jarabaa

Oh my goodness! A series about ... two ... grown-up young men who are ... in a long-term relationship - wow ... and neither is a deceased female character re-born in male body? or a ghost? or entangled with rapacious would-be "girlfriends" who get tons of airtime? or living in deep secrecy? or barely 18 years old? or ... engineering students? Good grief, this sounds way-out and original.

Of course, if it in any way depicts them as a functioning couple I am suspecting it will be quickly denounced as "unrealistic" or "fluff". Well, let's see. The reality out here in the world, of course, is that all round the globe male couples - just like all our sweet BL heroes - do meet in the real world, and really fall in love, and actually have a sexual relationship, and quite often in some way settle down as a couple. Yep. But it's a reality which we see very little of on the screen - anywhere. Because it's the getting there that's considered romantic, the problems that are relished as dramatic, the tragedies and things that go wrong that are hailed as "realistic". And to be serious for a moment, I think I am indeed grateful for the existence of just about every BL series that has been screened anywhere over these past 5 years, however bad. Remember, just a little while ago, love between men was not depicted in any medium - anywhere - and in much of the world its representation in any form is still censored, excluded, dangerous and off-limits. So every BL story is a statement against silence and invisibility, a contribution to freedom and openness and a more inclusive view of humanity. Anyway, right now I'm in the mood for a series addressing the reality of two guys together. Could be ... interesting! And no two actors could make it more interesting than Mew and Gulf.

Wish I could find some of that "cutesy safe stuff" that everyone despises. From where I'm looking at it right now, everyday life and the world etc give me plenty of "mature themes", drama, tragedy, bad luck, misfortune, hardship and catastrophe to ponder all day long ...

As always, I entirely agree with everything you say. Your analysis of episode 9 strikes me as spot-on. Plus there are things I didn't catch or wasn't sure about which you explain very convincingly. Suspicion was indeed the theme, and I think we'll learn that suspicion is very often unfounded, misguided - and damaging.

I was very disturbed by what Tau said back in ep 5 - about not liking boys, and just having some sort of inexplicable one-off attachment to Otep as a unique individual. Something we've heard in so many Thai series - though not recently: it usually feels like a backing away from the challenges of owning gay or bi identity. And it was especially sad because he was talking to Ronin, whom we do now know to be gay - and who could have benefitted from hearing Tau come out to him so much at that moment. But anyway, Tau didn't do that.

And now, in congruence with that scene in ep 5, he again retreats from an acknowledgement of reality in ep 9. And unsettles, maybe hurts, Otep in the process. However, I now understand the writers' intentions differently. In ep 5 I thought they were playing the boring"no homo" game - denying the reality of out, self-identifying gay or bi men - the kind who have real (m/m!) relationships in the real world. It's a device we've seen in a few "BL" series, and it feels like a contrived attempt to pretend: gay men don't exist, or anyhow, we're not going to show them here, instead we'll tell a story about straight guys who "aren't interested in boys" yet for some unexplained reason fall for each other. No, I don't think the writers here were going down that well-worn path, fortunately. I now think they were saying: Tau has problems, Tau chooses to reject some aspects of his reality, Tau sometimes flees into evasions and falsehoods. Because, rather than showing us scenes to prove that "Tau is really straight", we have actually seen a lot of Tau being rather convincingly gay: Otep is obviously 100% a boy, after all, and Tau equally obviously likes him as a boy - and really desires him as a boy. It's not an asexual platonic attachment. It's a homosexual relationship. So Tau, it seems, has his strategies for escaping that fact. And that is very, very understandable. Ronin likewise is not able to be open with his friends about who he really is. Countless gay and bi men everywhere feel compelled to make the same choices to deny themselves every day of their lives.

I enjoyed this immensely till ep 5. Everything was interesting ... intense ... powerful. I was hooked. And then: in ep 5 we were got the boring old "no homo" line which used to feature in Thai BL series a few years ago. No one's gay, especially not Tau, there's no gay relationship here, no homosexuality - Tau merely feels a one-off, unique romantic passion for one human being (Tep) who happens to be male. This overworked, out-of-date homophobic plot device is such a let-down. The deep and challenging dramatic meaning of gay love in the Philippines is erased in one fell swoop, and all we're left with is a "love" which is portrayed as some sort of inexplicable isolated mental aberration.

