#Grand-Guignol

[lurkingshan]

Random BL Superlatives: 2023 Edition

It's the end of the year and I'm feeling the need to give out some awards! We talk a lot about best show, best actors, best writing, best directing, blah blah but I gotta be honest, these are the categories that really spoke to me this year. In no particular order:

Best supporting garment: Porsche’s sweater, A Boss and A Babe

Did I create this entire list just to have an excuse to post about this sweater one more time? Maybe so.

Best performance despite a terrible wig: Daou, Love in Translation

This man managed to perform one of the hottest scenes of the year with that bowl cut monstrosity on his head. Respect must be paid.

Best new terminology: BGP, Bump Up Business

BUB gave us so many gifts, but I will always be most thankful for the business gay performance concept (BGP), a term that is highly relevant in discussions of the bl industry.

Best advice: "Unfuck it," Tien in La Pluie

It's not only the succinct phrasing, but also the delivery method.

Best ex who deserved better: Alan, Moonlight Chicken

Yes, I will be staying on the Alan apologist beat in 2024, thank you for asking.

Best unexpected needle drop: Wetter, The Eighth Sense

The moment this show captured my full attention.

Best WTF ending: The End of the World With You

You can probably still hear my scream of "WHAT" echoing in the hills. (Actual ending not pictured in case y'all decide to watch).

Best gut punch line: "Have you been well? Without me?", Our Dating Sim

Sure Shin Gi Tae, Lee Wan deserved it, but did I??

Best adorable child: Tane, Our Dining Table

Need I say more??

Best weapon: sparkle murder dust, Khun Chai

Truly the MVP of this show. I can't find an actual gif of the dust in action (too violent to be depicted) so enjoy these pretty men instead.

Best great character trapped in a bad show: Boston, Only Friends

My beloved, I will seek vengeance in your name.

Best use of music to fuck me up: Plumeria, I Feel You Linger in the Air

Cocktail and Tee Bundit, you know what you did!

Best meal: Chicken curry and cheese naan, What Did You Eat Yesterday?

Yes, this category is kind of a cheat so I can mention WDYEY on this list. And what about it!

Best unhinged energy: Nawin, Laws of Attraction

He may not have succeeded at stealing back his man but he certainly stole the show.

Best bl horror: Grand Guignol

I just need to make sure all you jbl fans know that this movie exists and that Issei fucked Mr Unlucky!!! IYKYK.

Best character comeback: Phupha, Our Skyy 2

From boring stoic love interest to actually compelling and kinda funny leading man! See what a little flirting with Pat Jindapat can do for you?!

[jdragsky]

possum creek is releasing some new books by @wildwoodsgames and they're cool as hell and i'm so excited for them

GRAND GUIGNOL is a victorian romance/horror game where you take on the queer themes of classic Victorian gothic stories like Dorian Gray, Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde, and Carmilla, playing with both violence and desire

HARVEST is a folk horror RPG about a bucolic pastoral village on a small island in the british isles with a grim and monstrous secret — every year someone must die in order to keep the island perfect. inspired by The Wicker Man and Midsommar.

i'm SO excited for them, luke is a phenomenal designer and the project is launching as a double-feature on halloween in just 3 weeks!! you can sign up for updates here

[eyeodyssey]

Photos from the Tokyo Grand Guignol stage play Galatia Teito Monogatari, based loosely on the Teito Monogatari serial of epic dark sci fi occult horror books. Despite sharing its basis with a greatly influential series which spawned several films (the first Teito Monogatari adaption even featuring special effects designed by H.R. Giger) and a set of animated horror films, Galatia remains the most obscure of the Tokyo Grand Guignol’s productions. Very sparse information of its contents exist online. On one specific page I found a month back, a (very poorly translated) English synopsis describes the play as being a story about a machine that destroys a major city in Japan. It’s unclear if the machine they’re referring to is in reference to a humanoid robot or a more generalized weapon. It’s said that in the play, Kyusaku Shimada appears as a mad scientist who creates the oxygen destroyer from Godzilla (1954). In a description of the ending, the finale depicts a scenario where the character Yasunori Katō (a demon that manifests itself as an imperial army First Lieutenant) welcomes one of the characters to what he refers to as the “new imperial city”. He reveals to the character a supernatural landscape where various children’s toys and dolls across the stage come to life and move around on their own, all to the sounds of marching drums and claps of thunder. All images were digitized by yours truly, with the sources being volume 28 of Yaso magazine and the Suehiro Maruo-focused magazine Only You, which features a digest version of Galatia’s screenplay. Of course, with the screenplay (or at least a condensed version of it) in my possession, I plan to translate it to English some way or another down the line. This adaption would help start off Shimada’s professional acting career, with Shimada having his first major cinematic role as Yasunori Katō in the film Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis. As mentioned though, Shimada doesn’t act as Katō in the Tokyo Grand Guignol version. That role was instead designated to Yaguruma Kennosuke, who would later appear as Raizou in the original performances of Lychee Hikari Club.

