Japan flexes their BL muscles and reminds us they are the OG

In spite of the dark undertones which often colour Japanese BL (because, let's face it, it's part of their yaoi tradition), you've gotta hand it to them - they know how to tell interesting stories in beautiful ways, which is why over and over again I find their BL outputs to be far superior to the ones from other Asian countries. They are not always going to pander to giggly girls, they are not going to dosh out that standard buff guy in the shower shot; in fact, they will make fun of this by giving you a really mediocre dude in the shower so we can laugh at ourselves and this weird and wonderful genre (yes, I am referring to Zettai BL ni Naru Sekai VS Zettai BL ni Naritakunai Otoko). This show will no doubt rub people the wrong way, especially those who are new to BL and prefer the fluffy versions. The master/slave dynamic between the two leads is really painful to watch, but that's why it's compelling and it is these dark parts of both of their characters which make them so intriguing to watch. I can't say too much without spoiling it for you but I just want to say the last episode of this show has gone down in history as a personal favourite for me. There was no way of knowing how it was going to play out, but ermagerrrd the revelation and conclusion was so beautifully executed that I had to rewatch it a few times to wrap my head (and heart) around it - aaaaaahhhhhh! <3

The actors are so good in their roles - they really managed to highlight the nice and not-so-nice parts of themselves through nuanced acting. Their chemistry is as complicated and conflicted as their love story. Parts of this show are so beautiful to look at - I was reminded of ITSAY every now and then. This is by no means perfect but that's what makes it a really good watch. I look forward to seeing these actors again!

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Not even cute.

I think I’ve finally worked it out. For the longest time I’ve been scratching my head over how these shows are getting 9 and 10 stars, but I am confused no more - it must be that the Viki rating system is NOT, in fact, an indication of how good a film is, but a cuteness factor rating.

And yet, even armed with this new revelation, Cherry Blossoms did not rate a 9.6 on my cuteness radar, no matter which way I tried to look at it. ??‍♀️

So let’s start with some context. This show is based on a webtoon of the same name, one which I didn’t necessarily love but still persevered through. I’m all for steamy romances but 150 chapters worth of smut was a bit hard to walk through, especially when webtoon Haebom looked uncomfortably too much like an underaged boy. Still, I skipped through it because it was hugely popular and I wanted to see what the fuss was about. I come across a lot of this weird combination in BL manga: super cute art in bright colours (in this case, lots of pretty pastels) paired with a truck-ton of explicit sex. It can be a very unsettling experience.

So why on earth did I watch the live-action drama, WHYYYYYY? Again, I guess curiosity got the better of me. And we all know what curiosity did to the cat.

Look, I’m a big fan of slice-of-life college romances in all forms and sizes. I love the newness, the thrills and the angst - oh the angst - of young love. But this really was nothing to write home about. If Kim Bok Joo is a deliciously fragrant, warm cup of tea in winter and I Told Sunset About You is a single origin, equal parts bitter and sweet latte, complete with expertly poured art on top, Cherry Blossoms is … is …. like a coffee franchise ice-blended red bean special that you thought might be a good idea cause you’re dead tired on an airport layover and thought you’d just give it a go.

So, some positives: they casted two fairly good-looking actors with a reasonable amount of acting chops. The support cast were also okay. The producers did what they could within their limited budget to still deliver the “pretty” settings - the house they grew up in looks the part as a “wealthy” home and the apartment they end up in is styled to a T. This is the least we’ve come to expect from a mid-level budget K-webdrama, so no surprises here.

I think ultimately that was precisely the main issue with this show: there is really nothing new here, not even by BL standards. Story aside (hard to rate the problematic storyline, because they were just being faithful to the original manhwa), the acting was okay and the chemistry was also okay-ish. The pacing was really not great and neither was the cinematography. Use of slo-mo in truly uninspired moments, and not even paired with a good score to try and improve these weird bits. The first half was actually better for me than the second half - at least the school bullying arc was interesting, as was seeing the boys trying to come to terms with their feelings. In the end the serious, dark bits ended up coming across as too incongruous with the rest of the show, which was just so much ice-blended red bean filler - a bit like the manhwa. It could have been cute, but it was largely dull or problematic, and quite a bit cringe.

