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Foundational Romance Tropes? Fated mates & Grumpy/Sunshine
This is a cool little trope filled nugget out of Korea that I assumed was going to be a slice of life dance version of Wish You but was a bit more complex.The main character is a dancer and the love interest is a loan shark sent to extort money from him. There was a red tread soulmates trope coloring their interactions and a touch of unexpected physical humor.
Essentially it’s the story of two lonely lost souls finding each other, but also it’s about art and the connection it can build. The ending was rushed ( pacing off through the later half), and the whole thing came off as colder than I expected, but I liked it anyway.
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Love by Chance Season 2: A Chance to Love
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This review may contain spoilers
The End & A Limerick
Tin & Can were adrobs, and felt very modern as a couple in a strange way I can’t quite articulate, but that most BL lacks.I’m not sure this will enter my regular rotation as a rewatch, but I definitely enjoyed it. I pronounce it…
CUTE
* I thought Tul & Hin had killer chemistry. I wish we had seen more of them together.
* They ended the sad-sack Ae story line as best they could under the circumstances. Better than I expected, actually.
* I wanted more Keen, but I was always going to want more Keen. I am camp MORE KEEN.
* Techno & Kla went with a cop out, but who cares about that anymore?
A ditty:
I did not want to love it, but shoot.
Cantaloupe is Tin’s favorite fruit.
Sad Ae was too sad.
But Tul wasn’t so bad.
So in the end I found it cute.
Ddid anyone else miss Ae’s trusty tote bag?
Just me?
Eh, that’s normal.
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Grumpy/Sunshine pairing + Forced Proximity (cohabitation)
This was a 9 ep series of 10-15 each and was quirky as all getup, but so cinnamon roll adorable out the other side I forgive it all my confusion. I didn’t (and don’t) get it for the first half but it became more and more charming and totally won me over in the end.A popular actor laboring under a scandal (also a cheerful bundle of neurosis) has to hide out in the house of a hot introverted grumpy chef. The chef is NOT best pleased by having a human puppy forced upon him. Until he is.
Recommended so long as you realize we are in Mr Heart style K-BL, not Color Rush.
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Fake relationship, friends to lovers & stepbrothers tropes
sunshine/tsundere & grumpy/sunshine pairingsI have a mixed relationship with the HIStory franchise. They’ve broken my heart (several times), left things unfinished or unsatisfying, and simultaneously reliably provided some of the best kisses and hottest chemistry in all BL.
It’s like BL roulette with them, but the odds are never in our favor.
I’m one of the few who likes a fake relationship trope less than stepbrothers. I like friends to lovers but I HATE shipper self-insert characters. So going in I thought this was going to be real rough for me. And, in spots, it was. But what can I say? The aching toothsomeness of this show plus that glorious chemistry Taiwan casually dishes out like it’s no big deal totally won me over. Add in some old favorite side dishes from HIStory 3: Make Our Days Count, and I’m in.
The ending was pure BL syrup tapped from the cheesiest sappiest of trees, so absurd that I’m pretty sure I giggled through all the bits meant to be taken seriously. Honestly, to tolerate this show at all you just can’t take ANY of it seriously. And that’s me and most fandoms, so It worked for me.
What can I say? Whenever Taiwan flexes its BL muscles, it’s really hard to not stare. Even when they are this problematic. And covered in syrup.
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Friends to lovers + forced proximity (cohabitation)
Whether I liked Tohnon Chonlatee or not, I can’t deny that it gave us a number of things we hadn’t seen in Thai BL before:* Queer found family and support network.
* Out gay side couple who could function as healthy role models, advisors, foils, and comic relief for the main couple.
* Actually decent female representation.
* A truly charming cast of characters that included Na’s sunglasses.
Will it live on in the zeitgeist as a top Thai BLs? Unlikely, but it’s probably the first honest gay rom com out of Thailand with passingly adequate queer rep. So for that it will live in my heart forever.
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Foundational Romance Tropes: love triangle, cohabitation, grumpy/tsundere\sunshine
A Thai Bl quarantine project, short run series, that was a little like Call it What You Want meet My Mate Match. The support cast in this show was painfully bad (characters, story, and acting) although the 3 leads were fine. Interesting to see Gameplay play a full on tsundere uke, he was cute if a little too obstreperous. The actor playing First was fine, but then Best waltzed in portraying the second lead, Pluto. He pretty much blew everyone else on screen out of the water and gave me a terrible case of second lead syndrome. I look forward to seeing his full show, Check Out, next year. It got unexpectedly higher heat than I thought it would, which was well done, but I was left bereft and unsatisfied. This is why I loathe love triangles.RECOMMENDED ONLY IF YOU HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO
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LTR, self acceptance, mental health, poly?
