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I enjoyed this first episode and found it to have an interesting blend of Korean and European beliefs. The acting was solid. My only nitpick would be that the Shaman's attempt to confront the spirit in the young prince came off more as a modern interpretive dance performance. I would think that something more historically accurate could be portrayed (?) The humour felt off, too, but it may not be so for the domestic audience.

Ultimately, if the show doesn't work for you, it doesn't. There's nothing wrong with that. =)

LOL: Go read my letter. :D

No, I haven't seen Kate's review, It's nice that you're able to make that separation. You're a bigger man, then I.

Agreed. =)

As opposed to the oh- so-reasoned-through and well-structured post you started with, here ? I'll try not to cry myself to sleep over the fact that you don't want to have a 'convo' with me.

Thank you for sharing this. I agree with what you posted but I will say that if Yuki was a personal friend of mine, I would be pained to see him pine away for Akira for so long and would have likely been encouraging him to try and move on, for his own sake. I feel like I'd been doing a disservice to him, as a friend, otherwise...

I think that Phupha's confrontation was realistic because, from where he was standing in that moment, Tian had lied to him a number of times about someone he loved like family even when Phupha had asked him point blank. That's going to cause massive internal dissonance inside Phupha because he's also in love with Tian. Phupha is a deeply guarded individual and I've known many people like him. (Often, experiences/events in their youths have lead them to be that way.)

Phupha would have reasonably been doubly devastated because he not only lost someone he loved like family but he's then told by Tian, the person Phupha's falling deeply in love with, that he was responsible for it. Duty is the axis upon which Phupha's life revolves. He could have even see it as his duty to the community to confront Tian then and there to prevent Tian from having any opportunity to mislead the villagers, further.

Phupha foreshadowed just how unforgiving he could be about this subject when he shut one of men down after Torfun's funeral and they tried to bring up that they'd heard it was unintentional. Phupha wasn't having any of it and he said something like "I don't care. I would never forgive them" That rigidity is consistent with someone who is so tightly regulated (to the point of being somewhat disconnected from his own feelings) internally. The feelings that do surface, with such people, often do so with the force of an eruption, which is what Phupha did. I'm not saying that it's laudible but it is all plausible.

Phupha's issues are far deeper set than Tian's. If we're lucky, we'll see them brought up over the last two episodes. They have focused more on Tian up to this point but I don't think that Phupha has been reduced to a one-dimensional prize for Tian.

This would have been such an emotionally charged revelation for everyone that it's entirely believable, for me as a retired psych nurse, for them to hear "I'm responsible for her death" as "I killed her."

It's also believable that actual psychological shock, which scrambles higher order brain functions and engages in more primitive instinctual functioning would not have them asking follow up questions. They were in a situation where they felt a keen sense of betrayal (intensified by the communal ethos of village life) and Tian could be very quickly assessed as a threat to them by their more base instinctive functions. As viewers, we look down on the situation in "God Mode," and have a near omniscient perspective, but the villagers and Phupha do not share that vantage.

In the real world, this situation could spiral out of control into an instance where a mob mentality could take over and could put Tian in physical danger. Once he said what he said, in the way he said it, trying to expand on it or modify it could well have triggered reactive, violent anger. He could have ended up attacked by the crowd.

I share a similar opinion about Phupha. =)

I largely concur. Well said! =)

I will offer, though, for consideration regarding the matter of Tian and Longtae that Tian has previously shown that he questions his own right to have been given a second chance. He still felt unworthy of it. That plays a role in some of his risk-taking behaviours we've seen. Our dear boy has a nihilistic streak. At one level, he didn't care if taking that picture would get him caught, because he doesn't necessarily think he deserves to still be alive, in the first place. The moral imperative for him was that there was proof that could be taken back to the authorities. That's also why he wanted to draw the thugs to him so that Longtae and the evidence could escape. I think he would have done whatever he had to to ensure that Longtae got away. I'm not saying that it wasn't a dangerous thing to do, but I can see how it would play out in Tian's mind...

I've joked with another person that I know from 'round the board by referring to the issue of the 5 year gap as the shows' Black Hole of Central Implausibility, from which no sense can escape its event horizon...

Not by yourself, you're not! >:-)

(Although a high-res pic of the birdies from the episode is currently my desktop wallpaper...)

