Remember Me (2022)

Better than you think...Very well done.

I really liked this series. And, I scored it higher than other reviews basically, because I went into it without expectations. After watching Be Mine Superstar, I have been searching out the First/Ja titles to see how they work together. I loved finding the audition scenes posted on TikTok. And, I noticed after finishing the series this evening - the Viki viewers averaged a higher score than, the MyDrama reviewers. Curious as to why.

This is a down to earth series showing a group of friends from elementary school age through college and beyond. Done well enough to keep your interest and they take the time to develop the characters just enough so, you care. With so many cast members and the usual stumbles in the writing/directing department - we always wish for more. Give us the beautiful work of Our Dating Sims where the extra characters are there just to balance the story and never take your focus on the main characters.

This director held the camera on the characters far too long in too many scenes. Okay...we get it...he's sad...move on! But, it is forgivable. Time passing is handled so badly. Em and Name spend the night in the same bedroom and as they fall to sleep - they are awkwardly holding hands. The next scene has them in the same bed together - Em waiting for Name to wake up. Okay. But, wait! This is a completely different day. What the H E double hockey sticks happened? This happens often during the series. Pay attention - you can catch the timeline - though, frustratingly handled by bad editing.

Agree with most of the other reviews. Spend another $1.98 and have another song added to the OST. There were some scenes where the words fit in an almost comical way - not intended - the lazy sound person would just press play and leave the room. REALLY hate the preschool background music they use for most of the production. Just awful. I had to turn the volume down to 4 and thank the gods for subtitles in too many scenes.

Name's arc was satisfying. I loved that they showed his near attempt at suicide when he thought his only friend had abandoned him. When you live in fear and only have people around you tell you to get over it - nothing changes. You really feel lost. When he thought Em had just used him and grown tired of him - what else could he do? And, then - to deal with his Mom collapsing - that scene where he lays on the ground and just gives up is near perfect. And, I love how their little group - parents and all stay together and support each other.

I like that this is just a normal BL. People get together - their friends love that they are happy - life goes on. Golf's parents are wonderful. When the dad wanted them to hold hands was so cute. They were just happy their son found someone to love. And, I love their shyness. So real. And, I thought how they handled Golf's issues were so well done. I know that look when someone does wrong and then, comes into the room being overly happy to conceal what an ass they have been. Evading looking at people, the smile, talking about everything but, being late...handled really well. And, while I thought it was lazy - I didn't mind how quickly they got back together. It should have gone on for a few days longer of Golf being a bit more sorry and tormented at what he had done over the course of many months.

Em's arc was a bit of a mystery. Was he fighting his feelings while in school? Was he feeling overwhelmed? Why he did the things he did seemed more mean than to help. So, I held my breath in many scenes with Name because I felt he was going to hurt him again. It was hard to believe his sincerity when he came to offer support when Name's mother collapsed. But, after that moment - his character never waivered. I grew to appreciate that and his character.

Champ - boy - that was hard to watch. You really hurt with him and thank goodness - he finally let go. What a great way to handle the whole wedding day. Appreciated that detail as well.

Give this one a chance and be patient - it is worth the wait. And, one little tidbit I want you to notice - you never see a straight couple kiss. I can't even remember a hug. They save those kisses and embraces for the BL couples. Cute.

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I gave it that review because of JaFirst and ManTitle

I (kind of) liked this one because of the plots/stories

Golf/Gun: the plot being about them keeping in contact by writing letters to eachother everyday through the years was really sweet and how they ended up meeting in person by mistake only to find out that they had already suspected one another of being the ones writing the
lettters to eachother. One thing that made me sad tho was that Guns reason for never approaching Golf was that he didnt think golf liked him because of the way he
looked, that made me sad.

Em/Name: this one was a cute one because Em was the only other person besides his mom that Name truly
trusted (yeah he had the friend group but he was closer to Em then the rest of them) i kind of feel like they robbed us on this one because we barely had any context on how their relationship had went from friends-Lovers since they had only been lovers for like 2 eps (the last ones). I didnt like that Em had only talked to Name because Names mom had asked him to tho and the fact that he disappeared/ reappeared from Names life because his mom asked him to and how he completely disappeared from Names life when he went off to college.

Nan-Chumpo: i dont really know how to feel about this one because Nan gave up his future for Chumpo (also didnt know how to feel about Mean directing and staring in a BL/Y drama after everything that happened/ came out about him)

Champ: my poor Champ suffered throughout the whole series from having to move away from his family to his
family hiding the fact that his grandpa was sick THEN
hiding the fact that he passed away and also hiding the
fact that the family dog had passed away plus his sister not visiting him for 2 years only to visit him 1 time and
telling him that she is pregnant, getting married and
needs to move away (im pretty sure she only visited him because she felt guilty)

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Unwatchable

This is the dullest BL I've seen - it's unwatchable. I just dropped it after Ep 3, which was almost entirely people messaging each other with a couple of phone calls thrown in, and it was entirely people telling each other they passed their college entraince exams. Riveting.