Honestly, not sure what to make of this show. I liked it better than I thought i would. It was as dark as I expected but also not. Very happy ending, in an odd way it’s kind of a poly romance. There isn’t much plot, its high heat and the acting is decent. I’m tempted to say it was all over the place, but actually I think that was me, and the how it pretty cohesive. The youth of one of the personalities really kinda upset me.Will I watch it again? Nope.
So I’m settling on a 5/10 (that’s what I gave Advance Bravely so.. it works, it’s kinda that category).
RECOMMENDED ONLY IF YOU DON’T MIND TRIGGERS.
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Foundational Romance Tropes: friends to lovers, confession
A stylish little microfilm that had a very Wes Anderson feel, and queer aura (rather than BL) with decent subs. It was essentially a pretty one act play with very few cuts and good production values that I found well acted but a little dull. I got Nampu (Top Secret Together) vibes from one of the characters (a very good thing). An interesting twist ending gave this a more Korean feel than one might expect from Thailand, which is why I bothered to review this.RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS
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Viki lists this as HIStory 1: Ep. 2
University nerd's dad marries actor idol's mom and moves the two stepbrothers in with each other.It's a cohabitation romance with the stepbrothers trope meets nerd/popular kid, and a sunshine/tsundere pairing. It's a lot of tropes in a pretty sparse story but it has grown on me each time I watch it.
It's kinda soft and sweet, for Taiwan. There's kissing but not much more, and the ending is a bit amorphous but relatively happy. The idol character will show up again in H3MODC.
SOMEWHAT RECOMMENDED
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gay office romance, boss/employee, queer authenticity, external pressures
This was Thailand’s answer to The New Employee, and everything I loved about that show I loved about this one. This was an office romance between stern boss and sweet subordinate that felt more authentic to an office environment and queer life than previous Thai BLs of this ilk. And that authenticity added tension to the narrative and character development (how novel). Now that might be because it has western source material, or it might be because it is actually kind of old-fashioned (it’s been years since I worked as an office grunt, so don't know if the workplace is still like how they depicted it). I also really enjoyed the brothers’ relationship, and kinda wished they hadn’t attempted to give said brother his own side BL. That one flaw made it a 9/10 for me but I still really enjoyed this one.Was this review helpful to you?
Viki lists this as HIStory 2: Ep. 1-4
This installment is under appreciated in my opinion. It's a teacher/student power dynamic, tsundere/sunshine pairing, plus cohabitation with themes of self acceptance and family domesticity. It's a slow burn but high heat (and that heat is good). The uke is out gay, the seme is unapologetically bi, and it's the first time Taiwanese BL flexed its marriage equality muscles.Triggers includes some verbal and physical gay bashing (not from the seme) and child abandonment/neglect (yes from the seme). The second half it a lot better than the first.
There really is no other BL like this one. RECOMMENDED
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AKA HIStory 3 The BL That Shall Not Be Named
The nerdiest tsundere nerd struggling orphan meets the premier himbo slack-wit jock of everyone's dreams who accidentally bullies him and then goes into a spiral of regret that turns into obsession and then deep pining love and adoration. Another one of those high school setting (but I make no case for it). This is remarkably soft with a sunshine/tsundere pairing. It's also high heat and very sexy.Why 2/10? Ready? They kill the uke character. Then we get a whole final episode of our adorable himbo basically suffering and alone for the rest of his life. Because why not dwell on THAT?
If you decide to watch this I HIGHLY recommend stoping just before the end of Viki's ep 9, after they have moved in with each other and are cooking together. Just stop the show right there and don't watch anymore, pretend ep 10 doesn't exist. TRUST ME.
The side dishes are both out gay: an obsessive younger seme and a much older uke (we are talking May/December here, I think its 17 & 29) who the seme aggressively chases. Their story arc edges into obsessive and the sex is explicit. Also hot. These two get engaged in this series and then married in H4CTY. Also the idol character from H1SAFM shows up as the older uke’s cousin. (Just because, I guess.)
NOT RECOMMENDED if you're a completest and have to watch it all.
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