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Completed
My School President
2 people found this review helpful
Feb 26, 2023
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.5
Story 9.5
Acting/Cast 9.5
Music 9.5
Rewatch Value 9.0

Not a Lovesick Remake - In many ways better

My School President is the best series of 2023. When the trailers came out I was getting too much of a Lovesick remake vibe. That trope of the music club is in trouble and the President comes into to save them and in the process falls in love. Glad to report that My School President (MSP) has transcended that trope and is a much more evolved version. Like Lovesick, MSP is a rom--com that successfully blends a simple storyline, lovable and relatable main characters, and music into an excellent series. Additionally, the actors ability to sing brings a geniousness to the series. It’s definitely not a copy or remake but a fresh take that’s done exceptionally well.

What makes MSP successful is the series ability to be light, yet not fluffy. MSP could have turned into an immature teen comedy but thankfully it didn’t. Everything feels genuine. You can feel the emotions and chemistry between allthe actors, especially with the two lead actors Fourth and Gemini, Probably helps that all the actors are all similar in true age.From a story perspective, I especially loved all the character nuances and references that the series builds on from episode to episode.These bring depth to the characters relationships. The music is excellent and is perfect in its placement within each episode. It’s a wonderful coming-of-age rom-com that’s definitely a must watch as it’s one of the best of this genre.

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Completed
Top Secret Together
0 people found this review helpful
Oct 17, 2021
15 of 15 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 6.5
Story 5.0
Acting/Cast 7.0
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 5.0
This review may contain spoilers

Are copies better than the Originals?

Top Secret Together (TST) is a series that’s just a bad riff. It lacks any story originality, taking its storylines from other more successful Thai series -which I will outline from where later - and passes it off as a credible series. Add to that, two too many couples and you have a hot confusing mess. TST is a rom-com ish series that does a poor job of connecting and developing a cohesive storyline for most of the couples in the series. Instead of focusing on one or two couples, TST ambitiously squeezes in 5 of them to the detriment of the series as it needed to spend time with all the couple’s storylines. They should have invested in a more streamlined series with two or three couples. The three seasons of Hormones, My Engineer, and even Make it Right are examples of very successful large multi-couple/multi-plot series’s that should be templates for any new producer/director undertaking this style of series. Otherwise, you end up getting TST.

The couples and the riffs (spoiler alert):

Couple 1: Sinmai/Lukmo are the main couple of TST. The story is your typical grumpy aloof guy that gets changed by an enthusiastic, naive younger guy. Pretty much a riff of the Phu/Kao couple from the Oxygen series - Ram/King from My Engineer also comes to mind here as well. Sinmai/Lukmo have their good moments early as Sinmai breaks down Lukmo’s wall only to have it come crashing down when TST decides to throw a couple of ethical wrenches into the mix by making them have a brother/step-brother relationship. Honestly, an unnecessary plot twist. They should have dropped that part and spent more time focusing them moving to becoming a couple. Embellishing Lukmo’s challenges with his mom’s passing or built-off his fight with co-workers would have been far more interesting. The cliffhanger of Sinmai leaving to go overseas, like Phu did in Oxygen, was a good wrapper. The whole brother/step-brother and the parents wanting to keep it a secret just leaves all kinds of dirty in that storyline for no reason.

Couple 2: MaiEak/Phob - Phob crushes on MaiEak. MaiEak doesn’t reciprocate back till the end till when he realizes that he really does like Phob but by then it’s too late. This is a riff of Khai/Third couple in Theory of Love. The main difference is that Third drowns out his sorrows by taking showers fully clothed, while Phob waits hungry for hours for MaiEak which gives Phob stomach problems. The Boss/Mek storyline from My Engineer as well as the Tee/Fuse storyline from Make it Right are also very reminiscent. Those three couple’s storylines were very well developed. They each made you feel the challenges and the pain of the one-sided love that each of the characters were going through. In TST, they rushed what seemed to be a bromance into a one-sided crush. They didn’t give the couple enough backstory like the aforementioned couples from other Thai series. They brought it to a head quickly with a funny accidental text and gave them a good confession scene where you could empathize with Phob’s one sided feelings and MaiEak not having the same romantic interest. But as the two drifted away, I became less and less empathetic with MaiEak. That’s where this storyline fails. I never rooted for this couple to succeed. It ended up being MaiEak being selfish and possessive, even in his approach to wooing Phob. It would have been far more interesting had MaiEak thrown himself into wooing Phob like Khai did with Third in Theory of Love. Cliche as that would have been, it would have been a far more interesting watch vs MaiEak just asking advise from everyone and bugging Phob on the phone 24/7. I guess that’s very Tee/Fuse in Make it Right. Even the wrap up was a bit weird. I definitely was rooting for the other guy to get Phob. Maybe it was the COVID restrictions that limited what they could do with this couple?

