Love & candles

Apparently this is based on the K drama with the same title. I have seen said drama but years ago and all I remember are the candles and the Himalayas. But I remember liking it (though when time travel is concerned, i am not picky: I adore the concept!).

A man discovers a bunch of candles that can take him back ten years so he uses them in order to save his girlfriend's life. This is the basic plot: but it is eventually really complicated, with many changes accomplished in the past which radically altered the present.

I have to give it to the writers: every time I'd see a plot hole and say "Aha! Gotcha!" , they'd find a perfectly logical explanation in accordance with the overall plot. It is practically foolproof if, of course, you accept the original ridiculous premise of time travel inducing magical candles! There is also the advantage they had going with the short format: they did not have too much time to ruin the drama with unnecessary subplots and complications.

Production value is excellent, the pacing perfect, the acting solid, music nice.

Since it is a c drama and since they are not allowed to do time travel themed series, there is an epilogue after the credits of the last episode which explains, using some incomprehensible mumbo jumbo, that the whole thing was just a coma dream. The full version (3h50 on youtube) does not feature this epilogue so you will be left wanting answers since the story is incomplete (or rather left on a cliffhanger!).

Definitely one of the best short c dramas!

Read More

It took me forever to finally watch this drama and the reason is that I can still vividly remember the webtoon I read a couple of years ago. And I can still remember disliking the main couple. And also wanting to see so much more of the second couple.

And lo and behold, this adaptation is very much faithful to the webtoon and therefore, I disliked the main couple and wanted to see more of the second couple (fortunately there are some nice webtoon side stories about them).

WJ has problems at work so he has been suspended. he goes to a tiny seaside town and meets by accident a well known pottery artist who has been hiding for the past two years. The artist is WJ's boss's favourite one so WJ sees this encounter like a possibility to earn some points and get reinstated. WJ, with his cheerful nature breaks slowly the walls around the artist. Until they actually fall in love and WJ's scheming comes to light. Now ensue a string of misunderstandings and lies which are mercifully quickly resolved! The second couple has a more interesting story: I cannot really remember whether they were real cousins or just friends but the drama lightly touches upon (mentions once!) the family homophobia: blink and you miss it!

The story is messy with a lot of inconsistencies and illogicalities. There is this particular feeling about K-BLs, and this one is no exception: they are cold and empty in spite of warm cinematography, the acting is stilted and unnatural, the kind of music featured has been heard already so many times and is extremely boring, the writing is rather superficial. The actors were mostly cute but the main couple had zero chemistry: more often than not even when they were together, they looked like they were on different planets. The webtoon characters had more sparks flying between them than these two real people. And don't start me on those fish & passionless kisses: not even kisses, more like tiny pecks on lips! Fortunately, there is character development, a slight one but a growth nevertheless: one matures and grows a backbone while the other rediscovers joys of life. While I was watching the office worker played by Gongchan, I kept thinking of Suits, the US show: he reminded me so much of young Patrick J. Adams. And once I thought of that, I could not unthink it, unfortunately! The other couple's thuggish guy reminded me of the farmer boy, loud and direct, from Love Tractor.

This is a most unremarkable drama, correctly produced but lacking soul, a spark or something which would bring it to the top.

Read More

Mistaken identity?

What to say about this little film that has not been said many times already? It is a cute high school romcom.

Every few years these movies are made for new generations of public: a story about a mousy girl who falls for the most popular guy in school (here it is through letters in a notebook). This one has an added twist since it is obviously an adaptation of the classic Cyrano. The girl thinks that the boy had fallen for her much smarter and prettier friend but since she is not interested in him, the girl decides to continue corresponding with him while pretending to be her friend.

I liked that even though this is a film made recently, there is practically not a single phone in sight: the mobile phone interactions have been brought down to a strict minimum for a change. The communication is often verbal, written and even through songs (I loved the song they used to apologize!). In today's world, where young people seem to have their fingers glued to phone screens, this film is a refreshing change, a throwback to romcoms of about 20 years ago 'complete with an accidental school radio live confession!)

This is nothing earth shatteringly new or particularly original but it is well produced and filmed. The actors are cute and portrayed their characters well, having decent chemistry. Nice watch for a Sunday evening.

