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  • Last Online: Feb 8, 2025
  • Location: Lost in the Cloud....
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  • Awards Received: Flower Award4

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Completed
Girlfriend Project Day 1
1 people found this review helpful
by Giuca
May 7, 2023
4 of 4 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 7.0
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 6.0
Rewatch Value 5.0
This review may contain spoilers

Beauty & the Beast

A naive, inexperience and innocent young woman falls for a brash, rude and fake rebellious girl in her class. They are put together for an assignment where they have to pretend they date. The first girls kindness melts the second girl's icy heart.

So nothing new and revolutionary here: just a simple story of opposites attract, enemies to lovers. I found the characters a bit extreme in their kind: the nice girl is extremely nice, the rude girl is extremely rude. So one evening they meet in a club. The nice girl cannot dance (I always thought that you just needed to listen to the music and move but I guess there are tone deaf people who cannot do even that! granted!) so she sits and downs half a bottle of vodka (aaahhh, liquid courage!) and that helps her stake a claim on the rude girl who is oh! so touched by that!

Even though this is a short webdrama, it is just a string of romcom clichés starring unlikable characters. That's what I did not like about it: not the clichés but just bad writing. The talk by the teacher at the beginning of the class, though was excellent and I think we should all listen to those wise words about love and relationships and respect. But then they went down the politically correct woke university road asking about pronouns, gender etc. Nice thinking!

Production obviously did not have much money and it shows: it is cold and sharp and it sounds empty. I did not notice any particular song or music, if you do not count the one it the club.

It is a correct single watch which has the merit of being a GL which are few and far between so as more are made, the better they will get!

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Completed
Ghost Host, Ghost House
1 people found this review helpful
by Giuca
May 5, 2023
8 of 8 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 7.5
Story 6.5
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 6.5
Rewatch Value 4.5
This review may contain spoilers

Too much romance, not enough ghosts!

I love me a good ghost story and this one had everything going on for it. So why did it turn out so bad?

Kevin, born and raised in the US comes to visit his aunt and cousins in Thailand and do some ghost hunting while there. He falls for her aunts handyman. Lots of fluss ensues. And a little bit of angst. But then they reconcile...

It starts really well, with a minor mystery but it is unfortunately abandoned by the episode 4 and after that we only get the usual romance with the usual problems and misunderstandings.

The title is a bit cryptic but everything is explained by the end of the first episode: the aunt and her family have been ghosts for about a month before Kevin arrived but nobody seems to know that (how come!). The unfinished business kept them from passing on. They were the most interesting characters of the lot.

Kevin and Pleum, the handyman, got together fairly quickly for a drama: they were sleeping together from the ep.4. I have to give it to the actors, their chemistry was good and they were really at ease with each other. The skinship scenes were some of the best I have ever seen in a BL; filmed in soft light and well choreographed. After they got together the focus of the story shifted to the couple and the ghosts were left far in the background serving as means (the cousins wasting their merit points on them!) of making the lovers' relationship stronger.

As I was watching this, I kept wondering if there was anything more to this story. I was waiting for a big twist, something along the lines: one of the boys is a ghost but does not know it. But no, no such surprise so the story chugged along those well known romance lines including a break up and a time skip! I did not like how they dressed Kevin: through his costumes they showed him become softer as he was getting to be more and more in love: large flowy blouses, shorts, purses while Pleum was always dressed in black. Is it really necessary to shove it in our faces top/bottom distribution of roles, in case we did not understand. At least we do not hear wife/husband in Thai bls anymore, so I guess we should thank god for small mercies!!!

And lastly, I did appreciate the fact that this was a ghost story where the ghost was not the love interest. But I would have prefered this to be more mystery than fluff orientated ghost story!

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Completed
Zui Ai
1 people found this review helpful
by Giuca
May 1, 2023
30 of 30 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.0
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 7.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 7.0
This review may contain spoilers

Everything is in this microdrama

Zui Ai overall length runs to about 60min therefore this short drama is a perfect watch! I find this chinese concept of short dramas with micro length episodes (here less than 2min each!!!) amazing and confusing! Really, why make 2min episodes that you'll end up editing into a movie eventually? I guess these are dramas for today's tiktok generation!

