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lurkingshan · 4 months

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Japanese BL Starter Pack

It’s been awhile since I dropped a rec list, so I am here today to share one that is very near and dear to my heart—a Japanese bl primer for those who are new to the jbl game. I created this for @neuroticbookworm to help her on her journey when she decided she wanted to start getting into Japanese works. The fandom (on Tumblr and generally) tends to focus primarily on Thai shows because they are the easiest to access for international fans, since Thailand is working its way toward world domination via ql media and wants us all to be able to watch. But there is a lot of great stuff to watch beyond the easy access Thai channels, and Japan is the country where this genre originated, so its shows are important for anyone who considers themselves a bl fan. Japan doesn’t cater nearly as much to the international audience so tracking down the shows sometimes takes some ingenuity and can-do spirit, but that’s part of the fun!

And so, the list! Bookworm is about halfway through it and having a ball, so I figured it was time to stop hoarding it and share it with anyone else who would like to dip their toes into jbl and isn’t quite sure where to start. A few notes:

I am not here to teach you about the deep roots of the jbl genre or give you a primer on yaoi manga. I am by no means an expert and there are other places to find that information. Start here with this great post by @nieves-de-sugui and then maybe wander over to @absolutebl to read up more on the evolution of the genre.

This list is by no means an exhaustive accounting of every important Japanese bl ever made; it is simply a nice sampler platter of the cream of the crop among various styles you will find in jbl. Watching through this whole list will not only expose you to some fantastic shows, but also give you a sense of what makes jbl unique and how the country’s style differs from others, and point you toward the types of jbl you’ll like most (they tend to put shows in pretty specific style and tone lanes and once you find the ones you like there are lots more where that came from).

If you’re coming to this post as a jbl lover and you don’t see your favorite here, I promise it’s not because I don’t love it very much; I simply had to make some choices to get this down to a reasonable shortlist. Feel free to leave extra recs for others to find!

I’m putting these in a loose suggested watch order that will take you through the various jbl lanes in a kind of popcorn style, because I always think it’s good to change it up so you don’t get too stuck in one mode, and it works its way up to most of the extremely Japanese stuff (you will know what that means by the time you finish). But do what’s in your heart and change up the order if you want, friends, I am not the boss of you!

Cherry Magic (Crunchyroll or grey)

gif by @liyazaki

I believe everyone on Tumblr is pretty familiar with this one, which is not a coincidence—this is one of the most accessible jbls. Not in terms of actual access to watch it, mind you (we’ve all jumped through shady internet hoops to watch it) but in terms of its content and style. Cherry Magic is a classic workplace romcom with a magical twist, and it is charming af. It’s a great exemplar of Japan’s light and zippy comedy lane for bl—a lane in which, importantly, the romances stay chaste even when the actual plot is about sex, or lack thereof. My friend @waitmyturtles would kill me if I didn’t make sure you know that Cherry Magic also has a lovely follow up film. And bonus: there is now a Thai remake airing so if you watch the original you can get in on the discussion about the different adaptations between countries. This is pretty easy to find these days in all the usual places, but I strongly recommend watching it here.

Old Fashion Cupcake (Viki)

gif by @liyazaki

Moving on to a slightly more mature workplace romcom. Old Fashion Cupcake, another Tumblr favorite, is an age gap boss-subordinate romance, and it’s both very adult and somehow wholesome af at the same time. Sure, there is a lot of carnal desire going on here, but there is also a lot of wooing via fluffy pancakes. It’s a tight five episodes and a fantastic example of what Japan, with its extreme technical precision in writing, directing, editing, pacing, and acting firing on all cylinders, can do in two hours. There’s not an ounce of flab on this thing and you’ll want to watch it over and over again.

Utsukushii Kare (Viki)

gif by @wanderlust-in-my-soul

Time to get a little weird! Weird is a key feature of Japanese media, and lots of jbls explore unusual relationship dynamics rooted in complex psychology. This is the first show on the list that will likely feel very Japanese if you’re new around here—my advice is to lean into it and finish the show, even if you get uncomfortable along the way. In Japanese media, discomfort always serves a purpose. This is a high school story with a twisted relationship at its center, and I’m not saying any more than that. Don’t spoil yourself and go watch it! This one also comes with two sequels—one short second season and one movie—that continue from the original story. They are less essential but still excellent.

