Takumi-kun Season 1: And The Spring Breeze Whispers
Japanese BL mainstay from 2007 Takumi-kun Season 1: And The Spring Breeze Whispers is one of the most famous BL dramas ever made, and still gets glowing reviews online whenever it comes up. It's based on a manga, and this comes across on screen.
Summary: Quiet and solitary high school second-year student Takumi Hayama suddenly finds himself the centre of attention, when the most popular senior in school Giichi Saki ("Gii") rescues him from a cafeteria fight. Gii makes it clear to everyone that he is now Takumi's protector, which earns poor Takumi some notoriety among the schoolboy gossips, and some enemies too. Gii and Takumi are also allocated the same dorm room. Handsome Gii very quickly makes it clear that he is in love with Takumi. This mortifies Takumi; he can barely tolerate anyone touching him, due to a horrific childhood trauma. Will he be able to overcome his traumas and distrust, to be able to love Gii in return?
There's not much to this drama, with a thin thread of a narrative structure pulling along its characters through a few episodic patches of storyline. It takes place entirely within the school, and while it's a beautiful stately building with extensive grounds, it's too isolated to give us any sense of a real world outside the gates. This adds to the airlessness of the story, it's completely cocooned within its own fantasy BL world where - true to the original manga - the boys wear classical school blazers, sport foppish hairstyles and study in heavily-draped leather-bound libraries. We hear about Takumi's dead brother and Gii's father's business, but that's about it in terms of their lives outside school.
It's charming and sweet to see Gii so enamoured, even if Takumi is little more than a passive cipher. This means that Gii has the weight of the narrative riding on his broad shoulders. He gets help from some of the secondary characters - the jealous ex, influential friends outside school, the sensible prefect, the athlete rival for Takumi's affections - but the pace and interest only pick up when Gii is on screen with Takumi. There's a plot point that involves a violin concert that's very nicely put together, especially because we finally get an appearance of a personality out of Takumi. It also shows the lengths that Gii will go to, to please his pretty boyfriend. There's a ludicrous running race involving Gii that he should never have accepted, but it produces a very sweet BL moment that makes it worthwhile.
Being pure fantasy, there's little logic to what goes on at the school or with the boys. The only reason we're given for Gii's sudden overwhelming love for Takumi is a rather twee backstory about a violin concert. Takumi is physically attacked a number of times throughout the series, for reasons that should have put the perpetrators behind bars. The trauma Takumi is afflicted with (called "human-phobia" by some of the characters) involves horrifying child sexual abuse that the programme unwisely chooses to show indirectly in flashback rather than by suggestion. It takes all of Gii's love and patience to gain Takumi's trust and overcome his trauma, and his adorable efforts - and Takumi's grateful acknowledgement of them - are easily the best and most successful aspects of the screenplay.
But the aspect that surprised me the most was how much this show resembles Thai series 2 Moons. I'm finally beginning to understand why that program opted to place all its main (straight?) characters in homoerotic relationships, even when they had girlfriends. It's BL fantasy at its purest. It's not even remotely a question of sexual preference; it's more like a child's confused awakening of sexual curiosity and sexual attraction. Classic BL portrays it as merely latching onto the nearest cute comforting object. 2 Moons has the more overt sexual references of a modern drama, whereas Takumi-kun uses the sexual tension of a claustrophobic all-boys boarding school in the manner of a more traditional drama. But both of them start with the same assumption: straight boys can fall in love with each other and have a romantic then sexual relationship. It's a testament to the influence of Takumi-kun, and of the original BL/yaoi manga in general, that one of the most loved Thai BL dramas of recent years has gone back to the basics handed down by one of the monoliths of Japanese BL.
Rating: 10 out of 20
Ending: Happy.
Best scene: Takumi cheering for Gii at the running race. 100% cheese, but of the highest quality.
Postscript: Takumi-kun comes as a five series set, following Gii and Takumi as their relationship progresses through the school year. I also watched Takumi-kun 2 (2009), which I won't bother to review in full, as it was very bad. Both the main actors in series 1 were replaced, and while the new actors were better than the original actors, it's never a good idea to do something so drastic in an ongoing series. (Perhaps they had no choice?) The story focuses way too much on the tragically bad health of one of Gii's friends, leaving the leads with very little to do apart from panicked hand-wringing and reflecting morosely on their own mortality. It's excruciatingly boring and maudlin. Avoid.
