mikuni14

[mikuni14]

My Stubborn - Ep 1-2

"I will slap you, Jun. WITH MY LIPS" 😆😆😆 Yeah, ok, just inject it directly into my veins, I live for something like that 😂🤡

Oh god, I am that simple and my taste is that simple, who am I kidding. I watched these two episodes and had a blast. It really doesn't take much for me to be happy.

I really like the main couple. They're entertaining, fun, interesting, have great scenes, good dialogue, fantastic chemistry and they're not boring

It's been ages since I last saw this type of seme: extremely possessive, strong, super hot, funny, manipulative, finding the weirdest and stupidest excuses just to keep his uke by his side and within his hands and mouth reach, keeping him away from potential rivals, and on top of that being a world-class asshole. I'm in love

I love the character of uke, who is lovely and sweet, genuinely liked by everyone and at least I know why, but who doesn't let anyone walk all over him. Yes, he is naive and gullible in contacts with someone like Sorn, but apart from that he fights with him, argues, is not polite and submissive, talks back to him. Because of this, their relationship is full of life, emotions and tension. And I don't feel worried about the lack of balance in this relationship. Don't get me wrong - it's not an equal relationship for many reasons, but at least I don't have to worry about Jun. Besides, Jun already influences Sorn's behavior and actions and takes up most of his thoughts 😉 so it's not one-sided, Sorn is also affected and emotional about Jun

their fights are so entertaining

Sorn looks like a hot mix of Yin and Gun (from Love Area), and Jun looks like a cute mix of Fiat and Fourth. Both perfectly capture the classic seme and uke characters, I think this is very good casting

cheating, being promiscuous - it's been a long time since we've seen that in BL

I like the relationships between all the characters, how they take care of each other, how the older ones take care of the younger ones. No one annoys me!

I also like that when something bad happens, it's immediately addressed. Including Sorn's behavior towards Jun, which is noticed, paid attention to, called out. Including by Jun himself

the love scenes and kisses are really well done: they kept the sounds ✨, they are nicely shot, the actors and aescethics make them really sexy. The actors played them in such a way that as a viewer I see and feel the desire between their characters. In addition, Sorn with his hotness, passion and difficulty in holding back his grabby hands and extorting kisses is something I expect in my BLs 😌 What do you mean the characters don't feel the need to constantly touch someone they like? Sorry, not in my romances 😛

I love the smiling making out sessions 💖💖💖

The series may not be top-notch, the acting may not be top-notch, but I really like it so far, I laughed a lot, I had fun. This series has such a charming aura of old-school yaoi, which is obviously very much to my liking 😌

If the main characters in the series aren't like that ☝ I don't want to watch it 🤡

And would you look at this, IQIYI allowed me to watch a BL series in my region, just when I was about to cancel my subscription 🙄

[mikuni14]

Yinwar: That's not sunlight, but Angels taking photos

Ethereal beauty even the heavens obsess

[mikuni14]

Mission to the Moon - Official Trailer

[mikuni14]

Heesu in Class 2

My opinion on this series is known, because I've never hidden it 😉 but there's something that still bothers me, which I want to address - namely, how dismissive and truly disrespectful this series is towards queer issues. I'll tell you what particularly baffled me:

first of all, if they took on a BL manhwa, why is the BL plot ultimately so marginalized, why did they introduce a straight plot that didn't exist in the original, which dominated the whole story? It's offensive no matter how you look at it. If they wanted to make a series about two couples - het and gay, they could have either invented the entire series from scratch (the plot was very simple, even banal, they wouldn't have had to try hard). OR, they could have made a series based on straight manhwa, of which there are tons, and added a BL subplot!

