etoks21

One sure sign of a top-tier BL
Is that rather than sobbing through one or two climactic scenes, I find myself welling up and having to wipe my eyes multiple times through scenes that are more subtle, but which cause feels and emotions to come spilling over my keyboard and into my lap. And I'm one of those people whose tear ducts have minds of their own; if something is deeply touching, sad or extremely happy, they turn themselves on and there's nothing I can do about it.

This is most definitely a top-tier BL. The finale was sensational. The best acting from both leads that I've seen yet, and leaving the best
to the last is exactly the way to
play it. Good heavens, hayakawa
knocked it out of the park in the
final scene at night in his
apartment. He wasn't faking those
emotions, as an actor he was in
the character and feeling them.
Same goes for Konno, though his
feelings are a few layers deeper
and less openly expressed.

Nonetheless, his performance was
excellent and deeply affecting. Konno seemed to remain he who he was to begin with and it makes sense that he would be the more fully - formed stable one. But I was repeatedly struck by how well the actor portrayed someone I could only think of as a stud, but a stud who had no need whatsoever to act like one, if you know what I mean. The actor has incredible presence.

Wonderful character development in seeing hayakawa go from zoned-out Playboy to sensitive artist eager to live as he truly is.

To sum up, my welling up and slight mistiness began about halfway through the last episode, and I remained in that state until the morning - after scene, when I moved into a full stage crying Jag. Seeing them laying there together like that is a beautiful thing to behold.

On edit: just remembered that it was the site of Konno asleep on the floor at Hayakawa's apartment door that really turned on the water works.

The smooching near the end, topped off by the morning after scene, more than made the fish kisses leading up to that worth bearing. :) during this last episode, I was reminded of what may be a key, general difference between male/female responses to such scenes. For me, they bring on tears. AND wood, if you know what I mean and I think you do. ;)

I didn't even mind all the tropes here, for two reasons: they were well-done, plus I haven't seen a decent BL in at least 6 months, maybe longer, so I didn't mind. Hair and makeup note: Hawakaya needed a grown up hairstyle for the post-time jump scenes.

Second season please!

8.5/10

P.S. to the reviewer above and one or two commenters here, thank you for describing a couple of stolen kisses as "sexual assault." The reviewer even goes so far as to recommend skipping those stolen kisses to avoid the sight of the violent rapes she apparently equates with a peck on the lips, and being "triggered," otherwise known as experiencing human feelings in response to something seen / heard / red in a piece of art. We can't have that now, can we?

To both of you, I needed a good laugh today and you provided more than a few of them. Thanks again.

Good for you.

And I agree right back at you, with your comment here. Thank you for mentioning the glorious view of the sea from the rooftop. I had meant to mention that but forgot. At first I assumed it was a green screen, fake background but then as it was shown more and more I determined it's an actual location. If that is the case, it seems that school is perched right on the edge of a cliff. :)

I haven't wished for more episodes of a BL in a long time, but I'm with you on this one. I wish there was more. But that is another thing jbl's get right, it's always best to leave the audience wanting more, rather than driving them to boredom with too many episodes packed with filler as we so often see out of Thailand. I'm about to watch episode 6, assuming it's out. I'm both excited and sad to see what they have in store for us. Maybe we will get a second season?

God Complex.
Google it.

Never before have two sets of more gorgeous pillow lips come together in a smooch. I just wish we had gotten a lot more of that.

Wow.

This show is far, far better than it has any right to be. It is an excellent example of a series that is much greater than the sum of its parts. Obviously, there was no budget here, and yet to me, even though I certainly noticed that, it did not dampen my enjoyment of the drama at all.

This is due primarily to the generally excellent acting from the two leads as well as from the supporting character of the coach's son. He too is a good actor, but I take issue with the fact that he looks like he's one of the judo team members uncle more than he looks like one of their peers.

But as we all know, good acting isn't all it takes to make a successful show, it also requires chemistry among the actors particularly between two romantic characters. And here we have chemistry out the ass and spilling all over my keyboard. These two were a delight to watch play off each other as their relationship grew and changed.

