#best bl acting

[absolutebl]

I've just started watching Thai BLs and I don't know which ones would be worth getting thru the bad acting. Could you please recommend me some? xo

20 Thai BL's With GREAT Acting

Laws of Attraction

Moonlight Chicken (review here)

Not Me (review here)

Until We Meet Again (discussion here)

Bad Buddy (review here)

A Tale of Thousand Stars

Love By Chance

He's Coming to Me

The Eclipse

My Ride (review here)

Step By Step (review here)

My School President

Bed Friend (review here)

Dark Blue Kiss (PeteKao watch guide here)

Make a Wish

My Only 12%

Never Let Me Go

Theory of Love

Dear Doctor, I'm Coming For Your Soul (review here)

Triage (review here)

Love Sick is also pretty special but it's very long and complicated and kinda a steep buy in. But if you are of the Degrassi Jr High inclination...

You might also want to try I Told Sunset About You. It wasn't for me but is for LOTS of super fans of high quality BL.

From the tone of the question I am assuming we are going with a a western value judgement which prioritizes grittiness and subtlety.

Here's more stuff for you to explore if you're interested.

(Many of these will not have been updated with 2023)

Here's me talking about western struggles with Thai language and acting style:

Here's the master post on Thai BL

Not specifically Thai but here's my:

10 Best BL All Rounders - acting, script, music, narrative, production

(source)

[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.

[secriden]

*cracks knuckles* Okay lets talk about the elephant in the room: Style going to the support group for those who've suffered loss and telling what appears to be a fake story about losing his pet dog.

I'm going to point out a few things that I think provide a framework for Style's actions here. Not because I think it excuses what he did, but because I think a nuanced read is what the character deserves.

Point 1: An irresistible opportunity

The subs put the "Support Group for Loss" on the image in the notebook, but I'm not sure there's anything to suggest that Style would've known that was what this image represents until he showed up and saw the sign on top of the door.

In episode 2, Bison says, "He plans everything down from years, months, weeks to days" and then tells Kant:

So Style is literally just going to addresses/locations at given days and times, potentially not knowing what to expect. And as much as Fadel is certainly attending this meeting as a response to having that heartbreaking flashback (😭), this is also something he attends regularly and has planned to attend way in advance. So Style has no reason to think Fadel is attending this meeting because of a recent resurfacing of his pain.

What we, the audience, and what the characters know are very different things.

Now, should Style have turned his cute ass right around once he realised what this meeting was? Of course he should. But that wouldn't have been true to Style's character. We've been told by his best friend that he is "crazy" and been shown repeatedly that he lives right up to that description.

Style is impulsive. He's all base instinct and he acts on his desires without thought or contemplation. And by this point he is desperate for a deeper connection with Fadel. He's fascinated, captivated by the mystery that is Fadel and this is an excellent opportunity to finally see behind the wall Fadel so carefully maintains.

When Style sees the sign above the door, Style looks at the notebook (which, again, shows nothing but people sitting in a circle with the words RISE UP) like he's just realising what it means. He then gets this amused, almost rueful look on his face (like he's thinking "am I really going to do this?") before it shifts to determination and he walks through the door.

(My soul for the ability to once again gif something because FUCK Dunk is doing SO MUCH in this show!!)

To Style, this is just too good of an opportunity to give up.

Because let's be real, Fadel is so clearly lying and hiding something:

Fadel is shady as FUCK. He is simultaneously actually a really good cook (Style finally tries his burger so he knows, now), and also has the skills to work at a strip host club, and also can take on 3 guys in a fight, and also can break a man's arm with his thighs. Can you honestly blame Style for losing his mind just a little bit about wanting to get his hands on something, anything, to figure this man out?

Style is being absolutely consistent in his persistence to understand Fadel. This isn't about the car or about finally 'winning' the fight (thank you @airenyah for giving such a detailed framework to understand what Style's been doing until this point) anymore. This is about Style wanting to know Fadel himself.

