axelcarlisle

As a gay man, I say JoeyBKK is correct. This is not toxic labeling. There have literally been studies on it as a sub-genre, especially given that BL has mostly been written by straight women with specific recurring tropes that, to be completely frank, don’t always reflect actual LGBT reality. It has usually been fantasy by straight women about gay men / M2M.

While I enjoy yaoi/BL as long as it’s good, it is not usually reflective of the actual LGBT experience.

It was definitely a (well-deserved) shade against Mame given LW’s director history working with her. We saw what happened to the quality of TT2 with Tee leaving and with Mame getting more creative control.

And I say that as a writer myself: while I believe a writer needs to have rights to their work, once you have it be adapted, give the director his own level of vision. Unless you are a writer who knows film as well and can be a director, it is a different medium.

Just look at how well Ma-Deaw elevated Manner of Death when he adapted Nammon’s novel.

But anyway, I digress. It’s pretty clear Tee took a shot at Mame here.

Regarding 2gether: not only did the parents name their elder son Sarawat (Inspector), they also named their younger son Phukong (Captain, played by Frank).

Clearly their parents had a thing for policemen LOL

Regarding 2gether: not only did the parents name their elder son Sarawat (Inspector), they also named their younger son Phukong (Captain, played by Frank).

Clearly their parents had a thing for policemen LOL

Regarding 2gether: not only did the parents name their elder son Sarawat (Inspector), they also named their younger son Phukong (Captain, played by Frank).

Clearly their parents had a thing for policemen LOL

Thad and Sorrawit are crucial characters, especially Thad. Not sure what show you were watching.

Going by the book, they’re not minors.

Sorrawit is 18 as he directly states in one chapter. He’s in Matthayom 6 (12th Grade) and is graduating for the majority of the book. In a 6-month time jump towards the end of the book, Sorrawit is already a first year university student, studying medicine in the same Bangkok school Bunn is now teaching at.

Thad is 20 years old based on Sorrawit’s narration (“He is two years older than me.”) For the main part of the book, he is a student at a nearby trade school, studying to be a mechanic. After the 6-month time jump, Thad has also graduated from the trade school and is looking for a job in Bangkok so he can be with Sorrawit.

Neither book nor show give any indication who is the seme/top and who is the uke/bottom.

Unless this info has been revealed in the sequel novel Transplant (which is still ongoing and not complete, though I believe being released in installments by Sammon), then this is just fan theory / wish.

I’m not sure how much Great likes BL as a genre, but I don’t think he’s averse to doing more. I mean, just prior to Manner of Death, he was part of the Boyfriends album (opposite Kao of UWMA) and the subsequent concert with 4 other M2M pairs - while not a BL series, it was definitely BL entertainment.

So hopefully this means he’ll be open and be back if MoD has a sequel. I do find him and MD (Oat) to have high potential chemistry.

While I absolutely love Kao, and I love Great, I felt they both exuded way too much seme energy (yes, I know, it’s a bit of stereotyping, but then we’re talking BL/yaoi here) - so I didn’t really think it was a good match (great song / duet, though).

Plus, when I saw Kao and Tommy Sittichok in a pic together in that event, I felt they made a Kao and Tommy would make a great BL pair (though I do love Jimmy X Tommy - one of the funniest and most likeable BL couples).

Now Great and MD on the other hand - their short scene in MoD’s finale just exuded such chemistry, and I think if they explore that pair more, it will be great (no pun intended LOL).

As an aside, whether they move them or not in a possible sequel series, they’ve definitely set up Sorrawit’s trajectory towards medical school in the final episode when he and Nam talk about becoming a doctor and Sorrawit telling Thad he can’t lose to Nam.

The novel had a 6-month time jump for the last few chapters of the novel, and yup, that’s pretty much how it happened for Bunn, Tann, Sorrawit, and Thad.

Bunn went first, leaving Tann behind (Tann needing to face legal charges in connection with the incident). Tann follows later on when all that has been resolved and both his parents died.

Sorrawit graduates from high school and moves to Bangkok for med school. Thad graduates from trade school (he’s just two years older than Sorrawit) and is actively looking for a job in Bangkok to be with Sorrawit.

The MoD time jump (six months after Rungthiva is caught) towards the third act of the MoD novel is the reason why the sequel book is in Bangkok.

1, Bunn moved there because his family wanted him to leave the trauma of Viangpha Mork behind him - so he is now teaching in medical school. He does move to New York for a two year scholarship on higher studies, and in the book, it is New York where Tann visits him to propose.

2. Tann, after his mother (initially alive in the book) died in that third act followed by his father also dying, along with all the charges and legal trials he has to go through are dropped, moves to Bangkok to be with Bunn. He starts his own cram school in Bangkok.

3. Sorrawit is now a first year medical student in Bangkok, coincidentally in the same school Bunn is teaching at. They run into each other in that school. Sorrawit tells Bunn he is now seeing someone (doesn’t name the person, but it is Thad... and this is only revealed in the final/special chapter, especially since in the book Sorrawit and Thad barely had any major screen time outside the special chapter).

4. Thad (by way of Sorrawit’s dialogue in his conversation with Bunn) has just graduated from trade school in Chiang Mai (Mechanics) and is already searching for jobs in Bangkok so he can move there to be with Sorrawit.

