Fascinating and disturbing

I already expected that I would have to say more positive things about this movie than the previous reviewers. Disclaimer: I feel like there might be several versions of the movie out there, I watched the official one on GagaOOLala.

In short: I thought this movie was fascinating and somewhat disturbing, although not entirely satisfying.

Some background information on the movie would be helpful to better understand it. Sadly, I couldn’t find out a whole lot. I also don’t really know about the connections to “Bittersweet Chocolate”, as I have not seen that one. What I understood: the director wanted to pay tribute to classic Pink Films, a particular Japanese genre between art movie and porn. That’s also where the whole gangster/mafia background is derived from. Apart from some smaller Queer Film Festivals, the Movie had its probably most important screening at the Berlin Porn Film Festival, where they announced it as “probably one of this year’s most extreme movies” and explained that the director intended to portray a gay subculture obsessed with outdoor sex as well as a generation of women fascinated by gay sex. If anything, it can be derived from this background that the project was really ambitious. Most of it seems to have been done by the director himself in collaboration with his sister (?) and honestly, I am happy that there are talented actors like Gun Atthaphan out there willing to experiment with such projects, it really adds a lot.

Now, there are obviously things I did not like (or better: things I thought did not contribute in a positive way to the movie as a whole):
- The length. Two hours was way too long. If it had been filled with action (sex, torture, murder, whatever), I wouldn’t mind, but the overall pace of the movie was very slow. That is fine, but then you just need to cut it to a more digestible format. Many of the scenes could simply have been shortened, without cutting them completely, as they just went on for too long.
- The vagueness. By that I mean that there was a promising gangster story unfolding throughout the movie, but the hints given were too vague to understand it even in part. James and Mac had a talk about what? What deal did James and Cherry have? What happened to the drugs? Why did they keep Boy as a prisoner? The gang was dealing with drugs and offering sex work, but other than that the story did not explain any details.
- The character introductions. There were many interesting characters in the movie (and all actors were pretty good in their roles!), but the way they were introduced and how their screen time was split was really confusing. Gold Hair completely disappeared after the first scenes, James appeared rather randomly and Ladyboy and Big Boss were just thrown in somewhere.

But overall I did enjoy the movie. Positive aspects I would like to point out:
- The actors. As I said, they were all doing really well in their roles. Clearly, all of the characters had mental problems: Cherry was bipolar (and probably sexually frustrated), James a drug addict, Mac a BDSM addict, Boy was completely traumatised. I wish they had explored the Ladyboy and Gold Hair characters a bit more though. James got too little screen time, maybe because Gun did not agree to participate in more explicit scenes, but I really enjoyed his presence.
- The cinematography. The construction site was an amazing location for such a movie. The camera knew very well how to capture the scenery, both the buildings and the surrounding nature.
- The soundtrack. The strange drum beats during the explicit scenes and some interesting punk interludes fit very well with what was going on. The movie also wasn’t shy to work with long moments of silence.
- The story. Although I criticised its vagueness and its flawed character introductions, the overall messed-up story was fascinating. I think, with the few clear infos the audience receives, it can be condensed down to the fact that Mac was indebted with the mafia and worked for them as a prostitute. At the end he manages to quit and takes Boy with him, who he apparently fell for during his captivity, cutting ties also with the bad influence of his friend/partner (?) James. James probably kills Cherry for good and goes his own way (but he might also go after Mac and kill Boy as a witness of everything, who knows).

As I already said, I was not satisfied with the movie in the end. Less vagueness and better character introductions would have been great, and I also wouldn’t mind if it was even more “extreme” in some parts, that aspect wasn’t balanced very well. In any case, cutting it down to 90 minutes could work wonders. However, it is a movie that is ambitious, experimental, featuring good actors and giving a lot to think about. Definitely not for the mainstream, but I am thankful that such movies exist!

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What a mess

No. Just. No. Please don’t give Dan Worrawech any more directing jobs, please!

