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Tonhon Chonlatee thai drama review
Completed
Tonhon Chonlatee
0 people found this review helpful
by immoralq
Feb 23, 2021
10 of 10 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 7.0
Story 4.0
Acting/Cast 7.0
Music 2.0
Rewatch Value 4.0
This review may contain spoilers

i got nothing

I honestly don't know what to say or where to start with this.

From the synopsis, I thought this was going to be about two childhood best friends who separate as children (kind of like Korn and Knock in TWM) and then reunite at university, only one's been in love with the other since they were kids and the other is apparently straight and has a girlfriend (also like Korn and Knock in TWM) only with more emphasis on the ocean and pretty scenery.

Chon has been in love with his childhood best friend Ton since they were small. They lived literally next door to each other, and when Ton and his family moved away, Chon was devastated. Fast forward several years and Chon, who has taken it upon himself to clean Ton's old house regularly (because the family never sold it and it's been sitting vacant for years) hears someone moving around in the house and goes to confront what he thinks is a burglar.

Turns out it's Ton, running away from uni and his girlfriend who dumped him for a richer bloke. Let's not get into how so many female characters in Thai BL are golddiggers - it won't end well.

Chon is going to Ton's uni, so Ton offers to let Chon live it his house with his two best friends, Ai and Ni. Ai and Ni are a couple, but haven't told Ton because his father is uber homophobic (kind of) and they don't want to lose his friendship.

All this, in and of itself, would be fine. Chon struggles to keep his feelings for Ton a secret, because he doesn't want to lose Ton's friendship, and then it all comes out and Ton has to figure out his own feelings for Chon. Fine. All standard in BL. Not a problem.

But then things do this weird 180 in the last episode, and it turns out Ton was also in love with Chon when they were kids and always has been and everything that happened up to then has been some kind of, I dunno, weird scheme to get Chon to fall in love with him?

This makes absolutely no sense at all. It's like the writers were going one way with this series, and then decided, 'fuck it.' And all the supposed foreshadowing for this isn't very foreshadow-ey even when they try to make it that in flashbacks.

Another thing that puzzled me was Ai and Ni. They're supposed to be a couple in a loving relationship, but we never see them kiss. They lean into towards each other, and then the camera just pans away. What is that about? If the actors aren't comfortable kissing, why cast them in the first place?

Lastly, the odd plot twist led to the reveal that Ton's father knew he loved Chon and the reason he was against it wasn't because he was homophobic, but rather that he was wanting grandchildren to carry on his family name and legacy. Now I know this is a big, big thing in most Asian cultures, but in 2020, and admittedly from my perspective, this just comes off as really stupid. Really, really stupid.

This problem is solved when Miriam, a recent friend, agrees to be a surrogate. Which also weirded me out. Because that happens at the end, which is apparently three years later, so what took so long? And Ton and Chon are both still in uni - was it to give them time to graduate before Ton becomes a father? Is Ton going to *be* the father? Or is the child/ren going to be raised by Ton's parents? What's Chon's role in all of this? what's Miriam's? Is she going to give birth and then give the baby/babies up?

Children are people - not balls to be bounced around, or commodities to bargain with. You should never bring a child/ren into the world if you aren't prepared to put 100% effort into being a parent. They are seriously bringing a child/ren into the world just so there's an heir for Ton's dad? To carry on the family name? What happens if the child is a girl? Did she get pregnant three times and then abort the other two because they were girls? The whole thing is never explained well and comes off as skeevy as fuck.

The first nine episodes of this show were fine. Mostly. I'm not going to touch of how much a himbo Ton comes off as, because that's something you need to see and laugh about for yourself (and episode 10 retcons it all anyway) . Even precluding that, they were fine.

The the curse of episode 10 struck and everything went weird and I think, if I was watching this again, I'd stop after the scene on the pier in episode 10 and pretend the other half of the ep doesn't exist, because it doesn't do anything for the show as a whole and, to repeat myself, is skeevy as all get out.
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