Gray Currents (2024)

Poetry lost in translation

It certainly needs a better, brand new English translation to allow non-Korean speakers to re-translate it from English into their own languages. I can't believe the current translation is a faithful one, because that means the original script wouldn't make much sense and logic. In English, the back-and-forth dialogues show too much nonsense. IMHO, it is unlikely that director and screenwriter Lee Son Eum would have liked it this way, not a chance... unless there is still too much inexperience, naivety or lack of skills, but I wanna hope not.
Seriously, whoever produced this mini-series needs a new translator, I beg of you! Otherwise, you are missing on a good distribution and reaching the real intended target.

Although the poverty of lines is clearly on purpose, to be honest and objective, setting aside the bad
translation, here and there there are indeed some tiny holes in the script, to the extent that you might feel confused, for example, the staging (the mise en scène) lacks something.
Another fault I perceived is the editing, which is not very clear and, again, a bit confusing: the viewer fights to get the moment in which a particular event is taking place and the general timeline of the events. When you miss that, you kinda fail to grasp the story that wants to be told, not so good, is it? We are not in Christopher Nolan's Inception, right?
Such a shame, because, otherwise, it would be one of the best korean BL (finally NOT-BL!) series I have ever watched!

That said, I loved it!

Minimalist, hermetic, realistic, mature, intense, absolutely original and out of the chorus!
Zero clichè, zero cheap and cheesy scenes, no more cringe and unrealistic stuff that wants to trigger viewers' emotions but looks ridiculous rather than romantic.
You can definitely see a production trying to pursue its artistic style instead of luring the audience with fan service gifts or marketing expectations. BRAVI!

And so, we have fine characters, both main and supporters: real people, full of flaws, sinners but not monsters, often selfish, childish and opportunist, but also caring and capable of self-denial, sacrifice, devotion. And it concerns both sons and parents. We are finally out of stereotypical gay characters, we just watch true boys with their friends and families.

Yoon Dae's devotion and desperate love request after a life of abuse are poignant, while his perseverance in making his voice heard is admirable. He seems to be a slacker, taking advantage of other people's kindness, but deep down he is also struggling to regain a sense of belonging. He screams that he wants to love and be loved, he still believes, even throwing a tantrum, but then he endures and waits.
His sweetness in stealing kisses from Soo Hyuk shows us his most vulnerable side, almost pitiful: "Leave me tomorrow, but tonight, please, just pretend and let me have one last gift: let the warmth of your lips be my last memory of you".
There is such a sorrow in this behavior that your heart is tightened, you feel his resignation in accepting that he must live alone, but at the same time your heart is filled with love by the force of his desire. So passionate, so beautiful.

You can feel the same from Soo Hyuk: watching him carrying alone the burden of his family's failures is excruciating and yet his determination to survive and not to give up, despite fatigue and sacrifice, shows strength and courage. He has always behaved as a trustworthy adult without being able though to express his feelings and desires, to the point where he is no longer capable of dreaming for a better future. We can sense he feels guilty about abandoning Yoon Dae years before; we feel his sense of duty and how much he wants to make it up to Yoon Dae. We can also guess he has always had feelings for Yoon Dae, conflicted intense feelings that frighten him. He is exhausted from being the reliable guy, always taking care of others, he can't bear it anymore. Now he needs help, someone to rely on, someone who takes care of him; he would need Yoon Dae to man up and become the adult and so he is tempted to run away again, to put distance between the two of them.
But then he stops and waits.
In different forms, they’re both fighters.

In the series there are incredible gloomy atmospheres that deliver the characters' feelings and moods, full of pain and sadness, filled with desire or rage too often suppressed. That kind of desire and anger daring to explode and surface only when there is an intimacy you finally succeeded in building with another human being you feel connected to.
That is why they easily end up hurting each other.
You can spot the exclusivity of their relationship when they confront themselves and show their true selves only to each other.

Nice choice in picking closed and confined spaces, soft lights and dull colors to portray not only the sense of no-way-out of the two leads but also the attachment, their bond and their intimacy, whispered, in total contraddiction with outdoor or open spaces, noisy and always full of light, where the both of them face their own, somehow abusing, parents. The open place, the rest of the world, is dangerous. The closed one, the two of them, is the safe zone, indeed the shelter; no more the cage that previously locked them up and isolated them. Loneliness creates anxiety though, so Yoon Dae refuses or struggles to live that solitude in places he wants to call home, places he will eventually realize he wants to live with Soo Hyuk.

Beautiful photography, pure and clean use of the film camera, nice close-up shots: essential, rough, but also touching and emotional. Good acting performances.

