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nieves-de-sugui · 1 year

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The Story of Live Action BL in Japan

This is an extra post to accompany the history of BL post I did earlier.

Japan has had live action BL long before Thailand entered the picture. It was however mostly melancolic stories or manga adaptations, until their own particular boom happened. I make a difference between what I would call LGBTQ+ representation and BL Live Action, because even though they have existed parallely they are fundamentally different in their conception. Here is an interview with the curator of an exhibition that was held in Japan about the history of Japanese Queer Cinema.

The evolution of Japanese BL Live Action has been very slow, and mostly influenced by manga. It is still not a big market, but it has improved a lot in the most recent years. This is my attempt to put it into phases:

The indie like movies and bad manga adaptations

Let’s start with Boys Love (a movie), shall we?

It is the year 2006 and up to this point there has been a small boom of gay stories in the 1990′s (the first Tokyo International Lesbian & Gay Film & Video Festival was held in 1992 me thinks this might have sprung the yaoi debates). In the 2000's, we're at the start of a new little boom on BL type movies being made. Many of which would be directly released in DVD, with a constant melancholic and tragic approach to love stories between young men.

Homosexual love is only attarctive to the mainstream if it’s painful. Like typical japanese imposible loves that are explored because of the passion and innevitable tragedy (it’s a japanese trope of almost any kind of romance movie, up to these days). its the intensity of feelings and the poetry of it all. In Boys Love we see those elements that are now very common in BL manga. Straight men falling in love with beautiful young boys and loving them until their tragic end. The movie was released in theatres and was successful enough to get a sequel. Here is a very good review of the movie, to know more about it.

A number of similar movies (with happier endings) follow through. Then enters the Takumi kun series. Based off one of the most popular yaoi novel (and potentially the first live action novel/manga adaptation of BL), it has all the June tropes: Traumatized feminine Takumi, raped by his older brother when he was young, has developped an abberation to human touch which prevents him from making friends. He goes to a boarding school for rich kids where he shares a dorm room with Gii, the most popular kid on the premises, who has fallen in love with him. And it is through that love that Takumi gets over his illness and heals from his past. It was such a success in the BLsphere that it got 4 more movies. I believe it is the bane of @absolutebl existence.

After the first Takumi-kun movie, the production of BL type movies, or adaptations of manga gets a boost. We go from no more than 3 movies a year to 8 in 2008, ie:

Kindan no Koi Ai no Kotodama Taiikukan Baby

And so it continues. When a manga is popular enough it either gets a Live Action, a drama CD (voice actors record the manga dialogues) or/and a series of OVAs (Original Video Animation). Because that’s how they do marketing in Japan. I believe most, if not all, of these movies go straight to DVD. It’s a treat for the fans.

The beginning of the shift

As the manga source starts to evolve, so does the live actions. Japanese society starts being more aware of the LGBT (as the term is used for business startegy purposes). As it’s all about what is going to sell, slowly, a slight neutral realism starts to be felt. Melancoly starts to be replaced with happier moods.

The first adaptation I genienly enjoyed at the time was Seven Days, 2015. A 2 part movie, adapted from the manga, with a very simple story (still no characters properly defined as gay, but maybe they could count as bi?)

While more LGBTQ+ movies get made, the BL Live Action movies remain in the same vein. Adpating what is popular and sticking to the tropes of the time. For example, in 2017 we get simultaneously:

BL - Hidamari ga Kikoeru. A loud and energetic college student becomes friends with a hearing impared classmate, as he helps him take notes for class.

LGBT - Close Knit. An 11 year old girl gets tossed aside by her mother and goes to live with her uncle, who is dating a transgender woman.

The Middle Aged Man Phenomenon

Have you wondered why office settings are so popular in japanese BL? Well, it is mostly Ossan’s Love fault in my opinion.

Besides office romances being a staple of japanese tv dramas, in 2016 two major mainstream actors (Tanaka Kei and Yoshida Kotaro) participate in a small short film about a salaryman who discovers his boss is in love with him. A simple comedy filled with misunderstandings and funny shenanigans. As the response to it was very positive, they decided to turn it into a full flegged series. And so, Ossan’s Love comes out on prime television (TV Asahi) for all to see. It is the first time we see a story like this being shown in a mainstream channel, for all and anyone to see.

A year later after the success of Ossan’s Love we get the wonderful Kinou Nani Tabeta/What Di you Eat Yesterday? (2019), which would not have been possible without Ossan’s Love. There was confidence that there was a market for such a story. Followed by the OL movie: Ossan’s Love: Love or Dead. Which was later followed by a horrible horrible second season that nobody wanted. On this year too, Mood Indigo comes out. A sequel to The Novelist/Pornographer, which would secure it’s popularity. It later got a second season.

We are now in a second boom of interest in queer stories. And the number of movies and tv shows grow. Some of the most known:

Novel adaptation - Fujoshi Ukkari gay ni kokoru LGBT Movies - His Dramas - Life: Senjou no Bokura

Queer voices have been increasingly loud and, in 2015, two municipalities put in place a partnership to acknowledge same sex relationships (not recognized outside of those municipalities unfortunately).

And so, start mixing the homophobia free idealized stories, with more diverse queer content, with the harsh realities of LGBTQ+ people, and the cinematic interest of the filmmakers/directors.

The rise of the salaryman and the thai breakthrought

Thanks to the appeal of middle aged men, Japan now knows there’s a market to be had in producing BLs, so the adaptations sprout like mushrooms. The ground is ready to bear fruit, and so enters thailand with the big success of 2gether at the beginning of 2020.

Japan got to have the movie screened in their theatres. Thailand has broken the Japanese market barrier, as soon as the borders open after the pandemic, fanmeetings are held there one after the other.

And then, we get Cherry Magic in late 2020, which continues to cement that the current japanese BL boom is still going strong.

The Aftermath

The production of BL shows and movies reaches its peak and we get 26 (shows and movies) in 2022. Movies, specials and second seasons are being made.

From Utsukushii Kare 2021 to Strange 2023. Old and new manga gets an adapation and more queer representation grows in media overall.

The story of LGBT representation in shows in Japan

As an extra, I want to put here a few examples of how queer characters, and stories have entered the mainstream of japanese tv dramas. Many mainstream actors have also taken upon portraying such characters.

Pretty Proofreader (2016) - featured a gay side character, not relevant to the plot. My Brother’s Husband (2018) mini series - adaptation of Gengoroh Tagame’s manga about a man overcoming his homophobia through getting to know his bother’s husband Life As A Girl (2018) mini series - the life of a lesbian trans woman Ie Uru Onna S2 (2019) - one episode features different types of LGBT people who want to buy a house and the difficulties they face. Also had some type of side gay stoyline (a little queerbaity)? Ore no Sukato, doko Itta? (2019) - a gay man who dresses as a woman becomes a teacher at a highschool and helps with his is student’s problems.

Special mention to Residential Complex (2018).

A drama that featured 4 families living in the same residential unit, each with their own fundamental problems. The father in the traditional japanese family was unemployed, the man engaged to a younger second wife who wanted no children ends up having to take care of his son from his previous marriage, the young newlyweds that are eager to have kids can’t concieve and the single architect is actually living with his boyfriend. It was a show that had worked with an LGBT organization to make a faithful protrayal of LGBT realities.

Final Thoughts

Here is a list of all Japanese BL and Queer media, Japanese BL list. I recommend to check it out to see the variety of adaptations being made today. It is intersting to see the differences in plot in the shows that are adapting current manga (Our Dining Table) and those adapting older manga (Candy Color Paradox). There is also a lot of queer movies and shows worth checking out. Here are my recommendations:

Kamisama no Ekohiiki (series)

Both Me and Him are the Grooms (movie)

I think it is great that Japan is intergrating queer stories and voices to their BLs, as well as adapting more content to the screen. It is a very exciting moment to be living through, but it still feels like it might go away just as fast as it came. Japan is a very conservative country, that embraces change so very slowly. Queer vocies are making noise, but they have yet to manage to make their government listen. Japan is very setback in this sense.

I do no think Japan will be able to have a BL market similar to Thailand for its live action adaptations any time soon. They stick to what they know, which sometimes can be very good and others, bad.

I do hope for BL to keep on doing what it does best for society: subtly normalizing queer lives so that conservative people start welcoming the idea that they're just regular people (who deserve rights, come on Japan).

Hopefully we’re headed there.

#history of bl #bl history #history of japanese bl live action #this was the quicker one to make #the yaoi debates require more research #but it will be the next post in this series #I hope you had a fun read #I hope I did a good job #I don't know as much on this subject but I did want to make a post to give some context to why japanese bl is as it is

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absolutebl · 1 year

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Enemies to Lovers & Cohabitation BLs

I got this request over on MDL and I though I’d just repost the list here, since if I was asked there I might be asked here. There are plenty more in each category I just haven’t rated them as high. Gotta limit the spreadsheet of doom somehow.

Enemies to lovers (as a main trope) that I've rated 8/10 or higher:

Semantic Error

We Best Love (1 & 2)

Blueming

Bad Buddy

Not Me

HIStory 3: Trapped

Candy Color Paradox

My Sweet Dear

My Day

SOTUS

Kiss Me Again - PeteKao Cut

Why R U?

Star in My Mind

The Eclipse

What Zabb Man!

Nitiman

Big Dragon

Cohabitation (as a main trope) that I've rated 8/10 or higher:

To My Star

Be Loved In House: I Do

He's Coming to Me

Lovely Writer

Choco Milk Shake

Oh! Boarding House

Roommates of Poongduck 304

Like In The Movies

HIStory 2: Right or Wrong

TharnType

Theory of Love

Still 2gether

Cutie Pie

His the movie

Ingredients the series

Manner of Death

Ghost Host Ghost House

Coincidentally the same amount in each. Huh.

Includes only BLs that completed runs before 2023.

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thecasualfkfan · 4 months

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#asian bl series #thaibl #korean bl #taiwanese bl #japanese bl #2gether the series #bad buddy #old fashion cupcake #my beautiful man #cherry magic #semantic error #history 3: trapped #history 2: crossing the line #plus and minus #we best love #your name engraved herein #tumblr polls #any type of aisan bl #yaoi-manga-manhwa-live action-anything

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ineffable-opinions · 7 days

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BL “Censorship” & Commercialization

Content: 1. ubiquitous censorship - special focus on Japanese BL 2. commercial viability of live action BL & generalizations 3. solutions - special focus on state support of Thai BL

Censorship is a sensitive topic. I have tried my best. Please feel free to comment and critique.

