#Happy Ending Romance

[blunaggregator]

BLA Top 10 Korean BL Series of 2022

SEMANTIC ERROR

BLUEMING

TO MY STAR 2: OUR UNTOLD STORIES

ROOMMATES OF POONGDUCK 304

CHERRY BLOSSOMS AFTER WINTER

THE NEW EMPLOYEE

CHOCO MILK SHAKE

THE DIRECTOR WHO BUYS ME DINNER

ONCE AGAIN

HAPPY ENDING ROMANCE

[heretherebedork]

I love this new trend of Korean BLs having characters that are already queer and know they're queer and have had boyfriends in the past. It's so nice to see and so encouraging.

And watching Seung Hyun walk into a what is obviously the PRIDE group and make friends and be supportive and everyone talking about their relationships just... so good to see. Also, rainbow rice cakes? My entire heart.

Between this and Seo Jae Yun and his long term crush on his friend and the fantastic bi realization in Oh! My Assistant along with one character just being out and gay and Happy Ending Romance being about breaking up with your boyfriend to find your new boyfriend... there's so much queer energy here and it makes me gloriously happy.

It's just so nice to have queer babies everywhere in a bubble of acceptance because it isn't gay for you, it isn't just this one guy, it's this man is gay and he likes men or he's bi and he's realized he likes men as a whole. I love it here.

[absolutebl]

2022 BL trope du jour 

Touch My Face Before You Kiss Me 

aka the face caress 

Pictured above: Takara & Amagi, Big Dragon, Minato’s Laundromat, DNA Says Love You, Happy Ending Romance, Mr Unlucky, Oh Boarding House, Old Fashion Cupcake, The Promise.

As you can see this is a trope that most BL’s producing countries love. 

Moar From Thailand 

Love Mechanics

KinnPorsche

Ai Long Nhai

Love in the Air

Check Out

Cupid’s Last Wish (how much did I HATE those outfits) 

Coffee Melody (my favorite version) 

La Cuisine 

Oh My Sunshine Night 

Unforgotten Night Forgotten Plumbing 

What’s Zabb Man 

Switches! 

Ghost Host, Ghost House

Kings of this trope, 2022

Vice Versa 

Your kpop moment of they went there too...

OnlyOneOf... of course, I shoudl just call them OnlyOneOfCourse where BL is concerned. Baby boys got themselves a BRAND. 

[my-rose-tinted-glasses]

The smile of Han Tae Young.

[forevercafe]

Depressed lost character and their reason for living. Save me. Save me. Character swallowed by their darkest moment and their sudden ray of sunlight.

[respectthepetty]

Korea only has one college campus

Semantic Error and The New Employee

Pretty sure Korea only has these two stairs as well, but that's another post - Korean version of the the BL Starter Pack loading

[gabrielokun]

[chrispychanniem]

My Honest Opinion:

In the beginning, I thought this series had a Mafia centric plot. But I soon realised that was just Leo's attitude. I mean, the man is something, I was more invested in him than the actual couple.

The storyline is rather plain but relatable. In today's world, we often go through so much shit that we soon become extremely insecure of ourselves. In that moment, anyone who provides us a hideout becomes our hero. But are they really our heros? Or are they simply satisfying their own obsession in the name of protection?

Last but not the least, this man right here is so freaking fine. I wasn't a starlight previously but now I am crazily surfing through all available vixx content. Anyways, I suggest give this series a try.

[hhuta]

ok scorpio man

[gillianthecat]

re: The Novelist

c.c. @petrichoraline @sadday4sure @thewayofsubtext @waitmyturtles

I liked it. I liked it quite a lot. I'm still processing (/starting Mood Indigo), so I'm not sure if I have much I can articulate about it yet.

All I knew about it going in was the basic premise (pornography writer and his assistant) and that it was from the other side of Japan's BL traditions, meaning that it was "dark," contained dubcon, and was high heat. So I wasn't sure if it even was a romance or would have any sort of happy ending and thus I kept my heart to myself for the first few episodes, not trusting the show with it. I watched with a more analytical mindset at the beginning, which morphed into a love for the characters as they showed their own hearts.

Perhaps if I'd gone in unaware I would have found it dark and disturbing, but as it was a found it more aching and melancholy than anything else. The dubcon was no worse than other shows I've seen, and fit the story and the themes better than many (I won't get into those comparisons here). There was angst and loneliness and lashing out, but the power never felt overly weighted toward Kijima's side, despite Kuzami's youth and relative innocence, and the tangle of debts and their work relationship.

