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Antiheroes, villains and wild beasts
Inspired by the comedy "The Taming of the Shrew" by English writer, poet and playwright William Shakespeare, the Thai BL series 'The Heart Killers' brings back four popular and talented actors: Kanaphan Puitrakul, Khaotung Thanawat Rattanakitpaisan, Dunk Natachai Boonprasert, and Joong Archen Wiraphakul, who play Kant, Bison, Style, and Fadel, in that order.The series addresses themes such as love, courtship, disguise, deception and crime, while love arises both in the case of Bison and Kant, and in that of Fadel and Style. However, unlike Shakespeare's work, whose secondary plot serves as a counterpoint to the main plot, in the Thai series both stories balance and measure equally, that is, there is no preeminence of one over the other.
Directed by Jojo Tidakorn Pookaothong, the story is not set in the Italian city of Padua nor are we in the 16th century, but in Bangkok, in the present. Instead of Katharina, the main character, it is Bison, a young man with a boisterous, stubborn, disobedient and indomitable personality, but also famous for being attractive. This in principle would not have any mystery nor would it be transcendent for the series, except for the detail that the father of this young woman, Baptista Minola, does not want to marry his youngest daughter, Bianca, until Katharina, or rather, Bison, does not has found a boyfriend.
But the story, which has a script by Kanokphan Oraratanasakul, Issaraporn Kuntisuk and Fleur Irene Insot, known for writing 'This Love Doesn't Have Long Beans', will bring us other changes: instead of Baptista, it will be Bianca herself... or better yet said, Fadel, Bison's intelligent, handsome and responsible brother, who will oppose Bison having a boyfriend until he himself finds the right person to love.
Fadel, who is the complete opposite in character of his older brother, has never shown interest in any of the men who have disputed his love in the past.
Protector of his brother, Fadel scares away all the suitors who are interested in Bison, to the dismay of the latter, who has just succumbed to the charms of the handsome man... no, don't be hasty, he is not Petrucio, but Kant, a young man with a strong character and intelligent, who will have the courage to pretend to Bison.
The love, which is taking shape between the two lovers, will pose a serious problem: will Fadel accept Kant when he himself has decided not to allow his brother to have a boyfriend until his heart also trembles with passion?
Faced with this dilemma, Kant and Bison, who is devoted to annoying others, especially Fadel, will plan to find a suitor for him. And who wouldn't be a better choice than... stop there, it's not Lucentio, but Style, the happy and smiling automotive mechanic and Kant's best friend.
Style must fulfill the task of helping the two lovers as much as possible to get Fadel to accept Kant as Bison's boyfriend, so the three of them develop a plan: Style will pursue and woo Fadel until he makes him yearn for her him and in this way allows Bison to also have a boyfriend. But when Style sees Fadel he falls in love, and he will try to win him over, but to do so he will not have to pretend to be a Latin teacher.
But the most interesting twist in the story is that both Bison and Fadel are two hitmen. As you hear, dear reader: while the authorities are not clear how to respond to organized crime in the Thai capital, these two young antiheroes are a curious solution. These brothers are hired to murder drug traffickers, rapists, corrupt politicians, dishonest businessmen...
If in "The Taming of the Shrew" that would be the main approach of the work, the Thai series brings other ingredients. Of course, in both one and the other, various situations of entanglements and abundant witty dialogues await us in which verbal wit undoubtedly becomes the most forceful of weapons.
Owners and workers by day in a hamburger restaurant, Bison and Fadel are, by night, two expert shooters and assassins. While the first dreams of not spending his entire life chasing criminals, the second believes it is necessary to carry out, for life, his mission of exterminating all villains.
But who is Kant? Is he really in love with Bison or does he have a hidden agenda? Kant is a young tattoo artist who has a history of being a car thief. He was caught by the Police some time ago for this crime. In order to have his criminal record archived and even be lucky enough to see it disappear completely, he must complete undercover police missions. Otherwise, they could reopen their case and end up in jail, so Babe (Kenji Kanthee Limpitkranon), his younger brother, would lose his only protector in life.
In this way, Kant will be forced to be an informant and spy for the Police on the same parasites of society that Bison and Faude eliminate daily.
And it turns out that, at the request of Chris (Peter Tuinstra), the police agent handling his case, Kant will have to secretly investigate the brothers Bison and Fadel, suspected of being the two hitmen who have taken the law into their own hands.
It is interesting how the series rewrites the work of the Elizabethan playwright that deals with the theme of "taming a brave woman by her husband", giving it a personal touch that does not leave anyone indifferent. The dialogues are full of wit and the wordplay is remarkable. That's something I love about Jojo, who plays with language and shapes it as he pleases to create series considered true gems of the BL genre with insightful, intelligent and even cynical characters, as he demonstrated in 'Only Friends', 'Never Let Me Go', 'The Warp Effect', 'Our Skyy 2', 'Nobody Happy', among others.
It is also striking how instead of machismo, the submission of the woman to the designs of the husband, marriage and the struggle between the sexes that permeates Shakespeare's work, 'The Heart Killers' takes an unexpected turn to address topics such as crime, flirting and a pitched battle between different personalities or characters.
As in "The Taming of the Shrew," the Thai series notes the ingenious use of duplicates. The contrast between the two brothers, the two love stories, the day divided into two, the different dreams of Bison and Fadel about their futures, the two scenarios that will involve one the laborious life as a front in the hamburger restaurant and the other the crime, among others, all aimed at giving rise to an agile and continuous dramatic counterpoint that very effectively helps the two romantic stories intertwine in an effective way.
In addition to a battle between totally opposite personalities, 'The Heart Killers' is a battle between wits, all the themes: seduction, crime, the relationships between best friends and between the two brothers, the professional tasks of the protagonists, namely that of a tattoo artist, a car mechanic, a chef and a restaurant worker, all of this to give rise to a display of deceptions and tricks, and the winner is always the one who demonstrates the greatest practical intelligence in all matters.
Furthermore, 'The Heart Killers' is a series of transformations that relies on the conventional resources of intrigue comedy; disguise, deception and false identities.
As far as the characters are concerned, above all I would like to highlight the two brothers, since the contrast in their personalities is overwhelming. On the one hand there is Bison, who has a lot of character and does not always agree with what is said to him and, in part, likes to bother others. Meanwhile, Fadel is very serious, responsible, and has always managed to maintain his composure... until Style enters his life.
Khaotung is a convincing actor. He has had meteoric growth since his debut as an actor in the 2018 series 'Cause You're My Boy', in 2018. The construction of his character allowed him to deliver a performance full of subtleties, where Bison's surly and indomitable character contrasts with the moments of introspection and the decisions that lead him to confront his most intimate feelings.
First once again demonstrates his talent, that each role he plays is comfortable for him, despite the challenges, the volume of work, and the archetypal experiences that he has to express on screen, no matter how new they may be for him.
Both make up a dream ship. Their interactions are natural. They know each other well, after being a couple in 'Only Friends', 'The Eclipce' and 'Our Skyy 2'. On this occasion, not only are their sex scenes a gift for the viewer.
Joong Archen Wiraphakul's Fadel is the most important character in this rising star's promising career until today. In his social accounts, the actor, model and singer recognizes that the recognition and affection of the public is the greatest reward received, in addition, what he has been able to grow and learn as an actor and person during the process. I never imagined seeing him "masturbate" in front of the cameras.
But of the four, Dunk has the most growth from a role prior to this. To my surprise, his Style overflows with provocation, sexuality and impudence. As an actor, he has been able to increase his acting skills through training and giving his best in each project. His evolution as an actor is based on extracting valuable lessons from each experience to apply them in future projects.
In the series he had to face things that he had never experienced, such as harassing Fadel, speaking with brazenness and determination, adopting a much sexier pose than on previous occasions, no longer in a university uniform, but in a car mechanic's outfit, T-shirts and shorts and occasion clothes. He had to face situations he had never experienced and search the depths of his emotions to interpret them. For this reason, I consider that 'The Heart Killers' and Style have been a school in his life.
Dunk and Joong Archen are also two actors who have managed to get along after pairing up in 'Star and Sky: Star in My Mind', 'Star and Sky: Sky in Your Heart', 'Our Skyy 2' and 'Hidden Agenda'.
Only the first two episodes have aired. I'll come back later to update the review.
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It's not so much a story of coming of age, but rather one of sensitivity
It happens without warning. It lands on the beardless and scrawny body of a young Nie Xiao Zhi, who wanders through the gardens and lytchee fields of his parents' family plantation on one of the islands of Zhejiang, a province in eastern China, and seeps into his veins, possessing him and leaving him without reserve with the force of an electric shock.Unequivocal and inescapable, first love unfolds on the screen of 'Secrets Happened on the Litchi Island' ('Li Zhi Shu Xia Re Lie Dao') just a few minutes from its start, but it permeates the 120 minutes divided into seven episodes of approximately 15 minutes each, a series that shakes off the prejudices and common obstacles of homosexuality in its historical and social context, to tell a story of friendship, love, and admiration in all its splendor. In my case, it was a rediscovery of sexual awakening that caught me off guard despite the media hype and invaded me like summer days for a teenager, where the only goal is calm, carefree enjoyment.
'Secrets Happened on the Litchi Island' gives us a sensational romance starring one of the couples of the year: Liu Yihe and Hu Yi Chen, who, personally, I like as much as the duo formed by New and Pide, the two actors who played Fou4Mod and Chian in that order, in 'GelBoys', and Ahn Ji Ho and Lee Sang Jun, who gave life to Lee Hee Su and Kim Seung Won, respectively, in 'Heesu in Class 2'. Both shine independently, but when they share the scene the chemistry is explosive. The first thing that caught my attention was the beautiful filmography, the exquisite cinematography, the symbolism, a language steeped in that mixture of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, known as Humanism, the key to Chinese philosophy and the cultural thought of that gigantic country, from the most ancient times to the present day, and the aesthetics that immerse you in history.
SETTINGS AND FILMING LOCATIONS
Although the camera also rolls in Guangdong, Moganshan, and the Dongguan Jianyuzhou Cultural Park, most of the scenes were filmed in Zhejiang, with its rural interior, urban centers along the East China Sea, and the picturesque West Lake, where the labyrinth of islands, islets, gardens, stone bridges, and historical sites act as a winding guide for the protagonists through the secrets that await them in a summer that could very well have been the last or be the next.
Xiao Zhi arrives at this place, fulfilling his promise to Xiao Long, his older brother, to participate in the summer camp as a teaching assistant.
The meeting place and boiling love are a modern building surrounded by ruins that serve as a shelter where children play during summer vacation, the dining room, the outdoor garden that serves both as a recreation and play area and as a place where they will have snacks and lunch, and the lychee plantations, which will later be key in several scenes that must already be part of the history of Chinese and, why not, global LGBT+ dramas.
But of all of them, there are three places that inspire the most tenderness and intrigue in me: Nie Xiaozhi's room, which he will share with the boy who will steal his heart and which gives us clues about the younger Xiao's complex character; the bathroom where our main character suffers from embarrassment with his naked body submerged in the bathtub, when the person he has fallen in love with, without asking permission, undresses in front of him to shower as if it were the most normal thing in the world; and the pool where this other young man's swimsuits will drip with the remains of each dive before they are surprised by the sudden rain.