History of Korean BL is one of censorship and commercialization and Korean fu-people has struggled against both. There have been different victors at different points in time. Aljosa Puzar’s "BL"(Boy Love), "GL"(Girl Love) and Female Communities of Practice and Affect in South Korea chronicles that struggle. (Highly recommended.)

I have tried to problematize BL commercialization before. But that was in the context of fu-culture and the commodity fetishism associated with the consumption of BL, particularly in live action form which is probably its most capitalist rendition for many many reasons.

Here I would like to look at it from another angle: censorship. This is a continuation of my earlier post (Why so many shonen ai live-action?) motivated by the live action adaptation of ‘조폭인 내가 고등학생이 되었습니다’ (I, A Gangster, Became a High School Student) by 호롤 (Ho Rol).

The live action has jumped genres switching from BL to 판타스틱 휴먼 드라마 (lit. fantasy human drama). This switch got it tagged as ‘Censored Adaptation of Same-sex Original Work’ on My Drama List. I personally don’t like that tag. Almost all BL adaptation is a censored adaptation, with notable exceptions like Sei no Gekiyaku. But no one uses that tag for, say, 25 Ji, Akasaka de (2024) which censored all sexual content, especially from the volume 1 of the manga which was critical to the story and the couple’s development in the original manga series’ and its multiple adaptations’ popularity. Sukiyanen Kedo Do Yaro ka (2024) went as far as removing the more sexual second couple from the live action adaptation all together, yet it does not get a "censored" tag.

An interesting question that the controversy surrounding High School Return of a Gangster (2024) has sparked is that of BL media’s commercial viability, especially in live action form. Here’s what producers told the Korean newspaper, Hankook Ilbo, about the genre-jumping:

"BL 장르는 제작비 투자나 리쿱(제작비 회수)에 한계가 있는 게 사실이다. 그러다 보니 처음부터 이 작품은 브로맨스로 해보고 싶었다"

“The BL genre is limited in terms of investment in production costs and recoup (recovery of production costs). So, from the beginning, we planned it as a bromance (beulomaenseu).”

The author of this article cites examples of works that enjoyed success on OTT platforms, namely Watcha’s Semantic Error and TVing's Unintentional Love Story (2023). However, the article also highlights the fact that BL continues to be a niche genre and live action adaptations don’t guarantee success.

이성택 (Lee Seong Taek), the director of High School Return of a Gangster, previously directed the BL Love Class (2022). The producer 넘버쓰리픽쳐스 (Number Three Pictures Co., Ltd.) have BL works like Unintentional Love Story under its belt.

'Unintentional Love Story' Director Jang Eui-soon (장의순) | source

If the producer of one of the two most popular live action BL is admitting to it, then it is not easy to dismiss the issue of commercial viability of live action BL.

Very famous BL publishing houses (starting with JUNE) and hosting platforms with relatively lower expenses have struggled. Some of them are no more. It is also difficult for authors to survive merely on earnings from publishing houses and hosting platforms, especially when those platforms are not very rich. So, it is not difficult to imagine that live action production houses also struggle to survive.

Take GMMTV for example. They are probably one of the most successful BL producers. According to their managing director, BL content (series) is not a profitable business in itself. They rely on khujin (branded pairs) of actors to bring in advertisement revenue, merchandize sales, and pull crowds to concerts and fan-meets. It is not enough for actors to just act. They are expected to sing, dance and perform. Meanwhile, GMMTV is forced to keep working with these actor pairs and stick to templates that suit them. While it works for now, it remains to be seen how long the business model can last.

Now there is also investment from Mainland China that has migrated to other BL producers following dangai ban. But those who invest already burned themselves pretty bad with all the money they poured in during the short-lived but explosive dangai boom. It is sunk cost at this point. Another crack down could be the death knell for Chinese investments in BL.

More generally, it is likely that commercial viability of a live action BL project hinges on the following:

#1 Target demographic

Like all other BL content, live action too is primarily targeted at fu-people (BL audience) – both queer and non-queer. The target demography is further sub-divided based on the type of BL and purchasing power.

Sweeter ones are supposed to appeal to all ages and that’s the area Thailand and GMMTV in particular are focused on. Most of Japanese BL series are sweet. Korea too produces sweet BL. However, they are unlikely to bring in explosive success the way odo BL (those following royal road narrative progression – wherein characters face significant challenges, interpersonal or otherwise, to reach happy ending).

Older and, perhaps more hard-core fans, are likely to support jado works (BL that follow the evil path where neither happy ending nor resolution to challenges are guaranteed) with surprising frequency. This might be partly due to the erotic content in jado works.

Purchasing power of BL fans vary widely. There are those who are

“sending gifts to their actors in Thailand, sending food trucks to their shooting locations, putting up billboard advertisements and doing charity events [as well as] ordering merchandise in bulk.”

They also travel to BL producing nations [on fan pilgrimages] and attend fan meetings, concerts and other events regularly.

(Source: The Print)

The other group of BL fans who are probably younger and/or can’t afford to show support in the above-mentioned ways. BL commercially benefits from being appealing to those with higher purchasing power.

#2 Popularity of original work in case of adaptation

Popular BL novels, manhwa, etc. bring in a set of fans who are interested in the live action. Longer and more-acclaimed works are likely to ensure success of the live action given decent making and reasonable changes during adaptation. Semantic Error is a case in point. However, missteps during adaptation can have the opposite effect.

#3 Cost of production

It is difficult to get investment in the first place, especially with how niche the genre is. Moreover, higher cost of production sets the bar for success higher too.

On the other hand, high production quality and better cast and crew (likely more expensive too) makes the viewing more pleasurable and increases the likelihood of success.

There are other factors which influence the success of BL producers. The most popular BL live action from China, Addicted, was produced by the author, Chai JiDan, with a tiny budget. Its dangai family drama remake, Stay with Me, also has an interesting producer.

Source | Mame with her Japanese fans

Orawan Vichayawannakul’s MeMindY is another BL author led production company that has enjoyed considerable success.

OP Pictures’ entry into BL genre has also been successful.

Solutions

#1 Let’s start with the worst

BL as money laundering vehicle. It is probably the most obvious, sort of win-win until it isn’t. Sustainability depends how much skin the ruling class have in the game.

#2 State sponsorship

(or better yet, tax payer supported BL production)

State sponsorship is what Thailand has perfected.

source | 2023 seminar on "Beyond Borders: Exploring the Global Appeal and Diversity of Thailand's Boys' Love Contents" by 9 companies from Thailand organized by Department of International Trade Promotion under Thailand’s Ministry of Trade.

The eleven speakers, including an official from the Office of Commercial Affairs, Royal Thai Embassy in Japan, vigorously pitched partnerships with Japanese content companies [at the above-mentioned seminar.]

Also, several of the companies pitching at the seminar, such as Star Hunter Entertainment […] were plumping for BL not as a niche product but rather a core element of their corporate strategy.

Halo Productions representative Tewarat Supunnium [trumpeted] the vertical integration of his company, from talent representation to contents distribution.

source

Thai BL has been big hits in China, South Korea, Japan, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, and beyond, which has motivated Thailand’s government to ‘deploy Boys Love as its latest soft power weapon to promote the country on the global stage’. In an article published in The Nation, BL director, Bundit Sintanaparadee, explains how that affects production.

He pointed out that the international popularity of Thai shows can boost tourism and generate interest in the featured locations – a vital aspect of soft power. The government can facilitate this process by providing support and streamlining the bureaucratic obstacles to filming in attractive locations like Bangkok’s Chinatown district of Yaowarat.

Filming in iconic places such as Yaowarat can be costly and complicated due to the need to coordinate with multiple government agencies and pay location fees. Bundit said the government could simplify the process to benefit not just filmmakers but also tourist revenue in the locations.

Bundit also cautioned against a top-down approach to soft power, where the government dictates what represents Thailand on the world stage. He emphasises the need for industry professionals to have their say.

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In a 2022 article, Bangkok Post explores the impact of BL on Thailand’s economy ‘as export products that can draw lucrative revenue streams and foster business opportunities in other areas, including tourism.’

[According to government estimates from 2021,] Thailand's Y content market was worth more than 1 billion baht... In June that year, the Department of International Trade Promotion held an online Y content business matching event to boost the industry, with the participation of 10 Thai content creators. More than 360 million baht was generated from the purchase of the Thai content, with the top three buyers coming from Japan, Taiwan and Vietnam.

Noppharnach Chaiyahwimhon, GMMTV's senior director of content production, said [that the] business ecosystem linked to Y Series in Thailand shows a growth of 30-40% per year. [He also said that] Y Series can also be a boon for other businesses, such as films, artist management and merchandise. [He mentioned] Y Series from Thailand [getting] translated into several languages [and one of their Y Series having received theatrical adaptation in South Korea.]

[According to] Kanokporn Prachayaset, chief commercial officer and country manager of WeTV Thailand, … Y Series from Thailand is one of the most popular content genres on its platform. [Half of all the BL content on the platform was Thai.] WeTV [was] sourcing Y Series from Asia as well as having its own WeTV original shows by working with various local production houses, such as GMMTV, TV Thunder, Dee Hup House, M Choice Studio and All This Entertainment. [She also highlighted the contribution of the fan base, which is] active in organising activities and campaigns for their idols.

Seksan Sripraiwan, director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand's (TAT) Tokyo office, said the TAT and the Royal Thai Embassy have actively promoted the country by using Thai entertainment [and that] Thai BL content is considered one of the most popular recent cultural exports to Japan. Japan's market for Thai BL is around 1 million viewers, of which 20,000-30,000 are heavily active on social media sites for renowned BL actors, led by Bright-Win and Krist-Singto. He said Japanese tour operators already offered tailor-made tour packages which contain elements related to BL TV series, such as shooting locations like universities, cafes, Wat Arun or the Amphawa floating market.

Kanokkittika Kritwutikon, director of the TAT Chengdu office, said Thai BL TV shows have gained popularity in China, such as the coming-of-age series "I Told Sunset About You", which helped drive tourists to Phuket, the main location of the story.

"Most Chinese BL fans are millennial females who can offer long-term support for their favourite actors," Mrs Kanokkittika said. [Recognizing the 3 million strong queer population of Chongqing,] she said the LGBT segment could be categorised as luxury travellers as they are high-income earners, live in key cities, and want to spend more for travel experiences.