the series is literally called Heesu in Class 2, but is the series really about him? We know a lot about Chan Yeong, who is constantly shown, has a lot of plots: romantic, friendship, domestic, his hobbies, then there's Heesu, we know the most about his vibrant love life, family and hobby, after them there's JiYu with her interesting life as a good student, artist, aspiring singer and her love life, and only after them there's Seung Won, about whom we know that he's some serious dude, has two moms and is in love with Heesu. NOTHING ELSE. The series didn't make any effort to show these 4 characters equally, not to mention that it didn't focus on the two gays, who as I understand it are the main characters in the original. Ha! The series didn't even focus on the guy from its own title lol

when you look at this series with an objective eye, without emotions, its plot can be reduced to: the main character - a perfect guy, handsome, liked, good at everything, popular with girls but indifferent to his status, meets a girl, you know, supposedly "not like the other girls", but who is also perfect, pretty, good at everything and indifferent to her status. And the classic: they fall in love. But! The main character has a closest friend who has a crush on him. And this friend notices the budding feelings and tries to stop them, mixing in a random guy who turns out to be a friend of the main character's love interest. Of course, this doesn't work, because the love of the main characters CANNOT be threatened by anything, but the series ends well because the friend of the main male character falls in love with the friend of the main female character, who accidentally had a crush on them all the time and everything is good 🥳 This friend of the main character could be a boy or a girl and everything would look the same, but they would still be just a supporting character. And that's Heesu. The character in the title of the series - is a supporting character who gets a consolation prize in the end

The series also shows the straight couple in a very positive light, their relationship has nice scenes, beautiful camera shots (that run through the city, meeting on the street under the moon), they both support and help each other, have little adventures. On the other hand, Heesu is shown as a manipulator trying to break up the sacred union between a woman and a man, and Seung Won lies and pretends and persuades the woman to hide her sacred union with a man. Both Heesu and Seung Won lie, have some hidden agendas, are false, pretend, hide their true intentions - like, you literally just have to turn on some random homophobic streamer and hear that "gays are false and a threat to real family and normal relationships". Why do Chan Yeong and JiYu have a "normal" development of their relationship based on honesty and "ordinariness", while Heesu and Seung Won literally don't have this until the last scene? And you can't blame it on the fact that they are gay, and they have it "harder", because none of their lies and manipulation and pretending have anything to do with them being gay, only with them being selfish and their own motivations and desires

Heesu first has a crush on the boy closest to him, who shows him constant interest and closeness. When it finally dawns on him that nothing will come of it, Heesu doesn't grieve his unrequited, hopeless love, but immediately transfers his crush to another close boy who shows him his attention and intimacy. Compared to the straight couple who treat their love "seriously and exclusively", Heesu is shown as if he is running after guys, it is enough for him that they are nice to him. And in romances, easily changing the objects of affection is not received in a positive way. New love - yes, but with a transition period, with "difficulty", with healing a broken heart with a new love. Heesu fell out of old love and fell in new love within a few steps down the hill lol. Do I need to remind you of the homophobic belief that same-sex love is fickle and therefore not real?

Heesu only comes out to only one sister (fortunately in a very nice scene) and to his only one friend (a terrible scene, the friend is a complete asshole, which the series doesn't address in any way, by showing the gay person as someone who is (should be?) grateful that his friend is still there for him even after what the gay "did to him" 😬 ) The other sisters don't need to know, the other friend doesn't deserve to find out such an important thing about Heesu (which is not surprising, seeing how they treat him). Seung Won doesn't come out to his moms. Do they even know about his orientation? And how are they going to hide their relationship at school? Is this even matter to them?

Seung Won has no problem with the school knowing about his moms, but he has a problem with his relationship being known. Or he doesn't? We don't know! I think it should be discussed what he is afraid of, whether he is afraid, how he approached it, whether he talked about it with Heesu. Even in the fun little series I watched recently, like Summer Indigo or Match Play, the characters talk about the reception of their relationship by society, and this supposedly profound queer series didn't bother to give even one scene about this important aspect of queer relationships? They could have cut one of the zillion scenes on the tennis court and given something that is important to Heesu and his boyfriend. But lets be real, is there anything more important in this series than the sports ambitions of the main character? Be serious guys, don't ask too much 😆

That's why I apologize, but respectfully, I will never agree with the opinion that this series is a good representation of queer media. Gays in this series are shown in a very negative light as dishonest, manipulative, amorous, easily changing the objects of affection people whose story was taken from the original BL manhwa to make them side characters for the main straight couple, that is shown in a positive way and have a better story. Many issues important to lgbt people are treated briefly and carelessly, or even dismissed, such as homophobia, coming outs, being out, having a crush on your straight best friend, and all the fears and doubts related to it, heartbreak due to unrequited love - especially first love. If the series wanted to show gays to the mainstream audience, then it is not a particularly positive image, and I do not see any sensitivity or respect for their issues.

