□ a bl sideblog, because yes, it reached that level◇▪︎ ♡🏳️🌈☆
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Latest Posts by enemies-to-friends-to-lovers - Page 9
Practice hard. There’s no excuse if you’re defeated by Engineering this time. BAD BUDDY THE SERIES (2021)
aoki x the complete inability to can
bonus: baby gets BRAVE
error pran.exe does not compute
The most Romeo and Juliet accurate part of Bad Buddy is all of their friends are just itching for a fight, have zero self control and will probably get someone killed at the rate they're going without Pat or Pran having to do anything except suffer from their actions.
We were just kids. BAD BUDDY (2021)
aoki sota’s face is a work of art kieta hatsukoi eps 1&2 || for @abrandnewpokedex
+ bonus - an actual masterpiece:
Cinderella… will be me.
Huh?!
I mean I’ll look better in it anyway.
romeo and juliet (1597) by william shakespeare // bad buddy (2021) dir. backaof noppharnach
Eyyy ep 1 is here....!
The series had me at the bl version of Romeo and Juliet...(obviously without the tragic ending)
‘Looks like you cried a lot… From now on, don’t drink alone, call me whenever you feel like crying and need someone to talk to.’
Top 10 K-drama Actors: Honorable Mention 2 Moon Woo Jin
The main reason why he’s not in my top 10 is because we have yet to see him flourish to his full potential, but I’ve known since The Beauty Inside that’s this kid is one of the most talented actors I’m going to see in my life.
We all know that if he’s listed in a tv show, there’s going to be some tragic past subplot and I can guarantee you, you will cry. That child can cry from his heart and make you cry along with him. And if he isn’t crying, his facial expressions and the way he tells the story will!
Just to list a couple of his works:
The Beauty Inside: Where he had to act like a grown up actress trapped in a child’s body. Hilarious and a great showcase of his talent.
What’s wrong with Secretary Kim? Where he portrayed the tragic past of Lee Young-joon (Grown up version portrayed by Park Seo Joon)
Psycho but it’s okay: Honestly, if you haven’t cried in at least one of the flashbacks or the combination of Moon Woo Jin’s acting with Kim Soo Hyun’s, you have my respect.
Come and Hug Me: Once again, playing the child version of the main lead, with an amazing performance. We also get the well known flashback combo of Moon Woo Jin (child) and Nam Da Reum (teen, btw, I should probably give him an honorable mention of his own, I actually considered putting the combo as an honorable mention).
This particular combo is also seen in What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim, and pretty much any k-drama where the main lead has a tragic past that is well explored. Nam Da reum also has a bright future ahead of him as he’s headed into adulthood, and I hope I can see him in a lead role soon enough.
Top 10 K-drama Actors: Honorable Mention 2 Moon Woo Jin
The main reason why he’s not in my top 10 is because we have yet to see him flourish to his full potential, but I’ve known since The Beauty Inside that’s this kid is one of the most talented actors I’m going to see in my life.
We all know that if he’s listed in a tv show, there’s going to be some tragic past subplot and I can guarantee you, you will cry. That child can cry from his heart and make you cry along with him. And if he isn’t crying, his facial expressions and the way he tells the story will!
Just to list a couple of his works:
The Beauty Inside: Where he had to act like a grown up actress trapped in a child’s body. Hilarious and a great showcase of his talent.
What’s wrong with Secretary Kim? Where he portrayed the tragic past of Lee Young-joon (Grown up version portrayed by Park Seo Joon)
Psycho but it’s okay: Honestly, if you haven’t cried in at least one of the flashbacks or the combination of Moon Woo Jin’s acting with Kim Soo Hyun’s, you have my respect.
Come and Hug Me: Once again, playing the child version of the main lead, with an amazing performance. We also get the well known flashback combo of Moon Woo Jin (child) and Nam Da Reum (teen, btw, I should probably give him an honorable mention of his own, I actually considered putting the combo as an honorable mention).
This particular combo is also seen in What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim, and pretty much any k-drama where the main lead has a tragic past that is well explored. Nam Da reum also has a bright future ahead of him as he’s headed into adulthood, and I hope I can see him in a lead role soon enough.
It's really hard to believe we now have korean dramas that doesn't focus on the romance, where you can ignore the romance if you wish and that the romance doesn't overwhelm the actual plot. For years I didn't have any interest in kdrama because it was always about "guy meets girl", if you see a guy standing next to a girl you already know where this is going, everybody is always falling in love all the time. Even when there was a good plot, it moved tangled in the romance, and it was really hard to watch if you are romance repulsed, don't like romance or are just really really tired of ships and couples. This is unprecedented.
gif: @dingyuxi
sorry if this has been said before, but from what we know now, yohan has been planning the move to switzerland since the beginning. in episode 4 is where the writer left the hint that ga on would be following yohan to switzerland and the overall meaning of it all is so romantic when you look at it. when i was watching, the camera/director never failed to show us that ga on never relinquished the watch, even when they were broken up or fighting. they always made sure to show us that the watch never left him.
and indeed, by ga on continually carrying the watch, he’s “living in the same time zone” as yohan; ga on never left yohan’s side. they were never apart and never will be again. so even if for now they are living in two different countries, they will always be in the same time zone as long as they have the watches.
