AbsoluteBL

Grumpy/Sunshine, Hurt/Comfort, Opposites Attract, Forced Proximity, Breakup/Reunion

To My Star the original had to grow on me, eventually becoming one of my favorites of all time. To My Star 2 was not that show for me.

It’s brilliant, don’t get me wrong. The acting is excellent, really quite flawless. But sometimes too realistic for this genre (and me, one of the last hold outs who can’t take ITSAY), in that I felt their (especially SeoJoon’s) pain too much. Even though I identified strongly with JiWoo. If you have any kind of empathy for the complexities of desperate personalities trying to make a relationship work this show will hurt to watch. If you fall too far into feeling like either JiWoo (me) SeoJoon (lots of other people) you will fall into disliking one of the main characters (probubly JiWoo). And it is really difficult to watch a couple you loved seeing get together, seriously breaking up, in a realistically cutting way, lashing out and hurting each other an everything, and then whole heartedly struggling to come back together again.

The directing is really good, but the characters motivations are sometimes intentional obfuscated and the flashbacks felt manipulative. Well done, but I did feel a little jerked around, and like I was meant to wallow and dwell in the pain a little too much. Like all Kdramas of this type, the weight is given to the maudlin not the happiness. Although the use of doorways as transitions to the past/future was really well done. Like the original, the narrative is messy and sometimes difficult to follow.

So should you watch it?

If you like angst, wallowing, and realistic relationship struggles in your BL, watch this. If you prefer fluffy comforting BL, avoid like the plague. For me the pay out was not sufficient to the pain. I enjoyed the performances, directing, and chemistry - the leads’ comfort with each other is unprecedented in Korean BL, but that’s not enough for me to rise above the pain of the narrative.

RECOMMENDED WITH SERIOUS RESERVATIONS

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magical realism, LTR

Tropes: magical realism, LTR, breakup, amnesia, reunion

KimCop vehicle from Star Hunter, about an LTR between a student Jing (Cop) + nurse Guy (Kim) who have been together for 3 years. Guy is busy all the time so Jing is starting to feel neglected and look elsewhere. KimCop are excellent (no surprise there) but I was not into the story, premise, or concept.

Star Hunter better be careful with Copter, he’s got GREAT chemistry with everyone, and I’m not mad about seeing him with a different partner. Honestly, I was rooting for Jing to leave Guy for the cute artist phi with the fierce eyebrows who wants to feed him shrimp. It’s a fair cop (pun intended).

The breaking the 4th wall self-referential dream sequence Cheewin crack-head filler is intolerable - I nearly dropped the show because of it. Look, I’d had it UP TO HERE with YYY and that was years ago. The side dishes are adorbs tho. (WHY ARE HIS SIDE DISHES ALWAYS SO CUTE?)

Side couple Viking & TamTam stole this one for me.

Also, just a note, Star Hunter always does this thing where characters neither eat nor drink what they’ve ordered (except in What Zabb Man).

The final ep activates the amnesia trope. Sigh. And that causes a reboot for the romance and because they are older they can make it work the second time around. Honestly I was left, ultimately with a sensation of: What did I just watch? It was terrible.

NOT RECOMMENDED

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crush, campus star, bully trigger, best boys, soft & sweet

Look, I am trash for trash, but this was less trashy than most Thai BL pulps. University set about a popular architecture student who is a picky eater and the food science major who has a crush on him and uses food to court him. I COULD NOT ASK FOR MORE. Basically it gave me reason, and room, to breathe by being exactly what I want from a Thai BL with no attempt to be anything else.

I adored the taste-then-cook competition opener. The chef teacher is queer, not just visually but linguistically. Do I spot an actual butch character in a BL? YES! Meanwhile, the seme love interest, P’Ram, is a rich campus moon but also a genuinely nice guy with 2 hot besties. So, sure, we are in hella familiar y-novel territory. But if I were into BL for novelty of it, I wouldn’t be into BL. The older architecture phis with their colorless lives coming up with tricky ways to keep meeting up with the bright sparkly queer food service kids is the CUTEST flipping thing. It’s like watching two friendship groups falling in love with each other.

