Road movie

I am judging this drama harshly because of a thing I utterly hate: a bad ending. And this one has it in the title and in the last episode. Fortunately, the manga author drew a special episode which actually gives us the ending any good BL should have!

I hate the end of the world trope: it is too depressing and it is giving me nightmares. Ever since I saw that Keira Knightly movie about it, I cannot watch anything dealing with the subject. But I have(almost) run out of BLs to watch and as I was looking for a short one, it was between this one and Kinou Nani Tabeta? Since I found that couple lacking any credibility in the romance department, I went with this one after making sure that the world does not actually end!

I also hate unclear endings. So did the end of the world happen or did a miracle happen like they showed in a ridiculous animation which looks like a 10 yr old did on his parents' computer! Fortunately, the manga author posted an extra episode of the manga as a direct continuation of the drama giving us the very much needed happy ending! Thank you!

And even though this drama comes highly recommanded (deservedly so) I wish the mangaka had found another reason for the plot to move in the desired direction. With the world coming to the end in 10 days, Misumi decides to spend it in the library, reading. But he bumps into Ritsu there. They used to date ten years earlier but they broke up because Ritsu cheated and Misumi never recovered from that. Ritsu asks him for help in disposing of a dead body in exchange for a pill of death. But the dead body turns out not to be dead but a strange highschool boy. The men decide to take the boy home to his parents and a road movie starts. Along the way they pick up another person.

This drama is a road movie. The characters reveal themselves, grow and mature as they travel. The story of two main characters is told through a series of flashbacks from their childhood onwards. Their relationship while they were students was doomed from the start since they were both damaged individuals: one shy and unassuming the other one flamboyant, cocky and irresponsibly superficial but hiding deep wounds. Neither is likeable but one makes you feel pity and the other rage and disgust. Time apart let them grow. Again, differently: while the first one remained stuck in time, hidden in his shell, the other one realized the error of his way, regretted his behaviour but continued on the self-destructive path he was put on by life circumstances.

I like the story a lot. They take their time to get to know and trust each other again which is a bit nerve wrecking because of all the world ending thing and not really having any time left! But on the other hand, they are very much aware of the urgency of the situation so even though they take their time, they do not waste it on unnecessary misunderstandings and jealousies. Was the end of the world as a premise really necessary?

There is a bit of fantasy here as well with the high school kid he seems to have some special powers or abilities or everything is just a coincidence? Freak weather or Divine powers? Who knows? The mystery remains....

One thing was surprising for me in any case: with the world coming to the end, the people are rather well-behaved, polite, the looting and destruction are minimal. Or at least they did not show much: but there were no burned or abandoned cars, no houses broken into...you'd expect people to go crazy knowing they were going to die soon. Not so much!

The drama is well written: in spite of frequent flashbacks, there is no confusion about the timeline. The acting is superb. The cinematography standard and nature pretty. The song is amazing: Futatabi by Hiroba. I have found my latest favourite song!

This should have been a 10/10 drama if it had not been for the end of the world !

Leia Mais

Healing by manipulation?

First and foremost, thank you for the subs HPriest! Extraordinary work, as usual!

Second and the most important: this is MY opinion and MY feelings about this drama.

I really do not know how to feel about this drama. On one hand, the story is interesting and original, the characters are so quirky and fun but on the other hand I did not like the actress playing the main lead: she somehow did not fit the role. And the more everyone swooned in front of her, the more I failed to comprehend! The FL is supposed to be someone kind, sweet and pretty. What we got was someone bland and slouchy. I know I am going to get a lot of flack for this, but this casting decision really ruined my viewing experience: I just could not see what everyone talked about in her. The actress unfortunately did not manage to convey that vulnerability and kindness: all I got was an annoying doormat! Everything she did felt somehow off!

Following a motorbike accident for which she was held responsible by her friends, Sui becomes komoribito/hikikomori, shutting herself away from the world for ten years. Looking for a way to earn some money, her father a failed mangaka, accepts to draw a story in collaboration with the hottest writer of the day using Sui's story. As she comes out of her shell and gets in touch with her highschool friends, the truth about the accident and its aftermath slowly comes out. Behind the scenes, the writer listens to everything(a bug in Sui's phone) that's going on and gives direction by gently nudging Sui where he wants the story to go.

