Gay Thai Drama / Thai BL stories

[alvnv]

Another sci-fi (parallel universe) Thai BL series “Vice Versa” seems promising; featuring some very (and a couple not so) familiar faces from Bad Buddy, Enchante, etc.

This GMM 25 series airs on Saturdays and is available on their official YouTube page. Episode 1 of 12 aired yesterday.

[10tazione]

On 7/17/2022 at 2:55 AM, fedssocr said:

Has anyone watched Rainbow Lagoon yet? I haven't made the time but will one of these days

 

Haven't yet but I will probably because I liked the other stuff of those 2 guys. With limited time available, having nice weather etc. etc. currently I am watching not many series.

Also popping up 5 new series every day, it becomes harder to choose which ones to watch. And it kills a bit the fun of writing about them, because everyone now is watching different ones - it's a bit like the Netflix / Amazon Prime / Disney etc. problem. When there was only TV, everyone watched the same film on the same day, and it was fun to talk about it the next day.

I just finished Kinn Porsche and will post a few more pics soon.

[alvnv]

Another mafia-themed BL series with S&M undertones is Unforgotten Night starring Yoon and Ton of Y-Destiny.

 

[reader]

From The Guardian

Thailand’s gay-romance TV dramas help revive flagging tourism industry

A scene from I Told Sunset About You – one of the ‘boy-love’ series that has attracted a large following across Asia. Photograph: Nadao Bangkok

There is a table in Soontaree Thiprat’s Phuket cafe that is always fully booked. Most of her customers at the Dibuk restaurant want to sit in the corner, at the spot with the red tablecloth and purple flower.

It is the table where the male student characters Teh and Oh-aew, played by the actors Putthipong “Billkin” Assaratanakul and Krit “PP” Amnuaydechkorn, would sit together and flirt in I Told Sunset About You and its sequel, I Promised You the Moon, a romantic Thai series that has proved hugely popular in its home country and abroad.

Devoted fans of the show, who have flocked not only from across Thailand but also from Japan, Korea and Vietnam, pose for photos as they wait to dine in Billkin and PP’s hangout. “They scream so much that I would like to call an ambulance,” said Soontaree.

I Told Sunset About You is part of a recent wave of Thai dramas known as “boys’ love” (BL) – also called the “Y” series in Thailand– whose portrayal of gay romance has attracted a large following across Asia. Already, 17 Thai BL series have been released this year, while 43 were released in 2020 and 2021, according to the fan website Blwatcher.com.

The romcom drama series 2gether, one of the BL genre’s biggest hits, surpassed 100m views on the streaming platform Line TV just months after its release.

As Thailand tries to rebuild its travel industry, the country’s tourism authority has sought to capitalise on their popularity, hosting “Thai BL” booths at a recent marketing event in Osaka, Japan, where the dramas are especially popular, and running a Japanese-language Twitter account profiling locations featured in famous scenes.

Private firms have also responded to the trend. Japanese company HIS recently ran online tours of locations used in the filming of 2gether, while some Thai language teachers have also begun offering lessons that specialise in the slang used in BL dramas.

Monruethai Harada, a Thai language teacher at Jaya & 3S Groups in Tokyo, said she has seen a 20-30% increase in students wanting to learn Thai after BL dramas became popular in 2020. Most of them are women aged about 30, though one recent student was 75 years old. “She really loves to watch the boys’ love dramas. She said it’s the most exciting and thrilling ever,” said Monruethai.

While BL has its roots in Japanese manga comics, Thai production companies have transformed the genre by adapting it for TV and producing a flurry of popular series, said Rujirat Ishikawa, assistant professor at the School of Cultural and Creative Studies, based in Tokyo’s Aoyama Gakuin University. “In the past, I don’t think people believed there was a big market for the boys’ love dramas,” she said.

Thai BL dramas first boomed in 2020 at the height of the pandemic. “Because of Covid, [people] had plenty of time,” said Ishikawa.

In Japan, similar TV series are usually only accessible to viewers who have a paid subscription but Thai broadcasters are more relaxed about uploading content online, said Ishikawa. “[Audiences] just say: ‘We watch it on YouTube, it’s free, why not?’” Fans often add subtitles in their languages so that others can also enjoy the dramas.“You can see the internet power here and how it spreads,” said Ishikawa, adding that most fans are drawn to the series by the attractive male actors, the often happy story lines and the music.

For Thailand’s struggling tourism industry, the popularity of the dramas is welcome news, though commenters point out that the Thai government, despite talk of building the country’s soft power abroad, has struggled to embrace the genre.

