A really good drama with two very different pairings that went through very different experiences. One was your typical friends to lovers lovey dovey coffee shop pairing - Licheng & Muren - the other had much, much darker undertones of non-con and incest - Xingsi & Yongjie. I started the drama for Licheng & Muren and they were cute and hot and sweet - but their story was also nothing new, nothing I haven't seen done a dozen times over, so in the end who caught my attention more were the step-brothers Xingsi & Yongjie. Now that was a pairing I haven't seen done yet.

Their parents married when Xingsi was in high school and Yongjie in elementary school - and Yongjie very early on decided that he would make Xingsi his one day. I'm not really sure if Yongjie was borderline sociopath or psychopath, there was definitely something off about his mental state and I wish the drama dug at least a little bit into that beside a word dropped here and there because it was apparent that their whole family knew that he wasn't exactly... well, sound.

What fascinated me was that the drama didn't skirt the fact that what Yongjie did to Xingsi that one weekend at the sea was wrong - just like his mom was wrong for knowing about it and not stopping him - and that Xingsi decided to forgive them so easily? That wasn't because they deserved it or whatever but because it's who he was, too kind for his own good and they all knew it.

Another thing that fascinated me was that the fact they were step-brothers wasn't just brushed over. Xingsi's father never accepted it, not truly, that Xingsi and Yongjie became lovers, he only gave them his blessing because they were dead set on doing it anyway but without his blessing, Xingsi would've been forever miserable - like I said, they all knew what Xingsi was like. And the father's love for his flesh and blood was stronger than his aversion to their relationship.

Also, I loved that even though Xingsi insisted that he truly loved Yongjie, there was still the lingering question if his feelings changed from brotherly to romantic freely or if he let Yongjie manipulate him which was what his step-mom and his dad feared.

Goodness, what a fascinating story!

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This movie could easily rival Hollywood blockbusters with its scale, action sequences and CGI. There were big shoot-outs, smart-ass robots, everybody’s favorite found family trope with an adorable little kid to boot...

One thing that I adored was that the movie didn’t adopt English as the universal future world language. They all spoke in their own native tongues using universal translators. What a smart idea. Sure, it took a while to get used to - personally, I’m used to watching a movie/series in one language so after a while I can follow its melody, its flow which meant that I had to pay close attention here but I didn’t mind. It was a really interesting idea.

Two things I wished they explored more in-depth were both connected to Sullivan: a) why/how did Cpt. Jang tried to kill Sullivan and b) the fact that Kim Tae Ho was the only child soldier that Sullivan had a personal connection with. Those two things felt like wasted opportunities.

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Worth for the Secondary Pairings

I’ve made my peace with the fact that I’ll never understand nor join the Br@ghtWin/S@rawaTine hype and that it’s okay, to each their own. Luckily, the secondary pairings saved this drama for me: ManType, DimGreen, MilPhukong and even BossPear.

I think my favorite pairing was ManType because Man turned out to be the bestest boyfriend who ever lived and I loved that. He was so happy for and supportive of Type when Type got his promotion even though it meant for Type to move way way away. He was all, “It’s okay, do your thing, once I’m done with school, I’ll follow you.” And for that he deserved an award!

My favorite moment was when Sarawat found out that Mil was dating Phukong. That was absolutely, positively, belly-achingly hilarious. His reaction to it - and to the fact that both Boss and Man knew! I laughed so hard!

I loved that the secondary pairings were each so different and their stories so interesting. Even Boss & Pear’s and that’s saying something because hetero ships in BL stories are hit-n-miss for me. Thumbs up!

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This was, I think, the youngest cast Thai BL I’ve seen so far. Which made some of the more explicit scenes rather uncomfortable to watch, to be honest. But the actors were amazing, that’s true.

Here I’ll probably once again go against the fandom grain, so to speak, because I liked TeeFuse more than FrameBook. FrameBook seems to be, from what I’ve seen here on Tumblr, the pairing of this drama. I don’t know. For me personally, they didn’t click as much as TeeFuse. And Tee in particular.

It’s true that I didn’t like how Tee started his relationship with Fuse. Sure, Fuse verbally agreed to have sex and he was very enthusiastic about the whole thing - but he was also very drunk. There is that. But I liked that Tee owned up to that. He apologized and took full responsibility and got out of Tee’s way, he didn’t try to pursue him further. No, afterwards, it was Fuse who needed to win Tee over again. But there was this minor fact that he had a girlfriend and, well, basically he wanted the cake and eat it too. Which kept hurting Tee a lot. And the actor, Boom Krittapak, played it incredibly well.

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I don’t like stories about cheating and cheaters and this whole drama is centered around that - but it’s also very well acted. Especially Max Nattapol did a fantastic job with his part, you could truly feel Korn’s soft fondness of Knock and then his despair, his visceral need to make everything right.

So, even though the storyline wasn’t really my cuppa - though it dealt with some very important subjects that every person who finishes school and starts working faces - I loved it for Max and Tul and their chemistry which is always out of this world, it truly is. I would love to get another season with them!

