Subtle and fleeting scent

Shockingly subtle, considering this is meant to be a perfume commercial! You could have even missed that if you just stumbled upon it on accident. I watch them product placements for the product reveal, hence I'm lowkey disappointed.

As far as BLs go, it's fairly standard college love story. Think 2gether, packed into 10 minutes. It's also very soft, which would have worked better with more understated actors in my opinion. Also, for a show this short, it was kinda boring? Like usually, I feel like these BL commercials are packed with plot to sell you the idea! Alongside whatever else they're selling. This one was taking its sweet time. Not bad, though, for a short film. Just... fillery.

Now, you might have gotten here from the My Secret Love (2022) drama series. The only thing they have in common are the actors, and the perfume company as a sponsor. I didn't keep up with the MSL controversies, but just so you know, the stories ended up entirely different. So if you like one of them, there's no real need or incentive to watch the other, aside from the actors I guess.

It's available on "mith.official" youtube channel, for anyone interested.

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Just forget this and watch the tv show instead

I don't really know what to think about it.

On one side, I guess it's not that horrible, might have something to do with us getting a full-blown series, and it's only 10 minutes.

On the other hand, it's not really that good, either. It looks fairly cheap and amateurish. It's incoherent. It bears some resemblance to the tv show, which I attribute to the novel (for example, the food scene). But it's not really adding anything of worth (maybe the stethoscope scene?).

Overall, I don't recommend anyone to watch this, except hardcore TaeTee fans. In no way does it enhances the tv show experience. So if you've stumbled here from the show, you can safely turn right back. I mean, it won't hurt you if you watch it either way. But in my opinion, there's no need. For anyone not familiar with Triage adaptations, watch the series instead.

And if you just have 10 minutes you don't know what to do with, may I interest you in "The Right One" instead? It has Tae in it, too! And much more ?

[https://mydramalist.com/27402-the-right-one]

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In defiance of the title, Mr. Unlucky strives not to kiss!!!

But he will win you over regardles. From start to finish, this drama never fails being entertaining, impossibly cute and at times, devastatingly heartbreaking. It's very much worth the time you invest in it, more than once.


What I particularly liked:

1. Shinomiya is THE perfect boyfriend. Literally a fairytale-like prince, inside and out. He's hot. He's sweet. He's a good friend. He respects your boundaries and makes fun of you in the nicest way possible. He voices his feelings!!! For real.

2. Fukuhara has been funny and relatable for the vast majority of the show. I wanted to strangle him only like thrice during the show, each time lasting mere seconds.

3. The soundtrack is catchy and fits the ambience very well. For people looking for it, it's called "Perfect" by "OCTPATH".


What I particularly disliked:

1. Their relationship can get a bit repetitive with not enough development at times. You might hear they lack intimacy, which I personally wouldn't have minded if there was additional progress to compensate for it. Alas, I wished for more towards the end.

2. The subtitles aren't that good. There are few minor issues I can look past, one annoying one that bugged me but didn't ruin it for me, and one major problem I will feel salty about to the end of my days. I'll leave a spoilery comment under the review pointing those out.

3. Pomeranian. You'll understand after watching it.


Overall feelings:

If you're looking for something light on plot, short and sweet, this is the show for you. Just be warned that like many japanese live actions based on shounen-ai manga, this one is also very ridiculous and innocent in its portrayal of love.

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Futile fights of Y

The show promises to expose the dark underbelly of BL industry. But with examples that are convincing just enough to make you overlook some of the obviously fake drama, it's not exactly a cold hard truth people might expect. And while the first two stories do a good job of balancing the social commentary, conflicting characters and the sweet Y fanservice that pays their bills, later half of this series is more of your standard petty drama with pacing issues and questionable script. If you're looking for a social justice, you won't find it here. If you instead want to feel disillusioned with the same system you partake in to support your favorite shows, the first 10 episodes are more than enough. And for some, maybe a little too much. Trigger warnings not applicable, since they would ruin the whole point of this show. Just be extra careful with it.

My main take from this long ass BL of ours is - very good premise, progressively more lacking execution. It focuses mostly on multiple personal conflicts, which (no matter how refreshing in setup) are fairly mediocre in thai BL script writing. Adding to it AIS PLAY's renowned disinterest in international audience and questionable editing skills, you might end up with something that's significantly more challenging than rewarding. Ultimately, I wasn't satisfied with my investment in it. Ending episodes of each story tend to be either rushed or underwhelming, which really soured the mood for me. Overall quality of stories goes steadily down with each new segment.

The first one is (aside from the ending) almost perfect, easily getting a strong 9.0 score. It can be scary and make you sick to your stomach, but it's also oddly cathartic at the end. Even if a bit unnaturally so.

