#dropthemeta

For the past weeks, I've seen many Russian people talking about how strongly they resonate with Ilya's character. "I relate so much, I felt this deep in my soul, how the hell did they represent us so well, he's one of us, I'm triggered". Even people who never watch BLs or not interested in hockey, they all talk about HR online. Even I, who loves watching BLs all over the world but prefer the ones that add social message/character exploration focused, would dismiss HR if it was only about high-rated smut scenes. Like good job, we need this kind of stories but they're not what I personally prefer.

BUT NO. It's about painfully relatable experience. I'm scared to watched the new episode because it will force me to face my own life, situation and the doom hell my country is currently falling in with the speed of light. And many other Russians said they literally cried in the past couple of episodes.

So many queer people had to flee Russia in the past years, especially now (few years after HR timeline) when LGBTA+ were officially announced illеgal, ехtrеmists and tеrrоrists, with people fined and jailed for a simple makeup or a slightly gay fanart they posted 10 years ago. They still fear and overthink every single thing they say and do even in other country, whenever encountering queer events or trying to date someone. Seeing openly gay hockey couple kissing on the match screen? Oh that's probably only a partially exciting moment for Ilya.

I went back to closet even when I could have built my new, more free identity in another country, I still enter fight-or-flight mode when buying BL books even if they're written in different language and no cop will grab me for looking at the books in a library corner or when I watch queer show in perfectly legal and promoted cinema screening, I don't speak about queer culture and series in my own language, I'm still censoring myself and cursing myself out at the same time for being so stupid and affected by fear – and knowing that if I get more bold and free, shit can still unexpectedly hit the fan and my family back in Russia can get hurt.

This is another thing that hits Russian speaking fans - Ilya's relationship with his dad, brother and the funeral. I was lucky to not have abusive parents but there's always a fucked up past and traumas in CIS childhood. No matter how many traumas you have and how much you try to escape and live your happy life, you'll always face the relatives, you'll always love them despite it all, you will always hurt when they're alive and grieve when they're gone. And if you choose to be yourself and to find love and happiness on your own, you can not go back home.

My mom told me just last week: "Don't go back to Russia. Even if I die, don't you dare to come to my funeral". I also have to awkwardly joke whenever my sister or dad ask me whether I miss them already and when do I plan to visit them, and I miss my friends so much even when I make new ones here. I push down my thoughts that keep coming up about what I should do and how I will feel if I one of them dies, and I'm 4000km away without having made any close happy memories in the past few years.

I have never come out to my family, yet this is something that still hurts if you're just a young adult who had to immigrate from Russia to other country. I've seen other fans saying they were triggered by the "silly gay show" because they got reminded of their fear that they cannot be with their family in their hardships. We are literally risking our life, not even just a social rejection. Fucking Ilya Rosanov.

Connor managed to show Ilya's struggles and traumas so beautifully and so raw, so truthfully. The emotions in his Russian monologue, the exhaustion and double-edged sword in the shape of his situation (queerness and family) was too real, as if he's not an actor but he has those cold and brutal years of growing up in Russia for real. His exasperated broken "чёрт" ('damn', translated as 'fuck me' in subs) after finally sharing his inner turmoil made me shed tears. And of course, the love confession that sounds much more raw in your own language that forces you to face the reality and your emotion.

To be honest, many Russian viewers were genuinely confused with Shane's hesitation about publicly coming out because he will not face even 1/3 of the amount of much more horrible consequences as they would (or Ilya would) :D (jk, everyone's fears are valid)

As another joke, somebody commented that they are not surprised at all that canadian autistic guy was still better in processing and talking about his emotions that neurotypical russian guy lmao

Anyway, HR is not only about sex and public coming out, it's also about queer people who left their homeland (forced or happened to) but still have cursedly tight ties to it, who dance painfully with 'crime' and 'family loss' in their embrace.

