BLISS RATING: ★★★★
“The best relationships are the ones are the ones based on friendships: Be Friends First.” – Lessons Learned In Life
Soft, sincere, and emotional. I enjoyed this short BL series that is really a bonding story between two childhood friends who reconnect after 10 years of separation. Kian (Chester Chua) is a vlogger coming back to visit his family’s farm where his childhood friend lives during the pandemic.
Kian is an easy-going person who wears his emotions on his sleeves. It is obvious that he is rich and has the luxury of trying to decide what he wants to do with his life. He is a bit self-centered as well. His childhood friend Aron [Monkey] (Benedix Ramos). He is a somewhat withdrawn person, self-isolated, but smart, bright and a very good cook. He essentially knows what he wants to do with his life if given the opportunity. However, he is a product of the fates and feels perhaps powerless to change that.
These two pick up pretty much where they left off when they were children. They still like to banter around but still know the basic likes and characteristics of each other. One difference is that they are more freely able to share what is going on with each other. Kian sees the potential in Aron and is continuously pushing him to pursue his dreams. Because they are essentially left alone together, they friendship starts to feel different and intensifies into deeper feelings but neither one wanting to admit to anything. There is some beautifully written dialogue between the two. (In some sense, this story reminds me of an old movie called ‘My Dinner with Andre”. It is a beautiful movie just between two guys talking over dinner).
Aron shares with Kian that his mother died many years ago and his father was so devastated that he committed suicide and he was left all alone. Kian is shattered as he did not know. Aron says, “So this is how it feels that feeling you amount to nothing. You ask everyday why we’re here left behind, but you can’t find an answer even if it reaches over 10 years.” Aron looks at him with all sincerity and say to him, “I will never lose you again.”
This begins the journey that will intensity how they both feel for each other. It deepens when jealousy rears its ugly head. They begin to plan for re-opening a restaurant together that Kian’s mother owns. But as fate would have it, Aron gets accepted with a scholarship to a Culinary School. At the same time, Kian learns that his father has passed away from Covid, leaving him feeling lost and tortured as there were many things that he and his father left unsaid.
In a beautifully symbolic gesture, Aron prepares Kian his favorite comfort food that he used to make with his father. It is a profoundly moving scene that is spoken with soft looks to each other and a physical closeness. Kian says to Aron, “Do you know that stars are really sad. Because no matter how bright they are or how warm they are, they are still too far apart to feel each other.” Aron says to him, “I don’t want to do anything else but to stay beside you.” They look into each other’s eyes and slowly hold hands and Kian says to Aron, “No matter what challenges may come, I can make it because I know you’re there.”
Who really S.T.O.L.E. the series? These guys are very good actors and conveyed a deep sense of commitment to their roles. This could have been fatalistic, but it does not go there and in fact feels hopeful. Chester and Benedix are also stunningly handsome with such a boy next door charm about them. (Chester has a dimple that absolutely makes him irresistible and unbelievably cute). These are hard roles because they must carry the whole series since there are only a few minor characters otherwise. In some sense, they have to downplay the emotions so it reaches just to the edge but does not make us believe strongly that an ending of happiness is really going to happen. The subtleties are just so spot-on.
This really is an amazingly beautiful love story told softly, subtly, and with great understanding of male bonding. Not every relationship starts with a big bang but more like a slow burn and is almost metaphorically like cooking. All the ingredients must be there and prepared just right for the final outcome to be indelible. A lot happens to them in a very short period of time but honestly not enough time to really develop a solid romance, but it certainly is more than a bromance.
We are left with not knowing what will happen to their relationship. Perhaps it is just a story where two former friends reconnect and reestablish a bond of friendship for a brief period of time in their lives. Or it develops more intensely as a romance. Or it remains a bromance. I was not saddened by its ending so I am inclined to believe that there will be more story to uncover. I hope so. This is a beautiful story, if nothing else, of two males bonding in a most beautiful way that perhaps only they know and can appreciate.
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