I wrote an initial review for the first episode of the series. As usual, I modified it as the episodes were broadcast. Subsequently, several readers have encouraged me to review the series in its entirety. This is that review:
Does destiny exist? Everyone has their own point of view, there are those who say that everything happens for a reason, there are those who say that destiny exists and that we cannot escape its designs. Therefore, if so: are we directed? Does our life have meaning if we are already anchored to a future that, whether we want it or not, we cannot avoid? I, personally, do not believe so, I am a little more scientific, so to speak, and I believe that each person takes the reins of their life, and that there is no destiny, but rather cause and effect... However, this already remains within each person.
Whether you believe in destiny or not, soul mates are a myth about love that has remained alive for centuries, perhaps because we are all searching for it, because we know a story that reinforces it or, possibly, we have seen many movies and romantic television series.
Film and television have delved into the search for perfect, magical and lasting love, and have shown more than once that soul mates exist and are in the places you least imagine.
If destiny wants two boys to remain united in an indissoluble bond, so it will be, regardless of whether they both live more than a thousand lives, and in each of them they somehow manage to fall in love with each other. This is the premise of the Thai LGBT+-themed romantic drama 'Every You, Every Me', from director Sutida Singharach, university professor and director of the Film and Creative Media Arts program at the Faculty of Communication Arts (International Programme) Bangkok in his official debut behind the cameras, based on the script by Saipirun Chaichiangpin, renowned author of BL series such as 'Love Sick: The Series Season 2' (2015) and 'Reminders' (2019), and also debutant Jeong Thunyathorn.
However, will this be a story about destiny? Will it be about reincarnation or time travel? Will the viewer be able to discover how the characters will live the more than a thousand lives indicated in the synopsis? Will the plot develop according to the initial premise?
This is an innovative series in which the creators apparently play with the audience by offering false clues about the "accuracy of a synopsis."
Through independent plots, without a visible thread that unites them, without a tie that connects each of the stories, we will sometimes see stories with happy endings, at other times with closures that will make us cry; often with performances by part of the well-known supporting cast, occasionally with supporting actors who have recently entered the series. But yes: always with the presence of the two stars who dress in luxury and touch the sky with their performances..., always to tell us a better story than the previous one, which will keep us intrigued and expectant.
The truth is that with complete naturalness the two protagonists exchange personalities, characters, attitudes and characters from one chapter to another, since each story is completely different and if they have a connecting thread it is the performance of the same actors in each episode. The series is perfect for giving Mick and Top the opportunity to showcase all facets of their acting skills, something they achieve superbly.
'Every You, Every Me' is discussing these topics, through magical and lucky encounters, and these encounters occur between the characters played by two handsome and talented actors with meteoric growth within the BL industry in the country from Southeast Asia: Mick Monthon Viseshsin and Top Piyawat Phongkanitanon.
Through the interpretation of several characters that have no apparent relationship with each other, Mick and Top demonstrate that there is no series that cannot stand out for their presence, both being the type that BL lovers find attractive and intelligent; In other words, pine for them.
This is not the first time that both actors have met on the filming set, nor is this their inaugural performance as a couple in an audiovisual production. Already in 2023 the first plays Korn in 'My Universe', specifically in the story 'You Are My So(ul) Mate' Korn, while the second got into the shoes of Butr, his partner in this BL series.
'Every You, Every Me' keeps the audience's heart in its hands from the first to the last scene and, although it squeezes it at times and leaves a bitter taste when learning about sad endings or relationship problems that could cause the breakup of the itself, the series goes much further, as it reflects on how much of love is destiny and how much is a choice.
The main reason this series works where other romantic dramas fail is the casting. Mick and Top are affable leads with solid chemistry that mesh well enough and quickly enough for the audience to become reasonably invested in their activities and their romance in each of the stories the series tells.
Added to the mix is Meen Nattakrit Hamontri ('On Cloud Nine', 2022), and although his work is unaccredited and he acts only in the first story, he steals every scene in which he appears. For its part; Fiat Patchata Janngeon ('Shadow', 2023) and Ball Peeratad Promted play various characters throughout the series.
The beautiful photography of Danupat Thananurak, a skilled craftsman in his craft, helps the series take off with the growing closeness between the two young people, physically and emotionally, in each of the stories.
