DNA Says Love You (2022)

The Answer is in the Title

Taiwanese make some of the best BL out there. Their stories are original and usually well acted. This one was no different. I should have figured out the mystery of Wen Wen from the title. But somehow I didn’t. My mind kept going to Amber being a reincarnation or maybe body switch. But either way, the story showed that Wen Wen was the same person no matter her appearance. The love Le had for “her” was more than superficial, it was her heart and personality. The clue to that was the fact that Le was attracted to Amber’s qualities from the start because they were the same qualities Wen Wen had. I really liked the romance of the story. It was subtle, and centered more on friendship and deep bonds than sex. This is definitely rewatchable!

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A refreshing and open minded love

I enjoyed this dramas storyline and how they made everyone feel there sadness, happiness and Love. I admired the true friendship between all 3 since they have been separated for 10years, but always speak of wen wen and Le first love. When amber appeared i really thought Le would have figured out sooner about amber when he did things that wen wen did as a kid in hopes Le would notice and a few time he noted that wenwen did the same. I think this was where he started to fall in love and pushed it off as he was never attracted to men until he met amber (the lover he has been waiting for wenwen). This was not a typical BL instead it showed us that no matter what if you are true to yourself and truly love that person thats all that matters. Sadely we live in world that was slowly getting better, but we have people who still see things as black and white and cant see outside the line. Not saying this to be taken wrong, but i dont care what your sexuallity is and neither should anyone else its your life and your body.. So go for it and make yourself and your partner happy. ?️‍? Hoping for a better world.

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First BL hit from Taiwan for 2022

Just finished it in a binge. I find DNA Says Love You the most endearing of all Taiwanese BLs I've seen, but my appreciation for it does not reach the point that I would start defending it against detractors. First, let me just get the negatives out of the way:

1) The drama should have given more details about Amber's backstory. It seems that they dedicated only a few minutes to explain his condition, and none of their explanations had brought clarity to the topic. Suspension of disbelief is obviously needed here.

2) The second "couple" was a complete waste of space, and the series dedicating a whole episode for them was a poor decision since they have been largely absent in any of the other episodes, not giving the audience any reason to care. They are not worth the investment.

3) Editing was quite sloppy and obviously lacked budget. One scene that irked me in particular because of editing issues was that part where Le started crying to his mother.

Now for the good parts:

1) The production design is really good, as expected from a Taiwanese BL. DNA Says Love You also has the nicest collection of music I've heard in a BL drama.

2) Acting wise, I think that none of the actors in the ensemble did a bad job. I have to single out Lukas and Tannie Huang (are they siblings?) for their performance, though Lukas could've done better with his crying because it looked so forced; a huge contrast to what I have seen from him in the other episodes.

3) I liked how DNA Says Love You is a boys love drama but does not really fit into the conventional definition of BL since the lead is not really in love with a man per se... Probably some fans of the genre will not like it (remember how they thrashed The Shipper?), but I think DNA Says Love You handled this delicate topic very well. The idea is definitely one of a kind, a very welcome breath of fresh air for a genre that seems to repeat the same tropes over and over again lately.

Å small thing also worth mentioning here is that the kiss between the leads looked very awkward. We see touching between the lips, but there was zero passion behind it.

Overall, it was a good run, I honestly had no expectations for it but ended up pleasantly surprised by how the story moved me. I'll be giving DNA Says Love You an 8.5.

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SERIES LEFT UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

DNA SAYS LOVE YOU
OVERALL

The series is okay, but left some unanswered questions in my head:

1 What was Wen-Wen’s condition as a child? If he’s a MALE, then why did they dress her up like a girl?

2 Did he have a male organ or a female organ? If male, then why did they treat her like a girl? If female, then does she still have a female organ now? Or did he undergo surgery to have a male organ?

3 The mother knew Amber is Wen-Wen, so she just accepted this without wondering what happened?

I think they should have discussed this condition more, to help the audience understand it, rather than just glossing by it and therefore making the audience confused or uncertain how to react.

