After flip flopping back and forth on what this show was (it's a classic farce, it's an operetta), I've now ended squarely on it being a huge, sweeping over-the-top, nonsensical Opera designed for its spectacle: there to entertain, not to teach. There are those who take issue with the fact that it was ultimately not about anything but you don't spend four hours at the Opera for thematic consistency or the plot. You do it for the spectacle.

Vincenzo was 20 hours of pure, unadulterated entertainment with characters we enjoyed watching and the titillation of bloody revenge and the hint of romance. VINCENZO himself was a Mafioso from beginning to end: someone who cared only about his family and who, once that was taken away, built a new one to protect. This was a Korean mafia tale, a Chaebol Godfather, where there is no good or evil. There's just your side and my side and no limits to protecting what's yours.

However, the show isn't perfect and had two major flaws that need mentions. The first is that it has one episode that is unbelievably homophobic to the point that I nearly dropped it over it. This has to be mentioned - episode 8 is a gross mess of offensive stereotypes and gay shock jokes. In fact, you could just skip it completely. Secondly, there's a whole conversation to have here as to whether the show degenerated into glorifying violence for the sake of violence - and in my opinion it did . But the writers never stood back from telling us who VINCENZO was. A Mafioso fighting a Mafia war that happened to be set in Korea.

And in terms of sweeping grandeur and consistent eye for detail down to the most minor of characters, it was a fantastic and enjoyable ride that I personally loved.

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When I was a child, I had a cat. Every now and then that cat would need a bath for some reason and like most cats he hated the water. Afterwards when he was wet and bedraggled and upset that we'd treated him with such disregard he limped off into the garage to show us his displeasure. But once there he realised that we couldn't see him. And if we couldn't see his poor wet put-upon self then how would we know that we'd done wrong by him. And so he limped back into view and sat there looking sorry for himself: just far enough away so we knew he was upset but always close enough for us to see him, And he sat like that for ages, following us around at a strict distance but just close enough that we could be reminded of his martyrdom.

The female lead in this drama is basically that cat. And while it's adorable and amusing behaviour in a pet, it's unbelievably frustrating in a grown ass woman. Especially one whose situation is not just of her own making but her outright choice.

The most annoying thing is that this drama had a fantastic first episode. When Xu Youxi's fiancee dies she goes back in time to save him by making sure they never fall in love. In exchange, her ballet career is destroyed by an injury. Now five years later 'fate' (where has fate been for five years btw, did it take a vacation because it knew it was about to get a workout?) has thrown Youxi and her boyfriend back together as her boss and sister's fiancee. Because it's DESTINY my friends. DESTINY.

Except - it isn't? Youxi could leave the situation at any time and, in fact, declares her intention to multiple times. But always in a way that makes her look like that cat and gives him time to come up with a reason for her to stay. She follows her former fiancee around with big eyes and quivering lips while martyring herself for him over and over, always staying a discreet distance but just close enough that he can see her suffering. And all of this is supposed to be noble or something but as it went on I was increasingly sympathetic of her batshit insane half-sister for seeing the behaviour as manipulative. Because it is.

Suddenly this drama is a workplace romance between a lowly Candy and her boss complete with an insane second female lead and a second male lead whose behaviour borders on deranged. The female lead comes off as manipulative, the male lead as wishy washy and inconstant, the second female lead as a raging lunatic and the second male lead has a different personality every scene.

Instead of enduring it, I should have just gotten myself another cat.

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The romantic and heartwarming story of two men who kind of like each other, mildly enjoy each other's company and wouldn't mind spending more time together possibly as long as nothing else came up.

This show has no chemistry, no sensuality, no kilig and definitely no passion. The two leads just exude a lukewarm appreciation for each other that translates to a calm friendship. I've seen bromances in Sageuks with more sizzle and they didn't expect me to believe they ran off together to - presumably - read books together while fully clothed. Which they could have done without the remote locale.

At a mere hour, the show wastes a lot of time on flashbacks to moments where nothing happened as the two men reminisce about those times they were mildly and politely amiable towards each other in private.

Considering the lack of anything remotely resembling a romantic connection between these two and the fact the bulk of the plot is about Nobleman Rue's "wife" coming to terms with her place in his household, this comes off as a story about how a man discovered he liked having a wife. Something that he could have had without running off with a man.

