happypotato48

[happypotato48]

[happypotato48]

reblog to give writers the power to write 10k words of porn without plot

[happypotato48]

Theory of Love RomCom Roundup: Stand By Me (1986)

We've done it. Back in February, we started a quest to re-watch Theory of Love, this time pairing each episode with its namesake film. Three (Four? Five?) months have flashed by in a blink of an eye. For our last roundup, we watched the special episode of TOL and the American classic Stand By Me. Though this movie is one of the best known film adaptations of Stephen King's work I had never seen it. I've wanted to for while, after hearing so much gushing praise, so this was the film I had been looking forward to the most. I'm very thankful this project gave me an excuse to cross it off my list. For their last posts of the project, @lurkingshan penned a beautiful send-off for Khai and Third, while @bengiyo wrote about the violence running through the film.

[Note: When writing this I read this film study, which I found to be pretty fun. Especially if you're interested in reading about how language works in the film, I recommend a skim, at the very least.]

[ID: Scene from Stand By Me. Four young boys walk across a railroad track, which stretches far above a deep reservoir. Teddy confidently strides ahead. Chris looks at the other two boys before he steps forward. Vern and Gordie follow. End ID.]

"By the time we get there the kid won't even be dead anymore."

- Teddy Duchamp, Stand By Me

Stand By Me is a coming-of-age drama set in Castle Rock, Oregon in 1959 (as opposed to its original setting: Maine in 1960. Bizarre change!). It's almost impossible to avoid hearing about this film through the grapevine if you live in America. It's something that sits in our nostalgic consciousness just as much as other films of its ilk (Forrest Gump, My Girl (1991), The Goonies, Grease, The Outsiders, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Back to the Future, etc.); it's a film that consciously sits in and interrogates nostalgia itself, casting back to and utilizing '50s anachronisms with all the contemporary flair '80s films met the era with. Stand By Me is a quintessential example of a movie both undeniably of the '80s and of Stephen King's brain; his works have come to retrospectively define the '80s just as much as John Hughes' or Steven Spielberg's.

Though the decision to set the film a year prior to its setting in the original book still strikes me as somewhat arbitrary, doing so sets the film even more surely in a period before a massive social and cultural shift in America. This is before Watergate, before Vietnam, before the assassination of JFK, and most assuredly before the counterculture movement of the '60s. But the era the film was made in is ever-present - when Teddy talks about his dad's time in the Korean War and his resultant violent PTSD, everyone watching is thinking of the Vietnam War, which had only formally ended a little over a decade prior. Every broken, abusive family in the film exposes the lies of Reagan-era valorization of "traditional family values" supposedly exemplified in the '50s. Stand By Me is steeped in the cynicism of those who felt robbed of a promise of a safe childhood or a prosperous (and trauma-free) adulthood. For better or worse, this speaks to a thread that runs through all of King's books - he looks for truth, always.

It's pretty interesting to compare this with My Girl (2003). It's a similar kind of coming-of-age movie but anachronistic '80s nostalgia for the American '50s feels markedly different than Thai nostalgia for the '80s (or, rather, the period that began in 2523). Not least of all because there's different histories, different cultural and continental contexts, and in some ways, different traumas. That's not to say there aren't similarities, especially considering that the period saw a relatively unstable democracy, a brief military rule, the world's fastest growing economy followed by a major crash and financial crisis. They also had to deal with the fallout of the Vietnam War, as Vietnamese refugees fled into the country followed by occupation forces. In a way, both films reflect perspectives of children existing during periods of turmoil and massive cultural shifts. But the way their respective filmmakers engage with their larger social contexts (or don't) could not be more different. My Girl's creators seem to be driven largely by a more optimistic take of nostalgia, while Stand By Me takes a more critical approach. In the midst of all this, the kids still behave so similarly. It's their environments that take them in different directions. And their storytellers have different goals.

The 1982 novella The Body (initially published in the collection Different Seasons; incorporates two prior short stories: "Stud City" (1969) and "The Revenge of Lard-Ass Hogan" (1975)) marked King's first major departure from the horror genre - this collection also features Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, Apt Pupil, and The Breathing Method, all far more dramatic than his prior work. At the time, King was struggling with addiction, writing some of his most prolific works to date; It would be published just a month after the release of Stand By Me. Maximum Overdrive (which he had directed, written and appeared in) had come out about a month prior to Stand By Me's release, to critical and commercial failure.

Stand By Me marked the twelfth adaptation of his work. It was released to critical and commercial acclaim, making $52,287,414 worldwide on its $8 million budget. All King asked for when asked for the rights to produce this movie was $100,000 and 10% of the gross profit (later negotiated down). Despite his lack of involvement King has gushed about this movie endlessly, to this day calling it the best and most faithful adaptation of his work. It went on to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium and two Golden Globes, one for Best Motion Picture – Drama and the other for Best Director. It is widely considered one of the best films of the eighties and a coming-of-age classic. The anniversary of its release is always a big deal, especially to the city where it was filmed - Brownsville, Oregon - which has held an annual "Stand By Me Day" since 2007. July 23rd was designated as Stand By Me Day by their Chamber of Commerce, though events are now celebrated on the fourth Saturday of July. If you ever visit you can find a penny embedded in the street where Vern found one in the film, as well as an advertising billboard painted for the production.

