4
Shasha
Stuck in....
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Will they or won't they?
I don't know why I like this film so much. It completely lacks chemistry, essential for a love story, the actors seem to be on different sets, the music is meh, the story is cliché ridden...and still I have seen it about 5 or 6 times already! There is something about it that just draws me in....The story is rather basic: Mico and Xavier are not together anymore. Xavier went back to his girlfried who threatened to kill herself if he left her. They meet again when their class goes on a writing camp at a seaside hotel and, surprise surprise, Mico and Xavier get to share a room together. Finally realizing that Xavier is not in love with her anymore, his girlfriend breaks up with him at which he goes running back to Mico who turns him down.
Mico is the character I liked the most: he is a real mature adult dealing reasonably with the misfortunes of his love life. Xavier is a sweet kid who just does what he's told afraid to disappoint his loved ones, who lacks courage to stand up for himself letting other people make decisions for him. He finally grows up when Mico refuses to take him back!
There is a fun group of support characters: Mico's group of friends dealing with their love life and still there for him, a mix of students: machos mocking gays and ordinary students not accepting that attitude, their flamboyant teacher and of course a new love interest for Mico (who is tempted for about 30seconds!)!
This movie is mainly about Xavier and his character growth and that was treated well. I found his parents' reaction when he comes out to them one of the most realistic ones ever in a BL. They do not reject their son but they are not throwing a party either to celebrate: they are shocked, tell him they need the time to process it but that they love him. No matter how open and accepting one is, in our societies, when it is about your own kids coming out, it may be difficult to deal with it.
The film looks like the crew went for a holiday at a seaside resort, placed cameras all over the place and filmed what was going on while the actors improvised! There are not many people in the resort (COVID) so this seems very likely! I mean the scene where Mico is stung by a jellyfish and Xavier wants to help him...hilarious! Worth the watch just for that scene!
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Pretty beach, handsome men
I started this one on a whim: I was in the mood for a short BL and it fitted the bill! The first thing I noticed was the emptiness: there was nobody around in this resort on a New Year's Eve! It looked like something which was filmed during pandemic lockdowns: three main characters and that's it!Golf is in Lo on assignment scouting location while Pond is forced to stay because his car broke down. Golf is cheerful and Pond is closed of, stern and too serious looking. They are staying in this tiny hotel on the beach and when Pond loses his key, he has to share Golf's room. Slowly, the reluctant Pond, opens up under the cheerful Golf's influence. Something is brewing between them!
The drama is too short to show more than the way these two meet but we are led to believe that there is a future for the both of them. They were cute and nice together, the characters developed slightly, which is just enough for two days.
The location is pretty but empty so not very convincing as a party spot! The scenery is not shown enough for this to be a resort commercial and the hotel is ridiculously small: actually it is not a hotel but a guest house with two rooms! The side characters were all extremely annoying and unnecessary: the ridiculous, grimacing and OTT hotel receptionist, the ridiculous, grimacing, screaming and OTT Golf's boss. And of course, they had to use an awful amount of comedy sound effects.
Considering all of the above, I am fairly certain that this was filmed at least three years ago because not even Thais do this kind of silly and unnecessary comedy any more! Nevertheless, it is worth the watch for the main couple!
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Versus....
I needed a change of pace so I stumbled upon this drama and was hooked from the first minute in spite of terrible cinematography (I am really sensitive to pretty visuals and this one was cold and frankly ugly).The story follows a disgraced, former bodyguard who is offered a second chance at it. Through a series of jobs, we discover his past, the reasons for his fall from grace and his redemption.
The bodyguard, Shimazaki Akira, is a complex character, all the nuances perfectly painted. He does not say much but sees everything, quick on his feet with dry humour. The relationship with his "rebellious" teen son is so on point: behind the sulky teen hides a boy who deeply loves his father. His coworkers, who know nothing of his pas career as a bodyguard, appreciate him barely considering him an oldtimer. As the cases pile up, his skills become evident and the reluctant colleague becomes a friend.
