HIStory 4: Close to You is a Taiwanese BL drama about three friends who live together and work at the same company. One of the characters pretends to be interested in BL to impress a new employee, but what started out as a charade leads to the development of unexpected romantic feelings. Meanwhile, another character is confronted by an obsessive stalker, as the two of them go through a twisted and turbulent dynamic.
This is easily the worst instalment in the HIStory franchise that romanticizes rape, celebrates toxic relationships, and indulges in offensive tropes. Maybe HIStory 4: Close to You becomes more watchable if you only focus on the lighthearted couple, even if their romance is ridiculous and cliché. However, the other pairing is extremely problematic with an evil psychotic character disguising as a viable love interest. Their storyline unfolds like a dark, disturbing horror that is very uncomfortable to watch.
HIStory 4: Close to You Summary
Title:
HIStory4 – 近距離愛上你
Series Info:
Taiwan (2021)
Genre:
Office romance
About:
HIStory 4: Close to You is a dark & toxic BL drama.
Plot
Li Cheng, Mu Ren, and Xing Si are coworkers who all work at a wedding planning company. The three of them have been great friends for a long time and live together in the same house as roommates. The sweet, docile Xing Si is often the mediator between Li Cheng and Mu Ren, who frequently clash due to their different personalities. Li Cheng tends to be excitable and boisterous, while Mu Ren is calm and sophisticated. At the company, the two of them are sales managers who lead separate divisions, so they share a competitive rivalry with each other.
A new employee named Mei Fang joins Xing Si's department in the company. Li Cheng used to be childhood friends with Mei Fang and he still has a massive crush on her. However, he teased and tormented her a lot during their adolescence, so she doesn't have a good impression of him. Even though Li Cheng tries to make amends in the workplace, Mei Fang thinks he's a nuisance and doesn't warm to him.
When Li Cheng discovers that Mei Fang is secretly a big fan of the BL genre, he pretends to like it to share a common interest with her. As a hardcore BL fangirl, Mei Fang suspects that Li Cheng is deeply in the closet and harbours secret feelings for Mu Ren. Although Li Cheng is actually interested in Mei Fang, he plays along with her fantasy so that the two of them can stay close. He even ropes in Mu Ren as part of the act, but his straight friend is reluctant and uncomfortable with their increasing intimacy.
Meanwhile, Xing Si leads a simple, ordinary life as a single gay man. He is still closeted to his friends and family. Xing Si is quite family-oriented and fears that he would lose a close relationship with his dad by coming out. Years ago, his dad got remarried after the death of his wife, so Xing Si gained a new stepmom as well as a younger stepbrother, Yong Jie. Although his antisocial little brother is cold and emotionally distant with almost everyone, he only ever opens up around Xing Si.
Yong Jie has developed an intense crush on his doting stepbrother, who just sees him as family. His unhealthy obsession with Xing Si can be quite disturbing, which involves stalking his brother, breaking into his house, and crafting sinister plots to seduce him. Although Xing Si has politely resisted all the romantic advances so far, he lets his guard down during a memorable evening together. Yong Jie takes advantage of Xing Si in his most vulnerable state, changing the dynamic of their brotherly relationship forever.
HIStory 4: Close to You Trailer
HIStory 4: Close to You Cast
Characters
Li Cheng Charles Tu (涂善存) Charles Tu Instagram
Li Cheng is a sales manager at a wedding planning company. With his loud and hyper personality, Li Cheng always shows a childlike enthusiasm in everything he does. Although his character can be very bubbly, he tends to annoy his roommate Mu Ren and his childhood friend Mei Fang. In his free time, Li Cheng likes boxing, taking selfies, and hanging out with friends.
Mu Ren Anson Chen (陳立安) Anson Chen Instagram
Mu Ren works at the wedding planning company as a sales manager. With his cool and poised demeanour, he gets into a lot of heated disagreements with Li Cheng, who is his polar opposite. One of Mu Ren's goals is to buy his own house before turning 30 years old. He lives with Li Cheng and Xing Si to save money, and the three of them have a close friendship.
Xing Si Michael An (安俊朋) Michael An Instagram
Xing Si works as a creative director for a wedding planning business. He gets along with everybody in the workplace with his gentle and kind-hearted personality. Xing Si is the model son who has a great relationship with his dad, but worries that he might disappoint him by coming out as gay. Currently single, Xing Si feels lonely and wants to find somebody to settle down with.
