The South Korean BL Behind Cut starring Eom Se Ung and 2Z’s Bum Jun has ended, closing on a heartfelt note full of possibilities.
A story about an aspiring fashion designer and the delivery worker he falls in love with, Behind Cut took viewers on an emotional ride full of ups, downs, heartaches, and unrequited love.
Although Behind Cut does a beautiful job presenting three men with different aspirations and differing degrees of romantic love, what it excels at is the acting. Loosely tied connections and choppy editing plague the drama throughout, creating an incomplete feel to certain scenes and storylines. Still, despite that, the actors involved manage to convey undeniable chemistry and realistic interactions. Where the editing and scene cuts fail them, the human connection does not. By the end of the drama, I’d stopped trying to figure out how everything connected and simply enjoyed the bigger picture the drama was trying to convey.
As individuals, we are all on different paths attempting to follow our dreams. If we’re lucky, we stumble on people who join us on those paths, loving us even if their path veers in a different direction. This journey toward realizing a dream brings us to Ki Jin and Yeong Woo. While working hard to make his dreams of becoming a fashion designer come true, Ki Jin stumbles on his perfect model, delivery worker Yeong Woo. Together, they work toward bringing Ki Jin’s design to life while falling in love in the process. Ki Jin’s long-time friend and roommate, supermodel Hwang Yi Bin, also joins them on this journey while dealing with his unrequited feelings toward Ki Jin.
What unfolds is a story full of growth, a drama where each character starts by helping one man realize his dreams but later segways into three different paths.
I admit, there are moments I never fully understood about this drama that I wish had been further delved into or briefly clarified, most notably what transpired between Yeong Woo and Yi Bin in the past and why Ki Jin later ghosted Yeong Woo. Whether the full explanation behind these moments was left out on purpose or due to time constraints, I found myself feeling lost because of them. Even so, I was mesmerized, my affectionate feelings for Behind Cut fed by the growth of the characters and the acting displayed.
Storyline aside, what Behind Cut does best is convey a story about friendship, growth, and realizing what makes each of us happy. The two scenes left unexplained almost felt intentional, as if the writers were trying to say that Yeong Woo’s past with Yi Bin and Ki Jin’s reason for disappearing out of Yeong Woo’s life were small instances in a much bigger picture, as if pointing out that we shouldn’t dwell on our mistakes and our pasts but move forward after learning from those mistakes. I found that beautiful.
However, what I loved the most in Behind Cut was Yeong Woo’s relationship with his father. Portrayed by actor Kim Won Shik, Yeong Woo’s father went from being a support role to being such a key element top making Behind Cut stand out in a beautiful, genuinely significant way. Yeong Woo’s father is one of the best parental representatives I’ve seen in a drama, BL or otherwise. Parents should guide, not interfere. Learning through life’s ups and downs is how we grow as individuals. Our job as parents is to celebrate the good times and hug our kids through the bad. Yeong Woo’s father didn’t make his relationship with his son about what he approves or disapproves of. He simply loved his son, guiding him in an understated way that allowed Yeong Woo to make mistakes but also grow from them. He didn’t push Yeong Woo toward a future he carved out for him. He allowed Yeong Woo to discover his future on his own. For me, their relationship wholly defined this drama.
While it felt choppy at times, Behind Cut is, all in all, a drama that represents precisely what it meant to represent, falling in love while also chasing a dream. If you are looking for a short but emotional watch full of character growth, this drama is for you. Check it out now on Viki or Bilibili.
Rating- 3 out of 5
The BL Xpress 