u/Little-Tomatillo-745

https://reddit.com/link/1ticzvi/video/oj0ftv0v692h1/player

I am making this post to hopefully convince you to check out this show.

Earlier this morning, I saw a subbed video fragment on Instagram from a live stream where the actors of Journey With You, Wang Jinghan and Tang Bide, were literally crying on the screen. You can watch the clip on Instagram here or on X here.

It is just so heartbreaking to see how stressed they are about the low views. And Wang Jinghan said that he is sad, thinking that if someone else had played the role instead of him back then, maybe it would have been better. 😭

I can say after 3 episodes that Wang Jinghan is absolutely doing a wonderful job and that he is not to blame, because he is not the issue.

Right now, there is a massive surge of other Chinese BL dramas that are coming out via the international loophole, it is just a lot. And for viewers, also me, it is hard to keep up with all of that.

Smaller indie shows like Journey With You are getting completely snowed under. It’s not just that people prefer modern dramas over historical ones right now, because high-budget historical shows like Pursuit of Jade are actually super popular. I think that the main reason, correct me if I am wrong, is that with this surge of shows, most attention is towards the bigger budget productions.

For example, Double Helix released at the exact same time this and it got a lot of attention and has a Singaporean co-production budget, it is based on a famous web novel and it stars Ayden Sng, so it already had a big fanbase before it even started. Then you also have modern shows like The Gaze airing right now, which is maybe easier to follow.

I actually discussed The following video was posted by u/Federal-Ad5944. A Jinghan weibo update "thank you for choosing me" 🥹 ♥️ (Tang Bide's reply in the comments) with u/Federal-Ad5944 on this sub, who summed up the current situation perfectly.

>To me, its the best CBL on right now. I really wish the show was getting more love, but in this saturated market its very hard. It's not even isolated to reddit, it's not really picking up on socials in general, even Chinese ones. It's getting lost in the shuffle everywhere and it's really hard.

Even though these actors are actively promoting on Weibo and the show is technically marked as an "overseas drama" to bypass domestic bans, they still rely on international platforms like GagaOOLala to get traction. If you look at their Instagram accounts, their follower counts are still low, so they really aren't getting the international push they need.

If the views don't hit the targets, it directly hurts their future career and they can get a hard time to be casted again. They put their hearts into this, and seeing them cry because their show is not picking up by now is sad.

Until now, the show is honestly so good. And it is also a bit spicy we are just 3 episodes in and we have already seen the villain prince in two NC scenes. You can see this edit on Instagram or on Reddit to see what I mean with the spice.

I know that the first episode is a bit complicated to follow, I had to rewind it some times. There are intrigues, court politics, and palace secrets, so it may be a bit difficult to see who is who and what is happening in the beginning.

But let me explain the context so you don't drop it, basically the Fifth Prince (Yin Qi) gets betrayed and killed in a coup by his own family. But then he wakes up three years earlier in the past. So it is a rebirth or time travel story. He tries to change his death and what happened in the future. In that first timeline where Yun Qi gets killed together with his closest childhood friend Pei Yanzhi, Yun Qi at that moment thought that Pei Yanzhi had betrayed him. Which is not true, it was a brother of Yun Qi, I call him the villain prince (Yin Zhou) who framed Pei Yanzhi with the help of a false letter to make it look like Pei Yanzhi helped his own country to stage a coup.

Pei Yanzhi grew up together with Yin Qi, but he is a prince who was sent by a rival country to the imperial court as a political hostage. This was done as collateral to guarantee peace between the two empires. A hostage prince like him grew up inside the palace, but constantly spied on because is seen as a potential enemy or spy. In reality, Pei Yanzhi cares so deeply for Yin Qi and is trying to do his best to protect him, in secret, with his own secret political networks because of his hostage situation.

It seems that the video gained some attention on X. And yes, I made this post because of the Instagram post I saw. But this show really deserves to be watched. It is honestly very good!

The following video was posted by u/Federal-Ad5944. A Jinghan weibo update "thank you for choosing me" 🥹 ♥️ (Tang Bide's reply in the comments), probably as a reaction to the livestream.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ChineseBL/s/Ib1uOMpOZR

Please go watch it on GagaOOLala, it releases every Friday. You can also check out the On-Air DiscussionThread to see what others are saying about the latest episodes and all relevant links and information.

The actors and the production studio have not much followers on Instagram. And their budget for promotion is very limited.

