I remember watching this movie and being really impressed by the characters. Or the writing of them. Each of our main characters really gets a voice and has a story to tell. Even the ones that aren't present get the chance. I feel like, in a lot of gay movies out there, there's a really strong focus on only the two gay characters, which is fine, but I guess this was refreshing in a way. I really liked the way the story reveals itself to our characters. It has really smooth transitions as well. I don't know. I found the story really touching. Each character is dynamic with their own struggles and their unique way of expressing themselves. I really liked it. Ah sorry if this isn't very helpful, but I thought it should be known it was a story worth watching.

Read More

Okay, I tried watching this drama several times. The first two times I gave up because I hated it so much. During the third encounter I decided, I would never feel the pressure of having to watch it again, by finishing it so that I'd never have the doubt in the back of my head saying "but what if it gets better, and that's why it has such a good rating?"Truly, that's what I thought. I will admit though, the last two episodes were pretty nice.

The acting is pretty good, but as the story gets a bit more ridiculous, it sometimes seems strained (not the body switching part, but more like when she gives in at some points I won't go into detail for to avoid spoiling). The music was actually pretty good. Now let's get down to the story.

It had an interesting premise. Cool edgy chick who isn't down for injustice. Does her own stunts. Huh interesting, woah there's body switching that's cool? It was very cool. Very very cool. But there's one problem. The romance. The romantic line ruined pretty much everything for me. The story without the romance was super interesting. But... well... the romantic story line was sometimes just disturbing, gross, and creepy to be honest. There were some points where I was concerned that the main actress should get a restraining order. I literally could not see how she could come to like someone who was obsessed with her. It wasn't like it was cute like first stage of falling in love with someone, no it was straight up obsession and it was creepy. Like he was affecting her life and sometimes it was borderline rapey. I honestly cannot understand the romanticizing of it. Sometimes, I expected to hear some dramatic "danger" music but instead got the "omg love love" music and I was like, what? Are you seriously saying I'm supposed to think this is romantic?

Also, Gil Rah Im's character development was such trash. Like it seemed like her character development was secondary to his, like they could disregard what makes sense for her to do as long as it continued the story in a way in which was favorable to his. So glad I finally proved to myself that I wasn't missing out on anything and it was as bad as I thought it was.

Read More

Fine I'll Do It

Seeing the extreme lack of reviews (0) for this I shall do the honor of sharing my thoughts.

I went into this super blind. Did not even read the synopsis, and if you haven't yet, don't do it. Watch it right now.

Who is this for?
1) People who want something snappy to watch in less than 15 minutes
2) People who enjoy horror stories that start off happy-go-lucky
3) People who like Park Chan Wook or Bong Joon Ho

In general we don't get a lot of GL, and the GL we do get is often 50% surreal. This is not that, but it's also not the GL we usually see. If you're looking for romance, try somewhere else! But if you're just looking for silly and provoking wlw content stick around for something odd.

What I love about this: It's a clearly well thought out movie from a directing/editing point of view. I like the way the music aligns with beats in the story, the cinematography is crisp, the acting is actually good, and I enjoyed the comedy, suspense, and goosebumps rising horror element. Honestly I can't find much to criticize. I like weird shit, and this got weird. Not super weird, but weird enough. 9.5/10 would recommend.

Read More

Short and Sweet!

This was a cute short film. Nothing too complicated and something that felt sweet. It was a treat!

I was pleasantly surprised by the behind-the-scenes part of the story. Personally, I really like when a show helps us get a sense of what someone's job is actually like, so that was a nice bonus for me. All the different short shots helped tell two different stories and I thought was a good use of screen time.

Sometimes i feel like GL is written by people who wish they were writing longer stories (which I totally get), but this felt like it was written by someone who cared about making the story work properly with its length. As a big fan of short-length projects, I really appreciate when directors and writers get together like this and make something that works with the length. ^_^

Read More

As a fan of gender benders and someone who loves strong female leads, I was pretty excited for this drama. Unfortunatly the drama mainly focuses on Ning Yi. I found his story boring and his motivations... not that interesting. His story arches felt more like things to keep the story moving instead of parts of the character that were motivating him. I also didnt like the actor for Ning Yi. God the eyebrows....

