#VALEN & KAITOON

[bl-bam-beyond]

LOVE AREA PART 2 (2022, THAILAND)

A BL I've never seen. Reviews are mixed however I firmly believe a person need to make their own decisions while respecting someone else's. So I finally watched part one. Nothing spectacular but not too bad.

I will say I hate the way Non was treated but at the same time, he wasn't forthright with his feelings but yet he was clearly interested in his across the hall neighbor.

However, that neighbor Kaitoon (CHAVITPONG PUSOMJITSAKUL aka PAK) instead fell for the unfortunate Valen (GUN TIEOSUWAN) who began the series trying to rob the hardworking yet naive Kaitoon. As they began working with one another at Valen's sister's restaurant (LOVE AREA) the two grew closer with Valen becoming more and more enamored with Kaitoon. Meanwhile Dr. Non was also feeling something for Kaitoon, feelings he didn't articulate to the somewhat dense Kaitoon.

Kaitoon's closeness to Valen often left him letting Non down whom was always understanding.

Valen confessed his feelings and Kaitoon felt the same so they became (secret) boyfriends.

One evening Kaitoon left his keys in his apartment, locked out he began the evening bunking with Non but later bunking with his boyfriend. His jealous boyfriend. But Valen and Kaitoon grew closer.

One night while staying together after a shower Valen began drying Kaitoon's hair. And it took an intimate turn...they were sure to consummate their relationship until a friend of Valen came knocking at the door.

@pose4photoml @lutawolf Did you see this one? If so, thoughts?

[pharawee]

I decided to rewatch part of Love Area because of Pak Varayu my beloved but now I'm all sad again because of the way they treated Nont. :(

[kissablelips-desireslure-vol1]

LOVE AREA PART 2 (2022)

CHAVITPONG PUSOMJITSAKUL (as Kaitoon)

&

GUN TIEOSUWAN (as Valen)

[heretherebedork]

I really liked Kaitoon comforting Valen in the kitchen. That was so sweet. He rubbed his shoulder and smiled so softly and they said so much with soft eyes and I love them deeply as a couple, honestly, they're so sweet. It's so sweet. I'm lost to the cute, y'all.

Tiny Valen being so sad and broken about his father and Kaitoon just gently reassuring him, giving him comfort and support without any words is just... it's darling. I love it.

[iguessitsjustme]

So Valen and Kaitoon have now both confessed AND kissed and are in the honeymoon phase of whatever they got going on...

...but Kaitoon has been so oblivious to literally everything up until this point that I am still not convinced he knows.

[dengswei]

literally WHAT is going on in love area part 2

[elevatormusic]

no because it’s the way i saw a clip of love area thinking valen and kaitoon were just gonna be this super soft couple the entire time and then starting the actual show and one immediately tries to rob the other and then both get beaten up lmao what

[slytherinsjennie]

Valen had the audacity to want to go talk to Kaitoon when he saw him like nothing happened, BEG you btch.

[demiromanticmickey]

*Spoilers for Love Area Part 2*

I love how Jeff's character, Sean, just shows up to make everyone's problems worse.

Sean has apparently been hooking up with Pete even though Pete is dating King. Valen finds out by catching them in the act, records them, and sends the evidence to King. Valen and King then ambush Pete and Sean after their little tryst, King is crying. Kaitoon is also there, then Win and Atom show up. The gang's all here to bear witness to King sobbing his eyes out at Pete. Meanwhile, Sean's hanging out in the background all casual like:

He looks so bored! This is him right before getting decked by Valen:

Sean does not give a fuck! Lmao.

In the end, he's responsible for not just one but two break ups, since Valen is convinced that because Sean and Kaitoon are friends Kaitoon obviously knew what Sean was doing this whole time.

Sean showed up to make episode six jucier than this whole series combined. He's so messy, I love him. Thank you Jeff Satur for feeding my insatiable hunger for horrible characters doing horrible things. What a legend!

[bengiyo]

Love Area Episode 2.08 Stray Thoughts

Sweet relief this part is only 33 minutes long. 1.5 speed, my beloved, we are almost through.

DAMN, kiss my boy and then cut him down like that?? Why is Non in this show??? I'm going to riot.

The butches are back!!!

Oh boy I have witnessed this fight between butches in person before. I'm glad no one got shoved this time, and no knives were drawn.

Oh it's the model boy. Let's cram some development here at the end. I do like when a prospective partner comes over to clean. It's one of my favorite love languages.

Pink milk lives on

Oh no Jeff's homewrecker character is back.

That's right, Non. You give back that bracelet. Return it and the feelings that were never taken seriously.

Hey, I don't like seeing Jeff get punched.

Sad beach hours for Non.

Non is the best boy. Is he trying to get Valen and Kaitoon back together? I don't care about anyone in this show except Non. I have been him and I want him to receive the love he pours into others.

I do like the "running into your ex because of my new job" trope

Valen is going to want to reconcile, but I never liked him. I'm not invested in them going back together.

Damn, feels like this whole show was a loss for literally every character.

And...they run back to each other.... I suppose that was affective, but boy do I not get them.

Well, that's finally over. If you have been on the fence about Love Area, I recommend skipping it.

