Maggi64

We agree that Asian men are freaking beautiful. But not about the Korean use of filters and makeup. Because even the most beautiful Japanese actors don't have this bizarre white complexion with blushed cheeks. Think about Kiyoi in My Beautiful Man. He is beyond beautiful, but he is not washed out by a camera filter. Hence, he still appears human and his natural age.

These filters are something uniquely Korean. And as I've stated above, I am disturbed by the Korean idol industry in general because of such unrealistic standards of beauty. They take perfect men and women, and it's STILL not enough. They have to apply filters too! This sets up unrealistic standards which these idols cannot maintain.

If you are interested, google the epidemic of suicides with K-idols. The New York Times and The Guardian have written about it. Over 30 Korean idols killed themselves in the past decade. Their idol industry is just plain disturbing with it's unrealistic standards. Now, I think that the filters over beautiful faces is not all of the reason for it, but it's certainly a good example of one the reasons for it.

I couldn't even figure out what they found toxic. I had to read comments below to discover that they were offended by Tae Young's faking that Da Yeol had sexually assaulted him in the infirmary. As for me, I was just glad that the infirmary scene established that Tae Young and the long haired guy were gay and lovers. Most K-BL's knock themselves out to establish that characters are hetero before daring to let them fall in love with a guy. But this one started out at square one telling us that a lead was not only gay, but had a lover. Nevertheless, the prudes only saw a fake sexual assault accusation.

So the long haired dude is jealous that his man is getting close to Da Yeol. And what's his solution? Why, he locks them alone, together in a dark room! Why didn't he just provide the two of them with some champagne and candlelight to aid the romance even more?

K-BL's use a filter for shows featuring characters in their mid 20's to 30's. My Sweet Dear, Ocean Likes Me, The Tasty Florida, The New Employee. All of these featured men in the workforce. All used camera filters to give the men complexions of 9 year old boys.

You said you were American. Well, no director in Hollywood would dare use a filter nowadays. They'd be laughed at in the industry. In fact, it has not been done anywhere in the world in 70 years since the 1950's, when movies were notoriously unrealistic.

I defy you to name one film industry on the planet that uses a camera filter to make adults look like children. You cannot, because only Korea does it. They do it because fans like you enjoy the fantasy image of adults who barely look human. Only our fashion modeling industry does something similar with photoshopping. But everyone knows how obscenely unrealistic those fashion photos are. Yet you guys are arguing that K-dramas are giving a realistic image of an adult male.

Now, if you like this kind of fake imagery of the adult male, just say you like it. But god, stop justifying it by pretending the adult male truly looks like this. No adult male of ANY race looks like this.

I am glad she asked us to put her neuropsychology diploma in the trash. Yes, by all means, please put it in the trash. Because diplomas are only as good as the institutes from which they hail. And bad schools sell diplomas like hotcakes these days. It means nothing. Which we can tell from her inability to construct a cohesive argument. Her argument is basically the following, "We like looking at pretty guys who appear to be preadolescent, sexless children. Therefore it is good for K-BL's to use a camera filter to make guys appear to be preadolescent, sexless children."

Now, the K-BL industry knows that she and her ilk enjoy looking at pretty, sexless boys and this is precisely why they use those filters. They have done market research, determined that the fanbase for BLs are females under 30 (and most of them teenaged girls), and that these girls do NOT want any indication of gritty, realistic human sexuality. Christ, these little girls cannot even handle a realistic male FACE, so how could they handle realistic male sexuality?

Although, I still wonder about the success of Japanese and Thai BL's because they do not use filters even when their plots are super fluffy. It truly is only the Koreans who use this filter. Meaning, only the Koreans cater to the Lowest Common Denominator in BL tastes. It makes ashamed to be a fan of K-BLs.

The interesting thing is that I am seriously attracted to Asian men and love a clean shave and a hairless chest. What I do NOT love, however, is a fake filter and pounds of white makeup that makes these men appear, well, less than human. No adult human male has the complexion of a 9 year old child. No Asian male. No Black male. No Hispanic male. No Indian male. No Caucasian male. No male of ANY race looks like this. Thus, to desire an adult male actor to have the complexion of a 9 year old child not only denies them their gender reality, it denies them their human reality as well.

Incidentally, every other film industry in the world stopped using camera filters in the 1950's. Yep, it's been 70 years since we've seen such fantasy images of human beings on film! Only the Koreans still use such filters. The K-idol industry is shockingly messed up (again, just look at all the K-idol suicides). Yet I suppose I should not be so shocked when I read so many K-BL fans defending its standards on this page. Wow. Just wow.

Postpubescent men hiding their sexual characteristics is so obviously about the K-Idol industry catering to teenage girls who are threatened by masculinity. Forget gay masculinity, from what I've read here, this fanbase does not want to see hetero men look like adults either. They seem to be threatened by adult male sexuality in general. That's why they love the term "fluffy" so much. They want the human male of their species to behave as if he were a female of their species.

