Kiseki: Dear to Me (2023)

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.