Refund Love (2024)

That was.. a trip..

I'd like to say I understood, but I'm clueless. I mean, I understood and I know what happened, but it's still beyond comprehension.

The plot revolves around Third, a bird watching enthusiast who hires Pai, a social companion to accompany him on a weekend trip to a national park to go bird watching. Each of them are in the midst of their respective personal turmoils and this excursion is the perfect excuse to forget everything and just have a fun and relaxing time. This is where it get convuluted, with the introduction of two other characters who contribute heavily to the plot.

And then just like that, it got.. boring. There was no big plot twist of any sorts because there were literally only four characters, the dots connected themselves way before they actually wanted us to connect them. All this mixed with incredibly repetitive flashbacks (that were also incredibly unnecessary) led to a truly weird ending. That ending literally came out of nowhere and contrasted every word and action of the main characters. They tried to make it seem like an open ending, but again it was incredibly obvious.

I'd like to say I'm disappointed, but that's not it. While everything is clear as it can be in the story, there's just general confusion while watching it because you don't know how you feel, about everything that happens in just two episodes.

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Want to camp? Rent a mate!

It was slightly confusing. Pai gets dumped by his girlfriend, while Third and his girlfriend are on kind of a break. The thing is, Pai and Third’s girlfriend are travel companions while their partners are not. So, Third hires Pai to travel with him, saying he wishes to understand his profession more. The two end up at the same camp as their (ex)girlfriends. How unexpected! There was no passion between the two boys, I am not even sure if there was supposed to be. I found the girls cute though. But there are certain things that could have been done differently.

The plot is kind of lacking. Nothing much actually happens, and what does is not really well connected to other scenes. The acting was okay, but it also felt weak at times. The comedic aspect of it was not really done well either.

I don’t think we can say this is a two-part series. Why? Because the breakup scenes have been played like 3 times each! Instead of giving time for the story to develop, to maybe flow a bit more naturally without all the weird scene cuts, we get to watch the breakups (time apart) speeches and arguments again and again. With no changes. And the first few minutes of the second episode are the same as the last few minutes of the first episode. A waste of time.

Things were left pretty up in the air in the end. Certain things were hinted at, but if they actually used up their time wisely, things could have concluded a lot more nicely. And in a way that made sense with the story progression they could have included. Now, it just seems rushed and not really making much sense.