The story is a bit convoluted and since it is so short, they did away with in depth explanations which is fine. Ming JieJie is a private detective trying to discover the truth behind a huge arson her father had been accused of setting 10years earlier while she was still a child. There are two men involved with her but also connected to the fire and eventually we discover how while both of them hit on her! There is everything in this story: crime, mystery, corruption, conspiracy, investigation, romance, revenge! They did well!

As for the production values, this was quick: editing was good since they managed to keep the essential of scene though sometimes the transitions between sequences were not clear enough. The sound editing was bad: surrounding noise and music mostly drowned the dialogue so thank god for subs! Music was nice; there was a selection of chinese, western and korean songs (I recognized the languages, that's all! not the songs!) which were really good. I am going to look some of them up. The costumes were elegant but whats with the ML's messy hair? It's not even styled "out of bed" it just looks like they forgot to comb it!
All three leads had good chemistry with each other. The rest of the cast was bit on a caricature lever which is understandable considering the length of the drama: so the obnoxious people looked so(clothes!) even before doing anything! Nice solution in order not to waste time!

I watched this because I needed something beginning with Z for my alphabet watch drama challenge and I am glad I saw it!

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Completed
Here Is My Exclusive Indulge
1 people found this review helpful
by Giuca
Apr 22, 2023
34 of 34 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 7.0
Story 6.0
Acting/Cast 6.0
Music 6.0
Rewatch Value 2.5
This review may contain spoilers

Filmed manhua

Starting from the ridiculous and incomprehensible title,to the fortunately short episodes and the storyline adding one clishé after another ending with corny love speech, this is a mercifully short and a really fun watch!

It is the usual setting of rich CEOs and hairesses going through family dramas and fights over money and for power.

This story's only originality is the main male character who is it the wheelchair! And for once it is not presented as an ultimate tragedy. He happens to be handicapped (until the last minute when he miraculously regains his ability to walk!) but that does not mask the fact that he is smart and competent and always there when she is in a pickle! Female lead was also better than usual, not too much of a damsel in distress batting her eyelids and waiting to be saved, she was proactive and at least knew when someone was trying to take advantage of her.

Ah, the magic of manhua, the cold CEO with a hidden heart of gold wearing the ubiquitous pin striped suit (so ugly!) and the sweet cooky girl not letting anyone walk all over her and using the feminine wiles to give the bad guys their comeuppance! Every short episode seemed to be literally filmed episode of a manhua, without any special rewrite or editing involved in order to make it more palatable. But, just like mangas, I prefer reading over watching them: the things that happen in a book should be toned down for screen. Just my take on this issue!

The acting was mostly over the top, cinematography looked cheap, and sets seemed vulgar and bling bling(as in: Let me show everyone how rich I am!). And the music was a bit weird and inaudible mostly(copyright issues on youtube?).

I usually never watch c dramas: I can't stand the number of episodes but I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered these micro episodes dramas. This is the fourth one I watch, the novelty has worn off and I think this is going to be my last one. I want to stick to my principles!

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Completed
Vice Versa
1 people found this review helpful
by Giuca
Apr 22, 2023
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 6.0
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 6.5
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 1.0
This review may contain spoilers

Great idea & purses

What to say about this disaster that the other 105 reviewers haven't already said?

Sometimes you need more in a drama beside cute leads, fluffy moments (ads!!!) and an idea!

Vice Versa is a bit of a convoluted, not fully thought out story of parallel universes. I love these kinds of dramas, books, movies...but here it is all undercooked and mostly left to our imagination to fill out the blanks they could not be bothered to explain. It was also very quickly obvious that the whole idea was not really sci-fi but a way to talk about soulmates. Fine, that's OK with me. I like that! But....

