Semantic Error (2022)

Un succès mérité

J'attends généralement la sortie complète d'un drama pour le voir, ce que j'ai fait avec Semantic Error. SE était déjà précédé de son succès mondial et des multiples vidéos de promotion où on pouvait déjà voir la complicité Seoham/Jaechan. J'ai tendance à me méfier de ce genre de renommée car je suis bien souvent déçue de l'attente que les annonces ont générée.
Ce qui a été le cas lors de mon premier visionnage de SE. Certains passages m'ont semblé confus, et je ne comprenais pas bien pourquoi ce drama en particulier avait explosé ainsi.
Et puis je l'ai revu. Et j'ai enfin compris.

L'histoire et les personnages sont la représentation parfaite du fameux "enemies to lovers". Deux étudiants aux personnalités diamétralement opposées vont apprendre à s'apprivoiser, s'apprécier et s'aimer. Si ce trope est extrêmement répandu et populaire, il est ici traité un peu mieux qu'à l'habitude, grâce aux personnages qui sortent clairement de l'ordinaire, notamment Sangwoo, ainsi qu'au choix scénaristique de s'intégrer complétement au monde universitaire.

La série suit en gros le déroulé du webtoon, mais en choisissant sciemment de s'en éloigner pour s'adapter au visuel et au développement d'un drama. Les personnages deviennent ainsi un peu plus simples à appréhender et à apprécier. Il n'y a que 8 épisodes de 25mn, le développement des protagonistes et de l'histoire doit ainsi s'accélérer. Le montage et le scénario ne donnent néanmoins pas l'impression de sauter des étapes, le caractère des personnages, primaires comme secondaires, et le développement de leurs interactions semblent naturels, voire évidents.
L'université est probablement le troisième "personnage" le plus important de l'histoire, leur rencontre, leur antagonisme, leur rapprochement, se font non seulement à l'université mais dans le cadre de travaux universitaires.

Que dire de Seoham et Jaechan ? Certes l'histoire est intéressante, mais c'est l'alchimie entre les deux acteurs principaux, devenus véritablement Jaeyoung et Sangwoo, qui a fait exploser SE. C'est rare de trouver une paire aussi bien assortie dans le cadre du BL coréen, aussi bien dans leur visuel que dans leur caractère.

Il manque néanmoins certaines précisions à certains moments, certaines réactions sont inexpliquées, explications que l'on retrouve dans le webtoon, qui devient alors un bon support explicatif face à une série pleine, passionnante, mais finalement trop courte.
A quand une saison 2 ?

PS : l'OST est top.

Leggi di Più

Full of clichés but so addictive

The story isn't fresh and new, but boy oh boy did I binge? Yes, yes I did. I should have done some housework, but instead chose to stare at my screen for 8 episodes. Thank god it's not 80 episodes or I would be in big trouble. That's the only good thing about it having only 8 episodes. I need more of those two together because I'm still on a pink fluffy cloud right now. I would recommend this drama to everyone who loves fluffy, cheesy, lovey-dovey BL's.

You might ask... what next? What now? Well I think you should go and take a look at the following BL's: 'Old fashion cupcake', 'Cherry magic! Thirty years of virginity can make you a wizard?!', 'We best love', 'Kieta Hatsukoi', 'My beautiful man' and of course 'Bad buddy'.

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How to start 2022 in a good way

If you're reading this bc you don't know if starting this or not, stop right now and go watch it. It's really worth it.

Story (9)
God yes, I haven't seen a good story like this in k-bls since To My Star I think. I always been a fan of the "enemis-to-lovers" plot and this drama didn't fail the target: good characters' development and good visuals, plus a story that doesn't become boring after 2 episodes. That's perfect.

Acting/Cast (9.5)
Just a word: chemistry. They have one of the best chemistry on and off-screen I have ever seen as a bl fan.
As a non-kpop fan, I didn't know first these two, but god, thanks to this drama for making me know them. Park Seo Ham it's on another level, his acting and visuals are just on top. As for Park Jae Chan, I actually thought at first he couldn't do a different face of his stern face at the beginning, but then I remember that's actually his character, so in the end he did really a good job to portrait him.

Music (9)
As I always say, and I start to become bored saying, the music in k-bls is always on top. Particularly on this... I'll dream the "stairs song" forever.

Rewatch Value (8.5)
Good and chill to rewatch. I love k-bls bc they're always short and easy to rewatch. I'll definitely do it.

