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gillianthecat · 2 years

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that detail you mentioned is so cute, siwon closing his eyes to give daun a safe space, i love that interpretation!

i also find it super cute when they were holding hands in class, dawoon took siwon's hand to comfort him and they could have easily ended the scene there but siwon turned his hand to hold dawoon's hand back and 🥺🥺

also when siwon saw his dad and didn't know how to act so he decided to run! (maybe it's a poor reaction but i've been there) he did not run alone but took daun's hand and daun ran with him

something about that moment feels so metaphorical for their relationship

and daun asked no questions "i guess you figured it out. the person we bumped into earlier was my dad. he has his reasons. it's nothing important" (oh but it is!)

it was his birthday!!! every time i remember it was his birthday and he got to spend it with siwon and it turned out being a really special day for him. i need to sit down

and that little scene where dawoon goes to pick siwon up on his first day of filming with a cup of coffee ready for him... it might be only 30 seconds long but oh it's so sweet, i find their faces in that scene absolutely endearing

this turned out to be just a list of things i love about blueming lol i could talk about the little details in this show for hours sorry to hijack your inbox

i think i read that you liked tms2? i loved it! i think i even enjoyed it more than the first season, something about the already established relationship satisfied me deeply, we need more of it in the bl world! yeah i find it super cute watching boys fall in love but i want more of seeing them navigate that love! what did you enjoy the most about it? hope everything's going well xxx

Yes!! 🍻

You're welcome to come rave about Blueming in my inbox any day, Blueming Anon. I love everything you've said about it.

I loved To My Star 2. I can see why people didn't, it's not really a BL, and of course it's hard to see a beloved couple torn apart. But for me it really worked. I think part of that was because in the first To My Star, Seo-joon and Ji-woo never figured their shit out. So in the sequel it didn't feel like they were tearing a happy couple apart artificially just for the drama, but a natural extension of who they were and and all the things they still needed to figure out. So a similar sequel to Blueming, for example, wouldn't work because Da-woon and Si-won have a much more functional relationship by the end. A lot of the story of Blueming is them figuring out how to communicate and take care of each other, which Ji-woo and Seo-joon never do in the first To My Star. That story is primarily about them getting together, and ends when they do.

My favorite part of TMS2? It's so hard to pick! One thing I really liked about both of them was how much Seo-joon felt like a movie star to me - in the sense that it really felt like he had been warped in the way that a fundamentally good person would be warped by all the attention and lack of privacy that come with it. I don't know any movie stars myself, so I don't know if that's accurate, but it felt that way to me while watching.

A moment that comes to mind now, perhaps because I've been thinking about kisses in BL that feel very specific to the characters and their story (hi The Eclipse👋), is the scene where they're looking for the little girl. It's so revealing of both characters and their relationship at that time--Seo-joon's panic, Ji-woo's almost emotionless affect, which we see in a whole new light when he tells Seo-joon that he's only keeping it together because Seo-joon is falling apart. Their relief, falling to the ground in the middle of the road, something about that just felt so human. And then Ji-woo revealing more about himself and all his complicated feelings about Seo-joon in that one line - "How could you be so honest about everything? How can I ignore you now?" - than he has yet in either of the series. And of course the desperation and relief of their kiss and how much it felt like exes falling back into old habits in a moment of extreme emotions. And it felt well placed in the timeline of the series overall - not a kiss that would fix things, but maybe one that would shake things up enough so they could eventually be repaired.

I also loved everything about Ji-woo's ex-girlfriend Jung Sung-yoon - the character herself, how cleverly they subverted all the audience expectations of the evil interfering ex, how she and Ji-woo processed their relationship and how necessary that was for Ji-woo and Seo-joon to rebuild theirs.

Anyways, in sum, I cannot pick a favorite thing and I could write about a dozen more aspects of the series that I adored, but I will stop with those three. Thanks for giving me an excuse to think about it!

#blueming #dawoon x siwon #hwang da seul #to my star 2 #to my star #thank you iqiyi for making it easy to take screenshots #at times like these i wish I knew how to make gifs #to my stars #asks answered #anon asks

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justanothermortalsworld · 2 years

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Watched Semantic Error and Blueming in a week and WTF!!🥲🥲🥲 I'm a destroyed.