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Earlier this year Ministry of Commerce have partnered with Be On Cloud and Idol Factory to promote ‘Thai products, services, tourism, and culture by incorporating them seamlessly into’ their new series “Shine” and “Pin Phak” aka “The Loyal Pin” respectively.

“This will help create around 2 billion in value for Thailand’s economy,” said Commerce Minister Phumtham.

Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Phumtham Wechayachai and two actresses, Becky and Freen, witness the signing ceremony between the Ministry of Commerce and Idol Factory Co., Ltd. on February 28, 2024....

According to the Department of International Trade Promotion, the Thai movie and series sector and related industries will generate 8,000 million baht in exports by 2023. In 2024, it will likely reach 10,000 million baht, particularly in the Y-movie and Y-series, which are expected to expand in value from 1,000 million baht to 2,000 million baht as a result of the Ministry of Commerce’s proactive cooperation with the private sector.

source

The Thai government’s efforts are paying off.

Oramon Sapthaweetham, director-general of the Department of Business Development, revealed that the Boys’ Love series had helped revitalise the film production industry, generating substantial profits and extending economic benefits to allied sectors, such as advertising, leveraging actors as influencers, event organisation, and tourism.

"Over the past 10 years, Thailand has produced over 177 Boys’ Love [series], continuously gaining popularity and expanding its customer base, eventually leading to exports to international markets," Oramon added.

The film production industry in Thailand is witnessing substantial growth. In the first four months of 2024, 56 new businesses were registered, marking a 12% increase from 2023. The total registered capital also saw a significant rise of 146.44% to 195.18 million baht. In 2023, the industry grew by 20% with 137 businesses and a capital of 258 million baht. The total revenue in 2022 was 12.895 billion baht, indicating a continuous growth trend.

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#3 Diversification

Ok, so this is based on my limited knowledge and imagination. Feel free to skip.

There are two production companies that I have ever been interested in - Bhavana Studios and Mammootty Kampany. Both of them have produced experimental Malayalam movies while managing to remain commercially successful. While is partially attributable to these companies being brands, I think their overall strategy of diversification have worked in their favour.

Mammootty Kampany could produce art-house movie Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam for award circuits and with no expectation of commercial performance by banking on their other production Kannur Squad which was action entertainer sure to bring in the big bucks. Their queer family drama Kaathal – The Core and neo-noir psychological thriller Rorschach did exceptionally well in the box office as well as garnered critical acclaim. Bhavana Studios has similar track record of their commercially successful projects kind of cross subsidizing their experimental and unique projects and lifting the heat off in case of flops.

Having production companies which are aspirational in their approach to BL while having the economics sorted out help where government support is not forth coming.

Censorship as No-thing

When sometime is truly censored, we wouldn’t know. Unless we ask. Here’s what Jooyin Saejang learned from asking.

Conclusion

I have a strong preference for live action adaptations that are willing to go the last mile in terms of sexual content, social critiques and addressing real-life issues. That’s the reason why the header image for this BL side blog is from Moothon (2019).

But realistically this isn’t always possible. And I prefer having more production companies offering variety. I don’t want them to sink under the weight of BL that didn’t do well commercially and me being left at the mercy of media conglomerates with seemingly bottomless funds and monopsony over BL authors, original works and the culture that creates them.

Also, there is queer content from Korean that is neither mainstream nor from fu-culture. Support those.

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specterthief · 11 months

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with kuroshitsuji coming back i've been thinking about the live action movie again and wanted to share one of my prized possessions and imo a genuine sociological curiosity with regards to fujoshi (et al) culture: a special interview and photoshoot to advertise the movie contained in an extremely obscure independent queer magazine for crossdressers, butches and trans men

(it says "crossdressing magazine for girls" on the cover, but the actual content is inclusive, including an interview with a trans guy staff member of an organization specifically for aiding japanese trans people about safe binding)

there is a lot that has been written on the demographics of BL fandom and the history there but it is genuinely fascinating to see that a series as notoriously fujo-dominated as kuroshitsuji so proactively approached specifically queer and gnc women and transmasc people as its target audience

#kuroshitsuji #black butler #kuroshitsuji 2014 #shiori genpo #ayame goriki #mine #fandom: kuroshitsuji #there's also some pretty fascinating stuff about shiori's gender in the interview in here #very very cool to see that ayame goriki was actually thinking about the character's identity on a level beyond HAVING to crossdress

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isaksbestpillow · 5 months

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Hello Siiri! First off: I just yelled in delight that you're offering subs on Ossan's Love Returns -- thank you! I have not watched the previous series or OL movie, but I come to you after learning that EarthMix will cameo in this week's episode. I'm watching older Thai BLs to learn more about that nation's genre of BL, and I'm learning about the Thai genre's Japanese BL roots -- which makes the cameo extra sweet for me in my history project. In any case, I am wondering if you could offer a kind of overview of the importance of the Ossan's Love franchise in Japan. My very favorite BL of all time is Kinou Nani Tabeta? -- and I've been so thrilled over the years to get TWO seasons, a movie, and the New Year's special. Ossan's Love has even more content. Would you say it's a bigger BL than KNT? Is the audience for OL growing actively in Japan? I'd love to learn more about the context of its importance in the Japanese media landscape. I feel like I generally have a grip on these things in part due to the fame of the various actors that end up in BLs (like in Cherry Magic), but Ossan's Love has been around for so long, that I'm not sure how to quite contextualize its popularity against other JBLs. Thank you for considering my question!

Hello!

I don't want to make any claims on who's more popular without gathering actual data, but I can talk about the general context of the show.

OL actually precedes Nanitabe's live action, so they weren't in competition during their original airing. OL differs from most other bl live action outputs by being an original script. It's not based on a manga unlike pretty much all other Japanese bls out there, and as such, it pretty much single-handedly brought gay relationships to the mainstream when they had so far been mostly confined to the bookshop bl section: if you wanted to read a bl, you'd go to the bl section, but otherwise you wouldn't be exposed to it.

The first season of OL aired in 2018. There are all kinds of live action bls airing these days, at least one per season, but it wasn't like that back in 2018. Live action bl until recently was either typical age-gap uke/seme anime (Gravitation, Sekai ichi hatsukoi, Junjou romantica) or made-for-dvd movies with mostly unknown actors. My first bl movie was Ai no kotodama. I don't know who those actors were or where they are now. By comparison, the cast of OL is full of popular mainstream actors. Pretty sure at least one person fainted when Tanaka Kei was on the cover of An an's love & sex (was it me, you'll never know!).

Even now, at lot of the bl you'll find on Gaga or Viki actual airs in a specific bl slot or on a paid subscription service. You had to buy each episode of Old fashion cupcake on Rakuten to watch - meaning you need to already know what you're looking for. Nanitabe and Cherry Magic both aired in TV Tokyo's Friday midnight slot , but TV Tokyo is a local network. I had to watch both online because we don't get TV Tokyo in the prefectures. What we do get though is TV Asahi, the network producing OL. It's one of the major national networks and the second most viewed channel after Nippon TV (it's also the channel buying GMMTV shows for Japanese distribution).

What made OL such a phenomenon was the internet and social media. It was the most tweeted show in 2018 and Japanese people tweet a lot. It received the Popular Word of the Year Award. You read it right, Ossan's Love was the Popular Word of the Year 2018 with #MeToo and e-sports (for comparison: in 2022 one of the words was state funeral because of Abe's assassination, and one of last year's winners was boiling of the planet).

As for how OL Returns is doing - it's super successful! Last Friday even omutsu paatonaa/diaper partner was trending on the internet. Last time there was an update about viewership, the first two episodes had been viewed 4.5 million times. The Japanese fandom is super active, and people of all ages are watching. They're doing quite a bit of promo, too. Tanaka Kei & Hayashi Kento were on Geinoujin kakuzuke check, a popular new year's quiz show.

I know OL doesn't get a lot of love in western bl fandom. On one hand, I'm like huh okay fair enough. But on the other, much bigger, you could even say enormous, hand, I'm like you don't have all the facts! You don't even speak Japanese! Take a seat! But if you wanna trash the airline remake (was it really necessary???), I'll bring the snacks.

#ossan's love #sorry about the numerous typos!!

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rifki16 · 2 months

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Love is Better the Second Time Around Episode 5

Photo Credit : Love is Better the Second Time Around Promotional Twitter Account | https://x.com/koi_nido/status/1775007525647372784?s=46

Love is Better the Second Time Around Episode 5

POTENTIAL TRIGGER WARNING: Homophobia and Disownment. I’m not going that deep into the topics which include homophobic and depictions of being disowned, however, I’m just trying to be cautious.

Love is Better the Second Time Around Episode 5 is OUT! Let’s get into the short review right away. SPOILERS DUH.

As expected, of course, the couple broke up even though Haru just admitted that he liked Takashi – as well as agreeing to “go out” with him. I want to talk about four topics from this episode.

First theme: Disownment in Japan

I mean, as it turns out, being disowned in Japan is not only caused by homophobia. I think this has been depicted many times in several Japanese TV medias which I have encountered – I think, in general, not achieving the family’s expectations of you will make you really isolated from the family. However, HUGE DISCLAIMER, this subtopic is not going to talk about whether it is more likely to be disowned in Japan compared to other countries nor is it going to delve into the psyche of Japanese families, as well as their internal dynamics, and why they choose to disown instead of choosing other methods in showing their dissatisfaction or repulsiveness towards their kin. This subtopic will focus exclusively on being disowned in Japan by your family because you have been outed as a cis-gay man through the lens of two Japanese BL works: Love is Better the Second Time Around episode 5, Tokyo in April is… episode… I guess the whole series.

To clarify, I’m talking about the act of disownment of a child or an adult by their family, so it’s not about a baby, newly born or not, being abandoned by their mother because of a myriad of reasons. It’s quite hard for me to find a credible source on the internet about the practice of disownment in Japan, be it the reasons, or mechanism. I found this article about how, in the classical times of Japan, disownment is a form of remedy due to your crimes against your “ancestors” (https://www.japanesewiki.com/history/Fukyo.html).

I also found anecdotes that many Japanese families would disown their offspring because they marry “Internationally”- as the film Life: Love on the Line puts it. The anecdotes are very old, it’s from 2007 (https://ask.metafilter.com/83832/How-does-disownership-of-a-child-work-in-Japan

Setting all of those aside, let us dig deep as to what happened in the two series. In Love is Better the Second Time Around, Takashi was outed by, who turned out to be, a distant relative of his. The rumor got spread around. He got disowned. He needed to change his surname from Hoshizawa to Iwanaga. I don’t know how he got his PhD in economics, I assume in Japan, only PhD graduates can be a lecturer. Maybe his new adopted family paid for the tuition fee until his doctorate degree, or maybe he got scholarship all the way up to his PhD studies.