What I liked:
- episode titles: colours
- the original idea
- the cinematography: colour coded episodes
- Jimmy, cute as a button, carrying his heart on his sleeve
- Friends Credits
- creative way to present PPLs
and that's it!

What I did not like:
- messy storytelling
- music, annoying
- Sea's awful acting and total lack of chemistry
- gratuitous partial nudity
- man purses
- quantity of PPLs
and so much more!

Frankly I could have enjoyed this as a piece of mindless fun, if the main couple had an ounce of chemistry between them but unfortunately there was none to speak of.

Sea can't act and it was so irritating seeing him pouting and looking sideways and not knowing what to do with himself! He was also terribly written which was maybe the reason for his bad acting: his character is all over the place and mostly going with the flow without ever taking the initiative! And, I do not know what the costume designer was thinking, making him wear those purses all the time: they were ugly, unbecoming and I was so annoyed by them to the point that I only looked at them!

I was dreading the PPLs since I heard there were too many of them but I was pleasantly surprised since they were not often out of context. Though they did not manage to find realistic moments to use NIVEA or the toothpaste but the rest was not too bad!

The producers know how to pander to their viewers' expectations, so there were some really ridiculous scenes where the actors show their bare chest (waking up in the bed in the morning without a T-shirt but with shoes on!Really?!?).

All in all, this was a great idea badly executed though pretty and completely ruined by the lack of chemistry and too many purses!

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Completed
Mr. Hiiragi's Homeroom
1 people found this review helpful
by Giuca
Apr 12, 2023
10 of 10 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.0
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 9.5
Music 5.5
Rewatch Value 3.0
This review may contain spoilers
To be frank, I almost dropped this during the first episode: not another bullying series, I thought! And >>I do not like stories about bullied kids in school. There is so much such tragedies in real life: why watch a drama which does not provide a real , practical answer to the problem not the idealistic one, like here. But more about that later. Even though I wanted to drop it, I decided to finish at least the first episode at the end of which I thought I saw a huge twist. Unfortunately, I saw wrong but it made me continue watching and I actually finished it in three days!

This is a story of a teacher who wants to let the world know why one of his students killed herself and in order to achieve this, he takes a whole class hostage. Over the course of 10 days (=10 episodes), the truth slowly comes out revealing the ugliness behind the "innocent faces of children" and the "teachers' sacred mission". Spoiler alert! The kids are extremely cruel to each other, and the teachers don't give a damn!

The drama is well plotted and paced: the characters' stories and their connections with the deceased girl are revealed slowly. The suspense is palpable and the story is believable. Unfortunately everything falls apart in the idealistic and completely improbable ending: trying to speak to people's soft and reasonable side when everyone knows it is just talking in the wind. It is really silly. And even though what he says is truth, the facts are obvious, we also know that you cannot change people's base feelings, primeval instincts and insecurities and incite them to be nice to each other.

The acting is amazing with the best being, of course Suda Masaki. The rest of the cast of kids, are all pretty awesome!

The production looked a bit cheap: the camera work was really cold and clinical (digital cameras?). They probably did not have a big budget therefore the number of extras is very limited (only look at the number of parents who are there pestering the police: about 10! for 29 students? Where are the others? Calmly going about their daily life waiting for the police to free their child and send them home? As you can see this bothered me very much!!!). Another issue I have with this drama is the music. I liked it a lot but most of the time it seemed like they did not know what to do with it: they played the wrong music at the wrong time: very disconcerting! This is something I noticed in a number of j dramas, the wrong kind of music....

Apart from the disappointing ending which still managed to wrap everything nicely up, I ended up loving this series after almost dropping it, the suspense, the complicated story, the intelligent plotting. A great ride!



