ShortCircuit

Yeah, the first episode and the mystery build-up of "where is KiHo" were the best parts. I mean - for the first half of the drama, despite the title and whatever the characters were doing, most of the discussions were about if BoGeol or WooHak are him, or even if KiHo is none of them LOL.

That first impression - the boy ready to take on the world, prepared to do everything and anything... he's a small superhero, that kid. It was painful he - and her - had to grow up so fast under those circumstances, but he was READY. I loved that little boy. I was missing him throughout the first half, until they revealed him. And then I was looking for parts of the young KiHo in the older one, and finding them - that's great acting and great scriptwriting. They even managed to find kind-of similar looking actors for the young and the grown-up KiHo. Kudos to the casting director :D

Two more eps probably would have allowed for more screen time for the brothers - I wanted to see even more of them together! - and for the reconnection with old friends for MokHa. I guess they were ambitious and wanted one new song for each episode, and then couldn't get 14 good songs LOL and decided to make it short and simple :D

I don't think you have to be a relative to be named the beneficiary of a life insurance. It's probably more likely because he committed suicide and they were invalid anyway.

I'm also glad they didn't claim his ashes - poor prosecutor was the only one to care for him, in the end, and he only knew him for a few minutes. The ex-dad didn't deserve it anyway, after making their lives hell and trying to kill Dad Lee.

We didn't get a second kiss because she ate the gull's eggs LOL. She's a sinner and doesn't deserve a second thirsty kiss.

... We might also be sinners. Ate any gull eggs lately? :D

1. I don't think they pay insurance for suicides. At least not in the West, they don't. I'm not certain how they do it in Asia, but I don't think it's much different. And the dad took it only for pretending he CARES for his family, and also in order to have DaeWoong come around and try to get where KiHo was from him. He just bought it, too, I don't think he had enough time to pay much into it anyway LOL.

2. He was shown replacing it. I guess they didn't want to show us too LOL.

3. IF the mom really did shred the invoice (though that CAN'T be the only document to show sales, can it?! I mean, holy account checking, Batman!, right? (Don't these guys get to be audited by SK IRS or something?)) - she may have already been a bit gone with dementia. Wanting her daughter to be just a singer and never have her half of the company she built sounds like someone who doesn't have all their shingles on top anymore. Anyway. Pres. Lee and RanJoo and the dog came together and apart and together and again apart etc that I feel they're being a bit bohemian about it and having and off-and-on relationship for years. He did show a bit of remorse/being ready to give some part of the agency to RanJoo in the end.

4. Err... Did you miss the thirsty kiss? :D (And may I say... DAMN that man has a fine profile line when kissing. I might have watched it a few too many times LOL).

5. The ML is the FL's, the SML is everybody's. I'm claiming my share :D

6. Same here. But they needed some cattiness, probably, LOL.

7. She had a lot of highs, though. Even if only recognized later. And on that note...

8. Someday is the best song IMHO, And then Dream Us and Night and Day :D

1. Yes

2. No

3. He's one of the best guys in existence

The first and last and best song... Someday. I'm glad they used it as an outro.

The first episode - the best one IMHO. I just saw the young actor who played KiHo as a kid in Sweet Home S1(he's not credited, but he was one of the friends who got forced into bullying HyunSoo, if I'm not wrong), I'm amazed at his talent, hoping I'll see him again. (ETA OMG he's credited as playing young YoHan in TDJ, I could've never told LOL. Young YoHan was amazing!)The kids gave this drama such an impulse, it could not have gone wrong on the strength of it.

The best part of the drama - the first half, trying to find KiHo. Also, one of the very few true sismances I've ever seen in dramas. I loved that relationship!

It was just the right length too - not too long, not too short. At least three amazing songs (IMHO) - Dream Us, Someday and Night and Day - both versions, the acoustic and Jung Seung Hwan's though I like his version better, he has a nice sweet voice.)

The best wardrobe - Kim Hyo Jin as RanJoo (I ENVY that silhouette so much, LOL).

Best sweetest smile: Chae Jong Hyeop. Best sidekick bro ever: Cha Hak Yeon.

This drama is food for the soul. And there's eyecandy. And finally, finally, no miscommunication - at all. Jung/Kang bros forever!!

I haven't watched all of the dramas in your list (I've watched 6/9), but I can promise you... on those I did watch, the focus is definitely not on the bromance in most of them, though there is bromance (NiF excluded, though it could be argued the bromance is as important as the main plot - I think it is one of the best parts of the story... among its many, many great parts - which makes NiF such a great drama).

I'd also add that 1. bromance is a tag that can be added or removed from a drama by the MDL users, so some of those dramas might (or might not) have had this tag added/removed in the period the editorial was written (AFAIK there is no genre tag for bromance) and 2. male bonding/friendship is a staple of most dramas, so it could also be argued there almost always exists some special relationship between male characters that qualifies as bromance no matter where you look.

You can obviously decide whatever you decide on the list presented, LOL, I mean, there could be a bias in the selection. My bias says that the titles are bromances first and foremost, and that THIS relationship is what helps the plot the most.

At least on those I did watch from the 10-long list (5-ish/10). And then we can all agree to disagree because the world is beautiful tonight and there are so many dramas of all kinds to watch, everybody will find their own bias :)

Yeah, there are bromances in stories that are straight up het romcoms. The thing is, this list includes the dramas that have - as a main relationship - the bromance, not the het romance that everybody seems to be allowed to like, whereas bromances, seemingly, have to always play second violin.

