#watch the show for khunkaow

[heretherebedork]

I love Tri and the little junior twins who are outrageously flirting with him.

Kaow continues to be the cutest little baker ever.

Khun is the sweetest summer child.

Prab's a slimebag.

I feel bad for Nick.

Chol is just kind of... there.

Maping is cute but bland and all the depth he could have had is taken away by the tutoring working effortlessly.

I wish Mhok had more character, honestly.

Basically, Brothers is definitely better than The Cupid Coach but that doesn't mean it's actually good.

[absolutebl]

BLs where sunshine baby goes from shy to enthusiastically GAY

So this dynamic specifically eliminates tsundere characters (probubly the most popular archetype in BL) and focuses in on cinnamon rolls who reveal their soft squishy centers through the course of the narrative going belly up for gayness/sex. (Okay my analogy got away from me, but you’ll see what I mean.) Since a lot of BL is still somewhat sex negative, partly as a result of the seme uke dynamic my temptation was to lean entirely on Taiwan for this, but surprisingly Korea, Japan, and Thailand also had examples. 

Cinnamon Rolls who (eventually) Go All in for Their Boy 

TAIWAN

HIStory 4: Close To You - Muren is a tiny bit more confused and tsundere than shy, but he is definitely a sweetheart won over by his absurd himbo in the end. This is a character arc Taiwan loves, the himbo who discovers he is bisexual and just carries his clumsy excitement for life into gayness. Himbos are, however, by their nature NOT SHY so they don’t qualify themselves for this. 

HIStory 3: the BL that shall not be named - Oh this is a pitch perfect execution of this trope, and another shy sweetie/himbo pairing. But the end of this show is ALL pain. Watch at your own risk. There is no HEA. Stop THE MOMENT they move in together or be prepared to suffer. 

HIStory 3: Trapped - the side couple probubly qualifies. Sunshine bad ass mercenary assassin pursues shy (okay more horny and repressed) nerdy cop. They are a fantastic couple and, eventually, very mutually enthusiastic... shall we say? 

HIStory 2: Right or Wrong - an oft neglected one in the franchise but our adorable baby boy Fei Sheng Zhe is kinda shy but more just does not like his boss/teacher/tsundere seme (eventual lover). However, once sex is on the table it is ON THE TABLE... literally. 

DNA Says Love You - I adore this BL and Amber is shy and careful and luminous and perfect, but when he’s convinced Le loves him, he is super game and they have lovely final sequence together. 

See You After Quarantine? - their is a shy admiration that comes from an age and culture gap, and our sunshine baby Bo Chun is also coming out. But with a confident gay for the seme this dynamic is executed perfectly. And yes they clearly want each other once they finally meet. And yes, you get to see it but mostly in the credit sequence. This is a SHORT show. 

THAILAND 

Love Sick - is Noh shy or just oblivious or just a very confused teenager? Whatever the case, he actually fits the criteria perfectly. He is both a sunshine and a cinnamon roll and he fucking adores Phun but really struggles to show it. That’s Phun’s fault, though. This is a long hard fought messy series and the chemistry is weak, but when they finally end up together it is clear that they are TOGETHER.

Love By Chance - OF COURSE. How could I forget them? BEST BOYS!!!! Pete is the ultimate shy boy, painfully injured lonely out-gay and Ae sweeps in and adopts him. Ae is clearly demi and has to figure himself out, but Pete is never once not willing to stick by him, and when they finally get together Pete is completely willing, just still shy about it. The side couples are a problem and the ending is not good, but AePete remain one of my favorite Thai pairs of all time. 

Brothers - this is a terrible show and I can’t in good faith suggest anyone actually watch it, except for KhunKaow. Kaow is absolutely a shy cinnamon roll (baker) who comes around to his insistent younger med student boyfriend. Kaow is older than Khun, and they fulfill my favorite “young gay identifies elder gay as MINE” trope. But they are very much a side couple and even though I adore them, it’s probubly not worth watching this terrible show just for them. 

Love Stage!! (Thai version) - Anda is basically a shy introvert, he goes from reluctant to tsundere to all tf in for his celebrity boyfriend, including high heat.

Secret Crush On You - this is not my favorite BL and I have many quibbles and very mixed feels, but I Toh def starts shy (about a relationship) and then goes all in. Like very high heat and very clear these two really want to bone... like ALL THE TIME. Although I think of Toh as a more a creep than a sunshine or cinnamon roll. You could probubly put side character Jao (def cinnamon) into this category too. And this show is nothing if not sex positive.

Others I contemplated: NueaSyn side couple in Cutie Pie, WinTops in Ingredients, RamKing in My Engineer, IttPai in My Gear and Your Gown, TeeFuse in Make it Right, SoloGui in Oxygen, KluenDao in Star in My Mind, ChampDoc (both, poor things) in TharnType 2, the main couple in My Ride. 

