Gray Currents (2024)

Seeking shelter while striving for home.

Another good Korean BL that in a vague manner presents many interesting ideas and opens the door for some personal reflection. What do we want from life? How can we achieve it? Can we force it or the timing has to be right?

We witness enough of Lee Yoon Dae and Cha Soo Hyuk’s past and present to understand why they are suffering and why it is hard to break from the vicious circle of the mystery. Lee Yoon Dae might have escaped, but he has no direction. Cha Soo Hyuk has the direction, but does not know how to escape.

Personally, I did find Soo Hyun more interesting. The way he was trapped in a toxic environment, the way he did not know how to give up the responsibility that was not his in the first place. Truly heartbreaking, but also understandable and relatable. Trying to deal with more than you can handle, always pretending that you are fine, you are strong enough to keep going. Living in a paused life.

On the other hand, Yoon Dae managed to voice his grievances and remove the toxic people out of his life,, but it left him alone, lost with no direction, no plan. Wanting stability, but not knowing how to achieve, where to start. Wanting someone to care for him, testing how far can push the boundaries before he gets abandoned.

While the potential of finding what they needed in each other was there, the question became - is the timing right?

A vague story needs a solid performance to carry it, and I'm happy to say both Lee Jae Bin and Jang Woo Young delivered. I did find some moments in Jae Bin’s acting a bit tense, but nothing too distracting. Jang Woo Young simply ate the role, there is nothing to improve in my eyes, nothing to correct.

For a short, rather low budget drama, the production value was great. Loved the use of dim light, low the rather dark and grimm setting, perfectly capturing the somber reality the characters were living in.

We also need to talk about the intro, because this is easily the best intro we have gotten from any k-bl ever. Perfection does not even capture how perfect it was - from the style to the music. Then, it should not be that surprising, the whole soundtrack was great.

Overall, yes, it was vague, yes, it lacked detail, yes - the presentation of the ending could have been improved, but it’s still a good show with well captured serious topics that gives you more than just a romance.

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