Vietnamese BLs

VIETNAMESE BL 44

ViAn (2023. 12x25min)

At the end of the tether after being fired from his job again, Vic leaves Saigon and rents a house in Dalat in order to rest and figure out what he wants to do next. The rent is cheap since the house is considered to be haunted. But the haunting noises turn out to be a cat, Little An, who wakes up as a man the next day. It is the start of a strange cohabitation.

ViAn is a ball of fluff, using every known romcom trope, quite funny while managing to avoid cringe moments. There are serious issues hidden in all the fluff: homophobia within the family and how to accept oneself. Just like in every recent VBL, there is practically no NC content (just a couple of imaginary kisses, but really hot nevertheless! LOL).

The actors are extraordinary. Ba Vinh has nothing left to prove: he is the best there is. Mai Vu Luan, played the cat to perfection. Actually it should be illegal to be so cute and pretty as he is! Cinematography is surprisingly nice with some lovely close up shots of nature. I loved all those cat T-shirts: I want them all!

ViAn is a vertically filmed series sponsored by tiktok. The series aired daily episodes on tiktok and weekly edited compilation on O2 youtube channel. Attention though: episode 12 has two versions. There is an added scene in the second one explaining everything!

Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIpGOAILGZg&list=PLf_mCRbXsMcDHxWRsYBlB63R9gyHjlLOg&index=1

Watch it on youtube here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf_mCRbXsMcDHxWRsYBlB63R9gyHjlLOg 

VIETNAMESE BL 46

The Servant and The Young Master (2023. 7 x 5-11min)

Huyy comes back to his family's plantation after a long time and is mistaken for a thief by the servant, Lan, who beats him up. Huyy forgives Lan and starts pursuing him aggressively. Lan, who is uneducated and illiterate, does not understand what Huyy wants at first but quickly accepts Huyy's advances. Huyy's mother wants him to get married to a girl who has a crush on Huyy.

This Vietnamese BL is obviously a labour of love, filmed with a limited budget and considering that, it is an excellent drama. But...

It is vertically filmed (I hope this fad passes quickly!) which makes it difficult to watch on a laptop. The guys are cute, the servant spends a lot of time bare chested and there are a lot of kisses (for those interested! LOL). And of course, what would a BL be without a mean wannabe girlfriend!
 
Personally, I had trouble believing in the sincerity of the love story because of the master/servant dynamics: it was always the master who took the initiative, never the servant! They looked nice together, though: the costume designer often put them in matching shirts!

You can watch it here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJVAAy7BIozDIl4xqiwT5wMVkJEmr193-
 
The first minute of the first episode is the trailer! 

VIETNAMESE BL 48

Be Your Star (2024. 20x40min)

Dinh Huy (played by Nguyen Ba Vinh) is a 21 year old orphan raised by his grandmother. In order to pay for her medical bills, he is forced to do a myriad of part time jobs while going to school, one of which is an escort. During one such job he bumps into Thien Bao (Ho Dong Quan) and the encounter is explosive. Gia Hoa (Duy Harry), Dinh Huy's best friend, gets him an interview for an internship with the company he works for. It turns out that the company's CEO is Thien Bao and he refuses his application. Disappointed, Dinh Huy comes upon a compromising situation which he films and uses it to get the internship. Thien Bao employs him to work in his house. Ha Lam (Vu Tan), Thien Bao's coworker, best friend and ex boyfriend currently dating Gia Hoa, does not like it: he sees that Thien Bao is developing feelings for Dinh Huy. But Dinh Huy is vehemently refusing his feelings, claiming to be straight!

Due to the poor quality of subs, the set up for the story is very unclear: so much so I had to scour the web to find a synopsis which made sense of what I was watching. The story develops slowly, giving characters time to get to know each other: there is a lot of fun bickering, shouting and being rude. This is not a fluffy story: it deals with homophobia, mental health, bullying, trauma and blackmailing. While that is shown well, I find that the solution where "love heals all problems" is very wrong.

Ba Vinh, the star of the Vietnamese BL scene, underperformed here: literally everyone else was better and the one who stole the show is the Grandma played by Nsut Phi Dieu, a 91 year old veteran actress.

This is the latest offering by O2 productions so it is a made on a shoestring budget, there is no cinematography to speak of and while the songs are nice, most of the background music had already been featured in their other series.

The official playlist is here but is missing three episodes (which are behind a paywall but they are worth the price!):
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAwmNqhkiwM74f_AS79gm679lSAu23L4Q

VIETNAMESE BL 50

People Come Later (2024., 4x30min)

After the death of their mother, Bach has been working hard in the countryside in order to take care of his younger brother Hao. One day, their landlady's nephew Tung comes to live with her after a huge fight with his parents over him being gay. Both Hao and Bach fall for him, but Tung has eyes only for Bach. Hao tries everything in his power to drive a wedge between the lovers. Will he be successful?

The production is very obviously a low budget one: the sound recording is atrocious. The plot progression is rather unclear: in one scene they met and they argue in the very next one, they'd been dating for six months. There are many time jumps, so it is difficult to figure out how much time has passed from the first to the last episode: I'd guess about two years. The story focuses mostly on the relationship between the brothers while the romance is the catalyst that make them get closer and eventually understand each other better.

The production company, PDID Films uses photoshopped thumbnails (sticking their actors' heads on foreign BL stills) so nothing you see on those actually takes place in their BLs.

You can watch  it here (episodes are not in order!):
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLc5Kewppg9kgwo-WPcBCwrMLJcH0LMtts

VIETNAMESE BL(maybe?)  52

The Fate Trap (6x7min, 2024)

Han comes to a seaside resort with her friends for a short holiday. There they meet Bao and Lan, and Han falls for the hot Lan. Han and Bao have an accident at the beach and wake up having swapped souls. Their friends don't know what happened to them and think they are dating. Bao's best friend Lan has a crush on him and kisses him twice, only to realize afterwards that something is off.

The producers, RL Studio (BLs: Stormy Honeymoon and Stupid Genius amongst others!) have decided to jump onto the vertical drama bandwagon and they are selling this one as a BL. The story is a straight romance, featuring a very annoying femgay support character and with a possible BL, maybe, if there is a sequel...

Watch it here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVG_B4qKfQfbgNEtsCUwieYOhRPfyc8FR

Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rXIYVkMemA&list=PL8vHP9TU8ecWQZOovjqej037Hpfq_MU_q&index=10

Enjoy! 

VIETNAMESE BL 54

Ban Sonata Anh Trang (Moonlight Sonata, 2025. 8x8min)

Thanh is a young man who dreams of playing the guitar but an accident stopped his promising career, so he is now just moping around not knowing what to do with his life. One day he comes to a café where the owner Huynh, a 35 yr old man, gives him hope with his kindness. Thanh ends up working in the café where he meets a variety of customers and gets closer to Huynh.

The producers OKVIP wanted to make watchers aware of different situations LGBTQ people encounter in everyday life so there is a host of interesting support characters such as a trans woman or a homophobic father.

The drama ends on a cliffhanger and I could not find any further information about this webseries: there is no obvious ending even though the main romance is established but there is possible trouble ahead.

The subs are auto translated Vietnamese to English and are surprisingly consistent (i.e. they make sense!).

You can watch it here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRZZB3RkPbwij2HFCjUHfx2swUbgloIcZ
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVG_B4qKfQfZe9aQa-BPnSXCGOcuA_88_

Enjoy!