Like first Semantic error, absolutely ��. I don't have a lot of words but man they were SO CUTE!!! I have a lot of fav scenes but my absolute favourite is when he kisses jae young and runs off lmao😂😂😂

And then blueming, it was so much different from semantic error but not in terms of quality. I did think 1 more ep would've been better, nevertheless it was SO GOOD. They captured all the emotions, every moment so beautifully:the childhood, betrayal, pain, his relationship with his parents-I loved it. And the apology scene was 💙💙💙. And the whole silhouette scene!!!🤌🤌🤌

#jae young x sang woo #blueming #semantic error #korean #dawoon x siwon #bl drama

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chaotic-beautiful · 2 years

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Blueming Season 1 HD Screencaps

Mediafire Link - ZIP

#블루밍 #blueming #kang eun bin #jo hyuk joon #dawoon x siwon #k bl #kdrama #screencaps

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josslukehug · 2 years

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I'm so excited for season 2😍

#blueming #kdrama #korean actor #jo hyuk joon #kang eun bin #dawoon x siwon #cinematography

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carmillalia · 2 years

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BLUEMİNG

#blueming #dawoon x siwon

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pancoke1 · 2 years

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every 2 weeks or so there comes a time where i just. need to sit at my desk and do absolutely nothing but binge some romantic shit to compensate for the lack of romance in my life

so i sped run blueming last night and i cannot deal with the fact that Si-Won knew he liked him

but at the same time Da Woon did his worst to hide it so like boy what did you expect

#blueming #dawoon x siwon #next up i think i'm gonna watch love mechanics

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zerberosa · 2 years

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made this for my laptop bg today :><3

#og post #moodboard #spider gwen #soljiwan #rosa díaz #rue bennett #cal bowman #lee dong wook #dawoon x siwon #milk pansa

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talkingbl · 1 year

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The Good and Bad of Blueming

SPOILER WARNING. TW: eating disorders

The Good

The capturing of the Cha family dynamic. I want to start off by saying that the way Siwon's parents treated both him and his sister was shitty by any measure. That said, Blueming showcased an artfully crafted exploration of the interfamilial toxicity. Particularly revealing was the film-within-a-film. Those scenes where Siwon shot and exhibited his scenario were really the penultimate expression of Siwon's feeling's toward his mother. 2 things really got me: Siwon's stylistic choices with the film, and his mother's subsequent reaction to the film. Those two plot points demonstrated the power of subtlety in media. Siwon's feelings about his mother were deep and complicated yet felt simple to him. Siwon didn't hate his mother, he resented her. He didn't fear her, he wanted to be perfect for her. One scene in particular that stood out was the scene where his younger version is smiling as his mother forced him to drink the protein shake. It seems like, because of the divorce, he felt so sorry for her that he didn't mind when she began projecting all her insecurities onto him. All that mattered to Siwon, it seems, was that his mother was happy, even at his expense. And that feeling of wanting to see someone you love happy at all costs is extremely relatable.

Siwon's backstory. First off, we actually get a backstory that's not merely told to us but shown to us, like the adults we are. It's raw and compelling and shows us the uglier sides of humanity. But more than that, it gives us a look into Korean society that we never see--showcasing the blemishes on the veneer of perfection we see portrayed in Korean media. Another thing I loved about his backstory outside of the metacommentary it provided on individual choices was the fact that it had long-lasting and direct effects on Siwon's life. Siwon struggled with self esteem and feeling loved due to his abandonment issues and his mother's treatment of him post-divorce. This manifested itself whenever he'd jump to the worst possible interpretation of Daun's actions rather than assuming that Daun was approaching in good faith. That's a very real characteristic of people who struggle with low self-esteem. It also manifested itself as hyper-competitiveness with those he perceived as 'too good' for him or 'better' than him. Again, just a great way to communicate his lack of self-worth and fear of abandonment.

