Ghost Host, Ghost House (2022)

Unconventional and beautiful

When I saw the title I immediately tried to guess the contents: it had to be a supernatural romance, or a murder mystery, or a horror series. Given these expectations, I was a little confused at the beginning as to what was this series meant to focus on, but I caught on quickly enough for it to become memorable.

This story is mainly about relationship bonds (between family members, friends, and lovers), and most of all about grief, loss, and painful events in life. It's never too somber and gloomy to make it heavy to watch, and there are also some funny moments here and there, but it still manages to deliver its messages well.
I believe that the lack of action and drama was necessary for this type of plot, since they would have made the series derail from its main themes too much. In my opinion, that kind of entertainment can be easily found anywhere else and it's not needed here. Still, I understand that this is definitely not everyone's cup of tea.
The love story between the two main characters was one of the healthiest and most heartwarming I've seen. There is no unnecessary drama around their moments: they're just two young men who are attracted to each other, and luckily neither of them is secretly a ghost or anything like that. Their ups and downs are tied to their personal lives and struggles and not to the actual relationship, which was refreshing to see. Their dynamics also felt very realistic.
Kevin's family members were all very good as well. I was afraid that, given the type of plot, they would have turned all four of them into a single monolith-like group, with a hive mind and all, but instead each one of them has an individual personality and color. The dynamics between family members, just like the couple, felt realistic and believable.
Something that I want to criticize about the plot is the pacing, which was... not good. There were some aspects of the plot that deserved to be elaborated more (mainly Kevin's relationship with his aunt and the rest of the family, and also his bond with Jake), and the dialogues felt unbearably slow multiple times. Wouldn't blame anyone for watching the series at double speed or even quitting out of frustration.

In conclusion, do I recommend it? If you're looking for something sweet, slow and sentimental, then this might be for you. If you're expecting any kind of action, drama, thrill, or anything like that, then you should look somewhere else.

Leggi di Più

I love this

I’m not sure why there are so many negative reviews about this show?!
I thought the story was a rollercoaster of emotions. I laughed, I thought it was cute at times, sad at others. I thought the main couple were good together and believable. There was no over the top stereotypical rubbish you get in a lot of other dramas.
I thought the 3 year gap could have been avoided. I suppose it was just to show their growth, but I honestly thought it wasn’t necessary.
I think the pace was good too I would have actually like to see more of these two as a couple.
So sad See nam didn’t get her final wish and although they were twins See foon just seemed to young and vulnerable compared to her so when she left my heart was broken for him.

Nah I don’t think this deserves such harsh criticism I thought it was lovely from beginning to end.

Leggi di Più

Quite unexpectedly good!!!!

This drama was better than I expected. I went in expecting nothing, but the plot, acting, directing, and chemistry blew me away. I have never watched the leads in anything, so it was good to see them in this drama. They are both good actors.

The ending was confusing to me because I think I miss the reason why the leads were separated for three years?? I'm assuming the vlogger ghost guy need some time to himself so he left. Then he came back and be with his boyfriend; who became a celebrity. I like the ghost family, and was sad when they all disappear into thin air :(.

Overall I enjoy it.

Leggi di Più

Variety of emotions

Although I'm not a fan of ghost series what can I say…excellent direction and photography, beautiful and very expressive actors, all scales of emotions: sadness, joy, sweetness, love, anger, fear.
An unexpected true and touching representation of the relationship with our loved ones who have passed away. Especially the depiction of Pluem's complex feelings for his dead father: I found it very real and touching.
The sweetness of the relationship between the two boys... a reminder to experience love to the fullest.
The last truly poetic episode...
Excellent work!!!
Grazie <3

Leggi di Più

Flawed, but also has the most lovely, soft touches, kisses and convincing looks between lovers

I wonder if me taking a break from watching this series for a couple months half way through it really helped my viewing enjoyment. Since I understand a lot of the criticism people have pointed out about it getting draggy and boring at times. But having binge watched the last 4 eps in one go after taking a break- I finished this series loving it.

