Eliot_Rulez

Every year a top notch production from Taiwan

Last year Taiwans BL industry had "Kiseki Dear To Me" with the highest production value and this year it must be "Unknown". They also had a troubled background story with some mafia elements and general hardships for at least one character. While the story is not perfect the series conveys all the feelings very well. Chemestry between the leads was also top notch imho and they kept the intimate scenes to the story where it mattered. Only LiLi left something to be desired, not really grown up to the end.

To read a review where I'm told I'm weired because of "incest" even it isn't "incest" was even more weired for me. Does incest even count between same sex? Incest is only not allowed because of gen deficits the children will get, see Europe and Habsburger :)

While not perfect this show transports all the feelings in an expectional way, with a top notch production value and cinematography. I can overlook all the the little story problems especially at the end. I would have prefered to see the surgery and not LiLis baby. Regardsless a show to recommand.

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Not the best BL in 2023 by far...

What I like:
production quality
costumes
music
most acting

What I dislike:
The ending; yes it's fantasy and so on, but it's not believable.
Jom - he is sometimes docile, sometimes mature. Only in the finale after "returning" he is much more believable.
Stereotype evil Robert, he is too plain, just a 08/15 bad character from one of the cheap novels published every week, no depth, no other side of him, just 10 pages worth of the 60 pages.
Story-Plotholes: While Yai falling in love was shown for a long time, Jom just did it out of the blue, overcoming his trauma from ep 1 in a blink of an eye. To be gay in early 20th century was by far not as easy as it's depicted in this story. Yai confesses he loves Jom and the father was relativly mild., compared to other series where the family explodes even today. There were always exceptions to the rule but it makes this point of the story not believable.
Pacing: After Robert is removed from the series everything is dragged on an on which made me skip some scenes.
Yai with silly Mustache

Summary:
While the production quality was top notch, music was very fitting, the acting overall very good, the setting something unique, the ending unbelievable and the preview of a second season unnecessary, this show is a mixed bag. Jom should have been more struggeling and maybe slowly falling in love in episode 7 with the first spicy scene in episode 8. But of course they could have paced the show faster with some serene scenes inbetween. If there is a second season I hope they will not repeat the same mistakes they did this time where script and direction was sometimes weak.

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Overacting made it cringe, besides being boring

This is one of the few japanese productions I could not enjoy at the least.

Takahashi constant overacting ruined this movie for me completely. I bet it was not his fault and they director wanted it this way, but it resulted in a cringe fest for me. The story is boring as fuck as well. There is no real progress and there is no real story told. They should have confessed to each other in the beginning because they should already knew from the first movie how they feel. And then maybe we would have a chance to see them grow together and overcome all the obstacles life throws at them. And after they confessed near the end, they do not change, they do not kiss, it's just the same.

So all in all the skip button was my biggest support for this movie. I could not stand to watch some scenes several times. That's the disappointent from Japan in 2024. Why some people like a non-story movie I have no clue, because while the actors look pleasing, the acting was only cringe and there are only about 10minutes of cute in this movie. I guess female viewers will like it more but for me it was just crap and the pretty cinematography can't save it.

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mature story, bad audio-editing

The most positive of this show is that it's not childish at the least, as most of the thai shows aired 2024.. The young actors did their best to transport the story which plays out in an unusual setting: A thai prison. Of course this is not a polished high budget production, but the lack of polish was compensated with more workshops and pre-production run at least a year to improve the acting skills of the cast. In contrast GMMTV does the reverse, high polished production but the acting skills of most of it's actors are either lacking or the script is so bad, their skills don't matter.

The most negative of the show is the drowning of the actors voices whenever background music overlaps. This is really annoying. They also used some lip-sync which were not top-notch. Also the ending is not a real ending, it's a cliffhanger for the special episode which is seperated from this short series. That we had to wait for the last four episodes for nearly a month made the show not better.

It'a mostly a story of power dyanamics in a prison with a flair of a partly fluffy BL. It's also a story of a gay youth doing something stupid and going to prison for it twice, finding someone he falls in love with but his partner while showing some feelings does not commit. I liked this story much more compared to most other shows... It's not great, but it's good for what it is. The end is a bit abrupt and not happy at all, but I suppose the special episode will resolve that. For a low budget production it's well done. If you watch on youtube, be aware there are only auto-generated subtitles on the last four episodes which makes some dialoges hard to understand. Maybe in the future they remedy that problem.

