#SOUL SISTERS

[guzhufuren]

Support and uplift chinese queer creators and their fight. There is hope for an even better tomorrow.

text version

[vintage-tigre]

Whitney Houston, 1985

[thisonelikesaliens]

this was too romantic to let AI screw up. literally "let me help make all your wishes come true" and maybe more poetically "your wish is my command"

(jfc she is so hot my heart can't take it)

sudden cannibalism lmao (correction: "people of all ages love me")

AI is just dropping things left and right. "it would be great if time could freeze at this moment"

(there are other instances like this too but I'm really only paying attention when Gu Jin Yu is on the screen)

and now AI is trying to skip steps? "I know you've been sincere"

"I can wait until you're ready to tell me (it won't be too late)"

(nooooooo not the foreshadowing)

uh...??? what? how? "how will you react (when you find out my agenda and my identity)?"

"even if I can't be chief I'll protect you"

"I'll make you go bankrupt every. single. time you show your face"

"I'll smash you into pieces and you'll die without a grave (aka no peace in death)" (very classic curse)

(yeah both our mains are badasssssssss)

"you've failed/you're useless as a daughter"

guessing this is a Black Tiger Clan specialty. I'm used to seeing the first bow to heaven and earth, second bow to ancestors, third bow to parents

"she's even willing to give up her title for me"

"I want to be with you every single day, share every meal, weather all four seasons, and travel around the world"

(this is a variation and expansion of the popular romantic line "one house two people three meals four seasons" which also appeared in ep12 of My Tooth Your Love and she added the idiom "five lakes four seas" which basically means all around the world. PEAK ROMANCE)

I LOVED THIS SHOW. I didn't set out to do language notes so these are random AF and I didn't catch everything and also skipped some that I didn't think mattered. But my ask box is always open if you have a specific question.

[girlsloveupdates]

A Win for Chinese GL

After being slightly worried that one was going to die, or one was going to end up with a man, I can confirm: NO. The ending of Shuang Tu was like-

We were in love when we were acting as husband and wife. I found out you are a woman in disguise but actually I’m still utterly devoted to you regardless. Shame we can’t get married for real since we’re two women BUT I’m eternally bonded to you and we can still carry on the way we were.

Which is honestly the best possible ending for a Chinese GL for now so I’m personally very satisfied with this.

The characters may not have kissed on screen but they showed affection in numerous different ways. They have clear attraction towards each other. They said multiple times they were in love. They saved each others lives. They dedicated themselves to each other as a married couple and built their world around each other.

This is a win for Chinese GL.

[tabzy18]

It looks pretty. You look pretty.

[borealing]

#tfw your beautiful fake wife who doesn't know you're a woman yet gives you a thoughtful little gift and you've got to pretend you're not falling in love with her

[twig-tea]

GL odds and ends 29 December 2024

The end of the year kicked my ass, but I wanted to get one last one of these out for 2024! The last one before this was 10 November. If you're interested in GL older than that, check out my GL rec list through Feb 2024 and my #gl recs tag for the other odds and ends posts. New series marked with an asterisk*.

Currently airing (with thoughts up to 29 Dec):

The Fragrance You inherit 5/8 (Japanese, Friday/Saturday-ish, no official distribution but fansub on @isaksbestpillow's blog [thank you Siiri!] I have been really enjoying this show and have been writing when I have time (last post was for ep4). At its core this is a gentle show about kind people who love each other doing their best, which is always my favourite thing. Subs are on pause for the moment so you have time to catch up before the finale!

Pluto ep 11/12 (Thai, Saturdays 9:30 AM ET, YouTube) This plot continues to be absolutely wild. There's a lot of discourse around Oom this week, to which I'll just say: Setting a test to see if the people you love will hurt themselves in order to make you feel better is not loving or healthy behaviour, even if your motivations are understandable and sympathetic. Namtan is doing a great job making these twins feel like different people, and she and Film are still gorgeous together. And I have no idea what's up with the messy lesbian sides, but I'm on the side of all of them need a time out! I've been pretty dialed out of this show because it's not my thing, so I'm not that invested in any of the relationships going into the finale, but it's been a wild ride and it seems to be holding together for those who enjoy the high drama of this plot.

*Petrichor ep 5/10 (Thai, Saturdays, 10:00 AM ET, iQIYI) The procedural aspects of this show are unfortunately not well executed, but Engfa and Charlotte have fantastic chemistry. I'm also really loving seeing Na and Max again even though I am very worried about getting too attached to their characters. It's always hard for me when a show is about a police officer trying to do good work in a corrupt system because the only takeaway I can accept is that that is not possible lol but I'm enjoying seeing these two on my screen every week (except this week, because we sadly did not get a new episode today).

