-Aprillen-

Exactly! And the silent confessions in the well which should really have been made aloud.

Fun fact: The author of the book (Chai Jidan) is also the screenwriter for the series!

Thank you. I guess I need to rewatch it :)

Yeah, that's my theory too, that they framed is as a complete flashback because they had to put everything in this special instead of letting it unfold in the series. But then we went from the beach scenes to the post-concert situation, and that switch wasn't completely clear to me (although I may have myself to blamefor that, due to watching this at 2 am, lol)

I liked this a lot, and I'll tell you why.

My main problem with Saifah and Zon in Why R U (SPOILERS AHEAD FOR Why R U) was always the fact that Zon was kind of mindfucked into a relationship with Saifah by the "magic" deal he made with Zol, where he at first was super confused about what was going on, and quite freaked out, and then just kind of ... stopped resisting and went along with it. It felt off, and a little too easy, like he was just giving up and accepting that he was a character in his sister's novel now (which is not a healthy basis for a relationship, lol).

And this seems to be exactly what they are addressing now! Seeing Saifah get his heart broken hurts a lot, but aside from being a bit too harsh about it, Zon's reactions here make absolute sense. He is losing his heart, but he can't trust that it is real, it's like he's inside a huge prank set up by his fujoshi sister, and he doesn't even believe that Saifah is the real Saifah. To us, with full hindsight, his actions look cruel (and can we just take a moment to appreciate Jimmy's acting -- he's not saying much, but we can *see* Saifah's heart break in front of our eyes! The hurt! The vulnerability!) but to Zon, he is just trying to protect himself from being totally screwed over mentally and emotionally. In his fragile state of mind, Zol holds his heart in her hands and is *toying* with it.

(I'm pretty sure at this point that Zol doesn't actually believe in the magic; she probably just thinks her brother is being superstitious and that everything is happening for real, which is a nice analogy for the delulu fujoshi mentality, because if she did, that would be truly cruel of her. And if she does, she actually deserves what happens to her in this episode.)

The only thing that confuses me is the time jumps. In the beginning, Zon and Zol are writing their novels and talking about the beach trip as if it *has already happened*, but then we are suddenly right after the concert, and Zon's and Saifah's actions don't make a lot of sense unless they take place after the concert but long before the beach. I'll have to watch it again to see if I can make more sense of it.

Me too! I think he's said that he would do it if it was a good script and a role that would let him grow as an actor. A lot of young male actors start out doing BL not because they like the genre but because that's a way to gain a fan base and become known, and some of those series aren't very good (and some of those young actors very obviously aren't comfortable with it). But Nanon is from an actor family and has been working since he was a little kid. He never needed to do BL in order to get a foothold in the acting business, and has been able to be more circumspect when picking his roles. So now that he has actually decided to do it, I have high hopes for it!

Gun is playing a pair of twins, Black (who is the gang member) is straight, but ends up in hospital, and his twin (whose name we don't know yet) who decides to take his place, seems to be gay. And during the GMM-TV live YouTube event the director said that she's done LGBTQ content before, but this is her first time with a BL. So I'm pretty confident that it is.

Official trailer is here: https://youtu.be/Nwh5M2uWDmM

I think the second ep will be free next week. The newest episode will always be behind a paywall, but the previous ones for free, if I have understood things correctly.

This looks absolutely AWESOME. Something is definitely happening with the BL genre, even in Thailand! First Manner of Death, then KinnPorsche, now this! BL is growing up, people!

I literally screamed when it appeared on the GMM-TV lineup show!
And GMM-TV are big, so if they announce something, it's going to happen. IT'S GOING TO HAPPEN

Nanon is very picky with his roles, so the fact that he has accepted this as his first BL says something. And Ohm Pawat is shaping up to be a very good actor who looks natural and great with whomever he is partnered with. This should be good!

YES! It's a thing! That I am looking very much forward to!

Nanon is doing his first BL, with Ohm Pawat! https://youtu.be/44RULap1yNg

There's a separate entry here on MDL for HIStory 4: Close To You, though. So if this is the same drama, either they should be merged or this one deleted.

While Sunset doesn't have a particularly original premise, it's all in the execution. Same goes for Cherry Magic, IMO. Both of them have taken old themes and raised them to a completely new level. Getting compared to those two isn't a bad thing.

I like what they did with Fujisaki in Cherry Magic. In the manga she's a fujoshi, but in the series she just ships them quietly and takes secret delight in their love. (Also first aro/ace character in BL, which is nice)

While I agree on principle, that's very easy to say but harder to do. China is a totalitarian state, they're not known for listening to outsiders, and for people on the inside it's very dangerous to make protests.
One thing we can do is to not support the censored official versions, either by completely boycotting so-called BL from China, or by watching the unoffical, uncut versions "elsewhere" (to the extent that they even exist -- and even so the "uncut" versions are pretty heavily censored compared to the source material). We can also support organisations that fight for LGBTQ+ rights and equality in China, Russia and elswhere.

Can you tell me if the book ending is different from the drama ending?

I agree, this is probably as close to a true BL as you can get in China. There are no kisses or other obvious outward token of their love, not even a spoken confession, but it's very, very obvious that it is what they are. There are a few dialogue exchanges that seem to contradict it, but they don't fit very well with the narrative and seem totally pasted on to deflect the censors. I suspect what happens to Yuan Zong at the very end is also a concession to the censors, because the gays obviously can't have an undiluted HEA (but it's still implied that it can be more or less fixed).

Episode 28