I have no idea where I watched this since I endeavored to forget it existed as soon as possible. :D I'm sure I just googled it "La Belle Thai movie eng sub" usually works.
People watching shows/movies/whatever at 2x or whatever freaked me out when I learned of that a while back. I'm…
Thanks for your reply. I took care of the GMMTV problem by swearing off it. :) The comment I consumed was Boys Love, which GMMTV had a lot to do with making a thing, but everything out of Thailand in the last three years has been trash.
Back a year later for a second watch. I had forgotten most of the details but understood a lot more this time around.
As shown in my comment from a year ago below, I rated this a 9.5 at that time. On second watch, I'm taking it down a full point. The over-the-top, melodramatic score was too much a LOT of the time. It intruded on truly creepy scenes, needlessly pounding into me emotions I was already feeling, thus becoming overkill and launching the film into cheese-land at those points.
Also, the wrap up/reveal near the end went on and on and on. Several plot elements revealed then are right out of a noir/suspense/slasher film too.
For these reasons, I'm taking this down to an 8.5/10. Still worth a watch.
I accidently saw the tags , now no need to watch the whole movie ..........
Yes...do not EVER read the tags on MDL. I have begged the mods to put the them behind a "Tags" button, which would be simple to do, but the s**t-heads don't reply to my emails.
There are too many tender, delicate flowers here who are desperately afraid of being "triggered" by a bad fee-fee during a movie, and too many others here who are desperately eager to feel righteous in disguising spoilers as tags for the trigger-delicate ones to read, that there's no chance in Hell they will ever heed my requests to hide the spoiler-tags.
Thus, I have trained myself to not look at the tags if the synopsis reads even remotely like something I'd want to see. My eyes go out of focus as I read down the page, then go sharp again at cast and credits. I suggest you do likewise. :)
mdl ratings never reflect true quality. this was so good wow. very emotional and heavy but damn. out of the recent…
"mdl ratings never reflect true quality." BINGO!!! They never reflect true trash either. :) Up is down regarding MDL ratings.
This site is dominated by fangurls pining for their oppas. The ratings are shit.
I find MDL useful for a lot of other things, such as my plan to watch list, hunting down films, etc. Also, I chat with a few rare gem members here. For much more than that, it's useless.
Just googled 'average age loss of virginity by country' and you're pretty far off. It's over 18 almost everywhere.…
Asexuals comprise no more than 1% of the population. That's damn near "all." The percentage is slightly higher among 18-24 year-olds because claiming to be "ace" is a current fad, used as a screen for being unable to land a date or get laid.
Only on MDL would a nearly perfect drama like this be rated 7.8WHAT A JOKE.I loved every single thing about this…
You are so right about MDL ratings. The more lame a show is, the higher its rating and vice-versa. It IS a joke. It used to piss me off but now it makes me laugh. This place is populated with a high percentage of Western Little Girls which explains a lot. I say that as a Westerner. :)
I'm watching The Art of Negotiation and I can say he's definitely NOT wearing any wig. He coloured his hair.
For me, the white hair is hella affected. He looks like an aging Kpop idol. I don't buy that this character takes time to bleach his hair to perfection twice a month.
Wow...this flick. Majestic, beautiful, and intricate. Also confusing af and frustratingly abstruse.
I just finished my second watch and a thousand more pieces of the puzzle fell into place. However, to get to the point where I could more fully grasp the story and lose myself in the plot, I waited five months from the first watch, then just before rewatching I re-read a couple of analyses of the film online. Thus, going in this time I'd seen it once blank, given it time to sink in, read a lot of reviews and comments, waited five months, then read plot explanations in detail.
Only THEN was I able to watch this and get what the hell was going on, who was who and when, and a great deal more. How the hell a director would expect his audience to understand this film in one viewing at the theatre or online, which is all the vast majority of them will, is beyond me. Perhaps he doesn't care. I find that kind of deliberately confusing story telling annoying. At the same time, I liked this beautiful movie enough to know that I would come back to it and work to catch a clue this time. 95% of the audience will not do that. They will say "What the hell was that?" and never watch it again.
