Giuca

Teens in love do silly stuff!

Well, this was a surprisingly original experience I ended up enjoying immensely! The ratings for this series are very low and I am reluctant to watch anything rated below 7.5. But some of my favourite reviewers recommended it so I decided to take a plunge and watch it! Luckily it is short and really good!
Love Poison is a story of two brothers finishing high school, Ko and Sek and their love lives! It takes place in the countryside in the north of Thailand and it is pretty to look at and has a local colourfulness that is charming.
Actually this countryside setting is reminiscent of a many vietnamese BLs I'd seen. This one could have easily been one of them, because Thai bls for the most part are in urban setting. Here we get to see village, rice fields, dusty roads and the beauty of that region. The actors are very much at ease with each other so the skinship is natural and not forced.
The story is fun to watch. And even though the first episode is messy (just like viet bls!) and then there is that completely unnecessary weird ghost scene in the second episode but once you figure out who is who, it is a joyful ride!
The actors were excellent! Each of them fitted their roles perfectly: handsome net idol Ko, serious broken voiced (so sexy!) Sek, tall, handsome and dense Teng and pretty hot Tak. And then there were the support roles: the three single girls gang and Ko's best friends, were hilarious. Tak's two sidekicks, following him around, talking suddenly in stereo and sounding like a greek comedy chorus. Not to mention the boys' father, who was very quickly aware of his sons' preference and accepted it without a doubt "They are my sons and I love them!". This father was so cool!
I was expecting that, this being a low budget production, they would take the easy way out using cheap tricks, cringe, tropes and humour! No way! This was well written and filmed. It flowed smoothly. The fansubbed version I saw was of a bad quality (definitely not HD) which could have ruined my fun, but once you get used to it, it's ok. Takes you back in time when all dramas were like this (blurry and pale!)!!!
The music is something I have never heard of before: it sounded like a mix of pop and local folk music! Interesting but it fit well with the local setting.
Watching this, you see how the BLs have changed in a few short years: Love Poison is full of teens getting drunk and having sex! And hurting afterwards, and complaining about it and suffering in silence, for a long time! It can't get more realistic than that! Brilliant! Well, teens in real life like to live dangerously and experiment with limits. The teens here fels real and true. Diamonds in the rough! They are not polished, boring, rich kids from recent BL (MSP, I'm looking at you!).
That's why, this has been such a revelation! Shall I watch the second season too?

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Can I have more, please? Pretty please?

Softly, gently swimming in the river of life and avoiding obstacles with determination and intelligence.....

A few days ago, I started watching Midnight Motel but the dark themed series left me wanting for something else, lighter and nicer so I decided to watch an episode of Moonlight Chicken. Next thing I know, I was finishing episode four, it was like 3AM and I was trying really hard not to watch anymore. I succeeded even though it was so hard.

This series gripped me from the beginning with its music first and then the slice of life story. I am a sucker for a good slice of life romance and this one was almost perfect. Now I just want to rewatch it!

The story is deceptively simple: in a diner in Pattaya, different people meet and forge relationships. Uncle Jim is the owner and one night he meets drunken Wen: they end up spending the night together and Wen falls for Jim who does not want to continue this relationship. Jim's nephew, Li Ming is wrongly accused of breaking a valuable bottle during a delivery and has to work to pay it back. There he meets the house owner's deaf teenage son and they become friends.

This drama deals with some important everyday, mundane issues: work, money problems, redevelopment of areas, unrequited love, unwanted pregnancy and so on but it shows friendship and love and family with a minimum toxicity. There are no forced and invented problems and issues: everything is very quickly dealt with by TALKING. Well, that was quite refreshing since most of dramas thrive on misunderstandings and lack of communication. Not the case here.
Rarely seen as well, is a deaf character. The description of a handicap and the way the boy's family struggle to accept it (by hiding it) is shown in stark contrast with Li Ming's attitude of "there is nothing wrong with being deaf! Let's communicate and be friends!" Their story was beautiful. It showed young people completely unphased by adults' fears of difficulties and rejection.
And then there was Wen. He is a troubling character. He is still living and sleeping with the ex boyfriend. Their relationship is toxic and problematic and spills over into the new relationship he is trying to start because he seems stuck and unable to make a clean break. His ex, Alan, tries to hold onto him and as a result they are both unhappy.