My expectations when starting this series were very low already. Admittedly, the story was better than I expected; it was still a very obvious “The Gifted” rip-off, but the plot development was for the most part unpredictable (which is also due to the fact that it was so random, though). Looking back, there were quite some truly thrilling moments (in the middle of the overall mess). Therefore I must admit that the screenwriters did an okay job – but what Worrawech made out of the material is below my worst expectations. Sadly, not one of the actors was able to show off their acting qualities. Only Ohm managed to save some parts; but Nanon and many others seemed to find themselves back in acting class throughout all the ridiculous sequences of scenes. The two main bad guys were somewhat better than the rest of the cast, but that might be because their characters were much better written than the others.

How can you throw in so many serious topics like drug use and trafficking, gambling, child abuse, kidnapping, attempted and actual murder, bullying and attempted mass shooting, and make it become such an unbelievable mess? There was not a hint of an underlying “message” (like in “The Gifted” or “A Gift to the People You Hate”), the motives of the characters (both good and bad guys) were unconvincing, plot holes everywhere, cringeworthy dialogues, fake dramatic moments (how often do you want to stamp your foot or push a chair just to show everyone that you are angry?) and unnecessary romance with no chemistry. Oh, and let’s not forget the 12-part commercial: it was actually well done (unlike the series), but who thought it to be a good idea promoting this kind of drink after a storyline dealing with the negative effects of recreational drug abuse? Yes, Mr. Worrawech, you have truly outdone yourself!

I don’t want to keep ranting; I know from the comments that many people somehow managed to enjoy the series, so apparently there’s an audience for it somewhere out there. Good for you. But try for a moment to imagine the same storyline done by a director who knows what they are doing – it could have been so much better! Since it kept me watching, I won’t rate the series as low as my review may sound like. But generally speaking I wouldn’t recommend watching this to anyone.

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Great job, Kanittha Kwanyu!

A Korean original (which I have not seen) and Kanittha Kwanyu as the director – these were two pretty good reasons for me to watch the show. And I certainly didn’t regret it.


First the things I wasn’t so happy about:

- The length. The original has 16 episodes of about 45 minutes, the remake has 18 episodes of about an hour. I really can’t think of a good reason why they had to stretch it like this. Cutting it down to maybe 15 episodes would have helped to avoid getting repetitive (some dialogue was repeated several times with only slight variations) and to keep up the high tension (the “revelations” were mostly announced way too early). I really can’t say that it got boring, but the storytelling would definitely work better in a shorter format.

- The antagonist. I’m sorry, but Tida was just too evil. Especially if the overall message was that at the age of 17 nothing is as serious as it seems etc., you can’t just put in such a psycho. She was not a victim of domestic violence herself (as far as we know) and she didn’t experience any peer pressure, so where ist the key to understanding her behaviour? Although her final moments were very strong, with everything that she did I feel like she needed to be cured in a psychiatric clinic. I refuse to believe that such cruelty could just be a simple character trait.

- In my opinion, they unnecessarily idealised high school as an institution, I really cannot relate with such a depiction of it. Especially when they were wishing goodbye to Mr. Q, it got pretty awkward. Maybe this is in fact the experience students in Thailand (or Korea) have, to me it seems unrealistic.


However, I really enjoyed everything else:

- The production value. It is pretty obvious that the budget for this was above-average, resulting in more episodes, a great ensemble of actors and amazing work in the technical departments. If it results in this, I am certainly able to forgive the annoying product placement!

- The soundtrack. Getsunova stands for quality when you need emotional songs, and they did not disappoint. Also the general soundtrack was really on point, a lot of effort must have been put into it. In some scenes it however went a little over the top and felt more suitable for an epic Hollywood movie than for a high-school TV series; less is more, I would say.

- The cinematography. As a fan of cinema, I do pay attention to the camera work. And generally speaking, (Thai?) TV series most of the time are pretty average in this regard, also because it is mostly not an essential element of the storytelling (after all, movies and series are pretty different formats). In recent years, “Theory of Love” really stood out with regards to cinematography, followed by the great “A Gift to the People You Hate” and now “Who Are You”. It wasn't that outstanding in this case, sure, but the frequent use of inclined camera angles was a memorable and impactful effect. Colours and lighting were also well-harmonised.