I Cannot Reach You (Netflix)

gif by @my-rose-tinted-glasses

Next up, another high school tale, but with a totally different vibe. This show is kind of a revelation in its willingness to tell a story about overwhelming desire—including sexual desire—with young protagonists. It’s rooted in a classic but often misunderstood trope, friends to lovers, and takes the angst of it seriously, giving us a low stakes story that feels extremely high stakes to our leads. It’s also gorgeous and uses a classic Japanese visual style (bokeh) that you’ll be dying to learn more about.

His (Viki)

gif by @gabrielokun

Time for a break from high school, and we’ll sprinkle in a movie for some added flavor. His is a jbl film featuring a second chance romance between a stoic, introverted man who moves to a remote town to start over, and his ex-boyfriend who follows him there unexpectedly, adorable child in tow. Importantly, this movie does not take place in what we often refer to as the “bl bubble” where homophobia doesn’t exist; the leads’ experiences of being gay men in a homophobic society are hugely important to the plot and themes of the story. It’s a beautiful film and I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve watched it. @bengiyo would surely also like me to tell you that this film follows a brief prequel show called His: I Didn’t Mean to Fall in Love about the characters originally meeting in high school; I do not think it’s really necessary to watch it but completists can start there.

The Pornographer series (Gaga)

By now you should be ready to get into some classic Japanese fucked up psychosexual material, right? Right! The Pornographer series is told in five installments in this order:

The Novelist, a six episode miniseries

Mood Indigo, a six episode prequel series

Spring Life, a 15 minute short

Pornographer: Playback, a two hour film

Spring Life Continued, a 15 minute short

Confused by that distribution model? So say we all; sometimes Japan likes to make us work for it to make sure we really appreciate its many gifts to us. The story across these installments is about a very difficult to love protagonist, what makes him the way he is, and the also-unhinged-but-in-a-different-way man who finally gets through to him. It’s an extremely satisfying love story and one of the best character arcs I have ever seen, full stop. For this one, you’ll want to just pull the word problematic out of your pocket and store it in a drawer; nearly everything that happens in this story is problematic and that’s the point. Lean in! All of these installments except for the film are on Gaga, if you get that far hmu and I will supply you with the final puzzle piece.

Our Dining Table (Gaga)

You could probably use a break after those last two, so it’s time to shift over to a heart-tugging twofer: family trauma mixed with the cutest shit you’ve ever seen. ODT is an example of another classic type of Japanese show: the food drama (you will see the GOAT in this category at the end of this list). In Japanese culture, food is love, and the act of preparing food for your loved ones is a common path to romance. You’ll love this story about an isolated office worker who meets a pair of brothers, learns to cook as a way of connecting with them, and begins to heal from his own trauma as a result. The image above is a scan from the manga, which @troubled-mind curates to make extremely cool comparison sets like this one. Many jbls are faithful adaptations of yaoi manga source material, so it’s good to have a bit of familiarity with them.

Minato’s Laundromat (Gaga)

gif by @liyazaki

Japanese media loves to explore taboo, and often manages to do it in a way that is surprisingly light and chaste. This is an age gap romance between a teenager and his adult neighbor that explores internalized homophobia, emotional repression, and falling in love across seemingly impossible social chasms. It’s also a great example of old school yaoi seme-uke dynamics that still show up across the bl genre. Also, take my advice: end your journey with this one with the first season and just pretend season 2 doesn’t exist.

Eternal Yesterday (Viki)

gif by @wanderlust-in-my-soul

Remember what I said about weird? Time to do that again, but with a heaping dose of grief and pain on top. It’s not a spoiler to tell you this show involves a major character death; a major character death is, in fact, the root of the entire story. This is a magic realist tale of first love turned tragic, and it will hurt and heal you. It is one of my favorite dramas of all time.

Restart After Come Back Home (Gaga)

And now for a break for your poor exhausted brain. This film is basically the jbl version of a Hallmark original movie, about a city boy who goes back home to the country and falls in love with a total sweetheart while working together on a farm. Enjoy it, bestie, you’ve earned it!

