Dark Blue and Moonlight (2017)

Messy Story and Selfish Characters in the name of Complexity and Reality!!

I really liked the first half of this show but I had anxiety issues watching this show in the 2nd half!! I'm all up for flawed characters and complex storylines..I don't mind seeing relationships where one partner cheats over the other because it is realistic and happens in real life..but when the plot demands the main characters to be flawed, the story also needs to give them motivation for behaving the way they do..or else they come off as selfish jerks rather than complex characters...the main leads for which we are "supposed" to root coz they are "supposed" to be the endgame, give us no reason to stick up for them ..not once is the viewer convinced that they are in love and that is the reason behind their hurtful behavior towards their respective partners.. rather it looks like 2 people just enjoying having sex out of their relationships..so rather than being empathetic towards their characters, you end up hating them and that shouldn't happen in a series where they are being promoted as the main love interests...the writing is just messy and all over the place..the characters are very under developed and poorly written especially in the second half..I especially have a major issue with the character of Hai Qinq..rather than coming of as a confused person whjo doessnt know how to chose between someone he loves and someone who has been there for him, he comes off as an entitled brat who emotionally manipulates the person who has done so much for him. The only well written and likeable character is of- Pin Jun ( (no surprises there)...my heart aches for him and the amount of emotional distress I suffered for this man is unimaginable...how can someone do that to the perfect boyfriend who loves you from the bottom of his heart!!! All my generosity in the ratings is just for the character of Pin Jun..he really carries the show on his shoulders!!!

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Protrayed adults who rarely exhibit melodrama, so much as honest reactions to faults

This was a drama with romanace in the mixed. I appreciated all 4 of the main characters and how they protrayed genuine behaviors of people without too much melodrama. Hai Qing is an adult who doesn’t seem to express his feeling or thoughts well (he would have exasperated me). He is headstrong and indecisive. He also just comes off crude to me occasionally when dealing with good friends. I hope he'll grow to be better. Yan Fei was handsome, well off and should know better than to date two people at one time. He seems put together amd he is for the most but we all have our hang ups. What he let occur while he was with Jimmy was messy. With Jimmy, I've never been in his situation so I didn’t understand why he could not let go of Yan Fei. But it took me a few episodes to see that he alone is not the villain. But also he's not a villian at all, but more lost and doesnt want to let go of what is familiar and safe. I believe he had dreams for a future with Yan Fei and I don't fault him for that. Ping Jun, I sorta get him. Taking care of people is somwthing he has done all his life, it made him patient and kind. So I get how he gravitated to Hai Qing. I feel like it's hard to see our self-worth outside of our wants. And that we put up with things we should not. This drama was well acted and portrayed. Not a picture perfect romance for anyone. Merely a reality of harsher truths. The message I took away is "love yourself enough to be honest about what you want and from who and respect your partner enough to be truthful if you need to break-up or change how the relationship is functioning." Sometimes life is not about what we derseve so much as what we allow.

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Ping Jun for the win!

I originally dropped this after seeing the first few minutes of the first episode. It just didn't feel right and the swimming pool scene felt very awkward and off. I remember seeing recommendations to watch this so held my breath and gave it another try. Just have to get through a couple more episodes to somewhat understand what message (s) they're trying to get across.

The characters of Yan Fei and Ping Jun were portrayed very well. Hai Qing was "so-so" or I'm probably biased because he's the center and cause of all this chaos.

Music was spot on. I understand some were complaining on not having background music on some of the scenes but I think it worked. They didn't pummel the scenes with music and only had them were it mattered the most.

The plot was interesting and didn't seem to be recycled (I might be wrong). Can it be considered a bittersweet ending?

Love is selfless. It takes courage to fight but it takes more courage to be selfless. It's not plainly giving up but doing what's best.

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What a nice series! A+!

Fist of all, THE story and the story concept was awesome and unique in their own way. The soundtracks was also wonderful.
The ending is not that type of ending what I expected but I still liked it. UwU
Every single actors who was played the roles are also did a great job.
The scene places was also so pretty and unique. I like all of the filming locations. Aweee
Lasly but not at least..The last 2 episode was super emotional, I was crying a lot. Omg! The last 2 episode is like a roller coaster. omg! And lastly I wasn't regret to watch this series. I LIKED IT SO MUCH! A+! *chef kiss*

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Dark blue and moonlight

PIN JUN DESERVED BETTER... HAI QING deserved Pin Jun... he was the best boyfriend to have ..... And Qing doesn't know what to prioritise in life, who is the best for him; just seeing his body in the pool made him fall in love though it wws obsession.. True love is what Pin Qing had to offer... There should have been a twist at the end from Qing accepting Pin Jun as his ultimate boyfriend... Qing never stayed with the boss, he doesn't know him personally, but knew Pin Jun very well......

