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waitmyturtles · 10 months

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Pain, Trust, and Separation in Some Asian Dramas (The Second Post In a Series of Utterly Un-scholastic, Highly Personal Big Meta)......

AKA, Turtles Catches Up With Old GMMTV: The Bad Buddy Rewatch Edition, Part 2 -- How Themes of Pain, Trust, and Separation Create Structure and Narrative in Bad Buddy and Other Asian BLs

[The following is a preamble I use for my Old GMMTV Challenge posts, here we go! What’s going on here? After joining Tumblr and discovering Thai BLs through KinnPorsche in 2022, I began watching GMMTV’s new offerings -- and realized that I had a lot of history to catch up on, to appreciate the more recent works that I was delving into. From tropes to BL frameworks, what we’re watching now hails from somewhere, and I’m learning about Thai BL's history through what I’m calling the Old GMMTV Challenge (OGMMTVC). Starting with recommendations from @absolutebl on their post regarding how GMMTV is correcting for its mistakes with its shows today, I’ve made an expansive list to get me through a condensed history of essential/classic/significant Thai BLs produced by GMMTV and many other BL studios. My watchlist, pasted below, lists what I’ve watched and what’s upcoming, along with the reviews I’ve written so far.Today, I offer the second of four posts on Bad Buddy, and the second in a Big Meta series on pain in some Asian dramas, including QLs and/or het romances. I'll look today at how ideas of pain in love, trust in love, and separation of partners/family members creates narrative drive in Bad Buddy and other Asian BLs. THIS IS A LONG POST, caveat emptor.]

Links to the BBS OGMMTVC Meta Series are here: part 1, part 2, part 3a, part 3b, and part 4

Well, after a lot of titles and a chewy preamble (thank you for getting through that, y'all!), I'm here to say that I'm combining my two ongoing meta series into one big ol' post here that I've been dying to write for months. In the course of my watching the shows on the Thailand-based Old GMMTV Challenge watchlist, as well as watching shows from my BL gateway of Japan, I've noticed that the themes of pain and trust in love, along with voluntary or involuntary separation, have been used to create dramatic and narrative structure within Asian dramatic stories to many emotional effects.

I'm celebrating the incredible Thai BL drama that is Bad Buddy in my OGMMTVC series at the moment, and within my Big Meta series on pain in Asian dramas, I examine how themes of pain so very often harken back to artistic, and even traditional, viewpoints of how pain, suffering, and melancholy are natural cultural assumptions within many collectivist Asian societies. In my first Big Meta on pain and suffering in Asian dramas, I wrote that "accepting pain and suffering is a part of the life we decide to live, from an Asian cultural perspective." Suffering is a naturally assumed part of life, a very distinct and identified part of a Buddhist's lived life, and even outside of Buddhism, accepting and living with difficulties of all kinds -- wealth disparities, the struggle for a good education and/or a successful career, the struggle to conform to collectivist familial and/or social expectations, etc. -- are extremely common themes that are unwound on in Asian lives on a minute-to-minute basis. The idea that an Asian must live with pain is often a root of intergenerational trauma, passed along from generation to generation of Asian children-to-adults. The social mores by which Asians are raised and live, to assume what Westerners might call a lack of unconditional parental love and affection, are certainly in part rooted in an assumption that living with pain and without the, say, luxury of turning over one's emotions at any given moment, are an automatic given.

As I've plodded through the OGMMTVC watchlist, I noticed very often that separation of people -- whether those people are lovers, children/parents, or simply just adults within a group -- is often a major narrative turning point in the course of a dramatized relationship. Of course it would be; it's a common trope within the romance genre, for instance.

But I find the separation of people otherwise connected to each other -- and the assumed pain of that separation, and the trust that people may have to return to each other -- particularly fascinating within the realm of Asian dramas, for reasons relating to the assumption of pain and suffering in one's life within Asian cultures that I mentioned above. In other words, the pain of separation, and the trust that one might have that one person will come back to another person -- are givens within the scope of Asian life.

In the following dramas, I note that separation is either a central storytelling point, or is a central focus of side characters:

1) The Thai filmmaker, Aof Noppharnach, has explored separation of people/lovers in many of his shows, including Still 2gether, A Tale of Thousand Stars (in multiple forms), and in Bad Buddy (also in multiple forms, romantic and/or familial).

2) Also from Thailand, Until We Meet Again and I Promised You The Moon are two non-GMMTV dramas in which separation of lovers plays an important concluding narrative role.

3) From Japan, the movie version of Cherry Magic: 30 Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! captures an important central narrative of separation that leads the franchise's two protagonists, Adachi and Kurosawa, to explore depth in honesty and intimacy that they may not have otherwise achieved in their everyday lives.

The painful separation that occurs in Aof Noppharnach's shows is most often related to the outside forces of life as it needs to be lived -- very often economically -- within or external to Thailand. In Bad Buddy, Pran leaves for Singapore for two years. I'm going to unwind much more on Pran leaving for Singapore in the final installment of my Bad Buddy OGMMTVC meta series, particularly by way of how he can do it, emotionally. But I want to offer a quick note about Pran's departure that the show gives a hint to (despite the pain that we feel in our hearts for Pat's loneliness from Pran, as depicted so beautifully by Ohm Pawat and his silent and longing existence as Pat in the first half of the Bad Buddy series finale). The BBS finale has Pran stating that he'll only be away for two years, and that the pay and the opportunity for an excellent architecture job were better in Singapore. In conversation with the fabulous Thai blogger, @recentadultburnout, RAB mentioned that this is a common occurrence among young Thais -- to move overseas for better job opportunities.

In spite of my heart breaking a bit for Pran being away from Pat when I first learned about his leaving for Singapore -- when RAB put Pran's departure in that context, I had to slap my cheek a bit. Because! I'm a child of Asian immigrants. Separation from family for better economic opportunities is a HUGE part of our paradigm of life between continents. As my Asia-based uncle, my mother's brother, once put it, in regards to my mother: "one of the children in our families always had to move away." For my mother's family, it was my mom who shipped off. Besides individuals seeking better economic opportunities for themselves, the economies of many Asian countries are dependent on the reception of remittances from overseas family members sending money back to their home countries, as my mom did for years; the Philippines is particularly notable for having a nearly 9% contribution from overseas remittances to its gross domestic product. In other words? The separation of loved ones is literally built into the financial frameworks of many Asian nations.

The separation of children or partners to overseas locales for the sake of better salaries and/or opportunities is simply a more assumed part of the cultural paradigm, I'd argue, in Asia than in the West. Family separations for jobs are extremely common in Asia; in the West, I'm not sure they are as assumed, especially for extensive separations, as the value placed on keeping a family unit together for cultural or spiritual reasons seems to be more a part of the Western fabric of life (despite our high rate of divorce).

We see an even more permanent economic separation happen in Still 2gether between two side characters -- Type, played by Toptap Jirakit, who is Tine's (Win Metawin) brother, and Man (Mike Chinnarat), who is Sarawat's (Bright Vachiwarit) friend. Man chased after Type during the first 2gether season; in Still 2gether, they're navigating their committed relationship, as Type contemplates, then accepts, a permanent job offer in Phuket, hours away from their home base in Bangkok.

As @lurkingshan put it, I might be the only person on the planet contemplating Type's and Man's relationship (lmao, it do be true), but I found Type's last conversation with Man, on the beach, to be particularly direct and moving for someone who has no immediate plans to move back to the side of the person he's dating.

I think about this scene against the structure of the short series that is Still 2gether, which is centered around the protagonists of Sarawat and Tine being temporarily separated as they prepare to compete in a university-wide tournament. Sarawat has the most lovely contemplation on love during this separation, and even Aof Noppharnach himself admits that the glance that Sarawat and Tine give to each other as they pass each other in the lead-up to the ultimate tournament is his favorite scene he's ever filmed (!!!) (and that scene is sooooo reminiscent of Pran's and Pat's pinky-hold after their public "break-up").

In other words: Still 2gether is ALL about separation, and contemplating the strength of love relationships in the face of those separations. While Sarawat and Tine will get back together, after that tournament -- Type and Man are separated for the foreseeable future. There is no end indicated to the patience that Type wants from Man. The conversation is just, THERE, and hanging -- there's an acknowledgment that long-distance relationships are tough, but Type isn't offering to quit his job and move back to Bangkok. Instead, Type and Man are left to accept the reality that there is no end in sight to their separation.

And I think this was incredibly bold of Aof Noppharnach to include in a GMMTV BL that otherwise ended happily for Tine and Sarawat, the main protagonists. What I admire about Aof's works are these sly inclusions of open-ended, sometimes melancholy non-resolutions, either for his main or his support characters, that leave us as viewers often slightly unsatisfied or unfulfilled. He did this in particular with the character of Aof in Gay OK Bangkok, a web series that he screenwrote in 2016; and many might say that Pran being away in Singapore is also not the most satisfying of endings for our beloved PatPran in Bad Buddy. To me, these decisions to do this artistically are just incredibly reminiscent, again, of the kind of pain that we as Asians have been culturally attuned to accept, for the sake of economics, and/or for the sake of the betterment of our loved ones.

Besides economic separations in Aof Noppharnach's works, we also have separations related to family demands and desires. In A Tale of Thousand Stars and Our Skyy 2 x A Tale of Thousand Stars, we see Tian leaving Phupha's side for two years to study for a graduate degree at Tian's mom's insistence; and we see Phupha refusing to join Tian, after Tian has graduated and moved back to Pha Pun Dao, on trips Tian takes back to Bangkok to celebrate his birthday with his parents.

When I rewatched ATOTS earlier this year, I noted that both Phupha and Tian were remarkably bad communicators throughout the original series -- and I posited that, in large part, their terrible communication was borne out by way of the both of them being raised in traditionally masculine Asian households that seemed to not allow for leeway regarding emotional revelations. BOTH Phupha and Tian were expected and intended to follow in the footsteps and demands of their family members. To the end of the ATOTS storyline in Our Skyy 2, Phupha brings up his parents -- and he hears what he has been wanting to confirm from Tian's parents, in their desire to have Phupha take care of Tian for the rest of their lives.

Phupha in particular needed to have multiple gateways opened to him, vis à vis Tian's family, in order to properly and openly confirm his permanent love and commitment to Tian. If Phupha didn't have that? He was willing to be separated from Tian, either temporarily, or at length. Phupha needed a kind of culturally accepting door opened to him -- as a man raised in what we assume to be a rural and traditional environment that may very well have not allowed for a gay man to live openly and honestly. Phupha indeed follows in his father's footsteps, to the extent of never leaving Pha Pun Dao, and demanded that he have Tian's family's approval before making the final commitment to Tian to love Tian forever.

I find the cultural nuances of nuclear family separation, or separation encouraged by nuclear family, to be particularly heartbreaking in many of Aof Noppharnach's works. We know that Jim and Jam, brother and sister in Moonlight Chicken, ran away from their Isan hometown as youths to find their lives in Pattaya, where we meet them in the context of that show. But separation either from nuclear family, or more impactfully, done by nuclear family, is most evident in Bad Buddy.

Besides Pran voluntarily leaving for Singapore, we know that Pran has been involuntarily separated from Pat before -- when Pran was transferred to a boarding school in 10th grade by his mother, Dissaya. Before that transfer, Pran and Pat were technically "separated" by their parents in so far as they were not supposed to become friends -- all while competing heavily against each other in every category of life.

