Bai Hehuai Lover

flawed but iconic

Originally watched this in 2021 and felt the desire to revisit it given the details were a little bit fuzzy. It's obviously not perfect, but it holds up decently for the most part. The concept is honestly fantastic but there are times when the execution is pretty clumsy (i.e. the scenes depicting domestic abuse sometimes felt gratuitous, Miw's very unnecessary biphobic comments, Shin and Miw making out (more than once!) when Shin is gay, so much tragedy surrounding Mae). Even so, I'm always happy to add another entry to the small list of canon polyamory on screen :) I also really really appreciate that 2 of the core 3 are sex workers, as it's difficult to find media about sex workers that isn't full of contempt towards individuals who work in that profession.

This show is intense and thrilling (even with the low production value), and because of everything the trio goes through, it's easy to understand why they develop a deep bond (even if I think the Miw-Neo dynamic could have used a bit more buildup).

anyway I love gay men I love bisexuals I love trans women I love polyamory I love threesomes. thank you Thailand 💗

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disappointing as a "girl's love" story

So firstly I should probably mention that I watched this on iQiyi and the English subtitles were AI translations so I'm sure there were tons of mistranslations because a solid 25% of dialogue was just completely incoherent collections of words that the AI spit out which sometimes I could gather the meaning from context and other times I was just completely lost. The first two episodes were deeply upsetting as we see Gu Jinyu gagged and held by two guards as she was forced to perform a marriage ceremony with Bai Yunxi and then Bai Yunxi is eager to have her wedding night and Gu Jinyu is very clearly not willing and the only reason it doesn't happen is because they are interrupted. If you can stomach the first two episodes, it does get better, but any entertainment I was finding is completely soured in the final 4 episodes. As Gu Jinyu has been presenting as male for most of her life, Bai Yunxi is unaware of this fact until it's exposed and... honestly her reaction comes off as her being disgusted with the fact that Gu Jinyu is a woman, esp given she already knew who Gu Jinyu's family was prior to learning about her disguise.

Anyway, there's a lot going on, but honestly the heart of the story is Gu Jinyu and Bai Yunxi getting closer as they work together as business partners and Xiao Tian Hu, Bai Yunxi's brother (I don't think biologically? it's impossible for me to tell with the AI translated subtitles, but she clearly views him as family), starts to realize he is crushing on Gu Jinyu as well and I can see why people wouldn't like this development but I found it kind of hilarious because it felt like the writers were saying "no matter what gender you are, if you are attracted to Gu Jinyu, you are gay" I love people with confusing genders!!!!!!!!! Gu Jinyu you are an icon <3

Also despite my loving the Gu Jinyu androgyny vibes: given censorship, I'm not expecting any CDramas to be outwardly trans positive but this show is insanely transphobic, made extra upsetting given how much of the show hinges on crossdressing. Like the constant reassurance in Gu Jinyu's inner monologue about her being a woman, a scene where Xiao Tian Hu wears a dress and he is immediately swarmed by a bunch of women who start hitting him and pull off the dress (which is played for humor), a scene where Gu Jinyu tries to confess about being a woman and Bai Yunxi misunderstands and wants to "prove" she's a woman by trying to make Gu Jinyu touch her boobs...... like it's really concerning that people are calling this a cute "Girl's Love" show when Bai Yunxi's reaction to learning Gu Jinyu is a woman is straight up lesbophobic, the homophobia of Xiao Tian Hu's internal panic about crushing on Gu Jinyu because he thinks he's "sick" for liking a man and another character agreeing with him, and then the rampant transphobia. Cursed show honestly.

