Maggi64

I find the acting in this show to be stiff as well. Neither of them seems able to fully inhabit a character and, hence, the viewer is always aware that they are "acting." Like you, I am continually baffled by the low level of acting in many BL's because there are tons of aspiring actors who are both capable and cute. But to be fair, the bad acting mostly happens in Thai BL's and some of the cheesier K-BL's which seem to be made at a quicker rate lately. The J-BL's usually cast pretty well.

The acting in The Pornographer trilogy, Life: Love on the Line, His, Eternal Yesterday, Jack-O-Frost, End of the World With You, My Beautiful Man and Old Fashioned Cupcake was good stuff. The writer in the Pornographer made these micro-expressions that just nailed his inner conflict. And Togowa's confession in OFC was brilliant. Hira in MBM has been acting since he was in kindergarten, and Kyioi proved to be more than a pretty face.

Point being: it's rare for J-BL's to cast pretty boys who cannot act, so I was surprised that this show used guys who were not quite comfortable in front of the camera. But I give the all time Raspberry Bad Acting Award to Takara-kun & Amagi-kun. Yikes, that was painful!

Most of what Bu Xia brings to his role is not even in the script, because it's cute facial expressions and body language. In other words, a lesser actor reading those same lines could've given us a crappy show instead of what we got. Which is an A-1 Adorable Show.

How did you learn this about the actor? MDL has no info on the cast or the crew. Also, is the director gay? Hell, it's already unusual just being directed by a male instead of a female. But a gay male directing a BL is super rare. The only one I can think of is the director of The Pornographer, Mood Indigo, Given, The End of the World With You, and Man Who Defied World of BL (the same director did all of those).

Ok, so this is like being named "John Smith" in America, where it's totally common, right?

Wow, I am surprised. It is illegal in most 1st world countries because immediate family incest produces children with birth defects. The European Royalty used to marry cousins and even cousins produced hemophilia. But we did not know about genetics back then. Once we did, incest and reproduction became illegal to protect the next generation. So I am surprised Japan allows it. Anyway, thank you for the info.

That must've been a mistranslation cuz Shin turned 18 last season . His sister even threw him a bday party, and it was an impetus for Akira to finally begin dating him.

Thanks, cuz I wasn't so sure just based on the instrumental music, but when I saw the same actress as CBAW I thought it more likely to be the same studio.

The actor playing the Director is currently 22, which is the average age of college seniors. He wouldn't have had time to interview for his first job out of college, let alone climb up the ladder to Director. Season 2 of We Best Love was even more unrealistic with guys in their early 20's playing CEO's -- not Departmental Directors, but actual CEO's!

Funny, BL's always cast actors who are too young to play executives, while casting actors who are too old to play high school students (Taesung in Cherry Blossoms After Winter was 31 playing an 18 year old).

I also like the childhood friends setup in romances. However, I don't get why he didn't recognize that his Director and childhood friend had the same name. I can see how you wouldn't recognize a 20-something man if you hadn't seen him since you were 8, but you'd recognize the name, wouldn't you?

Did anyone else recognize that the soundtrack at the 2:50 mark was from Cherry Blossoms After Winter? I also noticed that the actress at the 19:00 mark was in Cherry Blossoms (she played the conniver who told Haeboom to get lost at that lunch she'd set up to snag Taesung).

Would this mean that both BL's are made by the same studio? They have a similar vibe. That is, light in both tone and substance, and not entirely original. And both had decent production values as well as adequate, though not stellar, performances. Based on Ep 1, I don't predict it becoming a BL classic, but it's pleasant enough.

It's there! Thank you.

It's not up yet on Viki. It's not even there saying it will be available later. It's just not there at all. Anyone know what's up with this?

PS, I am sorry I revealed the plot point from the trailer, because I know you avoid trailers. But I thought you'd seen this one because you already knew one of the gay guys had been married when you said:

"I'm wondering if one of the gay guys is the dude the smoker-chick has to marry. It's an arranged marriage so it's entirely possible a gay dude is being forced to marry her and she is aware of his sexuality."