Rob Reiner is probably the director who has managed to translate King's heart the most truthfully of anyone who has come in contact with his material. Reiner (who also directed Flipped, remember that?) was already well-known for his performance as "Meathead" in the influential sitcom All in the Family, for which he won two Emmys. He had just begun a directing career, with the prolific comedy This is Spinal Tap and comedy The Sure Thing (from which he recruited John Cusack). He had also co-founded an improv comedy troupe with Richard Dreyfuss in his early twenties, called The Session. When he was sent the script, Reiner decided that Gordie should be made the focus of the film, rather than splitting perspectives across the four boys as it is in the original novella. He related a lot to Gordie, as he had also struggled with the shadow cast by his very famous father, Carl Reiner. He also came up with the title after "The Body" was deemed too "confusing," taking it from one of my favorite songs of all time (later used in the credits). It's clear across their body of work that Reiner and King share a penchant and love for self-referential material, with King's story clearly being in part a reflection on his journey with writing and Reiner resonating with and elevating Gordie's character.

Reiner and King's works have complicated histories - both have been representational of liberal, even boundary-pushing, politics. King's works have historically highlighted underdog stories, with the poor, bullied, and disenfranchised often serving as his protagonists. Reiner has had a long history especially in television of including and writing for marginalized views and groups of people. And yet, their works have very often been co-opted by a broader conservative culture, and in my view has always been emblematic of white centrist liberal "activism" - they did much to popularize stories of people fighting back against monsters - whether real or of society - but their criticisms have usually only been surface-level.

You only have to look at how they handled the story of Davie "Lardass" Hogan - a fat kid who serves as the protagonist of a story Gordie relates to his friends around a campfire. It's classic gross-out humor at the expense of a fat kid, but the intent of the story on King's part is to serve as commentary on consumerist culture and on how Davie is othered by the community just by virtue of being fat. Davie is openly mocked, but exacts revenge by throwing up all over the audience. King uses this character archetype a lot in his stories to critique the same problems in dominant culture. Much has been said about how this is potentially a reflection of how he felt about himself and his body growing up. Instead of a critique of fatphobia, Davie's story (and its function in the movie) has become emblematic of it. I will say, though, that in the book, Vern (one of the main four) is not fat - he has bad teeth. The scriptwriters chose to change that, perhaps so they didn't have to create false teeth? Regardless, it doesn't sit right with me that King (and Reiner) return to the same settings, the same archetypes, the same ideas so often. It's too easy.

King in particular seems to love indulging every small desire and idea he has. A common criticism of his writing at the time was that his books were "bloated" and "maudlin" - it just so happens that most of his popular works are of this period. King loves to push the envelope of acceptability with his language, character types, and imagery (something which I'm a fan of in general, but not always when it comes to King). Throughout his work, he has been cultivating a specific cynical idea of people, mashed together with his strange brand of goofy optimism. King is wont to working on his own shit via his characters, repeatedly and exhaustively, as we can see in his long list of fat characters. All this is not necessarily a wholesale criticism, either. All writers do this to a certain extent. King is not unique in this regard; I find his drive to explore the inexplicable an admirable aspect of his work. Every criticism I've had of King could be a reason someone else loves his work. His propensity to air out his neuroses is attractive to many; his work just seems to speak particularly to people from his time, of his experiences, with his outlook. His work tends to especially speak to a particular white masculine experience. Which is only natural (and not always true - see Carrie). His proclivity for awkward, often horrifying dialogue and offensive, obvious character archetypes hold true in Stand By Me, as it does in much of his other work. He shines an accurate light on dominant American culture and on how language is used and passed down, that's true. And though I respect many aspects of his writing, it just has not always been presented in a way I enjoy.

As shown with Flipped, Reiner shares King's fascination with a particular vision of white Americana. They may have played a role in advancing representations of certain marginalized groups, but they rarely (if ever) satisfactorily interrogate their white perspectives. Their shared perspectives have proved to be very lucrative and creatively stimulating; Reiner went on to name his production company Castle Rock Entertainment after the town in the film. The company went on to produce several King adaptations including Reiner's Misery (1990) and Frank Darabont's The Shawshank Redemption (1994). I want to be clear that for all my criticisms of King and Reiner, I do not think either are "bad artists" or producers of poor work. They both have elements of their broader artistic material that I've admired. For all that they both seem to approach their work with genuine heart, their perspectives are not ones I'm very interested in anymore.

Stand By Me features child actors who went on to attain notoriety for one reason or another. Wil Wheaton (Gordie; Dreyfuss plays the older version) had been in small roles prior, including in The Buddy System (1984) with Dreyfuss, but this movie was his breakout role. River Phoenix (Chris) already had a long career in show business behind him, working as a performer in commercials, television, TV movies, and one big blockbuster. Stand By Me made him a household name. Corey Feldman (Teddy) was the most experienced actor of the bunch, having already appeared in over 100 television commercials and in 50 television series as well as a few films. By the time Stand By Me was released he was already a teen idol, one of the most popular "pin-ups" in the world. The film was one of several high-grossing movies he had featured in consecutively, including Gremlins (1984), Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985), and The Goonies (1985). Jerry O'Connell (Vern) had also begun his career at a young age, but his portfolio was not as expansive as the others' quite yet. His biggest claim to fame at the time was his work in commercials for Duncan Hines cookies. Vern was his first feature film role. We also got Kiefer Sutherland as gang leader Ace and John Cusack as Gordie's older brother, Denny.

