YellowToiletBrush
This review may contain spoilers
Possibly the best Taiwan BL I've come across
Having tried watching a couple of Taiwanese BL in the past based on rave reviews online (i say tried because i dropped most of them eventually), only to be terribly disappointed by the story-telling, acting, production value etc (we *cough* best *cough* love, Kiseki) i honestly hesitated starting on this one. In addition to my bad past experience with TW BL, incest just isn't my idea of a good forbidden romance... Putting aside the borderline incest plot, yes they're not blood related blah blah, this was actually a pretty darn good BL. Possibly the best I've seen from TW so far.
The story-telling had structure, decent context setting, good build-up, running themes to anchor the storyline and the dialogues were natural and not overly cheesy. The cinematography (lighting, angles) was surprisingly good for a drama series with thoughtful choice of location (the stairs and alley leading to the house, the fishing scene), although I thought they could've dialed up the "slump" aesthetics a little. But the winning ingredient for me was the acting and chemistry of the main leads. Their sound understanding of the characters was evident in their gestures, speech, right down to their breathing (there's a scene where Yuan and Qian are at the fishing spot for the first time and Yuan is lost in thought, and as the camera pans out back to reality, you can see him breath in and his eyelids quiver, desire and guilt fleets across his face).
Qian and Yuan are also interesting characters with raw survival instincts, are both strong and vulnerable for each other, and are fiercely loyal to each other and their loved ones. The main supporting characters were also well-designed, imperfect people bound together by non-traditional familial bonds. The interjection of well-timed humour also helped to lighten the story (cue San Pang and XiaoBao).
Some gripes were the casting choice for the multiple versions of younger Yuan vs fewer versions of younger Qian. Just wished they either got more similar looking child actors or stuck to just 1 or 2 for both. I also wasn't a fan of the OST and it was an odd choice of bgm at times. The gun scene w the side charac was my least favourite scene as the dialogue was a tad unpolished and it was overall a little over dramatic.
All in all, i thought this was one of the better (if not the best) BL from TW for me and the actors surprised (and impressed) we with their acting chops.
The story-telling had structure, decent context setting, good build-up, running themes to anchor the storyline and the dialogues were natural and not overly cheesy. The cinematography (lighting, angles) was surprisingly good for a drama series with thoughtful choice of location (the stairs and alley leading to the house, the fishing scene), although I thought they could've dialed up the "slump" aesthetics a little. But the winning ingredient for me was the acting and chemistry of the main leads. Their sound understanding of the characters was evident in their gestures, speech, right down to their breathing (there's a scene where Yuan and Qian are at the fishing spot for the first time and Yuan is lost in thought, and as the camera pans out back to reality, you can see him breath in and his eyelids quiver, desire and guilt fleets across his face).
Qian and Yuan are also interesting characters with raw survival instincts, are both strong and vulnerable for each other, and are fiercely loyal to each other and their loved ones. The main supporting characters were also well-designed, imperfect people bound together by non-traditional familial bonds. The interjection of well-timed humour also helped to lighten the story (cue San Pang and XiaoBao).
Some gripes were the casting choice for the multiple versions of younger Yuan vs fewer versions of younger Qian. Just wished they either got more similar looking child actors or stuck to just 1 or 2 for both. I also wasn't a fan of the OST and it was an odd choice of bgm at times. The gun scene w the side charac was my least favourite scene as the dialogue was a tad unpolished and it was overall a little over dramatic.
All in all, i thought this was one of the better (if not the best) BL from TW for me and the actors surprised (and impressed) we with their acting chops.
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