Open your eyes and see what's right in front of you

A classic friends to lovers story. It reminded me of When Harry Met Sally and Harry's final confession that went something like "When I realized I wanted to spend forever with you, I wanted that forever to start right away!" That scene popped into my head as I was watching this cute short movie!

Stand-in Love is a part of an omnibus series (short movies based on true stories) and this one is about Cess and Zia who are the best of friends, confiding in each other, supporting each other, being there for each other. Until one day, Zia asks Cess to pretend to be her girlfriend in order to practice pick up lines. Cess is happy to go along with the pretense until an off the cuff remark by her friends makes her realize she has developed feelings beyond simple friendship for Zia. That scares her and she bolts away. But one day she hears Cess is dating a girl and that gets her in the panic mode and she accepts that she really loves and cherishes Zia.

I loved the story. It was nothing very original but the actresses managed to bring forth the feelings of love, doubt, hesitation, rejection very convincingly. They had great chemistry and were obviously very much at ease with each other. The development of their relationship was not rushed and the stages were clearly shown. A quick and a nice watch....

Leia Mais

The comfort food

The concept remains the same: a mysterious late night restaurant owner everyone calls Masters, behind his counter, either cooks or listens to his customers while smoking. Each episode is a complete story about a customer and those stories are all about daily life struggles: family, friends, relationships, work. There are some recurring characters who just sit there and give their opinions about the story being told.

I love this type of series which manages through a simple short story to teach us universal lessons about love, friendship, honesty and sincerity. All through food, the feeling those dishes provoke, the memories they evoke, and the solutions they bring. The food is comfort, the dishes are home where the characters feel at ease and happy. When they have problems, that dish helps them focus and find a solution to move forward.

I love the unusual (for me!) music. Nice touch were those alley musicians telling the episode's story through song.

Leia Mais

Their timing sucks!

Timing is a short web drama stressing the importance of good timing, of seizing the opportunity when it shows, of not waiting for a better moment and the consequences of not acting when one should have!

The main characters have been friends since high school but every time they tried to become more, destiny stopped them be it in shape of Korean army and eventually, the white truck of doom! You see where this is going, right?

It begins as a story of an amnesiac girl whose best friend and the only person she remembers, tells her how they met. That relationship is great, the banter is funny and their chemistry is hot. But halfway through, I started getting a weird feeling, like there was something sinister behind all this charming and quirky relationship. Unfortunately I was not wrong!

This gave me vibes of Our Beloved Summer: similar story, same chemistry, same charm, different outcome. I would have marked it as cute and funny (which it is!) if it were not for that tragic ending. Couldn't they have learned their lesson otherwise? They did waste so much time dancing around each other instead of together but did they really need to be punished forever for that? Anyhow, how stupid can you be to stand in the middle of the road? And how incompetent that driver is who does not how to turn on an empty road? Why do those trucks always, but ALWAYS go straight ahead without EVER trying to avoid the stupid frozen people?

I would have given this drama 10/10 if it were not for that stupid ending!

Leia Mais

What goes around, comes around!

This movie was made in 2013 and it shows: the Thai BL industry was only starting to explore the market and the budgets were limited but creativity was there.

There are three seemingly independent stories: the first one about a high school couple exploring their burgeoning feelings for each other, the second is a story of a gay influencer couple who are being stalked and the third one is about a small hotel owner falling for one of his guests. The ending surprisingly connects all three stories together. And therefore explains the title because I must admit I could not figure out why the movie had this title while I was watching it! All comes to those who wait!

They were directed by three different directors and you can tell. The first story looks like a high school project, badly filmed and acted, all over the place. The story about discovering one's own sexuality and acting upon it, is told well and though it looks messy, there are no red flags!
The second story is somewhere between a comedy and a horror, not really knowing what it wants to be. It also briefly touches upon the ugly side of intensive social media presence. What goes around....The filming is ugly though smoother than the first film.
The third story was the best in terms of storytelling as well as filming. It was polished, flowed naturally and there were more feeling involved. It is a story of a hotel owner looking after his bedridden boyfriend who suffers from an unknown sickness and is feeling miserable. One day a guest comes to stay in his hotel bringing back the laughter, joy and happiness in his life. He is so sorely tempted.

