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absolutebl · 2 years

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BL Directors - Overview

Some DMing has made me think perhaps it’s time for a master post about some of the directors we have who always (or often) specialize in BL. I’m interested in better training my eye to spot BL director style (I think I have Cheewin & New down). This isn’t going to be an exhaustive list, but there are certainly ones whose names come up a lot, and some who have a very specific style. So I’m hoping many of you are as interested as me.

A word on address in Thai:

Many bloggers will refer to directors as P’New (for example) to distinguish them as directors, also because this is often mode of address used by their actors in bts and on promo circuit. Quite apart from the fact that there is a good chance I am older than many of these directors, the correct form of address to ANY ADULT from an outsider or stranger (like me) is Khun. So technically I should use K’New. However, to distinguish in my posts a director like New from say an actor like New of TayNew, I will occasionally use the moniker “Director New,” otherwise, as with other Thai names I will just use the person’s ชื่อเล่น chuelen.

New Siwaj

BEST KNOWN FOR: Until We Meet Again, Make It Right series (2016, 2017, 2019 co-directed with Cheewin)

OTHER NOTED BLS: Star and Sky series (2022), 7 Project (2021), My Gear And Your Gown (2020), Love By Chance 1 & 2 (2018, 2020)

FORTHCOMING: Absolute Zero, Between Us

OFTEN WORKS FOR: GMMTV, Wabi Sabi, MAME projects

LIKES TO CAST: Mean (will be co-directing Remember Me), Title, BounPrem, smol Earth, Yacht, Sammy, Plan, BoomPeak, Perth

STYLE: basic but high tech (he likes a lot of different camera work); redundant transition shot (he likes to reuse the same one for a given location in a series - Dean’s house = the koi pond in UWMA, for example); staged distance (long) shots; central aperture framing; neutral tones and backgrounds; school settings; good at encouraging genuine emotion, gets his actors to cry a lot; likes location shoots (forests, beaches)

NOTES OF INTEREST: He’s the producer but not director for Dear Doctor, I'm Coming for Soul; he’s the cinematographer but not director for En of Love: Love Mechanics; he was the screenwriter & director for both Love by Chance and Until We Meet Again

CONCERNS: none really, his style can sometimes feel redundant and a bit dull, like he’s phoning it in (see my thoughts on Star) but that’s about it, no negative rumors that I’ve noticed, he is very inconsistent in his story picks and therefor results (since he is so workmanlike he needs a very strong narrative to carry him), some stuff of his I love, others I can’t stand.

TRIVIA: New’s cousins in the industry include Captain (Noh in Love Sick) and Primrose (Aim in Love Sick)

Cheewin Thanamin

BEST KNOWN FOR: Why R U? (2020)

OTHER NOTED BLS: That's My Candy (2022), Secret Crush On You (2022), the YYY series (2020), Make It Right series (2016, 2017, 2019 co-directed with New)

FORTHCOMING: War of Y, Bed Friend, Middleman's Love

OFTEN WORKS FOR: LINE TV, Channel 3, GMM One

LIKES TO CAST: Zee, BoomPeak, JimmyTommy, MaxNat, YoonLay, Poppy

STYLE: commercial; bright, cheerful, favors primary colors, a touch campy and slapstick; no manga framing techniques; likes close-ups and mid-shots (few distance shots and when they are there, VERY staged); no drone work mostly dolly & steadicam; likes beach locations; loves a pillow clutch trope; very much signature Thai BL; good on higher heat; touch voyeuristic; later work has a queerer POV

NOTES OF INTEREST: Cheewin cut director’s teeth on the set of Love Sick 2, co-directing with two others. I don’t know the particulars on Cheewin’s preferred gender/pronouns or sexual orientation (translated into English) but Cheewin uses queer coded Thai linguistics (of the kind I discuss in this post), most specifically preferring ha, ja, and kha when being interviewed. So I would guess Cheewin identifies (by western definitions) as queer and/or gender fluid.

CONCERNS: almost always weak on story and plot, some marketing (fan scamming) rumors on some projects

TRIVIA: Cheewin played side role Christina in the Make it Right series, and the press conference host in 2021′s Lovely Writer.

Aof Noppharnach

BEST KNOWN FOR: Bad Buddy (2021), A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021)

OTHER NOTED BLS: Still 2gether (2020), Dark Blue Kiss (2019), He's Coming to Me (2019), Our Skyy (2018)

FORTHCOMING: Moonlight Chicken

WORKS FOR: GMMTV (content production director)

LIKES TO CAST: EarthMix, Ohm, Nannon, Tay

STYLE: cinematic, thoughtful, sometimes a little overworked; attention paid to setting; likes strong scripts; LOVES a long shot (crane work I think); pays more and better attention to audio, background music, and sound than many other Thai directors, specifically will choose orchestral music (less singing, thank fuck)

NOTES OF INTEREST: he clearly prefers experienced actors and established pairs or pre-existing friendship dynamics to ease the way for the intimacy scenes; he obviously tests and pushes his actors and is a bit of a perfectionist (actors and viewers seem to appreciate this)

CONCERNS: I have concerns around Moonlight Chicken because I don’t think his strength is in higher heat and messy gay, but as a director he hasn’t really failed us yet, so...