That boarding school transfer? That wasn't just separating Pran from Pat. What I found remarkable about that separation during my recent BBS rewatches is that Dissaya HERSELF chose to be physically separated from her own son, for the sake of her rivalry with Pat's father, Ming.

I'm thinking about this particularly from the words she used with Pran as they sat at breakfast together before Pran started his second year at university, when Dissaya said that Pran could date anyone, men or women, as long as he "didn't date [the next door kid]."

My interpretation of that perspective is that Dissaya did not want Pran to relieve the heartbreak that she herself experienced when she was close with Ming in her teenage years.

In other words: she chose to send her son away in the face of her ongoing, lifelong fear that Ming and his family would once again wreak havoc on her and her clan.

In the continuation of the intergenerational trauma wrought upon Pat and Pran by their parents -- as a mother myself, this seems to be particularly egregious. Dissaya would have rather had her son AWAY FROM HER, than to contemplate her son even being WITHIN physical proximity to Pat in the context of her hatred of Pat's father, Ming, and the fear that she had that the Jindapats would negatively influence the Siridechawats again.

(The wonderful @telomeke reminded me, in conversation on this topic, that the first question Dissaya asks Pran, after learning about the first faculty fight in episode 1 when Pran re-encounters Pat for the very first time, was, "Did he hurt you, Pran?" Dissaya cannot bear to allow the Jindapats to hurt her son, or her family, ever again.)

I wrote in my first Big Meta on pain and suffering that Asian parenting expectations and mores are far more conditional than they are in the West, as parenting mores in the West are centered around unquestioned and unconditional love from parents to children. So much of Bad Buddy meta out there focuses on the internal experiences of Pran and Pat. When I sat back to think about Dissaya making the decision for herself to be separated from her son for years -- and then to also contemplate pulling Pran FROM COLLEGE when she learns that Pat goes to Pran's university -- I mean. We know Dissaya and Ming both tried their best to embody their hatred of each other into their children. But Dissaya takes it a couple steps further, by attempting to literally control Pran's physical existence vis à vis Pat, which -- and I'm going to sound like a judgmental Westerner here, even as an Asian -- strikes me as out of line by way of just pure emotional projection onto one's children.

When Pran goes to Singapore, at the end of the series, it's out of his own volition. Again, I'll write more about this at the end of my BBS OGMMTVC meta series. But what he experienced by ways of many TYPES of separation from Pat throughout his life -- competitively, emotionally, and then physically -- are extensive. He was physically separated from Pat by Dissaya. He was theoretically "separated" from Pat emotionally, by being discouraged in having a friendship with Pat. He is physically separated from Pat *again* when he goes to Singapore. And I posit later in this piece that Pat and Pran had another theoretical "separation" when they are pretending to be broken up throughout the course of their relationship.

When I think about what teenage Pran must have felt to be *physically sent away* -- BY and FROM his own family, for their sake of his family's desires to avoid ANOTHER family -- it explains a hell of a lot more about Pran's tendency to dissociate, particularly during stressful times. (We see this when he's alone at the demolished bus stop, and cutely in Our Skyy 2, as Pat encourages a grumpy Pran to go to Pha Pun Dao.)

And where Pat balanced Pran out -- where Pat could offer the kind of companionship, and relaxed and equitable communication that Pran had never had with his family -- was where Pran could finally experience truly open and SAFE love from and with another person, another person who wouldn't *send him away* if Pran didn't play by their rules. Instead, Pat fought by Pran's side, and Pran was willing to fight, too, and they remained together, and safe in their love and trust.

Whew. Dissaya separating Pran from his own family, from herself -- to leave him alone at boarding school -- seriously punches me in the gut, especially as a mother myself. I'm thinking about a teenager, on the cusp of adulthood, alone to contemplate his unending love for Pat, and I'm like.... I wouldn't leave a kid alone like that for a moment. But for Dissaya, her husband, and their pride? It seemed to be a worthwhile decision in that moment. A decision that we know would blow up in their faces in episode 10 of Bad Buddy.

In Pran's first separation from Pat -- Pran did not have personal agency. He did have agency later on, as he moved to Singapore, which again, I'll contemplate in a further meta.

Two instances where I was impressed by protagonists leveraging their agency vis à vis temporary separations from their partners was in Until We Meet Again and in I Promised You The Moon.

UWMA's Pharm was first and foremost presented as a blushing maiden. HOWEVER: Pharm demonstrated quite a bit of sexual agency early in the series. He was forward in his crush on Dean. He contemplated openly being gay. And he wasn't afraid to push Dean away when Dean was moving too fast sexually.

At the end of the series, after Dean and Pharm have resolved their spiritual connection vis à vis the embodied spirits of Korn and Intouch meeting once more -- Pharm wants to know if the love between him and Dean is real, and independent of the influence of the spirits of Korn and Intouch. So: Pharm asks for a break.

Throughout UWMA, Dean is the obvious seme, and Pharm is the blushing uke. I squealed in DELIGHT when I first watched Pharm asking for the break. Yes, Pharm loved Dean -- and what I saw in Pharm's asking for a temporary separation was truly out of that love, to confirm between the both of them that their relationship was very much indeed a forever relationship. God, I get chills thinking about it: Pharm was safe enough in his sphere with Dean to ask for and to GET the agency-driven space that HE NEEDED to feel fully confident in the relationship. That was a risky move that paid off for the two guys in dividends in the end. Dean had no choice but to say yes there.

The fabulous Oh-aew in I Promised You The Moon goes even further than Pharm. He fucking breaks up with Teh! After Teh cheated on Oh-aew! YES, HOMEY, YES! No wibbling on Oh-aew's end. Oh-aew was devastated, yes. But he knew he had to have Teh out of his life in that moment, for the sake of Oh-aew's own happiness, growth, and development. He even rejects Teh's reach-out at the end of their college careers.

What stuck me as so golden about the ending of IPYTM was that that break-up wasn't actually presented as temporary. They were apart for OVER A YEAR (thank you kindly to @shortpplfedup for the temporal fact-check!). Oh-aew held his ground. He needed his time and space. He needed to grow! And he valued that, individually.

I'm celebrating these two instances of agency-driven separations because of the style of their intention vis à vis the protagonists asking for, needing, and leveraging these separations. With the economic and involuntary separations I talked about earlier -- it's like there was a higher need, whether it was for money, a better career opportunity, fear, or selfishness on the part of a family to create the separation.

With Pharm and Oh-aew: the separations they demanded were purely personal and for their own growth. We know now that Pharm and Oh-aew get their endings with their partners. Pharm has a purely happy ending with Dean in Between Us. Oh-aew's ending with Teh is open-ended -- we don't know what chaos Teh will wreak next -- but at least we know they're navigating that chaos together again.

The last drama I wanted to take a look at regarding pain, trust, and separation is the fabulous movie continuation of Cherry Magic: 30 Years of Virginity Will Make You a Wizard?! (I always love writing ?! whenever I talk about Cherry Magic, lol).

The central separation in the movie of the two protagonists, Adachi and Kurosawa, comes about when Adachi is transferred to Nagasaki for work. As @neuroticbookworm and @lurkingshan can attest to: a Western viewer of Japanese BLs will often find themselves screaming to a screen, "JUST TALK ALREADY!," and a uniquely common aspect of Japanese doramas is that so much of communication in Japanese culture is silent, unsaid, kept internal by collectivist social pressures to not make waves with another person -- which automatically creates ongoing questions of trust between partners. When Adachi (Akaso Eiji) shares with Kurosawa (Machida Keita) that Adachi will be moving, Kurosawa shares in words that he's happy for Adachi, but through very simple body language, communicates that he is feeling otherwise.

Later in the movie, Adachi gets into an accident in Nagasaki, and Kurosawa rushes to be by Adachi's side. Kurosawa is clearly traumatized. And Kurosawa finally reveals his feelings about the entire situation -- a rare display of direct emotional confession.

We think that Adachi moved to Nagasaki for this job opportunity -- separating himself from the incredibly devoted and head-over-heels-in-love-with-Adachi Kurosawa. Adachi knows well enough that Kurosawa is suffering in this separation. But later in the movie, after Adachi has moved back with Kurosawa, do we learn Adachi's true intentions. Adachi wants to make himself invaluable at work -- so that Adachi's and Kurosawa's shared company will not separate them if the company finds out about their relationship.

This particular conversation between Adachi and Kurosawa -- after their separation, after they've moved in together -- is a huge turning point in the movie for Adachi, who had usually been the reluctant uke in their relationship prior to this moment. In this conversation, Adachi expresses his fear that outside forces will eventually separate them, and he wants to do what he can to ensure the safety of their relationship.

To me, this is incredibly reminiscent of the compromises Pran and Pat make in Bad Buddy to keep their relationship secret -- another theoretical "separation" -- from their parents for the health, safety, and viability of their relationship.

As well, this conversation between Adachi and Kurosawa moves forward into Adachi's desire to come out to their families. He was inspired by the immediate aftermath of the accident, in which Kurosawa was the last person to find out that Adachi had gotten hurt -- only after Adachi's family and company were notified.

The nuances of this separation between Adachi and Kurosawa -- and what the separation LED TO, which was an eventual and permanent commitment between Adachi and Kurosawa -- are incredibly layered. Adachi made an economic separation from Kurosawa. But it was also rooted in his desire to acclimate his company to his company's dependence on Adachi, so that the company would choose Adachi's contribution to the company over the potentially taboo reality of his same-sex relationship with a colleague in Kurosawa. In other words: he wanted to leverage the separation and his work performance upon his return, to render the company no choice in choosing Adachi's economic performance over his personal and private choices.

(One insight into Japanese culture is that for decades, Japanese corporations have wanted their employees to be married, to complete a seamless connection between household and "office" families. The Japanese BL Kinou Nani Tabeta?/What Did You Eat Yesterday? makes reference to the fact that the main protagonist, Shiro, becomes an independent lawyer because, as a gay man, he may have been pressured to take a wife in another, more group-oriented corporate setting.)

AND, following this, Adachi wanted to come out to his and Kurosawa's families, to also acclimate them to their relationship, so that their families would also not threaten the sanctity and safety of their relationship. And his gamble worked -- and their families accepted them, and they were able to make a permanent commitment to each other.

Without a strategically economic separation, Adachi and Kurosawa could not have achieved key moments of communication that led to their ability to find safety in their external environments, and make a personal and private permanent commitment to each other. The separation to Nagasaki was Adachi's lever to move their relationship forward.

It's so nuanced, so layered, and so strategic on Adachi's end, to use the work separation and his commitment to his company as such a motivator to propel his relationship forward and permanently with Kurosawa -- especially vis à vis the unique nuances of spoken and unspoken communication in Japanese society, which are remarkably different than the styles of communication we see in Thai dramas.

In Pran's and Pat's conclusion in the Thailand of Bad Buddy, they go in the opposite direction: for the sanctity and safety of their relationship, they act out a break-up scenario (with Dissaya telling Pran, "come back to your family," ha), and keep their committed relationship a secret. And this happens *two years* before the context of an actual, physical separation when Pran decides to move to Singapore after graduation.

It's a bit of a switcheroo from what we'd expect by way of open vs. closed communication between Japan and Thailand. But both scenarios, from Cherry Magic to Bad Buddy, work brilliantly well to ensure that all relationships are safe and solidified.

I'm not sure that I can say, globally, that separation from one's nuclear family, or separation from a partner, are common occurrences in manifested everyday reality. As I mentioned before, the economies of many countries are dependent on the physical separation of their citizens to other locales to send back monetary remittances. But more often than not -- when partners are partnered, they tend to want to stay by each other's sides.

