#be like me and blame ohm pawat

[pandasmagorica]

First watch: 10 Years Ticket episodes 13-16 (finale)

Episode 1-4 notes

Whew! That was a wild ride. Great twists, great flashback reveals, great performances all around. I highly recommend this show. Content warning for violence - it is a crime drama after all, one that focuses more on the criminal's families, with the criminals more as side characters who wreak havoc.

The only complaint I have about the writing is that a significant character does something very stupid which does not end well.

We do get more about the QL subplot between two middle-aged women, neither of whom dies.

Lots of other people die.

I learn more about Thai Buddhist funeral customs than I ever learned before.

I haven't mentioned that a lot of the story revolves around characters' love of film. I used to be very much into film, not so much in my later years, but I can tell it means a lot to them and adds to the texture of the story.

One more thing I thought about is that this is Ohm Pawat's at least second series as a son of a family that is warring with another family that used to be friends. Of course, Bad Buddy was a comedy with some drama, and 10 Years Ticket is hard drama with sparse comic moments, but the parallels are interesting.

Spoilers follow

No, the two women don't end up together again, but they end up on good terms. I have mixed feelings about this. I think it's justified dramatically, but my lesbian bestie tells me lesbian stories rarely end well. It's too much to ask one series to carry that weight, but I hope among the lesbian series we'll be getting this coming year and - if we support them - beyond that happy endings will be abundant.

We've known since episode 4 that Luk didn't do it. We learn why she confessed, and that she didn't know who actually killed her lover/Phukao's (Ohm's) step-brother Mai. We see the killing in a flashback, that, as we saw in 9-12 with the police lieutenant, the big boss took Piak's gun and shot Mai, then returned the gun to Piak.

We learn that, despite treating Kongkwan and her family as enemies, Phukao loves Kongkwan (and vice versa) and we watch their relationship soften and develop further. We didn't get the Bad Buddy parents to openly accept their children's relationship. We do get the 10 Years Ticket parents, at least the surviving ones - Phukao's parents Santi and Sai and Kongkwan's father Somkiat - to accept the relationship.

Yes, I said surviving ones. Kongkwan's mother Veena makes the mistake of filming the aftermath of a killing at the big boss's home, then showing it to the police inspector - who was there at the time - after he arrests her husband when they plant drugs in his truck. The inspector frees the husband, but later ransacks their home when Veena returns home alone. The next thing we know, the police are showing up at Somkiat, Veena, and KongKwan's home to let them know about Veena's death. I know this was needed plot-wise, but I wish they had written it some other way.

Phukao wrongly blames himself for Veena's death, and says that if he hadn't brought Kongkwan home late, Veena would still be alive. Actually, it's more likely that Somkiat and Kongkwan would also be dead and, depending on the timing, possibly Phukao. But because they didn't know what happened when Veena came home or why, they had no way to know that.

In a confrontation in the theater, Piak kills the police inspector and his assistant, then Piak and the big boss kill each other. I'm not an expert on gun violence but it strained my credulity that Sor and Plu weren't injured or killed during the standoff. It's bizarre to watch Pin (Sai's old flame) and Sor walk through the bloody theater aisle - aren't they afraid of leaving shoeprints?

At this point, everyone who was a witness to who actually shot Mai is now dead. Fortunately, Chalee, one of the drug dealers, turns himself in and talks, resulting in Luk's release from prison five months later. I guess he didn't mention Sor (Gunsmile's character) and Plu (Off's character) as they are still free to attend the film screening the characters stage as a memorial to Veena.

The end

[waitmyturtles]

(TW: family violence, fatphobia) (and spoilers)

Alright, as promised, thoughts on Double Savage, episodes 1 and 2!

First, cast thoughts:

Ohm Pawat: plays characters with names starting with P who have terrible fathers (although the pops in 10 Years Ticket was redeemed somewhat at the end, his historic FV towards his older son was unforgivable -- very similar to what we’re seeing here now towards Korn). 

Film Rachanun: always, ALWAYS spunky and fabulous. SHE SPARKLES.

Perth Tanapon: my first drama with him, but clearly a VERY strong actor.

These three in particular need to hold down the show and each other, because Ohm’s character, Pakorn/Korn, is the subject of abject abuse, psychological and physical, from his father, who is also the father of Perth’s character, Pawin/Win.  

You need a STRONG cast to decipher what the hell is going on with Korn and Win’s family. Korn, the older brother of the two, was born during a recession. Win was born during an economic upswing. Korn and Win’s father, a shopkeeper, blames Korn -- literally calls him a “jinx” to anyone who’s listening -- for any and all bad luck that comes to the family. Korn’s father abuses him incessantly. He kicks Korn out of the house, and Korn is shown sleeping on a bench outside the family house, often in the rain. One of his siblings will sneak him back into the house to sleep. Korn and Win’s older sister, Li, and their mother, are also shown. The mom, Li, and Win are barely able to lodge a protest to the father for his lifelong treatment of Korn. If Korn is abused, he tends to walk away, leaving his beloved mom/sister/brother in his wake. 

(Someone needs to seriously call Thailand’s version of DCFS/ACS on Korn’s dad, because WHAT. THE. FUCK.)

