A World of Asian "Boys Love" Drama

Openly gay Korean director Leesong Hee-il's revisits LGBT themes from his other movies, such as blog favourite No Regret, in his 2014 film Night Flight. His portrayal of gay experience from a uniquely Korean perspective and distinctive direction makes his work highly watchable. But his warping of his stories under the magnifying glass of the strictures of Korean society can make his fatalistic view of homophobia and anti-gay violence tough to stomach at times. Night Flight is monumentally grim, despite its deceptively pretty BL-style high school promotional poster, but it's no less riveting for that. Summary: Three friends since junior high are now in senior school, but they are steadily growing apart. Yong-Ju is secretly gay and tries to keep a low profile, hoping to cruise through school more or less unnoticed by the bullies and bad teachers, not liked but not disliked either. He's had a crush on strong, silent Gi-Woong ever since junior high, but they are now completel...

Examples of Korean BL haven't been easy to find. I've struggled to find anything other than "No Regret", a fantastic movie in its own right but it's not really BL in the strictest sense. Bromance seems to be more common in Korea, a genre that I always try to avoid due to its cynical use of gay-baiting. Mini-series The Boy Next Door is more bromance than BL on the face of it, but more than anything else, it's a brilliant and really effective satire of BL. Summary: University students Gijae and Kyutae live next door to each other in a block of small flats. They meet out front when smoking a cigarette and don't really hit it off. They feel uncomfortable with each other but at least make an effort to be more friendly with each other. However all their meetings in public end up having the very odd appearance of them being a new couple in love. Their friends and acquaintances are mystified by how close they seem to be, and they all jump to the conclusion that...

I'm going to jump forward now, and review a Korean movie I watched last night called No Regret . It had an immediate impact on me so I thought I would write about it while its impressions are still fresh in my mind. Summary: A young factory worker Su-min is struggling to make ends meet, and works numerous jobs. He's openly gay but has never had a relationship. When working as a for-hire driver one night, he meets Jae-min, drunk at a bar, and drives him home. Jae-min is instantly smitten but Su-min baulks and runs away, even though he is obviously attracted to him. When he loses his job at the factory, Su-min ends up working as a male prostitute at a host bar. Jae-min continues to pursue him obsessively, to the point where Su-min threatens to kill him if he doesn't stop following him. Eventually feelings develop further, but it's at this point that the story suddenly turns upside down and Su-min becomes desperate. Su-min makes a decision that could lead to total catast...