Color Rush (2020)

Great premise and promise (8.5/10) but execution (6/10) falls flat.

Color Rush is not a sappy, feel-good BL that you can breeze through despite the short episodes.

The darker undertones is what separates this from other typical South Korean BLs with themes like struggling with mental health issues and discrimination. Unfortunately, the show fails to make any meaningful point on it.

Ultimately, Color Rush is a story about two people with their own set of problems being drawn to each other because the other party allows them to live a fuller, maybe even ‘normal’, life.

But was the story problematic? Yes. Would I still watch Season 2? Yes, in hopes that more attention will be devoted to Yoohan and Yeonwoo helping each other to become better versions of themselves.

Read my full review here (with minor spoilers): https://asianblreviews.wordpress.com/2022/01/16/color-rush-2020/

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Great concept crammed into too short a format

The concept is a really interesting one. Monos stuck in a world of greys, blacks and whites who have a person who is their 'probe', able to trigger a 'colour rush'. As a concept its great, with plenty to offer.

Problem is, its too big a prospect for a miniseries with only 15m per episode. Only 8 episodes total leaves the story feeling rushed and underdeveloped. There just wasn't enough time to dig deeply into world building, where monos risk becoming obsessed and possessive of their probes or on the other hand probes abusing the inherent power they would have in relationships with their monos. Equally, the whole idea of a 'colour rush' raises the comparison to a drug addict desperate for his next fix, is that what probes are to their monos? The probe is the drug they grave even at the expense of a loss of personal agency or rationale thought?
Then what about wider society? Is there discrimination against monos? To regular folk able to see colour fear them? The mono protagonist in our story at the outset actually mentions to us in his thoughts he thought monos and norms (especially monos and probes) should be kept separate...a longer format with more time per episode could dig into the idea of equality, tolerance vs segregation and fears of 'the other' who are not 'us'.

As I say, great concept but they just didn't have the chance to truly flesh it out due to the lack of time per episode. Not enough episodes, and the episodes we do have are much too short to do the concept justice.

That said, the acting is great and the music (such as there is any) is completely fine. Terms of re-watchability, not sure I'd re-watch each episode in full, but I certainly enjoy a few moments. This has charm, and is certainly worth a watch if you haven't seen it before, just know going in that this is a good example of a great concept squeezed into too short a format - it simply can't completely deliver on the prospects it raises, nevertheless great acting, solid cast and enjoyable enough for what it does accomplish.

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Tinha potencial mas...

A história toda entre os dois protagonistas é bastante interessante, mas várias coisas são jogadas e completamente descartadas para depois numa segunda temporada (que não deve nem ser citada) serem vistas sem um dos próprios protagonistas, mas no quesito romance entrega o que promete que é um amorzinho clichê com músicas e efeitos aparecendo aleatoriamente.

Os personagens são interessantes, tem seus traços de humanidade apesar de tudo e te prendem aos poucos.

A cinematografia em si oscila bastante, tendo cenas com uma linda visão aos olhos e momentos totalmente toscos que te dão vontade de rir.

No geral, não é ruim, podia ser melhor? Podia, mas pro básico já tá ótimo.

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can we skip to the good part?

this bl series had a very intereesting premise and important plotpoints. however i fear tha tthey had taken up too much on their plate resulting in a medicore execution of the ideas also paired with the short runtime of the show.
the idea of someone being colour blind until they meet the 'one' sounds very cool and is another tiwst on the soumates trope which i adore so i was immediately intrigued. my curiousity was further piqued when it was revealed that mono's and probes meeting wasn't always a good thing and that the mom had disappeared...why did she leave and where is she now?
and of course the most important thing: the love between the two leads

because of these things i expected a lot of this series and was surprised to find out there were only 8 episodes. i wondered how they were going to fit everything in and resolve all the plotpoints. welp, they didn't which was really disappointing and left me feelin unsatisfied and wanting more but not in a good way because it felt rushed and unfinished (there is a season 2 but one of the main leads is missing in the s2 so i havent watched it yet).
the first half of the series is pretty good tho and gave me butterflies from the fluffiness :)
it's not bad, it just hasn't fulfilled its potential which is rather sad for a story with such an interesting world.

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Short but interesting

I started watching this series in December 2020. It was not long after I first moved out, could have been before I watched Sotus or after.

The plot was interesting but I am not sure how execution. I felt like if the episodes were longer we probably could have developed the characters and plot more. The plot point of Yeon Woo's missing Mom and him constantly watching the news because of his own fear of harming his probe. He does become obsessed with seeing color and when it starts to fade back to gray you can see his despair of him trying to hold on to the color for a little longer. He even admit that he wants to lock Yoo Han up. Because of this, he feels it is best to take himself out of the equation to protect him. I thought Yoo Han was going to find him, but I was surprised that it was his Aunt. She got back just in time.

His Aunt is overprotective but I can understand her reasoning. She lost her sister, who she is still trying to find and does not want to lose her nephew too.

I am not sure if season 2 will give us more answers to his mother's disappearance. The scene of him seeing his mother's painting in color, and that the ribbon in her hair was yellow was a great scene.

I will admit that there were some great scenes and I liked the chemistry of the characters, It just left me feeling like some questions were answered or was never touched on after they were introduced.

