Honglou Meng

I'm sure I will. Meanwhile, you'll be happy to know that I have rewritten much of the second letter to make it less wistful, and more funny. Nary a word about quitting Thai BL now! Enjoy!

Awww... Thank you. Hey, eat what you love! I hate diet culture of any sort! :)

I want to make the second letter as funny as the first, but I don't quite know how. The show became so bad by the fourth episode that it began to lose its camp value, and by that point, I had mined what campness it had for all its worth. So, when I dropped it, I was just left feeling angry, and I suppose I couldn't hide it in the second letter. Maybe I'll give it another go! :)

That first sentence... I laughed out loud. Food-based BLs annoy the hell out of me (as you will see from my review of Sugar Dog Life), but when I looked at this one a few months ago, I thought, I should avoid this like anthrax sprinkled on the foam of my coffee... Thanks for doing god's work and saving the rest of us!

Apologies! I thought I had replied to this thoughtful message, but I realised I hadn't.

Thank you for all these recommendations. I have seen Moonlight Chicken, mainly for the HeartLiMing storyline. I loved it very much. It is the last Thai BL I remember enjoying with unadulterated pleasure.

Meanwhile, I have also seen Rak Diao, because another friend recommended it. It took me a while to get used to (or ignore) the laugh track. But from Ep. 8/9, it good really good. And the leads are magnetic.

I don't know any of the other ones, except ITSAY, which I might be the only person in the world who disliked. 🙃 So, I'll check them out!

Again, thank you!

My German professor and I talked a lot about this! The problem is, Künstler and Bildung are so full of meanings in German that they don't quite translate well into English. 'Artist novel' just sounds like it is a novel about a painter, or that it is an artistic novel. 'Education gap', at least in England, would mean you took years off school/college.

I think that's why Joyce settled on 'Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'. Eight English words for one German!

Happy of the End. The first six episodes are magnificent, but not for the faint of heart.

Haha. In that case, you might find this appealing:

https://kisskh.at/profile/sasameyuki1950/review/397360

Assuming, from your name, that you speak German: Na ja! Wenn wir ein Wort statt acht brauchen! Mir fällt nicht mal ein einwortiges englisches Äquivalent für Wetterfühligkeit oder Bildungslücke ein...

Anyway, I wrote the whole review in one go, without thinking too much about it. I wonder if that word, and that sentence as a whole, are not very helpful...

EDIT: I removed the word OP is referring to from the review, as I wasn't sure it added much to it.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and see my perspective — even though I know your opinion differs sharply from mine! I wish others were more like this… willing to engage with different ideas without getting personal!

I think we might be twins, because Old Fashion Cupcake is my favourite BL ever. It’s on the top of my gay-themed series list on MDL.

I know what you mean about Years and Years. It does get very self-righteous at points, and the ending was just… awful. I’m trying to remember whether I liked Banana, Cucumber and Tofu. But it too has his signature kill-a-gay-because-homophobia bit, at which point I got angry, and swore never to see another show by him again! So, there you go! 🙂

Thank you for this nice and thoughtful comment. I appreciate it.

I have seen all of Russell T Davies’ shows, except It’s A Sin, which I have no intention of seeing. I first saw QAF in 2005, and have seen it a couple of times since! It still holds up! (In fact, the first draft of this review was called FAQs for a Korean QAF!) I do think Russell has a strong propensity to make at least one of his characters suffer, or even just kill them, for which I get angry with him. But the man knows how to write, how to make you laugh, and how to make you cry. The last show I saw of his was Years and Years, and if you haven’t watched it, do give it a go, but skip the last episode. Until that point, it was superb!

You see, I don’t think it was wrapped up the way you think at all — that is to say, with any form of self-acceptance. I think almost the opposite. The ending was just devastating. You see, I think the point of the ending is that everything we have seen so far is Yeong’s attempt to write and rewrite the story of his love — he even says so, and hence the symbolism of the lantern. But he is unsuccessful, because he daren’t love. He can’t be himself, or love himself, because to do so, he needed to be bold enough to love someone else, and to let them be themselves. The tragedy is that he couldn’t, perhaps even can’t. That was his final realisation. The deeper question, of course, is why.

Might I cheekily and gently suggest moving Old Fashion Cupcake here? My favourite BL ever, and I think one of the more subversive ones!

Watch all the Kurosawa films, watch Gohatto (even though its leads were homophobic), and add Ran to your list -- it is the best Shakespeare adaptation, ever! Quite a few of these are in my best-of lists.

I highly recommend 180 degrees. I think you'll like it. Moonlight Chicken is only worth it for the side-couple, and they are wonderful. Eien no Kinou is heartbreaking, and has some interesting things to say about life and memory, and you won't be able to hear the word Micchan again without crying.

I recommend Not Me as I would recommend anthrax in your mail or lead in your coffee. Or, to put it another way, it nearly made me quit Thai BL forever.

If you see my lists, you'll see that I've included almost all of these films. If you haven't seen City of Sadness, or Flowers of Shanghai, I highly recommend them!

Wasn't The Assassin just marvellous?

Hi there. Thank you for clarifying that, and, as I said in my earlier message, I'm sorry if I misread your tone. Context is everything, and it is hard to have context here with mere words, and without the presence of the person itself. For me, it was very hard to understand your tone from just a single sentence in both cases.

I'll first give the context in which I wrote my reply. Firstly, it was Jasper's ill-advised comment below (in response to the same comment), telling me what I ought to do, and denying my right to my opinion. Second, it was a day in which, in this comment thread, homophobia reared its ugly head again, with people saying such awful things about the characters in the show that I was at my wits' end. I attempted to call people out on it, but the attacks became immediately personal and vicious. I welcome it when people attack or criticise my ideas -- because it is a form of intellectual engagement. Bullying, on the other hand, gets to me. None of which is to say that I thought of you as among such people. Far from it. I'm just trying to describe my state of mind, and why I was unsure of your tone.

To the other question you raise, I only joined MDL to watch gay/BL shows. I do have non-BL stuff on my page, but I watched them before I came to MDL, and only put the lists up because people asked me to. (I have no interest in straight TV dramas -- insofar as they might be described as "light" entertainment -- at all.) All of which is to say, for me, quitting BL is tantamount to quitting MDL. Which, after yesterday, I perhaps should (MDL, I mean).

Lastly, I don't hate-watch either, though I can see its pleasures. If I watch something that is awful, it has enough camp value for me to review it and make fun of it. If it reaches a point where it is no longer funny, I drop it. (Such as Bad Guy My Boss.) So I'm with you on being selective. Not that you asked to hear of my viewing habits. Since you shared yours, I thought I'd share mine.

My original comment, if it need be made clear, was entirely sardonic (and to a lesser extent, ironic). As were my subsequent replies. Evidently, it didn't seem so to many.

I'm sorry if my comment came across as irascible or ill-humoured. Neither was intentional.

Go get a sense of humour, Jasper -- you desperately need it, and, while we're at it, you might also want to look up the word 'sardonic' -- before you deign to tell me what figurative speech is. Those who read my reviews, know of my ability to write well enough.

Please don't reply. I've had enough of you prissy, self-serious, humourless lot.

Thank you! Beware of the word 'intellectual' here, however. It might not win you any friends here (well, except me)! 🙃

Oh I will, and I do.

I understand that, Sweetcat. Please know that my comment wasn't meant as an attack or anything. I was just curious about your use of the word 'intellectual', and personally, it saddens me when people use it as a word of abuse. That's all.

I love BLs, and I doubt anybody would feel smarter by just insulting BLs. If they do, we should just ignore them.