Daun as a concept. The best thing about Daun is how open he is with his feelings for Siwon. There's never a moment in the story where I'm left feeling confused about what he is thinking, which, IMO, is key to building a strong lead character. Plus, he's quite proactive and each of his actions have direct and measurable consequences that move the story forward. He is the living embodiment of this gif:

The mise en scene of Episode 9's intimate scene. Everything from the framing (the silhouettes), to the color grading (washed out moody blues), to the setting (beach house), to the tone (sleepy and playful) combined to create one of the most freeing scenes I've seen in a BL, ever. It wasn't just pretty to look at either--it took me to a completely different place outside of the show. It felt like that time around sunset when everything moves a beat slower, the wind is a perfect breeze, and soft background noise hums through the air. Truly gave the same vibes as 'the night feeling' (google it).

Daun's Episode 4 covered kiss. This was the moment I fell for Daun. I came into this show so skeptical and ready to be bored, but that moment changed me completely. And it wasn't the kiss itself that did it. It was the look on Daun's face as he did it, the words he'd muttered to himself up until that point, and the dumbfoundedness of Siwon. There was a childlike crush that had been growing on Daun's end and it just rose to a head. Such a beautiful moment, indeed.

The Bad

Siwon is a weak lead. Yes, I said it. He is so incredibly reactive that it actually hinders the plot. Any good writer knows that key to writing a good character is to make them do stuff rather than merely having stuff done to them. Even if the character is meant to be indecisive, they should do things that, you know, cause the the plot to happen. But here, Siwon barely moves the story forward. In fact, it's always someone else doing it for him. Whether it was his sister submitting his scenario or Daun progressing their relationship, siwon hardly did anything to give him a personality outside of his body image issues and general low self esteem. In other words, all his character development is in the past and doesn't particularly lend itself to moving the present story along..

What happened to Daun's villain arc? The moment Daun broke ole boy's phone, I thought we were in for a Ok Taecyeon Vincenzo-esque heel turn from Daun. Like the bad guy who'd do anything for his one true love. Sadly, I was wrong and we never explored that side of Daun again.

We still don't clearly know why Daun fell for Siwon in the beginning. Seemed a little too much like happenstance.

What exactly happened in the last 1-2 episodes? Girl, when I tell you I had no clue who was avoiding whom and for why in those last two episodes, I mean it. When I realized it was Daun who was avoiding Siwon, I was legitimately confused. Like, wtf? What did Siwon do to deserve this? Why was Daun doing this to himself? I honestly even feel like they should've cut the entire 11th hour betrayal plot out of there because we all saw that coming a mile away. It would've been more refreshing if Daun never went behind Siwon's back in the first place and they had some other conflict instead. But what do I know? I write blog posts not teleplays.

#korean bl kbl boys love #blueming #dawoon x siwon daun x siwon #jo hyukjoon kang eunbin #strong girl bong soon

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chicken-fifi · 2 years

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Announcement!

I will be holding a holiday event this December once again! Rather than creating a google form (seeing as that didn't work very well for my previous event), I will be accepting the first 31 requests that come through for this event. Since it's going to be a holiday event, please send in holiday prompts with your artist of choice (anyone currently in any of my masterlists who I write for. please note that if the artist you request is strictly platonic or sibling, I will only write in that context for them). I am open to smut for this event as well (please check out my guidelines regarding smut. if they aren't followed, or disregard my guideline, I won't be writing that request). I will only accept one request for each artist (no one artist will be written twice) for this event. below the cut I will paste a list of all of the artists I write for, when their name is crossed off, they are off limits in terms of requesting for this event. Please make sure you give the name of the group since there are some members with the same names on this list! I will try to have any requests that don't make to this event written as my usual posts in subsequent months. I hope you guys are excited!

2pm: Jun.K Nichkhun Taecyeon Wooyoung Junho Chansung (platonic or siblings only)

BigBang: T.O.P Taeyang (platonic or sibling) G-Dragon Daesung

BTOB: Eunkwang Minhyuk (BTOB) Changsub Hyunsik Peniel Ilhoon Sungjae

BTS: Jin Suga J-Hope RMJimin V Jungkook

Day6: Sungjin YoungK Wonpil Dowoon

EXO: Xiumin Suho Lay Baekhyun Chen (platonic or siblings) Chanyeol D.O Kai Sehun

GOT7: Mark Jay B Jackson Jinyoung Youngjae BamBam Yugyeom

Highlight: Doojoon Yoseob Gikwang Dongwoon

Monsta X: Shownu Kihyun Minhyuk Hyungwon Joohoney I.M

NCT: Taeil Johnny Taeyong Yuta Kun Doyoung Ten Jaehyun WinWin Jungwoo Mark Xiaojun Hendery Renjun Jeno Haechan Jaemin Yangyang Shotoro Sungchan Chenle Jisung

