Stay Still

MAIN CAST & CHARACTERS

KEY TAKEAWAYS

5 episodes of about 14 minutes each, carried by YouTube from 2023-08-01 to 2023-08-29.
Directed by Shawn Fung, written by Shawn Fung.
An original screenplay.
Produced by Jupiter Entertainment Limited.
Led by Louis Lam as Hayden Woo, Jeremy Ho as Damian Tai, Bosco Tse as Archie Ko, To Chun Hin as Kelvin Lin.

EDITOR’S VERDICT

6.2/10

Reviewed by Renkaze, editor of BL & GL Flix

Add up everything Jupiter Entertainment released here and you get roughly ninety minutes: five episodes of about fourteen minutes, plus a sixteen-minute prologue numbered Episode 0. Into that hour and a half go two romances, a bereavement, an elderly woman who needs looking after, and a marriage that one of the four men is still inside. The ambition is not the problem. The arithmetic is.

A premise that deserved more room

The idea underneath this is better than the execution can show. Shawn Fung's script is not asking whether Hayden and Damian will end up together; it is asking whether either of them is in a fit state to try, which is a genuinely adult question and one the genre rarely bothers with. The tenement is a sound piece of construction too, a building that makes neighbours out of strangers and puts an old woman's flat between two men who would otherwise never have spoken. Setting the second couple's rekindled school romance against Kelvin's present marriage sharpens the same theme from another angle, since one pair is deciding whether the past has left them able to begin and the other is discovering what beginning again would cost somebody else.

What the running time does to all of it

None of it can breathe. Fourteen minutes is enough to state a situation and not to develop one, so the series proceeds by announcement: characters tell each other what they are feeling because there is no time to show it accumulating. The second couple gets the worst of this, entering with a decade of history and a wife attached and given perhaps twenty minutes across the run to carry all three. Even the prologue's separation is a symptom — a first meeting important enough to film but not important enough to fit inside episode one. The finale then needs an appended epilogue to close, which is the shape of a story that ran out of room rather than one that was built to this length.

What can fairly be said about a production like this

This catalogue has found no substantial independent criticism of Stay Still in any language, which is not surprising: it is a self-distributed YouTube release from a company that is also its own network, described by BL Watcher as a low-budget passion project that took about three years to finish. Assessing it against a broadcast drama would be meaningless. Assessed against what it set out to do, it is a serious, plainly made piece of work that gave itself far too little time, and the director's announcement of a longer version with more and longer episodes reads as an acknowledgement of exactly that. Watch it for the premise and for the rarity of a Cantonese BL made wholly outside the broadcasters, not for a story that arrives complete.

Final Score: 6.2/10

What Stay Still is about

The series is built around a young man who has just moved alone into a small flat in an older Hong Kong tenement and who becomes close first to the elderly neighbour upstairs and then to her grandson. Its central subject is readiness: both men carry unfinished feeling from earlier relationships, and the story examines how far past loss shapes what a person can accept next. A second couple, two men who lost touch after their school years and meet again in adult circumstances that include a marriage, runs in parallel and sets rekindled attachment against present obligation.

Domestic space matters throughout, with the building itself linking neighbours, generations and chance encounters. Grief, caregiving for an older relative, and the slow rebuilding of trust give the compact five-part structure its shape.

Stay Still belongs to the strand of Hong Kong BL that operates entirely outside the broadcasters: a small independent company writes, shoots and self distributes on YouTube, free and with traditional Chinese and English subtitles built in, then licenses the finished series onward. TheTVDB lists Jupiter Entertainment as both the production company and the network, which is an accurate description of how these titles reach viewers.

The series was subsequently picked up by GagaOOLala, the pan Asian LGBTQ streaming platform, which carries the full run on its own title page and cut a Chinese language trailer for it. The Chinese University of Hong Kong Centre for Cultural Studies feature on the genre records that Hong Kong BL activity after 2021 has been driven by independent makers, scholars and fan organisers, and notes the first Hong Kong BL Festival at Eaton HK in November 2023 as a focal point for that community.

Interesting facts about Stay Still

Character credits: Louis Lam as Hayden Woo (lead); Jeremy Ho as Damian Tai (lead); Bosco Tse as Archie Ko (lead); To Chun Hin as Kelvin Lin (lead); Michelle Lai as Joanne Yau (support); Miko Yau as Paki Wong (support).
The original title is 樓下來的人.
The prologue is numbered Episode 0 rather than being folded into episode one, and was released two weeks before the main run began.
Writer director Shawn Fung appears in the prologue as a character named Shawn.
Bosco Tse, who plays Archie, is credited as a producer as well as an actor.
GagaOOLala's synopsis specifies an old style Hong Kong tenement building as the setting, and the building is the device that links both couples.
The series carries a second romance in parallel with the lead pair: Archie and Kelvin, high school sweethearts who reconnect years later.
TheTVDB counts the prologue as a special rather than as part of season one, so the series reads as five episodes plus one special.
The upstairs grandmother is played by Lee Sing Sum, and it is her flat that produces the first meeting between the leads.
Licensed to GagaOOLala, which carries the complete series on its platform with a dedicated title page and its own trailer.
International availability: Released free on the Jupiter Entertainment YouTube channel with traditional Chinese and English subtitles, episode by episode from 18 July 2023 (prologue) to 29 August 2023. Subsequently licensed to GagaOOLala, where the series is listed as Stay Still (2023) with per episode pages. Also mirrored on Dailymotion.

