#also a moment to appreciate Nanon’s acting

[firstmeow]

SOMEONE GIVE PANG A HUG. MY BOY IS OVER HERE HAVING A BREAKDOWN

[waitmyturtles]

Turtles Catches Up with Old GMMTV: SOTUS Edition

[What’s going on here? After joining Tumblr and discovering Thai BLs through KinnPorsche in 2022, I began watching GMMTV’s new offerings -- and realized that I had a lot of history to catch up on, to appreciate the more recent works that I was delving into. From tropes to BL frameworks, what we’re watching now hails from somewhere, and I’m learning about Thai BL's history through what I’m calling the Old GMMTV Challenge (OGMMTVC). Starting with recommendations from @absolutebl on their post regarding how GMMTV is correcting for its mistakes with its shows today, I’ve made an expansive list to get me through a condensed history of essential/classic/significant Thai BLs produced by GMMTV and many other BL studios. My watchlist, pasted below, lists what I’ve watched and what’s upcoming, along with the reviews I’ve written so far. First official Old GMMTV Challenge review up: SOTUS.]

[NOTE, March 23, 2024: I want to note, from the future!, that my thoughts on Krist Perawat, his acting, and his career trajectory regarding his personal controversies, have changed quite a bit since the publication of this 2023 post. There is excellent commentary out there about the detrimental impact of fandom behavior on Krist and his reputation over the years that I’ve been influenced by, and his comeback to BL in Be My Favorite was a risk that I supported. I have a lot of nostalgia for SOTUS and SOTUS S now, and their impact on the Thai BL genre since their airings.]

I spent a lot of the weekend wrapping my head around the MANY thoughts I have about SOTUS -- but first, I want to say that the FEEDBACK I received on questions that I posted throughout my watch of the show really heartened me. THANK YOU, THANK YOU (!!!) to EVERYONE who made helpful comments on my posts (here, here, here, here, especially here, and here). All of you helping to set me up for how I understand the historical timeline of the development of BLs in Thailand was absolutely necessary for the lenses in which I ultimately watched the show.

And I think there’s a number of perspectives I ended up adopting over the course of my watch. It might help me to write this piece if I list out those lenses now:

- Lens #1: WHY, OH MY GOD, WHY WAS KRIST CAST IN THIS ROLE - Lens #2: People had to have enjoyed this in 2016 because there was nothing else like it available at the time, despite Krust - Lens #3: Maybe the first two points are related - Lens #4: Singto is reaching remarkable-level here - Lens #5: Maybe all of these points will help me understand why many fans still think of this show fondly, despite the subsequent Krust/KrustSingto drama and possibly questionable points made on sexuality and sexual preferences.

More than anything else, I think it helped me to watch this show while recognizing that I’m an #old. Being early middle-aged (early, I tell ya) helps me, literally everyday, to remember that history guides me to understand the world in which I view it now. So to watch a show from 2016, which is long-ago or not-that-long-ago, depending on your frame of reference, means that I was watching history. And history is.... a reflection of that one, singular moment in time, with the context of past events, people, and places influencing that moment in time. 

I went out of order on the Old GMMTV Challenge because I was too eagerly curious about Singto to watch Love Sick first, and wait on SOTUS (as I’m planning to reward myself after this journey with a big old watch party of He’s Coming to Me, running back to my snuggly Ohm/Nanon rabbithole). 

But as well, speaking of Bad Buddy: I also felt like I really wanted to get SOTUS under my belt after a number of separate and FABULOUS conversations about how Bad Buddy had purposefully relied on a BL framework (citing @miscellar), and how Aof and his team, plus Nanon and Ohm themselves, had set out essentially to create a critical meta-BL, complete with embedded reflection on BL tropes -- exactly the sorts of tropes that were borne out of SOTUS. (Here and here are two links to said fabulous conversations.)

I probably think about Bad Buddy at least once a day by way of how deeply layered it was a drama, so: to SOTUS I needed to go, to understand the tropes framework that @miscellar and others opined on, and for me to undergo a learning experience about how exactly today’s BLs are influenced by the ones that started the genre in Thailand. 

