BLISS RATING: ★★★★
“Stop setting yourself on fire to keep someone else warm.” – Unknown
This is a continuation of a phenomenal BL series called ‘I Told Sunset About You’ followed with a short mini-series called “Last Night in Phueket’. Both series were beyond reproach and were a stalwart in terms of influencing Thai BL series. So, I was so looking forward to this continuing story of the relationship between Teh (Bilkin Putthipong) and Oh-aew again played by (PP Kritt). These young men, besides being stunningly handsome and beautiful, are two of the finest actors in BLs now. They are without doubt unbelievably good creators of characters who captured the essence and the souls of both Teh and Oh-aew. And they did it within life stages that comes from the passage of time and growing up. They took these characters from boys to young men, to adults and brought with them all the characteristics and trials and tribulations that go with each of these stages in their lives. They took their love for each other from its lustful stage to the reality of trying to maintain it in today’s modern world. They had to deal with growth and a divergence of interests unique to each and try to make it work.
What they thought they wanted as children is not what they wanted as adults or what they thought would be so easily accomplished actually is. It is a brilliant study into what many couples (gay or straight) go through in the solidification of their commitment. They find out how hard it is to really become all the expectations to each other and equally as important to know when it is time to move on into a new direction for themselves.
This is one of the finest acted BL series I have ever seen. The acting is first rate by all the individuals in this series. What drove the beauty to this series is that they brought individuality and life to each character. They were real. They presented their personae not as caricatures but as genuinely real people with simplicities and complexities to them almost simultaneously.
Additionally, this is also one of the best stories and productions of what it is like to be an actor. They portrayed the profound disappointments, the endless rejections, and the not-so-glamorous aspects to acting. Indeed, it showed the rawness and the incredible hard work of endeavoring to become an actor. In addition, they brought to life that once it is achieved, perhaps it is not as fulfilling as initially thought. Nothing can replace or will replace the emptiness in your soul and heart if you have no one to share it with. This story did this with incredibly sensitivity and honestly without being maudlin. It is a love story with these two facing the reality that each of them is separate from the other but never really complete until they are together. They must learn that lesson the hard way with a lot of pain and emotional torture.
Teh to some degree is portrayed in a villainous light and he is really. He is an individual who is longing for more from life and a relationship. For him, ‘the grass is always greener on the other side’. He intellectually knows that is not true but emotionally is too immature to realize it. He becomes perplexed when he falls into this trap but is helpless to stop it as he knows it is a part of who he is. He merely sees it as a way to grow, for him, without any realization as to its effects on others. He is confused when Oh-aew sees it differently from him. Teh is an individual who must sense the wrongness in his behavior on both an intellectual and emotional level at the same time; otherwise, he does not comprehend his mistake.
When he finally does, it is then that he understands why he is wrong, but it is too late. The damage is done. On the other hand, Oh-aew does not live in the real world but a world of fantasy and idealism. He loves Teh, plain and simple and unconditionally. It is a part of him, his DNA, and it is unshakable and unmovable. And when he is hurt by Teh, it strikes deep into his psyche and soul with the damage almost irreparable as the hurt is so profound.
