cz2k

I just want to share some disorganized thoughts about the finale and Part 2 in general:

To be honest, I didn’t enjoy Part 2 nearly as much as I did Part 1. ITSAY was a masterpiece and IPYTM just didn’t quite live up to my expectations. However, I will say that I really, really love this episode. I don’t know what exactly it was, but this episode managed to bring back the feelings I had watching Part 1. I think it might be the long scenes of just the two of them expressing their feelings to each other that had been missing for the past 4 episodes, I think that’s when the characters of Teh and Oh (as well as Billkin and PP as actors themselves) really shine. I really liked the direction they went with Teh in this episode after having him be a bad partner/friend/person for most of Part 2. It felt like he truly realized his mistakes for once and finally showed some signs of emotional growth (only took him 4 years). I also liked the sentiment at the end that reflected the ending of Part 1 that they may not love each other forever, but they will always keep each other in their lives.

I do think this episode felt a little fast, as did the entire season really. I think the story the writers wanted to tell in Part 2 would’ve benefitted from a couple more episodes. Getting to watch Teh and Oh’s relationship slowly and gradually develop was the reason Part 2 felt so emotional and impactful, I feel that rushing through four years within 5 episodes left too much up to the audience to fill in the blanks and it made it harder to understand why the characters (mostly Teh really) acted the way they did.

I’m glad we saw Bas and the old cast return, I genuinely was not expecting to see them again in Part 2. I did think it was strange how absent they were throughout the story though, considering this episode implied that Bas was studying in Bangkok this whole time. Plus, Mod literally went to the same university as Teh, like did they really not see each other at all in those four years? The rest of the old friend group still seem close, why didn’t we see Teh and Oh interact with them at all?

The shots in this episode were absolutely gorgeous. The rooftop scene was beautiful and the whole wedding sequence was stunning. I don’t know if it’s the colour grading or the subtle grain but that ending scene on the beach almost looked like it was shot on film. Really glad I ordered the photobooks because the cinematography is truly spectacular.

Overall, I’m still glad I decided to experience this series as it happened. I don’t think I’ll end up following BL as a whole, but I really hope the success of this series lead to more stories with realistic depictions of LGBT characters in Thai media and I also hope big production houses in Thailand follow in Nadao/GDH’s foot steps by investing in cinema quality series like this in the future.

I personally wouldn’t say that PP’s singing is bad, but I do think his voice is weak. His voice suits the songs he did for Part 1, but the songs they gave him in Part 2 would’ve been better suited for someone with a stronger voice. It’s kinda hard though, he’s being compared to Billkin who has had vocal training since he was a little.

I actually preferred the production on PP’s version of Fake News and was hoping we would get that with Billkin’s vocals. I don’t mind the rock instrumentation too much, but the mixing on Billkin’s version is kinda off to the point where there’s like a weird sharp tone coming from the left channel that makes it unlistenable.

I haven’t seen many people talk about the music in Part 2. I think overall, the OST hasn’t been as good as Part 1. I honestly loved every single track from the first soundtrack because they sounded so cinematic and grand. I think going for a more synth and drum machine heavy sound with the new OST made a lot of sense with the new setting, but I personally think Safe Zone and Hold Me Tight are just a little bit boring and sound too similar to what Nadao Music have already been outputting for all their other artists. I also wished they went with the Part 1 route of incorporating the OST into the scenes like how they had แปลไม่ออก playing during the boat scene in episode 2 of Part 1. Part 2 feels more like a companion soundtrack rather than an OST because the songs never appear in the episodes or when they do it doesn’t really feel meaningful.

That being said, I think Safe Zone has grown on me a bit and I really love Fake News. I’m glad they brought Atom back to write it because he really is a talented songwriter and แปลไม่ออก was my favourite track from Part 1. Hopefully we get another song with Billkin, because while I do love PP’s singing voice, Billkin is definitely the stronger and more comfortable singer.

Exactly, it’s like time is moving in the story, but the characters seem to stay the same. So much happens in the first year or two of university for most people that I think they could’ve written a great story around that. What I loved about Part 1 was being able to watch their relationship naturally develop and the slow build-up towards the climax. Every episode flowed into the next and created new conflicts that you look forward to seeing in the next episode. I’m afraid with Part 2, the episodes will feel like a collage of separate conflicts in their relationship without much lasting consequence.

