#moonlight chicken ep 1

[wanderlust-in-my-soul]

Attraction [noun] - a force by which things are pulled towards each other; the feeling of liking someone, especially sexually, because of the way they look or behave

[wen-kexing-apologist]

Mark Pakin in the background of the news broadcast, I love you

[deafcruz]

It is possible that Heart has been sneakily drinking alcohol whenever his parents weren’t around. This is perhaps due to the change in treatment when Heart became deaf e.g. overprotectiveness in hiding/isolating Heart at home forcefully (away from danger) as the parents were not aware of the right manner to act for and around their deaf child.

It seemed that Heart did not understand the conversation in the room (Parents, Jim and Li Ming) as he was frantically reading lips and seemed confused at the heated argument, while being frustrated that no one understood him. *Heart also repeatedly signed that he did not understand but no one responded to this. (this was also not subtitled, on purpose it seems)*Perhaps it is Heart’s first time meeting other people (Jim and Li Ming) since becoming deaf.

Heart’s parents, being upper class, seemed to be snobbish and overprotective in assuming that Heart would not drink/touch the alcohol. They needed someone to blame for the expensive loss of the alcohol.

From the event above, we can tell that Heart lost confidence since he could not hear his own voice and seemed to have learnt sign language for communicating with anyone who was willing to talk to him.

It also seemed that the parents did not put Heart to a school for the deaf but kept Heart at home (either because they did not know or they chose not to). It looked like Heart had profound depended on sign language, writing, reading and could not use his voice at all and did not have hearing devices (CI, hearing aids) – which shows that the parents were likely ignorant about this. (From off-screen interviews about the character, we also got to know that Heart has been deaf and isolated for 3 long years.) Either that, or the parents are fearful of people judging Heart as deaf as it may affect their high standing as rich/powerful individuals *this is a direct rejection of Heart as a person and can cause loneliness and depression due to the isolation with no meaningful social interactions with other people. It would not be surprising that from all these, Heart lacks a sense of belonging in this world, coupled with confusion on his identity and self-worth. * Heart is likely to lose hope in having a relationship with anyone as he loses confidence in himself and the society from his abandoned world*

[aliceisathome]

Well, well. well... GMMtv seems to have discovered one night stands. And condoms. And sex in general.

Moonlight Chicken is the series EarthMix needed - they're great in it (I particularly like Wen being all flirty). It's a very long way from the chaste action in ATOTS. No mouth kissing - plenty of neck and ear action but the lips were verboten, and not just because Wen had been sick - there's intimacy in a kiss. I suspect we'll get a big WE'RE IN LURVE SO KISS ME scene later.

There were some nice little visual cues as well - the two phone chargers showing that someone else lives in Wen's apartment was a nice touch and the colour grading was wonderful.

Me likey.

Obviously I shall be rioting if it isn't a happy ending, not just for our main couple but for KhaotungFirst and GeminiFourth (can't remember their character's names). GIVE ME ALL THE HAPPY GAYS DAMMIT.

[hughungrybear]

It turns out, Uncle Jim is my kind of man 😅😅😅😅

[taeminie]

What era are we in now? No one looks for a reason why people are gay anymore. Look at me. None of my friends are gay, but I am. Listen. Have you heard about this? People can accept and not mind if someone is gay, lesbian... but when it comes to someone in their family, they can't accept it. You do know that it's not easy being gay in this country. Same-sex marriages are still not allowed here. That's also true. What can we do? We might have to wait until those conservative dinosaurs die.

MOONLIGHT CHICKEN 2023, dir. Aof Noppharnach

[grapejuicegay]

Li Ming is so painfully aware of how much he doesn't fit in. Not with his mom so now he lives with his uncle. Not with his uncle with them fighting all the time. Not with his friends when he has to go back home and work at the diner. Not with his friends when they discuss their plans after graduation. Certainly not with his friends when they discuss dates they want to go on and girls they find cute. Not with the work and study program he aims towards, not with his poor English skills. Not with the one friend he has somehow made in the middle of all this - although that one gets close.

In the middle of all of this, where you can see his physical discomfort at standing out and a yearning desire to fit in somewhere, he still makes an active effort to stand out with his bright red watch worn on his right hand while everyone around him wears theirs on their left.

Given the opportunity to fit in somewhere, he chose to stand out. All Li Ming wants is to fit in while being himself. All he wants is to feel like people around him would accept him.

