#BL to watch

[absolutebl]

What's good on iQiyi? Now that KP is done I'm ditching the subscription but also watched Blueming and Gen Y. It doesn't have to be BL, I'll even take a noona romance. Bad and crazy is also on my list

What’s good on iQIYI? 

So you names the heavy hitters: KinnPorsche and (more important to me) Blueming. 

I haven't watched a ton on this platform, but here's a few:

You don't name it so ABSOLUTELY watch Dear Doctor, I'm Coming for Your Soul. I like this BL A LOT and this is the only place to find it. Review here.

Until We Meet Again - if you don’t want to watch it elsewhere. This is my favorite Thai BL of all time. (It’s also on YouTube and Viki.) 

Love By Chance - if you don’t want to watch it elsewhere. I consider this mandatory BL viewing. Everyone should see it. (It’s also on YouTube and Viki.) 

En of Love - perhaps less mandatory but still decent, especially the YinWar Ep. The first big example of Thailand’s “sampler pack” style BL. 

7 Project, I don’t really like any of these all that much, but if you really like some of the pairs it might be worth watching. SantaEarths is okay, the GL one is cute but has a terrible ending, BounPrem’s is rough going, BoomPeak’s has no kissing (this is my shocked face) but was the best of the lot. I didn’t watch the het ones. 

Even Sun (airing) if you like BounPrem, but I'm not into it. 

Check Out (airing) if you like high heat, but I'm not into it. (That said if you like the main pair they also have their first BL Skinship on this platform. That’s a long form advert, like Ingredients, tho.) 

NOT BL

My Dear Guardian - yet another take on Decedents of the Sun (I love a soldier/healer pairing)

Sweet Teeth - honestly I have no idea why I liked this one, but I did.

She Would Never Know - Noona but not my favorite, also I think Netflix has it now. Only worth watching if you, like me, are a Rowoon completest.

Romantic Blue - If you want to see Ohm act without Fluke. 

Ones I have on My List, but haven't watched yet

Bad & Crazy - it's so hard to find and so many people talked about it when I aired I feel like I should watch it.

Ten Years Late 

See You Tomorrow

Romantic Blues

Love Scenery

I am decidedly not a connoisseur of cdramas (I rarely watch their historicals because HOLY 50 eps batman!) so maybe others can weigh in with the important ones to watch on this platform. That’s where iQIYI’s strength lies... if you can call it that. 

Also remember, I’m USA based, so we might not have access to the same content. 

(source) 

[houjichas]

two bros… sitting in the dugout… touching their palms together and comparing hand sizes… this is what baseball is about

[clearancecreedwatersurvival]

Katsuki Yuuri is so funny because dude is an Olympic level figure skater who competes internationally regularly and he introduces himself through narration in the first episode as very average in skill, who is doing it like him.

Your self confidence may be bad but is it deluding yourself into thinking you suck at something you rank sixth in the world at bad?

[alistairlowes]

i'm sorry but this shit annoys me to no end. like this is about heartstopper and you all need to stop acting like that show invented everything.

fucking anyways

1. Koisenu Futari

Show that’s specifically made to be about aromanticism and asexuality as well as how aroace people are perceived by society. They are main characters. That’s the main plot.

2. Heartbreak High

Want a teen show with ace rep? No problem. One of the main characters is ace! Would you look at that! The representation already exists! It's got a ton of other rep too and it's on Netflix but somehow we never got that ace rep yet right? You don't even need subtitles for this one.

3. SkamFr (s12)

Is it a bit too much at times? Ye sure but you know what it also is? Another teen show where the main character is asexual that deals with asexuality as the main theme. And no you don't need to watch all those seasons before to get it.

4. Bojack Horseman

I didn't even watch this one but I'm aware.

5. Cherry Magic

Oh would you look at that a show with main mlm couple where one of the side characters is aroace? I mean surely it hasn't been done before.

6. Run On

You want some casual side character ace rep? Well here you go even kdramas have done it but I guess there just aren't any shows...

Honorary mention to Sex Ed for that one scene.

[krazieka2]

Baby Emblem. Three Babies

[silverraes]

coming to your ✨website✨ of choice soon

[dykealloy]

“we sent yuan away so his feelings could subside” you sent him to gay rizz bootcamp is what you did

[gunsatthaphan]

👋🏻👋🏻👋🏻.

[sunniss]

tae-yi in glasses~

[kuravix-art]

Honestly? Who knows at this point.