I really think that trying to doing too much with so little time will be the main fault of Part 2. Too many new characters to introduce and not enough time to develop them. The trailer was hinting towards Oh’s new friends being a crucial part of the conflict down the line yet we’ve barely seen them in the two episodes. I’m liking the new characters, but I feel like the old cast still had potential in the story as well. Like you said, they were focusing on Oh’s home sickness but never showed how going home and seeing his old friends and family would affect him. I thought it was weird that we don’t really even see him at least text his old friends anymore, especially Mod, who’s supposedly not only studying in Bangkok as well, but literally at the same university as Teh. I know that friend groups tend to part ways somewhat after high school, but if you’ve been that close with them for so many years, keeping in touch with your old friend is usually still an important part of your life.

I’m already realizing that my opinion will be polarizing, but as someone who was obsessed with Part 1 and enjoyed last week’s episode a lot, I personally think the writers fumbled a bit here.

First of all, I’m not a huge fan of all the time jumps we got and will be getting in Part 2. I get that they want to tell the overall story of a relationship throughout the entire university experience, but this episode to me felt both rushed and dragged-on at the same time. I feel like we’re missing out on so much of the development of the relationship between Teh and Oh and their respective friend groups. We don’t get to see why Teh is suddenly very close with Khim and the rest of the group and why he was the only one freshman out of everyone else in the same drama club that became friends with the the seniors? Oh’s interest in Advertising also felt very sudden. They only showed one scene of Oh answering a pretty simple question in a lecture, then the next he’s already decided that’s what he wants to pursue. Yet, at the same time, the conflict of Teh not being able to accept the changes in his peers is dragged along for how many months in the story? I feel like these conflicts would’ve come about way sooner and possibly even resolved sooner than they were. Time jumps are usually meant to show growth in the characters over time but it just felt like after almost two years of university, Teh is still as emotionally immature as he was at the beginning of Part 1. They time jumped just for him to learn the EXACT same lessons he already learned in Part 1.

I defended Teh a lot in Part 1 when people called him whiny and manipulative because I think his actions still fit the behaviours you might expect given that he was in high school still and hadn’t even had his first real relationship yet. But honestly, the way Teh was acting in this episode just pissed me off. Feeling like the people around him owed him their fucking future career path, and then pulling the surprised Pikachu face every time he gets backlash for not thinking before he speaks. He comes across as unempathetic, self-centred, and overall incapable of learning from his mistakes. Really disliked that bath scene where he gets visibly angry at Oh for wanting to transfer, almost makes him cry, only to then turns around and say that he supports Oh. Talk about manipulative. I’m just surprised that over the amount of time that passed in this episode that none of his friends outright cut him out of their friend group.

Overall, I think they could’ve addressed this conflict with a little more nuance and without degrading Teh’s character down to a whiny dickhead. With that being said, I’m still keeping an open mind with the rest of the episodes, but I’m hoping that the next three don’t feel as disjointed as I felt this episode was.

I’ll be honest, I came in to this very skeptical about the new director, writing team, and the new setting and I was worried that I wouldn’t be into Part 2 as much as Part 1. It took a bit for me to warm up to the new style in this episode, but I’m definitely back to being obsessed with this series.

The cinematography is still on point and I’m loving that they’re using more vibrant tones in the colour grading, really reflects the change in setting from Phuket to Bangkok. I was worried that the city setting would look grey and boring on screen, but I couldn’t be more wrong.

Very glad to see that the story is nowhere near as “fluffy” as the Safe Zone music video lead me to believe, Nadao was definitely trying to misdirect us, even with the trailer. I know some people don’t like sad stories but I’m personally relieved that the drama and the emotions are still very much present. I was very surprised at how realistic the conflicts in this episode were. As a university student, I’ve definitely been through the homesickness, loneliness, and drifting apart from old friends.

While I do miss the cast from Part 1, I’m already really liking the new faces both on Teh’s side and on Oh’s side. Also nice to see that they mentioned Mod in this episode to keep with the continuity since it was said in Part 1 that he now goes to the same university as Teh. I doubt we’ll actually get to see him (or any of the other friends) on screen unfortunately, but it’s nice that the writers didn’t just forget about them considering the impact they had on the two main characters.