Thanks for explaining. That clears up a lot. Plus you are amazingly perceptive and aware, able to analyse what's been happening in a dispassionate way - though in the midst of a system which makes doing precisely that ... somewhat difficult.

That is the real point to focus on - it really is such a positive achievement. You are absolutely right. TWO high-quality "BL" series produced by notable Filipino studios. I had never seen anything whatsoever from the Philippines till I encountered Gameboys and Hello Stranger. Both are truly impressive. We mustn't lose sight of that. Here I sit in London, home of a great tradition of high-quality television and film, yet I've not seen anything like these two stories - in terms of a same-sex romance which is both realistic and genuinely romantic, and in terms of a document of our pandemic times, right now, round the world, this very moment.

But the achievement is all the greater when one studies the reality of social attitudes which creative people (like everyone connected with Gameboys and Hello Stranger) and LGBT people have to deal with in the Philippines. I did some online reading-up and pursued the story of Alex Diaz. Well, it's rather heart-breaking. At least from a distance; I'm not in the Philippines. He wrote a suggestive private text to another guy (an online fitness instructor, I think?) saying that he might be tempted to make an "indecent proposal" (something like that) to this handsome man - who shows his body off all over the media; whereupon Mr Fitness Expert posted the messages online - on Facebook, I think, thereby outing Alex Diaz to the whole world in a rather brutal way. I read a long what I would call "authorised" interview with Alex, obviously put together by the staff of some big media concern trying to put what they considered to be the best damage-limitation spin on his outing: it was sad reading. First, he talks about giving up football and volleyball as a young boy because he was scared of being thought "gay" - then he tells us that though he came to realise that he was "bisexual", he still saw himself as a "monster" - and he also pleads with his fans to accept him as "human". The feature interprets his bisexual identify as meaning something like 99.9% heterosexual: there then follow several photographs of Alex basically pawing half-clad girls. It's ... embarrassing. Poor Alex. I felt this young man had been plunged into a pit of despair and self-hate, and the media functionaries who invented the "interview" with him were obviously following their own homophobic script all the way. Whether we were allowed to hear one true word from Alex, I couldn't say. I read somewhere that he left for Canada some while ago. I hope he has found solace and freedom there - and maybe the success of Hello Stranger and Gameboys will help him to feel better and return to the Philippines.

Anyhow, in the light of that rather sad story, the achievement represented by both of these series is nothing short of heroic. We really have to salute all the brave and creative people in the Philippines associated with both series!

So many interesting points here. But in general a rather sad picture emerges. Of actors' .... fears, I guess, lack of security - and journalists' rather vile attitudes. Why on earth would a journalist who thinks that kissing another male would make a heterosexual actor "vomit" take an interest in "Make It Right"?? Because ultimately she finds the m/m subject material disgusting?? One wonders. We all have some tendency to give unhealthy attention to things that upset or repel us. But I like to think that the fascination which journalists and fujoshis and all sorts of non-LGBT people feel for "BL" material is essentially benign, friendly, positive. I guess I could be wrong!

Secondly, some straight actors need to calm down and learn to be discreet about their lives. Being an actor is about being other people. Any real actor knows: being an actor isn't about your own "real life" - it's about playing, pretending, impersonating, creating something imaginary and fictional. Unfortunately, at the moment what actors do, or are like, in so-called real life receives WAY too much attention - around the world. It's a real problem - at least for real actors. Making your own life into a topic for public consumption is always a bad decision for any professional actor. Even if you're Mr 100% Heterosexual He-Man, - don't do it - ... be mysterious. Don't say anything. Don't tell the world about your 50 girlfriends and 1000 nymphomaniac ex-wives. Leave 'em guessing. If foolish amateur "journalists" pester you about what it's like to kiss a man, say how much you like the actor in question, or how professional he is, or what a good kisser he is, or say you love your job. Tell the journalists it's none of their business. They don't question doctors or lawyers about the specifics of their professional interactions with their colleagues. And so on. If only we could (a) get straight actors to stop pouring out these ridiculous fabrications about their antipathy towards kissing other male actors and (b) assist just a few gay and bisexual actors to come out. For goodness' sake, it's 2020, not 1920.

