Recently, the Chinese "bromance" genre of drama has been attracting a lot of attention. This is a term coined by combining the words "Brother" and "Romance," and focuses on depicting strong bonds between men rather than what is normally referred to as BL. While BL drama culture is widespread in Japan, the genre is still in its infancy in China, and a characteristic of Chinese bromance productions is how well they try to avoid looking like BL productions when adapting them for live-action. For those who are interested in Chinese BL dramas and those who will watch them in the future, we would like to introduce a brief synopsis of popular BL dramas that have been broadcast so far and how to watch them in Japan.
BL Dramas in China
In China, there are strict regulations on the depiction of homosexuality in movies, dramas, and animations. Although each country has its own circumstances, the lack of straight BL expression means that the friendship and relationships between the main characters must be portrayed in a sensitive manner. The work that was produced in such a situation and triggered the topic of bromance works in China was "Chenjing Decree".
Live-action version of "The Magician" by Sumiang Dongshao
Chenjing Decree" is a live-action version of the famous "The Witch Patriarch" by Sumiang Dongshan. The live-action version of "The Witch Ancestor," which has been adapted into an anime and drama CD, has been extremely popular in China since June 2019, and despite being a full-length drama with 50 episodes, it has been a huge hit with over 10 billion views.
The story is about Wei Mujian, a vivacious and free-spirited man who is unbound by anything, who meets Ai Wujie, a quiet man who respects the precepts and is strict with himself, and these two contrasting characters join forces to fight for justice. Even fans of the original work can enjoy this work in a different way from the novel and anime.
The dubbed version is available on U-NEXT, FOD, and other video sites. In addition, a dubbed version is currently being broadcast on WOWOW, so if you are interested, don't miss it.
The upcoming live-action version of "Tian Guan Gong Blessing".
This is another work, also written by Sumika Tobosho, that has been adapted into a 12-episode animated series. 17-year-old Xie Lian, a prince of the Xianle Kingdom who has become a god of war in the heavenly realm, is twice banished from the heavenly realm due to his own actions. Struggling in the lower world to gain followers, Xie Rian one day meets a boy who calls himself Saburo. Just hearing about the worldview makes me want to watch the movie to see what kind of story will unfold in the future.
A Japanese-language novel will be released in July 2022, and a live-action drama adaptation is also in the works, though it will likely have a different title. Like "Chenjo-ji," it is currently available on U-NEXT and Amazon Prime, so be sure to check it out for a preview of the live-action version.
Requiem" by Priest
The groundbreaking "Requiem" has been viewed more than 3.6 billion times and won the "No. 1 Popular Drama" award at the "2018 Drama Awards" on a major Chinese social networking site. Based on the "aesthetic" novel of the same name by Priest, a popular BL novelist. The relationship between the two, which was depicted in the novel as a full-blown BL story, is portrayed as a bromance in the drama and has been reborn as a story that captures the viewer's imagination even more.
The main storyline is a very intriguing one in which a mysterious bioengineering professor and a cheerful special case investigator work together to investigate a bizarre case. A real suspense with laughter and tears, this is a must-see for those who seek various elements other than BL.
Requiem" is now available on U-NEXT and Rakuten TV.
To download Chinese BL dramas
Although we have introduced three of the most popular BL original works and dramas in China, there are still few works available with Japanese subtitles, and the number of distribution platforms will increase in the future. Since many Chinese dramas are full-length works, purchasing a DVD collection is an option, but we would prefer to save them to our computers and watch them at our leisure.
Here we introduce a software that allows you to download videos from a variety of sites.
BBFly, a one-click downloader of Chinese BL dramas
BBFly is a convenient download tool that allows you to download videos while watching them in the built-in browser.
It supports not only WOWOW, U-NEXT and Amazon Prime mentioned above, but also more than 200 video distribution services.
Here is a brief explanation of how to use BBFly.
First, install and launch the software from the official website.
Click on the icons of several video distribution services displayed on the homepage to access the site you wish to use.
After logging in, open the video you wish to view.
Then, downloading will start automatically, and you can select subtitles, quality, etc. on the settings screen.
You can manage a large number of videos at once, which saves you a lot of time.
BBFly is compatible with all of the pay TV sites mentioned in the previous section, as well as YouTube , bilibili, and other popular sites.