*Mate, 6/12 (Thai, Tuesdays, WeTV (uncut version)) This one is hard to describe. It seems to be trying to do for trauma in a GL what Love in the Air and Bed Friend did in BL--show a realistic depiction of trauma in one of their characters and have them fall in love, and be taken care of and healed that way. But that also makes it extremely hard to watch. The trauma flashbacks and trauma responses is rough. The main character is not very likeable but that's kinda the point, I'm not minding that part of it so much. There are a lot of things I like about this show, so I don't want to discourage views. Just go into this one informed, and make the decision that's right for you.

*INTP 1/? (Korean, Fridays (?), YouTube) This is the latest short series from RedQ, who produced some of my favourite GL short series including More than or equal to 75 degrees C, and To the Ex who Hated Me. No info on how long it will be or if it will be weekly, so that Fridays release schedule is a total guess. The setup of this one reminded me of Semantic Error if SangWoo realized he was attracted to JaeYoung at their first group assignment meeting.

Recently Completed:

Apple My Love 6.5 50-min eps (Thai, Oct 12-Nov 16, GagaOOLala and YouTube) I ended up feeling like this one bit off a bit more than it could chew, as much fun as I had with it, it was a wobbly landing. I was ok with the ending at the end but I spent a lot of time watching the finale uncertain about how I felt about all of it. There's a 30 min "episode 5.1" that is an important bridge between episodes 5 and 6 (and also includes a 10-min fingering scene, thank you show) that I think resulted from either poor pacing or realizing they needed to set up the episode better? It was odd but something to make sure not to skip. The show does a lot of what I love about Kongthup's latest BLs: it avoids the worst drama pitfalls and calls them out in the show itself when it uses them, and it is largely about being kind to its characters who are figuring themselves out. Warning for extremely hard to watch secondhand embarrassment in the first couple of episodes lol Kris is such a cringefail lesbian I love her. With the caveats above, if you don't mind secondhand embarrassment and want a comedy GL and are willing to be a little patient with the ending, give this one a try!

The Loyal Pin 16 65-min eps (Thai, Aug 4-Dec 1, YouTube) Anin was the bravest right through to the end. I really liked a lot of this show, but I found the pacing a bit uneven and the finale a little rough. It's hard, because I actually am happy with the way the show ended--it makes perfect sense and was where I was hoping they would get to the entire show. What I didn't like was how we got there. It seemed wild that Pin and Anin didn't at least talk about this possibility before we got there; and didn't feel like we ever resolved the disparity between the two leads, though the show was aware of it the whole time which I did like. And you may have seen the shouting about the prank in the finale, it was in really poor taste. In the end, this show was beautiful, gave a platform for promoting Thai culture (food, clothing, history), and had excellent intimacy. I really enjoyed the slow burn between Anin and Pin, and I loved that every character had and used the agency they had, but that the show was realistic about what was in and outside of their control. If you want a slow-burn and high-heat romance and are willing to be a little frustrated for the sake of the drama, and/or you really like a pigtail-pulling romantic dynamic, you should watch this show.

Red Whisper 8 10-min eps (Korea, Oct 2-Nov 11, YouTube) Honestly this show never got better after what I wrote about it a month ago about how its portrayal of bisexuality and nonmonogamy was upsetting. For the record one last time: Not all bisexuals are nonmonogamous, and entering a monogamous relationship under false pretenses and then acting like your partner is being unreasonable by not wanting an open relationship is shitty behaviour. This one is sadly not recommended.

The Nipple Talk 10 30-min eps (Taiwanese, Nov 8-22, GagaOOLala) I highly recommended the first half, and so I am so sad to say that I can't say the same for the second half of the show. I was really enjoying how much the show seemed to support a mix of monogamy and nonmonogamy, but the second half of the show leaned heavily into 'everyone wants a monogamous relationship when they meet the right person', which disappointed me. The show also tried to introduce some themes that felt very dated in terms of how they handled them (e.g. HIV) and I ended up just not really liking the Pony character as a person by the end. The lesbian relationship was super messy in a way that I did not find fun too. Mama was the best part of this show, and I hope we get more characters like them in future (better) shows!