Couple 3: Nampu/Copy - a straight copy (pun intended) of the storyline of the much beloved SOTUS series. Distruptive Freshman woos the SOTUS Head Hazer. TST is just a slimmed down version of the SOTUS storyline. The beginning of the their storyline was rushed - would have been nice to have seen a bit more SOTUS related tension between the two and more of Nampu breaking down Copy’s wall. But, of all 5 couples this one developed and wrapped up the best. Highlighted by Copy’s coming out to his dad (which was very inventive) and the subtlety with the way that Copy professes his affection and commitment to Nampu. Overall, the couple that I enjoyed watching the most and the one I rooted the most to succeed.

The two that they should have thrown out or minimized (Spoiler Alert):

Couple 4: NewYear/Both - long term couple that run through an insecurity patch in their relationship. A typical cliche storyline done with no originality. From an overall TST storyline perspective, they are the glue between the first two couples I noted above and Couple 3 and 5. Otherwise there would be no link or storyline interactions between them without this couple. Their coffee shop is the hub of where all the couples go to hang-out get advise. Beyond them being the oracles in the story, their storyline is so superficial. Insecurities around one not ready to get married despite being together for over 10-years and perceived infidelity because Both gives an employee compliments of how he looked and gave him a valentine’s gift in front of NewYear, that’s the cause of your tension? They should have left them as oracles, no need for any drama related with this couple. Their issue and expanded role didn’t advance the overall series.

Couple 5: Plawaan/Suea - Suea crushes on HS Senior friend (Plawaan). Suea reconnects with Plawaan several years later when he’s a Senior in HS and Plawaan is a Senior in College. Their mutual connection is basketball. Plawaan is practicing a lot because he’s trying to make a college/club basketball team. I think they were trying to riff the storyline from Project S: Spike. Whether they were or not, it didn’t succeed. This is frankly a throw away couple. Their storyline is just not that interesting. I mostly felt like fast forwarding anytime they showed up on screen. First off, they needed to cast a person who could at least passably play basketball. It was obvious that the actor that played Plawaan couldn’t play any basketball. It was painful watching him try. With basketball being the main focal point of his character, it was important to cast an actor who could show a bit of competency to make it believable. Watch any of the Project S series or HIStory 2: Crossing the Line to get what I mean. In TST, they had too many basketball specific scenes to hide his deficiency which detracted from the credibility of the storyline. Additionally, the premise of his failure to make the team in the past was because of his height wasn’t entirely believable as his height was similar to his antagonist and his mentee Suea. The storyline and the vibe I got was that this was a random add-on couple to the series. Like it was a couple in the book that the series was based on or the producer said that they needed to add these guys as a condition to funding the series so they included them for no other reason. This couple ended up being more of a bromance than anything else. Not that there’s anything wrong with that but storyline kinda just bumbled through it, not sure if they should make it a romantic pairing or not. That and the fact that Plawaan was an unconvincing aspiring basketball player, made this couple a hard watch. Instead of spending what probably amounted to a whole episode of screen time with this couple, they should have of just dumped them in favor of more focused time on the first three I mentioned above.

Conclusion:

TST is a series that takes riffs from other Thai series as well adding cliche aspects of their storyline (let’s go vacation to the beach to profess our love for each other) and made a marginal series with little originality. The acting in TST was ok. There’s some weird dialog here and there but they’re passable and really wasn’t the problem in the series. Other than one character, they were definitely better than just cute. The problem came down to weak and uninteresting storylines for 4 of the 5 characters without enough development time. As I mentioned, the Nampu/Copy storyline was the only one that held any interest for me. The rest were eh, mainly because I felt little to no empathy for any of them especially at the end.

Is it worth watching? If you’re bored and willing to overlook the cliche storylines then maybe. Honestly, you’re far better off spending the time re-watching SOTUS, My Engineer, Theory of Love, Hormones, Make it Right, any of the Project S series, any of the HIStory series, and/or Oxygen. Those are the real deal and are far better uses of your time.