Feng Zhiwei was amazing though. I really liked her acting. Her character was really interesting. It was really difficult having to watch all the people in her life tell her everything she did was for Ning Yi. It was as if it were impossible for her to actually care about Dacheng's people or her own safety. Its just humiliating, I think, to write such a strong character to be so blind and dependent on love. I still dont believe she really was. In the bed scene, it was more like she was just trying to get over it, as if she didnt really care as long as she helped Dacheng and fulfilled her brother's wish to protect them.

Another thing. I found, especially in the beginning, that I was drawn to Feng Zhiwei and her supporting characters. Her storyline was always minor and sometimes more for comic relief, but I really found her cast of friends to be more interesting. I think its a shame and a waste for so much of the story to focus on Ning Yi. I really wish Feng Zhiwei could have had more focus and more screentime.

Seriously disappointed. :(

Read More

An Overdue Queer Review: Dark Chocolate

I've watched this show like 5 times now..... So let's talk about it. The first time I finished this, I was super confused because I found it funny, but was also like this feels like queerbaiting, but they actually have gay characters in it??? So let's break it down.

So the POSTER is v romantic, however it's still implied to not be romantic. How so? We got the shojou-y flowers surrounding their faces in the poster. And yet, the two are separated from each other facing the audience. So the poster is both kinda implying romance, but also implying not-romance. I think that's an excellent way to express the show.

The GAY JOKES: This whole show's humor and drama is based on misunderstandings and assumptions. The thing that confused me the most was "the jokes are about being gay, but are they being bad about it?" So here's my take. I think I was on the defensive when I first watched this because I expected the jokes to be making fun of gay people because I grew up in a time where being gay WAS the joke. But the jokes/drama are actually misunderstandings-based with gayness being the vehicle of the misunderstandings (instead of the gay people being ridiculed through jokes). Okay okay so far so good.

Another positive point? First episode they got some "it's okay to be gay" dialogue, and it's actually sprinkled in throughout the show. +1 for good intentions.

Okay but is it still QUEERBAITING? Yeah. -1
Queerbaiting breakdown: The chemistry. Okay so some of it is obviously not actually queerbaiting despite the homoeroticism. Why? Because it's actually just a joke set up with the reveal of a misunderstanding being the part that makes you laugh. We aren't actually supposed to think they're gay, and the beginning of each episode is supposed to make you feel like "WAIT I KNOW THIS ISN'T GAY SO WHY DOES IT LOOK SO GAY?" However there is still queerbaiting! What does it look like? So early on we got some moments where there are literal sparks between the two. We got your typical kdrama "oh it's hot in here" when they're blushing so that's hella queerbaity. There's some moments of chemistry in other places as well, and an entire song dedicated to how much they miss each other. By the end of the show I was torn because I was like, if there's a season 2 I can't tell if I want GyuTae to end up with Mina or Sung JiJae. Ah the bisexual conflict T_T

Moving on to the GAY REPRESENTATION. So this show actually has a gay couple in it! (Can you have queerbaiting and also have gay representation? *cough cough Teen Wolf cough cough*) The coming out and gay relationship is actually kinda precious. The gay couple become really confident in themselves. +1!!! However.... When Gyu Tae is like "oh shit (gay guy's ex-girlfriend) Mina is upset because this man broke up with her and immediately got into another relationship!" so he wants the gay couple to be on the down-low so Mina won't feel sad. Good intentions right? Except he goes about it in a cringe way. He's telling them that they should keep their relationship on the down-low because they're gay. -1 points. He does later say "if you found someone you like then that's worth celebrating" so .... +1??? See this is why I get confused.

OVERALL: This show feels like its written with good intentions, but it didn't always go about it the best way possible. Whether or not this show is right for YOU as a queer person, I can't say. For me? I like it honestly. I think it's a funny show. I think they could do better with the gay rep, and Mina especially kinda felt homophobic. Not like "i hate gays" homophobic but like "uhhhuhuhuhuhh I think I'm tolerant of gays but actually I feel weird about it" kinda homophobia. -1 Because of this, I can't rate it higher than an eight. So in that way, I want the show to be better and I want to see shows be better about it in the future. But like yeah, as the show is right now, I'm not gonna lie. I think it's funny. Could be better, and I feel kinda weird when I watch the more cringey stuff, but it's a short series that gets me to laugh. An easy rewatch for me. Hmmm. I'll call it dark chocolate. It's sweet, I like to eat it sometimes, but it does have a bitter flavor to it.