Considering the lenses I listed above, I’ll say this: at the age I was at in 2016, and knowing that, as an Asian, I’ve always had a craving for shows by Asians, set in Asia, within Asian family and social systems, about issues of acceptance and equity felt by Asians: I predict that, save for Krust’s performance, I would have been CRAZY for SOTUS as a new kind of show that I wanted and needed to watch.

During my excellent conversations with the Tumblr family, I came to understand that SOTUS was Thailand’s first true BL. It centered on a same-sex attraction-to-relationship, established various levels of perspectives and commentaries on power dynamics, and set up a number of important tropes -- pink milk, university settings, engineering-as-gay, the gay-for-you motif, side couples and best friends, etc. -- that we then saw and see repeated in subsequent BLs.

Where I was at in 2016 -- I would have eaten it almost all of it up.

Now? Now, I get to see all the problematic factors about it, through the lens of history.

So I want to be fair about the commentary this show receives NOW, because one thing I heard repeated in the feedback I received over the past couple weeks, in part, was about nostalgia. Reflecting particularly on Singto’s performance as Kongpob -- I mean, with a slightly more sophisticated, mature, well-rounded, better-written script, his performance would have been totally groundbreaking.

But I THINK, both from a 2016-lens and from a now-lens, that the script was terribly choppy. I don’t think the script did justice for the risks this show was otherwise willing to take. And I think, again, that’s because SOTUS is a product of its time, where there were no precedents for how to otherwise tell Kong’s story -- and that SOTUS was breaking the ground that the current crop of GMMTV’s screenwriters and directors are now tending. In essence: GMMTV was experimenting with HOW to tell the CENTERED story of a same-sex relationship, and we saw that unfold in SOTUS’s real time. 

Besides the choppy script, this show ultimately did not achieve creative groundbreaking status, for me, because of Krist. Not to be hyperbolic, but he’s one of the worst actors I’ve seen in an Asian drama, and I’ve watched some bad KBS daytime shit. If someone tells me that Krust has been great in certain cishet shows, that’s fine, but I’m not running to them (and now I’m SO disappointed about The Jungle, which I was otherwise looking forward to this year). And this feeling is not at all inclusive of his actual problematic homophobic behavior. He was just terrible in SOTUS. 

We know and have seen tsundere leads. We all love our biases who have played tsundere leads. The problem with Krust is that he had zero reactivity and chemistry to an excellent Singto, regardless of the script, regardless of his acting methodology, if he had any to begin with. 

So I have to think: did GMMTV cast him because, maybe, he was having trouble getting other projects that would have required, say, acting? And GMMTV was like, well, this guy’s under contract, let’s throw him a bone with this experimental show we’re doing, and see how it goes?

I am tending to think that that’s possibly what happened. And maybe, even, GMMTV could not have predicted how FANTASTIC Singto would be -- and, therefore, how wide the divide would have been between their performances. And, how much GMMTV was risking by putting this mismatched pair together for what ultimately was groundbreaking material.

GMMTV couldn’t have predicted the future, right? Hollywood tries with its predictive models, but this was new ground for this company.

Where the choppy script and Krust’s terrible acting really fails the show is, as I mentioned earlier, the issue that I bring up about power dynamics. Krust as Arthit was going to do something in this show that was rare at that moment: Arthit was going to move from a socially majority position to a minority position by falling in love with Kongpob.

That’s a big deal. That happens in two of my most dearest BLs, Old Fashion Cupcake and Cherry Magic, and many others, of course. The Asian collectivist perspective plays huge parts in both shows, unconsciously, that lead to the uke leads considering taking up with their semes. And it happens to Arthit, too. In the Asian collectivist perspective -- you, as a uke, respond empathically, and maybe even try to meet your seme where your seme is at. 

I think the only times that I saw Krust at least trying to show up in this show was by way of this power dynamic move, to attempt to respond to Kong/Singto emotionally. There was a little eye contact. There was a little instinctual responsiveness. But otherwise, there was really a lot of dead air and dead space, leveraged by an only-okay soundtrack that left Krust and Singto struggling to act in essential silence, with Krust barely scraping by on attempting to communicate his struggle in his developing attraction to Kong. 

I’m just wondering to myself: how much do I blame the actual show itself -- like the script, the director, the writers, etc. -- about how it ended up this way? I think I ultimately have a sympathetic heart about it, again, because of the history, and my betting (based on everything that everyone here on Tumblr has taught me about) that again, this was a kind of experiment for GMMTV, without the company knowing how HUGE KrustSingto would become. 

