blogging about (mostly queer) media i'm watching 🎬📚enjoy your visit to my internet abode!
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no bc. like. the eighth sense is getting EVERYTHING right.
it's compelling. like. you feel like you KNOW where the storyline is going, what's going to happen next, and then BHAM! NO! something entirely different happens. its never boring. and it makes the wait for the next episode jittery and anxious and it leaves you on tenterhooks BUT THAT'S THE POINT! its meant to leave you guessing. its got this "impending sense of doom" vibe to it that i referred to in a previous post, but that describes the current vibe of jaewon and jihyun's relationship and the atmosphere surrounding it: its thrilling.
characters can breathe!!! and we can breathe with them! jaewon and jihyun are allowed to have scenes where its just them alone, immersed in a hobby that THEY like, and you're there with them! they get to have scenes with so many other people that aren't just with each other. they get to form real relationships with their boss, their therapist, their new and old friends. and each relationship and dynamic brings something new, each dynamic formed between jaewon or jihyun and the people around them is made to allow a certain type of conversation to be had for jaewon and jihyun that they can't really have with someone who isn't that character, for example jihyun can only really openly speak to his boss in the same way jaewon can to yoonwon or his therapist. jihyun can't talk in that same manner to anyone else, nor can jaewon. at the same time, it also soooo BEAUTIFULLY illustrates how performative we can become in certain relationships and situations and around certain people, and how unhealthy and detrimental that can be for us - look at jaewon and taehyung, who are meant to be best friends, but are anything but it.
its such a QUEER show. it takes the small little scenes you'd normally see in a white western heterosexual movie, like the two love interests linking their pinky fingers together to then clasping each other's hands and smiling shyly to the side, to sitting opposite one another on a train and just gazing and gazing and gazing at one another, to calling a taxi after your not-a-date-but-its-so-a-date to go home in and the taxi is literally stood right there waiting but you can't let each other go ..... its taken all those cliche scenes and made them feel so ... new and fresh and vibrant and so so QUEER and any queer person watching the show FEELS those butterflies in their stomach.
oh to see a main character who is asian and queer actually GO TO therapy, and imply that jaewon has been going for 10 whole years to therapy. to have his mental illness be given a name (depression!), to have him talk about his issues so openly!!, to discuss what the struggles of being in your mid-twenties feel like!! to see him talk about how burdensome he finds it being "nice" to everyone and wearing a mask all the time and ultimately his therapist telling him straight that, "in fact, in life, you don't need to be loved by everyone." or when jihyun's boss stood up for him and fought eunji over how she treated him bc she KNOWS jihyun would never bc he isnt a confrontational person, but jihyun's boss did not stand for it, and how she continues to just give him the correct life advice as and when he needs it.
the romance. the chemistry. the way jaewon and jihyun pull you into their bubble. the way you feel the excitement and joy and apprehension and tension and heartache and disappointment between the two of them. YOU feel it. and thats all down to the way the show has been shot and the muuuuusic (oh my god the muuuuusic) and the way the camera is used. it makes it feel personal. in first person. not you watching them, but rather, you BEING them. the way you can FEEL how nervous and anxious jihyun gets when he is in ANY kind of social situation. how you can FEEL the quiet anger and the exhaustion from being so performative and the lack of patience in jaewon like a ticking timebomb when he's around taehyung. you do, you just FEEL it.
anyway. the eighth sense might just be (who am i kidding, it already is) on its way to claim the title for the best bl of 2023, and its only april.
God works hard but the shop owner at the rest stop giving away free stuff works harder. He said be gay. listen to trot. do minor crimes like setting off fireworks at the beach
I know I talk about mdzs modern AUs a lot, but it's just somehow become a fascinating adaptation process to me, all these people making their personal calls about the nature of reality.
And a thing I keep coming back to is all the people who deliberately decide to give modern!wwx Mo Xuanyu's build.
To preserve the strength contrast that's leveraged for horny, which like, yeah that's fair, horny is an acceptable reason to make a story choice. I respect that, sometimes grudgingly.
But as a result of noticing this being done, oftentimes it seems without any reflection about why, I've developed this minor obsession with the fact that wwx in his own body at its adult height was fractionally shorter than lwj.
And this was the height he reached after a multi-year period in childhood living on scrounged garbage, plus the three months starving in the mass grave toward the end of his growth period.