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Completed
Ingredients
2 people found this review helpful
Jan 15, 2021
21 of 21 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.0
Story 7.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 9.0
Rewatch Value 7.0
A relationship series around cooking. The concept itself is refreshing, as it’s a huge departure from the usual college or High School settings that the majority of the Thai series of this genre are based. The story is about roommates Tops (an aspiring chef) and Marwin (an upcoming musician/singer) and their budding relationship. I strongly suggest that you watch episode 0 to get the background of the two characters.

The storyline starts off simple and sweet, not sappy but cute yet mature - appropriate for the story. The acting is spot on between Jeff and Gameplay. Not award material but they have good chemistry with each other, which at times is awkward and goofy but works well with their ambiguous bromance or something more relationship.

The overall story is light in content and the episodes short which makes them easy to watch. Over the two years of the series we see a lot of maturing of the writers and production team. The early episodes, although simple and sweet, were too formulaic in their pacing and story presentation. Basically, Marwin comes in irritated or something similar, Tops cooks him something really yummy and esoteric and all is good with their world. This pacing and series presentation got bad from episode 7 to 11 when the series gets bogged down and we end up losing the point of the narrative. A lot of throwaway episodes. Plus, Marwin gets very irritating during those episodes as they turn his character into a bossy, almost ungrateful guy who looks at Tops as a servant rather than a friend, much less a love interest. It was disheartening and a big turnoff. During these episodes the food premise of the series becomes more of an afterthought as well. Thankfully the latter half of the series the producers and writers found their way and spun off a lot of the cooking details and advertising portions (see my caveat about this series in the last paragraph) to separate series’s outside of this one which allowed them to tighten the later episodes to focus on Marwin’s music career and them defining their relationship.

Overall, it’s a good series. It’s very vanilla on the surface which is good if you’re looking to not have to exert your brain on dissecting a series. It’s a simple watch, that’s worth your time.

One caveat is that the series is an advertisement for Tops, the Thai supermarket chain. That’s why there’s an emphasis on the cooking in each of the episodes. Frankly, it’s fine. it blends well with the narrative of the series and isn’t in your face as some of the direct ad placements/endorsements in other series that tend to be obviously forced and sometimes comical in their placement. This was de-emphasized in the latter episodes as they spun off those portions into individual series outside of this one.

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Completed
Unguarded
2 people found this review helpful
Dec 14, 2020
4 of 4 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 7.0
Story 6.5
Acting/Cast 7.5
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 6.0

That was Interesting

The second story of what appears to be a series trilogy (arguably a four parter) from production house JACE TV starting with Hook Up and will be followed up with One Night Stand Bangkok. Unguarded continues the story of Mark Lee after his ex-boyfriend (friend with benefits?) Henry leaves to study in Bangkok. Henry asks his best friend Lukas to take in Mark Lee because Mark Lee’s house got flooded. That sets off a series events from a developing romance (which was kinda expected) between Mark Lee and Lukas to something a bit more interesting of a storyline. This is definitely a middle series as Unguarded moves as if you’ve watched the previous series, Hook Up, already. Hook Up will give you the backstory between Mark Lee, Henry, and Lukas. Trust me, it’s a must as it will help fill gaps probably lost to most viewers coming in cold into this series. The challenge is that Hook Up is an 8 episode series, so watching for background is not trivial. ?

Unguarded has its sweet moments and has an interesting plot twist but is too dependent on Hook Up for background that you’re left wondering how did we get here so quickly. Mark Erasga, who stars as Mark Lee, is getting better with every series. He’s less monloguey in this series, mostly because he’s actually acting with someone as opposed to just the camera/phone as he was in the previous two series - I don’t know if the first series from JACE TV, Truly Very Yours, which also stars Mark as Mark Lee fits into this set of series or not. It was nice to see some character development in Unguarded with Mark Lee and acting range from Mark- you get to see the mad version that isn’t yelling at a phone. Niko Badayos, who stars as Lukas, plays his yin/yang role really well. He was good in Hook Up and good here. Not to mention he’s good eye candy. Although Unguarded appears to be at first a couples series between Lukas and Mark Lee, it’s really about Lukas and his character struggles.

