Big Dragon the Series Review

Whew! This BL has been on my list for quite some time and I started it on a whim one weekend, and then promptly finished it in that same weekend. It was a slightly easier task, as Big Dragon wasn’t bloated like some series at only eight episodes.

And they were an intoxicating eight episodes. Did I also mention it was messy as hell? Because it definitely was. Yai is a university student set to inherit a hotel business from his father. He thinks the world is his, so he’s pissed when architecture student, Mangkorn, hits on the same girl as him. Yai’s got a sloppy plan though. Later in the evening, when the woman they have been hitting on is long gone, they both get trashed at Yai’s bar. He then drags him into a back bedroom and plans on recording a sexual encounter between them to use as blackmail. Maybe I don’t know how blackmail works…either way they were both partially drugged and engage in a super sexually aggressive escapade. The next morning Yai finds the memory card gone and at Mangkorn’s mercy.

What I thought was going to be a really intense drama ended up turning into a full-blown rom-com in the second episode of the series. Mangkorn dangerously and shamelessly flirts with Yai, and it’s clear Yai is flustered. Seems like they both liked what happened the night before more than they were anticipating. And at what first turns into a type of revenge mission, the two end up bonding over dessert noodles. I kind of thought from here they would just kind of be dating, but they go through some serious emotional whiplash. As a viewer, I also found these back and fourth encounters to be quite jarring and led to a pretty uneven storyline.

I felt that throughout the series, they both got really mad at each other for very stupid reasons, then made up with some more intense sex, and then got mad about something else. They both barely apologize to each other, but for some reason easily forgive. Whatever. Their ultimate chemistry made up for the lack of a solid plot. Sure, there were some legitimate obstacles in the way to them becoming a couple, but it didn’t feel like it was anything a clear conversation couldn’t fix. In the end, Yai grew up a little bit and Mangkorn was able to become his own person, and through some very long distance months, they came together sweeter than ever. I personally would have preferred another sex scene, but they are quite nice to watch together in any capacity.

Overall, this series ranked somewhere in the middle for me. I think with the visuals of the series, it could have done well as a gangster series, but who knows, maybe these two guys will get that chance in another series down the road. There is also a lot of speculation that these two are dating in real life and that would just make me so happy. All the best to their futures!