Blue Canvas of Youthful Days (2024)

It's a shame that China's censorship has banned any BL content after the groundbreaking 2016 series ”Addicted”. The few BL series that have come from mainland China since then indicate that Chinese productions can not only compete with series from Thailand, Japan, Taiwan and Korea, but they would probably dominate the market with high quality scripts, directing and acting.

Last year, ”Stay with me”, a remake of ”Addicted”, took the world of BL by storm, and this year ”Blue Canvas” did the same. It was banned only one day after its release on Iqiyi, but fortunately Gagaoolala released the complete series a short time later.

”Blue Canvas of Youthful Days” tells the story of two couples. Qi Lu is the son of a successful artist, who has fled her brutal husband to live abroad. He is forced by his father to study painting, although he would like to be a director of movies. When he joins an art college, he meets Qin Xiao, who lives with his grandfather who suffers from Alzheimer's and runs a small convenience store. The two boys soon feel attracted to each other, but find it hard to accept their same-sex relationship. They experience some ups and downs - some very beautiful ups and some very bad downs, to be precise - and it takes some years of separation before they have a happy ending.

The second couple are Tan Yin, who has a hearing disability and lives with Qin Xiao, and arts teacher Liu Ming Yang, who provides Tan Yin with a hearing aid which allows him to take part in conversations.

Whereas Qi Lu and Qin Xiao's story is so moving because both boys are facing extreme difficulties – a very violent father on Qi Lu's side, hard work, poverty and worries about Grandpa on Qin Xiao's – and somehow manage to improve their respective lives through their love, Tan Yin helps Liu Ming overcome his trauma caused by his younger brother's death which he blames on himself.

The script is simply beautiful – a rollercoaster of emotions that engage the viewers like no other series of 2024. The directing is perfect, as are cinematography, colouring and the atmosphere. All the four main actors are amazing, and after the 12th episode I felt really sad that I had to say goodbye to these guys who have become something like close friends. The series definitely was the highlight of the six weeks when it was airing, and it is my favourite BL series of 2024.