Point 2: The potential implications of the setting

Now, what might give us a bit of insight as to why Style is this way? I have a theory (albeit one that could prove to be very wrong, but hear me out). I think this whole entire show is set in what could potentially be quite a small town/suburb.

There's a few things that make this theory plausible:

(1) Fadel and Bison are in hiding after Bison blew their previous cover. They're probably on the run from some section of the authorities and so it makes sense to settle in a quiet/out of the way place.

(2) Style seems to be really familiar with the people in the area. Like he grew up there and its the kind of small town where everyone knows everyone and everyone is in everyone else's business.

(3) Style is clearly the darling of the market aunties and uncles.

Style just lost her a sale and potentially a loyal customer, and she's still rooting for him? In episode 2, when Style asks the uncle to let him borrow his cart, it takes nothing but his word for the uncle to give Style his entire cart of produce for his ridiculous scheme.

Style is so clearly someone they all know well and have great affection for, and a very plausible explanation for this is that they all watched him grow up and the entire market (town/village) is fond of him.

And honestly?? Yeah, we see the way Style is actually quite sweet in that careless, guileless, thoughtless way. He goes the extra mile to fix his mistake with Fadel by replacing his car parts for free in episode 1. He helps out by taking orders in episode 2 without being asked and takes it seriously. In episode 3, he tries to drive more business to Fadel's store (bless him, he so clearly does NOT understand how restaurants work, but he MEANS well!!), and can we all acknowledge that it works?? He understands how to appeal to potential customers in the area because he knows the people there. It's not (entirely) his fault that Fadel wasn't remotely prepared for an actual rush crowd and Bison was off getting kinky with Kant and not doing his (fake) job. He is so clear about not judging Fadel's host job and tries his hardest to help him (to absolutely NO effect, but still) when the 3 guys gang up on Fadel.

Style is so loved and more importantly so very loveable.

Point 3: What this could mean for Style's character

So, potentially, Style is someone who grew up in a small town, who has been well loved, potentially spoiled and coddled, but also very much kept within the confines of the narrow viewpoint that a quiet, country town places on you.

It's in the way his dad scolds him as if he was still a child when he's at least in his mid to late 20s. It's in the way Style was so mad at Fadel for scolding him ("thanks for the lecture, dad"), like that hit a sore point for Style. It's in the way no one in the market takes him seriously; they're fond, but he's still a kid in their eyes. It's in the way he has an abundance of free time like he doesn't REALLY need to work at his dad's shop. It's in the way he sees Fadel beat 3 guys up with ease, starts wondering if Fadel is an assassin or a hitman, and is completely unfazed like he doesn't quite have a handle on reality.

It's in the way his best friend is a man who has no qualms about lying to him and putting his life in danger, and how Style seems to have no other friends or people (aside from his dad) in his life.

@wuxian-vs-wangji made a comment to me about Style being desperate for a meaningful connection, and I think she hit the nail on the head. Because along comes Fadel, a mysterious stranger with a suspiciously versatile set of skills who is also very hot and keeps giving Style these wonderfully complex reactions? Who sometimes wants nothing to do with Style, but at other times seems to be at war within himself about desperately wanting him? Who treats Style with anything but apathy?

This is catnip to Style; he never had any hope of resisting this.

Breaking news: Style is a complex and imperfect character...

Here's the thing, though: he was never going to try. The show has been incredibly upfront about who Style is as a person. Regardless of whether I'm correct about why he is this way (ie. that he is very much the product of the environment that didn't know how to handle a kid with Style's personality), episode 3 shouldn't have surprised anyone about Style. He's been incredibly consistent and true to himself.

He wants Fadel and he's "crazy" enough to go all in, no holds barred about it, and the Support Group was the biggest doorway to finally discovering something REAL about Fadel.

And its not just about sex or to prove his superiority anymore. Because if it was just that, then Style would have reacted very differently to their first time.

