<title>Gay Films Review - LGBTQ+ Movie Reviews & Guides

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Showing posts from February, 2024

Gay Short Films : 110

17 (USA) A 17-year-old boy struggling to find intimacy at school or at home seeks it through a gay hook-up app. A profound beautiful crafted film, reflecting, in precise, fair, honest manner the steps of a teenager for what he feels as happiness after a moment in high school yard. Simple short 11 minute film. Hippopotamus (USA) Left alone to caretake a gay nude resort closed for the season, a man finds himself confronted by what he can see and what he can't. When everything is visible, when nothing is hidden, it's not just what you see - but what sees you, too. Weird yet sexy. Steam! - The Musical (USA) A contemporary Western about the conductor of a tourist steam train who thinks he’s going to find excitement ditching his boyfriend for an outlaw… but of course, the reality is something much different. I wanted to like this film but somehow didn't connect with me. Dominant Species (USA) A group of alien energies come to Earth and inhabit male human forms. Under the guidance...

Happy Merry Ending (Korean Series)

This is a simple love story between a man with a troubled past relationship who occasionally gets panic attacks and a guy who tries and helps him to get over the insecurities. At the surface this may seem like yet another BL series, but there were facets of it, that I appreciated and we will talk more about that a little later. And also, with just 8 episodes each of about 15 minutes, some may think that this doesn't give enough time for character building; but IMO this was perfect. Anything longer would have tilted the impact. Sure, the makers could have done with slightly less characters and could have focused more on the leads, but it's all good. Seung Jun is a vocal coach and also sings at weddings. But he has a very shy personality and takes medicine to manage his anxiety. He only has one closest friend who lives in the same building as him and possibly also has a one-sided crush at him. During one of these weddings, Seung Jun meets pianist Jae Hyun, who owns a coffee shop ...

Bagan Beginning (Burmese Series)

Myanmar is not really known for BL content, but following the footsteps of its neighboring countries, here is a 8 part series that is a decent first step in the BL story direction. The episodes lasting 27 minutes each are sometimes slow but are not only trying to tell a story but are also a travelogue of sorts to showcase the rich cultural history of Bagan. As a first attempt it is decent, but there is so much obvious product placement and tourism focus that sometimes the core of the story gets lost somewhere in between. More on that later. The show started in Dec 2023 and ended in Feb this year. Mani and Lyan are two friends who have grown up together and forged a close bond and they spend a lot of time together. Mani is a tour guide and there is a new client Sam who has specifically asked to use his tour services to explore Bagan. He is originally from Bagan but moved very early to US and is now here to search for his biological parents. His real name is Walar and has a boyish charm ...

Shoulder Dance

This film had an interesting premise to show us a modern take on friendship and relationship, but the film ultimately falls flat due to an abundance of issues with the story, script, and production of this film. There is a lot of talk talk talk, which really adds nothing to the eventual plot of the film. It's like watching two couples spending a weekend together and hearing to their jibber-jabber with awkward acting which feels very very rehearsed. Ira and Josh have been a long term gay couple for almost 10 years. Ira is an agent in entertainment world and Josh is wannabe actor and since his career is not doing too well, he has become almost a home carer. Its weekend and they decide to spend it in they holiday home. We get a hint that Josh is not very happy since Ira is always busy and doesn't appreciate the efforts Josh takes to keep things together. This weekend Ira surprises Josh by saying that his childhood best friend Roger will be coming over for a visit. They had been es...

Pit Babe (Thai Series)

Only if sleek production value could make a good series, this show would have been up there. But this show is all over the place. The convoluted narrative in the second half of the show takes it to whole another level, except the level only goes down. It started ok with fast race cars, steamy love making scenes (even though the premise was very far fetched), but still three episodes into it, and I sort of knew that this is a show I am not going to like very much. And ended that happened. Also with episodes lasting almost 50-60 minutes each, it does take up a long long time to sit through the show. Babe also known as Pit Babe is a famous race car driver who can see, hear, smell, taste, and touch with remarkable intensity. This ability gives him a competitive advantage during races since he can react to the track and his opponents quickly. He has a winning streak with many championships. Him and his group of friends work together as the pit crew including Way, his best friend from c...