I love that many Asian dramas do not shy away from the many realities as to why partners or children may be voluntarily or involuntarily separated from loved ones. Our beloved dramas show us the devastation of involuntary separations, as rendered by Dissaya unto Pran. We see that economic separations can actually LEAD to a solidifying of relationships in the case of Adachi and Kurosawa. We see that family-motivated separations, in the cause of Phupha and Tian, simply needed the investment of time for their relationship to reach a point of comfortable commitment. We see that agency-driven separations by Pharm and Oh-aew can lead to emotional clarity. And, we see that theoretical, secret-kept "separations," of the kind that Pat and Pran created for themselves, to protect their relationship, were risks worth taking, simply for them to be together and happy.

Pain and happiness are not emotions independent of each other. At least in the eyes of my Asian cultures, human beings embody all emotions, all the time. Humans are certainly primed, internally and socially, to seek happiness and balance. But as I've posited here in this post -- is there pleasure without pain? The pain of separation, the trust that partners and family members can learn from each other through separation, and the lessons and communicative ability to solidify relationships after the obstacles of separation, are all themes of life that, I think, are worth unwinding on, in glorious emotional detail. And I love that our beloved Asian dramas do not shy away from these examinations.

(Tagging @dribs-and-drabbles and @solitaryandwandering by request! If you'd like to be tagged, please let me know!)

[Well, this one was a doozy -- if you got through it all, I thank you! Next up, next week, is another post I've been dying to write for months. I had the opportunity to engage in lengthy conversation with a number of FABULOUS Asian Tumblr bloggers, all of us Bad Buddy stans, to reflect on our experiences as Asian reviewers watching BBS and to talk about what we related to. I have a list, a WHOLE LIST! of themes to expound on. I'm calling it Asian Cultural Touchpoints Within Bad Buddy. And I may need to split it into two posts, because there's a lot to talk about. Join me and my friends next week in our continued Bad Buddy brain-rot sesh!

Here is the status of the Old GMMTV Challenge watchlist. Tumblr's web editor loves to jack with this list; please head on over to this link for the very latest updates!

1) The Love of Siam (2007) (movie) (review here) 2) My Bromance (2014) (movie) (review here) 3) Love Sick and Love Sick 2 (2014 and 2015) (review here) 4) Gay OK Bangkok Season 1 (2016) (a non-BL queer series directed by Jojo Tichakorn and written by Aof Noppharnach) (review here) 5) Make It Right (2016) (review here) 6) SOTUS (2016-2017) (review here) 7) Gay OK Bangkok Season 2 (2017) (a non-BL queer series directed by Jojo Tichakorn and written by Aof Noppharnach) (review here) 8) Make It Right 2 (2017) (review here) 9) Together With Me (2017) (review here) 10) SOTUS S/Our Skyy x SOTUS (2017-2018) (review here) 11) Love By Chance (2018) (review here) 12) Kiss Me Again: PeteKao cuts (2018) (no review) 13) He’s Coming To Me (2019) (review here) 14) Dark Blue Kiss (2019) and Our Skyy x Kiss Me Again (2018) (review here) 15) TharnType (2019-2020) (review here) 16) Senior Secret Love: Puppy Honey (OffGun BL cuts) (2016 and 2017) (no review) 17) Theory of Love (2019) (review here) 18) 3 Will Be Free (2019) (a non-BL and an important harbinger of things to come in 2019 and beyond re: Jojo Tichakorn pushing queer content in non-BLs) (review here) 19) Dew the Movie (2019) (review here) 20) Until We Meet Again (2019-2020) (review here) (and notes on my UWMA rewatch here) 21) 2gether (2020) and Still 2gether (2020) (review here) 22) I Told Sunset About You (2020) (review here) 23) YYY (2020, out of chronological order) (review here) 24) Manner of Death (2020-2021) (not a true BL, but a MaxTul queer/gay romance set within a genre-based show that likely influenced Not Me and KinnPorsche) (review here) 25) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) (review here) 26) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) OGMMTVC Fastest Rewatch Known To Humankind For The Sake Of Rewatching Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS (re-review here) 27) Lovely Writer (2021) (review here) 28) Last Twilight in Phuket (2021) (the mini-special before IPYTM) (review here) 29) I Promised You the Moon (2021) (review here) 30) Not Me (2021-2022) (review here) 31) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) (thesis here) 32) 55:15 Never Too Late (2021-2022) (not a BL, but a GMMTV drama that features a macro BL storyline about shipper culture and the BL industry) (review here) 33) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) and Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS (2023) OGMMTVC Rewatch (The BBS OGMMTVC Meta Series is ongoing: preamble here, part 1 here, and more reviews to come) 34) Secret Crush On You (2022) [watching for Cheewin’s trajectory of studying queer joy from Make It Right (high school), to SCOY (college), to Bed Friend (working adults)] (watching) 35) KinnPorsche (2022) (tag here) 36) KinnPorsche (2022) OGMMTVC Fastest Rewatch Known To Humankind For the Sake of Re-Analyzing the KP Cultural Zeitgeist 37) The Eclipse (2022) (tag here) 38) The Eclipse OGMMTVC Rewatch For the Sake of Re-Analyzing an Politics-Focused Show After Not Me 39) GAP (2022-2023) (Thailand’s first GL) 40) My School President (2022-2023) and Our Skyy 2 x My School President (2023) 41) Moonlight Chicken (2023) (tag here) 42) Bed Friend (2023) (tag here) 43) Be My Favorite (2023) (tag here) 44) Wedding Plan (2023) 45) Only Friends (2023) (tag here)]

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theheightofdishonor · 2 years

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to commemorate my newest hyperfixation, i decided to make a top 10 asian dramas list (mostly bls). Like always, there's no order to this

bad buddy - my first bl and whoever said that this show would spoil you for bls was right because it's still my favourite. Absolutely nothing tops. This also kickstarted my obsession with nanon, so thank you bb. Praying for a sequel.

we best love - By itself it wouldn't be this high up but I loved the sequel and together, they're easily a contender for top 3. Great dynamic, great acting, great plot in the second one, Loved it.

3 will be free. I was in it for the polyamorous relationship and I got what I wanted. 10/10. Would rewatch (something even other shows on this list will not be getting)

Word of Honor.- I just in fact rewatched this because I was so obsessed. Top tier and I still hold that I liked it better than the Untamed.

the gifted + graduation - no lie, wouldn't have made it through if nanon wasn't in it but he is and it's a classic super powers at school thing so i really liked it. Also, watching blacklist (terrible, terrible show, easily top worst) made me realize how well they did in comparison and made me like it more

f4 - the shift bright's character made to liking gorya happened wayyyy too abruptly and I hate it but everything else was great, loved ren and gorya's friendship specifically. Bit too dramatic towards the end, even for me but it was a pretty fun time so.

kinnporsche - The more I watch this show, the less tolerance I have for the plot but it's a really fun watch, really high production, god tier chemistry for all three main couples and a killer theme song. Free Fall is easily my favourite bit of music out of everything i've watched, right in front of uwma's score which i'll mention later on and just a friend from bad buddy. Special shoutouts also to the editing on ep 11 because the tonal whiplash between each scene was hilarious.

my beautiful man - I didn't think i'd like it and honestly, wasn't a fan til the last couple episodes but they did win me over. Love it when a show does something new with a trope.

until we meet again was really hard for me to watch because pharm was like SO sweet and pure and whatnot and i like my main characters to be less, hm, nice, if that's the word but the story is so fucking good and it unfolds so well and Fluke;s acting has me on the verge of the tears everytime I so much as look at episode 17 so while this is a skip-watch, it still makes the list. Oh and the score for this show are killer, esp that piano piece they use to build tension in ep 16.

couple of mirrors. - it's a mystery, it's a lesbian romance, it's literally everything to me. I don't even have the words to explain how much i adored this show. definite rewatch

(i'm not watching the eclipse until it's finished which i don't think it is yet)

#listen if my hyperfixation wasn't tiding over i'd go and stalk through chimon's discography and then it'd be something of his on the list #or gun i really like gun but i didn't like any of offgun's stuff nor did i like his character in the gifted so #we best love by itself wouldn't be that high up but with part 2 it's easily a top 3 #a lot of the stuff ends up falling in the middle #i started out not having enough shows to put a top 10 and then had 11 #rip semantic error i replaced you with kinnporsche #history 3 > semantic error hot take of the decade???#there were a lot of shows like matter of death i liked but just not enough #bad buddy #kinnporsche #history 3: trapped #we best love #the gifted graduation #the gifted #word of honor #my beautiful man #3 will be free #f4 thailand #until we meet again #man if you told me uwma would be in my top 10 after how hard it was to watch i'd have laughed you out the door #couple of mirrors

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halliescomut · 1 year

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Faux Incest in BLs

So the title is quite clickbait-y, but I couldn't resist. I just wanted to kind of talk about it because I started rewatching Cherry Blossom After Winter again, and this is a major part of that story. Faux Incest is actually a surprisingly common trope in BLs and I see a lot of criticism in relation to it. For me specifically, I think it comes down to the portrayal and context.

I will say I specifically despise the accusation of incest, when the story makes it clear there's no blood relation happening. But in fairness I also dislike when the twist is they weren't actually blood related, but thought they were when they started their romantic relationship.

Now I haven't seen every BL (sadly) and I can really only speak about ones I have, but if you have encountered this trope outside of these shows, then please tell me, so I can add to my thesis. I know that faux incest is a common trope everywhere kind of. It's very 'shocking' and 'forbidden' to do step sibling or adopted sibling romance storylines, and you see them in straight media all the time too. Classic #1 example: Clueless. But back to BLs. Specifically the ones that come to mind are Cherry Blossoms After Winter (which is what started this), KinnPorsche, HIStory 4: Close to You, and TharnType.

I'm going to start with portrayal and when I hit a bit of an ick wall with Xing Se and Yong Jie. In HIStory 4: CTY, you have Xing Se and Yong Je, who are step brothers who were raised together as brothers, and there's a sizable age difference for the characters. I would have to speedrun the series to give you exact numbers, but I think it's somewhere around 8-9 years. They seem to have been a family since Yong Jie was fairly young, I think probably 7-9. Yong Je's feelings for his older stepbrother seem to begin when he's around 12 or 13 I think, and are related to Xing Se being a pretty kind and attentive older sibling. We don't get a lot of information on their relationship once Xing Se moves out of his parents home, but it seems implied that he's not a frequent visitor, but also doesn't avoid seeing his family. There's indication that while Xing Se is 'out' in general, he is not out to his family, and the stress of frequent interaction is what keeps his visits brief and more sporadic. Yong Jie becomes fairly obsessed with Xing Se, and there's all kinds of reasons you can read into why. The obvious are that Xing Se is very confident and personable, while Yong Jie seems to struggle with interpersonal communication. (I find Yong Jie to be pretty strongly autistic-coded, which I hate because it is very negative representation). Xing Se being out, even if not to their parents and that implied freedom is another basis for adoration. In addition to social confidence, Xing Se is someone presented as having excelled academically, which Yong Jie, while not unintelligent, seems to struggle with. In general it's all of the basic idolization of older sibling ideas, but with the addition of Yong Jie recognizing a sexual attraction as well, and that developing into something pretty obsessive. My ick wall is hit of course with the inciting incident of their relationship, which is Yong Jie purposefully getting Xing Se drunk and raping him, as well as recording it. Without that plot point, I don't know that there ever becomes a relationship, but to be honest, them having lived apart for several years, specifically formative years for Yong Jie, I don't know that I would have been particularly disturbed by Yong Jie as a 20 year old man confessing his feelings to Xing Se. And that's based off the fact that at best, Xing Se was recognizing and living with Yong Jie as a sibling for maybe a quarter of his life? Like, would it certainly be an adjustment for Xing Se? 100%, but it's possible, but not likely. As the story stands in how it's told, I feel like Xing Se accepts a romantic relationship with Yong Jie kinda because "well I already fucked him, so...*shrug*". Like they could have a good and interesting relationship and dynamic, but I think Xing Se's feelings of responsibility to his family and his reluctance to 'rock the boat' any more than it's already been rocked kind of take away a lot of the agency in his decision. VERY long story short, for these two--It's a no for me, but it's more because of the sexual assault and coercion than anything else.