The music is a let down. The OST is the same one as in Hook Up which provides a nice link between two series. It’s a good song, very catchy. The challenge that I have is that the other background music for the last two episodes was a bit overdone and gave it a soap opera vibe - could have cut it or chosen something different.

If you watch this as a standalone series you will probably be confused and most likely let down as you won’t have the background needed from watching the previous series, Hook Up. Plus, you won’t be satisfied with the cliffhanger ending which I assume will be resolved in the next series. If you view this as the bridge between the two, it’s ok. Definitely a different storyline from the typical drama narratives, especially in the BL genre. Let’s hope that One Night Stand Bangkok can give it a more complete ending,

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Ongoing 6/7
Calculating Love
0 people found this review helpful
Dec 13, 2020
6 of 7 episodes seen
Ongoing 0
Overall 6.5
Story 5.5
Acting/Cast 7.0
Music 7.5
Rewatch Value 5.0

Passable

Calculating Love starts off with an interesting premise of math formulas as parallels to relationships. The story is about two lifelong friends (Sine and Tan) who are both studying math in college. They realize in their last year in college that they, like the mathematical functions of sine and TANgent, complement each other. More than just complement but more than just friends.

The story’s mathematical basis is an interesting take and was a draw to continue to watch the series. The challenge with this series is that it’s very slow paced and arguably very repetitive especially in the middle episodes. It was like you were going through the same story path over and over again. Unfortunately, the slow pace wasn’t used to provide much depth to any of the characters, which made them pretty uninteresting. As the story progressed I felt less and less empathy towards Sine and Tan. I think they were trying to go after a Kai and Third vibe from Theory of Love but Calculating Love was unable to create that same emotional feeling or empathy towards either Sine or Tan with the struggles with their relationship which leads to an overall story in Calculating Love that’s very uninteresting.

The final episode wasn’t bad but like the rest of the series it could have been cut by a 1/3 as it too fell into the same cyclical story path with a slow resolution for the story. Maybe this was done on purpose to show how solving difficult math problems takes time, much like a relationship. Sometimes it takes a bit of trial and error before you come up with a solution. Hmmm...

The overall acting was ok as was the music in the series. Neither were at the top end but both passable enough to make it watchable.

Overall, Calculating Love is a fair series. The episodes came out a month or longer apart from each other. Had it not been for that, I would have probably dropped the series for its slow pace and generally uninteresting characters. With so many other series out there now I wouldn’t recommend this as a top-25 for 2020 to watch. As a filler while waiting in between other series, yeah why not.

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Completed
Boys' Lockdown
2 people found this review helpful
Nov 30, 2020
6 of 6 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.0
Story 9.0
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 8.5
Rewatch Value 8.0

Light and sweet

This was such a cute series. It’s simplicity and ease is what makes it work. Nothing complicated, no crazy deep character or story twisters. No character baggage issues. No ex-gf/bf or some admirer issues. No family or friend drama. I think that’s why I like this series so much. It won’t take you up and down emotionally and won’t enthrall you with a deep story but every episode will put a smile on your face. Couple that with good chemistry from the two lead actors and you have winner in my book!
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Completed
Hook Up
0 people found this review helpful
Sep 20, 2020
8 of 8 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 7.0
Story 6.5
Acting/Cast 6.5
Music 7.5
Rewatch Value 6.0

Improving

Kudos to any production company for choosing to film a series in the middle of a pandemic. Not only do you have challenges of filming during a pandemic, where the director and crew have to be creative with interactions but choosing to film in a video chat style adds to the complexity of the filming. Couple that with young and green actors and what you end up with is a series with a lot of potential but a bit lacking.

Pandemic aside, Hook Up is a homemade series which doesn’t have the budget, equipment, or expertise that the exceptional Gameboys and Hello Strangers series have. Hook Up will be invariably be compared to those two as it shares the same video chat style, was filmed at the same time, and is one of the trailblazing Filipino series in this genre. However, it would be completely unfair to compare it solely against those two due to its inherent limitations beyond the pandemic.

