List of BL series viewed

The good parts of “Don’t Say No” are better than the bad parts. The problem is there aren’t enough good parts to justify a 727 minute long show. Stretching out the various events in DNS makes it very episodic, like a tv soap, with viewers left hanging at the end of each episode waiting to see how the cliff-hanger will resolve itself in the next.

On the other hand, I like how DSN tackles love AFTER the rosy falling in love stage. And also the trope of parent-conflict is reworked to the more harrowing depiction of a psychologically unwell mother.

In the end, “Don’t Say No” depends for its drama on the character of Fiat and the emotional baggage that Fiat brings to their relationship. First Chalongrat Novsamrong has the requisite combination of good looks and sexiness. For First, it is as heavy an acting burden as Fluke Natouch Siripongthon had to bear in “Until We Meet Again”. First gets most of it right especially given that tortured internal conflicts are harder for most young Thai BL actors. Occasionally he is left unsupported by the writer when he has to emote on his own; but the support he receives from Ja Phacara Suansri’s Leo in part helps cover many of the weak spots.

The screenwriter proves to be the weak spot in this drama. Rather than weave the themes together - as happens in real life - the writer breaks the plot developments into set pieces with little forewarning or poor preparation. The effect is to make the show stutter in its progress and, at times, slow to a painful crawl, as the drama, structured in 12 hour-long episodes, struggles to find enough action to fill the time. (Threading of plot lines & character development is one of the key reasons Korean BL’s are generally more effective dramatically than their Thai counterparts.)

I’ve never written a review before seeing all the episodes but with this one I can’t predict how long I’ll hold out so here’s a brief review so far.

After the dramatic realism of “A Tale of Thousand Stars”, “Cupid’s Last Wish” is the polar opposite: a fantasy-comedy that is a vehicle for the popular coupling of Earth & Mix. Production values are good and the two stars are enthusiastic but the story is a dud and the first episode is a shocker. Mix’s character’s behaviour is so repellent only fans will want to keep watching. The plot jumps erratically from one extreme event to another and descends into farce. A car accident produces a head injury which the hospital resident ignores to allow the patient to leave within 24hours. A shaman appears and issues instructions which obliges the two leads to commence a road trip. So far, the show feels like it was put together by a committee working off the “Best of BL plots” list.

Some of the worst aspects of Thai BL production awfulness are on display here, and it has to be asked why did the producers think viewers would commit over 12hours of their time to a show like this? One hour episodes for this? Really??

To be fair, the three leads are good actors and deserve a better script than this; writer Chim Sedthawut Inboon is credited on MDL with 5 series scripts in the last two years alone. Based on these first two episodes, they must have all been first drafts, its dialogue being almost cartoonish. Director Kapper Worarit Ninklom suffers from the newbie mistake of shooting the location instead of the drama, wanting to show off the expensive house Nine lives in rather than adding anything to the action.

And then there are the usual Thai BL suspects: bedrooms lit like ballrooms expecting us to believe the characters actually sleep in that blaze of light all night long, an upmarket house master bedroom decorated like it was a student dormitory with photos stuck on the wall, actors sitting unnaturally on couches or at table for the sake of the camera rather than to portray realism, the addition of annoying sound effects because of course we, the audience are so stupid, well we have no other way of knowing when people are behaving comedically instead of dramatically.

This show rests on one premise only: will Daonuea and Nine get it on again after their hot one night stand at the resort? For my part, I wish they would give in to their animal urges and clear lust for each other and just do it and spare us this long trawl to the last episode. And we can all get back to watching better Thai BL’s; there are plenty of them out there this year.

Doubtless, many theses could be written about the Japanese psycho-sexual cultural impulse. In this series, the character Hira’s low self-esteem manifests itself in a fantasy obsession with the aloof, vain and arrogant Kiyoi. The peculiar Japanese take on this relationship imbalance is that Hira welcomes and Kiyoi obliges with masochistic behaviours. The two lead actors do outstanding work portraying these flawed characters. Kioyi evolves through his trail of humiliating failures to achieve some humility and regard for Hira. Hira’s character, on the other hand, barely leaves his comfort zone of demeanment and in the end, the writers ask us to accept that Kioyi’s continual slurs are meant as tokens of affection instead of the corrosive verbal instruments of degradation that they actually are. In my opinion, this relationship does not have the happy future the show’s creators would like us to believe. Production values are good and the earnestness of everyone involved is without question.