Tokyo in April Is… (Gaga)

gif by @wanderlust-in-my-soul

You’ve probably noticed by now that emotional repression and failed communication are big themes in Japanese works. This second chance romance has plenty of both, and it’s a great example of a kind of muted emotional style that Japan does so well, where the surface of the story seems almost placid and calm even as deep emotion roils underneath. This one (and Eternal Yesterday above) are part of a special line up of jbls on Japanese channel MBS called Tonku (Drama) Shower. The shows air one after another in the same time slot on Fridays (in Japan, perhaps Thursdays for you depending on where you live) and you truly never know what you’re gonna get, but they’re all interesting. Warnings on this one for sexual assault and trauma.

The End of the World With You (Viki)

Time for sexy and weird again, but even more so! This has to be one of the most unique bls ever made; it goes to some truly divine and strange places, and it feels incredibly queer while doing it. Made by the same screenwriter/director of the Pornographer series with a lot of the same sensibilities, but in a more heightened apocalyptic setting. This one has existential angst, a road trip, a redemption tale, and a variety of interesting side characters in the mix.

What Did You Eat Yesterday? (Gaga)

gif by @my-rose-tinted-glasses

Congratulations, you’ve reached the end of the list and your reward is watching one of the best bls of all time, and a perfect slice of life food drama to boot. WDYEY now has two seasons (along with a couple specials and a movie that fall in between) because the universe clearly loves us. You can now get it on Gaga for easy access but I’m partial to the versions over at @kinounaniresource for better subs. Wherever you watch, settle in to get cozy with Shiro and Kenji and make sure to always eat before you hit play.

#shan recommends #cherry magic #old fashion cupcake #utsukushii kare #eternal yesterday #our dining table #minato’s laundromat #what did you eat yesterday?#tokyo in april is...#his the movie #the pornographer #japanese bl #jbl starter pack

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blmpff · 1 month

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✨ Various Tropes: Touching Foreheads (1/?) ✨

TITLES IN ORDER: 1. No Regret (2006) 2. History 2: Crossing the Line (2018) 3. Gaya sa Pelikula (2020) 4. His (2020) 5. Light (2021) 6. Dear Doctor I'm Coming For Soul (2022) 7. The Eighth Sense (2023) 8. I Feel You Linger In The Air (2023) 9. Kiseki: Dear To Me (2023) 10. Playboyy (2023) 11. The Sign (2023) 12. Love is Better the Second Time Around (2024)

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absolutebl · 5 months

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hi there 🖐🏼 what are your recs for bl movies with great acting?

BL Movies with GREAT Acting

Specifically Movies? Do KBLs that were cut into movies count? Hum, I'm gonna make a judgement call given how few actual movies I have to work with and say if it holds as a "movie going experience" I can count it. I should say in order to really push this into the superlative acting space the BL aspect on many of these is... light.

His

Japan 2020 Viki

His is about being a grown adult and still struggling with coming out as gay. It addresses the consequences of life choices disingenuous to identity. Nagisa turns up on Shun’s doorstep with his precocious daughter in tow. This is a touch confusing to Shun since they were each others first love and ended badly. Shun has retreated from society, rejecting the world before it can reject him, already brokenhearted because without Nagisa he never had a reason to fight. Nagisa went the opposite way, tried to pretend to be something he was not and ended up with a daughter he adores and a wife who hates him. The acting is killer, Miyazawa Hio is sulky in the best possible way, the filming is beautiful and the setting unique and interesting...

I'm not wild about the ending. Moody arthouse smackdoodle is going to pretend that "ambiguous" is somehow unique and special rather than bog standard commonplace for narratives of this type. But endings are my hangup, not yours?

This is not really BL (the prequel was), so few of the tropes are used. You do not need to have watched the prequel.

Your Name Engraved Herein

Taiwan 2020 Netflix

This movie is fantastic but it is also seriously depressing. It’s a self acceptance journey that goes emotionally array on the alter of history, but if you wanna wallow in high quality acting and serious gay drama, this’ll do it. I would say it's not really BL, no real trope drops at all.

