#Depth of field

[pangeen]

" Jurassic World 🦖" // © Michele Bavassano

[respectthepetty]

Well, nice to see Japan has decided to fuck me up once again with Depth of Field.

It's okay.

I don't need my sanity anyway.

[heretherebedork]

Gaga gifting us with Japanese BL in July is real. @absolutebl We are blessed.

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - Wild Times (But Not For Sorn)

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

June 2025 Week 3

Ongoing Series - Thai

Knock Out (Fri WeTV ) ep 6 of 12 - I continue to very much enjoy this show, all of the couples have great chemistry, the plot is entertaining, It’s a solid sports romance and I adore a sports romance. Nothing not to love.

My Stubborn (Sun iQIYI) ep 6 of 10 - No no no. Sorn is supposed to suffer. This is not acceptable. Do not just give in like that! Oh thank goodness, yay! Confrontation, make him suffer, Junbaby! You go sweetie! Good. Good, suffering. More suffering is needed! Tai make him suffer too!

Reset (Mon iQIYI) ep 3 of 10 - Did Thada just buy his man a plastic bowl so he could eat his ramen as they walk down a street? Interesting choice. Also “workcation” = v modern word… so Thada must also be on a Reset? I do love that Thada is putting all of his cards on the table so quickly, definitely one who feels like time might run out and he has to get it right this time around. Thada is treating a relationship with Armin exactly the same way that Armin is treating his acting career. As I think you could probably tell, I am enjoying this very much. What a good show.

Memoir of Rati (Fri Netflix or YT) ep 1 of 12 - I was resistant to picking this one up, despite my love of both pairs. The title, intro music, and setting make me nervous that we won’t get a happy ending. That said, I am particularly interested in this time of Thailand‘s history and the complicated diplomacy that went on. And holy heck can GreatInn serve up some stellar chemistry.

My Sweetheart Jom (Fri YT) ep 6 of 12 - I continue to enjoy this more as it gets more plot heavy and convoluted. To be clear, that’s not normally what I like in my BL and certainly not what I expect from Thailand, or that Thailand does well. But there’s something about the way this show is paced that I'm enjoying more now than at the start. And we should be in the soggy middle. So, I guess... well done little show?

Pit Babe 2 (Fri iQIYI) ep 8 of 13 - Kenta Kim kiss! Yay!!! Chris’s epic eye rolls make me happy. However, this plot is Very Silly Indeed and I am very entertained. What a vroom vroom full of nonsense this is.

I Promise I Will Come Back (Mon WeTV) ep 5 of 10 - Oh what a lovely first kiss… touch… and so forth. I love this! It’s actually kind of special. How unexpected. (Ep 5A if you just wanna watch the moment.) I’ve said it before, there’s nothing wrong with the acting in this show. It’s the general story and script that’s troubling me. But my goodness all 3 leads are great.

The Next Prince (Sat iQIYI) ep 8 of 14 - It has been a bumper of a week and I’m grumpy, and unfortunately this particular show is bearing the brunt of it. I’m sorry, but the main couple are just so one note and it’s becoming quite trying. Something has to actually evolve with their characters, ya know? Now the sides …. very nicely done, give us more of them. 

The Bangkok Boy (Sat Gaga) ep 9 of 12 - It was a decent episode. But I’m really not sure about this show as a BL. It’s making me increasingly nervous.

Boys in Love (Sun iQIYI ) ep 7 of 12 - Just as I suspected, lots of nothing happening. Sports day. Whatever. (Always been Blue Team myself… just FYI.) 

SunTiny (Tues iQIYI) ep 1-2 of 10 - Look here, there’s a lot to like about this show. I like the idea of messing with standard misconceptions of top/bottom, and I LOVE it when the fandom hets and their dumb ideas of sex get the vapors. Blow their tiny minds, boys. Please. 

However, I am a little crushed that it takes a bodyswap for us to have a femme top. I hate bodyswap narratives. It’s one of my least favorite tropes. And I’m not sure this particular pair has the acting chops to carry this off. No skin off of MaxNat - good chemistry and decent actors, but to act like another person in your own body genuinely requires a level of physicality and verbal execution, a new way of holding the jaw and face to make believable. It’s not something that’s easy to do. Max is doing a slightly better job at it. He is certainly better at facial nuance and tone shift, but his physicality remains the same.

