, a twist of fate causes Love's transformation to be permanent unless she manages to get another wish. (The "male" Love is played by a male actor, and it's not a cross-dressing female actor playing the role, so it is not at all like a disguise which can easily be shed.) Which brings us to another dimension of the story: Love still identifies as female but she now has a male body. She does fall in love with Tangmo, but is worried that he would not be able to accept it if she ever gets another wish to transform back into a girl, which is what she wants.

Despite the overall lightheartedness of the story, it sensitively conveys the angst of those with gender dysphoria and how much difference acceptance from others makes. The "male" Love spends a lot of time hiding her gender identity and her agony is clear when she realizes that her transformation has become permanent. But after her male buddies discover her true self, they quite quickly accept her for who she is. She is worried about revealing to her mother that she has become a boy, but her mother is accepting of her child regardless of what the child has become. These situations remind us that it is agonizing enough to be trapped in a body that differs from the gender you identify with, but if people are accepting, you can cope much better.

At the end of the series, Love does not transform back into a girl because she uses the wish she has overcome all odds to get to save Tangmo's life. She confesses to Tangmo that she loves him too, but is worried that he would not love her any more if she becomes female. He assures her that he would love her even if she becomes female again. This is where BL fans may be dissatisfied because, well, Love may have a male body but she still wants to turn into a woman right. Yet, if this is how we think, aren't we being somewhat prejudiced?

There may be a lot of series with better BL storylines (Love Sick, SOTUS, Love by Chance, etc). But, ironically, many of them also portray effeminate and transgender characters negatively. There are not many that convey positive messages about queerness in the way that GMA does.

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