#9 out of 10 of my drawings are portraits i'm sorry i only draw faces

[alienpines]

should i give him a name or smth

[tipsyjaehyun]

which are your yaijom's favorite scenes that made you scream into the pillow??

Hello anon! If I could I would link the entire 12 episodes and the pilot because every single one of their interactions made me lose my mind. But no, I'm gonna include some of the scenes here, the ones that made me scream into pillow out of giddiness (this could turn into a lengthy answer so, sorry for that. Also, I'm trying to do this in chronological order but I might miss a few scenes).

The first meet - The camera work, the ost playing in the background, the way we are introduced to the character of Khun Yai, the expression of vague recognition in their faces because of their dreams. AAAAH, PERFECTION!

Khun Yai making Jom read smut - That was such a hilarious scene. The background score getting faster and faster as Jom continues reading the text, Khun Yai's bewildered face, Jom starting to curse the two-timing male lead of the novel... CHEF'S KISS!

DRUNK KHUN YAI - Could there be anything cuter than a drunk Khun Yai just reciting love poems to his crush? Their soft conversations, with Khun Yai's head on Jom's lap, Khun Yai asking Jom to forget his old lover and then confessing his own feelings with the most romantic poem of all time. Then him telling Jom that he only needs one lover (read Jom), a throwback to Jom telling Khun Yai that he hates libertines during the smut reading scene.

The lanthom scene in ep 5 - Khun Yai trying to persuade his father to lessen Mae Prik and Jom's punishment, him apologizing to Jom by giving him a lanthom flower, his promise to make things better in the future... BEAUTIFUL!

THEIR FIRST KISS - One of my favourite episodes. We start off with the Christmas party, the conversation between James and Jom, a jealous Khun Yai being spotted in the wild, Jom making Khun Yai's favourite dessert, Khun Yai's confession, THEIR FIRST KISS (!!!), the OST in the background... I could go on and on.

The dance scene - I agree that it is a bittersweet scene, a glimpse of what could have been if they could be open with their love, with everyone's support, their friends and family just looking at them with happiness but it was so well executed. ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SCENES IN THE SHOW.

Olive oil scene - Can I just say that this was the most brilliant portrayal of sensuality, sexual longing, tension, desire on screen? It was not explicit, per say, but still managed to show the feeling of want and lust perfectly. The background score, the back and forth between Khun Yai's bedroom and Jom's and then between Khun Yai's expressions to Jom's... SPECTACULAR!

EPISODE 9 & 10 - These made me scream into my pillow out of frustration. The whole fiasco around engagement, the breakup scene, then Jom just fucking shit up by exposing Uncle Dech and Robert, the aftermath... MINDBLOWING!

Jom drawing the portrait of Khun Yai - In the middle of the anticipation of the doom, these love birds getting a few moments to showcase their love for each other was like a balm to my aching soul. It was yet again bittersweet to watch these two being playful while knowing what was round the corner.

YAI KANTHORN - Listen, I had no hopes at all to see Kanthorn. I had made peace with the thought that they're gonna end the show on a bittersweet note but I literally threw my cushion when Kanthorn came. He had always been my babygirl and I'm glad they gave him to me, no matter how confusing and short his scene was.

This turned way lengthier than I expected. I'm not including Commander Yai scenes here with the hope that if season 2 comes, I'll get to make another one of these posts but with Commander Yai and Jom. Anon, please share your favourite scenes with me!

[all-brown-everything]

My favourite Indian films of 2018

Sorry for the wait this year. 2018 in the movies mirrored my own life a lot; the films on the list are films to love, make you feel something human, and they force you to take their characters and hold them close to your chest as if they were your own. While the most interesting mainstream movies from South Asia over previous years on this blog have excelled when they chose to experiment with the language of cinema itself, the 10 I’ve written about here have, similar to great literature, embraced pain, longing, love and everything else that comes with being alive.

10. Theevandi

I’ve seen this film being described as an “anti-smoking movie.” I couldn’t disagree more. It’s a story about the nature of habit (rather than the disease of ‘addiction’), of locating the source of your personality, your soul, and trying to change it against the will of nature. During my time in India this year, nothing brought more joy than an ice burst and cutting tea at the side of the road, perching on the side of the pavement and watching life carry on around you. And while this is a film with a main character who wants to quit smoking, it isn’t about cancer. It isn’t about that horrible sooty smell at the end of your fingers, or yellowing teeth or a decreased sperm count. It’s about how something as innocuous as a tube of rolled up tobacco hanging out of your mouth can act as a fragile crutch for the entire weight of the world.

9. Laila Majnu

Like many of my favourites this year (and every year), this re-telling of one of South Asia’s most important romances wants to know what love is. Here, we see love not as a generous, giving emotion, but as pure greed. With one of Bollywood’s most gorgeous soundtracks, that bleeds furiously out of every frame, and a constant sparkling gleam of glamour over these gorgeous young actors and the Kashmiri hills they prance around in, I enjoyed this enough just based on the commercial tropes it toys with for fun. But its real beauty lies in its brave and painful final declaration; that the most divine love may connect you to God and remove your soul from your body, but it will destroy you and your connections to the Earth, as the cruelest form of asceticism.