In Tokyo in April is…, Ren was saved by Kazuma from being groomed sexually, not the over-the-internet-incredibly-flirtatious-chat grooming. He was forced to be outed in the hospital to describe what He and Kazuma were doing in the love hotel. Kazuma’s mum slapped and told Ren never to meet Kazuma again. Ren was forced to go to a HS in France, not allowed to inherit the hospital of his grandfather. In the manga, his dad was forced to resign from the hospital, in the live-action series, it was not mentioned about his dad’s status after the rumor of his son’s gay sex act was spread around. He needed to change his surname. He finished his HS and his degree, I think, in France. Then he went back to Japan with his new identity and all.

Now, before going to the analysis. Two things that I have observed to stand out very clearly: 1. The disowned son is still given a future, 2. The disowned son needs to change their surname as he is no longer a member of the family. I still don’t know how Takashi got his degrees, financially, but he still could get those degrees and become a respected economics lecturer. In Tokyo in April is…’s finale, Ren said to his sexual-assault-covering boss that he was grateful to him because he “could repay his family’s tuition” because of the job, which means that his disowning family still paid his tuition in France, just as a loan tho.

It's very unique for me to see this representation, because in many western medias, the disowned son becomes unhoused, a fear which still terrifies me today, and his future really becomes uncertain. In terms of name, I don’t really recall disowned gay men in any western media works to have changed their surname or name completely. I understand that many trans- or non-binary individuals or gender fluid people to have done this, be that they get disowned or not. Let me say before we get deeper into my two cents of this subtopic. I’m not saying that disowned gay sons in Japan have it “easier” compared to other disowned gay sons around the world just because that they are not immediately unhoused in these two BL works. I don’t know the statistics, and I really don’t think we should compare our sufferings amongst us gay men.

A). However, does Japan’s own attitude to the idea of a “state” contribute to these representations? I mean, in western media works, the disowned gay son is completely cut-off because said son is not a member of the family and thus not merited the PRIVATE wealth and comfort of the family. Western idea of ownership, state, and cold-war era propaganda of the “nuclear family” really contribute as to why the representation of disowned gay sons in their media become understandable. But in Japanese, it’s very new for me. Or is it a mere fear of criminal prosecution if the family doesn’t provide means for the future of the disowned gay son? I don’t know.

B). Your family name holds a special place in Japan. I know that it also carries a huge weight in many parts of the world, even here in Indonesia - where most plebian families don’t have a surname - your surname holds such an importance too. In most western media works which I have consumed, the disowned gay son, doesn’t really change his name. He just gets own with his own life, as his surname is the last of his concern. I think this connects well with the first observation I made – in most western media works, the disowned gay son is too focused on surviving, that he doesn’t give a fig about what he is called. If we see it in practical terms, let’s say a disowned gay son is moving from somewhere in the deep south of the states, and he moves to somewhere in New York, new England or somewhere in the west coast, his new start will not really check his name on some federal database, his new semi-blue-collar employer will not check his family background. Unless that he has a criminal record, he is free to use his old name or a new one, his family will not be disadvantaged at all because neither his new life nor his family is connected.

Take these observations with huge grains of salt, as I did not revisit many western media works as a reference, and I have not, and did not, included all Japanese BL works which have this trope, such as Umibe no étranger. I completely forgot as to what happened to the disowned gay son, in that anime film, before coming back to his hometown.

Second theme: Foreigners and Japanese

The second theme I’d like to talk about is Japanese relationship with foreigners. The relationship in a sense of how Japanese see foreigners against/for their patrimony. I will not write a lot about this subtopic because it touches complex topics like Japanese nationalism and the Japanese idea of race – topics which I don’t know much about. To talk about this subtopic, I want to discuss two works, Love is Better the Second Time Around episode 5 and Life: Love on the Line (director’s cut film).

Let’s revisit the chatroom/blog discussion website from 2007 (https://ask.metafilter.com/83832/How-does-disownership-of-a-child-work-in-Japan

). One of the posters said that when, I presumed his personal pronouns are he/hem/his, his Japanese wife married her non-Japanese husband, she got disowned. But then, when her sister got divorced, she was “seen better than her sister”. Setting aside the perception of divorced or spinsterish people, isn’t it crazy that based on that one anecdote, his wife’s family disowned their own daughter just because she married a non-Japanese person. Again, I don’t know the statistics hence I don’t know the prevalence of this behavior. I don’t even know whether the poster of the story on the website was telling the truth or not, however this anecdote is a great jumping point in understanding what happened in the two works I want to present.

In Life: Love on the Line, Ito, the bitch who actually kissed Nishi first, asked to break up with Nishi because he wanted to have “a normal family”. Hold up, I need to vent about Ito, WHAT A BITCH, you really don’t appreciate what you got bro. JESUS, I really cannot contain my anger to Ito. Venting side note over. Ito eventually got a divorce with his wife because he still loves Nishi. And, when he went back to his family’s house to announce his divorce, it turns out his sister is marrying a south Asian person, I forgot whether it was Indian or any other ethnicity. His mother became mad and pointed to his sister that she needed to be more like Ito because he has a normal life and family. His mum’s statement prompted him to stand up and said that he’s getting a divorce, and he has been in love with Nishi all this time and adding “compared to International love, it’s pretty normal right?”, or something to that effect.

In Love is Better the Second Time Around, we don’t really see the family dynamics as to why Takashi is called back to his family, besides the fact that because his sister is marrying a non-Japanese person, he needs to be the one that bears the responsibility of continuing his family’s business. I have not read the manga so I don’t know how Takashi family views their daughter’s “international marriage” compared to their estranged son.

Side note, it seems that Takashi is going to decline the offer to continue the family business because he’s gay… huh? I mean in Restart After Come back Home, Mitsuomi still can continue the family business even though that he’s gay. Well, he has not come out yet. Side note to the power of two, Isn’t it weird that a salaryman can just continue his father’s, long established, carpenter business? Like huh?

I really need to understand more about Japanese view on foreigners marrying their own. I mean, it’s a pretty extreme stance to say that, even a heterosexual, “international marriage” is considered a strange, or deviation from a normal one. Is it just because of the practical matter that the non-Japanese person cannot continue the family business? Is it because that the non-Japanese person hard to assimilate to the Japanese culture?

Side note again, does this mean that BL works with protagonists that used to live in the west like Tokyo in April is… and Senpai, This can’t be Love, to name two, also have “full” Japanese parents, just that they used to live abroad…?

Third theme: Haru mental leap

I think Haru in episode 4 and 5 are very different, “bigly”. We just saw Haru getting comfortable in episode 4 of getting in bed and accepting Takashi as his lover – boyfriend. I think in this episode, Haru became braver in his mannerism as well as drawing the line with Takashi. Yes, I will be having sex with you as lovers, yes, I will be calling you my lover, even in front of my own enemy, but I will not be moving into your place, yet. I think because we have seen how Takashi disappointed, or as it turns out, was smeared to look like he disappointed Haru, Haru’s walls were already up, so it’s not easy I guess for him to draw lines.

Someone on Twitter actually translated the conversation Haru and Takashi on LINE. In the chat, Takashi actually congratulated Haru on being the Deputy Editor, and Haru’s response was just like “okay”. Like wtf. This is another trope that I don’t like in Japanese BL works. I think the biggest offender of this trope is Minato’s Laundromat. It’s the trope of “Oh yes we’re now boyfriends, but I’m gonna act too cool to care about it”. Like what…? I mean Hiro’s mannerisms on digital products, E-Mail and social media are so different with his real-life behaviors, to the people that he knows. Why does he still use his journalist face even with Kyosuke?

Fourth theme: Blackmail – Japan’s most loved trope?

Before talking about this subtopic, let me first take my celebratory dance. I’M SO RELIEVED THAT MY BRAIN ITCH IS NOT WRONG OMG. Haru didn’t overhear some sob in the hall that Takashi bet against him. It was, presumably, Kyosuke that took a picture of a young, I think, Haru, and wrote in the email that Takashi was betting against his appearance in the train station.

What is it with BL and blackmail trope? I mean I know that it’s not uncommon for closeted gay guys to be threatened by blackmail about his sexual orientation, but I already see this plot line used in Help I’m Being Harassed by the Sexiest Man of the Year and The End of the World with You. I think The End of the World with You is such a unique one in using this plot line as the perpetrator of the blackmail is also the one who did the gay sex act with the blackmail victim lol.

Side note: I guess in the finale, Haru is bringing up the fact that Takashi is carrying all the burden by himself – gosh this trope again, I’ve seen it in Tokyo in April is…, let’s see how they execute it next week.

linguistic corner!!!!

I can’t believe how many times “aishiteru” was said in this episode. It seems like the show runners saw my blog post about the Japanese disinclination in using the word “aishiteru” and prefer to use the word “sukida”, made script changes and reshot a lot of scenes – I know it’s the conspiracy and narcissism talking in my head haha. I am genuinely surprised as to how many “aishiteru” was said in the episode, is it because that Takashi loves Hiro that much that he said that? I mean in this episode Takashi actually said it not while they were having sex.

I think this may be true as it is actually a point of rift between the two. I think it was since episode 3? That Hiro has always mentioned that their love intensity is different, is it that he feels that Takashi doesn’t love him enough? That’s why he was sort of lingering with the idea that Takashi still sees him as “an outsider”. Side note: while I’m writing this subtopic, I Love by Official Higedandism is playing HAHAH. The way that Takashi kept secret some of his familial stuff, read the previous subtopic about “carrying the burden all by himself”, I think, made Hiro easier to ask for a break, or rather that he was asking for a break up, but got a break.

Side note: this is the first time that I see when gays break up in a Japanese BL work that his place becomes a mess like in western media works, I mean all I see in other works is the guy failed a class (The End of the World with You), the guy continues his life but still missing his ex (Life: Love on the Line, Although I Love You, and You?, Mr Sahara and Toki-Kun, My Beautiful Man, Pornographer).

All in all, I can’t wait, albeit dread, for the finale next week !

