Thai BLs
| 10-01-25 Moving back home has been stressful and I've been coping by watching way too many Thai BL shows... so here are my random thoughts. | stress reliever |
| I don't remember how but I stumbled across this blog and realized I've never seen a Thai BL before. I picked a highly rated one - Love In The Air - and enjoyed it enough to want to see more. I've added like 40 new show titles that are all Thai BL's to my media wishlist... I'll watch them all... maybe, hopefully, potentially, theoretically. I was hooked after watching Kinnporsche which is just a phenomenal show. I think categorizing it as a BL is masking how good the story is on its own. The BL label is probably there due to marketing & political reasons but I would have watched this even without the label. It reminds me of Interview With The Vampire in the best of ways. The action is great, the world building is solid, the story is intriguing, the cast portrayed the characters well, and the mafia politics is fun to explore, especially the way the characters are affected by existing within a constantly violent environment. The violence is taken seriously which is a nice change from some other BLs I've seen that address violence or harm "lightly". Like the harm is easily resolved or minimized or never addressed really... It ruins some of the validity of the world building for me, especially if the tone of the story is suggesting that the violence is supposed to be serious. I find it hard to immerse myself in stories that portray violence from a binary perspective - right or wrong/good or bad... especially when the environment these characters are stuck in is inherently violent (mafia, gangs, revolts, military, etc.) There's no space for characters in those worlds to exist in any moral gray area because the violence they engage in must be justified morally, which means that the character engaging in the violence must be either morally righteous or morally bankrupt, which reduces the character down to the role that they're playing... the personas they're performing. Within that framework it's like that character isn't actually experiencing their life, just performing it and the narrative is reinforcing that their performance is genuine. That what we the audience are seeing is the "real them" and how violence "really happens" - both existing on one end of the moral scale despite the world within the story being unpredictable and harmful. So really I just prefer realistic depictions of violence especially in relation to romance & love, which is why I think Kinnporsche is great. | thai bl's, my love! |
SPOILERS FOR KINNPORSCHE JUST IN CASE YOU WANNA WATCH SKIP
THIS SECTION
My favorite couple is Vegas & Pete because of how fucked up their relationship is. I love exploring their individiual pasts and thinking about what their relationship could potentially be. I love thinking about each character as an individual, especially Pete! Idk how to edit but imma teach myself how to cuz I gotta create something with them so I can finally sleep peacefully at night. I'm tired of staying up until 3am with them on my mind  . Kinn &
Porsche have the best intimate & vulnerable moments. God that
one scene of them in the club bathroom haunts me, it's so well
done. Mile & Apo portray intimacy and vulnerability so well I
just love it!
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KINNPORSCHE SPOILERS |
| I'm not watching as fervently as I was a few weeks ago, mostly due to trying to engage with life & all it's responsibilities again. So far I've watched Kinnporsche , The Next Prince, ABO Desire, Pit Babe S1&2, Reset the Series , and Jack & Joker. I only finished Pit Babe & Reset the Series... the other shows just didn't grab me, especially ABO Desire. I understand why it's such an important show - it's a Chinese BL show that shows men being physically intimate which each other and it's airing domestically & internationally. Given China's history of harshly censoring queer media and even going as far as punishing the actors involved in those shows, this is a historical moment for queer Chinese media. I think Heaven's Official Blessing & Mo Dao Zu Shi really paved the way for this show to be so successful. I just didn't like the story. Same with Jack & Joker, the story didn't grab me & I couldn't believe in the intense moments which SUCKS because I liked Jack & Joker's dynamic but I'm at the point where I'm only giving a show 2 episodes to keep me interested bc I got too much I wanna watch and I'm NOT willing to reduce my media wishlist. Overall my Thai BL experience is going great! I'm going to add some reviews for Shine & See Your Love soon! |
other shows |