KinnPorsche is gonna have the shortest paragraph...because these two dudes weren't biologically related in any way, and didn't meet each other until they were adults. They weren't overcoming familial feelings. People just seem to like to throw the incest label at them because. Even with the adoption of Nampheung into the Theerapanyakul family, we don't know if that's legal or emotional, because the reality is we can trust Korn as far as Chay could throw him. And since Nampheung completely removed herself from the family as an adult, there's really only the familial connection in Korn's head, which is more related to his desire to control the pawns in his little chess game than actual human affection. Bottomline: KinnPorsche barely counts in the category and while they, like many others struggle with the concept of consent, I don't have an overall issue with their romantic relationship.

The couple I'm referencing from TharnType is Tum and Tar, and they are honestly barely a secondary couple, and you could almost categorize their characters as tertiary in the story. We do know that they become a couple in the MAME-verse, it's just not fully depicted in the TharnType series. Since we have yet to see their full romance, some things may change, but based on the information we do have, this is a less problematic situation to me than Xing Se and Yong Jie, specifically because of their ages and living situation. They have about a two year age difference, and their parents get married when Tum is 18 and Tar is 16, and that's when they start living together as a family. That time together is pretty brief as Tar goes to study abroad and Tum goes to university, so the reality is they spend very little time living as siblings. Both develop feelings for the other, which they hide, which is another aspect that makes the situation a little less ick on my part. They're both old enough to know their own minds, and it's mutual, which I like a bit better than one character confessing and the other going 'yeah alright, why not?'. So, as the story stands now, barring any egregious consent issues, I'd have no issue with Tum and Tar.

Now we're gonna talk about Cherry Blossoms After Winter. You'd think I'd have a bit of an issue with Hae Bom and Tae Seong. While they are definitely not blood related, as Hae Bom was adopted by Tae Seong's mother when he was about 7, and he and Tae Seong are the same age. They've lived together for 9 or so years like siblings, except it doesn't seem like they developed any sort of familial affection for each other. When they're introduced, you learn that even though they were in the same grade, they never shared classes. They never hung out really. Like they were essentially roommates who shared a house, and occasionally saw each other in the kitchen. That's the vibe you get from their relationship. I'd say the closest thing we have to sibling behavior is Tae Yeong beating up Hae Bom's bully, which does give very 'only I can terrorize my sibling' vibes, except Tae Yeong doesn't terrorize Hae Bom, he just ignores him. Now there is some resistance on Hae Bom's part over the transition from their previous relationship (however you would categorize it) to a romantic one. But that's not based on it being taboo because they're 'related' but based around the fear that Tae Yeong's mother would not approve (it's inferred that the issue is the gayness, not the perceived familial relationship), and the possibility of Hae Bom losing another maternal figure. In all honesty, if you change the set-up to them being neighbors, Hae Bom with only his father, and Tae Yeong with his mother, and Hae Bom becoming a frequent presence in Tae Yeong's house because his mother also becomes a maternal figure to Hae Bom...could practically have the same story without the faux incest.

As a final point, the 'taboo' state of incest at large is based around the fact that we know it causes negative reproductive repercussions. So, in the context of romantic relationships that can't result in naturally conceived offspring does it really matter if there's a familial relationship? Additionally, with faux incest when there's no blood relation, whether conceiving offspring is possible or not, is that equally as taboo? For me, to be entirely honest, the issues come around with the consideration of possibilities for abuse and assault. Do I technically care if two step siblings decide they have the hots for each other as adults and act on it? No. But the presence of assault, grooming behaviors, coercion, or abuse of power would certainly change my opinion, as it really should regardless of any other information.

Well, I guess I just wrote 1500 words about perceived incest. If you have thoughts let me know.

#Cherry Blossom After Winter #HIStory 4: Close to You #TharnType the series #KinnPorsche the series #Tae Yeong x Hae Bom #kinnporsche #tum x tar #xing se X yong jie #BL drama #i dunno y'all

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suuho · 2 years

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what are your top 10 bls? i need some to watch asap i'm so bored of straight ppl shows ;-;

mhmmm, let me think!

my absolute top bl is to my star 2: our untold stories, the continuation of the little jewel that is to my star. it’s way angstier than the first season and deals with my absolutely favorite trope, exes to lovers, and it was good enough to compel me to open a letterboxd account. like, that’s how good it is.

other than that, i absolutely love manner of death, starring bl royalty maxtul in their most sophisticated offering to date yet. it’s less classic bl and more of a romance/crime drama, and i loved every, even at times unhinged, second of it. if you enjoyed manner of death, you will enjoy bl staple kinnporsche, if you haven’t watched yet.

i love both seasons of we best love, available on weTV. one of the first bls i’ve ever watched and it just did everything so well, i revisit it every now and again. heaps of chemistry.

semantic error is probably the best kbl we have ever gotten and i can only whole heartedly recommend it, classic tsundere and sunshine set in a university, but it is truly just so much more than any trope could ever put into words. perfect casting and amazing chemistry make this the standout among kbls; i just love it so much. but i enjoyed oh! my assistant (despite the fact that i don’t think they stuck the landing that well), the new employee, where your eyes linger, once again (sad ending), tinted with you and long time no see. you make me dance is one of the most underrated picks in my favorites but i just love it; i always enjoy a well-done bit of age gap, and these two have so much chemistry. and it’s just so visually stunning.

i’m working through blueming right now, haven’t finished it yet tho, so i cannot say too much.

crowd favorites that i (mostly) enjoyed, or that are just beloved in general in case you haven’t gotten into it yet: cutie pie, tharntype (reserved rec), love in the air (reserved rec), why r u?, bad buddy, until we meet again, between us and big dragon (had a hard time getting into it but it has some standout episodes), bad buddy, not me, the eclipse. i have watched some of these, haven’t watched others. make of that what you will.

i also defo enjoyed be loved in house: i do. something about taiwan’s style really gets to me, i think it is a little more sophisticated than what we are used to from thai bl but maybe that’s just because i rarely do a trash or pulp watch, and my favorite overall style is probably korean bl; i wish we would get full drama treatments but there’s still a long way to go. anyways.

old fashion cupcake is the perfect bl, in my opinion, and just thinking about it makes me go absolutely crazy. most definite recommendation on this list; i actually think everyone should watch this show, whether you’re a bl fan or not. it’s a beautiful story about how there is no such thing as being too late for love, or for anything in life, really, and i enjoyed it so much.

anyways, long story short, let me try to compile a list of my top 10.

to my star 2: our untold stories (my all time favorite bl. watching season 1 is definitely needed but season 1 is also exceptionally good, so it’s no hardship. i cannot recommend it enough, especially if you enjoy angst. i know some people said this is too angsty, or the amount of angst is not worth the outcome but i disagree. it is real and messy and human, and that’s what i love so much about it. it made me cry way too many times. excellent on all fronts.)

semantic error

old fashion cupcake

manner of death

to my star

we best love (both seasons)

where your eyes linger

be loved in house: i do

long time no see

kinnporsche or you make me dance

honorary mention: beyond evil, strangers from hell, and the devil judge. the bls that should have been.

it’s like 4.30 am here and i’m about to go to sleep, so i hope this makes sense!! also, i might and definitely have forgotten things here, in case i remember i will come back to add on. thank you and have a good day, i hope this could be of some help!

#ask #anon #long post

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forkaround · 1 year

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Classic BL Watch/The Method to potential Madness

The Method to potential Madness:

My tastes are a little peculiar. I have seen media from all over the world, the good and the bad, what it has taught me is nothing is every going to be perfect and I will miss things that are important to other people but what else I've learned is that I don't really care about something being good. If it's broken, a little difficult, a little cheap but made with love. I am all in.

See when I was young during Janmasthami every year these guys from an organization called Yogeshwar would come in white kurtas and perform nataks(plays) in our society. They didn't have sets, 2-3 props, just that white kurta and pants as outfits and yet it was entertaining. It was fun. I loved it. So money and pure intentions have never been barriers for me.

(an example of Janmasthami natak)

What I do care about is competence. That the writer understands what they are writing about. The best actor can't pull off a bad script but a bad actor can be tolerated in a good script.

To get you an idea of my tastes some of my favorite medias are Legends of Tomorrow, Guardian (Cdrama), Supernatural, Agents of Shield, Agent Carter, Chains of Heart, Kinnporsche, LITA, The Eclipse, The Devil Judge, Crash Course in Romance, SRK movies from '00 like Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Main Hoon Na, Kabhi Khushsi Kabhi Gham, etc. As you can see, very widely ranging. I love competence and I love heart. Everything else I can live without. To that end some shows I didn't like/DNF-ed: Bed Friend, Step by Step, Big Mouth, Eve, Game of Thrones, most Netflix things, Mr. Robot, Supergirl, The Flash, Elite, Witcher, Coffee Melody, War of Y. If you get too PC without the narrative backup I'll leave; If it's too nihilistic, I'll leave; If it's too monotonous, I'll leave. I have Psychotic Depression, I don't have the time to deal with this shit.

[16/06/2023]

#classic bl watch #org: subcategory #type: context

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everyforkedroad · 2 years

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Genre romance, bias, and Kinnporsche

I know I'm asking for it, but I feel like I have to get this off my chest.

The bias against the romance genre is one of the constant elements across all media that I consume and Kinnporsche: The Series is no exception. Kinn and Porsche are given a classic romance arc, complete with a meet cute, the end of act crisis, incoming black moment and resolution. And yet, despite the series being marketed as a mafia romance people are still out here complaining about...the romance? Like, did they not get the memo that they are watching...a high concept romance between Kinn and Porsche set in a mafia world? Do they realize romance has conventions like any other genre that need to be followed? If viewers came for the mafia stuff and were disappointed by the lack of gore, angst and trauma wrt the main couple, and are rebelling against the fluff that KP has been serving up, it might simply be that they are shopping in the wrong genre.

I realize a lot of the blame for the disparity between expectation and what the show delivered is also the fault of the novel, which did a piss-poor job of, well, basically everything except for the plot (which, together with the sex scenes, is why I suspect it became so popular despite its numerous and egregious defects). However, the show does a phenomenal job of taking the best elements of the novel and leaving the chaff on the cutting room floor.

Even with this fact in mind, the novel itself is presented as a romance and though it has some moments of grit, it doesn't make it any less of a romance. As such, the romantic elements, including the fluff and showing the couple being in love, are strong because that's kind of the point. It's a convention of the genre to show the reader/viewer why the two love interests should be together. The only way to do that is to show them in full, unabashed love. And that's going to include fluff, sex, and even the kind of rom-com humor that is, coincidentally, also a part of Thai storytelling conventions as well.