In an interview with NPR, Wheaton had this to say:

"Rob Reiner found four young boys who were the characters we played. I was awkward and nerdy and shy and uncomfortable in my skin and sensitive, and River was cool and smart and passionate and even at that age kind of like a father figure to some of us, Jerry was one of the funniest people I had ever seen in my life, either before or since, and Corey was unbelievably angry and in an incredible amount of pain and had a terrible relationship with his parents."

Wheaton went on to star as the polarizing character Wesley Crusher in Star Trek: The Next Generation and has since then kept up a steady career in various aspects of nerd culture. Phoenix had a prolific career in film, becoming one of the most sought-after young actors in the industry. He said of Stand By Me: "The truth is, I identified so much with the role of Chris Chambers that if I hadn't had my family to go back to after the shoot, I'd have probably had to see a psychiatrist." One of his films was the queer cinema classic My Private Idaho (1991). He suddenly died of an overdose in 1993 at the age of 23. Feldman continued his young career, appearing alongside Corey Haim in many films including The Lost Boys (1987). He struggled with addiction and later related how he had been a victim of child sexual abuse at the hands of people in the industry. He still finds work here and there, primarily focusing on music. Jerry O'Connell has had a steady career in the industry, mostly in television with a sizeable slate of film roles. He's appeared on stage and in other commercial projects. He now works primarily as a host for reality shows, talk shows, and game shows.

Of the four actors, though they all give good performances, Phoenix is by far the best. He was a phenomenal performer. I'm still thinking about this monologue he gives to Wheaton. I would have related far too much with Chris either way, but Phoenix took Chris and fleshed him out into a young boy distrusted and betrayed by the adults around him. Chris' death in the end is eerie now in the context of Phoenix's own untimely death. I don't think the magnitude of his loss can ever be fully expressed.

Though I don't believe there's any actual queer subtext Stand By Me is rich for queer reads. For one, it makes perfect sense to me that queer folks would read into Chris and Gordie's relationship in an era where explicit queer representation was extremely thin and usually pessimistic. Chris especially could easily be read as one of the many noble tragic archetypes of gay characters in the '80s. And especially in the coming years when Phoenix became a queer icon of his own, queer reads would only gain traction. Nostalgia has an interesting relationship with queerness. We imagine pasts, presents, and futures, relate to and draw out elements related to suppression. The dysfunctional family parts of this story certainly have inspired queer audiences to feel a kinship with these kids, especially Chris and Gordie. I find it powerful that queer audiences can maintain such legible reads of a film that is seemingly so entrenched in - and seeks to challenge - violent masculine norms.

Though I didn't love the general tone and feel of the thing, what really stuck with me were the film's themes - I think Reiner manages to successfully deliver on this front. I generally enjoyed how the film grapples with mortality and the effects of childhood trauma. Gordie, Chris, Teddy and Vern quite literally set off on a coming of age journey triggered by the death of a boy their age. It's notable that for the duration of the film they're not walking along a road but rather along train tracks. We watch them as they're funneled from boyhood to a more mature understanding of the world, and they have no option but to face it and continue forward. Their futures are open but inevitable. On their journey the boys open up to each other emotionally, allowing each other to be as dirty and mean and vulnerable as they can't be in their toxic households. But once they find the dead boy their boyhood also dies. The tentative bond they formed with each other virtually dissipates when they return to town and their suppressive families. In the end, we see Gordie come to a bittersweet realization - though he has enjoyed a wonderful adult life, a part of him was left behind on that journey with Chris and his other friends. And now that Chris has died, that part of himself is unrecoverable. In the duration of the film he has grappled and come to terms with three deaths. He can only try, in remembrance and in his writing, to hold on to the parts of himself he has lost. Time folds in on itself, endlessly.

Since I'm more familiar with Stephen King's horror and mystery genre stuff I wanted more of a murder mystery than we got, but I actually like that nothing really happens when the kids find the body. It's just as anti-climatic and sad as it should be, though it marks a pivotal moment in their emotional development (especially Gordie's). I really like a lot about this movie but for all it's talked about one of the best of all time, it has too much of what I dislike about King and Reiner's work to have me jumping on that bandwagon. Though it did not do what I wanted, it did enough to please me. Some beautiful shots, solid performances, and a good score are sometimes all it takes for me to enjoy myself. It makes perfect sense to me why audiences at the time, especially white American men, received this so well. It's made for them and speaks to masculine American ideals perfectly even as it aims to challenge their moral integrity. This was Reagan's America, after all!

[ID: Scene from Theory of Love's special episode. Khai and Third are drunk. Khai sits on the floor, propped up against a table. Third pulls off his shoe and slumps against Khai's chest. End ID.]

