etoks21

To me, that's one of the refreshing aspects of this series.
It never tried to be a traditional BL, but up to the fourth episode, even I found myself assuming the show would somehow get them back together, but by then, if not before, that would have been extremely unrealistic.

By #5, I didn't WANT them to get back together, as it would be really bad for Yuma. Itsuki is a damaged person who copes by bringing others down with him.

About what, specifically?

Random MDL question:
Is there any practical effect of being someone's MDL "friend?"
I have a shit-ton of them, but have been unable to figure out how to do anything with that status, such as being alerted when they post comments, or share a review, or anything else.
Am I missing something?
It's always nice to have friends, of course, but other than looking through the list and smiling contentedly, is there no other benefit? :P :)

Sure you are, frustrated little Killer Knetz.
No doubt "moving on" to another thread under another BS "controversy," hoping to help drive a different celeb to suicide.

Blood sucker.

Try again after you come off whatever drugs you're on.

THANK YOU.
I appreciate your lists more than you know.
I especially appreciate you including the countries of origin, so I can skip all the Thai ones. :)

Or, alternatively, kept it at six episodes, but cut most of the documentary director's side story, which is distracting and really should have its own series.

I agree with everything you said here (I'm gay too) except the possibility of these two ever having a successful relationship.
Itsuki won't have a successful relationship with anyone until he takes some critical steps into self-awareness and recovery.
Right now, he WANTS misery and pain because that's what he thinks he deserves. I 100% understand that, as I am the same. The difference is I've been in therapy and recovery for decades, which is he only way people like us can live happily, whereas the Itsuki at the end of the drama is nowhere near that step.

I see that Itsuki as, sadly, a future suicide, a tropical fish floating belly-up, just as he said.

I agreed with you 100% until Itsuki's final monologue to the camera.
This was the point where the show as a whole, moved from excusing to explaining Itsuki's bullshit.
During his schpiel, my resentment toward the character lifted and was replaced with understanding, even identification.

It's complicated to explain, but even as he sat blaming others for his issues, it became crystal clear that him living his life as a victim of those people and their actions, lashing out and hurting others at every turn, is a CHOICE he is making. No one is forcing it on him.
And that point is when a deep sadness came over me as I watched.
I see myself and millions of other wounded folks in Itsuki. The difference is that many of us have moved into the life-long task of dealing with that shit and living in recovery from it.

But, it must be clearly stated: It is difficult AF to take that first step, and most people never do.

Without help, which he is nowhere near being ready to accept, Itsuki is headed for the same outcome as that tropical fish, floating belly-up, as he explicitly acknowledged.
The writing isn't subtle about that.

People are flawed...and it's important to let that be what it is, because it will always be the case. Naomi gets to unjustifiably lash out at Shiho, and Shiho gets to see that for what it is, and discount the negative emotional side of it while taking whatever may be useful from the experience.
This may be the most important overall message of the show.

Remember, though: Naomi apologized.

I agree.
I take issue with Itsuki's assertion that Yuma was attempting to make himself feel/seem "special" through his open demand of equal treatment under the law, however. The opposite is true.

Episode 6:

MILD SPOILERS:

The most admirable aspect of this drama is that it did not tie things up in a neat bow.
Character flaws remained unchanged from beginning to end.
There was little in the way of growth, if any.
However, during the documentary's filming, both halves of the MC seemed to gain awareness of why their relationship didn't work and how each contributed to that outcome.

I believe Itsuki knew from the beginning that it wouldn't work, just as it had never worked with anyone before and never will with anyone in the future.
What he doesn't understand, even at the show's end, is that his "knowing" such things dooms every attempt from the outset. Or, maybe he does know, but doesn't care, because that is the outcome he thinks he deserves. Itsuki sees a failed outcome ahead, then sets out to make that vision a reality.

Sadly, his final monologue in the documentary shows him as tragically scarred, figuratively and literally, by his past. Without powerful intervention, I see suicide in his future, , ie., a tropical fish who can't take the heat and goes belly-up.
His monologue put a cap on my understanding of why he is a passive-aggressive douche bag to everyone around him. He drives others away because he believes he is unworthy of affection...from anyone. His arrogant bravado is as much a shield as a weapon.

While there are major aspects of this drama that don't work for me, I'm glad to have seen it. I see much of myself in Itsuki, though there are big differences. For people like me, it is always useful to see ourselves in such characters as a means of staying aware of the work we need to keep doing throughout our lives. This kind of recovery is never a done deal.