How Stay Still was made

Stay Still is an original Hong Kong web series written and directed by Shawn Fung, who also appears in the cast. It was produced and distributed by Jupiter Entertainment, which released the episodes on its own YouTube channel with Traditional Chinese and English subtitles. The five main episodes run about fourteen minutes each and were preceded by a prologue instalment numbered Episode 0 together with a set of per-episode official trailers.

The cast is led by Jeremy Ho as Damian Tai and Louis Lam as Hayden Woo, with a parallel couple played by Bosco Tse as Archie Ko and Chun Hin To as Kelvin Lin, alongside Michelle Lai as Joanne Yau and Miko as Paki Wong. The series was later carried by the streaming service GagaOOLala.

Direction is credited to Shawn Fung. The screenplay is credited to Shawn Fung. No official classification was found. MyDramaList lists the series as Not Yet Rated, and the GagaOOLala streaming page consulted showed no age rating.

Stay Still was made by the Hong Kong independent company Jupiter Entertainment (木星娛樂), with Shawn Fung credited as both screenwriter and director, and released on the company's own YouTube channel rather than through a broadcaster. BL Watcher's series file describes it as a low budget passion project that took roughly three years to reach release. The production opened with a sixteen minute prologue numbered Episode 0, posted on 18 July 2023, which shows how Hayden and Damian first meet, and the five numbered episodes then went out weekly on Tuesdays from 1 August to 29 August 2023. Running times are short, around fourteen to twenty minutes per episode, with the finale extended by an epilogue.

GagaOOLala's synopsis places the story in an old style Hong Kong tenement building, where a new tenant helps his upstairs neighbour's grandmother and meets her grandson. BL Watcher also reports that the director has announced a longer version of the story with more and longer episodes.

MyDramaList credits Jeremy Ho as Damian Tai and Louis Lam as Hayden Woo, with Bosco Tse as Archie Ko and Chun Hin To as Kelvin Lin carrying the second romance, plus Michelle Lai as Kelvin's wife Joanne Yau and Miko Yau as Paki Wong. BL Watcher's file on the series reports that Bosco Tse is credited as a producer as well as an actor, and gives the Chinese names 何嘉威, 林漢忠 and 謝葻諵 for Ho, Lam and Tse. Writer director Shawn Fung (馮錫潮) also appears on screen, playing a character called Shawn in the prologue episode. Lee Sing Sum plays the upstairs grandmother whose flat brings the two leads together.

OFFICIAL TRAILER

EPISODE SCHEDULE

5 / 5 episodes aired · Completed

EP 1

01 Aug 2023

Aired

EP 2

08 Aug 2023

Aired

EP 3

15 Aug 2023

Aired

EP 4

22 Aug 2023

Aired

EP 5

29 Aug 2023

Aired

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

How was Stay Still made and distributed?

Entirely outside the broadcasters. A small independent company, Jupiter Entertainment, wrote, shot and self-distributed it on YouTube, free and with Traditional Chinese and English subtitles built in, then licensed the finished series onward.

What is Episode 0?

A sixteen minute prologue posted on 18 July 2023, two weeks before the main run began, showing how Hayden and Damian first meet. It is numbered separately rather than folded into episode one, and TheTVDB counts it as a special.

Does the writer-director appear in the series?

Yes. Shawn Fung, credited as both screenwriter and director, appears in the prologue as a character named Shawn. Bosco Tse, who plays Archie, is credited as a producer as well as an actor.

What is the series' central subject?

Readiness. Both men carry unfinished feeling from earlier relationships, and the story examines how far past loss shapes what a person can accept next, rather than asking whether they will get together.

How does the building function in the story?

As the device that links both couples. GagaOOLala's synopsis specifies an old style Hong Kong tenement, and the upstairs grandmother's flat is what produces the first meeting between the leads, linking neighbours, generations and chance encounters.

What does the second couple contribute?

Archie and Kelvin are high school sweethearts who reconnect years later in adult circumstances that include a marriage, which sets rekindled attachment against present obligation alongside the main pair's question of readiness.

How long did the production take?

Roughly three years to reach release, according to BL Watcher's series file, which describes it as a low budget passion project. The five main episodes then went out weekly on Tuesdays through August 2023.

Did the series find a wider platform?

Yes. GagaOOLala, the pan Asian LGBTQ streaming platform, picked it up and carries the full run on its own title page, cutting a Chinese language trailer for it. The Chinese University of Hong Kong Centre for Cultural Studies has also featured it.

Does the series carry an age rating?

No official classification was found. MyDramaList lists it as Not Yet Rated and the GagaOOLala streaming page consulted showed no age rating, which is common for independently released Hong Kong web series.

Written and verified by Renkaze · Last updated 20 September 2026

A lone poster illustrates this web series entry, and the rights holder keeps every right in that artwork; amendments and removals go through our correction policy.

SYNOPSIS

CONTENT DETAILS

MAIN CAST & CHARACTERS

KEY TAKEAWAYS

EDITOR’S VERDICT

A premise that deserved more room

What the running time does to all of it

What can fairly be said about a production like this

What Stay Still is about

Interesting facts about Stay Still

How Stay Still was made

OFFICIAL TRAILER

EPISODE SCHEDULE

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

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