I loved this, and I hate everything.

I don't know where they found the actor playing Ye Chan, but he was amazing. It can be hard to play a reserved character, but it's also hard to play one who hides nothing. He could slide so effortlessly between happieness, outrage, worry, shyness, and smoking hot sexy all within a few seconds - what a vesitile man.

The plot is sweet without being saccharine, and alhough it uses some BL tropes, it uses them logically, consistent with the characters, and seem like a natual extension of what was already going on.

There is no external drama thrown at the couple to keep them apart - everything doing that is organic to the characters, and not artificially inserted in the usual lazy writing that plagues BL.

The do start out with a mild enemies-to-lovers trope, but because they're realistic people, they quickly realize there was a misunderstanding and acknowlege their role in it.

I would do anything to have my own Ye Chan - how could anyone ask for a better boyfriend? 100% honest, 100% supportive in a selfless way, muscles all over the place, uncynical, and able to find happiness in simple things. And simultaneously cute and handsome, which is a brutal combination.

This is a story that could easily segue into a season 2, so here's hoping for that.

If I were to list negatives, it would be that Yul is not a very appealing character. He's a bit bland and often unpleasant, although that improved in the later episodes. Still, the actor was badly overshadowed by Ye Chan. It could have been longer, as the music issue was squeezed entirely into the last episode, and although it was set up earlier, maybe not enough.

Still, this was easily the most enjoyment I've gotten out of a BL in months, and you absolutely can't go wrong watching it

Leia Mais

Ugh. Close, but not quite - by about 6 years.

This had some things going for it. The leads are both very attractive. They don't behave like your standard seme and uke (with one extremely large exception) - they're just two guys in love. The plot is conventional and unoriginal, but it has a charming quality to it - maybe a naive sincerity.

But then the ending happened. Because BL seems to require by some unwritten but unbreakable law to have ridiculous manufactured drama thrown in, this was spoiled by an overdramatic crisis with an unfortunate resolution.

So if you want to watch this, I would recommend stopping after the kiss.

On to spoilers. There are also spoilers for Addicted in here as there are obvious comparisons to be made.

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First of all, a lot of people are going to use the R word. That's not what this was, but hear me out. Rape is horrible. If he had been raped he would most likely be bloody and bruised, physically and psychologically, need medical and psychiatric attention, hospitalization, and depending on where it happens, criminal charges would be automatically filed because doctors are required to report it and neither of their families have the power to cover it up. Also, the "victim" was clearly fine with it afterwards, and after they start he appears to immediately join in willingly, although you only have feet to judge by.

So what was it? That's the problem. It's not supposed to be rape, but it's not exactly not-rape. Let's compare it for a moment to the infamous scene in Addicted. There, the two are already in a relationship, they're already phyiscal (albeit not anal yet), and one doesn't want to do anything solely because he's afraid he has a communicable disease, and in the uncensored version, it's clear the sex was just a hand job, which can be sexual assault, but it's really, really hard to do that to an unwilling person for... reasons anatomical. I get why people didn't like this, but at least it didn't have a morally repugnant motivation on the part of the writer.

This wasn't a hand-job, and they hadn't done anything physical yet whatsoever other than a lips-barely-touching kiss. So we've returned to the incredibly homophobic idea that it's morally unacceptable for a man to desire and pursue being penetrated, and therefore he has to be forced, because somehow rape or sexual assault are less morally objectionable than being gay. This is also common in straight romances, for the same reason - a woman shouldn't want or pursue sexual pleasure, so she has to be forced. So it's repugnant as a message. That was not a factor in Addicted. When they finally had anal sex, Luo Yin is afraid it will hurt, and Gu Hai offers to bottom instead, but Luo Yin wants to be f@#$ed. So there's no judgment of top vs bottom in the writing.

As drama, a BL setup can be as ridiculous as you want - one of them can be a ghost or a vampire, or they can be in magical universe where all boys pursue other boys - but within that context, people on an emotional level need to act like people. If Zi Ming wanted to have sex, then it doesn't make sense for him to try to fight him off - and there were punches to the face involved, so he felt serious violence was necessary to defend his virginity. So if he didn't want it, then he was raped, in which case it makes no sense that he was fine with it afterwards, unless he has some sort of severe trauma in his past that makes him feel like he deserved it, which there is no sign of in this story. So it's bad writing. It would have been OK for him to resist a bit because he was upset Cheng Yi was leaving without talking to him, but this was not that. This was "guys don't let other guys do THAT to them."

