Sobre Juventude (2022)

cute but lacking

the best things about this series are the ost and the romantic moments between the second leads. other than that, i think because of the short runtime they couldn't complete any of the plot points. the parental pressure aspect was well-developed but the friendships are half-cooked. the main couple's ending felt extremely forced cz when did guang start liking him in that sense? he was giving bromance throughout: it was one-sided from qizhang. i felt bad for him bcz not only did the actor do a good job, but also cz the character is so likeable and his mother is a gem! i loved all of their scenes! i really wanted to like it but the direction was so incoherent and script so half-baked that i couldn't bring myself to rate it higher :(

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Cute but so short

This is another drama that has so much potential, but it's hampered by short screentime. It really just needed more time for the characters to get to know each other — I felt like the characters became close friends five minutes after meeting each other for the first time, and throughout the drama it felt like they were skipping scenes and we had to fill in the blanks ourselves. We don't have nearly enough time to follow any story beats, whether it's Xu Qi-zhang trying to become school president for the scholarship, or his band. Some of these plots actually drop off completely, and the only one we do follow is Ye Guang's relationship with his parents, which is actually very powerful.

The best part of this drama, however, is definitely the OST, particularly the title song — I've had it on repeat the entire week.

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Good Lightweight Series

Due to the heavy subject matters of parental death, and neglectful, abusive parents, I thought there would be more depth to this series. Since this is a mini series, I think my expectations were too high.

The acoustics the band played in were horrible, so I couldn't get into the music numbers either. The only reason I enjoyed this series, was the relationship development between the two couples, Xu Qi Zhang/Ye Guang, and Ray/Jian. Both couples had different paths to love, and I thought the relationship progression was really well done. What I found a little interesting was, Ray allowed the first guy to mistreat him multiple times, yet he made a nice guy like Jian pay for his one mistake. Yet Ray did not try to use his previous relationship as an explanation to Jian, he just decided what was no longer acceptable to him, and acted on it.

Overall this is a light series, that does have moments of emotional abuse and one incident of a parent slapping a child across the face. This is not resolved in the end, so it's really disturbing to think that Ye Guang will be living in that environment for at 2 more years until he can go to university. Hopefully he can get stronger against his parents (father is the abuser, mother the enabler) with the support of Xu Qi Zhang and his mother.

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Sangat remaja scenery banget.

Sebenarnya ada dua main role di series ini, namun menurutku series ini sangat terfokus pada satu main role utama ; yaitu Xu Qi Zhang dan Ye Guang. Menceritakan dua remaja ini dalam mencari apa yang mereka inginkan, karena keduanya sebenarnya punya masalah mereka masing-masing ; namun ketika mereka dipertemukan - mereka bersama-sama saling bertukar ide dan bahkan beberapa pengalaman hidup untuk saling memecahkan konflik mereka masing-masing ; semua masalah ini terjadi dalam fase perpindahan antara masa remaja menjadi dewasa. Kurang lebih series ini berpusat pada konflik itu. Resolusi dari series ini menurutku masuk akal ya, selain itu sederhana dan mudah dimengerti - seperti judulnya "About Youth" menurutku ini benar-benar membahas mengenai masa remaja secara umum, dimulai dari dengan siapa kita berteman, bagaimana respon dan reaksi orang tua kita ketika kita sudah remaja, dan beberapa masalah remaja yang biasanya terjadi. Dari segi dialog dan alur menurutku mudah dimengerti ya walaupun terkadang alurnya terbanting ke masa lalu. Over-all menurutku ini sangat rekomendasi banget karena series ini benar-benar punya cerita yang ringan.

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It leaves you wanting for more

With the onslaught of multiple BL series coming out of South Korea, Japan and Thailand, I was delighted to find this gem from Taiwan. I watched this one right after finishing My School President and the plot is more or less the same with the roles a bit reversed.

