I think this one has ruined other BLs for me. It's too perfect.
Where do I start with this? I was putting off watching this because everyone talked it up so much, and I have been let down by some of the most raved about BLs (looking at you, Bad Buddy). Now I can't believe I didn't watch this sooner. This drama is perfect, it's reductive to just place it as a BL because it is legitimately one of the most beautiful things I've ever watched, period.The cinematography and music is just breathtaking. The music ALONE in some parts made me cry (episode 5!!!!). The two lead actors - how is this their first major work?! Both of them are incredible and make you feel what they are feeling often just through expressions without any words at all. The intimacy expressed in small gestures seemed more intimate than some of the NC scenes in other dramas.
Billkin (Teh) is SO good in particular. You can see in his eyes as he moves between the blurred lines of the intimacy of a best friend, and the intimacy of a lover. The confusion we feel when we are too young and inexperienced to know the difference. The confusion of not yet knowing what you like, let alone what you want.
Instead of just mindless fluff (which I do love, it has its time and place) this is one of the only BLs out there that actually captures the feelings of falling in love for the first time, with all of its awkwardness and mixed emotion. This is an honest representation of coming-of-age, with its messiness and often bad communication, when we are just too young and confused to know how to approach things.
And, as an LGBTQ person, I really admired a realistic portrayal of someone realizing they are not straight in a realistic and identifiable way. Not just waking up someday with the realization, or "I'm only gay for this person" but a slow and gradual build that may or may not be triggered by a specific person or interaction. The fear and nervousness of rejection from your family and peers. So often this is glossed over in BLs as being too "heavy" but it is an honest part of growing up and really touching to witness.
Just watch it. But make sure you get your permission slip signed for the feels trip.
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Amazing coconut-scented BL drama: turmoil of emotions, strong possessive friendship and more...
This BL series is a simple romance between two former friends turned rivals...The premise sound quite banal but not at all: far from being basic, the love story is super compelling thanks to the context in which the characters are evolving. The internal conflicts are well balanced with some external events. The fact that they are studying Chinese is super interesting and inspiring as well.The writing is solid with maybe some defaults towards the end with a noble idiocy trope which I would have preferred to be avoided. Still it is well in line with a teen angsty mentality...Despite this, I found the plot captivating and I was enraptured by the 5 episodes.
There are so much tension and angst between the two main male leads: they completely captures the viewer's heart. I felt deeply connected to the characters and their budding feelings for each other. The characterization is really well done: watching some scenes, you feel a lot of second-hand embarrassment as well as excitement at the same time. One of the main protagonist is such a jealous, possessive, angsty boy: I loved it and it made so much sense to! Overall both of the main roles are really lovable with their flaws and their needy side in their friendship.
The two main actors had a great chemistry together: there is such a poetry and a longing when they are staring at each other, nothing extravagant, just super sensual. They are super committed and are not afraid to get ugly and dirty to sell the scenes, which I found very commendable. There are so many platonic moments that made my heart rate increase and were super compelling. Such a turmoil of emotion and internalised passion could be seen in the eyes of the actors: they did an amazing job, especially as it was their first time in leading roles.
The directing is beautiful, most of the scenes are shot with purpose and artistry. It is super impressive to see all the little details filmed to nuance the script and show the growing desires between those two young people. The OST is really nice with one specific Chinese song particularly meaningful for the relationship as well as some pretty emotional Thai songs. The overall soundtrack is lovely with sometimes songs without instrumental (and sang in an excellent way by the two actors) or in the contrary some instrumentals without lyrics.
I would strongly recommend this to people looking for a poetic and deep BL teenagers story. It is an enemies-to-friends-to-lovers romance but so much more than that. It has an artistic vision quite uncommon which leaves a lasting impression on the viewer.
