BLISS RATING: ★★★★+
“Music is like farming. If you approach your craft with love, the results reflect it.” – Quote from Love Tractor
That quote above pretty much sums up the imagery of this soft, nicely done, homespun BL series. It has such a nice feel about it and the chemistry between the two leading men is unique and somewhat special in places. Is it magical? For me it was not, completely. There is certainly a warm glow about this series and the subsequent sentiment that comes from it.
It is a story that devolves and then evolves. It shakes to the core the foundation of a very unhappy young man named Seon Yul (Do Won) who is yoked to the demands of his father wanting him to be a lawyer. Finally, rebelling with the secret help from his grandfather, escapes to the countryside to his grandfather’s house in rural South Korea. Where people are – different. Still somewhat traditional but more importantly ‘sense’ each other. Trying to hide out is not easy but Seon Yul takes the time to reflect and along the way, he meets Suh Ye Chan (Yoon Do Jin), a local who is what we call the ‘salt of the earth’. He loves life on the farm and in the rural area and is a ray of sunshine to everyone he meets. His personality is infectious, and he literally brings out the best in others. The two begin a friendship but before long, Ye Chan realizes that what he feels for Seon Yul is not just friendship but love. In Ye Chan’s immutable way, he wears his feelings on his sleeve.
In the meantime, Seon Yul must still grabble with his angry father and his former lover who manages to find out where he is living. Of course, to him everything about this place is so beneath Seon Yul and simply not worthy or worth his attention. But because of Ye Chan’s charm and frank straightforwardness, Seon Yul realizes that there is nothing to go back to Seoul with his former boyfriend for. The only person who sees and cares for him truly, and unconditionally, is Ye Chan. Seon Yul still needs time and now knows he must learn to follow his own heart.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? Unquestionably, Yoon Do Jin as Suh Ye Chan with complete conviction is the undiminished personification of this character. It is indeed rare for a role to be so immersed with such a strong sense of understanding who the character was and with such gravitas. While at times, seemingly naïve and a bit innocent, I never found him flawed or pretentious or ever phony. He was genuine, honest, and real. Literally what you saw was what you got. While at times he straddles the fence in being a caricature, he never once crossed that line to being a ‘country hick’. That was some remarkable acting because it all could have gone wrong so easily where he could have strayed to being nothing more than a provincial. Because of his strength in acting, he brought along Yoon Do Jin’s acting as Seon Yul to give them both such great screen chemistry.
Two scenes in this series are some of the most powerful scenes I have seen in a BL in a long time and is a testament to the great writing in this series. The first one is when Seon Yul confronts Ye Chan as to why he is avoiding him, and he proceeds to go into this litany of reasons all of which are due to the fact that he is falling in love with Seon Yul. While Seon Yul slips into his legal mind, he says that he is not ready for a relationship, and he sees Ye Chan as ‘a nice younger brother’, etc.
Undeterred, Ye Chan says he cannot stop loving him and what is he supposed to do? He will make him see him as a man. What is so beautiful about this is the tenacity of this scene. While it might have been uncomfortable for Seon Yul, Ye Chan was going to get his point across and not be either sidetracked or thwarted by logic or anything else. This was phenomenally refreshing, and it felt so genuine and honest. It was indeed a powerful scene. And so refreshingly pointed.
The second scene was when Seon Yul confronts his father. When his father tells him to pack his bags and he is going back to law school, Seon Yul says no; he will not be controlled by him anymore. As the father attempts to slap him, Seon Yul grabs his hand to thwart him and tells him to stay out of his life. He will pursue his love of music. This was again a very powerful scene and well written.
While I might not know much about Korean family culture and dynamics, I am guessing that it took a lot of courage for Seon Yul to physically intervene with his father, stand up to his father’s constant bullying, and finally say that he will pursue his own dreams, and take charge of his own life. I am glad this scene was included, and it enhanced the powerful imagery of this BL as an independent thinking series. It also in no small part was influenced by the encouragement that Seon Yul received from Ye Chan to be able to stand up to exercise his own independence. After all, he saw Ye Chan do it.
Although this series broke ground in breaking down stereotypical connections and storylines, I am just not as enamored with the relationship with Seon Yul and Ye Chan as others who have critiqued this series. Perhaps Ye Chan is the epitome of what love is,but I am not so sure that Seon Yul is capable of reciprocating. To be sure, anyone who would turn down the love from Ye Chen is a fool and a moron. He is someone’s soulmate. Seon Yul is still assessing and straddling both worlds to make his dream come true. By his very nature, he sees life with greater complexities and perhaps love not so simply.
There is always something that seems to hold him back to devotion. If I wanted to believe this series had a real passionate love connection, something would have made that happen and would have given us that. Just once I would like to see a series like this, albeit, with a happy ending, give us something more. Believability. I wanted to believe that Ye Chan was going to get an embrace that was meaningful, passionate, and somewhat sensuous. He deserved that much. Not merely light fluff.
Thus, my disinclination. Nevertheless, this is still a mighty good series.
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