It's better but definitely need more improvements.

After twelve torturing episodes, I can finally, completely say that the only reason I kept watching this series are the great acting of Ohm Pawat and Nanon Korapat. They had one of the best BL chemistry that made me hooked into the series, they both made me laugh, cry, swoon, above all else. Ohm's previous filmography with BL series/movies is one big advantage, but Nanon finally proved once again he's a really good actor, playing all out and no backing down. (That kiss scene in Episode 5 is unlike any other, never been I cried harder watching two men kissing so passionate and loud.) Also, kudos for GMM TV finally trying to test the water with GL story, I like it, I wish sometime they can make one.

But it's all unfortunate that many of the series's plot (outside of Pat/Pran's complicated love story and their endless feud and Ink/Pa's love story) is way too rough and illogical on many parts – on some parts it felt "jumpy" and on many other parts I honestly feels all these Ohm/Nanon scenes are fan service. I was expecting something that can be crunched slower and more smooth. Whether it was Backaof's fault or somebody else, it's hard to tell, because I feel that "jumpy" series are somewhat more common when a production is halted due to the rising cases of COVID, then the crew lost significant time and forced to rush everything, changing and cramming the script just to fit the deadline and COVID restrictions.

Ah, now about fan service. It looks like Backaof and the GMM TV team really discovered the recipe to make their viewers scream, and actually since this is the first BL premiered after the brutal Delta variant, this is all that we wanted and it's worth it. But I hope in the future we can go further and avoid playing "fan service card" too much, because ITSAY just broke all your standard for BL. I want compelling stories not fan services. Bad Buddy *is* breaking standard, but only vis-a-vis other GMM TV's BL series.

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This is quite a big mash-up of BL in the thick of action-drama series about social issues.

THE STORY: In short, I like both the BL story and the non-BL story, it's a rarity that both stories actually work. I love the theme, I love on how the script could cover a lot of social issues in Thai (read the news, folks, three fingers salute) without having to bore the viewers, but yet simple enough to understand. Looks like, everything can be outfront, except the monarch. One more thing to appreciate is this BL series does cover LGBT rights, something that often missed out on other popular BLs. However, I have to admit there are some parts that doesn't go: the heist and escape drama needs more thrill, White's journey disguising as Black are filled with "side" quests that gave virtually no point other than "our gang members can be fucking cool", and twice the episodes are ended with fake alarms ("it was just my friend testing me").

ACTING: We've seen Gun Attaphan's award-winning acting in The Gifted, so it's no surprise that Gun can play two different characters of a completely different aura. We've seen White for so long and when we finally get to be introduced to Black, it feels amazing, I'm once again in awe of his acting skills. I also give applause for other actors and actresses: Off's acting is an upgrade (his acting under the rainbow flag scene is on point!), First and Gawin's love story stole the show, and others too.

DIRECTING & OTHERS: Nuchy herself is an award-winning film director, so I feel relieved the series is on her hand. Otherwise I cannot imagine how horrible the series would be without her (and her amazing team). The series put excruciating details on the visual; and notice that many of the camera techniques used throughout the series were cinematically different than other GMM TV series; I feel like watching a movie rather than a TV series. How about the music? Rather than staying with a set of basic scores, Not Me has put some 200 different songs sampled to accompany different scenes and moods, and this creates another cinematically different experience compared to other GMM TV series.

CONCLUSION: I see BL fans might get disappointed because the non-BL story dominated the overall series, but this is what I want from BL series. Many BL series put too much effort on romance and fan service, abandoning overall story and other aspects - Not Me successfully balanced it. Kissing scenes and other romantic moments were built without stereotyping and while they are intense, they don't hypersexualizing it. While Sean & White's love story were built under poorly made bricks, Yok & Dan's love story is concrete and solid. Looks like the action and non-BL drama needs more improvement, but Nuchy still can cover it and make it enjoyable, quite decent for a TV drama standard.

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A gay man disapproves this.

Certainly turned off with the trope when a gay man found a homophobic straight man, then the gay man kept teasing that straight man until they're having sex in the bathroom (this is almost by definition, the R word); then after a good deed, that homophobic man returns the favor with literally selling his body to be enjoyed by a gay man even before they officially a boyfriend (Yes, that "misekakunoi" thing, this is fucking bullshit).

This series is made for girls (specifically, BL watchers) of those advanced level who is silently seeking for rape stories in gay relationship, who wants to see or hear about steamy hypersexualized scenes. Gay men don't want to be seen as rapist and hunting straight men. If you want to watch series about gay men having raunchy sex, why don't just go to gay-oriented series or just straight to gay porn?

