'Single All the Way' (2021) is an American film directed by Michael Mayer and starring a couple of two gay boys – Peter (Michael Urie) and Nick (Philemon Chambers). Peter, desperately seeking to avoid his family's judgment given his eternally single status, convinces his best friend Nick to pretend that they are in a relationship and accompany him during the Christmas festivities.
For its part, 'The Proposal' (2009), an American film directed by Anne Fletcher and scripted by Peter Chiarelli, tells the story of Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock), a Canadian editor-in-chief of a large publishing house in New York, who that no one at work can stand her. A problem that grows because you need to have a VISA to remain in the United States. For this reason, she decides to ask her assistant Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds) to marry her to achieve this (manipulating him with the idea that she will publish the book he wants).
In the South Korean BL series 'Nobleman Ryu's Wedding' there is not a courtship, but a fake marriage. In place of the beautiful bride, who disappeared the day before the wedding due to her hatred for political marriages, Ryu Ho Seon marries Choi Hwa Jin, her brother. The deceived nobleman tries to reverse the marriage, but ends up accepting his "wife's" proposal to wait a few days until the lost young woman reappears and she takes her place without anyone suspecting, thereby avoiding a scandal that could be the ruin of the two families.
Of course, in these two films and the series, farce will give way to true love.
These are solid arguments why these people have to, at their convenience, fake a fake romance. These are three of the many examples of stories that share this premise. They are valid to present my points of view that I will explain later.
After directing 'Battle of the Writers', 'To Be Continued', 'Naughty Babe' and 'Friend Forever', Klaryder Nathawat Piyanonpong, a Thai director with more mistakes than successes in his work, returns to the screens with the series 'Your Sky', the adaptation of a romantic comedy of the same name that, with a script by Wannapa Lertkultanon ('Bed Friend'), and Jungjing Wanna Kortunyavat ('I Feel You Linger in the Air'), tells us a story of false courtship.
The premise of 'Your Sky' isn't really original. Teerak Rak Niran, played by Kong Kongpob Jirojmontri, in his first leading role, and known for appearing in a supporting role in 'Naughty Babe', is a naive first-year university student. Oh (Mike Chinnarat Siriphongchawalit) pursues Teerak with the hope that he will agree to be her boyfriend and will not hesitate to use even deception to achieve it.
To prevent this from happening, Teerak relies on his inseparable friends Type (Patji Jirachart Buspavanich), PunLee (By Suppakarn Jirachotikul) and Joy (In Inthira Sae-sieo).
But through a ruse, Oh manages to deceive Teerak and two of his loyal followers. Then, to the viewer's delight, fate intervenes, and Muenfah, a character played by Thomas Teetut Chungmanirat, comes into action, also in his first leading role after playing secondary characters in several BL, such as 'Bed Friend' and 'The Middleman's Love'. The actor plays PunLee's older brother and a popular senior on campus.
The two young people will make the decision to pretend to be a couple to stop Oh's machinations. Teerak and Muenfah will live a story about a fake love that could lead to something real and genuine between two opposites who, although they don't want it, attract each other. Does it sound familiar to you?
What begins as a fake love could become a great couple when they have to pretend in front of family, friends and, above all, Oh, until they realize that they have more in common than they thought, as reflected in the synopsis.
Time together will make them see that, although it may not seem like it, they are made for each other.
I must confess that, while I did not advance more than 10 minutes into the first episode of 'Battle of the Writers', 'Naughty Babe' and 'Friend Forever', and 'To Be Continued' was a great disappointment for me as the series avoids addressing the internalized homophobia suffered by one of its protagonists and in this way resorts to an easy way to avoid the problems of self-understanding and self-acceptance of the character's homosexuality, I enjoy 'Your Sky', even being too simple to make a lasting impression.
Now, there are some issues that do not convince me about the premise of the series.
Oh is shown to be a gallant and kind young college student to both Teerak and the rest of the students. Apparently, he enjoys prestige, has the respect and admiration of friends and fellow students. He has public meetings with Teerak and in spaces where only the two of them meet, such as the locker room in the university bathrooms. At no time does he show signs of being possessive, violent, irritable... He smiles friendly while looking into the eyes of his interlocutor. Evidence empathy and kindness. So,
-What reasons do Teerak's sister and friends have for demonizing Oh, declaring him "untrustworthy" and trying to prevent them from even talking to each other in public places?
- Could you foresee that Oh has a hidden agenda to cause harm to Teerak?
-If they have prior knowledge of machinations on Oh's part to deceive Teerak and cause him harm, why have they not reported it to the relevant authorities?
