As promised, here’s the updated and (hugely) expanded version of the Thai BL family tree chart I made last year.

I’ll admit I may have got a bit carried away in the attempt to show the evolution of genre and the creators’ works, and ended up including a total of 273 titles, over twice last year’s 125. This includes several titles, especially from earlier, that lean more toward the LGBT+ or other genres.

The layout has been redesigned to make the chart less dense and hopefully a bit more understandable, and to more clearly show the involvement of the production companies. They aren’t arranged in any particular order apart from trying to put the ones working together next to each other, but there are some interesting groupings that arise as a result, which I’ll discuss below.

I’ve also now included series writers and book authors (those who have multiple credits) and shown the paths of their work, in addition to the directors. There are many interesting connections to find, but the result is a very complex entangled network of links almost like an impossible-to-navigate metro map, so I’ve made a lite version that only shows director connections as well. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to include actor pair connections this time, but I’m sure that’s basic knowledge to most of you.

The chart itself is humungous, so please pardon the limited amount of detail in the image. (If you wanted to print it out and have the text still be minimally legible, it’ll need to be at least a metre wide. But hey, a full wall-height poster would be the perfect gift for the ultimate BL nerd. You have my blessing.) To study the chart in detail, I suggest following this link to download the PDF version.

By the way, I’m not on any other platforms (and no, I’m not planning to submit this to an academic journal – don’t know how that’d even work), so feel free to share it to Tumblr or Twitter or wherever.

And… here it is.

Links for png files: Full version, Lite version

Now, the deep dive.

So I previously wrote about the origins and early history of Thai BL, so I won’t go into much detail there. But I’ll use this periodization approach when talking about the genre’s evolution:

• The early period (2000s to 2016) spans the origination and early development of what would become known as BL or series Y. This ranges from the first appearances of sympathetic gay stories in film and TV (especially with The Love of Siam in 2007) to the watershed phenomenon that was Love Sick in 2014-15. This is covered in my previous post.
• The formative period (2016 to 2020) is marked by the entry of major studios into the field, most notably GMMTV with SOTUS, which significantly raised the bar and budget for BL productions. Some smaller studios ramped up their production values and caught up (mostly thanks to Chinese funding), while others went in another direction and continued to create works with lower production quality, becoming the subgenre termed “pulp” BL by Absolute BL on Tumblr.
• The explosive period (2020 onwards) features an explosion in both quantity of works produced and quality at the higher end, fuelled by the surge in popularity of the genre thanks to the success of 2gether during global lockdown. While pandemic restrictions led to an initial lull in output, production quickly ramped up, and old big names as well as new faces with big budgets both joined the field, leading to a barrage of heavy hitters especially in 2022.

But let’s take a look at the chart. Where should we begin? We could work our way chronologically from top to bottom, but that’d be a bit unfocused. Let’s take a look at some specific areas instead. And where better to start than the BL that started it all, Love Sick, right near the middle of 2014?

The Love Sick family

Love Sick was directed by Andy Rachyd Kusolkulsiri and produced by his company, Mr. Big Picture. Before Love Sick, Andy (previously known as Anuchyd Muanprom) had directed the movie Virgin Am I (2012), which featured a proto-BL-ish storyline (boy crushing on his straight best friend) with some shippable scenes. He also has work at the other end of the genre spectrum, the erotic gay film Me, My Familiar People.

Love Sick‘s second season (2015) was handed over to Yuan Tin Tun Danop (aka Somsak Sonphaeng and Danop Taninsiraprapar – these guys have so many names) of Jinloe Media Work, who had worked with Andy on MMFP as producer. Andy had also produced Yuan’s TomGay – they were part of a low-budget indie film producing group called Club Queer.

After Love Sick, Andy went on to make Water Boyy (the 2015 movie) under his new company Cosocomo. Following him was New Siwaj Sawatmaneekul, who was then working as editor. The following year, Andy and New re-joined teams with Yuan and Cheewin Thanamin Wongsakulpach (who was production coordinator on both Love Sick seasons) to direct Make It Right, which was jointly produced by Cosocomo, Cheewin’s company Copy A Bangkok, and Jinloe. That year, Cheewin also joined Yuan in directing The Right Man, a collection of short films produced by Jinloe for the gay dating app Blued.