The writing was really good in parts though I would have made some changes, but most of the dialogue was good. Of course, we had the usual trope of people doing bad things to good people because they think they're being Noble or something, also the ever- present trope of massive misunderstandings. Oh well, I enjoyed myself. I even forgot about the damn vertical orientation

This thing was pretty fluffy too, and I normally loathe such fluffy things. But the fluff was mixed in with enough anger and drama here in there too weaken it all, and some of the fluff, especially after they cleared things up and got together, was so damn cute I just gave up and surrendered to it. When the junior judo kid hit his head in his pillow and squealed because he was so happy over them being together, I loved it. Another sign of good acting, that he was able to pull off such dorky behaviors without it seeming stupid.

I ended up watching this thing in one go, with all the episodes stitched together by some anonymous, wonderful person on YouTube. I'm glad I did. I highly recommend it. I'm reading it considering what it is, and not against feature films or big budget bad bl's like so many we see out of Thailand.

Bravo!

8.5/10

I agree that he is a good actor, both of them are. I will check his bio. Are any of the other shows he is in worth watching?

Yep, you are nuts. You have contradicted yourself countless times in your comments and replies. Often as in this one, you contradict yourself within the same reply. So get back to me after you watch it for more times. Of course I suppose you'll put on a different pair of "lenses" for each watch, which means you'll come away from each one having seen a completely different movie, right? Wait, don't answer that.

I didn't even bother reading past your second paragraph. I don't think I've ever corresponded with another commenter who just makes s*** up out of thin air. Clearly, you do not even understand the meaning of the word harem. As I said the king's not sleeping with anyone but HR. Of course the penalty is death, he ran away with the girl without getting permission. Please tell me one incident in the movie that indicates he's sleeping with anyone else. The purpose of the harem is to provide sex for a king or ruler. What am I doing I'm starting to argue with you again and you're clearly out of touch with reality. It would be very hot if indeed the King was having sex with all of the guards. I would
love that. But unlike you, just because I want something to happen in a movie that would be hot, I don't go ahead and pretend to see it on the screen. LOL wow you are a piece of work. I agree that you need to rewatch this movie. Why don't you rewatch it four more times and catch up with
Me, and then we can have a nice long chat about it. Man, you are something else.

Platinum, you seem to have forgotten that near the end when she is becoming desperate, it is the queen who begs HR to take her away. She did not choose to stay, she would have gladly given up her status on the throne and as the Royal mother of the Future King to be with HR. Did you even watch this movie?

The only thing more annoying than a fool is an arrogant fool. Have you never heard of bisexuality? Have you never heard of the Continuum of sexual identity and preference? For instance, you may be interested to know that I consider myself a gay man, and yet I was married to a woman for 12 years and had three children with her. And I didn't fantasize about the king or any other man while I was sowing my seed. You sound very immature and ignorant.

Where do you get this "harem" idea? Certainly not from anything in the film. There is nothing whatsoever to indicate the king is sleeping with anyone except HR. This is never a question in the story. Remember, late in the film one of the other guards offers himself to the king, and the King is 100% not interested. His heart and his body are for HR only. But I'd love to hear what you saw and heard that made you think the guards constitute a harem. LOL

Damn, I forgot to put a spoiler tag on the above, and right now I have access to the site only through my phone and after the first comment I do not get the option to edit. Sorry to anyone who sees that and didn't want to.

I totally disagree with you here on a couple of very important points but again, what is the point of arguing? I will say however, because I strongly believe this, there is no way the king would ever have killed his lover boy, unless driven to the extreme that he was by circumstances. Remember even during the climactic sword fight, he stopped and actually ask HR if there was any way he would come back to him. Even then he did not want to kill him and did not intend to if HR had only said yes. But of course, by then things had gone too far.

He said he wanted the child to look like HR because he is deeply in love with HR and finds him flawless. Although I will give some thought to the interesting point you made about a resemblance to HR being a danger if others saw it as well, but that seems like quite a reach.