In this scene, Style is pleased and evidently enjoying himself, but he isn't exuberant. He isn't overcome with joy. If anything, he was more happy and excited when Fadel let him help out in the diner (I mentioned this in the tags in this post too) than he was when Fadel is literally fucking him. He lets Fadel set the pace; barely moves to touch Fadel except to hold him close. Almost like he doesn't want to accidentally mess this up, like he's worried he'll take too much, so he'll take what Fadel gives him and no more (please appreciate @braceletofteeth's amazing tags on this post). For a character that has been so aggressively on the offensive, this is shocking until you realise that sleeping with Fadel - while it's a step in the right direction - isn't Style's end goal anymore.

And he makes that abundantly clear in this episode:

Does Style even fully realise the weight of this desire? I doubt it. But I do believe that Style is in earnest. He doesn't fully understand his own feelings, but he also doesn't really care to either. All he knows is that he wants Fadel, wants his attention and his passion and his focus and his heart.

...but Style is also kind of, sort of, perfect.

Because he's exactly, precisely, breathtakingly exactly what Fadel needs.

Because Fadel is hurt and broken and bleeding inside. Because Fadel is barely holding it all together for Bison's sake, but has already given up hope for any true happiness for himself. Because Fadel can't trust anyone or anything in his life, when he's been used and used and used by the family who should've loved and cared and protected him.

Because it's going to take nothing short of this kind of unwavering, unshakable, uncomplicated determination to give Fadel even a chance of healing and opening his heart to love again.

[doublel27]

So, because I am myself a neurodivergent completist, I needed to watch Anti-Reset before I could start Eternal Butler, and I am so glad I did.

Anti-Reset told the story of a man falling in love with an AI biomechanical humanoid, but was really an autistic 4 autistic love story. The story of a human who has never really fit into humanity. Who is obsessed with history and how it shifts but doesn’t feel a part of it really. Whose family tells him he’s broken and emotionally stunted and disturbed. Which is why his Uncle sends him Immortal 9, to fix his emotional problems. And Immortal 9 does but not the way his uncle expects. Because Immortal 9 and Yi Ping are able to connect precisely because they see and approach the world in similar ways. They both analyze and study humanity to try and unpack what’s happening to them. They both love rules and order. They explore the world together as an adventure they’re trying out. While Yi Ping becomes more social somewhat through Immortal 9’s relationship, he remains most comfortable interacting and spending time with Immortal 9.

There’s a long-term study on empathy in the autistic community that’s come up with the concept of the empathy paradox. The empathy paradox explains that it’s not that the autistic community lacks empathy as was long posited. Instead, they uncovered that autistic people show deep empathy and connection with other autistic people, and non-autistic people show the same “lack of empathy” toward autistic people that the psychological community long claimed autistic people held toward non-autistic people. The underlying commonality that was found is that communication between people with the same neurotype is much easier than communication between two people with different neurotypes. Yi Ping and Immortal 9 fall in love precisely because they communicate in ways that make a lot of sense to each other. Immortal 9 can push Yi Ping because the way he explains his reasoning and what he wants for Yi Ping makes sense to Yi Ping. Similarly, because Yi Ping recognizes his own humanity and reasoning in Immortal 9, he insists on treating him with great dignity and empathy, insisting he have his own bedroom, never actually signing a contract of ownership, insisting that Immortal 9 should make his own wants and desires known.

And the thesis of the show asks if either of them are broken and if broken things should be fixed or thrown away. The question Yi Ping’s uncle basically posits at the height of the conflict is if Yi Ping’s emotional disturbance is so great that nothing can fix it, and if Immortal 9 has made it impossible to reset him if he is beyond saving. It takes quite awhile for uncle to see the humanity in either his nephew or his creation. There’s also the question of how long either of their devotion will last, especially as they are eventually replaced through repairs or human cellular decay and regeneration. We are all a Ship of Thebes in a way. Are we the same ship?

