BLISS RATING: ★★★★
“Even if the world doesn’t understand you, I will.” – Quote from 2 Moons 2
Essentially, this is a remake of 2 Moons. It is a slightly different version. I needed to re-watch this series because when I inadvertently deleted all my reviews, this was the only one that I could not find the backup for and therefore I decided to re-watch it in its entirety.
I am glad that I did because I now see series so differently. Having the luxury of hindsight is great. And I have a different view of this series from my original rating and decided to rate it higher. I see relationships so differently now.
It is really a story of three couples. The scenarios are irrelevant here. What is relevant though is the internal connection between each of the individual couples. I am presuming that Wayo (Earth Teerapat) and Phana (Ben Brasier) are the lead couple, although at times it was hard to determine.
The issue with this couple was unbelievability. I just never bought that they were a couple. There frankly is little to no chemistry here. Sure, they act well and ‘pretend’ to be a couple, but the naiveness and lack of communication becomes old, stale, and so frustrating. Just talk with each other! Wayo is so child-like in his development, I wonder why Phana even bothers with him. I never could figure out why if two guys supposedly love each other (which they claim to do on a number of occasions) never do anything sexually for long periods of time being together. I know culture and customs play some role but there gets a point where that must end. Wayo is never ready and when it does finally happen, it seems anticlimactic. Nothing ever really happens with any sense of sincerity or conviction with this couple and the story becomes an old recycled banal tale. Of the three couple, this is my least favorite couple.
The second and way more intense relationship is between Beam (Dome Waranart) and Forth (Pavel Naret). There is real chemistry here and a deeper connection because their relationship starts out after having sex with each other. I do not believe I can recall any BL series so open about starting a relationship based on such a premise. They explore their guilt, the shame, the intensity together after experiencing the most intimate of connections. Two different personalities with two different approaches on how to create a union. I loved their story because we got to see them and experience their own foibles and doubts and misunderstandings out in the open. And they were open to seeing it through. Indeed, they are an intense couple and approached their pending relationship with a healthy dose of skepticism yet a passion for wanting to see it happen. They really deserved a whole series. I must admit they are probably two of the most astonishingly handsome men in BLs today. They project such sincerity and a deep understanding of who there characters were.
The third couple was Ming (Joong Archen) and Kit (Nine Kornchid). This couple is the most interesting of the three because of the misgiving and trepidations that Kit had about Ming, which were all justifiably so. Ming had been a player and had a reputation of loving and leaving. Kit, the more sensitive one, builds up walls of bitterness to keep from being hurt. Their relationship slowly grows because they need to see each other capable of changing and learning from past mistakes. They were almost entirely two people with opposing personalities. Ming, the easy-going optimistic and fun-loving character is the opposite of Kit who is deeply serious, cautious, and feeling very vulnerably and frightened. Their relationship grows with intensity because both were willing to see each other in a new light and show commitment to one another, once it is earned. It was a beautiful connection to see unfold, sometimes by leaps and bounds, and at other times almost breaking.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? All of the major actors were quite good. But one character showed a deliciously evil side to himself with the most adorably innocent face I have ever seen. Park (Kaprao Pongkorn) is an instigator and an incredibly manipulative individual. He likes Wayo and in the process of trying to woo him, manipulates him with fear and intimation. He becomes scary and with legitimate reason. Always playing innocent, he creates anxiety and becomes vengeful if he cannot get what he wants. He is rather noteworthy in this role as he plays the sociopathic behavior with complete innocence and charming manipulation. What makes him so forceful is his way he uses his good looks to deflect his personality defects. I found his characterization so unbelievably real in a seditious fashion. Kaprao is quite effective in this portrayal of a manipulative person. Kudos for making evil look so handsome.
This story is not without its flaws, however. There is an obvious a gay clique called Angel Gang. I have always detested these stereotypical characterizations of a group of effeminate gays as always over-the-top flamboyant. Their intentions are certainly well-meaning, but I detest the stereotype of behaviors. They also have the obligatory overweight individual nicknamed Fatty or Hippo. I find the use of these terms intensely derogatory and awful. The very thing these series is trying to convey – acceptance – is the very thing they are promoting in using these pejorative terms. Please stop. Make an effort to stop being quintessential and see what affect you might have on seeing the whole gay community not so shallow.
This series also promoted the silly notion of falling in love with the person not the gender. While I understand the concept and perhaps its useful to introduce the concept of gayness to societies unfamiliar and unaccepting of gay love, it is time we put a stop to this line of reasoning that falling in love with a man, if you are another man, is just like falling in love with a woman. It is not. Never has been and never will be. You ARE accepting the gender and at some point that concept has to be dealt with. I am in love with a man as a man and his gender goes with that.
This series was finished in 2019 and the ending was a ‘cliffhanger’. I am presuming at some point that there would have been a sequel to this series. But it is now three years, and nothing is coming forth. My hope is that rather than a sequel, we get to see what these three couples are like now. Are they still together? Did they make it? What where their trials and tribulations? How interesting that would be! Endless story lines.
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