BLISS RATING: ★★★★★
“Martha: Truth or illusion, George; you don’t know the difference. George: No, but we must carry on as though we did. Martha: Amen.” – Edward Albee from WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?
Let me call this series what it is. A complete and total masterpiece. It is brilliant from beginning to end. Riveting, soul-searching, and a classical intellectual metaphorical representation of life. It displays truth, obsession, pain, illusion, weakness, strength, and heaps of sadness. There are no more sadder figures than the three characters in this theater-n-the-round cinema masterpiece.
With only three characters in this drama, you are riveted to them and can find characteristics to relate to in each of them. A mother, Saswimol [Mol] (Mam McIntosh), her son, Wang (Pond Ketpraphakon, and a mutual friend of the family, Inthawut [It] (Nike Pomsuwan). Mother and son have a bond that is unshakeable but toxic at times. While they love each other, they also repel each other at other times and create baneful interactions that are both hateful and meant to hurt. They strike at each other at their most vulnerable points, and each knows and understands the weaknesses of the others.
By luck, fate, chance, and maybe destiny, or indeed the magic of the 180-degree myth, while getting lost in finding a photo shoot location for Sasimol’s next movie, they literally are rescued by a friend of her and her husband many years ago. Since Mol is a successful drama director, she wanted her son to accompany her on this venture. In was both a friend, companion, and literally a brother to Wang’s father and also to Mol. In has isolated himself from the rest of the world and has built his dwelling (cave) away from civilization. The only thing that connects him to others is a yet unfinished bridge that can be used by the common inhabitants on the other side of the creek which separates his world from theirs.
This is an astonishing soliloquy between these three people. This series is all about the brilliant screenplay and breathtaking acting by all three individuals. Frankly, I was surprised at the depth of the dialogue and the intensity of the acting. This is on the same caliber of impact as Edward Albees’, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” The richness of characters we get to see, and experience is nothing short of remarkable. We find in these three only darkness and despair. We find defeatism, fear, cowardness, depression, alcoholism, isolation, and a world of fantasy and make-believe bordering on obsession.
The interactions between the three of them are sharp, crisp, and biting. Honestly, my exposure to Thai series has been limited to BL, but this opened up my eyes. You CAN have a Thai BL will intellect, wit, and superb acting. This proves it.
The dynamics of their relationships are what psychological textbooks are devoted to. Not wanting to spoil this series but needing to do so is the fact that not one of them love themselves which then makes them incapable of loving each other, even though they profess they want to.
The catalyst for this salacious journey is Wang. It is really his story to tell. Although young, he has lived a charmed but painful life. Painful because of his deep-rooted loneliness. His sole emotional connection to life was his father. When he passed away, his mother could not fill that void. She simply does not know who Wang is, much less understands him, much like she admitted about her own husband. While they love each other as mother and son, they do not connect as family that have a bond. In, on the other hand, is a broken man wallowing in his own world of regrets, cowardness, and weakness in facing his own truths. While intellectual brilliant and a kind man, he isolated himself in the hopes he never has the face the one thing he is terrified of the most – love.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? All three of these performers are outstanding, but the glue that makes this whole series works is the brilliant and remarkable performance of Pond Ketpraphakon as Wang. His acting is phenomenal, almost Shakespearean. His emotions are real. His loneliness is so palpable we could almost cut it with a knife. His character is brilliant, almost psychopathological, and intuitive. Yet inside still a kid, wanting and needing companionship that neither one of them could provide nor frankly understand. Pond gets so deep into his character that you feel his emotions with him. When he says he is in love with In, we believe him, even if he does not fully understand what the meaning of love is or even know how to show it.
Analyzing this story would take volumes and undoubtedly may not still cover every aspect of this series. By the title of the series, it has everything to do with the metaphysical world of ley lines, meridians, and intersection points that affect and perhaps control our lives and destinies. It feels and is so much more than mere coincidence.
The symbolism in this remarkable drama is nothing short of spectacular. The all-consuming fixation of completing a simple wooden bridge becomes a metaphor for their own isolated and secluded lives. Each when finished, they do not want to ‘cross’ the bridge because the other side is terrifying, and they must marshal their own inner strength to see it through to the end. Even if they did, they cannot venture far. None are really capable of seeing what is on the other side and therefore none are capable of seeing themselves with any real insight.
Whether Wang loves In or not is not really relevant. The love is never clearly defined, Is it platonic, bromance, romantic, lustful, desiring companionship, or filling a deep loneliness within him? What makes it raw and real is that both he and his father have ‘loved’ the same man.
Perhaps in different ways, but still the same person. And Mol knows and is as tortured as she was with her husband in the same manner. It is something she cannot control yet desperately wants to. And through all of this, remains the intellectual coward and wall of shame he built around himself, allowing no one in and only a few to see through a prism of what he is like.
Each almost seems to revel in the discourses between them while knowing on an intellectual basis, it is hurtful. But emotionally, unfazed. In and Mol are ugly people who have lost their way and are lost. Wang is a sad figure who seemingly is destined to be just like them. For how he has learned to protect himself is to close yourself off from the world.
This should be on everyone’s must-see for both drama and BL. It is in its own class. And dare to say a seminal work.
Note: This is my pick for the Best BL drama of 2022.
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