I read GMMTV's three English translated novels

  

Well… Here’s a slightly different post to what I’d normally do. The context behind it does exist, you’re welcome, and it’s that the Thai entertainment company GMMTV are, internationally, most well known for producing and releasing BL shows. I’ll openly admit they’re the producers of most of the ones I watch – and that’s mainly down to the fact they slap the majority of their shows on YouTube for free with English subtitles. There definitely are other companies’ shows that I’ve watched, but I’ve never really watched them in a way where I’ve been able to directly support them, simply because most of the time they’re broadcast on Thai television (shockingly) or Netflix in territories that aren’t mine, or some other subscription service that I don’t want to pay for, so if I want to watch them I have to find other means. Anyway, GMMTV released official English translated novels for some of their shows, and I read all three of them, and now I’m going to talk about them all as a whole, separate to the three individual posts I made, specifically about each book.

The three books are Last Twilight, The Heart Killers, and ThamePo. I’ve listed them in this order as this is the order I read them in. Do I own two copies of Last Twilight, and is one of them in Thai? Yes. I can’t help that I loved the show that much that I needed to buy a copy of the book in a language I cannot read and can only understand a few words of.

For a brief summary of each of their plots. Last Twilight: Day, a university athlete starts losing his vision and needs a caretaker in the form of Mhok, who had just been in prison. The two of them basically help the other figure out their lives and to integrate themselves back into society. The Heart Killers: Bison and Fadel are hitmen, and Kant is a police informant who drags his friend, Style, into his own mess into trying to take the killers down. They fall in love in the process. ThamePo: Po has just been broken up with because his boyfriend basically doesn’t think he’s doing enough. Po ends up taking a job at this entertainment company and ends up working closely with idol group, MARS. Thame is the leader, and the two sort of get together, but since Thame is an idol it all has to be hush hush.

I’ve written about all three of the GMMTV books, and in all three of the posts, I must have made the exact same point that the translation of the books lead to a not very great reading experience, since it felt like the translation was very literal, or like it had just been run through Miss Google Translate. You absolutely get the gist of all three of the books, and you get the whole plot of the story, but in all three of them, to me, it felt like the soul and the voice had been lost. The thing I mentioned was that when you’re reading a book originally published and written in your native language you can pick up on everything. Jokes, tone, voice, intonation. All of those things come through much more clearly than they would if they were to be translated, and I think that’s just due to the way that different languages have different ways of communicating. I don’t know if that point makes sense written, but I know exactly what I mean. Like, in written English, for example, I feel as though the concept of sarcasm comes across very easily and it also comes with the wink wink nudge nudge vibe of it all, whereas I feel if it were to be translated into another language, I feel as though that vibe, specific to that language, may be lost. This whole thing with the translations isn’t a GMMTV-specific thing. I’ve read the English-translated novels for Theory of Love, 2gether, Love Mechanics, and Vice Versa. While Theory of Love and Love Mechanics were both physical books, the other two were e-books I read on my kindle, and all of them had the exact same issue with their translations. I know that most of these books have also been GMMTV series, but Love Mechanics wasn’t a GMMTV series, and I think I randomly spotted in on ethaiCD one day.

I feel like everyone gags over English language BL. I know there’s definitely no shortage of queer, male-male romance books and content in English. Like, just look at any of my social feeds and you’ll see that. But I feel like, unless I’ve got some kind of blinder on, it’s so rare compared to Asia for specific queer romantic love stories to get shows or movies made about them. And that’s what I mean when I say I feel like people gag. This idea was definitely brought on by Heated Rivalry coming recently. But if you look at other major English-language BL content – Red, White and Royal Blue, Love, Simon, and Heartstopper. (I know Alice Osemen would get mad at me for calling Heartstopper BL considering their comments but oh well lol. It still is to me.) I do think the response may, in part, be due to the fact that BL content is so much less frequent in the West, compared to these Asian countries that produce so much of it. I know the Western ones I’ve mentioned have all come from bigger companies, and that there definitely have been shows and movies that have been made by smaller, indie, companies, but it’s always a Western one that blows up. Saying that, Love Simon will always have a place in my heart – I think I went and saw it three times in cinemas – and I definitely have watched the other two.

I’ve been watching Heated Rivalry, not so much week by week. My first viewing was the first two episodes and I kind of went from there. And now… I hadn’t heard of the book prior to the show coming out, and looking at the cover of the book, it was absolutely the kind of book that I know was just porn without plot, and I’ve got to be honest, watching the show… I could also tell. I felt like besides the two of them sleeping together, there wasn’t much happening. Now I feel as though I’ve been spoiled by Thai BL. Don’t get me wrong, I also watch the occasional BL from other countries – Korea, Japan, and the occasional Filipino one – but I predominantly watch Thai, just because there are so many more. And when I say I’ve been spoiled, I think it’s because it’s such a big industry there, it has meant that the shows have needed to evolve, and now, a lot of the bigger ones are more than just romance. I do also think that’s the case with the three books I’m meant to be talking about in this post. All three of the GMMTV books have something to them outside of the romance. I think that’s personally where the oomph (the oomf, these books being my oomfs) comes from. In Last Twilight, outside of Mhok and Day falling in love, the two of them give each other a life of independence and a place in the world they never thought they’d have otherwise. In The Heart Killers, the four leads, yes they do separate into their couples, but two of them are hitmen trying to take down their own mother while one of the others in a police informant. And in ThamePo, Thame and Po respectively are not only learning what good love, both romantically and platonically should be, but also have this whole plot line when it comes to fans perspective on idols and the concept of parasocial relationships – like how these entertainment companies forbid their idols from dating so that they can sell the fantasy to the fans that they’ll end up together and how fans can also ruin their lives.

As a very minor aside, I do think about a tweet that I saw about Heated Rivalry that was celebrating how it was the biggest thing ever on Crave Canada, and that someone responded basically saying, “Yeah, obviously, because the only other original show on there is Canada’s Drag Race.” That has nothing to do with anything, it just makes me laugh.

I think when it comes down to it, for me, at least, these three BL books all feel more like merch more than they do actual books. I know that’s a wild thing to say, conceptually, since they are all books in the literal sense. It’s more that all three of them have covers taken from the shows themselves. Like, you know sometimes in the West when a book will be made into a movie or Netflix show, and then a version of the book will be published with the characters and actors on it? It’s like that. If the cover isn’t just a screenshot from the show, then it’ll be a poster that has also been produced for the show. I’ve definitely read books that have been translated from other languages – a few I can immediately think of being Convenience Store Woman, Ghost Town, and The Last Children of Tokyo – translated from Japanese, Taiwanese, and Japanese (a second time) respectively. I know that the three of them were all released through major publishers, so would have had translators there, or the budge for said translators. But to be honest, I’d have thought GMM would have as well, considering how many shows they’re financially able to produce and promote. Still, I suppose I’m not mad at these GMMTV books being more merch than actual books. I enjoyed all three of the shows, and I also (shockingly) enjoy books, so it’s the perfect thing for me, really. I can’t even lie and pretend that I don’t have a tattoo inspired by Last Twilight either, that’s how much I loved it. I wasn’t even bothered that the book was mid at best.

Anyway, this post was largely just a collection of thoughts – which I realise is the case for my others – but it’s more just things I’ve been thinking recently about BL, and it just so happened that I had these GMMTV books as a catalyst for it. I enjoyed them all, even though the translations took away the voice of them all. You’re welcome.

Okay, bye!