The guide includes show’s basic
summary; main genres/tropes/themes and the official streaming link! You can find some
content warnings in the notes of this post. Shows are listed by countries, numbered by the order I recommend watching in, not by rating. The list will get updated regularly (last update 22/08/22).
Thailand
🇹🇭
1. KinnPorsche
mafia
boss/bodyguard; action; dark-ish
Kinn, a son of a prominent mafia head, is
ambushed by an enemy and meets Porsche, a bartender who comes to his rescue for
a price, thus beginning their reluctant relationship as boss and bodyguard,
which soon turns into something more.
Thorn, a young basketball player follows his
senior Fah to university as a result of the promise they’d made — to become
national basketball champions. However, to his dismay, he finds that Tupfah has
already given up on basketball. — Aai has to work in pairs throughout the
semester with San, 1 year footballer; in order to receive a scholarship to
study in Japan, Ai must be willing to do everything to get an A grade. — Track
running requires the compatibility of the team members to be very high. Vee,
who became the new racquet 4, has to speed up training to fit in with the team
as quickly as possible, especially with Dome, spending extra time together to
train. Is love actually a major obstacle on the path of being an athlete?
The sons of two companies, Lian and Kuea, have
been engaged to each other since childhood. One decides he doesn’t want the
arranged marriage anymore while the other decides to win him over.
5. I Told Sunset About You (+ Last
Twilight in Phuket, I Promised You the Moon)
coming of age; childhood friends to lovers;
high school setting
Two
childhood best friends-turned-rivals meet again, awakening an old rivalry and
old feelings. They now have to navigate their lives together and the growing
attraction toward each other.
No
official international streaming available at the moment to my knowledge, you can watch on
Dramacool.
6. Something In My Room
ghost/human; horror-ish;
mystery
Looking to start a new life
in a new house with his mother, Phat feels something uncanny in his room,
which turns out to be the ghost of Phob. Phob wants Phat’s help in solving
the mystery of his death before everything is too late.
YouTube but I recommend to watch the
extended version on Dramacool
7. Manner of Death
crime; mystery; dark
Bunn, a forensic
pathologist is threatened to identify a manner of one victim’s death as
suicide— something that is not true according to the autopsy performed. The
prime suspect seems to be a man named Tan who denies all involvement. They team
up together to find the real murderer.
As a resident in the emergency room, one
should be indifferent when not saving a patient’s life. But Tin got the chance
to reverse a random patient’s death for the second, third, and countless times.
To help Tol and save his life.
“nerd”/popular guy; queer friend group; university setting
Discover the secret of a
nerdy young man, Toh, who fell in love with a popular third-year senior. Because his
dream is so far from reach, observing is the only thing he could do. But what
happens when one auspicious day the world devises an opportunity for Toh to
make himself known to his crush Nuea?
A love story that starts one night in a club
— between Mark, who is drunk and carrying the painful burden of his one-sided
love, and the boy who he bumps into and mistakes as the object of his
affection. They spend a night together and gradually Mark falls for Vee although
he knows Vee has a beloved girlfriend. Will the love between them make it?
best friends to
lovers; relationship exploration; university setting
Leo and Fiat, two childhood best-friends who
love each other, begin to date; but they are both insecure and end up having a
turbulent relationship with many obstacles.
Heartbroken Kim is in need of someone to
embrace his body for just one night and sleeps with a stranger he meets at a
bar. Kamol, a mafia boss, is a man with special B-D-S-M needs in bed who
actively switches partners as no one is able to satisfy his desires in its
entirety. Kim makes Kamol realize that he’s finally found the one who’s able to
perfectly fit his needs.
enemies to lovers; forbidden
romance; university setting
Fueled by their parents animosity, Pat and Pran
have competed with each other in nearly everything in life. In public, they are
rivals, but behind closed doors the pair are open to being friends… maybe more.
When his twin Black is
viciously attacked and subsequently left hospitalised in unconsciousness, White
is unable to endure the harm done to his brother in silence. He learns Black
was a part of a gang of anti-capitalist freedom fighters, and it was one of them
who betrayed him. White disguises himself as Black to discover who betrayed him
and put him in a coma.
After living in France, Theo
comes back to Thailand and he meets his childhood friend, Akk. Theo finds a
book with a message welcoming him and signed as Enchanté,
he becomes curious about who this guy is. Will
Theo successfully guess who is the Enchanté in the university?
Third year film student Third has been harboring
feelings for his friend Khai. After three years of painful unrequited love,
Third decides to stop, no matter how difficult it may be. But when Third
decides to stop, Khai decides to start.