Moonlight Chicken, with all its lightness, managed to touch upon and deal with a numerous life problems, small and big but realistic.

As for the cast, they were hit and miss. Firstly Earth was miscast: he is supposed to be almost 40! He does look older than the rest of the cast but not that much! And also, somebody should just tell Earth (playing Jim) that e cannot act and that he should remain a model: he's a handsome guy but has a single expression throughout the series wooden eternally surprised expression. Frankly that bothered me already in 1000 Stars! He shares no chemistry with Mix, who played Wen and I found their interactions, when they were lovey dovey, stilted, unnatural and unconvincing! Mix, on the other hand, is a king of microexpressions, his eyes tell a thousand stories but what happened to him? He looks like he is made out of putty, all soft and pudgy and soft, maybe too soft. But he has great chemistry with First who plays his ex Alan. I must say that First was a revelation! He is an amazing actor. Unexpectedly so since he did not leave a lasting impression after The Eclipse.
And then there are the two hottest BL stars of the moment, hot on the heels of their huge hit My School President. Gemini plays the deaf kid Fourth as Li Ming befriends. And they are just perfect§ Playing a daf character is not easy since you are not allowed to react to sounds all around (there was a scene where he unwittingly turned his head when a note was pushed under the door he was not looking at!Just a minor flaw!). They were the right measure of cute and serious and fun and real, just like every teen is nowdays! Open, with surprising maturity and without prejudice. And, by the way they were much better here than in MSP!
Finally there was Kaotung who has mastered overacting. Some of his scenes were hard to watch because of his grimacing face!

The producers should stop repeating actors' couples from other series. Earth and Mix as well as First and Kaotung were wrong here! That did not stop me from enjoying this series a lot but some moments were rather cringey especially scenes between Earth and Kaotung (who plays a chicken stall owner with a crush on Jim!).

The cinematography was stunning: the colours were in the brown, dark and warm tones. Everything felt soft and gentle. And the lighting and the colour palette corresponded the characters.
The music was so right for this series! The old taiwanese song the six main actors sing is giving me goosebumps and spills something warm inside my soul.

And in spite of all the flaws, I loved this series. It was just perfect for me at this moment in my life when I was looking for a serious story but with no toxicity. And I need more of all of them!

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Larger than life

Well, well, well this was a very strange trip.

As I was watching it, I thought it had been based on a manga. It gave me that feeling of being out of proportion, fantastically real. Even the main protagonists names tell a story: Summer, a boy, and Winter a girl.

Winter used to be called Alice and was a student of a particularly twisted school in England training children to become assassins. One day she decides to escape and severely injures the school principal, a psycho of the tallest order. She escapes to Korea and hides in Summer's school. He is a loony kind of a boy, suffering from a trauma, put on suicide watch and constantly asking to be beaten up in order to feel alive. The principal activates his criminal network in order to find Alice. And when he does, all hell breaks loose!

You have everything in this short drama, so much so, I wished it were longer. Just read the tags. What I liked the most was the black humour in this. Every character in this drama is seriously twisted, the world they live in is a genuine nightmare. And Summer is the king of this world. He is deadpan, untouchable in his school. He is so calm that he scares the local bullies. And he finds a soulmate in Winter, who is his opposite, trying to be normal. He does not care about being normal, he is only looking for a reason to live in this cutthroat world. Winter gives him that reason.

What is this about? Only gratuitous violence? Not necessarily. In a twisted, strange way it tells you a version of "nature or nurture". Can you be taught to be a killer or do you need an incentive to kill? Alice was raised to be a killer but could not kill until her soulmate was killed (or she thought so!). Both of them, ultimately, do not think twice and kill in order to protect each other.

The actors are all amazing but especially the one playing Summer, Song Geon Hee. He managed to express Summer's feelings and states of mind through a single almost invariable wide smile: that could be goofy and cute quickly becoming crazy and ending up surprised all within a minute! Amazing! Give this guy more lead roles!

This is not an easy drama to watch: it is very bloody and violent but everything, at the same time, is so exaggerated. Cinematography goes well with this: it is gray, dark almost monochrome.

Ultimate Weapon Alice is not for everyone: the violence, the ugliness, the violence, the insanity and the violence is the main theme here!

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Shirts & Showbiz

Let me elaborate on the title!

