Maggi64

Yep, and unlike the recent spate of chaste Japanese BL's with no kissing, the Thais really bring sizzle to their kissing scenes. So we know we're gonna see something hot with these two.

I am also liking the Thai BL "180 Degrees Longitude." I would never have even tuned in if it weren't for Jolly saying she liked it. Since I agreed with all her other opinions, I decided to check it out. She was right. It is good. So the Thais do have some BL's with good acting and no product placement. Oh, and none of those cartoonish sound effects -- boing, zong, zoom, squish, etc.

Gotta love how In and Wang are eye-fucking each other in every scene. lol

As ever, we agree. I don't usually watch Thai BL's but I am glad I checked this one out. It's a Thai BL with no product placement, it stars a boy who is not only cute but can act, and it's not set on a college campus. The setup of the boy and his dad's ex-lover is as compelling as when Dome had it for his girlfriend's brother in You're My Star. I love taboo relationships. So I am down for watching this one. And you and I can watch it together. Yay!

OMG, all we Americans are up to date on the Royal Family, especially while Princess Di was alive. So yes, I know the story well. We like William's wife and dislike Harry's wife. I await that divorce any day now.

As for the Vietnamese BL, if you have not seen Follow My Sunshine, then watch it now. It is lovely. And very popular with BL fans.

I want to tell you that since I respect your opinion on everything so far I checked out 180 Degree Longitude Passes Through and once again, you are right. It is good! First, of all, it's a Thai BL that has no product placement. Second, the boy is not only cute, but can actually act. It is not set on a college campus but has a far more compelling plot about a being attracted to his father's ex-lover. Now that's a new one!

And how about that scene where the boy and the man looked at each other the first time? They've been eye-fucking since the get go. I am so glad I tuned in. I suppose every once in a while the Thais put out something good. "I'll Tell Sunset About You" was good too. ITSAY also no product placement and good actors. So the Thais can do it, and KinnPorshe and Tharn Type are not the only good Thai BL's. They have these other shows as well.

So thanks again for turning me onto 180 Degree Longitude, as I'd have assumed it was another Thai BL off the factory assembly line if you had not recommended it. I also took a second look at Takara and Amagi based on your opinion and, yep, you were right again. It got better after that poorly edited first episode. Thank you for both these shows!

PS, I just checked your profile and don't see a movie list. Unless you mean the lists of "currently watching" "completed" and "dropped." I have seen most of those from your lists and dropped the same ones, lol. I also saw the scores you gave. The only score on which we differed is Addicted, which I liked, even though, yes, Gu Hai forces himself on Buy Lu Yin to give a hand job. I get that this is why some disliked it. But man, if you thought that was bad there's another more recent Chinese one called In Your Heart where the guy does not give a mere hand job, but flat out rapes his friend and has anal sex with him. I thought, Christ, the Chinese seem to have a fondness for this sort of thing.

Wow, the queen died! Thank you for telling me that. There used to be so many jokes about how she would never die and Charles would never be king. She did live a long life and I respect her. I gotta say, I even respect Charles for how he stuck by Camilla when all thought she was some old hag, homewrecker. Man, he may have cheated on Di, but he had loved Camilla since forever. So he was right to marry her. They should've just let him marry her in the first place, but she was a divorcee and older. Well, they learned, eh?

Ok, as for KinnPorsche. Yep, I liked it and it was lots of fun. I liked Pete and Vegas' story for how it was played in the show, because it would never have worked if I'd seen it as it was in the book where a man is raped and tortured and then falls in love. Nope, no way. But in the show Pete was spying on Vegas, so he was a perceived enemy, and Vegas was thus justified in holding him captive. Then he saw bit by bit why Vegas was so fucked up. I loved that story Pete told about how his father beat him after every boxing match, win or lose, then he found out that his father used to be a boxer and was bad at it. He tells Vegas, "Our fathers don't beat us because we're rotten. They beat us because they know that THEY are rotten."

I loved how that story was a turning point for Vegas' character to look at his captive differently. Then the pet hamster was sweet. I looked at the Pete/Vegas sex of the book and none of that was in it. So the show removed the rape/torture and added that great boxing story and the hamster. In short, they improved upon the book. The book was not very good anyway. But the show was lots of fun.

