Even Sun Series (2022)

A lot of wasted talent and a beautiful backdrop

Overall the average rating is a 7, because of the actors' charms, the couples' chemistry, and a fantastic island paradise as the setting for at least one couple's romance. All of which was wasted on a very underdeveloped plot and rushed storytelling. When the couples got scenes they were great and the potential was there. Athit (Boun) and Sun (Prem)'s relationship had minimal development it just kind of went from 0-60. The backstory between the main characters is like an outline in the dark that you can barely make out and eluded to by one random clip at the end of the series. I felt like they went back to try to fill in some of the plot holes as quickly as possible with flashbacks. Overall, I don't think this will hold me until Between Us comes out in November. It's left me unsatified.

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Plain and simple: this series was dull and boring.

To be honest with you, describing the plot of this drama is difficult. Mainly because I really had no clue what was happening for the majority of the series, and when I was doing my very best to pay close attention to the story, I was bored to tears.

Our story begins with Sun, a debt collector. His father sends him out to collect a debt from Athit, who lives on a beautiful island. Athit has no intention of paying, and does what he can to make Sun's life as hard as possible. While this is going on, we also have two separate storylines playing out between various characters that are very very loosely linked together.

I don't even know if you can say this drama had a plot. It was confusing and difficult to follow. Character actions made little sense, the pacing was a mess - things either sped up too fast or were dragged out painfully slowly - and there were way too many characters with complex storylines than could be resolved in 6 episodes. What that led to was a surface understanding of all the characters and a very weak romance (I was incredibly confused when the leads were suddenly romantically interested in one another after having gone through so many episodes at each other's throats).

The series has some upsides though. There was potential here; the filming location is one of the most breathtaking that I've seen. The filming was done incredibly well, with gorgeous shots of the beaches and ocean. The cast is talented, but they just weren't given something good enough to work with. Had the writing been stronger, the drama would have had a leg to stand on. As it is though, I only finished the series for Boun and Prem and finished feeling like I barely understood or remembered what happened.

The subtitles were also an ongoing issue. The English translation was awkward at best, confusing and difficult to understand at worst. I wouldn't want to penalize a show for this but when it's on a paid platform (I watched on iQiyi) I really don't get it. This isn't Studio Wabi Sabi's first project and I've never had this issue with a series from them before, which made this even more puzzling. The lack of coherent subtitles makes this hard for non-Thai fans to access and enjoy.

Overall, I kind of wish I hadn't wasted so much time watching it.

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Summer vacation

Do you remember those Adam Sandler romcoms, where Adam Sandler wanted to go on a vacation, therefore his character conveniently went on a vacation/lived somewhere in Hawaii? That's exactly the vibe I'm getting from this show. I kinda liked those tho.

I really appreciate the fact this isn't another university/high school drama, because it's actually really nice to see something new for once. I don't think I've ever seen anything similar to this, something about boxers or debt collectors... Yeah, that doesn't ring a bell. So extra points for originality!

I only wish Even Sun was a bit longer or the plot was a bit better executed, because it just felt a bit rushed at times and there were moments when it felt like we had skipped a few steps (actually a lot of them). Things were just going way too fast and it honestly didn't make sense sometimes. Like the whole childhood storyline, there were like two scenes in total and that simply wasn't enough. Another thing, I would love to know more about Arthid's father, but again, we didn't even get to see Sun's reaction to all that. And both couples... I'm really happy for them, I'm happy it ended up this way, I just wish it didn't come out of nowhere. I don't blame the actors at all, they were great. Don't get me wrong, there definitely was the chemistry in both cases, there were those little signs, but it was just so... rushed.

But you know what? I gotta say I still enjoyed this. I'm weak for these two, I really liked the second couple as well, those locations were beautiful (I miss summer so much!) and it's nice to see something so light-hearted during this gloomy weather. PS: The English subtitles definitely could've been better lol.

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A BL drama that feels like a kpop summer album

Even Sun is a strange piece of BL media that has too much production money on a little effort story. I mean, we all now this drama is kind of a sneak peak of BounPrem before their long waited return on Between Us (the sequel of Until We Meet Again). And, because of all the budget to the photography and scenery, I couldn't just give up on watching as flat the writing were.

To be fair, the acting is quite okay. There are some pieces it don't work so much, but the main cast (BounPrem and the boxers), delivers everything fine, with some extra point for the chemistry the couples have even with the lips-closed kiss scenes. The elders played very well and made all the backstory quite believable (at some minimum extent). It's difficult to see elders on BL, so I was happy to see 3 of them doing important roles (some of Sun's father's avoiding dept moments were by far the best comedy part of the show).

The evolution of the main romance were not so well written (the boxers plot were fine, thought), but if you clicked this, you probably already like BounPrem, so them having little romantic moments was something that didn't bothered me some much. I mean, It's a short drama released on summer with a beach summer motif, of course it's not going to be very deep,

One thing I must say, thought: the art direction of this BL is beyond its gourgeous looks. Have you realized that Sun is wearing dark colors and jeans THE WHOLE TIME like a visual representation that he don't belong to the beach? His clothes gradually changes before he comes more and more fond of the enviroment (first he uses large pants, and latter, brighter colors). This is a fine touch that even big hits don't have. I was suprised to see it.

