That was Interesting

The second story of what appears to be a series trilogy (arguably a four parter) from production house JACE TV starting with Hook Up and will be followed up with One Night Stand Bangkok. Unguarded continues the story of Mark Lee after his ex-boyfriend (friend with benefits?) Henry leaves to study in Bangkok. Henry asks his best friend Lukas to take in Mark Lee because Mark Lee’s house got flooded. That sets off a series events from a developing romance (which was kinda expected) between Mark Lee and Lukas to something a bit more interesting of a storyline. This is definitely a middle series as Unguarded moves as if you’ve watched the previous series, Hook Up, already. Hook Up will give you the backstory between Mark Lee, Henry, and Lukas. Trust me, it’s a must as it will help fill gaps probably lost to most viewers coming in cold into this series. The challenge is that Hook Up is an 8 episode series, so watching for background is not trivial. ?

Unguarded has its sweet moments and has an interesting plot twist but is too dependent on Hook Up for background that you’re left wondering how did we get here so quickly. Mark Erasga, who stars as Mark Lee, is getting better with every series. He’s less monloguey in this series, mostly because he’s actually acting with someone as opposed to just the camera/phone as he was in the previous two series - I don’t know if the first series from JACE TV, Truly Very Yours, which also stars Mark as Mark Lee fits into this set of series or not. It was nice to see some character development in Unguarded with Mark Lee and acting range from Mark- you get to see the mad version that isn’t yelling at a phone. Niko Badayos, who stars as Lukas, plays his yin/yang role really well. He was good in Hook Up and good here. Not to mention he’s good eye candy. Although Unguarded appears to be at first a couples series between Lukas and Mark Lee, it’s really about Lukas and his character struggles.

The music is a let down. The OST is the same one as in Hook Up which provides a nice link between two series. It’s a good song, very catchy. The challenge that I have is that the other background music for the last two episodes was a bit overdone and gave it a soap opera vibe - could have cut it or chosen something different.

If you watch this as a standalone series you will probably be confused and most likely let down as you won’t have the background needed from watching the previous series, Hook Up. Plus, you won’t be satisfied with the cliffhanger ending which I assume will be resolved in the next series. If you view this as the bridge between the two, it’s ok. Definitely a different storyline from the typical drama narratives, especially in the BL genre. Let’s hope that One Night Stand Bangkok can give it a more complete ending,

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10 unrelated short films dealing with starting, maintaining, rekindling, and/or ending of relationships during the COVID-19 quarantine. Nine of the ten episodes were uniquely filmed in a video chat/vlog style with the actors actually filming their part separately from presumably the location they are Quarantining at due to COVID. The outtakes from the episodes provided by Nadao Bangkok confirm this. This style of filming is appropriate to what is happening to all of us in 2020

Director Kriangkrai Vachiratamporn - who has directing, writing, or production credits on the Hormones trilogy, ThirTEEN Terrors, and Project S: The Series - does an excellent job of producing a series under challenging circumstances. The storylines for each of the episodes are done well and the acting is solid as he enlists familiar veteran faces from the three other projects that he’s worked on in the past. Since each film is unrelated, it doesn’t matter which episode you watch first. Their short run times, simple storylines, and solid veteran acting make them easy and enjoyable to watch, Take the time.

My top Five Episodes. I don’t want to do a spoiler to explain more so just the titles.
1. Episode 6 - Close Friend
2. Episode 8 - Mother Distancing
3. Episode 10 - What Happened Last Night
4. Episode 5 - Pumpkin
5. Episode 2 - Lovers on the Street

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What makes My Engineer work is its simple storylines that balance just enough depth to provide substance without making the stories too complicated and relatable young actors who are cute and act well.

The series starts off weird and disjointed. I almost dropped it because of it. But hung on through the first two episodes and found it a very well worth while watch. The couples are interesting. Not only because of their cuteness, but for the Yin/Yang nature of their relationship. The simple opposites attract theme and the journey that each couple took to find their mutual love for each other is told well enough. It’s sweet and cuddly without being too sappy. Kudos to the writers and director for providing equal screen time for each of the couples, this is often a problem in ensemble couple series, so you can actually appreciate all of them.

