A newly-released Filipino “Boys Love” or BL digital series called “Gameboys” recently earned global following.
“Gameboys,” a YouTube series produced by The IdeaFirst Company first premiered on May 22.
It is one of the first Filipino digital series that rode the latest wave of successful Asian BL that have been trending in the recent months including Thailand’s “2Gether: The Series” and Korea’s “Where Your Eyes Linger.”
ABS-CBN Films’ Black Sheep is also set to release a digital BL series starring Tony Labrusca.
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“Gameboys,” directed by Ivan Payawal and written by Ash Mlanum, was shot remotely during quarantine. It is starred by Kokoy de Santos, one of the stars of the Cinemalaya hit, “F*ccbois” and Elijah Canlas, the start of internationally acclaimed film, “Kalel, 15.”
It is also co-starred by Adrianna.
“‘Gameboys’ is ultimately about love overcoming all boundaries – even physical ones set by our new reality,” Executive Producer Jun Robles Lana said.
“It is about two people who find each other at a time when they can only connect with one another virtually. I think that is what makes it so resonant with audiences around the world. We want to believe that you can still find love and companionship even in the middle of a pandemic,” he added.
With just four episodes released since it premiered, the digital series gained over 2.8 million combined views.
The dialogues in the BL series are in Filipino but The IdeaFirst Company, the production company behind award-winning blockbusters movies such as “Die Beautiful” and “The Panti Sisters,” uploads it with English subtitles.
The company, however, said that within hours of posting, the fans of the series contribute subtitles in other languages. It said that the series’ fans are not only from the Philippines but also from the USA, Europe and Latin America.
“To date, you can watch it with French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Ukranian, Czech, Turkish, Korean, Thai, Indonesian and Arabic subtitles,” the production company said.
Payawal said he is overwhelmed the international love the digital show is getting.
“I knew we had a show we can all be proud of, but it’s just overwhelming to see fans from around the world commenting and posting about it – a lot of them even creating reaction videos to chronicle how much they loved our episodes!” he said.
This prod firm uploads new episodes of this Filipino BL series every week. —Rosette Adel
