This review may contain spoilers
No more moons please!
Well, this is getting repetitive...You would think that after giving us Kimmon and Copter and the 15 insufferable characters that Bas has played since he was the original Wayo in the first edition of "2Moons", this company would have said... "ok enough... we did well enough, let's move on". Sadly, season 2 became a chaotic mess when all the original cast left and they had to re-cast, sending fans into distress because some couldn't accept the idea of not having Kimmon and Copter playing Ming and Kit or couldn't accept the idea of having inexperienced newcomers replacing them.
But, we got "2Moons2", with a whole new cast and wasting the first 4 episodes with a reminder of what happened in the original series. This series was not perfect but we got Earth (now called Din) doing a decent job as the new Wayo, Joong who seems to be the most successful of the bunch moving to GMMTV, Nine who now seems to focus on his singing career after being on a Chinese singing competition, and Phoom who was quite subdued in the very mediocre "Coffee Melody". That season ended with Wayo suffering from his picture being placed all over the university by the guy who likes him but gets rejected and then seeks revenge. He runs away to his home and while Pha is kicking the other guy's ass, Joong (Ming) comes and tells everyone that he knows where Wayo is, at home with his father.
Even a this point, season 3 seemed inevitable, focusing on Wayo-Pha and their crisis and also on a secondary character called Suthee (played by Green) who was going to be "The Ambassador" in season 3. But, Mello Thailand/Motive Village (whatever the name is now) messed it up, again... first by creating a music group with all the guys from "2Moons2", except Din... which created an incredible uproar by the fans. Then, more controversies with their contracts and between the company and director Anusorn (who directed the second part), ended up with the whole cast quitting again. Instead of ending the project, Motive Village decided to re-cast for the third time and we ended up with this mediocre series as the third season of an already mediocre project.
Some of the bad things:
1. The plot/storyline: No clue, really... the main character of the this season is Lom, who is Pha's cousin and his "enemies to lovers" story with Tatch. They both argue about being the candidate for the university's Ambassador competition and decide that, whoever has more IG followers by certain date, will be the faculty's representative. Lom lives in a self-pitying world as he always says he is not good looking enough, especially when compared to Tatch, but he has way more followers than him, so he is always trying to make Tatch more popular and in the process, falls in love with him. That part of the plot seems clear... but then we have the other couples from the previous two seasons and we see them quite scarcely throughout the episodes... the Wayo issue from the end of season 2 should have been the starting point for this season but, instead, gets pushed I think until episode 5 or 6 (don't even remember now) when Pha tells Lom how the problem was solved as a 3-minute flashback during the episode.
Kit and Ming, Pha and Wayo and Forth and Beam do not advance their relationships and, instead, we get the usual jealousy, fighting, arguing and tears in the usual BL tropes wasting whatever momentum the couples from part 2 left for the new couples in this season. I mean, we even have Pha and Wayo still arguing in the last episode and suddenly solving things with a kiss and a hug. It seems the director and the writer were set on focusing so much on Lom-Tatch, that the rest of the guys were just a side note during the series... if you watched carefully (unless you fell asleep from the boredom or you quit the show before the end), each couple (Wayo-Pha, Forth-Beam and Ming-Kit) had their "big" argument, their jealousy moment, and their NC scene with some very awkward kissing making it the same dull formula for all the couples all the time. Lom and Tatch being the focus of this season, had way more screen time, way more kissing scenes (a bit less awkward than the other couples), so we got to see the perfectly waxed armpits from Danny many many times. Plus, we even got an extra couple with Toon and Tong (Lom's friends) kissing in episode 12 without much development for their couple.
2. The acting: Yes, I am aware the actors are brand new and QUITE inexperienced... but it was painful to watch. No emotions in sad scenes or angry scenes or any scene whatsoever, no chemistry between them, some of the characters really don't match these actors, and yes, I also know I shouldn't compare, for example, the acting and character development by Nine vs.the acting and character development by Toey (both played Kit) or the cute, naive acting done by Din vs. the cute, naive acting done by Park (both played Wayo), but the chemistry between the couples in "2Moons2" felt a bit more natural than with these couples. Plus, with the reduced screen time that the 3 original couples got, meant we barely had any chance of really getting to watch how each actor portrayed their character... just to see if they brought anything original to the table. Instead, we end up getting Danny (playing Tatch) and Mark (playing Lom) for 85% of the episodes and very few glimpses of the rest. It is a shame that the company did not prepare these guys better for what was definitely a pressure-cooker because fans already had 2 different casts to compare and to choose from.
