my absolute favourite bl is Until We Meet Again, and this is my non-extensive but very long-winded list of reasons for that (there will be major spoilers, fyi) :
- the acting just gets me every. single. time. the actors really were working their asses off. like the amount of crying pharm does? mad props to fluke. i feel so bad for him bc he literally sobs every episode. and he does it SO well. he cries in a way that just makes you want to reach through the screen and give him a hug. and ohm's acting is also just so good. you see the progression of their relationship from strangers to lovers so clearly in his acting. it feels like you are truly in the story with them. i also love how the "inevitability" of their relationship is woven throughout the story, with the red thread and everything. i am a romantic at heart and it gets me everytime i watch.
- sammy is in it! sammy is my absolute favourite bl actor/actress and i love her acting so much! she seems like such a ball of joy and like she would be so fun to hang out with. literally as soon as i see that she is in a show it goes on my to watch list bc she makes me so happy. (also as a woman with a very large personality she makes me feel so seen. i also feel this way about lee young ji bc she also has such a large personality but is so confident w it.)
- the entire storyline is so heartbreaking and heartwarming all at the same time. you see the juxtaposition of how unaccepting their families are when they are Korn and Intouch, AND you see how accepting their families are as Dean and Pharm. the scene where dean brings dessert pharm made to his grandma makes me so emotional because it is as though she gets her intouch back in a small way. ๐ญ and how you see the grandpa (i do not remember who he's related to, but he's the like...mafia one? gonna be honest, i've watched the show so many times and i still mix up who is related to who.) regret his past decisions and you see him relive the worst day of his life when they are back in the apartment with a gun. its the kind of story that just takes you by the throat and squeezes. every single time i watch it again i cry. and i am an emotional person but still, it just pulls at all the right heart strings. it was all so preventable the first time around, and it is proven the second time around when dean is able to convince pharm to put the gun down. which makes it that much more heartbreaking that they had to both die to get the love they already had! it was all preventable! and yet all so inevitable!
- i love the friendships too! you see pharm and how close he is with his 2 best friends (i don't remember their names in the show but the actors are sammy and prem). and also dean is not jealous of his friends! it always bothers me when shows make one half of the couple super jealous for absolutely no reason (sometimes there's a valid reason but there so often isn't and it drives me nuts lol. one of my biggest pet peeves). but like, dean is so glad that pharm has them, and it's been a few months since i've watched it so i can't remember exactly, but i'm 90% sure there is a scene where dean thanks them for taking care of pharm or he asks them to take care of pharm for him. regardless, it is so nice to see a character who has a fully fleshed out life with so many friends AND a boyfriend who loves him very much. their friendship also helps keep the show feeling lighter bc the romance is so emotional and heavy haha
like - friends of all time right here:
- bounprem's storyline also helps keep the show lighter, and their characters have such a fun push and pull dynamic. the spinoff show (Between Us) that focuses on their relationship is also really good, but i do prefer UWMA bc of the emotional...heaviness? lol ig i like a tortured love story
- the acting of Kao and Cooheart is also so good in their roles of Korn and Intouch, their storyline is so realistic (unfortunately) and they manage to make a heartbreaking story kind of cute (y'know, until they die ๐). Again, you can see their relationship develop over the flashback scenes in a way that seems organic (at least to me). Korn finds him annoying at first, but then by the end is so in love, which is why he makes the decision he does at the end because he cannot see any other way (he was wrong but it doesn't change the fact that from his perspective it was the only way to be free)
when i watched the show for the first time i had no idea what it was about and was so suprised when it was so heartbreaking a lot of the time lol. i thought it was a simple strangers to lovers dealio and it is not haha
i will also say that the first few times i watched the show i was so confused about who was related to who ๐ it took me until the 3rd watch (at least) to fully know what was going on throughout the whole show.
anyways...that's my very long-winded love for UWMA...brb gonna rewatch it rn.