Take the time to watch this candy sweet series. Yes, it’s not going to be as deep as Until We Meet Again or have the twist and turns of Theory of Love. It’s the simplicity annd cuteness of My Engineer that make this worth your time.

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The first in what will hopefully be a number of other Filipino produced short stories out of this production company. This story is about Al and Er, a couple challenged to put food on the table and buy necessities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It tells about the struggle with choices that they have to make in order to survive.

The story itself isn’t groundbreaking, arguably just a discussion/argument a couple could have If put into that situation. The choices that they were presented with is thought provoking. The film was shot in one take. This production/directing choice is a bold and huge task for the actors (as they would have to treat it like a live play - no mistakes) and the cinematographer as camera placement and the scene would need to be planned and timed well . One of the best examples of a one shot scene was done by Martin Scorsese in “Goodfellas” during Henry and Karen’s first date scene. Goodfellas had little dialog between actors which makes this scene in Al and Er more challenging. Because of the one shot format and a less sophisticated camera rig some of the angles that they move the camera to are a bit off and when they move the camera had challenges focusing fast enough to the movement. Still, big props to the format especially considering their most likely limited budget and the fact that they shot this during the middle of the pandemic.

Acting was very good! Both Jerom Canlas and Jomari Angeles did a great job making you feel the characters dilemma and stepped up to the challenge of a one take scene. Their quality acting would have been good regardless of the format. I look forward to seeing more from the two.

A good first effort from this production house. Well worth the time to watch.

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Kudos for Trying Something New

Points to the production team for using a vlog/video chat format to film this low budget series. It’s appropriate to the quarantine world that defines 2020. Unfortunately it’s not very well executed and frankly the story was confusing. Maybe if I had a better background in Filipino cinema I would have a better appreciation for the series as the first three episodes used old Filipino drama as dialog between characters. The acting, for newbies, was fine; a good first effort for actors who are primarily vloggers. Despite a similar format from their usual, they weren’t strong/seasoned enough to carry the series.

2020 Is turning out to be the breakout year for the BL genre in Filipino cinema and because of that this series will be compared to the first wave of better funded series such as Gameboys and Hello Stranger. Those two series are much better efforts with more cohesive storylines, better production values, and significantly better acting using the same filming format and style, Gameboys is a masterclass of series filmmaking, regardless of genre. Maybe not a fair comparison because of that. Regardless, where Truly Very Yours falls short is a storyline that was way too confusing that I just didn’t get it. I think it got a bit too dramatic for drama sake rather than clarity or story/character development.

With other choices in this genre from other countries but more importantly now in the Philippines it’s hard to justify watching this 5 episode series. Again, I commend the people involved in making Truly Very Yours part of the first wave of Filipino series in this genre and producing a series during COVID pandemic. But, the two series I’ve mentioned above are far better representatives and better show the state of Philppine filmmaking, especially in this genre. If you like the vlog /video chat style, I think you’d be better served to watch Gameboys and Hello Strangers, as well as the follow-up/companion series, Hook Up, which has some of the same characters/actors. It’s better evolved all the way around.

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Are copies better than the Originals?

Top Secret Together (TST) is a series that’s just a bad riff. It lacks any story originality, taking its storylines from other more successful Thai series -which I will outline from where later - and passes it off as a credible series. Add to that, two too many couples and you have a hot confusing mess. TST is a rom-com ish series that does a poor job of connecting and developing a cohesive storyline for most of the couples in the series. Instead of focusing on one or two couples, TST ambitiously squeezes in 5 of them to the detriment of the series as it needed to spend time with all the couple’s storylines. They should have invested in a more streamlined series with two or three couples. The three seasons of Hormones, My Engineer, and even Make it Right are examples of very successful large multi-couple/multi-plot series’s that should be templates for any new producer/director undertaking this style of series. Otherwise, you end up getting TST.