Also I love Choi Woo Shik. He's just so extra in this role. :)

Read More

Confusingly Progressive

This is a fascinating story just because of how weirdly good it is. It gets away way borderline gay and trans representation in a country where queerness is pretty censored. And there are a few reasons why it gets away with this.

The first is that this story relies heavily on it being inspired by anime. Because of the inherit bizareness in anime, its stories gets away with a lot of stuff that would otherwise be considered socially unacceptable. How else would My Girlfriend's Boyfriend get away with characters crossdressing for more than half of the time they show up on screen! Usually, the only way you can get a character to be cross dressing is by forcing them to hide their identity, or to be the center of a joke. But, in this drama, a character can crossdress just because they want to crossdress, and the excuse the show gives for being socially allowed to do so is that they're in anime club. They also excused gayness in a similar way by including a fujioshi amongst the characters. (If you don't know, a fujioshi is a woman who likes yaoi, a genre that is about gay men made for women to read/watch). This made it so the gay aspect was straight enough to be acceptable. I was impressed by how clever the show was in using stereotypes in order to get away with queerness. Is it the best kind of representation out there? No. Still, it's impressive in an odd way.

And it's not just stereotypes about storytelling. For the longest time it bothered me how much of an asshole the main character is. I could be reading into this more than I should be, but I started to realize, it's possible the show wouldn't have gotten away with as much as it did if the main character wasn't an asshole. Now, if you're queer, you probably already understand what I'm about to explain. Before you're ready to come out, sometimes you indulge in societal expectations for you. You might try to be super straight or you might try to be super cisgendered in order to cover up the fact that you're queer. Or maybe you do it in a desperate attempt to convince yourself you're not queer. In a similar way, the show has so many annoyingly toxic male tropes and ideas about sexuality! It bothered me so much.

At the same time, I realized that using those toxically masculine tropes is also a way to appease an audience (or maybe a television network) that is homophobic/transphobic. By indulging in patriarichal ideals of masculity that typically also encourage the rejection of gayness/transness, they imply that they also subscribe to the mainstream narrative about queerness. In doing so, the queerness is subverted, however it also becomes acceptable enough to be presented to the mainstream audience. When the show does become more queer, they start to dial back on other aspects of queerness (there's less crossdressing, and they make the more annoying parts of masculinity stronger in side characters). In a way, the show trades off queerness with mainstream masculine stereotypes. It's an impressive case of subscribing to societal standards and manipulating them to get away with what otherwise might have been censored. Kind of like kissing up to mainstream culture so they can be allowed to do what they want. In a way, it reminds me of politics and the idea of "give and take." Now I could be missing the mark compeltly, but if I'm not, then this show was actually more clever than I originally gave it credit for. The toxic masculinity still bothers me though. It's really annoying. Honestly, I just started skipping scenes after a certain point.

There's also a speech one of the characters gives that so obviously is about queerness while pretending to be about the anime club, that I literally gaped. I'm surprised they were able to get away with it, but again it's BECAUSE they take advantage of stereotypes. And it's so funny, because the story also very obviously doesn't care to belong to any societal stereotypes. I mean it ends with the main characters being in a committed long-term three-way relationship for goodness sakes! I'm a big fan of anything that manipulates tropes to tell a better story (which is why I'm a huge fan of the Reply series, especially Reply 1988), but now I realize that this can also be done in a way that manipulates stereotypes. What an intersting storytelling device. I'll have to look for it in the future as well.

In an ideal world, the writer wouldn't have to go through such lengths to tell a story as queer as this one. However, the amount of skill and cultural awareness that has to go into creating this story is impressive. I'm sorry I didn't realize any of this when I first watched it. I think I would have appreciated it better if I had. I remember thinking, if this show is going to be so gay, why is it also being so toxically masculine? I think I get it now. Sometimes I think of myself as a purist. If you're going to be pro-queer, go all the way! But, it isn't as easy to do so openly everywhere in the world. In the context of China's censorship, I do have to give it some respect. Although I think projecting toxicly masculine traits is a bad thing always and I honestly believe the story would have been better without being so toxicly masculine.

