Akhilesh Dandge

The drama is flat and horrible. It's all a PR success. It has no depth or substance

Oh, so now divorce just happens because people ‘stop loving each other’? No possibility of deeper issues, no history, no financial instability, nothing—just a casual breakup and a custody arrangement based purely on blind trust? That’s cute. So we’re supposed to believe this man was a perfectly fine father until—poof!—he magically became an abusive drunk only after the divorce, and the mother, who lived with him for years, had absolutely no clue about any violent tendencies? No signs, no warning, just instant villain mode?

And then we have Hirawaka, who spends the entire drama haunted by ‘not wanting to turn into his father’—but why would he even have that fear if the man supposedly only became abusive after the divorce? Did he predict the future? Absorb trauma through the air? Or did the writers just forget their own setup?

But sure, let’s ignore all that and pretend this is some deep, thought-provoking masterpiece rather than a pile of lazy, overused tropes. If anything, the real ‘lack of common sense’ here is trying this hard to justify writing that doesn’t even bother to justify itself. Almost like... I don’t know, someone’s paid to do it?

Ah yes, the classic PR spin—'missing details make it deep,' 'it's up to the audience to fill in the gaps,' and 'just feel the emotions instead of questioning the writing.' Convenient, isn't it? The mother entrusts her kid to a man she divorced yet has no clue he's turned into an abusive drunk? No backstory, no explanation—just vague excuses and headcanon to cover up weak writing. If plot holes and clichés are now considered 'real-life-like,' I guess anything can pass as profound as long as the right PR accounts push it hard enough.

Lmao, you’re acting like this is some groundbreaking psychological case study when it’s just lazy writing wrapped in trauma porn. ‘Alcoholics are just violent, no explanation needed’—what a convenient excuse for zero character depth. You sound like a 12 year old whose only experience with alcoholics are bunch of men fighting on streets. Meanwhile, every action in this show is just an overused trope with no logical progression. But sure, keep defending this mess like you're on the PR payroll.

No drunk person beats up their own kid black and blue just because they're addicts and so called violent, there's always a cause behind everyone's actions, and a mother who divorced him for the very same reason is completely clueless of her ex-husband's behavior? Yeah a high school delinquent is going to protect his mother and ruin his own life for the crimes committed by his other delinquent friends is 'realism'? Sounds more like lazy writing disguised as trauma bait. No wonder this drama needs PR accounts like yours to defend it.

This is pure Fujoshi fetish consumption filled with all cliche tropes and overused typical uke-seme overplayed plotline. No reason why his father randomly beat him up for no reason and him quitely getting beaten up and bunking school without informing his mother. Mother being absolutely ignorant of what is happening in her child's life. Hirawaka taking up the blame for his friend's theft? Like wow what are you a hero? Bro you can be jailed, let alone being rusticated. Dead fish kisses, and Minase acting beyond shocked and running away like a disgraced girl when kissed. The plot is beyond ridiculous

just someone not aligning with your preferences doesn't entitle you the crown of a literary critic

Its boring

Extremely boring, shallow and predictable. Flat one dimensional characters straight out of yaoi comic with zero reasoning or motivation for their actions! So called poetic references were extremely repetitive and lacked any sort of emotional depth. Certainly overhyped!

Exactly my point. This drama requires an open mind and certain level of emotional maturity to fully grasp its depth and look beyond its so called tragedies

There's hardly any nc scene. wouldnt matter if you watch uncut or cut. Youtube is probably cut and iqiyi is uncut

It's overhyped

Yeah unfortunately cause you're so dense. I feel sorry for wasting my time and energy on you. And yeah regarding that I'm pretty sure that's going to be the reason for my demise soon. Shouldn't have taken someone who rates KP 9.5 and LITBC 6.5 seriously in the first place! You continue living in your bubble and let others fight for their cause to let their suppressed voices be heard

And you still fail to realise that this is a public project based off a certain sources material that the directors have to abide by, and being an experimental social project they have the innate responsibility to showcase as many issues as possible in a limited budget, and looking at the strong opposition from the religious and conservative groups, have little scope of renewal for another season! You cannot portray a show on sex workers with a middle ground if all their lives have majorly been treacherous, so is the lives of gay men in conservative asian societies with much stronger familial ties and obligations. People with slight emotional maturity can very well see the light in the worst of situations, and it has to cater to wide spectrum of gay audience. If I'm able to relate to two issues, other person would relate three other issues portrayed. And you not being a part of the gay community, doesn't give you any right to judge a piece based off its morality and realistic standing. Not saying it has to be a train wreck of tragedies, but rather understand the CREATOR'S INTENT! How would you feel if a straight man judges and decides if a feminist movie showing female ordeals is realistic and morally and culturally upright or not? PERIOD

