Acting: Considering it is their first movie the actors were really good. They really nailed their expressions <3. However, the use of english wasn`t my favourite I would say.
Music: didn`t focus much on that
Revatch value: No. It is too slow for me.
Overall: It was a good movie with a kind of twist and the actors were really good so I recommend it if you haven`t much going on.
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This review may contain spoilers
Anusorn Soisa-ngim, the irreverent, the illusionist
Anusorn Soisa-ngim is a 35-year-old Thai man with a frank smile and happy eyes, a clean-shaven beard and modern pants and shirts as his clothing of choice, in which there is no shortage of the image of Britney Spears, which along with love is the other thing in this world that you believe in.He looks like a high school math teacher. However, sometimes I imagine him in another way, with a wardrobe of bright colors, an earring in his ear and a bohemian air, and in his hands a banner with a motto drawn in the colors of the rainbow, in the middle of a crowd, fighting for the right to equal marriage and the end of the discrimination to which LGBT+ people are subjected in their nation, or actively participating in other protests against harassment and marginalization carried out by executives in the Thai entertainment industry.
Perhaps this way, Aam, as he likes to be called, was more similar to his film work, because Anusorn Soisa-ngim is not dedicated to teaching logarithmic equations to inattentive teenagers: his job is to be a Thai iconoclast or, what is the same, one of the most unique authors of contemporary world cinema.
From his beginnings on the big screen as a screenwriter and director, Aam showed his ways as an original creator. With great artistic skills and indie creation, he says what he thinks and, above all, tells the truth.
Eternal nonconformist and controversial to the core, but never apologetic, few filmmakers can boast in their entire careers the significance of the titles they have delivered from 2012 to date. His debut was with 'Present Perfect', a short film made during his university years, in which he filmed a story related to himself, which would be taken up five years later in a film with the same title, with which he set out to bring back to Toey and Oat, his main characters, with the aim that the audience enjoyed his realistic perspective on what he believes about love, and with the key message that if you think in a new and different way, sometimes it is much better than you expect.
It would then be followed by the films 'Bangkok Dark Tales' (2019), and 'There Is No Space for Me' (2014), the three seasons of '2moons: The Series' (Mello Thailand, 2019), the documentary 'BL Broken Fantasy ' (2020), the feature film 'Present Still Perfect' (with which the cycle momentarily closes, but another installment is planned), the film series 'Call It What You Want' (GagaOOLala, 2021), which includes 'It's Complicated', and the film series 'Till the World Ends', the latter two from 2023.
Their creations share a taste for telling realistic stories that reflect their own lives, or about how they wish society was, how they wish people would treat each other. Despite the stylistic variations between each work, one cannot escape the feeling that they point to the same essences, convictions, fears, securities, philias and intimate worldviews of the author. As if Anusorn Soisa-ngim created a portal to his mind through his filmography, because the Thai director believes in the power of telling stories, in creating content that speaks to people, that makes them feel, think and question . He ultimately believes in being unapologetically himself, no matter what the industry says.
His journey has not been easy. After graduating in 2014, the filmmaker dove headfirst into the world of glitz and glamor that is the entertainment industry, only to discover that it's more about who you know than what you can do. But here's the kicker: Instead of following their rules, Anusorn Soisa-ngim made his own. And that provoked the anger of the hierarchy.
Inspired by real events, 'Call It What You Want' reflected the pressure of the BL industry on artists: plastic surgery, strict diets and, worst of all, the suffering to which young actors are subjected when they are harassed by film producers series, in addition to the need to keep the relationships between many of the protagonists of these dramas a secret from the company and fans. This meant an attempt to silence him.
Being banned from the entertainment industry has meant for him that he is not chained to having to follow guidelines, so he can break the rules and, although he does not have money for his creations, he has been able to push the limits and create art that really means something, without fear that it may generate controversy.
Aam's cinema has as many tricks as a conjurer. Characterized by telling real, raw stories full of passion, his works are about people, life, struggles and triumphs, and that is what makes them unforgettable. His creations go from laughter to horror as they reflect the sexual harassment of young actors by executives in the entertainment industry, or the promises that giving them their bodies would guarantee them entry to Earthly Paradise; but perennially having as its main theme the romance between boys.
Always trying to be himself and, at the same time, trying to understand what the fans really want to see.
Away from fiction, but about it, in the documentary 'BL Broken Fantasy' he addresses the behind-the-scenes of BL. Starring Bright and Win, the protagonists of the famous BL 'Still 2gether', Anusorn Soisa-ngim himself and a group of directors, producers, actors and scriptwriters of the genre, including Aof Noppharnach, Vachirawit Chivaaree and Metawin Opas-iamkajorn, try answer questions such as: Where does the BL series come from? Why are Yaoi fangirls devoting themselves physically and financially to BL?
