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Burnout Syndrome (Thai Series)

By Golu
True to its title, this show tries to capture burnout not as some big dramatic collapse but as this slow, draining exhaustion that quietly eats away at relationships and how you see yourself, and honestly it makes the characters feel really real. The pace is slow on purpose, and everyone here is flawed and full of contradictions, nobody's simple. It uses this messed up boss and employee dynamic to sneak in some pretty smart commentary on society. The story digs into toxic work culture, mental health struggles, and how money ends up running our lives whether we like it or not. And yeah, there's a love triangle thrown in too, because of course there is. This one runs ten episodes, each around 45-55 minutes. Jira's twenty eight, broke, and struggling to make it as a painter. Nothing's going right for him, his art isn't selling, he's got no steady job, and he's basically on the edge of falling apart. His best friend Ing does what she can, finding him odd jobs an...
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Black Summer (Korean)

By Golu
This was such an odd film. It took me more than half the film to even wrap my head around on what really is happening, because as far as I could see, the film was about 4-5 friends just hanging out in their apartment eating, drinking and chatting. The scenes are random and distributed and have no regular flow and feels like random scenes stitched with one another. I actually had to read the synopsis to even figure out what I just saw and this is a huge problem.

Jihyeon works at the university as a part-timer, writing and making films. One day, as he holds an audition while preparing for his next film, he meets Geonwoo, a budding actor and a junior colleague from school. They share many things in common including not particularly physically affectionate with their girlfriends, despite being in relationship for around 4 years. None of them is gay but there is some sort of mental and physical attraction between the two guys. Their relationship becomes a topic of controversy in the university community, and to protect Geonwoo, Jihyeon claims that he was the one who sexually abused Geonu. How will the two men face despair and hope?

As I said, this film is all over the place. There is a whole lot of nothing in this almost 2 hour film. The two shy guys take their own time to make their first move. This sense of soft romance is so overwhelming that when other people finally discover the relationship, the insult takes on bizarre dimensions, which is hardly there in the film anyway. As for the actual plot, well, there's really not much of that to speak of. I'm still not totally sure what to make of the first several opening scenes. They're structured like a framing device, but there's so little concrete information these events could have taken place before or after the main part of the story. This feels like someone school project and is completely avoidable. (0.5/10)
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