It's okay, i don't wish to engage in this conversation further as neither of us are willing to understand either of ours perspectives and it isn't moving forward. Every country has its own set of problems and I'm going to stick to the conversation to the gay population and not drag women's and minority issues here. India had never explicitly criminalized gay sex but rather it was an offshoot of the imperial laws that criminalised abnormal sexual activities which even included fellatio and even anal sex between the person of the opposite gender, in which the gay community become the one indirectly affected. South Korea still criminalises same sex activities between soldiers calling it as reciprocal rape even though it is consensual. Conversion therapy is still not explicitly banned whereas in 2021 Madras High court put a complete ban on all sorts conversion therapies. From my friends studying abroad it's apparent that even in friend circle and corporate environment being gay is still a huge taboo in SK than in India, the current youth is relatively progressing quite well, but there's still harsh opposition and denial from the family. So unless you're completely aware of the specific situation in each country it's better not to sit down and compare who fares well. SK may definitely be miles ahead in terms of economy and technology, but the society is still quite conservative. Yes, people's opinions across nations will definitely vary and that's what I'm trying to put across

My point being what did India lacking in any of the east west concept have anything to do with the entire conversation thread we just had???

Yes there was no core focus issue if that's what you are coming at? And normalising is definitely required, but such transitions don't happen overnight, especially not when the public and the family are actually able to realise, understand, associate and then emphasize with your problems. And unless the problems are brought to notice, especially to an audience who haven't or aren't used to such media, it has to be showcased. You cannot just go, 'oh yes you're gay, it's okay my son let me find the best possible man for you!' is going to create no change in an orthodox parents mind except ridicule. I do understand what utopian environment you're trying to seek, but it's not going to be achieved by bluntly pretending to act as if everything's normal. Your comments, especially the one concerning India shows a huge amount of ignorance and stereotyping unfortunately!

How does India being behind has to do with any of this?

As I have definitely agreed to your earlier point of packing so many issues in a small 8 episode drama may definitely have been an overkill. But you need to remember that this was based off a 280 page novel by the same author who himself is gay, which has been nominated for several literary awards including International Booker Prize and Dublin literary awards, and the four director's responsibility was to present the same in the allocated budget and run time in the best possible manner, we really need to understand the intent and underlying constraints behind the creators of the show.

And yes I do agree that entertainment media need not necessarily always depict harsh realities, but at the current time and date there is a huge sea of so called sweet escape BLs out there with absolutely zero substance, even acclaimed directors like Hwang De Seul who showed tremendous character introspection in her dramas, there's very little mention of actual gay problems or even the mention of the word 'GAY' in these dramas. This drama is a social commentary to actually awaken the fujoshis and the society in general to the actual problems faced by the queer people (Queer i mean gay, queer is a quite a broad spectrum).

And about whether it was made for the gay audience or not, I really don't think you are the best judge, as I have already mentioned, only the people who have actually gone through similar trauma may be able to understand the gravity of certain issues. And yes about your sibling and friend, I'm not sure where you come from, but living in a non-conservative or western societies does give you enough liberties to avoid these overarching issues, that's why I said, the context and locational awareness seems a bit lacking in your statements. So the problems they face may not be the same problems for people living in conservative societies like SK, India, etc. The level of stigma, mask, double lives, fear and stigma of catching diseases, hiding your sexuality for your entire lives, are still very much contemporary and widespread for most of us. If you did read the case with my friend, having to go through parent's divorce, cancer, forced outing, denial and harassing by parents, locking him up, seems too much for a person right? But yes it can happen and still happens, and media being a powerful tool is extremely pertinent to accurately portray these across and try to make the public empathize with us. There still so many people who still think that being gay is a mental illness and a western construct and have zero respect in society.

Yet this show being a more character driven than plot driven, gives us the ultimate message to choose oneself over others and move on, still leaves most of us on a positive note. How living with HIV also does not mean the end of life and how we can still have a normal life with the anti-viral medications available. Do you know how many gay people are still undetected and the risk of infecting a lot of other people, given the body count especially in countries where it is extremely stigmatized to the point where people refuse to even touch them?

Cutting short, it may be good for us to have a little wider perspective to understand the creator's intent and not try to belittle the efforts and issues portrayed. Yes, sweet escape is necessary but that does not mean you ignore the issues altogether. Perhaps if you may allow your immediate sibling or friend to have a watch, maybe your perspective might change a little? Sorry if I may have come off as harsh, but something which is now very close to my heart I cannot let it be trivialised, not at least to this extent

The show is truer to the book, the movie is light-hearted and touches on the core issues rather conveniently, its only focused on the ML friendship. The series goes all in and is much more impactful