So from a novel perspective, Sammon has already set up 4 of these characters to be relocated in Bangkok.

Of course, the series didn’t end that way and they’re all still in Viangpha Mork in the show. Plus Aem was promoted as police chief in his city, and there is no Oat in the novel.

—-

That said, the series really did a great job of using Viangpha Mork as a location so it really would be a shame to not keep a sequel series in Viangpha Mork. Which, by the way, IIRC from the novel was just a nameless city “up north” (though heavily implied as being in Chiang Mai).

Plus, MoD’s director (who hails from Chiang Mai) is known for his work of featuring Chiang Mai, so I fear if they move any sequel to Bangkok, we may also lose the director - and I feel him being the creative driver is one of the main reasons why MoD became such a great series.

As what they’ve said, Aem is straight and married in the book (and his character was also more of a background character in the book, though he does get promoted in the end).

Oat is not in the book. Best guess is they added him to (1) provide additional BL pull since the actor is fairly known in the BL world, (2) provide a twist for Aem, and (3) a misdirect since the book had two killers (Rung and Pued), and with Pued slowly being seen as not the killer on the show, readers like me were thinking the second killer was replaced by Oat. Which in hindsight I’m happy it didn’t happen because I’m shipping Aem and Oat so hard now.

Is an English translation already available for Transplant? So far none for sale on MEB where I bought MoD.

50% the same.

Meaning: Rung and Pued both killed Jane in the book. No one else was involved. It was (1) Jane finding out Rung and Pued were having an affair, and (2) and an angry Jane then threatening to expose them both for involvement in “housing development funds corruption.”

Here in the series, only Rung is the “direct” killer... although morally speaking, I believe the whole circle of human traffickers are accountable. Especially the judge who, on the night of Jane’s death, whispered to Rung that she should “take care of Jane” after Jane screamed at all of them during the party.

You’ll be satisfied with Episode 14 then (I’m assuming you haven’t watched it yet).

If TannBunn and ThadSorrawit are in Book 2, I’m in for a second season.

Aem is unlikely to be in the book anyway since he is straight in the novel, but since they’ve already added Oat to the series version, adapting Book 2 with Aem and Oat in the mix hopefully wouldn’t be hard.

They’ve done a great job of enhancing MoD with changes and additions and removals without destroying the core of the book, so I hope they can do the same if they retain Aem and Oat in any sequel (which they probably will, for why throw that in without giving us more LOL)

But it needs to be the same director and writing and production team. I fear a different one may fail in execution.

It has to be by the same director, I hope. I feel in the hands of another director and team, it might devolve into more typical and un-nuanced BLs. While I still enjoy those, of course, this one feels like it needs to be “taken care of.”

At the very least, a special episode that acts as a longer epilogue.

100% agree. Ma-Deaw is respected and critically-acclaimed for a reason (The Love of Siam, Grean Fictions, etc).

How he handled the romance here was great.

Another director and team can risk going down tired old BL tropes again.

In fact, I hesitate calling this BL (beyond the fact that it was originally a yaoi novel). Much like some recent shows elsewhere like Gaya Sa Pelikula as well as Cherry Magic, I hesitate calling these BLs besides how they were marketed. They definitely seem less BLish and more LGBT fare. There’s a clear direction towards moving away from the usual BL tropes and being more mindful of more realistic portrayals of gay and/or M2M relationships (which makes me, a gay person, happy).

I guess I read Aem’s reaction to Bunn differently. I kind of got an inkling that there was some underlying attraction there that kind of magnified their conflict when they had opposing views about Jane’s case (and how Aem really seemed to take it extra-personally that Bunn was criticizing police incompetence).

So I never really saw Series Aem as straight (unlike Book Aem), possibly because of that and also how they removed his wife and family.

But to be fair, this really is just subject to interpretation.

As for Aem and Oat, yup, it’s okay if this was thrown in to be a lead in onto a second season. It’s a great start for them, especially in light of Oat basically saving Aem’s life.

But if they don’t have a second season to explore them, we riot LOL

Yes, I agree re: Tann. Essentially almost everyone Rung attacked/targeted are people he cared about (except maybe for Sorrawit, but with Thad growing to like Sorrawit, then of course by extension Tann also would have a lot of affection for the boy)... so it only makes sense for Tann to have a special loathing for her.

And Por pulling the trigger is also poetic justice given how Rung not only killed his brother Pued, but also how Rung tried to turn Por against his other (half-)brother (even if he wasn’t as close to Tann as Pued).

In hindsight, I also don’t want a sequel to be in Bangkok even if the book’s time jump has Bunn, Tann, Sorrawit, and later on Thad moving there. The New York subplot also won’t work any more with how they set this series up so well in Chiang Mai.

Viangpha Mork as painted by the series has really been a living, breathing character by itself. It gives the show a different cinematic feel.

And a sequel, IMO, should be directed by the same person. There’s a reason he’s critically-acclaimed (The Love of Siam, Grean Fictions, etc.). He was the perfect person for this job.

I also suspect they chose him because a lot of his work has been set in Chiang Mai (where he comes from), and it shows how much he knows and loves Chiang Mai which translated so well into what he did for this show.