This review may contain spoilers
Technically it is "perfect", but why do I feel like it lacks something?...
Look I know this show is very loved and regarded as the best BL ever made by so many people, but maybe it really isn't for me, despite me liking many things here. It's definitely a very well made series, it has good acting (sometimes very good), great cinematography, great music!!! (that was a plus for me), but I feel some sort of emptiness when I watch it and when I think of it, it's like it lacks warmth, like it lacks heart. But I don't think it generally lacks heart, it's just that it is so formulaic that it feels like I'm watching a to-do tutorial rather than a depiction of fictional people's lives. What I mean with it is that the characters feel shallow, more like archetypes to make the plot move than like people I would feel something for. And it shouldn't be like that cuz in theory these characters pack a lot of punch! But the way the story unfolds strips them down of their potential to be felt and they become mere acessories (except for the protagonist, Day). I'll take Mhok as an example, as I consider him the best character here both for his background and for Jimmy's ability to make me feel for him. There was a moment in the series (pretty early on I must say) where Mhok stopped becoming his own character and became an extension of Day. His function was to be there for Day and like that he loses his depth and becomes an acessory, a charming love interest. Sure he has his own worries by the latter part of the series but even then he's still in Day's shadow. But at least he's not devoid of personality like Chief Phupa in 1000 Stars. We also have very interesting side characters here like Porjai (Namtan is so great, my first time seeing her in anything) and Night, but they're even more relegated to acessories with very little time to flesh out their own struggles, which are rich. And their development as a couple all happens off-screen, which is a waste of potentially good chemistry there. Now speaking of Day, the protagonist, he is the only one that we get to see the struggles of first hand and while I personally did not enjoy the character cuz I found him unecessarily arrogant and childish through and through, his motif is very rich! But he spends the whole series dealing with his blindess, with self acceptance, with the desire to gain independence... and then at the end it was all in... vain?
So overall it's a nice series for whoever is into very formulaic stuff with tearjerker moments (that didn't make me tear up but oh well) and the happiest endings, but it kinda failed to make me feel much. It's weird cuz I feel heartless by saying this. I just keep on thinking about Moonlight Chicken and how it was so rich with so many nuances and powerful stories being told about a vast diversity of human relationships that felt close to home even when I didn't go through them in my personal life and then I think of this... there's an abyss of difference. I think Aof should do more ensemble series.
So overall it's a nice series for whoever is into very formulaic stuff with tearjerker moments (that didn't make me tear up but oh well) and the happiest endings, but it kinda failed to make me feel much. It's weird cuz I feel heartless by saying this. I just keep on thinking about Moonlight Chicken and how it was so rich with so many nuances and powerful stories being told about a vast diversity of human relationships that felt close to home even when I didn't go through them in my personal life and then I think of this... there's an abyss of difference. I think Aof should do more ensemble series.
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