“Initially, the Thai state appeared to be in an awkward position about the broadcast of Thai BL drama via traditional mediums like free TV channels,” said Poowin Bunyavejchewin, senior researcher at the Institute of East Asian Studies at Thammasat University in Bangkok. “Yet man has to eat. The Thai state needs money. It is as simple as that.”

The majority of BL series are shown in Thailand on alternative platforms that link with smartphones, such as Line TV, added Poowin, which “may ease the concerns of Thai conservatives, as sweet erotic love between young men has not been highly visible to them”. Nor has it interfered with the traditional soap operas broadcasting on free TV channels.

But some in the LGBT community have mixed feelings about the dramas. BL offers a happier, more positive portrayal of same-sex relationships than elsewhere in Thai media, where gay love tends to end in tragedy, said Kangwan Fongkaew, a lecturer at Burapha University in Chonburi province, who has studied the representation of LGBT communities in Thai media.

But while this is in some ways refreshing, BL dramas do not offer true representations of society. They are generally focused on “puppy love” and omit the realities faced by gay men in Thailand, which still does not have basic rights such as equal marriage, said Kangwan.

Viewers, added Kangwan, “might misunderstand that Thailand is a gay paradise, which is totally not true”.

The leading characters are also predominantly light-skinned, middle class and educated, he said: “The boys’ love series don’t reflect the real diversity of the LGBT community in Thai society, and that’s why the stigma and discrimination against LGBT are still going on right now.”

But he also believes the dramas could bring change, especially if their portrayals of same-sex love become more nuanced or political: “I am still hopeful.”

 

[fedssocr]

Those are some really good points about who the stories focus on, but they're not documentaries, they're soap operas. So they reflect the same sorts of people as most soap operas do. Most of the more mainstream programs also seem to be relatively chaste, frankly. Everyone gets excited if the characters share a kiss. Shows that are more steamy seem to be a little more difficult to come by. I wonder if all of those pretty GMM actors would be up for more sexy scenes? Would all of those female viewers be interested in more erotic scenes? Or is it just us old gays who want that? 🙂 Many of the stories get a little same-y too and we could use some more creativity. I follow a few of those actors on social media. They seem to do quite a few shopping mall appearances and some of them are spokesmodels for various brands. And some fancy themselves as singers. It's very teen idol/Tiger Beat. I guess too much sex might hurt their personal brands.

[10tazione]

On 7/31/2022 at 11:30 PM, fedssocr said:

Everyone gets excited if the characters share a kiss. Shows that are more steamy seem to be a little more difficult to come by.

"Kinn Porsche" seems to be a recent exception to this. There are quite steamy scenes, dirty jokes and even some SM scenes that still make me wonder how the passed the censorship. Can anyone who has seen KP explain me what they wanted to tell us with the relation between Pete and Vegas? And I wonder who is the main audience for this series, it cant be the Thai schoolgirls?

[10tazione]

On 7/31/2022 at 7:56 PM, reader said:

From The Guardian

Thailand’s gay-romance TV dramas help revive flagging tourism industry

I am not sure how they would revive the tourism industry? I think the main audience is still teenage girls all over Asia, but do they have the time & money for travelling to Thailand? It's easier to bring the boys to their countries and there are many fanboy/fangirl events all over Asia and I think the boys make a lot of money with them.

Locally, the BL stars play a big part in the "skin & tooth whitening industry". They are basically grinning from every advertising screen all over the country. Their must be a huge lot of money behind!

[10tazione]

Since we are already talking about Kinn Porsche, I love this song, it is also played in Thai radio.

 

[fedssocr]

Slot Machine also did well with the theme song on the KP soundtrack. There's an English version and a Thai version. I may have to make some time for this series. You're right about the skincare products. Dunk is all over the place with his many endoresements.

 

 

[alvnv]

New MileApo project to be released in 2023:

 

[alvnv]

Another interesting series suited to be released this year is Big Dragon:

 

[alvnv]

For MaxTul fans:

Max and Tul will reprise their roles of Tan and Dr. Bun of “Manner of Death” in the continuation of the plot from “Triage”. The new series will be called “ Transplant”. Unfortunately, the link below is not an official teaser: 

 

 

[vinapu]

2 hours ago, alvnv said:

For MaxTul fans:

 

that would be me, thank you ( I run out of likes for today )

[reader]

NOTE -- The scene depicted in photo below appears to have been taken in Benjakitti Forest Park.

