jpny01

Me too. But don't you like Mu Ren and Li Cheng, or was it too creepy with all the sexual harassment?

Yes, and while everything Yong Jie is creepy and rape, it's OK for Li Cheng to drag Mu Ren's hand over his genitals, not to mention WATCH him masturbate all night. No problem there. Totally consensual.

All sex is rape unless you have a notarized statement of consent, and that is invalidated if you have a strong cup of coffee in betwen signature and the sex. That goes without saying.

Amen! I never watch a show illegally unless they make it impossible for me to watch legally.

I love how everyone feels so proud of themselves to proclaim they skipped the actual show for the comic relief. Which was almost entirely non-consensual sexual harassment of a rather extreme sort.

And yet he was correct.

Yes, everything that Yong Jie does is horrifying and awful because people don't like that ship. It' perfectly OK for Li Cheng to watch Mur Ren masturbate all night and sexually harass him , which, incidentally, is illegal, at work and outside, nonstop, because that's the ship they like.

And let's not minimize grabbing his hand and dragging it over his genitals.

Li Cheng way outcreeped Yong Jie both this episode and last, but totally OK.

He's already said that he needs to make their dad believe it's his fault and not Xing Si's - he knows dad will think Xing Si coerced Yong Jie as the older brother. That was always part of his plan - he needed proof he initiated it. He believes it's the only way their father will ever allow them to be together. He has no intention of ruining his life, even if his plan is misguided, to put it mildly.

OMG, really? Wow, thanks for that. I liked The Shipper for many reasons, exept for a completely unnecessary death. I think it counts as a BL because the male couple really was in love, and it only makes sense as a story within the context of BL. And I'd probably have to rate HIStory as the best BL franchise for me - maybe that's the reason!

Mu Ren seems to me to be an entirely female-driven character, so I wouldn't be surprised.

Yes, but that's the point. They're paid nothing for the acting and so they have no choice but to do the FS - and while that is more money, it's still not very much. What you're describing is the way it is, not the way it needs to be. It's corporate greed. What they're doing is avoiding up-front risk by not paying the actors.

I don't get what the difference is between EarthMix and MG.

The brother dynamic is interesting because it's not a simple uke/seme relationship. YJ is more dominant in many ways, and probably stronger overall, but XS ultimately holds a lot of power too because he's YJ's everything and that's not true the other way around - I don't think YJ has ever disobeyed XS, and XS is much more experienced in life - so there's a sort of balance that's more true to life and interesting for a complicated dynamic that you rarely see in BL. The obsession with the seme/uke roles makes most couples incredibly predictable.

I would be amazed and thrilled if Mu Ren ends up being the "1" in the relationship - I doubt that will happen, but it would be interesting.

The Philippines is certainly more mixed in terms of writing - I'd say heavily slanted in favor of men - but they still copy Thai dramas quite a bit, using a lot of the same tropes. It's inexcusable that there are no female directors anywhere, though. Is there a single BL that has a female director? If there is, I'll go watch it right now.

Entertainment everywhere is strangely male-dominated when it comes to directing - it's weird that it's so backward.

Wow, you are really sensitive. Does a mild joke from a total stranger really unbalance you this much? You posted this after the show aired.

For me, neither series was very good. They weren't awful, but they were dependent on their mingkits, and 2moons2 had a great Forth. No offense to the Wayos, and Phas - it's not their fault that their storyline was as generic and boring as possible.

I think we should not watch anything that Motive Village puts out or we're feeding poor treatment of actors. I watched the first two eps of Call It What You Want, which is apparently based on all this mess, and it's really good - I wasn't looking forward to it or expecting anything, but it's got great acting in it and it's gripping. I hope it's exaggerated because the actors have to go through hell. If even the director is only paid 60,000 baht (less than USD $2K), I hate to think what newbie actors get.

You have to see him in Call It What You Want. He's only been in it for 5 minutes so far, but it's chilling - you can feel his pain.

Honestly, I don't see how it's possible that anyone can think he's supposed to be likeable. I don't think you're supposed to hate him either, but he's supposed to be damaged and complicated. I think we're watching too many formulaic BLs and plugging people into roles. YJ is the top, hence he's a seme, hence he's a knight in shining armor, charismatic etc. This is not that formula at all.

I'm still confused. He's supposed to come off as troubled - if you're operating from a theory that his character is supposed to be a typical charismatic seme, then yes, it would be writing fail. But that's not what this is at all. He's a damaged person who lived unloved and hopeless until Xing Si came into his life. This isn't following standard formulaic tropes. That he's 20 and XIng Si is 30 and his elder brother is a pretty strong indicator of that.

The two situations are meant to contrast, but that was lost on a lot of people, who don't see any gradations of wrongness.

How could anyone not notice? It's that smile that explains everything you need to know about Yong Jie. Imagine losing everything at 8 years old, living in poverty, receiving no love and being desperately alone and hopeless. Xing Si is literally an blinding angel descended from heaven to him. I think his smile is nearly lethal.

I love that they subvert the normal yoai dynamic by having the much younger brother be dominant, and yet don't reduce it to a simple uke/seme relationship. It's so well written and acted.

Speaking of color coding, Xing Si was wearing white when Yong Jie carried him in an obvious marriage image. I agree with you completely - the quality of this production is miles above most other shows airing. The attention to detail and the artistry put it far above.

Mu Ren is disturbing-looking to me, but I appreciate how he's perfectly torn from the pages of yaoi - that's probably why he looks disturbing to me - it's like a manga drawing is talking.