Further, in Addicted we also had some love scenes, and interaction as a couple. Here we didn't - just the force part, and none of what it is implied that followed, i.e. love-making. And then one of them leaves for contrived reasons and the ending is ambiguous, although it's implied they're staying together and planning to reunite (all that stuff about gravity).

Cheng Yi's motivation seemed to be trying to get Zi Ming to to admit his feelings. So, here are the options:

Option 1: Tell him that you love him, and ask if he feels the same way about you.
Option 2: Have a fist fight and rape him until he admits he likes you.

So in the end, we get a regressive message about gay being worse that sexual assault, we got an unoriginal story with writing that doesn't make emotional sense, and we got an unsatisfying ending. What's not to like?

As for the contrived reason for leaving, I get that his grandmother feels she's getting too old to take care of him - but he's 18. He's now at an age where he can take care of her, or at least be equal in that regard - so what kind of nonsense is this? If she felt it was for his own good, then she should have sent him away years ago, and if she's selfish, then she should hold onto him. But it's not selfish keeping someone you love and who loves you with you instead of sending him to a parent he doesn't love and who doesn't really seem to love him. So again, a fail on the emotional level for the writing. She seems to be aware of how important Zi Ming is to Cheng Yi, so she comes off as a homophobe who doesn't care about her grandson's happiness or thinks it's some passing phase.

Addicted was really funny and the transgressive things that happened made sense in the context of the story and characters. Here we had a cheap and unimaginative knockoff that replicated the transgression for no apparent reason and without it really fitting the story or characters. Also, have you ever tried to have a fist fight and force someone to have sex in a small apartment with someone's parent in the next room? That's not likely to end well. Even if she wasn't home, the neighbors would hear every bit of it.

I was enjoying this up until the kiss at the end of Ep 6, and then it accelerated downhill to a terrible ending. I want to support Mainland Chinese BL, but if bad knockoffs of Addicted is all we can expect, maybe forget it. Wait till Xi dies and then shift the high-production value bromances back to BL.

Story: 4.5 - unimaginative but relatively coherent plot-wise, less so from a character perspective.
Acting: 7 - average. Not great, clunky at the beginning, but improved throughout.
Music: 6.5 - not bad, not intrusive, not special.
Rewatch Value: 1. There's not even a shower scene to replay over and over. You get only a cruel glimpse at Zi Ming's beautiful body and then it's over.
Overall: 5 - I went with the suggested average. 5 sounds about right.

Leia Mais

It's OK

This series had a lot going for it - a good cast, interesting main characters that are well-acted, the main character's smoke-show brother lifting heavy boxes... but the quality of the writing is low, with improvised moments ending up the highlights of the series.

The plot is frustrating, as Phumjai (Offroad) spends two thirds of the series obsessing over a girl, who in fairness is not evil and doesn't attempt to sink the ship. Once the romance starts, it's immediately derailed by a ridiculous plot turn that could have been fun if it went camp like it did at the very end, but unfortunately was instensely boring. the writing is poor, repetitive, and lazy. There's a point where it turns out Yang has a number code system for some reason, including a code number for "just don't come". What possible purpose would he have for that phrase? Unless he's kinky or something.

There's too much of people behaving out of character just to move the plot along. Yang won't allow Phumjai to give him $5,000, but he's OK with selling Phumjai's brother into slavery? OK, good to see he has his priorities in order. That did lead to Phojai lifting heavy things shirtless and sweaty, so it was all worth it in the end, I guess.

Offroad has always been compelling, and Daou Pittaya is a stunning man... when he's not disfigured with a hideous wig. Why is BL so terrified of short hair on men? Look what they've done to poor Frank Thanatsaran!

Anyway, this is silly and immature - it left me missing high school dramas and engineers - but the cast is able to compensate and make it a worthwhile watch. Special mention goes to Ngern Anupart who had me fanning myself whenever he was onscreen - I hope we get to see him in a lead role at some point.

Leia Mais

Tries to be too many things

The novel from which this series was adapted was apparently porn, and fairly transgressive at that. I can't help but ask if that was really the most suitable material.

This starts of as an Enemies to Lovers story on steroids, with the two being so awful to each other that it's hard to imagine coming back from it. Later on it emerges that Mangkorn has liked Yai for years. You mean like when you drugged and raped him, filmed it and used the footage to blackmail him? I might have started out by asking him on a date, but I guess we all have our playbooks.

Do note that Mangkorn discovered that Yai planned to do that to him and turned the tables, so It's not like Yai is some innocent victim.