[pharawee]

BENZ Atthanin Thaninpanuvivat & GARFIELD Pantach Kankham —รักนี้ไม่มีถั่วฝักยาว (This Love Doesn't Have Long Beans) · Teaser · Coming Soon

[absolutebl]

La Cuisine Review - Sweetness & Patience

quick pitch

La Cuisine 

(Thailand March-April GaGa) 

7/10

Tropes: crush, campus star, bully trigger, best boys, soft & sweet 

Look, I am trash for trash, but this was less trashy than most Thai BL pulps. University set about a popular architecture student who is a picky eater and the food science major who has a crush on him and uses food to court him. I COULD NOT ASK FOR MORE. Basically it gave me reason, and room, to breathe by being exactly what I want from a Thai BL with no attempt to be anything else.

I adored the taste-then-cook competition opener. The chef teacher is queer, not just visually but linguistically (using the ja particle). Do I spot an actual butch character in a BL? YES! 

In fact, for a throw-away pulp show this one had some charming points of casual queer rep. 

This was another favorite moment of mine: 

Phai to the pink haired bestie & Kitty (who’s 3rd gender). 

Meanwhile, the seme love interest, P’Ram, is a rich campus moon but also a genuinely nice guy with 2 hot besties. 

So, sure, we are in hella familiar y-novel territory. But if I were into BL for novelty of it, I wouldn’t be into BL. The older architecture phis with their colorless lives coming up with tricky ways to keep meeting up with the bright sparkly queer food service kids is the CUTEST flipping thing. 

It’s like watching two friendship groups falling in love with each other.

What is unique about this one is that this pulp has unexpectedly high production values and good quality cast & wardrobe. Even the het couple is cute. Love the pink hair! 

What a surprise gem. This season’s Nitiman with a better ending.

The romance is VERY chaste and YA-ish, soft and sweet and fun to see some almost old fashioned ideas about teen love. 

Chup being bullied is so sad. But Ram’s “my good boy” is the best, because it’s so true. 

Honestly, RamChup are just about the marshmallow fluffy sweetest softest little snookums. I liked the external bullying as a narrative pressure, although I wish it hadn’t been combined with the faen fatale. I wish this show had just taken shipping culture to task. 

I enjoyed La Cuisine’s moments of self reference too, but it is awful slow. Thank goodness GaGa has 1.5x speed option. It also takes the faen fatale archetype to the next level of extreme evil. 

Everyone got a cute couple ending, even characters I didn’t really recognize, couldn’t remember, or showed no chemistry. But hey, shrug. Also, Sky & Phai = unexpectedly great kiss.

Why did we not get their thread (and Kitty’s for that matter) throughout the show? It would’ve helped with the pacing a lot. (Honestly, these two actors probably should’ve played the leads, IMHO).

In the end, a sweet and kind of pure show, and like Thai desserts perhaps requires too much patience for a layperson. Because of the pacing and the focus on the bad girl character, I did dock it. 

But if you like stuff in the Oxygen vein, then this show is for you, and far better than most Thai BL pulps. That said, I suspect that I enjoyed it more than many would.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

I ran into this tweet and it made me think of this show:

(source) 

[seatawinan]

[yuzumumuchuchu]

“Garuda, I might not be able to be with you in this life. But in our next lives, I only wish to be right next to you, and I will always take care of you”

How it started.png --- how its going.png

give us your finale predictions, wrong answers only (no spoilers)

[wanderlust-in-my-soul]

Devotion.

I just want, or rather need, to write about this scene, because it stuck in my head for the last seven days. And because of the wonderful @lurkingshan I decided to post it...

This scene is the culmination, the end of the years that Qian has forbidden himself to feel joy or love. Romantic love that doesn't demand, that doesn't require him to be in control, to take care, to be the big brother. So far he has not allowed the depth of his feelings for Yuan to surface. He has kept them locked away, kept control of them. He knows they were there, but couldn’t or didn’t dare to face them, to name them. And he would have continued to do so if Yuan hadn't finally told him what he actually wants from him. It wasn't enough for him to tell Qian that he loves him, that it was his own problem, not Qian's, that he was content if the person he loved was happy. The talk with San Pang and the staircase talk were the first steps, Qian is finally able and willing to face those emotions, but couldn’t make up his mind. Still couldn't name those feelings.

Everything is too much for him. He is overwhelmed by the decision he has to make and the possible outcome of that. He could lose Yuan, if they don't work out in the end. If those boundaries are finally crossed, there is no going back to where they were. So Qian needed to hear that Yuan doesn't want him as a brother. Every time Yuan told Qian he can take care of him, he is there for him and holds up the world together with him, it was as a brother. In Qian’s mind, he said that as a brother. All Qian brought Yuan was suffering and sadness and abandonment, because he fell in love with him.

