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This Week In BL - Strongberry Kisses!

Dec 2022 Wk 3

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs. Organized by which ones (in each category) I’m enjoying the most.

Ongoing Series - Thai

My School President (Fri YT) 4 of 10 - Gun gets flustered and then Gun gets flirty and comes over all spoiled prince, and poor Tinn loves it suffers. Thiw is the greatest wingman and it was the cutest date inspection: Tinn (confusedly carrying 2 ice creams ) just trailing behind a sunny excitable Gun. Yes, Gun is very extra. Yes, I skipped the singing. But oh my goodness do I love how much this is a traditional Thai high school BL. Thank you so much GMMTV. I missed this style of BL. 

Never Let Me Go (Tues YT) 2 of 12 - I have to say that I’m not entirely sure about Chimon’s casting in this role (he is one of my all time favorite GMMTV actors), but I love Perth. Perth has the hardest role, and he’s such a great nuanced actor with such an expressive face, only he could really pull it off and still feel sympathetic. Meanwhile ironically named Pond = yet another Thai actor made to swim who can’t. That said, PondPhuwin and the attack of the subtle flirtation = wonderful. Honestly? This is a much better role for Pond than FUTS. 

Between Us (Sun iQIYI) 7 of 12 - It’s still good, the leads are great, everything else is meh but at least I’m not bored? WATCH ALONG HERE.

609 Bedtime Story (Fri WeTV) 5 of 11 - So P’Mum is starting to figure out the science (do we call it science?) whatever. In other news, 3 years later, OhmFluke still give the softest sweetest most romantic kisses evah. P’Vee and Game are breaking my heart, honor the sides indeed. 

I Will Knock You (Fri Gaga) 6 of 12 - Noey has a very baby Dom thing to his bully behavior which is oddly cute. Or is that just me being warped? 

Remember Me (Sun Gaga) 11 of 14 - (it’s been extended 2 more episodes and into 2023, what joy is ours) We have switched to mostly focusing on Name and Em. I actually like the 2 actors, it’s just they keep getting stories I don’t enjoy. The JaFirst characters break up is not unexpected, presumably, they had to do some thing to honor the episode 11. After my bd reaction to The Yearbook I’m beginning to lose all faith in this production team. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Choco Milk Shake (Korea Strongberry Tues YT) 11fin - I have to say it felt a little manipulating and there was a lot of dwelling in sad and then a time jump, and then resolution, which is very classic for a Korean drama, but Strongberry usually bucks trends. Still, all the kisses are really good and I do love how the animals w kept their personalities. I’m going with 8/10 RECOMMENDED more below 

My Tooth Your Love (Taiwan Fri Viki) 12fin - The parental abuse, and horseback riding thing was weird. ending with a marriage equality muscle flex and some domesticity was classic Taiwanese BL. I do love that and they were so cute! But ultimately this was oddly disappointing at the end, I think partly because as good as the leads were the crumbs were both excellent too and I wish they had more screen time. 8.5/10

The New Employee (Korea Weds Viki) AKA The New Recruit AKA Shinib Sawo - From WATCHA (Semantic Error) virginal Seung Hyun scores the office internship of his dreams but on his first day at work he gets into it with his cool reserved boss. As you do. Stars Moon Ji Yong (Once Again). Based on Moscareto’s web novel of the same name, directed by openly gay & queer activist Kim Jho Gwang Soo (Just Friends?). Grumpy/sunshine, boss/emp, age gap. WAIT, he lives in the same neighborhood as the To My Star boys! And this show reminds me a little bit of that one, same kind of energy. Frankly this is what I wanted from this new crop of office set KBLs ALL ALONG. Fantastic. At last! 

Candy Color Paradox AKA Ameiro Paradox (Japan Fri Gaga) 2 of 8 - I’m not sure about this one, I am liking it OK but it is oddly mature while also being kookie, and also immature. Maybe it’s just Japan being its usual complex self. 

The Director Who Buys Me Dinner (Korea Thurs iQIYI) 3-4 of 10 - The premise of the show is so weird. But once the pink smoke appeared, and I decided we’re actually in a paranormal drama and not an office romance, I’m better about it. Also it’s really nice to see the lead pair start to actually like each other. 

Oh! My Assistant (Korea Thurs Viki) 7-8fin - There was a lot of me going awwww in ep 7. But in the finale, the triangle and jealousy seemed shoehorned in so that in the end, I was kind of torn. 7/10 More below. 

It’s Airing But I’m Not Watching It

Love Bill (Vietnam Sat YT) - Bah Vinh is back but I’m too distracted. Also there’s a lot of fund raising stuff going on. I’ll wait and binge.

The Star Always Follow You (Vietnam YT) - same Team RL peeps we have seen before (Sunshine, Stupid)

Till the World Ends (Thai YT) 10 eps - it seems to be good but I don’t know about the ending, so I’m waiting. 

