jarabaa

Plus it's a theme we've had in Thai and Taiwanese series before. I don't really understand why. It's 2020 and we can deal with the idea of two males (born cis men with male souls, male hearts, male bodies!) falling in love with each other. Also, it occurs to me that I've never heard of a plot the other way round - a lesbian relationship "explained" by the dramatic device of a male soul or heart in a female body. Not once has that been tried. So why all the gay male characters who are made out to be "really" female souls/personalities in male format?

Still, I will give this a try when it finally airs. I always say that. Occasionally something spectacular takes me by surprise - and I quickly forget the silly plot device, whatever it was. On other occasions silly plot devices confirm my worst fears.

I completely share your misgivings. It's not the first time that what appears to be love between two men is "explained away" through the device of some sort of female soul transferred to a male body. I don't reject the idea as the basis of a drama. So many good dramas and comedies have bizarre starting-points. BUT the problem is that the idea implies that there is no such thing as real male/male love, no real gay men, no real homosexuality - it's female souls/hearts/reincarnated women (etc etc) in male bodies: which seems to suggest that only heterosexuality, man+woman, boy+girl, is "authentic" love.

Just to update us on the history, as I've followed it, and the present (highly mysterious!) position.

The original 2014 film - not a series but a full feature film - "Love's Coming" introduced the story of Gump and Nai as they meet and fall in love. Its sequel, first billed as "Love's Coming 2" but actually called "Loveloveyou", likewise a full-length film, was released I think in 2015, and it took the story of Gump and Nai forward, plus we encountered Gump's crazy friends once again. In the second film, i.e. "Loveloveyou", Gump and Nai were definitely gay, a great advance, and the drama came from two sexy and very different men who (entirely separately) stray into the two characters' lives.

Then, years later, a trailer for a series (not a film this time), "Loveloveyou 2" (= Love's Coming 3!) suddenly appeared in 2019, followed by one single episode in early autumn 2019 ... and nothing more. That one episode seemed to bring back the same actors and characters, e.g. Gump and Nai, but most airtime was devoted to entirely new people whom we hadn't seen before.

Since that time, there has reportedly been another teaser/trailer, but no further films or series episodes. I wonder if this could be because the actor (Mild Suttinut Uentrakul) who played the original Gump in the first two films was appearing every week until January 2020 as an important supporting chracter (Techno) in the enormously successful TharnType.

Definitely a master of his art. And barely 30 years old. These Thai writers and directors of gay romantic series are making history. I live in London. I grew up in the West. We have never had anything like this. No gay boy or girl has ever had access (till now!) to beautifully-filmed love stories (with great young actors and unforgettable music) about same-sex romance. It's a new genre, and Thailand is home to its most creative geniuses.

Thank you. That's sort of what I thought. As always, there's a clue. One of the two brilliant TharnType songs, "Hold Me Tight", which Tharn sings to Type in the last episode, specifically conveys that message - you are my last love, the one I will love forever, etc. (Whereas the other song, Kaownah's"Be Mine", is sung by Lhong, if you look at the words, is more abouit extreme, obsessive love. But they're both great songs.)

The good brother. Naturally noble as Thorn. A delight to watch, graceful and serious. We need to see more of him. Need to see his fires ignited.

What a star. A great comedic performer and an exceptional character actor, always distinctive and convincing, natural in his originality; never contrived or OTT. Consistently engaging to watch. As jon1964 says below, a scene stealer par excellence.

What a role in TharnType! Poor Lhong. Such a villain, a manipulative lying wrongdoer who destroys the happiness of others .... and yet thanks to good writing, good direction, and above all Kaownah's exceptional acting (and musical ability) we look straight into Lhong's tortured soul and feel his pain, just like anyone else's pain: his agony, his loss, his humiliation. Lhong's story cries out to be taken forward - not as a one-dimensional villain, but as a complex, suffering young man experiencing the depths of remorse and repentance, searching for atonement - and the love of a good man.

As a director, Tee Sintanaparadee has much to be proud of. The direction of TharnType is outstanding. So many gripping shots, camera angles which focus on the two protagonists in such exciting ways, dialogue scenes where we are enabled to feel the words and read the faces in an exceptionally intimate way, love scenes which are unique in gay history - literally - because it remains almost a blank page. Until recently there was nothing. Who had ever made a cinematic account of two men making love? There was zero. Just porn; no serious treatment of male-male erotic love. So people like Tee Sintanaparadee are by the very nature of their work pathbreaking innovators.

I felt unsure about TharnType at the beginning: I was doubtful about the "abuse" story in Type's past, and indeed it was dealt with inconsistently (at one point, we saw that Type was very young when it happened, a small child, but at another point we heard that he was considerably older; and then we heard nothing more this major episode in his life). In a way, it seemed as though the abuse was a poorly handled plot device dreamt up to explain Type's initial hostility. But then we were into the series, and every scene showing the two, Tharn and Type, was so engrossing, beautiful and compelling, rich in nuance and power. Plus the comedic talent of Techno, and the tragic impact of Lhong. A major directorial achievement.

People all round the world want to see this. Please, GMM One, take note! I have no idea what a box set or boxset or boxed set is supposed to be in 2020, sorry. Once it meant a grouped-together set of CDs or videotapes. And today?? At any rate, there are fans in every part of the globe who would be glad to pay good money to see a continuation of the TharnTyupe story, ... I think: BUT I hesitate when I contemplate the title "Our Last Love". LAST? Why "Last"?? This does not bode well. It feels like the grim truth of "Make Our Days Count", a dark warning that "Our Days" are going to be brought to a screeching halt.