Anyway, they fall in love, of course, and have all the typical BL problems from demanding fathers, arranged marraiges, inapporpriate jealousy, and implausible lack of communication, before the most inexplicably dull finale imaginable. One commenter called them "matured". Yes, matured if you mean married for 40 years and no longer have any passion left between them. There's a large chunk of their conversation that revolved around who was ordering flowers. There's even a flashback to provide the backstory to who was ordering flowers. Do we watch dramas to listen to people have a conversation like our elderly parents might have, or do we watch it for, I don't know, drama?

I don't necessarily need a realistic portrayal of what would happen if two 20-something men who are passionately in love and haven't seen each other for a year came together (hint: tons and tons of sex), but I do want to see the joy and passion and chemistry, not discussions of who ordered the flowers and career goals.

The transition from mutual attempted rape/blackmail to Disney princess is non existent - we really don't see the progression in their relationship, they just go from firey hatred and a desire to destroy each other to waiting up for the sunrise when they've been apart for a year (note: airliners have WCs and people have been brushing their teeth on them since the dawn of flight. Airports also have WCs, and if you're rich and flew Business, the lounge even has invidual fully-stocked private bathrooms).

There's apparently a Season 2. Joy.

The acting is quite good in this - I didn't notice at first, but both leads are considerably above average. There is good cinematograpy, but there are times when a shot is so obviously set up that it takes you out of the moment.

My intial reaction to this series was quite negative, and then it steadily grew on me, before taking a downswing with the finale where everyone started talking like greeting cards. It's not the worst series - I'm not sure I'd recomment it, but if you can get past the first three episodes it starts to get better. If not for the finale, I would have given this a 7.5.

Leia Mais

Kind of a guilty pleasure

This is not good. It's not terrible, but the writing is unimaginative and derivative. It's almost saved by its cast, but there is a glaring problem that prevented this from being the best execution of this plot type.

The problem is the main couple, which is a pointless and cliched story that is poorly written throughout, which is unfortunate, because none of the side couples (and there are three of them) have this issue. Even then, it might have been saved if the actors were fanastic with electric chemistry. And Fluke as Mek has a certain charm. But Earth... his acting is wholy lacking in authenticity - everything he does looks fake, even blinking (how can blinking look fake you ask? I don't know. But Earth manages it). He's not assisted by the writing, which makes Kim a prissy, grumpy and unpleasant person, who has no character developmen at all. As opposed to Mek, who turns 180 degrees from who he was like a light switch being flipped - he goes from a charming carefree prankster into a featureless dullness which paired with Kim makes you resent the amount of time spend on them in the finale.

The side couples are some of the best you'll ever see. Lee and Park are rather unusual in the way they meet and get togther, which is refreshing and interesting, and allows the story to examine a much different set of issues. Acted by two beautiful and talented actors, Daniel Cheng (Marco from Call It What You Want) and Bew Sitthikarn, a newcomer who I hope we see a lot more of, this is a compelling couple.

Bear and Bomb are a high-contrast couple, played by the lovable Por Patsakon and the pouty-sexy Yut Kritsadayut, with great chemistry and complimentary personalities. Tim and Mai don't get much screentime, but they also become interesting later on as the brooding popular boy and the perfect man for him in his taken-for-granted best friend who's always at his side encouraging him.

This series is too full of tropes and cliches to give it a high score, but if it had dispensed with the main couple and focused on the other three pairs, perhaps with Lee & Park as the main, this could have been an 8.5 or 9. I'm not sure why this keeps happening - I think maybe it's because the main couple has a "gimmick" and ends up having its story constrained by it, while secondary couples have more freedom. Also, for reasons that I'm not sure I understand, rookie actors are cast as mains, relegating the experienced and talented actors to side roles.

Anyway, despite the above, I do recommend this series - it was a guilty pleasure for me, but for the side characters. The cast is unusually attractive and charming, and I did get a lot of pleasure from it even if I had to put Kim & Mek on 2x to get through their tiresome scenes.

Leia Mais

Beautiful Story

Some people think this series is too short, but I don't understand that. I think everyone has grown used to a formula which includes a set number of side couples & plots and certain milestones that always occur. A story isn't necessarily better if there are twelve 45-minute episodes (of which .5 minutes opening disclaimer, 2.5 min opening credits, 3-5 minutes of "previous episode" scenes, 15 minutes of product placement, and 5 minutes of end credits) - in fact if we really look at "standard" BL series, they are a bit of a narrative mess with some huge artificial crisis inserted in Ep 10 which then chews up all the rest of the time so that there doesn't have to be any actual affection shown onscreen except a final kiss.