The acting, directing, editing, and script of Hook Up looks to be geared as if it were a theatrical live play that you’d watch as a school drama production rather than a style based the limitations of a vid chat. The actors always seemed to be doing monologues instead of actually interacting with each other on a vid chat. At times it seemed like poor chemistry between two actors, as the conversations seemed so unnatural and scripted - one of those where I think I don’t talk to that way to other people on vid chat. However, if you look at it like a live drama production where your words have to convey so much more about what the character is thinking and feeling then you can kinda understand the way it was being portrayed and maybe why the chemistry seemed inconsistent. Imagine a dark stage with Mark Lee on one side and Henry on the other. As one talks, the spotlight would be focused on him while other one be in the dark.

The storyline of the relationship between Mark Lee (played by Mark Ersaga) and Henry (played by JC Lopez) was ok. It was decently developed but not clearly resolved - it felt as if they danced around the topical issues rather than creating a clear storyline and the twist and turns seem to be deliberate (segmented) rather than natural. I think this is due to the theatrical play style that the director chose to go with in this series. Much like a stage play, it’s hard to keep multiple storylines going. The biggest plus was the addition in the later half of the series of Lukas (played by Niko Badayos) as the call boy antagonist. He’s an unusual but an interesting character addition to the story.

The main actors are ok for nw actors. They need work but improving. Mark Erasaga is getting better since his first effort in Truly Very Yours. Both he and JC Lopez struggle with having to covey a lot in the monologue, theatre style. In the theatre you do that with deliberate movements and hand gestures, In the single frame, vid chat format you have to do it with your eyes, facial expressions, voice tones and subtle character actions which neither do an entirely consistent job at. The most successful character in this style was Tita Baby who plays Tita Cassie, the wise sage who always gives timely life/relationship advise to Mark and Henry. She’s so awesomely over the top and her character thrives in this format. As well as Niko Badayos as Lukas - his I know what I want monologue works really well in this format.

We all know that you can create an exceptional vid chat format series, even in this pandemic. Take the time to watch the greatness/master-class level series Gameboys and nearly as good Hello Strangers as excellent examples of how this style of filmmaking works. In this vain, Hook-up is ok. I think it has a lot of potential that’s held back a little by the theatrical style the director choses to film this series. I don’t know if that pandemic related or a style choice. This style makes it unique from the aforementioned two series. What it needs is for the main actors to develop further to pull it off.

Is it worth your time? Yes. There are other better series in the same genre from the Philippines and other countries now out there but it’s an ok way to kill time. To be fair to it, don’t compare against the best series out there. It doesn’t have the budget nor the experienced acting, directing, or screenwriting that those series have. It does however, have an interesting enough story, an interesting theatrical style, and the characters are endearing enough to make time to watch it.

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Completed
Roommate
0 people found this review helpful
Aug 21, 2020
4 of 4 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 5.5
Story 4.0
Acting/Cast 7.0
Music 6.5
Rewatch Value 3.5

Some Potential at the Start, Finished a Hot Mess

The series started with some potential but it’s not particularly ground breaking or interesting from a story perspective. The story follows the typical RomCom, almost formulaic, story line of two roommates who start off as strangers and end up falling for each other. The first three episodes were building up the relationship of the two main characters well enough but the whole series was let down by a hot mess that was Episode 4, which is supposedly the last episode of the series. Episode 4 started off promising and ended in a place that was not only an unsatisfying end to a series but also in a scene that should no longer be a narrative in any series or movie - unless it’s a key plot element to the story. Which in this case was wholly unnecessary. Of course the Special Episode fixed this and made it more acceptable. Why they chose to classify Episode 4 as the final episode and then add a Special Episode makes no sense. The Special Episode does a decent job ending the series which makes that a must watch.

The acting and chemistry between the two main actors was ok enough for this series. Not their fault that the series they signed up for fell apart. The secondary female actors seemed forced and over done. They didn’t effectively play either the comic relief in the series nor the match making Cupid role; they were pretty much a forced after thought.

Frankly, there are far better series past, present, and future to spend your time watching - even if you watch the Special Episode. The convoluted and disappointing end makes this series not a worth your time watch. Ok, the Speical Episode does a decent job tying the series of. However, I still maintain that even during this pandemic that there significantly better new shows out there.

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Completed
AL and ER: Boys in Love
1 people found this review helpful
Aug 9, 2020
Completed 0
Overall 8.0
Story 7.5
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 7.5
Rewatch Value 7.0
The first in what will hopefully be a number of other Filipino produced short stories out of this production company. This story is about Al and Er, a couple challenged to put food on the table and buy necessities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It tells about the struggle with choices that they have to make in order to survive.