TRIVIA: Is the screenwriter behind the My Dear Loser series. So far as I can tell linguistically, identifies as gay. Produced but did not direct Cupid's Last Wish, Baker Boys, Fish Upon the Sky (so, lets keep him directing and NOT producing, okay?). Has had cameos in Baker Boys, Bad Buddy, A Tale of Thousand Stars, Our Skyy and Friend Zone. Appeared in BL: Broken Fantasy documentary. According to tumblr comments is openly gay (someone drop a primary source in the links to confirm?).

Other Thai directors to keep an eye on:

EXPERIENCED THAI DIRECTORS NOT FOCUSED ON BL

Ma-Deaw Chookiat - director & noted screenwriter, he does a range of genres, not just BL. He is responsible for the first gay YA drama out of Thailand, The Love of Siam (2007), as well as Grean Fictions (2013) which is not a BL but features many BL actors in their first major roles, and similarly dramatic and not BL but gay Songkram Yeng Poo To Be Continued: Secret of a Heart That Doesn't Exist and Dew the Movie. He’s from Chiang Mai and often casts northern actors. Amongst BL fans he is best know for Manner of Death and Triage. His BL is “BL light” often not really owing anything to the film genre but just the original y-novel story. He has neither a queer lens nor a BL style, but more of an objective outsider almost documentarian approach. This results in content that’s a lot more like western queer indie cinema than BL. He likes a strong almost literary story, driven by characters, and following that character to see what happens (VERY few tropes). He’s heavy on action and mystery elements, and likes complexity and movement in space, time, narration, and camera shots (I think he uses hand held quite a bit). There is no guaranteed happy ending with his work, but he will include gay threads whenever he feels like it regardless of genre (see Slam Dance) which is relatively rare out of Thailand.

Nuchy Anucha - co-founder of G Motif, one of the largest video production companies in Thailand. Nuchy is trans and explicitly queer in all her work, she is the genius behind Not Me, but she is not focused on BL.

Thitipan Raksasat - works mainly as a marketing director and comes out of musical theater, he did the two X-rated and not really BL but hella gay installments of Love Next Door, and most recently Love Stage!! He brings a queer lens to his work and good high heat, and I really hope he does more BL.

Mike Phontharis - Mike’s stuff is all over the place, messy, he’s absolutely does not specialize in BL and does a ton of work. I clearly am not a fan of his style because I’ve struggled with all his BLs, which include: The Tuxedo, Golden Blood and Siew Sum Noi.

Jojo Tichakorn Phukhaotong - I did a whole post on him here.

EXPERIENCED THAI DIRECTORS FOCUSED ON BL

Andy Rachyd - basically birthed Thai BL, and the Thai Pulps, helmed Love Sick (YAY!), both Water Boyys (BOO), Make It Right 1 & 2 (I am trash because I love them), and 'Cause You're My Boy (AKA My Tee), mentored New and Cheewin. Now he does mostly terrible pulps (Thank God It's Friday, Friend Forever, Physical Therapy) and there are some challenging rumors about him. I don’t really know more than that. He has a soap opera style approach to his filming and is pretty darn terrible on story structure.

Lit Phadung - with only a few exceptions has focused on BL since the unexpected success of SOTUS in 2016. His stuff includes the SOTUS series, Meow Ears Up, My Engineer, Our Skyy, Love Mechanics. He has broken away from GMMTV but I think he’s a better director when he has their backing, funding, organization, and talent pool - it allows him to do ensemble pieces and broad characterization with lots of minor characters and group scenes, at which he excels. He is supposed to be directing My Engineer 2.

Tee Bundit - mostly focuses on BL and helmed TharnType, Lovely Writer, and Something in My Room - so yeah, his style is all over the darn place and hard to pin down. I can say he is good at spotting and cultivating chemistry, and he likes a clean, pretty uncluttered picture that feels graphic if not exactly manga influenced, he loves mid-shots and I think is mostly using steadicam and dollies in his stuff. He is the kind of director that feels storyboarded, whether he is or not. He’s behind much anticipated forthcoming BL timeslip historical I Feel You Linger in the Air.

Jane Botta - specializes in BL and was the screenwriter of Together with Me and director on Nitiman, Oxygen, Our Skyy, and SOTUS S. His style it a bit slow and I worry about his pacing, but I generally like his work. His next BL is supposed to be Trouble Maker.

