#Korean short films

[absolutebl]

In Strongberry We Trust

I had a private ask about Strongberry recently so here’s some thoughts.

Strongberry is probably the most established KBL studio, they started in high production shorts/microfilms (as, indeed, did all of KBL) and still specialize in them. They also do some GL. They tend to have very good chemistry, work with professional actors (not idols), and will go high heat. They are now a division of Matchbox, and have been around and steadily producing content since 2017. The CEO is adorable. 

For YEARS Strongberry was the only studio reliably producing BL content out of Korea. And, sometimes the kisses were even good! For real... there was a time, not so long ago, when all we really got was KBL shorts and most of those from Strongberry. Dark days. Except for Strongberry shining one bright light of BL content. They are reliable, HEA, and high quality. 

Hence the fandom slogan...

#In Strongberry We Trust

They often pick odd (or underserved) premises but always execute beautifully. Their stuff is either on YouTube, Gaga, or pay to play on Vimeo, and they do move it around so my links might not always still be working. Vimeo earns them the most money. They are a small, struggling, queer-friendly studio, please support them and their content by not pirating or watching illegally. 

Here's my ranking of Strongberry's offerings.

1. A First Love Story

2021 YouTube short in 2 microfilms 

Tropes: childhood friends to lovers, home setting, soft tone, grumpy/sunshine pairing

Strongberry are true masters of their craft and yet A First Love Story is still one of the best things they have ever produced. It’s the only microfilm every to make one of my year end top ten list. It’s two episodes of about 8 minutes each that manage to perfectly portray the sweetest friends-to-lovers confession ever. It’s joyful, and gentle with its characters, and a little hot. How on earth do they manage to leave us yearning for more yet completely satisfied at the same time? It’s like the perfect amuse-bouche, that one finger food at that one cocktail party that you will never forget. You are a ridiculous human if you haven’t spent 16 minutes with these two boys. Go watch it now. Or go watch it again. It’s time VERY well spent.

2. Long Time No See

2017 Gaga KBL length series (total 1.5 hr, some places packaged as a movie)

Tropes: secret love, enemies to lovers, secret identity, assassins, catfishing, mafia, higher heat, grumpy/sunshine pairing 

One of Strongberry’s few longer pieces and I often wonder whether this is strictly BL. It’s about assassins on either side of a terf war who fall in love not knowing they are on opposite sides. Or do they? Good fight sequences, mature characters, high heat, very suspenseful, AND an HEA. If you like KinnPorsche you will LOVE this one.

3. Some More

2018 Gaga microfilm

Tropes: friends to lovers, hyung romance, self acceptance, countryside setting, soft tone, age gap, country boy/city boy

One of my most favorite of Strongberry’s shorts, about a city boy on a bike tour who gets injured and rescued by a taciturn, but (as it turns out) very gay, farmer. Mentions of pride, adorable supportive cousin. SO CUTE with excellent chemistry and featuring tropes I can never get enough of. 

3. Private Lessons

2019 Gaga microfilm

Tropes: student/teacher, jock/nerd, hyung romance, obsession, crush, university setting, May/December, age gap  

Given it is age gap and teacher/student (AKA P’ABL’s catnip) it should rate higher on my list, but the chemistry is slightly off. Stil I do love this one for the dynamic. Certainly worth watching especially if this is one of your fav yaoi tropes.

4. Step For You

2018 Gaga microfilm

Tropes: friends to lovers, sports, university setting, crush, jock/nerd, soft tone

About a reporter from the student newspaper who has to interview an older dancer and falls in love with him. This may not have been my first Strongberry, but it’s the first one I remember watching. 

5. Please Tell Me So

2021 YouTube microfilm (AKA That's My Mr.Right!) 

Tropes: crush, obsession, cafe setting, sunshine/sunshine pairing 

Cute barista (played by Han Hyun Jun star of Love Class) has a crush on his customer, musters up the courage to ask him out. 

6. My Pistachio

2018 Gaga microfilm

Tropes: friends to lovers, crush, hero worship, hyung romance, university setting, play within a play, grumpy/sunshine 

7. As if You Whisper

2019 Gaga movie

Tropes: friends to lovers, self acceptance, music industry setting, grumpy/sunshine pairing

8. Confidential Coffee Break

2021 Vimeo microfilm

Tropes: mature romance, long term relationship, self acceptance, university setting, one act

It’s a monologue piece about two closeted older gay professors discussing changing times and the nature of acceptance (self and others) in modern day South Korean academic environment. 