In this series, we have Xu Qi Zhang, a member of a band who is supporting and caring towards Ye Guang, a studious school student. The series attempts to highlight multiple issues faced by students and youth of today. First we have the overbearing parents of Ye Guang who takes control of his life in order to see his son succeed academically. They are so focussed on their son’s success in every field that they don’t realise that he has lost all freedom and feels trapped and unloved. Then we have the story of Ray, who is ill-treated by his boyfriend. He is shown with female attire and a wig while he is with his ex-boyfriend but loses the wig when he meets Ah Jian. There is a hint that may be his ex is making him wear it but that could just be my speculation. They have also added a dead father and an abusive uncle for good measure.

There isn’t much romance as the story focuses more on the relationship between Ye Guang and his parents and how he feels more like himself when he is with Xu Qi Zhang. There are multiple plots that the series introduces and then we don’t get to see any resolution there. There is certainly an attempt to give more depth to these characters but due to limited episodes we don’t get a satisfactory ending to those plots. We get to meet Xu’s abusive uncle but then no follow-up on that story. There is also Jun Wei who dislikes Ye Guang for some reason that isn’t explained but you can hazard a guess. He wants to see Ye Guang fail and takes active steps to do so but then he is forgotten. Then we have the whole plot of a school election where Xu Qi Zhang, Ye Guang and Jun Wei apply for. There is also a stake for Xu Qi Zhang to win this election but there is no conclusion to that plotline. There is also a professor that is supporting Xu Qi Zhang but she leaves the series by ep 2. I can chalk all this down to lack to time to flesh these plots out but not much would be lost if these plots were not brought up to begin with.

In conclusion, the story is simple and the relationship between the main characters is sweet. The OST is good and wouldn’t mind listening to it over and over. The acting has been satisfactory from all the 4 main leads although I would have liked to see more of Ray as his character had a lot of potential and there is a good story there waiting to be explored.

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Short and Sweet!

This Taiwan BL I watched on GagaooLala a couple weeks ago.
Short and easy to watch. I've really love most of what has been coming from Taiwan in the past couple of years. This could have been longer with more to the story.
This drama is a romantic comedy at times. Seemed many scenes felt the same. Lacked scene creativity at times.
There were some hard things to watch between Main lead and his father. Hope this isn't too spoiling.
Loved the side couple. Wish there was more time to develop this relationship more.
I soooo loved the cameo from Wilson Liu as Sun Bo Xiang.
Theme song is addicting for sure.
All the actors were handsome and talented wish we could have had more development to see more.
Here's to hoping they give us more later on.

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If Disney made an LGBTQIA+ series

This series isn't anything groundbreaking or unheard of, it's quite cliche tbh. I consider this to be a little gift for those who are looking for a light watch, sure, it was flawed and wasn't anything awe inspiring and the whole family situation of Ye Guang was heartbreaking to see, but it was cute. It felt like a breath of fresh air considering the amount of mature/heavy series coming out recently, so to me personally it was a nice step back from all of that. The music was cute and the settings were nice, it was very aesthetically pleasing so that's a plus.

The plot is fairly simple, just three teens and a barista hanging out and falling in love with some portrayal of the issues/problems teenagers face in their lives, it isn't hard to follow and there isn't any unnecessary love triangles, there were a couple of confusing moments/pointless scenes and the scene jumping had my brain reshuffling, but overall it was entertaining.

The cast is fairly young so their portrayal of high school teenage boys was believable, the main couple's romace definitely had a bit more depth compared to the other couple, the second couple felt abrupt and underdeveloped and tbf they added close to nothing to the plot, the main couple was slightly more developed, but their romance sometimes felt off, like one moment they're two teens with a crush and the other they're bros hanging around, it didn't bother me that much tho so I just brushed it off and continued enjoying it.

I honestly don't have much to say about this other than that it's a nice piece to kill some time, like you could watch it on the way to work or while waiting for your favorite series to begin, so if you're bored and don't really want anything that could potentially have your brain working, I recommend checking it out.

