#nlmg: nuengdiao

[khaothanawat]

i honestly love that nueng is running around girlbossing his way through bangkok, but like… he doesn’t know what he’s doing. it’s not real, none of what he’s doing is real. he can look like he’s walking the walk and talking the talk, but ultimately he’s just a teenage boy.

he’s just a kid who’s dad died, who’s mother is in a coma, who just watched the last parental figure he’d found get shot to death. he is convinced he’s going to die too, that his life is destined to be short and unhappy. that isolating himself is the only way to keep everyone else around him safe. he’s resigned himself to this terrible loneliness, because he’s convinced it’s the only thing he can do.

and honestly? he’s been like this since his dad died. it’s just become worse and worse for him as time has gone on, as more and more terrible things have happened around him.

it looks to other people as though nueng has toughened up, but really he’s just faking it - this much is clear from episode 10, where the only moments of emotional truth we see from him are just heartbreak and devastation and complete, unbearable loneliness. and that’s what he thinks his life has to be. the very first scene of this episode said everything - he’s the problem. he’s what’s wrong. palm can still leave and find something better, because palm doesn’t need to doom himself in the way nueng is doomed.

but nueng’s isolation isn’t just self-inflicted to protect his loved ones. he’s also paranoid - he says it point blank to ben, that he can’t trust anyone. and it makes sense, because nueng is traumatised. he’s angry at the entire world, at every perceived betrayal from every person around him - even those who don’t deserve it, like chopper. it’s all reactionary on nueng’s part. he’s had three parental figures shot in front of him. none of them are around. he’s acting tough but it’s an act of survival. he doesn’t know what he’s doing, he’s just doing the only thing he thinks he can.

he’s going to school and trying to run an entire hotel empire even though he has no idea how to - and ultimately he doesn’t care about the hotel chain. honestly, i think his care for it probably only extends as far as tanya, really. if tanya dies and nueng runs that thing into the ground, then so be it.

i mean - nueng knows kit wants him dead, and all he’s done since coming back is rile kit up. it’s doesn’t seem to be fear that’s driving him. it probably should be, but it’s not. he’s fighting back, because he’s angry and because his mother is still alive and we already know how far he’ll go to fight for her - but he doesn’t really seem scared.

he doesn’t trust anyone except palm and chanon, and there’s a part of him that would desperately prefer if palm were very far away. there’s also a huge part of him that is miserable without palm, because palm was the one person who saved him from feeling isolated and gave him a sense of what happiness and hope for the future might be like. he already tried to give that up - first by yelling at palm, then by reasoning with him, and finally by leaving him. palm didn’t budge once (because palm has zero intention of leaving nueng to face the massive amount of danger he’s in alone).

so i don’t think nueng’s girlboss era is like… truly a sign that he’s stronger than yesterday now it’s nothing but my way now, or that he’s at the pinnacle of this ~badass character arc. i think he’s just… he’s just an 18 year old kid who has been subjected to too much violence and death. and he’s just doing the only things he can to survive, and to keep the people he loves safe.

[nanihirunkits]

How is your leg? To tell you the truth, after I ran away from you, I regularly went to do physical therapy. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to walk normally again. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to take you to places or swimming. So I worked hard to get better and waited until I would be ready.

NEVER LET ME GO | EP12

[braceletofteeth]

I have to leave with you.

Are you alright? I'm here.

[aprilblossomgirl]

NEVER LET ME GO (2022-2023) | ep. 12

Phuwin Tangsakyuen as Nuengdiao Kiattrakulmethee & Perth Tanapon as Chopper Kiattrakulmethee

Even though you are Uncle Kit’s Son, you are nothing like him. I know you’ve never had bad intentions toward me. For me, you are still my talented cousin. 

[fictional-twink-bracket]

Round 2 Side A Poll 13

(PT: Round 2 Side A Poll 13)

Propaganda

(PT: Propaganda)

Kaworu Nagisa

This man. He haunts me. Every second I see him, I feel like a specter is poking his icy finger into my heart. He fills me with an absolutely unreasonable amount of SPITE. So when I say he deserves to win, you know I’m not doing this because I’m biased towards him. He’s just THAT FUCKING MUCH of a twink.

Nuengdiao

nepo baby turns 18 and then has to experience all of the horrors but at least he gets a boyfriend out of it

[justafriend-ql]

favorite relationships: nueng + his mom, tanya aka: nuengdiao "mommy's little boy" kiattrakulmethee never let me go (2022-23)

[bl-bracket]

Poorest Little Meow Meow Round 1: Nueng (Never Let Me Go) vs Palm (Never Let Me Go)

[Submitted Reasons Under Cut]

Nueng: Dad is murdered on his 18th birthday in front of him and dies in his arms. Gets bullied at school and then outed. Mum almost dies and he has to run away to safety. Not allowed to be with his boyfriend palm because palm is his bodyguard. Gets kidnapped and held for ransom. Also always pulling this face 🥺. He's very much in golden cage.

