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Contrast (Japanese Series)

By Golu
This is basically a high school BL where two guys who have nothing going on in common somehow end up getting really close to each other, and that's kind of the whole point of the title too. There's barely any drama or fluff packed in here, it stays pretty straightforward the whole way through. A little bit of friction pops up here and there, but it's nothing compared to what you'd normally get in this kind of show. Runtime wise you're looking at 8 episodes, each one sitting around 25-30 minutes. The two guys carrying the story are Akira and Kanata, and funny enough they knew each other's faces way before they ever knew each other's names. Kanata's the type everyone likes, always got people around him, popular guy, but there's this distance to him that people can't quite place. Turns out he had an injury that ended his football days, and that's what pushed him into being more withdrawn, and it only got worse once his younger brother got picked...
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The Butch Factor (Documentary)

By Golu

This documentary is trying to break down the old tired stereotypes and show that gay men can look like anything, blue collar guys, cops, tough athletes, rodeo cowboys, gym bros who could scare anyone just by walking in the room. It brings in a bunch of different guys talking about what being masculine actually means to them.

The guys they interview are pretty honest about their sexuality and how people see them. They talk about the usual butch gay categories, leather guys, bears, rodeo riders, muscle guys, construction workers, truck drivers, cops, athletes, and mix that in with stuff like homophobia, being stereotyped, being called too feminine or too polished, and fashion. A lot of them say they feel kind of alone trying to fit into gay culture as masculine guys, like they don't belong to the "normal" gay scene either. Some talk about just not caring about pop culture or fashion or divas like other gay guys do, worrying if they'd be accepted in a typical tough guy job, and having a hard time accepting themselves because they grew up in a macho household. All these stories basically come back to the same thing, how society decides what counts as a real man and what counts as a real gay man. The film also throws in a couple of clearly more feminine gay guys, but it feels a little awkward, and I'm honestly not sure if the point was to say masculine gay guys are somehow better.

The doc also shows where these guys actually feel at home in gay culture, like gay sports teams, a corrections officer, and guys who grew up thinking real men just aren't gay. It also gets into the mental side of masculinity a bit, like how gay men think about it and try to live up to it, and how a lot of it is just something society made up. It flips things around too, some of the more butch guys in the film actually say the feminine guys they know are tougher and stronger for just being themselves without hiding it. The heart's in the right place here, but the doc gets repetitive after a while. It just keeps circling the same point over and over before it finally ends.

Bottom line, good message, honest guys, but it repeats itself way too much. (4.5/10)

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