That and Tharn/Type are the only Thai shows I watched more than once. I liked the side couple Tin/Can in another Thai show, and rewatched their parts of the story, but not that whole show as I disliked the main character played by Saint, whose too soft and mushy for me. I also loved the side couple Book/Frame in another Thai Bl. There's an outtake on youtube of just Book/Frame's story and I have rewatched that. I can't recall the names of the Book/Frame show and the Tin/Can show, just like You're My Star, the side couples took over for me in both shows. But it was never so stark as in You're My Star. I read that it was not just us, but internationally that women wanted to see more of Vi and Dome and couldn't have cared less about Thorn and Fa. The out of the closet gay one was good, but the other was the worst actor. An absolute mannequin.

As for Pinoy BL's, yep, you are right once again. They are far worse than Thais. Vietnamese are pretty bad too. Although there is one, Follow My Sunshine, that ranks among my favs. It had beautiful costume design and lush, golden lit cinematography. The shy/bookish boy and his athletic seme had good chemistry as well. And the rival, Tuag, was hot as hell. All in all, that show was good. I don't know how it managed to get made among so much dreck coming out of Vietnam's BL industry, but it clearly had a bigger budget. Most of the Vietnamese shows are made on a shoe string, as are the Filipino shows. Thai shows have big budgets, so there's no excuse for them. They simply won't invest in good actors -- except for KinnPorshe, of course. They really invested in that, and the acting was excellent.

Ok, so it's episode four of Takara and Amagi tomorrow. Thanks for motivating me to take another look at that. I was ready to drop it after a weak ep one with poor editing, but based on your opinion, with which I agree on everything else, I went and watched more episodes and discovered you were right. Thank you! I am also going to go check out your non gay Asian List right now. I need some new Asian movies, so thank you for that too.

Yep, agree down the line again -- except that I don't even bother tuning into Thai BL's because they are all so manufactured and bad. I wish they'd at least try to step it up. KinnPorsche did, but as I'd said, it got silly at the end with all that stuff on the mother. I also found it silly that virtually every guy and every brother was gay! lol. But I will say that it was fun and I'd watched it to the end. I especially liked Pete/Vegas's story.

As I'd said, I'm also watching Takara and Amagi to the end. It had started off weak but gets better and better. Some elements still are not working for me, but I'll overlook them because I am invested at this point. Alas, I can't get invested in About Youth because there is no hook for the storyline. The boys already like each other, they are already in each other's lives and there is really nowhere to go with this story. Now, I may watch to see what happens with the cross dressing character. As is always the case with these Thai BL's, the side couple is more compelling than the main couple. Remember You're My Star? Dome and Vi were more compelling with one dating the other's sister. And cutie Sean and the shy guy with glasses were a terrific opposites attract. I could not have cared less about Thorn and Fa, albeit their being the main couple.

That was the last Thai BL I bothered with. I now see a new Thai BL pop up once week at a rate of about 4-5 a month (ie, 50-60 a year), and just yawn. I wish there were more BL's from the other Asian countries because I need some new shows. I am watching Takara and Amagi and the final ep of the disappointing Minato, but otherwise I satisfy myself by watching non gay Asian films. I just love anything Asian. BTW, I am a white American. A lot of MDL girls are from foreign countries. May I ask where you are from?

Tim, I saw this last year and just rewatched, and was going to shoot you a message to ask if you'd seen it. But dang, here you are! And we have the same opinion of it. Moreover, like you, I also imagined an ending for them. The shy one, Ming, gets away from that Christian school and his parents to go to art school in a big city, where he's clearly going to learn to accept being gay. The dialogue at the airport also made it clear that he's gonna come back to visit holidays. Meaning these two boys will finally get jiggy! lol.

I am soooo glad you agree with me on To My Star 2. I a lot of people gave it high marks because they WANTED to like it and were simply desperate for a happy ending which we already knew we were going to get. The question was whether or not it would make sense. It absolutely did not. I mean, the actor prostrated himself at the chef's feet, moved out to that town in the middle of nowhere, took time off work, lost money, lost reputation, put a damn trailer next door to the chef to prove devotion, and none of that moves the chef. What finally moves him? Some texts. It was beyond bad writing. I think the director got too close to the material to see what was failing.