The couples and the riffs (spoiler alert):

Couple 1: Sinmai/Lukmo are the main couple of TST. The story is your typical grumpy aloof guy that gets changed by an enthusiastic, naive younger guy. Pretty much a riff of the Phu/Kao couple from the Oxygen series - Ram/King from My Engineer also comes to mind here as well. Sinmai/Lukmo have their good moments early as Sinmai breaks down Lukmo’s wall only to have it come crashing down when TST decides to throw a couple of ethical wrenches into the mix by making them have a brother/step-brother relationship. Honestly, an unnecessary plot twist. They should have dropped that part and spent more time focusing them moving to becoming a couple. Embellishing Lukmo’s challenges with his mom’s passing or built-off his fight with co-workers would have been far more interesting. The cliffhanger of Sinmai leaving to go overseas, like Phu did in Oxygen, was a good wrapper. The whole brother/step-brother and the parents wanting to keep it a secret just leaves all kinds of dirty in that storyline for no reason.

Couple 2: MaiEak/Phob - Phob crushes on MaiEak. MaiEak doesn’t reciprocate back till the end till when he realizes that he really does like Phob but by then it’s too late. This is a riff of Khai/Third couple in Theory of Love. The main difference is that Third drowns out his sorrows by taking showers fully clothed, while Phob waits hungry for hours for MaiEak which gives Phob stomach problems. The Boss/Mek storyline from My Engineer as well as the Tee/Fuse storyline from Make it Right are also very reminiscent. Those three couple’s storylines were very well developed. They each made you feel the challenges and the pain of the one-sided love that each of the characters were going through. In TST, they rushed what seemed to be a bromance into a one-sided crush. They didn’t give the couple enough backstory like the aforementioned couples from other Thai series. They brought it to a head quickly with a funny accidental text and gave them a good confession scene where you could empathize with Phob’s one sided feelings and MaiEak not having the same romantic interest. But as the two drifted away, I became less and less empathetic with MaiEak. That’s where this storyline fails. I never rooted for this couple to succeed. It ended up being MaiEak being selfish and possessive, even in his approach to wooing Phob. It would have been far more interesting had MaiEak thrown himself into wooing Phob like Khai did with Third in Theory of Love. Cliche as that would have been, it would have been a far more interesting watch vs MaiEak just asking advise from everyone and bugging Phob on the phone 24/7. I guess that’s very Tee/Fuse in Make it Right. Even the wrap up was a bit weird. I definitely was rooting for the other guy to get Phob. Maybe it was the COVID restrictions that limited what they could do with this couple?

Couple 3: Nampu/Copy - a straight copy (pun intended) of the storyline of the much beloved SOTUS series. Distruptive Freshman woos the SOTUS Head Hazer. TST is just a slimmed down version of the SOTUS storyline. The beginning of the their storyline was rushed - would have been nice to have seen a bit more SOTUS related tension between the two and more of Nampu breaking down Copy’s wall. But, of all 5 couples this one developed and wrapped up the best. Highlighted by Copy’s coming out to his dad (which was very inventive) and the subtlety with the way that Copy professes his affection and commitment to Nampu. Overall, the couple that I enjoyed watching the most and the one I rooted the most to succeed.

The two that they should have thrown out or minimized (Spoiler Alert):

Couple 4: NewYear/Both - long term couple that run through an insecurity patch in their relationship. A typical cliche storyline done with no originality. From an overall TST storyline perspective, they are the glue between the first two couples I noted above and Couple 3 and 5. Otherwise there would be no link or storyline interactions between them without this couple. Their coffee shop is the hub of where all the couples go to hang-out get advise. Beyond them being the oracles in the story, their storyline is so superficial. Insecurities around one not ready to get married despite being together for over 10-years and perceived infidelity because Both gives an employee compliments of how he looked and gave him a valentine’s gift in front of NewYear, that’s the cause of your tension? They should have left them as oracles, no need for any drama related with this couple. Their issue and expanded role didn’t advance the overall series.

