FrothyMix

lol

Ugh. I'm out. My standards have gone WAY up, I realize since I first discovered BL 18 months ago and would watch almost any BL dreck I could find. I have also been watching lots of gay-themed and general-audience Asian feature films, so I think that level, or near, is what I expect now or I don't waste my time. The acting here is high-school level. Every character is a "type." There is a hideous and bitchy trans woman who wandered in from some random Filipino BL, and I wish she'd wander back. Why did the painter pick up the main lead in his suit and throw him over his shoulder? Why didn't the police show up? Why did he call the cops when we could all clearly see and hear the dude was messing with a mannequin? Why did the lead put a cloth on the stool since he was already covered in paint? Why am I watching this crap? Answer: I'm NOT anymore! Yay.

BLs don't have to be silly, stupid and aimed at 11 year-olds, but this one is and so that's it. Have fun, those of you who think this is great stuff.

About halfway through first episode. Taking a break for a nap...which kind of indicates my excitement level about this show. It's the kind of BL where we see very young actors/people pretending to be operatives in some corporation; feels like a college play. I don't get the gushing over Singto's acting below either. I see him very much ACTING as though he's the head of an agency, using cliche actor gimmicks and all, but he doesn't feel like he is actually that character. But then, I never thought he was that great of an actor anyway. SOTUS was only bearable because it was my first BL and I didn't know any better, and the one where he played a ghost is terrible and boring. He needs a lot of acting lessons if he plans to move on up into actual adult roles in feature films.

Nice to see/watch a REAL BL done well, that got me to watch with engagement. I've tried four new Filipino and Thai BLs over the last three days and they all SUCK badly. This show is well-done and intriguing. Kind of weary of the Japanese stock character who is ultra-cool, who everyone thinks is amazing, who rules the school with cool nonchalance but inside is harboring insecurities and secrets. This one has shown zero character growth in my opinion. He's the same in ep. 6 as he was when he first walked into the class as a new transfer. The only difference is that the audience knows more about him and why he's that way. He still treats our boy like shit and is extremely passive-aggressive. Hira should definitely be getting with Koyama, who treats him well and with whom he is able to be himself, just as Hira said.

Don't understand why people are freaking out over ep 6 as though it was this great climax and finale. wtf? Nothing was resolved one way or the other and there were previews as though there is an ep. 7 at least. What's the deal?

Can you explain exactly what the difference is between being a member of a boy band and being an "idol?"

omg...horrible. Main character is cute and sweet and seems to possibly be able to act, but he is buried behind the usual Pinoy collection of drag queens, transgenders and effeminate gay men, all portrayed in the most viciously awful, stereotypical and insulting manner possible. I don't know what it is about the Phillippines and its fondness for these really hateful stock gay characters, but you know, there really ARE nice, polite, attractive and kind drag queens and transgender folks out there. You would just never know that from watching Filipino BLs. AWFUL.

I could tell from the first two or three minutes that this was bad news. Who has sex like that? Exactly what body parts were supposed to be involved in that kind of casual position with one leg halfway up, the other down and both partners apparently half asleep? Nope. I'm out. Any show that doesn't waste its time getting stuff like that right isn't going to be worth watching. Just from that first exposure, I would have guessed this to be Filipino, that's how bad it looks.

Even without the terrible sound and picture quality, this film is terrible. Too bad, I was intrigued by the pervy synopsis.

I seem to be stuck in an unfortunate rut of inferior and kind of boring Korean "thrillers," this being the latest. I gave up 2/3 of the way in because it was just stupid.
Let's recap:
Idiot driver tries to pass psychopath at night on winding road with a million blind curves. Psychopath speeds up, idiot speeds up. Why? Who knows? Stupid.
Same idio driver ACCIDENTALLY does what he does. The incident is in no way his fault. He tried to brake. I get that he's horrified and distraught, but why not just go to the cops and relate exactly what happened? He wasn't drunk. But oh no, all better to do you know what and burden yourself with eternal guilt. Stupid.
Divers find you know what in huge lake in about 15 minutes. Stupid.
Psychopath father is immediately the suspect and immediately revealed to have been beating the child over time, but walks away from the police station without being arrested. Stupid.
Nobody points out to the psychopath that no matter how the you know what ended up you know where, it was his fault for having abused and chased it in that direction. Stupid.
Screaming, psycho-bitch , Korean wife is surprised when her husband smacks her in the face. Stupid.
Psychopath walks around the lake and the town, cool as a cucumber secret-agent in his pinstriped suit searching for the killer of the child he killed. Stupid.
This movie is STUPID. If you want your characters to do these things, you have to give them plausible motivations for doing them or it just seems...STUPID.

