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The Healing Power of Love: A Journey of Suffering, Pain, and Shared Dreams of Happiness

Japanese television continues to surprise with various styles and themes and this is confirmed by 'Happy of the End', the Japanese series that adapts the manga of the same name by Ogeretsu Tanaka, published in installments in the monthly digital manga magazine Boys' Love Qpa, a work winner of the Best Deep category at the Chil Chil BL 2022 Awards.
In 2021, Tanaka stated through an interview with Chil Chil that he came up with the plot while walking through the Tokyo neighborhood of Shinjuku one morning and wanted to write a story featuring its landscape. His frequent nighttime tours through its neon-filled streets, narrow pedestrian alleys, bars, restaurants and businesses of dubious reputation to obtain reference material for his interior and cover illustrations, were described as a "terrifying" experience.
The idea of ​​bringing the story told in the manga to moving images has since pursued the Japanese actor, screenwriter, assistant director and director Tomoyuki Furumaya.
Owner of a film universe with dozens of films, television series and specials over 30 years, which speaks of a feverish work backed by a recognized quality based on a style that identifies him, and makes him stand out among other directors, thanks to his obsession with telling stories conceived in a minimalist narrative design full of humanism, visions that between pain, suffering, irony and a good dose of humor cover the most universal themes.
This has been the case since his university years, when at only 24 years old, his 16 mm film, 'Shakunetsu no dojjibōru' (1992), won the grand prize at the Pia Film Festival, earning him a Pia scholarship to make his first theatrical feature film, 'This Window Is Yours', in 1994, with which he won the coveted "Dragons and Tigers" trophy at the Vancouver International Film Festival, ultimately obtaining the award for new directors from the Directors Guild of Japan in that same year.
With 'Bad Company', filmed 7 years later, the filmmaker from Nagano Prefecture won a Tiger Award and the FIPRESCI Award at the 2001 Rotterdam Film Festival, while with 'Sayonara Midori-chan' he came in second place at competition at the 2005 Three Continents Festival. He has also worked on television shows such as Mori no Asagao.
Faithful to the emotional core of the original manga, Tomoyuki Furumaya gives up his position behind the camera in episode 6 to let director Takahiro Komura do it, although always with his gaze and care down to the smallest details. Meanwhile, the script is written by the same director and Tadano Miako, who plays Keito/Haoran's mother.
The conflict in 'Happy of the End', the romantic and psychological drama with an LGBT+ theme, is exposed from the first minutes: disowned by his family for being gay and rejected by his newly married ex-boyfriend, Chihiro Kashiwagi, a "cool" young man, tough, lonely and gullible about 25 years old, meets Keito in a bar, a beautiful, mysterious man with a strong sense of obsession of the same age, and suggests that they have a one-night stand.
However, at the hotel, Keito beats Chihiro unconscious. The next morning, Keito reveals that he was sent by Matsuki, Chihiro's former employer, whom he had invited to live with him as a "pet", to retrieve his cards after Chihiro stole them when he was evicted for sleeping with other men. Without a place to live, Chihiro ends up staying with Keito.
After Chihiro confesses that he is a boy who feels so empty that he has thought about death, Haoran, who also experiences loneliness, proposes sex to him, the same sex interrupted on the night him attacked him. Through emotional ups and downs, their relationship becomes deeper and deeper. Through emotional ups and downs, their relationship becomes deeper and deeper.
While living together as friends with benefits, Chihiro and Keito grow closer and open up about their past: Chihiro tells Keito that he was disowned by his family for being gay and how he fell in love with a classmate in high school, who left him four years later to marry a woman.
For his part, Keito reveals that his real name is Haoran and that his drug addict mother is a prostitute who came from China. Furthermore, he confesses that due to his mother's abandonment, he was forced at the age of 15 to work as a minor prostitute with older and violent clients. He tells him that Matsuki himself had been one of his regulars at that time.
While living together as friends with benefits, Chihiro and Keito grow closer and open up about their past: Chihiro tells Keito about him family and how him fell in love in high school with a classmate, who abandoned him four more years. late to marry a woman.
Meanwhile, Keito reveals that his real name is Haoren and that his drug addict mother is a prostitute who came from China. Haoren has never known love. Being abandoned by his mother, and without the support of any other close being, the child no older than four or five years old is forced to live on the street and at the age of 15 to work as a minor prostitute with older and violent clients. He will confess to Chihiro that Matsuki himself had been one of his regulars at that time.
The series is populated by tormented and depressed characters, who seek light on their path and when they find it, they cling to it. When pain chokes us and makes us relive our darkest thoughts, it will be love's turn to make its way to want us to embrace life. Although everything seems to agree to plunge Haoren and Chihiro into the deepest darkness, both will fight tooth and nail to find closure to their traumatic past and live happily together as a couple.
According to the author of the manga, he wanted to show through an ironic distortion the inner world of heartbreak and suffering of "Haoran" (浩然), which symbolizes vast or great, because thanks to the incorrect pronunciation of this Chinese character by the character who never went to school and whose mother abandoned him early, he becomes "Haoren" (好人), which literally translates as "good man, good guy or good person."
In this way, instead of giving the character attributes related to his name, Ogeretsu Tanaka gives him qualities completely at odds with his life full of pain and difficulties.
After being asked by Chihiro why he makes love with his clothes on, we will soon discover that Haoren, in addition to the wounds he carries in his soul, carries physical scars on his body as a result of the abuse and humiliation received in the past.
Only love breeds wonder. Only love turns mud into a miracle. Only love can restore Haoran's greatness and nobility.
As the episodes progress we will discover two fascinating, unique, complex characters.
The series stands out for telling an extreme, but very human and touching story about two lonely and broken men who are hungry for love and affection. Chihiro is what you would call a gigolo, while Haoran is someone who doesn't understand the feelings of others. In this sense, both compensate for what the other lacks. They complement each other, and by being together, they recover their emotions, direct their lives and heal their souls with the power of love.
One without a penny in his pocket and a roof over his head. The other, with a rubbish job as a "scout for stewardesses and sex workers" making girls sell their bodies. Living on the fringes of society, Chihiro and Haoran could begin a new life together out of their pain and suffering.
Once Chihiro takes Haoran for a walk to Ueno Park, a short distance from Shinjuku, where they both live, it will be revealed that she does not even know of his existence. This will confirm to us his bitter, sad, broken, empty life.
Without education and even a telephone, those who have never set foot in any school will receive jokes from other people, like those from a real estate agent, because Haoren will not know how to respond politely. All this will define and configure the character.
The latest work from the director of 'Candy Color Paradox' stars Rei Sawamura from "Living With Him", known to BL lovers for playing Haruna Keita in the series 'Kare no Iru Seikatsu', from 2024.
Rei Sawamura, who is also a member of One N' Only, does a convincing job playing Haoran, a young man with emotional problems. As Haoran attempts to build a life together with Chihiro, he is harassed by Maya (Yosuke Asari), an abusive pimp for whom Haoren previously worked. On the other hand, he grieves for her mother, a Chinese woman who works as a prostitute and whose drug addiction has affected her so much that he no longer recognizes Haoren.
Beppu Yurai, the actor who plays Kashiwagi Chihiro, is today one of the most in-demand actors in Japanese television and cinema, after playing Saruhara Shinichi / Saru Brother in the tokusatsu franchise 'Avataro Sentai Donbrothers'.
This actor does a great job showing the range of Chihiro's emotions as he tries to make sense of her relationship with the young man who fulfills assignments of dubious decency.
With a life of suffering and emotional deprivation very similar to Haoran's, Chihiro's own older brother refuses to recognize him in public for being homosexual. Alienated by an exclusionary society, these two people with their broken souls and wounded bodies find salvation in each other.
Both Beppu Yurai and Rei Sawamura are natural actors who add depth to the story when they are on screen together. Their performances are one of the many reasons why 'Happy of the End' is worthy of being appreciated by the public.
Beppu Yurai shines as Chihiro, sexually hungry and in love. Rei Sawamura plays Haoran with an inner sadness that allows the viewer to feel empathy for him. Without a doubt, they are well-defined characters.
I mean I absolutely love Rei Sawamura as Haoren and Beppu Yurai as Chihiro. They act magnificently in their respective roles. Both imbue their characters with all their heart. You can see that the two of them are really going through an emotional journey, and the Japanese actors find those moments to infuse them with this immense amount of empathy and conviction, while also playing a quiet strength and determination.
Using flashbacks, Tomoyuki Furumaya presents the central relationship of the series in what turn out to be real places and conflicts. When the story leads to the inevitably challenging conversations that Chihiro and Haoran must have, they are never hysterical or overly dramatic. They are two people trying to understand each other and still trying to connect. It's scary and difficult... like any relationship.
The creators of 'Happy of the End' are very aware of details like these, although the series does not stop at making important points, the implications are clear and given depth through scenes that show these two people together, trying to maintain a connection and taking care of each other.
Another important detail comes from the characters' interior monologues, from which we get a vision of the cruel and suffocating world in which they have lived. I normally have a low opinion of voiceover, outside of very specific genre conventions, but the creators of 'Happy of the End' make it seem appropriate for this story.
Both Haoran and Chihiro tell us a lot of important things in their inner monologue and mostly character details rather than simply a device to advance the plot. It works as a plot driver, but not in an egregious way. No, rather, the interior monologues are cleverly used to remind those of us who do not share the background of both characters how they have experienced their personal traumas, but also their desires for redemption and to find their place in the world. The interior monologues give weight to the series in a way I didn't expect.
Both will have the support of Ryohei Kaji (Yuki Kubota), an older brother figure to Chihiro and Haoran, a man who, although he gets angry quickly, is a good guy deep down, as Tanaka drew this character in the manga.
The cast works excellently together, giving realism and depth to the relationship of the main characters.
The soundtrack is composed by Kōji Endō. The opening track is "2Colors" by The Spellbound featuring Jesse (Rize/The Bonez.
The series has an undeniable richness in its various artistic components: the photography, the sets, in constant mutation, the music, and the essential editing work, which place us, as viewers, before a moving story in which the sudden friendship between the main characters is strange, but believable. The complexity of Chihiro and Haoran's relationship and the discovery of their tragic pasts is what drives the series.
What I like most about 'Happy of the End' is its strong, sensitive and moving message to those people who feel like they are missing something, or who want something but don't know what it is, or who are struggling every day and feel somehow dissatisfied. Haoran and Chihiro live their lives to the fullest even in the depths of despair. Despite their frustrations and stormy pasts, these characters do not give up and fight against all adversities.
On the other hand, I am struck by the fact that Haoran, like the semen in the relationship, is more androgynous than the uke. Likewise, this is how the characters were designed in the original work.
The series is a heartbreaking, sensitive and honest portrait of two young people who are emotionally connected to each other despite the traumatic and heartbreaking nature of their past.
The landscape and cinematography are beautiful despite the harsh reality that the series exposes and affects many young Japanese in the circumstances reflected through the protagonists. For decades we have wanted to believe that Japanese youth have everything to be happy in the nation that is considered the third largest economy in the world.
However, we then discovered, through the novel coronavirus, as the country prepared to host the Japan 2020 Olympic Games, that hundreds of thousands of Japanese, perhaps millions, many of them young, many of them prostitutes, many of them disowned by their parents for being homosexual, many of them harassed and discriminated against by a heteronormative and patriarchal society that refuses to accept LGBT+ people, they live in internet cafes throughout the Land of the Rising Sun, faced with the impossibility of being able to pay renting a home.
With the closure of these establishments due to the quarantine, suffering the eviction of their places to sleep, and faced with the increasing precariousness of their lives, they were forced to steal a snack from a child and run away, wait for someone to leave them abandoned in a park or a bus stop a box of chocolates that will be checked to see if there is still any left inside to put in your mouth, prostitute yourself for a few coins that are enough to buy a newspaper with which to cover the cold of the night in the streets, or spending the night among garbage bags, outdoors, along with the darkness, inclement weather and violence, portrayed in the series.
'Happy of the End' is a moving and fascinating study, beautifully told and skillfully acted, of two men struggling with the consequences of living through traumatic events.
The series fulfills its objective for me, in addition to wanting to jump to the other side of the screen to accompany Chihiro and Haoran on their journey of suffering, pain and shared dreams of achieving happiness, inviting me to reflect on a raw and sad reality.