Also, I just wanted to say the main character is obviously straight, but it seems like he might also be panromantic (or something of that nature). Wow! I was not expecting that. Also I realized this is a queerplatonic relationship. I honestly didn't understand the concept very well until I watched this show.

Anyway, I'm a sucker for anything that subverts societal standards (especially in the name of love). I don't know. What do you think? Do you agree with my interpretation, or do you think I'm reading too much into it? Also if you know any storys that manipulate tropes and stereotypes in a clever way, please recommend them!

Read More

Satisfied on a rewatch

To preface this, I knew going into this my expectations would be way too high. I'm a big fan of Choi Wooshik and have been waiting for this show to come out for like two years. I also spent coins to read the webtoon in its entirety when it was finally released in English.

I'll start off with I did enjoy this. And I enjoyed reading the webcomic too.

Edit: im currently rewatching this with someone who didnt read the webcomic and having a pretty good time. I think i judged this harsher than it needed to be. I guess im a hater? Its a pretty fun drama. I liked it the first time I watched it and im liking it even more the second time ^_^

WEBTOON AND ADAPTATION
The part about the story that is both interesting and frustrating is the way it tells itself. Our protagonist isn't really our protagonist. We don't know much about him (who he is as a person, yes we know he's a student and aimless but...) and we don't have a lot of opportunities to connect to him. It's more like the circumstances around him are what make him the protagonist. Instead, our cop ends up being the real protagonist, having a story arch that follows his relationship with his father. Yet... in some ways he feels like he falls short of that role as well. Writing characters in this way is unique and that in itself is interesting.

The show was an overall pretty faithful adaptation of the webcomic. There were some small details that felt important to me that weren't included. For example, I remember that when Lee Tang first encounters Song Chon, eventually Lee Tang tells Ro Bin that he had some sort of instinct that he had to stay away from Song Chon, like he was being hunted. I understand that was told visually in the adaptation, but I was waiting for that line so I was a bit disappointed. Also, the scene where the girl is being felt up in the train, Lee Tang, if I remember correctly, gets mad at the guy. What I though was interesting about how the scene was originally written had more to do with what it revealed about society and how it treated injustice. It was a small detail, but the way they framed the scene changed its impact on the narrative.

[update they rereleased the episodes of the webtoon and my question was answered so i deleted this section of the review]

Something I was hoping would be changed in the adaptation was the portrayal of Ro Bin and Lee Tang. In the webtoon, I remember wishing they were more dynamic characters. Like, if they could have had some more likeable traits to them, or could have been written in a way that made the ending more impactful feeling around these two characters. Ro Bin didn't really change much, but I did end up feeling satisfied. Lee Tang I kinda wanted to see more sides to him though. He's a character that anyone could have played, being super stoic and flat, which ended up feeling kind of disappointing. But he was like that in the webtoon and I can't blame the scriptwriter for preferring to be faithful than risking anything else.

THE ADAPTATION ALONE
I felt like peoples reactions to being murdered were handled in a weird way? I'm not sure if that was a casting problem or a director problem. This probably stands out most in the death of Nan Gam's father. The script literally describes the ways his fathers face changes, but we don't see that reflected on screen. I'm not sure why this was a consistent problem. I felt the reactions were lacking for him, Gyeong-a (Lee Tang's coworker, I might be misremembering her name), and also in the "murderous expression" from Song Chon when he first kills Nan Gam's father.

One thing that stood out to me though was the amount of respect that was visible on screen and in the script. The writing did its best to respect the original story. And the cinematography, parts of the soundtrack, and especially one fight scene stood out as respecting forefathers in the action genre. In particular, Old Boy stood out to me. Song Chon's scene fighting the gangsters, I think you would have to be blind to miss that longshot fight scene. The use of the oboe in the soundtrack... reminds me of something but I can't put my finger on it. An ode to something, but idk what. Someone help me out, what is this reminding me of?

But the soundtrack was somewhat hit or miss for me. I was surprised by that. Sometimes it felt really good (especially in the first half of the series) and then other times I was like, "Ah this sounds like a pretty typical soundtrack piece," which was weird to pair with a story like this... again its a very atypically written story so I expected the soundtrack to feel a little off-kilter overall. Not overly done obviously, as the writing is more like an unnerving pull away from the mainstream instead of something that's off-the-walls-crazy, but still... just something that feels "uncomfortably different from what you're used to" should have been the overall feeling of the soundtrack imho.

