#also i know you asked for thai dramas but i did include kdramas here too. we've had a few really good ones lately

[rythyme]

theo do you know any other thai bls similar to bad buddy? their dynamic was amazing

omg yes!!! bad buddy is so good 😭 i do have a rec list i made a while back with a few shows that have some similar elements and vibes. In that list I rec He's Coming To Me, A Tale of Thousand Stars, I Told Sunset About You, We Best Love, and Like in the Movies. Those are all still VERY solid choices, and you can check out the list for more details on those, but I also have a few more recs to add...

Semantic Error (Korean, 8 episodes): An annoying design major and a repressed computer science major butt heads over a group project. Feelings ensue. Enemies to lovers. Probably in my top 5 this year.

Kiss Me Again: PeteKao Cut (Thai, 3 episodes? clips?): Two guys in the same friend group accidentally kiss. You'll never guess what happens next. Also Tay Tawan is there. Frenemies? to lovers

Blueming (Korean, 11 episodes): The handsomest guy at school is annoyed when another equally handsome guy starts stealing his thunder. A touching and surprisingly deep love story unfolds. Rivals to lovers.

Lovely Writer (Thai, 12 episodes): A writer's Y novel gets adapted into a show. One of the actors has a crush on the writer. Similarities to Bad Buddy are spoilers but trust me: this show is much better than it has any right to be. Bonus for wlw side character.

The Eclipse (Thai, 12 episodes, currently airing): A prefect and the school rebel get intertwined in a rivalry / flirting war while a mysterious supernatural curse looms over their school's political revolution.

Honorable mentions: KinnPorsche and Not Me because I personally like them and if you're looking for insane chemistry, well... these might be the only ones that rival whatever magic Nanon and Ohm had going on.

[tantawans]

I watch all kinds of dramas actually kdrama,cdrama etc. As long as the plot is good and has a great otp I'll watch it. Oh that's great spoil me on that drama they appear in when you finish it hope it's good! I still wish they wre together/had kissinng scenes in world of himmapan also I really love their fated lovers/past lives romance tropes you don't find that a lot in dramas. I'll wait to watch those three dramas since you probably haven't finished them yet just don't want to be

disappointed since that's happened a lot. Oh there were some thai dramas that have been adapted from kdramas the only ones I know that have been adapted was I Need Romance 3 the ML is amazing in that one but FL is frustrating and the otp don't get together until the end but the chemistry is great I don't know how the thai version compares there's also one that has just came out called Put Your Head On My Shoulders I think New (is that his name?) is ML in both only watched the kdrama and cdrama of both PYHOMS is also was a novel first not sure if you're into it or watched them though.

ooo okay! i mostly watch korean and thai dramas but i did watch a really good cdrama a little while ago called couple of mirrors!! you may have heard about it but if not, it's a wlw drama and is a bit of a mix of mystery and romance. you yi is a popular author and yan wei is a photographer (who is also a secret assassin!) when you yi finds out that her husband has been cheating on her with her closest friend she starts getting closer to yan wei! there's literally so much more that happens but i don't wanna spoil too much because it was really good! also u may have seen it already then i'd just be rambling for nothing jakshdka

ohh same they were sooo cute together i wish the show focused a bit more on their romance but i still enjoyed it and it's one of my all time favourite, if not my favourite lakorn! yeah i'm nowhere near finishing them but i'm sure i'll post about them as i watch more eps!! since you love the fated lovers trope you can check out these few lakorns here! as they're all tagged with soulmates as a trope! or if you want more dramas other than thai you can check here which includes more countries!

i have heard of both shows but i haven't watched either! i'm not a huge fan of new so i don't really pay attention to show's he's in but the rest of the cast for pyhoms looks really good? (i love kacha!) the comments on mydramalist are a bit mixed but generally good!! so it may be worth a shot if it sounds like your kind of drama!

but if you ever wanna know what shows i'm watching/have seen you can check mydramalist! i don't really do like the ratings on there but if u wanna ask me about a show in particular i can let you know what i thought about it!💖💖

[absolutebl]

It was random chance, but your weeklies/blog wound up being the white rabbit to a hole down not just BL/any Thai drama, but a comeback to live-action in general. And then I discovered to have a thing for eyes emoting. Utsukushii Kare had some very delightful offerings, and then Bad Buddy served up a literal banquet of it. Are there others you could recommend, maybe? (I know there is also Color Rush, but that one's general acting did not appeal so much and sadly salted the eyes bits down for me.)

So you are looking for BL where there is A Lot of emoting and love expressing is executed via the longing gaze? Okay so there are a few that really capitalize on this but ALSO do a lot of other kinds of more broad acting. Like Cherry Magic is a miss-match (K is all eye work, A is all slapstick) same with Silhouette of Your Voice so I'll leave those out.

Examples:

Bad Buddy (Thai)

Utsukushii Kare AKA My Beautiful Man (Japan)

That is a fascinating ask, and I will do my best. I should say extreme tsundere uke characters work against this kind of acting as characters, because they spend so much time avoiding everything about the seme, including gaze. There are exceptions, of course. And they should evolve the gaze as they warm to their seme, but that is HARD to execute for a green actor. 