Andy, New and Cheewin returned for Make It Right 2 (2017), which had only Cosocomo as the producing credit, while Jinloe did post-production. (Practically, though, during this early period it wasn’t always clear what was being handled by whose company, and if you look at the credits it’s mostly the same crew shared among them.) The three of them also directed the series remake of Water Boyy for GMMTV the same year, and ‘Cause You’re My Boy (also for GMMTV, by Cosocomo) in 2018.

After this, their paths diverge more clearly. New would found his company Studio Wabi Sabi and direct Love by Chance (2018), which was well-produced enough to give GMMTV a run for their money. With Until We Meet Again (2019), New now had two hits under his belt and a firm footing going forward, Studio Wabi Sabi becoming recognized as one of the big names in Thai BL despite lacklustre performances from My Gear Your Gown (for GMMTV) and the doomed LBC sequel A Chance to Love (see a summery of the drama in this FAQ). His following works have been somewhat regarded as mixed bag. There’s 7 Project from 2021, and Star & Sky (for GMMTV), My Only 12%, and Between Us from 2022. Absolute BL has a post analyzing directors’ works and styles, and New’s is described as very workmanlike. I tend to think that his (and Wabi Sabi’s) works tend to be very conservative “classic BL” in style and tone.

Also working with Studio Wabi Sabi is Niink Karnpicha Sinlertpattana, long-time assistant director since UWMA. He directed EN of Love (2020, with Ko Nantalit Tampacha), as well as What Zabb Man! (2022, for Star Hunter) and What If (2022, also with Ko). Studio Wabi Sabi also began outsourcing productions in 2022, with Dear Doctor and Even Sun.

More on EN of Love, though. The project was initiated by Rookie Thailand for its actors, executive produced by Aunz Patchara Kongsaming and Bank Anan Thunyarat (though Rookie Thailand isn’t named in the series credits). Both of them began as actor managers, Bank being the company head. Aunz would also executive produce the 2022 Love Mechanics remake, which was released after he left the company. Rookie’s other miniseries The Best Story (2021) and 21 Days Theory (2022) are contracted out to independent production houses.

Another company that has worked with Studio Wabi Sabi is Mchoice (aka Millennials Choice), which partnered to produce A Chance to Love as well as the LBC follow-up special miniseries Reminders (which was also a sequel to Love Sick) and 2 Wish (2019). It’s celebrity hair stylist Kong Grit Jirakiertivadhana‘s branching out into the artist management and events business (he’s the owner of Hive salon and also of Mint magazine). Mchoice’s meta/side BL series Why You… Y Me? (2022) was co-written by the writers of Love Sick.

Now, back to Cheewin and Copy A Bangkok. He followed up MIR2 with Make It Live: On the Beach (2019, co-directed by New), and from there he’s done a lot of stuff that’s, well, all over the place, ranging from whacky to cringefest to self-serious and everywhere in between. Under his own company, there’s YYY and You Never Eat Alone (2020), Y-Destiny (2021), and War of Y (2022). He also directed Why R U? (2020) for Mandee Work, Secret Crush on You (2022) for Saint Suppapong’s Idol Factory, and That’s My Candy (2022) for Vibie / Star Thai production.

One thing to note about Mandee Work is its unusual origins, coming out of Domundi, a YouTube channel themed around carefree macho guys doing prank videos and vlogs. After YRU, company head Aoftion Kittipat Champa took the reins directing Cutie Pie (2022).

After Love Sick 2 and The Right Man, Yuan and Jinloe made What the Duck (2018-19), but went rather quiet on the BL scene for a while as they worked on other stuff. Jinloe was involved in producing Puppy Love (2020), which was… a weird thing, and made a few Tiktok series in 2022 including In a Relationship.

As for Andy, since CYMB he’s mostly directed pulps for small production houses: Thank God It’s Friday (2019), Friend Forever (2020), and Physical Therapy (2022).

