This Week in BL
Sept 2021 Wk 1
Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs.
Ongoing Series - Thai
Bite Me Ep 1 (Viu & Viki) - A BL DRAMA ABOUT THAI FOOD IS OFFICIALLY THE GREATEST THING EVER TO HAPPEN TO ME. AND OMG IT’S GOOD! Chef Aue spots the boy/cook of his dreams, Aek, and wants to make Aek his protégé (and husband) but it’s not that easy for the boy in question. I think this is going to be a Korean-style slow burn, low heat, with strategic use of tropes. Sophisticated for Thai BL. Also, everyone wave at Gameplay! (We love him, okay?) Here are my thoughts on ep one. I won’t be doing a full recap because it’s on Viki (too hard to screen cap).
My Boy the series Ep 10 fin (Line) - I jumped back in to finished it out, seems to end on a cliff hanger and still has all the issues I dropped it for, so I’m happy is didn’t bother. Still, I feel pretty safe in saying NOT RECOMMENDED. (note there might be 2 more eps.)
- Love Area Ep 6 (is now being uploaded officially to Gaga at 2 eps a week) it seems to have become hard to find elsewhere as a result. I certainly couldn’t get hold of it. Still I’m happy it got distribution.
Siew Sum Noi ep 3- 10 eng sub 11-12 unsubbed (Drama Cool) - two fistfuls of tiny disasters, better then we have a right to expect, especially if you can make it to ep 4 (trust me, skip the singing). I like the northerner baggage and how the different characters handle the classism of it. IG is great at pining. The side couples (especially in the north) are super cute. There’s even an out gay character. Still, we are in major pulp territory with ALL THE TROPES including some homophobic and problematic ones. RECOMMENDED WITH SERIOUS RESERVATIONS.
The Yearbook Ep 8 fin (Line) - thank goodness that’s over. Honestly this could have been 4 eps instead of 8. Frankly, it could be one of Y-Destiny’s minisodes. And what the hell with that stinger? Just gah. It’s getting a 6/10 from me, RECOMMENDED IF YOU HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO. And I really mean NOTHING. This is the BL equivalent of watching paint peal and feeling sorry for the wall getting exposed.
Don’t Say No Ep 5 (Line) - now this one I AM trash watching. We are in TT2 territory where it’s all a whole riot of nothing happening. DSN is like eating jello salad. I’m like...What’s going on here? Am I enjoying this? Sadly I think i might be. Do I hate myself for that? Wait, WHAT was that? Leon reminds me of Mark from Gen Y while Pob reminds me of Kaow from Brothers. This is a good thing, cute combination. Full on discussion of jello salad meets BL in the trash watch recap.
7 Project Ep 1 “Would You Be My Love” (iQiYi & YouTube) - it was fine, as expected SantaEarth delivered decent acting, great chemistry, and good kiss. Bullying isn’t a trigger for me so I thought this one was perfectly serviceable if not groundbreaking. I guess each one is going to be 1-2 hours (one couple) like the Close Friend series. So I’ll only be watching the BL & GL ones.
Ongoing Series - Not Thai
- Friend or Lover (YouTube) Ep 6 - Taiwan’s quirky indie piece didn’t drop its final ep so far as I can find, but they don’t seem to be on a fixed schedule.
Love is Science? (BL sub plot Viki) Ep 11 - Taiwan finally brought back everyone’s favorite confident gay meets disaster bi and we are so grateful. OuWen, my love, I missed your adorable suits. Although, to be fair, I love Mark’s arty looks too. Anygay, other stuff happened to other people but we got another desperate confused grab and kiss from the disaster bi. Now we are all waiting to see what confident gay will do. Gonna be good.
Love Is the series (YouTube) Ep 1 - a cute soft new Pinoy BL I picked up because it looks like it might be sweet. Liking it so far but these ones can go askew easy. Still it seems like a fun indie studio. There is a poor seme/rich uke thing going on that I enjoy.
Peach of Time Ep 1, 2, 3 (WeTV & Viki not USA, I’m finding it on YouTube & DM) - Korean/Thai BL It’s sad out the gate so we know what we’re in for. Language is both Thai and Korean. Even I, who do not speak Korean, can tell that Jimmy’s accent is ADORABLE. Tommy plays a ghostly fairy godfather. Basically: Two boys, one of whom is dead, have to solve the sorrows that lead to that death as well as past family trauma. It has a very He’s Coming to Me feel that i (of course) like a lot. Although I am not banking on this one ending happily.
In Case You Missed It
I thought Thai BL Love Advisor was going to be a series but it turned out just to be a microfilm (c. 30min). It’s stylish, has a very Wes Anderson feel, and queer aura (rather than BL) and the subs are decent. It’s basically a pretty one act play with very few cuts and good production values. I got Nampu (Top Secret Together) vibes from one of them (a very good thing) but I found it a little dull. Good acting but a slow pace. Interesting twist ending and a more Korean feel than one might expect from Thailand right now. 7/10 RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS
Thai mafia BL KinnPorsche dropped a new teaser from its new studio. Much lower production values same main couple.
Red Devil and Heroine Su available with eng subs on youtube. It’s a microfilm Chinese GL version of Word of Honor.
Gossip
Any My Engineer RamKing fans out there? Anyway Perth (who is the sweetest cinnamon roll) has a two part series reacting to the RamKing scenes. Talay joins him for the second half. It’s great. They talk about BTS stuff like workshopping and acting with animals. Perth speaks in English, Talay in Thai, but there are good subs (Perth did ‘em.)
Korean BL My Sweet Dear that I reported on last week seems to be restaurant set. YES!
Queer Korean production studio Strongberry has a new microfilm coming out called A First Love Story. Trailer here. I’m looking forward to it.
There’s another new Korean BL in the works, The Tasty Florida. I’m a mite suspicious of this one, while it seems to be university meets food themed (my fav) the description and title do not inspire optimism. Will this be Korea’s first BL pulp? Maybe... Will I watch it? OF COURSE. Oh and Yoo Hwan, former leader of the Kpop group SPEED, is one of the mains. Does this make me happy. YES VERY. Here go watch SPEED do one of the greatest tricks in the history of k-pop at the END of Don’t Teese Me when they should have been exhausted. I’ll wait. Our boy is one of the three acrobats (white shirt or black shirt with white on the sleeves in that big trick, or pink hair high-flipping at the very end).
In other news, was that Korean actor in a kpop band a decade ago? I WILL NEVER LET IT GO. Never.
Thai BL Unforgotten Night (adapted from the y-novel Mafia's Bad Love) as been listed as in production. Office grunt Kim has been pining after his senior for a long time. To forget about him, he decides to have one night stand with a random stranger. That stranger becomes obsessed with him. Mafia man Kamol is kinky and (I’m assuming a Dom) and no one is able to satisfy him until Kim. I’m assuming this is a KinnPorsche knock off, but hey if that doesn’t get made who are we to look down on the Golden Bloods of the BL world? Stars Yoon (YYY) as the mafia Dom and Choke (Y-Destiny, he was opposite the boy who time-slipped) as the sub. Honestly the poster makes me think this might all be a joke:
Next Week Looks Like This:
Some shows may be listed later than actual air date for International subs accessibility reasons.
Slim pickings this week, @heretherebedork is doing a September V-BL rewatch and I’m IN, if any of you want to join us. My V-BL list is here. HTBD’s is here and is better.
Upcoming 2021 BL master post here.
Links to watch are provided when possible, ask in a comment if I missed something.
This week’s best moments?
Just them, being back. Smooching.