The beauty of this work lies in the unsaid, the unspoken, the untold. You get its poetry through the lack of explicit scenes and lines, which creates a very strong tension in the viewers who crave developments in the plot and focus on every detail in order to follow the story. This leads them to imagine the unseen, to create by themselves the love story line that eventually, despite everything, brings to a very happy ending. The light at the end of the tunnel.
I found this to be a very powerful narrative style.

The series starts with "I reject and resent you but I love you, I want you and chase you" on one character, while the other goes with "I care about you, I help you, I love you but I have to run away from you and everyone else".
Immaturity and emotional openness versus maturity and emotional block. Two mates under the relentless effect of attractive and repulsive forces, even after a long time.
And yet, despite the absence of words, the protagonists' mutual tenderness and love are revealed by their taking care of each other’s shoes, which symbolizes so much: I cherish and keep my love for you for years only to myself, because I am too scared to believe in love. Because I don't dare to show you anything, because I can't deal with you and put myself on the line, because I can't be brave enough to hope for anything... until I do, we both do.
Wonderful, disruptive, romantic message.

However, the ultimate content I found is: "We can support and help each other, but that doesn't mean we genuinely love each other or that we are ready to commit, so what's the difference between LOVE and NEED?
I must test myself, find my own path, complete my coming of age and understand that I don't love you because I need you, but I do need you because I love you.
So, once we get this naked truth, do we really need to take our separate ways in order to love each other dearly?
Can't we just simply have dinner together?"
And taking a leap of faith, while resolving yourself, your answer becomes: "Yes, please, do wait for me, let's have dinner together, shall we?".
Home.

The OST is amazing, no kitsch melodies and rhymes: strong opening and ending songs. On the various, all the instrumental themes edited are wisely dosed and therefore suggestive, powerful and
impressive. It felt like glimpsing a mix of familiar sounds from Coldplay, Radiohead and David Bowie.

In the end, when Yoon Dae says to Soo Hyuk - "Don't call me. You seldom call my name." - tell me, please, who didn't suddenly think they were somehow quoting "Call me by your name"? I certainly did. ;)

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Too confusing with almost zero infos

All I can say is that I'm too confused with everything. I tried to understand what happened in the past. Cha Soo Hyuk's father was abusive to his mother and on the first chance he took her away to hide her? Then his mother found another man and that man had a son, Lee Yoon Dae, and they lived all together for some time but then they ended things between them? And why did the son not follow his father? We get no detail over Lee Yoon Dae past life. As it seems he felt Cha Soo Hyuk as his new family, his home, his safe space. That's why he was coming back. And Cha Soo Hyuk was always worried and tried to support him in each way. While he himself trapped in a mindset of "i have to take care of my broken family" when none of these should've been his concerns. And in the end what was that? What I got is that Lee Yoon Dae finally stood on his own feet to prove that he's worthy of Cha Soo Hyuk's time and feelings. That he found his way of living and faced real life without standing still anymore.

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Very good, but missing that something...

I rarely write reviews, but I just feel like this is one of those dramas where I need to express my opinion in one long post, so here I am!! I'll write this review in sections so it doesn't end up all over the place...

1. Story
The story was a very interesting one in my opinion. However, there's one thing that bothers me the most about it, and that is how hollow it ended up... They tried to make it deep and emotional, but with only 5 episodes, they failed. They had no time to show us everything they wanted to and I feel like it would've been so much better and deeper if they added at least 2 episodes!
That's the biggest flaw of this series, trying to achieve the depth it didn't have time to achieve.

2. Acting & Cast
If one thing was absolutely perfect here, then it's the acting!
The actors portrayed their characters with perfect facial expressions, voice tones, actions, and everything that goes along. It felt so natural and raw that I couldn't help but want more of it...
Whoever did the casting, THANK YOU!

3. Romance
The romance here is yet another factor that was affected by the fast pace of the show as well as YoonDae's and SooHyuk's relationship... It came so suddenly and didn't feel real at all... It even felt forced due to the characters not having enough time to form a romantic relationship. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't see romantic feelings for the other in either of them.

4. Ending & Overall
Despite my mostly negative review, I enjoyed this series a lot!
I liked how realistic and serious it was, along with the stepbrothers' storyline which almost always ends up tragically...
As for the ending, I know it's supposed to be an open one, but it's also one of the reasons I wish we got a few more episodes. It just felt rushed and I didn't feel like any of the problems with their parents actually got resolved....

5. Conclusion
For me, it's a strong 8/10. However, if it had more episodes to deepen the story, I would've surely rated it much higher!

