Only if you have nothing else to watch...

Well, this year's japanese bls have been more of a miss than a hit! And this one unfortunately is on the miss side!

It is a cute slice of life, childhood friends to lovers, unrequited long-time crush, an endless string of clichés and repetitive tropes filled drama. Mind you, it was not bad but it was completely forgettable and something we have already seen so many times.

The actors had zero chemistry and the kisses were not even pecks, so why bother? The characters were also clichés: a former baseball player Kazuhito, cold and taciturn apparently emotionless but actually hiding his feelings really well. The other one was the opposite: jumpy, confused and indiscreet. It was so painful to watch when he was prodding the baseball guy about his love life, asking increasingly rude questions and even offering to sort it out for him and get him a girlfriend. Ryota is indeed a very unlikeable character. He seems young and cheerful but is actually immature and impolite and completely unaware of his surroundings: "Read the room, Ryo and shut the fuck up!"

The most interesting character was Haruna, baseball guy's best friend who cunningly pushes the two towards each other, inciting them to finally talk. I want to see a drama where he's a main character.

The baseball guy was too cute (I want to see more of that actor!) the other one was too creapy. Towards the ending, I kept thinking of Cherry Magic, thai version, where Achi accepts Karan's feelings out of gratitude but still very uncomfortable together. I had the same feeling here, less pronounced but still present: Ryo still seemed very uncomfortable...He was also worried for a long time about the acceptability of their relationship and even though Haruna explained some basic truths about Kazuhito, he semed more interested in keeping a roommate than getting a boyfriend. Very ambiguous!

Forgettable plot but well produced without major problems unless you count boredom.

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Magical cocktail therapy...

Taste of Cat has a great concept, incredible cats and my favourite genre: fantasy. So why only four short episodes?

The cats take over their owner's bar late at night and help out strangers who stumble upon it. The drama covers two cases: a girl who finds out her ex is badmouthing her and a man who bumps unexpectedly on his ex and is ridden with regrets. The cats through drinks and more (fantasy element: body swap and time travel!) help them see more clear and sort it out!

Does anyone know what happened to these three actors? They are by far the most convincing. (and the cutest) cats I have ever seen! I could watch them play with a ball of yarn and throwing steamy glances to each other for hours: plot is not needed! So why did they sink into oblivion, doing bit parts, if any? What a waste! I looked them up while watching this short drama and the fact that their careers never took off as they rightfully deserved, made me incredibly sad .

The production is the usual for a korean web drama: some bad acting, some empty sets, some bad cinematography, though not all (the date was filmed soft like a dream...), I loved the original idea of the plot: the bartender listens to the customer's story in exchange for a shiny toy (bracelet, tie) and offers a corresponding magical cocktail!

Cute but too short! I know there is a sequel....still this concept deserves a better production and a longer drama!

review 100

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Quirky and illogical....

....if you trust the human vampire movies. But, as they say, "Don't trust the human vampire movies!"

There are 4 vampires: three men and a woman who is fed up with living and wants to die but does not know how. So the men come up with different ideas. So this introduction part was interesting but after that I found everything they did illogical to say the least.

So she wants to die but has never tried to go out in the sun? That is THE big vampire trope: sensitivity to sunlight. But she never thought of that? Has she been living in a bubble for over 70 years and learned nothing about herself and the vampire species?
Then one of the guys says that vampires die if they have sex with each other. I find it hard to fathom vampires living for centuries (700yrs!) together and never once trying to have sex especially since they seem to have feelings for each other. So the woman has sex with the guy and apparently it is mindblowingly good but they are both still alive.
So she tries garlic, crosses and eventually sunlight. Nothing kills them.
In the end, they just have to keep on living like "ordinary" immortals.

If you do not try to nitpick like I just did, it is a funny little film I would not mind watching a much longer version since it shakes up all known vampire tropes.

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Peer pressure

Thank God for small mercies: halfway through this film I was certain that one character was going to off himself, everything was pointing in that direction. Korean shorts usually have a tragic ending. Well, this one was not tragic just unhappy. And very much expected considering the topic: high school boys and the power of appearances.

Two boys are friends and more (couple of chaste kisses prove that!) but a third boy is jealous, bigot, suspicious, discriminating and he manages to influence one of the boys to stop seeing his friend/boyfriend. That boy is very susceptible to other people's opinions and caves in easily in spite of having deep feelings for the other boy, who is used to be talked about in derogatory terms.