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heartwarming and beautiful...

Japan does it again with an unconvential story. While the age gap may some people turn away, it shows love can happen regardless of age too. They come closer over food while the younger character is an energized editor, the older character is an experienced but disenchanted chef. Ishida has abundance of energy, he sometimes feels like a child experiencing new things in life. Chef Mitsuya has closed himself off from the world and positive feelings. Ishida slowly but surely changes Mitsuyas views comulating in heartwarming vocal expression in the finale.

Both actors did an amazing job to portrait their characters. There is even fluff even albeit in other ways you would normally expect. Of course it's a classic JBL so they didn't even try kissing, but it does not matter for this story.

I can wholeheartly recommand this show.

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One of the best BL series ever!

After two years I watched this series again and it was as good as I remembered.
This series was amazing in beautifully crafting an enemy to lover trope in an unconventional way and with a heartbreaking ending.

While the second couple had a slow start, it was also a realistic way of showing how lovers could come together with one enthusiastic teenager and an older, hurt adult. I have no clue why there is so much complaining about an age gap. It was not that big and it happens in real life too. You can never decide to love, it just happens!

Also some complain about the ending, but that can happen and I personally think it's great to depicture something like that too. It transforms this series from the typical highschool romance to a mature slice of life.
Everything was thoughtfully executed, the nuances in the acting were amazing. and it will be one of the best BLs of all time imho.

If you can stomach a really heartbreaking ending you should watch for sure!

PS.: In this year (2024) should be a second season, I only hope it can be as amazing.

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Atypical BL with stunning art

I am late to the party, so to speak.
After the series ended I did not really understand what was happening but now I binge watched the series again. So, if you don't understand it, as many reviews say, you should binge watch all five episodes again and it will make sense.

The story is sensible, the acting of the MLs stunning and the style was also great and different from the known happy BL world.

You feel depressed, the angst of the characters because they did not have a nice life and they fight with their inner demons. The end is not confusing, it's a happy end, they will try. So after all the "shit" they went through, the end offers hope for both.
I wholeheartenly recommand this outstanding series, but only if you can handle a downer and you can focus the story of this series otherwise you might misunderstand.

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simply mostly cute.

I don't understand all the low ratings this show received.
While it's not perfect, it's watchable, with some laughs and some tears.
It's by far not as bad as "The Middleman" or the absolut horrid "Crazy Handsome Rich".

This show has its cute moments, also it's serious moments.
While some of the effects looked cheap, you have to consider that this was not a high-budget series, so you should not take that so much serious. The effects in "Law of Atttraction" were much worse, but I didn't see 1.0 ratings.

For me this show was enjoyable even with some overacting on the comedy parts and with the stupid noises, but the gist of the story and what the director wanted to transport was positive and the acting ranged from cute to good. I don't understand why people have expectations regardsless of who is acting or writing or directing. Regardless, reviews with 1.0-3.0 ratings are unfair compared to many other worse shows.

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Not a love story...

Two boys meet at a playground and since then are often together. Both can't communicate well. One is "docile" and bullied a lot - at least at the playground and the other is a "cool" boy but void of emotions. That's a typical J-Drama, full of misunderstandings and poor communication. In highschool they meet the same girl, and the "docile" boy falls in love but again no communication. The "cool" boy says bad stuff about the "docile" boy, but he seems to be jelous of his love and so he takes interest in the girl and after university they marry. You may think it's a love triangle, but it's not. And then all the bad stuff happens.

While the story is not as good as it could have been, it's consistent and logical. The acting is top notch, I guess you can say it's not natural and a bit over-acted for dramatic effect, but all chars are still believable. Camera, Lighting everthing was very good too giving this series a special vibe (which gets a bonus point in my rating). I would have wished, they would have expanded on the flashback as boys to see if the "cool" boy was always an asshole especially to the "docile" boy, but we will never know. For me it had some bromance vibes surpressed by the "cool" boy.

Overall a vey good show, but nothing "entertaining" in the usual sense.

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Positive messaging...

I won't tell you much about the series but some things that stand out. First the focus of a positive messaging, to have respect for all people regardless of gender identity, sexual orientation or social background. That's the outstanding feature of this show. Second production quality was top notch.