These dramas also mean a lot to me, as well. They can be uplifting just by the virtue of them being love stories between men. Western media doesn't really produce anything like them. LGBTQ characters are present in western TV series but their love lives are often sidelined in favour of their occupations, broader connections to the narratives, etc. Western shows that are specifically about LGBTQ people tend to do so with an emphasis on people finding their place within the broader community. But, where are the love stories? From the time we were young, we saw lots of love stories but none of them spoke directly to our experience. We always had to interpret and adapt, to a degree.

I am so pleased that the BL industry has found a broad enough acceptance and interest that we finally can see stories that we can directly relate to. We are human beings and we should be able to see our loves play out just as beautifully as straight people do, all the time. I know that the key demographic consists of pre teen and teenage girls but they, too, seem to be more and more interested in seeing these stories as being appealing for the LGBTQ community, as well. That's wonderful.

I could have benefited so much from seeing these types of shows when I was young and I'm so happy the today's younger LGBTQ people can access these for affirmation, comfort, and inspiration.

I agree with you that a lot of BL shows lack realism. They can so often be blatant constructs that follow the same formula again and again.

Back to 1000 Stars, I agree that they've done a lot to imbue the show with realism, from the settings to the attention to the cultural uniqueness of the village, to the roles that the characters fulfill within the community. That realism also gets reflected to a degree in the faults and flaws or characters have, They have made mistakes. Hopefully, they continue to grow from making those mistakes. IMO, there are other shows currently running that ask us to believe far more implausible things than what we've seen here... ;-)

Still, I find that the realistic aspect is overlaid with a sense of charm, lore and magic; if you will. The title itself, is a fairytale title. In this village, there are ghosts and guardian spirits. omens and auspicious days. In this story, wishes can possibly come true and redemption can be found. But it's doesn't necessarily come easily. Sometimes, growth is painful, even in fairytales. The melange of all this is what makes this series uniquely compelling, for me.

I've commented before how I didn't even realise how much the little guy still inside of me needed to see something like this until it was right in front of me, and I am so grateful. I know I'll watch it again and again and I agree that it can be great to be able to connect with other viewers to share our interest and opinions. It enhances the experience, for me.

It's been nice to have this 'chat' with you, too and I'm sure we'll all have more to connect with each other over come the next episode, if not sooner. =)

In reference to Episode 8, Earth posted on his Twitter:

โกรธได้ แต่อย่าโกรธนาน :(

"Can be angry, but please do not be angry for a long time." :(
(Google Translate)

I was actually giving it a bit more thought and I wonder if our grey areas might stem from the way in which we view the series. You had written about how the series strives for authenticity. (Realism?)

That's never really been the case for me, with this series. I've commented multiple times that this series appeals to me so much because I feel it has a fairytale quality to it. It's tender, it's moving, it touches the heart. It has the charm of a classic Disney romance, but between two men: lol!

As such, volcanic episode 8, works for me like the epic confrontations of the Villagers storming the Beast's Castle, or the final battle between Ariel and Ursula.

In contrast, I thought ITSAY was more directly striving for authenticity and that's why I believe I found some of the crying scenes to be melodramatic, there, My own emotional responses were stopped dead in their tracks, sometimes, because I was agog at the characters responses. I'm sorry, but I burst out laughing when Teh was braying like a teary mule as he was writing that exam. That was melodrama, to me.

Ultimately, though, isn't it nice that we have such tales to discuss and debate in the first place?

That's why I asked the question. It did rather read, to me, as if you knew what ailed the episode and what you would do to fix it. I agree that the series isn't perfect but no series is and our appreciations or critiques of series are always subjective, to a degree.

As an example, you found ITSAY really strong, as it was. I found it overwrought to a significantly greater degree than I've found to be the case in this series.

I'm very pleased with the way this story has played out, including this last episode. My one critique is the issue of Dr. Nam's professional ethics and there's an objective standard to go by, in that case.

I can appreciate that you felt that this was a 6 out of 10 episode and others didn't like it, as well. Indeed, I've seen a greater variance of opinion about this episode than any other in the series. I would offer, though, that the level of upset caused could well be a parallel example of the agitation of the villagers in terms of our investment. I guess I'll have to conclude by saying that I don't agree that the initial premises or the episode would be improved with so much revision. I don't think it necessary. But, that's just my opinion.

In summary, are you saying that if you could rewrite the whole episode, along with some of the initial premises that we all knew would have repercussions all along, it would have been better?

I'm not being snide: I'm honestly asking the question.

Yes, I count the days until the next episode airs and I'm sad that we're almost at the end. Hope you enjoy the book! =)

Oh! How did I miss that? Oops!