woof, that was ruff

Such a hard drama to watch. The last episode just came out, and man did I struggle to get here. The writing is shit, the acting is way overdone, the characters are terrible, why am I even here? ..honestly it's because I couldn't pass up a series with TutorYim as the MLs-- those poor babies-- boy did they do them dirty with this show.

Starting with the basics, nothing really wrong with the story except for the fact that there isn't much of one, just a sweet office romance between a mentor and intern, cute right? Not so much, the story itself is fine but has weird unnecessary drama points that don't make sense, creating drama just for the sake of it, which honestly is nothing new to Thai dramas in general. Except for the fact that the cute characters that are supposed to make the show are just trash.

These poor poor actors, after watching this group in Bed Friends and Cutie Pie, you know the extent of their acting skills, and you cast them in this??? This is a slapstick comedy, overexaggerated reactions, with dull shallow characters, and no redeeming story to save it. Jade (Yim) is a super weird and awkward character, and no not in a cute loveable way but in a wtf is wrong with your face way, on top of that he's insecure to a fault. His overdramatic reactions are even more emphasized with the slow motion scenes and awkward sound effects, seriously who wrote this? In comes our boy Mai (Tutor) who's this gorgeous little thing and he basically puppy dog follows Jade around and adores him to death. He has zero flaws and confidently pursues Jade who literally can't stop making trouble for himself and those around him. It's like a mess of a princess saved by the heroic prince, but even the prince is a shallow characters with zero depth, and as adorable as both of these actors are in real life and other shows, this one was almost impossible to enjoy. There were some scenes that were cute of course, but the amount of trash you have to dig through to get there.... not worth it at all.

Good lord why in the world would I keep watching this??? Only because I think Tutor & Yim are adorable and I can't help myself, but if you haven't watched the show, I'd say just look up a cute moments fanmade video and skip all the ridiculousness. If you're obsessed with TutorYim, then you might be able to push through otherwise, just skip to the next one. Feel free to find recs in my other reviews!

Read More

holy effing chemistry batman

Whoever decided to pair these two up knew exactly what they were doing, I was ready for this chemistry as soon as I saw who they cast for the roles. The show just ended and I have complicated feelings rating it.

The story is simple enough, cocky boxer Yoryak (Great) meets his match outside the ring, a doctor who has no patience for his attitude, Dr. Wandee (Inn). He runs into our drunk, heartbroken doctor a few days later and takes him home, just for the doctor to drag him inside for some sexy fun. They hit it off a lot better than either of them expected, so when they they end up tangled up in bed again, they decide to strike up a deal.

These actors are much more than just pretty faces, the two leads have depth to them, and their chemistry is CHEMISTRYING. Their playful personalities make them loveable, and the romance that threatens to break into their FWB situationship is like a heavy sweet and innocent syrup they pour on top to fill the show with flavor.

Yoryak's brother and his boyfriend are adorable too, they bicker like an old husband and wife and im here for these wholesome vibes. I was also really interested to see our asexual best friend get into a cute and loving relationship, but to be honest they didn't do much with it and I was disappointed.

Production quality is good, it's GMMTV after all.

Heres the rub, they hit us with a SOLID first 7 episodes, great quality and gave you all the feels, and then the episodes after that were plain BORING. Not that there weren't some cute or sexy scenes sprinkled in, but the plot felt forced and the tension wasn't there. It went from a 8/9 stars for the first 7 episodes to 5 stars for the last 5. I'm going to go with a 7.5 overall because it will probably be easier to push through the boring now that all of the episodes are out, and the beginning was really worth the watch. Hopefully GMMTV will start focusing on the plot quality instead of pushing out so many of these "could have been incredible" BLs.

Read More

this story is cursed to leave us unsatisfied

Whether you're watching this story for the first time or you've seen the Chinese versions, my initial impression is to temper your expectations, this show is far from the polished diamond it could be. Based on the same novel as Addicted (2016) and Stay With Me (2023), a lot of us had high hopes for this remake and just wanted to see our characters get their long awaited happy ending without the censorship gods trying to de-gay the story, and while this version did give us a "happy" ending, it wasn't the journey it so easily could have been.

Story:
In this adaptation, Hero (Guhai/Wubi) angrily runs away from home after his rich father remarries, he escapes to the countryside to live with his aunt and starts going to school there where his new straight-laced classmate Poppy (Luoyin/Suyu) turns into the outlet for his frustrations.