Theory of Love's special episode was great! Exactly what I wanted - plenty of cute moments AND a needed expansion on their relationship's (and Third's) development. Meat with my fluff! It was also so interesting to see the increase in budget from just over a year between the last episode ending and this one premiering. Even though I wasn't in the BL fandom yet I remember this popping up on my dashboard. It's so nice to finally have context! Even if I had to miss out on listening to its great theme song :(

In the special, Third and Khai get to show off the WORK they put into their relationship in the five-year interim shown in the last episode. It was much-needed on Third's side, especially. I loved seeing their relationship finally play out without the constant drama (though there was still plenty of it for Khai). On that note, it was slightly frustrating to watch Khai feel so paranoid about Third not trusting him. It felt realistic to where they left off, which is great from a writing perspective - I'm glad they didn't handwave their issues away to give them a perfectly fluffy ending. But god damn, Khai should not have to watch his back so much when he's around girls. He never cheated! And he's not evil for sleeping around! With that being said, I love that the episode reasserted their commitment to each other. These two have become so much better at communicating their issues!! Makes me so happy!!

The episode and movie have, like, extremely few things in common. They both have friend groups of four guys with relationships predicated on tenuous connections. That's really kinda it. I was hoping Two and Bone would redeem themselves a bit and leave me feeling better about their friendship group. They didn't really do anything wrong in this episode, besides Bone drunkenly bringing girls over with no thought to Khai's needs. But that's really not that bad. I have concluded that they are perfectly fine. The epitome of collegiate friendships. I can only hope they all make more friends and flesh out their group dynamic more. Especially since they're working together in the future. As an aside, the ending to Un and Two is so funny. They're just, like, not there. Relegated to awkward phone calls, even. What the fuck was the point hahahaha

Another connection to the movie you could make is that this episode could be considered as an interesting look at nostalgia, particularly when considering the trajectory of Khai and Third's relationship. Khai reflects on the longevity of their relationship and how much they've been through a lot in this episode. It's what makes him commit to communicating to Third instead of hiding from him. He chooses their present relationship instead of hanging on to a nostalgic (and guilt-ridden) view of what their dynamic used to be. And for his part, we get to see Third finally fully commit to doing that, too. Khai is not his Jaeb. Their memories are important to their bond but no longer hold outsized power. This is a truly iconic friends-to-lovers story.

Again, there are very few relationships I can find between the movie and episode. Just as the title of the movie was hastily decided upon as the "least worst option" after it was determnied the original title alluded far too much to erotica or bodybuilding to stay, so too did the title of this show probably come from a "vibes" standpoint more than anything else. It's an interesting pairing, at the very least. Certainly put themes around the passage of time and growing up at the forefront of my mind going into the episode.

I am so sad this project is over. For all its flaws, I really enjoyed re-watching (and finishing) Theory of Love. It's not one of my favorite shows but there' so much to like about it regardless. It surprised me how complex and well-written the main relationship is. Whether that's because they came across so strongly in the original story or because the screenwriters found something they were passionate about working with is neither here nor there. It is still clear to me that a lot of intention and thought went into their development. The fact that they had more solid original material to work with in comparison to the side stuff, which was seemingly cobbled together from extras the author wrote because fans wanted more from the side characters, definitely could have played a large role in why everything else around Third and Khai landed as severely lacking.

My esteem for the show would be MUCH higher if the side characters' romances were cut out entirely to instead focus on Bone and Two as a support system. Their role as friends in their own right is severely diminished because of all that nonsense. Instead of, perhaps, further investigating their theme of friendship, I was instead subjected to some of the most mind-numbing side romances I've watched in a while I was actively bored and frustrated with just how drastically they dragged the pacing and story down.

Another major issue I have with the show is how they slut-shamed Khai. Making that the linchpin of so much of Khai's guilt was a mistake. They could totally have explored Third's discomfort with Khai sleeping around without demonizing him (and the girls, though to the show's credit they usually didn't treat them any differently to Khai). There was plenty more they could have explored in Khai's very real mistreatment of Third. I don't think having it as an element of the plot was wrong, I'm just not totally convinced the screenwriters didn't also believe that Khai sleeping around made him undesirable.

I see a similar flaw in the show's unwillingness to engage with queer reality. I'm not sure how I feel about the manner in which it sits in the bubble. Some moments felt like tacit acknowledgment of Third and Khai's queerness, but whenever there was a chance to take that leap they would instead skirt the issue. It would be a much more interesting (and probably darker) show if it were fully allowed to address IRL queer reality. Not every show needs to do this (especially in the BL genre) but the themes and characters in this story would have benefited from more bravery in this regard (and less sex-shaming, misogyny and colorism).

Another aspect of this show I really enjoyed was watching Off in a period of his career where he was still very much working on his acting. He's consistently improved in between projects, it's genuinely impressive to see that trajectory. It's clear in TOL that he's still working out some of his more glaring flaws but I appreciate how sincerely he approached the role. And per usual, Gun blew everyone else out of the park. He was Third. Which is part of the reason he may have irritated me so much this time around. For all that I sympathized with him, which is a lot, his taste in movies illuminated his personality to me a little too clearly. It's okay, not everyone can have impeccable taste.