8. Cake

I’m including a Pakistani movie (again) because our film industries were birthed under one national identity, and I don’t see the studios of Karachi as any more culturally distant from Mumbai’s Film City than Kodambakkam. Moving to Cake, this stunning portrait of a dysfunctional family surprised me against all my instincts that it was a Western-facing production clearly aimed at piercing its way into festivals and a patronising ‘World Cinema’ bracket. It is in fact, a study of shifting societal politics in an increasingly extreme and polarised World, of figuring out where your values stand in the midst of religion, feudalism and globalisation, and accepting that when these heavy, abstract concepts weigh down on your shoulders, it is the human beings around you who will feel the strain first.

7. Golak, Bugni, Bank Te Batua

I really love Punjabi cinema. Seeing it come into its own and reclaim its cultural narratives and aesthetics from bastardizing Bollywood (where now even a film set in rural Gujarat will feature a Punjabi language song) has brought a lot of joy. Now here comes a  happy little film not set on preaching the glory of Sikkhi or telling an epic tale of brave warriors or earnest farmers, but on bringing us into the lives of a middle class Hindu Punjabi family in a small mohalla of a tier 2 city. And these aren’t the Hindu “Punjabis” of a Bollywood movie set in Chandni Chowk, who might throw in a “tussi” or “tuadi” here and there at the most. These are real people with a real culture, as intertwined with Punjab and their Sikh neighbours as they are separate. The film doesn’t patronise them by drawing humour from their novel identity; the situational character-based slapstick and witty back-and-forth theatrical dialogues exist in a warm parallel with the “World” of the movie. And then the lives of these people change in one instant as demonetisation hits, and we are hilariously reminded that whether you’re Hindu or Sikh, Northern or Southern, you are (unfortunately) still in India.

6. C/o Kancharapalem

I won't say this film stood out as a "Telugu movie", as such slight, subtle films are an anomaly no matter what language they're made in or how brash those other films produced in the same mother tongue may be. These small and quiet tales, with their shy characters who live at the fringes of society, whether that mean they are Muslim prostitutes or simple middle class teachers carving out a living in a small village, are special because they manage to transmit such humanity without stirring from the dark alleyways or shaded courtyards where they take place. Not every film needs to stand tall like an intimdsting Tolstoy tome; some can be as unassuming as an RK Narayan novella and still make us feel like they're an epic.

5. Pyaar Prema Kaadhal

Let's be honest. Casting two leads from a reality show, putting heart shaped balloons in your posters and deciding on the title "Love, Love, Love" pretty much screams "trash" doesn't it? But here was a humbling reminder that Indian popular culture can surprise you in the most pleasant of ways. These two good-looking young wannabe-stars and their social media followings represent so much about the "new India", a steadfastly singular culture (or cultures) whizzing through the fiery hoops of globalisation at breakneck speed, coming to terms with a mixed up value system, raging sexual frustration and an ever widening class gap, all of which have left a generation feeling more connected yet more alienated than ever before. This is 'Pyaar, Prema, Kaadhal', a flawed and horny love story, sweating with tension and all the repulsive angst of human emotion, yet with the glamorous musical heart of Indian cinema still beating loudly underneath.

4. Manmarziyaan

There was as much to love about 'Manmarziyaan' as there was to hate. The age-old filmi love triangle rears its head again, only this time with characters who are more manipulative and frustrating than any you've seen in a "mainstream" movie before. But while the film never forces you to judge (at times leaving you confused about whether you're actually supposed to like any of these people) it demands that you engage. It's encouraged some of the finest writing on cinema I've seen in recent years, and such an unashamedly "Bollywood" film inspiring this thrilling thought and analysis from our finest critics (whether their judgement is kind or not) warrants its inclusion on this list alone. Then there's the way its incredible soundtrack weaves in and out of scenes like the characters own breaths, the way life changing moments are obscured from the script by deafening silences and acutely observed minutiae, and of course THAT lead performance. I'm not sure if I "liked" it or not, but I sure as hell can't wait to watch it again.

3. Pari

The better the film, the harder it is to write about. 'Pari' is rich with metaphor. While being a ghost story (and a damn good one) merely on the surface, it has plenty to say about the way our society treats women, poses the question of if we can truly be born evil, and even critiques our savage treatment of "the other" in a global society where more of us are on the run than settled in our homes. But I think its biggest strength is that while it challenges you to reach into the very centre of your being and take a look at yourself and the World around you, its craft and screenwriting is so good that not at any moment does it give you a second to realise that's what you're doing.

