Oh So Slow! Why extended to 20 episodes

I have just watched Episode 15 thinking it was the last one. I could not believe what I was watching when I realised that this was not the last episode - not least because we obviously weren't going to see the boat trip. This series could have been wound up easily in the originally advertised 15 episodes.

This is not the first time that this has happened recently. Clearly the producers are getting good sponsorship and/or advertising revenue and decided to lengthen the series. This is so unprofessional and really bad thinking. When this is over all that people will remember is the poor ending of this series when it had so much going for it.

This is the second casting of Fluke with Ohm and the dynamic between the two of them works really well. However they wind this series up will just dampen the feelings we had for their relationship. A final explosion of joy and romance will be split between the couples and end as a damp squib.

I was pleased to see the parents killed off - not least as these well known and 'experienced' older generation thai actors are really awful. This is not just bad directing, a good actor wouldn't be playing all those reaction shots so woodenly.

I despair.

PS
I now see that Ongart Singlumpong also was the producing director of Unforgotten Night. Another show that could have been great and just tailed away at the end. Although I did find that kidnapping and consequently showing coerced sexual activity (a kidnapped person cannot consent) is something I cant believe teenage girls would want to be treated! Somehow if you are gay your body becomes an object for other people's desires to be expended on.

Leia Mais

Its going to be wonderful - but only if you can be very patient

I have just watched the first episode. On the barrage everybody was saying that it is so like the novel it is as if the novel was itself the screen script.
So I really liked it and if it is faithful to the books that is really a plus. I am also a Dune fan and read that when I was about 15 and it had just come out. They said it was not really a novel that could ever be filmed . It was just too involved with so much explanation required that it couldn't be contained in 90 or so minutes. Anecdotally Dino De Laurentiis was literally tearing up pages of the script when filming the first film in an effort to bring it down to an acceptable length. As the latest Dune film , due for release in 2023, shows at least two films with Part I and Part II are required.
The Three-Body problem is like that. The books were wonderful in their scope but they were not easy going. This series is going to be 30 episodes and will need all of that. Personally I like to binge watch series as I can't easily bear the wait between episodes or even perhaps the emotional energy involved in that wait. I am going to be in agony watching this episode by episode - even though I think I understand correctly that it is being broadcast 5/6 nights a week.
However I will try my best at what should be well worth the effort judging by this first episode. Barack Obama said that Liu Cixin's novel was a sci-fi must read as forever after your perspective will be changed. It certainly did that to me. "There is no more physics".
A lot of money and effort has gone into this Chinese production. Netflix are also supposed to be having their version out as a series later this year. It will be interesting to see how they compare.
Anyway its a change from watching PP Krit's music videos!
PS
Now watched up to episode 12! Still impressed, episodes are varying a lot in lenght for over an hour to just 30 minutes. They are taking the story quite slowly so I am even beginning to wonder if they can do the book in 30 episodes - I will keep faith to the end.

Leia Mais

Worst BL drama I have ever watched

This could so easily have been really quite good. However the casting is terrible, Kamol has absolutely no sign of menace about him, Kim is too much of a wimp for him to ever ask a man to abuse or dominate him. The 'awful' abuse inflicted on Kim in the initial episodes showed a few minor bruises, much less than that inflicted on Kamo;l's first victim. Oh - it seems that they don't even know that a flail doesn't leave single whip marks.. Seriously Kamol make an effort show that you actually get turned on.

Directing is so awful that the cast must have been allowed to do just one cut per scene.

Dreadful

Leia Mais

Another fairy tale romance - why do I love them?

Adored it. I hoped for a happy ending but realised quite early on that we were doomed to a sad ending. I was not able to work out what the happy ending could possibly be.
From Tomorrow to Again Life to Reborn Rich and many other shows there seems to be a growing interest in stories involving relived lives. Nine-tailed Fox dramas are now almost a genre in themselves. Unrequited love and unhappy endings to love affairs in previous lives are clearly good material for writers of romance drama.
Strange how the BL format lends itself to the telling of such fairy tales. Consequently. we are beginning to see more and more such shows. So clearly the real attraction of BL is fairy tale romance!
Not sure what that says about my motivation for watching is. I suppose I really should have been aware that this is the real attraction for BL among the core audience. Is it also the moral issues that much of BL raises are so glossed over.

Leia Mais

SO so very wondeful

This is a BL drama but also so much more. It is beautifully written and the plot has just enough twists to keep you interested but not so many as to wear your enjoyment out.
It is essentially a fairy tale - but fairy tales can still deliver strong messages and be wondrous at the same time.
The actors are well cast and the actors perform very well together making their characters develop well. As always the supporting cast are weak and overly given to playing pantomime in a way you see in all Thai and Korean drama. I know that almost seems a cultural requirement but I do wish that directors would move on from this. Asian drama has moved a long way forward in the last few years and this drama shows that.
The story is in some part based on the novella "The Little Prince" but is not just a reworking. In many ways the most recognisable aspect it draws from the novella is with the insights it gives to the human condition, on life and death, love and obsession, dreams and reality.
From the outset it is clear that the ending was going to be a difficult task and by the time we got to the last episode I nearly stopped watching as I couldn't 'bear' the story to end as I feared it would. I am glad I stayed the course as the ending is quite superb and beautifully done.
It is truly the best show I have watched all year. Thank you so much.

Leia Mais

in short - wonderful

Very sad but in some ways also uplifting. Reminded me so much of my own times, recognising myself in both roles. So perhaps a series/movie for those who are being introspective.

Beautifully shot, great photography and this is perhaps the movie's greatest success. Sadly some of these shots linger a little too long and some are repeated more than once. Better seen in the movie version for this reason alone. Even so, the story is told as much by these visual shots than the acting out of the story.

An unusual plot for BL drama and a breakaway from traditional forms. The love is there from the outset and there is no chasing or feeling of unrequited love - though this is not expressed in any sexual way at the outset as this is very much a drama of innocence shattered instead. Ultimately the two leads come together and love is requited without undue drama.

A very interesting and technically beautiful series/movie.

In short, wonderful. Thank you

Leia Mais

Really? Is this the best we can expect of Thai series in 2022?

The first episode is disgraceful. Appalling wooden acting that is worse than the worst pantomime scenes in other Thai drama - at least in others they were amusing interludes.

Appalling too as a story line which may pretend to do justice to the injustices inflicted on homosexual men in the past. However, it is clearly only a pretence in order to make a drama to gain some of the BL audience. I will only continue to watch this to see how they build this BL drama. At the moment it looks as if we will be seeing another trope using the perceived elder brother's effeminacy as an acceptable image of a gay man and the historic drama as another excuse for these historic attitudes,.

I am hoping that this is not the case but am reluctant to suggest it might get better. If this is another drama showing the stalking of another man in pursuit of unrequited love or their assault (sexual or otherwise) then what audience are they hoping to educate for the future?

Leia Mais