tsundere seme, enemies to lovers, rich/poor

Stars Chap (from Y-Destiny & Lovely Writer) opposite Green (2 Moons 2 & Lovely Writer minor rolls) directed by Mike (Golden Blood) about a sweet skilled tailor and a self-centred, fragile rich kid.

I hated the seme, he beat up a subordinate! That’s irredeemable. It’d be great if this were JUST soft, because when it was soft it was LOVELY. But the softness was super rare. Watching this was like eating a meal of just spices. I’m like: the spice profile is good, but it’s not ON anything. Look, I’m always here for some high heat and good chemistry but even I think that this one was ridiculous.

GMMTV be like: watch us squander glorious chemistry on terrible scripts. Tuxedo: hold my beer.

This show MADE NO SENSE. It had no plot or story. I don’t know what I’m watching, neither does it, but I really hope we see these boys agin in something better and more worthy of them.

NOT RECOMMENDED

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secret lovers, Romeo & Romeo, sunshine/tsundere, enemies-to-friends-to-lovers, GL side plot

GMMTV’s flagship BL started 2022 on a BANG (okay no actual banging but you know what I mean), starring heavy hitters Ohm & Nanon in a pitch perfect university Romeo & Juliet masterpiece that will give you domesticity meets pain whiplash throughout and jet lag at the end. Great production values, killer acting, and some conscious effort to correct for half a decade of Thai BL’s anti-queer mistakes. GMMTV, we forgive you. More.

The bar has been raised, Thailand.

An adaptation of the y-novel Behind the Scenes with established BL director Backaof (1000 Stars, He’s Coming to Me, Dark Blue Kiss) who took steps (strides even) to correct for some of GMMTV’s own past BL mistakes with regards to queer rep. Production values were high (if more workmanlike than cinema-licious). Heat levels were pretty low but Ohm had his shirt off a lot (thank you) and the acting was absolutely stellar.

In the end I loved Bad Buddy.

The family struggles and toxic friendship group made it a little bit difficult for me to take at times so I am not certain how much rewatch potential it has. We shall see. However the ending was unexpectedly satisfying if not typical for romance.

Live blog of this one is here.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

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workplace romance, grumpy/sunshine pair, love triangle

This one was cute but it’s also the first Korean BL where I really felt like the characters were being seriously ill served by the length. (Usually with Korea’s BLs it’s story/plot that suffers the shorter runtime.) These boys just didn’t have much oomf to them.

Essentially this was a sweet and fluffy story of a willing and eager sunshine boy saving a grumpy chef from himself which featured an unnecessary love triangle that was too underdeveloped for the amount of angst that resulted. On the bright side, everyone was VERY pretty. And that was a very bright side indeed.

Did I enjoy it? Hell yes, they beautiful! Did it have any substance to it beyond the pretty? Not even slightly. Do we want more than that? Ya know? Sometimes... no, no we don’t.

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Enemies to lovers + cohabitation + long term pining

Lovely Writer is about a BL writer who is dragged onto the set and casting of his first BL series. The lead actor of the series starts flirting with him and they fall in love. The chemistry was great and the acting solid. It launched as a fun show, light hearted for all it poked at the BL industry. What it did beautifully (like Oxygen) was correct for some of BL’s fatal flaws. There were no consent issues, cutout characters, or gay for you. Even the family coming out sequence was honest and fairly dealt with. Yet it still managed to hit most of the Thai BL tropes I have come to expect and even a few yaoi ones I love.

Simultaneously the series confronted issues within the BL industry: depictions of non-consent; catering to market pressure; forcing actors to performatively flirt and hide existing relationships; product placement; fan obsession and stalker behavior; and the complacency of studios, agents, and directors.

It ended up being one of my favorites of 2021 (only the finale was a bit drawn out for my tastes) but it suffered from one fatal flaw - egregious sound effects, overused and CONSTANTLY applied cartoon noises particularly in the first half. The sound tech should have been canned after Episode 1. I found it so distracting I docked a whole point for it. Still this was one of the best BLs from Thailand in 2021.

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arranged marriage, age gap, secret identity, cohabitation, rich kid problems, he’s in engineering

It was a real pleasure to see Zee again (Why R U?) and his new love interest is very well cast. MaxNat turned in their usual consummate side dish action, (origin Why R U? also Y-Destiny & Close Friend) and it’s always fun to see Perth (My Engineer) and the other guest cameos.

