Red Balloon (2017) Taiwanese Series. 8 episodes in mini-series format and each episode is 11 minutes. In terms of release year, it is one of the early period boys’ love dramas. For BL enthusiasts, I can say it is definitely one of the cult dramas that should be watched. Endless problems like youth, being accepted, social pressure, and homophobia are the subject of the series.
Carrying bullying and polarization to the institutional area always creates conflict. In the series, it is possible to see that LGBT individuals are targeted not only socially but also politically. Love, drama, and injustices…
🏳️🌈 Curator BL Recommendations: Best BL series (Thai, South Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese)
What Does Red Balloon Tell?
Plot and Review
High school senior Li Xiang Wan has to change schools due to his unrequited feelings for his sports teacher. He forms a close friendship with his roommate Xia Zhi Chen, whom he meets at his new school. Xia Zhi Chen is far from being extroverted, a quiet and introverted person. His father, on the other hand, is a mafia member known for his dark relations. However, it cannot be said that Li Xiang Wan cares about this situation. Two youths begin to share more than friendship over time.
Xia Zhi Chen realizes he is gay by rejecting his girlfriend’s offer. Li Xiang Wan also opens up to him; explains why he left his old school, the weight of the feelings he suppressed. Ultimately, they find both a friend and a lover in each other. However, their happiness is short-lived.
When their secret kissing is caught by the mafia father, Xia Zhi Chen is put under house arrest and they are torn apart from each other. This separation turns into the story of two souls hoping to reunite with each other, like two red balloons gliding into the sky.
The series handles very subtly not only the relationship of Li Xiang Wan and Xia Zhi Chen, but also the homophobic bullying exposed at school. Student Xu Yang, who is thought to be gay, is exposed to constant insults and attacks from his classmates. Even the silence of the principal reveals the insensitivity of the system. The institutional violence I mentioned in the introductory paragraph shows itself right here. When watching these scenes, we are not just watching characters in a fiction; we see the real problems of LGBT+ individuals experiencing similar pains in real life. It is not necessary to be an LGBT individual to watch the series. Being human is enough.
If I return to the drama again: Will the two high school lovers whose paths cross again years later be able to break free from the chains of the past now? Will Xia Zhi Chen leave behind the fake marriage he established and return to Li Xiang Wan? What upends their lives, all the impasses of the duo is actually not being gay. What forces them is anti-LGBT sentiment, hatred. As if all the evils and problems in the world have ended, the meaningless pressure on homosexuals makes the life of LGBT individuals difficult.
While the series is shaped around these questions, it is a production with high emotional impact despite its short duration. If you like stories that start in early youth years, suddenly remain unfinished, and are encountered again in adulthood, it is a mini-series just for you.
A Brief Commentary
The series uses the red balloon as a symbol of both childhood innocence and the love that cannot be left behind in the past. In the finale, this symbol creates an emotional tone making one feel that the fate of the two characters is still bound to each other. As human feelings and sexual identity do not change, when one does not live life as it comes from the heart, it will also be an effective viewing in the name of accumulated traumas and regrets.
As I said at the beginning, the series also shows how individuals continue their lives incomplete and with breakdowns, unhappily and hopelessly with the difficulty of being gay, social pressures, and homophobic effects. In this respect, it is a series full of social messages. Character chemistry and harmony are also in place in the series. Natural environments, plain unmade-up actors are successful. The drama does not take place in luxurious places, it is a production reflecting real city life and the life of the majority of the public.
I changed Red Balloon, whose original name is 紅色氣球, to 2017 Taiwanese production. It has a minimalist clear story. One of the most important series of BL culture. A good choice to start boys’ love with early period productions. Broadcaster: KKTV. More Info: You can look at the MyDramaList page. Trash information like actors and character names etc. is there.
 is a short but impressive Taiwanese BL series. It handles youth love, homophobia, and the search for identity in depth.){kind=link}