Don't expect fan service or fast pacing

So right off the bat you need to know that this is a slow moving, sentimental film that builds emotional attachment to the characters through repeated use of flashback scenes.

What you won't find: passionate kissing scenes, sex scenes, bare abs, etc.
What you will find: lots of staring into each other's eyes, good acting, scenes that make you cry,

The actors are both new and do a phenomenal job in this film, which is a story about how memories helped two people reconnect and get through a crisis together. The story is set in the early 2000s and they manage to set that time period really well, with the main characters in high school at the beginning and then again 4 years later.

The ending seemed a little truncated and I wonder if there was meant to be more, but Thailand was thrown into lockdown earlier this year and a lot of dramas had to adapt. But the story of Nut and Phob is complete, and if you like very sentimental stories I recommend you give it a try.

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I liked this movie!

So first of all this is a moderate budget Chinese wuxia movie about gay mermaids. I did not go into it with high expectations, and it starts off a bit confusing. But I thought the story they ended up weaving was pretty interesting!

In this story, mermaids can make special silk and their tears are pearls. They are trafficked by humans as a source of wealth as a result. And because they are enslaved and tortured to force them to produce silk and pearls, they sometimes fight back.

Because they are seen as a danger to humans, it is illegal to keep them and if someone is caught keeping one both the mermaid and the human should be executed by law.

But when Yuanshan finds the merman Yixia at the scene of a murder, for some reason he spares his life.

The plot is pretty complex, with a fight for the succession to the throne, Yuanshan's wife being a princess, her brother having a dragon beast spreading around bad dragon qi, and Yixia being so cute and irresistible. What is a minister of justice to do?

The ending is also an absolute trip.

Anyway understand this isn't a high budget movie and set expectations accordingly, enjoy the gay mermaid fun.

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Who writes these series?

I watched the whole thing only because Peter/Poon was an engaging and likeable character. But he was the only one. And it wasn't because the actors weren't up to the task, it's because the series was just written really badly.

Now first of all its a rich boy poor boy enemies to lovers BL. So it requires some nuance right? Some introspection and character development? What makes a rich guy fall in love with a poor guy anyway? What is love?

Well in this case it's just papaya salad. Which sounds delicious, don't get me wrong. But I'm old, it takes more than papaya salad for me to ship a couple.

The decisions the writers made in this series were so baffling. And the casting. Actually all the decisions. Peter was the only good choice. Wait, no, Phirada was also cute.

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What a surprise!

I put off watching this one when I saw it in my YT recommendations because it's not my favorite BL pairing and I'd gotten a little burned out on the usual gmmtv fare. But I read the synopsis and thought it might be sort of interesting.

But it's unusual to see such overt political themes in BLs so I wasn't expecting it at all, and through most of it I was expecting some sort of redemption arc for the system the story sets as the villain. But insisted they really handled a lot of difficult questions with nuance and care.

Overall it was a great story done really well, the whole cast did a great job. I was really gripped by the characters and plot all the way to the end.

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Content warning: intimate partner violence

I just found this and started watching it randomly on YT without knowing anything about it. It starts off as a cute story about two (very cute) boys staying together and falling in love, which is a pretty overdone trope. It isn't high budget but the production isn't bad and neither is the acting.

Then it takes a turn, and becomes more of a psychological thriller. When one of the boys confronts the other about a past misdeeds, he has a psychotic break. What follows is a series of scenes that alternate cute and violent and for a while you're not sure which is real and which is not, as the character slides in and out of reality.

I know a lot of people hate having this stuff thrown in their BL but I actually thought it was pretty well done and I was impressed by the acting. But for the record, psychosis and violence don't often go together. It's a good plot for a movie but don't be scared of people with mental illness.

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The characters make this drama

This is a pretty basic HS love triangle drama, but the production and characters are just so well done, and there are so many little details that build stories around each one. Taekyung is possibly neurodivergent but gentle and compassionate. Daon is truly kind but hurts people when he doesn't advocate for himself. Shinwoo is cranky but devoted to his friends. Namgoong solves problems in the group using his sense of humor. Sohee doesn't know how to get what she wants.

In the end they all gain from each other. It's just an excellent character driven story, performed by a cast who truly get the characters. Bonus, they are all adorable.

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Such a great concept

I had to sit with the ending for a bit. You know I loved this concept so much and the actors did such a spectacular job, and I wanted to love this series more than I did.

The concept of a love affair with a person with DID is so fraught with ethical potholes and for the most part this series navigated them well. The actor who played Noah and Yu Shi didn't overact it and the character of Wu Zheng is open and loving in a very fresh way.

The parts I did not love about it were largely just... Editing and post production. Weird formatting, unclear time skips and flashbacks, mediocre music. They had such amazing raw material but sort of pasted it together haphazardly.

And the ending was less fulfilling than I'd have liked for this reason, but also because they sort of imply being loved is a "cure" for DID and that's not at all where I hoped it would go. Just let people with mental illness have things without implying that it's only worthwhile if the mental illness is cured.

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A live action remake of a popular anime

So my favorite things in the world: BL, Anime, Manga, Japanese Rock. My kids, political Twitter, and BTS might be in there too, but mostly, just those things, so for obvious reasons Given is one of my favorite Anime and Manga stories. When I saw a live action was coming, I was curious but kept my expectations low.

Making an anime come to life is hard, for obvious reasons, Manga characters are not always easily converted into real people. In this case, the casting was not terrible. I thought they cast Uenoyama perfectly, he was also the focus of the LA more than Mafuyu, who got more back story in the Manga and anime. I understood why they cast Mafuyu the way they did, because they wanted to use the actor's voice, but he wasn't quite perfect. Kaji was not well cast, I was so annoyed he was one of my favorite characters. The rest were OK.

The drama follows the manga/anime pretty closely but had to cut out a lot due to being only 6 episodes. So the story goes only up to their first live (episode 9 in the anime, Mafuyu's Song). Because of the compression, Mafuyu doesn't get a lot of back story exposition, there's really not much character development around Haruki and Akihito, it's mostly just Uenoyama and the preparation for the first live.

It's hard for me to judge this as a drama on its own because I already knew the story. I felt like the compression and loss of back story made the final song less dramatic. Also, tbh I just liked the song from the anime better. But overall the drama exceeded my expectations by being well acted and produced and staying pretty true to the story.

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Content warning: Sexual Harassment, suicidal ideation

This was a really challenging subject matter, and overall I felt like they handled it pretty well. This is the sequel to Call It What You Want, regarding a BL filming set and hardships experienced by actors, the second season follows up on the issue of sexual harassment of one actor (Bas) by the producer. This season gets much deeper than the first season did, as Bas struggles to cope with and respond to the harassment.

Michael, the actor who played Bas, did a phenomenal job. The Bas/Marco plotline was the best part of the series, with very credible performances by both.

The James/Ait storyline was much less dramatic but still enjoyable. It was a little hard to get worked up about their issues when other characters were going through so much.

I thought the final episode wrapped things up well, if a little too neatly.

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