Taiwan Releases Asia’s First Series about Gay Parenting, Papa & Daddy

Papa & Daddy, Asia’s very first gay parenting series, will be made available worldwide on GagaOOLala beginning April 23rd, 2021. The six-episode gay family comedy, supported by Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture, is written and directed by Nancy Chen and stars Malaysian Chinese actor and singer Melvin Sia (謝佳見) and Taiwanese actor Mike Lin (林輝瑝).

The series follows Damian (Melvin Sia), a 38-year-old overseas Taiwanese and recent divorcé, who returns to Taipei to open his dream restaurant, Verso. While at Verso, Damian meets and falls for Jerry (Mike Lin), a 28-year-old YouTube vlogger. As their relationship progresses, Damian wishes to start a family with Jerry but Jerry is reluctant to take on parental duties at such an early age. However, four years later and through surrogacy, Damian and Jerry officially become gay parents to their four-year-old son, Kai Kai (Kai Lin). Amidst all these developments, Jerry is still yet to come out to his parents, who live in rural Hualien and finds himself increasingly pressured by them to get married to a woman.

Inspired by true events, Taiwan and Thailand’s first BL series, Call It What You Want, sheds light on the darker side of the entertainment industry

“Actors are like products we buy; we can do anything we want with them.” – Call It What You Want

Call It What You Want, the first-ever BL co-production series between Taiwan and Thailand is set to premiere exclusively on Asia’s leading global LGTBQ+ streaming platform, GagaOOLala on Friday 9th, April 2021. Directed by the Thai BL filmmaker Aam Anusorn Soisa-ngim, Call It What You Want marks GagaOOLala’s first original Thai BL series with a six-episode series featuring a cast of both Thai and Taiwanese actors.

Award-Winning Film Dear Tenant Champions Gay Parents in Taiwan

Dear Tenant, the recipient of three prestigious accolades (Best Leading Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Original Screen Film Score) at the Golden Horse Awards 2020, the Oscars equivalent of the Mandarin-speaking world, will premiere in on April 1st  exclusively via the global LGBTQ+ streaming platform, GagaOOLala.

The film, directed by Cheng Yu-chieh, tells the story of Lin Jian-yi (Mo Tzu-yi), a gay man who devotes his life to his dead partner’s ill mother, Zhou Xiu-yu (Yao Chun-yao), and his son nine-year-old son, Wang You-yu (Runyin Bai). But after the suspicious death of Mrs. Zhou, Lin is unjustly accused and becomes a victim of the judicial discrimination against sexual minorities. 

Taiwan is often considered to be the pioneer of gay rights and recognition and a shining beacon for gay culture in all of Asia. With an estimated 130,000 people in attendance, Taiwan was the only country in the world to host an in-person gay parade in 2020 amid the global COVID outbreak, as well as the only country in Asia to have legalized same-sex marriage back in 2019. But despite such widespread advocacy, Cheng’s Dear Tenant sheds light on the grim reality of gays and other sexual minorities still facing hostility and discrimination in Taiwan with much of Taiwanese society still needing to go a long way when it comes to the full acceptance of queer people.

GagaOOLala 2020: A Year in Review

Global launch brings exponential growth in memberships and Google searches.

As the COVID-19 pandemic brought massive challenges to practically all industries, services such as OTT platforms, that cater to people staying at home, have seen an increase in popularity and had hugely benefited from city-wide lockdowns around the world. Watching films at home, and not in theaters, became the global trend in 2020. Asia’s first LGBTQ+ and BL streaming service, GagaOOLala, also experienced the effects of the pandemic seeing a huge increase in market demand, especially after it launched its service globally in May 2020, becoming Taiwan’s first global streaming platform.

Influencer Kiko Ipapo and Actor Jovani Manansala Star in the First Filipino Period BL Series Happenstance

Director Adolfo Alix Jr. revealed new details about his upcoming BL series Happenstance during an online press conference on Saturday evening. Kiko Ipapo and Jovani Manansala will play Wade and Jose Manuel, two people who magically meet although they are living in different periods - one in 1974, one in 2020. Jose Manuel is grounded after his military father learned of his relationship with Luis, an activist. Wade, on the other hand, is recovering from a recent break up with Eric and while on vacation is caught up in the quarantine because of the CoVid 19 pandemic. After the super moon, an opportunity opens for these two heartbroken souls to connect across time and find love once again.

The two leads are relative newcomers. Kiko Ipapo is a social media personality and influencer. He started as a print model before deciding to try his luck as an actor. Happenstance is his first foray into acting. Opposite, Jovani Manansala also started in the entertainment industry by doing several commercial ads. After that, he acted in television shows like ‘Ipaglaban Mo’ & ‘Maalaala Mo Kaya’ and in the independent films Mamu, And a Mother Too and Jolly Spirit.

Director Adolfo Alix Jr. Reveals a Powerhouse Supporting Cast for his New BL Series

Happenstance is the new series by acclaimed Pinoy director Adolfo Alix Jr. (Donsol, Adela, Manila, Death March) for the streaming platform GagaOOLala. Given the good reception of their previous collaboration, the anthological queer series Unlocked, which became the most watched series in the history of the platform and it is currently touring around international film festivals, the director and the Taiwanese streamer have partnered up once again and, this time, for a Boys’ Love series. The 9-episode series will be the first high concept Pinoy BL and will tell a love story taking place between two timelines: one in the present and one during 1970s.

Unlocked Is the World’s First Series about Gay Relationships under Quarantine

As many other places around the world, Manila has been under quarantine since March due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, and with it most film productions came to a complete halt. This did not stop director Adolfo Alix Jr. (Donsol, Adela, Manila, Death March) to conceptualize and help produce Unlocked, the world’s first series about gay relationships under lockdown

Unlocked is a 6-episode anthology series originally scheduled to be released on June, in order to commemorate Pride Month, but due to an extremely difficult production process postponed to July 9th.  Each episode focuses in a different kind of loving relationship put to test under lockdown, “I wanted to develop stories where the circumstances of the pandemic are a catalyst for a deeper examination of relationships. It acts as a purgation of sorts - be it the physical distance or the paranoia of the situation,” explained Adolfo. The six stories are as follow: a heartbroken man hires a prostitute to help him cope with loneliness, a long-term gay couple need to reevaluate their relationship after being forced to be together 24/7, a single mother is trying to connect with her lover who is a nurse in the US, an elder professor reflects on his life after his young neighbor knocks on the door, a teenage boy comes of age and realizes about his real self during lockdown, a man alone in his apartment experiences a breakdown.