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It Is Really A Beautiful Story
It is told very well with both storylines and great acting. I was impressed with how engrossed I became in their quest and in the lives of the two main characters. This series had all the earmarks of being just another Thai BL series but this one took itself more seriously and worked very hard to project a moral arc to it with an outcome that was painful, real, and incredibly honest. This is also one of the few Thai BLs of late that had serious conversations about relationships and how impactful they are to one another and what the consequences of falling in love can be.Was this review helpful to you?
Profoundly Sad Tale
This is a difficult series to review. It is NOT entertaining and at times gets tripped up in its own minutia. There is no real love in this series. It is more pretend or school-boy fantasies of love. The main protagonist is unlikeable. The reason for my anxiety about this series is because of its glorification of abuse for the sake of love. No one is worthy of love who is abusive and to make matters worse, this series paints a picture that the victim is the one who is wrong. I know what it was trying to say but for me, it failed and I wept at all the overt and covert signs of emotional, physical and psychological abuse dispensed like candy in this series. Production is excellent and by no means am I implying the the actors/actress were bad. They were not and in fact there is some very good acting in this series. Its the message and how it was presented that is bothersome.I could not re-watch this series again.
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The Brilliance Of This Series Is Its Omnitude
This is a rare gem that tells such an aggregate story in an uninhibited way. Not from a BL slant but from a gay man’s perspective. It is refreshingly honest, touching, and one of the most contemplatively deep series I have ever seen. The title is a bit of a misnomer to me, however. So much more than romantic love is explored in this series. It goes beyond classical definitions and allows us to see affection, devotion, attachments, friendships, and yes passion and intimacy as well with gradations within those feelings as well, all within its location of a big city only as an afterthought. It is one of the most powerful dramas of this year.Was this review helpful to you?
On My Must See List!
This is an astonishingly funny yet poignant series completed a number of years ago that is just awesome. Funny, cute, and filled with real human characters that are relatable, charming, and individuals i would want as friends. It is a story of friendship and of life and how in life there are always challenges to relationships that must be resolved by ending them. The timing of the humor is shear perfection and the whole series just has a certain 'lived in' feeling about it that is so relatable. I loved this series a lotIf you want to see my full review, read it at BLBliss.com.
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Fell Apart At The End
Undoubtedly no one is going to like my review. I LOVED 95% of this series. It was charming, witty, and magical. But then they ended it on such a ridiculous note to simply please the audience. As a gay man, I found the ending insulting, degrading, and yet again forces gay relationships to fit into the mold of straight relationships. All I can say, since I do NOT want to reveal any of the story lines, is I quite literally cried. Here was what could have been a BL fantasy masterpiece that simply became a logical farce. It forced the story into societal norms rather than personal norms. If you want to see why this series so upset me, you can read my entire review of this what-could-have-been masterpiece at ppbongi.medium.com. I am sure that there will not be a lot of people who will necessarily agree with me and perhaps I analyzed it to its extreme, but this series just missed it for me. I was deeply saddened.Was this review helpful to you?
Magnum Opus!!
This is one of the best acted and finest love stories told on screen in a very long time. It literally is a duology, if you will. I was mesmerized by the story within a story. It at times was so hard to differentiate fact from fiction in its progression, which made it a despairing dichotomy. The existence of the real world blended into the fictionalized world of the movie they were filming while the fictionalized world of what the protagonists were filming became their real world. And the blending of the two natures was seamless, flawless, and sublime. I loved the fictionalized saga as much as I loved the ‘real-life’ story behind the scenes. And it was hard to separate the two at times and honestly, I did not want to. Why? Because the fictionalized characters became the real-life personas and the real-life personas became the fictionalized characters. I frankly have never seen such flawless acting blend and mesh between the two so well. I believed both were genuine. That IS what the fantasy of cinema is supposed to do and they did exactly that! The complexities of this series are ginormous. Both ‘on’ screen and ‘off’ screen. While it is a love story between two ‘real’ individuals, they act it out via the roles in the fictional movie they are projecting. And their emotions are just as strong and real. That is the allure of this series. We see the progress of their love transform through their characterizations into whom they are as real people.Was this review helpful to you?