I have undergone such an evolution watching this. When I first picked this up a couple years ago, I over-identified with Third and could not stomach watching his toxic, unhealthy relationship with Khai. All I could see was Khai not being the best friend he could be and Third self-flagellating and suffering for it. Not a fun watching experience! I gave it the two-episode try before dropping it. A little while later, I read @waitmyturtles' compelling review as part of her OGMMTVC project, which inspired me to pick it back up for another episode. I appreciated it more but still disliked it enough to drop it again. It took an entire group of people and the promise of watching a bunch of movies to get me to try again.

After revisiting, my perspective has changed quite a bit. My misconceptions of who Third and Khai are as characters were completely blown out of the water. Recognizing that Third is also a bad friend to Khai re-contextualized their entire relationship in my head. TOL was no longer a show about someone being absolutely crushed by their unrequited love on their horrible best friend. It became a story of mutual growth, one in which Third actually largely escapes owning his culpability. It was no longer agony to watch this, in every way except for Khai and Bone's psyop on Third's sexual orientation. It's far more compelling of a narrative than I ever would have expected.

All in all, this is a solid show. What it does well, it does REALLY well. What it does poorly, it does REALLY poorly. Watching in conjunction with the movies gave me far more insight into Third's theoretical framework, including all his misconceptions of what a healthy love would look like. The poor kid was poisoned by some truly vile heterosexist romcom narratives. I fiercely relate to that. But in all that garbage, there were some gems. I can only hope they stick with him. He can leave Flipped behind in his misinformed past. After the hell they put each other through Third and Khai are finally willing and able to take the first of many steps towards developing a better, more robust theory of love, one that works for the both of them. Third time's the charm! 8/10

Thank you to the watch team: Shan, @happypotato48, Ben, @twig-tea, and @neuroticbookworm. Watching this show with you over the past few months was SO FUN. Thank you to everyone else who has followed along, provided assistance in the form of links or GIFs, and/or chatted about the show and movies in the comments and tags. This has been one of my favorite watch experiences ever. :)

[happypotato48]

"Hajime-san? Hm? Are you maybe tired? Huh?"

ZOKU BL DRAMA NO SHUEN NI NARIMASHITA (2025) 2.01

[happypotato48]

Just want to preface this by saying no offence meant and I don't mean to be rude. But in that last post, you ended with "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," and while I understand what you were getting at, it's important to be careful with our language around these issues. First calling them woman, considering some of the victims are underage minimises the whole thing. Second, they weren't scorned, they were abused. This is with all due respect cause I understand that you might just be using an expression, not fully realising its meaning and the way it comes across. But this isn't an easy subject to discuss, and our words really matter, especially for those of us who might be triggered by how these situations are framed.

yeah sorry about that i know i fucked up the moment i put that phrase in. it just Thai people being loosey goosey with words.

[happypotato48]

Did they mention any names of other bl actors with similar names? I need to know or I’ll legit just block all of them and never support again

Well there are some names that got dragged into this but most of them are either a haters trolling with AI images or someone started a baseless rumours that already got treats with a legal action to stop so noting concrete yet. the reason i put my warning in my last post was because this situation Prom was an open secret, basically almost everyone that gone to school with him had heard of his deeds. the majority of the women that came forward or shared stories about him was people that was in the same circle/area of universities. so it's not surprising that some people already said that they know of similar behavior actors, because one thing that interfans need to remember, Bangkok is kinda small, words got around fast. so nothing yet but there might be more soon.

[happypotato48]

Some major thing is curently happening on Thai BL twitter right now. Prom Ratchapat best known as Tattoo from J&J and Nuea from Love Mechanics is curently being drag, butcher, and outed as a MAJOR CREEP by multiple women. there's several screen cap of the texts between this fucboi and those Girls, some of them was underage at the time. and holy moly with the side of yike on fucking bike this is short abridged version of what being shown so far.

Prom jokingly said to one girl that he don't want to use condom because it's wasteful

Hits on several underage girls the youngest one being 15

Seems to really hate condoms and always put the responsibility of brith control to women

Knocked up a girl and pressured her to get an abortion when the woman seems to be conflicted

And shits ton more of generally being a shitty dude who treats women like crap

Prom right now seems to be having a meltdown and unfollowing everyone on IG. and the people who starting this seems to know more of BL actors with similar behavior so beware besties your faves might be next.

[happypotato48]

10 things I want to do before I turn 40 Upcoming JBL [Teaser with subs]

[source]

[happypotato48]

my jom 🥹

[happypotato48]

Why Shine Might Be Set in 1969: A Story of Resistance, Silence, and Defiance

*sorry, folks, this is a long one, based on one humble inter fan's desire to understand

As we eagerly await the release of Shine, one intriguing detail stands out: its setting in Bangkok, 1969. 

Thailand in the late 1960s was not exactly a beacon of visible queer liberation. So why choose this year, this precise moment, to set this series? The answer may lie not in what was happening in the open, but what was burning just beneath the surface in Thailand and across the globe. That "light that lingers just beneath the shadows" that would turn a spark into the flames of social unrest.

1969 was a year of rupture and revolution. Across the world, young people were taking to the streets—angry, idealistic, determined to wrest power from corrupt systems. From the anti-war protests in the United States to student-led revolts in France, Japan, and Mexico, the air was electric with resistance. Music, fashion, and film reflected these seismic shifts, capturing the spirit of rebellion in psychedelic color.