I think if you found the first several episodes boring, give it another chance and just watch those scenes on double speed (I did lol). Episode 4 and 8 were my favourite, even despite the idiocy of their 3 year hiatus bullshit in the last ep. I feel like it picks up from ep 4, where you get to see the main leads get together and work through some genuine issues (not stupid bl high school issues, actual issues). I liked seeing all the ghosts stories come to an end and how they looped back to a real reason for Kevin to be so invested in Ghost Hunting.

By far the best thing to come out of this series is the chemistry between the male leads. Boy has to be one of the most convincing BL actors I've seen in a while. They genuinely seem attracted too and turned on by each other. Lord the scene where Pleum was getting hot and bothered looking at Kevin's legs just had me. But it's more than that, it's how Pleum looks at Kevin, kisses his hands, etc. It's the longing love I'm looking for in BL. For that I can look past a lot of the boring and/or stupid parts.

Usually I'd have a lot more of an issue with the whole idiotic 3 year time skip- but this time I was able to overlook it for the above since the last ep delivered again on the longing and flirtation. Idk if the time skip crap happening in a thousand BLs has just desensitized me too it at this point lmao. Yes, logically in no sane world would Kevin be able to piss off for 3 years with no communication or explanation and have Pleum waiting and desperate for him at the end. No sorry, no explanation. I'm still waiting for the day BL writers could be mature enough to instead have just had Kevin admit he was scared. Where they would have talked about it and got together like normal humans. But alas I am expecting too much of the world of BL again. I'll take what I can get, lol.

Oh and the other main bonus of this series is just watching Boy act. He has a lot of potential and I hope he gets a lot of projects in future. He's like the insanely hot, more bulked out, flirtatious, sexy older brother of Nanon IMO.

Leggi di Più

A beautiful ride.

I wish this drama had more recognition, because it was such a beautiful ride watching it.
It's been years since I wrote a review, but my heart just felt that this drama deserved a one.
Okay, yes, it has some flaws and I wish some plotlines were developed better.. but this was okay for me, overall. Ghost BL's tend to lose its way and the end are always lacking for me, but with this one I felt on point. I laughed, I cried and I could understand every single decision the characters made.. and it's not easy to find a BL that makes me feel this way on Thai (Japanese ones are the ones with this power).
The beginning was the part that I liked less, but after all the introduction part was gone, the story became okay. The chemistry between the leads is amazing and, personally, I loved how the way they touched each other, it felt so real and not acted. Felt they were really close to each other. And, *please*, this must be one of the shows were I found every outfit amazing.
This drama is about saying goodbye, grieving and findind happiness.. it's a BL that goes outside the main Thailand-theme box.
Anyways, don't skip this one.. It's really worth your time. Give it a chance!!

Leggi di Più

Don't Ghost It

Despite its name and the tendency to equate something ghost related with horror, Ghost Host, Ghost House is anything but a horror drama. Rather I found it to be a rather bittersweet story focusing on the importance of family, of cherishing the time we have left, and learning to accept death as another part of life and not letting grief consume us. It is certainly a flawed drama. There are aspects that don't make sense or aren't explained well, plenty of plot holes, both leads are newer and there were times where that was obvious, and the pacing is oddly simultaneously too fast and too slow. For me though, the heart of the drama and what they were trying to convey is what led me to rate it higher at an 8. Taking my emotional response out of the equation and rating just based of story, characters, acting, etc., I would rate it between a 6.5 and a 7.