SF9: Inseong Youngbin Jaeyoon Dawoon Zuho Yoo Taeyang Rowoon Hwiyoung Chani

Shinee: Onew Key Minho Taemin

Stray Kids: Bang Chan Lee Know Changbin Hyunjin HanFelix Seungmin I.N

Super Junior: Leeteuk Heechul Yesung ShindongEunhyuk Siwon Donghae Ryeowook Kyuhyun Zhoumi Henry Lau

Super M: Baekhyun Taemin Kai Taeyong Ten Lucas Mark

TVXQ: Yunho Changmin (platonic or siblings)

Winner: Jinu Hoony Mino Yoon

Soloist: Christian Yu Eric Nam Gray Huang Zitao Hwang Chiyeol Jay Park Kim Jongkook Luhan Monster Woo Simon Dominic Wonho

Actors: Chen Xuedong Gong Yoo Ji ChangwookKim Bum Kim Seonho Lee Dongwook Lee Jongsuk Lee Joongi Lee Minho Lee Seunggi Park Bogum Park Hyungsik Park Seojoon Song Joongki Wi Hajoon Woo Dohwan Xiao Zhan

#'tis the season 2022 #'tis the season 2022 event #'tis the season 2022 masterlist #'tis the season 2022 drabbles

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smittenskitten · 2 years

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Boyfriend Requirements: Give me more head pats.

#asianlgbtqdrama #lgbtqia+#kdramaedit #blueming #kdramanetwork #dailyasiandramas #kang eun bin #jo hyuk joon #love language set #dawoon x siwon #bluemingedit #prangon gifs

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gillianthecat · 2 years

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please do write your thoughts on blueming if you want/have the time, i would love to read them 🙏🏻

Hi Anon! Thank you so much for asking, I'm excited that you want to hear my thoughts on Blueming! I loved this show and all its characters so much.

Sorry this took a while, I wrote it up and was planning to organize it more, but I've decided just to post it as is. It got pretty long, so it's below the cut.

My initial reaction to Blueming was of being viscerally transported back to my 18 year old self. That eventually faded as I got immersed in the characters and their world, but the sense of realness and weight to worldbuilding remained. I’ve never been a film student in S. Korea (or anywhere), but it felt completely plausible that this is what it was like.

At the same time, there was a kind of a fairy tale, magical feel to the show. Which, interestingly, added to the feeling of realness rather than taking away from it. Perhaps it’s just the effect of looking back through the mists of time, but my first year of college did have a slightly unreal, anything-is-possible, the-whole-world-is-new kind of feeling, which I thought that Blueming captured. Part of it was in the cinematography, and I think part of it was the pacing, where transition scenes were skipped and things left unsaid.

Pacing

I’m not sure how I feel about the show’s pacing overall. As I said above, it did contribute to that fairy-tale, nostalgic-for-the present feel, but it sometimes just felt like things were missing. This was only my second short form S. Korean BL, so maybe it's just something I have to get used to. But the rhythm of Semantic Error’s eight slightly longer (18 to 27 min) episodes felt more natural than Blueming’s eleven shorter (11 to 16 min) episodes. My feeling that the pacing was slightly weird might just be because I’ve had no ability to focus recently and kept pausing and taking breaks, but I’ve been doing that for most shows so I don’t think that’s the problem.

It really felt like Blueming wanted to be either a single cohesive film or a longer series. It was the length of a longish film: two and a half hours. And it was about film making, so that seems like a natural fit. It also felt like it had a film-like reticence, a not needing to have everything said out loud or explicitly depicted. It kept a lot of things as inferences or implied.

I realize that it was made from a webtoon, so the episodic divisions and titles come from that, but they didn’t really fit this version. The 12 minute chunks felt arbitrary rather than natural to the rhythm of the story. Or rather, it felt like they manipulated the story to fit into those 12 minute chunks when maybe the story wanted to be told another way.

