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Soul Mate (Japanese Series)

By Golu
Is this technically a gay show? Even after getting through the whole thing, that's still kind of tricky to answer. There's never any physical intimacy shown between the two leads, not even a single kiss. What it gives you instead is something that goes way deeper than that. It traces an emotional bond that spans a full decade between two guys who are both dealing with their own baggage, and what they share basically amounts to being soulmates. The story moves across Japan, South Korea, and Berlin. Honestly, whether people want to call what they have a romantic relationship or not doesn't really matter to me. A relationship doesn't need a label like boyfriends attached to it to actually mean something. And closeness doesn't need to be physical to feel genuine. What this show captures is something quieter but way more powerful, a bond rooted in understanding, respect, and just showing up for each other. Across eight episodes, each running 35 to 45 minutes, this is one...
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The Renovation (Thai Mini-Series)

By Golu
This is a short Thai mini-series of just 2 episodes of about 65 minutes each. With a paper thin plot (worthy of probably just a short story), I am not sure why this was stretched into a 2 plus hour version. I mean it came out in 2024. The cheesy, cliché lines the actors say, look out of place. And the climax was a long winded denial of one to then make a 180° turn to have a happy end.

Athit (or Manu) is a resort owner, who has been hurt in love and stays by himself closed to the world. He is the owner of a resort which he is undergoing renovation for. Due to a booking mistake, a visitor Pe ends up coming to the resort and insists that he will stay there since he has paid in full. In contrast Athit's personality, Pe is handsome, fun of life, outgoing and gregarious. The two guys slowly start to warm up to each other. Pe is a budding novel writer and has escaped to this rather beautiful paradise for inspiration. Meanwhile, his fantasy and adept writing creates a rather interesting love story that begins to mirror what is happening between the two of them. In essence, their reality becomes the basis for Pe’s own fantasy. When Athit finds this out, he is very disappointed in Pe into portraying someone's life story into a story. When Pe sees his point, he apologizes and as you would expect from a show like this, sparks fly, 180 turn happens and next thing you know is Athit has fallen for him. A love making scene follows with a promise of two boys being together.

Athit would be a hard person not to fall in love with because he displays genuine goodness about him with a strong sense of devotion and sincerity. Pe traverses from a superficial individual to one now needing to stand up for himself. But all this aside, there is really not much that is happening there. We spend a good 40 ish minutes just seeing the banters of this two individuals where Pe has forced himself in the resort and how he tries to get Athit's attention. Despite this the show is full of cliches, very BL tropey and you just fail to connect with any of the characters and could care less whether they end up being together or not. As I mentioned earlier, even two hours for this wafer thin plot was absolutely unnecessary and this should not have been anything more than a short story. Good looks of the two guys can hold an audience's attention only for so long, especially in today's times. (3/10)
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