Ticket to Perfect!
Surprisingly, I was quite moved by this series and its intense story. Despite its flaws, it remains for me one of the best Thai dramas to come along in a very long time. It is a rather markedly dimensional cogitation of two boys who fell in love in an all-boys Catholic high school that centrally prepares them for becoming priests. The drawback of this series is the panoptic way the story is told and subsequently pieced together. It really is choppy and needed some serious rework to make the story flow better, especially between the episodes as its time references seemed to not transition well, coherently, or smoothly. The story even between frames at times did feel a bit disjointed. In addition, the saga itself introduced almost every type of human calamity to pull at the heartstrings. It nearly overwhelmed one’s emotional senses with despair and distraught. It honestly did not need to go that deep to solicit sentiments. That was accomplished by the exceptionally fine acting by the two protagonists. Nevertheless, none of these flaws diminished in any way from the power of this story. And what was the power of this story? Love. My full review of this poignant story is at BLBliss.com.Was this review helpful to you?
Nothing Fake About This Story!
I just loved this saga and the journey between two of the most endearing protagonists I have seen for a long time in a BL. Both men are intensely camera friendly and uninhibited in feeling comfortable in all areas about making us feel as if they were a genuine couple. An astonishing first for a Japanese BL. I did not feel as if they were filming them as much as we were merely observing them. A big difference. What I hated was the title of this series. It is just awful and wish they had come up with something more reflective of the true nature of this series. Just as I was ready to give up on Japanese BLs being able to forthrightly show real signs of affection, these two unhesitatingly and with passion and commitment went where others would not go. Their affection, especially their kissing, was so sincere and honest, it almost became a sensuous display. No hesitations. No external or internal cringes. No closed lips. No camera angles from a million miles away. Just full-blown passion. And wholeheartedly so. How refreshing. They showed no signs of being uncomfortable or ashamed or embarrassed to hide how they felt with each other. I loved their complete connection to one another. One of the best for this year!Was this review helpful to you?
Deeply Contrasting
Frankly, I was surprised as to how deep this joint coming of age and coming out story was. It is certainly layered and complex. This had heart and soul and focused on the two main protagonists not just in the here and now but also on their intrinsic struggles that made them who they were. It was a unique approach to the rather typical superficial high school story. This narrative journeys the forming of a relationship between two high school young men in a society where their connection is neither respected nor valued. As sad as the story seems, it is detailed so poetically beautifully that it becomes mesmerizing to watch the two of them only see the beauty in where they are going. By the end, they have accepted each other for who they are and can now love. Their romance just now begins.Was this review helpful to you?
Never Forget This Story
I found the story’s premise irresistible. It had me hooked from the beginning. Usually, amnesia plots are a sign of weak plot development and thus ripe for confusion and boredom. However, this one was intriguing and held my attention. Why? Because everything about it was so unexpected, including how interesting the characters turned out to be. Additionally, the acting of the protagonists was tight and quite believable. Because they did not display the usual characteristics of individuals in the positions that were supposedly representing, that is what made it so fascinating for me. These two gave new meaning to being in a life-long commitment to one another. I loved the strength and symmetry of their love story. This is a very, very good BL.Was this review helpful to you?
There are 3, 698 Reasons to Love This Series!
I found myself thoroughly absorbed in this love story that is told unreservedly and unconditionally only from the perspective of the two individuals involved. It is displayed in soft, gentle tones, almost like a whisper. With cloudy overtones to the hues of the cinematography even though, ironically, it is a story where the central focus is photography. It is a serendipitous happenstance that turns out to be a long journey to destiny for two young men. This is a saga from a slice of life of two young men who are so deeply in love with one another with one so haunted by the thought of losing the other again that he is willing to not love again. Remember they are restricted by a society that does not value the commitment of two men living together. It felt more like an environment of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” So, there is no obligation, no social contract, no foundation, no pledge for staying together other than their own embrace to each other. Which for one party felt overwhelmingly fragile and very scary. I got it. Finally, I understood. The series concludes in one of the most creative and original ways I have ever seen, and I thought it was so authentic and astonishingly moving. What slightly distracted from this series but only a bit is its lack of passion especially in the kissing. Although it is certainly better than the vast majority of Japanese BLs of late, it still lacked a depth of believability to it. Make us truly believe you are in love with each other with at least one good, passionate, erotic, exotic kiss. Is that really so hard to do?Was this review helpful to you?
