Blueming (Korean Series)

This series of 11 episodes was an easy watch given the episodes were just around 13 minutes each. I feel that this must hav been conceptualized asa film but somewhere for whatever reasons the makers decided to release it as a series. I guess there is more of an audience for that. Knowing that this was from the makers of 'Where Your Eyes Linger', one of the good Korean series, I was actually looking forward to watching this one.

Si Won is a film school student who feels self-conscious about his appearance, fitness, and popularity. He was a chubby child and after their father left him, he worked really hard on his appearance. He still remains insecure and sometimes lies so that he sees more impressive in group settings. When another good looking student Da Un joins the class, initially Si-Won thinks that he is snubbing him. After clearing the misunderstanding, the duo end up working on multiple class assignments together. Even though Da-Un is friendly, Si-Won remains skeptical of him. Eventually a good friendship starts. When a film project competition is announced, Da-Un wants Si-Won to join since he has been working on a script about his life, but he hesitates. Somehow Si-Won's sister sees the script and enters it in the competition. He wins surpassingly and starts working on it, during which the two boys get romantic and come closer including having sex. But eventually a secret reveals that all along Da-Un is from a very wealthy and influential family and he used his parents to get Si-Won the film opportunity. He is heart broken but also unsure of where their friendship and relationship is going. The misunderstanding are eventually cleared. Da-Un apologizes for his mistake and admits to not thinking about the consequences. Si Won forgives Da Un and gives him a second chance. They hug, make up, and walk away holding hands.

A big problem of this series is the flow of it. It feels awkward in certain parts as if sudden jumps have happened without any proper explanation. These pacing issues take away from the good acting and it becoming a potentially great love story. The characters are not introduced properly and many places it feels that scene are jumping fro one point to another rather quick. Even the transition from stranger to friends to lovers in very undeveloped and too sudden to believe in them as a couple. Da Un is reserved and puts up a barrier, never revealing much about himself throughout the series, whereas Si-Won's story is known pretty much to everyone. In other characters, its only Is-Won's mother and his sister who get brief period to showcase their story. Everyone else is there just for the heck of it. The first kiss and their eventual sex scene is done with grace but also a bit of awkwardness. I really think Asian series need to work on their kissing scenes. They lack passion and feel quite mechanical. The series eventually has many structural issues as I mentioned above. The pacing has flaws and characters not really developed. The story had potential, the actors were both extremely good looking , but in this scenario the screenplay is not refined enough which limits it from becoming a good love story that it had the potential to become. Overall it ends up remixing a very average series. (5.5/10)