Also, the music was fantastic. The main song was sung by the actress playing Yihwa and it’s simply marvelous

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I loved this drama’s take on the Beauty and the Beast theme and I loved that it turned the whole trope on its head. Here, it was the woman, Jang Man Wol, who was bloodthirsty and vengeful and… stabby, and the man, Goo Chan Sung, who was soft and sweet and gentle. I love to see gender stereotypes switched.

I also loved one of the secondary pairing, Lee Mi Ra and Det. Park Young Soo (BTW, the actors both had supporting parts in My ID Is Gangnam Beauty!). I loved them because they were similar to Jang Man Wol and Goo Chan Sung: she was like a porcupine and he was just the softest…

So yes, I loved that. But around ep 13 it started to feel off. I guess it all began with the very bland ending of the vengeful spirit storyline. They built it up to this seemingly huge plot and then… a whimper, not a bang. I had a similar feeling with pretty much every subplot afterwards. Yes, all the loose ends were tied but, well, they were tied and re-tied and then tied again for a good measure, so much so that I couldn’t help but feel that the last two eps dragged - they were both 90 min. long.

Don’t get me wrong, I cried during the finale but at the end, instead of feeling satisfied and pumping my fist all, “Yes!” and “I don’t want it to end!” I felt more like, “Okay. Onward.” The best part of the final ep was the very last scene, the introduction of the new hotel owner. That was well done.

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This one was good. Set in the "old world", during the series, it centers on the representatives of the three Japanese states and who they are and what plans they are brewing. Their target? Kamen Rider Build!

I loved Sento in this movie, when everyone forgot about him, when everyone - literally! - tried to kill him, mind-controlled by the aliens, and he had to find a way out of this mess completely alone because even Banjo and Misora were against him. And on top of that, he had to listen to Takumi's constant needling about how it was impossible to "fix" Banjo etc. and so on.

Speaking of Takumi, I love the "mind palace" where Sento keeps meeting his other self, all the doors, mirrors and stairs and whatnot. The CGI is perfect and visually, the "room" is stunning!

Also, AFAIR, Sento never told anyone about this, did he? That his personality literally split into Takumi - the him from before - and Sento - the him now. That he has actual conversations with himself, that he can hear and see his other self.

Gosh, Sento... he keeps so many secrets from the others, always shouldering everything, blaming himself for everything. And yet, instead of being all doom and gloom about his guilt, he fights for "Love and Peace". What an amazing character!

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So much hugging and cuddling and petting and more hugging and cuddling! This was, hands down, the skinshippiest - is that even a word? - drama I've ever seen and the chemistry between the leads was incredible! It was funny and it was touching and the story was actually deeper than I expected. This was a nice surprise for me!

I watched this drama for Shison Jun, of course. Of course, I did, of course. I mean, he's pretty and I'm shallow, what can I say. But the story offered him as an actor so much good, juicy stuff, from pure fluff and ridiculous moments to truly heartbreaking scenes in which he made me ache for him. He was honestly ah-mazing and the true highlight of this drama!

What I didn't like was the story of Hasumi and Fukushima. Because I simply couldn't stand Fukushima. She did make me feel sorry for her at the very end, when she finally got her act together, more or less. But overall, nah. That arc I mostly skipped. The main storyline and the main couple made the drama worth it, though! So...

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This Korean BL drama maybe became too sugary sweet at the very end but I still liked it very much because it was funny, the characters were interesting and the story well-developed - and overall? It simply put a big smile on my face. I wanted to pinch everyone's cheeks, they were so cute!

The funny thing? My favorite character in this drama was actually the not-gay one: Namgoong. He was the friend everyone wishes to have: incredibly funny, very loyal and always having his friends' back. And his regular fisticuffs with Lee Sohee, the sole female character, were just awesome!

I'm honestly loving this Kdrama trend of well written BL series with good production values and actually talented actors. Korea is truly starting to give Thailand a run for its money when it comes to BL stuff. If Thailand wants to keep ahead, it needs to up the ante - and not just by making their dramas explicit but actually writing them well!

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I readily admit that this drama had its issues with pacing. The editing was chaotic - especially in the beginning - and some of the jumps in logic were mind-boggling, as if certain parts were simply cut so you were left rather confuzzled. But!

But the characters made up for it. I loved all the firefighters at Huo Yan's (Gong Jun's) station and his relationship with Yan Lan was just precious. The actors obviously had a lot of fun with their parts which helped immensely. Another thing that I simply adored? The parents. All of them. Every single set was kind and loving and they all simply wanted their kids to be happy and safe. Not a bad parent in sight, what a marvel!

The best part for me, though, was the friendship that developed between Huo Yan and Luo Jie. They started as rivals, both in their profession and for Yan Lan's heart , but they got past that rather quickly and then? Then they became besties! Gosh, that was so awesome. And it made me so happy!