Summary: Quiet and solitary high school second-year student Takumi Hayama suddenly finds himself the centre of attention, when the most popular senior in school Giichi Saki ("Gii") rescues him from a cafeteria fight. Gii makes it clear to everyone that he is now Takumi's protector, which earns poor Takumi some notoriety among the schoolboy gossips, and some enemies too. Gii and Takumi are also allocated the same dorm room. Handsome Gii very quickly makes it clear that he is in love with Takumi. This mortifies Takumi; he can barely tolerate anyone touching him, due to a horrific childhood trauma. Will he be able to overcome his traumas and distrust, to be able to love Gii in return?
There's not much to this drama, with a thin thread of a narrative structure pulling along its characters through a few episodic patches of storyline. It takes place entirely within the school, and while it's a beautiful stately building with extensive grounds, it's too isolated to give us any sense of a real world outside the gates. This adds to the airlessness of the story, it's completely cocooned within its own fantasy BL world where - true to the original manga - the boys wear classical school blazers, sport foppish hairstyles and study in heavily-draped leather-bound libraries. We hear about Takumi's dead brother and Gii's father's business, but that's about it in terms of their lives outside school.
It's charming and sweet to see Gii so enamoured, even if Takumi is little more than a passive cipher. This means that Gii has the weight of the narrative riding on his broad shoulders. He gets help from some of the secondary characters - the jealous ex, influential friends outside school, the sensible prefect, the athlete rival for Takumi's affections - but the pace and interest only pick up when Gii is on screen with Takumi. There's a plot point that involves a violin concert that's very nicely put together, especially because we finally get an appearance of a personality out of Takumi. It also shows the lengths that Gii will go to, to please his pretty boyfriend. There's a ludicrous running race involving Gii that he should never have accepted, but it produces a very sweet BL moment that makes it worthwhile.
Being pure fantasy, there's little logic to what goes on at the school or with the boys. The only reason we're given for Gii's sudden overwhelming love for Takumi is a rather twee backstory about a violin concert. Takumi is physically attacked a number of times throughout the series, for reasons that should have put the perpetrators behind bars. The trauma Takumi is afflicted with (called "human-phobia" by some of the characters) involves horrifying child sexual abuse that the programme unwisely chooses to show indirectly in flashback rather than by suggestion. It takes all of Gii's love and patience to gain Takumi's trust and overcome his trauma, and his adorable efforts - and Takumi's grateful acknowledgement of them - are easily the best and most successful aspects of the screenplay.
But the aspect that surprised me the most was how much this show resembles Thai series 2 Moons. I'm finally beginning to understand why that program opted to place all its main (straight?) characters in homoerotic relationships, even when they had girlfriends. It's BL fantasy at its purest. It's not even remotely a question of sexual preference; it's more like a child's confused awakening of sexual curiosity and sexual attraction. Classic BL portrays it as merely latching onto the nearest cute comforting object. 2 Moons has the more overt sexual references of a modern drama, whereas Takumi-kun uses the sexual tension of a claustrophobic all-boys boarding school in the manner of a more traditional drama. But both of them start with the same assumption: straight boys can fall in love with each other and have a romantic then sexual relationship. It's a testament to the influence of Takumi-kun, and of the original BL/yaoi manga in general, that one of the most loved Thai BL dramas of recent years has gone back to the basics handed down by one of the monoliths of Japanese BL.
Rating: 10 out of 20
Ending: Happy.
Best scene: Takumi cheering for Gii at the running race. 100% cheese, but of the highest quality.
Postscript: Takumi-kun comes as a five series set, following Gii and Takumi as their relationship progresses through the school year. I also watched Takumi-kun 2 (2009), which I won't bother to review in full, as it was very bad. Both the main actors in series 1 were replaced, and while the new actors were better than the original actors, it's never a good idea to do something so drastic in an ongoing series. (Perhaps they had no choice?) The story focuses way too much on the tragically bad health of one of Gii's friends, leaving the leads with very little to do apart from panicked hand-wringing and reflecting morosely on their own mortality. It's excruciatingly boring and maudlin. Avoid.
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