Overall (9)
As good as this is, I'm really glad people love it. Hope that when Park Seo Ham returns from the military, there could be a s2 (bc as a manhwa reader, I know there's so much more after this lol)

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Semantic Error has only one error....

When I put it on to watch it was completely influenced by the cute gifs I found on the web. As it was a Korean series I imagined it would be longer and here's my surprise when I come across not only 8 episodes only, but also with durations less than 30 min. I thought "That's good, it's going to be something nice and fast". I couldn't be more wrong hahahahaha

I already say that if you are reading to know if it is good, I say that for me it was incredible. It's worth watching and I bet you will like it.

First I would like to point out that I found everything the aesthetics of the drama itself. The opening, the "error" effects, how they play with it in relation to the couple's relationship and in relation to Sang Woo himself, with his robotic behavior etc.

*Now for those who really want a full review, here we go....
The performances were very good, I thought the two actors matched very well and have a lot of chemistry. When I saw it from the outside - little snippets with songs - I thought Jae Young was the serious one and that he was older hahaha - I didn't know it was a college drama and that Sang Woo was the younger boy who is discovering to like a more closed guy. I came across the opposite. A stylish and popular guy paired with a meticulous introvert who thinks too much and doesn't like physical contact - I identified with him a lot, I was a bit worried.
I love the enemies to lovers style and here even if it's just one-sided, it still works masterfully. Because Sang Woo didn't really hate Jae Young, he just didn't like the way he changed his meticulously calculated life. The construction and deconstruction of the characters is impeccable and the way the two change - in the face of their own successes and mistakes - and evolve emotionally together is very light and believable. Nothing is played and done in any way just to shove a forced romance down the viewer's throat,

*Now as my title suggests, Semantic Error does have one flaw in my opinion... it's too short. Maybe too many episodes would spoil it, fine I agree. Especially because many productions become unpalatable precisely because they wrap too much. But I think in this case a little more time would be ideal, just a little. It gave me a feeling of wanting more, not only from the main couple, but in the nuclei around them. Things loose in the air that didn't have time to be shown on the screen. This drama is like choco milk shake - another short, South Korean drama - that shows us two romances so good and with so much feeling, but that last so little. I wanted to see more situations where Sang Woo was thrown against the wall about his own way of acting, especially being in a relationship with Jae Young, who is a very different guy from him.... I wish they would show more of them dating, at least a bit like it was done at the end of the final episode.

I believe that in general Jae Young needed a bigger reason to stay another semester at college and also someone who awakened more than just passion in his heart. Sang Woo, on the other hand, needed someone to force him out of his comfort zone, breaking barriers he considered unbreakable. He needed exactly a Jae Youg to warm his heart worthy of a very well developed software, but that was hacked by the power of love hahaha - very cheesy, I know. As they themselves say... it had to be them, because one needed the other.

If you liked this review, I invite you to read my other reviews here. I always update my account, every time I watch something new. You can help me by liking and following me here on MyDramaList.

Thank you for reading this far, XOXO <3

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Nothing new, but important to Korea.

Gonna review it through the optic of a fujoshi whos in the BL world for almost 9 years.
I know the storyline is not like the thai recent bl's where they're trying to not make the relationship itself the plot, but I can't help but take it easy on this series.

It's a Korean show, with the classic professional Korean filming and acting, this alone already wins over other countries' bl in terms of production quality. They are relatively new in the bl industry, so I do understand that they're having baby steps with the storylines. It was produced by Wavve which is one of the biggest and most important streaming platforms in Korea, it's almost like "their Netflix". So I'm going to consider this more than just a cliche, but actually, a kick start to more and more Korean boys love stories with this level of production, and maybe one day we gonna have a Korean BL like Not me and Kinnporsche.

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viciante pra caralho

ele infelizmente eh curtinho entao eu terminei em três dias se arrependimento matasse por ver tao rapido ?
amei DEMAIS ver eles dois se descobrindo juntos principalmente o sangwoo ajudando a superar aquele odio inicial que atrapalhou tanto queria muito mais deles dois juntos aproveitando a relação fofa deles queria ver como eles lidaram com os problemas do relacionamento sendo um o total oposto do outro
nao preciso nem falar dos atores incriveis que esse dorama teve vai deixar muita saudade principalmente com aquele final fofo ?
super assistiria de novo

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Cute, but a bit medicore

So I usually lower my standards and just go in for a good time and some cuteness for BLs and I will say this show delivered on that.

Good:
- most of the casting was good! Shoutout to sangwoo's actor for really selling it.