The quality of the movie grows as it progresses: if you manage to watch the first story without dropping it, you will end up loving this movie in spite of all its flaws. Keep in mind it is a low budget movie made 10 years ago and you should forgive them for some amateurish looking scenes!

I wanted to add cast and crew but they are not known to MDL so you can find them here:
https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/362535-timeline?language=en-US

Leia Mais

Doe eyed love

Well, I needed a title for my Alphabet watch challenge and titles starting with an X a few and far between. So the MDL search engine found this one for me and it is a short movie. And I just found out, by perusing the beginning of the other review that this is produced by a dating app so it is basically a glorified ad. And a good one to boot! With a twist so if you do not ant to know it, stop now!


Keeping all that in mind, I gave it a chance and it was an interesting watch. GL stories are not as popular as BL ones and that is a shame.

Cooka who works for a modeling agency, falls for Tina at first sight. While helping her get a makeover and therefore a career, they become fast friends with Cooka. Finally she breaks down far from everyone at Tina's wedding but is comforted by one of Tina's bridesmaids who finds her through the aforementioned app!

This short movie tells a love story taking place within a certain period of time so we do not know absolutely nothing about the characters before or after the events. Cooka is a girl who looks like a boy and who, for a reason I cannot fathom, slouches when she walks.Tina is a bubbly girly girl. And though she likes Cooka for helping her and always being there, she is completely unaware of Cooka's feelings considering her only a friend and barely that (a manager more likely?)

I liked the music, pulling on heartstrings with all its might. The editing was so well done that we are unaware of the big twist coming near the end. The actresses have good chemistry. Nice and sweet!

Leia Mais

SMS parents

Well I liked this: it was depressing, melancholy, slow, long but ultimately uplifting!

This drama has 4ep. on viki: awful subs when there are some, watch it elsewhere since there is a 2 ep SBS edit floating around with excellent subs!

The story follows two 17 yr old high school students trying to figure out life and understand their own parents and adults in general, and their attitudes. This lack of understanding and communication brings them to the brink of self destruction!

The pace of this mini drama is extremely slow and even I who relish in slow burn dramas, had an impression every episode vas double the duration! That's how slow it is! The mood is general depression: neither is saying much and hiding behind silences. The most poignant moment was when his mother talked about a condom she found in his jacket pocket through SMS. This speaks volumes about the loneliness kids feel even when surrounded by friends in school or by family. The boy never actually talks directly to his mother (absent father as well) but they communicate through phone messages even when they are in the same house! Sad, right? While the boy is struggling behind his taciturn expressions, the girl takes a radical way of reballing in order to feel something and make her own mother notice how unhappy she is.

Unfortunately, nothing makes an impact on adults who are too wrapped up in their own lives to notice the unhappiness of their own children. Luckily, even though they were in same school and class, the boy and the girl never really knew each other. A fortuitous string of accidental encounters, pushes them towards each other and eventually, they talk and help each heal.

The actors are subtly portraying the solitude and unhappiness of these kids.

This is a very good drama, again depicting the hell korean kids go through because of their parents. It is a worthy watch but you need to be in a good place for it since it is rather bleak and depressing. The ending saves the day!

Leia Mais

Bromance not romance

Having read this short webcomic twice, I was looking forward to the live action adaptation.

An unfortunate accident brings Tae Hyun and Da Yeol closer together. The first one is bullying the other one who tries to get the upper hand until he realizes there is a lot of darkness and sadness behind the cocky smile and harsh words of the first one. This is a classical enemies to lovers(?) story.

Tae Hyun suffers from survivor's guilt which he hides from others. Da Yeol is being forced by his father to train archery intensively, something he eventually realizes he hates. Their meeting is going to bring out in the open the frustrations and unhappiness they're feeling and therefore they are finally be able to move on.

