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a genuine deep disappointment.
when i say i have been feral to watch this show. i mean i have been figuratively foaming at the mouth, shaking in my boots, fiending to watch this goddamn show for weeks because of the intimate scenes. i must have rewatched the first intimate scene in chaeha's bedroom and the kiss at his office desk around thirty times. i deliberately enabled my self-control and did not watch them both more because i did not want to ruin them for when i actually watched the series.i just finished it and i am saddened to say that you can legitimately see how rushed this series was. i have never even consumed the original piece of work and it is still evident that they RAN to climax this show. the leads were excellent but the pacing was not good. also, i have noticed that BL have a problem with timelines. they need to be explicit with timeskips and time periods as they are not obvious at all. from the discovery of the russian dealer to the second to last episode, three months had past. who would know that? it is relevant because the leads would then be presumed to either have not engaged intimately at all or were building rapport the audience did not get to witness. the former then makes things like saying, "i love you", at the end make more sense.
the story was also kind of convoluted but more importantly, things did not conclude seamlessly. who actually was the son of the director + the chief prosecutor? it wasn't the scapegoat at the end. so.. what? we just never see the casino director again and the made-to-be suspected son gyuho just goes about his business. again, what? how about absolving chaeha's father? did that go into the toilet? there were also some strange goofs that i noticed as well like at the vending machine and when chaeha was assaulted.
after typing all this, i would honestly rate this piece of work lower but i like the leads a lot and think they did well with the material.
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head-shaking, flabbergasting nonsense.
where do i even start with this? i knew i was going to draft a review about this show the moment i finished the first episode. i waited for this title like i did with payback & prosecutor's proposal to complete. longed for it just like the other two. what a catastrophic disappointment. i need to ignore this community completely and just look for BL to watch based entirely on my own preferences. you people are less reliable than trying sneak around quickly in the dark.i noticed with chinese BL there are a myriad of issues that make it impossible for me to get through the first episode. the former is why i dropped revenged love and double helix. i CANNOT do the overbearing actions / behaviors that are over-exaggerated. they make me cringe so badly. then i have to deal with the production problem i have noted with capturing the verbal dialogue. why does it sound like dubbing or voice overs in chinese BL ?! every single one of them i started has this problem. is it a microphone industry / quality thing? it ALWAYS sounds unnatural meaning full viewer immersion is not possible, for me. sometimes you can even see that dialogue was dubbed over [apart from horrible singing]. i was able to get through the first episode of this one by a miracle. long story short, deep in had this cringe BS in the first episode AND throughout the show - wtf. example, zhang zhun sliding across the car to save zhen xin from goddamn PVC at a less than one meter drop. be serious.
can someone point me to where i can find what the vision of this drama was? the story just starts immediately without fleshing out anything at all. fine. that could be fine if there were not other observable issues. however, the story of fang chi & gao zhun had three times more substance than the characters "playing" them. WTF? was this deliberate? is it because of the plot-twist at the end? i do not understand why these generic ass cheating scumbags were the main leads. why couldn't we just have the story of fang & gao?
oh yeah, speaking of the cheating, why? why was it necessary? the two had enough plot devices with the antiquated views, personal responsibility, and dealing with society. why did they have to cheat on innocent people? who got dragged by consumers, might i add [for once, i watched the comments while watching]. i am glad xin lost millions to that girl boss and more from the whole ordeal considering nothing of his relationship made sense nor was it healthy ! like, can anyone tell me how in the f these two scraps of tofu managed to FALL IN LOVE? what the actual f happened in their plotline for them to fall for each other except engage physically as actors??? man forget the love. let me bring up the proposal. HUH? it came out of nowhere. why was there any talk of proposing when those two did not even spend more than two weeks living in the same space let alone communicate efficiently?????? their communication was so trash, how could they possibly marry one another?
can we talk about the sensationalizing and downplaying of sexual assault in BL? i will. first off, since i read the comments, i had the unfortunate opportunity of seeing some people downplay cheating, excuse xin's assault of zhun when he was drunk, AND criticize the female victims who were cheated on [by calling them b'tches and other derogatory terms]. zhen raped zhang, FULL STOP. he did not deserve him even though they both were basura. one tell that it was rape was that zhen never told zhang about it and tried to minimize the occurrence by saying that they now loved each other, when zhang found out on his own. apart from the former, all of the SA in this damn work was just disturbing as hell. i could excuse it for the plot if the production and acting were perfect but lol with that.