All of which is sad because this is a gorgeous piece of cinema with a lot to say, albeit through garbled speech. I have two or three troublesome questions: Why have two different actors play BaoDing young and 30 years later, but have the SAME actress play KangMin in those time frames. The latter choice was especially confusing because 30 years-older Kang was not aged by makeup AT ALL. They slapped red lipstick on her and said "There. She's 30 years older." No, no she is not.
Meanwhile, you have young BaoDing played by Edison Song, a remarkably talented actor with equally remarkably handsome and distinctive facial features, but you have a different actor with an entirely different facial structure play older BaoDing with graying hair. Thus, they look nothing alike, although we're supposed to know it's the same guy. The first time I watched I had zero clue it was the same character, which added immensely to the confusion. These choices make no sense. Edison Song should have played BaoDing at both ages and both he and the actress playing Kang should have been aged by makeup to do so.
Then, there's the script problems...suffice it to say there is a lot of clunky writing. This is a huge problem when you are trying to convey such a complicated scenario. I have come up with ways a number of these goofs could have been fixed but apparently, the director and producers didn't care enough to clean things up when it mattered: BEFORE anyone saw the finished product.
Even given all my bitching, I forgive this film of its sins because there is so much other stuff going on that is utterly divine; not least of which is the cinematography. The lighting and saturated primary/secondary colors are lovely to behold. I also like the funky/unique OST.
Final bitch: At the very end, why in the world did Kang suddenly forget what the same character in the same time frame remembered shortly before? What does that add to the story except another thing to go "wtf?" about?
Despite all this, I rate this a 9/10 because it's fascinating and it's beautiful and it's gay. :)
That's right. You should do a proper investigation and then laugh.
oops! I just did a google and found that you are indeed correct. He is NOT wearing a wig, but rather colored his hair. I stand corrected. When I viewed a couple of earlier pics posted here on MDL I thought sure the hairline looked like that of a wig. I was mistaken. Accordingly, I have changed my position to read:
Every time I see LJH in that silly silver/white dye job I laugh. Poor guy. :)
I'm watching The Art of Negotiation and I can say he's definitely NOT wearing any wig. He coloured his hair.
oops! I just did a google and find that you are indeed correct. He is NOT wearing a wig, but rather colored his hair. I stand corrected. When I viewed a couple of earlier pics posted here on MDL I thought sure the hairline looked like that of a wig. I was mistaken. Accordingly, I have changed my position to read:
Every time I see LJH in that silly silver/white dye job I laugh. Poor guy. :)
Because Thailand is a conservative country ruled by conservative military idiots.
How utterly stupid.
Yes, it is implied that F4M is naked in that scene. However, we see NOTHING more than we would see if he were wearing a Speedo, other than perhaps an inch more of skin along his hip. It is hilarious that that inch of skin and the implication of nakedness is enough to put this tame show on par with hard-core, cum-in-your-face porno. lol
It's even more amusing when one considers that Bangkok is well-known as a sex tourism destination, world-wide. :D I suppose most of the rest of the country is still in the 20th century, however. But then, those folks don't go to movies or watch TV dramas about gay boys who like fancy nail jobs.
Truth is, actors regularly use devices such as stick-on crotch covers so that they appear naked to the camera but don't have to walking around naked in front of a crew.
Same for sex scenes. Often, when we see what looks like full-on intercourse, both actors have pube-covers on so there is no genital contact. Other times not so much. I've seen a few top-quality Korean and Chinese films in which there were brief glimpses that made it clear it was pube-on-pube action going on.
Which always makes me ponder how often that leads to actual, though unintended, unsimulated sex between actors. Losing yourself in the character and the heat of the moment, I can absolutely understand how that could happen. Which is why, if I were one of those actors, I'd insist on a crotch cover, especially if I was in a relationship at the time. I'd be able to more fully commit and go for it if I knew there was NO way something was going to slip into something else and feel really good in an out-of-control way.
