#boss naruebet kuno

[waitmyturtles]

Gelboys, and the Delicious Art of Eliciting Cringe

A bunch of my amazing friends are doing an amazing project in rewatching the wonderful 2019 drama, Theory of Love, and watching the romcom films that are thematically associated with each ToL episode. Their recent ToL posts have gotten me thinking about Third and cringe.

When I think about Theory of Love, I always firstly think about wanting to chuck a chancla at Third's conker.

I'm a Khai defender, even while admitting that he was a gigantic putz to Third during a lot of the series. But, as the lovely @lurkingshan said to me when I first tuned into ToL -- Third was the architect of his own misery.

Oh, indeed he was. This incommunicative wet blanket! I wanted to keep yelling at Third: if you crush on a person, they can't read yer mind until you say something about it!

Third filled me with a sense of dread and cringe. He couldn't bring himself to communicate his crush on Khai to Khai. My dread came from watching Khai continue to do his Khai things, with my knowing that Third would get increasingly heartbroken vis à vis Khai, without Third intervening unto himself to stop his cascade into misery until it was too late for him. As a viewer, I saw Third devolve, slowly crumbling into more and more despair.

In my 2023 review of Theory of Love, I argued that part of the show's brilliance in presenting such a pitiful Third at the start was a brilliant narrative move to lull us viewers into feeling a sense of implicit empathy towards Third -- a sympathetic bias that would then lead to us viewers to not question Third on his actually very questionable decisions. I thought it was such a good play on the part of the screenwriters to tease us viewers like this.

What I'm absolutely LOVING about the currently-airing Gelboys are similar feelings of simultaneous empathy and cringe for the guys in the love triangle that's been established as of episode three among Fou4mod, Chian, and Bua.

We were first presented with Fou4mod and his life deal: his wildin' family, his musical predilections, his bisexuality -- and his very strong internal demand for clarity in relationships. Surely the moment of crying in the mall to end episode one gave me the teeny-bopper shivers, but I got the strongest sense of cringe from Fou4mod's behavior at the end of episode two, when we saw him -- in real time!!! -- compromise and negotiate around his internal emotional compass for the sake of keeping the waffling Chian close to him.

(h/t @clairedaring )

That shit was just painful to watch (and it was AMAZINGLY well done). For my sake, it was particularly painful because I could so, so, SO relate to being just like that when I was a teenager.

I'm an old mom and auntie now, but ::hacking cough:: back in mah day, I remember being a 15-year-old teenager and thinking that my only rule in relationships would be that if I was lucky enough to date someone cute, then that would be all I'd need. I wouldn't demand anything else. I'd consider myself worthy if someone cute liked me back.

Cue the sirens and alarms! Someone should have, because of course, with that mindset, I got myself into a whole lot of messy-ass shit, dealing with a bunch of assholes during and well after my college years. I had a common mix of low self-esteem and and ill-conceived priorities that led me to date a string of incompatible dillweeds until I got myself into more mature relationships from my mid-20s on (with those relationships not always being perfect ones, either).

I find the cringe that Fou4mod and Chian present to be SO particularly viscerally painful because, to me -- it is SO relatable.

We have here teenagers who don't know what they're thinking, what they're feeling, what they're even doing -- because they don't have the comparative life experience to know what their actions might result in by way of what we, as the more mature and invisible audience, expect as their natural emotional ends. Fou4mod and Chian have no idea, because this is the first time they're going through these waffling human interactions, in love, dating, courtship, relationships, hook-ups, whatever.

Take even Chian's waffling and cringey behavior. I am loving all the varied takes on Chian (cc @tinrange and @mirmoria). It is so easy at this point, now that we've consumed episode three, to perhaps demonize Chian, and I definitely feel at times like I want to do that, too.

But I want to take a step back and assess Chian's existence as we know it at this moment -- from my perspective, of all things, as a worried mom, and as a former teen myself.

I love what @tinrange presented in her post about Chian's existence and status as a teenager who is very, very alone, and is looking for some kind of connection ANYWHERE, no matter how unhealthy he knows, and his friends know, those connections to be. Chian is so alone, we might even consider his current state one of (temporary?) abandonment. I love that his moment getting advice from chatGPT shocked so many of us to states of stomach discomfort.

But, also -- this kid is ALWAYS connected online. The headphones are in. Killing time with his napping and/or studying friends, watching a drama on 2.0x. Scrolling IG endlessly. Repeatedly editing his Close Friends list. Thinking about the symbolism of sharing a story to literally one person. Receiving the heartbreak, in silence, of realizing those symbolic efforts keep cyclically coming to naught as Bua flip-flops his attention to others.

