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Fair points. Mainly, I wanted to urge the pondering of different possible perspectives instead of leaping to condemnation of the actor.

Upon reflection I do see that some of my word choices are more extreme than necessary; 'inhumane', 'cruel', and 'miserable' for example. 'Thoughtless' and 'uncomfortable' might be more appropriate word choices so I went back and made some edits, thanks for pointing out.

To me the extent of cold settings in the story isn't logical, which fed my incredulity over it.

If his character was practicing alone in a random space, like an abandoned warehouse, then no heat would make sense. But he's in an actual dance studio room and he's not the only one using it; it's unrealistic that it's not heated.

If his home was small and cramped then practicing out on the balcony would make sense, but it IS large enough so that choice is nonsensical.

That's why it seems unnecessary. Working in the heat is not something that's easily controllable. The two choices above are, however.

Geez, I looked him up and that's tragic. People are is so prone to knee-jerk reactions these days. Those in the spotlight can be mercilessly ground down under societal pressures for just a few assumptions.

Right! There haven't been any other actions or words that indicate homophobia (as far as I'm aware), and as you say, we're lacking context. I understand the concern and that it's happened with a few actors before, but any number of things could have lead to this situation over the last couple of years. Unless there's more corroborating evidence for homophobia, I say let's lean towards giving the benefit of the doubt first.

I'm familiar with actors going through a lot physically and mentally for their roles, it just seemed really unnecessary for YMMD though. Unpleasantness that's arbitrary is a lot harder to take with equanimity than when there's clear purpose for it. That's why I wonder if it contributed in some way to Young Woo turning his back on the show.

Yes, one of the possibilities is that he never wanted to do it in the first place, but I just think it's hard to say for certain without more first-hand info.

There haven't been any other actions or words that indicate homophobia (as far as I'm aware) and we're lacking context. I understand the concern and that it's happened with a few actors before, but any number of things could have lead to this situation over the last couple of years. Unless there's more corroborating evidence for homophobia, I say let's lean towards giving the benefit of the doubt first.

1/9/24 I made a couple edits to reduce dramatic word choices. Original words are kept in brackets [ ]. Mainly, I wanted to urge the pondering of different possible perspectives instead of leaping to condemnation of the actor.

Is it possible Choo Young Woo's actions (leaving out YMMD in his awards speech & removing in his social media) were influenced by the likely uncomfortable [rather inhumane] temperature conditions he was made to work in for You Make Me Dance?

*This is a hypothosis*, but if it were me, I might not want to honor a production that used my newbie status to force me to perform in possibly unpleasant [consistently miserable] conditions. And unnecessarily so- it wasn't needed for the story (and really, what dance studio wouldn't heat their rooms?). I could easily understand IF this generated any bitterness or soured his BL experience (I don't know if it did or not).

There are only a couple of scenes where you CAN'T see Young Woo's breath in the frigid cold air and he is almost always thinly [inadequately] dressed.

I can't help thinking that the production was unnecessarily thoughtless [cruel to him] for the sake of a few cinematic shots of breath in the air. The sets already look cold with the winter lighting, [You can make a set look cold with lighting] you don't actually need to keep the heat off! Plus, performing athletically (like dancing) in the cold can increase the chance of muscle strains and injuries.

It's winter and he's in ballet slippers outside with snow on the ground, the rehearsal and audition rooms are as cold as when he practices outside on his balcony (which is unnecessary because his home is large enough to dance indoors- he does so in a later episode), he auditions in a tank top and bare feet, and I don't think either actor gets gloves when they're acting outdoors (I remember his hands and feet looking so red). I felt incredulous, uncomfortable, and sympathetic just watching him throughout the series because of this.

I'm familiar with actors going through a lot physically and mentally for their roles, it just seemed really unnecessary for YMMD though. Unpleasantness [suffering] that's arbitrary is a lot harder to take with equanimity than when there's a clear purpose for it. That's why I wonder if it contributed in some way to Young Woo turning his back on the show.

Yes, one of the possibilities is that he never wanted to do it in the first place, but I just think it's hard to say for certain without more first-hand info.

1/9/24 I made a couple edits to reduce dramatic word choices. Mainly, I wanted to urge the pondering of different possible perspectives instead of leaping to condemnation of the actor as we don't know the details and he hasn't made any homophobic remarks (that I'm aware of).

Is it possible Choo Young Woo's actions (leaving out YMMD in his awards speech & removing in his social media) were influenced by the likely uncomfortable temperature conditions he was made to work in for You Make Me Dance?

