7 Days Before Valentine (2023)

Deserves More Love!

Week after week, I would check the rating here on MDL to see if other people were seeing what I was seeing, yet the rating remains consistently poor. If you've come down to the review section out of curiosity, please don't let the low average rating scare you away! This is a beautiful show that gets better the more you engage with it as a viewer.

I think the thing that might be throwing many people is actually the thing I also like most: namely, that this series is more like a stage play than a TV show. There are a limited number of sets, a relatively small cast of characters, and high dialogue to action ratio. This ties in with the main character's profession as a play actor and also serves in a metacontextual way of engaging with the act of storytelling in a rather novel way. Not only does this show have a main plot and a few subplots, but everything about it is also a love letter to the very notion of storytelling itself. Characters serve as stand-ins for the audience, the chorus, and even the storyteller in turns. It's a fun device that really adds to the depth of each and every shot, line of dialogue, and character choice made along the way.

I also have to applaud the way that this show handles religion and spirituality and the supernatural. It's also a deep dive into grief and loss. Honestly, there's so much to this show! Also, Jared is adorable and it's worth watching for each of his appearances onscreen alone.

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Beautiful Story and Beautifully Shot

First, this is not for everyone. If you're expecting a BL, you can stop expecting a BL - it's not one. There is an LGBT aspect of the story, and the male gaze is present as Atom wears very little thorughout which is a goldmine for shallow people like me, and when he is dressed up, he looks amazing.

Reading the comments section, there is a bit of overstatement of the theatricality of the series. It is intentionally play-like, but the purely visual elements are of equal importance to the dialogue, and I think that because this was deceptively marketed a BL, the audience was looking for BL and not seeing what was really there, and you can't blame the audience for that.

If you approach this as a straightforward story, you may hate it - it's an allegory, so it's important to think about what everyting symbolizes and what is metaphor, and what the message is.

There are many related themes, a couple of the more surfacy ones being the futility of second-guessing past decisions - and the utility of atonement in order to move on.

The structure of the story has Sunshine given the power to totally erase a person from the universe each night for 7 Days before Valentine('s - I wish these productions could get the grammar of the title correct), and the correct decision will bring love back to him. Each erasure has a lessson, but this causes the biggest problem with the series and what I think is the main reason so many people disliked it and/or dropped it:

it's too long, One of the erasures is a self-indulgent political statement by the writer, which didn't belong in here. What would have been more meaningful and universal would have been to erase the Conservative, ending up in a Stalinist far-left conformity, as without balance even the side you're on can become descend into oppression.

Another of the erasures just makes Sunshine evil and malicious and should not have been included, Some of his decisions are bad, but viewed through the lens of his heartbreak is understandable, but this one isn't - it's just awful of him.

The acting in this is fantastic - the series rests firmly on Atom's shoulders, and he carries it. His heartbreak is heartbreaking, his smile is even worse (so beautiful it hurts), and there's a scene with him on stage that's worth it in itself. Jet is good too, but he has a more limited range and I don't think he quite kept up with Atom. The small parts are all very well acted, even "annoying stock characters" that made them all compelling, like Jared the Flower Guy. who could have just been irritating, but it's hard not to fall in love with him.

I loved this series, but I did feel it bogged down in the middle. If you can put up with that, the end is worth it. But again, this is not a BL, so don't watch it expecting one.

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