Beyond the media hype, the posters and trailers that teased a sensual love triangle between Ping Krittanun Aunchananun (who plays the naive but combative Zen) and Meen Nichakoon Khajornborirak (as the problematic Ryu), the truth is that it is difficult to imagine that a BL series set in the world of basketball is so sexy, addictive and exciting.
This is the umpteenth work by the acclaimed filmmaker Golf Tanwarin Sukkhapisit, who has already left half measures and whose productions, in the coming of age category, have become a success, especially after the commotion caused by Great Sapol Assawamunkong and Inn Sarin Ronnakiat in 'Wandee Goodday'.
'The Rebound' is like a basketball game in which much more is at stake than a sports award or a university scholarship, and throughout the series we will discover what it entails. Masterfully, its creators dose the information to continually keep us on the edge of our seats, wanting to know more, spying on each key scene in the characters' lives, anticipating each of their movements and adjusting our expectations to each revelation, precisely, as if we were playing. a basketball game.
The writers choose a non-linear narrative, through flashbacks placed with the precision of a three-point basket from the semicircle. Each one explores the lives of the two protagonists until they separated and how each of their choices influences the present, in which many things happen at the same time. This is a series that uses racconto intelligently, that is not afraid of fragmented narrative and the possibility of narrating the past from the present.
What is disputed on the playing field is not only the love between the boys or sporting success, but the honesty between two lifelong friends who have feared to accept each other in their completeness and this led them to confront their own contradictions. Although at first reading it may seem that sexuality is what gets in the way of this friendship, in reality it is precisely the repression of sexual desire that triggers all conflicts.
'The Rebound' grows with each new revelation, and, like a good basketball game, the excitement of reaching the middle of the series at the time of writing this review comes from unraveling everything that happened before and how it will affect the tension further. forward. For this reason, and for the excellent staging and the conviction of the actors with their characters, we can enjoy the audiovisual without having to find more meaning than the apparent one.
The series is partially superficial (although not empty), and doesn't tell you more than what its premise suggests, and that's a very good thing. It is a series about basketball, repressed desire and first love, the one that we make possible to be the only one or, failing that, the one that remains alive in our memories for a lifetime. It is also about how the two protagonists can finally accept each other in all their fullness.
It also touches on human fragility and man's struggle for survival and improvement. As Ryu puts it: "Basketball taught us to love others, and helped us love ourselves."
In that, the series is similar to a basketball game, or the very act of playing it: playing it always means the same thing, with the same rules and assumptions, but the how is what matters most, the how is infinite. 'The Rebound' says little, but it says it very well, and Suthipong Teerasakul, the director of photography, plays an important role in this.
For our sake, the style of the series is very Tanwarin Sukkhapisit: carefully crafted shots, current pop music and some hip hop at full volume, characters reacting impulsively, the tandem between pleasure and restriction, desire and taboo. There is no restricted and subtle eroticism, quite the opposite.
The director lets the scenes with greater erotic tension last longer than necessary, she films them with fixed angles, quite stable shots, with a certain fixation on symmetry and a rigid composition. Beautify sex.
The MeenPing ship, in its best series, immerses us in a story that shows the codes of the explosive and popular sport of basketball and also a story full of moments of sexual tension, love, self-discovery and acceptance.
Meen and Ping have created a dream couple over time. It must be taken into account that they have been developing a stable relationship on a professional level for more than four years, starring in two previous series: 'Ai Long Nhai' (2020) and My Dear Gangster Oppa' (2023). This has allowed greater rapport and comfort in the performances. They have proven to be two actors who constantly renew themselves, who reinvent themselves for the public. The peculiar way of expressing themselves in front of the cameras makes them icons for BL lovers.
The non-binary Thai director did not disappoint. We are also not afraid to affirm that this could become one of the most acclaimed series by the public and critics of 2024. In each pass of the ball, in each shot on the basket, in each new quarter period of ten minutes each, in each trip from the camera in a subjective position (as if the viewer were a ball) we know that chaos is imminent.
First let's put ourselves in context. The story begins in 2024, and moves to the rhythm of a basketball game, with each pass to the past to introduce us to the lives of the two protagonists, and back to the present time. That is why we must also go back two or three years, just when Ryu and Zen were part of a school team in that sport, but they separated for reasons that little by little the viewer will come to know.