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Teenage love is NOT as addictive as heroin

Gone are the days when film directors arrived at a shoot with the novel they intended to adapt under their arms and rolled around tearing off leaves and extracting from them what they considered most substantial. No scripts at the beginning of the silent era, when a good part of the narration was excluded from a film plot with few reels.
As the years passed, the adaptations were perfected and today every successful novel has a swarm of producers behind it interested in bringing it to the screens. Top-notch scriptwriters, high budgets, efficient period reconstruction, and yet interesting aspects of the book continue to be left out, mainly due to the time-footage factor, or for including thorny themes, such as stormy loves and obsessions, which can reach sexual violations, and that conditions the filmmakers.
This generally means that good novel readers are dissatisfied with the film or television versions. Which does not mean that cinema and television continue to adapt literary themes, because many who do not read—increasingly, unfortunately—enjoy good stories, thanks to bringing the books they were not able to read into moving images. arrive.
The year after filming 'Hit Bite Love', the daring series adorned with sexual scenes and sadomasochism, after debuting in 2013 with the film 'Tom Gay', which was followed by 'Let's Go Bangkok Holiday' and 'The Right Man: Because I Love You', and the series 'Love Sick Season 2', 'Make It Right' and 'War of High School', among others, in which he addresses topics such as homosexuality, homophobia, love triangles, romances secrets, infidelity, multiple partners, unrequited love, youth and the school environment, Yuan Tin Tun Danop, the Thai film and television director, returns to the small screen.
It does not bring just any series, but the adaptation of the novel "Are You Addicted?", by the Chinese novelist Chai Ji Dan, a work that in a short time has become a global success, acclaimed by many, while others describe it as problematic due to showing physical assault and sexual violation not consented by the victim.
Love, heartbreak, jealousy, intrigue, misunderstandings, betrayal, obsession, sexual violation, family tensions, eidetic memory... The thing is, despite this, or precisely because of it, this work has all the ingredients to conquer the public again and again, whether between the pages of the book, printed or digital, or in front of a screen thanks to the two ill-fated Chinese versions, since his work has been adapted to television for years without ever being completed.
After the publication of "Are You Addicted?", considered one of those global literary phenomena that came to sweep its path, criticism and comments poured in. Most to praise it and say that it was a magnificent way to tell a story of rape and love, others to reproach it for being an insult to all survivors of male sexual violence. Words like sexual assault, domestic violence, and vicious tort were uttered, and there were even accusations that the writer was defending the classic lie that rape awakens sexuality.
But in its human complexity and artistic excellence, the novel is much more than a chain of assumptions and requires readers free of conservatism and prejudices that prevent them from analyzing the psyche and attitudes of the protagonists. An exploration of intimacies proposed by the literary work to refer to the ravings of desire and obsession of a boy in love with another who resists him, without knowing in those moments that they are also stepbrothers. Without ignoring that after the act of sexual violence to which one of the characters is subjected, he must face a mental transcendence that leads him to fall in love with his attacker. All this, while we witness, in great depth, the dissection of two families, one wealthy and the other mired in poverty.
Although Chai Ji Dan is considered as irreverent as he is provocative, his work is demonstrative of good craftsmanship and imagination in abundance. There is a long list of films and series that mix romance and drama that equally combine explicit violence, the most disturbing sexual content and social criticism.
The sexual scenes that the Chinese novelist resorts to with total artistic justification seek the psychological introspection of the characters. Hence, we have to be attentive to looks, voices, emotional reactions, all in order to explore Gu Hai's human nature, a mixture of love and kindness, but also impulses, obsessions and denials occurring under the same addiction that gives the title to the novel.
And there is his girlfriend, Jin Lu Lu, also over the top with sex, and whose sudden appearance will represent a mess for him, who will see both his privacy and his life routine destroyed. Without forgetting that she embodies a past that Gu Hai is not willing to resume. While, on the other hand, he feels threatened by the possibility of losing Bai Luo Yin, the great love of his life, if he decided to reestablish his romantic relationship with Shi Hiu, his ex-girlfriend.
"Are You Addicted?" It deals with issues related to homosexuality, but at the same time it becomes a story of a beautiful and suffering humble family, and the relationship between father and son in an unpleasant environment marked by poverty. Diverse and very significant characters will then parade, with whom the reader comes to fall in love.
With the title 'Addicted Heroine', the unfinished television adaptation of the tumultuous love story of Bai Luo Yin and Gu Hai, has been taken up by Yuan Tin Tun Danop, to tell, in this Thai version, the story of Hero and Poopy, two teenagers who, despite their social differences and personal life paths, evolve from enemies to lovers, to forge a beautiful love relationship.
It is true that it is a story already told, but as I have already said, unfinished in its two adaptations: 'Addicted' (2016), by Chinese director Ding Wei, and 'Stay with Me' (2023), with script and direction by the author herself. Chai Ji Dan. From there arises the challenge to the imagination. But in my opinion, the director misuses it.
Although it has characters and a plot similar to the original work, the proposal by Yuan Tin Tun Danop, whose only experience as a director in adapting novels was with the unsuccessful BL series 'What the Duck', from 2018, the names of the characters and the approach to the relationship dynamics of the two main protagonists are different.
But to continue, and in case someone does not know exactly what the story is about, we leave you a brief introduction:
Hero Rahat, after the death of his mother, does not have a good relationship with his father. In the eyes of a 16-year-old teenager, the man, head of a wealthy family, with an authoritarian and dominant character, is responsible for the loss of the person who carried him in her womb. Bearing a deep grudge against him, Hero does not accept that his father, the military Kulchanchanaocha, has remarried. Therefore, due to constant disagreements, he decides to leave the family home to live with his aunt on his mother's side in a rural area.
For his part, for as long as him can remember, Poppy Luesil has lived a humble life in a poor social environment with him careless but loving father, Han Hanchai (Pep Nophasit Thiengtham). His parents divorced many years ago and since then Poppy has made the decision to stay with him father and forget about him mother, who has also made no effort to maintain a close relationship with him son. For this reason, Poppy has a shy and reserved character. Even so, using his intelligence and excellent penmanship, he has developed his skills, earning a good reputation as a diligent student and recognized as such.
When him turns sixteen, his estranged biological mother, Khing Jarinya (Meenay Jutai), remarries Hero's father. Khing's wish is that Poppy agrees to live with his new husband and his son so that she can obtain better training and prosper socially. However, Poppy categorically rejects that proposal and decides to stay with her father.
By chance of fate, the new stepbrothers meet in the same class at a secondary school, without being aware of the family ties they maintain with each other. Although at first their personalities clash and they have several school disputes due to Hero taking out his frustrations on the young boy, for which he constantly makes fun of him, they slowly develop a good friendship that later culminates in Hero's falling in love with Poppy, who no longer loves him. He feels love for his girlfriend Lala (Nall Nalliya Wipakkit), and will do everything possible to consolidate his relationship with Poppy.
The latter, who resists having a romantic relationship with Hero, will experience how the persistence and feelings of his new classmate and stepbrother will gradually overcome his barriers and resistance until, finally, he admits that his feelings also overcome the "friendship" label.
But after discovering the family bond that unites them, new problems will come to stand in the way of the two teenagers, and both must learn to use love to overcome class barriers and the obstacles of those around them.
His classmates, Tiger Yawamon (Yang Meng in the novel), a role assumed by the young actor Jur, and Only (You Qi in the novel), played by Newyear, who also show a romantic attraction between the two, witness the evolution of the relationship between the two young people, which crystallizes when they both go to live together in Poppy's humble family home.
With 'Addicted Heroine', Jur and Newyear continue their steps into the BL universe, after starring in the series 'Hit Bite Love' and the film 'Firstly "Like" You, fictions in which the former plays "Burger" Burinphat , and Newyear plays King.
With themes such as homosexual romance, coming of age, youth and their way of facing life, family roles, economic contradictions, daily life, self-discovery and acceptance, the series stars August Vachiravit Paisarnkulwong (remembered for playing Pete, one of the protagonists of the two seasons of 'Love Sick the Series', which marked his acting debut, nothing more and nothing less than under the orders of the director of 'Addicted Heroine') as Hero Rahat, and Mac Nattapat Nimjirawat as Poppy Luesil, in her first leading role after participating in numerous films and series, such as 'The Broken Us' and 'My Forever Sunshine'.
Unfortunately, despite some good performances from the cast, the series cannot be recommended to those readers of Chai Ji Dan's novel. The almost literal fidelity of the script to the text contrasts with the free choices made by the director.
It is evident that the changes in the personalities of the protagonists, the telling of the story with tones of vulgar comedy and not from the drama that the novel shows, as well as modifying the dynamics in the actions of the main couple, obey the intention of avoiding the scandal of narrating violent scenes including sexual assaults.
In this sense, the worst point is the literary script, which turns a great novelistic work into an extremely generic story, one of those that we have already seen a thousand times before, and that at some moments becomes meaningless, with unnecessary and at certain moments inexplicable twists and turns, which leads to the great probability of ending up in oblivion due to the way it was carried out by abandoning a solid construction of characters and conflicts in a trite idea.
In the profession of film criticism there is an unwritten rule, although obvious, which almost all of us observe in one way or another: try to strike a balance when evaluating, in terms of weaknesses and successes. Sometimes, that is almost impossible, and this series confirms it.
Despite the notable production values ​​and worthy performances by August and Mac, the script has weighed down, altered and suppressed the strong chemistry and sexual tension between the new stepbrothers with conflicting emotional backgrounds that include previous relationships with old girlfriends, as well as the obsession of one of the boys with the other, which leads him to commit the vile act of sexual assault. The thing is that here we will not find those two fascinating and shocking personalities, so different and complex, which generate all the conflicts included in the original work.
The magic, the spell and the loving intensity of the characters that put the novel on a high level of erotic literature have been left on wet paper.
The result is a bland and clumsy series with a very weak romantic relationship that fans of the literary work do not like, but can be satisfactory for the millions around the world who log in every Tuesday to watch it and do not know the novel. In this case, they could admire and enjoy a beautiful love story between two boys, but nothing more.
In this sense, why adapt a work with that premise and then ignore it and not bring it to the screen? Wouldn't it have been much easier then to film an original script, even if it is loaded with love stories between stepbrothers and the relationship between enemies and lovers?
As part of the human instinct to look for different ways to tell a known story, 'Addicted Heroine' simply joins the long list of failed adaptations, and becomes a soulless television series, which is light years away from the novel on which his script is based. It is, quite simply, a bad mutation of one of the most beautiful erotic novels ever written.
The script is by Chim Sedthawut Inboon ('Never Let Me Go'), Park Thamsarun Khusunthia ('Club Friday Season 16: Young Love') and Poy Orachat Brahmasreni ('Gen Y Season 2'), the latter the only one of this trio of writers with previous experience in adapting original works, by bringing the content of the web novel "Love Syndrome III" to the screen in 2023, a series that also became a failure.
Another of the significant changes in the Thai series is the elimination of the romantic interest of the character of You Qi (Only, in the Thai version), the attractive and popular young man who keeps his homosexuality a secret, by Luo Yin. This ill-advised decision eliminates one of the sources of Hero's (Gu Hai) jealousy, making the series dispense with the rivalry, drama and tension that the love trio causes.
The strong paternal-filial bond of Bai Luo Yin (Poppy Luesil, in this adaptation) with his father Bai Han-qi ("Han" Hanchai in the Thai version), does not reach the intensity and drama of the original work. His humble life in a poor social environment with his sick grandmother and father is weak.
Gu Hai's (Hero) deep resentment towards Gu Wei Ting, his father, for blaming him for his mother's death, is laughable at best.
The character played by August is just a shadow of the character that came from the pen of Chai Ji Dan. No matter how hard he tries, he does not achieve the vibrations that awaken that strong-willed but lonely student who wants to free himself from the influence of his authoritarian father and has difficulty expressing his emotions until the moment he knows true love. Knowing that he is a proven and recognized actor, I assume this is due to the weak drawing of his character in the literary and technical script.
But in my opinion, the biggest mistake is having turned the strong and independent character played by Mac into a lame perfect student overwhelmed by shyness and timidness.
Despite its beautiful photography and remarkable music, the series does not awaken in me the same emotions that I experienced when reading the novel. This is mainly because the greatness of the original work and the two failed Chinese versions of it lies in the strength and independence of the personalities of the two protagonists and the inevitable clash of the same, and this is weighed down with the changes introduced in 'Addicted Heroine', which murder the novel.