You can follow them for support.

Page: Journey With You on MDLOfficial Studio: https://www.instagram.com/theonestudio001

Jinghan (Pei Yanzhi): www.instagram.com/wangjinghan5454

Bide (Yin Qi/Fifth Prince): https://www.instagram.com/tangbb666

Tongzhou (Yin Zhou / Villain Prince): https://www.instagram.com/duantongzhou

Youcheng (Wei Ziming): https://www.instagram.com/louischengo

MyDramaList

https://preview.redd.it/ibixkijx692h1.png?width=1294&format=png&auto=webp&s=570c67de54c43cfea8e3d248fc6fbeeb4991e053

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYiXxRyocmO/?igsh=YzEwdnZzZ3l4M3Vj

I am making this post to hopefully convince you to check out this show.

Earlier this morning, I saw a subbed video fragment on Instagram from a live stream where the actors of Journey With You, Wang Jinghan and Tang Bide, were literally crying on the screen. You can watch the clip on Instagram here or on X here. It is just so heartbreaking to see how stressed they are about the low views. And Wang Jinghan said Jinghan said that he is sad, thinking that if someone else had played the role instead of him back then, maybe it would have been better. 😭

I can say after 3 episodes that Wang Jinghan is absolutely doing a wonderful job and that he is not to blame, because he is not the issue.

Right now, there is a massive surge of other Chinese BL dramas that are coming out via the international loophole, it is just a lot. And for viewers, also me, it is hard to keep up with all of that.

Smaller indie shows like Journey With You are getting completely snowed under. It’s not just that people prefer modern dramas over historical ones right now, because high-budget historical shows like Pursuit of Jade are actually super popular. I think that the main reason, correct me if I am wrong, is that with this surge of shows, most attention is towards the bigger budget productions.

For example, Double Helix released at the exact same time this and it got a lot of attention and has a Singaporean co-production budget, it is based on a famous web novel and it stars Ayden Sng, so it already had a big fanbase before it even started. Then you also have modern shows like The Gaze airing right now, which is maybe easier to follow.

I actually discussed this with u/Federal-Ad5944 on the r/ChineseBL sub, who summed up the current situation perfectly.

>To me, its the best CBL on right now. I really wish the show was getting more love, but in this saturated market its very hard. It's not even isolated to reddit, it's not really picking up on socials in general, even Chinese ones. It's getting lost in the shuffle everywhere and it's really hard.

Even though these actors are actively promoting on Weibo and the show is technically marked as an "overseas drama" to bypass domestic bans, they still rely on international platforms like GagaOOLala to get traction. If you look at their Instagram accounts, their follower counts are still low, so they really aren't getting the international push they need.

If the views don't hit the targets, it directly hurts their future career and they can get a hard time to be casted again. They put their hearts into this, and seeing them cry because their show is not picking up by now is sad.

Until now, the show is honestly so good. And it is also a bit spicy we are just 3 episodes in and we have already seen the villain prince in two NC scenes. You can see this edit on Instagram or on Reddit to see what I mean with the spice.

I know that the first episode is a bit complicated to follow, I had to rewind it some times. There are intrigues, court politics, and palace secrets, so it may be a bit difficult to see who is who and what is happening in the beginning.

But let me explain the context so you don't drop it, basically the Fifth Prince (Yin Qi) gets betrayed and killed in a coup by his own family. But then he wakes up three years earlier in the past. So it is a rebirth or time travel story. He tries to change his death and what happened in the future. In that first timeline where Yun Qi gets killed together with his closest childhood friend Pei Yanzhi, Yun Qi at that moment he thought that Pei Yanzhi had betrayed him. Which is not true, it was a brother of Yun Qi, I call him the villain prince (Yin Zhou) who framed Pei Yanzhi with the help of a false letter to make it look like Pei Yanzhi helped his own country to stage a coup.

Pei Yanzhi grew up together with Yin Qi, but he is a prince who was sent by a rival country to the imperial court as a political hostage. This was done as collateral to guarantee peace between the two empires. A hostage prince like him grew up inside the palace, but constantly spied on because is seen as a potential enemy or spy. In reality, Pei Yanzhi cares so deeply for Yin Qi and is trying to do his best to protect him, in secret, with his own secret political networks because of his hostage situation.

It seems that the video gained some attention and on X.

And yes, I made this post because of the Instagram post I saw. But this show really deserves to be watched. It is honestly very good!

