A World of Asian "Boys Love" Drama

2019 Thai BL series Theory of Love (TOL) is regularly on lists as one of the best BL series of that year. So does it live up to the hype? Summary: Four university seniors studying film and the cinematic arts live a pretty typical life - lots of fun, drinking, sex and a bit of work and study in between. Sensitive Third has a secret crush on his best friend Khai, a selfish womaniser with a total inability to treat people with respect. Third has kept his feelings to himself since freshman year, but Khai's insensitivity and steady stream of girlfriends finally convince Third he's a lost cause so he tries to distance himself and get over his feelings for Khai. But Khai's behaviour suddenly becomes very sweet and ambiguous. Is he trying to flirt with Third? If he is, why is he still dating girls? When an explosive revelation rips the gang apart, Khai's life is turned upside down. On paper, TOL's story isn't anything we haven't seen many times before. "Sec...

Thai BL 2gether The Series (2TS) generated massive hype when it first began to air in early 2020. Everyone loved its fantastic early start, and word of mouth spread quickly across social media, pulling in big weekly audiences for creators at GMMTV. But as the series progressed, some viewers' opinions started to sour. Let's take a closer look and try to work out if it really is true love or nothing more than fake flirting. Warning : spoilers ahead, read with care if you haven't watched the whole series yet. Summary: Freshman law student Tine is a free-and-easy ladies man, and, together with his three best friends, he lives a fun, carefree life at university. He's fallen into a dating slump though, and he can't find a decent connection with any of the women he meets. When an effeminate gay man Green loudly confesses his love for him and starts stalking him, horrified Tine tries to find ploys to get rid of him (you'd think he'd just say he's not gay and...

2019 Thai BL series Until We Meet Again (UWMA) aims at presenting a story at the more dramatic and romantic end of the BL spectrum, without straying far from the formula. You'll run the usual gamut of tentative first steps, painful uncertainties and long loving stares, but prepare yourselves for such intense longing that it can even overcome death. There's comedy here too, but, much like that other recent Thai BL success story He's Coming to Me, the true unifying emotional force and strength behind UWMA lies in its supernatural theme. SPOILERS WARNING: I go into a fair amount of detail about the evolution of some of this series' characters in this review, so this is a heads-up for some substantial spoilers. Summary: In the late 1980s, two young gay lovers at university Inn (also called Intouch) and Korn try to overcome obstacles that are preventing their relationship, especially their families. When their angry fathers make a final attempt to separate them for good,...

Get ready to take a step back into the fluffiest and sweetest of BL fantasy worlds, with 2019 Thai series Great Men Academy - where school lessons are a series of gaming adventures, wish-granting unicorns roam the forests, and manipulating your friends is never the best way to achieve success. Summary: High school girl Love is obsessed with dreamboat Vier from the local private boys school, Great Men Academy (GMA). Vier has won his school competition "The Greatest" two years in a row, and he's now aiming for his third and final win as a senior. Love stalks him online and has decorated her room wall to wall with images of handsome Vier. When Love is suspended from her own school for three months for fighting with a student about Vier, she tries to come up with a solution to meet him. Her strait-laced older brother Good, who attends GMA and is a dorm monitor, refuses to help her. One day, while hiking through the local forest between her house and the school, Love comes a...

The handsome protagonists of novel 'Mr Zhang and Mr Zhang' deserve a last look-in, with their final three episodes coming to a close. They are going to be difficult to write about without giving away spoilers and without writing too abstractly, but I'll give it a try. (To read my earlier review of episodes 1 to 3, you can find it  here .) Summary: Zhang Nan and Zhang Zhe continue with their struggles in their new separate lives, pining for each other but still heavily constrained by the forced exile imposed on them in episode three. They desperately try to meet when they can, but most of their secret contact is over the phone. The lives of their friends continue to deteriorate as well, and everyone is increasingly despairing of their future. Chunzi's relationship turns upside down and destabilises all his friends. The three final episodes of this grim mini-series are very grim indeed. The earlier trap set for Zhe and Nan is now inescapable and exerts an increasingly...

