Welcome to my Saturday blog post where I give thoughts on dramas I’m watching, whether at the beginning, middle, or end. Whatever I want, because I’m petty that way.
This week I recapped Not Me episodes 7-8, and if you want to watch genuinely good writing see how our leads here go from strangulation to kisses in two episodes.
I also finished recapping Kidnap with episodes 11-12, I’ll talk about what really worked for me and what really didn’t below.
And yes, this means a new show getting recapped next week! What will it be?
But first, I watched and finished:
Blue Canvas of Youthful Days – 路过我年少时光的蓝色 – 2024
Recently aired Chinese School BL with 12 episodes.
A young artist enters an art school because he admires the sketches of another young man there, and tries to get to know the promising but prickly artist better.
This show was a dreamy, angsty vignette about four young men getting through a hard time with love and friendship. After the first four episodes, I was expecting something not light, but lighter than what we got. As the episodes went on, the hardships piled on, and it was hard to watch at times. I should have paid more attention to the mood of the poster.
But I think people should watch it.
It is impossible to forget this is a BL from China
I don’t know much about the background of this show, but there are two things I know for sure:
- BLs aren’t allowed under China’s increasingly strict censorship laws.
- This show was initially released to international audiences only on a Chinese streaming platform before being pulled after 4 episodes. Some months later they got it out to the world on other, non-Chinese international streaming services.
So the very existence of this show is subversive and radical.
I say all this because I hoped for something more subversive and radical. Maybe I can blame Not Me, which I’m recapping right now, though I wasn’t expecting something with a literal protest.
Blue Canvas is hard, the characters go through a lot. Not entirely because of their sexuality, also because of poverty and familial expectations. As the show goes on things get harder for them.
But throughout the show, there is a positive, hopeful message about pursuing the things you love, creatively and romantically, despite anything trying to hold you back. The show is by no means bleak, with an ultimate message about the importance and power of love.
Things being how they are in parts of the world, this is a powerful statement. You don’t need a Not Me-style marriage equality protest in your show to be radical.
And what do I mean by dreamy vignette?
First, I don’t know much about what went into the production, but the editing and visuals are unusual. There are a lot of montages and blurry filters. I got lost at times as to how much time was passing. Was it hours? Days? Weeks?
With no clear time frame, it felt less like something I was experiencing with the characters and more like something I was remembering with them. It gave it a dreamy quality.
When I, finally, finished this show after months of waiting to get to episode 5 I didn’t feel like I had gotten the full story. It felt more like I had seen a period of our lead characters’ lives, something hard that they had gone through. Something they might look back on but not let define them.
And it’s a BL with a good romance
Our lead’s attraction and affection for one another feel real. They are two very different people, and their relationship doesn’t make things easy on each other, yet it feels worth it because of the emotions they bring up in each other and how they change each other’s lives.
Our secondary couple is different but similar. There’s a little, little, less angst here but they are still pivotal in each other’s lives, happiness, and growth as people.
And as I mentioned in my initial review, I love how their art and exploration of the world around them feature in their relationships.
If you’re up for something with angst, I think you should watch this.
Yes, I also finished:
Kidnap – ลับ-จ้าง-รัก – 2024
Recently aired Thai crime romantic comedy BL with 12 episodes.
A kidnap victim might be happier with his kidnapper than at home.
This is an interesting double feature with Jack & Joker because they have a lot in common. Both have sad rich guys paired with guys struggling in poverty and pushed into criminal activity. Both have evil bad guys, guns, and crime elements. Both are deeply flawed.
And Kidnap got one thing right that Jack & Joker didn’t while getting nearly everything else wrong.
What Kidnap did right: Our lead’s emotional arcs
Q and Min started in bad places, both externally and internally. Q was rich but estranged from his father living a lonely, isolated life. He was also insecure and reckless, with PTSD. He desperately needed love and support.
Min was poor and caring for a younger brother with an expensive heart condition all on his own. He couldn’t pursue his dreams because he didn’t feel he deserved it, and devoted all his time and energy to his brother. This was making his brother increasingly unhappy.
These men meet and, while dealing with a crime plot I’ll get to, help each other out of the places they’ve trapped themselves. Min shows Q that love and support he’s needed for years, and in doing so, Q starts to care about himself more and take his own steps to heal. Including a real drama rarity: going to therapy.
Meanwhile Q, in his efforts to get to know his protective, selfless lover better, realizes how Min has been denying himself. He pushes Min to let go of his younger brother and pursue his dreams.
We get to see all of this on-screen, from them learning about each other to helping each other to grow. It’s deeply satisfying to see.
The problem is everything else
It’s so, so weak. I complained about Jack & Joker being overly ambitious and this feels the opposite. Not that I’m saying anyone involved in Kidnap’s production didn’t work hard, you see it in the final credits, but they should have been more ambitious with the characters and story.
Kidnap’s secondary characters aren’t even half-baked, they’re raw dough forgotten on the counter. Outside of our two leads, Min’s younger brother and Q’s father, I can’t tell you anything about them.
Our lead villain is bad because… money? Her henchman is there. He gets a line of backstory from someone else in the last episode but it’s too little too late. Min’s brother has a love interest who seems capable of teleporting wherever she is needed to stand and smile for a bit before vanishing again.
The most bewildering of all is Min’s friend James. He gets the whole Kidnap plot going and orders Min to kill Q. This is immediately water under the bridge, as no one seems bothered by James’ casual attitude towards murder. Or the way he keeps spying on Min and skulking around his yard. He continues to be a source of friendship and jobs for Min. Every time I saw him on screen I thought, “But he ordered someone to murder someone else, what is happening?”
The plot is similarly raw and unformed. It’s a combination of sweet/cute rom-com and crime story with a very villainous villain. Periodically, this villain has our leads beaten up or steps on them with her stiletto shoe, and then she’s stopped for a moment before nonsensically getting free because there isn’t enough “evidence” or something. It’s not silly and fun, it doesn’t add anything meaningful to the story except violent conflict, and it didn’t make a whole lot of sense.
So I recommend Min and Q’s relationship, but not this show
Much as I loved them, I can’t push other people to sit through the show just for them. If you love our leads, if you love a sad rich guy with a poor guy with a tarnished heart of gold, if you like action and don’t mind if it makes sense, you can give this a try.
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