The first thing that struck me in this drama were the wardrobe choices: I kept "admiring" the more and more extravagant shirts as the series progressed and wandering who the fashion/costume designer was! And there were some very original shirts' cuts on display on human coathangers!

The second thing is: the show business! Why get into it and why not and how far are you willing to go in order to succeed, what or who would you give up on for fame and fans! Every character in this drama was put in front of a choice related to showbusiness.

Ando and Ryou met when they were children when Ando, dressed as a girl for an ad shoot, made a lasting impression on Ryou. When they meet again 10 years later, Ryou, now a famous actor, is still unaware that Ando is a boy, not a girl, and when he discovers that he is under a huge shock but still can't help thinking about Ando. They eventually start dating but a rival actor's agent outs them and Ryou's careeg goes into a nosedive.
There are a couple of side stories. One involves Ando's parents, who being themselves celebrities, want him to get into acting which he vehemently refuses but they keep on insisting.Some people called them toxic: they are not really, they are open and understanding and helpful. The other story is about Ando's big brother , the rock star Tee. He is a beautiful specimen of masculinity, all shiny muscles and wavy hair and tattoos and on the surface he seems to be a brainless dude. But he is actually very smart, cares for his little brother very much and is in a secret relationship with the family's assistant!

The first half of the series is just some plain fluffy and cute fun as Ryou chases after Ando after having read a number of BL novels in order to find out how to flirt with his crush! Those scenes are so funny.
The tone of the drama changes when, after their first date, Ando falls asleep and Ryou kisses him. So this was a huge red flag for me! I might have forgotten about this if it had been a quick peck (I do not condone that either!) but Ryou kept on going for more, deeply kissing the sleeping Ando three times. Who never woke up! Weird! That kiss marks the end of the comedy series and the beginning of a serious drama!
After that start the honeymoon period, very steamy and seriously well filmed! And then of course the SCANDAL that ruins careers!

The cast is exceptional. The chemistry between the actors is there, nothing extraordinary but they were really at ease with each other and it shows! The music was there but unremarkable! I loved the way Ando was completely tone deaf when singing! The actor pulled it of brilliantly!Funny! Costume designers outdid themselves in finding or creating all these incredible shirts! And of course, the eternal problem with Thai bls: sound recording! They should have by now figured out how to record dialogue, when the actors are hugging and talking into each other's necks, instead of muffled sounds we keep getting!

This drama deals with a lot of issues within the entertainment industry: the stage fright Ando suffers from,how to get inside and how to survive. They show us the pressure the fans put on celebrities and how they can be ruined just by a few tweets. And so on and so on....It is light and superficial, it is not meant to be too serious but it still touches upon some serious issues thai entertainment industry suffers from!

I have not read the manga or watched any of the japanese versions but this one was surprisingly fun and enjoyable to watch, with the exception of that stolen kiss! The series is full of clichés, it is predictable and the production is a bit lazy. Except when they filmed shirtless Film (who plays Thee, Ando's brother!) frolicking with water all in slowmo! Hilarious and hot! But I had so much fun watching it, it was funny and never cringy! Not the best out there, but good nevertheless! Give it a go, you might like it!

It is entertainment industry, my dear! is the closing statement of this bl drama.

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What is happiness?

Happiness is a state where you lack nothing!

I would like to write a review but apart from synopsis I do not know what to write about!The drama is bland, not boring but forgettable. Unfortunately!

