#bl dvds

[yunwooz]

hongjoong & yunho ♡ summer photobook 2023

[kissablelips-desireslure-vol2]

S IS FOR SEXY (GAY FILM SHORT COMPILATION)

Film: 41 SECONDS (2006)

Directed By: Tobias Martin and Rodney Sewell

Written By: Rodney Sewell

Synopsis: 2 Friends Argue over the phone about girlfriends and who's the better kisser. Then suddenly one sets out to prove his kissing prowess. The other responds in kind.

Starring:

ALEXANDER KAFFL (as First Friend)

&

AMIR ARUL (as Second Friend)

[deus-ex-mona]

unmentionable a h e ms are aligned right behind this shelf btw

[neonganymede]

Getting fucking slapped by my early 2000's hyperfixation was not on my bingo card for today

[mey-rin-is-fabulous]

THE FIRST TWO BEST ALBUMS COME WITH THE SHORTS OHMYGOD!!!!!!

[otomehonyaku]

DIABOLIK LOVERS More,Blood Genteiban DVD Translation ☽ Mini Drama II (Yuma, Shuu, Reiji)

Original title: DIABOLIK LOVERS MORE,BLOOD 限定版 SPECIAL DISK III Mini Drama II Voiced by Suzuki Tatsuhisa (Yuma), Toriumi Kōsuke (Shuu), Konishi Katsuyuki (Reiji) English translation by @otomehonyaku Click here for the audio (thank you @uzi-boozii for providing the audio!)

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Please do not reuse or post my translations elsewhere or translate my work into other languages without my permission.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

I'm on a roll with the drama CDs this week! Here's the next instalment of the More,Blood special disks. The final one in this series, featuring Ruki, Azusa, Kanato, and Ayato, is coming next week ✧ദ്ദി( ˶^ᗜ^˶ )

As always, have fun listening and reading along! (♡ˊ͈ ꒳ ˋ͈)

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

[This scene takes place after Yuma takes Yui’s blood in front of Shuu at the academy. They are now in the school infirmary.]

00:00 Yuma: Tch. Your face’s white as a fuckin’ sheet. You don’t taste good when you’re already half empty. Hurry up ‘n save up some blood so I can suck it.

[Yuma chews on a sugar cube.]

Y: I won’t hand you over to those bastards. Not until I become Adam. Better rest up, Sow.

[Reiji walks in.]

Reiji: Oh? What are you doing here?

Y: None of your business, smart-ass. (1)

R: Heh. It seems that you have taken too much of her blood, rendering her useless. 

Y: If you already know, you’d better fuck off.

R: Did you say something?

Y: Nothin’ in particular. Sow won’t be getting any rest anytime soon, though. We need her blood. More and more of it.

R: Heh.

Y: What’s so funny?

R: That is absurd.

Y: Huh?

R: Greedily devouring her without thinking of the repercussions… Exactly what I expect from mongrels like you.

Y: The fuck d’ya say?

R: Heh. It does not take a lot to upset you. How very predictable.

Y: Fuck off!

02:04 R: Good grief… If you continue taking her blood so carelessly, she will die before long.

Y: What’s wrong ‘bout a vampire suckin’ human blood? Don’t act like we’re not doin’ the same thing y’all did!

R: I would appreciate it if you did not liken yourselves to us. I have merely been treating her with the appropriate courteousness. Verbally abusing me without having the slightest notion of who I am is simply absurd. Foolish, rather.

Y: Hah! Foolish, you say. Right back at ya.

R: How so?

Y: Haha. You don’t know anythin’ either, do you?

R: What do I not know about you?

Y: You think we’re carelessly feeding on her for no reason at all? That’s foolish. We’re taking her blood ‘cause… Ah.

[Yuma catches himself before he divulges the Mukami’s plans.]

R: What is it?

Y: Heh. It’s got nothin’ to do with you.

R: That is regrettable. But even if you would have let your tongue slip, it is not that difficult to guess...

[Yuma grabs Reiji by the collar.]

Y: Why’re you pickin’ a fight with me if you already know?

R: I only know because you were chattering away, oblivious of your surroundings. Well, if lowly scum such as you former humans would be scheming anything… it would have nothing to do with me.

Y: Ha! Then you’re fine with me doin’ as I please with her?

R: Indeed. Because whatever you half-bloods are planning, you could never outmatch us to begin with. Besides, she is nothing but prey to us.

Y: What about you, huh? You OK with me takin’ Sow away from ya?

04:19 R: That is a foolish question. Are you saying she is valuable to us at all?

Y: Well, I’m glad. We’ll do exactly as we please with her, then.

R: However, please remember that when you make a move on the Sakamaki family, we will eliminate you without mercy.

[Reiji leaves.]

Y: Tch. What an indecisive asshole.

[Yuma leaves as well. The scene shifts to Yuma walking down the hallway, where he accidentally stumbles upon Shuu again.]

05:18 Y: Ugh, first that smart-ass and now this NEET (2), too?

S: Wait.

Y: What?

S: Are you really a vampire?

Y: The fuck? You askin’ that out of pride ‘cause you’re a pureblood? Like I said to Four-Eyes, we’re half-blood vampires. Used to be human. That’s got nothin’ to do with you.

S: Since when?

Y: Huh?

S: When did you become vampires? Who turned you?

Y: How’s that matter to you? I don’t get it.

S: Answer me.

Y: Tch. Don’t order me around like you're superior. It’s pissin’ me off. Ah… Who knows? It’s been so long that I forgot.

S: Have you always had that name?

Y: You listenin’ to me? Why do I gotta tell you? I don’t get it.

S: You don’t remember?

Y: What’d you say? What do you know ‘bout my memories?

S: Hm.

Y: And now you’re staying quiet. Tch. It’s not like I got anything to hide, though. I don’t remember my childhood. The only thing I’ve got left from then are my burn scars. I don’t even remember my own name.

S: Burn scars?

Y: Huh? Oh, and there’s a birth mark on my shoulder. But I guess that doesn’t really matter.

S: Ah!

Y: What? Why’re you so surprised? It’s not like it still hurts or itches now, either.

S: Hm…

Y: You seem kinda out of it. You sure you’re alright with us takin’ Sow away from y’all?

S: I guess. What you do with that woman has nothing to do with me.

Y: How’re you and that Four-Eyes so calm about all this? Don’t come cryin’ to me ‘bout it later!

07:42 S: She’s nothing but prey to us. Someone else will come to take her place when she dies.

Y: You really think so? She’s the only...

S: Aren’t you a little too interested in her?

Y: Heh. We have our reasons.

S: I see.

Y: Ha. Famous last words? You selfish fucking aristocrat. Tch. You’re all insane…

[Yuma walks away.]