The story itself isn’t groundbreaking, arguably just a discussion/argument a couple could have If put into that situation. The choices that they were presented with is thought provoking. The film was shot in one take. This production/directing choice is a bold and huge task for the actors (as they would have to treat it like a live play - no mistakes) and the cinematographer as camera placement and the scene would need to be planned and timed well . One of the best examples of a one shot scene was done by Martin Scorsese in “Goodfellas” during Henry and Karen’s first date scene. Goodfellas had little dialog between actors which makes this scene in Al and Er more challenging. Because of the one shot format and a less sophisticated camera rig some of the angles that they move the camera to are a bit off and when they move the camera had challenges focusing fast enough to the movement. Still, big props to the format especially considering their most likely limited budget and the fact that they shot this during the middle of the pandemic.

Acting was very good! Both Jerom Canlas and Jomari Angeles did a great job making you feel the characters dilemma and stepped up to the challenge of a one take scene. Their quality acting would have been good regardless of the format. I look forward to seeing more from the two.

A good first effort from this production house. Well worth the time to watch.

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Completed
Contestant #4
3 people found this review helpful
Aug 4, 2020
Completed 0
Overall 8.5
Story 8.5
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 7.5
Rewatch Value 8.0
The description above says what the film is about so no need to rehash here. I don’t want to give spoilers so I won’t elaborate more on the description,

This short film is a very good, nuanced piece that requires you to watch and listen (read) to the details. It has a fairly simple storyline that is well acted by veteran actor Joel Saracho and an early film by an up and coming young actor, Elijah Canlas. Contestant #4 is a film that conveys a lot in a short time and makes you think afterward. Well worth your 20min.
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Completed
Truly Very Yours
1 people found this review helpful
Jul 5, 2020
5 of 5 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 6.0
Story 4.5
Acting/Cast 6.5
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 5.5

Kudos for Trying Something New

Points to the production team for using a vlog/video chat format to film this low budget series. It’s appropriate to the quarantine world that defines 2020. Unfortunately it’s not very well executed and frankly the story was confusing. Maybe if I had a better background in Filipino cinema I would have a better appreciation for the series as the first three episodes used old Filipino drama as dialog between characters. The acting, for newbies, was fine; a good first effort for actors who are primarily vloggers. Despite a similar format from their usual, they weren’t strong/seasoned enough to carry the series.

2020 Is turning out to be the breakout year for the BL genre in Filipino cinema and because of that this series will be compared to the first wave of better funded series such as Gameboys and Hello Stranger. Those two series are much better efforts with more cohesive storylines, better production values, and significantly better acting using the same filming format and style, Gameboys is a masterclass of series filmmaking, regardless of genre. Maybe not a fair comparison because of that. Regardless, where Truly Very Yours falls short is a storyline that was way too confusing that I just didn’t get it. I think it got a bit too dramatic for drama sake rather than clarity or story/character development.

With other choices in this genre from other countries but more importantly now in the Philippines it’s hard to justify watching this 5 episode series. Again, I commend the people involved in making Truly Very Yours part of the first wave of Filipino series in this genre and producing a series during COVID pandemic. But, the two series I’ve mentioned above are far better representatives and better show the state of Philppine filmmaking, especially in this genre. If you like the vlog /video chat style, I think you’d be better served to watch Gameboys and Hello Strangers, as well as the follow-up/companion series, Hook Up, which has some of the same characters/actors. It’s better evolved all the way around.

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Completed
Quarantine Stories
2 people found this review helpful
Jun 23, 2020
10 of 10 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.5
Story 8.5
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 8.5
10 unrelated short films dealing with starting, maintaining, rekindling, and/or ending of relationships during the COVID-19 quarantine. Nine of the ten episodes were uniquely filmed in a video chat/vlog style with the actors actually filming their part separately from presumably the location they are Quarantining at due to COVID. The outtakes from the episodes provided by Nadao Bangkok confirm this. This style of filming is appropriate to what is happening to all of us in 2020

Director Kriangkrai Vachiratamporn - who has directing, writing, or production credits on the Hormones trilogy, ThirTEEN Terrors, and Project S: The Series - does an excellent job of producing a series under challenging circumstances. The storylines for each of the episodes are done well and the acting is solid as he enlists familiar veteran faces from the three other projects that he’s worked on in the past. Since each film is unrelated, it doesn’t matter which episode you watch first. Their short run times, simple storylines, and solid veteran acting make them easy and enjoyable to watch, Take the time.