Anyway, on to this show. The story is succinct, sharply-written, well-paced, thematically disciplined, and backstory remains backstory, e.g. it doesn't matter what exactly happened to anyone's mother - her absence is what's important and the impact it has on the character. The only thing perhaps lacking was some resolution with the film's villain (not the CEO, who really isn't a villain - I mean the other dancer), but this is not really important. It might have been fun to see more development of Hong Seok's modeling "career", but again, not important.

The acting is very good, the chemistry is excellent, and this is something you can binge, as the run time is roughly 105 minutes, which is a long-ish film. Highly recommended. There is also progress here in that this doesn't shy away from physical aspects of love - it's not graphic by any means, but the kisses are kisses, and very natural, as opposed to the creepy rubber-lip connect with eyes open you see so often. I'm really impressed that this is Chu Young Woo's first role - he has a real charm and presence. Not hard to look at, either.

A few minor criticisms:

The music was at times too overpowering - especially when there are lyrics and conversation happening at the same time. I think maybe the Hong Seok role was played a little too dry - it worked most of the time, but I would have liked some subtle expression to show his inner feelings - this was mostly conveyed through actions, and while that's fine for the beginning, it might have connected me more to the story to see directly into his mind (through his acting). Also, the shaky-cam needs to go. In that confrontation in the last episode, I was getting sick - if you have to use that effect - not quite so violent, please. I think the same thing can be accomplished through irregular camera angles, but whatever. Also, they should get some space heaters. You'll know what I mean when you watch it.

Leia Mais

Not good, but had its moments

This series was a mess - but there was a passion behind it that sort of (but not quite) saved it. I'll start with negatives:

There are some offensive things in here - Jelai is that disturbing stereotype, a very effeminate person who is made ridiculous and played for laughs. He's predatory and his treatment of Jam is fairly serious sexual harassment. He also tells off a female employee for her skirt being to high, which is misogyny. The actor playing Jelai (Gio Emprese) is constantly misused in roles like this when he's actually a powerful dramatic actor as you can see in Meet My Angel).

There are people that do horrible things, but suffer no consequences - that is a terrible message to send. The main villain of the story doesn't even apologize, but is forgiven. The story is all over the place, and there's no real plot - it's just a bunch of things that happen. Even the obligatory breakup made no sense - it was just a dramatic device with no motivation or logic. A lot of the dialog and "humor" will make you cringe, so be prepared.

The sound is poor, the cinematography is competent but uninspired, and the acting is uneven, generally not good.

On the plus side, the two leads seriously committed - they are one of the most believable couples I've ever seen in a BL, and their love scenes were smoking hot - even straying more than a bit into BDSM. (however, the big love scene was very poorly set up and lacked the emotional impact it should have had - I'm all for sex, but it still needs to work and not feel gratuitous) I'm used to being given nothing more than a chaste kiss - that does not happen here. Sky's family is wonderful, except his brother Ken, who is another offensive predatory effeminate stereotype, which was a waste of an obviously talented actor. The love and validation are the right message and series ended on a positive an affirming note.

I think the problem with this series is that it needed to cut loose and just be campy as f#$%. It wanted to, but always held back, and as a result, the outrageous elements fell flat. For example, Ace's clothing is almost ridiculous, but not quite, and because Aki Torres is so gorgeous he can get away with a lot. I'm not sure what the point of Miss Becky was - if you're going to have a female role played by a man, make it a proper drag queen! There were times where she flirted with being a Disney character - fine, but commit! A middle-aged woman could have filled the role just as well. Moira was cartoonishly evil, but her schemes needed to be more over-the-top (and less time-chewing). She could have been given a hilarious death or comeuppance, which would have been entertaining and satisfying.

Anyway, for all its faults, I watched it and was entertained - and didn't fast forward through too much, so there's that. But it's not the type of show that will have you counting the minutes for. It probably doesn't deserve 5 stars, but there's a lot of effort put into this and the leads did not hold back at all - which I hope all other BLs take notice of.

Leia Mais

Although New Thitipoom fits in the "painfully beautiful" category and is a strong actor, this is a meandering mess with boring side characters getting all the screen time. This series is heavily plagued by girlfriend-in-the-way syndrome, which makes this nearly unwatchable at times. The plot is a mess and makes little sense.