I am a prolific amateur and occasionally semi-professional stage actor, though I've never been required to do a sex scene on stage. I was required to walk around stark naked for half the show in one role in a well-known play though. THAT was an experience. :D
That's fascinating because in the case of both couples, I feel exactly the opposite. Bua and Chian have significant emotional/mental issues. F4M does also, but his seem more a function of how he is living, rather than who he is at his core.
I'm sending Bua and Chian off for psychiatric care and counseling...not dating of any kind for them for at least a year. I want BB and F4M together, with F4M attending mandatory, weekly sessions with a talk therapist for the foreseeable future. His core healthiness is revealed to me in moments such as when even as he created and posted that fucked-up kissing video to prod Faifa to dump him, he was desperately disgusted and upset with himself for doing so. He KNOWS his problems. He needs help accepting and dealing with them.
Another, similar moment was when BB came and sat with him in that deserted classroom as he worked on his homework and he ended up sobbing as he admitted to BB how upset he was at thinking he had lost him. He is actually VERY self-aware. It's his awareness that some of his actions are way out of line with his heart and conscience that causes him such pain.
Have we EVER seen Chian in such a moment of self-reflection and distress? No, we have not. We mainly see Chian cry with self-pity when Bua turns away from him. Then he leaps to his feet to run after F4M because he cannot bear the thought of being ALONE with himself.
Now that I say that, the scene in which he accurately summarized to Bua why he wasn't taking the bait Bua was dangling, and went on to summarize their overall, fucked-up relationship too, showed pretty damn strong self-awarenesss, at least in the moment.
All but BB could use a good chunk of time in no relationship at all.
People watching shows/movies/whatever at 2x or whatever freaked me out when I learned of that a while back. I'm…
Lectures? Wow...that's not good. No way can your brain be absorbing what you're seeing/hearing as it would at live speed. This is another good argument for compulsory, physical attendance in class. Everything is always in flux. Perhaps down the road the pendulum will swing back in that direction. I have an apartment neighbor who is a college freshman; he attends ALL his classes remotely even though he's two miles from campus and is as healthy as can be. It seems sad to me...I used to enjoy walks to and around campus, just for the air, the surroundings, and other people. He's missing all of that.
Remote attendance is a great option, depending on the circumstances. Being allowed to attend remotely even when you've moved to town and are near campus seems...absurd. Maybe a viable alternative would be allowing a limited number of remote attendances per semester.
I have wondered off and on throughout this drama, how often what I'm seeing and hearing onscreen is commentary/critique of the ubiquity of and addiction to, social media and 24/7 stimulation. Seeing F4M watching that drama at 2x, as well as when Bua consulted a chatbot for comfort and reassurance, when what he needed was a human being, his two neglectful mothers being absent, were two of the moments I considered the director might be critiquing/interrogating/commenting on it rather than merely showing it.
Wow...I'm glad I'll be dead by the time everyone's watching at 4x and AI has enslaved humanity.
On edit: Relatedly, I read an article just a couple days ago about how hand-writing notes in class engages the brain more deeply than does typing on a keyboard. In turn, that engagement makes for enhanced memory and recall. This applies to journaling as well. Studies show that hand-journaling stimulates the brain more effectively than journaling into a computer. Interesting.
People watching shows/movies/whatever at 2x or whatever freaked me out when I learned of that a while back. I'm…
Wow. I am impressed at your ability to look at that objectively and your willingness to admit to your conclusion. That's a healthy load of self-awareness there, X (maybe you should change that letter of your screenname to "Z."). :) :D All best to you.
1 
1 
I took care of the GMMTV problem by swearing off it. :) The comment I consumed was Boys Love, which GMMTV had a lot to do with making a thing, but everything out of Thailand in the last three years has been trash.
I had forgotten most of the details but understood a lot more this time around.
As shown in my comment from a year ago below, I rated this a 9.5 at that time. On second watch, I'm taking it down a full point. The over-the-top, melodramatic score was too much a LOT of the time. It intruded on truly creepy scenes, needlessly pounding into me emotions I was already feeling, thus becoming overkill and launching the film into cheese-land at those points.