KOREA 

Cherry Blossoms After Winter - it’s Korea so they left out the good bits but Haebom absolutely goes from total shy sweetheart to literally jumping into his very tall boyfriend’s arms, also defending their relationship to their mother (who’s against it). Look this is the stepbrothers trope, Haebom is a foster brother. I love this show, it’s VERY old school yaoi, but it’s also classic Korea so a little too short, a bit sex negative, and confusing in what they choose not to show. But it meets the criteria. 

First Love Again - Jeong Ha Yeon is just a sweetheart, earnest and hopeful, and a bit of a fanboy. His other half is a total asshole but for very understandable reasons (what if the great love of your life, who you remember perfectly and have lost multiple times already, suddenly turned up in the body of the “wrong” gender?) Don’t worry they both get over it, but this is Korea, so it’s all paced odd and fast. Good kisses tho. 

Wish You: Your Melody in My Heart - Sang Yi is gone on In Soo the moment they meet, but he is so painfully shy, he is also kinda acting the part of the seme in this narrative but constantly thwarted by his own shyness. Thus the second he is given a green light he is all in, but it might not be quite the right arc for this dynamic. Still he remains one of my all time favorite BL characters because of this painful shyness - he is heart-wrenchingly sweet. 

Others: Some More (Strongberry short), Behind Cut, Love Class. 

JAPAN

Seven Days - Seriyo probubly qualifies, although he is a confident poised person he’s very shy and cautious about Yuzuru because he likes him so much so quickly and unexpectedly. The moment Yuzuru confesses you can see the relief and joy in him. This is Japan so it’s all quite reserved but great about it and a touch kinky. 

My Beautiful Man - this is a whipping boy dynamic, but Hira is shy (or maybe just worshipful and reluctant to embrace reality). This one is very kinky but might, kinda qualify? I adore this CLASSIC live action yaoi, but I am warped. And oh yeah are they both VERY into each other by the end. 

His the movie - Shun is not just shy and a cinnamon roll but bitter and rejected and alone. This is a complicated gay drama, not really a BL, but so very good. Of course he crumbles, because he has crumbled before, but it is hard fought, as it should be. 

Old Fashion Cupcake - it only comes RIGHT at the end, but at least the implication is entirely there (they they are into each other physically). I would call Nozue a cinnamon roll, although not necessarily sunshine or shy, more repressed and reluctant. Still it’s one of my favorite 2022 BLs. Worth watching no matter what. 

The Philippines and Vietnam don’t seem to like this dynamic. 

More posts tangential to this topic: 

adorable angel peanut sweetness bean nuggets 

Favorite BL Himbo Characters! 

My top 10 Cinnamon Roll Seme Characters in BL 

Top 10 Uke Cinnamon Roll Characters in BL

Seme Becomes A Marshmallow Archetype! 

Updated July 2022. Not responsible for new entries after this date. But leave a comment if you have suggestions. This post if for @renafire 

(source) 

[heretherebedork]

Watching Brothers right after ATOATS is like going from a perfectly comfortable couch to sitting on a sidewalk. You're not horribly uncomfortable, it's okay, but it might start raining or get too hot and, honestly, there are way better places to sit.

... Look, I'm still watching this show and it's better than The Cupid Coach and Stranger's Kiss. But that's mostly because of Khun and Kaow, tbh.

I wanted Maping to be such a deeper character. I wanted him to still struggle, I wanted him to try to do something and not succeed but get supported by the teacher ANYWAY so he can pursue his real talent with plants.

I want Prab and Chol to be... I don't even know, honestly. I wanted something that I didn't get and I can't quite put it into words. There's too much brother/sibling energy and not enough romance energy, I think. There was definitely more romance at the beginning.

Khun and Kaow are my perfect babies and the only thing they lack is screentime.

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL

April 2021 Part 2

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs.

Ongoing Series - Thai

Love Poison 2 Ep 3 - incomprehensible plot, confusing characters, terrible audio, I’m dropping this one. 

Second Chance Ep 2 - they are my adorable babies and I LOVE THEM. Must protect Jeno at all cost. Chris, come on, boy needs you. (They’re the jock/nerd pair.) Then there’s the friend-to-lovers (Paper & Fah) and cafe cute boys (M & Near). We got artful injury tending (finger & lip) and some jealousy or something. Is the script good? Hell no. Is anything happening? Nope. But I’m INVESTED in the nothingness. 

Lovely Writer Ep 7 - mostly set in the past, but the child actors they got were decent. I actually liked how they explained Sib’s behavior (I mean losing your BFF + figuring out you’re gay at the same time gotta mess with your head). We got touch my lip, carry baby to bed, let’s sleep facing, face touch, hair touch, and a hand kiss as well as The Kiss. With so many intimacy and caring tropes, I’m well pleased.  BONUS: NO SOUND EFFECTS. Please make then have fired the sound tech. OHPLEAESEOHPLEASEOHPLEASE. 

