K-Drama 
Portugalia67:
I have a thought for M. P tonight: spending the evening with Fluke while watching Until we meet again for the first time! And so far he didn't disappoint, starting ep4 right now.
Question to the round: is Between Us worth the watch?
until we meet again - prepare for some tissues =D
between us - i loved it, it's a 10/10 for me =D
K-Dramafan21:
jazme:
I have a little question not just about bl but what is the food support that (bl) actors receive during the shooting and some other events. What is it and how does it work.
are you referring to food trucks?
I saw things like this in many stories while actors while filming.
(This was in Mix story some days ago)
If you google “what is fan food support in Asia” you will get a detailed answer. Basically in Korea and Thailand fan groups pool money to send food trucks, coffee trucks, or catering to sets to support a particular artist or artists. The items are heavily decorated with images showing fan love. Usually they send more than enough to share with the staff/crew. Specific campaigns online ask fans to donate money for these efforts.
Indie Art Girl:
Question to the round: is Between Us worth the watch?
I liked it. 8/10 for me
I think it’s definitely worth watching. Has some flaws but still great. I’ve watched it more than once. I originally gave it an 8.5 but increased my rating to a 9, because over time my love for it grew. This is the show that made BounPrem a couple fans love.
I have a thought for M. P tonight: spending the evening with Fluke while watching Until we meet again for the first time! And so far he didn't disappoint, starting ep4 right now.
Question to the round: is Between Us worth the watch?
After watching Until We Meet Again, I wanted to see more and more of BounPrem, so I was really happy when they got Between Us, even though we had to wait two years for it. I enjoyed it, but after waiting for so long, my expectations were even higher. I rated it 8/10. 😁
Love the picture !
LueurArcane:
The Last Lock of Love official teaser [ Full Version ]
Cant wait ❤️🥰😍
KristSingtoGirly:
Need them in a Death Note BL version series plz 🙏🏻🤞🏻🥰❤️😍❤️🔥🔥 I am obsessed
Need them in a Death Note BL version series plz 🙏🏻🤞🏻🥰❤️😍❤️🔥🔥 I am obsessed
Fully agree 💯 😍🥰💕
i third the motion =D if only we have the means, i think us peeps here can make better bls with our faves lol
Question to the round: is Between Us worth the watch?
Ditto to what the others have said: Absolutely yes!
Unlike some unplanned spin-offs or sequels which suffer from bad retconning or too much repetition/overlap, "Between Us" has a very different story focus and introduces some cute and engaging new side characters - and of course, Boun and Prem really shine. There are a few re-used scenes from "UWMA" where one can see the difference in hair styles, etc., but that's a minor flaw.
P.S. So glad you're enjoying "UWMA". 👍
It's quite an intense emotional experience - thankfully with lots of cute and sweet and even funny moments to dial down the intensity.
duckysun:
soo. I have a lot of opinons when it comes to cross-regional BL dramas remakes, like thai BLs having a japanese remake and vice versa. would anyone be interested in reading it and sharing their opinon? literally writing this for fun cause I have no much on my mind lmao. let me know!
I also have a weird comparison to make between 'I told the sunset about you ' and 'love mechanics'. that's an essay i wanna write too.
Disclaimer
This essay discusses cross-regional drama remakes. A cross-regional drama remake is when a region buys the rights to a BL drama or movie from another region to produce its own rendition within its own format. The example I will delve deep into is Love in the Air, and the Thai and Japanese versions. To be transparent, I have not 100% completed the Japanese remake, but watched the first 5/8 episodes all the way through, including the episode that switches to the second couple. Keep this in mind, please, but my opinion stands.
Also, please be respectful. I am open to criticism as long as it’s shared respectfully. I will also be open about my negative opinions about some actors and production value. I don’t hate these people, but merely am making my own opinions public, backed up with support (I am not merely hating for the sake of it). I hope you enjoy this; I just want to rant since I’m crazy.
Material
The first issue that comes to mind when looking at cross-regional drama remakes is the format. Especially considering the vastly different formats of a Thai and Japanese drama, it creates an obstacle that jeopardizes the material and storytelling. Consider the format of a Japanese drama. Japanese dramas are typically 6-10, 20-25 minute episodes. They will most likely be a single couple through a straightforward story. This is archetypal for other regions such as Korea too. In short, they’re short; you can finish an entire Japanese drama in an afternoon, less than that even.
This is not the case with Thai dramas. A typical Thai drama is 8-12 (sometimes even 15-17) episodes, 45- 70 minutes each. Thai dramas have interlacing couple(s), intricate friend groups, side plots, even family dynamics; hell, the dad in ‘Lovely Writer’ (SPOILER ALERT) had a BL side story revealed (please watch that show BTW, it’s very good). Think of ‘Between Us’ with BounPrem. The main couple both have friend groups of 3+ people, with stories that interlace with each other and get their own sections of screen time besides the main story. This format in Thai dramas can handle this abundance of material properly with the time they have. With this, the least amount of time it’s taken me to finish a Thai drama, considering I’m a student and have a job, and that I sleep, is two days. This is pushing it, and this is not on a usual sleeping schedule; I most likely slept at 2-3 AM. (PS, it was ‘Playboyy the Series’, also a good…crazy watch).
Having said this, the transfer of material from over 12+ hours of content to barely 2 hours of content is unreasonable and unfair to the material. What attaches us to characters the way Thai dramas do is in the way they gradually build character. To shorten this to certain scenes takes away from characteristics and habits in a Thai BL drama that may be character-defining. Especially when handling NC scenes, the payoff isn’t the same when you haven’t built a ‘relationship’, for lack of better words, with the character. This is in no way saying Japanese BLs cannot build character, but rather, when you start with the original Thai drama, where you’ve watched so much more character building to the point you know this person’s next move, moving on to a simpler version for the sake of format feels like you’ve been cheated. There are scenes in original Thai versions you may have come to love and felt really solidified a character for you, but it was cut or changed in the Japanese version just so it can stay within format. Again, this is unfair to the audience, in my opinion.
