40
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6
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7
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2
They went deep in...Entertaining and deeper than expected
If at first the story made me think that the drama was more or less a smutty fanfic story put on screen (which is not a dig, I can appreciate a guilty pleasure kind of drama), it was definitely much more than that. There are layerS to the story as well as I think also an activist message and some important criticism of society regarding LGBTQ+ relationships and their depiction on screen. It does not go very deep on the later, but it is clearly there and the ending is quite a statement in itself, worth the watch for its finale scenes.
Regarding the acting, it was quite unbalanced. I was very surprised to see Ollie (that I had not seen since his Boys Planet participant day) in this assertive, very bossy lead, obsessed and demanding. Even if that was a lot to grasp at first (and that he definitely looked younger than the part would have required), he did amazing for a first drama role and totally ripped of his cutie teen idol image that I had of him. The other main actor Shu Yuan was a bit awkward at time and I wish I would have seen a bit more nuance from him portraying some scenes, even if I know the script did almost force him to act dialed up to 100% level of angst, leaving not a lot of room for range. It lacked something for me to fully get onboard with his way of portraying the role(s). If I liked overall the leads and their chemistry (carried a lot by Ollie), I also found the acting performance of the remainder of the cast average, with some over the top and exaggerated acting.
I also appreciated the overall filmmaking. They used smart visual tricks for the viewers to immediately get which level of the story they were looking at...And when the lines got blurry, the directing brought that convincingly to life. The soundtrack was also quite good and fitting in itself, even if probably not long lasting memory material.
I would recommend this to people that enjoy layered toxic relationships and dark romance. If you don't mind a solid touch of angst and melodrama in your series, you need to try this one. If the scenario in its last arcs tired me a bit towards the end, the meta elements of the series, the shift in perspective, the way storylines were feeding and bleeding into each other and the way they smartly concluded won me over.
Regarding the acting, it was quite unbalanced. I was very surprised to see Ollie (that I had not seen since his Boys Planet participant day) in this assertive, very bossy lead, obsessed and demanding. Even if that was a lot to grasp at first (and that he definitely looked younger than the part would have required), he did amazing for a first drama role and totally ripped of his cutie teen idol image that I had of him. The other main actor Shu Yuan was a bit awkward at time and I wish I would have seen a bit more nuance from him portraying some scenes, even if I know the script did almost force him to act dialed up to 100% level of angst, leaving not a lot of room for range. It lacked something for me to fully get onboard with his way of portraying the role(s). If I liked overall the leads and their chemistry (carried a lot by Ollie), I also found the acting performance of the remainder of the cast average, with some over the top and exaggerated acting.
I also appreciated the overall filmmaking. They used smart visual tricks for the viewers to immediately get which level of the story they were looking at...And when the lines got blurry, the directing brought that convincingly to life. The soundtrack was also quite good and fitting in itself, even if probably not long lasting memory material.
I would recommend this to people that enjoy layered toxic relationships and dark romance. If you don't mind a solid touch of angst and melodrama in your series, you need to try this one. If the scenario in its last arcs tired me a bit towards the end, the meta elements of the series, the shift in perspective, the way storylines were feeding and bleeding into each other and the way they smartly concluded won me over.
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