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Creativity, ingenuity and determination
Inspired by the then newly released Star Wars, a high school student is determined to make a film of his own and is focused solely on the special effects. Along the way, he and his friends use a lot of ingenuity and a bit of advice from their history teacher and a university film student to solve the problems needed to make their vision a reality and to give the story they tell meaning.It's left me with a big smile :)
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A quiet call for improvement, compassion and understanding
I have a lot of time for youth drama, especially Japanese films. This one is gorgeous in its simplicity whilst drawing in complexity through quiet touches of the brush, moments which imply more than they state.The situation Sarya is in because of her family's status as refugees and from a people without a nation is both social and political commentary, a quiet call for improvement, compassion and understanding, and metaphor for the struggles of a young person to find her place, not because of her own uncertainty but because she doesn't fit neatly into society's expectations.
If the ending confuses you, look to what is implied. There is sadness, and there is hope.
May we all do better for our young people and for all who need our help.
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this could have been an e-mail
If you get on with the first few episodes, you'll probably be like those who give this lakorn glowing reviews. If you don't, give it a miss. It doesn't change. It shifts gears around episode 7 or 8, as Ch 3 sometimes does, but that doesn't last.It's slow, with a lot of padding and filler, and lacks the zip and zing of the kind of lakorn which skims merrily over every plot hole to develop and explore the emotions. This does focus on emotions - pretty much every story line focuses on relationship woes, the occasional resolution, yearning or jealousy - but somehow it all feels cliched and thin. They don't have the richness or depth of the emotions of a good lakorn.
There's a place for all of that of course. I adore the refuses-to-be-rushed pacing of many Thai movies and would have been happy with slow if it had been less cliched. Not everything has to be heavy, and some Thai directors have a genius for integrating serious issues into comedy without losing lightness. I couldn't see that here. It was more like a wash of Meaning brushed across it now and again.
Amongst it all, there are some good messages about being with someone who supports and values you. It's one of many Ch 3 lakorns which incorporate a nod towards women's issues, from workplace inequality to women's sexual agency and desire. The FL is of course a good girl though, because of course. But it also embraces and perpetuates stereotypes, like the supposedly smart lawyer who's figured out a genius move to win her case but is shown floundering - at length - in the court room for the sake of drawn out drama.
And the cat-fighting, jealousy and bickering between women because of men. Even the struggle to be the first woman partner in the law firm is really about a man.
I've finished ep 12, four to go, and I'm dropping it (again) because it's all gone on too long and the obstacles they're throwing in are contrived and insubstantial. Maybe I'll plod on another day but that's more from a sense of not liking to leave things unfinished than real interest.
But it works for some, so if you get on with the first few episodes you'll likely enjoy the rest. There won't be much to get in your way.
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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.
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Worth seeking out
An inquisitive, full of life young Thai woman ends up in Japan on her own and not knowing the language. The family at the farm where she'll be living and working for three weeks is warm, kind and welcoming. Two more show up and cause a bit of chaos. There's a fair bit of sightseeing and a lot of food, some out at markets and restaurants but the most memorable are at home amongst this found family.Everything is balanced. Jook's vitality, Mee's calm steadiness; uncle Hattori's mischievous grin, his daughter Naomi's gentleness; difficulties when there isn't a shared language, the ways they find around that. All of the characters are well thought out and portrayed. They're each distinct in personality but fit together well. It's a lovely group of people to spend time with.
It's a quiet series, which might disappoint some. The emotions aren't big or dramatic, they're just very real.
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Nong Sao's First Bad Boys BL
For all the attitude some of the young men throw, this is fluff and pretty tame. There's a lot of simulated drinking and drunkenness, which is one way of creating situation while avoiding plot beyond the relationships; a lot of badly simulated sex, which is another way of avoiding plot; gossiping, gossiping, and more gossiping; some violence and young men who either can't control their emotions/behaviours or struggle to express them.As far as red flags go, these are comparatively pink, like a teenage girl's fantasy of bad boys. (And perhaps young fantasies, gleaned from screens rather than experience, of what supposedly constitutes passion and hot sex? It's not that sort of wasted movement head thrashing.) It does still romanticise common het tropes (and this is just het romantic drama recast with boys and extra shower/fake sex scenes) like being the one who'll change him - even if the one who does is another fantasy bad boy. So I'm both wary of what this normalises and aware that this is a drop in the bucket of what we all see.
