The first time Akira overreacts to a loving/flirtatious comment or gesture from Shin each episode makes me laugh but by the fifth time each episode, I'm over it. 🤪
I never said I "hated" anything or anyone. I DID say I tune in each week to gaze upon the beauty of Kusakawa Takuya's depthless, round eyes and handsome face.
Yokohama Ryusei is hella hot and seems to be a good actor, but less than a third of the way in, I'm dropping out. It's too boring. I love me an engaging mystery/thriller/evil corporation - type flick with creepy undertones but this is too slow in starting to go somewhere. Also too many miscues like dumping huge truckloads of mysterious contents into holes not big enough to hold them. So you have guys shoveling dirt onto what would end up being a big mound in the middle of the flat portion of the landfill.
And who would build a gargantuan, concrete factory/facility on the side of a mountain in the earthquake center of the universe, Japan? It's sitting there, waiting to slide down onto the village in the midst of the next major tremor.
Why do we see hundreds of marchers with torches in some kind of procession, but then just 30 or 40 people in front of the stage for the performances?
Finally, how many times to Asian flicks have to repeat the old tropes such as weird old matriarch dying of cancer, young woman concealing a serious illness while secretly snarfing pain pills, a useless parent who gambles racking up debts she can't pay, a masochistic son who slaves all day and night to pay off the debts his useless mother racks up but who doesn't leave or kick her out, loansharks (really? operating openly in a town this small?), etc. etcl, before the writers start coming up with some new ideas or at least new twists on the old ones?
Anyway, bored and annoyed, I'm checking out. Don't really care WHAT they're burying at night in the landfill; it can't be any more lethal than this script is to my brain cells.
Pretty-boy, teenage gangsters in trendy knitwear and ripped jeans pretending to be bad-ass, torturing and killing people on a the spotless, polished floor of their dad's garage. Not gonna work. However, Wayne Song comes off as a REAL bad-ass, and it's fun to see him and Huang Chun Chih, my boys from H3MODC together again. The show feels like what you'd get after putting KinnPorsche and Secret Crush On You in a blender and hitting "puree." Basically, I FF'd through everything other than the H3MODC boys and potential sex scenes, so I was in and out in about seven minutes.
Ugh, this show is such a pain in the ass to watch!
Thank god for the beauty and soufulness of Akira's round and lovely eyes...I melt into them every week even though he is a moron. Those orbs are why I watch.
No, they are not "wholesome." Being asexual and unlike any young man ever made on Earth is not "wholesome," it's rainbow and unicorn silliness for ten year-old fangirls.
Episode 8: Continues to be an endless, silly cock-tease of a show. More wheel-spinning, even when they brought out the trope-of-tropes, alcohol! I thought that might move things along and get somebody laid but oh no, we can't have plot movement in this bore-fest.
Why do I keep watching? Isn't it obvious? The gorgeous, soulful, round eyes of Kusakawa Takuya, one of the prettiest men on Earth.
I won't pretend to be as virtuous as Shin. All these young men are written as cartoon characters, not male human beings. There was a great opportunity for the portrayal of what an ACTUAL young man in Shin's position when gorgeous Akira passed out beneath him after nearly confessing might do (not that this silly show has done ANYTHING realistic so far): It would have been incredibly powerful to see Shin look down upon this beautiful man he has passionately desired, emotionally and sexually, for two years laid out before him like the tastiest, most luscious, creamiest dessert on the planet, emote an almost uncontrollable urge to have his way with him while he out cold, knowing Akira would never remember it, maybe even start to kiss him down his neck and shoulders, and then see him stop, wrestle with his emotions and desires and FORCE himself to stop and NOT do what every fiber of body, heart and soul was shrieking for him to do; even roll away from Akira with a gutteral scream of frustration.
THAT would have been a BL scene for the ages. We would have seen an honest, un-prettified portrayal of what it is really like for a guy that age to deal with the kind of sadistic temptation Akira has been confronting Shin with almost daily for so long. And yet we would also have seen him make the better choice (and not cause riots in the streets of MDL had he said "aw, to hell with it, I am DOING this guy while I can!" and had his way with Akira) and be the better man for it.
Instead, what we got was Shin going "oh, well the man I love and desire physically more than life itself is half-naked and fully available inches away, but the script says I am not even tempted, so that's how I'll act" and immediately his sexual desire disappearing. 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄
Of course, the sane thing for Shin to do after reaching a crisis point like that would be to pack up, leave the resort, go to the house and pack up his stuff there, then leave Akira for good; maybe go to Tokyo to the best Public University he deserves to be in, and start forgetting about crazy-ass Akira. But this show is about Shin doing only masochistic, self-destructive shit like spending all day-every day being around that which he cannot even touch.
Oh, and someone tell me WHY Akusa likes Shu, please. He is a Vampire-Undertaker-Android, not a man. So WHAT if he bought you a cutesy Japanese-ish key chain thing, he's dead inside! It was so lame how as soon as Vamp-man handed Asuka a freaking key chain, his sex drive immediately disappeared. This show is a ten year-old, sex-phobic fangirl's fantasy of what men are like.
