AbsoluteBL
chronic traveller
Grumpy/Sunshine, Hurt/Comfort, Opposites Attract, Forced Proximity, Breakup/Reunion
To My Star the original had to grow on me, eventually becoming one of my favorites of all time. To My Star 2 was not that show for me.
It’s brilliant, don’t get me wrong. The acting is excellent, really quite flawless. But sometimes too realistic for this genre (and me, one of the last hold outs who can’t take ITSAY), in that I felt their (especially SeoJoon’s) pain too much. Even though I identified strongly with JiWoo. If you have any kind of empathy for the complexities of desperate personalities trying to make a relationship work this show will hurt to watch. If you fall too far into feeling like either JiWoo (me) SeoJoon (lots of other people) you will fall into disliking one of the main characters (probubly JiWoo). And it is really difficult to watch a couple you loved seeing get together, seriously breaking up, in a realistically cutting way, lashing out and hurting each other an everything, and then whole heartedly struggling to come back together again.
The directing is really good, but the characters motivations are sometimes intentional obfuscated and the flashbacks felt manipulative. Well done, but I did feel a little jerked around, and like I was meant to wallow and dwell in the pain a little too much. Like all Kdramas of this type, the weight is given to the maudlin not the happiness. Although the use of doorways as transitions to the past/future was really well done. Like the original, the narrative is messy and sometimes difficult to follow.
So should you watch it?
If you like angst, wallowing, and realistic relationship struggles in your BL, watch this. If you prefer fluffy comforting BL, avoid like the plague. For me the pay out was not sufficient to the pain. I enjoyed the performances, directing, and chemistry - the leads’ comfort with each other is unprecedented in Korean BL, but that’s not enough for me to rise above the pain of the narrative.
RECOMMENDED WITH SERIOUS RESERVATIONS
It’s brilliant, don’t get me wrong. The acting is excellent, really quite flawless. But sometimes too realistic for this genre (and me, one of the last hold outs who can’t take ITSAY), in that I felt their (especially SeoJoon’s) pain too much. Even though I identified strongly with JiWoo. If you have any kind of empathy for the complexities of desperate personalities trying to make a relationship work this show will hurt to watch. If you fall too far into feeling like either JiWoo (me) SeoJoon (lots of other people) you will fall into disliking one of the main characters (probubly JiWoo). And it is really difficult to watch a couple you loved seeing get together, seriously breaking up, in a realistically cutting way, lashing out and hurting each other an everything, and then whole heartedly struggling to come back together again.
The directing is really good, but the characters motivations are sometimes intentional obfuscated and the flashbacks felt manipulative. Well done, but I did feel a little jerked around, and like I was meant to wallow and dwell in the pain a little too much. Like all Kdramas of this type, the weight is given to the maudlin not the happiness. Although the use of doorways as transitions to the past/future was really well done. Like the original, the narrative is messy and sometimes difficult to follow.
So should you watch it?
If you like angst, wallowing, and realistic relationship struggles in your BL, watch this. If you prefer fluffy comforting BL, avoid like the plague. For me the pay out was not sufficient to the pain. I enjoyed the performances, directing, and chemistry - the leads’ comfort with each other is unprecedented in Korean BL, but that’s not enough for me to rise above the pain of the narrative.
RECOMMENDED WITH SERIOUS RESERVATIONS
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