#japan bl #gay #linguistics #japanese language #love is better the second time around #koi wo suru nara nidome ga joto #bl live action #bl series

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taikanyohou · 8 months

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kiekoi is getting a thai remake so naturally it'd be the perfect time for those who havent watched the original japanese live action of it to witness and watch the biggest bisexual disaster in bl history aoki, his gay autistic boyfriend ida, and their bestest friends and cutest couple hashimoto and aida and kieta hatsukoi and the perfection that it is!!!!

#faiza talks #like idk but ida and aoki are Very distinct and dear characters to me where ida is AUTISTIC and its a very serious part of him.#i hope g**** doesnt just make that into a joke like a haha ida cant communicate lolz bc :/ yeah. no.#ida genuinely struggles socially it isnt a joke.#and aoki's deep insecurities are always masked by him being air headed but he has so many moments of true vulnerability none of it is a joke #i think g***** will do okay with that. but with ida's character ... :/ yeah. just dont butcher it up.#and aida isnt an asshole so plz g**** do NOT turn him into one. and hashi is just SO DEAR. she is so sensitive but also fiercely mighty.#the balance HAS to be there.#anyway! g**** yall BETTER NOT mess it up! :)

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akatsuki-shin · 5 months

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Can I ask, why do you love MLM romance better than Het romance? What makes them better? I did not mean anything negative, and I know everyone have their own like and dislike but I want to know your thoughts....

Also what do you think that made Asian MLM (Danmei, BL manga/manhwa/manhua/tv series) romances different than western MLM romances?

Other than because there was a period of time when I consumed too much bad shoujo/otome that makes me kinda fed up with straight romance, I also don't actually hate it at all.

I think I've also replied in a previous ask that if I can see two handsome guys together, why do I have to see one guy with some random girl 😂 There's really no deeper reason or meaning to that, I just happen to prefer BL than others because I enjoy reading them more, that's all.

For the next question, I'm going to answer from my personal experience and point of view, so you may get different answer when asking other people.

There are A LOT of differences between Asian BL and Western BL. Most of it fundamentally lies in the culture that comes out in the story writing, the dialogues, the way the characters express their feelings, how they react to situations, etc.

It's like the color white is seen as "pure, honest, clean" in the West, but in some Asian countries, it's a color worn for mourning.

(and obviously, the way the characters are designed physically also differ between Asia and the West)

This isn't something I can easily put into words because at least in my experiences, the majority of the differences aren't something tangible. It's something you feel as you progress through the story.

Perhaps the only way I can describe it is this:

I'm Asian, I live in a Southeast Asian country, I was raised by an entire Chinese diaspora family, and I grew up watching Asian media — particularly East Asian media (Japanese, Chinese, a bit of Korean). Due to our country's history, our local media is influenced by various cultures from around the world, but mainly still a lot of Asian cultures in there.

We are people who live in high context cultures. You will find more subtleties in expressions in Asian medias, compared to Western media that is more bold and upfront about it. These subtleties and the way characters in Asian media express themselves is how I myself grew up, so I can relate so much more to that than with Western media, which totally feels foreign to me.

Plus, most people in Asia doesn't flaunt their sexuality in public, especially if they're part of the minority groups. You may come across Asian BL where the characters probably don't even confess "I love you" to each other (e.g. the recently popular danmei adaptation like "The Untamed" and "Word of Honor"). However, throughout the story, you can see their feelings for each other throughout their words, actions, gestures, and the symbolism presented in the media.

I think these subtle vs bold expressions is the biggest difference for me in both media.

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jcbmcdrmtt · 8 months

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Get to know me game: tag someone you want to get to know better!

Tagged by the lovely @thedaughterofkings ! Thanks for the tag :)

Three ships: Sterek, Wangxian, and Andreil/Pynch tie… ranking interchangeable based on mood.

First ship: Oh gosh… probably Sterek? The first fic in my AO3 history is Sterek back in 2014, but I was reading without an account for a while before that, so I can’t say it with 100% certainty. Sterek was the first ship to leave a lasting impression, anyway.

Last song: Odo, by Ado (I was listening to my “Pump Up” playlist 😁)

Last movie: Marry My Dead Body (Taiwanese movie (US NF); casually homophobic cop has to marry a dead man’s ghost for Plot Reasons, and then a mystery unfolds. Not a BL, but watching them go from enemies to friends and watching the cop learn to not be a dick was fun and kinda heartwarming (cw for two brief but very demeaning portrayals of fat people though). Next in the queue is Our 30-Minute Sessions… primarily because it has Mackenyu from the One Piece live action in it 🙈 (in a Japanese-speaking role too!), but it also just looks cute

Currently reading: (all the fic) I just finished the Tinkered Starsong trilogy by Gail Carriger (gays and kpop in space with aliens! very fun and all fairly quick reads). I just started I Don’t Want to Talk About It: Overcoming the Secret Legacy of Male Depression for my own personal benefit, and then I think the next FUN book on my list is going to be Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yaros. All I know is it’s YA with dragon riding, so like. I’m already sold lol.

Currently watching: Gaya sa Pelikula (Like in the Movies, free on YT). Gay Filipino series; I’m only on episode 3 but so far I am enjoying it. Also watching Strange Planet, Ahsoka, and Star Trek: Lower Decks as they air, and Bob’s Burgers season 14 premiers tomorrow night so I am excited for that (that’s my comfort show haha). Next up is Pending Train.

Last thing I wrote: Uhhhh I’m not an author and I’ve never published anything, but in 2019 I was bodily possessed by a plot bunny and did write a VERY angsty 2.5k Sterek fic fragment involving Derek going to a supernatural BDSM brothel and meeting Stiles and realizing Kate had fucked him up way too much for this and that he was more lonely than horny *cue breakdown and a caring Stiles*… to this day the only fan thing I’ve ever written lol

Currently writing: Nothing! But my brother in law just finished writing his first actual book so I recently helped my sister bind it for him as a surprise! It was both our first times binding, but I was able to help out because I have experience typesetting and had bought binding supplies for my own use before (I still intend to bind The One-Body Problem by metisket eventually because I cannot put into words how much I love that fic)

Tagging: @mobeu , @moondal514 , @aredblush , (if y’all feel like it!) and anyone else who wants to do it :)

#tag meme #tag game #jake talks #mine #tagged by thedaughterofkings #thanks again!#long post

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nieves-de-sugui · 1 year

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My personal experience with BL history for @waitmyturtles

After reading through the posts of your Old GMMTv Challenge, I decided to add my own perspective, as a watcher, of how BL has evolved as a genre as time went by. I hope this “history from the perspective of the viewer” might shed some light in some of the questions you might have or bring up interesting things for your viewing and understanding of the shows. I will try to not repeat what has already been said through your posts by all the wonderful people in this fandom and keep it as concise as possible (turns out it’s still super long).

I’m gonna use ABL’s chronology of the shows as a timeline guide for easy understanding:

Context: How I made my way to Thailand

I’ve always been into BL (yaoi, gay shows, whatever you wanna call it), but I became commited to it around 2008. The options for queer content back then were very limited, as I’m sure we all remember. But for the sake of adding context this were my go to:

Youtube playlists of cuts of “the gay storyline” from western shows (Brothers and Sisters, Hit The Floor, Shameless, Skins and soap operas (Salatut Elamat, Days of Our Lives), etc),

Queer as Folk,

bad japanese live action adaptations of yaoi mangas (Takumi kun) or just sad/melancholic movies about lost men,

sad chinese movies (usually with fucked up plots),

indie queer movies (Were The World Mine, Judas Kiss, Shelter, Yes or No, Love of Siam etc).

But I was starving for more. I wanted shows.

In the search for more content, through Love of Siam enters My Bromance (very sad ending, also pseudo incest?, still part of what I thought were just indie movies with yaoi influences) and then appears Lovesick (S1 and S2), with very questionable subs, but finally a show with a gay couple as protagonists.

Lovesick was for me the first show that finally put a queer story as a main thing to focus on, finally breaking free of the eternal side story filled with drama and hurt that was never comforted. After that only Make it Right was around. It was more of the same thing but this time the cast was a lot more reduced and everyone is gay. Also, it showed some of the sexual aspects of the genre (which now feels wrong for so many reasons, but alas).

One day, SOTUS is on youtube with subs, plus it’s the official channels (yay! finally we can be legal!).

First shock, there’s an actual plot centered around these two people, who are their own characters besides being gay, and they actually kiss (I remember it was so impactful to me (in a never seen before way) that I did fanart of it). Thai shows became my guilty pleasure, they were bad but they were telling the stories I wanted to see and no one else was doing it. Only Thai shows cared to show cute love stories that ended well, without the big drama we were used to in the west. My thoughts were “It’s bad but I’ll take it, I’m staying here”

Living through the different booms

When Together With Me came out it brought proper making out session and high heat to the genre. Sround here is when I started watching everything that I could find because I had finally found my jam. So I watched all that now I could not watch again (because, man! they’re bad) like 2moons, Puppy Honey S2, What The Duck, My Dream,... And then, with Love By Chance we got the first signs of consent and communication with AePete. It finally felt like we could get stories with healthy relationships.

Also, Our Skyy came in! Great moment! Treats for everyone! And honestly, it was such a fun project to watch. Iconic side-couples from straight shows getting their moment of spotlight on the same level as the main couples from BL shows. To me, Our Skyy comfirmed the importance of the main 3 (OG, TN, KS) and cemented the path GMM was taking with their BL shows. It started to be part of the norm and not just some shows here and there. It was no longer waiting for someone to make a BL once in a while, but an assurance a small but constant flow of BLs.

Also Taiwan started the HIStory franchise.

BIG BOOM#1 - TharnType! Also, Ossan’s Love.

TharnType comes in. The 1st episode ends and everybody hates it for the lack of consent, but everybody loves it for the high heat and the chemistry (also for those of us who had liked Mew in WTD it was nice to see him in this show, that seemed to have less drama around it). Plus, the hype of knowing more about Tharn from LBC, who was such a nice older gay character when he was palyed by Earth (Pirapat).

I think to me, TT was a mix of a lot of the usual flaws with the very new (only achieved before by MaxTul) high heat chemistry (which despite the controversy is an important part of the BL genre, you can’t take the sex out of BL) and an interesting idea for a plot.

