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Plus & Minus taiwanese drama review
Completed
Plus & Minus
19 people found this review helpful
by icebergwtq
Jun 27, 2022
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed 4
Overall 3.5
Story 2.5
Acting/Cast 5.0
Music 1.5
Rewatch Value 1.0
This review may contain spoilers

Could Have Been Something, But the Writers Killed It

Where to start with this hot mess?



Even at its best, the writing was problematical, not in the sense that it offended anybody's tender sensibilities, just that it simply didn't work. And that was before the whole thing collapsed in a pile of its own crap in Ep 10, in one of the most ludicrous, hackneyed BL tropes from the old days when the fujoshi would lap up anything, no matter how ridiculous, as long as they got to see some cute guys kissing and staring soulfully into each other's eyes.



Here's what they killed it with:



"Why, yes, I've loved this guy for 20 years, have been as close to him as a brother, know him as well as I know myself, and now that I've declared my love to him, and he has to me, I think I'll visit his father, who will spend two minutes saying something incomprehensibly stupid to me, at which point I will tell his son I made a mistake, don't really love him, and have a nice life. All this for sonny boy's own happiness, of which he had plenty until I stabbed him in the heart just because the writers were too braindead to come in with an even half-way rational plot twist."



I don't have much to say about the second couple, because they were mostly boring. As for Nikita, the less said, the better.




But the fujoshi did get their laughable reversal, which gave them a rushing through the city streets to stare into each other's eyes moment, followed by a moderately steamy snuggle session (no touching below the waist, of course) and then an added bonus of a full blown wedding in a tiny bar. Which is why they are spraying 10 ratings all over this review section like over-caffeinated puppies, I suppose.



Sure, the cinematic values were decent - some nice shots and the colors were good - but have you ever heard about putting lipstick on a pig? They were lipstick, and this was a pig.



The best thing for me was seeing my beloved boys Wayne Song and Huang Chun Chih appear at the wedding, have a love at first (or, they hint, second) sight minute, and not only speak to each other, but make a direct reference to HIStory3: Make Our Days Count, a BL at least an order of magnitude better than this steaming pile.



If +&- was good for anything, it was this direct hint that we may see the boys reunited again up on the big screen.



Fujoshi rating: 10 (of course - cf. steamy snuggles, kissies, and a wedding).



Rational people rating: 3, maybe 3.5.
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