Summer is the name of the main character who decides to spend the summer doing nothing in a seaside town! Therefore the title Summer Strike as stopping every professional activity by a person called Summer during a summer!
Yeo Reum is not very happy. Adepte of avoiding conflict, she is taken advantage of by everyone; work, friends and family. Until, one day she cannot take it anymore and, leaving everything behind and only with a backpack, she goes travelling. After a few days she finds herself in a charming little seaside town and she decides to stay there renting cheeply an abandoned building with a bad reputation. In the town she meets a prickly teen Bom (spring) and a mysterious librarian Dae Beom, she adopts a dog named Winter...(running joke, ha ha!) and slowly gets involved with the townspeople !
Summer Strike is a slice of life drama reminiscent of Hometown ChaChaCha but better as it does not exaggerate the local colourfullness or the fish out of water side of Yeo Reum. The librarian is a mysterious character who is silent during the first two episodes but is not mute. He is actually suffering from the PTSD and the reasons for it are slowly discovered.
There are two, maybe three, romances in this slow burn drama. The first one are a couple of teens who just go forward and connect. The second one is Yeo Reum and the Librarian whose love story is very slow burn really, really slow burn considering they fall for each other at first sight but take forever just to hold hands(last frame last episode! No kisses!). The third one is the longtime unrequited love by the local store owner for the librarian's friend who end up finally connecting.
The drama deals with the concept of happiness: what it means to each one of us? Is it professional success? Is it calm and uneventfull life? Is it loving someone from afar? Is it having enough to eat? Is it having a loving family?
There is a murder mystery involving the building Yeo Reum rents which makes certain events clearer!
This drama also touched upon a lot of issues but we were never offered a solution: abuse in workplace, bullying, prejudiced adults, local gangs, psychiatric problems, mental health in general etc...
They give us a general solution for everything: Stand up for yourself! The heaven helps those who help themselves! It is mostly true but I find it hard to accept because sometimes you need someone by your side to encourage you in order to be brave enough!
The actors did a great job. Im Si Wan is cute and secretive as usual. I love his voice and the way he speaks!
The music is nice but not memorable: it is there and that's all...

Slow burn dramas are my favourite genre and I love the slow development of characters and events. On the other hand I never rewatch them. The appeal of this kind of drama is in its pace, discovering things slowly, getting to know the characters slowly. If I had to rewatch it, I'd be probably bored out of my mind!

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This is not the right recipe for happiness!

What the hell did I just watch?!?!? I have seen some highly toxic and unhealthy things, but this one takes the top spot! Well, at least they did not lie in the title which is actually Addicted . Heroin is the translation of the word you get when you put their names together, as explained in the series.

The drama tells the obsessive and possessive, highly toxic love Gu Hei has for Yui Zi. Gu Hei was fascinated with Bai Luo Yin ever since they met for the first time and he never left him in peace since. He started first with pranks in school, than he pretended to be poor, then wormed his way into his family, slept with him in the same bad but trying to get more in a kind of round about way, flung his wealth and connections around manipulating lives of people close to BLY, kidnapped him, tried to rape him repeatedly. Gu Hai basically showed behaviour worthy of a psycho. He was addicted to BLY, to his kindness, intelligence, level headedness and therefore tried to control him, own him, cutting him from his friends and family with jealous insistence. That is why I do not understand when BLY finally succumbed to GH pressure and let him do whatever he wanted with him, which is the only thing GH was interested in, apparently!

The series is based on a danmei book: so basically this is the result of a female fantasy writing. Love, generally speaking, can provoke this kind of obsession even in the straight couples. But it does not mean that it is right. Usually when you have a similar kind of a relationship in movies, it never ends well. This kind of obsessive relationship never ends well in real life too. I am glad we are finally moving away fro these kinds of tropes in BLs: this is not a recipe for happiness . Addicted was pulled off air unfinished, after the very steamy episode 15!. But it seems that there are another 3/4 of the book left, not covered by this series. The series ended with them in a sort of relationship but do they get their happily ever after at the end of the book? I hope not!

There are a lot of side characters with unfinished stories: a couple of crazy ex girlfriends, a crazy cousin, controlling or laxist parents, school friends' possible second couple romance... The actor playing BLY's father was the most handsome of the lot. The two playing GH & BLY are obviously too old for the roles: they are supposed to be teenagers (I guess around 18 seeing them driving cars and getting drunk but still in high school: go figure!!!) but they are obviously much older. You end up getting used to it by the end but it felt really strange at the beginning! They were OK but no more than that!

The series looks very low budget: it was clearly made in a week! Just look at the weather throughout the 15 episodes: it is always gray and cold (steam coming from actors' moths when they talk)! Once they actually discussed what they would love to eat for a holiday which falls the following week, on August 15th: while the trees outside the window were bare of leaves and as steam was coming from their mouths! Global warming and drastic climate change evidently!
Costumes tell the same story: everyone is wearing two same outfits throughout! Music was the best about this series!

Recently, I've been watching dramas I never really wanted to see (especially chinese ones). This one is a legend, the unfinished one, the one which brought on the demise of chinese BL and the birth of bromance c drama. But is it good? NO! But it is a gulty pleasure watch. I understand that. I can watch it once but never again!

