etoks21

How about an article tackling how Korean media/netizens/police/public regularly bully and drive to suicide its best actors, musicians, and other artists with intrusive, inappropriate, and over-the-top scrutiny of their private lives?

I quickly skimmed and read major parts of this discussion, but it's clear I'll never be on board with that show as a good one. To me, it presents a severely depressed, self-destructive neurotic who regularly, as a symptom of his illness, shits on the people closest to him because he doesn't feel in his bones that he deserves anything good in life, least of all love.

Making things even worse is his belief that anyone who would be so stupid as to love undeserving him is clearly unworthy of respect. So naturally, he drives them away. And he does this over and over. I know what this is about, because I was just like him for two and a half decades of my life before my depression and self-hatred was diagnosed and treated.

The problem is that in the show, his depression is NOT diagnosed and treated, it is used as a repetitive plot point but never called what it is, and nothing is ever done about it. And yet, at the last second, they have some sort of weak, in-the-moment, happy talk and that's it. All I see coming for this couple is years of misery as the same pattern repeats itself. But even that revelation is not presented in the show.

The guy who is a star is of course, also mentally ill or he would not be so passionately drawn to the abusive, self-hating, incapable-of-love Jiwoo in the first place. Or he would be initially attracted but soon realize how unhealthy Jiwoo is, and for his own health and happiness, he would let go of him. Instead, he pursues Jiwoo to the ends of the earth, living in a fucking camper so he can be treated like shit on a daily basis.

This is not romantic love. It is sickness. This could have been a remarkably powerful show if it had had the balls to confront that reality and make a story arc out of the MCs' efforts to deal with it. Instead, we got monotonous, depressing episodes of watching two guys dance around the problem, paying attention only to the symptoms, not the disease.

Seems to me a lot of MDLers think that simply presenting depression, self-hatred, and all the damage it does over and over and over again, is somehow a revelation; that this is a "masterpiece" because it's relentlessly SAAAAAAAAAAAAD, so it must be profound. It's not profound. It's extremely shallow in its one-layer version of mental illness.

So, TMS2 presents two mentally ill protagonists, going round and round in circles for hours on end, then ends where we started because Jiwoo is in a slightly less depressed mood the last episode of the show. It's such a strangely monotonous plot in which our lovers experience almost no character development; we watch the gears of depression and misery grind two people into pulp the, boom, the end.

Thanks for the opportunity to rethink why I have such a negative view of this show. But as I said, it is not my purpose to change your mind. Enjoy! I'll probably try to watch season 2 again someday when I'm feeling especially masochistic, on the off chance I'll see something I missed before.

Well-said.

The script has hinted numerous times that she's a big-time model. She has "gone abroad" on modeling assignments. That magazine she was "featured in" had her on the cover.

I can search for that discussion, but do you have a link I could follow? I would appreciate that.

If that's the case, they better get on it fast. :D

It wasn't just that Jiwoo "frustrated" me. I don't mind frustrating, strange, weird, hideous characters if the plot/script explains their actions and that's where the second season fell short for me. He just kept treating the other guy like shit, over and over and over again, until all of a sudden, at the end, it was all suddenly "OK!"

I understood that apparently, he was severely depressed, correct? But he was never treated for it as far as I recall, and yet at the end the other guy took him back as though it wouldn't all just happen over and over again, which IRL it would. I've fought depression all my life and it doesn't just go away.

Oh well, I'm not trying to change your mind. I'm glad you liked it.

If he didn't "care about himself," he would have fallen apart when Qian ordered him out of the house, Instead, he used the money Qian had saved for him to get his education and begin to succeed in America. People with no self respect, who don't care about themselves, don't act like that.

I tried to the no-subs thing once because an MDL friend watches lots of shows we can't find sub for, "raw," so I thought I'd try. It drove me crazy. All I could think was "what the hell are they SAYING?!!!!," especially in big, emotional scenes. I'm not cut out for watching raw. :)

Interesting...I am not a fan of "To My Star," and especially not of the second season, which is, in my opinion only, one of the worst K-BLs I've ever seen. Production and acting was good, but those two guys made me crazy, always doing or not doing things for what seemed to be no reason other than that it was in the script. Are you a fan of the second season as well as the first?

I don't pay attention to almost anything Chinese. They can take their gay-ban and shove it up their Puritanical asses. That's another thing that has always seemed odd to me: That Communist countries have generally been extremely prudish and backward regarding sex of any kind, but especially gay sex. Communism rejects religion, which is usually the source of such prudery, so I don't get where it comes from.

