flamesandnames

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I guess you didn’t care And I guess I liked that And when I fell hard You took a step back Without me

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LOVE ‘EM

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Take me somewhere we both love;

Take me to where we can love

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flower crowns in film 🌿🌼🌷

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Alice in wonderland

By Lewis Carroll

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Black Swan (2010) dir. Darren Aronofsky // Whiplash (2014) dir. Damien Chazelle

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Whiplash (2014) dir. Damien Chazelle

"There are no two words in the English language more harmful than 'good job'"

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IM SORRY, IS THAT TOO SUBMISSIVE FOR YOU?

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Black Swan, 2010 dir. by Darren Aronofsky Whiplash, 2014 dir. by Damien Chazelle

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Ulysse (Agnès Varda, 1983)

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Salvador Dalí  (Spain, 1904-1989)

‘Alice in Wonderland'   1950

lithograph

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– let’s make a pact, here and now
we will take what we want from who we want, and we will suffer no fools. 
– t o g e t h e r .

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thinking about martin

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This Week in BL

Oct 2021 Wk 2 

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs.

Ongoing Series - Thai

Bite Me Ep 7 (Viki) - The brother was a greta character but the dripping faucet was very stressful for someone living in drought country. Here’s my relationship with this drama: ARGH they are so cute, but so slow, but so cute, but so slow - OH look at the pretty food! - and more cute. 

Don’t Say No Ep 11 (Line) - Episode recaps here. Make it stop. 

My Mate Match (Line) Ep 2 - honestly the “there’s only one bed trope” is particularly amusing in this series. This ep was a little slow but dealing with real world-esk problems for the age bracket which I liked. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Love is Science? (Taiwan - BL sub plot Viki) ep 17 - honestly OuWen’s understanding of Marks parents’ reaction, and the way he patiently explains how a child coming out can impact a family’s identity was really beautifully done. These two are such great characters and I love how the narrative keeps twisting the expectations and reactions around their narrative arc counteracting what most BL plot lines would give us. Mark is the bold outgoing one, even though he’s newly queer. OuWen is a confident gay, but he’s the one who practices empathy and explains identity struggles of the hets to his militant boyfriend. You can really see why they love each other. OuWen loves that Mark is willing to fight for him and for them - that’s loyalty, while Mark loves how OuWen changes both Mark and the way Mark views the world - that’s trust. They don’t have much screen time but unlike most BLs we see them slowly developing the foundation for a truly long lasting relationship with honest communication and trust. It’s very grown up or them. 

The Tasty Florida (Korea - Viki) Ep 7 & 8 fin - subs were a bit naff on these final two eps, and the love triangle is a little underdeveloped for the amount of emotion, but then so was this whole series. All in all, I’d call it sweet and fluffy, sunshine boy saves grumpy chef from himself. slightly unnecessary love triangle and everyone was very pretty. RECOMMENDED 

Innocent (Taiwan - grey)  Ep 1-2 - man involved in relationship with a boy with multiple personalities, higher heat, it’s a bit too weird for me. Not sure if I’ll finish it. I do kinda like that the seme is basically: So I’m in a poly relationship with one person? That’s cool I guess. 

Vanishing My First Love AKA Kieta Hatsukoi (Japan - indie subbed) Ep 1 - live action yaoi series that looks to be 10 eps of 25 min each. This is a mistaken identity = love triangle drama. Hashimoto has a crush on Ida. Aoki has a crush on Hashimoto. Aoki finds out the girl he likes is into Ida and through a series of mishaps, Ida thinks Aoki has a crush on HIM. Takes this seriously. All three are very earnest and sweet and trying to do the right thing. Japan can get pretty over-expressive and cartoonish with their manga adaptations and this is no exception. Why does one half of the couple always have to be SUCH A SPAZ? (Yes I AM thinking of Cherry Magic.) I suffered acute second hand embarrassment but I did chuckle, it’s just those chuckles are pretty painful. This is more Ossan’s Love than it is Seven Days but it could go Cherry Magic meets Light On Me if it plays it’s cards right, so I’m sticking with it. Tropes are coming thick and fast, already we got lie loom, wall loom, and rooftop assignation: Japan is apparently back in BL to remind us JAPAN STARTED IT ALL, SUCKERS! 

In Case You Missed It

Love With Benefits got a trailer and is supposed to start on Line (in Thailand) on Nov. 1. It’s another quarantine forced proximity (cohabitation) project with a love triangle. It looks a lot like My Mate Match. First, Play, and Pluto have to stay under the same roof for 10 days. Will love blossom? Stars Gameplay (Ingredients) and Best (I am Your King, Skinship, Check Out). No info on the third and he doesn't’ look familiar to me. Love Triangles are in fashion ya’ll.  (thanks @heretherebedork​ for the tip and @maru-x-idrew​ for the date) 

Strongberry dropped a new K-BL microfilm: Please Tell Me So. It’s a sweet little barista has a crush on his regular and can he work up the courage to confess. As usually from Strongberry tit’s on point a very well done. Go spend 8 minutes with these two cuties. 

Small (but reliable) Thai production house Mandee released their 2022 BL line up (all of which I reported on already but this is MORE data). (I’m moving them off the 2021 report as a result.) 

Cutie Pie (featuring Zee from Why R U?) is an arranged marriage romance which has added established pair MaxNat to their roster. For which we are, of course, eternally grateful. Also new pair of unknowns. For which were a nervous. I don’t like it when a BL has too many pairs in it. Loses focus. 

Middleman’s Love and Bed Friend which used to be the same BL, Middle Love (with the couple from Bed Friend as the side dishes), but seem to have been divided into two smaller BLs instead. Presumably for quarantine reasons. 

Ride or Die released another trailer for Quaranthings 2. 

Boys Lockdown has been in production on season 2. 

(@bengiyo reporting in from the Filipino drama front lines) 

GOSSIP!

New Thai BL NilunDon has been cast and is supposed to air an ep 0 teaser on Oct 31 (Gaga) with 12 eps in the series. Hurt/comfort about a hotel heir who returns to Thailand to deal with a death in the family where he meets and falls in love with a barista. Familiar faces: Nut from 2016′s domestic family trauma-llama BL Grey Rainbow (he’s WONDERFUL, but DON’T WATCH IT) and Tie (from The Effect of all things, also DON’T WATCH IT). There will also be a friends to lovers GL couple. 

Bad Buddy got its official trailer from GMMTV and a drop date of October 29. They pulled the original teaser trailer (which I actually likes better) but I am still very excited for this show. 

Two new Vietnamese BLs in the works! @heretherebedork reporting, of course (our source for all things V-BL). 02 Productions (Nation’s Brother, Most Peaceful Place) is filming Cinderfella and release some BTS footage. 02 is responsible for the 2nd Vietnamese BL we know of in existence, The Ring Goes Missing from 2018, which they are now turning into a full series called The Lost Ring (college kid takes work as a houseboy for rich asshole who falls in love with him). I’ll put both these onto 2022′s master tracking list because there’s no other way to track them, since MDL doesn’t list Vietnamese stuff. 

Next Week Looks Like This:

Some shows may be listed later than actual air date for International subs accessibility reasons.

My Sweet Dear starts next week, new Korean BL on Viki!

Upcoming 2021 BL master post here.

Links to watch are provided when possible, ask in a comment if I missed something.

This week’s best moments?

(from the Bad Buddy trailer, look at GMMTV being all cutely self referential.) 

* Sorry this is late, I’m on the move again.