Whoever was the editor was having a lot of fun! I loved the way they played with sound, how the soundtrack would suddenly cut-off, how the introduction scene of Nan Gam made his chewing gum sound uncomfortably loud for the first few chews... yeah if anything their sound design and the way soundtracks were edited to build and break tension in a scene was good. Good job editor! Also loved the way they visually transitioned between shots. First episode is a great example of this.

I liked the fun zoom ins, I think it added some character to the camera. The character of the camera could have benefited from being visually messier throughtout the series. It does have its shaky camera, and at least one extreme close up but I wanted more. Thats probably more of a personal preference though. [Edited out some comments after a rewatch]

I LOVED however, the way they played with darkness and shadow. Sometimes it felt like it wasn't in good taste, especially when the cinematography was over-saturated as if in post-production they might have realized they made a mistake. (Watching on a different screen has different results for this though) HOWEVER... omg when Lee Tang is just outside the car, lurking in the shadows... in the warehouse when the lights go on and off... the sudden flash of the taser in the car... a few of those scenes really stood out as good use of lighting.

I thought the leads of the show did a pretty good job in acting. They were both bad at fake yawning haha, but the elements of their acting that were important to their characters were well done. I did feel a bit disappointed in Lee Tang as a character, because he is pretty flat. As I said before, he feels like someone anyone could play because he's so stoic like most Kdrama leads played by idol actors. Choi Wooshik is most interesting in characters that have a wider range of emotions because I find him expressive and charismatic. Still, I do think he played Lee Tang well. He did a good job of portraying the subtle changes in Lee Tang and immersing us in the crumbling life of this character. I was kind of hoping that when Nan Gang finally saw Lee Tang in the warehouse, that for a split second they would show Lee Tang in that convenience store uniform because it is SUCH a striking change in character. The way he has changed his aesthetic into that greasy hair, the weight in his expression, how he carries himself, that split-second emphasis through Nan Gang's perspective would have been interesting. It also allows us to feel a connection between the two characters who know each other. I could go on but this is already too long haha. Nan Gang's actor was also pretty good and I came to respect him for this role.

Beware: harsher than necessary point ahead: I may be wrong but it felt like there was a lot of trust in the team. Like maybe things weren't tested or things weren't critiqued that could have been. I respect a team that trusts itself, but I respect more a team that builds that trust through communicating. I first felt like the show lacked communication when I saw the poster. It felt like someone had to pull together shots into something instead of being able to get the team to work together to make a solid poster. There's a few minor details in the acting, that felt like the crew wasn't communicating when a scene was lacking in some way. Like there was a trust in the overall ability of the show and not enough interest in the details that made the show. This is more of a judgement on my end and obviously I wasn't on set so don't take this part of my critique to heart if you disagree.

FINAL THOUGHTS
So yeah I had a good time watching this. I think I'd like to rewatch this in a few years when I've forgotten some details of the show and webtoon.

I couldn't help but criticize the show just because I'd been waiting for it for so long, but I did enjoy it haha. I think I was afraid of it being terrible so I looked for all its faults. Now that ive done that its easier to actually enjoy it in my rewatch. Again, I like it the first time I watched it and Im liking it even more the second time. It really is creatively made and you can see all the hard work that went into it.

Read More

Sex, Violence, and Criticism!

If you're uncomfortable with nudity and sex scenes, this show might be difficult to get through! There is a LOT of it.

This was a show that was interesting to watch. It was clearly aimed at those who watch porn, while also heavily criticizing the industry. What a way to hit your target audience! Definitely a bold and risky move. With the criticism in the story, you'd almost expect the drama to be written and performed differently, but instead of a prudish approach, it goes in the complete opposite direction, an absurd dive into the sex industry.

The show has a lot to say for such a small amount of episodes, but luckily, I didn't feel like any of it was skimmed over or too short. Sure, for a deeper dive, they could have made the episodes longer, but I think they were able to capture a lot in a satisfying way. For me, this was a good length.

