1
leesukkie
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A lot better than expected
It's an interesting drama based on the reality of how the kpop industry works. I came to this drama because I know OnlyOneOf as a group. Because of that I thought this drama would be really cringe to watch (they are rookie actors and have no experience in acting), but I was honestly surprised with the overall quality. It's a low budget drama, but it's ok in terms of korean BL dramas.The story was compressed in 8 episodes of 15 minutes what made it feel too rushed. Things were happening too quickly so they used a lot of flashbacks to tell the story. It was smart in storytelling, but as a viewer it feels like you are being attacked with a lot of information from all sides. But that's my only complaint about the script per se. The adaptation from the webtoon was well done and I honestly think it was WAY more sensitive about the topic than the original work.
Like I said before, they have no experience in acting so I wasn't expecting much, but some of them really have a lot of potential. Hyunbin is an annoying, but really charismatic villain. You can know the actor for a villain is good when you feel angry the moment he shows up. In the terms of acting, I think KB was the best one. He looked evil for real. Eden and Jihoon were good as main characters. Eden did look innocent, but not dumb (so common in BL) and Jihoon was an experienced sunbae, but he wasn't an annoyingly cold character for no reason (also common in BL). The characters were well balanced and the actors did well. Nine did a specially greater work in the scenes he was angry which seems a funny thing to actually happen. I don't know if he rehearsed those parts more or if it was fun to him to manhandle KB, as he's the youngest and KB is the oldest.
Jay was an adorable character and I hope to see more characters like him in BL. A character that will back off after hearing a "no". As any BL fan know, characters in Bl usually thinks a "no" means a "try harder".
About the whole plot, I GET that some people will get angry with it. K-pop fans will probably get kinda pissed too. The plot says "the K-pop industry uses gay fanservice to please fans". But is it a lie? EVERY K-pop group will do that and that's set by their company. If you read that and thought "those two (any ship name) don't do that because thy are really close for real", then you know the industry made it work and it already got you. Yes, most idols from same group are probably close, but the fanservice IS REAL, so please don't fool yourself. They will do things on stage, they will lovingly look at each other, they will hug and hold hands and do all that and 80% of the time all this is for show.
All that being said, the whole plot of this is great. It shows how the industry works and how fans respond to it. Now imagine this: companies make their idols do fanservice and among them there are straight people, but there will be queer people too. Imagine working in a place that forces you to PRETEND to be gay as a job, but WON'T ACCEPT you if you ever come out. In this story every main character is canonically queer. Eden even represent a queer kid growing up with a heteronormalized mindset. His first love was a boy, but he never really accepted that part of himself until adulthood.
In the story there's even a part that one of the trainees say there are rumors about Eden and Jihoon as a real couple and he make it sound like a bad thing (as if they weren't pretending to be gay to begin with). In a place like South Korea it' ok if you pretend to be gay, but it's not ok for you to be actually gay. The story is kinda fluffly and soft, but there's a real critique behind it if you pay attention.
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Another korean queerbait
Fans of the manhwa will be disappointed. Honestly, i watched this pretending i never saw the manhwa because i knew how i would feel. Don't get me wrong, this drama is good in a lot of things. It has a nice vibe, it have a nice pace (in the beginning, at least) and the actors have a good chemistry. BUT after watching it for complete, you realize it was a 7 episode long queerbait. The show writers had NO intention in making a romance, there's NO ROMANCE. They saw the word "gay" and said "we don't do this in here". It made me frustrated and SHOULDN'T BE NORMALIZED. You won't find a straight korean romantic drama or a romcom without the romance. So why the gays can't have it too? They keep using us for views and popularity and they don't even give us what we want to watch. Can't we have a nice romance too?Was this review helpful to you?
HIStory 3: Make our days count is following the steps of HIStory 2: Crossing the Line that is, by far, the most loved story from the series. When HIStory 3 was announced, everyone was expecting another masterpiece and some got disappointing with the road Trapped took, with its no ending, repetitive storyline of "i almost died". Make our days count, by other hand, took us back to high school with the puppy romance and teenager hormones going over the board.
The story, that at first presented the overused trope of "enemies to lovers", surprised everyone when the characters started to act completely different from the stereotypes expected. The "bully" isn't really a bully. The "shy" guy isn't shy. The "bad girl" isn't bad.