*Soul Sisters 24 12-min eps (Chinese, iQIYI) This entire show dropped this week so I binged it in one go. The basic setup is a GL version of Meet You At the Blossom, except the gender fuckery lasts for most of the series and they don't actually ever get to kiss. I loved this little show; it is a frenetic, very silly and censored comedy, so calibrate your expectations accordingly. But it walks the line in a way that is palatable (or was for me, anyway). Without giving too much away, it is an open happy ending. The caveats for this one are that there is no wasted tape, so the pacing is rollercoaster fast, and the cuts are sometimes jarring. But it's a surprisingly beautiful show for the budget, and I really appreciated all of the ways they came up with to give these women shippy moments. Also, good lord this main character is so competent, which is a major weakness of mine. I had a great time!

*Whisper Me a Love Song 12 25-min eps (Japanese anime, Apr-27 Dec, HiDive) This started airing in April but there was a delay and the last episode didn't air until yesterday. High school lesbians in a band having embarrassing confused and misunderstood feelings all over the place (with good endings including a kiss for at least one of our couples). I appreciate that this anime is not playing with the 'are they friends who joke about wanting to touch each other's boobs or are they more' line, they outright say they want to be more than friends and then kiss. The music is good too! Recommended if you are feeling like a high school dramedy with good tunes that stays pretty light and is in the 'bubble'.

Recent One-offs, Side Couples, etc.:

My Hot Butch Roommate (actually a 2-parter) aired on bilibili 1, 2) and was subtitled by @douqi7s on YouTube (1, 2) These two are very cute, and this little short does a ton with the very tiny 5 minutes of total runtime it uses. Give the original bilibili uploads a stream so they get views, even if you watch the YT subbed version!

Fufuknows put out a new lesbian short titled The Choices of Two Lesbian Couples in Love on YouTube This was a great short (11 min) film featuring the story of two couples at different stages in their relationship, and the different choices they make about their futures. I really enjoy Fufuknows as queer short filmmakers, and I appreciate that they regularly include lesbian and wlw content in their bi-weekly (as in, every other week) fictional shorts that they produce and release. This one is recommended!

Aim's Lesbian plotline in the new Love Sick 2024 remake concluded (this was not a plotline in the 2014 version and it's one of the changes I really like and that I think works really well) Spoiler: she doesn't get a romance happy ending but her story ends with acceptance from her friends about who she is, which was lovely to watch

There was a brief of-the-week lesbian couple who wanted to marry in Spare Me Your Mercy Spoiler: their story is tragic, which is par for the course in a murder mystery

I am suspecting wlw sides in See Your Love I may end up eating these words but I was getting vibes, and so I'm putting this out in the universe now in hopes I'm right lol

There is a new Korean shorts production company on YouTube called Lovememory (Their first BL ep is out and the GL, First Love, has a trailer)

Mom Ped Sawan started airing but I don't have a source so I can't give any info or links unfortunately. If anyone knows of a subtitled source for this show, please let me know!

My Ex's Wedding came out in Thai theatres waiting for an international source for this too

Korean short film What's In my Bag was uploaded to Matchbox I haven't seen it yet but the trailer is on YouTube if anyone is curious! The film is available now for a small fee on Vimeo (runtime 12 mins).

Sastra film app YouTube channel has several short Cambodian GL series that come out weekly Honestly they are not to my taste but I don't like gatekeeping GL especially from smaller markets. I check in on these time to time and if there are any that I think are great I'll give them a shout-out

Ditto above with JPC media YouTube channel for Thai GL shorts if there are any that stand out to me I'll say so; that being said I haven't had time recently so if I've missed anything good let me know!

Starting soon:

Us the series, Thai, 18 January 2025, most likely YouTube (as this is a GMMTV show) Caveat that this date is a rumour, see comments

Fragrance of the First Flower s2, Taiwanese, 18 February 2025, GagaOOLala ok this isn't that soon but I'm just so excited we're getting this second season after all!

It is so, so nice that we have this much GL to keep track of, I can't complain! This covers a whole month of content and it was a month I was very distracted from my QL consumption so while I always welcome anyone pointing out stuff I missed, I would particularly appreciate it this round.

[helxya]

[morweneledhwen]

Currently watching my first Chinese girls love drama called Soul Sisters on iQiyi, and oh my God, these two are so cute already! ❤️

We've truly been blessed with some great queer love dramas this year. :)

[realnyhiphop101]

Finesse and Synquis "Soul Sisters" Era

[quill-pen]

It’s just dawned on me that he first time Bess might realize her soul-sister is smitten with a gent is because Connie talks in her sleep.