- the kisses were GOOD for a korean bl. The chemistry between the leads was also good

Not Good:
- I'm not sure if it's because of how jaeyeongs character is written or because of the actor, but their performance was meh for me. I think most of it is because the character is damn near written as a psychopath but he also has to come off charming enough to not be totally turned off by him. They don't really do a good job of navigating it so they pull an entire 180 on the character.

- I know sangwoo is supposed to be robotic and all, but it gets to a point where his scenes without jaeyeong are pretty slow and dull. I think they overdo the robotic trait

- the story is not written very well and the romance is poorly fleshed out. I've seen shorter bl that did a better job of convincing us of the romance. Again, I think they overshot with exaggerating the leads' character traits so it makes it hard to believe that they fell in love that quickly. This is the first bl where I wouldn't mind the episodes being a little shorter.

Overall, I'm meh about the show. It is cute if you want a bl to watch, but part of me feels like it was a waste of time cause you don't really walk away with anything.

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Could've been cute but they added unnecessary bullying plotline and then rushed the love story

Things I liked:
- The acting and cinematography
- How organized and methodical Chu Sangwoo was
- Ryu Ji Hye was very adorable and I'd love to see more of her
- Sangwoo setting touch boundries
- Jaeyoung‬ asking Sangwoo for consent to kiss!!!

Things I disliked:
- Jaeyoung was literally a bully and a stalker?? What the fuck?? And they are in UNIVERSITY! This man is in his 20s bullying another guy. It's literally pathetic, and Sangwoo deserved better.
- Their relationship felt rushed
- Their 1st kiss???? Sangwoo kissed Jaeyoung WITHOUT CONSENT?? WHEN HE WAS ASLEEP? WTF???? This was especially weird when the show made sure to show them set boundries and ask for consent in other scenes...... :/
- Jaeyoung being controlling and trying to keep Ryu Ji Hye away... Yikes.

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A BL Webtoon That’s Perfectly Adapted!

Semantic Error is already a great webtoon and this production did an amazing job adapting it. Park Seo Ham and Park Jae Chan were the perfect main leads to play Jang Jae Young and Chu Sang Woo. They delivered a great performance and made it feel like I was seeing the original characters come to life. This live action of Semantic Error was done absolutely well from casting, directing, cinematography, to OST.

S. Korea has definitely made another great BL series along with Light on Me and To My Star as some of my personal favorites. I definitely hope WATCHA will produce another season later on because they really produce quality series, including Light on Me. Hopefully they will give us full length series because 8 episodes was not enough! S. Korea has the potential to lead the Bl industry if they are able to bring in the budget and production they do for their mainstream series.

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I want and NEED more of this

The thing that gets to me about Semantic Error is that it treats its premise in a way that is fun, and not taken too seriously. The drama is based off a webtoon and I’ve seen dramas fail when trying to adapt the plot from that to a show. Semantic Error succeeds in so many ways and keeps everything it needs to to make sense.

I understand the chemistry, the acting is phoenomanal and coming from a BL when comparing to a full sized drama, the effor the actors puts in needs to be recognized. I wish BLs’ could be longer, but as for now we only get 8 episodes. Every moment I’m enjoying, and I want more honestly but beggars can’t be choosers.

To sun it up, the chemistry is there, the story is easy and fun to follow, and most importantly the drama isn’t upsetting and makes sense. The motives of the characters whether petty or not are adorable, and the profession of the relationship is well paced out.

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Loving the live action adaptation so far (episode 6)

Loving the live action adaptation and adjustment of the story to cover a big arc of the relationship in 8 episodes. I think that live action made the whole cast much more interesting which was important for the feel of a campus drama, and there are ways the story has been adjusted to focus on the relationship being fresh in not following some of the usual tropes, which will be helping the boy's love genre get more mainstream. It's really a thoughtful and loving adaptation in a way, compared to what I think can usually be suspected as just attempts to censor, which can disrespect LGBTQ+ people in general and the type of media that is created about their relationships yet isn't even truly adding to positive media representation for them.
Beyond those thoughts, I love the creative use of special effects, the casting, the acting, the OST and production. I felt that what comes off the screen is this intriguing exploration of how you could get attracted to someone you've judged negatively for being different from you, and coming to understand their values and character better (the timeless dynamic of the couple in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice that I always loved). And, very importantly, the leads carry on with chemistry in spades, the key ingredient for any on-screen romance to thrive, but they also include with that a lot of vulnerability, affection and growing maturity, which makes this a very special kind of dynamic to root for as an audience member.
Hope that more dramas like this can be made!

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