#absolutebl

[doorajar]

Another one for ABL:

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Best gal pal of the year so far ? @absolutebl and others will be amused ... as am I !

Caged Again, Episode 7

[hanjiwoos]

TO MY STAR (2021)    |   SEMANTIC ERROR (2022)

[99pacificpassions]

Cat Corners a Mouse

@absolutebl:

The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese AKA Kyuso wa Chizu no Yume wo Miru (Japan 2020) - Drama llama queers so queer and so dramatic it's like Japan is trying to PROVE something: obsession, cheating, break-up, reunion, then break up again, all of it explicit. This show is just SO JAPANESE. I can't even, but you should watch it and you'll know exactly what I mean. Something like My Personal Weatherman owes it's lineage to this kind of BL. If you like Japan naked, boney, emo, and smoking (hot & ciggy) you will love this, and should watch it. It's objectively amazing, I can't stand it, but I NEED people to talk about it more.

Absolute-kun gives so much and asks for so little. Here's my personal appreciation of this terrific film, for him and others interested in top shelf BL…

Spoilers ahead, but I felt Cornered Mouse (currently on Viki) was better the second time because I could soak up the details. If you haven’t seen it, you might enjoy it more with some background beforehand. It's a bit difficult to keep up with.

The seme is Imagase Wataru (on left above), a gay man passionately in love with Otomo Kyoichi, a businessman married to a woman. Wataru (given name) is like a character out of American Noir… literally a chain-smoking private investigator.  Like a Noir protagonist, we may not like his means, but he has a code he lives by.

Kyoichi is handsome and sympathetic, but he places himself in situations where women eventually suggest a sexual liaison and his fatal character flaw is that he can’t say no to women. But the philanderer can say no to Wataru, to a point. He’s much rougher with Wataru’s feelings than he is with any of the women in the movie.

The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese is based on a manga of the same name and reviewers say that it’s about 65% faithful to the original story. Another reviewer compared it to Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love, which is one of the best films ever made. I won’t claim Cornered Mouse is in Mood's league, but I would say it's close and that the main differences are Mood’s opulence and heterosexuality. Cornered Mouse is the best-crafted BL I’ve seen to date.

The film has some great writing, but prefers to show instead of tell, which requires a lot from the talented actors. Narita Ryo as Wataru is remarkable and a couple screenshots aren’t going to do his performance justice, but here he's hunched on a stool like a cat:

Here's Wataru after Kyoichi wakes up to find him looking through the text messages on Kyoichi's phone... in the same room: 

Narita Ryo transcends the AbsoluteBL bar for great acting. Elsewhere, he’s not afraid to look ugly in a scene.

Obviously, this film’s in the BL category of “gay man converts straight man”, generally considered a doomed goal within the queer experience. Somehow, Cornered Mouse’s river of details makes this seem realistic, mostly due to the straight lead’s indecisiveness and Wataru’s persistence... and his fellatio techniques.

Negative reviewers of Cornered Mouse never dispute that it's well-crafted. They tend to complain about the ending and that the characters were difficult to like. Yet, the movie is about accepting people for who they are. If you don’t believe me… well, here’s the director Yukisada Isao:

My hot take is that Cornered Mouse is less about the lead characters accepting each other for who they are and more about the audience accepting them despite Kyoichi’s duplicity and Wataru’s lack of ethics.

The audience is also asked to accept the dilemmas inherent within the “gay man converts straight man” BL subgenre. At a key moment, well along in the men’s sexual relationship, Kyoichi’s college lover has called them both separately for drinks. She makes Kyoichi choose between them, resulting in this exchange:

Kyoichi (to Wataru): “I could never choose you. No straight guy would. You get it, don’t you?”

Wataru, smirking: “Yes.”

Kyoichi then goes to bed with the ex-girlfriend, but can’t perform. He returns to Wataru and is “punished” for his hubris. 

Previously, Wataru has asked to be the top during sex, but was rebuffed. After getting drilled, Kyoichi treats his relationship with Wataru with new respect. Yes, he will break up with him and even get engaged with a woman, but he goes through the formalities of a break up, on par with a heterosexual relationship. He’s far more concerned with Wataru’s feelings, even as he’s crushing him, than he was before that key moment.

The film asks its contemporary audience to come to terms with this more traditional implication: that Kyoichi “turned gay” by taking the sub role.

