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...

I've been having a more difficult time lately finding a BL drama that interested me enough that I wanted to stick with it till the end. I started with Korean drama Hello Monster, mainly to see what all the fuss is about with Park Bo Gum, but I didn't make it far enough before getting bored. I finally got to see the sublime Call Me By Your Name at the cinema, but I won't review it here. Instead I took a recommendation online to watch Chinese BL drama Like Love . And I'm very glad I did. Summary: University student Maiding is a nerd but likes to think that he is outgoing and sociable. However he only has his roommate Li Meng as a friend and doesn't understand why there's no one else. One day Li Meng asks Maiding to find out whether their very handsome dorm neighbour Ziyan An is gay, as a lot of his  fujoshi friends are interested in finding out the truth. Ziyan responds that he's bi, which intrigues Maiding. He starts following Ziyan around and basically fo...

The series Together with M e (TWM) came to my attention via a Youtube edit called something like 'Knock x Korn', as the format of many BL edits usually are. I could probably find it again if I wanted to, but once was enough to interest me in watching the whole series. I also discovered more recently that TWM is in fact a prequel to an apparently so-so BL drama called 'Bad Romance'. I think it makes sense to watch them in chronological order, rather than Back to the Future style. More to the point, I watched some of the first episode of 'Bad Romance' about two months ago and gave up in disgust, so that's even more reason to start here. SPOILERS WARNING: I've loved this show and want to share as much of my feelings about it as possible without ruining any newcomer's enjoyment of its surprises. I have gone into a lot of detail about the plot in this review, so be warned. Summary: Childhood friends Knock and Korn were separated when Knock's famil...

Time to take a look at the Thai BL drama, Love Sick: The Series . This show ran for two seasons over 2014 and 2015 and remains immensely popular. It's also THE benchmark for Thai BL, and has had an enormous influence on all BL ever since it first screened. But is it really that good? Summary: Noh and Phun attend a prestigious Thai boys high school, oddly nicknamed Friday.  Noh, blithe and sarcastic, is the president of the music club. Quiet and intelligent Phun is very popular and handsome, and one of the leaders of the student council. Both boys have girlfriends who attend an obviously expensive girls' convent school - the beautiful elegant Aim is Phun's long-term girlfriend, and cute Yuri is trying as hard as she can to be Noh's official girlfriend. Phun's father tells his son that he must get rid of Aim and date a friend's daughter for political benefit. Desperate, Phun comes up with a plan to deceive his BL-loving sister Pang into believing he and Noh are ...

I'm not entirely sure but, after having thought about it,  HIStory: Stay Away From Me (HSAFM) was probably the first BL drama I watched. Summary of the plot: Two guys become step brothers and are forced to live together when their respective parents get married and go on an extended honeymoon. One of them Feng He is sensitive, intelligent, gay and shy, the other Cheng Qing is a very famous star with pretty boy looks who is vain, arrogant and a bully. They don't hit it off and their life together in their flat becomes increasingly difficult. Eventually they each being to see the good points in each other, which soon turns into unanticipated feelings. I didn't really enjoy this series at the time, though I kept up with watching all the episodes until the end, but I see now that it was probably a really good introduction to BL. It has a lot of the elements of the BL formula and uses most of them well. It's not particularly original or well made, but the production and...