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virtualtadpole · 3 months ago

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A BL viewer's guide to Thai school uniforms

(This is an older one, originally posted at Reddit in 2022, but it should still be accurate. Hope you'll find it useful, as uniforms in Thai shows often provide context that international viewers might not recognize.)

To begin, here's a summary of the Thai school system. There are twelve years of basic education (after kindergarten): six years of primary school (prathom or P.1-6), and six years of secondary school (mathayom or M.1-6), the latter of which is divided into three lower and three upper years. The age range roughly corresponds to the US system, so the years P.1-6 will often be translated as grades 1-6 and M.1-6 as grades 7-12. Most stories set in school will take place during the upper secondary years, which is often translated as high school (though this is rather approximate as it spans three years rather than four). Students typically enter M.4 aged 15 going on 16, and graduate at the age of 18 (or nearing it).

School uniforms are almost universally compulsory, used by all but a few alternative schools (university will be discussed further below). They mostly follow a very distinctive form, which has barely changed since the end of World War II, as there's a default format that's mandated by law and followed by most schools (though schools may elect to specify their own style of uniform). There are official industrial standards that govern the material, thread count, etc. of student uniforms that can be sold, and an entire industry is built around them.

For boys, the (default style) uniform is mostly the same across all levels, and consists of a white short-sleeved button-up shirt, shorts (in either black, royal blue, navy, or khaki), a belt (brown or black), socks and shoes (brown with khaki shorts, white socks and black shoes otherwise). The shirt will have the letters of the school's abbreviated name embroidered at the right chest, in red for private schools, and navy for government schools. It's common for schools to also require student IDs or names be included likewise. In many schools, the upper-secondary uniform will also include the school insignia/logo as a metal badge pinned above the school's initials, or also embroidered.

The colours of the shorts typically reflect the school's status. Private schools will normally use blue or (less often) black, while government schools will use black or (less often) khaki, with very few exceptions. Navy is quite rare, mostly used by certain schools with historical royal connections. This colour-coding serves as a rather convenient tool for series creators to convey the social background of the characters. Blue shorts signify that they go to a private, presumably expensive school. Black is the default that tells the viewer that it's a regular, average school. Khaki shorts used to be the default long ago but have declined in use, and are now mostly seen as belonging to rural or temple schools (though there are also some famous schools that use them). You'll rarely see them in TV or film, unless the creators are purposely saying that the setting is rural, poor, or retro.

Let's look at some examples.

The school uniform in Bad Buddy is pretty much the bare minimum, with just the school's abbreviated name and no pin or ID. With black shorts and navy lettering, it's clearly meant to be a regular government school (though TBH the filming location doesn't really fit). The dot on the collar is a symbol used by some schools to indicate the year the student is in, based on the number of dots. One dot would mean they're in the first year of either lower or upper secondary, which might be differentiated based on colour, shape, or being on the left or right side. Here, Pran is clearly not 12/13 years old, so the year must be M.4.

In The Yearbook, the school uniform also includes the students' ID in Thai numerals below the school name, also quite a common thing. The navy lettering and the black shorts indicate that it's a government school, and the filming location and the teacher wearing the civil service uniform also hint that it's a rather provincial setting. The haircuts of the characters are also more realistic, as schools usually require a short tapered cut for boys.

The characters in 'Cause You're My Boy also attend a government school, in line with the working-class background. Mork is in upper-secondary, so his uniform as the school symbol embroidered above the lettering, while Gord and Morn's, who are in lower-secondary, don't.

Another example of a government school uniform with black shorts is found in Dew. This school also has the student's name embroidered over the shirt pocket. Dew's oversized shirt and long baggy shorts reflect the fashion trends of 1996, when this part of the story is set.

On the other hand, Hormones follows middle-/upper-middle- class kids at a private school. The uniform was directly copied from that of Assumption College Thonburi (ACT), where the series was filmed (so that its students could blend in as extras). As a private school, the lettering is in red, and the student IDs are in Hindu-Arabic numerals. As in the above example, the stars on the collar indicate the student's year (here, dots are used for lower-secondary and stars for upper). Also note the belt buckle with the school logo, which tends to be seen with fancier schools.

The uniforms in Love Sick are also copied from real life, though this was done not for production convenience, but to pay tribute to the source novel, which was inspired by student life at Assumption College (AC), one of the country's oldest boys' schools (AC and ACT both belong to a network of schools operated by the Catholic Church, hence their names). The novel's full title, Love Sick: The Chaotic Lives of Blue Shorts Guys, reflects its focus on the inside world of the school, of which it paints a semi-imaginary image that makes multiple references to actual teachers, locations and customs, stopping short only of referring to the school by name. This is toned down in the series, though the coat of arms and uniform are nearly direct copies of AC's, minus the belt buckle (which was a relatively recent addition and not part of the uniform when the novel was being written).

Notice how Noh's school badge is pinned on the corner of the shirt pocket just like baby Peak and Ohm's real-life AC uniform, which is unique to the school. (Beam is a junior of Peak and Ohm's by a year, and was probably in M.3 when the photo was taken, so didn't wear a badge.) The school also requires leather shoes, unlike most schools which allow either leather or canvas shoes (in which case almost everyone will wear canvas shoes).

As mentioned in my previous post, the current trend of students having their school uniform shorts modified to be very short probably originated with AC students, and spread more widely from the late 2000s. Naturally, the style is shown in Love Sick, though this is also generally well represented in BL media.

Make It Right, by the creators of Love Sick, used the same style for its student uniform, except the shoes (though pinning the badge at the shirt pocket didn't really make sense now that it wasn't meant to refer AC's real-life uniqueness). It's also a bit strange seeing student IDs running into the 60000s, as even the oldest real-life schools don't have numbers that high.

The use of blue-shorts school uniforms to signify wealthy characters/environments is a pretty common trope in BL (and also Thai series more generally). It's also seen in 7 Project, in a more typical appearance with the pin in the usual location, and the student's name over the shirt pocket.

In My Gear and Your Gown, the uniform (quite unusually for private schools) doesn't have any lettering other than the school's initials. It's most likely a cost-saving measure by the costume department, sacrificing a bit of realism to avoid the need to create individualized outfits for every character (though it does use leather shoes).

The uniform in My Dear Loser: Edge of 17 is rather confusing. It's clearly meant to be a private school, given the blue shorts, but this is contradicted by the navy lettering on the shirt. Looks like a mistake, unless it was a deliberate choice to introduce some sort of ambiguity (though this is unlikely, and even most Thai viewers probably won't notice anyway).

In Only Boo!, Moo originally goes to a private school with a blue-shorts uniform, but is sent away as punishment for neglecting his studies. His new uniform, with khaki shorts, emphasizes the provincial nature of the school.

Often, different-coloured uniforms will be used to contrast the characters' backgrounds. This goes back to The Love of Siam, where the blue shorts and leather shoes of Mew's school uniform reinforce its presentation as a Catholic school (and closely echoes AC, which also served as the school's filming location), while Tong's black-shorts uniform may have been a reference to Bangkok Christian College, a nearby school popularly seen as a rival of AC's. BCC is one of the better known private schools to use a uniform with black shorts, and The Love of Siam is one of the less common examples of this. (Note again the school badge, which isn't worn by some of the members of Mew's band, indicating that they're in lower-secondary.)

The colour contrast is also used in Love's Coming, though it doesn't really convey any significant background.

Somewhat amusingly, creators don't always try to be particularly creative with the school name abbreviations, and they will often be that of the production company's name. So here we have ม.ม. and ม.ม.ป. - MM and MMP for Mungmee Production. Above, there's จ.ท.ว. - GTV (GMMTV) in My Dear Loser, ค.ซ.ม. - CSM (Cosocomo) in Make It Right, and น.ด.บ. - NDB (Nadao Bangkok) for Hormones, the last of which is also the actual in-story name of the school.

I Told Sunset About You uses a very unusual colour pairing: Navy and Khaki. Oh-aew's school (and Teh's formerly) is private, while Teh's is the province's main government school. The colour choices are mainly aesthetic - while some main provincial schools do use khaki shorts (and private schools navy), they are quite uncommon. White shoes worn with the regular student uniform is also practically unheard of (they're usually for PE uniforms - more on these below).

Note also how the year-indicating dots above the school initials are differentiated by colour: navy for lower secondary, red for upper. So when Teh shows up at his old school wearing a uniform with three navy dots, that's him squeezing into his old uniform from M.3 to sneak into the school.

Sometimes actual existing schools serve as the setting of a work, and its uniform is used. For example, My Bromance (2014) is set at Wachirawit School in Chiang Mai and uses its uniform.

The Best Story likewise takes place at the Demonstration School of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University. Demonstration or "Satit" schools are pretty much a class of their own. While they're technically government schools, they're operated by universities for their teacher training programmes, and have a higher degree of freedom in their operations. They also often have uniforms that don't follow the usual format, with no school name on the shirt. This is the case with Satit Suansunandha, which has its logo embroidered on the shirt pocket and pinned above the student's name instead.

Some Satit schools also use an unusual colour, charcoal grey, for their uniform shorts. This is seen with Praram's uniform in EN of Love: This Is Love Story, indicating that his school is attached to the university. Having just the student's name and no school initials isn't unusual in this case (though not having any logo at all kind of is).