- The story. The first episode already played a nice game of confusion with the viewers, showing Meen'a and Mind's parallel, but very different lives, setting up everything that was to come. Afterwards, there were lots of “hints” dropped throughout the series, making it a really exciting experience that (almost) never got boring. I would criticise that after that much buildup, the “revelations” about Meen and June were not so surprising and fell a bit flat, mainly because of the length of the series. However, the series luckily didn't just focus on the stories of Meen and Mind. The side-stories, above all Gun's, but also Pete's, and even Lyla's, really added something relevant and were masterfully interwoven with the rest. Much of what happened in the series felt in one way or another relatable and realistic and there is certainly important messages to learn about friendship and family relations.

- The characters and their actors. I had already seen Namtan in several roles and she is definitely a strong actress. She delivered her role(s) very well, whether she was crying, being fierce or caring for her friends. Distinguishing between Meen and Mind wasn’t always easy though. Krist was definitely better than what I had seen of him before, playing a seemingly indestructible nice guy with a certain underlying sadness. Sing was very convincing as well, I felt his struggles a lot; he seemed so lost sometimes that it really hurt. The adults all delivered great performances (which isn’t always the case in GMMTV productions), except for maybe the mother, she seemed a bit unnatural to me in some moments. Mr. Q was a really interesting character, his initial shadiness soon made space for a striking idealism.

- Kay. The best performance however, and I think many will agree with me on this, was clearly Kay’s. Isn’t it incredible that this is his first role? I haven’t felt that much for a fictional character in a long time (Jaylerr’s performance in “Angel Beside Me” probably came close), in these last episodes he really wrecked me emotionally. Gun’s messed-up relationship with his father, his social isolation and his determination when it came to Mind, it was all delivered perfectly; his character had definitely the most nuanced story arch and the strongest personal development and I heavily doubt that many other young actors could have done such an amazing job.


Long story short, I loved this series! It had an interesting story from the beginning, was technically well-made, could rely on an amazing cast (seriously, Kay alone was better here than the entire cast of “Blacklist” combined!), had a great variety of fascinating characters and managed to convey strong emotions through all of its main elements (story, cinematography, music, acting). I am happy to see that my enthusiasm about Kanittha Kwanyu is justified! Additionally, this series gave me more Getsunova music to get emotional to and a new YouTuber to follow (Kayavine).

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Although originally not expecting much from it, I liked this series from the very beginning and have even become somewhat obsessed with it towards the end. Therefore I believe it deserves an in-depth review.

Story
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It seems important to me to look at the two main aspects of the story separately. On the one hand, there is the story of Lin and Somchai, who happen to meet and develop feelings for each other. On the other hand, there is the story of Lin being courted by an angel and by the devil, thus a human torn between good and evil. From the trailers, I expected to see mainly the first aspect, with the angel concept having only little impact. However, the second aspect has (at least for me) quickly become the dominating part of the story.

First some thoughts about Lin and Somchai. I must confess that I have not been much invested in their story at the beginning. It already sounds very cliche: two strangers meet by accident, need to spend time together and at some point start to develop feelings, even though they have never really thought about love before. Very predictable, not very original, and at odds with the second aspect of the story, that is very much based on the defining difference of angels and humans. However, Somchai and Lin were undoubtedly very sweet together. I still wasn’t convinced by their affection for each other, until the final episode hit me really hard. Never expected such a tearjerker, but here we are. Everything about Michael’s struggles when discussing with Gabriel and his final talk with the Lord was so nicely done, emotional and wise at the same time. Thus, although the ending was ultimately predictable, I must admit that they managed to create the ideal happy ending for this aspect of the story. Love is indeed stronger than anything.

Moving on to the second aspect. I was seriously blown away by how well they handled the eternal battle of good vs. evil and by how seriously they took the angels theme. It’s hard to tell what angel mythology the authors have based the story on, with Christianity being anything but mainstream in Thailand (in any case, they mixed in some clear Buddhist elements, making it even more interesting). I have looked at it from a Catholic background (plus I’m named after an archangel, so I’m really invested in the topic) and was amazed how well they actually depicted the angels’ hierarchy and even tried to enact the mythical fight between Michael and Satan. There have been a few theologically questionable elements which I will point out later, but overall they managed to not only use the angels as a funny supernatural gimmick, but as a serious framework for discussing problems of good and evil in our daily life and beyond.