The second part is still very clever, with yet another underwhelming ending. As is customary in eastern media, villains aren't really punished for their transgressions. Especially where seniority plays a role. You can add victim blaming to that list, too. But life isn't always pretty, so it deserves at least 8 or 8.5 out of 10 points.

Third one is... calm? Basic? While it manages to keep up with the darker, messy tone at the start, it quickly devolves into mushy nothing and only slightly picks up at the end. It doesn't feel like it wants to tell something, nor does it manage to do so by accident. It's pretty though, and I like openly messy plotlines. Shame it didn't amount to something more. I'd give it an 8/10 if it were a standalone, here it's more of a 7.5 in comparisson with previous stories.

The last part, however, was a major disappointment. It lacked message, clear direction and conflict for the vast majority of time. The ending was both rushed and underwhelming. It showed an idea of good conflict, but utterly failed to deliver on it. Instead of neatly tying the whole thing up at the end, it made some awkward knots and called it a bow. It's barely worth a 7 at this state, but let's do a 7.5 for the bigger picture.

Overall score - generous 8.5 out of 10. I don't think it's a show you would want to binge, though.

While the stories are slightly connected, only adjacent ones have enough overlap to warrant watching them in intended order. The link is weakest between second and third story in my opinion, strongest between part 3 and 4. Which leads me to recommend watching WoY in these possible orders, based on my preference: (gagaoolala version has better translations)

1. Watch only the first 2 stories, episodes 1 - 10. They are dark, messy, unpredictable and icky in all the entertaining ways.

2. Watch only the first story, episodes 1-5. Second story expands a bit on the first one, but it's more of an alternative run of similar situation and doesn't add that much more to the overall creeps.

3. Watch the first two stories, take a break, then watch story 3 (episodes 1-10, 11-15). The later one is significantly more light, more petty, and less well-thought-out. It's still an okay watch, though.

4. Watch only for the main CP(s) you're interested in - episodes 1-5 for Billy-Seng, 6-10 for Gung-Korn, 11-15 for Mark-Milk and 11-20 for Toru-First (characters of Toru and First are very present in episodes 11-15, but their relationship starts developing from the episode 16 onwards.)

5. Add story 4 to option 3 (episodes 1-10, 11-20), mainly if you are interested in Toru-First relationship.

6. Watch all episodes in the order they were released in, slowly. Some of you might be completionists, but be careful not to rush it. It's quite a heavy watch on its own, mainly because of the darker themes and bad editing/translation choices.

7. Watch only the later two stories, starting with episode 11. I'd only recommend this for people who tried the first story and it was too much for them (emotionally speaking).



Some other remaks about the show, might be minor spoilers:

I was surprised by the DMD cameos/promos/god knows what it was. It didn't fit there in my opinion. I'm biased against the company, so you might not care about it much. But it was an odd choice that affected the stories either way.

It was a missed opportunity not to actually create the twitter polls from @GossipXoxo user as the show was releasing. One thing this show does really well is representing how online fandoms act, and I'm genuinely interested the polls' results from real life fans. It would also be a quirky marketing move that would have cost them next to nothing.

Situation about the translations was messy, even after both AIS PLAY and Gagaoolala starting translating text messages. Often there was too much text, for too short of a period to read it. Which is something that should have been tweaked in editing, especially for important parts. It was exhausting pausing the screen all the time, and rewinding, and even google translating at the start. Some of it was just useless banter, but a lot of it included context that was sorely missing otherwise. If they want to do a story where (social) media plays a crucial role, they need to do better next time.



In conclusion, the series lacks in bigger picture one would expect from their pointed marketing as the whistle-blower. Even if all of those situations actually happened in real life, the show didn't serve as a call to action in any way. It contradicts its own "messages" profoundly, so much you'll even start to wonder what those messages are. And it's not doing it in a clever way! Just plainly confusing, almost alibistic, none insulting and still money earning one. Its aim is shattered on multiple places by separated endings and obscured by bad editing and translation issues. In a way, it's kinda disappointing, considering what it could have been. But it still manages to be an above average and somehow unique BL show, and one I recommend at least trying. If the first story feels too dark or messy for you, give story 3 a chance ?

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Maybe after you run out of all the other doctors, tutors, dentists and engineers.

This drama is so hard to rate for me, mostly because it feels like two different shows slapped on top of each other. One goes from episode 1 up to episode 8 (highschool drama), the second one goes from episode 8 onwards (university drama). It would be so much better if they went the route of "Star and Sky" and just gave each part ~8 episodes to develop.