Edit because I forgot something: and why is it only the gay couple that has a gross scene with a poop joke and toilet smells? Why is it that the straight couple have a lot of scenes when they're a couple and are cute and in love, but the gay couple, when they're a couple, only have a few - and they still somehow get in a gross joke instead of giving them a sweet or meaningful moment? Don't you think it's a little weird?

[mikuni14]

Dress code: semi formal, nailed it? Yes.

[mikuni14]

Beautifully Brown

[mikuni14]

people think that sci fi is about actors throwing themselves around spaceships but it's also about being bald and goth

[mikuni14]

You take it… and you own it.

[Pride (2014), dir. Matthew Warchus, wr. Stephen Beresford.]

[mikuni14]

ZHANG ZHE HAN as ZHOU ZI SHU

[mikuni14]

A talk about the current state on the quality of Thai BL's

Original tweet

[mikuni14]

In Class 2

I was going to wait to binge watch the rest of the show tomorrow but honestly I need to put this show behind me for several reasons. Let me just get this out of the way before I say anything else. I am a big fan of the manhwa, simple as it may be. I have lived with these characters in my head for two years now. So my bias is clearly showing. But one thing that I want to make perfectly clear. Just because I love the manhwa, and admittedly I have a bias, does not mean I am dense, and incapable of watching and judging the show as it's own thing. I still have a brain. Ok. Now for the show. This usually goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway. These are my opinions. Read at your own risk.

This is not a bad show. It's also not a bl. And that fact alone, makes this a bad adaptation. Let’s be honest, they adapted a bl and turned it into something that’s not a bl any more, as many have stated before. This is a kdrama with queer themes. Liking the show, and even acknowledging that it’s good, doesn’t change that fact. And if people honestly can't understand why people would have a problem with that, then nothing I will say about it will make a difference.

Now for the actual show. As a kdrama this isn't a bad series. The characters have depth, the astronomy metaphors are clever, even if at times they felt really heavy-handed, the acting is really good, for the most part, and there are some brilliant scenes that could make this show a great one. But it doesn't all come together. It's inconsistent. And it doesn't commit to its queerness. It's a series that was made two years ago, and it shows. Maybe even further back, actually. Which, regardless of my feelings for the source, is just sad. I'm not a romance kdrama watcher so I have no real frame of reference in that regard. But it seems like this show wanted to be a couple of different things but ended up not being either. It's not queer enough to be a bl, but it's too queer to be mainstream. It's not hard to see why this show couldn't find distribution for two years. They were aiming for mainstream but that was never gonna happen two years ago. Well, it didn't happen right now either, so...

My favourite part was the sisters. I love them. I think their various adventures in dating were really important as a parallel to Heesu. Which is one of the reasons I don't think the Chanyoung and JiYu couple were necessary to drive that point home. Nor do I think that's why they were there. One of my favourite scenes was Heesu coming out to his sister. And her reaction basically being, "Oh, I should say I love him now, that's what one should do in this situation." It was so well done.

Ahn Ji Ho was great as Heesu. Just really great. His emotions shined through beautifully throughout the whole series. Lee Sang Jun also did an amazing job as Seung Won. His physicality was on point at all times. I love these two so much. 

I think time was not used efficiently here. Mostly with the queer couple. I live for pining besties. But by episode 9, there were way too many chances and everything with the hets was already in the open, so why stretch it out? Cause it feels purposefully stretched. The editing in the final two episodes was a mess and I kept wondering what might've been left on the cutting room floor. It just didn't flow at all, and I kept getting pulled out of the emotional journey. It really seemed like they were forced to have 10 episodes but they couldn't really give us more than 5 minutes of the boys together so they made a mess of things in the final stretch.

I think the friendship between Heesu and Chanyoung was the weaker part of all this. They never felt, to me, like best friends. A lot of times, there's an issue with friends to lovers, which is the blurring of lines. You are crushing on your best friend, so everything becomes deeper, more hurtful, than if he was just your best friend.  I think for the most part, Heesu navigated this pretty well. We've certainly seen much worse. He slipped sometimes and messed up, but he never really stopped being by Chanyoung's side. 

