Bagan Beginning

The setting is the real star of the show

While Thailand flooded the world of BL with more than 50 series, and Japan produced the best BL quality in 2023, some countries that are not usually in the focus of BL fans have landed some surprise successes – Vietnam with the series from O2 Productions and RL Studio, Cambodia with ”The Memories” from OxygenZ Station, Singapore with the ”Pure Vanilla” short films from 250 Films, and last but not least Myanmar with Trust Entertainment's great short film ”Bus Stop” and the series ”The Star Season 2”. Trust Entertainment have also produced the series ”Bagan Beginning”, which is unique among the numerous BL series as it puts the breathtaking cultural heritage of the ancient Burmese capital of Bagan into the focus.

The plot revolves around three young men – Mani (Vita Min, who also starred in ”Bus Stop”), Hlyan (Zaw Shine Htet) and Walar (Min Nyein Chan), who form kind of a love triangle, as both Walar and Hlyan like Mani. The love triangle isn't the main subject of the series, though – it serves more as a means to display the generation gap between the traditional parents and their sons, who are torn between living their own lives and pleasing their parents.

Mani is a tour guide in Bagan, where his parents own a shop of rattan items. He spends his free time hanging out with Hlyan, whose parents run a shop with traditional craft articles. Walar, who has just arrived from the USA, hires Mani for a month to show him the ancient temples of the city. He has come to Bagan, because his American adoptive parents told him that his family used to live there. Walar says that his father was killed, so he is now looking for his biological mother.

Hlyan is jealous from the very moment that he sees Mani and Walar together, and Walar actually tries to flirt with Mani, who does not respond to his approaches, though. Things become dramatic when Hlyan's mother reads Hlyan's diary where he confesses that he is gay and loves Mani. His mo...