= the musician (who specializes in religious music) pointed out that they put a very solemn Christian song-poem for Ilya scene at the funerals, the lyrics are "Weep, my soul, cry without end - in that you'll find your comfort. For you will not have the time to weep when death comes"

= Another song playing in the background (during Ilya x Svetlana talk) was "Журавли" ("Cranes") which is a solemn tragic song that originally is about morning deceased soldiers in WWII (which is also kinda fitting because of Ilya's dad). But also this song is very famous in other countries – for example, in Korea it is used often in variety shows simply in sad moments, so I'm not sure if HR connected lyrics or just vibes (or just used because of copyright)

= Also Moonlight Sonata had played at one point, but that's not Russian specific, it's just musician fans went ecstatic over this episode xD

= black bread on top of the shot of vodka - is a sign of respect and mourning for the late person, funeral tradition only.

(We are so starved for the good foreign representation, we're excited to see even funeral customs and bread with vodka lol 😅 )

= Borodino - is a long and difficult historical poem that every Russian middle-schooler has to learn by heart and recite for their literature lesson. Fans are impressed (and also feel pity) for Connor who had to be gone through the similar experience to deliver this insane monologue xD But it was indeed insane because it was in Russian, and that means it was too raw, too honest and he was distressed.

By the way, here somebody has translated the russian lines Ilya said into English because subtitles did not do enough justice:

= Also YES, Svetlana did clock Ilya's ass few times, based on their dialogue, and she DID say "I hope Jane knows how lucky HE is", and ALSO she pronounced Jane similar to Shane in Russian this time.

(Spoiler for the 2nd book in the next screenshot)

but his russian ass considers that he's GIVEN FOOD and not kicked out of the house, no one yells and no fists flying, he knows he's 100% SAFE with Shane's family

When Shane's dad says "I just didn't think you'd be so friendly with Rozanov", Ilya immediately tells him his name, and David corrects himself.

I honestly don't think Ilya said his name to interrupt, ragebait or be more chaotic like his usual self. But calling him Rozanov - it's for strangers, for coaches, for hockey fans, if you call someone in Russian by their surname only (not full name) - it can be either neutral-dismissive or even slightly offensive and scary, like a teacher scolding a student. Calling by the first name is friendly. In my opinion, Ilya, by offering his name, was bridging the gap between him and Shane's father, taking the first brave step to test the waters🥺

That felt like establishing relationship (when Russians meet someone outside of established hierarchy setting, they negotiate formal/informal You and decide how to call each other - full name, first name, short/diminutive name etc). He could probably say "Just Ilya" if he meant this exact thing but I love headcanonning this is what he meant. But the dad thought he was correcting so he apologized maybe😆

AND ANOTHER detail. The dialogue goes:

– Rozanov.

– Ilya (stress on YA, correct Rus pronunciation)

– Ilya (stress on I, foreign pronunciation)

That just made me smile for no reason, aaaah the amount of care they put into teaching Connor Russian! He stresses so many Russian words the correct way, and he uses correct intonation (especially sarcastic one) in situations that is so difficult for a foreigner!

The fact that they made sure to use different pronunciation in a brief exchange when Ilya says his own name and David says his name - chef's kiss.

Lee Taevin every second for the past year: Love for Love's Sake is so precious, I loved this project, I will remember it forever, did you know we became one of the main representatives of BL genre in Korea? Yes, now everyone go watch BLs, I seeked this project after my queer storyline in ordinary Kdrama was completely erased, anyway about my love for Love for Love's Sake–

Isn't this another K-BL where I'm internally squealing because of every single detail? You bet it is. You can read my other meta/cultural detail/Korean language posts for Love for Love's Sake, Time of Fever, Grey Shelter and Boys be Brave on my pinned post or hashtags^^ (I really need to organize it under one singly hashtag tho...)

I already talked about how impressed I am with the fact that this series has done their preparation job well, with props, settings, language, history etc.

It is about a countryside/small town in Southern province of Korea - because a lot of characters use satoori (southern dialect), almost all of them except for the main two guys. There is also a distinct contrast/conflict between 'fancy Seoul rich guys' looking down on 'Southern town'. Juyoung even was surprised Dohoi doesn't use satoori.