A TRIBUTE TO DAVID HOCKNEY
The paintings the protagonists discuss are from the work of British painter, designer, set designer, printer, and photographer David Hockney. This alone is enough to reveal the character of two young university students with unusual culture and interests.
The effect is as precious as it is effective: it gives the impression that the parents of the shy, artistic, and always deep in thought Xiao Zhi (whom we will never see) have built a summer retreat just so their youngest son can meet and fall in love with their eldest son's best friend.
Undoubtedly, several scenes in the series pay homage to David Hockney, famous for his obsession with pools, rain, and water. The scenes of the young man swimming underwater toward a standing figure in a luxurious garden are a reference to his work "A Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)", whose sale established the painter, born in 1937, as the most expensive living artist in the world. We can find references to two other Hockney works in "Secrets Happened on the Litchi Island". I'm referring to "We Two Boys Together Clinging" and "Domestic Scene, Los Angeles". In the latter, while one of the men is bathing, the other rubs his back... or perhaps, out of embarrassment, prefers to turn his back on him.
THE SLOW JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY, FRIENDSHIP, AND LOVE
This context, which already captivates even the most skeptical viewer, discreetly witnesses the first encounter between Xiao Zhi and his dark object of desire. He answers to the name of Chen Li, a handsome, charming, carefree, and curious university student who visits Xiao Long, the older brother of the Xiao family, during the summer weeks to help him with his work at the summer camp. Xiao Zhi shares not only his room and bathroom with him.
The plot unfolds primarily from Xiao Zhi's point of view. The camera follows him impatiently to show what he sees, his dreams and erotic desires.
After the subtle and unfortunate ambient introduction (as Xiao Zhi's cell phone will break as soon as it touches the island), the two lull us on a slow journey of discovery, friendship, connection, and love.
The love between Xiao Zhi and Chen Li begins slowly; They circle around each other, slowly closing the gap, allowing the initial indifference to disguise their interest to finally disappear. Although both have no experience in love, they are imbued with a deep feeling that leads them to shake up their lives.
Xiao Zhi ends up being much better at that game; he's assertive, self-confident, and able to stand up to his homophobic college classmates. He grows increasingly curious about his brother's friend. Chen Li still has to navigate the path of discovery and acceptance, which ultimately leads him to hurt the boy he loves and himself.
The series is very good at capturing the lazy ebb and flow of summer days, with the drowsiness and exposed body parts covered in blue and red garments (as well as paintings on the walls and various objects in those colors), which become a new symbol to identify the two protagonists.
Everyone seems to be moving in slow motion at the summer camp, with the exception perhaps of the children, who never miss a chance to play. Xiao Zhi's quiet hesitation balances the playful charm and carefree confidence of the boy she's fallen in love with. This languor fits well with the rhythm of Chen Li and Xiao Zhi's relationship, which evolves over meals, bicycle rides, playing under trees, climbing to the top of bushes to pick ripe lychee fruit, sitting on the stone structures surrounding the pool, and conversations laden with lyricism, symbolism, art and philosophy, which actually serve as an overture to the romance.
The first download occurs when Chen Li, somewhat taller and more muscular, presses his fingers into Xiao Zhi's back, neck, and ears, under the guise of applying mosquito repellent.
I can't remember the last time a scene managed to raise the hairs on my neck in just a second, so full of the intended stimulation yet so worried about the outcome of that touch.
In the friendship forged by our two protagonists, there is no hypocrisy; just two people learning to love, with their fears of accepting themselves, with doubts about whether the other loves them, giving way to mistakes and misunderstandings, but ultimately with the possibility of understanding who they are, what they desire, and with it, the value of forgiveness and commitment.
THE TIMELINE
The first five episodes tell us about the early stage of the relationship between Xiao Zhi and Chen Li, in which everything is pure (and at times extreme) desire on the part of the younger of the two. Chen Li seems willing to distance himself from his fears of coming out as gay. It's symbolic how the series shows that the lychee trees weren't filled with fruit while they were at summer camp, indicating that Chen Li wasn't yet ready to embrace his gender identity. And it is in this transition of observer that Xiao Zhi soon encounters passion.
Hu Yi Chen's performance as Xiao Zhi, in this first part of the series, is unsurpassed. Because he says little, and the few words he uses are rudimentary, but his inner self experiences moments of exuberant brilliance. He is falling in love. That's why the young actor must express everything with his gaze, which is emerging into life, into new experiences, dethroning the familiar to land with bewilderment (but certain) in the land of novelty.
Then, a time jump occurs. We leave the island with the protagonists, but they will walk their separate ways for three more years. We first notice the change not in Xiao Zhi's tears of frustration and bitterness, but in the shift in the color palette. It's no longer as bright and ethereal as it was at the beginning of the series. With distance, the shadows and chiaroscuros increase.
The non-linear timeline adds depth and allows for key memories and emotions to be revealed in layers. It's a structure that, while confusing for some viewers at first, ultimately pays off.
Xiao Long isn't the older brother any gay boy would wish for upon coming out, as he tries to separate the boys under the guise of protecting them, or perhaps out of ignorance of the feelings his brother has stirred in his best friend. In any case, the series' approach seeks to reflect the obstacles many queer youth face in their process of self-acceptance and discovery, when, in many cases, their own loved ones attack them. However, there will be no homophobia, nor will there be rejection of the brother or friend for their sexual identity.
The series lets the use of time work on many levels: to build the ever-deepening bond between the two protagonists, to co-opt the viewer step by step into the story, and so that when the two merge in a kiss and embrace toward the end, what Aristotle called catharsis occurs: giving viewers the chance to redeem their own passions by seeing them represented on screen.
LYRICISM, SYMBOLISM, MAGIC
'Secrets Happened on the Litchi Island' shows all the escapes and encounters; Xiao Zhi's advances and Chen Li's steps back as each moves in circles ever closer to the other. The two don't always say (can't or won't) what they really think. Then the director of the series speaks for them by making their desire evident in the cheerful countryside, in the greenery of the lychee plantation, in the bustle of the summer camp, in the water that one dries from the other's body, in the precious liquid that flows from the shower, falls from the sky in the form of rain, drips from the trees in the middle of a downpour, or in one of the two young people swimming in the pool while the other watches ecstatically.
The lyricism is seductive, like Xiao Zhi, fragile and joyful. 'Secrets Happened on the Litchi Island' isn't so much a coming-of-age story, with the loss and diminished innocence that entails, but rather a story about sensitivity. In that way, it's more about the creation of a new man who, as the plot suggests, is liberated by a pleasure that simultaneously establishes a sexual identity.
There are two scenes, among the best in world queer cinema. One is the dream. Xiao Zhi and Chen Li run together, hand in hand. They kiss passionately. The darkness of the night is broken several times by the light from their pursuers' flashlights. When the darkness is broken, the two young people, confused and fearful, are forced to separate. Then, they hold hands again, run, flee, show their triumphant love… This is an unequivocal message about the need to hide that many queer youth are forced to face under the prejudiced gaze of society.
The other scene is the passionate kiss at the end. A kiss that stops the world to create a new one, an unforgettable kiss, a kiss that is the prelude to something more. A kiss that makes you salivate and yearn to experience something like this. A kiss not from the heart, but from something more powerful: instinct. Suffice it to say that by then, the lychee plants had blossomed, and the boys were sending each other the fruits. So much symbolism in a small cardboard box!
All that remains is to suggest you watch the bonus episodes, which reflect small snippets of the couple's life after they get together.
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The ending of 'Lost in the Wood' isn't the problem. Your need for a happy ending is.
This is one of those series that usually generates consensus: a masterpiece, even though the two protagonists don't end up together: a boy who loves deeply, and is loved in return, and yet decides to leave in pursuit of his dreams. A choice shaped by his personal history, duty, desire... and by everything that comes with being a young man who, from a very early age, has been preparing to obtain a scholarship and go to Japan to train as a professional. I'd like to show the layers I find beneath that final decision. Because love doesn't always win. Nor does it need to.It's clear that many viewers are upset that the series doesn't have a happy ending. And not just any ending, but the happy ending we all "want to see". That Fifa, the cheerful and outgoing 18-year-old, gives up his dreams of studying Art and Creative Design in Japan and decides to stay at Hem's cabin, hopping on his motorcycle to watch the sunsets together, and continue delivering food to the locals. But no. He doesn't. And that, for many, seems unforgivable.
I understand that the obsession with the "happy ending" goes way back. It's instilled in us from childhood with stories, movies, songs. And yes, it's comforting. But TV shows, when they get serious, sometimes remind us that life doesn't always end well, that there are choices that hurt, loves that can't be, and goodbyes that don't always bring us back together. And that, precisely, is what the ending of 'Lost in the Wood' does: it grabs you inside, squeezes your heart, and leaves you thinking. Not about what happens, but about what doesn't happen. Sad endings serve that purpose: to make us look at the world without sugarcoating.
Some people claim that "happy endings are unfinished stories", but it's true that there's a certain honesty in those outcomes that don't try to sugarcoat reality. We'd all prefer to remember the image of Sarawat and Tine in '2gether' or that of Doctor Bun and Tutor Tan in 'Manner of Death', but there's no denying that Wang and Intawut's final image in '180 Degree Longitude Passes Through Us' has a lot of truth, at least a plausible truth. In this latest series, as in 'Lost in the Wood', greatness lies in surrender, realism lies in not consummating. In letting love hang suspended, untouched, like a photograph left untouched lest it spoil.
In 'Lost in the Wood,' the story is over. Not as we would like, but perhaps as it should have been. Fifa —the character who has the power to bring back memories of a GelBoys with his black nail polish and muddy white sneakers— ends up saying goodbye to the family-owned elephant farm and sanctuary, where he agreed to go for three months, seeing it as a good opportunity to prove he's ready for college dorm life in a distant country. He says goodbye to the elephants and the people he's grown to love in such a short time, because he knows what that entails. Because he doesn't live in a fantasy. Because his world wouldn't be complete if he didn't make his dreams come true.
However, seeing Fifa's decision as pure resignation is, to say the least, reductionist. We're not dealing with a superhero driven by duty, but with a boy who chooses to leave. And that's the point.
One of the keys lies in the idea of preserving the memory. Fifa knows that the time he shared with Hem in the shade of the forest is unforgettable. That it was probably the most luminous thing that has ever happened to he. But he also knows that if he stays with him, that perfect love could be corrupted. Turn into another routine. Another disappointment. He'll constantly wonder about her shattered dreams, about what would have happened «if I...». So he decides to freeze it in time. Make it eternal. Keep it like a secret gem.
For his part, Hem is not indifferent to the harm he would cause if he declared his love, if he demanded that Fifa stay by his side. Therefore, although it pains us, his decision does not imply cowardice. It is not an absence of love. It is a consciousness.
Jeab Napassarin Prompila, the director, shows this with elegance: the shots focused on Fifa's face, he broken gaze, the tension in him hands as he grabs the guitar and throws it over the shoulder before closing the door behind he, the tears streaming down he face as he leaves Hem the mask as a souvenir, the psychological torture he suffers when, in an act of farewell and, why not, a declaration of love, he brings he lips close to Hem's to offer him a kiss, the only kiss they will both experience, while he lover pretends to sleep... everything points to a brutal internal struggle.