With very high production values at at first I thought they were gunning for Korea, but I’m got a real Japanese feel from this one, Thai style of course but there is definitely a lot of visual referencing live action yaoi. Also the music and sound were pretty darn good.

It took me a few episodes to accept the absurd conceit of this show and its quirky characters and motivation as ALSO EXTREMELY traditionally yaoi and very lifestyle D/s. After that I just rolled with it. I realized that if this had come from Japan I would have given it a pass immediately. Why be tough on it just because it comes from Thailand? So, about half way through I liked it A LOT more.

The chronic miscommunication really tested my patience at the end tho.

A Mini Essay on My Love of LianKuea in Cutie Pie (and ZeeNunew's performances)

Honestly I just love LianKuea's dynamic, it's so D/s but also so classic yaoi seme/uke. The way Lian smiles when his Nu does something cute is so damn sweet. He’s practically the definition of a caring Dom. Killing Kuea (and us) with stern softness. Zee did a fantastic job with this character. That said NuNew also managed to give us an appealing uke with gumption and a crush and a failure to understand self actualization who we liked.

But let's be honest here, the actors' chemistry is REALLY good.

Look, there is something about the way Zee looks as his acting partners. His eyes are very doting, no mater the line delivery or any other aspects of the scene. He's been given these fierce stern roles to play in Fighter and Lian but he always seems to manage to temper his characters with fondness.

I like doting affection on screen.

I also like to see a seme actually sexually intersted in his uke, otherwise the archetype comes off as more inclined to ownership and less about desire. To be frank, Zee is also good at transmitting the "I want to bone" thing.

Since a seme character is aggressive and obsessive and intrusive he has to be tempered by some sort of softness to appeal to a modern audience. Add in authentic feeling sexual interest and the seme character MUST be gentled by the actor's performance, or we end up with a H4 situation. And Zee manages to transmit all that with just eye work. It's great to watch.

But NuNew did a wonderful job too. Kuea was clearly interested and willing and game. There’s no sign of the Blushing Maiden with this uke. Thank fuck, could we PLEASE kill that archetype?

As much as I love a Daddy who wants his boy, a boy who needs his Daddy is about a billion times better. And genuine sexual interest from the uke character is still far too rare in BL.

In this regard, Cutie Pie was a breath of fresh air.

What can I say?

They love each other, they just idiots
is a favorite of mine.

But...

They WANT each other, they just idiots?
Yeah. That one is gonna get me EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

The other pairs were good too!

MaxNat serve us high heat while smiling the whole time. Which was kinda charming and basically their signature. These two just seem to have fun together. It’s nice.

Language note on Yi’s confession: Diao’s nickname khondiao means “only” or a”lone” in Thai? So when Yi confesses, he’s using world play when he says “I love you only”. More here.

However, I gotta say my favorite kiss of this show (and it was VERY kissy), was actually Syn and Nuea. Adorable. I wish we had gotten more of these two.

Cutie Pie ended very navel gaze maudlin and sappy for my taste. The absurd proposal back-and-forth thing was kinda par for the course with Lian and Kuea and their miscommunication antics, but I was bored by it.

This show went from absurd to appealing to annoying and then back to absurd again - but always sappy and nicely high heat for what ultimate seemed to be an equal marriage propaganda piece. Which I’m fine with, but Taiwan’s Faded did it better in 20 minutes back in 2017.

Nevertheless, on the strength of the chemistry of all three couples, the odd but very old fashioned romance tropes, and clear high rewatchability this one is getting a 8/10. Watch this one for the pretty, give it a pass on depth.

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Secrecy, betrayal, earnestness, age gap

A boy who just lost his job due to faked corruption charges accidentally discovers his ex-boss's favorite artist, now a recluse. His ex-manager offers him his job back if he can convince the artist to rejoin society. Instead, they fall in love. Gongchan (maknae of B1A4) carried this show (which I don’t expect from the idol element).

He was luminous with extraordinarily expressive eyes. That said, he had weak chemistry with his co-lead. But everything else was quietly queerly KBL pristine and beautifully executed, even the conflict. I’m not sure on rewatchability for me, and it didn’t whip me into a verbal frenzy the way some KBLs do but it’s still a solid enjoyable show. Bummer about the limited distribution.

