A World of Asian "Boys Love" Drama

The latest instalment for HIStory season 3, called Make Our Days Count (MODC), is a marked improvement on Trapped, though still not up to the high standard of other sub-series in season two. It's a high-school BL drama, with a distinct preference for keeping it young and light-hearted but with just enough seriousness to give it some sense and purpose. Summary: Top student Yu Shigu has had a difficult life. After his parents died in a car accident when he was younger, his aunt had taken him but she has been struggling financially ever since. With the idea of making his relatives' lives as easy as possible, Yu Shigu studies extremely hard at school and works part time, hoping for a scholarship to university. When we meet him just before exams, his health is deteriorating rapidly because he has been pushing himself too hard. He keeps himself almost completely separate from all the other pupils, which makes him appear haughty and unapproachable. When rebellious layabout Xiang Hao...

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...

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...

I came to 2018 Thai BL series Cause You're My Boy (CYMB), also known as My Tee, after seeing a recommendation on Twitter. This series is exceptionally good, beyond anything I had anticipated after having read a synopsis of its derivative central storyline. It lacks consistency in places, and its production values are bargain-basement, but it still manages to be an instant classic, with some stints of top-notch screenplay. Big Spoilers Warning :  I reveal extensive plot details in this review, especially from episodes 6, 7 and 8. I swore I would never do this in my blog, but I've decided I want to look at some of its narrative choices more closely. I've marked the paragraph that contains spoilers, so that you're able to avoid it if you want to. Summary: High school student Mork leads an eventful rebellious life at school, surrounded by friends and having lots of fun times, though his grades are suffering. He's rather selfish and has street smarts rather than book...

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...

The Taiwanese have a decided knack of doing BL well, with their own distinctive spin on the formula, and the team behind series 'HIStory' is probably its best and most famous exponent.  Crossing the Line episodes 1 through 6  (also known as Boundary Crossing) is a fantastic start to a new sub-series, with a snappy pace, crisp dialogue and some really endearing performances. I think it must still be screening on TV at the time of writing, or only very recently ended, because only episodes 1 through 6 are currently available on YouTube. Summary: Three rebellious boys who have been expelled from high school have started at a new school and immediately cause trouble. Step-brothers Zhen Wen and Zhen Wu are hot-headed fighters, while disdainful bad-boy leader Yu Hao mocks and disrespects authority. When the brothers almost cause a fight with members of the volleyball team, the intelligent and serious team manager Zi Xuan observes Hao's nimble potential as a good player and sugg...

Rejoining the boys from Make It Right in their second season wasn't a hard decision to make. There was more than enough of value in the first season to make it the right choice. But was it really worthwhile in the end? SPOILERS WARNING: there's a lot of detail about the plot of season two in this review. No secrets are revealed, but you should still reconsider reading it if you want no surprise reveals or if you haven't seen season 1 yet. Summary: Fuse and Tee are still in a relationship limbo, with Fuse still unsure about what his relationship with Jean means to him. Frame and Book are closer than ever and virtually live together, but this season severely tests them with some horrifying trials. Fuse's best friend Lokmo meets effeminate and openly gay Yok and is instantly smitten. Yok's mother is still up to her devious tricks, with a view to turning Yok straight. She takes a different tack and enlists Lukmo's ex Praew to be Yok's faghag. For all intent...

I came across references to  Make It Right - Season One in an online forum that was ranking the best Asian BL series ever made. It was right up near the top, so this encouraged me to give it a try. This review only looks at season 1, I'll review season 2 later once I've watched it. Summary: After he finds out his girlfriend has been cheating on him, high school student Fuse has a big night out with his friends and gets very drunk. His friend Tee helps him back to his own place to stay the night, and they have sex. Tee is enamoured but Fuse is very confused. The push and pull of a blossoming BL romance ensues. Fuse is also pursued by hero-worshipper Rodtang, which makes Tee jealous. Fuse's brash womanising friend Frame is secretly using gay dating apps. An anonymous hookup turns out to be his classmate, nerdish Book, which turns both boys' lives upside down. Make no mistake, this is a cookie-cutter BL high school drama. It brings nothing original to the table, and s...

I've seen that Japanese BL drama Seven Days is recommended just about everywhere on the internet as one of the greats. I entirely agree. Summary: At a high school in Yokohama, senior student Shino is in a rut. He's very popular and handsome, though he's unlucky in love. The girls he dates all end up saying the same thing when they break up with him: that his beauty and outwardly gregarious nature hide an obtuseness and vulgarity that only bring disappointment. He hears from his classmates that one of the juniors in his archery club, Seryo, has a very strange dating rule: he will date the first girl that asks him out on a Monday and then break up with her on the Sunday a week later if he's not in love. Shino is intrigued and, meeting Seryo by chance on Monday morning, asks him to go out with him. The usually suave Seryo is genuinely taken aback by Shino's request but accepts. Will the boys find love over the course of seven days, or will they be disappointed in ea...

I'm really excited about this next review because I've stumbled across a BL treasure, the Taiwanese short series Red Balloon . Summary: In 2003, high school student Chen has excellent grades and is an all-round star performer across many different fields. New student and photography enthusiast Wan transfers to Chen's school, under a mysterious cloud about the reasons for his transfer. Outgoing and friendly Wan draws the reticent Chen into a friendship that soon becomes much closer. An extreme decision taken by Chen's father has drastic consequences for the boys' friendship. Almost fourteen years later, Chen (now married) and Wan meet again, setting off a chain of events that could change everything. I think I've come to realise that I prefer BL dramas that have a stronger leaning towards a more serious, original and romantic approach, rather than those that opt for the crowd-pleasing formulaic approach (ie, harsh or hateful character dynamics transform into ...

Chinese series Addicted (also known as Heroin)  is a hugely popular BL series from 2016. There's a widely held view that it's one of the best BL dramas ever made. I don't subscribe to that view at all. Summary: High school student Bai Luo Yin is very unhappy with his estranged mother, who has decided to marry a wealthy party official. His life at school is becoming increasingly complicated by a poisonous relationship with fellow student Gu Hai. The two boys torment each other relentlessly and obstinately refuse to stop the oneupmanship of practical jokes and annoyances. However Hai soon realises that Yin is just as sensitive as Hai is himself, underneath all the sourness and bluster, and he eventually falls in love. His declarations soon pile up and become just as relentless as the previous bullying was. Yin's life now follows a pattern of never-ending resistance and finding ways to avoid Hai. Yin is horrified when the truth about his mother's new marriage is reve...