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The acting made up for plot flaws
I got to know of the actor Fluke Natouch from Until We Meet Again, where his acting captured my attention, so when I found myself lacking something to watch, I searched his past works and chanced upon this. Boy, his acting even back then was good.
The plot started strong and interesting, mostly because of the characterisations. The plot premise isn't anything fresh, but it is driven by interesting characters and the interactions between them.
[SPOILER BELOW]
One of my favourite scenes involved Bank asking Golf, "Am I like a girl? Why did Teacher choose me to perform something that is usually performed by girls?" and Golf replying, "Maybe it's because the Teacher felt that you're better than girls." "In what way am I better?" "Like how you were good to/fotr me."
[END SPOILER]
But after the part where they got found out by their family, it kind of faltered. The scenes that followed lacked a sense of congruity and logic got thrown out of the door. It was as if they didn't have enough screentime left to develop the story properly.
[SPOILERS BELOW]
For example:
1) Why did Golf suddenly got sent to America? He was still putting a fight against his father the previous scene, and the next scene we see is him saying goodbye to his class, obeying his father's decision to send him to America.
2) Why did Golf decide to out himself AND his brother in front of the class? He may be gone but he has to stay behind and live with being outed to his classmates. I guess this can be explained as teenage rashness, but this took the 'bittersweet' aspect out of the scene.
3) If the family's intention to send Golf overseas is to break the brothers up, why did they allow Golf to return to Thailand so soon? Why did Bank's mother comment about Bank not being as close to Golf anymore after Golf returned?
4) What's with the girlfriend? What's with the engagement ceremony? Golf seems to still harbour feelings for Bank, but then why didn't he explain the girlfriend situation? Why did he agree to stay at the hotel with her?
5) Why did Bank run off to find Taa (instead of the girlfriends he was closer to) when the above happened? Since when did they grow so close? We've never seen much interactions between the two previously, but we were shown many scenes of the girls showing support to Bank.
6) The coincidence that Golf's kidney is a match for Bank.
7) Lazy writing - accident, final stage cancer without previous syndromes
8) What's with the insertion of the scene after the accident, with Bank returning the ring to Golf, saying that he wants to go back to being just brothers? Where in the timeline was that supposed to fit in?
9) The time lapse between the surgery and the birthday party took away all the sentiments that could have been developed.
[END SPOILERS]
And I guess this is why I didn't feel much for the ending. But this film was still worth my time watching, if only for the acting by the main cast. It felt very natural, reflective of how someone of the characters' age would behave and act. Their acting made up for the gaps in the plot and kept me watching. It's a joy to watch this 6 years on and find that the actors I like right now had a good level of acting even back then. It's even more delightful to know that I can now turn to a part 2 to the story, and hopefully that will make up for the disappointments in part 1.
Part 2, here I come!
The plot started strong and interesting, mostly because of the characterisations. The plot premise isn't anything fresh, but it is driven by interesting characters and the interactions between them.
[SPOILER BELOW]
One of my favourite scenes involved Bank asking Golf, "Am I like a girl? Why did Teacher choose me to perform something that is usually performed by girls?" and Golf replying, "Maybe it's because the Teacher felt that you're better than girls." "In what way am I better?" "Like how you were good to/fotr me."
[END SPOILER]
But after the part where they got found out by their family, it kind of faltered. The scenes that followed lacked a sense of congruity and logic got thrown out of the door. It was as if they didn't have enough screentime left to develop the story properly.
[SPOILERS BELOW]
For example:
1) Why did Golf suddenly got sent to America? He was still putting a fight against his father the previous scene, and the next scene we see is him saying goodbye to his class, obeying his father's decision to send him to America.
2) Why did Golf decide to out himself AND his brother in front of the class? He may be gone but he has to stay behind and live with being outed to his classmates. I guess this can be explained as teenage rashness, but this took the 'bittersweet' aspect out of the scene.
3) If the family's intention to send Golf overseas is to break the brothers up, why did they allow Golf to return to Thailand so soon? Why did Bank's mother comment about Bank not being as close to Golf anymore after Golf returned?
4) What's with the girlfriend? What's with the engagement ceremony? Golf seems to still harbour feelings for Bank, but then why didn't he explain the girlfriend situation? Why did he agree to stay at the hotel with her?
5) Why did Bank run off to find Taa (instead of the girlfriends he was closer to) when the above happened? Since when did they grow so close? We've never seen much interactions between the two previously, but we were shown many scenes of the girls showing support to Bank.
6) The coincidence that Golf's kidney is a match for Bank.
7) Lazy writing - accident, final stage cancer without previous syndromes
8) What's with the insertion of the scene after the accident, with Bank returning the ring to Golf, saying that he wants to go back to being just brothers? Where in the timeline was that supposed to fit in?
9) The time lapse between the surgery and the birthday party took away all the sentiments that could have been developed.
[END SPOILERS]
And I guess this is why I didn't feel much for the ending. But this film was still worth my time watching, if only for the acting by the main cast. It felt very natural, reflective of how someone of the characters' age would behave and act. Their acting made up for the gaps in the plot and kept me watching. It's a joy to watch this 6 years on and find that the actors I like right now had a good level of acting even back then. It's even more delightful to know that I can now turn to a part 2 to the story, and hopefully that will make up for the disappointments in part 1.
Part 2, here I come!
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