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Completed
Jack o' Frost
1 people found this review helpful
by Giuca
Apr 8, 2023
6 of 6 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.0
Story 9.0
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 8.0
This review may contain spoilers

Down the memory lane

Recently, my rule of thumb when rating series was whether I play mobile games while watching the series on my laptop or not and, if yes, how much do I play! Some people fast forward, I multitask! With this series I managed to avoid games until episode 4, I played for 10min and then rewatched the episode and dropped the games till it was over! I do not remember the last time I did this! This drama is a short and easy watch so dropping games must be easy, some would say! No, no,no!!! I managed to play the games through a number of Thai short movies. So....

As the series was airing, I kept reading the comments and feeds which all generally started with a highly positive notes to end up disappointed with the last episode! I do not get it! Why didn't you like this? There is a couple with amazing chemistry, some serious skinship and a compelling adult(not school!) story! So why?

Jack O'Frost tells a story of a relationship going bust and how an accident provokes a reset for it. Lack of communication, the last drop, forgotten good times...accident makes them realize what is really important and how to deal with problems; talk, talk, talk!!!

This is a beautifully filmed series: all in beige sandy colours both interiors and exteriors. The writing is superb: the story is told in flashbacks, short and to the point. Music is really nice as well though not enough to put it on my playlist. It did fit the drama but it was forgettable!

I did not quite understand the reference to Jack O'Frost a cheeky winter elf playing pranks. The story does take place in the winter and when I saw Ritsu drawing it again in the same place like in the past, I thought that they were doing "he's only pretending to have amnesia". That was just a red herring, leading the viewers down the wrong path. The story is much simpler and so much better for it!

Anyway, this slice of life romance is definitely worth your time so give it a chance!

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Completed
The Queen System
1 people found this review helpful
by Giuca
Apr 5, 2023
25 of 25 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 7.5
Story 7.5
Acting/Cast 7.0
Music 5.5
Rewatch Value 5.5
This review may contain spoilers
I have only discovered these micro web dramas and apparently there are so many of them.

I chose to watch this one because I needed something starting with Q for my Alphabet Challenge.

It was short, and therefore rushed. The concept was interesting: a modern girl dies and is sent to game set in an ancient world where she has to complete tasks in order to go back home. But instead of only becoming the empress she falls for the emperor.

There is some average acting by the entire cast and some pretty scenery and sets for the ancient China. But it looks and feels limited budget and filmed with a single digital camera!

I kept thinking of Moon Lovers while I was watching it: time travel by body swapping and meet again in present!

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Completed
Raise de wa Chanto Shimasu SP
1 people found this review helpful
by Giuca
Apr 1, 2023
1 of 1 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 4.0
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 4.0
Music 5.5
Rewatch Value 1.0
This review may contain spoilers

Awful, just awful acting.....

Thank you HPriest for subbing this special. Your work is highly valued and appreciated!

After two joyful seasons of I Will Do Better In My Next Life, we were given this New Year's special continuing the story. The five members of Delta find themselves stuck in the office over New Year's holidays due to an unexpected late minute order. The story in itself was coherent and showed character development regarding their love life or family matters.

What ruined this special was acting: the two characters were just over the top of the highest mountain as far as overacting is concerned. Momoe was constantly grimacing, squealing, using a baby voice, moving in weird ways and making strange gestures. Hayashi, the bodybuilder was on par with Momoe: did the actors have an internal competition as to who can be worst actor?

Characters in j dramas often have this kind of manga behaviour and when I come upon it, I drop the series immediately. I stuck with this one since I saw the two previous series and wanted to see what happens next. But it was literally painful to watch these two characters moving like puppets.

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Completed
All the Liquors
1 people found this review helpful
by Giuca
Mar 25, 2023
8 of 8 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 7.0
Story 6.0
Acting/Cast 5.5
Music 5.5
Rewatch Value 2.0
This review may contain spoilers

Shall we eat some ramyon...later?

When I started watching Kdramas a few years ago (thank you covid!), I was struck by the place eating and drinking take in these series: the characters eat huge amounts of food and drink until they fall into a drunken stupor! And when they emerge from it, they continue eating and drinking late at night! What was even more surprising was that no one had anything to say about the unseemly behaviour of those drunk people: often they are considered cute and people promptly fall in love with such drunks!