It also felt like the story could have been expanded, although I also suspect that would have ruined some of its specialness. There were a lot of fascinating supporting characters that felt like real people, and we only got glimpses of their stories. Part of me wants to have more of their stories, and part of me thinks just glimpses were perfect. It made the world feel fully realized, without distracting from the main story of our main couple. The mothers, for example: both seemed like fascinating people on their own, but I also think we got as much of them as we needed for them to feel like real people.

The bigger question is, are we missing important parts of Cha Si-won and Hyeong Da-woon’s story? It sort of felt like that and sort of not. I liked the elliptical feel, where you have to read between the lines to figure out the progression of their relationships in places. There were a few points that were actively confusing, about how much time had passed, or how they got from point a to point b. But mostly it worked.

Hyeong Da-woon’s fantasy!

Or maybe it was a dream, but it felt like a fantasy to me. Actually, I wasn’t sure it was a fantasy while watching. I thought so at first, but then when he went out into the kitchen, it seemed like his hopes for his parents, even in his fantasy, were so (heartbreakingly) low. They didn’t acknowledge him even in his wildest dreams of happiness. So by the time he met Cha Si-won I had decided it was reality and didn’t realize it was a fantasy until we saw Cha Si-won in bed the next morning. And it felt like a switch, but I guess by that point I identified enough with Hyeong Da-woon to go along with it. I too wanted him to get the love story of his dreams.

Anyways, about the content of the fantasy. It low-key broke my heart. He wants his parents just to be home with him sometimes. And he wanted Cha Si-won to choose him. Of course the easy forgiveness without a proper apology or a conversation is a fantasy, and he knew that wasn’t a reasonable thing for him to want. But the other parts. In his fantasy, Cha Si-won was the seme. Cha Si-won was the one stepping forward, to come to his house, to pull him into the hug, to take his hand and pull him along, to initiate the kiss. And that low-key broke my heart. I do think he truly loves Cha Si-won as he is, flailing insecure mess and all. But Hyeong Da-woon! He just wanted someone to choose him! Someone to go out of their way to bring him into their life. The whole show, he was the one reaching out to the people he loved. He was shown calling his parents. He was the one pursuing Cha Si-won. Yes, he was popular and acquaintances approached him, but that’s not the same as being chosen by someone who loves you for who you are. And again, I don’t think he’s unhappy with Cha Si-won as he is, its just… I don’t know, I love that that tension is there and is never resolved even with the happy ending.

The Ending

I do love their ending though - the apology and that whole conversation. And Jo Hyuk Joon’s acting was subtly wonderful - the way he braced himself for the conversation, the way his face fell when Cha Si-won walked away, his utter relief and hope when Cha Si-won came back. And I loved that the issues between them weren’t simplified, it was about pulling strings, but it was more about how Hyeong Da-woon reacted to the conflict. And I loved that Cha Si-won was mature enough, had grown up enough to see that that was the problem. Hyeong Da-woon may have been the one pursuing him, but he was strong enough and present enough to want to shape their relationship as well.

Both the actors were amazing. Well, everyone was, but the two leads in particular, and I was surprised to see they were both new to acting (if MyDramalist’s lists are complete). They perfectly embodied their characters, neither over-acted or under-acted. I personally like it when the actors are older, as an older person myself. And they both convincingly passed as university students, even the 31 year old Jo Hyuk Joon. There was alway that one guy who just looked more grown up than anyone else, you know.

Themes I Noticed & Other Unorganized Observations:

~ Appearance and lookism, obviously. Although it felt like this faded away after the first 2 or 3 episodes. I initially thought they were going to be acting students because of this lookism thing. But it wasn’t so much about beauty per se as about how people perceive you vs. how you feel inside/who you really are.

Fatphobia, related to the above but not the same. And honestly not really addressed.

~ Parents - both sets of parents were imperfect - overly involved and under involved. I like that Cha Si-won’s relationship with his mother was never really resolved, he says ‘she never did apologize’ - I think that would have felt too pat and fake. There would have needed to be a lot of onscreen work shown to make that feel real, and the story wasn’t about that relationship. But at the same time, I could really feel the genuine love between them, and how the mother thought she was doing the best for her son, within her somewhat self centered worldview.

