Recently, I had the opportunity to interview the director and performers of a short BL series that has simply taken off with little fanfare. Mostly by word-of-mouth. It was produced by a small independent production company called 250 Films founded by Ng Yu Wen. The name of this short gem was PURE VANILLA, starring Braven Yeo as Gabriel and Deng Xun as Charlie. It was written and directed by a remarkable young individual named Mickey Hiah. The first episode, if you will, is just over 9 minutes long and came out about 10 months ago on YouTube and has over 150,000 views, which is remarkable. Then just over a month or so ago, they released Episode 2 called PURE VANILLA: RECIPE FOR ROMANCE. Already it has nearly 170,000 views with an astonishing number of positive comments about its content. This episode introduced a new character named Alex (Leon Koh) who added a new element to an existing recipe of love.

I shall not summarize the content of these two episodes as they deserve to be seen for their true impact. Their total viewing is just about a half-hour, and it is well worth your time and effort to watch this short standout. It is unmistakably a BL, but it is not splashy, fancy, or filled with drama. It is a soft, tender, love story about discovering love that is just under the surface waiting for the right moment or perhaps the right ingredient. Sweet, warm, and genteel is the best way I can describe it. Perhaps banal by today’s standards but watch it and judge for yourself to sense if this is not the best description for it. You might find yourself cheering for them with a smile on your face when it comes about.

Since I believe this was their first interview, they seemed perhaps surprised that there was this much interest in their short production. Much like the characters they portrayed, they were indeed soft-spoken but astute to the impact that this series has created. Most of them are novices at acting, but that certainly did not take away anything from the impact on this series or the whole of BL. As we talked, it was clear that Mickey as the screenwriter/director had a clear idea of the outcome for this series and in my opinion he succeeded enormously. Here are their responses to my questions:

INTERVIEW WITH MICKEY HIAH – DIRECTOR/SCREENWRITER FOR PURE VANILLA

1. How/why did you come up with the idea of the café as a theme for your short BL?

I’ve always loved sweets, cakes and desserts and all that – like it makes me really happy, and also the world’s not quite so bad too when you have something sweet in your mouth. I actually started baking a year ago as well, and then got really into it, so I just thought of putting together some of my favorite things into a BL. And the most obvious setting was either a cafe or bakery, where the magic kind of happens, and you know, everything just smells good like fresh bread and pastries. Plus spending too much money on overpriced coffee is definitely a guilty pleasure of mine.

2. Pure Vanilla is such a muted, gentle story. Were you concerned that it might be too laid back for the audience?

I think it was how I was feeling at the time when the idea for the story first came to me – I really wanted it to be pure vanilla, and just like 10 spoonfuls of sugar… so that was the direction we headed in, and we just ran with it and took it as far as we could. Of course, you do think about how the audience would respond to it, what kind of choices to make that will hopefully shape the experience of someone watching, and I guess there was a lot of following my gut, and taking on board lots of great input from everyone involved in the films.

Yet, the dialogue is breathtakingly soft, poignant and seems to emanate from personal levels for each of them. Is it a personal story? I definitely drew a little from my own experiences and personal feelings, so certain elements for sure, albeit some of it in a more dramatized context. A couple of the lines were taken from things that actually happened, like when Gabriel and Charlie confronted their feelings for the first time, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking… what are you thinking”. That was a particularly special moment for me, and also later on when Gabriel and Charlie seemed to have fallen out of sync a bit, and are not having the best communication. The voice over narrations were also great fun to do, I think some filmmakers like doing it while others find it too much exposition perhaps. I personally felt it was tonally right for what we were trying to do, so yeah that was a very conscious choice we made.

3. Did you think that the story would resonate with the international gay community as much as it has?

It was a pleasant surprise – BL’s really big right now (and rightly so), so we knew there was an audience out there for our films… just probably not the size of it, because you can never really be sure about this kind of things. I guess we were really fortunate that people caught on to the film, and also touched at the same time by all the lovely comments and support we’ve received. I think especially with web content and streaming and TikTok, it’s so much easier to watch stuff from elsewhere in the world now, not just limited to their geography. We’re still really small actually, we’re from Singapore and there isn’t a big BL market here yet. But it’s definitely picking up, shoutout to studios like Dear Straight People (Getaway, the first full BL series from Singapore) and Telescope (Summerdaze). They probably won’t see this but I love that they’re putting out local BL content and being kind of like pioneers of BL in Singapore. Definitely a fan.

4. What was it about these guys that made you choose them for the roles?

The actors had great qualities unique to each of them, and I loved getting to know them more, especially after working on 2 films together now. Braven’s a natural on screen, and he cares a lot about his acting craft. Deng Xun gave it his all, and he worked very hard to inhabit his character. And Leon brings a different energy that’s really attractive.

5. The actors themselves seemed so laid back; how easy was it to direct them?

They’re all actually really sweet guys too so that helped a lot. They were really appreciative of direction, but they also brought their own ideas. We’re very fortunate for our great cast who truly made the film.