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A gay romance with fantastic touches and the whitewashing of the homophobic Thai Police

The Sign is a captivating drama that stands out among other BLs for its ability to balance multiple stories and themes. Broadcast on Channel 3, this production by renowned Thai director and screenwriter A Natthaphong Wongkaweepairod, perfectly intertwines elements of gay romance, the complexity of first love, religiosity, the exciting world of fantasy, the supernatural, the resolution of crimes and political and police corruption.
This unique combination of genres, its compelling narrative, the pair of irresistible protagonists and a direct story of love-overcomes-adversity, guarantees that 'The Sign' will hit the mark among fans of BL products, always in search of a series that show an engaging and exciting experience. All this positions the audiovisual among the most outstanding in the BL universe of all time.
Professional critics and fans alike praise its emotional depth and the cast's sincere performances.
Its director has to his credit the dramas 'My Hero Series: Spell of The Swan Mark', from 2018; 'School Tales The Series', 2022; and the lesbian 'GAP The Series', from 2022, and 'Dream', to be released in 2024. In addition to directing, he is also the screenwriter of the serial 'Lipgloss Spy' and the film SLR', both from 2022.
Based on the great success of 'GAP The Series', its first GL series, the Idol Factory company put all its effort into producing a BL criminal investigation project. This is how 'The Sign' comes about. The series is a television adaptation of I-Rain-Yia's novel of the same name, with a literal translation into English, Premonition, which was produced by Saint Suppapong of 'Love By Chance' and 'Why RU?'.
Billy Patchanon, star of 'Secret Crush On You' and 'War Of Y', and promising actor Babe Tanatat, are in charge of taking on the main roles. I have no doubt that both because of their on-screen chemistry and their genuine performances, the two young actors will consolidate themselves as a ship within the BL universe.
The story centers on two young people who loved each other for centuries and were separated in several past lives, but in a twist of fate they were reincarnated as Phaya o Sakuna (Billy Patchanon Ounsa-ard) and Tharn Wansa (Babe Tanatat Phanviriyakool). This allowed them to meet at an academy where future police officers are trained, in order to enter the Investigation Detective Force (IDF).
During their training, they both experience unique visions related to their pasts and common future, which ignites their romance as they embark on the investigation of some criminal cases shrouded in mystery. Phaya and Tharn's love will be tested by an enigmatic man.
Other talented actors and actresses bring the characters to life in a way that has resonated with audiences.

Brief characterization of the characters

Tharn: He is the cheerful and kind young officer of the IDF. He loves Phaya, with whom he has a romance from the past. That is why he constantly risks his life to save him from the danger he is in. He has a strong sense of "instinct."
Phaya: He is the young, handsome, intelligent, cool and upright IDF officer. Love Tharn.
Khem (Tack Pongsakorn) is the young officer who has a flirtatious personality, likes to have fun and plays with all the other IDF members, especially his boyfriend Thongtai.
Thongtai (Poom Natthapas): Khem's boyfriend. He studied psychology and has a good sense of duty. He is a very observant young officer.
Yai (Gap Jakarin) grew up alongside Tharn since childhood. They both consider themselves brothers. He is a young member of IDF.
Singha (Surprise Pittikorn Siripornsawan) looks weak on the outside but is the brains of the team.
Doctor Chalotorn (Heng Asavarid) an attractive psychiatrist who is close and protective of Tharn.
Captain "Akk" Akkhanee Assawawaisoon (Akk Akarat Nimitchai), leader of the investigation team.
Wansarat (Freen Sarocha Chankimha): The GAP The Series actress is part of the cast as a Guest.
The resounding success of the series has led to the creation of other content, such as The Sign Special and Behind the Sign.
A must-see drama for fans of the BL genre and those who enjoy a good mix of romance, mystery and the supernatural, The Sign brings a captivating story that, together with its talented cast and unique combination of genres, will leave a lasting impression on the spectators.

Underlying reality of the series

On the same day of the premiere of The Sign, after watching the first episode, I wrote in MDL: “I find it commendable that in a hostile, sexist, homophobic environment, which exalts masculinity, as the Police Force of any country is supposed to be, tell a story (maybe two, if we take into account Khem and Thongthai's relationship) of a romance between boys. But I wonder if this series is not a 'whitewash' for the Thai Police. I hope that the series is not a tool to apply cosmetic touches to a Police accused of repressing members of the Thai LGBTQIA community.”
With these words I meant that homosexuality is still illegal and considered taboo in that country. Same-sex unions are not recognized under Thai law, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman. This prevents gay couples from applying for bank loans or joint health insurance. It also prevents the possibility of adopting children. Thai homosexuals do not enjoy the same rights as heterosexuals. Thai law denies transgender people from changing their sex on their national identity card.
Homosexuality was decriminalized in 1956, but was considered a mental illness until as recently as 2002. Many Thai Buddhists believe that homosexuality is a punishment for sins committed in a previous life. Thai homosexuals suffer physical and verbal harassment in the classrooms by their classmates, and discrimination at work, under the permissive gaze of society, despite the image of tolerance towards this group in order to attract tourism to the country. The Thai Police, the result of the Military Juntas that emerged after successive coups d'état, is accused, both by the local population and internationally, of being corrupt, torturing and repressive.
The Royal Thai Police is the most corrupt state department in the country with tens of thousands of complaints annually, according to regular reports from the Ombudsman's Office, and many of these complaints come from members of the Thai LGBTQIA community, who go unheard mostly.
The high-profile crime and dismemberment of the Colombian surgeon Edwin Arrieta, known as the “Daniel Sancho Case” (name of his confessed Spanish murderer) confirms this. This macabre murder once again brought to public attention the dynamics in the Asian country, the excesses, the parties and the mechanisms of privilege when the victim is a homosexual.
The LGBTIQIA collective is openly discriminated against and even with criminalizing laws, which, to wash its face before the international community, welcomes all those foreigners who will be part of the collective, but without displays of public affection
At a legislative level, Thailand has much more permissive LGBTIQIA policies, but at a factual level, there is discrimination, taboo and extensive stigma. Perhaps that explains the media treatment that has been given to the Sancho case from within the country itself: half-hearted, without fully clarifying the relationship that the two men had, and the eagerness that the police have shown to close the case. In addition to trying to maintain the idyllic image of the country before Thai and international public opinion so that tourism is not scared away.

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The power of predestined love and the complete transformation of broken people into beings of light

The power of predestined love
''Century of Love', the LGBTIQ+ romantic drama that combines elements of fantasy and action, reminds us that love inspires concepts as beautiful as the one that becomes the heart of this Thai series.
Directors Thanawat Panyarin ('Sanaeha Diary Series: Buang Sanaeha'), and Wo Worawit Khuttiyayothin ('Laws of Attraction') are behind 'Century of Love', a romantic fantasy that unfolds over more than a century.
Screenwriters Nueng Chawanon Sarapat ('To Sir, With Love' and 'Laws of Attraction'), Sorawich Pinyomit ('Laws of Attraction') and Apirat Hinkaew ('Suphapburut Sut Soi 2022'), are in charge of weaving a story with wonderful plots and eternal romances in which only predestined love will be able to save a young man from his own inner maelstrom.
The story revolves around San, a good-hearted boy who, due to the power of the Stone of Five Colors, which has turned him into an immortal being but with an expiration date, has waited for his love, Miss Wad ( Cookie Yada), for 100 years, waiting for him to be reincarnated into another person. To do this, he must face suffering, both physical and mental, all for the long-awaited reunion.
If he fails to find her within the given time frame, he will inevitably succumb to a tragic death for eternity.
About to finish the last year of the century before the power of the stone becomes his eternal curse, San meets Vee, a flighty and charming Adonis who seems connected to his life. However, San is reluctant to accept that his beloved, for whom he has waited so long and endured even loneliness, has been reborn as a child.
The creators present a story in a way where emotions pervade the entire story that is addressed in the script. Narratively, the series explores various themes, such as the conception of love, couples, the passage of time and life experiences.
Furthermore, through their protagonists, both directors and screenwriters can establish an analysis of attraction, love and desire, in addition to solving the great vital enigma of romanticism. One of the greatest virtues of its script are the different time jumps that arise, which provokes emotional introspection, but also growth and maturity in the face of the unknown. It has a striking personal force and Thanawat Panyarin and Worawit Khuttiyayothin know how to exploit it to the core of their story.
They are not afraid to show the edges and flaws that the human being hides, seen above all in the character of Vee, a boy who cares about his grandmother, who is faithful to his friends, a loyal lover, kind, smiling, but is not a waste of virtues, because he is not afraid to go against established norms and commit the occasional transgression, but not for ambitious or selfish purposes, but to help and protect the people he loves.
The series captivates viewers from its first frames not only for its interesting plot and for introducing the audience to an attractive, addictive, exciting and intricate narrative, but also for the inspiring performance of its two protagonists: the actors and singers Daou Pittaya Saechua and Offroad Kantapon Jindataweephol, members of boy group LAZ1, who play San and Vee, respectively, an on-screen couple famous for their work in the 2023 BL drama 'Love in Translation', where they played Yang Yan Feng and Phumjai , in that order.
It is a fact that 'Century of Love' conquers viewers thanks to Daou and Offroad, two actors with brutal on-screen chemistry, in addition to being very comfortable with each other. The synergy they create between them transfers to the seats and it is logical that there is so much truth in their interpretations.
Offroad has an innate naturalness, in addition to knowing how to take his character to emotional levels without falling into drama. He transmits at all times that transformation that occurs in his character. We see a metamorphosis on screen that is believable. A totally correct choice, given that he understands his character and sentimentally strips himself before the viewer.
For its part, thanks to Daou's acting work, the series does not fall into excessive sentimentality, which can occur in film and television romantic stories. It gives you San an identity and the allows to explore other horizons intrinsic to people. He steps hard, but always giving space to the rest of the performances on screen.
On the other hand, Cookie Yada plays a role that could seem to be in the background, but provides greater realism thanks to an unadorned performance. He is insightful and his presence on stage is enjoyable. It gives luminosity, mystery and suspense to the series, as well as a turn of events, which, without a doubt, the audience appreciates. A very human artistic team, which is not afraid to go to the deepest part of history.
One of the peculiarities of 'Century of Love' is the technical realization behind it. Its visual quality is outstanding. It is important to emphasize that it has its own personality and chooses scenarios that become the best staging. By using common or everyday locations, such as a hospital ward, a convenience store, a Buddhist temple, or the hallways and rooms of an old house, they could have fallen into artistic neglect, but this is not the case.
His photographic direction is careful and there are shots that are really delicate and that, in themselves, evoke beauty. Likewise, they also provide a more raw and visceral force in scenes that have a tension that needs that power.
Furthermore, the work behind the artistic direction must be highlighted. Those in charge of this aspect have known how to choose some scenarios in a special way. There is that pleasure in appreciating both the great monuments and public spaces of Thai cities, as well as small places that are more important for the protagonists.
In the same way, it stands out by virtue of its communicative power to transmit the passage of time and the processes of material decay. In 'Century of Love' a model of precise cinematographic calligraphy, whose plot shows concern for the minimum scenographic details that complement, and in some way also explain, San's journey marked by the god Cronus.
The old and dilapidated Chinese Opera Theatre, apparently a set set up for filming, once splendid and vital, which has a symbolic force in history for being the scene of dates between the two lovers a century ago, in addition to being the place where they inevitably separate, suggests a universe in disintegration, whose only possible opening would lie in the meeting and union of the two protagonists in the present.
The consortium of the plot with the musical appoggiatura, especially the main theme "Waiting to Tell You", by the talented artists Niphat Kamjornpreecha and Kan The Parkinson, and performed by the actor who plays San, tells the story of the feelings of the characters, represents another of the fortunes of the television project.
Another point that enhances the series is the handling of the influence of art itself. One of the rooms of the mansion where the protagonists live is a true art museum in which true artistic jewels hang or are stored in its display cases. This demonstrates the intention of directing 'Century of Love' to a level away from the banal and only focusing on the romantic. There is that effect of showing life itself.
The viewer will be drawn to the tender and deep characters, such as Prince Trai, Mrs. Ward's fiancé in one of the timelines, and Dr. Third in another timeline, the present, played by the attractive actor Pond Ponlawit. Ketprapakorn, who I have followed since I discovered him in the role of Wang in the series '180 Degree Longitude Passes Through Us'.
The fact that this last character loves Veer is an element to consider in thinking that the young convenience store worker is the real Mrs. Ward reincarnated. Likewise, that Wada does not see Prince Trai in Dr. Third has other connotations to be discovered over the course of the series.
The cast closes with Gumpuns Koravich Sarasin as Doctor Tao, a faithful friend of San and temple official; Kae Trungta Kositchaimongkol as Rat, San's great-granddaughter; See Parattakorn Kaiyanan as Ton, Wee's friend; Xiang Pornsroung Rouyruen as Chu, San's great-great-granddaughter, Boss Natpongpon Suddee as the evil Uncle Suchat.
Also worth highlighting is the plot, full of unexpected twists, and a unique and enveloping atmosphere, which keeps you in suspense and really manages to capture you from the first moment.
The visual quality is impressive, with special effects and cinematography elevating the experience. Each episode leaves a feeling of wonder and curiosity, inviting you to reflect on the conflicts raised and anticipate what will happen next.
I recommend the series for many reasons. It's short and to the point, without unnecessary filler. Well done in terms of special effects, twists and script. Enough to develop the story but without adding straw. With deep messages, it has a certain originality (at this point it is very difficult to invent anything new). It has, in addition to the above, ethics, satire, morality, an intense drama that can make you cry, a touch of humor that will make you laugh more than once, a plot that engages.
Don't miss it.