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desperately wanted to like this but it was exhausting

Honestly the first episode was pretty cute and I was eager to see where things would go, but the main plot completely falls apart by, like, episode 3. So Ongsa catfishes Sun for 5 episodes under the identity of a boy named "Earth", which is a HUGE betrayal of trust and the scene where Sun finds out pissed me off SO badly. So Ongsa, upon being caught, is like "I'm sorry" and Sun is like "I don't want you to say sorry, I want you to give me an explanation" and then they just keep going back and forth with Ongsa saying nothing but "I'm sorry" over and over and over and Sun repeatedly begging for an explanation, especially since she had confided in Ongsa about how she was developing deep romantic feelings for Earth. AND THEN ONGSA JUST RUNS OUT OF THE ROOM SOBBING????? Like, girl, you literally did this to yourself, I cannot muster up any sympathy for you because it would have been so easy to NOT continue catfishing Sun. And then Sun isn't even allowed to be mad about this??????? Because literally 24 hours later, Sun is like "I want to start over as friends"??????????????? And then the next episode Sun is being jealous and possessive of Ongsa and says she wants them to be girlfriends????????????????????? And then a few episodes later when they have been dating for a minute, Sun outs not only Ongsa to Ongsa's parents but also Aylin and Luna and the fact that they're in a relationship. And then the narrative acts like Ongsa is in the wrong for not being ready to be out???????????????????????????????? Excuse me, what?????????????????????????? Like absolutely cursed main ship. My rating would be much higher if Aylin and Luna were the leads instead.

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okay if you want to turn your brain off I guess

Xu Kai is really great in this and I adored Wang Lu (most of the time). Wang Wu, his shifu, is by far the most insufferable FL I've seen in a CDrama and the show likes to play her abusive behavior for laughs 🙄 Some of the humor was so good (I loved all the meta jokes and references to other popular media) and some of it was unbelievably horrendous (abuse played for laughs, contempt for fat people, contempt for people the writers deem "stupid"). And there is just sooooo much abuse apologia and attempts to retroactively defend abuse - ranging from Wang Wu's incessant mistreatment of Wang Lu and her beating him up to the point of breaking his bones being "for his own good" and to "help" him with his cultivation, a sex pest who has sexually assaulted multiple women being referred to as a good guy and befriending our heroes, and a man who murdered his children revealed to having done so to protect his citizens from a demonic entity... yeah, it's maddening.

My favorite character was Ling'er and I absolutely adored her plotline (for the most part) when she left Lingjian Mountain. Her and Boren 🫶. Also my favorite dynamic was Wang Lu and Hai Yunfan, but there is also A LOT of queerbaiting wrt their relationship and they're both shoved into awful romances with women. 😕

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the gold standard

I doubt there's anything I can say in a review that hasn't already been said but I'm a yapper and I want to leave reviews for everything I watch, so...

There's a reason why this show is the entry point to CDramas for a lot of us. Engaging mystery, fascinating lore, fun and fluctuating character dynamics, beautiful romance (even if it had to be made a bit more subtle due to censorship), fantastic soundtrack, gorgeous costumes and visuals, brilliant acting... I could go on. Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are indeed iconic and are the definition of soulmates - they'll break your heart so many times in the flashback portion and make you ecstatic beyond belief in the present day. I loved that the show had the guts to discuss darker themes such as genocide and really makes you sit with the horrors that humans are capable of and, through Wuxian, we see people brave enough to stand up against such atrocities regardless of what the personal cost is to do the right thing. I also love media that discusses grief and trauma, and these themes are baked into the DNA of the show. It's just very poignant and touching and honestly relevant to real life and I love the story so much.

Incapable of giving this a full 10/10 bc the misogyny was crazy and we need to talk about it.

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crazy level of misogyny for a show that wants to be perceived as female led

I love revenge stories and a revenge story centered on a female assassin? Sign me up! Unfortunately the show prioritizes Murong Jinghe over Mei Lin in every way - he repeatedly puts Mei Lin in horrible (and deadly!) situations because he views her as expendable and only cares about how she can further his plan to clear his name and then once they start working together as partners and he starts to care about her, the show goes to great pains to be like 'oh but he's sad about treating her badly now' SHUT UP. (Murong Jinghe's character arc maybe could've worked if the narrative didn't want me to ship him with Mei Lin, but since it does, I hate that man passionately. And don't twist what I'm saying, absolutely no hate to Liu Xue Yi, he did a fantastic job with what he was given and I would love to see him play an actual villain.) The female characters are all interesting and different from each other and then they all repeatedly risk their safety for these awful men. You know that quote that's like "I will not set myself on fire to keep you warm"? Yeah, the women on this show sacrifice absolutely everything for the men they love. Also this show had no idea how to wrap things up and the final third really drags.

