Memoir of Rati

Truly an amazing historical love story

This is my first time watching a historical love drama and Memoir of Rati knocked it out of the park. The scenery was amazing showing Thailand back then, and the acting was even better. I’m more in love with AouBoom and GreatInn than I’ve ever been, they absolutely nailed their respective roles and I’m insanely proud of the hard work they put in. I recommend everyone to watch this beautiful drama it really has everything you want wrapped in a historic and beautiful scenery. It’s inspiring, it’ll make you laugh, cry and just truly feel whole. I can’t thank the cast and crew of this series enough. Truly my new all time favorite.

Read More

A Historical Period Drama That Leaves You Exhilarated!

Romance isn’t something that can be planned. It isn’t something that can be decided by rank, title, or the weight of someone else’s opinion. Love doesn’t care about decorum or boundaries, it simply begins.

And in Memoir of Rati, it begins quietly. With glances exchanged at a festival and curiosity sparked between two men who, by society’s rules, have no business falling for one another.

Set in 1915 Siam, this historical Thai BL opens with soft tension and beautiful restraint. Adapted from the web novel by P. Picha, it introduces us to Rati (Inn Sarin), an orphan brought back to Siam as a French interpreter, and Thee (Great Sapol), a marquis in the Ministry of Education. Their meeting is simple, almost forgettable, but under the stillness, there’s something unmistakable happening between them.

Rati is a man between worlds. Born in Siam but raised in France, he walks the line between two homes, two loyalties, and two versions of himself. His return to Siam isn’t met with open arms, especially not from the biological mother he longs for, a kitchen maid with ties to him she chooses not to acknowledge. It’s a quiet heartbreak that threads through Rati’s early days back in Siam, and we feel it as he tries not to unravel.

Read the complete article here-

https://the-bl-xpress.com/2025/07/04/memoir-of-rati-first-impressions-ep-1-2/

Read More

An Ambitious Series Off To A Slow Start

This is an ambitious GMM series.

I’m all in for it to be successful, as anything to do with politics and military history is my bag, but I’m stumped they gave this significant project to someone with so few accolades as a Director in general and specifically to a production team with no BL success record whatsoever. Let’s see what they can pull off.

Will this be another GMM BL where the actors are expected to compensate for an otherwise weak creative effort and then take the blame when they inevitable fail to do the impossible? I hope not. This strategy is what GMM has largely been trading on for the last two or three years with very little success - yet they persist.

I don’t think we can discount that they’re trying to make another hit as big as To Sir With Love but I think they’re going need much more than aesthetics and expensive color techniques. TSWL has an accomplished Director and a technically strong, culturally confident, very senior writing team that really immersed themselves in every second of the translation of this story to our screens as their critical and commercial success attests. However, not even that entire creative team along with the two superstar actors who helmed the TSWL production have been able to replicate that level of success in a BL with a greatly reduced-in-quality script. This matters.

The Episode
Thailand has a very interesting and complicated history with the Imperial nations and though it was not directly colonised by Europeans it still had a tense relationship with them for hundreds of years. Thailand also had relations of domination with some of its neighbours and had its own imperial ambitions in the region so I’m keen to see how this plays out in the story. This should provide much of the foundational dramatic tension for the story, but somehow so far, it has not put in an appearance.

It’s good that they try to depict some of the cultural norms and past-times from that period which is pretty cool even if they’re mostly limited to extensive scenes of fighting arts. I hope they will expand on this area in due course besides the few seconds of a music theatre show.

It was very nice to see some familiar props, sceneries and even sets from TSWL and I think that’s a useful welcoming nod to a community that already has positive associations with these symbols.

When Rati describes himself as a Frenchman and Thee describes a few of Rati’s actions and instincts as Thai, I’m not sure where the politics of the narrative will take this but it suggests a core struggle for Rati’s character will be his own political consciousness as an indigenous person and this development is surely going to make huge impact on the choices he will undoubtedly have to make. Looking forward to this if so.

I’m hoping that they don’t do the usual rushed relationship that has become a hallmark of GMM TV flops because in the very first section of the first episode they seem to already be into each other which is not a promising start given a context that precludes it, but perhaps they have too few episodes to accommodate the depth and breadth of the original story? Let’s find out.

A few things that gave me pause:

Someone who looks like a stranger to the locals and is even associated with a European embassy at a time when France has violently colonised pretty much all of the immediate surrounding countries, is going to be beset by spies monitoring his every move and you can triple that during wartime. So Rati’s immediate bonding with a Thai stranger without a sense of his own security is very odd but again, maybe they have to rush it because they haven’t got enough episodes; I don’t quite understand, and the flashbacks don’t make this more compelling. A French-speaking operative would be regarded as a hostile, not a friendly, force in occupied Indochina and certainly with good reason during WW1.

These contextual oversights might help explain the forced intimacy which logically seems much too much too soon in the way it is introduced before the end of the 1/4 parts. This is usually the sign of a writing team that is not confident in its ability to maintain dramatic tension so they substitute for it with sexual tension instead - once more not great. The dramatic tension heightens all the other sources of tension, even some of the jokes might’ve landed if a modicum of dramatic tension could’ve been generated. Urgent sounding music scores do not make up for this lack.