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A story closer to real life than the usual BL and an ode to indie cinema

Hope (Night Yodsakon Khamnang) is a fried dumpling seller. Nine (Kong Chindanai Boonruang) is an actor from the Chiang Mai BL production company, who reluctantly accepts a leading role in a new boy love series. The young man is reluctant to the proposal of York (Sak Kidtisag Makongrach), the director of the company, to be part of a new couple to replace the one formed by the main cast, whose members were forced to abandon the film project after the expiration of their contracts.
The worlds of Hope and Nine intersect when the former parks his sales cart in front of the production company and in one of those turns of life the young people meet. The two begin a journey when they realize that they are united by unexpected and uncontrollable feelings.
I highly value series like 'My Star', from Wayufilm Production, for the same reason that others will surely deny it: good execution, level of acting, filming and production, despite its low budget; characters far from the clichés of attractive boys that populate BL series, many of them with nothing to contribute other than their beautiful faces and contoured bodies; simple stories that are much closer to real life, truly passionate actors and a production team in each installment, and a firm determination not to kneel before the giants of the entertainment world with their very common mediocre stories interested only in making money, and whose proposals frequently fail, among other reasons, for not taking their fans seriously.
We are faced with a Thai BL that is not cheesy and unpleasant. The couple has very good chemistry. They are actors who have starred in other projects, such as 'LGBTQ+ Dramas Season 2', 'Our First Time' or 'Midnight Love', among others, and they know each other well.
Furthermore, the editing team chose exceptional music to accompany the miniseries.
I also appreciate the tenacity of the creators to not succumb to the dictates and whims of commercial companies, eager to contribute funds to the production of many BL audiovisuals in exchange for advertising their products, something that we frequently criticize in other series of the genre, thus respecting Wayufilm Production its ethics and principle of being a production company that is committed to indie cinema.
'My Star' can be considered within the name of independent cinema because it has a low budget, is made in more precarious conditions than the so-called official cinema, deals with everyday themes and is closer to the public, lacks mass distribution and, therefore, having fewer possibilities of obtaining large income and being made by a director outside the world of large production companies.
Being able to film without falling into the rigid schemes of the studio system is one of the highest aspirations of every director.
Written and directed by Thai filmmaker Nitchapoom Chaianun, CEO of WayuFilm and founder of MongKlong Studio and GoodJob VDO, 'My Star' joins other dramatized films of his authorship that address issues related to sexuality and gender identity, such as since he debuted with his first short film 'Fresh' (เฟรชเฉิ่ม), in 2006, which was followed by 'Fresh Cool Story 2' (เรื่องเฟรชเฉิ่ม 2).
Determined to delicately portray the diversity of human relationships, dismantling the prevailing stereotypes regarding what is "normal", and contributing to the struggle of Thai LGBT people, Nicchi, as he likes to call himself, has obtained popular recognition with his films and series BL-themed feature films such as the feature film 'My Bromance' (พี่ชาย, RTGS: Phi Chai), 'My Bromance 2: 5 Year Later: The Series', 'My Bromance: Reunion', 'Key Love', 'NightTime', ' The Rain Stories', 'Yantra' (อาถรรพ์ยันต์มหาเสน่ห์), among others.

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Just a week ago I wrote a post on MDL about this story. The text can still be read. At that moment I asked myself several questions: is this the story of a wounded boy looking for “revenge” after feeling betrayed by his girlfriend? Is it perhaps the story of an escort who unexpectedly falls in love with one of his potential clients? Has Third carefully chosen Pai or is it just a coincidence that it is this boy who accompanies him and not another? Then other questions would arise: Is the viewer facing a skillful and sexy game of cat and mouse while camping? Will it be the beginning of a tumultuous romantic relationship?
I must confess that the second part of the story completely changed the perception I initially had of the film. It has a terrible script and the performances leave a lot to be desired, but it has in its favor that it addresses prostitution, both male and female, an interesting topic that is little addressed in the context of BL series. The narrative is also unpredictable, since the viewer is not able to predict what will happen next. It is also worth noting the surprising twists with which they catch us from time to time.
Negative:
1- The retrospective flashback technique is used as an easy and “recurrent” resource. Its abuse means that at times the viewer does not know what the main plot is, whether what is told in so many flashbacks or the backstory. As a result, we have the main plot lose intensity and prominence in favor of the recurring memories of the two main characters.
2- Repetition of scenes in their entirety.
Movie summary (Contains spoiler):
Third is a young man who learns that his girlfriend, Ann, is dedicated, through a digital application, to being hired by women to work as a companion or scort. One day he follows her and discovers that her job also includes prostitution. Finally, Third finds out that Ann has set her eyes on a young woman, is in love and intends to start a lesbian relationship with her. Third and Ann ask to have a week apart to reevaluate their relationship.
For his part, Pai is a young man also dedicated to prostitution. In fact, his girlfriend has just broken up with him because she refused to accept him doing this job. He is reluctant to submit to his girlfriend's whims, claiming that if he depended on her he would become useless again. There is no doubt that prostitution is Pai's profession. At one point, he asks Third: “And if we want to say no when (clients) want to have sex, how do we compensate them in a way that makes them feel less bad and avoids bad reviews?”
Pai's proposal to his girlfriend is laughable, as he refuses to break up with her: “I will find a middle ground. I will stop holding hands with my clients. Just dinners, movies and walks. And I will also add a rule: do not touch any customers, especially women.”
Third hires Pai for three days to go into the woods to “watch birds,” but he really has ulterior motives. Third knows in advance that Pai works as an escort or “hand-holding” other men, that is, he is a man you pay to have sex with. And he also knows that the girl his girlfriend is having an affair with is none other than Prang, Pai's girlfriend. Third's goal is to trick Pai into following the two girls and exposing their infidelities.
When the time comes, Third confesses to Pai what his purposes are. Pai initially feels hurt because, on the one hand, he understands that he has been deceived by his girlfriend: while he demanded that she quit her job as an escort or she would break up with him if she did not comply with his requirements, she was having an affair with a woman. And on the other hand, Pai feels that he has been used by Third and is a pawn in his plan. Finally, they both surprise the girls by being unfaithful, they turn to each other for support between drinks of alcoholic beverages and they console each other.
Third is clear: He has no future with his girlfriend, with whom he is forced to break up. This is evidenced when Pai asks Third to make peace with his girlfriend, who he hasn't broken up with yet. And Third responds: “Do you want me to chase my girlfriend and make peace with a person who is in love with someone else?”
On the other hand, Ann confesses that she will stop prostituting herself for love of Prang. The love that the two girls feel for each other is palpable, so it is incomprehensible that, when they discover that they have been trapped by their boyfriends, they claim, between tears, that they have devised a plan to deceive them, offer apologies and hope to be forgiven. for them.
Could the two initial couples forget what happened and start over again when Prang and Ann love each other?
I also find it incomprehensible:
- Ann, who is a prostitute and therefore cheats on her boyfriend, when arguing with Prang about whether they should get back together with their respective boyfriends, tells him that she doesn't want to cheat on anyone or make anyone feel bad because of her. .
- Why, if the two girls love each other, do they ask to forget their relationship and return to their respective boyfriends?
- Was Ann's goal to make Third jealous, as Prang suggested?
- Third is okay with his girlfriend earning money from the dating app, but not being a prostitute?
-How could Prang know that Third would follow Ann into the forest and bring with him Pai, a person he didn't even know?
-How is it possible that the two girls devised a plan to deceive them based on information that it is impossible for them to have had when they planned to go camping?
Third accompanies Pai to the bus that will take him back to Bangkok. They say goodbye, they plan to follow each other on social networks, but at the last moment Pai gets out of the vehicle, returns to where Third is and confesses to having fallen in love with him in those days of tribulations. Third smiles as a sign that he too has fallen in love. At that moment a phone call comes in from Prang. They try to say something to them, but the call is cut off.
The ending allows us to see the emotions and feelings that overwhelm the two couples in their respective cars traveling to the capital. While the two boys talk animatedly, laughing and joking, Pai lovingly fixes the hair of Third, who is driving the car. I have no doubt that there is a future between the two. Love has won. For her part, an obviously upset Ann drives the car and Prang, also angry, tries unsuccessfully to establish telephone communication. They have lost in the game.
The director of the film, Jedi Suriyan Dangintawat, has also directed “I Wish You Love”, “Fake Love” and “Friends Forever”, stories that make up, along with others, the series “My Universe”. I have been able to see the last two. Refund Love is the only redeemable one, in my opinion, even though it lacks ambition (or taste, or subtlety, or class). Not even the sometimes pretended humor comes to compensate for its flaws.

