#hwang da seul

[weizhiyuan]

Some VERY interesting things are happening in the ql world over in Taiwan!! I could’ve sworn someone already made a post about this but I can’t find it now (I might’ve just been recalling when the HIStory account posted about it before though) and now I’m learning some very interesting news I hadn’t seen before so I’m making my own post about it. And also so fellow ql fans can hear abt this too.

So here’s the rundown. Last month there was an event titled “Be Love, Go Love” in which LINE TV & TAICCA announced they would be working on developing more BLs & GLs in Taiwan. They ALSO said they’d be working with people from other countries including the director & producer of semantic error and other important people from Thailand and Korea. Wayne Song was also at the event and said not only that he’d like to work with the director & producer of semantic error, but that he’d be willing to do so without pay/paying out of his own pocket just for a chance to act with her (I love this guy)!

The way this event will work is people will register & submit a bl or gl story to LINE TV X TAICCA in order to develop it into future pitches that are expected to be completed by August 2024. Out of all the submissions they’ll select a total of SIX they’ll be working on developing. Obviously this is all really exciting because we’re not only getting six new qls but they’re going to be collaborating with other significant people in the industry.

Now idk about y’all but I loooove this incorporation of different countries considering they’re the primary ql producers (and maybe Japan too but that’s not one of the countries they’re working with). What I didn’t see before (although it’s literally been up on the page with all the info since they announced this in early November…) are some of the other people they plan on working with. Listed on their website where people can register for this series development plan are:

Tsai Mi Chieh (HIStory2: crossing the line, HIStory3: make our days count, about youth, etc.)

Pepzi Banchorn Vorasataree (bad buddy, dark blue kiss, kinnporsche, the warp effect, etc.)

Bee Pongsate Lucksameepong (2gether, a tale of thousand stars, bad buddy, kinnporsche, love mechanics, vice versa, my school president, last twilight, etc.)

Yuan Wan Thabkrajang (I feel you linger in the air, manner of death, my gear and your gown, etc.)

Hwang Da Seul (where your eyes linger, to my star, blueming, etc.)

And apparently this might not even be everyone???!! So the lineup is already really impressive. It seems like they’ll each have different roles (representatives of their country, consultants, etc.), but all be mentors in some form. I also got especially excited when I saw the HIStory Instagram account post a photo with Cheng Yi Xu who acted in fragrance of the first flower, a Taiwanese gl. What I wanna know is… are my HERstory dreams finally coming true???! PLEASE… regardless, I expect we’re gonna get some super awesome qls in the not-so-distant future from new filmmakers with influence from a hell of a translational mentors group.

[conscbgb]

The Queen of KBL is coming back to create more magic!! 🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌

2024 is gonna be an year of BL masterpieces 🙌😉

[seatawinan]

Favourite Shows [6/7]: Blueming

In my life, funnily, I’ve been so insecure Every insecurity in my mind has come true If you’re being this way, what can I do with you in the future?

[negrowhat]

Apparently we can expect a new series from our amazing Hwang Da Seul

[absolutebl]

I love your pairing actors together lists and what if casting list, so on that note, which actor would you want to see under a specific director. For me it's Fluke Natouch in Aof series. I mean that would kill me probably, but I would love every second of that.

Can I steal your answer?

Maybe SamYu under Hwang Da Seul?

[desire-for-madness]

If this is love - Ruth B.

TO MY STAR SEASON 2 (2022) Dir. Hwang Da Seul

[shortpplfedup]

I ask you: whomst is doing it like Hwang Da Seul? No-goddamn-body is who. To My Star 2 is ripping my heart out of my chest and stomping it into the dirt every Sunday and it's almost over and I want more.

[my-mind-is-a-blank-space]

I just need to say how much I love the second season of To My Star. I can’t believe that the second season of a show that was already in the top of my absolute favourites list managed to surpass itself. The story, the directing, the ACTING - seriously, the acting is beyond amazing. Kim Kang Min and Son Woo Hyeon blow it out of the water, they are genuinely that good. Everything was SO GOOD. I just finished watching the final episode and I won’t be getting over this show, ever. I love Hwang Da Seul. I love Son Woo Hyeon and Kim Kang Min. I had to get that off my chest, even if I’m just shouting it into the void.