There are sad, boring, dull series... But that is not the case with 'Every You, Every Me'. And there are also those that serve to make you laugh, to make you sing, to make you cry, to make you have a pleasant time, to make you feel emotional. And this is useful for all that, but it can also be used to identify yourself.
Or even to extract reflections, for example on destiny or on the hooks, false or not, that creators let slip to draw the public's attention to their product. Which is behind everything. When decisions are made, perhaps it sends signals, it will depend on how we interpret them to be happy or not. Or if that assertion, practically shattered today, is true, that if a single person appears in your life that you really want to be with, don't hesitate, this is your series.
Philosophical disquisitions aside, this television delight of romanticism and the BL genre is a breath of fresh air, of legitimately sentimental and involving audiovisual production.
The protagonists are irresistibly charming, adorable; one follows them in their smallest and largest gestures with great delight.
It's one of those beautiful series, really really beautiful. And although it exudes a certain bitter aftertaste, both bitterness and sadness, although it may sound strange, can generate a strange happiness, as is the case. And so, once the final credits roll, it is easy to be overcome, as happens to me every time I review each episode to write the review, with a feeling of lasting happiness and a tremendous desire for this couple to continue meeting in one and a thousand more lives.
Of course, the soundtrack is in charge of doing its thing to recharge the cake even more and one ends up thinking that it is worth trusting and believing in destiny.
And already in the final episodes, the magic increases: you can see the love that the director has for the seventh art by using cinema within cinema or metacinema as an artistic and narrative resource that has been used by filmmakers from all over the world throughout of cinema history.
Experimental and innovative series, it seems not to care about the synopsis itself and fully immerses the audience, in episodes 6 and 7 (even at the end of 5) in metacinema, something little or never seen in a Thai BL.
Sutida Singharach deploys her arsenal of knowledge about the seventh art and manages to place cinema at the center of her series. It uses the characters Roy Inn, played by Mick, and Pun, played by Top, two actors who are going through a breakup in their love relationship, so during the filming process both have difficulties showing their acting skills in a scene in which they must kiss.
Under these circumstances, the director and production company of the series in which the actors participate decide that Roy Inn and Pun need to participate in an acting workshop to ensure that they adjust their behavior, or else the film project runs the risk of being stopped due to the incompatibility of the actors.
In this way, the series appeals to metacinema to peek into the processes of film creation and the professional performance of directors, producers, performers and scriptwriters. Likewise, the viewer obtains privileged access to the backstage of the cinema, and suffers and enjoys the conflicts that emerge behind the camera.
Knowing that filming is, in effect, a stage in which ego struggles, asymmetrical power relations, unforeseen events and human limitations are unleashed, the director of the series, like a magician showing his tricks, uses ' Every You, Every Me' to reveal the strategies that allow the cinematographic illusion to be generated. It also plays with the transfers that occur between reality and fiction, between life and cinema.
Many viewers have reported that the series does not fulfill its premise, as they expect the stories to be clearly connected to each other.
Sutida Singharach does not care about complying with the classic regulations of Aristotelian linearity, the narrative clauses... in short, the guidelines of the dominant historical decalogue.
In other words, the creators break the traditional narrative scheme. They ignore the three units that serve as literary rules, designed especially for theater, but that have a broader extension as aesthetic criteria and art theory, by requiring that an artistic work (specifically literary) must have a certain unitary character.
According to this part of the audience, everything seems to be upside down by not having a visible link that unites the stories, with the non-compliance of the premise of a thousand lives for the two protagonists to live together. For these, nothing closes or pretends not to close. I have even heard it said that Sutida Singharach shows no interest in making the viewer feel safe, satisfied.
Quite the opposite: 'Every You, Every Me' seeks complicity with the audience, unsettling them, annoying them, taking stories and characters down unexplored paths, so that the audience puts alternative instances of appreciation on the offensive.
In concert, the director and screenwriter ensured that the series – as a source of worlds and stories – fostered new experiences for the public when appreciating a work. What they formulate is a proposition that invites, not only the intervention of the viewer during the 8 episodes of the series, but also after the screen goes black.
The above is more than plausible when both cinema and television like the inflexible point of view of closed discourse, reluctant to grow after the visualization of the product has concluded.
In this way, showing its condition as an interactive neural work, of passion and drive, of tension and restlessness, the series ensures its permanence in the BL Olympus.