Ocean Likes Me (2022)

i do like the ocean

okay i think im a little bit biased because i like holland and i like gichan AND i loved the setting. i also really liked the main charas' personalities and how their dynamic was.

the pacing was a little bit off sometimes, but all in all it was fine for the length

one thing that i just realized though: the whole frame of the story and especially the last two eps are very much like behind cut??? both of them had this weird timeskip after one person just up and left the other and then a way too fast reunion at the end, as if they ran out of time
WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TWICE IN A ROW

i have to say, this is probably the most solid show by emotion studio so far but,,, that isn't saying much because i think the others all weren't that great

it's fine though, really cute and now i want to go sit by the ocean and stare wistfully at it

Read More

Give it a chance. Healing journey

Yes, it's a BL, but really the story is about healing onself after being hurt, growing up, and putting yourself first. I guess some things you can only understand when you have experienced enough things, but it's a really nice movie.
You have to guess some things, but it's all given the through the subtext. You understand why Ba Da is there, and also Tommy's choice. Sometimes we have to put ourselves first, even if in doing so we hurt other people.
I also enjoyed the Ba Da maturing and not depending on others, also being able to say no when it was needed despite being hard. He found himself.
You might say it was not necessary for Tommy to leave for a while, but some things can only be pursued alone because it's our own personal journey.

Read More

They had done everything perfect...

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS
I liked the story: it was fresh, original, outside of school/university walls. A casual chaotic meeting that was written in the stars. Or in the ocean ;)

ENDING
Are you crazy? That was a total waste! I believe that Korea loves to separate their main lead to get them together again with a kiss by the ocean on the very last minute of the show... it's the third time I see it, and it's getting annoying. Plus, here, it felt unnecessary.

CHARACTERS
Ba Da was such a shy cutie, and Tommy was the match that woke him up. They are just a perfect couple. So Yeong was super annoying at first, but then she grew in empathy and helped Ba Da understand hia feelings for Tommy.

SCENERY
Photography is 10/10 to me. The ocean views, but also the shots of that road along the coast, everything was amazing. Also the indoors and the market scene.

OST
"You are my ocean" will be stuck for a long while in my heart. It is very beautiful and captivating, and the fact that describes Ba Da and Tommy relationship is just perfect.

Read More

Charming and Nice

Look, this BL is not going to win any awards, but it is a nice, soft escape-filled series that is relatable to just about anyone. It is cute, charming, and I found entertaining. Rarely do I comment on individual actors, but Holland is openly gay and makes this series even more powerful to watch. You do not need something, strong, or over-the-top to get a point across. There are many millions of lives who live life quietly, just like this story is and that for me makes it so powerful. Of course, there are editing issues with this series, but its message simply presents love in a very soft, relatable fashion.

Read More

My beautiful, messy ocean

Who needs a plot when you've got a Holland? Seriously I could watch that man in anything, he's just such a damn engaging screen presence.
But even my obvious bias aside, this show is alright! Yes, it's messy, that's undeniable, but it's damn charming.
The relationship progression and overall pacing of the show are very well executed and the leads' chemistry is fantastic.
I suppose there's just something about stories full of strange little guys (gender neutral) that really appeals to me - I absolutely adore all the characters here, odd ducks the lot of them.
The series is wonderfully calm and, inhabited exclusively by weirdos though it is, feels fairly grounded. At the same time it never strives to take itself all too seriously which strangely enough gives the emotional scenes more room to breathe and make an impact. I don't know, something about it all just worked for me.
The soundtrack is absolutely fantastic as well and perfectly underscores the story's tone.
It may not be a cinematic masterpiece, but it perfectly accomplishes what it set out to do - tell a gentle, refreshing story about a genuine queer romance.
I highly recommend you give it a go and see for yourself, you might just end up loving it.

Read More

Someone's gonna jump out and yell PRANK'D YA, right?

SHORT LENGTH REVIEW BC I AM BEFUDDLED :)
----------

(Please keep in mind that I have only seen 7 of the 8 episodes as this review is being posted. I will update once I have finished watching.)


While I try to respect everyone's opinion, I wholeheartedly--from the very depths of my aortic valve--disagree with the reviews/ratings above 7/10. This drama is bad, and I don't particularly trust y'all who enjoyed it. Did you really? Did someone pay y'all? WHAT am I missing?

SPOILERS FOR THE REST OF THIS REVIEW!!!

Story? 6/10.
I have never witnessed a script go absolutely everywhere and nowhere at the same time... until this show.