A good part of this problem is caused by the woeful acting, especially by Lee Se Jin. When will these shows stop casting third rate Idols to clunk around looking uncomfortable?

Overall, this show is tepid and nonsensical and while that means it's an inoffensive watch I wouldn't recommend it.

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it's never too late to pursue your dreams

This beautiful tear jerker of a drama will break your heart then stitch you back together again. A wonderfully pitch perfect story about a 70 year old man who decides finally to pursue his dream of being a ballet dancer.
And while you'll no doubt sob through the whole thing, it's a cathartic cry, a healing cry. One that will fill you up and let you leave the drama completely satiated.

This is a beautiful drama that is not even bittersweet but just an ordinary story about ordinary people learning to live their lives to the fullest and that it's never too late to pursue your dreams.

If you don't love the characters, the story, the cinematography and the themes, you will at least love the music, which completes the emotional journey perfectly.

Just perfect

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I doubt there's anything I can say about this beautiful little show that hasn't been said before so this review is more to capture my own emotions as I finish watching it.

To be honest, this show is so real, so raw and often so on point in its portrayal of adolescent romance that parts of it were like an emotional suckerpunch; bringing back from the depths the confusion, insecurity, terror of rejection, that conflicting desire to find someone who is entirely yours without having to open yourself in return. All those floundering moments of our teenage years.

But since so much has already been said on how perfect this aspect of the show is, I'll instead take a detour to talk about how beautifully anchored in place I Told Sunset About You is. Unlike a lot of Thai BL that try to decontextualise the plot from the character's surroundings - creating a disjointed and often jarringly unrealistic fantasy (and often not a good one) - I Told Sunset About You is not just Thai, but Southern Thai. It's Phuket in all its melting pot glory. Who these characters are is inherently grounded in where they are and it's what makes the writing so fine and the characterisation so well-rounded.

While parts of I Told Sunset About You are difficult and uncomfortable to watch, the show truly is a wonderful exploration of falling in love but also embracing bravery in that love. And those lessons are as important for straight relationships as they are for gay ones. And in the end, that's what makes it such a great little show. Because we will all recognise ourselves, for better or for worse, in these characters. Even in those moments when we don't want to. And the universality is what turns this from a good show to a great show.

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There's a power that comes from watching a show after it's ended. It means that you can watch after you've confirmed that it did do what you were worried it was going to do. Korea is simply not ready to tell these stories, although this pushes the boundaries more than I expected it to.

Based on the (controversial, censored) Chinese web drama, Go Princess Go, Mr Queen tells the story of a modern day man who finds himself living in the body of Joseon Queen. The first two episodes were unwatchable slapstick but I persisted for one major reason: the acting, the amazing acting. These are two transcendent performances from some of Korea's finest actors.

I won't spoil anything for people who haven't seen it but this is a fusion Sageuk romp with a fun script, wonderful acting, brilliant production values and an ending that was as disappointing as it was inevitable. The show's attempt to backcast the themes as some sort of quest for justice or campaign against corruption rather than a romance is jarring but it doesn't mean you can't enjoy the ride, even with its last-minute attempt to walk back The Gay.

If you think about it too much you might get annoyed so, as with most fusion Sageuks, it's best to not think about it at all. Just enjoy. And there's a lot to enjoy. Especially around Shin Hye-sun and Kim Jung-hyun proving they are A grade actors with amazing comic timing and genuine gravitas.

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The absolute worst of Taiwanese dramas featuring a female lead so passive, simpering and self-righteous that you'll be rooting for the second female lead to throw her under a bus.

I guess they told us what this would be on the tin. Rose by name. Rose by nature. Sure, she could have some personality, an arc, or some role in the text or she could just sit there being decorative while people fight it out around her. The worst part of this type of plot is that her lack of action, her lack of aspirations, her lack of agency are then used textually to defend her behaviour. While the male lead tosses over his fiancé because he wants to bang his secretary who's just so "pure, sweet and selfless", she manages both to be the object of that affection and the impetus to his change while somehow emerging innocent. All this despite her gross emotional manipulation and utter disrespect of his relationship.

