#BL acting

[absolutebl]

Hi P'ABL

I've seen your reccomendation on good BL series to watch, but do you have any good reccomendation for BL Actor with good acting skill to follow? (follow their filmography works i mean, not follow them personally).

Thankyou

Top BL Actors?

Hellooooooo! Of course, here are some options!

This post is a bit old but it probubly still holds true:

BL Actors Since then & Additional Thoughts

Aside from Bah Vinh (Vietnamese) very few actors specifically specialize in BL. I mean a few in Thailand, but... that is mostly the options are what they are in Thailand and a lot of them are BL.

Fluke and Ohm probably have the largest back catalogue of BL that I actually enjoyed, but some of that is difficult to take or very sad. (Khaotung might be a good one too, since his character work is brilliant.) I haven't done an acting breakdown of Fluke Natouch but here is Ohm:

Ooo, can you imagine Fluke & Ohm together?

The other issue is, if you follow a Thai actor outside of BL there can be... not great stuff on offer. Nanon has chosen quite a few good pieces, he might be one to try. And I have some what enjoyed much of Sam Lin's other stuff (but I enjoy Taiwanese cinema in general) and there is Gong Jun to consider... I mean, who wouldn't?

I have talked about some of my favorite actors.

These are the ones I would recommend watching their BL because they are GOOD in it but the rest....?

[divineandmajesticinone]

4 MINUTES (2024) I 1.04

The first time.

[maybe-boys-do-love]

Mix Sahaphap gets to perform (and has the performance chops to perform) in a style that I’ve never seen any other male actor get to embody. Mix gets to unironically play the #strongfemalecharacter. The Beatrice, the Elizabeth Bennett, the Jo March. Strong-willed, emotional, kind-hearted.

Not only do the plot points line up, but Mix, more than any BL actor I’ve seen, fully leans into the embodiment of this archetype. In his roles, he rolls his eyes, pouts, banters flirtatiously, softens his posture and expression at small details. He doesn’t over-exaggerate and imposition other characters but his face also doesn’t hold back his character’s thoughts and judgments. And when the moments arrive, he lets all the hurt and anguish pour out in shatters of tears and visible heartbreak—the star-counting scene, anyone????—in a way that harkens to the operatic emotionality of well-done melodramas, soap-operas, and their contemporary Thai equivalent of Lakorn. It’s only that these have never been men’s roles in those.

It’s no surprise that one of Mix’s roles—Cupid’s Last Wish—is explicitly a gender body-swap, and Tian in A Tale of Thousand Stars is (albeit explicitly denied within the show) heavily connected to gender body-swapping. What Mix specializes in as an actor, and does exceptionally well, has been defined as feminine. To depict a kind of queer expression in this style is novel because it’s not camp, it’s not okama, it’s not a soft or femboy, it’s not a BL twink (Mix has been mostly excluded from the schoolyards and quads of the BL universe except for a role as a senior crush in Fish Upon the Sky). It’s too sincere and too adult for any of that.

In Moonlight Chicken we get to see, without the pretense of gendered mysticism, this performance style’s seduction, warmth, wit, and explosiveness within the framework of a general gay form of expression. It says that this kind of femininity might just be a gay thing. Not all gay men exhibit it, obviously—queer men aren’t a monolith. Still, it gives us something to consider about how we observe performance of queerness on screen, especially in front of an audience that puts so much more emphasis on ships, heat, and pairing chemistry to assess how well they perform a BL role. Could we look for other features to judge performance of queerness instead of how well they kiss?

Seme and uke roles would be the major performance style categories loyal BL fans assess actors with, yet even within the archetype his character’s fill within BL narratives, Mix’s performances differ from the typical uke depiction in BL because he really doesn’t perform them as passive. Rather, Mix’s characters and his portrayal of them are dynamic and demanding. It certainly fits certain stereotypes of ukes (Gilbert!) and their gay stereotype equivalent of bottoms as pillow princesses and brats. Mix’s characters, though, have more drive, agency, and compassion than that, and he plays them with all of those currents running underneath.