3. Side characters: If we barely saw the main couples, we had even less side characters with Lom's friends being the ones who got most airtime and the cartoon-like villain we got this season (Panon), that actually has a good twin as well (Parak)... evil twin-good twin, how original! But the bad guy is in love with Lom and tries to get him to break up with Tatch ... so in this Thai BL we got the crazy male character instead of the usual crazy female character. We also have a girl who likes Tatch and is a friend of Lom... she thinks Tatch will ask her out but he never does and then feels betrayed by Lom when Tatch tells her he is in love with him and not her. At least we didn't see the plot get any crazier by having her do something "evil", so we settled with the crazy male character doing all the bad things, then get beat up with his own twin and miss the Ambassador competition.
Good things? I'm not sure... some of the actors had cute moments but good luck finding something else.
In the end, for the third time, this series has been wasted due to poor management, poor writing, poor directing and mediocre acting. I truly hope this is the last season of the "2Moons" franchise because the original was not exactly a masterpiece and the other 2 have gone down in quality ever since.
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A fine series with an emotionally charged MDL rating
Let me start by saying that if the low rating for this series is putting you off from watching, be aware that the MDL score has been severely skewed by viewer distaste for the studio that produced it. This distaste has also affected the way many MDLers have responded to the storyline and performances by the actors. (If you're at all skeptical about this, just peruse the other reviews here.)Given that the MDL community has seen to rate this series on a curve, for a more accurate score you should probably add 20% to whatever you see when you visit its MDL page. As I write this review that puts the number at 8.28, which rounds down to 8, and this seems to me to be a fairer appraisal of what you get here.
What I came to appreciate most about 2MTA is how the main couple's relationship is depicted. Once Tatch and Lom get together, their approach to one another becomes a model of how two people with mutual love and respect should communicate and work together to overcome any issues that arise. Misunderstandings between them are promptly cleared up and have the impact of only making their relationship stronger.
Another endearing aspect of their pairing is how Tatch's determined pursuit of Lom has the effect of transforming Lom from someone with a victim mentality into a man who is confident and trusting, and willing to smile. (At the outset Lom spends a lot of time frowning... lol) It seems to me that the moment when Lom finally becomes brave enough to take a chance on Tatch is in Episode 4, when Tatch sings a karaoke love song to him -- a song that actor Danny Disatharit sings live on-set as the scene is filmed rather than have the soundtrack patched in later, as many other series would do. This adds to the intimacy, as Danny's singing is sweet and charming. Within the context of the story its sincerity seems to finally allow Lom to see Tatch the way Tatch himself has been striving to be seen.
It is also refreshing to see that between the two guys the charismatic one, Tatch, is the pursuer. In casting Tatch the production found an actor who is, frankly, gorgeous -- tall and strikingly handsome, with an athletic build. To emphasize the differences between the Tatch and Lom characters it does seem that Mark Vachara Promma, who plays Lom, was given a "make-under" to heighten the contrast, resulting in him looking a little mousy and plain. When viewing promotional material for the series and Mark's Instagram I was surprised by how good-looking, even glamorous, he is in real life.
There are several NC scenes, which (granted) are not a must for every viewer, but what I like is how they're a welcome acknowledgement of real life, where when a couple first gets together they usually have a hard time keeping their hands off each other. This contrasts with the "one and done" approach that many other series take, as though the intimate content is something to check off the list and get over with. That's certainly not the case here, where the main leads get together several times, and in a variety of ways. ;) I should add that their excellent manner of communicating with each other is an aspect of those scenes as well. Again, a nice change of pace from the usual.