Lin was shown as a weak character, not surprisingly so with all her terrible experiences as an unloved child and her permanent daily struggles, and therefore she was a perfect prey for the devil. I don’t think she was ever supposed to be a likable character, but she seems very relatable. Michael’s strict principles and his initial naivety in looking at mundane problems contrasted very strongly with her negative views on life. Throughout the series, both of them went through important learning processes: Lin learned to believe in good again, made real friends and reunited with her mother; Michael learned that principles can only be a guideline, so by simply evaluating people’s merit points and granting wishes solely on that basis, Heaven misses out on the concrete circumstances of individuals’ lives. Along the way, under Michael’s influence also several side characters underwent very positive developments: Lin’s mother, her landlady, her co-worker (and modeling agent) and of course Punpun. All of this provided for many memorable heartfelt moments, raising important moral questions.

Now, for this second aspect to fully work, I feel like the series could have ended with ep. 11; it is hard to imagine the Great Michael taking the kind of radical decision he took in the finale (if they had used just any angel instead, it would probably be more fitting). Alas, I think we should weigh both aspects of the story evenly, and therefore I can certainly overlook such little problems.


Theological problems
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I will now briefly address three of the theological “problems” I encountered.

First, Lin’s suicide attempt. Since it was basically the beginning of the story we didn’t get much information about that particular moment of Lin’s life; however, Satan admits that he pushed her to commit suicide in order to drag her to hell. Now, it is imaginable that the act of suicide could be the final step in a series of developments that Lin underwent under the influence of the devil, and having Michael doing everything to save her displays how her “good side” is unwilling to let her end her life. But throwing in the suicide without a deeper reflection on it leaves us with the brutal suggestion that committing suicide is necessarily an act of evil and an automatic ticket to hell, which is a very old-fashioned teaching not broadly supported by modern theology. The repetition of it in the finale made it even worse, since Satan didn’t even seem to be present anymore (but she still emphasises that she wouldn’t go to Heaven if she had died).

Then, the final confrontation between Michael and Satan. I was looking forward to that moment, but it was acted out somewhat strangely. There is a basic problem in this case (besides the controversy over the very existence of Satan, obviously): true, Michael ultimately defeats Satan in the bible, but only at the end of times, the Apocalypse. The devil cannot be defeated (neither by Michael nor by anyone above him) before the Apocalypse, because only his presence guarantees individual freedom of humans (to choose good or evil). Therefore, the outcome of the confrontation is very realistic: Michael can very well send the devil away, but it is clear that he might come back whenever Lin allows him to (he knowingly says “see you soon”). The part with Michael threatening to destroy Satan and Lin asking to spare him consequently doesn’t make sense, also because destroying the personification of evil cannot itself be an act of evil; the scene serves its purpose as displaying the positive developments both Michael and Lin have undergone, but undermines the good/evil question (not severely though, as one could also interpret it as a test knowingly posed to Lin by Michael).

Finally, it was never properly explained whether Serena’s weird “temptation” of Michael was actually Satan’s initial plan or just part of his effort to confuse Lin. It would have been interesting to see what the devil could possibly gain from such an arrangement.

Besides these “problems”, it is worth pointing out that the depiction of Michael and his incarnation is clearly modelled upon Jesus (filling in the blank they left with not clearly identifying the Lord of Heaven). Making him walk on water in ep. 11 was a nice hint at that. In that sense, Serena’s temptation could be taken from the bible, only that Jesus in contrast always knows the identity of his tempter.


Technical aspects
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All actors did a decent job, only a few were a bit overacting (Police Angel, talking about you!). Of the three mains, JJ was obviously the shining star, I can’t criticise him in any way; what a wonderful performance! Mek was incredibly cool in his role and only got better towards the end. Jane … I don’t know, she was certainly weaker than her co-stars, but I guess that fits with her role.

The way the story was told was pretty conventional; no special camera or editing techniques were used, the storyline was very linear. I wish they had tried to hide Luke’s identity better, that could have provided for more surprises along the way. The overall production value was okay; the special effects in ep. 11 were visibly cheap, but I think they did the best they could.


Conclusion
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Long story short, this series has it all: good message, relatable characters, humour, romance, plot twists and drama. It takes its guiding themes very seriously and embeds the story into an incredibly well thought-out concept. Sure, it is not perfect. The middle part could have been accelerated a bit (10 episodes would overall probably have been enough), some silly humour could have been toned down, the depiction of the devil could still have been improved and the two aspects of the story could have been interwoven more neatly. But let’s face it: for an all-ages GMMTV show this is really outstanding! And why am I not surprised that once again the director is a woman?