After his death, Met is a
ghost that is consumed by loneliness. That is until he meets a strange boy that
can see him. The two bond in a state of happiness and joy as they develop into
friends. But what happens when Met falls for the boy who is alive?
After an unexpected event
that involves sex work and mafia gangs, three individuals find themselves
on-the-run together as they attempt to escape death.
After a volunteer teacher
dies in a tragic accident, her heart is transplanted into Tian. He learns about
his donor’s life through her diary and decides to follow in her footsteps. Now
a new village volunteer teacher himself, Tian meets Phupha and as the two slowly grow closer, Tian notices his new
heart beats quickly whenever he’s near the man. Much like the heart’s previous
owner, Tian cannot help but fall for Phupha.
When Tine is chased by
Green, who he does not reciprocate feelings for — he ends up begging Sarawat, the
campus’ most popular guy, to fake date with him in order to chase Green away.
Korn and Win are childhood best friends.
Conflicts arise when Win’s father includes Korn in his will, granting him part
of the family’s farm’s stocks and breaking up their friendship. Win gets into a
car accident with his sister Lin, and wakes up to find his soul in her body. To
return to his original body, Win sets off on a road trip to collect holy water
across the country with Korn as his companion. Can this adventure get their
relationship back?
(Taking off from the Kiss Me Again series)
Pete and Kao have grown closer to each other in their relationship. Kao takes
on part-time tutoring for high school students. With one of the students
fueling Pete’s jealousy, his relationship with Kao gets tested in several
occasions. Meanwhile, the love story between Sun and Mork begins.
Talay and Puen find themselves in the bodies
of strangers in a parallel universe. Talay wakes up in the body of a man named
Tess. Puen is a famous actor who is now in the body of Tun. Both of them have
to live their lives in a new universe that is not their home. The only way to
put a stop to this chaos is to discover portkeys that will take them back to
where they came from. Love and friendship grow with them in the new universe.
Akk is a head student prefect in country’s leading all-boys school. Rumour has it that there is a curse that will punish students who disobey the school rules, a curse that grows stronger as the solar eclipse nears. Akk has to keep an eye on a mysterious new student Ayan, who regularly challenges the school’s norms.
By still being a vіrgin at
30, Adachi Kiyoshi gains a magical power – the ability to read other people’s
minds by touching them. At first, he’s overwhelmed by his new ability, and it’s
not proving to be helpful to him. But that all changes when he accidentally
touches Kurosawa Yuichi, who he learns has romantic feelings for him.
Aoki has a crush on
Hashimoto, the girl in the seat next to him in class. But he despairs when he
borrows her eraser and sees she’s written the name of another boy — Ida — on
it. To make matters more confusing, Ida sees Aoki holding that very eraser and
thinks Aoki has a crush on him!
College student Fukuhara
Kouta has bad luck that causes problems everywhere he goes. One day, Shinomiya,
a student with super good luck, helps him out. Now, in order to divide the luck
between them, Fukuhara needs to be with Shinomiya all the time.
age gap;
boss/assistant; self-discovery; office setting
At 39, Nozue realizes that by letting himself be carried away by his daily
life, he ended up locking himself into his routine. It is Togawa, his
29-year-old subordinate, who shakes up his habits by offering him one day to go
snack on pastries in an establishment particularly popular with girls. From one
snack to the next, Nozue feels rejuvenated… But is it really the effect of
these delicacies or rather that of emerging feelings?
6. Two People Who Can’t Fall in Love (Koisenu
Futari)
aromantism; asexuality; self-exploration
Sakuko finds it difficult to live in a
society which operates under the assumption that people will fall in love with
each other. She meets supermarket employee Takahashi and ends up living with
him under one roof because of their similar values towards romance.
No international streaming available, watching instructions on this Tumblr
China
🇨🇳
Chinese shows are adapted from
explicitly queer novels, the shows are undeniably and obviously queer, but nevertheless the queer romance part
is censured.
1. The Untamed
period drama;
fantasy
An epic fantasy with a
romance at its center, led by a problem child who comes back from the dead 16
years later in order to fix the broken world he left behind — and finally unite
with his true love.
The leader of assassin
organisation Zhou Zishu quits his position in pursuit of freedom with drastic
measures. In his travels, he meets Wen Kexing, the leader of Ghost Valley who
wants nothing but revenge. The two become entangled in various machinations
within the martial arts world, and eventually become soulmates instrumental in
each other’s redemption.