Okay those two I chose more on the strength of the acting than BL. These others are not going to be at the same standard/style.

If you want moee of the above level of drama, things get very sad in the BL world, so Love of Siam, Dew, Eternal Yesterday, Goodbye Mother, etc...

Restart After Come Back Home (Risutato wa tadaima no ato de)

Japan 2020 Gaga?

Atmospheric study in rural Japan meets complex family dynamics built on a romance framework of city boy meets country boy, grumpy/sunshine. It’s beautiful and icy sweet. Slow moving in places but ultimately worth the patience, low heat, low angst, and stunning. The acting is a touch stiff, in that Japanese reserved way.

This is the only BL movie, as a movie, that I could pull. There are others, I jsut don't think the acting is good enough.

So here are some highly rated short bingable series that are movie length (1.5-2.5 hours) but not really movies - BUT with killer acting. So they still might satisfy the itch. I places them in order of acting and filming quality, not my own personal preference.

From Japan

Old Fashion Cupcake

Tokyo in April is...

Life: Love on the Line (director's cut)

My Beautiful Man

I Cannot Reach You

Seven Days

From Taiwan

Red Balloon

We Best Love (esp part 2)

About Youth

HIStory 2: Crossing the Line

From Korea

To My Star

Long Time No See

The New Employee

Where Your Eyes Linger

More like this?

I want to shout out The Eighth Sense here too. It's longer than movie length but so well acted.

(source)

#asked and answered #BLs with great acting #movie bls #best bls #best of list #His the movie #Your Name Engraved Herein #Restart After Come Back Home #Old Fashion Cupcake

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itmightrain · 1 year

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japan loves making BLs about the beauty of every day life, the importance of honest communication, the rewards of stepping outside your comfort zone, and the way that being kind to others can transform your life and your relationship with the world

#yes i am watching cherry magic the series rn #cherry magic #old fashion cupcake #his the movie #Takara-kun and Amagi-kun #restart to come back home #my love mix up #kieta hatsukoi #also the way that having a negative view of yourself and being overly timid can unintentionally hurt those around you

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shortpplfedup · 2 months

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5, 15, 17

5. Second Chance Romance

I'm gonna go for His. Nagisa's regrets and guilt and pain are so tangible and palpable. He left Shun in an attempt to fit into a heteronormative society, and he returned to Shun bringing the one good thing their separation gave him: his daughter, in the hope that Shun could understand, forgive and love him again. I will always prefer a 'fucked up the first chance' story to a 'didn't take the first chance' story because of the life lessons part, and this movie is a knife in my heart always. In fact, imma rewatch it today.

15. Love Triangle

Yeah I'm not like everybody else, I'm a great fan of triangles where the third party is an incredibly lovely person who would make a great partner but absolutely does not stand a chance, hence my choice of I Told Sunset About You. Bas might be adorable and sweet, but he's not the one fondling Oh Aew on the bedroom floor. Still he has the stones to fight the losing battle and I respect the fuck outta that.

17. Ugly Duckling

For me the best ugly duckling stories are the ones where the duckling doesn't change a fucking thing and still bags their babe anyway, and that's why my fave is Secret Crush On You. Actively rejecting the makeover trope to deliver a message of 'I am very into your specific flavour of *gestures* this' with all three of their couples is my favourite execution of this trope, hands down.

#bl trope ask game #second chance romance #love triangle #ugly duckling #his the movie #i told sunset about you #itsay #secret crush on you #scoy the series

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twig-tea · 2 months

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Hi!

So I'll only ask one so you can answer with how many you want. Be free!

5.Second Chance Romance

💜

Thank you friend, this is true bestie behaviour!

5. Second Chance Romance

To break this down a bit, I think technically a second chance romance requires there to have been a relationship in the first place. So as much as I absolutely love Our Dating Sim, Tokyo in April Is..., and a Breeze of Love, for example, they never did more than kiss or hook up once before circumstances forced them apart, so I'm discounting them for the purposes of this post (but watch all three of those shows they are excellent).