All The Liquors is just the same but a BL, apparently. A cold and serious chef keeps bumping into the drunken JiYu and falls for his dubious charms. THE END

JiYu is a drunk, almost an alcoholic, barely functioning during the day because he spends nights drinking himself into oblivion in order to forget that he had been dumped by his boyfriend on Christmas. Ten months on, he is still drinking heavily every day, and drunk and hungry one afternoon he stumbles into the chef's restaurant where he loses consciousness. The chef, who is very rigid and prohibits alcohol in his restaurant, in contact with JiYu changes the tune and starts admitting alcoholic beverages in his restaurant and drinking quite a bit himself.

There is nothing I liked about this drama.
I do not like the message that is behind it: if you want to enjoy your life, you need to eat and drink heavily preferably with like minded friends. Otherwise you are a weirdo!
I do not like the lack of chemistry between the leads nor the character of JiYu who is a slovenly drunk; Though there is a bit of development where he is concerned: he drinks a little bit less towards the end! With a couple of dead fish kisses and talk about rameyon!
I do not like the music: it is boring and mostly played when not needed and vice versa. And the sound recording was atrocious: you could hear the empty space of a hangar they filmed in since the echo was really bad!
I do not like the clothes they wear: all those large high rise baggy trousers and oversize shirts are not nice!

The only thing I liked about this drama is its length and that's why I finished it!


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Completed
My Beautiful Man Season 2
1 people found this review helpful
by Giuca
Mar 15, 2023
4 of 4 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.0
Story 7.0
Acting/Cast 10
Music 9.0
Rewatch Value 9.0
This review may contain spoilers

All bow before Great Kiyoi!!!

I loved the first season! It came out about the same time as Kieta Hatsuko and while I dropped KH after the first episode, I loved My Beautiful Man. It felt real. It was painful and emotional and full of life, real life.
So I was happy to see the sequel but was quickly reluctant to watch when I kept reading reviews and comments all saying same old same old.
This is the story of Hira and Kiyoi frome high school until university graduation. Hira is a shy, self conscious and servile boy/man completely devoted to adoration of his god, his schoolmate Kiyoi, a beautiful man and an actor.Kiyoi hides feeling of insecurity behind his beauty and popularity and accepts Hiras devotion gladly. But when Hira tells him that he will never have to meet his parents, Kiyoi is deeply hurt which starts to shake their weird relationship.

While the first season focused solely on Hira and his adoration of Kiyoi, in this one we get to see lore of Kiyoi's side while he explains that he is perfectly aware of the god/subject mechanics in their relationship but answering "Creepy!" every time Hira looks adoring at him or tries to be gentle. They are both aware the situation cannot continue for much longer, unhealthy as it is but it actually takes a comment by a famous photographer who reads him perfectly, for Hira to start changing very slowly and meeting Kiyoi as equal.
The story is beautifully filmed and told but I was also extremely annoyed with Hira and his doormat attitude. Still, Kiyoi loved him just as he is for four years but is now getting more and more upset with Hira and his adoration attitude.There are only four episodes in this season taking place about 4 years after high school and each covering one season (winter, spring etc.). The actors are perfect. I loved the music and the opening credits were cool with the main cast dancing with their arms: beautiful!
It is a good short watch that I probably should rewatch soon! Waiting for the movie!!!!

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Completed
Candy Color Paradox
1 people found this review helpful
by Giuca
Mar 6, 2023
8 of 8 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 7.0
Story 7.0
Acting/Cast 7.0
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 2.0
This review may contain spoilers

Sulky kids in love

Everything felt somehow off here!

This is a story about a journalist and a photographer working for a investigative news magazine.They start off as enemies but very quickly things between them become serious as they investigate "case of the week". Things change when journalist goes investigating all by himself, without the photographer.