What is unique about this one is that this pulp has unexpectedly high production values and good quality cast, sound, & wardrobe. Even the het couple is cute. Love the pink hair! What a surprise gem. This season’s Nitiman with a better ending.

Chup being bullied is so sad. But Ram’s “my good boy” is the best, because it’s so true. Honestly, these two are just about the marshmallow fluffy sweetest softest little snookums. I like the external bullying as a narrative pressure, although I wish it hadn’t been combined with the faen fatale. I wish this show had just taken shipping culture to task.

I enjoyed La Cusiine but it is awful slow. Thank goodness GaGa has 1.5x speed option. It also takes the faen fatale archetype to the next level of extreme evil. Everyone got a cute couple ending, even characters I didn’t really recognize, couldn’t remember, or showed no chemistry. But hey, shrug. Also, Sky & Phai = unexpectedly great kiss.

Why did we not get their thread (and Kitty’s for that matter) throughout the show? It would’ve helped with the pacing a lot. (Honestly, these two actors probably should’ve played the leads, IMHO).

In the end, a sweet and kind of pure show, and like Thai desserts perhaps requires too much patience for a layperson. Because of the pacing and the focus on the bad girl character, I did dock it. But if you like stuff in the Oxygen vein, then this show is for you, and far better than most Thai BL pulps. That said, I suspect that I enjoyed it more than many would.

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Rockstar romance BL + second chances at love redemption arc

Given is based on a yaoi manga (that I didn’t much like) and an anime (that I never saw) but honestly I was happy to get any light BL from Japan in 2021.

Fortunately for me, GIVEN ended up being a stolid traditional live action yaoi of the kind that I’ve come to expect from Japan (when they don’t go dark). So we're talking in the arena of SEVEN DAYS. With the possible exception of the hair styles, this BL could have been made in 2015 and no one would be surprised.

GIVEN had a surprisingly happy and sweet final episode, my only issue was that this series was built on a “sing your feelings” chassis and this is one of my least favorite tropes. (But that’s my baggage, not theirs.)

It wasn’t ground breaking, but it didn’t disappoint either and I, for one, am super glad we got it when we did.

RECOMMENDED.

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Find your soulmate in the mountains of Thailand

Foundational Romance Trope? Fated mates

Some of us have been waiting for this series for a really long time now. The fact that it had so many production issues made me nervous going in. However, I really loved the story. I found the chemistry with the leads uncertain at first. Hard to pin down why, but I keep having this issue with Earth. In the end, I got over it (or they did).

Formerly known as Tale of Thousand Stars (the title change was a good call). It neatly avoid GMMTV’s previous BL’s (Tonton Chonlatee, My Gear & Your Gown) ending issues. And though it was slow to find its stride, this show probably has one of the most romantic endings ever filmed in BL.

On the whole it leaned hard on classic romance (rather than yaoi) tropes which resulted in a mature, sweet, charming, smart series with a FANtASTIC finale. Tonally it was a lot more like, oh I don’t know, Love O2O meets The Notebook only gay. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would at the start, but was it BL? Probably not. Who cares though.

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Tropes: jock/nerd, enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, reunion romance, secret romance, LTR

Y-novel adaptation originally slated as Secret Admirer (teaser) about an “ordinary guy still in love with the older boy he lived next door to during university,” starring Earth Teerapat (Wayo in 2 Moons 2) opposite Fluk (seasoned but not done BL). Plot entirely changed from novel to an absurdist: boys are forced by their university to be a BL couple for promo - although this conceit did give the show license to lampoon BL tropes (which I kinda enjoyed). But the show was VERY awkward with poor chemistry across the board.