On the other hand, the lack of any embroidered lettering at all, like in The Shipper, is very unusual. In real life this is unique to Triam Udom Suksa School, which is commonly regarded as the country's top school. GMMTV previously did this in The Gifted, which kind of made sense as it conveyed that the school was unique and special, but this isn't true for The Shipper, so the stylistic choice seems a bit lazy.

This is also the case with 55:15 Never Too Late. Even stranger is the uniform from Nanon's storyline, which has khaki shorts signifying a provincial setting but the top is just a plain shirt with no markings or pin at all. It looks rather like an error in the production process that they had to roll with due to some limitation.

Girls' uniforms are much more varied, as private schools follow a variety of different styles. The standard style is mostly only used by government schools. For the upper-secondary level, it's a white button-up shirt (or blouse? I'm not sure of the terminology) with short sleeves that are pleated at the cuff, a navy (or, uncommonly, black) skirt with three pairs of wide pleats at the front and back, a black belt, white socks and black strapped shoes. The shirt will have the same markings as the boys' uniform. We see Pa wearing this in Bad Buddy (and also Tarn in the ITSAY pic above). Note that they made a mistake with her collar dot, as she was in M.6 in this scene and should have had three dots instead of one. (The same mistake happens with the younger music club students in episode 10. I guess the costume department just created one style based on the main characters and forgot to factor in the others.)

I won't attempt to list examples of all girls' uniforms here, as they're harder to keep track of in BL, but if it's a high-school setting and you see a different style of uniform than the above, it should be quite safe to assume it's a private school (especially if it's long-sleeved, with a necktie, or a blue, red or other brightly coloured skirt, like in the 7 Project example above), or a Satit school.

International schools usually have a different style of uniform altogether. They may be variably coloured, use shorts or trousers, include neckties, and the shirts won't have the usual lettering but commonly feature the school logo. Girls' skirts will commonly have a plaid/tartan pattern. Bilingual schools - private schools featuring a bilingual curriculum, with mainly Thai students - will also often use this style of uniform to some extent. We see it in Brothers, where the setting is supposed to be an international school.

While schools may have a full uniform with blazers and all, they'd only be used on special occasions. If characters wear them on a regular basis, it probably signifies a fantasy setting, or one somewhat removed from real life. This is fully utilized in Great Men Academy, which is as fantasy as you can get with magical wish-granting unicorns.

A similar effect is achieved with sweater vests, as seen in Second Chance. However, this is to emulate the Japanese/Korean uniform style, giving the show something of a J-/K-drama aesthetic while moving it away from the grounded reality of Thailand.

Sometimes, as in Friend Forever, a novel style is created that doesn't really carry any inherent meaning but is presumably done mainly for aesthetic reasons.

In real life, the standard-style boys' uniform (with embroidered lettering) may also use trousers, but this is only done in Islamic schools and the vocational education system, which are pretty much outside the realm of BL stories, so you won't likely come across them. (Update: This is no longer true with the existence of Don't Touch My Gang, but it didn't feature regular uniform, only the workshop shirt, which is covered below.)

Apart from the standard school uniform, most schools will also have a PE uniform, used on days with PE (gym) class, typically once a week for upper-secondary students. These aren't legally regulated, so they come in a large variety of styles, though many government schools will follow the same basic style of a coloured polo shirt made with a woven fabric, usually with the school logo on the pocket. We see Teh wearing this (though with the school initials instead of a logo) in ITSAY, with his usual uniform shorts. Most schools will have students wear the PE top from home and change into the PE bottom (typically sweatpants) just for PE class. Don't expect to see school showers, though, as they're not done in Thailand. Different classes mostly have PE on different days, and in meticulously written shows like ITSAY, where everything fits into the calendar, you can tell the day of the week from the PE uniform (it's Monday if you see Teh in his blue PE top).

As mentioned above, white canvas shoes may be required for PE uniforms, as seen again in The Love of Siam. This is mostly a feature of girls' uniforms, though, as boys' uniforms will more often use the shoes that are already part of their regular uniform, but schools which normally use leather shoes are a natural exception. However, they will more typically have students wear white shoes from home together with the PE top rather than change shoes at school like Mew apparently does. The shirt style here, a custom-patterned polo shirt with a knitted fabric, is also common.

We see another example of the style in Dew. Except for shoe colour, PE uniforms are usually identical for boys and girls.

Since there aren't actual limitations to PE uniform designs even in real life, creators sometimes have a field day with them. In Make It Right, the PE uniform is quite obviously a piece of fan service. (There are real-life schools that do use shorts, though they're not quite that short.)

Another uniform you might encounter is the Territorial Defence Student uniform. In Thailand, men face military conscription at age 21, upon which they will have to draw a lottery to determine whether they must enlist for two years. But there's an alternative to that. By completing three years of military training as Territorial Defence Students (often referred to as ร.ด. - Ror Dor (R.D.)), which is offered to upper-secondary school students, one avoids the need to face the lottery completely. Naturally, most middle-class boys will take the training. It takes half a day a week for 20 weeks each year (which is half the school year), plus up to a week of field training around January-February. For the weekly training days, if the session is in the afternoon, school will typically have only morning classes.

The need to attend Ror Dor is probably the most universally hated aspect of high school life for Thai boys, not because of the training itself, which is hardly intensive at all, but because of the military haircut requirements. Naturally this is never portrayed realistically, and many works ignore the existence of Ror Dor altogether. What's kind of funny is that the above storyline concerns Tee needing a haircut to pass Ror Dor inspection, but none of the characters except Mork come anywhere close.

The Ror Dor uniform is a khaki green combat uniform, with the student's name on the right chest and the school patch on the right arm. The Thai numeral on the left collar indicates the student's year. Here, it's ๒ (2), indicating that they're in the second year of training, which means M.5. The green T-shirt worn underneath is often worn casually by some.

In stories that go down to the lower-secondary or primary years, you may also see the Boy Scout uniform. In most schools, participation is mandatory for students up to M.3, and takes place once a week. Here in The Love of Siam, we see young Tong in the Scout uniform, indicating that he's in primary school, while Eiw and Cake in My Only 12% are wearing the Senior Scout uniform (with the maroon shoulder boards) of lower-secondary students.

That's pretty much everything regarding school uniforms, I think. Onto university...

In Thailand, universities have uniforms for undergraduate students. Unlike school uniforms, which are very specific, university uniforms are more loosely defined. In most cases they will be a white dress shirt and black (or navy) slacks for males, with black dress shoes, and a necktie and a belt buckle bearing the university symbol. For females, it's usually a white shirt/blouse with the university symbol pin, a black (or navy) skirt, shoes, and also a belt buckle bearing the university symbol. Some universities will also have metal buttons with the university symbol that have to be attached to the shirt.

While most universities will have defined uniforms, in practice, the requirements vary across universities (and across faculties within the same university). Many require that uniforms be worn for attendance of all classes, but some don't, and expect them only on exam days or special occasions. Strictness and adherence also varies. Often, people won't bother with the belt buckle, sneakers may be allowed (or turned a blind eye to), and jeans may even be permissible. This gives creators more leeway in designing the costumes to a varied visual effect.

In the above scene from Bad Buddy, Pran's upright collar (GMMTV does seem to like these, though I don't quite recall seeing them in real life), Wai's short sleeves (some universities officially have them as a uniform option, some don't), Safe's jacket (which is totally normal, by the way - they do blast the aircon in some lecture halls) and Louis's workshop shirt (more on this below) combine to provide visual contrast. The costume design is also often used for characterization. In Love by Chance, the timid and deferential Pete always wears his necktie, while the brasher Ae is never seen with it, nor does his shirt ever seem to be tucked in. (Untucked shirts are also used for characterization with school uniforms, though it's pretty much the only option.)

Even where uniforms are more strictly enforced, the necktie is usually not worn outside of formal occasions. Some universities have a tradition of requiring them only for freshmen, and similarly female freshmen may be required to wear below-knee accordion-pleated skirts (and for some universities, white shoes) for the entire first year. All of this is shown in SOTUS, as the entire series revolves around these hazing traditions. As freshmen, M and May wear the full university uniform (May with pleated skirt), while the sophomores are seen wearing pencil/mini-skirts and jeans with no necktie. The necktie doesn't have a printed logo, though it's attached as a tie pin - some schools do this. (Quite a lot of series, however, don't bother with having any sort of logo on the tie or belt buckle at all, which is a bit unrealistic, but in some cases could be explained away by the above-mentioned variability in strictness.)

Also famously depicted in SOTUS is the workshop shirt/smock/overshirt, which isn't really an official uniform, but a protective garment meant for practical classes. In some schools, there's been considerable drama over their use, as students often use it as a cover for casual clothing instead of wearing the regular uniform, which the staff disapproves. As so many series show, it's indeed quite commonly seen as an engineering-school symbol.

And that's pretty much all I can think of. If you've made it this far, thanks and congratulations! :p Let me know if I've forgotten anything.

#thai bl #thai culture #bl meta

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solitaryandwandering · 5 days ago

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GREAT POST!! Just chiming in to add a super interesting connection I found. Achita Sikamana, who plays Oh (the creepy girl Dakanda tries to set Khaiyoi up with), is possibly best known as the ghost in the 2004 internationally-influential (and now cult classic) horror film Shutter.