Yong Jie Wico Lin (林嘉威) Wico Lin Instagram
Yong Jie is a university student currently studying medicine. He is cynical, antisocial, and rarely shows emotions other than a depressing bleakness about life. Both his mom and his stepmother are concerned about their son's demeanour. Yong Jie is unhealthily obsessed with Xing Si, developing an intense crush on his stepbrother that is not reciprocated.
Supporting Cast
Mei Fang
Cindy Chi (紀欣伶)
Xing Si's dad
Tiger Wang (汪建民)
Yong Chieh's mom
Chen Wan Ting (陳婉婷)
Sister Wang
Liao Yi Sing (廖怡裬)
Shao Fen
Mimi Chen (陳蘊予)
Vice President Gao
Richard Rim (林埈永)
Gill
Yuri Chen (陳怡叡)
Bo Xiang
Wilson Liu (劉韋辰)
Zhi Gang
Thomas Chang (張瀚元)
Cast highlights
- You may have recognized a lot of alumni from HIStory 3: Make Our Days Count, including Mei Fang, Bo Xiang, and Zhi Gang. In addition, a few other characters from that series make guest appearances during the finale.
- Li Cheng's actor (Charles Tu) made a guest cameo appearance in the 2022 Taiwanese BL series Plus & Minus. He appears in the final episode, portraying a wedding photographer.
- The actors portraying Xing Si and Yong Jie (Michael An and Wico Lin) have guest roles in the 2022 BL drama HIStory 5: Love in the Future. They portray the same characters.
HIStory 4: Close to You Review
Review
Drama Review Score: 3.0
HIStory 4: Close to You is a BL drama gone wrong, glorifying the ugliness of nonconsensual sex, toxic relationships, and outdated stereotypes. One of the so-called romances is played out like a dark psychological horror, and I'm left disturbed by the sinister actions of an utterly despicable love interest. Nothing about Yong Jie's unhealthy obsession with Xing Si resembles love. It sickens me to see this grotesque dynamic passed off as some kind of tortured romance.
There's zero rationale for making Yong Jie the love interest in a BL series. I can't overlook the jealous obsession, the emotional manipulation, the chilling psychopathic behaviour, or the total disregard for physical boundaries. His character comes across as a soulless monster with no moral conscience, and the few attempts to humanize him all fail spectacularly. Don't get your hopes up thinking that he gets any better later in the series. His evilness only becomes more flagrant because everyone around him enables what he has done.
The repulsion I feel towards Yong Jie and Xing Si's incestuous pairing overpowers all the other plots in HIStory 4: Close to You. It takes a lot of compartmentalization to isolate that one awful storyline and only focus on the lighthearted romance between Li Cheng and Mu Ren. Admittedly, their relationship dynamic is charming enough to be watchable, but still suffers from an outlandish narrative not grounded in reality. It feels dated, like a story taken from decades ago about a straight guy pretending to be gay so that a girl would notice him.
To be fair, Li Cheng and Mu Ren are fun to watch if you don't take the story too seriously. This is a cute and upbeat romance with lots of lighthearted silliness. The two characters bounce off each other well with a vibrant rapport, especially in their comedic scenes together. Li Cheng's actor is super animated, and his over-the-top charisma brings an irresistible energy to the series. Too bad this couple is saddled with the rest of HIStory 4: Close to You. I just don't think their romance is compelling enough to salvage the overall quality of the drama.
Even putting aside its problematic elements, this BL series suffers from crude storytelling, cliché characterization, and childish comedy. However, the flaws are packaged well under some slick production values, which honestly get better with every HIStory installment. You may be able to excuse many of the shortcomings when basking in the beautiful cinematography, the handsome actors, and the gorgeous music. Personally, I can't forgive HIStory 4: Close to You for its severe faults, including a dreadful incestuous relationship that makes my stomach churn.
Story
Awful story
I was intrigued after the first few episodes of HIStory 4: Close to You, because my reaction was: "Why did they pick two of the most challenging concepts for the plot in their BL drama?" Li Cheng pretending to be gay so that he could win over a girl is already a premise full of contradictions. I was doubtful whether they could pull off such a quirky storyline sensitively and convincingly, but held out hope that the drama might surprise me. (Narrator: "It did not.")