Ended This Week

Choco Milk Shake (Korea YouTube) Stongberry gave us a full length BL on YouTube! It’s a BL miracle and an endless delight. It was wonderfully cute, unexpectedly hilarious but expectedly silly, a little too poignant, occasionally gut wrenching and with a somewhat expected weird (but happy-ish) ending. The actors playing the two pets must have had the best time. As, indeed, did I watching it. Jealous Milk made me cackle so hard it scared the actual cat on my lap, Choco was perfectly cast, and the chemistry was ultimately decent. In Strongberry I still trust. Thank you thank you, may we have another, sirs? 8/10 RECOMMENDED

My Tooth Your Love (Taiwan Viki) While, I really loved this show, it had a fun premise, and a solid lead pair with charming chemistry and delightful, domesticity, not to mention great communication, I wasn’t wild about some of the darker themes it explored, even though it did a good job with them. But while the crumbs and sides were v adorable they were chronically underused. If I gave half points this is a solid 8.5 but since I don’t it’s gonna be an 8/10 MUCHLY RECOMMENDED 

Oh! My Assistant (Korea Viki) This is a very silly show that acts like it comes from a very silly yaoi. Reserved out gay younger assistant (we stan) pretending to be tsundere but is actually just v shy and smitten by his cheerful (seemingly straight) chaos bi himbo artist boss. I think the cross cutting in of old footage with the replacement actor after the re-cast did affect the chemistry with this pair. There was no way around it. Even KBL isn’t usually this awkward and repressed. Although this show had the best bisexual awakening sequence ever put in a BL, and I really wanted to love it, I just didn’t. 7/10 RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

2 Moons 3 (Thai) finished it’s run this week. Rumor is it’s banal. I’m waiting to collect all the eps and then I will try to binge before I finish my 2022 wrap ups.

Why You… Y Me? (Thai YT) It���s not primarily a BL, but another meta show about BL shipping, with side BLs. I await @heretherebedork ‘s report on whether to watch or not.

Gossip

Nutt Witsarut (Daisy in Secret Crush On You!) will play the role of Gyogung in 9Cats Studio’s upcoming series Hot Bamee and Yummy Gyogung (y-novel adaptation).

PitchBank from Golden Blood (AKA Segus & Tenon) will be the side couple in new medical Thai BL Mystique in the Mirror. 

TutorYim (Cutie Pie) have a busy 2023, they’re starring in upcoming micro project Our Winter, possibly for Tik Tok distribution. They also took on JimmyTommy’s lead for Middleman’s Love and will have a cameo in KBL Jun & Jun (filming now). TutorYim will ALSO star in 2023 KBL (yes Korean) First Love’s User Manual under A-Plan International’s Silkwood (Peach Of Time). 

In Case You Missed It

Check Out is being made into a movie that nobody asked for. Then again if they cut it down to 2 hours maybe it’ll be tolerable? 

Singapore dropped short Summerdaze Christmas Together on YouTube. It’s ADORABLE and prompted me to talk about BL in Singapore and more. Def gave me Ingredients vibes. I really hope their series happens. 

Coffee Melody also gave us the Christmas special no one asked for. It’s basically a reunion romance, but mostly just domesticity. It cute, but dull. 

My Beautiful Man stars Yusei Yagi and Riku Hagiwara won several awards as a pair and individually at WEIBO Festival 2022.

Short Story Project's Coffee Shop (microfilm Youtube series in the same cafe setting with the same main character) ep 3 installment “ESPRESSO” is a BL. It stars BoyTod from Ghost Host, Ghost House and is a reunion romance. It’s quite cute. 

Moments Of Love (SmartJames AKA LeonPhob from Don’t Say No) from Foremorfilm Production supposed to air Dec 24 directed by Golf Tanwarin (609 Bedtime Story and The Eclipse). 

I’ve started my end of year wrap ups, trends lists, and BL stats reported. Let me know in a comment if there is any specifically you want to know of have deep feels about.

Next Week Looks Like This:

Still coming:

Dec 28 - H5: Love in the Future from Taiwan (prob Gaga or Viki) - A cheerful and energetic student from 2000 travels to the future (2022), works as a deliveryman, and meets his first customer, an heir with a domineering personality. Directed by Nancy Chen (HIStory 4, Papa & Daddy).

Dec 28 - Midnight series starts on GMMTV’s TY,, one of which is Moonlight Chicken (EarthMix). Trailer. Maybe not really BL, adult issues, messy gays, cheating, soulmates? Mix plays an openly gay character in a relationship with First’s character. Earth portrays a chef who runs a restaurant while taking care of his nephew.

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

Honestly what a great cast and thank you Strongberry for not betraying our trust. It was a predictably weird, but not traumatic ending. 

No shit. 

Tinn caught himself a live one. 

