Reviews

Pitch de départ intéressant, mais histoire mal construite

Le drama donne l’impression d’avoir commencé avec une idée ambitieuse, puis de s’être perdu en route : il passe trop de temps sur des dates virtuels "incroyables" (pour le fan service), puis essaie de rattraper la romance et les thèmes importants en vitesse dans les derniers épisodes, avec ainsi un temps limité.

Boyfriend on Demand avait un pitch très fort et une vraie opportunité de faire quelque chose d’intéressant sur l’addiction aux relations virtuelles, la dopamine artificielle, la distorsion des attentes dans le dating réel, et le vide laissé par ces services. Mais au final, il reste très superficiel sur tous ces thèmes.

Reste une bon cast d'acteurs et de belles scènes mais qui font regretter de ne pas avoir une histoire au niveau.

Leia Mais

Zombie Slowburn Drama

HAPPINESS (2021) was a pretty good zombie series with aspects of drama and romance as well.

"An apocalyptic thriller that takes place in a time in which infectious diseases have become the new normal."

For a zombie thriller, it had some really good moments, but it was sort of drawn out in certain places, and that slower pacing effected the tension and overall thrilling atmosphere.

On the bright side, I enjoyed the premise and story, as well as the characters. The visuals were also really well done. Overall, this series was a decent watch. It was worth a chance.

Leia Mais

Tender, Thoughtful & Romantic

LOVE NEXT DOOR (2024) This series was a really moving and sweet slowburn romance drama, but also went deeper in so many ways. It focuses a lot on childhood friendships, adult friendships, on family relationships, dating, reconciliation and marriage... most of all, it's about a small neighborhood community and the connections that last a lifetime.

"Renowned young architect Choi Seung-hyo runs the atelier "In." Bae Seok-ryu, his childhood friend, rejoins his life after quitting her corporate job, resurfacing memories he'd rather forget from their peculiar childhood bond."

I really enjoyed this show a lot, overall. The main characters and their developing love was so sweet and wholesome. Both leads were simply excellent. The childhood friendships, the family dynamics, even all the parents issues were meaningful.

My only complaint would be the overly heavy focus on the side character, Jeong Mo Eum's romance. It was cute, and even though I liked all the characters involved (Jeong Mo Eum, Kang Dan Ho, and the girl) the relationship chemistry felt a little bland for me and I felt that it slowed down the pacing of the other plots.

Overall, I really enjoyed this show, especially the main couple and their development, the three best friends' interactions, the family relationships and memories along with the parents personal journeys as well. It was really enjoyable. Great show.

Leia Mais

How I feel after finishing Duang with you

Duang with you is one of the best BL's I have watched.
The soundtrack is addicting, the acting is on point, the story is so touching that it will melt your heart.
I recommend you to watch it and I want to be one of the person who discover it for the first time again. But I guess I can't.
If you're a new BL fan and don't know what to watch. I highly recommend Duang with you.
Duang with you is a novel that has sweet romance and comedy. It has a special place in my heart and everytime I feel low I know that Duang with you will help. Teeteepor really knew how to show their emotions in Duang with you and I can tell you a thing it wasn't easy waiting a whole entire week for a new episode, so i'm jealous of the one that will never have to wait a whole entire week for a new episode.
And everytime you watch an episode you want to rewatch it again.
I highly recommend Duang with you and I give it a 10 out of 10.

Leia Mais

Questionable Storyline

The series actually packed with good casts that can deliver ranges of acting since I've seen most of them in another works.
As for Becky, personally, I think she's doing a good job delivering a new kind of Nanno since this is reset version. Because I never expect her to be the same as previous Nanno and I'm glad throughout the episodes I never compared her to the old Nanno.
Now the main issue for me is the storyline and the direction of the show. While I like the dynamic between Nanno and Sky, I can't say the same with the overall plots. There's no wow factors that can glued me to my seat, the stories were bland and tasteless. I now that there are lessons but I was expecting some twists or something like that.
I hope the next season the stories will be more interesting.