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Secodn chances, reunion romance, former friends to enemies to lovers, sunshine/tsundere pairing

A reunion romance between a movie director who was once promising and a writer who disappeared due to past hurt. Stars JunQ (main rapper of 2nd gen group MYNAME) and Han Jung Wan (Mr International Korea winner).

Reunion romances are not my thing but I liked the bratty sunshine (inner pain) director character despite his stalking (and maybe because of his naked chest). Using a guitar to torture someone is entirely appropriate, in my book/BL world it happens all the time.

I did want to know what happened to them in the past but the mystery got drawn out too much and the tsundere character became very frustrating and mean spirited as a result. I like the resolution and explanation for the conflict a lot more than I liked the conflict itself.

I could tell what this show wanted to be, and what it could’ve been, but it simply wasn’t good enough. In the end, like a host of other KBLs over the last couple of years, it is eminently forgettable.

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an extremely uneven historical bromance, soap opera, fake identity, hidden secrets, cross dressing

from WATCHA (Light On Me) historical web drama starring idol Youngjae of B.A.P. Adaptation is based on the webtoon Spring of Crush by Noh Myung Hee. Plot: Hye Seong lives disguised as a woman because he seeks to flee the country, until one day a Geum Seong discovers his secret and falls in love with him.

It started out very Korean historical comedy, much more so than the historical KBLs we’ve had so far (Tinted with You, Nobleman Ryu’s Wedding). It is, unfortunately, also largely over acted, there is a lot of scenery chewing going on. The cross dressing is definitely played for laughs and there is a Cindefella elemen. Bad wig warning. There’s a lot of voice over thoughts, people explaining what is going on to the viewer (we KNOW), and also talking to themselves as exposition. None of this is good. It’s a big cast and high production values for such a crappy script: quite the soap opera, everything but identical twins was trotted out: amnesia, secret identity, lost noble heritage.

This story reminds me a little of those girl disguised as a boy host club shows we got from Japan for a while – same kind of comedy that is a little beyond my ken. At ep 7 it finally got good as the boys developed a genuine friendship. The snake thing was odd though. To be fair there’s a lot of odd in the show.

“Knives and money are gender neutral.” is my ne fav quote.

It had a largely suitably tragic ending (including an Untamed call back) for all the bad characters and some of the good ones. Of course I liked the psychopath second lead best - apparently my second lead syndrome extends to COMPLETELY INSANE.

In the end, this drama was all over the place with uneven acting, narrative, and focus (sometimes it wanted to be a slapstick comedy, sometimes a depressing drama) which meant no one, actors or viewers, took anyone or anything seriously.... AND it’s a bromance. I was left wondering is SalHyung is now code for “they were roommates” in Kdrama historicals but otherwise largely apathetic and unimpressed. Korea, we now know you can do better. Watch Tinted With You or Nobleman Ryu’s Wedding instead: 3/10 not recommended, I don’t know what I’m watching, and neither does it.

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Why Until We Meet Again is special among Thai BLs

Until We Meet Again is one of my favorite Thai BLs of all time.

I wouldn’t say it subverts tropes so much as it utilizes them as a spice for story, rather than utterly depending upon them. Most BLs (out of Thailand in particular) turn the tropes into the story. The narrative is entirely dependent on BL tropes for scene structure and plot. They are BL trope reliant/dependent.

UWMA is not like that at all.

Another way of putting it is that if you pulled all the BL specific tropes out of something like, oh I don’t know, 2gether, it would actually fall completely apart.

Now, I’m not talking about the romance foundational tropes like fated mates or fake relationship, those form the narrative backbone of any romance story (and most BL is romance). I’m talking about visual element tropes like baby is a floppy drunk, or the dreaded sponge bath, or wound tending, sharing earbuds, sharing a closet, etc...

For something like 2gether, these tropes ARE VITAL to moving the story along, fixing pacing issues, etc.. Which is FINE. That’s how most hey-day yaoi is. It’s how many contemporary romances are now.

But with Until We Meet Again if you removed all the BL tropes, the story would still be there, standing strong. The tropes add BL flavor to the series, like a spice, but in essence UWMA is actually just a fated mates romance, and it would stand strong as such if all the tropes were striped away (although we would probably lose WinTeam under those circumstances).

Another series that recently acts this way is 1000 Stars. Which is why, I think, it had such broad appeal and rabid fans.

