Honglou Meng

I mean, you have to wonder about the psychology of people who automatically think of softcore porn as a bad thing. One might well advance a feminist critique of hardcore (straight) porn, but I don't understand why expressing human desire for each other is so offensive to people...

As a gay man, I can tell you that 'soft porn' was basically the excuse given by straight people for a long time to justify censoring gay scenes and same-sex intimacy. When gay people do it, it's porn; when the heterosexuals do it, it's 'normal'.

Thai BLs are often bad. But the one thing you cannot accuse them of doing is straight-washing or queer-baiting. I can't remember the last time a Thai BL did that.

Yeah, this show is not for me. I don't like queerbaiting, I run through the hedge as soon as I hear the first strum of a guitar in a BL, and I hate miscommunication as the driving force of a drama... So, this sounds like torture to me.

Thank you for your very helpful comment!

And I share your deep love of LITBC.

I'm thinking of giving it a 1, just out of spite too. :)

I haven't seen the show. But reading the comments, even without knowing the source material, the show has enough evidence of straight-washing & queer-baiting?

Lol. Unfortunately not.

Well fucking said! I grew up in a country where you could go to prison for gay, and I did not whisper my love to anyone in a quiet corridor and merely hold hands. We dare to love, and we dare to show it, despite being put in the pillory for it. Homophobia is painful enough in this world, and depiction of real homophobia, and the horrors it inflicts, is vital. Using homophobia as an excuse to defend a show that actively reduces the presence of gay people (if it isn't guilty of homophobia itself) is something else.

Proud of you, my friend, and thank you for saying what you did.

I didn't even give the first episode a go, because I began to hear whispers of straight-washing. It seems I should avoid this altogether?

I’m so happy right now…

I believe we are now in Unforgotten Night territory… The fact that Yoon’s in it is mere coincidence.

This is a work of genius, and, as always, I say what I do not mean, and mean what I do not say.

P. S. I notice that you’ve recently seen Late Spring. I just revisited Autumn Afternoon this evening!

Well, you just made my evening. So, the pleasure and gratitude are all mine!

I am sorry to hear of the challenges in life, but am deeply touched if my words could mollify even a modicum of the pain that comes with them. Sleep well! ❤️

Awww… that’s very kind of you to say so! Thank you.

You can easily watch this on a rainy afternoon, and is inoffensive enough. But tepid plain water has more chemistry in it than the leads and actors do here. I cringed when they not-kissed. ;)

It’s really, really good. You should definitely watch it. One of the best things to come out of Thailand, ever. A couple of episodes do drag a little, but the show is so original and well-made that it’s worth sticking with. Enjoy!

Surely you mean moth to a flamer? :)

Our boy is out in the world to sow his wild "Oat"s... :) And let's just say, you reap what you sow.

Somebody stop me.

They don't call it a hand*job* for nothing.

I mean, we do hold hands, just not in the way people imagine. :)

The number of times gay men like me have been told here to "go and watch porn", just because we want to see intimacy between two men in a show that happens to be about a romantic relationship between two men...

Worse is when some people then ask me why you'd want to see such private things on screen when it doesn't "further the plot", and, if I should like to see people on the screen use the loo too. I always think: if you equate gay intimacy with piss and shit, you've already told me what you think about sex, and gay sex in particular. And it gives the lie to the myth, widespread here, that watching BL automatically makes you accepting of the gays... Not in my experience.