Also, the wrap up/reveal near the end went on and on and on. Several plot elements revealed then are right out of a noir/suspense/slasher film too.
For these reasons, I'm taking this down to an 8.5/10. Still worth a watch.
There are too many tender, delicate flowers here who are desperately afraid of being "triggered" by a bad fee-fee during a movie, and too many others here who are desperately eager to feel righteous in disguising spoilers as tags for the trigger-delicate ones to read, that there's no chance in Hell they will ever heed my requests to hide the spoiler-tags.
Thus, I have trained myself to not look at the tags if the synopsis reads even remotely like something I'd want to see. My eyes go out of focus as I read down the page, then go sharp again at cast and credits. I suggest you do likewise. :)
They never reflect true trash either. :) Up is down regarding MDL ratings.
This site is dominated by fangurls pining for their oppas. The ratings are shit.
I find MDL useful for a lot of other things, such as my plan to watch list, hunting down films, etc. Also, I chat with a few rare gem members here. For much more than that, it's useless.
The percentage is slightly higher among 18-24 year-olds because claiming to be "ace" is a current fad, used as a screen for being unable to land a date or get laid.
The more lame a show is, the higher its rating and vice-versa. It IS a joke.
It used to piss me off but now it makes me laugh. This place is populated with a high percentage of Western Little Girls which explains a lot.
I say that as a Westerner. :)
I did my part, though: 9.5/10
Majestic, beautiful, and intricate. Also confusing af and frustratingly abstruse.
I just finished my second watch and a thousand more pieces of the puzzle fell into place.
However, to get to the point where I could more fully grasp the story and lose myself in the plot, I waited five months from the first watch, then just before rewatching I re-read a couple of analyses of the film online. Thus, going in this time I'd seen it once blank, given it time to sink in, read a lot of reviews and comments, waited five months, then read plot explanations in detail.
Only THEN was I able to watch this and get what the hell was going on, who was who and when, and a great deal more. How the hell a director would expect his audience to understand this film in one viewing at the theatre or online, which is all the vast majority of them will, is beyond me. Perhaps he doesn't care. I find that kind of deliberately confusing story telling annoying. At the same time, I liked this beautiful movie enough to know that I would come back to it and work to catch a clue this time. 95% of the audience will not do that. They will say "What the hell was that?" and never watch it again.
All of which is sad because this is a gorgeous piece of cinema with a lot to say, albeit through garbled speech. I have two or three troublesome questions:
Why have two different actors play BaoDing young and 30 years later, but have the SAME actress play KangMin in those time frames. The latter choice was especially confusing because 30 years-older Kang was not aged by makeup AT ALL. They slapped red lipstick on her and said "There. She's 30 years older." No, no she is not.
Meanwhile, you have young BaoDing played by Edison Song, a remarkably talented actor with equally remarkably handsome and distinctive facial features, but you have a different actor with an entirely different facial structure play older BaoDing with graying hair. Thus, they look nothing alike, although we're supposed to know it's the same guy. The first time I watched I had zero clue it was the same character, which added immensely to the confusion. These choices make no sense. Edison Song should have played BaoDing at both ages and both he and the actress playing Kang should have been aged by makeup to do so.
Then, there's the script problems...suffice it to say there is a lot of clunky writing. This is a huge problem when you are trying to convey such a complicated scenario. I have come up with ways a number of these goofs could have been fixed but apparently, the director and producers didn't care enough to clean things up when it mattered: BEFORE anyone saw the finished product.
Even given all my bitching, I forgive this film of its sins because there is so much other stuff going on that is utterly divine; not least of which is the cinematography. The lighting and saturated primary/secondary colors are lovely to behold. I also like the funky/unique OST.
Final bitch: At the very end, why in the world did Kang suddenly forget what the same character in the same time frame remembered shortly before? What does that add to the story except another thing to go "wtf?" about?
