CASTING:
I came to watch this movie for Yun Woo Jin but honestly, Lee Je Hoon had my attention throughout. Maybe because the movie starts and ends with him, I found him very endearing.
MUSIC:
The opening song is catchy, I like that it was performed by the actors, it adds a element of closeness and gives the movie an all-rounded feeling. I also liked Yun Woo Jin's short song that explains his feelings to his mother.
CHEMISTRY:
I'm always a bit concerned about the level of chemistry between actors because this can either 'make-or-break' a drama/movie. I'm glad to say that I really felt the characters' feelings for one another. There's a touching moment where Lee Je Hoon reveals his inner thoughts about homosexuality, which I found compelling. The skinship is also believable and well executed.
REWATCH VALUE:
All in all, a very good movie. I recommend it to anyone who likes these actors. Because it is so short, the rewatch value for this movie is very high. The only warning I have is: beware of the cuteness!
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Why not ,
When I say that i loved this, i mean i loved this with my whole heart. The acting was so superb. The actions and the conversations felt so real, like this is an actual conversation that may happen in the real world. The mishap that happened was dealt with and not avoided. The only downside is the length of the movie. It was so short but a nice enjoyable watch. I would really love it if someone took this up and re made this either into a longer movie, or full drama. It has the potential of being great.Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
What a gem - great chemistry with an established m/m couple
Overall: I gave this a 9.5/10 because it's from 2009 and it still holds up well twelve years later. Watched on gagaoolala.Content Warnings: none
What I Liked (very minor spoilers)
- features an established couple
- the kissing/intimate scene was on fire, everyone else needs to take notes - none of this dead fish lip stuff
- that Min Soo doesn't apologize for who he is or who he loves, but is apologizing for the way it was communicated
- there is no ghosting or forced separation due to what a parent wants
- shows a bit about military service which I rarely see in Korean rom coms
- (neutral) the intro song and song towards the end were fine
Room For Improvement
- the discussion with the mom and her chest was weird
- I didn't really understand a scene with Seok Yi waiting outside towards the end, I didn't think Min Soo's mom and him lived in the same city..
- dry crying during the the drinking scene
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This review may contain spoilers
This movie was so short but full of so much promise! It started off kind of dodgy though and the talk of the mom's chest kinds... I have no words for that. That was just weird and, bruh... why? Just why put that in there. Lol
other that that, the storyline was so sweet and I would really love to see this be turned into a series or longer movie! But hopefully without the musical numbers. Those were so cringey. Lol I'm sorry.
I really want to know the end of this. I feel like it ended on a cliffhanger. I know it didn't and I know it ended happy but I want to know how the mom reacted. I want to know about the other mom. Did she come to terms and everyone be fine? Did they part ways? I just have a lot of questions. Lol
It's weird. Usually when movies/shows end with a lot of questions and awkward moments, I tend to not like it... but their chemistry was just so cute together!
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Short and sweet
This was really short and cute. The main couple is just adorable and really seem to care for eachother and are not afraid to show some public displays of effection. Every single act was consensual and tho they do face some obstecals the main focus seems to be their love and longing for eachother as well as the trouble of having to be apart during the mandatory military serviceAnd can you recognise the mains (without looking at the list) so cool to see them at the start of their very success careers.
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This review may contain spoilers
Cute And Mostly Realistic.
29min and enjoyable. Believable attraction and love, lots of cuteness, and an amazingly realistic heavy make-out scene. Also realistic hyper-awareness of interactions and pda around others.FYI there is a tiny scene after the credits.
General Spoilers below.
There was one spot where the cinematography was very memorable; the mom and the boys along the fence after she finds out about their true relationship. Very striking and emotional.
What didn't work for me:
-The disturbly weird thing the mom says about her chest and her son. Just, why??? What parent would say that?
-What was the point of the guy sleeping outside his boyfriend's home if he wasn't going to stick around to talk to the mom?
-Seok Yi didn't cry at all believably in the scene with the girl drinking. But it's a very short moment.
-Cuts between scenes were always abrupt.
-The song montage at the end. Apart from the fact that the version I found didn't have subtitles for the song, it was still weird; it felt like a completely different film all of a sudden. It went from a realistic slice-of-life feel to a surreal symbolic feel.
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It was sweet but also short and confusing
The movie is quite short, so everything seems a bit rushed at times. I know it’s supposed to cover events that mostly happen over the span of a bit more than 24h with some extra scenes later on, but it still a lot of things that they tried to squeeze in. There have a been quite a few scenes that left me confused on what is happening exactly or what do they mean.I found the couple, Min Soo and Seok Yi, absolutely adorable. I really liked their interactions, the little touches and looks. They were hiding who they truly are to one another, but you could tell if you looked closely. I also liked the fact that the two are an already established couple who has joint plans for the future. Ones that they have previously discussed and have also discussed during the movie. Their conversations actually had meaning to them. And their chemistry is amazing! For an older Korean BL, I was quite surprised how passionate the two were with one another and how much they showed on screen.
The side characters, side “couple”, left me mostly confused. I don’t really think they brough much to the story. Things wouldn’t be much different if they left the two out.
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Poderia ser bem maior.
Já começo dizendo que o filme em si é curto mas é bom. Acredito que esse filme era para ser tipo os short-filmes que assistimos no youtube e não me arrependo de assistir.Eu assisti até os making of que é o resto do filme por que foi bem interessante.