I can only recommend this hidden gem to everyone, particularly to those of you looking for “simple but catchy storylines” (as pointed out by another fan of the show) with relatable characters and a good message. I loved it!

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First of all, I have not seen the original movie and my main motivation to watch this drama were Krist and New.

Let's start with what I did not like about Love Beyond Frontier (and sadly, there is quite a lot):
- The chemistry of the main couple just did not work for me. Maybe I am too invested in Krist from SOTUS, but that whole love story (even with the final proposal in Hong Kong) did not convince me at all.
- There was too much comedy (and probably it was not even intentional). It's okay to throw in some silly characters for comic relief, but here we had way too many of them, like the landlord, Pat's father, Ple's coworker, the totally unnecessary "secret agent" in Hong Kong ... More importantly, even the main characters often were laughing stock (mainly Win), which ruined the dramatic moments.
- Overall, the actors were not convincing. To some extent that was certainly the fault of the screenwriting and directing, but the actors did little to save it. Krist's naivety was cute in the beginning, but when things got more dramatic he was just not up to the task.
- Just looking for and finding one person in a big city like Bangkok or Hong Kong seems highly unlikely to me, but okay, it's a melodrama.

However, I found enough positive aspects to save this drama for me.
- Some of the actors did a decent job. Among the four mains that was certainly Namtan, even though in the last couple of episodes her role was getting more and more passive. Also the mother was very convincing most of the time, her inner conflict seemed very realistic. Even New was getting better towards the end.
- It was interesting to see how the lives of the main characters got more and more interwoven, even through their parents.
- The comedic sidekicks were fun (but mostly out of place).
- I liked the melodramatic plot very much. The whole love square got boring quickly, but the mother-sons relationship and the really long tease and foreshadowing of the final revelations successfully kept me watching.
- The locations were really nice; the guest house is beautiful and their trips (including the one to Hong Kong) provided enough variety.
- While the music was over the top in certain scenes (when the actors can't convey the right emotions, let's just steamroll everything with music), the motives and songs were beautiful and fitting. I heard some Lion King references, not sure if that was intentional.

In summary, the negative and the positive aspects are well-balanced. The story and the actors had much more potential, so the final result is disappointing, but it was still a good watch for me (preferred it to Boy for Rent). Re-watch: not so much, there is much better material out there. But maybe I will check the original movie out.

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I will keep this review short, but I have mostly positive things to say.

Already the intro made it pretty clear that this was going to be kind of a soap opera, and in that it didn’t disappoint; a very well-made soap opera in any case, but obviously never on the same level as “Theory of Love” or similar series. I read a lot of criticism regarding the lack of “real” problems between the couples portrayed. While I do agree that the age of the characters and the problems they faced didn’t seem to fit, I can easily overlook that fact, because I believe that love can make us all become children again.

The actors all did a good job; I was more interested in PeteKao, the chemistry between SunMork didn’t convince me completely, but they had good moments as well. Kao was a particularly well-written character, although (or better therefore?) it was sometimes frustrating to watch him. The directing and cinematography was more than okay (again, for this soap opera kind of story) and once again I loved the music (thanks for throwing in “1 2 3 4 5 I Love You”). I was also happy that they tried to convey good messages about family acceptance throughout the series (maybe they tried too hard in some moments, though).

All in all, it was a highly predictable, funny, not too dramatic, very grounded, but (for me) certainly enjoyable series.

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Even though the final episode was somewhat disappointing – quite anticlimactic, in my opinion – I have to give this a straight 10/10. The Friday spot was already doing strong with the great “3 Will Be Free”, but with this series GMMTV reaches a new high for me. I even rate this higher than “The Gifted” (which admittedly had a much stronger finale) because I think that it stands out more from the common themes and settings of average GMMTV series. Additionally, I am a bit biased because the storyline reminds me of a story I wrote myself many years ago (about a masked person manipulating other people by “channeling” their hatred, leading them to ultimately become murderers and be haunted by their conscience); I guess I should check out the comic this was based on.