Other points about the show that I want to quickly capture before I wrap up on Kong/Singto:

- The hazing, while concerning, didn’t make me swerve, as it was clear from the start that it was sanctioned by their school. I want to say that this kind of hazing is important to many Asian school social systems, but I know things have changed a ton since I was a kid. As with almost all social and family systems, the hazing, I think, offered another commentary on power dynamics that I think was reflected throughout the show. I thought the hazing was actually an interesting mirror to what Kong and Arthit were struggling with individually, between themselves.

- I LOVED THE SIDE CHARACTERS. M, Wad, Prae, May. They were fun, well-written, and WELL-ACTED.

I want to wrap this up with a reflection on Singto/Kong and his acting vis à vis the script. 

Going back to the 2016 moment-in-time frame: I know I would have gone crazy for him seven years ago. Forget about it. Mans totally rose to the occasion of what this show was doing. I think the script ultimately failed to truly capture what he was willing to throw. (And that leads me to not being surprised that he was then subsequently paired with various leads in future shows, probably to try to capture a magic that he clearly demonstrated in SOTUS.)

In particular: I did NOT think the script did Kong justice by keeping the revelation about his budding attraction to Arthit until episode 11 (I *think* it was episode 11, but I could be wrong, and I’m not going back to fact-check, ha). I want to think that that’s one of the (many) kinds of mistakes that GMMTV is correcting for now. The comments about wives, the insistent “you like me”s -- they were non-contextual for much of the show, ESPECIALLY BECAUSE Krust could not catch a damn ball. That’s what ultimately broke me about this show. And I think that demonstrated a lack of fluency about how GMMTV could write scripts on same-sex attraction. 

As well, as I wrote in this post -- the post-Arthit-coming-out discussion between Kong and M threw me. M asks Kong -- “do you like men?”

And Kong had SUCH a specific answer. To me, as I wrote previously: his answer was, I definitely don’t like men. I’m definitely not gay. I just like Arthit.

My guess is, for Thailand’s first full-fledged BL in 2016 -- this dialogue HAD to be written this way. To enter into the kind of territory we see NOW, as we saw in Moonlight Chicken -- where we see one man’s (Jim’s) struggle with IDENTIFYING himself as gay, AND presenting another man AS HIS boyfriend -- we had to START somewhere. That somewhere was SOTUS, in almost total opposite territory, where the concept of the admission-of-gay could not be contemplated.

@bengiyo’s comments in the last post I linked above, in particular, collide in part with @absolutebl‘s analysis on the Asian collectivist vision. However, I can’t help but compare this issue, again, to what we recently saw in Moonlight Chicken...where conversations about Jim, about Li Ming, and with Wen, a fully out and identified queer man, all touched upon individual identity.

That’s where we are -- that’s where we CAN be -- now, in 2023, and in the near future. SOTUS was important for me to watch to understand how we ended up here, now, for what was okay and was not okay, in 2016. 

It’s okay, now, to appreciate collectivism WHILE ALSO identifying oneself as queer/gay. At least, it’s okay in fantasy BL-land. (Again, I’d peep @bengiyo’s comments about how that may not be reflective of what domestic Thai queer audiences may be feeling about these shows.) 

I have a lot more understanding to undertake regarding how Asian queer audiences see this. But at least from the perspective of this first-generation Asian American -- to see the progression of history as the doors slowly open, from dramas to Asian (and other) audiences regarding how one can identify oneself, safely and happily -- that’s a big deal, and I see how SOTUS was a harbinger of things to come. 

Singto was simply up to the task to break ground in this show, and it’s such a shame that he was let down, in my opinion, by his co-star. The subsequent history of that pairing breaks my heart, because I think it taints a lot of what SOTUS ended up bringing to the table. I’m glad we have Aof and Bad Buddy, now, to serve in part as a reflection for what SOTUS did, and how BLs and BL tropes could age, be manipulated, and be IMPROVED and developed upon, over the course of time. But the actual history of KrustSingto messes me up a lot in regards to how I might feel nostalgic, myself, for SOTUS, as I learn more about classic BLs.

It’s a confusing mindspace to be in, to move backwards in time to understand how things have developed -- but I gain such a bigger appreciation for the shows I’ve fallen in love with now, over these recent months, for where they came from.