The only way to watch this is to fast-forward through everything involving everything uninteresting, which on the bright side means it will only take you an hour or two to get through.

Edit: Having now watched 1,000 Stars it's hard to believe that Earth is the same Earth as one in this. What a complete waste of perhaps the most talented actor in BL.

Leia Mais

Maybe there's something wrong with me.

When I started this I was pleasantly surprised - I thought Vice Versa was awful, and so I had no expectations. But both Jimmy and Sea were much improved, the story, although a bit formulaic, wasn't overly so, especially in having two men in the lead roles and not a seme and uke, and I engaged with and enjoyed the series. I especially thought Sea was doing a good job as it's hard to show feelings without using your eyes.

But like so many Thai series, it's way, way too long - I'd say twice as long as it should have been, and so many of its positive qualities grew stale.

I had liked how Day and Mhok interacted like guys, teasing each other - but that got so tiresome and predictable that I began to sigh wearily at it all.

Anyway, the central problems for me:

There is no character development. And what little there is is erased by the way the series ends. Mhok's character changes, but it doesn't develop. He starts off as a sexy rough and surly guy who is suddenly neutered and can take any amount of abuse with infinite grace and forgiveness, to the point that he's a total simp, thanking Day for dumping him and breaking his heart. It's a light-switch flipping, not a journey. All of his issues are passed over, like his grief over his sister - it doesn't play into the plot at all past the first couple of episodes, when it's used to propel Mhok into the caretaker job, then he forgets she existed, except to create manufactured drama in Ep 11. Day, on the other hand, starts off as a self-centered entilted brat, and ends exactly the same. You'll note he never shows any concern for anyone other that himself, other than obeying his harpy of the mother (who is supremely well acted, but she's awful. And let's get real - there is 0% chance she would accept her eldest son marrying a poor girl with a baby by someone else. 0%.)

There is no plot.

Everything is just arranged to present romatic set pieces. For example, at Christmas, Day comes to surprise Mhok after work, in a cute reflection of an earlier surprise visit by Mhok to Day's house. They have dinner and Mhok says it's a moment that's so wonderful that he wishes it could last forever. Awww, so sweet. Except that Day had just ditched him all day at Christmas without sending a text like a complete asshole, making Mhok sad all day. Mhok, who used to be surly, is now a saint and isn't even slightly upset about this, because... well, reasons. He has no character anymore, and the plot doesn't either. There is no interplay of action->reaction. Did anyone even for a second think Mhok was the groom in Ep 12? Come on, do they think we're stupid?

The writing is cheesy.

Not a little bit cheesy, but relentlessly, oppressively cheesy. "I used to believe that people were blind because they couldn't see things. I just realized today that true blindness is being unable to see hope." Ugh. It's like the author robbed the greeting card rack of a convenience store and dumped their contents into her story. Even the one occassion of meta-awareness of this cheesiness is cheesy: "I've heard many such cheesy lines, but this is the first time I've believed one."

The morality and moralizing is way off-base.

How was Night to blame for anything? All he did is got drunk. It was Day who practically let go of the wheel and certainly took his eyes off the road (which was a lost opportuntity for irony and consequences paid for actions) to search for a bucket or something, as if there would be one in the car, instead of just pulling off the road. Night should have been praised for not trying to drive drunk, not condenmed to being blamed by everyone including his awful mother. Why does Mhok have to apologize for not wanting to move to a different country and have to be away from the man he loves? If Hawaii were the only place in the world he could get a cooking career, OK, sure, we can discuss that, but DAY'S MOTHER IS A CELEBRITY CHEF. There are better oppotunities at home.

The acting is OK.

Like I said, much improved, but the "enemies" portion of the story had the best acting, and it was interesting storywise because they weren't really enemies - it was a bit of a game to hide their mutual attraction and it was quite lovely. But in the end, I don't think either actor shined, and this is underscored by how strong Mark Pakin is - the most moving moment in the whole series is his reaction to being forgiven. I didn't feel the romantic chemistry between the leads at all - they had good "friend" chemistry, but their interaction is so sexless (and I don't mean sex scenes, which can be more sexless than anything, I mean no heat between them) that it felt like a primary-school relationship with tickling and sniff-kisses to the cheek being about all we see. Again, Mark and Namtan outshone them - I felt the heat the first time they met and it never abated. Sea had a hard job, and he did his best, which was not bad, but it grew dull by the end. Jimmy can do sad-puppy-dog and sexy smirk very well, but that's about it, and he too grew dull.

The writing is shallow.