After watching the wonderful Crossing the Line recently, I decided it was time to catch up on the rest of the various HIStory sub-series from both seasons 1 and 2. I'd originally started watching Right or Wrong a couple of weeks back, but I had struggled with its early episodes, so this was a good opportunity to revisit it and give it a second chance. Summary: Fei Sheng Zhe is a university student who also participates in the drama club with his friend Ruan. When a lost young girl Yo Yo interrupts their rehearsals, Zhe and Ruan take her back to her home, only to find that it's an unliveable mess. Yo Yo's divorced father Shi Yi Jie can barely keep up with the demands of being a single parent. Zhe and Ruan are shocked to discover that Yi Jie is also their university lecturer. He has a terrible reputation for being strict and intimidating, which proves to be an understatement when they finally meet him in class. Zhe agrees to work as a nanny and cook for the father and daug...

Adorable couple Kongpop and Arthit are back, in the SOTUS second season SOTUS S: The Series  ! I've been very keen to see how their relationship has progressed since series one. And I've been gunning for a Prem / Wat romance! Summary: Arthit has started his new job at an electrical goods company Ocean Electric and is discovering that he is being treated like a university junior again, although in a very different adult world. Kongpop is now an Engineering senior at university and the head hazer. His approach to hazing is the complete opposite of the violence and humiliation of his predecessors; while still being very firm and sticking with ritualised activities, he prefers being constructive, helpful and positive. They weather these new circumstances of their lives together and give each other the strength and happiness to persevere, and of course they get by with a little help from their friends. Even though their social group now knows about their relationship after season...

Taiwanese BL series Dark Blue and Moonlight is something of a mixed bag and a struggle to like at times. But it's at least more human than so many other dramas I've watched lately - it's both ugly and beautiful, dull and fascinating, camp and restrained. Summary: Aspiring artist Hai Qing notices a beautiful man Yan Fei at his local swimming pool and surreptitiously takes a few photos with his phone. However Yan Fei spots him, corners him in the locker room and the two share a long kiss, the sort of kiss that changes your life. The passion and deep connection between the two men is immediate and profound. It's love at first sight. Yan Fei gives Hai Qing his phone number, but Hai Qing almost immediately loses it through no fault of his own. Will these two men, whose destinies are now so closely bound together, ever meet again? They pine for each other and never forget their bond, but move on with their lives, believing they will never see each other again. Hai Qing mee...

If I have a guilty pleasure when it comes to BL, it's Chinese series Advance Bravely . How can something so slight and vacuous be so entertaining? Summary: Xia Yao is a young and supremely beautiful waif, from a very wealthy, very powerful family. He used to be a ladies man but he's recently become more solitary and stay-at-home, earning him the nickname 'The Monk', which he loathes. He is pursued relentlessly by the 'goddess' Yuan Ru, whom he rejects repeatedly to no effect. She is entirely unfazed by anything he dishes out at her and will stop at nothing till she marries him. She enlists the help of her older brother Yuan Zong, a highly skilled former special forces soldier who now operates his own successful bodyguard business. The brother and sister are from a very different background to Yao, having grown up poor and then left motherless at a young age, with Zong having to take on the responsibilities of raising his baby sister. He obviously knows well hi...

By all accounts, Ai no Kotodama is one of the great Japanese BL dramas, and a benchmark for everything that followed it. So of course, I had to watch it. Summary: Otani and Tachibana have been in a loving relationship for four years since graduating from high school, and live together happily although discreetly. A former high school friend, Yuki, suddenly appears again in their life, and unwittingly destabilises the boys' relationship. Otani knows that she and Tachibana were very close in high school and feels himself becoming jealous of their renewed closeness. At the same time he feels oddly drawn to Yuki himself. Feeling overwhelmed and threatened, Otani lashes out at Tachibana and inadvertently risks publicising his sexuality. Will his insecurity, distrust and jealousy destroy his relationship with Tachibana? I love how this movie starts way beyond the point where most BL dramas end - with the guys in a well-established couple. It just demonstrates that you can create a f...