The film manages to say a lot in the space of 20min. The usual topics arise: high school, coming out, discovering one's sexuality, experimenting, peer pressure, gossip, self-confidence and the lack thereof. The cinematography is cold and dark and the direction rather straightforward.

Nice short film probably describing first experiences of many young men: it feels very raw and real.

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Pinky promises

I remember watching this as a drama a couple of years ago and not liking it very much: I found it messy, lacking chemistry and with low production value. Ever since then, I keep stumbling on occasional review and feeds post and they are all praising it highly. So I decided to rewatch it as a movie and to see if my original appreciation still holds!

Unfortunately it does! Even though I like this concept of red string of fate, it was nevertheless underwhelming. The motif of the red string is repeatedly used in different ways throughout the film which I found rather original: scarf, rope, pinky promise.... The characters are complete opposites: a cold debt collector and his fiery dancer debtor. Their relationship and bickering was nice, the actors were very much at ease with each other and yet still something was missing. They looked like they were not in synch while filming. The rest of the characters are just caricatures, barely sketched clichés: the cruel lady boss, the idiotic flamboyant sidekick, the mean rival (actually we never find out what happened to him after they spent so much time on him and when he left their last showdown with a cocky smirk!). And the sets? Pretty winter scenery but no heating inside: it was very cold on sets - that is very obvious!

Again, we have a korean mother who abandons her child after getting him in debt and cutting all means of communication with him. Are korean parents really this cruel? This is something that keeps repeating in k dramas so there must be a sliver of truth there. And that truth is ugly and it paints korean parents in a very bad light!

But everything considered, it is an OK single watch!

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Cute and superficial

I am a bit torn: this drama is very short and therefore they do not go for in depth character development so I wish they had made it a bit longer. On the other hand, the topic is not interesting and the plot is just a string of predictable moves.

It is a story of two make up influencer who used to be friends but are now mortal enemies. They are forced to work together, so they never stop bickering and throwing snide remarks around. There are two men interested in the younger influencer. Who is she going to choose?

I am not spending my time on different social media, so the very main topic was extremely boring to me. I stayed for the romance but because of the short duration, it was rushed and it sorely lacked chemistry.

This is a web drama so I should not expect much but it definitely looks like an average quality endeavour. Everything is average here: the actors seem to be clones of big stars, the screenplay is undercooked and superficial (even though they put the stress on social media speed and influence but they do not elaborate on it: it is just there, it exists and that's it!), the cinematography is correct though they made an effort to put the FL in spotlight with slight special effects: she sparkles a little bit! The song is annoying!

It is a romcom and nothing more.

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Between Love And Friendship

Never had a drama a more fitting title!
Never was there a drama for me where I did not want the main leads to end up together.
Never had I seen a couple of utterly dislikable characters with horrendous and extremely weak personalities.
Never were the truer words said than when the ML finally admits to his own shortcomings 5 min before the ending!

As the title says, this is a story of two friends who want to become more but they are just caught in a string of missed opportunities, lack of courage, misunderstandings, lack of courage, lies, lack of courage and of course, lack of courage. They are both so insecure behind the hard surface that they do not dare to speak the truth to each other. But the reason was never the obvious one: to keep the friendship intact because their friendship, even though they were close, was never really deep and sincere. They liked spending time together but both of them wanted to become more while neither of them dared to say it. It turned out to be an extremely frustrating watch.

What it proved, as if the proof was needed, is that the men are weak creatures, without spine or courage but who talk big. Women on the other hand are not afraid to talk and lie, to fight what they want, to abandon what they do not need anymore.

What I liked about this drama is the structure of it: the same story is told from the both main characters' point of view as each episode tells about the same events. What I did not like very much is the usual overuse of voiceover but that is such a j drama thing so we end up getting used to it! I loved the music : the final song was beautiful. But I did not like the ML: he is the most annoying, spineless, cowardly, stupid, idiotic ML I have ever watched. What I hated about this is the predictable ending: I did not want them to end up happily ever after! They had so many opportunities to be happy together but they let every one of those slip through their fingers so they can wallow in misery and pretend to be happy. They actually deserved to remain alone and really miserable while having huge regrets and never acting on them! It was never clear what they liked so much about each other: probably they recognized each other's flaws in themselves: they are both equally insincere!

The drama's 10 episodes, 5 from Rina's POV and 5 from Ren's, span a 7 year period: it took them over 7 years to finally realize what they wanted (especially Ren: he is an idiot when he needs his ex-wife to explain some truths to him!) and timidly try to do something about it. I really thought that Ren was going to run away again in the end when she said "No way!" to his proposal..