The drama also pits the official police security services who are armed against the private unarmed ones, proving over and over again that being armed is often a wrong solution. The police security boss is vehemently against the private firm, trying everything in his power to discredit them while they keep proving to him their competence and skill which the official bodyguards sometimes lack!
Beside "case of the week", there is a drama long arc following a female politician as she tries to make it in the macho world. She recognizes Akira's skills immediately and is drawn to him. There is a spark of romance here, very slight and which is eventually nipped in the bud: she choses her career over having a private life! This is another point this drama is trying to make: the gender disparity in Japan. How to make it as a women in a man's world? What sacrifices a woman needs to make which are never asked of men? In a way it is tragic but it is also, thanks to the women like this one, that societies evolve, open up and become more tolerant!
The drama is well written, the music is grandiose, sometimes even pompous for a bodyguard show (probably on purpose: sacrificing one's life to protect others and so on...), the actors are all perfect.
An excellent watch!
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Taguan, A Quickie Musical
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A perfect lockdown confession
One thing is certain, Philippines have nailed it in the department of lockdown BL romance, nobody does it better! This short film must have been one of the first ones and it is practically perfect! So please, can someone tell me why is this so badly rated? It is a wonderful, well written, produced and acted short film. So why you don't like it, people?When you finally realize that you are actually in love with your best friend, you want to tell him, in person, immediately, right? But with the lockdown, it is difficult so Tristan cries not knowing how to tell Chris about his feelings. To comfort him, Chris takes out a box of shared memories (tickets, toys etc.) giving Tristan courage to confess when he realizes that that box means more than just best friends!
The lockdown seems like a distant memory these days, we have all moved on and seeing this short movie brings back the memories of uncertainty, fear, doubt. The characters here feel all that which makes Tristam, in particular, take stock of his life and dating experiences and finally accept that the most important person in his life, the person he loves the most , is his best friend.
The three short songs are just the right means to convey sincere feelings. The actors are cute with those dimples (sorry, I fall for those every time!). The production values are high, the editing is excellent considering this is basically a static film where they both barely move. It is cute and butterflies inducing, so go watch it! Only 15min long but they managed to tell a story of a lifetime in it! Talent does not lie so I will start digging now and try to find their other works. If there are any. Fingers crossed!
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Date - Koi to wa Donna Mono Kashira
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A robot and an idler
An absolute gem of a drama with a quirky and funny story and characters; the synopsis is accurate so I am just going to gush a bit about this drama.A robotic girl and an idler meet, and reasonably decide to sign a contract and get married. But before that, the social convention says they should date. So they do! And it is hilarious. She shows up at the first date with a fake flower on top of her head and the duck mouth expression on her face, scaring the living daylights out of the ML. Through a series of such dates, they unwittingly and unconsciously start changing, becoming less rigid and stubborn! Eventually, they try dating other people without realizing they had actually fallen for each other. There is an emotional scene towards the ending, when their love is obvious to all except to themselves, and when they argue how unfit they are for each other! So perfect! So unexpected, though completely within their characters!
There is a number of support characters, helping them along the way: her long suffering widower of a father, the ML's mother and friends and of course the ghost of her mother (actually, the FL's subconsciousness).
Often, I had an impression of watching a theatre play: there are long dialogues, with very fast exchanges, no music and interior sets! The writing was rather good though I must admit that it became a bit repetitive and therefore boring in the second half: I did not laugh as much as during the first episodes and they could not help themselves: they had to introduce the most annoying and useless trope: a childhood connection! The actors were perfect. I admire japanese casting directors: how do they manage to find child actors who look perfectly like the main actors! It is uncanny!
This was a great watch, funny and uplifting!
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Thousands of Years of Love
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Aaah, the swoonworthy romance...
