This review may contain spoilers
I loved loved loved this, and yet
This will be short and probably not sweet regarding almost pure aestheticism, about how I have no qualms about the story or the acting which were - once again - spectacular, but rather how what suffered in this for me was the cinematography.This all will be in comparison to I Told Sunset About You, obviously, because in my head there’s no way to treat these as completely separate entities.
Not to be dramatic but I feel like this continuation is a massive drop in photography quality compared to ITSAY when he first part was the most visually stunning Thai series I’ve ever seen, and this one is—just a series.
The writing is still very very good but with the change in DP it lost the extremely distinct character the first series had; that one felt almost like a gritty oversaturated 90s arthouse Hong Kong film with the colours and the shots and the filters, and here none of this remains and it looks just like your average TV series. And that is a massive shame for a sequel to the best Thai series I’ve ever seen; this just feels common and unimaginative. Sure, the charm of the beaches and narrow streets of Phuket is gone, but Bangkok neons would still work perfectly well, if not better, in the grittiness the first season had. Maybe it works for other people and that’s fine; for me it spoiled my enjoyment of the show.
I love the more mature themes and the realities of adult relationships as I’m not particularly a fan of high school stories but that first story had airiness and freshness to it, whereas here I feel it is fluctuating and sometimes almost liveless, most often extremely raw and satisfying.
Still, I enjoyed massively the study of relationship in decay and I long for more stories like this. It was really refreshing to root for the main couple to break up.
Then again, I don’t appreciate trying to force comedic elements (and the awful on-the-nose comedic music), where there almost weren’t any before, to make it more like a typical TV series.
Don’t get me wrong, I still loved it, but if you watch it after ITSAY it just falls flat in places, especially in terms of photography. Having watched the first part, I expected another indie masterpiece, I suppose, although the production value was again shockingly high and the story was immensely engaging and compelling.
At the end of the day, I cried, twice, and then I sat looking at the wall for ten minutes after I finished, so make of this what you will.
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