Oh-aew has no boundaries to his love and expects Teh to reciprocate with intensity in the same way he does. It is only when he can grasp that Teh is who he is, and he is who he is that there is ever any real understanding of their relationship. He realizes that they both are different yet incomplete without each other. Indeed, they will throughout their lives fall in love with each other over and over again. That is the nature of their love and the nature of who these two are. It is their destiny. The complexities of their relationship is artwork and a thing of beaty to actually watch. And they brought that to life.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. the series? This is an unorthodox choice for me, but I am again picking Nat Kitcharit as Hoon, Teh’s brother. I know this appears to be a bit tangential but there is just something about him that simply draws me to him. Even if his performance is brief, his impact on this story sets its tone and brings the story to life again. He is briefly in only two episodes. The first one is when he takes Teh to the university. There is just something about his quietness, his steadiness, his deep love he has for his family, and his strong connection to his brother that makes him shine. I see that and feel that in his performance. But when he talks about why he fell in love with his new wife in episode 5, he encapsulates the entire story of love in a basic, simple way. He met her and wanted to spend time with her. He wistfully reflects that one day he woke up and saw her and realized she was the one that he wanted to see when waking up next to him for the rest of his life. And he says, maybe love is that simple. It was such a profoundly simple basic statement that thunderstruck Teh and he realized at the moment what that REALLY meant to him. That was so powerful to me that I literally cried at its beauty. Nat can act with such conviction that it was one of the most believable moments in this series. A special shout out also must go to a very brief appearance of Khunpol Pongpol as Bass (who was briefly Oh-aew’s boyfriend in the first series). He reenters Oh-aew’s life as a sounding board for advice. Not only is he lustfully handsome and drop-dead gorgeous at the same time, he gives him such words of wisdom in a succinct and impassionate, and friendly way that it makes total sense. He says to Oh-aew, “If you want to know what is going to work or not, then you go back and try [with Teh]. But if you don’t want to know, there no need to go back. Because in the end, the one who chooses what is best for you is yourself.” This is exactly the advice that is needed, and he delivers these pearls of wisdom to him as a friend. It is quite moving.
With all this glowing verbosity of mine, one would think that I loved this series. Well, I liked it a lot, but I cannot honestly say that I loved it. This has nothing to do with the acting as I have said, the acting is top-notch. It is the story itself. It became a bit too soap operatic for me. It seemed at times to be a bit too contrived and what was expected to happen. Teh’s infatuation with Jai (Oab Oabnithi) is the only time there was any real connection from Teh to anyone. That kissing scene between Teh and Jai was the best in this series, ironically.
The connection and magic that Teh and Oh-aew had in the first series is missing in this one and the only thing that came close to Teh feeling alive was that brief encounter between him and Jai. Was there more to it than a simple infatuation? My gut feeling tells me it was. The remainder of the conflict between Teh and Oh-aew was based on that encounter and the misunderstanding that surrounded it. From then on, Teh and Oh-aew seemed to drift further and further apart physically and emotionally but not from loving each other.
This is an ugly story, really. It felt heavy and depressing. Their journey to finding a compatible place in both worlds was painful to watch and resulted in a lot of emotional trauma and soul searching. I am sorry to say but this relationship is very toxic, perhaps from the beginning. It feels one-sided and that is from Teh’s point of view. Oh-aew appears almost obsessed with Teh. When they broke up that seemed to have done wonders for Oh-aew in terms of personal growth and independence. He was secure in himself and stated at one point he loved himself a lot more.
Then Teh comes back into the picture, and Oh-aew reverts into having him almost dependent on him for his emotional needs. I had a hard time trying to figure out Teh’s motivations and was perplexed by his inability to understand how his actions affected others, sometimes negatively. For me, he is so self-centered. And that self-centeredness hindered his ability to grow. They both have to come to the realization that they must be the master of their own fates for them to be able to get along together. That did not happen.
This series simply lacked a romantic connection between the two. A spark. It became predicable and a giant soap opera with a manufactured happy ending. None of it seemed real to me. I missed the chemistry the two had together. In the first series as they were connected on an emotional level. In this series, they needed to be connected on an intellectual level and that did not happen. The ending seemed a bit too contrived to me and lacked a total connection between the two. In real life, I am not sure it would have ended like this. Two people can profoundly and deeply love each other but it does not necessarily mean that they should be together. It just all seemed a bit to neat.
My feelings are so mixed about this series. From an acting point of view and perhaps from a story point of view, it is excellent. But it left me feeling depressed and sad that there is really no growth for either Teh or Oh-aew as he slips back into trying to please Teh. I never sensed that Teh truly understood Oh-aew from the beginning and understands him even less presently. Sure, they are different people from when they were adolescents, and both had peaks and valleys of understandings in their personal growths. However, neither seemed to have really internalized what they learned from their life experiences especially when they separated from one other. I am not questioning the love that have for each other. I simply question whether or not that is enough to sustain a relationship in which the foundation is so shallow and myopic.
I felt no joy in them getting back together again. I felt doubt. Doubt that this is really the right path for them or that it would even work. But maybe that was the point of this story.
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