the whole thing with the "real" characters fang chi & gao zhun was absolutely disgusting. it was obvious the lines would end up blurred between the doctor and the patient for the plot. however, the lines completely disappeared when simulating the rape. the doctor's methods were triggering and so deeply unethical. then, the existence of multiple sexual predators around gao zhun was just skin-crawling and vomit-inducing. there was just predation everywhere, on and off set !
lastly, the intimacy.. girl. the intimacy was a disaster. ollie has a lot of acting potential but his and shuyuan's kissing + erotica were travesties on us all. the kissing made me upset and look away every time EXCEPT the final kisses on stage. it was so dry and void of any feeling. ollie kept his eyes partially open for basically every kiss but also the pacing of the kisses were too fast. is this a production preference? no way, not when feng qing lang & xu chang yang [thailand based but chinese characters] exist. the freaking aggressive humping looked so disingenuous and obviously false that i could not watch those scenes either. what was left for me to consume? shuyuan's acting was okay, for it being his first drama.
the compliments i can give are to the fairly consistent cinematography and the risque of the intimacy that was taken for this drama. the way fang chi & gao zhun were filmed was quite beautiful, at times. the transitions to the film were not always obvious and that seemed cool, for me. there also seemed to be foreshadowing and unspoken comparisons that could be missed, if the viewer was not paying attention. when it comes to the sexual scenes, had ollie & shuyuan connected with more intention and less aggression - i would have rated this an eight despite all the other issues.
regardless, this show has me so heated i typed eight paragraphs. the most entertaining part of this show was reading the goddamn comments. some of the comments had me in stitches. man, even the makeup was sometimes straight suspect; too light, cakey, drier than popeyes biscuits. i mean, is this what we are doing? this BL is so damn popular and for what? remember how i put some things in quotes? yeah, the characters acting as characters in the fiction were the actual fiction and the characters were the real NPCs. boy bye.
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a solid series until the last two episodes.
this is another series that i have been screaming, crying, itching, & throwing up to watch, figuratively. i made the unwise decision of watching the first five episodes after they released then i made the grueling decision to wait to binge the final five. it was agonizing, to say the least. i would say this show went from pretty good to fairly decent. i think i was a tad generous with the rating because i liked the series but objectively the rating is probably lower.the first eight episodes were ironclad. episode eight being the breakout because of the fluidity and numerous intimate scenes. toptap & minlee delivered in episode eight. the bus scene was hilarious and gut-warming. the reluctance of sun, his worry for jay, and then his eventual submission were displayed well. also, i resonated with the audition scenes regarding suicide and both jay's / sun's reaction + interpretation of what that meant. sun was clearly not a bad person but a good one who made horrible decisions in order to care for his family. i think it was interesting how sun was so traumatized by the result of his actions that he was okay with being used and abused, as long as others were not. i am glad he chose to live his life, in the end.
unfortunately, episode nine and ten were rushed. i have never read the source material but it was still evident. the pacing was just way off and things were not concluded properly. to give some examples, who actually murdered pawinee [songphon partially admitted to it but we never saw the murder or how it transpired]. why was bank suddenly out of his career with no repercussions or explanations? how did the corruption even unfold? why did wave randomly appear again but in death due to an overdose? who is responsible for the killing of the gray haired former executive in the car [MDL, please credit all talent in a work] out of nowhere? i could ask more questions, which is not good.
when adapting from manwha, these thai creatives need to take into consideration how to properly consolidate, if need be. they also need to ensure they have appropriate air time for adapting. this rushing throughout or at the ending is a terrible habit that basically ruins the overall score and effect of the story they are attempting to showcase to the audience. i also noticed that whoever was responsible for translating payback into english did an awful job which is unacceptable for paid users. more importantly, the themes of sexual assault in this are grossly unacceptable but most would not comment on that considering the leads are attractive.