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The worst

I was not sure whether to watch this drama or not since I have heard nothing about it but after perusing the two reviews and a great number of comments all saying the same thing; a clunky first half but a brilliant second, I decided to give it a try. And I finished it. And I am still waiting on the brilliant part to show up. I have not seen it. Unless under brilliance people are talking about NC scenes and they really do start in the second part and there are lot of them. They are mostly superfluous. And they are boring as hell! Why? Because the PLOT is non existent! And voyeurism was never my cup of tea!

After the first episode, I had to check the year it was made because the plot was reminiscent of all those university bls from 6-7 years ago. The plot was the same (it was bad!), the acting was the same (it was bad), the sound effects were the same & omnipresent (it was bad), the costumes were the same (it was bad). The only part I liked a bit was the music but even that was the same (though not totally bad).

The plot: the rivalry between two dorms (2&3) of engineering (original, huh?) students which is not real since they are all attending classes together and are friends. There are like 5/6 different dorms. In the Dorm 2 there were pretty boys (they actually measured their facial features with a ruler! So CREEPY!) and in the Dorm 3 athletic guys. They are all apparently boys' dorms so there are no nasty and annoying girls shipping our couples (the other boys are doing that!). There are no girls. Period! There are three couples but the only interesting one was Meen & Bright. The rest was awful! Some things happen, and then some others none of which are remotely interesting. It finishes on an "uplifting" time skip of three years after their graduation. Ai is an engineering hotshot and Songkhram is a commercial airline plane captain. They both must be like 26 or so.... yeah, right! Nothing is convincing in this plot, there are some ridiculous gangsters and family drama but really left unsolved and forgotten. The overall plot is full of tropes: enemies to friends to lovers, fake adversity, getting together at a beach trip (usually in EVERY thai bl it happens halfway through!) some silly misunderstandings, faking fights and finally coming out all lovey-dovey. Beurk!!

The actors: none of them can act even a little bit, have zero chemistry with each other, some are cute (Meen, Bright, Song), the rest are ugly because they have been massacred by the hairdresser. At least they paid attention at workshops so their bedroom scenes were really long and they gave it all. And even that became boring and repetitive. Also, why are russian tourists playing english speaking businessmen(women)? The producers needed some western looking "actors" so they asked one of the numerous russians hiding in Thailand?

Cinematography was run of the mill though they did make an effort in creating dorm colour identities: one was red so everything was red and everyone was wearing red. The other blue...After an initial appreciation it became really cringe worthy!
And of course the comic sound effects! Please do away with those! Please! People are smart enough to understand what is going on without it being underlined by "funny" sound effects...

This is probably one of those dramas I will have trouble forgetting since it was so bad and I cannot believe I actually finished it.

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How does my garden bloom?

Thank you eveychooey for the subs!
https://www.d-addicts.com/forums/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=432456&sid=04f4429358a5cb9296c0e388e215fd27

I have been going deeper and deeper into this rabbit hole called dorama and so far I have dropped just a few of japanese dramas. This one came highly recommended from the first time it aired and I started watching it untill I realized it had not been fully subbed so I dropped it! Started it again and dropped again and again and again.... And then all of a sudden I binged the seven remaining episodes in a day!

"There are things you don't understand until you are part of them."

Prism is a serious, sensible and sensitive, thought provoking drama dealing with acceptance and search for self fulfillment.
Satsuki is a young women torn between her divorced parents and not knowing what to do with her life. The only real passion she has is creating terrariums. One of her creations attract attention of Riku who gives her job in his company and promptly starts dating her. But everything gets very complicated when he meets again his college crush he hadn't seen in seven years. A difficult triangle is formed.

Prism deals with feelings, family pressure, influence and acceptance. It is very theatrical in its realisation, there are a lot of conversations, very calm conversation (the restraint is the main feature of all characters!) culminating in a heart to heart discussion of the three main characters in a forest: they seemed to be all alone in the world!

I do not know much about japanese society today but from what I read: the young people do not want to get married or have kids and that is a huge problem for the country, the families do exercise pressure but it is working less and less. The women particularly are expected to stop working and stay at home when they are married and with kids. A side couple shows that it is possible to work and be married at the same time when both are willing to compromise and the companies are open minded.

