Some things do not need to be spoken aloud. Some answers are better left quiet, unannounced, because we already know them, deep down.
SHINE | EP. 8 (+ 3 + 4 + 5)
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@varidorin
Some things do not need to be spoken aloud. Some answers are better left quiet, unannounced, because we already know them, deep down.
SHINE | EP. 8 (+ 3 + 4 + 5)
Krailert's eyes finding Naran the last time they ever saw each other
SHINE (2025) EPISODE 8
Let’s have a moment of silence for Krailert. An artistic soul, a fine intelligence, a passionate heart who feels things deeply — a writer, a pianist, a music lover, a composer. Forced to live in silence and repression, to wake up every day to do the things he hates and keep his entire being a dirty secret. His lover was killed and he could do nothing. He met someone else he loved, someone who spoke directly to his heart, and he devoted himself to the transient moments of joy with him. But that too did not last. Threatened and used by the military, threatened and exploited by his wife, never to seize the true happiness that was momentarily within his grasp. But Krailert is used to such half-lives. He has lost all that he has been, and he has resigned himself to living in the bit of him that is left. All to protect the ones he loves.
A man of such fine feeling, who stands for what is right and lives by honour, who sacrifices his own life without question — now is fated to exist in a living hell.
Rest in peace, Krailert Suwannaphat.
Krailert's end on the show is very easy to see as entirely bleak and hopeless, but the key thing, something that connects all of the characters on Shine, is that he survives with, and in art.
He starts composing again and playing the piano in his home, instead of just at the Grand Paradiso or at the library. He is at the lowest he can possibly be, but he will live, and his pain and his hope are immortalised in the one thing that has always been there for him, which is music. He is forced to hide who he is and what he wants in life, but he has experienced love, and joy, and despite that being torn away from him it will not be forgotten, because he channels it into his art.
Just like Trin composing his feelings of melancholy reminiscence into music, Naran taking adoring photographs of the man he loves, Tanwa finally processing his grief and fear in finishing his mother's novel, Tanwa and Trin expressing their love together in painting and even Dhevi, directing her feelings of frustration and desire for control into her sewing and plant cultivation, Krailert uses his art to feel and express when the world around him makes it almost impossible to do in any other avenue.
Is Krailert's fate horrifying and deeply upsetting? Yes. But is it completely and utterly hopeless? No. Because his humanity and what makes him who he is can be beaten and blugeoned into conformity, but it can never be entirely extinguished as long as he is alive. And his music is proof of that.
Two themes that hit me so hard in the Shine finale:
First, how inescapably they nailed the story into our own history. Having Tiva working with students preparing to protest in 1971, knowing what unfolds in the 70s in Thailand, was like a punch to the gut. And then at the very end, the focus on two old men on a beach in 2025 and a wedding ring. They took the struggles in the show and drew a clear line through to the real defeats and victories that have come since then... and an implied line forward into the real defeats and victories that our current struggles will see. It was exactly the infusion of hope and realism I needed right now in this historical moment.
And the second thing is the way art connects us even through loss and separation, lets us claim a little bit of our own voice even under oppression. Krailert writing and broadcasting a song for Naran while trapped and forced to live out a charade. Tanwa's mother leaving writing from her own darkest time that helped him lift himself out of his. His transformation of that story communicating to Trin that he's done the work he needed to do. Even when things are bleak, even when they end badly, we were here, we can touch each other, we can make things that speak for us: we can leave little lights shining out for others to see.
Can you see the road ahead? What does it look like?
—SHINE · Episode 5
I'm Klai Rung, pleased to meet you in person. Sa-ra-sa-wa-dee, not pleased at all.
SHINE | EP 2
SON YUKE as KRAILERT SUWANNAPHAT
SHINE (2025) | Episode 3
courtesy of @ofjulii
i've come to the conclusion that the reason why we know nothing about krailert and naran's futures is that we were never supposed to know about their story in the first place.
the time when they communicated through the newspaper was the only time the readers - and us watchers - knew about them, about their love. that was their moment of freedom, where they could be themselves openly (while hiding at the same time).
those letters are the only tangible proof of their love. the rest was theirs, and only theirs. notes hidden in books, hook-ups in places only them knew about, stolen glances and touches at public gatherings. us, as watchers, were welcomed into such intimate moments because we saw them through naran's or krailert's eyes. not through ours.
when their love was torn apart, in such sudden and wretched way, they had no choice but to stop writing on that newspaper who gave them a voice even when they knew they had to stay quiet. this blocked the way for readers to keep learning more about them, and consequently, us watchers couldn't know anything more about them either.
naran and krailert might still be alive, but their true selves - sarasawadee and klai rung - died. how are we supposed to see life through dead people's eyes?
we've been cut out from their story. we can't see it anymore, not through a newspaper, nor through their own eyes.
maybe they were meant to stay in the shadow forever.
My response to Krai Rung.
SHINE (2025) | Episode 1
How exquisite it is, to feel the warmth of a heart that beats in time with ours. And you, dear readers--do you have someone whose hand you wish to hold for as long as the world will allow? If you have found that person, grasp their hand tightly, and never let it slip away.
SHINE | EP. 4
SHINE (2025) EPISODE 7
And you, dear readers — do you have someone whose hand you wish to hold for as long as the world will allow? If you have found that person, grasp their hand tightly, and never let it slip away. For even if it is a love that must remain hidden, it still grants us a moment to ask ourselves — in this tangled, unyielding world, can we still offer a touch, and an acceptance without condition, to just one soul?
SHINE (2025) | Episode 4
Sarasawadee's letter to Krailert (or Klai Rung)
Sarasawadee’s letter as far as I can make it out- and there is stuff missing. (Thai natives please correct me if I am wrong! I am still learning and had to rely on google translate for some words and parts!)
I will lead like the sunlight that will not be lost. It will shine in the shadows of both old and new times. Comforted by the dust of the earth, until every dark path is gone. The thing that comforts me is hope on the last day. No matter how many times I must go, the stars of the night, near or far, are the strength that sends my care and love to the ground that holds my heart the most. When our eyes met, we knew in our hearts that our love is great. Different from dreams that end only at the last moment. But this love will not be erased, will not fade away. You will be the only memory, engraved in the heart. No matter how dark the night is… we will see each other. Sarasawadee
But if I had to choose just one answer, I would choose him, and I also know that he chooses me as well.
No. 6 | Ep 5 | Nezumi teaching Shion to dance