Color Rush (2020)

When you have a good idea but the script is due tomorrow

The premise of "Color Rush" is a welcome fresh breeze in the world of BL dramas. The BL genre as a whole generally suffers from a "same premise, different execution" syndrome, often revolving around the mostly unremarkable life of some high school or university students, which for some reason also tend to be members of the communication arts or engineering faculty of their school. While "Color Rush" is also set in a high school, the story manages to stand out with its magical soulmate concept and subtle mystery undertones, turning the BL romance, in theory, into only a sub-plot and not the defining, overarching storyline.

However, the drama does not quite achieve this effect for several reasons, the most glaringly obvious ones being the poor writing and the lack of chemistry between the lead characters.

If it had been one of the side characters that had been hit with the poor acting, it probably wouldn't have had such a negative effect on the drama. But since it's one of the main leads, Hwall, that lacks the proper abilities to portray his character Yoo Han, the entire drama suffers under it. Yoo Han's character feels underdeveloped and his acting is incredibly stiff. Like a puppet that can only follow its master's orders, he just reads his lines with little to no emotion or engaging intonation. It is not so bad as that you would feel incredibly appalled by it to the point that you needed to drop the drama immediately but it is certainly enough to take away from your investment in the romance between the two main characters.

Secondly, the writing is poorly paced and structured. While the first few episodes are also rather fast-paced, it's still in the realm of the understandable for such a short drama. The last few episodes, however, jump from one plot point to the next, scrambling to tie together the many loose ends of the drama, resulting in neither a satisfying conclusion to the mystery nor the romance aspect of the series. At some point, I felt like they were just throwing in a bunch of facts that were never even alluded to before just to find an excuse as to why plot point x ended up the way it did.

Overall, it's not the worst drama I have ever watched and it surely isn't the worst BL I have ever watched. However, it certainly would benefit from a re-write and some acting training for Hwall, as well as simply from a longer duration as 15 minutes per episode are just too short to cover the extensive worldbuilding that is going on here, especially since the drama is only 8 episodes long.

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12/10 powerful homoeroticism i really enjoyed it. Kings only.

I mean what do you want me to say? Kings. Legends.

I went into this not expecting much tbh i was like EH another "BL" show itll be done badly and itll suck but hey at least i get to see gay people on screen TT_TT

WELl I WAS WRONG

THIs shOW *SLAPS*

Listen. The storyline is great. Love it. Reading peoples comments alongside watching this, perfect. i could not stop laughing I had such a good time. YES at times its obvious that the storyline is cut short or not fleshed out enough but this is adapted from a novel so I'm not mad.

ALSO i have NEver seen a gay romance done like this in any korean drama to date. and EVEN MORE

i was SO SurPRISED to find out that a KPOP IDOL was in this. that shocked me to my core. Since kpop idols arent usually allowed to go anywhere near gay stuff like this bc of rumors....mad respect to Hyun Jun. Mad respect. what an absolute King. what a legend.

That being said. Hyun Jun is my favorite I will admit that I watched this drama until the end halfway bc of him I am incredibly jealous of him and wish I could look like him I mean every shot he was in he looked so cool or he just looked so BEAUTIFUL i couldn't believe it. His character was also super adorable. I'm so sad to hear that this is the only kdrama hes ever been in i want to see him more i became his fan after watching this.

Hur Hyun Jun, I'm your fan, please do more dramas TT_TT

If I could rate this 12/10, I would. That's my actual rating. Idk why people said they hated this and that it was bad. it was awesome i had a GREAT time watching this lol I wish it had longer episodes and like...a more fleshed out story bc I just think lgbtq+ stories deserve that too. (I wanna see a really good long mainstream kdrama w a queer lead...someday..)

but this is definitely a step in the right direction for korean dramas so MAD RESPECT and i hope everyone that worked on this show and esp Hur Hyun Jun, I wish you all good fortune for the rest of your lives. Thank you.

Watch this show its good.

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Short but worth watching

If you like short series and BLs it's worth watching.
About R rating... We have suicied thoughts in 7 episode!