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Co-produced by GMM Pictures and distributed by GMM Tai Hub, it's considered a landmark film for Thai horror cinema. Shutter is one of the reasons why Thai ghost stories have remained so popular. It was a box office success in Thailand, ranking fifth that year behind Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid (4th), The Day After Tomorrow (3rd), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2nd), and Spider-Man 2 (1st). It has since been remade four times in Telegu, Tamil, Hindi, and English.

Given its box-office success there is very little doubt in my mind that Oh's behavior references the actress's role in this film. So fun!

Here is a blurb about Shutter celebrating its 20th-year anniversary last year with a cinema re-release, with some suggested films from director Banjong.

(Other connections I found: the directors/co-writers of Shutter - Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom also went on to direct/write separate parts of the 2008 anthology film 4bia, which features Ae Maneerat (Nui in Dear Dakanda) in one of the main roles, albeit not in a section directed by either man.)

(And the MOST EXCITING tangential connection I found? Lee Chatametikool, a film editor on Shutter and a prolific film and sound editor of many other great projects, went on to edit Love of Siam in 2007!!! Not directly related to Dear Dakanda but close enough!)

Some background on Dear Dakanda for the TOL rewatch

Thanks to @bengiyo's idea and @lurkingshan's incredible energy and skill for organization, I joined the Theory of Love Romcom Rewatch starting this week, alongside @solitaryandwandering and @neuroticbookworm. It was really interesting starting with an older Thai film–this was one of the reasons I was immediately drawn to this project, I wanted to get exposure to some of the older Thai media that has been a shared touchstone of these content creators, in order to get more of the references. Theory of Love does a lot of the work laying out which films it’s referencing for the audience, which makes this easier; plus I just love that show so you don't need to twist my arm to get me to start a rewatch.

The first film was Dear Dakanda (2005); in Thai, the name is puen sanit i.e. best friend (or close friend), which is also the name of the first episode of TOL. Shan already wrote about the film itself, and how it relates to the first episode, but as we were watching I was noticing a lot of ties to QL and so I wanted to capture some of that here. What follows is what I was able to find on this film based on internet searches, MyDramaList, and my own knowledge of QL from having been watching it for a decade. I'm by no means a Thai media expert, and coming at this film twenty years later, so if anyone else has context they want to add, please do!

Side note: Why is this interesting? There is something I really like about how identifiably queer people are just around in Thai media, both behind and in front of the camera, and it was interesting to see that in something 20 years old. It’s also just neat to see how small the industry is, and to notice similarities between the work these people produce. I’m well aware that we can’t conflate working on queer stories with being out, and that, especially back in the early 2000s, being out was often a barrier to creating queer media and would mean you could not get work, and that the on-screen opportunities for queer people were often very stereotyped and problematic, so I’m not trying to glamourize the past here. I just think it’s all worth noticing and thinking about.

This film is based on a bestselling and award-winning short novel, The Red Mailbox (2000).

The producer, Keng, puts a lot of what follows in context. Keng was a screenwriter for the film The Iron Ladies (2000) (shout-out once again to @happypotato48 for putting that one on my radar), and started his own production house which was absorbed by GMM and was the predecessor to GDH 559. He’s produced a bunch of QL over the years, including Friend Zone, Tootsies and the Fake (2019), and most recently Flat Girls (2025). He also produced How To Make Millions before Grandma Dies (2024) and co-executive produced The Paradise of Thorns (2024). And, relevant to what's about to follow, he produced My Girl (2003).

The director, S, has also directed several works with queer elements, including Girl from Nowhere, Wake Up Ladies 2: Very Complicated, and the original Club Friday. This was his first solo directing gig, and folks were anticipatory of it after his work as one of the six co-screenwriter/directors of My Girl (2003), for which he co-won a Thailand National Film Association award for best director (this was the first of any of the six's solo efforts). He didn't win that award again for this film, but he was nominated, which is pretty impressive for a first solo outing. The other screenwriter/directors for My Girl have cameos in Dear Dakanda as seniors at university. It's worth noting that there is a character in this film that is apparently reprised from My Girl (the barber), so those following along should be on the lookout for that!

The cinematographer, Beat, won a Thailand National Film Association award for this film. He has also worked regularly with S since, on Girl from Nowhere and Wake Up Ladies 2, and he was the cinematographer for the BL Not Me (as well as several other GMMTV shows folks in this space might recognize, like F4).

One of the two ADs, Petch, also directed an episode of Girl from Nowhere and has since become a director for Konghtup; he’s co-directed both Two Worlds (BL) and Apple My Love (GL).

The other AD Nontra was one of the screenwriters for the original Hormones (2008) film [which I will be honest I haven't seen and don't know if it has any queer elements the way the show does]. The screenwriter for this film, Nitis, was another co-writer for the original Hormones film, and also won a Thailand National Film Association award for this film.

And finally, the composer Vichaya works regularly with GDH and composed the original score for I Told Sunset About You and I Promised You the Moon, as well as Paradise of Thorns, Cutie Pie, Tootsies and the Fake, The Stranded, Friend Zone, and more. The score felt like a familiar friend while we were watching this film.

The actors were also familiar faces. The lead actor playing Moo/Khaiyoi, Sunny, was the het romance lead in My Ambulance (which is the Nadao Bangkok series that first included Bilikin and PP as a paired side couple–one that was so popular, they used the demand to see them again to fund the creation of ITSAY).

The actor playing the eponymous Dakanda, Noon, had a bit part in Gay Ok Bangkok s2

The actor playing Nui the rival love interest, Ae, had a supporting role in Mhom Ped Sawan (GL); before that she was the inappropriately flirty client in The Trainee (shoutout to @my-rose-tinted-glasses for noting that she tried to come between Off and Gun in that, which is a very hilarious coincidence); she was also in Vice Versa (which is extra funny because Gun appeared as Third the character from Theory of Love in that show). [Also, Vice Versa people feel free to correct me because I haven’t rewatched that show, but wasn’t her character sapphic? There was definitely something between her character Joob and Jeab’s character Dol, though I can’t remember if it went anywhere.]

All three of these main actors were nominated for a best actor, best actress, and best supporting actress award from the Thailand National Film Association respectively.

Knowing that all of these people were involved in this film and then moved on to work on these shows and films that many of us have seen and loved helps give credence to the parallels we noticed while watching (e.g. the way visuals and characters from this film clearly influenced ITSAY as Shan mentioned in her post; there were also definitely jokes about Ae’s role in this film in Vice Versa that I did not get at the time).

#i love how connected the thai film industry seems to be #thanks for posting this twig!#one day when i'm brave enough i'll actually watch shutter #mine #dear dakanda #Youtube

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maybe-boys-do-love · 4 months ago

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It's wild that the whole global trend of gay-focused happy ending romance shows and movies has only been going on for *looks at calendar* a measly ten years!

Just ten years ago. 2014. That's when you get the discovery of a market for queer romance series and films with happy endings. That year the OG Love Sick in Thailand came out. Brazil puts out The Way He Looks, which deserves so much more credit than it receives for influencing the aeshtetics of the genre. Looking premieres on HBO, and although it had low ratings, it's an important touchstone. And, despite Nickelodeon’s censorship and shifting the program from tv to its website, the Legend of Korra confirms Korrasami in its season finale.

The next year, in 2015, we get Love Sick season 2, and China, pre-censorship laws has a few options: Happy Together (not the Wong Kar Wai one lol), Mr. X and I, and Falling In Love with a Rival. Canada, premieres Schitt's Creek. In the US, Steven Universe reveals Garnet as a romantic fusion between two female characters, and will proceed to just be so sapphic. Norwegian web series Skam premieres and sets up a gay protagonist for its third season, which will drop in 2016 and entirely change the global media landscape.

Then, 2016! This is the MOMENT. That aforementioned Skam season happens. Japan puts out the film version of Ossan's Love and anime series Yuri!!! on Ice. China has the impactful Addicted Heroine, which directly leads to increased censorship. The US has Moonlight come out and take home the Oscar. In Thailand, GMMTV enters the BL game and Thai BL explodes: Puppy Honey, SOTUS, Water Boyy, Make It Right, plus, the Thai Gay OK Bangkok, which, like its influence, Looking, is more in the queer tradition but introduces two dramatically important directors to the Thai BL industry, Aof and Jojo.

By 2017, Taiwan enters the game with its History series. Korea’s BL industry actually kicks off with Method and Long Time No See. Thailand’s got too many BLs to mention. Call Me By Your Name, though not a happy ending, makes a big splash that will send ripples through the whole genre, and God's Own Country offers a gruff counter-argument to problematic age differences and twink obsessions. This is also the year of Netflix reboot of One Day At a Time bringing some wlw to the screen, and the Disney Channel has a main character come out as ‘gay’ on Andi Mack ( I’m am ready to throw fists with anyone who thinks the Disney Channel aesthetic isn’t a part of current queer culture). And I'd be remiss not to mention the influential cult-following of chaotic web-series The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo: "Sometimes things that are expensive...are worse."

All this happened, and we hadn’t even gotten to Love, Simon, Elite, or ITSAY, yet.

Prior to all this there are some major precursors some of which signaled and primed a receptive market, others influenced the people who'd go on to create the QLs. Japan has a sputtering start in the 2010s with a few BL films (Takumi-Kun, Boys Love, and Jujoun Pure Heart). Most significantly in the American context, you have Glee, and its ending really makes way for the new era that can center gay young people in a world where queerness, due to easy access to digital information, is less novel to the characters. And the QL book and graphic novel landscape was way ahead of the television and film industries, directly creating many of the stories that the latter industries used.