[homechashikjin]

I’m so happy HDS bought back an item we knew (the shirt from their first kiss) instead of just a random shirt we’ve never seen. It makes the scene have much more meaning and we get understand how much that moment from s1 altered Jiwoo’s life. It makes audience know that he’s truly not over seojoon and I really can’t wait to see their relationship after this moment

[iamnotbored]

To my star 2: on love and forgiveness

watching this show as it was airing and seeing all the “hate” towards jiwoo was a revelation, a lot of viewers thought that seojoon forgave jiwoo too easily, and i get that, jiwoo was so harsh on him, seriously who ghostes their bf with a f’cking post-it? on their birthday?! and if i was seojoons friend i would scream at jiwoo til his ears bleed.

but seojoon loves and seojoon forgives, that is who he is and that how he has been since the beginning. when his actor friend tried to put the blame on him for the fight, he didn’t say anything to anyone, not even pilhyun and homin, he waited it out believing that his friend would come clean, not many people would do that. but seojoon is not a pushover, he knows his limits and he will let go when he is ready. 

when it comes to jiwoo, seojoon is not blind to his shortcomings, he likes him despite those, because to seojoon (who knows jiwoo better than any of us) jiwoo is not defined by his misstakes. 

“you hide away as if you are the only sad person in this world. you don’t think about facing the problem and solving it. you have unnecessary pride and you never tell people your real feelings, making people go crazy!” 

“but still, i’m saying i like you” 

seojoon only gave up when he was convinced that jiwoo wanted to be with his ex, and that he is standing in the way of jiwoos happiness, as long as jiwoo loves him he would have continue to pursue him, again this man loves jiwoo more than jiwoo loves himself 

for those who thinks that seojoon deserve better, i also get that, “jiwoo hurt seojoon this much so seojoon should hurts him just as much before they can get back together”...i used to believed that input and output of love should be equal in a relationship, but how do you keep score when one person is swimming and the other is playing badminton? seojoon and jiwoo are very different people and they have different love languages, and so when we say for better or worst, this is jiwoo at his worst, this is where seojoon get to decide if their relationship could survive this, and because this is seojoon and he knows how hard those steps jiwoo took were, he choose to love and forgive 

some of my favourites lines are these, 

“if you keep pushing me away, i can’t continue to chase after you like you did for me” 

“is that a threat?”

“no, i’m begging you”

this perfectly showed us how different these two are and how their traumas and history shape who they are as people today, jiwoo doesn’t love seojoon any less than seojoon loves him, but sometimes we messed up and we hurt the people who loves us the most. and this is when we need those people to say “its ok, when is hard i will go to you” and i will love you and i will fight for us

i want bring up one last thing, should they take a break to get some therapy before getting back together? uhm, yes to therapy always, but no on the separation, i dont believe in the idea that we have to be healed and complete before we are allowed to be in a relationships, who is to say that we can be 100% healed from our traumas? aren’t we just learning to live with it and not let it get the better of us as we go? to love and be loved is a big part of our journey to heal, you don’t have to struggle all by yourself untill you are fit to be loved. 

life is short, if you have found your forever person, don’t let them go. as much as we should cut out toxic people from our lives, we should hold on to the people that makes us happy. i dont know if those among us who identify with jiwoo will ever find their own seojoon, god i hope we do, but i think that if we all just learn from seojoon to love and forgive more we would be one step closer to our own happiness. 

credit of the wonderful pictures: twitter user @_ouruniverse09

[essentiallykpopandbl]

I kind of just sat silently after watching the episodes of To My Star 2 today. I was crying, in awe, and digesting what had just happened in the show. Then i had to work. And now i have a lot that I need to say about it. So strap in, this will get long.

I see a lot of people being angry over Jiwoo and his choices. I will admit, I have wanted to smack him once or twice for how harsh he is toward Seojoon. But I want to talk about the importance of a character like Han Jiwoo being portrayed on screen. This man has a lot of self worth, self love, and trust issues. And I mean LOTS of them. These are a lot of the same issues many people struggle with. Am I enough? Do I deserve love? Why does this person love me? How do I love them back? Will this end painfully? How do I make this hurt less? And all of them are valid questions and issues. I'm not saying he doesn't deserve Seojoon, or that he isn't enough, but it is ok for him to have those questions. It is part of life, it's part of learning about ourselves and making ourselves better. He is not any less deserving just because he has these concerns. I think that is why it is so important that we see this character on screen. This needs to be represented more. We talk a lot about representation on screen and I think it is just as important to show these mental and emotional struggles as well. I know there are people that don't want to see this realistic and sad reality on screen, and I get it. The world sucks enough. But I think showing these struggles help people understand others and realize they are not alone.

