Unknown BL Review (Taiwan): The Best of 2024?

It’s the fourth month of 2024 and the lack of quality in content is unbelievably high. But the Taiwanese BL series Unknown takes the ugly brothers’ romance trope of History 4 and gives it a healthy, watchable twist and is arguably the best BL of the year so far. Here is our review of the BL series Unknown:

An Upgrade from an Uncomfortable Plot

The stepbrothers’ romance was the worst part of History 4, often making viewers uncomfortable. But in Unknown it doesn’t hit you as hard because the adopted ‘brother’ (Wei Zhi Yuan) who falls in love with the older one is a homeless boy whom the protagonist (Wei Qian) takes into his own not-so-well-off home who has only a younger sister.

The former dotes on the latter and the devotion becomes love. They are not really ‘brothers’ but rather Wei Qian adopts him to give the boy a better education. So, I didn’t feel the ick here.

The siblings take care of each other and are inseparable. Unlike History 4, there is no toxic obsession but just irrevocable affection. They are also thrown into the most unfortunate circumstances that only the children who grow up without parents go through and it makes us root for them even more. Because they have only each other.

The Empathetic Writing

 Cai Fei Qiao‘s writing has a lot of empathy and is melancholic – the mood is lifted so wonderfully by the incredible background score. The story fluctuates between the past and present which is sometimes confusing but truly heart-wrenching. The characters are well-written but all of them have a sense of mystery to them. We don’t get to know them well enough. The screenplay is also sprinkled with a lot of situational humour.

The Making

Unknown is also a well-directed series. In director  Ray Jiang‘s vision, the world of these characters, their sufferings and even the physical space they occupy is very visceral. The bedroom of Wei Zhi Yuan could be considered as a secondary character of the story.

For Once We Have Great Actors in a BL

The soul of Unknown is most certainly the actors. Tammy Lin‘s portrayal of the little sister is undoubtedly the comic relief in this otherwise melancholic drama. She is lively and full of charm.

Kurt Huang plays the persistent Wei Zhi Yuan with so much ease. You can feel the pain, the frustration and the love all at the same time in his eyes.

But one who steals the show completely is Chris Chiu as Wei Qian. He has brilliantly transformed himself into the character. He plays the character with so much nuance and brilliant body language that brings alive the internally broken and responsible older brother. The character demands him to be vulnerable and strong simultaneously – both physically and emotionally. It’s a delight to watch him on screen (will it be taking it too far if I say he reminded me of the subtle, understated performances of Tony Leung?).

Our Verdict

I don’t know if it’s too soon to say that Unknown is the best BL of the year. But it has got that cinematic brilliance that we do not get to see enough on television. It is my kind of series – melancholic, and slice-of-life. And yeah, it could be very emotional too. If you are looking for something worth your time, you can check it out.