S: Burn marks… So it is him.

[The scene shifts to Reiji.]

R: They are completely obsessed with her blood… There is no mistaking what they must be scheming. It seems there is an ulterior motive. When I think about it, it can only be him pulling the strings behind all of this… What on Earth is he planning?

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

(1) 蘊蓄（うんちく）: Lit. ‘great/vast knowledge.’ Yuma uses this word to call Reiji 蘊蓄野郎（うんちくやろう）and in this case 野郎 (やろう) can be translated as ‘bastard,’ so—although it doesn’t cover the full extent of the meaning of these words—I translated it as ‘smart-ass’ here for convenience.

(2) NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training): Japanese-English abbreviation for young people who don’t do anything with their lives.

[kissablelips-desireslure-vol2]

BOYS BRIEFS 3: BETWEEN THE BOYS

Short Film: POSTMORTEM (2004)

Written and Directed By: Eldar Rapaport

MURRAY BARTLETT (as Troy)

&

DANIEL DUGAN (as Thomas)

Synopsis: Two former lovers meet after years apart and examine the painful break up. And what they should do now. However, Thomas has a new boyfriend. A fact that doesn't stop a reunion in the bedroom for the exes.

[auseyre]

So the LITA special is a whole hour of Disney(you know if Disney had lgbtq couples and kink) straight-to-DVD sequel frivolous madness about Rain and Sky being angry at their boyfriends for being hot, rich, and in demand?

Featuring the epic return of unhinged Rain(I really love the way his friends lean in hard on the teasing because Rain is all kinds of extra and it’s sweet they enjoy that most of the time.)

And sassy Dom Sky (who I did not see enough of in his story)

Y'all Prepai is so delighted here. You'd think he was some poor little innocent lamb who has been waiting his whole life for someone to guard his virtue from all the hot men and women constantly throwing themselves at him, instead of a big ole' "former" ho(affectionate).

Boys sitting around exchanging stories of getting dicked down in kinky ways.

(This boy has the appropriate level of horniness for a young, hormonal person getting that good-good on the reg and I heartily approve.)

Boys getting dicked down in kinky ways,

and one of the few solely comic relief characters in Thai BL I can stand(I love you Nawin from LoA!). 

I have to compliment them on doing a really good job of showing the difference in the relationship dynamics between the two couples even while the two “forgiveness” scenarios played out very similarly.

Prepai knows he has no clue about relationships, so he assumes that he actually did screw up somehow.

Payu knows that Rain is a pouty flibbertigibbet and, while it’s possible, he did inadvertently do something wrong. It’s more likely Rain is just being Rain. 

Also, it's a perfect demonstration of service sub/top vs bratty sub in action. (I consider Payu and Sky both soft Doms obvs with different kinks and techniques)

Man, This Prepai and Sky I really like. There was an absolutely fun RomCom about 80s-coded player Prepai hooking up for an anonymous one-night stand and then accidentally falling for 90s-coded earnest Sky just waiting for these characters/actors instead of what we got. (I originally wrote this up before I saw the trailer for Love Sea and it was like the BL gods answered my prayers.)

This special was goddamn delightful

Saw a post somewhere questioning if this special was necessary and yes, yes it was. Things that spark joy are always necessary.

Okay and I watched the LITA scenes in The Wedding Planner and I love that you can see how Rain has matured and how the relationship has matured, but that he’s still enough of a little gremlin to want to compete with Sky. 

[bengiyo]

Comfort Films Tag

Rules: List 7 of your comfort movies, then tag 7 people.

Tagged by @callipigio

1 - Shelter (2007)

I often joke around here about how I’ve been watching queer cinema for over half of my life at this point, and it’s easy to recommend this film. This is a coming of age film about a guy who gave up art school to become the primary breadwinner and caregiver for his family. However, when the older brother of his best friend returns to their town to collect himself, our artist and he reconnect and find something special between them. Great use of a young actor in this shores up the caregiving aspects.

I’m probably going to rewatch it now. Because it was produced by Here! TV, you can only legally watch it via a subscription to their platform. I own it on DVD because I fell in love with it and knew I needed to keep it forever.

2 - Big Eden (2000)

Big Eden. Oh, Big Eden. This is the film equivalent of a warm blanket and a tight hug. It’s about an artist named Henry Hart, who is preparing for a big exhibition in New York when he’s called back home to Montana because his uncle has had a stroke. We are greatest with the most queer-friendly town to ever exist as Henry manages his old angst about his straight best friend as the local general store owner also secretly pursues him. It’s absolutely lovely.

3 - The Blues Brothers (1980)

Luna has great taste, because this is one of the best films ever made. What was originally just an SNL bit turns into a fun road film about getting the band back together so that two brothers can raise enough money to pay the back taxes owed by the orphanage they grew up in. We also run over Illinois nazis in this movie and demolish dozens of cop cars. Cab Calloway, James Brown, Carrie Fisher, Chaka Khan, Paul Reubens, and Aretha Franklin are in it. John Candy orders orange whips. This is the kind of film I would watch with my dad any time it was on.

4 - Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)

This is one of the most man movies ever made. I don’t know any woman who wants to sit down and watch this film, but me and boys will spend an entire afternoon on this film in a heartbeat. The sexual tension between Russell Crowe’s and Paul Bettany’s characters goes unremarked on this website in a way that lets you know for sure this hellsite is dominated by femmes, because those two have definitely fucked. At least twice. It’s 1805 and oceans have become battlefields!

5 - Clue (1985)

A movie based on the board game of the same name should not have been this good, but it instead goes on to become a camp masterpiece. Many people will end up remembering Tim Curry for Rocky Horror or even Muppet Treasure Island, but this is still one of his favorite performances for me. This film is batshit and I love it. 

6 - Camp (2003)

Speaking of camp films, let’s talk about one of the best of all time. I know we often talk about the bad singing in Thai BL, but I unironically love all of the musical theater in this film. I regularly listen to this soundtrack, and have been for over 15 years. It’s a film about a bunch of weird theater kids who get to escape the bullying and hellishness of their lives for a few weeks during the summer, where they get to put on a bunch of classic plays. It’s so camp. I love this film because it was difficult for me to find queer films that had happy components with them, and this little movie has a wide array of queer kids in it.

7 - Make The Yuletide Gay (2009)

This was the first queer film I ever watched that had a happy ending that was also a comedy. Prior to this, I think I had watched Beautiful Thing (1996), Edge of Seventeen (1998), Get Real (1998), and Bent (1997). Most of those films ended resolved or sad. Yuletide is a silly little gay film of almost nonstop innuendo about a guy who goes back into the closet when he returns home for Christmas, but hijinks ensue when his boyfriend shows up unexpectedly. It’s an annual watch for me around the holidays, and I usually host people for it. 