I know I’m in the minority here – but I find their kisses awkward. Maybe because I look at them more like siblings than lovers. I didn’t feel any sexual tension or chemistry between the two main leads.

Also, their kisses are so dry. They’re more like lip-touching than really kissing.

*****

ACTING. Yu-He is hands down the best performer in this series. She’s consistently good throughout the entire series. Next is Amber, then Li. Le’s acting is so-so to sometimes awkward (especially in that scene where he revealed to his mother about his love for Amber). That crying seemed forced. Or maybe it’s just his face. Same with Gwan. His acting is just so-so.

CINEMATOGRAPHY is really good and so is the MUSIC. EDITING is quirky and confusing at times.

Episodes 1-4 = 10
Episodes 5-8 = 9
Episode 9 = 6
Episodes 10-11 = 9
Episode 12 = 7

OVERALL = 8

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A true genderqueer show? - Some thoughts from a trans person

Let me start off by saying I have extremely conflicting feelings about this one.
The production value is great, as is to be expected from most Taiwanese shows these days.
The casting is good as well, and the acting is honestly my favourite part of the entire thing and the biggest reason why I managed to watch until the end.

But none of that, to me, made up for the way this show approaches genderqueer people's lives and intersex people's experiences in particular. Now, I am not intersex myself so I recommend you take what I say with a grain of salt, but as a trans person myself I do think I am somewhat more qualified than the average viewer to judge the story's take on intersexuality and trans-ness as a concept.
I do highly commend the writers and producers for attempting to not only do something different from the average gay romance, but to address the struggles of a highly marginalised group of people that are almost never talked about in media.
But as good as I believe their intentions were, they completely missed the mark.

If we approach this show from the perspective that Amber is a trans man who, while he did get diagnosed as intersex, didn't claim that identity but rather chose to use the opportunity this diagnosis provided to start his transition, there are certain plot points that make a lot of sense.
Amber's family moving away, the endless doctor's appointments, the deliberate cutting off of all contact to his former friends, etc.
And there are, admittedly, one or two moments in the show that I really connected with. Amber tearing up over the orange cake he loved as a kid is a great portrayal of the complex, heartbreaking joy of a trans person reclaiming bits of their childhood that they thought they lost due to their transition.
But that's where the good ends. Nothing about the way Amber interacts with his friends and family, with his surroundings in general, and certainly nothing about the way his friends interact with him seems true to what life is actually like as a trans individual. Of course there is no singular, one-size-fits-all trans experience, but there is a difference between depicting an authentic trans character and depicting a character who is trans for plot reasons only.
The way Amber is constantly misgendered by the people around him after it's revealed that he is in fact Wen-Wen - that alone made me so deeply viscerally uncomfortable that I just can't feasibly imagine Amber as a trans man.
I know (since I was kindly informed by a commenter replying to this review) that this misgendering is due to choices the translators made, since in Mandarin there are no gendered pronouns, which does make it easier to stomach, but unfortunately still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Most international viewers (like myself) likely won't know about Mandarin pronouns and therefore have only the translations to go by and those, as previously stated, set an uncomfortable precedent.
This is not the show's fault by any means but should still be taking into consideration in my opinion.

So, the trans man theory is out. What else is there?
If we approach this show from the perspective that Amber is an intersex person who got diagnosed late in childhood rather than at birth, then there is an immediate, massive red flag that gets raised: the way Amber's transition is handled.
Yes, some intersex people choose to transition to a binary gender identity, but that doesn't erase the long, dark history intersex people have with the medical industry. To this day intersex children are often forced to transition to either male or female, mostly through surgical intervention - so-called "normalising procedures".
These experiences are extremely traumatising to the intersex people who go through them and the continued prevalence of such procedures is a clear human rights violation (and is even classified as such by the UN)
So the fact that Amber, who was forced to transition and repeatedly states how traumatic and agonising the entire process was for him, even if he is admittedly content with or at least indifferent towards his current gender identity as a man, has nothing but good things to say about the family who put him through such an ordeal and the show never so much as attempts to condemn forcible transitions, is at best a massive oversight on the show makers' part and at worst endorses the continued violence against intersex people.