[I want to give HUGE thanks to @absolutebl, @bengiyo, @nieves-de-sugui, @respectthepetty, @miscellar (especially for all the BBS context), @lurkingshan, @wen-kexing-apologist, @shortpplfedup, @clairificusrex, @dribs-and-drabbles, and everyone else who made comments in my SOTUS watch posts. All of you are my historians. More than the fun of writing these reviews is interacting and conversing with the Tumblr fam.]

(Love Sick is on deck. If anyone is following this journey, I’ll be fast-forwarding through the second season, ha -- I can’t commit to 36 lakorn-length episodes. I also have a HUGE and lengthy wedding trip coming up in a couple weeks. So the conclusion of this project will be delayed, but definitely know that I’ll be posting thoughts here and there as I plod through.)

[absolutebl]

Hi P'ABL

I've seen your reccomendation on good BL series to watch, but do you have any good reccomendation for BL Actor with good acting skill to follow? (follow their filmography works i mean, not follow them personally).

Thankyou

Top BL Actors?

Hellooooooo! Of course, here are some options!

This post is a bit old but it probubly still holds true:

BL Actors Since then & Additional Thoughts

Aside from Bah Vinh (Vietnamese) very few actors specifically specialize in BL. I mean a few in Thailand, but... that is mostly the options are what they are in Thailand and a lot of them are BL.

Fluke and Ohm probably have the largest back catalogue of BL that I actually enjoyed, but some of that is difficult to take or very sad. (Khaotung might be a good one too, since his character work is brilliant.) I haven't done an acting breakdown of Fluke Natouch but here is Ohm:

Ooo, can you imagine Fluke & Ohm together?

The other issue is, if you follow a Thai actor outside of BL there can be... not great stuff on offer. Nanon has chosen quite a few good pieces, he might be one to try. And I have some what enjoyed much of Sam Lin's other stuff (but I enjoy Taiwanese cinema in general) and there is Gong Jun to consider... I mean, who wouldn't?

I have talked about some of my favorite actors.

These are the ones I would recommend watching their BL because they are GOOD in it but the rest....?

[lunabug2004]

Hi, I would like to talk a little on the whole "khao being more popular/appreciated than first." I believe they are appreciated in different ways by different people... When it comes to general public and bl fans, First is the n°1. He gets the most engagement in social media, gets the most praises, and is the most known. This could be due to the fact that first has been friend and co-star with some really big names in the bl industry, like Tay, Bright, ohm, pond, etc. Who also happen to be really into sharing their daily lives with their fans. (Not saying is the only reason) Therefore, if you didn't know him for his acting, you would know him cause of his friends. Add this to him being VERY social and loved by everyone he meets. Also, he is known for going viral, either for his looks or for his iconic acting scenes or moments. Meanwhile, Khao has always been more on the introvert/private side of the story. He indeed has friends/ co-stars who are very well-known, such as Neo, Mark, Win, Nanon, Gun, Drake, etc. But he is not a close friend with most of them. Also, we don't know much about him, or we often hear about a night out at karaoke by his friends months after it happened, or how now we know about him mostly bc of joong. So the only way most people get to know about him is due to his acting or music. There's another point to take into consideration. Most bl fans and public are led to actors that interact a lot with them in social media, and since first appears a lot more in other actors' stories and posts, he is most known.

But I do agree on how the directors and other actors praise Khao more than first when it comes to acting. I will never get why we can not praise and celebrate both actors when they perform well. I don't like, tho, how people blame khaotung on why first doesn't get praises or recognition (like awards), even if one of his most recognized characters (yok) also didn't get a nomination (which I would be mad at forever) and khaotung wasn't even in the picture yet. This leads me to this other point... First is most of som's favorite. If the partnership were to end up tomorrow most, if not , 90% of the fandom would stay with first. It might not be noticeable in this platform, but the biggest soms accounts on X are all first biased. You can tell cause they barely post about khaotung unless it is to talk about the ship or when an event happens. I read almost every day about how fans would love for first to act with every actor or to go back to his previous pairings (mostly gawin and mix) and how they want him in a lot of different settings, in different shows but this doesn't happen with khaotung. But again, it's understandable (I guess) cause most people got to know about khao cause he started to work with first.