Besides this, when considering material, cross-regional drama remakes are subject to immense comparisons that make it difficult to simply enjoy the show. When you have enjoyed a drama and attached yourself to its characters, it’s difficult to shut that out when led on to believe this other region will accurately justify those characters. When a show is cast poorly or when format crunches demand plot changes, the show is subject to comparisons that make the new content mirror rage bait. You’re sitting there asking yourself, why did they do that, why did he say that, what are they doing? Personally, something I always end up asking myself when I subject myself to cross-regional drama remakes: why don’t I just watch the original?
Love in the Air (SPOILERS)
The whole reason I’ve built this oddly long opinion about cross-regional drama remakes is because of Love in the Air. Before I delve into it, I have to make some disclaimers. I am very biased. TLITA (Thai-Love in the Air) is a major comfort show for me. I’ve rewatched it top to bottom maybe 30 times, and that’s barely an exaggeration (just episodes 8-12 maybe 50 times). On top of this, it’s one of the first maybe 10 BLs I had ever watched (beginning in 2023), so there is a lot of emotional attachment going on there. With that, I’ve come to really enjoy and understand these characters to some extent. So, when I found out there would be a Japanese remake years later, I was sceptical. My thoughts were as follows: Who is playing these characters? Are they going to bring justice to the real emotions and story of these characters? I was genuinely concerned, because while it may just be a silly show with big sexy NC scenes to some people, there are topics in there that are real, raw and serious. In particular, I'm thinking about TLITA PrapaiSky (played by FortPeat). I will explore that part of the remake more later.
Firstly, looking back at the first promotional photos, I saw the face of Nagumo Shoma, who plays the Japanese version of Payu (Boss): Arashi. I’m sorry to say this for fans out there, but I don’t think he was a fit for the casting at all. This is coming from someone who 1: has seen the original character of Payu many times, and 2: has seen Nagumo Shoma act in 2 BL roles beforehand. Nagumo Shoma is not new to the game, and I immediately recognized his face from ‘KISSxKISSxKISS’ and ‘25 in Akasaka’. These are two very good shows he’s played a main and supporting role in, but the entire time I couldn’t get past the quality of Nagumo Shoma’s acting. He’s very dry and emotionless when he acts. His line delivery is cold and holds no weight to it. I was immediately put off by the thought of him being the one to play the suave, charming and smooth-talking Payu. I think of the scene in TLITA that Payu ‘fires up’ Rain in the bathroom stall. It's an intimate moment where Payu is so insanely alluring and basically ‘hypnotizing’ Rain with his words, making him melt without even touching him. This is not the case with the Japanese version, where they change it to them in a car. Nagumo Shoma is cold and awkward, and it’s just not comparable to the original at all. This is relevant to my overarching point in that it's hard to watch this when I am constantly made to compare this character to its original material. I immediately couldn’t stand Arashi in terms of the actor’s abilities when I was hooked on Boss's performance as Payu.
Unfortunately, the Japanese version of PayuRain was just the beginning of it. I paused my watching of their storyline to skip to what was the most important part to me: PrapaiSky. To this day, PrapaiSky is one of my favorite couples. I even think it is still FortPeat’s best performance. For the sake of this essay, I went back and rewatched the first scene of FumaKai (Japanese PrapaiSky) to ensure my opinion stood on something other than anger, and it does.
When TLITA switches to focus on PraipaiSky, their first scene is crucial to understanding Sky’s character. His attitude is fueled by his traumatic past with his ex-boyfriend that abused him. This causes him to have a different relationship with sex and intimacy in general. He’s come to believe that actual romance is not something he’s capable of (or even worthy of), and that sex is just a tool for men. This is clear when he responds to Prapai’s sexual invitation in episode 8: ‘Just take what you want,”. Sky’s delivery is full of sarcasm and attitude: as if he’s over it. This response is not lustful, is not loving, is not intimate; his response is really saying something like : I don’t care about you or what we are, get me out of here, I don’t care how it happens. This is such a major scene for Sky and speaks such volumes about his character. Here, he does not love Prapai, he doesn’t necessarily desire him like Prapai does here, but sees him as scum similar to his ex, that he has no choice but to cater too as his life is in danger. Sadly, the Japanese version butchers this scene. When Fuma makes his advances, Kai responds with: ‘I will do whatever you want,”. This response is delivered in a way that communicates a sense of desperateness, neediness and lust; as if Kai gives in to Fuma’s desires. That is not Sky; that is not the traumatized attitude-riddled Sky in TLITA. That really fired me up. Sky is such a dynamic character, and the way that he was altered for the Japanese version was so frustrating, especially when this is such a defining characteristic of him, it could only change how Kai’s character was, and I couldn’t handle that. I genuinely had to stop watching after that, being that Sky is my favorite character of that show, and even now, just an amazing character in general. THis may be so dramatic of me, but again, I’m biased. That’s like.. the best scene ever.
Send Off
Ok... although I feel like I have more to say, I need to chill out lmao. I hope you got a kick out of this; don’t hate me, Shoma-stans. I hope this doesn’t make you think I hate Japanese BLs, because I literally have 4 BL tattoos based off of yaoi, so it’s not the case at all. Let me know if you really liked JLITA (Japanese-Love in the Air), and your thoughts on my opinion. Again, please be respectful and kind; I won't entertain hateful responses. I wrote this for fun, just cause I like talking, and you guys actually watched the shows I’m talking about here. Alright, have a good one, you guys!
