axelcarlisle

I think the complexity of this show is that pretty much almost everyone is such a vile person that one will end up rooting for the lesser evil, so to speak, and in this case it probably is the one who had “valid” (for lack of a better word) reasons and motivations but just went off the deep end* versus the others who are just really vile people who did awful things to another person just for kicks.

* also, Tan/New going of the deep end seems to also imply that the family probably has a history of mental illness - considering what happened to Non and their parents

None of these are an excuse of course, but it explains why Tan/New gets a little bit more support than most of the rest. His vile actions are a result of their vile actions.

While the cop White theory is interesting, he seems way too young to be one. The Keng connection theory is probably more sound, though it would be quite the coincidence if he had his own revenge plan related to Keng and then just happened to be there when another group (Phi/Tan) were executing their own. Even with all the twists and turns, it might seem too far-fetched .

So my guess is that if he’s not an innocent bystander (unlikely, from a writing POV he needs to have a purpose there), then working also with Tan/Phi as part of a long game.

Yes, it’s quite disturbing how so many folks here refuse to understand grooming. Oftentimes, the groomed/victim might even be the one to declare everything was consensual. That’s often the effect of grooming - the victim is gaslit into thinking nothing bad happened to them and in many cases even defend their groomer.

It’s absolutely appalling that anyone would blame Non for that incident, no matter how “consensual” it might have seemed. Not only was he groomed, but he was placed in a desperate situation.

Not the novel, no. And I read the novel before watching the series.

Also, knowing how Sammon wrote MoD, White might not be as frail as he looks. I won’t be surprised if he or Tan “joined” this group for other reasons.

I think about “Manner of Death,” which was written by Sammon who’s also a writer of this series, and considering the type of small town conspiracy with power play angle that novel / series had, I won’t be surprised if it’s the same here.

Side note: I’m almost sure the house on DFF was used at some point in MoD somewhere. It looks familiar.

100% agree. This has a good story in it. It has an acclaimed director behind it, and one of the writers is also one of the best BL/yaoi writers from Thailand - and another writer has written excellent Thai horror and thrillers (Social Syndrome, Phobia, etc.).

But for some reason, the first 2-3 episodes just was quite repetitive with scenes barely moving the plot forward. This would’ve worked better with either shorter episodes or else lesser episodes with tighter editing.

My guess is the production company wants more episodes than the story/plot actually calls for, and for some reason Thai series just can’t seem to let go of the 40-50 min run time per ep (unlike Japanese series that can manage with 20-25 min episodes), so the director and writers have to find a way to stretch each episode.

But will still see how the rest of the series plays out. Like I said, this has a good core plot.

“It’s been a lot between you two. You met at first, then you were soulmates. You fell in love with each other. Then there came a third wheel. Then all of a sudden, your hearing loss was gone.”

Thank you, Dream, for summarizing it all for Saengtai. LMFAO. I guess they needed to make someone be the Summary Queen for new viewers or they decided flashbacks were finally unnecessary for this one, so they wasted time having Dream do this exposition to Saengtai about things that happened to Saengtai.

—-

How could an episode feel so rushed and yet so slow at the same time?

They also had the time to introduce a new random couple just to, I don’t know, make Tai realize all over again stuff he already realized earlier in the episode. It was pointless and a waste of time that could have been given to Patt, who was barely in the episode (a problem considering he’s ML, and this was the finale) or maybe to Thien and Lomfon, whose story was fairly rushed into resolution in like the first 10-15 minutes.

Then they wasted half the episode with a Chiang Mai Tourism Plug, which might be good for others but I’ve been there six times (one of my favorite places in the world) and I’m sure all the these minutes would’ve been better spent if Tai just found Patt sooner, and we get to see more of them together as a couple.

If they want to see how to do a “guy searches for his lover who ran away to a different place” correctly, they should watch Our Skyy (original 2018): InSun.