Read More

Teen Ghost Whisperer

When I started watching this for my Back To The Past watch challenge, I had a terrible feeling of déjà vu: the plot and the events looked so familiar. Until I realized that this must be a japanese take on that american show The Ghost Whisperer. The plot is basically the same: a girl who can see ghosts helps them with their unfinished business, and afterwards they go into the light. It is a case of the week kind of drama, though there is the main story arc that covers the whole show. The girl is helped by a young man who needs to convince his dead ghost girlfriend that she has to go into the afterlife. While doing that they fall in love incurring the wrath of the dead girlfriend.

The whole drama makes you feel warm and giddy: the actors are all good and the chemistry is just right. The special effects are a bit clunky but it does not take anything away from the enjoyment of the drama. The stories, though mostly funny and fun, deal with important questions and feelings: friendship, family, regrets, hopes, dreams and love and grief.

I liked the whole idea behind the drama that only teens can see ghosts: once you become adult you lose that capability. What is the point of that? Helps you grow up and mature, deal with the difficult period of being a teen, dealing with not being a child any more but not quite an adult yet. The FL here shows surprising kindness, open mindedness, understanding and even maturity and I wished that the writers came up with a happy ending for her and her boyfriend even though it was clear from the get go that they could never be together forever. That said, the whole drama is happy, uplifting, sweet and funny. A great watch!

Read More

Don't stay still!

This whole web drama, even though it is well filmed, directed, acted, it should not have been a drama but two, maybe three separate short films or maybe episodes in an omnibus drama. The story follows three couples who never interact, they do not know each other, and what happens in their lives does not impact in any way the others. So I frankly fail to understand the intention behind the director's vision. Is it a social commentary? I could not notice any.

There are three couples vaguely connected by the girl in the first couple which shows up : Paki & Shane. They are enjoying their last night of lovemaking because she is getting married soon. So she decides to tell him a story about two of her friends (episode 0). But what ep.0 did not make clear is that the story she wants to tell is not about a couple but two different stories about people who do not know each other. The first couple in introduced in the first episode: Hayden and Damian, his neighbour who get to know each other through Damian's grandmother. When they meet, the sparks fly but they are both still vulnerable from their previous relationships so they decide to take it slow. When the grandma dies, Damian is depressed and with Hayden's help he manages to pull through the grieving period. The second couple we meet in a bar where Paki met Hayden for a drink. Archie is Paki's friend and he meets Kelvin, the bar owner, and his high school boyfriend for the first time after years of being abroad. They used to be in a relationship in high school but a girl liked Kelvin and wanted him for herself so she outed and shamed Archie, so much that he left. She then manipulated Kelvin into getting her pregnant and held onto him through their son. When Kelvin meets Archie and realizes his feelings for him are still the same, he decides to stop dancing to his wife's tune and to be honest about himself.

What is the point of Paki's telling these stories? One cannot stay still, immobile. You have to move on, forward, fight for your own happiness and try to be true to yourself and your feelings. I can see that but then why is she not doing it herself: she obviously has feelings for Shane but she's marrying someone else. Not everyone can be happy, not everyone can stay with the person they love? OK, I guess..

While the stories are not particularly original, the acting and production are excellent for a drama filmed on a restricted budget. The colours are all washed out, dark, sad and depressing. The stories are not: they are uplifting and hopeful. Nice contrast. The camerawork is rather interesting: obviously handheld and shaky and there are some interesting camera angle choices: all that made for an intriguing watch, never boring. Music is a bit all over the place: while there are a couple of beautiful songs we only get to hear them during credits a couple of times, otherwise it is all heavy, dramatic and serious piano music.
The actors are all amazing, very much at ease with each other which shows well in the steamy makeout scenes without a single fish kiss.

In conclusion, this is a nice bl offering from HongKong and I hope this crew makes more similarly well produced and written dramas!

Read More

The boy next door

I have not seen many dramas from Hong Kong: their cinema is world renowned but dramas...No one speaks about them here unfortunately! But what I have seen are mainly low budget web bl dramas and they are far from slick but the stories they tell are usually raw, rough and unpolished (lots of synonyms to say the same thing!) and very real: no fluff or fairy tales in sight. This one seems to be no different!