The only negative thing I can say about “Gift for the People You Hate” is the already mentioned anticlimactic finale. I didn’t know what to expect from it (as from the series in general), but many parts were still too predictable (the PM’s suicide for example); the plot twist with Ploy’s gifts seemed a bit pointless (did her action have any effect at all in the end?); and the metaphorical character of the whole tale was made too obvious in the end, ruining a bit of the mystery surrounding the shop.

Enough with the negatives. First of all, the director did an amazing job! The way the story was told episode for episode, with interesting episode titles, atmospherically brilliant shots (the sudden shaky effect whenever the shopkeeper appeared was a great idea) and well-used flashbacks (causing even more confusion about who actually ordered what gift), cannot be praised enough. We need more directors like this (and less like Dan Worrawech, seriously!).

Similarly, the actors were all doing their very best. I can’t think of a bad performance of anyone throughout the series, although I still have my problems with Aye; not sure if that is based on her acting qualities though. Definitely good casting decisions, and the screen time of the actors was well-distributed (I wouldn’t have minded to see some more of Victor though). This has also one of the most interesting title songs I have heard in any Thai series, such a nice genre mix. The overall soundtrack was composed very well, not too repetitive like in many other cases.

What else can I say? I think the underlying theme of the series, which is a big metaphor on the deepest abysses of human behaviour, is conveyed in a very impressive way. It literally hurts seeing everyone being manipulated by unmotivated hatred. Throwing in a story of corruption in Thai politics worked out nicely as well. I am totally sold and hoping for more of this!

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What is essential in life?

I see that a lot of positive things have already been written about this wonderful series and I do not think that I can add much. From early on, I had the feeling that this could finally be a 10/10 again (ten stars for the Thousand Stars), and I was not disappointed.

Was it without flaws? No. The series suffered from some annoying product placement, as we are used to from GMMTV. Also, the dialogues had their weaker moments and the music, while really memorable and fitting overall, was a bit over the top at times.

However, the flaws are forgivable. What I took away from “A Tale of Thousand Stars” was romanticism in its purest form. It did not stop at the slow-burn, yet still intense romance between the main characters, but involved the whole setting and storytelling. The story could have been about leaving one’s comfortable and predictable life behind to be with the person one loves, but it was just as much a story about personal growth after being confronted with what is essential in life. I admit that the way the series looked at the “simple life in the countryside” was naive and idealised, but in that it followed the traditional romanticist ideas about nature. Adding a romantic tale/myth to the mix worked very well. Thankfully, the format of the series allowed for a slow progressing of the plot and proper character development; every episode was able to deliver both strong emotions and true peace of mind.

The series made me think about my own life more than I could have imagined. What is essential and what are we willing to give up in our lives? For what reasons? Definitely a strong recommendation; I need to rewatch it myself as well!

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What a surprise that they made this special episode! I didn't even have the time to build up expectations, but I was definitely a big fan of Theory of Love (please check out my review).

Story-wise this episode doesn't have a lot to offer, which is not surprising, but I feel like they could at least have tried to keep the tone a little more serious. The series had a lot of really emotional and dramatic moments, those were mostly absent in this episode. Also, there was too much voice-over in my opinion; that was a nice addition to the series, but here it became overdominant. And although I agree with comments saying that Gun and Off don't "need" kisses: I believe it is a bad trend in the latest Thai shows not to show intimacies, especially after many series in previous years have dared to show much more than just simple kisses. Theory of Love has some beautiful kiss scenes, which makes the lack thereof in this episode not very believable.

Nonetheless, the visual style of the episode and the soundtrack were fairly consistent with the series. The characters worked well together once again, the setting was nice. The two proposal scenes and the car scene were well done and managed to outbalance the comedic moments to a large extent. With all this said, the special can obviously not reach the 9.5 I had given Theory of Love, but I feel that with 8.5 it is still worth a watch.

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Entertaining and thought-provoking

This was for sure one of GMMTV’s best productions in a while! For me, “Friend Zone 2” was always the first series I would watch on Fridays, even though there were several others airing on the same day.