You Yi is a young, innocent, and kind-hearted
socialite and a successful author. Her perfect life is turned upside-down when
she discovers a betrayal by the two most trusted people in her life. With no
one left to turn to, she finds refuge in the friendship and support of Yan Wei,
a lonely female kill-er disguised as the owner of a photo studio.
A serious programmer and a
rebellious artist clash over a school project. Their animosity keeps escalating
to new extremes, defined by petty pranks and feisty arguments.
One day Tae Kyung, a high school loner,
starts questioning his own judgment and gets advise from a teacher to join the
school’s student council. He meets the Vice President of the council, Shin Woo,
who is somewhat cold toward him. However, he also meets the super-attractive
President of the council: Da On, who appears to take an instant shine to him.
The beginnings of a romance appear to be in the cards for Da On and Tae Kyung,
but Shin Woo does not seem to approve.
A high school student gets magically
transported to the feudal period. Confused by his surroundings, he encounters a
banished prince and his devoted bodyguard. The three characters live together
and fall in love.
Cha Siwon, a college freshman majoring in
film studies, does a lot to maintain his image because of his past life of
unpopularity. He meets Hyeong Dawoon, a classmate of his with perfect looks,
good grades, and everything at his fingertips. Siwon’s feelings of wariness for
his classmate soon change into something else.
Jin Won is a university freshman who has a
talent for running marathons. Sang Ha maintains a smile despite his difficult
environment. A romance drama about the love and friendship between a rising
marathon star and a pacemaker.
Ever since his parents passed away, Haebom
has been living in Taesung’s house. And now, being a 12th grader, he enters the
same class as Taesung, which makes the whole situation way more awkward. Living
together 24/7, Taesung and Haebom’s relationship is bound to change.
A healing food romance between Han Ba Da, a
young entrepreneur who dreams of starting an udon restaurant with a beach in
the background but finds serving customers difficult. Ba Da then meets Tommy, a
failed musician who returns to his hometown after wandering and has a new
dream. Together, both of them step towards their dreams.
The story of Song Shi On who is an aspiring
contemporary dancer with a broken heart because he is not receiving love from
his family and of Jin HongSeok, once a keen pianist, who has given up on his
dreams to pursue a lucrative but unfulfilling career of a loan shark. But
spending time with Shi On changes his perspective on life, and the duo forms a
close bond that eventually turns romantic.
Actor Kang Seo Joon was once one of South
Korea’s biggest and most popular stars, but after he’s rocked by a public
scandal he goes into hiding. In his hideout, he gets acquainted with his new
roommate, a young chef who leads a modest, unassuming life. Despite having
wildly different personalities, the two begin on a relationship.
Viki (S1) & Viki (S2 which I don’t recommend unless you like painful content)
Taiwan
🇹🇼
1. History3: Trapped
mafia boss/policeman
The story of a police
officer who becomes trapped in the underworld, as he develops feelings for a
gang leader.
When the new boss arrives at the company, he
immediately clashes with a headstrong, hot-blooded employee over a
controversial workplace policy. Although their relationship starts off
combatively, the two of them develop a bond as they work and live together.
4. We Best Love: No. 1 For You, We Best Love:
Fighting Mr. 2nd
enemies to lovers;
secret crush; university setting
Zhou Shu Yi has spent his entire life as
second best thanks to Gao Shi De, whether it be academics, arts or sports, Gao
Shi De always managed to beat Shu Yi. Many years later, Shu Yi
can finally breathe a sigh of relief when he and his nemesis part ways for
university. However, as fate would have it, Shu Yi finds himself defeated once
again when Shi De transfers to Shu Yi’s college for his final year. Could the
reason that Shi De is seemingly following Shu Yi be something other than to
torment him?
Zheng Ze Shou and Fu Li Gong have been best
friends for over twenty years. Now, they work as divorce attorneys in the same
law firm. Despite their close brotherly bond, this friendship never escalated
affectionately until now.
You can watch many shows for free on YouTube, and watch others on streaming websites by setting VPN to one of the countries in the list. In other cases
I recommend paying for subscriptions to show
appreciation and support of content in order to get more of it in the
future, but if you can’t, watch on KissKH (better quality) or Dramacool (better
variety). Enjoy!
🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
hi! i graduated from film school this year & i've been reading thru ur blog for weeks now. u've talked abt cinematography before & it's a subject i'd love to hear more of ur thoughts abt. which shows do u believe use cinematic storytelling (framing, staging, symbolic parallels, lighting, color coding) to their advantage the most? shows which benefit from a rewatch/slower watch in order to notice visual details & which can be analyzed in terms of visual language. which would be ur top picks? ty!!