Han Ba Da (Han Gi Chan) is a chef who wishes to open his own restaurant one day, so when the opportunity is presented to him, he jumps on it, but finds it difficult to attract customers; he is only but a chef, not a people-person. However, the abrupt arrival of Tommy (Holland) opens the door--literally--to customers anew and a twinkle of romance.

Sounds fun, yeah? That's what I thought. But we're all wrong sometimes.

This story starts where it's meant to: Han Ba Da opens a restaurant (with an extremely greedy woman, might I add), but is unable to produce revenue in order to maintain the rent. Thus, we're introduced to Tommy, his savior. However, this introduction includes accidental vehicular assault and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. I hated it, but whatever. Now we've got our two main protagonists working together, and they actually make a great pair. Tommy is super extraverted and seems genuine in his aide to Ba Da, which we see quickly develop into something more than a business relationship. But, unfortunately, this is where it all goes downhill.

Got an ex you want to throw into the mix to wreak havoc that'll never make another appearance? Go ahead. Some spilled soy sauce we want to get angry about? Sure. A bunch of customers constantly being left at the door that says Open one second and Closed the next because Ba Da and Tommy are extremely unprofessional? Why not.

(That's not even the full list of what all happens during the 8 fifteen-minute episodes, but now I'm sure you can imagine the train wreck I have sat through.)

Acting/Cast? 6/10.
This is actually the part I was hoping to score higher on, but, unfortunately, the children in this show acted better than our two main protagonists. Which is extremely disappointing, considering I really enjoyed Han Gi Chan (Han Ba Da) in Where Your Eyes Linger.

Music? 6/10.
Honestly, not much to talk about. I don't remember any of the songs except for the title track, and even that was lackluster.

Rewatch Value? 1/10.
I genuinely hope to never even hear anyone talking about this drama, or else I might spontaneously combust. Even writing this review was difficult

Overall? 6/10.
MyDramaList suggested I rate it a 5/10, but I thought that would be too harsh on top of everything I've written in this review. Overall, as Simon Cowell would say, it's a no for me.

Read More

Good chemistry … bad script

It is clear that Corea is still way behind Thailand when making BL series … however that’s certainly not the fault of the actors.

Han Gi Chan and Holland portray an honest view of their relationship with real chemistry between the two of them.

For me Han Gi Chan can become the rising star of Corean BL series/films as he is very sincere in his acting (see also “Where your eyes linger”) provided he gets better scripts … scripts where real kisses and hugs and love scenes are not avoided.

For Holland : RESPECT!! This young man has gone through hardship and bad times but never gave up. I hope that the K-Pop industry starts to understand that the world is changing. I hope to see and hear more of him

Read More

Unique series...good...very good

I'm doing a review because I liked it. I've seen a lot of bad comments here. So, I gave this a 9. It's a BL that didn't have anything to do with school, university, or engineering students. TG. I thought the story and the setting was unique and it had its merit. So, I am HOH for Han. (Head over heels (in love)) Tommy was a bit different and I had to and did warm up to him in the later episodes. I have to mention Go So whom also I warmed up to her too. This is a short series. As with many shorts I felt like this could have been a full-length series, but as I am quickly reminded that sometimes less is more. With that said I enjoyed this series. I was engaged and I learned a few things.
PS I have mention that I did not know Holland from the dark side of the moon, but as I understand he has done some brave and pioneering for that he should be applauded and all whom placed him in this role.

PS2, I thought the music was excellent. I even noticed background music as being enjoyable.

Read More

Wasted potential

I like the gist of the story but screenplay is so bad .

It tried to tell something but it lacks conviction. Why i said wasted potential was because scenery is so refreshing, cinematography and music are good, but the screenplay made it so bad.

I've seen the actors in other kbls, and they've done great, but in here, they are too stiff.

There were times i watched it in 8x mode just to finish this. I don't know if the story is too slow or too fast. Lol.

This is something not worth to rewatch but something that is tolerable to watch.

Read More

Touched my heart! Fighting for dreams are important.

