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Contrast (Japanese Series)

This is basically a high school BL where two guys who have nothing going on in common somehow end up getting really close to each other, and that's kind of the whole point of the title too. There's barely any drama or fluff packed in here, it stays pretty straightforward the whole way through. A little bit of friction pops up here and there, but it's nothing compared to what you'd normally get in this kind of show. Runtime wise you're looking at 8 episodes, each one sitting around 25-30 minutes. The two guys carrying the story are Akira and Kanata, and funny enough they knew each other's faces way before they ever knew each other's names. Kanata's the type everyone likes, always got people around him, popular guy, but there's this distance to him that people can't quite place. Turns out he had an injury that ended his football days, and that's what pushed him into being more withdrawn, and it only got worse once his younger brother got picked...

Love Class (Korean Series)

This 6 episode (20 min each)  Korean show is a very average, mediocre yet awkward show at the same time. Don't lettuce 4 boys in the poster fool you, because this is not your typical BL show. The show tries to tackle way too many themes at the same time and as expected just no justice to any of them.

There are some students in a university and they have a love class, where they are taught basics of love, dating, relationship etc. (yeah beats me!. Feel free to roll your eyes). The class is divided in pairs. JiWoo wants to pair up with a girl Yoona who he has had a crush on for the longest time, but she says she prefers to be paired with a girl. We are later told that she has been stalked by a man for. Along. Time now an is scared of men. This leads JiWoo to be paired with another guy Ro-A, who is his senior. Ro-A has also been secretly crushing on JiWoo. We then have Ro-A's roommate who likes him but ever since this love class, Ro-A can only think of JiWoo. Yoona eventually becomes friendly with JiWoo which leads to the stalker beating up Jiwoo and in the process Ro-A gets hurt too. This incident forces the two men to get closer. The two come up with a plan to expose the identity of the stalke, in which they succeed. Yoona now suddenly has feelings for JiWoo and expresses that but he politely declines her feelings because now he likes Ro-A. But now Ro-A decline this feelings because he thinks that his presence will only create trouble for JiWoo, and he leaves the university. A month later two men meet and fall in love.

Yes, the story is al over the place , as mentioned above. A likes B, B likes C, D also likes A. What is most funny fo rme is that every single person likes someone else, but when some other person confesses there feeling for them, they get a lecture on how they should take no for an answer, But meanwhile, they themselves are doing the exact same thing for this other person. Its funny, how rules are different for different people. The main actors in the show are two boys and two girls and not 4 men as depicted in the poster (so lame). Also the whole buildup of the stalker, you feel maybe its the teacher, maybe its other girl or maybe its Ro-A's roommate, but it turns out its a totally random guy in the class. Such an anticlimax to all the hype and buildup. And if you think that at least we get some cute, romantic scene out of it. Not really, I mean sure, there are quite some cute moments, but there aren't nearly enough to outweigh the sheer frustration. And it's funny how suddenly JiWoo falls out of love with a girl and falls fir. Boy with absolutely no context or build up. This is example of a show where you feel they were trying to cram up so much in a short time, that they barely do any rustic to anyone at all. Acting from lead actors was all just average, but its the story thats the biggest let down here. Barely an average show IMO. (4.5/10)

Comments

Sailor Maan said…
A sweet one but as you said I also think it tackles too many things at the same time. And the way Ro-A gives Jii Wo an advice that he himself won't take a minute later is a bit stupid...
There is one thing that striked me though: when they are outed on social media, a student behind said something like "I see them (gays) in drama but never for real". Had me wondering if homosexuality is that well accepted in Korea. I mean, I never expected it to be as "common" as it is in dramas, but as they made so many BL I though maybe it was more banalized. Sorry, it was just a random though.
Golu said…
Actually I am there with you on this thought. I feel that even though w have seen an out our of these BL dramas from Asia, the actual social acceptance of openly gay men is probably too low. And we all know that the primary audience for these shows are teenage girls and grown men (but teenage at heart) gays like us. :)
Miisu said…
Well, I wouldn't have watched this piece, but since an introduction video on Youtube announced that this series will have S2 this August, I took the time to watch S1. It felt fragmented to me as well - sometimes I was wondering if I missed an entire episode. The two leads were nice and human and all that, but I would have liked more background of them both. And I was thinking about the love class as a subject as well. There are strangest subjects included in the university curricula everywhere, like the pearl of my own BA curriculum, "the global and regional economics of information society". Lucky us for not having such love class in our curriculum, that would be rather weird in our universities.

The second season is probably going to be just as disconnected as this one and with just as large gaps between events since it's going to have to squeeze three main couples' stories in about the same time (10 episodes, 25 min each). The trailer looked pretty good though.
Golu said…
They always make good trailers to entice poor teenage girls like us and then the reality is thrown at us.....
Run!!

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