Palm: none submitted

[distant-screaming]

the fact that nueng on the beach is unable to sleep without music, and yet it takes him very little time to adjust, to have the thing he can't sleep without become palm. the fact that when he goes back, all alone, he tries to fall asleep curled up around palm's abandoned shirt. the fact that it was never about the music, but about connection and feeling loved instead. the fact that nueng is just - so desperately lonely.

[bookwormwithadhd]

so my nlmg review / meta / rant / idk what this is im just gonna put my jumbled thoughts in here

i started never let me go because... pondphuwin, plus the plot seemed interesting, and let's say they both didn't let me down, the first more than the latter. but i do have a bunch of criticism for it and things i wish they had done differently.

I'll start from my favourite things about Never Let Me Go:

First of all, the freaking OST. so far NLMG has the best OST in any thai bl I've watched. It was so contextual, beautiful, weaving in and out of focus when it needed to, had a big role in setting the mood of so many scenes, in creating tension and resolving it. The songs chosen in many of the romantic scenes were super fitting and all had a similar vibe somehow. The OST helped hold this entire show together so well. I really need to save a bunch of the songs from the OST to my playlists.

Second thing, the cinimatography of the show. From start to finish, NLMG consisted of so many aesthetically pleasing shots. All the visuals were amazing, and served the plot and themes of the show so much. The colour grading of the show gave it a very nostalgic feel. The scenes that showed confidence were so powerful, the scenes with the sweet moments were so soft, the scenes that showed desire were so strong and heartfelt. Honestly the director of the show did such a good job. Also thematically a lot of shots showed the class difference and social hierarchy, as pointed put by @biochemjess in this post, by using levels and the characters positions in the scenes. Or the lighting discussed by @respectthepetty in this post. There are a lot more thematic things that were shown through the cinimatography but im too lazy to analyze them all. All in all, I loved how each and every scene was so put together from visuals to music to acting. Good job jojo.

Third, PondPhuwin's INSANE chemistry, and their amazing acting in general.

I'll start with Phuwin. He did so well portraying Nuengdiao's character. It was so satisfying and awesome to see it from the subtle body language to the big emotions. Phuwin is so good with big emotional scene's ™ it literally gives me goosebumps. He was able to show the softness yet the rage in Nuengdiao, all the pain but all the happiness, all the immaturity and maturity displayed by him throughout the series. The freaking confidence after coming back from the island, and the uncle kit confrontation scene were so powerful, so well acted and vital to Nueng's character arc, and Phuwin did them flawlessly. Some of my favourite scenes that showcase Phuwin's brilliant acting are the rooftop fight/breakdown scene (it was actuallyone of the first scenes i saw a clip of before i watched nlmg and i was like nah i gotta watch it), the fight/break up on the beach scene, the putting-palm-to-sleep-and-running-away scene (might be my favourite scene ever even though it's so sad), the comeback feom the island and taking his rightful place as a heir sequence, the palm getting shot sequence. Like, oh my god, again, goosebumps. Have I mentioned how good Phuwin is in big emotional scenes???

And Pond... that guy, he's probably one of my favourite thai actors ever. Pond has a certain feel, a certain texture and genuineness in his acting that I can't put my hands on, but oh god, do i feel with every role he plays. His acting has a flavour that I really love. He does geniune, sincere, devoted, softly strong like no other. I saw his acting in We Are first, and honestly it was so surprising to me at the beginning how different Palm's personality is from Phum's (they do have their similarities, but in the beginning of nlmg, Palm was so diff). This showed me how much range Pond has. The hesitance, the politeness, the strength yet softness, the sweet confidence, the micro expressions and the not so micro expressions, they were able to paint Palm's personality so well from ep1 directly. His devotion to his work and to Nuengdiao were so prevalent in every look on his face. His conflict of wanting becoming closer to Nueng but also wanting to (more like having to) do what his father wants him to do, was so well acted. And all the confidence Palm gained at the island arc, when they were in the safety of the island, free like the sea, away from expectation, it was so beautiful to watch Pond act that. Some scenes that highlight what im talking about are the scene in the hospital when Palm confronts his dad about not caring about him (then we see Tanya hugging Nueng just after Palm got slapped by his dad and like kahskajmaj), the scene were he sees Nueng kiss Ben, the shooting class scene ("love is much more powerful than hatred" YEAH TAKE IT FROM THE GUY WHO IS FULL OF DEVOTION AND DESIRE), the scene when Nueng humiliated him at the party (i hate the scene but Palm's face, Palm's reaction, Palm's heart breaking... its powerful), Palm coming back to confront Nueng after the first breakup. The list goes on.

