Think Back to When You Were Young.....

I am reticent to call them BL but they do involve the blossoming of very young feelings of romance between juvenile boys. I am not sure what the reason for their production except for simply giving these young actors an opportunity to hone in on their acting talents. They are simple stories of bromances, or maybe simple connections of friendship between boys, or even ‘puppy love’. There is nothing elaborate here nor is there is there any deep hidden meanings. It is just what happens sometimes with young boys when they realize that they may be ‘different’ or they now think differently about some of their friends or guys in their age group.
Sure, these small vignettes are not very long and are not particularly well acted (they tended to be very wooden) and do look more like a training rehearsal for more roles for them, but that is not what made these stories very entertaining and effective. While they are raw, there are some spurts of genuine emotions able to break through and shine in each of them. They are soooooo young and I can imagine that roles like this would make them perhaps uncomfortable. However, they did a pretty good job of showing that in subtle ways they are attracted to another guy. We know it is ‘puppy love’. The production value of these tiny snippets is surprisingly good and so is the camera work. If you like, you can read my full review of this charming series at ppbongi.medium.com.

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Not entertaining and simply disconcerting

This series is misguided, misconceived, and misdirected. It other words, it missed. The entire series was so unfocused and presented in almost a cartoonish manner that I did not know if this was to be taken as a comedy, drama, fantasy, or romance. So how did this series fall apart? While the concept of the story itself was interesting, it never fully committed itself to seeing it to its completion. Was it a comedy? A drama? A fantasy? A romance? It tried to be everything and failed at all of it. This series went for cuteness but did not understand the price it paid to get to that end. It sacrificed a lot of integrity to get there. I found its underlying message subtly abusive and disconcerting, not funny, and mostly sad. And very little understanding of what it is like to be gay. Its negative message overpowers its cuteness and slight humor. Personally, I cannot dismiss so readily the attempted rape, the bullying, and its cringeworthy ending that made me feel uncomfortable.

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This is a phenomenal story told tenderly and enchantingly

This is a simple basic story of love. Stated with great care with a complete understanding of the characters. And proves that even in a repressed society filled with rules, protocols, and defined traditions, you can still flourish love. And define clearly what that love is and subsequently earn a place in perhaps your own peaceful, loving world. This story is a remarkable, unpretentious tale of love between two rather sequestered men who know exactly what is happening to each other and in the end, summon just enough gritty determination to overcome the societal shackles of ‘acceptable’ behavior. Just remarkable in its softness and beauty.

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Changes the Direction for the BL Genre

Nothing that I can say will mean anything as I sure everything has been sad and no doubt better. This is an exceptional series and changes, or at least should change, the direction of BL series. It is not filled with breakable characters holding stuffed animals and whining and pining for another for 10 episodes. This is a genuine GAY love story not filled with crap about loving the person not the gender nonsense. Surprise! They are both guys and they know it and are not ashamed of it. How refreshing! They totally nailed these characters to the point that there connection was palpably real. I think there are certain series that literally changes the course of a genre. SOTUS is certainly one and 2GETHER is another (it really did) and this is the third. This series made gay relationships look real, normal, and frankly nice. THANK YOU!
Read my full review at BLBliss.com/

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One of the Best "BLs" of 2021. A Masterpiece!

I know, I know. While a case could be made that this is not a BL in the true sense of the definition, you can not argue that it is a story about love in so many different ways. It manifests love in a simple story of connection and humanity. While this movie/series is short, it packs more into its story than most high production series do. There are no tangents; no side-stories. This story is about real people, facing real problems, yet taking the time to connect with nature, with each other, and yes even express love in a simple gesture of a hug. I was incredibly moved by this breathtaking series of one person touching the lives of others and they in turn reciprocating with kindness. It showed the absolute power of unconditional positivity in treating each other with respect and kindness. These values still mean something. And the acting is nothing short of brilliant. This is going to unquestionably be on my Top 10 Best BLs of 2021, however it is defined by others. It shows and displays the purist form of love - kindness and connection. My full review of this gem will be on my website shortly at BLBliss.com. Please watch this series/movie.