To which, he responded with 'You'll be uncomfortable if I use it". And Juyoung said there are plenty other uncomfortable things around here, beside understanding/listening to everyone using other accent xD Confusing Gaga translation errors, we meet again!

Actually, it's interesting because Dohoi's name is written 이도회 in Korean, which typically would be written as 'Dohoi' but pronounced as 'Dohwe' (think of surname Choi that is actually pronounced as Chwe), yet in the first episode I clearly heard them actually say 'Dohoi', letter by letter. Now I wonder if it's also related to satoori... I wish I could speak it, it sounds so cool tbh.

He actually said 'I'm not in a good condition', meaning his physical form. What do you mean, mood, when was that ever an excuse in sports..?xD

By the way, what is it with boys trying to get closer to other boys by buying them unusual ice cream?:') Okay, garlic sounds more weird than red bean one :D

Also, I tried to find the Hasong town they talked about but failed - maybe because of incorrect transcription or maybe they made up this town based on Uiseong - a small town close to Daegu which is famous for being the most famous garlic town, they produce a lot of it and garlic fame would be seen everywhere - so who knows, I bet they allude to this when Juyoung said 'why can't there be a vanilla garlic ice cream? It's like a collaboration!'

Another thing, I thought the time of this series was somewhere around 1990s-2000s (because I watched a movie in similar setting that was called 1997 year but they still used pagers, now that I think about it). It was also still the time where teachers could use physical punishment on their students, it's heavily highlighted but I don't actually know around what time they stopped... Probably in Seoul, they already were getting rid of it but in small towns it was old-school teaching, which is again why Dohoi tried to tell Joyoung out of it.

I'm not familiar when small laptops and phones appeared in Seoul but I think the series is actually somewhere around 2005-2010! Which would make sense, Juyoung got the 'cool' flip-phone and a laptop with Windows XP (released in 2001) but small town is still far from that, as they use landline house phones to make a call.

He also has mp3 player and as other tumblr folks figured out, he was listening and dancing to Jewelry song released in 2005 :)

And another thing that convinced me about the time era... the final scene!

Do you want to know why at the end of Ep 1 Dohoi smiled and laughed and ran to Juyoung even after so many exhausting days and neverending small miseries and a new loud housemate?

Because Juyoung not only came to pick him up with an umbrella in the acid rain, he also reenacted the famous umbrella scene from the classic romantic K-drama called "Temptation of Wolves" (늑대의 유혹) which was released in 2004! To make Dohoi laugh.

(Yes, when Juyoung intentionally put the umbrella down and the camera cut the shot to the framing when the umbrella slowly lifts up, showing smiling Juyoung, I was like 'you did nooooooot' xD)

(last screenshots taken from @heretherebedork post, I'm sorry I am very lazy and cannot take a good screenshot for life :'))

So that was already our very first romantic teasing-implication!

Another cute thing: optimistic Joyoung wrote a diary entry into the fake old Korean "Facebook" (they had Cyworld instead) to share his first selfie with Dohoi:

"[Excited Shin Jjuyoung]" (typing in a popular back then teenage style) "I miss you guys... But here it's nice too hehe ^___^ Come to play with me!! Together with my friend Dohoi too~~!"

Aren't they the cuteestttttt? I mean, this dynamic is not new but I love how unique the setting is. And I can't wait to watch the second episode, I'm waiting and savoring the first one for now but I'm going to make notes about other episodes as well so stay tuned! If you reply/comment in tags, I will put you in my tag list^^

[Extra content from Bluray boxset]

If you take it to other platforms, please leave credit and original link. And don't share links to videos publicly as well, thank you ^^

[Translation by AmetistLex]

Director Kim Gyuna: When I got to know about "Love Supremacy Zone" from our CEO, I stayed up all night reading original novel. I immediately knew when I read it, that this was a work I must create no matter what. I kept reading and imagining how to film the scenes. I told CEO that I really want to make this project.