This is what chinese xianxia/wuxia dramas should be: short, to the point, perfectly written and produced and short! No time wasted on pointless side characters and complicated plots: focus only on two couples and their interactionsand that suffices.The story is full of clichés and habitual tropes and follows two brothers vying for power in the Immortal Realm. One is good, kind and wise while the other one is mean, stupid, envious and jealous. The good brother falls for the Demon Lady (childhood connection!) and the girl who wanted to marry him gets in the cahoots with the evil brother for revenge. Sometimes, halfway through, as a punishment, they all descend into the mortal realm keeping the same roles (princes and princesses of course) and find themselves again in the revenge plot. The final battle takes place back in the Immortal realm when the evil couple turns completely demoniac!
The plot is highly predictable and unoriginal. But what puts this short c drama above the rest, is the high quality of the production. The story is well written (and funny too boot), and filmed: the cinematography is pretty (a couple of kisses and love scenes were expertly filmed, all with interlaced fingers and floating curtains: they do use that wind machine a lot!), just like the sets and costumes (though I must admit that I find their head dressings a bit ridiculous when they go to bed with their head decked in kilos of jewellery!). The music was nice, the usual xianxia pop. The special effects and the CGI were perfect: don't you just love these battles where nobody hits anybody else and all they do is finger battle? The only thing I found was missing is the chemistry between the leads: there was some but not enough and not to the level of immortal, forever and ever kind of love story!
Everything considered, this is definitely one of the best short dramas ever. It probably would be the best if the chemistry had been to higher level. Nevertheless, it is an excellent, gripping and quick watch!
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Coming to terms with betrayal
Contrary to the impression given by the poster, this is not a horror drama! I am always so surprised when people whose job is visual and in the media, come up with such a horrible poster! The synopsis above is from the official site ( http://areyouok.jp/en/ ) and is just as incomprehensible and misleading! There are no clouds and nobody's getting married: it is just a birthday party! Basically, this short drama has been really badly promoted!It is a story of Mikako, who shut herself up after discovering that her boyfriend and her best friend have been seeing each other for a year with all of their friends knowing it but no one telling her. This is an interactive drama: you are given choices to make for Mikako: does she leave the house or not and what does she do afterwards. The story is quite interesting: the choices she has to make all lead to a happy ending for her: she accepts the facts and decides to move on, stronger!
The concept is original and the story is well written. Actually, I wished it was longer! The playlist on youtube lets you watch all episodes without needing to choose!
The acting is surprisingly good. The cinematography is rather grey/blue depressing which they used for the poster! When she leaves the house, the colours change and the song's lyrics have a significant impact on Mikako's feelings: after dealing with the problem, she's OK now!
The web series has been made to promote a song "Are You OK?" by the girl band FAKY.
FAKY is a five-person Japanese girl group that debuted in 2013 under Avex's Rhythm Zone record label. The group has gone through two reformations and currently consists of Lil' Fang, Mikako, Hina, Akina, and Taki. The group name was derived from the word "fake" to challenge themselves to bring something "real" to the Japanese music scene. Their name also stands for "Five Ass Kicking Youngsters" and "FAntastic toKYo". The group defines themselves as a "Next Generation Girls Union" and tends to take musical inspiration from outside of Japan while incorporating Japanese culture and fashion.
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Sports and mental health!
Overcoming mental /psychological disorders through sport: inspiring! This is the second series of this anthology I am watching. The first one was about dealing with depression through skateboarding. This one is about autism and learning through badminton.The actors are amazing: just as skilled as actors as badminton players! While watching, I thought they must have had doubles but there were too many close shots with their faces on to make that realistic! They are amazing! The child actors are just as good, if not better considering their age (10 years old or something like that). The casting director gets a huge credit for finding child actors who look like their teen counterparts, who are talented actors and who can play badminton skilfully.
The series is short, as in it is long enough not to have precious time wasted on unnecessary things. And so much better for it! I binged it in one day. I must admit that I watched the first episode three months ago and the topic was to difficult for me to bear at that moment (too depressing) but it is actually optimistic and uplifting: going for one's dreams in spite of obstacles! It is definitely worth the watch: for the actors, for the story and how it deals with a milder case of autism and for the exciting way the matches are filmed! The last episode is almost entirely a competition match between Gym and Dong and the emotional turmoil it provokes in them while they are playing. You can literally see them grow and mature through the game!