We should be grateful because Kinnporsche actually does something very clever, reserving the classic romance arc for KinnxPorsche, while serving up dark romance with VegasPete (very well done, I might add) and even giving us a little traditional BL/yaoi fix with KimxChay. There really is something for everyone, and they manage to make it work.

So when I see people complain about the fluffier elements of Kinnporsche, all I can think is, how do you say you hate romance without saying you hate romance?

#kinnporsche as classic romance #sorry but I had to let it out #don't even get me started on how western viewers keep centering themselves as they critique a thai series #that's a whole 'nother ball of wax #kinnporsche meta #maybe #kinnporsche #kinnporsche the series #kinnxporsche #kimxchay #vegasxpete #kinnporsche the novel

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urheartsamess · 2 years

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this might be a little out of character for me but im so fucking tired of this perpetual slandering of vegaspete stans on twt.

believe it or not but ppl who ship vegas and pete do possess some media literacy and thinking skills. jesus, we know vegaspete is toxic and unhealthy but heres the thing….. we simply dont care bc nothings real its fiction. who said we shouldnt be allowed to enjoy two messy FICTIONAL characters destroying/loving each other IN A MAFIA TV SHOW? its hard to understand for some but not everyone wants to see lovely and wholesome relationships portrayed on screen and we rather have overly fucked up ugly type of love instead. and u shoulnt make us feel embarrassed for it or policing the content every chance u get. have u even listened to what the actors had to say about their characters? what bible had to say about vegas? did u even care? storytelling and relationships arent always black and white. i think the narrative is quite aware that vegaspete is dysfunctional and that vegas needs a lifetime of therapy (and so does pete btw). tbh i chuckle every time i see tweets abt how vegas doesnt deserve pete bc hes evil, but.. what does 'deserve' even mean or matter in the face of what the characters want? their romance is also quite the catalyst to create the personality shift in both vegas and pete. its moving the story forward. not everything has to be vibe checked or approved to be good and compelling. if fiction isnt the place to tell a fucked love story, then where else? in fact vegaspete carried from their first shy interactions to their explosive ones towards the end and is2g there isnt anything wrong with that either. be mad abt it without being too condescending.

#pls remember romance in fiction is NOT a life manual #vegas was casted as a villain so why did ppl expect him to be anything else than exactly that?#those ppl remind me of the ones who complain abt hannigram or classics like wuthering heights….. pls be serious.#biblebuild #vegaspete #kinnporsche

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dream-thief-forever-amen · 2 years

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What made KinnPorsche (besides the cinematography, direction, locations, and more) was how committed the actors were to giving their characters 100000 PERCENT. They treated their on screen time as seriously as Shakespearen actors, as if the source material was sacred and deserved careful attention to nuance and detail.

I always hate watching a BL that seems embarrassed to be a BL. I recently watched Manner of Death and I felt soooo bored by the whole production. No one seemed invested in their characters enough to try to sell the emotions, the individuality, the quirks and expressions that could have brought the script (the romance, the drama, the shady aspects) to life. I also watched Second Chance, and while the show was just a simple slice of life last month of school drama - everyone took their character soooo seriously (in a good way!). Even the side characters, even the unnamed characters, they stayed in their roles so you could see them in the background still selling it even when not in focus. By contrast those two shows illustrate how dedicated actors can elevate an otherwise so-so scripted show. Just think of Addicted. It was just two dudes going back and forth to school but it was spellbinding because everyone, especially the leads, wanted to embody their characters and their relationship.

I also think KinnPorsche knew what it was - a cult classic in the making. Maybe because it had such a long hiatus between the teaser and the show filming - and they had the time to see how excited everyone was, how much their characters meant to the fandom. We are talking extensive character devotion. We’re talking about a fandom knowing the names of the characters as well as the actors who played them. As an American, this is doubly impressive as I don’t generally see this in English discussions. Threads casually mentioning Jom or Time and the fandom nodding along, knowing exactly which face to put with that name.

I also think employing two male models as the lead actors went a long way. Not just because they are ridiculously handsome and look great in everything and have an uncanny instinct to work with lighting and angles. But because male models are used to touching men. Casually. They will drape their arms around each other and stay that way while makeup is touched up, hair fluffed, clothing arranged. I always think of Coffee Prince, the way the boys just lounged about sitting close together, legs propped up, head on each other’s shoulders. The body language of intimacy and comfort. They weren’t all models, but the ones that were… they lead the herd mentality, so to speak. They were handsome and muscular and they did not mutter no homo while rubbing each other’s backs between takes. This level of comfort is contagious and can spread throughout the cast.

What other LGBTQIA+ shows can you think of that just SOLD you on the characters? Where you could tell they really, really wanted their role to be without fault - that every scene was an opportunity to do more with their character, even if they are just lurking in the background of a shot. I want to watch some more BL but am struggling with these shows… help me

#kinnporsche #kinn porsche #kinnporsche the series #best bl #I do not even understand why shows get made were the two leads have no chemistry #you’d think there is nothing easier than getting attractive people to pretend to be (or genuinely be) attracted to each other but nope #though even worse is when the characters DO have good chemistry but just freeze up with the intimacy #mandatory kissing workshops for all romance dramas from now on - gay or straight - practice makes perfect

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daltoneering · 2 years

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one of my fave things kinnporsche is doing is the sheer contrast between sexy high stakes very horny dubious consent mafia boss/bodyguard dynamics full of trust issues and hidden agendas and danger with kinnporsche and then just like. cute classic bl romance with music and head pats with kimchay

the "I own you" vs "write me a love song" of it all

#kinnporsche #tag yourself im angsty emotional mess #also it's gonna be v interesting seeing how kimchay's current cute fluffiness evolves #cause like. there aint no way it's not get affected once their older brothers find out #(or indeed even just when kim's snooping agenda comes to light)

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absolutebl · 1 year

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This Week in BL - New & Old Tropes Galore

Entirely subjective yadda yadda. Organized sorta by favs in each category.

Sept 2023 Wk 4

Ongoing Series - Thai

I Feel You Linger in the Air (Fri grey) ep 7 of 12 - occasionally I forget that Yai is like 20 and this is his first love affaire. That poem bit gave me very Goethe vibes. Lots of doomed lesbians in this ep. Doomed love in general. Frankly? I was hoping for more oil less sad. Also, these two are making some v stupid mistakes. Also: MORE boys dancing.

Finally... who was it wanted a rain kiss? You got your rain kissing here, okay? No umbrellas to be had, apparently.

Dangerous Romance (Fri YT) ep 7 of 12 - I love them so much. They are so darn adorable. I like how forthright Kang is. Boy has no game and is such a dork but at least he's enthusiastic. I love the “my boyfriend smells good” trope that BL is into these days. I’m into it, too. The bff enemies drunken bathroom shenanigans was v funny. Also @heretherebedork your boys are couple dancing all over the damn place this week.

I guess we get the boyfriends ep next week?

Hidden Agenda (Sun YT) ep 12fin - The conflict really kind of wasn’t in this last ep. But I guess it was a fine, if not a particularly strong, ending. I wish we’d had the family conflict threaded throughout the series. It would have felt like a deeper more honest drama and the actors could have handled it. They’re ready. How pretty were Joong’s single picturesque crystal tears? Honestly, it's been lovely, boys. Not at all memorable, but lovely.

Quick pitch Hidden Agenda:

A relatively simple and harmless old-fashioned style university Thai BL, that started out Cyrano de Bergerac style but then drifted away into forgetfulness. It felt like it could have fit into the En of Love universe, except that it was high quality GMMTV with very pretty makeup. I enjoyed it for what it was, it's just that wasn’t much. 8/10 RECOMMENDED

Naughty Babe (Sat YT) ep 5 of 8 - Am I mostly watching this for Est and annoyed he doesn’t have a pair? Yes. (Am I writing a whole revenge plot in my head: "seduced to the good side by my enemy's hot bodyguard" with him and the Tem character? Yes. Yes I am. But that’s way too KinnPorsche for this show.) That said, MaxNat really are a great pair. Nice that Dio is figuring out how evil his own family is. Weirdly, I kind of like this speculation that if gay marriage were legal rich families would use it for arranged-marriage power plays. Can you imagine what China would do with this concept if they had access to it?

Love in Translation (Sat iQIYI) ep 7 of 8 - The morning after was sweet, I do like it when we get these scenes in BL. FYI no one misgendered Bojji except the caption writer. The screaming "discovery" scene was adorable. And I am very much falling in love with all of the side characters. I also love how aggressive Yang is, like he stepped out of a 2016 Chinese BL into Thailand. And I adore the main brother relationship.

I have to say, this is going to be a difficult BL for me to review. I didn’t like the first 4 episodes but it seems like I’m going to love the final 3. I’m actually really looking forward to the finale next week. Boy, do I feel strange about this. In other news, is it just me or is it weird to get a gay kiss from Ngern almost 10 years later? How late is too late for smooching a boy?

Never too late...

Absolute Zero (Thai Weds iQIYI) - from 2021, Studio Wabi Sabi and New Siwaj finally brings us this “time loop to prevent tragedy” romance based on the novel of the same name. I think we can expect this to be sad (so it will likely slide down my list as I become more confident about this). Mix is a great actor, so I’m not worried about that aspect, but I am warning you this won’t be your classic fluffy Thai BL. It’s a bit slow moving for me so far. Meanwhile, a revelation:

Thai high school BL is all about the hands. I blame Love Sick.

FYI the outdoor movie they watch is Love of Siam Thailand’s first real queer movie, also featured in My Only 12%.

I'm in trouble, Ongsa is such a sunshine cutie and Sansoon is so lost and sad. Pretty sure I won’t have the patience for 12 episodes of this, but I’ll stick with it for now because a pair like this is yaoi-induced catnip for me.

Only Friends (Sat YT) ep 8 of 10 - Ah, Ray, baby, you can’t get what you want if you want the wrong thing. Also, corruption charges much? Is Ray turning into Ton or is that just me? I still hold that Jenny’s is the only story I actually wanted. Although, I did enjoy the two bi boys bonding over Freddie. GMMTV sure is making good use of Title now that they got him away from Wabi Sabi and I’m NOT mad about it (4 shows & counting). Under ordinary circumstances, I probably would have dropped this show by now. But something keeps dragging me back.

My Universe (Sun iQIYI) Right Time Right You ep 6 - This couplet ended up feeling like an amateurish short. It was interesting in that way shorts can sometimes push into unusual territory, but very slow. My favorite so far, but that’s not saying much since we've only had 3. Kinda amorphous ending. 5/10 watch it if you have nothing better to do. Next week's looks pretty but silly: You Are My Soulmate.

Venus in the Sky (Tues iQIYI) 5 of 10 eps - I don’t understand the bit with the girl, car & eyebrows. Was that all just ad copy? This show is so bad I’m mostly fast forwarding now. I mean the leads are cute and earnest but that’s it. NO SINGING! And... nothing happened this ep.

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Kisseki: Dear to Me (Taiwan Tues Viki & iQIYI) ep 7-8 of 13(?) - Buckle up I got A LOT to say. Ep 7 was the boyfriends ep! Look there’s a a lot of problematic going on here by western standards: age gap (FYI age of consent in Taiwan is 16) + teacher+student, but if you’ve been reading this blog for a while you should know that Taiwan likes both high heat and taboo content (and so do I) plus (unlike Mame) they just lean lube into those kinks. And I, for one, am delighted. I talk about taboo in terms of age gap here and stepbrothers here. I’ve never done teacher/ student because we don’t get it often enough (insert sad face). These are not things that I’m going to complain about or rehash, so, moving on...

