Absolute Zero (2023)

So happy I stuck with it!

This series' theme is one of my favorite: Time Travel, so I was very excited to start watching. It was soon clear that not all time travel is created equal, however and the slow pace turned me off. It took me ages to watch the first 3 episodes and I left the series in my CW list for a longgggg time after that, reluctant to get back into it while it was still airing. I found the adult SuanSoon a cry baby with toxic behavior, and the slow pace bored me. I got back to it though after a few months after it finished airing and BOYYY AM I GLAD I DID.

The pace does not pick up speed, but the slow telling of the story appears to actually have purpose. It is to help us keep our sanity wit so much back and forth. We need breathing and thinking room to understand what is going on. theres still enough crying to fill an ocean, but the way the actors portray and express the characters and emotions is fabulous. I don't really get why SuanSoon goes back as an adult, and SongSa as a highschooler (although I have my theories), but we can feel how much they love each other right to their souls.

The soundtrack by the wonderful Boy Sompob does it's job and we get a huge tearjerker with a beautiful happy ending.

Honestly I do understand some of the critical reviews, but if you stick with it and go with the flow (of tears), you'll love it. Or maybe, it's just me who was in a fragile state while watching. Whatever, it will go on my re-watch list for sure!

Leia Mais

Noyade dans son torrent de larmes et ses détours sans queue ni tête.

Absolute Zero était une des productions que j'attendais le plus. Il y avait quelque chose qui m'intriguait dans les teasers. Quelque chose qui me poussait à croire qu'il s'agirait d'une aventure chargée en émotions. Après une première tentative lors de sa sortie, j'ai délaissé le drama à peine le quatrième épisode visionné pour le recommencer quelques semaines plus tard. Peut-être avais-je été dans un mauvais état d'esprit la première fois ?

Sur le courant de 2023, nous avons eu droit à de bonnes histoires incluant des voyages temporels. Je pense notamment à I Feel You Linger in the Air. Bien qu'imparfait, il est sans aucun doute mon chouchou de 2023. Il y avait aussi An Ancient Love Song et son inversion du temps ou encore My Perfect Stranger qui nous renvoyait dans les années 80. Absolute Zero avait un bagage assez intéressant grâce à l'émotion qu'il projetait au travers de ses teasers. Mais en fin de compte, c'était un pétard mouillé.

Et pour être mouillé, je me demande même comment les personnages/acteurs n'ont pas fini sous les eaux avec le torrent de larmes auquel nous avons eu droit. Ils pleurent tout le temps ! Au début, la compassion est présente, mais à force, c'est devenu ennuyeux.

Pour être honnête, je n'ai pas aimé grand chose du scénario. J'ignore si c'est l'adaptation qui n'est pas représentative ou l'histoire en elle-même. Le mélange des temporalités n'avait aucun intérêt. Je ne comprenais pas cette obstination à vouloir mêler les deux. D'une scène à l'autre, on se retrouvait dans le passé puis dans le présent sans que cela n'apporte quoi que ce soit à l'histoire. Pour moi, plus rien n'avait de sens (et je reconnais avoir eu, au bout d'un moment, la flemme). Je ne cherche pas un scénario parfait, mais un minimum de cohérence.

En revanche, sur les quatre personnages principaux, c'était le gros lot pour trois d'entre eux. Tout d'abord, Tor (Ongsa, adolescent) était brillant. Mix (Suansoon, adolescent) était adorable. Toey (Ongsa, adulte) était doux.
En revanche, Teng (Suansoon, adulte) était terrible. L'acteur ne convenait pas au rôle et a rendu son personnage apathique. Je ne vais pas m'étaler des heures (parce qu'après tout, ce n'est peut-être que moi qui avais une dent contre lui pour des tas de raisons). Pour moi, Teng n'était l'acteur qu'il fallait, en plus d'avoir un personnage changeant au fil de l'histoire.