The series depicts the gradual realisation of love and then from that realisation, on to their commitments to each other, forged out of a crisis neither was prepared to face at first.  Big demands are made of the young actors for performances to reflect what is happening internally to their characters. Title is amazingly good but Man struggles in places.

The series aspires to be a tear-jerker and creates a foundation story in the early episodes similar to other BL’s where the two male lead characters have known each other since childhood and who realise as they approach young adulthood that their closeness is more than friendship. The story uses flashbacks to regularly reference events in their recent and more distant past and as it manifests itself in their minds; and in our minds we continually think over the events of yesterday as much as we do the events of last year or earlier. The young men are constantly referring back to the small moments as well as the big incidents between them. The revelations via flashback are not chronological as to what each character is thinking or feeling, and, just as in real life, the boys in their minds relive the same moments again and again

A ghost story might seem an unusual choice for the first Thai-Korean BL production to reach our screens; even more so as the story is not treated as a comedy.

“Peach of Time” is not concerned with actual ghosts. The ghost element is both a metaphor and a dramatic device; and the ghosts that feature large in “Peach of Time” are, as Mario describes them in Ep.3, the “ghosts” of resentment, or sadness, the emotional issues in our lives that we don’t address and leave unresolved, between ourselves and those we love, and that linger, like ghosts that hover and surround our lives. Hence, the series' main focus is in its title: time, and whether we make the most of it.

The drama plays out amidst a group of characters whose time together has ended prematurely by an unforeseen event. The main protagonists, Jimmy Karn Kritsanaphan as Peach, Choi Jae Hyun as Yoon Oh (the two nascent lovers), and Jung Ae Yun as Dr Moon, Yoon Oh’s mother, react differently to the shock & suddenness of tragedy. How and whether they each come to terms with this is the real determinant of whether this series can be said to have a happy ending or not.

Being a kdrama, the plot carries with it a criminal-detective mystery component surrounding the event around which this story revolves. And added, also, is the story of a possible medical malpractice issue against Yoon Oh’s mother. There is a further subplot involving Tommy Sittichok Pueakpoolpol as Mario, a long lingering ghost at the resort owned by the Moon family. These concurrent plot lines simultaneously prolong the drama’s timelines while also - and this is a feature lacking in early low-budget Thai BLs - broaden the supporting world of characters beyond the immediate love interest leads.

The show loses its focus somewhat towards the end in striving to wrap up all its loose ends, but its conclusion rests in the safe hands of its principal leads, especially Choi Jae Hyun.

Reviewed.

“A Shoulder To Cry On” tells the story of Da Yeol (Kim Jae Hwan) and Tae Hyun’s (Shin Ye Chan) relationship, a gradual coming together of two high schoolers who have never been in love or had sex, and who are not sure of their future paths. They end up being each other’s “shoulder to cry on”, a major stepping stone between friendship and lover. 

Production values are of the usual high standard from Korean series; the leads, in their acting debuts here, give good performances over the arc of their emotional journeys. The supporting players are uniformly good; mention needs be made of the actor playing Da Yeol’s father (uncredited in English) whose unflinching love for his son is unending: and Jo Ooh Seok, as the jealous Won Kyung (a rarity in BLs of a villainous gay character), who follows Tae Hyun around like a predator savouring its prey.

Tedious and disappointing.

Refreshing in its approach, depressing in some of its scenes of Korean social behaviours, glib in its depiction of therapy, but delightfully romantic in its strides to a happy ending.

Lim Ji Sub is very good as the mature Seo Jae Won, deeply troubled by and struggling to cope with his sad family history; Oh Jun Taek is an excellent counterfoil as the younger freshman, Kim Ji Hyun, experiencing love for the first time and finding the fortitude to push through circumstances and help carry Jae Won with him to the happy conclusion.

The Eighth Sense makes the case for young adults sharing the maelstrom of study, work, love, friendships and happiness. Jung Seo Bin, as Ji Hyun's restaurant boss, a 40 something divorcee, provides the perspective these young characters are searching for. Overall, a successful series, perhaps a little too heavy by comparison to Semantic Error, but satisfying in any event.