Love in the Air & also the smell of burning trash
MAME’s adaptation of her novels “Love Storm” (พายุรักโถมใจ) and “Love Sky” (พระพายหมายฟ้า) this is a duology focusing on two different couples and their storylines.
Well, fuck me.
This is your fault tumblr and I blame all y’all entirely. But yes, guess what this is?
Well, it’s me flouncing, but apart from that?
Another MAME dumpster fire marshmallow roasting trash watch.
Some of you even begged for it. Or maybe if I’m a MAME character, you didn’t beg for it but I’m gonna gaslight you into thinking you did and then ruthlessly kiss your neck.
Look. I DON”T KNOW WHAT’S GONG ON EITHER.
Good start, ABL.
Real good start.
You see what this show is doing to me already?
Fortunately for the few of you who like unconsenting trash-watch neck kisses, and unfortunately for the rest of you, the opening of this bloody show made me realize that I had to do a trash watch.
Take the neck kisses.
Take ‘em and like ‘em.
Without further ado, let’s get started.
Episode 1 - WHHHHYYYYYY???????
The longest establishing shot in the history of establishing shots, Kubrik take notes.
And what is it focused on? The gayest bridge in Thailand! (okay maybe not, but it looks a lot like it)
Did the overdramatic music make me laugh? Yes it did.
My brain on BL figuring out what is being trafficked inside those 3 big trucks.
A bunch of acoustic guitars?
Vats of pink milk?
Stacks of white towels and plastic bowls?
MAME’s morals, value system, and taste?
I’m a motorcycle rider and I’m still disappointed they were full of motorcycles.
Speaking of which, is anyone reminded of the trailer for that one Thai BL called Motorcycles from years ago? It never got made.
Cute meet cute in the rain with the umbrella. Styling trope drops, actually.
Takes me back it does...
Can’t knock MAME’s meet cutes.
Just everything else.
The Characters
Rain = Random assholery disguised as tsundere + flirting + homophobia wee. Also kinda stupid, dramatic, and slightly cute.
Matched with P’Phayu = a bisexual predator-slut (TM) because MAME can’t leave THAT one to dry for one fucking show. Bonus seme points for eyebrows even more aggressive than he is.
I like Sky = snarky bestie with solid moral compass and epic eye rolls. Maybe she’ll let him be cool? (Oh noes, I said something, he’s doomed.)
Random bratty kid in the seat behind Sky = I have seen that actor before, damn it. WHERE? OMG it’s Dr. Sing from Triage!
Look I’m beginning to get slightly weirded out over the age jumping Thai actors do.
He’s in high school,
he is an office,
he’s in uni,
he’s a doctor,
he’s back in high school.
Are MaxTul the only ones allowed to grow up?
Okay, grow up = wrong term entirely. Whatever. Don’t distract me with MaxTul, where was I?
Right, instead let’s talk MewGulf. Anyone else think MAME is gunning for that pairing style with this lead couple? PhayuRain giving me... vibes of the TharnType variety, shall we say? Not exactly, of course. So maybe not vibes, more sort of squint your eyes wiggles target practice?
Back to the... episode.
I’m losing the plot already. Fortunately for me, said plot is pretty banal, but what do I expect?
Also the pacing is odd. Things are moving physically faster than they should, but with no real establishing emotional connection. Again normal for MAME. It’s either emotional chemistry drawn out as unnecessary angst over the whole show, or physical chemistry shoved in your face like a wet waffle with an attitude problem.
I don’t know enough Thai slang to know if the double asshole entendre was on purpose with this dialogue.
But if it was, it might actually be the greatest line ever executed in a BL.
And I am thoroughly ashamed of myself for thinking that.
Get it? Ass-shamed.
To conclude:
Screw all you all, I’m dragging you down with me into this hell (ass)hole. And since I highly doubt there will be lube, this is gonna burn like the dumpster fire it is.
I refuse to take responsibility for anything I say or do around this dumb show, it’s @fandomwithjoy ‘s fault.
Episode 2 - in which I do some actual analysis about VO work as victim blaming and then get distracted by spankings and scoop neck t-shirts
Serious moment of film studies?
Do I think we are getting Rain’s voiceover (narration track AKA VO) because otherwise it’s too dub-con and this is MAME trying to avoid complaints? YES I DO. Basically we get Rain’s thoughts during the “almost rape” stuff so MAME can say:
“See? He actually wants it.”