That is a most important point. Thank you for raising it. I don't have access to Reddit, but I think maybe you should post your review there. What you write (i.e. above) absolutely is not a rant - it's very considered and very considerate. I had no idea that some of the people involved in making this series might have been ... ultimately deceived, unaware of what The Shipper (to quote you) "was actually saying". I am very touched by that idea, really very moved, as so many of these young Thai actors, directors, writers, scenarists and other production staff seem to be very creative, well-meaning, committed individuals, warm and open, keen to (quoting you again) "send positive messages". Plus just right now, the Coronavirus pandemic has torn up their world and pitched so many of them into unemployment, and nobody knows what's next. So I am very concerned for their well-being and I don't want to turn up the heat of any hell they're going through. But I think it's important that they have a think about what The Shipper communicates. From an LGBT perspective, the message was ultimately very negative and very sad. If the creators intended something different, then maybe they need to contemplate the reality of what The Shipper says.

Thanks for your reply clarifying that point. It's always interesting to have a dialogue which is a real exchange! Meanwhile, you mention death and realism. I have noticed of late that there is in fact a whole lot MORE death and mortality showing up in "BL" stories than used to be the case. In the past year, we've had Until We Meet Again, He's Coming to Me and The Shipper. Frankly, if you ask me, ... too much death, thank you very much. And of course the ending of Taiwan's Make Our Days Count. Four death-feasts within a few months of each other in 2019-2020. True, we're now being told that The Shipper isn't BL at all, was never billed as BL, isn't about a "gay" relationship (that's for sure) etc. Be that as it may, it was all about sexuality, fujoshis, and gender.

And it was all about death. Admittedly in the form of a way-out story which was not at all in accord with Thai Buddhist beliefs - I have no idea where it all came from, but I found the way the series dealt with death very bizarre - and very "UNrealistic". He's Coming To Me was all about a ghost, and ended up being a little closer to the painful realities of mortality and loss, though it had plenty of weird comic scenes in a cemetery. Until We Meet Again got a little closer to traditional Buddhist ideas of "samsara", often translated as reincarnation, and raised the very real and tragic topic of suicides by young gay men of past generations. And MODC used death as a way to ... I'm not sure what - maybe just end a story - and break hearts - and generally excite viewers' emotions. But although these 4 series add up to a lot of death, it sure isn't a lot of realism. Ghosts, reincarnation, capricious angels and goddesses, transmigration of souls, supernatural visions, etc - not much reality there. I think the most genuinely realistic death theme I've encountered in any m/m romantic context recently was the death (from Coronavirus) of Cairo's father in the Filipino series Gameboys. That came across as all too real.

Wow - that was quick! Thanks!

OK... hmmmm, how depressing. What a disappointment. Maybe he should try another line of work which doesn't involve pretending to be a different sort of human being in a performance of fiction? I never read about actors saying how unwilling they are to play a role in which they ... murder a guy - or beat him up - or hit a woman - or etc etc. But kissing another man in a completely fictional role - can't do that. I'm just too TOO straight and manly - no way, no homo!

I'll never forget the ending of the Tin/Can story in the first series. It was, to my mind, a sad ending which was not homophobic. Unfortunately, I find other "sad endings" very tendentiously homophobic. (Meaning I'm called a "crybaby" in certain quarters!) Tin and Can ended on a note which was close to what many gay men and other couples sometimes experience: namely, ambivalence - one person is keen, the other isn't. The relationship founders at that moment because someone is feeling overwhelmed, unsure, not willing to charge on full-speed ahead. And the Tin/Can ending was balanced by the examples of other m/m love stories progressing (well, at least one that I can remember!)

Meanwhile, in other series, the way a male same-sex love story is terminated is all about telling us that it was doomed, flawed, in essence faulty and inferior - frequently a female character is invented and dragged into the plot - or a shocking death is contrived - and rather often we see straight couples in the same series getting together and flourishing. That's when my antennae begin to detect homophobic intent in the writing and/or plot development - and I don't like it. But I didn't sense anything like that in the (initial) Tin/Can ending. To the contrary, Tin's outpouring of grief was evocative, truly dramatic - it told us that losing a sweet, rather eccentric young guy like Can was a moment of huge emotional devastation for the very complex, ambivalent dramatic lead who was Tin. To my mind, it thereby elevated same-sex love and passion, and told us to take Tin/Can seriously as a powerful love story.