D'ailleurs, il est amusant de noter que mes épisodes préférés sont les 06 et 07, car nous retrouvons Suansoon et Ongsa, adolescents. L'histoire était tout de suite plus fluide et légère. Lors de ces épisodes, l'histoire a trouvé ce petit côté mignon qu'il lui manquait. Avant de le reperdre jusqu'à la fin...

Pour finir, je me demande pourquoi Suansoon (adulte) ressent le besoin de créer un lien émotionnel avec Ongsa (adolescent) ? Je n'ai rien contre les différences d'âges, mais je n'ai pas trouvé ce point cohérent et saint. Aussi innocent que ça puisse être, ce n'était pas normal à mes yeux. Le fait que Suansoon (adulte) veuille tant s'impliquer avec Ongsa (adolescent) n'était pas une bonne chose pour moi.

Bref, les histoires de voyages temporels peuvent devenir complexes et de vrais nœuds si on n'y prend pas garde. Malheureusement, ce fut la destinée d'Absolute Zero.

Leia Mais

ABSOLUTE BORING

I can't believe New directed this series. I mean the plot is weak and I couldn't afford myself to stay awake the whole time to understand the plot. Everything about this series is weak. From the plot, the acting, the music, everything is not up to average good series. Why is everyone say this series is good? It's not. It's just plain. The plot is going round at the same place and I wish there are more emotion in this series. Logically speaking, if you found out you travel back in time, wouldn't you lose your mind for a second and then try to figure out shit? Nah bruh. Suansoon legit say "aight imma just go with the flow" like ?????? I think Wabi Sabi is losing its touch with good series. I am sorry but they need to release more good series sooner and instead of this boring shit. I mean My Only 12% is having the same vibe but its not boring tho ? like there is a difference between plain boring and good plain. Like everything about this series is so boring, i applaud myself for finishing this series. I hope there is more conflict like murder, reincarnation or something. I dont know but this series is just not it. Bruh bye.

Leia Mais

Almost absolute zero!

Well, I finished watching it! Incredulous and hoping against hope that the producers would realize the mess they had created. And what is the most infuriating and disappointing is that the drama had a great premise and an even better start and then nosedived and barely resurfaced in last two episodes. I really, really wanted to like this! And what I liked the most were CGI butterflies!

DISCLAIMER: I am not shocked by age gaps or age gap romances, student/teacher love stories as long as they are both consensual, adult, legal and informed.

There are two parts in this drama: the first half is told from the point of view of Soon and the second from Ongsa. They were given the choice; either they get together as teens and one of them dies ten years later or they get together only as adults!

The story of star crossed lovers on a time travel mission to save each other was a great idea. And it starts great: Soon and Ongsa have been blissfully living together for the past ten years when Ongsa gets into an accident and dies. Soon, devastated, makes a wish upon a star and finds himself in the past. And that's when everything starts going wrong.

The following is really the biggest problem I have with this drama. Soon, a 29 yr old adult goes back in past and meets the 18yr old version of his boyfriend before he himself met him aged 18. The kid hits on him, and Soon falls head line and sinker for the teen! Never really telling him who he is. This whole relationship was odd, unhealthy and wrong.Yes they are both adults but the 10 year gap is something important at that age and the fact that Soon does not question his own behaviour towards the teen is huge red flag. Their relationship is neither cute nor acceptable. Another factor influencing the perception of that relationship is the actor playing adult Soon: an extremely wrong choice since the actor is 37 and it shows: he cannot pass for a 29 year old so his behaviour with the teen looks even more creepy! On the other hand, Soon's level of maturity is of a 7yr old while teen Ongsa behaves and acts like an adult. The whole dynamics between them is wrong! This plotline goes on for 5 episodes until Soon goes back to his own time! The method of time travelling: making a wish in a taxi going through a tunnel!