Apart from the four MIR directors, there are also lines of influence from producers coming out of Love Sick. Season 2 was executive produced by Art Phoomphat Thanachaiboonyapat (then named Karnlape Thanachaiboonyapat) of Wealthy Enterprise. After Love Sick, he went on to produce several series under Greatest Entertainment for Channel 9 MCOT, many of which have featured BL sides or crumbs. The more significant ones are My Bromance (2016), The Extra (2016), and Love Complex (2017 sitcom with a gay character, which got axed when MCOT wiped its programming schedule). He then disappeared for a few years due to financial difficulties, but returned with the company (now renamed GTE Great to Est.) and produced Brothers in 2021.

The other one is Oh Yot Kornherun, who was producer for Love Sick 2. He went on to executive produce 2 Moons, representing CCDM (Chachi Digital Media) in its partnership with Motive Village, but as the franchise was falling apart he left for his own company Star Hunter Entertainment. Star Hunter is focused on artist management and contracts out its productions, which include The Moment and The Moment Since (2020), Gen Y (2020) and Gen Y 2 (2021), Bad Roommate (Tiktok, 2021), My Mate Match (2021), What Zabb Man! (2022, by Studio Wabi Sabi’s Niink), and Big Dragon (2022, by Satuboon Production).

All in all, the creators coming from Love Sick alone are responsible for almost a quarter of the entire chart, and are some of the most prolific directors dedicated to Thai BL. That’s some huge influence for a single show, not to mention that it also practically kick-started the entire genre.

Now, moving on to the big name everyone knows about…

GMMTV

GMMTV was originally focused on producing teen variety shows for mainstream TV. In 2008, It operated a satellite/cable channel called Bang Channel, and one of its shows, introduced in 2012, was Rak Jing Ping Ker, a phone-in show where callers talked about their crushes and found out on-air whether the other party returned their feelings. Popular stories were adapted into scripted short films which aired as special episodes.

GMMTV’s first foray into proto-BL territory came from here, in RJPK’s Change (2013), directed by X Nuttapong Mongkolsawas, GMMTV’s Senior Director of Content Production. Never Again (by X) and Secret Love (Aof) followed in 2014. This was before Love Sick solidified BL as a genre, so some of their aspects were more LGBT+ than BL.

As GMMTV was fully pivoting towards series production, it created Room Alone (by X, 2014-15), which featured an early BL-ish storyline among its ensemble cast. Following this (as well as Love Sick’s success) they increasingly featured BL roles in their shows, from the small side couple in Kiss to Senior Secret Love: Puppy Honey to their first full BL SOTUS, all from 2016. The roles were expanded in their 2017/18 sequels and the follow-up Our Skyy.

GMMTV has an in-house production crew, but the majority of their series are contracted to outside teams usually under the directors’ companies. SOTUS was produced by Bear House Production (later to become BeBraveHub) and directed by Lit Phadung Samajarn (who would go on to direct My Engineer (2020), Meow Ears Up! (2022) and Love Mechanics (2022)). SOTUS S was co-directed by Jane Botta (aka Kitt Bottasri aka Pongpisit Bottasri, Oxygen (2020) and Nitiman (2021)). Puppy Honey was directed by Champ Weerachit Thongjila and his h8 (Housestories 8) team, who would make Kiss Me Again (2018) and 2gether (2020) for GMMTV before doing I Will Knock You in 2022. And Water Boyy and ‘Cause You’re My Boy were directed by Andy’s team from Love Sick. There’s also Slam Dance (2017) by Studio Commuan, and several others from 2020 onwards, which we’ll get to eventually.

For their in-house works, X skips a few years before directing Theory of Love (2019), then again until Vice Versa (2022). But the foremost face of GMMTV’s BLs today is probably Aof Noppharnach Chaiyahwimhon, who began with Secret Love and then co-wrote My Dear Loser: Edge of 17 (2017), directing InSun’s part in Our Skyy as well as TeeMork’s. He then directs He’s Coming to Me (2019), Dark Blue Kiss (2019), Still 2gether (2020), A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021), and Bad Buddy (2021).