Also, Adamo Ruggiero is in it! He played Marco on Degrassi: The Next Generation.

This was fun! I think most folks have been tagged that I know, but I’ll tag @warningtothecurious​. If anyone else does this, please tag me back if you do this! I want to know what films you all return to.

[fencer-x]

SasaMyaa FujiSai Event (afternoon) Report

So! Today I attended the afternoon part of the SasaMyaa "Fujisai" event, a kind of post-Graduation Movie event to look back on it and have fun with the cast, which included the VAs of Sasaki, Miyano, Hirano, Kagiura, and Tashiro and Kuresawa as well. For ease of readers' understanding, I'll use the character names for the VAs throughout this report.

The stage (Yamano Hall, in Yoyogo, Tokyo) was set up to look like an actual festival, with little booths for games around the stage. This will become relevant later XD The audience was overwhelmingly women, but there were a few guys there too (including a few clearly there on their own as fans and not as boyfriends/husbands to their fan-wives).

The event opened with a small video recap of the movie, and then Tashiro and Kuresawa came out to introduce everyone as the MCs for the event. There was a huge monitor over the stage, through which were streamed live feeds of the actors (ostensibly for closeups so that the people in the back could get a good look at the stage, but also probably for future DVD releases).

All the actors introduced themselves, but when it came to Hirano's VA's turn to introduce himself, he shouted "Hirano~!" as a prompt for the audience. Except the audience had no idea what we were supposed to respond with (Taiga???), so he was greeted with DEAD SILENCE. Poor guy XD But then after a brief discussion of why he bombed so hard, Kagi's VA decided to try it too, and "Kagiura~!" was greeted with "Akira~!" from the audience XDDD He then explained that he'd really wanted to do a call-response with a different phrase, so we all let him say, "Hirano-san is so…" and then we responded with, "…nice!" He did this several times throughout the event--Kagi's VA is very clearly the biggest KagiHira shipper out there XD

The next segment was spent discussin favorite scenes from the movies, decided in pairs (SasaMyaaand KagiHira, and then Tashiro and Kuresawa chose by themselves). This was made even better because, in MST3K style, the guys would riff on the scene while it was being played on the monitors lol. Sasaki's VA in particular loved lampooning his own performance. The favorite scenes were as follows:

1) SasaMyaa: the opening scene on the train platform 2) Kuresawa: Miyano and Satoko's conversation in the park 3) Tashiro: Sasaki summoning Miyano to the empty classroom after he got his acceptance letter 4) KagiHira: the very last scene with the smooch in the committee room, but SPECIFICALLY the crumbs of Kagi and Hirano you get in that scene

The next segment was UPCOMING NEWS!

Sanrio collab! I know zilch about these characters except that Hello Kitty is paired with Ogasawara, and that feels Correct. (Dec 18 to Jan 8)

Illustration Exhibition for SasaMyaa/KagiHira + Yurukyun BL from gene pixiv (Dec 23 to Jan 15)

The stage play is going to stream on U-next! It'll be a lot easier for people to see it now, and I'm hoping that means a DVD release is right around the corner. It deserves it!!

Then it was TIME FOR SOME GAMES. The object was for each of the four main cast members to play each of the three games for 30 seconds each, 90 seconds total, and whoever got the most points in each game in total would win. The games were:

1) Super Ball Scoop (scooping up as many little rubber bouncy balls from a bucket of water using a scoop made of tissue and ergo prone to breaking after just a few scoops) 2) Ring Toss (toss rings onto a stake) 3) Shooting (use a little cork gun to knock over targets) [one extra challenge here is that the targets were all color-coded in the characters' colors and you were only supposed to knock over your own character's targets--except Miyano's blue and Kagi's teal are VERY SIMILAR COLORS so the VAs were whining about not being able to tell them apart XDDD]

All in all, these were the final totals after everyone's attempts: Miyano: 33 points Kagiura: 65 points Sasaki: 83 points Hirano: 64 points

A clear win for Sasaki's VA XDDDD

The next corner was a weird goofy 'fortune telling' corner where Tashiro and Kuresawa's VAs pretended to be fortune tellers for the two couples, except the VAs weren't playing their characters, they were just randomly improving being some kind of couple, idk XD the KagiHira segment went totally off the rails and resulted in Kagi and Hirano's VAs rushing each other on stage into a passionate hug, which you can understand the audience was THRILLED by XD

And last but not least for the event was…an original short story live reading. This was brand new content, performed live in person. ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC.

The setting was one month post-graduation (so a bit before current canon, but not too much), and it opened with Miyano and Kuresawa waiting for Tashiro to meet up with them. After Tashiro arrives late from helping an old lady carry some heavy bags home, they recall the previous year's cultural festival (aka their second-year festival, Sasaki and Hirano's third-year festival).

Elsewhere, Sasaki and Hirano are hanging out, having run into each other. Hirano asks what Sasaki is up to, he says he's killing time to meet up with Miyano for a date later--what about Hirano? Hirano is, of course, cagey, but says "something along those lines." They too recall the previous year's cultural festival and how Tashiro had spilled juice on some cardboard boxes, sending Miyano running to them looking for spare cardboard boxes they could use.

Hirano had tried getting in contact with Hanzawa to find out where more boxes were, but he was out of reach, which really ticked Hirano off. Miyano "casually" mentioned reading in a BL manga recently that getting a hug from someone was a great stress-reliever, as it triggered a release of endorphins and made you feel much calmer. Hirano thinks this is bunk and goes off to look for Hanzawa himself.

Left alone, Sasaki brings up all the stuff he's been having to do to prep for this festival…and booooyyy has it really heaped a bunch of stress on him, and does Miyano think that a hug might help? It sure would be nice…

Just as he's about to laugh it off as a joke, like usual, Miyano grudgingly agrees, if Sasaki really is that stressed.

Back in the present, Miyano recalls this moment himself and squeaks.

Hirano gets a text (from presumably Kagi) and parts ways with Sasaki, telling him "Say hi to Miyano for me." When he meets up with Kagi, Kagi asks if he's been waiting long, and Hirano brushes him off, saying, "Nah, I was just talking to Sasa--er, an old classmate of mine." Good for you, Hirano; you've finally learned to avoid triggering Kagi's jealousy unnecessarily. Gold star!

Hirano mentions remembering that previous cultural festival, and Kagi recalls it too--especially the part where he'd heard that hugging someone could help reduce their stress and had taken his chance with Hirano then. When Hirano had been confused (but not pushing him away) about why Kagi was hugging him, Kagi had explained that it was part of their 10-second-touching time, doing the countdown and everything (bruh idk why but it did something to me finally hearing actual mention of that rule in the characters' voices! Felt like it's closer to being animated, even though it's definitely going to take some time…)

The main thing I took from this short story was: KAGI AND HIRANO STILL AREN'T DATING IN FUCKING OCTOBER??!?!?! FUCK ME.