Since it also doesn’t have a suicide element trigger, I would poset that 1000 Stars is actually one of the best BLs to recommend to outside watchers in order to lure them into the genre. Until it came out i tended to rec UWMA with a trigger warning, now I’ll probably be pimping 1k* first.

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I loved it, but not as a BL.

This is a true lakorn with scenery chewing performances, especially from the mother characters.

It is a Thai tellenovella + Gone With the Wind but gay.

I loved it: A glorious central brother relationship (the best, made me cry), het romances, class divide + gay *gasp* main romance, the campy drama of it all. Arranged marriage, rebellion, cut sleeves, dramatic death with curses and regrets, beautiful if inaccurate costumes, secrets unraveling, cover ups, sparkle murder, sex herbs, coils within coils including snakes and death by glitter (is anything gayer on this earth?). It’s a WILD ride.

It’s not BL. It’s not a romance, it’s a family drama Thorn Birds style but it does end happy for our gay boys.

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love triangle, trigger warnings all round, just a mess of a "show"

A Make It Right meets Degrassi Jr BL short form soap opera with no real ending, featuring chaos boys, chaos script, chaos everything. I would like it known that my sexual identity is chili henceforth. (My pronouns are MaxTul & sometimes Phi.) Look, this is an absurd show. We got BDSM 101, a lesson on how to use a condom properly AND and example of why the closet is both necessary and damaging? I mean I applaud their educational endeavors but BL: The After School Special? Really, that’s what we signed up for? In the end a total mess (they too young to call it a hot mess). I don’t know what it was and neither did it.

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time slip, parallel worlds, alt reality, am I dreaming, cohabitation, bisexual manwhore, fated mates

An interesting time slip concept and a great set up ultimately disappointed. It opened strong, on one of my favorite under appreciated Thai actors: Plustor (as Vee) in a side bartender romance with younger bisexual king, Games.

Unfortunately it went downhill from there.

OhmFluke’s solid chemistry and most romantically soft kissing was ill served by a reformed rake meets rich-kid cheater pairing, While it was nice to see Ohm play a character with more animated facial expressions, his was the only character that remained consistent throughout.

All in all, this was a confusing show about cheating and parallel worlds that never made sene or stayed true to its characters. A promising start, confusing middle, and disappointing ending. I don’t say this lightly, but Oh My Sunshine Night is better. 6/10

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university set, high school crush, jock/nerd, long term pining, reunion

Adapted from a y-novel by Peachhplease, starring Joong (2 Moons 2, formerly one half of a VERY popular BL pair J9) + fresh face Dunk, and directed by New in his usual blatant and somewhat mechanical style. The very first episode I said “I think I’m confused by the directing on this show. WAIT A SEC. Is this New phoning it in? (Runs to check.) Why YES yes it is.” So yeah... called it!

Back to Joon.

While it was awful nice to see this beautiful golden boy again, I think he was ill served by this role, or maybe he just doesn’t shine as brightly without Nine? Or maybe he needs a stronger directing hand than New’s? Yes I think GMMTV intends for Joong to be their next Singto but from this performance I’m not sold. I thought Dunk out acted him, making Dao a likable and complex character against which Kluen felt rather flat. Although that said at first I really didn’t like Dao.

This is (sort of) a lost love reunion arc (GMMTV bringing back the blue shorts, hello old friends) + freshy hotness contest giving it a 2 Moons vibes. It was fun to see some Wabi Sabi stable playing around at GMMTV, and while it sounds like I’m being harsh I actually did enjoy this show.

I like how honestly they treated all the faen fatals for a change. I like how directly they approached the pain of rejection contrasted to loyalty and holding out hope. I also liked that Kluen was set up to lose if he couldn’t get it together and actually communicate his feelings. It’s a good life lesson. It was frustrating how long it took though. There was a lot of me yelling at the screen: please just TALK to each other.

I don’t like shows that function on this “plot.” Miscommunication for the sake of it (or for the lack of it) is always frustrating for viewers or readers. We feel manipulated.

Also, ultimately, these two were a bit too sappy and Dao was a bit too blushing maiden for such an aggressive uke, but that’s par for the course with GMMTV and Director New. (After all, he’s rumored to be the reason Pharm is that way in UWMA, apparently he’s wasn’t written like that.)