The story is well told: we go from past to present with past events in black and white, and the truth slowly being revealed. The characters are great: the funny father, the silly photographer, the uppity editor...they are all hiding their serious side behind the quirky exterior.

The main topic of this drama is Hikikomori (Japanese: ひきこもり or 引きこもり, lit. "pulling inward, being confined"), also known as severe social withdrawal, is total withdrawal from society and seeking extreme degrees of social isolation and confinement. Hikikomori refers to both the phenomenon in general and the recluses themselves. The concept is primarily recognized only in Japan, although similar concepts exist in other languages and cultures. Hikikomori have been described as loners or "modern-day hermits". Estimates suggest that half a million Japanese youths have become social recluses,as well as more than half a million middle-aged individuals. There is usually no other psychological problem.
I cannot say if it was represented well or if the healing process, is correctly presented but maybe, it not really being a mental disorder, the healing can be faster. Whatever it may be, the drama has made me aware of the phenomenon.

Anyway, the drama is more interesting to watch for all the support characters not the main couple! I liked the atmosphere of the drama, the laid back attitude everyone seemed to have and the fact that there was a 7yr old kid in the background of every adult conversation. They took him away only once when they discussed having kids!

Another issue I have with this drama is the music. But that is valid for the majority of j dramas: the background music which does not fit the mood of the scene. Why do japanese love classical music so much that they put it is, apparently, every single drama? Here, I learned to hate Debussy. The piano piece they featured is such a mood killer, heavy, depressing and making me want to throw myself out of the window. Figuratively speaking! But if I hear this piece never again, it will be too soon! So, why do they put in so much classical music? Don't they have any background music composers? And the only song they had was an old song by an american band The Hollies: "Bus Stop".

Watch it for the support cast and you'll have fun!

Leia Mais

The King of Flashbacks strikes again!

I'm sorry but I have an axe to grind with this director. I decided to call him the King of Flashbacks while he calls himself Jedi....really?!? This is the third story he directed (and the main character is called Third! Ha, ha...get it?) and by now a pattern emerges. The screenplay is so thin that he needs to fill up 90min with something. And that something are flashbacks, very long silent shots and recaps of the things we had just seen. Here he went even further: the second episode starts with the 10last minutes of the first one! So basically, there is enough footage to make a lazy 30min episode but since he was asked to do two 45min episodes: this is the result. To be frank, even though this is pretty bad, it is not as bad as his previous two specials (Friends Forever and Fake Love) and I am scared to watch the last two episodes of this anthology series because he directed them!

The story is not that bad. Pai works as a travel companion for hire for an app. His girlfriend wants him to quit his job and when he refuses she breaks up with him. He drowns his sorrows in beer and is picked up, dead drunk, by his next customer, Third, who takes him camping and bird watching. It turns out that Third's girlfriend is also a travel companion who is spending the weekend camping with a customer at the same place. That customer is Pai's girlfriend. Realizing that the girls are actually dating, Pai drowns his sorrows and the boys console each other. Will they become more than friends?

I quite liked the story. The issue I have are with the director and writer. Lazy writing and even lazier directing. And even though there were fewer long silent shots here, the director's penchant for long flashbacks of the events we saw two minutes earlier, is still strong. It has been so long that I have not seen such obviously fake car driving as well. And even though I liked the final split screen scene as it announced the future, it was ruined by how fake it looked. The music is getting worse by the episode: I am fed up with the title song: they rearrange it differently to give it a different tone but it has become annoying.

Leia Mais

Lies and love

A girl almost gets into and accident and the scare makes her develop dissociative amnesia. She discovers she has three boyfriends and starts dating them again but it turns out to be too difficult.

Apparently!

If you judge this drama by its start, it is boring, repetitive, annoying and nonsense. The FL is cute and pretty. The three guys are handsome and sweet. As she dates them, her life becomes extremely complicated since they all work in the same office. Her feelings for them were always rather superficial, she admired their kindness towards her but when she started developing deeper feelings for one of them she found herself in a conundrum. What to do? How to tell the truth to the guys?

And then we are hit with a major twist which puts the story in a completely different perspective. And I suddenly sat up and paid attention: how is she going to sort the mess out? Or is she?