The negative aspects are as usual for thai shows silly comedic sound effects nobody needs, the story is not really focused on the second couple and had a lot room to improve. There was not much character growth overall. It's a bit cheesy at times but gives you a good feeling.

Overall the show was better than expected, gives you fluffy moments, funny moments and mature themes and scenes with a bit of fan service. If you want to have a nice time and there aren't any better shows to watch, it will entertain you.

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much better than the manga...

I did read the original source and I think it was a medicore manga.
But this show fixed most flaws in the manga, reduced the story to the essential but did miss out on Hiros development so the ending feels rushed.

The jerk-off scene stired some controversy but I think it should show Hiros docile character, running like a machine without an option to decide what he wants.

I wished they had at least one episode more to go deeper into Hiros character. I don't think the office scenes were too long, they are essential to understand his struggle but how he did come to the conclusion to change his workplace was too fast, when Hiro has lived in a "treadmill" for five years. Also some flashbacks to Kais family live with his father would have helped the show.

It's always a problem with such short shows to go deeper when all you have are six episodes. I don't quite understand why they have to limit themselves. Two episodes more shouldn't do that much for the budget but could make the show better.

Some are impressed by the opening sequence which I don't like. Why? Because most japanese series show the happy end and they waste 1:19 of only 24mins runtime.

Regardless of the flaws it was a good show with high production value with some fluffy scenes and an adorable couple. MDL is missing a voting for cinematography and design which are also integral for a good series, so my endscore is higher than "calculated" :)0

Update: My perfect BL of 2024 :) (not the best BL/queer drama of 2024, but from the viewpoint of a BL it was perfect)

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Too short imho, but still cute.

That was refreshing and funny without being forced to be funny.

I think a fourth episode would have helped, because it felt sometimes a bit rushed or at least 5 minutes more would have been a godsend. Also when they always talk about the "kissing scene", they should have played out exactly this scene as finale and not only hint it at the end of the credits.

Otherwise the two managers were hilarious and I felt in the first episode they have a more intimate connection, so really well done. Also the supporting cast did a very good job.

The story is more original compared to most, executed so brilliantly. I had laughs and some tears, so I can only recommand to binch watch this short series.

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hard to judge because it has it's lengths

The best thing the show did, was not starting with a sex scene as the manga did.
What was frustrating was the lack of communication overall, but especially on Asamis part. He was in love for years and still can't communicate properly when he has the chance. Of course, if both are in love they don't really need words to convey their feelings, but if the partner is inexperienced, shy and never experieced love in his life, it would help tremendously. They should have shown Asamis reason to love Yuki in Episode 2 also much earlier to give the viewers more to work with and to better understand him, I think to do that in episode 7 was a bit late.

Besides that, the series was beautifully crafted, cinematography was great and they tried to be sensual all over. The mellow pace was not a negative for me per se, but the series draged on a bit. Even with this flaws the MLs did act a wonderful job and only failed with the kissing scenes which was a bit disappointing.

So in summary a good show with some flaws but enjoyable to watch.

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WTF? Did we need that?

If this is the episode 11 (why does MDL state it's 2 episodes?) ?

I think we could have lived without it for sure.

Even when society is fucked up in Japan, a BL should give an positive outlook and not keep Jin in the closet because of pressure... So I hate the story for 100%. All the rest was good as usual, but the story destroyed it for me.
For context: They changed the manga, so his dad made a movie about two boys (in the manga he had a girl & boy), Jins friends were present to watch Hirukawas movie at university (they were absent in the manga). So I do hate it, that they changed the manga for the better but did not finish it with consequence.
Of course I can understand it, when you don't want to out yourself in the company or to strangers who you have no connections with, but at least his dad would have understood and he was not in it. So it's sad, they did not have the guts to do something better and so, if you like the excellent series, you should not watch this!

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What a bad ending...

While I can understand that it can be hard to accept a gay relationsship, I don't understand why the finale needed a female antagonist with the most cliché story imagable. Instead of fighting for the relationsship and a more in depth talk, the antagonist took all the screentime so there was only a "bad" ending left.
The story was quite good thus far, regardless of some hick-ups and unnecessary scenes. The chemestry and acting was very good for new actors in such a genre. So the ending did disappoint even more. Overall better than expected, there is much room for improvement for the writing, but the MLs were the highlight of this short show.

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