In Southeast Asia, the Vietnam War raged just across the border. American troops passed through Thailand on their way to and from the front lines, and the Thai government, under military rule, maintained close ties with the United States. The social tensions of this geopolitical alignment were palpable between the rising tide of youth culture and a government suspicious of dissent. This tension was felt as well between imported modernity and deep-rooted tradition, agrarian poverty and Bangkok's concentration of wealth. All of these serve as a pressure cooker of tensions that was ready to explode.

In Thailand, student activism was gaining momentum. The seeds that would later blossom into the mass protests of the 1970s were already being planted in 1969. University campuses, especially Thammasat and Chulalongkorn, were becoming incubators for radical thought, as young intellectuals began to question military rule, wealth inequality, and the suppression of free speech.

Though the mass protests that would shake the monarchy and the junta had not yet occurred, the sense of unease was growing. Student publications, underground gatherings, and whispered debates signaled a generation preparing to stand up. It is into this world—a world tense with possibility—that Shine may drop its characters.

Half a world away, in June of 1969, a police raid on the Stonewall Inn in New York sparked several nights of defiant resistance led by trans women, drag queens, and queer people of color. It became a watershed moment in LGBTQ+ history, a symbolic ignition point for the modern gay rights movement. News of Stonewall may not have reached every queer person globally in that moment, but the reverberations would be felt by an entire generation.

For closeted individuals in Thailand, especially students and intellectuals already questioning other forms of repression, Stonewall represented something radical: the refusal to hide. Even if unspoken, it stirred something. It suggested that queerness and protest were not incompatible. That the same voices raised against political injustice would teach a future generation of queer people to fight for the right to love freely.

Thailand decriminalized homosexuality in 1956, over a decade before Stonewall. On paper, it was a progressive move. But legal tolerance did not equal cultural acceptance. The 1960s remained a deeply conservative era for queer Thais, especially in professional or public life. While kathoey ("ladyboys") had long been part of Thai cultural visibility, their presence did not signify broader acceptance of queer identities—particularly not of men who loved men or women who loved women outside of comedic or marginalized roles.

There were no pride marches. No activist networks. No formal advocacy groups pushing for LGBTQ+ rights in the way that began to unfold in the West. In fact, Thailand’s first gay rights organization, Anjaree, would not be founded until 1986—seventeen years after Stonewall, and almost two decades after the year Shine is set.

So why choose 1969 for a queer Thai story?

Because it is a liminal moment. 

A time before everything cracked open, when truth still had to live in shadows, but shined just as bright. A time when love, especially queer love, had to be coded through through music, poetry, unspoken gestures and looks. It’s a rich emotional landscape for drama, for longing and repression, desire and danger, all set against the backdrop of political awakening.

If Shine follows queer characters navigating this moment, their love story is not just personal, it’s political. Their very existence becomes resistance, not through protest signs or riots, but through every act of tenderness they dare to share in a world that tells them to stay invisible.

By choosing 1969, Be On Cloud may be offering a tribute to all the queer people in Thai history whose stories were never told. The ones who danced and sang behind closed doors. Who whispered their truths in journals and poems. Who watched the world begin to burn and wondered if there would ever be space for them in its new order, until they came into the awareness that they would have to build the world they wanted themselves. One love, one protest at a time.

So that future lives could Shine in the open as well.

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Derry Girls (2018 - 2022)

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Hi! I've been working through some of your bl show recommendations and am loving them.

This is kinda specific but do you have any good bl recommendations with great and supportive sibling relationships?

I just started Bad Buddy (love it so far) and really like the bond between Pat and Pa.

Thank you!!

Hello! I'm so glad you're enjoying the shows. I also really love sibling relationships in drama, so I am happy to share a list of shows I think have interesting sibling dynamics. Please note that this list is by no means every BL with a sibling character; instead it's the ones where I found the sibling relationship compelling, important to the narrative (beyond basic plot set up), and overall worth watching.

I hope you'll like some of these! In no particular order:

Bad Buddy

You've already found Pat and Pa, a great brother-sister duo who watch out for each other even as they annoy the hell out of each other as only siblings can. Their bond is one of the most important through lines of the story.

La Pluie

In La Pluie our main character has several siblings, but his closest and most important sibling relationship is with his next age brother Tien. This one is more a case of one brother watching out for the other relentlessly while the other needs to learn to return the favor.

Unknown 

The sibling dynamics in this one are complex, to say the least, as this found family goes through a lot of trials and tribulations figuring out their relationships. But the bond between the three members of this little family always hold firm no matter what else is happening.

Our Dining Table

This story of a lonely man bonding with two brothers through their love of food is one of my all time favorites, and the siblings are possibly the most endearing characters of all time.

Heesu in Class 2

The titular Heesu lives with his three older sisters, all of whom have their interesting quirks, and his relationships with them are hugely important to who he is and how he sees the world. This show really captured the vibe of a young boy raised by sisters perfectly.

I Cannot Reach You

Yamato's sister is one of the most important characters in this drama, as she sees and understands everything going on between her brother and his best friend and knows exactly when and how to nudge them in the right direction. She's also just really cool.