Also, this drama is, first and foremost, an ode to the fire rescue of China. You have to accept that to enjoy it. It's Independence Day... just about Chinese firefighters instead of American soldiers. If you get easily annoyed by eloquent proclamations and hero worship, then this drama is definitely not for you.

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Lotsa Fun!

A very, very sweet comedy about how two young people met, fell in love, finished school, started a career, got married etc. It was really nice that we saw all the stages of their relationship because most stories end with the confession and then it’s an implied HEA, that’s it. Here, we saw what happened afterwards, too.

The actors had a fantastic chemistry and they played off each other perfectly. I loved all the funny noises that accompanied their reactions which made their comedic timing even better. I also loved how they used the fact that Gu Wei Yi was huge and Si Tu Mo was tiny for humorous set-ups, especially in the latter half of the drama.

Yes, around the middle, the drama started to drag a bit but once the lead characters became an item, it picked up again. Besides, the humor helped in places where the story might’ve fallen dull otherwise.

So, overall, a great story and, for a Chinese production, rather short with just 24 episodes. It’s available on Netflix and I can highly recommend it!

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This is the movie that WaterBoyy: The Series is based on. And I guess I am biased - the series does have New Thitipoom and Earth Pirapat, after all, and these two make everything twice as good - but I liked the series more.

You see, in this movie, some of the characters’ actions and reactions were a bit off, illogical, I couldn’t understand how they arrived from point A to point Y all of a sudden. Like, Meuk refused to break up with his famous girlfriend but he called Nam selfish and incapable of loving anyone but himself. So there were moments when I literally scratched my head and went, “Huh? ?"

Also, Nam’s father’s relationship with his very young boyfriend felt downright creepy, mainly because his dad looked like he was in his 50s/60s but his lover looked in his 20s. And he was basically using Nam’s father as… a layover? A bus stop on the way to another lover? So the whole thing felt very… icky.

One big plus? The film features Beam Papangkorn in the role of Meuk (Apo in the series) and he is very, very, very pretty.

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This was a very sweet story of reincarnation, deep love and deep regret. It was sad, touching, soft and loving with great actors and great cinematography.

Personally, though, I found the story a bit too slow and I think it would’ve really benefited from being shorter, the usual 12 episodes and not 17. To me it felt as if almost all the scenes and all the pauses between the characters’ reactions were a beat too long, it felt slo-mo without the use of slo-mo.

My favorite pairing was the secondary - tertiary? - one, WinTeam, because their back-n-forth felt more lively than the main pairs’. And my favorite character was Dean, hands down. His guilt he felt over what he had done in his previous life, his devotion to Pharm… it was wonderful.

I definitely plan on following Ohm Thitiwat and Boun Noppanut’s further series, they were THE discoveries of this drama for me. I’m very curious about their future career!

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I freely admit that I watched this drama mainly for the TeeFuse pairing and skipped pretty much everything else. Yes, FrameBook was also interesting but I felt that their storyline dragged a bit? Not that TeeFuse’s didn’t have its dull bits, too, sure. I think that 14 episodes was way, way too many and it should’ve been slashed to 10, 12 tops.

What fascinated me the most was Tee. He always seemed so… melancholy. He never got mad at Fuse, not even when Fuse decided to stay with Jean, he even promised to remain friends with Fuse, given a little time. And he never talked to anyone about how he felt, about his mother’s much younger and cheating lover, about Seed and his advances, about the whole Fuse situation, he kept it all in. I don’t know what it was about the actor playing Tee, Boom Krittapak, but to me he felt almost… ethereal here. Guest starring as Tee in WRU this year, he felt much, much more solid, real.

But regarding FrameBook, I truly adored the last scene with them, when Frame made the video to remind himself of what was really important in life: protecting the one he loved. That was incredibly sweet. And also natural, considering all that happened to Book in MIR2!

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This series had 3 main couples: PhaYo, MingKit and ForthBeam (see pic). My problem was that I didn’t really feel PhaYo - the main pairing - until the very last ep, only then did it get interesting for me. Before… not so much because Wayo was too immature, and even though I didn’t like the way Phana acted at first, he then got much, much better whereas Wayo devolved until it reached a point for me when I started thinking that Phana deserved better. It was only after Phana called him out on his behavior that Wayo changed.

MingKit and ForthBeam, on the other hand, I was behind them from the start. I don’t even know why but their stories, they simply clicked with me. MingKit was cute and ForthBeam was hot. I loved Kit’s family issues and Beam’s depression (though it was only hinted at), and that Ming and Forth, respectively, accepted them the way they were, with all their baggage…

Also, another awesome thing was the ride or die friendship among Phana, Kit and Beam. The way they took care of each other, genuinely, affectionately, that was another wonderful part about this drama.

And I’m so happy to hear that there will be season 3! From what I heard, Pavel Phoom (Forth) confirmed it on his IG. I can only hope that, considering the BTS issues, it won’t end up being another Love By Chance, that would… irk me.

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