Leia Mais

It was okay

A series far from perfect with writing and execution issues, but with its own charm that manages to keep you interested. I expected it to be just a light-hearted drama, but I was actually surprised to see some heavier themes being addressed. The let down was that they didn't fully commit on exploring them and instead sacrificed the limited length of the eight episodes, by introducing sub-plots, while rushing the existing storylines. For me, it had the potential to be a great bl series, had they stayed loyal to the main plot and developed more the characters and their dynamics.

The acting was good overall and I generally enjoyed the chemistry of each pairing, but I will give a little more credit to Tee for delivering some very difficult emotional scenes.

I recommend the series to people who look for a lighter show with some depth. Despite any flaws, it was still fun and easy to watch.

Leia Mais

Back To Darkness

This is a collection of four short, depressing films, as the title itself suggests: There Is No Salvation! However, even though they are short films, they feel quite long because there is almost no dialogue, and the scenes often remain static, requiring the viewer to fill them with their own interpretation.

All the stories presented here are ambiguous, and it is never entirely clear what is really going on. In the first part of each segment, the challenge is to figure out what the story is about, and even the endings do not provide definitive answers, leaving plenty of room for reflection and personal interpretation. Since there is very little dialogue, the film relies heavily on visual impression and the depiction of action, though this could have been executed better. Still, I appreciate that the film does not lead the viewer by the hand, but instead allows them to reach their own conclusions. There are also several striking and unsettling scenes by which these films will likely be remembered.

Of the four films, the first one ended up being my favorite, although the last one also leaves a strong impression. What they all have in common is that they depict unusual, perhaps even symbolic situations in which people search for some kind of salvation—and whether they find it is revealed by the title of the entire omnibus.

The final story includes English subtitles, but despite having only about ten spoken lines, there is still a gramatical slip in one of them, where the main character says: “Hlep me!” If only people in desperate situations would remember to cry out to God.

Leia Mais

A Lesson on Plants and Life

For what it is, it is a nice indie movie. A simple story about a friendship between a little girl and an old man (a Silkworm and a Bee). The English title is not very representative of the movie, so I prefer the original Korean title: 비밀의 화원 – Secret Flower Garden, because the movie is more about plants and flowers than animals. Still, we can say that it is simply a movie about nature and life in general, and the plants and animals serve as an allegory for life.

There are also drawings and songs, so I would say that the movie uses a lot of subtle elements to connect the story and stir emotions. The fundamental purpose of the movie is to teach us to be more gentle toward all life, because we depend on it. We are all connected. I liked the message, so I liked the movie too.

P.S. I even noticed an image of Jesus in one short but meaningful frame of the movie.

Leia Mais

Our Neighbours

The reason I watched this film is that it is a new release. I didn’t know anything about it, and I was surprised by the simplicity with which it was made. It contains only eight scenes, each set in a different location: in a parking lot, on a road, in an apartment, in front of a building, in a park, on a mountain, in a dead-end street, and in a café. These are all places where city dwellers meet.

What is interesting is that each scene lasts a little under ten minutes and consists of a single shot in which the camera does not change, although it sometimes moves slightly so that it doesn’t feel completely static. In each shot, there are two people engaged in some kind of argument. So across the eight scenes there are sixteen characters in total. All the actors were unknown to me, but I can say they performed their scenes very well, since it is not easy to film a ten-minute scene in one take.

The scenes are both realistic and absurd at the same time. They portray situations that constantly happen around us in cities, yet they express a certain unnaturalness caused by the urban conditions of life. This is not a standard film, but it offers an interesting portrayal of city life that many of us can relate to.

Leia Mais

The Portrait of a Director

According to koreanfilm.or.kr data, only 597 people have seen this movie, which makes me one of the few who have seen it. This is, of course, an indie film, and it certainly isn’t for a general audience, but it has its own beauty and attractiveness.

At the center of the movie is a film director who meets and talks with people in preparation for his new project. The conversations resemble those in Hong Sang-soo’s films, where characters simply converse naturally, with meaning that often remains unspoken. I liked the short moments of instrumental music between the shots and the beautiful natural scenery, but I couldn’t really grasp the theme of the movie through the acting. Maybe the film simply portrays the life of a movie director.