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Masochistic For No Reason
How can I say this, the beginning was promising then episode 4 happened. Oh aew needs to learn to give Teh time to think and resolve his internal conflict first instead of being a pushover. From straight to gay, it takes time to adjust to his new orientation. But what happened was Oh Aew kind of impatient and didn't take NO for an answer. Yes, they both loved each other but you need to give people time to sort everything out. Seriously, not everything will goes your way every single time. Be patient. Oh Aew behaved immaturely and all the unnecessary masochistic drama occurs because of this. Could be a 10/10 drama but they just overdid it in episode 4.Lastly, excessive use of instagram for no reason. What's up with Thai BLs and their obsession with media social?
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No words left to say
So I was thinking of making a very long review, but I realised that no matter the words, nothing can beat the experience that I lived watching this beautiful drama. ? So really, all I can tell you is that you will not regret watching it. However, be aware that there will be a lot of feelings and you could possibly (you will) cry for days, ? but I swear it's a great feeling.Much love and I hope you like it ❤️? ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
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This review may contain spoilers
Ravishing, dashing and sunsetty tale of love.
***Minor Spoilers***In the beginning when Thailand started making BL, it was new and everything was perfect, those school uniforms, engineering faculties, and themes of straight guys turning suddenly gay, all was ok, until it became repetitive and over the years starting from 2015 there have been some really good series, even with same theme, but most of them are just cheesy forced love stories with poor production. Instead of exploring real issues, they solely focused on love part. Well I do not blame the creators as they will make what sells the most but I think, the time has come to dig deep into the stories, characters and real cinema work for such series as well.
I Told Sunset About You, as lyrical as its title, the story and camerawork are a real deal here. It felt like a proper series of an international standard. If you have seen Thailand BL series or in fact from other countries, you know what I mean when I say “proper series”. The cinematography of series is piercing my heart, it is giving me 70s and 80s vibes, yet the series is set in modern time. Written by a young writer, it does not reflect any immature plot in fact he did a pretty amazing job although the story might not be something unique or different, but it is scoring on people hearts.
Krit and Billkin, is doing pretty amazing job, both actors have worked previously in 2019 series My Ambulance, so their chemistry is top notch. I am already seeing so many hearts are going to break - Oh seems to like Bas or at least feel something special, the way he looked at Bas, when they were in car or the way Oh confides in Bas, is not an indication of normal friendship. On the other hand, Teh is like be my girlfriend to Tan and later he will suddenly be after Oh which will only be going to break Tan’s heart. I don’t know what drama is going to come up in this miniseries, but I hope things gets wrapped up pretty nice and quickly.
At this point I can feel the unspoken words of love between them, their silence speaks volumes of their affection to each other, while their sadness effect both deeply. For years both regretted being apart, but things have yet to calm down between each other in order for them to give name to their relationship. While watching first episode, I forgot if there were another characters because I was deeply invested into Oh and Teh, as the series is extremely short and I don’t want to miss any scene and I must say it, there screen time, never leaves you with unnecessary thoughts, it is about them, their story and their feelings. I hope Oh, come back to be his close friends, and that when ship will sail.
With 1 hour long, and total of 5 episodes, I know I will end up wanting more so I hope the conclusion is done beautifully in these episodes. Happy ending or sad, I am equally looking forward to both, as I know for sure, their love binds them together, and it is their love that has the strength to keep them apart even though their hearts belongs to each other, no matter what.
I Told Sunset About You is inarguably one of the best TV series in my archives, and just not BL, I don’t want to categories it. Having said this, I am also looking forward to The Tale of Thousand Stars and Manner of Death which also looks promising and different to what we have been seeing so far.
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When I watched the trailer, I knew this will be great... and upon watching episode 1, it’s like I watched a movie. I cried already because of the story and their very good portrayals. This series will break walls and make it to the top. I am very much excited to see the next episode. I can feel that this “I Told Sunset About You” still have more to offer. You won’t regret watching this, trust me! Better prepare tissues! Hahaha. Your top BL series are shaking right now for sure! Hahaha.
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When I say god-tier shows, this is what I have in mind! (A 10/10 score is an understatement!)
