A warm and fuzzy coming out to mother short film

Been long since I watched a film regarding coming out to parents so I was really interested in watching it.

Quite a basic coming out story that contains typical elements like uncertainty of how the parent would feel, hesitation during the confession etc. Although typical, it's very well executed via the acting and the filming style.

Coming from an Asian country myself and also speaking Mandarin and Hokkien in my daily life, it really gave the "at home" feeling throughout the whole film and the conversation of the son with his mom touched me at some point in the short film.

A slight criticism I have will probably be the confession part, which was a bit abrupt and then it did not exactly showcased the mother's reaction as a result of the indirect confession. Found it slightly awkward at that part but otherwise, this film like I said in the post title, gives me a fuzzy feeling maybe because of the way they film it and familiarity of the languages.

Interesting to note that the actress for the mother has also appeared in other BL films like Your Name Engraved Herein and Be Loved (drama). The married daughter also appeared in We Best Love as Shu Yi's female crush. Happy to see familiar faces in the Taiwan BL industry :)

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Unique pseudo-BL cute mini drama

If you're expecting a real BL with the usual elements, you are bound to get disappointed but you should expect it since the production is from China (no need me to elaborate further ahaha).

However, this simple story basically describes how a stray male cat (who can turn into a human) is being doted by his owner and is living a good life. Things changed when the owner's younger brother came back from overseas who is apparently allergic to cats and disliked the cat at first.

Quite a few comedic scenes and eventually both the cat human and little brother realised that they actually 'like' each other and couldn't leave each other's side and end up still living together.

Like I said, quite a unique pseudo-BL plot, very cute main characters, made me smile throughout the entire series. Highly recommended to watch!

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Started off strong, ended off weak

I was very looking forward to this drama series since October and since my school was still ongoing, I told myself to wait until December so I can watch it all together without having to look forward badly to the next episode. So the series finally ended and I watched it all at one go the past two days.

Story:
Like some comments mentioned, the series started off strongly but ended off weakly. The first few episodes were absolutely hilarious, witnessing all those misunderstandings everyone had and Aoki especially just being very cute and over-reacting to every situation.

Almost every episode left a sweet feeling in me after watching it because of the cute interactions between each character but episode 8 just didn't make it for me. The sudden appearance of the new teacher (who was played by one of the main characters in another BL if people noticed) and him being homophobic just didn't make sense at all and out of place, and only to not see him in the remaining episodes. It's as though the script writer just want to make it a 10-episode long drama and randomly fit a plot into the show, which like I said, is out of place.

Then came episodes 9 and 10, the scene cuts are way too short. You can suddenly go from one scene to another within a matter of seconds (not to mention the cut to black screen was pretty off-putting). Every scene just seems to only last a few seconds and then shift to another new scene. Overall I just felt like the last few episodes the script wasn't very well-written and well-filmed also. Not sure what went wrong there.

Acting/Cast:
All casts were very talented in trying to make this romance comedy film except I'm not sure if Ida's character is supposed to be this cold. I felt like he isn't expressing himself much and even he said he wanted to go out with Aoki, the expression doesn't change much and gives people the impression that he was unwilling to. That is the only flaw I feel in the acting, unless it is really a character he is playing.

Or I can see it another way that since he has not loved anyone before or been loved by others before, he does not know how to express his feelings hence everything new about romance to him appears to be foreign but he's trying to make sense of it.

Music:
Songs by both main characters. Absolutely delightful.

Rewatch?:
I mean I would rewatch because I really like to cuteness of both main characters and Japanese drama/movies in general as they tend to exaggerate the comedy part but I'm not very keen again to watch the last few episodes, especially seeing how it was so rushed and plot didn't really make much sense/not coherent rather.

I hope there's a Season 2 though which properly develops the romance between Aoki and Ida so that every Season 1 missing plot will make sense.

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A cozy and warm short BL drama

Story:
Let me start off being harsh... to be very very honest, I don't find this drama very spectacular. There wasn't any wow factor + each episode tends to contain a recap of the previous episode that lasts for 2-3 minutes, which I found it quite unnecessary. A complete plot is also lacking in the entire film, like it's leading nowhere, but mainly just show their daily interactions and then a recap of how the two main characters met, and what sort of trauma did one of them went through when he was younger.

That being said, the overall drama provides a warm and cozy feeling like you would just snuggle up in bed on a cold night to watch. Generally no background music throughout the entire drama (good thing) and just a very quiet sort of film. And a lot of kisses considering the length of the whole drama.

Acting:
Both the main characters and the side couple are generally fine except I find some of the lines a bit 'stiff'. Main couple's kisses were very real and did not appear to be awkward so another big plus to their acting.

Side couple's story however appeared to be severely underdeveloped as they only came in the final episode and then the timeline was fast forwarded to 3 years later. Unless there is a sequel that explains their story, they shouldn't have even forcefully put in the side couple towards the end and it totally made zero sense.

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Very close to an actual BL drama

This series contains so many typical BL elements - jealously, hidden feelings for each other, missing each other when they are gone - but since it's a Chinese production, it won't be a full blown BL but like I said, it's the closest you can get to an actual BL drama already.

Honestly the plot is really quite typical of any BL dramas/novels, you get a cold and quiet main character (MC) and then suddenly an active, extra-friendly person turns up in MC's life and everything changes. Then eventually they fall for each other and voila!

This series actually reminds me of HIStory 2: Crossing the Line since it revolves around sports and then like how the MC is good in the sport but due to some reason or another, doesn't perform as well anymore. Then the second MC turns up and changes his life around.