The FL is a complex character hiding deep insecurities behind a huge smile and a few white lies. She is the only main character here, this is a drama about her and the way she decided to lead her life.

This is your usual k web drama, with the production values a bit higher than usual. But only a bit! The story flow is smooth but one needs to really pay attention to clothes because, eventually, you realize the timeline is not as straight as you'd like it to be. The ending is also very ambiguous, happy or just apparently happy? Did she tell the truth to all of them in the same way or not?

Nice watch though, a bit draggy and full of tropes (damsel in distress who cannot pick up pieces of a broken cup without cutting her finger and screaming " ottoke? ottoke?"). And what happened to the fish? When did she pick them up after breaking the aquarium and staring long time at the broken glass....

Leia Mais

Searching for love to win a bet

I watched the edited, movie version of this drama.
There is nothing much to say about this low budged endeavour: the eagerness and the will are ok when you are starting out but WayuFilms have been at it for a long time now and, frankly, a couple of years ago they managed to use shoestring budgets admirably well, crafting beautiful short movies with a good story. Not any more!
Recent offerings follow the same structure in a 30min format separated into three distinct parts: introduction with a lot , and I mean A LOT of awkward, OTT acting. Next is a silent montage of the couple being lovey-dovey, getting to know each other, etc. etc. accompanied by elevator piano music. And finally the third part, when they come out and the problem from the introduction part has been solved and the acting is suddenly much, much better.
There is nothing much to the story: a girl makes a bet with her brother and in order to win enrols into a Family class. That does not work, so another girl, she barely noticed, offers to help her. This reminded me of the plot of a couple of Korean web dramas.
The actors are young and still learning. The bickering siblings were well done and the gl couple had decent chemistry. For once they filmed outside a couple of scenes and the drama suddenly became warmer and mellower.
This short offering is not going to change the world but it is a cute watch and, anyway, independent producers need to be supported and cheered on. I just wish they'd find the creativity they lost!

Leia Mais

Love at first sight

This instalment of My Universe was messy but cute and not too bad. Just a bit too long, a bit draggy and a bit too many flashbacks!

The story is a bit simpler than the synopsis makes it out to be. Pheem is a university student, son of a garage owner and pretending to be rich. His ex-boyfriend, Ta, is pestering him to get back together which Pheem refuses citing a new boyfriend, unfortunately an imaginary one. So Ta invites them both to a major party he organizes in a few weeks time. Now, Pheem is hard-pressed to find a new boyfriend. He crosses paths with a student he bumped into a few days earlier and fell for at first sight. But he refuses to talk to him. Until Pheem finds a way to blackmail him into pretending to be in a relationship. Spending time together, makes Pheem fall hook line and sinker for Phol. And vice versa.

The story is interesting but not fleshed out enough. They had time to do it but they spent it on very long flashbacks, very long and totally unnecessary! The fake relationship became real very quickly! Some people consider it too fast but what is wrong with love at first sight? Which was exactly what Pheem experienced!

Production value is really low here. The filming is lazy, the extras practically non existent, and they should definitely avoid putting scenes of parties and clubs in this whole collection: they just cannot make it believable with 2 extras, 5 balloons and paper cups strewn on the floor! Music was better in these episodes: we were not subject to endless repetition of title song: there was actually some different background music insisting on the comedy aspect of the story!

But this is saved by the actors: they are cute, charismatic (especially North) and have good chemistry. I really hope to see them again in something better produced!

Leia Mais

Double POV for a love story

I am still trying to figure out what have I just watched: a short bl movie or a governement sponsored film about dangers of hook ups(song with animation!)....An experimental movie? A student assignment?

There are two parts in this movie, each telling the story of how they met from different points of view. The parts a separated by a weird song sung by a brilliant actress in a bizarre role of Cupid(?!?). Other than that, the movie has no dialogue and everything is told through gestures and looks. Sometimes less is more, as they say!

One guy is a shy photographer, the other bullies him and then falls for him. The actors played their roles well: we could see every though that was going through their minds: the reluctance to approach, the courage to apologize, the audacity to confess.

I saw a very bad quality copy on youtube but the production value does not seem very high, editing is a bit choppy and there was no need for this weird Cupid: the story was perfectly fine without that singing/animated interlude. The music was awful: it sounded like elevator/porn music: one short theme repeated over and over again with slight changes and synthesizer rhythm section. Very distracting! The movie is actually 11min long, the rest are credits!