Before I get into Film’s character, I just want to say that I think this show is depicting interfamily trauma beautifully already (even though it’s beyond heartbreaking). The silence among the family members is deafening, and very real. I mean: Asian family patriarchy. If I were talking with a SE Asian therapist at this very moment, I wouldn’t need to go on to explain what we’re seeing. From how I watch the show from a SE Asian cultural lens: the father has had such an abusive stronghold on the ENTIRE family, that they’re all willed into silence, and are only able to show support for each other OUTSIDE of the grip and gaze of the father. I experienced this quite a bit in my childhood, and saw it in my cousins’ families where truth needed to be spoken outside of an assumed leader, and the emotional compensation that needed to take place later in our lives consumed us. 

I don’t know if this is exactly what @shortpplfedup was referring to when you said that you understood why Korn picked up the gun at the end of the episode...but to me, the lineage of this trauma leads me to understand why Korn did that. In the wake of yet another abusive episode with his father, Korn simply thought he was trying to help someone. (Poverty --> family abuse --> crime: a common pathway that is NEVER INTENTIONAL on the part of the children/offspring on the receiving end.)

So Film’s character, Rung, comes into the mix. Rung is a young woman attending Win’s school, who befriends Win and Korn. Rung asks questions about Win and Korn’s family. She calls bullshit on the superstitions surrounding Korn and his father. She states that her family doesn’t believe those stories.

I want to note that superstitions are common both by way of religion and culture across Asia. (For instance, I was advised once to not swim in the ocean during a particular time of the year, because it was a moment close to a festival regarding water spirits, and it was thought that there were ghosts in the ocean.)

We saw a tremendous amount of religious and cultural ritual in Moonlight Chicken. But superstitions, as we’re seeing here in Double Savage, affect groups/families/communities at the micro level. Parents can VERY EASILY write off children with these mechanisms. (Like I mentioned in my last DS post, I have family members that have written off their children at early ages for just about everything -- their looks, their luck, their birthdays, their supposed lack of intelligence, etc. These parents would literally call their children “fat” in front of me and apologize “for them.”) 

I see what Double Savage is doing here -- calling fucking bullshit on this practice, particularly when it’s used to judge, condemn, and abuse children. It’s common, it happens, and once more, with these amazing shows coming out of Thailand (where WERE THESE SHOWS when I was a kid), we’re seeing broad and public commentary about how negative and abusive these behaviors are.

We clearly haven’t gotten to the meat of the series yet -- the drama that will occur between Korn and Win, as Korn sinks further into a life of crime. But what I’m finding interesting right now is that between 10 Years Ticket and Double Savage — two shows starring Ohm that were directed by female directors — we’re seeing BROAD and VERY DIRECT commentary on patriarchy, and interfamily and community trauma. (This, to me, is much like how @respectthepetty​ noted that GMMTV’s Midnight Series earlier this year was constructed in part to offer critical political and social commentary.)

And at least in Double Savage, vis à vis Rung, we’re seeing VERY direct criticism of otherwise common cultural practices that ALLOW for these abusive behaviors not only to take place, but to take root and to proliferate across generations. And we’re only two episodes in! Good for you, GMMTV. [I mean -- why not throw Bad Buddy into this mix, too? Like I mentioned earlier: someone (P’Aof?) is recognizing that Ohm can really fucking handle this hardcore intergenerational material. This shit does NOT seem easy to portray, and in BBS/10YT/and now DS, he’s handling it deftly.]

Whew. Me likey. Fuck the patriarchy. Let’s see how this show continues to set up this plot.

One off-thought: the chemistry between Ohm and Perth, and Ohm/Perth/Film -- SPECTACULAR. WOW. Ohm and Perth are so clearly bros in real life. They’re clearly ad libbing a lot, and it’s a lot of fun to watch. (I wish Ohm had spent more time on camera with Off in 10YT — they could have had a similar vibe.)

Film’s character is sooooooo different from Neon in Dirty Laundry (and I can’t wait to see her in My Precious, where she’s paired again with Nanon), and she’s just so versatile and fun to watch. SWOON, I love her.

[chaos0pikachu]

I’m not a BOC ~defender~ or whatever but I do think it’s interesting how fandom interacts with the company itself like there’s almost a para-social relationship with the company itself? Which is wild to me? Like there’s a standard that BOC is held to that I don’t see with other studios by fans that I find really interesting. 

Like, example,  Ohm Pawat (come on y’all know this dude) had a recent “scandal” of bullying and homophobic social media posts blow up on Twitter* but I didn’t see fans blaming or even involving GMMTV at all. I don’t even know if GMMTV even made a statement on the scandal. And it’s not like talent under GMMTV haven’t had their fair share of scandals but I’ve never really seen folks act like these scandals were the specific fault of the company itself

and I’m just kinda curious why lol like what is it about BOC specifically that’s got ppl so hyper vigilant on them? 

[Before anyone attempts to waffles this shit I’m not saying BOC is a “good” or “bad” company like those metrics are so nebulous that it’s pointless to apply them. Companies are not people, they do not have a personhood no matter what Citizens United tried to claim]

Like there’s been critiques of BOC that I’m like yeah I get that, I agree with that, and then others than I’m like, eh that’s not how business really works, and then others that I’ve been like that’s a fucking completely misinformed bonkers claim to make take the fucking stan goggles off pls 

But the obsessiveness towards BOC is just really interesting cause I don’t see it towards like any other studio that produces BL/GL media 

**I have no opinion on this scandal or Ohm so don’t come for on that either idc

[zucchan]

IT'S HARD TO BE FAKE ENEMIES BAD BUDDY | EPISODE 4