The other plot was so sinister from the start. I couldn't fathom how they were going to turn a stalker into a viable love interest. Like, how are they going to write themselves out of this mess? Of course, Yong Jie only grew more monstrous with each passing episode. First, he was Xing Si's stalker. Then, he was Xing Si's brother. Next, he was Xing Si's rapist. Afterwards, he blackmailed Xing Si with suicide attempts and humiliated his parents with recorded video footage of the rape. WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH HIM!!!!! 🤬🤬🤬
I swear to god, HIStory 4 seems determined to make Yong Jie the most despicable human being possible. I couldn't come up with a worse love interest in a BL romance if I tried. This plot is so overwhelmingly bad that it doesn't matter what happens in the other storylines. The rapist psychotic brother will be the face of HIStory 4: Close to You, defining this series as a whole.
Romance
Awful romance
Let me spell out what happens in HIStory 4: Close to You: HE RAPED HIS BROTHER. 🚨🚨🚨 Those four words should put you off the series for good, but it doesn't even end there. After being sexually assaulted, Xing Si is deeply traumatized and blames himself for going through this terrible ordeal. Of course, his friends are garbage and don't know how to support him during this crisis.
Yong Jie proceeds to manipulate Xing Si and emotionally blackmail him into submission. The most blatant attempt was when he threatened to KILL HIMSELF if Xing Si didn't get together with him. Eventually, Xing Si's low self-esteem has been so destroyed that he brainwashes himself into loving his rapist brother. I want to scream in agony every time they kiss and pretend to be a happy couple. Who came up with this horrific storyline and thought it could be portrayed as a loving romance!?
The love story between Li Cheng and Mu Ren was a lot more lighthearted. It was mostly cheesy, but can also be charming in some places. No matter how playful their rapport is, however, the other relationship is so toxic that it poisons the entire series. I can't think of Li Cheng and Mu Ren as a cute couple when they're happily conversing with the rapist brother like nothing happened. Um hello, this guy raped your friend!? Can you act a little more outraged instead of going on a hot springs vacation with him!?
Acting
Good acting
The one positive thing that I can say about HIStory 4: Close to You is that the actors are pretty good. Li Cheng's actor (Charles Tu) steals the spotlight with his boisterous enthusiasm in every scene. His performance is extremely over-the-top, almost too much so, but it works in the context of the comedic scenes and ridiculous storylines. The actor's upbeat energy was pivotal to breathing life into this series.
The other two actors I liked are Xing Si (Michael An), who put in a sensitive performance during his coming out scene, and Xing Si's father (Tiger Wang), who was great at portraying the distress after learning about his son's relationship. I can believe in his performance as a father left completely devastated, with feelings of shock, fury, disgust, and helplessness over what happened.
Part of the reason why I didn't give HIStory 4: Close to You a zero-score review is that the actors put in some decent performances despite the bad material. It's not their fault the story sucked, so I don't want to diminish their acting efforts. Of course, I can't find it in myself to give this series anything except a failing score. Just know that the few points are awarded to the actors.
Ending
Awful ending
If you've read my strong opinions in the rest of the review, you'll know there's no way I can be positive about the ending in HIStory 4: Close to You. Any series that ends with the rapist and the rape victim in a happy incestuous relationship together is just so messed up, and I can't give my endorsement.
Even putting that relationship aside, the final episode was a sloppy mess. They tried to amplify the drama with Li Cheng and his disgruntled boss, but the plot felt dumb, incoherent, and ridiculous. Of course, Yong Jie acted like an evil little shit and did some shady stuff to make things worse, but whatever. I didn't care how that storyline ended as long as it was over.
One thing I did like about the ending in HIStory 4: Close to You is that they brought back alumni from HIStory 3: Make Our Days Count. It was fitting for this series to end with a beautiful wedding, and bringing back a couple from the previous series to tie the knot was a stroke of genius. I love this idea so much. I don't need an entirely new season dedicated to the past couples. However, I would appreciate it if the HIStory franchise gives us cute minor updates like these in future installments.
Funnily enough, I don't even like this couple in the original drama, but their relationship seems so healthy compared to the rapist brother and his victim that it puts things into perspective. Maybe if there's an even more toxic couple in HIStory 5, I would finally start to champion the unholy matrimony between Xing Si and Yong Jie. 😛
HIStory 4: Close to You Episodes
HIStory 4: Close to You has a total of 20 episodes. Each episode is around 23 minutes long. It is a long BL drama, and you can finish the entire series in under 8 hours. HIStory 4: Close to You started airing on March 14, 2021 and ended on May 16, 2021.