Here are the notes I jotted down while watching!
So, I have only seen two episodes so far and that mother is driving me mad! Yes, her nephew is autistic but is it fair to ask of her own little son to be understanding when she favours the other boy more? She obviously cares more for the autistic boy than for her own son: everything for him, nothing for the "normal" boy! Her son is sweet and kind and she is taking a very wrong, criminal advantage of him, neglecting his needs completely! I hope she realizes the error of her ways! And the autistc boy's mother sees everything and does nothing about it. Nothing yet, I hope! So far she's the only one who is in a position to do something!
On one hand it is admirable what she is trying to achieve here: get mentally challenged athletes accepted in the mainstream sport competition but on the other hand, her own son has to pay the price for it! Is it fair to ask or expect of a child to look after his cousin whose tantrums are robbing him of a normal childhood (ep. 3: they are 10 yrs old and Gym is all sulky and upset because Dong went to play with the neighbour so the 10 year old Dong has to calm him down!)
In ep;4 we finally find out the reason for this behaviour: she had an affair with her sister's husband, got pregnant and had a healthy boy. She feels guilty about it and therefore she looks more after Gym neglecting completely her own son who is not allowed to have a life away from Gym! Is he going to have to pay for his mother's mistakes all his life? By the end of the episode, Dong rebels and asks to be given the freedom to make his own decisions about sport. Seeing that nothing good would come out of stubbornly controlling her son, the mother finally relents and gives in.
And even though Dong is independent and can take care of himself (ep 6) he still needs the support a family can give, words to cheer him up and on. So stop feeling guilty towards your sister and start feeling guilty for forgetting about your own son! Be a mother finally!
Separating boys eventually proved to be a good thing but the nagging worry that he is not good enough, still haunts Dong. And when Gym decides to go back to playing but in singles, Dong sees the tiny territory of independence he managed to conquer through endurance and hardship, being again threatened by Gym, completely unaware of the struggles Dong is going through!
The incredible thing, shown throughout the drama, is the acceptance of mental disability by the society. I had expected actually to be made uncomfortable by the rejection and difficulties people meet while dealing with autistic children: none of it here! Nobody is really making fun of Gym (except once and that was nipped in the bud)! People can be cruel towards others who are different, so showing the ideal world is a bit jarring. Maybe it is true, in Thailand! I hope it is!
Anyway, this is a great short watch dealing with serious matter but gripping and eventually uplifting!
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Insecurities can wreak havoc!
I actually liked this a lot. It is very different from the majority of thai bls these days. The truth is, GMMTV has completely taken over the bl market churning out repetitive fare so when something a bit different comes along, people are lost. NightDream is shorter, dreamier and one of the better produced recent bls. But it ha such a distictive korean bl feel to it because of that.Night and Dream were best friends in high school but they lost touch after the death of Dream's parents. They meet again five years later.
The plot is very basic but it is well executed and beautifully filmed. There are usual tropes galore: friends to lovers, a girl best friend who wants to be more, disapproving parent, bullying schoolmates, helpful friends. The story is firmly centred on the main pair: there are helpful side characters but we do not know or need to know anything about them: so no annoying second couple taking up precious time.
Night is a character deeply conflicted and insecure, and therefore closed off. He has an older brother who is held in high esteem by their father, while he, himself, is regularly criticized for his choices and actions. So even though he has been attracted to (and probably in love with) Dream, he never dared to confess his feelings, afraid of his eternally disappointed father's reaction. Night even managed to convince himself that having feelings for another man is wrong, not normal and unacceptable: he is very scared of his father thinking that he would never accept him, basically!
Dream, on the other hand, has had a crush on Night forever but never dared confessing because he thought that Night was in love with their girl friend. Unlike Night, he is very much at ease with who he is.
Growing up is hard, coming to terms with one's feelings is difficult but once you decide which path leads to it, the happiness is within your reach.
