Blueming - South Korea

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This series from production company Kenaz is based on the manga (or should I say manhwa since it's a Korean original) that is usually known as 'Who Can Define Popularity' although on a few webtoon sites it is also known as 'Popularity Is Something Wrong'. It has been made by the same team that gave us 'Where Your Eyes Linger' and 'To My Star' and is directed by Hwang Da Seul who also helmed both of those titles as well as the upcoming 'To My Star 2'. As the main couple are Jo Hyuk Jun as Daun Hyung and Kang Eun Bin as Siwon Cha, with support from Moon Hye In, Kim Seon Hwa and Ahn Do Gyu.






Synopsis: "Siwon Cha is obsessed with his popularity. In his childhood his younger sister would tease him that he was ugly which made him set about transforming everything from his weight to his demeanour to remake himself into the perfect popular guy. Now, as Siwon is about to enter college, he is confident that he has succeeded and will become the most beloved person on the campus. What will happen when he is challenged by the equally narcissistic Daun Hyung, who comes from a rich family, has good looks, gets straight A’s and even has a great personality to match? And why does Daun somehow think Siwon has a crush on him?!"

Here's the MyDramaList page.



Trailer:





There will be 11 (other sources have stated 8 and 10) episodes of between 12 and 15 mins duration. It is currently scheduled to premiere on Thursday 31st March, but no platforms have been announced so far.

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New poster and trailer have been released. The trailer uses pretty much all of the footage from the above teaser but does add a few new snippets:

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If you haven't already found other places to view this series already, all the episodes have now been made available on the iQIYI platform.

Only the first two are free to all so you will need a VIP pass to watch the rest. Here's the links to the two free episodes:




Episode 1

Episode 2

[westwolf]

I binged all of this show last night and while I wasn't expecting much considering the premise, it was surprisingly pretty good and had some heartwarming moments in it.

[mizuryuu]

Watched up to Ep 5 last night, and really liked it. Can't wait to finish it later this weekend

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I binge-watched this in one go and have to admit to initially being puzzled at the end of the first episode. Having already read quite a bit of the manhwa I was expecting something far different from what it turned out to be. The original story is actually a comedy, very similar in vein to 'Semantic Error', in which both boys are brash and narcissistic (for very different reasons) and view one another as a threat. Their games of one-upmanship against each other provide the backbone to the webtoon and make both boys come across as quirky and amusing, so in that respect I did have to re-adjust myself into thinking of them as just conventional romantic characters instead.

Fortunately, even as a straightforward drama I quickly got sucked in by it. Both Siwon and Daun are very well constructed and ultimately quite fragile characters with depth, although I'll admit that Siwon losing his brash side from the toon did leave him slightly too standoffish and annoying in the opening couple of episodes. However, by episode three I was fully back on board due to the way that their burgeoning relationship flowed with ease and came across as realistic and ordinary. The chemistry between the leads was good and their intimate scenes felt really natural; enhanced by good camera work that made some of the visuals look rather beautiful too.


    
    * I love the cinematography here.


I'm sure the scene when Daun cleans Siwon's ear was a little nod by the director, Hwang Da Seul, to one of the most iconic moments from one of her previous series 'Where Your Eyes Linger'. Another obvious in-joke was in the pub when the friends were talking about inspiration for their film projects and one of them asks the other if they meant "the one with the celebrity and the chef?" Considering 'To My Star 2' is nearly upon us, that was a nice little call-back to that show. Even Blueming itself got a visual nod with the original manhwa being advertised on the side of the bus the boys took to the beach.

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It has now been officially confirmed that 'Blueming' is to get a second series with both Jo HyukJun and Kang EunBin reprising their roles as Siwon and Daun.

The early word is that "Season 2 will focus more on the developmental aspect of the boys relationship and will throw more light onto how they have grown and matured over time. However, they will also encounter gaps and misunderstandings. How they work through these to overcome the obstacles is what truly matters. The next set of episodes will be just as adorable and fans can expect some swoon-worthy moments as well!"

 

[mizuryuu]

Looking forward to this. Blueming was a surprise hit for me that came out of nowhere. Hope Season 2 would be just as good