So one day, Bess is in the cottage kitchen while Connie is conked out on the couch, exhausted after a long shift at the coffee house. Bess goes to put a blanket over her, and finds Connie smiling to herself and … giggling in her sleep. Then she sighs and goes, “Oh, Mr. Scrooge~”

Well, it’s definitely … that type of dream. Her hands grip the pillow and she’s definitely pleased, haha. At this point, he’s just a tall, handsome, kind gentleman from the coffee house who seems to stop in often to see her.

As the relationship continues, it changes from “Mr. Scrooge” to “Ebenezer”, and “Adonis.” Then, finally, “my Adonis.”

Once Con and Adonis are serious, Bess gives him a teasing little pointer: “Just a note … she talks in her sleep.” 😏

He isn’t sure why that’s relevant until he wakes up to the sound of her giggling, moaning, and writhing softly beside him as she sleepily recites his name. And SUDDENLY Bess’ little statement makes sense.

Okay, but, no, this is actually so cute and funny!😂 Bess snores; Connie sleep-talks.

I can just imagine after that first time when Connie wakes up from her nap, she finds Bess in the kitchen making tea and some snacks. Bess smiles nonchalantly at first, all, "Have a good nap?"

Connie beams back. "Oh, very good!"

Bess smile turns a little cheeky as she butters some bread. "Mmm, good, good. You, uh, you have any dreams?"

Connie blushes a bit. "Yes. I usually seem to. Never really remember them much, though." That's a little bit of a fib.

Bess sucks her teeth. "Darn. From the way you were giggling and moaning, I woulda thought Mr. Scrooge would make for one of the more memorable dreams."

Connie snaps around to look at Bess in alarm and maybe try to refute such a claim, only to find Bess giving her a shit-eating grin and wagging a finger at her. "Naughty, naughty," she teases. "You can't lie your way out of a wet dream experience when you're a sleep-talker!"

Connie might end up opting to take most of her naps in her room after that. At least there's more privacy.😅

But that doesn't mean Bess misses out on witnessing that sleep-talking transition. Bess keeps a quiet tally of the ones she hears and gently teases Connie at each change as the relationship goes on. "So, you're calling him our nickname for him in bed now, are you? I'll bet he puffs up about that." It's almost like a metric system from the relationship, and Bess loves to record it and witness her soul-sister fall deeper and deeper in true love.

And of course Bess tells him about the sleep-talking but leaves out the warning of what it's usually about. For all Adonis knows, he's going to regularly hear Connie mumbling mumbo-jumbo at 1 in the morning or having a rousing but completely flummoxing discussion with alien rodents in the wee hours. Or maybe she'll start asking him questions about worms; he's heard that's a thing women will ask about for whatever reason.

But then he hears his name and the moans and, suddenly, Bess' little smirk makes complete sense.

[guzhufuren]

Chinese wuxia GL Soul Sisters (双兔) is now out on iQIYI international!

24 episodes, 10/15 minutes per episode. First 12 episodes now available for members.

Previously known as A Pair of Rabbits.

[vintage-tigre]

Amy Winehouse, 2005

[thisonelikesaliens]

A little note on the Liang Shan Bo & Zhu Ying Tai story told in ep20:

So this is a folktale from Jin Dynasty (266-420 AD) that has been retold over generations and adapted into various forms of media (plays, operas, movies, songs, etc. you name the type and it's probably been done), and you'll find regional and artistic differences if you go looking for all the variations, but the core remains the same: it's a tragic romance where Liang and Zhu did not end up together in life.

A quick summary of the rest of the tale, continuing from where Gu Jin Yu stopped: Zhu went home before completing her studies, and when Liang visited he finally found out the man he fell in love with was really a woman. He wanted to propose, only to find out Zhu's father had already arranged her marriage to another man. Heartbroken, Liang died from an illness not long after. On Zhu's wedding day, when the wedding procession passed by Liang's grave, strong winds prevented them from moving forward. Zhu left her palanquin to pay respects at the grave, and when it suddenly split open, Zhu jumped in without hesitation to join her love, and from the grave emerged two butterflies.

Gu Jin Yu stopped where she did because she was going to write a different ending for them (which maybe the production team already hinted at in ep2):

(Feel free to look up "butterfly lovers" for more info. There's a ton out there, but sadly I haven't found one that touches on the bisexual awakening of Liang, which is my personal takeaway from this story.)

[girlsloveupdates]

New Chinese Wuxia GL ‘Shuang Tu (双兔)’ out now

The first 12 episodes of Shuang Tu (双兔) are available to watch on iQIYI worldwide, each episode is 10-15 minutes long. There will be 24 episodes in total.

You can watch the first episode for free without subscription here:

[tabzy18]