This was a nice quick watch: not your usual thai bl and so much better for it! Added bonus: not one single PPL! Incredible, right?
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THIS IS NOT A BL!!!!!
Yes, there is romance! Yes, there are hot guys kissing! And yet, it is not a bl, it is so much more! So if you are here for the bl, you are bound to be disappointed, hence the awful rating this drama has on MDL! Go watch something else!This is a story about grief, relationship break up, life, selfishness and love.
Sunshine is an up-and-coming actor whose boyfriend, Rain, dumps him a week before Valentine's. He finds himself drinking in a bar/flower shop, and someone takes him home dead drunk. That someone turns out to be Kyu, a cupid reaper who offers him seven chances to win his boyfriend back by erasing people he thinks are responsible for the break up. As the days go by and people get deleted without Rain coming back to him, Sun comes to the realization that the break up was actually his fault!
What an interesting concept as grief management! Sun is incapable to see his own flaws and erasing people puts those flaws in the spotlight, so the more he denies them, the more they are visible until he has to admit it is his fault and nobody else's! Sun is young, cocky, full of certainties, like a lot of young people are, unwilling to accept that they do not know everything and that they are not the centre of the universe! Kyu, the cupid reaper, tries to warn him, make him realize the error of his way but he stubbornly ploughs forward. Their relationship is admirably well written: starting from the initial animosity and impatience to friendship and to love. Nothing is rushed!
The production is perfect: it is well written, very theatrical in its set up since we mainly see Sun and Kyu on screen talking. Most of the action (dialogue!) takes place in Sun's small flat. They talk a lot and the director transposed to tv the theatrical set up with different lighting of different parts of the flat. When Sun tells the story of his relationship, we see the flashback acted out in the background. Amazing idea! Works perfectly well!
The acting was top notch by the entire cast but especially by Atom. That guy is a walking, overflowing fountain of talent that just needs a bit of streamlining. He managed to show every side of Sun's personality: the odious, self centred one, desperate one when the realization struck(lots of crying involved: he's rather bad at it!) and finally a new man who matured through the experience (he actually looked older and calmer!). And that smile! The rest of the cast was just as good: the dialogues are delivered lively, realistically. There is a scene where Sun and Kyu argue while talking over each other. I was stunned by it: for the first time in a drama I see a real argument. Or Sun's audition scene: extraordinary piece of acting! Some side characters could be deemed annoying but Jared, the flower shop assistant and the landlady were just quirky and lovable!
The music was excellent: two songs played during the drama giving subtle hints as to the plot!
Last, but definitely not least, the cinematography and set design: breathtaking. The colours were mostly dulled shades of cold colours, so the only visible colour was red. There were touches of red all over the place: red lamp, red flowers, red taxi, red chair etc.etc. usually one single item per scene! There were also indication throughout the set of the widespread consequences of Sun's deletions: through posters, costumes and sets! The constant in all those changes is the poster campaign for the new perfume Sun did an ad for: Once the Devil! Which makes watchers wonder if Kyu is an angel of the Devil. The final scene explains that they were both a Devil, once for each other!
The ending is a bit surprising. Suffice to say it is a happy ending! Almost perfect, Kyu(not Kyu anymore but Sky) and Sun meet on the plane calling each other Q! They were actually each other's Q: halloween Q and cupid Q and they saved each other's lives! I binged it in two days: episodes are short and easy to watch if you are fan of slow burn dramas!
Just one final remark: the character of Kyu (or Q) reminds me of Star Trek: The Next Generation character Q! Kyu puts Sun through trials by demanding him to erase people in order for Sun to learn about himself! Didn't Q do similar thing in Star Trek? Just a thought!!!!
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Game of love?
