BLISS RATING: ★★★★+
“Hold on to the memories – they will hold onto you.” – Anonymous Quote
This is a profoundly moving and an intensely human story that feels real and quite genuine. It is dark and a bit broody but so character driven that you do not mind its plaintiveness. It is a tale of young love that is deep in its core but goes unrecognized and almost missed. The story starts out arcane until we realize how profoundly their love genuinely is. Quite simply, it is a love story between two high school students that is established when they were children. Call it fate or destiny or perhaps chance, but they met and fortified their connection early on cultivating into a deep understanding of love. Yet this love of theirs is neither Pollyanna nor ardent. It is there deeply felt yet never deeply demonstrative. Let me try and explain this enigma.
This saga starts out as a simple story of ‘friendship’ between Nut (Title Teshin) and Pob (Man Supakrit). They indeed have been friends since childhood. What makes this series so unique, although it should not have worked, is its constant reflections back to the past. We get to know and to a degree understand why their friendship has remained so strong through these many years. Their ’love’ is not yet understood let alone acted upon but its foundation has developed from a young age. Nut is a bit more open, or at least, obvious about his truer feelings for Pob. Pob plays the superficial, jocular, live-and-let live attitude but ironically feels the love for Nut on a deeper level than his outward appearance puts on.
This is so evident in the names they give each other. Nut is B1 while Pob is B2. Nut, in high school, is confused as to Pob’s action but it becomes evident even to Nut that Pob is in love with him. But neither can fully express their feelings or have an honesty between them yet, which leads to significant levels of misunderstandings. Nut is a very serious person looking out for the future while Pob is more in the moment and is way more playful and sensuous. However, Pob keeps a life-changing secret from Nut mainly because he does not know how to tell him and since he knows what the effect on Nut would be, does not.
Pob quits school and begins his move to Bangkok without explaining to Nut why. Nut is not just hurt but is deeply wounded by Pob’s actions and therefore cuts Pob out of his life. But they are so inextricably connected that Nut, when he does find out that Pob is moving, runs to him and in a gesture of deep connection they spend the night together.
In one of the best and longest soliloquies confessing affection for someone, this is it. Nut spoke with the softness, sensitivity, and intensity that it deserved. I was so incredibly moved with its gentleness and sincerity, I wept at its beauty and meaning. It was transfixed on their deep friendship and companionship with the whispers of love that only two unpolished teenage boys could deliver. Even with that, Pob cannot tell him the reason why he is leaving but promises to return to him. But Pob leaves without a final good-bye to Nut which festers and angers and hurts Nut deeply.
When Pob returns home after 4 years of absence, there initial encounter is one of bitterness and anger. Pob is now finally ready to tell Nut the real reason for his sudden disappearance. And that is he has bone cancer. When Nut finally is told by a friend the real reason why Pob is back, it is too late. In a display of magnificent regret, Nut runs after Pob before the damage is completely done and catches him before he leaves back to Bangkok and asks him to stay the night. In what for me is one of the most tender, beautiful, compassionate, intense love connections I have seen, they finally connect not just emotionally but physically.
It is the beginning of their love on every conceivable level including outwardly acknowledging it to the world. In order for Pob to have a chance to arrest this cancer, he must have his right arm amputated which he refused to do – until now. With little verbal encouragement but infinite love from Nut, Pob agrees. This is their story.
If you want a cute love story, this is not it. If you want two guys romping around in bed with shirts off and lustful looks, again more on. This is a profoundly subtle series that says more with less words. It says it with endearingly relatable seemingly random acts of kindness that shows love. The underplaying of these roles is exactly what should have been. It is an ordinary story told in an ordinary way with relatable characters who are like us. This is not a feel-good series. It is maudlin and painfully sad yet relatable and smacks us in the face with the reality that not all relationships are like story-book fantasies.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. the series? The two young lead actors are simply captivating and while they might not have had a lot of acting experiences, they were the perfect choices for these roles. They said more in their eyes, and facial expressions than they could have conveyed in words. The ability to underplay is way more difficult to portray than over the top and these actors did so with sheer perfection. But I am giving this distinction, unorthodox as it is, to the individual who played Nut’s brother, Note, played by (Tonnam Piamchon. He is an individual who is almost the complete opposite of Nut – outgoing, gregarious, fun-loving and open about his relationship with Tar, played by Get Sorawut. You can sense Tonnam presence in the room as he does command the scene. He could easily have overpowered Title Teshin but never does. He acts as if he is his mentor as well as brother. That is some fine acting! He is also Nut’s rock and emotional stability. He can read Nut and knows who he is and his struggles. Tonnam played this part with such a quiet fortitude that without him, this story would have felt incomplete. He was there when Nut needed someone and could tell Nut gently what life is all about. He was able to openly express his feelings for his boyfriend, Tar, which made what Nut was doing okay.
What is usually considered side-stories, this relationship between Tar and Note was not. It was evident and real and had been for a long time. Their story so affects the outcome of this story that it was like being blind-sided with another reality. I was surprised and shocked, and that takes a lot for me to feel that. It gave this saga a whole new meaning and a twist that left me less hopeful and bewildered. I found it refreshingly different and unexpected.
This little gem is the most paradoxical love story I have ever seen. It makes you see love, cry for it, yet never fully believing in its infallibility. It always feels so fragile but maybe that is what love is really all about. Yet again, even to the end, this story brings life crashing down to real world experiences. This is genuinely an awesome series and should be seen by everyone.
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