Aam Anusorn - is a pretty famous new wave Thai filmmaker who comes out of documentary work and does a lot of co-funded projects with other countries including gay narratives like Present Perfect series (w/ Japan) and Call It What You Want (w/ Taiwan) which is also an exposé on the BL industry. He’s a risk-taker who’s been recognized throughout Asian for example he has funding from South Korea to film in China, and also did the BL documentary BL: Broken Fantasy. In addition to those already mentioned he helmed 2 Moons 2 and DID NOT HAVE A GOOD TIME. I would call him a queer director NOT a BL director so I hesitate to even put him on this list. I doubt he will ever do anything “typically” BL ever again. But he does seem to be somewhat driven to queer up the genre so he’s worth keeping an eye on. I have to say, as a genre fan, I dislike everything he’s done except 2 Moons 2. So I think he and I have VERY different taste.

Nob Sathanapong - Nob’s first BL is the interesting, but unsuccessful Love of Siam-esk 2016 piece Sweet Student Boy (this is Chimon’s BL, often forgotten, not without reason). Since then he’s done BL (occasionally working for Star Hunter): La Cuisine, both Gen Y series, and forthcoming Ai Long Nhai. His stuff is... messy.

Phadej Onlahung - came up in the pulps and not much is known about him. Everything he’s directed has been gay if not BL: Dear Doctor, I'm Coming for Soul (I loved it), I Love You, Love Poison (TERRIBLE), Love at 7-11, The Best Twins (also TERRIBLE) and forthcoming Cafe in Love. So very much hit or miss for me.

NEW THAI BL DIRECTORS

Aoftion Kittipat (Aof) - the director of Cutie Pie who clearly has a STRONG yaoi/manga influence to his vision. He’s one of the only Thai directors who does. His scenes and aesthetics are very staged and he pays careful attention to framing details (and spends his money on getting the vision RIGHT). Cutie Pie was his first major directing gig but I really want more from him. However, he has his fingers in LOTS of pies (DomundiTV, Mandee Work, & Emojii Music). He also helped write Why R U? and is producing Middleman's Love & Bed Friend. (The characters that showed up at the end of Cutie Pie.)

Niink Karnpicha - a young up and coming director specializing in BL, Niink is clearly still working out his POV and style. He trained under New and often works as his assistant director (Star and Sky: Star in My Mind, My Gear And Your Gown, Love By Chance 2, Until We Meet Again). His helmed projects have a similar almost slap dash workman-like approach, whether as screenwriter (7 Project, 2Wish) or director: What Zabb Man! and En of Love series. Like New, as a result, his directing style can come off feeling (oh how do I put this?) a bit lazy. I’d like to see him rise above this and develop his own voice.

Chacree Rujiviphat - only known for the Close Friend series and while I was not wild about that series content, I did LOVE the directing style and queer lens, there’s a solid, focused (gritty, but not really because still Thai) honesty to his style. His close camera work is very clear and clean, almost like something from Korea, and I’d love to see him handed a full length BL.

Pepzi Banchorn - has been a co- or assistant director on KinnPorsche, Bad Buddy, Dark Blue Kiss, and Great Men Academy. I expect and hope we will see her helm her own BL soon as one of the few women consistently involved with directing BL in Thailand, it’s time.

OUTSIDE THAILAND

Tsai Mi Chieh - Legacy director and queen of Taiwanese BLs her works include: About Youth, H3:MODC, Crossing the Line, H1: Stay Away From Me, and Love is Science (BL side). Her entire body of work is in queer media, including Dear Uranus and Hijra In Between. She captures intimacy well.

Chiang Ping Chen - directed Taiwanese BLs Plus & Minus (2022), Be Loved in House: I Do (2021), Craving You (2020). His preferred tropes and handling of intimacy is distinctly domestic. In other words, he likes close camerawork, home settings, and casual physical affection.

Nancy Chen - directed HIStory4: Close to You and the Papa & Daddy series. She’s newer to BL but as problematic as H4 was, it did include some good elements (in the main couple) like negotiation and representation of lube, and Papa & Daddy is explicitly queer. So I would keep an eye on her with regards to queer rep.

Ray Jiang - We Best Love & My Tooth Your Love. He seems to love long shots and working closely with experienced actors taking input from them, giving them space to play with a script.

Adiamond Lee - Light; Dark Blue & Moonlight; H1: Obsessed; Jump the Boy - she’s an out queer director to keep and eye on, but I’m not wild about her stuff so far.

Hwang Da Seul - AKA Our (Evil) Queen directed Korean BLs To My Star & To My Star 2, Blueming, and Where Your Eyes Linger, she’s also a professor in the Department of Film at the Korea National University of Art. So she’s training the next generation of BL directors. Her style is varied, she doesn’t seem to stick to any particular technique or trend. But if you watch her stuff in order you can actually see her improve over all as a director, picking up and trying different techniques. She is also one of the few out of Korea to give us 2nd seasons. I haven’t been wild about them, but that’s my issue.

Park Sun Jae - directed Peach of Time, the Color Rush series, and Mr. Heart. Clearly can’t be entirely trusted with happy endings but is very strong on story for Korea. He’s atmospheric in his approach with a dream-like POV that suits magical realism more than it does plain old contemporary BL.