I found a lot to love about ep 7: tie grabs, smiley kisses, communication, being held down, younger aggressor, AND preliminary research= all good things. They even brought in morning aftercare, and shared trauma! I love a show that’s both unexpected yet entirely classic Taiwanese BL. I love that the family appeared as a plot device and then disappeared again. It’s all highly amusing.

Gaga dropped ep 8 a week early, I’m assuming this was a mistake since they skip next week. But hey!

Ep 8: def uhaul lesbians. Also cute queer fam moment. Ring finger biting = v hawt. Then of course it all goes south. Tres romantic means of taking the rap, gotta say. No one does gay sappy quite like Taiwan. Also, now we know why he loses his memory and Ai Di has to go in after him. Honestly, I’m not pleased to see yet another amnesia trope raise its ugly… head (why so many this year?). But it seems to be this year's trend.

And I know there is more trauma coming, but in classic Taiwan fashion it’s all gonna be fine in the end even if that HEA is chaotic and entirely unearned. Don't worry, all. We good.

You Are Mine (Taiwan Fri Gaga) eps 4 of 10 - Oh noes, sunshine has a cold. And not from the rain... just, like, a normal cold. Amazing. But then when baby gets kidnapped, daddy gets v mad. Honestly, I am charmed by the show. It is very old-fashioned "domineering CEO puts little lady up against the wall" and it’s Taiwan, and thus I am not mad about it. This is what we would be getting from Mainland China if China we’re still making pulp BL. I am disposed to simply enjoy the utter "80s bodice ripper but gay"-ness of it all.

Bon Appetit (Korea Weds iQIYI) 1-2 of 8 - from 2022. If you have premium icky VIP you can binge it all now. I don’t, so instead I’m watching it 2 new episodes every Weds. Struggling heartbroken loser-ish office worker who lives off junk food + sunshine neighbor who loves to cook (from his past with a long-held crush). Also there is a "love class" element. Why does Korea like this conceit so much? Do their universities really engage in socialization training? Gotta say I’m getting whiffs of stalker... but only whiffs. Basically, this show is going poster child “way to a man’s heart is through his stomach“. Bit too much flashback, but I like that our chef is open about liking a boy, and I like that they remember things differently and in alignment with their own egos. And I like that we got a confession already. Ah KBL, it is nice to watch something that MUST move plot quickly.

My Personal Weatherman AKA Taikan Yoho (Japan Sat Gaga) ep 6 of 8 - Jealous weatherman is ridiculous. Japan = queen of “why don’t you guys just talk?”

Mr Cinderella 2 (Vietnam Sat YT) ep 2 - Ba Vinh & Minh Thao reprising their roles as Dung & Khoa what do we think? 8 eps? 10? We got the stepbrothers (or whatever they are) backstory. Also My Prettiest Cat-boy does certifiable nutcake v well. Psychopath looks hot on him.

It's Airing But...

Crazy Handsome Rich (Sun Gaga) ep 3 of 10 - The sound. No. DNF

I Cannot Reach You AKA I Can't Reach You AKA Kimi ni wa Todokanai (Japan Tues Netflix-Japan & ????) - Adapted from the manga, childhood best friends: The cool, smart one who’s good at everything, and his average, dorky friend who struggles. Always by the other’s side, but not together in the way they truly want to be.

Unfortunately I Cannot Reach You, in classic JBL fashion, could not be reached.

In case you missed it?

Viki dropped Our Dating Sim the movie. I didn’t notice any extra footage and they took out all the in game/high school flashback stingers. At first, I didn’t really miss them but by the end of the movie I really did. So this is going to be one of those rare KBL instances where I recommend sticking to the original series over the repackaged movie.

Next Week Looks Like This:

Upcoming October BL

10/1 Can I Buy Your Love From A Vending Machine? AKA Sono Koi, Jihanki de Kaemasu ka? (Japan cinema release in-country only) - This one is a movie from Japan so in customary fashion who tf knows when (or if) it will get international distribution. Salaryman Ayumu Koiwai just can't tear his eyes away from the strong, muscular man as he checks on the stocks of the vending machine in his office.

10/5 If It’s With You AKA Even If I Fall In Love With You AKA Kimi to nara Koi wo Shite Mite mo’ (Japan Gaga) - from MBS a live action adaptation of Kubota Maru’s manga ‘君となら恋をしてみても. Amane has stopped loving people due to trauma until he meets Ryuji. At first Amane just wants to play with Ryuji but… feelings. I am assuming 8 eps and rumored to be taking Weatherman's spot so that date is likely wrong.

10/6 What Did You Eat Yesterday Season 2 AKA Kinou Nani Tabeta? Season 2 (Japan Gaga) - 4th installment in this series (1st series, 1 special, 1 movie prior) about a lawyer who lives with his boyfriend, a hairdresser, and cooks for him. Season 2 will follow the couple as they enter their 50’s. Slice-of-life drama adapted from a beloved manga series of the same name.

10/6 My Beautiful Man: Eternal AKA Utsukushii Kare Eternal (Japan movie Viki & Gaga) - This is the 3rd and final installment the series. The 2nd season didn’t blow me away the way the 1st did, but I still liked it. I'm looking forward to the finale. I hope we get character growth for a change.

10/31 SHADOW (Thai VIU ????) - this is a horror BL featuring ghosts and other paranormal elements in a high school setting. I'm not wild about Thai horror (or horror at all, but if it must be done in BL let Japan do it). It features Singto (who did paranormal BL He's Coming to Me) opposite Fluke N (who's done a couple horror's before). Also Fiat. Dan suffers from sleep paralysis, and in his dreams he sees a shadow that suffocates him. It gets worse when he transfers schools.

October? Bump Up Project AKA Bump Up Business (Korea ????) - BL staring OnlyOneOf that released(??) as a movie in July but is now being recut and reissued as a series. Stars NineMill and from Idol Romance bulled as a love story between a trainee who is about to debut and a celebrity from the same agency (based on a webtoon). OnlyOneOf have been auditioning for this since Libido IMHO. You can watch me chronicle their BL MV work in this post. Idol Romance will do sad but can do good kisses (Wish You, Nobleman Ryu, Once Again, Kissable Lips, Poongduck 304, Tasty Florida, Tinted With You) but I don't think we will get any in this. After that OmegaX Shoulder bullshizz buisness I am very wary of this show.

2023 forthcoming BL master post (see comments, some are inaccurate, NOT KEPT UPDATED).

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

There was a ton of truly great stuff in this week's Kiseki, but this was hands down my favorite. (Pun intended.)

Oh and the neck kisses of course.

I LOVE HIM your honor.

GMMTV's ongoing love affair with the scent trope.

Calling out out new couple's dance trope. (Both Dangerous Romance)

(Last week)

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waitmyturtles · 5 months

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Turtles Catches Up With Old GMMTV: A Honorable Mention For War of Y, and Another Look at How Thai BL Talks About BL (With a Bonus Watch of BL: Broken Fantasy)

[What’s going on here? After joining Tumblr and discovering Thai BLs through KinnPorsche in 2022, I began watching GMMTV’s new offerings -- and realized that I had a lot of history to catch up on, to appreciate the more recent works that I was delving into. From tropes to BL frameworks, what we’re watching now hails from somewhere, and I’m learning about Thai BL's history through what I’m calling the Old GMMTV Challenge (OGMMTVC). Starting with recommendations from @absolutebl on their post regarding how GMMTV is correcting for its mistakes with its shows today, I’ve made an expansive list to get me through a condensed history of essential/classic/significant Thai BLs produced by GMMTV and many other BL studios. My watchlist, pasted below, lists what I’ve watched and what’s upcoming, along with the reviews I’ve written so far. Today, I take a look at the more recent attempts by the Thai BL industry to critique itself with War of Y and the mini-documentary, BL: Broken Fantasy.]

2022's War of Y. Let me start this piece off by saying that this show is not good. My friend and BL elder educator, @bengiyo, once said about the OGMMTVC project, that some people (LIKE ME :'( ) just have to look into the abyss to satiate their curiosity about how this genre has developed, and that's definitely a point of the OGMMTVC. Not all past Thai BL shows are good, not by a long shot, and I don't recommend War of Y if you're watching dramas for pleasurable experiences only. (If you want to watch a GREAT drama that critiques the Thai BL industry, start with 2021's Lovely Writer, and I'll get more into this later.)

War of Y, directed by the chaotic Cheewin Thanamin and the I-am-assuming-to-be-misanthropic-and-indulgently-self-righteous-and-preening Den Panuwat, gave us 20 episodes of what I believe they thought to be groundbreaking critical art about the currently Thai BL industry. Let me set up an outline so that I don't spend too long on the bad stuff, and explain why War of Y does at least get an important mention (but not an official inclusion) on the OGMMTVC list.

1) What was War of Y about, how it was structured, and some quick high points, 2) Comparing War of Y to other pieces of Thai BL fiction that did a better job of critiquing Thai BL culture, and 3) A close-out reflection of Aam Anusorn's 2020 mini-documentary, BL: Broken Fantasy.

War of Y, as presented by Cheewin and Den, is designed to be a meta-drama of four chapters, all examining a specific aspect of the Thai BL industry. The first chapter, led by Billy Patchanon and Seng Wichai, focuses on two ship partnerships competing with each other, to the mental detriment of one of the older ship's celebrities; the second chapter focuses on two HORRIBLE warring managers; the third chapter showcases, in excruciating detail, god help us, a Y idol reality show, replete with singing; and the final chapter depicts the creation of a BL series and the rise of another super celebrity, whose career potentially gets derailed by his relationship with a female acting colleague.

Before I get into the few high points, I just want to say that this bloated structure (four chapters of five episodes each) did not do this drama well. It could have been edited down GREATLY for more succinct messaging. The other major issue I had is that the Thai BL genre -- as a romance genre itself, that demands romantic and coupled endings -- is just not the right genre to meta-critique the industry from which the piece of art comes from, not unless you're the screenwriter of Lovely Writer, who deftly managed some very complicated storylines into true art. There was no deft to War of Y. Couples got together in pandering and condescending ways, because that's how a Thai BL should end, right (?!); HORRENDOUS warring enemies suddenly made up with barely any context except to make money, and so on. I kept saying to friends during my watch that in a Den Panuwat show -- the worse you are as a character, the more likely you are to be redeemed for seemingly no good reason.

[Exhibits B and C in Den Panuwat's screenwriting record of questionable human characteristics? Fucking Only Friends and Playboyy. THE WORSE THOSE CHARACTERS WERE, THE BETTER THEIR OUTCOMES. Yeah, we really wanted those assholes to end well. ANYWAY. (I am committing to never watching a Den Panuwat show again. ANYWAY.)]

But there were a few high points. Actually seeing a Y idol reality show, something that international fans may not be able to appreciate with a lack of subtitles, was at least eye-opening for the inter-related nature of these kinds of shows, with some performers subsequently getting series gigs. (I understand that Santa Pongsapak, of My Own 12%, is an example of this kind of performer, who started out first as a music idol trainee.)