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remember: seeking equality is oppression to the powers that be.
real quick shout out to pond and eed. pond was the breakout in this and i laughed every time he was visible. his acting was a ten out of ten. he sold his role completely. eed, aka the grandma, was the MVP of this entire series. her wisdom made me cry multiple times. she was a beautiful person. if people like her existed in 1930, they were visionaries.this BL is difficult for me to get through. i have experienced an array of emotions watching it because of the messages within it. realistically, with the way i binge, i should have finished this yesterday. however, vasin and the dynamics around the leads because of the change of power have made it hard to continuously watch. this review is more of a critique of the character's themselves and the content; not the actors, production, or otherwise.
i can see the reflections of the world, like most may be able to, in this piece of work. this made me think that world needs a collective revolution against the elite of the world. i live in a "developed" country that is suffering immensely because of those at the helm. i wish i alone could invoke change and rid of class but it will never be that simple. anyway, i love that this drama has a real thought-provoking plotline. i hope it opens up the eyes of the mentally enslaved. i hope it inspires others like it did me.
i know it is not fault of the brainwashed and uneducated characters in this. the royals are fully responsible for roles that were. the royals were responsible for the lack of education amongst the collective population. the royals were responsible for the wealth disparity. however, characters like nual and ueam really set me off. nual, in particular, had scenes that were immensely difficult for me to get through. the indoctrination in her ran so deep, she prioritized the well-being and considerations of the royals well over her own offspring. she was fortunate in that she had a free-thinker staring her dead in the face on a consistent basis yet she still could not break free from the enslaved mindset. it was so infuriating watch her speak to phob like he was an object but be tender to the royals who did not even grant her a formal education. she blamed phob for the revolt as if it would not have happened with or without his intervention. she berated him for wishing better for himself, HER, and the rest of the country and not settling for scraps. she physically abused him for standing on the side of the working class. i felt so much internal pain watching her scenes.
the main royals, including the MVP, all felt wronged by the revolutionaries but by phob, in particular. they and nual constantly referenced all the "good" they did for him which was not even the bare scrapping minimum. good deeds are not conditional or contingent on sightless allegiance. that is one indicator that their picturesque treatment of their servants, in the beginning, was just a false face. it was upsetting seeing phob act as though tinn was a victim of anything other than betrayal through deception. what phob did to tinn to obtain information was a serious personal offense. however, tinn was not a victim of suddenly becoming a commoner / having his life upended. the royals were lucky the lot of them were not imprisoned indefinitely considered the claims made. tinn lived in a bubble he opened and walked in and out of regularly. there were starving people literally eating on the ground in a lot behind a government building and he was privy to that information. tinn had way more power than he used when it came to both the countrymen and his relationship with phob.
vasin pissed me off badly. i hated his character so much that i had to pause every time he spoke; similarly to my experience with nual. his character was perpetually spewing anger and verbal abuse [with the occasional physical abuse] that it triggered me. their faces even triggered me as a viewer. he is a perfect example of an elitist who sees an equitable distribution of wealth and power to all as oppression. he deserved to be imprisoned immediately, in my opinion. he was described, by tinn, as a man who was devoted to his family. where was the evidence of that? he hated chat since he could not be or do what he wanted. he garnered and maintained full control of tinn for years, making him the golden child. his sons were nothing but objects to assert his will. when they wanted to exist as individuals, the abuse came. he was a homophobic, short-sighted, imbecile who became deranged in his hatred toward phob. he, like nual, are terrible parents undeserving of the children they had.
the chemistry between inn and ongsa was a ten out of ten. their intimacy in this was stellar apart from the sex [?] scenes. i imagine they were done the way they were to protect ongsa. i think ongsa needs to work on his crying. otherwise, everyone's acting was good. pond's acting, however, was exemplary.
i noticed some goofs but the plotline was enough to override those mistakes. the singer on the main soundtrack is the first thai artist to wow me in terms of vocals. edited to add: i have now completed this and yeah no. whoever decided the direction and execution of the siege needs to be slapped. it was so poorly done, i LAUGHED at the bombings and shootings. it felt randomly thrown together. civilians were just being shot at and bombed out of nowhere. one side or the other would just be shooting into the blank distance. was that supposed to be convincing? i noticed a very notable editing glitch that was multiple seconds long. all the other period related errors were easy to ignore but then the execution of the insurrection made me backtrack. basically, the last episode tarnished the rest of BL but i will not lower the rating too much.
in conclusion, edge of horizon was a riveting watch. i cried so much at the end regarding phob's fate. i was resigned to accept it as it was. i think that ending would have been better but the ending we got was ideal for the hearts of the viewers.