Okay, I should say up front that this is not BL’s strength.
Second, I work tangential to ET but my degrees are not in film studies. So, much of what I know has been gleaned from coworkers and just floating constantly in and out of the industry, I may not always use the right terms.
The post where I get the most weedy about filming technique is actually the one where I talk about different directors in BL (their styles, camera preferences and camera angle choices, that kind of thing).
Finally, for each pick, I’m going to talk first about what I liked about the story, and then how the filming technique is used to serve that.
1. Restart After Come Back Home AKA Risutato wa tadaima no ato de
Atmospheric study in rural Japan meets complex family dynamics built on a romance framework of city boy meets country boy. It’s beautiful and icy sweet. Slow moving in places but ultimately worth your patience. Full review here.
This was the first BL that came to mind when asked this question. This movie highlights Japan’s sweeping atmospheric style (learned at the feet of Kurosawa) applied to a very simple little BL story about coming home. Like with HIs the move, the Japanese countryside itself is a major player and character, but unlike His this movie really makes use of its beauty as a metaphor for possibilities and acceptance. Some of the establishing shots are truly breathtaking. The use of color and shadow is also tailored without being brazen. The film uses it to contrast the the two leads, one of whom is closed off from his family and his home and, to a certain extent, life but open to love, and the other who is open to all sensation and the outside world, but closed off to love. How these two men are filmed, framed, and lit is interwoven with these traits - dependent on their internal emotional states and whether they are together or alone. Cold lighting, sometimes too direct, when they are feeling exposed or challenged, darker cool hues when they are internally reflective, warmer even angry reds and golds when they are coping with emotions around connection and intimacy with each other. And finally the closing shot of bright full day, revolving sparkles and lens flairs that’s implying a forthright acceptance and unity, not just of each other, but of themselves.
It is, simply put, a really beautiful movie to just watch as a visual piece of art, we are so lucky it also happens to be BL.
2. I Want to See Only You AKA Kimi no Koto Dake Mite Itai
This is a beautiful piece of cinema well acted, about two boys who are opposite personalities and grew up together. It is very pretty and this is the kind of atmospheric elegantly performed BL that only really comes from Japan (complete with dead fish kisses - what you thought Korea invented them? oh no). I felt like I was “supposed to like it” more than I did. Ultimately I was left feeling as if I had seen it all before. So for me this was lovely but slightly unmemorable.
Another show that is VERY similar is His the series (I Didn’t Think I Would Fall In Love AKA His - Koisuru Tsumori Nante Nakatta). Only it has a beach setting.
I mention these two in this post and at this juncture, because they are very stylistically Japanese but lack intentionality to their filming. So they feel workmanlike in a way that I often accuse Thai BL of.. It’s almost as if in coming from Japan they can’t NOT be pretty about it. Like good filming technique is so expected, it’s part of the DNA. In actually, both these stories might have been served better if the filming were more gritty and raw, sticky, like BLs from Taiwan or the Philippines, but Japan (like Korea) doesn’t do that.
3. Seven Days
Never doubt my ability to recommend this show. One of the best live action yaois ever made, with perfectly structured angst, fantastic characters and acting, and no problematic tropes (rare in Japanese BL). The leads have excellent chemistry although it’s low heat there’s still some cute mutual kisses.
Seven Days pretty much used the original manga as a storyboard with just a few exceptions. And yet because it takes itself and it’s characters seriously (this in not a slapstick JBL) it’s softer and less cartoony than most Japanese live action yaoi. The color pallet is muted, and staging and farming is almsot too simplistic but somehow smooth and organic, rather than choppy or stilted. It looks genuine, not fantastical (see Korea coming up). The cuts are gentle with us, it never feels hurried or rushed, even though this is not a very long piece. It’s classy without being in your face about it.
This is spot on cinematography entirely subsumed by a story. It’s point (if ti can be said to have one) is that it doesn’t have a point of view, and therefore the story just shines. Never once will you feel thrown out by a perfect shot, and yet, every shot is perfect. This is cinema FOR story. This director trusted the script and the actors implicitly and did not feel the need to do anything fancy, which is, in and of itself, remarkable. This is like a perfectly executed piece of sushi. It doesn’t need anything, no sauce, no seasoning. The filming itself relishes its own simplistically.