There's plenty of the traditional queer media content (tragic melodramas and independent camp comedies) going on prior to and alongside QL, and there are some outlying queer romance films with happy endings that precede the era but feel very much akin to QL genre tropes and goals, many with a focus on postcolonial and multicultural perspectives (Saving Face, The Wedding Banquet, Big Eden, Maurice, My Beautiful Launderette, and Weekend). I don't mean to suggest that everything I’ve listed ought to be categorized as QL.

Rather, I want to point out how all of these new-era queer romance works are in a big queer global conversation together, in the creation of a new contemporary genre, a genre that has more capacity and thematic interest to include digital technology and normalize cross-cultural relationships than other genres (there's a reason fansubs and web platforms are so easily accepted and integrated to the proliferation of these series).

You're not too late to be part of the conversation. Imagine being alive in the 1960s and 70s and participating in the blossoming of the sci-fi genre. That flowering is where gay romance sits now. Join the party.

#just constantly gob-smacked to be alive right now #i know there's plenty of reason to be horrifically distressed about the condition of the world #queer history #thai bl #japanese bl #korean bl #chinese bl #skam

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astrologylunadream · 1 year ago

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What About You Makes Them Blush? 💝🥰🎀 (Pick a card/Tarot love reading)

Hii it's Lunadream💞 Love is in the air so this will be a reading on everything about you that makes your person blush🥰✨️ hope you find your message💌

Notice: Only take what resonates because the most important thing is your own judgement!♡ If anything doesn't resonate, don't worry! It's not your message right now <3 (Entertainment purpose only. All rights reserved)

Now, shall we begin~? ^w^ Think of the your person, and pick whichever pile that fits the energy you're feeling~💖

Pile 1🎀

Pile 2🍓

Pile 3💌

Pile 4🫦

Take your time and choose carefully with the heart~♡

On to the readings —> 🩷

Pile 1🎀

Sign energy: Waves, Work place, Libra, Touch, Community, Venus, Cancer, Pluto, Water, 2nd house, 🎥🪞🛍🐭

💝Your person's energy: Aww you guys there's such soft energy in this pile, you and your person both omg🥺💞 Your person is SO good at maintaining relationships with other people, they are a true magic worker in their social circles.💬 I'm hearing "making waves" so yeah they're good at that, super kind and likeable. Getting water energy, Libra, Cancer, Scorpio, Taurus but also some indirect aquarius for some reason?? This person could have water signs in 3rd/7th/11th houses in their chart. Very charming soft allure to them, like a magnetic beauty of some kind.🌸✨️ Most of my pile 1's find this person very pretty🥰 Your person is so sweet and gentle with others, like they even touch people in such a soft way so comforting to be around😭 For some of you they have a very feminine/nurturing work environment, perhaps working around females or related to beauty. I'm picking up on some fashion/makeup related stuff take what resonates.🛍💋💖 Your person has a sweet voice, it's honestly so nice. Filming may be significant, beauty industry vibes~✨️ Their sense of style is amazing, they could enjoy shopping and trying on outfits.👚 Like seriously pile 1 your person is so aesthetic!! Mouse may be significant, maybe they find thay animal cute. They enjoy beauty routines and self care, it's no wonder they look so good🤯💕 Such lovely vibes from this person omg

🥰What about you makes them blush: Interpretation, Responsibility, Mindfulness, Venus, Self sabotage, Juno, 10th house, Leo, Uranus, 9th house,🙍‍♀️🤙🍷🩲 Interesting so maybe some of you know more about this person than you should..?😅😳 That makes your person blush a little since you have so much awareness about them and how they are, I'm getting maybe some of you have really figured this person out in some way.🔦🙊 Also your ability to analyze yourself makes them impressed, so they find it very attractive.🤭💗 Maybe you see yourself as something a little strange, they find it cute (omg). You have a lot of self worth and they love that lowkey, your poweful feminine energy no matter your gender is something they would find themselves blushing over.😳✨️Juno is here some of my pile 1's feel obligated to commit to this person, and that makes your person turn red in the cheeks! Your self awareness and determination makes them blush really. But also they have a soft spot for when you are Sad🥺 Your thighs and hair is something for them too. They feel there is really no one quite like you.❤️ This is a more specific message but for those of my pile 1's that are drinking age, maybe you have a high tolerance and that makes them blush??🍷🙈 They believe you would be very mature and responsible in your work/commitments, maybe you are very serious about your career/marriage/future plans. You radiate a bright lovely and self promoting energy that they just adore.😩💫 Your person may blush over how you're so special and the way you steal their attention.💗 Omg my pile 1's I am seeing your person blushing so much over you rn every little thing!!

💌Messages from your person: I would let you, I would do anything for you, It's not your fault, I promise, Oh my god, You might get hurt, Be careful, You will find happiness. (Maybe some of my pile 1's they're worried about you/don't want you to be hurt by anything rn🥺) Extra cards: Kabedon, Stay, Online, Tsundere, Block, North node, Moon, Leo, Venus, 2nd house (Someone really wants attention from you omg some of my pile 1's blocked this person on social media but only some. For others it's more emotionally guarding yourself from giving or recieving love from this person, but yeah they're really wanting to show you a soft love and admiration for you guys💗💗🥹)

Thank you my pile 1's! If you feel this resonated, you may tap the heart to claim this message!🍨✨️

I hope you enjoyed your reading! ʚ(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )ɞ If you did be sure to let me know pile 1 with the bow emoji~🎀 Thanks for scrolling through, Hugs hugs hugs!! See you in the next reading💝

Pile 2🍓

Sign energy: Win, Unexpected, Quiet, Jewelry, Remedy, Pluto, Capricorn, Taurus, Vertex, Fire, 🥰🕺🤧🎰

💝Your person's energy: Ooh powerful energy for your person✨️ Their presence speaks for them, like they don't even have to say much for everyone to go like, wow.😳😍 Lol for some of my pile 2's this person likes jewelry or accessorizing omggg, snazzy. Oh right so Scorpio, Capricorn, Taurus and fire signs in their chart. That combination of heavy earth +pluto is just🤌😩 Like seriously you guys your person is so fine. They may be more quiet or have a low voice, they aren't overly talkative or anything. They may spend a lot of money on rings, neck jewelry or earrings, I feel like it's very healing to them. Your person has a powerful aura and they may be surprisingly more intimidating than you think😳 It doesn't have to be but there is a high class/luxurious vibe to this pile's person.💼 Could be tall or act as if they are. For some of you this person has a successful business of their own on the side, I'm getting introvert vibes for some too. Chill vibe to them especially their voice. I feel like your person is unexpectedly a good dancer lol like you think they're not into that sort of thing and then the next thing you know they take you dancing and sweep you off your feet✨️🙈 Ohhh specific message but your person may have thing for gambling, this may be surprising to you guys. They like to win and this happens to them often with many things, but that'd also something they keep to themselves.🤫 My pile 2's may really love this person like you may be the one blushing rn haha🥰💖

🥰What about you makes them blush: August, Cinderella, Silence, Clench, Suspicion, 8th house, Pluto, Saturn, Earth, 6th house,🍑🆓️☁️🕯 Ahh omg🤩 So you have a really magnetic beauty they find themselves blushing over oml🥵 Like less is more for my pile 2's the less you say the more they fall for your silence!!🥹❤️‍🔥 Some of you the month august may be significant, any of my pile 2's born in fall?💗 Your person is low key obsessed with your ordinary qualities you don't think much of at all, like it could be a small little habit you don't even realize and then there's them over there blushing like crazy🙉💓‼️ I can see them start to sweat when they look a you, and like if there's an awkward silence between you both they will be so red omg😭🟥 Sometimes they feel like you have your head in the clouds when you stay silent haha like "what is pile 2 thinking right now?" They like how you try to ground yourself, maybe you meditate or take walks outside trying to connect with the universe and and they find that cute. Also they like figuring you out, so like if you seem mysterious like you have a bit of a secret it gets them smirking like "I bet I can figure pile 2 out" OMFG😰❤️ They blush just thinking about grabbing you and pulling you to them. Your dark/hidden side makes them blush but also..... your 🍑 A little obsessed that's all I'll say okay🥲 They like your fascination on tarot and spiritual topics. Oh and the way you get when you're determined about something, like you make up your mind and don't back down that would make them blush idk why but it's so cute😭🩷 Your person sees you as sort of a cinderella energy, maybe they hope you're the special one who they give everything to.✨️ Oh and if they catch themselves overthinking about you, their cheeks will turn red.🙉❤️ My pile 2's I'm loving this energy between you both!