Q. Stories about each main actor's casting?

During the first round of audition, I was really surprised that Taevin came extremely prepared. We gave actors a small script that he memorized but Taevin also read original novel and webtoon, so we could have a deeper talk with him (even during first audition). That's how we realized that with this actor we will be able to bring to life such difficult character as Myungha. We cast him quite quickly.

In the case of Joowan, playing role of Yeowoon, he was cast a bit later. There were a lot of actors trying for that role, but we had a very clear vision for the character so it was difficult to find someone matching that image. But when Joowan entered the room, we were immediately shocked: he was very tall and very cool looking. But at that day he could barely speak. We asked him whether he was nervous, but it turned out that he practiced the script for 2 weeks, 12 hours a day (from 10am to 10pm) before the audition, to the point of losing his voice. His passion was so impressive, and we thought that even if he ended up lacking somewhere, he'd be able to overcome it with this passion. That's how we decided to cast him.

We picked an actor for the role of Sangwon quite fast, too. The fans admit that all our actors fit the images of the original characters really well, and this actor (Minsu) matched a lot traits of Sangwon character in the original novel. Fierce/wild and manly, with a deep voice. Of course, his acting was good, too, so we chose him.

And finally, we didn't cast Woongki through audition. We made an offer to him instead. CEO said that there's this guy - even though he's an idol, he's been acting since he was a kid. So we contacted him and asked to meet us because we liked his image. Surprisingly, he was also very good at acting, his entertainment charms were a great help to match Kyunghoon's image too. Woongki is energetic and bright, but as we kept talking with him, we realized how solid/secure he was.

It felt like a fate to cast these actors in LFLS. Of course, there were difficulties but it all worked out perfectly.

Q. How would you brag about each actor?

Lee Taevin always prepares very diligently, and he's smart. So no matter the discussion, he receives feedback well. It's a lot of fun to work with him. The production team has to prepare more than actors, but he studied the source very passionately and kept saying "I want to try acting like this, what do you think about doing that?". I thought many times that he's a true actor who's overflowing with the passion.

When it comes to Joowan, like I said, he can practice for 12 hours a day. If he wants something, he'll do it even if his body breaks or if he's in pain. He won't even say anything - actually, there were many times when it broke our hearts. We kept telling him that he should speak up, it's okay to tell us (if he needs rest or something), but without any complaints, he worked until the work was done, that's what kind of person he is. That is very amazing of him. When someone is physically exhausted, inevitably there are things they won't be able to do but Joowan is the opposite – after finishing filming, he'd tell someone else how (badly) he made it through. Then we'd ask if he's okay, why didn't he say anything, but he'd go "No, I'm really fine!". His willpower is very strong, he's reliable.

Minsu has a great depth. He listens more than he speaks, thinks about details a lot and has many deep thoughts. I realized he studied Sangwon's character so much that he could talk about him in such depth. He contacted me a lot, even after script reading has just ended, he'd call and say "I had this thought on my way, what do you think?" And after we discussed, his memo app would be filled with a lot of notes. His depth and sincerity are his charms.

And Woongki has the most overflowing energy. Of course, other actors are energetic too but his vibe is just different. I thought that he might be the reason the four main actors were able to bond so well. And like I said, he has a great trait of being solid/secure. It might be a simple word to describe it but I mean he has amazing inner strength that can't be faked. When other actors struggle with their acting or emotions, he helped build them up. So beside just being cheerful, that's his biggest virtue.

Q. What was the most difficult during filming?

We had a lot of discussions with the cinematographer/operator. Since there's a lot of CGI in this project, we worried about how much we could actually film. And we thought a lot about how to visually convey all the complicated details of this fantasy story. We worked tightly with CG team but sometimes executing our ideas was difficult due to various restraints. I had a fear we wouldn't be able to deliver our ideas properly so we discussed everything a lot together with our teams. I think the result was good.