In the second part we follow Ongsa who, armed with the knowledge about the future from Soon (who ended up spilling the beans eventually!), gets in the relationship with teen Soon. Ten happy years ensue until that fateful day of the accident when a future Ongsa shows up in front of the present one and tells him he needs not change the future but the past and sends him back to his teen self. In order to save both their lives, Ongsa decides not to meet Soon as teen but to wait. They meet as adults, with all their memories from past timelines intact. Happy ending!

How does Ongsa time travel? That is never explained! In one instance he dies in an accident, his wristwatch starts going backwards and he is suddenly a teen! I guess there are many different means of time travel!

This series deals with grief (they cry a lot!): and the solution is time travel! Time travellers like manipulating their boyfriends by not telling them the whole truth. While in the first half, Soon was sleeping with the teen Ongsa, in the second part teen Ongsa stalked bigtime teen Soon! Ongsa had an accident because he knew he was going to be in an accident that day and was lost in thought thinking about the accident: could this be a self fulfilling prophecy?

Time travel stories are notoriously difficult to write and this one is at the base quite good. It is that everything that had been piled on the skeleton is wrong! The pacing and the structure of the story was correct for a slow burn drama. The side characters were really nice: the coffee shop owner, the loving parents, the friends. There was also a mysterious old man watching them from the sidelines and giving them cryptic answers with an old clock ticking and blue butterflies flying around (butterfly effect?). We never find out who he actually is: a god, a demon, an angel or an ordinary man?

Beside the wrong casting choice for adult Soon, the actors are ok though the chemistry between them is rather flimsy and literally sickening when the adult Soon is cuddling with teen Ongsa.
Music was annoying: the same song played over and over again with a lot of high pitch singing: my poor ears!

Every episode starts with an inspirational quote, very positive! The last episode ends with a 5min flashback of the entire series: so you may as well just watch that!

Leia Mais

Lack of logic drops the rating

It really isn't easy to write a review for this show, at least for me.

First of all, i would actually recommend this show!

The rating is low, but that's not because the show is bad. I enjoyed watching it and I like it a lot, actually! The problem here isnt the acting - because the actors did a really really great job! I especially fell for Tor, because he is so cute and cheeky. But also Toey did well. He managed to keep those cheeky, flirty attitude of Tor so well. Both adult actors nailed to keep the charme of the characters. I totally saw the younger versions of them in the adult actors and that's really nice to see, because they worked hard to achieve this. They talked about this in the special episode and I am just happy that they succeeded and delivered just fine! So the criticism for the show really doesn't have anything to do with the actors. Besides the acting, the OST is also beautiful. We also get to hear the OST from Until we meet again a few times, and for someone who watched UWMA, it's a cute and quick nostalgic trip. Especially if you know what the lyrics mean. They somehow fit for this show as well as they did for UWMA. (I really love when the OST is telling the story through a song and the lyrics here are so beautiful. I listen to OSTs a lot and i love to think back to a show while listening to their OST and if the lyrics are so matching, like it's here the case, it's even more emotional.)

Coming to the problems of the show and the reason for my low rating: the lack of world building and therefore the lack of logic. This show is a hot mess, when it comes to this point. There are literally no rules explained, so they can just do what they want, because if you don't explain the rules, no one can say you break them, right? I was so confused since episode 1, because I kept asking myself "how? why? that doesn't make sense!!!" :'D They really didn't care to make things make sense. And that's the biggest weak spot of this show. The time travelling plot is just full of plotholes, because they just went with whats convenient, not caring about the lack of logic. Another small criticism I have: I would kinda wish to have seen even more of their lovestory. It gets displayed as tragic, deep, dramatic and epic. And I kinda get it. But it fails to touch me emotionally, because they don't SHOW me, but just tell me. Ah, it's kinda hard to explain. But..I feel like it's a bit of this "Show, don't tell" problem. Maybe it's just me. I wasn't as emotional as I expected. But that's also because of the lack of logic. I was so frustrated and f*cked up almost till the end, so I was busy with ranting, instead of crying. :'D

Overall, give it a try. Don't let the bad reviews make you hesitant. The actors are great, the OST is great and if you can just accept the fact, that they really failed with the world building, it is indeed a heartwarming and comforting show.

