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About Youth taiwanese drama review
Completed
About Youth
0 people found this review helpful
by IncorrigibleMe
Mar 3, 2023
8 of 8 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 8.5
Story 8.5
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 8.5
Rewatch Value 8.0
This review may contain spoilers

It leaves you wanting for more

With the onslaught of multiple BL series coming out of South Korea, Japan and Thailand, I was delighted to find this gem from Taiwan. I watched this one right after finishing My School President and the plot is more or less the same with the roles a bit reversed.

In this series, we have Xu Qi Zhang, a member of a band who is supporting and caring towards Ye Guang, a studious school student. The series attempts to highlight multiple issues faced by students and youth of today. First we have the overbearing parents of Ye Guang who takes control of his life in order to see his son succeed academically. They are so focussed on their son’s success in every field that they don’t realise that he has lost all freedom and feels trapped and unloved. Then we have the story of Ray, who is ill-treated by his boyfriend. He is shown with female attire and a wig while he is with his ex-boyfriend but loses the wig when he meets Ah Jian. There is a hint that may be his ex is making him wear it but that could just be my speculation. They have also added a dead father and an abusive uncle for good measure.

There isn’t much romance as the story focuses more on the relationship between Ye Guang and his parents and how he feels more like himself when he is with Xu Qi Zhang. There are multiple plots that the series introduces and then we don’t get to see any resolution there. There is certainly an attempt to give more depth to these characters but due to limited episodes we don’t get a satisfactory ending to those plots. We get to meet Xu’s abusive uncle but then no follow-up on that story. There is also Jun Wei who dislikes Ye Guang for some reason that isn’t explained but you can hazard a guess. He wants to see Ye Guang fail and takes active steps to do so but then he is forgotten. Then we have the whole plot of a school election where Xu Qi Zhang, Ye Guang and Jun Wei apply for. There is also a stake for Xu Qi Zhang to win this election but there is no conclusion to that plotline. There is also a professor that is supporting Xu Qi Zhang but she leaves the series by ep 2. I can chalk all this down to lack to time to flesh these plots out but not much would be lost if these plots were not brought up to begin with.

In conclusion, the story is simple and the relationship between the main characters is sweet. The OST is good and wouldn’t mind listening to it over and over. The acting has been satisfactory from all the 4 main leads although I would have liked to see more of Ray as his character had a lot of potential and there is a good story there waiting to be explored.
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