I Feel You Linger in the Air, episode 7. Tee Bundit, BACK on his bullshit. The episodes keep getting better.
Ooooooh, I am so full with this episode that I'm not sure I can conjure meaningful anaaaaalysis per se, so let me just yelp at a lot of the themes and elements that I took note of that I really appreciated seeing, and I hope this comes together.
So many oppressed people in this story. Fong Kaew, forced to marry to Robert, will stay with him to investigate the crimes against her family (FK was a TEN in this episode). Maey, sold into prostitution and abused. Eaeung Phueng (EP), likely arranged in marriage to Robert before Fong Kaew came on the scene. Nara, the character in the book that Yai reads to Jom, forced into marriage for her family's livelihood. Yai, comparing himself to Nara, talking about his own oppression vis à vis filial piety -- knowing that if he were to live his truth, he would be the reason for his family's ruin, as was hinted towards again and again in this episode.
Yai says to Jom, "if I had the opportunity to choose my own path, I would just want to spend time with the person I love." Even for a privileged individual like Yai -- his life, just like that of a servant in 1920s Chiang Mai, is prescribed for him. His path is determined. He must lead a straight and narrow life for the sake of his family's present and future.
Jom's life is also, interestingly, prescribed for him as a servant. Despite Yai's love for him, Yai has MANY competing pressures. Yai must dance with Uncle Dech's daughter at his father's promotional party. We are assuming now that that daughter will be Yai's future arranged bride. Yai also must see Jom as his servant, because -- well, Jom's his servant, and Yai asks Jom to continue playing with little Lek because, well, that's Jom's job. Jom clearly has already had enough of having his life prescribed for him -- we already know from earlier episodes that he wants Yai to think about the rights of the servants, and whether or not servitude is even ethical. But.... Yai's a son of 1920s Chiang Mai, and is just not there in his thinking yet.
The adults, very clearly, are also not progressive. They're the dinosaurs that get criticized so often in progressive Thai television (cc: so many of Jojo Tichakorn's works, and the GMMTV Midnight series from earlier this year). But -- the adults are also living their prescribed lives to earn and preserve the power, as Uncle Dech says to Yai's dad, that they've gained from generations past. Uncle Dech warns Yai's dad to keep tabs on anyone in his life that may take a path that risks Yai's dad's career. He asks Yai's dad: "Do you think that Yai is different from the past?"
I want to offer a small clown theory here, as my friends @lurkingshan and @neuroticbookworm both stated that "different" in this case might mean just that Yai is gay, which is highly likely true. However, I read that line the first time as meaning that Yai may have been caught in the past trying something out with someone (and my second clown theory is that that someone is Yai's dad's butler, Chan). I wonder if that's connected to Yai's hesitance about getting physically closer to Jom during the oil scene.
And: boy. That oil scene. DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDES. MY HANDS. WERE SLAMMING. THE TABLE. NONKUL. ATE. THAT SCENE. WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW. (And I believe others are writing about the INSANE cinematography of looking at your beloved in mirrors, which happened a lot in this episode. STUNNNNNNINNNNGGGG.)
Nonkul as Jom is communicating just BRILLIANTLY without as many words as we'd expect. Jom's horny, baby -- before he time traveled, he was without his boyfriend, Ohm, for two years. And as a modern gay man, he might be used to things moving a little more quickly and openly, as the acceptance of queerness in modern days is so very much more open (but not entirely legal) in modern Thailand. Yai's certainly inexperienced, but I also read that he's fearful, and hesitant for his position and his future to feel totally comfortable in being open with Jom -- at least until the end of the episode, where (CLEARLY, I HOPE) they run back to the house in the rain and.... ya know. And: considering Yai's considerable immaturity in grabbing Jom at inopportune times to be caught (including within snooping lines of other servants, like LITTLE MISS GOSSIP CHASER, get outta here), Yai's likely going to be the reason as to WHY they'll eventually get caught and punished. And: considering Yai's station vs. Jom's station -- it might be Jom who gets a more severe punishment.... as the show hinted at at the very start of the episode.
(I need to stop my unwinding on the episode for a sec to meditate on a Tee trend. I just want to give him a big hug for this. I'm honestly not sure if Yai's dad, played by Nu Surasak, will change to accept Yai and his lesbian daughter, EP. But remember: Nu Surasak started out as a VERY unaccepting father to Gene in Lovely Writer. And he just ate that role, god, including the dad's revelation to Gene that he, too, was a queer man who struggled with acceptance and had to end a relationship because of the times he lived in, in which living and loving openly as a queer man wasn't acceptable and even safe. I see this theme as one that Tee likes treading; to choose a classic BL elder in Nu Surasak to take this role means a lot. Again, the history of this show will likely not allow Yai's dad to take Gene's dad's path, but this is clearly something Tee likes to play around with.)
Whew. Okay, more. I love when Jom kinda rolled his eyes at Yai during the apology scene in the house -- it is clear that Yai's really inexperienced at all this, and Jom, before time traveling to the 1920s, has had experience, in sex and relationships. I read in that slight exasperation (that melted into love, mind you) that Jom really needs Yai to get his head outta the damn books, and to pay attention to what's in front of him -- which Yai is not doing, as Yai continues to take risks in being with Jom out in the open.
But, dang it. While I was SCREAMING at the dudes to STOP dancing and making out in the open, god, WHAT A SCENE THAT WAS ANYWAY. An acceptance fantasy of dancing in front of their community. Their family and friends clapping in happiness to accept them. (Remember the wedding in Cherry Magic? The joy of having your community celebrate your love. I had so many crying face emojis to share in that moment, watching Jom and Yai dance.)
GOD. Tee covered A LOT IN THIS EPISODE. Secret love, for the ill-fated lesbian couple at the start of the episode, for Jom and Yai, for EP and Maey. Keeping your personal secrets secret for your safety. No hope of acceptance or openness. The literal threat of life lost. The threat of the loss of power among the powerful parental generation. Fates made by parents -- Yai prescribed into marriage, Maey prescribed into prostitution. EP needing to fight Robert at every angle for her own existence. The desire for acceptance. The way GOSSIP is used to harm people, for power, or (in a servant's case) maybe out of misplaced trauma for the servant's OWN station. And more, and more.
I am watching Tee with my Lovely Writer hat firmly on, watching him do a LOT with a LOT, seeing it continue to succeed well into a series, and being VERY hopeful about it. This show is SUMPTUOUS, and is not stepping away from what it needs to handle to tell a holistic and historical story of acceptance, and of Jom's fear and need to protect himself -- which he very well may not be able to do. Let's see what Tee and his source material can conjure for us. I love Only Friends, I do, I do, but IFYLITA is the show I'm looking forward to the most right now.