I myself listed a few non-romantic bromance dramas I do really like, and they're not on the list above. Still - they are bromances (mostly) and most of them do not include a het romance in any shape or form. Whenever a het romcom includes bromance, the focus is definitely not on the bromance. Therefore, the title of the editorial doesn't mislead - it's about bromances first and foremost.

And even if some or most of them are based on danmei webnovels, anything more than simple bromance has already been filtered out by censorship.

...and that's why my comment was sarcastic. Because yeah, nobody bats an eye when het romances take over the plot, but no men in any drama should ever hint they actually like each other more than in a bromance way because the world would end (/s again).

PS it's not only in Chinese media either.

Are they still airing it somewhere? Is there a chance for more (official) views? I mean, the year isn't over yet :D

I haven't even watched Stay With Me so I can't comment on that - because I did watch whatever they released of Addicted, and then read most of the first volume of Addicted: Heroin before my drive died and I lost my hoard of books, LOL, and TBH... even with growing up with the rapey yaoi manga ("let's ask your body if your NO is honest or not"-kind, you know, Viewfinder style), that book and that (original) drama didn't really stay well with me. I guess sensibilities change over time, as one grows up and actually understands the world better. I might try SWM though, so many people in here seem to have liked it.

For me it's simple in terms of most dramas though - if it's Chinese, then it's definitely bromance. Some are steamier (I mean, WoH pushed it as far as it could be pushed... then the whole genre got pushed back, HARD) but most are pretty much played in looking at each other and caring and whatnot and can ALWAYS be explained with bromance.

It's hard being a fujoshi these days, LOL.

Anyway - in terms of acceptance in here... this editorial got pushed in the second ranking lists in favour of two-day old news, which TBH is just what I actually expected from MDL. Someone in the mods/admins team in here really, REALLY doesn't like any non-het content, like, at all.

They said something about how they're all BL and you (the author) should think again before posting the article on MDL *shrug*. I don't know what they meant, actually - either that all the dramas were based on BL novels and so the title was misleading (that's the innocent take) or that such editorials have no place on MDL (that's the not-so-innocent take).

Let's be kind and assume they meant the first take.

I'd say it depends on location. Anecdotically, I've always been interested and never actually real-life met anyone else that admits to it, anyway. It only looks like it's going mainstream when you pick and choose the kind of drama you're watching. According to the news, in most of the world everything's actually going backwards - there is too much right-wing takeover everywhere, from Europe to Africa and all over the place, against anything inclusive. We can only hope the kids will grow up as we would like them to be - not afraid to be who they are, and not in danger because of it, either.

And they'll forever remain bromances for the people who don't go look up the novel.

...Now I feel kind of cheated by all those movies based on books (with het romances) that included racy scenes that never made it into the movie either. I guess it's the same take there, too.

Queer as Folk has also been around since forever (considering the new generation drama watchers; for me, it's been half my life, LOL). It's not exactly a new phenomenon - maybe it hasn't been mainstream, true (but it's not, not even now), but there have always been forums, TLs, etc - places where BL-content media were available.

I'm from the dark days before the internet became widespread, BUT when it really took off (around the millennium mark) even for poorer parts of the world, BL content was everywhere, if you knew where to look.

Movies were the most daring (there were lots of non-mainstream BL-topic movies, some good, some only so-so), and yes, no dramas (or none that would be aired over air or on cable, though small Thai productions still happened. Thais never seemed to be prudes about it, LOL).

It's really strange seeing you mention 7-8 years ago (as in, 2015 onwards) when it's been way longer than that for me :D And I even never watched HeartStopper LOL (or read the comics), because I guess I'm past the age of the target audience already :D

I didn't know that! The novel doesn't even hint at anything more than pure bromance. TBH, I like it better that way. The whole struggle is MCS's revenge while keeping it secret from JingYan. It was enough and just - perfect, as it was, IMHO.

I mean, yaoi manga have been around since forever. Even BL/yaoi anime (have you ever watched Gravitation? If not, highly recommended - for the music, too. They didn't cut any corners with music in anime those days, LOL.)

Novels, too - novelupdates has lists of fan TLs going back decades.

So they've been around, just not much in the light until society became more inclusive. LOL, But mangaka who drew yaoi were pretty well known, and it's been a long time.

But it's true that once The Untamed - the drama - watered the romance to acceptable bromance levels, and THEN it became really apparent these were NOT just fluff stories about pretty boys who like each other and that would be all. TU is a deep, raw, damn addicting story... with pretty boys too :D

And then there's SO MANY of them! If one's just that tiny bit off the extreme hetero end of Kinsey's scale, then you bet we're interested!

Thank you! Time for repeat play :D

This is the wikipedia definition: "A bromance is a very close and non-sexual relationship between two or more men. It is an exceptionally tight, affectional, homosocial male bonding relationship exceeding that of usual friendship, and is distinguished from normal friendship by a particularly high level of emotional intimacy."

There is no official romantic relationship between men in Chinese dramas, because of censorship rules. Therefore, all the dramas mentioned are indeed bromances. So what is the problem here?

Did they release the BGM and the Laolan River song yet?