Asian BL Wrecked My Life

I mentioned before that When Oranges Fall was surely going to strike such a chord with Thai Millennial viewers that International fans could never fully understand. But to give you an idea, I compiled and subtitled some highlights from the first episode reactions by Thai reaction channels Watchwhy Channel, IPOND TV, สายเลือด Y [My Blood Taste], NUNGNARONG and Channel Fanboys.

Here's some further context about the things they were commenting on:

Barth acts so defeated. He seems like he has accepted that the world will never see him beyond the labels it has pushed on him and he doesn't feel like he has a future. The way he says he doesn't like anything, the way he says he is too lazy for a school, the way he knows no one will believe him

And Tanrak's whole thing is basically...waiting to die. To live the most devote life possible so he sees his family again after he fucking dies

Aof, my beloved <3

Strengths:

Camera choreography—he loves a fluid, roaming camera, especially in first episodes, and was pushing this even in the early days when the Thai tv industry did not have budgets for the kind of equipment or time to could manage that easily.

His work is extremely dense with visual language

His dialogue is lyrical and realistic

He’s one of the best at an urgent sense of pacing, partly, though, because he depends more than almost anyone on Western narrative structures.

The performances. He works with a different acting coach, Meng Chaiyapat, (who actually played the choir teacher in the latest TTH episode) than the other directors, and the angsty psychological turmoil they bring the actors to convey is top tier drama.

There’s also just a way he can write and direct a character who’s trying to repress, not just their sexuality, but a really deep-seated loneliness that keeping their sexuality from others has caused them that hits so true to my own history with my sexuality. P’Med, Pran, Li Ming and Heart, Day, Tanrak. These characters are some of the most lonely in the genre. He took the “My Loneliness” monologue from Love of Siam personally.

He can write the fuck out of women characters. They have their own stories, their own goals, complex personalities. Ugh!

The reason I’m obsessed: He’s THE most philosophical writer/director in the Thai BL industry and possibly the whole of the genre. He’s deeply interested in the problems of queer epistemology and semiotics—How do we know queerness is real? How do we embody it? How do we represent it? And is it less real if it’s not enacted or acknowledged by others or even ourselves? And if it’s not less real if we don’t enact it, why should we enact it anyways when we could conceal it and remain safer? The absence of characters appearing in photographs in his early works! The death that pervades all his series! The separations! The doubts about sensory perception! Ugh! Literally considering writing a whole book about it. There’s no one in queer studies—period!—who’s theorizing about these issues to this extent, and they’re so endlessly fascinating to me, especially his use of Buddhist/Eastern philosophy to address them (and that’s one of the many reasons why I’m so excited about Ticket to Heaven; it’s really a return to some of the theological issues that caused the Reformation schism that I have books about on my shelf—the iconography, the scriptural analysis, the capability of the mortal perceivable world to reveal the sacred, the questions of what faith means, ugh!).

And on that note, he writes for multiple audiences at once, like Shakespeare. He’s doing deep philosophical shit but you can also ignore all that and get your fix of great romantic drama.

Weaknesses

He cannot do comedy, especially camp, that well. I actually think the original 2gether is better than Aof’s sequel because the original understood how utterly ridiculous all the characters were, and how the subversiveness of the camp undermined what would otherwise be generic BL tropes. The original makes clear that the homophobia at play is stupid and the butt of the joke. Making the characters more real like Aof did takes away that ridiculousness, at least imo.

He does not have the editing chops of someone like Jojo or Dome or Boss Kuno. He’s got that beautiful flowing camera, but he can’t do the rhythmic and playful cutting some others go for. It can make his work feel less hip and modern. Aof is at his heart a lakorn director. His works feel like musicals or old Hollywood works in their editing. I personally love it and can go watch other series if I’m looking for other vibes.

I’ve joked that he actually only knows 15 actors at the company because man loves to use his favorites. Like it or not (I personally don’t like it lol), Jojo seems to have a prerogative to use new and even challenged actors. Aof does not play around with his casting. He does not have interest in training stale actors on set. He’ll get new actors, but it would seem to be based on the insight that they will DELIVER (Mix is ATOTS or G4 in MLC).