Couple 5: Plawaan/Suea - Suea crushes on HS Senior friend (Plawaan). Suea reconnects with Plawaan several years later when he’s a Senior in HS and Plawaan is a Senior in College. Their mutual connection is basketball. Plawaan is practicing a lot because he’s trying to make a college/club basketball team. I think they were trying to riff the storyline from Project S: Spike. Whether they were or not, it didn’t succeed. This is frankly a throw away couple. Their storyline is just not that interesting. I mostly felt like fast forwarding anytime they showed up on screen. First off, they needed to cast a person who could at least passably play basketball. It was obvious that the actor that played Plawaan couldn’t play any basketball. It was painful watching him try. With basketball being the main focal point of his character, it was important to cast an actor who could show a bit of competency to make it believable. Watch any of the Project S series or HIStory 2: Crossing the Line to get what I mean. In TST, they had too many basketball specific scenes to hide his deficiency which detracted from the credibility of the storyline. Additionally, the premise of his failure to make the team in the past was because of his height wasn’t entirely believable as his height was similar to his antagonist and his mentee Suea. The storyline and the vibe I got was that this was a random add-on couple to the series. Like it was a couple in the book that the series was based on or the producer said that they needed to add these guys as a condition to funding the series so they included them for no other reason. This couple ended up being more of a bromance than anything else. Not that there’s anything wrong with that but storyline kinda just bumbled through it, not sure if they should make it a romantic pairing or not. That and the fact that Plawaan was an unconvincing aspiring basketball player, made this couple a hard watch. Instead of spending what probably amounted to a whole episode of screen time with this couple, they should have of just dumped them in favor of more focused time on the first three I mentioned above.

Conclusion:

TST is a series that takes riffs from other Thai series as well adding cliche aspects of their storyline (let’s go vacation to the beach to profess our love for each other) and made a marginal series with little originality. The acting in TST was ok. There’s some weird dialog here and there but they’re passable and really wasn’t the problem in the series. Other than one character, they were definitely better than just cute. The problem came down to weak and uninteresting storylines for 4 of the 5 characters without enough development time. As I mentioned, the Nampu/Copy storyline was the only one that held any interest for me. The rest were eh, mainly because I felt little to no empathy for any of them especially at the end.

Is it worth watching? If you’re bored and willing to overlook the cliche storylines then maybe. Honestly, you’re far better off spending the time re-watching SOTUS, My Engineer, Theory of Love, Hormones, Make it Right, any of the Project S series, any of the HIStory series, and/or Oxygen. Those are the real deal and are far better uses of your time.

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Improving

Kudos to any production company for choosing to film a series in the middle of a pandemic. Not only do you have challenges of filming during a pandemic, where the director and crew have to be creative with interactions but choosing to film in a video chat style adds to the complexity of the filming. Couple that with young and green actors and what you end up with is a series with a lot of potential but a bit lacking.

Pandemic aside, Hook Up is a homemade series which doesn’t have the budget, equipment, or expertise that the exceptional Gameboys and Hello Strangers series have. Hook Up will be invariably be compared to those two as it shares the same video chat style, was filmed at the same time, and is one of the trailblazing Filipino series in this genre. However, it would be completely unfair to compare it solely against those two due to its inherent limitations beyond the pandemic.

The acting, directing, editing, and script of Hook Up looks to be geared as if it were a theatrical live play that you’d watch as a school drama production rather than a style based the limitations of a vid chat. The actors always seemed to be doing monologues instead of actually interacting with each other on a vid chat. At times it seemed like poor chemistry between two actors, as the conversations seemed so unnatural and scripted - one of those where I think I don’t talk to that way to other people on vid chat. However, if you look at it like a live drama production where your words have to convey so much more about what the character is thinking and feeling then you can kinda understand the way it was being portrayed and maybe why the chemistry seemed inconsistent. Imagine a dark stage with Mark Lee on one side and Henry on the other. As one talks, the spotlight would be focused on him while other one be in the dark.