Meaning that by all normal logic, a modern AU wwx who did not experience these periods of intense privation--which is most of them; it's quite rare for children to experience that particular form of total neglect in modern developed nations and modernAU!wwx's life ruining circumstances only occasionally involve intense physical torment--is going to be significantly taller as an adult.
Like. Add a few inches on there.
Where are all my adequately nourished six-foot-four Wei Wuxians???
I feel like there’s this whole subgenre of fic that just really, aggravatingly, doesn’t get bickery banter couples, which means that a lot of the content for them just ends up reading like emotional abuse.
Like! The thing about couples that bicker for fun, the thing that makes it romantic, is not ‘I hate this and I’m sad and hurt and uncomfortable, but I’ll put up with it because I love you and at some point you’ll start being nice to me’. That’s not fun bantering! That is, at best, a serious miscommunication!
The thing that makes it fun and (potentially) romantic is ‘We know each other so well that we can be rude and gross and weird together, we can transgress the rules of polite society with each other without actually causing any real hurt, because we know where the real lines are and don’t have to guess at them or use the rules from a game that neither of us wants to play.’
It’s fundamentally about intimacy, not about treating your SO like they don’t have feelings that matter.
Days in Yunmeng
I know I talk about mdzs modern AUs a lot, but it's just somehow become a fascinating adaptation process to me, all these people making their personal calls about the nature of reality.
And a thing I keep coming back to is all the people who deliberately decide to give modern!wwx Mo Xuanyu's build.
To preserve the strength contrast that's leveraged for horny, which like, yeah that's fair, horny is an acceptable reason to make a story choice. I respect that, sometimes grudgingly.
But as a result of noticing this being done, oftentimes it seems without any reflection about why, I've developed this minor obsession with the fact that wwx in his own body at its adult height was fractionally shorter than lwj.
And this was the height he reached after a multi-year period in childhood living on scrounged garbage, plus the three months starving in the mass grave toward the end of his growth period.
Meaning that by all normal logic, a modern AU wwx who did not experience these periods of intense privation--which is most of them; it's quite rare for children to experience that particular form of total neglect in modern developed nations and modernAU!wwx's life ruining circumstances only occasionally involve intense physical torment--is going to be significantly taller as an adult.
Like. Add a few inches on there.
Where are all my adequately nourished six-foot-four Wei Wuxians???
the eighth sense is juntaek's first acting gig and he was street casted
the korean director really said he saw him on the street and snatched him up lmaooooo
A little brown bunny was so kind and sweet it stretched its whole body out and got long enough to go to sleep
am I finally free
Lim Jisub as Jaewon | The Eighth Sense
{ for @heesulovebot }
The progression of Jaewon looking at Jihyun (ep 3+4)
he said the thing!! he said the thing!! literally!!
Hii!!!
Your thoughts on the eighth sense, ji hyun represented with lighter colors and jae won with darker colors are sooooo valid!!!
the utter joy of finding this out in one of my favorite shots,,,,,,, the color of the seats on ji hyun and jae won's side!!!! I'm flying!!! this is ecstatic!!!!!!
You're amazing🥰
@how-to-be-a-tree,
I merely observed that their clothing showed their balance of light and dark (the nature of Yin and Yang)
And others have picked up on the use of light to showcase Ji Hyun bringing light to Jae Won's dark world
Like in the dark library scene
Where Ji Hyun is the light source down the hall
Others have noted that queer stories tend to be told in the darkness because that is a safe space away from the harshness of light
But I think this show is trying to tell us that Jae Won, who has hidden so much of himself that he is constantly living in the dark, must step out into the light and be open, and Ji Hyun is the light that encourages Jae Won to live his truth.
So you showing me that the seats are color-coded, when the reflections showed them as having no color even though Ji Hyun's backpack and stickers on his briefcase remained colored
Is truly a delightful revelation, not only because the seat coloring was intentional, but also the green light to indicate which side the doors will open lights up on Ji Hyun's side AROUND HIM!
Ji Hyun is the color in Jae Won's black and white world. Ji Hyun is light in Jae Won's darkness. Ji Hyun is Jae Won's exit to a fresh start. Everything Jae Won wants is within reach; he just has to move.