Or they could have given more screentime to Thien and Lomfon, or Nara and Dream because (even if there was a foreshadowing / hint of this in the camp episode) they dropped this in the last episode like an afterthought.

Not unless they plan a Season 2 focusing on Thien/Lomfon (given that cliffhanger) and NaraDream.

Speaking of that cliffhanger, if not a S2, they need to at least have a special episode to address that or else they’re just being… meh. Also, as someone said below, it would be good to see Lomfon get a taste of his own medicine if Thien has a different soulmate.

(Though if they actually write Thien right, he - being the most sensible of them all - would probably be the first to say that with everything that he’s learned from his parents, his brother, and Lomfon, him hearing his soulmate won’t matter since he has a boyfriend already. But of course they won’t do that because it’s too logical and they need the drama.)

Also, I feel we finally see Copter and Suar finally have relatively better acting in their climactic scene where they both had some more natural-feeling tears.

This time, I feel Copter actually had emotions when he was confessing instead of his blank face in prior eps where it looked as if he were trying to mentally calculate the square root of 873.

And Suar’s teary reaction didn’t look like he was constipated like last episode in his scene with Title when they had their brotherly talk.

Only wish this improved acting had come earlier in the series.

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Anyway, at least Saengtai finally realized he had turned into his own mother and also actually finally apologized (though I feel Title had better acting in prior dramatic scenes). I hope this happy ending means he actually starts to realize the world doesn’t revolve around him.

All in all, the finale was somewhat better than the prior two episodes where Saengtai was just being an insufferable self-absorbed clueless child. But they probably could have wrapped it up much better with tighter storytelling and without introducing new characters out of the blue whose screentime could have gone to other characters we would be invested in already.

Thien and Lomfon, not Tai and Lomfon

Which is ridiculous because I’ve been to Chiang Mai six times so far and they definitely have phone signals even outside the city LOL

I think it’s still good but be prepared for a very divisive Episodes 10-11. And to be honest, several of the main leads exhibit really questionable behaviors in these episodes.

But all the same, still ok for a watch. The premise was interesting but they really messed up the last few episodes.

Not every divorce has to be about infidelity or lack of trust. Some are about couples just growing apart or wanting different things. It happens in real life, and in fact it’s one of the good things about going this route for the parents (instead of some cliched cheating or whatever reason). Especially since it underlines the fact that in this world, soulmates don’t necessarily mean being bound to each other even if they don’t have the same life goals.

And as was commented under your comment as well: what doesn’t make sense is the parents never explaining this to their children. There is nothing shameful about this valid reason for divorce, and to allow it to cause long-term resentment with one of their children is what doesn’t make sense given the reason they divorced is understandable.

In case Episode 10 weren’t enough to show what self-centered, self-absorbed person Tai is, they decide to up it in Episode 11 LOL

* Patt and Lomfon realized their errors, but here Tai still doesn’t seem to understand his own mistakes.

* Instead, for some reason, he was expecting Patt to call him. You know, Patt - the boyfriend he locked out of his apartment, the boyfriend who was weeping at his door begging to be let back in. I’m sure after Patt sobered up, he likely thought Tai didn’t want anything to do with him. He also deserves to have some dignity left, so it’s not surprising he’d stay away and not make the first move.

* Then of course Tai chose his mother’s wedding to have a dramatic walkout. He made his own mother’s wedding about himself.

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Incidentally, I found it pretty telling that Yad’s new husband talked about her in his speech… then in her speech, she didn’t say anything about him but went on to talk about herself (and her original family).

Like, it’s your wedding speech and you don’t reciprocate your husband’s speech? You don’t talk about what made you fall for him but instead talked about yourself without the context of your new spouse?

I guess we now know where Tai’s inherited the self-absorption genes from.

Lom is an adult (20 years old), but I agree with everything else.

