Unknown (2024)

A touching and hearfelt story

As I'm writing, I've just rewatched the last two episodes and my feelings are the same as before, I loved it!

I have to admit, at first and in particular, when I've started the first episode, I was quite confused and skeptical by the story but then, without knowing it, I was little by little drowned and somehow addicted / attracted by the story and its characters. It was indeed ordinary yet it was very engaging, the urge of knowing what's going to happen next between them, their decisions, their choices, and most importantly, their feelings, that was gripping.

I feel like and I also have been noticing that Taiwanese are quite the best to make us relate some things, to throw some plot that would be heartwrenching but also heartwarming and this is not an exception!! This is why, "Unknown" is one of my favorite.

In addition, the acting was top-notch, I really feel every emotions (yeah I might exaggerate) but that's still true, I felt it, they were really convincing and of course I would mention the main leads, Wei Qian and Xiao Yuan. By the way, I feel like, since it seems the serie mostly focused on these two, sometimes I forgot the side characters and even their sister, Xiao Bao / Lili lol

Lastly, OST are so great to listen and easily on repeat. Taiwan is also the best in this part, when it comes to release such a beautiful, heartfelt and touching song which suits the serie, it's quickly a banger.

Leia Mais

Comme ma sauce piment-doux favorite...

Unknown est un drama curieux qui m'a rappelé ma sauce piment-doux favorite. Peu importe si le lundi elle m'arrache la bouche, et le mardi elle est trop sucrée, j'y reviens toujours. Ce drama est un peu similaire. J'aime sa douceur et son côté piquant qui fait que je ne peux pas m'empêcher d'y revenir pour connaître la suite. Pour cette raison, j'étais au rendez-vous tous les lundis (ou presque) pendant les semaines de diffusion.

C'est un point mentionné en long et en large, or, je vais malgré tout le mentionner une nouvelle fois. C'est une histoire que vous apprécierez ou non en fonction de votre propre opinion. Techniquement, l'inceste n'existe pas. Mais les limites de certaines situations sont propres à nous-mêmes. À titre d'exemple, Addicted et History4: Close to You mettaient en scène des relations incestueuses - ce qui m'a fait les détester. En revanche, ce n'est pas le cas de Unknown. Bien que septique au début, mon avis s'est consolidé au fil de l'histoire. Pour moi, les deux zozos ne sont pas frères. Maintenant, que ceci est dit...

Le casting est excellent ! Chris Chiu (Qian) dépeint un personnage authentique et poignant, tandis que Kurt Huang (Zhi Yuan) délivre une large palette d'émotions. Qian est têtu comme un âne, mais il réfléchit beaucoup et est très prévenant. Zhi Yuan aime beaucoup trop écouter aux portes. D'ailleurs, Zhi Yuan part aux États-Unis en tant qu'adolescent, mais il revient (quatre ans plus tard) dans la peau d'un adulte/homme. Cela change complètement la dynamique, et c'est ce qui rend l'histoire encore plus excitante.

Unknown possède une intrigue émotionnellement chargée. Cependant, je ne peux pas m'empêcher de mentionner que le caractère de Zhi Yuan m'a rendu perplexe plus d'une fois, remettant ainsi en cause leur relation. En fait, j'ai souvent eu le sentiment que Zhi Yuan était maître l'art de la manipulation affective. Le fait qu'il conte Fleurette à Qian sans discontinuer a sûrement joué là-dessus. Parfois, j'étouffais devant mon écran, et je me sentais mal pour Qian qu'on voit être au bord du gouffre plus d'une fois. Il est perdu dans ses sentiments et Zhi Yuan en rajoute toujours une couche. C'était intense ! Ouais, c'est le mot, intense.

Pour les petits défauts, la musique bien que jolie prenait trop le spectateur par la main. Lorsque les personnages ressentaient quelque chose, il y avait toujours une chanson pour nous l'expliquer. Le début de l'épisode 11 était un choix fortement discutable (/étrange), il est donc préférable de voir la nouvelle version. Enfin, le dernier épisode m'a quelque peu déçue pour une raison que j'ignore. En réalité, pour moi, il manque quelque chose, reste à savoir ce dont il s'agit.

Taïwan gagne en terrain sur les BL. Je me répète une nouvelle fois, mais ils sont plus audacieux avec des castings exceptionnels, ainsi que de bonnes histoires qui tiennent la route. D'accord, le chapitre de la mafia n'avait aucun intérêt, mais l'idée était là.

Pour résumer, Unknown s'amuse des limites de chacun, mais parvient à offrir un drama entraînant avec une romance passionnée. Porté par un duo solide partageant aussi une alchimie frappante, il rappelle joliment que parfois les liens les plus forts ne sont pas nécessairement ceux du sang.