At the beginning, they sloppily rush through the story, giving the stepbrother enemies-to-lovers romance a new Lakorn flavor comedy spin. Though I love Thai humor, the type of corny slapstick comedy they're using here doesn't really fit with this story or characters, and I wish they didn't interrupt the vibes with so much potty humor. It starts to improve in the next few episodes, and though there's still a lot of cringe, we start to see some good chemistry. Then episode 6 hits and the story is all over the place again. After that the episodes are a mismatch of good and bad, including the random side couple drama, which honestly feels like a fanservice throw in for Hit, Bite, Love fans. They tried to do way too much, and it made the overall feel very disjointed.

Acting:
This isnt really all on August and Mac, but I personally wouldn't have cast them together. Their acting and character development felt forced at first, but after a couple episodes they started to improve and the characters start becoming more complex and loveable. Then all of the sudden, the chemistry just stops, and the story becomes jumbled, their romance just "happens" and we don't expirience anything really unfold. I suspect it's due to all the flack that they've been getting about Mac being 16 and the huge age gap between him and his co-star, which seriously-- why cast him in the first place then?

There arent any crazy scenes but oddly enough they do have a couple of intimate scenes, and there are even a few suggestive shots of the minors that were totally unnecessary, but then they go and censor the kisses??? Isn't censorship the whole reason this story keeps getting remakes, why cast minors in the first place? Seriously it's like the Chinese version all over again. And you know what, if Stay With Me should be testament to anything, it's that you don't need sexy fanservice or even kisses to have sweet romantic tension, so where'd the chemistry go??? Do better Thailand.

Overall, whether I rate this as a standalone or compare it to the other adaptations, the result is still the same. Lots of potential, a mess of production, and a "happy" ending that leaves you just as unsatisfied as before.

Read More

a simple and playful JBL

It's easy to watch and enjoy this drama, the story is a bit forced, but the characters are cute and their messy romance draws you in.

The story follows Mamiya, a sweet dilligent type who followed his childhood dreams to become a Beauty Consultant, his coworker Sahashi is the opposite type, known for relying on his pretty face to attract customers. Though Sahashi teases Mamiya for his hard work ethic, he finds himself drawn to Mamiya as the one person who actually acknowledges his efforts and skills. Not wanting to lose to Mamiyas long-term unrequited love, Sahashi wastes no time making bold moves, and the romance between them starts suddenly.

The characters have a decent charm to them that keeps you interested, to be honest theres little depth to the story or characters, but enough to keep you watching all the way through. The actors are cute and don't overact much, and production quality is good.

If you're bored and looking for a short binge with some cuteness to it, give it a try!

Read More

decently sweet, iced with drama and sprinkled with spice

The story takes place in a bake shop run by 3 friends, the first one is the rich kid using moms money to run the shop so he's stuck under her thumb, the second is a friendly outgoing baker who can't seem to beat his friend at cakes, and the third is a cold perfectionist baker who is closed off and has his walls way up. Until of course, our MC takes the stage, he's a simple and sweet aspiring baker who easily makes his place in their shop, and also their hearts.

I actually really like that his character isn't a huge pushover even though he's a sweetheart, what I dont like is how quickly we see our closed off perfectionist open up to him and do a complete 180, maybe because it's only a 7 episode show and they had to speed things up, but the development needed a little more time in my opinion. I also didnt enjoy how toxic literally every relationship turned at one point, full grown adults throwing fits like children, making a decision in the heat of the moment and then taking it back, the white lies and the unnecessary drama, but all things considered it wasn't too bad.

The actors are doing a good job playing their parts, and there are several cute scenes, the chemistry between the leads is fine as well but I do feel like it could be better. Was almos trooting for the second love interest just to see if they'd have better chemistry lol. A cute watch overall, short and sweet, just a little bit dense.

Read More

a lot of hype for randomly resolved storylines

Last episode just premiered, and I'm sitting here thinking wtf did I even watch. Granted, I made it to the end so it was entertaining enough to keep watching, but there was a lot of unfulfilled potential.

Story-- The premise here isn't original, it's a Parent Trap style twin swap story where we follow one twin in his efforts to save his brothers dream after his brother was attacked in his place. After watching Not Me, it's hard to do the twin trope better than that, but this one is a more of a lighthearted and innocent story, so for the concept it works fine.