I kindly ask all the viewer to please read my full review. This series was in my watchlist for a very long time. There are really less dramas for which I've wrote a review before, but I have to write about this. When I checked about this drama I only knew about Gi-chan from “Where your eyes linger " , but honestly all the reviews on mydramalist are literally so bad I was shocked.
But now I'll give my review... Before watching the series I got to know about Holland, read about him a bit and then started to watch the series. I will not say that this series is a work of art or had been made amazing but for me this drama gave a constant smile on my face.
Everyone said Holland's acting is dead but I would say it was the character he played which was dead from inside. When someone have a dream and they can't achieve it and have to give up on that they literally die from inside. I know cause same happened with me and I can feel Holland's character. Ya there are parts where he needs to improve but not everyone is a born actor I believe. Gi-chan did not disappoint me a bit. Now about the script, some said there's no back story of the leads but I believe they have and I got it. Yes the script can be written more beautifully which they did not but I liked what they conveyed, that fighting for your dreams are really worth it. I have seen many bls which got hell attraction just because they have r rated content rather than actual plot. But I would rather say this drama did have a story. Ba Da wants to run a restaurant on his own and Tommy wanted to be a musician and at the end they both achieved them. The character development of Ba Da is honestly great. From being a shy person to someone who can actual talk with people really well. I won't say the series is rushed cause it was short length drama which totally served good. There was a scene in ep7 where Tommy told Ba Da about his dream and sang the song he wrote. The way Tommy got back his spirit to achieve his dream watching Ba Da is shown beautifully. The characters got along well I would definitely say that.
Maybe I don't know much about acting but I had fun watching the series. Overall I would say I am glad I decided to watch Ocean Likes Me to make a opinion of myself and did not believe on the bad reviews. I could not put this series down until it finished. I like short stories cause it's type of a refreshment. And lastly I would ask the viewers to not drop any series based on the bad reviews of others and at least give it a shot and make your own opinion.
P.S. The songs are honestly one of the best!!!

Read More

It's cute......that's it

!!Disclaimer¡¡
This review is based on my personal opinion, it's not meant to encourage/discourage you from watching and you're definitely not obliged to agree/disagree with it.


To be fair, I had no expectations whatsoever for this and I literally watched this series for Holland because goddam I missed this guy. There really isn't much to say about it, it's cute, the scenery is nice, really liked holland's song, he definitely improved a lot music wise. There isn't enough material for me to write an actual in depth review so I'll just point out what stuck with me as I watched this with my brain on autopilot:

>I pretty much spent the first 4-5 episodes confused, I just couldn't find the plot anywhere people, and the weird time skips where sending me into reshuffling mode. The amount of plotholes is enough to form a literal underground mine. I have so many questions and zero answers, it's like the writer got drunk one night and like any reasonable drunk person with a great amount of brainpower, decided to write a script on a whim. I don't know what to say about this plot in all honesty, so plot gets a 5/10 and that's me being generous.

>Honestly, none of the actors stood out in this, their acting seemed so monotonous and lacked any actual personality, the chemistry between the two main leads felt off, there were a couple of moments here and there that made me smile, but the rest got a " 'k next " from me that's if it was able to elicit anything from me at all. If I had to pick the best out of the few characters we have, it would be the grandma who looked nothing like a grandma, her acting was *chef's kiss* super convincing, so much that my fried, chemistry crammed, sleep hazed brain cleared up in ten seconds, legit miraculous work y'all. On a serious note tho, I think Holland did ok considering the low budget this series had and the fact that this is his first series, he still has a lot of room for improvement, but honestly compared to the other almost expressionless main lead (who suddenly had a soul swap or something in the last 3 episodes) he had a bit more personality to his character.

>I'm actually surprised by the music choice for this, I liked most of the tracks used in it, especially "everything" by Roni bar hadas, such an underrated gem honestly.

>production wise, they were definitely working with a tight budget, the camerawork slightly sloppy in some places and the weirdly advertised soju was very interesting to put it mildly. The styling was ok, there were some uh "artistic" choices made and I'm not gonna comment on them cuz it's really not my place, everyone has their own personal style, regardless if I agree with it or not.


And that's basically it for this review. There's really not much to it, if you want something to pass time with but don't want anything that could eventually cause you to turn on the lightbulb in your head, this is for you, other than that, I don't really recommend it unless you want to discover some new nice songs, then then I do.

Ps: I wanted to add that I was kinda amused with the play on words here with naming the series <"바다" likes me> since 바다 was both the name of the main lead who was the inspiration for Tommy's song and the meaning of ocean in korean. I also liked that they casted Holland, an actual gay guy, for this role instead of dragging another straight one into it.

Ps2: I literally just realized that the main lead was Han Gi chan y'all, sir what happened to you? I Ioved you in where your eyes linger, what prompted this sudden change? Like, I can understand Holland's lack of delivery or skills, but to think I had to witness him like this? Damn this series is cursed or something.

Read More