solipsism5

Yeah, but him being pushed into the water is the initial rejection, in my opinion. The kiss in the water is the reconciliation. This kind of scene has been done many times but without any symbolism. I'm not sure what it meant in ITSAY except for that their love had to remain hidden. It meant nothing in Oxygen and most other places I've seen it.

I don't know what was unsavory about the portrayals? Can you explain what you mean by that? It's just like so many people on here are just taking a knee-jerk reaction to depictions of Sikh's as if they have to be offensive. What if they had dressed as Karen people, or traditional Isan people? It would hardly be different. The Sikh people are about the most integrated people in Thailand and they certainly take no offense at this because they know they are not discriminated at all in Thailand.

Sikh's are well liked in Thailand. This is just a stupid game by the SJW's, and some unfortunate dupes who are programmed into thinking any depiction of Indians has to be offensive. Can Indian people on here explain how they were depicting Indians [and more specifically Sikh's] in an offensive way? And please, please stop using the word "racism" everyone. That is like calling someone a rapist and these writers, directors, etc. in this production are not anything like that. It's a deeply offensive word and you shouldn't be allowed to get away with it. How would you like to be called a racist yourself?

It's weird, but I find in Thai Bl's the most mocked people are white people who are depicted like caricatures.

BTW how are Sikh's an oppressed marginalized people? They are highly successful in most countries. They comprise 80 percent of the Indian military, and are the most integrated minority in Thailand. No one disrespects them as far as I know whether in the US, Great Britain, Australia, etc.

Why is it ok to make fun of white people like they do in Thai productions? You'll find plenty of examples. In Indian productions they often demonize British people [not always]. I find that more problematic than the depiction of Sikh people in this production.

I think it was a metaphor. We were all wondering through the whole series where this initial scene fit in the time-line. But it was an artistic scene that captures the rejection of Fah and his final reconciliation with Paper - his drowning in the water encapsulates his recent accident as well. If you see it that way, the scene is pretty magical.

I love the mother in this series. She loves everyone around her in a unique and individual way. She understands that she has done something pretty unorthodox in helping Yong Jie getting Xiang Si drunk but she also understands that Xiang Si would never have gotten over his shyness and that Yong Jie's plan actually had some merit. She understands that she shouldn't be forgiven for this by Xiang Si so quickly, because he has to process it before he can come to a realistic forgiveness of her. She understands also that Yong Jie is rushing when he wants to announce his relationship with Xiang Si to his father. The father has already just finally accepted Xiang Si being gay, and Yong Jie shouldn't really rush him and the mother understands this. She is very saavy and very good. She's not concerned about looking good but about saving her loved one's by whatever means are necessary. She doesn't play favorites either, but looks to help where she can. The actress that's playing this role understands this dynamic perfectly and is doing an exemplary job here.

I really love this show. It’s one of my favorite BL’s of all time. There might be many more ITSAY’s in the future, but this will be top tier for me till then. The show avoided a lot of the tropes like the toxic female lead, boyfriend jealousy, screeching ladyboys. It had all openly gay characters from the beginning. The less we see of straight men falling for gay men for no discernible reason, the more sane we'll all be.

The design team did a great job with the posters in the boy’s bedrooms that added a lot of nice symbolism to the show. One other movie I noticed recently on there was The Imitation Game, a biography of Alan Turing. Along with all the others Happy Together, Milk, God’s Own Country, etc. it felt like a nice backdrop to the whole show. Someone on this production team has great taste in movies – find another BL that has a collection like this hanging up in the ML’s bedrooms.

The show handled the difficult topic of school bullying very well – you can even see anti-bullying posters up all over the place. Paper and the principal helped resolve the issue with Arthur in a way that felt very appropriate. Given the dozen’s of BL’s set in schools, it’s nice to see this issue finally addressed somewhere.

The music and mood of the series created such a nice individual character for the show that separates it, in my mind, on an artistic level from almost all other BL’s. It created both a nostalgic and mellow atmosphere which complemented the show so well. I especially like this song by Gene Kasidit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z0OrQtF8qA&list=RD7Z0OrQtF8qA&start_radio=1. It’s the perfect song for Tong and Fah, and I love how they dance to it in their room.

The show didn’t have a lot of the overblown drama, and most all relationship problems were dealt with pretty quickly. The acting was really excellent from all cast members, and most of them were very handsome [which always helps]. And the kissing was the best I’ve seen in Thai BL’s. Was Chris using some tongue there with Jeno? That's some real dedication there.

I don’t care about the pacing. Some people complain about it, but it’s fine for me. Why should everything follow some BL formula? A lot of these shows have a lot of fake drama, and comic buffoonery that helps liven them up but adds little to the show. I like how the slow pacing here lets me focus on the actors - their facial expressions and voices [and kissing].

Overall a beautiful show that will probably not be popular because it is so atypical. But it’s a great series that was executed with a lot of finesse. It’s sad to see it end so quickly.

It's best to have a civilized discussion about it. Most of these debates on here are devolving into ad hominem attacks. Perhaps there is no resolution that can be achieved by an honest debate which is what you're saying, but I actually think you're mistaken there. I agree for many people on here there will be no point in having a discussion because they refuse to use any critical thinking and assume they have to be right regarding their position because they feel they must be right (I call that programming). At least people could come closer to a common understanding.

I don't agree with your solution. Youtube's hate speech guidelines are very broad and it is very easy for a video to be taken down whether it is really offensive or not. It is actually more up to the personal sensibilities of the Youtube administrator.
If you really don't like a product or movie you should just stop supporting it by not buying it or watching it.