There is also the symbolism of the title: *Utopia*, or even better, in the original Korean: 몽유도원, an old traditional Chinese and Korean utopian concept of finding a hidden paradise. In this movie, the characters share their dreams and visions, mixing reality and fantasy, and pointing to art as something that helps us go beyond basic existence.

Leia Mais

Sound Recording

The movie starts with loud city noise and a quiet human humming. This is an effective start to a simple film that searches for the voice of a lost young actress. The whole movie has a melancholic tone, despite the youthfulness of the girl. Also, as much as I think I understood the dialogue, I don’t think the film explicitly explains what happened; instead, it leaves things open to debate and interpretation. The actors are appealing and I liked them, but their portrayal felt somewhat limited. I wanted them to engage a little more.

So, this is not a mainstream movie for the general public, but rather an independent film for movie lovers and lost souls who happen to stumble upon it. The movie did succeed in making me hum, which I hadn’t done in a long time, so that’s something.

Leia Mais

offensively bad

there's good dramas with sophisticated plots, there's good dramas with simple plots, and then there's bad dramas that try so hard to be sophisticated that it makes them 10x worse. this is one of them.

this drama is a disgrace against all women, lesbians, and queer people. the women of this drama are put through perpetual abuse, sexual assault, etc., for the sole purpose of dramatisation and/or character development for the male lead. this is a well studied phenomenon known as the 'women in refrigerators' trope, i highly recommend reading up on it.
as for the queer aspect, just because they included a lesbian character doesn't mean we should be applauding the writers for representation. this drama exploits the hardships of sexual minorities for nothing more than shock value. throughout the entire story, sangah is mentally and physically pushed to the limit, but no attempt is made to send any meaningful message with any of this.

towards the end i began to wonder, who are we even supposed to be rooting for here? taeseob is just as manipulative and power hungry as the elites he strived to take down.
they try to frame taeseob and sangah as equally evil and equally sympathetic, which is NOT the case. sangah wasn't responsible for the murder, and even if she was, it would've been justified. she can't be blamed for cheating either as she was coerced with drugs. taeseob on the other hand, as admitted by himself in the first episode, only saw sangah as a means to climb up the social ladder. sure, you could argue he fell in love with her later, and he did try to 'protect' her overall, but he wouldn't have gone to such lengths to protect her image if it wasn't crucial to his own reputation. not to mention him forcing himself onto her after their big fight which is completely irredeemable. mind you he was already irredeemable to me when he did nothing to help jisoo.

the last episode is its own disaster:
- slow motion montages were excessive and anticlimactic, whole episode could've been 40 minutes if they cut those out
- everything played out way too smoothly all of a sudden
- the focus suddenly shifts onto politics and we're expected to keep up with all these names and lore that were only mentioned in passing in previous episodes
- the "cliffhanger" they left to tease a second season felt sooo forced and rushed

overall, a low quality drama that takes itself too seriously, much to its own detriment.

Leia Mais

Great but the ending is rushed

If you’re looking for lots of skin from a BL then this one is not for you. If you’re looking for great chemistry and plot then this is probably right up your street.

The story follows two young neighbours who hold each other in high esteem who get separated by circumstance when Theo is shipped off to live with his grandmother in Paris leaving his best friend Akk behind.

They meet again years later when Theo’s grandmother dies and they immediately strike up a friendship with unrequited undertones of desire and love.

Theo selects a book that he’s read and makes a comment in one of the blank back pages and over time the two investigate who responds to the comment that he wrote. We meet 4 other main support characters who all profess to be Enchante, the person who responded to the comment that he left. We also find out the reasoning behind them lying and telling Theo that they are the person he is looking for.

The ending was a very frustrating as it is very rushed- we don’t really get closure for the 4 pretenders nor is the reason why Theo decides to break Akk’s heart particularly believable either (but they are reunited).

The production values excellent even though the now famous home from Cutie Pie (as well as a couple of other BLs I have watched) appears yet again!

The chemistry between Theo and Akk is so believable and had me smiling like a loon in some of the scenes where they’re rough housing.

The other actors are also very good (and rather pleasing on the eye which is a bonus) and add depth and substance to this drama.

Would I watch again? Probably not but that doesn’t stop this from being a great little drama and one worth a higher rating than given on this platform.

Leia Mais