Corner Café

Last week, we were told the lockdown was back in place for at least another 6 weeks here, and now MasterChef Australia is in its final week, it is time to look for more TV series to binge. After watching too many Thai university themed BL dramas the past few months, I recently watched the short Japanese BL drama, Life～Love on the Line, which came as a breath of fresh air! So I thought I would now look for more diverse BL dramas to watch with more substantial storylines. OK, I am lying a bit here, this post is more about not-quite-BL TV series that were adapted from BL novels, hehe…

The problem is that apart from university/student themed BL dramas, other types of storyline are few and far between… I have touched on a few of those dramas in my last rambling post. However there are many not-quite-BL dramas, or more accurately bromance dramas, from China that were TV adaptations of BL novels since 2016! Why? It all started with the 2016 BL series, Addicted (上癮), which was banned before it finished airing in China. The curious thing is that all the episodes aired within China were already heavily censored with all kissing/love scenes removed! Only the international version that was released later was uncut… So the only reason for banning the series I could come up with was that the LGBT-themed series became too popular with the audience?

Anyway, after that incident, in order to avoid BL related dramas from being banned, a lot of the BL novels were turned into bromance dramas in China. I read that at least 30-40 TV series or films that were released since 2016 were adapted from BL novels! Not all were successful, but a few adaptations became very popular and widely known internationally. There is even a specific name for this type of adaptation in Chinese which is 耽改 (dangai), translated as BL adaptation. The first word 耽 (dan) came from 耽美 (pronounced as danmei in Chinese), originally a Japanese term (tanbi in Japanese), which basically refers to BL or boys’ love. The second word 改 (gai) is to change or adapt. So if you see 耽改 in reference to any TV series or movies, you can be sure the stories or novels were originally gay stories! Below are 5 of these TV series that are easily accessible online to watch and NOT university related, LOL. I have already watched Beloved Enemy and Winter Begonia. Currently starting to watch Guardian and S.C.I. Mystery. The only one I haven’t watch is The Untamed.

Beloved Enemy 《決對爭鋒》 (2017)
15 episodes
This is a story based around the world of business from the BL novel, 針鋒對決, written by 水千丞 (Shuiqiancheng), published in 2014.

Guardian 《鎮魂》 (2018)
40 episodes
The first BL novel adaptation into bromance TV series that became really popular is this 2018 science fantasy TV series, Guardian 鎮魂. The same name BL novel was written by an online novelist by the name Priest, the online novel was published starting in November 2012 and finished in March 2013. The TV series was so popular that it garnered as much attention as the 2018 World Cup that year. Even though the series was very popular, it was removed from the official Chinese streaming platform in August, a few days after the series finished airing without any reason! However by November that year, the series returned online but all references to the ‘bromance’ relationship between the two protagonists were cut, thanks to the censors!

S.C.I. Mystery Cases 《S.C.I. 謎案集》 (2018)
24 episodes
A psychological, police procedural drama with horror, fantasy, mystery elements from 2018 that aired at about the same time as Guardian 鎮魂 (see above) but was overshadowed by the latter. The same name BL novel was written by 耳雅 (Erya) and was first written in 2008 (?) and is still on-going.
You can read the novel in Chinese in the following links >>>>> Section 1>>Section 2>>Section 3>>Section 4>>Section 5
Update July 30, 2020: Watching the series and reading the novel at the same time currently, slight changes with some of the characters and names, the older sister of Bai Yutong 白羽瞳 (originally Bai Yutang 白玉堂 in the novel) in the TV series is actually an older brother in the novel, and Zhan Yao 展燿 is originally Zhan Zhao 展昭 in the novel. Also, the two protagonists called each other Kitty-Cat 貓兒 and Lab-Rat 白老鼠 or 小白 (can also mean idiot) in the novel, hence the inclusion of rat/mouse costume in the TV series… It is also interesting that they did a new opening sequence for the TV series whenever a new case started, but I do like that, and the novel is up to 20 mystery cases at the moment, so it looks like there will be at least a second season for the TV series?
Update August 2, 2020: Just finished the TV series which ended at the fifth case, but I will continue to read the rest of the novel as it is very good and funny. There are still 15 more cases in the novel. A few thoughts… Love the pet lion in the novel which sadly became a dog in the TV series, sigh… The pet white lion appeared quite a few times to scare and help catch the criminals in the novel, but the dog in the TV series only appeared briefly as a link to the flashback of how Bai Chi met the magician. All members of the S.C.I. team in the novel are men, but they turned two of them into female characters in the TV series which I did not mind. I also did not mind they turned Yutong’s brother in the novel into his sister in the TV series, BUT DID NOT LIKE the way that she became a weak character who got drunk every times she was rejected by the forensic pathologist, Gongsun. She was also part of the police force but seemed to have NOTHING to do; in the novel the brother was a rich, and successful businessman who cared for his ‘two’ younger brothers (as he considered Zhan Yao as his brother too, Yutong’s flash car was a gift from his brother and he also gifted Zhan an expensive ragdoll cat as Zhan is the ‘kitty-cat’) and Gongsun very much, even getting the two bodyguard twins to secretly looking after them in case of danger, he also bought the whole building across the street from Gongsun’s apartment as his office in order to keep an eye on him after Gongsun almost got killed, LOL… The cases in the TV series are very faithful to the novel, apart from the Tuxi case which they changed quite a bit even though the basic storyline is still quite similar. Hence the odd situation of how in the later episodes, Bai Yutong suddenly seemed to have moved in with Zhan Yao because in the novel they lived together as a couple, very sneaky of the scriptwriter to add those scenes in without stating the obvious, LOL… Also with the sharpshooter, Ma Han and the actress became boyfriend/girlfriend in the novel, it will be interesting how they are going to portray that relationship if there is a sequel, as they turned Ma Han into a female in the TV series and already introduced the actress in one of the episodes… Are we going to see womance relationship there, hahaha…