Leia Mais

This will be memorable - for a long time

When I first read the MDL summary for Unknown I literally rolled my eyes at the prospect another step bros in love kind of pulp . At first I thought I will not watch it. But then I thought why not give it a choice? Thank god I chose to give it a choice.

Because I'd have lost a gem if I had not gotten over my prejudices. And what a delivery! What a masterpiece this series has evolved into. Let's talk about the story, adapted from a novel which I have not read, the screenwriting team has done an exceptional job. Visual storytelling is at its finest. When I saw the premise of how they became stepbrothers or let's not call it stepbrothers because that is completely wrong. How they became "brothers" through shared traumatic life, it made me understand their story better.

The acting is so so good. Each of the eye rolls, forehead crunches, screaming , look of anger, shock and disbelief, pain and visceral fear when Qian thought he may lose his family is acted so so well!

except the story, there are two more things that I absolutely dig. Cinematography and Music. Both have won in this series. The cinematographer and director are very clear on what they want to show. The soft moody and dark-ish lighting, focus on the faces, and frames inside frames (seemed like director and cinematographer's top choice of composition) with minimal bgm. And usage of the OST . Everything was perfect to create a sombre feeling . And also it glows more and lights are added when the full family is happy. Personally I feel like this series is a great case study for people who love cinematography.

The diction is very on point. Especially at the end of each episode, the small reminder on what families are really like warmed me to my core. There are age gaps, there are a lot of ruminations, there are quintessential yet well timed humour.

I saw some discussions regarding the intimate scenes. Some liked it , some did not like how it was edited. Personally I loved that scene. It was the culmination point of Yuan's feelings and his waiting for all these years. It was the point when Qian finally lets go of all his worries and accepts Yuan. They showed their struggles, mostly Yuan's throughout the years to show us how much he suffered and now finally he has the love of his life he always wanted. Because for Yuan it was just not sex, it was "making love" in it's truest essence. And the music alongside and it's lyrics were apt. The intimate scene is also very tastefully and artfully shot. I found the similar vibe of the intimate scene of Toothpari between Doctor Roy and Rumi.

This show has a special place in my heart now. A huge round of applause for the whole team.

Leia Mais

Wow!!

I have to say one of the best bl series I’ve watched and I’ve watched quite a few of em so that’s saying something I think Taiwanese series hit different and portray the characters and acting to a next level I was drawn in from the start and bindged watched it in one sitting the chemistry was unbelievable,from the love scenes to the arguing to disagreements they all felt so real and protrayed emotion well it also tackled the coming out and struggles and denial which I found heart warming to watch and see the growth I would defo rewatch this one day and definitely recommend this to anyone weather that’s you starting bl’s or are experienced it’s a must watch thanks for the creators and directors for making a masterpiece I’ll remember for a while.!

Leia Mais

Seriously Good

There's a big spread between very good BLs and what-the-hell-was-that BLs. UNKNOWN sits comfortably in the very-good list. It's no pastel-wonderland romance, instead the feel and look of this drama is both gritty and realistic. There's no backdrop of unlikely wealth, no ultra spacious homes and no sudden rise to success. People slog here. They work and study hard here. Nothing's easy or given. Also, this series managed to produce two solid characters: the leads always remain true to their given character constructs, and yet, they both show believable emotional growth over the years that covers the story's arc. Matter of fact, all of the characters within this drama are interesting and dimensional: the bad guy is not a total black hat, the good doctor doesn't wear a halo, and the stead-fast good friend is both steady and a little fast. I have a few minor quibbles with the story resolution, but overall, I really enjoyed this series and am glad that I had the patience to wait until the 12th episode was out before I dove in. Because seriously, there's enough cliffhangers in UNKNOWN to really do some damage on a person if they couldn't happily binge. (Sidenote: It took me a few scenes to recognize Sam Lin from WE BEST LOVE. He looks different and played his part so well, I couldn't connect him to the character he played in WBL.)

Leia Mais

Compelling writing set in an extremely unrealistic premise!

There's a decent amount complex topics addressed in the show, some of which are quite questionable to me even though I belong the gay community. There are certain good parts and quite a bit of bad parts in my opinion. But the overall premise felt extremely forced and unrealistic.

There's further the topic of incest, which necessarily isn't in technicality, but if someone has been living under the same roof sharing a rather fatherly than brotherly bond, the entire dynamics become a bit questionable. Though I'm not here to argue on this topic.