💌Messages from your person: Just dance with me, I can't wait to meet you, We can't let anyone know, It's nice meeting you, Are you loyal to me? I'm worth it, How could you? How are you so calm? (Haha maybe your person is freaking out and you're just like mhm yeah I know😌💓) Extra cards: Treat, Cut, Impulsive, Reminder, Meant to be, Water, 9th house, Leo, 12th house, Air (Lol they wanna remind you that they feel this is meant to be between you both🥰)

Thank you my pile 2's! If you feel this resonated, you may tap the heart to claim this message!🍨✨️

I hope you enjoyed your reading! ʚ(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )ɞ If you did be sure to let me know pile 2 with the strawberry emoji~🍓 Thanks for scrolling through, Hugs hugs hugs!! See you in the next reading💝

Pile 3💌

Sign energy: Image, Valentine, Regret, Physical, Tangled, 10th house, North node, Venus, 9th house, 11th house, 🆓️☄️🔝😱

💝Your person's energy: Wow this person is a somebody for sure, they have a big image to keep up. Especially ties with their online persona and self promotion, maybe they are an influencer or have a successful social media.📱✨️ Signs for them are Capricorn, Libra, Taurus, Sagittarius and Aquarius in their chart. Valentines is a significant time (also the time I'm posting this haha cute💖) I feel like they were asked online to be their valentine, like recieving a lot of love from their socials. They are physically attractive and pretty😭💗💗 Ugh like they have such soft and lovely features, and the way they dress is so pleasing. They may travel a lot or get caught up in that often, maybe they have to study really hard? For some of you this person speaks many languages and gets confused a lot of times lol😂 So a message I'm getting is that they may have regrets already about their future may turn out, they want to top themselves but also they are afraid of crashing and burning🛬🔥 This stresses them out omg😥 Maybe they identify with the movie tangled from disney, you may view this person as your ideal valentine or someone you would want to spend valentines with.💓 They want to free themselves and may feel trapped (Omg and identifying with rapunzel on that one) so they just want their future to be bright and don't want to get caught up with everything that's holding them back from reaching the top.🥇✨️ They may be respected and admired at their work or online, my pile 3's are so attracted to this person!!😍💗 College may be significant, maybe your person is studying something hard right now. They want to be very successful I'm hearing.

🥰What about you makes them blush: Poker face, Style, Intimacy, Dominant, Tongue, Leo, Venus, 1st house, Libra, 12th house,💁‍♀️👇🟥🍒 So your person finds your clothing style and preference really beautiful💗 They like the way you dress, It makes them blush like "Wtf how is pile 3 so pretty??" Lol they love your soft aura and angelic presence.🪽✨️ So a lot of physical chemistry especially on intimate levels🥵 Your body has them more than just turning red🫣‼️ They are really into your face, body, tongue, also your chest they find very attractive. All that turns them super red omg like seriously the color is there😭❤️ The idea of dominating you has them blushing, like laying you down and yeah intimacy. Some of my pile 3's are Leo venus or Libra ascendant/Venus in 1st house.🌸 They like your facial expression and like especially ones with the tongue.😳 You grab their attention and it makes them blush omg, your feminine side also is something very attractive to them (No matter the gender).🌹 They want to touch you especially what they find attractive. Yeah they definitely find your whole appearance very appealing and physically attractive, they want to do things to you that is all I'm gonna say😭 You look good in the color red to them, literally you pull out their darkest side they weren't even aware of😳 They find you very cute like they may want to squish your cheeks, also they may dream of you and then wake up with rosy cheeks like aww pile 3🥰 Yeah they have romantic fantasies about you, especially dominating you, intense ones🥵. You give off a lovely shining energy and they also see you as their other half🩷 Yeah intimacy with you would make them blush, like a lot.

💌Messages from your person: I'm playing with fire, I get lost in your eyes, There's something between us, Say my name, I won't push you to do things you don't want to, I want to cheer you up, Don't look at anyone else, Please don't give up on me, I want to travel with you (Aww🥰😍) Extra cards: Romance, Cheeks, Anger, Final, Slide, Cancer, Taurus, Fire, Juno, Leo (Yeah lots of passion and romance in this pile omg💗)

Thank you my pile 3's! If you feel this resonated, you may tap the heart to claim this message!🍨✨️

I hope you enjoyed your reading! ʚ(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )ɞ If you did be sure to let me know pile 3 with the love letter emoji~💌 Thanks for scrolling through, Hugs hugs hugs!! See you in the next reading💝

Pile 4🫦

Sign energy: Certain, Break, Teeth, To the grave, Stress, 6th house, 9th house, Gemini, Capricorn, Pisces, 🎪👨‍🍳😎🏰

💝Your person's energy: I am getting workaholic vibes, maybe your person has a lot to do. They may have a stressful job or schedule, leading to success but also burdens on their mental health. Cooking may be significant to you or them, like traveling to try food is coming through for me.🛩🍳 Your person has a lot on their plate right now, it's funny because didn't I say for some of you food may be significant? LOL😂 They are intelligent and use their mind a lot, they are prone to overthinking aswell. They may travel to conventions often, it could be for their job or a hobby/interest of theirs.❤️ Signs for them are Virgo, Sagittarius, Gemini, Capricorn or Pisces in their chart. I don't know why but europe is coming to mind for some reason. Ah so your person wants to break their stressful routine and relax, they just want to forget all their worries and escape.🫥☁️ They may socialize with people often, they definitely think A LOT.💭 They may also sound like they're dead tired when they speak. This is more specific but maybe for some of you this person broke their tooth one time? Their teeth are noticable. They are very serious about their goals and tend to worry themselves often.💬💦 They tend to be realistic and forget to take breaks and indulge in the fantasy every once in a while. They are too strict with themselves I'm hearing "working themselves to death" omg like they need to take care of themselves😭 They do love travel and new experiences, they may want to visit a different country and have a fun vacation to clear their mind.✈️🗺💗

🥰What about you makes them blush: Breath, Intent, Despair, True feelings, Home, Moon, 2nd house, 1st house, Saturn, 9th house,😏🚀🦷👗 Ohh so they feel very emotionally connected to you guys, your comforting energy makes them blush omg🥺💗 You are their safe place that they can come to when they're stressed and not feeling well. You may be the voice of reason when they're down or anxious. Aww this is so sweet, you hugging them would make them blush so hard🫂💘 Like so soft and comforting to them, they love your nurturing side. When they are in despair you are their light.⭐️ Your physical appearance also makes them turn red, they would love seeing you in something nice like a dress.💎🥰 Your person is a little naughty for that actually, they wouldn't mind using their teeth to get what they want😳🥵 I see them making a little smirk when you two are alone together, that's all I will say for that one.🤐 If they ever feel your breath it calms them, they may want to feel your steady breathing as you are home to them. Your intentions for wanting them to feel better and care about them would make them blush a lot🥺💖💖 Also your neck and thighs have them smiling. Touching you probably skyrockets their heart rate, they may want to kiss your thighs and the thought of that makes their cheeks red🫢❤️‍🔥 Some of you may enjoy shopping and they find that cute. Oh my pile 4 this is a really sweet and romantic connection, I am seeing lots of lip biting on their mind lol (Which fits this pile perfectly with the lips haha). Your voice makes them blush, they just want your love and care because it's so good to them😩💘

💌Messages from your person: Do you still want this? You're my special someone, I saw it coming, Are you in love with them? You make me feel at home, I see your efforts, Tell me what's bothering you, You are my favorite song. (Aww pile 4 again you are home to them💖) Extra cards: Fantasy, Queen of hearts, Recover, One and only, Blossom, Scorpio, Uranus, Fire, 11th house, Pluto (You're like the omly fantasy they believe in omg. Yeah there is a lot of magnetic attraction to you guys seriously they're kinda hooked🤯❤️‍🔥)

Thank you my pile 4's! If you feel this resonated, you may tap the heart to claim this message!🍨✨️

I hope you enjoyed your reading! ʚ(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )ɞ If you did be sure to let me know pile 4 with the lips emoji~🫦 Thanks for scrolling through, Hugs hugs hugs!! See you in the next reading💝

Wanna see more readings like this? Check out my tumblr for accurate readings for you!💗🌊🌸

Thanks for reading! \(*^w^)/💌 -Lunadream <3

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istanchan · 5 months ago

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Also one more thing, I find it so funny that there are (crazy) people arguing that Jes is homophobic for drinking before filming the sex scenes with Bible.

Like??? First of all I don’t really understand the argument, because filming a sex scene in general has got to be the most nerve racking shit ever. And hell if drinking a bit helps calm the nerves, I’m all for that!!

Like think of it you are at your most vulnerable in a very intimate position with someone. And simultaneously there are multiple cameras and people watching you, recording you for thousand a to watch. I totally understand Jes and any other actor that drinks before sex scenes. Which btw so many actors have talked about how they drink before a sex scene. (Margot Robbie, Dakota Johnson, Heath Ledger to name a few)

So I just don’t get that argument at all.

Also calling Jes homophobic is insane to me.

Look, some actors do BL shows to gain popularity, and then never really acknowledge the queer community. Some even use BL as kind of a stepping stone to go into other projects usually not queer aligned projects and never look back at their roots. (Not naming name but yeah..)

However, Jes has been in the Thai media industry for years and is very successful. He didn’t need to be in 4 minutes for his career to thrive. Not only that but he didn’t even audition for 4 minutes!! He was literally asked to play the lead role by the director?!!

Furthermore, (this is starting to sound like an essay) Jes has from what I’ve seen queer figures around him. He is always super respectful and he takes jokes lightheartedly. He seems very in touch with his masculinity.

And all of that combined he said yes to 4 minutes and he played his role I think perfectly. So really in itself that should rebuke the whole argument.