- How can an attentive, gallant young man who gives flowers and chocolates to his lover in a plan of conquest in one scene, in the next scene, be able to use deception to get Teerak and two of his friends drunk to offend him?
- And now, after knowing that Teerak and Muenfah are dating, will Oh deny it and continue her attempts to conquer him?
- On the other hand, everything seems to indicate, from his actions/reactions, that Muenfah is in love. If so, why not confess your feelings? Why use a false courtship to approach him?
- This weak conflict could very well be solved not with a false courtship, but with Teerak telling Oh that he sees him as a friend and not a boyfriend. If, because you are so naive and shy, you don't dare to tell him face to face, you can very well use a text message, smoke signals, and even carrier pigeons. But I suggest you do it like anyone does today: looking him in the eyes and saying it at point-blank range.
True or not, dear reader?
Something just doesn't convince me here. The reason why the two protagonists have to fake a romance is forced. The creators could have been more coherent and designed another scenario and other reasons to justify the procedure.
Although it is full of clichés and does not present great incentives, the first episode showed that the public can expect candid moments from the story of Teerak and Muenfah that manage to bring a knowing smile to the viewer. The series is worth watching if only to see Teerak's silly, naive laugh and the attractive actors who play Muenfah, Ryo and PunLee.
The forced plot does not take away from the magic of a leading couple, which has good chemistry.
Furthermore, the series tries to provide an easy answer to the most hackneyed question of all time: Can love be born from lies?
In parallel, the series tells the story of a second BL couple, that of Ryo (Auau Thanaphum Sestasittikul) and Hia (Save Worapong Walor). Both also rock the role of secondary couple. They really catch my attention. Very good chemistry. The dynamic of a boy in love with his best friend and a boy who doesn't know anything is cute. It is a relationship that begins to form and flourish along with the main one. The production company should give the actors the opportunity to be the main couple in another dramatized boys love in the future.
These secondary stories are important: while the main protagonists will be chaotic, carry the weight of the plot and have the maximum focus of the viewer's attention, the secondary ones will give us some calm with their cute and passionate romance.
But I personally think that Auau and Save having less screen time than the main couple benefits the series as a whole more, because they make the most of their scenes. Sometimes showing less will make one pay more attention to the few scenes shown, if they are carefully thought out and shown. Their performances make me love the series in general.
Something that also catches my attention, both in this and other Thai BL series, is that most of the characters are either queer or allies. That in a Thai university, a country that despite its growing openness towards LGBT+ issues in recent years continues to deny the right to equal marriage and does not yet have a government policy to protect gays, lesbians and other people from said community of harassment and discrimination, and there is not a single harassing student or teacher, nor a single homophobe (who serves as a denunciation of discrimination and homophobia), is something truly suspicious.
Seeing Teerak's father watching a BL series on his mobile phone, even ignoring that his son is a queer young man, and investigating these types of television products, is something illusory, beyond a truth: in the Thai, as in In any other heteronormative and patriarchal society, there are parents who respect their children's right to love whoever they want.
In this sense, as I enjoyed series like the British 'Heartstopper', based on the four-volume graphic novel by Alice Oseman, for its realism, in which Charlie Spring (Joe Lock) and Nick Nelson (Kit Connor), who have a beautiful and supportive group of queer friends, they fight homophobes daily, even if they are members of their own family. And this is happening in Britain, a country much more open to LGBT+ relationships than Thailand.
Surely some will say that this is a BL and they are not interested in it being realistic or lacking the truth, and its light and sweet tone is enough that if I want to watch dramas I would go somewhere else.
The tone of the story is rounded out by a luxury cast that elevates the dramatic and comic moments of 'Your Sky'.
Duu Sanya Kunakorn ('Good Doctor', 2024) plays Teerak's father, a man who intensely loves his son and his sister, Babe (Morakot Liu). Chumpanee Sopitnapa ('Luead Khon Kon Jang', 2018) is Teerak's mother here, a woman who pampers her youngest son. Tanthasatien Pol ('Lord Lai Mungkorn', 2006), and Koy Narumon Phongsupap ('Only Boo!', 2024), play Muenfah's parents; Phiao Duangjai Hiransri ('#HATETAG', 2021) steps into the shoes of Oh's mother, a manipulative woman who will take advantage of her social position and influence to ally herself with her son and try to take revenge on Muenfah for "having stolen her boyfriend." Oh", and Tonnam Piamchon Damrongsunthornchai ('Make Money', 2020), plays Dom, Babe's loving boyfriend.
All of them, and other talented actors and actresses, seek, together with the protagonists, to develop an imperfect story that continues an important path in favor of representation and diversity.