As for the six original "2 Moons" characters, who were recast for a second time for this series, I came away less impressed with their storylines, which give us so many of those things that the Tatch-Lom relationship avoids: mainly jealousy and long drawn-out misunderstandings. Ironically, these three couples are supposed to have more mature relationships than Tatch and Lom, having been together for a couple of years, but what we get from them becomes tiresome to watch.
One other nitpick is the introduction of a silly kidnapping storyline as the series nears its end.
And what about the writing, acting and production? Well, I could easily name four or five series from 2022 that have a poorer storyline, worse acting, and crappier production values than 2MTA, but have been given higher ratings despite it. While the performances here were at times awkward I generally found them to be quite good, especially for a bunch of newcomers. It certainly didn't detract from my own enjoyment.
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And This is Where it Should Die
This series is already way overdone, and even if they tried doing a decent third season, they completely obliterated it with less-than-mediocre acting, and an extremely dumb plot. It goes to show that this series should've never been made, and should've died along with the second round of cast members. Here's to hoping it is the last and final round of torture that Motive Village puts us and these innocent actors in!Let's Dive In.
Motive village introduces a new main couple to the storyline, Looknam and Tatch, to kind of disrupt the repeated storyline of the other three. They're exactly like Ming and Kit's dynamic, with Looknam mimicking Kit by being the stern uke, and Tatch mimicking Ming as the charming and in-love seme. Except, with this couple, there is literally no explanation, no reason, and zero clarification of what Tatch sees in Looknam, and vice-versa. They go from hating each other, to then randomly acting so in love. Their story is ridiculous, going off of the typical "moon contest", which is fine, but there's no actual conflict between them, Like none. They go back to back bickering about nothing, then to falling in love over nothing, to ending up together with nothing reasonable for the cause. The chemistry felt off-balanced. It was giving, "we are here for a bag, see how in love we act". The only things they had was decent kissing and NC scenes. A bit awkward but not bad enough to stop watching.
The other three couples felt very out of place. They try so hard to be like the old characters in the other series, but it's completely off and I got secondhand embarrassment cause you can see how blatantly awkward it is with the cast. They also had no plot to lean on, it was pretty much just random jealousy, frivolous conflicts, and too much unnecessary commentary.
I kept watching bc for some reason my inability to drop a series mid-way through kicked in and I was determined to finish. By episode 6 I skipped a lot, I speed through a lot, and I slept through some too. This cast was probably some of the worst acting I've seen in a while. They're all rookies, so I'll give them some leeway, but Looknam was the only decent one.
Ratings:
Story: 4/10 - There wasn't any real conflict. by about the 7-8th episode, it becomes more so just very 'eh' NC scenes playing on bc they themselves realized there is no plot. I'm being generous with the 4.
Acting: 6/10 - again, being generous with the score. Looknam was their best, but everyone else was terrible. Not a lick of acting skills, just pretty men in front of the camera. At least they all looked good shirtless. There's my reasoning for the 6/10.
Music: 5/10 - It's not distracting for the most part, but the fact that they would play this loud ass music during the NC scenes was annoying. I want to hear them enjoying themselves, not distracting ballad music.
Recommendation Value: 2/10 - There's no reason to watch this unless you're a fan of the 2 Moons franchise. Otherwise, this was a waste of a watch, so please save yourself the time.
This better be the last of this tedious and destroyed series. Motive village needs to burn to the ground, but this series needs to rot in hell. I hope for the actor's sake, they're getting treated better than the others in the past. If we're to see them again, they'll have to be in a different series. And maybe an acting class or two. Otherwise, I hope they can find their passion in a different career.
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Should have been a stand-alone
Honestly, I can't understand the choice to make another 2-moons with a completely new cast. I kept trying to remember who was who again and what their story should be. This should have been a stand-alone with different characters. That would have made much more sense than this mess.The actors do try their best, but even they have trouble getting into character and it all remains a bit stiff. The chemistry between Yo and Pha is non-existent, where they were sooo hot before. Ming and.... (really can't remember atm) have no part in the story and are just filling the gaps. Thatch and Lom do have chemistry but have a weird sexual dynamic that is a bit awkward. It is watchable and I even enjoyed it, and at times the story got more interesting, but it fell dull again right after. Combined with some big editing flaws makes this not one to re-watch anytime soon.