Q. What was the moment you enjoyed the most?

Preparing and post-production are fun but I enjoy shooting on set the most. You can immediately get feedback from everyone's energy, they give good or bad reactions. Creating something together is a lot of fun. And since our actors are good, when the scenes I imagined in my head came to life, it was extremely joyful.

Q. If you had to choose your favourite scene?

I really liked a lot the cut from episode 7 when Yeowoon says "I love you". I had a vision of this scene in my mind but reality was even better, so I thought this would definitely made viewers' hearts flutter.

I also love the scenes where the four characters are together. Even though the story focuses on Myungha's character and his relationship with Yeowoon, I actually love all four characters. So the scenes like one in the restaurant or rooftop when they grill meat have totally different energy. Comparing to the scenes with only Myungha or Myungha with Yeowoon, scenes with four characters together are full of complete joy. Even when shooting was hard and everyone was exhausted, filming those scenes was a lot of fun. If I had to pick one scene as a highlight, it'd be the one where four friends are eating meat together.

Q. What other parts of novel you'd like to put in a drama series?

Our characters are high school students, and usually at that period of life you mostly study. But since our story is about finding happiness, we removed a lot of studying scenes. But there were a lot of studying scenes in the original novel, like Myungha and Kyunghoon studying together, teaching Yeowoon and eating fruits. I thought such scenes could add one more spoon of sweetness to the drama.

Q. What are flaws and advantages of the novel and drama series?

I don't think none of them have flaws, both novel and drama complement each other. The novel, because of being just the text, relies a lot of reader's imagination and sometimes author's intention doesn't get delivered properly. And in the drama, we can visualize and show those messages more clearly. So I think both formats help each other.

And novel has scenes that we couldn't show in the drama, as well as more details for the emotional moments. Even fans say they can't choose one or another. This mutual supplement creates an effect of the loop.

Q. What did you try to bring to life the most from original novel?

We mentioned it during our group reaction to the series as well: I really wanted to bring to life the sunset scene. After I read the original novel, I had three key scenes that I definitely wanted to properly visualize. To the "world is changing" scene when main characters meet for the first time, we paid attention the most. Then, the final kiss at sunset in the ending. Since those were the beginning and end of the story, I wanted to open and close the story well so we focused a lot those scenes and had a lot of ambitions.

Q. Say a message for the actors.

Taevin, Joowan, Minsu, Woongki, every time I have to wrap things up with you, one phrase always comes to mind: "I'm always grateful to you, you did so well". I really want to say this to you guys. I was very happy to work with you on this project for such a long time, it was a very meaningful time. Thanks to you, Love Supremacy Zone received so much love and stayed in the hearts of many people. I believe you will become amazing actors – one day, one project, to anyone. I hope you will be happy in the future, thank you and I love you~ Let's be happy!

Q. Message to the fans who loved this series

First of all, thank you. I want to express my love as much as you've loved us. I think the biggest reason this project was completed was the love that you, fans, gave us. Without your love, we wouldn't even end up here, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Actors and staff think this way too. You gave us so much love and we were able to work on this project so joyfully. Thank you a lot for all the love. If you keep loving us in the future, we'll love you even more too. Thanks to you, we were able to complete this project. Thank you and be happy. Goodbye!

[Extra content from Bluray boxset]

If you take it to other platforms, please leave credit and original link. And don't share links to videos publicly as well, thank you ^^

[Translation by AmetistLex]

Q. What did you think when you received the script for "Love for Love's Sake"?

At first, I didn't think I would pass the audition. But then I suddenly received the script, so I was actually very worried. Yeowoon's character has a lot of specific traits that needed to be expressed, so I thought a lot whether I could really pull this character off.

Yeowoon was very quiet, calm, alone and he had no friends – and I'm the exact opposite, so at first I was quite nervous.

Q. Are there any memorable adlibs?

After the first kiss scene with Myungha, I say "I'm going home / I wanna go home". Myungha teases me, and then I pout and cutely say "I wanna go home..." That was actually an improvisation, I say this phrase a lot in real life. I added a few similar playful adlibs over the filming.