I actually picked these first 3 BLs intentionally, and all from Japan. Because I feel like they kind of show the range of Japanese cinema has when it is being subtle. By which I mean less derivative of manga and owing much less slapstick. (See something like My Love Mix Up.)
So now let’s move into the relm of manga filming styles.
As of writing this post this show hasn’t ended yet, so not review, you can read my watch along here. But I am still picking it on the basis of the way they use doorways and transitional spaces to represent where the characters are in their different life stages and emotional development (and how they flipped that at the end).
Also this BL is cribbed directly from the manga, shot for shot in places.
This show is an exploration of how maturity is defined under the contest of an age gap romance, roles in society, and liminality - crossing the threshold form child to adult, from fear of love to acceptance, from immaturity to maturity. The series uses characters in doorway, reaching through them, crossing them, and notions of inside spaces versus outside spaces to represent this. I talk about it a lot in my watch along so I won’t rehash here but it is actually BRILLIANT.
This show had me from the moment they broke the egg yolk with the chopsticks in the opening credits. It’s about a younger man with a long cherished crush on his boss (who is ten years older and going through a midlife crisis) who decides to save and seduce said boss with pancakes. It’s wholesome, comforting, sexy, and a very necessary narrative about still having hope, interests, and openness to affection at any age. It’s coming of age/queerness packaged in a subtle critique of expectations around masculinity and love and loneliness… and it’s beautiful. Full review here.
The filming style is very much Japan’s close camera work, super tunneled into spaces, confined and almost, but not quite, claustrophobic. It’s using that to highlight how trapped by inertia Nozue feels, and how trapped by his feelings Togawa feels. Nozue in particular is filmed at home hidden, hiding, in the dark, shadowed, and withdrawn - as tidy as his place is, it (and how he occupies it) is an extension of his loneliness and self isolation.
The cinematographer is using that in contrast to the moments of pull back and central framing when the couple is shown sitting and eating together, usually brightly lit, showing them both opening up to each other and, in Nozue’s case, to sensation.
The very final shot of the series, with the big cheerful window, and Togawa feeding Nozue across the table is a representation of how freed they both are by their acceptance of each other.
Not to mention the way the food is shot in this show, and how food and openness to new sensation are used (and filmed) as an allegory for sexual awakening (lust in terms of indulgence - I will never get over those hamster cheeks) and consequently (ultimately) fulfillment.
6. Cherry Blossoms After Winter
Korea took on early Japanese sweet yaoi but gave it their signature softness and precise production style with a STUNNING color palette (beautiful pastels and sun-saturated over-exposure), manga framing style, some traditional BL character archetypes, that tiny edge of bullying roughness and out-of-control seme, plus FINALLY a palatable take on the stepbrothers trope and it was, in a word, classic. Sophisticated and understated CBAW is not slow, it’s just subtle.
This show is dream-like, as if the whole thing took place under cold water on a warm spring day, dappled sunlight slanting through trees above. Is there plot or peril? Not really. Do we care? Also, not really. Look, I can’t help it, I’m old school and so is this show. I grew up reading sweet yaoi, and this was THAT YAOI just on my screen. There’s no objectivity with me and CBAW. It’s a beautiful pastiche and I loved it for how it made me feel and what it reminded me of. It’s not flawless, but it is a wonderful experience. It’s like a Maxfield Parrish BL. Is the filming style serving story, I’m not sure, but it is serving nostalgia.
7. Color Rush
A unique paranormal twist elevates this classic high school drama into a pitch-perfect allegory for the queer coming out experience and one of the best BLs of all time (I will fight you on this).
It’s no accident that I chose so much Color Rush for my screen caps in the post on yaoi framing styles. It is SUCH a manga (yes I know, it’s Korean). The cuts from one shot to the next could actually just have stepped off the page. If Wes Anderson did BL it’s be something like this.
Of course the use of color is just phenomenal - the range of hoodies, and the different backgrounds. The marriage of simplistic wardrobe with simplistic setting is about precision not the mundane. How Yoo Han is using color to seduce AT ALL TIMES is intentional brutal as we are never to forget the threat this entails (our POV and this movie’s is entirely Yeon Woo). Color is the vehicle and the predator, the danger and the light, it is sexual awakening, it is being gay, it is embracing the monster within - right up to and including the color rush itself as something essentially orgasmic. I can tell you, purely on the basis of the fact that the manwha was in black and white, that this BL must be better that its source because it had color to use in its storytelling. Because it had color to play with. If that’s not the visual voice of cinematography telling me a tall tale, I don’t know what is.
