4 Minutes (2024)

Result of the combination of good script, acting and staging (First update from the original review)

In 'Manner of Death', 'Triage', 'Dead Friend Forever - DFF', 'Make a Wish' and 'Bite Me' the famous Thai screenwriter Isaree Siriwankulthon (Sammon), reiterates her interest in witnessing the suspense, the alteration of the time, time loop, medical-forensic work, hospital environment, police investigation, kidnapping, murder, slow-burn romance, friendship, family relationships, school and university ecosystem, unjustly accused characters, action, political, police and business corruption, always having homosexual characters as protagonists.
For her part, director and screenwriter Ning Bhanbhassa Dhubthien has demonstrated, through the series 'KinnPorsche' (2022) and the film 'Man Suang', that both film and television language constitute a tool that she can also use at her own discretion taste, and in which, incidentally, you have the possibility of continuing working with your most recurring motifs or thematic interests.
In '4Minutes', the series in which Sammon and Ning join forces for the first time, the actions of the peculiar creatures that populate the creative universe of the Thai author duo remind us of those of some of the protagonists of the aforementioned works, bringing us closer to their characters in a very sensitive, fluid and ethereal way, recording their most banal movements and glances and turning them into revealing moments by transmitting all the intensity of love through tenderness, melancholy and an enveloping atmosphere.
Great, its central star, is one of the most striking characters to emerge from Sammon's imagination: a university student at the Faculty of Business Administration and son of a rich businessman, blessed with a gift that is also a curse, since he has the supernatural ability to know what is going to happen in the future 4 minutes in advance, always and when it affects him.
This power leads him to alter the results of many events, while the memory of what happened visits him again and again in his imagination. Thus, the story restarts from the beginning, over and over again, so the audience will have to pay attention to discover which is reality and which is not.
He a piece of character, very competently defended by Bible Wichapas Sumettikul ('KinnPorsche'), in which it could very well be the most significant role of his still young and promising artistic career, and thanks to which he unleashes fervor among lovers of the Thai dramas, especially LGBT+ themed fans.
He knows it and devotes himself with devotion to building it, polishing it, making it unique, to providing it with an empathy that overflows the screen and allows him to put himself in the viewer's pocket. His acting counterpoint with Jes Jespipat Tilapornputt ('Sassy Player', 2009), - his counterpart in 'Spaceless', a short film directed by Jatuphong Rungrueangdechaphat, also in 2024, and which serves as a letter of introduction to the acting couple - seduces and fascinates. As do the episodes that make up the drama from its beautiful presentation to the no less admirable farewell.
The friendship that develops between Great and Tyme takes them on a journey of discovery and acceptance that explores male vulnerability. However, it is not a simple story of a couple of friends succumbing to love. That is very seen and would be too predictable.
On the other hand, '4Minutes' is a more rounded, absorbing and sentimental story about two young people who find themselves involved in an exciting intrigue in which there will be no shortage of industrial espionage, murder, kidnapping, betrayal, infidelity, unfulfilled promises, political and police corruption, the proximity of death, revenge, score settlements, martial combats, and explicit sexual scenes (completely removed from the universe of pornography) and that provide absolute meaning to the characters' history .
On the other hand, '4Minutes' is a more rounded, absorbing and sentimental story about two young people who find themselves involved in a passionate intrigue in which there will be no shortage of industrial espionage, murder, kidnapping, martial combats, and explicit sexual scenes ( totally removed from the universe of pornography) and that provide absolute meaning to the characters' story.
With this premise, the director manages to develop a deep character study, investigating the existential motivations and experiences that shape them as individual beings but also as people united by an unbreakable bond. Likewise, it explores complicated relationships, social barriers, and depicts more than one gay romance while challenging social norms and embracing the power of love, acceptance, and understanding. It is much more than a simple love story.
Sammon has created a very intelligent script, in which the dialogues are the basis of the story. Through the conversations that Great and Tyme have, two characters emerge like few we have seen. The screenwriter's prose is almost lyrical and manages to capture the realism and naturalness of their relationship, friendly first, then romantic. The viewer is transported into the story, as if he had the two young people in front of him and was asking permission to jump to the other side of the screen at any moment to join the conversation.