Second watch after maybe 18 months. I understood what was going on better this time, but still found it severely lacking in coherence. There is very little in the way of explanation for the WHY of so much of the behaviors/actions of the two main chararcters.
Decent acting except for the constant use of cigs and gum as actorly crutches. Terrible direction. Showing no expression conveys dullness, not depth. Cigs and gum don't evoke deep thinking.
So this guy came back to right this wrong in his head, yet he had NO plan, had contacted no one to help, had done nothing at all to execute this revenge. If not for the intervention of a random hookup he would have had the shit beaten out of him in a pool-hall bathroom. He's a sullen, rude, robotic, douchebag with a chip on his shoulder. He's been nursing his victimization from a violent past incident like the treasured child it is, yet I suspect he has ALWAYS been an angry person and will remain one. Worse, the hookup, who seems well-adjusted, friendly, positive and kind, is for reasons unknown powerfully attracted to this asshole and follows him all over Seoul. The dumbest part was taking part in a dangerous, potentially violent foot-chase on behalf of someone you just met who treated you like crap three or four times already. I guess the nice guy is a masochist. But that's not explored either.
Lee Yi Kyung is a very good actor but this is the second role I have seen him in in which he smokes constantly. I have no problem with smoking onscreen as some kind of moral or ethical problem; I just think it's a lame crutch too many actors lean on. People smoke WAY more in movies than in real life, especially in Korean movies. Smoking lets you play with a lighter, squint your eyes when you light up, let the cig dangle dramatically from your lips while talking, blow smoke out of your nostrils, hold the cig with your middle finger and thumb like a tough guy, throw the butt to the ground when pissed, grind it with your foot for emphasis, etc. Sometimes I'm moved to laughter when yet ANOTHER actor in a Korean movie lights up in an intense scene, or better yet, while waiting on a city sidewalk for some other character to show up. SO movie-ish!
Well-produced fail. Even my Lee Yi Kyung can't save this one.
Me, too. The last scene in which Won Gyu stares at the phone means he is on the verge of calling Tae Joon. And…
Wow. I think Won Gyu is DEEPLY emotionally/psychologically ill, and Tae Joon is too, as demonstrated by the fact he is so deeply attracted to someone who is so obviously severely, severely damaged.
Their feelings are anything but "pure." They're twisted af.
I'm not dissing the film for portraying the above. It did so very well. But yeah, I've no delusions this is a romantic story of pure love. lol
Turama! I was traumatized watching a traumatized man drag a good guy with his own baggage into his trauma full…
I agree with the gist of your comment, but I'd consider arguing that the "good guy" is even more disturbed than the possessed robot guy. I saw NOTHING about the robot, other than his good looks, that was attractive. He is hostile, rude, uncommunicative, angry, sullen, doesn't answer questions...ever, continually walks away without answering when engaged, etc. all of which indicates major psych problems, which our hero mentioned as being the case early on, and yet our "good guy" is powerfully attracted to him and chases him all over Seoul like a sad puppy.
So good guy digs other guys who are deeply f**ked up. This is not a healthy way to conduct one's personal life.
My biggest problem with this film is that it doesn't tell us WHY either one is the way they are. So much of what we get about "good guy" makes him seem healthy, optimistic, realistic, funny, nice, etc. And yet he follows this catatonic sex-addicted zombie all over Seoul.
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I DID say I tune in each week to gaze upon the beauty of Kusakawa Takuya's depthless, round eyes and handsome face.
I love me an engaging mystery/thriller/evil corporation - type flick with creepy undertones but this is too slow in starting to go somewhere. Also too many miscues like dumping huge truckloads of mysterious contents into holes not big enough to hold them. So you have guys shoveling dirt onto what would end up being a big mound in the middle of the flat portion of the landfill.
And who would build a gargantuan, concrete factory/facility on the side of a mountain in the earthquake center of the universe, Japan? It's sitting there, waiting to slide down onto the village in the midst of the next major tremor.
Why do we see hundreds of marchers with torches in some kind of procession, but then just 30 or 40 people in front of the stage for the performances?
Finally, how many times to Asian flicks have to repeat the old tropes such as weird old matriarch dying of cancer, young woman concealing a serious illness while secretly snarfing pain pills, a useless parent who gambles racking up debts she can't pay, a masochistic son who slaves all day and night to pay off the debts his useless mother racks up but who doesn't leave or kick her out, loansharks (really? operating openly in a town this small?), etc. etcl, before the writers start coming up with some new ideas or at least new twists on the old ones?
Anyway, bored and annoyed, I'm checking out. Don't really care WHAT they're burying at night in the landfill; it can't be any more lethal than this script is to my brain cells.
Dropped.
1/10
Pretty-boy, teenage gangsters in trendy knitwear and ripped jeans pretending to be bad-ass, torturing and killing people on a the spotless, polished floor of their dad's garage.
Not gonna work.
However, Wayne Song comes off as a REAL bad-ass, and it's fun to see him and Huang Chun Chih, my boys from H3MODC together again.