Sponsored by this hellsite's malfunctioning tag system
I know you've gotten a bunch of asks like this. But, you've made me pay attention to and try to analyse colours in the stuff I watch. And I feel like it makes me enjoy media less and more at the same time. But I think it's good. Like, it makes it impossible to really watch something passively. Even if I'm kinda bored by the plot I'll be like "ooh, he's wearing a red shirt, what could that mean". I think we should all engage in media in a kinda analysis way. I think it makes us think more and also makes it more fun. So, yeah, thanks, I guess. :)
Anon, I don't get asks like this. I usually get tags like, "PETTY RUINED MY LIFE! I HATE THEM!" but it's very much the same energy, and I appreciate it.
I completely understand what you mean about being entertained by the tiny details even if the plot is lacking (Cutie Pie, I love you, but you know that plot could've been wrapped up in six episodes), but I hope that you grow to enjoy shows MORE rather than simulateously liking them less and more due to not being able to watch them passively.
I believe it allows me to like shows more because I can see if my theories based on the colors and background noise are legit.
I saw today on Instagram somebody questioning why the shower scene was filtered red.
But in my mind, it seemed like an easy color choice to show desire mostly when Jae Won is naturally dark
And since Ji Hyun is the lighter one of them
Even in the promo pictures
And red seems to pop up when Jae Won is being affectionate
And Jae Won was backlit by red (pink) when he spoke freely to Ji Hyun on the beach
Even when they were in the dark (yet Ji Hyun was still lighter)
It just made sense to me for the shower scene to be filtered red to show Jae Won's deepening attraction to Ji Hyun. Ya know?
Which also made me think that no show that gives me a color exchange can end tragically.
In my Elle Woods voice, "Each boy has a color scheme. Color schemes give you color-coded boys in love. Color-coded boys in love just don't die. They just don't!"
See? Makes perfect (eighth) sense to me.
You already know what time it is!
Bonus
This bitch really skipped the first wetsuit cause it could be easily zipped from the front and he wanted to homoerotically help Jihyun wear it instead... JAEWON STAND UP!!!
This bitch really skipped the first wetsuit cause it could be easily zipped from the front and he wanted to homoerotically help Jihyun wear it instead... JAEWON STAND UP!!!
my sweet summer child...
no, no he doesn't
i’m choosing to ignore the shot of the lone fish in the tank symbolising the fact that jaewon feels alone, his club dissolved and his boyfriend...somewhere. that’s definitely not happening. everything is fine.
the eighth sense said let’s scare everyone. total silence for the title sequence. i feel like i’m in the hospital waiting for updates on my blorbos in emergency surgery with only the sound of my anxious beating heart in my ears; i have a feeling the boys will be okay but do we really have to sit in complete silence while waiting for confirmation??
the eighth sense said let’s scare everyone. total silence for the title sequence. i feel like i’m in the hospital waiting for updates on my blorbos in emergency surgery with only the sound of my anxious beating heart in my ears; i have a feeling the boys will be okay but do we really have to sit in complete silence while waiting for confirmation??
THE EIGHTH SENSE (2023)Â Episode 2 dir. Baek Inu and Werner du Plessis
the eighth sense (2023)
Over his shoulder, over his shoulder... checking over his shoulder. They look and we look and we see a man in black and a man dressed so softly, someone ready to try something new and someone seeking an escape from all the masks he wears but is just as scared of that escape as he is his own reality. (JiHyun is learning to be fearless but JaeWon gave in to fear before he met him) and the true question is... can light overcome darkness, can fear be outweighed by another's bravery, can he find his way to what he wants but doesn't believe in... himself. (Can JiHyun be light to darkness or will the darkness pull him down as well and leave him alone somewhere he's never been?)
me a couple hours ago: wow everyone on my tl is posting about the eighth sense lmao i just saw 8 posts in a row screaming about it so i’m excited to watch
me now: I GET IT I GET IT I GET IT IT’S SO LOVELY, SO OVERWHELMINGLY QUEER, I’M CLEARING SOME SPACE ON A SHELF IN MY HEART AND PUTTING THIS SHOW ON DISPLAY THERE
sorry but HOWL? OF HOWLS MOVING CASTLE? SLIME GUY? SOPHIE, THE BEST WOMAN EVER LITERALLY HAD TO CLEAN HIS HOUSE FOR HIM? AND HIS SLIME? meanwhile ashitaka is literally leading the charge to save the forest, ACTIVELY fighting colonialism and even when his girl wanted him DEAD he still hit those words of affirmation??? dont do my dude like this… HOWL? OF THE MOVING CASTLE? MAN OF ALL TIME?… you horny bastards. all he is is pretty… ashitaka would build you a home with his cursed hand!!!!!!! thats a man. thats THE man. of all time. send text