stuffnonsenseandotherthings

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Everyone shut up and look at this carving of a whale from the 1200-600 CE Chumash culture

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Mirror Thailand did an interview with cooheart, there isn't a translation of the full interview that I found but there is this small video that has english subs

Here is the link to full thai article

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Screw "Is this a look or are they just skinny", what I need is "Is this a good show or is one of the actors just popular".

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It's finally June (happy rainbow month everyone! 🌈) so it's time for my annual "spot the QL actor at Bangkok Pride Parade" post in which I lurk around the socials to spot familiar faces and share some happiness (here's last year's post for even more happy memories).

As usual, please keep in mind that this is a month-long event for Bangkok Pride that already started yesterday. Many actors might not be able to attend for work-related reasons, they might attend other events or show their support in other ways. This post is for the Bangkok Pride Parade only because this is the part I enjoy most (but please feel free to add to it because the more 🌈✨ the merrier).

(I've credited all images via image description because I don't want to link directly to the hellsite that is x. If that's not working for you, please let me know and I'll add a direct link.)

And who better to start with than Earth Katsamonnat aka Cooheart. I wish tumblr would let me post more than one video because he. is. breathtaking (but what else is new).

Earth is there with his fellow WabiSabi actors Oat Tharathon, Tonliew Methaphat and Golf Pasatorn.

Next up we have none other than Gun Atthaphan, and it makes me so so happy to see him there.

And of course it wouldn't be a Pride event without Bank Mondop and Mos Panuwat.

They joined along with fellow Star Hunter actors JJ Rathasat, Fong Bovorn and several members of Star Hunter's girl group Cosmos.

Here we have Nut Supanut and Ping Orbnithi in traditional attire from their upcoming BL I'm the Most Beautiful Count. It's really difficult to find good pictures this year since it's mostly videos so I can't even show them in their whole glory. Nut especially deserves an award for walking Pride in these heels (then again, by now he's probably a pro):

Here they are alongside fellow actors Belle Jiratchaya and Aton Thanakorn.

I can only find videos of Kongthup's artists walking the parade (I swear, I'm this close to posting blurry screencaps) so here's a group picture that was probably taken right before they arrived: Mon Taechin, Pak Varayu, Lee Long Shi, Krismon Thanawat, Top Sumethee and Arm Chaiyapat.

Wait nvm, I found photographic evidence of Arm and Long (and like, half of Mon).

Further evidence of Pak and Mon (and also just something about seeing all of these actors with the pride flags makes me incredibly happy).

Park Anantadej and Big Thanakorn are attending again this year as well but this is the only halfway recognisable pic of them both I could find (pls up your video limit tumblr I can't do this anymore).

Yoshi Rinrada is there as well (she's walking with Gun Atthaphan but I couldn't find any stills/pictures of that either 😭) and she is stunning.

I had to resort to taking blurry screencaps to give you Nice Boripat and Gunner Natsakan. They look much better on video so if you hop on over to the hellsite that is x you can see them in motion.

I will update this post as I find more pics of actors but for now this is it. Again, if you spotted more actors that attended (especially GL actresses because this is definitely my blind spot here) please feel free to add to this post or let me know. I'm hunting down pics of newlyweds Porsch and Arm as we speak. 🔍👀

But anyway, happy Pride my lovelies and ILU all 💛🧡❤️💜💙💚

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Gotta love Chakri pretending to be shocked at Charan and Khanin dancing together like he wasn't the one who set them up for this exact scenario.

My dear man YOU taught Khanin to follow when you taught him the moves, don't act like this wasn't the plan all along 👀

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Ik Jeong has some really iconic entries lmao

First a helmet stuck to his head

And now his hands stuck together 😭😭

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Okay yeah I'll enjoy this I think although as a note, if the first episode was meant to be set in London, Paul would 💯 have gone with "Sharon" and then immediately "Shaz" without even blinking when he couldn't pronounce Charan's name properly

Is The Next Prince good or are all of you just exceptionally good at making gifsets that highlight its best parts?

This is a genuine question because what I'm seeing makes me really want to watch it but I've been blinded by the GIFs before...