Something about this show just doesn't flow very well, or should I say nothing this show flows well at all. Part of it was probably poor acting, but the writers/directors/producers must have all been totally out of sync because the story was all over the place and the drama behind it all just made no sense.

Acting-- Frame, the actor who plays the twins is kind of a poor actor, his scenes are exaggerated and the characters themselves are not so well written imo. You have one that's supposedly wild dog crazy but when he has to play his brother he's a huge softy, and then the other who's apparently incredibly popular who's just a POS in general, and they just arent on the same page, makes no sense at all.

I did rate the acting well though because the cast is pretty good otherwise, I wish the rest of them had more screen time. I love the side couples, and even the main couple is cute at some points, but theres just a lot of drama dragging on.

Music-- Yhe music is fine, nothing too crazy, just unimpressed.

Anyway, with all of its flaws, I was able to make my way through it, I was even excited to get those new episodes every week. It was a "happy" ending, it just didn't really make sense, and I left unsatisfied. Worth a watch? Up to you.

Read More

a gorgeous onion of character development and storytelling

It's intriguing to me how much my feelings have changed about this story in such a short time. On the one hand I feel like they did such an amazing job building out these characters, and on the other hand the rate at which you go from wholeheartedly loving these characters to near despising them is unbelievable. Episodes 1 & 2 I fell head over heels in love, episodes 3 & 4 I lost interest, and episodes 5 & 6 sweet feelings started to sour. There are subtle hints that episodes 7 & 8 will reveal secrets that might explain why things developed to this point, and hopefully fall back in love with these characters.

The story follows the life of Do Hoe, a quiet high school student who lives under his abusive father, a the Grandmaster of a Taekwondo gym. Ju Yeong is the mischievous type, he gets kicked out of his home in Seoul and sent off to the countryside to train under the Grandmaster, and there the relationship between Do Hoe and Ju Yeong begins. Do Hoe already has a complicated relationship with his childhood friend Hyeon Ho, and as the story progresses the three of them fall into a mess of a love rivalry.

These characters and their stories are so beautifully done, what I love most about this show is the absolutely masterful subtlety they use to tell their story, it's all of the tiny little details that make up each scene, layers on layers deep, each scene peels back a new layer of the characters backgrounds and personalities. Over time some things change and some stay the same, I'm interested to see how they develop through the end.

The actors are great, each of them have a unique role to play in the atmosphere and they do a fantastic job. The production is good, each scene is intentional, and the music and editing are solid as well.

Looking forward to more, will keep updating this review as episodes come out.

Read More

this left me feeling a whole lot of things

This show had so so much potential, and for some of it, they really did a great job. For other things, they just flopped hard.

Jiushi is a game developer who stumbles across a VR game that's so much more than just a game and gets pulled into the world of 12 doors that you have to make your way through, each of them opening up into unique virtual universes with new life threatening challenges, and when you die in the game, you die in real life. When Jiushi goes into his first door, he meets Lanzhu, a master gamer who owns a company that takes other gamers through the doors.

The story is intriguing, it's a fresh spin on the real life VR trope, and the strange worlds that lie behind each of the doors are well thought out and incredibly creative. The main storyline though could have been SO much better. The main story line was veiled in so much mystery, I love not knowing what's going on and learning little bits as you go, but the reveals were lame! There were also psrts of the plot that didn't really make sense that just threw you for a loop and you just had to roll with it. I'm a sucker for a happy ending too, and I saw a lot of ways we could have had a satisfying ending, but this wasn't it. It was disappointing after staying with the story for so long, just for it to end and leave you feeling empty.

The acting was alright. Most of them were good actors, especially Xia Zhiguang who plays Lanzhu, he's amazing. There wasnt anyone terrible, but the guy who plays Jiushi wasnt a great actor, so it threw things off. These two could have had chemistry to kill for, some of their scenes you just sit there holding your breath, but the writers must have been scared towards the end since there's not much chemistry outside of the sad parts. I get it though, because ultimately the show was taken down, so sadly, their fear was justified.

Production value was great, the world graphics were mostly good quality,the music was awkward though? There was literally only actual music on what was supposed to be the romantic scenes, but it felt forced in there.

Overall I enjoyed this, but not nearly as much as I anticipated. It could have been amazing, and the ending just leaves you empty.