The story, while not bad, in some ways didn't make sense to me. Kawin's whole fascination with ghosts stems from the death of his best friend and former crush. He's the ghost that Kawin wants to see and yet we never see him trying to summon Jake other than when the twins offer to help and then he gives that chance to Pluem. I wanted more background there. Did he want to see a ghost to prove that it was possible and that he might someday see Jake? Or did the whole thing start with him trying to see Jake and he just developed a fascination with ghosts and ghost stories as a result? The ghost hunting aspect though was relatively quickly shelved once Kawin found out that his own family was ghosts and then the story turned to their final days. And frankly I think his family is the star of the drama. I really enjoyed all their characters and their interactions; they were the highlight for me, the romance was secondary.

I said the pacing was simultaneously too fast and too slow. As a whole, the pacing was too fast. Things happened very quickly, the romance between Kawin and Pluem being a big one, in my opinion. There was very little build up between them meeting and sleeping together for the first time. It didn't feel like they'd had a chance to properly get to know each other and I would have liked to see them interacting more before things progressed to that level. The too slow comes in that scenes just dragged. A lot of that was the dialogue and the long pauses that were just unnatural. But some scenes were also just dragged out longer than was necessary.

The acting was overall good. The two standouts for me though, were Guide as See-Foon and Natty as See-Nam. Guide especially was fantastic. For this being his first role, I was so impressed with his skills. His ability to convey so much emotion with just his eyes and subtle expressions was amazing to watch. He's definitely someone to keep an eye on. Natty was much to same. I felt like she had a more subtle acting style that I really liked and I think fit the character. She was great to watch and she's another one to keep watching. Tod and Boy both did well as the leads. Their chemistry together was overall pretty good and I felt like they played off of each other well. There were definitely times where I felt they could use more energy. Some scenes just felt a bit lackluster. And they could both stand to add a bit more nuance to their expressions. But for both being newer, I think they did pretty well.

The biggest problem with this drama though is the staggering number of plot holes and unanswered questions. There was just so much left unexplained. I think background is key when it comes to any drama or any character and that was so completely lacking here. I feel like a fair number of questions would have been answered if everything had a solid background. Even a basic question like if Kawin's mother ever found out her sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew were all dead is never answered. I am also going to nitpick here and say that Kawin in no way seemed like someone who grew up in the US. This is no fault of the actor, I will say that, this is the production's fault for not making changes to fit with his ability, but his English wasn't strong enough and he had a strong Thai accent. It just didn't quite work.

On the plus side, you have a drama that is relatively trope free which is refreshing as well as product placement free as far as I can recall. If there are any, its minimal and not as constantly in your face as some dramas. It also depicts an overall healthy relationship. Kawin and Pluem make the effort to communicate with each other even when its tough, aside from episode 7 which was just ridiculous. I don't know why they felt the need to throw in more drama but it was stupid and didn't fit with the characters, in my opinion, so I'm ignoring it. I also appreciated that consent played such a role in Pluem and Kawin's relationship. Yes, Pluem teased Kawin, but he never pushed things too far and when things started getting serious, he always made sure Kawin was okay with where things were going. More Thai dramas should take note of that.

This is not an amazing drama technically. Like I said, it has a lot of flaws, it could have been better with a little more effort and thought, but I think it is good enough to warrant watching it at least once. This is one drama where the romance definitely took the backseat and I was more interested and pulled in by Kawin's family. Their love for each other and for Kawin was incredibly touching and the actors did an amazing job bringing their character's to life and really making me care about them. So, come for the romance, and stay for the family. They're both good.

Leggi di Più

if you're still hesitating this is your sign to watch it

is it the best BL out there ? no absolutely not but the chemistry is there, it is way more emotional than I was expecting and so sweet I almost got diabetes.

obviously the plot is not the best out there, a lot of things could have been done better but in only 8 episodes i'd say it still is a very good performance.
this is spoiler free so I won't say too much but there's a lack of closure for some characters and it's missing some plot but it shouldn't be the reason why you wont watch it

pretty please do this underrated show and yourself a favour and go stream it, you won't regret it

Leggi di Più

Huh? This is actually good?!