4/10

You are one sick motherfucker.

oh...so did it reference the sex as a paid gig? I didn't catch that. I thought she was just doing it for kicks, which did seem odd given that she virulently hated all the men she had sex with. I saw ANOTHER Korean flick last night in which the family's desperate need to pay medical bills was a plot point. Yet, months ago I did some research and it seems they have health insurance available so I don't know what is going on with that. Also, all teens seem to be living with only one parent, usually the mother.

On edit: It seems Korea has national health insurance and it's ranked as one of the most efficient in the world, though it appears to be far from perfect. However, LOTS of Korean movies imply that every cent of a person's medical bills comes out of their own pocket.

Refreshing take on your basic brain tumor movie, largely seen from childrens' point of view.
Park Ji Bin is a treasure. Wow. Such self-possessed commitment to a character by a child.
Boy, I really don't know if I would have made the same choice as the parents did toward the end. Without quality of life, should the preservation of life at any cost always be the goal, especially given that a cure is not guaranteed.

Buy yeah, I sobbed the last quarter of the movie and you will too.

8.5/10

BRAVO! Something about it kept me watching to the end, but it was out of curiosity as to how much more nihilistic and fucked-up this movie could be than what I'd already seen. I was rewarded for my perserverance.

Any film that requires this extreme level of voice-over exposition to tel us, not show us, what the hell is going on, is in trouble from the get-go.

I agree with the commenter below. This is nothing but a heavily stylized, nihilistic, artsy-fartsy ode to bratty middle-school student bullies who torture and kill their own classmates. And so much of it makes no sense. All these choreographed, music-video scenes where kids do horrible things in the classroom and school hallways and there's not a teacher, administrator, janitor, coach anywhere to be seen for 20, 25 minutes at a time while people spray blood, are confronted by the mothers of people they killed, etc. It's just silly and, unfortunately, to me it glorifies the issures of bullying, online and off.. Meh...
6.5/10

Yoo Ah In is remarkable. Such intensity and commitment to character.
Anyone else hate tha old fucking King? I kept hoping someone would just put a sword in his back to put us all out of our misery. What kind of a person, be they king or slave, could torture and kill their son like that?
Where does Korea come up with all these stunningly talented child actors?
I enjoyed this, but it kind of dragged in multiple segments. I thought it might not ever end.
Maybe best thing about this is the costumes/wigs/hats/etc. So detailed and beautiful. It must have taken those people hours to get dressed every day.
8/10

Interesting theory. It's amazing how many Korean films there are based on the brutal rapes/murders of women.

Yes, and things revealed themselves in the last third of the film in a far-too convenient and predictable manner, just as I said. There is nothing in your comment that negates anything in mine. But if you think it's not a director's job to make things feel spontaneous and surprising and unpredictable, even as he directs us to question what we saw before. I'll ask again: Was that room in the abandoned house where the girl was pitch-black or lit up like the Moon? The director shows it both ways but it makes all the difference in the world as to whether or not the central act of this movie was intentional or not. So which is it?It can't be both. I'm not convinced the director even registered that this was a problem. First a rock is tossed into a black hole. Then we see it from another set of eyes, fully lit. Sloppy.

Great acting from the lady lead.
Sloppy plot holes and story-telling.
I enjoyed it but it's annoying when inconsistencies seem to be left in a film out of laziness.

Was in pitch-black in that room where she was or not? The movie shows it both ways and never answers that question, or was just made sloppily in that regard. I liked a lot about this film, but there were a number of bloopers.

But was it pitch-black in the room where the girl went or was it not? And why the roof thing?