I HAVE been watching "Unknown" and completely agree about its quality. Watched episode 7 today and it may have been the best yet. Well-written, well-acted, well-directed...I have no complaints. But with two and a half hours to go, I'm nervous. :D

I live for angst, drama, torrid, upsetting tragedy and all that, but it feels like these two have already been through the ringer. When Qian sent the text today, "Come back if you miss home," I cried. :)

So the ghost of Champ answered the phone at home...TWICE? Once to take a message from Ton's mom, and another time just after that to receive news of his own death? I mean, he physically picked up the phone with his hand. Also, why is Ton looking all spooky and dead upstairs when Champ goes to the bedroom, as if he IS dead, when it's Champ who is dead?

After reading other comments, I think it's just poorly written and doesn't really make sense.

Too bad, because there was nice chemistry between the leads, and a nice, spookiness going on in the second half, even if the music crossed the line into slasher/stabbing shrieks a couple times.

"a polite knock on a door..." Love it.

https://myreadingmanga.info/korean-drama-love-with-flaws-2019-joo-won-suk-choi-ho-dol-story-bl-cut-engsub/

https://myreadingmanga.info/korean-drama-love-with-flaws-2019-joo-won-suk-choi-ho-dol-story-bl-cut-engsub/

Me too. I just finished watching the "BL Cut" of this show, which is about 90 minutes, for at least the sixth time. It focuses almost entirely on Won Suk and Ho Dol. It's only about 90 minutes long, but overflowing with feels.

I was already a big fan of little JYS from a couple of short films and other things I'd seen him in, but he is one hundred percent perfection in this part. That adorable, goofy face and the sweetness he radiates naturally always make me smile like a crazy person. So, when he gets mistreated in LWF I was quite upset, which made Won Suk my hero as well as Ho Dol's.

I wasn't aware of Cha In Ha until this show, and when I checked his bio, with great anticipation of seeing more work he'd done, and saw how things went for him, I think my jaw hit the floor. This has happened with so many SK entertainers I admire that I couldn't wrap my head around it for a while. The first couple of watches of the LWF BL cut after learning of his passing were painful af. I kept dissolving into tears. When will Korea's blood thirsty fan/celeb/media/netizen culture stop killing its finest?

In case you are not aware of where to find the BL cut, I'll put it behind the spoiler tag below.

I have found that with most movies or dramas, especially ones of high quality, I haven't really "seen" them at all until I've watched a second or third time. There is simply no way I can absorb every detail, hint, and indication the first time around. So as with many other favorite shows, I look forward to my second and third watches, probably beginning a couple weeks after the show finishes airing.

Really, it's no different than looking at a painting or sculpture, or reading a novel; the more I look or read, the more I will see and feel and perceive.

YES!!! I'm glad someone else caught that. In my own comment above I mentioned how remarkable a feat of characterization it is for an actor to step out of a car and in one second onscreen, establish that the character has grown, changed, and strengthened to a powerful degree. He simply took over, and all the drunks did as he told them. lol I loved that.

China is Communist in name only. It is entirely capitalistic and unquestionably a dictatorship. It is home to some of the wealthiest Oligarchs on the planet.

I disagree entirely about Yuan not having "self-respect" in regard to taking care of Qian. He has simply been open and honest about who he loves and cares about. Caring for someone, and expressing that feeling in actions, does not automatically carry a sense of debasement to the caregiver. Qian didn't abuse or insult Yuan; Yuan wasn't being a codependent weakling, but Qianwas oblivious to the degree to which he was reliant on Yuan.

Yuan's care-giving was beautifully selfless in that while, in his heart, of course he WANTED something in return, he did not make of it a DEMAND, or requirement for his affection and care, which was freely, and joyfully given.

How in the world is any of that indicative of a lack of self-respect?

As strong as Qian has been as a provider and stable base for Yuan and Lili, it is Yuan who is the emotionally/psychologically stronger one, and always has been. While Qian wrestled with his denial and internalized homophobia, Yuan had simply accepted himself as he grew up, for who he is. In this homophobic world, that takes guts. Although Taiwan is probably the most gay-friendly Asian country.

ooooooooooooohhhh...Taiwan also has gay marriage! Wedding bells for Y & Q by episode 12?!