When Qing met Jimmy, there should have the plot twist of knowing the boss's life from Jimmy. Then, Qing gives up on the boss.. and accepts Jun....


We, as fans, left heart-broken in the end tbh... this was not at all accepted...... 💔💔💔💔💔


But overall plot was good... Taiwan can reach far in bl series... I wish promotion were at that level... Majority of international people dont know about this...

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Form your own opinion.

Before I gave this BL a try I would hear that it wasn't very good and that it wasn't worth it. Glad that I gave it a chance because regardless of the characters annoying me at times, I still very much enjoyed it and would consider watching it again in the future. The acting was great, love all the actors; I felt everyone's pain and sympathized at times. As well as appreciated HaiQing's best friend telling him how it is as Hai tried managing the love triangle. The parents in it both infruiateded me per usual with BLs but at the same time surprised me. There were parts to the story that left me confused and wondering admittedly like about Jimmy and whether he'd end up with Jacky or not, some of the memories Pinjun was seeing and what happened with Yan Fei's mother but I put that on the fact that each episode was only 25minutes.
I loved the intro, definitely going on my spotify. So yeah give it a chance.

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Stunning, Sad, and Profoundly Moving

This BL series has a ‘sad’ feeling about it from the very beginning. Nothing feels like it quite belongs. This is a slice of live series with no happy ending yet not really sad but so real. This is an enormously tragic story for all couples involved. In the end, the world must be righted and the only way to do that is to have no one win. So, this ends up maudlin, melancholic, and everyone being alone. It is a beautifully told story with realistic outcomes. Perhaps not the way we wanted it to be, but fate and destiny have other plans. There are no winners here but plenty of losers and those who paid the ultimate price of falling in love with them. You can read my full review of this sad but very moving series at ppbongi.medium.com.

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Beautiful Men - Unusual Story

This is not a BL. It is more or less a story of young people growing up. One interpretation is as a snapshot of young life where people are trying to figure out who they are, who they love and how to make decisions in life. It shows indecision, inability to communicate feelings, inability to be honest, callous, selfish and thoughtless behavior. It shows lying and cheating.

In the beginning, Jimmy, Yan Fei and especially Hai Qing are not people you would want to know, let alone date. In contrast, Ping Jun is presented as an angelic perfect boyfriend. As the plot moves along, Jimmy gets better, then Yan Fei. And even Hai Qing does show some consideration and empathy for Ping Jun. For Yan Fei who initially seems cold and heartless, after he feels romantic chemistry for Hai Qing does he start to become a better person. This drama is realistic in that first relationships are usually a mess. I think older people (such as yours truly) can recognize this truth.

SPOILER

Hai Qing as the main character is so insufferable. Why anyone would want to date him.... its just hard to believe. Yes, he is gorgeous (I mean, they all are). But his personality is dreadful. Everyone around Hai Qing has to guess what he is thinking and feeling. Even his father has to out him because Hai Qing doesn't have the courage to even come out to his father.

BIGGER SPOILER

At the VERY end, Hai Qing leaves to study in the US, having apparently left not just Ping Jun, but also Yan Fei (at least temporarily anyway). This unexpected turn, communicates that Hai Qing is not SO head-over-heels in love with Yan Fei that he feels he has to stay. Not really surprising, Hai Qing has been ambivalent about almost everything. This shift tells me that the story is NOT a love story, but rather a story of growing up in general, and specifically the pains of first love. Hai Qing's note to Ping Jun telling him that love is not limited but can be limitless shows Hai Qing is growing as well.

Couples get together for lots of different reasons: friendship, companionship, mutual caring, compatibility, romantic chemistry or sexual chemistry. The affair between Yan Fei and Hai Qing seems to have been rooted in sexual and/or romantic chemistry. After experiencing that, they seem to have become less selfish and more compassionate, patient and understanding.

The production has a lot of flaws, but the actors are lovely to look at, and the music is nice here and there, so we stuck it out. The story had so many unexpected turns and unsatisfying moments, it felt more like someone's personal biography, and not a work of fiction.

