To My Star (2021)

Sweet, beautiful, yet a bit confusing (at least for me)

This would be a dual language review - Inglish (Indonesian & English) lol

You should definitely watch this!!

Pantesan gue merasa nggak asing sama mood dan vibes-nya To My Star ini. Ternyata director-nya sama dong kayak Where Your Eyes Linger -- my favorite Korean BL web series. Well, I guess this adds to the list.

-- STORY --
Typical Korean enemies to lovers plot. One is cheerful, playful and spontaneous while the other one is strict and more tsundere (haha). Ceritanya simpel banget, refreshing, fun and sweet (in a good way). Walaupun durasinya pendek, tapi asli deh nggak kerasa kecepetan atau diburu-buruin. Gue nggak merasa terlalu lambat juga. Pokoknya, pas banget. The pace is just well-thought and well-written.

Progress hubungan main couple terlihat sekali. Their relationship was gradually progressing. From strangers, friends, then finally lovers. Plus, chemistry Kang-min (Ji-woo) & Woo-hyun (Seo-jun) natural banget. Sebagian besar clue kecil di awal episode yang bikin gue bertanya-tanya, dijelasin di akhir.

Pengambilan gambarnya juga MMH cakep bener.

-- ACTING/CHARACTERS --
Hm, nggak main-main deh. How they portrayed their own characters is just amazing. And how they displayed their characters' emotions is quite impressive. I mean, I can really saw when Hyung-ki (played by Jae-hyun) looked pissed, nervous, and frustrated.

Tapi, yang paling membekas bagi gue adalah acting koplaknya Jae-yeong (Pil-hyun), micro-expressions-nya Kang-min, & how convincing and beautiful Woo-hyun's acting is. For real tho, every little expressions was well-executed--the shyness, the sadness, the angst, the annoyance, everything. OH! Except one thing, sorry. I was a bit turned off when Ji-woo's crying (ep. 8 i think). Hm, menurut gue kurang meyakinkan aja ekspresinya. Kecuali itu, acting Kang-min oke.

Talk about Kang-min and Woo-hyun's chemistry. They really comfortable with each other. No awkwardness at all. No cringey act also. Even their little interactions made me smile like an idiot. It's just *chef's kiss*.

-- WHAT MADE ME CONFUSED --

Apart from every great things that i love about this web series, are some things that don't sit right with me. Seperti di atas gue bilang, ada segelintir hal-hal kecil yang bikin bingung (plus penasaran) akhirnya dijelasin, semacam plot twists kecil lah. Ada juga beberapa plot yang baru gue ngerti setelah nonton 2 kali. Ada juga yang masih belum gue paham dan menurut gue ini kurang penting dimasukin kalo memang nggak akan dijelasin di akhir cerita. Here are a few things I'm wondering:

1. What's with Ji-woo's expression when the customer lady mentioned study-in-Italy thing? Uncomfortable? Jealous? Why, tho?
2. The same thing happened when the customer lady, Seo-jun, and Hyung-ki were talking about Seo-jun's parents and Italy (again). Both Seo-jun and Hyung-ki glanced at Ji-woo. And Ji-woo looked away. What's up with that? Sad? Why?
3. How did the USA reporter figure out what was Hyung-ki about to do with the photo? Are they close? Old friends? What? Maybe he told her when he took her camera? I don't know.
4. What place did Ji-woo visit after he left the house after threatened by Hyung-ki? A restaurant? A house? Whose house?

Yeah, I don't know. Maybe I am the one who didn't pay attention while watching this.

Overall, I really really enjoyed To My Star. I'm glad they showed how brave Seo-jun with his feelings. And how the couple looks confident about their feelings as if nobody's opinion matters. Also, the kissing scene at the end was beautiful and sweet. It was not just a peck, but it's rather a deep one.