~ The whole thing with Hyeong Da-woon pulling strings. On my second rewatch, I noticed the scene where he’s at the Cha family dinner and the mother is complaining about the costs of their school project. My impression was that’s the reason he did it, or at least one of the big motivators. He saw a problem that he could help solve. And he of course didn’t know that Cha Si-won hadn’t submitted his scenario himself, so he thought that he wanted to win the prize. (I think the conflict would have been somewhat different if Si-won had been trying for the prize himself.)

Maybe it’s because I have a bit of a crush on him myself, or maybe over-identify with him, but I’m not as angry at him about the string-pulling as some people I’ve seen. He was just trying to help out the guy he liked! He’s only 20, he hadn’t thought it through. And he grew up in the film industry world, where connections matter, it probably felt like a normal thing to him - that’s just how business is done in that world. And honestly, we don’t even know exactly what he asked his parents - was it, “pick this guy, please” or, “take a look at this guy's script, he’s a friend of mine.” If it was the latter, then the parents are more to blame. (they’re to blame either way, but Da-woon has less blame.) I know I sound like a Da-woon apologist. Probably because I am a Da-woon apologist.

Don’t get me wrong, I think Si-won was right to get angry at him. He fucked up. It helped Si-won in many ways, but it was also legitimately hurtful. Da-woon wasn’t thinking about the impact on Si-won. (To be fair, he didn’t know him all that well at that point when he made the request. And another person could have been more straightforwardly grateful for the boost. Although I don’t think that’s a person who Da-woon would have fallen in love with.

~ Si-won’s beach scene speech about pain. I was like, oh, Da-woon’s gotta be falling for him hard right now. He looks like he wants to kiss the fuck out of him. So I was really glad that happened.

~The kisses were great! They felt real, and what’s more is they felt absolutely in character, which I don't always feel even from objectively good kisses. I think maybe it helps that the actors are older? I don’t know, I was just trying to think of other in character kisses - Old Fashion Cupcake. Billy and Seng in both shows I think did pretty good. Vee and Mark? Semantic Error? Yes to both. So maybe it’s not as rare as i think. But I guess it also felt like the way they wrote the kissing - the whole bit with Si-won kissing too hard and Da-woon’s laughter and telling him to relax - it felt like there was character development alongside the kissing, which was nice.

~First watch, I thought Ba-woo (the guy with glasses) had a crush on Yun-jeong (the short haired girl), but the second time I realized it didn’t show that at all. Which was nice, because then I could freely root for Cha Si-yeong (the sister) without feeling sad about breaking Ba-woo’s heart

~ I loved the sister’s courtship of Yun-jeong! I loved Yun-jeong in general. The scene with the bad guy was wonderfully real and nuanced.

~ The bad guy was well drawn. He felt real. A plausible film student asshole.

Out of the non-bad guy characters, the sister is the one who fucked up the most, submitting the script without permission. I would have been furious with her if it was me. And the show didn’t really get into this - it showed Si-won getting mad at her, but didn’t follow up much. And oddly enough it worked for me. I guess because she’s young, and the family is already shown to be overly enmeshed in each other’s lives. And the story wasn’t about that relationship, so i didn’t mind that that thread was dropped. And I was still able to like her and cheer on her courtship of Yun-jeong. Perhaps another factor is that her doing that was a driver of the plot, so as an audience member I can’t be too mad.

~ More to say on Da-woon’s brand of perfectionism? I actually liked that we didn’t get to see him crack til the end. And the very last scene was of him starting to tell his story back at their hotel. The balance of the show felt right that way. And that even when Si-won gave him permission to speak, validated that his struggles mattered, he didn’t start talking right away. That felt real - too distracted by just wanting this person who was willing to see you for who you were. He didn’t have anything to complain about in that moment, his life was great!