Still, good shows don’t need to be life-changing. We still watch a lot of rom-coms with the same tropes over and over again - and we still enjoy them, as long as the show is done right. Unfortunately, Cherry Blossoms just came across as bland and uninspired. I’ll give it a 6, because it wasn’t God-awful, but just terribly meh.

So, should you watch it? Maybe, if you were dead-tired on an airport layover and didn’t have much else to do.

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The Crowd Pleasing Kind.

Edit 12 hours after watching episode 8: Okay, I'm sorry but this review is getting longer and longer! I've had a few hours now for me to let this show marinate in my brain and work out why I felt let down by it. I'm still trying to dissect it but I think I have a clearer idea of why it failed to resonate with me. I'm going to do my best not to put any spoilers for the show here, but there will definitely be spoilers from the manhwa.

My first experience of Semantic Error was not in actual fact the manhwa, but 3 x 3 minute anime episodes of it floating around quietly in the dark recesses of the webisphere. It was visually stilted and amateur and it was really just three little glimpses out of the whole story. In spite of all of this, the chemistry was pure FIRE. I was stunned and hooked, and this was what led me to the manhwa, which, as it turns out, was also FIRE. The premise of a highly-intelligent, super-OCD socially awkward guy falling for the charms of a popular, handsome and sunshine-y hyung was told in a laugh-out-loud funny and really creative way. With the sheer amount of high school and university romances out there (especially rampant in the BL world), this stood out because of its vivid characters, humour and ... yes, wait for it ... sexual tension.

Choo Sang Woo is correct to a fault. His day is perfectly mapped out down to the second. So when Jang Jae Young shows up and starts to ruin his well-laid plans, he is pissed. Like royally pissed. But what is even more of a "semantic error" for him is how his body starts to respond to Jae Young. In one of the many library scenes sitting next to Jae Young in the comic (yes, the library scenes were almost completely left out of the show) he literally runs out of the library to the toilet because he's sporting a massive boner and cannot understand it. In his mind, sex is merely a biological mechanism that humans partake in to further the continuation of the species. The way that he starts to want Jae Young does not make any sense at all and we see him battling with this throughout the story.

So what did we get in this live action show of Semantic Error? Well, we were never gonna get the high-heat, of course. Unlike Thailand, Taiwan and Japan, South Korea generally doesn't go there on screen, even if they do in a big way in other mediums. Still, we have certainly seen South Korea do sexual tension without needing to be explicit. Was it necessary to the storyline? Let's take just one example in this show (small spoiler alert, sorry): Jae Young taking Sang Woo's cap off and patting him on his head in a "Nawwwww, you're so cute I want to pat you like a puppy" way is inherently not the same thing as Jae Young taking Sang Woo's cap off in a "I want you so badly right now that I'm going to take your cap off and mess your hair" kind of way. There was an implied power play there between two very masculine guys which was totally subverted in this live-action interpretation. I understand the need to tone down the heat for the masses, but I also think there could have been a happy middle here.

So, was the show bad? No, it was for the most part okay. Returning to my original thoughts 12 hours ago, it was a good boyband bright, cute and fluffy version of the manhwa. They chose the grumpy cute puppy coupled with an aggresively charming seme route and clearly ticked all the popular boxes, given how on fire the fans are over this one. Yes, it was cute. Yes, the leads had good chemistry. Seo Ham as Jae Young had great charisma and did a solid job being the smitten hyung. I also thought the female supports were really well-casted and brought a lot to the show. There was nothing special in the cinematography and the pacing was off in parts - it never fails to baffle me why these filmmakers think we still need flashbacks when all we’re getting is 8 x 20 minute episodes. The music was unremarkable but at least not annoying like it can be in these types of shows.