What did not convince me is the love story both in manhua and here. They went the same way: Da Yeol falls for Tea Hyun and confesses but TH is not really sure of his feelings. Whatever he is feeling is more akin to gratitude and friendship than love. He had a change of heart when DY become the first person to tell him that the accident was just that, an accident and that it was not his fault. I am not convinced he fell in love but actually developed another form of dependancy in which he mistok gratitude for something more he was not really feeling!
There are a couple of time skips that only confirms even more the strong friendship between them. TH seems to be trying to convince himself that he is in love with DY when he is obviously just missing his best friend who once crossed the friendship line making TH uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable but not enough to convince himself he was in love.

That's where the real problem of this BL lies: the guys are cute together but there is a strong invisible though obvious barrier between them. It that was never more certain than in the fluffy last episode. This is more of a bromance than a romance!

The acting is pretty good for idols but did they really need to put so much lipstick on actor playing Tae Hyun: seeing those scarlet lips was really disconcerting.. Plotwise, they left us with some questions: TH's friend group, in particular Ye Beom, have not been used or even fleshed out properly. Why is Ye Beom so possessive of Tae Hyun? The girl was supposed to have a crush on Da Yeon: when? why? how come? What was the point of those time skips? Their relationship does not seem to have changed an iota during those years....

I was not bothered by the lack of skinship: it is not alway necessary! Sometimes the deepest feelings are expressed through glaces, attitudes etc. nothing such here. It turns out this is a bit of a wasted opportunity!

All in all this was a cute short watch. You'd be better off just reading the webcomic!

Leia Mais

Cherry on top...

I am one of those rare people who actually liked the series a lot: it was consensual and sweet with minimal angst and no toxicity. Well, I call it "MAME antidote".

The producers offered us this additional episode, taking place one year after the last episode of the series.

Nhai is still being his childlike self but Ai has become distant which scares Nhai. So with the help of Ton, he follows Nhai to his father's resort to sort things out.

This is just a piece of fluff but what a very pretty fluff it is! The scenery is pretty, Ai is pretty & serious, Nhai is pretty & cute as a button,

Anything negative to say about this? Well let me think....it is extremely sweet and the music is bad, generic and unremarkable!

For die hard fans only!

Leia Mais

You can count only on yourself!

I must confess, I played games through most of this drama. Don't get me wrong it was well written, well acted and directed! And predictable!
It is a story of David against the Goliath, of little people trying their hardest to get free from the rich and powerful stepping on them like they were worthless. They rebel and use their street smarts to bring the rich down! See, nothing new or unpredictable! The poor people think and make twisty plans, the bad guys betray others, the rich manipulate and kill and then buy their way out! Eventually they get their comeuppance. And the poor get to leave and drive into the sunset.

How does one break free from the initial position into one is born? You try to survive honestly but the corruption is all pervasive within the society so you scheme, cheat, gamble or sell your body! Unfortunately once you go down that road it turns out to be a slippery slope and to get off of it, you have to use your brain and be smarter than those owning this slope.
There is, of course a hooker with a heart of gold forced into selling herself by her irresponsible mother who falls for a smart but poor good talker motel receptionist!This is the plot of hundreds of movies and series. A classic!
Is there anything different here? No! Still, it is enjoyable enough if you are not expecting too much of it!
Of course, there are a few things that make you wonder. Like, for example, why is this motel so empty! And I do not mean only guests but staff, furniture: it looks like a ghost house! Where is the police or do they just come when they need to pick up their monthly bribe? Why does the bad boss come all alone without the backup close by?

The acting was excellent! I usually do not like Off and I do not like him in BLs. Here he was surprisingly good. He played Mote, down to earth guy, just trying to survive by using his brain . He was actually perfect for this role: he looks like a brainless idiot when actually he is very smart and manages to get the upper hand with all of the bad guys in this series. Mond playing Sun, a tragic, tortured soul who has completely lost his way, was excellent. He managed to show the vulnerability and cruelty of the character with the same intensity. The other evil characters are the usual clichés: a tattooed street thug, a rotten policeman and their cleancut rich boss/owner!
There were a few side characters bringing warmth into this cold environment: Motes Aunt and Uncle who, though perfectly aware of Mote's flaws, still support and love him unconditionally.