[chalkrevelations]

OH MY GOD, FUCK OFF WITH WHAT YOU’RE DOING TO MY HEART, MOONLIGHT CHICKEN.

I don’t even know if anybody else has actually kissed on-screen at this point. Has anybody? Is this a thing? I’ve been hopping around, meaning to go back this weekend and watch properly, which should let me be sure.

But meanwhile, you know who HAS kissed? Even though their lips haven’t met, yet?

LI MING AND HEART.

I’m losing MY MIND over this. I’m a little bit feral in a way that I haven’t been since VP. Because LISTEN: If that itsy-bitsy spidering together with their fingers - that one morning after Li Ming spent the night - was not a kiss, I will eat my goddam hat.

Hearing people communicate with their mouths. A kiss is a meeting of the lips, of the mouths, of the way we communicate.

Heart communicates with his hands. Li Ming has bothered to learn to communicate back with his hands, in a way that Heart’s parents can’t even really be fucked to do.

When they touch hands - when they meet each other with the parts of their bodies they use to communicate with each other, with joy and playfulness and mutual understanding and deliberation, with that kind of intimacy - that’s a kiss.

FIGHT ME.

(ETA: Seriously. Y’all. The next clear shot is of them from, like, mid-thigh down, intertwining their legs. And then we go back to more of the itsy-bitsy spidering. Don’t even try to clown by telling me that fingerplay isn’t a kiss.)

(ETA 2: NOT TO MENTION, in the previous ep,when they put the pilfered alcohol back on the shelf together (ep 3, 4/4, approx. 5:45) - leading to that moment of CLEAR intimacy and possibility when they nevertheless don’t actually kiss - their thumbs overlap on the liquor bottle, but that’s all the connection we see between their hands, and Li MIng ends up quickly pulling his hand away.)

Tangentially, but relatedly - OK, fine. I’ll follow Aof anywhere. There is, frankly, no other director in the GMMTV stables that can hope to come close to him, to the richness and texture of what he’s accomplishing. I’m going to prioritize his entire back catalog, and while parts of this ep are shaping up to be kind of heavy-handed, I cannot tell you how much just these four eps have given me hope for how he’s going to handle disability in Last Twilight.

[colourme-feral]

Dates seen/mentioned/suggested in Moonlight Chicken, episodes 5 and 6 (ep 1+2, 3+4)

Episode 5

Wen and Alan celebrated their 1st anniversary in May 2017, which means that they started dating in May 2016. They celebrated their 5th anniversary in May 2021, but between then and February 2022, they have broken up, while still living together. Wen meets Jim 7 months after this point, in September 2022.

Li Ming and Heart do a part-time job at a pre-New Year New Year event.

Both calendars show December 2022

Based on this, Heart has been deaf since 2019.

Episode 6

The calendar shows December 2022

Beam passed away in December 2018, which is just about 4 years before the day that Jim and Wen go to the temple to make offerings.

Jim and Wen go to see Beam’s then-girlfriend to help Jim move on from Beam, while Heart and Li Ming prepare to celebrate the New Year together.

[namtanlovesfilm]

PAPANG PLAYING EARTH’S EX BOYFRIEND IN MOONLIGHT CHICKEN???😳😳😳

[wanderlust-in-my-soul]

I'm sure you know my preference.

[wen-kexing-apologist]

Hello to the worst parallel in the world (affectionate)

@respectthepetty made an entire post about symbolism in Moonlight Chicken that was truly excellent and spurred a conversation in the comments that gave birth to another truly excellent post about potential for the central conflict in Moonlight Chicken.

And as I watch episode 3 I cannot help but think about this moment of foreshadowing at the end of episode 1 and the statement it is making.

Above is a photo of Wen's ID card with the Marina logo printed on the back of the ID and the words "Wen- Moonlight Chicken- Temp Staff" scrawled in marker on top of the plastic ID cover. The words here block out or overshadow Marina, showing Wen's attention and interest lies in the chicken shop above his interest in Marina.

