You're in filmmaking and working on your big dream BL production, your writer is one of the best, you got decent budget, interested sponsors, a great director, a professional crew. Now, you gotta cast your actors, the mains and maybe a sidedish. Who would you chose and why? Which criteria would you apply for example age, appearance, acting style, experience, ability to create chemistry, on-screen charisma, name recognizability? Which actors would you pair and why? Make it country specific.
MY ULTIMATE FANTASY CAST + BL MASTERPIECE!
If I could have any BL in the world. What would I pick?
I kinda already did this here:
TOP 10 BL PAIRS + What They Should Play Next - I chose SamYu for the gay Descendants of the Sun, but you threw the door wide open on this one so I am pushing it. (I also did Crazy BL Actor Pairing I'd Love to See )
I hold by those picks but I’ll reboot the game a little.
Now, you gotta cast your actors, the mains and maybe a sidedish. Who would you chose and why?
(SamYu - We Best Love) in a Taiwanese production of Hospital Playlist.
So Hospital Playlist is a true ensemble piece with 5 leads, but the anchor relationship would be these two. In case you were in any possible doubt as to my ultimate bias.
(L-R: prudish pediatrician, arrogant heart surgeon, comedic general surgeon, neurotic OBGYN, warm & brilliant neurosurgeon)
Hospital Playlist is not just one of my favorite Kdramas, it’s one of my favorite dramas of all time. I love a medical drama, it has multiple solid romances all ending happily, it’s about older characters, there are complex stories and GREAT side characters, food is vitally important, and it’s ultimately extremely comforting. It’s sadly het, tho.
So I want Taiwan to do the queer version. And I want it to get the proper treatment the way Taiwan sometimes does with their het stuff, like full on 20-30 episodes.
Hospital Playlist only it’s 5 queer surgeons, paired as follows:
Sam plays the funny single dad general surgeon (his husband left him alone with their adopted son, yadda yadda)
Yu is the kind hearted brilliant neuroscientist. I’d like to see him play a warm nerdy character for a change.
(Spoiler, these two characters are already besties who once moot-pined and eventually end up together.)
Lin Yu (OuWen from Love is Science) plays is the arrogant heart surgeon. Of COURSE HE DOES. Slayed by the military boy in the end, of course. Honestly we can pair him with Anderson Cheng again as Sam’s younger brother, but I’m not married to that pairing.
The OBGYN has to be our neurotic chaos bi character (that comedy writes itself) and I would cast Bruce He in the role. Because, he has dimples and I love him in everything and I am shallow af. He can have all the crazy exes up the wazoo. That’d be fun. I don not care who he ends up with.
I’d turn the rich prude pediatrician character into a lesbian who I want played by Aviis Zhong, because she hasn’t played enough lesbians yet. Never enough lesbians.
I want her slow pining desperate younger love interest (AGE GAP!) to be played by Tannie Huang (DNA Says Love You bestie). I think they would kill it.
I want the older administrator of the hospital adopted lesbian mom of the group to be Tammy Darshana Lai (Encore Martha). And I want her to be having her own life, quandaries and relationships.
Which criteria would you apply for example age:
I’d like it to be older characters in general. I love a high school drama but I’d like something more relatable to me, and more meaty for the actors to sink into, where being queer is there, and important, but there’s other life shit going on (ex spouses, children, career hiccoughs, side interests and hobbies).
Clearly I’m picking all over the place on actual actor ages, but the main characters would all be in their late 30s at least. The support cast of residents and students and patients so forth would be many other ages.
I’d like the Love is Science? team to direct (Tsai Mi Chieh & Chang Chin Jung).
Appearance, acting style, experience, ability to create chemistry, on-screen charisma, name recognizability?
I want mostly pretty because, as already mentioned, I shallow af. But I also want broad queer rep and diversity. So trans characters, butch, femme, various creeds and colors, all of them - in complex, capable professional doctor roles and positions of power. I want it to look like the Philippines vomited queer rep on this hospital.
It’s my fantasy medical drama, I’ll queer it up if I wanna.
I think Taiwan in general has a realistic, highly physical, slightly comedic acting style that would suit Hospital Playlist very well. (Probubly better than Korea’s style did, quite frankly.)