How can a short film tell more in 9min than many others in 90? The director's skills are amazing: the writing is original and the cinematography stunning!A man has to find his mysterious and quirky girlfriend every night by 3:01 AM based on a photo she sends him. If he does not, he will never see her again. His wanderings around HK at night are filled with light, shadows, foreboding and challenge. But he is getting tired of her not letting him get any closer: he realizes he does not really know her and one night he misses her by a few seconds and never sees her again. He is resigned never to see her again but a lingering regret remains: he does not remember her face any more but the memory of her is still overpowering. he moved on but he is still somehow stuck on her....
This short film is a testimony to how charismatic people leave a permanent trace behind them and how difficult it is to get close to them and at the same time break free from them!
The cinematography, here, beautifully illustrates the fleeting nature of the girl: it is fast, fuzzy and interspersed with flashed of light.
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Do not try to understand everything. Sometimes....
...it is not meant to be understood. Just accepted.This is a quote on the wall behind Tod and Nick. I liked it. So I put it here as well.
The stories in this anthology series are all of different quality, and this one is definitely one of the best. It follows or it takes place at the same time as the previous story, Pisces of Me with the same characters. While there Tod was a third lead, here we get to know his story and why he was the way he was in the previous episodes.
I like the synopsis above: it is poetic and completely incomprehensible if you have not seen these two episodes.
Tod was an unruly high schooler so his mother got him a tutor, Nick who managed to set him straight. They click together, they are close and spend a lot of time talking and confiding in each other. Tod likes and admires NIck. If ever there are feelings brewing between them, they are never told or explicitly shown. When his parents need to move away from Bangkok for work, the boys keep in touch, with Tod even planning to go back to finish high school there and live with Nick. But Nick has his own dreams and when they become reality, he is torn as to how to make everything work, how to keep his promise and how to live his dream. When Tod finds out the truth, he realizes he had been selfish and lets Nick go through a small white lie.
The title of the episodes, 1626, refers to their respective ages. This is a story of the first love which doesn't say its name. Nick is being a responsible adult and never crossed the line (there is a parallel story in Pisces of You: a tutor actually crossing the line and aggressing the admiring pupil!). Tod's feeling are never really clear, almost until the end: is he in love with Nick or does he want him for an older brother? Tod only admits to incredulous Kun when he tells him the story of Nick, that they only ever touched twice during the time they knew each other and both times was to apply ointment!
The parents are surprisingly open and warm even though they seem too busy, they notice more than Tod thinks they do which comes as a huge surprise to him. They are not judgemental and accept Tod's decisions within the realm of possible. They do not impose their opinions on Tod but let him make his conclusions as to what to do by giving him the facts.
The story is well written, subtle and emotional, a slow burn kind of story. I loved the space references: Pluto and Black Hole were the names the MCs gave themselves, explaining how they felt about their lives. The whole drama special has a poetic, ethereal feel about it, like a dream parenthesis in the harsh reality.
The characters grow and change and mature as the story progresses. The acting is better than in the previous episodes. The production is good: the cinematography, the sets... The editing is a bit messy: to story goes back and forth, past and present and sometimes is difficult to know when a scene is taking place. But that is just a minor flaw. I probably was not paying enough attention, or at least not as much as I should have since these four episodes(Pisces Of Me & 1626) demand and deserve full attention. The endings are open: the boys are young and they will grow and mature and meet new people and have new loves.
But these moments were those which formed their characters for the better!
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Grudges and money
Why do they insist on ruining perfectly good dramas with incomprehensible titles? Here they took it a step further and capitalized all letters! Shouting? An abbreviation? What does it mean? Well, you'll find out sometimes halfway through the drama when it becomes obvious that a number of characters unwittingly helped the murderer. They chipped in and therefore the title!And the drama is short and so worth the watch. It is reminiscent of many Agatha Christie's novels where the events are limited in time, location and characters: everything here takes place over a couple of weeks in an isolated house and with eight people! One of those is murdered. Who killed him? Every person had a motive, a very personal motive brought on by a grudge. The reasons for those grudges are all different, but they all stem from the awful nature of the murdered person and his wealth.