Also I watched Great Men Academy for Captain (Noh in Lovesick), and he slays. Plus the BL in the show is good (even tho technically not bl, but queer enough)

Simultaneously Japan gets Ossan’s Love, it’s first mainstream BL boom, with very well known actors and gets talked about by the regular drama watchers. Everyone was watching Ossan’s Love in Japan, it brought the genre to the mainstream for the first time. (And prepared the grounds for Cherry Magic, imo)

Other shows that left an impact at the time were He’s Coming To Me and Dark Blue Kiss. HCTM was the great Ohm comeback (who I though we would never see again), paired with Singto doing a BL again. Besides the chemistry, the change in themes was very interesting, it was the first thai bl that showed thai culture for me. For its part, DBK had an interesting opening and Aof personal queer touch to the storyline (which made it wonderful) Especially for MorkSun. It was the first taste of what we know Aof for, but it was also the first time BL had such mature and nuanced themes to it.

little BOOM#1 - Until We Meet Again and Theory of Love

UWMA and TOL, to me were surprises. I thought that like KirstSingto and TayNew, OffGun would never do another BL with new characters. That BL was still just an undervaluated stepping stone that people didn’t treat as a proper genre (as everybody had been doing up to that point, do it once and never be seen near the genre again).

However, UWMA confirmed that BL was here to stay. It was growing, it was exploring mixing with other genres and famous thai actors were in it. It was also moving away from the usual university storyline. And TOL was the comback of the year. I remember everyone losing their shit (me included), it was the lengendary OG afterall. Up until then they had done cameos and Puppy Honey season 1 and 2 but that was it. TOL also did something interesting with its theme, and the romcom references. AND! it was the first proper kiss in a gmmtv BL. From dead fish PickRome to full on make out with KhaiThird.

BIG BOOM#2 - 2gether and Why R U?

The BL expansion thanks to the pandemic was very very noticeable. Everybody was seeing 2gether and WRU. First time anything BL trended on Tumblr. Everyone was descovering thailand.

Also 2gether was again a first, it felt like the story made more sense. It was more believable, with tolerable tropes and a cute main pair (this was the first thai show I dared to recommend to someone who was not into BL), plus the music. The ending of the show ruined it for me, however Still2gether Fixed everything that was wrong from the 1st season and showed quickly how the show could’ve been. WRU’s plot was directly affected by the pandemic and bettered what TharnType had started with the high heat chemistry. The whole success of the show is due to SaintZee having amazing chemistry and going with it.

My engineer was the surprise of the year, it had nothing going for it promising but it managed to be good (I think thanks to some parts of the story and the cast mainly).

little BOOMS#2 - Cherry Magic and ITSAY and others

The riples of the pandemic 2gether boom were felt in Japan. Nothing breaks throught the japanese content barrier. Japan only consumes MADE IN JAPAN, and yet 2gether made it there. And showed the Japanese show runners that there’s an interest there. Cherry Magic aired a few months after and it was big success, like OL had been. Korea starts with Where Your Eyes Linger here too.

The thing about I Told Sunset About You was that nobody knew what we were getting. I had heard about My ambulance, I even saw some of the clips, but it seemed to be side couple queerbaiting and honestly I wasn’t expecting much. But they had promised a BilkinPP series. I think it’s no wonder it blew our minds, nobody was expecting that!

Then the big comeback of MaxTul with Manner of Death, broke our minds just as OF had with TOL and bringing again the mature themes to the genre (they are called the daddies of BL for a reason). No one thought they’d come back.

Around here I started watching the GMMtv end of the year announcements. All the build up we had had from the growing of the BL genre and p’Aof culminated on the annoucement of A Tale of Thousand Stars. Because of how it breaks the rules of thai bl (no engineers, no university, no highschool, no city, no 2000′s yaoi tropes just regular shoujo tropes) and tells a compeling story that tasted so new the hype didn’t die even when it came one year later than it should have.

And Lovely Writer, was the first to present the criticizing of the industry as well as expanding on the mature themes outside of university and the lack of need for fanservice off screen between the actors. They acted like normal people :D

Light on Me appared around here too, and showed us that korea can do better than it had. And Taiwan gave us We Best Love.

BIG BOOM#3 - Bad Buddy and Kinnporsche

BB was the biggest annoucement GMMtv has ever made. The thing about it was the combo AofOhmNanon. Always grazing BL and forever ghost shipped with Chimon, Nanon decided to do his first (and probably only) BL with none other than Ohm (with who he had great chemistry since they became friends in Blacklist) and under the guidance of Aof. Here I want to add that Aof considers BB to be his first Y series, the ones before were dramas, so I assume by that that the thai public makes a difference between the more mature tone series and the more highschool/university BLs (??). Such a year that was! Accompanied by the epicness that was the annoucement of Not Me (confirmed to be the last OG show... but then they went and annouced another).

And last but not least, Kinnporsche breaks the internet, everyone knows about thailand now. It entered the realm of darker themes and violence. Accompanied by other shows exploring other themes like: You’re My Sky (sports), Something In My Room (ghosts), etc...

Which is the flow we have now, some of the known old stuff some of the new expanding stuff, waiting for the next boom. My, what a journey!

I hope this was an interesting read and that I managed to show how these shows were perceived when they came out, even though now they might not be as groundbreaking. If anybody else wants to add how they perceived these shows when they came out, feel free to add to this!

#bl viewing history #thai bl history #I hope it's not too heavy of a reading #let me know if it was helpful or interesting #I love reading your reactions to old shows

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absolutebl · 7 months

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Hiii, I'm glad the ask box is open!

Idk if you already did a rec list on this, but can you recommend me old bls, like 90/2000s? I watched Seven days movies and its really good

Oh yay! Seven Days is the best. Actually, I have never done this. Here's a list of...

10+ BL's rated 7/10 or higher that aired prior to 2018

Just Friends?

Korea 2009 Gaga

This is Korea's first (kinda) upbeat version of a BL featuring already established boyfriends, one of whom is on military leave, trying to decide on coming out, family life, and the future. All of these are themes Korea will pretty much never tackle again, retreating as they would to their bubble. But what a fun little offering this little show was and is to this day. You should watch it.

Love Sick & Love Sick 2

Thai 2014 YouTube

This is one of those BLs that owes almost nothing to yaoi, although it started a number of tropes that are now endemic to Thai BL. What it is, instead, is a well scripted story of bisexual self-discovery and the inherent chaos of loving someone of the same gender for the first time, all wrapped up in hormones, existing relationships, and communication issues. It is high school queer angst at its messiest. Nothing is going to be easy for these boys because queer isn’t easy but also because life isn’t easy… welcome to adulthood sweethearts.

I'm actually considering a rewatch of these beginning of 2024 in honor of the 10 year anniversary if anyone wants to join.

Seven Days

Japan 2015 grey

The asker already mentioned it but still, never doubt my ability to recommend this show. One of the best live action yaois ever made, with perfectly structured angst, fantastic characters and acting, and no problematic tropes (rare in Japanese BL). The leads have excellent chemistry although it’s low heat there’s still some really cute mutual kisses.

Addicted: Heroin

China 2016 Viki

When Chinese BL was good it was very dirty good and when it was bad it was censored. This is the model for that statement: rich kid falls madly for the genius poor kid in his class, starts an aggressive pursuit, includes kidnapping for love, obsession, stepbrother trope, plus some cheating. I love this BL because of what I could have been. Just stop watching it after The Sex Scene. Okay?

SOTUS & SOTUS S & SOTUS Our Skyy

Thai 2016 YouTube

This is the BL that launched a hundred BLs. No literally, it was SOTUS’s international success that pretty much built the Thai BL industry into the juggernaut it is today. People have baggage around SOTUS, I have nostalgia. Trigger warning on bully hazing. Review and discussion here.

Make it Right 1 & 2 (but not Beach)

Thai 2016 YouTube (Cheewin warning)

What to say about this show, the origin of the Thai BL pulps? It’s objectively terrible, and not just the leads but the side couple too - yet I love it. I tend to call myself the “world’s foremost Make It Right apologist.” I recognize the issues but I find it utterly charming, especially Tee’s utter devotion to Fuse the baby bi disaster.

Long Time No See

Korea 2017 Gaga

Catfishing assassins on either side of a turf war who fall in love not knowing they are on opposite sides. Or do they? Good fight sequences, mature characters, high heat, very suspenseful, AND an HEA. If you like KinnPorsche or Kiseki you will LOVE this one.

HIStory Obsessed

Taiwan 2017 Viki

I weirdly love this but you should know what you are in for: that title. It has a stalking theme meets fated mates and quite a bit of dubious consent. Uke obsessed with seme to the point of losing himself and his identity dies after being rejected, and then has a chance to reboot his life. He decides to save himself by never falling in love. But destiny is a bitch, and this time the seme becomes obsessed with him. This one owes a lot to dark Chinese and Japanese BL, but kind of corrects for the expected sad dead finale by ending happily and playing with a ton of BL tropes. The leads have good chemistry, it's higher heat and the first time Taiwan starts to push that, and VERY DRAMATIC.

Some Others you might consider

Candy and Kiss - Japan 2015

Silhouette of Your Voice (Hidamari ga Kikoeru) - Japan 2017

Red Balloon - Taiwan 2017

(source)

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gaykey · 2 years

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so i am watching kinnporsche because of you and i want to watch more BLs now but there's so many i don't know where to start. which ones would you recommend? i trust your taste.

hello anon!

ah, thank you for trusting my taste lol, that might have been a mistake, but we'll see.

someone asked me for recs a little while back here, so you can check that out

but i'd like to add some i forgot or have watched since, and also, let you know what ones from that list are my ultimate faves

so!

i forgot to add history 3: trapped - mafia man & cop fall for each other. this is a fun one. it has the whole crime intrigue aspect, so if you like kp, you'll like this one i think.

y destiny - but i only really care about episodes 9 & 10, which is puth & kaeng's story. so good.

also, i have since watched:

blueming - soft and emotional and beautiful. very underrated bl.

