Shine episodes 1 - 6 - now you see me, now you don't
Episode 6 opens at the Grand Paradiso bar. It’s a glistening, glossy, glittering place; in the middle of it all, Tanwa is a sniveling mess draped over the lustrous surface of the bar table.
His only company have been the (slightly exasperated) bartender and his own reflection in the polished table top; Moira joins him and he starts to mope -
It has ended. In the end everyone is leaving.
He’s heartbroken but he only has himself to blame for it - in his hurry to avoid a scary conversation, he left behind a very disappointed Trin. He's troubled and when that happens, his thoughts surface to stare back at him from mirrors and glossy surfaces, which is what happens in ep 2. After fighting with his father, he goes to Moira’s hotel where mirrors follow his every step - there’s one in the elevator, a huge one in the bathroom and two in Moira’s bedroom.
Tanwa has developed ways to cope with his troubled mind- notebook scribbling, seeking out Moira’s company, smoking and drinking - but they fail to put him completely at ease.
Other characters come face to face with mirrors and fail to see themselves in them.
Victor has been punched, knocked down, battered and rejected enough to last him a lifetime. After the protest he makes it home to his family who have been worried sick over him. Nuch is so distressed that she starts dressing his wound and ends up confessing to him.
There is a stark contrast between the uncomfortable but kind way Trin rejects Victor and the blatant rejection Nuch is dealt. One wonders if Victor fails to see his own pain mirrored in her face.
Senam Rakphu, the actress, has explained that her character has long known that Victor likes men; however,
Nuch had convinced herself that he was just fooling around and that one day she could change him. [source: the video transcript]
This might be how Victor sees Trin as well- he’s enjoying a fling with ‘a slacker, a drunk’ [reference to V. badmouthing Tanwa in ep 5] but he’ll eventually settle for someone more deserving. And so, he ignores Trin’s repeated efforts to discourage any romantic feelings and shows up at his house in the middle of the night - to everyone’s dismay.
Mirror images and reflections are a form of visual storytelling - lighting, colors, props, the composition of a shot contribute meaning. This post by @romchat provides more examples of what makes the cinematography of the series stand out. I am in no way qualified to discuss the craft of movie-making but I do enjoy a clever use of props.
In ep 1, Tanwa comes up with a pun about a ‘hare-raising leak’. Behind Trin there happens to be (what to me looks like ) one of those pissing boy statues that were all the rage during the Renaissance.
When Veera goes away to pick jasmine for Dhevi after the dance lesson, she is left in the company of a winged cherub, most likely a representation of a cupid.
In the library room there’s a replica of Michelangelo’s David. You know it - slender profile, sleek lines, furrowed brow, tense hand holding the sling handle, the moment when David is sizing up a much larger enemy.
The statue is placed on the piano, so in ep 5, when Naran and Krailert sit there to talk about fighting injustice, the statue is in the background, barely visible between their profiles.
Krailert tries to talk Naran out of going after the military:
Look at yourself - so small. Don’t act bigger than you are.
As the hero who overcame daunting odds, David would object. So does Naran. He might not have a slingshot but he has a camera and intends to wield it; he sees himself as an agent of justice, a catalyst for change.
It begs the question - what does Krailert see himself as?
What does he see in the many mirrors that consistently appear around him ?
[ep 1 - car side mirror; he has just come home from the Apollo party]
[ep 2 - he puts on his military uniform after meeting with Win]
[ep 3 - Naran sneaks into the hotel bathroom to give him the coded library message]
[ep 5 - he smiles at Naran when they briefly reunite in the same bathroom, during the reception for Miss Thailand ]
[ep 6 - he's reflected in the mirror in his office]
All of these shots tell the audience how his identity is faced with constraints at all times. In ep 2 he’s putting on his uniform, in ep 6 he’s in his office; both uniform and job are markers of society’s and the military system’s demands that he should conform. The bathroom mirror is also a reminder of those constraints - after all, Veera walks in on him and Naran both times.
He has probably tried to push back against it all by doing as little as he can get away with in his military job, while also doing a very poor job as a husband. ‘Home’ is an extension of his workplace; there might not be many (visible) mirrors in the house but there are plenty of photos of him and Dhevi from which his pretense marriage stares back at him.
There’s a mirror lying in wait for him in ep 4 as well. He steps into Naran’s flat and there’s one by the door. This shot is showing the mirror-image of them kissing (the blurry rectangles in the left upper corner are most likely photos Naran stuck there).
Does this shot mean that mirrors are finally reflecting his repressed self? Unlikely, since moments later Krailert catches sight of Naran’s investigation draft and anxiety tugs at his heart. To Krailert, mirrors are an extension of the authority to whom he has bartered away his conscience.
There’s one more mirror keeping an eye on him.
General Pracha was privy to how Krailert was coerced into marrying Dhevi. Her father thinks of the two men as a pair, his favourite disciples on track for promising careers; he probably had Pracha sit in on that meeting so that later on he could keep Krailert in line. As a symbol of allegiance to the old general, the two men wear identical rings.
[close-up of Pracha's red stone ring, ep 5]
Pracha is cruel to the point of cold-blooded murder but, as bloodcurdling as it might sound, he is a reflection of what Krailert might be forced to become if he sticks with the military.
The Reluctant Fiancée (La Fiancée Hésitante), Auguste Toulmouche, 1866 [doesn't she look like she needs some space]
What is it like to never be allowed to be yourself? To have to navigate all those pitfalls - you have a shot at a normal life if you compromise your conscience, you have a shot at love but only as Klai Rung, a fictional alter ego that can be neatly folded and put away, like you would a letter.
And what happens when you let someone get close enough that they can piece together the puzzle of your disparate identities; and he doesn’t like what he sees.
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