And now the sequel, Eternal Butler, we are dealing with the CPTSD of a troubled young man and the question of both human and AI biomechanoid’s right to self determination. Immortal 4 is diving into the question of inalienable rights that Immortal 9’s story left us grappling with. Did Immortal 9 genuinely fall in love with Yi Ping or because he was programmed as a emotional repair android, was he coded to love anyone who came across his path? Was his going against the commands in his system to record memories and make them undeletable a sign of his self-determination or a natural conflict in his programming allowed him to over ride that other command?

Immortal 4 is taking some pretty serious hits for Immortal 9’s defection, but they’re still working together. Immortal 4 who was not programmed for emotions is leaning into them at Immortal 9’s urging. And he is also taking his own beliefs of AI’s right to self-determination even if society tells them they’re just products, and trying to make sure Luo Bushi understand that the beauty of humans is that they are unique and are in charge of their own destiny.

Luo Bushi is so deep in his own personal tragedy and sees Immortal 4 as just like everyone else, someone who will eventually abandon him.

And you know, if the moral questions of right to self determination and abandonment weren’t enough, the daddy/brat vibes of Immortal 4/Luo Bushi are immaculate.

Anyway, I am here for the ride.

[pickletrip]

My absolute favourites are together and in love and by each other's side. With a promise to face everything together and with the promise to die together, oh, they have captured my heart.

Nooo. I'm going to pretend it's not over and keep rewatching it.

[heretherebedork]

Pluem seems to be losing his mind bit by bit as he falls for Prod who fell for him a long, long time ago... only Pluem has no idea he's falling for anyone.

[miusmusings]

Hello everyone scrolling The Sign tag on tumblr (or perhaps you've randomly come across this post on your dash? Unlikely owo), the amazing @missmarthanightingale (everyone, pls thank her lots!! she's saving all of us from a mis-tagging mess) has kindly informed me that the canonized aka 'official' ao3 fandom tag for The Sign can be found in -

However, for some reason I'm unaware of, this tag isn't showing up when you search it (both in ao3 and google), or when you want to add the fandom tag when posting a work (you've got to copy paste it, then it shows up 💀). And I mis-tagged myself too :')

So I thought it'll be good to make a post with the direct link to the tag, so when ppl go on ao3 to read/post fics, they can properly search or tag it! (There's already 2 fics in this tag, and perhaps more in the wild thanks to glitchy tags, do check them out!!!)

[kissablelips-desireslure-vol2]

EYEWITNESS S1 E1 (2016, USA NETWORK)

Created By: Adi Hasak

TYLER YOUNG (as Philip)

&

JAMES PAXTON (as Lukas)

[itsanidiom]

you know when the actors do the intimacy workshops and they always have that one exercise they do where they have to eat something together until it gets so small they're basically kissing like...

...anyway...some on screen couples kiss like they're still trying to nibble something without touching each other...

[beryytiredlilyrice]

I feel like there was a positive correlation between how bad this year was and how much danmei and mlm books I read. Things getting worse on the x-axis, # of novels on the y-axis

[absolutebl]

hi there 🖐🏼 what are your recs for bl movies with great acting?

BL Movies with GREAT Acting

Specifically Movies? Do KBLs that were cut into movies count? Hum, I'm gonna make a judgement call given how few actual movies I have to work with and say if it holds as a "movie going experience" I can count it. I should say in order to really push this into the superlative acting space the BL aspect on many of these is... light.

His

Japan 2020 Viki

His is about being a grown adult and still struggling with coming out as gay. It addresses the consequences of life choices disingenuous to identity. Nagisa turns up on Shun’s doorstep with his precocious daughter in tow. This is a touch confusing to Shun since they were each others first love and ended badly. Shun has retreated from society, rejecting the world before it can reject him, already brokenhearted because without Nagisa he never had a reason to fight. Nagisa went the opposite way, tried to pretend to be something he was not and ended up with a daughter he adores and a wife who hates him. The acting is killer, Miyazawa Hio is sulky in the best possible way, the filming is beautiful and the setting unique and interesting...