Another side story talks about same sex couples and how the partner is not recognized as a family in case of medical emergency. Things seem to evolve in that area as well, slowly but every change needs time!

The main story is Riku and his unresolved feelings from the past. In college he had a crush on his professor who unexplainably and suddenly left. When they meet seven years later, he is unsure of his feelings which ruins his relationship with Satsuki.
"I don't know if I'm gay. I do not want to see men naked!"
This makes it perfectly clear that though the professor had feelings for him, Riku's feelings were those of admiration not love which becomes clear as their relationship progresses in present.

In the end the three of them remain friends tied together with the common love of gardening and nothing more!

The series was filmed beautifully, the lush gardens, the hazy air, warm colours, soft and quiet. What I did not like was the music: very often heavy sounding cello solos in rather simple situation while the serious scenes were accompanied by cheerful very ill fitting music. The actors were perfect. The characters were extremely well written and the actors managed to convey their thoughts and feelings with tiniest of microexpressions!

This is a drama for a confirmed watcher as the themes it deals with are rather serious, there is no fluff and the feelings are so restrained.

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Silent & toxic

And another amazing butterflies inducing and very toxic and unhealthy BL is over. And I want more...

This is a story of two men deeply in love with each other but who never ever talk to each other. Lack of communication leads to misunderstandings and a kind of very toxic master/slave relationship they both seem to be addicted to.

Usually this trope, lack of communication, is something I find really annoying but here I just accepted it since the whole story is based upon that. It brought forward another kind of love story which never got a solution in the end. They admit that they do not speak to each other about anything important, accept the status quo but made sure to show in a non verbal way that they have a strong attachment to each other which is as solid as a diamond and never to be broken. Those silences, those looks gave me butterflies.

Beside the main couple there were barely any other characters worth mentioning except for Yoh's friend and fellow mangaka who watches their relationship from outside and sees more than either of the other two!

The whole drama has very little dialogue but a lot of voiceover which explains the feelings, the situations, the relationships. The acting is excellent but I found Higuchi Kouhei, the actor playing Mizuki, too thin in spite of the abs. And since he wore oversized clothes outside work, he had added fragility so much so I thought he was going to break! Excellent costume designer.

Japan is taking the lead now for the complex and intriguing BL stories : which one is the next? I cannot wait!

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With all due respect, another Cinderella story?

I really don't know how to rate this drama. Frankly, I never felt so many contrary emotions about a show. I loved it and I hated it, I was amused and I was disgusted, I was hooked and I wanted to drop it - all at the same time. It is another fairy tale mash up with an american soap opera with a very japanese twist to it. In the first episode there is a food and pillow fight together with hair pulling: I really thought I was watching Dynasty! The opening credits' still was a photo of the cast in the typical US soap poses so...The reason I was so confused by it is that I could not pinpoint exactly which genre this belongs to: comedy, satire, drama, makjang, soap? It has everything in it!

So what happens when Cinderella marries her prince and goes to live in his castle? Will she obey to rigid antiquated customs or will she rebel? Well, this is the 21st century, the women empowerment has swept the world and has even reached Japan where young women of today refuse to submit any more. Sato, our Cinderella, is someone like that and she does everything in her power to change the stale atmosphere that reigns in her Prince's castle. And she does it all with kindness and with a smile on her face, understanding even the meanest persons trying to hinder her and destroy her. And those people are many! Fortunately her Prince is there!

The drama was actually really about women in japanese society: their position and how they are seen by the male dominated society and how they need to work hard to obtain their independence and freedom. But should I look at it from that point of view (criticism of contemporary Japan) or consider it just some fluffy, meaningless entertainment, far from reality?

The cast of characters was very colourful. Cinderella was a kind, strong willed, intelligent and sweet women: an ideal. Her Prince was a kind, sweet, supportive man. They unwaveringly loved each other (even when the last problem - amnesia!!! I kid you not! LOL) was thrown at them!

The horrible Pater Familias was the only one who did not show any character growth : his ending was rushed and frankly ridiculous!The others: the submissive mother, jealous brother, envious sister-in-law etc. all went to many trials and tribulations and came out stronger. I actually loved to hate the sister-in-law: the Prince's older brother's wife. She was funny when she was mean, singing nursery rhymes to mock our Cinderella, gloating but deep down hiding many insecurities.