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no they did not air this pre-production ass show.
fck watching the playback, am i right? the producers clearly did not give AF. fam, who the fck made this show? seriously.tell me why there was a timeskip after nearly every scene? why was proper transition from one scene to the next non-existent? we go from eating soup to playing basketball. from night time to night time the next day. one minute we are in one room, next we are in another with characters carrying random items they never had. what the f? WHO SIGNED OFF ON THIS?
the acting was okay but by episode five being stone-faced and the being timid gets old fast. the bei luqing character obviously cares but his way of showing it is terrible. he doesn't apologize. he barely speaks. he barely defended xiaofan. he let xiaofan think he moved on for TWO YEARS. he is just a red stadium full of flags. also, why was there even a two year timeskip? the average person's life changes drastically in half a year. their superficial ass "relationship" could not have lasted a two year no contact period 😭
there is AI usage. there are dogs constantly barking in several of the scenes. the intimacy was horrendous. there was rape. the main character is in a perpetual state of humiliation. the leads never communicated. they maybe spoke two sentences to each other every time they were together. nearly every scene had a goof. watching a daycare center full of children would have less screw ups 😭 it was like every scene was left on a climax. how tf sway? i have never seen any type of media directed like this. it was just sh't fragmented and then pasted one after the other. was i hallucinating? is this a stylistic choice? whatever it was, i hated it.
edited to add: i have completed it and this was the worse BL i have watched to date.
the last episode was better than the entire series. i do not know how lu xiaofan managed to be a personal assistant to luqing, cook for a whole other family unit, engage with the bei family members, collude with an entirely separate party, & maintain himself. i figured he was way more clever than he let on and that was quite cool to witness in the last episode. he secured his own future and won in every way, basically. apart from the beginning of episode twelve, the rest of the show was almost offensive to watch. i could document a countless list of all the problems i observed with this show. i truly cannot believe this actually aired anywhere as complete.
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what the hell was this?
the start off was strong. jeonghan's character was cold, disrespectful, horrible, & interesting enough. iljo's character, in the beginning, made sense to a degree - i presumed he was holding onto deep trauma and had no immediate family left. the first rain scene was incredible. however, the jump directly into the story without any real setup for the premise was a choice that i did not care for but it happened.then it got more toxic and strange, in a bad way. the story is generic but could work just fine depending on the execution. unfortunately, the second half of it did not add up. jeonghan then proceeds to somehow fall in love with iljo? based off of what? the story direction and the acting were not THAT compelling so i do not understand what made the second main lead so obsessive. other than being a giant red football field, nothing can explain his actions to me.
in my previous review, i mentioned something i noticed that is erroneous on the part of these BL creatives. i have now observed another pattern, rushing these adaptations seems to be a standard. this seems to be true so much that often there are mistakes and a lack of seamlessness in aired scenes. for example, the jump from the coffee shop scene into one of the only good intimate scenes in the kitchen and at the dinner table with the fruit legitimately left me bewildered. it made no sense ! there was no sensible transition. the lead was monologuing internally and then the viewer just sees the next scene that is setup as though it were to be a dream. iljo just appearing out of nowhere when jeonghan suddenly came down with a fever made no sense. they both "broke up" three times but somehow were still together, in the end? what?
i could say more but i will conclude this with saying that this was another disappointment. i expected much more considering the first three episodes.
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A Winter Sun Wakes the Wind in Spring Hills' Dream
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beautifully made but only worthy of watching once.
content warning: mentions of several deaths and suicide.this drama has me heavily conflicted. i have been anticipating this so strongly and for weeks. i was giddy and overwhelmed with excitement to watch this piece of work [even more than with payback, prosecutor's proposal, & deep in]. i watched the first twelve episodes as soon as i possibly could yesterday and stopped in the dead of the morning to sleep.
i loved almost all of the scenes with changyang & qinglang. their chemistry was solid. i loved when they would play around with each other. i loved the way they whispered to each other. their intimacy was fairly solid too. their early scenes felt so genuine, natural, and fluid. unfortunately for me, i had spoiled myself and watched all of their kisses before i watched the piece of work itself [unknowingly]. the former is a testament to how committed i was to this BL before i saw it. i will talk about some of the issues i observed in the following paragraphs. i wanted to end this one with saying my critiques mostly start with the story as soon as changyang departs for hunter school.