Overall, I’m super happy with how this season is looking, I don’t know if it will top Part 1 for me, the OST is already not as good (I’m a sucker for sad songs), but it’s still too early to judge.

Excited to watch this, glad to see that the cinematography is still on point. I think changing the DOP for Part 2 made sense given the change in scenery and mood/tone, just from the trailer alone the colors are just as pretty and vibrant as Part 1, just in a different way.

I do miss seeing the boys from Part 1 though, but it makes sense to not include all of them given that all the characters are going in separate directions for university. Although ep. 5 did show briefly that Mod got into the same uni as Teh, so I'm interested to see if they will mention him at all or if it will be retconned. Honestly, I'm not expecting to see the boys return in Part 2 other than through text messages, I believe Khunpol was busy studying for his university entrance exams and Christiaan was filming a movie and a series.

Absolutely love that score in the second half of the trailer as well, I'd love for that to be one of the OST songs.

That's granted that they don't have to reshoot anything. For Part 1 they did a month worth of shooting, then went back to Phuket after initial post-production to reshoot some scenes which I think took half a month if I remember correctly. But, I also think filming in Bangkok is a lot easier to schedule, so that's probably why they've finished so quick.

lol I've been watching Mod's actor's instagram to see if he bleached his hair yet as an indication of the old gang coming back. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like he has, but I'm still hoping for a cameo AT LEAST

A little trivia: there are now 4 actors who were in the Hormones who have been or will be in this series. Oab was in Hormones S1 and S2, Goy in S2 and S3, and Rolex (Kai) and Pea in S3.

The secret cast members were revealed. Na Naphat, Oabnithi, Goy Arachaporn, Pea Sarit, and three others who I think are newer actors?

Not only was it it Khunpol's first time doing an emotional scene, but this series is his first time ever acting on screen. He's fresh out of Nadao's talent academy and he knocked it out of the park.

I'm on the same page as you about the crew changes, but there are a couple of things that I think might ease your worry a little! First, P'Karakade stayed on for Part 2. She was the first writer that P'Boss approached to help him with Part 1 so I think she'll help hold it down when it comes to writing. The second is that P'Boss is staying on the crew as a producer. P'Yong who produced Part 1 had a pretty big influence (helping out on set, calling for the reshoot, etc.) so I think P'Boss staying as a producer means he'll have a big impact as well on how Part 2 goes.

Anyone else a little nervous about how Part 2 is gonna turn out? I’m definitely excited, but also staying cautiously optimistic. I think P’Boss set the bar so damn high with Part 1, that I’m afraid Part 2 won’t be nearly as good.

I was definitely disappointed to hear them announce that P’Boss was stepping down from Directing, and that neither him nor P’Goy are coming back to write the screenplay. We’re also losing the charm that the Phuket scenery and cultural references brought, and probably forgoing the Chinese language motif as well. I think the new team will have a tougher challenge of making sure that Part 2 differentiates itself from all the other series (BL or not) set in Bangkok. I’m also a little worried that if they plan to add more well known actors to the cast, that it would distract from the focus on Oh Aew and Teh. The supporting cast for Part 1 were all mostly newer faces (besides maybe P’Nat and and Rolex). I know they want Part 2 to feel different from Part 1, but I hope that the differences aren’t so drastic that it doesn’t really feel like the same series apart from our lead actors.

All that being said, I’m hoping that the team and P’Meen can prove my worries wrong and create another piece of art for us to enjoy.

The current speculation seems to be that the new cast members are well known actors since they’re going the effort to hide them. Oab and JJ/Jaylerr are the names being thrown around on Twitter, but then again this is just people guessing from the blessing ceremony photos.

The old cast weren’t present at the blessing ceremony (or at least they weren’t photographed), but I think Christiaan who played Mod could be coming back, since EP. 5 showed that Mod was accepted to the same University as Teh.

People are speculating that Mod (the blond kid) will at least come back for Part 2 since they showed in the last episode that he got accepted to the same university as Teh.
I really hope we at least get a cameo from the friend group as well as Tarn, they were all underrated characters.

They finished filming a few days ago, it's currently in post-production