Chian is in an almost constant state of distraction. During the very few times that we see him disconnected -- like the moment above, when he sees Bua with Moo after doing Bua's nails (like a chump), or the moment when he negotiates his unclear status with Fou4mod -- he is able to, finally, get in touch with the discomfort of the instability of his status with Bua. And it's clearly breaking him.

But he's not stopping the cycle, as of episode three. His wheel, for now, seems to keep turning in the same direction, back towards his attraction to Bua, almost serving Bua the attention that Bua wants, on a platter.

Chian, I'd posit, doesn't have the life experience yet to know how to break that cycle. From the perspective of a worried mom, what would I say to Chian? "That Bua guy is a POS, you gotta move on"?

My advice would be useless, we know that. We know Chian's not been listening to his friends, to the point of his friends giving up on Chian, knowing Chian is going to repeat the cycle of servitude and rejection that he's been dishing up to Bua.

But besides Chian not listening to his friends, I'll say again that Chian -- especially without the physical presence of supportive and empathetic family near him to give him perhaps sounder advice than his friends -- does not have the guidance or skill set to know HOW to change his behavior. He might only be able to break away from Bua when Bua does something idiotic or drastic. Which, we know, will leave Chian even more in the dumps -- because that specific scenario would leave Chian with absolutely no agency to change his hoped-for outcomes.

WE, as the viewers, know how Chian needs to change his behavior. But Chian, as a very wonderfully written natural teenager, has no idea how to do that yet. And I think that's just so very raw and realistic, and it's being beautifully done in this show.

What was great about Khai in Theory of Love was that, in the second half of the series, we saw him engage in very specific acts of behavioral change to get to a place to be a realistic partner to Third. I talked in my ToL piece about how behavioral change is very much the most difficult type of change a human can make.

While I don't have a lot of hope for a positive outcome for Chian (YET), I am at least encouraged by Fou4mod continuing to dally around the center of his own moral compass, hinting to Chian that he'd like an update on that status question, stat.

Fou4mod centers himself around his desire for clarity, even though he's really messing around the edges of it, eliciting the concern of Baabin. But Fou4mod still has that conviction. It hasn't burnt out yet. He has hope, and that hope is defining and disappointing him, as we see in the last scene of the episode, as he stands in-between Bua, Moo, and Chian. And unlike Chian -- Fou4mod has family, lots of it, around him, and a friend that's patiently by his side, there to comment on Fou4mod's navigation of this very titchy and ick situation.

Fou4mod has optimism and is guided by his center. Bua seems like a big ol' playa (but we'll find out more if/when we get an episode about him). While Chian, in many ways, does indeed deserve to be put into a blender, I want to make one little note of hope I have for him, something that makes me cringe at him just a tiny little bit less:

While Bua used his Close Friends list to show off his flirting towards Moo to Chian, Chian removed Fou4mod from his list before he uploaded his own flirtatious moment with Bua.

The whole IG flirting circle thing is just messy and uncool anyway. But at least Chian thought to put up a boundary that Bua himself hadn't thought of. Maybe Chian will show us a glimpse of an internal compass that we're unaware of as this series goes on.

[a-father-of-light]

The last time I fell for and became completely obsessed with a show after just one episode was I Told Sunset About You. The fact that Gelboys was made by the same director says it all.

[sookja]

— thongkam & jingna

the paradise of thorns (2025) dir. naruebet kuno

[maggiecheungs]

PP KRIT AND ENGFA ARE STARRING IN A NEW PROJECT TOGETHER DIRECTED BY BOSS NARUEBET (WHO ALSO DIRECTED ITSAY) !!!!!!!!

[taeminie]

Gelboys (2025) dir. Boss Naruebet Kuno

[clairedaring]

GELBOYS สถานะกั๊กใจ — 2025, dir. Boss Naruebet Kuno

[colourme-feral]

A vibrant series of images featuring local farmers set against lush green foliage is one of the striking contrasts that has become a key visual direction for the film ‘The Paradise of Thorns.’ This direction was shaped through extensive research and collaboration by every team involved, including the director, art team, stylists, cinematographer, and colorists.

"When we decided to make a movie about durian farmers, we started by researching the landscape of durian orchards. Typically, the climate in Thailand is warm, so we anchored the film’s palette in green, representing the trees and foliage. Then, we thought about what would happen when people were added to these scenes. As each team did their homework, we all ended up on the same page—Thai people love vibrant, secondary colors like pink, purple, orange, and green. From there, we pulled all these ideas together and created a standardized color palette that shaped everything from our location choices to the wardrobe. We like to call it the 'Thai Color Palette.’ shared Director Naruebet ‘Boss’ Kuno.