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HIStory 4: Close to You Information
Links
- Facebook HIStory Facebook
- Instagram HIStory Instagram
- LINE TV HIStory 4: Close to You LINE TV
- MyDramaList HIStory 4: Close to You MyDramaList
- Viki HIStory 4: Close to You Viki
- Wikipedia HIStory 4: Close to You Wikipedia
- Wikipedia HIStory Wikipedia
I'm BL girl fans I always support History4 close to you I love BL so much my favorite idol is Anson chen Charles tu , Michael / wico , cindychi
Hey, Can I watch season 4 without watching other seasons?
Ok this is 1 grade from you I'll disagree with lol I liked it…yes it's cliche but rather an F I would give it a B-, C-.
I found this site by Coincidence and I fall in love with the way you describe everything and how I agree with almost every reviewe for the dramas in here I decided to write this here because I totally agree with you about everything you said about this drama it's was big disappoint
sooo you basically gave it a low score because it tackles deep dark stuff? things like blackmail and rape happens in real life so it should be addressed as SUCH and it's aftermath on characters , it's clear as sky this series for 18+ of age not the same school/uni bl story that belongs to people under 12yrs rather than having the same re-used recycled plot/story/setting for the 5794 times . we bl fans above 20 of age specially are actually thrilled with this series .
I believe what BL Watcher objects to is not the inclusion of rape and blackmail, but how the series shows a rape victim being blackmailed into having a romantic relationship with his rapist and the two becoming a happy couple. Even if this does happen in real life, what kind of relationship would it be? Would it be healthy in the first place? Unlikely.
As a whole I'm a fan of the HIStory series and I'm sorry there are no more. However I do agree that the rape story was not handled properly. I was shocked at how little emotion the friends showed to the rapist… it was like it never happened, they were no angry or conflicted at all! Also I think that it's not right that you keep referring to this as the "brother" did this and the "brother" did that… (which he did …no 2 ways about it) but you should call him what he is…an STEPbrother with no blood links to each other at all. Otherwise it makes it look even more sordid than it is. I have seen other series where there are similar plots (not the rape/stalking but the "brotherly" love) and they all keep using the same word which always looks awful until you realise that they are no blood related and any relationship btw them should be just fine.
Years later, I still find this drama distasteful, not because it included rape, but how the subject was handled. People who clamor that those who do not like "real world" problems like rape should not watch shows like this. But I digress: it is not that we can't handle shows that depict rape, but what some of us are protesting is how the rape was seen as non-rape, to the extent that it was even easily forgiven, as if the action was necessary as a jump-off to a romantic relationship.
Yes, what the brother did was wrong, but even more maddening is the mother's reaction as if this was okay, and the two ending up as a couple, is a signal to the viewers that when someone rapes you, it is a strong sign of affection. And that is the problem that I have with the show, that there are no repercussions for the assault, and the brother even got a reward (him being in a relationship with the object of his desire).
And that scene where a drugged up Mu Ren was in the throes of his urges, don't get me started on how some fans actually find someone so intoxicated sexy. SMH
They are not real brothers, but you are right about the assaultclaim. Even though they are not brothers, the whole getting him drunk and using him is so totally wrong. They really downplay it with that couple and at the same time we are "told" to be disgusted when the boss of the company drugs and tries to assault Mu Ren. There is NO difference between the two assaults, they are both terrible. But we're supposed to think one is romantic…?
I just watched this. I disagree with most of what was said. What I enjoyed was that is strayed away from the cookie cutter stories we always get a brought back and old cliche we hadn’t seen in quite a while with Mu Ren and Li Chiang. I enjoyed their romance. The stepbrother relationship was a mess. I could care less about brothers. It was the bad acting done. Their story never seemed to come together. I don’t fault the friends reactions to it at all and I think calling them garbage friends is quite a misstep. They never really like his brother. They literally use him a couple times when they want to learn how to do something sneaky because he’s a sneaky person. I was more horrified that the lead character didn’t care more about Mu Ren when his brother hurt him. If you skip most of the stepbrother scenes (I did because it was boring) then the show is enjoyable.