Bed Friend and Reflection- Part 3
We start with the reflection so good that I had to jump the gun and talk about it when the episode came out instead of waiting like I had planned to do. I’ve decided to call it the Boyfriend Sandwich
I love this shot for a number of reasons, one being that the way it is angled means that if either character turned away they would still appear to be facing each other. Two being that they are watching each other’s backs. Three being the BARRIERS. Physically they are together in this space, but they are not on the same page. In the present moment, there are no bars, no vertical lines, no objects keeping them apart, their reflections though? Literally in frames. Trapped in boxes. Restrained. They want to be together but they can’t until they break out of the misunderstandings that are keeping them apart. Their reflections are trapped, but so too are their reflections trapping them. They can’t run anywhere, they can’t hide, they have to face each other (emotionally), if they are going to find the freedom they both crave.
So to open after the flashback to them standing together, their reflections also together in the water? I love it.
They are here to talk, they are here to talk about their feelings. They are here so King can admit that he was acting out of jealousy and possessiveness. They are here to start over, they are here to come together, to finally finally get together and so their reflections are allowed to stand together just as they are. Without barriers, without boxes, without frames. BUT there is so much space between them and their reflections, a lot of distance they will have to cross in order to move past the harm that was done to their relationship. And something that is less obvious in the reflections but is a motif that carries through is how much water is a protective force for King and Uea. As I was rewatching this show to try to catch all the reflections, I started noticing windows too (and will most likely write a post about them) but rain is often used for progressions in King and Uea’s relationship. For example, in Episode 3 when King is asking Uea about why he started the FWB, in Episode 4 when Uea calls King after leaving his Mom’s house, and in Episode 9 when they are driving home after meeting King’s parents. So though it is not raining here, their reflections are in water as they move into the “seeing each other” phase.
Now the thing I really like about the reflections in this scene are how they kind of wind up showing us that Uea feels alone. That he’s been bearing the weight of his past abuse alone. Physically we see Uea with King but the way the camera is angled cuts him off from reflecting back at us. King at this moment is unaware of what medication Uea is taking and why, but he has always been and will continue to be a constant and supportive presence in Uea’s life.
(Image zoomed in to better show the reflection)
BUT! We get this one little moment of King crossing the lines, touching Uea’s forehead (despite their currently instated no touching rule) and the only part of King we see reflecting back at us is him reaching out to Uea.
And after King drops his arm, Uea goes back to standing alone, and it is interesting to me to see the little gap where the two pieces of reflective surface meet, creating a vertical line that is splitting Uea. As if he is of two minds, tell King the truth or keep it hidden as he initially intended.
(cough, cough @respectthepetty cough couch barriers cough)
And it is so interesting to me too in this scene that when we cut to Uea and King sitting at the counter, before Uea has figured out the right words, when he is still grappling with the decision to tell King about it, something he had sworn he would never do, we only really see Uea reflected in the apartment window.
It’s hard to see so I’ll zoom in a bit, but because King is wearing all black, his reflection, while present, gets lost amongst the background of the city. Whereas Uea is the only one easily recognizable in the window because his red shirt makes his reflection visible against the dark background.
And every moment in between these wide shots, when Uea is confessing, the camera is close on his or King’s face, not panned out like in the shot above. There are no reflections because the only image in the frame any time Uea speaks is either Uea’s face or King’s. Because Uea is physically bringing King in to his life with every confession. Because they are physically together in this moment. Because Uea is opening up to King, is allowing King to fully know him. And after he tells King everything, what do we get?
A camera angle that eliminates any reflection of King or Uea from the window, it focuses entirely on the present moment, the real moment, the physical, tangible moment. And the more this scene continues after Uea has finished telling King everything, the fewer wide shots we have, instead we just get to experience the hug, with their heads coming together to block where we would see any reflected image in the window or with close ups on King and Uea’s face. Uea is no longer bearing the weight of his past alone.
Episode 9 was honestly less reflection heavy and more windows heavy, but the reflections that they did include? Oh BOYYY *chefs kiss*
This is what I would technically file under a window shot (since it is being filmed through a window) BUT the reflection of the city over Uea’s face? A great indication that Uea has a lot on his mind. He is thinking about his stepfather, the abuse he suffered at his hands, the abuse he suffered from his mother, and how much he might hurt Tonkao in the pursuit of justice. Even when King walks up to join him
The reflections on his side aren’t as busy, with a repeated reflection of the decorative pillars that are attached to his apartment building. He’s of one mind, and that mind is to make sure Uea feels supported in whatever decision he makes.