At least he knows it. (My School President) 

(last week)

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Here's the video version of my discussion of the leaked emails that prove the Hugo Awards removed finalists (me, RF Kuang, Paul Weimer, Neil Gaiman & Ep 6 of Sandman) for political reasons, despite us having the required votes. Because too many of you are making assumptions without bothering to read the full exposé.

There's a lot of nuance in this case that I hope people can acknowledge. No, it is not "sinophobic" to criticize the Chinese government's severe censorship policies when anyone who's spent more than ten minutes on the Chinese internet knows how bad it is, and there IS evidence of pressure in this case. There's nothing to accomplish by pretending like it's not a thing. You're not furthering the world proletarian revolution by speaking over the lived experiences of Chinese comrades and denying factually shitty aspects of your favorite AES.

Yes, the Western and presumably white members of the Hugo admin team DID circle back to racism by trying so hard to appease the Chinese government that they preemptively censored Chinese diaspora ~ to be safe ~ on extremely flimsy reasons without even reading our books. And of course, confusing Nepal for Tibet.

It's really not one or the other.

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"Alright, time to see what this animated poetry movie is like-

Oh jesus christ"

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Читать дальше

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Mysterious Lotus Casebook | Lian Hua Lou | 莲花楼 | Episode 10

"Since you have been poisoned with the deadliest poison, no poison can harm you anymore." --Monk Wuliao

I've been thinking a lot about this line lately, and its potential repercussions. In context, this is Li Lianhua remembering Monk Wuliao's words from when he was healed as much as he could have been from the Bicha Poison 10 years ago. Shortly before these remembered words, there is a flashback wherein it is revealed that Li Xiangyi had a nut allergy that made him break out in hives. That bowl of food he's eating is a nut porridge brought to him by Yun Biqiu. (There are less dangerous ways to see if this person is your former sect leader, Biqiu! O_o;;;) Anyway, as he is eating this nut porridge, and remembering this line, Li Lianhua is distinctly NOT breaking out in hives.

The conclusion that we are clearly supposed to draw is that the Bicha Poison has prevented the "toxin" of the nuts from harming its host.

...but why stop there?

If a nut is a poison for the purpose of this mechanism of action, then what about other drugs/medications? After all, to quote one of my favorite sayings: "Healers and poisoners are folks with similar skill sets and wildly different philosophies." Or to put it as I learned it in my toxicology class in vet school: "All medicines are poisons at the right dose."

So if a nut can be a poison, then medications CERTAINLY are. And if the Bicha poison recognizes the nut as a poison and prevents it from acting, then we can assume it would do the same to any medications.

That explains why Medicine Demon's priceless potions DON'T WORK.

That explains why the snake bites DON'T WORK.

That explains why Guan Hemeng's medicines DON'T WORK.

It also explains why Li Lianua is so convinced that Fan Duobing's pill from Tianji Hall and Di Feisheng's Wangchuan Flower WON'T work.

Because once you've been poisoned by Bicha Poison, NO OTHER POISON WILL HARM YOU... or help you.

And taking that a step further, it means that every time Li LIanhua has been sick or injured or in need of pain medication in the past ten years, NONE OF IT WOULD HAVE WORKED. And considering how much more fragile he is now than he used to be, that absolutely breaks my heart.

Just imagine that every time he was ill or injured, he had to weight the benefits of using Yangzhouman to heal himself versus the risk of using too much and shrinking the time he had left even more. How many times must he have chosen to just power through and hope he makes it to the other side? No wonder he's so reluctant to let Guan Hemeng examine him and try to help. No wonder he doesn't want to waste everyone else's precious medications on himself. He knows they'll do nothing.

...excuse me while I go cry in a corner now. TT^TT

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When a physicist falls in love :)

Richard Feynman's love letter to his deceased wife, 1946.

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BY 小同学手工

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The three tumors are an old tale in time: the one that fell out of love, the one that fell out of power, and the one that welcomed death like an old friend.

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House of Gentians Arc 2 || Extra Comic: The Dog

Extra comic for Arc 2 of House of Gentians is finally here! Wei Ying, that's really a tough situation you found yourself in...and I don't mean the dog ohohohoho...👀 This is a thank you gift to my pa/tro/ns without whom this project would simply not exist. It's always accessible to new pa/tro/ns. For the full comic NEXT EXTRA PART

PREVIOUS PART

ABOUT+TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Rewatching e40 for fic research and this scene where WWX is sneaking off and asks LWJ to cover for him in case jiang cheng comes after him.....but JC isn't even looking at him, despite being a whole petty bitch earlier. He's having an engaging talk with this person. Who are they? Who is Jiang Cheng's discussion conference friend?? Where did they meet? Do they see each other outside discussion conferences?