I will never get over this show.
8. Semantic Error
Korea hit it entirely out of the Parks with Semantic Error by doing a university set BL featuring everything we expect from BL just done exactly right. It has Korea’s signature quality executed perfectly, and added bonus good story, great pacing, stunning visuals, and fantastic chemistry. You cannot ask for more from a BL, let alone a KBL. And the film team was part of this.
Frankly I would have used screen caps from Semantic Error as much as Color Rush in that post on yaoi framing techniques, but I wrote that post too long ago. This BL owes more to its Japanese roots than any other Korean BL I’ve seen: story, characters, and filming style. That image above with the backlit windows and the empty classroom? Could have popped out of Takumi or Boys Love (would have been more blue toned though), not just classic BL but the beginning of BL.
This is another KBL one where the use of color, particularly contrast, is incredibly strong. In this one cool vs warm tones are tools for characterization. (Usually they are used for mood, but not really in this show.) JaeYoung is usually wearing warm tones or shot in warm lighting and with warm backgrounds (reds, oranges, yellows), except when he enters SangWoo’s space. SangWoo is the opposite, almost always in cool tones and lighting (greens, blues, purples). So we get this fire and ice contrast between the two of them, with the lighting playing up who is “winning” the argument or the intimacy levels by being either warm or cool (or transitioning between them in the course of the shot). When JaeYoung manages to crumble SangWoo’s defensives, it gets warmer, when SangWoo is in charge of the narrative drive, it gets cooler. It’s very clever.
I think Korea is particularly good that this tonal character association and mood enhancement because they use it in high concept Kpop MVs all the time.
9. Cutie Pie
Very high production and a lot of visual references to yaoi gave this show a whiff of Japan but ultimately it stayed firmly in Thailand’s BL camp veering from absurd to appealing to annoying and then back to absurd again. If you can roll with the arranged marriage conceit and very lifestyle D/s relationships, the chemistry is spot on even if the plot is naff and sappy and driven by miscommunication. Watch this one for the pretty, give it a pass on depth.
But if it has so little story for the cinematography to support, why did I pick it?
I like the setting chosen (it’s no accent this is top of my list of best Architecture in BL) but I also love the clean filming style, it’s very very manga for Thailand. Cheewin does this well sometimes (see alos SCOY). Not really the best BL by any stretch of the imagination, but there is something candy bright about this one that really harkens to reading yaoi, and Thailand just doesn’t do that very often. This is why I chose it.
Wardrobe, setting, and color choices are all used to really highlight the differences between the characters in terms of age and life stage. Also Zee has really learned how to push his physicality since Why Ru U? so that his body positioning in particular just looks EXACTLY like the seme of some 2000s yaoi.
10. Until We Meet Again
UWMA is a work of narrative genius, and all the actors all turn in stellar performances, it is the best Thai BL from a storytelling perspective. It’s two interwoven narratives, present and past, of lovers who have been reincarnated in order to find each other again and forgive each other (and their families) for that past.
But this is a strange one to chose for this list, since the cinematography is workmanlike at best. There’s repeat cuts and other annoying tics, and general hallmarks of New’s style as a director (which is, quite frankly not particularly stylish). BUT, one of the fun things to watch for in this BL is how New contrasts central framing with peekaboo (AKA dirty) framing with regards to the two lead couples.
Korn & In, the past selves, are secretive, scared, and hiding everything. They are usually filmed with things dirtying the screen: walls, and other objects, so we get this voyeuristic feeling of always peeking around a corner at them, and seeing something we shouldn’t. The few times we see their intimacy fully framed it’s at night, staggered, and/or off center. This illustrates not just the secrecy but the instability of the relationship.
Dean & Pharm, the present selves, the camera treats as a representation, in part, of Dean having learned from his past not to hide who he loves. They are often filmed full figure, and centrally framed, full lighting, bold and direct, standing upright, holding hands, or kissing.
In other words, New is using framing techniques to highlight in a way the couples “outness,” the state of their relationship, is related to the outside world and also how they feel about it and themselves.
Meta Post - All My Stuff on the BL Industry - Master Post talking about financing & production: This is a complication by request of all the posts and discussions this blog has hand on the BL industry as an industry, includes studios, production, country analysis, actor and fan behavior
The Complete BL Sass™️ Collection (2021-2023) Not Me – Sean & White Semantic Error – Jaeyoung & Sangwoo Enchanté – Akk & Theo The Eclipse– Akk & Ayan My School President – Tinn & Gun
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