#it’s 2am #i need to sleep #but i couldn’t help myself #people are stupid #jes the man you are #jes jespipat #tyme 4 minutes #4 minutes the series #4 minutes #thaibl

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thebroccolination · 23 days ago

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BOUN TWEETS ABOUT REVAMP’S SCRIPT

Today, after returning to Thailand from his first European fanmeeting with Prem, Boun tweeted about Revamp’s script, a hint that workshops and filming for his much-anticipated vampire series with Prem are imminent. \o/

Boun: The script is sooo good, I want to brag about it!!! [translation by @hallowpen]

For anyone who hasn’t been following Boun’s passion project, Revamp is a fully original story and has been in the works since long before Boun and Prem joined GMMTV last spring. As early as 2020, Boun was begging anyone to cast him in a vampire series, so Revamp means a lot to him. <3

He's been very heavily involved in the script-writing process, and he also put a significant amount of his own money, time, and energy behind aspects like 1) pitching the series to potential sponsors in Japan, 2) managing the fitting and photoshoot, and 3) funding the first teaser all while the production was under Studio Wabi Sabi.

When Boun and Prem joined GMMTV in spring of 2024, Revamp came with them. In order to appeal to a broader audience, the action-based script was altered, centering the romance between vampire Ramil (Boun) and antiques dealer Punn (Prem) while intensifying the tone of the story. If I'm remembering correctly, it was GMMTV’s CEO Tha himself who suggested the changes, which to me speaks highly of BounPrem's place in their new company as well as the resources GMMTV is putting behind BounPrem's first production in their care.

However, even under GMMTV, Revamp is very much Boun's project, and I think he and Prem have both continued to have significant influence in how it's shaped.

My only reservation has been New as director, but I've actually come around on that. As long as he delegates editing and sound design to someone else, my only other concern was the sensuality. The whole vampire trope is deeply erotic, and New's gone on the record over and over that he doesn't need sex in his series. To me, that always felt very sex-negative, but after speaking with a Thai friend recently, I may have misread him and his views (which would be a relief, and I'll be happy to be wrong).

According to my friend, the way New speaks about not needing sex in a BL series reads less as sex-negativity to them and more as…ego.

See, regardless of how anyone feels about any series New's directed, he is an influential director, and his earliest series were groundbreaking in the Thai BL industry. It makes sense that as more and more BL series rush out grabbing their viewership off the strength of nudity and sex above craft and dedication, New seems to pride himself on drawing in his viewers without leaning on eroticism.

Once my friend said that…I think they're right.

Because if that is New's point of view, I really can't hold it against him. He's an openly queer man who founded and built an extremely protective queer space in the industry in Studio Wabi Sabi, so it would check out with his ethics that he'd care a lot about who's watching his series, what drew them in, and the direction of the queer media in his country as a whole.

However, that being said, New hasn't shrunk away from the sensuality of Revamp, and he's apparently been teasing fans on Twitter about how much Boun and Prem are doing to prepare physically for their roles. So I think it's not necessarily that New's anti-sex, but more anti-unnecessary-sex, if that makes sense.

After all, New directed the original teaser, and the original teaser had this:

At the end of the day, the script will always be what matters most to me, since it's the spine of the whole production, and I'm over the moon that it's been prioritized, adjusted, and perfected. But I'm happiest that Boun is happy, because he's been so eager for this over the past five years, and it's finally coming to fruition with the budget and the reach it deserves. :')

And the fact that Revamp has gotten exactly the same length of time for its preproduction as KristSingto's comeback series The Ex-Morning (also original) is a very good sign to me.

In conclusion,

IMMORTAL VAMPIRE LOVERS!

#bounprem #boun noppanut #prem warut #revamp the series #revamp the undead story #gmmtv #thai ql #thai bl #i keep saying this but i don't even like vampires man #it's purely bounprem that's got me this excited #i'm so happy for boun :''''''')#he's wanted this so badly #vampire hunter kiranokira

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absolutebl · 1 year ago

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Best 23 of BL 2023 - Quirky Awards

SHOCK & AWE AWARDS

1. Biggest BL surprise of 2023:

The last 3 months of 2023 in general got my biggest WTF award.

GMMTV fielding OffGun AND TayNew in the same quarter while also airing Last Twilight

That they ALSO optioned 3 JBLs

That there's a high heat omegaverse BL staring Pavel

That there were 20 BLs airing and none of them Korean.

With 5 VAMPIRE BLs announced for next year

But my prize in this category goes to My Dear Gangster Oppa.

It's just crazy:

Thai talent, Korean money + IP (this is adapted from a manwha) airing on a Chinese channel (iQIYI). Plus it was FUN and made smart reuse of a pair who richly deserved it. I'm delighted by the eclectic insanity of this production. And wonder if any other film genre could even do anything like this.

2. The “that country did WHAT?” award:

The 8th Sense from Korea?!

I mean, seriously?! Dealing with mental health, suicide, darkness, therapy, (tiny) age gap, & first time love BUT FROM KOREA? And then openness and casual boyfriend physical affection? What's next? An actual hard fought coming out narrative with an HEA? Gay domesticity and families?

Careful Korea, you'll strain something. Possibly your own culture and film industry.

I should stop having expectations of Korea, they keep surprising me.

Runners up: Korea letting OnlyOneOf do Bump Up Business not to mention that OmegaX thing. AND Korea adapting Why R U? What are you up to, Korea? Qua? Is this a coded message? Should we send help? Do you need snacks?

3. Biggest casting whoa! where did you come from? award:

GeminiFourth in My School President.

Seriously? Babies what? How did GMMTV find you? How do you exist? How is BL this lucky?

4. That studio did WHAT now? award:

GMMTV putting EarthMix into Moonlight Chicken.

And then doubling down with G4 as the damn sides.

Fucking genius.

5. I’m sad you were ignored award:

Destiny Seeker.

It's just a really fun little Thai pulp, the pairs were good, silly dialogue, plus consent and other good sex rep. I enjoyed it. No one talked about it AT ALL.

6. 2023 BL That Actually Made Me Lose My Mind Award?

Laws of Attraction. -The casting, the crazy story, the soapy drama! But specifically: Film playing Charn - the range of his smiles alone. GLORIOUS

I mean I Feel You Linger in the Air also sparked something in me, but LoA drove me actually nuts.

NARRATIVE AWARDS

7. Best story 2023:

La Pluie

I know, you're surprised, right? At the time I didn't chat much about it but I really enjoyed the discourse others were having. I love anything that really examines the fated mates (soulmates) trope and the idea of "the one". What a clever way to do that. (This is one reason UWMA is my favorite Thai BL.)

This one reminded me of the way Color Rush approached allegory and that's no bad thing. Such an impressive little piece.

8. Best narrative structure 2023 award:

Unintentional Love Story.

I know this may seem a simplistic pick. But I love the tidiness of this no frills contemporary romance, how the culture of work and personal ethics and corruption fight against the main character's affection and integrity. Poor baby boy is driven into a corner and then punished for it. But it is punishment he feels he deserves, and so it is up to his (now) ex to figure out what went wrong and why.

It's just great. I love it when no one is stupid or wrong, it's just impossible circumstances and unintentional love deeply felt.

9. Best 2023 dialogue (script) award:

Jun & Jun

Never before has Korea laced a BL with that much perfectly executed innuendo. It was a master class. I didn't know you could be that lascivious in Korean, quite frankly. Plus the way the 2 Juns constantly seamlessly transition between formal register (work, public - where they are boss/employee) to informal register (when they are alone and age mates + childhood sweethearts).

Beautiful to hear and watch.

10. Favorite scene 2023:

The dub con scene in I Cannot Reach You because I AM TRASH for an out of control seme. I'm sorry I just AM.

I have said it before, I will say it again, NO ONE DOES THIRST like Japan. And when that thirst bubbles over, it is heart-clenching and very hot.

11. The most rewatchable BL of 2023 award:

Our Dating Sim

That scene where they lie on the floor + the stolen kiss + giggle? Come on, it should be on comfort repeat in war rooms. It could bring world peace.

ACTORS & CHARACTERS AWARDS

12. Best performance of a queer actor in a leading role, 2023:

Fluke in Make a Wish.

It was fun to see him as an irreverent immortal and while I love OhmFluke I also really enjoyed this new pairing. It was a genuine pleasure to watch.

13. Best pining 2023:

The moot pining in Tokyo in April is...

Boys, seriously? Japan must you destroy us like this? Hurts so good.

14. Best wingman 2023 (The Namgoong Award)

Tiw from My School President

I mean, come on, of course it's him!

(Also can you believe Mark went on from this to do fricking Only Friends!? To Last Twilight! Come on GMMTV GIVE HIM A LEAD!)

15. Biggest OMG I LOVE you boys together, YAY!

Dimpled McMafia & Feral Bunny Foo Foo from Kiseki Dear to Me.

They were feral for each other.

We were feral for them

It was a whole delightful THING.

16. Most unexpected return of a BL pair? award:

The Private Lessons pair showing up in Love Class 2.

I know it was only a cameo, but SERIOUSLY? Thank you SO MUCH Korea! A big studio picking up a Strongberry pairing? I love you.

Seriously tho, Taiwan & Korea tried for ALL THE CAMEOS this year.

17. Well aren't you two just the prettiest? award:

NetJames in Bed Friend.

Need I say more?

18. LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Bah Vinh in Vian & Mr Cinderella 2. I didn't like either show but I loved him in them. Especially the make outs.