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Stigma, discrimination, and the necessary social changes in a homophobic society

'The Teacher', the second feature film by director and screenwriter Chen Ming Lang, following her debut with 'Tomorrow Comes Today' (2013), develops a modern and sober melodrama that intertwines two plots: a tragic love story hampered by HIV and the resistance of a society that still distrusts differences.
There is no greater truth than that which expresses that we are witnessing one of those films that doesn't shout, but pierces you. The sensitivity with which it portrays love, identity, and the pain of the unspoken is devastating in the best sense. Each shot seems to stare the viewer straight in the face, as if asking them not to blink at the discomfort... and at the tenderness. It is cinema that is felt, thought, and stored.
Of special note is the technical and artistic execution, which is raised from a close local customs, leaving the artistic aspect in the background.
Starring Oscar Chiu, known for playing Tony in the cult film 'Story in Taipei' (2017), for his outstanding performance as the lead in the drama film 'Final Examen' and his recurring role in the Netflix romance series 'More than Blue: The Series' (2021), 'The Teacher', which premiered at the Queer East Festival 2019, features honest and passionate performances.
Set in a context of progressive openness due to the legalization of same-sex marriage, the film focuses on the more personal politics of a young man who finds his voice as he experiences his first serious romantic and sexual relationship.
Its effective introduction introduces us to Kevin (Chiu, who earned a Best New Actor nomination for this role at the Golden Horse Festival in Taiwan), a young Civics teacher who seems to have a happy and enjoyable life. Outside of class, he alternates his activism for gay rights, equal marriage, and Gender Equality Education with his romantic relationship with his boyfriend Jin Wu Gao (Chin-Hao Chang, known for his role in 'Hong Se Qi Qiu' (2017), a former factory owner a few years older than him.
With a mother (played by actress Tzu-hua Ho - 'Red Horse in the Summer Sky'm, 2022) who accepts her son's homosexuality, Kevin soon leaves the family home to live with his boyfriend.
In seconds, this pleasant existence is turned upside down. Upon openly admitting in class that he supports same-sex marriage, the teacher begins to suffer homophobic taunts from his students, frequent warnings from the school principal, and calls for his expulsion from parents concerned about the growing rumor that Kevin, in addition to being homosexual, also has AIDS. Suddenly, the teacher finds himself embroiled in a controversy that pits his profession against his sexuality.
At the same time, Kevin discovers that Gao is HIV-positive and has a wife (Winnie Shih-Ying Chang, winner of the Best Supporting Actress award at the Taiwanese Golden Horse Festival for this role), two issues that Gao has deliberately hidden from him.
Thus, Kevin must deal with the social stigma of HIV/AIDS and a conservative society's rejection of his homosexuality, which threaten both his romantic relationship and his job. With all these ingredients, the director female portrays the lack of democratic openness and the need for profound changes that go far beyond the political and legislative, in a conservative and homophobic society that today, even six years after same-sex marriage was approved, is reluctant to accept diversity.
But despite these dramatic events, 'The Teacher' maintains a certain serenity and dignity, and the camera only allows us glimpses into Kevin's life, often without exposition, such as the strange scene in which he attends Gao's father's birthday banquet or the brief episode in which his wife enters the apartment with a hammer.
Produced by Swallow Wings Films and Portico Productions, the openness of several characters, as well as the demonstrations in favor of same-sex marriage and the need for Gender Equality Education, reflect the situation faced by LGBT+ people in Taiwan.
On the other hand, the main heart of 'The Teacher' lies in the relationship between Kevin and Gao, from their meeting in a public restroom in Taipei to the couple crisis stemming from the secrets one of them has kept from the other. Despite having the option of building a romantic relationship with a happy ending, Chen Ming Lang opts for an unsweetened reality. Beyond depicting an unlikely and unrealistic queer utopia, the film aims to reflect a version of real life.
Thus, the film introduces the characters into a series of events that break with the idyllic setting to expose the stigma that members of the LGBTQ+ community have regarding HIV. The film also shows the lack of understanding, fear, pain, as well as selfishness and lack of empathy. A more faithful portrayal of the truth.

Of characters and actors

The dramatic plot of 'The Teacher' is supported by an impeccable lead cast and superbly acted supporting characters. Oscar Chiu leads the cast with great naturalness, expressing his character's metamorphosis with great interpretive power.
With a performance that is absolutely true to the script, Oscar Chiu portrays his character's evolution throughout the story, from his carefree demeanor, his passion for teaching, to the most tense dramatic sequences. Ductile, with a variety of registers and great empathy with the audience, Chiu manages to reveal himself as an actor of great naturalness and freshness. His character, who appears in several nude scenes, has a magnificent arc, and his passion and anger develop harmoniously until the crude confrontation in a hospital where he goes to find Gao, towards the end. The depictions of gay sex are also quite rebellious.
His character's fate is a revolutionary political statement, especially for Taiwan. Kevin has a well-defined relationship with his mother, who loves her son and doesn't shy away from discussing his concerns with him, while Kevin doesn't dare reveal too much to anyone. "The Teacher", calm and at times not condescending, reflects this reluctance.
Although Kevin remains an enigmatic character, the actor who plays him manages to convey his frustrations and joys with subtle facial expressions. And because of this, both the character and the film feel real.
Nearly defeated by a homophobic system that requires him to disclose his health status and hide his sexuality if he wishes to continue his professional work as a teacher, Kevin is able to learn from his own lessons, ensuring that there are glimmers of hope for the LGBT+ community in Taiwan.
Tzu-hua Ho delivers a performance full of truth and organicity, with a familiar, traditional magic that rounds out his work in front of the camera. For this reason, some of the scenes between mother and son captivate the viewer with their sincerity. The veteran actress gives a good performance, without letting Kevin know how much she truly cares if her son decides to never return to the house where he was born.
The scene in which the two are walking through the market and Kevin talks to her about Gao for the first time, even showing her a photo of her boyfriend, is brilliant. Ho's face reflects such a mixture of indignation and concern that it's not entirely clear whether he cares about his son.
For his part, Chin-Hao Chang draws a character from a more measured and steady stance. Consequently, almost all of his screen time offers a sense of remaining too stable, while the audience expects more visceral action from him. The exercise of restraint is understandable, but there are moments when he could shine brighter, but he doesn't. Despite not loving his wife, despite not sharing the same bed, for some reason they remain married.
Of all the characters, he is the most distant. And the actor plays him with a charm that denotes hypocrisy. His dark side is wonderfully demonstrated in the brief scene in which he leans over a canister of nitrous oxide, inhaling its fumes as if drinking from a fountain. I would have liked the relationship between Kevin and Gao to have had more nuances than what we're given.
Winnie Shih-Ying Chang also has a complex role: she has been abandoned by her husband due to a sexuality she fully understands, but still, perhaps to comply with social norms, she wants them to conceive a child together. Her character is sincere, but even her emotional state is measured and restrained.
A sequence in which he buys and then uses a hammer discreetly shows the dexterity and strength of his performance. The protagonist of one of the film's most hilarious moments, his character remains the most interesting, as she is less of a villain and more of a pragmatic and strong presence.
The dynamic between Kevin and the school principal, Mr. Lin (Chin-Yu Lin), also deserves attention. At first, he scolds Kevin for wearing his hair too neatly and demands that he be notified about his extracurricular activities, specifically those related to his political activism for LGBT+ rights.
Later, when the teacher is questioned by the students' parents, Kevin's sexuality seems less problematic than we thought, and he is even defended by his fellow coworkers. This, along with the presence of his best friend Jo (Shih-ling Hsueh), a more radical and visually open character, offered the possibility that Taiwanese cinema could open up even more after 'The Teacher,' gifting viewers with titles such as 'The Name Engraved in Your Heart' (Kuang-Hui Liu, 2020), 'Rizi' (Tsai Ming-liang, 2020), 'Moneyboys' (C.B. Yi, 2021), 'Marry My Dead Body' (Cheng Wei-hao, 2022), and 'Dear Tenant' (Cheng Yu-chieh, 2020), to name just a few.
The cast embodies that closeness, that social reflection that seeks to connect directly with viewers.
Chen Ming-Lang also never judges the characters' actions, as we see them make their own, often very human, mistakes. Because of this distance, the film's ending is always in doubt, and when it arrives, it ends mid-sentence.

Conclusions

The film reflects the relationship between Taiwanese society and sexual liberation, as well as the stigma still faced by people living with HIV/AIDS. While exploring the personal consequences from a realistic perspective, one that does not seek to sugarcoat the fears, prejudices, and experiences of members of the LGBT+ community, 'The Teacher' promotes the necessary social changes within a conservative society that still views those who are different with contempt.

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The heartbeat carries both life and death within itself

