Before Your Eyes Stop (2020)

A Beautiful Story.. Loved it

OMG, when I heard the there was going to be a Korean BL, I was a little skeptical because as we all know Korea is known for its hot and thriving BL industry ??? (sarcasm in case anyone doesn't get it).

But seriously, I was really shocked at the quality of it all, it was really awesome and really great and I loved every second of it.

Before we kick off, I would like to highlight If you are someone looking for like just skinship, then I don't think this is the series for you, if you want story, great acting, production etc, then this is for you.

Also please try to watch the series on Rakuten Viki to try and ramp up its popularity and make the show have good ratings.

Before I go into the review proper, I like to highlight (again) to anyone reading that it is the tiny moments in this show that makes it gold. Like the fact they sleep on the same bed, Koreans have bedding for the floor, so we kind of know they choose to sleep on the same bed. Another is the fact Gang Gook hated Tae Joo touching anybody else's ears (the weak spot attack❤️❤️). All those tiny moments really make the show kind of great because it's like builds up the chemistry between them but also the tension.

Now to the main review. This show was a simple 100 out of 10 for me, from the first episode, I loved the interactions, Gook always being there to protect Tae Joo.

We start off with the bullies chasing Tae and we start to see the type of relationship they have, they have grown up together and are kind of extensions of each other. Now the first place where I get to understand the depth of the relationship is where Tae's father slaps Gook, as a punishment to Tae, this kind of shows to me that his dad understands that Tae has deep feelings and care towards Gook because you wouldn't necessarily care about your bodyguards (Gu Jun Pyo ?, Boys over flowers says hi). So from that, I start to get their relationship.

The intimate scenes between them and I don't mean intimate in that way are so awesome, because there is an extra added level of unsaid words but they just both kind of know that they are there and the gay panic particularly on Gook's side was funny. Tae I feel wanted Gook to start dating because he felt it might take care of his feelings for Gook but as we see, that kind of backfired as Tae because it brought out his jealous side more. The girl I get is meant to make them realize how they felt about each but I wouldn't lie, I hated seeing her on my screen.

Then finally when they started to collide at mid-episode 4 and eventually, Tae told Gook to walk at the ending of episode 4, coupled with the Light Soundtrack playing in the background, I had a meltdown, cause I was thinking this is those type of shows that everything would not be resolved till the last episode but I was very happy that beginning episode 5, Tae went back for him, meaning he could not bear leaving Gook out in the cold like that. From there the relationship progressively got better and by ending episode 5, we had our almost kiss/kiss scene in episode 6???. The ending though kind of broke me, from Gook's gay panic to that ending of episode 6.

I don't like the Kim Pilhyeon, I mean they asked you to keep an eye on them, how does that lead to you having to report that you saw them kissing, like the chairman (Tae's dad) would never known if not for your big mouth, but I mean we should have all known that Tae would go to England from episode 1. I definitely was not a fan of his dad????
By the way, I was so confused by the ending of episode 7, like why was he working at the restaurant? But I like that they cleared that up, that it was kind of in the future

Episode 8 was so and so for me, I liked the way the fight was stationed, it wasn't like unrealistic that he beat like 10 guards at once but one or two at a time, made it more dramatic and real for me, with the music, it was cinematic.

But I mean I kind of liked the fact, that they still kept the reaction that a lot of South Koreans would have to having an LGBT kid. They didn't create this magical world where everyone (especially the parents) are all so accepting and always knew the kid was gay or something. I mean, it hurt us a bit but it was real.

Plus the fact when they finally got home, that Tae was asking why didn't Gook just accept his feelings earlier, "they didn't even get to do that" according to Tae, I felt is the most on brand thing with teenagers right now.

Can we appreciate the fact that they didn't spend a lot of the storyline with the girl intervening, they actually kept it BL. Like they didn't pull one over on us in the last few seconds. I mean it was also cool that they made Kim and Hyemi end up together, kind off made sense.

Overall, I really wished this had longer episodes and more episodes, there could be so much they could have explored with the high level of story telling and acting they had but this is still just perfect. Having a 2nd season wouldn't hurt but I doubt they would because it kind of had a good ending

I loved the extra layer of side comedy, He Mi's mother was the funniest because she was all of us, shipping Tae and Gook. Hyemi mother was everything, from shipping TaeGook to always shading Hyemi❤️❤️❤️ and even shading Pilhyeon that Gook was more handsome and mature. Then her crying made me laugh like a maniac

For the acting, OMG, the acting was soooooooooooo good, I loved the acting from the entire cast, it made it all so much more believable.

Finally the music ???... They have my heart in terms of soundtrack ❤️❤️❤️❤️. I absolutely loved the music in this, I mean the OST had like 4 songs (Light, See U, Looking at you and You) but I felt they used it so well, that it really brought out the moments more and made it all that more powerful

I really hope that WYEL is what kicks off Korean BL because no offense to other countries (Thailand ???) but the Koreans have shown they are simply better are making dramas than them, with creative stories, great production, and high quality, amazing acting and cinematography meant for gods. Imagine 20 episodes of Korean BL with 40 minutes running time.

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