Leia Mais

Always look on the bright side of life!

I really do not know what to think about this one: it comes highly praised by "opinion makers" here and yet I found it somehow lacking, swinging between being pretentious and a Korean tourism ministry ad! It was beautifully filmed, slow burn and inviting introspection.

The episodes are a mixed lot but they all somehow reflect real life, and I guess that is not what I am looking for in a drama. There are a couple of episodes that stand out, in my humble opinion, the one on Jeju island with a little girl looking for bread and the one with the comic book writer. On the other hand, the episodes with the artist and the writer in the temple were rather pretentious: look and admire me!

The main character is a single woman in her 30s who takes day trips in order to recharge her batteries. She visits beautiful tourist spots in Korea and meets interesting people. In contact with all these different people, she learns a lot and grows as a person. The whole series has optimism written all over it.

This is an extraordinarily well filmed and written drama: the cinematography is stunning and some episodes' writing is rather original, as if they were trying out different genres (episodes with the comics writer and her best friend stand out in that respect).

I personally have a problem with this kind of overly optimistic dramas: it hits too close to home for comfort, as I see them as a criticism of my own life and the lack of effort I put in. So instead of inciting me to try to change, it has a completely opposite effect on me: I get even more depressed!

Leia Mais

Tout ça pour ça?!?

"Naughty boy, your life is falling apart in front of your eyes, you can't catch a break, you are depressed, there is not end in sight to the misery you feel, and , yet,you are not considerate of feelings of people around you?!?!? How dare you? Their feelings are more important than yours!" This is, in short, what Death wants our hero to understand.

I am a bit undecided now: the ending was not really to my liking, though it is a positive one: it reminded me too much of the shock I felt when I watched Tunnel. Everything was rebooted, he went back to the beginning, so all the running around trying to outsmart the murderers was for naught?!?

The main character, depressed and at the end of the tether, commits suicide. He is met in the afterlife by Death who offers him twelve chances, lives of soon dying people, to beat her, i.e. death. While he fights for survival and gets repeatedly murdered, he realizes: 1 that all those lives are connected to a serial killer and 2, life is precious not only to the person living it but also to all those who love them! Eventually he wins the chance to repent and continue living his own life.

The cast was amazing. But the characters were just cliché: rich chaebol heir who can buy his way out of every trouble, poor people willing to do anything to get out of poverty, some brave and a lot of corrupt policemen, poor brave mother, long suffering girlfriend.....One problem with the cast is that I did not find convincing the 60 yr old actress (a very very good actress) playing the 30yr old version of her character!

Cinematography was stunning in the parts with the Death: the doors to hell looked like an upside down christian cross. The killer often went to church as well, so I guess the religion plays a bit part in creating this universe: sin, repentance, belief....

This was a great watch, bloody and gripping but with the reboot happening in the end, what was the point of getting the serial killer when he is eventually still free. It looks unfinished since he is back at the moment of his death when the serial killer had not been discovered yet. There is definitely one episode missing! Or they did it on purpose so we can decide ourselves where the story goes on from there?
It is a story of how a society you live in puts goals in front of young people who are forced to achieve them or perish because shamed...

Leia Mais

Dangerous Lover

Another quality short drama: I have to give it to them, they are good at making these. They are short, to the point with excellent plots which does not get lost in the side characters' shenanigans.

There is nothing very original about this drama: imperial palace backstabbings involving, this time, a general's sister and a disgraced prince. Due to a premonition dream (? game? whatever!) she thinks that he is going to kill her brothers. But as the events develop, nothing is actually what it seems to be. The plot is interesting with many red herrings, misunderstandings and lies.

How come there is anybody alive in these courts after a week spent there: everyone's favourite pastime seems to be poisoning each other?
The General with his fake beard looks like a pre-teen pretending to be Daddy? He looks more like a comic relief character than a "plotter in chief" that he is!
The main couple were cute and had nice chemistry. The music was nice but same as in every other short drama, unremarkable! Production values are rather high: pretty costumes, nice breeze blowing on sets, nice fight choreography.

This is definitely my LAST c drama. No more! I cannot....