There's no "I'm not gay, i just like this one guy", there's an "I like guys too". There no "I don't feel bad for hurting this one person", there's an "I feel so bad I feel like dying".
The characters are so incredible real, you sometimes forget it's a story that will end at some point. The chemistry of the main couple is so strong that, if you are single, you'll definitely feel jealous.
The story talks about the struggle to conciliate senior year with part-time work and the first love. Coming out to a homophobic family and acceptance of friends. Age difference (not the illegal type) from someone that lost faith in relationships to someone who's experiencing his first love.
The year didn't end yet, we never know what's going to happen, but, for now, HIStory 3: Make our days count is the best gay series that came out this year.
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the best korean BL until now
i would like to say it was flawless, but i can't. it had some problems (yes, it had) but they were mostly technical (like some weird coloring not matching some times and the image quality going super low), but the story is 10/10. the acting was also good and i LOVE how it all feels so real and relatable. and my gosh the cinematography is surreal. the way they used camera angles to prioritize feelings over image (like the sexual tension in the shower; the love and happiness during their first time; the feeling of distress and sadness when yoowon was crying because nothing was working for her, etc).i love how they talked about depression and trauma and the fact that there was a psychiatrist was really good. i feel like in so many korean dramas people are obviously depressed, suffering of traumas and such but they never visit a psychiatrist (honestly, one of the few times i saw it happening the dude went because he thought he was gay. it was just used as homophobic "humor"). so the eighth sense has my respect for using it correctly.
i always say i don't like when they use women as villain in bl. it's a really bad trope. but they used it right in here. because she wasn't the only "bad" person. i feel like all characters (maybe not junpyo, he's 100% pure) are grey characters. they aren't bad or good. they are exactly like any person you can find in any corner. but still, i hope in bl, if they want to make love triangles and such, they should start using men as the third one instead of women. i won't complain much about this dama because it gave us GREAT women. the female characters were so good, really. they were well so written it is hard to believe they were written by men.
well, the conclusion is that the eighth sense is BY FAR the best korean BL until now.
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Absolutely beautiful
I thing I don't even know enough words to describe how beautiful this drama was. A story so simple holds amazing messages to everyone. The characters are so real and so beautifully written. Yutaka is a relatable character for everyone who's felt alone most of their lives. Seeing him learning how to love and trust someone was really touching. I can completely understand what he said about being so happy that it will be painful when it ends, because nothing lasts forever. I can understand how he thought about ending things and leaving before loving someone too much. Once my mother said I'm someone scared of creating roots and because of that she was scared I would never be happy. She was right, I'm like this. In the last episode of this drama I really crying and my heart started to really hurt because I started to feel this nostalgic feeling of something I never really had. I thought to myself "I want this kind of happiness too". I think this drama will be forever important to me. Like Yutaka, I hope that not only me but everyone who's scared of the pain of happiness can become strong enough to experience the love and warmth someone can bring. I really hope we all can be strong enough to be happy.Was this review helpful to you?
The bodyguard trope is something that was used SO MANY times in romance media already, but this one is really interesting. Nueng always tried to place Palm by his side as his friend, not as bodyguard. We don't have any kind of power play in here, so even though Nueng is a rich boy and Palm's boss, he doesn't use it to be above him in any way (you don't exist, drunk Nueng).
And obviously, we can't talk about this series without mentioning the AMAZING cinematography. The cinematography of this series is breathtaking. When it comes to BL, this one is easily one of the top ones.
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The plot is good, but they chose bad actors and a bad director, as well as a bad screen play writer.