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Open Your Heart

Let me start by saying I don’t have a lot of friends who enjoy BL’s so when this one was recommended to me I knew I had to watch and even though it’s one of the older ones it was amazing and I wish I knew about BL long ago. I’ve read reviews on this site and YouTube and I think the biggest problem people had was the cheating but here’s my Take


Hai Qing & Yan Fei had a beautiful connection right from the start I felt the chemistry it was definitely one of those magical moments


Hai Quing & Pin Jun had great chemistry and they had cute scenes together personally I don’t think they were a match because Yan Fei was so deeply rooted in Hai Qing heart


Yan Fei & Jimmy we’re obviously happy at a time but that quickly changed. I know cheating isn’t the answer but it’s refreshing in my opinion to see a BL tackle such an issue . Yan Fei was so cold and bitter and pinky pointed out how he changed from loving Hai Qing he loved him and wanted to give him the world he even risked shaming himself in front of his mother to explain what their relationship was I thought that was very deep in showing just how much he loved him.

In a way it’s a right person wrong timing sort of situation even though Hai Qing met Yan Fei First but Yan Fei had a boyfriend even back then the relationship Was probably over

In a love triangle someone always gets hurt and while I feel for Pin Jun how he handled the situation was very mature letting Hai Qing be with Yan Fei but thanking him for the time they got to spend together it hurt him ALOT but honestly it was the right call even though Hai Qing was in love with both of them sometimes you deceive your heart because you will always love someone more

Yan Fei knew this but he didn’t force anything which was nature of him as well love did indeed sort itself out

I’m happy they found each in the end I wish their was a continuation of their story while I won’t rewatch it I have no problem watching my favorite scenes I know I wrote ALOT this is drama for sure but if you can go into with an open mind and Understand life happens and people are only human I think you’ll love it just as much as I did


One more thing I’d like to add is this story kinda gave me a feeling of what Beloved Enemy was suppose to be like as far as the passion for someone goes

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VERY DARK MOONLIGHT

Well the story was different from other series....it shown reality of the relationship. but the story feels confusing as their no proper subtitles and connecting parts ....somehow u feel there is no logic in story....i feel bad for pin jun after all he has done lot for hai qing he always there for him and at the end he has to give up but kind of good that he can be finally relax from toxic relationship. about yan fei ...we always want our main characters end up together so i was happy they end up but i m not statisfy with he end as he was never prorper try to find hai qing after knowing he didnt call him even he saw him swimming center he should have go after him but he goes to swimming and after knowing from the swimming teacher that someone is looking for him he should have done to find hai qing. then Hai qing what should i say he is totally messed up everything i understand he falls in love with first sight with yan fei but after one year you went with pin jun you should have known who is their with your ups and down who really loves you....

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Hot hot hot

I dont care about bad reviews! So glad I watched this! It s Realistic, yes! And hot! If you want hot guys making out , its worth your time! Dont get atached to the plot just enjoy your BL FANTASY!
I dont watch BL to judge the story every time, sometimes I watch just to see some nice guys and it was worth it for me! Life is not perfect and not all the time tou have to agree with the storyline!
I enjoyed the kisses and the plot! I dont judge if it's fair or not. I dont care!
It gave me buterflies and that is what I was expecting!
Not ALL BL ARE PERFECT ROMANCE !

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DON'T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS!!!


I have so much love for this drama you have no clue (And I finished it in a day). BUT, there are moments I wanted to tear my hair out. Ok, at the beginning when Hai Qing saves Yan Fei from drowning , Yan Fei kisses him for it?? They never met before, Yan Fei also has a boyfriend.... what? Like, Hai Qing didn't even tell him his name and Yan Fei didn't ask him to go out for saving him. It was I see you, I'm going to corner you, I'm going to make out with you, then say thank you, then ask for your name and give you my number, but never give his own.
There was also the fact that the moment this happens his phone was thrown into the pool, and every chance they got to almost seeing each other again was a near miss, by a minute at least.
Also, that after they meet again, Yan Fei immediately starts acting like his lover. Immediately. Then at the office when Yan Fei saw Hai Qing, he didn't even hesitate. He grabbed him, and went to the stairs, and made out with him. Then after that they have sex. Like WTF.
Don't get me wrong, them as a couple is cute. But the fact that right after they do it, Yan Fei tells Hai Qing that he loves him. HUH? I just find that in these dramas, some of them toss around the meaning of love like candy.

Now the ending. Oh lord, the ending. Ping Jun breaks up with Hai Qing, because he realizes that they can't be happy together anymore, and I believe that was a smart decision, one he should've made 2-3 episodes before. Hai Qing "moves" into Yan Fei's home for a bit, and then leaves for the States right after. Like what?
I mean I get he didn't really think through his father's proposition, but the amount of time he spent getting into college, and now finally being able to be with Yan Fei without complications, he's like f*** it, I'm going to go study in America for 3 years, and gives Ping Jun a postcard that tells him to be happy, while we get a scene where Yan Fei looks so sad sitting alone drinking wine and having dinner in the dark. Like damn.
Anyway that's my fresh post-watch rant.

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