Fish Upon The Sky Ep 1 - I like it. Might as well break the 4th wall if you’re gonna do a voice over. Some super cringy moments but I think that’ll improve post makeover. Yet again we have a BL poking fun at its own tropes. 2021 is definitely the year of meta. Oh and Phuwin’s English is really good. 

Call It What You Want Ep 1-2 - it’s slow and more arty than I expected. The actor playing the main character looks eerily like Up (Gene in Lovely Writer) + an ex of mine - it’s disconcerting. 

Brothers Ep 10 - my two got together and ARE ADORABLE. I actually really like how they dealt with Khun’s seme ownership freak out. That’s some sexy communicating, boys! So many couples (and triads) I’m well confused, but I only love KhunKaow so no one else matters.  

Y-Destiny Ep 2 - cute, bit raunchy, kinda fun, about a million tropes in one tiny ep. I’m getting So Much in Love meets something from Strongberry. No bad thing... no real good thing either. But I was expecting a lot worse. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai 

HIStory 4: Close To You (Taiwan) Ep 4 (AKA Ep 7-8) - I don’t wanna blog about it. I can’t even think about it. I’m still gonna keep watching it. Conclusion? I’m trash. 

Word of Honor (China) Ep 22-24 - Wen is as much as a drama queen as Gene (in his own special way). Most of his past is now revealed plus obligatory bathing scene. (Is Gong Jun contractually obliged to be topless in all his dramas or is it just for the good of the planet? Asking for a friend.) A good 60% of the time I have no idea what is going on (so many names! who is this Lovelace putz allasudden?) but I don’t care cause they so pretty. 

Most Peaceful Place (Vietnam) Ep 3 - didn’t drop this week, or was it only 2 episodes? I’m so confused. 

We Best Love 2 (Taiwan) Ep 6 fin - It’s GREAT, they’re great, everyone’s great, the world is great. So pleased to get Shu Yi and his dad talking Japanese. I love it when Taiwan makes use of bilingual actors (see Because of You) almost as much as them flexing their marriage equality muscles. The full circle pool kiss was adorable and this series is officially a favorite. (@heretherebedork your boys don’t end unhappily but they don’t get an HEA either, everyone else does. I think you’d be okay with this one.) 

Stand Alones 

Tell the World I Love You (Thai BL movie) released into theaters? Or not? Haven’t heard anything about it. 

Breaking News 

Bite Me got a full trailer and it looks GOOD. Mark Siwat seems to be carrying this one, which is fine, we all know he can (especially if you’ve seen his non-LBC stuff). Quality controls seem relatively high, although this may only be a fund-raising trailer. No eng subs at last check but I’m disposed to be hopeful. It feels like we are in Oxygen territory and that was one of my favorites last year. 

You’re My Sky dropped what they’re calling an “official pilot.” No eng subs. I think this is a tester trailer to raise funds. MDL listing makes this sound like a standard college BL, but trailer portrays a sports romance. Stars almost-familiar new faces from Y-Destiny. It’s like we have a new crop of BL actors chomping at the bit to take over from MaxTul or MewGulf, and with the 91 line aging out*, maybe they aren’t wrong? 

* Don’t crawl into my craw, they’ve most of ‘em said they don’t wanna keep doing BL after turning 30 and frankly, why should they? 

Gossip 

Nitiman dropped BTS from their publicity shoot. No eng subs. 

Next Week Looks Like This:

Some shows may be listed later than actual air date for International accessibility reasons. 

Upcoming 2021 BL master post here.

Links to watch are provided when possible, ask in a comment if I missed something.

Spring Line Up:

Close Friend the series (Thai trailer) April 22.

2gether the movie (Thai trailer) April 22 to Thai theaters.

Nitiman (Thai) May 7 on One31.

I Told Sunset About You 2 (Thai) May 27 on LineTV

Ossan’s Love (Hong Kong) June to Viu

I joined MDL under this handle AbsoluteBL. Find me there if you like, currently it’s just ratings, tracking, & three lists: 

Japanese BL & Live Action Yaoi Manga

Korean BL

Taiwanese BL

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL

April 2021 Part 3

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs. 

Ongoing Series - Thai

Second Chance Ep 3 - this is proper YA, they are dealing with actual high school issues, picking uni, first crushes, online dating, etc... We even got a senior prom trope which almost never happens in Thai stuff (just the freshman uni competition variant). Standard plot pacing means PaperFah’s kiss was too early, might indicate we’re moving to uni in the second half of the series? Tropes included: let me feed you, hand hold, black & white striped shirt, floppy drunk & first kiss. 

Y-Destiny Ep 3 - the first MaxNat ep. Such fun to see them playing different characters. This one is enemies to lovers, tutor/student, but it’s using the “poor little rich kid loose cannon” archetype. Nat is doing his best, but it’s leaving me cold. Lots of tropes tho: boyfriend’s closet, floppy drunk, pillow clutch, the loom & water bottle. 

