BLISS RATING: ★★★★★
“Life never tells us what lies on the other side of the moon. But crossing to that side on your own is the truest beauty of living.” – Quote from Shine
I believe this is a series that might be flying under the radar which is unfortunate. Rarely do I ‘binge-watch’ dramas, but this is one that I simply could not break away from. Without sounding flippant or disingenuous, this is THE best Thai series that has graced us this year and perhaps for a very long time indeed. Simply put, it is a preeminent and impassioned diary of human drama and emotions. It is original. One cannot watch this series passively. It will not allow you to do so. In toto, it is an experience.
One could write volumes about this series and still not be able to adequately describe its effect or impression on you. It is that powerful. Maybe the best way to define this saga is to tell you what it is not. With great effort and prudence, it keeps clear from being your typical, tropey, cliché-driven BL. Yet there is a love story. Several romances, actually. Fervent. Intense. Erotic. Freeing. Fleeting. All deeply moving. Done in the moment – only for and in the here and now. Yet, will remain with each paramour for the remainder of their days. You will understand their extent once the full depth of this series is felt by you.
The real, unfeigned story – the whole story – is about the era known as the 60’s. A point of history where the attitudes and way of life clashed and conflicted proactively with the customary social norms.
The setting and period are ancient history for many but for those of us who lived in and through it, it resurrected something more intense and real and became just as heartbreaking as it was intended to be for the participators who were involved. The setting takes place right after Neil Armstrong landed on the moon in 1969 and the world was almost entering the Age of Aquarius. A time that reflected a transition. From suppression to freedom. From tyranny to nirvana. It was the age of enlightenment. We knew everything; we were right, and the old guard was wrong.
This is Thailand’s portrayal of her growing pains about those times. I have no idea of this story’s veracity of events in Thailand, but it does strongly mirror exactly what was happening in the United States and frankly around the world. Different causes but same outcomes. As you watch, allow yourself to experience what it was like to see a timescale when change seemed inevitable, and it felt so good to be different. The world was going to enter a new Eden.
This story is reflective of the kinds of individuals who were present during that counter-culture revolution. Take the story at its face value and watch it from the perspective of the individuals who were participating in the human experiment of wanting to change ‘the system’. While the individuals might not be real, the events of the time sure are. This series magnificently and accurately reflects the highs and lows of the late 60’s to early 70’s. This was the time when we knew there was nothing that we could not do at the same time we knew we could nothing.
All the characters are deeply rooted in the times. Tanwa (Mile Phakphum) is and represents the drop-out, non-conformist leading the Bohemian life-stye rebelling against his ‘established’ father who simply does not understand him. Wealth and privilege, however, gives him an advantage. Meanwhile, Trin (Apo Nattawin) the do-gooder comes back from studying in France and wants to change the world for the better and he alone will do so. In his naïve way, divorced from the underbelly of politics and big business, soon finds out that there are different versions of the same reality, depending upon whose actuality is being directly affected. In the process of this discovery, who washes into his life but Tanwa. Reflective of the times, it was not supposed to be meaningful. ‘Tuning in and dropping out’ simply does not last. Even then, however, the desire for something meaningful still smoldered within us. Besides, a spark can sometimes turn into a flame that merely cannot be extinguished or treated so cavalierly, otherwise it will turn into a raging forest fire.
Trin has an uncle named Krailert (Son Yuki) who is a Colonel in the miliary. While married to Dhevi (Kob Pimolrat), he is a discontent and a wondering soul. Krailert has a creative, artistic side and as a lark begins to publish poems/sayings under a pen name in a newspaper and a ‘relationship’ with someone develops. When he finally finds out by creatively leaving clues to find his secret location, his admirer is another man by the name of Naran (Euro Yotsawat). What follows is a torrid and passionate and intense love affair that rivals any version of Romeo and Juliet. In public life, Krailert is an honest officer whose mantra is integrity and attempts to maintain law-and-order without undo force. Naran is an idealized newspaper reporter, wanting to write about the truth and see that justice within the system is not compromised by political and corporate pressures. He must make sure it does not falter. Yet, both have a cabal. Each is in a committed straight relationship.
