Controversial dramas

Revenged Love, a chinese BL has been highly recommended to me. But when I looked it up, the reactions to it were extreme: people either loved it or they were shocked by it.

Can you think of other dramas (not only BLs) that were so controversial that they provoked polarizing reactions.

Some that were suggested were

• Unknown
• Only Friends
• TharnType
• Love Mechanics

Do you agree that these were controversial? What does a controversial drama make?

Is Revenged Love controversial?

Is it because both male leads are red flags, one is a manipulative liar and one is a madman?

Unknown is controversial because it's about an adopted younger brother love his straight adopted older brother. It's what they called pseudo incest. And there's a big age gap.

Only Friends is a toxic BL. One is a person who sleeps around and cheating a lot and he'll also appear in the sequel. One like one person but sleep with the other and let other person pursue that one person iirc. That other person is ofc a red flag, pursuing someone just to sleep with him. The other 3 are considered innocent before they find out the truth, after that it's pretty much a feast.

TharnType I didn't complete it but there's one gay male rape one straight male then the straight male wants to keep doing the deed but don't want the status and sleep with woman too. Ey...

Love Mechanics is controversial because one of them has girlfriend but sleep with intoxicated man who like the first man's senior (accidentaly but in purpose, as he wants this man leave his senior alone) and later just keep sleeping with this man while keep dating his girlfriend.

I think maybe:

180 Degree Longitude Passes Through Us (wide age gap)

Addicted (rape, step-brother)

Happy of the End (SM, sugar daddy)

My Stand-In (control freak, blackmail, contract relationship)

 Secret Relationships (gaslighting, toxic male leads)

And anything with rape, blackmail, gaslighting, cheating, big age gap, incest and violence will be controversial imo.

 Yebles:

I would not know since I have not seen it but I glanced over a few reviews and they were either rave or scandalized (apparently there is a lot of forced sex going on). Guess it depends a lot on the age of the viewer!

Oh, I already forget about that... 😅

 Yebles:

Can you think of any non BL dramas that provoked a very loud  and polarizing controversy? Japan is usually very strong where taboo subjects are concerned!

Ah, Japan... Yeah, not getting enough information from Japan. Only check upcoming dramas and movies at times. I only remember some actors cheating or making racist remarks and being replaced and inactive for some times but going back after some times. For controversial theme, I think there's various themes that for me controversial but in Japan they're not. Like  Wandering (glorifying grooming but actually it's a decent movie with several great actors) and Dear My Baby: Watashi ga Anata wo Shihai suru made (I watched a few episodes only, quite sure that the manager is an obsessed stalker).

I think 2 of Ai Mi's upcoming dramas are pretty controversial because there's romance and she's an underage girl. Every titles BL or non-BL, romance and non romance with underage actors or big age gap (like with Heavenly Ever After and Beyond the Bar) even when there's no kiss at all are quite controversial. People are even calculating the age at the time of filming for some underage or coming of age actors. I remember I read that kind of comments in mdl drama page for Bua & Kwan: The Opposites of Love & Hate.

Some historical titles that's lacking historical accuracy or containing false information should also be controversial, like Dongji Island (it's a movie though and it's impressive imo) but sometimes, when it's labeled as fictional historical drama no one really care like in the Love in the Moonlight, people only discussing FL's eyeshadows color that's not suitable for historical drama iirc. The Princess Wei Young is also controversial for the makeup. But I'm sure makeup and costume controversies is not what you're looking for.

 Elisheva:

Only for those who insist on seeing it through BL

True! I never considered it a BL but just a drama and, while watching, tried to figure out where the BL angle was. Could not find any. I do remember it being controversial for the people looking at it as a BL and hating the mother. I loved her. She was being a mother not a b***breaker!

 Yebles:

True! I never considered it a BL but just a drama and, while watching, tried to figure out where the BL angle was. Could not find any. I do remember it being controversial for the people looking at it as a BL and hating the mother. I loved her. She was being a mother not a b***breaker!

Exactly. If you recognise and appreciate 180 Degree Longitude for what it is, it's a very different experience than going grumpy because it's not something else =D

I find this true with more than a few Thai titles, especially with inter fans looking for their fix of same-sex kisses and not being open to different ways of telling stories (even though they are knowingly watching fare from another country). Though in those cases, it's rarely "controversial" as they tend to all misunderstand it in similar ways and are in disparaging agreement ::shrug::

The writer/director studied and worked in the US and brought some of that theatre tradition into 180 Degree Longitude. Maybe that's part of why there's divided opinions over it here - it's familiar enough more MDLers get it, but not all.

(I don't know anywhere near enough to speculate as to whether there's a similar or related dynamic going on behind MDL controversies for other countries' titles.)

Mol is a fantastic character, well-written and Mam gave a great performance. Some of my own baggage keeps me from loving her, but that's just an indication of the realism they tucked into the melodrama - so this is very much a compliment =D =D

 Elisheva:

Only for those who insist on seeing it through BL goggles and are determined to turn it into a romance instead of recognising that it's a stage play about an old love triangle between three friends and a kid (not) coping with the death of his father.

 Yebles:

What is it with the age gap obsession her? There is even a tag "age gap; real life". WTH?!?!?

I remember being a bit disconcerted by the characters' age gap in Goblin but they were both equally immature so it was eventually just ridiculous ! lol

A few years ago there have been a few scandals in K dramas due to politics & accuracy (China, islam) with "new users" review bombing those dramas. One was actually cancelled after 2 episodes, I don't remember the title.... I don't know of any recent ones.

Well, these days people care a lot about age gap. I'm not one of them (as long as no one's ugly hehe). Maybe it's because in my country it's very normal for my friend to marry someone 14 years old older when she was 23 and for a female high school teacher to get married to her former student when he graduated from college (they're real life people). I think they're worried about their younger generation normalising romantic relationship with big age gap. I mean if my imaginary male friend dating my imaginary underage son/daughter, I'm going to make one going to psychiatrist and one going to jail. When they're both adults, I really don't care. I'm sure my imaginary children won't be that foolish to marry someone because they're lonely or lacking father figure. I'll make both wait until 3 years passed for sure.

Is that K-drama Tempest? I remembered Jun Ji Hyun's advertisement posters and pictures being stored or thrown away as the dialogue in the drama offended several countries. I don't remember about the cancelled drama. Is that also K-drama?

 Yebles:

The CCP's Masculinity Push
That is a real thing? I know about chinese censorship but I never knew it was brought about by the Untamed (which is very tame on surface!). 

The Masculinity Push is totally a real thing. As far as I can tell, it's been an official theme since 2016. But it's only my half baked theory that the Untamed was a catalyst. The Untamed is so accomplished and successful, and got international attention. I agree that it's tame compared to actual BL, but there is that music duet, and the chicken gifting, and the bunnies... and in the context of mainstream cdramas, it seemed to me to go further than, say, the jokey, implied gay relationship in Love O2O. I started thinking it irritated the CCP because soon after I finished The Untamed  (2019), I read a couple of news articles about the government cracking down on portrayals of "sissy men." And I read that the "Masculine Ideals" campaign really got going in 2020.