Lovely Writer Ep 8 - solid installment, good use of many tropes. I really like the leads and I’m glad there isn’t much side dish action, SibGene gave us: punish, touch your face, boyfriend claiming, kissing, sleep cuddling, symmetry, rooftop, cheek kiss, hand hold, and pillow clutch. 

Call It What You Want Ep 3-4 - couldn’t find the subs, don’t really care, will watch if it crosses my radar, otherwise I’m just not into it.  

Brothers Ep 11 - the “everyone wants Chol” show continues (but WHY?), he and Tri are cute together, and now I kinda just want Prab to end up with the twins. I’m confused by the teachers, but Boston showed up (from UWMA), and my boys KhunKaow got together (YES!), so I’m ultimately delighted with the episode. 

Fish Upon The Sky Ep 2 - the makeover happened, and we go from cute with glasses and braces to cute without them. (I’m reminded of those 90′s Pygmalion teen movies where the girl has glasses + ponytail and then *GASP* does not and *GASP* she’s HOT. This was the BL version.) Meanwhile, writers better be careful with Pi, he’s getting too tsundere to like. Did you see they gave AJ a 2gether music intro & pick up line? Well, it’s actually his brother JJ who plays Ohm in 2g. I cackled. GMMTV - you so cheeky. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai 

HIStory 4: Close To You (Taiwan) Ep 5 - half way point. My poor confused babies. It was a really sweet episode... if what happened before hadn’t happened in the way that it had. Also, these boys have a GREAT friendship but are probably the worst advice givers ever. 

Most Peaceful Place (Vietnam) Ep 3 fin - so cute! Our boys confessed and got together. There was an adorable mutual kiss (I love me a mutual, like Ingredients). Afterwards, they actually seemed to communicate with each other about both sex and their relationship. OMG. How original for BL! This was the last episode, so the series is short, but I still enjoyed it very much. RECOMMENDED. 

My Lascivious Boss (Vietnam) Ep 1-2 - oh boy this one is rough, we started out with homophobia child abuse and moved on to family drama + drunken dub-con one night stand. But production values and subs are better than normal for Vietnam (You Are My Boy levels) + our queer babies are out & proud + it’s higher heat + I’m weak. So I’m watching. 

Word of Honor (China) Ep 25-27 - honestly not much happened, lots of back story. Things are looking dire for the ghosts unless they can turn the Scorpion (I LOVE HIM, he’s my precious deadly baby). Don’t know how they managed to make loosing a battle with an immortal sword god ex-friend cute... but they did. Did some calculations and at 36 eps, mathematically speaking, ep 30 will be the equivalent of a standard BL ep 11. Should I be scared for next week? 

Nobleman Ryu’s Wedding (Korea) Ep 1-2 - it’s so effing adorbs, soft bois do old fashioned tropes like arranged marriage + evil stepsisters meets the more modern fake relationship + secret identity in a surprisingly comfortable mix. It launched with baby is a floppy drunk, forced proximity, performative I saw you feed him, and some fun gay panic. It’s a lot lighter and faster paced than I was expecting, but this is Korea so I don’t know why I’m surprised. 

Stand Alones 

K-pop band OnlyOneOf dropped a new MV that is basically BL bait, using many of the tropes we know and love. I promise I’m not trying to lure anyone into K-pop I just thought it was interesting how consciously they’re yaoi dipping. 

Spin-off We Best Love Fighting Mr. 2nd, Shou Zhen | the Only Love Letter Once Written (SERIOUSLY WITH THE TITLES TAIWAN?) anyway there’s a something or other 25 minutes featuring Pei Shou Yi and his boy that aired Friday. It’s about 10 minutes of reboot footage with 15 min of new content, mostly set in the past. It entirely rests on Chih Tian Shih’s acting, fortunately for us he’s great. However, it doesn’t substantially change or add to these characters’ arcs from the finale of WBL season 2. I don’t know if there will be more or if this was just an extra footage fan service. 

COLOR RUSH GOT ITS MOVIE!!! Okay this is almost the tipping point for me to get Viki Standard. It’s listed at 1:56 minutes long but the original series had only c.120 running time - that is a lot of new content. Although i was disappointed by To My Star’s movie I loved Wish You’s, so I am hoping Color Rush got Wish You level treatment. That said, I feel Color Rush the series is damn near perfect already, hard to improve on perfection. 

Breaking News

Close Friend the series got an updated trailer featuring MaxNat (no subs) so if you like them in Y-Destiny or in Why R U get ready for them to play different characters again, this time for a sports romance segment. Like Y-Destiny, Close Friend looks to be another series of vignettes (Original trailer) coming April 22. 