Could I just say that I found the part in this series with the adorkable gang dressed up as Sikh’s was one of the funniest things in BL I’ve ever seen?

Now for those who take offense to this, especially the SJW crowd here I want to go over a few things:
First, for those of you who are not Indians that are taking offense to this you should probably stay out of the discussion. Why would you assume that you can know what is offensive to a Sikh person if you have no clue what the Sikh religion is, or if Sikh’s are even discriminated against in Thailand? You might be one of the rare SJW’s that love Sikh culture and food and have lived several years in the Punjab and have read the Adi Granth, but most likely you are not one of those people. You should at least really question what you are even doing in a discussion here. You can only be talking about this because you feel that no culture can ever represent another culture. Do you really believe that is a valid position?

For those of you who are Indian, I’m just struggling as to what you are offended by. This is not a US production. This is made by Thai people who respect Indian culture even if they have a mild dislike of certain Indian tourists. This is not even going to have any effect on discrimination against the Indian population in Thailand or the few other nations these production go out to like Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, etc. No one there is going to perceive this as something that will make them want to discriminate against Indian people and more specifically against Sikh people (who are a vanishingly small segment of the population in these countries).

I believe some of you, honestly, are just too programmed to think any representation of one culture by another culture has to be offensive. You have to be a little bit more analytical and critical in your thinking. I understand you think you might be offended, but are you really? Please ask yourself that before you attack other people on here. There can be much more racist depictions in a show and I might join you in protesting that but this one is not it. You’re just making a mountain out of a mole hill here.

You forgot the two twins in a three-way with Tri [whose name takes on some new connotations]. I'm going to have to deduct some points from your moral outrage score, but it's ok, I'm sure you'll make up for it.

I am enjoying the show a lot as well. I'll consider it an oversight. I'm pretty sure the producers/screenwriters aren't racist. I was actually surprised they went with Sikh garb, but I think they would have been in even more trouble if they chose Jewish people wearing traditional hasidic clothes, or Muslims wearing headscarves. They probably would have been best off dressing them as transgender women ;-)

Thank you for the response. I found that very interesting. I wonder specifically about Thailand. I've read around the internet that they just generally don't like what they perceive as the cheapness of Indian tourists as well as some misogynistic behavior [sexually harassing Thai women in bars]. I'm not sure how prevalent this opinion is in Thailand, though. It's also a kind of mild dislike of a few patterns of behavior rather than some hatred/prejudice against Indians. I'm just referring to Thailand since this is obviously a Thai production.
Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Loas, Burma, Malaysia and Indonesia have to be different from country to country as well. But I understand your general point and it was interesting to get some inside information. Thank you very much for that. I know a lot of ethnic groups are loathe to discuss how their people might be racist - especially with foreigners.

Are South Asian countries like India and Sri Lanka really the butt of jokes in Thailand? I've never heard that before. Don't the countries share a large cultural affinity? Thai culture is heavily derived from Indian culture (though with many distinct characteristics). Even its form of buddhism is closer to the Indian form than the Japanese/Chinese. Their national epic Ramakien is derived from the Indian Ramayana. I could go on and on, so I'm just wondering where you get this from?
This could be part of the current culture, of course, and maybe comes from a general xenophobia. I'm just curious.

I feel that when people start hurling invectives at me it is best to just end the conversation, or to defend my position in a civilized and rationale manner [only if I feel I have a small chance of convincing someone with sound arguments]. I feel some people need to feel validated or entertained by thrashing others on here and that is more important than getting to the truth or helping to disseminate the truth. I'm just stating the obvious here :-)

You go girl!!! As a gay man, I appreciate you and your viewpoint. I'm glad you had the fortitude to withstand that assault. I love BL too with all its flaws because they are at least trying. It's not all toxic.

This episode was done so well. The first scene with Paper is just so heart rending. I really feel this drama has gone above almost all the others with its sympathetic portrayals. Tong's acting is not the best there, but it's good enough to get the point across. The look of love that Sky gives Paper when he wakes up is just amazing, a completely different tone from the look of desperation he had before [in their break-up scene], but both are so soulful looking.
I like how the drama keeps up its low-key vibes. It just feels more natural than other BL's. It fluctuates from high drama to silliness with very easy transitions and has nice, tight dialogues without a lot of the superfluous filler that most BL's have. There's a nice mellow soundtrack that really captures the mood as well.
The screenplay is more about troubles inside gay relationships than about boy chasing which is a welcome change. The show just feels more mature and even tends to be philosophical at times.

I love this show. It's already become my favorite gay series. I can't even think of one that I liked before this one. This is so real and so entertaining. I had to go to BL to find what was missing in gay dramas, but if there was more of this I wouldn't be watching a bunch of straight teenagers accidentally falling in love.

I agree with you on that point but I wonder how they do their system. It doesn't look like they do a simple average of all the scores for some reason. If you look at their demographic study of the scores [by age] the rating for this show would be around 8.5 to 8.6. I've checked other shows and the same occurs virtually everywhere. Then there are these sudden blips in the ratings, like the one that occurred two days ago. Making a simple averaging program is not hard - actually extremely simple and can be done by simple calculators. I just don't get how they can't get this right.

That's exactly how I feel personally. I'll watch a show and only drop if after the first several episodes if it feels like junk. I've never watched the ratings, especially for a lot of your low budget or controversial shows. I just know, though, a lot of people are avoiding good shows because of low ratings - it's almost like false advertising. But being that there's no fix, there's really nothing we can do for those people, I guess, except by advertising the fact that dramalist's rating system is virtually useless.

On the other hand, I'm noticing a site wide blip in the ratings on dramalist [all the shows are jumping by several points], but I sticking by what I said there.