4Minutes (Sultrier Version) (2024)

What if....?

According to this drama (and I did not fact check it!) our brains continue to function for 4 minutes after the oxygen supply had been cut off. What exactly happens during those 4 minutes? This drama gives us an answer.

The story is not as messy as I was made to understand. It deals with what ifs: would you react differently in the same situation if you are given the opportunity. Mostly, these four minutes give time and space for the characters to grow and mature: one from being a spoiled brat who cannot say no to his friends and is overprotected by his parents and the other one who almost ruined his life looking for revenge. They become aware of their mistakes and learn from them.

There are four distinct parts of the story: 4 episodes of Great's 4 minutes(the time before the brain completely shuts down and the person dies)of a near death experience in the form of time travelling in order to mend his mistakes, followed by two and a half episodes of the real life story, one episode of the Doctor's wishful thinking 4 minutes and finally a half an hour resolution! The first part is the longest, giving us, the viewers, the same time Great needed to understand what's going on! The rest is a bit rushed and a little unsatisfying: I would have liked to see the bad guys really suffer but even though they do get punished, the hope that the society is ever going to change and get better, is not there.

I am glad I binge watched this because the suspense would have killed me - especially when at the end of the penultimate episode every good guy seems to have died: none of the bad guys but EVERY good guy!

The production value here is exceptional, it is very much evident that they tried really hard to give this drama a special feel. And feelings there are just none of the good ones: it is dark and depressing, just like the story it is trying to tell. Mind you, it is beautifully filmed and acted. The special effects are just perfect. The costumes are consistent with the running theme of a depressing and serious drama: Great is always in white and the doctor in black when not in scrubs.

The writing is original and the story is wrapped up nicely (the author seems to like Until We Meet Again a lot given the star crossed lovers' second couple storyline!) though somehow ambiguously with the main couple in a boat on a river inviting the query: are they just out on a date or are they crossing the Styx?

Another important feature, apart from the number 4 are the clocks: every time Great looks at the clock it is 11:00. No matter how much time it passes, it is always 11:00. Until he realizes that he has only 4 min left to live when the clock suddenly changes to 11:01 etc. and everything that he's been experiencing is a coma dream due to a near death experience.

And finally there are cats everywhere; black and white plushies for the leads and a black cat which caused one of the second leads to lose his sanity. There are a lot of cat food ads. The question now is: were the cats originally written in the script or were they added because of the PPL?

The society this drama describes is a cruel one: it is the weak who suffer in the hands of the rich and the powerful, the poor are not helped by the people who are supposed to be there to protect them (usually known as the police) because of the overpowering corruption. So they either bow down and suffer in silence or deal the justice themselves. Unfortunately for them, it never ends well.

The cinematography of this drama is extraordinary: from filming angles, to colour scheme (everything is gray except for the ML's red car) to geometrical sets (there are lots of circles!) and everything is important for the story. It was pretty much obvious from the first episode that the events are not taking place in the real world: the lack of colours and the number 4 showing up everywhere, as well as the strange and ominous sounding music gave the very odd impression that not everything is what it seems.

Frankly I am surprised this drama has such high ratings give the complex story and the filming style: it definitely is not one of the usual BLs. Actually I would put sci-fi as the main genre here followed by crime and psychological and then, maybe, romance where characters happen to be gay. The tone of this drama reminded me very much of 7 Days to Valentine where the storyline and production were just as dark and depressing, not very romantic. What is different here is the main actor's cult following and the abundance of NC scenes (which were, by the way, beautifully filmed). I keep seeing the comments and the reviews saying in gist: "omg, those nc scenes are hot i want more!!!" but never mention the plot or anything else that is actually important and really interesting here. The producer knows its business and how to speak to teen audience just give them hot actors making out and they are happy. Who cares about the plot? Well I do and luckily for me, they managed to strike a good balance between an engaging plot and a few soft porn scenes (not as many as I thought there would be!) so everyone's happy now!

Actually, this drama should be watched just for its cinematography if nothing else! In conclusion, this is a difficult but a beautiful and a satisfying watch. Not for the fans of fluffy bls though....

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could have been a 10/10

Overall: although I enjoyed the beginning, things unraveled for me. 8 episodes about 1 hour each. Aired on GagaOOLala uncut: https://gagaoolala.com/en/videos/4688/4minutes-2024 (except Thailand, Japan, Korea); iQIYI uncut https://www.iq.com/album/4minutes-sultrier-version-2024-1zc6sune8fl?lang=en_us and cut version https://www.iq.com/album/4minutes-2024-1h7yndte6zx?lang=en_us (Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Spain, United Kingdom and United States); Viu with some countries having the cut version (Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Macau, Myanmar, Singapore); Rakuten TV in Japan and Heavenly in South Korea. The cut version has NSFW shortened/cut and also cuts out some plot as well.

Content Warnings: most content warnings, it has some very dark/graphic parts in it

What I Liked
- mystery element
- grey characters
- use of the number 4 or things adding up to 4
- production value* (includes cinematography, use of color as symbolism, props to represent things)

Room For Improvement
- not a fan of a flash forward (or back) as a hook for a series
- there were too many characters/plot to fully develop them all, also pacing
- misleading trailer, it felt that a different character is the main lead instead of a character people were led to believe
- tricking the audience, not a fan of how that was done
- sweet moments that didn't actually happen
- cliched plot stuff
- no reason why a character had a girlfriend, I couldn't support a romance because it was built to not be a romance
- cringey guitar playing/serenading
- the intimate scenes were needed but they did not need to be that explicit/I didn't need to glimpse an actor's body part when walking around
- *many scenes were too dark to see the actors' faces or even what was happening, even for scenes at night they need to put light on their faces
- nonsense stuff: I can't comment on all of the medical things and their realism, but I highly doubt any surgeon would spin his medical implements before/during a surgery, that seemed to be a ton of papers for a small clipboard in ep 1, an investigator who didn't wear gloves at a crime scene, in ep 4 a character oddly didn't wear a mask when he should have
- Be On Cloud decided to sell it to a company where it is only airing in 8 countries (and perhaps 2 more) and then had the gall to not respond anywhere to questions about the remaining 180+ countries but instead posted about how to only watch it via official channels, I don't mind companies needing money to get things made but they should have been clear about where and the why (update: after 5 weeks they had an actual international release and the reason was likely money/maybe they couldn't say their whole release plan due to a contract but it still was bad to not have an official platform for 180+ countries for 5 weeks)

Note About an Actor's Age (I didn't take off points for this but as an fyi 1 actor was likely 17 when he filmed several very explicit scenes, age of majority in Thailand is 20)
- it's valid to feel uncomfortable with a 17 year old actor doing explicit scenes and to not watch this series
- it's valid to feel fine with a 17 year old actor who voluntarily agreed to do explicit scenes (and had his parents' permission) and watch/enjoy this series
- everyone gets to make that decision for themselves, I hold no judgement either way for this example, personally I am watching the series but I'm not re-watching that actor's NC scenes

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