There is no one forcing him to leave. There is no blackmail from any of his family members. There are unspoken words, unspoken declarations... There is a silence full of meaning. And a decision that hurts.
I insist, we may disagree with Fifa, we may think he should stay in Hem's arms, we may yell at him for abandoning his idea of traveling to Japan to follow his dreams, we may even, why not, get angry at him; but the series never says that this is the right decision; it only says that it's the one our main character made.
And, of course, we can't ask Hem to run after him, to take the next flight to Tokyo, to renounce the respect and admiration he earned in his work. That would be disrespecting the decision of a young man torn between two loves: romantic and professional, and choosing, however he can. The series doesn't judge him or absolve him. It simply follows his steps. And that makes it more real. Because there's no clear lesson.
What 'Lost in the Wood' does stealthily, but effectively, is blowing up the rules of the romance game on television. Because yes, we're dealing with a story of obvious love, even if it's not declared... but there's no happy ending, no kiss in the rain, no two boys watching the rainbow every rainy sunset in the mountains, no promise of "we'll see each other again". What there is is a renunciation. And not for lack of love.
BL is a genre that usually prizes passion above all else. This story opts for the exact opposite: containment... containment and tension, maintaining it all until the end credits. And that, in itself, is transgressive. Because there's nothing rarer in Boys' Love stories than a young man in love who decides not to act in the name of desire, in the name of love.
And the best part is that the series doesn't do it with a trick. There's no surprising plot twist or tear-jerking final speech. The transgression lies in its simplicity: two people who meet, transform... and separate. Because life is like that. Because not everything is rosy. Because there isn't always a second chance.
Instead of offering an escapist fantasy, 'Lost in the Wood' settles into an uncomfortable reality. A relationship where one of the boys decides to reject his dreams and the other demands that he do so in the name of love isn't always possible, and where passion would have to confront every day the eternal doubt of what would have happened to their lives if FIFA had stayed, if he hadn't set out to make his dreams come true, if Hem had urged him to give up everything he'd achieved with effort and talent. Subversion doesn't come in the form of a dramatic breakup, but rather a painful acceptance.
'Lost in the Wood' doesn't need sermons or morals. What it offers is something more uncomfortable and, for that very reason, more valuable: a love story that never comes to fruition, a boy who loves deeply but decides to pursue his dream, while the other respects and accepts his decision.
I believe that, even with minimally serious analysis, we can't criticize series simply because they don't end the way we want them to. It's one thing to question the decisions of directors, producers, and screenwriters —that editing that ends up confusing the audience, that script that fails to develop the characters, that pacing that doesn't fit with the narrative, that music so loud it prevents us from hearing the dialogue— and quite another to reproach them for not following the path "you" wanted them to follow.
I'm one of those who oppose telegraphed series, chewed over and explained to the point of exhaustion. I wish that as viewers, we would make an effort to see all the nuances and layers that complex series have. It's easy to analyze the mechanism, but harder to explain why this series is so deeply moving: why Ton Tonhon Tantivejakul and Arm Varot Makaduangkeo have turned it into a wonderful television love story, playing Fifa and Hem, respectively.
The emotional high point of 'Lost in the Wood' is the relinquishment, when Fifa comes down the stairs of the treehouse where she's lived with Hem and, with tears in her eyes, acknowledges that saying goodbye to the people she cares about isn't among her virtues. This moment, and not the moment when the characters first look into each other's eyes and discover their inner selves, is the passionate climax of the series.
'Lost in the Wood' isn't about love, but about an idea. The series begins with the information that two boys met and fell in love, but decided not to spend the rest of their lives together. The implication is: had they acted on their desire, they wouldn't have deserved such love.
Almost everyone knows the story by now. The novel of the same name, written by theneoclassic, adapted by Kesiny Pontam, has been a huge bestseller both in Thailand and around the world. Its captivating story offers the fantasy of a "lost bunny" who believes his perfect life is ruined when he has to fulfill family obligations. While waiting for the 129,600 minutes of his life away from his routine in the big city to end, and waiting for confirmation of whether or not he has won a scholarship, he witnesses how a "ferocious lion", or rather a virile stranger with a mustache that gives him a certain air of class, wisdom, authority, maturity, and power, waits for him with open arms at the foot of a tree to prevent him from falling, while he tries to get an internet connection to send an urgent message.
SLOW-SMOTHERED LOVE
Fifa and Hem's relationship isn't one of perfect beginnings or lightning-fast love at first sight; it's not one of hasty declarations or one in which an exchange of glances marks the beginning of a romance as frenetic as the world we inhabit, where there's no time for stumbles, doubts, or reflection, and where "I love yous" are thrown around with absolute ease, like sentimental confetti.
The protagonists' love is one of those that simmer over a slow fire, where emotional intimacy is based on building a genuine emotional connection that begins in friendship, in which both come to feel seen, heard, and understood.
It's as if the two have agreed on the rhythm of the relationship, where shared moments (even some of them filled with animosity and arguments), deep conversations, and challenges that they overcome together prevail. And it couldn't be any other way.
First, both partners are aware of the age difference, that one has a certain emotional maturity and life experiences, while the other lacks.
Therefore, the success of the relationship will depend on the extent to which the two share similar values, beliefs, and goals; support each other in achieving personal goals; foster commitment, trust, and intimacy in the relationship; and resolve problems constructively.
Secondly, both are aware of the culture shock they face. One is so rural, the other so urban. One is accustomed to the rigors of work and life in a rural area, without electricity or internet access, and the other, with a supermarket five minutes from home, now needing to change their lifestyle and cultural context for extremely different ones.
Thirdly, both are aware that Fifa is only planning to be there for three months, so it would be difficult for them to accept the idea of establishing a lasting relationship.
And finally, both are aware that they have so little in common that they never feel lonelier than when they are together.
How then can a couple make it work, when they have different lifestyles, unequal hobbies, incompatible life plans, such disparate ideas about love and the type of relationship they want...
IN CONCLUSION
Four key points to summarize this very funny, beautiful, and hopeful series: counting time, as Fifa usually does, 322 minutes of love under the treetops in the middle of summer, and two leading stars who bring great chemistry to the series. And a fifth, Nammon's farewell as a supporting actor, before we can see him as the lead in the highly anticipated "Pass to Your Voice" and "Restart," expected to be released in 2025.
I conclude this review, convinced that, like FIFA, once you enter the forest, you'll never be the same when you return...
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'The Rebound' exudes sensuality in a love and sports triangle
Beyond the media hype, the posters and trailers that teased a sensual love triangle between Ping Krittanun Aunchananun (who plays the naive but combative Zen) and Meen Nichakoon Khajornborirak (as the problematic Ryu), the truth is that it is difficult to imagine that a BL series set in the world of basketball is so sexy, addictive and exciting.This is the umpteenth work by the acclaimed filmmaker Golf Tanwarin Sukkhapisit, who has already left half measures and whose productions, in the coming of age category, have become a success, especially after the commotion caused by Great Sapol Assawamunkong and Inn Sarin Ronnakiat in 'Wandee Goodday'.
'The Rebound' is like a basketball game in which much more is at stake than a sports award or a university scholarship, and throughout the series we will discover what it entails. Masterfully, its creators dose the information to continually keep us on the edge of our seats, wanting to know more, spying on each key scene in the characters' lives, anticipating each of their movements and adjusting our expectations to each revelation, precisely, as if we were playing. a basketball game.
The writers choose a non-linear narrative, through flashbacks placed with the precision of a three-point basket from the semicircle. Each one explores the lives of the two protagonists until they separated and how each of their choices influences the present, in which many things happen at the same time. This is a series that uses racconto intelligently, that is not afraid of fragmented narrative and the possibility of narrating the past from the present.
What is disputed on the playing field is not only the love between the boys or sporting success, but the honesty between two lifelong friends who have feared to accept each other in their completeness and this led them to confront their own contradictions. Although at first reading it may seem that sexuality is what gets in the way of this friendship, in reality it is precisely the repression of sexual desire that triggers all conflicts.
'The Rebound' grows with each new revelation, and, like a good basketball game, the excitement of reaching the middle of the series at the time of writing this review comes from unraveling everything that happened before and how it will affect the tension further. forward. For this reason, and for the excellent staging and the conviction of the actors with their characters, we can enjoy the audiovisual without having to find more meaning than the apparent one.
The series is partially superficial (although not empty), and doesn't tell you more than what its premise suggests, and that's a very good thing. It is a series about basketball, repressed desire and first love, the one that we make possible to be the only one or, failing that, the one that remains alive in our memories for a lifetime. It is also about how the two protagonists can finally accept each other in all their fullness.
It also touches on human fragility and man's struggle for survival and improvement. As Ryu puts it: "Basketball taught us to love others, and helped us love ourselves."
In that, the series is similar to a basketball game, or the very act of playing it: playing it always means the same thing, with the same rules and assumptions, but the how is what matters most, the how is infinite. 'The Rebound' says little, but it says it very well, and Suthipong Teerasakul, the director of photography, plays an important role in this.
For our sake, the style of the series is very Tanwarin Sukkhapisit: carefully crafted shots, current pop music and some hip hop at full volume, characters reacting impulsively, the tandem between pleasure and restriction, desire and taboo. There is no restricted and subtle eroticism, quite the opposite.
The director lets the scenes with greater erotic tension last longer than necessary, she films them with fixed angles, quite stable shots, with a certain fixation on symmetry and a rigid composition. Beautify sex.
The MeenPing ship, in its best series, immerses us in a story that shows the codes of the explosive and popular sport of basketball and also a story full of moments of sexual tension, love, self-discovery and acceptance.
Meen and Ping have created a dream couple over time. It must be taken into account that they have been developing a stable relationship on a professional level for more than four years, starring in two previous series: 'Ai Long Nhai' (2020) and My Dear Gangster Oppa' (2023). This has allowed greater rapport and comfort in the performances. They have proven to be two actors who constantly renew themselves, who reinvent themselves for the public. The peculiar way of expressing themselves in front of the cameras makes them icons for BL lovers.
The non-binary Thai director did not disappoint. We are also not afraid to affirm that this could become one of the most acclaimed series by the public and critics of 2024. In each pass of the ball, in each shot on the basket, in each new quarter period of ten minutes each, in each trip from the camera in a subjective position (as if the viewer were a ball) we know that chaos is imminent.
First let's put ourselves in context. The story begins in 2024, and moves to the rhythm of a basketball game, with each pass to the past to introduce us to the lives of the two protagonists, and back to the present time. That is why we must also go back two or three years, just when Ryu and Zen were part of a school team in that sport, but they separated for reasons that little by little the viewer will come to know.
The objective behind the musical choice, in which the music composed by MAIYARAP for the series stands out, especially his single "The Rebound", was clearly to show the dynamism behind the simple fact that five players try to score a ball as long as an equal number of people try to avoid it: there is power, there is action, but not only that, the soundtrack is destined to make it very clear to us that, in their world, basketball players are true rock stars.