you can tell that the creator and staff that made this story come alive truly care about the delivery and execution of this work. however, the story started to fall apart when changyang left. changyang's ambition can make sense to most but it felt random. he was in the mountains for eight years then all of sudden he falls in love then needs to leave right then? we never even got to witness his time in school which felt like a bad decision. his absence was felt and it was void-feeling without him being on screen for a majority of the work. one could surmise that the homophobia and societal / familial expectations exacerbated his leave but it was wack and traumatizing to watch. if china is actually still this antiquated then i feel strongly for the victims of these prejudices alive today. it was actually sickening to see how much homophobia was made a pillar in this story.
i am bewildered by other things as well. sister lan dying was slightly questionable for me but could be more easily accepted comparatively. i was glad that she did not fully disappear from the viewer once she died. she deserved to live. she clearly was an incredible character / person. almost every speech she gave made me cry.
qingtian's death, i still cannot get over. i am beside myself about it because it was nonsensical. i think from a presumptive view one can conclude what the events surrounding and leading up to his death meant but i do not want to guess ! changyang alluded that qingtian intentionally died or commit suicide. i think suicidal ideation is a normal response to loved ones dying but the way it happened was ??? he decides to run off to find the ghost flower, heavy fog randomly appears out of nowhere, then he is lost immediately. the only thing left of him were his shoe and the tool. what??? the sequence of this event was poorly executed, in my opinion. he is then basically never mentioned again especially compared to lan. only his mother and grandmother seem to actually be grieving [i understand grief is different for everyone]. grief is probably why qingtian made the decision he made. however, who can say? did he commit suicide or did he die to the elements?
shi yuhao's death does not make any sense at all to me. not at the time he decided to commit suicide. he did it on the anniversary of lan's accident which is wild. why did he do it? why then? why at all? why did he all of sudden become decent after all the torment, blackmail, coercion, and criminal behavior prior? was it because he managed the comeback so all of a sudden he had a conscious? nonsense. his character pissed me off so his actor did well.
i nearly despise the second main leads. their presences always set me off, internally. i liked them a lot prior to hao yu flipping the script on han lu after they were caught kissing by their show's production team. after that, their relationship was nothing but sloppy, toxic, and dysfunctional garbage. they never spoke about their feelings nor addressed prior obstacles. they never even verbally committed but were somehow boyfriends? they pissed me off every time they came on screen.
wenshu and qingtian were a different story for me. i wanted more of them. i could not understand the pacing of their relationship development. it seemed clear that they were being setup to be together so why did that not happen and instead we got what we got instead? i understand qingtian was still emotionally invested in his formerly actively living partner so i do not get why we got introduced to these two instead, in that way. wenshu then is written to completely disappear from the audience after qingtian's character conclusion. i think there was huge missed opportunity with these two due to bad writing.
there were almost no small production errors like i have noticed in other chinese BL. the cinematography was basically flawless; truly an incredible watch just from this point of view. there were only extremely questionable decisions made like with the punching sound effects, changyang / wenshu deciding to assault that random leech [whom we never see again after wenshu's visit / attack], and others i will mention throughout this review.
i personally do not care for how chinese dramas or BL are filmed. this piece of work was captured a lot more fluidly until changyang left. then it was just timeskips and random events pasted together one after the other just like in bittersweet love. i actually hate this stylistic choice. it makes tracking the story very difficult. at the end, it was said that FIVE YEARS had passed. i presume since the beginning of the show. who would know that prior to it being stated? that is unbelievably amount of time that elapsed. qinglang waited something like two years for changyang? or did he actually wait five years? that is deeply deeply deeply upsetting especially considering leads in BL are always written to be the worst communicators. real relationships cannot survive these kinds of conditions but i get this is fiction.
i have questions. why did the feng brother's mother just decide to leave the family and become a monk? why was changyang's father suddenly and randomly in prison? what happened to that random predator investor? who was the random disabled person who came back into changyang's place? i mean why him? why did changyang take an extended time to return? why did they suddenly "get married" with no proposal shown to viewers? why was their last kiss off? what even is hunter school? what was the point of that endeavor anyway? any good story would not leaving viewers with multiple questions.
in all, because of the second main leads, the storyline without changyang, and the false setup of wenshu + qingtian, i would probably never rewatch this. i find that so unfortunate because this drama was stunning and not lacking intricacies. apart from the cinematography + changyang / qinglang, this BL dropped the ball. however, i still rate it highly despite these gaps and the AI promotion, which was disgusting. objectively, the rating is probably several points lower.
