#anyway i'm probably gonna end up writing a sequel to my dunk manifesto after thk i can already feel it in my bones lmao

[airenyah]

#i feel like a lot of the bad acting accusations are because of the tremor (?) and I'm pretty sure those are just part of his body

@jjsanguine i agree! i think a lot of it comes from how fidgety he was on camera in star in my mind. (sorry, longer rant incoming! when i say "you" in the following text i don't mean you, user @jjsanguine, but i mean the general you. i'm just letting off some steam, i'm not addressing you or yelling at you directly dfjkjsdkjg)

but yeah, the shakiness he had going on in the beginning... that's just a very technical aspect that is pretty fucking difficult when you're new to camera acting, because news flash: you can't move the same way on camera like you can irl. the camera magnifies each and every single one of your movements, especially the more into a close-up you get. you know how many times i've had to listen to my camera acting teacher scold us for moving too much on camera? for being too fidgety? i lost count, because it happened at least once (usually multiple times) in every single class for three years straight. and learning how to move (or rather how to hold still) on camera is something you can only learn by, you know, acting on camera!! and when exactly was dunk supposed to learn that before simm??

idk, maybe i had more mercy with dunk when it came to this since i know from my very own experience how difficult this is when you're not used to it (for me it was even more difficult because my only experience came from stage acting where it's the exact opposite, where everything needs to be bigger and louder instead of smaller and more quiet) but still, i think bashing him for that is very much uncalled for. besides, you can literally see his improvement when it comes to this!! he barely fidgets anymore in thk, despite style being a character with a high energy level. and not just that, you could already see the improvement back in 2023, the year after simm!! just look at how still dunk holds his body in this music video from hidden agenda/our skyy 2 era:

you know, in star in my mind there are a few things through which you can tell the lack of experience, which is why back then i didn't really say anything yet when people where bashing him. but when i saw dunk's (dunk the actor, not dunk the singer lol) performance in this music video back in july 2023 (i think i first saw it two or three days after its release?) my jaw literally dropped. the moment i saw him in this mv that's when i knew he was very much a fantastic actor. and it's not just not in the lack of fidgeting

they don't have a single line in the entire mv and yet all of dunk's emotions are completely on point. he knows exactly what he's doing and what story he wants to tell at any given point. his character's emotional arc is coherent and as a viewer you know exactly what is going on inside of him, you can tell what he's thinking and how he's feeling the entire time and it all makes sense. dunk's character and how he feels about the situation and about joong's character is the most interesting part of the story presented in the mv, tbh. dunk really carries the mv, and he carries it flawlessly

but going back to simm, another issue was that sometimes he'd act a bit too big, in a way where it would be more fitting for a stage performance but it's too big for the camera because, as i mentioned, the camera magnifies everything. this is again something that he had to learn by, you know, actually acting on camera?!!!!!! and besides, it was simm director p'new who wanted this from him:

Dunk: "I discussed Daonuea's character with the director. He recommended that I watch anime and animal cartoon characters. They display visible responses and feelings. Daonuea expresses a lot, with big reactions. He clearly shows it when he’s shocked or happy. People can see what he is feeling at the time. They can tell right away. He doesn’t hide it. It's fun to be able to showcase my childish side in the series." [from: simm behind the scenes special, 7:29 (time stamp linked)]

"act big like a cartoon character" is a suuuper difficult instruction to give to a newbie actor because in order to do this flawlessly you do need to be fully aware of how everything you do will end up looking on camera so that you can actually nail the right balance. and this was an experience/expertise which dunk simply just didn't have at the time. simm was dunk's very first series (not counting his handful of scenes in bad buddy), so of course he's not gonna nail these tricky instructions on the very first try. and i think bashing him just for that is just a very shitty thing to do. it's one thing to say "ok i don't have the patience to sit through this so i'm not gonna watch it" but you really don't have to be mean about it, that's just really uncalled for. everyone starts somewhere, you know?

and now two years later after having gained much more experience and expertise, dunk does an EXCELLENT job with style's loudness and performative behaviour. dunk makes very deliberate choices about when he dials it up and when he goes quiet and serious instead and every single time these choices are extremely on point for the plot and where the character is at in his arc (don't believe me? i have a whole meta series about it where i continue to point out when style is being loud/performative/overacts and why he does it and why it makes complete sense). honestly, i think some people currently bashing his performance either went into thk just set on hating whatever he does on principle or they simply don't vibe with the character. and it's totally fair not to vibe with a character's personality! i grew up around boys who are exactly like style so i know first hand how exhausting they can be and that not everyone will get along with them. but it's not the actor's fault if you don't get along with people of this type of personality, that's very much a you problem

anyway, another aspect in simm where i thought dunk needed a bit more practice was the crying. i didn't always entirely believe him when he was crying in simm. it was going in the right direction, but it still seemed to me that he wasn't quite feeling it and was forcing it a bit. although, admittedly for this one big crying scene (the one in the parking lot after kluen kissed dao in the men's room) the faults as to why this scene doesn't really work already start with the directing. p'new messed up the dramaturgical structure of that scene and at the time the boys and esp dunk just simply didn't have the expertise to get the arcs and the structure of this scene right by themselves without outside help. and so it's no wonder dunk struggled with the mess of that scene (i swear every time i watch that scene i hear my camera acting teacher's voice in my head asking where all the plot points are lol). anyway, the crying was also a bit better a year later in hidden agenda, though i was still not entirely convinced at certain points. but then in early 2024 the boys dropped the joongdunk last twilight mv and dunk really put his whole pussy into the crying, like, that shit's heartbreaking. and they did that in their free time past midnight after a fanmeet in a foreign country. my mouth was agape when i saw it (dunk's sobbing, that it). we have yet to see style cry on thk, but i'm already curious to see if i'm still gonna have issues with it or if dunk has finally reached the point where he's really feeling it and where he can let the tears fall freely and naturally like he was able to in the last twilight mv (or maybe he just needs joong to direct him in crying scenes in order to ace them sndnfjjfjf)

anyway, the whole point of this rant is that you can criticize an actor's performance. nobody is perfect. everyone has to start somewhere. so yes, absolutely you can criticize someone's performance. and nobody forces you to like every single actor's performance. sometimes you're just not vibing, and that's totally okay! but you don't have to be unnecessarily mean about it. and more importantly, you have to be open to an artist's improvement as well and at the very least acknowledge it, even if you're still not vibing. and let me tell you something, as someone who's been following all of dunk's series live since episode 2 of simm (and technically even since ep3 of bad buddy), it's really been such a joy to see him grow and develop his skills as a performer. especially as someone who from the start has already appreciated the things he does excel at. and there are many things he excels at, many things that he's done so excellently even back in simm and hidden agenda that it really outshines the imperfections in his performance even back when he was less experienced than he is now

airenyah out.

@secriden you don't know the feeling of getting these tags into my notifs after feeling like i've been the sole public defender of dunk's acting for the past year and a half (and that's only counting the time i started being more vocal about it online, i've been defending him in my mind since 2022 actually)

truly TRULY love the energy you bring!!!!! join me!!!!!

DUNK IS A GOOD FUCKING ACTOR AND HAS BEEN FROM THE START. EVERYONE WAS JUST UNNECESSARILY MEAN