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...
The story of this film is actually pretty simple. The main focus in on Toey, a young Thai boy, who has just come to Japan for a solo holiday after a bad breakup with his girlfriend of 5 years. His Japanese friend Yumi helps him with his lodging and is there for him when needed. Toey meets Oat, who is living in the cottage next door, who also happens to be Thai, and is on his finale bachelor trip before he gets married in a few months. The two men start hanging out together and via conversations it comes out that Oat is gay. One thing leads to another and after a drunken shameful night, which Toey regrets, he starts feeling a connection with Oat and clearly romance soon blossoms. Not judging the two men, Yumi tries to be supportive of her friends. Unfortunately, reality soon strikes in. When Yumi announces that she is pregnant, Oat confides in Toey that his girlfriend is also pregnant and that now he feels guilty to have led Toey on. Heartbroken the two men go back home on their individual paths only to very briefly meet at the airport four years later and connect through facebook.
The copy of the film that I had had really bad audio. Not sure, if it just me but because of it focusing on the film was hard. Its heartwarming to see, how the two strangers, traveling alone, becomes friends, start getting comfortable with each other and then also become romantically involved. The film story is simple but is unnecessarily stretched. It can easily be trimmed by 30 minutes. Thankfully the guys act well and Oat is extremely good looking too. They do share a good chemistry. This encounter forms a beautiful relationship between two men, because each has his own trauma. The locations of Japan were really beautiful and you would feel like visiting.
It is a heartwarming journey as we follow the simple pursuit of love. Unfortunately, the very slow pace of the narrative takes away from the high points of the film. (6.5/10)
Comments
A beautiful first chapter.
Natto is often mentioned in mangas as a very particular dish that, when you don't know how to prepare it, tastes absolutely awful. So of course I really wanted to try it, had no clue it had to be cooked in a special way, and ended up absolutely not disapointed by the famous horrible taste lmao.
Still I hope I can taste some properly cooked one day. In all the countries I've been to, Japan came with the most surprising/unexpected meals, often to amazing results.
In addition to your movies recommandations, I'll take your places to visit recommandations as well now lol.