So Even Sun is a good drama for it's purpose: it's simple, it's predictable, it's summery, it's cute and full of good vibes, much like an anime's beach episode or a kpop group's summer album. You may not remember much of it some time after and it probably won't leave a big impression on you, but, if you want just chill and feel warmer at a sun's beach, it is a must watch.

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Fluffy Fun with BounPrem

Maybe I'm just keeping my rose-colored glasses on, but I really liked this series. There were a couple of flaws--like, it's two short, only six episodes, so the story gets choppy sometimes--but not enough for me, at least, to knock off more than one star( and that's only for story quality, and if I could only remove half a star that'd be great, but I can't so it's fine). Also, when you realize they successfully shot this during COVID I am more than willing to forgive flaws, because shooting during a pandemic is hard enough given all the health and safety regulations you have to add on top of Everything Else That Could Possibly Go Wrong During a Shoot(and I speak from experience, that in itself is a long-ass list) and everyone involved just seemed happy to be working(thank you BTS vids before the credits!). Boun(Athit) and Prem(Sun) are GOLD when they are on screen together no matter what they do, and it was awesome to see all of their antics(Prem screaming "I won't let you eat bananas!" at a monkey and Boun's thing with the handcuffs, and the two of them riding on the scooter while handcuffed were fabulous I don't care what anyone says). It was also surprisingly nice to see Tae Weerapat Toemmaneerat(B from "Between Us") in a less comedic role--as Prem's competition in debt collecting. Also, Tiger Tanawat Hudchaleelaha is so freakin cute as Boun's little brother Nemo I could die. I wanted fluffy BounPrem fun, and I got fluffy BounPrem fun. And I will watch this again for that reason.

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Not much to even say .....

I wish I could give this more stars, but I just can't. The only reason its even that high is because of Ashing and Mangkorn. In which I am currently watching them in Between Us!!!

The plot was super confusing and made almost no sense, there was just so many side plots and so many other stories that needed to be told, but because of the short 6 episode i do think it was difficult ...

The only thing for me that was really nice was the island they shot on, wow it looked obsoletely beautiful (name of island which i had known) the visuals on the island was breath taking.

Overall by the time the series ended, it felt like none of the plotlines were properly wrapped up, and I think the series would have benefited a lot from either being simply longer or just straight up cutting some plotlines and characters, 'cause the set up was far too elaborate to execute properly in six episodes.

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A Hot Mess

This BL series is a ‘hot mess’. The story makes no sense, the translations even less sense, and the characters are merely caricatures. Yet, I enjoyed it. Well, not all of it, but parts of it, especially the end. What made this enjoyable is the characters were just so cute, adorable, and had pleasant dispositions about them, that it was hard to dislike them. While it bills itself as a romantic-comedy, I found very little of it funny; amusing perhaps on occasion. Some scenarios were simply down-right perplexing. Sadly, this is a ‘throw-away’ series that could have been fun but became only mildly amusing. I did not hate it for sure, as the end was rather compelling.

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Could have been great

Like alot of other reviews I agree this shouldn't have been jammed into 6 episodes I feel like doing so really ruined the story value. The idea overall is really good and the potential relationships that show themselves would have been captivating to watch but instead of seeing how they could develop with conflict and drama we get a watered down version and have to fill in so many blanks ourselves its insane. This could have easily been a 13 episode series with potential for more than that we still don't get a clear answer on whats going on with Sun's father which should have been at least the main thing the series tied up but instead its dangling like what happens where did that money come from?!? We have no idea. I think overall I'm just disappointed because the trailers looked so good and had such depth but then you watch the series and feel like you got scammed.

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A Waste Of Time

I really like Boun and Prem, but this show was so bad. Rating of a seven is stretching it.

I kept watching, hoping it would get better, but it never did. The story line was not good, apparently neither was the directing and Boun and Prem were not convincing as a couple. Maybe it was the story line and directing, but they had zero chemistry. They had more appeal in their cameo appearance in Cutie Pie Series than they did in this entire series.

The scenery was good, that is about the only positive. I was really disappointed. The series is confusing and boring, and none of the actors were worth mentioning. Some of it was even irritating.

No rewatch value at all.

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What a pity

It’s certainly an innovative concept BUT DOES IT WORK??? Sadly, no 😦

Sun and Athit’s strange debtor-collector relationship (and how it inverses subsequently) doesn’t really do much for the story, imo. The show positions itself as a light-hearted romance comedy, but the humour fails to entertain. Even the supposedly fluffier BL scenes weren’t enough to keep me interested.

BounPrem fans should also be prepared for Even Sun to waste a bit of time with a bunch of other couples (and for no good reason too).

While I’m glad to see BounPrem again, their story had nothing that kept me coming back for more. The only reason why I didn’t drop this is because I have a special spot for BounPrem .

Full review here: https://asianblreviews.wordpress.com/2022/08/05/even-sun-2022-review-bl/

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