It criticized sexual exploitation, the ways in which the AV industry uses and abandons people (both men and women), the paradox of sexual liberty when coupled with unequal dynamics, the hypocrisy of censorship, corruption in government and law enforcement, and more.

In order to enjoy the show, you have to suspend your disbelief a bit. The show walks a fine line between the absurdly hyperbolic to the oddly recognizable. Despite the short length, the jumps in character growth felt natural and well-done. Plus the way small detail piled onto each other was very fun. Felt a bit makjang-y at times, but I think because it fit the overall tone of the show, the drama aspects worked very well with that style.

Everything feels so overdone that I think it's easy to finish the show and just consider it odd, but it's worth sitting down and thinking about it.

Read More

A Polyamorous Review

As is common within polyamorous themed works, this one starts off with a cheating girlfriend. She is very inconsiderate to her partners, as is to be expected, and full of love. Like its predecessor, Jealousy Incarnate, she ends up in a trial period of dating her two boyfriends with the hopes that she'll choose one at the end.

However, as time goes on, she starts to consider what both of her partners wants and realizes that she can't give them that. To be true to herself, she needs to be able to honestly pursue the people she is attracted to. Finally, she becomes more considerate and breaks up with both of he boyfriends letting them know she can't be the monogamous woman they want her to be. And instead, she ends up with her childhood friend who understands that she is like this.

I have to say, this felt very honest towards the end. Most of the polyamorous people I know married their childhood friends while dating other people (and still do). If there was ever a stereotype that felt true, this would be the one. I think because of this, I have to lean towards a positive rating for it. But I do feel kind of weird how her childhood friend seems to have helplessly and almost unwillingly gotten into this relationship. Especially when he was the one who told her early on that she should just be true to herself.

In terms of acting, I really was not expecting much, however I was pleasantly surprised by some of the actors. There were a few characters who I felt didn't really match the emotions in a way that I related to, but who still had an interpretation of the lines that I think was good and probably better to understand for a wider audience. I'm not saying "the acting was amazing!" but I am saying I thought some of it was pretty good (one break up scene in particular took me by surprise).

Can't remember the soundtrack so it couldn't have been that good, but also wasn't bad.

As someone who is constantly looking for polyamorous stories, this was enjoyable. Are you like me and in some dire need for polyamorous shows? I have a list so check out my profile! (And also PLEASE tell me if you know any that I haven't watched yet)

Read More

Jazzy

You know how free jazz is a bit chaotic, but there's an underlying element to it that's smart about it? That's this show.

I went into this show not knowing much. Put it on my ptw after seeing it on the feeds, and eventually watched it to complete a challenge. It starts off feeling a bit like a mess. There's so many things happening, so many characters to get to know, and each one has their own charm or displeasing element to make them memorable.

Honestly, I'd like others to go in kind of blind as well, so I won't explain the story all that much. If you don't mind feeling a little uncomfortable with an alternative-feeling directing style and can handle the plot occasionally going over the top, then just go with it.

I found the story a bit predictable, though the plot somehow made me doubt my instincts several times. The writer did a good job of dropping hints and then dropping red herrings. I liked that a lot. The reveals still felt rewarding to me.

idk I liked this, probably more than the average person, but I did. It feels like I should give it an 8.5 rating, but I gave it a 9 for the overall feeling it gave me. There was a lot of heart and empathy in this tale.

Read More

Cute

I enjoyed this. I think it had a lot of potential and could have been better, but if you're in the mood to watch something sweet without thinking too much about it, then it's worth a watch.

It was a bit difficult to buy into some of the situations. I think that's because the movie plays on its predecessors for eccentric storylines, but didn't really know how to lay the foundation for them. Like in the beginning when the two debtors were there watching the boy dancing, I think it would have been stronger if both debtors watched him dance, but the secondary debtor (Mr. Kim) left early because he didn't get it. And yet, the first debtor (Jin Hong Seok) couldn't leave because he was so drawn into the dancing. Mr. Kim kind of helps ground us in reality, and emphasizes how Hong Seok is different from most people. That kind of emphasis on the dynamic helps support the eccentric nature of the storyline.

There were some scenes where I was like, ehhh this could be done a bit better. Sometimes the positioning of a character between cuts would be inconsistent, which was a bit distracting. Probably not for most people, but I tend to get distracted by minor details unfortunately haha.