Ameiro Paradox is a weird title. The manga has been sitting on my "Plan to Read" list forever now but I never got around to reading it so I do not really understand the title!
Practically every episode deals with a different case they investigate. And in the background their relationship develop. It is mostly one sided. Onoe, the journalist very quickly falls for Kaburagi. These characters are such opposites. Onoe is a child, behaving and thinking like a 2 year old(vexed, sulky, throwing temper tantrums!) so much so one cannot help but wonder how he managed to become investigative journalist: every time he tries to follow someone, he is so conspicuous his target notices him immediately: he is clumsy and unconvincing! Kaburagi, on the other hand is an adult, with adult experiences in adult world, who knows how to investigate and in the beginning he cannot believe that he had been saddled with such an incompetent journalist child but he quickly falls under his charm.

And there is the word that keeps repeating: quickly! They go from enemies to friends to lovers in a blink of an eye! This is also based on a manga so there is some manga like exaggerated behaviour ! But I must give it to them they managed to tone it down quite a bit!

Other reviewers mentioned that the lack of communication as the plot feature moving the story forward, is a hge problem with this drama. I'd take it a bit further, and say that the problem is the characters: when you have a child and an adult interacting, the child will act as any child would by not speaking and sulking and hiding in their room. Towards the end, Kaburagi seems to have been too long under the child Onoe's influence that even he starts behaving like a child and sulk!

The love story is not convincing either: they have no chemistry. I was more interested in Editor-in-Chief and his sidekick: their story seems to be more interesting so I am a bit disappointed we never really find more about those two together!

Mercifully it is short and easy to watch, there is no unnecessary toxicity or serious conflict. But the whole series is far from convincing: everything seemed unreal. Even the streets were weirdly empty!

You can watch it if you need something beginning with A for the Alphabet Drama Challenge like myself. If not, you won't miss anything if you skip it. Maybe just a couple of skinship scenes in the last episode!

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Completed
To My Beautiful Woo Ri
1 people found this review helpful
by Giuca
Mar 5, 2023
3 of 3 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.5
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 5.0
Rewatch Value 5.0
This review may contain spoilers

What is confidence?

When I started watching Kdramas almost three years ago (thank you, COVID!) I came upon the concept of short web dramas I had never heard of before. At the beginning I was reluctant to watch them thinking they were just a low quality sub produce but after finally giving them a try, I discovered a vast world of short, sweet, tightly woven stories that rarely have wasted moments.
To My Beautiful WooRi is just one of the better webdramas. It is only 30min long but it manages to tell a complete story including the main characters' past.
WooRi is drifting,she is jobless and treated as less than nobody by her boyfriend destroying the little confidence she has left. She unwittingly accepts to go on a blind date and there she meets a highschool friend . The tables have apparently turned on them during the years they had not met. In school she was a confident popular girl taking no nonsense from anyone and he a nerdy loser being bullied by the local gang and saved by her. Now he is confident and successful and she falls hard for him!
The story is not new or original in any way or form but it is sweet, they have a good chemistry, it is well written, the pacing is good and Kim Young Dae is so tall and cute. The music is there, I think since I did not notice any. And of course it features a magnificent fish kiss!
The confidence in one's self, why one loses it, what to do not to lose it and how to be more confident are the notions driving this web drama forward! The confidence shown by Woo Ri in high school inspired Jun Soek and his atttitide changed so much that WooRi did not even recognize him when they met again. Bur just by being there, treating her like a valued human being, helped her regain some of the lost confidence!
I guess we all need someone to show us that deep down we are good and competent persons and that life can throw lemons at you but instead of being hit by them, you make lemonade!
All in all, a cute and sweet watch, a nice filler drama that cheers you up!

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Completed
Love Poison
1 people found this review helpful
by Giuca
Mar 4, 2023
8 of 8 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.0
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 6.0
This review may contain spoilers

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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Completed
Moonlight Chicken
1 people found this review helpful
by Giuca
Mar 3, 2023
8 of 8 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.0
Story 9.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 10
Rewatch Value 8.5
This review may contain spoilers

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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