That is so cool you went to Korea! I have been around Europe, but never Asia. But for the past 2 years I have watched nearly exclusively Asian films. My favs are the Japanese and the Korean. Indeed, the reason I know Korea is more homophobic is from films such as "Night Flight." Although we even saw signs of it in Where Your Eyes Linger where a dad ships his kid off for being gay. In Cherry Blossoms the mom finds out her son is gay and shivers in horror as if she's just seen Freddie Krueger from Nightmare on Elm Street.

BTW, I respect your opinion so much that I went and watched episode 4 of Takar-kun and Amagi-kun. You are right, that episode picked things up. Ep 1 was badly edited and I was irked by ep 3 with the brunette freaking out over getting an erection while dreaming. He should've been used to it as teen boys get 5 erections a day. I also think the actor plays his character too infantile. He is shooting for a manic pixie sprite, but is ending up with the mannerisms of a silly child. The blonde is far too expressionless in general. But I am sticking with the show because I find myself more invested as I go along.

I am less beholden with About Youth. I think the acting is stiff and there's really no story. I mean, the boys are already together. Moreover, the rich kid already said he doesn't even care if the poor one beats him for student council, so that conflict is tied up too. What's left?

OK, that's my round of BL's this season. I discovered this genre a mere 2 years ago and have already seen them all. I mean it: all! I also love how the community is small but fierce.

LOL, we do agree on anything . The problem with Thai BL's is utter lack of originality and bad actors who seem like they were pulled out of their high school homerooms on the first day of shooting, dragged to a studio and directed to read a teleprompter. The stories are all colleges and even when they are not, such as Not Me, there was silly bits with a guy waking from a coma and beating up 6 body guards an hour later. We also had guys leaping from rooftops at a distance as large as football fields. And as per BL quotas, each couple got precisely one kissing scene per 14 episode series and that's it.

I agree that Cherry Blossoms After Winter got weak in so far as there were NO intimate scenes when they actually lived together, but there were at least more than the 1 kiss per show quota that many Thai BL's have. There was the kiss on Tadzue's birthday, and then Haeboom's wet dream -- which was sooooo good. Blueming matched this with the blue lit hotel where Da Un and Si Won first had sex. Those guys had the kiss on the beach too. And the kiss in the dream. Now, To My Star 2 had decent kissing scenes but I fucking hated that. Shocking that it is the same director as Blueming and Where Your Eyes Linger, You may disagree with me here as most bl fans actually liked TMS2, despite the chef's emotional sadism and the celeb's masochism (and a break up over nothing, with a reconciliation because, um, he read some texts?) Not sure where you stand on this show, but I wrote a scathing review of it on its MDL page and some people actually agreed with me.

You and are definitely in 100% agreement that Taiwan had something going with the terrific History series, but that was 2 years back. So was the terrific We Best Love. Then Taiwan stopped putting anything good out after that. There's nothing this season. Meanwhile, the Koreans knocked it out of the park this season with Blueming, Semantic Error and Cherry Blossom. Yes, some sucked, such as Boarding House, Ocean Likes Me and First Love Again, but I only mentioned those shows because they included good kissing scenes, which the Japanese don't have at all this season. It's odd too, because the Koreans as a culture are said to be more homophobic than Japan, and yet their BL's are more open minded. Go figure.

Some say we are fetishising gays by wanting to see a kiss in a BL. Nope. We see proper kissing in 99% of hetero romances, so why not a BL? Besides, if a person had a gay fetish they'd be watching gay porn, not BL's. Yet some shame us over wanting to see what is the universal sign of love: the human kiss. I ain't apologizing for wanting to see that.

BTW, this is a fun convo. Thank you!

You can tell from the preview for ep 12 that Minato goes running to him, apparently to Tokyo. Besides, they can't do a time jump in a mere 20 minutes. My Beautiful Man did a time jump with kids going to college, but college was 3 episodes long.

I hated the last same three that you did. Everyone liked My Love Mixup whereas I felt it was contrived and the one lead played his part in that obnoxious zany way the Japanese seem to enjoy. The kid in Mr. Unlucky did it too.

