meganbmoore | (no subject)

It occurred to me that a few people who might be interested in this may not have seen it yet, and so I bring you the trailer for the Korean adaptation of Antique Bakery. I am told by those who know such things that it's actually much gayer than the manga. (Which, actually, is kind of interesting. With Korean dramas, you usually have to interpret a hug as kissing, and a few pecks as a makeout session. But the movies? Not so conservative... At all.)

Anyway, trailer:

I have to say, even though I'm not very interested in the movie, the trailer is addictively cute (I think it's the music) the food pr0n looks amazing, and that's the first time I've ever thought Joo Ji Hoon looked attractive at all. (Yes, I know, heresy, but I've never understood why he's so popular.) ~~The Very Very Gay baker is cuter, though.~~ If nothing else, it looks much more entertaining than the Japanese adaptation. How anything with Fujiki Naohito and Abe Hiroshi managed to be dull is something I'll never understand.

Meanwhile, I'm thinking of starting a drinking game for anytime someone says Yoon Eun Hye should have been cast as Makino in the Korean Hana Yori Dango. Seriously, did she even audition? And, frankly, I can't picture her in the role. I like her, but in 24 episodes of Goong and 4 of Vineyard Man, I've seen her stand up for herself exactly once. For about 7 seconds, and then it was back to the cutesy protesting. Still, I have 12 episodes of Vineyard Man and all of Coffee Prince to watch, so my opinion could change. If nothing else, Vineyard Man is already a vast improvement over Goong.

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In order for the little split-screen actor/manga bits at the end of the trailer, Tachibana = stubble-faced suave older one, Ono = long-haired v. v. gay patissier, Kanda = perky young ex-boxer apprentice, and Chikage = tall adorkable guy in sunglasses. And judging by the trailer, I don't know if I'd say it's gayer than the manga...it seems more like gay in a slightly different way? In the original series there's never any doubt about Ono's sexual orientation, we see him with various boyfriends and flirting with other guys, and he spends a fair bit of time prowling at a gay bar where he's been a regular since he was 18. The big difference here seems to be that they've replaced quiet scenes of sitting at a bar flirting with a more visually flamboyant dance club.

I do love the series quite a bit -- it's definitely not your typical cookie-cutter BL series, if the mangaka weren't primarily known for yaoi series I'd almost think it might be classified elsewhere. There are a ton of female characters, not just background walkons but they're actually the focus of several story arcs; two of the male leads are straight, and while we do see some past and current flames of all of them, the only one who is actively in an ongoing relationship by the end of the story is one of the straight boys. Really, romance (be it gay or straight) just isn't the primary focus of the story at all. (The doujinshi, now, that's another matter entirely...)

Based on what I've heard of it, I almost wonder if it'd be regarded as a BL series ifthe publisher weren't BL.

Yeah, that and the mangaka's general focus in about 95% of her other series being BL. Her Antique Bakery doujinshi, now that's flat-out explicit yaoi, but if you didn't know about her other stuff or the publication history, AB might honestly pass for a josei title.