Love hurts, and the people in this show just love too much.
Double Helix feels trapped between an attempt in adaptation of A Round Trip of Love and the show that it actually wants to be. It delivers a sweet romance between star-crossed lovers while still afflicted by echoes from the source material, Lu Feng (played by one surprisingly daring Ayden Sng) is completely devoted to his peer Cheng Yi Chen (petit fresh-face Lu Si Tong), but it does not take long for the cracks in the prince charming facade to appear.
Ayden delivers a stellar performance that is equally enrapturing and disturbing, his Lu Feng alluring and menacing at all times, making it easy to understand how a wide-eyed Yi Chen would fall for his charm while still being scared by his intensity.
The show delves into the whole love and hate are sides of the same coin with their relationship being put to test at all times, the initial conflict oddly Shakespearian and that persists until they become their very own worst enemies. And that’s when we learn that in their case when love is not enough, hate is capable of keeping them going too.
Sure, Lu Feng is despicable but the show goes out of it’s way to prove that Yi Chen fallibilities can cause just as much damage. You won’t find a perfect victim here; they are all equally capable of destroying each other.
And this is where the show trumps the novel.
If the novel tipped the scales of toxicity, the show tries to balance things by alleviating some of Lu Feng’s worst moments while also displaying that Yi Chen is not without agency, and we are shown his motivations same as with Lu Feng. One solid point is that we do get to understand where they come from, why they do what they do and the logic behind their decision making, how to react is up to the audience, but no one can say they didn’t saw what was coming.
We see every hit that pushes Lu Feng over the edge, while also being privy to the telltale signs of what’s to happen – his eyes twitching whenever he feels jealous, his smile fading when Yi Chen calls him ‘a friend’ – it’s all there from the get-go, so it’s not all that surprisingly when he finally snaps. If Yi Chen is deserving of the reaction dished out by Lu Feng is up for debate – heated debate, judging by the conversation online.
However, the show has a hard time trying to adapt the material that is working, and it’s not only the novel it’s cooking with. Actor Gao Tai Yu from the first adaptation of A Round Trip of Love serves as producer here, and he was vocal about bringing elements from the film version that were not present in the novel into this new take. So, there is more reason to feel that Double Helix is at odds with the very story it’s trying to tell, the toxicity from the book, the tragedy stemming from the film and a sense of levity that this new vision brings to it’s characters make for one disjointed combo often at clashing with each other.
Time is one of the mains key-points being adjusted here, instead of a the nearly three decades spammed in the novel the show opts to halve that for a more compact and believable experience, however with the source being a product of it’s time the series has a hard time catching up with modern times – it demands good doses of suspension of disbelief in occasions such as having the characters forget that they can use their phones to do things like search for missing relatives on-line – add to that the fact that the show lacks some fine tuning for the timeline so certain events read in strange manner, for example Lu Feng and Yi Chen’s scandal seen in the first couple of episodes takes place during their high school years when they are 14-15 years old, so the more visceral reaction is understandable, but in the live action it reads too exaggerated and overtly dramatic with them being young adults in college – it’s quite noticeable when you observe the setting – which shows that creatives while trying to even out some elements crated new creases in the script.
Another down side are the antagonists. If the main duo is layered and complex, the same cannot be said for the remaining cast, very little is brought to the table by the rest of the ensemble. Lu Feng and Yi Chen’s families are adversarial but not much else, we see very little of them to have a better read of the environments they were brought up on, by the time Lu Feng’s brings the demise of Yi Chen’s mother her biggest trait is that she was a raging homophobe that offered some comfort to her son when he bided to her will.
The show also skips big confrontations outside the main couple, we have Lu Feng pushing his brother-in-law downstairs here, Yi Chen facing his parents over there, but its all quite minimal. There isn’t a sense of reckoning or catharsis involving the culprits for so many of the tragedies involving the main couple.
The only exception is Yi Chen’s younger brother also named Yi Chen (the author did that for funsies and giggles I suppose), he is simply the worst in the best way, always stirring up drama and bringing out the worst in anyone who crosses his path – be Yi Chen’s apologist nature or Lu Feng’s worst impulses, he knows exactly what key to tap in order to get a reaction out of them – he is a very common type of character in novellas, but not so much so in the television realm, so he being a catalyst for drama may not sit well with most.
His love interest on the other hand is no-more than a cardboard flavored character, Qin Lang (Fa Xuan Ge) is stripped from most of the depth he has in the novel in order to appease the lighter tone of the show, and as such his presence adds very little to the narrative, his highlight is the hilarious reaction at being outed by Lu Feng in front of the homophobic mother. When bringing the infamous term ‘guilty pleasure’ Double Helix will certainly pop-in from now on, which is somewhat unfortunate because it feels as if it’s at war with itself, stuck in limbo of what it wants to be and what it has to be, that somehow will leave us actually wondering what it could’ve been.
Hardsubbed trailer for the upcoming CBC bl starring Furukawa Yuuki and Nagano Ryouta. Subs by me, original trailer in better quality here.
Adapted from a Pixiv manga, synopsis from mdl:
Fumihara Ichiro and Higashi Kei are colleagues whose relationship began through a shared love of movies. While Kei admires Ichiro as both a mentor and a supervisor, neither expects their growing bond to develop into something more.
Haunted by past trauma, Ichiro has long avoided deep connections, believing he could never share his life with someone else. Kei, meanwhile, has never experienced romantic attraction and considers himself someone untouched by love. After Ichiro confesses that he is gay, the two eventually begin a relationship.