The worst thing is that the premise itself bears no relationship to the actual plot. Because to have Miss Rose actively in the world trying to get married would have required her to have some kind of role in the text rather than being a passive impetus to the male lead's development (seriously, even the return of her ex was entirely about the male lead's emotional growth). It might also have meant we couldn't be told endlessly that she was merely a passive victim of an unfair world and then how could they lecture us about appropriate female behaviour?

You may ask precisely why I subjected myself to a viewing experience that involved me yelling at 23 episodes of television. I couldn't tell you. I just think it's a relief they don't make these horrid and misogynistic odes to female martydom anymore.

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It's Agent. Royal Secret Agent.

I went through the gamut of bad male-centred western media (It's Joseon Marvel! Joseon Batman!) before realising that ROYAL SECRET AGENT (this has to be capitalised because of how often L intoned it at people, in a repeated meme that honestly never stopped being hilarious) is actually Joseon Bond.

The idol and all-round bad actor, L, plays the eponymous ROYAL SECRET AGENT in a performance that plays to his strengths: that of showing up to set and just being aggressively pleasant in various outfits.

To be honest, after finishing this show I have to conclude that it is so genuinely awful I think I have to put it in 'so bad it's good' territory.

With a juvenile, shallow script that may have been written by highschool students who watched too many American movies, terrible acting, and a musical score with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, it starts out bad, veers into unwatchable and then kind of keels over sideways into gleefully terrible.

L is flat out bad, of course, but so is everyone else so he fits in at least. The script at first feels like it's been chopped out of the middle of a standard fusion Saguek and then someone has done a find and replace to add the words ROYAL SECRET AGENT to various cliched sentences. All of these are intoned as if the actor is so used to saying them they're mostly just surprised that the words ROYAL SECRET AGENT have been added to them.

"Who will stand between the people and the corruption of the powerful families?"
*checks notes* "Oh, it's 'Royal Secret Agents' this time. Okay."
"The ROYAL SECRET AGENTS."

As the show progresses it starts to feel instead like a mashed up Best Of of past Sageuks, most of which were unfortunately superior and with no self-awareness or feel of deliberation to the references. The ROYAL SECRET AGENT'S rebel brother being basically Hong Gil-dong was like Robin Hood showing up in a Bond movie. His increasingly useless Gisaeng turned cop turned Princess girlfriend was a homage to previous leads in several fusion Sageuks involving cross dressing. In this case ,they don't bother hiding she's a woman. She just puts on male clothes while being obviously female and walks around while our two male leads run through the streets bellowing AGASSI at her as though the act of wearing of gat is sufficient to hide her identity.

Instead of character development, the writer has the actors explain their background, motivations and actions in exposition while the bad guys yell their evil plans in public and say things like, "The Rule of Law does not apply to me! Let's hunt people!"

The male lead is an entitled, borderline-skeevy arse but since this is a kdrama you know that this will be a result of his Great Secret Trauma that will cause everyone to forgive him once they Understand Him. And if they use any more soft filters and lens flare on the female lead due to her vast beauty they might use up the sun.

And then there's the Boar Rule. Once there's a boar, you know it's bad. Really bad.

So bad it may even be good.

So pour yourself a drink and get watching.
You have been both enticed and warned.

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Enough with the misogynism and rape culture apologia, Thailand.
Just... enough.
This drama was terrible and then at the end they have a woman being whipped through the streets like some kind of mediaeval witch trial while her rapist friend gets off scot free and another woman being treated as an incubator.
I blame everyone who was melting down on Twitter about how romantic this whole thing was and convinced me to watch it when it was deeply problematic, deeply sexist and even normalised homophobia and excused sexual assault and cheating.
Just stop.
Stop.
The end.

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This is not so much a review of Colour Rush so much as a repository for me to put my confused meandering thoughts about it somewhere. Hopefully it'll then the basis for a more coherent blog post.

This has to be the most unusual BL I've seen. If you told me it was Japanese I'd have believed you and yet its sensibility is completely Korean.

