Welcome to my weekly blog post where I give thoughts on dramas I’m watching but not recapping.
This week I recapped episodes 7 and 8 of Our Dining Table. The show is less about food and more about BL now.
This week I started:
If It’s With You – 君となら恋をしてみても – 2023
Currently airing Japanese BL, I’m at 2 of 5 episodes.
A young gay high schooler who has given up on love moves to a new school, only to meet a guy who is just his type. And like, the greenest flag ever.
New Favorite! And an interesting contrast to the other Japanese BL I just finished and will talk about below.
Amane is one of my favorite, rare character types, someone who is hurt but hides behind smiles and laughter. He’s also another thing we don’t see enough of: a gay character in a world where that isn’t really accepted.
It’s not that he’s bullied or abused, at least so far, it’s that everyone casually assumes he’s straight. That’s enough to make him feel alienated and hide his true self.
Ryuji is amazing. Everyone needs a Ryuji in their life. He’s thoughtful and mature and caring and kind. He sees right through Amane’s smiles from the beginning and accepts Amane, the real Amane. It’s enough to make my heart grow three sizes larger.
With only 5 episodes total and two High Schoolers as leads this is not a plot-heavy show. We’re hitting the usual BL tropes in the first two episodes but I’m here for it because I like the characters so much. I’ve got a good feeling about this one, it could be recap-worthy.
This week I finished:
My Personal Weatherman – 体感予報 – 2023
Recently aired Japanese BL with 8 episodes.
An attractive, successful weatherman provides an erotic manga artist free room and board, in return for getting whatever he wants at home.
You can read my initial review here.
Completely different from the above-mentioned show and yet a new favorite.
If you read my first review, I compared it to another favorite, My Beautiful Man. The interesting power dynamics between our manga artist and weatherman reminded me of the power dynamics between Kiyoi and Hira. Our introverted and isolated manga artist seems to be at a disadvantage compared to the weatherman who is outgoing, attractive, and holds financial power over him. But All Is Not As It Seems.
This similarity only solidified in the second half of the drama, as we learned more about the weatherman and their past together. The weatherman is hiding a lot of his true feelings.
There’s also definitely a thread of Rain and Phayu from Love in the Air here too, as our main characters are kinky weirdos. In the best possible way. (The sex scenes though, are not nearly as explicit.)
Also going for this show is that the main characters are not students and are not working together. This should not be as rare as it is currently. There are some sweet side characters here too, including our manga artist’s supportive friend who enjoys watching our leads as much as I do.
Don’t go for plot here though, the story is about two people who can’t communicate just getting through each day. They have jobs they struggle with, clothes that need to get washed, crunchy curry to cook, the daily weather report give or watch, and that’s as much as either of them can handle. Some of us love this kind of thing, and I’m one of them.
Parallel World – 西出玉门 – 2023
A recently aired Chinese Adventure Mystery Horror drama of 38 episodes.
A woman who can’t remember her past teams up with a man with a tragic past to explore the desert for answers about both their pasts.
You can read my initial review here.
As promised by the title, the story went way deeper into the fantasy world once we got past the first third. It’s not a fantasy world I see that often in Chinese dramas, there’s no heavenly realm and immortals. It’s the present day and it’s Earth, but it’s also not. There are very cool exotic beasts with different talents and powers. There are sorcerers. There are creepy hotels where you don’t want to be out late. There are roosters.
Yes, the roosters are very fun.
The visuals created a world that felt magical and different from our own, one that might be fun to visit if not for the terrible politics. They were able to reuse sets and get creative in an enjoyable way, and only a few times did I feel like I was seeing the best CGI they could afford.
Our dynamic couple enters this world and gets caught up in a world of power struggles while still trying to untangle their pasts and how they relate to each other. Thankfully, our awesome leads did not become stupid in order to create conflict and instead, the world was fraught with danger and deceit and interesting magic. They may be one of my favorite couples from this year for how they worked together and communicated.
As the story progressed all our secondary characters had arcs and their own storylines. In particular, Fatty Tang, who could have easily been the stereotypical cowardly sidekick, grew and evolved in a satisfying way.
Unfortunately, Chinese censorship always has to ruin things at least a little these days. The bad guy was like all the bad guys in these shows and the ending was rushed in places and anti-climactic in others. I suspect this has to do with any number of the new and old rules in place about series length and what is and isn’t okay for good guys and bad guys to do.
The censorship didn’t ruin the ending, but reduced it from really awesome to just good. There were great scenes in the last half-dozen episodes that make it worth watching to the end. This series really could have used more episodes for world-building and to flesh out the ending, which is ultimately a compliment for an already lengthy show.
While the length of Chinese dramas makes me hesitant to add them to my potential recap list, this one is rewatch and recap worthy, so you may see more about it in the future.