“We hope everyone who watches the film can feel the vibrant colors of local life, the essence of being Thai, and the stories that unfold here in Thailand. Our goal is to share this unique Thai identity in a way that speaks to audiences around the world,” Boss Kuno added. from GDH's LinkedIn

Credit, credit

[chayatorns]

MY AMBULANCE รักฉุดใจนายฉุกเฉิน (2019) dir. Boss Naruebet Kuno, Tang Pattaranat Phiboonsawat

[dailyasiandramas]

dailyasiandramas’ sunday throwback ★ [WEEK 13]

I TOLD SUNSET ABOUT YOU แปลรักฉันด้วยใจเธอ [2020] Dir. Boss Naruebet Kuno

[visionsofgideontheninth]

Gel Boys (2025)

Screenwriter & Director: Boss Naruebet Kuno, Junior Naron Cherdsoongnern Screenwriter: Tang Pattaranat Phiboonsawat, Es Patipol Teekayuwat the team that brought you I Told Sunset About You and I Promised You The Moon

[waitmyturtles]

Gelboys: Thoughts on Episode 2

1) Before I say anything else, THOSE GELS AT THE END WERE AMAZING, with the layers?? AND those little horseshoe things?! Omg the technology these days.

2) I have to gush a little! This was a brilliant episode.

What an amazing juxtaposition between the no-communication-just-playlist-and-nails date, and the stolen moment at school — no background noise — when Fou4mod, almost in one breath, confuses and compromises his values and his standards to try to keep Chian close to him.

And I loved the separate juxtaposition when we as the viewers, watching the two boys on their silent disco date, stopped hearing music and started hearing the sounds of the trains and the city. That the world was still moving around these two guys who were in their own shared, very temporal, moment.

It was definitely painful to watch Fou4mod waffle in his negotiations with Chian. We as viewers know that the values he was compromising on were ones he held onto strongly in the first episode — he likes clarity of a relationship status and monogamy.

As a mom (and as a former single woman on deez streets) — I couldn’t help but think nostalgically that what Fou4mod was doing, in compromising his values, would be THE way he’d learn about the complexities of human engagement. @betterholdfast said this perfectly — to use their word, it’s almost devastating to have watched the change and compromise unravel in real time.

And yet, these teenage and young adult stumbles are just the precursor to the journey of learning about how unreliable most humans are, unless and until their become your friends, family, and maybe even partners. And that second part — the becoming part — takes so much work beyond the first pheromonal whiffs of a crush.

Fou4mod knows what he wants, we know what he wants, and yet….he now kinda doesn’t know what he wants. And that indecision, leading to the rapid-fire decisions he was making to keep Chian close, that state of waffling, oooh god, that place of unknowing discomfort and queasiness and hope and joy and total devastation — is teenager-hood, right? And this show is successful at this moment because it has NAILED that cringey indecision. I just LOVE IT.

3) One last point, speaking of cringe, and going back to what I said earlier about noise. Wasn’t it so brutal to see Fou4mod learn the truth of Chian’s position once all the distractions were gone? The AirPods, the phones, the playlists? Once all that noise went away, Fou4mod discovered Chian’s truth. Just such an amazing metaphor for the distractions that today’s technologies make for us, that keep us from finding out more easily the truths about ourselves and others. I know this show will keep hammering away at that point.

[gillianthecat]

Any other bl that gave you the same vibes from hwang da seul stuff?

hmmm. nothing really comes to mind of the stuff I've seen so far. I guess the closest are the Korean BL's I've seen, so she is clearly working within that tradition (partially invented that tradition?). maybe i'm just influenced by @absolutebl's writing on the bubble worlds of Korean BL, but all of the one's I've seen have kind of this feeling of being their own complete world. (although Hwang Da Seul's feel less like inside a sealed bubble than the other ones I've seen, for reasons I don't have to brain power to expand on at the moment). And obviously the language and even things like fashion, architecture and landscape give them a more similar feel than say a Thai BL would have. Of the ones I've seen, I would say Cherry Blossoms After Winter give me the most similar feeling, something about its worldbuilding and use of subtext, I think. (Although the only other three I've seen so far are Semantic Error, Color Rush and My Tasty Florida, so I don't have a very big sample size yet.)

Outside of Korea? Nothing automatically makes me think "this is like Hwang Da Seul," but I can come up with some BLs with similarities if I think about it.

In Thailand? I Told Sunset About You has similarly gorgeous and thoughtful cinematography and... structure, I guess? The intentional way that the script/directing is selective about what information to share and what to leave as subtext. And I Promised You the Moon doesn't feel very Hwang Da Seul to me except that, like To My Star 2: Our Untold Stories, it's a non-BL sequel to a beloved BL, which many people hated because it wasn't the sequel they were looking for. Which I totally get! But I loved them both for their dive into the question of: now that they've fallen in love, how do they build a relationship?