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DEPRESSING but GOOD........HEART-WRENCHING but WARM........CONFUSING but ADDICTIVE

First of all, can we stop and notice how handsome Jang Woo Young is!!?? I mean come on!! This is the first time I seen this actor and boy oh boy his eyes made mine locked on him and I didn't even care about Choco (Lee Jae Bin) LOL.... The entire series I was awwwwwww to Woo Young's eyes and HELLO!!!!???? The scene where he is topless!!!! Good lord I need some helping....hahahhaa

I must admit that this series is a bit complicated and confusing, well, if you don't pay attention in the whole run then you're gonna end up know which is which and what is what...... They are both complicated, they restrict their selves so much and put each other in pain which is so depressing to watch.... This is one of the problem in Korean BLs, at least this is what I think, they restrict their story so much that left people wanting for more and sometimes disappointed at the end. Yoon Dae's situation isn't that bad compared to Soo Hyuk. I mean it's depressing enough to watch this two hurt by their situations and be hurt by each other, but Soo Hyuk is more depressing situation made me more angry....I mean with his mother and that shitty father??!! Come on!!

I would say the ending sucks though.... It sucks but creative. 5 episode isn't enough.
This drama lives up to its title.... GREY SHELTER... It really is GREY.... depressing, frustrating and sometimes cold.

Shout out to the INTRO art... its a well thought art and the music....its really GREY in a sense..
I still recommend this drama though, I don't know if there's a rewatch value to it, unless you only want to see JANG WOO YOUNG....like i did ...hahahahah

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Sensitive and anxious

The series were short, but even though vague script, it was written so you would not miss any emotion. It was intense with some sweet moments to fill in the obscure feeling. Strong slice of life punches right in the stomach after each episode. Some characters irks can be overlooked in recognition of tough and harsh nature of life.
Story is one of those where you don't want the life to be that way, but at the same time you appreciate it even more.
To me the acting was top notch and the cast did really good job in making the characters chemistry with each over feel very natural that sometimes the mind just wandered back that this was just a series not something else.
This one have punched me in the nucleus of the feelings and gave me a minute of silence to overthink how life flows.

{LOVED IT!!!}

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Hope in misery?

If you are looking for a nice and fluffy bl, you are at the wrong place! I understand why it has such low rating, I do not agree with it but I understand! Because it is grey: misery, unhappiness, hopelessness...mention it, it's there! But it is not all black since there is a sliver of light that appears.

It is a story of two men trying to survive, just survive the onslaught of their respective families. They have known each other a few years previously when their parents married but that marriage did not last long. Something happened between the two young men at the time, as well, that created a huge rift. We never really clearly find what it was: an unwanted, unexplained kiss? The main problem are their parents: one father is an abuser, the other a criminal but still very attractive to his ex wife using their son to finance them.

The drama is too short. It touches upon a lot of issues but it does not really have the time to delve deeper into them: mainly parents abusing of their children who are desperately wanting to free themselves from their hold. So much so that the young men are exhausted, desperate and lacking energy to do anything. We are left without explanation as to how and why that kiss (?) happened between them which ruined a friendly relationship they had when they were younger! The older one feels responsible and guilty towards the younger one. Why?

The romance comes out suddenly and is heart flutteringly beautiful, chemistry soaring sky-high but unfortunately nothing is solved by the realization. The life is too difficult to bear to do anything more than just survive. The promise of happiness is too scary to believe: when you've been beaten down by life, you lose all hope. We are left with an open ending, showing us a glimmer of hope that one of them allows himself to dare to feel.

This drama is beautifully filmed, written and acted. The cinematography alongside the animated opening credits are all in shades of grey, perfectly translating the desperation and the misery the main characters feel. The music is just as good. It has been a long time since a korean BL made me feel so many emotions: rage, pity, sadness, hope, love...

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Pure angst

Gray shelter comes out with a very angsty tone, showing the struggle of two men who are longing for someone that feels like your home. The story itself can feel a little messy and at times confusing, but the overall message in my opinion is still successfully displayed. The acting is incredible here from both leads and the supporting cast, the emotions and thoughts behind the characters actions to me felt clear. The cinema style is also very fitting to the mood and story which helps to elevate it. The OST "Sleepless" by ode has personally been on repeat for me since the show aired, as well as other songs from "Ode". I'd highly recommend the full version of the song as it has this fitting mood of loneliness in it's tone and feels emotionally packed until the very end, which matches Gray Shelter's atmosphere perfectly. Overall I'd recommend this show to those who like angst and those who don't should stay far away.

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“Gray Shelter” is one of the few darker Korean BL out there. It’s short and dark, and you really need to take the time to understand and feel what’s going on. The premise isn’t difficult. Two step brothers bonded through surviving difficult family lives. Yoon Dae tried to cut off his relationship with his father, and moved away from home. But that doesn’t seem to bring him much happiness or hope. Soo Hyuk, though not living with his parents, is still burdened by duties that he doesn’t seem to be able to shake off.