I love that this show is absolutely gonna mess with the worst of the fandom. That makes me really damn happy. Although it is dangerous territory for this pair to enter into and not a subject matter I expect Thailand to handle with delicacy. I do love all of the jockeying with linguistics and verbal pronouns and such. That is fun.

As of now though, I remain torn. It's gonns have to prove itself.

Eye Contact (Weds WeTV) ep 6 end? - I don’t like anything that happened at the back end of this show. And I’m not going to forgive it. I don’t like where the characters went. I don’t like where the relationships went. I don’t like what was done with the story arc. I don’t like the choices that were made by anyone. I am, to put it simply, cheesed off. The GL couple is the only good thing about this and they got practically no screen time. I’m tempted to say that this was originally slated to be a 12 episode and it stopped halfway through.

Summary

A promising start for a craptastic but delightfully edgy pulp derailed abruptly in the second act by miserable disconnected story arcs full of dysfunctional relationships, poor life choices, and every trigger in the book with no payout or attempt to resolve or address the resulting trauma. Including mine. I am seriously displeased. 3/10 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Ball Boy Tactics (Korea Thurs iQIYI) ep 3 of 8 - They. Are. So. Cute. I love them so much. No notes, absolutely my favorite thing airing right now.

Sweetheart Service (Korea Fri YT) ep 7 of 12 - How delightful that the sides got some love. That was charming. They went on a date. They are so damn adorable. Meanwhile our leads are the bestest boys. 

Moon and Dust (China YT) ep 5 of 6 - Yay biting! Oh this show is so ffed up and I love that. It’s so good. It’s so warped. It’s so good because it’s so warped. I am scared (for me and the show) but so pleased.

He is my rabid dog child and I LOVE HIM. Let him fuck bite his brother if he wants.

Revenged Love (China Mon Gaga) ep 1-4 of 24? - A remake of 2015's Falling in Love with a Rival. From China ON GAGA? What alt-reality IS THIS? No idea on the length, MDL says 24 but at 45 a pop, I'm wondering if that's correct, because that would make this the first full length CBL we have had since... well, Advance Bravely. But also, see the next section, this could be shut down at any moment.

And now, some thoughts:

It is so like its source, absolutely unhinged CBL. Snake fighting. So much smoking. Money throwing. Gifting boys. Gang rp. UNHINGED. What the actual?

At least this time the seme is established queer out the gate closet? Our baby boy is a bit of a loser. And the meat cute was way more modern BL. Of course seme is also truly evil, he’s openly queer and this is CBL so he must be corrupt in all ways. (I don’t make the rules the CCP does.) 

Of course I LOVE the doctor. (Also the psycho baby brother from Moon & Dust, did you clock?) I don’t think I’ve ever loved a character this much this quickly since Film was last on my screen. He is glorious.  

Anyway, I have no faith in this ending in a satisfying manner, or indeed ending at all, but boy am I enjoying this WILD ride.

Depth of Field AKA Hishakai Shindo (Japan Fri Gaga) ep 1-2 of 6 - The actor playing Hayakawa was in one of the Kiss shorts! Neat. Well we know he can certainly kiss a boy. Meanwhile, this is warped, a little creepy, and sort of messed up. And exactly what I expected from this IP. I like it, as I usually do with stuff from Japan. I’m making no guarantees on where this is going tho. Remember, never try to predict Japanese BL. Safer on the psyche.

The Sparkle In Your Eye (Singapore Sun Gaga & Viki) eps 9-10 of 12 - characters aren’t talking to each other or telling the truth. It's very sappy and heart wrenching and tiring. 

Important word on the CBL we are enjoying right now.

WRITERS ARRESTED! China’s Danmei Crackdown (also stuff on SmartBoom breakup, and the unprecedented popularity of GL pair LingOrm's Photo Shoot)

This has happened before. I said a little while ago that the CBL industry & online behavior keeps giving me 2016 vibes and that time period seems to be repeating itself. (Maybe all these do-over time travel BLs lateIy have been trying to tell us something?) I know this new spate of uncensored CBLs are only being distributed internationally but I still don't see how we can expect this to end well, especially Revenged Love. We are in Heroin Addicted territory and the dejavu is strong with this one. I am going to keep watching on the "get it while you can" theory, but I now wish I'd been bootlegging Moon & Dust. Revenged too. I may set aside some time to do so for... reasons... I recommend you do the same.

That's not what he said. So petty Tencent CCP WeTV.

