Celebrate Love in All Forms!

You gotta remember, Magdalene is literally all Tanrak knows since his parents died. It's his home. Father Arnon is basically his dad. It's his whole social circle and life plan, it's his AFTERLIFE PLAN. It's everything he was raised with in terms of the things he believes, fears and that matter to him. He has nobody, nowhere and nothing else, in this life or the next, without it. That is a powerful tie. And this life that is all he knows, this Church, it's telling him that he cannot have the person he loves, and keep all those things. He knew that, he did, it's why he did everything he did this episode. It's why he lied, why he hid, why he tried to kill it, burned every shred of it. And then wracked with fear, sadness and guilt, he turns to Father Arnon, who is both essentially his father, and also the literal representative of God, and says essentially 'if I love this boy, will you still love me?'. And Father Arnon says 'only if you agree to let him go.'

'Love the sinner, hate the sin' is one of the bedrocks of the Catholic Church I grew up in. Father Arnon's actions and counsel are exactly what I expected from a priest. To him, he is doing Tanrak a kindness. This is an act of love for him. You did wrong, but God will forgive you if you stop, repent, and don't do it again. But I do not need to explain to anybody reading this the damage this response would do, especially to a boy like Tanrak. This is why people leave the Church, leave faith altogether: it denies love in favour of obedience.

I'm inclined to have some sympathy for Kongdech's feelings here. Barth and Tanrak are carrying on essentially in front of his salad and he has to pretend to be deaf, dumb and blind. His best friend does not trust him. But there's so much in that. Tanrak expects judgement from him, he expects pressure to stop the thing he's doing. Because he knows Kongdech, his devout friend will consider it wrong. Because he can't tell Kongdech, his childhood friend, that he doesn't want to go to seminary with him anymore. And so while Kongdech tries to open space for Tanrak to confide in him, over and over, to have that conversation, for understandable reasons, Tanrak won't tell him. And honestly, it makes everything worse. This is the trap of the closet: the potential relief of not keeping the secret anymore has to be balanced against the potential dangers of others knowing. Yes Kongdech doesn't tell anyone but that doesn't mean he approves or supports, and what's to say he won't tell anyone just because he hasn't yet. So yes, I do feel for Kongdech, mourning this friendship that seems to have reached the end of the line unless something major changes. But while he may not be an enemy, I'm pretty sure he's not an ally either.

Meanwhile, Barth, who already feels alone, and abandoned, feels the Church taking Tanrak away from him too. All episode he is holding his breath, feeling relief when Tanrak won't commit to continuing on to seminary with Kongdech, pondering Master Phak's surprising omission of Tanrak from the list of boys he expects to continue, seeking validation that Tanrak WILL choose him when the time comes. And then they nearly get caught by Father Arnon (does get caught we discover, but Barth doesn't know that), and Tanrak freaks out and starts to spiral down. And all of a sudden, he's alone again. Tanrak won't speak to him, he won't sit with him, he won't LOOK at him. His fight with Tanrak is basically a plea: please don't leave me alone again. And his phone call home damn near broke me. Barth may have cut emotional ties with the Church, but the image of Mary still sent him to seek comfort in his mother's voice, in his memories of their good times together before it all went to shit.

Boyfriend On Duty™

A magical comeback to Taiwan-BL.

It’s good to have Ray Jiang and his bittersweet tales again, this one even more special if we take in consideration the journey it took to get made, and this retelling of the classic ‘be careful with what you wish for’ that comes with everything we can expect from the Taiwanese filmmaker. Good and bad.

This novel based show comes with Jiang on top of his game, the skill evolution from the We Best Love days is noticeable and even more impressive considering he’s backed by a new crew with very little carry-over from Unknown. What was already strong in his previous outing is even more striking here, namely the cinematography and set design – all the involved add layers of storytelling that very few shows and films are graced with, the environments feel lived in, the setting a reality of it’s own by how vivid from the start.

Unfortunately, some of Jiang’s vices still remain, with the worst afflicting the script.

It may be a case of too many hands-on deck with four writers penning the story and two years stuck in development with the director also working in different projects in the interim, and one would think this would at least guarantee a bullet-proofed script, alas it’s the one element in this show that feels undercooked, add that there is a lack of control with the tone of the show, ranging from bonafide melodrama to a deep character study with little tact from direction. If in one hand Jiang loses his grip at the narrative with the other he excels at extracting the very best of his talented cast, who try their best to elevate and compensate for the script shortcomings, the biggest sin here is the lack of connective tissue between the plots and the characters that occupy different narrative cores, the main couple feels divorced even from their younger counterparts, the lovebirds played by Yan Syu Chen and Max Kuo feel like they could be different characters and integrated to the present timeline without much ado.

The young versions of Xiang Yong and Hao Wei are probably the biggest victims here. The few moments we spend with them have that nostalgic vibe that evokes the sensation of actually looking into a memory, but their moments are so brief and their relationship feels so superficial that actually leave the impression that their present selves had nothing going on if such minimal relationship did one heck of a number on their psych.

This problem bleeds everywhere; despite a solid foundation Xiang Yong and Wan Zhe’s friendship fades away during the midpoint of the show, and it’s beyond just a narrative decision; when Wan Zhe forgets about his best friend as if they’d never met he himself changes, and the opportunity for some exploration and reckoning for the character are right there and yet the show misses it. The show opts to focus Xiang Yong’s journey more closely related to Hao Wei, sacrificing more interesting subplots relating to his family: both Wan Zhe and old He (played by an endearingly grumpy Lee Lee Zen) offer more substance to Xiang Yong, with the father and son conflicting relationship being the strongest in the show – the scene in at the fish market is heartbreaking in silent manner, with Jed showcasing everything he got under his sleeve.

The secondary couple almost warrants a show of their own. Ray Jiang is not the only one with noticeable growth: JN Yu/Yu Ji-en from Be Loved in House: I Do is on a whole other level since the last time we saw him in the Taiwan BL-matic Universe, his acting is much more organic and fluid with his moments with Jed being total highlights — they really feel like best friends and even in the adversarial moments the heat seems legit between them. Kota Kagami is also a strength of the show, his Hama-chan always devouring his beloved Wan Zhen with his eyes regardless of magical wish. If there was one correction to be had with them is the disparity in dramatics between them and the main couple. Wan Zhe and Hamaguchi's 'magical' conflict never feels fully explored in comparison, which is a shame considering that there a whole lot of meat left in that particular bone.

Technically, one flaw is the overuse of color-filters, they often mess with the shadows here, giving this cyan tint that can become distracting at times, specially in moments with harsher sunlight – the flashback scenes suffer the most with this, probably in an attempt to set them apart but the result downgrades these moments, that while still visually appealing could have reached more impressive highs with a better white balance and photometry.

One interesting tidbit about this show is “hidden” in the sound track: two of it’s tracks are sung by BL stars, ending credits ‘Only This’ by Waji Hung (from VBL inaugural title Stay By My Side) and the love theme ‘Unsent’ by Chris Chiu (from Unknown) – it’s somewhat curious to see Chris here, there was a big fallout after his stint in the BL show, and his castmates threw their gauntlet for his co-star Kurt Huang, while Jiang apparently remains in good terms with the singer.

Wishing Upon the Shooting Stars reminds us what set Taiwanese BLs apart from the rest, both in it’s strengths and weaknesses. A more streamlined and polished script would’ve done it some good, but stellar acting and sublime craft from the crew alleviate some of the stumbling.