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I’m officially renaming all the Sect’s strongholds

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When you remember me, it means that you have carried something of who I am with you, that I have left some mark of who I am on who you are

It means that you can summon me back to your mind even though countless years and miles may stand between us.

It means that if we meet again, you will know me.

It means that even after I die, you can still see my face and hear my voice and speak to me in your heart.

For as long as you remember me, I am never entirely lost.

When I'm feeling most ghost-like, it is your remembering me that helps remind me that I actually exist.

When I'm feeling sad, it's my consolation.

When I'm feeling happy, it's part of why I feel that way.

If you forget me, one of the ways I remember who I am will be gone.

If you forget, part of who I am will be gone.

Frederick Buechner

(Book: Whistling in the Dark: A Doubter's Dictionary https://amzn.to/3QxXIab)

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Having rewatched Pirates of the Carribean several times, I have noticed something interesting. Will Turner is often the only survivor of massive shipwrecks, like the one that killed his mother or the one with the kraken. Other times even when hes alone he survives drowning in ways he really has no right to, like the destruction of the Interceptor. He just often conveniently finds a perfect sized piece of driftwood or something. Remember what Calypso said? About him having a “touch of destiny?” I think that the sea could never kill him, will always cradle him and protect him, because all along he was destined to be the captain of the Flying Dutchman. The sea could no more kill him than a human could cut off their own arm.

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Liable to say the worst, cruelest thing in the heat of the moment, and then regret the consequences. (x)

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Favorite chinese drama female leads?

going to include taiwanese drama female leads as well!

top 5 cdrama/twdrama female leads!

chu xuanji, love and redemption. she doesnt understand any of the senses until she collects them in a mirror like shikon jewel shards. she's martial arts deadweight unless she's the god of war, in which case she gets her own ass-kicking theme song by the prince of mandopop. she wants a nap and snacks. she tried to fight heaven in a parking lot. she loves her man. she doesn't know what love is. she is a man. she is the moment.

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huang yu xuan, someday or one day. she's grieving, but she'll kick your ass over it. timetraveler and transmigrator. her boyfriend has custom bobbleheads of them in his car because they're a certified One Of Those Couples. inspires soft pastel drawings of first loves running the rain. she'll tell you how to ask her out but you have to wait approximately 20 years and one other boyfriend for it to work

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jin yu, sound of the desert

was literally raised by wolves? but that doesn't stop the #hustle. opens up a business empire through 100% cunning. manages to get both hu ge and eddie peng totally in love with her, nice work!

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xiao qian/qianqian, the romance of tiger and rose

a writer who's lost the plot. agent of chaos under the guise of storyboarding. total shitstirrer who has a taste for the dramatic. knows the best way to poison herself is set to a string quartet and fireworks display. i love her.

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feng zhi wei, the rise of phoenixes

i havent finished this drama because im a flop. but she's playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers. best dressed because her eternal not!boyfriend is a machiavellian weaver of secrets but also perhaps fabrics

honorable mentions:

li jianjian, go ahead. art bro who survived the worst mother in law ive ever seen

su "piggy" cancan, wait, my youth. a loveable dumbass who DIDNT CHOOSE THE SCIENCE TRACK IN A YOUTH DRAMA

awu/wang xuan, monarch industry. a respectable lady who is so, so tired of the men in her life (barring her husband)

xiao lanhua, love between fairy and devil. a little orchid fairy who's Doing Her Best

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whoever the fuck i saw saying “i can’t stand english bitching because they’re so complacent” and whoever else thinks we’re not doing enough i’d like to invite you to DO SOME FUCKING RESEARCH.

a law was recently passed that deemed any kind of protesting as disruptive and able to be punished by the police, alongside giving the police more power.

we all watched the police storm the PEACEFUL VIGIL for sarah everard - a woman raped and murdered by a police officer.

PEOPLE ARE CURRENTLY BEING ARRESTED FOR OUTWARDLY EXPRESSING ANY SORT OF DISPLEASURE WITH THE MONARCHY.

A WOMAN WAS ARRESTED FOR HOLDING UP A SIGN. JUST HOLDING IT.

PEOPLE WERE ARRESTED FOR BOOING.

everything in britain has been put to a standstill. hospital appointments have been cancelled. funerals have been cancelled. we can’t do anything about it.

many of us will be unable to pay our energy bills this winter. we will freeze. we will starve.

it has been demonstrated to us time and time and time again that protests simply make people talk about how we were protesting and never why. and now the police has increased power to punish us for any public opinion that they don’t like.

we have been under tory rule for 12 years. 12 years of the same people - hey americans, can you imagine that?

we are tired, no, we are exhausted. we are struggling. we are scared. and it has been made clear to us that our government does not care.

so fucking forgive us if we’re putting our own survival over the opinions of americans (and other non-brits but americans are the worst) online who expect us to learn everything about their politics and their country and don’t put in an ounce of effort to learn about ours.