If you don't mind spoilers, about 6 months ago I actually made a video essay (https://youtu.be/jIexOU_As-4) where I explained how much I disliked this show

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would've been a masterpiece if not for the ableism

The set up is really good and the mystery is really compelling and then everything is ruined bc around the halfway point the show decided to be really stigmatizing about D.I.D. It sucks because the acting is phenomenal (esp Namkoong Min), I really liked most of the characters, you're constantly on your toes with clever misdirects or the show hiding a moment from you to be revealed later and then it recontextualizes another scene, the humor is great, the villains are horrifying (and so infuriating) and easy to root against... there really is so much that is great about this. But I cannot in good conscience give this a higher rating because the outright harmful depiction of D.I.D.

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"Blood River will never be anyone's pawn again"

I have a lot of disorganized thoughts (even more than I'm putting here lol) bc it's only been like 3 hours since I finished the final episode, so I'm still digesting everything.

So let's start off with the reasons why I LOVED this:
- The ENTIRE thesis of the show is "We have to completely destroy corrupt systems and build new better ones from their ashes and sometimes violence is unavoidable but we should be striving for peace. And also love is the reason to do any of this." Obviously this show is of the fantasy genre so everything is amped up and exaggerated, but the parallels that can be drawn to the real world.......... yeah. Genuinely revolutionary in its thinking.
- I 💗 revenge, so watching everyone who tried to control Blood River get murdered was soooooooooooooooooo satisfying
- Su Muyu being such a hopeful and optimistic character and the narrative typically aligning with him (although the last few episodes kind of grind that hope into dust which I am. less enthusiastic about)
- The polyam vibes of Su Changhe-Su Muyu-Bai Hehuai made me have such an intense spiral. You do not understand how obsessed I am with them. Every duo is so good, they are so important to each other and need each other in different ways and... I cannot talk about them for very long without having a breakdown. I love them SO much.
- Just the relationship progression and character development generally speaking (minus a few exceptions — please, I don't wanna talk about how forced and unearned and insufferable the instalove Tang Lianyue/Mu Yumo dynamic is)
- Certain events that feel like one-offs but then end up being very relevant to Su Muyu or Su Changhe (i.e. things we learn about the Hell Palm and going demonic. iykyk)

things that were frustrating:
- So many characters who were really interesting that just disappear and are never acknowledged again: i.e. Hongying, the Water Official, Mu Ciling being kind of major players in the Shadow Sect arc and then.... just nothing after that
- It feels like there were certain things being set up that just never got resolution (i.e. rebuilding No-Sword City)... I get the feeling that there were times when the writers wanted to go in a different direction than they ultimately did bc the novels kinda trapped them to have certain things happen so that Blood River still fit in the same universe as Dashing Youth and TBOY

IDK, I like putting my immediate thoughts out but I really do need more time to digest this one I think. If I'm being 100% honest, I am not completely satisfied with the final episode but overall I still think this show was really solid and it's definitely one of my fave CDramas (or at least at time of posting I feel that way).

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abuse but frame it as an epic romance ✨

what if I were a genocidal tyrant who wanted to wipe out your clan and you were a naive and innocent girl who accidentally freed me from my prison and you endured my violence and rage bc you're a Good Woman™️and you dedicated yourself to rehabilitating me and loved and defended me and were willing to die for me and chose me over your people even though I was still planning to commit genocide on them👉🥺👈