3 will be free - this is a different one. so, again it has crime elements, and intrigued and is a pretty exciting watch, aaand, it features a polyamourous realtionship, which i have never known another bl or drama to do. so, yeah, good watch.

mr unlucky has no choice but to kiss - i haven't finished it yet actually, but it's very sweet, very funny, and like most japanese bl's, a very feel good watch.

also, literally just started watching yesterday- old fashioned cupcake - another japanese bl that's pretty short, but really good! it's totally snuck under the radar, what with everyone's kp brainrot.

now, my ultimate fave are:

kinnporsche - i mean......we been knew. i'm not gonna go into detail about why i love it, because, i'm currently here doing it everyday but yeah.......it's solidified its spot as one of my ults.

not me - not me is so special to me, i will never get over it. kinda can't really be classed a bl, more of an lgbt+ drama. bl's follow a certain formula, and that's not not me. it's about, love, found family, strength in numbers strength in community, fighting for your rights, exposing corruption, direct action! mwah! not me is just, so good.

the untamed - again. so so so special to me. this show lives on my heart forever now. it's a chinese drama, so it's not explicitly a bl, and it's incredibly long (50 episodes!) but anon, trust me, it will take you on an absolutely heart-wrenchjng journey. you will experience the full spectrum of emotion watching this show. and the writers, cast, directors, everyone, did an amazing job portraying the love and devotion of the main couple that's not a couple (in case you don't know, china has censorship laws that prohibits lgbt+ content to be shown in tv dramas). an ult fave indeed.

we best love - oh man. oh maaaannnnn, we best love is so good. i rewatch it every now and then and it hits every time. the acting..........top notch omg. everyone is so good, but the main actors are superb. it's soft, it's sweet, it's a coming of age story, but then it all changes, and it's about heartbreak, and healing. there are two seasons of this show, but i wish there were 30.

itsay - itsay (i told sunset about you) is just? iconic. a lot of people don't even really class it as a bl? same with not me actually. it's more of a coming of age drama, and god, it's just beautiful in every way. another one that will take on a journey of emotions. i always feel so wrung out after an itsay rewatch. itsay is a work art actually.

why r u? - controversial choice. not everyone liked this show, but, i can't help but get in my feelings about it. i think it was the first bl i properly watched and got sucked into. the chemistry between the main couple is amazing. in fact, that could be said for all my faves. it really is the key component to a decent bl.

i don't think i've forgotten any obvious ones.......

there are a few others, but, it's more about certain couples or, aspects of the show that are my fave, as a opposed to the show as a whole. and they'll be in the other list i linked above soooo?

enjoy?

let me know if you watch any, and what you think of them ♡♡

#anon #bl dramas #bl recs #should make that a tag lol

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potteresque-ire · 3 years

Text

🏳️‍🌈 Rec post!! A queer film + a queer TV series from Hong Kong ~

1) Twilight’s Kiss (叔·叔) (Dir. Ray Yeung 楊曜愷; 2019)

youtube

Twilight’s Kiss offers a very realistic depiction of two elderly, in-the-closet gays in Hong Kong, who have dedicated their lives building a conventional family before unexpectedly falling in love with each other. It is a quiet film, and the romance is told in the same subtle manner as love is expressed (and not expressed) in their generation. The actors were phenomenal at playing regular Hong Kong men of their age (Pak mentioned he “came to Hong Kong”, ie, he was a refugee from Mao’s China, as the vast majority of his demographics was), which added to the resonance of the story ~ they could’ve been anyone, and anyone could’ve been them.

The director of the film, Ray Yeung, is an openly gay man.

(Long review: Hollywood Reporter) Streaming link to film (with English subtitles; pls ignore and close the pop-up window)

2) Ossan’s Love (大叔的愛) (2021)

The unlikely (and hilarious) love triangle between Muk (Left), Tin (Center) and KK (Right) in Ossan’s Love.

For those who found the name familiar, it’s because the series is a (faithful) remake of the popular 2018 Japanese series of the same name. The Hong Kong version is longer (15 episodes; ~ 40 min each) compared to the Japanese original, and its mood is cheerier, sweeter, and also ... more BL, with the lead characters Tin (Haruta in the original) and Muk (Maki in the original) played by two idols, Edan Lui 呂爵安 and Anson Lo 盧瀚霆, from the very popular local boy band MIRROR.

(Being idols didn’t prevent them from kissing. Not in Hong Kong, 2021.) (Yes, they kissed, and hugged and fought and bantered...)

Ossan’s Love is culturally significant in that it became the first gay drama to be aired primetime in Hong Kong, and by extension, in China. Beloved by the locals, it was also very much discussed—hk-queers expressed their (surprised) joy that finally, they got to see a respectful, dignified presentation of who they are and how they love. More importantly, they got to see HKers, older generations included, glued to the TV for their kind of love story, rooting for the lead male characters to get together.

This signifies a broader acceptance of LGBT+ in the city than previously assumed; this is very important and comforting to the community in June, 2021, when the future of LGBT+ rights in the city is very uncertain. After the 2019 protests, pro-democracy leaders have been arrested and jailed in large numbers; newspaper that advocated for freedom has been shut down. Meanwhile, during the airing of Ossan’s Love , the (in)famous pro-Beijing politician, Junius Ho, claimed the series to have violated the city’s much feared, much abused National Security Law—the law that officially aims to catch “traitors”, but has been used as a “catch-all” excuse to arrest political dissidents and suppress the freedoms of the city. Ho was of sufficient prominence that his words could draw the attention of officials who have been sent from across the mainland-HK border to do Beijing’s bidding.

Also, Ossan’s Love was produced not by the powerful, once popular TVB (local TV station), which, with Chinese investors becoming its major shareholders like many other HK press and media companies, has become very pro-Beijing and conservative. The series was produced by ViuTV, a much smaller station preferred by young, pro-democracy Hong Kongers ... which means the future of the series, of its stars (MIRROR’s members are once-contestants of a ViuTV talent show), of even the station itself is also uncertain.

Hence, I’m recommending Ossan’s Love now ... even if the official version doesn’t have the best English subtitles. The full series is on Youtube (links below); the soundtrack is in Cantonese and (Traditional) Chinese subtitles are available, but English is only available via Youtube’s built-in Auto-Translate function.

For those who would like to catch a short scene of two cute HK boys in love, the last 5 minutes of Ep 11 would be a nice place to watch. You can see how comfortable these two bandmates were with each other—Edan (Tin) had played two supporting roles before this series, while Anson (Muk) had never acted before. Edan and Anson have claimed that being close friends in RL meant their intimate scenes were easy to film (BTW, Anson is gay, Edan isn’t).

Edan Lui (Left) & Anson Lo (Right), Harper's Bazaar HK, May 2021. Edan was a uni student before joining hk-ent. Anson was a dance instructor.

(You can also see why, when I watched the Gg + Dd Happy Camp episode very, very early on in my turtlehood, I assumed Gg and Dd would have ample opportunities to work together again, to play and be happy in front of the camera ... just like how I remembered on-screen couples from my days in HK—the couples, the CPs of the time, would collaborate repeatedly after having demonstrated chemistry and become commercial success—in film and TV projects, in variety shows, in awards ceremonies as presenting guests etc etc. This multi-project collaboration was, and still is, viewed as a Very Good Thing, and not only for commercial reasons. The inter-personal fate (緣份) to play on-screen couples repeatedly, per the tradition of HK-ent, is something of a blessing, talked about as a small-scale version of having the destiny, the luck to be together across multiple lives, multiple incarnations. Actors treasure this kind of collaboration and the HK audience celebrates it, regardless of the marital status of the actors in RL. Entertainment news dedicate articles about it.) (There’s actually an example of that in Ossan’s Love: Kenny Wong 黃德斌, the actor who played the titular Ossan, KK, and Rachel Kan 簡慕華, who played his wife Francesca, had already played husband and wife three times before. Rachel had retired from acting in 2017 and moved to Canada; she told reporters that she returned to shoot Ossan’s Love primarily so that she could play Kenny’s wife again).

* Below is a small warning for Ossan’s Love ~ *

The humour of Ossan’s Love is often wild and zany, especially where it adapts from the Japanese original. Some of it, i-fandomers may find uncomfortable. Notably, the titular Ossan (Japanese, meaning “Older Man”) was Tin and Muk’s boss; and he and Darren, another superior of Tin and Muk, were also part of the romantic story line.

One can argue, therefore, that Ossan’s Love contains a *very* “Me Too” situation; however, this is also why I find Ossan’s Love interesting beyond being a Chinese-speaking gay drama—it is clear that the production team of this series meant no disrespect, and from the series’ reception, it’s also clear that hk-queers and other more progressive members among the audience didn’t see disrespect in the product. This series therefore offers a glimpse to the answers of some questions I’ve had: how does Hong Kong of 2021 translate respect for queers (as well as for older men and women) into day-to-day words and actions? How do these culturally-specific habits in speech and behaviour compare to the norms in, for example, the United States (that I’m familiar with)?

“Political incorrectness” was also found in some of Tin’s internal monologue. However, I thought, perhaps, that was why the series has proven to be disarming to the general audience both in HK and Japan, places with a tradition of homophobia stemming often not from malice, but from ignorance, from sex being considered taboo for so much of the places’ history. Tin, as someone who haven’t seemed to have spared a thought about homosexuality before the story had taken place, spoke the minds of the audiences who aren’t familiar with homosexuality. Muk, meanwhile, presented the perspective of someone who already understood what being gay was and wasn’t about. Tin, therefore, led the audience towards Muk and his views step by step, all the while without being judgemental—how could he be? He was one of them too during his journey. He was the student, and he was also the protagonist who everyone—and I mean everyone—loved (in a rather funny manner :D). 🌈

(Long review: BLwatcher)

Links to Ossan’s Love, official version uploaded by ViuTV: EP 1 EP 2 EP 3 EP 4 EP 5 EP 6 EP 7 EP 8 EP 9 EP 10 EP 11 EP 12 EP 13 EP 14 EP 15

ETA 2021/09/16: Streaming with English subtitles is available here.

#pie metas #pie recs

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gunsatthaphan · 3 years

Text

~ Introducing: Monthly BL Breakdown ~

- JUNE 2021 -

hello lovely people! ♥️

Since the bl world is always on the move and it can be difficult to keep up, I thought I’d make a little segment on this blog where I summarize everything that’s going on in the bl universe once a month. Including new shows that aired, upcoming shows, stuff I particularly liked/disliked this month and any kind of news that are worth mentioning (new show announcements, honorable mentions, cancellations, etc...)