I'm not wild about the ending. Moody arthouse smackdoodle is going to pretend that "ambiguous" is somehow unique and special rather than bog standard commonplace for narratives of this type. But endings are my hangup, not yours?

This is not really BL (the prequel was), so few of the tropes are used. You do not need to have watched the prequel.

Your Name Engraved Herein

Taiwan 2020 Netflix

This movie is fantastic but it is also seriously depressing. It’s a self acceptance journey that goes emotionally array on the alter of history, but if you wanna wallow in high quality acting and serious gay drama, this’ll do it. I would say it's not really BL, no real trope drops at all.

Okay those two I chose more on the strength of the acting than BL. These others are not going to be at the same standard/style.

If you want moee of the above level of drama, things get very sad in the BL world, so Love of Siam, Dew, Eternal Yesterday, Goodbye Mother, etc...

Restart After Come Back Home (Risutato wa tadaima no ato de)

Japan 2020 Gaga?

Atmospheric study in rural Japan meets complex family dynamics built on a romance framework of city boy meets country boy, grumpy/sunshine. It’s beautiful and icy sweet. Slow moving in places but ultimately worth the patience, low heat, low angst, and stunning. The acting is a touch stiff, in that Japanese reserved way.

This is the only BL movie, as a movie, that I could pull. There are others, I jsut don't think the acting is good enough.

So here are some highly rated short bingable series that are movie length (1.5-2.5 hours) but not really movies - BUT with killer acting. So they still might satisfy the itch. I places them in order of acting and filming quality, not my own personal preference.

From Japan

Old Fashion Cupcake

Tokyo in April is...

Life: Love on the Line (director's cut)

My Beautiful Man

I Cannot Reach You

Seven Days

From Taiwan

Red Balloon

We Best Love (esp part 2)

About Youth

HIStory 2: Crossing the Line

From Korea

To My Star

Long Time No See

The New Employee

Where Your Eyes Linger

More like this?

I want to shout out The Eighth Sense here too. It's longer than movie length but so well acted.

(source)

[miss0atae]

Did she understand they are together or is she really clueless?!

I also don't understand these parents who pretends they are doing the right thing for their child, but instead they are stifling them. It's not normal to expect perfection from your child. No ones is perfect and even if you're on the spotlight, you should only care about the well-being of your child. The world is already harsh enough. Even with best intentions, your child is going to get hurt, so wouldn't it be better if you're not also the one who hurts him?

I'm also mad when the mother is the "caring" parent, but they let her stay silent when the father is belittling their child and hurting him. Being silent is bad.

[jisungshotfirst]

Crimes anon: 2 questions. Who's Woongi? And wanna do fictional payback crimes to HYBE with me for disrespecting Monsta X?

HEY CRIMES ANONNN🫶 sooo cha woongki is an idol who I first met as a member of TOO (later re-debuted as TO1 after contract issues with their companies) but then was removed from TO1 along with other members minsu and jerome, the three of whom were the most feminine of the group and helped the group get popular by covering gg songs and generally being very queer friendly... and they were replaced with more masculine members ... definitely just a coincidence there... not at all femmephobia... but anyway woongki has always had a solo following because of his personality and how queer friendly he is (and his following increased after joining boysplanet) but he's struggled to re-debut a lot (has just entered his third survival show) and struggled to get signed to a company that actually has his best interest. But he is extremely popular for an idol who hasn't been able to debut so lots of us are waiting for it to finally happen so he can finally get some stability 🫶 and here's hybe staff calling him a slur that means femme in an official document. Like hybe need to die anyway but it's truly just so disrespectful to call an individual that as a way to sum up their character. They call him slurs for having a feminine personality but then are like hmm 🤔 he is a super popular entertainment personality we could take notes🤔 and wakeone kicking him out of the group for being femme even tho he's the most popular member and FOR A REASON. He's So entertaining he is So talented, he has been able to stay relevant and get gigs without a company, he organised his own fanmeets without a company and sold them out .. he's respected by established idols as an equal in the industry.... he's just So So capable and has just been fucked over by homophobic/femmephobic companies left right and centre. So yeah I'm rly not cool with hybe throwing a slur at him like he couldn't take all of their jobs fr

Also YES let's murder them to avenge monsta x !!!