I’m a Porn Star: Gay 4 Pay (Documentary)

I think most gay men will admit that having sex with a straight guy is something that they find very exciting, so it comes as no surprise that there is a disproportionate percentage of men working in gay porn who identify as straight. This documentary from few years back takes this fact and tries to get answers to some of the questions that we may have been thinking for a while now. Why would a straight man do gay porn? What motivates him to try this or make a career of it? But more importantly, why is the consumer of the gay porn so interested in knowing the personal sexuality of the actors. And why do we skew the numbers towards them so much that the percentage of straight men in gay porn is higher. This documentary interviews many gay4pay performers who themselves explain from their own experience their point of view what means and feels to be a straight man in the gay porn industry, and how it affects their own lives. For the "straight" men, they talk about what motivated...

Love Mate (Korean Series)

This show falls in one of those categories where you have to define the line between a cute office romance or a workplace harassment situation. Our guy cannot take enough for an answer, but then this stupid and cheesy flirting also becomes sort of addictive after a while and you enjoy it (maybe because it is so bad). The plot is the same done to death of romance, ex showing up, back o love, just using a different inspiration. This series has 8 episodes ranging from 15-20 minutes each. Lee Jun totally doesn't believe in love. However, he does go on a blind date every day, just so that he doesn't have to eat alone and then firmly blocks them. He believes love is an unnecessary, uncomfortable, and unpleasant emotion. He advocates for single life, going against traditional norms. In his company, he proposes an idea of a show highlighting single life, but is vehemently opposed by a new hie Ha Ram. A hopeless romantic, he is not afraid to say thatches is a bad idea. As expected Lee J...

The Reason Why He Fell in Love With Me: Season 2 (Japanese Series)

You know when I saw the first season of this show, it felt decent. It was just 4 episodes, had pretty straight forward-ish episode and Masumi's Over the top reactions were priceless. So the makers came up with a special episode after season 1 and I guess maybe they got decent response leading them to make a season 2 of this show. This season is 10 episodes of 40 plus minutes each (so a significant change from the original season). Sadly, the show doesn't hold up to the potential and promise it came up with. In fact, I would say that it's probably one of the worst sequels made. A quick recap of the special episode between two season. We are told that it didn't workout between Masumi and Toru and it's been three years since they have been separate. Toru is now a qualified lawyer and he eventually falls in love with one of his colleagues following similar pattern of love at first sight. Now in this season we see that this new couple is happy and almost open about their...

Steel River (Web Series)

Oh God!! This was such a waste of time. I mean, I knew that this one is going to be bad, based on my historical experiences, but who knew that this would be so unbelievably bad. 13 episodes of sheer torture that lasts for almost 15-20 minutes, this sho made no sense. Sure, they have chosen some very hot looking black men, but after a while I could barely differentiate one from the other. It didn't help that the so called acing and dialogues were bad throughout and consistently. Also son't ask me why the name of this show? I have no freakin' idea. This is what the official synopsis of the show says on imdb: "Steel River, set in Atlanta Georgia, captures different emotions that are seen through the eyes of four gay men, stifled, damned, immune, and jaded. Some of the poignant disasters in their lives come from the idea of what they thought they were going to become. Life as you well no, does not always work the way that you wanted." How we wish the reality was at le...

Night Dream (Thai Series)

A cliched teenage love triangle of sorts drama that really offers nothing new. The characters are a bit unidimensional and you feel like you wanna shake up them and say like "wakeup!! It's real world". Or again, maybe I am not in a very good mood, because sometimes I do enjoy these kind of shows and at other times I totally abhor them. This one, for me, sadly falls in the latter category. Thankfully the show is 6 episodes each of about 30 minutes only, so it's an easy watch. Night, a senior literature student, was still unable to complete his final novel project because he didn't understand the concept of love. One day when he visits a cafe, he is surprised to find it being run by his school friend Dream. The two were very close as kids and a girl Namwan was also part of their trio, but after Dreams' parents unexpected death, he left town without telling anyone. The three have an interesting reunion and since it has been sometime when they last met, there is ...