Leia Mais

Bad hair and grief

Well, how do I put this nicely? It was not a train wreck. It could have been better. It should have been better. It was not all bad. I finished it so that is the proof, if you need one, since I drop dramas easily.

The premise was excellent: star crossed lovers and reincarnation with the help of local myths and a magic healing stone. But when the reincarnated soulmate turns out to be a man, it is difficult to deal with the idea. Until it is not any more.

Every plot point in this drama is like that: the problem seems unsurmountable and then, after some pointless running around, everything is sorted out. It started by being very predictable: three shady characters wanting to put their hands on the magic stone. I really thought that this plot is going to take up the whole of drama. Imagine my surprise when that was solved in episode 4. So I went, what now? Well, a couple of episodes later, they brought them all back with an additional accomplice. By that time I had lost every interest I had in this drama: it had become boring and repetitive.

What I liked:
- the premise and the mythology
- support characters: the family, particularly Chu and Tao, were loving, open, fun and funny
-the kid version of San
- Wee with his sunny smile and his grandma
- lessons on how to deal with grief

What I did not like:
- Daou who played San was badly styled and was allegedly harassed on set and it shows in his robotic acting and stilted movements. He actually made me think of NKM in The Veil where he seemed to have forgotten how to walk normally. Same thing here. As for styling: that cropped hair made him look 35 at least: so I needed to check his bio and rewatch the first episode of Love in Translation because in this drama he does not look anything like his MDL pfp. The costumes he was made to wear were just awful: oversized, large and ill-fitting. And finally, his acting was nowhere to be found, he looked extremely uncomfortable as if he wanted to be anywhere else but on this set. The love scenes were unconvincing as they looked so mismatched without any visible chemistry. He seemed clumsy even in the action scenes which were ok (I like the fight with sabres towards the end)
- the character of San: looking for his lost love for a hundred years, suffering in pain every night, being impotent for a century (until he met Wee!). The only fun thing about his curse was when he turned into a young boy: that kid acted better than Daou!
- the predictable villains: as soon as the uncle showed up it was obvious he was the bad guy!
- music was awful, already heard in every other thai bl: funky, snapping fingers songs and the background music stressing the tone of the scene: funny, tragic, romantic....so irritatingly not subtle! I wish producers would learn to respect their audience's intelligence and trust them to know how to recognize different moods!
- PPLs for the toothpaste showing up out of nowhere.

Even though I liked the beginning of the drama very much, very quickly i.e. by the time I reached ep.6, everything I wrote above was starting to annoy me immensely. I debated whether to drop it and then I forced myself to finish it since it is not too long and I had only 4 episodes left. But frankly, it was a torture of misunderstandings, sacrifices for your good, bad pacing and bad hair! To be frank, that is probably my biggest issue with this drama: Daou's hair! It reminded me of Chicago Typewriter which I ended up hating for exactly the same reason: the bad hair which turned out to be so distracting I could not enjoy the plot! Same here!

I'd give them A for the effort but this drama was chock full of plot holes, bad pacing, illogical actions (a car falls into the harbour, it is floating in the sea and the police present are looking for it and not calling for the crane or something?). But there were many light funny moments which made the watch ok, I guess.

And finally, I will never get used, no matter how many times I see it, to lovers sniffing each other. I found it odd when I first saw it in ITSAY and still fail to comprehend it....cultural differences are not there to be understood but to be accepted. Right?

Leia Mais

Teasing & love

I found this through the World of BL site where it is marked as Vietnamese. It is not! It is a short, 2 part thai bl drama advertising a coffee shop and their strange drink, orange juice ice coffee.

Chalam and Thun are neighbours who have known each other forever but were never really friends. Chalam cannot stop teasing Thun and they both bicker a lot. But behind all the teasing, Chalam hides the fact that he likes Thun. He would like to confess to him, but all the teasing has made it impossible since Thun would not believe his sincerity. Eventually, with his sister's help, Chalam figures out that Thun actually likes him back and confesses.

This was short and somehow cute but the low budget was very much obvious. The scenes filmed outside seem warmer than the fixed set scenes inside (sitting at the desk or on a sofa!). The acting is a bit stilted and wooden: the line delivery (or the writing) is unnatural. There are a couple of quirky side characters: the restaurant waiter commentating the latest battle of wits and the teenage girl who changes her love target from the brother to his sister.