It's airing but......

I Became the Lead in a BL Drama 2 AKA Zoku BL Drama no Shuen ni Narimashita (Japan Gaga) 6 eps - While I am intrigued by the manager side couple, I can't be arsed to add this to the weekly rotation. I may binge once it's done.

The Ex-Morning (Thailand YT) 10 eps - dropped half way through ep 3. I was just angry at it, at GMMTV, at the script, at the characters. That's not healthy for any of us. If rumors are to be believed, I'm feeling great about this life choice.

Season of Love in Shimane AKA Ai no Kisetsu: The Season of Love (Thai) 8 eps - Sequel to Kiseki Chapter 2 which I intensely disliked. I won't watch this.

Mission to the Moon (YT) 12 eps- Watching but I can't keep track. Too short, too many, too YT. I will report at end.

Loy Kaew First Love (Fri YT) 6 eps - Dropped at ep 4. Ended this week, trigger warning on that ending. Not recommended.

Next Week Looks Like This:

2025 Line Up

6/27 The Promise of The Soul (Taiwan Gaga) 12 eps - Have I mentioned recently how much I hate bodyswap?

BL Announced for 2025 - PART 1

BL Announced for 2025 - PART 2

20 BLs Announced for 2025 That I'm Really Excited About

GMMTV 2025 Line Up - My Totally Biased and Wildly Flawed Feels

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

This is from a KBL short called Wrong Number, has the actor playing the older brother bartender in Sweetheart Service. So far v cute. But one can't trust Sukfilm to end well.

I am pretty sure this is not an accurate translation. But I kinda LOVED it. (Sweetheart Service)

It's all about the doctor character. He is giving me LIFE. (Other people too, presumably, being a doctor and all.)

Revenged Love.

Yeah yeah. I like to see it. I'll take my cute femme top anyway I can. (SunTiny)

No but seriously, that kiss (I Promise I Will Come Back).

(last week)

The tag BLigade: @doorajar @solitaryandwandering @my-rose-tinted-glasses @babymbbatinygirl @babymbbatinygirl @isisanna-blog @mmastertheone @pickletrip @aliceisathome @urikawa-miyuki @tokillamonger @sunflower-positiiivity @rocketturtle4 @blglplus @anythinggoesintheshire @everlightly @renafire @mestizashinrin @bl-bam-beyond @small-dark-and-delicious @saezurumurmurs @waitmyturtles

[red-hibiscus]

The amount of complex emotions in this kiss has me screaming.

Hayakawa's feelings of attraction, but jealousy and loss are just so loud. It's like he doesn't know what to act on. So I guess he decides to fall back on having sex with people (for whatever reason he started doing that). Though of course this time he actually likes the person

[purlpeiris]

I’ve now tried thirteen times to reblog a post about Depth of Field and it will not post.

I just want to shout about how much I already love this, how much I already love them, how much I would give to have a JBL airing every single week of the year consistently.

Might need to go find the manga.

Also, may need to go rewatch everything Usa Takuma has done because I adore him. Might actually start with Hitochigai if I can remember where I watched it in the first place because I really liked it.

[usertoxicyaoi]

hishakai shindo trailer is OUT and japan are SO BACK!!!!!!! WE ARE SO BACK!!!!!!!!

[sookja]

被写界深度 hishakai shindo / depth of field, ep 2

(2025, kawasaki ryo)

[my-rose-tinted-glasses]

From that day on, we became rooftop friends.

DEPTH OF FIELD Episode 1

[colourme-feral]

Translation notes for Hishakai Shindo / Depth of Field ep 1

Obrigada @my-rose-tinted-glasses

I will use characters' first names, rather than their surnames, which is what is being used to address each other.

Back then, I threw away/abandoned everything. Note: It can mean to give up, but in this case, it feels like the other words suit the context better.

You really are terrible/the worst.

Even though I was supposed to have thrown/abandoned everything away, I'm still choking/having trouble breathing.

I can't breathe.

Shuichiro: (You) took a picture (of me). Ryohei: Oh, I took it because you had a great expression.

S: Kon chan, are you like this even in your classroom? R: Like this being…? S: Like (how you are now) R: Well, I'm like this, I guess. S: Do you have friends? R: Lemme be. Note: That last line from Ryohei is just him telling Shuichiro not to be so mean because Shuichiro is implying that given Ryohei's character, he can't possibly have many friends.