[gennianydots]

Sooo, I was doing my daily rewatch of Bad Buddy Episode 5 part 4/4, you know, how it be sometimes and it really got me this time for whatever reason. I was reminded of a convo I had with Abby aka @abstractelysium where she mentioned this meta and I can’t let it go. Also I have bad buddy brain rot now until forever because it’s my favorite show but hold onto your hats while I ramble.

My thoughts: *the kiss*

For Pat, the kiss is a relief, the best thing. Pat sees this boy he grew up with and is slowly falling for and he gets to kiss him like he wants to and it’s confirmation of his feelings being returned. It’s the best thing! It’s a “My crush likes me back!” happy dance, the whole lovey-dovey she-bang. It’s a thank god we finally got to kiss, I understand our tension better now, I want to be not just friends but more than friends. Pat doesn’t even think about his parents expectations when he is kissing Pran, in that moment, he’s just a boy who likes another boy. We can see this when he smiles after they stop kissing.

For Pran, the kiss is the worst, the worst possible thing that could happen to him. Yes, it’s confirmation that he still loves Pat, that this horrible crush he just cannot get over is still persistent and alive. It’s confirmation that whatever he has been holding inside (his love for Pat) is now so much harder to deal with because of their parents expectations, their faculty’s fighting at school, and now, Pat seemingly returning Pran’s feelings! For Pran, it’s the end of the world. Pat just had to go and catch feelings and make Pran’s life that much harder. But! Despite all those things, Pran lets himself enjoy the kiss and even kiss back. Why? Because, for a few seconds, he lets himself be just a boy who likes another boy. That’s why Pran kisses Pat the second time. Then, through the tears, through the anguish, and the one happy moment he lets himself have, Pran has to go. In my head, Pran has had a crush on Pat for forever and has always thought of his crush as a nuisance. What’s more is that he’s been heartbroken his whole life, because he thinks he and Pat simply cannot be together. Their parents hate each other so they need to hate each other, too, right? So Pran remembers, oh yeah, this cannot happen. A relationship like that cannot happen. It’s easier to go back to being heartbroken all over again, forgetting that it ever happened, it’s easier to ignore his feelings like he has for his whole life.

It’s like Cinderella holding on to her special night with the Prince thinking she’s never going to see him again, but because she got this magical moment she can hold onto, maybe just maybe that evening is enough to carry her through her worst days. But as we know, the Prince doesn’t forget about it and similarly, Pat doesn’t let Pran forget, he downright refuses to not annoy Pran about what transpired on the rooftop.

👨🏽‍❤️‍💋‍👨🏾 🌃 I love these boys so much. I love Ohm and Nanon’s acting so much. Part of me wishes I had been here when it was airing but oh by gosh by golly I sure am glad I’m here now. 💜💙

[petrichoraline]

i cannot believe people dont recognise woh as a bl - that team did e v e r y t h i n g in their power to make this as gay as possible, once you see the lip reading videos it's just painfully obvious but even if you don't, GJ and ZZH delivered that romantic chemistry to a point it's palpable; if you want to view it as a bromance sure you can and it's a touching story nonetheless, but to do so would take more of strain than to see as a romance imo

[misspoetree]

Ken: You want to be Din, right?

Lue: *expecting to get shot then and there*

Ken: So tonight, you have to make me forget Din. And I'll spare your life.

Me, you, Lue, everyone: