Title: The Effect
Status:
Finished
Summary:
Shin, a shy and reserved 1st-year university student, admires from afar his senior Keng. Keng is tall, handsome, smart and owns the heart of many girls on campus. But what others don't see is the pressure to be perfect from his family that weighs on Keng's shoulders. Due to Shin's clumsiness, he becomes acquainted with the handsome senior. As Keng takes a liking to his junior, jealousy from peers makes the cyber world a breeding ground for hate and nasty rumors. The sourness of mental instability crowds Keng's mind, while Shin wants nothing more than to not be noticed. Shin falls a victim not only to strangers online but to Keng as well. For nobody but Shin can overcome the trauma that will be placed upon him. All he needs is for the strangers to listen. Because only then can they understand "the effect" that they have on others.
My Review:
TW for the following. Please don't watch this series or even read this if you are sensitive to the subject of r*pe or attempted s**cide.
This series is very sad and if you do decide to watch, jut know it's not happy at all. It carries very serious subjects and doesn't end on a good note. It shows the effects of what happens to someone when another person forces them self onto someone. It addresses PTSD and harmful thoughts/actions to oneself. I do think that it is very important that this was made because sadly BL tends to brush off when a person gets taken advantage of and when someone is obviously non-consensual to what is happening.
*spoilers ahead*
The show starts off okay. We meet our main character Shin and learn about how shy and introverted he is. He's starting college and meets two other people and they become a small group of friends. Shin then runs into a person he admires, Keng. Keng to him seems like this amazing out of reach person as he's the 'idol' of the college.
Keng, for some strange reason, takes a weird liking to Shin. They start hanging out more and when Shin gets invited to a party for Keng's birthday, that's when things turn dark.
Man, someone in Keng's friend group, takes a photo of Shin and Keng that makes them look together. He then posts it online for everyone to see. The reason he does this is because he's jealous of Keng's sudden closeness with Shin. He wanted to get into a relationship with Keng, but Keng didn't like him back and kept telling him to stop(also acted a bit homophobic). When Keng gets closer to Shin, Man tries to make more advances on Keng saying that if Keng liked Shin, he could like Man. Keng still said no so that made Man more upset which led to the photo incident.
Shin freaks out at all the anger an toxicity that people are now showing to him. He tries to tell everyone that nothing happened and that they weren't together but no one listens. He apologizes to Keng for the situation they're now in because he feels partly at fault. Keng says it's okay as long as they can be friends.
This goes on for a bit with people not calming down and continuing to be cruel to Shin and Keng. Keng also has to deal with his parents who only care about reputation.
He meets with Shin and Shin recommends that they stay away from each other until everything dies down. This set something off inside of Keng and he starts going on about how he thought Shin was his friend and some other stuff.
He then proceeds to force himself onto Shin. It is completely horrible and I hate this fictional character so much. Shin didn't deserve what happened.
After that Shin manages to get out of the house before collapsing on the street. His two friends find him and start freaking out and bring him to a hospital. His parents come and are heartbroken at the state Shin is in and furious at Keng. Seriously, the only good thing about this show are Shin's protective friends and parents.
Shin faces backlash from the r*pe and tries to die. Luckily he lives.
Keng continues to be a scum of the earth and blames Man for what happens and tries to get together with Shin and saying that they're meant for each other. Of course he's not aloud anywhere near Shin and anytime he tries to, Shin's friends always come to make him go away.
I really wish I could say that Shin got to live a better life and towards the end he starts to recover from the incident but the series ends with what i presume is his death.
In conclusion:
I don't think I could fully explain how traumatic the events in this were. It addresses serious matters and if you are not okay with seeing what happens, please do not watch it. I do think it was important that it was made as a lot of series never show how serious these subjects are.
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