Hiroki has been in at least one horror/thriller.

https://kisskh.at/721815-okaruto-no-mori-e-yokoso

“There wasn't a single scene where Phat was shown to be too jealous or violent to be the 'reason' for Saengtai lying and hiding things.”

100% agree!

I have no idea what Tai apologists have been watching. There is not a single ep or scene where Patt was ever shown to be a problem in this area. At most, he would be shown as eyeing Lomfon suspiciously, but every single time he just shut his mouth and generally trusted Tai. Which is why the lying and going behind his back was probably even more hurtful.

The most he ever did was tell Lomfon to not get involved with Tai, which he did calmly and which was a reasonable request considering Lomfon’s clear intent and that Patt and Tai were now boyfriends.

And this was something he never told Tai (fairly reasonable - Lomfon’s hearing loss was not Patt’s to tell anyone), so Tai would never even would have had this as a basis for him to lie to Patts about the date.

The problem here was Tai. He lied to Patt because deep down he knew what he was doing was wrong, and there was nothing Patt ever did in the past to warrant having to lie to him if this “lunch” was so innocent.

Yeah, the writers aren’t exactly newbies. They’ve been writing BLs for over 3-4 years now, and one of them (Fluke) has acted in two high-profile BLs (SOTUS and My Bromance, the latter of which he was main lead).

Whether all the BLs they wrote are good is another matter of course, but they’re not exactly new to writing.

“Their relationship is not yet stable, insecurities will arise but lack of communication is a red flag.”

100% this. Tai just goes all cryptic with the ‘if you can’t understand me in my silence, how can you understand my words.”

I slightly get what he’s trying to say (i.e. “if you know me very well, you would understand why I need space / you would infer what my silence means.”)

But that type of relationship dynamic usually happens once a couple is super stable, have been together for some time, and already know each other super well.

The two of them at this stage have just started and still have a lot to learn about each other’s behaviors, moods, and such. They are at an early part where they still have to get to understand more what makes each other tick.

And this also comes at a point where the unstable relationship is rocked by Tai lying going out with another guy, rightfully causing Patt to experience a high level of insecurity and anger. He deserves not silence but words.

Indeed: how can Patt know what he thinks? Especially since, even with the hearing loss thing, they can’t automatically read minds and they still have to “talk” to each other. And for two years, Tai never even “talked” to Patt during hearing loss moments.

And even more so after being caught lying and cheating, the answer is not “silence” but to explain. Granted, Patt needed to calm down first, but ultimately it’s a cop out for Tai to use that “silence” statement.

The fact that he couldn’t straight out tell his boyfriend - who only wanted reassurance after catching him with another guy - he chooses him is a huge red flag. Because clearly he was having second thoughts, and Patt only wanted the truth.

And after being caught lying twice, Tai owed that to Patt at least.

Sorry if I wasn’t clear - but I agree and that’s exactly what I was saying.

Tai looks to have been so self-absorbed that he should have figured out at some point who Thien likes but didn’t. While Thien may not have been explicit about it and clearly was hiding it, I’m almost sure if Tai actually paid attention he would have noticed the small things (especially at the camp). But he didn’t because to your point, Tai mostly receives, not gives.

And while Thien probably should have recognized this, he’s clearly a more generous and selfless brother who never really thought how much he gives but doesn’t quite receive. Or maybe it didn’t matter to him as much.

And also, all Tai “owed” Lomfon was one meal. The moment they were done, he could have already finished and called it a day.

But instead, he stayed with Lomfon all afternoon until evening.

He wanted to be there even if he would deny this. He was totally emotionally cheating and he knew it.

Because otherwise, there was no need to lie to Patt - “Hey, way back before we were boyfriends, I promised Lomfon a meal for helping me out that one time. Just letting you know I’ll take him to lunch.” (Patt of course would probably not take this well, given he told Lomfon to stay away from Tai, but at least Tai would have been honest.)

So the audacity to turn the tables and act the victim while blaming Patt for the mess is just what gets to me