This special is the introduction episode to the longer drama, showing us how the main characters met. It starts by a woman who, after the post coital bliss, delivers bad(?) news to her lover and then offers to tell him a short story about two of her friends: Hayden and Damian. Hayden moves into a new flat and meets an old lady and her grandson Damian.

In spite of this being only 15min long they managed to make it look long and draggy. When Hayden meets the old lady, the whole sequence is far too long. Well I guess we needed to establish that Hayden is kind to elderly but that scene went on and on and on.... The same goes for Damian: he is shown to be kind to his grandmother, looking after her conscientiously. So the characters are nice people. Handsome as well. The grandmas's white hair looked too fake to be real and they could have done without it! The cinematography is grey and unappealing though the camerawork is interestingly dynamic, the apartment building is unkempt and old and the sets in general are dark and depressing. The final credits song is very nice.

And that's about it! The two men meet briefly and take a long look at each other. Promising? Wink, wink! Oh yes, the ending delivers but the story is far from finished!

Read More

All smiles, no substance...

Lucky My Love definitely deserve A for the effort and some consideration because it is one of the rare GLs out there. If we were to compare it to similar length web dramas, it keeps up with them. But, objectively speaking this is a badly written, acted and overall produced drama.

It is an office romance. Napdao is so unsuccessful in love that she goes to tarot reader to get some insight into her future. At the same time a new team manager joins the office. Their boss and the new team manager start competing for Napdao's attention. Whom shell she choose?

This short web drama does not raise any issue (family and society acceptance needed?). They are both independent women and we do not know much about them or their background. The biggest problem here are the love triangle and misunderstanding, though due to the short duration, those problems were quickly solved. And of course there is the obligatory mildly screeching trans comic relief character. The drama is shallow, quick and forgettable.

The production is a low budget one but that is not important especially where these rare dramas are concerned. They should have concentrated more on writing and acting because they are both lacking. None of the actors could deliver the lines correctly (and the subs on youtube are really bad so it is not about the substance but the intonation). The actress playing Napdao has an infectious smile, she is very cute and when she smiles she lights up the room. Literally!

The producers of Lucky My Love need encouragement to continue to make better dramas: this one was a cute little romance but with no substance. Hopefully we'll see better things in the future.

Read More

Love through the screen

Can close relationships survive extreme situations? Can the same extreme situation help create new relationships?

I like anthology series and this one, produced by now dead production company Nadao, is definitely one of the best. Unexpectedly, an excellent covid quarantine skype drama from Thailand when the majority of these covid dramas came from the Philippines. There are 10 stories, each dealing with a different kind of relationship.
Here they are:
1. Haunted (from) Home - two brothers pranking each other at distance.
2. Lovers On The Street - a girl finds a photo of her boyfriend with another woman on Google Street View. She enrols the help of her best friend to find who that woman is.
3. The Thuang (Talk2DaHand) - a man tries to recover some money he lent to a woman who refuses to give it back. His reply is awesome. This is the shortest, the funniest episode of all.
4. Day 10 - two neighbours meet and talk through the wall between their balconies, thus curing loneliness brought on by confinement.
5. Pumpkin Can - a fitness trainer decides to help a girl who just got dumped, to get back on her feet. Generosity in hardship.
6. Close Friend - two best friends and unrequited love. Should the friendship survive?
7. Because We Know You Still Have To Leave The House - an inventor, safely quarantined at home, comes up with protection gadgets for his frail friend who needs to go out to work every day. The inventor gets angry when the banker complains about the lack of practicality of his inventions. This one made me angry: the rich guy in safety complains to the poor guy in danger and sulks when he is not obeyed.
8. Mother - Distancing - mother daughter relationship is often a difficult one. But when they are in danger, everything else suddenly becomes unimportant. As it should!
9. The Coach - a guy trying to earn money by becoming a life coach on line. Not a good idea!
10. What Happened Last Night? - a gl.

Each relationship is shown in depth and is really ingeniously produced giving us a serious look at the young people's relationships: be it between siblings, strangers, friends or with parents.

Definitely worth the watch if you are in the mood for a short drama!

Read More

Hope in misery?