Yuma is not perfect; no one is. But he, as Itsuki had the insight to see, is drawn to light, wants to better himself and his life, and he will be OK in the future.
It would do him well to reflect on why he was drawn to Itsuki in the first place.
There's some fatal attraction shit going on there.

I wish there had been less focus on the documentary-maker's side story, with that time devoted to a deeper exploration of the MC's issues.
The doc maker's story is interesting, but needs a show of its own.

8/10

Lol, whatever.
Hey, whatever rocks your boat.
If it makes you happy, you babble happily, trying to convince yourself and everyone else that your parasocial lover WXY hasn't had a nose job, without offering any evidence.
But good for you.

Hahahahalolololol, etc.

And here the dreaming little Killer Knetz child is again, still whining and pretending that it doesn't care, even though it's back again, whining and crying on a thread about an actor it hoped would kill himself but who didn't, showing yet again how much it does care.

The butt-hurt, it stings!

Pathetic. And amusing.

Awww...poor, sad baby Killer Knetz gives a major fuck but keeps pretending it doesn't, while it continues its baby KK tantrum over KSH not having killed himself.

The frustrated vampire psycho is sad. :(

Nope.
Good plastic surgeons increasingly know how to leave alone distinctive anomalies that leave the nose job looking much more natural than if they created a runway-smooth plane out of everything.

Cheap, assembly-line nose jobs, as undergone by millions of Koreans in Seoul alleyway clinics, result in the look you're talking about.

This makes my day.
I hope it all turns out to be true.

I see G-Dragon being worth this kind of $$$, but I wish these people would start hauling their asses out of the closet. GD's continued cowardice in that regard annoys me.

I'll never understand Taemin's continued presence in the industry or how they make money off him. He has never had a #1 hit in all these years, and only a few in the top ten, as well as few on the international charts, yet there he is all over the place, including Coachella here in the US. Obviously, these corporations see him as a money-maker, but I don't get it. He's been doing the same schtick for 18 years, the worst aspect being his weak vocals.

Plus, if he keeps hacking away at his nose, he's going to end up like Michael Jackson, without one.

I agreed with your comment until the "...all kinds of sexual predators and offenders..." part.
Please share who all these violent rapists are, who are polluting the Korean/Asian entertainment industry.
We must all be on the red alert for them, no?

As for Yoo, I am thrilled and hoping this alleged contract turns out to be real.
As an added bonus, I am thrilled that this would upset all the psycho Killer Knetz who are frustrated that Yoo hasn't ended his life to this point.

I wish he would come to America/Hollywood, the land of second, third, fourth, and tenth chances. We don't crucify people for having human frailties, we cheer them on to overcome them.

Sorry about Tr*mp. I hate him more than you do.

First of all, your reply, especially the last paragraph, had me laughing my ass off. You express yourself amusingly, and I like that. :)

Leslie Cheung is a legendary HK actor and singer who died by suicide in 2010. His music is on the OST in places, and we see a couple of references to him in posters, etc. back during the pre-2010 period of the show.

But, at the very end, his music once again plays on the ost and we see a poster advertising a concert of his in 2024, which freaked me out because that's 14 years after he died so I'm like, wtf? But another commenter explained to me that by communicating with the little boy in the past and thus changing the future, the film ends in a present in which Leslie Cheng never killed himself.

Which, in the universe of the film, makes sense and also makes me happy because Leslie was a great actor and epic entertainer, plus an out gay man long before that was cool to be. Check out his bio here and watch his films if you're interested. There are many excellent choices. If you want recs, let me know.

I agree that the MC is not freaked out enough about his mailbox/time machine, especially when he sees a letter actually appear in it right before his eyes. By that time, he had figured out what was going on, but still, it seems that witnessing such a thing would be a tad startling, no? :)

I have watched ABL twice, after reading comments and letting it percolate in my tiny mind in between watches, and I grasped a lot more of the goings-on the second time. I plan to watch it a third time when the urge strikes me, and I will no doubt unearth more layers at that time.

Especially because I'm an American (sorry about fuckhead Tr*mp) and I was raised on Hollywood films, I used to be annoyed by films that didn't clearly explain everything and tie it all up with a bow at the end. After six-and-a-half years of Asian cinema/dramas, I'm much more comfortable with that; often, now, I even like it to be that way, but yeah, this one kind of pissed me off because it felt deliberately confusing as opposed to simply being artfully opaque.

Maybe after a third watch, I'll have formed a more complete opinion on that.

No one cares if Serena is okay with this.

Serena needs to grow up.