This Chinese series however, talks about how MC's father hired a fake brother for him so as to make his son overcome his psychological issues. Yet this fake brother is of a personality that is polar opposite to his son's and things start to get interesting from then on.

In my opinion, I always like dramas that at first involve a cold and quiet MC then because of someone's appearance he changes to become a much better person and falls in love with the 'someone'. You may dislike China's censorship laws but please do not dislike productions from their country. This is really a sweet series that I recommend everyone to watch!

Like many people in the comments mentioned, China has a very good potential to produce really fantastic BL dramas/movies should the law be not there and this series really just shows that.

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Relatable story in a relatable timeline

To start off, I can't believe the Japanese main character is 37 years old! I thought he is only in his early 30s! Really good looking for his age!

Anyway, like I mentioned in the title, this drama is made to be relatable during these relatable times of a pandemic, where it involves things like stay-home notices, quarantines, falling sick etc. And really quite sweet to see how two people can fall in love just from online conversations and facetiming.

Each episode is only around 10 minutes long so if you combine together it would be around a 1h 40 minutes sort of movie but each episode contains up to almost 2 minutes of intro and outro, so I felt like that was a down point because I believe people may be expecting more.

The ending is also slightly abrupt in my opinion and not much development after the short while they finally met physically. Just felt like it lacked in this aspect.

Otherwise, a short and sweet movie that displays how boy's love can still bloom even in times like this, would recommend to watch.

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Not a very typical school-based BL love story

A BL love story in a school setting like a lot of other BLs but not very typical as this series emphasized on a school co-curricular activity (sports) instead.

A troublemaker student falling in love with a strict senior and changed his ways to be a better student both academically and in the sport they are playing. The senior obviously also developed feelings for his junior but is in denial; moreover his sister has a crush on the junior, making things more complicated. Eventually love overcomes everything and they manage to reveal their true feelings for each other.

2 problems with this series:
1. The junior's dream about the steamy kiss felt out of place. Feels like it's forced into the show for the sake of it.
2. While I understand it's a character that the senior is playing, some lines appear to be cringy and not very natural.

Side couple got an unclear story too but also displays uncertainties in BL romance.

Overall, it's a good series that describes the insecurities and uncertainties when two boys have feeling for each other, a very common theme but also truly reflects the real-world scenario.

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Not your typical romantic BL but comedic value as expected of Japanese shows

First Japanese BL I watched! Interesting plot and comedy value as expected from Japan. Don't expect any kiss scenes from this movie but again not very necessary considering the plot.

The story discovers the supernatural myth of how 30 year old virgins get a special power to read other people's minds when they touch another person. And the way to lose this special power, the person has to lose his/her virginity.

Unexpected twist occurred when the main character realised a popular, good looking colleague of his actually has a crush on him. However, he is afraid of abusing the special power he received but has used his powers wisely to help many of his friends.

Second couple's story felt a bit lackluster and not much emphasis on and somewhat rushed.

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The appearance of an unexpected character changes the life of a quiet, introverted young chef

To My Star: Best Korean BL in my opinion. A pity that it's so short but even still, everything fits just right and both actors are really talented and played their characters very well. Their interactions are really cute and the best part is there isn't a second couple so all the story is focused on them and them only, hence a very well developed plot with little to no loopholes.
Perhaps a bit of bias on my side but I would always prefer if a series just focuses on one couple only so the plot can be more fulfilling.

Back to the main point, this series shows how a quiet and introverted young chef opens himself up to the character that suddenly appeared in his life. And then somehow the actor first fell in love with the chef, but the chef was being unsure and insecure but eventually accepted the actor.

Perhaps the only thing lacking in this series is how they actually fell for each other in the first place. I was hoping they could include parts where they explain how they actually feel for each other rather than just 'time' that brought them together

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I rank this the best Taiwanese BL series!

I've only started watching BL dramas and movies early September this year and funny enough despite me being gay I didn't know the world of BL exists until recently. So then I started binge watching so many Asian BL dramas/movies and I have to say - this is the best one to me so far. And even though this is already my second time watching, I can never get enough of this show!

The emotions and dedications portrayed by Sam and Yu are just so spectacular and touching. I particularly enjoyed Sam's performance in this series. Every look that he gave at different scenes just tell us so much about the deep, hidden emotions that he was having for Yu. The sheepish smiles, at the start knowing that he can only be at most friends with Yu and trying to get as close to him as possible before graduation were just all so relatable. Knowing that you can never get the person you love so much to love you back, you can only smile every time he smiles, you can only wish the best for him and the pain that the main character has to go through is all perfectly displayed on Sam's face.

And then the bridge scene where Yu said he loved Sam too - the denial, the unbelievability made Sam question himself, again all shown on his face. I've honestly honestly never seen such real emotions displayed in acting before and it is precisely the reason why I can never stop thinking about this series.

I saw people commenting on somewhere else that it was not nice for Sam to 'trap' Yu in the health center during that night so that he could get closer to Yu. I disagree. Sam always knew his boundaries very well, you could see that he still cared so much for Yu by cooking him supper and then sitting far away from him just drinking water until Yu called him over. He also wanted to sleep somewhere else from Yu but it was Yu who told him to drag his bed over to sing to him and sleep with him. So you can see how the character he played was a person who respect boundaries and just only trying to get closer to him for the last time before their graduation. He only wished for Yu to become his friend eventually and nothing more. How could you seriously hate this character?

I really hope that I can forget this series totally then keep rewatching it because it's just so fantastic! So to those who had yet to watch it, you MUST watch it. I must admit the first episode contained some cheesy 'inner dialogue' but the story I think properly kicks off from Episode 2. So don't get turned off so quickly, watch it and then watch Season 2. You won't regret it.

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