Skip to main content

Chained To My Bully Stepbrother (AI Vertical BL Drama)

By Golu
This is the second vertical AI BL drama I've sat through, and honestly I went in knowing better. I had it on while I was doing cardio at the gym, and what struck me was just how much the plot echoed the last one I watched. Same step brother romance angle, same mystery girlfriend showing up near the end, same extra guy pining after one of the leads. Genuinely the only thing going for it was the runtime, the whole thing wrapped up in forty five minutes flat.  The setup kicks off with Finn moving schools because his mom just married into money. He finds out his new step brother Aiden goes to the same place, and he's warned to keep his distance from him. Their first run in at school is rocky, just like you'd expect, but there's this odd pull between them neither can shake off. Finn keeps telling himself not to read into it because Aiden's straight and openly homophobic. Things shift when some kids start bullying Finn and the student council president, Ryan, steps in to ...
Post a Comment

My Secret Vampire (Korean Series)

By Golu

I really didn't click with this series at all. I've got to be honest, while there were a few spots where the humor actually landed, the whole thing just felt like a massive miss for me. There was definitely some potential in the idea, but I just couldn't find a reason to care about the main guys or any of the side characters. On the bright side, the show is a quick watch since it’s only eight episodes and they each run about 16 to 20 minutes. It's definitely a cute and fluffy type of story, but it makes this big promise of building a vampire world and then just doesn't explore it. To me, that just feels like some pretty lousy scriptwriting.

The plot is about four college housemates who are actually vampires living together, and they're looking for a fifth person to move in. Their big issue isn't even about covering the rent; it's that they are desperate to bite into a fresh, living human! They're all pleasantly shocked when this young, innocent guy named Dongha moves in for a little while. However, the vampires end up pretty disappointed because Dongha doesn't actually weigh enough for them to be able to suck his blood! On top of that, rumors about what they do at night have started getting out, so the group is under strict orders not to lay a finger on Dongha. He's not supposed to be their prey at all. Even with that rule, three out of the four vampires are constantly tempted to drink from him. Only Joowon, who is a half-vampire and hates the idea of drinking human blood, feels like he needs to protect his new roommate. The rest of the story follows the romance that develops between those two. There's also a side plot about two other vampires falling for each other, and a weirdly large amount of time spent on cooking food and forcing vampires to eat it.

The show tries to lean on these lighthearted moments showing how four vampires and one human manage to live under the same roof. Some of that is okay to watch, but none of the characters actually grow or change, which makes the whole thing feel like it was put together in a huge rush. It started off promisingly enough, but as things moved along, it really started losing its charm. A lot of the scenes felt pretty cringey to me, and you can definitely tell the pacing was way too fast. I'll be real—I didn't even feel a spark between the lead couple. They had some sweet moments, sure, but none of it felt like it was happening naturally. There’s one part where the lead vampire almost loses it when Dongha gets hurt, which is how the truth about the vampires comes out, but the whole thing just felt silly. I honestly don't get why this show is getting so much praise everywhere. Even though it's short and easy to get through, there just wasn't anything about it that stuck with me. It’s just another story that’s going to get lost in the shuffle of the BL world.

This is a forgettable and rushed attempt at a vampire romance that fails to develop its characters or its world-building. It might be cute on the surface, but it lacks the substance to make it worth the watch. (3.5/10)

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Phor Lae Lukchai (Thai) [Father & Son]

By Golu
I think the budget of this film was probably too small, but for that, the film definitely offers a different and unique storyline without over dramatizing anything. Yes, some scenes were a bit amateurish but in the bigger scheme of things, that can be overlooked. The film is both beautiful and sad in its own unique way. Aek is a gay dad, whose partner died right around the time their son Nueng was born through surrogacy in a road accident. The relationship between father and son is unpleasant and unstable. We are not really told why, but it seems the father has been unsuccessful in caring and loving his son because of his partner's death. Aek continues to hook up wit hookers. Also, Nueng is constantly bullied by everyone around him for having a gay dad. He has no friends, except Nat, a neighborhood boy, who also happens to be Nueng's boyfriend. In a sudden turn of events Nat is found murdered along with another boy naked. Saddened by the events, Nueng jumps from roof and k...
1 comment
Read more

Sei no Gekiyaku (Japanese) [Dangerous Drugs of Sex]

By Golu
Every person has their own unique way of dealing with loss. This film is as much a psychological thriller as it is a soft porn BDSM portrayal of two young men that makes the film overall horrifying as well as humane. It is really hard to describe the genre of this film in one word. Its important not that the film has some really disturbing scenes so if you go into seeing this film, please proceed with caution. Although any sexual non-consensual activity is not ok, this film has its won strange way of showing that suicide is not the only solution to all life's problems. Makoto is a regular office goer, who just finds out that his girlfriend is probably cheating on him. ON top of it, his parents sudden death coming back from a trip that he forced them to take, he gets completely dejected and decides to commit suicide. Unknown to him, he is saved by mysterious man Yoda Ryoji, and he wakes up finding himself tied up in leather and belts in a very BDSM setting. This mysterious saver soo...
3 comments
Read more

The Shortest Distance is Round 3: Fallen Flowers

By Golu
Continuing with the weird trilogy of "The Shortest Distance", I am so glad that finally I am done with part 3 and won't have to deal with this again in future. Thankfully, as of now the makers have not announced any further parts; which will save all of us on this earth from the embarrassment of watching this in near future. After the first 10 minutes are used in sort of recapping bits of first two parts, the story moves forward. Haruto is now starting to have feelings for Ruka, the mysterious pole dancer from second part. In a fit of rage, Ruka ends up killing the goat man and to save him and Haruto, Shibahara asks them to go underground. Meanwhile Shibahara continues the search for Seiya (the guy who had cut off Haruto's penis). It turns out Seiya is now also taking care of the original club owner from part 1. Both of them were released after they had informed Shibahara of Aoyama's secret location. Shibahara tortures Seiya's boyfriend leading to Seiya killin...
5 comments
Read more