*This is a hypothosis*, but if it were me, I might not want to honor a production that used my newbie status to make me perform in possibly unpleasant conditions. And unnecessarily so- it wasn't needed for the story (and really, what dance studio wouldn't heat their rooms?). I could understand IF this generated any bitterness or soured his BL experience (I don't know if it did or not).

There are only a couple of scenes where you CAN'T see Young Woo's breath in the frigid cold air and he is almost always thinly dressed.

I can't help thinking that the production was unnecessarily thoughtless for the sake of a few cinematic shots of breath in the air. The sets already look cold with the winter lighting, they didn't actually need to keep the heat off! Plus, performing athletically (like dancing) in the cold can increase the chance of muscle strains and injuries.

To me the extent of cold settings in the story isn't logical, which fed my incredulity over it.

If his character was practicing alone in a random space, like an abandoned warehouse, then no heat would make sense. But he's in an actual dance studio room and he's not the only one using it; it's unrealistic that it's not heated.

If his home was small and cramped then practicing out on the balcony would make sense, but it IS large enough so that choice is nonsensical.

That's why it seems unnecessary. Working in some conditions, like summer heat for example, is not something that's easily controllable. The two choices above are, however. Unless the character was conciously choosing to rehearse 'cold' despite the increased risk of injury and for a reason (beyond a few nice shots), but it wasn't shown that way.

Yay, glad it helped! :)

Both Ryo and Sho are shirtless. Ryo arranges flowers and applies rouge to Sho's lips before lying down beside him with a smile. The end!

The lifeless Sho is shown surrounded by white lillies as Ryo settles beside him.

We are shown Ritsu holding up the white shirt he made while waiting for Sho in the park while Ryo walks past in the distance holding a large bouquet of more white flowers.

Ryo kills Sho (his brother) because Sho wants to leave their home to be with Ritsu. Ryo loves Sho romantically and is rejected when he finally, and desperately, makes his feelings known. Ryo also doesn't think Ritsu is worthy of Sho. FYI they are blood brothers, not stepbrothers.

Foreshadowing: Ryo gives Sho white lillies, which are commonly used in both weddings and funerals.

I will post spoilers on the ending in chronological steps. That way, you can decide how much of the ending you want revealed before deciding to watch or not :)

Totally agree :)

Yes, EXACTLY! To everything you said :) I had very similar thoughts but got tired of articulating my incredulity, disappointment, and frustrations over this series, lol.😅 Thank you for writing it out, now I don’t have to 🙏😊

This series does a disservice to everything it touches. The characters, the actors (some of their couples tiktoks are more fun to watch than the series because they show an actual connection and comfortable intimacy), sex workers, and BDSM and the whole fetish community.

I get that it's supposed to be more of a cautionary tale, but it over-generalizes and feels like it's condemning what the production
is simultaneously using to try to gather viewers.

And yes, there are so many other things they could start with to ease Zouey into physical intimacy! That seems a no brainer, which makes that scene frustrating in its stupidity.

Your comment made think about Teena more. He was indeed being fairly respectful of Zouey's boundaries until that scene so I think you're right about him being written out of character too.

Completely agree with your sentence, "Zouey is the most interesting because he feels the most authentic but then it was completely mishandled."
I was the closest to being emotionally (or at least mentally) invested in Zouey and Teena because, for a little bit, they felt the most authentic out of everyone.

That's what I felt too- like it was a Sparknotes to something greater. I missed the romantic build of the connection between the characters so when conflict came, the stakes didn't feel as high as they could have. I mentally knew they were in love, and they were certainly cute/sweet to watch, but I didn't feel it emotionally. I was rooting for them and the plot-twist scene did tug at my heartstrings, but I kept feeling like too many chunks of the story were missing/skipped to feel fully connected and satisfied.

I didn't much like him in season 1 to begin with, and I've been debating whether I really want to watch season 2 or not... and now I have my answer, in the most cleverly humorous way possible! 🤣 Thank you 🙏

I like reading other people's perspectives too! I appreciated your review. Reading it helped me with the final sorting of my thoughts so I could write my own review coherently :)

As I was thinking about the film I wondered if SungKyu was gay and that's how he could easily tell that SungWoo was, and what it would mean if he wasn't... but when I read your bit about sexuality not being the point, that really clicked for me mentally. There were other impulses driving that action, and that is the focus.
I really like your final paragraph too.