HIStory4: Close To You (Taiwanese Series)

HIStory series is definitely one of the better series that have come out of Taiwan. The stories they show are relatable and have something new and different to show to the audiences. This is why, I am a bit surprised as to how come they approved such a show for their fourth installment. This show has definitely plenty of issues which we will talk about later.

The story is about three friends Li Cheng, Mu Ren and Xing Si who work together and are also roommates. When a new employee Mei Fang joins the company, Li Cheng remembers how she was his first crush and he wants to win her back. But it turns out she is not interested at all. When he finds out that she is a huge fan of BL stories, he pretends to like his friend Mu Ren, so that he can start getting close to her. He eventually tells that to Mu Men also, who unwillingly helps him out. Meanwhile Xing Si, leads a simple docile life as a single gay man who wants to settle down. He is in closet and left home many years ago in fear of his dad finding out. He is very close to his family and loves them. Interestingly his step-brother Yong Jie, who is very antisocial and emotionally distant person, has a huge crush on him. His unhealthy obsession leads him to get his brother drunk and rape him hoping to ignite some love in him. Back to the main couple, while pretending to love Mu Ren, an incident happens, which leads to Li Cheng slowly realizing that he is actually facing for him. Many episodes are dedicated to this whole couple going off and on as couple and as friends. And the step-brothers are also now falling in love and how they struggle to com out to the family and being accepted by them. All these four men realize that any thing is possible, when it comes to the matter of heart.

Lets talk about the elephant in the room first of all. This whole business of raping your else step-brother to hopefully make him fall in love with you is just not right. I am against the whole idea of romanticizing rape. I don't have problem with the eventual love between step brothers but the steps taken to reach there and the show almost suggesting that its the right thing to do, completely turns me off. One Jie was just obsessive, creepy and downright healthy. For an intelligent man like Xing Si to think of that as a lifelong love was just so questionable. Also, I can't believe that any mother, anyone at all, in her right mind, will be ok for her son to go ahead with this plan, how much ever you love your kid. That whole situation was just like a big WTF for me. The banter of the other couple slowly grows on you. Li Cheng has a very charming personality, but how can he fall in love after watching his closest friend masturbating all night. I mean, the whole situation is unfathomable. All his love to get the girl suddenly gets converted to him finding attracted to another man, just happens too sudden. He is a very direct person, so the way he opens up to Mu Ren was well done and expected of his character. But then Mu Ren sort of became a bit annoying after that. The passive aggressiveness that his character shows was just bizarre. Despite all that, their little cute banter constantly saved the show from becoming a complete mess that this would have become otherwise. Overall, the story wasn’t necessarily realistic or even believable, but you just keep on watching. Also, not sure of you noticed but none of the characters ever repeat any clothes and wear designer clothes almost all the time. It was hard to not notice Mu Ren's clothing choice. Being a tall, lanky man, whoever recommended him to wear extremely over sized clothes in almost all the scenes was not doing good job of it. In the whole series, Li Cheng was the only character who was close to being normal and acted well and was actually very very charming. 

The two parallel stories with their flaws also feel very disparate. One has huge undertones of comedy while the other is very serious and dramatic. There were a few other random side stories which also didn't fit well. Overall, this part of the HIStory series is a huge huge letdown. Also it is time consuming to sit through 10 episodes of 45-50 minutes each. I think the makers need to do some serious rethinking of what it is they want to present to the audiences. Trying to push buttons, can sometimes lead to a total misfire. (5/10)