First of all story is really interesting and you might really easly get hooked. At some points is not great delivered and some scenes might look rushed, but reason is known, it's just to short to explain everything.
Second thing is acting. Chemistry beetwen Hyunjun and Yoojun at begining it looks little bit akward but I don't think is but thing (ofc as we see it from Yeonwoo's point of view, cuz Yoohan is to up front) Yoojun is really great actor. I can see suffer on his face and I like his eyes express emotions. For Hyunjun... I liked his acting but I don't know what to think it about in last 2 episodes...
Music is beatiful! And production is great even it had low budget. Color rush at begining might be for the first time really funny.
I personally adore whole series. I definitly gonna reawatch show.
This bl have happy ending so don't worry! And lots things are explained in last episode.

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Dans la continuité des productions du même genre par Viki

Alors que dire de ce petit drama ? Je n'avais pas vraiment lu le synopsis mais vu un petit trailer tout de même, j'avais donc une assez bonne idée de l'histoire générale.

J'ai trouvé cette histoire assez originale malgré le fait qu'au final le "mono" et le "probe" sont l'équivalant de deux âmes sœurs. (Je m'explique ! Le mono ne perçoit les couleurs que grâce à son probe de ce fait, une dépendance se crée et un besoin naturel de la présence de l'autre se fait ressentir. Pour moi, ça fait penser au concept d'âme sœur. Après étant loin d'être une romantique, peut-être que ma perception est faussée. Ne me jetez pas la pierre x'D)
Dans "Color Rush", on voit très vite Yeon-Woo qui tente de réchapper à son probe... Pourquoi ? Sans doute la dépendance et tout ce qui est véhiculé sur ce qu'elle engendre. On parle ici de préjugé puisqu'on part du principe qu'un mono fera D'OFFICE du mal à son probe... Malgré tout, Yoo-Han ne cesse de dépasser les limites de Yeon-Woo en lui donnant des aperçus de ce que serait sa vie avec des couleurs ! Si au départ on croit qu'il s'agit d'un caprice du jeune homme, on comprend à la fin qu'il tentait juste de se rapprocher de Yeon-Woo à cause de sa propre "maladie" qui est la "Prosopagnosie" (Maladie pas mal exploité dans les dramas et souvent tourné aux gags...) mais qu'il a aussi été intrigué par cette seule personne dont il perçoit le visage.

Je finirai par dire que j'ai préféré cette histoire aux productions précédentes car ici, on voit un réel développement entre les héros (les sentiments ne sont pas sortis de nulle part !) malgré qu'on ne nous explique pas certaines choses (Où est passé la mère de Yeon-Woo ? D'où vient cette anomalie visuelle qui crée des monos et des probes ? La perceptions des couleurs peut-elle revenir de façon définitive ?)

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One of my all time favorite fated mates BLs

Korean BL Color Rush leaped onto the scene at the VERY end of 2020 and blew my mind. Despite being a typical K-BL short run of short episodes, it was given more legs than 2020′s Mr Heart or You Wish with a strong core concept even with 8 episodes of only around 15 minutes each. Color Rush (with a total run time of c. 2 hours) felt more like a movie than a series and managed to satisfy me because of this cinematic approach.

It drew heavily on yaoi manga staging and storyboarding, we can see this in many of the over the shoulder shots, actor stances and postures, and framing techniques. Since I love this style, it contributed to my enjoyment of the series without distracting me.

It also broke ground in many ways for BL:

1. It neatly avoided some of the pacing issues of K-BL with a magical realism component that forced intimacy in the first episode (in-world justified use of the fated mates or soulmates trope).
2. They cast a known (former) K-pop idol in the seme role - Hwall from The Boyz. Not all that unusual (see Wish You) but they gave that idol a near perfect role for him and he executed it beautifully. He is a dancer by training and the role required him to do most of his emoting via physicality.
4. It was concept driven, in that it had a strong fantasy component, like Cherry Magic. However, Color Rush used the fantastical as an aspect of visual story telling (Cherry Magic was audio) which allowed it to be less soft, sweet, cute and more tense, sinister, dramatic.
5. The narrative backbone was an insanely perfect allegory for queer first love and the coming out experience without beating us over the head with it.