Aaaand that was about it! I can't attend the evening show, but I'm excited to hear what happens there! Hope you enjoyed this little peek!

[nieves-de-sugui]

The Story of Live Action BL in Japan

This is an extra post to accompany the history of BL post I did earlier. 

Japan has had live action BL long before Thailand entered the picture. It was however mostly melancolic stories or manga adaptations, until their own particular boom happened. I make a difference between what I would call LGBTQ+ representation and BL Live Action, because even though they have existed parallely they are fundamentally different in their conception. Here is an interview with the curator of an exhibition that was held in Japan about the history of Japanese Queer Cinema. 

The evolution of Japanese BL Live Action has been very slow, and mostly influenced by manga. It is still not a big market, but it has improved a lot in the most recent years. This is my attempt to put it into phases:

The indie like movies and bad manga adaptations

Let’s start with Boys Love (a movie), shall we? 

It is the year 2006 and up to this point there has been a small boom of gay stories in the 1990′s (the first Tokyo International Lesbian & Gay Film & Video Festival was held in 1992 me thinks this might have sprung the yaoi debates). In the 2000's, we're at the start of a new little boom on BL type movies being made. Many of which would be directly released in DVD, with a constant melancholic and tragic approach to love stories between young men. 

Homosexual love is only attarctive to the mainstream if it’s painful. Like typical japanese imposible loves that are explored because of the passion and innevitable tragedy (it’s a japanese trope of almost any kind of romance movie, up to these days). its the intensity of feelings and the poetry of it all. In Boys Love we see those elements that are now very common in BL manga. Straight men falling in love with beautiful young boys and loving them until their tragic end. The movie was released in theatres and was successful enough to get a sequel. Here is a very good review of the movie, to know more about it.

A number of similar movies (with happier endings) follow through. Then enters the Takumi kun series. Based off one of the most popular yaoi novel (and potentially the first live action novel/manga adaptation of BL), it has all the June tropes: Traumatized feminine Takumi, raped by his older brother when he was young, has developped an abberation to human touch which prevents him from making friends. He goes to a boarding school for rich kids where he shares a dorm room with Gii, the most popular kid on the premises, who has fallen in love with him. And it is through that love that Takumi gets over his illness and heals from his past. It was such a success in the BLsphere that it got 4 more movies. I believe it is the bane of @absolutebl existence. 

After the first Takumi-kun movie, the production of BL type movies, or adaptations of manga gets a boost. We go from no more than 3 movies a year to 8 in 2008, ie:

Kindan no Koi Ai no Kotodama Taiikukan Baby

And so it continues. When a manga is popular enough it either gets a Live Action, a drama CD (voice actors record the manga dialogues) or/and a series of OVAs (Original Video Animation). Because that’s how they do marketing in Japan. I believe most, if not all, of these movies go straight to DVD. It’s a treat for the fans. 

The beginning of the shift

As the manga source starts to evolve, so does the live actions. Japanese society starts being more aware of the LGBT (as the term is used for business startegy purposes). As it’s all about what is going to sell, slowly, a slight neutral realism starts to be felt. Melancoly starts to be replaced with happier moods. 

The first adaptation I genienly enjoyed at the time was Seven Days, 2015. A 2 part movie, adapted from the manga, with a very simple story (still no characters properly defined as gay, but maybe they could count as bi?)

While more LGBTQ+ movies get made, the BL Live Action movies remain in the same vein. Adpating what is popular and sticking to the tropes of the time. For example, in 2017 we get simultaneously:

BL - Hidamari ga Kikoeru. A loud and energetic college student becomes friends with a hearing impared classmate, as he helps him take notes for class. 

LGBT - Close Knit. An 11 year old girl gets tossed aside by her mother and goes to live with her uncle, who is dating a transgender woman. 

The Middle Aged Man Phenomenon

Have you wondered why office settings are so popular in japanese BL? Well, it is mostly Ossan’s Love fault in my opinion.

Besides office romances being a staple of japanese tv dramas, in 2016 two major mainstream actors (Tanaka Kei and Yoshida Kotaro) participate in a small short film about a salaryman who discovers his boss is in love with him. A simple comedy filled with misunderstandings and funny shenanigans. As the response to it was very positive, they decided to turn it into a full flegged series. And so, Ossan’s Love comes out on prime television (TV Asahi) for all to see. It is the first time we see a story like this being shown in a mainstream channel, for all and anyone to see.

A year later after the success of Ossan’s Love we get the wonderful Kinou Nani Tabeta/What Di you Eat Yesterday? (2019), which would not have been possible without Ossan’s Love. There was confidence that there was a market for such a story. Followed by the OL movie: Ossan’s Love: Love or Dead. Which was later followed by a horrible horrible second season that nobody wanted. On this year too, Mood Indigo comes out. A sequel to The Novelist/Pornographer, which would secure it’s popularity. It later got a second season.

We are now in a second boom of interest in queer stories. And the number of movies and tv shows grow. Some of the most known:

Novel adaptation - Fujoshi Ukkari gay ni kokoru LGBT Movies - His Dramas - Life: Senjou no Bokura

Queer voices have been increasingly loud and, in 2015, two municipalities put in place a partnership to acknowledge same sex relationships (not recognized outside of those municipalities unfortunately). 

And so, start mixing the homophobia free idealized stories, with more diverse queer content, with the harsh realities of LGBTQ+ people, and the cinematic interest of the filmmakers/directors. 

The rise of the salaryman and the thai breakthrought

Thanks to the appeal of middle aged men, Japan now knows there’s a market to be had in producing BLs, so the adaptations sprout like mushrooms. The ground is ready to bear fruit, and so enters thailand with the big success of 2gether at the beginning of 2020. 

Japan got to have the movie screened in their theatres. Thailand has broken the Japanese market barrier, as soon as the borders open after the pandemic, fanmeetings are held there one after the other.

And then, we get Cherry Magic in late 2020, which continues to cement that the current japanese BL boom is still going strong. 

The Aftermath

The production of BL shows and movies reaches its peak and we get 26 (shows and movies) in 2022. Movies, specials and second seasons are being made.

From Utsukushii Kare 2021 to Strange 2023. Old and new manga gets an adapation and more queer representation grows in media overall.

The story of LGBT representation in shows in Japan

As an extra, I want to put here a few examples of how queer characters, and stories have entered the mainstream of japanese tv dramas. Many mainstream actors have also taken upon portraying such characters. 