So, was it for me? Sigh. I guess I was just after a grown up version that was never going to be … and seeing as everyone else seems to think it deserves a 10/10, I must be the super odd one out.

Still, I will stick to my guns and call it like it is: cute, fluffy and a fun ride, but by no means game-changing. And most definitely not a 10.

A solid 7.5 for me.


***


Meh. So I don’t usually start any shows if they haven’t finished airing yet but I just couldn’t wait with Semantic Error. I stumbled across the manhwa a few weeks ago and it was incredible - the pacing, the art, the two leads were electric together, and the comedy was laugh out loud funny. So when I discovered we were going to get a live action adaptation, I rejoiced and counted the days.

I’m sure my experience of this has been coloured considerably as a fan of the manhwa, but let’s be honest here - even by BL genre standards this is okay so far but not a 9.8, come on people. Sure, it might be a bit of a higher budget than many of the Korean BL exports, and the acting is good so far, but we’re two episodes in and it has yet to match the chemistry in To My Star or the meticulously gorgeous visuals of Light On Me - both solid 8-9 stars in my book.

In saying that, it’s not yet fair to give it a proper rating until it’s complete, so let’s all give Semantic Error a chance to be what it wants to be and score it in a few weeks time. Until then, let’s not be too hasty. I’m still hopeful! ??

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Could have been great :(

Okay, I persevered until episode 10 so I think I can safely say this is a miss for me. It's such a pity because the lead couple are really sweet and have good chemistry. Even the second couple were moderately interesting so I invested some time waiting for the show to save itself. We have lots of tropes that we love here, with some twists that could have really made it stand out. We have a tall, handsome, rich and talented seme paired with a super nice boy-next-door kind of uke with a heart of gold. A nice change in the trope dynamic is that despite being gentle, the uke is older and does take the lead in many situations - he knows how to train his seme! :P In contrast, Seme Solo is younger but the more dominant of the pair (or is he?) - he comes across as broody and aloof to everyone else but in reality there are two introverts here who discover a lovely, gentle relationship (think 1000 stars and UWMA vibes). So there was a lot to like to begin with.

Unfortunately that's pretty much all there is going for Oxygen. The story line was super mediocre and let the actors down. The third pair were either annoying or boring - you can basically skip through all their bits and not miss anything in the show, really. Do we really need another female character in a BL show who is a super annoying shipper?! I think we can count on one hand the nice and interesting female characters in Thai BL, so many of them are trashy and mainly there for makeup product placement. What a poor representation of women in general.

But really, hands down the worst part about this show is the music. Considering Solo and Kao are both music students and the actors themselves seem to have genuine musical skills, this was such a waste. Apart from a handful of times they sing the OST(which is not a bad song and they do a pretty good job of it), there are no real musical moments in this show. But worse than that, the underscore is downright bizarre, all over the show and inappropriate. We got strangely comical music happening in serious moments, and tense music happening in scenes where nothing actually happens. Honestly, if you don't have a budget for a good composer, the least you can do is make the score as unnoticeable as possible. What they ended up doing was the total opposite, and the music ruined the vibe in so many places and coloured the scenes in truly incongruous ways.

Okay, rant over. I hope Nut and Petch get the chance to be casted in something better - they deserve so much more than this.

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Die hard BL fans: this is not for you.

After many months of diving deep into the BL genre of films and shows, I think I can safely say I have a pretty fair idea of what the crowd pleasers are, so I'm gonna straight up call this a no for you BL die hards.