The acting by Chris is spectacular and quite gripping, but the rest of the cast felt like 2D characters in a comic strip, even Xiao Yuan, his character doesn't seem realistic at all. This show follows almost all typical tropes of BL dramas and even though there's enough emotional depth, fails to make it relatable and is rather unconvincing.

The pacing of the show is pretty slow at times and does get really boring at times where you feel like when is this going to end, especially the last episode was a complete filler.

Leia Mais

Great acting, mediocre everything else. Awful editing.

I feel like this series isn't aimed at me, because I didn't think it was all that. The acting is wonderful, and the characters well-drawn. Even the minor roles are really well-acted.

The story, however, is pedestrian, melodramatic, and stuffed with cliches. The ganster angle was fine in the beginning, because we see what Qian had to do for his family - but when it comes back later, it's just unnecessary drama that drops out of the sky, and ruined the organic progression of the main relationship. It should have ben Yuan's absence abroad that made Qian confront his feelings, and it seemed like it was written that way - but for some reason the author didn't trust us to buy it and threw in a ridiculous plot thread where Yuan had to behave uncharacteristically idiotic (what on earth was his plan?). And the endless time-jumping - the first refuge of an author that can't imagine a coherent plot.

As for cliches, it's got it all, from suggestive seatbelting to hair blowdrying. At least the obligatory 30-year old with a critical illness cliche was written in a way that made sense, and they didn't overdo it.

The editing is just terrible, and nearly ruined the series. By Ep 9 I didn't care about the series anymore and stopped craving it like I had for the first 8 - there is not one emotionally important scene that isn't mutilated by an endless series of flashbacks played to the maudlin theme song, which is good. Occasssionally. Not stuffed in every conceivable moment and far beyond.

There's a very, very important scene in Ep 11 that shocked me how badly it was ruined, and I was thinking "this is just me, and I'm sure everyone else loved it", but I discovered in the forum that my opinion was almost universally held, which was a nice surprise - I'd hate to think I'm alone in the world.

This could have been an 11/10 with less indulgent writing and a good editor. As it was, the actors managed to carry it - Qian was stoic, but not cartoonishly so (except when played for humor, which was effectively done), the Lili is not OTT silly and wasa a surprisingly nuanced character, which I attribute to the actress, the gangster leader was clearly a man who pretends to be more insane than he is for stragtegic reasons, again ably acted, and the actors playing the younger versions of the characters were first-rate as well, which was wonderful - I even felt a little cheated at first when the younger Yuan's time was up.

I would recommend this, and I think the majority of fans will give this a 9.5 or a 10, but it's an 8 for me. A 9.5 for the acting, a five for everthing else, and a 2 for the editing.

Leia Mais

A battle between the head and heart

Taiwanese BLs have always come out a cut above the rest, IMHO, and Unknown showcased this perfectly. From the start, there is a solid story, and moreover, it's relatable and offers depth that is rarely found in BLs. You are able to see and understand struggle vividly, and that's a compliment to both the writers, director, and actors.

Unknown comes out as a slow burn, and it's like gradually being wrapped with a warm blanket. You start to feel for the characters, and the pacing assisted in providing context without any drag. Wei Qian struggles for his family, and Xiao Yuan struggles for his love. In both cases, their dedication is entirely pure and salient.

When the story reaches its tipping point, it's an audible change. That struggle from before shifts to something else, and again, attesting to the strength of the actors, you can feel the difference. Life doesn't get easy, but letting the wall down for them allowed for a comfort and happiness. Wei Qian carried himself differently, and the entire time prior to this, we didn't really see him be truly happy -- but then we did and it was magical.

It's one you have to watch for yourself to not just understand but experience.

Leia Mais

Unknown - The best BL in recent years

I used to watch a lot of BL back then, from Addicted to Tharntype and some other Thai BL series. I haven't been watching any BL dramas recently since the acting in a lot of series is pretty awkward and over the top. Also a lot of them don't have a good plot and revolves around NC scene/ kiss scene which feels forced to an extent.
I came across Unknown from a short video clip and I was interested immediately. That was a week ago when episode 9 came out and I finished the whole 9 episodes in a night (only 30 mins per episode). From then I kept re-watching the whole 9 episodes to wait for ep 10-11-12 and I was not let down.
The last 3 episodes were beautifully made, everyone has their happy ending.
The acting in this drama is superb, not necessarily Oscar level but both actors really portrayed the characters very well. The kiss scene, NC scene, none of them feel forced. The OST is also a strong plus.
The only complaint I have is the NC scene in ep 11, i think they could have done a little bit better in editing.
Overall, a very worth watching drama in general.
Good luck to both actors in their future works!

Leia Mais