~ The more I write, the more I can see why Da-woon fell for Si-won. It intuitively made sense while I was watching the film, and the actors built great chemistry that made it feel real. But in analyzing this, I can see how Da-woon was drawn to somebody like that. I mean, at first I think it was just attraction, a crush based on superficial things. But Si-won is willing to be so vulnerable with Da-woon, right from the beginning. It’s not intentional, I don’t think, I think it’s just that Si-won has this stormy mix of feelings inside him - attraction and jealousy and probably other things - and all his flimsily constructed facades of “coolness” just fall apart around Da-woon. But Da-woon is drawn to that vulnerability in a cute guy. Notice how in that drunken conversation he said, 'I thought we were alike.' He sees this other guy being put up on a pedestal and pressured to be perfect, but the difference is the other guy won’t stay up there. And while Si-won feels like he’s a failure for falling off it, I think Da-woon, being already attracted to this guy, is drawn to, and envious, and protective of that vulnerability.

~ And despite all his mixed up feelings, Si-won feels safe with Da-woon. He trusts him to fall apart on, he trusts him enough to be “bratty” and rude. Which normally isn’t how I would recommend trying to court someone, but it makes sense for these two men, so invested in presenting an image of perfection to the world, that letting down that image, letting your vulnerabilities be seen (Si-won), or not being scared off by those vulnerabilities (Da-woon) is an immensely appealing form of intimacy. Si-won had been flawed and vulnerable with people before, but it had scared them away (other kids) or they told him to change himself (his mom). Here was a person who seemed to like his insecurities! Who thought he was cute! Who didn’t run away when he said, “here I am, and I’m a mess.” How could he not start falling for Da-woon?

~ I’ve read a bunch of reviews where people said they had trouble liking Si-won until later in the series, but oddly enough I never had that problem. Maybe because I was so viscerally transported back to my own college years, that right off the bat I identified with him and his anxieties and insecurities, even though I’m not actually that much like him. So while I can see how he’s very annoying, I never got annoyed at him

~ To be honest, I think a lot of both their initial interest in each other was sexual attraction. Which they each responded to very differently. But that attraction pushed them to really look at each other and gave them the chance to see a person they liked and connected with and fall in love.

~ I think a reason why this series resonated with so many people (besides being well made) was that it’s about the idea that falling in love is about seeing someone and allowing yourself to be seen. The whole mortifying-ordeal-of-being-known quote.

What other shows are about this vulnerability? My Beautiful Man, but in a very different way. Blueming talks about this idea openly. I guess My Beautiful Man does too. I guess all love stories deal with this implicitly, but not necessary overtly. (I wrote a little about how various shows are about this idea of vulnerability but it didn't really fit here.)

And maybe why this didn’t quite feel like a BL to some? Too honest, not quite enough fantasy?

~ This is another one of those ‘bubble’ korean bl’s that absolutebl talks about, where they never directly acknowledge queerness or homophobia, so it’s hard to know how much of an impact that has on the characters. But it definitely feels like it could be part of the story (in a way it doesn’t as much in Semantic Error) given their concern with perfection and hiding and how they’re seen. The fact that so many of their conversations aren’t shown allows the audience to imagine they do talk about this. If not during the time period of the show, after it’s over and they’re finally having open conversations.~

~ Second season. I’m guessing it focuses on other characters? But a second season focusing on these two could work, along the lines of I Promised You the Moon. They both still have growing to do. Although they end in a much more mature point than Teh and Oh-aeow did in ITSAY. So it would be tricky to make something that balances A) a compelling plot/conflict, B) staying true to the characters and their journey thus far/doesn’t undo their growth just for the sake of creating drama, C) feels like a story worth telling, and D) ends with them in a better place. Even I Promised You the Moon didn’t quite manage, and that was a story I thought worth telling and that the characters needed.

Cinematography

Cinematography was so beautiful. I don’t know enough to analyze it really, but the light and the colors and different filters at different times and moods were great.

I like how they set up these beautiful symmetrical shots, which gave it that stylized slightly fairy-tale feeling, but then had random people walk through the frame, which kept it grounded and real. I’m thinking of many of the scenes in restaurants in particular.

That love scene in the hotel was so beautifully shot. I don’t know exactly what S. Korean censorship rules around how much sex can be shown, but I liked that the scene felt very intimate and clearly implied they were going to be having sex.

Thanks for asking, Anon! If you want to write back and share your thoughts I'd love to read them.

#blueming #dawoon x siwon #hyeong da woon #cha si won #blueming meta #blueming reaction #blueming spoilers #asks answered #gillianthecat reacts to bl #reaction by gillianthecat #wow that's a lot of words #anon asks

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