No matter you called it fiction or fantasy, it's still not the gay depiction that the gay people want to be attached with. Make no mistake: rape/sexual assault among gay people does exist, but without sensitiveness in mind, TharnType is just a series that further stigmatizes gay people rather than celebrating it. Mew and Gulf's acting is so-so. Visual and music: who cares...

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Humanely queer

For a debut film for C.B. Yi, it's really a good film. Mood-setting visual, check. Music, check. ("Hello Anxiety" by Phum Viphurit!!) All the sexy boys, check. Clearly not the best Asian LGBTQ+ film of all time, but still a good one to watch.

The visual, story, and pace can be considered too generic and straight-up mimicking art films. But I still appreciate that they made it smooth and moderately paced, not putting too much cryptic cues, good enough not to induce yawn.

Now the story: The more you watch, the more you feel sad about Fei. He can stand with the daily life struggle of a sex worker, rejection of a family, criminalization from the largest mafia organization in the world, and even a close friend straight up admitting that he loves him.

But in the end, he can't stand the feeling of loneliness, the loneliness that is killing him slowly, anyway.

The story itself is very humane (and queer). I love it.

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Just watch and enjoy

A movie that I can only review with: "just watch and enjoy". The plot offers a simple theme in plain sight, but wait until you notice your video player telling you this movie hasn't over yet! With fairly low budget, mostly unknown cast, but aggresively smart script, One Cut of the Dead is the one that you MUST watch for once (and perhaps just once) but it's a MUST WATCH!

It's really hard to review this one, because telling everything even more about this movie, constitutes a spoiler. Even telling you the genre of this movie, constitutes a spoiler.

So, I will zip my mouth and stop typing. Without further ado, "just watch and enjoy"!

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Do not underestimate: this series is what I have been waiting for so long.

The storyline is just mindblowing. The Gifted is what I've been waiting for so long. So dark, so dystopian, but so exciting to wait for more.

The first seven episodes are not somewhat perfect but I still like it. They set the mood for each episode to match the character they want to highlight: for Ohm it's comedy-inspired, for Namtaan it's a detective story, for Claire it's pure drama, for Punn it's psychological thriller, for Mon it's action, and for Korn it's romance. But they still didn't leave the main thread at all, which at first confuses me, but then as I keep watching I became addicted to it. Glad they added Wave at episode 9.

Then the real story began at the 8th episode. From this point, it frames and reframes each character; giving you the thirst for curiosity and it makes me always questioning who's the good and who's the bad. Even in the ending, I cannot decide whether it was Pang or Supot who was good or bad.

I also love the ending. It's epic: they stitched it with a flashback between Pom and Chanon; and then Pang back to the place where the series began. What's in the ending is actually a hanging one – but it's thrilling and mindblowing, a must for a dystopian theme. From the start to end, I barely could find any loopholes or bumps within the story, which is what makes me giving the review of... a must watch and rewatch!

I also noticed that many themes of this series are taking directly to what people like from other TV and movies. I noticed these:
- Issues about teens and their distrust to adults; and Adults creating a system that puts younger people in unfairness = "Battle Royale"
- Pang and Supot trying to outsmart each other with tricks and strategies = "Death Note"
- Ordinary people are with superpowers = "Heroes"
- ..in a school setting = "Harry Potter"
- Claire's scene at the theatre with drum beats as the music = "Birdman"
- Mon's fighting scenes = just call any martial arts movies you like

But either they are trying to copy it or not, this fantasy and thriller series is way better. They added an Asian touch of the series: for every single plot twists, flashbacks, and "reasons" behind someone doing something, they gave it clear and loud, which is what many Western series with similar themes often don't do.

Nanon's acting from a low-grade student (he can make that stupid face!) to a rebelious student with full of tactics, he perfected it. The visuals are way different than other GMM TV or Thai series, as well as the music score (they are my phone's ringtone now); I am now so much in the fan of this series. I watched the episode every single night after work, I reduced my sleeping hours just because I became so curious about what's next, and when the weekend comes I binge-watched it until the end. 13 episodes, 13 hours well spent for me.

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"If only some people can have it, that's not happiness. That's just nonsense."

How could a movie went from basic and boring mystery, into a heartwarming yet gut-wrenching coming-of-age story? ?

As bits by bits of the mystery gets unfolded through the lens of others, nothing is even more surprising than the third reenactment of the story, where we can finally get to know the truth, the full truth of all the mystery. The last few scenes were unapologetically gut-wrenching and saddening, and also was a typical "up to your interpretations" thing, but this film just made the perfect ending that let me crying at the final scene.