And the acting. Some of the acting was EASILY the best part of War of Y, as it very often happens in questionable Thai dramas: Billy (BILLYYYYYYYY), First Piyangkul, Dome Waruwat (who we most recently saw in Cooking Crush, and who absolutely SLAYED as one of the SLIMIEST, GROSSEST characters EVER, ohmygod), and

SENG MOTHERFUCKING WICHAI

(who will win one of the crowns as one of THE BEST FUCKING ACTORS IN THAI BL at the conclusion of the OGMMTVC project)

were easily the best reasons to watch War of Y. The range of Seng Wichai. It's ironic that he left Idol Factory last year, ending the BillySeng ship, and was then disgracefully treated like utter crap by the media and BL fans for the reveal of his relationship with Freen Sarocha. That, in itself, could make for a heartbreaking drama about the BL industry, but alas. We have War of Y instead. Seng is a motherfucking hero, and is also the KING of cringe, playing a horribly behaved actor who learns to overcome his insecurities to stand up against the advantages taken unto him by greedy managers.

We also had MANY wild and crazy cameos from real BL professionals in the show. @twig-tea and I agree that director New Siwaj's cameo was BAFFLING. He played a BL director (which he actually is) who maybe hated making BLs? (Maybe he actually hates it?) But still does it? And was mostly checked out of making the BL-show-within-the-BL-show, until he was called out about it, and then behaved like a good boy. Like. That cameo, along with a literally-evil NetJames and an even more inexplicable and weird literally-evil MaxNat cameo (wtf, that wasn't filled out AT ALL), were the really weird ones. The sad ones were ones like sweet NuNew Chawarin telling young BL guys that they have to sing (NO THEY DON'T). There was actual!Tee Bundit telling off Seng Wichai's character, that was rad. Director Lit Phadung of SOTUS and Dangerous Romance (😬) was there. Even the original novelist for Thailand's first television BL, Love Sick, was there, playing herself as Kwang Latika, who complained to a producer within War of Y that the show-within-the-show (yeah, I know) was taking her novel out of context. That shit sounds familiar! I could have used more accurate commentary on that.

The last high point that I can muster is that the show began to toe the line of the issue of actors needing to explore their sexualities for art's sake. As fans, we truly do not have much insight into this process, and I think it's for good reason, so as to protect actors (wherever they land on the sexuality spectrum) from very real, emotional, and sensitive processes and workshops that prepare them for taking on queer material. We know that actors like Nanon Korapat from Bad Buddy use Method techniques in their performances, and that can be mentally draining. Do I believe that some actor pairings experiment with dating, and may actually be in relationships? Yes, I must believe it, considering the psychological work these young men have to do to build attraction to each other for art's sake. The CEO of Korea's Strongberry studio confirmed as much earlier this year.

Unfortunately, I think War of Y leveraged these very sensitive realities to blatantly and flippantly indicate that ships can be ASSUMED to either explore sex with each other, and/or to even assume that they SHOULD be in relationships, à la the television BL romance formula that I mentioned above. I think this show could have transcended the romance genre formula, frankly, and I think the show came kinda close to doing that in the last chapter with First Piyangkul -- but not before setting up First's character, Achi, as a cheating monster-machine who was willing to go to great lengths to protect his fame, including outing his trans-female ex-girlfriend and co-star (YEAH, THAT HAPPENED), as well as separating himself from his ship and sexual same-sex partner while still indicating that they were dating. The whole storyline was just -- BLEH.

As I chatted with another fabulous BL elder, @twig-tea, about after I finished War of Y, clearly, Cheewin and Den thought they were intellectual geniuses upon the creation of this show, thinking that a BL itself would be a sufficient mechanism to offer meta commentary about problematic aspects of the BL industry (IT'S NOT). Twig wisely said to me that a writer or directly simply CHOOSING a topic to explore vis à vis a BL -- like a criticism of the industry itself -- is not, in of itself, worthy of laudation. And Cheewin and Den were CLEARLY expecting flowers by the end of this drama. If you've ever lived in smelling distance of southern California, you'll know that entertainment industries love nothing more than to talk about the entertainment industry, and that they think that fictional drama art is the best way to obsess over the vagaries of these industries (IT'S NOT). Instead, Cheewin and Den basically outed themselves as economic shippers and idiot faux-savants who are clearly in the game for fame, and maybe the dudes themselves, which -- BLEH REDUX.

On the OGMMTVC list, Lovely Writer does such a better job at covering the latent homophobia and judgments against actors within and external to the industries that take on BL. War of Y actually teed up a LOT of interesting topics, such as the BL-to-het-drama-and-studio pipeline that I talked about in my past OGMMTVC KinnPorsche pieces -- but these topics in War of Y just instead drowned in misanthropic meditations about fame, sex, and money that seemed far more suited to reaaaaalllly-bad Cinemax than, say, a proto-documentary.

The OGMMTVC syllabus also has YYY, from 2020, as a first entrée to BL-commentary-within-BL (and funnily enough, YYY also stars Lay Talay, who was the main anchor of War of Y, and was actually fantastic in both shows). YYY is a lot more succinct, CONCISE, zany, weird as HELL, incomplete, INSANE, not the greatest show, but HILARIOUS, simply in part because of its different and wonderful writers in Fluke Teerapat (a former BL actor himself) and Tanachot Prapasri. If you're looking for commentary about BL within wild-ass fiction (and if you're willing to watch it with shrooms or a fifth of vodka), watch YYY. (And remember that you're really watching YYY to watch Poppy Ratchapong eat his role of Porpla totally alive. Utter brilliance.)

Otherwise, as a means of complementing this review, I also watched 2020's non-fiction mini-documentary, BL: Broken Fantasy, by Aam Anusorn, another Series Y director who made the documentary, perhaps in part, to atone for past BL shows that he made, like 2Moons2 and Call It What You Want.

BL: Broken Fantasy featured interviews from directors, actors, and actual fans, about the nature of shipping, what the industry demands of actors, what fans themselves demand, and offered even a little bit of insight from two HUGE actors, Bright Vachiwarit and Win Metawin of 2gether and Still 2gether, about the process itself of young men acting in a queer coupleship.

The documentary is perhaps too short for its own good. And it sets up Aam as an unwilling participant within the BL industry, seemingly not knowing about what he was getting into when he first started making BLs (2gether's director, Champ Weerachit, also presents this way, which I found a touch disingenuous, as they were literally filming 2gether in the documentary).

But BL: Broken Fantasy hammered on a couple of important and real points. The economic benefits of shipping are HUGE. The sponsorship deals, the fame, the money -- they literally make young actors very rich and very well attended to. The fans EXPECT shipping performances, so that they themselves can situate themselves as caretakers or "mommies" to their young flock of boba-eyed actors that they worship. And for directors who want to earn money by making filmed art: the budding industry offers them that opportunity in growing spades. ( @lurkingshan will be happy to know that of all people, Aof Noppharnach, confirms to the documentary's audience that BL is a romance genre of love stories. As if there was any doubt, playa!)

At this point in time, in 2024, if I want a meta-critical understanding of the BL industry, and its many impacts on queer populations, fan bases, and Asian and global society, I'll go to Dr. Thomas Baudinette's Boys Love Media in Thailand and choose the academic route. We are SO LUCKY now to actually have tremendous academic discourse on the genre and its impact on media, fandoms, queer society, and global and regional acceptances of queer equity.

As opposed to the roads that academics are paving, War of Y allowed itself to bloat and gloat, on behalf of its creators, about their desires for shipping, for lavishing attention on beautiful young men, without offering us objective insight into the mindsets of these gentlemen who are important artists and creators in many of the shows we love. There needs to be a space for fair and objective criticism about an industry that may, at many times, take advantage of these young men. While there were many industry cameos in the show, the most frequent cameo was Den Panuwat himself. That enough should tell us what this show was ultimately really about.

[Well, as you can tell, I am fucking DONE with War of Y, laughing my azz off, and -- I'm off to greener pastures. I'm taking a cute and quick break from the OGMMTVC to devour Japan's anime version of Cherry Magic for an upcoming comparative (and totally self-indulgent) Big Meta on Thailand's and Japan's versions of that franchise. (And I have also been watching Fully Booked, AMA.) But I've got a long-awaited rewatch of The Eclipse coming up, to explore how GMMTV handled homophobia as a centered topic head-on, and from there, I go back to Idol Factory to watch Thailand's first GL, featuring the lovely FreenBecky, in GAP.

AND THEN: HOLY SHIT! FINALLY! My School President. I can't wait.

Here's the latest of the OGMMTVC list. If you've got any questions or comments about the syllabus, just mosey on over to this link and drop a comment my way!

21) 2gether (2020) and Still 2gether (2020) (review here) 22) I Told Sunset About You (2020) (review here) 23) YYY (2020, out of chronological order) (review here) 24) Manner of Death (2020-2021) (review here) 25) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) (review here) 26) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) OGMMTVC Fastest Rewatch Known To Humankind For The Sake Of Rewatching Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS (re-review here) 27) Lovely Writer (2021) (review here) 28) Last Twilight in Phuket (2021) (the mini-special before IPYTM) (review here) 29) I Promised You the Moon (2021) (review here) 30) Not Me (2021-2022) (review here)

31) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) (thesis here) 32) 55:15 Never Too Late (2021-2022) (not a BL, but a GMMTV drama that features a macro BL storyline about shipper culture and the BL industry) (review here) 33) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) and Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS (2023) OGMMTVC Rewatch (Links to the BBS OGMMTVC Meta Series are here: preamble here, part 1, part 2, part 3a, part 3b, and part 4) 34) Secret Crush On You (2022) (review here) 35) KinnPorsche (2022) (tag here) 36) KinnPorsche (2022) OGMMTVC Fastest Rewatch Known To Humankind For the Sake of Re-Analyzing the KP Cultural Zeitgeist (part 1 and part 2) 37) Honorable Mention: War of Y (2022) (for the sake of an attempt to provide meta BL commentary within a BL in the modern BL era), with a complementary watch of Aam Anusorn’s documentary, BL: Broken Fantasy (2020) 38) The Eclipse (2022) (tag here) 39) The Eclipse OGMMTVC Rewatch to Reexamine “Genre BLs” and Internalized/Externalized Homophobia in GMMTV Shows (watching) 40) GAP (2022-2023) (Thailand’s first GL)

41) My School President (2022-2023) and Our Skyy 2 x My School President (2023) 42) Moonlight Chicken (2023) (tag here) 43) Bed Friend (2023) (tag here) 44 La Pluie (2023) (review coming) 45) Be My Favorite (2023) (tag here) (I’m including this for BMF’s sophisticated commentary on Krist’s career past as a BL icon) 46) Wedding Plan (2023) (Recommended as an important trajectory in the course of MAME’s work and influence from TharnType) 47) Only Friends (2023) (tag here) (not technically a BL, but it certainly became one in the end) 48) Last Twilight (2023-24) (tag here) (on the list as Thailand’s first major BL to center disability, successfully or otherwise) 49) Cherry Magic Thailand (2023-24) (tag here) (on the list as the first major Japanese-to-Thai drama adaptation, featuring the comeback of TayNew) 50) Ossan’s Love Returns (2024) (adding for the EarthMix cameo and the eventual Thai remake)

51) Dead Friend Forever (2024) (thoughts here) 52) 23.5 (2024) (GMMTV’s first GL) (thoughts here)]

#war of y #war of y the series #billyseng #billy patchanon #seng wichai #cheewin thanamin #den panuwat #first piyangkul #the old gmmtv challenge #ogmmtvc #turtles catches up with the essential BLs #turtles catches up with thai BLs #war of y meta

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wejji · 2 years

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Porsche with the eye roll and realising he has to give in (what a classic action in the romance genre but it really hits every time). Then the hug and the tightening grip from Kinn. Then the walking away. Jesus kinnporsche nearly got me crying.