EXCRUCIATING endurance test that I forced myself to undergo due to how popular this show is and my attempt to find the appeal. There are some kernels of interesting ideas here but the show is entirely too devoted to this abusive romance story and Dongfang Qingcang being rehabilitated through "the power of love" to actually explore any of them. Orchid is also infantilized to an insanely uncomfortable degree - she has baby voice and behaves like a literal toddler - which is another layer of discomfort to their romance, but honestly it's very easy for that objection to fade into the background after the first ~third of the show because DFQC is just so aggressive and cruel literally all the time. And then the fact that every time I see someone complaining about the romance it's because "Orchid is annoying"?????? Like we didn't sit through 20-something episodes of DFQC choking her, repeatedly threatening her (and people she cares about), sexually assaulting her (most of those kisses were literally not consensual!), just being generally angry and mean and yelling at her and calling her stupid.... Like, sure there are some moments they have in isolation that are nice, but then as soon as you think of the context of the previous episodes any "soft" moments they have become incredibly nauseating. This is literally one of the most blatantly misogynistic pieces of media I have ever seen and the audience reaction to it boggles my mind.

other notes:
- gorgeous costumes. I loathe DFQC but I can't lie, I am obsessed with literally every outfit he wore. his whole aesthetic was just *chefs kiss*
- not enough sword fights for a xianxia :(
- acting: at the start I was pretty impressed by Dylan Wang's performance but DFQC is just angry and screaming so much that it got really old. Like what is impressive about a dude raging out for 36 episodes? I don't think anyone in the cast was bad, but no one really stood out the way Dylan did and. again. his role got old. Those scenes in the first ~10 episodes or so where he was confused and/or irritated by experiencing Orchid's emotions after centuries of repressing his emotions were pretty funny (and basically the only humorous scenes that got a laugh from me) and tbh I think those were the scenes that showed off his talent the best too.
- music: probably a solid third of the soundtrack irritated me to no end. That horrid discordant music that kept playing during villain scenes literally activated my fight or flight response every time I heard it. There's another third of the soundtrack that I actually really liked, but the music felt like it rarely matched the tone of the scenes and that romantic ballad from the opening credits kept being used at the worst moments
- Changheng I love you I'll never stop loving you 💗💗

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not bad but I never clicked with it unfortunately

Two women decide to spend lockdown together when a pandemic hits and as they spend more time together, they start to fall for each other. It's a good set up and the two actresses have good chemistry. I think part of why I didn't vibe with this though is that for the first couple episodes, before they really know each other at all, their interactions just feel so forced? Sophie nearly drowns and Abi rescues her and then Abi is basically laying on top of her for like a solid 5 minutes with maybe 6 inches between their faces when that is not at all necessary or helpful esp if she's not giving Sophie mouth to mouth lol. Then shortly after when Abi is bringing her stuff into the B&B, there's this (longer than necessary) scene where they're pressed up against each other as they try to pass each other on the staircase and they're stuck and... idk. A lot of the first two episodes just felt extremely inorganic to me. And while I'm not asking for realism in everything I watch, I do want moments trying to progress a relationship to feel plausible and not just like the writers are pushing the two characters together bc that's what the desired narrative calls for, you know what I mean?

Abi's storyline about having breast cancer was really poignant and provides a nice through line for the occasional moments that get philosophical about mortality, and that plot thread really improved my view of the show in the final few episodes (even if it irritated me that the narrative was very staunchly against people choosing to enjoy their final months as much as they can when faced with a terminal illness instead of undergoing treatment even if the odds aren't great that said treatment will cure someone). I honestly just liked Abi a lot and I thought her interiority was good and learning about her illness made everything click about why she would want to stop planning and abandon this idealized life she had attained, as well as also making sense as to why she was so closed off. Sophie was okay at times and downright infuriating at other times (do not get me started on the scene where she upsets Abi and then asks if she's PMS-ing) and she did unfortunately occasionally give the vibe of "straight girl who wants to use a lesbian to experiment" which... didn't help with my lukewarm feelings towards the show. Idk. Good concept, mediocre execution I guess. Overall though, I'd say it's cute, moderately drama-free, and simple enough to be worth a watch if you're looking for a GL series.