It is possible to feel it when Ryu enters the playing field, confident and imposing; but also every time Zen and Ryu's gazes meet; in scenes of street or school games, or in training, with those beats that put our hearts into overdrive.
Despite not being a protagonist, Frank Thanatsaran Samthonglai occupies a fundamental place in the story, because in this love triangle, the explosion to which we are exposed does not work without its three points.
The arc of Atom, his character, is to be able to be close to the boy who works part-time as a waiter or delivery man, precisely in a cafe run by the director of the series. If Ruy can't stay away from Zen, Atom can't stay away from him either.
Despite being the third wheel, it is not possible to hate him. Firstly, because by playing on a team opposite to that of the protagonists, when he prepares desserts with Zen's grandmother or emerges half-naked from the pool, he is a Greek god. It is impossible to watch him on the screen in a character that we are not used to seeing among those he usually plays and not feel complete admiration; secondly because it seems he alone pulled the strings so that Zen and Ryu finally looked at the tangible sexual tension that always existed between them and made the latter finally open up to love. In short, its role is to be a catalyst for romance between the protagonists. That brings us to the next point.
The small details of queer coding, like true works of art, present in every frame in which the protagonists are, and the obvious sexual tension of this pair of friends. Let's start with the opening scene, in which Ryu, fleeing from some pursuers, bumps into Zen on the street and both, after meeting again after a while, run with complicity and desire in their eyes despite the danger.
From here on, the constant and incisive flashbacks will reveal a very intimate relationship between Ryu and Zen, lost in time, when in the showers, after a match, naked, both share what, without a doubt, is the most homoerotic scene in the game. year: one applies soap to the other's body and vice versa, and in a moment they look at each other, their eyes show desire, passion, love. They bring their faces closer, and about to kiss, Ryu pushes Zen away a little roughly, after having activated all the alarms of straight cis men.
His reaction is logical: Ryu, the street basketball player, is confused and hesitates to admit his feelings for Zen, the team captain.
This will not be the only scene, as there will be frequent exchanges of glances on and off the court that will increase the sexual tension, evidenced in the contact of their hands, which are continuous and consecutive as is that of the hands of players with the ball, confront each other for possession of the ball or share attempts to score points through shots, drives to baskets or dunks, while trying to avoid baskets from the opposing team by stealing the ball or making blocks, or when a shot towards the basket fails, and they must try to catch the rebound, as will the players of the opposing team.
Not to mention the scene when Zen looks at Ryu full of love and desire while demanding an explanation of why he abandoned him some time ago or asks him, regarding basketball, if he is going to allow someone, for money, to have to say if they have to win or lose a game, or when they travel, one close to the other's back, on a motorcycle, with one's arms surrounding the waist of the driver, which will make us remember other BL series, such as ' My Ride'.
Or the scene in which they listen to music sitting on the school roof and then run like children – as if the world, or anyone else, mattered – and they merge not only in a hug, but also in a suggestive twist of body, one very close to each other, or when they also hug on the landing of an abandoned building while fleeing from the police who are chasing them for participating in a clandestine game, since Ryu is being forced to go against his will to pay a debt.
The important thing about reviewing these scenes is that they also talk about a neuralgic topic: toxic masculinity, but also about friendship and real love, despite everything.
It is evident that all this happens with a well-defined objective: there would not be a story to tell if they had assumed the love that united them, that same love that led them to separate, to competition and toxic rivalry, to get involved in a species of love-hate-and love again relationship. Only Golf could make basketball look sexy in a series.
Later, when Zen is surprised by Ryu when he accepts being one of the new players on the school team that is in danger of being dissolved, and decides to risk everything on the field - even the ultimate consequences to achieve his dreams, which were initially that of obtaining a scholarship that allows him to get out of poverty and help his grandmother in her old age, now it will be that of both of us being champions side by side on the same team – he also manages to become the Greek hero that we didn't know we were looking for .
On the other hand, and this is the true message that we want to rescue from this series: Real love also allows camaraderie, vulnerability and competition. When one of them faces their worst fears or the possibility of failure, the other is ready to receive them with open arms and help them move forward together.
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From that moment on, he decides to dedicate all his energy to fighting against that reality, to preserve his heterosexuality at any price and not to let himself be carried away by the seductive reality in which he lives... until he falls in love with a boy, Kikuchi (Asahi Itō). , who rejects him just at the moment when our protagonist declares his love for him.
Directed by Ryuichi Honda and Tatsuya Aoki, and scripts written by Izumi Kawasaki, the series has two previous seasons: the first, premiered on TV Asahi in March 2021, and the second broadcast in March 2022.
Erina Koyama returns to take charge of the music. Meanwhile, the seven-member dance vocal group GENIC performs the theme song: "New Game!!".
The drama is not exactly a BL series but a parody of the genre, celebrating and subverting the most common Boys Love tropes.
Will the protagonist manage to fall in love? Will Kikuchi return to Mob's life, after rejecting him to return to Igarashi, her handsome boyfriend? Will Mob open his mind again after the initial setback and finally find love in a boy? Will Mob prefer to continue being a supporting character? Will he let the other couples, including his brother Ayato and his boyfriend Toujou, be the center of attention while he chooses to stay out of it? Will he decide to maintain his identity as a passerby or will he once again become the protagonist of the BL world?
The drama is a live-action adaptation of the manga series "Zettai BL ni Naru Sekai VS Zettai BL ni Naritakunai Otoko" (絶対BLになる世界VS絶対BLになりたくない男), created by Konkichi (紺吉) and initially released in November 2018 on pixiv Comic, and subsequently published by Shodensha's Feel Comics FC Jam label, currently reaching four compilation volumes.
In addition to the actors already mentioned, the cast is reinforced by Yūtarō Goto in the role of Ayato (excellent in the LGBT+ romantic comedy-drama 'Zenra Meshi'), playing the role of Mob's younger brother; Akihisa Shiono as Toujou, Ryō Sekoguchi as Hatano, Wada Hayate as Mayama, Yuya Tominaga as Jōji, a schoolmate of Mob, and many other Japanese actors and actresses.
The introduction of many secondary characters and guest artists, as well as irrelevant plots, which do not contribute much to the general approach, in order to keep the audience entertained, works against it. It is common practice in most series, but sometimes it gets twisted.
And here, to make matters worse, these gloating largely undermine the cohesion and coherence of the proposal. In fact, the creators did not hesitate to violate the initial conceptions of some secondary characters, in order to adapt them to the emerging needs of the narrative.
Let's hope that in this installment the shot is rectified and it manages to close with sufficiently attractive conclusions to sustain the expected adventures of the protagonist, which will surely be taken up in a later season.
However, the viewer has had to forgive many inconsistencies and more or less drastic or hasty solutions, of various characters and conflicts, and especially of the initial approach, since the series does not manage to fully embrace the madness of the original premise present in the sleeve. It is true that, for example, it manages to make fun of the BL topics contained in Konkichi's work, but the drama in all seasons has stayed with the most conventional ones and has left aside the truly ridiculous ones that would elevate the final result.
I am referring, for example, to everything related to attractive male ghosts that one can only get rid of by hiring the services of an exorcist (equally attractive, of course), something that also happens frequently to Mob in the manga, but It has not been incorporated into the series, and this has an impact on the story.
It is also regrettable that while the manga is made up of very short chapters that go to the essence of the main plot, in the series, despite the fact that each episode has an average duration of 25 minutes and is divided into two segments, it is not possible to the same effect of immediacy that it would have if they were a series of short sketches.
This season may hold surprises, associated with the fate of the character played by Inukai Atsuhiro, a charismatic and ductile actor who in moments of humor achieves hysterical reactions, exaggerated expressions and clownish gestures, but in moments of greater drama he reinvents himself in gesture and restraint.
If someone asked me: What's so special about the series? I would answer that I can't help but compare this one with the previous two seasons:
- A romantic drama that radiates a humorous vibe from the first season.
- A series that sacrifices its humor to show more romance and sentimentality in each installment.
- A comedy that draws attention for its exaggerated reactions and scenarios, such as Mob employing the strategy of "sacrificing" anyone who is nearby instead of being the new love interest or target of the young people in love who surround him and who try to win him over, or the frequent extravagant moments such as finding an attractive stranger unconscious on the street and suggesting that others take him home to recover, something that Mob admits happens to him several times a month and that always happens long wishing him that someone else would take care of the young man and that they would be happy together.
- A protagonist who gains maturity in each season, especially by abandoning his initial outright rejection of BL and gaining understanding of the loves between boys.
- Greater romantic interaction between the characters than in previous seasons.
-The idea of Mob continuing to break the fourth wall.
- It offers a unique possibility of making the public enjoy a plot so absurd that it gives rise to a multitude of ridiculous and quite funny situations that mercilessly mock all the clichés and common places of mangas and BL series.
- Inukai Atsuhiro's solid performance and his extraordinary expressive force.
- The hope that the many supporting actors and guests will become more memorable characters by having greater developments in their personalities and backstory.
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In the things that pass, for those that stay
Kim Dong Ah is a teenager who seems to have been born frozen in the cold winter, and becomes obsessed with things that have not changed and are static, as if frozen, after his parents' divorce. His mother's love, which he thought would last forever, changed, and that change had a great impact not only on Dong Ah's family but also on his own life. With his mother gone, his father, wounded, became violent.In order not to hurt himself and to avoid hurting others, Dong Ah thought that it was best not to change and not let anyone into his life, for fear that one day this person would decide, like his mother, to abandon him.
With his large round eyes, poorly defined face and dark, bushy eyebrows, he has a deep voice and a dry expression and humor. He has had to leave school.
But suddenly, Song Yeon Woo comes into his life, a young man, also 18 years old, with a very warm character, who finds it natural to smile and is friendly towards others. Yeon Woo always approaches Dong Ah with a smile, and little by little he breaks the wall of sadness and coldness that he has built around him. Who is this person who seems to show everything about himself without hiding anything, but whose true feelings Dong Ah is unaware of? How is it possible that this boy, so different from him and as warm as spring, can make him feel unknown emotions? Is Yeon Woo a figment of Dong Ah's imagination?
With this interesting and intensely powerful story, Kim Yeo-rim, the writer and director of the short film 'The Winter Child', exposes how people, emotions and relationships pass over time. Time melts the frozen and freezes the melted. But there are things that human beings need to hold on to so that they do not escape.
In the director's own words, the film sends a message of comfort to those who are suffering in the midst of numerous changes, to those who hold on to something that may be painful: it is okay to let go and move on. It is necessary that painful things pass by, so that those that give us happiness and warmth remain forever, like the fire at the end of the short, in contrast to the ice/winter motifs that are maintained in most of the audiovisual.
Starring Hyun Woo Ahn and Woo Joo Hwang in the leading roles, and the cinematography by Gyu-ri Lee and Park Jeong-hyeon, the short film captivates the viewer.
'The Winter Child' seems to generate a lot of opinions among contributors to this forum. Of course, this is a film in which there is no promise of a vision of gay life, as most viewers expect when reading the labels "Gay Male Lead" and then "LGBT+." The film takes an introspective view of the soul of a young man. The movie has a way of staying with us even when it's over.