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this is the best story i have seen for a chinese BL to date.
my chinese BL watchlist is limited but i know quality, decent, and bad work. i think this drama falls in between quality and decent but boy do i have things to say, lol. overall, to my shore was good.the toxicity in this work was something of new heights for my consumption. i have yet to watch any leads have such a dysfunctional dynamic in anything, in any genre. without saying for sure, since i lack the credentials, fan xiao was a sociopath border-lining psychopathic. i say this because he just did whatever he wanted to anyone without even so much as change of expression. his character made me hold my forehead so many times in cringe, frustration, and disappointment. in the face fo the person he "loved" more than anyone in the world, he was stoic when he cried, despaired, and expressed disgust toward him. xiao was fine being intimate with him as long as he had said man. his behavior was bewildering and frightening as hell. as badly as i wanted fan xiao to have redemption, he kept doing horrifying crap to manipulate you shulang. it was truly horrendous to watch. i cringed so much until he actually showed he experienced development.
i was happy that you shulang was not written to forgive xiao immediately after finding out about all of things he did. xiao deserved everything he got and more than what was expressed in the drama, to be honest. he manipulated lu zhen + shulang and ghosted him in order to ruin their relationship. the former grievance was enough for xiao to be physically beaten, in my opinion. even his toxic display of jealously in the special episode was eye-rolling. he, however, did not stop at the relationship manipulation but commit sexual assault, coercion, blackmail, & overall abused his power as a wealthy person with connections. the man was the biggest red state i have ever seen. shulang should not have been written to forgive him nor go back to that evil.
shulang's character was genuinely a decent person until he cheated on his damn boyfriend, at the end. why was that necessary? is cheating a standard practice in chinese BL or what? what about sexual assault in BL, in general? it is so upsetting to constantly see these themes.
i did not at all care for hao yiran, at first. his face seemed way too unnatural looking. more importantly, his acting started off way too bland and straight-faced. i thought the leads had no chemistry, at first. he ended up being a better actor than i thought. i felt similarly about yunqi and he also proved me wrong. i think with fan xiao's quite clearly psychological problems, the straight-faced acting worked out. the only bad actor, in my opinion, was the actor for shulang's brother.
the intimacy was not amazing but it was good until the special episode. i do not know what happened there but the special episode was excellent until the kissing and proposal [?] the ring showcase, at the very end, was ? for me. it felt like a lazy and boring way to suggest they were going to get married. i am not for these lack of actual proposals that have been happening in BL, as of late. my favorite intimate moments were when the leads were looking at each other, talking, and touching [e.g. in xiao's car, xiao touches shulang's face with a finger and shulang grabs xiao's buddha necklace + sharing the "rouge" cigarettes].
anyway, the addressing of xiao's trauma and the reframe presented to him was a truly emotionally refreshing moment. it was beautiful and unexpected.
since i am an attention to detail kind of person, i naturally noticed lots of goofs like i often do. i noticed a microphone captured in a shot, a camera caught in a reflection, & obvious & unnatural cuts. then there were cringeworthy things like the fake volleyball game, fake kissing noises, and the way the promised fiancee ran out of the room. also, i caught a timestamp at the last frame of the special episode - that is wild AF. these kinds of things will always be unacceptable to me.
the conclusion of this was also not good. i cannot imagine that for those who watched it as it aired seeing the two reconcile through sexual intimacy. then by the next morning, it just ends with them holding hands on their way to breakfast? no.
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i am in disbelief.
seriously bro, i am shocked. this BL was at least an eight and a half until great got shot. no, like, what actually happened?what was the purpose of colliding the seemingly differing universes? why did great's four minute ability stop after him and his mother were shot? did that great even recover? the whole story was nearly impossible to track after they were shot. the former is considering that both timelines shared several of the same happenings. anyway, the converging of the different timelines where great was actually respectable to him being a coward accomplice made no sense at all ! why was that even a decision made? why was it made to seem like tyme then developed the ability? how does that even make sense? hello? in the end, great and lukwa never even sat down to converse about their abilities in front of the audience. apparently some figure [the person in the gallery] can grant this power to people so how did tyme "get" it? why was the story not switched back to the more favorable sequence with great not being an absolute POS?
be on cloud / sammon straight up ruined what could have been a masterpiece. the acting was good. the intimacy was wild and good [there was even full nudity]. the opening and closing credits were memorable and good. they even played another rendition of that unforgettable song from kinnporsche. then they ruined the whole story with this convoluted mess. how can a convergence seem like a disjointing? i stopped feeling connected to the story as soon as great number one got shot and great number two was made the focal.
i must have missed something because this was just a mess and a waste of time to watch.