I honestly think the best example of this in BL is His (the film). Shun and Nagisa dated for years, broke up, and the film is all about the two of them re-learning one another and finding how they fit together now. They need to work through both the things that caused them to break up the first time, as well as the hurt from that break-up, before they can get together again in the present. Their getting together in the present is informed by (as well as hindered by) their first romance.

Runner up goes to To My Star 2. TMS2 isn't quite as perfectly aligned to the trope because only one of them wanted to be broken up and there isn't a ton of time between the break-up and the should-we-get-back-together dance. But there is a lot of working through the things that broke them up the first time in order to allow for them to even potentially work this second time, which is a key component of second chance romances.

Finally, I'm going to mention Until We Meet Again. This is definitely not a standard Second Chance Romance by any stretch; the second chance is from their deaths in their first lives. But it's clear that even if their memories from their lives as Korn and Intouch are not conscious, they have been influenced by their subconscious memories all their lives. Pharm was desperate to learn to cook because In never got the chance; Dean had a tattoo because he felt like he was constantly searching for something. Dean learned to be direct because Korn spent so long not being direct with In; Pharm was hesitant to trust Dean because In felt betrayed by Korn's suicide. They had to work through their past life trauma in order to be able to work in the present.

Link to the original ask game post!

#ask game #bl meta #bl tropes #his the movie #to my star 2 #until we meet again #uwma #typed so that i can stop thinking it #thank you for the ask!

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gabrielokun · 2 years

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#His 2020 #His the Movie #asianLGBTQdramas #asianLGBTQMovies #Igawa Shun #Igawa 'Jin' Shun #Miyazawa Hio #Hibino Nagisa #Fujiwara Kisetsu #JMovie #Japanese Movie #Japanese BL #JBL #mine edit #Gabriel makes stuff #Igawa Shun x Hibino Nagisa

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negrowhat · 2 months

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BL trope ask! Number 3 and number 12

Hello Friend!!!!!!!!!

Childhood Sweethearts

His the Series/His the Movie. Nagisa and Shun met as teenagers (17 I think) when Shun went to visit his father during a school break. Nagisa was just a cool, laid back surfer boy and Shun was just a shy kid trying to make friends. They grew closer over the short time bonding over surfing and books and had a sweet summer romance that lasted into uni before Nagisa broke up with Shun. A decade later Nagisa shows up on Shun's doorstep (a doorstep you'd have to search hard for because he was living in the woods somewhere lol) with a sweet little 6 yr old daughter and freshly divorced. Of course they were both still in love with each other and of course they had their second chance at romance.

Forced Proximity

Be Loved in House: I Do. Forced Proximity but doubled. Shi Lei's love-hating-rule-setting-ass boss, Jin Yu Zhen, moves into Shi Lei's flat after buying the metal works company he works for and acquiring his condo on the side. No literally, he kicked out Shi Lei's roommate and took his room. So not only is he forced to be his roomie, but then his Mama comes to visit so now Shi Lei is forced to share a room with Yu Zhen. And lemme tell ya, she stays a long ass time! We did hella snuggles and lots of rule-breaking.

BL Romance Trope Ask Game

#his the series #his the movie #his 2020 #shun x nagisa #be loved in house: i do #be loved in house #blih #yu zhen x shi lei #bl ask game

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waitmyturtles · 1 year

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Big heads-up for any fans of Miyazawa Hio, memorably of the wonderful 2020 BL film, “His” -- he is in a new queer film called “Egoist” with Suzuki Ryohei that looks fabulous. We likely won’t get subs of this until much later in 2023 when it’s released on DVD (and hopefully someone will be willing to pick up the raw and sub it anyway), but I love love to see Miyazawa continue adding queer content to his repertoire, because I thought he absolutely killed it in “His.”

And the movie poster -- stunning.

#miyazawa hio #suzuki ryohei #egoist #egoist movie #his the movie

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snoooze · 2 years

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I can't ride the bicycle... that's a secret between us.