Kim Yeo-rim makes Dong Ah one of the most complex characters in recent films. This is a young man who is difficult to understand on a simple level.
The image of Yeon Woo melting Dong Ah's icy exterior and her ironclad belief that she can't change anything in her life will haunt me forever. Yeon Woo is the person who comes into his life to help him come out of his shell.
However, the ending may leave many viewers with more questions than answers: Is returning to the same beginning a good change? Is it preferable to stay in one place or seek changes that allow us to free ourselves from what causes us pain? Or instead, is it preferable to change by killing your previous self? Could Yeon Woo be a figment of Dong Ah's imagination? Could it be your inner voice that refuses to remain still, unchanging, unchanged?
Although 'The Winter Child' will divide opinions, the film deserves to be seen due to the complexity and care that the director puts into the story, and the excellent performances of its protagonists.
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Slow-burning love and a tangible chemistry that goes beyond the screen
Legend has it that thousands of years ago humans were made up of two people. That being had two heads as well as two pairs of arms and legs. His wisdom was delirious, his reasoning was precise, and in his body two hearts beat with harmony and fullness. The person was happy because he lived in love with his counterpart, but one day he defied the gods and received the most severe punishment: being separated from his other half. He was condemned to search for the one who was taken from him in order to feel whole again.From that moment on we wander the world looking for the ideal person, the perfect partner who will complement us.
What if love is not in that stranger but in someone very close? What if your childhood friend, the one who accompanied you since you were a child in childhood games and pranks, or who was a little older in high school or university, could be the perfect match? Couldn't the love of your life be that friend who has been there all the time, by your side, the one who listens to you, the one who knows you well, the one who gives you advice, a hug in the moment of triumph or a shoulder in the moment of pain and sadness? It may seem strange, but if he has been there for so many years to support us, maybe he is also there to love.
If there is a recurring trope in film and television, it is the movies and series of best friends who fall in love, something that is also very common in real life.
With this premise, Ayaka Kato, the director of the Japanese BL series 'My Personal Weatherman' and 'Zenra Meshi', called on the screenwriter Takeshi Miyamoto ('Perfect Propose') to work together, as they did in 'Old Fashion Cupcake' , to adapt and give life, in real action, to the characters and events of 'Kare no Iru Seikatsu' ('Living With Him'), the popular original manga by Toworu Miyata. Koji Nomura also joined in writing the scripts. Together they created a drama that exposes the complexities of love, painting a vivid picture of a relationship that evolves over just over a decade.
NBC Universal Entertainment Japan's romantic comedy-drama tells the story of two childhood friends who reunite after a few years apart and realize they have feelings for each other. As they navigate the challenges of early youth and the expectations of their respective social circles, they must decide if they are brave enough to risk everything for a chance at love.
The narrative, as the title suggests, offers snapshots of a life together, weaving together the shared experiences of Kazuhito and Ryo. Over the course of 10 half-hour episodes, the series encapsulates the bittersweet exploration of young adulthood, highlighting fleeting but impactful moments that shape their relationship.
In a total departure from his role in the 'Kamen Rider' franchise, Sato Ryuga, in his first leading role, plays Kazuhito Tanaka, a young man with a sparkling aura, good personality and physical appearance. This young man has had feelings for his friend Ryota for many years. There was a past between the two when he was a member of the baseball club, which could be the key to their union and attraction.
For his part, Sakai Sho, a Japanese social media influencer who turned to acting by participating in the film 'Tokyo, I Love You' and the series 'Jeanne no Sabaki' and 'Takara-kun to Amagi-kun' , the latter also from the BL genre, plays Ryota Natsukawa, a housewife-type boy who is good at household chores, such as cooking and washing clothes, with an honest and expressive personality.
They are both best friends since childhood and total opposites. Ryo, who in high school was part of the "normal" group, today longs to be independent from his parents and living in his own house while studying at university will give him the desired freedom. Meanwhile, Kazuhito, the one from the "popular" group "As he goes through high school, he is in need of a place to sleep. The turning point of this story begins when the two friends meet again.
Upon reconnecting, Ryota recognizes that, despite his perfect appearance and pleasant personality, Kazuhito does not have a girlfriend. Curious to know why he hasn't found his better half, he tries to point out his flaws from a girlfriend's point of view. But you can't see any imperfections.
This is how he proposes to have a date, with the pretext of finding him an ideal girl. However, Ryota finds his heart fluttering at Kazuhito's kind words and actions. As the two deepen their relationship and Ryota gets to know more about the young man with whom he shares a roof, he wonders if he is in love or if it is just a deep feeling of friendship.
As they share time together and the old friendship seems to have been rekindled, the spark will fan their hearts. Little by little they are getting closer. Kazuhito is the one who takes the first step, declaring his old and undying love to Ryo. He suddenly finds himself in the middle of a crossroads: not knowing whether or not to love his friend, or whether he is right or wrong. How can you find the answer to this great enigma?
As they deepen their friendship, love simmers. They will need time for everything to develop. The series shows us how little by little two souls recognize each other and a beautiful feeling is created in their hearts. Will they be ready to take the next step?
The interplay of love and memories of the past drive their individual and shared narratives. The uncomfortable initial encounter matures into meaningful dialogues, fostering the expected physical interactions on the part of the audience. Lovers of the BL genre will gladly receive this story about best friends who fall in love, for the innocence and development of their characters and for the dramatic and even fun situations that are generated when they discover that they are in love.
Kazuhito and Ryo are the clear example that shows that opposites attract, and that they can be very happy together. The reunion and living together under the same roof shakes the lives of the two young people. These events trigger a story marked by the complexity of human bonds, an aspect that, although typical of the romantic genre, in this work delves into love, friendship, discovery, acceptance, family relationships and reflection on complexities of being an LGBT person today.
The audience will obtain a lot of information about the hidden feelings and thoughts of the two, mainly those of Ryo, which will be revealed through the conversations of the protagonists and the evocation of the moments lived long ago since they met until their lives He set them on different paths. The viewer will find it nice to see the two of them together. The way their lives are told is actually very enjoyable and seems authentic. The flashbacks will help you travel to the past to learn that there was always something special between them.
The stories of the secondary characters offer the viewer even more information about their love story. The plot arc develops throughout the drama: the friends will meet again to become lovers and will have a very romantic ending.
There's something undeniably touching about watching two best friends fall in love. However, everything can be unpredictable when this happens. Will things work out because they know each other and have a deep enough connection to embark on the journey of love? Or, on the contrary, will one of them, or both, not take the step for fear of breaking the friendship? This is precisely a dilemma in which we can all be at some point.
Sato Ryuga is the star of the show. As Kamen Rider Geats, his transition into a romantic role as the young college student who falls in love with his best friend is believable. He has a strong screen presence and those romantic scenes can delight the audience.
The dramatization presents a peculiarity in its conception: it is a look at homosexual youth in a conservative society with strong patriarchal and heteronormative traditions in which discrimination against LGTB+ people persists and gay marriage or equal marriage is not recognized.
In order to bring together current generations and members of the LGBT community who are increasingly interested, some in understanding relationships between people of the same sex in a changing society and others in seeing themselves reflected in various audiovisual content and formats, the director He guided the production under certain influences from cinema and serial products of the moment. The creative photographic work, the use of lights and the unique transition curtains show a relationship with the plot.
'Kare no Iru Seikatsu' also surprises with one of the most original presentation designs of the latest JBL dramas, where even a minimal detail denotes intention, insight, while revealing identity elements of the work. Music, an essential complement in fiction, also fits like a perfect piece in the scenes, especially the romantic ones.
However, the true essence of the series lies in the tangible chemistry between the two characters. His portrayal of Ryo and Kazuhito's quiet, fun, and tender relationship transcends the screen, filled with raw emotions, chaos, and affection.
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Living Deep in the Closet
As its name suggests, 'Depth' (its pinyin is shēn chù) is a Chinese film that addresses the complexity of being gay and living deep in the closet.The 2022 short film portrays the story of Yi Ran, a gay boy played by Zeng Huaiyi. Through this character, Chinese screenwriter and director Ding Yuhan explores internalized homophobia. Yi Ran lives out his sexual identity by working in a bar and pretending to be happy with a girlfriend, played by actress Lu Meishan.
But the sudden visit of Zhou Mu (played by Shang Guolong) disrupts Yi Ran's life, and when feelings explode and he can no longer control his desire, his closely guarded secret may be exposed.
'Depth' problematizes the issue of sexual diversity and the lack of acceptance of one's own sexual orientation. Its 10-minute runtime is sufficient to expose the typical behaviors and negative emotions of closeted gay people, such as fear, shame, disgust, anxiety, low self-esteem, and avoidance or denial of everything related to their homosexual orientation due to the fear of being rejected.
Yue Zongao's beautiful cinematography and Xu Qiang's photography contribute to reflecting internalized homophobia, which is nothing more than the rejection or non-acceptance of one's own homosexuality.
The final images serve as a metaphor for the fear many homosexuals suffer from recognizing their sexual identity.
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Welcome the cinema within the cinema in the BL
Among the first questions we ask ourselves when we are faced with a romantic series or film in general, and a BL in particular, is whether there will be an explosive or electrifying chemistry between the protagonists, if one actor will be comfortable with the other, if they will manage to be close friends so that everything they do together looks natural, if they will truly manage to build a bond over time so that their characters are believable in the eyes of the viewer, if even the chemistry will persist after the cameras and microphones are turned off...BL series such as the Japanese '25 Ji, Akasaka', directed in 2024 by Horie Takahiro and Kawasaki Ryo, and 'BL Drama no Shuen ni Narimashita: Crank Up Hen' (2023-2024), by director Kumasaka Izuru, are one of the few audiovisuals of the genre that place cinema at the center of their productions.
How I would like to be able to visualize various productions in which, with great formal and plot diversity, they show cinema within cinema or metacinema, which allows the public to peek into the processes of film creation and the professional performance of directors, producers, performers and scriptwriters.
In this way, the viewer obtains privileged access to the backstage of the cinema, and suffers and enjoys the conflicts that emerge "behind" the camera. Likewise, you could witness a setting, the filming one, in which ego struggles, asymmetrical power relations, unforeseen events and human limitations are unleashed. Furthermore, like magicians who show their tricks, these films and series reveal the strategies that allow the cinematographic illusion to be generated. They also show us the underside of success and fame, and sometimes play with the transfers that occur between reality and fiction, between life and cinema.
'Actors High!', the 30-episode miniseries of just over a minute in length, broadcast on November 21, 2024 by Vigloo, tells us precisely about these topics.
The Japanese comedy introduces us to Matsushima (Ryo Shibuki), an associate producer in charge of preparing, in just three days and two nights, a couple of actors to star in a love drama between boys titled "Sunset in the Snow."
However, the task prior to the start of filming becomes difficult to overcome due to the refusal of the stars Shogo Aoyama (character played by actor Negishi Takuya, known for giving life to Raidou Hikaru in the 'Ultraman Ginga' saga), and Fujii Akira (Yutaro, who previously played the role of Miki Mahiro in the BL series 'Zenra Meshi' ('Naked Dinner'), directed by Kato Ayaka in 2023), to carry out their respective roles.