Perfection!
This series completely flew under the radar. I am so disappointed in myself for not reviewing it when it came out, for this happens to be one of the better BLs to come out of Taiwan in a very long time. I loved this series. It completely captured me. Its screenplay, the story itself, and the acting are all top-notch. Ironically, this story is as old as the hills. Full of cliché and tropes, it was all put together in a compendium that was smooth, polished, and so entertaining. Its story flowed, made sense, and was performed with complete conviction and integrity. Not just with the protagonists but also with the astonishingly brilliant child actors who played the younger protagonists with such charm and foundational integrity. We literally get to ‘see’ how the younger protagonists got to become their older selves. The supporting characters are also very sublime. A few even have quirky personas that gave this series an extra kick of spiciness. The ebbing and flowing of the development of their relationship are all based on circumstances that make complete sense and are so relatable to what happens in our own life. This is one of the most joyful, captivating, emotionally rich and gratifying BLs to come along in a very long time. Not in a Pollyanna fashion but in a frank and appurtenant fashion making it feel that a gay relationship can be ‘normal’.Was this review helpful to you?
Tot, Top 10 BL for 2026!
This series impressed me with its insightful portrayal of gay love. By far, it is one of the best Thai BLs to have been produced in a very, very long time, with one of the better acted as well. And I do not say that for mere puffery. I was completely and totally absorbed by this astonishing historical/fantasy series. This is a drama best experienced by thinking of it as a theater-in-the-round play, rather than a lakorn. Its nuances and chains of events have to be focused in general otherwise one could get lost in its details. Perhaps that is its deficiency, although I found its cinematography uniquely inspiring. It requires a certain embracement of concepts, at least for Westerners, that are esoteric in nature. One must be absorbed by the story itself to appreciate its evolutions. Truthfully, I do not understand the criticisms of this series. It is frank and honest and an exceedingly beautifully portrayed period piece. Did it have stereotypical characters? Perhaps, but it was indeed reflective of the times. Gayness in the early 1900s was NOT accepted; rich privileged women were entitled to the man of their dreams. This story merely shows this to be the case. However, Khun Yai and Kaewta fell in love unashamedly in a time when love between two men should not have been and privileged individuals did not necessarily marry for love but for status. Karma had different notions for all of them.One of the best BLs for 2026 and am glad to say so with complete conviction. You can read my full review at BLBliss.com.
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Chosen Masterpiece!
The best way to describe this series is that it is off-beat and quirky. It is also warm, gentle, loving, peaceful, reflective, tender, devoted, relaxed, reverent, nurturing, and supportive. Have I left anything out? Oh yes, it is joyful! And underlying it all, is a powerful message for change. A change that will come. I could have quickly finished this series, but I deliberately did not want to. I wanted the warm snuggly feeling that came over me while I watched each episode to not leave me; so, I spaced out the timing to watch this series as long as I could to feel that pleasure.This is a story about a ‘family’ that serendipitously forms almost by fate. It looks like all the members are lonely but in reality, they are not. They are unique individualists who have carved out singular spaces in society for themselves. But there does come a time when companionship becomes a necessity; this is their journey to amity. While the story may seem simple, it is uncommonly intense. It covers so many planes of human connections that it almost becomes overwhelming in scope.
This is one of the best gay stories I’ve seen, blending gentle storytelling with thoughtful commentary on outdated social norms. The narrative was presented in soft, off-beat tones not meant to offend anyone. It powerfully suggests that gay people and other marginalized silent classes deserve full inclusion in the culture and perhaps it is time for them to be seen as part, and whole, of the society to which they belong.
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