#kinnporsche the series #kinnporsche #kinn x porsche #apo nattawin #mile phakphum #kinnporsche ep 6 #thai bl #I fucking fall for this kinda scene everytime #it always just hits right #the hug got me gifjfnfjf #vegas is going to annoy me next week plz spare me

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yeetlegay · 2 years

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Hi, so you finally got me to read your Pretty Woman AU, which means you pulled me back into reading fanfiction for the first time ever since a very unfortunate dabbling in Wattpad territory at the age of 15. And I didn’t think I would like it that much, to be honest, because I’ve only ever seen snippets of Pretty Woman and because I’m not usually into stuff that horny. But excuse me, how is this so beautiful and perfect and addictive??? I can now get in line with all the other people begging for the new chapter on a daily basis.

I mean, even though you keep saying you forget about the plot all the time, it’s still there and it’s wonderful and already the idea is brilliant. Like I said, I have never seen the entirety of Pretty Woman, but I love how you weave KinnPorsche and that movie together so seamlessly while somehow staying true to both?

And I know this is a minor detail to most people, but I personally can’t stand spelling, punctuation and grammar mistakes etc. in stories, so I love that somehow you manage to make less of them (= partically zero, even the questionable ones I wasn’t sure about) than a huge amount of professionally published books I’ve read. Thank you for that. Also, I just generally love your style of writing and your tone, it’s a pure delight to read.

That said, I will now go hide in a corner, anxiously await the new chapter and hope you’re having a great day (and that it’s no longer ruined because of the coffee spill).

P.S.: One question, though. Could you maybe explain to me how exactly Kinn’s penthouse is laid out and where everything is inside it? I keep getting confused because my brain is weird and then rooms and furniture end up on the opposite sides of where I expected them to be.

Oh god not Wattpad! 😂 That place is abysmal, I’m so sorry for whatever horrors you stumbled across. But WOW wtf this is????? Incredible???? Not to sound cheesy but I really am honored that you gave fanfic another shot with FL&H, that absolutely blows my mind. I hope you check out some more KP fics too—there’s tons of goodies in there if you’re interested! (I’m very far behind on my TBR but I’d rec anything in my bookmarks for a start!)

Pretty Woman has always been such a comfort watch for me honestly. I first saw it when I was like 8, which in hindsight was too young lol, but it’s just one of those movies that’ll always be a timeless classic imo. It’s one of the greats to come out of the 90s romance boom and I’m just really gassed that Kinnporsche happens to translate so well to that setup. It was shockingly easy to outline and find all the ways to sync up the story/character beats, and I love including little Easter eggs from both stories (like Porsche’s “then stop calling me” moment in ep 5, and Chan teaching Porsche self-defense instead of table manners, and obv the piano scene lol).

I’m kind of the same about grammar/punctuation hang-ups just because of the field I work in, but I try really hard to get over it with fanfic because it’s free and made with love, you know? And besides, I’ve read manuscripts from some brilliant authors who cannot spell or use commas right to save their lives lol, so I’m pretty used to looking past the little things for the sake of the story. Thank god for copy editors tbh. But I’m glad you haven’t spotted a lot of typos! I don’t really copy edit other than skimming it after I post so there’s always a good chance I’ve missed something really egregious lol.

As for Kinn’s penthouse suite, I just sketched this out on my phone so it’s not super accurate dimension-wise lol but below is what I picture in my head. (If you see anything in early chapters that contradicts this…no you didn’t 😉)

The north- and east-facing walls are complete glass, and probably have some kind of shades/curtains that come down when you hit the button, but as we all know Kinn and Porsche are exhibitionists and want to make sure the entire city sees them fucking, especially the banks. 😌

Hope that helps! So glad you’re liking the fic, and an update is coming soon, I promise! Chapter 9 is officially the longest one yet fml 😩

#kinnporsche #yeetle asks #pretty woman au

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tsukiyadori · 2 years

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Left-Right Dynamics in KinnPorsche's Visual Direction

KinnPorsche stroke me as a tale more aligned to classic BL from the yaoi era, as in very strong seme-uke dynamics (including the questionable conflation of narrative agency, character traits and top/bottom preferences). In that, left of the ship means seme and sometimes that translates into visuals as well.

Basically: left = power, sway, being in charge and having agency.

The title and premise makes no qualms to establish Kinn as the seme and the one in power. The trailer material on the new version is also very strongly inclined in having Kinn on the left. Which is also probably why the epilogue in that trailer with Porsche taunting Kinn with his feet works so well for contrast. It's contrast in tone because that one's funny and comedic, but Porsche is also the one with the hidden power and agency and on the right sight of the visuals. In between one of the to be climatic moments is that fight that are all sorts of turns, defying left and right, which is probably when they are on equal power levels fighting together and in between that fight Porsche is left side when he assumes Kinn of his alliance. (That's also one why the new series' direction is magnitudes better than the old direction of that 9 minutes trailer from Filmania. Over there in everything more, let's say physically tensed between the two it's Kinn left and Porsche right, fittingly Kinn being on the right when he's injured, but other than that it's all over the place. Especially standing out sorely when Kinn comes in to tell the family that he bought their house he's right side - and even occupying less of the screen than Porsche and family on higher zoom level. Aren't you in position of power there Kinn? Why are you so small?)

So I thought this was going to be about Porsche starting low and climbing up to stand on equal eye levels to Kinn and love going to be what gives him that power boost. (That's also totally a staple in any romance. The heroine has to work herself up to convince the guy of having value, and usually the love of the guy and him being prisoner to it is the only thing that properly elevates the girl's status and even then (unless inane narrative handstands happen) the heroine typically can only hope to be equals in their little world of two.)

Surprisingly, quite surprisingly, the show starts entirely on the opposite. Before they meet, Kinn and Porsche are both left sided. They are in charge and in control of their lives respectively. Kinn doing his daily business? Left. Porsche doing his work charming the ladies? Left. Porsche being asked advice from his co-workers? Left. Talking to his brother or uncle? Left.

Then they meet, Porsche is having the upper hand because Kinn is troubled. Left. He even first sits and then raises up to demonstrate that Kinn is at his mercy.

Now, typically such a usurpation cannot stand. A seme has to be in control and by premise Kinn is coming to get that control. And he does it slyly. When he is in Yok's bar waiting for Porsche, Porsche is still granted left position authority. But that's just on Kinn's whim, as the sack on Porsche's head and his kidnapping are there to enforce. Once he is out of that sack again Kinn is just about always left sided.

Until Porsche literally fights it. And... wins. For the time being. Well, that's hardly permissible, troublesome uke needs some more spanking by the narrative, so that he learns his place. Which promptly happens with his uncle screwing everything royally up. Does that seem like punishment for resisting his uke-fate? Sure. From there on, he's always right sided. Even towards his uncle and brother. And by the time he and Kinn meet face to face again, he's obediently situated on the right side.

And Kinn gets to say his iconic "Your life is mine".

But then it gets interesting. Porsche regains his left status pretty much immediately after. And keeps it. Even with Kinn. At first, it's because of Korn from whom it's implied that Porsche has some special value he doesn't even know himself. Then he gets the right to be head bodyguard, which allows him to gain left side on the regular despite being a newbie.

Obviously Kinn has to get to show his power, so wasabi drink and apple shooting are having him on the left side and Porsche on the troubled right. But Porsche being Porsche he gets to be left lots of times sided even when he screws up.

Kinn is already powerless against his hazards.

Add the first inklings of attraction from Kinn's side, and it gets worse for him:

Kinn is higher and bigger in the picture, clearly in power, but also on the right. And he stays there. Kinn dressing up Porsche? Sure he's left, but the mirror reveals what really is happening. Dressed up Porsche walking into the frame impressing Kinn even whilst trippling on his own feet? Left side. Kinn chiding drunk Porsche? Kinn is left, intends to shake him off even more to the right, but then only makes Porsche gain more ground towards the left. Even on the choking he's at Kinn's mercy, but still on the left. Kinn is already his prisoner, low-key it's oozing out everywhere.

And then Porsche relents after understanding Kinn saved his life. That's where Kinn starts intruding his heart.

And just the same, he's bigger, but only ostensibly so. But Kinn kills that newfound inclination, so by the time they meet again, Porsche is left again. Kinn is far more troubled with his feelings than Porsche, and it shows. Even when he's wounded, lower seated, he's still on the left. Kinn already has his eyes glued on him, and that gives him that position of power. (Everything Tankhun also has Porsche constantly on the left, he's in charge of bringing new wind in.)

It takes a dead drunk Porsche not quite in his mind to have Kinn back in seme place to be in charge move that romance plot on.

But even that is temporary. Right the next day Kinn is shoved to the right side again, obtuse Porsche has all the power over Kinn's heartstrings. For Kinn to gain left side ground again, it needs a Porsche who's overheated and passing out in the sauna.

Like really, Porsche is only right side, when he's kind of out of it for the entire first third of the series so far. And except his one confusion about remembering the kiss, it's exclusively when he's drunk, not fit or drugged.

And not even always then because all his drugged taunts also have him on the left and Kinn at his mercy. Even when he's drugged and literally having zero agency, he still has all that power. It takes all the iffiness of that dubcon to put Kinn into left side power position, which also happens visually, as it's only then that it shifts entirely to Kinn on the left. (Aligned with the start of Free Fall's instrumental version kicking in.)

Episode 5 is interesting. Because usually dubcon and noncon are narratively there and excused as instruments for the the seme to establish and hold his power position.

But that's not happening:

There literally isn't a single instance where Porsche is on the right with Kinn. Kinn is even smaller and more humbled, half of the times. And this is with Porsche at his objectively worst low point, but he still has far more sway over Kinn than how much his own trauma is putting him down.

Notably, Porsche on his own without Kinn is very much right sided:

As in pretty much as good as completely. His conversation with Pete? Right sided. His casual sex attempt with that girl? Right sided. Vegas showing up? He's on the right. Drinking with his friends? Right. His crawling punishment is even showing how he starts left, but winds up right.

Visually, this is some really nice craftsmanship for supporting the narrative dynamics. (Like the whole possession allegory in the dialogue lines.) I like secondary language narratives like that a lot, and it's so nicely consistent across the board. Very intriguing are Korn and Kim in all of that as well. They are clearly hidden powers, but whenever they actually show up, usually they are on the right side, often smaller or lower positioned in the frame. It's like having inconspicuous camouflage, which is exactly their sort of power style.

But the biggest surprise is still that Porsche still holds ground even with all the narrative grind downs already from the beginning. Porsche loses agency, but at the same time he gains just as much power over Kinn since Kinn falls first and much faster, and it cancels out for the most part. And Porsche is already using this power. Unwittingly and later also very knowingly. Going by the trailer scene, he'll even get very intentional and cocky with it.

It definitely does feel like as if some archetypical narrative skeleton was very much watered down? Does that make them verse? Maybe a bit? Them both being very good fighters and the shooting rounds with them switching left and right sides looks tempting to hope for some more verse elements. But probably that's not for too soon. Kinn will have to do amends first and that will definitely regain him a lot of left side ground once he establishes himself in Porsche's heart, and then his material power will hold more sway in his favor.

I will be very curious how this dynamic will play out. Utsukushii Kare also played a lot with left-right dynamics in its visuals, but that one stayed very true to the more niche whipping boy seme archetype from the beginning to end. (Which this one clearly is not.)

#drama #kinnporsche #kinnporsche the series #ramblings #thai drama #cinematography

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