This could have been about dealing with loss and resiliance, about moving on and adapting to adversity, but Day's character is so thin and inconsistent that we get no depth. His reaction to an unsuccessful surgery implying permanent blindness is wasted on the greeting-card line I referenced above and he processes the situation for literal minutes before being totally over it. And the ending renders the entire series a pointless string of plot points with no meaning or impact. Instead of dealing with the consequences of their decisions, the story makes a time jump, the first refuge of an incompetent writer, and skips over all that for an insta-reunion. Well, not instant, as there had to be a rush-to-the-airport cliche thrown in. Sigh.

In the end, this was just boring. There was a whole episode about jogging. In Ep 12, even the YouTube algorithm was despondent and kept throwing reaction videos to Deadpool into the queue instead of the next part of the episode. The rating of this as I write is 8.6, which is astoundingly high - but I'm willing to bet that in a year it will be down around half a point. There are lovely moments in this that buoy the score, and many people vote early on and don't change it - but subsquent viewers will binge it and it just won't have an 8.6 impact on them, and I doubt people will be talking much about this in a year, because there's nothing to talk about.

Leia Mais

Complete waste of time

This isn't a BL, or at least I hope not, or it's about a zoophilic pedophile and his victim.

I know this is supposed to be sweet and cute, but it's cloying and dull, with no plot, And even with no plot it manages to be full of plot holes. The first episode was the worst. It went downhill from there.

This is the entire series: A guy finds a cat that turns into a human-like thing. They move in together. The end.

The acting is universally weak, except maybe Bright as Faiyen. To be fair, Bodo's job as Evan is to not act, so in that light he did an excellent job. Meow is so child-like that he doesn't understand what happened when Dermdem gets a haircut (and takes off the most ridiculous wig since Ja's in Until We Meet Again. Actually, I think it might be the same wig.)

The plotline between Faiyen and Evan had potential - Evan is incapable of facial expressions, which was good for one or two moments, but was never explored or used for either dramatic or comedic effect, so it was just a shallow affectation assigned to the character - which in live action doesn't work, it's just distancing and boring.

The music is trying to be cutesy and Japanese-ish, but they've somehow skewed it so that it made me feel enraged and violent. If you need the Hulk, just play the theme song in front of Bruce Banner.

Rewatch value - I would rather vacation in Mariupol than watch this again.

This is the shortest review I've ever written - there's almost nothing to say. It's that vapid and dull. If you like this sort of thing, watch the first ep - if you don't like it, run. It never gets better.

Leia Mais

Beautiful setup spoiled by poor and lazy ending

It's starting to become a truism of BL that authors come up with good ideas and have no idea how to bring them to a conclusion, so they just skip over everything and just tack on a shallow happy ending.

This series can't help but bring up a comparison to the Filipino BL Happenstance, with a similar premise but 100 times the depth, although the overall production quality for that series was lower. It had something to say about different times and worlds, and had a bittersweet and authentic ending that carried a lot of power and stuck with me.

This, however... it's quite engaging, cute, and romantic, with a touch of mystery and darkness, up until when Songjam tries to enter Aksorn's world, when it all falls apart.

First of all, while it's possible to do a time jump well, it rarely is done well - usually it's just a lazy jump over any sort of authentic and organic resolution of the plot.

Because of the one here, there was an opportunity to explore the nature of love - does it transcend age? What does it mean when two people are at different places in their lives? But no, they just cast a 32-year old actor to play a 45-year old and called it a day.

Even what should have been an interesting confrontation between Songjam and Aksorn's father happened offscreen, and given the intensity and centrality of Aksorn's conflict with his father, this lazy solution is baffling. "Not only have you defied me by pursuing a useless career, you're also f@#%ing my best friend?!? (or rather being f@#%ed by his best friend since Aksorn suddenly transmutes into an uber-uke, with the usual homophobic loathing of sex that they always seem to have, resulting in uncomfortable coersion scenes.) But, Dad has absolutely no problem with any of this, and all is forgotten. Hugs, expressions of pride, and end scene!

It doesn't help that (slightly) older Songjam has at most a tenth of young Songjam's charm and cuteness, without 25 additional years of maturity & wisdom. Also, if you think about it, this is about a man in his 40s who wants to be with someone he watched grow up since he was born, which is, well, eww. And that's not to mention the logistics of being the best friend of someone's father without them ever even suspecting it - I suppose it's possible, but COME ON.