If you are looking for a nice and fluffy bl, you are at the wrong place! I understand why it has such low rating, I do not agree with it but I understand! Because it is grey: misery, unhappiness, hopelessness...mention it, it's there! But it is not all black since there is a sliver of light that appears.

It is a story of two men trying to survive, just survive the onslaught of their respective families. They have known each other a few years previously when their parents married but that marriage did not last long. Something happened between the two young men at the time, as well, that created a huge rift. We never really clearly find what it was: an unwanted, unexplained kiss? The main problem are their parents: one father is an abuser, the other a criminal but still very attractive to his ex wife using their son to finance them.

The drama is too short. It touches upon a lot of issues but it does not really have the time to delve deeper into them: mainly parents abusing of their children who are desperately wanting to free themselves from their hold. So much so that the young men are exhausted, desperate and lacking energy to do anything. We are left without explanation as to how and why that kiss (?) happened between them which ruined a friendly relationship they had when they were younger! The older one feels responsible and guilty towards the younger one. Why?

The romance comes out suddenly and is heart flutteringly beautiful, chemistry soaring sky-high but unfortunately nothing is solved by the realization. The life is too difficult to bear to do anything more than just survive. The promise of happiness is too scary to believe: when you've been beaten down by life, you lose all hope. We are left with an open ending, showing us a glimmer of hope that one of them allows himself to dare to feel.

This drama is beautifully filmed, written and acted. The cinematography alongside the animated opening credits are all in shades of grey, perfectly translating the desperation and the misery the main characters feel. The music is just as good. It has been a long time since a korean BL made me feel so many emotions: rage, pity, sadness, hope, love...

Read More

Shiny rock and a skunk!

"There is no future for a nation who has forgotten their history. There is no past for a nation, who has lost their cultural assets."

Stealer is what you get when you mix Leverage with White Collar add a dash of Indiana Jones and Batman and a big dose of "not taking themselves seriously" kind of humour and sprinkle it with patriotism... a very fun watch, with likeable, funny characters and over the top villains!

The plot is not important; a bunch of rugtag solitary individuals are brought together to get the big bad villain down. The big bad is your ordinary baddie: a super rich, greedy guy surrounded by an army of bodyguards/killers dressed in matching suits and ties. He is looking for a treasure that will bring him eternal life of course. And he is completely mad: laughing loudly, raising hands in the air and laughing in triumph some more. An over the top bad guy!

The good guys are a trauma suffering lot: orphaned, humiliated, abandoned etc. So they are looking for a revenge beside trying to get hold on to treasure. Here's where patriotism comes in: the cultural assets belong to the nation not to rich men!

This is a fun, adventure drama: there is a lot of running around, thinking hard, getting dressed up, fist fighting, computer mambo jumbo and maniacal laughter. There is no romance to speak of, glances are exchanged, fluttering was felt but it remained there: the mission is all that counts.

I usually avoid watching previews of the next episode but they caught me unawares and I saw the one for the episode 9 and in that preview everyone was unconscious on the ground. In spite of me trying to convince myself that this was a comedy show so no major characters will die, I was really stressed while watching mostly because they kept dragging it on and on.... The drama itself is not draggy: there is always something going on and the quiet moments are few and far between and usually interrupted by an emergency!

Not the best drama out there but they managed to wrap it up nicely in 12 episodes so it is not draggy and definitely a good watch if you need to give your brain a rest!

Read More

Weird & funny!

The synopsis says it all. I just wondered about the LGBT tag: apparently the two women living together are a couple? I think?

The story is told from the point of view of the fan: immobile(just swivelling its fan regularly from let to right and back again) and silent witness to the goings-on in the flat.

An original idea of putting a camera on the fan combines with the actors' perfect timing makes for a funny and a smart watch. The characters are all coolly (blasé) reacting to surprising presences: nobody shouts or jumps. It is more of a vaudeville show with people hiding in closets and behind coat-hangers!

It is a comedy, there is really no deeper meaning or message. A child's voice recites lines from Veda which is supposed to be about the fan, who, Godlike, bestows its silent presence onto the inhabitants of that flat.

Read More

Growing pains

Teen years are probably the sweetest and the most difficult years in anyone's life. If you are an arts student, looking into your own memories should be enough to find inspiration. I would not be surprised to discover that it is the case here: this being an university project!