Perhaps it was the fact that, at just eleven years old, I saw 'The Shining', the British adaptation of Stephen King's novel of the same name, that immunized me against terror. Stanley Kubrick's 1980 classic, which tells the story of a man who loses control in an isolated hotel and serves as a terrifying exploration of madness and isolation, led me to enjoy and passionately follow psychological horror films and series, even though they almost never achieve the state of dread that is their goal and essence.
However, the unconventional Japanese series 'Tokimeki Bakudan', which blends survival game, thriller, comedy, BL drama, and friendship, brought me closer to something similar to fear: an enjoyable fear, generated in a way as simple as it is precise. In the unknown abandoned warehouse where the plot takes place, six men locked with mysterious collars around their necks that respond to certain electrical signals from the brain must live together for several days while the AI measures their emotional levels.
In the unknown abandoned warehouse where the plot takes place, six men locked with mysterious collars around their necks that respond to certain electrical signals from the brain must participate in a 72-hour death game, while the AI ​​measures their emotional levels, the splendor of their heartbeats, the energy of their heartbeats, where their heartbeat comes from...
The confusion they live upon waking up in the warehouse is experienced by former soccer player Kadotani Soya (Kobayashi Ryota - 'Zettai BL ni Naru Sekai VS Zettai BL ni Naritakunai Otoko'), the president of an IT company Tachibana Hirokazu (Nishikawa Shunsuke - ('Kare ga Boku ni Koishita Wake'), college student Maruno Gakuto (Kusachi Ryono - #ZettaiBL), former Yankee Goda Takenori (Takeshi Naoki), game streamer Sugiura Tomoki (played by Hozumi Yuya) and otaku office worker Ohara Shigenori (voiced by Maeda Souta), is in for a surprise when a stuffed dog named Masao (voiced by Shimono Hiro), who claims to be an AI, announces their mission: to study the incomprehensible human emotion of tokimeki (racing heartbeat). Bakudan means "bomb".
One can enter this warehouse (the Hell?), but it will be difficult to get out. Little by little, through informational hooks, so that viewers can weave multiple conjectures, the series clarifies the reason why the horror is unleashed: if the measured values exceed a certain limit, the person will be eliminated through a chemical substance that will enter their bodies. They cannot remove the collar by force, nor can they leave the place with it around their neck.
If there is no clear winner after the 72-hour death game has elapsed, a self-destruct system will be activated.
Yes, of course, 'Tokimeki Bakudan' has a bit of the first 'Alice in Borderland' game and Sartre's "Huis clos," in that everyone expects to be tortured, but no "executioner" appears. Instead, the characters discover they are there to torture each other, inducing their hearts to beat so fast that they die.
It's impossible to be completely original at this point, although the series doesn't focus as much on the substance as on how the mystery, tension, and unease are presented and developed during the stay of the six men who, chosen at random, must live together in the warehouse.
The premise that heartbeats (and the mystery surrounding them) produce true terror is novel.
During their stay in the warehouse, each character is an enemy of the other. They cannot leave the warehouse with the other, but in turn, they must take care of and protect each other. There will be only one survivor. Personal independence has become demonic. Since it's impossible for everyone to leave, they are condemned to live provoking alien emotions in their companions. However, there is a possibility of salvation in redemption, friendship, and love that help create bonds between people. The series explores the concept that the heartbeat can be a very mysterious feeling or emotion, connected to love, friendship, and admiration. Although it is part of the individual from birth, it changes and tends to disappear as a person ages.
The characters in the series are their own executioners. They keep their gaze fixed and constant on their companions; and they seek to provoke emotions in each other: To survive, the experiment must be successful. To be successful, the six men must be moved. Emotion is synonymous with death.
Would the solution be to withdraw into themselves, try to act normally, avoid emotions by fleeing from the gaze of others, from the words of others, from the touch of others...? This doesn't save them. They are condemned to listen to each other's thoughts, to be looked at by others, to be touched by others... whose presence becomes evident and can become unbearable and even fatal.
How can you avoid getting emotional when the look on someone's face, a simple touch, the air moving that piece of cropped hair that falls over your forehead like a fringe and is known in Latin America as bangs, crossing your arms, shaking your hair, giving the impression of showing off your body after assuming a meditative pose, lying on the cold floor, a tickle, saying a name, rubbing your leg with your hand, the sound of a body hitting the floor—in other words, the slightest reaction—can provoke emotions?
And while Sugiura Tomoki, with his experience participating in this macabre game, is the type of person who manipulates the situation to his advantage, what will happen to the hearts of two participants when they beat strongly in love with each other? If anything good comes from this crazy and perverse experiment, it's that two destined people will meet.
Even though all the participants should have the same conditions (perfect strangers who met just a few hours ago in this place, and with completely opposite ways of thinking), and yet the hearts of Kadotani Soya and Maruno Gakuto beat for each other, it can only become a weakness. However, these two characters have survived until the end, loving each other in secret, their hearts beating for each other.
"Which of the two will survive if, as the 72-hour deadline approaches, there is no clear winner in the game of death? Who will surrender with their heart beating fast, and who will continue to live with the sorrow of having lost someone?" Masao will ask.
"Can love generate a non-standard emotion that makes the heart race and allows us to overcome the barrier between life and death?" Kadotani and Maruno will ask. And I add: Will the two lovers be able to make it out alive?
'Tokimeki Bakudan' reminds me that psychological horror isn't just about jump scares or gore; it explores the human mind and our deepest fears, creating an atmosphere of tension that stays with us long after watching the series.
For Kumamoto Hiromu, the series' screenwriter and creator, the heartbeat carries within itself both life and death. Without a heartbeat, there is no life. Love, self-preservation, and the protection of a loved one accelerate the heartbeat. Hope dies with the last beat. But at the same time, the heartbeat can move us, and emotions can even cause death.
If you're a fan of intense emotions and stories of suspense and psychological horror, and you can enjoy a BL narrative, you'll enjoy it.

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Love, Tragedy, and Queer Representations: The Path to LGBT+ Visibility in Filipino Series

Written and directed by Filipino educator and filmmaker Trent Joshua Asuncion, who has considerable experience directing LGBT+-themed films and series, including the short films 'Bakla', 'Third and Josh', and 'Distansya', and the dramas 'In This Kaleidoscope World', 'Saan, Sana Tayo sa Himig ng Musika', and 'Cut', all from 2021, he delivers a love story etched in pain in the drama series 'DanDanSoy'.
This is one of those series that you won't forget, one that remains forever etched in your mind and retina.
This isn't the typical romance that BL fans dream of, especially those who follow dramas produced by GMMTV and other Thai producers, where everything is illusory and the darker, more antisocial elements of queer theory are never addressed, those that don't challenge the status quo or explore queer desire as something alien to social expectations.
Filled with rawness, realism, sadness, and tragedy, this is a difficult series to watch, especially because it tells a story in which love is fleeting, grows on the edge of a precipice, and it seems as if everything is against its ability to flourish and exist in peace.
Set in the harshness of a rural area of a Philippine province, and set against the backdrop of the nation's enforced community quarantines to combat the pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus, the series produced by Star Image Artist Management and Aqueous Entertainment is both passionate and deeply tragic.
The story follows Cardo and Nathaniel, two young people from different backgrounds, one poor and the other rich, one raised in a rural setting and the other in the city, one accepted by his family as gay and the other rejected for it. Despite the poverty surrounding them, they have been happily dating for six years. But the arrival of the pandemic disrupts their lives, and they will have to expose themselves to the dangers of the streets in order to obtain food and other necessities.
The miniseries is skillful at depicting a sad and cruel reality: the high poverty rate in the Philippines contributed to the worsening living conditions and even the rising death rate of many poor Filipinos due to the impossibility of obtaining the necessary confinement amid the pandemic if they wanted to survive on their subsistence income. It also explains how poverty is an impediment to accessing medical services and how family rejection of their homosexual children prevents the latter from obtaining not only understanding of their homosexuality, but also the necessary financial assistance in times of need.
On the other hand, "DanDanSoy" explores the relationship between religiosity and poverty in the Philippines, seen from its psychological perspective. In a poor country like the Philippines, people tend to cling to something mystical as a way to escape harsh realities, such as death and poverty, and to find hope through these beliefs. For this reason, we shouldn't be surprised at how they can praise their God and then reject him when reality is either kind or unfavorable.
On the other hand, "DanDanSoy" explores religiosity and poverty in the Philippines, seen from a psychological perspective. In a poor country like the Philippines, people tend to cling to something mystical as a way to escape harsh realities, such as death and poverty, and to find hope through these beliefs. For this reason, we should not be surprised at how people can deny their God when reality is adverse.
The striking images, captured through the beautiful photography of Jasper Ezekiel Aquino, that transcend the plot or narrative, contribute to highlighting the realism and harshness of life for the Filipino population, where an estimated 25% of its inhabitants are poor and the incidence of poverty is much higher in rural areas (36%) than in urban areas (13%).
The script, written by Trent Joshua Asuncion himself, thankfully eschews the laudatory and pitiful vision that predominates in Asian gay dramas, and allows us the miracle of visualizing, in its five 15-minute episodes, the reality of two young gay men facing the pandemic and the rigors of life in a country traditionally governed by a semi-feudal oligarchy that protects the interests of the landed elite and where fragile governance structures have contributed to the persistence of poverty.
Extra points for the soundtrack and the performances of new actors John Gil Co and Gino John Gomez, who play Cardo and Nathaniel, respectively.
The casting team must also be recognized for selecting two actors who achieve good on-screen chemistry, in addition to breaking the stereotypes initially associated in the film and television industry with gay characters as comic relief or tormentors.
I like how the actor connects directly with the audience, looking directly into the camera. The creators of 'DanDanSoy' are very skillful at humanizing the characters and imbuing their actions with feelings, emotions, and meaning, not only when they talk to each other about their current concerns or their past lives before and after meeting, or through their interactions in the beautiful sex scenes by the light of a campfire that helps break the darkness reigning in the rustic cabin where they live.
The humanization of the characters is also present when the actors subtly break the fourth wall to convey their life experiences to the viewer, sharing health advice and the use of medicinal plants useful for dealing with ailments associated with the pandemic, or talking about the preparation of typical dishes from rural Filipino cuisine, which depends on subsistence farming and fishing. I'm also struck by how the two protagonists call each other "My love," instead of by their first names.
While they do not escape the portrayal of the homosexual character as a victim of a tragic and dramatic role in Philippine drama, Cardo and Nathaniel are very masculine, seemingly heterosexual men capable of accepting their sexual orientation and seeking the path to freedom, helping to change the public's mindset with their homosexual portrayals, unafraid to hide their sexuality for fear of retribution and discrimination.
Fortunately, Trent Joshua Asuncion doesn't seek to create a queer drama in 'DanDanSoy' that reeks of a commercialized spectacle, focused on fulfilling requirements rather than genuinely pushing boundaries. Moreover, he also eschews the formula that masculinity remains the key to widespread "gay" appeal in the Philippines.
The LGBT characters in the series are young people who earn a living by working in agriculture, manual labor, and construction, contributing to the true representation of the LGBT+ community while facing rejection from a heteronormative and patriarchal society, like the Philippine one, which doesn't accept homosexual protagonists because they "don't identify with them".
And this is also a reason for praise for everyone involved in the production.
In short: This story about a gay couple facing the pandemic, poverty in rural Philippines, and an exclusionary society is a gut-punch: you'll be reaching for the tissues.

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The story of 'Ang Lalaki sa Buhay ni Selya' ('The Man in Selya's Life') revolves around Selya (Rosanna Roces, '4 Days' 2016), a charming and provocative schoolteacher, who longs for a real commitment with salesman Bobby (Gardo Versoza, 'Kerida' 2003) rather than the purely sexual relationship she has with him, but the man refuses.
Tired of their complicated relationship and heartbroken, Selya runs away from home and ends up in a small town plagued by homophobes, bigots, and gossipy busybodies. There she meets Piling (Eva Darren, 'Bikini Open' 2005), who is also a teacher, and Ramon (Ricky Davao, 'American Adobo' 2001), a closeted gay man.
In an attempt to save his reputation and keep his homosexual relationship with Carding (Alan Paule, 'Son of the Macho Dancer' 2021), a married man with two young children, hidden, Ramon proposes to Selya. After hearing gossip from the townspeople regarding Ramon's sexuality, and his refusal to have a sexual relationship with her, Selya realizes that things will not end well, and returns to Bobby, only to regret her affair with this unscrupulous man when he leaves her pregnant and continues to refuse to marry her.
At this crossroads, Selya decides to return to Ramon and raise their child with him. Despite their platonic relationship, Selya is glad of her decision, realizing her worth as a woman.
Surprisingly, shortly afterward, Bobby reappears in the protagonist's life, intent on winning her back and starting a family with her and their child. Selya is forced to confront her own irony as she bravely defies the needs of her flesh and chooses the most rewarding and stable bond.

Curiosities

'Ang Lalaki sa Buhay ni Selya' was originally scheduled for release in 1997, but it became a resounding success with the censors, which is why it was released a year later. This controversial drama is based on the script written by Bibeth Orteza and directed by her husband, Carlos Siguion-Reyna, who has considerable experience as an actor, screenwriter, and director in a wide variety of genres (including the comedy-drama 'Hari ng Tondo', 2014).
The film is Rosanna Roces's second and final project with Reyna Films and one of the filmmaker's projects that addresses taboo subjects in Filipino cinema.
Winner of the Teddy Jury Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival, Germany, the Best Asian Feature Film Award at the Newport Beach International Film Festival, USA, and the Special Jury Prize in the Feature Film Competition at the Turin International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, Italy, all in 1998, the courage of its creators with its premise must be highlighted, for its progressive nature, for its portrayal of homosexuals, for confronting the social climate of homophobia and censorship of the time in which it was filmed, which was little or nothing different from today's.
Watching it now, almost three decades later, the viewer will understand that its premise is neither novel nor does it represent a cinematic innovation, but its brevity and commitment to the story it tells undoubtedly paved the way for contemporary Filipino LGBT+ cinema.