The show feels like what you'd get after putting KinnPorsche and Secret Crush On You in a blender and hitting "puree."
Basically, I FF'd through everything other than the H3MODC boys and potential sex scenes, so I was in and out in about seven minutes.
Continues to be an endless, silly cock-tease of a show. More wheel-spinning, even when they brought out the trope-of-tropes, alcohol! I thought that might move things along and get somebody laid but oh no, we can't have plot movement in this bore-fest.
Why do I keep watching? Isn't it obvious? The gorgeous, soulful, round eyes of Kusakawa Takuya, one of the prettiest men on Earth.
I won't pretend to be as virtuous as Shin. All these young men are written as cartoon characters, not male human beings. There was a great opportunity for the portrayal of what an ACTUAL young man in Shin's position when gorgeous Akira passed out beneath him after nearly confessing might do (not that this silly show has done ANYTHING realistic so far): It would have been incredibly powerful to see Shin look down upon this beautiful man he has passionately desired, emotionally and sexually, for two years laid out before him like the tastiest, most luscious, creamiest dessert on the planet, emote an almost uncontrollable urge to have his way with him while he out cold, knowing Akira would never remember it, maybe even start to kiss him down his neck and shoulders, and then see him stop, wrestle with his emotions and desires and FORCE himself to stop and NOT do what every fiber of body, heart and soul was shrieking for him to do; even roll away from Akira with a gutteral scream of frustration.
THAT would have been a BL scene for the ages. We would have seen an honest, un-prettified portrayal of what it is really like for a guy that age to deal with the kind of sadistic temptation Akira has been confronting Shin with almost daily for so long. And yet we would also have seen him make the better choice (and not cause riots in the streets of MDL had he said "aw, to hell with it, I am DOING this guy while I can!" and had his way with Akira) and be the better man for it.
Instead, what we got was Shin going "oh, well the man I love and desire physically more than life itself is half-naked and fully available inches away, but the script says I am not even tempted, so that's how I'll act" and immediately his sexual desire disappearing. 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄
Of course, the sane thing for Shin to do after reaching a crisis point like that would be to pack up, leave the resort, go to the house and pack up his stuff there, then leave Akira for good; maybe go to Tokyo to the best Public University he deserves to be in, and start forgetting about crazy-ass Akira. But this show is about Shin doing only masochistic, self-destructive shit like spending all day-every day being around that which he cannot even touch.
Oh, and someone tell me WHY Akusa likes Shu, please. He is a Vampire-Undertaker-Android, not a man. So WHAT if he bought you a cutesy Japanese-ish key chain thing, he's dead inside! It was so lame how as soon as Vamp-man handed Asuka a freaking key chain, his sex drive immediately disappeared. This show is a ten year-old, sex-phobic fangirl's fantasy of what men are like.
Decent acting except for the constant use of cigs and gum as actorly crutches.
Terrible direction. Showing no expression conveys dullness, not depth. Cigs and gum don't evoke deep thinking.
So this guy came back to right this wrong in his head, yet he had NO plan, had contacted no one to help, had done nothing at all to execute this revenge.
If not for the intervention of a random hookup he would have had the shit beaten out of him in a pool-hall bathroom.
He's a sullen, rude, robotic, douchebag with a chip on his shoulder. He's been nursing his victimization from a violent past incident like the treasured child it is, yet I suspect he has ALWAYS been an angry person and will remain one.
Worse, the hookup, who seems well-adjusted, friendly, positive and kind, is for reasons unknown powerfully attracted to this asshole and follows him all over Seoul. The dumbest part was taking part in a dangerous, potentially violent foot-chase on behalf of someone you just met who treated you like crap three or four times already.
I guess the nice guy is a masochist. But that's not explored either.
Lee Yi Kyung is a very good actor but this is the second role I have seen him in in which he smokes constantly. I have no problem with smoking onscreen as some kind of moral or ethical problem; I just think it's a lame crutch too many actors lean on. People smoke WAY more in movies than in real life, especially in Korean movies. Smoking lets you play with a lighter, squint your eyes when you light up, let the cig dangle dramatically from your lips while talking, blow smoke out of your nostrils, hold the cig with your middle finger and thumb like a tough guy, throw the butt to the ground when pissed, grind it with your foot for emphasis, etc. Sometimes I'm moved to laughter when yet ANOTHER actor in a Korean movie lights up in an intense scene, or better yet, while waiting on a city sidewalk for some other character to show up. SO movie-ish!
Well-produced fail. Even my Lee Yi Kyung can't save this one.
6/10
Their feelings are anything but "pure." They're twisted af.
I'm not dissing the film for portraying the above. It did so very well. But yeah, I've no delusions this is a romantic story of pure love. lol
So good guy digs other guys who are deeply f**ked up. This is not a healthy way to conduct one's personal life.
My biggest problem with this film is that it doesn't tell us WHY either one is the way they are. So much of what we get about "good guy" makes him seem healthy, optimistic, realistic, funny, nice, etc. And yet he follows this catatonic sex-addicted zombie all over Seoul.