Also Not Me, in a strange way, although they're very different. Again I loved the cinematography and look of the series, although its quite dissimilar from any of Hwang Da Seul's. But mostly it also gives me that feeling where the holes in it are just as fascinating as what works. And it also feels like it has a clear directorial point of view/purpose.

Despite similarly beautiful cinematography and (often) strong storytelling, all the Japanese BLs I've seen feel very different to me, in a way I can't define at the moment.

Thanks for this ask, anon! At first I was like oh no, i have no idea. But then it turned out I had more to say than I thought. If you want to write in again, I'd love to hear your answer to the same question.

edit 9/14: Please do barge in with any suggestions of BLs that remind you of her works. I'm not sure if anon was looking for recommendations or just wanted to hear me ramble, but I'd love to see what y'all think fit.

[sookja]

the paradise of thorns (2024) dir. naruebet kuno

[sunsetmoonlight]

PP Krit and Billkin received the award for I Told Sunset About You for winning the International Drama of the Year at Seoul International Drama Awards (21st October 2021).

PP Krit also won the Asian Star Prize Award at Seoul International Drama Awards 2021

[clairedaring]

GelBoys, an upcoming iQIYI original - a Masterpost

Series Title: GELBOYS สถานะกั๊กใจ

Director: Boss Naruebet Kuno (I Told Sunset About You, The Paradise of Thorns)

Director of Photography: Tang Tawanwad Wanavit (I Told Sunset About You, The Paradise of Thorns)

Screenwriters: Boss Naruebet Kuno, Kate Karakade Norasethaporn, Junior Naron Cherdsoongnern (I Told Sunset About You, The Paradise of Thorns) (TBC)

Airing: 8 February 2025 - ? (Every Saturday at 8:30 PM (THA) on ONE31 Channel and 11:00 PM on iQIYI online)

Original Network: iQIYI

Official Synopsis: FOURMOD (NEW Chayaphak), a high schooler yearning for a romantic relationship, finds himself being hit on by CHIAN (PIDE Monthapoom), a gel-nails guy who casually invites him to get their nails done together at SIAM SQUARE.

FOURMOD falls for him but soon realizes he's being put 'on hold' when he discovers that CHIAN is inviting BUA (Leon Brocco), a half-Thai TikToker, for gel nail sessions as well. FOURMOD decides to get even by asking for help from his close friend BABIN (PJ Mahidol), to get their nails done together in an attempt to make CHIAN jealous and experience being in the 'on-hold' status himself.

GELBOYS, a story of relationships of youth in modern era in the vibrant atmosphere full of Pop culture at SIAM SQUARE.

GelBoys stars brand new faces whom you may or may not be familiar with. (source)

1. PJ Mahidol Pibulsonggram

Previously more known to the public as JJ Krissanapoom's little brother, PJ has recently gotten more public attention after starring in Good Doctor TH. He's also starred in PBS Thailand's Eightraordinary.

2. New Chayapak Tunprayoon

Thai QL audience may be more familiar with New Chayapak through projects like Netflix's Ready, Set, Love or I Promised You The Moon (the sequel series to I Told Sunset About You).

Fun fact: New Chayapak is actually a trainee under Nadao Academy before Nadao Bangkok got dissolved in 2022.

3. Pide Monthapoom Sumonvarangkul

If you've watched sports themed BL series Our Days before, you may remember Pide Monthapoom who plays Q.

4. Leon Brocco

GelBoys is Leon Brocco's series debut.

OFFICIAL MOOD TONE TEASER

As first announced in November 2024, GelBoys is iQIYI Thailand's third original series after Petrichor. GelBoys have been teasing the series through various social medias such as X, Tiktok and Youtube. You can watch the actors' short vlogs below.

[itoldsunset]

hi itsay nation!! p'boss was on the standard pop breakfast club talking about his work as a director and here's an interesting snippet about itsay:

[11:16] "how do you feel about the positive response you've received from lgbtq people about the series, that they've said it's a masterpiece among thai series that address issues such as coming out?"

p'boss: "i feel really good. while we were writing the script, goy and i talked about it and this was one of the initial goals we had going into this project, that if we were going to make a series about a relationship between two boys that includes lgbtq issues, we had to go all the way. and we tried to figure out what's the good and bad in terms of what message we want to send out to society, what we should tell the characters, and what directions the characters should go in. we did a lot of homework on this. for example, let's say we finished the first draft of the script, we would read it together to see whether there was anything in it that would affect how people feel. how would this sentence affect people's feelings? or what can be implied from it? does this sentence lead to negativity? ... i wanted to make this a series where lgbtq people can watch it and get into it, and when they finish watching it would feel that they can have positive experiences with love. this is the point i wanted the series to reach, and i think it did, which is a good thing."