soul

"I lost this showdown from the very start."

Now you really can't be with anyone but me. No. I've long been like that. I can't live without you.

The dialogue is some of the best I've seen in a while. The conversations are so ambiguous and layered and I feel like I'm always holding my breath in between lines. The characterisation is perfection. I feel like I know what these guys are gonna do most of the time (even when I'm screaming DON'T DO IT at the top of my lungs), and even when they do surprise me, it makes perfect sense. Like Zen being the one who finally broke pattern. Zen going to Osaka was already him putting himself at a disadvantage. Like, how would he even justify it to himself and Ryo that he went all that way and showed up soaked in front of him, just because Ryo said he wanted to see him? Cause the thing is, Ryo had been telling his truth for a lot of the time, but either he would go back on it by saying it was part of the game, or he said it in a way that it was understood that way. So Zen being the one to stop the cycle was the perfect way to ensure that it did. And it meant not only admitting to himself that the game didn't matter anymore, but risking it all if Ryo didn't also follow him down that road.

And as much as I've enjoyed these two competing for the "biggest idiot" award, I think it's great that this breakthrough happened when it did. Too often when a setup like this gets dragged it becomes tiresome or annoying even when it started off as exhilarating and compelling. And like I said, the characterisation and the script are strong enough that wherever the story goes next I'm sure there will be plenty of idiocy left to be done and more screaming on this side of the screen.

My brain actually took a second to realise they'd cast younger actors and not used the actual main actors.

I particularly liked the juxtaposition of Japanese and Korean drama approaches, and of course both are prone to delve into the cruel and the heartbreaking, to tell stories of the worst of people’s lives and the vilest of humanity. This drama allows you to be happy for 0.2 seconds before wrenching those dregs away from you.

It’s impressive to watch Ok Taecyeon morph from the ruthless villain he played in Vincenzo to a beaten-down young man seeking a place to belong. I also appreciate the bold move for a recently married K-Pop idol to take on a queer role - I think he was perfectly suited to play Johan.

The story itself focuses on the moment. The characters never have time to consider life-altering decisions, and must consistently respond with their instinctual feelings. The many faces of friendship and love are tested by the harsh realities of everyday life.

Ryu and Johan meet because they are both running away. Each of them runs away again and again until they realize they have only fleeting time left to be together.

The queer nuances to this show are what truly got to me, alongside the imperceptible struggles the characters take on to forge new meaning in a thoughtless world. The first scene that brought me to tears was Johan quietly working on his Japanese studies. A man who previously lived his life without concern for himself took the first tiny step forward to embracing something he wanted.

Because sure, Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian were being shamelessly cuddly, but Jin Guangyao—the man who was revealing his supervillain masterplot bit by bit throughout this altercation—spent a portion of that time on his knees in front of Lan Xichen with a tearful, "it's not true baby let me explain," routine—during which you can physically see Lan Xichen yo-yo in real-time between fully buying into jiggy's excuses, then snapping himself out of it with a colorful spectrum of emotions that are definitely in contrast with the Lan family precepts.

What's worse, not only are Jin Guangyao and Lan Xichen essentially two of the biggest celebrities of the cultivation world, but most of the cultivators present actively work for Jin Guangyao. That is their boss ugly crying on the floor trying not to fumble the man they are actively holding as their prisoner.