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Poignant Yet Beautiful and Outstanding

A simple basic story of an individual down on his luck who happens to meet someone who will change his life. But the road to his happiness is detoured by an unexpected trauma. This trauma happens often to individuals who are marginalized or society thinks of as unworthy. This trauma carries with it a stigma that will never leave you and you must carry it alone. But it does not mean that you need to be alone. The depth of a love for someone shines brightly in this series and is a beautiful example of what love truly is and its power of commitment in healing the soul. This is an outstanding series of great inner beauty. It has rawness, guts to tackle the issues it does, and a strong sense of great story telling. While sad, it is not maudlin. But it is real. A beautiful story with stunningly handsome lead actors in roles that had to have been emotionally draining to do. I applaud their commitment to making their roles real and genuine.
This breaks the mold of the stereotypical BL series. It is not at a college. It involves a young man with an older. And it deal with REAL issues still facing the gay community today. This is outstanding BL series. I shall (shortly) post my full review of this awesome series on my website at BLBliss.com.

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It Is Their Destiny

This is a continuation story of Teh and Oh-aew. While the other two previous stories were phenomenal and profound story, this one just did not hit the mark for me. But I must quality that statement. It is NOT because of poor acting. Quite the contrary. This is one of the finest acted BL series from Thailand in a long time. The story itself is also superb. What left me empty and profoundly sad was the realization that these two loved each other with every fiber of their beings but it just is not enough to sustain a solid relationship. For me, their love is toxic. Their own inner demons stop them from actually becoming real true individuals. Their love is more what is supposed to be than what it really is. For me, that was sad.

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One of the Worst for 2023!

he series begins interestingly enough. Even with a worn-out theme of a withdrawn boy who has an unrequired love for his best friend, it was charming for a while. However, this series very quickly falls apart when it tries to get into the nitty-gritty of an actual story. The supposed Thai Mafia underworld was filled with laughable caricatures of epic comic proportions. They looked silly, acted silly, and frankly were silly. Sometimes over-the-top trying to look bad (while always coiffed impeccably) but never really able to shake the sanitized version of a what has to be seen as nothing more than an after school special. I continue to state, there must be at least a minimal standard for acceptable acting and for me that is the ability to cry when necessary. So, if you cannot cry you cannot act and all you are doing is performing. This is such an underwhelming series that I am astonished at how bad it really is. But it presents well. Its theatrics are perhaps intoxicating but this time, I am not buying into it. The screenplay is so second-rate. The acting is at best mediocre. The story itself is so lame that it looked like it picked ideas from other BLs and stuck them in and hoped it all worked.

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Cute but Toxic and Abusive!

Honestly, you have to suspend this series’ entertainment value from any sort of connection to reality because if you do not, your mind would be twisted into a pretzel of contradictions. It is a cute, entertaining BL at face value but if you dig deeper, it is a series that has so many incongruities in it and abuses, that it is hard to ignore those aspects of it. I know this is a BL and that portion was done in an entertaining way. While they made a cute couple, I never bought they were a couple, which of course did not happen until the last episode and then the screen was filled with moonbeams and hosannas. It was just a bit too Pollyanna and rushed.

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Immature and Silly With No Plot

Honestly, I do not think this series was deliberately trying to make itself look bad, but it sure ended up summarily looking that way. There seems to be a whole host of reasons for this. A bad script. Unchallenging acting. Really bad editing. And a story that is so full of stereotypical, overused, trite behavioral patterns that all it seemingly did was repeat itself over and over again. The characters never grew. Never matured. And the plot simply went from one silly scenario to another. Sadly, this series played everything ‘safe’ and therefore went nowhere. The same silly plot and triteness spun around and around.

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Despite the production issues, this one has heart!

I can feel my ears burning now because I liked this series. Why, you might ask, as this series has been panned? Because it had character and guts. Sure, I know what is wrong with this series. It has production issues galore. This was obviously done on a shoe-string budget. It screamed for more rehearsals and an acting coach to guide these young actors/actresses into drawing out more from them than superficialities. When I look at a series like this, I am hoping something captures me to want to make me finish it and the story did just that. It is a good rather solid story. They have heart; they needed direction.

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A Very Adult Series

This series is an adult-oriented story so if you are easily offended, perhaps this is not the series for you. It is a romp through a deep dark secret fantasy with feelings ranging from revulsion to secretive salaciousness. It is a forthright LGBTQ series tackling forbidden subject matters. I think with a bit more tightness to the script, less theatrics, and a more honest portrayal of the real story here, this series could have gone down in the annals as a pivotal series of seeing human sexuality, desires, and fantasies in a whole new light. It is a great series that just falls short of being superb.

Read my full review of this amazing series at BLBliss.com.

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