“Did you know? They’re building a 7-Eleven where your house was. They tore it down? How long ago? It’s about to open. So quick how they demolished the house and built the store. What about the rose apple tree next door? Is it still there? That tree died before they even dore the house down. Bud do you remember when we climbed that tree as kids? I fell, and it hurt like hell. My mom scolded me for a whole week. You seem a lot quieter now, Tanrak. Really? Yeah. More grown-up.” — GLUM by HAYLEY WILLIAMS

the thing that really gave it away for me was the last scene in episode 1, but honestly i think tanrak was tipping his hand that whole episode. he's presented as this model student, the father's golden child, practically a priest in training. and yet despite the fact that the father asked him to perform his duties as the good catholic and look after barth - the foreigner in their land as mentioned in the beginning of the episode - tanrak doesn't really do that. in fact the absolute bare minimum, holds barth at arm's length as much as possible, pretends not to see. and that doesn't jive with the impression we're supposed to have of tanrak, which is kind and jovial and easy going and above all else, obedient. and yet he's almost cold with barth, all but abandons him to fend for himself. yes, we the audience see the conflict in him over it (bc tanrak is, ultimately, kind) and yes he comes around in the end but the reality is that he still acted out of character, still wanders into the murky grey zone of not disobeying the father but not exacrly doing as he tells him either. still turned his back on barth when he was all alone, even if he did hesitate. even if barth didn't see him turn away.

a character like tanrak is not going to behave like that for no reason (especially not when contrasted with how we see him behaving in ep 2, and even at the end of ep 1). he clearly values his faith above all else at this point in the narrative - and yet the way he treats barth initially does not honour that faith. why? well, because tanrak knows temptation when he sees it. (what is it he said about the painting? 'along the path beasts devour sinful humans and tempt people off the path?')

but maybe even more importantly than even that is the fact that tanrak can see barth being othered. and he knows the good, christian thing to do would be to step in, protect the foreigner in his land, defend the weak and the fatherless, uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed - that's what's expected and asked of him (hence why the father is so harsh with him in ep 2 - not just because he handled the situation 'badly', but bc he shouldn't have allowed it to even get to that point in the first place). he's supposed to stand with barth, and yet he turns away. because tanrak is smart, and more importantly he's self aware. he knows what he is. he knows his hands are not clean. and he knows the last thing he needs is to bring undue attention to himself, or to stand out to his peers in any way - especially not to defend the new violent queer kid.

if the attention is on him and people look too closely or ask too many questions, then they're more likely to notice the thing tanrak is trying so desperately to hide.

the last scene of episode 1 is what really gave him away. episode 2 confirmed that tanrak isn't particularly afraid about getting into trouble, or adverse to breaking some rules. and yet he had such a big reaction when they were caught in that last scene - you could literally feel the panic building and the walls closing in on tanrak. dread was written all over his face. but he didn't have that reaction bc he was caught and might get in trouble. it was because he was caught with barth. alone together and had been all night. he knows how that looks. he knows what people might think, what they might say. because tanrak, who on some level is already aware that he's gay, is hyperaware of that perception of him. and now, after trying so hard for so long to be good, he thinks he's been caught out.

of course, he hasn't been. not yet. but the guilt of allowing them both to end up in that position in the first place all but ties him to barth after that (and it's unwarranted guilt yes, but understandable too. he didn't do what was asked of him by the father. he didn't behave as a good catholic in the way he treated barth. and because he was trying so hard to protect himself, he dishonoured god and barth ended up hurt. of course he's gonna prey for redemption for that). he has been entrusted with barth's care. he will look after him. and he will not be pulled off the path in the process, but rather pull barth to him. but in order to do that, he has to let barth in, at least a little bit. and that's an awfully slippery slope. now he's lying for barth. now he's opening up to him. now he's playing along, getting in more trouble, allowing himself to be touched. to touch. shoulders, fingertips. thighs. in the dark, behind people's backs.

we all know how it ends. i think tanrak knew how it was going to end, too, deep down. it's why he allowed himself to act out of character in order to keep barth at arm's length. it's why he prays the rosary, asks for redemption in advance. when asked what for, he looks up at barth and it's an answer. lust means letting desire control us. what if you can't stop it? then you fight it. but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is extending a branch, offers temptation, says come on, just a bite. tanrak couldn't even bring himself to touch barth in that scene, did you notice? he pushed his arm away with the end of his pen. fighting it.

but the tree says, i'll help you up. says, next time i can come here with you. says, why fight it?