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Is The Next Prince good or are all of you just exceptionally good at making gifsets that highlight its best parts?

This is a genuine question because what I'm seeing makes me really want to watch it but I've been blinded by the GIFs before...

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Love for Love's Sake - Director's commentary

[Extra content from Bluray boxset]

If you take it to other platforms, please leave credit and original link. And don't share links to videos publicly as well, thank you ^^

[Translation by AmetistLex]

Director Kim Gyuna: When I got to know about "Love Supremacy Zone" from our CEO, I stayed up all night reading original novel. I immediately knew when I read it, that this was a work I must create no matter what. I kept reading and imagining how to film the scenes. I told CEO that I really want to make this project.

Q. Stories about each main actor's casting?

During the first round of audition, I was really surprised that Taevin came extremely prepared. We gave actors a small script that he memorized but Taevin also read original novel and webtoon, so we could have a deeper talk with him (even during first audition). That's how we realized that with this actor we will be able to bring to life such difficult character as Myungha. We cast him quite quickly.

In the case of Joowan, playing role of Yeowoon, he was cast a bit later. There were a lot of actors trying for that role, but we had a very clear vision for the character so it was difficult to find someone matching that image. But when Joowan entered the room, we were immediately shocked: he was very tall and very cool looking. But at that day he could barely speak. We asked him whether he was nervous, but it turned out that he practiced the script for 2 weeks, 12 hours a day (from 10am to 10pm) before the audition, to the point of losing his voice. His passion was so impressive, and we thought that even if he ended up lacking somewhere, he'd be able to overcome it with this passion. That's how we decided to cast him.

We picked an actor for the role of Sangwon quite fast, too. The fans admit that all our actors fit the images of the original characters really well, and this actor (Minsu) matched a lot traits of Sangwon character in the original novel. Fierce/wild and manly, with a deep voice. Of course, his acting was good, too, so we chose him.

And finally, we didn't cast Woongki through audition. We made an offer to him instead. CEO said that there's this guy - even though he's an idol, he's been acting since he was a kid. So we contacted him and asked to meet us because we liked his image. Surprisingly, he was also very good at acting, his entertainment charms were a great help to match Kyunghoon's image too. Woongki is energetic and bright, but as we kept talking with him, we realized how solid/secure he was.

It felt like a fate to cast these actors in LFLS. Of course, there were difficulties but it all worked out perfectly.

Q. How would you brag about each actor?

Lee Taevin always prepares very diligently, and he's smart. So no matter the discussion, he receives feedback well. It's a lot of fun to work with him. The production team has to prepare more than actors, but he studied the source very passionately and kept saying "I want to try acting like this, what do you think about doing that?". I thought many times that he's a true actor who's overflowing with the passion.

When it comes to Joowan, like I said, he can practice for 12 hours a day. If he wants something, he'll do it even if his body breaks or if he's in pain. He won't even say anything - actually, there were many times when it broke our hearts. We kept telling him that he should speak up, it's okay to tell us (if he needs rest or something), but without any complaints, he worked until the work was done, that's what kind of person he is. That is very amazing of him. When someone is physically exhausted, inevitably there are things they won't be able to do but Joowan is the opposite – after finishing filming, he'd tell someone else how (badly) he made it through. Then we'd ask if he's okay, why didn't he say anything, but he'd go "No, I'm really fine!". His willpower is very strong, he's reliable.

Minsu has a great depth. He listens more than he speaks, thinks about details a lot and has many deep thoughts. I realized he studied Sangwon's character so much that he could talk about him in such depth. He contacted me a lot, even after script reading has just ended, he'd call and say "I had this thought on my way, what do you think?" And after we discussed, his memo app would be filled with a lot of notes. His depth and sincerity are his charms.

And Woongki has the most overflowing energy. Of course, other actors are energetic too but his vibe is just different. I thought that he might be the reason the four main actors were able to bond so well. And like I said, he has a great trait of being solid/secure. It might be a simple word to describe it but I mean he has amazing inner strength that can't be faked. When other actors struggle with their acting or emotions, he helped build them up. So beside just being cheerful, that's his biggest virtue.