I didn't expect to love this one as much as I did.
I went into the first episode without thinking much of it, you know, with a neutral feeling. And then I watched the whole thing in one go. I love the characters, the story and, most of all, the ghost family. The relationship between the main leads didn’t feel weird or forced, it seemed like everything just perfectly fit in.

Room for improvement:
What kind of bugged me, was that we didn’t get to see more of the ghost world and how it works. I hope for a second season, where we will be able to dive into this more.
Sometimes the story drags, and the dialogue was often unnecessarily long and skippable.

The comedy-horror genre is, imo, so heavily underrated. But a series like this show, that it is actually very much enjoyable!
Really fun to watch, would definitely recommend it!

Leggi di Più

The ghosts were totally uninteresting

A short and sweet series that was fairly enjoyable. They tried to do way too much with the ghost plotline though, and attempted to create all these rules that ghosts must abide by in far too few episodes. At that point, I didn't care about what the ghosts could or couldn't do.

The two leads are great. It's a cute little relationship that is fun to watch. Nothing too exciting, but a pleasant watch.

The whole conflict with Kevin's family was a bit odd. Again, it just felt like they tried to do way too much world building in the few episodes they had. I also thought this show would be a bit spookier since it was ghost themed, but there was nothing scary about it. It was just a fun little show with a little bit of ghost hunting.

Leggi di Più

You will remember very few things a month from now

There are stories that are great in storytelling or have memorable characters or the plot goes away from the typical high school-university students, doctors or engineers, that make you gush about it for months or the series is too short and we end up craving so much more. Many BL fans forgive almost everything just because an actor is cute or the show has steamy scenes and overlook more important things like the plot or the acting because as some have commented on my posts before, "we are just looking for entertainment". That's ok, but if we can get well-made entertainment, wouldn't that be much better?

"Ghost Host Ghost House" is a show that began with an interesting premise of a boy who returns to Thailand after living abroad only to discover his aunt, uncle and cousins are all dead and he can see dead people. Unfortunately, 8 episodes were not enough to cover all the holes this story had that ended up making me go, wait, what happened with that? Or, how did we even get to this point? Of course, there are some good things and bad things, the show is made by Vibie and that means the resources of a GMMTV or a similar company are not the same. However, comparisons are inevitable and while this is NOT a disaster of a show, it falls below "He's Coming To Me" and "Something in My Room" who handled the ghost theme and the plot much better while it is on a similar level to "Peach of Time". Granted, those 3 shows had a ghost fall in love with a living character and in "Ghost Host Ghost House" both main leads are alive and well, but still... let's dive into some details.

The good:

1) Side characters shine: Indeed, as some already pointed out, Guide (playing See-foon) and Natty (playing See-nam) provide much deeper moments for us than Boy (playing Pluem) and Tod (playing Kevin) do. Guide is making his acting debut (he appeared briefly in "Why You... Y Me?" and Natty is also brand new to the industry and, despite that, both gives us some memorable acting moments in episodes 6 and 7 when they both use their remaining merit points to live their "Last Day". See-foon uses it to spend time with Pluem and Kevin as he was bullied in school and had no friends, so he wanted to spend his last moments doing whatever he wanted and just eating and talking with people who cared about him. The scene when he disappears is well done as his face really portrays the emotions of feeling sad and maybe angry after suffering the bullying and now being happy and relieved that his last moments were with a friend and with his cousin. See-nam also has interesting moments as he reconciles with her father in a tearjerker scene, plays the guitar during the BBQ scene in which Pluem and Kevin comment they've never seen her smile like that and also visits Prim at school (using her merit points) to long for the love that never happened due to her death. Incz (playing Prim) also has interesting moments when she is not speaking and then when she finds out the reason See-nam never visited in the hospital after the accident (the car crash that killed Kevin's family also kills Pluem's dad which causes trauma in Prim). All side actors, including the the two adults provided good moments.