The story was well written and the pacing was good, never a dull moment(only six episodes and they used the time given without wasting it!). I liked how they staged phone conversation as a face to face over a poker table or an imaginary talk with a dead person? Quite original! The music was appropriate for a crime drama.
Midnight Motel is a short crime drama. Not too exciting because predictable but still a solid watch.

Leia Mais

Practically Perfect In Every Way

I am not a watcher of Korean historical dramas. I have tried watching a few of the very famous ones, dropping them during the first episode. The notable exception, that I actually finished, is Moon Lovers and that was only because I was going through the Lee Joon Ki superfan phase.

I am taking part in a Drama Discovery Challenge and the next item on my discovery list was to watch a historical drama. So I decided to watch this. I got hooked after 20 minutes and watched it all over the weekend. And loved every second of it.

So Rang is an illegal matchmaker and is put in prison for fraud. In order to get out , she pretends to channel ghosts which attracts attention of the King who is inconsolable since the death of his wife seven years earlier and therefore installing interdiction of marriage, hence the title. So Rang accepts to "channel" the dead princess and in doing so helps the king deal with his loss and fall in love again. This also brings to surface conspiracies and murders within the palace by individuals hungry for power.

This drama is a joyful ride. It is set in Joseon, sometimes in the past but that is all: not a definite year just sometimes in the past. The past, the history is just used as a setting to tell the love story of two deeply scarred people.
The king, surrounded with rigid servants is shaken to his bones by So Rang's insolence, courage, good sense and optimism. They are both traumatised by past events and together they help each other to heal. And while doing so, they are hilariously funny. I have never laughed so much while watching an asian drama. Actually, the last time I laughed so was when I watched BBC's "The Goes Wrong Show" a few years ago.

Everything is so perfectly done here: comic timing is spot on, the story is tightly woven and there are no plotholes, it is serious enough not to be boring, cinematography is beautiful and music is nicely done blend of old and new. All in all, the story is a modern one (with all the PC bits grouped together in the last episode) set in the past. If we are to search around, we'd probably find a story of a traumatized cold CEO shaken by a quirky but poor girl into becoming a nicer human being. How about Lost Romance from Taiwan? So nothing original but extremely well produced.

Kim Young Dae is handsome, talented and his slight lisp is making him irresistible (though those abs are not to be scorned at!). Park Ju Hyun was a revelation: I really did not like her in Mouse but here she is awesome. They both have perfect comic timing. The actors are all great, they have amazing chemistry. All of them! And since this is a fairy tale, they are all paired up by the end with a few BL couples as well! Nice touch!

There is one thing that bothered me, nevertheless! The tone and the rhythm of the drama was for the first few episodes very light and funny. And even though it was very predictable, the palace conspiracies introduced a darker plot which did not balance the original comedy well so I was a bit disconcerted halfway through and I did not like it! 0.5 points off for that!
This drama reminded me of Moon Lovers, as it could have been as a happy drama. The chemistry is the same, the cold prince and the quirky funny girl who fall in love. The Forbidden Marriage has that contemporary, modern feel in the way they act and speak just like IU's character in MLSHR. Even the music: often it sounded really similar!

Cinematography is excellent, there are beautiful shots in the night as well as of shirtless Kim Young Dae. The production is of the highest quality, everything flows so smoothly and that is why I noticed one thing which was jarring: the closeups of them horseback riding looked faked and as if filmed in front of the green screen. Minor I know but noticeable! Like when they fake ride cars, motorcycles etc. in other dramas: it is so obvious and does not need to be!

This drama is a fairy tale, a very funny fairy tale, where everyone gets their happy ending and where the bad guys get punished. Watch it if you need cheering up, watch it if you are bored, watch it even if you're not into seoguks. Just watch it, you won't regret it! It is light and fluffy and perfect!

Leia Mais

Because this is my first life....