Look, here’s the thing about having a character VO narrate anything, it’s clumsy. It smacks of not trusting the audience (to be clever enough to follow the story) or the actors (to be good enough to transmit the emotion) or the genre (to convey the world building in a show not tell manner). That’s why so many in the film industry are against it. (See the Bladerunner VO controversy.)
Do many of my favorite BLs do it? (Cough cough.. JAPAN.) Yes. But then I’m not as against it as many because I like super complex world building and I don’t mind some lazy technique in the pursuit of audience comprehension. Also yaoi was all about head hopping.
HOWEVER, I’ve never seen voiceover work used as an excuse for portraying dubious content before. Essentially this show is doing a victim blame version of VO.
Ballsy of you, MAME. VERY ballsy.
I don’t know if I should be impressed or appalled.
Typical.
The thing about MAME is, regardless of anything else you know you’re going to have a lot to talk about. I suppose that’s why she always summons a trash watch.
Quick add from the future:
I went off on Takara & Amagi because they manage to use VO to directly combat dubcon (or at least the issues with BL that lead to dubcon) in a GOOD way. So if you’re intersted in this technique working, you should 1. be watching that show and 2. read this post about it.
No booze tonight but that’s only because allowing BL to drive you to drink once a week is expected, but twice? That’s just schedule mismanagement.
So next week I might delay Unforgotten Night for Thursdays and just decree:
Thursdays = BOOZEY BADGAYDAY!
Trashlush Thursdays?
Eh, I’m more creative when I’m drunk.
Moving on to the new ep.
It’s a weird quirk of Thai that no matter what, they will not believe that work is not pluralized in English these days.
Every time it’s translated plural I think of little Victorian maiden aunts doing good works for their community, knitting, or darning, or tatting.
And now I’m picturing Payu draped fiber arts.
Back to Daddy Payu...
No.
I can’t.
He just doesn’t give daddy vibes. Bad boy vibe = yes, daddy = no.
Back to P’Payu disciplining his bad boy in the bathroom.
With... erm, neck breathing, I guess?
Still, oddly sexy.
Also... RESULT. Rain used polite (submissive) language.
Am I taken with the idea of Domming for linguistics? YES I AM.
Shall we try?
Nong Thailand, NO MORE “works” FOR YOU!
I will now breathe heavily on your neck until you stop sticking that “s” on the end.
Nope, that didn’t work. Works. Ha!
Question: Who the hell is directing this? It feels like Tee’s work but he’s not listed on MDL. ***
Look the thing about bratty militant tsunderes without reason like Rain (or Type for that matter) is I fail to see why anyone likes him or wants to be friends with him, let alone fuck him. Fuck with him, sure. But he’s not hot enough to get over a bad personality.
Sky deserves better friends!
The seme’s race track consult. Nods in the general direction of Cutie Pie, like anyone could out-seme Zee and Max, are they cray cray? Body language alone.
But could we talk about the sound in this not-Cutie Pie seme-conspiracy scene? It is so SO BAD. They just what? Hooked up some cheap-ass wireless mics during a wind storm and thought, why bother looping? Flipping heck. MAME’s got money, this is insulting,
Moving on swiftly please.
Poor Sky, abandoned by his so-called friend to be (presumably) seduced by greasy motorcycle dude with bad sound tech. (Yes I think that’s where they meet but we won’t see it until their section, which I’m guessing will be in the second half of the series. I believe we got a Star & Sky approach happening here.)
And now...
Slap that baby, make him scream!
(10 points to the first elder goth who gets the reference.)
But also...
A spanking!
A spanking!
I had to, okay.
To my knowledge this is the first spanking scene in BL (Japan doesn’t go in for spankings as a rule, everything else of course). Thus Monty Python is required on such an august occasion.
This is a serious, hallmarked event in the history of the genre.
Heh he. Hall...marked. Get it?
Okay, I did find it cute that Payu chose a scoop-neck T for his boy, clearly we got a neck fetish going on.
That’s it.
That’s all I got. It was what it was, I’m not mad about it, just a little... okaaaayyyy. It’s MAME, no whiff of consent shall there be. I’m not excusing it but dub-con has just GOT to be her kink.
Gotta go, works are waiting.
*** Spies reported in:
Apparently the director is Neti Suwanjinda. He's new to BL who previously seems only to have done short films and music videos. Prior to that, he was bassist in the 2000s rock band Am Fine. Good times.
NO SINGING
Episode 3 - Linguistic Domination is a Go!
am one and a half glasses of wine in and ready to do this thing!
