Once in Memory: Let Me Be Yours (2023)

The beautiful pains of unrequited love

This is the fourth short film that the Thai production company MindTrio have released under the series title ”Once in Memory”, and all these short films deal with the coming of age and coming out of young men. Apart from the topic, there are some other characteristics these films have in common, such as the sensitive way of displaying the young men's state of mind, the careful selection of the cast, good writing, directing, and editing. ”Let me be yours” is no exception.

The short film deals with a love triangle and heaps of unrequited love. X (Pun Napatt) loves Max (Phum Phathai), and he shows him his love by following him, teasing him, and even bullying him. Max, however, loves TK (Bom Thunpisit), but when he confesses to him, TK makes it clear to him that he can't be anything but his friend or older brother. Adding to this mess of a love triangle, TK loves X, and when he gathers all his courage to tell X about his feelings, he is gently, but firmly rejected, with X offering him to remain friends.

The climax of this tricky constellation is reached when Max spends a nice day with X, giving him false hope. At the end of the day, after X has said good bye to Max, Max confesses to TK, and starts crying when he is rejected. Just as TK hugs Max to comfort him, X returns and misunderstands what he sees.

It is the typical mess young people experience when they fall in love with someone who loves someone else, and I am glad that I am old enough to have grown out of this kind of shenanigans. Unrequited love hurts so badly, and being hugged by a good friend can ease the pain, but not conquer it completely.

As I said before, this short film is again written and directed in a very sensitive way, so that the viewer can relate to the characters, their hopes, fears, and problems. There were moments when I wanted to hug each of them, because they were all suffering from the same kind of pain.

Another reason why I liked this short film is the actors. Although I think that they are all rookies (at least I haven't seen them before), they proved very talented, and this wouldn't be the first time that a MindTrio short film was the starting point of a promising acting career. I wouldn't think it fair to praise one of them more than the others, but I must admit that Phum Phathai had a smirk in a few scenes that was just too lovely.

The cinematography underscores the sensitive way this story is being told, as does the background music. Technically the movie is good – nothing to complain about really, so all in all I can only say that I liked this short film a lot. It is good entertainment, to say the least, and it is another proof that if MindTrio is printed on something, you can be sure that the contents will be good.

You can find all my reviews, including those on series and movies from countries not covered by mydramalist, like Myanmar, Singapore, and Vietnam, a book with lists of my favourite BL series, movies, and actors, and some BL storiesf here: https://www.wattpad.com/user/DominicKebre

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Overall: this is a 22 minute short available on Mind Trio's YouTube channel (they did On Cloud Nine and Calculating Love)

Content Warnings: teasing/bullying?, gaslighting

What I Liked
- the actors did a decent job
- a few cute moments

Room For Improvement
- the plot was confusing, they started with a flash forward/flashback and then I wasn't sure what their relationships were to each other (long-time friends, acquaintances, classmates, etc)
- not a fan of the central premise and then how it's an open ending
- maybe I missed something but the reactions didn't make sense, the one guy smiled but he didn't return his feelings, why did he smile and then complain later about the teasing if he enjoyed it???
- the two tropes in the very beginning should have been reversed which would have been more realistic
- the character gaslighting and saying he doesn't have those feelings

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