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the show's message: change yourself to be your rapist's ideal woman ^_^

Idk what to say about this one other than it's just 35 episodes of abuse apologia. There were a lot of ingredients that could have made something good (or at least fun) but the ideology of the show is just so regressive and misogynistic. So when Zhang Peng finds himself in Zhang Peng Peng's body, Qi Sheng responds coldly to him - we're clearly doing an enemies to lovers situation, it's fine that he doesn't like Zhang Peng Peng at the very start. (Also going to be referring to Zhang Peng Peng w she/her pronouns through the rest of this given that's how everyone else refers to her.) Qi Sheng is also currently having an affair with his brother's wife, Lady Jiang. I guess Qi Sheng is enchanted by Zhang Peng Peng's change in behavior because Lady Jiang starts to notice a difference in how he treats her and the show confirms this in dialogue as he agrees that he's started to develop feelings for Zhang Peng Peng, but honestly I didn't see anything to indicate that. But whatever, the narrative tells us over showing us and is a little heavy handed about it, fine. Lady Jiang is then worried that she's going to lose favor with Qi Sheng and there's a scene where they're playing soccer and Lady Jiang rips off her outer robes but she frames Zhang Peng Peng for the action and Qi Sheng believes Lady Jiang and PUBLICLY slaps Zhang Peng Peng in front of everyone. So.... bad turn of events but I thought the romance could maybe - MAYBE - still win me over. BUT THEN!!!!!! Qi Sheng sends assassins to kill Zhang Peng Peng. He seemingly has second thoughts when she escapes with his younger brother (who's in love with her) bc Qi Sheng chases after them and is like "she can't die," but... that doesn't change the fact that he sent assassins after her, what the f*ck? He also then berates her upon finding her with her dress all torn up bc she had been trying to save his younger brother since he was injured and sickly and then Qi Sheng kisses Zhang Peng Peng against her consent to like "mark his territory" and tell his brother to back off or whatever 🙄.

So I was already tired of Qi Sheng at this point but oh god it gets worse!!!! Qi Sheng and Zhang Peng Peng reach this cordial agreement where they clear the air about the assassination attempt, and there are like little moments to insinuate that she's falling for him and he has brief moments where he's like vaguely sweet. But then he finds out she's still friendly with his younger brother and Qi Sheng has an explosive meltdown where he THROWS A TABLE. Qi Sheng then starts being cold and aggressive to Zhang Peng Peng and invites Lady Jiang (who has been pushed out of the family at this point) to be a servant in his residence bc it's a stupid power play where Qi Sheng is hoping to make Zhang Peng Peng jealous. Zhang Peng Peng doesn't respond in the way he wants bc she's concerned he's going to kick her out of the position of Empress and she's trying to be a proper demure lady now. After a few episodes of this, Qi Sheng gets confirmation that Zhang Peng Peng and his younger brother are conspiring against him and Qi Sheng then gets super drunk and in that drunken rage he goes to Zhang Peng Peng's residence with his sword and screams about how he's about to kill her because "I've been nothing but nice to you" and "how dare you treat me like this" and when Zhang Peng Peng and Qi Sheng's servants both try to plead for Zhang Peng Peng's life, he raises his sword to kill them for daring to stop him!!!!!!! SO AGAIN. WHAT THE F*CK???????? Zhang Peng Peng tells the servants to leave bc she can't bear the idea of them facing harm to protect her and then she asks Qi Sheng to drop his sword, which he does, and he rapes her. The show tries to gaslight the audience into finding it steamy and we even see Zhang Peng Peng wake up the next morning with a huge smile on her face as she reminisces about it. But then the show admits it was rape bc Qi Sheng comes by and he's like "sorry I forced you last night" so...... the show is just straight up romanticizing rape.