The following video was posted by u/Federal-Ad5944. A Jinghan weibo update "thank you for choosing me" 🥹 ♥️ (Tang Bide's reply in the comments). Probably as a reaction to the live stream.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ChineseBL/s/Ib1uOMpOZR

Please go watch it on GagaOOLala, it releases every Friday. You can also check out the On-Air Discussion Thread to see what others are saying about the latest episodes and all relevant links and information.

The actors and the production studio have not much followers on Instagram. And their budget for promotion is very limited.

You can follow them for support.

Page: Journey With You on MDLOfficial Studio: https://www.instagram.com/theonestudio001

Jinghan (Pei Yanzhi): https://www.instagram.com/wangjinghan5454/

Bide (Yin Qi/Fifth Prince): https://www.instagram.com/tangbb666/

Tongzhou (Yin Zhou / Villain Prince): https://www.instagram.com/duantongzhou/

Youcheng (Wei Ziming): https://www.instagram.com/louischengo/

MyDramaList

https://preview.redd.it/xhsaeeau492h1.png?width=1294&format=png&auto=webp&s=c076abc96c7fef8019b763e5cd75c705f54d54cc

Normally I never make review posts. I just leave comments under posts and move on, because my thinking is that people can have their own thoughts about a show or movie and that is OK.

But after seeing a second post today reducing criticism of Soul Mate to:

“people are angry because there was no kiss/NC scene”

while also throwing around comments about “media literacy” and:
“It really shows what kind of BL fan you really are when you completely mislabel something so obviously queer just because there isn't any kiss scene/NC scene” or “Trying to explain that perspective to someone who just won't understand it seems pointless.” or “It’s a shame others won’t understand it.”

I got frustrated enough to write my own post instead of another comment. Here is a example. Because that is NOT what a lot of people, including me, were saying at all.

THAT is what triggered me into writing this post. That attitude toward anyone who didn’t consider it a masterpiece.Because not every criticism of Soul Mate is about “they didn’t kiss enough.” It is unfair and condescending.

Yes, I enjoy romance in BL. I enjoy chemistry, kisses and enjoy many NC scenes.
Why should BL fans be looked down on for enjoying romance and intimacy in a romance genre? BL is about romance, longing, sexuality, comfort, physical affection, fantasy, softness, tragedy, emotional intimacy, all kinds of things. There is nothing wrong with enjoying that.

And at the same time, I also enjoy stories with very little physical intimacy.
What Did You Eat Yesterday? barely has any physical intimacy at all, but the relationship between those men is clear. Same with Kieta Hatsukoi. Those stories still feel real, the relationships also and the characters communicate like people do.

My criticism of Soul Mate was NEVER “They didn’t kiss, therefore it’s bad.”

I understood Johan and Ryu’s connection.The people around them understood it too.Sua understood it. Sumiko and Seiichi understood it.
Ryu’s parents clearly saw Johan as more than a friend, more like a son in law. I even thought for a moment that at least Ryu's mother would talk more openly to Ryu like, it's ok to have a boyfriend.

The church scene in the 1st episode and Johan filming his monologue in the last episode made it clear that Johan struggled with his sexuality and self-acceptance amd he recognized himself that he was the same as that German boy. And that he understood that Ryu accepted himself in the church as gay. (Still, I find it odd that the script, allthough Ryu felt sorry and awfull about Arata, he tried to get burned in the church, but that is my opinion).

My criticism is about the total lack of reality in how this show handles human relationships and daily life. But also wanting me to believe these two share the deepest soulmate connection imaginable.

Three adults and a baby living together for years in an cramped Tokyo apartment separated mostly by curtains. And somehow there is barely any friction, real arguments, no frustration about privacy, no resentment, no awkwardness, no exhaustion from sleepless nights, no stress over responsibilities, cooking, constantly living on top of each other? No emotional tension at all?

The only “stress” we really see is Kanau occasionally having a fever and needed to be picked up from day care. Everything else feels so smooth. Some people call this a realistic story of human connection? Because that living situation honestly feels like fantasy and no reality.

Then there is Sumiko, she is one of the biggest examples for me of the show. She loses her husband. Raises a child
Lives together with Johan and Ryu for months and after that, with only Ryu.
Is going to marry Ryu for practical/legal reasons and for the child.

What about Ryu in all those years? Being with Sumiko and Kanau is fulfilling enough and he doesn't need a physical or romantic relationship? What is the difference than between Sumiko and Johan because it is practically the same way that they live together.

