BradBluddy16

Definitely, the chemistry is already there. But still, the thought of Barcode’s grumpy nonchalance rubbing up against Keen’s sunshiny charisma, the tension that already fuels Clo’ver, might be fire in a CP 🔥. And their singing voices could rival GemFot’s.

Hmm…interesting and thoughtful take. I do have an affection for Sea, and he does bring his face card to the mix. I also don’t think GMMTV would break them up in the middle of their upward trajectory. But, if Weirdo-101 falters...
and Barcode’s ship doesn’t sail…
ok ok this sounds like fan fiction, but Barcode brings the face card and the ambition; and the acting and singing talent on display, mixed with the baked-in tension, would make BarcodeKeen a ship for the ages.

For those of us who had a peak experience with Ticket to Heaven, the second, reactionary wave of comments and down-rating is a little disappointing. But P’Aof himself did expect a range of reactions to the series. For those of us locked in since 2024, a little religious trauma was not going to colour our reception of Ticket To Heaven. For the latecomers, some drawn in by the hype, their personal traumas may be more of an obstacle. Make no mistake, any folks complaining that the writing isn’t “risky” enough are really saying that the series didn’t represent their own experiences with Catholicism or religious institutions in general. Valid, but not, characteristically, BL.
My hope is that these people will find themselves returning again, with tempered expectations, to experience Ticket to Heaven in all of its 10/10 glory.

Ooh girl. You get a pass here for whatever religious trauma you may be carrying, but you cannot objectively argue that the acting is not top shelf in Ticket to Heaven. No disrespect to Moonlight Chicken, where both actors displayed a preternatural ability that should have tipped us off to what they were capable of here. I agree that the stakes were high coming into Ticket to Heaven; GemFot were last seen fighting way below their weight class in the extended promotional vehicle that was My Love Mix Up, and for the first time the golden ship was showing signs of wear and tear. They both dug in here to come up with sublime performances for the ages.

GeminiFourth is not my favourite ship (although not liking GemFot is a bit like not liking the sun 🌞), and when their shows have floundered (My Love Mix Up, Our Skyy 2) I, personally, have not been kind with my rating. I do feel a little sad, though, when I see that some people are not having a peak experience with Ticket To Heaven. But religious trauma is real, and where you are in your personal journey with it surely affects how you receive this media. Your Name Engraved Herein is a beautiful piece of art; as a romance lover, as many of us are in this space, I wish the relationship between Jia-han and Birdy could have been more fully developed; in that regard I don’t consider it a BL. And I think that explains the lower rating here.
Ticket To Heaven may well be YNEH done BL-style, and, in my eyes, is all the better for it.

Does anybody know how many times you have to rewatch before the tears stop? 😭 Asking for a friend…

If you’re struggling with the focus on Catholicism, it may be less that you’re too woke, but asleep to the history of Protestantism or other reformative religions rooting the culture in which you grew up. A hack is to focus on the spirituality and not the religion itself. In the end it’s all about love; if a person is loving they are connected to their spirituality, no matter how they get there; and that is the message being conveyed here.

I might be too soon to say, but it feels like this show will be a generational touchstone.
I understand some people, especially ex-Catholics, having Last Twilight flashbacks; Tanrak and Barth aligning their love with their faith could feel like another unlikely and reductive retinal transplant.
But because P’Aof smartly grounded this show in his own experience, you can’t really make a case that the ending feels forced or unbelievable. It is an ending that was clearly hard fought for through his own personal odyssey.
And that personal touch is what elevates Ticket to Heaven from a beautifully written, directed, filmed, scored, edited and acted showpiece by a top-tier BL director, to a masterpiece people could be talking about for decades to come.

Only six cries, bruh? Easier for me to count the times my eyes weren’t full of water. Once. During P’Aof’s cameo. I was too busy admiring his strawberry blonde hair colouring, and having a hard time believing a bus station agent would have choosen that particular shade.

And I think the writers were using the riddle as a device for Barth to subtly, but powerfully, call out Tanrak on his sexuality. Barth, the lost one, was always being truthful about his interest in Tanrak, while Tanrak, the believer, was lying to himself about his attraction to Barth. What made that peeing scene so powerful, besides the ominous score and Barth’s knowing, almost demonic delivery of the riddle’s answer, was the inference that Tanrak’s body’s response gave him away, and that no amount of averting his gaze was going to quell the physical manifestation of his desire. The horse had left the barn, as it were.
The third part of the riddle, the lover(s) who always lie, may take on resonance as the story unfolds.

Be ready to cry a thousand, healing tears and to have your brain chemistry permanently altered.

Because Ticket to Heaven is serving Bad Buddy redux, in all the best ways, I wonder if we will get a similar twist for the ending. "You might think one man can't change the whole world. But I want you to know that this world can't change someone like me either." This would be very much in P’Aof’s conciliatory wheelhouse.

P’Aof is a master of misdirection; everything may not be as it seems.

Oh that damn“Heavenly” OST, making me tear up faster than thinking about my dead dog. What a masterful display of musical storytelling. Fourth delivers the first verse/chorus with an angelic voice, almost perfect but infused with longing for a world not yet known. Gemini brings his more dusky, worldly yet world-weary tenor to the second verse/chorus; a little more animated but still full of longing. The third chorus is absolutely transcendent. The harmonies hit hard, as Gemini weaves in and out of Fourth’s steady melody, adding dazzling colours and overtones; just as Barth transforms Tanrak’s world from black and white to radiant technicolor. Absolutely brilliant!

Joe’s deep sadness was palpable; that these boys have to give up a lifetime of romantic love just seems so inhumane. I know it breaks all the laws of BL shipping, but can Phak and Joe please end up together?

Thanks for sharing that reference. I wonder if “Love of Siam” will come up again. The timing of it’s release roughly lines up with Barth’s (and hopefully Tan’s) almost-20-years-back from present day break from the church; and P’Aof always mentions that that movie was seminal for him and Thai queer possibility.

P’Aof’s “catholic” heart has always been in the right place. He has stretched the BL genre to shine a compassionate light on the disabled (Heart in Moonlight Chicken; Day in Last Twilight) and the downtrodden (Jim, Li Ming, and Mhok in those same dramas). But after wildly miscalculating what a happy ending might look like for “those” people (the disappointing finale to the otherwise masterful, Last Twilight), he has retreated here to something more personal and close to home. Paradoxically, by turning his lens around to examine his own demons, he may be able to help and comfort a lot more people; the incalculable masses of us who have been downtrodden by our own religious upbringings, or the church inflamed homophobia in the cultures around us 🏳️‍🌈

Without openly convicting his chosen religion, P’Aof is telling us a compelling story from within, albeit from a careful, historical perspective, where we get to experience firsthand the devastating effects of institutionalized homophobia. The Last Twilight finale fiasco may have wounded the director enough to send him deeper into his faith, and compelled him to resolve for himself, and us, the contradictions and failings of the religious system buoying up that faith. We all get to be the beneficiaries of P’Aof’s fight with his inner demons, his personal Ticket To Heaven, as it were, and we have been gifted with a masterpiece.

is it too much to say that Fourth should be considered as the eighth wonder of the world?

Another insightful take from our poet laureate. I was excited to see how you would rise to the occasion, and you have done so with grace and aplomb. Bravo!