Gathered in a summer villa, the two actors will show that they feel uncomfortable while they rehearse their lines and seek to adapt to their roles, in which they will experience intimate moments and romantic scenes. Reluctantly, after learning what is required of them through reading the script, both express their intentions to abandon the film project.
Aoyama, who is looking to try something different as an actor after a string of successes playing heroes in action films, will be frustrated and surprised to learn that he will have to play one of the two lovers in a BL drama. Faced with the dilemma, Matsushima will try to assert his power of persuasion, arguing that getting involved in other narrative genres is important for the growth of actors.
For his part, Fujii, known for his youthful appearance and for starring in a long series for twenty years, which began when his character was just a baby, is not opposed to playing the romantic interest of another man in a BL drama, but is reluctant to have his character die of a terminal illness. Interested in persuading him, the producer in charge will argue that tragic melodramas enjoy the public's preference.
In the midst of the crisis due to the imminent abandonment of the project by the actors who cannot get along with each other, unable to motivate them, seeing the risk of not carrying out the order of the producer and the director of the play, Matsushima enters a state of panic that will lead him to hallucinate two meddlesome ghosts dressed in clothes from the Japanese feudal era.
These hilarious characters pressure Matsushima to insist that the actors not abandon the drama, warning him that they will curse him if the project fails.
But everything will become even more complicated when Heian (Gaku Matsumoto) and Bakumatsu (Takagi Nodoka), the guardian spirits of Fujii and Aoyama, respectively, declare that they also seek to make the two actors' relationship flourish in real life, as this would guarantee them being able to revive their own failed romance.
Before closing we can see the happy ending when Matsushima receives the recognition he deserves.
Through convincing performances, exaggerated reactions and silly, hilarious and extravagant situations, the comedy presents credible characters who will question, among other issues, the unrealistic narratives and frivolous and undramatic stories frequently present in BL series and films.
The Japanese series will receive the majority rejection of BL lovers for presenting very little romantic content, for the lack of chemistry between the actors, for telling a light story that consciously chooses to be frivolous and inconsequential, and even for being filmed in vertical format, but it fulfills its intentions of making the public reflect on the very nature of cinematographic representation, as well as exploring its operation and surprising viewers, through cinematographic techniques, of showing a story in which the characters are actors, act and even recreate scenes from a drama to be filmed in the near future.
'Actors High!' fulfills its purposes of creating a metanarrative, that is, a story within a story, which can add layers of meaning and complexity to the main plot, thanks to the well-achieved concept of "cinema within cinema."
Additionally, the series can serve as a form of self-reflection on the part of the director or screenwriter, allowing them to show and examine their creative process.
Don't miss it. Recommended for movie lovers.
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Portrait of the legal and social marginalization suffered by LGBT+ people in Thailand
What are "rights"? Are they something that all people are entitled to, regardless of age, origin, culture and any other circumstance, or do we earn it? Does the law have the power to dictate them or can we simply assume that we are entitled to enjoy the rights due to circumstances or tradition?These questions arise in my mind from the opening scenes of 'The Paradise of Thorns', Boss Naruebet Kuno's feature debut, which takes viewers on a gripping emotional journey to address love, loss and the harsh realities of inequality legal in a compelling and visually impressive way.
Thongkam (Jeff Satur) and Sek (Pongsakorn Mettarikanon) are a gay couple who are married in every sense except the legal formalities, and who have spent five years building a durian orchard and the house they live in in the area rural Mae Hong Son.
But when Sek has an accident and goes to the hospital, the doctors refuse to recognize Thongkam as his partner, insisting that only Sek's elderly mother, Saeng (Seeda Puapimon), can sign a consent form for a surgical operation. An accident means that Saeng never makes it in time and Sek dies, revealing the harsh reality that same-sex marriage was not legally recognized in Thailand at the time of the film's release.
Sek's death leaves Thongkam vulnerable to draconian inheritance laws and family members eager to take away what the couple has built.
These scenes alone, in which men are unable to make decisions on behalf of the other when one is incapacitated, should be enough of an example of why marriage equality is so important everywhere.
The house and durian orchard, which belong to both men in spirit, turned out to be in Sek's name. This generates complications after his death, when the invalid mother and her adopted daughter Mo (Engfa Waraha), in charge of pushing the wheelchair, arrive to claim what they believe is theirs.
Thongkam will challenge the intentions of mother and adopted daughter, but since equal marriage is not recognized, the courts side with them, forcing the young man to ask Saeng to hire him as staff to manage the orchard, along with Mo's brother, Jingna (Harit Buayoi).
And right at this moment I ask myself other questions: Would Thongkam have had a happier fate in Thailand today, after becoming the first country in Southeast Asia, the third in Asia and the thirty-seventh on a global scale on January 23, 2025 in allowing legal unions for homosexual couples, and granting adoption and inheritance rights to same-sex couples? Is this a rare case where real life might be better than the movies?
Precisely, this is the theme explored in the film, which aims to paint a compelling and comprehensive image of how marginalized LGBTQ+ people have been legally and socially in that nation for decades.
The melancholic music, especially the song "Rain Wedding", performed by Satur himself, in collaboration with Vichaya Vatanasapt, who is also responsible for the heartbreaking musical themes of 'I Told Sunset About You', adds nuances to the plight of Thongmak, while he watches helplessly as the beloved garden that he raised with tooth and nail with Sek slips out of his hands.
But as the film shifts into a black comedy as he tries to overcome the situation he finds himself in, so does the music, which borders on suspense, preparing the audience for what awaits them.
With a tagline that reads "the land of love and resentment" it is evident from the beginning that the film is not feel-good cinema.
Quickly, the narrative jumps right into the action with death, which is the catalyst for all the events of the film.
Soon Thongkam will understand that the world will not be kind to him, which leads him to plan revenge, and he transforms into the antihero.
Similarly, Mo and Saeng offer an image of malevolent characters, to later show that things are not so black and white.
Although the film gets dark at times, the rivalry between Mo and Thongkam keeps it entertaining. While they are opposites of each other, an opportunistic and selfish woman versus a desperate and romantic farmer, when they start playing each other's games, we realize that they are quite similar.
Through Thongkam's eyes, Saeng and Mo are invading, malevolent forces coming to steal what is his. Saeng even evicts the young man from the bed he shared with Sek, and, to make matters worse, urinates in it. The consequences of her motor disability are used by Kuno to, behind Thongkam's back, also create a feeling of sympathy for both women.
However, the two evil women will even go so far as to expel Thongkam from his own house and his own land. To get back what is his, the young man invents his own plan to please them: a cunning and slow revenge plot that will captivate the viewer, considering the two faces that Thongkam comes to have.
On the one hand, he is practically a classic Disney villain, with a heart of gold and a justified grudge, and the actor who plays him completes the contours of the character with grit and ductility.
The actors bring great passion to their work: Engfa Waraha's performance as Mo is complex and formidable. It reminds me of Cersei Lannister, the fictional character from 'Game of Thrones'. Deeply narcissistic and ambitious, Mo will stop at nothing to take over the house and orchard, and shows little to no regard for others. She is filled with bitterness for having pushed Saeng's wheelchair for 20 years, an effort with which she hoped to be rewarded with Sek's love and recognized as the invalid matriarch's heir.
Since much of the story takes place from Thongkam's perspective, Mo is initially portrayed as a villain, but the very well-rounded performance of the actress who brings the character to life shows us that there is more to her.
Jeff Satur as Thongkam is sympathetic and desperate, a character you can really root for even when his methods of staying on the farm are morally questionable. Her encounters under the mosquito net with the Jingna eventually develop into a tender romance, and you soon find yourself rooting for them both to live happily. Unfortunately, a third act breaking point for Thongkam puts an end to that fantasy.
The colors also define the moods and moments of the film. Warm, romantic tones accompany Thongkam's honeymoon scenes, taking on a harsh tone as Mo and Saeng's true colors come to light. At these moments the lighting becomes harsh and yellowish, as a sign of the rupture of the happiness that reigned in the past in the house and the garden.
The colors perfectly characterize the characters: Mo switches between muted and bright shades of pink, representing her emotional journey. For his part, we see in the young farmer how his out-of-place aesthetic predominates, with leather jackets and shiny dresses, in the same way that society does not accept relationships between two men.
After directing several television series, such as 'I Told Sunset about You' and 'I Promised You the Moon', Boss Kuno applies what he learned on the serialized television set, delivering very high-quality images, an attractive young cast and high dramatic tension, to bring us a story divided into equal parts of revenge thriller, LGBTQ+ drama and social commentary.
The plot, written by Kuno and his collaborators Naron Cherdsoongnern and Karakade Norasethaporn, paints a picture of homophobia, seen primarily through the verbal battles between the mother and Thongkam; the social inequality faced by homosexual couples, while also shedding light on the plight of women like Mo, who have no chance of moving up the social ladder except marrying into a rich family or resorting to crime, manipulation, lying...
A film with many symbolisms: the scene of the moth sitting on Thongkam's nose is a great metaphor for the transformation when Thongkam decides to take justice into his own hands to avenge the damage caused, not so much by the mother-in-law and Mo, but by the Thai laws that deny you the right to what is yours as property.
The cultural richness of Thailand shown in the film should also be highlighted, with events such as monastic ordination, the first rain and traditional weddings, but also consciously used as a determining factor in the conflict.
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An essential Chinese political-erotic drama
The images run before my eyes once again. I resist filling the blank page with my ideas. I fear that on this occasion, as on so many others, I will not be able to say everything about this political-erotic drama full of nuances and trust, that something will get stuck in my throat and I will not be able to express what I feel correctly.Next to me lies, open to its last page, a volume of the story by writer Wang Xiao Bo, who became co-writer, which tells a story of oppression and torment set in a time and place where people were criminals if they were part of the community LGBT+. To understand what happens before my eyes, I need to drink from its most intimate and pure essences. That's why I go to the book as well as the movie.
I think I see A Lan before me touring the two parks, the East Palace, the West Palace, with its public bathrooms, more than in search of sex with other homosexuals, trying to bump into the policeman he has fallen in love with. . It all happens there, behind the Forbidden City, behind the doors of the Palace, in Beijing.
It's 1996 and Zhang Yuan, the Sixth Generation filmmaker, comes to my aid to tell me the story about a repressed and latent homoerotic relationship between a "master and a slave". I enjoy the intense and dark author's chamber piece that leads me to learn about the relationship between an openly gay writer and a police officer who refuses to accept himself because he is overcome by a strong internalized homophobia.
I glimpse Xiao Shi, the handsome man with big hands, those hands that A Lan loves so much, how he fulfills the young gay writer's dreams of being arrested and interrogated by a police officer, it doesn't matter to him if it's for "vandalism".
I witness Xiao Shi go from initial repulsion to fascination and finally attraction. I judge that the accusation of intolerance is not intended to be limited to the Chinese government, but rather to that which is manifested in all parts of the world regardless of the political regime of a given country.
I distinguish before me eros, death and sensuality walking the avenues towards sadomasochism. I sense a possible reconciliation and even the beginning of a romantic relationship between the gay writer and his captor.