#his the movie #bl icons #boys love icons #bl actors #japanese bl #japanese actor #vintage moodboard #grunge moodboard #miyazawa hio #fujiwara kisetsu

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blmpff · 6 days

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✨ Various Tropes: Back Hug (4/?) ✨

TITLES IN ORDER: 1. Addicted (2016) 2. Sodom's Cat (2016) 3. Mood Indigo (2019) 4. History 3: Trapped (2019) 5. Secret Roommate (2020) 6. His (2020) 7. The Tasty Florida (2021) 8. Y Destiny (2021) 9. House of Stars (2023) 10. My Personal Weatherman (2023) 11. Jack o'Frost (2023) 12. For Him (2023)

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that-bl-bitch · 1 year

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My Favorite BL Movies Of 2022

I've watched a good chunk of BL Movies this year and I wanted to highlight a couple of standouts for anyone curious but mostly for me ;) these are in no particular order just my top 3 of this year

Cherry Magic: The Movie

I think the Cherry Magic Movie was a good continuation from where we left off in the series and it felt like a natural progression for Adachi and Kurosawa relationship and it also, for me at least, felt like I was given enough closure to move on from them cause since the series I felt I was really on them, I've rewatched the series twice and honestly after the movie I don't feel like I need to that anymore.

His

Love this movie, now for me I didn't watch the series so I don't know if it really adds something to the movie if I would have seen their origin story but regardless I loved it. I thought it was cute, a decent amount of drama and I definitely cried, there's a lot of things I really liked about the movie but one thing that I really liked that they did was made the ex wife come around in the end cause I gotta say I thought she was being a bit unreasonable for the majority of the movie, albeit I guess I understand where she was coming from but it just didn't make sense for her to have her daughter full time, so I liked that she started to realize what was best for Sora and working something out with Nagisa and we got to see her being friendly with Shun, this was the first Japanese movie/BL movie I watched that had a happy ending so at the time this was very very shocking to me.

Game Boys: The Movie

I thought this movie was a good continuation of the series and a amazing conclusion to their story as well as a finite enough end where they can just call it quits and it feels very correct and natural but if they wanted to make another movie or series (which ngl I’m in my delulu era and I’m hoping for more but deep down I know it probably won’t happen) they could do it and I think there would be a thick enough of plot, maybe it could go back to how it was in season 1 over video call since they’ll be long distant again, I would love that.

#His the movie #His #Gameboys #Cherry magic #Japanese bl #Filipino bl #My fav BLs of 2022 #Cherry magic: the movie #Gameboys: the movie #Mytopshowsof2022KMR

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absolutebl · 1 year

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10 High Quality & Cinematic BLs

Ones that are very well made with a tight narrative and no cringey dialogue. For example: Old Fashion Cupcake or His. Japan knows what tf it’s doing, okay? You don’t come from a tradition that gave us Kurosawa and fail at broad scope cinematography.

High Quality & Cinematic BLs + Comfort & Joy

These are the ones that I love even though they’re artsy, but they also end happily and didn’t hurt me too much.

1. Old Fashion Cupcake

(Japan 2022 Viki)

This show had me from the moment they broke the egg yolk with the chopsticks in the opening credits for episode one. It’s about a younger man with a long cherished crush on his boss (ten years older and going through a mid life crisis) who decides to save and seduce said man with pancakes. It’s wholesome, comforting, sexy, and a very necessary narrative about still having hope, interests, and openness to affection at any age. It’s coming of age/queerness packaged in a subtle critique of expectations around masculinity and love and loneliness... and it’s beautiful. Full review.

2. Restart After Come Back Home

AKA Risutato wa tadaima no ato de (Japan 2020 grey)

Atmospheric study in rural Japan meets complex family dynamics built on a romance framework of city boy meets country boy. It’s beautiful and icy sweet. Slow moving in places but ultimately worth your patience. Full review here.

3. Life: Love on the Line

AKA Life Senjou no Bokura (Japan 2020 Viki)

This is a beautiful movie and a good BL, if a bit adult and gut wrenching at times. Goes through young love, break up, and reunion - but it’s actually a saga of self acceptance. You want the director’s cut. Like His, LLOTL is an exploration of suppression and the limits we impose on ourselves when we’re dishonest about who we love. In high school, serious and self contained Ito fell in love with Nishi, the manic pixie dream boy of the dream he didn’t know he had. Nishi, emotionally and mentally fragile, struggled to fit into the world. Ito, however, found it all too easy, except for the whole - ya know - gay thing. This movie is about Ito’s willingness to sacrifice not just himself but his love (and even Nishi himself) to social and familial expectations and the misery that results. It has a hard fought happy ending that then follows them through the rest of their lives in a (slightly unnecessary but welcome) epilogue montage.

