야화첩

YAHWACHEOP

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
Not Available
RELEASE
May 31, 2024
CHAPTERS
131

DESCRIPTION

Na-Kyum is a young painter with an exceptional talent: creating erotic images of men. Though he has published a few collections under a pseudonym, he has decided to quit painting. Then Seung-Ho, a young nobleman, barges into his life. A hell-raiser notorious for his insatiable lust, Seung-Ho forces Na-Kyum to become his private painter. However, the nights that await Na-Kyum are beyond anything he could have imagined…

(Source: Lezhin)

Note: Chapter count includes epilogue.

CAST

Seung-Ho Yun
Na-Kyum Baek
Ji-Hwa Lee
In-Hun Jung

CHAPTERS

REVIEWS

djunered
20/100
The Prettiest Art Style for the Most Yikes Yaoi I’ve Ever Had the Misfortune to Read
- _The Prettiest Art Style for the Most Yikes Yaoi I’ve Ever Had the Misfortune to Read_ -
NOT spoiler free

(mostly about the main relationship, and i discuss a couple dramatic plot elements. there’s really not that much to spoil though. this is a yaoi and i think anyone taking the time to read this probably knows the basic structure of a yaoi.)

content warning for sexual assault. i cannot stress this enough. like the biggest trigger warning ever. i also briefly discuss Killing Stalking, so trigger warning for that too.

To depict sexual violence for the purpose of titillation is disgusting to me. I know it’s not real, I know it’s fiction. You can have dialogue about the safety of fiction as a safe space to engage in kink and fetish and yes, that includes consent play, but personally it is distasteful. I am only saying all of this because this opinion of mine will absolutely influence and colour this review and I have no inclination towards being unbiased.

Painter of the Night is a Korean Yaoi webtoon set in Joseon Korea following Na-Kyum, a young artist raised in a brothel who has particular talent in painting pornography. He catches the eye of hedonistic and sadistic nobleman Seung-Ho. Seung-Ho forces Na-Kyum to paint for him, forces to him to watch sex acts and depict them, forces him to engage in sex acts, holds him captive, forces him to engage in more sex acts, blackmails him, forces him to engage in more sex acts, etcetera etcetera ad infinitum.

There’s other drama; there’s a scholar Na-Kyum is infatuated with, Na-Kyum’s relationship with the Seung-Ho’s staff, a jilted lover of Seung-Ho who descends into jealousy and alcoholism and has Na-Kyum kidnapped. You know, Yaoi webtoon shit. You’ve read Yaoi before, or you’ve watched a K-Drama, shit gets wild.

The real plot, the main driving force behind the story, is the relationship between Na-Kyum and Seung-Ho. Seung-Ho is the archetypal ’Sadistic Seme’ (god i wish i didn’t know all this fucking terminology) who is fascinated and slowly grows to care for Na-Kyum, the archetypal ‘Innocent Uke’ (god i’m really reevaluating my life choices). They start off the webtoon for all intents and purposes as captor and captive. Na-Kyum does not want to paint these scenes. Na-Kyum does not want to see these scenes. Na-Kyum does not want to have sex with Seung-Ho. He is attracted to men, he is often aroused during and after sessions, he is responsive during sex with Seung-Ho, but this is not on any level consent. As the story goes on, the consent lines ‘blur’ and both begin to experience attraction to each other.

This webtoon is often compared to Killing Stalking, a psychological thriller where the main character is gay, and imprisoned by a man he is infatuated with. Killing Stalking has (to my knowledge, i’ve never read it and never will) sex/rape scenes between the main character and his captor. It is not a yaoi. The author has stated it is not yaoi. It is a psychological thriller. There is no true romance between the characters and the relationship is not intended to be healthy or romantic. I still think Killing Stalking is bad and cringe and I judge people who like it but I can understand the argument.

Painter of the Night cannot even claim this excuse. It is a yaoi. The relationship between the main characters is very clearly intended to be romantic. The webtoon is currently unfinished, and I am absolutely prepared to eat shit if this turns out to be the most poignant psychological thriller ever penned, but I think the odds are in my favour.

So I am left with the dilemma of do I critique this work as it is, or is the webtoon too tainted by the tropes of the genre for me to view it on its on level. I think the characters are fine. Seung-Ho could be interestingly flawed if he was written well, but that’s just a can of worms. Na-Kyum has an interesting backstory, though he’s really just there to be a brutalised twink. He’s very passive and I find him lacking as a protagonist but it’s hard to criticise him for that because then it falls into ‘he’s not fighting back’ tropes, which are gross.

Really the only positive thing I have to say about this work is the art. It’s genuinely great. The line work, the colouring, it’s very beautiful. The style really works, especially in the context of Na-Kyum himself being an erotic artist, it’s very meta in a way. The costuming is beautiful, the setting is deep and atmospheric. The bedroom specifically is depicted really well, it has great ambiance. The lighting is great in the interior (read: sex) scenes.

As I am mostly asexual, I can’t really comment on the sex scenes as sex scenes. I am a woman mostly attracted to women, and so any gay sex I’ve had has been strictly lesbian, which means not only am I definitely not qualified to judge it but also I can’t really comment on how authentic it is to M/M sex. The comments always say its hot, so I guess if you’re just here for taboo S/m yaoi hentai then sure. This is the webtoon for you.

I am not someone who believes in the censorship of art and media. In the same way that I do not believe Scorsese is endorsing gangster violence, or that violent video games turn people violent, I do not think that depicting sexual assault is inherently wrong.

I do, however, find this genre and fanbase’s attitude towards sexual violence to be morally objectionable. It is rarely if ever treated with the delicacy and weight it deserves. It is often depicted, disgustingly, as romantic. “He actually wants it” “he’s secretly into it”, these are all disgusting tropes that are glazed over by the authors and fans.

On a lighter note, if you do find yourself sharing my misfortune and reading this webtoon, I suggest entertaining yourself by imagining that you are a scullery maid and you work for this rich noble family headed by this hot young bachelor. Your family are serfs, because if I’m remembering my Korean history right they had serfs during the Joseon period. Anyway imagine after a long day of slaving away cleaning, cooking you finally get to go to sleep at like 11pm after a shit meal of juk and not even any meat and like the moment your head hits the pillow your lord and master who literally owns you is just sucking and fucking all fucking night long loud as shit. And you have to wake up at 5am to clean the cum off his sheets and scrub cum of the floor and soak and wash his cum stained robes and feed and clothe his companion/catamite who keeps trying to run away and all your lord and master does with the day is go into town with his little boyfriend having his stupid relationship drama. And you do this every fucking day. I would poison him.

I plan to update this when it finishes, whether to slap a massive I FUCKING TOLD YOU SO on it or to humbly prostrate myself after I eat total shit. I’d like to be surprised.

So really TL;DR, I think the art is great but personally it’s just too rapey, but if you’re someone who unironically calls yourself a fujoshi then I wholeheartedly recommend this to you, you’ll probably like it.

originally 10, adjusted to 20.

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