Q. What was the most difficult during filming?

We had a lot of discussions with the cinematographer/operator. Since there's a lot of CGI in this project, we worried about how much we could actually film. And we thought a lot about how to visually convey all the complicated details of this fantasy story. We worked tightly with CG team but sometimes executing our ideas was difficult due to various restraints. I had a fear we wouldn't be able to deliver our ideas properly so we discussed everything a lot together with our teams. I think the result was good.

Q. What was the moment you enjoyed the most?

Preparing and post-production are fun but I enjoy shooting on set the most. You can immediately get feedback from everyone's energy, they give good or bad reactions. Creating something together is a lot of fun. And since our actors are good, when the scenes I imagined in my head came to life, it was extremely joyful.

Q. If you had to choose your favourite scene?

I really liked a lot the cut from episode 7 when Yeowoon says "I love you". I had a vision of this scene in my mind but reality was even better, so I thought this would definitely made viewers' hearts flutter.

I also love the scenes where the four characters are together. Even though the story focuses on Myungha's character and his relationship with Yeowoon, I actually love all four characters. So the scenes like one in the restaurant or rooftop when they grill meat have totally different energy. Comparing to the scenes with only Myungha or Myungha with Yeowoon, scenes with four characters together are full of complete joy. Even when shooting was hard and everyone was exhausted, filming those scenes was a lot of fun. If I had to pick one scene as a highlight, it'd be the one where four friends are eating meat together.

Q. What other parts of novel you'd like to put in a drama series?

Our characters are high school students, and usually at that period of life you mostly study. But since our story is about finding happiness, we removed a lot of studying scenes. But there were a lot of studying scenes in the original novel, like Myungha and Kyunghoon studying together, teaching Yeowoon and eating fruits. I thought such scenes could add one more spoon of sweetness to the drama.

Q. What are flaws and advantages of the novel and drama series?

I don't think none of them have flaws, both novel and drama complement each other. The novel, because of being just the text, relies a lot of reader's imagination and sometimes author's intention doesn't get delivered properly. And in the drama, we can visualize and show those messages more clearly. So I think both formats help each other.

And novel has scenes that we couldn't show in the drama, as well as more details for the emotional moments. Even fans say they can't choose one or another. This mutual supplement creates an effect of the loop.

Q. What did you try to bring to life the most from original novel?

We mentioned it during our group reaction to the series as well: I really wanted to bring to life the sunset scene. After I read the original novel, I had three key scenes that I definitely wanted to properly visualize. To the "world is changing" scene when main characters meet for the first time, we paid attention the most. Then, the final kiss at sunset in the ending. Since those were the beginning and end of the story, I wanted to open and close the story well so we focused a lot those scenes and had a lot of ambitions.

Q. Say a message for the actors.

Taevin, Joowan, Minsu, Woongki, every time I have to wrap things up with you, one phrase always comes to mind: "I'm always grateful to you, you did so well". I really want to say this to you guys. I was very happy to work with you on this project for such a long time, it was a very meaningful time. Thanks to you, Love Supremacy Zone received so much love and stayed in the hearts of many people. I believe you will become amazing actors – one day, one project, to anyone. I hope you will be happy in the future, thank you and I love you~ Let's be happy!

Q. Message to the fans who loved this series

First of all, thank you. I want to express my love as much as you've loved us. I think the biggest reason this project was completed was the love that you, fans, gave us. Without your love, we wouldn't even end up here, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Actors and staff think this way too. You gave us so much love and we were able to work on this project so joyfully. Thank you a lot for all the love. If you keep loving us in the future, we'll love you even more too. Thanks to you, we were able to complete this project. Thank you and be happy. Goodbye!

// other Love Supremacy Zone extra content //

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If you got enough money to live happily and comfortably for the rest of your life, but everyone who saw you immediately knew what fandom you are in and understood what that means, would you take it?

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Dear video essay creators. A video analysis is when you analyze a piece of media. No no look at me. A summary, no matter how thorough, is not an analysis. An analysis requires you to draw conclusions about the media such as authorial intent, real-world parallels, discussion about themes/worldbuilding/character motivation, and so much more. You have to stop summarizing something and saying that’s analysis. The Gaylors are doing more critical analysis than you. Is that who you want to lose to? The gaylors?