Interesting concept but annoying characters with an undeserving happy end! Watching suggestion: watch the two versions at the same time in this order: episodes: 1, 6, 2, 7, 3, 8, 4, 9, 5, 10.

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Be careful what you wish for!

The original plot, no unnecessary time consuming side pots, cute actors (except for one), lovely music and a short duration was what kept me hooked on this drama when I have been dropping recent thai bls like they were hot potatoes!

The main problem this drama has is the casting and it is twofold! Firstly: Why would anyone give Gun a main role is beyond comprehension: he cannot act and even though he managed to tone down his ugly grimacing, it is still there and going crescendo as we approach the last episode! Secondly: Is it really so difficult to find actors who look alike for the characters' young and old versions! Just watch japanese dramas: it is uncanny! Their ability to find similar looking actors is amazing!

Gun with his overacting has ruined the enjoyment of this drama. But not so much as to drop it as I have been doing a lot recently with thai bls! This drama has an original plot idea which was unfortunately undercooked!

It is a story of a magical cafe that appears before you when you are the most desperate and offers to fulfil a wish. There are three at first unconnected, stories being told here. The first one is a woman abandoned by her boyfriend when he discovered she was pregnant. The second one is about Reaow and Mai, a new student in his high school. The third follows a longtime couple whose relationship is starting to fall apart because of work and lack of communication.

The pacing of the drama is a bit off: draggy for the most of it, it feels rushed in the last episodes with all the revelations coming out at a breakneck speed. But they managed to explain the majority of questions we were asking as we watched. I wished that the fantasy element had been more present in the first episodes which looked mostly like a mash up of two dramas: a school BL and an adult bl with a weird cafe owner(she was extremely weird, cackling and laughing like a maniac!) thrown randomly in between.
The two love stories were interesting though nothing new. The final episode twist, which I frankly did not see coming (bad casting!!!!) put a damper on the teen romance and it changed my appreciation of the characters (Reauw unexpectedly turned actually to be an ambiguous and grey character). The teen romance was well presented and Mai's questioning of his own sexuality in spite of his macho upbringing (there is apparently a wrong translation in the crucial scene: he does not say "I am straight!" but he says "I'm a man. Men don't cry!") was very convincing. Are you strong enough to go against your parents when you are 17?
The adult romance was ruined by bad acting and the lack of chemistry though the premise was interesting. Thana has been with his high achieving doctor boyfriend for ten years and the cracks are starting to show in that relationship because he does not seem to be able to keep up the pace with the successful doctor and they do not seem to talk anymore. He meets a young man in the neighbourhood and they hit it off famously: they seem to be on the same level, they seem to understand each other and they definitely have better chemistry.

I really liked the drama a lot and I am a bit disappointed because it could have been something exceptional with this original plot, better writing, pacing and not casting Gun: the rest of the actors were excellent! The cinematography is rich, soft and sparkling. The background music and the final song about forgetting were very nice and fit the drama perfectly.

There are plotholes (how does the café really work?), there are inconsistencies but they just made me go huh! And they were not bad enough for me to drop this which is a good sign! The ending is open and not what I hoped for: I did not want for Thana and his doctor to stay together. In spite of all the attraction they felt for each other, the whole relationship was built on a lie (a wish!) and should have crumbled when the truth came out.

I liked this drama a lot: it is different from the unwatchable fluff and soft porn thai producers seem to be churning out at a scary speed and that I keep dropping even faster! It has an interesting plot premise and I wish they put a little bit more effort into writing and casting which would have made it perfect!

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Defying time

Brilliant idea but lacklustre execution, unfortunately! I was hooked after two episodes, so much so, I subscribed to Gagaoolala in order to finish it. It did not keep its promise, sadly!

There are two different time periods that suddenly due to supermoon, get in touch and two sad men start talking to each other across time! Something happens between them but of course, there are so many obstacles in their way that nothing can come out of their love story. Just more regret and sadness.
The characters are very real and I loved the Wade's mother: open, helpful, optimistic, friendly an ideal mother in short!

The cinematography is stunning. It gives the whole series an out of the world, hazy and dreamy feeling, as befitting a fantasy! Beside interesting camera angles, the two time periods are filmed differently. Wade in 2020, pandemic and isolation, is all white, overexposed and too bright. Jose Manuel in 1974 is just like the Marcos dictatorship historical period: hopeless, dark and sad. The only bright points are JM's T-shirts. Wade's T-shirts also carry a message connected to the story
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The music is moody and ominous announcing from the first seconds that this is not going to be a happy story! The huge problem is the sound recording: very bad!