Plus, are we to believe that seeing someone born, experiencing his mother's death, and a lifetime of friendship with his father, plust the passing of 25 years, won't have any effect on your love for someone? It might still be there, but it would age and change. I can believe Songjam would do everything in his power to promote Aksorn's happiness, but to retain romantic love for him? That's more than borderline creepy - it's more like grooming.

Anyway, while I loved the first four episodes, the ending is so clumsy, lazy, and ridiculous that I'm not sure I would recommend this.

Leia Mais

The first episode is the worst. It goes downhill from there.

It's not at all necessary to watch Star In My Mind to understand this series - anything that matters is shown in flashback in the first episode.

Mark is certainly cute, and Mek has no lack of sex appeal, but the overall chemistry here is missing, except insofar as Mek generates it by standing around and looking sexy, which in the end has a 2D quality that wears thin.

The central problem for me in this series is the character of Prince, who is humorless, judgmental, constantly disappointed in everyone , and generally a tiresome priggish elderly woman trapped in a young man's body. And yet as interesting as damp cardboard.

Example: At the beginning, the kids hide in Fah's room. It's cute and harmless, but Prince acts like they're all bad people instead of taking it like, well, a normal adult, amused at the situation. Then he's very rude to Fah for no reason and doesn't even thank him for getting a huge spider off his head. I get the formula. They don't like each other at first, I get it. But Prince never changes and just shits on Fah the whole series, constantly making him feel like he needs to apologize even though he never does anything wrong, but rather is very generous and kind to him.

Then he says he's tired of waiting for Fah to make a move - then immediately leaves in a huff so that Fah can't make a move. He's so standoffish and unpleasant that it's not clear why Fah has any interest in him, but if Prince is interested, why can't he make the first move, or at least give Fah some indication that he'd be receptive? So now he's disappointed Fah doesn't have telepathic powers?

This whole series is formulaic and pointless. There's no redemption arc for Fah, because he's always been a good and caring person who had one bad moment because his girlfriend of 7 years dumped him for another man and he got drunk and drove. There's even an arranged marriage plotline that chews up a lot of time and has nothing to say about it, and like all conflicts in this series, is handwaved away anticlimactically. In this case, everything works out because the husband-to-be is hot, so the resolution isn't just lazy, it's shallow and misogynist - "Sure, I'll give up all my agency and have my future assigned to me by men without my input just so long as I get my tall handsome man."

The highlight of the series is easily Fah's sidekicks, played by Mike Chinnerat (clean-cut and bespectacled, which is really fetching on him) and Arm Weerayut, both of them funny and charming and a breath of fresh air. Everything else is a dreary mishmash of standard BL tropes like falling on each other and staring endlessly, the uke tripping about 47 times. etc.

Mek's acting has improved - not great, but a little more natural - but in the end the writing is so bad, and he's stuck acting against someone that could have been replaced by a clay figurine, that whatever appeal he has wears out its welcome.

Mark's acting is not exactly bad so much as non-existent. Aggressively bad acting is worse than the non-acting we often get in Thai BL, but in this case, it's so non that it collapses into a black hole that sucks all life out of the drama. He's really that bad.

The final dramatic crisis is so stupid and poorly written that it's only worth a weary sigh. Somehow, Prince gets malaria which is somehow untreatable, because the medications necessary for this were only developed 180 years ago. His evil ex-bf won't tell Fah which hospital Prince is at, so Fah decides their relationship is over and gives up. Which is what one does when one is in love. Unfortunately, Prince decides moping is more useful than contacting Fah, and when Fah finally decides to try to find him, he can't, until it turns out his brother is a good friend of Prince's, which somehow never came up in conversation before,. And so Fah is able to find Prince, who is a drum major in Bangkok for no apparent reason, and they live happily ever after.

The whole final episode is full of stupid and inplausible coincidences and miscommunication - sure, coincidence is a staple of romantic drama, but they still have to make sense.

Anyway, this series is an incredibly dull and charmless waste of time.

Leia Mais

Surprisingly bad.

I thought with Earth in this it couldn't be terrible, but it was. And the sad thing is that this was close to being good - if only the actors weren't directed to behave like they were in a bad lakorn and the plot were stripped of its attempts to be serious.

I'll start with the positives: Earth was in it. End of positives.

Seriously, there were some good elements in this, like a lot of the dialog was funny, and so were a lot of the arguments. But the problem was that this was a comedy that they tried to make into a drama, and it ruined it.