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can we please please please learn to differentiate between things that are good but devalued because of their association with women (caring for children, being compassionate), things that are neutral but seen negatively because of their association with women (the colour pink, having long hair), and things that are bad but associated with women because of misogyny (being materialistic, being stupid) because otherwise we’re gonna keep getting takes like “being gender nonconforming is anti feminist” and “not studying for your classes is feminist”

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can we please please please learn to differentiate between things that are good but devalued because of their association with women (caring for children, being compassionate), things that are neutral but seen negatively because of their association with women (the colour pink, having long hair), and things that are bad but associated with women because of misogyny (being materialistic, being stupid) because otherwise we’re gonna keep getting takes like “being gender nonconforming is anti feminist” and “not studying for your classes is feminist”

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Heesu in Class 2: Maybe It’s Time to Stop Calling Myself a BL Viewer

After finishing Heesu in Class 2, it’s been surprising to feel like I’m in the minority for enjoying it. We’ve seen a great deal of concerted posting from fans of the webtoon about how this show betrayed its source material with its adaptation changes. Over the last few weeks, I’ve read the original webtoon to gather my own thoughts. After reading through @my-rose-tinted-glasses post on why this project didn’t work for her, I decided to sit with it for a while. I then came across this tweet from Dr. Thomas Baudinette:

I respect Dr. Baudinette’s academic interest in the genre and the useful insider insight he brings to the table. However, I will say plainly that I think this is a grossly disingenuous take, grounded in the idea that stories about queer romance take precedence over other queer stories. Additionally, it deeply misreads the adaptation choices and insinuates that a queer show that includes heterosexuality in it is somehow betraying the BL audience. There’s a lot to unpack here, but I will say plainly that I will go back to just being a queer cinephile who dabbles in BL instead of advocating for BL if this is who we are.

I am a queer person here for stories about queer truth. BL is a romance genre. While I respect BL viewers who are here to get their feelings from swoony moments, I cannot abide the presumption that a story that is inherently about the coming out experience somehow let its source material down for maintaining that connection. Every year we get into a big fight about what is or isn’t BL (see: 180 Degree Longitude Passes Through Us, Love in the Big City, What Did You Eat Yesterday?, etc.), often arguing that BL is a branding term used to get romance viewers to show up and support queer works. I think it’s fine enough to argue that Heesu in Class 2 isn’t a BL because it uses Korean drama frameworks (@lurkingshan) for its story instead of sandblasting you in the face with pop music as two boys stare at each other, but I think there’s real value in what the show is doing for mainstream viewers.

I’ve avoided discussing the webtoon too much in my commentary, but now that I have read it I will say firmly that this would have sucked as a TV show. We know that about 40-50% of the shows we get each year are based on their source material. The webtoon is adorable and well-intentioned. It’s also a very simple narrative in which we are primarily in Heesu’s point of view, and any time we leave his point of view it’s to see only what other people are thinking about him. In my opinion, simpler narratives like the Heesu webtoon work best as films and not as dramas. 

We recently went through this with Living With Him, in which a really short manga got stretched to eight episodes and had to add contrivances to the middle to pad out the time that eventually hurt the core narrative. Thai BL is rife with secondary, tertiary, and quaternary couples to pad out time to meet the long run time demands of the airing schedule. When you’re adapting a fairly simple story, you either have to add depth or bloat. Oftentimes we get both. In the case of Heesu, it’s clear that they were only adapting the first season of the webtoon, and so they added depth.

The constant refrain from detractors of this webtoon is that it deprioritized the queer characters and their narrative in favor of straight narratives. I wholeheartedly disagree. Every single straight story in this show (and the gay ones) are meant to add context to the queer struggles Hee Su and Seung Won face, from Ji Yu and Chan Young to all three of his sisters.

