jpny01

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.

People that like XS and YJ don't say so as much here because we're getting tired of being called rapists and rape defenders, and so we discuss it in private messages instead.

They're OTT when they're dealing with each other, but you can see their acting ability when they're interacting with the main couple. Li Cheng is really expressive and when he's being serious he can really get to you.

I like it way, way more. I like all the actors a lot, but Li Cheng & Mu Ren are the comic relief for the main storyline and their interaction is too childish and cartoonish for 30-year old men.

I only like the stepbrother couple. I like Mu Ren and Li Cheng when they're interacting with the othe couple's storyling, but their own is generic and boring to me, and too cartoonish. I watch it, but if it goes on more than a couple of minutes I get bored. When it got dramatic it hed my attention, and I thought the bathroom scene was twisted and beautifully filmed.

Wow, that was a really beautifully-written post.

That is a great background for how I feel about Yong Jie. Imaging his life - his father dies, his mother has to work herself to the bone for them to survive, and he's left alone with people who resent his being there and probably at least emotionally abuse him if not physically - and in an Asian society, he's likely to be extremely looked down upon for being poor and having a single mother.

Then the most beautiful man he can imagine enters his life and gives him all the love he's never had or believed possible. Is it any wonder he's so obsessively attached? That doesn't mean he's not responsible for the bad things he does, but it makes him an interesting character with an interesting relationship with his brother. Drama isn't here to present us with paragons of behavior - that's what religion is for.

Drama comes from imperfection - and really, doesn't love? Do you love people for their perfection, or their flaws?

Same with characters. Did people like ITSAY despite the fact that Krit is a repressed weirdo, or because of it?

It feels too exploitative. If they were being paid small fortunes, I would say "cry me a river", but they make nothing, so they're stuck with all the fan events just to feed themselves. Being a BL actor's gf must be stressful. What do you tell people at parties? If I were a Thai woman I'd avoid dating anyone named Bright just to avoid getting accidentally lynched. And it's a common name.

I'm perfectly OK with being predictable, although that might make it slightly ironic that I'm annoyed by predictability. :) This show, though, takes it to new heights. 99% of BLs are written by women but directed by men. I'd like to see a production that reverses that and see how it turns out. There would be a lot fewer gratuitous shower scenes, I'm guessing. Or maybe there would be more. Who knows?