In the last couple of years, there have been a dramatic increase of BL series being made. Just 3 years ago, only countries like Japan, Thailand and Taiwan were producing BL drama series regularly but also not excessively. Now countries like South Korea, Philippines and Vietnam are also pumping out BL series like there’s no tomorrow, with an increasing number of other countries joining the race to produce this genre!
Recently New Zealand has made and aired its first BL series even though it is a short 15-episode series on TikTok. To my knowledge it may be the first ever series to be officially labelled as BL from an English speaking countries. Strictly speaking Heartstopper from the UK and Young Royals from Sweden were not officially categorised as BL dramas but rather youth dramas with LGBTQ+ theme. By the way speaking of Heartstopper, season 2 will premiere on August 3, 2023, can’t wait! The New Zealand BL series is called Ships in the Night and it premiered on June 9, 2023. The full series can be watched here.
Apart from the NZ series, another BL series co-produced by the Philippines and the USA also premiered recently on June 11, 2023. The series is called Stay and it is a 7-episode rom-com BL series filmed in Los Angeles, California, so it is a partly English-language series.
Finally there will be 2 remakes of the 2016 banned Chinese BL series, Addicted 上癮. The first one, from China, to be called Stay with Me 哥哥你别跑, will have its premiere on the Taiwanese LGBTQ+ streaming platform, GagaOOLala, on July 7, 2023. The second remake will be from Thailand, to be called Heroin The Series and produced by Hollywood Thailand (the same company that made Thailand’s version of Love Stage!! last year) in collaboration with Golden Dog. The Thai remake is currently in production but expectations are not high due to the production companies involved.
Back to the Chinese remake of Addicted, there are a lot of confusions as to the nature of the remake, whether it will be just bromance or actual BL… The filming of the series apparently began in June 2021 just before the hard clampdown later that year of bromance dramas based on adaptations of BL novels. At that time the series was named Innocent Playmates 三小無猜 and one of the producers was one of the big streaming platforms in China (I won’t spelled out the name but it started with a Y…). Based on the synopsis, all character names have been changed although it still retained the basic drama plotlines without the BL parts. Interestingly the author of the novel in which Addicted was adapted from, 柴雞蛋 is also the scriptwriter of this remake but not using this pen name. Instead the name of the scriptwriter is 此木 and it is a breakdown of the first character 柴 in 柴雞蛋! This new remake was also tagged as a drama of youth, campus and inspirational, so that meant it can only be a bromance series or even more innocent in nature, maybe just a family drama based on the tags! Then by January 2022, the name of the series had changed to My Family Won Lottery 我家中獎了！, LOL… A name that suggested family drama and as far away from Addicted to remove all connection to it being a remake, I guess…
Then nothing was heard of about the series until just a couple of weeks ago when GagaOOLala released the trailer for a show called Stay with Me 哥哥你别跑 and the synopsis sounded remarkably familiar!
IT IS the remake of Addicted that started its life as Innocent Playmates 三小無猜! So now the question is, how the hell did this remake series that started out as a “family” drama turned into a BL drama? Did they reshoot the whole series or they originally shot two versions, cut and uncut? It is also apparent now it won’t be shown in China as it is now on Taiwan’s GagaOOLala streaming platform (not available in China).
The remake is going to be 24 episodes of about 30 minutes each. I am not sure if the plots will cover the full novel or how far into the novel the plots of the series will tackle, but I am already thinking the two new main leads will be too young-looking to play their older roles in the later part of the novel. Compared to Johnny Huang and Timmy Xu from the original 2016’s Addicted, at least I can imagin those two in the adult roles later in the novel, such a shame that was never going to happen! Anyway it is now just a week before we find out how much of a “BL” this new Chinese remake will be…
Update July 8, 2023: For viewers not having access to GagaOOLala, Stay with Me is also available on Huace YouTube channel for members only at the moment. But the series will be free to watch at Huace YouTube channel from September 13, 2023.
Update July 30, 2023: OK, I have been waiting to do a post for the OST of Stay with Me but so far they have not been released and it seemed unlikely they will be released at all! I have a quick look at the social media of the two lead actors and they have been very low-key in even promoting the series which is understandable since the series is banned in China, so the OST songs may not even be able to be released! Anyway four songs are used in the series and sung by the two lead actors, 徐濱 and 張炯敏. The four songs are 家人的意義 (opening theme song), 米拉 (closing theme song), 星辰閃耀 and 守候, just for the record.
Update August 10, 2023: OK, found 2 of the songs on the Chinese music streaming platform… They are not the full songs, but they are the most “official” versions I could find, LOL…
Update August 12, 2023: Just a quick note about another BL series based on Chinese BL novel that has just finished filming in Taiwan. The new series is based on the very popular Chinese BL novel, The Only One 某某 (Mou Mou or A Certain Someone, also translated as Someone I Met That Summer). Unlike Stay with Me which was filmed in China but intended to be distributed and shown outside China only, and didn’t have to go through Chinese censorship since BL shows are still banned in China, this new series 某某 is filmed entirely in Taiwan. They started filming the series on June 7, 2023 and wrapped just a couple of days ago, so it is considered as a Taiwanese series! Hopefully Taiwan can adapt more popular Chinese BL novels and filmed them in Taiwan.
Corner Café 
Thanks for sharing story in brief. I love this drama and I also write about my honest review regarding Please Be My Family Chinese drama 2023. Kindly share more blogs.
Comment by World Incredible — July 31, 2023 @ 8:58 pm |