As Great and Tyme connect, their relationship faces numerous complications. Great tries to understand what is causing his abnormality and how to escape it, while dealing with personal and family problems. For his part, Tyme secretly investigates criminal acts in which Great's family may be involved, especially his father, mother and older brother, Korn, played convincingly by Bas Asavapatr Ponpiboon, a character who adds greater complexity to the story.
Likewise, the stories that unite Tonkla, Inspector Win, Dome and Title, characters played by Fuaiz Thanawat Shinawatra, Jay Patiphan Fueangfunuwat, Mio Athens Werapatanakul and Jet Jetsadakorn Bundit, in that order, play an important role in the development of the series.
In this sense, a chance meeting with Great could help Tyme try to get closer to the young university student with the intention of penetrating his family circle to carry out his revenge, since he blames Great's family for the death of his parents. All this, while trying to save his grandmother from reprisals and fulfilling his duties as a doctor at a large hospital in Bangkok.
What begins as a game of cat and mouse will end up becoming a journey of no return. While Great secretly serves Tyme's interests to get even, the boundaries between sexuality and male friendship are continually compromised, with both characters drawn to each other.
The incredibly talented cast, which in addition to the aforementioned actors, includes JJay Patiphan Fueangfunuwat as Inspector Win, Fuaiz Thanawat Shinawatra as Tonkla, Job Yosatorn Konglikit as Den, Mio Athens Werapatanakul as Dome, and Jet Jetsadakorn Bundit as Title, It adds a touch of depth, elegance and authenticity to the series, and nails each scene and makes it believable.
The plot of the story is woven based on the two axes of coordinates that constitute Great's respective relationships with Tyme, a surgeon whom he knows due to his supernatural ability, and the one he has with his powerful family, businessmen they will not hesitate to commit the most terrible crimes if these help them get away with their crimes in the competitive business world.
The development of dramatic tension will be the result of both vectors, which pull Great in opposite directions, and which will narratively establish the counterweight between two categories of values, which will face each other on the stage table, and to which he must have a clear and lucid choice for one of the two: both at an aesthetic level and in content, which we will see trying to be resolved in the treatment of the psychological level and development of the characters.
In the photography of Pavarisa Tadde and Ittipong Klinchart, the exuberant beauty of colors and light of the luxurious surroundings of the Great mansion, the beautiful city landscapes, contrast with the most gloomy and degraded spaces, such as those of hospitals, also seen as a setting of pain and death, the humble house in which Tyme lives with his grandmother, since his parents died long ago, or those in which a corpse frequently appears.
In the context of Great's environment we also see how, both at the level of photography and staging, there is this significant disparity: the luminosity and brightness in the daytime scenes, with the darkest, warmest tones (from yellowish to almost reddish from inside the house); In both, he participates in the fiery internal love dynamics in which the protagonist begins to anticipate, in the form of a visual fantasy, his passion for Tyme.
The soundtrack by Terdsak Janpan fits perfectly with the moods of the characters and the tone of each moment. The music wonderfully delves into this suffocating, mysterious and at some points almost depressive character, in which we see Great's tortured spirit immersed, until he decides to free himself and surrender to his love and resolve the conflicts that surround him.
As I've probably already said in some way, the main charm of the series comes from the relationship between the two young people, who build a very special bond. The chemistry between Great and Tyme is palpable: the two transmit tenderness, camaraderie and a lot of passion. This helps a lot at a certain point in which the protagonists meet like two chess players with a board in between.
At the level of content, the struggle of opposite poles is manifested in this clash between the protagonists' will for healthy fulfillment and the suffocating reality that surrounds them.
Once again, Sammon demonstrates his good eye when it comes to finding unexpected narrative angles, building a solid network of emotions, designing fascinating characters and plots, and telling an attractive story while weaving its edges, taking his time, pampering and caring for the story, to give rise to a series that is summarized as one of the best in recent years.
'4Minutes is an emotional and heartfelt proposal that makes us forget that it is not Jespipat Tilapornputtde the actor who was supposed to play Tyme.

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