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This review may contain spoilers
a woman's pain
Thinking about this overnight, I found a useful way to frame this. I don't know how many here might be willing to hear it but perhaps a few might.
Even though this is series length (12 episodes x 1 hour), it's very much lakorn. And it does have the multiple connected stories of a lakorn. Most are highly abbreviated and cliched - a royal family of a fictional country, a high ranking family in debt, and so on. But two are so tightly interlinked they've become a single narrative.
So separate out the romance between men and Pin's story for a moment. Don't see Pin's story as just another obstacle for the men. It is much more than that. Consider, for a moment, the role they play in hers.
She is a very young woman with little experience who has somehow managed to maintain a cheerful, optimistic outlook despite her parents. Her fairytale prince turns out to be gay but she's left to discover it on her own and in a cruel way. The day before their wedding. Everyone else is caught up in their own messes and the only person in the world who loves her has betrayed her. It wasn't intentional from him, but Sasin did. Not by falling in love with her prince but by conspiring with the prince to prevent their marriage and keeping her in the dark about it. Excusable perhaps a couple of months before the wedding, but when it's imminent? This is her life they're messing with, she deserved to know and be given a chance to understand and come to terms with it all.
She deserved to be included in the plans, both as their close friend/nong sao and as someone whose life will be directly and significantly influenced by their actions. They're deciding all of this for her.
She acts out of her own pain, struggling to prioritise her own needs - because no one else will. By the time Rachawadee has caught on and tries, Pin isn't in a place where she can hear it - she is young, inexperienced and in more pain than she can grasp, how could it get worse? The older woman's words are there to guide her in understanding when she is.
If this had been written as a full length lakorn, perhaps it would be easier for international BL fans to recognise Pin's story as its own thing. Did many grasp how much of Khun Chaai/To Sir With Love is really about women struggling for agency within the strictures society imposed on them? If that conversation happened, please point me to it.
Even with the short space Pin's story is given, it is well developed. The best in this small lakorn, with some of the best acting and writing. The moments when she cries, when she's juggling both her own pain, the loss of her dream, and her love for her dear cousin, her friend Saenkaew, and her heartfelt wishes for their happiness. That was all so well done. Much appreciation for Perth's delivery.
If you're open to seeing it, this is the beating heart of the lakorn.
If you doubt this, consider for a moment this insight from Inquisitive in the comments - it is the women who get things done while the men complicated it all. Over and over again.
To be frank, the romance between the men was overloaded with cliches. There is better BL and there are better lakorn romances, perhaps it is the combination of the emotional intensity of lakorns with BL which has so many enamoured with it? Or maybe it's just that they hit the right notes for soft focus women's romantic fantasies well enough? It was good, but superlative? Not for me. Peak is an excellent actor of course, when the director allows, and Pearl has enough charisma to power the entire cast of a uni BL. That carried a lot.
I've rated story and acting lower than many will like because the first half is sub-par. Which has to be on the director, with that many experienced actors performing under their abilities. Fortunately it picks up in the latter half. I'd rate higher for that but I can't ignore the beginning.
If you're heading to smash the NO button, may I invite you to set that reaction aside for a moment to mull over this different point of view for a wee while. It's not the norm for international BL fans but it is very much in keeping with the way Thai lakorns do things and it is absolutely right there in this lakorn for those who are open to seeing it.
There are two central stories here - one is a romantic fantasy between men. The other is about a young woman's pain and her journey through it. She deserves a moment amongst all the adulation for the men to have that recognised.
Even if, especially since, BL too often tells us that women should take a back seat to the men and prioritise their happiness, finding our own in theirs. We matter too.
Even though this is series length (12 episodes x 1 hour), it's very much lakorn. And it does have the multiple connected stories of a lakorn. Most are highly abbreviated and cliched - a royal family of a fictional country, a high ranking family in debt, and so on. But two are so tightly interlinked they've become a single narrative.
So separate out the romance between men and Pin's story for a moment. Don't see Pin's story as just another obstacle for the men. It is much more than that. Consider, for a moment, the role they play in hers.
She is a very young woman with little experience who has somehow managed to maintain a cheerful, optimistic outlook despite her parents. Her fairytale prince turns out to be gay but she's left to discover it on her own and in a cruel way. The day before their wedding. Everyone else is caught up in their own messes and the only person in the world who loves her has betrayed her. It wasn't intentional from him, but Sasin did. Not by falling in love with her prince but by conspiring with the prince to prevent their marriage and keeping her in the dark about it. Excusable perhaps a couple of months before the wedding, but when it's imminent? This is her life they're messing with, she deserved to know and be given a chance to understand and come to terms with it all.
She deserved to be included in the plans, both as their close friend/nong sao and as someone whose life will be directly and significantly influenced by their actions. They're deciding all of this for her.
She acts out of her own pain, struggling to prioritise her own needs - because no one else will. By the time Rachawadee has caught on and tries, Pin isn't in a place where she can hear it - she is young, inexperienced and in more pain than she can grasp, how could it get worse? The older woman's words are there to guide her in understanding when she is.
If this had been written as a full length lakorn, perhaps it would be easier for international BL fans to recognise Pin's story as its own thing. Did many grasp how much of Khun Chaai/To Sir With Love is really about women struggling for agency within the strictures society imposed on them? If that conversation happened, please point me to it.
Even with the short space Pin's story is given, it is well developed. The best in this small lakorn, with some of the best acting and writing. The moments when she cries, when she's juggling both her own pain, the loss of her dream, and her love for her dear cousin, her friend Saenkaew, and her heartfelt wishes for their happiness. That was all so well done. Much appreciation for Perth's delivery.
If you're open to seeing it, this is the beating heart of the lakorn.
If you doubt this, consider for a moment this insight from Inquisitive in the comments - it is the women who get things done while the men complicated it all. Over and over again.
To be frank, the romance between the men was overloaded with cliches. There is better BL and there are better lakorn romances, perhaps it is the combination of the emotional intensity of lakorns with BL which has so many enamoured with it? Or maybe it's just that they hit the right notes for soft focus women's romantic fantasies well enough? It was good, but superlative? Not for me. Peak is an excellent actor of course, when the director allows, and Pearl has enough charisma to power the entire cast of a uni BL. That carried a lot.
I've rated story and acting lower than many will like because the first half is sub-par. Which has to be on the director, with that many experienced actors performing under their abilities. Fortunately it picks up in the latter half. I'd rate higher for that but I can't ignore the beginning.
If you're heading to smash the NO button, may I invite you to set that reaction aside for a moment to mull over this different point of view for a wee while. It's not the norm for international BL fans but it is very much in keeping with the way Thai lakorns do things and it is absolutely right there in this lakorn for those who are open to seeing it.
There are two central stories here - one is a romantic fantasy between men. The other is about a young woman's pain and her journey through it. She deserves a moment amongst all the adulation for the men to have that recognised.
Even if, especially since, BL too often tells us that women should take a back seat to the men and prioritise their happiness, finding our own in theirs. We matter too.
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