Lead couple had a tom/jerry vibe with the uke too stiff and serious and the seme a prankster immature idiot - one of my least favorite dynamics (it always seems mean-spirited). They reminded me of My Boy (which I DNFd) X BonDuen from My Engineer (who I dislike).

Other pairs include BearBomb, TimMai, and ParkLee (LTR whom use ter with each other - cute). The domesticity with the side couples was somewhat engaging, and the medium heat sex scenes were descent, but that’s it. The main couple is a little better after the time jump, mostly because Mek in now understandably arrogant. I guess.

I ended up fast forwarding everything that didn’t have the Tim storyline in it because I am a shallow shallow person. I also kept thinking that the actor playing Tim would’ve made a great Dr Pha in 2 Moons.

The worst thing about this show (aside from leads chemistry) was that the chemistry of the friendship groups felt off too. Normally, Thailand can handle friendship groups well. But these 2 different groups? I didn’t believe they were friends at all.

This drama suddenly got sensible and interesting in the finale after the time jump, and the reason for the split turned out to be a decent one. But frankly, that was just frustrating. Because I got a glimpse that this could’ve actually been, if not a GREAT show, at least a passable one. But they saved this for the last 2 eps? That’s just annoying. Another wedding makes me feel like this trope is becoming ubiquitous in Thai BL. Who knew Grey Rainbow would end up with us here?

In the end I can't really recommend this. There's much better Thai BL these days, and tons of it.

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Arranged marriage + secret identity with a cinnamon rolls pairing

Pitch perfect new BL in the now typical Korean style:

1. well defined character roles and social positioning
2. fast pacing because of the short run time
3. very small cast
4. extremely high production values and so PRETTY
5. light-touch meets strategic trope use
6. very soft bois and a weak seme/uke dynamic

A historical setting allowed this one to use some seriously old fashioned romance tropes, arranged marriage and evil step-sisters, but also modern BL stylings like fake relationship and secret identity plus some gentle gay panic. So flipping cute, their little smiles, just GAH. Bit of a dead fish kiss but I don’t care because I loved this tiny show full of soft sweethearts and no one saying anything directly (except our man with the poetry, I hope he finds his true love). Adorable.

It was a lot more light-hearted and gentle than any historical BL to date, which is Korea stamping the sub-genre with its mark and standing up to China’s darker BL traditions. It reminded me of 12th Night more than anything else which just happens to be my favorite Shakespeare play.

For all these reasons, I adored it.

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Tropes: rich/poor, boss/employee, enemies to lovers, office setting, cohabitation

This is a solid little office set KBL about a rich kid who ends up both the boss and tenant of a total sweetheart cutie, and falls madly in love with him. Although the show suffered from KBL’s shorter length, I love the kissable lips pair and they deliver solid all round chemistry despite limited screen time, which is rare from Korea. So I hope they stay branded and we get even more from them in the future.

Ultimately I recommend this show, a solid 8/10.

If Japan didn’t dominate the office BL niche with shows like Cherry Magic and Old Fashion Cupcake this BL probably would get higher marks for me. But it’s a difficult hill to climb (although I’m delighted to see Korea try). Even though Japan and Korea often give us the same length shows, I feel the brevity in the Korean stuff in a way that I don’t with the Japanese stuff. Frankly I think it’s Japan’s sophisticated cinematography facilitating the complexity required by shortness (what’s left out has to be implied by the lens and the acting) where Korea’s more commercial and simplistic style (which works great in longer Kdramas or something like Light On Me) falls short (pun intended) with their short KBLs.

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age gap romance, pining since childhood

A high school student pursues the man of his dreams who happens to run a laundromat in this classic age gap BL. This drama has a 10 year age gap so if that wigs you out, don't watch it. I happen to LOVE age gap romances.

