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 5-6 of The Boy Next World. We get to see some unique ways of handling illness and nightmares. But it’s Boss/Noeul so it’s exactly what you think.
I also recapped episodes 9-10 of Love Game in Eastern Fantasy. Miao Miao wants to use Sheng’s demon staff but they aren’t Boss/Noeul so it’s far more innocent.
What did I watch this week? I finished up one of the oddest Shakespearean retro-gritty crime thriller fluffy BL I’ve ever seen. The only one I’ve ever seen:
The Heart Killers – เขาจ้างให้ผมจีบนักฆ่า เวอร์ชัน – 2024
Recently aired Thai Crime BL with 12 episodes.
A love-shy-sex-positive tattoo artist is forced into a relationship with his hitman-one-night-stand to get information for the cops.
I love that this show is supposedly loosely based on Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew/10 Things I Hate About You. If I squint and look at it sideways, I can see it. Sure. Someone gets someone else to woo an overprotective brother so they can date the other brother. I see it.
As I mentioned in my initial review, more obvious to me was the Tarantino influence. My main worry was the ending, which neither BL nor Tarantino tend to do very well.
Luckily the ending took after Shakespeare more than the other two, but this show is still a unique flavor that won’t work for everyone.
Why it worked for me
I like gritty-retro crime thrillers and I like seeing archetypal characters from that genre repurposed.
Kant is our ex-con with a heart of gold. His tattoos and past make him seem intimidating, but he only does bad things to protect the people he loves.
Bison is our baby-faced killer. He looks innocent and yearns for the love of a nice man and a picket fence. But he’s moody, has a taste for kink, and solves problems by killing them.
Fadel is our, uh, shrew. He seems tough and mean but that’s because underneath he’s so soft and tender that killing people is the only way to protect himself. It’s either kill people or cry.
Style is a flighty car mechanic who likes to wear crop tops and comes off as extremely unreliable. He’s ridiculous and stupid and also loyal, forgiving, and devoted.
Their love stories involve hit jobs, evil rich people, stripping, golfing, cops, a bowling alley dance contest, a house in the middle of nowhere with strange inhabitants, clothes pins, a burger joint, emotional support groups, men dressed as teddy bears, and so much more.
There is not a single love triangle, fiance, forbidding parent, coming-out scene, BL production of Cinderella, guitar playing, sudden unexpected job promotion to another city where video chat hasn’t been invented, misunderstanding, refusal to communicate, or falling kiss to be found.
The ending hit the Goldilocks zone of neither too dark nor too light. I liked how our guys handled their final love trial, showing more initiative and creativity than many drama characters.
With all that going for it, why won’t I recommend it to everyone?
The biggest problem is the fluffy BL production style weakens the dramatic plot. I like the light tone. I didn’t want a BL full of gore and violence. But the pivotal scenes have a real “meh” feeling.
Key among them is the reveal and takedown of the villain. Not only is it unsurprising who this person is, but there’s a perfunctory feeling to the emotions and actions. The characters learn the truth. They are upset. They come up with a plan. They do the plan. But they don’t build tension, the fight scenes look awful, and everything is resolved easily.
Pretty much any scene that is supposed to feel edgy and dangerous, doesn’t.
It’s not just the writing, it’s the angles, the lighting, and the editing. Here’s a show that would have benefitted from copying Not Me by skipping the skin filters. A little skin texture would have given the show much-needed grittiness.
I liked the weirder, less dramatic scenes. Like at that house in the middle of nowhere. Or the emotional support group.
A word on our Second Couple and Dunk’s Acting
The second couple’s romance gave me more feels than the first couple. Both relationships start based on lies, but I found it harder to track the true feelings of the first couple than the second. Then our first couple resolved everything a few episodes early and did nothing but glow with happiness. Meanwhile, our car mechanic was still struggling with his stubborn assassin.
This makes sense since the second couple has the Shakespearean “shrew” character, what doesn’t make sense is that they are the second couple.
The Internet rightly criticizes Dunk, who plays our car mechanic, for being the weakest link acting-wise. Joong, playing his assassin lover, is a much better actor. I didn’t mind because Dunk’s hapless acting matches his hapless character. Paired with Dunk’s intensity, I found it endearing. It won’t be for everyone.
I really liked our second couple and I liked our first couple enough.
Whether you like this or not will depend a lot on how much you like novelty
I like novelty a lot. Tarantino films are interesting. I love B movies that don’t make sense and have ridiculous, illogical scenes that cannot be found in more mainstream stuff. I like grumpy assassins getting endlessly wooed by car mechanics in crop tops. The show could be better, but I like what it accomplished.
The show is also fairly consistent from beginning to end. If you’re curious, try a few episodes and based on that you’ll be able to tell whether it’ll be a slog or an entertaining journey.
I enjoyed it’s weirdness enough to want to recap it, so I’ll have episode-by-episode analysis and petty comments here soon.
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