6. Where do Charlie and Gabriel go from here in their relationship?

They’re boyfriends now, so I guess like any relationship goes with its ups and downs… but I’d like to imagine they get a dog and move in together or something. And continue making and eating sweets together of course. At the end of it, we wanted to create something that people can take comfort in knowing that yeah maybe the world’s a great place, and they do live happily ever after and all that. For now, their story feels somewhat complete and I’m not sure if there’s more to tell. But who knows, we didn’t originally plan to make the sequel Recipe for Romance either.

7. What are the future plans for 250 Films?

Yu Wen (producer of Pure Vanilla and owner of 250 Films) is a friend of mine from film school, I was really grateful for the opportunity to collaborate on these short films this year. It’s been a great ride and everyone who we worked with on Pure Vanilla has been wonderful. I can’t speak for 250’s future plans, but I think we’re all just taking a breather and seeing what’s next. I’d personally love to make more BL content, so I’m in the midst of coming up with ideas and exploring where I can take them.

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS for ACTORS BRAVEN YEO as GABRIEL, SOH DENG XUN as CHARLIE, and LEON KOH as ALEX in PURE VANILLA

1. You made the culinary arts look easy. Was it? Are you both good at baking as you surely made it look like you were. Was there a lot of practice?

Braven: While I do have some experience with basic cooking, I unfortunately have never tried baking before. There were 1 or 2 rehearsal sessions where we focused specifically on the baking portion to make our actions seem organic on screen.

Soh: I have some culinary background, and we went through the motions a few times before filming. But it is always a little different when doing it on set, knowing cameras are rolling and people are watching. Everyone on set worked together to make things easier wherever they could and did great work to ensure things went as smoothly as possible!

2. You guys have such great chemistry together and project such a wholesome screen couple. Do you realize that you could now be ‘shipped’? How do you feel about that?

Braven: I think it is something very endearing to see. Even after the film has been released I still get tagged in many fan edits and posts shipping Gabriel and Charlie. It always brightens up my day to know that people enjoy the work that we did.

Soh: I am glad that we could project great chemistry to the point that we could get shipped as a couple. It is definitely a new and interesting feeling for me, but it is one that is very welcome!

3. You have also projected such honesty, realism in characterization that you are almost idealized as the boy-next-door archetypal couple. You could be the next unassuming power couple, at least for international fans. How does that make you feel?

Braven: It would definitely be a big honor if that was the case!

Soh: It means a lot that people not only from my country but internationally has shown so much support for us and our film. It makes all the effort we put in worth it and glad to have been able to make you guys feel such joy with our work!

4. How much of your real personalities correlate with Charlie and Gabriel as you made them seem like they are extensions of you? Or is that just projection on my part?

Braven: With all my roles I do try to incorporate at least a few elements drawn from my real personality as it does help to create a more realistic and believable character. It is always helpful to use real life experiences to craft the character!

Soh: Charlie and I are similar in some ways. Both the quiet type, shy and a little awkward when it comes to expressing oneself. Of course, it is a little different from how I actually am in person but, being able to relate to and understand Charlie helped me a lot in portraying him.

5. I know this is second guessing, but it did appear as if you (Alex) and Charlie were close in college. It looks like there were regrets. This has got to be tough for Alex again, right?

Leon: I think they had good feelings for each other back when they were in school but probably didn’t know how to navigate through them since they were much younger. So, seeing Charlie after such a long time rekindled how Alex felt for Charlie, not so much regret but perhaps more of a chance for Alex to try to see things through properly with Charlie.

Soh: I think no matter the situation, finding out someone you liked is together with or interested in someone else is always tough. Even more so when you know you might have had a chance if you had acted earlier.

6. Would you like to see a future short series of what happened between Alex and Charlie just to see a different side of each?

Leon: You’ll have to ask our director and producer hahahaha..

Soh: I think since the story of who Charlie ends up with is already pretty set, it might be more interesting instead if there was a side story of Charlie and Alex’s past, what it would be like if something did actually happen between them and the story the leads up to it. It might please the fans who can relate to Alex’s situation and rooted for him, and still be interesting to the rest.

7. What do you see, and hope, is the future of Charlie and Gabriel?

Braven: I would definitely love to see more of them on hopefully, a longer format! Maybe a series?

Soh: As of right now, I don’t have any particular future I want to see for Charlie and Gabriel. I trust that if anyone can make a good continuation for them, it is our Director.

8. What are each of your future plans or what can we look forward to from each of you?

Leon: I’ll still be acting in projects in Singapore but I have plans to be based in Thailand for a couple of months next year too (2024).

Braven: Exploring a number of different options.

Soh: Also exploring a number of different options.

As you can tell by these articulate responses, these individuals were vested into not only their characters but also into how they portrayed these roles to convince us of their sincerity and honesty. That is what I also got from this interview not only from the Director but also form all the actors as well as the Founder of 250 Films, Ng Yu Wen. I again want to thank all of them for taking the time to chat with me and being so gracious and warm in their responses. Thank you!

To conclude, I do hope you will take the time to watch these two short episodes of PURE VANILLA, produced by 250 Films on YouTube. Seek them out. It is obvious that many simply by word-of-mouth are celebrating this little gem. Hopefully, we can push it along, so we can see how Charlie and Gabriel advance.

Personally, I would love to see this become a full-fledged BL series. What do you think?