However, this is still a very unbalanced friendship, mostly because of Chanyoung. He makes fun of Heesu for not having any friends, but it seems like he has the same problem. Cause it seems like he only reaches out to Heesu when he has a problem. He comes and goes as he pleases, and if he hadn't been sleeping at his house and seen Heesu unable to sleep, I doubt he would've noticed anything was wrong with Heesu at all. I'm not saying Heesu was a perfect friend, btw. But the confession scene and the subsequent summoning of Heesu to the tennis court where Chanyoung could feel safe, where he literally has home court advantage, where he could throw balls at Heesu, was a step too far for me. (Also, JiYu, you could do better!)

I liked the final three minutes because I have a heart. And I could finally watch my boys be together even if only for a short time. But it came too late and it stumbled too much to get there for me to feel the level of joy that I usually get. I think I needed more of them throughout the show to feel that same sense of joy when they moved past all the hurdles and finally got together.

I think maybe I should stop now. I think I could forgive more about this show if it was actually mainstream. If I could say, you know what? At least we're getting a queer coming of age story in a mainstream kdrama. I might still not like that they chose this manhwa for it, because there’s no shortage of those, so to pick one that is just about two boys falling in love and little else confuses me. But at least then I could feel like something was accomplished here. As it stands, I'm just left disappointed by a show that I had been waiting for since I first read the manhwa a couple of years ago.

[mikuni14]

Excuse me, sir, weren't you just yelling at him in the hall like two days ago or something for not trusting you enough and not telling you things!? Now you're yelling at him for... telling you things?! Trusting you!? WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS.

Please just stop being friends with HeeSu at this point. It's obvious you can't handle a reciprocal friendship with him and he deserves better than whatever the fuck this is, okay?

How about just ACTING LIKE A GODDAMN FRIEND FOR ONCE?!?!?!

This poor boy literally felt like he had to apologize for that, for coming out, for admitting on having a crush on him in the past.

How, exactly, is he supposed to give you time to prepare?! How exactly was that supposed to happen!? How does this work in your mind!? What the fuck do you want from him!?

Worst. Friendship. Ever.

Just... the worst.

Absolutely the worst.

What, was HeeSu supposed to start planting rainbow around the yard and point to them randomly!?

I am SO mad that the only person who apologized in this was HeeSu. ChanYoung couldn't even muster an actual apology for this?! Nope. Just blamed HeeSu for his own reaction! Fuck that.

HeeSu truly has the worst fate.

[mikuni14]

HeeSu has to be sure he's now destroyed a second friendship thanks to being gay. This poor boy. Confessed to ChanYoung and got blamed and ended up having to basically apologize for being gay and then confesses to SeungWon and gets nothing but silence. Sigh. This poor boy. He deserves so much better. I hope he gets better friends in university.

[mikuni14]

"The question becomes... what was the plan 2 years ago? Where did they think this was going to air and what did they hope to happen.

There's the real problem. The landscape of BL has changed in two years! The landscape of the stories and the characters has changed and this show... didn't change. Because it was made and that was that."

This is a very valid point, when I was writing my summary I noticed how the ending felt weridly old school:

with coming out to the friend, which is very much in the style of coming out to some, idk, conservative grandpa in 2020 BLs or something, which is rarely the case in BL series lately, with running away, avoidance, being an asshole, followed with the "grace of acceptance", all is about the hets and their feelings

no kisses or physical contact

hiding a homosexual relationship ?????????

yeah, no kisses, but go on with the poop jokes lmao good old times!

I saw the year 2023 in one of the scenes on the board, it's supposedly 2 years but a lot has changed in that time. On the other hand, in 2023 we had The 8th Sense and Our Dating Sim, a year earlier Semantic Error. All these series were very popular and well received, so I don't really understand this conservatism in the plot.

I also agree about the friendship between Heesu and Chan Yeong, which was all over the place in the series. They are supposedly joined at the hip, but then again not really. From the moment they are separated on that hill, it is clear that there is an issue between them that is never addressed, only at the very end. They both have a lot of different things going on in their lives that they never discuss - unless the plot needs a new drama. I think that in the first half Heesu was a bad and selfish friend, it's also never addressed but fine, whatever, because that is what Chan Yeong became by the end of the series. But somehow Heesu is the only one who apologizes, and for something he should NOT apologize for, which is what really shocked and annoyed me. And of course I absolutely will not skip over how these two handsome guys treat their third friend, not as handsome as them, how they make fun of him and what words they use when talking to him. And that he doesn't have to be included in the "secrets" of the other two...