R: Also, do you always act so foolishly/frivolously? S: Foolishly/frivolously… R: (Just) stop that. When you're here, your expression is much better. S: Was it that bad? R: Yeah. If you keep making that face, isn't it gonna just wear you out?

What kind of lewd things do you do with girls?

Shit, why would (I think about) that… Note: He's saying something to the effect of 'damn, what's wrong with me and why would I think about that'.

Hishakai Shindo / Depth of Field translation notes・Other translation notes

[hughungrybear]

Wait, the young Hayakawa was bullied by his peers and teacher because he sings??? What kind of sad, terrible place was his elementary school??? Wtf?

[pangeen]

" SAVE WATER " // © Rana Basak

[romchat]

Hishakai Shindo visual analysis (Ep. 1-2): "Depth of field" metaphor

"Because the depth of field is pretty shallow. So this kind of blur actually becomes a unique feature."

I so appreciate how Hishakai Shindo’s cinematography plays with the show’s central metaphor of depth of field. In photography, depth of field refers to the size of the area in an image where objects still appear sharp, and the drama uses it to great effect as a way to visualize Hayakawa's suffocating emptiness and his growing but conflicted attraction to Konno.

Look at the way the show's camera uses shallow depth of field (DOF) to portray Hayakawa's isolation from the world around him:

Shallow DOF is where only one plane of an image (either the foreground, midground, or background) appears in focus while the rest doesn't. Within the images of his everyday life, Hayakawa is literally placed on a different plane than the people around him. He either feels ostracized because of his love for music or smothered by the carefree performance he punishes himself with. Either way, there's something very lonely (and even claustrophobic) in the way the camera's subtle blur separates the image of his person from whatever else is in the frame.

Which is why we immediately understand the significance of his rooftop interactions with Konno through the cinematography's change in composition and DOF.

When Hayakawa staggers up the light-drenched stairway and onto the rooftop, he can finally breathe. He's surrounded by water but no longer drowning, which is punctuated by that edit of an air bubble underwater.

The overexposure and vast amount of negative space imbues the scene with an almost divine significance.

And this moment is of course captured by Konno's camera, stripping Hayakawa bare and human.

I think it's notable that in their rooftop scenes together, suddenly we see more two shots of Hayakawa sharing the frame and being on the same plane as another character. We also see more shots with deeper DOF. Konno's observant and uninhibited nature prods Hayakawa to be more present and honest.

For the first time, Hayakawa and his inner life are in complete focus to someone else.

[heretherebedork]

Just the way he walked up those stairs like he could barely keep himself moving and then opened the door to the one place he saw light and walked out into the brightest, bluest world and to the sound of music... he found a refuge because the world is suffocating him.

And found someone all in white, bright and brilliant, just as light as the sun and the sky.

[lurkingshan]

Japanese QL Corner

Aaaaand we’re back! The JBL drought is finally over. An old favorite returns and a new show kicks off, and boy do they have opposite moods. Both of these shows are streaming on GagaOOLala. Let's go!

I Became the Main Role of a BL Drama 2

WE ARE SO FUCKING BACK!! The first season of this show was an absolute delight and it definitely left us wanting more. The only thing season 1 was lacking was an appropriate resolution to the sexual tension in this relationship between Aoyanagi and Akafuji, and this new season is tackling that head on, along with laying groundwork for additional commentary about the bl industry, sexual harassment in the workplace, and the way people treat child stars. This show's particular magic is its ability to deliver incisive commentary while being funny as hell, and I'm happy to see that it hasn't lost its touch. I only wish it was longer; I'm already sad about how soon it will be over.

Depth of Field

And now for something completely different! We got another moody school bl on our hands with the story of Hayakawa, a young man who has lost touch with music due to past trauma, and Konno, the classmate he meets and connects with on the roof. Hayakawa is in a grim place when the story begins, depressed, disassociating, and using indiscriminate sex to numb his pain. Meeting Konno shakes him up, as Hayakawa realizes pretty quickly that he's attracted to him. In the second episode, we start to learn about Hayakawa's past with music, and Konno begins to push him on the things he's avoiding, leading to an emotional outburst and their first kiss. I'm interested to see where this one is going, whether it's a simple tale of Hayakawa recovering his joy or something more complex.

[angelofdeath11]

Octavia #myedit

http://instagram.com/octavia.dingss

#octaviadingss <3