In his mind, Yuan shouldn’t love him as something else than a brother, because that would harm both of them. Because loving Qian isn’t a good thing to do. Qian knows that Yuan loves him but hasn't understood, or rather wanted to understand, the extent of his feelings. Yuan wants to be his partner. He wants him to be able to rely on him, to be Qian's rock, no matter what life brings, he wants to be there for him. And not just for the moment, but for the rest of his life. And not just as a brother Qian has to take care of, but as a lover, the one person who puts Qian first.

He wants to be Qian's partner, he wants to protect him and take the burden off his shoulders. He wants Qian not to have to deal with everything on his own, but to open up to him, to share his worries and hardships with him. And Qian finally understands what it means when Yuan tells him that he can summarize his life in two words: Wei Qian. Yuan puts Qian above himself, he would run to the end of the world for him if he had to, he would fight against the rest of the world if he had to, he will protect him, he will take care of him and love him no matter what the world holds. And finally Qian understands that it's good, that Yuan won't just leave him once he opens up, because he loves everything about him, his dark sides and his light ones. Yuan can take care of him to the end, can love him to the end. And Qian surrenders. He's always in fucking control, no matter what, he has to control everything, even his heart. But at some point, all resistance breaks. He just had to understand.

And when they get into the bedroom, Qian is beaming. The lightning focusses on his face, this delighted face. He is like pudding under Yuan’s kisses, touches, breathes. In that moment he exists only out of his emotions. There is nothing more and nothing more is needed in this situation. He has never looked so weightless before and has certainly never felt like this.

We know what Yuan imagines at night, or at least we have a pretty good idea. We have witnessed countless moments when his love and affection for Qian literally leaked out of his face, while Qian tried to suppress his feelings with a petrified expression. But finally, he can feel them. He allows himself to give in. He allows Yuan to take care of his world, to let him feel how much he loves and desires him. The power of emotions and sensations are depicted on Qian’s face. He has his eyes closed, tasting every single moment, savouring every single touch. Blissfully.

Yuan's presence is Qian's entire focus. Just as Qian is Yuan's entire focus. And he makes sure that Qian feels good, that he forgets everything, all problems and responsibilities, illnesses and losses, for the moment. He takes care of his world. This one thing he wanted to do for so long, he is finally able to do.

(Well, there is an edited version out now with this whole scene as one without the flashbacks, but I saw the other one first and I loved it, so I stick to it.) The whole scene is repeatedly interrupted by scenes from the past and it is always Yuan. I was also a bit irritated by the time jumps at first, I get why people are annoyed by this, but it makes sense. We know that Qian is Yuan's whole world, the centre around which he has revolved for years and for which he would do anything. We see scenes that led to where they are now. Their shared history. Their shared memories. The sequences speed up and at some point it's just Yuan’s face at its core. Yuan. Yuan. Yuan.

And you can understand, without needing to be told, that Yuan is also Qian's whole world. He is the centre, the heart that gives his own life warmth, with whom he can let himself fall, who knows him better than anyone else, who was always there, even when he physically wasn't, the only one who could tell him to do things he didn’t want to do, the one he can’t fucking live without. And Qian surrenders. The feelings he couldn't allow for so long are now boiling out and we have these close-ups of his face and see how he's longed for it. How touch starved this boy was.

I don't need a close-up of Yuan to know that he's enjoying every single second. Would it have been nice? Sure, but I think narratively, that's the way they wanted and needed to go. And I love this whole scene. It's aesthetic, it advances the story, it's intimate and it's fitting for the show. Because Qian always was Yuan’s world and Yuan is Qian’s whole world.

I just wanted or needed to say I love this scene, its buildup, its pace, its hecticness and this disconnected feeling. It's Qian's scene. It's what we've all been dying for, for Qian to finally give in. And when the emotions overwhelm you, then it becomes hectic, then nothing hangs together and thoughts can't be grasped, can't be put in order. You jump from moment to moment, starting at one point and ending at a completely different one. It's Qian's scene. It's not Yuan's. We've had enough scenes to see Yuan's love and devotion, now it's time for Qian. We are, like Yuan, experiencing Qian in his first moment of absolute devotion. Without time, without place, without anger or fear. He doesn't think about the past or worry about the future, because for the first time he lives in the present. Yuan gives him this security that he can let his guard down, give up the control. I don't think Qian has ever felt as safe, secure, and loved as he does in this moment. And I love it so fucking much! Perhaps I just ignore my little dissappointement in them rushing this whole thing, because I watch those scenes with a narrator in my mind and he is giving me so much more in those scenes than the actual scene shows. But I understand everyone who is dissapointed with this scene and editing.

[forcebookish]

Enchanté out of context