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the popular reviews on this are not an accurate representation of this show.
though my rating is slightly lower than the median average of this show, love sea was no where near as bad as some of the "helpful" reviews and otherwise made this out to be. it must be some kind of bandwagon hate train that happened around airing that could explain the low rates.there are definitely problems with this show. namely, khaimuk was ear-grating in the third episode. she was annoying to the point that i actually became overstimulated from hearing her in that episode and i had to turn my volume all the way down to get through her scenes. i almost dropped the show entirely because of that episode. whoever directed that aya act like that needs to have their kneecaps caved in. she was whiny, pathetic, and her pitch was so aggravating. another problem involving her character was the GL storyline. it was trash and completely unnecessary. her and her partner kissed ONCE but also after their makeout session, her running away was just never addressed? then by the special episode they were together and reconciled. nope, nonsense. i think the GL storyline was deliberately sabotaged. these are just two issues that i observed. khaimuk and vivie single-handedly are responsible for this rating being this; i could even go a tad lower. i can tell that aya is an extremely talented actress despite never seeing her in anything else before. she was done dirty in this except for her wardrobe.
the storyline between the main leads had some unique and generic elements but it was fairly solid. i have never seen anything with fort & peat in it... man, these two HAD ME SHOOK with their intimacy. these two are the best kissers i have seen to date. i think they are even better than mile & apo ! their kissing is so natural looking, hungry, intentional, and complete-feeling ! every goddamn pair i have seen, apart from mile & apo, need to study under them as though their rent was due two weeks ago. their sex scenes i also have no notes for. they are quite good in all of their intimacy scenes. i wish thai production would allow for sex scenes to be more fluid [the removal or side-stepping of clothing, slower movements depending on the action] so that they make more sense for viewer experience. anyway, i can see why fort & peat are as popular as they are. their intimacy is why this drama sits at this rating as well.
the colorism in this piece of work was also something of note. mahasumut's skintone was mentioned around four separate times or so. i am guessing the creator, mame, is an older racist of some kind who made these works ages ago. i am not sure why a racist trope had to make it into the final production, but it is par-for-the-course with asian creatives, i suppose.
meena or otherwise known as nina nutthacha padovan was the breakout in this. she deserves her own mention, paragraph, and recognition. she blew me away. absolutely incredible performance from her and i wish her a prosperous future.
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don't bother.
i think my overall rating might be generous. anyway, i wasted my time watching this a couple of weeks ago. it was not it.the first male lead was truly pathetic until he had a change of heart when he almost lost his chance. he let projects at work dictate his life and invade into his personal time. the former brings to light a festering issue in japanese work culture. regardless, the person who had seniority over him abused him and he just took it? fear and anxiety are understandable + reasonable / valid feelings. however, he was working over twelve hour days give or take for what months? years? then when kai entered his life, it began to have meaning and he had a real shot at actually living. he promised kai they would attend that festival together then gets bullied into prioritizing work. then he blows kai off for a month to finish a project that would have been completed if he was not there. superiors know how to make things happen just like how they expect grunts to do the same. watari did not deserve kai.
honestly, the intimacy [sexual or romantic] was just wack. some of the earlier scenes like with the relief to allow watari to sleep because he was so stressed out from work were good or funny. the kissing was boring. viewers got more chemistry from the opening credits with the characters than the actual body of work.
i quite liked nomura kota's portrayal of a defeated person who had been so disappointed with life that there were no expectations of others. he felt like a character that was true to himself and uncaring of the perception of others. he lived authentically because he was at his wit's end. otherwise, this body of work was too lacking and too short.
