“Boys’ Love” Market Picking Up Speed in Taiwan
Yaoi-themed television dramas are not to be underestimated. Yaoi, also known as “boys’ love,” is a subgenre of romance that focuses on the romantic and sexual relationship between two male characters, and it is primarily marketed to female audiences. In 2015, the Chinese web series Addicted <上癮>, a high school romance between two boys, became a social media phenomenon, earning over a million clicks within 24 hours of release. Thailand quickly caught on the BL crazed, and released BL mini dramas such as Bad Romance and Together with Me.
Taiwan is the next big market to adopt the BL genre, and the commercial success of miniseries HIStory is leading studios to put more investments on higher-budget productions. Red Balloon <紅色氣球>, a miniseries with eight, 10-minute long episodes, earned three times more viewers and clicks than mainstream idol dramas, proving the popularity of the BL market in Taiwan.
The upcoming Taiwanese BL drama Dark Blue and Moonlight <深藍與月光>, which will premiere on November 21 and produced by Coture, is a huge step forward for the BL genre. The trailer of the miniseries included scenes of the main characters passionately kissing each other, in addition to daring bed scenes.
Another big selling point of the show are the four main actors, all who made debuts as models in the industry. Aric Chen (陳彥名), Tom Wang (王庭勻), Tim Huang (黃庭軒), and Charles Lin (林伯叡) are all known for their good looks, gaining a large international fanbase across Asia.
Wu Luo-ying (吳洛纓), the award-winning screenwriter for The Hospital <白色巨塔> and Black & White <痞子英雄>, penned the script for Dark Blue and Moonlight. The show is also directed by Adiamond Lee.
Source: HK01.com
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com
my jaw just dropped to the floor.
@m0m0 why did your jaw drop, because of the graphic trailer?. It is very to the point, I must say. I am surprised that Taiwan film industry decided to tackle and make a film about same gender love, but I guess it happens . Taiwan has one of the biggest gay societies in the ebiz market. Many singers, managers film and record producers, actors, models are gay, A lot are bisexual too. A lot are gay but they have spouses or partners of the opposite gender because a beard is a nice safety insurance policy to have. Some of them even have children with their partners and spouses, but thank Goodness for artificial insemination.
@bubbletea
jaw dropped to the ground b/c its targeted audience is young girls. are they suppose to make young teenage girls fancy about two boys getting together?
@m0m0 Now I understand where you are coming from better. I know what you mean. I think they the movie studios are slowly bringing this kind of series into focus. Maybe they did not consciously have a particular age for the audience, or maybe they did, who knows. The boys are not bad looking, but they are not well established leading men like Ming Dao, Mike He, Joe Cheng or Ethan Ruan or Vic Zhou, so the producers and studios do not have to worry about losing young girl fans. Can you imagine Joe and Mike, or Ming Dao and Vanness Wu being these character?. lol. Then the studio powers that be would not be targeting the young girl audience, cause they know how these girls feel about these men.
@m0m0 well, yes. yaoi usually is made by woman and for woman. it’s like, i don’t know, shoujo story but with two male leads instead.
there are tons of yaoi novel online and there are even more fanfiction writer who write yaoi story of their fav fandom such as Harry Potter, Sherlock.
@m0m0 my jaw dropped too. This IS really graphic and some stuff in it…not sure TW dramas even do for opposite gender couples o.O.
I dunno what’s gonna happen to these actors who are playing these roles…image is going to be hard to bounce back, similar to wang kai from Nirvana in Fire. He got the biggest flak for playing a gay character until he played Prince Jing in NIF
@coralie
A 2001 mainland film Lanyu was much more explicit and graphic and didn’t affect the careers of actors Hu Jun and Liu Ye.
@msxie0714 if they were already established, then I don’t think it’ll impact their image much. But if they weren’t, then their image can take a nosedive.
I do feel bad for the actors who were brave enough to portray these gay roles. They will be labelled as gay, even though they just might be straight, cause I find the masses identify the actors’ roles with their, the actors’ real life characters and way of life. For instance, a pretty boy who is a good filial man, and who has wives and girlfriends in his dramas , is a good, honest, hard working sweet, straight angelic person in real life, just like his character. If only the masses will take the reel life blinders off, they will be shocked at some things. That is why these guys are taking a career risks in this drama.
I’m going to have to watch this. I’m very picky with my dramas that’s why I don’t watch much. And it’s great Taiwan doesn’t have censorship. The only bad thing about China’s BL is the censorship. I mean, look what happened to Addicted and Advance Bravely had to cut some scenes even though those scenes weren’t rated 18. That’s why many fans were rooting for it to be released in Taiwan. It took awhile for the series to be released too and it couldn’t be aired online. I sure hope the second season will be able to. ANYWAY I’m just gonna start rambling even more, so I’m gonna stop here. I hope this series will have a great storyline, characters and acting!