BL Where there is A Lot of Emoting Done with the Eyes

I’m only gonna do main (or anchor) couples. 

FROM JAPAN

Japan is all over the place on acting style. While their cinema has a consistent brand their acting styles and preferences range widely from subtle to broad and outrageous, just as they range from very low heat to very high.

Seven Days - it's hard to see in this one because the quality of the rips we can find online are so bad, but yeah it's all eyes with these two

His the movie

FROM KOREA

Korea LOVES this kind of acting. In fact, I would go so far as to say they specialize in it, or even culturally prefer it and consider it the best kind of acting. Gaze, eye-line, lingering glances and so forth are at the forefront of narrative in Kdramas, possibly because physicality is always on the back burner.

Behind Cut

Color Rush - the seme is masked most of the time, to he does pretty much all his acting with eye work and body language

Tasty Florida

Tinted with You

To My Star

FROM TAIWAN

Taiwan actually specializes in body language and physicality not eye work, but some of the better actors do both with ease. There are a lot of one sided ones here too - so like Japan I am leaving those out and opting only for ones where both leads execute gaze well. 

Be Loved In House: I Do 

HIStory Obsessed 

HIStory 3: Trapped 

Red Balloon 

See You After Quarantine? - a master class in this, quite frankly, since the two are never really together but you still watch them fall in love, it’s ALL in the way they look at each other 

We Best Love - Sam is better than Yu at this, but Sam is insanely good and this was Yu’s first BL and he’s playing tsundere so... still Yu was a model, and models who come to acting are often VERY good at gaze work (since they had to be for photos), he’s great by season 2

FROM THAILAND

Thailand is all over the place. I talk about Nanon being very good at this but it’s not all that common since, in my experience, eye work is a learned skill and Thailand doesn’t boast a lot of highly trained actors. Also, because BL often pairs a seasoned actor with a green actor there are a ton of miss matches because one half of the couple just hasn’t learned how to do it yet. (I would argue 1000 Stars and 2gether both fall into this category. But Mix is improving by leaps and bounds, so I think EarthMix’s upcoming stuff is gonna be AWESOME.) 

Second Chance

Bite Me - It’s not good, but it’s all in the gaze, in fact we all felt betrayed by Aek because we saw in the way he looked at Aue and it transmitted exactly how he felt about him, so his subsequent actions betrayed that and the audience. Actually, while I am thinking about it, this is a great example of the gaze being too good and misapplied. I would definitely blame the director. Also Mark has a natural talent for this style of acting, he’s shown is since I Am Your King. 

En of Love: Love Mechanics - another one where eye work is inconsistent with behavior of characters, it’s one of the reasons this couple feels so chaotic, but also why I look forward to YinWar’s stuff so much 

Friend Forever - SeaTin hold down their characters with gaze, this show is terrible, pretty much except for this element 

He’s Coming to Me - an interesting thing about Singto is he’s a bit of a chameleon, he’ll feed off his partner’s style. I think he does an instinctive Meisner technique it’s different (and might explain why he’s struggling with Tae if Tae isn’t giving him enough to work with on set) but in this series it’s all gaze work 

Ingredients - it’s why we love JeffGameplay so much, it’s why their kisses are so mutual, they are constantly checking in with each other via the eyes, it’s like there is a back forth of consent with these two (I feel like Gameplay does this for a lot of his partners, it’s why he and Best were so good) 

I Told Sunset About You 

Love Sick 

My Gear and Your Gown - it falters a few times but after watching 55:15 I really think the flaws in this BL are story and directing, not acting 

My Mate Match - Jet & Jame are broad physical comics and Starhunter uses them for that a lot, but they actually do really GREAT gaze work with each other as well. Half the time I’m worried they are gonna crack up though. 

My Tee - FrankDrake, Drake (and also Mike from GMMTV) does physical comedy really wall and so tends to get pigeon holed into character acting, but he has serious control over his gaze and it’s very dark and telling, he and Frank did great in this (their first BL) it’s not their fault it’s pants 

Nitman 

Enchante seems to be going this direction. It just started so I can’t be sure both actors are going to do this, but Force (Akk) is definitely there already. 

I have to mention PluemChimon and InnSun. They are sides in a het drama My Dear Loser but one of the reasons I love them unreasonably is because both these actors are pretty much masters of The Gaze. 

They are a side couple but PerthLay (RamKing in My Engineer) are also great at this. 

Also quite a few non-BL bromances do a ton of this kind of acting, frankly because they can't do anything else to transmit the romance arc so:

The Devil Judge (Korea)

The Untamed (China)

Guardian the series (China)

Other Posts About Acting

Saint’s Physicality

Why Nanon Korapat's Acting is FANTASTIC

Gun’s Acting 

We Best Love: Seme/Uke & Sam Lin’s Acting

Top 10 BL Allrounders: Script, Acting & Sound Track 

(source)