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*clutches forehead*
when will this streak break? the last six titles i have watched have all been lacking in one way, another, or in basically everything. this one is no different so much that i am not even sure i can finish the last episode.i planned to watch peach and me but then came across that this was the prequel. i was excited and yearning for the BL that would finally hit me like my top three [sigh]. i need to temper my expectations because this is getting downright ridiculous.
i have several things to say about this title. to preface, there is no reason why any thai BL should have mediocre intimate scenes or even actors. my first critique is pond & phuwin SUCK at kissing. i am not sure if it was either or but with how long it took for peach and thee to kiss, i thought their first kiss would knock me out [sigh]. their first kiss was so boring. all of their subsequent kisses were also boring ! it looked like pond was kissing a brick wall doppelganger in human skin. their relationship was like that of roommates who did not live together and were sometimes intimate; not even friends with benefits :'] peach never reacted to all of the actual romantic things thee said to him. was this a deliberate choice? i do not know if it was phuwin or peach but the nearly blank face for all of the serious scenes with thee could have figuratively killed me. i truly felt like it was pond pushing all the weight as though the ratio was ninety:ten. the chemistry was not there and there were not enough intimacy scenes.
in the last six things i have watched, this had the best pacing [thank goodness] albeit the burn was slow as hell. at this point, i do not feel any burn with the characters since i see them as some bastardization of non-roommates with benefits on layaway. nonetheless, i do appreciate that the pursuit took awhile and that peach's character should be awarded for being one of the most healthy of all time in BL [he upheld boundaries so well too]. i am glad that thee respected peach and changed his behavior to accommodate his comfort. otherwise, thee is a red flag but with his background, it makes sense.
[sigh] the second to last episode, peach prohibited being proposed to then was okay with it by the last? i wish i could beg to cosmos the stop pissing me off with marriage proposals that are nonsensical. first off, my interpretation was that sometime had passed based on what thee said in episode ten though it matters not [unless production chooses to be explicit with timeline indicators]. peach and thee never spoke of expectations, desires, compromises nor lived together longterm - how in the f could they get married? nothing about their love or marriage convinced me either were authentic. i beg you BL professionals, please stop with this. also, wtf was the marriage proposal? thee never even asked directly nor did peach respond but he put the ring on anyway? why sway? 😭 i cringed all of episodes nine and ten.
thee seemed to be incredibly romantic and thoughtful. his character did develop but not enough. what he did at the end of episode ten for the children astounded me but i question some of the intention. i question it because he self-labeled himself to them but still acted as infantile as he was before he and peach began dating. i do not like this as a plot device at all.
the following are the rest of the issues i noted that had me head-shake, close my eyes in frustration, or hold my head in agony:
● episode one - a microphone is left in final aired recording [i was shook]
● episode three - fake ass violin playing left in the final recording [this had to be a prank]
● there was an episode with scenes that did not transition properly and were confusing
● the fake kissing sounds and they would be engaged before the leads were actually kissing
● aran getting back together with tawan [guess they had to offset the healthy dynamics with toxic BS nonsense]
● peach repeated why thee watched his mother's dramas as if were new information to the viewer + thee [this was a gag]
● aran suddenly wearing a cap and glasses after asking thee to speak in the following scene even though he had no cap and glasses prior
● peach and thee did not kiss at their reception. they barely kissed at the end of the wedding night. they can no longer afford privacy
some of the choices made in these BL have me questioning if i could make a better one than all of these industries and career professionals WHO GO TO SCHOOL FOR THIS. thailand is the most prominent country in terms of the BL market, as far as i know, there really should not be goofs, errors, blips, bad acting, horrible NC scenes, etc. it feels inexcusable to me when stars apparently are being robbed by most companies taking nearly all of the profits.
to conclude, i do not think i will be watching peach and me.
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another cap for the BL community.
i stayed up late to finish this well into the morning and for nothing. this BL was more-or-less trash. i rated the story high because they had it ! the foundation was stellar but the execution was pure comedy. this could have went down as one of the best of all time considering the plot twist, the excitement, the toxicity, the triangle, etc. but nope. some of the acting was questionable like at the end, in the police station - that made no sense. the intimacy scenes were wack and dry as hell. the one drunken kiss was the best kiss of the whole run. the kiss at the end was that garbage stiff ish that people hate so why did they implement that? the most inviting kiss, for me as a consumer, was the one with the dessert and still that could have been more. what a huge disappointment.this was definitely way overhyped and overrated by fans. the music was not memorable so i did not rate it accurately. it still pisses me off to know that i watched this even though it was some weeks ago.
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why does the BL community cap so much?
this piece of work was mid, at a generous best. it had the perfect premise but fell short. the episodes and the run were not long enough. i cannot believe how hyped it was for how many gags and nonsensical things that occurred. the intimacy was also lacking. i felt more when the leads were asleep together and looked at each other than when they were actually engaging intimately. how does that make sense?i did not rate the music truthfully since it had no impact on me and was not memorable. the opening animation was intriguing though.
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