[kissablelips-desireslure-vol1]

LOVE AREA PART 2 (2022)

GUN TIEOSUWAN (as Valen)

&

CHAVITPONG PUSOMJITSAKUL (as Kaitoon)

[heretherebedork]

Valen approaches intimacy with fear and trepidation and worship and love and he's so starved for affection and touch that he can barely handle even the smallest hint but also can't let it go once it happens.

[iguessitsjustme]

Valen and Kaitoon have officially reached peak levels of idiocy this week god bless them.

And I know they aren’t telling people about their relationship yet, but please seriously some tell Non. Poor boy needs to be able to move on. It’s just super painful at this point.

[heretherebedork]

Ugh, Non taking care of Kaitoon is adorable. Poor boy is working himself to exhaustion between his jobs and his school and he just needs someone who can make sure he takes care of himself too.

And next week... we see the reflection with our tiny disaster trying the same move @absolutebl if this weren't coming out concurrently with Light on Me I'd swear they stole all their ideas.

[heretherebedork]

Goddamn but he's an adorable disaster. And look at that face turn! Kaitoon takes cares of his seme, seriously. @absolutebl still your fault. <3

[absolutebl]

Hello, live the work you do here. I especially like to read your trash watch alongs. I am following unforgotten night through your posts only.

It's just been months since I got into bl. But I remember watching one a couple of years ago and I dnf it . I don't remember what it's name was. If you could help me with the title, I'd like to revisit it and see what has changed with my new perspective and experience with BL.

It was thai. It was a restaurant setting. The seme was a chef and the uke was probably in school or college and maybe part-time working at the restaurant. That's all I remember.

oh I love a challenge. The Magic Spreadsheet of Doom is always easier to activate when you have setting.

However I don't think I need it, since restaurants are my favorite. I think you're thinking of 2021′s Bite Me. And apart from the food, it was really very much NOT good.

However in case I am wrong here are all (I think) of: 

Thailands’s R&B (restaurant & beverage) BLs

I Am Your King 2 2019 3/10 Youtube - Early love triangle about a cafe boy caught between two brothers, mostly not good because the wrong brother wins. Has no connection to the original I Am Your King. 

Love Area 2022 (2 parts) 3/10 GaGa - It wasn't as boring as Bite Me, but it wasn’t actually good, either. This started out as Thailand tackles love triangles pulp style, but in part 2 lockdown changed everything. Valen & Kaitoon dropped some great kisses but traded off crazy hair and makeup in a scene-by-scene whiplash that was clearly pickups done months after lockdown, and the second lead vanished. It was... surreal. Side dishes jumped up screen time but tackled mental health... badly. A fantastic new queer side character was randomly introduced, June, who was the best thing to happen to BL linguistics in 2022 but had nothing to do with the rest of the cast, show, or plot. What a mess. In the end, I didn’t know what I was watching, and neither did it.

Love Next Door 2 2014 4/10 movie GaGa - One of Thailand’s early very high heat pieces, it’s odd, but sexy I guess? Also some unexpectedly decent queer rep. (Part one is the same lead character early on in his life discovering he is gay with the sex worker next door but not really relevant to this story.) 

Evening Cafe 2021 5/10 YouTube - Cafe setting with no heat and no kisses (almost Chinese in this regard), but a decent lead pair, about a boy who works in a cafe and the new employee who has a crush on him. That’s it, whole story.

Love Advisor 2021 6/10 microfilm YouTube - Set in a cafe but not about cafe workers, this is an actor’s piece, more like a one act stage performance about friends to lovers and miscommunication.

Bite Me 2021 6/10 Viki - Thailand gave us Korean style slowly simmering ultra soft and sweet BL only at a Thai length so the pacing was… not good. Slower than molasses and full of insane subtext, long gazes, missing dialogue, abrupt mood swings, and one very pretty kiss. It curdled around episode 8, the sauce split, and there was no saving it. It did have some of the best food porn I’ve seen in my life, and i watch cooking shows. It was beautiful, the leads were decent, it should have right up my alley, and yet… it left me with a feeling of disaffected ennui - bland and boring and unsatisfying. 11 courses of tasty tasty pacing issues. 

What Zabb Man! 2022 8/10 YouTube - Star Hunter's WZM was better than we had any right to expect, with decent pacing and a foodie theme threaded through the narrative as both love language and plot driver. Basically CEO falls in love with a street vendor’s food, recruits him to work in his hotel, falls in love with him, and that’s the beginning. Class struggles! Kitchen drama! Papaya pounding (not a euphemism)! Chef poaching (not literally)! Spicy scenes (yes both kinds)! It’s all so delicious. 

La Cuisine 2022 710 GaGa - A sweet and somewhat pure show, and like the Thai desserts it features, perhaps requires too much patience for a layperson. Because of the pacing and the focus on a bad girl character, I did dock it. But if you like stuff in the Oxygen vein, then this show is for you, and far better than most Thai BL pulps. That said, I suspect that I enjoyed it more than many would. Full review. 

Coffee Melody (Pavel my love) 2022 airing right now on Viki

So far only the pulps have tackled foodie romances for Thailand, I’d love to see GMMTV do one. 

Perhaps that’s what Moonlight Chicken will be? 

The other places that do a lot in and around the food industry are Korea (Jealousy is My Guest, One Last Order, My Sweet Dear, The Tasty Florida, Ocean Likes Me, To My Star). They tend to have been rated better in general than the Thai ones, sadly. 

(source)