Thai BL may be my stan, but Color Rush is my bias, and it topped my list of BLs to beat going in to 2021. Okay I’ll stop using K-pop lingo now but basically I really flipping LOVED COLOR RUSH.

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The story gives me high expectations

Apparently, the story was definitely a bomb. the idea is solid, good story development, and well-picked scene (even though there are some unnecessary scenes). But it's a novel adaptation, so it should be excellent on the story side. The cast, I'm not gonna judge since I don't read the novel, but the acting, kinda lacking, I could feel the 'stiffness' (IDK if the screenplay dialog is lacking or cuz it's just their first bl role or the angle). But I think the editor plays the best role here, they really doing great. The music is great, but I don't find it special. but definitely support the story pretty decent. For re-watch, I wouldn't, but some people might be cuz it's an interesting story.

overall, good! I could've given 8 if they change the ending scene. But some people said it's okay, so it might be just me.

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Insensitive on so many levels

While I thought the overall story was decent,
the actors are good and it is nice to see a gay couple get a happier ending for once, I found the whole plotline to be very problematic .
Leave it to Korea to demonize an entire demographic of people for a disability. So many references throughout the entire story of the monos being murderers or kidnappers , doing terrible things simply for the sole fact they have a disability . I find this completely insensitive. It was completely unnecessary to give Yeonwoo thoughts of kidnapping Yoohan when Yoohan was more than willing to be close to him. That was only done to add more depth to the supposed fact that monos can't be trusted and no one should get close to them. They should just live isolated lives. And of course the main couple gets a happy ending only because it turns out that Yoohan is disabled too. Do better Korea.
The sad thing is, this almost could have been an amazing movie. There was some serious potential here for this story without all the shaming of disabled people. It's sad that the fact that Yeonwoo attempts suicide over all this is almost played off as normal.
On top of that, they made such an issue about his mom's disappearance but then leave it hanging completely in the end . Why bother throwing it in if you're not going to bother even addressing it again or brining any kind of closure?
I also think it's a bit messed up they have to incorporate mental and physical illness into one of the few queer love stories available in Korea . Seems a bit controversial to me but I'm not going to get into that too.

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The colours! The needless melodrama! The genuine emotions!!

I had the time of my life with this show, let me tell you.
At first it intrigued me by taking an age-old soulmate trope (age-old to fanfiction writers anyway - thank you for your service, gentlefolk), giving it a bit of spit and polish, and turning it into an actual TV show.
Then it entertained me with its wonderful, over-the-top teen angst. When you're young all of your emotions are just way too big for your body to contain, every moment of joy is magnified, every failure evokes utter despair, and love... well, that feels just a little bit like the end of the world.
Really good stories know how to lean into this and provide thoughtful, realistic portrayals of youth that audiences of all ages can enjoy. Best-selling stories know how to take these emotions to their extremes and that's how you get delightful abominations like Twilight.
This show, I thought, is going to be gay soulmate Twilight and I am here for every ludicrous second of it!

But then, finally, the series completely hooked me by somehow being none and all of the above at the same time.
The plot is indeed something straight out of a fanfiction, but the general tone, pacing, and writing make it all seem fresh and new.
The characters and their emotions are intense, dramatic, and utterly, disarmingly sincere. Forget being shielded by a thick layer of sheer mirth, this show punched its way straight through all my silly, goofy expectations and demanded I actually care about its characters.
Yes, the story is still somewhat ridiculous and over-the-top, there's unresolved plot-threads galore, and most of the angst could have been avoided if only everyone involved just went to therapy.
But the characters feel real and there is such genuine care, love, and humour woven into the script it actually makes you sit up and listen. Someone clearly had a vision for this story, they knew what they were making and they pulled it off exactly as planned.
But why, why this combination of deep care and utter ludicrousness?
Well, to me it all starts to make sense if you consider the show as a parable. And I don't just mean the clear thematic metaphors of queer love and homophobia, though lord knows there's those as well.
No, I mean the drama as a whole. The vast and unfamiliar world we're thrust into and expected to accept unquestioningly. The extreme highs and lows of emotions, the hurried pacing, the picture-perfect happy ending, the COLOURS.
It's a parable, and a damn effective one at that, about fear and desire and a desperate, clawing search for love.
It teaches us that, though freedom, love, and identity can feel overwhelming and all-consuming if you've been deprived of them, there is nothing more important than opening yourself up to them anyway and that, once you do, you won't be swept away by some uncontrollable force, no, life just sort of... continues. It becomes ordinary, beautifully mundane even.