2gether the movie (Thai trailer) was intended release April 22 but is now postponed due to a surge in C19 cases in Thailand.

Tell the World I Love You, a Thai BL movie that was supposed to release last week, is similarly delayed.  

My Ride has been postponed indefinitely with no airing date. 

The Miracle of Teddy Bear got a teaser vid, no eng subs. 

Gossip

Thai BL actors Nanon (Bad Buddy), Yoon (YYY), and Mark Siwat (LBC, Bite Me) have tested positive for C19. Press releases stated they’re fine, tho filming has paused fore their various projects, obvs. (No word on whether Nanon’s current project was Bad Buddy or not, although it seems likely given his recent Arm Share episode.) 

Next Week Looks Like This:

Some shows may be listed later than actual air date for International accessibility reasons.

Upcoming 2021 BL master post here.

Links to watch are provided when possible, ask in a comment if I missed something.

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL

April 2021 Part 4 

it’s my birthday week! *raises a glass of pink milk* 

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs.

Ongoing Series - Thai

Second Chance Ep 4 - oh noes my babies are all so sad! Teen angst for the win. Tropes included: crying in shower, a very significant hand hold, & striped shirts. (At this point over half the cast has been in stripes.) 

Love Machine Ep 1 - not gonna lie, I barely made it through the first half, this is a short run LOW budget experimental web series and it’s not good. Dropped.  

Lovely Writer Ep 9 - I like it when LW gets serious because there are fewer dumb sound effects, but oof Aey, poor baby. How many Aeys have I known over the years? Rejected, broken, angry, lonely, and lashing out. On a different note, I haven’t see the “sex drug made us do it” plot device since 1980s Johanna Lindsey. Props to that cocktail rearing its ugly head. (yeh yeh) ZOMBIE TROPE ALERT. (Is this the point where I remind the world at a-play doesn’t have to hurt? Well, it doesn’t! Toys, prep, and lube people. Sheesh.) Anygay, zombie trope is put safely back underground. Please don’t let it rise again? (I KNOW, I’ll stop now.) So this was a rough episode, especially the back end. (Okay now I’ll REALLY stop.)  Seriously tho, BL doesn’t do a massive coming out family drama scene often. I liked LW’s handling of this one. Hard to watch but compelling. 

Close Friend Ep 1 (OhmFluke) - very cute snapshot into a LTR featuring an overworked music producer and his student BF. That’s the chassis for this whole series, each one has to do with the song & is a portrayal of that song’s message. Essentially, the theme of this one was remembering to make time for your partner. I enjoyed that. OhmFluke gave us easy casual familiar affection and a kiss, but no BL tropes, just romance. 

Fish Upon The Sky Ep 3 - Pi is a total spazz & the ghost story bit was... well, it was something wasn’t it? Lots of tropes: fixing his clothes, wound tending, drag baby around, piggyback, head in lap, hand hold, and ending on a drunk kiss. I just noticed Pi uses guu/mueng with Mork, but Mork’s a year older. (So I have a new entry onto the linguistic brats list.)  So rude and presumptuous. Also I gotta say this, don’t wear watches when you’re working on a cadaver, mmky boys? 

Y-Destiny Ep 4 - look MaxNat have great chemistry, this ep had loads of great tropes (e.g. cheek kiss, rooftop, public claiming via phone), it’s not their fault I’m just not wild about these characters. I do like Nuea’s wanna-be idol wardrobe though. And Sun is sporting the red bag version of Tharn’s black bag that I wanted so bad in TT2. (I wonder if I can score a knock off when I’m over there?) Regardless, I basically grinned all the way through this installment, so that’s another thumbs up from me for Y-Destiny. Who knew I’d come around? Man would I love to see these two get their own series. 

Brothers Ep 12 - teacher/student exposed! But the power of boys on phones will overcome all. No KhunKaow for me, so of course I found this ep tragically disappointing. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

HIStory 4: Close To You (Taiwan) Ep 6 - MuRen is officially a yaoi manga character in the flesh. H4′s outright mockery/subversion of tropes “don’t touch him he’s mine,” + “touch my lip & think of kissing” makes the fact that other (way more damaging) tropes are being blithely utilized without critique almost - dare i say it? - insulting. YongJie is trash but I’m the one who feels like trash because I want to forgive him. How aptly abusive & dysfunctional we all are. I don’t know whether to applaud H4 or start drinking. (Maybe this is the show I should invent a cocktail for? Who am I kidding? This is totally a jello shots show.) 

Friend or Lover (Taiwan) Ep 2 - I thought this was only a microfilm but turns out it’s a web series. It’s cute. I’m enjoying it. 

My Lascivious Boss (Vietnam) Ep 3 - subs take a while to drop but it’s still better than average. I like a secret identity trope, I love a grumpy/sunshine pairing, and the side couple is great but this ep was slow. With only 6 total (I assume) they better get the main couple together next ep or the improved quality of this series will be sacrificed on the alter of pacing issues. 