After this, Qi Sheng acts detached when around Zhang Peng Peng and she basically becomes obsessed with trying to get him to show her affection and at one point she even tries to drug him with viagra to get him to have sex with her again... Like, I am appalled and astounded that this was written by two women. She completely alters her behavior - pretending to be stupid and helpless so Qi Sheng will be closer to her to either teach her how to do something or to do it for her. This nonsense continues for a few episodes before Qi Sheng has to leave to fight in a war. Qi Sheng's younger brother plans to strike at this point and kill him, with Zhang Peng Peng STILL plotting with him. As Qi Sheng is ahead of their schemes, he sends a letter back to the palace claiming that he has been poisoned and is near death as it's a test to see if Zhang Peng Peng will really choose him. Zhang Peng Peng is distraught by the news - EVEN THOUGH SHE WAS PART OF PLANNING THIS, LIKE MA'AM WHAT DID YOU THINK WAS GOING TO HAPPEN??????????????????? - and insists on making the trip to deliver the antidote herself. And then she's only mad for like 2 minutes after learning that this was him manipulating her. And then the remaining few episodes are all about how deeply in love they are and how they're willing to die for each other and I don't care I don't care I want them both dead at this point.

Is this the worst show I've seen? No, because I at least enjoyed some of the show when it wasn't about this absolutely godawful romance. But it's pretty atrocious and after having some fun in the first half, it became an excruciating watch in the second half. This show got pretty heavily censored due to current censorship regulations in China and... a broken clock is right twice a day, what can I say.

ALSO THE NINTH PRINCE DID NOTHING WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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angsty romance at its best

Okay whew this was a RIDE with lots of highs and lows lmfao. So firstly let me say that if you've only seen really recent wuxia dramas, on a technical level this is not going to live up to those. The costuming honestly looks really cheap (excluding a few really nice pieces for the women), the props and sets are kinda meh, etc etc. It was clearly doing what it could with a smaller budget. (I will say there are some moments of really nice cinematography tho!) The script could also use some polishing. There are plot holes and "reveals" that genuinely just retcon things that were previously established, but the character writing for Moxin-Mowan and the romance are honestly so good that I didn't even care about that 85% of the time.

The plot summary on here is too inaccurate for my tastes, so let me give a brief one: Moxin, the Empress, has a miscarriage and some magical device body swaps her and her sister Mowan. Moxin, in Mowan's body, then rushes out of the palace seeking help and runs into Junqing. They're being chased and fall off a cliff, causing Moxin to lose her memories. "Moxin" enters a coma due to the miscarriage and dies. When Moxin recovers her memories, she vows to find the people responsible for attempting to kill her and get revenge.

The first 10 episodes while Moxin has amnesia are mostly cute and fun, but incredibly underwhelming when compared to the rest of the show. Once Moxin recovers her memories, the intrigue of her revenge mission in the palace is genuinely some of my favorite writing I've seen for any CDrama — genuinely some of the most exquisite and complex writing for a FL that I've seen and the cutthroat politics of palace life is clearly a strength for the writers. Imo the quality starts to dip slightly around ep 28 and there are a lot of just straight up bizarre writing choices between episodes 31-34, but the resolution really saved it and practically the entirety of the final episode had me VIBRATING in my seat.

Let's get into some more details re Moxin and the romance tho! F*ck all the Moxin haters, she's one of my fave FLs! She's allowed to be angry! She's allowed to be spiteful and cruel! She's allowed to hurt people who love her and is forgiven! She's willing to go to whatever lengths she feels is required to get her revenge, including sleeping with someone she despises bc she needs to gain his trust! What a refreshing and complicated character. She loves Junqing and as much as it pains her to walk away from their romance, she values revenge(/arguably justice) over any of her other feelings. So she pushes him away to try to protect him. But he sees through it. He knows she must have some deeper reason for getting closer to the Emperor (his brother, Hongyi) and that her feelings were real. So she pushes him away harder, even though it is agonizing for her to do so. But because her desire to protect him, the mask keeps slipping and she keeps expressing concern and fear for him. They continue this angsty push-pull until Junqing becomes aware of the fact that the Emperor punished the wrong people for "Moxin's" death and that she's trying to avenge her sister and he reaffirms his loyalty to her. Like oh my god Chen Zheyuan is sooooooo swoon-worthy in this. (Altho when is that not the case? LOL.) And when they're finally on the same page and working together???????? OUGH EPISODE 27 MY BELOVED!!!!!!!!!!! Like this romance is genuinely exquisite and it pains me that so many ppl on here are caught up in crucifying Moxin for being "flawed" and hurting Junqing's feelings because I love them SO MUCH.