Revered in 2022 as the best-selling BL sales director, in 2023 he was the Filmmaker of the Pride Month. He was nominated twice for the Asian Contents Awards, the first in 2020 thanks to '2moons: The Series', and then the following year with his second series, 'Call It What You Want', with which he was also nominated for an award. Content Asia, for "illuminating the struggles of independent filmmakers in the cutthroat entertainment sector." This series of films reveals, through the lens of Aam Anusorn, a tapestry of challenges, triumphs, and eternal perseverance.
Known for his unique approach to storytelling, drawing inspiration from his own experiences to create stories, Aam has made a name for himself in the independent film industry, and founded his own production company, COM'ME'TIVE By Aam, while still He was in his second year at Bangkok University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in Film and Performing Arts.
'PRESENT PERFECT' AND 'PRESENT STILL PERFECT'
Aam's most notable work to date is 'Present Perfect', which he adapted from the original 2012 short film. It is considered the first Thai film to receive funding from the government of Hokkaido, Japan.
The film revolves around Toey, a young Thai man who, after a painful breakup, decides to heal his broken heart in the Japanese city of Higashikawa, where he meets Oat, a man who travels to Japan to experience freedom for the last time in his life, because he is about to get married. From strangers to friends, romance blossoms between the two. Before returning to the "real" world, the two men have to pick up the broken pieces and rebuild them.
Starring Kritsana Maroukasonti as Oat and Tonawanik Adisorn as Toey, for her 2017 debut, Aam Anusorn Soisa-Ngim drew on him own experiences to tell this romantic story that will take the viewer on a moving journey as the characters follow the simple quest of love The encounter forms a beautiful relationship between two men, because each has his own trauma.
For the filmmaker, recovering these characters, especially Oat and Toey, was like seeing himself.
Produced by Nuttachai Jiraanont, Tanwarin Sukapisit and Chen Rong Hua, the film won the Best Film Award at the Amsterdam LGBTQ Film Festival in the Netherlands and was screened at many film festivals around the world, including the World Festival Bangkok Film Festival, the Serile Filmului International Gay Film Festival, Romania, and the Western Visayas Film Festival, Philippines.
Then, the film ended inconclusively, in the airport scene in which both young people have to separate. The director faced a dilemma, when one is about to accept or delete the other's friend request. And he chose to just leave it there, because he wanted people to create their own ending. "Those were those times, in 2017, when gay marriage was something we didn't talk about in Thailand," he told the press at the time.
While 'Present Perfect' is more realistic and intended to be true to life, 'Present Still Perfect', released on March 12, 2020, offers a more idealistic view of same-sex relationships in modern Thailand, while the A pair of former lovers reunites once again on the remote island of Koh Kood.
Four years after what is told in 'Present Perfect', Toey meets Oat at the airport and all his pain returns. In an attempt to cope with her pain, he decides to travel to Koh Kood where he meets Jane (Darina Boonchu), the guesthouse owner who recently discovered that her husband was having an affair, and Kenta (Ryota Omi), a traveler from Japan who was staying at his house.
The peace and beauty of the island brought Toey joy again, but he knew he couldn't ignore her feelings for Oat forever. Until one night he receives a message from Oat about how much he missed him. Toey responds by stating that he loves him too, because deep down being with Oat is all he wants, but he is cautious, knowing that his love is forbidden. The next morning, Oat appears on Koh Kood. Now Toey has to decide whether to follow his heart and rekindle his relationship with Oat or let him go since they can never truly be together.
'Present Still Perfect' is more about how Aam wishes society was. With his dream of getting married one day still unfulfilled, the filmmaker needed his dream to come true, at least on screen. For this reason, he did not hesitate to see his characters triumph in love. "I feel like I'm already married, even though that's not the truth. So yeah, the reason I keep coming back to these characters is because I want them to be successful in love, and ultimately they were."
The sequel to 'Present Perfect' makes a clear statement in favor of same-sex marriage.
And if on the one hand, the film has contributed to changing mentalities and making visible people from the LGBT+ community and their struggles for the legalization of same-sex marriage in Thailand, it also leaves another clear message: the act of letting go, the act of forgiving. If your husband is gay and you already knew it because you have been with him for years, you have to learn to let go and accept the truth.
In 2018 he did not have the budget to film the second part because no one supported him. Then one of his fans suggested, "Why don't you go to Indiegogo.com and then do some crowdfunding?" And after a lot of thinking: "Who is going to pay me the money? I'm a nobody. Nobody cares about me. Why do I have to?", he discovered one day that he had enough money to embark on that other trip. .
On the other hand, much of 'Present Perfect' and its sequel deal with cultural differences. In 'Present Still Perfect', for example, a Japanese character explains how in Japan it is considered disrespectful to let an old woman take her seat on the bus.
However, what is truly extraordinary is the cinematographic wrapping of these topics in films and series that leave the unmistakable feeling of being unique.
This, and no other, is the key to Anusorn Soisa-Ngim's exceptionality. If we look closely, the themes are not different from those of hundreds of authors, many of them also Thai, no matter how much personal quirks are sought in their work. However, his way of conceiving stories on celluloid has such a singularity that there is no other choice but to applaud and applaud him, like the magician who has just pulled a white rabbit out of his hat.
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