Minato’s Laundromat is so steeped in yaoi tropes and archetypes, not to mention a typical romance arc, that it will be an overload for some, but those of who love this genre for its DNA will adore it. It made me very happy because it did everything I want a BL to do, and there’s not much more I ask of a show than this. It’s the closest Japan has come to perfect live action yaoi since Seven Days.

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PNR, grim reaper, enemies to lovers

Adapted from a y-novel by HUNGRYBIRD of the same name, Wabi Sabi picked up this defunked project and brought it back for iQIYI (with Director New acting as producer) staring Grey Rainbow (trigger warnings & sad ending) couple Nut & Karn. They are pretty great together and certainly mature and capable leads. Also featured Yacht (Paint with Love) and Pat (My Ride) as side characters.

This is a romance between a doctor trying to save his patients and a reaper who is both his enemy and (eventually) lover. Basically it’s the genius premise of a gay Doom at Your Service. High concept looks good on you, Thailand. I enjoyed it more than it’s ending deserved, and the best I can say is that it’s not strictly HEA but if you’re okay with Life: Love on the Line, you’ll probubly be okay with this BL. It’s set up well, there’s no surprise unpleasantness like HIStory 3: The BL that shall not be named.

The reaper mythos was pleasingly bureaucratic in an almsot Terry Gilliam absurdist kind of way. I wish we’d got a bit more of it, and how the underworld worked. And I also wish it had just really leaned into the “mistakes are just the frustration of the DMV” style. But this is Thailand, and high concept + absurdist really isn’t their thing, so I’m disposed to be happy with the silliness we did get.

The slow burn romance and the laying out of the intertwined past was really well done. Not to mention all of the external tension with the doctors in competition and their various cases, and the conflict between the leads and their roles in life. It’s much better storytelling than we usually get from Thai B - a solid little show, especially at the start. Now the driving conflict of a doctor who will not accept death was a little too drawn out and one note (I was over it by ep 6), but no worse than we usually get from Thai BL.

The side dishes were hit or miss for me, their drunken hook almost too relatable, but their insta-love tendencies felt conflictingly unrealistic. Also one of New’s OLD SCHOOL “around the back of head not at all a kiss” kisses. I haven’t seen that from Thailand since Make it Right! Retro “we not gay” camera action used because the actors aren’t comfortable with each other? Why here? Why now? Tut tut. I was mixed over them but the side couple was, in the end, cute enough (weird kisses notwithstanding).

The chemistry between the leads was MUCH more consistent than the side couple, and very well executed. KarnNut give GREAT KISS. Honestly, I can’t remember if their kissing in Grey Rainbow was this good, but in 2022 AKA the year of great gay kisses, this was one of the best I’ve seen - we are talking MewGulf or MaxTul level. Very impressive.

Are KarnNat the best Thai origin couple at domesticity? Seems like. And I LOVE domesticity in my BL. So they get extra points for this.

THE ENDING

This show had a very Korean style unnecessary-separation in the last ep. But I guess I’m used to that now? The show’s ending reminded me A LOT of Love: Life on the Line (Director’s Cut) so if you like that you’ll, like this one, but it’s not strictly HEA, there’s a lot more pathos. I thought it suited the narrative, so I’m not mad.

Want it spoiled? They get a lifetime together; the reaper goes back to being invisible to everyone but the doctor, so no one notices that he doesn’t age; he pulls the doctor’s card when the doctor is old; and then meets him again in his next reincarnation. So this is not exactly a happy ending, but it’s not really sad either. Just pathos.

Did I cry? Of course, I’m a sap. But for someone normally SET on HEA, I actually I liked it.

I’m not quite sure how to rate this show tho, as a result. And I’m not sure I’ll ever rewatch it either. Still, like Peach of Time, everything was set up for us, so the end wasn’t surprising and it managed to be substantially happier than Peach or, of course Grey Rainbow (shudder).