I have started watching (Thai-produced) BL series just this year and I have quite a lot of watched shows under my belt. Some of them are very promising and engaging, others are just piles of cliche put together to create a series that is an obvious fan-service. Then this series came. I wasn't expecting how big this will come out until watched its trailer just recently. TBH, at first, I was just here because I couldn't get enough of Billkin and PP's couple from My Ambulance. Honestly, I was just here because I am a big Billkin fan but that changed astronomically.After watching episode 1, I was really speechless and dumbfounded. Saying that it was beautiful was an understatement. It was more than beautiful. Everything was perfect! Everything was ethereal!
Although the plot is quite simple but dang! it's the reality. It's the story of every broken friendship whose ties were severed by pride, silence, and time. This is quite relatable because everybody went through this. What I love about this show is that, although the plot is simple they still managed to make it very interesting and lovable through the perfect execution of everything. The scenes were perfectly shot, the views were selected fittingly, the photography was very good, the colorist did an excellent job in selecting the perfect hues and temperature so that the scenes will effortlessly invoke "feelings" in viewers, Billkin and PP's acting improved so much since My Ambulance, the conflict in the show was perfectly stitched together without adding too much unnecessary dramas and finally, the musical scoring; the musical scoring was ON-POINT!!!! They really did a good job in choosing where to put certain parts of a song so that it could effectively be understood and felt by the viewers. I just couldn't get enough of the soundtracks, both the original and the Mandarin version! (I am not Thai, I don't speak Thai, I am a Filipino but boy, did I regurgitated in memorizing Skyline.) It's very beautiful and deeply poetic. Whenever I listen to it, the song gives me that certain sad sensation and satisfying nostalgia; that although the song conveys a sad message, there is something to it that makes you wanna listen over and over again.
Nadao really outdid themselves this time and I hope, in the advent of I Told Sunset About You, producers will also notch up their productions. Now that many people are mentioning it, I hope they will give us contents that don't involve engineering students, tutors, university set-up, and the likes. Give us more of those content that touches the reality of today, not just lovey-dovey fan-service shows which is an obvious mule to promote products.
It may be very obvious that this show radiates sadness but I really really hope that this would give us a happy Billkin and PP ending since their love story in My Ambulance ended up before it even began. But for what it's worth, I will see this series through 'till the end no matter what end they may give us.
PS: I wasn't able to watch this from their official streaming sites. Unfortunately, I got my copy from those bootleg websites because a 12USD rent per episode is just so depressing to the pocket. If you have the cash to watch it from Vimeo, then do so.
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Get ready for a Rollercoaster!
Watched it on someone's recommendation in the comment section for another series and while I am very happy to have found this masterpiece (because come'on let's be honest...this series can be the Saviour of the Thai BL dramas) I have this foreboding feeling in my heart that after the last episode airs I am going to go to bed with snot and tears.I was honestly awed after watching the very first episode and while the leads do need a little more experience in terms of portraying those little nooks and crannies of precise emotions but somehow the overall set environment, cinematography, music, storyline and most of all the genuineness of the actors absorbing you in their world makes up for it over and above. Honestly this is the first time I have seen such an amazing production with details towards each little aspect...I never thought a drama in the very first episode could give you the feeling of watching a wholesome movie.
This drama has the potential to become an escape from reality and make one truly experience the story.
I have rewatched the trailer for nearly 5 times now, to try and catch some hints and the overall feel of the series and unfortunately I feel that it will be heading towards a bittersweet ending (worst pain of all). So now all I can do is pray and hope that I am proven wrong & it's instead an happy ending.
There is another Series I am obsessed with currently & it overall follows a very bubbly, happy and adorable vibe while this series kind of almost contradicts those completely (TT) & to make it worse I can't seem to wait for neither of the two series's new episodes...ugggh how am I going to deal two drastically opposite emotions on every weekend now!?
