Recommendations

japanese movies with confusing, messy relationships and lgtbq content
one of the characters is a gay man/boy who is in love with another guy who is a self proclaimed hetero and initially shows more interested in the girls around him. He doesnt refuse the other guy completely, though, and doesnt seem to make up his mind > so they become entangled in a complicated love triangle with no clean out

Both are japanese movies about a messy, unhealthy relationships where the male leads in particular hurt their partners (not really abusive but neglectful), mostly unintentionally
characters put themselves through misery because they love eachother or because they want to love and be with the other even when it hurts
insecure, lonely characters
Both movies are beautifully acted, have very nice visual aesthetics and share the same director

Both are Asian dating shows with more SERIOUS Type dating.

Not shallow flings and flirting.


Love Village: Singles aged 35 -60. Older age brings taking relationships very seriously.

Love Against Time: serious dating due to people who've dealt with health crises, taking dating seriously afterward.

Similar vibe. Main leads are connected from the past and every episode gives us more details what happened 15/25 years ago

Kind of reverse setting?
One character is a student from the present, the other is a troubled kind/prince from the past (Joseon era); one time travels to the time of the other and these characters fall in love
Tinted with you is a BL, the other is a M/F romance but the director (Yang Kyung Hee) has also directed Boys Love dramas before

Both are romance stories about a guy entering the acting scene and becoming popular while theres another person who has a (seemingly unrequited?) crush on him.
Yagi Yusei plays the main character in both

ML is able to connect with his missing father via old cell phone. Both were police detectives and work to solve cases, and figure out what happened to his father.

The characters Feng Xin'er (Northern Liang) and Li Weiyang (Northern Wei) were heavily inspired by the experiences of Northern Wei's Empress Dowager Feng (born in Northern Yan) and Northern Liang's princess (Juqu clan).

Fifteen years ago, a young girl was kidnapped on the way from school, and Park Hae Yeong, who was an elementary school student at that time, witnessed the crime. A few days later, the girl was found dead, and the police were not able to find the culprit. As time went by, Hae Yeong started distrusting the police. Fifteen years later, Hae Yeong is now a police officer and criminal profiler. One day, he finds a walkie-talkie that allows him to get in contact with Detective Lee Jae Han who is in the past. Police officers Hae Yeong, Jae Han, and Cha Soo Hyun then set out on a journey to solve cold cases.

The overall vibes where pretty similar with the characters don't initially understand the supernatural rules. Then they encounter the phenomenon themselves and discover that the legend wasn't just a story. To be more specific

With Gonjiam, for example, the livestream setup makes you constantly wonder whether something is being staged. The characters themselves are partly creating fake scares, so when genuinely impossible things start happening, the distinction between performance and reality collapses.

With Haunted Mountains: The Yellow Taboo gets a similar effect through its legend and supernatural encounters. You initially have that feeling of “is this just a story?”, but the further the characters get into it, the more real it becomes.

Short korean boys love dramas taking place in high school about two guys who have known each other and have been friends since forever navigating and confronting love and feelings as a third person comes to threaten what they have
moments of jealousy and anger
Summertime seems to be alot darker than WYEL, though, and feature more ... kisses etc

Both have a love story between the teacher and the student that somehow still doesn't look like grooming. And in general cinematography is very beautiful

Nakagima Kento is ML in both. Totally different topics but the same type of storytelling aka an one case per episodes and helping people. They both are cozy for me

Both are funny, yet clever, and touch on harder-hitting topics.
Most people also loved the humour in Pull Strings, and will definitely appreciate the humour in Filter

Down on their luck/poor female leads.
Male lead is from a rich family.
Female lead dumps male lead for reasons unknown to him. They reunite years later, where she now has a child- speculatively his.