Set in an alt-Korea where there is widespread prevalence of a neurological form of Monochromacy (the eye functions perfectly but the brain cannot process colour), 'monos' cannot see colour unless they find their 'probe'. How and why looking at the face of your 'probe' enables your brain to process colour temporarily is not explained, nor is it the point really. Monos dwell in a grey and shapeless world until their Probe brings it to life for them. It's questionable science but the metaphor is pretty obvious.

Yeon Woo (Yoo Jun) is a 'Mono' who never wants to find his 'Probe'. The television news is filled with scary reports of Monos going crazy and kidnapping or murdering their Probes due to their intense desire to possess them. Yeon Woo has no interest in becoming that kind of crazy. He's happy to dwell in darkness if seeing the light makes him a statistic. But when Yeon Woo meets his probe, Yoo Han (Heo Hyun Jun), he finds himself unable to stop himself from craving what Yoo Han is selling. And 'selling' is the closest word I can find to what Yoo Han seems to be doing for the first few episodes. He comes across almost as a drug dealer, giving Yeon Woo a taste of his product to get him hooked and then manipulating him into a more intimate relationship.

It's admittedly sensual and intense - or at least as sensual and intense as two moderately-uncomfortable teens can be in a narrative tradition known for its stylistic and often antiseptic portrayals of romance. And it's a pretty good metaphor for the confused and intense emergence of adolescent sexuality. But that doesn't meant that Yoo Han doesn't come across as a pusher who is slowly and deliberately building up to asking for sexual favours in exchange for a hit. It's a little uncomfortable. Before Yeon Woo knows it, and despite his best intentions, he's completely hooked on Yoo Han, although how Yoo Han feels and why he's so aggressive about being Yeon Woo's Probe is not immediately clear. And yes, that feeling of being out of control and completely at the mercy of another person is possibly also a great metaphor for first love. Yeon Woo is as unsure of Yoo Han's motives as we are but also keenly aware of just how destructive his own obsession can be.

Either way, Korea has produced a pretty deft portrayal of a first love so intense that it feels almost illicit. The two boys creep around as though they're doing something wrong, a sense not helped by Yeon Woo's Aunt who's scared of losing her nephew like she did her sister. Yeon Woo's mother - also a Mono - disappeared four years ago. His Aunt is trying to find her and keeps Yeon Woo on the move so he doesn't risk the emotional attachment that might lead him to do something crazy. In a way, though, his Aunt's determination to keep him safe and at home with her is the reason that Yeon Woo is so scared of his own emotions and his relationship with his probe. It's a fear that eventually leads him to do something drastic.

I honestly can't say how I feel about Colour Rush overall. The camera work and direction feels surreal and disjointed, lingering almost fetishistically on the faces of our two boys. The soundtrack is minimalist in a way that works perfectly but doesn't mean the soundtrack stands out. Unfortunately Yoo Han's idol actor, Heo Hyun Jun (while admittedly playing an idol) is not just wooden but hindered by his no-doubt contractual obligation to be perceived as homoerotic rather than gay. Idols barely kiss each other in mainstream Korean dramas, there's no way their management is going to let him be perceived as happy and comfortable in a gay role. Yet that's no doubt only part of the reason he's so flat.

And yet the show creates the perfect sense of a bubble world created by two people whose feelings for each other are bordering on obsession, an addiction even. In that respect, it's the sexless and more intelligent version of Addicted/Heroin and one that shows that these feelings don't have to be a destructive force. The bubble the two boys live in comes more from implicit bias in how Monos and Probes are portrayed in society and from the way in which their families treat them than from the reality of their relationship. And there's no greater metaphor than that for being gay in a world that wants to paint you as unstable and in need of psychiatric help because of it.

So I guess in the end I have to conclude that I kind of love this. Aside from constructing a perfect and fascinating metaphor both for homosexuality and for first love, some of the dialogue is particularly beautiful. It shows once again that Korean writers treat BL far more seriously than either Thailand or Taiwan and if they keep at it they'll rival even the Phillipines.

It would have been nice for the mother mystery to go somewhere, especially since the show hints that more Monos than her have disappeared. It's a mystery component that's raised and then mostly ignored except as an impetus to his Aunt's fears about him being "just like his mother". It's possible the show is angling for a season 2 and I'm not sure how I feel about that.

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There are some stories where you're just left wondering - what was that about? Why does this exist? What is it even trying to say?