The Reason Why He Fell in Love with Me: Season 1 (Japanese Series)

This goofy little 4 part Japanese shows quite fun to watch. As we have probably talked many times before, Japanese shows somehow have this knack of making these over exaggerated reactions funny and not eye-rolling. Having said that, not everyone can carry it off, which is evident in this show as well, when one of our nice teachers tries to give similar reactions an dit falls flat. Anyway, I must have missed this show when it came out. It's almost like a mini-series where Every episode is about 30 minutes. A new teacher Hikawa Toru joins a school to teach some troubled kids. Toru is sophisticated, young, smart, handsome and almost everyone gets distracted by his good looks. The same impact happens on this PE teacher Masumi. He finds himself looking at Toru but can't figure out why since he never thought of himself as gay. As it turns out, something about the mischievous Masumi has attracted Toru too and he is very attracted to Masumi. In fact, he keeps very obviously flirting w...

Stupid Genius (Vietnamese Series)

I am not sure if I would call this show strictly as a BL, but it's somewhere in there. But primarily, this is the story of a misfit class of high schoolers- the worst students in the class. The main character and his friends consistently get the worst test scores in their class. Despite their notorious reputation, a new teacher wants to inspire them to take school more seriously. Some gifted classmates become mentors and give tutoring lessons. As they study together, the protagonists develop an attraction to each other. The show is just 6 episodes averaging at 15 minutes each. We are introduced to mainly 4 and more school students who are considered part of the worst class and will likely fail. A new teacher takes upon himself to change this , but for this he needs to motivate them. Khoa is a talented badminton player who aspires to be selected for Vietnam's national team, but the teacher tells him that he will need to improve his grades as well if he really aspires to make it ...

Love For Love's Sake (Korean Series)

To be honest, I am a little confused after watching this series. Well, let me say that the premise of the show is extremely interesting. It's like approaching romance and falling in love but within the concept and boundaries of the rules set by a video game. So as much as I enjoyed the actual love and romance itself, the overall concept of how and why this happens and eventually how it ends has left me very very confused. This 8 episode Korean drama of episodes ranging around 35 minutes each, is a fun premise albeit a bit harrowing for someone like me. IT starts with two friends meeting at a bar where one of them says that his romantic novel is being converted to a video game. The other guy Myung Ha feels that one of the people from the novel Yeo Woon deserves happiness in life. In a twist of vents Myun Ha finds himself waking up in a past world where he is back to being a 19 year old high school student. He sees a virtual message stating the game has started. His goal is to comple...

VIP Only (Taiwanese Series)

Taiwan has historically given some really memorable BL shows. Unfortunately this show is so predictable and boring and simple and basic, that it doesn't offer even one single thing that is new. In fact, it uses almost every cliche of this genre, doesn't even pretend to rehash it and give an interesting spin or anything like this. The only positive thing I can think of one of the leads is kinds good looking. But other than that, this 10 episode, 22 minute each series about a soothing romance between an author and a chef just doesn't click. Liu Li is an author who goes by the pseudonym Morris. He has two successful books published but is struggling to write the third one. Base don his experiences, the first book is about Liu Li secretly pining over a teaching assistant at the university. The second story is about him getting rejected and coping with the heartbreak. On a plus side he enjoys going to this new restaurant in his building that specialized in beef noodle soup. He b...