I know there are already a ton of update accounts all over the internet but I figured the more the better? 🙈 So here we go! - Updates coming at the end of every month! :)

Also since I probably won’t be able to cover every single detail, feel free to reblog/add a reply with more stuff! ♥️

~ Disclaimer: All shows can be streamed here or here! For more info about the shows, check out their MDL pages! ~

What came out this month? (green tick = seen or currently watching)

🌟2Gether the Movie - June 4th (Japan)

🌟Worth The Wait - June 5th

🌟Lovely Writer Special Ep - June 9th ✅

🌟Gaya Sa Pelikula Special Eps - June 11th

🌟Stuck On You - June 11th

🌟Country Boy - June 15th

🌟Lust Never Lasts - June 15th

🌟Love’s Outlet - June 17th

🌟Hometown’s Embrace - June 18th

🌟Golden Blood - June 23rd ✅

🌟Made in Rooftop - June 23rd

🌟We Best Love: No. 1 For You Special Edition - June 25th ✅

🌟My Boy - June 27th

🌟Love By Fehler - June 27th

🌟Ossan’s Love: Love or Dead - June 28th

🌟Light On Me - June 29th ✅

Monthly likes/dislikes

❣️ Lovely Writer special EP - I was living for the supernatural theme and I loved that they decided to go into a different direction for the final installment of the show. I miss them so much 🥺

❣️ IPYTM - Despite everything I really liked it. I obv hated the story around the breakup but I liked the way it was executed. Jai’s actions were more than questionable but I think he’s a fascinating character and I respect them so much for choosing a path like this.

❣️ Nitiman - Idk why but they all stole my heart lol. Bbomb and Jin are the best and it’s my guilty pleasure of the summer for sure lol.

❣️ FUTS - this show was super chaotic and for the first time I had the aggressive feeling of straight up being too old for this sh*t lmao. Gmmtv really outdid themselves in terms of silliness lol. It took me a while to get into it but I eventually warmed up to it and Mork and Pi grew on me so much! They’re absolutely adorable; especially episode 10 was pure bliss; also the finale was better than I expected!!! It was a fun ride for sure <3

👎🏻 Y-Destiny - This show has been a disappointment. PuthKaeng were a highlight and the MasukTeeJia story is not bad either (also the best one for sure) but the rest was just straight up awful. So many stories were super strange & way too cliché and most of the acting is not good. Which is a shame because the concept of the show is actually not bad; but sadly the execution is very poor.

New show announcements

🎥 Call It What You Want ss2 - coming July 23rd -> official trailer (Thailand)

🎥 The Theory series (starring Dome Woranart, Ken Prarunyu and others) - date TBA (Thailand)

🎥 Best Sisters Forever - coming July 2nd on GagaOOLala (Taiwan)

🎥 Rainbow Prince - date TBA (Philippines)

🎥 ฟ้าลั่นรักเดอะซีรีส์ (Fah Lan Rak The Series) - coming 2022 (Thailand)

🎥 Check Out (starring Best Vittawin & Chahub Marut) - coming August 2021 -> first teaser (Thailand)

🎥 Love Stage (starring Kaownah & Turbo) - coming 2021 (Thailand)

🎥 Light - coming August 13th 2021 (Taiwan)

Other news from the bl world

❗️Singto P. and Tae D. will be the leads of a new bl adaption called “Paint With Love”, along with Yoon P., Yacht S. (Pond in LBC), Natty T. (Aim in Nitiman), Gun K. (Green in 2Gether), Maengmum (Yiwha in TWM) and others.

❗️The official poster for The Tuxedo was released - date TBA

❗️2Gether the Movie came out in Japanese movie theaters on June 4th, though so far, Japanese fans are unwilling to spoil anything lol.

❗️The complete soundtrack of 7 songs for the upcoming show 7Project was released. The official air date of the show is still TBA

❗️Kaownah and Turbo will be the leads of the upcoming series Love Stage, the thai adaption of the japanese manga - date TBA.

❗️The official soundtrack for the upcoming second season of CIWYW has been released

❗️Teddy Jen from HIStory 1 got engaged to his boyfriend (which maybe isn’t newsworthy but he made a really cute post about it so I wanted to share 💜)

❗️JOOX Music announced the production of “Fan Krub”, starring Ohm T., Perth T., Tommy S. and others. - date TBA.

Upcoming shows & movies for July

☝🏻Pornographer - July 1st (Japan)

☝🏻Sweet Curse - July 1st (South Korea)

☝🏻Best Sisters Forever - July 2nd (Taiwan)

☝🏻Why Love Why SS2 - July 3rd (Philippines)

☝🏻Don’t Say No Special EP - July 4th (Thailand)

☝🏻Him Will Be His - July 8th (Philippines)

☝🏻Unforgettable Love - July 8th (Philippines)

☝🏻The Best Story - July 9th (Thailand)

☝🏻Love While You Can - July 10th (Philippines)

☝🏻The Yearbook - July 15th (Thailand)

☝🏻Given - July 17th (Japan)

☝🏻Love Area - July 17th (Thailand)

☝🏻Call It What You Want SS2 - July 23rd (Thailand)

☝🏻Lockdown - July 23rd (Philippines)

☝🏻Gameboys: The Movie - July 30th (Philippines)

#doreens monthly bl breakdown #bl dramas #thai bl #update #news #i still cant process that we will see maengmum again dsjkhfsd #this show is gonna be lit yo #also im actually really hyped for CIWYW ss2 #i need more marco and bas in my life #also the best story is already coming out in july which is way sooner than i thought sjdkhsd #also not at me being very intrigued by the check out series jfhkdsd #im just excited to see best again lol #so much stuff coming #help

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olderthannetfic · 3 years

Note

hi hi history-non again, sorry I know it's a very

ahem wide and girthy ahem

ask, and i'm sorry for not narrowing it down farther my brain is smooth as butter and the dart board, so to speak, is. big. i feel like im throwing my dart in the ocean of 'what i don't know' and trying to spear a fish who might speak to me like the queer elder i never ha d ;lkasjd;flkas damn you small conservative town ANYWAYS

i guess okay maybe do you have any favourite figureheads? whats your fave pieces of lgbtqa+ media (like books or shows?)

thanks again and sorry for.

uh.

big.

Lolololol. Yes.... it’s so... big...

In the 90s, the writers of nonfiction who I found really inspirational were Susie Bright and Kate Bornstein. My Gender Workbook was a classic. I gather there’s a new edition.

I was a massive, massive nerd, so my actual favorite queer book as a 14-year-old is one that will be a bit... uh... much if you’re not feeling very intellectual. It’s Third Sex, Third Gender: Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and History. This thing is a massive doorstop of a book that collects academic journal articles on third gender roles from various cultures. I was obsessed with this thing. Again, it’s academic journal articles, not popular nonfiction, so expect that level of impenetrable prose.

I was also a giant weeb, so I read a bunch of books on the history of gay sex in Japan. It’s pretty interesting how much people assume the “m/m sex = sin” shit was worldwide and how much it just was not.

In terms of fiction, I’ve always struggled to find f/f media I relate to. I really like the tv adaptations of Fingersmith and Tipping the Velvet. Lots of fucked up problematicness and gorgeous visuals. Gotta love the lady with the strap-on and the gold body paint!

For other queer media, I was a big fan of Velvet Goldmine and of Pedro Almodóvar’s older films, which are full of every problematic kink you can think of. They also have a lot of het I like, like the lady being coerced into sex (that she enjoys) by the drag queen who impersonates her famous mother she has a lot of mommy issues about... except said drag queen is really an undercover police officer. Just... whut. (All the “straight” stuff in Almodóvar’s films is also bugfuck nuts and often kind of queer.)

I really, really, really loved Crash. Not the shitty one that won an oscar: the car crash perverts one full of weird UST. There’s a ton of straight sex in this too, along with every gender combo and a laundry list of upsetting kinks. It’s just every kind of weird perv thing. (”Weird art film full of sex and problematicness” is pretty much the defining feature of movies I liked as a teen. I loved Kissed, that het necrophilia movie too.)

Stage Beauty is probably my favorite film for bi vibes. It’s this meditation on identity as the English stage was changing over from having men play women to having actual actresses. It ends in f/m, but it’s definitely a very queer film.

If you want slice of life stuff, I guess you could try Dykes to Watch Out For (the comic that’s the source of the bechdel test) or the Tales of the City novel series. These will both give you a sense of what was going on in certain queer communities in the late 20thC. If you want something relatively fluffy, Maurice is a historical costume drama with a happy ending. I found it awfully slow as a college student, but it does have naked Rupert Graves (Lestrade from Sherlock), so...

----

See, this is hard to answer because I came of age and did all of my reading of that kind a long time ago. I pretty quickly moved on to fangirl media, which I have always liked a lot better than other arguably queer stuff. Back in the 90s, that meant Japanese stuff and fic. Later, I had access to more flavors of by-fujoshi-for-fujoshi media.

So my actual favorite m/m books are a bunch of “m/m romance” (i.e. American BL being sold as ebooks on amazon). If you want live action TV and fandomy vibes, you’re better off with Trapped (hot cop/mobster action!) or one of those Thai series about schoolboys or something than stuff made by cis gay men in the US.

I also came of age in an era when “queer” media was very Cis Gay Men And Sometimes Cis Lesbians with an occasional nod to bi people existing... maybe. Kate Bornstein and a few others were raising the profile of MtF transsexuals (the term in use at the time) who wanted surgery or even, gasp, maybe didn’t want bottom surgery in some cases. Anything about FtMs or nb/agender/etc. identities was practically invisible. I saw the term ‘genderqueer’ around a bit, but it was mostly in contexts that were very tryhard and unappealing to me.

(You haven’t given any details, but I’m going to go out on a limb and guess you’re like much of tumblr and the flavors of queerness you relate to aren’t so much the Cis Gay Men Only culture that makes up quite a bit of queer history and older queer media.)

I can tell you what I liked as a teen, but not everybody is into fucked up art films that may not have happy endings. I can try to rec things about queer culture in the 90s, but I probably don’t have great recs for way earlier or later than that... unless it’s so much earlier that I’ve researched it while writing fic of some historical canon or other. A lot of how I learned about queer culture myself was from magazines or from reading soc.bi on usenet or just from living through the 90s--not typically from books that are easy to unearth and just hand to someone now.

I tend to just not like anything in the contemporary romance or slice of life genres, regardless of gender and orientation, so while I’ve watched/read a bit more queer stuff like this, especially in the past when I had less access to queer media, it’s not a space I’m great at reccing in. And that’s unfortunate because a lot of that type of art gives you a better sense of what other queer people were like in other eras and/or it’s a safer rec than some bananas crazy BDSM film.

I was, and am, very kinky (though pretty lazy in terms of actual practice), so a lot of my reading and media interest was bound up in that also. Obviously, I was quite interested in the drawings of Tom of Finland or the photography of Robert Mapplethorpe, but are you going to be into photos of some guy shoving a whip handle in his ass? I love the movie Cruising... it’s about serial killers and leather and homophobia and is every bit as potentially traumatizing as that sounds.

I feel you on the problem of finding queer elders. There isn’t really an obvious way to go about this.

#queer history #queer media #Anonymous

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