Word of Honor (China) Ep 28-30 - slowed down to focus on bad guys (yawn...ooo Scorpion...yawn again). Then baby gets kidnapped, other baby goes crazy, and old friends turn up. We end on DOOM because mathematically this was an episode 11. All boxes checked.

Nobleman Ryu’s Wedding (Korea) Ep 3-4 - how is this show SO DAMN CUTE & weirdly wholesome at the same time? Another one of those: Will Korea resolve this satisfactorily in 4 short eps? But I seem to say that half way through every Korean BL. These days, I have complete faith. Warm fuzzies for everyone. 

Stand Alones

Color Rush movie is the same as the series. There is a stinger at the VERY end (untranslated) but which I’m assuming has something to do with the missing mother. Is this a possible indication of a 2nd season? Hopefully someone will eng sub the stinger and post it out into the universe. So yeah, Color Rush movie = To My Star style, sadly, not Wish You. That said, I did enjoy watching with different subs. The first version I watched was fan subbed, and they were better on English colloquialisms. Viki’s subs are better on Korean colloquialisms. 

Breaking News 

Bunch of new press on Thailand’s I Told the Sunset About You 2 AKA I Promised You the Moon. Here’s a master post on the subject with all the links you could ever want. It will start airing May 27th 8 pm (Thai time) on LINETV.

New Thai Bl Golden Blood got a teaser trailer. Stars familiar side dish Gun Napat (Techno from LBC) as a rich kid who needs a bodyguard. Yeah, it looks to be the Thai version of Where Your Eyes Linger which is FINE. I love me a bodyguard romance. DO EETTT Thailand. Trailer contains ALL the tropes: dry his hair, piggyback, cooking together, and more, plus good smooches. It looks GREAT. Also cheeper to make then KinPorsche and it might get funded due to of residual enthusiasm. Also GOOD TITLE. 

Close Friend got another teaser trailer this one for Talay & Yoon (no subs). 

Taiwan has a new BL coming out... eventually. Looks to be a new franchise like the HIStory series with different couple(s) each season. It’s the first Taiwanese BL from a major in-country network. The first installment is titled Be Loved in House: I Do (seriously Taiwan, could we talk about your titles?). It stars a familiar face, Aaron Lai from HIStory: My Hero. It’s a grumpy/tsundere boss/employee office-set BL with some forced proximity to push them together. (Nods to Japan.) No release date, but (unlike Thailand) Taiwan usually doesn’t make announcements without content & serious intent. 

Gossip 

Taiwanese BL NOVEL Miracle dropped a trailer, no subs or translation. According to YouTube comments it was supposed to be part of HIStory3 but MODC took on its slot. Still it’s kinda fun to see what might have been.

Next Week Looks Like This:

Some shows may be listed later than actual air date for International accessibility reasons.

Upcoming 2021 BL master post here.

Links to watch are provided when possible, ask in a comment if I missed something. 

[absolutebl]

This Week In BL

July 2021 Wk 4

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs.

Ongoing Series - Thai

Golden Blood Ep 5 - honestly only Thailand would dare be this soft with a flipping bodyguard romance. Seriously? GAH. Plus PitchBank doing their cat & mouse thing. (Cat & puppy? Eh, whatever, it’s nahlak). Then they hit us up with sing feelings + musical montage flashbacks (and I’m sad). Ya win some, ya lose some. There were some nice almost kisses and a few fun tropes (lie on the ground, sleep on shoulder). Next week (since this is an 8 ep arc) is our ep 11 drama-doom? Weeee.

The Best Story Ep 3 fin - i liked it, but I prefer YinWar being messy university idiots over sweet angsty high school boys with coming out issues and family drama. I really hope we get the full version of Love Mechanics or similar from them. I believe that they can hold down a longer series. Anyway, this ended up being a story of lost love and separation, so not technically a romance, old school BL instead, so for modern BL watchers NOT RECOMMENDED. Sorry all. 

My Boy the series Ep 4 - dropping, even though we got some actual relationship development...

The Yearbook Ep 2 - we learn about the first split (hit close to home, disappointment in a friend not living up to their potential is real hard). I stand by this being the pulp version of ITSAY. It’s pretty angsty, but fine if that’s your thing. 

Top Secret Together Ep 11 - it felt like we suddenly went right back to the beginning with some of these couples in a “wait, is this really ep 11?” kind of way. And ooof is this series SLOW. Honestly, this should have been 10 eps or so total - and I don’t say that often. 

That said anyone reminded of Sarawat in this bit with Copy’s dad? 

Anygay, I was deeply charmed watching Nampu dance around the subject with Copy’s dad, while Copy is right there all "my cat-boyfriend doesn’t give a shit about being out or not” PANIC MODE. And Nampu buckles under the closet for Copy and hurts because of it, but communicates that to Copy. A nice subtle bit of acting I did not expect from a pulp. 