( I hope you tell that person how you feel ) — SO NOT WORTH IT, episode 11 🌈
i miss them like crazy
sunah and yohan
sunah is behind yohan because of her role in the story. she’s a bigger player than yohan initially realized. she’s behind his back and slightly above him, but he’s aware of her presence.
however, that’s also why she’s covering one eye. because yohan is blinded and cannot see the entirety of sunah’s plan. mainly because he didn’t know it existed in the first place. he only has one eye open because he can only see what he knows. she’s literally impacting his eyesight.
then, there’s the fact that she’s covering his right eye. the left has played a significant role in the show, with both gaon and yohan on the left. gaon, the precious sidekick who sits at the left, and yohan, who earns himself a scar on his left hand. soohyun was gaon’s right, but yohan is his left. this can also mean yohan has only had tunnel vision for gaon and his own plans for him.
gaon and yohan
their positions indicate one is more dominant than the other, but in this case, i think it’s more along the lines of gaon isn’t just a looming presence for yohan, he’s literally giving and the reason yohan has light on his face. but gaon’s back is turned away from the light and toward the darkness. this represent the story arcs each character goes through, with yohan walking into the light by the end of the show, and gaon having to walk through the darkness to get to a neutral, more hopeful place. he rises above despite the dark.
gaon and soohyun
similar to the middle poster, gaon’s back is turned away from the light while soohyun is facing it. she represents gaon’s hope, and she’s staring at gaon in judgment. gaon’s face is tilted down, almost as if he’s ashamed that she’s looking at him for choosing the side shrouded in darkness.
not so quick pitch
Light on Me (2021 - Korea)
Rating: 10/10
Foundational Romance Trope: friends to love triangle
There were some who thought this BL slow, and I get that, but really it’s just subtle and quiet. With Light on Me, Korea gave us an honest to goodness high school set BL with some classic old school yaoi tropes almost like they were doing a bit of a,
“now that we’ve hit our stride, let’s perfect the vanilla sheet cake BL style.”
It was great, of course, but very refined and elegant which some found off putting. It made me think of something like this…
It’s what Korea does, repackage and perfect vanilla cake into this pretty glowing confection of precision joy. I’m cool with that. By all means, please include BL in the Hallyu take over. This is the K-pop of BL En-Hyphen style, manufactured super-powered cute but… restrained.
But that doesn’t make it any less gut wrenching to watch. In fact, it makes every subtle tentative movement of care that ShinWoo attempts that much more telling. It makes every fear of exposure that prevents DaOn from taking action that much more traumatic. It makes every moment of TaeKyung’s brutal honestly and blunt communication that much more powerful.
It’s like that intense moment of focus on the hand flex in an Austen adaptation - we are awaiting every crack in the sugar sculpture with bated breath.
The filming in this show was precision engineered. The frame was kept uncluttered, characters appeared exactly in the center, there was little visual noise, and the lighting was full on, even in night shots. To me this reflected the character of TaeKyung - honest and almost stilted in his mannerisms. I feel like the director filmed this series as if the show itself were TaeKyung: careful and clear and specific.
This may come off as one-note or simplistic to a casual viewer but it’s actually quite difficult to film something so precisely and still make it interesting to watch. It forced the viewer to focus almost entirely on the actor’s faces, their nuanced emotion, and their interpersonal relationships to the exclusion of all else. Lucky for us those actors served the lens beautifully.
There is literally NOTHING distracting about this directing style. It’s like the camera was a neutral white room, a well-lit gallery in which the narrative hung suspended for us all to stand and stare at in hushed silence.
A love triangle has never before looked so perfect or been executed so perfectly, and it never will again. All BL love triangles that come after Light On Me (and we will get them now) are going to be unfavorably compared to this show.
When I posted about Korea’s history with BL, I talked about how strategic and clever they are with tropes. Light on Me is a master class in how to use tropes to manipulate audience sympathy so they can’t decide which pair they prefer. Korean BL never just throws in a trope without purpose - they calculate its impact on story structure. Basically, LoM used this technique to infect fans with Second Lead Syndrome. It’s SO GOOD.
So yes, Light on Me was cleverly engineered, but it was also SPECIAL, and here’s why:
This show gave us a small cast of beautifully acted complex and sympathetic characters and dwelled on their different motivations, communication styles, and narrative roles. It gently explored not what it means to love, or even be in love, but what it means to act on love, and what that says about integrity and emotional courage. In doing so, it managed to treat its characters with integrity too. And not just the three main characters but the mentor, the faen fatal, and the best friend support characters too.
This show felt very fair. Fair to its characters. Fair to its story. And fair to us, the watchers.
For me this BL was classy, a real winner, not the least of which because they NAILED the landing, including the final kiss. Korea is DOMINATING 2021. Like seriously. What’s going on here?
Full analysis of the love triangle trope under the context of the second half fo this BL here.
Bravo, Korea.
(source)
EXPERIENCE THIS GLORIOUS SCENE WITH ME.