Yaguruma Kennosuke as Raizou in Lychee's December 1985 performance, apprehending the Marquis de Maruo (performed by Suehiro Maruo) when he enters the Hikari Club's hideout. Kennosuke is on the right side of Maruo, with Hiroyuki Tsunekawa (Zera) standing aside Kennosuke with his bag of lychee fruits. As a side note, you've gotta appreciate how despite then being well into a Maruo-flavored era of underground culture, there are still the occasional callbacks to Terayama's legacy, hence the clock that Katō is seen holding in the first photo.

[squirrellypoo]

The official AMC account just posted this BTS photo of the Theatre des Vampires set.

Most interesting to me is that you can see they retained the “confessional booth” box seats on the ground floor sides which were a feature of the original Grand Guignol:

“Boxes for the audience in the rear of the theater drew similarities to those of confessionals with further ornate woodwork and iron meshes tying them to the rest of the neo-gothic experience. Even the seats were much like those of pews.”

BUT - if you zoom in on the BTS photo booths, the screen and the globe lights seem to match where Armand is sitting in the few frames from the latest trailer!?

GIF from @mademoisellebianx

So what do we think Armand is so distraught over in the Theatre timeline?! 🤔

[normalbrothers]

TOMMY: Why do you play games with people when there's no benefit to you? TATIANA: In Russia, because we were bored. In England, because we don't know how to stop. At least there are silly games and orgasms. TOMMY: So lets fuck.

[lascitasdelashoras]

Théâtre du Grand GUIGNOL, Paris

[weirdlookindog]

Harold Présente: Le Coupeur de Tetes

Grand Guignol-esque shock show from 1920s.

[wildwoodsgames]

Halloween is upon us, and I am crowdfunding TWO GMLESS HISTORICAL HORROR RPGs with @jdragsky and Possum Creek Games.

Grand Guignol is a London Gothic game of queer monstrosity, fraught intimacy, secret histories, and community on the margins.

(Cover by the incredible @sticksandsharks).

Step into the skins of iconic Gothic monsters seen through a queer lens—the eerie Gate, the volatile Beast, the radical Scholar, the tormented Hunter, or the hopeful Ward—to flirt and feud, tremble and embrace, and hurt and heal each other in the alleyways and parlors of Victorian London.

If you like queer reads of Gothic classics like Carmilla, The Portrait of Dorian Grey, or The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde; are a fan of lush bloody shows like Penny Dreadful and Interview with the Vampire; or are fascinated by historic accounts of queerness, this game is for you!

Harvest is a Folk Gothic game about tradition, necessity, and sacrifice, about a remote British island whose golden paradise only brutal ritual death will preserve.

(Cover by the incredible @sticksandsharks).

Don the mask of key figures out of any good folk horror story—the wary Stranger, the generous Old Name, the defiant Young Blood, the wistful Dreamer, the embattled Wise One, and the ambivalent Homecomer—as the omens pile up and time runs out to answer the age-old questions: "Whose blood must be spilled to feed the land? And who will hold the knife?"

If you enjoyed genre classics like The Wicker Man and Midsommar; want your folklore bloody and your horror feral; or are fascinated by regional British superstition and rural clannishness, check it out!

The campaign runs through to the end of the month, so if either of these games speaks to you then grab a copy of your own!

[kiwioshi]

GRAND GUIGNOL (2022)

[victusinveritas]

Ravenous (1999)

If you want to see one movie about a possible cannibal (maybe even a wendigo) at an outpost deep in the wilderness...this is the movie for you. Guy Pearce is a gem as always and Robert Carlyle...soars to Christopher Lee levels of dramatic villainy.

[angelantern-u]

FUCK I GOT THE LYRICS WRONG UHM. PRETEND LIKE THEYRE CORRECT PLS

[eyeodyssey]

An assortment of production images from the original performances of Litchi Hikari Club, all of which were personally tracked down and digitized by yours truly. The flash photography images with the blue tint were from the original 1985 Christmas performance as it was documented in June Magazine, whilst the rest are presumed to be from the later 1986 rerun which omits certain details like Suehiro Maruo’s cameo and the original Christmas-themed ending. Some further information about the play’s history along with direct audience recollections can be read in my post regarding the Futurist parallels of Litchi Hikari Club. Please credit with any use.

[blmpff]

Sota Ryosuke in:

Mr. Unlucky Has No Choice But To Kiss (2022)

vs

Grand Guinol (2022)

[queenoftheimps]

I am absolutely enjoying every single one of the "~Louis~, have you seen zis [pop culture thing]" memes floating around, and it very much feels like a direct successor to the "TELL ME, WILL..." memes from Hannibal's heyday

[weirdlookindog]

Les Yeux Sans Visage (1962) - Poster for the final show of the Grand-Guignol.