When it settles down, it does makes some stabs at exploring the characters' emotions with a fair bit of intelligence. Points for that, although it's all brief. Friends give good advice, eventually it's listened to and poof, the magic of love prevails. After some more melodrama from the relationships of course, since that's what drives the story. It's not like there's anything else.
I lost count of how many katoey characters they wrote in to serve as bitchy girls (with suitable genitalia of course) to be defeated by the true love of our heroines, erm heroes.
Anyway, it has some good moments amongst the questionable ones but overall it's not great drama. James did deliver his girl-coded bad boy Sherbet reasonably well.
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Nang Nak set as coming of age
Modern coming of age adaptation of 1999's classic Nang Nak, with some nice extra nods to that like Nard's full name. Low budget with inexperienced actors but, like every Mae Nak, it's all about the emotions - the love between the young parents and the love Thailand has for Mae Nak's story.This isn't one to watch because it came up in algorithms or you're after horror. You'll be missing the context of a story told many times where the intended audience knows nearly every turn, and how each adaptation finds its own way to move our emotions.
if you know and love Nang Nak though, give it a go and watch it with your heart.
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Not bound by words
There are few words by this and no clear narrative structure. It's a collage of curious things and that makes it difficult to find words to talk about it. The title Bachiranun, never forget, a motif repeated near the end may be our best clue. Perhaps these are things the writer/director/actor wants to remember, both from imagination and real life.The drops into surreal were disorientating so I have no confidence in this assessment. It was all a bit too far a stretch for me and kept me on edge. Others will love it for that. How do the horsehead dancers fit in? Was there significance to the large red pepper-type fruit characters pass to each other? Some of the scenes of dairy farming and fishing/fish processing were difficult for me. The music and elders engaged in traditional making were my favourite parts. In the end, I don't know what to do with this. It is.
Bachiranun deserves a proper review. Hopefully someone will give it one.
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so this is where the boys' balls went ;P
After a run of disappointment (Enigma Black Stage), marshmallow writing (Whale Store), over-produced music (all of these), fan service and soft-focus women's romantic fantasy BLs (Ex-Morning, Memoir of Rati and My Magic Prophecy), I was really wondering if GMMTV had sold out their best writing and youth-series energy to chase inter fans and slots on western platforms, so much I was considering giving up on them altogether.And then along comes Hide & Sis - truly women-centric, intense and ballsy. The first six episodes are excellent story craft, full of complexity and well-grounded, well-integrated surprises. And the power in the women's performances.
The twists never stop. Just when you think there can't be more, they find another. And another. I personally would have preferred it to have slowed down in the second half to allow more room for the complexity of the emotions to breathe and expand and be fully felt before it went on to the next surprise. It was in the story and the cast were very capable, it just needed more time between the reveals (or fewer of them), increasingly so as it neared the end. It is impressive that they kept the plot so coherent and the twists well-grounded in everything which came before but still largely unexpected.
I have some other quibbles, like the way so much exposition was given to Arch. Luke played the role very well, but long explanatory monologues are never the best story telling (which they proved they could do over and over again) and it took up space from Bua. I would have preferred for Jan's skill and talent to be allowed to shine in the middle episodes as much as Aye's did. At least she got strong early episodes.
There are others I want to praise as well, like Piploy's shape-shifting ability, but can't for spoilers. All of these young adults have grown so much as actors over the years and they delivered. If you want details, watch for yourself.
I'm still trying to figure out how to convey this, but they somehow managed to craft an understated lakorn in delivery whilst also giving it plenty of intensity, psychological complexity and suspense. There is A LOT going on, everything matters - though not in the ways you think it might - and it needs attention. It's not one to race through but it's also probably best to not leave too much time between so the energy carries through.
GMMTV has under-utilised their actresses for, well, their entire existence. May this be the start of something different.
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