Look, this is one of those shows that I shouldn’t really like after 400 BLs. It’s not at all unique, just some classic Thai uni folderol driven by miscommunication (or just non-communication) and yet... I COULD NOT STOP WATCHING.

Also good kiss. Honestly, 2022 is the year of the BL kiss.

It was interesting to see Thailand tackle a love triangle, but let’s be fair, it really isn’t their forte. Phoon was a plot devise to drive Kluen into confession. Thailand should leave love triangles to Korea, Korea pretty much owns it after all this time. They’ve put a lot of work into it, Thailand, ceed this one to the north, please?

All that said, in the end, the show itself worked for me, fitting solidly into GMMTV’s pantheon and it’s... how do I put this... central lane?

It feels like the Thai pulps are noodling along in in the slow lane, and the outliers like Mame’s shows and Cutie Pie and KinnPorsche are in the fast line. Sometiems we dont’ know where they are going but they are going there QUICKLY. (With shows like SCOY just drunk driving all over the darn place.) Oh I like this metaphor.

I guess what I am saying is GMMTV is like reliable soccer daddy of BL, safe, well maintained station wagon, clipping along but safely. And we all know what we are in for.

Star supplied exactly that.

It didn’t excel, like Bad Buddy, it didn’t disappoint, like My Gear and Your Gown, and it didn’t fly off the tracks like Not Me. It was exactly what I want from GMMTV.

Does that mean I am a touch disappointed?

Sure, because I had my expectations met and I kinda always want them to be exceeded, especially with us all knowing GMMTV can actually do better.

In short, everyone involved with this show seems to have mostly phoned it in, but it was a REALLY nice phone call.
That said?

MORE OF THE SAME PLEASE. I didn’t get into BL for the goddamn novelty of it.

RECOMMENDED

It’s basic BL. But honestly, don’t we all need that plain white t-shirt to wear under our engineering smock... in the end?

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The Foodie BL I Always Wanted Thailand to give me

Main Tropes: enemies to lovers, tsundere seme, rich/poor, foodie romance

It's like Star Hunter has FINALLY grown up with this show. WZM was better than we have any right to expect with decent pacing and a foodie theme threaded through the narrative as both love language and plot driver - which I have been WAITING for. Basically CEO falls in love with a street vendor’s food, recruits him to work in his hotel, falls in love with him, and that’s the beginning. Class struggles! Kitchen drama! Papaya pounding (not a euphemism)! Chef poaching (not literally)! Spicy scenes (yes literally)! Food puns! It’s all so delicious.

Star Hunter... did you serve this one up just for little old me? Sure seems like, since no one else consumed it. Well... I do have a high space tolerance.

I think I have finally figured out Star Hunter’s brand: CHEEKY.

Will this review be full of food puns. Oh yes indeed.

Sure this show gets absurdly over cooked and falling apart messy in tone, it's like Star Hunter just CAN'T help but over egg the plotting (see what I did there). I imagine their workshopping is a hoot, it's a bunch of young actors being ridiculous, and the chaos just leaks onto the screen. But all the acting is on point, and ... FOOD! (Yes I have eaten my body weight to som tum. Why do you ask?)

The leads are actually pretty good (previous in Hidden Love). Poon is a great character because he is tsundere WITH good reason. And he’s portrayed with depth and sweetness for all his salty pride. Also I'm not opposed to a bit of a CEO romance in my BL. Alpha being won over by love and som tum, tasty. But what I really loved was that Athip loves Poon first for his food. When Poon runs away Athip finds him because of his food. Arthip begs forgiveness by eating Poon’s food.

But it’s BankBonus (who play Teng & Mayom) who once more steal the bacon. Honestly they dominated Gen Y 2 and now they are doing it again. Just give them their own show already! They absolutely crackle on screen together and it’s such fun to watch, who cares about plot?

In the end, this was the foodie romance set in the Thai Restaurant industry I have always wanted. The machinations of being in food service formed not just setting but also plot. Perhaps if Bite Me, Love Area and some of the ones from Korea (My Sweet Dear, Tasty Florida, Ocean Likes Me, To My Star) hadn’t disappointed me in this regard, I wouldn’t be so generous with this show. And to be fair, it probably should get a 7/10 by my normal standards. But What Zabb Man was cooked up exactly to suit my palate (and apparently no one else’s) so it gets a 8/10.

RECOMMENDED, especially if you like Thai food.

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