Everything is so OTT here! The lifestyle of the indecently rich people is frankly indecent: huge scary mansions, the bling bling everywhere, dozens of servants lined up like army troops accompany them everywhere, ugly ostentatious cars, clothes. And still, the mansion which is on top of the hill, looks like situated in the desert, everything behind the entrance gate is yellow, cold and desolate! Cinematography was really good: it made me feel very uncomfortable!

I watched it on viki and they forgot to edit out the in-episode previews: I guess the episodes were cut in three parts while airing and there were previews before every commercial break. But on viki, there are no commercial breaks so it took me some time to realize what was going on with these scenes out of context!

Should I recommend watching this? Well: "All's well that ends well!" so it is up to you!

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Intrigue & Love

Even though the official english title is very poetic, the other title on youtube videos is very fitting as it describes the plot precisely: intrigue, conspiracies, lies ...and love!

As usual with these short dramas, the plot is rushed with added unnecessary complexities.
The plot is rather simple: the FL takes the place of a princess in order to kill the king and avenge her father. Her plan goes awry and she actually gets married to the northern king with the help of the queen who needs a spy in the northern kingdom. But our FL falls in love with the ML and together they uncover a conspiracy by the queen and her evil brother to create mayhem and distrust between other countries: divide and conquer.

The series is quite good: it changes from the usual chinese palace setting to the grassy plains and deserts of the north and therefore it is new and refreshing. The scenery is beautiful, the costumes are different from the usual flimsy drapes floating in the wind, the hairstyles are less elaborate and particularly ML's hair decorations are beautiful. The main actor is handsome and talented while the actress was ok: there was something bothering me about her but I cannot quite figure out what!

Maybe it was her character which bothered me the most?!? She is supposed to be a trained fighter but her skills come and go, depending on a situation or, more precisely, on her costume: when she's dressed all in black she is an excellent fighter but whenever she puts other coloured clothing she seems to become a clumsy clutz and from what I saw it was not on purpose! The ML's character becomes a bit silly towards the end: he's so much in love that he keeps following her around like a faithfull puppy, eyes filled with adoration!

I have to rant a bit: youtube go to hell with your rules and regulations! I wanted to watch the full movie version on youtube because it is more convenient but the drama is half soundless: we are not allowed to hear the music, so I guess it is the usual youtube problem with chinese music rights. I found the drama elsewhere and the songs are really beautiful (performed by a duet M/F) so it is really a shame to miss out on it! And youtube keeps insisting we subscribe: never gonna happen!

Anyway, the drama is a good short watch, the editing is a bit choppy, the two main characters are not totally convincing and the rest are rather simple though they do grow a little when they realize their mistakes. Episode 18 looks like the usual drama ending: the main couple is finally together and walking happily while gazing into each other's eyes so the additional two episodes to wrap up the loose ends I had frankly forgotten about is a bit of a change of mood after the happy ending.

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Fast paced messy fun

Fortunately or unfortunately this is a short watch. The jury is still out on that! On one hand, we just wasted 90min or so of our time which is not important, and on the other it is a good story which needed a more streamlined plot and a little more time.

This is the usual story of palace conspiracy and fight for the throne between two brothers one of who is in league with his servant. The prince and his servant are both looking for revenge.

The beginning is messy. The story meanders, the writers did not really know which path they wanted to take: so we start with a time travelling girl who disappears after a few episodes. Then, a few episodes later, we are in the middle of a full blown GL and I was looking forward to it (because it was so obvious to all the characters what was going on between the girls) but then I remembered that this was a CHINESE drama, and of course, that was dropped though not forgotten since it became girls' chinese style bromance. Eventually, they decided to stick to a more conventional plot and so the two main characters got half of their revenge and remained together in order to complete it sometimes in near future.

Production value is high, the special effects are seamless, the fighting scenes fast and well choreographed, the costumes silky and the wind machine in working order. The acting was ok. They do like whispering when they talk. The problem here are the writing and the messy editing in the first half: it is too fast and difficult to understand the main plot!

If you are not too demanding, it is an fun short watch.

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Butterfly inducing attraction

Well, I loved it! For the first time in a very long time, I felt butterflies while watching the interactions between the leads.