The storyline of the relationship between Mark Lee (played by Mark Ersaga) and Henry (played by JC Lopez) was ok. It was decently developed but not clearly resolved - it felt as if they danced around the topical issues rather than creating a clear storyline and the twist and turns seem to be deliberate (segmented) rather than natural. I think this is due to the theatrical play style that the director chose to go with in this series. Much like a stage play, it’s hard to keep multiple storylines going. The biggest plus was the addition in the later half of the series of Lukas (played by Niko Badayos) as the call boy antagonist. He’s an unusual but an interesting character addition to the story.

The main actors are ok for nw actors. They need work but improving. Mark Erasaga is getting better since his first effort in Truly Very Yours. Both he and JC Lopez struggle with having to covey a lot in the monologue, theatre style. In the theatre you do that with deliberate movements and hand gestures, In the single frame, vid chat format you have to do it with your eyes, facial expressions, voice tones and subtle character actions which neither do an entirely consistent job at. The most successful character in this style was Tita Baby who plays Tita Cassie, the wise sage who always gives timely life/relationship advise to Mark and Henry. She’s so awesomely over the top and her character thrives in this format. As well as Niko Badayos as Lukas - his I know what I want monologue works really well in this format.

We all know that you can create an exceptional vid chat format series, even in this pandemic. Take the time to watch the greatness/master-class level series Gameboys and nearly as good Hello Strangers as excellent examples of how this style of filmmaking works. In this vain, Hook-up is ok. I think it has a lot of potential that’s held back a little by the theatrical style the director choses to film this series. I don’t know if that pandemic related or a style choice. This style makes it unique from the aforementioned two series. What it needs is for the main actors to develop further to pull it off.

Is it worth your time? Yes. There are other better series in the same genre from the Philippines and other countries now out there but it’s an ok way to kill time. To be fair to it, don’t compare against the best series out there. It doesn’t have the budget nor the experienced acting, directing, or screenwriting that those series have. It does however, have an interesting enough story, an interesting theatrical style, and the characters are endearing enough to make time to watch it.

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Girl likes boy; boy doesn’t like girl back; girl tries (with the help of her friends) to woo boy; boy still not interested; girl losses interest and stops pursuing boy; boy misses her and begins to like girl. It’s not an too unfamiliar a storyline and unfortunately this version is nothing special and brings little in the way of storytelling or great acting to the Teen RomCom genre. Set in the same school and even classrooms as the Hormones 1,, 2, and 3 series, it’s hard not too make comparisons (fairly or unfairly) between the two series. Frankly, Hormones just does a better job with the similar storyline. The storyline in Hormones has more depth, the acting is better and it has a more believable plot. Beyond Hormones there are just so many better Thai series out there that do the Teen RomCom genre better.

Speaking of Hormones, Belle - the lead character in this series - is played by Kanaywee Songmuang who has a major role in Hormones 2 and 3. In this series she’s passable but not entirely convincing as a head over heals infatuated girl. I think Songmuang is better in roles where she plays a strong but yet vulnerable character much like she does in Hormones, Kiss Me Again, and Project S - Shoot Me. In this series her best scenes are those where she’s standing up for herself from an infatuated ex played by White Phumphothingam of LoveSick Series fame.

Korapet Kirdpan is ok at best in his role as S, the male lead in the series. His acting isn’t entirely convincing either. He’s basically indifferent the whole time which makes his switch from not liking to liking her a bit more difficult to believe. You never get the feeling that he cares nor gets mad or even understands what’s going on. And no, it’s not intentional more like green acting. He does a much better acting job in a similar role in My Dear Loser Series: Edge of 17 and thankfully has seriously matured with his recent role in The Gifted series. The rest of the actors are fair playing their roles. Most portray their roles stiffly, including White. It would be funny if it didn’t come of as young actors learning the ropes.

Story - This story has been told many times and there are better out there in the same genre.
Acting - Eh... good potential but only ok at best.
Music - Appropriate but not something you’d remember
Rewatch - unless you really like these actors that much or you’re looking for a fluffy series it’s not worth the time
Overall - There are better series out there.

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Passable

Calculating Love starts off with an interesting premise of math formulas as parallels to relationships. The story is about two lifelong friends (Sine and Tan) who are both studying math in college. They realize in their last year in college that they, like the mathematical functions of sine and TANgent, complement each other. More than just complement but more than just friends.

