Kiseki: Dear To Me

As ”Kiseki: Dear to me” was written by Pei Yu-Lin, who also wrote the scripts of series like ”History2: Crossing the Line”, ”History 3: Trapped”, both ”We Best Love” series, and many more, it was clear from the start that this series would be good, and in my opinion it is by far the best Taiwanese series of 2023.

Bai Zong Yi (Taro Lin), a 17-year-old student, finds himself drawn into the world of Fan Ze Rui (Hsu Kai), a gangster who is about 5 years older than him. After Ze Rui has been injured, Zong Yi takes care of him and allows him to stay in his flat. Of course the two young men fall in live, but tragedy looms around every corner which makes Zong Yi end up in prison. There's a lot of drama, fighting, betrayal, and of course love, and the story is so exciting that waiting a whole week for the next episode was torture. The series is very well written and directed, and the cast is simply gorgeous.

Like in many series before, I caught a serious ”second couple syndrome”, because Nat Chen as Chen Yi and Louis Chiang as Ai Di/Eddy are not only extremely handsome, but in contrast to other second couples in BL series, their characters are meticulously drawn and developed.

This series could also be entitled ”The Taiwanese BL All-Stars Series”, because many stars of the genre have support or guest roles or cameos, among them Wilson Liu, Wayne Song and Huang Chun Chih (Make Our Days Count), Aaron Lai and Hank Wang (Be Loved In Housae, I Do), and many more.

This is about a student whose life is turned upside down by the arrival of a gang member that forces his way into this apartment while on the run. In time a relationship develops and some would argue that it might not be the healthiest of relationships, but eventually they find common ground. However, this is more of a tragedy than an uplifting story and they go their separate ways. This brings us to around episode 8 of 13 when it jumps ahead four years to pick up the story. I don't want to give much away. Technically it would be considered a happy ending, but more aptly it would be finding happiness in what is left after something bad happened. It does become a powerful and, at times, an emotional story, but you are also left with a sense that none of their lives will ever reach their true potential. That said, there are post credit scenes after the last episodes. My only issue was with some aspects of the story. While the main and secondary romances are pretty easy to follow and not confusing, there is a multi-layered subplot involving the gang members and structure that isn't fully explained, although some is at the end, and this created some odd plot holes.