The only negative thing I can say about this series is that it got lengthy in the later episodes. It felt like the opposite of “The Gifted: Graduation”, thus planned for a 12-episode format but subsequently extended to the final 16; this would explain why the Bew storyline ended long before the final episode and the occurrence of some soap-opera-like repetitiveness in the later episodes. The finale was much better than the episodes leading up to it made me expect.

Other than that, I am generally impressed. I liked season 1 a lot, but like everybody else (as far as I have understood from comments and reviews) I was very disappointed by the final episodes with all the forced “happy endings”. Therefore, I was scared that something similar could happen this time around again. But already the first half of season 2 was stronger than season 1, mostly because the central characters were already well-established. All characters had many layers and remained interesting throughout the entire 16 episodes; especially Earth’s story arc gave me a lot to think about. The endings of the various storylines were all satisfying; although Tor and Boom’s relationship still seems rather shaky, it developed in a genuine way throughout season 2.

The series tackled many important topics and managed to avoid an abundance of cliches. Also, it was never shy to show morally questionable behaviour without judging. There is undoubtedly a lot to learn from it about (self)love and the true meaning of happiness. Good actors, fascinating characters, unconventional relationships and a daring, but always entertaining story make “Friend Zone 2” a must-watch!

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Underwhelming, but oh, the feelings

I don’t want to spend too much time on reviewing this, but I saw many negative reviews that seemed way too harsh to me, so I felt the need to “defend” this season. “Love by Chance” for me was a 10/10 (ignoring the Techno/Kengkla storyline), so clearly this season didn’t stand a chance (pun intended) and I agree with the general feeling that we could have done without it, but still, it has its charm.

First half of this season was indeed a mess, changing the timeline was the worst idea I have ever seen in a second season of a drama. Why show us the same story again, when it was already done better in season 1? If they had at least used the chance (yup, I did it again) to write out the Techno/Kengkla rape incident, but no, it was a completely unnecessary change. In general it was pretty boring and it already became clear that Plan had to carry the whole season on his little shoulders.

Second half was more like what I had hoped for (my expectations were clearly not high). I feel like they did the best they could in dealing with Saint’s absence; Ae had a proper story arc throughout the whole season, culminating in a very nice ending getting everyone’s hopes up. The feelings were still strong with most of the characters. Ultimately, while most characters unfortunately stayed very passive without taking any relevant part in the story, it was Tul and Gonhin that saved the season for me. Their story was heartbreaking and delivered quite convincingly. The complex family problems in Tin’s family could have been told much better, which would have helped in getting some more dramatic moments, but it was at least something.

Summing up, the season was of course underwhelming, but a lot of that can be attributed to Saint’s absence and to the incomprehensible change of the timeline. We got a lot of eye candy, some convincing acting performances (Plan, mostly, how can he keep up this childishness all the time?), a happy ending for Can and Tin, a beautiful and quite complex family drama around Tul and Gonhin and even a bit of hope for my all-time favourite couple, Ae and Pete. However, due to the overall lack of engaging and original storylines, the dramatic underuse of several characters and a general “blandness” of the product as a whole, this is definitely not something to watch again; well, maybe parts of the second half.

I would rate it lower, but even with all its flaws this season managed to deliver some of the feelings I felt during season 1 again. Therefore, I would still recommend fans of the first season to give this one a chance (I’ll stop now)!

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“The Effect” definitely had a strong effect on me. It’s really impressive how they turned the cliche-situation of the beginning (very similar to average BL dramas like 2 Moons) upside down. Sadly, the production value was a bit underwhelming, I feel like they could have put a little more effort into that, especially when there’s only three episodes. But the storyline was very well-done and so true to the title!

Shin as a character seemed so real, it really hurt badly. They also did a good job in depicting the aggressor (Keng) as a victim in his own right, without downplaying his actions and thus leaving no space for the audience to sympathise up to the point of forgiving him. Maybe adding another episode to the series would have helped to make Keng’s development more realistic though, him cracking up in ep. 2 seemed rushed to me. The supporting cast was okay (didn’t see the sweet Pramote/Bright thing coming), Keng’s parents felt out of place though. I liked how in the course of ep. 3 one could see how little the people around understood how much of an effect their seemingly small actions and talks could have. Boy Sompob’s song was heartbreaking as always, the overall use of music was just meh. I honestly don’t know what exactly the ending is supposed to mean, but it doesn’t really matter imo.