Q. Any story about post-recording?

This was only the second time I ever did dubbing. Since I play a track athlete, he has a lot of heavy-breathing running scenes. I almost fainted during re-recording because I got very dizzy. So I had a fascinating realization that you can actually pass out from breathing too hard. Also the director, CEO and other actors were outside of the recording booth so post-recording was fun.

Q. What was difficult during filming?

We did a lot of script readings so I thought I'd really show my best on set. But filming on the actual set isn't like acting on rehearsals. There are many unexpected situations. Sometimes I wasn't well-prepared before filming and got confused. So I started preparing for all possible situations.

When I first started acting, I'd prepare for a scene in only one way, thinking I will open the door like this (sliding door to the right) but the door actually had to be opened a different way (with a handle) – and so my brain just froze. So after my acting debut, when I filmed LFLS, I prepared for all possible situations – and even more – before arriving on set. So there weren't many difficult moments, actually.

Q. What was the most joyful thing about filming?

I play a track athlete, and the series had a lot of eating scenes. I was happy when I was eating. I was on a heavy diet so I didn't eat much off-camera. So filming eating scenes made me the happiest. I ate tteokbokki, pizza bread, milk, meat, curry – I ate many things. Meat was the most delicious.

Q. How much Yeowoon and Cha Joowan are in sync?

I think me and Yeowoon are similar for 50%. When we first meet him, he's complete opposite of me. But once he opens his heart, he becomes just like me. I personally don't like staying alone, I always wish for someone to be next to me. But when Yeowoon opens up and shows affection for the people around him, he's very similar to me. This is why I chose 50%.

Q. Outstanding Tae Myungha scene in your opinion?

There's a scene where Myungha experiences that world around him is disappearing, and it has many emotional stages. At first he opens the door and simply is confused, but when he opens next doors, he realizes the world breaks apart, and he goes through gradually increasing emotions. I was really moved by this scene when I watched Myungha express those changes.

At the very end, we meet each other in the classroom, and he has tears on his face. At that moment, I thought it was a really outstanding scene.

Q. What are Yeowoon's strengths and flaws in your opinion?

First of all, Yeowoon's strength is that he's athletic. Also when he loves someone, he doesn't give up or let go of this person. His flaw is that he lacks social skills. He only cares about the person he loves, it'd be better if he paid a little bit more care to other people around him.

Q. Tae Myungha and Cha Yeowoon are still living well, right?

Not Lee Taevin & Cha Joowan but Tae Myungha & Cha Yeowoon? First of all, Taevin and me are doing well. As for Myungha and Yeowoon... I think Yeowoon is currently preparing for a competition, and Myungha prepares for the university. So they are physically away from each other, but Yeowoon just needs to do well. I think if Yeowoon takes a good care of their relationship, it'll become stronger. (To Yeowoon) Because Myungha is going to university now, don't just focus on your track training, take a good care of him too, you hear me? Good luck!

Q. How do you think the actor Cha Joowan will remember "Love for Love's Sake" after 10 years?

LFLS is a project that gave me immense experience in acting. I don't even want to imagine my life without it. Even 10 years from now on, I will still be thinking about it. Because it became an opportunity for me to meet my beloved fans for the first time, it was a project that made me realize that I can feel this kind of happiness too. In 10 years, I'll think of LFLS as my "First Happiness".

Q. From Cha Joowan to fans?

Fans, it's Joowan. Thanks to this amazing opportunity, I get to saw some words to you. You always say very kind and warm things to me, and I want to return that warmth but I'm not really good with words.

It's winter now as I'm filming this, so I hope you stay warm and eat well. Also I hope you'll think of me just once before going to sleep, because I think of my fans before sleeping as well. I love you all, my fans.

I'm still nervous in front of the camera but I'm filming diligently and sincerely after gathering all my courage. It'd be nice if you continued to give me love. I hope you'll remember our first meeting as you watch me act in the future. I love you. Please, keep supporting me.