Yes you have chemistry with all the boys in Vietnam and you kiss beautifully. But it's okay now honey, you have the crown. Relax, you're stressing us out.

RANDOM PICKS

19. Favorite Linguistic Moment of 2023:

Our Dating Sim

Caught in the act by the elevator scene. OMG it's so funny. They're being such boyfriend shits to each other, and to be caught in the act by THAT character, and try to manifest formal language whole cloth? Hilarious.

Honorable mention to War Peanuts in Destiny Seeker.

20. Biggest disappointment of 2023:

You Are Mine

Seriously Taiwan, AGAIN you disappoint me with an Office BL? You're Taiwan, land of offices and suits. This should be YOUR SETTING TO WIN. And yet... argh. I mean it wasn't bad. But it wasn't good either. Stop it Taiwan, do better.

Runners up? Between Us, Chains of Heart, Dangerous Romance - this was a HOTLY contested category.

+ 2 Winners in the sub-category of FUCK YOU FOR THAT ENDING award:

The Director who Buys Me Dinner - I mean this nicely but: you have your lane now Korea, stop hurting us, that's Japan's responsibility and they do it better.

I Feel You Linger In the Air - I'm just hugely disappointed. Thailand ALMOST got its second 10/10 from me, but that damn ending.

Argh.

21. Best Wardrobe/Prop Use 2023

The shower of packaged bedsheets in My Personal Weatherman

Amazing. Brilliant. No notes.

22. Best Queer Rep 2023

Chot in Step By Step

In fact, all the queer characters in this show were treated with great integrity.

AND props to this cast for refusing to do fan service. GOOD FOR YOU! Fuck those sasang wankers.

Runners up? The found family cast of Love in Translation and the Rainbow Rice Cakes in The New Employee.

23. Best Meta Trope call out

Tin Tem Jai

Come on, what a zinger, but at themselves (and Taiwan)

Final question: which of the 23 was the hardest for me to pick?

Honestly? Question #1 this year. But also question #20.

(Last year: 2022's Version)

Remember I only pull from shows that were completely finished by the end of 2023. Or The Sign probably would have taken multiple categories. But it will fall into 2024 offerings.

(source)

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scarefox · 1 year ago

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It's too long to screenshot but at 56:24 is actually very interesting (all of the video is but that especially)

They talk about the difference between western fan culture vs thai fan culture and paparazzi's being iIIegal in Thailand while it's a career in America to stalk celebrities

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#perth nakhun #luke plowden #film industry #thai film industry #QL history & education

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guzhufuren · 7 months ago

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genuine question about thai television industry: where the hell does Be On Cloud get money to make shows with such high production quality? if they can do this, why don't other thai ql leaning studios make tv shows on this level? is it just well chosen sponsors? good equipment and filming team in their possession? what makes them different

#4 minutes #4 minutes the series #mine

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pharawee · 11 months ago

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Yoon Phusanu my beloved never disappoints and has indeed hired a gaggle of lawyers to go up against Y.Entertainment.

youtube

You can watch his whole press conference (with English subs) here.

It includes highlights such as:

Yoon would like to be fairly compensated because he has to provide for his family. His family are seven cats. He's brought pictures.

He's now officially gone freelance and Y.Ent are no longer allowed to use his name.

Yoon hasn't been paid in a very long time, even though he's tried to negotiate and reach an agreement. He's tired of having to run after his money.

He's "only" owed about 100.000 baht (~2.555€ / 2772$ / £2,192) but Yoon's lawyer states that this is a systematic problem and lots of actors in Series Y (Thai BL) aren't fairly compensated. Several actors have reached out to him personally. He also says that he doesn't put blame on the companies because Series Y is a very competitive field. Still, young actors should be careful about who they work with and stand up for themselves if they aren't treated fairly.

They're showing pictures of Yoon's cats again. Yoon has to provide for them, after all:

Yoon doesn't have acting work lined up right now but he's actively looking for new projects and is in talks to join a new agency.

I'm not sure if this only affects Yoon or the other actors who are owed money by Y.Ent as well but apparently the cut-off date for payment was 11 March. He was offered money after that date but didn't take it because he already knew that he wanted to terminate the contract. Apparently, he had been with Y.Ent for over 4 years and the contract was supposed to be a six year contract (I'm not too sure about this one since the subs are terrible and so is my Thai lmao). Because he's been with them for so long, the whole thing pretty much blindsided him.

Yoon's mother is supportive of him acting in Y Series.

Many other Thai BL actors have talked to Yoon about being treated unfairly and he wants to spread awareness about that.

Apparently, Y.Ent never stated a reason for not paying him. They only told him that he'd be paid at a later date.

Yoon's lawyer says that he has every right to sue but for now he only wants to negotiate. He again urges young actors to thoroughly check who they're working with.

Yoon is asked if this disagreement will cause him problems with other companies down the line but he says that he doesn't believe it will negatively affect him as he's trying to solve the issue peacefully.

Yoon's lawyer again says that actors should read their contracts very carefully. Some contracts don't give the actors any rights but only duties. They might then have to hire a laywer to be able to break contract.

Yoon then says that sometimes he wasn't sent the script before filming and when arrived on set all he'd be given was an old brief that he'd already read. He was then asked (by other crew etc) if he'd practiced his lines which of course he couldn't. This embarrassed him.

The lawyer also adds that there is often a discrepancy between the number of episodes in a series and queues for a shoot. I'm guessing that he means that the actors won't realise that they actually have to work more hours for less money (since compensation seems to be based on episodes rather than hours worked?). This is very difficult to renegotiate and almost no actor in their 20s can afford to settle this in court.

This isn't the first time Yoon has spoken up against the mistreatment of himself and other Thai BL actors in the industry and I'm so glad he has the means to stand up for himself when so many other actors obviously can't.

Fans are so quick to blame bad shows and weird behind-the-scenes stuff on the actors themselves when in reality it's so often due to mismanagement and mistreatment. Imagine not even having a script on shooting day (yes, I'm aware this is common practice in soap entertainment but these are rookie actors without the experience and support that seasoned soap actors have - also in this case it seems to have surprised even the crew on set). No wonder things were awkward in Unforgotten Night. Do you really think actors who don't have a script get to practice and negotiate their intimate scenes together?

And judging by what Tor Atagorn has spoken up about recently (and many other actors have alluded to in the past) this is only the very tip of the iceberg, with young and inexperienced actors deliberately trapped in contracts that they have no way of getting out of on their own.

Yoon's lawyer urged young actors to be more aware of who they're working for in order to better protect themselves. In a similar vein, BL watchers should ideally be more aware of whose shows they're watching and what companies have a shady track record.

If nothing else, do it for the cats! These actors have children they need to provide for, after all!

#yoon phusanu #thai bl #unforgotten night #for him the series #jane watches stuff #i need a tag for bl industry things #bl industry #(perhaps?)#pls assume i've been replaced if i ever NOT talk about mistreatment in the bl industry #this is so very important to me #i've seen it happen in the games industry #and we should fight and show support whenever we can #because passionate and young creatives are so easy to exploit #and most people seem to think it's okay because they like the game or series or movie they get out of it

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neuroticbookworm · 4 months ago

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Engagement of QL Fandom in Indian Queer Media

I was tagged by @lurkingshan and invited to respond to an ask she received from @impala124 that noted the absence of India in the Asian queer media spaces and discussions, and questioned the reasons behind it. @starryalpacasstuff has also responded to it in a great post (check out the reblog additions for a treasure trove of Indian queer media recs), discussing, among many things, Korea’s culture export aiding their queer media ventures, access to Indian queer media, and the quality of Indian queer media. @twig-tea’s addition discussed the ease of access of Thai BLs via YouTube and how it prompted Korea and Japan to re-enter the genre.

My thoughts on Indian queer media are complicated and involve several detours to understand Indian media culture, its economic power, and how it navigates international viewership. For context, I am an Indian cinephile who grew up watching a wide variety of Indian media in terms of both language and genre. I naturally transitioned into watching Western content as globalization of the 2010s brought HBO and Comedy Central to Indian screens, and later sought out queer media, Asian media and Asian queer media on the internet.

Indian Media Industry - A Primer

I know there are a lot of countries right now that produce QL media, so I am gonna mainly consider Thailand, Japan, and Korea, the three countries most prolific with ql, for the purpose of this discussion. All of these countries, while regionally diverse, have managed to considerably homogenize in language and culture over the course of history and colonization. India, on the other hand, is still significantly and distinctly diverse in language, culture, religion, food, media styles, social norms, and on and on. India has 22 official languages and thousands of regional ones that are used in various capacities everyday. This diversity is then reflected in the media produced by India, with multiple powerhouse film industries dominating box offices simultaneously. Bollywood is the biggest one and obviously well known internationally, but Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Punjabi, Bengali-language film industries are successful in their own right and consistently produce box office hits and self-sustain in the larger Indian media landscape. This makes domestic media highly regional in India. Even today, in the age of social media, it takes a box office success to the tune of hundreds of millions of rupees for a film to break out of its domestic audience and cross over into other Indian states.

