My love you have found peace
You were searching
For relief
You gave it all
Into the call
You took a chance and
You took a fall for us
You came thoughtfully
Loved me faithfully
You taught me honor
You did it for me
Aof Noppharnach writes some my favorite openings I've seen across all genres. They open like musicals and fairytales. He writes these beautiful monologues that set everything up while romantic scores roll out and the camera floats across the settings. For real, watch the fluid camera work in any of his openings; it's one of the way he snags you. I just swoon.
Look at the opening lines of He's Coming to Me: "It was as simple as that. My heart stopped beating and I died. I have the same dream every time. You must be wondering how a ghost can dream." Call me Ishmael, who!?
And like, the way after the title sequence of Dark Blue Kiss, though, that the music and camera instill a magical fondness on the main characters as it establishes them in their natural habitats--swimming at pool, tutoring at Sun's cafe, etc.--with partial shots that reveal their confident faces in quick and steady succession!? Like, oh yes, all my old Kiss Me Again friends are glowing and tryna make the best of it all.
1000 Stars monologue about second lives in video games might be cheesy except we're cutting between a slick moneyed boy at a roulette table, an earnest girl on a bus, and a group of rangers scouting the forest in pitch black, and wondering who's about to die as mentioned in the voice-over and why are these randos living worlds apart being braided together like this!?!?
And then Moonlight Chicken is just *chef's kiss* using a post-Covid news segment to invite us into a struggling Pattaya neighborhood. And we hear about the economic hardships, the intentions of joy, the Chinese lanterns hanging outside, and see shots of the staff and late-night customers in bright warm light. Then we cut away to people watching the clip at a much dimmer version of the diner as business gets underway. Complaints and arguments and interruptions all occurring within A SINGLE SHOT until Jim walks out onto the street as the music just fully swells, and I'm passed out from the CINEMA of it all!!!!
The comparison I jump to quickest is the opening of Disney's Beauty and the Beast as we are told through stained-glass images the tale of the castle's enchantment and then toured about the small-minded town and its inhabitants as they gossip about Belle. By the end of the two sequences we have learned about every main character and their motivations with a smooth, inviting flow across the physical space and conversations. I honestly wonder if Aof studied the Disney Renaissance openings (majorly influence by another gay visionary, Howard Ashman)?
When it's an Aof script, you just know the viewer within the first fifteen minutes has everything they need to be prepared and excited for the ride they're about to take. Tone and Rhythm: established. Setting: explored, Characters: I already love them more than life itself.
some tragic love stories be like: if i could bottle the galaxy, i would pour it into a cup so it would be easier for you to drink. do you want them? do you want the stars? or do they suit you better as adornments for your eyes than glitter on your lips?
but they don’t want the stars. they don’t want the galaxy. but how can they not? is that not enough? (it’s too much, that’s the problem. it’s too much.)