Do you think there's any show that could successfully be adapted for western audiences and all that would entail? I saw the post about why the west doesn't do rom-com shows generally, but if someone decided to take a chance, what would have the highest chance of breaking into the west?
BL With the Highest Chance of Breaking Into The West
Okay so taking Parasite as the Asian drama to beat? Or at least match up to. (Since it won best picture Oscar as a horror flick, which is a commercial genre category like romance, and everyone knows horror separates from romcom with a very slim line - mostly musical.) And let's consider Love, Simon as the latest mainstream success in the world of gay.
They aren't perfect baselines but Imma talk super broad brush strokes here.
Until We Meet Again could do it
It has the best story structure and most consistent acting over all. Also it's not a rom com so it would play better over here.
Also UWMA's narrative is just exactly Asian enough to be approachable. (Please don't get mad, I just think the reincarnation red thread mythos is easier to grok for confused westerners than the social structure, rural location, and heart transplant of 1000 Stars or the ghost and religious beliefs of He's Coming to Me which would be my other contenders.) It's our intelligence as a general audience I doubt, not Thailand's content.
The cooking aspect of UWMA is extremely relatable (even though it's Thai deserts) and as the small town baker trope is HUGE in contemporary romance and cozy mysteries right now I think this would be a big selling point.
Here's the broad changes it'd need:
It would have to be tightened up A LOT, it's a 17 hour run time and it could probably be cut back to half that, let's call it a 6-10 ep miniseries, like The Crown or Bridgeton. Western audiences are hugely impatient.
The series and each episode should open on DeanPharm, not KornIn. In fact, I would suggest making the KornIn story line stingers for each episode, not starters. Use their arc for cliff hanger tension instead of what it is now, which is mostly foreshadow.
More attention paid to background music, it'd have to be swapped out and altered.
Strip out all slapstick and sound effects, there aren't many but still, it all has to go. Yes, including Minaow falling all the time. Similarly, all product placement. Western audiences break suspension of disbelief with these elements, we tend to find them very jarring, and are likely to shut down and turn off as a result.
All English language logos have to be masked.
They'd have to put the trigger off screen and no blood spatter (it can be alluded too but not shown, otherwise there is fixed NC17 rating). Right now no USA based streaming service is going to pick UWMA up because of this specific content. You can't have blood spatter in a romance and hit the right audience demographic, restrictions are too high. The romance audience, mostly straight women, many of whom have children, is more likely to consider rating than any other audience. (AKA they want to watch something and not have to worry their kid might see some of it.)
I'd probably put a slight a sepia filter over their scenes as well. UWMA didn't do great on historical setting so far as wardrobe, makeup, set dressing, and hair were concerned. There has to be something more to alert audiences to the time slip.
The funeral scene would have to be a lot shorter. (See dwelling on the maudlin below.)
And like I said above, I'd rearrange placement of their timeline as well.
Specific Edits: DeanPharm
Should probably cut all the uni girls shipping and FB public shaming storyline at the beginning as well. This could all be axed without impacting plot and a general western audience wouldn't Understand any of it anyway.
They'd need to recut or fade out the kissing/sex scenes earlier because of the dubcon effect that Pharm's constant flinching and hunching gives. That's not considered necessary or sexy in western sex scenes, so it would have to be edited out to turn most audiences off. Since the kiss and intimacy scenes are pretty long running in this show, it wouldn't be difficult. (Also see above with the kids looking over shoulders.)
There's a lot of long cuts on Pharm crying that could be cut down/out too. Western audience don't like to dwell on the maudlin, it's considered overdramatic and in poor taste. There's an element of impatience with overt shows of emotion in a "YES we GET it" kind of way.
Honestly while this seems like a lot to do, it actually wouldn't be too difficult for a good editor to execute. There's a LOT of content to work with in UWMA.
Notice I don't have much to say about WinTeam?
They come off as very modern and easy with each other as a couple and I think this is one of the reasons they are so popular. Also their cuts and scenes are shorter and better paced (product placement is the only issue.)
Finally, I'd consider a dubbed version.
Don't get me wrong, I hate dubbed stuff, but in this instance it might work really well. There is a large romance consuming (TV watching) demographic that hate's captions, unfortunately likely to be the same demographic who would find the Thai language off-putting. (We talking LifeTime and Hallmark here.)
Thanks for the fun ask! I'm not sure I took this in the direction you wanted, but I enjoyed the thought experiment.
Imma add once again that I took this specifically on how to make a BL palatable for as big an audience as possible, so it will sell well and have as large a reach as possible.
Which means all my recommended edits are from a marketing perspective.
I'm not sure any of us would *like* the final version as much as the original. But that's kinda the point, it wouldn't be for us anymore.