The story’s mathematical basis is an interesting take and was a draw to continue to watch the series. The challenge with this series is that it’s very slow paced and arguably very repetitive especially in the middle episodes. It was like you were going through the same story path over and over again. Unfortunately, the slow pace wasn’t used to provide much depth to any of the characters, which made them pretty uninteresting. As the story progressed I felt less and less empathy towards Sine and Tan. I think they were trying to go after a Kai and Third vibe from Theory of Love but Calculating Love was unable to create that same emotional feeling or empathy towards either Sine or Tan with the struggles with their relationship which leads to an overall story in Calculating Love that’s very uninteresting.

The final episode wasn’t bad but like the rest of the series it could have been cut by a 1/3 as it too fell into the same cyclical story path with a slow resolution for the story. Maybe this was done on purpose to show how solving difficult math problems takes time, much like a relationship. Sometimes it takes a bit of trial and error before you come up with a solution. Hmmm...

The overall acting was ok as was the music in the series. Neither were at the top end but both passable enough to make it watchable.

Overall, Calculating Love is a fair series. The episodes came out a month or longer apart from each other. Had it not been for that, I would have probably dropped the series for its slow pace and generally uninteresting characters. With so many other series out there now I wouldn’t recommend this as a top-25 for 2020 to watch. As a filler while waiting in between other series, yeah why not.

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When Cute is Enough

Don’t watch this series if you’re looking for a deep and rich storyline or exceptional acting. Watch this series for cute and cuddly. Think of this as a riff of Sotus and 2Moons (both of the series) in terms of theme but not as deep.

The storyline pacing was weird. It was like they hit the fast forward button through the meaningful character/relationship development portions of the story and then slowed down during the flirty parts. You’d think with 4 episodes of a larger trilogy that they would have spent more time developing substance. There was really no need to rush and I think it would have been more enjoyable had they slowed down a bit. There are several similar length series (any of the HIStory series from Taiwan as examples) that do a significantly better job.

Where this series works is when it’s cute and cuddly specifically when Gun and Bar are flirting/chasing each other. Their acting is fine. Their chemistry is awkward but actually works ok as that awkwardness lends itself well to their developing relationship. The dialog between the two is sappy, sweet, and borderline cringy but is so weirdly cute that you endear yourself to them so much that you overlook the lack of substance and awkward pacing of the series.

En of Love: TOSSARA is an example of a series where cute overcomes substance. With this genre growing more sophisticated with every new series, it’s ok to indulge in something that’s simple, pure, and frankly not over-ladened with a complicated storyline. At 4 episodes, it’s a worthwhile watch!

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Some Potential at the Start, Finished a Hot Mess

The series started with some potential but it’s not particularly ground breaking or interesting from a story perspective. The story follows the typical RomCom, almost formulaic, story line of two roommates who start off as strangers and end up falling for each other. The first three episodes were building up the relationship of the two main characters well enough but the whole series was let down by a hot mess that was Episode 4, which is supposedly the last episode of the series. Episode 4 started off promising and ended in a place that was not only an unsatisfying end to a series but also in a scene that should no longer be a narrative in any series or movie - unless it’s a key plot element to the story. Which in this case was wholly unnecessary. Of course the Special Episode fixed this and made it more acceptable. Why they chose to classify Episode 4 as the final episode and then add a Special Episode makes no sense. The Special Episode does a decent job ending the series which makes that a must watch.

The acting and chemistry between the two main actors was ok enough for this series. Not their fault that the series they signed up for fell apart. The secondary female actors seemed forced and over done. They didn’t effectively play either the comic relief in the series nor the match making Cupid role; they were pretty much a forced after thought.

Frankly, there are far better series past, present, and future to spend your time watching - even if you watch the Special Episode. The convoluted and disappointing end makes this series not a worth your time watch. Ok, the Speical Episode does a decent job tying the series of. However, I still maintain that even during this pandemic that there significantly better new shows out there.

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