So maybe I rate it higher than I should because it could have been a lot worse? ARGH. Decisions. I went with 7/10

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

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disney prince, opposites attract, sunshine/tsundere

(Jan-Feb-March on YouTube)

This long form MUSICAL BL is LEGEND. Also it’s profoundly not good. The acting (aside fro the 2 leads) is absolutely terrible across the cast. But that’s kinda unimportant to what it did... or tried to do.

This was the BL version of High School Musical. Sparkles. Drags queens. Sweater vests. Pining. Floppy hair. Great subs. It’s a cheesy af fairy story. Hella queer. Possibly the gayest BL to ever BL and certainly the most camp.

THIS IS ART, PEOPLE.

Art is Art.

Art is the prince.

The prince is super touchy feely, me likey.

Plus every BL trope you could possibly want. and THEN all of the Disney ones.

It’s basically like the Philippines took Walt Disney by the tie, shook him violently with it and sang into his face a full volume:

WE WILL MAKE IT GAY, YOU COWARD!

I struggle to rate it as a result, because that’s kind of not the point. Would I watch it again? No. But then sing your feelings is one of my least favorite tropes. Plus I hate Disney. Seriously, just, HATE IT. So this BL was not for me, it was never gonna be for me.

But it was for Prince, Country, & BL!

RECOMMENDED ONLY IF YOU ALSO LIKE DISNEY STUFF

* before you ask, yes I HAVE seen Were the World Mine

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Bad boy/good boy + sunshine/grumpy, + younger seme pairing, bully romance

A college kid (part-time tutor) confronts the leader of a gang (Noey) who then turns out to be his next student - falls in love with him.

Bad boy/good boy + sunshine/grumpy + younger seme + bully romance? Noey has a baby Dom thing to his bully behavior which is oddly cute. Lots of tropes I enjoy and YET I never resonated with this pulp. (I think Noey uses ter because he’s younger, and doesn’t want to use phi.)

The costumes in this show are insane and I kinda like them. There’s a Grease thing going on, and thus I keep expecting them to break into song (and being grateful t hat they don’t). The wardrobe is like the plot and the acting: loud and obvious and not very good but weirdly entertaining.

Did I like it?
Not really.

Did I mildly enjoy watching it?
Apparently.

Ultimately, I found the romantic chemistry inauthentic (especially from the uke) these two just never seemed to actually like each other, let alone want to be together, plus a terrible dead fish kiss.

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Hyung romance, puppy/cat pairing

Most of this country-set BL had me feral for the beautiful broken city boy and his hot young farmer. Hyung romance, puppy/cat pairing, open frankness meets jaded reserve, language play, water hose frolicking, only one bed, just all my favorite tropes. This show was basically a light-weight Restart After Come Back Home and I’m not even slightly mad about that.

But (and you knew there was a “but” coming) something about the cringe of the final 2 eps and the impermanence of the ending (both of which highlight the fact that ultimately these 2 are I’ll-suited: too different and too far apart) left me with the feeling that they probably won’t last as a couple. However, in this case, rare for me, I forgive it this finale for my love of the rest.

I did dither a lot though, it’s not an 8 but not a 9 either. Better than Love Mate (8/10) not as good as The New Employee (9/10) but in the end I’m value adding up for the premise and the cast, which earned it a 9/10.

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Secret love, high school romance, tons of pining, YA journey of finding yourself

GMMTV gave us a classic high school set Thai BL with tropes like messy boys singing their feelings that made this one Love Sick for the modern age with all the gentle sweetness and pining ache, but none of the dated damaging tropes or issues. Yes, we’ve seen it all before, but I still ADORE this. And there is a lot to be said for the classics being executed perfectly. Who let my BL be this wholesome and funny? This show was fantastic, it’s only flaw was the singing (and that’s my baggage). My favorite GMMTV BL offering to date. And yes, I've watched them ALL. Gemini and Fourth were spectacular, I hope we get tones more of them (check out Moonlight Chicken, they're excellent on that too.)

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