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  • Last Online: 9 days ago
  • Gender: Male
  • Location: Chile
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  • Birthday: July 20
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  • Join Date: May 17, 2019

Alonso Lioneth

Chile

Alonso Lioneth

Chile
Stay with Me chinese drama review
Completed
Stay with Me
1 people found this review helpful
by Alonso Lioneth
Aug 16, 2023
24 of 24 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 8.5
Story 10.0
Acting/Cast 10.0
Music 5.0
Rewatch Value 1.0

If you're looking for BL, READ THIS FIRST!

You might be wondering: Is it BL?, and the quick answer is no. No, it is not a BL series... or at least not for the most part.

This season has 24 episodes: It's a family series for the first 18 and a censored BL series for the last 6 ones.

The series relies heavily on the imagination and the book knowledge of the viewer. Meaning, if you don't know any of the subtext, innuendos will fly you by like a bird in a beautiful summer day and you wouldn't think any romantic relationship between them it's happening right up until episode 19 ish I would say.

The series is well done, and if you are aware and willing to endure it as it is then you will enjoy it!

(like, it's not BL but it's the closest thing China can offer for now. Meaning settling in for censorship, hints and assumptions is what you have to put off with)

And that's what I did, I personally enjoyed the first 18 family series episodes and then I did enjoy those last 6 episodes where they nicely hinted their homosexual relationship to us. Which didn't make me happy happy, but I guess for gay guys living that ban first hand in China it must have, or at least it must have counted as some sort of representation in their own media to them, crumbs.

C'est la vie, right? Not everything is easy-peasy. I also suffered. I was heavily involved in their real romantic story that I knew from the book after Addicted the series got banned. I came to this series reluctantly because I couldn't bare the possibility to watch a gay relationship to be censored and hidden like it is something shameful and disgraceful. I cannot fathom or entertain that idea, not living proudly as I do and having enjoyed so many BL stories from others countries for so many years that have made me so incredibly happy for so long. That's why I never came back to Chinese adaptations of gay romantic stories ever since the ban of Addicted so many years ago and that's why I suffered by coming back to this. That gay ban left me angry, helpless and disappointed with their government, like, bruh.

It's save to say I needed some sort of closure, well, no, I have read the book, the original story is crazy by the way thank god is fiction, so no I didn't need closure but I wanted to see the story adaptation, I wanted a visual nice closure to that story that started with Addicted so many years ago. That's why I stayed and finished this series. And that's why I will watch the second season and be done with Chinese adaptations, since as I said, watching a gay relationship being censored is too painful for me.

I hope this review from a BL lover comes in handy to any other BL lover wanting to venture in the censored waters of Chinese adaptations.

My name is Alonso...

(a Venezuelan guy living his gay self far away from his also very conservative home country)

... and I will leave you with a massive: Cheers, x!
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