Incidentally, miss translation on the captions in this scene. Copy’s dad doesn’t use him pronouns when referring to Nampu dating. The captioner should have been using singular they. Will someone please teach the ESLs about singular they/them? 

Back to the drama. Sorry, apparently i have a lot to say about TST this week. The coming out bit was cute, very gently handled. 

Also I kinda adore the fact that basically all CopyNampu’s friends know about them and Copy is not fooling ANYONE least of all his engineering buddies. 

I seem to be falling into the KhunKaow Brothers trap with TST where, in the end, CopyNampu are the only couple I care about. Do I need to do myself a CopyNampu bootleg? That is the question. I guess that I have 4 more eps to decide. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Ossan’s Love (Hong Kong) Eps 10-15 fin - found the rest on DC, it hooked back into the weird timeslip relationship advance of the Japanese original and that’s not a drama style I enjoy. It reminds me of Aeschylus (follow me here) in that all the action occurs off stage and then we are told about it later. Not that I wanted to see Tin/KK action (yech). Anyway, despite a superior cast, yet AGAIN I must conclude that this franchise is not for me. NOT REALLY RECOMMENDED.

Be Loved in House: I Do (Taiwan) Ep 11 - apparently while mosquitos leave hickeys in Thailand, bees leave hickeys in Taiwan. Softest episode 11 ever? I think so. Will anything dramatic happen in this drama? I think not. Do we care? Nope. 

Given (Japan) Ep 2 - didn’t show up on DM or DC by Friday, but BL out of Japan can be a pain to find so I am hopping it’ll drop over the weekend. MDL said Ep 2 aired. 

Monster in Law AKA Mẹ Chồn Dâu Cáo (Vietnam) - on hiatus? Ended? Who knows. 

Light On Me (Korea) Ep 7-8 - Korea holds onto its record as the #1 distributor of second lead syndrome. Which is to say an excellent love triangle has landed (rare in BL). I don’t love a love triangle but if you’re gonna do it, this is the way. Bring on the pain. The most interesting thing to me is that if anyone needed a seme looking after him it’s DaOn - I wonder if the drama knows this? 

BL News & Gossip 

Delightful rumor that AiNi (everyone’s favorite gay advice himbos from Tonhon Chonlatee) are getting their own show. We support this message. 

The company that was producing KinnPorsche isn’t anymore. 

Next Week Looks Like This:

Some shows may be listed later than actual air date for International subs accessibility reasons.

Upcoming 2021 BL master post here.

Links to watch are provided when possible, ask in a comment if I missed something.

[absolutebl]

This Week In BL

April 2021 Part 5

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs.

Ongoing Series - Thai

Close Friend Ep 2 (JaFirst) - First is a cat. No actually a cat. It was WEIRD. Cute, but creeping towards beastiality. It reminded me of that strange series out of China (@heretherebedork says Youth in the Breeze). The most amusing thing to me was that the cat used Thai formal linguistic register when of course cats would use informal rude guu mueng with EVERYONE. No cat would use pom. Don’t be ridiculous, Thailand. 

Second Chance Ep 5 - still invested, things progressed for all 3 couples, in one direction or another. They cuties. I love them. Carry on. 

Y-Destiny Ep 5 - the “virgin scoreboard” is gonna make the seme real hard to redeem with this pairing. If they bother. This might be a life lesson episode. What does it remind me of? Oh yes. Kids. *SHUDDER* Point of interest: did you notice Team uses ha with Mon? What a pushy flirt. 

Lovely Writer Ep 10 - honestly I just love it when Poppy shows up in anything, why is he such a delightful screen presence? (Gene’s brother) Sorry, distracted. What happened in this one? Oh, ya know, stuff and things. Family drama. (It is just me or have they been giving us some long ass episodes lately?) Obligatory beach trip activated. (Result = dumb probability mathematics jokes.) Next week it looks like we have Keeping Actor’s Closeted 101. You know the Casting Couch? This is the Casting Closet. 

Fish Upon The Sky Ep 4 - early stage confession, how fun. It’s not unprecedented it just usually means we are in 4 act structure, not 3, which means Fish might go more serious than I thought. Honestly? I’m losing interest mostly because I’ve gone from mild annoyance to active dislike of Pi. Happened to me with Tine too. They better redeem this obtuse tsundere uke soon or he’s not tsundere at all he’s just a jackwit. 