The first part is pretty good. Conflicts are a bit rushed at times, but they aren't purely built on miscommunication or just randomly inserted to cause drama. Both MLs are imperfect, but relatable. Itt is kinda antagonistic, but he has his reasons and we're shown early on that he isn't actually a purely bad guy (This was my problem with Mek from My Secret Love. That guy has no redeeming quality shown in episode 1 whatsoever. None.) Pai is cute with his crush, but he can also stand up to Itt and won't let people walk all over him (that much). Waan and Pure are funny in their own way, and I shipped them hard (unsuccessfully). Later on, it's becoming more frustrating, the drive of main conflict is pretty one-sided and it doesn't get entirely resolved by the end of episode 7. So we're getting into the second part as a bit of a mess.

Second part is way worse. Way, way worse. It's shorter, which is probably one of its problems. But it's also kinda empty. It focuses more on the secondary couple (that is a tad problematic, but interesting), while the main couple makes zero sense. The ending is horrendously done. Really, the last 2 episodes were a pain to get through. It's so bad I might advise you to just stop after episode 10 and make up an ending of your own. Because I can't imagine anyone being happy with such resolution. My favorite thing about this part was Folk. He's precious and deserves the world.


POTENTIAL TRIGGERS (with minor spoilers included) :

Attempted sexual assault - it's pretty ugly, but it's short.

Emotional manipulation - one character is messing with another throughout a major part of the drama for their "own good". They admit to it at the end and even realize it wasn't a right thing to do. Also, I found it unnecessary in a way it was shown.

Predatory behaviour - distressed person is taken to their home and offered alcohol by someone they know a little. Afterwards, the two of them (most likely) have sex. There is no regret shown from either side and there was verbal confirmation of intent beforehand, but it felt kinda iffy and uncomfortable to me.

Homophobia - not overly aggressive. Frankly, it was only used as a plot device and didn't look genuine.

Cheating - implied for side characters.

Absentee parents - in the end, they intend to change.

Fake voice that sounds like from a ransom call.



MAJOR (?) SPOILERS FOR THIS PART

What I liked:

Waan's and Pai's friendship.

Itt's relationship with his mother.

Pai's smile. Pai's intent to confess. Basically a majority of Pai.

The existence of AIDS subplot - execution could have been better.

All of Folk. Even his stalkerish bits.

Banter between Pure and Folk.

The earring symbolism, though it became overdone later on.



What I disliked:

Itt thinking he's doing it all for Pai.

The entirety of ending, starting from the Mr. 950 reveal. It felt undeserved. Preachy. Disconnected from the rest of drama. It really felt like they just wanted such narrative for them, so they put it in even though it didn't make sense. That homophobia subplot is a joke. Needed way more time to be even a slightly believable.

How Pai was always the one on the passive end (forced to do stuff, always the one apologizing or trying to clear things...) They show he can stand up for himself at the start, but then they took away all his power.

The chemistry is just not there for the main couple from episode 6 or so? Like there is no way they could feel that way or switch their feelings as much as it was indicated. I didn't believe them a bit right from when Itt's ex tried to hit on Pai onwards.

Pure trying to touch Folk at the same time Folk was screaming at him not to. It was devastating.

END OF SPOILERS



Overall, I think it's a nice drama to binge. It has its great moments, it has its horrible moments. Most of the time it's just fine. There's not much skinship/fanservice, if you're looking for it. It feels like 2018 BL. It watches as one. And as one, it would have been pretty good. For 2020 BL, it's about average. In 2022, it's underwhelming. This is very much a "Star In My Mind" quality. I actually enjoyed first part of MGaYG more than SIMM, but then it went downhill and in the end, SIMM takes the crown for me. That said, SIMM had 2 more years to adapt and grow, so it got .5 worse score. For anynone getting into BLs, I recommend either starting with this one so you have low expectations, or ideally leaving it for when you're kinda bored and just want to binge something.

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Has all the highs and lows of korean BLs

I loved this?! Why, though? It's Kissable Lips all over again!!! Premise is very interesting and unique (for a BL), execution is lacking. Most of its weaknesses can be atributed to insufficient runtime.


What I liked:

1. Pretty to look at, pretty sounding, emotionally devastating at times. Basically the same as most korean BLs I've ever watched (no shade intended (?), but I still can't comprehend how Ocean Likes Me can be korean drama)

2. Main actor (Jeon Chang Ha) was so beautiful I wanted to cry just looking at him ?

3. The story wasn't overdramatically unbelievable despite the premise. This one sounds weird, but hear me out. I'm sure many of you know UWMA. And while the show has done a lot of things well, it was also too much whenever they tried to use the "fateful connection" device. Almost cringey. I couldn't even get emotional during most of those moments (and I was lowkey traumatized by the opening scene for weeks). So while this story uses the same "string of fate" idea, it does it in a way that's easier to believe and relate to.