It's not that it's *bad*. It's more that it's kind of nothing.

It started off quite well. Kang In Su and Yoon Sang Yi have a mutual love of music and a mutual attraction, though each is oblivious to the others' interest. When Sang Yi's record company scouts In Su, they end up cohabiting and... nothing.

While the first episode is interesting and well-paced, the show's pacing then slows to a crawl. The two don't even speak to each other till the end of episode 4 and then the shows veers unexpectedly into a cohabitation drama full of lens flare and little else.

Being Korean, the production values are high and some shots are truly beautiful. The acting is however a little wooden and awkward; both boys seemingly uncomfortable around each other in an awkwardness that doesn't seem cute or deliberate but just due to both of them being green. For a drama about music, a lot of it was quite banal, although there were a few nice pieces here and there.

It seems as though the writers wanted to write a story about the love of music and keeping your artistic integrity but were forced to torture parts of it into a classic BL. One day someone will learn that a gay love story can be both of these things at the same time but today is not that day. Instead the drama is stuck somewhere in the middle being not much of anything.

That is to say, there is little wrong with Wish You and if Korea had made this first I'd have been praising them for doing BL at all. But after this year that ship has sailed. Still, I can say that the relationship between the two boys seems quite functional and is built on mutual interest and respect. So it has that going for it. In the end, I guess it's the story's potential to be much more than this that is the most disappointing.

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Yes I'm here again!

Despite vowing not to touch any more Thai BL after the unfolding disaster that was this year, I nonetheless pressed play on TharnType: 7 Years of Dysfunction (sorry, love) and here I am. I know this is the review you have all been waiting for.

Well, it's been seven years since Tharn and Type got together and refused to deal with any of their internal relationship issues. So here we are, kind of tired and muted and a bit sad after seven years of Tharn avoiding conflict because of his fear of rejection and Type being publicly in the closet because he refuses to admit he's gay. The two do nothing but bottle things up, have a kind of passive-aggressive fight and then have sexy times to cover the cracks. I suspect as viewers we're just supposed to enjoy the sexy times and not notice that this relationship is terrible. But it is. It's terrible. I desperately want both of them to break up and go find somebody else better suited to them. Or at least FINALLY deal with the issues in their relationship. Also, Tharn has these moments where he's absolutely f'ing creepy to younger gay men and it only reminds me that he was abused as an adolescent and nobody is doing anything about it. His abuser is practically living at his family's house. But at least he's no longer dating a literal child.

So it's seven years later and Type is struggling at work in probably the only plotline that is possibly about something (there IS a big difference between studying and working and dealing with workplace nonsense can be exhausting). And I'll expand on the implied point here - there is literally nothing else in this drama so far that is about anything. There is no plot. At all. The show is lacklustre and paint by numbers. Even the shoe-horned soft-core porn I'm supposed to be distracted by is phoned in. They devoted actual screentime to Type being jealous over a woman despite his boyfriend being completely 100% gay. And if I touched on the screaming misoygnism of that whole plotline I'd be here all week.

Tharn wants to get married because he think that means that Type will be his possession and can therefore NEVER LEAVE (marriage doesn't work like this, my damaged friend) and Type doesn't want to get married because if he marries a man he might have to admit he's gay and we can't have that because this is Thai BL and we all know GAY IS BAD. And of course you'll remember show completely glossed over this conflict at multiple points even though it's the main one. Possibly if Tharn needs constant emotional reassurance he shouldn't have spent seven years with a man who's already married to his closet and again - these two are TERRIBLE for each other. Break up! Do better. I get it, you love each other. It's not enough!

Since this show is unlikely to be about these two actually working out any of these issues but will inevitably find an external conflict for them to pretend they're a rock under siege then I should bow out now. But if I did then how could I reliably report back that TharnType is a bad show about a dysfunctional couple and you shouldn't bother getting invested.

This has been my much-anticipated review of TharnType: 7 Years of Ignoring All Our Real Issues.

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Futmalls.com (a name that really does not work in English but that I suspect stands for Future Mall) is an episodic crime horror anthology with an underlying thread about a website where you can purchase items from the future.

