Movie Reviews -
Gay Themed

A very interesting story of finding love in unexpected places and circumstances. It is not just about love but also trying to see what life has in store for us. Sometimes your life goals and ambitions are right in front of you, but somehow it is still far. This is when an angel of sorts come in to your life and things are not the same. WIth just 6 episodes each of 25-30 min duration, the best thing about the show is that it never overextends its welcome. Hayakawa is a student who lives in this dazy lost, emotionally shut down place. He lets girls have sex with me totally emotionless , pretends to behaving greta time with friends but something dark deep is bothering him. He hums music and likes to sing but anytime anyone mentions about singing , he completely shuts it off. He sometimes goes to school roof to be alone with his thoughts and music. His pain is hidden behind masked smiles and soft teasing. One such day he meets Konno, a school student and a photographer. Their platonic frie...

This series is the Japanese remake of Thai series of the same name. I wasn't sure of what to think of this remake, but as I started watching it, the memories of original Thai show kept coming. The premise and everything is same but with the Japanese flavor. The show has 8 episodes plus 2 special episodes and each varies between 24-30 minutes of run time. I am so glad that they reduced the runtime of this show drastically compared to the original Thai version (maybe something that Thai shows need to learn). The series follows the chaotic, steamy romantic lives of architecture students Rei and his best friend Kai, both architecture students. The show doesn't run them parallels, rather divides 4 episodes each to focus on their love life. Rei's meeting with his college alumni Arashi doesn't start on a good note. Arashi likes cars and bikes and works in a mechanic shop but also participates in illegal races. Although starting on the wrong foot, their romance eventually grows...

Tadaima, Okaeri, translated to "Welcome Home" follows the home life of house husbands Masaki and  Hiromu, as they raise their children together and the series is delightfully gay. I have learnt new concept having seen this about Omegaverse. It is a fictional world where people have different reproductive and sexual biology. Alphas are those who impregnate others and cannot give birth, Omegas are those who can bear children, even if they look otherwise male. Betas are basically normal humans. The main prejudice in Omegaverse stories is against Omegas, where they suffer discrimination, violence, or sexual violence due to their type. This specific series was 12 episodes each of 24 minutes. Masaki is an Omega who married an Alpha named Hiromu. They now raise their young children together, with Masaki as the househusband and Hiromu as the breadwinner. They start with one son named Hikari. The series is about everyday stuff of them raising their kid with many other people showing u...

Ideally, a coming-of-age film of pre-teen attraction/love/friendship between two boys, I would not classify this as a queer love story. Yes, it is somewhere there is the overall spectrum, but this film is a delicately elegant and extremely meticulous exploration of love and fear. I had heard about this film, ever since it premiered in Cannes and for some reason had been delaying watching it. And when I finally did, I realized that how much this film makes you think. The premise is about an incident with a school boy in his class, and its ramifications, both domestic and institutional; and how the story is told from three different perspectives.  We meet a single mother raising her young son Minato, who’s starting to behave strangely, ask unsettling questions, develop injuries, and chant about some sort of unknown monster. He even goes missing in a storm drain, jumping from his mother’s moving car. One day when he comes home with a facial injury, he says that a teacher Mr. Hori ...

'Aichaku' means attachment in Japanese and this feels like a very appropriate title for this film. It was a very interesting film with a nice storyline and to an extent the makers did a good job of executing it. But still somehow something was missing to make this film really good. And I have thought hard on it and I still cant out my finger at the 'what'. Anyway, it's a unique take of being gay in countryside Japan and also what is it like for a foreigner to live in Japan. Lukas is an American expat living in countryside. He is an English teacher but can barely make ends meet. He dreams of buying a roadside cafe which is up for sale but can't afford it. His landlady secretly hopes that she can hook her daughter up with Lucas to marry him, since she has already spent time in US doing her graduation. In the same town, we meet Ken, who is half Japanese. His mother left him and went back to US when he was one year old ands father committed suicide. His uncle raised...