We get a callback to this reflection of Tonkao crying in Uea’s rearview mirror, I’ve already talked about this reflection but here it serves as a great way to represent Uea feeling like he is possibly leaving Tonkao behind if he gets his stepfather arrested and breaks up her supportive and loving family environment.
And then my favorite reflection of the entire episode, Uea’s irredeemably evil mother sobbing and pounding at the window of the cop car.
And why do I love this reflection so much? Because she is both looking in to the cop car at #pransdaddarktimelineedition as he gets consequences forced upon him the way he has been forcing himself upon anyone that breathes. But her reflection is looking out of the cop car, as if she is also trapped in there, because she is complicit in all of this. She chose not to believe Uea and thus aided her husband in continuing his abuse against Uea and others. She herself was abusive to Uea and is also deserving of consequences. But she is really only a danger to Uea, and Uea wouldn’t leave Tonkao with no parental figures and so the biggest consequence she will ever get is to watch her husband be carted off to jail while all of their neighbors watch, publicly humiliating her.
I don’t have a lot of very intelligent things to say about this reflection in particular, but I do notice that the reflection here has a bit of blur in the space between King and Uea. I’m going to choose to read that as them still being undefined in their relationship. Especially because this scene is entirely about Gun and Jade teasing Uea and King about still not being boyfriends.
These reflections are interesting to me because we get the people that are being reflected are the people Uea has good, supportive relationships to. We get the reflection of King, following behind Uea as they enter work together, and we get the reflection of Jade running in to cockblock Boom. But we never see Boom reflected here, he is and will remain outside of Uea’s life and especially outside of Uea’s inner circle.
Another window shot that I would have saved for a general windows post, but there is something to be said once again for what the reflections on the characters are telling us as opposed to what the reflections of the characters might be saying. In the image above we have Uea being covered by reflected light and King being covered in reflected darkness. King, as we know, is in his head and a little broody because of his interaction with his family. But, Uea tries to comfort King, reaching across his area of light to touch King’s face and pull him out of that darker headspace.
We have yet another window shot, but we get all the tasty little symbols wrapped up in one here. We get the rain, which has been a recurring theme for them, we get Uea in pink which I think represents a loving home for Uea, and we get a reflection, this time with a smattering of lights all around them because their world is alight when they are together. While most window shots in this show so far have been very simple shots that I don’t really feel like are intended to have real meaning, Episode 9 was interesting to me because they did a lot more with the way light plays off of windows this episode than they have done for most of the series.
Our final reflection of Episode 9 is Uea, alone, on the phone with King’s Mom and for some reason, to me, this reflection makes him seem even more alone then he would if they just had a shot of his whole body in the hallway. Having reflections like this always make me feel like a character is of two minds. And I think that is the case here with Uea where he is having to hold a conversation with someone he isn’t sure likes him, that has barely acknowledged his existence, and who he as a person is (up until the conversation at the end of the episode) does not know how to interact with. Uea hasn’t had mother figures in his life, not good ones anyway, he was ripped away from his family in Lampang and grew up until the influence of an extremely homophobic and horrifically abusive mother. Regardless of the civility he has been shown there is no way he isn’t apprehensive of being rejected by yet another mother figure, and he has no way of knowing what King would do if his mother whole-heartedly did not approve of their relationship.
We’ve made it to the end! Episode 10, and the reflections were once again used sparingly here. Which makes sense, there is no more emotional tension to resolve and so we get to see the reflections living harmoniously with the real world.
We get to see King and Uea being ridiculously in love and dancing with each other on the boat, and we get to see they are emotionally on the same page because their reflections are both present and clear.
We get a small reflection of Uea’s back off the bedroom window
This serves to show us that King’s hand is on Uea’s back, and Uea is being embraced by his lover. As I have said probably too many times at this point, King’s reflections are never centered around him, they are always about Uea.
We get their reflection in the mirror of King’s kitchen, with us only able to see the back of Uea’s head, and a clear line running in front of King’s face. Because of this we don’t get a clear delineation of where King starts and Uea ends. They are forever a part of one another now, they are forever entwined.
We get the hazy reflection of King’s face looking over all of the rings. Uea and their pending engagement on his mind.
We get a reflection of every important person in Uea and King’s life surrounding them in the reflection off the office window. We don’t see Uea and King in that reflection because they are being shielded by the group. For me, this is the perfect last reflection to have. King and Uea being engulfed by love, and joy, and happiness.
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