I’m impressed.

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I guess I was a little too hyped when I started watching this, so it couldn’t completely live up to my expectations, but it still managed to remain exciting and memorable (will definitely watch it again)!

I have few criticism:
- The overall gangster story suffered from several pretty obvious plot holes. It could have been elaborated in a much more complete way, but probably the writers just didn’t have the time/budget/whatever to come up with more.
- Some of the dialogues seemed forced. The three of them were sometimes just standing somewhere and talking without really interacting with each other, basically only to let the audience know about how the plot was proceeding. A little cringeworthy, sadly.
- 10 episodes was too short for this, at least two more would have been likely to improve the storytelling imo.

But enough with the negatives.
- This series had so many great characters! Not a single one of the supporting cast was boring or unnecessary, everyone had their own personal story and it was easy to sympathise even with the clear bad guys (I loved Thana’s reaction to Shin’s coming out, for example). And yes, the actors all did a good job in portraying those characters.
- Also, the relations between all of the characters took many surprising turns and developed in sometimes unconventional ways. The polyamorous love story played out well, making it obvious and leaving it somewhat open all at the same time in the final episode.
- Ep. 3 had me particularly hooked and contributed to the high pace of the series (which unfortunately got slowed down towards the end). It’s an amazing standalone story inside the main story and I would have wished for more of those in the following episodes.
- The overall excitement and drama was well-conveyed, the “breathlessness” of the chase was easily reproducible. Music contributed to that fact to a great extent. The frequent killings were not unnecessarily sugarcoated and managed to really hit hard.

Long story short, I loved the series regardless of its little flaws. I definitely want to see more of this type!

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Not the easiest review to write, but I’ll try my best. First of all, I was a huge fan of Love by Chance, I even gave it a 10/10 back then. So, this director’s style is definitely something I highly appreciate. Consequently, my expectations from UWMA were rather high. The series lived up to my expectations, yes, but there are definitely more aspects I have to criticise here compared to LBC.

Let’s start with what I didn’t like or what I felt could have been improved (they are all closely related, actually):
- The number of episodes was unnecessarily high. The story felt like it could have easily been told in the usual 12 or uttermost in 14 episodes, definitely not 17! I think it could easily be shortened down to that number of episodes without losing relevant parts of the stories.
- The film editing was not great. It felt as if they just left in everything they had filmed, while the job of a film editor should be to extract only the relevant parts of the scenes, so as to tell a coherent story. Scenes just went on and on, filled with meaningless phrases and awkward stares; I wanted to shout “Cut, please!” very often.
- There was absolutely no balance between the screen time of the main couple and the supporting cast. I get that by showing them in two incarnations you need to give them a lot of screen time, but I had the impression that the director was indecisive about whether to actually tell the side stories or to keep them out of this series/season. Like this it’s none of the two options, they just threw in some scenes without any sense of timing and inconsistent storytelling.

Anyway, I can’t think of any more negatives! What I liked:
- Great soundtrack: touching music that fits the scenes very well.
- Great story: Romeo and Juliet (Julian, actually) with a happy ending, that’s exactly what I needed! The concept of reincarnation isn’t really my cup of tea, but here it basically “saved” such a beautiful, but tragic love story. The pain felt so real (still don’t understand why Korn did what he did), and Pharm’s doubts at the end were very much understandable. The whole family entanglement (at least in my view) made clear that the tragedy in the past needed to be “resolved” by the same families ultimately responsible for it, very impressive.
- Great actors, I have nothing to criticise. Well, some felt wasted with such little screen time, but that’s a different problem. Also, no over-the-top comedic sidekick ruining the mood, big plus.
- High production value, no doubt. As I already mentioned, I really like this director’s style. Of course the aggressive product placement is very annoying, but it’s just how it works …
- The double suicide as a consequence of parents and society not accepting their children’s homosexuality gave the series a very dark theme; it wasn’t fully exploited imo, but still very present until the end.

I could continue the list of positives, but I’ll stop here. Compared to LBC, I think that UWMA has a better story and slightly better actors, but the lengthy and overly slow storytelling and the badly balanced screen times of different characters made it a little less enjoyable to watch for me. Still, I can highly recommend watching it!

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