All the actors I chose (but Yu) are experienced and established. I think Avis and Bruce are big enough names for major draw. And SamYu as a pair are a big enough deal to pull the BL audience in spades. A show like this could take off international well and easily. Authentic queer rep is one of Taiwan’s strengths and this kind of show could showcase that for truly broad appeal, like Asia’s version of Queer as Folk, only a million times BETTER.
Did I sell you on it?
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Hi absolutebl, our most reliable source of all things BL ;). Such a big fan of your blog, and thank you so much for contributing to the fandom in such a healthy and positive way. Sorry for the long ask: but do you by chance have any thoughts on "bromance" as a genre? Like, do you watch it? Do you have recommendations? Are you a fan of it? I'm sorry if it's an inappropriate question (you are absolutebl after all, this might not be your cup of tea). It's just that sometimes I find myself drawn more to the chemistry of some current bromance series out there than the currently-airing BLs (but that's just my preference. Maybe I just prefer the low heat, old school types). I mean, I actually do like high heat BLs, but some bromance series really just blow me away with plot and chemistry that I don't mind the romance as subtext only (I just finished Japan's Kei x Yaku and Korea's Beyond Evil and both just BLEW ME AWAY. It was intense in the best way. And China's Untamed will always be a special favorite). Any thoughts? Thank you in advance!
BROMANCES
Hi and thank you, I'm flattered!
Ah I have watched some, but in general since we have so many more actual BL options now, I don't bother anymore. They mostly just piss me off either way.
I tend to intentionally ignore them - censoring the censors, so to speak.
I have a few posts tangential to this though:
Devil Judge & Korean Bromance Stuff
BL fandom picked up on Devil Judge, why?
devil judge, hallyu wave bromances, & non BL K-dramas
BL tropes deployed in The Devil Judge (2021)
Devil Judge... is it queerbaiting?
Word of Honor & Chinese Bromance Stuff
Word of Honor
Chinese mf censorship, fight me
Mainland China Censorship Be Like…
Some of the ones I guess I’d call bromances that I’ve watched:
Untamed (20 ep BL cut)
Word of Honor
S.C.I. Mysteries (actually one of my first BLs/bromances in general)
Find You In The Crowd
Love is Not Easy to Have
Swinging Blossom
The Fairy Fox
Beloved Enemy
His Cat
Till Death Tear Us Apart
Advance Bravely (this is more just censored BL)
Mr. CEO is Falling in Love with Him (same as above)
Legend of Long Yang
Customized Companion
Glass Heart
Past Youth
River Knows Fish Heart
Guardian
Mermaid's Jade
Broken Youth
Youth in the Breeze
Capture Lover
Precise Shot
Every Moment that I Think of You
My Esports Genius Brother
In Your Heart
There’s a bunch of early stuff out of China that is just barely censored, in that they don’t kiss (like the ghost boyfriend series), but it’s a lot more obviously gay than post 2016.)
I don’t keep track of the bromances from Korea (like At A Distance, Spring is Green) or Japan (with a few exceptions like Silhouette of Your Voice which is a yaoi adaptation) because they piss me off even more than China. It feels so cowardly. Or those wish side nods like Moment at Eighteen
It’s pretty simple...
if, if the characters were het and would have kissed in the drama under those circumstances, but they don’t because they are a same sex couple - I get really mad about it.
And I’m unable to get over that anger. Because the anger feels justified.
All that said, if you are someone who really doesn’t mind the great long con tease with no pay out these are the ones I liked despite myself:
Recommended Bromances (in order)
Word of Honor
The Devil Judge
The Guardian (super under appreciated but a TON of fun)
Untamed
S.C.I. Mysteries (if you like police procedurals)
Advance Bravely
Capture Lover
River Knows Fish Heart
Precise Shot
Beloved Enemy (IF you come out of yaoi and don’t mind some seriously triggering tropes)
Legend of Long Yang (this is kinda the precursor to Untamed & WOH)
I have not seen Japan's Kei x Yaku (I had spies reporting in on it and decided not to bother, since it was also difficult to get hold of). I have see Korea's Beyond Evil and I am afraid I didn’t get the bromance subtext as much as you, and others, have. I guess the actors didn’t work for me?
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