This is a story deeply reflective of the time when perceiving injustice and justice was prodigiously plain and straightforward. Please discern and feel it in that light. Perhaps it might feel unrelatable or foreign and these events may be fictionalized to some degree, but they are based on a constellation of realities. Having lived through this period, this story forced me to relive genuine moments in my life that are indubitable – on painfully emotional and psychological levels as well as the erotically-induced remembrances. It all became so real again.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? I could go down a long list of individuals who deserve this distinction. One astonishingly impactful character is Victor (Peter Deriy). Victor is an emboldened student protestor who challenges Trin, the part-time college professor as well. Trin tries to impart pearls of wisdom onto individuals whose minds are living on the island of misfit toys. While both parties being highly idealized but see the world through different lenses of the same pair of glasses. Victor begins to transfer his admiration for Trin into love for his professor, for which Trin must gently redirect his passion away from pursuing him romantically. Trin belongs to another. Peter is a half-farang and represents and has qualities of both worlds. Yet, we can sense and feel, almost from the beginning, that Victor’s flame will only flicker brightly for a short period of time. He simply gives off that sort of vibe. Another character who is astonishingly dynamic is Nok Sinjai as Moira. She is the Mistress of the club where everyone who is anyone that has any influence hangs out. Moira is extravagant in her clothes, behavior, and manners and because of her friendly and charming personality manages to know and keep secrets that are life-changing. This had to be a fun role to play because it allowed for such freedom of expression and a flair to be dramatic and extravagant in the expression of the current lifestyle. What a delight to pretend. She represented everything we wanted to aspire to when we got older. And finally, there is Krailert’s dutiful wife, Dhevi. Kob Pimolrat plays the part so cunningly passive as the respectful wife, waiting. Yet this is the 60s which was the time of the awakening. Her actions and Kob’s portrayal of the jilted wife should go down in history as an example of how to fight back. Her portrayal completely caught me off-guard and surprised me as to how intensely calculating it was. Quiet. Methodical. Effectively life-changing. But in the end, is it worth it? You decide.
There is obviously so much more to this series than what I am describing. I am, of course, coy and obtuse about further summation about this series. It is too good, and I think needs to be personally experienced. Thus, I do not want to spoil or hint at its process or its outcome. As I stated, it is NOT a BL although there are steamy and hot and erotic love scenes, with some being rather graphic but not pornographic. There is pain. Lots of it. Perhaps it might seem unfocused and aimless, or even random. That is the embodiment of the times. It was a time of a mad reality.
The acting by the protagonists is nothing short of transformative. Each of them became their respective personas that I did not see ‘actors’ but characters. For me, it felt like I was watching a docudrama. Their attributes, personalities, their highs and lows, their vulnerabilities, strength, and weaknesses were all exposed for us to see and more importantly to experience. This is the finest ensemble acting I have seen in a very long time. They all brought, including the supporting characters, the 60’s/70’s to life without any one of them ever fully experiencing that period of time intrinsically. Yet they made it feel genuine. Kudos for some preeminent acting by everyone. There is not a weak performance in this series!
The overall chronology is difficult to watch and may leave some viewers unsatisfied, or perhaps with others even overly satisfied, further reflecting the ambiguity of that era. That is the oxymoronic face of the 60s and 70s. But this is a historical drama first and foremost and was not meant to be enhancing any love quotient. It is a story more about gay sex and its burgeoning freedoms during a time when we thought free-love was just around the corner. You will find that there is no such thing as this, and a heavy price had to be paid for expressing yourself in the way you wanted to. You might guess by now that we have a long way to go towards freedom of expression. Maybe now you will understand its struggles and why we must continue to fight.
This is an exceptionally well-written screenplay. It captured the general time, places, and events of the late 60’s and 70’s with complete accuracy and also reflects for the most part the mores and challenges (with all its ugly emphasis of drugs, alcohol, and smoking) that were rampant at the time, even in Thailand. All I can say is from someone who lived during this time, not in Thailand but in America, this felt so real. I cried and, on several occasions, sobbed uncontrollably. You will know when. I also remember vividly the idealistic notions of good and evil, right and wrong, and freedom and suppression. All of it was clear, and concise, and precise. This series makes all these precepts evident. Did they (we) fail? Or merely provide a path for others to follow afterwards?
Put yourself into the characters. Become one of them. Anyone of them and ‘see’ what life was like and begin to appreciate what each was trying to do. Some succeed; most failed. This is a story of life from an epoch of time, now mostly forgotten, or labeled as a time lost to failure. Perhaps so but at least the effort was made to change. This is their story of change.
What will be yours?
You must watch this series at all costs. It is unmistakenly on my Apotheosis List and is a very serious contender for Top Series for this year. This is a Magnum Opus. A masterpiece!
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