Bryan Chang plays Zhao Xu Zhen, a devoted cop who begins to investigate cases involving a mysterious website. This review has been updated now that I've finished this season, although the last story in particular was a bit of a slog.

Futmalls is well produced and edited and the first case was quite interesting. The show's biggest weakness is its stereotypical and over the top male lead; the kind of genius cop who eats at crime scenes and mansplains forensic reports to crime scene investigators. He is a jarring and often annoying cliche and the investigative elements of the show are its weakest. When it veers more into the vaguely-menacing horror that is Futmalls' push advertising to people who are at their most vulnerable, it's definitely stronger.

This ends up being the show's biggest weakness since, after its first case, it essentially jettisons the horror element and becomes more process driven. The procedural police aspects are incredibly weak and the male lead is too much of a cliche. In its third case, the show drives its narrative with torture porn of female characters and a weirdly sympathetic portrayal of a skeevy man and his blow up doll. Yes, men wrote this. You can tell.

The show never answers any questions, never overlays any logic onto Futmalls, never seems to know if Futmalls is a menacing presence or just something that exists to drive its cases (one entire story never becomes a case at all) and then just... ends... clearly setting itself up for a season 2. It's deeply dissatisfying and wasn't good enough overall to tune in for another set of episodes. So I regretfully conclude it's not worth your time.

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A super cute show with loads of kilig and a lovely message about being brave in love, Cherry Magic is a great palate cleanser for 2020.

Adachi Kiyoshi (Akaso Eiji) is an introverted and awkward 29-year-old virgin, whose life ticks over to 30 with little fanfare and even less action on the romance front. Adachi’s singledom comes mostly from his outsider status: he can’t imagine that someone would be interested in him and wouldn’t know what to do about it if they were.

As Adachi enters the first day of his 30s, he discovers an old-wive’s tale about 30-year-old virgins is true – they gain magical powers! In his case it’s telepathy and he soon discovers that the attractive, confident and successful Kurosawa Yuichi (Machida Keita) is not only attracted to him but almost obsessively so.

Can Adachi find the courage to pursue love now that he knows he can? Or will his lack of confidence get in the way?

I think what I like the most about Cherry Magic is that it’s a simple little show with a nice message (be brave in love!) but also that it celebrates empathy, understanding and the need to be open and honest about our feelings in a world where we can't read somebody's mind. And while the show is quite simple and straightforward, it's a very enjoyable and extremely bingeable watch.

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Search is a quintessential OCN drama, which means that it's a fast-paced and slickly-edited action drama that pulls you in and keeps you interested - at least until the zombies show up and the bad guy starts smirking.

As far as the genre goes, Search is a pretty good example with excellent performances by the wonderful Jang Dong Yoon as the military dog handler Yong Dong Jin and a strangely (but welcomingly) sombre and cerebral Krystal as the military forensic scientist, Son Ye Rim.

The two used to date - a fact that is utterly superfluous to the plot and could have been jettisoned without us noticing - but end up in a joint operation in the demilitarized zone after there are reports of a disease spreading in the area. Jang Dong Yoon is an amazing up and coming actor who clearly wanted to branch out after his two previous roles (both performances of which were extraordinary) and does very well with the role. Krystal is also good in a natural and understated performance with none of the apparent "I am acting!" quirks and ticks that a lot of Idols seem to pick up.

While the show benefited both from being only 10 episodes and from good casting, direction and production, the script suffered from some usual OCN weaknesses. There was a lot of people in uniforms and identical haircuts running around shooting at each other in the dark and one day somebody will learn this is NOT good television. A lot of good character beats were introduced and then forgotten, like a Chekhov's gun that did not go off (why DID Ye Rim suddenly and unexpectedly break up with Dong Yoon a year ago? And if it's not important why dwell on it so much?). And some of the editing seemed more about fooling the audience or confusing them with time jumps than anything else.

The final episode was unfortunately utterly ridiculous. And while the show successfully walked that fine line between our suspension of disbelief and falling off a cliff for most of its run, it leapt into the chasm at a full jump in episode 10.

So while I enjoyed watching Search quite a lot, I can't declare it great television. But for a bit of mindless fun and quite a good example of a classic OCN drama, it's worth a binge.

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