Living with Him is a slice-of-life, slow burn romance that focuses on the palpable, growing tension between the male leads as they grapple with their feelings. There isn’t anything too complex about the plot itself beyond the emotional. But it still feels a little dragged out despite it being only 8 episodes of 23 minutes each. Sure the series is about positive messaging, no OTT drama and a really warm story with very charming leads, but how I wished that either they finished sooner or had more to say, because at various points it did feel out stretched for no reason. Kazuhiro and Ryota are childhood best friends who attended the same elementary school. Over time they sorta lost touch but the families are still close. So when it's time to go to university, their moms come up withe the idea of them sharing a flat together. Kazuhiro had become a popular baseball player but because of an injury had to leave that world. He is also handsome and gets lot of female proposals but he polite...

This Japanese BL series about two men stuck in their individual unfulfilling physical relationships, where there is love but no sex. How these two men eventually meet each other, possibly fill void in each other's life makes the base of the story. Sadly, towards the last few episodes it felt like the makers were very confused on how they want to end the show. The finale lacks excitement and something that started well falls to a bad ending. The show has 7 episodes each of about 24 minutes. Kazuaki lives with his longterm girlfriend, buttoner a time the girlfriend has completely lost interest in sex. While they still get along, she always turns down his sexual advances. Kazuaki grows increasingly frustrated and feels unfulfilled in their relationship. One night he accidentally sends an email to a wrong id thinking of it as a restaurant. Realizing his mistake, he sends an apology email to the receiver. Nakarai replies back, telling him not to worry. They continue exchanging short mes...

This show was an absolute pleasant surprise. It combined some of my favorite genres like legal cases, with just the right amount of flintiness, goofiness and romance. The lead actors complement each other so well and one the leads is extremely gorgeous and handsome. Their love story begins with lots of playful mischief and sexual tension. It turns into a sweet romance with many lovey-dovey moments, so you'll laugh or swoon at the couple's entertaining relationship scenes. With 12 episodes each of about 20 minutes each, this was definitely worth the time spent. Shiba is a top lawyer working in a company and soon became the youngest partner in the firm with his unwavering dedication to work. But he is known to be arrogant and so work focused that none of his assistants has ever stayed with him and he has already lost 99 such folks. Shiba's boss respects his employee's talent. However, he grows frustrated by Shiba's inability to work well with others. His best friend i...

For a short one-hour film, Yes, No, or Maybe tells a cute, compelling love story at a comfortable pace. This anime deals with the theme of duality, exploring the discrepancies between perception and behavior. I liked the fact that the story stays focused on what it wants to say and wraps up ion less than an hour, without over dramatizing stuff. Luckily, when you use anime as medium, you can play around with a lot of things, but thankfully the makers here stayed true to their vision and focus.  Kei is a TV presenter who maintains a poised persona in public, even though his real personality is petty and belligerent. He is very good at hiding his inner thoughts because he needs to keep s a certain celebrity persona always around him for the sake of his job. One day, Kei meets animation artist Tsuzuki Ushio for a work assignment. As expected he keeps a pleasant demeanor around Ushio, making a good impression on the artist with his friendliness towards his crew members. A few days after...

'Yaoi' - an anime genre that depicts feathery romances between beautiful young men. This is a reminder for me, because I keep forgetting. Started as stories written by females for young female audience to enjoy nonthreatening romantic fantasies. Interesting that this film came out in 2016 when I was personally not very familiar with this genre. Of course, over a period of time, now I have seen so much BL content from Japan but still only a few anime. With a duration of just one hour, this nicely edited anime focuses on the budding romance between two classmates, whose chance encounter makes them feel all kinds of feelings. This is the story of Kusakabe and Sajo. They both study in an all boys school. Studious and nerdy Sajo can’t seem to master his part for the singing competition in his all-boys high school until slacker guitarist Kusakabe, who is in a music band teaches him to read music. With both getting along, they agree to hang out and practice in free time. As the days g...