I think even a few small changes could’ve made Heesu better. People were upset from the beginning that the show invented a new straight couple, and while I understand the argument that the straight couple was there to show how easy it is for them vs for gay people in a conservative society, I think the show actually failed to really utilize that. We know it’s easier for straight people from the very beginning when we’re told Chanyoung is constantly dating. The show has all the straight people constantly opening talking about their love life in comparison with Heesu and Seungwon who are closed off. Also this wasn’t a show airing to a mainstream audience that needed to be handheld through the struggles of gay people. It aired on Heavenly in Korea, a platform entirely for BL/GL. No one was sitting down and watching this air on primetime TV with grandma. And while I understand MANY BLs never actually say the word “gay” it’s harder to feel like the show was trying to be thoughtful commentary on the plights of gay teenagers when they don’t even say the word. The show constantly treated the straight characters with care and respect they didn’t give to the queer ones, to the very end. We had all the time in the world to watch Chanyoung play tennis, to have his brother randomly show up at the end, to show his family and his feelings and to see him be coddled by his “shadow” Heesu at every point, but the show decided that every time Seungwon and Heesu hung out we should only see a snippet of it? I was baffled when Seungwon invited Heesu to dinner and then we just didn’t see the dinner and then cut to another scene about Chanyoung. Where Chanyoung complains about not knowing Heesu, when he never asked! And then the show frames Heesu as the one who is wrong for not opening up to Chanyoung, only for Chanyoung to do the exact thing Heesu was most afraid of.

Yeah, it was VERY focused on the het couple while being named after the gay character who get less screentime but also, frankly, got the least connections in the show.

But yes.

The question becomes... what was the plan 2 years ago? Where did they think this was going to air and what did they hope to happen.

There's the real problem. The landscape of BL has changed in two years! The landscape of the stories and the characters has changed and this show... didn't change. Because it was made and that was that.

The show definitely focused on the straight couple far, far too much and in a way that didn't play into the idea that they had it easier than the gay couple until the very end and even then they had to say it outloud because they weren't getting the message across. And that's part of the issue! Because ChanYoung and Heesu's friendship was so mangled in the show to the point that they barely felt like friends... it took away a lot of that idea.

I mean, I will never be okay with the ending part where Heesu has to apologize to ChanYoung. How does that mesh with the other ideas the show seemed to be trying to explore?

Frankly, the entire friendship they shared felt so shallow and built entirely on Heesu's efforts because of his crush that nothing they tried to do with it worked. I didn't want them to stay friends. I wanted ChanYoung to have to put some work in! But NOPE. Heesu had to apologize and then it was all okay and none of it mattered. Oh, and their other friend? Never cared or found apparently! None of it mattered!

Yeah, the show's message was muddied at best and it was not well done and being two years old meant there was no kissing and no real... anything.

It was trying to be deep about it failed entirely because it focused on all the wrong things.

[mikuni14]

It definitely feels like maybe the showrunners of Heesu thought that they’d get it onto a mainstream platform by kinda downplaying all the gay. The fact that the show was stuck in post production hell makes me think they couldn’t find a platform for a long time. Which makes sense, the author/screenwriter of Love in the Big City talked about how difficult it was to get that show made. How they couldn’t find investors, how companies refused to send their actors to audition, etc. But where that show refused to compromise (love it or hate it, it was explicitly gay) this show tried its best to make it as least queer as possible imo. And like you said, it makes it feel incredibly dated.

The contrast of the straight people having it easier vs gay people not really doesn’t work when you’re constantly showing straight people struggling and the narrative doesn’t treat their struggles as less consequential than the gay teenagers being scared of coming out. Seungwon says Jiyu doesn’t realize it’s harder for him than it is for her, but then just has her say she knows and that’s it. But it doesn’t really treat his concerns as valid. He doesn’t explicitly say why it’s so scary and the narrative mostly just dismisses him. And then Heesu is again treated as in the wrong for being scared to come out, and then punishes him for doing so.