The actors were all excellent. I was relieved to see that my newfound love Izuka Kenta (who I'd seen for all of 5 minutes of screen time in Candy Color Parodox) is in fact very good actor, and brought nuance and strength and complex desires to the part of Kuzami.

I can't help but comparing shows to other shows these days, so here is what I was thinking while watching this one. The Novelist came out favorably, if it was a comparison of quality.

There is of course the use of dubcon, for which my only other real reference point are Thai BL, and that analysis is a multi-tentacled beast that is would get me off track for the rest of this post, so I won't start on it. I will say that one thing I noticed was that the pornographic fantasies were generally (all?) dubcon ones, and that both affected my interpretation of the characters' feelings about the real dubcon scene (because they both were into dubcon in fantasy), and habituated me to seeing dubcon in the show by the time the fifth episode came around. The other thing I guess I will say is that it feels different to me, easier to tolerate and move past, to see one character violate another out of sadness and fear and the desire to push someone away and hold them close at the same time. In real life absolutely no, the reason for ignoring consent matters not, but seeing it in a story I can work with that.

And then there are the pornographic fantasies, which were used so interestingly here. They were our (and seemingly Kuzami's) introduction to desire and sex. They usually featured other actors portraying the porn characters, which at first bothered me - I wanted more time with Kijima and Kuzami as they wrote together - but then came to make sense, for reasons I can't articulate now. The show's seduction of us followed Kijima's only half intentional seduction of Kuzami. It lured us in with his voice dryly describing lurid sex acts, sounding humorous at first, but soon grew more genuinely erotic as the music and the cinematography and Kijima's voice changed. And there was something about the way the porn fantasies provided both distance from the characters and simultaneously made them seem even more vulnerable, their minds laid even more bare than their bodies, that created this uncomfortable, seductive eroticism of the show. Kijima was arousing Kuzami while still pretending Kuzami's arousal was meaningless to him.

Which was part of why I didn't know what to expect from the show at first. Was this going to be an overcast and complicated story of self-discovery, about how Kuzami was changed by one summer with this seductive twisted older man? It wasn't until Kido showed up and Kijima fell slightly to pieces, that I understood that it would be both their stories, and that I could hope for romance rather than just sexual awaking, even though I wasn't yet sure of a happy ending.

The fantasies too changed over the course of the series, going from the ones about men and women that Kijima wrote, to Kuzami's fantasies of the two of them, and then disappeared altogether, as they stopped wanting a fantasy and started their convoluted paths to wanting and seeing each other's real selves, not the fantasy version.

(The comparison about fantasies in my mind, which I probably only thought of due to a coincidence of timing, was to the innocent romantic fantasies of My School President. Which despite the very different content, share a similar role of showing the character's desires to the audience, and of pointing to the contrast between unrealistic fantasy and the reality of loving and being loved by another actual human being with their own subjectivity in the world.) (This honest dive into arousal while creating erotic art in collaboration with someone desired was what I was vaguely hoping for, though did not expect, from Oh! My Assistant. So I was glad to have it done so well here.)

Closely connected to the fantasies was how much the show was about writing. Both literally, a good portion of screen time was spent watching Kuzami writing Kanji and listening to to Kijima recite the words of the novel, and in that Kijima's story was about his journey as a writer. I felt the pain of his not being able to write, I felt the isolation of "writer" being his only identity, his only sense of self. This was what I wanted from Happy Ending Romance, which frustratingly did not feel like it was really about writers. This very much did. I could dig deeper into why it felt that way, but this post is already much longer than I meant for it to be.

The focus of the story was so tightly held on Kuzami and Kijima in their time together that fevered summer. We learned very little about them beyond their moments together. And I think that works. It builds the heightened intensity of their connection with each other, like they're living in a world apart from the rest. Kijima seems to have been living in this isolation for most of his life, while Kuzami apparently has friends and classes and a life outside this bubble, but it is Kijima whose backstory we end up learning more about. In a less nuanced show Kuzami would be almost a blank slate, ready to be molded* by Kijima's desires, but Izuka Kenta and the subtleties of the script imbue him with a quiet strength. At the beginning he doesn't yet know what he wants, but when he figures it out he has a solidity of purpose that won't let him be pushed around.

*yes it's a mixed metaphor but I didn't like any of the matching sets I could think of

And he sees Kijima, because he so desperately want to. Once he figures out that it's Kijima he wants, he works so hard to get under his mask and see him. Despite Kijima doing his damnedest not to be seen. Takezai Terunosuke is excellent in the role, playing both the Mona Lisa mask and the broken man beneath, and showing the cracks to get there. When he broke down in tears, back to Kuzami... I cried. This show, which I thought was going to be about how Kuzami was changed by their time together, ended up being about how Kijima was changed by him.

I feel like I'm talking circles around the center of them, but there is so much that could be said, so many ways to examine their relationship.

Oh! and the cinematography/editing/sound/etc! So good. I kept thinking about everyone's brilliant responses to my questions on this post, and really noticed the use of wide long shots and letting the actors come in and out of frame. It served the story well.

This was my first "dark" JBL, and I want to watch more now, to better put this show in context.

Fuck, y'all. This was supposed to be a single paragraph simply stating that I liked the show. And maybe naming a few topics I found interesting. Instead it swelled into this, and still feels very incomplete. But I will leave the rest for another day. Especially as I expect I will have an even more thoughts on the characters after watching the rest of the series.

[galaxymagick]

happy ending outside the fence 📖 | behind the scenes | writer Junghyun's playful mode ON! [Happyending Romance] | @idol romance TV_Official (taekwoon cut)

[endof-vanity]

FINALLY watching happy ending romance and it starts with someone asking taekwoon to kill him, this guy gets me

[heretherebedork]

I figured that both of the new employee's main characters would be if not openly, at least comfortably (as in already accepted their sexuality) gay given that the director is openly gay and most of his projects are about gay characters/relationships, but I LOVED seeing Seung Hyun be a part of a pride club. More queer friendship groups please!!!!

It was very nice to see and it is very nice to see in general! I appreciate that K-BL seems to be taking a step in that direction versus the original ones where that just... wasn't part of them.

The bubble has changed. K-BL has always been in a bubble where there's no issue with being gay but the original bubble was much 'gay for him' and without any hint of this sexuality being a bigger thing in their lives.

But now they're gay, they're bi, they have friends who are queer, they have crushes, they were in Pride clubs, they have rainbows, they laugh with their friends about their exes, they live lives that are filled to the brim with happiness and queerness and it's never an issue but it's part of their life.

They get to have identities.

[absolutebl]

This has be a brief tribute to some of my very favorite BL boys with fathomless eyes. 

Share & enjoy. 

Gongchan in Unintentional Love Story

Zee in everything

Yamada James Takeshi in Seven Days 

Net in Bed Friend

Leo in Happy Ending Romance

Yagi Yusei in My Beautiful Man 

Pond in Never Let Me Go 

Son Woo Hyun in To My Star 

Jimmy in Vice Versa 

[my-rose-tinted-glasses]

5 Songs Tag - QL Shows Edition

I saw this going around and thought I would give it a try. I love music and love lists, although narrowing it down to 5 was a challenge.

(Credit to @troubled-mind who created the tag game, original post is here.)

🎶When you get this, list 5 songs from the Asian QL shows that you actually listen to.

🎶They do not have to be custom-made for the series.

🎶Non-western tracks only. Let's support Asian music and languages! 🎶Feel free to tag anyone who may be interested in participating.

🎶Add #5qls tag to your post for others to find the new favourites!

Sunshower - Ayumu Imazu Eternal Yesterday

This show has my whole heart. I cried watching it. But every time I listen to this song it makes me smile.

逗點 (You are my comma) - 艾雨帆 (AiYuFan) Be Loved in House: I Do

It's my comfort show, its my comfort song. (I don't know if comfort song is a thing, but it is to me anyway.)

I Still - 레오(LEO) Happy Ending Romance

His voice is just incredible.

꿈속에서 (Can you stay) - 콜딘 (Coldin) Semantic Error

Just... Semantic Error.

Sano ibuki - twilight Takara-kun to Amagi-kun

This song just makes me happy.

I'm in a good mood today, so I think I chose songs that usually help keep me that way. It was hard cause my playlist has way too many songs that I listen to constantly but here are 5 of them.

[maychild]

not me thinking happy ending romance and happy merry ending are one and the same (look, i know titles are hard and they're probably more poetic sounding in korean, and make more sense, but i just...arsdfjkldsjfkldsjf)