This was a very cute fluffy, no frills romantic film. It focused on the core story without diverting our attention to anything happening on the side, which was good in this case. A simple, straight forward, slice of life love story between two adult men which almost feels like a teenager's first love. I can see some people may find it too simple, but for me it worked. Ayuma is a shy guy who works in an office. One day when the vendor machine refill guy is working there, he talks to him using his desire to add orange juice to the options as an opportunity to talk to the man he’s been crushing on. In turn the next day the guy introduces himself as Yamashita and gives him his business card with his personal chat id. The duo exchange a few messages. The next day Yamashita invites Yuma to join him for dinner, which they both very much enjoy. Later Ayuma confesses to him that he is gay and he wants to be honest because sending tine with Yamashita is starting to give him feelings. Yamashi...

I had the seen the live version of the show a few years back, so honestly I did not remember much. But one episode into this anime and all the memories started to come back. I guess I must have liked the show. The show starts as an office romance between its two leads and then there is another couple as well. The show is quite straight forward and down to earth, which somehow you don't get to see these days. It's 12 episodes each of 24 minutes and the two versions (anime and live) are literally exact copies of each other. Adachi is a 30 year old guy, who think she is ordinary, dull and boring. And guess what he is also a virgin. He envies Kurosawa, a popular younger coworker who attracts attention due to his handsome looks and natural charisma and a lot of girls seem to like him as well. When Adachi turns 30, he is choked to find that he has received telepathic powers and he can hear what is going on in people's mind as long as he touches them. One morning, Adachi's cur...

Twilight Out of Focus is a Japanese anime BL which advertised two leads, Hisashi and Mao, but the series is actually a collection of three different relationships: Hisashi and Mao, Jin and Giichi, and Rei and Shion. They’re all students of an all-boys boarding school, and they’re all either members or tied to the film club. Each couple gets three to four episodes to tell their story, with the series ultimately ending focusing on Hisashi and Mao, the first couple introduced. The series has 12 episodes of about 22 minutes each. Mao and Hisashi - They meet as roommates first. Hisashi seemed aloof and barely socialized with anyone at school. He rejected Mao's attempts to socialize with him. One day when Hisashi breaks down in the room, he confesses that he is gay. Mao responded positively by showing him a lot of support. Moved by his kindness, Hisashi began to warm up to his roommate. They talked more often, grew closer, and eventually became close friends. Mao is a part of a film club...

Our Youth is a Japanese BL series about the romance between a top student and his delinquent classmate. The drama is drama is packed with substance and emotional depth and the cinematography is wonderful. The leads have a good chemistry especially when a slow but compelling romance develops between the two over the course of time. The show is 10 episodes plus a special 11th episode, each of about 24 minutes. Minase,a high school student is very diligent with his studies, a good student and admired by all the teachers too. His mother who mostly stays abroad wants him to go to US for further studies. His father is a busy film director and keeps his distance from the family. So Minase mostly lives by himself.  And then we have Haruki, skips classes, smokes cigarettes, and spends time with a rough crowd. One day while walking Minase watches Haruki being badly beaten up by his drunk father, but he doesn't do anything. Later that night he finds Haruki alone on the bench, and a conversati...

Continuing with the ambiguous love story between Aki and Haru, the sequel of the original movie was much awaited. I was hoping that after having tread the lines of friendship in the original movie, this one will focus more on the actual budding romance and the feeling that the two boys share for one another. It happens but too late in the game. It's only in the last 5-10 minutes of the film when they confess their true feelings and something meaningful happens. Till that point, sadly it continues to be spiritual sequel while retaining the charm of the original film. Aki and Haru have now lived together for 3 years and are now in their final year of university. The two friends cherish their mealtimes together, enjoying casual chats, playful jokes, and each other's company. They are both at the point where they are looking for a job. Aki is nervous about interviewing but he finally finds a job in home decor. The two friends are quite happy with the news. Haru continues his passio...

