Guardian looks like the sleekest adaptation a BL novel by far.
Wow this has to be shortest announcement ever. Supernatural mystery borderline-boy love drama Guardian 镇魂 announced on the 12th it was streaming on the 13th aka today. Except for the first day, three episodes will be out every Wednesday and Thursday for members. For non-members, watch one episode per day Mon-Sat on Youku here.
Guardian is an upcoming supernatural mystery web drama starring Bai Yu (Memory Lost) as the leader of the special investigations unit and Zhu Yilong (Border Town Prodigal) as a coldly logical professor who is later revealed to be the black robe messenger.
Videos: trailer 1; trailer 2; trailer 3; BTS ; episode 1+2 previews
A shippy theme song by the male leads who are no longer overtly gay:
“Borderline-boy love,” I like that term. BTW, it’s not a supernatural drama. It’s a “scifi fantasy” drama based on a supernatural genre novel. China bans supernatural genre, too.
I think most people watching it are still going to recognize it as a supernatural drama. There’s like no use of science except for they’re aliens instead of 妖. Same with Moonshine and Valentine. The only recent project involving 妖 that I would classify as scifi would be Hanson and the Beast since it has a lot of MIB-esque tech.
It’s a shame they didn’t get to be a couple. Was this a decision at the start of the drama-creation process, or is it the result of fancy editing and scene-cutting? I’d feel bad for the actors if they were brave enough to film romantic scenes together, which carries an unjustifiable but, sadly, still present stigma, and then had their work tossed out.
It was a decision from the start. There’s no way they would’ve gotten this level of investment if they were doing a BL drama because of how risky it would be
So I am on episode 3. I don’t see any reference for the author, Priest,
in the credits. Anyone see the author in the credits?
Don’t think I saw her name either. I don’t recall seeing cdramas acknowledging original authors. I think I saw her online publishing platform+agent credited somewhere.
A lot of cdramas acknowledge original authors. Some even have a mini subtitle on the title page saying “based on XXX by YYY”.
Randomly picked 5 bg cdramas. 4 credited the original novel and/or author. 1 didn’t. I suppose it’s not something I look for.
Thanks you two! Hahahah. Yeah, I usually recall seeing credits along the lines of “based on” or “original work by” blah blah. I wonder if it is cause the original was BL?
Hard to say. Love is More Than a Word (2016), billed as the first ancient BL cdrama, credited the original author right at the beginning of the opening sequence. Back then the young director, backed by investors, really wanted to make BL dramas that also would pass censorship. Now production companies likely have given up on that.
I think BL drama is banned in Chin.
And yet, production companies are scooping up BL drama rights. priest’s BL novel (杀破狼) featuring foster father and son couple (They are about 7-8 yrs apart.) will be made into a drama. No way Chinese censors will allow even a little bromance.
I haven’t read it but yeah there’s no way that would pass. Even back in like the early 2000’s, they had to change a popular drama so that a foster father-daughter didn’t end up together. If they’re gay then that’s extra not okay (for censors).