After WIn's explosion of murderous hatred for no apparent reason - I can see him being surprised and even upset, but not so furious that he would commit murder-suicide with his sister and destroy his family business out of spite! Anyway, after that the comedy all fell flat. How did he go from hulk-level rage to petty irritation and banter? And they were stuck driving for seven entire days and not once did the subject of the inheritance come up?

The entire plot depends on an unbelievably stupid misunderstanding and failure of communication so ridiculous that I just didn't care about their relationship, except insofar as it might lead to a love scene, which these two actors are apparently never going to do. You're trying to tell me these two have been in love for 20 years and around each other all day every day and during that time it wasn't blindingly clear what their feelings for each other are? And how is someone not able to tell that his own sistr and his One True Love had no feelings for each other at all? Isn't that something that might come up in conversation?

On top of that, the road trip is dull and repetitive, with a few transparent crises thrown in. It was drive, eat, eat, drive, argue, eat, hotel, eat, eat some more, stop for holy water and listen to monks spout aphorisms you'd find in a fortune cookie, drive, argue, eat. Argh! How did Mix not die during filming? There must have been several takes of each of the 7,000 eating scenes where had to inhale a whole feast.

Th mother's evil plan was so stupid I could hardly believe what I was hearing. What if Korn married someone else? She would have thrown away a quarter of her family's wealth for nothng. And if she knew Win would hate Korn, why would she think WIn would ever allow Korn to marry Lin? And what kind of horrible person does something that hateful to begin with to her own child? Again, someone is a total monster and is totally forgiven for saying "sorry, my bad."

And again we have an uke who has no sexual interest in his On True Love - how long do we have to put up with this sh#$? Bad Buddy was family-oriented too, but they had sex constantly. It doesn't need to be onscreen, but there needs to be some heat. Earth is good at putting longing into his glances,, but there's no sizzle between these two other than what you get naturally from having someone as hot as Earth onscreen.

Earth was such a stereotypical seme from 2015 that it made me LOL. And I'm sorry, but Mix and Earth are not equal in acting ability - it's not the best match. In drama, that is. They're both good at comedy and this could have worked if they'd left it in its natural state. This is as body-swap show. Why on earth would you even try to make it a drama?

I dropped this, then binged the second half because it's Sunday and nothing else is on and I needed to decompress after the finale of the almost infinitely better Miracle of Teddy Bear which is inexplicably lower rated than this mess.

If you're a die-hard EarthMix fan, then maybe you'll like this, but otherwise, skip it. Or just don't watch the first episode - that might work. I love Earth - he's one of my top favorite actors, but I could barely stomach this.

Story: 3. The plot is terrible, but the dialog is good, so a 3 seemed fair.

Acting: 6.5. It's passable, and Earth is really good. Mix overacts too much, which I know is a directorial choice and not his fault, but it is what it is.

Music: It was fine, nothing special, but did what it needed to do.

Rewatch value: No.

Overall: The "suggested" was 4.5, but I gave it 5.5 because it does have a few qualities that I appreciated. Earth's abs, etc.

Leia Mais

There's really not much sex in this.

I liked this. There was an unrealistic aspect to it, though, which is that I think whenever anyone met Kao they would scream "Oh my God, your eye! What happened to your EYE!" But other than that, it was cute and fluffy.

From the comments and reviews where everyone was calling it "gay porn", I expected penises everywhere, but the love scenes were actually very restrained and realistic, and sweet and loving. I think maybe people are starting to get used to the Victorian-era level of sexuality in BLs. Anyway, they don't show anything - it's about equivalent to TharnType if you've seen that.

This isn't deep by any means, but the guy playing Kao is very good in his role - he makes the character kind of dim but sweet, and other than one of his eyes, he's easy to look at - so is Pete. Hey, I just realized it's another Pete & Kao!

Anyway, I would recommend this is you want a thin plot with boys being cute together and in love.

Leia Mais

This was the first BL I watched, and if I had reviewed it at the time, I would probably have given it a higher rating - and if I had only watched the first half of the series I might have rated it much higher - but I can't get past the almost total lack of affection between Arthit and Kongpob. I didn't need them to have a sex scene, or even lots of making out, but I did need Arthit to not to act like Kongpob was repulsive. I was OK with him being that way in public, because some people really have a problem with PDAs, but he was like that in private, too. It's just another in a long line of "I'm not gay but I love a guy" stories. At least nobody had a girlfriend in the way of the relationship.

I will say that the acting was great - especially Arthit. The Our Skyy episode with this pair makes up for a lot of the problem - it was nice to see them actually touching each other without acting like they were going to get cooties.

Leia Mais