Skip to main content

Love Upon A Time (Thai Series)

On paper this should've been a show I really got into, especially with how much love it's been getting from fans online, but somehow it just didn't click for me. The first four or five episodes had me so lost that I started checking out mentally, and honestly it never really recovered from that for me. There were definitely bits here and there that I enjoyed, but as a whole it just felt like too much was happening at once and I kept losing my grip on what I was watching. Doesn't help either that this is a twelve episode series where each episode runs somewhere between seventy and ninety minutes in its uncut version, that's a lot to sit through and process. Nakhun's a twenty year old college student living in Bangkok who doesn't buy into superstition at all, but his twentieth birthday turns into a disaster anyway, everything that can go wrong does, he even gets mistaken for a thief at one point. Later that night, feeling down, he's out watching shooting s...

The Hanging Garden (Canada)

This film has been directed in a different fashion. You will see past and present collide somewhere together. It is beautifully shown how memories of the past haunt a family to an extent that everyone goes through the same phase.

aving run away as a self-hating, obese and abused 15-year old, William returns to his parents home after 10 years to attend his sister's wedding. He's happy in his new life, with a partner, steady work and having lost all of his excess weight. Being back at home revives all of awful memories of his childhood: overeating because it's the one thing nobody can stop him from doing; being hit by his drunken and abusive father; being seen by his grandmother when he has his first sexual encounter with a male friend; his mother arranging for him to have sex with a woman while she sat in the next room. New revelations are in store however. After the wedding is over, he finds that he has a new sister Violet whom he did not know existed. He sees how his mother is struggling with everything in this dysfunctional family. She has to bear the brunts of father, take care of her mother in law and also deal with the sudden disappearance of her son. She has had enough and she just leaves home and disappears from everything. William now has to take care of his father. They try to reconcile. Meanwhile, His sister knows that her brother and now husband have an attraction for each other. She gives them a chance to relive their fantasies from their teenage days. The mother is found nowhere. Meanwhile, William also finds out that Violet is actually his daughter from the sexual encounter that his mother made him do. Having had enough, he just leaves the town with his daughter.

Oh boy!! This family was dysfunctional or what! I kept wondering how can anyone live in such an atmosphere. The quirk infested family includes a gay asthmatic son, a foul mouthed daughter, a wishy-washy mother, a senile old granny, the abusive gardener father, and a kid. Overall it is such a depressing environment. There were a few moments in the film that were touching and/or calm, but they were few and far between.

Overall just an ok film. It tries to be different (which it is) but not every enjoyable. (4.5/10)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Phor Lae Lukchai (Thai) [Father & Son]

I think the budget of this film was probably too small, but for that, the film definitely offers a different and unique storyline without over dramatizing anything. Yes, some scenes were a bit amateurish but in the bigger scheme of things, that can be overlooked. The film is both beautiful and sad in its own unique way. Aek is a gay dad, whose partner died right around the time their son Nueng was born through surrogacy in a road accident. The relationship between father and son is unpleasant and unstable. We are not really told why, but it seems the father has been unsuccessful in caring and loving his son because of his partner's death. Aek continues to hook up wit hookers. Also, Nueng is constantly bullied by everyone around him for having a gay dad. He has no friends, except Nat, a neighborhood boy, who also happens to be Nueng's boyfriend. In a sudden turn of events Nat is found murdered along with another boy naked. Saddened by the events, Nueng jumps from roof and k...

Gaya Sa Pelikula (Filipino Series) [Like In The Movies]

Pinoy BL series seem to be catching up to the popularity of the Thai shows. And I must say that they are doing a pretty good job at it. Where Thai series started to get repetitive with so many shows based in a college setting with seemingly similar storylines, Pinoy series are offering the viewers with new and interesting stories and some really good sets and surroundings. This series was 8 episodes of about 25-20 minutes each. Karl, a 19-year old introvert architecture student is in the middle of an identity crisis. Prior to the start of the second semester in college and forced by his parents, he moves into his uncle's condominium unit so that he can learn to be financially independent. Karl takes on odd jobs online to do so. But when one of his major clients suddenly goes MIA, he is left short on funds and without a means to pay for his utilities. An opportunity presents itself when his cocky neighbor Vlad has to hide from his family and proposes to share Karl's space for th...

The Tuxedo (Thai Series)

When I saw this series with 8 episodes of about 20-25 minutes each, I thought, good: Finally someone has come to senses and made a show which is not stretched out and they have tried to squeeze in a decent storyline in a good small episode format. But unfortunately, despite a decent premise on hand, the clunky writing, bad screenplay and an extreme tasteless portrayal of mental illness makes this show, not a fun watch. By the time it finishes, you just want to laugh off at the entire absurdity of it all. Aioun is talented tuxedo designer and very much in demand but he has handful of clients and he builds suits only for people who he feels a connection to. One night when his younger brother is about to get mugged, he is helped by a total stranger named Sichol. Since he tears his suit in the fight and has an interview the next day, Aioun gifts him a suit form his design as an expression of thanks. Sichol's interview is for. Personal assistant of a man named Nawee, a wealthy heir to h...