The other problem for many reviewers was Cornered Mouse’s open ending. They thought it was open, anyway. I didn’t. Kyoichi breaks off his engagement to a lovely woman and vows to “prepare” for the return of his lover Wataru. Kyoichi has always been the reluctant partner. Throughout the film, Wataru pursued Kyoichi no matter his target’s resistance... stalking, blackmailing, pleading... as if he had no limits. Of course, he’ll be back for more. Besides, in the manga, it’s made clear that’s what happens.

Wataru talking earlier in the film:

[odi-et-amo85]

Because This Is My First Life episode 8

I’m watching episode 8 of Because This Is My First Life and something’s telling me that South Korea has the power to come up with the final nail to @absolutebl ‘s coffin! 😈

[heretherebedork]

Here’s an odd one!

I just saw the ask, asking you about watching Your Name Engraved Here In.

I also am here for the troupes. I watched Make Our Days Count, when I was new to bl’s not realizing it ended the way it did. (I realize the name should maybe give away the sad ending now. I didn’t at the time though.)

So, now I’m wondering have you or do you know of any list of shows that end in a heartbreaking way? Like have a very sad ending, that maybe should be avoided by those of us who don’t want the heartbreak or would maybe like to know going in that it will end badly?

If not can you think of any others you know end badly/ heartbreakingly?

Thanks, you’re the best!! I love your blog it has helped me so much!💕

So!

I know that @absolutebl has several lists like that and they are fantastically more organized than me (They're how I knew not to finish MODC!) and I highly recommend looking around to see if you can find them or asking them, they'll happily link you!

So that's my recommendation.

But, also, Gray Rainbow is another one I can name off the top of my head to avoid. Peach of Time as well.

I sometimes go into a show knowing it will end badly but that's a choice I make with the foreknowledge of what I'm getting into.

Anyway!

Yeah. @absolutebl, the lord ruler of all lists, has this very well covered. But due to tumblr's organization skills being about as good as mine instead of theirs... I can't find it easily.

They did make the list! Here!

[thequeenofsastiel]

That was great. I think if I'd understood that it was Glee-esque absurdist satire with a main character trying to resist his queerness, not a straight one, I would've watched it much sooner. But I got to it eventually! Hope there's a third season.

[heretherebedork]

There’s a common characterization I’m noticing in BLs (Thai especially) where one of the couple seems uncomfortable with physical affection to the point of acting shocked when their partner touches them/expresses any sexual desire, often accompanied by wincing/cringing or otherwise acting like they are repulsed, even as the story tells me they’re in love. Thinking of characters like Pharm, Tine, Duen. Do you have any insight into what is behind this characterization? It’s so uncomfortable!

I.. do not! Okay, to clarify, I have vague ideas but I am not deeply knowledgeable. Might be more of an @absolutebl question, honestly! They have more knowledge and understanding of the use of tropes and archetypes than I do.

BUT I'll give it a try because I've never minded being wrong!

There is definitely a lot of purity culture in BLs. The idea that wanting sex isn't something you should do. You shouldn't want sex, you shouldn't want that kind of thing, you should want to Be Pure and Only Love Him in a romantic-but-not-sexual-way, especially for the character placed into the stereotypically feminine role.

I'm fairly sure it comes from showing that these characters are so Pure and so Innocent that they cannot handle anything else. This is done best with Pharm (he's nervous, obviously so, but we see him learned to trust Dean) and worst with Duen (where you could spend the entire show arguing that he never wants to be touched) and okay with Tine (it's one of the reasons I never liked 2gether, honestly).

It's always the character being pursued, who is typically in his first relationship, who Never Thinks Of Sex. They're often very sweet and innocent and wide-eyed. I really think it's just purity culture combined with the idea that any touching in a romantic relationship Must Be Sexual (more purity culture!) and the idea that it's Very Important to be Pure (oh, look, I defined purity culture...)

Yeah. My vague attempts? Sorry, I did my best, but deep cultural, archetype and trope knowledge and understanding is not my wheelhouse. Though I will do my best!

[thequeenofsastiel]

Finally decided to watch Absolute BL, and it's quite charming and silly. Normally watching someone fight their attraction to the same sex is depressing to me, but somehow this show made it adorable. Mobu was just such a sweet baby who was trying so hard to resist, but Kikuchi just shattered his resistance, and I love it. @absolutebl I can't believe I waited so long. Onto season 2!