#and it's DELICIOUS

[snowcoffeee]

Anon, I will not be able to talk coherently from happiness for the rest of the day. Thank you so, so much for this amazing gift <3

[icouldhyperfixatehim]

having the actual time of my life watching ming do his belly-up fluffy kitten routine, while joe responds to everything with a "fuck you out the door, you killed me". this is HIGH CALIBRE ENTERTAINMENT

[jahanmp4]

q!Etoiles is given the choice to fight against the Federation alongside the Codes if he signs the book

[eternalgirlscout]

senshi tulpa has once again gotten me to eat a vegetable

[lynne-monstr]

another balcony cocktail writing session let's go!

[dropthedemiurge]

Kawi is a perfect Cartoon Character filmed in BL

We were talking about comedy acting of gmm actors in our discord, and I understandably went on a rant about Krist's comedic performance in Be My Favorite (because his dramatic acting is good but he chose such a unique delicious comedy to give to Kawi, and I've been obsessed with it since the very first episode so let me bring it here too xD)

I was so surprised and intrigued when I saw Kawi in BMF, because in the beginning of the series Kawi looks funny. Unhinged. Unserious. AND IT DOES NOT LOOK CRINGE! (fight me)

For me it's something that's so easy to fuck up, and Thai comedies just love being silly-cringe on purpose (I'm sorry, I have to admit, I get second hand embarrassment often when watching unserious scenes in BLs). But Kawi. He's just. So excitingly funny for the viewers. Krist created his behavior with such a careful nuance, he gave us the first impression of Kawi so nicely, that a non-social immature main character who easily could get 'EW noo' reaction from viewers, is just a very adorable weird fool you can't help but keep watching to see in what kind of trash situations he'll end up.

I think here's a huge reason why: Kawi looks and feels like a cartoon character. I don't even know how Krist did it, I worked as 2d/3d animator and artist for some time in the past and I deliberately tried to make myself act like a cartoon character to film references for animation, so let me tell you – it's HARD xD

Disclaimer: i'm not big professional, just a freelancer so my terms might not be official, i'm just describing what i've learnt from professionals, these are basic things

I think Krist said it himself somewhere in bts that it was his deliberate choice and hard work but Kawi is absolutely animated in a very cartoonish way, but he also calms down and matures throughout the whole series, his movements become more gentle, fluid and less loud.  It's such a difficult way to smoothly change the character and it's a hard work for the actor, if you consider that episodes and scenes aren't usually filmed chronologically.

The first episode of BMF is like the epitome of Kawi As Cartoon Character (remember Kawi stealing Pisaeng's clothes scene, the dancing, fighting the gangster, everything) and it works really great to establish that comedic introduction and fool us all into thinking this is just a silly comedic BL show and not a very complicated, profound and mature series as it turned out to be :D

I dissect for myself why this happens, what Krist makes:

Loud hyperactive movements (wide animated gestures, compared to all other characters behaving like adults in real world; think of Stage Persona and theatrics)

Action lines and curves (compare Pisaeng and Kawi on screenshots, think how Pisaeng would hold his hand out and look how Kawi is posing. Krist said they rehearsed poses in that scene a lot, and I really believe it. He stretches out arms a bit too far away, he bends more than usual person, he cranes his neck, he makes just perfect action lines throughout his whole body. When you want to make a cartoon character out of someone's photo, you exaggerate and smooth out posture so the motion would be felt, and Krist just does it in real life)

Fast movements ending up in an abrupt VERY ART-LIKE POSE, and quick change of sharp poses (it's a base rule for good artists to make characters have a clear pose, so you would be able to guess what's going on from only the silhouette). It's probably not a natural way to stand in front of the camera, but Krist often turns his body just enough to have very recognizable silhouettes (enhanced by directing from P'Waa probably)

He exaggerates emotions like a comic character as well; wide eyes, mouth, furrowed eyebrows or extreme pout; even his voice is loud, he shouts and yells louder than anyone else in the series. Of course, only when he's comfortable (with Pisaeng, with Magic Uncle, sometimes with Max). When Kawi isn't comfortable, Krist makes him small, roll into himself, speak quieter and softer, while still having cute gestures like fidgeting.