The writing is original though a bit draggy and it is not very clear at which speed the time moves. They start communicating through letters: I love that concept. Their ability to communicate is due to the full moon. But that full moon usually lasts no more than three night every four weeks. Here it seems that they talk to each other every day and that there is the full moon in the clear sky every day as well (the shots of the moon are too frequent to correspond to reality!). They talk through the mirrors but sometimes they seem to see each other and sometimes they seem to be talking to themselves in the mirror: so it is not really clear how the whole communication thing works. They can talk to each other every day but they can see each other only when it is the full moon. Maybe I missed something? Another issue I found strange is that Wade thinks of finding the contemporary JM only after he definitely looses contact with him. While they were talking to each other Wade was never curious to find him in 2020?
The writers used the legend of Sidapa and Libulan which is tale of a controversial love affaire of two male deities in precolonial Filipino myth showing how impossible can become possible if you don't give up.

But the most interesting part were the episodes' titles which are the most romantic untranslatable words from a variety of languages:

1. YUAN FEN: (mandarin) fate or chance that brings people together predestined affinity or relationship (Budd.) destiny. Being able to provide explanations in a positive way, Yuanfen has always functioned as an attribution, the psychological process of seeking reasons for particular events.
2. FORELSKET is a Danish word that means in love, enamoured, or in love with. Forelsket is also a Norwegian word for the magical state of falling in love: it is exhilarating partially because it’s so impossible to control. It’s that fluttery, heart-pounding, palms-sweating, complete bliss that you feel when you’re first falling in love.
3. SAUDADE is a Portugese word for the emotional state of melancholic or profoundly nostalgic longing for a beloved yet absent something or someone. It derives from the Latin word for solitude. It is often associated with a repressed understanding that one might never encounter the object of longing ever again. It is a recollection of feelings, experiences, places, or events, often elusive, that cause a sense of separation from the exciting, pleasant, or joyous sensations they once caused.
4. VIRAAG is a hindi word meaning the anguish you experience when you’re physically separated from the person you love. This could mean a wide range of things. Perhaps your crush is in a relationship with someone else, so you’re forced to love them from afar. Perhaps you and your partner are in a long-distance relationship counting down the days until you’re reunited. Or maybe (unfortunately) you’re enduring a breakup and struggling to cope with the idea of losing someone forever. That pain you feel? It’s viraag.
5. MAMIHLAPINATAPEI: derived from the Yaghan language of Tierra del Fuego, listed in The Guinness Book of World Records as the "most succinct word", and is considered one of the hardest words to translate.This word is all too familiar for those out there who are a bit on the shy side. You like someone, and you think (maybe!) (hopefully!) that they like you too. You’re sitting across from each other, hands almost touching, but not quite. Your breath catches in your throat and you’re sure they can hear your heartbeat slamming in your ears. You look shyly at them. They look shyly back. But neither of you makes the first move. This moment--one of joy and anguish, fear and excitement--is summed up by the word “mamihlapinatapei.”
6. ONSRA comes from Boro language of India and means loving for the last time; that bittersweet feeling you get when you know a love won’t last.
7. KARA SEVDE They talk about kara sevda, an untranslatable Turkish concept that literally means “black love” or blind love and alludes to how uncontrollable desire and unrequited love can render someone hopeless and broken. It also means tragic love. It used for a strong, unrelenting and unhealthy crush in tragedies and folk stories.
8. ICHIGO ICHIE "one time, one meeting" is a Japanese idiom that describes a cultural concept of treasuring the unrepeatable nature of a moment, the practice of making the most of every encounter and understanding how important the “now” is.
9. HAPPENSTANCE means something happened because of certain circumstances, although it was not planned by anyone.

There is an unsuspected depth in this story which is unfortunately bogged down with sadness and hopelessness.

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Love & candles

Apparently this is based on the K drama with the same title. I have seen said drama but years ago and all I remember are the candles and the Himalayas. But I remember liking it (though when time travel is concerned, i am not picky: I adore the concept!).

A man discovers a bunch of candles that can take him back ten years so he uses them in order to save his girlfriend's life. This is the basic plot: but it is eventually really complicated, with many changes accomplished in the past which radically altered the present.