I am slowly starting to catch up on so many shows/series/films that I have lost on in the last year because of my busy schedule. I am glad I ended up picking this Japanese one, since this was neither too heavy nor bad. It was just a nice feel good BL story that balances sweet flirtations with playfulness without overcomplicated drama. A straight forward story with 9 episodes each of about 23 minutes, that delves between the thin line of friendship v/s romance. The story is simple. Isumi is a 20 year old student who has joined the school's cooking club with his friends, since he loves cooking. One day, he is quite drunk as he is walking home. He encounters Amasawa, a 30-year-old police officer. A concerned Amasawa asks to see Isumi's ID to verify his age and then walks him home to ensure safety. Next day when Amasawa goes to convenience store to get his lunch, he finds Isumi working there and asks for his suggestion for lunch. Amasawa keeps his friendly cheerful demeanor and ask...

The makers had a good thoughtful subject on their hand and still they decided to make this like a Japanese Pink film, instead of actually seriously making this film. It could have been a huge advantage if they did that. I believe I watched a censored version with only a minimal sex scenes but even those does not fit in a serious cinema and a subject like this which had potential. University student Ryo is having a relationship with his classmate Natsuo. To begin with its only physical, but soon when Natsuo moves in with Rio, they have a good connection and almost love situation going on. We also meet Ryo's father Shinya, who one day shows up unannounced. Ryo doesn't have a very good relationship with him and considers him a womanizer. Shinya is a singer/song writer. Through flashback, we are told that in his younger days, Shinya had a love affair with another man who also helped him writhe lyrics of his favorite song and they had a good thing going until one day Shinya's si...

I had no idea that anime films have been there for such a long time. This film came out back in 1987. The film is a very bizarre story of two male lovers, if you can call that, probably inspired by manga. A tragic romance between Gilbert and Serge,  two students at an all-boys boarding school in late 19th-century France. The film is set in late 19th century in France. Son of a viscount and a Roma prostitute (both deceased), Serge is intelligent, sweet, talented, and alienated by his family due to his heritage. Upon being sent to his new school, he rooms with Gilbert, a gorgeous loner of a boy who sells his body for reasons unknown. He is ostracized by the school's pupils and professors for sleeping with most men in the school. We are never told the reason. His promiscuity is the result of a lifetime of neglect and abuse, as perpetrated chiefly by his ostensible uncle Auguste Beau. The man has physically, emotionally, and sexually abused Gilbert since he was a child. His manipulatio...

I wish I knew before I started watching the film that this is another one of those Japanese pink films (soft porn). I should have read something before, because occasionally films like this one sneak in, which is NOT why I write this blog. I wanna write about non-porn stuff mostly. And this pink films from Japan fall in the grey area. Honestly I thought these were a thing from 90s. I didn't realize that even now some film makers are trying to cash in on the nostalgia probably. Simple story here.Yuuki is the CEO of a pharmaceutical company. When he sees a young boy named Takeru, he reminds him of a crush he used to have on this guy in his younger days. He follows this boy and his boyfriend to his apartment. Frustrated, he goes back to some guy asking for a potion to make him young and lo behold, Yuuki is now a 23 year old man. He approaches Takeru and they have mad sex. Turns out because of family pressure, this was Yuuki's first time having sex with anyone. Suddenly a man enter...

So there is a huge red flag in the series: A love story between a teacher and a high school student. The series completely ignores this aspect and treats it as just another BL story. So as much as I have BIG problems with this kind of relationship and unacceptable in my books, I am still going to try and write my review from a BL perspective, ignoring, for now, this aspect (which really, as much as you try, is hard to ignore). Like most Japanese BL's this show is 8 episodes each of about 24 minutes. Toki is a school student who is infamous for always getting intro trouble and picking up fights. Everyone pretty much ignores him because he just has a bad reputation, but things change when a new teacher arrives in school. A young looking guy, Mr. Sahara instantly becomes popular with the girls. While other teachers in school are always shouting at Toki, Sahara shows genuine concern towards him and he motivates Toki and encourages him to take his studies seriously. Toki gets inspired, ...