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To My Star is worth the watch, and also the rewatch…

Here’s the thing about Korean BLs, I wouldn’t say they are the best in the industry when it comes to others from differing countries of the genre, but I will say this, they are the BL dramas that I come back to and rewatch the most. And To My Star is a great example of this, at least for me. It’s not groundbreaking or ahead of it’s time or anything like that, but it’s still just really good. I find myself thinking about it and wanting to watch it again on the regular. In my consideration, TMS, both seasons, are essential viewing for BL fans, and I will stand by this opinion. It doesn’t even matter how many times I’ve viewed it at this point, because I know I will come back and watch it again and again.

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Disappointing BL story. Lack of excitement and characters development.

I'm disappointed by this BL story. The romance was lackluster. It is a shame because the premise was interesting and could have led to some exciting relationship. However, I found myself utterly bored and not interested.

I did not found the chemistry between the actors believable. There were very few sparks until the last episode and I did not understand how they fell in love with each other. I could blame it on the short episodes but honestly there are similar sized series that do a much better job in terms of developing both plot and characters' depth. So for me, it is a total miss.

I would not recommend this except if you are an aficionado of BL romances. As the drama is quite short, it might be worth to test it and make your own opinion.

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I wish there were more episodes!

This is one of those realistic stories that really suit my taste. I like when the characters react to events or think as real life people would. I love light, soft stories with sparkles and all, but I always see something more in stories like this. It feels more relatable and possible, which makes it even better when everything ends well. You see it's a real effort and it somehow inspires you too for your goals.

This story is very good and the actors did great! Perfect choice for the roles and very good acting. I liked it a lot, especially because I'm a big fan of couples with totally different personalities. It would have been awesome if there could be more episodes, because the plot really could have been extended a little and enriched with events.

Anyway, overall, it was very good. Totally recommend!

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so enjoyable

pros:
- the chemistry . their relationship thats it.
- they had so many cute moments that werent generic/repetitive, it felt realistic
- the kiss scenes arent awkward to watch !!!! kinda rare for bls sometimes lmao
- side characters were relatively interesting which is uncommon for short webdramas
- both of them are so endearing (esp seojoon hes so warm - loved the way seojoon learned from what jiwoo said, learned from his mistakes and bettered himself

cons:
- some aspects of the plot felt unnatural, and like it didnt flow smoothly
- it felt like they grew interested in each other really quickly, there were no hints for how much time had passed

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Made me smile

The people who wrote this script, a big salute to them. A slice of life love story without going overboard in any aspect - no cringe moment, no lasting sadness, no dramatic angst, no "how does that makes sense! " moment. They portrated it quite realistically - the romance feels a bit rushed , but I have seen romance happening faster in real life! The story was quite fitting for a short drama and really heartwarming at moments. I have not seen the actors before but there couldn't have been any better ones for the lead roles. Their acting and chemistry felt so natural, and when I finished watching it, I smiled for no reason for several hours after . Good one.

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uma boa surpresa

depois de anos acompanhando sobre a série na internet e salvando vídeos aleatórios na esperança de um dia assistir, o dia finalmente chegou e eu estou meio gag. era de se imaginar que uma série tão comentada mesmo passando anos de sua estreia teria uma certa qualidade mas estou surpreso com o que eu encontrei.

apesar de achar que as coisas operam em um ritmo acelerado a série faz uma outra coisa com essa mesma característica: faz a gente se apegar aos personagens e ao enredo muito rápido também. a construção da narrativa e do personagens é tão gostosa de se acompanhar que ao final de todo episódio surge a vontade de assitir aos próximos. estou apegado aos protagonistas pois ambos tem personalidades distintas e acharam uma maneira de conviver da melhor forma possível entre si ao ponto de desenvolver um romance dessa relação. um outro ponto positivo é entender as camadas que envolvem os personagens (como traumas antigos e inseguranças) de uma maneira muito evidente, a série não se preocupa tanto em desenvolver esses dilemas mas você consegue perceber de forma clara que eles existem e a maneira como eles influenciam no jeito com o que os personagens se relacionam com outras pessoas.