In many of these, you might notice the recurring names of writers Pongsate Lucksameepong, Pratchaya Thavornthummarat, and writer/assistant director Au Kornprom Niyomsil, who worked on TOL plus a few other series, and worked with Aof from Still 2gether to Bad Buddy. Au has since stepped up as director for My School President (2022). (They also worked on My Oxygen, and MDL attributes the credits for All Write Team to Pongsate and Pratchaya, though I haven’t been able to verify this.) Another GMMTV director is Film Pawis Sowsrion, who’s been assistant director for X and directed Our Skyy (PikRome and PeteKao) and Enchanté (2022).

Jojo Tichakorn Phukhaotong isn’t under GMMTV, but he has a long-time working relationship with them, though his works lean more towards the LGBT+ genre than BL. He began co-writing Secret Love with Aof, and went on to create (with Aof co-writing) the gay lifestyle series Gay OK Bangkok (2016-17) for the HIV awareness programme testBKK. These were produced under Trasher Bangkok, Jojo’s party organizer group from university. He then began working with GMMTV, directing Friend Zone (2018,20) and 3 Will Be Free (2019), before leaving Trasher to start his own company Hard Feeling Film in 2021, which produced his first actual BL Never Let Me Go (2022). (Trasher Bangkok is still active in series production though, having produced My Secret Love (2022) for Boyy Entertainment.)

Jojo was probably brought onto GMMTV’s projects by Aof, who’s also been Senior Director of Content Production since 2018. X and Aof act as GMMTV’s head producers, and all of GMMTV’s series will credit either one of them as the main producer, while executive producer credits go to CEO Sataporn Panichraksapong and his deputy Darapa Choeysanguan.

We haven’t touched upon all of GMMTV’s works, but for the rest, we’ll need to go back a bit further in time to their directors’ origins.

The road through Club Friday

If you look for the names from some of GMMTV’s outsourced productions you’ll find some at the very top of the chart: Golf Sakon Wongsinwises, Golf Tanwarin Sukkhapisit and Madeaw Chookiat Sakveerakul. They’ve done very different works, but what they do have in common is having worked on Club Friday: The Series, GMM25/Atime Media‘s relationship drama series based on the popular phone-in radio show. As the stories are taken from real life, they’re often quite far from BL, but it’s interesting to note that Once in Memory (2012) had one of the earliest instances of strongly proto-BL elements on TV.

A note on GMM25 and Atime: They were both under the leadership of Saithip Montrikul Na Ayudhaya until 2018, when she left to establish Change2561, which took over production of Club Friday after that. Atime also has a joint venture in Atime26 (Our Days, 2022).

The most prolific director from Club Friday, however, is Koo Ekkasit Trakulkasemsuk (with his companies Keng Kwang Kang and Keng Kwang Kang Wai Sai). In BL, he directed Tonhon Chonlatee (2020) for GMMTV and produced Fahlanruk (2022) for Safe studio.

Tanwarin has extensive film credits, but mostly came into the spotlight as a director when Insects in the Backyard was banned in 2010. Her other films were produced by Amfine Production, though her recent BL works (The Eclipse, 2022 for GMMTV; 609 Bedtime story) are done through Allthis Entertainment. Another of Amfine Production’s partners is Thitipan Raksasat, who directed Love Next Door 2 (2015) and joined BL with Love Stage!! (2022).

Madeaw’s The Love of Siam (2007) was a huge influence on Thai LGBT+ cinema and the subsequent development of BL. Home (2012) (produced through Studio Commuan) also featured BL-adjacent elements, and Grean House (2014) featured a BL side storyline, as was very much the trend at the time. He produced Slam Dance for GMMTV, and directed Dew (2019), Manner of Death (2020) and Triage (2022), the last two for TV Thunder and jointly with his long-time assistant director Aum Natthaphong Aroonnet. Studio Commuan also produced Self (2022).