4. Leads have refreshingly open conversations. I know there is still some miscommunication involved, but compared to many other BLs, they actually voice their feelings!!!


What I didn't like:

1. Whoever voiced Jeong Ha Yeon's inner monologue sounded absolutely emotionless. Mostly tired. Almost like a robot. And some of those lines should have been pretty soul-crushing imo.

2. The ending was rushed. As expected. It's just too little time to progress through such conflict at good pacing, but I would have preffered them rushing the "before together" part, if it meant having at least one more episode's worth of screentime after the revelation.

3. SPOILER : The side guy was unnecessary. He wasn't a good rival. I'm still conflicted whether he even loved the ML, or was just a good, protective friend. END OF SPOILER


Overall feelings:

It's not perfect. It could be disappointing if you were looking forward to it based on the premise. But I stumbled on it when I was stressed, binged it at night and had a pretty great time!! Will rewatch ifwhen they make a movie out of it.

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6 dead weights, dragged across finish line by generic fluff

So, how did this season fare compared to the previous ones?

Not well.

From the production side of things, it's a mess. The beginning is so cringey many will give up just during that one infodump scene. It's basically a recap of first two seasons, in under 5 minutes. You don't need a degree in filmmaking to figure out what a horrible idea that was. And while it gets noticably better after that, it also consistently stays below average during the whole show. Editing feels kinda random at times and sound's an experience you have to live through to fully understand.

Glaucoma filter is back and working overtime during all NC scenes (which are fairly frequent in later half of the show for the new couple). Trully, you could watch this in 480p and see little to no difference from switching to 1080p.

Writing is harder to judge because of spotty fanmade subtitles. Official subtitles from WeTV might be a bit better, though. At the very least, I have seen no mention of the famous 'booby prize' in official international release. Yes, you heard that right. Similar to gems like Love Stage!! (2022), this also got a quiet official release once it ended and everyone interested in it has already found other ways to watch it. Am I too stupid to understand this ingenious marketting move, or were they just THAT SCARED of backlash from international fans? I guess we will never know.

The storyline itself is really weak and generic. It's also 99% divorced from the first two seasons, so there is no need to continue watching forthe 2moons franchise' sake. The "original 6 moons" don't feel like their established characters at all and have very limited presence in this season. What little screentime they have is either useless drama or a stock bacground of pretty faces. The most obvious lacking bond is between Ming and Wayo, who feel like strangers to each other this season (in stark contrast to first, and partially even second season). There's no need to go deeper into whatever they'd been doing, and you would do well to just skip all the scenes focused on them.

There are two new leads - Lomnaw (Mark Vachara) and Tarntatch (Danny Bandit). And while Mark's acting tends to be so quirky it really takes you out of the story at times, Danny is shining brightly enough to almost warrant watching this season just for him. Their story is basic, but cute. On its own, it would make for a fairly standard BL romance like Ai Long Nhai and My Engineer. Bundled up with 2moons curse, though? It's not getting any favors from the "established" franchise or production house. Many people will skip it just for that, and I wouldn't really blame them. With the amount of BLs releasing right now, it's not great enough to skip the queue for anyone imo. The whole branding and unimportant "side" characters are a baggage no one needs when selling mediocrity.

As a whole, this season provided no continuation of the original story, no conclusion for the established pairings, and it didn't even manage to stand on its own. What good did it bring to the table, then?

1. Nice OST. A real tear-jerker at times. Apparently no matter how far the franchise falls, their music choices will still prey on my nostalgia-ridden heart. Especially the "เครมั้ย - MASTER (Lonely Season)".

2. Eye candy. To put it bluntly, I highly doubt those actors were chosen based on their acting abilities. But hey! I ain't complaining. The new Beam (Payu Khunnaphat Jaroenchim) is so adorable you might want to suffer through some Forth-Beam drama just to see his pretty face. Hopefully he'll get another chance to shine, because he was sorely underused in this. And I might even be blackmailed into watching more of Toon-Tong (Lomnaw's friends), though preferably with different production.

3. It has used up MV's last chance of profiting from 2moons' franchise (I trully hope so).

In the end, do I think it's worth watching? Honestly, no. But it's not the worst time-waster this year. Just skip the OG 6 moons' scenes and don't expect much from what's left. I would give it 7/10 points for watchability, but that would be an insult to equally rated 2moons2 which at least tried to continue the original story with dignity. Hence it's 6.5 for meaningless and lowkey insulting, though not devastating adaptation.

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