At this point in the show, I had begun to suspect that Wen (and possibly Alan) would be involved in a Marina project that would potentially threaten the Moonlight Chicken Diner. When Episode 2 aired, this conversation between Kaipa and Jim made me think Marina would just be building new food market territory in the zones around where Moonlight Chicken Diner was located, driving up prices of both rent and food and making it impossible for Jim to continue to operate at the prices he is currently charging:

Enter Episode 3 where we get the Grand Reveal. Marina is planning on expanding their food court (which we already knew), they are not just going to purchase the buildings and put their own vendors in, they are planning on demolishing the existing structures and build something new over top. And what do we learn about the zones Marina is considering? The zones include the Moonlight Chicken Diner

And here is where the worst (emotionally) visual parallel comes in to play. The Marina logo with the tagline "creating a sustainable future" printed on top right corner of a photo of the Moonlight Chicken Diner. Looming over top of the building like it's waiting for its moment to strike. Even Jim's green truck is parked in front of the diner in this photo. He's in that diner, he's preparing food for the evening when this photo was taken, completely unaware of the fact that someone is outside, ready to tear his chicken shop to the ground. And respectthepetty, if you are seeing this post, I for one think it is very rude of the blue and red color coding to continue even in this photo with the blue wall and red lanterns.

Something something Moonlight Chicken being written over Marina on Wen's ID something something Marina building on top of the rubble of Moonlight Chicken Diner something something.

Anyway, the gay chicken show has consumed my life and we are only 3 episodes in.

I haven't finished episode 3 yet, only got through part one and felt compelled to make this post so unless they already handle it later on in the episode I am very interested in how Jim will react to finding out that he's the other man once Alan show up in full force, or what I will affectionately be calling 'The Cock Fight" but you know...that's a whole other post.

Also, please do NOT get me started on the irony of Marina's tagline being "creating a sustainable future" when they keep driving prices higher and are only interested in demolition of old historic buildings *cough, cough*

Edit: lmao, not me starting part 2 of episode 3 and having them give me the same parallel immediately.

[earthyorangeaid]

I think Moonlight Chicken is doing a really good job with their characterizations in general but SPECIFICALLY the relationship between Uncle Jim and Li Ming.

Uncle Jim is this nearly 40 year old parent/guardian who’s doing a terrible job, not for lack of trying, at being a part of his 17/18 year old sons/nephews life. Its the struggle between a child who thinks they’re an adult already, and an adult who knows they aren’t yet and doesn’t know how to balance letting them TRY being an adult, and when to treat them like the child they still are. It’s extremely realistic and awkward and sort of heart aching to watch.

On top of this, the way Uncle Jim and Li Ming act when other people are within THEIR bubble is also very realistic to their personalities. Uncle Jim seems sort of traditionally minded. Yes he has a strong support system with friends who are like family, but there’s a difference for him between that and FAMILY family. FAMILY is at home, family is Li Ming.

There’s a huge difference between people outside of the home (especially Wen) seeing Uncle Jim and Li Ming’s relationship, and people inside the home seeing it. I think Uncle Jim looks extremely uncomfortable at first having someone witness just how hard of a time he’s having with Li Ming. It’s in his private space, his family space, and he isn’t ready for Wen to be a part of that family yet. Luckily for Uncle Jim, Wen isn’t in a rush to make himself family, even though he’s pretty clearly showing that if that option were out on the table he wouldn’t say no.

Meanwhile Li Ming’s not afraid of sharing his frustration with his uncle with whoever asks about it. That being said he’s still picky about expressing how he struggles with school. I think he and Uncle Jim are both being overprotective about their most important problem at the moment. They’re not so dissimilar when you look at to that way, even in terms of their found family. Li Ming is picking and choosing who he likes and trusts with his personal life, and in a way building on top of the family his Uncle built before him by trusting Wen and Heart with his problems and affection respectively.

[canonicallyanxious]

i think at the beginning of the series wen is a person who has so much love and passion and feeling inside of him and nowhere for it to go. and i think jim is a person who does so much for his community and his family and doesn't ever ask for anything in return because he doesn't think he's worth it. and i think jim is very easy to love as the heart of a vibrant and warm community that more than anything else is full of people who take care of each other; and i think having this love poured into him and his home and his diner and his family is making him slowly realize not only that it is something that he deserves, but also something that he wants

[hughungrybear]

For some reason, Part 1 reminds me so much of Ethan Hawke's and Julie Delpy's film, Before Sunrise.

[uwemagain]

Let every river envy our mouths. Let every kiss hit the body like a season. - Ocean Vuong

Jim & Wen | Moonlight Chicken EP. 1