The Untamed 《陳情令》 (2019)
50 episodes
This historical period costume drama was one of the hottest TV series of 2019. Adapted from the 2015 online BL novel 魔道祖師 (Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, or The Love Story of Lanzhan and Weiying) written by 墨香銅臭 (Moxiangtongxiu). It was published into book format as 無羈 (Untamed) in 2018.

Winter Begonia 《鬢邊不是海棠紅》 (2020)
49 episodes
This BL story set around the Second Sino-Japanese War was written by 水如天兒 (Shuirutianer) and published online from 2010 and finished in 2017 (?). The TV adaptation is more like father-son relationship than bromance.

Finally, I will include a few more of these bromance TV series which are also quite highly recommended, but I have not checked if they are still easily accessible online…

Love Is More Than A Word 《識汝不識丁》 (2016)
12 episodes
Historical period costume drama adapted from the same name novel written by 酥油餅
Update August 15, 2020: Bloody hell, this series has been censored all over the place, even cutting off the last 3 minutes of the ending so it ended abruptly, LOL… However there is a video out there showing all the bits that were censored, including the last 3 minutes of the ending… Also not all storylines were tied up properly. I also read that this was supposed to be a 26-episode drama, but ended up with only 12 episodes, what the heck, maybe there were supposed to be 2 seasons but not able to continue with the second season due to censorship? It is just mind boggling, killing is OK to be shown, but love is not? I am beginning to wonder if they are living one century behind the rest of the world…

Revive 《重生之名流巨星》 (2016)
16 episodes
Mystery series adapted from the same name novel by 青羅扇子

No. 10, Yandai Xiejie 《煙袋斜街10號》 (2016)
10 episodes
Adapted from the same name novel written by 劍走偏鋒
Update August 18, 2020: Just started watching this series, this one is also BL, not bromance. This one seems to have escaped the chopping knife of the censors, LOL… This series, Love is More Than a Word, and Revive were all from 2016, the year that Addicted got banned, so it is not surprising that this series, and Love is More Than a Word (which got censored left, right and centre in the end…) were both still BL, not bromance dramas. Revive is bromance and ended at a cliffhanger… No, 10 has a very similar feel to the Thai BL dramas, and probably the best of the three, I reckon…
Update August 20, 2020: LOL… Not again, this series also has no ending… I have not read the original novel, but guessing from comments other viewers left, there was supposed to be a second season as that was not the ending in the novel, but yet again, the censorship has halted the production of the second season! They ended up doing two short epilogues and left it there…

Advance Bravely 《盛勢》 (2018)
30 episodes
Comedy-drama series adapted from the novel《勢不可擋》by 柴雞蛋, who is also the author of Are You Addicted? which was made into the 2016 series Addicted
Update August 6, 2020: This one is BL drama but done very subtly, not bromance, haha…

Update November 22, 2020: Currently reading another BL novel by the same author, 柴雞蛋, called 鋒芒 (Feng Mang), and surprised to learn that it is related to 勢不可擋 (Advance Bravely), where one of the insignificant characters in 勢不可擋 (Advance Bravely) is the main protagonist in 鋒芒 (Feng Mang)! The cousins of 夏耀 (Xia Yao) are also secondary characters in 鋒芒 (Feng Mang), and 夏耀 (Xia Yao) himself will appear also.

A Round Trip to Love《雙程》(2016)
This is a web movie adapted from the novel by 藍淋
Update August 6, 2020: Just started watching this, looks like mini-series not one-off movie, and it is definitely BL, not bromance! Update August 10, 2020: There are two movies and the first movie has two episodes, but damn, can’t find movie 2 online… Looks like I have to find the novel to see how the story ends!