So I feel like khaotung is treated like first is treated here but on X. They both are such incredible actors and such beautiful human beings. I really, really hope we can get them to achieve even bigger milestones so that more people can fall in love with their skills as much as we do, so that they can't be underappreciated by anyone. Hoping to see them get individual roles for next year!

I completely agree with everything said here! As I've said in my post(s), I think it's mainly just the side of the internet I am on to where I see less First-biases. And I hope you don't think I am trying to blame Khao at all, as I love both of them an insane amount, even if I bias First, and I completely side with you on saying that we should appreciate both equally as they are both simply out-of-this-world amazing at what they do! I simply like to comment on patterns I notice from my pov on the internet, as someone who never ever visits X and is just on Tumblr, YouTube, and IG.

I hope they just continue to be happy whether it be continuing on the path of just couple-shows or whether they want to do some individual roles. I will continue to support both of them no matter where their career paths take them! (Though I do hope they always stay together because they fought so hard for it!)

Anyways, thank you for your perspective, Anon! I always appreciate people sharing their povs with me, as it really helps me to understand the full situation! And you explained everything very well, so props to you for that, as well! :D

<3

[inventedfangirling]

Nanon + Khao in 55:15 Never Too Late appreciation post

I had been wanting to watch "55:15 never too late" for the LONGEST time. For several reasons not least among them was that it featured two of my most favourite thai actors - nanon & khaotung. And pls the premise of five 55 year olds returning to their younger 15 yr old bodies in order to make some changes to their past selves and the hijinks that ensue is interesting enough. But ofc the prime reason i was there was to watch the acting masterclass that i knew nanon and khaotung would deliver. I'm only 3 episodes in but im already bowled over.

Nanon especially. I don't know if there is any role that he can't do. he just becomes the role he is doing. It's virtually impossible to see nanon in the role he is playing.

This scene where he is hiding from prim. What shook me was just how much of childishness nanon was able to convey in this scene. He's playing a 15 year old after all. And he does an excellent job of it. Not at all in a forced caricature sorta way. In fact he was so convincing i had to replay several scenes multiple times. It was so very impressive.

And look at that. That's pining personified and you cant even see his face. He is just THAAAT good.

His body language, his micro-expressions, the delivery of dialogues, everything is just pure perfection.

Look at him absolutely nail the look of a lost hurt child who doesn't know who or what to turn to. He really has no business being this good!?!

I was in a bad mood when i was watching that episode. But Nanon is just so good at his job that by sheer force of his acting brilliance he turned my mood around.

His dimples helped for sure. of course.

i mean LOOK AT THEM.

This scene was especially fantastic. Really fun to watch.

But i meant something much more intangible.

You know that feeling when you feel better just by seeing certain works of art, a painting or a sketch, or if you're looking at the sky, or listening to a piece of music, just knowing that such beauty exists in the world by itself enough to lift you up?

Watching Nanon do his thing in this episode felt more or less like that!

Especially this scene that took my breath away.

How was he just 20 when he did this??? it's so mind blowing!

I'll never not be beyond grateful that i decided to watch bad buddy, cos 1. it gave me patpran and 2. it gave me nanon! one of the finest actors i have seen in my entire life. EVER. And he's just 22? I really can't wait to see what all he does over the course of his acting career!

Episode 3 follows the adventures of Khaotung's character "Songpol". I loved his story the most out of all 5 of them. No surprises here. How it's about an adult closeted gay man decides to stop suppressing his identity and live out a life he had denied himself all along. How he has known that he was gay for decades but because he hid that part, he still remains a sorta baby gay at the age of 55, and how this time/body reversal situation gives him a second chance at a more free life.

And while there were fewer opportunities for moments of acting brilliance, he did amazingly well in whatever there was.

And more importantly there wasn't a single second where he was on screen where my heart wasn't brimming with affection.

I especially am LOVING this gay uncle and supportive niece dynamic. We usually see it the other way around so loving this twist on the usual trope. Also khaotung does SO well in this scene where he is occupying his 15 yr old body but his facial expressions reveal the maturity of a 55 year old uncle of his niece who he is talking to.

Also LOVING the way he fanboys over "Jaya".

His devotion is so visible. It's unbelievably endearing. I would make a home for him in my pocket if i could.