Read More

it's cute and chaotic, but kind of a mess

The story is about a classical piano player who dreams of playing jazz, and a jazz player who because of a traumatic past, doesn't want to play jazz. Honestly the story is a bit strange, you think they're going to go in one direction and then they yank you the other way. I havent read the manhwa so I'm not sure if it's the adaptations fault or not, but I do know it doesn't flow very well. Their meeting was chaotic and intense, and their development was toxic angst, but i enjoyed the angst. I'll leave a spoiler comment to rant about the story, but I'll leave the review at that.

The actors did an okay job, they're all cute and decent actors, but the two mls chemistry is just okay. They did a good job with the tension in the scenes though. Also our little side couple had great chemistry.

The quality of the filming and production were good, well shot scenes and decent music, no complaints there.

Overall I'd say its worth the watch, it was a cute story for the most part, and the angst and tension are great, but just be ready for a toxic and strange ride in the story line.

Read More

they took all that potential and threw it out the window

You've got two cuties, at least one of them with stunning visuals, and you just kind of dropped the ball.

The story wasn't bad, but it wasn't good. I like a childhood sweetheart type of trope, especially when they meet again after years. But this one didn't really make much sense, and they didn't build the story enough to make it mean much. The office romance aspect was cute but just.. there was no point to it. I honestly wonder if they wrote all of the "fun" scenes before writing the story, and then wrote a story so they could showcase some of those scenes.

The acting was... okay. Honestly after watching a couple of clips, I thought the chemistry was going to be fire, but it was just meh. There were some tense scenes, but they had such potential to do more with these actors, it was super disappointing. Personally was not a huge fan of the main character, he was the damsel in distress type that can't do anything himself, and the times you're supposed to see him as "cool", you're really just watching him be saved by other people.

Overall it wasn't the worst, but you could definitely do without watching the whole thing, even with how short it is. Out of all the KBLs I've seen, this one is probably lowest on the list.

Read More

I love a well done adaptation, this one was a little short

To be honest, after watching the trailer I wasn't sure what to expect, it looked corny and the teacher-student relationship seemed uncomfortably inappropriate since it looked like the teacher was coming on to him, no lines were crossed, though there was a bit of an uncomfortable gray area that im not a fan of.

It's the story of a delinquent who falls for his teacher at first sight, and who doesn't love a cute delinquent trope paired with a forbidden relationship. They mostly kept it sweet and innocent, the teacher is recently graduated himself so the age gap is pretty small too, but even still. Oddly enough, there's almost zero mention of the forbidden aspect of their relationship, which is weird because there are a couple scenes where I was like, you guys are just flirting in public orrrrr?

My main issue with this drama is that they really didn't have enough time for plot or character development, this series is too short to do justice to the characters and their stories, even with their relationship they had to speed up the development. Their interactions feel a little forced, and the story feels a bit flat.

The acting is decent, the characters are loveable, although Toki is a bit overboard with his acting, I get that they're trying to stay true to the manga with exaggerated reactions, but it is a tiny but cringe. It gets better as the show goes on though, so you really only have to push through the first couple episodes.

It's a pretty show, the scenery is pretty, the people are pretty, the music is pretty, production was all good quality.

As long as you go into this show looking for a cute shounen ai, knowing that it will have those manga/anime style reactions, you will likely enjoy it. Even with the bits of cringe, and the underrdeveloped story, its still adorable.

ETA-- just read the manga, or at least the first 6 chapters that I could find. Honestly they did a great job, I would have done a few things differently but they definitely did it justice with this adaptation, cute!

Read More

easily a solid 10/10

Everything was so beautifully done, Taiwan keeps outdoing themselves with these masterpieces, this one takes the cake.

The story played out perfectly they take their time developing the feelings that grow, starting from the earliest days of this small little family. A brother and sister who are struggling all alone take a "stray" in off the street, he quickly becomes part of the family and the close bond they all form is beautifully done. When things start to take a turn and the little brother starts having different feelings for the older brother that took him in, the story turns turbulent and they do an incredible job keeping it both realistic and angsty without pouring on the drama.

The actors are all amazing, I was really impressed how easily they capture your heart and pull you into the story, and the chemistry between them is so good ?

Music and production were probably one of the best ibe seen in Taiwanese bls, they did a great job keeping things realistically gritty and still adding that cinematic flair for beauty.

Watch it, your only regret will be that it only has 12 episodes.

Read More

action/fantasy bl with fire chemistry ?

First of all, the fact that Saint is the producer blew my mind a little bit, but lets get into it.