Open To It: Season 1 (Web Series)

This whacky funny sitcom is exactly what I needed. 6 episodes of 11-16 minute duration, aired on OutTV is a perfect departure from some heavy melodrama and something you can use watch and laugh out loud. This sex- and relationship-positive show apparently had its first there episodes do roads of festivals before picked up by a network to finance it to finish it. I have. Feeling we haven't seen the end of it and we should be getting more episodes, but till then let's enjoy these 6 episodes. A happily committed couple Cam and Greg are looking to liven things up by adding a third to their relationship. They've already auditioned the hot younger Princeton with a make-out session; and now it's time to go all the way. But their nosy lesbian neighbors will have none of it. Even though it was Cam who wanted to experiment, turns out Greg gets all attention from Princeton. But as you can imagine from a whacky show like this, things dont go exactly as they were planned. In every e...

Last Twilight (Thai Series)

This Thai BL love series also came highly recommended and I was looking forward to. To be honest, the story and chemistry was fairly engaging for almost 9 episodes (although attire it did feel like being unnecessarily stretched). Our two leads, who are very different characters were healing each other and growing together towards a better life. But, as it happens a lot of time, the makers gets. Too excited for whatever reason and they completely botch up the whole thing towards the end. The show should ideally have ended at the 9th episode. But the makes likely thought they have a winner on hands and instead they mess it up, at least for me. I felt cheated. The show is 12 episodes, and each episode is almost an hour or longer in duration. We meet our protagonists. Day is a badminton player who loses his sight and can only see about 20%. He is bitter about the whole thing and spends his days locked up in his room. Then we have Mhok, ho comes from a different world. He is quick to pick u...

Kiss x Kiss x Kiss (Japanese short clips)

Kiss x Kiss x Kiss: As the name suggests, this show is all about kissing. It's not a drama or show or anything, just literally scenarios where the characters find themselves kissing. There have been about 4 different installments of the series, I suppose so far after the initial one. The stories in first few seasons last barely 5-7 minutes where you get a few minutes to establish the characters and the story and finally you get a passionate extended kissing scene. In the latest installment, the stories have grown longer, where we do get to see a little more depth to the characters but eventually, the story always ends up with some very passionate kissing. Here as part of this post, I am reviewing only the BL episodes of individual seasons. Kiss x Kiss x Kiss: Dekiai Cinderella 1. Synchronous Kiss - 4 friend are hanging out. 2 boys and 2 girls. When the two boys go for an open air bathhouse, a tense and secret kiss between them open up their feelings. Kiss x Kiss x Kiss: Perfect S...

Sort Of: Season 2 (Canadian Series)

Continuing from where season 1 left off, we follow Sabi's journey in the season 2 of this HBO Max original show. Just like first season, even this time, the creator and the lead actor Bilal Baig continues to deftly juggle silliness and sadness, often in the same scene and sometimes you dont know whether to laugh or feel sorry. It's a very interesting balance and if such kind of situation s comedy (with some very intelligent dialogues) is not your cuppa tea, then maybe you would not enjoy it too much. This season also has crisp 8 episodes with 20 minutes each. Sabi's love life, actually even their regular life is still difficult and complicated. Their Asian friend who had an accident last season is now recovering from coma and Sabi is still helping with nanny duties. The woman only has vague memories of her past life which creates interesting dynamics between her and her husband. While Sabi's mother has more or less accepted and come to terms with Sabi's gender ident...

Veneno (Spanish Series)

I had not heard of this show and surprisingly it didn't show up in the forums which is usually where I get all my LGBTQ+ content from. So I am glad when xanders here recommended to watch this show and it was available on HBO Max and I am glad I did. VENENO is a Spanish 8 episode limited series about the life of 1990s transgender pop culture icon Cristina "La Veneno" Ortiz Rodriguez, based on the book written by Valeria Vegas titled "Not A Whore, Not A Saint", who met the icon at a stage when she herself was thinking of going through transition. What the young writer uncovers is a harrowing and uplifting life story about how Ortiz evolved from a bullied and rejected teenager in a homophobic Andalusian fishing town, to a high-priced sex worker. It has been a while since I completely binged watch 8 episodes lasting almost an hour each making the best use of my time on a Sunday. This is undoubtedly one of the best shows about trans people, their struggles and journe...

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