Foi ótimo ver dois atores enormes como os principais trabalhando em um short filme LGBTQIA+, mesmo que seja antigo foi algo que é bom para representividade da comunidade do meio dos doramas.
Eu por exemplo fiquei sabendo agora, como fã do Je Hoon que ele fez um filme BL e corri para vê, é gostei bastante.
E vamos falar, né? Que beijos, hein! Normalmente, quando assisto dramas ou filmes BLs coreanos, os beijos são mais "fracos" e secos. Esses foram espetaculares.
Não sei se é um filme independente, mas acredito que seja por isso é curto e não tão bem desenvolvido.
Eu iria adorar assistir mais sobre como a mãe deles reagiram a saber sobre a sexualidade deles, por que a primeira, me desculpem, foi engraçada o modo que aconteceu.
É um curto romance BL bem leve e com humor que eu aproveitei bastante assistindo.
Achei bem fofo, na verdade.
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More than friends in a homophobic country whose army punishes homosexuals with triple humiliation
'Just Friends?' (친구사이? / Chingu sai?) follows two young people who are not just friends, but something more. Seok-i (Lee Je-Hoon) and Min-su (Yeon Woo-jin, sometimes credited by his former stage name, Seo Ji-hoo) met during their mandatory two-year tour of duty in the South Korean army. The first, who has already graduated, visits his boyfriend who is still serving in the armed forces. They are both a gay couple who hide their relationship from their parents and those around them.For some time they have planned to enjoy a romantic weekend, but it will not go as planned. While having fun in the city, they meet Min-soo's mother, who has also gone to visit her son and is unaware of the bond between the young people.
When the mother (Lee Seon-joo) asks him about their relationship, to avoid suspicion, Min-soo replies, "...we are just friends."
In this way, Kim Jho Gwang-soo, as writer and director, is weaving a story in this short film of the youth romantic comedy-drama genre with an LGBT+ theme that, released in 2009, aims, in addition to telling us about another cycle of release coming out of the closet, showing, with naturalness and simplicity, the relationship between gay men and their families in a conservative society where parents consider any homosexual act a crime, as well as making visible the risks, including criminal ones, to which homosexuals are exposed in the South Korean army, as a complaint.
Considering that South Korea is a conservative society and the only developed economy in the world in which consensual sexual relations between two men are a crime under military law, and if discovered and charged, every South Korean officer or soldier potentially faces a triple humiliation: a criminal conviction, an exclusion from the army for unworthiness and a forced coming out of the closet in the face of society and his parents, who describe themselves as "conservative and devout Christians", as the short film in the Min-soo's mother, Kim Jho Gwang-soo places her protagonists involved in the army of a nation in which, according to article 92.6 of the military penal code, soldiers who have homosexual relationships face two years in prison and work forced if convicted by a court-martial.
Based on his own personal experiences as a gay man, the director and screenwriter expressed: "I wanted to create a real gay film with 99.9% purity, after observing that many Korean films in the past contained misleading depictions of homosexuals." Kim also stated that after completing her 2009 short, 'Boy Meets Boy', which focuses on a first romantic encounter of two teenagers, she wanted to create a successor that involved more mature themes.
Produced by the company Generation Blue Films, in collaboration with Korean Gay Men's Human Rights Group Chingusai, which shares the same name as the film's Korean title, 'Just Friends' had its world premiere at the 14th Pusan International Film Festival on October 10, 2009. Before its theatrical release on December 17 of the same year, it was screened at the 35th Seoul Independent Film Festival. The following year, the work was screened at film festivals in Italy, the United States, Japan and Hong Kong.
With music by Kim Dong-wook, photography by Kim Myeong-Joon and editing by Nam Na-yeong, the film, due to its exposed theme, has been involved in a rating and censorship controversy.
Before its release, the Korea Media Rating Board (KMRB) called the film's trailer "harmful to youth." In November 2009, KMRB gave the film a "restricted to teens" (19+) rating, citing "sexual situations" and "risk of imitation."
This decision generated criticism from artists, intellectuals, and politicians, who argued that the KMRB was reviewing homosexual-themed films with different criteria than heterosexual-themed films.
In September 2010, the film's producers, Generation Blue Films and Chingusai, filed an administrative contentious lawsuit against the KMRB, asking the Seoul Administrative Court to cancel the film's classification. The court ruled in favor of the plaintiff on September 9, stating that the film "provides understanding and education about minorities." Despite this, 'Just Friends?', 15 years after its release, continues to be condemned by the most conservative members of a society who still claim that the film contains scenes that "would provoke sexual curiosity in young people."
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It also touches on relationships clashing with sexuality :( like if you're late into finding out about it and you're in a relationship, that's gotta hurt for the other one. So lesson learned, don't be in a relationship until you find out about your sexuality.
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Very open korean film
A solid and for 2009 very open Korean film with physical contact between two young men making love. The film was made with a sense of perspective and sometimes even comically, and it will certainly attract the viewer. Even around the 23 minute mark, the next CO song wasn't too bad and made me smile at the cute Asian naivety. But every viewer will surely understand why the filmmakers made this film, and for that they deserve a lot of thanks.A solid and for 2009 very open Korean film with physical contact between two young men making love. The film was made with a sense of perspective and sometimes even comically, and it will certainly attract the viewer. Even around the 23 minute mark, the next CO song wasn't too bad and made me smile at the cute Asian naivety. But every viewer will surely understand why the filmmakers made this film, and for that they deserve a lot of thanks.
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