Maybe I'm reading to much into it all, maybe this really is gay soulmate Twilight and if you enjoy it that way, that's fine too.
But to me this is a really rather clever little drama which uses a highly stylised format to incisively analyse the terrors of love and desire from a distinctly queer viewpoint.
There are honestly endless ways to enjoys this series so give it a try - watch it and see, maybe you'll get something entirely different and unique out of the experience.

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My feelings on this short series

Ok, I just finished the series so my opinions and feelings are still very fresh.

First of all I want to point out how great it is the South Korea is starting to open up more into the BL genre. They are constantly making short series and although they have few and short episodes, they are small stepping stones into the fantastic BL world.
That being said, I am somewhat neutral about this story.
Firstly, I loved the cast, the music and the colors, especially the plotline. However, the story isn't finished.
It took about four episodes to get things rolling and there just wasn't enough time in each episode to get things done smoothly. The story was slow and though it would have been perfect for a longer story, this series just didn't have the time for that.
But the biggest issue I have with this is Yeon Woo's missing mother. She was mentioned from the beginning, Yeon Woo was obsessed about seeing her in her blue dress and brown shoes, his aunt was investigating her disappearance and if felt like they were going to find out what happened to her and the other Mono's. But nope. Nothing came from that, there was no conclusion on his mothers issue or what could have happed not to mention the issues that might have come up between her and his father.
The story isn't finished and although I hope there will be another, longer series, I won't hold my breath.
Even with my complaints though, the series is beautiful and the storyline is interesting enough. It won't be one I'll go back and re-watch but I may skim through it once more just for the beauty.

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Honestly, I am not sure what I've just seen

Before watching the show, I thought I was getting into a slow-burn love romance.
I was both wrong and right.

What can I say about this show? Let's start with the negative.

-the effect of the change in the eyes around the person was too much neon kitty for me and it distracted the viewer from the very decent effect they have done on the eyes themselves.
-there wasn't really any character development from the characters. I am still not sure what is the deal with both of them.

Positive:
-The actors were ok. They've done their best with this weird plot and characters.
-Decent production.

I am honestly not sure what I think about it. The main thing, aside from the lack of character development was the weird plot they've gone through. Up until episode, 7 things were nice-romantic BL, and all at once, it became a suicide-murder-tv show. I know they have shown how hard it was to resist the colors but I wish they have shown more than half an episode on the main character. He was turning mad at the colour too fast for my taste. It felt like it had so much wasted potential.

However, at the same time, I finished the whole show in one evening. I don't how to explain it. The show really wasn't good yet so addictive.

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Really intriguing concept for a BL

I love the concept of the mono and probe, with the mono being colorblind until they meet their probe who lets them see color. Lots of potential for relationships which the drama did well with at times. I was hooked on the first episode and was pleasantly surprised by how good the actor for the main character Yeon Woo is. His acting feels natural in even serious moments. However the same can't really be said of of the actor for his love interest, Yoo Han. There's something about the way he talks that's too soft/monotone, and his emotions don't come across that well. Their chemistry is fine for the most part, except that kiss near the end lol...it looked super fake. There are other parts that make me laugh out loud, like when Yeon Woo sees color the visual effects are pretty cringe.

I thought the two guy friends in their class were cute, I wish they had more screentime but they just disappeared after like the first two episodes. Usually I get annoyed by the MC's friends but they were fun.

Storyline is good but chonky at times. Like it feels like there's a gap in between scenes or suddenly the main characters are really close for no reason. And at the end it reveals that Yoo Han has face blindness, which I feel like is a big deal too and could've been used for the plot but he just casually revealed it like wth?? I want to know more about Yeon Woo's mom and her disappearance. I'm looking forward to watching the second season, thought I wonder how it will be with a new actor for Yoo Han's character.

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