Thanks for a really interesting (and tantalising) review. I'd very much like to learn more about the aspects of Japanese culture that you mention in your first two paragraphs. Could you please post a link to that article on Tumblr that you mentioned? Thanks.
This is a 10/10. The BL is not the main event. So if you are looking for sexy, visuals, romance this one is not…
You've perfectly captured the lesson of this perfect drama: Yutaka and Minoru learn to "accept the past, not fear the future, and live in the present".
For anyone who's wondering, the actor who plays senpai Sagara Takahiro is Yusuke Hirose. This actor is missing from the cast list here because he is not yet known to MyDramaList. Can anyone tell me how this can be fixed?
Helpful review, thanks. Though I just spot-checked a few episodes and I think you're too kind to the acting: what I saw was awful. To add insult to injury, the English subtitles are more than usually incompetent for Thai BL, and that's saying something. Perhaps I just didn't happen on enough of Tae and Pluem.
For me it was really obvious because of how caring and attentive the parents were. Inviting him to eat together,…
Wow. That was very acute of you. I don't understand Korean at all, so I fail to pick up a lot of the nuances in tightly written scripts like this one. Thanks for explaining.
Thanks for a really great review. It crystallised for me all the things I liked about this series but couldn't explain to myself as clearly as you do. Since you have thought so carefully about every minute of this show, perhaps you could tell me how you recognised that from about 1:44 onwards in ep.11 what we are seeing is Da Un dreaming and not reality. Like a few other reviewers I didn't pick this up at all and wondered why ep.11 had two different scenes of forgiveness and reconciliation. Rewatching, the first part of the dream, where he wakes up and finds his parents have come home, still doesn't seem readily recognisable as a dream to me. Perhaps later, where we see the two boys together but can't hear their speech, I should have twigged. What's your take on this? What cues did you pick up that enabled you to recognise it as a dream sequence right from the start?
Thanks for warning me off. I sampled a couple of episodes. The English subtitles are insultingly bad. I suppose since the cast are all 16-year-old amateurs they thought it only right to get an illiterate juvenile to do the subtitles too.
Good review, thanks. In your third paragraph, have you perhaps got the two main characters transposed? For me, Shu Yi was the curious cat and Shi De the patient dog. (But also a smart and devious dog. The way he sabotaged the infirmary to make sure they got locked in for the night was extremely cunning.) PS. Do you know how they did those underwater scenes at the start of ep.1? Were they real, could those actors really do all that underwater for so long?
Just what I wanted to hear, and would have written if I could. I especially like what you say about the story All the Korean BLs I've seen show imagination in their stories, and I like the way the red thread is woven into this one.
I wonder, did you mean to write that the story is "wholly original"? Most other reviewers say the reverse. I'm also not sure if "bark of the band" is what you meant to write.
I wish you had liked the second half more. The twists and turns of the story held my interest throughout, even though the no-dating rule was just a little silly. You're right about Gun's outfit at the prom, crowned by artfully messy hair that we hadn't seen before (nice that Tinn had it too).
Someone wrote in the main comments that a lead actor had to be replaced after filming was largely finished. If true, that would explain what happened with Seon Ho in the ep.7 confession scene.
That confession scene in ep. 7 has the weirdest editing and filming angle ever! Interns did it? Nobody knows what(the…
IrisDelacore commented above that a new lead needed to be cast just after they had finished the filming. That would explain why Seon Ho is not looking at Mu Yeong. It would be interesting to know more about this.
bro what💀 istg ppl always find something new to complain abt. ill give it to you nice and simple "gilrfan62"…
This is just an unpleasant personal attack on someone who stated an objective opinion. Please don't attack people personally. If you disagree, explain why in a civilised manner.
I agree with you about the awful Toh character. His continual goofy simpering drove me up the wall. It doesn't even make sense: no human being would maintain a cringy grin like that while sexually aroused or actually having sex. This series borders on woke trans propaganda, in fact. The premise that three nice normal masculine guys would be attracted to three vacuous cringy queeny boys is foolish, unrealistic and uninteresting. It just got my back up.
Thanks for explaining.
Since you have thought so carefully about every minute of this show, perhaps you could tell me how you recognised that from about 1:44 onwards in ep.11 what we are seeing is Da Un dreaming and not reality. Like a few other reviewers I didn't pick this up at all and wondered why ep.11 had two different scenes of forgiveness and reconciliation. Rewatching, the first part of the dream, where he wakes up and finds his parents have come home, still doesn't seem readily recognisable as a dream to me. Perhaps later, where we see the two boys together but can't hear their speech, I should have twigged. What's your take on this? What cues did you pick up that enabled you to recognise it as a dream sequence right from the start?
PS. Do you know how they did those underwater scenes at the start of ep.1? Were they real, could those actors really do all that underwater for so long?
I wish you had liked the second half more. The twists and turns of the story held my interest throughout, even though the no-dating rule was just a little silly. You're right about Gun's outfit at the prom, crowned by artfully messy hair that we hadn't seen before (nice that Tinn had it too).