The two reunited by chance and rekindled a complicated brotherhood bond. It’s a push-and-pull, give-and-take relationship. It’s a never-ending cycle that was finally broken. The ending can be open to interpretation. I want to believe that they both need to work on themselves, before breaking off whatever is preventing them to lead a much happier life together.

I was quite impressed with Lee Jae Bin’s acting as Yoon Dae after seeing him in “Choco Milk Shake”. He’s still new to the industry and already has the opportunity to act in two vastly different roles. This is Jang Woo Young’s first drama, and he did fine. His character, Soo Hyuk, is so solemn that he can’t really deviate too much away and show us if he has any acting range.

This is a small budget production, and it shows. The sets are simple, the transition and editing appear jerky at times. The storytelling and the execution of the plot could be better.

“Gray Shelter” is a quick watch if you are in the mood for something darker and more mature. It’ a breath of fresh air from all the rom-coms out there.


Completed: 4/28/2024 - Review #435

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Understanding in the same shoes

I had to write like that because from what I saw with sleepy eyes, if we look deeper, this drama with a duration of 20 minutes with 5 episodes looks interesting. I like the composition of the story. Because as I said through the title, understand in the same shoes.

They are both in a shade of grey. Gray means doubt especially in Soohyuk. I know for sure that at first he also hesitated to protect Yoondae, the man who became his brother .But their relationship is not just love with a desire to have more of each other, it seems like they want to care for each other and understand each other because of the heavy burdens on their shoulders. Only Soohyuk never dared to step outside further because he had to endure all his family problems since childhood. Meanwhile, Yoondae, with his haphazard life, can get rid of the burden in his heart faster, the problem is that he just waiting for Soohyuk. Therefore, from the start Soohyuk repeatedly pushed Yoondae away even though in his heart he wanted to pull Yoondae away.

If you're wondering about the ending, they stay together....getting better with the burden on their shoulders fading. I really like the story, it seems heavy because the meaning is quite deep. I'm just sharing from my experience when watching this.

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Tutto mi fa pensare che questa non vuole essere la solita commediola BL, ma qualcosa di diverso, con spunti e riflessioni più profonde, significati che vanno un po' cercati ma che puntano a lasciare un qualcosa di più di una piacevole visione. E allora, con la manciata di tempo a disposizione - meno di due ore in totale - non si percorre un'intera storia ma la si tratteggia puntando a scene fondamentali e lasciando allo spettatore il compito di ricostruire tutto il resto.
Premesso che il più delle volte ricerco delle serie spensierate - non intese come sole commedie, ma come drama chiari dove non devo arrovellarmi la testa per comprenderne il significato - devo dire che in certi casi non ho disdegnato anche film/serie più impegnative. Gray Shelter però non è riuscita a farmi seguire un filo logico, troppi i passaggi poco chiari, troppe le perplessità anche dopo aver letto altrove possibili interpretazioni. La recitazione davvero notevole, così come la musica. Non la trovo davvero una serie scadente, anzi. Credo ci sia stato davvero un gran lavoro dietro, anche nella sceneggiatura stessa. Ma davvero non fa per me. Non solo perchè probabilmente non era ciò che stavo cercando, ma perchè pur con un "taglio" diverso non è comunque riuscita trasmettermi nulla. Un buon prodotto, immagino, ma su una frequenza diversa dalla mia.

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Wasted Potential

The story started off slow. There is so much family drama with family dynamics in this series. The step-brother turned love interest was hard to distinguish until episode 4. If you didn’t know going in that this was a BL, it would be hard to tell. Even knowing this was a BL, I still had trouble figuring out the chemistry and romance between these two. It was more of co-dependent stepbrothers with dysfunctional baggage from broken homes than they had romantic feelings for each other. Even when YoonDae kissed SooHyuk it felt like co depency than anything else.

Was SooHyuk mad at him being a failure because he is gay? Was the mistake that he found out his son liked YoonDae? Then does this mean YoonDae’s dad hope to be a the gay out of him? YoonDae isn’t interested in being in a relationship with women which is why he’s a dick to his girlfriend, right?

The ending was so unsatisfying. I really wish YoonDae had taken up SooHyuk offer to sleep together. I think they would have both discovered that they can be together for the long haul. Or maybe they did when YoonDae told SooHyuk to pretend he is still sleeping. Maybe that’s the rabbit hole they went down. They are living separately but now can pursue a relationship together without the co-dependency.

I want to like this series more but with so much left unsaid and feeling so unsatisfied. I hate the editing and direction of an otherwise good series

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