I have to give it to the writers: every time I'd see a plot hole and say "Aha! Gotcha!" , they'd find a perfectly logical explanation in accordance with the overall plot. It is practically foolproof if, of course, you accept the original ridiculous premise of time travel inducing magical candles! There is also the advantage they had going with the short format: they did not have too much time to ruin the drama with unnecessary subplots and complications.

Production value is excellent, the pacing perfect, the acting solid, music nice.

Since it is a c drama and since they are not allowed to do time travel themed series, there is an epilogue after the credits of the last episode which explains, using some incomprehensible mumbo jumbo, that the whole thing was just a coma dream. The full version (3h50 on youtube) does not feature this epilogue so you will be left wanting answers since the story is incomplete (or rather left on a cliffhanger!).

Definitely one of the best short c dramas!

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It took me forever to finally watch this drama and the reason is that I can still vividly remember the webtoon I read a couple of years ago. And I can still remember disliking the main couple. And also wanting to see so much more of the second couple.

And lo and behold, this adaptation is very much faithful to the webtoon and therefore, I disliked the main couple and wanted to see more of the second couple (fortunately there are some nice webtoon side stories about them).

WJ has problems at work so he has been suspended. he goes to a tiny seaside town and meets by accident a well known pottery artist who has been hiding for the past two years. The artist is WJ's boss's favourite one so WJ sees this encounter like a possibility to earn some points and get reinstated. WJ, with his cheerful nature breaks slowly the walls around the artist. Until they actually fall in love and WJ's scheming comes to light. Now ensue a string of misunderstandings and lies which are mercifully quickly resolved! The second couple has a more interesting story: I cannot really remember whether they were real cousins or just friends but the drama lightly touches upon (mentions once!) the family homophobia: blink and you miss it!

The story is messy with a lot of inconsistencies and illogicalities. There is this particular feeling about K-BLs, and this one is no exception: they are cold and empty in spite of warm cinematography, the acting is stilted and unnatural, the kind of music featured has been heard already so many times and is extremely boring, the writing is rather superficial. The actors were mostly cute but the main couple had zero chemistry: more often than not even when they were together, they looked like they were on different planets. The webtoon characters had more sparks flying between them than these two real people. And don't start me on those fish & passionless kisses: not even kisses, more like tiny pecks on lips! Fortunately, there is character development, a slight one but a growth nevertheless: one matures and grows a backbone while the other rediscovers joys of life. While I was watching the office worker played by Gongchan, I kept thinking of Suits, the US show: he reminded me so much of young Patrick J. Adams. And once I thought of that, I could not unthink it, unfortunately! The other couple's thuggish guy reminded me of the farmer boy, loud and direct, from Love Tractor.

This is a most unremarkable drama, correctly produced but lacking soul, a spark or something which would bring it to the top.

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Mistaken identity?

What to say about this little film that has not been said many times already? It is a cute high school romcom.

Every few years these movies are made for new generations of public: a story about a mousy girl who falls for the most popular guy in school (here it is through letters in a notebook). This one has an added twist since it is obviously an adaptation of the classic Cyrano. The girl thinks that the boy had fallen for her much smarter and prettier friend but since she is not interested in him, the girl decides to continue corresponding with him while pretending to be her friend.

I liked that even though this is a film made recently, there is practically not a single phone in sight: the mobile phone interactions have been brought down to a strict minimum for a change. The communication is often verbal, written and even through songs (I loved the song they used to apologize!). In today's world, where young people seem to have their fingers glued to phone screens, this film is a refreshing change, a throwback to romcoms of about 20 years ago 'complete with an accidental school radio live confession!)

This is nothing earth shatteringly new or particularly original but it is well produced and filmed. The actors are cute and portrayed their characters well, having decent chemistry. Nice watch for a Sunday evening.

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Teen Ghost Whisperer

When I started watching this for my Back To The Past watch challenge, I had a terrible feeling of déjà vu: the plot and the events looked so familiar. Until I realized that this must be a japanese take on that american show The Ghost Whisperer. The plot is basically the same: a girl who can see ghosts helps them with their unfinished business, and afterwards they go into the light. It is a case of the week kind of drama, though there is the main story arc that covers the whole show. The girl is helped by a young man who needs to convince his dead ghost girlfriend that she has to go into the afterlife. While doing that they fall in love incurring the wrath of the dead girlfriend.