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A writer who understands the LGBTQ umbrella
It was great. I saw many low ratings for this and almost didn't watch, but I would ended up skipping a great show. I can see a lot of people starting this and dropping by episode 1 or 2. At the beginning I was annoyed too. I thought it kinda looked like a soap opera. I thought we would stay in the Misaki that loves Yuki that loves Shyuuhei that loves Misaki... I thought it would be like so many other BL that the women are just a plot device and that in the end she would be alone and the two guys would be together. But it wasn't like this and I'm glad. I think I got hooked on this by episode 3 or 4 in a scene in which Shuuhei explained that are two people he really loved and said that just because he loved more that one person, it didn't mean he would just love anyone. Yes, that was something simple but SO important.Then we have Yuki and this character is so REAL. As a LGBTQ person I know so many people like him. People who try so hard to be who they aren't so they can make other people happy. People who aren't accepted by their family at all because of their sexuality, but they desperately wants to fit in . When we watch dramas like this one many people ask "why would they get married then? don't they know they will make the other people suffer at some point?", but honestly straight people won't EVER understand this. Why would a homosexual person start a straight relationship? Yes, it's messed up and by the end of the day I feel bad for both people inside this relationship. In here is not different. I feel bad for them. Him, the one that always lived inside a cage. Her, in love, hurt and holding the cage's key. More than once I asked why Misaki would keeping hurting herself like this. But obviously it was because she was in love, because she never really saw Yuki was hurting as much as her, because they both are pretenders. I feel like this story deserves a season 2 because even though Misaki opened that cage, Yuki was still scared to fly. Maybe he wasn't even able to fly anymore. While at it, Misaki found happiness in her own way.
And by that I want to talk about how sensitive this show was about the LGBTQ. Many people, to this day, believe that LGBTQ stands only for that letters. This show keeps talking about "normal", the "normal way" and by that they meant "heterosexual monogamous relationships" because that's what society believes to be normal. But this drama gave us homosexuality, bisexuality and pansexuality, demisexuality, aromanticism, asexuality, polyamory and kinds of love. It was absolutely RICH and nice to see it all inside one drama and it all was made in a respectful way. I watched many dramas in which bisexuality and polyamory was used as a device to have "hot scenes". So just by that I'm glad I found this one.
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romantization of sexual harassment
sexual harassment is not cute, not funny and definitely not romantic and SHOULDN'T be the base of a whole drama. two episodes and the sexual harassment, the stalking and the non-consensual touches keeps getting worse. it's unhealthy, bad and it shouldn't be normalized AT ALL.and since i keep seeing people giving this show good ratings, imagine if it was you. also, don't even think this kind of harassment will come from good looking, young, "nice" guys and that will stop because you will somehow fall in love with them. it can be harmful in so many ways, can lead to SA and even worse things.
somehow people seems to believe is ok to put a lot of toxic things inside bl dramas because it's two men and it's even worse to see people really accepting it. it shouldn't be like this. if you saw a woman being constantly harassed in your workplace would you be quiet about it? if you saw a man going behind a woman inside a bus and touch her without her consent would you be ok? this double standard needs to end. it's NOT OK.
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Creative, fun, but incosistent
This drama is a Korean BL, and by that, we all know what it means - it's simple, the acting is mostly okay, but it has technical problems and script inconsistencies. It's no surprise that this drama became popular; it was fun to watch. The plot is really creative, and you will have a good time watching it if you can ignore some plot holes (that honestly are so small they become unimportant) and the awful pace and cuts.The major problem with the script is how inconsistent the characters are. Myungha is the only character that, I believe, the writers put some effort into. Sangwon is a plot device, and so is Yeowoon. They both change personalities based on Myungha's conflicts. Sangwon feels like an NPC, not the main love interest. And then there are the siblings. What's the point of them, exactly? What did they even add to the story? For the girl, is she just the quota female character? (something that always annoys me in BL because most of the time they create a female character only for the sake of a female character, and they NEVER give them any development, or they are just annoyingly obsessed with the main character).
The characters were just lazily created. At least Sangwon should have more of a personality, but following the BL recipe, he went from "I don't like you, and I don't like people" to "obsessed with you, I will do anything you want" really quickly. His character is incredibly boring.
After saying all that, people will probably be angry already (because the drama is popular and I bet people will get angry), but wondering what's with the high score I gave this show. First: it was good, like I said, for a Korean BL. We don't have a lot of interesting things in the KBL industry. Second: fantasy is always fun to me, and the high school setting is good (so we can justify some actions as "they can be annoying because they are still teenagers").
The story also had some lessons about loving yourself that, again, is only about Myungha. He was the only character with real development. It gave some RuPaul's "if you don't love yourself, how the hell you gonna love somebody else." It also mentioned about finding happiness in a simple things (but the whole plot was nothing but simple, come on. He was made to play a game, and the other guy falling in love with him was literally his mission).
I believe if the characters were better written, this show could become Korea's best. At this point, after so many examples of it, the KBL industry should realize that people don't want the cold CEO character type and their dumb naive bottom; people want relatable characters like Myungha.
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