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Category: Film

Yaoi and M/M Romance in film – anime, movies, ova, etc.

Anybody Else Watching Thai BL Drama?

Thailand's erotic Boys Love TV dramas are a hit with Indonesians, gay and  straight | South China Morning Post

I’ve been quarantining in my home, including working from home for almost a year now (since March). After going through every gay love story on Netflix, I found this interesting saga called, “The Untamed”. Wow, did it open my eyes to Asian boys love stories (BL). I’d watched BL in anime form before, but this is way better, believe me. I’m also used to sub-titles, which helps.

Anyhow, back to the Thai BL dramas. There are hundreds of these. They range anywhere from sweet high school romances to murder mystery romance with some really hot men thrown in.

Some of my favorites are (in no particular order)
1. TharnType
2. 2Gether
3. Manner of Death

Finding these to watch can take a bit of sleuthing, but most can be found on YouTube. Otherwise, there are apps that show them: LineTV, Tencent Video or Viki by Rukuten.

Let me know if you watch any of them and what you thought.

Oh, I do have some books coming out, so stay tuned:)

Live Action Yaoi

Tuakumi X Gii Kiss - Takumi-KunSo I’ve noticed lately on YouTube, much to my delight, some Japanese films that appear to be what I’d refer to as “Live Action Yaoi”. Now maybe I’m coming into this phenomenon really late and all you other fangirl and fanboy types have already drooled all over these things, but I’m hoping to see them on Netflix or even Crunchyroll sometime soon;) (If they’re already there, tell me!)

I’ve started watching one called, Soshite, Harukaze ni Sasayaite, or maybe Takumi-Kun Series, I can’t tell what the name is by the video title;) And I’m very intrigued. Sure, it’s a bit mushy as gay movies go, but it’s also very sweet. And if we like yaoi, that’s what we’re looking for, right? This story in particular is based off this shy dude who was molested, I think, by his older brother and is the love interest for your typical very popular dude. They’re in college and share a room – how convenient:) Gee, I think I’ve seen that somewhere before (like in my own book The Obsession, LOL). And so the popular guy, Gii, makes his feelings known and protects Takumi in true yaoi, seme fashion.

It looks like the guys don’t do too much in terms of sex except for a stolen kiss here or there and lots of gushy “I love you’s”. Of course, I can always hope. And as I peruse YouTube, I think I’m seeing a few of these things with a bit more racy content. There’s one called, Pure, that seems to go a bit, ahem, deeper.

Let’s get some discussion going about this – do you like these or yaoi anime better? Where are these coming from – please enlighten me a bit more:) And what’s up with this? Can we petition Netflix and Crunchyroll to show them if they don’t already? If I seem a bit daft with respect to these things, give me a break – I just found them!

And so, here’s the first part of the Takumi-Kun Series (if that’s what it’s called):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF2jpj7R7TI

Why do the Men in Yaoi not Want Sex?

Sakai Ichi Hatsukoi - World's Greatest First Love - YaoiI’m watching this yaoi anime on Crunchyroll (finally, Yaoi on Crunchyroll!), Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi – World’s Greatest First Love, and I realized that in so many Yaoi anime and manga, the guys don’t seem to actually want to have sex, at least the ukes don’t. Why is that? Don’t all men want to have sex all the time? If so, shouldn’t it hold true that in our gay male stories, there’s lots of man sex and they’re loving it?

So, I was putting dishes away, because God knows I have nothing better to do on a Sunday morning;) and I’m thinking to myself about why we as straight women like this sort of thing. I mean, we must, right? Or why would the Yaoi powers that be put this stuff out? And why would we watch it so religiously?

In the typical Yaoi manga or anime, you have these two dudes that are attracted to each other, maybe even confess their love for each other, but invariably one chases after the other for sex (usually the seme), while the other runs from it (usually the uke). Then when the seme actually gets the uke, the uke does the, “Oh, stop… please stop”, thing while at the same time obviously getting off on what the seme’s doing.

My question is – could this be a hold over from the traditional romance story days when the heroine in our romance books loved, but hated, but didn’t want to tarnish her reputation by having sex, but got really hot and bothered by the hero? As women, we’re supposed to make guys chase us, guys we like, but we can’t show them we like them or we won’t get chased. Whew, what a wild game, huh? And what a mess… And this does resemble the typical Yaoi story arc, does it not? Hmmm…

Maybe in these stories, since they’re written largely for a straight female audience, this dynamic exists in order to give some sort of semblance of a traditional male/female role that women recognize immediately. And we eat it up, don’t we? It’s that whole forbidden thing. The “I want you, but I shouldn’t, can’t” thing. The whole reason why we love our Yaoi and M/M Romance – forbidden love.

And so the poor uke has to go on wanting sex with his seme, but pretending like he doesn’t. I wonder, what would happen if we made stories that were more true to gay male life? Would we still devour them so hungrily? What do you like?

And now, the trailer: