jpny01

This is a great review, so I hope you don't mind if I disagree on a few points.

This is made for a Filipino audience, and the Marcos era cast a long shadow over the Philippines that they're still dealing with. To a native audience, the political themes are not at all obscure. Benjo can appear benign because he had nothing to do with his parents' corruption, and seems to have been either unaware of it or in denial (probably the latter) - and far from being a kleptocrat, he is freely generous with everything he has.

The purpose of the COVID couple is to underscore how little time we all have and how we can't afford to waste it. The main couple don't absorb any of the lessons around them, which is why they're not able to be together - more on that below.

The purpose of the trans character is to show that despite having had a much, much harder and brutal life, and how much greater the difficulty achieving self-actualization is for her (needing to transition), she still accomplishes it, setting aside what society thinks while integrating her faith, and drawing strength for this purpose from her love for herself - none of which the boys are capable of at this point in their story.

They had everything they needed to learn shown to them, yet were not ready to receive it. Hopefully they'll have grown between seasons or do it together in Season 2.

They are definitely not pairing Olan and Yana - they call each other besties and I believe Olan identifies as gay. Creeper boss does not appear to be interested in Jim that way. Also, he's weird, not a creeper. It's not his fault Jim tried to climb into what he thought was his bed. I interpreted the 4-some thing as drawing a contrast between that and whoever Olan will end up with, if there's a God in heaven, that will be Roy, although I'm still not sure I won't explode if Ron Angeles and Royce Cabrera are in the same room at the same time.

To me, the absence of Ben is a blessing because I can't stand him, and I think the actor is much weaker than the others, but I can see why MIA status would be considered a negative for a lot of people.

Why do you feel it was marred by its theatrical style? I thought that was an interesting feature, and it was certainly deliberate, but what in particular did you think didn't work? I felt it was uneven, but I liked that they tried something different - especially with "straight" mains, to me it's better than the usual formula that infects almost all Thai and far too many Filipino BLs. (Two boys hate each other, one of which has a gf that will prove to be evil. Then something happens that involves one or both tripping so they end up with their faces too close together and they stare at each other until they turn gay. Whichever one is older is the top, unless the younger guy is taller, in which case he's the top [this is a rare variant]. At some point the top will be asked if he's gay, and he will respond with some version of "I'm not gay, I only love [insert name of bottom boy]." The evil gf will break them up with totally obvious manipulation that 3-year old children can see through, but they will get together in the last episode and touch their lips together in a strange and non-sexual way. )

It's possible I've spent too much time thinking about this. But I think almost every gay man groans when a character pulls the "I'm not gay, but..." and I take it more personally than I should when people misinterpret "Love knows no gender".

If it were as easy to convert straight boys in real life as it is in Thai BL, I would have been a lot happier in hIgh school.

My Gear and Your Gown is terrible. There's one appealing side couple, because Fiat is in it, but unless you can find a cut for that couple, stay away! The reasons you were imagining that made your eyes roll into the back of your head were exactly as you were imagining.

Regarding Filipino BL, you might like Gaya sa Pelikula, which is a lot different than a Thai BL, but it's not as sexually aggressive as some of the other Filipino BLs - there's a lot of cuteness. The writing is really good and they take advantage of the visual medium. A lot of people loved Gameboys, but it wasn't for me - and it's very COVID-centric, so while it was the first that did that, it didn't age well. Maybe Hello Stranger - although it's during COVID again, so it's mostly Zoom, Some people found it too angsty in the last few eps, but I liked it a lot, but it does have a lot of really sweet lovey-dovey (that's not a criticism - I like that too, I just tend to not retain it if that's all there is.) The first ep is so-so, but it takes off after that. Both actors can really sing, so that plays into it.

I haven't seen most of the films & series you've reviewed, so I don't have a strong sense of what you like.

Thanks! It's both theraputic to rant and rave, and hopefully rewards readers for sitting through my long-winded opinions.

I do see your point, but it costs money to make these, so it has to come from somewhere. For BLs I try not to skip ads on YouTube, but let's face it, nobody is going to sit through all those, especially when it's the same one over and over.

I do have a problem with having to subscribe to a service to see a BL, unless they come up with just one that we can join for everything. But I'm OK with a one-time charge like this - it's less than a movie (I'm in the SF Bay Area - I don't know how that compares to where you are but a movie is usually at least $15 here, and I'd rather watch a BL series.)

Or at least if they would later post them on YouTube - that may happen eventually - in some cases it already does. That way if people don't want to wait, they can pay, and later on everyone can rewatch. That seems fair, because a producer shouldn't expect the same amount for a rewatch, much like music royalties decline over time, and they'll still get some income from YouTube views.

Thank you so much! I have a feeling this is going to get dark.

I feel terrible that I phrased my opening sentence wrong. It was meant to start with "If". I apologized to Jay - I would edit my post, but then it would confuse the meaning of subsequent posts. I'll just go bang my head against a wall instead.

OMG, I am so sorry, looking at my post it was supposed to say "IF you come from a prude culture" not state that you do - that will teach me not to stay up so late writing posts! I hope you can forgive that error.

I started using "we" after I started talking about Western culture because I'm American.

In any case, with many of the posts that condemn the peeping scene, I'm fine with people saying they were uncomfortable with it, but not with discussing it as if it's a moral absolute that it was wrong. That's a level of judgmentalism that is difficult for me to accept because it's culturally insensitive and is using the same logic that people use to object to LGBTQ+.