2) The lack of tropes/clichés: And trust me, I put this a heavy positive... this is a Thai BL WITHOUT, I repeat, WITHOUT, the usual tropes of: a) a crazy woman who is in love with one of the main male leads and cannot or will not accept that he is not in love with her so she screams like a maniac or does whatever silly thing her heart desires to break up the main couple. b) Parents who are vehemently against their son being gay or their son dating another boy and try to break them up by shipping their son abroad for several years or bribing the other guy to disappear or trying to convince them they are not good together. c) Parents who are completely in favor of their son being gay and acting like obsessed cheerleaders when their son brings his boyfriend home. d) Ridiculous or silly plots in order to make the main couple meet and fall in love. e) Friends who are more like shippers, or even worse, actual shippers who imagine all the steamy scenes between the main couple just to give the viewers some eye candy but that doesn't match with the rest of the story. f) Another male character who acts as the third in a love triangle when its obvious he has 0% chance of getting one of the main leads.

3) Chemistry: And I know some are not fully convinced, but watching Tod and Boy interact outside the show and in the show feels good compared to Peat and Fort in "Love in the Air" when Peat sometimes looks so awkward when Fort tries to hug him or touch him outside of the show. Tod is 6 years younger than Boy (which is why all call him "uncle" in the behind-the-scenes and in other Vibie Gen content) but despite the age gap, both adjusted quite well and the love scenes (which were quite well made) don't look forced, don't look awkward, and don't look like one of the actors is just waiting for the "cut" from the director to run away as far as he can). Plus, the rest of the cast seem to get along quite well despite some barely being on-screen together.

Now the bad:

1) Plot: I'm sorry, but I can't overlook this. This show had so much potential but it was ruined in 2 parts in my opinion. First, when Kevin finds out his family is dead, which I felt it was too soon... but ok, I felt the writer and the director could go in a different direction, but no... first the ghost hunters trying to break-in and then the thieves who get scared by the family which is what causes Kevin to find out, were straight out of a comedic scary movie. The second time was during the beach scenes when Kevin suddenly starts having doubts about committing to Pluem because apparently he can't forget about Jake (his boyfriend who was never a boyfriend officially, just a good friend as Kevin specifically points out near the end of episode 8), he also feels this is too good to be true and is scared to lose it all. All those might be valid concerns, but they came out of nowhere and after talking to Pluem in all the other episodes, this time he just packs his things and leaves... I mean... ok... writers needed a bit more things to fill out episodes 6-8, but still, it didn't make much sense. Kevin is suddenly so insecure and scared and he decides just to run away instead of talking.
Then we have Jake and his story, Prim and her story with See-nam, and the deaths of the family and Pluem's father... not much is revealed about why Jake only chats with See-foon (other than See-foon entering Kevin's dream to find out about Jake), in fact, Jake only starts appearing on episode 5 but according to him, he has been there all the time (even following Kevin from the US to Thailand, go figure... a traveling ghost!). Prim and See-nam are attracted to each other but we only got glimpses of their background story and we know how the family dies but it is weird that apparently there is no investigation, nobody notifies Kevin's mother in America, nobody in the neighborhood finds it odd that the family was there one day and gone the next, etc... So, too many stories that could have been further developed and ended up disappearing like a ghost.

2) The acting: And this not a critic to the actors... I've criticized bad acting before but this time I feel is not their fault. Most are new, Tod appeared in "Love Area Part 1" and the disaster that was "Love Area Part 2" but the rest have no experience, so the acting coach, the writer and the director should have made it clear in what direction they wanted to go with the story and what type of emotions they needed the actors to convey... as some felt awkward. The slow-paced dialogues seem to be the new trend in Thai BLs and while that is a bit annoying, this time it didn't bother that much like it did in "Bite Me", for example.

In the end, this show is not the worst by any stretch of the imagination but you will watch it and aside from some specific moments you will forget about it very quickly.

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