Let me be clear: some people on the internet have complained and trying to reclaim this is a friendship story, rather than a queer coming-of-age story. But I see it differently, your queer friends will see it differently, and thankfully a lot of you–cinephiles–see it differently. Maybe you should check your (queer) friends and I hope they will buy some time to tell you something different that I'd bet you never have to endure. It takes Monster to let us think again who's the true monster of it all.

P.s.: musical composition by Ryuichi Sakamoto feels like his final gift to us, rest in love.

Best Screenplay at 76th Cannes Film Festival (2023)

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Heartwarming and tearjerking, but in a good way

It all started with one weird but funny premise: a five-year old Kotaro lives alone in an apartment. The beginning of the series gives you all the fun and cute scenes, but wait until you learn more about Kotaro and why he lives alone.

I really enjoyed this series because of its heartwarming story and its main takeaway: rather than Kotaro should thank the adults around him to take care of him, but I believe the end of the story offers the other way – the adults should thank for Kotaro's presence and innocent view of the world that slaps all the adults hard, really hard.

For me, the story slaps the audience, too – in the world that we have where everyone were facing their own struggles and problems (and those adults in the series are no exception), should we take a little time to think different or take from a children's point of view?

Each of the adult around Kotaro are explored on each episode differently, on how they used to face adulting and how Kotaro changes them the better. It's just... really nice. And I can't stop crying watching this twice already.

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It's good, but nothing special.

As a foreword, 2gether is my first BL series that I watch and I love. I laughed, cried, crazed over the love story of Sarawat & Tine... Like many of the big fan of the series, I was expecting for something special.. But unfortunately, with all due respect, I have to answer my reaction at the ending of the movie was: "just it?"

About 90% of the story is (as expected) repackaged of mostly the first 9 episodes of 2gether the Series, along with some short scenes that weren't used in the original. Some scenes were timelined different than the series, which can raise some eyebrow but either way it doesn't bother. What made it different is the point of view. It was first Tine and then Sarawat that narrates their love story and personal feelings that were never been told on the series. This part gets to focus only between Sarawat and Tine, and how did they become boyfriends of each other (Remember that they become boyfriends at the beginning of episode 10, so almost every episode beyond that are skipped. Moreover, 'Still 2gether' sucks.)

Then the last 10% is the new scene and story that goes beyond the ending of Still 2gether. It's really nice to see almost all the cast come back in one; it was fun that they tell everyone is "still 2gether" even after many, many years; but the vague fate of the relationship between Sarawat and Tine itself that raises a little bitterness inside all the happiness and smile that they can offer. The trailer subtly hints and leads the viewers to think it's going to be a certain milestone on their relationship – it turned out to be just another sweet moment between Sarawat and Tine which is a little bit disappointing (but it's still cute either way).

I must honestly say, if you never watch 2gether, don't use this movie as a shortcut. All the fun and sad, ups and downs between Sarawat, Tine, and their universe definitely needs more context – if you choose to jump right into the movie you'll find..just two boys reminiscing their college love life??? All the visual and sound retouch were pretty hit on, but without better understanding between the roller coaster at the start of their love life is, the movie can bore you out. And it's better to scream when you're on the roller coaster, not when you're watching it.

The movie was pretty much designed as a little gift for 2gether fans, I suppose, but I think the gift were too small. It would be better if they dare enough to call for a big milestone, or maybe GMMTV can just make a movie with completely new scenes and canon. The original series were rated 9/10 for me, the sequel is 6/10, I give the movie 7/10.

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A film that is dancing beautifully

Like its fascination with Iguazu falls, every flow of this movie is striking directly down below, hitting hard, yet Iguazu is endlessly beautiful whenever you watch, listen, or feel it. A film that is... I'd rather call it 'dancing', both literally and figuratively.

I call it a masterpiece for its avant-garde cinematography that blends smoothly with their music playlist, and even more when they are performed by three excellent actors. And don't say more for its way for storytelling: Love life is amazingly mysterious, yet so beautiful. Just like this film.

For me, "Happy Together" is one hell of LGBT cinema that is unlike any other.

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Do not watch unless you're a fan of one of these five: Gigie, Chimon, Sing, Singto, Ohm

Despite that the first episode billed this story as a BL between a ghost and a person; and the mystery-crime drama for the search of Med... Honestly I felt that both premises completely failed to satisfy me.

The story mood often quickly changes from one to another, let's say from dramatic to comedically funny; so it always ruins the build up. The BL side needs more buildup (but I appreciate the coming out scene); meanwhile the mystery-crime side also failed because it just ended up flopping (I was expecting to be more thrilling and adventurous). There's too much part for the comical humor and friendship issues.