My top Five Episodes. I don’t want to do a spoiler to explain more so just the titles.
1. Episode 6 - Close Friend
2. Episode 8 - Mother Distancing
3. Episode 10 - What Happened Last Night
4. Episode 5 - Pumpkin
5. Episode 2 - Lovers on the Street

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Completed
En of Love: This Is Love Story
3 people found this review helpful
Jun 21, 2020
3 of 3 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 6.5
Story 6.0
Acting/Cast 6.0
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 6.0

Eh... of Love

“Brother that isn’t a brother, like a daddy that isn’t really a father.” Probably one of the best lines uttered by any one to describe their relationship. Beyond this there’s really nothing special about the final series in the En of Love trilogy. Frankly, the format of having three separate series for the three different relationships didn’t really work for me, I think it would have been more successful had they merged the series into the same timeline rather than having them happen sequentially. See My Engineer and the Hormones trilogy as good examples.

Like the other two series in the En of Love trilogy, this one seemed rushed and lacked story depth. I would have preferred more backstory and character development between the two instead of the constant badgering of Nuea by his friends creating the drama and backstory. The story itself comes off as a copycat of an umpteen number of dramas (BL or otherwise) that wasn’t told with any uniqueness, meaningful drama, or even PG13 content to carry it through. Yes, the cuteness of the characters probably carried it enough to keep people engaged to watch all three episodes.

The acting was ok, again nothing unique or special. Chemistry could have been a lot better between the two main characters, their relationship didn’t seem natural, Benz, who plays Praram and Pralak, could use a little polish to become less wooden . War Wanarat, who plays Mark, is the best actor in the whole trilogy and shined even in his minor role in this series.

There are definitely better series out there and of the three En of Love series in the trilogy this was the worst. Is it worth your time? Yeah, just don’t expect too much from it.

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Completed
My Engineer
2 people found this review helpful
Jun 20, 2020
14 of 14 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.0
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 8.0
What makes My Engineer work is its simple storylines that balance just enough depth to provide substance without making the stories too complicated and relatable young actors who are cute and act well.

The series starts off weird and disjointed. I almost dropped it because of it. But hung on through the first two episodes and found it a very well worth while watch. The couples are interesting. Not only because of their cuteness, but for the Yin/Yang nature of their relationship. The simple opposites attract theme and the journey that each couple took to find their mutual love for each other is told well enough. It’s sweet and cuddly without being too sappy. Kudos to the writers and director for providing equal screen time for each of the couples, this is often a problem in ensemble couple series, so you can actually appreciate all of them.

Take the time to watch this candy sweet series. Yes, it’s not going to be as deep as Until We Meet Again or have the twist and turns of Theory of Love. It’s the simplicity annd cuteness of My Engineer that make this worth your time.

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Completed
En of Love: Love Mechanics
3 people found this review helpful
May 2, 2020
4 of 4 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.0
Story 8.5
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 8.0

The best of the En of Love trilogy

A very sweet and realistic story between Mark and Vee. The up and down story of Mark and Vee is very believable and refreshingly simple and straightforward. The success of this series in the En of Love trilogy is the solid acting and good chemistry between the two main characters. You can feel the ups and downs that Mark and Vee were going through. War Warnarat is especially good in his portrayal of Mark; he successfully wears his emotions with his facial expressions. The storyline and acting was far superior to the messy TOSSARA story previous to this in the series.

If there’s one thing to fault in this series the timeline. In watching it seems like events happen within maybe a few months. However, based on character dialog, events actually happen in a span of like 18 months! I know the reason is because they needed to age the characters for the overall story continuity for the last segment of the trilogy. It would have been nice if they slowed it. Perhaps intertwining the TOSSARA story with this one instead of having them as separate sections of the series would give better depth and storyline timing. Having watched all three En of Love series, there was no reason to have them as three distinct series for each couple. Reference My Engineer and the Hormones trilogy as good examples of Thai series that do the multi-couple thing well.

The good thing with the format is that each of the stories are compartmentalized so you don’t need to watch them in order or know what happened before to understand what’s going on.

Despite the timeline and continuity challenges it’s a worthwhile watch. This story and actors warrants its own series or was that story already told in Theory of Love?

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