I discover in Jian Zhang's beautiful photography how two worlds collide. I notice the back and forth, the initial imbalance of power between victim and executioner. I notice how the power dynamic changes between these two people over the course of a single night, in the middle of an interrogation.
I experience that the writer, from his playful kiss that left the policeman perplexed, to the confrontation between the two moments before the final credits roll, never gives up or shows signs of self-pity.
The images run before my eyes once again, and allow me to appreciate that the effeminate and masochistic, who may seem submissive, transforms, towards the middle of a film that equally transforms into both a power game and a gender performance, upon receiving the freedom granted by Xiao Shi to tell the story of his life.
I enjoy how he manages to turn the interrogation room into his own stage, where he is not only able to spread his wings and fly, but also to shout his love to the police officer.
I evaluate the analysis of gender and sexuality, the replay between pain and pleasure. I recognize myself, like so many others, in the feelings expressed in this film. I appreciate how A Lan can express that she could be a man or a woman, a goddess or a prostitute, the thief in love with her jailer.
I watch as the prisoner assumes the position of power and completely dominates (and even hypnotizes) his captor and all the spectators. And if there is one complaint, it is the script, for not giving a writer, like A Lan, more power over his words to counterattack the uniformed man, and only repeatedly using a single reason: "It's not disgusting. It's love. You can find me despicable, but my love is not".
I appreciate in the film the use of Piaget's genetic psychology and his atmospheric Fassbinder.
I allow myself another regret, the last one, I assure you, but one that affects the film not being much better than it already is: unfortunately, Hu Jun does not always seem to know what to do, how to function in front of the cameras, while his interest in the life story of the homosexual man he interrogates is not given the necessary nuance.
However, I vibrate as I listen to A Lan reply to the policeman, "You've been asking me this whole time. Why don't you ask yourself?" In this way, 'East Palace, West Palace' returns to itself the institutional inquisition that pursues queerness, asking about its own queer nature.
I open my eyes as the film plays with the limits and rules of attraction and seduction as one man's story becomes another's gateway.
I compare the film with that experience that we have all had of risking everything for the opportunity to be ourselves, whether in the search for love, sex, happiness, or simply those moments of connection with other people who can feel like oneself.
I sharpen my senses about how the film also explores the complicated relationship between gay men and the desire to feel loved by those in power, both in the figure of a law enforcement official and in that of the rich daddy that the writer once followed to his house, to receive the burning of the lit cigarette butt in his chest.
I believe that by turning the police interrogation process into seduction, Zhang Yuan's film subverts expectations as expected, and crosses the borders between pain and pleasure, between hate and love.
I distinguish that the emotional structure of the story and the enthusiasm that Si Han and Hu Jun put into expressing their lines make this film moving, beautiful, and shocking. It is a triumph for those who were handcuffed and imprisoned for their sexual identity.
I estimate that it is in that moment, as well as during the 90 minutes of footage, that we can appreciate queer cinema at its maximum expression of gay liberation, a political cinema at its most subversive and resistant, while analyzing how malleable the presentation of the human being to the world. Because the film also fulfills its objective of functioning as an intriguing experiment on the clash between the State and personal space, between the public dimension and private life.
The images run before my eyes once again, and I notice how the cut scenes, in magnificent and precise flashbacks, fill in the missing story of the mysterious writer's past of suffering.
I thus learn about A Lan's hidden desires at school, her relationship with her mother, the sad existence of "Omnibus" (Vicki Zhao), her classmate that anyone can ride; the public shame that the homosexual suffers, his first sexual experience, his furtive encounters in abandoned places with other gay men; how pain has led him to be the person he is, how he has preferred pain rather than being ignored...
In this way I understand the dreamlike epiphanies of the androgynously stylized Chinese theater, whose images also roll before my eyes.
I do not lose sight of the fact that through questions and answers the tumultuous life of the person questioned since his childhood is narrated, the difficulties that come with being homosexual in China, and how the brief intimate scenes of A Lan's life blur the feelings of the man who wear uniform.
I resist the idea that this gay film was written and directed by a straight filmmaker, especially since the portrayal of the queer character is riddled with stereotypes.
However, I applaud that 'East Palace, West Palace' escapes the stereotypical view of narcissistic heterosexual directors, and doesn't tell us one more tearjerking trope about the story of a sad, lonely queer man who has been oppressed all his life and accidentally falls for himself. falls in love with the apparently "straight" police officer who tortures him, because one of the strengths of the film is to present as the protagonist a homosexual character who has almost disappeared in conventional cinema on a global scale due to the horrific process of assimilation of the community and gay culture.
In this sense, Zhang Yuan uses all the queer expressions and traits that are most irritating to heterosexuals. He never sugarcoats the young writer's life and experience of sexuality, to interrogate the very core of homophobia and internalized homophobia, that self-hatred that the character played by Hu Jun feels towards himself.
I see the loud cry for help, both political and sexual, which in this case go hand in hand.
I see the amazing and moving performance of the real-life gay man. I was amazed to learn that Si Han was there as part of the technical team and was only chosen because the supposed protagonist dropped out at the last minute.
The images run before my eyes once again. Contrary to the way Western critics try to frame the film, I don't think the film criticizes the "authoritarian government". Firstly, there are no major differences between how an American LGBT+ film from the 90s criticizes the way society and the state approach homosexuality and what Zhang Yuan's film examines.
That's not to say it's all the same, but simply that certain sections of the public would like to use what was shown in 'East Palace, West Palace' as evidence of some specifically unique and more terrible oppression in China.
The truth is that just by watching the film, I do not feel or see the supposed repression that Western propaganda seeks to impose, ignoring, in the process, the realities of nearby countries. Clear example of political motivation.
I resist the idea that the topics presented are intended to explicitly attack China. However, obviously the film does talk about what is accepted and what is not accepted within any society, in this case the Chinese one.
But A Lan himself raises his voice at this, and expresses (paraphrasing): "we are all different and we walk at our different paces, but we are identical." That is, the repression suffered by the main character throughout his life can be similar to that suffered by any homosexual in any heteronormative and patriarchal society.
Even in societies that are supposedly more liberated with respect to homosexuality, such as the United States, from the beginning of 2023 until today there has been an unparalleled process of legislative violence and regression in the human rights of LGTB+ people.
I am referring to the approval of anti-LGBT+ laws by different states that openly limit different facets of the rights of said community, which aim to put the members of this group back in the closet, and which will begin in 2022 when Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, approved the Don't Say Gay Bill, whose text prohibits teaching any educational content related to sexual orientation or gender identity to students between 3 and 17 years old, and requires that the educational curriculum necessarily define he sex as "determined by biology and reproductive functions" and gender as "binary, stable and fixed".
I believe it is necessary to make these distinctions because too often legitimate criticism is used by opponents as incendiary ammunition. It would be an injustice to this film if it were used like this.
The images flash before my eyes once again, and I hear Min Xiang's music, while the audience gives a standing ovation to 'East Palace, West Palace' at its premiere at the Mar del Plata Film Festival in Argentina, in November 1996, and at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival.
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Between cruel, deceitful, and loving and nostalgic characters
'Stealing from My CEO' is a Chinese drama and romantic series with an LGBT+ theme with a plot about two adopted brothers, Chen, from rich parents, and Gang, a poor orphan, who are separated, while still children, when an ambitious employee of the family mansion hatches plans to steal and blame Gang.Thirteen years later, now young, the two adopted brothers meet again. By then, Chen has assumed the name Lucas and is a successful CEO, engaged to the ambitious employee's daughter, Nana, who, posing as Gang's biological sister, manipulated Lucas' guilt into convincing him to commit to she.
Meanwhile, Gang finds it impossible to tell Lucas his true identity, because during that time, without relatives, home or friends, he has been forced to be a thief by Green Dragon, a man who picked him up on the streets after escaping, and now pressures Gang to rob Lucas and his fiancee's house. To carry out the heist, Gang will have the help of Crane, Green Dragon's son. The story also tells of a love triangle between Lucas, Gang and Crane.
Good and evil characters, drama, intrigue, boss-employee relationship, love triangle, romance, tension, threats, dangers and adventures are the ingredients of the series.
Despite being poor and orphaned, and the mistreatment to which he was subjected, Gang, the main character, is a noble and innocent spirit, a quality that he preserves contrary to all the suffering he has suffered in his childhood and adolescence.
The series, signed in vertical format, also has a moral purpose, through the reflection of the life led by the most marginal sector of society, since having lived among scammers and thieves, both Crane and Gang survive with candor and innocence, wanting not to continue their lives as thieves and, instead, study to be able to enter university and carve out a future free from criminal acts.
Despite its low budget and numerous flaws: linear content marked by conventionality, emotional affectation, narrative scheme of melodramatic and sentimental exaggeration, overacting, low blows, reproduction of gender stereotypes, caricature characters, linking economic success with crime, discrimination and little desire to investigate social contexts, the series seeks to criticize the lack of protection of the most disadvantaged classes, the determinism that can lead directly from poverty to crime and inhumanity.
Between cruel and deceitful characters, on the one hand, and loving and nostalgic characters, on the other, it will be discovered who the young employee in Lucas and Nana's house really is.
'Stealing from My CEO' paints the misfortune of two young people who hope to escape with their own efforts from a world of theft that is not the one they dreamed of the squalid moral misery of a father who forces his children to steal, the undeserved life of opulence of ambitious father and daughter who will do anything to climb the ranks of society, and a young man who has not forgotten the one he once called brother and with whom he shared games and laughter in childhood.
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However, every place they go they find reserved rooms. It's a Saturday night, and many couples long to have sex and live a few hours of adventure.
As they wander through the streets and alleys of Hong Kong, from hotel to hotel, which at that time are completely booked, the two young men get closer and open up about their past: Alan tells Ben about his first hookup experience, At the age of 17, in a school uniform, he went with the only boyfriend he has had to a villa, where they do not allow two men to rent a room, and since then he has not found a place where she could have sex. Therefore, tonight, with Alan, she would have her first sexual experience.
While they spend the night walking together, Alan will confess that he hates McDonald's food and everything related to the services of this food chain, because he went with his ex-boyfriend to one of these places every day after class, and it was there where the boy ended the relationship.
For his part, Ben will reveal that he was also in one of these establishments when he last saw his mother, since the woman abandoned him with his younger sister, and since then he has not seen her again.
With his father dead for years, he had to separate from his sister when he was taken in by another relative, while he went to live with the family of the girl who organized the party where they met.
Answering questions, Ben also reveals his Chinese name: Won Ka Chun, and having been in five or six relationships up to that point.
As they chat about which male celebrities they would both like to sleep with, their day surprises them. At this point, their conversations have opened up many possibilities beyond erection and lust: Is love possible? Will there be a chance to move forward? Is sex the only bond that unites them?
With a duration of 20 minutes, 'After Erection', the short film filmed in Hong Kong in 2017, stars Lei Jeun Sek and Lee Wai Lok. The first, an actor, screenwriter and director known for directing the film 'Tracey' (2018), which tells the story of a transgender man and his struggles in Hong Kong, takes on the role of Ben.