The author of all the best work!

Oh yes, loved MODC (except last episode - just omit that). And the previous HIStory 3 and 2 series. And every PeteKao segment of Kiss: the Series and Kiss Me Again and their featurette in Our Skyy.

By the way, if you feel provoked by odd Thai English-language titles, Dark Blue Kiss isn't so weird - the previous PeteKao series were called "Kiss", and we had a lot of dark blue colour in this series. Who knows why, but it worked well. Whereas .... "Our Skyy".... ? Now THAT's a bizarre title.

I loved DBK. I loved TharnType. I loved LBC. There you go.

Yes, absolutely. This will help! Wishing you some comfort. There's plenty of consolation to be found in the ending of DBK. Also: watch to the end of TharnType as well. Also happy. Both series end with male couples in love and together. (I understand your grief. The ending of HIStory 3 MODC was heartrending and preposterous.)

Totally agree. I have no criticisms. I love it.

This just gets better and better. It's extraordinary. There are so many special, wonderful things to praise.

Most recently, the wonderful grandmother character - and obviously the highly interesting and obviously distinguished actress.

Next - the slow pace. What's wrong with a slow pace, I suddenly asked myself? Does everything have to race along - with crazy revelations, violence, weird villains concocting silly plots, etc etc? This moves at a good pace, gentle, full of real detail, giving attention to many aspects of life.

And another extraordinary, wonderful thing about this series: the attention to food, Pharm's role as a cook, the commitment to Thai culture. This is such an imaginative feature. Food is a central language of all cultures, and this series invites us to think about that.

Oh yes, and another thing: the actual theme of "reincarnation". As a Western person, I was instantly doubtful when I heard about this theme - "reincarnation" sounds esoteric in the West, a strange New Age or ancient "spiritualist" idea. But of course notions of the continuity of life which we might sum up as "reincarnation" in English are of great importance in Buddhism. I thank this series, the writing, the references to Buddha and Buddhism for helping me to abandon my foolish Western prejudices and receive these ideas. As we see, the notion isn't that Dean and Pharm are reincarnated reproductions of dead people - the idea is more subtle: they contain memories of specific individuals of the past. Well, that is a profound and beautiful theme and is also known to us in the West, where countless intellectuals and religious figures have explored theories of memory and identity.

The other important dimension of the reincarnation theme is that it makes us think about the destructive power of homophobia, and the lives of young gay men and lesbian women crushed and extinguished in the past by anti-gay hatred and violence. It inspires us to honour their memories.

You're fantastic! I'm amazed. I don't have Twitter but I was nevertheless able to look at your wonderful pictures of the filming sites. You have done extraordinary work identifying them. I live in London but I was in Taipei last month (for the first time, and I loved it). I had the impression that most of MODC was filmed in the Xinyi district - I was staying nearby in Zhongshan. I recognised the lovely "Rainbow Bridge" where Sun Bo Xiang encounters Lu Zhi Gang at night and goes down on his knees and gives him his ring. But that's all. I had no idea a REAL school was used. Also, as I mention above in reply to Destinesia, I went to an Arrow Wei concert on 20 December and I heard her sing 我還是不懂 "I still can't understand". Heart-rending stuff, you could have heard a pin drop. Meanwhile, your Twitter blog seems to mention a new series (with an image) with Wayne Song in it - is that possible...??

As George Takei says, "Oh my...!" Oh my indeed. When this actor, Ohm Thitiwat Ritprasert, is on the screen in Until We Meet Again, you just have to drop whatever you are doing and stare, utterly spellbound. Every second spent watching his face, his expressions, is quite simply inspiring. His is a beauty that is both profound and startling. Much as I enjoy crazy lustful thoughts about gorgeous Thai actors, being a 100% red-blooded gay man, I feel something like ... shy reverence for Ohm Thitiwat Ritprasert's very unique charm. He's one of a kind, sui generis.

Unfortunately, the Chinese-language websites are full of endless stories about Aric Chen's many "girlfriends", past and present, secret and not so secret. It's fine for him to be heterosexual, but somehow it's a pity when an actor who plays a gay role in a drama makes such a big business of telling the whole world all about his heterosexual exploits. OK, we get the message, he's 101% straight. Is being heterosexual so important? The simple answer remains in 2020: Yes. Being straight is still the most important thing any man can say about his identity. "Gay" is just something you pretend to be on the screen - for the money.

I've been thinking about Su Hai Qing for a while. First of all, Aric Chen, the actor, is a young man of outstanding beauty. Totally compelling every second he's on the screen. But second, Su Hai Qing is a ... complicated character - and therefore actually a very interesting character. Moody, frustrated, prone to depression, unstable. Aric Chen communicates all of that perfectly. Su Hai Qing isn't adorable. He's not even entirely likable. But the way Aric Chen showed us a young man's aspirations, desires, griefs and frustrations - the passion of his creativity as an artist - the conflict of his varying feelings of love and desire for two different men - that all added up to an amazing achievement as an actor, I now realise. I often fall for beautiful young men in Taiwanese BL series, as so many are so totally enchanting to watch ... but Aric Chen is exceptional in every respect, including as an actor, regardless of his looks. "Dark Bue & Moonlight" was a series I'm still unsure about, to be honest, and I don't often feel any interest in re-watching it - except when I think of Aric Chen. Yes, a beautiful young man, but a fine actor who portrayed a complex, conflicted character quite brilliantly. Now that I think about it! I haven't forgotten Su Hai Qing and I haven't forgotten Aric Chen.