Cartoonish character compliments Kawi's childish behavior so well, it adds cuteness and stops viewers from rolling their eyes

KAWI LITERALLY IS ACCOMPANIED BY CARTOON SOUND EFFECTS IN THE SERIES, I mean - Pisaeng sometimes gets his sound effect of something breaking, u know like huh??, but if you listen, so many actions and gestures of Kawi are followed by various cartoon sounds. All the time. Even when he gets more mature and reaches zen, they are still present, just not as often.

And that dance? Might not be truly something cartoons would have, but it's so unhinged and quick and childishly weird, Kawi is almost literally operating at 24fps there, the flashing lighting helps a lot as well xD

(overall, think about famous tiktok videos of a girl acting like a disney character irl but if i'm not wrong, there's also a technique of slowing and speeding up the video/audio, and Krist simply acts like that in front of the camera. fascinating)

Krist's work on Kawi's comedic behavior is just chef's kiss, even if you didn't know the plot, just by seeing Kawi in random scenes, you'd know it's a whole character arc just reflected through the body. Which is, I guess, what acting is about xD But it is SO RARE to see for me in BLs and Thai's lakorns, and maybe I just don't watch a lot of comedy series but I'm extremely impressed with how great that cartoonish Kawi looks, from an artist point of view.

I think the other character from BLs close to this feeling would be Sky from Love in the Air. If you know others, please let me know!

[pharawee]

And there we have it. Somewhere along the way all of Din's good intentions turned into this:

This is not (Din's face but more on that next week) the face of a man who wants to protect his loved ones. It's not even about justice. It's about revenge.

Because how is risking your family's lives and threatening your lover and killing three random street thugs in Hong Kong any better than bribery and illegal logging?*

(*NOVEL SPOILERS: And the show actually went out of its way to sanitise Din's actions. In the novel, Din masks up and pays Gun/Fin a visit - where he proceeds to beat him within an inch of his life and severs both of his Achilles tendons because ?? ???)

Look at your life, Din/Lue/Tee, look at your choices. You literally exploded people and sent your spouse a recording of it (I don't get tired of bringing that up because who even does that??).

And I know he had a year to mourn the person he once was because it was necessary (??) to become Cheng Talu (which btw according to the novel also means something like "earth", just like Din does - it's basically the equivalent of Mr Smith changing his identity to Herr Schmidt 🤡) but there's better ways of approaching your traumatised lover than to goad him into reenacting some messed up version of the Piña Colada Song.

Wow, surprise, he hates you now. Well done.

But ok, in his defence, he's manoeuvred himself into a bit of an impossible situation here. He wants, above all, to protect Ken and if for that he has to sacrifice his own happiness then so be it (he's done it before, after all). But also it must be quite frustrating to sever the connection to your past self and want to start anew but all Ken does is look back.

If you were in Din/Lue's shoes wouldn't you wonder if your lover recognised you beyond your appearance? Be it by your actions or your habits or even just your presence?

I guess the weaver girl and cowherd analogy was apt. There might as well be the whole Milky Way between them right now.

Is it any wonder that Ken looks at him like this by the end of the episode:

Imagine the betrayal.

[devsissues]

Everybody on the bus stand up and applaud I have written over 5k words today

[lethargarian]

Bonus -

[midnightwind]

need more fics of the wet dog vampire going feral and being a terrible person, the amount of fluff is giving me cavities

[pinacoladamatata]

Everyone in my life: you will regret moving to Florida. Once you get there you will see and you'll be sorry.

Me: actually this is where I've always belonged

[jessaerys]

how am i supposed to go start my day and do normal people things when the black hole of joel's wounded masculinity has sucked ellie in and is never letting go. and im supposed to be normal about it

[seanfineart]

After seeing Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness, I had to draw... T H E    B O Y ! ! !

[stabbingandorbeingstabbed]

in absolute desperation unable to find chilled canned coffee drink anywhere in this god forsaken target to make up for the fact that i didn't have time to make my little ice coffee before work i got a vanilla sweet cream cold brew at the sbux in here and i cannot FATHOM how there are people paying like $6 for this more than once a day i want to die

[princessmishaps]

treated myself with some iced coffee today bc i deserve it

[edamahun]

my life got exponentially better when i realised i don’t hate hot drinks other than coffee, i just hate tea. as in contains actual tea leaves.

herbal infusions are superior.