2. Rangasthalam

'Rangasthalam' is so great. Like really really great. Once an innocuous muscle man, Ram Charan has channelled his inner Dhanush and located his physicality, writhing and slanging his way into the mind and body of the quintessential South Indian rural hero, hoisting his lungi and flicking his beedi into one of the most visceral and truly cinematic masala movies in living memory. The thumping pace and kinetic choreography (both of the rousing song sequences and the busy, lived-in frames of the rest of the movie) evoke a dusty, violent world with the same panache of Ameer in 'Paruthiveeran' or Sasikumar in 'Subramaniyapuram', while the moustache twirling dialogues and meticulous emotional beats offer as much pure fun as a "Dabangg" or a "Khakee" or any classic Hindi masala movie. I've read pieces linking the cinema of 'Rangasthalam' to film noir traditions, but to me it simply proved that the masala genre still has as much excitement to offer as any other.

1. Mukkabaaz

I'll remember 2018 as the year that Anurag Kashyap, previously India's frontrunner in the realm of "interesting" (but more often headscatching) cinema, stopped thinking with his very big brain and instead used his even bigger heart. His most straightforward film is undoubtedly his best, Hollywood-esque in its writing but firmly Indian in its sentiment. The scale is small - empty boxing arenas, bleak winding village paths and a cast plucked from the TV screen - but its emotions are pure opera. This is a timeless film, and though it laughs at the ridiculousness of modern India, poking a nasty smug finger at caste oppression, petty politics and the bureaucratic nightmare of simply trying to stay alive, it defies analysis. Much like the song at the centre of the story, the violently stunning 'Paintra', it only asks that you feel. And what more could we want from cinema?

I've had so much fun at the movies this year. From dancing to Dilbar in the cheap seats of G7 in Bandra to reciting Dhanush's Maari 2 dialogues at the bus stop outside Ilford Cineworld, Indian movies have continued to punctuate my life and bring me more joy than they have any right to. I can't wait to do this all again this year. What were the films that stirred you over the last 12 months? Let me know. Xx

[buffythecomicslayer]

Hi! I just saw this /post/125530226426 when I was wondering about it too and I agree with your answer, but it's still odd to me somehow. Xander was one of my favs in the show, and S9 (to me) just ruined it. It's like everyone keeps growing up and he's stuck in his anger and inmaturity (he even seemed way more tolerant before). I'm in the middle of S10 so I really hope it gets better, but am I the only one seeing that negative change on its character? This blog gives me life btw, so thank you!

Sorry to interrupt you again (same anon asking about Xander here) but I’ve just reached the point where I can see an actual progress on his character and return of its normallity (and everyone else ftm) so I guess that’s now resolved lol. He just seemed out of character to me, even of his typical humor. Also loving to see the old gang back! As well as the perfect portraits of all them in drawings. They’re nailing it this time imo, I didn’t like S9 overall. Just 1 thing: and SPOILER ALERT (p2)

During the spuffy-chat about getting together, it seemed to me like they were acting as Spike just got his soul back. I mean, they referenced some parts of S6, 8 and even 9. But what about what actually happened between them on S7?? She begun to trust him again after everything there, and she even told him she loved him at the end. Spike brought back the almost-rape apology (and I appreciate that) but they never talked about S7 at all. So I’m a bit confused? :/ Thanks again nd sorry for my asks!

(about this)

I’m really sorry for delaying my answer this much! I had a draft detailing the negative effects of Giles’ loss and the end of magic had on the Scooby Gang, and how this absence of unity and direction brought the worst of all of them during Season 9, and how Xander may have been a little too influenced by the General’s talk in Last Gleaming, Part Three, and this got him too close to his impulse of being the patriarch, which all led to his anger growing into the decision of betraying Buffy… Then I would eventually get where you just mentioned: Xander exceptionally recognizes the problem and makes an effort to redeem himself, reaching for help by himself and demanding nothing from those he knows he wronged. My last paragraph in that post you mentioned was about this. Season 10 is a direct contrast of Season 9: after facing their worst selves, the Scooby Gang regain their unity and direction, and are all able to grow in the direction of being their best. And, yeah, Season 10 has all the reasons to be the fan favorite it is.

Now, the Buffy/Spike thing. Let’s recap. They were close at the end of season 7, they began a path in the direct of each other as much as they could, but still not close enough, attempting to avoid hurting each other again. This meant they also avoided dealing with what transpire between during season 6. This distance was worsen by Spike’s total disappearance from Buffy’s life, until his brief return during the Twilight crisis. Spike was slowly a presence in her life again, and at one point began an attempt to deal with their unresolved tension, which was interrupted by her pregnancy scare then the robot story. After he finished assisting her in this conflict, he went away to deal with this much emotional charge by himself. He concluded Buffy deserved her space and he could be around her without expecting nothing back, and, after his return, the two began behaving like there was nothing to deal. They were in a place where they regressed their intimacy to give space to friendship, just in an attempt to display a mature behavior instead of listening to themselves. It only gets better when they began to notice they were not the same from season 6 anymore, a position similar to the end of season 7. Despite never mentioning the events, this is how the season recognizes that moment, putting them back to that tentative, vulnerable place from season 7, even after they had their lives and relationship completely changed multiple times, but without them letting go just because they were uncertain of their survival against the First. But you’ll see the emotional roller coaster they still have ahead until the very end of Season 10.