For starters, this show is interesting and creatively presented. The story lives within the inner workings of the fashion industry and they didn't just put up some mannequins for the illusion or pretence - it feels like the film team did actually do some research about fashion design and modelling. The plot is not spelt out for you. Rather, it is presented to us through a series of encounters and conversations and allows the audience to glean subtle details. The acting was just wonderful - the three leads (yes, I'm gonna say three, because it was a love triangle and I feel like they all got equal screen time) were convincing, compelling and natural. The chemistry between all three of them was also superb, and I'm such a sucker for good on-screen chemistry, hence my high rating. There are no awkward moments here between amateur teenage-y actors who haven't actually done any acting classes and have just been thrown in front of a camera to pucker up their lips. There are no "accidental" slip-and-almost-fall-but-he-caught-me swoony woo moments. There are no shower scenes, no wiping food off lips, head pats, teeny tiny scratches on knees that supposedly need a first aid kit and band aid, no shippers, no crazy ex-girlfriends who are trying to ruin their lives, nope nada none of that stuff. Thank the TV Gods for that!

Instead, we have a complex love triangle, and these people talk to each other about it like grown ups. There is no self-discovery angst because everyone involved is gay and the people around them either know it and support it or it's not a thing. We discover a story about dreams and love and how to chase both so damn hard without any favours, thank you very much. I didn't have a problem with the editing at all - come on, peeps, do we really need everything spelt out for us and in a clear, obvious and predictable (read: BORING) way every single time? Sure, this show was clearly low budget, and maybe they could have better cinematography, smoother transitions and better sound treatment. Did it detract from the show? Nope. Not for me. My one complaint is that there were still quite a lot of flashbacks, and with 8 x bite size 15 minute episodes, we really didn't need reminding. But hey, that's part of the K-drama style so I get it and accept it.

Look, when it comes to BL, I am as die-hard a fan as the next person, but like any genre of film/TV, they all get predictable and cookie-cutter after awhile. Why can't there be room for more kinds of storytelling? More, I say, please!

Small spoiler alert, just because the other reviews on this page annoyed me: Gi Jin did NOT go to New York, you numbnuts, listen (or read the subtitles) PROPERLY to the conversations. #facepalm

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More than meets the eye

Wow, it's interesting to read the reviews here and see how polarised people are about this show. I came to this one a bit late - so many shows to watch, so little time! - this show did not disappoint. Let's dive in!

So maybe let's start with the positives? The Korean industry is only just warming up to this genre, but we knew at some point they were going to upgrade from 6 x 15 minute episodes to a full 16 eps. REJOICE! I think Light On Me really nailed it with the length of this show. 16 x 25 minute-ish episodes was great pacing for me. So often K-dramas want to give us so much that they end up giving us too much - think Crash Landing On You's epic 16 x 1.5 hour episodes - even as a huge fan of the CLOY show I could see how much padding went into the eps. So for me the length of the show was spot on - just enough to properly set up and grow the story line for us, but not too much that we start to see some silly scenes.

Aesthetically, this show is really beautiful and pleasing in its restraint. It opted for the surreal technicolour treatment that K-dramas tend to employ, especially so in their high school settings. However it is uncluttered and clean, as is the music. We are not smacked on the head with the OST every few minutes. In fact, everything is so minimalist that it really forces us to focus on the actors. The colour work and editing is so schmick. Every small grimace and slight hesitation is magnified to deliver a super-charged version of the sweaty angst and pressures of being 18 and in love for the first time. And oh boy, do we get all of this in spades.

On to the negatives - surprise, surprise, the baddie is female - AGAIN! Thanks, BL genre. I mean, in the context of this show, I get it. The story called for a female love interest, but did she have to be the antagonist AND the most unlikeable character too? The BL industry seems to think so ... over and over and over again. Also, how the most popular boys in the school so easily decided to adopt an orphan puppy at the start of the show was a bit unrealistic. Plus, we only ever saw the 4 boys in the student council room for the entire show, despite their being apparently 20 students in the council. There were a few of these little details which broke the spell a bit for me, but they were minor hiccups which did not detract from the show.