Pretty Proofreader (2016) - featured a gay side character, not relevant to the plot.  My Brother’s Husband (2018) mini series - adaptation of Gengoroh Tagame’s manga about a man overcoming his homophobia through getting to know his bother’s husband Life As A Girl (2018) mini series - the life of a lesbian trans woman  Ie Uru Onna S2 (2019) - one episode features different types of LGBT people who want to buy a house and the difficulties they face. Also had some type of side gay stoyline (a little queerbaity)? Ore no Sukato, doko Itta? (2019) - a gay man who dresses as a woman becomes a teacher at a highschool and helps with his is student’s problems.

Special mention to Residential Complex (2018). 

A drama that featured 4 families living in the same residential unit, each with their own fundamental problems. The father in the traditional japanese family was unemployed, the man engaged to a younger second wife who wanted no children ends up having to take care of his son from his previous marriage, the young newlyweds that are eager to have kids can’t concieve and the single architect is actually living with his boyfriend. It was a show that had worked with an LGBT organization to make a faithful protrayal of LGBT realities. 

Final Thoughts

Here is a list of all Japanese BL and Queer media, Japanese BL list. I recommend to check it out to see the variety of adaptations being made today. It is intersting to see the differences in plot in the shows that are adapting current manga (Our Dining Table) and those adapting older manga (Candy Color Paradox). There is also a lot of queer movies and shows worth checking out. Here are my recommendations:

Kamisama no Ekohiiki (series)

Both Me and Him are the Grooms (movie)

I think it is great that Japan is intergrating queer stories and voices to their BLs, as well as adapting more content to the screen. It is a very exciting moment to be living through, but it still feels like it might go away just as fast as it came. Japan is a very conservative country, that embraces change so very slowly. Queer vocies are making noise, but they have yet to manage to make their government listen. Japan is very setback in this sense.

I do no think Japan will be able to have a BL market similar to Thailand for its live action adaptations any time soon. They stick to what they know, which sometimes can be very good and others, bad.

I do hope for BL to keep on doing what it does best for society: subtly normalizing queer lives so that conservative people start welcoming the idea that they're just regular people (who deserve rights, come on Japan). 

Hopefully we’re headed there.  

[waitmyturtles]

Turtles Catches Up With Old GMMTV: Dark Blue Kiss and Our Skyy x Kiss Me Again Edition

[What’s going on here? After joining Tumblr and discovering Thai BLs through KinnPorsche in 2022, I began watching GMMTV’s new offerings -- and realized that I had a lot of history to catch up on, to appreciate the more recent works that I was delving into. From tropes to BL frameworks, what we’re watching now hails from somewhere, and I’m learning about Thai BL's history through what I’m calling the Old GMMTV Challenge (OGMMTVC). Starting with recommendations from @absolutebl on their post regarding how GMMTV is correcting for its mistakes with its shows today, I’ve made an expansive list to get me through a condensed history of essential/classic/significant Thai BLs produced by GMMTV and many other BL studios. My watchlist, pasted below, lists what I’ve watched and what’s upcoming, along with the reviews I’ve written so far. Today, I’ll cover Dark Blue Kiss and Our Skyy x Kiss Me Again, and the start of the creation of Aof Noppharnach’s universe of singular BL tropes and themes.]

Let me say this: 2019 was an insane year for BLs, right? To have He’s Coming To Me, Dark Blue Kiss, AND TharnType coming out in the same year seems almost overwhelming to me (even though I know that HCTM was mostly buried for years). 

My very good luck over the last three (THREE!) weeks has been in just enjoying an INDULGENCE of past and current work by Aof Noppharnach. Studying his work is a major goal of this Old GMMTV Challenge project, as I’ve been seriously destroyed, personally, by the layers and implications of his work as an Asian director and screenwriter, with me as an Asian-American viewer watching his shows that I can relate to on basically almost every level of my existence, while not being queer. 

But, hilariously: an INITIAL goal of this project -- I cannot believe I’m saying this now that I’ve already gone through so many shows -- was that, before deciding to get to know Thai BLs historically, I had long intended to watch Dark Blue Kiss as a means of getting to know Tay and New. BECAUSE (cough cough): I am an absolute digging, sniffling, barking golden retriever for Cherry Magic. I LIVE FOR CHERRY MAGIC. I stan so stupid hard for Machida Keita and Akaso Eiji. I own their dumb mugs! I have DVDs, magazines, so much CM shit in my house. LIKE, I LIVE FOR THAT SHOW AND LOVE IT SO MUCH. 

So Tay as Kurosawa and New as Adachi? I needed to know who these dudes were before I watched them in Cherry Magic. (I’m totally giggling about this now.)

OBVIOUSLY, I’ve gotten MUCH WISER, much more HIP to the SCENE, if y’all will, and I understand much better how important Tay and New are as an OG GMMTV ship. And for them to appear in Dark Blue Kiss, after originating PeteKao in Kiss and Kiss Me Again -- I understand the meaning and importance of that in 2019, now, through my watchlist project.

There are a few themes that come to mind as I think about how I’ll review this show:

1) Watching the birth of the singular BL tropes that P’Aof created in Dark Blue Kiss -- t-shirts, picture boards, etc., 2) How he balances and integrates Big Themes in his storytelling, and 3) How he chooses particular actors to buck certain assumptions in Thai society regarding appearance.

I’ve now seen almost all of P’Aof’s major works, save for Still 2gether. And I’ve watched these out of order, although I have chronological rewatches of A Tale of Thousand Stars and Bad Buddy (and their respective Our Skyy 2 episodes) coming up on the watchlist.

So I couldn’t help but see A LOT of proto-BBS in Dark Blue Kiss, which I really enjoyed seeing, as a slavish BBS girlie. I loved seeing P’Aof’s tropes in historical form. The picture posterboard above Pete’s bed. Mork’s and Sun’s matching t-shirts. The birth of the engineering trope in P’Aof’s own oeuvre, with the first appearance of the architecture red shirt on Rain. Finger promises in HCTM and DBK becoming fist bumps in BBS. I love teasing these out and seeing what P’Aof was DOING by creating his OWN platter of tropes that he’d come to leverage and rely on in his future works -- all for creating a lovely sense of universe and intimacy among his beloved couples. (Pat wearing the forest ranger shirt in Our Skyy 2... I’m still laughing and shaking my head at that.)

I understand what P’Aof was doing by teasing out the PeteKao story and kind of slipping it away from the Kiss franchise -- not only do I understand it, I love the subversion of it. And I love that, while he was doing that, he was creating his OWN flavor of BL, complete with HIS own tropes and themes, while leveraging an already-existing property, to draw attention to the show vis à vis Kiss and TayNew. I think, by playing around with the bones of something that already existed, that he could begin to take risks to create an oeuvre that we know, now, in 2023, is utterly unique, and in my opinion, brilliant and important. (And I think it’s important to note this in particular because of how buried He’s Coming To Me was, and I think Dark Blue Kiss was an important move for P’Aof to make post-HCTM for GMMTV and for his career.)