The plot is nothing original: enemies to lovers through teasing done right. The actors are handsome and Boy (Chalam) smiles a lot. It is a simple romcom, nothing more, nothing less. The music was awful: an out of tune a cappella song. And of course, there were so many ubiquitous and unnecessary sound effects. I mean, when are the producers going to start believing that the audience can understand when something is funny without pointing it out with these horrible noises?

Just a short, quick watch. Not too bad for an ad!

Leia Mais

Trust and love

The plot of the second season follows closely the events in the special episodes.

After a fight with Steven, Zik goes away on an assignement abroad. When he comes back, he finds that his flat had been burned down by their ditzy neighbour, FatFat. Now Zik has to find a new place to live. One evening, while drowning his sorrows, he meets Sammi, a dorky, childish and straight 30 yr old looking for a gay roommate. It is a match made in heaven so Zik moves in with Sammi. At the same time Steven comes back, relentlessly trying to win Zik back who eventually cedes and starts dating him again.

And that is just first two episodes! I actually started writing the synopsis down but the number of events in this sitcom are too many to count. The series can be split in two halves: the first one is the pure mockumentary sitcom I actually loved and laughed a lot. The second half is a drama and both the sitcom and the mockumentary are abandoned for serious issues.

The sitcom part is hilarious: the relationship between the roommates, the silly Sammi and his dreams, overbearing friends and family etc. all capped by mock interviews where the interviewees are presented on the side of the screen. I suggest you pause and take the google lens out to translate those: it is so worth it!

The drama part is very serious, dealing with relationships and growing up and taking your responsibilities. The relationship between Steven and Zik is back on line but can the broken trust be repaired? Well, not really! They get back out of the habit since they did date for 10 years but it does not work anymore: Zik finally realizes that Steven has always been the substitute for Tat, his childhood friend. Moreover, Zik finds himself using the services of a "part time boyfriend" which helps him come to terms with the failure of his relationship with Steven as well as realize what he wants from a relationship. The other relationship moving forward unwittingly due to trust (safe sex) issues is Sammi and his girlfriend Kelly. Sammi is a naive trusting young man and when his girlfriend tells him protection is not necessary, he believes her. And of course, she gets pregnant which, for Sammi, is a blessing in disguise since it forces him, like nothing before, to grow up.

The drama is excellent, and I wish more people knew about it and watched it. The production values are up from the first season: the image quality is better, the sets are bigger and cleaner, the actors look smarter. What has consistently remained of high quality is the writing and the acting.

But I have a bone to pick with the production: can we know more about actors not just their first names? Or are they not really professional actors but family and friends? Even so, they are all brilliant, though the top spot goes to the actor playing Zik: his facial microexpressions are a perfection and say more than any dialogue ever can! So i am looking forward to the third season!

The first, sitcom part, is much better than the first season but the drastic change of tone in the second part (which is understandable due to issues covered) is unsettling and even disappointing: they should have made the change a bit smoother. I would have rated this much higher but this change of pace ruined the sitcom!

Leia Mais

Sweet short drama

So cute, gentle, whimsical and funny.

Tomita Tomi, a 30-year-old single nurse, who was dumped by her fiancé in a 44-second phone call, has a shocking encounter with her new neighbour she calls “Veranda-kun.” He says he knows her and though she has no recollection of him, she plays along because she finds him young, sweet and innocent and he is making her feel better. She finally remembers him when he suddenly disappears.

I liked the story a lot in spite of its short duration and bad ending (though a happy one!More about that later!). The main actress is excellent in this role, skilfully portraying a range of emotions in a short time span. The main actor was equally good, playing a happy-go-lucky young man.

The main problem of this mini drama is the writing in the last episode. While they managed to keep the suspense going through the first three episodes and keep us guessing about this young man (why is he so happy? is he a ghost? etc.) and the final episode explains everything logically but then they ruin it all with an unnecessary one-year time jump. She says she fell in love with him but does absolutely nothing to find him so no matter how much history they have together, she does not deserve him. I know, now I am just nitpicking a short drama which is not supposed to have much depth but I liked it so much and I was really disappointed with the ending!

This mini drama is a nice short watch. I wish it was longer but it is good just as it is!

Last but not the least, thank you Oshiroen for the subs!

Leia Mais