All my love goes to Tor and Toey. <3

Leia Mais

Sad Time Travel mystery

I watched all the episodes stuck in an endless, sometimes long, repetitive state of dread. Asking the basic question, why are these two together? The script based on a book develops characters that are in love but have really bad communication skills, chemistry, or have any attraction beyond crying together.

Without any spoilers, WHAT's MISSING:

the moments that show the happiness of a relationship,
navigating a first romance,
or becoming a couple and showing the good and bad of a couple that likes each other enough to have intimacy.

Instead, we get a lot of unnecessary drama but never fully see a main couple with chemistry or

why they belong together is absent and the gloom and doom tone we get is the opposite of a butterfly stomach of first love.

The logic of some of the character's actions, or the mystery isn't enough to garner any re-watch value. But, if you get past the first episode you almost have NO choice but to suffer in silence until the end.

Leia Mais

Mixed feelings

This is an absolutely brilliant 10/10 story! But the one thing that bothered me about the show, bothered me a lot. I'm glad I stuck with it though, because the story is profound. In addition to the right-person/wrong-time element, which was deep in and of itself, it got me thinking about the extra layers. Like: if you knew you could have something unbelievably wonderful for a while, but it would end in devastating heartbreak and terrible pain, would you still pursue it or give it up entirely? In reality, this question is often minimized, but the drama takes it seriously and explores how painful and terrifying such a choice would actually be. It also explores how your final decision might change as you get older. When you're young, you may be willing to take potentially devastating risks, because you've never been hurt before; when you're older, you may no longer be willing to take any risks, because you've been hurt too much. Dunno if I'm meant to read the story like that, but I enjoyed thinking about it all the same.

As well as the profound story, there's plenty more to love. The music is great. The production is great. The setting is awesome. The entire cast is super talented. And the actual age and age-gap of the characters isn't a problem (for me).

So... why the mixed feelings?

Because Old-Soon looks way too old, and Young-Ongsa's age is not clarified early enough. Why is this a problem? Well, visually, we have a middle-aged man flirting with a high-schooler.

BUT WAIT!! Didn't I just say I had no problem with the characters' actual ages and age-gap? Yes, that's true. The characters are actually 18 and 28, so they are both adults and only ten years apart. I have no complaints about that. HOWEVER! No amount of telling myself Old-Soon is only 28 could make me believe him younger than 40. And even though it's pretty important to know the younger man is 18, it's not even hinted at until ep4, then not confirmed until ep10. As I've said, the actors are amazingly talented! I really can't stress that enough. But seriously, dramas are a visual media, and when pairing a high-schooler and older man, even in a time-travel, and even if you keep the romance light, it's nice to be considerate of the audience and not make it any more complicated or problematic than necessary. Personally, I think they needed to state Young-Ongsa age earlier, and recast Old-Soon. But that's just my opinion based on my preferences, and I'm sure there are plenty of people that disagree with me.

Again, I stuck with the drama because there is so much to love, and I'm glad I did. And even the bits that bothered me may not both others, so I recommend anyone interested in the premise give it a go and decide for yourself.

Leia Mais

Lost Its Way

This is a touching, sentimental journey of young love that was brilliantly done in the beginning but then got lost in its time journeys to recapture its past. While in some ways the story was exceptional, its execution was unfortunately lacking in logic. Initially it had me hooked on the strength of its young actors playing the parts of their younger selves. Simply put, they were brilliant. This is a story of destiny but not on a linear trajectory. It is a destiny of love between two young men who were meant to be together but had to traverse different directions to get to the promised land. Something seemed missing and to was obvious that the physical age of some of the actors was definitely not compatible with the characters they were supposed to be portraying and it showed in the uncomfortableness of the chemistry of the performances. The ending seemed empty to me as well. Unfulfilled to be sure.
You can read my full review at BLBliss.com

Leia Mais