(Tangentially, I think He’s Coming To Me and Moonlight Chicken stand alone as defiers of the BL genre, only minimally influenced by the stereotypical BL tropes, while featuring ONLY P’Aof’s own style of BL in their foundations. And as I’ve said previously -- I believe HCTM was way ahead of its time in 2019. I’ll talk a little more about this in my TharnType review later this week.)

But not only was P’Aof creating his own flavor of BL in DBK, as INFLUENCED by previous BL tropes, I also see that he was beginning to really burst out in establishing his own language of analysis of the macrosystemic issues that face the queer community -- issues that we see repeated and analyzed in his future works, particularly in ATOTS and BBS. In DBK, the major issues he tackles are socioeconomic inequality and internalized homophobia, and how these issues play out, internally and externally, among couples, their families, and their social worlds. 

These two issues crash headlong in the form of Non (played by the cutest-wutest AJ, who was SO! EVIL! but I wub him). Kao has to teach Non -- he must, because Kao needs the money to support his family, and his mom’s job would be at risk if she kept Kao, her son, from teaching her director’s son in Non.

Pete hates Non. Pete KNOWS Non is up to no good, and is after Pete’s man. Pete’s jealous of Non.

The simple equation here is: if Pete and Kao were out, then Pete wouldn’t have to feel jealous, because Kao could tell Non that Kao has a boyfriend. Pete is out to his dad. (BTW: PETE’S DAD IS THE BEST DAD IN BL, BAR NONE. PETE’S DAD NEEDS TO DAP UP WITH THUN’S MOM IN HCTM. P’Aof writes SUCH amazing parents. Gaipa’s mom FTW also.) 

I want to make quick reference to a meditation I wrote last week on pain and suffering in Asian BLs that notes this phenomenon -- what pain could have been either avoided or mitigated if a couple is able to be out. I’m of the belief that in Our Skyy 2 x Bad Buddy x A Tale of Thousand Stars, that Pat and Pran could have possibly avoided their tiff before the trip to Pha Pun Dao if they had been out. If they had been out -- Pat would not have had to fib about their relationship to his engineering bros, and Pran would not have overheard Pat saying that Pran always needed Pat. They could have avoided the confusion all together.  

Pete and Kao fall into the exact same boat -- this is where P’Aof births a concept that will repeat itself in OS2 x BBS. Pete wants Kao to be out to Kao’s mother, so that they can be out together, to everyone. And: Pete has financial stability and security.

Pete’s boxes are checked. Kao has much more tangled issues. Kao THINKS his mom will not be happy to find out her son is gay. AND: HE’S the breadwinner. (I actually thought this was a touch confusing in the show, as Kao’s mom is clearly a teacher -- but relies on Kao as if he’s the breadwinner.) In any case, it’s clear that Kao adopts the role as the male head of the family, while still depending on his mother for emotional fulfillment. 

In other words: Kao has a much more TRADITIONAL background to contend with. To me, that’s à la Pat, à la Uncle Jim, à la Phupha, even à la Ming. All of these men have their backgrounds, their roles, all laid out for them by family and society, through culture and expectation. 

That’s a lot for Kao to break from. Because Pete has confidence through the reality that his life’s needs are squared away, Pete HAS the emotional room and ability to push Kao to be out. And I think that’s why it takes Kao so long in the show to move forward and to meet Pete where Pete was at. 

Here’s my criticism of DBK. I think DBK is a lighter show than P’Aof’s other works (again, without having seen Still 2gether). I think that’s because P’Aof knew that he still had to hew to some of what Kiss and Kiss Me Again had given him by way of cinematography (a lighter and fluffier filmmaking style than his usual serious lighting and camera work) and by tone (much more soapy and a touch more dramatic than I’m used to seeing in his oeuvre). (Oh, but, but: THAT OPENING THEME, YES, FRIENDS, WAS A BANGER. SHEEEEET. THAT THEME SONG! THOSE CURTAINS! THE WIND! THE STARES. KAO’S TEAR. So good!)

And I’m not entirely sure that P’Aof was able to get as DEEP, internally, with Kao as maybe he could have if he himself had been able to write Kao from Kao’s very existent start in fiction. P’Aof was taking this already-established character through an emotional reckoning that still needed to stick with a kind of Kao that had been born in the previous Kiss versions.

It’s a minor quibble, but I think the Non storyline ran for too long. I think it could have wrapped up much more quickly. I think we got a lot more time with Sun and Mork than I could have expected because P’Aof kind of drew out Non to keep the 12-episode bundle together.

Again, minor criticism. However, I *did* happen to appreciate how much TIME Pete and Kao spent fighting towards the end of series. That lengthy disagreement allowed Kao to really begin processing his own internal change to recognize his love for Pete, and to play around with what he’d be willing to risk by way of his family to be with Pete. It allowed Kao to consider that he NEEDED to demonstrate personal responsibility to Pete, and even to his family. I really thought that was in-depth and brilliant, and despite minor quibbles about New’s acting, I thought New carried it very well.

What’s amazing to me, though, is that Kao CLEARLY MISSED that his mom TOTALLY KNEW that he was gay, ha. Kao was SO CONSUMED with concern for what his mother WOULD THINK, that he didn’t see -- with his own two eyes! with Pete at the dinner table! -- that his mom CLEARLY KNEW. Kao’s mom side-eyed that basically from the start of the series, honey.

Despite that, what took my heart out a number of times in this show is that P’Aof showed empathy to Kao, and maybe even to the viewers that may have missed Kao’s mom’s silent acknowledgement before Kao’s coming out at the end. P’Aof was telling all of us this in the end quotes at the end of his episodes -- another unique P’Aof trope that was birthed in HCTM, and that I absolutely loved seeing in DBK and ATOTS.

(As a mom, that first slide makes me LOL so much, because it’s so true.)

Even while I felt that some DBK episodes were a little too long, a little too drawn out, these end quotes brought me back to what P’Aof was working on achieving in regards to revelation: that our human existence is so much more enriched if we’re able to transcend our worldly bullshit, even a little bit.

We see that in Kao with his mom. We see that in PETE, with his willingness to calm the eff down, bruv, and focus on his studies, and focus on managing his anger, for the sake of Kao, and for the sake of his own future. We see that in Sun, as he reorganizes himself and his insecurities to become an even better barista (I LOVE COFFEE IN BLs). We see that in Mork, as he ALSO demonstrates a willingness to calm the eff down, to promise to stop fighting to Sun, and to work on his own internalized homophobia to meet Sun as a partner. 

