Move over Hallmark: Slow Burn Romance in Live-Action BL, Seven Days

Slow burn romance is common currency in BL and in Hallmark--the primary couple meet and slowly get to know each other. Hugging and kissing may not occur until nearly the end of the movie. 

BL is far superior.

Seven Days: Monday to Thursday and Friday to Sunday

Shino Yuzuru asks out Seryou Touji. Shino is the Japanese Donny Wahlberg version of a high school student. He is boy band cute, so he gets asked out a lot. But his girlfriends have been fooled by his looks. He is, after all, Donny who will grow up to be Danny: a straight-talker who goes at things head on, not a poster boy for romance.

In a "what is the point of dating when I keep getting dumped--what's it supposed to be like anyway?" moment, Shino asks out Seryou who has a reputation for only dating a girl for seven days. Seryou treats the girl like a princess, but the relationship never outlives the week. Seryou is, in fact, overcoming a terrible breakup with his brother's on-again/off-again girlfriend and is unaware of this go-along-then-break-up pattern--at least, initially. 

The two ultimately realize that they want to date beyond a week. Despite the usual frustration with slow burn (the desire by the viewer to reach through the screen and shake people), the trope works here. 

For one, although Shino assumes that Seryou will end the relationship on Sunday, and Seryou is mostly convinced that Shino is joking, both young men take their dating seriously. They take breaks at school together. They walk to the train station together. They plan outings: eating Ramen and buying shoes and going to a movie, where Shino falls asleep. And Shino demands that Seryou go to "club" (they are both in archery). Shino is in fact older and is able to make the demand (Seryou uses "senpai" and "-san" with Shino).

They aren't just two guys hanging out, however. Seryou waits for Shino every morning at Shino's gate. When girls ask Seryou whom he is dating "this week," Shino frankly says, "Me." (Nobody believes him.) They also kiss at least once mid-week, indicating that both young men perceive what they are doing as something other than a "bromance."

And they demand faithfulness from each other, even before they understand what they are feeling about the relationship. They expect the other person to give up time, to answer their calls, to not go off with someone else.  

It's a rather extraordinary case of an experiment working since the parties are truly committed to finding out where the experiment will go. 

Their meetings, unlike in Hallmark (which movies always seem to deliver a plethora of family members, pets, shopping, and such), are not simply "meet cutes"--checked boxes which indicate that the couple has undergone the required number of flirtatious conversations. 

With Shino and Seryou, the time together--however inconsequential (lunch at Burger King, for example)--means something. Despite their mutual uncertainty and growing fear of being hurt, they last the seven days. 

Not only do Shino and Seryou get to know each other, they learn to function together. They accept each other. They "like," in all senses of the term, each other. They are complementary.

All show! Very little tell!