Now this is a tad different than what the old Hollywood Studio System did to child stars when they gave them speed to prevent them from eating and growing, but it's still a case of forcing an arrested development to please a fan base. But Hollywood stopped that shit after all the former child stars wrote tell-all memoirs about becoming addicts and suicidal. Yet idols in Korea kill themselves left and right, and nobody wonders if enforced arrested development might be, oh, one of the reasons.

The Japanese and the Thais do not do this shit with camera filters and white makeup, such that males in even the fluffiest Thai and Japanese dramas look like actual males. And as far as I know, Thai and Japanese idols are not killing themselves at a shocking rate. I am sorry, but there's gotta be a correlation between the creepy, unrealistic demand of the K-idol fanbase for their idols to look a certain way, and the rate of suicide of their idols. Don't you think?

Also you say, "We want people to modify that behavior; to understand that facial and body hair do not constitute or reflect masculine identity."

Umm, facial hair DOES constitute the biological reality of the postpubescent male. Even transgenders must take a strict hormone regime to make their facial hair go away. If these characters were designed as trans people, I'd applaud the representation and understand why the directors used a camera filter and white makeup and blush. But that's not what is going on. What we are seeing, instead, is a denial of masculine identity because the teenage girl fanbase does not want guys to look like the adult members of its species. That's it. That's all.

There's little point in laboring this anymore. You guys clearly want your male idols to look like little girls. Well, the Korean BL industry does market research and, therefore, knows exactly what you want. And these K-BL's are proof that they are catering to your desire. So enjoy!

If you don't like men to appear masculine, simply say so. You are clearly not alone in a fanbase that wants postpubescent men to appear as if they were 9 year old girls. I mean, there's a REASON the Koreans use a filter and put tons of white makeup and blush on these guys so that they look like little girls instead of teenage boys or men. And fans like you, dear, are the reason. You want to have fantasy crushes on men who look like children because it makes you feel safe.

But if you want men to look like girls, why don't you simply watch shows with girls to begin with? There are plenty of wonderful Girl's Love shows where you can watch actual girls with white makeup, blush and no shadow in the beard area. I don't get why the fan base bothers desiring guys to look like girls when they can simply watch girls in a romance in the first place.

I think it's insulting to viewers to deny actors physical, bodily reality. Again, Korea is the only place to do this. Then again, I should not be surprised that Korea denies its actors corporal reality. Their agencies also force idols to get plastic surgery (in Hollywood, the actors decide on their own to get it, but if an agency forced it, there'd be a massive lawsuit). Moreover, Korea has more idols kill themselves than ANY other country on the planet. Think about that one if you are still convinced that forcing adult male actors to appear as children is harmless.

Otherwise, you've been a good sport and very polite. I suppose I just want viewers on this page to reconsider how K-BLs treat idols this way . It's just as insulting to viewers as it is to idols. It's also why I really respect that director of Blueming, Where Your Eyes Linger, and To My Star. She does not use a filter and, thus, allows her actors to look like real men. Even when they play teenagers, as in WYEL. Bravo to her!

I've dated Asian men and watch almost exclusively Asian film. You can see the Asian man's hair follicles in close ups. Yes, even teenage Asian men. Once they pass puberty, they have beard follicles. So using a filter to infantalize these male actors and deny that they passed puberty is the equivalent of putting a girl in a chest bind to hide that she developed breasts.

Incidentally, the film studio did this to poor Judy Garland who was 17 when she played Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. They wanted her to look 12, not 17. Judy Garland wrote about it in her memoir and said it traumatized her that they would not allow her to appear her true age and acted as if her adult breasts would repel an audience. Plus, the chest binds were painful. They did it to a lot of girls whose age they wanted to hide.

Similarly, these K-BL's are suggesting that the audience can only be attracted to men with no adult male characteristics, as if we are repelled by the adult male body. It's a funny kind of reverse sexism. Well, at least the J-BL's don't do it. You can see hair follicles on their actors. And plenty of their BL's even show adult males -- gasp! -- having adult male sex (eg, The Pornographer, The End of the World With You, Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese, etc). The Korean BL's are largely sexless.

Beards may not be common, but hair follicles exist on virtually every adult male. On Asians, moreover, the follicles are black, not blonde, so they are even more apparent in closeups. You can see them in closeups of every other Asian film by directors making movies for grown ups. But K-BL's are clearly using a filter because the little girls who watch these want their men to appear as prepubescent children. Apparently, images of 9 year old boys are less threatening to the teenage girls who enjoy this sort of image. But I am an adult woman and, thus, I find this just plain creepy.

As for erections, I mentioned them because they are the #1 sign that a male has passed puberty. You know, like facial hair, which is the #2 sign that a male has passed puberty. These postpubescent signs of the human male seem to make the little girls who watch K-BL's uncomfortable. But hey, I suppose I am simply too old to be in this fan base. After all, I am a postpubescent female and not a little girl. As such, I expect my romantic leads to look like adults as well.