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Mostly age appropriate sweet coming of age romance

The make up, hair, and styling for the show is very nicely done. The cinematography and the editing could be better, but I appreciate that they tried to do something a bit different. The casting of the three high school leads are very nicely done, they're new comers with a lot of great chemistry with each other and good presence. Qi Zhang and Ye Guang's relationship is really lovely, two gentle boys that actually get time to get to know each other. I like that it's not an opposite personality attracts situation and they are both kind and nice to each other. Ray's chosen pronouns was unclear, but their storyline is the edgier one dating adult men and being more physical quicker. I dislike the trope of high school teenagers dating grown men being shown as normalized. Ah Jian's age hasn't been stated, but I hope he's only just a year or two older. The surprise double date scene was immensely cute and the most natural all the actors were as their characters. I really like how the main high schoolers aren't portrayed as too childish or too adultified, outside of the cartoony guy that was bullying Ye Guang that disappears from the story.

This show definitely had more story to tell than it had time for with it's 22nd per ep runtime. Most of the plot lines feel finished still in media res like it was meant to continue for another season, but that's not usually how asian dramas work. The storylines introduced are usually wrapped up in one season and have new storylines even if there is a second one. The rivalry with that bully kid that's too obsessed with his sister joining the student council elections went nowhere. Ye Guang didn't have a final face to face understanding talk with his parents, though it could be that they could only reach one with space between them via phone as they had been suffocatingly controlling to their son. There's a lot of potential for more of this story, but it doesn't look like that will happen. It's still a good watch for folks looking for something wholesome and sweet that doesn't talk down to the audience.

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Cute show when having nothing to watch

I was really looking forward to this series since its trailers came out a while ago, and honestly it didn't really disappoint, though I do feel its lacking in certains aspects thanks to how short it is. It was an overall fun watch to kill time and very cute and nice vibes.
The characters are all really likeable (ofc except the parents of Ye Guang but that's what the writers intended). I was really looking forward to seeing how the main and secondary couples developed, which on one side was a bit let down because of how lacking of depth the second couple was, I did felt like it was missing a bit more to get to know their relationship but it's nothing really serious. The chemistry of both of the couples was really great and I was really anticipating the kiss from the main couple, which was really cute as well.
It handles topics that can be heavy to an extent but its nothing too drastic, the characters act with a good level of matureness which doesn't make their conflicts last for long.
It's soundtrack goes hard especially in the intro, and it's rewatch value is great as it's easily digestible and entertaining overall. It's a nice series though I do feel like it was way too short for the story overall, I do recommend though!

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Bromance toute mignonne

Cette série est courte, n'offre rien d'extraordinaire, mais on évite tout les pièges habituels des BL.
One est dans une bromance agréable à suivre, pour ceux qui veulent juste passer un bon moment devant une série sans prise de tête.

La musique est d'ailleurs, très chouette. La chanson principale, même si elle n'est pas incroyable, à rejoint ma playlist car elle est douce et très agréable à écouter.

Mon seul bémol sera pour le personnage de Ray qui m'a exaspéré dans sa manière de réagir face aux relations amoureuses.

Bon visionnage si vous vous laissez tenter.

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Gostei, mas foi tão rápido que não deu tempo de me apegar direito à história

Esse foi o primeiro BL de Taiwan que assisti. A história é bem simples, mas eu gostei. É bem leve de assistir na verdade.

Porém, foi tão tão rápido que eu senti que não consegui me conectar tanto com a história. No início eu tava bem empolgada, mas com o passar dos episódios perdi o ritmo de acompanhar.

Acho que se eu tivesse maratonado (pois fui acompanhando em andamento) teria tido uma experiência melhor.

Mas no geral é uma história legal de assistir. Os casais são muito bonitinhos (eu adorei o casal secundário). Gostei das músicas também, principalmente a de encerramento.

Enfim, eu recomendo, é bom para maratonar e ficar com o coração quentinho.

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