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 episodes 9-10 of See Your Love. We get two different hospital visits AND a plausible reason why Shao Peng became deaf (usually it’s just “illness”).
I also recapped episodes 9-10 of The Heart Killers. If you’ve ever wondered what hitmen and their boyfriends might do with beach vacation time, the answer is: play frisbee.
What did I watch this week? Shockingly, I watched a BL. And also something that isn’t a BL. Let’s start with that, with an initial review of:
Leap Day – วันแก้ตาย – 2025
Currently airing Thai Thriller, I’ve watched 4 of 12 episodes.
Being born on a leap day really sucks. Everyone you love dies.
Thailand’s major BL production company GMM gives us a not-BL with some familiar BL faces. I like that the actors get a chance to branch out.
And I love that we’ve got a plot
Our leads are Night and Day, both born on February 29th, both used to losing someone they love in some horrible way every time their real birthday comes around. Both are withdrawn and hesitant to form emotional connections.
Despite this, Day is a nice guy, somewhat reluctantly taking care of his older autistic cousin, Ozone. Reluctant only because he blames himself for Ozone’s mom’s death, and so does Ozone. He and Ozone are sure Ozone will be next.
Night is a jerk. A sweet classmate is in love with him, and he treats her terribly, because he loves her and doesn’t want her to die like his last girlfriend. Like many drama characters, he can’t let her down nicely and instead needs to throw the cake she brings him on the ground.
Because of his autism, maybe, Ozone hears the stars talk to each other. (I love it.) They say that Day and Night must meet. And they do, on their 20th Birthday, their 5th birthday to fall on a February 29th.
Another tragedy occurs. Except this time, no one dies.
And I resent GMM giving a non-BL an interesting plot
Because many of their BLs do not have interesting plots. But this is unfair, since they also have Not Me, The Eclipse, The Heart Killers, for example.
They’ve also given this show a nice cinematic visual style. The actors aren’t being blasted with light. Some (slightly, because this is still TV) gory deaths are well shot to be tense and horrible. There’s a nice use of sound, like a persistent ticking sound designed to cause anxiety in the viewer.
(The Heart Killers would have benefited from this type of lighting, camera work, and editing.)
But it also has the familiar, jarring tonal shifts. The moments of gore, fear, and tension will suddenly shift into light-hearted comedy. It’s like they can’t let the horror sit in its horribleness, and need to be sure the audience doesn’t feel bad. I don’t watch thrillers or horror because I want a laugh, and I wonder who they think their audience is.
But I like the mystery they’re developing here
Day is interested in what his cousin hears from the stars and why, this year, no one has died. Night is a jerk who doesn’t want to do anything. But Day and Night’s nice girlfriend will force Night into action.
Because maybe they aren’t free and clear yet. Dangerous things are still happening. And they have another February 29th birthday in 4 years. There’s also another person with a leap year birthday who may be connected to them. And there are some shadowy figures around.
Is the universe out to get them, or some other kind of conspiracy? What else are the stars going to say to O-Zone?
I’m curious enough to keep watching.
I also watched a funny little, off-beat Sci-Fi BL:
Last Meal Universe – อาหารมื้อสุดท้ายก่อนโลกกลายเป็นทางด่วนอวกาศ – 2025
Recently aired Thai sci-fi BL with 8 episodes.
An alien comes to Earth to blow it up and make room for an expressway, only to fall in love with the food cooked by one particular human.
Much as the GL leads are attracted to space, actual sci-fi is rare in the East Asian drama universe. As for BL, the only other one I remember watching that might fit into the genre is Anti-Reset. And that’s androids, not aliens.
Not that this is anything like hard science fiction. You won’t see a single spaceship, just a man with an umbrella. But they have a Star Wars-style crawl of the standard opening drama text, which I think is cute.
I like sci-fi. I like alien-human love stories. I like the absurd but relatable idea that food can save the world.
So I really liked this show. But it’s not for everyone, not even for most.
The only spice in this show is in the food
Some beautiful-looking chilis are being bashed, cut, and added to dishes. They look ready to burn someone’s digestive tract.
But the show is very family-friendly. The murder of an entire planet aside, the problems involve hurt feelings, missing cats, and mom-appropriate haircuts. It’s the kind of world where sleeping in a park is to be avoided because it’s uncomfortable.
Our alien is confused by everything around him, perpetually making funny noises and whimpers as he confronts endless confusing Earth situations. At first, ready to do his duty and blow up an entire planet, it gradually occurs to him that the murder of billions might be wrong.
His love interest is a really nice guy who is really good at cooking. Nice guy has taken over his beloved, departed grandmother’s restaurant and can apparently afford kindness to strange men who don’t have money. Or know what money is. His backstory is minimal, but it’s hinted that he has a thing for strange guys.
There’s a gaggle of quirky characters, from cat aliens to a coffee maker whose coffee may be terrible. There’s also a grandpa who gets exactly the kind of storyline that grandpas get.
Towards the end, it leaned too much into heart-warming feelings, and one of the side plots got too much time. But it wasn’t so much that it lost me.
Shows like this are rare because the audience is small
I was one of the few who enjoyed the weirdness that was 1000 Years Old (until it became just another vampire story). There’s a very Japanese BL feel to how it revolves around food, which I love too. And the simple story made it a nice, easy watch.
So if the idea of Marvin the Martian finding the love of a good man, some good food, and chilling out appeals to you, give it a shot.
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