A Familiar Stranger is first and foremost a romance having as the backdrop a power fight for throne with a touch of fantasy. The main character is Shi Qi, a painter looking for her long lost sister. The prime minister's daughter, who is soon to be married, asks her to come and paint for her in exchange for information on her sister's whereabouts. But she uses this occasion to change faces with the painter (important: not bodies!) who marries the general in pm daughter's stead. The general turns out to be the painter's first love and he finds her oddly familiar even though he'd never met the pm's daughter before.

This sounds a bit complicated: it is simpler when you watch it!

The story flows seamlessly for this type of drama: which is usually a bit rushed and stilted. No such problems here! The story take the time it needs to develop, and since it is short, there are no unnecessary side characters (the blessing of short c dramas!). The characters are mostly down to earth, human if you like! The painter is a smart, strong woman. The general is a good man who thinks, the prince is evil enough not to be a caricature, the pm's daughter is just someone trying to be happy. No one is perfect, they all have flaws which makes them real.

The two main actresses were amazing: going from one character to another smoothly and managing to show their character traits with the minute facial expressions. The actors playing the villains excelled as well at portraying the human side behind the evil deeds so one just can't help but feel sorry for them in spite of all the horrible things they do.

The love story is the center of this drama. The general and the painter recognize each other but one finds it hard to believe his eyes and the other is blackmailed into keeping it a secret. So they dance around each other succumbing to attraction and falling deeper and deeper in love. As I said, this was really butterfly inducing chemistry.....

The production was lush and rich and windy, mostly white: all those drapes floating in the wind artistically hiding the characters. The shots of rain and the final scene in the snow were just beautiful. The music was nice. The only thing that bothered me was the way they spoke most of the time: whispering, soundless and breathless voices.

I cannot recommend this enough! Go watch it! I haven't seen many short c dramas, but this one is definitely one of the best considering high production values, talented actors and a screenplay that makes sense within the genre!

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BKPP ad bromance

I miss PP Krit and these kinds of advertisement short movies are making me miss him even more!

This is not a BL but a story of two best friends, a bromance, where one is a pastry chef, tidy and serious(PP) and the other one is an artist,just so messy and irresponsible (BK). Well, one day the second one does one messy thing too much and the first one refuses to talk to him anymore! And it is here that the ad kicks in: BK is using the new feature of a mobile phone in order to make up with PP.

There is nothing much to say about this: it is really well written and filmed, the colours are bright and cheery 'except for the cake which is forest green and let's say, not really appetizing. The characters are cliché but it is an ad after all! Still, their relationship is well explained and it works perfectly well as a deep longlasting friendship. And frankly, I prefer them as friends and not lovers! The story is smooth running, funny and engaging!

It is a nice 12min watch if you miss BKPP. And I really would like to see the PP part of this pairing in a real long drama!

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Awkward first time

Our First Time is definitely not what you'd expect especially coming from WayuFilms who specialize in low budget brilliantly told and filmed short bl movies. This is their latest production and for the first time Mon & Oak are not starring in it but the author managed to find their clones and from the Behind the scenes footage you can see that Mon was very much involved!.

The story: a youtuber, suffering from a backache, finds a gift voucher for a free massage. He goes there and gets a royal treatment by a first time masseur who is his fan! And who probably sent him the voucher!

I really do not know what to think of this: it was long and slow and stilted and nothing really happens!
The actors look far too young and thin. That really bothered me! But I guess the story required it!
The conversations are slow, few words separated by long periods of silence, very uncomfortable and awkward silences! The receptionist/first time masseur is thrilled to see his youtube idol and it shows! The youtuber is a bit reluctant but accepts the service!
The actors are actually quite good! I was a bit doubtful but you need to watch to the ending in order to understand the awkwardness and the apparently bad acting! Cinematography is just fine: the colours are bright but it is basically a single interior set so it lacks the poetry of other Wayu Films made outside! Music is really good!
I probably should rewatch this to get a better idea but even during this session, I wanted to fast forward it because watching two guys having a three sentence conversation lasting 10 min is a bit too much to bear. Again, perhaps it was necessary to convey the excitement and joy the receptionist feels upon seeing his idol but it was a bit too much.

I am not a reviewer, I am just writing some thoughts and feelings going through my head as I was watching this movie. Maybe there was more to it which I failed to grasp and for that I do apologize. I am a huge fan of WayuFilmProductions and hope to watch more of their movies in the future!

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