Coming out of the same studio that gave us RuPaul's Drag Race, and stacked with a whole crew of former contestants, Stop! That! Train! plays like RuPaul basically taking a bow for the entire franchise she's built. It's not really a gay film in the traditional sense, but with so many drag stars from Ru's shows popping up alongside a few cameos from well known out gay actors, I figured it earns a spot on this blog anyway. The whole thing is completely over the top, packed with GenZ slang, loud flashy visuals, and humor that's constantly winking at you knowing how ridiculous it is. Going in you'd assume it's meant to be a laugh riot, and a lot of critics online seem to be eating it up, but I just couldn't get into it at all. I've never really been someone who vibes with campy silly stuff like this, so honestly my reaction doesn't surprise me one bit. The setup follows Tess and DeeDee, two low level stewardesses who sneak onto the fancy Glamazonian E...
University student Anda comes from a family of celebrities, including his elder brother who is lead singer of a band. He has no desire to be famous. IN fact he has severe stage fright and all he dreams of is drawing for mangas. When he was a child, he was made to dress up like a girl since the original actress didn't show up and his co-star was Ryou for a wedding commercial. Anda left a strong impression on Ryo, who harboured a crush for many years. Yet, Ryou has no idea about Anda's actual gender. Ryou is now a very popular celebrity. A decade later the company wants to redo the ad with original cast. Reluctantly Anda agrees to participate but the secret is soon revealed that Anda is actually a boy and not a girl on whom Ryou has been crushing all these years. Ryou is and and Anda wants to apologize and after some initial hiccups, the journey of friendship and love start between the two. In parallel we also see the laid back love story of Anda's older brother and his manager. Although this doesn't come to full front until like 7th episode. The two couple date secretly because they are all worried about celebrity popularity if truth comes out, but love will always eventually win.
My theory is, if you make a remake , at least make some changes and improve upon some of the feedback on the original. So, in this version despite having a good looking and able casting, there were still so many loopholes that are hard to ignore. Firstly, Ryou kissing Anda while he is sleeping an anon consensual was just wrong and I don't like that even in 2022 stuff like this is promoted. Also why did the makeup folks have to put so much lipstick on the two boys. It is so glaringly obvious with their dark pink (almost red) lips. The whole love triangle where a friend of Anda secretly likes him was just not needed and few other added gay tropes. A couple of scenes showed some promise where some comedy elements were added but they were very few far in between. My two favorite scenes are when Anda sings and he is such a bad singer. I wish, the brothers relationship was also more touched upon and went a bit deeper. Coming to the love story between our leads, I am still not sure how did it all start. One minute Ryou hates that Anda's a man and hates the fact that he has feelings for him, and then with the flick of the wrist, he's flirting and pretending like he didn't just assault Anda in a bathroom that left his tooth chipped and manhood exposed and it just flies off to the extent that a few episodes just go one with nothing much happening. On a plus side, it is a solid production with a bright and vibrant aesthetic.
Despite some positives, the Love Stage series is significantly flawed and doesn't improve my opinion of this woeful franchise. If you have seen the Japanese version, this is easily a skip, because this is no better than that (which was itself no great series to begin with). (4/10)
Comments
"Love Stage!!" seems to be sort of a collectible, like other series or films with several remakes (Skam...Eyewitness...) that even though you know there can't be much difference in the story, you still watch it 'cause you want to have them all in your collection.
What is it with those BL series and sleep abuse, seriously? Plus they sleep with the lights on, that's almost a one-eye-open-sleep - how can they sleep so deeply they don't feel being French kissed and touched? Borderline mysticism, indeed. I liked the "who's the girl in the commercial" guessing game, 'cause Anda DID look amazing as a girl. And the hedgehog was lovely :)
One day I am going to write a post about all random BL tropes that we see in these shows, especially Thai ones.
I feel there is a fascination I don't get around Love Stage in japan with many derived products. Like something that becomes part of the mass culture of that country, but that other countries won't get (don't know if you see what I mean). I'm just assuming here, but I remember seeing big Love Stage posters in Japan and I think there were having shows based on the manga. And now that's the 3rd series based on it when it's actually pretty old!
The manga is very funny though, with lots of self mochery and perverted archetype characters that make the stupid plot reach real comic levels. Too bad it seems impossible to translate in series... I still enjoyed this one a little bit. Not sure I'm ready for the japanese or anime version though ^^;
Besides the Japanese and Thai version, which one is the third adaptation of it?