Sky is the best boy and also kinda a little shit. Good combo. Like red wine and dark chocolate.
Sky, are you trying to remind us that there is meant to be a plot?
Please don’t.
I love how they called out English 3rd person gendered pronouns in one tricky little scene.
THAI LINGUISTICS DOMINATION CORNER!
Okay so when he is being polite Rain uses Phi/pom + krap (with he full roll).
When he not being polite he still uses phi but he’s slipping in wa (instead of na, which makes it rude and informal) and not using krap at all (which makes it curt and impolite).
So the little training session was about particle use.
Cute.
Then we got a date, I was very distracted by interesting food choices ordered off that menu, and am mad we did not get a good shot of the table after they were served the dishes.
I’m starting to get tsundere Can vibes from Rain, and tsundere Tharn vibes from Payu. Not sure what that means except MAME only has about 6 character personalities she rotates though. We kinda knew that already.
Well, this is BL.
OH WAIT, is Sky gonna be like a snarky Pete character? Wouldn’t that be grand?
And Dr Sing is playing the Techno of this drama. As always: never enough Techno.
I’m not gonna explain that statement, it’s like 5 BLs deep.
All in all not a bad episode (not a good one, either).
Shoulda had more spanking, tho. And more wine.
Ooo, wine!
Meanwhile:
I just realized the actor playing Payu kinda reminds me of Seonghwa from Ateez and now I can’t stop imagining him in a cropped shirt and vinyl, and it’s BAD people.
Episode 4 - I just... ARGH
Payu is just such a manipulative hot/cold arse. I don’t even like Rain and I think it’s cruel the way Payu jerks him around. You don’t train someone up and then abandon them for any reason. Payu is really pissing me off.
Their chemistry is good though. That age old agony with MAME.
I am going to state for the record that no one deserves Sky. Sky is too good for this show let alone his friends or boyfriends. MAME should leave my precious Sky ALONE. Sky is best cinnamon roll ever frosted.
Meanwhile, cruel or not, I guess Payu’s training technique is working. I just wish it had been negotiated. I think I’d really like this show if they’d had a five sentence kink convo verbal contract in ep 1.
It’s a dangerous game that we play
when we seek to rewrite MAME
for the characters stick
to just one pony trick
only chemistry will save the day
Although I’m not sure ‘bout that sex scene.
no opening condoms with teeth, I don’t care how sexy
no one can one-hand a glove that fast, not even a pro
no lube and no prep?
Look I’m just gonna pretend Payu was riding, makes me feel better about everything. Then I can pretend he took care of the necessities ahead of time. Or maybe it was just frotting?
Episode 5 - In which MAME as officially ruined my favorite thing
I’m not drunk but I am jet lagged and that’s almost the same thing.
I see why they don’t have the seme actor with his hair down often, he looks way too young.
Oh dear, baby was caught in the rain. Baby got sick. This is BL. Bound to happen.
The horsing around flirty boyfriends is VERY cute.
I didn’t get any more from the meeha bits than was translated. My stuff on wifey language in Thai BL is here.
These two are good kissers but it’s getting to be a lot of kissing.
Sky puts up with epic amounts of shit.
I guess MAME is preparing him for his own story line?
Get it?
Moving swiftly on from my crassness.
Also Sky, baby, your friend was silly long before he got a faen.
Oh yay!!!! A counter lift! That’s almsot as good as a spanking!
Hooray!
WAIT.
What is this?
NO SINGING.
I now know the only time I don’t love a counter lift is WHEN IT IS COMBINED WITH SINGING.
MAME has ruined my favorite thing!
(To be fair she’s been ruining perfectly good BL for ages now, so I guess she already was ruining my favorite thing... gah, where was i?)
A perfectly lovely counter lift mutilated by acapella.
I feel like I should write an ode, or a dirge. But I wouldn’t ruin your day by singing it.
OMG I’M SO UPSET RIGHT NOW.
Don’t laugh, I can see you laughing.
I’m spiraling into a deep depression as a result of counter lifting Thai soloists.
There will be nightmares. I tell you. Nightmares.
I should have been drinking.
Stupid MAME. It was actually a perfectly serviceable episode.
Until the singing.
I’m going to bed now.
Episode 6 - We Are Now Calling this show “The Taming of the Screw”
And by “we” I mean me. And you can’t stop me. Can never stop the bad puns, for they MUST live!
(source)