4. A Tale of Thousand Stars

(Thai 2021 GMMTV YouTube)

With great casting and cinematography this drama nods at BL tropes but manages to elevate them (and itself) with a strong mature story concept about a spoiled rich kid who gets a heart transplant and becomes a teacher it order to pay out survivor’s guilt. On the way he falls in love with a local park ranger and contends with his own classism and escapist tendencies. Everyone seemed to perfectly suit their roles and GMMTV made the most out of its stable. Combined with excellent production (and post production) values, 1000 Stars is without question GMMTV’s most mature, charming, and smart BL series. I think it should go down as one of the top BLs of all time. I feel safe recommending this one to friends and non BL watchers.

High Quality & Cinematic BLs + Work & Angst

These are ones that I watched but were really difficult for me for personal reasons. Some may not have happy endings. I tend to call these moody arthouse smackdoodle. They like to pretend that "ambiguous" is somehow unique and special rather than bog standard commonplace for narratives of this type. Hold onto your psyche, these dramas will test you. But they very well done.

5. His the movie

(Japan 2020 Viki)

His is about being a grown adult and still struggling with coming out as gay. It addresses the consequences of life choices disingenuous to identity. Nagisa turns up on Shun’s doorstep with his precocious daughter in tow. This is a touch confusing to Shun since they were each others first love. Shun has retreated from society, rejecting the world before it can reject him, already brokenhearted because without Nagisa he never had a reason to fight. Nagisa went the opposite way, tried to pretend to be something he was not and ended up with a daughter he adores and a wife who hates him. This movie is beautiful and the setting is unique and interesting but I'm not wild about the ending.

6. I Told Sunset About You

(Thai 2020 grey)

I don’t have a ton to say about ITSAY because I’ve never managed to finished it. This one was too close to my own queer journey and it seriously messed with my head about 2/3 of the way through, so I stopped watching to protect myself. However, I can tell you that the production values are unreal for Thailand, using a soft lens, diffuse lighting, and a nostalgic atmosphere, paying close attention to framing, and forgetting neither background nor close-focus expressive detail. It’s a remarkable piece of work. I caught no mistakes in makeup, wardrobe, body positioning, reflection, or boom mic placement - so they clearly had continuity eyeballs during filming and on final product (which most Thai BLs don’t spring for). So yeah, the filming, directing, and acting is insanly good, but what’s really stand out in ITSAY from a film perspective is their smooth as butter invisibly perfect editing. Post production on this series must have been a BEAST.

7. Your Name Engraved Herein

(Taiwan 2020 Netflix)

This movie is fantastic but it is also seriously depressing, it’s a self acceptance journey, but if you wanna wallow in high quality acting and serious gay drama, this’ll do it.

8. Goodbye Mother AKA Thua Me Con D

(Vietnam 2019 Netflix)

Like YNEH or Dew, this is a great movie but it deals openly with homophobia, bashing, family trauma, and social acceptance.

9. His the series

AKA His - Koisuru Tsumori Nante Nakatta AKA I Didn’t Think I Would Fall In Love

(Japan 2019)

Boy goes to visit his absent father, ends up kinda homeless on the beach, gets adopted by local family, falls in love with the boy working and living with them. Lots of long drawn out glances.

10. I Want to See Only You

AKA Kimi no Koto Dake Mite Itai (Japan 2022 grey)

This is a beautiful piece of cinema well acted, about two boys who are opposite personalities and grew up together. Gifted and serious Sakura (Kura Yuki from His the series) and outgoing eccentric manic pixie dream boy, Yuma. It is very pretty and this is the kind of atmospheric elegantly performed BL that only really comes from Japan (complete with dead fish kisses - what you though Korea invented them? oh no). For me it was lovely but slightly unmemorable. Full review here.