Brothers Ep 13 fin - a kiss and the family finds out about the not-so-brotherly brothers, drama, graduation, THE END. My side-dish happy heart made thumps over Q + delivery boy, I’m sad they got so little screen time. My babies KhunKaow did get a tiny coming out sequence as such. I’m seriously considering doing myself a bootleg of just the KhunKaow plot, but that means I’d have to rewatch the whole darn series and I can’t STAND the idea. Which should give you insight into how not good this show it. Very NOT good. Must we get a season 2? Please stop now, Line. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

HIStory 4: Close To You (Taiwan) Ep 7 - Muren is the cutest peanut and anyone who says otherwise can fight me, although they probably have to go through Licheng first. I was NOT invested in these two at the beginning, but as a couple? They own my soul. The other storyline is still the dumpster fire that I can’t decide to roast marshmallows over (knowing they’ll get tinged with eu de trash) or flee from in horror clutching my pearls and my nose. H4 continues to provide the quality psyche torture I’ve come to expect from this franchise. *sarcastic thumbs up*  *** A word on seeing Boxiang show up (side dish from H3:MODC). It was an unexpected pleasure, I loved his pairing (May/December is a winner for me *glares at Method*) but I do think it was a bone from the franchise telling us that we are never getting that spin-off or reboot that people yearn for. However, how AWESOME that Licheng has someone to go to and ask about topping properly. Otherwise he’s sure to have screwed it up. (Pun intended.) 

Papa & Daddy (Tailwan) Ep 1-2 - this came out of nowhere and is ADORABLE. Applies a ton of BL tropes (cheek kiss, his closet, B&W stripes, drag baby around, boop) but what IS it? More slice of gay domesticity than romance. Like 2019′s Kinou Nani Tabeta? or currently airing Close Friend. I enjoy this style, very wholesome, but I’m not sure what to call it. (Bonus points for cutie lesbians.) A bit weird to have a kid with your partner and STILL not be out to your parents. I hope they aren’t going to throw in a break up for dramatic effect. 

My Lascivious Boss (Vietnam) Ep 4 - I’m really enjoying this series. It’s unabashedly queer, although there’s some problematic stuff lurking under the wig. How it ends is gonna dictate if they handled this stylishly. But hot damn the leads ZING on screen together and their crackling prank-flirting is a joy to watch. 

Word of Honor (China) Ep 31-33 - moving into the home stretch. Big rescue and the band is back together (presumably for the final slaughter). Then a death! *this is my shocked face* Did I tear up? Of course I did. 4 act structure is designed for maximum pathos during the final 1/4. Did we all faint from the symbolism of the love token hair stick being gently thrust into Ah Xu’s bun? Sure we did. All that and sill I’m flagging. This is a long-arse show. Save me, Korea, with your iItsy bitsy teenie weenie...

Nobleman Ryu’s Wedding (Korea) Ep 5-6 - I am getting such strong 12th Night vibes from this. Tae Hyung is now brigadier of BL’s historical himbo brigade. (To be deployed whenever you are in need of poetry or a cut sleeve.) This show is all ridiculous charm and I LOVE it. Although, five seconds of Lee Sang is not enough Lee Sang. I had to immediately rewatch Wish You. 

Gossip

Nitiman gave us an actor intro BTS teaser. 

Kang In Soo (AKA Kyang Insoo) posted a cute behind the photo shoot of Nobleman Ryu’s Wedding plus a silly interview with Jang Eui Soo on his YouTube channel (you should subscribe, it’s a fun channel, his fitness regime is both insane and inspiring). 

My Engineer 2 dropped a couch interview with the boys but it feels like one that was filmed a while ago (oh and no subs).  

STARTING SOON: Nitiman, Love Area, Top Secret Together, Be Loved in House, & I Promised You The Moon  

Nitiman (Thai) May 7, One 31. University set, moons, engineering students, enemies to lovers, adapted. - Looks to be a solid 2 Moons knock off, I’m in.

Love Area (Thai) May 8, AIS Play, 10 eps total. Restaurant set, stars Pak Chavitpong (the only good thing about Cupid Coach) and the OST is sung by Jeff Satur (Ingredients). - It’s boys in love revolving around food = my kryptonite, try to stop me from watching this probable trash. 

Top Secret Together (Thai) May 14, Line TV. 5 couples, one IRL (Newyear from I Am Your King), story arcs revolve around secrets.  - I’m getting fatigued by these multi-couple sampler pack dramas, but I’ll try it for Newyear’s sake.  

Be Loved in House: I Do (Taiwan YES!) May 20, Viki. Office set, relationships prohibited at work by a new boss, one of the employees is determined to figure out why. Grumpy/tsundere pairing so loads of drama. - I am so flipping excited for this one. A 4th BL series from Taiwan in less than a year? That’s unprecedented. GO BABY ISLAND GO! 

I Promised You the Moon (Thai) May 27, Line TV. Follow up to I Told Sunset About You with the boys now at university. - I won’t be watching this as I have yet to finish season 1. 

Possibly Gameboys season 2.  - Rumors are all over the place right now on this. 

Next Week Looks Like This: 

Some shows may be listed later than actual air date for International accessibility reasons. 

Upcoming 2021 BL master post here.

Links to watch are provided when possible, ask in a comment if I missed something.