All 3 recent Jbls -- Senpai, My Love Mix Up, and Mr. Unlucky Has No Choice But to Kiss had no kisses except a quick closed mouth peck of the sort a 5 year old gives their grandma . Oh, and didn't you just love how the title is Mr. Unlucky Has No Choice But to Kiss, and then he does not kiss? I have a feeling we're gonna get the same with the currently running and equally dreadful Takara Kun and Amagi Kun, and most certainly with Minato's Laundry.

Now Cupcake was excellent, but if we add in the absence of a proper, tender kiss, then it makes a full sweep of closed mouth, non romantic kisses from Jbls this season. Meanwhile the Kbls are killing them with gorgeous love scenes such as Blueming, Cherry Blossoms After Winter, Semantic Error.

Even the lesser Kbls at least had a proper kissing scene, such as Ocean Likes Me, Kissable Lips, Boarding House, and First Love Again. The Koreans have far surpassed the Japanese at this point with mature male-on-male kissing scenes. Heck, they have simply surpassed Jbls in general. Kbl's have also surpassed Taiwan's, which had the awful Plus/Minus and now the lame About Youth (stiff acting). Although none are as bad as the Thai BLs, which are made on a factory assembly line. They literally churn out 50 a year, and they all uniformly suck. Even Kinn/Porsche got really silly at the end with that bit with the mother. I love BL's but I don't even bother to tune in if I see that a BL is from Thailand.

After 11 episodes of Shin chasing Minato, we finally got a new plot point at the very end of Ep 11 when Shin said he won't see Minato again. According to the preview, Ep 12 is Minato realizing he loved Shin all along. So the show started with Shin chasing Minato, then Shin ceases to see Minato and then, finally, Shin's absence makes Minato realize he loves him. They could've done this simple narrative arc in 5 eps and had a sweet little show. But 12 Eps?

The Pornographer worked as a live adaptation because the manga's narrative was lean and tightly plotted. The same for Cupcake. But Minato's Laundry is meandering. It might work for the manga, but not the show.

The best of the bunch for me is My Beautiful Man, which was adapted from a novel. The screenwriter had to do some work and make creative choices with that, as they cut down a 300 page novel into a 90 page script. As for creative choices, god, I wish Cupcake had added a kiss in the alleyway at the end of ep 5! But that show was so faithful to the manga that Togawa even kisses the same part of Nozue's neck when he was sleeping in ep 4. Tozue even crosses his legs the same way under the table in the final restaurant scene. When I say these mangas are used as blueprints, I mean it. There is no work coming from the show's screenwriter. But at least Cupcake and Pornographer had tightly plotted mangas. Minato's Laundry has become, as you said, a tiresome loop.

kisskh only has ep10???

It's a shame because it started out so strong. I will say, however, that the problem is that the original manga is like this too. I wish the Japanese would simply veer from a manga if it means improving a narrative. Alas, they are not only faithful to source material, they are FANATICALLY faithful. Old Fashioned Cupcake and The Pornographer are recreated frame by frame, line by line. I wonder, well, what is the point of even doing a show if it's simply a blueprint of a comic book? The director and screenwriter should be creative. But in the case of these Jbl's the writers are simply redrafting a manga.

Ah, ok. that makes sense.

Where Your Eyes Linger was a disappointing kiss. But I figure it was an early BL. Lately the Kbls have given some really genuine romantic kisses. I can think of 8 right off the bat:

Semantic Error
Blueming
Cherry Blossoms After Winter
First Love Again
Kissable Lips
Oh Boarding House
To My Star
Ocean Likes Me.

Ocean Likes Me one had the guy from Where Your Eyes Linger, so we know the actor is not afraid of male on male kissing. It must have been a problem in WYEL because the director was afraid with it being the first BL series out of Korea. Ok, so every Korean BL this season had an open mouthed romantic kissing scenes, just like a hetero romance does.

It was the Japanese who did not do it even once this season. Not with the silly Senpai, not with Mr. Lucky Has No Choice But to Kiss (and then he did not kiss, lol), and then not even with the much more grownup show Old Fashioned Cupcake. There was only a closed mouth kiss in Cupcake and the other guy was shocked and upset. I was so shocked they copped out on a proper romantic kiss at the end. It really detracted from what was, otherwise, a perfect show.

What does NG mean? Also, I am not clear on this. Do you mean there is a whole new 14 set of scenes that were cut from the show that are in the DVD? Or is this interviews and stuff like that?