Your language is not confusing at all, and thank you for your insights.

Two reasons:

"Love knows no gender" means that love shouldn't be resticted to heteronormativity, not that the gender of the person you feel love for doesn't matter, because it most certainly does. If doesn't matter how much I love a woman, think she's the best person I've ever met, is pefectly compatible with me, etc., there is zero chance that I can feel romantic love for her because I'm gay. In BLs, most often at least one boy identifies as straight, and is pursued by someone else until he turns gay, or at least abandons his sexuality.

Imagine how most people would react if a series was about a straight guy pursuing a lesbian, but he's persistant so she gets together with him in the end. It wouldn't sit right. If a boy identifies as straight, is it really any better if he's relentlessly pursued by a gay boy than it is if a gay boy is pressured into getting together with a girl?

If a boy is confused or unsure about his sexuality, that concern disappears, of course.

But the main reason it bothers me is because its motivated by homophobia. The boy who says "I'm not gay, I only love______" is virtually always the "man" in the relatonship, or the "top" or "seme". Most cultures draw a distinction between topping and bottoming - one is more OK than the other, with the attitude "it's not gay unless you bottom." This trope comes from that, not romantic idealism.

This is related to, but not as bad as, the disturbing regularity with which relationships in both Asian BLs and straight romances are started with a rape or event where consent is dubious at best. This is because it's not societally acceptable for women voluntarily to desire sex and enjoy it, and similarly, for a man to want to bottom and enjoy it. That's why in BLs the uke often puts up resistance to physical love even when he's already in the relationship.

Also, what dllmzca said below.

At the very least, the teacher/student thing is unprofessional. But even if this were an adult continuation school, there's a moral issue because the teacher is in a position of power. I agree that the writing has at least shown us that the participants and people that area aware of it know it isn't acceptable, but we'll see how it plays out.

Sure, if you really want to see that.

True, but if the couple had a problem with being observed it would not have been difficult to prevent it. If it had just been Tian who wandered across the house and started peeping, I'd have more problem with it because he has no knowledge of the context, whereas everyone that brought him there does.

In your paparazzi example, we would generally have less sympathy for a paparazzi-followed celebrity who knows this is part of the job he voluntarily pursued than we would if reporters were harassing a private citizen who gained notoriety for resuing a cat from a tree.

That's kind of my point, which is not that there's anything wrong with desiring privacy - but judgmentalism of cultural practices that are different from one's own is not a good thing. What's the line between that and homophobia? Nearly 100% of us here think there's nothing wrong with homosexuality, but most people in most cultures in the present day don't agree - so do you want to read a post in this forum that says, and this is an actual post with a substitution:

I so wanna give it 10 stars but the gay flirting ruined that. I have no problem with gross scenes if they address the issue and show that they are wrong but that scene was not addressed.

But that's totally different - watching sexual content with your parents in the room can be excruciating for anyone, especially in your teens, although it doesn't get too much better when you're older. If I'd been watchig that with my mother, she wouldn't have understood what was going on and would have made me explain.

Incest is between blood relatives, and the taboo is to prevent severe genetic problems in offspring, which is why we instincitively feel it's icky - the thought of sex with one of your siblings is just yuck. But that doesn't apply to someone you just met that's only a sibling because one of your parents married one of his. I'm completely amazed that anyone has a problem with this, or rather, I'm amazed that anyone would find THIS the issue they need to drop the series over, given it's the least of its many, many problems.

This episode was half over before I thought we got to any new content - I actually had to stop and check to make sure I wasn't watching the previous episode by accident. This episode was also technically weaker than previous episodes.

I'm fairly forgiving of sound issues - that's hard to get right on a low budget, especially in a really noisy urban environment, but editing and camerawork should be better. The shots are still lovely in their framing, though. Also, Kiko Ipapo continues to surpass the natural range of human beauty.

So far this has been a great series - there's still time to totally ruin it with the conclusion, but the writing has been strong so I'm confident.

This substandard (for this series) episode did have a fairly serious writing problem though - JUST NOW the maid remembers this important information? "I wonder if it could be the same Jose Manuel..." No shit, Sherlock. Also, isn't she at least 80? She would have been 30 at the youngest at JM's end of the story - Marcos proclaimed martial law in 1972, so this is less than 50 years ago. Didn't she ever visit her grandmother?

It's definitely an amateur production, but it's original (by BL standards [!]) and well-written, and Holy Moses is the lead guy gorgeous. But if you're looking for a polished production with great acting, this might not be for you. But I think it's worth watching - it's not a huge investment of time with 15 minute eps and maybe 10 minutes of non-recap & credits time. Although the last episode hasn't aired yet so there's still time for them to ruin everything.

So let me understand this. Ben, who is not all that, dumped the second hottest man on the planet for Jim. Now it turns out that wasn't enough for him. Now he's hunted down the hottest man on the planet in order to dump him for Jim. As for Jim, I want to scream "You realize you are in the same room as OLAN and you're pining for Ben. Are you not seeing what I'm seeing?!?"

I'm glad they're not pairing Olan with Yana - that would have been very disappointing. I'm still rooting for Olan/Royce Cabrera, even though it would probably kill me.

Can anyone remind me what Jim's father did? I know he's an evil congressman, but I was getting so bored by the end of last season I didn't retain what happened.

It's just a one time payment of $10. You don't have to subscribe to anyting.