9. Hold Me

2021 YouTube microfilm

Tropes: friends to lovers, self acceptance, high school setting

10. Sweet Curse 

2021 Gaga short

Tropes: horror, paranormal elements, ghost story, possession, obsession, gay friendship group, everyone wants that one boy, bad/good

This is a low-gore atmospheric horror, with some very high heat. I’m not saying it’s in the top 10 just because of that, but I am saying when Strongberry does high heat it v good and v gay. 

OTHERS

My Personal Trainer - 2019 short Gaga. It v silly and v gay. Influencer has crush on his personal trainer. 

Secret Roommate - 2020 short Gaga, Cohabit, self acceptance, home setting, family, coming out 

Fingers After - 2021 microfilm Vimeo. Cohabit, morning after, home setting, pining, sunshine/tsundere pairing. 

Secret Spectacles - 2017 microfilm Gaga. Very silly again, friends to lovers, paranormal elements, university crush.

Table Manner - 2018 microfilm Gaga. Cohabit, self acceptance, home setting, long term relationship 

The Summer Pasta Recipe - 2021 short YouTube, reunion, self acceptance, grumpy/sunshine.

There my be a few more I don’t know about, MDL doesn't seem to have a sort function for production company. 

NEW! 

Choco Milk Shake 

2022 YouTube KBL length series (total 1.5 hr) 

Tropes: cohabit, F2L, paranormal elements, home setting, soft tones, sunshine/tsundere. 

Two pets, a cat and a dog, reincarnate as humans to visit their old owner. Stongberry gave us a full length BL on YouTube! It’s a BL miracle and an endless delight. It was wonderfully cute, unexpectedly hilarious but expectedly silly, a little too poignant, occasionally gut wrenching and with a somewhat expected weird (but happy-ish) ending. The actors playing the two pets must have had the best time. As, indeed, did I watching it. Jealous Milk made me cackle so hard it scared the actual cat on my lap. Choco was perfectly cast, and the chemistry was ultimately decent. In Strongberry I still trust. Thank you thank you, may we have another, sirs?

Two Other KBL shorts worth checking out:

Just Friends? 

2009 Gaga short 

I consider this one of Korea’s first actual BLs. Boyfriends, one of whom is on military leave, trying to decide on coming out and their future together. Bonus for out gay director and queer activist. 

Being Me 

2018 short Gaga 

A summer of love for two long term besties who have basically always been boyfriends, but when a girl tries to date one of them, they finally realize it. Beautifully filmed and a STELLAR ending kiss. 

(source) 

[dekaydk]

LGBTQ CONTENT ALERT

Support the folks who make the content we crave

Producer of QL and BL content, Korea's Strongberry is small but scrappy and brought the world a lot more content than you might expect. The CEO had a live session a little while ago, and it was reposted with English subtitles yesterday. Among the takeaways: they have a lot more interest from actors than they used to. Also, some of the content they have distributed was produced by others but needed a distribution outlet, so they are clearly a part of the ecosystem that might not otherwise exist.

It's nice and short, and he says there will be a live session with the actors during March (date TBD). Watch this and drive up the stats! Make their investors realize they have a great audience! 😀

Above all, check out their other content on Gagaoolala and YouTube.

[jihucy]

͏ ͏͏ ͏ 𝖽𝖾𝖺𝗋 ͏ ͏hu ͏ ͏💌

ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ𖹭ㅤㅤjihuㅤㅤ﹕ㅤㅤ𝟢3ㅤㅤ★ㅤㅤ

Park JiHu Moodboard

[ourlittlesister2015]

Short Vacation [종착역] (2020), dir. Kwon Min-pyo and Seo Han-soland

[sensazioneultra]

서울 7000 | SEOUL 7000 (1976) dir. Kim Hong-joon & Hwang Juho

[fiercynn]

queer short cuts week 33: from the river to the sea

queer short cuts is a biweekly newsletter where i share queer & trans short film recommendations; each set of films is themed and comes out to no more than one hour cumulatively.content notes are included at the end of each post.you can also check out the full spreadsheet of films i've recommended.

today marks a month from hamas’s attack on israel, and israel’s genocidal response that has escalated the already-unjust violence israel perpetrates through occupation of palestine. in that month, israel’s occupation and bombardment of palestine has only become more horrific. as of today, over 10,000 palestinians have been killed – over 4,200 of them children – and nearly 26,000 wounded in gaza, and at least 163 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied west bank and jerusalem. and those are only the numbers of confirmed deaths from direct combat violence.

this week will be the last (for now) of films that are palestine-themed in some way – the first film is about a queer palestinian character, and the second two, like last week’s selections, are from the 2021 queer cinema for palestine festival. i would love to continue showing queer palestinian films, but i’ve unfortunately run out of films at the moment that I can find online with english subtitles. i will certainly keep looking, and regardless, i am going to continue using this space to speak out against Israel and for palestine, even if the films in future weeks don’t directly relate.

