A World of Asian "Boys Love" Drama

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...

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...

Time to go back to the beginning, with HIStory Season 1: My Hero , the very first instalment. Summary: Student Lan Xi dies in hospital, with her boyfriend Ying Xiong by her side. An angel of death (for some reason, this is translated as 'genie' in the subtitles I viewed) takes her soul to Limbo but realises he has made a mistake, so he sends Lan Xi back. She possesses the dying body of a young bookish male student at Xiong's university called Gu Ren. The angel gives her one condition for her rebirth: she must receive a kiss of love from Xiong in 7 days, or her soul will be taken back and Ren will die. The first thing that strikes the viewer who is familiar with some of the brilliant season two series is how low-rent the production is. The sets and costumes are ordinary (the angel wears a sort of bedsheet like a toga), the dialogue is amateurish, the acting is average at best, and the direction is confused and ponderous. It's hard to believe it was made in 2017, its ...

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...

Certain aspects of Thai BL series Two Moons really mystify me, I definitely think it's worth a review, I'd love to hear your comments about it as well. Summary: Quiet and unassuming Wayo commences his studies at a university which his high-school crush Phana also attends. Wayo is surprised when he is elected by his faculty to participate in a university-wide popularity contest as a "Moon" (ie, the most popular male student in his faculty).  Being very handsome and popular among all the students, Phana had been chosen as the university Moon when he was a freshman, so he and Wayo come into more regular contact as a result. They don't get along at first. As his senior, Phana is dismissive and harsh with Wayo, who is hurt by such mean words from his crush and so he responds with contempt and disrespect. Wayo's irrepressible friend Ming supports Wayo and urges him not to give up on Phana. As preparations for the Moons and Stars contest continue, Phana begins to ...

So now it's time to step back into what I consider a more standard BL drama - the Thai series SOTUS . Summary: Handsome intelligent Kongpop begins his freshman year at a university, majoring in Engineering. A clan of Engineering seniors soon enforces a strict oppressive regime of hazing, ritualised gatherings and discipline on the new students. The main hazer Arthit is particularly brutal. Kongpop, horrified by the pointless cruelty, rebels against the seniors and vocally opposes them at their gatherings, sometimes even mocking them. This incenses Arthit, who singles Kongpop out for ongoing humiliation and punishment. Kongpop soon sees the point of the hazing and what the senior hazers are trying to achieve. As his rebellious behaviour mellows, he also begins to reconsider his feelings towards Arthit. He delivers sweet compliments to Arthit very casually, and which soon increase and intensify. Arthit is mortified and pushes Kongpop away repeatedly. Can Kongpop convince Arthit tha...