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Stop! That! Train!

By Golu
Coming out of the same studio that gave us RuPaul's Drag Race, and stacked with a whole crew of former contestants, Stop! That! Train! plays like RuPaul basically taking a bow for the entire franchise she's built. It's not really a gay film in the traditional sense, but with so many drag stars from Ru's shows popping up alongside a few cameos from well known out gay actors, I figured it earns a spot on this blog anyway. The whole thing is completely over the top, packed with GenZ slang, loud flashy visuals, and humor that's constantly winking at you knowing how ridiculous it is. Going in you'd assume it's meant to be a laugh riot, and a lot of critics online seem to be eating it up, but I just couldn't get into it at all. I've never really been someone who vibes with campy silly stuff like this, so honestly my reaction doesn't surprise me one bit. The setup follows Tess and DeeDee, two low level stewardesses who sneak onto the fancy Glamazonian E...
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Dew (Thai)

By Golu
This film is set in two different eras which give us a glimpse of what time were like in Thailand during both years. This film is interesting with a novel plot but sadly there are quite a few misses in the screenplay and direction and the message doesn't come across as strongly as it should have and it could have. Thankfully very charming and beautiful actors save the face with their good emotional acting making this film poignant. Had this been done well, it could have turned out so much better.

The film starts in 1996 in a small town in Thailand where Dew has recently moved to. He meets a fellow schoolmate Pob who is a couple of years senior to him. Soon their friendship grows and they both realize that there is more to it and a romance blossoms. But because of the day and time, their secret is out soon and it impacts both of them. Pob's family is very strict and of Chinese origin and his father disowns him when he realizes that despite warnings Pob continues to love Dew. Dew is lot more in love and constantly keeps asking Pob to run away. But when the opportunity to flee away from the small town comes, Dew is emotionally blackmailed by his mother to stay put and not leave her alone. 22 years later in present time, we see that Pob comes to his town with his life as a school teacher in the same school he used to study. Apparently his business in Bangkok tanked and this brings him back. The principal assigns him to deal with a high school girl who is a problem child. Pob finds a strange connection with her and every time he is with her, she reminds him of Dew. We are then told that Dew passed away long time back (and Pob knew about this since he visited his hometown 2 years after he ran away) and now Pob wonders if this girl is reincarnation of Dew, to which the girl just laughs off. But soon memories keep coming back to her and she also realizes that there is a past connection. Of course this closeness affects Pob's married life and the girl's lovelife but once you get pass the age difference, Pob is able to freely express his love for the girl and in his mind be once again close to Dew, the love of his life.

As an individual we will all question the appropriateness of things that happened in the film, so lets leave that aside for now. Giving it a benefit of doubt, my concerns are around the continuity. Within the first era, the scenes would go back and forth. We never are told why do the boys fight for the first time and why the disconnect. Some random scenes keep coming at regular intervals. There is no mention of Dew and Pob going on a trip but suddenly its on a similar trip with the girl in present day that Pob realizes the truth. There are many such instances where I thought that the continuity of the film was severely compromised. We see a lot of scenes only towards the end of the film and by that time the 2 hour film has already started to test your patience. From the acting perspective, almost everyone does a decent job but its the older Pob that steals the show completely. He is charming, very good looking and a man who has love his childhood love and is looking for a closure. The younger boys were both quite above average. With some better screenplay, this film could have been a great film.

There is pain, romance, grief, gender, love but somehow it just gets lost in the proceedings and it failed to connect with my heart. And for films like these, if your heart doesn't connect to the characters, its hard to appreciate them. (6/10)
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Comments

Edward said…
I enjoyed the first half much more than the second half, couldn’t get past the ick factor. It’s a partial remake of the Korean 2001 film Bungee Jumping of their own. It switched the sexes.
March 28, 2020 at 4:11 PM
Golu said…
Yeah I read about the remake somewhere. I guess at some point I will watch that one too.
March 30, 2020 at 11:08 AM
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