One year later, however, Ichiro is still plagued by doubts. Twelve years older than Kei and unable to understand why someone like him would choose to be with him, he questions whether Kei's feelings are truly romantic. As they confront their insecurities and learn what love means to them, the two must discover whether the life they are building together can become the ordinary love they have both been searching for.
I romanise 恋愛 as ren'ai because it's れんあい re-n-a-i, not re-na-i れない, but I'll use renai in tags just to have more reach.
Furukawa Yuuki posted about the start of filming on his Youtube channel.
The filming schedule is tight. Furukawa received the script two days before the first table reading. As the lead actor, he is in most scenes and has a lot of lines, so the time constraints make this a challenging role for him but he is determined to do his best.
He met his costar at the photo shoot for the poster and they got to know each other better, which he thinks allowed the poster to capture their natural smiles.
Several lines and scenes have been changed during filming in collaboration of the actors and the director. The final product will likely contain quite a bit of ad-libbing as a result.
Furukawa was a bit nervous because the director wouldn't praise his performance and actually demanded some retakes on the first day, but after wrapping up the last scene of the first episode, he finally got some positive feedback, so he hopes everyone will enjoy the episode once it airs.
He actually described the story as a same-sex love story. Recently networks have gotten addicted to promoting their bls as pure love stories and it's become hard to get through a promo event without hearing that word, but Furukawa didn't mention it even once for which I'm grateful lol. Not counting my gay chickens yet since you never know what the executives will make him say at official promo, but so far so good. I feel like at the start, the word was used with good intentions in trying not to draw a strict line between bl and other romance drama, but it's gotten pretty tiresome now.
Everything that could happen did happen in this week episodes of Lost to You 🥴
Like the outing? A new "old" rival appearing out of nowhere? The land grabbers? Lesbian awakening? Main couple in their break-up era? The sides heating up?
At one point I was just going through the motions.
forgive the ✨creative✨ header but i come to you with recommendations! inspired by @floweruna i decided to put together a list of people who make gifs so we can rally around and support the people who keep this site going. this list is not exclusive and i am sure that a lot of people already follow these creative little legends but here is the list with some examples of shows they have created for, and their gif tags for you to enjoy.
⟡˙⋆ C H I N E S E D R A M A S ⋆˙⟡
@dazzlingkai - pursuit of jade, love beyond the grave - tag
@yingtan - veil of shadows, bloom life, ashes to crown - tag
@usermoran - pursuit of jade, how dare you - tag
@moonlightsdream - love story in the 1970s - tag
@mostlyfate - zhao zhan adventures - tag
@duncan-rohanne - ashes to crown, zhao zhan adventures - tag
@baijingting - pursuit of jade, veil of shadows - tag
@guzhuangheaven - pursuit of jade, legend of the magnate - tag
⟡˙⋆ Q U E E R D R A M A S ⋆˙⟡
@earthfluuke - love upon a time, girl rules, head 2 head - tag
@barthtanrak - ticket to heaven, girl rules, muteluv - tag
@usertoxicyaoi - the lie we lived in, feel what you feel, the gaze - tag
@tanrak - enemies with benefits, 4 elements, ticket to heaven - tag
@loveisactivated - when oranges fall, one spring night - tag
@thisautistic - be my favourite, revenged love -
@bluesandfilms - double helix, love of silom, journey with you - tag
@uppoompat - love of silom, when oranges fall - tag
@phuwins - ticket to heaven, girl rules, enemies with benefits - tag
@peatchsoda - your dear daddy, yesterday - tag
@ainokiseki - girl rules, love design, broken (of) love - tag
@embersinthefirelight - payback, wu, when oranges fall - tag
@theside-b - lost to you, fake fact lips, journey with you - tag
@teeteewanpichit - actor posts - tag
@juliawvicker - life in smokey blue, sammys childrens day - tag
@chimons - payback, love upon a time - tag
@theerakits - ticket to heaven, me and thee, khemjira - tag
@lookmhees - a dog and a plane, life in smokey blue - tag
@chinchillion - ticket to heaven, clairebell, girl rules - tag
@chinzhilla - lately its winter season, about you - tag
@gl-saveme - actor posts, enemies with benefits - tag
@sherrymagic - 4 elements, girl rules - tag
@crispywizardtale - love upon a time, wu, chermchey - tag
⟡˙⋆ O T H E R D R A M A S ⋆˙⟡
@dramastream - network for streaming dramas - tag
@dramaism - perfect crown, good boy - tag
@thaient - network for all things thai entertainment - tag
@citrinekay - bloodhounds 2, we are all trying here - tag
please share any recommendations you have because i would love to follow more gif makers too!
I'm sideeyeing really hard the people who got the HUB awards and refuse to acknowledge it — all of whom are thai BL branded pairs by the way, the GL pairings have all made videos thanking the fans.
I mean, even the 10Dance team that hails from Netflix, which is notorious for making things difficult, have shared their 'thank you' speeches...
sarah have you seen anything regarding the billybabe situation.. bc yikes
Messy does not even begin to cover what is going on with those two. A couple days ago, Babe filed a law suit claiming he hadn’t been paid for work he’d done with Idol Factory but then the manager he was accusing came forward and claimed the fees had been paid…to Billy, who was supposed to split the fees between the two of them and didn’t. Billy posted a statement this morning seeming to confirm this, but stated he wasn’t aware the fee was meant to be split. He also ended the statement with, “Let’s not let a small amount of money ruin our relationship.” Babe’s family and his manager have all unfollowed Billy 😬😬😬
romaincrisis
snowghoul
stormborns
annaxmalina
theartofmadeline
pixelskylines