The Best

The portrayal of a woman who faces her own prejudices in a community of gossipmongers, bigots, and homophobes, and who must choose between two men: a high school principal who is closeted gay, and a man who seeks a greater commitment to her.
Its messages of value, such as the unfair need to hide one's sexuality, the damage this can cause to oneself and others, and how minorities (including sexual minorities) have been forced to hide and even lie in many cases throughout history due to homophobia and intolerance.
The sudden change in tone.
The excellent camerawork.
The direction: Although some scenes needed polishing, it deserves applause for its recurring visual elements (such as the lattices) and, in general, for the beautiful scenes, the beautifully woven lines, the handling of the themes covered, and the long and well-thought-out sequences from the script to the staging.
The performances of the cast, especially the award-winning Ricky Davao as the troubled hero, are also very believable. Likewise, the character played by Rosanna Roces is very believable. With a more solid and nuanced role, Eva Darren achieves the best supporting role in Reyna's films.
Ryan Cayabyab's soundtrack is moving.
The juxtaposition of the two families in the finale adds drama and elevates the film.
The struggles of both Selya, a heterosexual woman looking for more than sex, and Ramon, a closeted gay man, are written in a way that shows them as true to themselves, regardless of the ultimate end. The character played by Rosanna Roces wants sex and continues to want it. The character played by Ricky Davao is gay and will remain so. And this is how homosexuality is portrayed throughout the film.

The Worst

The script, despite featuring witty lines and a rather unpleasant display of humanity, lacks continuity. The story struggles to identify Selya's true personality in her relationships with Bobby and Ramon. The dialogue is unrealistic. Above all, the subject matter is handled in a melodramatic manner that will put off most moviegoers looking for a more frank take on homosexuality.

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Whether we like it or not, we can only have one part of our partners

"Why don't you ever kiss me?" Mark asks his boyfriend Li Ting in the short film "Floss," by Chinese filmmaker Fan Popo, known for his documentaries "Mama Rainbow" (2012) and "Papa Rainbow" (2016), which address the experience of parents coming to terms with their children's sexual and gender identities in a society where family and face remain paramount. "I just did it," Li Ting replies without flinching. "No, I mean with tongue kissing".
By then, viewers have already discovered that Li Ting is harboring a strange secret: he's obsessed with teeth, both his own and Mark's, but especially with the delicate floss they use daily to clean them. His obsession even drives him to dive into the piled-up trash to retrieve a floss used by his partner. We soon discover that his paranoia has nothing to do with oral hygiene.
If in 'The Drum Tower', her previous work of fiction, also from 2019, Fan posed a story about the budding connection between an introverted student and a transgender shopkeeper in Beijing, in 'Floss' she explores the abject objects of our desire and the often unacknowledged loneliness of love, seen through the relationship between two young people in the Chinese capital that becomes strained after one of them develops an unusual fetish.
In the short film, the Chinese filmmaker (whose work is compared to that of fellow queer filmmakers He Xiaopei and Cui Zi'en for his "direct queer aesthetic", with a "media-savvy" approach, linked to the global LGBT+ movement and advocating for the acceptance of queer people in a more open and diverse society) introduces us to a pair of lovers: Mark (played by Xiao Ke) and Li Ting (Etsen Chen).
In the eyes of others, the two young professionals live a life no different from any other couple: they go out to dinner at luxurious restaurants, and after returning home from walking the dog, they settle down on the couch to watch movies together. Every night, in the bedroom, they have hot, energetic sex, in large quantities.
But an obsession grows in Li Ting's heart. When Mark, after shopping at the market, shows up at the house with floss sticks instead of the usual dental floss, Li Ting can't hide his Dissatisfaction.
That night, during sex, Li Ting shows no interest in emotional intimacy. Time and again, she offers her boyfriend excuses avoiding much more embarrassing situations. Distressed, Mark tells her at one point, "I don't think you like me at all." And he receives silence in response.
Matthias Delvaux's cinematography soon shows us that the photos of a happy couple decorating the apartment bear little resemblance to the sullen couple who live within its four walls.
From this moment on, things visibly change within the couple. Or have the images shown of the couple at the beginning only exposed a false reality, an illusory world? Have the two protagonists truly been happy? Despite the vigorous sex, is there passion? Don't the two seem to be living in separate, different worlds? Doesn't Li Ting look away from Mark while they have sex? Isn't he later tormented by dreams of being bound by a glowing spider web?
And that's when the viewer begins to understand what Fan is trying to tell us: the line between desire and disgust can be so thin that it can be erased at any moment and by any trigger: for some, it might be sweat, saliva, an unwashed body... For others, it's our partner's semen spilled on our chest during sex, blood, and pieces of chewed food.
The neurotic protagonist of the short film is aware of the abject nature of his own fetish. Expressing his obsession also entails shame and the silence that comes with it. That's why he prefers not to kiss Mark; why he chooses to look away when he meets her gaze; why he chooses to remain silent...
How much of ourselves do we hide from the person closest to us? That's the central question that 'Floss' invites the audience to reflect on, as it uncovers an uncomfortable truth: whether we like it or not, we can only have one side of our partners.
What's interesting about the film is that through the sexual obsession with dental floss, something certainly novel, 'Floss' examines contemporary relationships and the secrets we all have and jealously guard.
The film explores the communication barriers that exist between human beings, no matter how close or intimate we are with the people around us. Li Ting's confusion reflects the loneliness of ordinary people, especially those living in big cities.
Li Ting's obsession invites us to reflect on the intimate and idiosyncratic nature of fantasy and the power it wields, especially when it involves some aspect of reality that is often forgotten or forbidden in everyday life, as the Chinese director so aptly reminds us.
Presented at Palm Springs International Short Fest, Queer Lisboa, and Frameline: San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival in 2019, and Inside Out Toronto LGBT Film Festival in 2020, in 'Foss' the Chinese director accepts the challenge of tackling themes and approaches little explored by much of current LGBT+ cinema, to focus on the less attractive aspects of love and lust, in this case a fetish, to question the universal model of the monogamous couple.

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Love, wedding, tragedy and curse

At just 8 minutes, 'From Now On To The Past' constitutes one of the great milestones in audience and critical reception on the screen of the People's Republic of China in the last decade.
In this exponent of cinema that shows pure love with a gay theme, a magician predicts that there will be blood at the wedding. But it will still be celebrated, because fear and imprecation will not prevent Sang (Hu Ling Meng) from speeding up the marriage plans with Tian (Pei Zi Tian), although carrying out the betrothal is something that should not have even been thought of. Apparently, a kind of ancestral curse haunts true lovers.
In addition to the young couple, Da (Wang Keda), their good mutual friend who will serve as best man, will join the terrifying wedding. Full of complex and real emotional entanglements, which eventually lead to tragedy, the three prepare to wait for the dark day. Everything ready now for the unimaginable…
Directed by Chinese filmmaker Yang Yongchun, and released on November 11, 2015, the film shows an impressive and deep scene of intimacy between two men. Filmed in Thailand, 'From Now On To The Past' explores that love means giving unconditionally for the person you love, even the most precious thing one can have: one's own life.
Produced by Beijing Pansy Pictures Co., Ltd., the viewer can see how the relationship between Tian and Da has undergone subtle changes over time. Da suffers in silence, as his feelings for Tian have turned into same-sex love, and the two can only hide this love in silence. They both break the friendship of the brothers who grew up together, and even break the shackles of love on the rainy night before the wedding.
The film works, mostly, by appreciating the way in which the technical resources contribute to the scenario of growing sexual tension between the two men, the restlessness and fear generated by the curse; as well as the articulation of climates that range from celebration to the dark, very well conceived and managed.
With natural and attractive performances, the audience comes to understand that the three characters are full of entanglement and pain.
Note that while the magician's prophecy was coming true, Sang comes to remember the second half of the prediction, hidden from the public until that moment: "the person he loves the most will die".
The craft of the Chinese school is manifested here, in this sense, through photography and the work of the team of artistic directors. The music also contributes to the above, and in this section the weight falls on the interpretation of the actress and singer Hu Ling Meng to the closing song, which is titled "From Now On To The Past." The conjunction of the three fronts determines the impressive visual and sound display of the film.
Two other indicators of value of 'From Now On To The Past' are linked to the management of its cast, populated by famous local figures from cinema and series, and to the way of interweaving the story – wrapped in the cloaks of drama, fantasy, romance and melodrama – with the indigenous weight of superstitions and wedding celebrations.
As the film confirms, such procedures are still decisive in the culture of a country whose technological, scientific and industrial rise does not prevent the permanence of atavistic practices based on the convergence of beliefs from diverse origins.
If you ask me why this film has such a tragic ending, I would answer that the writer and director want to tell us that homosexual relationships can end in tragedy; that is to say, it is easy to get together and break up, without the support of family, friends...
The sad ending also better sublimates the theme of the entire film, such as telling people that members of the LGBT+ community should receive more support in our societies.

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Poetry, dance and homosexual desire