Which brings us to the story. On the surface, this is a very standard high-school love triangle, but it really, truly isn't. For starters, the love triangle is so creatively set up that we do not and can not know which two people will end up together until Act 3. We are totally rooting for either the Shin Woo or Da On camps, not just from episode to episode but from scene to scene. In some ways, we end up rooting for all four boys and their lives, really. Therein lies the strength in this show for me - each of the four characters are vivid, compelling and SO DAMN LIKEABLE. Yes, even Tae Gyung! Unlike many other reviewers I did not find his acting awkward ... I mean, his character was meant to be socially awkward, right? I was invested in all of them and very divided about how it was going to be resolved, which of course is exactly what they wanted.

So how does it resolve? In a really mature way, which, let's face it, is unrealistic for 18-year old lovesick boys. But I guess just like the four super likeable boys of this story, maybe this is the version of reality that we want to believe in.

PS: the ever popular Spock Hairdo continues to dominate.

PPS: For a super detailed and really illuminating read, I highly recommend Absolute BL's review of Light On Me on Tumblr.

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A big fat meh.

I'm a fan of Taiwan's efforts in the BL genre but this was underwhelming for me. After a few false starts I persevered and it did improve as it progressed. The acting was fairly amateur in the first episode and the cast took a while to iron out their rough edges and warm up. The story is fairly standard: unreasonable, arrogant handsome boss + affable and super cute employee struggling to work together in an office environment. What other tropes can we throw in here? Oh, wait, of course, let's make them housemates.

Some redeeming qualities - the lead couple did a fairly good job considering the mediocre story line and support cast. Hank Wang as Shi Lei was especially likeable and I largely saw this through because of his gallant efforts. The whole metalworks office thing was interesting and there were a few enjoyable moments. The second couple were like a tepid cup of coffee (kerpow!) and don't get me started on the other couple in the office. I swear the BL industry is out to make women the most unlikeable and unreasonable characters on the planet.

Look, the tropes are there for a reason - we love them and we love watching them time and time again. I understand Taiwan shows usually have fairly modest budgets to work with but the His Story and We Best Love franchises have proven that with some creativity, a good story and a strong cast, greatness can be made! I hope to see Hank Wang in better shows.

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Bask in the youthful sunshine of dreams

It is really hard to watch this without grinning! There are no high-stakes here other than the beautifully blown-up agonised imaginings of the teenage mind. Lots of fluff, hugs, smiles and super supportive best friends and allies cheering them on.

You can see Japan take cues from the sleekness of K-drama here, but still retaining the moody colours of the Japanese aesthetic. The boys are styled to a T even in their school uniforms but their bedrooms still look like teenage rooms - I find the interior designed bedrooms of K and C drama Land pretty unrealistic so it’s nice to see the balance here, it really helps the world building feel more genuine.

This is a warm nostalgic breeze of a show that highlights the sweetness of first love without the drama and toxicity of high school. Perhaps it is a utopia that doesn’t exist, but it is so nice to imagine a universe where this could happen, preferably one where Takara and Amagi can bashfully smile at each other forever.

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Absurdist, Offbeat Goodness

I've been a bit surprised by the lack of interest or love for this show, but then again I guess I shouldn't be. It doesn't give us any of the tropes that we get fed in other Asian rom coms - there's no "accidentally" falling into his arms, there's no getting drunk and piggy-backed home, there's not even any reaching out to wipe food sensually from her mouth. So what do we get? We get four highly quirky people living in a shared house. They sort of function in society but navigating the real world and its expectations of them is a struggle. We get varying details of their back stories, not a lot but enough to empathise with them. The FL and ML are solid in their portrayals of two misfits - I especially enjoyed the ML, his expressions and body language were spot on. The FL is over the top in many ways, but this is the Japanese way - it is a live-action take on very normal behaviour in the anime world. The love dynamics between the four characters is fun to watch, and the show is so short and snappy so you get to enjoy the brief ride without it getting too absurd or dull.