I don't mean to sound inflammatory, but these issues are deeply serious. So even assuming that the show runners had nothing but good intentions, what their efforts resulted in is a show about sensitive queer issues written by people with little experience in such matters for an audience who are largely unfamiliar with these topics.
And while I do think that it is important for there to be shows about queer people's issues that are written to appeal to and be understood by non-queer audiences in order to educate them, this isn't one of those shows.

All in all I cannot in good conscience recommend this show. Yes, it has some good, even great, elements, but I believe that they are massively outweighed by its serious flaws. I'd suggest skipping this drama and, instead, looking for some genuinely thoughtful and well-researched stories about trans and intersex people. There aren't all that many, but they do exist and they are worth your time more than, I am sad to say, this show is.

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Not much impressed

Story was good and I liked it but not so much impressed but actors, scripts all were amazing but I didn’t see any chemistry between lead actors I mean they should be any sorts of scenes present but until he find out his child hood crush he was confused to be with him or her ? And thinking of rejecting he should have accepted him as boy without knowing the past and at last if he knew it should have been more happy right? I couldn’t get much attention to this series I just forwarded more and finished entire series in 1 day may hope to see them again with new series because actors have great potential

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Interesting Premise But Weak Execution

I don't know if it was the writing, or acting, or directing, or cinematography, or editing, or maybe even some cultural differences in perception--But all the scenes read very bland to me.

I don't think the actors were doing a poor job in believability. But there were no deeper emotions attached to their actions in the scenes. Even when some stereotypical romance setups happened, it felt like i was only watching it happen. I couldn't feel what either character was feeling at any time. Rather than a piece of fiction with developed characters, i felt like i was just spying on these events happening to real people. I was missing the emotion. It seemed absent

I gave this series the old college try and watched 4 episodes. But at this point i don't think there's anything the series can deliver me that will make it worth finishing.

It's a shame because the premise of the series is still quite interesting to me. Only the execution is lacking.

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Best Melodrama banget

Series bL yang satu ini penuh dengan misteri dan tanda tanya, saya menyarankan anda menonton series ini sebelum anda terkena spoiler. Secara abstraksi, series ini menceritakan Pu Le Chien yang bekerja di sebuah cafe bersama teman-temannya salah satunya adalah Hsieh Yu He ; Ketika bekerja, datanglah seorang pria misterius bernama Amber, walaupun pria ini baru pertama datang ke cafe namun Pu Le Chien bisa sangat akrab dengannya ; hal ini mengundang beberapa tanda tanya besar terutama bagi teman wanitanya Hsieh Yu He. Sebenarnya? apa sih yang terjadi? saksikan series ini. Dari segi detail dan cerita yang di sajikan di series ini ; menurutku sangat bagus dan dikemas secara epic, dialognya pun menurutku mudah difahami, satu hal yang menjadi kekurangan adalah scene awal menunjukan bentuk scene yang tidak penting dan membuat penonton bingung, hal ini bisa saja membuat penonton untuk lari sebelum mengetahui seberapa bagusnya series ini. Series ini dapat menampilkan banyak sekali tanda tanya terutama untuk karakter bernama "amber", Ereklin dapat memerankan tokoh ini dengan baik dan dilatar belakangi dengan karakternya di Your Name Engraved Herein, Ereklin mempunya daya tarik kuat untuk memerankan tokoh Amber yang misterius, cerah, dan bersahaja. Dari segi warna, sangat enak dimata ya perpaduan warnanya sangat baik, warna matte-nya sangat lembut dan mudah diterima secara visual, ost yang berjudul buterfly by polin juga sangat punya karakter, sekelas lagi Your Name Engraved Herein. Series ini punya banyak makna kehidupan sih menurutku. Saya sangat merekomendasikan film ini untuk semua kalangan.

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