Like that's MY baby. A whole cutie patootie.

And also he is SO so handsome i could just watch him just existing for hours.

Gorgeousness🤌

I'm so excited for him to be living out his happy dream gay life. He deserves it so much. Pining for decades and then finally going to confess and then finding out he has found somebody else yet again, just next level of pain. He needs his happy ending. And he better be getting it. I am really looking forward to it.

What i'm not looking forward to is how the multiple love triangles the show has already set up is going to blow up in everyone's faces. It's such an annoying trope. But ANYTHING for a show featuring Nanon and Khao. And for the most parts i am LOVING this show, hopefully i will love it till the end :')

[aestheticsfandomsandmore]

I think I finally managed to understand what I genuinely disliked about episode 3 of the Our Skyy BBTS x AToTS crossover. I actually loved these specials, including episode 3, and I am still sad that part of the fandom hated them with such a passion, but I have not been able to fully appreciate episode 3 either, like most of those who watched it, and up until today I hadn’t realized the actual reason.

They didn’t show us Pran and Tian’s conversation. 

That’s it. That single conversation, that single moment that happened off screen could have changed the way the episode (and specifically the last PatPran scene) has been percieved by the fandom and could have made PatPran’s emotions and intentions way more explicit—especially Pran’s, who’s been unfairly criticized after the episode aired.

Pran told Phupha he feels insecure, like he’s not good enough, and the way Pat is always ready to put Pran’s needs and wishes first makes him feel like maybe he doesn’t deserve Pat at all, like maybe Pat would be better off without him—and that’s why he needs to prove himself, because the idea of needing Pat to the point that he can’t live without him, to the point that he ends up relying on him, is terrifying. 

Tian’s words are what makes him feel better about this whole thing! Hearing that Pat actually feels the same way and doesn’t feel like Pran is a burden to him at all is all he needs to know to lighten up and put this matter aside, at least for now. It doesn’t mean it suddenly becomes easy for him to deal with this whole thing, it doesn’t mean he accepts it in the blink of an eye—hence the need to look away when he tells Pat he also can’t possibly live without him; he wants to tell him, he wants him to know, but he’s still uncomfortable with the idea, despite now being ready to admit it out loud. And I think there is really nothing wrong with that: what we got in these episodes is just a missing moment in their story, something that showed us how their relationship developed after their honeymoon, including the insecurities and hardships that come with a long-term commitment between two people who are very different (one whose love language is to help those he cares about, and one whose love language is to let those he cares about help him; that means it’s not natural for Pat to be the one who needs help from others, to be in a position that’s not that of the hero/supporter, and it means it’s not easy for Pran to feel like he needs somebody’s help/to be supported). 

Watching Pran listen to Tian telling him about his conversation with Pat would have made this internal conflict way more clear, especially the bit where he asks Pat to be the one to say it first; it’s not just a matter of pride or validation—Pat being ready to look vulnerable in front of him first is something he needs to show the same level of vulnerability—: Pran is letting Pat say those words out loud because he knows Pat wants (needs) to; Tian told him Pat said ‘I just can’t admit to myself I can’t live without him’, and Pran wants to give him space to do so, reassuring him that it’s okay if he does. Pran’s problem was never with Pat needing him, but Pat’s problem was always about wanting Pran to need him, with needing Pran to need him; that’s why he feels insecure witnessing how hard Pran tries to prove his point for which he doesn’t need Pat’s help at all, and that’s why he’s happy and content after hearing those few words from Pran’s mouth (Neither can I) and being allowed to say them in the first place (I can’t live without you). I think many of those who were disappointed with this interaction were probably expecting something different from what the characters themselves wanted and needed. 

So, while showing us Pran and Tian’s convo was not necessarily inevitable, it would have been a great addiction to the narrative (and Nanon would have acted the hell out of it! It would have made Pran’s relief and realization so obvious that nobody would have had the guts to badmouth my little boy).

[boysthatlove]

Boss, Noeul and LITA EP6

We need to talk about it. 

First off, am I over it? No way, myself and almost the entire BL community aren’t over it. But what I will say is that a lot and I mean A LOT has happened since episode 6 of Love in the Air has aired. We are all shook, shaken, and stirred from this episode and it made me think about Boss and Noeul because they are doing a great job in their roles as Phayu and Rain. 