The objective behind the musical choice, in which the music composed by MAIYARAP for the series stands out, especially his single "The Rebound", was clearly to show the dynamism behind the simple fact that five players try to score a ball as long as an equal number of people try to avoid it: there is power, there is action, but not only that, the soundtrack is destined to make it very clear to us that, in their world, basketball players are true rock stars.
It is possible to feel it when Ryu enters the playing field, confident and imposing; but also every time Zen and Ryu's gazes meet; in scenes of street or school games, or in training, with those beats that put our hearts into overdrive.
Despite not being a protagonist, Frank Thanatsaran Samthonglai occupies a fundamental place in the story, because in this love triangle, the explosion to which we are exposed does not work without its three points.
The arc of Atom, his character, is to be able to be close to the boy who works part-time as a waiter or delivery man, precisely in a cafe run by the director of the series. If Ruy can't stay away from Zen, Atom can't stay away from him either.
Despite being the third wheel, it is not possible to hate him. Firstly, because by playing on a team opposite to that of the protagonists, when he prepares desserts with Zen's grandmother or emerges half-naked from the pool, he is a Greek god. It is impossible to watch him on the screen in a character that we are not used to seeing among those he usually plays and not feel complete admiration; secondly because it seems he alone pulled the strings so that Zen and Ryu finally looked at the tangible sexual tension that always existed between them and made the latter finally open up to love. In short, its role is to be a catalyst for romance between the protagonists. That brings us to the next point.
The small details of queer coding, like true works of art, present in every frame in which the protagonists are, and the obvious sexual tension of this pair of friends. Let's start with the opening scene, in which Ryu, fleeing from some pursuers, bumps into Zen on the street and both, after meeting again after a while, run with complicity and desire in their eyes despite the danger.
From here on, the constant and incisive flashbacks will reveal a very intimate relationship between Ryu and Zen, lost in time, when in the showers, after a match, naked, both share what, without a doubt, is the most homoerotic scene in the game. year: one applies soap to the other's body and vice versa, and in a moment they look at each other, their eyes show desire, passion, love. They bring their faces closer, and about to kiss, Ryu pushes Zen away a little roughly, after having activated all the alarms of straight cis men.
His reaction is logical: Ryu, the street basketball player, is confused and hesitates to admit his feelings for Zen, the team captain.
This will not be the only scene, as there will be frequent exchanges of glances on and off the court that will increase the sexual tension, evidenced in the contact of their hands, which are continuous and consecutive as is that of the hands of players with the ball, confront each other for possession of the ball or share attempts to score points through shots, drives to baskets or dunks, while trying to avoid baskets from the opposing team by stealing the ball or making blocks, or when a shot towards the basket fails, and they must try to catch the rebound, as will the players of the opposing team.
Not to mention the scene when Zen looks at Ryu full of love and desire while demanding an explanation of why he abandoned him some time ago or asks him, regarding basketball, if he is going to allow someone, for money, to have to say if they have to win or lose a game, or when they travel, one close to the other's back, on a motorcycle, with one's arms surrounding the waist of the driver, which will make us remember other BL series, such as ' My Ride'.
Or the scene in which they listen to music sitting on the school roof and then run like children – as if the world, or anyone else, mattered – and they merge not only in a hug, but also in a suggestive twist of body, one very close to each other, or when they also hug on the landing of an abandoned building while fleeing from the police who are chasing them for participating in a clandestine game, since Ryu is being forced to go against his will to pay a debt.
The important thing about reviewing these scenes is that they also talk about a neuralgic topic: toxic masculinity, but also about friendship and real love, despite everything.
It is evident that all this happens with a well-defined objective: there would not be a story to tell if they had assumed the love that united them, that same love that led them to separate, to competition and toxic rivalry, to get involved in a species of love-hate-and love again relationship. Only Golf could make basketball look sexy in a series.
Later, when Zen is surprised by Ryu when he accepts being one of the new players on the school team that is in danger of being dissolved, and decides to risk everything on the field - even the ultimate consequences to achieve his dreams, which were initially that of obtaining a scholarship that allows him to get out of poverty and help his grandmother in her old age, now it will be that of both of us being champions side by side on the same team – he also manages to become the Greek hero that we didn't know we were looking for .
On the other hand, and this is the true message that we want to rescue from this series: Real love also allows camaraderie, vulnerability and competition. When one of them faces their worst fears or the possibility of failure, the other is ready to receive them with open arms and help them move forward together.