Despite all this, I rate this a 9/10 because it's fascinating and it's beautiful and it's gay. :)
Every time I see LJH in that silly silver/white dye job I laugh. Poor guy. :)
Every time I see LJH in that silly silver/white dye job I laugh. Poor guy. :)
I suspect this is a wise-ass comment, in which case I heartily approve. :D
Well done.
lol Well, often I don't understand them either. :D
Happy St. Patrick's Day.
Yes, it is implied that F4M is naked in that scene. However, we see NOTHING more than we would see if he were wearing a Speedo, other than perhaps an inch more of skin along his hip. It is hilarious that that inch of skin and the implication of nakedness is enough to put this tame show on par with hard-core, cum-in-your-face porno. lol
It's even more amusing when one considers that Bangkok is well-known as a sex tourism destination, world-wide. :D I suppose most of the rest of the country is still in the 20th century, however. But then, those folks don't go to movies or watch TV dramas about gay boys who like fancy nail jobs.
Truth is, actors regularly use devices such as stick-on crotch covers so that they appear naked to the camera but don't have to walking around naked in front of a crew.
Same for sex scenes. Often, when we see what looks like full-on intercourse, both actors have pube-covers on so there is no genital contact. Other times not so much. I've seen a few top-quality Korean and Chinese films in which there were brief glimpses that made it clear it was pube-on-pube action going on.
Which always makes me ponder how often that leads to actual, though unintended, unsimulated sex between actors. Losing yourself in the character and the heat of the moment, I can absolutely understand how that could happen. Which is why, if I were one of those actors, I'd insist on a crotch cover, especially if I was in a relationship at the time. I'd be able to more fully commit and go for it if I knew there was NO way something was going to slip into something else and feel really good in an out-of-control way.
I am a prolific amateur and occasionally semi-professional stage actor, though I've never been required to do a sex scene on stage. I was required to walk around stark naked for half the show in one role in a well-known play though. THAT was an experience. :D
I'm sending Bua and Chian off for psychiatric care and counseling...not dating of any kind for them for at least a year. I want BB and F4M together, with F4M attending mandatory, weekly sessions with a talk therapist for the foreseeable future. His core healthiness is revealed to me in moments such as when even as he created and posted that fucked-up kissing video to prod Faifa to dump him, he was desperately disgusted and upset with himself for doing so. He KNOWS his problems. He needs help accepting and dealing with them.
Another, similar moment was when BB came and sat with him in that deserted classroom as he worked on his homework and he ended up sobbing as he admitted to BB how upset he was at thinking he had lost him. He is actually VERY self-aware. It's his awareness that some of his actions are way out of line with his heart and conscience that causes him such pain.
Have we EVER seen Chian in such a moment of self-reflection and distress? No, we have not. We mainly see Chian cry with self-pity when Bua turns away from him. Then he leaps to his feet to run after F4M because he cannot bear the thought of being ALONE with himself.
Now that I say that, the scene in which he accurately summarized to Bua why he wasn't taking the bait Bua was dangling, and went on to summarize their overall, fucked-up relationship too, showed pretty damn strong self-awarenesss, at least in the moment.
All but BB could use a good chunk of time in no relationship at all.
Remote attendance is a great option, depending on the circumstances. Being allowed to attend remotely even when you've moved to town and are near campus seems...absurd. Maybe a viable alternative would be allowing a limited number of remote attendances per semester.
I have wondered off and on throughout this drama, how often what I'm seeing and hearing onscreen is commentary/critique of the ubiquity of and addiction to, social media and 24/7 stimulation. Seeing F4M watching that drama at 2x, as well as when Bua consulted a chatbot for comfort and reassurance, when what he needed was a human being, his two neglectful mothers being absent, were two of the moments I considered the director might be critiquing/interrogating/commenting on it rather than merely showing it.
Wow...I'm glad I'll be dead by the time everyone's watching at 4x and AI has enslaved humanity.
On edit: Relatedly, I read an article just a couple days ago about how hand-writing notes in class engages the brain more deeply than does typing on a keyboard. In turn, that engagement makes for enhanced memory and recall. This applies to journaling as well. Studies show that hand-journaling stimulates the brain more effectively than journaling into a computer. Interesting.
Dropped. 1/10