check out the full film recs here

in past newsletters i’ve given a list of things you can do like donating or learning more about the fight for palestinian liberation. those are still there for you to check out if you need, but folks in palestine have been clear that what they really need right now is for us to fight for political change. donations aren’t getting into gaza, so what we really need to be doing is joining protests and direct actions, and demanding that our local leaders support palestine – not only for a ceasefire and aid supplies, but also an end to arming israel (if your country does so) and to israeli occupation of palestine. samidoun has a calendar of resistance events across the world – please do check it out and do what you can to fight for change.

[respectthepetty]

Hii!!!

Have you watched the korean short film - Journey to the shore?? Ahhhhh it hit me the same way as - your name engraved herein did, in less than 30 minutes. *hand on chest and cries*

You likened "Journey to the Shore" to Your Name Engraved Herein, so I knew, I KNEW what I was walking into, but instead of being cautious, I decided the colors were more important.

Because I am my own worst enemy.

At least the theme of being a Lost Boy was consistent *starts to cry into my cup of tea*

Thanks for proving I have no sense of self preservation.

This was good.

[maggiecheungs]

coming out (2000) dir. kim jee-woon

[myrandomhdgifs]

Wedding (2017)

[callmezaylee]

This scene broke me

[gabrielokun]

[lostinmac]

Short Vacation (2020)

Dir. Kwon Min-pyo, Seo Han-sol

[save-the-data]

Original Sin | Short Film

[ourlittlesister2015]

Short Vacation [종착역] (2020), dir. Kwon Min-pyo and Seo Han-soland

[cultho]

DON’T - Independent Asian Short Film in the Making

Hi, I’ve been working for the past 8 months I’ve been working really hard for a short film called Don’t. 

“ DON'T is a multilingual short film about a ragtag crew that fights for their community. The film celebrates women, genderqueer identities, and Asian cultures. “

A note from the project’s (and my ahhh!!) director, Vietnamese-New Zealand Filmmaker Sally Tran: 

“  I didn’t realise how deeply effected by the Asian hate crimes that spiked last year. I had a hard time focusing on work. I was difficult to work with. I was not myself. And I thought I needed change in my life for things to feel normal. But what I really needed was support and be around people who could talk about issues that were important to me, and just ask me if I was OK. This film is the work in progress of a lot of social and personal issues that have swelled in my head the last few years. From the death of my grandma to policing problems and my AZN sistas feeling unsafe and needing to suit up at night. “

The director has been really kind and understanding with me (a total newcomer to live action tbh), and it’s been such an incredible journey with this film for me. I joined because I resonated with so many aspects of the project. Badass magical girls, Wong-kar wai influences, found family, multiple Asian communities banding together, beautiful cinematography, and so much more. I feel lucky that my first film internship was with a collective as dedicated as this to making an safe space for learning, and for giving a platform to individuals like our Asian trans and genderqueer cast and crew.

We just launched our crowdfund page actually, where you can see this teaser + more content like BTS. We need to hit about $4200 by end of today, and then our $14,000 goal by mid-September.  I don’t normally make posts like this but if you like what you see please please go check it out, donate if you can - TRULY every little bit helps - or if not any support & boosting is always so appreciated.

🌟🌟💙✨💙 ------   !  Crowdfund Link  !  -------- 💙✨💙🌟🌟

You can also check out our IG here.

With your help we can seriously make this film real!! ❤️

[fiercynn]

queer horror short film: "the elephant joke"

queer short cuts is a biweekly newsletter where i share queer & trans short film recommendations. i’m featuring some of my favorite films on tumblr because why not, with 🎃 horror shorts for halloween season 🎃

korea | 14 minutes | 2020 | narrative short audio in korean; subtitles available in traditional and simplified chinese, english, indonesian, thai, korean, japanese, and spanish

냉장고 안의 코끼리 | the elephant joke, directed by kang rim, takes place in broad daylight, out in the middle of the woods, sunlight flickering on the water of a reservoir, vivid greenery all around, and melodic birdsong from the trees. that’s where newly-separating couple yeo-bin and hae-kwang find themselves while trying to meet up with someone who wants to adopt their cat, churro, whose wide eyes and open mouth often resemble a human expression of terror. instead of a person, all they find at the location is a locked refrigerator, and the bright, cheery atmosphere belies the eerieness that both characters experience at this setting. - deepa's full review, including content notes at the end

watch on gagaoolala with a subscription!