As a brand new member of a diplomatic corps in a new assignment he/sh would be drilled to be on maximum guard. Even if attracted to someone sexually you have to regard them as almost an enemy, and losing a necklace doesn’t constitute such an extenuating circumstance that would make one abandon precautions that could literally save one’s life. If Thee’s trying to seduce Rati sexually, we haven’t been given even subtext that he is aware of Rati’s sexuality as a factor that could help him and not endanger him and his mission, so I feel Thee needed to have put in a bit more work in order to persuade Rati to let down his guard so prematurely, but maybe there’s more that we don’t know yet.

Let’s see what unfolds with episode 2.

Read More

Delicado, mas inesquecível

Esse BL tem um ritmo bem próprio, é mais lento, mas te prende nos detalhes, no olhar, em cada suspiro dado. A história gira em torno de amor, perda e reencontros, trazendo um tom melancólico que não é pesado demais, mas o suficiente pra cutucar onde dói. E olha, vou ser sincera, essa sutileza pode ser tanto o charme quanto o ponto fraco da série, dependendo do humor de quem assiste.

O casal Rati e Thee foi o coração mais doce da trama. Eles têm uma química que não precisa de exagero, tudo funciona na delicadeza: um toque de mão, um olhar prolongado, uma conversa dita quase em sussurros. A relação deles é construída num compasso calmo, cheio de carinho, e é justamente isso que traz o peso emocional. Eles são leves, mas carregam uma intensidade silenciosa que me deixou suspirando em várias cenas.

Já Mek e Dech foram o meu ponto de maior interesse. O contraste da personalidade deles trouxe uma energia diferente, mais densa e carregada de tensão. O jeito como eles orbitam um ao outro, cheio de faíscas e não-ditos, foi viciante de assistir. Só que justamente por terem esse ar mais explosivo, eles pediam mais intensidade física, mais entrega. Fiquei com a sensação de que a série deixou passar a oportunidade de explorar o quanto esse casal poderia incendiar a tela.

Apesar de toda a beleza na sutileza dos gestos e olhares, confesso que senti falta de um pouco mais de contato íntimo entre os casais. Principalmente no Mek e Dech porque, sinceramente, esse casal gritava por intensidade física, por aquela fagulha que pede beijo roubado no calor da briga ou abraço desesperado depois de uma confissão. Já o Rati e o Thee funcionaram muito bem na delicadeza, na coisa quase poética de amar em silêncio, mas o Mek e o Dech pediam mais entrega nesse sentido, e ficou uma vontadezinha não saciada.

Agora, se tem algo que pesou foram os tropeços do roteiro. Alguns episódios se arrastaram sem necessidade, repetindo situações que já estavam claras, enquanto outros personagens foram jogados de lado sem muito desenvolvimento. Teve também escolhas de direção, e conveniências de roteiro, que não ajudaram a narrativa a fluir, principalmente em momentos que pediam mais impacto. Nada que torne a série ruim, mas o suficiente pra perceber que, com alguns ajustes, poderia ter sido ainda mais grandiosa.

No fim das contas, Memories of Rati foi uma experiência agridoce. Tem uma beleza poética que conquista, mas também escorregões que atrapalham um pouco a imersão. Eu recomendo sim, especialmente se você gosta de BLs que se apoiam mais na emoção contida do que na paixão escancarada. O que mais me marcou foi essa mistura de delicadeza com dor, e como até na falta de intensidade física os personagens conseguiram me passar tanto sentimento. É uma série que pode não ser para todo mundo, mas com certeza você vai se encantar se der uma chance a ela.

Read More

Um Novo Clássico

Mais do que um clássico romântico — é uma série que explora com profundidade temas como orgulho, julgamento, classe social, identidade e transformação pessoal.
O romance entre Thee e Rati é central, mas não cai em clichês fáceis. Ele se desenvolve lentamente, com conflitos reais, dilemas morais e momentos de ternura e tensão.
É um amor à primeira vista, mas que se desenvolve lenta e silenciosamente.
Fiquei muito feliz por terem decidido fazer um projeto tão incrível como este.
É realmente uma série maravilhosa — cada episódio, cada cena, cada cena de amor, tudo foi lindo.

Read More

Uma história de amor atemporal

Se o objetivo era emocionar e mostrar uma história de amor atemporal eles conseguiram alcançar o objetivo pois é uma história apaixonante, com interpretações impecáveis, mesmo nos momentos mais difíceis eles nunca desistiram de se amar, mesmo com as imensas barreiras eles sustentaram o amor, amor é um sentimento que está presente a todo momento e é impossível não se envolver, sobre os atores transmitiram com primazia todas as emoções dos seus personagens como se estivessem declamando poemas, todos os atores sem exceção foram maravilhoso as interpretações foram perfeitas e extremamente delicadas e intensas em doses correspondentes, é uma obra de arte para ser revisitada muitas vezes, o final foi tão bem entrelaçado que as lágrimas foram brotando sem pedir permissão.

Read More