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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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Ossan's Love Thailand (Thai Series)

By Golu
The original Japanese shows has to be one of my fav BL shows. Then came the Hong Kong version which was equally good. Sadly the same cannot be said about the Thai remake of this cult classic. This version is missing the humanity and the heart that was key ingredient of the original Japanese version. Most importantly, it had authenticity sprinkled with humor, grace, and tons of human emotions. Sadly neither the production, nor the actors do justice here. The makers have slightly modified the story also, but even if they kept it all same, not much would have changed. 12 episodes each of about 50 minutes.

The story is similar. Heng is our main character who works in real estate company. His Boss has been secretly crushing on him, but he has no idea. At the same time, another office employee Mo likes him. Apparently many years back when Mo started in the company, Heng really helped him out. Monday is looking for a place to move in, so Heng invites him to stay with him. In return, Mo can cook his favorite food dishes and take care of house, because Heng is big mess. One day, Boss confesses his love to Heng and incidentally the same night Mo also kisses Heng. Heng is very confused as to what is going on. Boss has a daughter also, and he needs to make sure that his daughter knows about this new love of his life. Heng doesn't know how to say no, so even though he has no interest in Boss, he goes along with it. Mo cannot see it and moves out of the house. Eventually when the daughter comes around and likes Heng, he finally gets the courage to say no to Boss. He is very sad but understands. Heng realizes that he has feelings for Mo and confesses it. They Strat dating and spend a long weekend with Mo's family who all happily accept Heng. But when Heng's mother shows up at home. She doesn't know about their love and talks about how much she wants to have grandkids. Mo realizes that it will be better for Heng to marry a girl and have kids and so he breaks up with Heng and leaves home. For one year, while Heng is a mess after breakup, the Boss takes good care of him. A year later, Boss proposes to Heng and he reluctantly agrees. But a twist happens and after an accident, Heng loses his 2 year memory. Anyway, eventually wedding day arrives, Heng gets memory back and he starts to woo Mo again. And we all get a happy ending.

There are quite. A few changes here from the original. Boss's wife is replaced by a daughter. In the original, wife's affair with a younger man brought in many laughs. A lot of side characters brought in so much warmth and humanity which is lacking here. For example Heng's friend who secretly crushes on him, her brother who is restaurant owner and writes bad songs, the older office lady who always gossips, the middle manager who used to date Mo etc. All these characters are just missing the soul here. In original, they were all quirky, but genuine and honest. I missed that here. The whole memory loss angle was also specific to Thai version which makes no sense. In the original you could see how Haruta was a goofy man, but was also a very caregiver and nice to everyone and you could relate to why he cannot say no. The actor here playing Heng does bites his teeth, makes. Weird face and we are supposed to laugh!! Heng was no match to Haruta. I think the big problem here is the casting. We have seen the actors playing Heng and Boss previously many times and they just did not fit in well in the goofiness of what their characters were supposed to be. We never connect with Heng and his 'love' with Mo is extremely unconvincing. In fact, there is hardly any romance here. A few awkward & uncomfortable kisses do not constitute a deeper love association. Similarly, the Mo guy doesn't know what communication is. Whenever he feels like he moves out of home and then joins back. All these events were there in original also, but they had the humor associated with it , but here we do not have anything. Even the ending was all over the place. I did enjoy the Bollywood style dancing though. The big problem in this version is it lacks any sense of sincerity and human quality, which made the original version such a classic. This version tried to mimic the original version and ended up not being funny and more like a mockery. (5/10)
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