I figured oh, ok, Tim usually avoids trailers but must have watched this one because I told him in my personal message that the trailer was proof there'd be hot kisses, not dead fish kisses. I'd tune into a trailer just to see a hot kiss! LOL. At any rate, I am genuinely sorry if describing that trailer spoiled something for you :)

I realize historical info is different than a film's specifics. I meant that I wouldn't have known to even research Cambodia if I had not read those reviews first. But I am odd because I also do not mind it if a critic describes an entire pivotal scene -- which they often do. I used to blithely read such reviews without a second thought. But after being on MDL for 2 years I now stop at certain passages thinking, "My god, they would howl on MDL about this revelation."

Of course, some truly are bad about giving spoilers. Rogert Ebert gave away waaaay too much in his reviews. Janet Maslin gives away too much in her NYT's book reviews. But those are both hacks in the industry. There is also the Harvard English PhD Mikiku Kakatani for the NYT's and she typically gives away plot points. The thinking (albeit snobbish) is that the plot does not matter because it's not about the destination, but the journey getting there.

I will read such reviews, but 100% understand if someone else does not. It's simply a matter of taste. Frankly, I am in the minority when it comes to knowing spoilers. I can only think of 2 movies where I would've thought someone telling me the end "spoiled" it for me: The Others and The Sixth Sense.

My sister told the whole plot of a movie just last week and then profusely apologized when she discovered I hadn't seen it yet. I assured her that I did not care and would still enjoy the movie just as much. She thinks I'm crazy. I mean, she won't even allow me to utter one sentence beyond the title, genre and star for a movie. That's her way of approaching it and I respect that. To each his own, right?

We are the total opposite here. I always watch trailers. And I also read reviews. In fact, my familiarity with movie reviews is why I am often baffled by people on MDL complaining about spoilers when someone merely states a movie's set up. Reviews ALWAYS give the set up. When a celeb promotes their movie on a talk show, the show's host will even say, "We have a clip of your movie, can you set up this scene for us?" And the celeb does so. Of course, some people want to know as little as possible, so I respect them by using the spoiler tag. But I prefer knowing as much as possible going in.

A great example is the movie with which I am currently obsessed "Dog Bite Dog" with Sam Lee. I read a review that mentioned how the Cambodian character's poverty was based on a historically true situation for people born in the 80's (ie, right after the Vietnam War ended with the USA sneaking over the Cambodian border, thus creating turmoil that allowed communist psychopath Pol Pot to rise). I read about the way millions of boys were parentless, starving and fended for themselves by either eating garbage or joining gamblers Fight Clubs -- where 14 year olds often fought to the death. It was like Deer Hunter, but the Russian Roulette was the other guy's fist.

Knowing how boys grew up in this savage environment gave me a MUCH deeper context within to appreciate the movie. Hong Kong viewers are already familiar with this, so the dialogue skips past it pretty fast (a cop says about the Cambodian, "If he was raised doing fight clubs then he's an animal with no value for human life.") Now, the average Hong Kong viewer didn't need much more than that line of dialogue, but a Western viewer such as myself did. And I had much more because I researched the subject. Which I knew to do because, yep, I read a movie review!

It drives me bonkers when people drop comments without reading at least a dozen or so pre-posted comments just to get the gist of the discussion. You can always tell who has not read a single word from anyone else because they'll come out with a question that was just answered about 2-3 comments down.

Please join my Discussion Group about why it’s predominantly women, not gay males, who enjoy BL. You will find the Discussion Group by searching under:

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Why Do Women Love BL? Discuss Your Reasons

Please join my Discussion Group about why it’s predominantly women, not gay males, who enjoy BL. You will find the Discussion Group by searching under:

Home→ General Forums→ General Discussion→

Why Do Women Love BL? Discuss Your Reasons

Please join my Discussion Group about why it’s predominantly women, not gay males, who enjoy BL. You will find the Discussion Group by searching under:

Home→ General Forums→ General Discussion→

Why Do Women Love BL? Discuss Your Reasons

Ok, I got this discussion group up and running. And I want to invite you all to join in.
You will find the discussion by searching under:

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Why Do Women Love BL? Discuss Your Reasons