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The ugliest Bl ever seen!
Among the many bls seen so far, this is undoubtedly the worst and ugliest ever seen. Nothing is saved, nothing!Story: cringe, nonsense most of the time, full of trashy parts and without a minimum of logical thread. The competition between the protagonists is meaningless, the story of the twins is meaningless, the quarrels of the previous couples are meaningless.
Cast: was there anyone who could act in this series? Because in my opinion the level of acting was much more than poor. No one got a facial expression, gesture or movement right.
I advise it? Obviously not!
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This shouldn't have been a 2Moons series.
If this series would have been called something completely different, I think it would have been better received. Instead we have to relearn these actors that have the same names as characters in the other series. But they don't sound, look, or act like the old characters. So naturally people are going to compare all of the iterations of these series.And if you are going to compare this to the other 2Moons series, this is definitely the worst. The Moons series seems to get worse with every version. The first was good (with Kimmon, Copter, Tae, Tee, Bas), the second version was also decent (Earth, Ben, Pavel, Dome). With this version, the story was pretty lame, and there wasn't much substance to anything. The guys were cute, but didn't seem to have great chemistry like some series seem to get from their actors. And the chemistry here certainly not what we saw in either of the other 2Moons series.
In my mind, this was simply a filler between other better BL series. You could just watch bits and pieces of it and still get the gist of the story without being too involved in it. It certainly isn't the worst BL I have ever watched, but it will be totally forgotten by next week. I am not unhappy that I watched it, but it didn't provoke any positive feelings either. I don't always get why the ratings for a certain show are bad, but in this case I think the ratings on MDL are pretty generous. Stick a fork in this series, it is done.
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Just watch it!
Okay, first off: this series isn't as bad as the general scoring seems to imply. Lots of people gave it a low score early on, based on the company's treatment of previous actors. That's not fair, in my opinion.Is it an amazing, perfect series? No. But if you are looking for a bit of fluff, fun and romance, definitely see this and you'll watch it with a smile.
Mind you, this is the third season of the 2 Moons series. If you have watched 2 Moons season 1 and 2, definitely watch this one too. If you haven't watched the previous seasons, you should really watch those first, even though both seasons have different actors for the main roles, which sounds stupid and it is, but you get used to the new actors fairly quickly and can just enjoy the show.
Season 3 focuses on 2 new characters, Lom and Thatch, this is their story. The characters of season 1 and 2 just have a side role in this season, and that's fine. They have some relationships issues to work through, but the main focus is the storyline with Lom and Thatch. And I really liked that! It's cute, romantic and fun to watch.
No the acting isn't amazing, but you can see the actors growing in their roles. Especially the chemistry between the leads, that gets better with each episode.
So, don't expect the best series you'll ever see, but see this as a fun (binge-)watch and you'll have a smile at the end of it, I promise :)
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This review may contain spoilers
Nothing new under the sun
Having watched and mildly liked 2Moons 2 some time ago, I wanted to check out the sequel. I was entertained though not by the drama itself but by the english subtitles that were most of the time gramatically so wrong ; I have discovered a new language! Amazing!NB.Recently I came upon a tip which told me how to make the subs better on youtube(if there are better subs in another language, you can auto-translate that into english and they are much better!)
The story takes place a couple of years after the previous series! The three couples from it are living together and enjoy their relationships! Pha's cousin Lom (often translated as LOL!) is chosen as his college's Moon but loses the beauty competition. There is another contender for the Moon position, Tatch. They meet, sparks fly, a wannabe girlfriend stirs trouble, a wannabe boyfriend is acting up because disappointed! You classical enemies to lovers trope!
The series is mainly about Lom & Tatch. The three couples (Pha&Yo, Beam &Forth, Ming&Kit) from 2Moons2 are just there in the background and their main and only story is jealousy: fighting and making up!
There is absolutely nothing new about this series (maybe the introduction to the Agriculture College!). The screenplay is all over the place, nothing happens really, it is just moving along.