Does this mean that Tony expressed some sort of antipathy to the subject matter? Given what the series was all about, maybe he needs to get out quick.

I would love to know more about Vietnamese series. I had no idea any had been made! I have seen some short films with m/m romance storylines. And they were very lovely. It was a fascinating glimpse of another Asian culture and the ways it looks at love between males. I can follow some of the reasoning in the response you quote above, but I hope there's a way to suggest to MDL that they include Vietnamese programming!

I couldn't understand the ticket process either. I live in London. I'll just wait two days to see the end. Sadly, I am not feeling very hopeful about it.

I agree with you. To a point. But I am not sure what realism is. A happy ending can be reality. It's interesting that in the gay context there seems to be a universal conviction that a positive ending (in essence, with a couple staying together) is "fluff", "fantasy", romantic nonsense, whereas a "sad or tragic ending" is reality, the only "realistic" way to see things. Why? Why is a sad or tragic ending "reality"? I don't get it. I know plenty of real-life gay couples who met, fell in love, and got together. They're as real as anyone else. They are certainly a good deal more real than what we see here in The Shipper!

I'm thoroughly puzzled. What do you gain by repeatedly dismissing people who take a critical view of this series as "crybabies"? I'm afraid I cannot follow the reasoning in your reply to @FreshKicks ... Who said "it's a bl why didn't the gay couple get a happy ending"?

There are people who did not like this series. There are people who take a critical and unfavourable view of the ending. There are people who note that the gay couple are killed off, terminated, and the straight characters are the winners. Yep, the winners, hands down - that's the way the story ends - that's the message. And countless fans just love the story, absolutely. They have no problem with it. They think the ending is great. Fine. But a few people in the world have a different opinion. What's gained by (again and again) calling them "crybabies"?

Thank you. You focus on precisely what makes this series more than sad. Kim was killed off. The message is that m/m love is impossible, doomed. And Pan, a girl "trapped in a male body" in an utterly conventional straight relationship, is the winner. Not only is she the winner, she enjoys her victory at the cost of the gay man's life. He ends up being terminated, as his love story. Call me a "crybaby", no problem - there are things in life which demand a sad response. It is exactly because "it is giving lessons out", as xuewuxian puts it above, that this series so ... disgusting. Yep. Worth being a "crybaby" over, that's for sure.

Truer words were never written. This did not simply move away from BL, instead it communicated a deeply homophobic message: love between two men is impossible, it says, fatal and dead-end, - literally terminating the gay storyline, killing it dead - and at the same time we're given a very long and drawn-out heterosexual love story about a straight girl who finds herself in a male body. This could have been used to explore interesting trans or non-binary themes or other challenges to conventional gender role models. Good grief, it could have been a truly fascinating study of "fujoshi" identity. But those possibilities too were completely disregarded. It just said the usual: straight love makes the world go round, gay love is doomed. If this is a characteristic policy of GMMTV, it's good to know it and be on the alert.

Oh thank goodness, what a breath of fresh air to hear that. The thing is, this ... censorious approach ultimately has to mean that drama has to be purified so as to rid it of all themes and scenes which are about anything ... "problematic". And it seems to be an argument which is also ultimately against the realm of the imagination. Which leaves me wondering: what would be left? What's "drama"?

I am all for enabling people to protect themselves from material they may find distressing, unpleasant etc. That's partly why a website like this is so valuable. To be honest, I am rather thin-skinned and ... fussy myself, - so I regularly read up on this series or that one with a view to watching, and in due course I come to the conclusion: no, something here really sounds disagreeable (= one of my "triggers", as they seem to be called) - meaning, as you say, that I choose not to watch and indeed I "go somewhere else". Or I find myself turned off by something that surfaces in a storyline I'm aready following, and so I ... stop watching! Yep. Very simple.

But there seem to be many who feel that a whole range of topics and themes which are by their very essence dramatic (complex, violent, provocative, ambiguous, controversial etc etc) should simply not be dealt with at all. I really wonder what would be left. I need a little drama in my life. Not real tragedy or violence of grief in my everyday life, good heavens no - but: fantasy, stories, unreality. That's what the imagination is there for, that's the essence of "drama".