I Told Sunset About You

Teh's older brother Hoon is an important sounding board and support for him, and he appears at some crucial moments of the narrative to help his little brother figure himself out. Their relationship is touching without being overdramatized; Hoon feels exactly like a decent big brother who loves Teh but has his own life to deal with.

To Sir, With Love

Are Tian and Yang the best brother duo of all time?? Perhaps! Their unwavering love and support for each other--despite many people trying to pit them against each other--is one of the most touching aspects of this story.

The Untamed

And of course, we can't forget the Yunmeng Trio, iconic siblings whose love for each other was not ultimately enough to overcome their circumstances. They’re not the only siblings in this show but they’re the most important to the story. By far the most tragic siblings on this list.

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Per, dammit! I was having fun, you jerk! Fun, my ass.

BOYS IN LOVE | EP8

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"Tonight, I'm going to get my reward."

+

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Theory Of Love RomCom Roundup: My Girl (2003)

At this point in the project it was a relief to get a movie I really, really liked. My Girl is creative, beautiful, and rewarding (up until the end). For the end of the show proper (!) it was only right. The last episode of Theory of Love was also really fun to watch with the crew: @neuroticbookworm wrote about Khai's mediocre friends; @lurkingshan reflected on how Khai had to work harder than ever to regain Third's trust; @bengiyo wrote about the power of the film's nostalgia.

An aside: I stumbled across a 2023 5-part series about the making of My Girl: Remembering Fan Chan: Dream a Dream Again, made for its 20th anniversary. I found it on Thai Netflix; it should also be available (with English subs!) on Netflix in Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore. I highly recommend checking it out if you're curious about its making of and/or cultural context.

[ID: Scene from the movie My Girl. A red school bus with white accents pulls to a stop in the middle of a long stretch of road surrounded by sparse greenery. A small motorbike pulls to a stop behind it. On the bike sits an adult man and a small boy. End ID.]

It's always a great day for me when I get to sit down and watch an absolutely gorgeous movie. And a coming-of-age story, no less - one of my favorite genres. My Girl (or Fan Chan or แฟนฉัน) is considered a Thai classic (literally registered as a "national heritage" in 2014), much like the unrelated 1991 film My Girl is for many American audiences. Domestic Thai box office calculations in 2003 (release date in October) show a calendar gross of $1,078,000 with a net profit of $3,370,000 (around 137 million baht in total worldwide profits as of 2023), with the film topping the charts until The Matrix Revolutions (calendar gross: $2,331,000) then The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (total calendar gross: $4,630,752) stormed their way into cinemas at the end of the year (November and December, respectively). Relevant to our project: Love Actually came in at 8th on the list with a release in early December.

My Girl was a gamble for Hub Ho Hin, Tai Entertainment, and GMM Pictures (GTH); if it had flopped, it's uncertain whether another film would have ever been made from these studios (indeed, I'm not sure what happened to Tai Entertainment after GTH dissolved in 2015). Making it to the 2004 Berlinale, My Girl (as well as films such as Last Life in the Universe (2003) and The Overture (2004); all three were featured at the second Bangkok International Film Festival, with My Girl shortlisted) is credited as a breakout film for today's mainstream Thai cinema landscape. Credit for the revitalization of Thai cinema should also go to films of the Thai New Wave, of which Nang Nak (1999; highest-grossing film of the time) and Tears of the Black Tiger (2000; the first Thai film to be included on the programme at Cannes) were both co-directed by My Girl director S Khomkrit Treewimol (at least according to MDL, take that with a heaping pile of salt; I'm personally doubtful as to the veracity of this).

I'm especially impressed that this was done with six directors (all of whom also had a hand in screenwriting alongside one additional screenwriter, Aumm Aummaraporn). It's always impressive when multiple directors can handle such a large project and offer distinct visual styles while keeping the project feeling cohesive; the fact that so many managed to do so (in their debut project, all either still in university or recent graduates!) while working with a large cast of child actors is phenomenal. And My Girl's child actors were EXCELLENT. All these writer-directors truly knew how kids work, directing them naturalistically with nary a false note in any performance. The film set must've felt like a huge playground.

That's not to say the adults slacked off, either. A fun fact related to our project: Lek Preecha, who portrayed Noi Naa's fabulously mustachioed father, reprised his role of a barber in Dear Dakanda, which was directed by one of this film's directors, S Komgrit (allegedly the only one to have directed prior to 2003; My Girl is his first screenwriting credit). Check out Lek Carabao's band here. All six directors of My Girl went on to win Best Director at both the 2004 Asian New Talent Awards and the 2004 Thailand National Film Association Awards. All writer-directors went on to have successful careers, often appearing in each other's projects: Yong Songyos produced both I Told Sunset About You (2020) and Last Twilight in Phuket (2021), appearing in the ITSAY and IPYTM documentaries; Ball Witthaya appeared in Dear Dakanda and Diary of Tootsies (2016); Ton Nithiwat appeared in Dear Dakanda and Hormones (2008); Deaw Vijjapat appeared in Dear Dakanda and Hormones; Ping Adisorn wrote and directed Bangkok Traffic Love Story (2009; another successful mainstream film); S Khomkrit appeared in Bangkok Traffic Love Story and Diary of Tootsies and directed 2013's Carabao.