Speaking of TV Thunder, they’re another long-established media company, though their traditional focus is on gameshows. They introduced MaxTul to Thai BL as a side pair in Bad Romance (2016), then the spin-off sequels Together With Me (2017) and The Next Chapter (2018). They also produced Paint With Love (2021) and Nha Harn (2022), as well as the real-life based, very LGBT+-oriented Saneha Stories 4 (2022).

The rest of the GMM Grammy empire

GMM25 and GMMTV are separate companies under GMM Grammy. Another one that has links back to GMMTV is GTH (which became GDH 559 in 2016). With its partial subsidiary Nadao Bangkok, it famously revolutionized the teen series genre with its CEO Songyos Sugmakanan‘s Hormones (2013-15), which essentially created a market and paved the way for BL’s oncoming wave, in addition to featuring BL-ish storylines itself.

GTH’s ThirTEEN Terrors (2014) featured an episode edited from Nuchy Anucha Boonyawatana‘s The Blue Hour (2015), produced by G Village Co-Creation Hub. Its sister company Gmo Film would produce several works for GMMTV, including Nuchy’s Not Me (2021), 55:15 Never Too Late (2021), and Golf Sakon’s Fish Upon the Sky (2021) and Cupid’s Last Wish (2022).

In addition to Nadao, Parbdee Tawesuk was another of GTH’s subsidiaries (until 2016). It produced the first season of the gay-themed comedy Diary of Tootsies (2016) before becoming independent, working with GMMTV on projects including The Shipper (2020). It also had a BL episode in its comedy anthology Club Sapan Fine 2 (2022).

After resisting the trend for several years, Nadao Bangkok dabbled in BL-adjacent territory with Great Men Academy (2019) and Boss Naruebet Kuno‘s My Ambulance (2019), before he went on to make the technically-not-a-BL-but-everyone-treats-it-like-one I Told Sunset About You/I Promised You the Moon (2020-21). Alas, the company has turned its back on the TV-production business.

GTH is directly under GMM Grammy, unlike GMMTV which is now under The One Enterprise, which covers most of its TV business, overseen by Boy Takonkiet Viravan. Boy’s side of the business began as Exact, which made a lot of lakorns and series for the old analog TV channels, including Rak Paet Phan Kao (2004-05), which famously introduced the first shippable pairing just when Y (BL) culture was first spreading to Thailand, and Tomorrow I’ll Still Love You (2009), the first proto-BL pair to generate a fervour on the small screen. It would be a long time before they revisited modern BL, in one of the genres they’re best known for – sitcoms – and under their new guise as One31: first indirectly in Bang Rak Soi 9/1 (2016), then overtly with Rak Diao (2022). And then, they released To Sir, With Love (2022).

The other One Enterprise subsidiary remaining is GMM Bravo, headed by Ekachai Uekrongtham, which aims to create series with a modern, international appeal. They don’t focus on BL, but have some adjacent storylines in Summer Buddies (2016), The Underwear (2017, produced for GMM Grammy’s music label MBO) and Bangkok Love Stories 2: Innocence (2018).

Okay, now that’s all of GMM Grammy. But are there other mega groups?

The other big names

Relatively speaking, GMMTV’s market share in the entire media industry is tiny, though it had a significant early-mover advantage when it came to BL. Since the explosive phase, though other old-school big-name companies have joined the fray.

There’s Channel 3, which has funded shows through its several partner production companies. Good Feeling and SMK / Dee Tuk Wan 2019 partnered with Dee Hup House (producer Boss Anuson Limprasert and director Tee Bundit Sintanaparadee) to make Lovely Writer (2021) and Something in My Room (2022), and with Panda House to make Golden Blood (2021). Jaew Yuthtana Lopanpaibul‘s Tanadlakorn created The Miracle of Teddy Bear (2022), and Broadcast Thai Television commissioned I Will Knock You. Also earlier, its Mello streaming platform commissioned Love Lie Hide Fake (2018) and 2 Mons 2 (2019) for its original series line-up.

Another old-school big name is Kantana, which just celebrated its 70th anniversary. It has produced Hidden Love (2020) through its subsidiary Kantana Movie Town, and has a partnership with M Flow Entertainment via Good Drama, another associated company. This partnership has produced Nut Nutthachai Khrueasena‘s Second Chance (2021) and Coffee Melody (2022) and AiLongNhai (2022, which he produced). Kantana also has a partnership with Amarin TV where they’ve worked to finance What Zabb Man!, Love Stage, and Check Out.