As for the actors...what to say? The guy playing Lom (Mark Vachara, who reminds me of Earth who played Wayo in 2M2!) is bland, charisma free, single facial expression and cannot act to save his life. He has absolutely no chemistry to speak of with the actor playing Tatch, who also is constantly wearing the same expression: raised eyebrow and a ironic smirk! The rest are hardly any better!
And the worst part were the obligatory trans comic relief characters! Why, oh why are they still doing that??????
What makes this series stand out is the amount of steamy skinship in these consensual relationships! This is so very new in thai bls! Moreover it was surprisingly tastefully done accompanied by gentle music! But there was too much of it! I guess they needed to fill up the episodes so every one of these four couples had their turns(more than one) in showcasing their love for each other in slow motion. And there was a lot of slow motion scenes of them taking their shirts off, swimming etc.
I have been wrecking my brain trying to find something positive to say about it! Still haven't found it! 7/10 for the effort, not the worst bl out there but far from good!
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Is this new season worth watching after constant recast each season???
It's a good series BUT, they keep changing everyone and they don't even look alike. So, season 1 (2017) is good but incomplete, season 2 (2019) is better but with a new cast, so episodes 1-5 are a restart of season 1, and its continuation. The problem is that it's the producers who ask for those recasting.I loved the first one and the cast are now well-known actor, in BL and otherwise. Same for season 2. The cast has done a bit of work during lockdown, so that is why I don't understand the recast.
Season 3 is, again, recast by actors who don't look like the previous 2 seasons. Even so it's a good series, the casting change and the episodes reboots make it not easy to keep watching.
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Mistake number 3
I think this drama was written by many different people and they never communicated, the whole drama is a mess.We have the old cast replaced again by some very strange choices, they all seem to be much younger and Phana the sexy tall guy from season 1 is now played by an angry looking lesbian in oversized clothes.
The two new ML's are Tatch and Lom, Tatch is the tall good looking one who is loved by everyone but just wanders around like a sad puppy dog.
Lom is the village idiot, he goes from episode to episode forgetting every conversation he previously had and then getting angry with people for no reason.
I know this is a BL drama, everything can't just run smoothly because it would be boring, but arguments and fights happen for no reason, people get angry and stop talking for no reason.
There is this pig creature with a cows head that keep popping up, I think it is the best actor in the whole drama. Last week Lom and Tatch were having another one of their pointless arguments in a field and I just wanted the pig, cow thing to run out and horn Lom to death.
I want Tatch to dump Lom and find a decent boyfriend for the rest of the show, Lom won't remember anything so it's fine if he gets dumped.
The drama is just pointless and boring, soon they will start dating, then near the end Lom will dump Tatch for some made up reason only to get back together for the final.
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cringe and pointless plot with frustrated cheesy romance
Oh god, what the hell was this? I lost every cell of mine because of too much irritation. This series is fucking worst. Seriously, what the fuck do the BL series writers and makers eat? They cannot even write better series. They are twisting story with fake reality. They are doing anything to drag a series up to 12 episodes. Logic and reality are totally fucked up by this series. I want to start a petition to boycott this kind of series. I make a request to the writer: "Please stop writing this kind of series; we are already tired of this kind of pointless series."Reality vs. Reel
1) Who the fuck thinks someone is hitting their boyfriend while playing football? Don't they watch real football? obviously if you r best player then they try corner as much as possible. if Messi isn't corner by 5 player then how the fuck he is not going to best player. if Messi is kick by some player then Messi should kick that player as well because he is trying hit Messi wife? what the fuck with this logic?
2) tatch has clearly stated that he is not interested on manfah but she is like desperate women who says you cheated on me. oh god where the fuck is logic here.
3) How the fuck is everyone gay? Is that a gay university? Isn't this fantasy too much? There are many logic-less moments in this series.
good point
The kiss scene and sex scene are great. Only this is good in this whole series. it is romantic one.
I haven watch 2 moons 2 because it says read it is sequel of 2 moons but this is worst series i have ever watch. it took 2 hr. to complete whole series. it is actually fucking worst than tharntype and an long nhai. seriously when the fuck they are goping to make series with sense and reality. I don't want to write anything more than this. I don't recommend it at all. one of the most irritating series. Why are there so many cringe moments? Why is it so cheesy? why high budget series have low class story? Oh God, my frustration is killing me after watching this series.