Several other key elements you see in the story, I believe to be an inaccurate summary of events. Okay I'll leave it at that.

This drama is such a breath of fresh air. I have been wandering a desert of lame bls, none worth watching, for a long time. Even those out of Korea the last 9 months or so have been weak. I gave up on Thailand long ago, of course. But this one is worth watching.

Lots of tropes regarding the setup, environment, certain incidents along the way, but the strength of acting and that Japanese way of telling a story won me over toward the end of the first episode. I almost always like some voice over narration, especially with a show as brief as this one. That helps establish the story and the mood, and I'm all for it. Before that I had my doubts but I'm all in now and waiting for episode 6. No idea how they would wrap all this up in one episode though.

The actor playing Konno is doing a great job of very naturally portraying a calm, reserved, self-confident character. He is very comfortable in his own skin and not easily rattled.

One caveat: the couple of mannequin kisses. Nothing brings me out of a scene like a dead fish kiss that screams "I would rather be doing anything other than this right now but my agent told me I had to."

The chaste kisses are kind of odd, given what what we saw go on in that dim, empty classroom with that girl early in episode 1. Speaking of which, that may be the most skillfully executed portrayal of a BJ, without showing anything at all, that I have ever seen. The actor must be commended for his facial expressions in that moment. Most notably and importantly, he did not go overboard with it. It was quite subtle. Nobody too young to see a scene like that, portrayed in that manner, would have a clue what was happening. The magic of live action storytelling.

Speaking of which, if Konno could so easily notice something and slide the door open to behold that spectacle, then any teacher or administrator could do the same. Pretty risky, but maybe Hayakawa is a tad kinky and enjoys the danger of possibly being caught. Incidentally, why would Konno just happen by and think to check on that classroom? Hmmm ... was he following Hayakawa...?

Both actors are great looking, but Konno's features are the more distinctive and interesting of the two. BJ Boy does have a gorgeous mouth though. I paint a lot of portraits, so I'm always interested in the features I'm seeing on screen.

Anyway, bravo to the show-makers! They have given me a hope that perhaps all is not lost in BL world.

I'm not frustrated. I choose not to waste my time anymore. The second half of your reply feels passive aggressive to me. I have had five years and five watches of this film to consider its content. Maybe consider that what you see on the screen is only there in your mind. But, it's true that we are all individuals who come to our understanding of art from vastly different backgrounds and experiences. So what you see and I don't think is there, is fine. Do you know the word "supercilious?" Maybe look it up and keep it in mind next time you interact with another commenter here.

Wow. Your comment is.. something. I've decided not to bother replying, because you infer a lot I don't believe it's there on the screen, and what I do agree is on the screen we mostly disagree about. It took me a long time, but I have largely given up on arguing with people here. Take care.

Intriguing comment. Thanks for sharing it. Could you share more about them being used as honey traps, for what purpose and by whom? I want to respond, but first I want to be clear on your meaning. Thanks so much.

Is this Ryuhei's mom?

A lot is lacking about this movie, but the sex scenes are not one of those things. Among the hottest, most erotic mainstream film scenes, gay or straight, I have seen. Given that it is Pinoy, I was shocked at how well done it is, overall. some of the best acting I have seen in a gay filipino movie, though that isn't really saying much. I would love for a better script writing team to get hold of this basic story and fix all of the problems with it. that said, I found it an unexpected surprise and rated it 7.5/10. Had it come out of Korea, japan, or Taiwan, it would have only gotten a 6/10 but I handicapped it, given that it's Pinoy and expectations are accordingly lowered. Miggy is terrific here, as is the main supporting actor who, despite playing a messed up snake, somehow had me feeling mixed emotions about him, the sign of good acting. he took what could have been a black/white, cardboard cutout character and gave him some dimension. Plus, he has the hottest body of the three main characters. :D I may return to write more tomorrow but I just finished and I'm too tired to do it now.