Fish Upon the Sky (2021)

Much, much better than I expected

Sometimes, something just defies your expectations and this series did that for me.

Because, being honest, this is another BL series set in a university with white shirts and black trousers and grown adults acting like they never heard of sex; and fundraising fairs and camping out visiting impoverished areas; and medical students and engineering students and freshmen with ties; and scooters and high end cars and huge houses that you would swear should have at least four bedrooms, but only seem to have one or two; and let's not forget the male character with darker skin (because colourism) with the high pitched voice and the limp wrists who ships the ML's.

This is, almost beat for beat, the same plot as every other Thai BL. All the stereotypes are here, all the clichés and tropes are here.

Except.....there's some differences.

The attitude of one of the MLs to the toxic and dangerous behaviour of the shippers, their page and their 'fans' is refreshing. Pi bluntly declares he feels unsafe with the way Mork keeps encouraging said behaviour in his attempts to woo Pi. And well he should, because these 'fans' not only butt into Pi's life, but drag his brother, his mother and his father into it and even threaten to invade his home to take pictures of his bedroom!

At one point, someone starts filming them without permission, and posting it online. At another, someone else has clearly been stalking them because pictures get posted of Pi standing on the balcony of his house.

This series comes down hard, and not even subtly, on the invasive and toxic social media culture that seems to permeate much of the world nowadays.

Pi breaks my heart several times during this series. He's a truly sweet, kind and caring young man who does not deserve the bullying. I can't help feeling that Mork should have opened his mouth and stood up for Pi a lot earlier. I also think that if Mork had given Pi that umbrella, then maybe things would have proceeded differently as well.

Differently, but for the better? Who knows? ::shrug::

I also liked the fact that Mork has pictures of Pi on his phone before his 'makeover' and that he liked him just as he was before Duen and his friends got involved. It would have been so refreshing to see Pi stay that way, but gain confidence as his relationship with Mork grew and let that confidence make him more attractive, rather than going for the 'ditch the glasses, get ride of the braces, fix the hair' kind of makeover that was used.

I really liked Bam. I thought she was cute and bubbly and fun and supportive of Mork....and then they had to ruin it with the stunt she pulled at Mork's birthday party. Why? Just why? It completely ruined her character for me. For god's sake, please stop doing this!

I also liked Muang Nan. Whilst it was clear he didn't like Pi the way Pi wanted him to, he wasn't cruel about it and he kept subtly pushing Pi towards Mork. He also had some good advice for Mork, which Mork should have taken. The cheeky reference to Mix's series 'Tale of a Thousand Stars' was amusing.

This even gave me pause when it came to my favourite pairing. A lot of times, in BL, I'll find myself preferring the secondary couple over the main couple, but here I found myself cheering for both of them. Duen is a great brother and a genuinely funny and likable character. His character grew over the course of the twelve episodes and I loved his fourth-wall breaking.

Meen is a complete cinnamon roll without, thank goodness, the childishness that often goes along with that kind of character in Thai BL He's a bit child-like, but not childish. He stands up for himself and tells Duen exactly what he thinks and feels and doesn't let Duen get away with shit. I approve.

The acting in this is good, especially by Pond, Phuwin and Neo. The editing is also good. The daft sound effects are still there, but are considerably toned down (thank goodness) and the product placement is still very obvious but also toned down considerably.

The only negative, really, is the scene with Duen dressed up as what I assume to be his idea of an Indian holy man. I didn't notice it until someone from that culture pointed it out and talked about how uncomfortable it made them, and I can completely understand why. it was only a brief scene, but it shouldn't have been there.

Also (and this is not a negative) I was confused by the ending. It supposedly takes place 2 years later, but how had Meen not seen Duen and Pi's room at this point? And have Pi and Mork just been abstaining from sex this whole time? It was just....baffling. Although the scene itself was very funny.

I really enjoyed this series overall, and I'm happy to recommend it and, since I'm re-watching it whilst I'm typing up this review, I state without hesitation that it has high re-watch value too.

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