Kochase

BL as a genre has a lot of work to do in that regard. It was born of romantic fantasies (of which, there would be a lot of these darker themes), not realism or anything that tries to impart moral lessons. This isn't limited to Chinese / Taiwanese, tbh. It's the whole genre.

As it grows though, we do start to see a wider range of content (and not just the super toxic stuff). More fluff, more positive stuff... it'll get there. But in the meantime, you should definitely know what you're getting into before just jumping into it. There is a lot of BL that is quite 'problematic', so if that bothers anyone, they should definitely be aware and stay away. But for others who enjoy the dark fantasy... as long as you know it's fucked up irl, enjoy away haha.

I mean... these were already in the works long before the most strict wave of bans fell.

Taiwan alone does not have the resources. Hence the recent exploration of collab projects. These things take time. They're not just spun up overnight.

If things don't seem to happen, either 1) there's a delay time involved when things change, or 2) the ROI isn't there. The domestic market is still massively larger than international ones. It takes a lot to tip the balances, and we're only now starting to see it shift.

You should probably explore the MDL lists focused on Chinese BLs, or search the 'censored adaptation' tag.

Also, there's tons of historical costume bromances that are really really good too (ones without or with very very minimal het romance, so the effect is similar to a censored adaptation) - Mysterious Lotus Casebook, Blood of Youth, White Cat Legend, Once Upon a Time in Lingjing Mountain, League of Nobleman (ok this one I think is only historical / doesn't have too much xianxia / wuxia elements)...

The Weibo thing makes sense though. That's more or less in line with the existing policy spirit.

Eh not sure why iQIYI is missing the Chinese dubbing but I don't think censorship policy is the issue... I mean international iQIYI platform shows all the Thai BLs. I just watch it on Viki. They have the Mandarin dubbing. Although I think Viki only supports single audio track? So they only have Mandarin.

I wouldn't count either of these as backlashes. I wouldn't be surprised if backlash came, but these are probably not it.

Lol wait this is actually kinda good haha. I was worried the acting and effects would be kinda bad based on the trailer (but was gonna be ok with it anyway), but it's actually decent! Or maybe it's just that that the melodrama hasn't come about yet. Either way, I'm excited for this.

'Crossdressing' always makes me wince (because 95% a FL pretends to be a man it's so frickin obvious) and I was worried this was going to be terrible too, but they actually make it somewhat believable! Not 100%, but passable

Haha that still depends! In terms of how much they value, respect, and love (platonic or romantic), sacrifice for each other... it's pretty strong. (And the slight spoiler would be that I'm referring to Qiubing).

But they don't exactly have the most airtime together overall because QQZ isn't in the squad that LB leads, and the case episodes is often focused on the him and his team.

So if you're only looking at what relationship they have with each other... quite strong. But a lot of it also gets implied and not shown as much as I would like, of course.

Alright which of these platforms should I watch on to signal the most critical investors to continue these sorts of projects? 🤣

Depends on your definition...

It was a very deliciously strong one for my tastes, but I index more on the emotions and meaning of actions behind a relationship than necessarily time spent together / skinship type of dynamics. I can also spoil some of it if you'd like.

It probably is lower quality... and normally, I'd rather a higher quality no-het-romance bromance over a BL that's got skinship but meh... BUT, I would still suggest supporting it so they see the market potential and invest more in these 'workarounds'.

The China production teams are constantly trying to figure out ways around the censorship. If this proves viable and they realize the potential of the international market... maybe there's hope for other projects!

It's quite good, IMO. It's not a literal adaptation (which I think is good because anime / donghua elements don't transfer to LA all that well), but it is quite faithful to the spirit of the characters and scenes. I like that we start out a bit more chronological and learn more about Lu Guang from the get go.

It is pretty good! It's quite faithful in the ways that matters (and that's what makes for a good adaptation... not 1:1 retelling of the story because the mediums are different).

Idk what the others are complaining about lol.... feels quite true to the spirit of the donghua. I do wish I got to hear the same soundtrack again though haha

The Untamed never got this direct though (even just going off of what was shown in the trailer). And anyway, Thailand is the one producing / airing it, so it's not like China can do anything about it (aside from banning it from being released within China).

Although the acting / writing does feel a tad dramatic and novice... I'm definitely planning to support the hell out of this one! Give all the love to this project so we get more and more investment in this workaround to get Chinese danmeis adapted into live action lol

Well, there's already declarations of being each other's one and only, and only wanting you, and also calling the other the 'wife' so... that makes it pretty direct in my book. You never saw this with any censored mainland BL. (And no... the whole 'soulmates' comment never counted. Everyone assumed 'zhiji' or soulmate was something romantic but that was not true)

So I'm not sure what censored BL you saw with those same types of confessions / references? At least I haven't seen them ever be this direct.

Uh... there's like straight up declarations of love right in the trailer... how do you not count that as BL lol

So the romance was between the original Yi Heon and Se Kyung? Not Kim Deuk Pal? I was wondering if the age gap was a big element... or the original writing just sort of overlooked that lol. Body swap romances are always... interesting... because I feel like a lot of the time, while the initial setup is hilarious, the story really falls apart when the seriousness takes over.

I guess that's something they dodged entirely by making it a bromance only.

Lol this is so full of cliches and some parts are a bit cringe but it's still weirdly enjoyable hahaha

Are S1 and S2 somewhat standalone or would I be utterly lost watching S2 directly?

There's different restrictions applied to formats of content. Short videos are not necessarily the same as movies, so have different restrictions. Of course, NRTA can always choose to change the rules anytime, so they only skirt it until the law catches up.

For skirting censorship laws