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The Best Kind of Bittersweet

Although the unique premise of this series immediately caught my attention, I did not expect much when I sat down to watch it. It turned out to be a pleasant surprise: I was hooked almost immediately – and not only by the attractive actors.

The main thing that makes watching this series such a satisfying experience is that it delivers on its promise. It tells the story of Mono Yeon Woo and his growing obsession with his Probe, Yoo Han, without making unnecessary deviations from the main plot, introducing annoying tropes such as love triangles, leaving glaring plot holes unfilled, or dragging out scenes. The romance between the lead characters is bittersweet and touching. Kudos to the scriptwriters for the crisp, engaging writing.

The acting adds bonus points. Yoo Jun and Hyun Jun might not be the most skilled and experienced actors that BL fans have seen, but they portrayed the struggles of their characters well and had sweet chemistry with each other. They both managed to deliver performances that touched my heart. I was especially moved by the final episode, which I consider the perfect ending for this series. I find season two to be unnecessary, and I am not planning to watch it.

Overall, I think that you should give Color Rush a chance if you are in a mood for a bittersweet romance with a unique premise and a happy ending. Do not let the low production quality put you off. You might love Yeon Woo and Yoo Han's love story as much as I did.

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Cute BL story with a fantasy twist. Could have been better.

I loved the idea of the colour rush and the concept of "mono" people seeing everything in grayscale and each one needing a specific, almost fated person called "probe" to make them able to see the colours. I feel that such a strong concept would have benefited of a better worldbuilding, in particular everything related to the mystery and investigation aspects of the drama. Here, it was a bit brushed off and it seems like a missed opportunity to increase the stakes of the story.

Overall, unfortunately the execution was quite poor. The realisation was super cheap (specifically when the colours were rushing through the eyes of the main character). The lines were also quite cheesy and the acting could also have been better. The actors did the best they could but it felt a bit lacking in terms of chemistry and emotions even though the skinship elements were adorable.

Despite all of this, the show was addictive with some cute moments between the main leads. I appreciated a lot the romance and found super interesting the psychological side of their relationship with the idea of obsession that was developed all thorough the show. I would have loved to see more of it.

I would recommend this to people who are in need of some heart-warming quick binge-watch with no deep-meaning.

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Attori non eccelsi, storia così così, necessita di sequel

Fortuna vuole che questo drama abbia episodi brevissimi, o non sarei riuscito a finirlo. Già così, sono arrivata alla fine a stento.
Come da titolo, a me gli attori non sono piaciuti quel gran che. Specialmente il ragazzo che vede a colori, come attore non ha incontrato il mio gradimento, e nemmeno come aspetto. Troppo truccato (male), e neanche fenomenale nonostante il trucco.
Meglio il mono, molto più carino e soprattutto rifinito come attore, probabilmente anche per la maggiore esperienza.
La storia però non mi ha appassionato più di tanto. Peccato, perché avrebbe avuto un gran potenziale., siamo nel campo della semi-fantascienza, e tutto ci può stare, ma le vicende in sé sono poco coinvolgenti.
Lodevole lo sforzo nell'invenzione dell'ambientazione, molto originale, ma diverse cose sono state lasciate in sospeso (una su tutti: la madre del mono) e il fatto che la storia rimanga in sospeso è stato il colpo di grazia per questo esperimento. Dubito che, se ci sarà un sequel, lo guarderò.

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Interestingly Lovely

Literally just finished watching this and I don't know how I feel to be honest.

The ending felt somewhat abrupt for lack of a better was of saying it, but the build-up to the ending I guess just made me want some clarity on where they would end up. Now don't get me wrong, this series was 8 episodes and based on one of the most intriguing concepts that I have ever come across in life. I literally had to research to see if Probes were a real existence for monochromatic persons. Though it wasn't a long series, I honestly felt like the story wasn't rushed. The way they met was simple and cute ,no clichés, which was nice. The concept of Mono and Probe was fascinating and the decisions made because of the negative side effects of being one or the other had me heartbroken to be honest. Like why should love be so complicated and is any of it really love because as they mentioned. Love and obsession seem to be dancing a lot in this scenario. The length of it may have contributed to my inability to decide if this was really good, because I couldn't fully immerse myself in their "romance" as it left me wanting more. but that maybe a sign of a good thing.

None the less, it was still very nice to watch the story of these two young men develop and the struggle of trying to stay true to not becoming something that you hate or being happy was endearing to watch. The two main actors had enough chemistry between them to make the fight or flight dynamic seem real, but that reveal at the end on the probes part was a lil bit much.

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Loved it, totally worth it

At first i wanna say that i didn't wanted to watch this drama cause i thought the plot was a bit basic, and i thought the drama was way more superficial than it actually is. Bu i have to admit that i was wrong watching color rush. I'm not a fan of red flag couples and irl i would be a bit scared, but they're such a good couple and i love them, even tho they're not exactly what you call an heallty couple. I'm happy that they ended up togheter even with all the problems they had, cause i think they complete each other. Irl i wouldn't support a relationship like that cause they're too much coedipendent and basically became really toxic if they're not togheter, so they're on thin ice, but for the plot of the drama, i think it's more realistic like that. The acting is immaculate, and i don't give a ten out of ten in general just because i wanted to know more about his mum story, but overall it's awesome.

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