This story has everything-- our leads are new recruits in a special investigation unit, they train together and hunt down criminals, the murder mystery alone keeps your interest pretty well, but there's so much more. The two MLs are linked by destiny, they have a past that goes much farther back than they know, the fantasy element of this show is pretty good, I love a good lore. The merging of these two aspects of the story, or rather lack thereof, is the only thing that had me kind of disappointed. They invested so much time and energy into building up both the story of their past lives and the story of this big wig criminal that they have to hunt down, I expected the stories to be somehow linked. But it was kind of a crime fighting by day, fantasy love dtory by night type of feel, with a bit of both in some scenes. It was great at first but towards the end it started to feel like they were trying too hard.

Im not sure who threw this cast together, but it was beautifully done, theyre all well written characters played by good actors with fantastic chemistry. The tension between our two MLs gives you butterflies, Phaya and Tharn are both lovable in their own ways, I love love love their chemistry and can't wait to see their relationship develop even more. I love our side characters relationships too, wish we had seen more!

High quality everything, rarely do we see good storyline, good acting, and good graphics all in one BL, so the fact that we have all 3 in one, recipe for success right there. These aren't short episodes either, these are hour + long episodes packed with content, you feel like you just watched a short movie. Unfortunately, toward the end it started to feel a little more dramatic, the length of the episodes seemed to drag on a bit.

The ending was happy, but felt a little ?????
I'm not sure how to explain, I just felt like, oh, okay, that was it?

Part of me wonders if they started to lose it towards the end because they got such good feedback that they started to think they'd get a season 2 and wanted to save some of the plot twists for S2, which is why they ended it the way they did. All in all it was a great show, the ending wasn't bad, just didn't match the energy of the rest of the show in my opinion. I'll be excited to hear if there's a season 2!!!

Read More

a real bl from China, and so far so cute!

Of course the censorship gods got to the series and we only have 4 episodes instead of the full 12, news is theyre trying hard to find a workaround, but for now I'll just review what they released. In an attempt to avoid censorship by airing this as a webseries outside of China, they started off strong by pushing out the first 4 episodes together, and I'm already loving it.

The story so far is a good mix of character building/back story and a nice simmering chemistry between the 2 leads. Qi Lu is a rich student artist desperate to get out from underneath his father's abusive thumb, one day he coincidentally meets his muse, a poor student artist Qin Xiao who's rough around the edges. After some back and forth they end up becoming close and deep feelings start to form. The friendships and family dynamics are messy and realistic, but the romance brewing is sweet and wholesome, and yes--already slowly developing past censorship lines. This plays like a slice of life bromance that naturally developed into a romance and its absolutely beautifully done.

On top of the tension between them, the actors really do a great job making you fall in love with the characters, no over the top acting or cringe dramatics. The side couple is okay, I like that there's deaf representation, but the couple is more of a one sided love story so far and I'm not sold on it.

Overall production is good too, edits and shots are artistic and well done.

So far everything about the show is pretty great, can't wait to watch the rest, will update as more (fingers crossed) episodes air!

Read More

Thai flavor body swap romance

I decided to watch this because it's been a while since A Tale of a Thousand Stars and I missed EarthMix, it was good watching them work together again, and overall this was a cute watch.

The story was fine, misunderstandings led to hate in what used to be close relationships, then an accident caused two siblings (Win & Lin) to swap souls and Win has to pair up with Korn who he now hates to go on a journey to ensure their souls return to their bodies. To be honest a lot of the buildup seemed to be for no reason, the misunderstandings don't make a lot of sense in the end. Kind of gives off a "what was the point" kind of feeling, or "if you knew that then why..", it was a bit of a mess at the end. I thought the journey was good and wholesome overall, but it all felt a little like we were waiting for some big reveal and then at the end it was just a bit flat.

Tha acting was good, but I think the characters were all pretty shallow, not a lot of depth or character growth. Win(Mix) grew a lot as a character, but it wasn't very believable, Mix is a fantastic actor, but this drama didn't do it for him. Their chemistry was just okay, I mean this is EarthMix here, they have chemistry just by being in the same room, but there wasn't any special closeness in this drama.

Production was good, pretty scenery and landscape, good quality shots, music was decent as well.

I wouldn't rewatch it, but that's not abnormal for me.

If you need an EarthMix fix, go ahead and give it a watch! It's a cute watch overall, but if you're looking for the show that makes you fall in love, try something else.

Read More