What this show has done so well is forced us to watch this story play out through Seojoon's eyes. Before today, we have not been able to understand Jiwoo. We heard his words and the anger he put into them and saw the blank expression he always tried to give Seojoon, but we were confused by the look in his eye, or the protective traits he keeps using. We knew Jiwoo was in love because he still catches things before they hit the ground, protects the person next to him from people on the street even if it isn't Seojoon, follows Seojoon with his eyes.... oh yeah, and licks the blood off his face and kisses the hell out of him. But his actions didn't match his words, and since Seojoon felt confusion and whiplash, the audience did as well. Only when the point of view shifts do we see the emotion behind the actions. We begin to understand just how alone Jiwoo felt. That he told himself the love he has could never compete with the world's love for Seojoon. That their relationship was on borrowed time. That there is nothing more lonely then being afraid of the relationship you are in. And now the audience sees both sides, and that honestly hurts even more. That this isn't a problem that comes from a lack of love. And if that doesn't just rip my heart out and stomp on it.

So what now? Where do we go from here? We have two characters that are currently very broken, with only 2 episodes to go. Seojoon is depressed and crying in the house he used to share with Jiwoo. Jiwoo is bawling reading old texts from someone he loves and realizing just how deeply Seojoon loves him. Some people want them back together. Some want them to stay apart. Some just wants some form of happiness for these two. And I don't really know where I fall in that spectrum. On one hand I sympathize with Jiwoo. That hand wants them to find happiness apart. Learn to love themselves and find peace with what happened between them. But the other hand sides with Seojoon. That hand wants Jiwoo to realize that his insecurities were the reason this feel apart and he should apologize for leaving. They can trust in their love and find happiness together. But it is in Hwang Da Seul's hands and I just hope she is kind to my heart and tear ducts.

Regardless of what happens, I don't think it ruins the happy ending of the first season. We are watching short periods of time in their lives. At the time of the first season, they fell in love and were happy. They were helping heal each other. But that might not last. It does not change the fact that they did fall in love. It is easy to fall apart, it is a lot harder to put ourselves back together. This could all just be part of the journey they have to go on to heal. Would I have liked to see a whole season of these two smiling, in love, and living a wonderful life..... of course I would. But what we got instead was an amazingly acted beautifully directed exploration of a painful love story. I cried a lot (which is no surprise) but I am so glad to have experienced this. Good luck to Seojoon and Jiwoo next week. May you both find the happiness within you.

[conscbgb]

KBL World was never the same after them...💙

[blmpff]

pang_seul igs 25.12.23

[chicademartinica]

Did you like Blueming ( 2022) ? You will love The eighth sense Greening (2023) ! Part II: The beach trip an exposé in four parallels.

[broken-dreams-with-wild-smiles]

Some thoughts and theories about To My Star S2

I never wrote anything here cause I'm lazy and I think no one is going to read it but I don't have friends and I need to get this out of my chest....

First of all, this season is not what I was expecting, I thought we were going to get some drama but they were going to be together, we were going to see them be fluffy and cute. I basically thought we were going to get 90% fluff and 10% drama... but oh god... I was wrong. Hwang Da Seul is a genius, a mastermind, and is one of the greatest directors of this time, at least on BL... The depth of this season, the character's past, their traumas, their fears, and (I really hope) their growth. We are getting everything we couldn't get in the first season cause of the time. I really believe that although we are suffering a lot right now is all going to be worth it, so much worth it. The angst is killing me but I really believe is worth it so they can be better for each other.

and now some of my theories... I think Jiwoo's girlfriend is here to help him get over all his traumas and the little girl is to help Seojun and his fear of abandonment, we are not getting the same cliche as all Bls do, they are going to learn and grow and be stronger so their relationship can last forever. I think Jiwoo's parents let him into some debt or something bad and he doesn't want to drag Seojun and his future, that's why he run, that's why he would rather break his heart (and his own in the process) and not involve him.

