3 Words. 8 Letters.

You Make Me Dance 

I wasn’t going to do this anymore, but at least these short series out of Korea don’t lend themselves to epic posts. 

Look. It’s just. I HAVE THOUGHTS. 

Korea is being very strategic in their execution of topes and I think it’s a marker of their intent to dominate BL. Or at the very least an interesting side effect of their late entry into the market. They are picking up and playing with tropes in a very intentional way. It’s markedly different from the hap hazard check-list style (with occasional parody) that we get from Thailand, or the cartoon jocularity murder-gay of Japan (capricious god of BL), or the tongue-in-check meets earnestness of Taiwan. 

You Make Me Dance is doing BL tropes so very pretty. But simultaneously, kinda dirty too. 

You Make Me Dance Episode 1-2 

YMMD is a love story between Hong Seok (loan shark) and Shi On (student dancer). It’s also about the love of art and the passion that drives creators and those who experience and respond to their passion. Like all love stories, the drive is connection, but it’s on two levels when art is involved. There is not just a romantic connection to explore, but the intimacy of creativity and how it is received and absorbed. I’m not sure how deeply YMMD will go into is, but I’m excited to see them try. 

Fated Mates

Unexpectedly, YMMD launched with a take fated mates by talking about the red thread pinky-finger mythos. Shi On looks around on his bus and sees a stranger with his pinky finger up. They have a moment. 

But the real twist comes later when loan shark Hong Seok is sent to threaten Shi On and ends up wrapping a red scarf around Shi On’s feet. So many parallels:

that RED scarf around feet of a dancer, binding and limiting, like the red thread around the finger  

but also the care represented by a warm scarf around cold feet

the loan shark threat contrasted to the servile nature of tending to someone else’s feet

and then Hong Seok hoists Shi On over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes but also a dancer’s lift 

Then later we get Shi On hopping around, which was so cute and funny but is an allegory for the crippling nature of both fate and love. 

I think I both bounced and clapped. 

Pinky Swear

Honestly, if you have a physical trope like this one that’s all about body language, make a dancer do it. Very smart. This is such a childish innocent move and to have this sweet college kid give it out to a sinister loan shark when his life is on the line was kind of gut wrenching to watch. 

Also note the servile level, emphasizing the differential power dynamic? So clever. Contrasted to earlier when Shi On finished dancing and is standing before him, above him, filled with the power of having touched him with his dance. 

It also harkens back to the original pinky meeting on the bus and the red thread connection. 

So this pinky swear was both executed and subverted, and you know I love that. 

Rooftop 

They ended ep 2 with a rooftop assignation combined with crash into me. They are moving this one along quickly, which they have to with so few episodes.  

According to the series description we are heading towards forced proximity (cohabitation) which is a shorthand for forcing intimacy when you don’t have a lot of time to develop the story. 

Korea seems well aware that their curtailed time frame for these BLs means they need to crib in certain tropes to get any kind of character development (Color Rush used fated mates, To My Star and Wish You used forced proximity). 

I’m really looking forward to next week to see where YMMD goes with this. Since they have elegantly danced with all the tropes they picked up so far, forced proximity should be a waltz for them. 

Yes I am going to use dance metaphors and terminology with these recaps. Gotta put that dance minor to good use somehow. Right? 

🥺 

And they both won!

Why aren’t you sleeping on the bed? I want to sleep on the floor for one last night.

vice versa ep 6 talay coming to terms with his feelings for puen

When Pran said "You've got to stop doing this to me. We are not a thing" on the rooftop, I found the English translation a little confusing. The first sentence makes it sound like Pran is asking Pat to stop being clearly romantic with him because it's hurting him, but the second sentence makes it sound like he's telling Pat to stop being clearly romantic because it's not appropriate to the kind of relationship they have, without any romantic feelings on Pran's part. Can you shed any light on what exactly Pran was trying to communicate?

Oh certainly.

This was one of my favorite parts because they used super subtle language rather than the usual Thai words for couple (which I can't spell but can now recognize) or faen.

The first bit is Pran saying basically:

"I've had enough. Stop jerking me around, emotionally. You've been flirting on and off with me for years and it's not fair. Because i know what's going on and how I feel about you. And I kind of always have since the pond incident."

The second bit is:

"It's not fair of you, Pat, to do these kind of things to me (possession, jealousy, casual affection, flirting) without you, Pat, having actual romantic feels for me. (And acknowledging them.)"

Pran thinks Pat is being casual with him. But Pran is not a casual person. This is about sincerity. 

I think Pran also thinks that Pat hasn't acknowledged his own feelings to himself yet. Remember, they have known each other a very long time. And Pran is a lot more self aware than Pat is (and he also knows that). I think he realizes that Pat is a little in love with him but Pran believes that Pat will never come to place where he can admit that to HIMSELF.

Thus the kiss is a real shocker to Pran, because he didn't think it would ever happen. And it's not that he thought Pat didn't have the guts, or wasn't action orientated, it's just that he didn't think Pat would ever have the level of self awareness required.

Pat grew up in the course of one episode, if I were Pran, I'd be surprised too.

----

As an IRL example, it's not quite the same thing but...

You ever have that friend who is clearly queer but just isn't yet?

So they aren't pretending, it's not even self delusion, because they just don't realize it. Sometimes it's family background, but sometimes it's just that they are too emotionally young. They haven't figured themselves out. How can they when they haven't had the right life experiences yet? They aren't to be blamed or pushed because of this. It's a void not a wound.

As friends (or sometimes family members) I think we often see queerness in the people we love before they see it in themselves. (Especially if we are a little older and already out.)

Because we, personally, aren't dealing with the guilt, shame, fear, loss, and rebuilding of identity that society's expectations place on our friend's way of thinking about themself. (Even if we've been through it, it's different for everyone, and we can easily forget because we want to.)

Even if the friendship group or family is accepting, it can be super hard. Because then there is a whole new set of expectations to come up against.

When analyzing Color Rush, I mentioned that no one really talks about how first love as a queer person is also a grieving process. (And anger: why must we grieve as we experience passion for the first time when the hets don't have to?)

Because as we open the closet door and walk into a queer identity we mourn the dead straight identity we left behind.

----

Which is a long way of saying, what we see on this rooftop with Pat & Pran is first love and new passion, but it is also grief.

We could just tell them we glued out hands together. What kind of excuse is that?

bonus:

this week on pat being best boy:

pat taking note of the sad face on pran’s door to gauge how he’s feeling before going in and then making sure pran knows he isn’t there to be stupid and purposefully being dumb and cute to cheer him up