#love in the air lita cutie pie unforgotten night star in my mind secret crush on you scoy war of y between us to sir with love triage
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KBL v. Thai BL: My Two Cents
So, I see the Thai BL v. KBL discourse on twitter and thought I'd chime in on it.
Most common KBL stan arguments I've seen:
Thai BL is bad. Bad acting, bad direction, bad editing, etc.
Most, if not all, Thai BL actors and stories are problematic.
Thai BL is just porn with no plot.
Thai BL actors are 70% jumpscares.
Most common Thai BL stan arguments I've seen:
Most KBLs are boring.
KBL stans are xenophobic and/or fetishize the Korean look.
Even if some KBLs are good, they're not all that much better than Thai BLs.
KBLs are just het kdramas w/2 men instead of a het couple (i.e., little actual LGBT representation).
Arguments I see from instigators who're pretending to take the high road:
Taiwanese BL better than them all.
"Only good LGBT content out of Thailand are the ones starring [insert their favorite femme actor here]."
My Take.
Both sides have some decent points and some completely idiotic takes. I agree with KBL stans that a lot of popular Thai BLs feature terrible acting and plot. Not all, but maybe 7 out of every 10 Thai BLs I've watched (mostly popular ones) either lack significantly in the acting or the editing department (with some lacking in both). Few are outstanding pieces of cinema (though I don't think those ones that aren't are meant to be).
Not only are so many Thai BLs just poorly made (and no, I'm not talking about looking expensive, I'm talking about hiring looks/nepotism/name recognition over talent), so many of them are just ill-conceived to begin with. Most popular Thai BLs are adapted from light novels which are just straight up erotica. And when you take the sex out, there's nothing of substance left. Nothing wrong with that (IMO). But I do see the argument from KBL stans as I, like many others, watch media to immerse myself in an entertaining and sometimes profound story (not necessarily just to get my rocks off). Obviously, a story can do both but it needs to be done well and be well-balanced.
Next, relative to actors in other industries a lot of Thai BL actors have been exposed for being homophobic/rape apologists/colorist/etc. Thai BLs also feature harmful tropes such as making darker skinned characters the bad guys all the time (while pale-skinned characters are innocent angels who can do no wrong), or actively shun darker/less eurocentric features. THAT BEING SAID, there's a couple of caveats I want to point out with this line of thought:
Thailand is by far the biggest producer of live action BL content and is simultaneously the most visible. Of course, there's going to be more instances of abhorrent behavior that make it to the twitter trends than that of any other industry.
Korean men are also not angels? Lol. Like did we learn anything from all the one hundred eleven million times kpop idols have been exposed for racism, anti-semitism, homophobia, and all the other -isms and phobias out there? Just because your fave KBL actor isn't hitting the media circuit like the Thai BL actors are (thus, giving more opportunities for them to expose themselves/be exposed), doesn't mean it's not happening or that they don't think that way.
Point is, both can be horrible with regard to the problematic aspect lol.
As for the Thai BL stan arguments, I agree that most KBLs I've seen are not that interesting beginning-to-end. Many of the ones I've watched are either just as bad as the worst Thai BLs plot-wise or horribly mid with no camp/kitsch factor to save it. Very rarely do I come across a KBL that gets me hooked either due to outstanding production or outstanding story (or both, ideally). A lot of this, I think, is because I hate the kdrama-style of production/directing that can suck the soul out of a heartwarming story.
Now, don't get me wrong, I hate the Thai rom-com style of production/directing with the heat of a thousand suns but the rare saving grace is usually its camp "so bad it's good" value. Either way, both take many Ls in the production department, regularly.
That said, I agree with a lot of Thai BL stans that a lot of KBL stans are reformed kpop warriors who simply prefer the Korean look (which is where we get so many KBL stans calling non-kpopified Thai actors "jumpscares"). I want to be clear here that I don't think all or even most KBL stans are xenophobic, but I said this a long time ago that many KBL stans who talk about the superiority of KBLs and the "inferiority" of Thai BLs move weird to me. You can like something and not use xenophobic dog whistles basically calling Thai BLs (and, come to think of it, even Filo BLs) poverty content and Thai actors ugly for looking too non-Korean.
Please understand, I'm not saying folks can't like what they like. It's about how you express that that changes things (e.g., saying X actor is not attractive is very different than roasting a certain skin tone or virtually unchangeable physical feature across swaths of people). Also, I hate when Thai BL stans use this argument as a way to get out of addressing poor quality we get from Thai BLs that prefer a marketable face/name over good acting/story. Exposing latent Korean superiority complexes is not the way to win the argument about Thai rom-com quality being piss poor.
Finally, the so-called bench riders who are really just anti-Thai BL (rather than pro-KBL): Taiwanese BLs are not magically superior to all just because you want to pretend to be better than the other KBL stans while also simultaneously hating on Thai BLs. Don't get me wrong, I love some Taiwanese BLs but 1) those folx using Taiwanese BL as a crutch are usually not being genuine, and 2) Taiwanese BLs have the most suspect incest relationship-to-socially acceptable relationship ratio of all time lmaoooo. Taiwan is not stranger to terrible concepts and questionable acting. We cannot continuously pretend that all non Thai BLs are the Citizen Kanes of our time whilst this fact persists.
Worst of all are those who stan ITSAY/BkPP (claiming that it's not BL and they're ~serious actors) but roast every other Thai BL (and hell, all BLs in general). Like girl sthu, ITSAY is a BL and BkPP are full time singers now. /j but forreal, I have a lot to say about this group of stans that I'll save for another post. (a/n: I adore ITSAY and am seriously impressed with BkPP but some of their stans are just...yeah)
#kbl korean bl boys love#thai bl taiwanesse bl#itsay bkpp i told sunset about you ipytm i promised you the moon semantic error cherry blossoms after winter to my star tms 2 blueming#the director who buys me dinner the new employee the eclipse not me my school president never let me go msp nlmg big dragon kinnporsche kp#love in the air lita cutie pie unforgotten night star in my mind secret crush on you scoy war of y between us to sir with love triage
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