This diversity has also led to the different industries developing media styles unique to them. I watched this video a while ago of a creator documenting his experience of dipping toes into Indian Cinema for the first time, and he ends up covering three movies from three different industries, because the pathos of each of them is so fundamentally different yet effective in their own ways. This diversity also applies to the television industry, both traditional cable TV soaps, and the modern shows made for streaming sites. And all of this, *waves hands*, presents a set of challenges like no other country faces for both Indian queer creators and Indian queer media audiences.

The Challenges for Creators

Since the Indian media industry is not a big monolith and is made up of multiple film industries, queer creators who are trying to get their foot in the door will face a unique uphill battle in whichever regional industry they’re trying to break into. And trying to research, learn, and understand each and every single one of them will take me and my non-existent research team years, so the simpler thing to do would be listing the factors that have worked for other countries to foster their media industries to produce QL content, and discuss if India could replicate them. The list goes like this:

Japan’s rich history in yaoi

Thailand’s use of BL as a soft power to promote tourism

Korea’s culture export via kpop and other media

While India does have religious mythology that discusses sex, gender and queerness, it is often subtext with a lot of intersectionality. Does Ardhanarishvara represent fluid gender, or a symbol of harmony, or both? The debates are endless. Japan’s yaoi roots are as deep as they are explicit. And this rich history could be why the Japanese domestic audience is open to queer media even when the country is still conservative.

Thailand’s rise as a major player in the QL industry is remarkable, but there is a case to be made that the country’s media industry was directly and indirectly boosted by the government’s interest in establishing revenue from tourism, and exporting culture to international audiences via food and media. While the revenue from tourism in India is substantial, the Indian economy is not built on it. And the Indian media industry is thriving and regularly makes bank with their already established content models, so the producers have a pretty low incentive to deviate and fund queer media.

I bet every coin I own that not a single one of us on this hellsite have successfully eluded the allure of Korean media in our lives. The Korean media industry is a well-calibrated machine that shall and will target every single human into funneling their time, attention and money into the Korean culture and economy. And I think queer creators looking to make queer content in Korea would’ve had good incubation in an industry that was looking to make as much content as possible. And once again, while Indian movies have significant international box office collections, that is not where the Indian media industry, and just India in general, makes its money. The priorities are just not the same. And to be perfectly honest, India is nowhere near the level of Korea at producing and exporting television shows to international audiences.

All of this is a long winded way of saying that the conditions required to foster a QL industry in India are not the same as what we have seen work so far from the other major players. And sadly no one has really figured out the winning formula yet.

These are just a few reasons, and I haven’t even discussed nepotism and how painful class mobility is in India, making it even harder for new queer creators to break into the industry. There’s a reason why movies with queer representation like Badhaai Do, Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan, Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga, and Kapoor & Sons all feature characters in the upper middle class or above. Hell, they’re even played by actors whose portfolio is already filled with daring and experimental roles, or by first- or second-gen nepo babies who would literally have nothing to lose from the potential backlash for playing a queer character. Poor, queer characters in Indian media have never been a part of a fluffy romance as far as I know. They are reserved for the gritty dramas where intersectionality of queerness, poverty, class and caste could be examined.

The Challenges for the Audience

And once again, all of this, *aggressively waves hands*, makes things harder for even the domestic audience to engage with Indian queer media, let alone international audiences. Kathaal - The Core, a 2023 Malayalam movie about a queer man in his fifties coming out of the closet and contesting in his village body elections, was a box office success in Kerala, and I can tell y’all with complete certainty that not many people outside of Kerala would’ve even heard of it. And this was not some small indie venture – in fact, the lead characters were played by Mammootty and Jyothika, who are both absolute legends in their own right in the South Indian film industry.

Super Deluxe was a 2019 Tamil-language black comedy film that tells four interwoven stories that run in parallel, and one of the stories is about a trans woman who, pre-transition, was married and had a son. She returns to her family as her post-transition self after years of disappearance, and the film engages in conversation around sex and gender, through the innocent questions of her young son. The movie is gorgeously made, and outrageously sharp and witty in its commentary on society’s views on sex, morality, religion and family. And once again, I don’t think it is well-known outside of the domestic and international award-circuit audiences it was promoted to (last I checked, it was available to domestic audiences on Netflix).

Sometimes, even the domestic audience might miss the queer representation in their regional media when it is indie enough to not get aggressively promoted. The Hindi-language anthology movie from Netflix, Ajeeb Daastaans (2021), featured a story where two women from different caste and social class meet at the workplace (the sapphic story, Geeli Pucchi, starts at 1:17:05, if anyone wants to check it out). It served biting commentary on the intersectionality of queerness, misogyny, caste and class. And once again, I’ve never found a person with whom I could discuss it with (other than my mom, with whom I watched it).

And sometimes, even when a massive show with queer representation is well promoted and well received by critics, it still manages to fly under the radar in Indian queer fandom spaces. Amazon Prime India spent a lot of coin on the show Made in Heaven (2019) – and it was worth it. The show follows the lives of two wedding planners, Tara and Karan. Karan is closeted (except to his close friends) for most of the show, but after he makes some powerful enemies in his line of work, he gets publicly outed, which puts him on the path of dealing with his family’s shades of acceptance, queer rights activism, and reconciling with an old friend. The car scene in episode 9 made me cry, and yet I’ve never read a word about this show from Indian QL fan blogs here on Tumblr.

Following every film and TV show that releases in one language, across all modes and platforms, and keeping an eye out for queer representation is hard enough. Doing it in multiple languages is downright impossible. And then personal preferences come into play. Personally, I enjoy nearly all genres of media, but I am primarily an angst monster, so I seek out and watch sad shit on the regular. All four examples I’ve listed in this section are good queer representations, but they are deeply sad, rage-inducing, heartbreaking and realistic. If one wanted to watch an Indian queer romance that’s inside the bubble, I’m not sure if they can even find one – I have certainly not come across any. Even the queer Bollywood movies designed for a box office run, paying homage to iconic Bollywood romance sequences, were still outside the bubble. When a niche audience like the QL fandom collides with a complex media-churning machine like the Indian media industry that is fundamentally not designed to cater to them, all we get is a lot of puzzled looks and question marks.

A Thought Experiment On The Future Of Indian QLs

Now that I have established the challenges, I want to engage in a little thought experiment – if we were to receive a steady stream of Indian QL content, what would it look like, and how can the fandom engage with it?

If we are looking for content from a stable production entity for Indian queer media, like Thailand’s GMMTV, Japan’s MBS Drama Shower, and Korea’s Strongberry, we would be waiting for a long time, at the very least a decade or two. What we could get are small indie queer shows like Romil and Jugal, squirreled away in a streaming platform exclusive to India and only accessible internationally via VPN. Another example is the list of sapphic shows @twig-tea shared with us a while ago, here. These are gonna be low budget, probably-not-great-quality shows reminiscent of early GMMTV.

Another variety of QL content we could get are the Bollywood queer romance films and TV shows. They will be cheesy and tropey and romantic, and might interact with the bubble, but probably mostly from the safety of an upper middle class setting. This means they would eventually run out of fresh perspectives they could tune into in their limited scope and the stories might turn stale and repetitive (I’m deriving this from the general state of things in the Indian media landscape over the last couple years). International access might be a little easier than the previous case, but not as easy as going to YouTube and hitting play.

The third and final variety are the gritty dramas with heavy social, cultural, religious, gender and class commentary that Indian cinema industry has always made, and has upgraded in the recent years to include queerness. Once again, the access will be hard, but if we are looking for queer stories that also show the audience what it is like being queer in India, beyond the glitz, the glam and the colors of pre-packaged Indian experience often sold to the West, this is where we will find it. Most of it will be sad, but we are a sad bunch who constantly make sad shit, so it will be on brand for us.

And all of these different varieties of content are gonna need to be picked up and promoted by the Indian folks in the QL fandom who are tuned into these regional industries. India not being a cultural monolith that is easy to package and ship is precisely why we have all these beautiful and crazy and sometimes even contradictory styles of media that are offered for us to explore. And therefore, the fandom engagement on Indian QL content would also vastly differ from the fandom engagement for Japan, Thailand and Korea. A dedicated fandom captain might not emerge, but rather, a collective group of folks tuning into and promoting finds from their regional industries would be the way to go. In addition, if this content is not available in English, we would need fan subbers to provide translation expertise to even make it accessible, something we see often for Japanese media on Tumblr.

I know from observation that watching media in a different regional language could sometimes be as foreign to Indian audiences as watching media from other countries. The language, traditions, mannerisms, social mores and food would all be different from region to region, but I guess it would be a good litmus test to observe how well the fandom acclimates to a culture that is so eye-wateringly diverse and not as constantly promoted to them.

When I was texting @waitmyturtles discussing how we can approach answering this question (remember when this all started with a question, some two thousand-ish words ago? Yes, that question), at a point in our conversation I exclaimed "Ugh, everything in India is too complicated!" This long-ass post of mine is in no way the complete account of why things are the way they are in the Indian queer media landscape. But all I know for sure is that it’s not simple. And I really do not want anything related to India to be simple, because being unbearably frustrating and complicated is not a bug, but a feature of India. The road to Indian QLs is unique, but I will do my best to check the paths and share and recommend them to my friends whenever possible. And I invite my fellow Indian QL fans to do the same.

#well i sure didn't start the draft with a plan to write >2k words #and yet here we are #indian queer media #indian ql #fandom meta #long post #media recs #made in heaven #super deluxe #badhaai do #shubh mangal zyada saavdhan

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