From Time

Boys’ Love Dramas Are Changing the Way Many People View Gay Romance

In downtown Bangkok, a crowd of waiting women squeals as rookie actors Jitaraphol “Jimmy” Potiwihok and Tawinan “Sea” Anukoolprasert step out of a shopping mall. With their blushing humility and matinee idol looks, they effortlessly charm the assembled office workers and students in uniform.

Yet it is Jitaraphol’s hand on the small of Tawinan’s back, and their fleeting glances, that elicit the loudest cheers. The intimate gestures echo their exchanges in the new series Vice Versa—one of many queer romances that are Thailand’s hottest cultural export. Known locally as Y shows, and globally as Boys’ Love (BL) dramas, the serials are poised to compete with South Korean telenovelas for viewership in Asia and beyond.

Some see BL as Thailand’s soft power, doing for the Southeast Asian nation’s global image what the yoga boom has done for India or K-pop for South Korea. Jitaraphol tells TIME that the country’s queer dramas “can compete with series from other countries.”

Poowin Bunyavejchewin is a senior researcher at the Institute of East Asian Studies at Thammasat University in Bangkok, who has made a study of BL. He says that if the genre was able to hook foreign audiences “it would be a high potential revenue generator.”

BL’s success isn’t a given, however. Thailand is a socially conservative, primarily Buddhist country with a significant Muslim minority. The country’s military-backed regime—known for its use of repressive laws to crack down on politically progressive forces—is also unlikely to be enthusiastic about the country’s burgeoning reputation as an exporter of luscious gay TV.

It isn’t just the growth of an entertainment genre at stake. Thomas Baudinette, a cultural anthropologist at Sydney’s Macquarie University, credits BL with an “emancipatory, very positively framed, romantic depiction of male-male love.”

Continues at

https://time.com/6208817/thailand-bl-dramas-popularity/

[10tazione]

I was in a Thai bookshop in Bangkok and they had a huge shelf full of Y manga. That must have been 1% of the books in the shop, which is a lot for such a highly specialized genre. "Margareth, do we have an Yaoi manga with a twink prince with curly black hair who falls in love with a tattooed Tawan muscle guy?" - they have it all!

7 hours ago, reader said:

He says that if the genre was able to hook foreign audiences “it would be a high potential revenue generator.”

I think that has already started.

[fedssocr]

YT suggested this to me last night. I think I may need to find out if there are subtitles

 

[10tazione]

39 minutes ago, fedssocr said:

YT suggested this to me last night. I think I may need to find out if there are subtitles

 

[alvnv]

7 hours ago, fedssocr said:

YT suggested this to me last night. I think I may need to find out if there are subtitles

 

In the US it’s available on bilibili:

https://www.bilibili.tv/en/video/2048872910

So far only 2 of 13 episodes have aired - next one will air on September 1.  I believe bilibili usually has English subtitles available later the same day, or day after.

[fedssocr]

looks like a big budget production

[fedssocr]

22 hours ago, alvnv said:

In the US it’s available on bilibili:

https://www.bilibili.tv/en/video/2048872910

So far only 2 of 13 episodes have aired - next one will air on September 1.  I believe bilibili usually has English subtitles available later the same day, or day after.

Thanks for sharing this. I had never heard of this site. Those two boys sure are pretty. 

[alvnv]

3 minutes ago, fedssocr said:

Thanks for sharing this. I had never heard of this site. Those two boys sure are pretty. 

You’re very welcome! It usually has hard to find English subtitled series without any ads (unlike YouTube and Daily Motion). 

[fedssocr]

I just finished the second episode. In addition to being pretty they've got good chemistry and they're pretty good actors.

The reaction on MyDramaList is very interesting. Lots of people complaining about their relationship and saying it's abusive. But I don't think that's quite right. Rain is just afraid to admit what he wants. I like the sexual tension

[alvnv]

2 hours ago, fedssocr said:

I just finished the second episode. In addition to being pretty they've got good chemistry and they're pretty good actors.

The reaction on MyDramaList is very interesting. Lots of people complaining about their relationship and saying it's abusive. But I don't think that's quite right. Rain is just afraid to admit what he wants. I like the sexual tension

I do too.

I look at the reviews from mydramalist with a grain of salt - especially those that seem to originate from woke fujoshis.

[vinapu]

I finished watching Cute Pie  today, too melodramatic and slow moving for my taste but girls should love it.

kissing scenes by far longest of any I saw in Thai BL so far, I'm surprised it went by censors

[Boy69]

1 hour ago, vinapu said:

kissing scenes by far longest of any I saw in Thai BL so far, I'm surprised it went by censors

Very strange the censors won't allow kissing between male and female to be shown but same sex kissing broadcast with no problem whatsoever. Is it something in the Thai culture I am missing ?