What I appreciate for the rest is the actors and actresses. Not gotta lie: I started to fan Chimon and Sing, it all started from this series.

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Save the best for the last

For a series that really sucks within their first three episodes (it's all just forced pairings, unnecessary fan services, and storylines that gaslights your braincell's ability to your critical thinking and logic) finally the final episode is a one to save and forgive all the mess behind.

The acting between Earth & Mix is just romantically beautiful, I think it's a rare gem to find a BL episode where a couple's romantics at their moderate-to-advance stage can be both steamy hot, candid, and heartwarming at the same time. While their tour of the city center is way too glamorous and out of touch with ordinary gay couples, but I still adore on one different approach: exposing a free-of-drama, casual, and boring date of a gay couple, something I rarely find in most BLs too.

However, there's one thing we need to question: during the scene where Phu Pha gives the ring to Tian, they somehow didn't mention at all what's all that for (at least in the English subtitle)? Is this a wedding proposal, engagement ring, or just a personal gift?? Yes, Thailand's politics on same-sex marriage is complicated and none of us non-Thai citizen can intervene. but in this case we need more than ambiguous ending from you, the writers and director.

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A gem in Asian cinema

Two bittersweet love stories entangled in a beautiful cinematography, a cantonese version of "Dreams", and a simple salad bar that connects them... A beautiful masterpiece that nobody could ever remake for three reasons: no one will be able to recreate the very same visual aesthetics handcrafted by Wong Kar-wai and Christopher Doyle; no one will be able to replace Tony Leung's impeccable acting; and no one will be able to remake the airport scenes (Kai Tak Airport is closed in 1998).

Some people call this movie is a hidden gem, but I disagree - This movie has been already listed on many film critic's lists of best Asian films of all time. So, don't blink your eyes while watching the Express.

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Quizas, quizas, quizas...

Nggak tahu apakah karena emang udah nggak interested sama film drama romance heteroseksual lagi, atau emang sedang capek banget secara fisik dan mental, sejujurnya gue sangat struggling untuk bisa fokus nonton film ini. Setiap 10 menit pause dan break terus. I think today is my own bad day for watching artistic movies like this.

Tapi di luar ceritanya yang B itu, suka banget dengan sinematografinya, sangat ditakar dengan penuh kehati-hatian; banyak banget flare atau object yang sengaja dibikin menghalangi, seakan-akan rasanya kita mengintip di balik rahasia kisah cinta dua orang yang diam-diam selingkuh. Musiknya juara, sangat melankolis dan benar-benar membangun mood. Kostumnya juga elegan banget. Jangan lupa moodboard warna merahnya, tidak terkalahkan.

Tapi bicara soal cinta, memang terkadang rasa cinta itu hadir dan terus berbunga bukan karena ketertarikan seksual, tapi karena sebuah wadah kosong bernama kesepian yang diisi oleh rasa nyaman. Oh well... Mungkin jika diri ini sudah lebih siap mencerna, akan kutonton film ini untuk kedua kalinya. "quizás, quizás, quizás..."

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30 minutes of pure bliss and tranquility

My first advice for everyone that is planning to watch this on Netflix or everywhere: do not binge-watch this series.

Zetsumeshi Road (or in English, The Road to Red Restaurant List) offers a simple story, minimum no-conflict drama: about an average working father who was left alone in Friday nights because his wife and daughter were a fan of boyband and always goes on concert tours, secretly trying a Saturday hobby to discover rare and endangered restaurants in Tokyo suburbs or satellite cities. "Rare" and "endangered" because these classic restaurants were owned by older chefs with no clear descendants or going out of business for good whenever the actual owner died or retired.

The series will tell his experiences visiting the restaurant and his interaction with the owner (and sometimes, other visitors). If they are interesting enough, the visit will also tell the background story of the restaurant, which is (!) based on real story.

The way this series gave the experience is simple, fun, and tranquil. Slow-paced, narators speaking gently and calm, and the visuals are full of bright natural lights to make simple Japanese meals looks really tempting. Unlike all the high stakes drama other TV series can offer, Zetsumeshi Road is designed to have you settle down and relax for 30 minutes (note that in Tokyo, this series were broadcast at Friday 24:52 and always reran on other channels past midnight). Due to this unique approach I have decided NOT to binge-watch this series and have myself enjoying 30 minutes of pure bliss for twelve weeks. It feels much better.

Hope all the viewers of this series (and me, too) could be visiting any one of these twelve endangered restaurants soon, or to have you inspired searching for real hidden gems in your city. Long live zetsumeshi!

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