Though I loved the vast majority of this film, its overall message is a little confused by its ending. What I took as a nostalgia piece centered on the growth of a young boy, Jaeb (Charlie Trairat) as influenced by his relationship with a young girl, Noi Naa (Focus Jirakul) and other children in the village, instead turns into a story about arrested development. I chalk this confusion up to the framing of the narrative, which starts with Jaeb learning of Noi Naa's impending marriage and ends with him ditching another wedding to end up at hers. Jaeb stays as an adult while Noi Naa is seen as a little girl in a bridal veil. I understand that this was marketed in part as a romantic comedy but I found the romance fading in the background in comparison to some other larger themes. I don't like that Noi Naa is effectively trapped in Jaeb's memories of an idyllic childhood rather than being allowed to grow and meet him as an adult. What clear growth we get to see in his childhood seems to somewhat stall in the period between their thwarted goodbyes and her wedding. Ultimately, though it ends in a really unsatisfying place, it doesn't ruin what was a fun and sweet watch.

[ID: Scene from episode 12 of Theory of Love. Third and Khai run down a pier towards the shore. Third runs ahead, glancing briefly behind him. Khai chases after him, arm outstretched and a bag hanging off his shoulder. End ID.]

In our last episode of Theory of Love (at least, before the special), Khai and Third have reconciled. But there's a caveat. True to form, Third is still holding on to his distrust. Once again, I have to reiterate that I get where he is coming from. I don't entirely blame him for the way he feels - he certainly has enough years of ammunition to fuel his insecurities and anger. With that being said, he manages to make Khai feel like such garbage that my sympathy withered pretty quickly. Watching Khai beat himself up and bend over backwards to prove himself to Third was painful.

Though Third was unnecessarily cruel to Khai I do love how we got to see evidence of how they've both changed. He does so many things that Third would have loved to get from him (and pined desperately for) back in the beginning of the show. But since Third is looking for sincerity what he originally wanted - straight-from-the-movies style romantic showmanship - no longer works. That's what makes Khai's successful declaration to Third in the end the PERFECT culmination. Not only is it the kind of public proposal Third would love, it manages to amount to a relatively private confession between the two of them. Khai takes what was initially a shitty, manipulative move in Awful Actually and makes it as personal as possible. He tells Third that he is not a movie; he's real. (And I SCREAMED.) Third's admission of the same back to him made me flail with happiness. Finally, Third takes a step outside his imagined reality of their relationship. And their tight hug truly made my heart swell!! Now that's how you write a cathartic culmination of a show's themes and a satisfying ending to its main characters' arcs!!!

That's not to say their ending was perfect. Considering that this is the last episode of the show, I do think they let Third off the hook too much. I wanted to see him work a little more to show mutual love for Khai. It's not as much of a given as the show may want us to expect. Especially considering how pissy Third still was in this episode. Yes, Khai deserved to be held responsible for his truly deplorable actions. But so does he deserve to be treated with kindness and appreciation. But all in all, episode 12 made me happy. Even if the side shit wasted time AGAIN.

I'm not entirely sure if there is a true connection between the film and show, other than the film being referenced earlier in the show. One thought I had is that there could be a juxtaposition found in how Jaeb and Third freeze a certain concept of their love interests in their mind. Both reconcile after a period of maturity, at which point one pair has moved on (or at least one side) and the other decides to step forward together. Tenuous, I know.

My Girl made me reminisce a lot about my own childhood. The way Jaeb negotiates his relationships with boys versus girls and thus develops his own sense of self made me think of how I negotiated inter- and cross-gender relationships as a non-binary kid. I've known I wasn't "like the other girls" ever since I was kid. Perhaps if I had the language for it I would have seized on "non-binary" as a child. I certainly spent a large portion of my time thinking about and explaining my gender to myself (and others). What I landed on was, hilariously, that I was "a tomboy but a little bit of a girly-girl." Being surrounded by suppressive heterosexism and overwhelming pressure to behave like a lady (or at the very least, an acceptable girl). fucked up my development more than I may ever know. I didn't feel free to play with the boys in the way I wanted or to interact with girls without feeling alienated; my gender was an ever-present obstacle, one that I felt like a physical shroud. When I watched Jaeb ping pong between gender groups I perceived a similar weight on his shoulders.

I'm lucky that I have a mother who rejects many normative expectations of what it means to be a woman. Without her example it may have taken me much longer to figure out my relationship with my gender. In the film, it's obvious that the two father figures in Jaeb's life play similar, if opposing, roles in shaping his masculine self-concept. The other children similarly have lines which indicate how their parental figures have influenced how they interact with each other. Obviously, this was the element of the movie that resonated with me the most. The conversation we had as a group about this topic is one of my favorites we've had across the entire project.

When we wrapped the episode, it immediately felt strange to be done after so many months watching it for this project. I was thankful to have one more episode to look forward to. I'll leave my overall thoughts on the show for the next post.

The next movie we watched was Stand By Me, which I had been looking forward to the most on our list. Last post coming soon!

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Mirror Thailand did an interview with cooheart, there isn't a translation of the full interview that I found but there is this small video that has english subs

Here is the link to full thai article