That’s the big names, but we still haven’t covered some of the hugely popular BLs yet.

The other players

Making it this far without TharnType coming up kind of reveals how isolated Me Mind Y is, though there are connections we skipped over. Of course, its head Mame Orawan Vichayawannakul worked on Love by Chance, and also the Dee Hup team was responsible for the first season of TharnType (2019). Their subsequent works seem really isolated from the outside world though.

I also skipped mentioning Y.Entertainment, which co-produced YYY and also Unforgotten Night (2022), which is by Ong-art Singlumpong, with Newsinfinity Entertainment. He also directed Newsinfinity’s Oh! My Sunshine Night (2022).

Be On Cloud is relatively a brand new company, having only made KinnPorsche (2022), so there isn’t much to observe except maybe some shared writing credits and that Banchorn Vorasataree, one of its directors, was previously assistant director on Bad Buddy, Dark Blue Kiss, and Great Men Academy.

On the other hand, there are a few production houses who’ve been in the business very long, but are still relatively unknown. To the far right there’s Nicchi Nitchapoom Chaianun‘s Wayufilm Production, which made one of the first BL movies My Bromance in 2014. He’s still doing his stuff (which sometimes veers quite a bit from BL), but seems content to remain indie, relying mostly on direct donations from a small group of fans rather than big business models.

Further right is Commetive by Aam Anusorn Soisa-ngim, who also mostly sticks to his own thing, though he did direct 2 Moons 2 for Motive Village (with all its drama). Motive Village finally finished the three 2 Moons over a span of 6 years. Who knows what they’ll do next.

MungMee Productions, also another early player with Love’s Coming in 2014 and its 2015 sequel, is affiliated with Star Thai Production, as Star Thai’s heads Chawthip Natcharern and Nitipas Chiamparnthong are friends with Mungmee’s Vittavat Singlumpong, who supported them in establishing their own company. Star Thai is another name that tends to fly under the rader, as they mostly only take on contracted work and rarely produce stuff under their own name (except for The Best Twins, 2019). Their works include Gen Y 2, Even Sun, and That’s My Candy.

The Best Twins was directed by Phadej Onlahoong, who also directed Love at 7-11 and Love Poison (2019) for gr8digit, Dear Doctor for Studio Wabi Sabi, and Work from Heart for DV8. DV8 is mainly a marketing service company, which is why Ingredients (2020) was so specific in its advertising. It was co-produced with Warper, who made He She It, which also featured Jeff and Gameplay. As for gr8digit, it followed those works with Love Poison 2 and Siew Sum Noi (2021), which followed essentially the same concept. There’s also a curious connection to Very Great (Physical Therapy), as Very Great’s head Tidarat Laepeth is/was also marketing director at gr8digit.

Another director with a rather curious portfolio is Nob Sathanapong Limwongthong, who directed Sweet Boy (2016), Gen Y, Gen Y 2, La Cuisine (2022), and AiLongNhai.

And 9Naa production has also been around quite long, with I Am Your King (2017,19) and Check Out (2022).

I think that’s most of them. The other producers are mostly smaller ones that do their own thing, like Mind Trio and DoubleM/28 MDP Studio, and ones that have only produced a single work.

Oh, I forgot to mention Ultimate Troop. They’re primarily an artist management agency, and Nipitpon Muangsinun comes from such a background. He started directing with The Yearbook (2021), which was co-produced with director Benz Bancha Luangakkaratorn‘s company EyeCatcher and Mean Phiravich Attachitsataporn’s, whose name is a joke that doesn’t quite translate. Benz has worked with New and Cheewin as assistant director since Love Sick 2.

​

Oh dear, it seems I got carried away again. Sorry for the huge wall of text. I’ll come see later if I can edit it down or somehow split it into more readable bits… I’m way tired out for now though.

Anyway, thanks for your attention. 😁