We certainly have openly gay writer/director Aof Noppharnach to thank for writing this kind of queer character for Mix to play in Tian and Wen. But for Mix’s specific commitment to the performance starting off with his (debut!?) role in ATOTS, we first have Earth to thank for believing in Mix’s ability and recommending him to portray the role of Tian, and then Aof’s acceptance despite his differing initial expectations for the character. Mix, Earth, and Aof have all been open about how Mix in his personal life and nature holds a lot of similarities to both his role as Tian in ATOTS and Wen in Moonlight Chicken. Some people might knock points off his performances because he’s like them. But his relationship to the characters, rather than dampening my enthusiasm for Mix’s performances, helps me appreciate his willingness to give an authentic performance in a style that hasn’t been encouraged on screens previously. It’s made more impactful that he chose to risk vulnerability to bring something personal that had previously been excluded from screens because of its gender deviance (and in broader society explicitly condemned). This doesn’t make a claim on Mix’s actual identity, but simply shows his willingness to understand and perform the expressions of his queer characters with an effort at empathy that many other actors would feel challenged to bring.

Some actors are chameleons, but some actors have a gift of a type within which they can explore depths and range that no one else can best. For me, that’s what Mix does in his work when directors and casting understands his talent. There’s a BTS video of Mix actually fainting during a scene while in Earth/Phupa’s embrace on the mountain that immediately brought to mind the wildly famous final scene in the film Camille where Greta Garbo as Marguerite dies in her lover’s arms.

For Mix, it was a serious incident due to regrettably extreme conditions and requiring the on-set paramedics, but these levels of theatrics, for me, are emblematic of what Mix is capable of as a performer, as well. After all, he had to faint in Phupa’s arms multiple times on purpose. It’s the kinds of Old Hollywood and heightened sentimental romance realms Mix takes his performances to! Then he can turn around and make it look easy to take that same character into grounded quips or dedicated everyday tasks. It only takes writers, directors, and audiences willing to see that men can feel this way and act this way. Mix has paved the way.

[gunsatthaphan]

something very lgbt is gonna transpire in that scene I know it 👁️

[heretherebedork]

The Heart Killers

JoongDunk and FirstKhaotung get to be gay and do crimes in this crime-based romcom and I need this the same way I need oxygen, thank you very much. (And Oxygen is one of my favorite BLs!) Cannot wait, am in love, please give this to me and let them be criminals the way they deserve to be. @absolutebl They gave us a gift!

[rayandgay]

Why are you doing this?

[jesbiblesworld]

If you're the type that genuinely gets upset that bl actors are in relationships with ppl other than their on screen partners, I need yall to (and I'm gonna touch your hand when I say this), find new hobbies outside of bl. Y'all have let yourselves get entirely too invested in these men to the point where you get genuinely upset and heartbroken, even ANGRY over them having other relationships, and that's not normal. None of them are doing anything wrong and treating a "dating scandal" the same as if they were found to kick puppies and punch orphans in their spare time is fuckin absurd

[pharawee]

Return to where you belong.

—JACK & JOKER: U Steal My Heart! · Episode 08

[twig-tea]

Saw the director of Addicted Heroin Thailand had posted this on his Facebook account:

This man looked at the show that was the tipping point of the first big anti-gay censorship wave in China in the 2010s, and decided to remake it and intentionally self-censor, just to see if he could attract the "Chinese BL is superior because it doesn't rely on kisses or NC scenes to show the emotions" audience to Thai BL?

I am so mad about this.

[loveisactivated]

[summerofofelia]

ROM!! COMS!! ARE!! VALID!! MEDIA!! CONTENT!! SOMETIMES!! SEX!! SCENES!! ARE!! JUST!! SEX!! SCENES!! AND!! THAT’S!! OKAY!! FALLING!! IN!! LOVE!! CAN!! BE!! THE!! CENTRAL!! PLOT!!

[color-beyond-lines]

Shout out to Unknown for demonstrating that serious injuries do have long-term affects on your body and your mind.

There isn’t an episode that goes by where we aren’t reminded of everything Qian has gone through to get to where he is. And it’s not just from flashbacks. It’s in the scars that remain on his body. The nightmares that haunt his sleep. In his interactions with women. His fierce protectiveness of his family. Qian’s triggers and responses to them make sense and don’t just appear out of the blue for dramatic effect.

So much of the emotional and physical trauma that Qian has experienced continues to impact his daily life in a way that makes him feel less like a character with a tragic backstory and more like an actual person with lived experience.

[divineandmajesticinone]

4 MINUTES (2024) I EP 5 "How about this. How much do you want? Give me a number."

[perths]

you're porsche's little brother, right?

[gunsatthaphan]

"you left something in the car."

[casualavocados]

Are you really Chen Yi? I'm not dreaming, am I? You can try and prove it.

KISEKI: DEAR TO ME Ep. 12