Unfortunately around this time when they solidify their relationship — Moxin finally accepting his help and admitting her feelings — is when the plot kinda starts to dip in quality. Upon reaching the penultimate episode I realized that certain writing decisions happened for a big battle sequence and like, yeah, that certainly is one way to resolve the Junqing vs Hongyi conflict but given how intimate (for lack of a better word) the story had been up until this point, I do think it would have been better and made more sense to stay small scale — Junqing & Moxin vs Hongyi (instead of volunteer army vs palace army LOL). Again, the final episode and a half absolutely saved it and overall this is definitely one of my fave CDramas, but there are undeniably flaws lmao. (Also no other place to put this thought, but I feel weird not saying it — the two enemy kingdoms that are really peripheral for the first 2/3 of the show start getting a lot of attention in the last third and I just feel uncomfy w how they were portrayed given how CDramas tend to portray those who are not Han Chinese.....)

But anyway if you like angsty romances this is absolutely must watch in my book!! Just rip for the 31-34 stretch, those episodes are really truly Rough lol.

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top tier GL!

I was honestly really underwhelmed by the first episode, so I was expecting this to be a fun and silly time but I didn't think I was going to get very invested in it. I am so very happy to have been wrong! It's pretty simple on plot — you can easily ignore the whole "the mafia is after Phethai" aspect as it's pretty peripheral for most of the run time, and the rest of the show feels very slice of life with its focus on Pun, Ploy, Prang, and Jay. While the mafia subplot adds a splash of danger to the story, it's for the benefit of building Ploy and Pun's relationship that that thread has minimal presence overall.

Pun and Ploy's dynamic follows an established formula that we've seen countless times in romance stories. They have been emotionally wounded over and over when it comes to love and they initially treat this as a game — Pun's ulterior motive is to try to get her money back from Ploy's brother via seducing Ploy, while Ploy is testing to see if Pun's feelings are genuine as she doesn't believe anyone can truly love her as a result of her fractured relationship with her mother. The first 4 episodes are a lot of fun as Ploy and Pun flirt a bunch, but Pun keeps chickening out from going further and only initiates a kiss when she gets nervous that Ploy is losing interest in her. Pun is basically all in by the first kiss (even though she still wants to get her money back and withholds this situation from Ploy), and Ploy, known for never getting into serious relationships, clearly quickly develops feelings for Pun as well. It doesn't take long for the two of them to enter a relationship after that first kiss, but unfortunately the honeymoon phase doesn't last long because this secret and we enter the angsty phase as Ploy turns cold due to knowing that Pun is lying to her. This show works as well as it does because of the great performances by Ice Amena and Memi Muanfun. The two actresses clearly put so much thought into these characters and they have sizzling chemistry and nail each phase of the PloyPun dynamic.

The start of the angst is actually when I went from "oh this is a cute and comforting show" to "wow this is REALLY GOOD." The character work that is done in this section of the show is exceptional — we fully understand why they were both so closed off before becoming involved with each other and how devastated they are to be apart; but we also innately understand why Ploy can't bring herself to believe Pun was genuine and why she repeatedly pushes her away. And while this angsty period lasts for a relatively long time given there's only 12 episodes, it is absolutely necessary for the audience and the characters to sit with this as it has to fully sink in for Ploy what she has given up, and Pun has to rediscover what she wants outside of their relationship as she had dropped basically everything to be with Ploy. (Plus I'm an angst lover, so I love when a show likes to twist the knife on me lol.) A lot of my favorite scenes from the entire show happen in episode 10 when we get to see Ploy's perspective after their break up — that scene with the butterfly collage completely and utterly destroyed me.