(I’m not going to spend too much time on Sun and Mork, but I absolutely LOVED PODD AND GAWIN, and I REALLY liked Podd’s portrayal of Sun’s very strong forwardness in his attraction to Mork. I loved his CONFIDENCE. I thought it was sexy, it was rooted in queer love and attraction, and I thought it struck a different and OPEN tone of movement in relationship-building that I haven’t seen in the previous watchlist BLs. Sun reminded me a bit of our fabulous guys in Make It Right -- that kind of almost earnestly honest openness.)

I want to note, in conversations with the wonderful @lurkingshan​, that we realized that in HCTM and DBK, we saw the start of P’Aof making a few other subversive choices in his shows. I wish I were more of an expert on the impact of colorism in Thai media and society, but I can extrapolate enough as an Indian (unfortunately). I couldn’t even SEE that Tay was a shade or two darker than New, but so be it. @lurkingshan​ noted for me (thank you, Shan!) that it was a subversive choice for P’Aof to center Pete’s story of change, from a bruiser to a carer, within a character that was slightly more melanated than his co-lead. I note that P’Aof shows no concern over casting other melanated actors -- Ohm Pawat and Earth Pirapat, multiple times -- in major lead roles with lighter-skinned co-leads. I love these choices and that he’s pushing boundaries across fiction and non-fiction. (And that P’Aof focuses on the quality of the ACTING of these dudes, as well as their looks -- that they should not be overlooked for being melanated.)

Like I said earlier, DBK was a lighter show than others of his that I watched. It was the first show of his that I watched that had a pre-established universe in the Kiss series. But I still fell in love with it -- I couldn’t help myself. I mean, come awn, Tay Tawan. Holy noodles. 

Could Pete and Kao have had a touch more feral chemistry, à la Pat and Pran and Jim and Wen? Sure, but I’m not complaining. I think, as compared to the PeteKao Kiss BL cuts, that P’Aof got a TREMENDOUS amount more out of Tay and New (especially Tay -- Tay’s Pete in DBK and his process of change was FABULOUS).

And I noted one last connection from Kiss/DBK to BBS, as I closed out my watch with the non-P’Aof Kiss Me Again edition of Our Skyy. I noted that Pete and Kao planted a tree together. 

And then I remembered that P’Aof had beloved Pat and Pran do just the same in Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS.

Pete and Kao, Pat and Pran, plant a plant together that will grow and grow. The plant lives out in the open, growing tall, towards the sun.

It gives me the chills, a warm and fuzzy happiness, to see these patterns being born, and P’Aof paying attention to them (even if the plant idea wasn’t his originally) -- because these artistic, dramatic tropes end up communicating so much to me about the depth of love that P’Aof is able to render, through his and our beloved couples, in his utterly fabulous shows.

[Welp -- if you’ve been reading my late-night liveblogs, you’ll know that my brain has been IMPALED by TharnType. I finished the series this past weekend in the heat of angst, and I’ll do the rare thing of releasing two reviews in one week -- I’m planning right now to drop the TharnType review on Thursday. If you’re a TT fan, then trigger warning: I have lots of things to say about this show that are the most critical I’ve ever written about any drama. 

On another, MUCH HAPPIER note, after a FABULOUS conversation with the WONDERFUL @so-much-yet-to-learn​, I’ve added GAP the Series to this list. With Saint investing in it, after his whole deal with the PerthSaint and ZeeSaint mishaps, I’m just really impressed that an important figure in the BL world has taken active steps to invest directly in more directly queer content. I think GAP is a must on this watchlist to understand the direction that Thai QL in general is going -- especially with 23.5 on the way later this year. (EEEEEEE!)

With that, here’s the latest version of the list. As ever, I’ll take comments, recs, etc.!

1) Love Sick and Love Sick 2 (2014 and 2015) (review here) 2) Make It Right (2016) (review here) 3) SOTUS (2016-2017) (review here) 4) Make It Right 2 (2017) (review here) 5) Together With Me (2017) (review here) 6) SOTUS S/Our Skyy x SOTUS (2017-2018) (review here) 7) Love By Chance (2018) (review here) 8) Kiss Me Again: PeteKao cuts (2018) (no review) 9) He’s Coming To Me (2019) (review here) 10) Dark Blue Kiss (2019) and Our Skyy x Kiss Me Again (2018)  11) TharnType (2019) (review coming) 12) Senior Secret Love: Puppy Honey (BL cuts) (2016 and 2017) (I’m watching this out of order just to get familiar with OffGun before Theory of Love -- will likely not review) (watching) 13) Theory of Love (2019) 14) Dew the Movie (2019) (not an official part of the OGMMTVC watchlist, but I want to watch this in chronological order with everything else) 15) Until We Meet Again (2019-2020) 16) 2gether (2020) 17) Still 2gether (2020) 18) I Told Sunset About You (2020) 19) Manner of Death (2020-2021) (not a true BL, but a MaxTul queer/gay romance set within a genre-based show that likely influenced Not Me and KinnPorsche) 20) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) (review here) 21) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) OGMMTVC Fastest Rewatch Known To Humankind For The Sake Of Rewatching Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS 22) Lovely Writer (2021) 23) I Promised You the Moon (2021) 24) Not Me (2021-2022) 25) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) (thesis here) 26) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) and Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS (2023) OGMMTVC Rewatch 27) Secret Crush On You (2022) [watching for Cheewin’s trajectory of studying queer joy from Make It Right (high school), to SCOY (college), to Bed Friend (working adults)] 28) KinnPorsche (2022) (tag here) 29) The Eclipse (2022) (tag here) 30) GAP the Series (2022-2023) (Thailand’s first GL) 31) My School President (2022-2023) and Our Skyy 2 x My School President (2023) 32) Moonlight Chicken (2023) (tag here) 33) Bed Friend (2023) (tag here) (Cheewin’s latest show, depicting a queer joy journey among working adults)]

[kissablelips-desireslure-vol2]

COME UNDONE (2000)

Directed By: Sébastien Lifshitz

Written By: Stéphane Bouquet & Sébastien Lifshitz

JÉRÉMIE ELKAÏM (as Matthieu)

&

STÉPHANE RIDEAU (as Cédric)

Synopsis: A story of love. Two young French boys start a passionate sexual relationship that boils over and threatens to destroy both of their lives. Shy Matthieu is 18 years old, on summer vacation in the south of France. While on the beach he sees gorgeous Cedric checking him out. They meet and fall in love.

Short Review: Two heterosexual actors bringing this story to audiences beautifully. Not a perfect relationship in fact it doesn't make it to the end of the movie. Challenges arise and feelings change. Or perhaps not change but shift due to outside sources (Matthieu's high maintenance family. And Cédric's hotheadedness. Regardless this film depicts in quite graphic detail a sexual relationship. Nudity (full frontal) is here yet many of these scenes are dark. But viewable. All in all a pretty good film.