I was even more surprised with some of the reviewers commenting on how badly the story is resolved, because I totally disagree - I watched four people progress by the end of it and there was definitely a resolution. Have we become so trained by K and C dramas to expect the beautiful confession, the happy tears, the story book wedding, the glossy magazine happily ever after? Or worse, are we so passive as viewers now that we need the message for a show to be spoon-fed to us as some sort monologue by the lead actors themselves? If this is what you're after, then okay this show is absolutely not for you. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy and want good HEAs too but more and more I've been seeking out Japanese shows to balance this out a bit.

Because there is a nice romantic story here. There is a really compelling second lead, and not a love triangle, but a four way one even! And there is even a happy ending. But just like the weird and wonderful people that this show is about, this story is quite a bit weird and pretty darn wonderful. I enjoyed it immensely. Watch it so that you can argue with me - I look forward to it! :P

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YES.

I watched this awhile ago but I felt compelled to contribute a bit more gushing for this show in the hopes that more of its ilk are made.

I often find K-dramas fall in one of two camps: super-technicolour surreal middle-class world where everyone lives in nice apartments, works hard at their jobs, drinks soju with colleagues after work and get given piggy back rides home by their crushes OR the super-in-your-face gritty world where the hardships of society are magnified, intensified and delivered as a punch to the gut so that we think a bit more (and probably feel a bit of guilt). This show managed to gently blur the lines between these two camps. It takes a lot of the conventions of an Asian rom-com but gives it to us as a group of friends who are all experiencing quite different but very relevant challenges. It asks the hard question: if you only get one life, who are you living it for? The answer should be obvious but real life is never as obvious or easy.

Is it fun? Yes. Is it funny? Yes! The support cast are as solid as the leads - side-note fan girl moment, is there a character on this planet where Kim Soo Young hasn't yet made it all her own? The sheer variety of roles she has played, and with such skill, continues to baffle me.

Okay, back to the show: it was visually lovely and the music is wonderful; a little bit in your face in parts, perhaps, but that tends to be the K-drama way. The pacing is largely great, although sometimes the FL is so agonisingly slow to make her revelations that I wanted to scream at her a little bit to hurry up! The story and and the journey are wonderful, and even as a non-Korean speaker like me I got a sense of how beautiful the writing was. I won't spoil it for you but there are some truly great moments that will make you laugh out loud and some equally moving ones. If there was ever a show with character and gumption, this one has both in spades.

This show, for me, is a class above many of the K-dramas I've consumed. Let's hope South Korea hears us loud and clear and gives us more.

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Well-packaged, glossy fluff

This is the best kind of fluff done right. There are no real twists and turns in the plot, instead we get every single rom-com trope gently offered to us on a very nicely-laid tray. The two leads have already established good rapport in Put Your Head On My Shoulder so they have a natural easy chemistry. Daddi Tang has really upped the game in terms of on-screen kissing in Asian dramas - no innocent pecks on the cheek here! Still, his super-talented, super handsome and highly values-driven doctor role here is actually a bit one dimensional (not his fault!). In many ways, the whole show is a bit like this - we see two hardworking, smart and good looking people living in very nice apartments in a nice city driving nice cars with nice families supporting them and nice colleagues. This makes for a relaxed and mostly enjoyable watch, but it's almost a bit too nice for me. In saying that, it was good to see the progression of the two leads in their acting careers, as this was a step up from their performances in PYHOMS.

As a really nice bonus (and what saved the show a bit for me) the second couple have a much more interesting back story. They are flawed characters, which makes them more human and more believable to root for. So often the second couple in Asian dramas can be mediocre, boring or very annoying. However in this show their story is far more complicated, providing more tension and anticipation, which made them outshine the leads in some ways. I sometimes found myself wanting to skip through the main couple's parts to get to their juicier ones - ironic!

Was this a creative show? Not really. Life-changing? Definitely not. Would I recommend it? If you're after a feel-good breezy love story with good actors, good chemistry and high-end production budget (read: glossy), then yes watch it!

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