This is incompetently made. The camera work is good, but the editing is miserable. First of all, there are ways to quickly communicate the characters' excitement about going to college other than each character calling every other character to tell them they passed. The music editing is even worse. The background music is way too loud, and it's the same single bar of pizzicato strings downloaded for free played over and over. There's a scene where someone calls someone who's standing outside a club (to tell him he passed his entrance exams), and every time the perspective shifts to club boy, the same chord from the club track is played - it's so awfully edited it's astonishing.

Title and Man from The Yearbook are quite good, but nobody else stands out - I know what First and Ja look like because I punished myself for my sins by watching Don't Say No, but I honestly can't recognize anyone else from ep to ep. Well, I guess Mean, but he's unrecognizable because his "hair" keeps changing radically and tragically.

I honestly can't understand how anyone can get through this before falling into a coma. Well, I suppose the loud music might keep your brain from shutting down, but the metal spike you shove into your ear to make it stop will have the same effect.

Run away.

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Slice of life drama

I loved this drama. It had a nostalgic and comfortable atmosphere that I enjoyed sitting in with each episode.. They really tried to give all the characters screen time and their stories were told completely which i liked but the down side was that with so few episodes and so many supporting characters and stories to be told i struggled to fully connect with them. I loved that there were different family dynamics portrayed, different family types and their experiences . I also enjoyed seeing how our mains grew as individuals and all possessed some trouble or another that was relatable. There wasn't much focus on relationships but there was just enough focus for me to remain invested in their stories and also relate to what they went through. The overall story concept was actually a good one. I struggled with the time hops, they worked well in story telling but at times I didn’t know where we were in the time line and finally the story of Chompu and Nak- not many shows really showcase disability, their hardships and how society often writes them off or ostracise them (especially poorer countries). All in all a nice emotional roller coaster life drama

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Impressive acting, good series

This review is going to contain only mild spoilers. I'll try to keep it more of a synopsis rather than a retelling of the story.

This series follows a group of friends as they navigate childhood, school, friendships, loves, and losses. I am totally in love with their friendship as a group, because they are so close and never leave anyone behind. But also, most of them aren't so dependent on each other that they can't make new friends or make their own way in the world. The one who is totally dependent is Name, because of his trauma-induced disability, but Em is so patient and kind with Name, which has both good and bad results prior to Name deciding to take steps to help himself. Champ has his own dependencies to navigate and distances himself from others , stunting his own emotional growth temporarily.

Gun and Naknan have their own stories as well. Gun hides behind letters, texts, and emails, and watches his his pen-pal from afar until they finally meet. Even then, his fear of rejection causes him to keep his identity secret, but this prevents his relationship with Golf from moving forward. Naknan, on the other hand, pushes his newfound love to accept that he accepts her, even though she isn't a part of his playboy lifestyle.

The stories told in this series are good. They are slices of life, love, and family. The series has a tendency to drag in some places, but the acting is phenomenal from everyone in the series. I usually have a problem with the "adults" in a drama like this. They are usually seasoned actors, so you would think that they wouldn't be the problem, but I have found that they, for whatever reason, have the most stilted lines/acting. But in this series, the mains, the parents/adults, and the kids were all really good, and I appreciate that.

Quick rant: I have to agree with every other comment that the wigs are distracting. It is obvious that Mean was wearing a wig (and if 'we' are wrong about that, and they actually colored and styled his hair that way?? OMG horrible!). I'm not sure if Ja's hair was real or not, but it's the same style he used in 'Until We Meet Again' so, although I think it looked much more realistic than Mean's, it probably was a hairpiece as well, as it was never styled any differently than a messy ponytail. (Which, honestly, I kinda liked, but I'm all for man-buns and ponytails, so forgive me.)

I am disappointed that we never got to see Champ become involved in any type of relationship. There was a hint of a possible attraction at the end of the series, but I was really cheering for him to find someone. Champ's story, unfortunately, was part of the slower parts of the show, which does Title a discredit as an actor. He played his parts well, but there were too many instances where the audience gazed at Champ as he brooded or cried, when the writers could have used that time to create more story for him instead of leaving him disconnected from the world. I understand that that was the point...to show that he was disconnected and stuck in his head. But we got the point after the first 15 seconds or so of each of that type of scene, and it kind of made me want to shake him out of his depression and tell him to be more grateful. He was so busy working hard to live up to his grandpa's expectations that he didn't realize that his grandpa wasn't the source of those expectations, and he failed to understand his grandpa's message completely.

This was a good drama, and I'm glad to have watched it. I will admit that I had to drop it temporarily because the first few episodes were building background, and it was going too slow for me. But I'm glad I picked it up again. The friends and the families were all supportive and made this, all in all, a feel-good show, and I love to see happy endings. There is enough open-endedness for there to be another season, but I don't think that's going to happen, so we have to use our imaginations for that.