I really hope that this second part of the series we see Jiwoo realize his mistakes, that Sung Yoon is going to help him to open his eyes and to fight for Seojoon, because is obvious to everyone how much they both love each other. I hope Jiwoo chase after Seojoon (and suffers a little in the process).

Anyways... I think To My Star 2 is the best Bl, is at the same level as other high-production romance k-dramas.

[gillianthecat]

that detail you mentioned is so cute, siwon closing his eyes to give daun a safe space, i love that interpretation!

i also find it super cute when they were holding hands in class, dawoon took siwon's hand to comfort him and they could have easily ended the scene there but siwon turned his hand to hold dawoon's hand back and 🥺🥺

also when siwon saw his dad and didn't know how to act so he decided to run! (maybe it's a poor reaction but i've been there) he did not run alone but took daun's hand and daun ran with him

something about that moment feels so metaphorical for their relationship

and daun asked no questions "i guess you figured it out. the person we bumped into earlier was my dad. he has his reasons. it's nothing important" (oh but it is!)

it was his birthday!!! every time i remember it was his birthday and he got to spend it with siwon and it turned out being a really special day for him. i need to sit down

and that little scene where dawoon goes to pick siwon up on his first day of filming with a cup of coffee ready for him... it might be only 30 seconds long but oh it's so sweet, i find their faces in that scene absolutely endearing

this turned out to be just a list of things i love about blueming lol i could talk about the little details in this show for hours sorry to hijack your inbox

i think i read that you liked tms2? i loved it! i think i even enjoyed it more than the first season, something about the already established relationship satisfied me deeply, we need more of it in the bl world! yeah i find it super cute watching boys fall in love but i want more of seeing them navigate that love! what did you enjoy the most about it? hope everything's going well xxx

Yes!! 🍻

You're welcome to come rave about Blueming in my inbox any day, Blueming Anon. I love everything you've said about it.

I loved To My Star 2. I can see why people didn't, it's not really a BL, and of course it's hard to see a beloved couple torn apart. But for me it really worked. I think part of that was because in the first To My Star, Seo-joon and Ji-woo never figured their shit out. So in the sequel it didn't feel like they were tearing a happy couple apart artificially just for the drama, but a natural extension of who they were and and all the things they still needed to figure out. So a similar sequel to Blueming, for example, wouldn't work because Da-woon and Si-won have a much more functional relationship by the end. A lot of the story of Blueming is them figuring out how to communicate and take care of each other, which Ji-woo and Seo-joon never do in the first To My Star. That story is primarily about them getting together, and ends when they do.

My favorite part of TMS2? It's so hard to pick! One thing I really liked about both of them was how much Seo-joon felt like a movie star to me - in the sense that it really felt like he had been warped in the way that a fundamentally good person would be warped by all the attention and lack of privacy that come with it. I don't know any movie stars myself, so I don't know if that's accurate, but it felt that way to me while watching.

A moment that comes to mind now, perhaps because I've been thinking about kisses in BL that feel very specific to the characters and their story (hi The Eclipse👋), is the scene where they're looking for the little girl. It's so revealing of both characters and their relationship at that time--Seo-joon's panic, Ji-woo's almost emotionless affect, which we see in a whole new light when he tells Seo-joon that he's only keeping it together because Seo-joon is falling apart. Their relief, falling to the ground in the middle of the road, something about that just felt so human. And then Ji-woo revealing more about himself and all his complicated feelings about Seo-joon in that one line - "How could you be so honest about everything? How can I ignore you now?" - than he has yet in either of the series. And of course the desperation and relief of their kiss and how much it felt like exes falling back into old habits in a moment of extreme emotions. And it felt well placed in the timeline of the series overall - not a kiss that would fix things, but maybe one that would shake things up enough so they could eventually be repaired.

I also loved everything about Ji-woo's ex-girlfriend Jung Sung-yoon - the character herself, how cleverly they subverted all the audience expectations of the evil interfering ex, how she and Ji-woo processed their relationship and how necessary that was for Ji-woo and Seo-joon to rebuild theirs.

Anyways, in sum, I cannot pick a favorite thing and I could write about a dozen more aspects of the series that I adored, but I will stop with those three. Thanks for giving me an excuse to think about it!