But what about HER emotional life, romantic future, sexuality and physical needs and grief? Has she suddenly become completely asexual because she had a child?

The show does not explore any of it and is so vague sometimes that the characters stop feeling like real people to me.

And another thing that I did not inderstand. If Johan and Ryu are in some kind of non-physical, deeply repressed or even asexual romantic space, then why is that almost never addressed?

Why are there barely any conversations about intimacy, identity, fear, boundaries or what their relationship even means to each other?
“What are we?”
“What happens if one of us meets someone else?”
“What kind of future do we want?”
“Are we afraid?” I have not seen it. What I saw was when they first started to live together in Ryu's very cramped space was, "I have cooked", "wash your hands" and that both were busy with work and study. And there was no irritation at moments at all.

And AGAIN, that criticism does NOT mean I needed kissing. But even if it is a loving but also asexual relationships, that needs communication, emotional honesty, insecurity, longing, vulnerability, fear and confusion.

If you have seen the director’s previous work More than Words, then you know he IS capable of portraying the physical and emotional realities of being gay, afraid to admitting to be gay and asexuality.

So that is exactly why Soul Mate frustrates me more.

Because here almost everything gets hidden behind silence and implication and often to subtle. I mean, where is the longing if Ryu accepted himself and Johan also realized that he is gay? Because they themselves clearly know they are gay.
Johan literally identifies with the young German gay boy.

So if these two men have this unique soulmate bond, no romantic or physical interest in anyone else for years, have this deep non-physical connection together, then why does Soul Mate show that while they were living together and what that means?

Why not show that maybe they are homoromantic asexual men or deeply repressed or afraid? The show keeps implying things while not show us.

Another big issue for me was Johan leaving. The show wants us to believe Johan and Ryu have this soulmate bond. Then HOW does Ryu go from desperately searching for Johan in Korea earlier in life… to basically accepting: “I guess he left me for someone else.” For seven years. (If I get that right, but it was a long time).

The same man who once went looking for Johan across another country. But now he just accepts it after Johan said he is leaving and said his goodbye in 2 minutes? That made no psychological sense to me. You can be angry because Johan said he found someone he wanted to protect and cherish (that person was in fact Ryu). But said in a way to alienate Ryu from him. But Ryu also said that Johan was acting strange.

If you are supposedly THAT deeply connected to someone, you would not just shrug and move on with: “Well, I guess he chose someone else.”

You would look for answers, struggle, have emotional difficulties surrounding that abandonment. Sumiko and Ryu had Sua's contacts so they could call or text.

And Sumiko knowing Johan was seriously ill for an entire year while saying nothing to Ryu made it even harder for me to emotionally believe these characters.

I understand the show wanted tragedy and Johan leaving was meant to feel heartbreaking and self-sacrificial. For me it crossed into cruelty. Because Johan allowed Ryu to believe he abandoned him for another person while he was slowly dying.

(A sidenote, Japanese doctor urging Johan to get treatment in Korea while Johan lived in Japan mainly because of the costs? Also Korea is expensibe. Luckily there was the free German healthcare.)

The script bends the psychology of these characters to force a tragic ending it. You are not smarter just because the vague storytelling worked for you.

I also got annoyed at Ryu’s speech in the car at the end. I watched the show with Dutch subtitles, so maybe the translation affected it , but some of the dialogue sounded more deep than actually making sense to me.

“If you feel lonely, that is a blessing because it means there is someone in your life that you miss.” And I was sitting there thinking… huh? Because loneliness is also often caused by NOT having people in your life. Not everyone who feels lonely is lucky because they miss that person.

And the line that sounded the most fake deep to me was when Ryu says that someone is never alone no matter where or when they are.

So, this is my conclusion why I don’t consider this a masterpiece. It was a beautiful story.
There were scenes that moved me deeply and cried. I liked the acting. I liked the atmosphere.

But I do not think the writing handles emotional and physical realism and communication in relationships. And this is why that “You just wanted a kiss” arguments frustrate me.

Because people ARE discussing the writing and realism, character psychology, emotional intimacy and gay relationship.Someone is not smarter just because the vague storytelling worked for you.

And other viewers are not shallow BL fans because they wanted more communication, more believable psychology, or more realistic emotional writing.

If someone looks down on BL fans for liking romance, kisses or intimacy, then I wonder why they are even in BL spaces acting morally superior.