If you're looking for a GL to watch, I can't rec this one enough. It's truly near perfection.

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utter perfection

So given I didn't give this a perfect 10 out of 10 when my headline is "utter perfection," firstly let me say that as far as I can tell Janine Gutierrez is not wheelchair user and I find it to be borderline impossible to call disabled mimicry positive representation. The disability advocate in me feels like detracting one star isn't enough of a penalty honestly. But... the story is just so special to me and I adored practically every second of this show.

While disabled mimicry is never acceptable and it's depressing as hell that it's still happening, the show effectively calls out the infantilization from able-bodied people, the assumptions and intrusive questions about the cause of a physical disability, the desire to categorize disabled people who accomplish things as inspiration porn, and how the lack of accommodations makes so many seemingly mundane locations inaccessible to people with mobility aids. Obviously Harry can't be fully 100% independent given her body's limitations, but she WILL push back whenever people treat her as incapable or try to baby her. Seeing her just live her life and watch Luna be her #1 defender against careless people or anyone who underestimates Harry's ability was healing honestly.

Luna has an invisible disability - a sleep disorder. It causes havoc on her life and most people don't take it seriously and chalk it up to her being lazy or making bad decisions. As a bit of a night owl who can't get more than 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep..... whew the way other people treated her disability hit too close to home! Harry is seemingly the first person to take her disability seriously and treat it with empathy.

The two of them have incredible chemistry and the progression of their relationship - while fast given the show is only 6 episodes - feels natural and real. Their meet cute of the two of them wandering the hallways and practically running into each other was, dare I say, iconic. I had the biggest smile on my face when Luna came by the studio after Harry made her plea on her show to see her again. There's a tender (and hot!) sex scene!!!! Two disabled women had sex on a tv show that I was able to watch with my very own eyes!!! And the scene where Luna said I love you for the first time!!!!! I was giggling and kicking my feet and twirling my hair around my fingers. Like the development of their relationship is just so so so perfect and cute and sweet and I love them <3

anyway I know I'm relatively new to the GL world but this is hands down the best GL I've seen so far and I struggle to see how this can be topped.

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real and full of a lot of heart

While I do think the writers bit off a bit more than they could chew, I thoroughly enjoyed this! The first half is really cute and fluffy, but then the second half dives a bit deeper into Suzume's fears and insecurities. While I do think some of these heavier hitting ideas deserved to be explored more - for example, truly grappling with what it means for them to become a couple when Suzume is Keishi's boss - I do think directly bringing up these topics was important. We needed the full picture of why Suzume was so reluctant to admit his feelings so the audience can understand the true gravity of Suzume overcoming those fears and confessing how he feels to Keishi. I mean Suzume has (presumably) spent multiple decades closeted and that is a mindfuck that most people cannot fully understand. He had gotten so accustomed to his solitary life, but then spending time with Keishi made him aware of just how lonely he actually is. Of course the idea of being in a relationship is going to be terrifying to him! Especially when you add in the age difference and the fact that he is in a position of power over Keishi - any repercussions are going to hit Keishi harder and it would be his fault.

I also think the show deals with very real queer experiences in a genuine way. Again, as Suzume has (presumably) spent his life closeted, we see his repression - not in terms of sexuality as there is never a moment of him denying being gay, but in this sense that he feels he doesn't deserve or can't have certain things that are considered normal for straight couples. Keishi and Suzume are caught by the office gossip, and the guy immediately jumps to the conclusion that the two of them are dating just from the two of them being in the same place outside of work - Keishi calls this out as being inappropriate and it (eventually) leads to this coworker questioning his biases. There's also the fact that prior to that the office gossip had repeatedly tried to pressure Suzume to use a dating app to find a girlfriend, and he is rather relentless about it, giving the audience a sense of how suffocating it is to be on Suzume's end of this situation. There's surely other examples I could offer too, but they're escaping me at the moment. Idk, this show definitely isn't perfect, but if nothing else I think it gave a valiant effort to start some conversations.

Also the size difference 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

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