The story about burgeoning feelings between two teen boys is told with sensitivity and beauty by someone who knows what he's talking about! Two boys' friendship and certainly more, is ruined by the lack of courage and the fear of how other people perceive them.

The actors skilfully conveyed the feelings of loss, love, desperation and disappointment: their eyes seriously tugged at my heartstrings. The cinematography is lovely and the sets tell a lot about the boys feelings of confusion, loneliness and yearning for happiness, understanding and love. Unfortunately, the society, the misconceptions, the lack of acceptance, scare one of the boys who ends up running away from the promise of a different but right kind of happiness for him.

I wish this were longer and that the ending did not give us a forshadowing of not nice things to come for one of the boys. As the title puts it, one boy managed to ground the other one, stop him from flying away. But now that he is scared, he abandons the other boy not grounding him, holding him down anymore....Sad and tragic? Or hopeful that he will find the strength to go on?

Read More

David vs. Goliath

I disliked this short film for the first 10min: it was the usual tale of rich and powerful pushing the "little" people out of the way with their money.

The silly and stupid daughter of a neauveau riche father (complete with a fake fur jacket...on him!!!) gets into a dorm and a scholarship to go to Hawaii while the smart but poor girl keeps being refused access. But the smart girl is smart and she knows how the world works so complaining and making noise is not going to get her anything. She has to deal with them in an intelligent way. And she does!

This turned out to ba a brilliant tale of the underdog coming on top.

Read More

BFF? Maybe...

I am finding it difficult to write about this drama: I liked it a lot but it stressed and angered me very much. The story follows five lonely young adults who meet through twitter and decide to meet in real life as well. They hit it off immediately, even though all of them lied about themselves. Slowly the truth comes out but instead of tearing them apart, they bond even more. They help each other and love blossoms amongst them. But the timing is never right and everything is just a string of missed opportunities and white lies.
The drama showed us how each of them grew and matured through their friendship. The drama left a lot of unanswered questions, issues touched upon and just left unsolved. Why did Doctor come to Japan with his little sister when his parents are perfectly all right and wealthy in Korea? Why does he always speak in japanese with his sister (I know a japanese drama etc.etc....)? Haru, the teacher had a lot of problems in school: with students and other teachers and then what happened, all is forgotten? Drug dealing student is arrested, she promises to help him and then...what happened next? Sexual harassment at work? Barely mentioned when Kaoru is being molested by his female boss? Kaoru's difficult affirmation of his own sexuality? How did they solve this? Kaoru commits suicide! Very "nice" solution to a huge problem! Probably realistic solution for japanese society but still...he had friends who supported him and were there for him!
The music was very nice, rocky and it fit the drama really well. I liked the cinematography and the way they edited thansitions between scenes: rather original and pretty to see! What was not pretty to see was the male actors' hair: the three of them had awful hairstyles.... But the acting was excellent, they had an amazing group chemistry though the centre of it, like the Sun, was Nakaji, the photographer, kind, sweet and helpful, everyone was drawn towards.
As I said, things made me angry, most of all Kaoru's fate, which felt very wrong. The rest is a sweet drama about young people finding their own way in life, which is easier when you have good friends to listen to you...

Read More

Lockdown to freedom

This is my first lockdown film from Japan. The Philippines have made loads of these but this short film is of a different kind.

The story follows two neighbours as they get to know each other and start dating only to be stopped by the curfews: not allowed to leave their respective apartments, not allowed to meet, not allowed to go out on to the balcony. While one girl religiously follows the rules, the other one is fed up and eventually manages to talk the first one to throw the caution into the wind: they go out for a walk through the empty streets of Tokyo....

Today I remember the lockdowns fondly: what a strange and incredible, never to be repeated experience, that was. We all went through the same feelings as do girls in this film: listen constantly to the news, util you reach the overdose and then rebel, go out and breathe free.

There is not much dialogue, and what is said is mostly just nonsense lost in the news broadcasts. The romance is shown from the beginning and through every stage of development via short scenes. The curfew put strain on it but they decided their love is more important than anything else. So they go out fully masked! The reason for lockdown was never really explicitly said: pandemic or pollution or something else....in the end it is not important!

The music is great. Acting and cinematography top notch. An interesting short film.

Read More