And then it ends with “haha actually the gay couple is fine because everyone will just assume they’re straight! isn’t heteronormativity great sometimes?” Like what was the point? It’s quite dismissive of the struggle the show tried to set up to then be like don’t worry gay people everyone is just going to assume you’re straight anyway so no need to worry!

The show tried to water itself down for a mainstream crowd and ended up... watering itself down for no one.

It was a show that tried to say a dozen things, said none of them well and in fact contradicted itself several times within the narrative and cut itself at the knees.

And that's a shame.

[mikuni14]

Heesu in Class 2 - Ep 9-10

I'll start with what I really liked, which is a really cool scene of a gay kid coming out to his family, one of the best I've seen in a BL series of this kind. I liked that Heesu wasn't even really nervous, I had the impression that he was more resigned (which is understandable after recent events). I liked the calmness, the matter-of-factness of his confession, without the drama. And I liked his sister's reaction: first the shock, the stuttering to indicate that she was "digesting it", but she was still present in this moment and wanted him to know that (no stupid silence, so common in such scenes, when the person coming out is dying inside from fear of being rejected), then after the initial shock, she smoothly transitioned to an equally calm and drama-free behavior, which had a very positive effect on Heesu. I really, really, really liked this scene - but in general I think the Heesu family plot is the best in this series :)

In a nostalgic way, I was amused by the juxtaposition of this nice scene with the old school coming out scene to Chan Yeong, known as "how to make a coming out scene all about straights" lol. In these kinds of scenes (which I HATE), the main character is not the person coming out, oh no! It's a straight family member, or the closest friend, who always makes this scene about themselves, about their feelings and in which they always find some excuse to blame the queer person for something. Anything: for coming out so late, or how dare that someone not trust enough them to do it earlier, or for planning it badly and not preparing poor Chan Yeong for the fact that not only his friend is gay, but also that he used to have a crush on him, which is news so heavy and crushing, that poor Chan Yeong simply COULD. NOT. COPE. WITH. IT. Which is HEESU's fault, of course, who didn't prepare a soft landing for him after receiving such devastating blow information. It's also classic that after such asshole behavior, running away, avoiding, hitting him with tennis balls, accusing him, Heesu is still overjoyed that Chan Yeong decided graciously that they will still be friends. Classic. 😂

And of course, the boys in love are "pure" and untainted by the carnal desires, their love is not in any way physical, which, apart from the poop jokes, is also a "lovely" trip into the BL series' past 😂😂

The last episodes were chaotic, very stupid, very badly edited (after every important scene there was a jump to something with a completely different vibe and theme, completely disrupting the flow of the plot). Various topics are skimmed and lack depth. Chan Yeong runs away from home and sleeps over at Heesu's, everything is fine, they joke around… a friend who ran away from home once spent the night at my house when we were teens, it's not as easy as it is shown here. Likewise, the fear of homophobia should appear as a constant factor determining the behavior of the main characters, and not appear about twice, but at the same time it turns out to be important for their behavior (when it fits). Also how's that so important, since Heesu and Seung Won ALWAYS found public places to confess their feelings not being scared of being found out (apart from the scene with the sister - probably why I liked it). It was also absolutely embarrassing to make their confessions so dramatic. It deprived these scenes of authenticity and sincerity. From the beginning, the series was about confessions, but when these confessions finally appeared - of which there were a lot, fast, cut short, overly dramatized, preceded by some weird philosophical, methaporical monologues - they lost the element of anticipation and became emotionless and anticlimactic. Tbh, instead of waiting for this One Confession in a Romantic Series, I had this exhausted feeling in the last episode like "come on, just do it, let's get this over with".

I'm sorry, but these are my feelings. This series had such potential, it had nice moments, it had good characters, it could have been a really good series about high schoolers, coming of age, about first loves, about second loves, about friendship, about being a young gay man in a homophobic society, about difficult and good family relationships. 10 episodes is enough time to show all these topics in a deep and meanigful way. In my opinion, all of this was missing, the characters were wronged (especially Heesu), the series turned out to be shallow and just irritating, but nevertheless I hope that many people still enjoyed this series and had a good time watching it 😉

[mikuni14]

This... is my answer.