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Elective Mutism? and not Selective Mutism

I watched this movie in order to see how the production company will be presenting the disorder of Mutism. Upon watching all 14 episodes, it seems apparent to me that the disorder of the character of Name is Elective Mutism and not Selective Mutism. Although Elective Mutism is an outdated term, the story seemed to be based on the basic definition of Elective Mutism ("refusal to speak in 'almost all' social situations, despite normal ability to do so"). During childhood, according to the story, Name witnessed the death of his father and somehow blamed it on his mother. As a result, he refused to talk, and basically communicates via Sign Laguage and other medium, e.g. sticky notes, MSN chat. It was not clear to me, if Name refused to talk (as a choice) because of fear, or because of his rebellious behavior against his mother. In contrast, selective mutism's basic definiton is the failure to speak in specific situations and is strongly associated with social anxiety disorder.

Maybe I am missing something here, but I do welcome any Speech-Language Pathologists, who can also share his/her own thoughts about Psychogenic Mutism. My own BL Film, OSMOSIS The Series, digs deep into Selective Mutism as a result of another type of childhood trauma. Basically, I aligned it from the experience of a guest at the Oprah Winfrey Show, and therefore I presented it as a social anxiety disorder.

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The only bad thing about this show is the wigs

Remember Me will bring about waves of nostalgia, especially for those who grew up in the era of MSN – painful hours of waiting for someone to come online and feeling your stomach lurch when they reply. This show brought a silly grin to my face for sure.

It’s also about friendships. Family. And transitions in life.

But to me, the true marvel about Remember Me is also how it shows the evolution of relationships across a wide time horizon.

High school friends that you thought would be around forever tend to slink away into the background. (But with some luck they'll come back into your lives.) Family that you can count on, even if you can't agree with the choices they've made.

This show is about the transition into college life and adulthood. And some parts will get uncomfortable. But with the vicissitudes of life, there will be pain, but there will also be joy.

We rarely see characters with disabilities or disorders in mainstream BLs, but Remember Me really went out of their way to embrace greater diversity. And that's something I really appreciated as well.

My full review here: https://asianblreviews.wordpress.com/2023/01/09/remember-me-2022-thai-bl/

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Original story.

This drama have truly original and beautiful story. It shows struggles many of us had during growing up and that life is not just unicorns and rainbows. It's shows more realistic side of life. Also the fact that they were able to show years passing in such a great way even thinking about changing phones or apps they were using. Great idea. It is a BL but I didn't feel that intense romantic mood between actors. They could work a little bit more on music and showing how each character came to an understanding of their feelings for each other. I felt that it was not that well presented from perspective of every character. If not for that then I would consider this series one of the best.

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Best Thai drama

I started watching it thinking it maybe a BL drama but considering the plot and timeline the writers set, BL was unknown in that era. Being a queer wasnt a trend nor was it considered normal (as somewhat acceptable like it is now). The plot beautifully blossoms from childhood to the teens to adult life! Each character has been sketched by the writer in a unique way that even supporting cast is as important as the leads. The five leads are fantabulous in emoting, acting and expressions! The best BL I must say! If ur an old schooler of romance, you will love it and especially if u belong to the 90s-2000s era, u will just go swoon over each element that was the highlight of that era - for instance, mediums of communication to commonly used attire and objects u possessed in the same timeline. You will definitely be transported to your childhood every minute and end up teary and emotional too. A beautiful joyride of emotions, please do not miss this beautiful drama. Hell lot of family values and importance of friendship here.

Spoiler: it is not the typical BL you will expect to watch.

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remember me

remember me is such old classic bl for me ... soo pure and awesome . I wasn't soo intrested in the show but i decided to give it a try . i love the fact that it portrays the youth and the high school romance in a non cringey way , plus the aesthetic is just cheff's kiss ? sooo good and just like a beautiful poem . seeing first and ja in a series like this really shows the potential of their acting. I also am falling for the second lead couple ... love the fact that even though name is mute and don't wanna talk the other character (sorry still don't remember names) never lefts him out and makke him included in every way possible form the starting . the way the show started was soooo beautiful ? and they gave a full on detailed view of there childhood and that's the base eventually. it gives me butterfliesssssss thinking about how the old generation used to communicate with letters and when emails started it was another trend . like waiting for someone u love to have that sweet reply , u can't have access to computers 247 . it just makes too much sense . I am really impressed and Hoping alot from this show ????

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A MASTERPIECE

What a journey! It felt both healing and nostalgic. Being myself born in early '90s it was like I relived my childhood up to the adulthood. Internet, computers, the first mobile phones, MSN... what a era! Too bad that this show is so underestimate but it was kinda predictable since this is a very unconventional BL: the slow burn romantic relationships, zero presence of spicy scenes or too dramatic events and the time very large time setting that spans from elementary to the adulthood. And yet I really loved it because they portrayed all the kinds of problems we have to face during the process of growing so amazingly not only friendships and love problems but also the process to become independent while you still need the support of your family or more deeper matters such as anxiety and disability. To me this show is a masterpiece and should deserve more attention. Totally recommended!

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