In his fight to make the LGBT+ community visible, Lei Jeun Sek has worked on the films 'Drifting' (2021), 'Forever 17' (2019), and 'I Miss You When I See You' (2018), among others.
Meanwhile, Lee Wai Lok, who plays Alan, has his acting debut and only role in his career to date in this short film.
'After Erection' appears to be a version of the Taiwanese LGBT+ themed romantic short film 'YuXiang & Mark' (鈺翔和馬克), filmed in 2016, written and directed by Huang Sheng Tim, but in it instead of Ben and Alan the The names of the two characters are the same as those that give the work its title, as well as the setting is not Hong Kong, but Taiwan.
And although neither of the two short films has high levels of production and interpretation, I like the one produced in Hong Kong better, because I find greater depth in the script, I manage to empathize better with its protagonists by providing greater strength in their human connections, without ignoring music, editing, dramaturgy, photography, sets, among other technical aspects.
'After Erection' reflects some of the difficulties faced by the LGBT+ community in Hong Kong at the time it was filmed, specifically having trouble trying to find public places to have sex.
'However, films like this and actions such as those carried out by activists for the rights of this human group, such as Lei Jeun Sek, have made it possible for today, 7 years later, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Hong Kong to celebrate some achievements, such as that granted by the Court of Final Appeal, which in a historic ruling on September 5, 2023, urges the Hong Kong government to establish a legal framework for the recognition of same-sex couples, marking a milestone in the fight for equality and human rights.
Although it does not grant full marriage rights, this ruling represents a hopeful victory for the community, by supporting civil unions between people of the same sex, a legal process that has not yet concluded.
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The theme of love is universal
"The theme of love is universal, regardless of gender orientation." This is how Adolfo Alix Jr., the director of 'Unlocked', the Filipino anthology filmed in 2020 with iPhone about homosexual relationships during the confinement caused by the pandemic in Manila, responded when answering how he came up with the idea of telling these stories.Scripted by the director himself and Jerome Zamora, each episode of the series, which at the time became the most viewed in the history of the LGBT+ streaming platform GagOOLala, addresses a different queer story, cast, and genre, but they all share the same context: how the Covid-19 pandemic has altered the already difficult lives of the LGBT+ community in the Philippines.
"During the early days of quarantine in Manila, I had LGBT+ friends who were trying to understand the 'new normal' while navigating the realities of the pandemic. So, I thought about developing stories where the pandemic can be a circumstance that prompts us to examine their relationships, like a kind of purge, whether it's physical distance or developing paranoia about the situation."
In the words of the Filipino director, people become more vulnerable to the stressors around them. In the circumstances caused by Covid-19, each individual was able to share more time with their loved ones and, locked in the confines of a limited space, they were able to unlock emotions and realities that put their relationships to the test, while at the same time they faced fear not only of contracting the virus, but also the feeling of uncertainty, often like their relationships.
In this way, the idea arose to create a series in which love would be the link that would connect the nine episodes of the anthology, since its characters reflect a variety of queer relationships that jump off the screen and resonate with viewers.
Family love, romantic love, long-distance love... Although the anthology uses a realistic and bittersweet tone, it shows the strength of human connections with our loved ones in difficult times. That is the main message that the series conveys.
It also reflects the atmosphere of uncertainty that prevailed during the pandemic. With lives disrupted and held hostage by quarantine, people became more vulnerable to the stressors around them, from limited mobility and work-related stress to the complex relationships they have with their partners, family or friends.
Knowing that stories like those reflected in the series are not only specific to Manila or the rest of the Philippines, Portico Media, the group behind GagaOOLala, gave the green light to the project.
With solid performances, in all the stories I liked the script, despite some holes. For example, in episode 4 I didn't understand what really happened to Mr. Greg's husband, whether he died or left home; while in 5, I couldn't understand how Ivan's mother knew what he did for a living and why put it out there that way, but overall it's a great series.
Given the limitations of filming during lockdown, some of the episodes, while fascinating and relatable, are rough around the edges, making them sting even more with thematic pertinence.
The anthology demonstrates that the LGBT+ community's journey is not all sunshine and rainbows. There are many experiences that remain locked in memories and experiences. 'Unlocked' opens our world to the trials and tribulations of a community, already repressed by society, and how they triumphantly overcome them.
The main conflict that the small four-person team led by Adolfo Alix Jr. faced was filming during the confinement. With safety as their top priority, they filmed all episodes using an iPhone, using familiar available locations, and working closely with the actors because they wanted them to be comfortable and safe.
The beautiful and emotional music by Mikoy Morales and Alex Diaz contribute to the recognition that while the stories are framed in the realities of the LGBTQ+ experience, the accessibility issues they address go beyond their niche market.
Each episode has the names of the characters as its title. The debut episode, 'Andrew & Brix', tells the story of a middle-class young man named Andrew (Markki Stroem) who, heartbroken due to a recent breakup, invites Brix (Mike Liwag) on the first night of quarantine, a rent boy she met online, to have a sex encounter. As the night progresses, their conversations open up many possibilities: healing and connection, lust and love… and probably moving on. Is Andrew ready to commit again to someone like Brix?
The episode stars Ardel Presentacion as Andrew's ex-boyfriend.
This episode was followed by 'Calvin & Drake', starring with convincing aplomb by Oliver Aquino ('Tale of the Lost Boys', 'Jino to Mari') and Miguel Almendras (Junjun from the popular BL series 'Hello, Stranger'), two young lovers since college, who are forced to learn good and unattractive things about each other as their increasingly toxic relationship unravels during lockdown.
The third episode, 'Eli & Frankie', the main characters played brilliantly by US-based Angeli Bayani and Angelina Kanapi, is about a young mother trying to reconnect with her lesbian lover who is now living a quiet life abroad.
The fourth episode, 'Greg & Harold', is about an old teacher named Greg (Joel Saracho) who is teaching online classes during lockdown and whose life will change when a young stranger (Ross Pesigan) shows up at his door and asks to borrow money your bathroom for a quick shower.
The fifth episode, 'Ivan and Jack', sees Jerould Golde Aceron (exceptional in his award-winning performance as a hermaphrodite in 'Metamorphosis'), playing Ivan, a boy who, desperate to raise money to bring his mother from Switzerland to house is forced to use his body to get the attention of his clients, since the pandemic makes it difficult for him to have decent job opportunities. When you go viral online for your "noble" reason behind what you're doing, are you caught in a dilemma between right and wrong, as you examine your true motivation behind your actions? Is he really doing it out of love for his mother or out of love for himself? Joining this actor is Evelyn Vargas as Jack.
The sixth episode, 'Kyle & Kyle' tells the story of Kyle (Adrian Alandy), who is trying to finish his script while in quarantine. The young man begins to feel and see strange things in his apartment, even in front of his exact facsimile. Is the double a projection of himself, a figment of his wild imagination, or a manifestation of his psychological breakdown? What follows is a spiral between fantasy and reality. At his side appear Marx Topacio as Jake, and Stephanie Sol as Lani.
Six episodes were initially planned, but seeing the audience's interest in these small but emotional stories, director Adolfo Alix Jr. wanted to expand the number of original episodes to nine.
In this way, the seventh episode, 'Luke & Matt', tells the story of Luke, a young man who loses his father to Covid-19 and now has the opportunity to reconnect with his father's lover. The visit brings back memories and pain that both of them experienced in the past. Can they finally forgive each other and put past sins behind them?
The episode stars Vince Rillon, the Filipino actor who leads the cast of Brillante Mendoza's Netflix series 'Amo' in the role of Luke, and top model Kirst Viray ('Mulawin vs Ravena', 'Ang sa Iyo ay Akin').
The eighth episode, 'Neo & Omar', is director Adolfo's vision of the current BL trend with a teenage romantic story full of nostalgia starring child actor Miggs Cuaderno and Savior Ramos, the son of actor Wendell Ramos, in his first acting role: Neo (Miggs Cuaderno), a shy and mute young man, and Omar (Savior Ramos), a mischievous teenager, are forced to live together by their frontline parents during the quarantine to keep them safe. Their cat-and-mouse banter evolves into a kind of budding bromance, complicated by the accidental possibility of an innocent kiss.
'Unlocked' ends with a very special episode, 'Pancho, Quinn & Ryan,' which marks Markki Stroem's return to the series after starring in its controversial first episode. This episode follows a gay couple consisting of Ryan (Miggy Campbell) and Quinn (Markki Stroem) in an open relationship with Pancho (JC Tan), suddenly faced with a reality during the pandemic: everyone is unhappy with the situation. The "trio" tries to reconcile their feelings for each other. What follows conveys the complexities of the men's complicated relationship that abounds in love, pain, secrets and lies.
Thanks to its popularity and good reception by the public and critics, 'Unlocked' was nominated in the "Best Drama/Feature/Quarantine-Themed Program" category at the Content Asia Awards, part of the Content Asia Summit, one of the leaders of entertainment and events in the sector in the region.
I recommend everyone to see this significant anthology because, in my opinion, it manages to integrate the struggles of the characters in each story into the series as a whole. On the other hand, it shows a side of relationships that resembles real life in the midst of quarantine. Situations that certainly did not romanticize the confinement, and showed a spectacle that thousands of people faced, which is maintaining a relationship, or managing to get out of it, in the context of the pandemic, be it love, family, friendship...
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Their world turns upside down when Yates (Markus Paterson), Grey's crush, returns from the United States. Grey's heart races at the chance to rekindle his old love, but his plans are derailed when Yates unexpectedly confesses his feelings for Jonas.
By enlisting Gray's help to win Jonas's heart, Yates puts Gray in a love triangle he never saw coming. As the plot unfolds, Gray is faced with a crucial decision: support Yates in her conquest of Jonas or take the opportunity to rekindle her own love story and prove that love knows no stereotypes.
This is another film about a boy (or three) facing his sexuality and searching for love and happiness. In reality, a film that dealt well with this topic would be novel, but that is not the case. And what bothers me the most is that it is directed and written by Iván Andrés Payawal and Ash Malanum, respectively, the filmmakers of 'Gameboys', 'Gameboys: The Movie', among other series and films, and the lovers of series and feature films LGBT+ Filipinos (and universals, why not?) recognize what this means.
What bothers me the most is that it stars Tommy Alejandrino, whom I loved in his role as Nikko in 'The Day I Loved You', Kiel Aguilar, who stole my heart playing Dave in 'Osmosis' and Jerome in 'Our Story', and Markus Paterson, who still steals my smiles and sighs since I discovered him in the role of Simon in 'Hello Stranger: The Movie', three actors who, with a better script and better constructed characters, would have made the film hit the mark.
'Pretty Boys' is a simple story with fairly flat characters. The girl in love with the confessed homosexual, the three declared homosexual boys who are not sure of anything or are too silent or declare their love so superficially that they do not move anyone, the members of the technical team of the play who contribute nothing to the story... All very topical and, deep down, a reflection of a reality.
The problem is that such a serious topic requires being treated in another way, at least with credible characters. Furthermore, the story seems to be in a nebula, since the protagonist's objective seems to change with each scene; and suddenly, everything happens in the last four, maybe two minutes, leaving only dissatisfaction.
The film is entertaining, but it doesn't contribute anything because not even the director knows what he wants to tell.
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