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Just a week ago I wrote a post on MDL about this story. The text can still be read. At that moment I asked myself several questions: is this the story of a wounded boy looking for “revenge” after feeling betrayed by his girlfriend? Is it perhaps the story of an escort who unexpectedly falls in love with one of his potential clients? Has Third carefully chosen Pai or is it just a coincidence that it is this boy who accompanies him and not another? Then other questions would arise: Is the viewer facing a skillful and sexy game of cat and mouse while camping? Will it be the beginning of a tumultuous romantic relationship?
I must confess that the second part of the story completely changed the perception I initially had of the film. It has a terrible script and the performances leave a lot to be desired, but it has in its favor that it addresses prostitution, both male and female, an interesting topic that is little addressed in the context of BL series. The narrative is also unpredictable, since the viewer is not able to predict what will happen next. It is also worth noting the surprising twists with which they catch us from time to time.
Negative:
1- The retrospective flashback technique is used as an easy and “recurrent” resource. Its abuse means that at times the viewer does not know what the main plot is, whether what is told in so many flashbacks or the backstory. As a result, we have the main plot lose intensity and prominence in favor of the recurring memories of the two main characters.
2- Repetition of scenes in their entirety.
Movie summary (Contains spoiler):
Third is a young man who learns that his girlfriend, Ann, is dedicated, through a digital application, to being hired by women to work as a companion or scort. One day he follows her and discovers that her job also includes prostitution. Finally, Third finds out that Ann has set her eyes on a young woman, is in love and intends to start a lesbian relationship with her. Third and Ann ask to have a week apart to reevaluate their relationship.
For his part, Pai is a young man also dedicated to prostitution. In fact, his girlfriend has just broken up with him because she refused to accept him doing this job. He is reluctant to submit to his girlfriend's whims, claiming that if he depended on her he would become useless again. There is no doubt that prostitution is Pai's profession. At one point, he asks Third: “And if we want to say no when (clients) want to have sex, how do we compensate them in a way that makes them feel less bad and avoids bad reviews?”
Pai's proposal to his girlfriend is laughable, as he refuses to break up with her: “I will find a middle ground. I will stop holding hands with my clients. Just dinners, movies and walks. And I will also add a rule: do not touch any customers, especially women.”
Third hires Pai for three days to go into the woods to “watch birds,” but he really has ulterior motives. Third knows in advance that Pai works as an escort or “hand-holding” other men, that is, he is a man you pay to have sex with. And he also knows that the girl his girlfriend is having an affair with is none other than Prang, Pai's girlfriend. Third's goal is to trick Pai into following the two girls and exposing their infidelities.
When the time comes, Third confesses to Pai what his purposes are. Pai initially feels hurt because, on the one hand, he understands that he has been deceived by his girlfriend: while he demanded that she quit her job as an escort or she would break up with him if she did not comply with his requirements, she was having an affair with a woman. And on the other hand, Pai feels that he has been used by Third and is a pawn in his plan. Finally, they both surprise the girls by being unfaithful, they turn to each other for support between drinks of alcoholic beverages and they console each other.
Third is clear: He has no future with his girlfriend, with whom he is forced to break up. This is evidenced when Pai asks Third to make peace with his girlfriend, who he hasn't broken up with yet. And Third responds: “Do you want me to chase my girlfriend and make peace with a person who is in love with someone else?”
On the other hand, Ann confesses that she will stop prostituting herself for love of Prang. The love that the two girls feel for each other is palpable, so it is incomprehensible that, when they discover that they have been trapped by their boyfriends, they claim, between tears, that they have devised a plan to deceive them, offer apologies and hope to be forgiven. for them.
Could the two initial couples forget what happened and start over again when Prang and Ann love each other?
I also find it incomprehensible:
- Ann, who is a prostitute and therefore cheats on her boyfriend, when arguing with Prang about whether they should get back together with their respective boyfriends, tells him that she doesn't want to cheat on anyone or make anyone feel bad because of her. .
- Why, if the two girls love each other, do they ask to forget their relationship and return to their respective boyfriends?
- Was Ann's goal to make Third jealous, as Prang suggested?
- Third is okay with his girlfriend earning money from the dating app, but not being a prostitute?
-How could Prang know that Third would follow Ann into the forest and bring with him Pai, a person he didn't even know?
-How is it possible that the two girls devised a plan to deceive them based on information that it is impossible for them to have had when they planned to go camping?
Third accompanies Pai to the bus that will take him back to Bangkok. They say goodbye, they plan to follow each other on social networks, but at the last moment Pai gets out of the vehicle, returns to where Third is and confesses to having fallen in love with him in those days of tribulations. Third smiles as a sign that he too has fallen in love. At that moment a phone call comes in from Prang. They try to say something to them, but the call is cut off.
The ending allows us to see the emotions and feelings that overwhelm the two couples in their respective cars traveling to the capital. While the two boys talk animatedly, laughing and joking, Pai lovingly fixes the hair of Third, who is driving the car. I have no doubt that there is a future between the two. Love has won. For her part, an obviously upset Ann drives the car and Prang, also angry, tries unsuccessfully to establish telephone communication. They have lost in the game.
The director of the film, Jedi Suriyan Dangintawat, has also directed “I Wish You Love”, “Fake Love” and “Friends Forever”, stories that make up, along with others, the series “My Universe”. I have been able to see the last two. Refund Love is the only redeemable one, in my opinion, even though it lacks ambition (or taste, or subtlety, or class). Not even the sometimes pretended humor comes to compensate for its flaws.

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The King of Flashbacks strikes again!

I'm sorry but I have an axe to grind with this director. I decided to call him the King of Flashbacks while he calls himself Jedi....really?!? This is the third story he directed (and the main character is called Third! Ha, ha...get it?) and by now a pattern emerges. The screenplay is so thin that he needs to fill up 90min with something. And that something are flashbacks, very long silent shots and recaps of the things we had just seen. Here he went even further: the second episode starts with the 10last minutes of the first one! So basically, there is enough footage to make a lazy 30min episode but since he was asked to do two 45min episodes: this is the result. To be frank, even though this is pretty bad, it is not as bad as his previous two specials (Friends Forever and Fake Love) and I am scared to watch the last two episodes of this anthology series because he directed them!

The story is not that bad. Pai works as a travel companion for hire for an app. His girlfriend wants him to quit his job and when he refuses she breaks up with him. He drowns his sorrows in beer and is picked up, dead drunk, by his next customer, Third, who takes him camping and bird watching. It turns out that Third's girlfriend is also a travel companion who is spending the weekend camping with a customer at the same place. That customer is Pai's girlfriend. Realizing that the girls are actually dating, Pai drowns his sorrows and the boys console each other. Will they become more than friends?

I quite liked the story. The issue I have are with the director and writer. Lazy writing and even lazier directing. And even though there were fewer long silent shots here, the director's penchant for long flashbacks of the events we saw two minutes earlier, is still strong. It has been so long that I have not seen such obviously fake car driving as well. And even though I liked the final split screen scene as it announced the future, it was ruined by how fake it looked. The music is getting worse by the episode: I am fed up with the title song: they rearrange it differently to give it a different tone but it has become annoying.

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