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okay wait why did this actually eat
It got 8.6 stars out of 10 from me. The first two moons got a 9 out of 10. The two moons got an 8.5 out of 10, and this one as well got an 8.5 out of 10. Four days later, I knocked all of them out. I think this one isn't even that bad; people just rate it badly because it's not the greatest, but that doesn't mean it's not good. It was a pretty good show, and the chemistry was so much better in this one than the other two. That's one thing this 2 moons did right.But once again, this was not needed. They could have definitely made this into its own show; it didn't need to be connected to the other two. The goofy cliffhanger finally got resolved around episode 6, which was good to see because that's why I started watching this one so fast. I was going to take a break, but I started and finished it today, because of that cliffhanger, lol (I say lol in this a lot).
I am also glad they didn't really make Phana being a moon a big deal. They mentioned it, sure, but I am glad they let our new characters shine, and it was a needed wake-up call with Lom losing, like a badly needed one. Im glad they didn't make it so Pha outshined him in any way; they were just cousins who thought of each other as brothers, which was cute. Okay, I am going to check out my instagram close friends highlight of 2 moons 1/2/3 lol.
The first thing I posted 10 hours ago was about the need for season 3. Like why? That's so much for the plot to be exactly the same for each of them. And then I had to try and put names to faces because it was once again a new cast, and I was struggling. The new cast was actually pretty good-looking, but I missed Joong Archen.
Beam and forth's chemistry was so much better in this one. Beam was so much better in this one, lol. The other two did my boy so dirty. And not to mention Beam's actor in this one was so sexy—oh my god, the way he looked and spoke—and oh my god, bro, it wasn't even funny.
Then we get to know Lom more, and he was talking to a pig cow thing, so I called him a Disney princess, because why the hell would he be talking to animals otherwise? Ming was being weird with the water scene, lol, but his actor was so fucking built; my god, he had an amazing body.
The actor who plays Tatch looks like Gawin Caskey or Fluke Gawin Caskey, and I kept mentioning that to myself. His being jealousy of the cousins was interesting to see and just mad embarrassing for him. "Okay, Gawin Caskey." Was my motto throughout these episodes. Then I got the side-by-side, couldn't even tell the difference between the two.
Lom's character became more likable, and I fell in love with his and Tatch's really good chemistry. Their story was a mashup between Wayo and Phana and Ming and Kit. That's kind of what I got from it. The childhood lovers, one-sided at least, were Wayo and Phana, and the whore era was Ming and Kit vibes. They had some banger sex scenes too; the way they did them was just so fantastic, and it's always good to see a good sex scene. Once again, they were killing it, mainly with the body movements and the head tilts.
I thought the twins were played by the same person, but they are actually twins in real life. I mean, same, but that was so hard for me to wrap my head around. The detail on Pharak with him trying to commit suicide and the cuts were a good detail that I almost missed, but that was really interesting to see.
Then I saw that 2Together called and they wanted their jerseys back. It was funny in my head, I swear, but no, that was giving the jerseys from 2gether.
Then our boy, Tatch, kicks a trash can into the car, which was really funny to me, and I still don't understand why. Bro finally put those long legs to use, I guess. In the infirmary too. The twins were fighting, and I was laughing the whole time because Phorn, or Pharn, was trying to finish Phark off like he was the Joy Joy Gang in Dark Deception Chapter 4, bro. I even got the side-by-side. That was very funny, lol.
Then the two friends of Lom were dancing at his party thing, and that was cute because their little moments were very cute to see. Then I was manifesting that Pha proposes, and he does, which was cool to see, and that's really it.
So yeah, in summary. This could have been its own thing. We didn't need that many moons. But what we did get was a lot of good chemistry, a good-looking cast, more real-life stuff, and yeah. I liked it, so I would recommend it because, just like the other two, it was a pretty light watch, and the cast was light on the eyes, so yeah. So go for it, if you want to, if you don't, than don't lol. okay bye!
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