Now PondPhuwin together? it's fucking ART okay? it's so beautiful in all its shapes and forms. All the longing looks, every stare, every piece of dialogue shared, every touch, the tension was there, very strongly. It was so there you could feel it through the screen. Then all the romantic scenes, all the sweet ones, they served. The fight scenes were so good. The soft scenes were so good. The angsty scenes were spot on. The comforting scenes, the hugs, the pain, the tattoo kiss (i will never be over that), the way their relationship goes through so many different stages and so many different dynamics and they did each one of them so fucking well. I honestly will stop talking about this because i could write a 100k essay just about how much i love to see them together on the screen. You guys get me, right????

Anyway, another thing this show did right was FEMALE CHARACTERS. I can't stress this enough, but I'm so tired of shows that give the most 2D, weakly written, unlovable female characters only. And here we got three well flesh out, well written important female characters. Starting with Mrs Tanya, Nueng's mother.

If you saw my post after watching ep 1, you saw how much Tanya caught my eye and attention. And that didn't stop as the show went on. She is strong, loving, caring, but flawed, and oh do i love that. I live that she isnt perfect. I love that we see how much she tries to do her best after her husband's death, how confident she is managing the business and stating her terms and boundaries, and how much she tries to protect and care for Nueng. Was her way of doing that right all the time? not really. but that makes her realistic and makes sense for her character. She unconsciously puts pressure on Nueng for being the only hope for the Kiattrakulmethee family, just like his dad did, and unknowns makes Nueng's relationship with Palm more strained with the promise she made Palm make. But over all, we see a genuine caring mother, that fixed her mistakes by the end and tried her hardest to be successful. (Also she is gorgeous??? i can't not mention that. plus her stylist slayed)

Up next is Maggie!! she was such a pleasant and very very needed character. She helped in Palm's development by being a very good friend. Im so grateful they didn't make her flirty with him all the time and the usual not being able to read the room and trying to get in between the mcs. Nope, we got a genuine friend, who had an initial crush on Palm (i mean look at him, who wouldn't??) but then realised the story, recognised so many of Palm's internal problems and gave him much needed advice and support. They were so cute to see together, and i loved the scenes were she was talking to Palm about what she wants to do with her life, and asking him about what he wants to do with his. I think there was something beautiful there because we saw so much of Palm interacting with people from higher class, poeple who dont understand an integral part of his character, and then we see him talking to maggie, who is also working class, who is also trying to navigate her life and live it to it's fullest job after job. Idk why i liked that this much. I love Maggie, she deserves the best.

And finally, the character i thought i was gonna hate but i loved immensely, Palm's mom, mama Mam. We meet her, as a mother who doesn't know her son, a selfish mother that left and loves her family on her own terms. But them once her son comes back to her life, she steps up to take her role as a mother, and boy does she do good. What we saw of her in the few episodes she was in, was so important. She embraced her son's presence fully and read him so well, gave him advice and supoort he very much needed, gave him a safe place and so much love (for him and his boyfriend), and then as a final tribute, sacrificed her life for theirs.

Her character portrayed the complexity of motherhood, of love, of life. The thing she told palm about life not being all about love explained a lot about her character, and is kinda true. So yeah i love how well written she was.

Now, for side character appreciation we get CHOPPER! You dont get how much love I have for him. He is a green flag, no, a green forest and literally such an perfect character. Perth's acting>>>>>>>>>>> The fact that Chopper faced all that conflict alone, had to choose between jailing his own father and becoming complicit in his crimes, it's heartbreaking. Even Ben wasn't by his side at that point. He was so alone, yet he did the right thing. Love a character with strong values. I love that he didn't have any negative feeling towards Nueng, despite all their parents' conflicts. And him confornging his father? badass, even if he faiked to stop him. Him shooting his father? BADASS.

[wanderlust-in-my-soul]

My heart. It's here. Then, no matter where we are, you are my boyfriend.

[heretherebedork]

It's all about how they see each other.

[athousandbyeol]

the life that i want is the life that i can be with you.

[quodekash]

bl characters as things my friends have said

never let me go edition 

nueng: “You’ll know it’s illegal when the cops pull you over”

palm: “REAL men wear floral when trespassing”

ben: “So, according to WikiHow there are four ways to run a revolution”

chopper: “I’m gay you can’t arrest me”

kit: “Chase your dreams. Like you chase your victims”

mam: “EVERY JOB IS A GOVERNMENT JOB, AND I DONT KNOW WHO THE PRIME MINISTER IS”

thank you that is all

[braceletofteeth]

At school, I can be your friend. But here, I'm your servant.

[aprilblossomgirl]

NEVER LET ME GO (2022-2023) | ep. 10

Phuwin Tangsakyuen as Nuengdiao Kiattrakulmethee

I’m the heir and the only legal owner of this hotel.

[justafriend-ql]

This is the problem I will face for the rest of my life. NEVER LET ME GO Episode 10