immoralq
This review may contain spoilers
I jumped into BL one night during the pandemic lockdown of 2020 after watching a multi couple edit video on YouTube one night. I started with 'Why R U?', but when I realised that it hadn't finished being made, i abandoned it (temporarily) and watched 'Until We Meet Again', 'Love By Chance' and 'Theory of Love'
After taking this deep dive into Thai BL, I found MDL and read a lot of discussions and comments and watched even more multi couple videos on YouTube and found my way to SOTUS.
Before I start, full disclaimer: I am not Thai. Nor am I Asian. I am a white Australian. Therefore I may be seeing some things through the lens of my culture and upbringing which may not seem right to someone who is Thai.
SOTUS (an acronym for Seniority, Order, Tradition, Unity and Spirit) is a system that freshmen in the faculty of engineering go through to earn their gear and be officially recognised as juniors by their third-year seniors. Arthit (Perawat Sangpotirat aka Krist) is head of the hazers, as the seniors are known, and he has a tendency to abuse his power.
The freshman are basically required to do anything asked of them by their seniors, which skirts a very dangerous line between hazing and outright bullying. At least one student collapses during one of the activities.
A freshman named Kongpob (Prachaya Ruangroj aka Singto) joins the university and the SOTUS program and immediately defies Arthit, standing up for himself and his classmates against the bullying. And it is actual bullying in a lot of cases. One moment that stands out to me is Arthit ordering Kongpob to stand on a table, shout at the top of voice that he likes men, then go and ask three other males students to be his boyfriend.
It was very hard to watch. Making the freshman run laps, do push-ups or sing and tasks of that nature are relatively okay, but what Arthit had Kongpob do went way past simple hazing. People's sexualities, whatever they may be, are not something to be used for public humiliation.
If you can get through the first three or so episodes, things do improve. Arthit and Kongpob being to understand one another better and each other's perspective on things. They begin to develop mutual respect and then that deepens into something more.
There is not a lot of physical contact in this show. Arthit and Kongpob kiss twice, maybe three times, and that's it. There's no skin shown and no heavy makeout scenes.
There is a now famous scene that takes place on the Rama VIII bridge in Bangkok, where Arthit and Kongpob kiss for the first time, and both the scene and the bridge are now so entwined with Thai BL that they are reference in other BL shows.
SOTUS was released in 2016 and can be considered, along with Love Sick, the show that really pushed Thai Bl into the mainstream. Both shows are on Netflix, both shows are referenced in other BL series (characters are seen either watching the shows, or the couple will go the bridge, or someone mentions/orders pink milk) and both shows set up ideas about what Thai BL should be.
Thankfully, in this series, there is no sexual assault (another trope used quite frequent in BL - from many countries) and once you get past the first four or so episodes the hazing becomes less egregious. If, like me, you were bullied in school, you may find some of the scenes triggering.
All in all, this is not a bad series. The acting is very good. Singto, especially, is an excellent actor (if you like him, do yourself a solid and go watch him in 'He's Coming To Me') and Krist is no slouch either. The supporting cast is also very good (keep a lookout for pre-Kiss Me Again and Dark Blue Kiss actor New Thitipoom and pre-theory of Love Off Jumpol.)
I love the opening titles song.
I don't rate this as highly as other shows, but it's still worth a watch if you haven't, just mind yourself if bullying is a trigger for you.
After taking this deep dive into Thai BL, I found MDL and read a lot of discussions and comments and watched even more multi couple videos on YouTube and found my way to SOTUS.
Before I start, full disclaimer: I am not Thai. Nor am I Asian. I am a white Australian. Therefore I may be seeing some things through the lens of my culture and upbringing which may not seem right to someone who is Thai.
SOTUS (an acronym for Seniority, Order, Tradition, Unity and Spirit) is a system that freshmen in the faculty of engineering go through to earn their gear and be officially recognised as juniors by their third-year seniors. Arthit (Perawat Sangpotirat aka Krist) is head of the hazers, as the seniors are known, and he has a tendency to abuse his power.
The freshman are basically required to do anything asked of them by their seniors, which skirts a very dangerous line between hazing and outright bullying. At least one student collapses during one of the activities.
A freshman named Kongpob (Prachaya Ruangroj aka Singto) joins the university and the SOTUS program and immediately defies Arthit, standing up for himself and his classmates against the bullying. And it is actual bullying in a lot of cases. One moment that stands out to me is Arthit ordering Kongpob to stand on a table, shout at the top of voice that he likes men, then go and ask three other males students to be his boyfriend.
It was very hard to watch. Making the freshman run laps, do push-ups or sing and tasks of that nature are relatively okay, but what Arthit had Kongpob do went way past simple hazing. People's sexualities, whatever they may be, are not something to be used for public humiliation.
If you can get through the first three or so episodes, things do improve. Arthit and Kongpob being to understand one another better and each other's perspective on things. They begin to develop mutual respect and then that deepens into something more.
There is not a lot of physical contact in this show. Arthit and Kongpob kiss twice, maybe three times, and that's it. There's no skin shown and no heavy makeout scenes.
There is a now famous scene that takes place on the Rama VIII bridge in Bangkok, where Arthit and Kongpob kiss for the first time, and both the scene and the bridge are now so entwined with Thai BL that they are reference in other BL shows.
SOTUS was released in 2016 and can be considered, along with Love Sick, the show that really pushed Thai Bl into the mainstream. Both shows are on Netflix, both shows are referenced in other BL series (characters are seen either watching the shows, or the couple will go the bridge, or someone mentions/orders pink milk) and both shows set up ideas about what Thai BL should be.
Thankfully, in this series, there is no sexual assault (another trope used quite frequent in BL - from many countries) and once you get past the first four or so episodes the hazing becomes less egregious. If, like me, you were bullied in school, you may find some of the scenes triggering.
All in all, this is not a bad series. The acting is very good. Singto, especially, is an excellent actor (if you like him, do yourself a solid and go watch him in 'He's Coming To Me') and Krist is no slouch either. The supporting cast is also very good (keep a lookout for pre-Kiss Me Again and Dark Blue Kiss actor New Thitipoom and pre-theory of Love Off Jumpol.)
I love the opening titles song.
I don't rate this as highly as other shows, but it's still worth a watch if you haven't, just mind yourself if bullying is a trigger for you.
Was this review helpful to you?