I remember that I was not able to go to its movie premiere in October 2011, because I was not yet of the necessary minimum age, but the interest in appreciating it was marked since those days, when my literature teacher spoke to us in the classroom about the poetry of the main Filipino feminist poets Rebecca Anonuevo, Benilda Santos, Merlinda Bobis, Joi Barrios, Ruth Elynia Mabanglo and Ophelia Dimalanta, and of the very artistic 'Ang Sayaw ng Dalawang Kaliwang Paa' ('The Dance of the Two Left Feet'), since then hailed as one of the great milestones of audience and critical reception on the Philippine screen so far this century.
My teacher told us in class about how this beautiful and moving film, winner of 7 Gawad Urian 2012 awards, including Best Film, Best Cinematography and Best Original Score at the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival 2011 and the Pre-Columbian Bronze Circle Award at the Bogotá Film Festival that same year, elegantly presents poems by Filipino feminists that are intertwined with the dances featured in the 68 minutes of footage.
"The film is a technically sophisticated exploration of romantic longing that is both intellectually stimulating and emotionally engaging", the words of my literature teacher still ring in my ears.
Shortly after, I was able to see it, stored on a flash memory that we high school students who were interested in seeing a film of great cultural richness, originality and lyricism were passed from hand to hand directed by Alvin Yapan, one of the most respected film directors of the independent scene of that nation, also internationally recognized for 'Ang Panggagahasa kay Fe' (2009), 'Debosyon' (2013) and 'An Kubo sa Kawayanan' (2015).
The first thing I confirmed after watching the film is that with it the director has taken the potentially risky step of including in his script large sections of poetry by Filipino feminist writers, in addition to in-depth classroom debates on topics such as the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and the nature of cinema.
Although there are a couple of clumsy moments of exposition towards the endings, which slightly break the spell, Yapan's strategy pays off thanks to excellent image and sound editing, overlaying charming dance sequences with well-chosen poetry readings and literary debates that say everything about the repressed emotions swirling around the main actors.
I was then able to see through my eyes what I read in the press about this film, shown as part of the Official Selection of the 2011 Hawaii International Film Festival, and which I consider to be much more than a gay film, as it manages to address gender roles and how dance and the small gestures that construct it become a means of communication and sexual expression, and an exploration of the game between Marlon, Dennis and Karen, its protagonists.
In this context, dance, poetry and desire serve as a vehicle to explore an unconventional love triangle that arises from the infatuation of a university student with his elegant literature teacher, who is about 40 years old.
With a well-crafted atmosphere of restricted eroticism persistent from the first scenes, I discovered that Marlon (Paulo Avelino), a student from a rich family who is doing poorly in his literature class, looks longingly at Karen (Jean Garcia), his teacher of that subject.
For several days Marlon follows Karen to discover that she also works as a choreographer and classical dance teacher. Eager to impress her, he hires Dennis (Rocco Nacino), his classmate who attends Karen's dance classes, whom he asks to teach him how to dance as his private tutor, without her knowing.
Wanting to get her attention, Marlon plans to sign up as a newcomer and impress Karen with his natural ability, after learning the dance moves in advance.
Urged by Karen, Dennis will inform that Marlon enrolled in her class to be close to her. Then the woman confronts Marlon. Marlon feels betrayed by Dennis, revealing his closeness to his classmate, whom he now considers a friend. By then, Marlon and Dennis have become inseparable in tackling the complexities of poetry and dance. They would even talk during their dance classes about how to make sense of the poems for the subject taught by Karen.
As he learns how his body should move, Marlon begins to understand the intersections between poetry and dance.
Marlon will come to understand how the poems are testimonies of Karen's choice to live the life of an artist who chooses to remain single, rather than marry into luxury. Her only passion is her dancing. To support her art, Karen teaches literature and choreography for block parties, weddings, baptisms, and other secular events.
Through their lessons, the two young men become closer, but Dennis begins to have feelings for Marlon that go beyond the friendship that Marlon does not reciprocate. Soon their friendship becomes strained and Marlon can't understand why. It is only through dance that Marlon is finally able to express what he cannot say in words to Dennis.
The two male actors capture all the curiosity and naivety of young people learning the rules and repercussions of attraction. For her part, Garcia quietly plays the older, attractive, single woman whose true feelings remain tantalizingly ambiguous.
Possessing a great deal of romanticism, the film focuses mainly on poetry, dance and art rather than the loveless relationship between the two male leads. Dennis, Marlon and Karen are transfigured into a medium to convey a love affair with the arts, lovingly enunciating every word of every poem, every twist and sleight of hand evoking a torrent of emotions none of them will ever be able to say.
I don't know how many times I've watched the film since then. Every time the images roll before my eyes I realize that 'Ang Sayaw ng Dalawang Kaliwang Paa' is a striking film in which the delicately constructed dance of desire becomes an indication of homosexual attraction that arises as Marlon's lessons with Dennis intensify, producing the expected result of attracting Karen's attention to the stage.
I am pleased with how the stories of the three protagonists are intertwined, each carefully told and fused together through words, shapes and movements. Art unites all three. There are almost never overt displays of physical or verbal intimacy. It is only through dance that the trio of characters shout out their most intimate and repressed desires.
Little by little I can see how Marlon's love interest moves from one to the other. The relationship between him and Dennis is not openly stated. Only through their looks and gestures, particularly during their dances, can I see the growing sexual tension. Marlon uses movement to express his longing for his dance partner. It is impressive how Alvin Yapan, who is also the screenwriter, makes use of the kineticism of each touch, of sliding and grabbing, to represent the desire that consumes Marlon.
Karen emerges as their guide, an orchestrator who never imposes herself. She embodies the feminist poetry she teaches and simply aims to reveal what we can all appreciate: a hidden passion so palpable that it gives weight to every step and posture of her performances.
At one point in the footage, Karen invites Marlon to dance with her, but in the middle of the dance, she passes him to Dennis. The dance culminates with Marlon and Dennis dancing, as a preamble to the final scene of the film, in which the two will assume the roles of Humadapnon and Sunmasakay on stage.
While the poems focus on the personal relationships between men and women involved in a power struggle, the dance performances will materialize the contest between two dancers. Who will take the lead? The one who assumes the role of a woman or the one who assumes the role of a man? In my opinion, this is the core of the film.
I find the use of Panay Bukidnon's epic Humadapnon to support gay criticism in popular literature highly interesting. The choreography explores the difference between Western and Eastern dance, one oriented towards the sky and the other oriented towards the earth.
Technically proficient, the film's scenes are carefully edited and the dance sequences, choreographed by Eli Jacinto, are beautifully shot, which is almost an achievement in itself.
'Ang Sayaw ng Dalawang Kaliwang Paa' is a dazzling waltz in the burning fires of desire. I can, as a viewer, feel the anguish that each of the protagonists feels. Ultimately, the film is a cultural triumph that highlights the achievements of Filipinos in poetry, architecture and dance.
Excellently produced despite its modest budget, the film features engaging visuals by lenser Arvin Viola and an eclectic score by Christine Muyco and Jema Pamintuan that works harmoniously with elements of poetry and dance to lend a metaphysical atmosphere to the proceedings.
I highly value how through the kinetic interpretation of the lyricism of poetry, the film becomes the first Philippine film to be adapted from poetry. In 'Ang Sayaw ng Dalawang Kaliwang Paa' dance and poetry join hands, using the works of leading Filipino feminist poets to talk about the plight of dancers and artists, particularly the marginalized ones.
Another thing to take into consideration is that 'Ang Sayaw ng Dalawang Kaliwang Paa' is about artistic pursuit and the status of artists in a third world country. Set on the FEU campus, home of Art Deco architecture, the film seamlessly fuses poetry and dance in an everyday setting, questioning the place of art and its role in our lives. The film also focuses on how the arts are taught in a country where such subjects are relegated to the background.
I will not tire of saying that with the film, for the first time, Philippine cinema explores the marriage of poetry and dance. Poetry as a more lyrical medium compared to fiction, lends itself more appropriately to dance performances. Focusing on feminist poems rather than just focusing on feminist issues, the film explores how feminists and members of the LGBT+ community share some commonalities in their advocacy activities.

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A story about the transience of love

The lack of family support, the consequences of discrimination in conservative, heteronormative and patriarchal societies, the lack of friends, the nonexistence of a romantic partner, etc., can influence reinforcing a certain feeling of emptiness or loneliness that is often attempted wrongly satisfy with the fleeting and sporadic physical contact of casual sex, which sometimes has a price tag.
The LGBT+ themed short film reminds us that sex is not the solution to fill that void or that feeling of loneliness.
Distributed by Matchbox, the South Korean film released in 2021 explores the complexities of love, the human need to be free and human relationships, through an intimate approach and a visually poetic narrative.
Through the story of Soo Hyuk, a young man who silently cries out for help and works for a dating service run by a manager whose only interest is money, we will experience how the protagonist will experience the emotional ups and downs of an ephemeral love, when a The client hires him to spend the afternoon with him, but it may not end as they both expect, because while one hopes to find the dreaded violent sex, the other is looking for something more than a simple carnal relationship.
The meeting between prostitute and client, two heartbroken men seeking human warmth, will become a turning point in the lives of both young people, probably generating a radical change in their lives.
The director of the film (I would like to have references from the cast and crew) portrays two disturbed characters in an alienating environment, who will begin a brief emotional relationship, sharing their feelings and emotions, seeking the warmth of human company.
The story can convey a great feeling of melancholy. It may be the successful musicalization, or it may even be the story, with which it is difficult not to feel identified in a certain way:
- How not to feel identified with the client, a writer who needs much more than sex, and is looking for company to eat and talk while writing a novel... an anonymous client who uses the gay dating service for the first time and from the first moment feels worried seeing the newcomer sad, hurt, bewildered, stressed?
- How not to feel identified with a prostitute with a heart of gold who perceives himself as a sexual object for those who call the gay dating service looking for casual sex to hide the loneliness and pain in their lives. What does the cover photo want to tell us, if not the image of two men not behind a large window from where you can see the outside, but rather the bars of a prison from outside where you can see the sadness, the melancholy of their lives?
• How not to feel identified with the story of these two young people, which reminds us that there are people who are not here to stay with us, but who have a purpose in our lives. How can you not feel identified with the story of these two young people who forged a brief connection that helped them get to know themselves?
• How can you not feel identified with the end of the short, which sends us a message of hope, that everything will be fine if we take a sudden turn in our lives when they lead us to a dark and sad dead end?
In short, a tender erotic short film about the most prolific topic in gay cinema. What is old is new again. Transactional sex pales in comparison to a meaningful kiss.

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Nothing gives a young soldier more pleasure than being a dog loyal to his master

Based on the novel "Military Dog" (軍犬) by Petit (Xia Mu Cong), the Taiwanese short film of the same name shows an intense virtual erotic encounter between a "human puppy" named Li Jun-Zhong and his Master DT, while offers a glimpse into the unique BDSM scene, the well-known human-puppy play in Taiwan, influenced by Japanese shibari (繩縛) and culture leather/kinky/fetish from the United States.
Based on his own experience in the army, which, in Xia Mu Cong's words, is a gigantic sadomasochistic place, 'Military Dog', a psychosocial thriller of obsession, directed in 2019 by Ping-Wen Wang and scripted by Yi-Hsun Yu delves into the strangest and most provocative areas of the human mind, while viscerally penetrating all the spooky moments that keep us up at night.
Film that won the Gold Award at the Outfest: Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival 2019, tells us about a soldier who wants to level up through an extreme method, which involves his Master DT: entering the world of BDSM.
Shocking and full of suspense... a little fun as the soldier follows his Master's instructions via video call, 'Military Dog' received high ratings from critics and the public during its screening at the 2019 Outfest LGBTQ Film Festival and 2019 Outfest Fusion LGBTQ People of Color Film Festival "Opening Night Gala".
One night, in the military camp, the young soldier, played wonderfully by Chun Yao Yao, an actor known for his participation in the LGBT+ themed film 'Dear Tenant' (2020), by Wang Li Wei, accepts the proposal of his Master DT to become his "puppy" to demonstrate his burning desire and tremendous loyalty and submission.
The cast also includes Tommy Wang, an actor known for playing Eric in 'Dear Tenant', Kevin in 'Gentleman Spa' (2019), and Xiao K in the series 'Dark Blue and Moonlight' 2017), all of LGBT+ theme, who plays Junior Soldier here.
In an exclusive sphere where any activity can occur, Li Jun-Zhong as the "Military Dog", and Master DT (although his face can barely be seen through the mobile phone, in an outstanding performance by Li Yun Tsai, actor known for participating in several LGBT+ themed films, such as 'Bao Bao' (2018) and 'The Story of the Stone' (2018), like "Master", blur the limits of pain and pleasure through control and submission, the look, the compliance with orders, the speed with which he must react if he wants to gain the acceptance of the "Master", the dangers he must run to satisfy the Master's demands in a place guarded by other soldiers on duty, the sound of the urine when falling, one's own touch, smell and breathing.
What make the story more fascinating are the young Taiwanese director's imitation of an instructor's training and the oath of enlistment, culminating in the pleasure of built-up erotic tension.
Full of passionate and kinky exploration along, DT is referred to as "Master" and "He" in the story to indicate a relationship between a caretaker and a pup.
Naturally, Li Jun-Zhong's pronouns "he" and "his" (with "Military Dog" as his pup's name) are presented in lowercase. The purpose of this conceit is, first, to show the respect, love and adoration of the human cub towards its Master; secondly, prove that DT is the only Master of Li Jun-Zhong.
At the same time, the film adopts combined first and third person points of view to refer to "Military Dog", celebrating the fluidity and versatility of his sexual identity. In the film, viewers are supposed to understand that "I" is "he" (lowercase) is "the slave".
The film gains vigor thanks to Eric Chao's photography with flat colors with little color saturation seasoned with dark night nuances, and a sharp, penetrating music by Thomas Foguenne.
'Military Dog' focuses on sexual fluidity and the metamorphosis of humans into "dogs" in the context of contemporary Taiwan. Captivatingly shot, the film subverts cultural norms by outing the underground BDSM scene and imagining the military as a distinct site of queer performance, creating a layered act of queering what is normal or "vanilla".
Furthermore, this important and timely work questions the universalizing claims of queer desire and fundamental notions of the erotic, the individual, and the body. The short film seeks to document the existence of the Taiwanese BDSM scene and new sexual identities. It also offers the opportunity to imagine a new politics of sex, one that projects a vision of our queer past and future.
Moving away from stereotypical representations of queer characters as a group of suffering victims, Ping-Wen Wang explores and showcases LGBTQ+ experiences using new approaches.
'Military Dog' reaffirms the high level of social acceptance of Taiwanese queer cinema, while promoting greater awareness of the LGBTQ+ community. This film is a demonstration that the film industry is evolving, progressing and expanding queer productions, responding to increasingly deep conversations about queer issues and recognizing their commercial potential.

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