BL Drama Lovers Club

 p43425:

@Theo, something else I forgot to mention regarding "MSP":  Be sure to watch the music video at the very end of Episode 6, which gets cut off if you have Viki set to "automatic next episode" (a feature which I generally recommend disabling for precisely this reason).

Also, I recommend watching the original MV of "Just Being Friendly" (Tilly Birds) on Youtube before this point, so you know what they're spoofing.

 

Oh Yeahh  Thank youu again!

I don't wanna bother anyone but can someone explain to me about I told sunset about you. Does it have like sequels to it? because I noticed on viki there's I promise the moon to you with the same characters so I got confused on which to watch first.

 BabyFeatForever:

I told sunset about you is the first and then I promised you the moon is the sequel :)

Ahh Okay Thank youu soo much!!

 p43425:

Yes, it's the sequel - and both series are highly recommended. There's also a special episode "Last Twilight in Phuket" (Youtube) which takes place in between the two series - and while it's not essential to the story, it's also really good.

I'll look into once I finish the first series  but Thank you so much!

Just found out that William from LYKN was the one who made that one beautiful song for Last Twilight right now.. Loved it so much I shed tears lmaoo.

 OnyxTheHedgehog:

Fish upon the sky ep 2- This series is hilarious 

I agree with you !

Love in the Big City - Finale

Production - 2/2

Writing - 2/2

Acting - 2/2

Intimacy - 2/2

Music - 1/1

Special 10 scene - 0/1

Total Rating Score - 9/10

---

There is this saying that an avid reader has lived a thousand lives, I must say that having watched this series I feel as if I have lived multiple lives by Young's side.

Having come to the end I realise that to look at this series by each episode would not be good enough; instead one should look at it by each of Young's relationships.

First Relationship - Young & Kim Nam Gyu

Here Young was young and so fell victim to the mentality and tendencies of youth. Kim was older and Young would complain that he drives too slow and plays old music. In the end (I do not want to give summaries and spoil it) they broke up and Young said something that stuck to me he said something along the lines of, "I always thought that I was too fast for Kim and him too slow for me but in the end it was the other way around." He would regret not holding onto this first love upon reflection, so from this relationship he learned something about maturity and what is truly important in a relationship.

Second Relationship - Young & No Yeong Su

This was the heaviest out of all of them. Here homophobia, both internal and external, religious persecution of homosexuality, attempts to "cure" homosexuality, a mother's harmful actions, a broken family, suicide attempt and mother dying of cancer, all came to action in the plot. There was so much to be noted here and think on. The hypocritical behaviour of certain "activists" was  also highlighted. Young would have to battle his own childhood traumas and make peace with his mother. Sadly when he arranged for Yeong to meet his mother he never showed up because of his own insecurities. The ending of this relationship stung. Young would have experienced the experiences of being with a man who was still in the closet and battling internal homophobia with underline religious guilt.

Third Relationship - Young & Sim Gyu Ho

The final relationship and one true love of Young. Here HIV took centre stage. It is sad now that I am writing about it. I do not want to give away too much because this is a series one should truly watch on their own and form their experience. We do learn that Young caught HIV from having unprotected sex with a minor boyfriend who was not really mentioned. This illness would go on to weigh Young down right until the finale. He would try to always smile about it; even naming it Kylie. There is a line where he says something along the lines of, "Kylie is always there in my life affecting it." We see how this illness affects its victims in ways one never really thinks about. It is the little things; the things said that hurt the victim; the shame of asking or saying certain things. 

Damn! I do not want to spill too much about this relationship and how Young's HIV affected it because you should really watch and find out. 

There is no happpy ending because this series is not about that. It is about a life story and a man's experiences through every relationship. If you are looking for happy endings look elsewhere, but if you are looking for a life experience and some tough truths it is right here.

Young's character seems as if it is the author of the novel this is adapted from, himself telling his story as Young is a writer and ends up writing novels about each relationship as "perfect loves". The author is Sang Young Park and when you read his interviews you realise that his book is very personal to his experiences:

Sang Young Park interview: 'I wanted Love in the Big City to contain all the emotions of love'

https://thebookerprizes.com/sang-young-park-interview-love-in-the-big-city

This part of the interview struck me:

"When my book was about to come out, my mother asked me to send her 30 copies so she could distribute them to her (extremely devout Christian) friends. I don’t think she knew what the book was about. I said alright, and proceeded to not send her the books. I avoided her calls for a while after that. When I visited her afterwards, I saw a copy of my book on her kitchen table and almost jumped out of my skin. It had a barcode for the municipal library on it. You would think she would buy a copy of her own son’s book. My mother said their library system was so excellent that she didn’t need to buy any books. I have a great mother."

When/ If you have watched the series, you will understand why.

All in all this was a fantastic story. I have never read the book but looking at the reception of the series it is safe to say that they did it great justice; I remember reading that Sang Young Park played a close role in its making.

 p43425:

What BL remakes am I missing?

Technically a bromance, but they have more confessions than an actual BL, so my puny brain keeps getting delulu: High School Frenemy, a remake a the Korean School 2013, which I have yet to see.