[rikeijo]

Today's translation #526

Yuri!!! on Life official guidebook, Toshiharu Mizutani (Art Director) interview

Part 3.

-- For sure, there is a lot of small things in the designs.

M: When I look at just the line arts, I always think that they are drawn in a very loose way, and a lot of those small things are skillfully drawn in a simplified way/omitted. It's something that only somebody with a lot of practice can do. Even newcomers can draw precisely, if they look at a drawing and try to copy it, but the most important thing is not to draw something that is not necessary. If you have to later erase something that you drew, then you give yourself twice the amount of work, but only people with a lot of skill can simply not draw too much to begin with.

-- Then it must have been a good opportunity to learn for the younger staff members, I'd guess?

M: They were all very desperate [to get the job done] and working while on the brink of death.

-- The ice in the skating scenes is very realistic, too. Was it a request from the Director?

M: Yeah. Since the first PV. Even I have watched some figure skating on DVD, so it was something that was on my mind, too. In case of ice shows, the lights are very elaborate, and your eyes are really drawn to the ice, cut with blades of skaters' shoes. Because of how it sparkles. I was wondering if it would be possible to try to achieve this effect, but I thought that if I touched this subject, we all were going to suffer, so I kept quiet. But then I decided that I want to have those cuts in the ice, after all. All were drawn on the same layer, but then split into multiple layers. We put at least three such layers on the surface of the ice.

[Notes: Long time no rant, so...

((Just in case, newer readers may not be aware, that I'm a "fujo-hater" 😂 But fret not, I'm not against seeing relationship between Yuuri and Victor as romantic or against people reading BL, but I'm very much against fujos, who as it was in the case of YoI, try to "teach"/press the creators/other staff members to make the canon bend to their doujinshi tropes.))

The talk about staff members on the brink of death reminded me about that huge controversy about MAPPA that happened last year 💀 It's not a secret that Sayo was overworking animators during YoI and there are still screenshots of animators calling her names on twitter and say condolences to each other, bc of being involved with YoI. So, YoI fandom now hating MAPPA, bc "bad MAPPA, bad working conditions, poor animators...", while demanding that they should stop producing shonens, bc they should make YoI instead is well... an example of how spending time in an echo chamber and just following the crowd can make you a huge hypocrite.

It should also be said that it's not that those shonens are "just for boys" or anything like that if we talk about this topic, btw. GoYuu from JJK (Gojo x Yuuji) is so popular with fujos that it has now more views in total on pixiv than VicYuu, and gets more views in 10-30 min than VicYuu gets in 24 hours (a huge credit for that should ofc go to YoI's IP holders, as they've been trying to starve the fandom to death since 2018, basically...) It's really ironic that it's YoI fans who are so much against MAPPA making those popular shonens, bc so many Jp VicYuu fujos moved to GoYuu (it's basically the same trope "the most awesome, strong and cool man in the world the seme" x "fujoshi avatar the main character in the center of the universe the uke") - one of the reasons, why Jp fans don't attack MAPPA - they very much enjoy those shonens. (Another is that they can read and it's very easy to check who owns the IP.)

To sum up, as always, it's very unfair for YoI fans to call Otsuka CEO the greedy homophobic liar, while absolutely refusing to see the bigger picture.]

[bengiyo]

Absolute Zero Ep 1 Stray Thoughts

I’ve been waiting for this for so long. I have listened to the moody playlists and gotten into my headspace for this. Time for Sad Gay Boy hours!!

2008? Peak sad boy era for me!

Incredible selection of films in this rental store. Railway Man, Star Trek: First Contact, The Patriot, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and LOVE OF SIAM.

We just started and our boy is already sad. We are so fucking back.

“If math doesn’t define zero, then I’ll be the answer.”

He rented Kill Bill and two other films. He is definitely a boy.

Looks like one of our future people is already here.

A grave for his parents? Is he Catholic? I’m home.

You can’t be in a Studio Wabi Sabi joint if you can’t cry.

I’m gonna need a Thai-speaking fan (maybe @lurkingteapot or @recentadultburnout) to give insight about the book he’s reading at 8:00

I’m so into the mysterious vibes of this foreboding conversation.

Meeting a boy because of selected seats at a movie theater because you both went alone? Honestly, the dream.

Boy Sompob singing over two boys having a meet cute? Now this is BL.

They’re here to see the same romcom again!!

New Siwaj has a type. These boys kinda resemble Tee and Fuse.

The boys have hair on their legs.

Suansoon understands the fundamentally communal nature of watching a film in a theater of other people even if you go alone. I am already in love.

Ongsa is definitely flirting, but now why is he crying?

Ongsa is classy for bringing a blanket to sit on for the outdoor film.

THEY ARE WATCHING THE LOVE OF SIAM AT THIS OUTDOOR THEATER!!!

Now they’re bonding over sad wishes to a meteor. Incredible.

I can’t believe the cut to the future at “Will you be my boyfriend?”

Welcome back, Nat!!!

OMG the meteor shower yes was so fucking cute I’m going to melt.

These two grew up to have a big TV that doesn’t look sloppy on the wall. I’m so proud of them.

Aw, the video store owner passed away, and they’re asked to take all the DVDs.

They have a projector in their bedroom because of course they do. Obsessed with them.

Oh, and there’s the tragedy.

Next week, the time travel perspective begins.

Friends, mutuals, and beloved BL fans, abandon all hope of me being normal about this show. We have sad gay cinephiles who found each other at a movie theater and then stayed together for ten years. If you write about this show or make anything please tag me. I want to discuss every aspect of this show. This was gorgeous and felt so intentional.

[olderthannetfic]

shock media anecdote: occasionally we were allowed to bring in a dvd of choice from home to watch with the whole class, and someone had the brilliant idea to put on final destination 3 as a good film to show a class of 6th grade catholic school students. it was probably as horrific as you'd expect lol. i never looked up from my fingers all that much but the screams of terror, and the tanning bed scene....

i never saw the appeal of horror as a kid because most of my exposure was gory stuff my classmates wanted to watch behind their parents' backs, and most of it was also full of sex and nudity that it confused me as an ace kid not yet figuring out why it never interested me as much (until i worked my way up to reading bl that is)

like the infamy of human centipede itself was enough for me to not touch it, but the barebones idea of it that ppl passed around to gross others out? sounded really interesting to me. it's like knowing what to expect rather than having it be a heart attack on the screen lol. i never liked jumpscares and bloody stuff but i enjoy seeing how other ppl react and form their interpretations of them!

--