Why did they choose to adapt this webtoon is beyond my comprehension!
The story of the webtoon is average, the art is average and in my humble opinion, adapting it into a live webdrama is a waste of time and money!
That said, I did binge it, it was short and there is nothing unwatchable here.

But as I watched it, I kept thinking of Because This Is My First Life: a stiff male lead, a quirky virgin female lead, an adult relationship, minor crises, happy ending! Nothing particularly original in this office romance with the usual coworkers teaming up to trip up the leads and of course getting their comeuppance eventually while the leads come on top!
The main actors are average: I am still trying to figure out if the boss was supposed to be a monotone single expression robot or if the actor is just bad! The new employee is just a happy go lucky guy with an eternal idiotic happy smile slapped over his face. Everything felt somehow off about this pair: the chemistry was average. Luckily they did not drag the misunderstandings for too long.
The side characters were more interesting: the ex boyfriend (pretty & ruthless), a fellow intern (sweet &optimistic) and the best friend (who wanted to punch the bad guys, if only she could find them!).
The music and cinematography were....guess what? Average and unremarkable !

What was this about? An office romance, pretty straightforward: I like you let's sleep together. Our coworkers hate us? Let's have our own ad agency and all problems are solved!

In conclusion, this is a drama to watch when you have little time and no wish to get into a regular length fare! Nothing to write home about!

Leia Mais

Fluff with a bit of angst

Couple of episodes in and I had a strange feeling of déjà vu, the vibe this drama was giving was familiar. I eventually looked up the production crew and, lo and behold, the same ones who made We Best Love which, in spite of some incoherencies in the plot, is one of my favourite series! So please forgive my bias as I am indulgent here. And also, I enjoyed the ride! Though I feel like I should not have!

What I liked:
- the mechanics of love relationship
- the comedy
- the dentist, cold and serious with a beautiful smile when he wants
- the bartender& his helper
- the music (why is it always so good in taiwanese bls?)
- cinematography&post credit scenes
- plushies
- the kisses
- the boy band!

What I did not like:
- the bar owner hiding his trauma behind his happy-go-lucky attitude
- the hugs
- mental health issues solved by LOVE?!?!?
- misunderstandings and lack of communication
- the blast from the past
- the father
- last minute couples

I liked how they developed the relationship: they both were very clear about what was happening between them though their reactions were the opposite! While the bar owner prefered to lie to himself, the dentist knew exactly what he wanted from the get go! The second couple was sweet and funny! But then they went on and introduced the dentist's crush from college who created unnecessary drama (without him, the series would have been shorter!).
The actors all had quite good chemistry and they were cool with kisses! On the other hand, every time they hugged each other, it looked like they were embracing a plush toy with a strange, uncomfortable smile...very weird ! And speaking of soft toys, why is the bar owner still sleeping with them even though he's in a solid relationship, 8 months later (the obligatory but unnecessary time skip!).
The best part was music especially when they played Pechelbel's Canon on piano, my favourite piece of classical music! Cinematography was correct and the little scenes after the end credits giving the other side of the story are an extraordinary good idea!

In conclusion, this was not a bad series: light, fluffy with a bit of trauma thrown in, funny but trying to deal with serious issues(trauma, anxiety, family pressure...) that could be rewatched easily!

Leia Mais

Fake Rebel & The Doormat

Characters like these are something I have trouble watching since I find them annoying and irritating!
First and foremost, this is a noona romance between a shy office worker and a bike repairman!
She is someone who just cannot say no, someone with a very low self esteem and therefore she lets everyone walk all over her, especially in the office which is rife with harassment! So basically, she is a doormat!
He has bleached his bangs, swags around and is outspoken but really very kind and nice. People judge him by his looks and consider him a delinquent and a looser! But he is a Fake Rebel!
They meet, fall in love and his attitude shakes her to stand up for herself. So she does! And they live happily ever after! The end!
The story is short, nice, no toxicity, a piece of fluff. But to me, everything looked too fake, OTT and unconvincing! There is nothing particularly wrong with it but is so cliché and nothing is new! Moreover, the main leads lack chemistry, they both grimace a lot. There were a lot of side characters I wished to find more about: his grandfather (spending his days silent and drinking himself to stupor every night!), his friends, her brother. I guess the series is too short for that but I feel some of the depth is missing!
Music is bad! I do not think I'll ever rewatch this though it is a relatively nice, stress free single watch!

Leia Mais

Why is beauty so important?

Ever since I started watching asian dramas just over two years ago, I noticed, and for my european mentality rather odd, the importance put on being pretty, beautiful, handsome, cute! Every time people met for the first time, the next phrase after introduction would be "You are so pretty!" (or something similar!). Where I come from, commenting on person's looks/esthetics is considered rude(and used ONLY for children!) so these phrases I often heard in dramas were and still are so disconcerting and extremely superficial in my book!
So, imagine my wonder when I started this jdrama where all everyone talks about is being cute! It is a story of a 29 year old man who has been successful in life only because of his cuteness . One day he meets an mysterious man who warns him that he'll stop being cute when he turns 30. That shakes him up and he starts unwittingly changing also under the influence of a new coworker! She is his complete opposite: serious, rigid and robotic but he falls for her. And he discovers, as well, that he is a competent professional and a caring person, which he never really considered himself to be!
The actors portrayed the characters beautifully. The office drama was not too heavy and even the loosing cuteness plot was not to dramatic: the main character accepted it as a fact and moved on! I have one little casting problem: the mysterious older man is supposed to be the ML's version from the future but the actor playing him is taller than the ML. People usually shrink not grow taller as they age!
In any case this drama is not to be taken seriously: it is a bit of lightweight fluff, fun to watch and very enjoyable and though it mentions the effects of beauty in the work environment, it is not really considered as a major problem!
I would just like to know where this obssession with the outside beauty in asian cultures comes from. I guess I'll need to do some serious research! In the meantime, let's all enjoy this sweet drama!

Leia Mais

Nothing new under the sun

Having watched and mildly liked 2Moons 2 some time ago, I wanted to check out the sequel. I was entertained though not by the drama itself but by the english subtitles that were most of the time gramatically so wrong ; I have discovered a new language! Amazing!
NB.Recently I came upon a tip which told me how to make the subs better on youtube(if there are better subs in another language, you can auto-translate that into english and they are much better!)

The story takes place a couple of years after the previous series! The three couples from it are living together and enjoy their relationships! Pha's cousin Lom (often translated as LOL!) is chosen as his college's Moon but loses the beauty competition. There is another contender for the Moon position, Tatch. They meet, sparks fly, a wannabe girlfriend stirs trouble, a wannabe boyfriend is acting up because disappointed! You classical enemies to lovers trope!
The series is mainly about Lom & Tatch. The three couples (Pha&Yo, Beam &Forth, Ming&Kit) from 2Moons2 are just there in the background and their main and only story is jealousy: fighting and making up!

There is absolutely nothing new about this series (maybe the introduction to the Agriculture College!). The screenplay is all over the place, nothing happens really, it is just moving along.
As for the actors...what to say? The guy playing Lom (Mark Vachara, who reminds me of Earth who played Wayo in 2M2!) is bland, charisma free, single facial expression and cannot act to save his life. He has absolutely no chemistry to speak of with the actor playing Tatch, who also is constantly wearing the same expression: raised eyebrow and a ironic smirk! The rest are hardly any better!
And the worst part were the obligatory trans comic relief characters! Why, oh why are they still doing that??????

What makes this series stand out is the amount of steamy skinship in these consensual relationships! This is so very new in thai bls! Moreover it was surprisingly tastefully done accompanied by gentle music! But there was too much of it! I guess they needed to fill up the episodes so every one of these four couples had their turns(more than one) in showcasing their love for each other in slow motion. And there was a lot of slow motion scenes of them taking their shirts off, swimming etc.

I have been wrecking my brain trying to find something positive to say about it! Still haven't found it! 7/10 for the effort, not the worst bl out there but far from good!

Leia Mais