Ji Yu’s music arc hearkens to the queer fear of being public with yourself and facing judgment and scrutiny. Chan Young’s tennis arc features real parental abandonment consequences that many a queer person fears. Hee Sin exemplifies how easy it is to fall for people and also deal with the constant rejection of most people not being into you (because they’re straight). Hee Jae exemplifies how toxic a relationship with your best friend can be when the romantic feelings aren’t fully reciprocal. Hee Yeong shows us what it means to be brave and face your friend after you’ve let them down romantically. Ho Sik highlights how easy it is for straight people to express and pursue their romances, and then be public with them. None of these plots exist in a vacuum; they’re meant to add context to the tension between Hee Su and Seung Won.

On the queer front, the show expanded on the initial lesbian advice plotline as a way for Hee Su to open the discussion about queerness with his siblings. The look shared between the sisters, their careful responses, and the way they treat him in the final episode after Hee Su comes out to Hee Sin shows that they talked to each other. Hee Sin clearly pulled on her prior knowledge when she insisted to Hee Su that she still loves him. Hee Jae, the grumpiest sister, was especially direct about praising Hee Su when he offered to help them take Hee Yeong to the airport. Hee Yeong told him plainly that he must remember that she is always on his side and will support him. Seung Won’s mom acknowledged that her own coming out affected him, and let him decide how open to be about his family.

The coming out sequence with Hee Sin was so powerful. He made it clear that this isn’t a gay-for-you situation. He said plainly that his crushes are on guys, and will probably always be on guys. Hee Sin’s response took me back to this incredible scene from The Fosters, in which Lena’s dad apologizes to her for saying “I still love you.” He rejects it as something horrible, in which you confirm to your kid that you could possibly stop loving them. He says he wishes he had instead said, “Thank you for telling me something so important about yourself, and I can’t wait to meet the person you want to share your life with.” 

I’m also annoyed about the insistence that the straights were given priority in this narrative in which everyone gets about the same level of on-screen intimacy. This is a show that managed to avoid getting an R rating, which means that it’ll be accessible to a much wider range of viewers without needing additional parental controls. The straights getting time means that when the gays throw the ease at which they pursued romance back in their faces, it’s actually grounded in events that transpired in the narrative. I will also say that I did NOT like the way Jiyu and Chanyoung meddled with Heesu in the webtoon, and thought conspiring with Seung Won was not kind to Heesu. I like that the drama instead uses their stories to support the queer themes as Ji Yu directly supports Seung Won.

I’d also like to say that all the Chan Young commentary troubles me. Hee Su has been in love with this boy for ten years. I actually think the show needs to spend time fleshing him out into a real person for the audience to understand why Hee Su likes him so much. He’s charming and friendly. He’s kind and thoughtful. He wants to help the people he cares about. He also trusts Hee Su implicitly. 

I do not blame him for being overwhelmed and surprised when Hee Su suddenly confessed to him, and I think there is real value in him botching that moment. So many viewers who might not have spent a lot of time thinking about how they would handle queer people coming out to them will benefit from seeing Chan Young flub that moment. What’s more important is that he did eventually talk to Hee Su and begin to repair the break in their friendship. It isn’t about being right every single time; it’s about always doing the work required to make things right. 

Finally, I really loved that Hee Su got to be mad at Seung Won for confusing him all this time. It was fun to see Hee Su, who I think was way out of line for always interfering in Chan Young’s life, face the reality that he had also been subject to that kind of behavior. This worked so well for me because we understood that what Seung Won liked so much about Hee Su was how warm and open he was. I will have more to say in the future about how many shows we’ve already had this year reject one-sided pining as inherently pure.

In the end, it’s just a really dissonant experience for me to see such a kind show getting such an energetic negative response. Like anyone else who’s watched over 300 BLs since 2016, I like seeing cute boys kiss each other and make face as much as anyone else. However, if we’re unable to appreciate using a webtoon with clear ideas about the difficulty of coming out when you’re in love with a friend in a format that far more viewers are used to, I don’t think I can rock with this anymore. I can’t even find myself associated with the kinds of people who would have called Degrassi homophobic because it wasn’t exclusively gay. 

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petition for translators of thai and korean to stop translating p’ and hyung as brother when the context is sexual bc i’m begging you

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saying “i want him” about the character but not in a romantic or sexual way . i just Require him i need to Obtain him