It requires over a dozen laser treatments to kill just ONE hair follicle, which I know cuz I had it done for one measly hair on my face. So it's impossible to do laser for the millions of pores in which a man's beard hair follicles grow. In short, this is a camera filter, not a matter of laser.

Besides, why on earth do grown women want their male idols to look like 9 year old boys who have never gone through puberty? Do they also think that these men have never had an erection? I mean, for goodness sakes, they are PASSED puberty!

The only K-BLs that allowed its actors to look like they experienced puberty are the ones by the director of Blueming, Where Your Eyes Linger, and To My Star. Those were all terrific and I took those actors seriously because they looked like, well, grown men! Now, I also loved Semantic Error, but I had to laugh during all the close ups where those guys had complexions of 9 year old children. It is impossible to take men seriously as either actors or characters when they are shot under a filter that makes them appear like little children.

DO K-BL CREATORS THINK WE ARE ALL PEDOPHILES?

This is the 4th K-BL I've seen this week, so I must ask: Why do K-BL's use a filter that gives men the complexions of 9 year old boys? These are beautiful men; but the operative word here is MEN. Meaning, they have facial hair, which would be evident by black dots in their pores during closeups. I am not a pedophile so I do not want to watch actors who appear to be pre-pubescent males in romantic situations. Alas, that's all K-BL's give us and I'm baffled as to their reason. Does the target market of teenage girls in Korea want their male idols to look like 9 year olds? Because I'm an adult American woman and this feels creepy to me.

I don't know about Viki, but Billibi and youtube censored it

I am not sure, as I did not read it yet. I suggest sending a private message to the person named Ximmich, who's the original poster here. She reads Japanese and knows a lot about mangas. I also know that Cornered Mouse is one of her faves, so she will definitely know.

Well, this was bad. Clearly a production simply cashing in on the BL craze with little thought to developing a true romance. Ultimately, we're asked to believe that a hetero super-stud (who's shown hitting on chicks at the office in ep 1), suddenly wants to have sex with a man for no other reason than that they shared the same physical space while on a work assignment. The show certainly gave us no other reason, as no romance was depicted. By the show's logic, every man who shares an assignment with another male colleague will want to have sex with him.

But, hey, I did enjoy looking at the blonde's gorgeous, high cheekbones.

Ep. 6

Once again, too much about Meguru and her sister and not enough about the main couple. Let's face it, the best scene in the entire episode was the 2 leads, alone, having a heartfelt conversation. I expected the rest of the episode to be about how they developed the new footing they'd just established in their relationship. Alas, we got yet another scene about Meguru's sister. Ugh.

lol. The director of "Bokura no Micro na Shuumatsu" (ie, "End of the World"), is the same one who directed "The Pornographer" trilogy and there were plenty of hot sex scenes in that too. This director is male and openly gay, which helps. It's the BL's directed by women that are chaste enough to please a nun.

This was surprisingly good. It was well directed with proper pacing, believable character development and professional acting from the leads right down to the smallest supporting roles. I said "surprisingly" good because, well, it was made by GMMtv and they run a veritable factory assembly line that puts out over 50 BL's a year and nearly all of them are crap. The acting is always so bad that it's as if they went over to a local high school and just grabbed some cute boys from math or science class, dragged them over to the studio, and plopped them in front of a teleprompter to read their lines. That's why we always see characters say a line, then pause 10 seconds to remember the next line, say the next line, pause 10 seconds again, and continue throughout like this. It's unbearable.

The show also benefit from the fact that it was only 8 episodes instead of the usual 15 episodes of a Thai BL and, therefore, there was no filler or dragged out scenes. Moreover, the director did a nice job hiding the product placement. The characters were sweetly playing with the cat while feeding it the product that was being advertised, so it felt natural. The beer placement was so subtle that it took until ep 6 before I even realized that it was a product placement. I stopped watching Thai BL's because they are all so bad, and the only one I watched this year was Kinn/Porsche, which THREW the product placement in our faces in insultingly obvious ways. So bravo to the director of Moonlight Chicken for not doing this.

I also loved this show because of the inclusion of people with disabilities. I was delighted not only by the inclusion, but by how the message was to normalize people with disabilities and recognize that they can do anything that abled people can do. It's the precise message that people in this field want to convey and the show did a stellar job of conveying it. Again, bravo!

As I said, all the actors put in professional performances and I liked them. But I must say something here that may strike many as superficial. That is, the actor Mix (ie, "Wen") seems to have gained about 15-20 pounds around the time this was filmed -- which wasn't so bad, except that the Costume Designer was trying to hide it by constantly putting him in sweatpants or loose pants with a drawstring waist. That was a mistake because all those baggy pants simply drew the viewers' attention to something we might not have otherwise noticed. Sometimes trying to hide something just makes people notice it even more.

All in all, it was a good show. And that's something I rarely say about Thai BL's which, as I'd said earlier, I completely gave up on. But a friend whose taste I trust recommended it. I must say, he was right.