The whole drama makes you feel warm and giddy: the actors are all good and the chemistry is just right. The special effects are a bit clunky but it does not take anything away from the enjoyment of the drama. The stories, though mostly funny and fun, deal with important questions and feelings: friendship, family, regrets, hopes, dreams and love and grief.

I liked the whole idea behind the drama that only teens can see ghosts: once you become adult you lose that capability. What is the point of that? Helps you grow up and mature, deal with the difficult period of being a teen, dealing with not being a child any more but not quite an adult yet. The FL here shows surprising kindness, open mindedness, understanding and even maturity and I wished that the writers came up with a happy ending for her and her boyfriend even though it was clear from the get go that they could never be together forever. That said, the whole drama is happy, uplifting, sweet and funny. A great watch!

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Don't stay still!

This whole web drama, even though it is well filmed, directed, acted, it should not have been a drama but two, maybe three separate short films or maybe episodes in an omnibus drama. The story follows three couples who never interact, they do not know each other, and what happens in their lives does not impact in any way the others. So I frankly fail to understand the intention behind the director's vision. Is it a social commentary? I could not notice any.

There are three couples vaguely connected by the girl in the first couple which shows up : Paki & Shane. They are enjoying their last night of lovemaking because she is getting married soon. So she decides to tell him a story about two of her friends (episode 0). But what ep.0 did not make clear is that the story she wants to tell is not about a couple but two different stories about people who do not know each other. The first couple in introduced in the first episode: Hayden and Damian, his neighbour who get to know each other through Damian's grandmother. When they meet, the sparks fly but they are both still vulnerable from their previous relationships so they decide to take it slow. When the grandma dies, Damian is depressed and with Hayden's help he manages to pull through the grieving period. The second couple we meet in a bar where Paki met Hayden for a drink. Archie is Paki's friend and he meets Kelvin, the bar owner, and his high school boyfriend for the first time after years of being abroad. They used to be in a relationship in high school but a girl liked Kelvin and wanted him for herself so she outed and shamed Archie, so much that he left. She then manipulated Kelvin into getting her pregnant and held onto him through their son. When Kelvin meets Archie and realizes his feelings for him are still the same, he decides to stop dancing to his wife's tune and to be honest about himself.

What is the point of Paki's telling these stories? One cannot stay still, immobile. You have to move on, forward, fight for your own happiness and try to be true to yourself and your feelings. I can see that but then why is she not doing it herself: she obviously has feelings for Shane but she's marrying someone else. Not everyone can be happy, not everyone can stay with the person they love? OK, I guess..

While the stories are not particularly original, the acting and production are excellent for a drama filmed on a restricted budget. The colours are all washed out, dark, sad and depressing. The stories are not: they are uplifting and hopeful. Nice contrast. The camerawork is rather interesting: obviously handheld and shaky and there are some interesting camera angle choices: all that made for an intriguing watch, never boring. Music is a bit all over the place: while there are a couple of beautiful songs we only get to hear them during credits a couple of times, otherwise it is all heavy, dramatic and serious piano music.
The actors are all amazing, very much at ease with each other which shows well in the steamy makeout scenes without a single fish kiss.

In conclusion, this is a nice bl offering from HongKong and I hope this crew makes more similarly well produced and written dramas!

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The boy next door

I have not seen many dramas from Hong Kong: their cinema is world renowned but dramas...No one speaks about them here unfortunately! But what I have seen are mainly low budget web bl dramas and they are far from slick but the stories they tell are usually raw, rough and unpolished (lots of synonyms to say the same thing!) and very real: no fluff or fairy tales in sight. This one seems to be no different!

This special is the introduction episode to the longer drama, showing us how the main characters met. It starts by a woman who, after the post coital bliss, delivers bad(?) news to her lover and then offers to tell him a short story about two of her friends: Hayden and Damian. Hayden moves into a new flat and meets an old lady and her grandson Damian.

In spite of this being only 15min long they managed to make it look long and draggy. When Hayden meets the old lady, the whole sequence is far too long. Well I guess we needed to establish that Hayden is kind to elderly but that scene went on and on and on.... The same goes for Damian: he is shown to be kind to his grandmother, looking after her conscientiously. So the characters are nice people. Handsome as well. The grandmas's white hair looked too fake to be real and they could have done without it! The cinematography is grey and unappealing though the camerawork is interestingly dynamic, the apartment building is unkempt and old and the sets in general are dark and depressing. The final credits song is very nice.

And that's about it! The two men meet briefly and take a long look at each other. Promising? Wink, wink! Oh yes, the ending delivers but the story is far from finished!

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