So going all over social media and seeing, hearing and, reading everyone’s reactions, it is clear that this NC scene has set new a new standard on how BL actors should be preforming their love scenes. And I want to say, you shouldn’t get your hopes up. We should really assume that Boss and Noeul are an exception to the rules. 

As example, two other BLs that aired this year (KinnPorsche and Cutie Pie) both has CPs that had great chemistry, if not amazing. While we want to give full credit to workshops and the intimacy coaches, what occurred with Boss and Noeul is next level. 

Two words that will always save a BL actor moving forward: Method Acting!

i.e. they completely separated themselves from the parts that they’re playing. So from the interview where they said that they improvised and in that moment they were Rain and Phayu, I have believe them; because I can’t image the director saying “... and make it nasty.” That is what was and we were here for it. And still are.

I want to say we would be nice to have Fort and Peat be just as natural, but I really don’t know. I feel like fans tend to put more pressure on the second CP and not really appreciate the first or main cp ( e.g. VegasPete in KinnPorsche). 

I also there is something that we don’t know about Boss and Noeul, we don’t know what has gone on during those ‘workshop’ or when they spend time together alone (alone) to build the trust that they allowed to share with each other when performing those scenes. Is my delulu mind thinking of something else, yes. I believe that one likes the other more the professional partner, more that a friend, yes absolutely. Or, they both like each other and one has a better way of hiding it, we don’t know and we may never know.

All I know, is that they can try to call each other ‘best friend’ all they want, but what they did on episode 6, I would NEVER do that with a best friend. Ohm and Nanon are best friends and I could never NEVER see them doing that and not because they are under GMMTV.

I can talk about this for hours, but I am going to end my rant here and I will see you all for episode 7.

[absolutebl]

I saw your analysis posts about Saint's and Nanon's acting. It was really really intresting. So I was wondering if you similar analysis posts for other actors such as Ohm or Singto?

So I got double asks on acting analysis in the space of one hour. So this is part two, Nanon is here. Sorry it took me a WHILE to get to. 

OHM'S ACTING

Okay, so I think Ohm’s single best piece of acting is the coming out sequence in Episode 6 of He’s Coming to Me. Go watch that. I’ll wait.

Okay, ready?

Callback moment to the breakdown of different actor types that’s here.

It’s pretty clear that Ohm is self taught natural talent mixed with technique because he came out the gate crazy good and worryingly hot in Make it Right. He is 16 people. 16 in that series. And his story arc is high heat. I honestly don’t like to think about it and I prefer nt to watch that couple when I rewatch MIR. Also the directing isn’t good in this series so Ohm would have had to unlearn some bad habits after MIR. I think moving into the GMMTV stable was probubly a good move for him. 

Because of his “in your face”” acting style and his appearance, Ohm tends to be given outgoing sunshine jock characters. As a result Dew was a revelation to many. He put up a stellar performance but it is rough going as a movie experience. I’ve only managed to get through it once. 

Could we pause to appreciate the fact that Ohm turned in Dew the Movie & He’s Coming to Me IN THE SAME YEAR? 

I would call his acting style and presence bold. He has a slight tendency to over act, especially in his early stuff. He uses his whole body when he acts, broad movements, wide facial expressions. Takes up a lot of screen space. I’m a little surprised he’s never done slapstick or comedy.

I talk about how his style contrast to Nanon’s style (Method and a lot more subtle) in Bad Buddy in Nanon’s acting post. 

But I should say Nanon’s style foils nicely to someone like Ohm, who always inhabits a lot of space on a screen. Ohm uses big gestures and expressions, and his whole body when he acts even with a quiet character like Dew. Which is not to say Ohm can’t be subtle, just that he uses subtlety to quiet a loud character, where as Nanon is the opposite. 

Nanon is mostly quite subtle and then occasionally outrageous for contrast. As actors they bounce off each other beautifully, and because they are good friends have great established emotional chemistry, and I think this makes for a deadly combination. This is what many watchers of Bad Buddy responded too so positively.

* Note: Nanon & Ohm talk about their different acting styles (and acting as a couple) on this episode of Safe House 2, kindly translated by a fan. Apparently Nanon is v Method. (thanks to a kind commenter in previous post for the link). 

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