No Bc. Like. The Eighth Sense Is Getting EVERYTHING Right.

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.

More Posts from Lotusclouding and Others

lotusclouding

2 years ago

half formed thoughts about jaewon after kissing jihyun: he’s retreating.

when his friend(?) asks if he remembers he kissed someone last night. when jaewon pauses, asks with who? and it’s taehyung not jihyun and he breathes out in relief? in exasperation? in disappointment? i’m not sure

i think a typical response to almost being caught kissing someone anyone you’re not supposed to would be panic or giving excuses or plausible deniability.

but jaewon’s reactions always seem so minimal to me. so causal. so nonchalant. so oppressed.

depression is numbing. i wonder if a lot of how jaewon acts is the depression talking and guiding him. all this numbness and then the masking, the walls pulled up tight and around himself.

he’s also so so so tired. when he confronts taehyung in the washroom after being paired with eunji, he’s annoyed. so very annoyed. but he doesn’t fight. is it politeness? is it just him wanting to avoid conflict? when eunji says no they should work together on the presentation jaewon is so annoyed. but he doesn’t fight again.

there’s only so much one person can take before they break

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lotusclouding

4 years ago

go to sleep

I. Did. Not. Notice. The. SEATS!!!!!!!

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!

This show told an entire story in this one scene.

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.

I feel a happy ending in this Chili's tonight!

Sponsored by this hellsite's malfunctioning tag system

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lotusclouding

2 years ago

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???

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lotusclouding

2 years ago

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lotusclouding

4 years ago

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lotusclouding

4 years ago

As a result, I stopped caring and my grades kept slipping.

And all my sins are catching up when I'm having to apply for an internship or job interview. I'm having constant anxiety.

This is why we give up on our dreams when we suffer a setback. This mindset is just an excuse for procrastination.

Life is not a black and white choice between ‘perfect’ and ‘imperfect’; most of life is grayscale. We don’t have to be perfect - we just have to do the best we can, under the circumstances.

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lotusclouding

2 years ago