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Its perfect, but is it really?

Honestly, if I was writing this review when I first watched it I would've 100% given it a 10/10. But now as I rewatch it, I honestly have a lot of problems with this show. Don't get me wrong its still one of my favorite kbls but I can't ignore its flaws.

THE POSITIVES:
chemistry:
This is probably what attracted a majority of people to watch the show. The way han ji woo's and seo joon's relationship develops is natural and well done. The scenes with them as a couple are super cute and adorable. They way they interact and flow together is amazing and we can genuinely feel their love for each other.

acting:
This is honestly one of the kbls with the best acting, woohyun and kangmin are amazing actors and they way they portrayed their characters was done really well (I do feel like woohyun's delivery in some of his lines felt weak and tame and just sounded bored, I'm not sure if this is because of the acting or directing tho). I want to also highlight all the other actors jaehyun, jae yeong, jin kwon and han ji won, they all did amazing jobs as side characters and really pulled their weight. ( + special shout out to the last scene- the kiss wasn't stiff or bland, it turned out to be super amazing).

THE NEGATIVES:
dialogue:
A majority (and I MEAN LIKE 80%) of seo joon's dialouge was really crappy. Honestly, it felt like he was just saying the most random shit ever at the most random times (like what in the world was that unprompted depressing backstory about his parents leaving him in italy??) and ji woo just pretends he never hears any of that. maybe its mistranslation but some of his lines don't even make any grammatical sense? (like its just a bunch of words placed together omg). Also there was a some scene where this random white girl came up and just starts speaking english?? and also hyung ki's random english scene- i still dont understand its purpose.

story:
don't even get me started on the story, i have way to many gripes with it. i tried rewatching the show and i literally could not even stand to watch the scenes without the main couple (except for some funny scenes with pilhyun and ho min) because the story is just so nonsensical?? like hear me out. it starts of interesting kang seo joon is a top actor who gets into some drama and hence has to stay over at han ji woo's place. But like this exact drama is never explained?? throughout the whole show they are so vague with it and i kept thinking, there's gonna be one big reveal about what it is but it never comes? Yoon seul literally tells seo joon she'll reveal his "secret" if he doesn't tell the truth but there was never any secret?? Why did seo joon hesitate so much to show the cctv footage if he never even did anything wrong?? Also, the final villian reveal kinda turned out lame. I like how you could see hyung ki naturally spiral and his situation get worse but the fact that seo joon just paid him money to deal with it was kind underwhelming, i guess it was still realistic though, people cant just suddenly become better and money is just to solution to everything lmao. also a very plothole filled show (kang seo joon's trauma, why han ji woo is so closed off, and especially the scene where han ji woo was going back home from confronting the kid for throwing rocks and there's a green shoe and ominous music. i thot that was definitely going to be the main villian but it was just thrown in there and forgotten about??)

Final thoughts:
It feels like there are a lot of flaws with this show (and there are) but it doesn't make it fully unwatchable. seeing the romance between the two main characters definitely feels like a treat but its hard to overlook the problems when u rewatch it. I'm glad this show got a season 2 because it definitely feels incomplete, there are a lot more plot holes to fill up and i hope the second season will work on and improve these flaws.

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Grumpy/Sunshine pairing + Forced Proximity (cohabitation)

This was a 9 ep series of 10-15 each and was quirky as all getup, but so cinnamon roll adorable out the other side I forgive it all my confusion. I didn’t (and don’t) get it for the first half but it became more and more charming and totally won me over in the end.

A popular actor laboring under a scandal (also a cheerful bundle of neurosis) has to hide out in the house of a hot introverted grumpy chef. The chef is NOT best pleased by having a human puppy forced upon him. Until he is.

Recommended so long as you realize we are in Mr Heart style K-BL, not Color Rush.

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