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This review may contain spoilers
**You should read**
The story begin with Teh going for interview for communication art. the interviewers asked him to close his eyes and imagine that his friend is infront of him and say what you wanted to say to him.Then the amazing story begin. Where it started when they were still in primary school. They got scared because of the sound of king cracker blasting and they run ane looking into each ether eyes. Since then 2 of them become a best. In their school, they form a group consist of 5 people they named their group "I already forgot their group name". haha. Teh invited all of the friend to eat Hokien noodle at his mom restaurant and watch a chinese drama. Out of blue, Teh said he wanted to become an actor. everybody laugh at him except Oh-Aew. Oh-Aew encoygare Teh to become an actor. Their friendship last until.......
Until one day on CNY the teacher a student to perform in a stage to become a hero in Chinese drama. And guest what? Oh-Aew was choosen instead of Teh. At 1st Teh feel dissapointed. But he encourage Oh-Aew to accept the offer.
Jeng jeng jeng..
I don't wanna talk much, all I can say is this mini series is worth to watch. Unlike the other stupid BL series which is suck in acting the storyline is lame and nonsense.
I 100% recommend thia series. I can't wait to watch the 2nd episode and the entire series.
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Earphones is highly recommended !
Teh's mother lines in the last episode absolutely hits different. She just shows how she cares about Teh. I will keep rewatching this if I think I am going out on my life track FR LOL. Also the best thing is the music placement on every scene. Watching this with speaker or earphones is highly recommended that's why I intentionally waited 2 weeks to buy earphones to continue from episode 1 to last episode. The show’s writing, acting, and emotional depth are unmatched. Each episode delivers a profound message that resonates deeply, making it a timeless piece worth revisiting.Was this review helpful to you?
Enchanted by the Hue of Emotions
'I Told Sunset About You' is a masterpiece that has etched its brilliance in my heart. With a rating of 9.5/10, this captivating drama flawlessly weaves a tale of friendship, love, and self-discovery. Each rewatch deepens my connection to Teh and Oh-aew, whose magnetic chemistry radiates authenticity. The picturesque backdrop embraces their rollercoaster journey, making every emotion tangible. The narrative's raw vulnerability is a mirror to our own experiences, while the poetic visuals and sublime soundtrack transcend the screen. 'I Told Sunset About You' isn't just a drama; it's an enchanting symphony of feelings that lingers long after the sunset fades.Was this review helpful to you?
A beautiful and painfully realistic story
I am very glad I watched this show. The story, the acting, and the way it displays intimacy, yearning, and friendship are truly fascinating.Production/Visuals:
I loved the production and visuals of this show. The use of camera angles and color grading totally elevated the feel of the show and its emotions. There were a few very long one-shot sequences that were truly baffling and felt amazing because you could truly see they were filmed in one go.
Story:
Though the story at first didn't really intrigue me, it captured me within the first hour of the first episode. The rivalry plot, which truly felt realistic, and the following friendship and development were truly interesting to watch and had a lot of emotional depth. Especially the emotional back-and-forth felt incredibly realistic, and all emotions portrayed felt so raw. I truly commend the writers for doing such an exemplary job.
Acting:
Every actor in this show did so well, and totally contributed to the high-quality feel of it, but I truly have to tip my hat to Bilkin, the actor of Teh. His portrayal was so SO realistic, I cannot stress it enough. He managed to portray emotional conflict, yearning, desire, joy, every emotion in such a way that I forgot he was acting. He is also an ugly crier, and it fit the character and his pain so well. If I had to pick one of the best actors I‘ve seen so far, his name would be among them. His chemistry with Oh-Aew's actor was also so amazing. Every one of their scenes was so good and raw that it took my breath away. I could feel the desire through the screen.
OST:
I usually don‘t really write about this, but I feel like I have to compliment here. The soundtrack of this show is truly beautiful and fit so well. In ep3, at the resort, there is a particular expressionistic-style piece that made my soul leave my body. Truly one of the most beautiful things I‘ve heard so far. I actually contacted the composer to find out more about it, but apparently it's not included in the OST and there is no way to get a recording of it. I am truly devastated.
All in all, this is so worth it. I do have to say that towards the end, especially ep5, it did decline in quality a tiny bit, where I felt the resolution was a bit anticlimactic relative to the buildup. But truly, you will probably not be disappointed by this show.
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