There are a lot of secrets revealed as the investigation unfolds, the characters show their real faces and there is no redemption even for the victim, who by all evidence brought in on all by himself. The best and the most likeable character was the victim's mistress, flamboyant, direct and naive in a good-natured way.
The red herrings abound: the wife is suspected on and off the most, there is a lot of backstabbing and lying, so much so that it gets a bit draggy but I guess most characters had to go through "suspect" phase at least once! The only one never suspected was the victim's niece, an apparently self-centred social media addict constantly filming herself but very much aware of what's going on behind her indifferent facade.
Finally, the revelation of the murderer is not as important as the reason for the murder, which turned out to be unexpected!
The production value is high: the acting, the costumes, the cinematography - everything is just right! Some people say it should have been shorter, like a movie kind of short. Yes, possible but it was just fine like this as well since we got to see the characters in depth, they were better fleshed out than any movie could have done. And even though they were mostly clichés, they were clichés well-formed!
Good watch!
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Gaslighting and film making
Romances is an extraordinarily well written web drama with the unusual plot device: a film within a drama. the drama takes place at university film school, where the student are making a short film as an assignment. But that short film seems to be heavily based on real life: it tells the story of an actress making a short film who discovers her boyfriend has been gaslighting her into keeping their relationship secret while dating another woman at the same time. The actress decides to take revenge with the help of her film co star.The drama has very interesting structure because the line between the reality and fiction is completely blurred. We don't really know which parts of the story were from the film they made and which are from life. Or whether the film was written as the real life drama unfolded. Everything is unclear, though the outcome of the film the students made mirrors perfectly the real life!
The characters are cliché but the FL shows amazing growth: when she realizes that she had been lied to, she does not fold though she's tempted; but with the help of a friend decides to have her lying and cheating secret boyfriend admit his mistakes. He's a creep! A beautiful shell of an empty, lying person. Charming but a creep, The actor did an amazing job in portraying him like a human, a real person and not just a caricature!
The actors are all stellar and I hope to see more of them. The music boring and unremarkable and the sound editing all over the place (sometimes we could barely hear the actors because the background score was so loud!). Cinematography is just as bad, correct and nothing more.
All in all, this was an excellent mini drama and I can see myself rewatching it in order to find other minute details differentiating between fact and fiction.
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Bluebird and origami
Well this was cute, quick to watch and utterly forgettable. Taiwan can definitely do better than this but I guess they must have somehow lost their touch in 2023 to produce a string of misses and a rare hit. This was a miss!VIP Only is a love story between a chef and a novelist living above the chef's restaurant. It is wrought with tropes: falling into your arms, accidental kiss, helpful best friends, a third party, childhood connection, a mother-in-law from hell......there is nothing fundamentally wrong with tropes as long as you find a novel way to use it. Here, they just put one after another and called it a series! While I was watching it, I had a weird impression that, originally, the script was for a straight M/F romcom and they just cast a man as FL because his behaviour, his actions, his attitude, the way he talked and the way he was dresses in flowing oversized clothes, all screamed woman! I don't know, maybe the character is trans? Did I miss something? I know, those codes come from mangas! They'd tried and tested and we are fed up! Come up with something new, shake up the genre!!!!
More interesting than the main pair were their friends. They pushed and connived to get the chef and the writer together, and their interactions were funny. I would not mind watching more of them! When the writer's college crush reappears in his life, the chef feels threatened, and the way they bicker over the writer is silly and funny!
The cinematography was all over the place: from scenes that were too sharp and cold to dreamy scenes with lighting obscuring faces (really pretty) to some weird camera angles. The same goes for editing: sometimes smooth and other times jerky. And then there was the omnipresent music, all the time in the background, that boring elevator music not adding anything to the plot, just annoyance! The actors were there, going through the motions, chemistry rather weak but the cringe was minimal. Except for the surprise visit of the couple from a parent drama. The main actor Stan, reminded me so much (doppelgänger) of the ML from Hello Stranger(I have to find his name...), a pinoy bl!
Surprisingly so, I think I might rewatch this when I need something simple and silly to cheer me up.
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