Their first kiss scene was another point I was a bit disappointed by. The dialogue suggests impulsivity, passion, and then suddenly stopping. But the emotions weren't brought out strongly enough, and the transitions between these stages felt smooth. Here, the emotions in the scene could have come out stronger by occurring suddenly instead of smoothly. It's a very emotion driven plot, but I don't think the emotions came out as well on screen.

So basically what I'm saying is, the movie felt a bit like it was under its potential. It could have been polished just a bit more. However, it was still entertaining and I did enjoy myself! Its quirky storyline reminded me of the kind of shows that drew me to kdramas in the first place.

I did like the way they used slowmo, which is rare for me as slowmo is a pet peeve of mine. But the slow motion wasn't too slow, and it continued the scene. And I liked when the sounds of the scene played over the slowmo. It felt.... almost dreamlike? That was a really nice touch.

It's a cute movie.

Read More

Why it's a 10

So I finally figured out what makes this so good for me.

This is a perfect exploration of the nature of good and evil. It subverts expectations by its predecessors by actually giving a damn about its subject matter. It challenges us to think critically about what is good, what is evil, and how these things are defined. I'm trying to not add spoilers so I'm just gonna chill instead of ranting too far. Who knows, maybe I'll come back and have a spoilery rant-type review later. But for now, I just want to say if you love power struggles, writers that challenge their readers, and a story that doesn't shove morality into your face but still makes you think about it, then this is the show for you.

Now, yes the source material is problematic. I think it is important to address that. Is the story/show perfect? Not exactly, but it's a 10 for me just because of how much heart went into this struggle.

Edit 9/20/2021: I was thinking about this drama again and I just NEEDED to further analyze why this is so good.

I will never get over The Untamed. It almost makes me want to write an essay on it. Like the more I think about the story, the more I'm like "wow they did that. they really did that." Like Wei Wuxian is such an important representation of fighting systems of oppression and being true to oneself. And Lan Wangji is so precious as someone who both wants to believe in the system he comes from, and realizing that justice is something that must always be critiqued and not simply accepted by sources of authority. Jiang Chen is important because he helps us understand some of the reasons why people accept bad things even when they mean to do good. And Guang Yao's brutal end and his unexpected humanity reminds us that even evil has love and affection. It forces us to question morality and the systems we participate in, while also addressing the complexity of life and the people in it. Ahhhhh and now I'm crying WHY AM I CRYING AUGHHHH THIS STORYYYYYYY

And Guang Yao's humanity is also important, because it supports the thesis of the show. Good and evil is something we must question, and blindly supporting something as good or evil can result in evil itself. By showing humanity in Guang Yao, it forces us to realize that he also contained good traits, that of loyalty, protection, friendship, and reminds us that simply defining him as evil can create its own problems. Just as Guang Yao convinced everyone to look at the Wen Clan as evil for his own gain, viewing Guang Yao as wholly evil is an inviation for others to take advantage of evil for evil purposes. Instead of painting Guang Yao as wholly evil, we are forced to find what parts of him are evil. And even then, we must question whether actions themselves are evil, just as Wei Wuxian does when he uses taboo magic to save others, a kind of magic wildly considered evil.

Read More

Healing

I think being a dating show kind of blinded me to what ended up being the most important element of this show to me. Some of the men here have been out for a long time and are active in their LGBTQ communities, and some of them are out but maybe isolated from queer peers, and some of them are still in the closet. That mix of people can be incredibly healing and nostalgic for the people involved. Knowing that this program created an opportunity for people to see the different ways people can live queer lives was very meaningful to me.

A lot of my early frustrations with the show programming was also addressed later on, which I liked. I was a bit frustrated that people didn't have activities to bond with as a group because I felt like it was harder to make connections without that. If everything is one-on-one, how do you bond with the people you don't meet?! And then later they finally added some group elements. That was a bit relieving. If the awkwardness in the beginning bothers you, persevere! There will still be awkward moments, but there is also tenderness :)

To be honest, several people annoyed me because they were a bit wishy-washy with their feelings haha. But I was also really touched by some of the people in the show. I was a bit frustrated, but by the time this finished I also realized I enjoyed it very much ^_^

Read More