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elisheva_mFor "Stuff I Love: Top Ten Edition Challenge 1"
Things I love about two hour Thai movies, represented by10 11 favourites and a couple more.
Fluidity of tone and ‘genre’. Thai story-telling flows from one tone to another as needed. There are genre norms but they’re different from western ones, and used very differently.
Tears of the Black Tiger takes this a step further. Genres - Thai and western - become a riotous palette of textures, colours and emotions to play with. It is fascinating work.
Warm hearted and accepting, There is a lot of warmth and kindness in Thai titles, one reason it is such a refuge from the deluge of tension, negativity and cynicism elsewhere. It works particularly well with youth series and coming of age.
May Who? Equal parts clever, intelligent and goofy. Super-charged teenage emotions rendered as literal electricity.
Teacher’s Diary - Quietly perfect. Humour, heart and kindness, so much kindness.
Unrushed pace. Two hour Thai movies tend to amble along. They’ll get wherever it they’re going whenever they get there and it will be exactly right. There’s obviously more planning but it never feels that way.
Nearly every title on this page could be used as an example here.
The Cursed Land - Atmospheric and creepy, not really horror. And it refuses to rush anything, just layers on the What is going on? until it’s ready to tell us.
Exploring their wee world. And often that ambling is literally exploring. It makes for wonderfully relaxed story-telling, with the things we need to know slipped in as they wander around a city, the northern mountains, other countries, wherever.
Low Season - Delightfully goofy Thai humour mixed with perfectly set up jump scare ghosts but never too scary mixed with a sweet friendship/love story, breath-taking tropical forest settings, great music and a female lead who wears glasses.
One Day, Friend Zone
Emphasis on emotion rather than events. Western filmmaking often crams so many events into 90 minutes it’s exhausting. Deconditioning myself from that has been so good for my attention span too. Thai films, especially the longer ones, aren’t event-driven. Far fewer things happen. Instead emotions are given time to develop, expand, breathe and be felt. It’s a bit like listening to music and letting it take you wherever it goes.
Saeng Krasue is a simple enough story, but oh does it let its emotions breathe. If I could see one piece of media again for the first time, it would be this because its emotional timing and development is exquisite. Sometimes painful, sometimes beautiful, always grounded and real.
Dew is a more complicated story, being a remake of a S Korean film. It was my first real exposure to Thai melodrama and the immensity of its emotions overwhelmed me, enough that I let myself be swayed by negative comments from others. And my conditioning was still primarily western-orientated so I hung my upset on plot points, not knowing what else to do with them, not understanding how Thais tell their stories, use melodrama and work with emotions.
But 17 months, 16 lakorns, 60 some Thai movies and the deeply problematic SK original later I was able to recognise that Dew is a magnificent film. It will always be heart-wrenchingly difficult given the utter immensity of its emotions, but my goodness what they did.
This is the one which just will not let me go. I will hold these characters in my heart for a long, long time.
Ghost stories which aren’t scary and turn out to be about love or grief.
There are many. The sad, gentle comfort of Dek Hor. The Undertaker. Anong (My Boo). This is supposed to be ten and I will go over so I’ll stop. But I couldn’t write about Thai films without mentioning Nang Nak, the 1999 retelling of a legend from the 1800s which has been adapted and retold so many times - straightforward, comedy, coming of age, sensuous, lakorns, a movie about making a Mae Nak movie. The more of these I see, the clearer it becomes how much love Thai filmmakers have for Mae Nak and her love story, and how skilled they are at adapting aspects of it to move our emotions.
Two hour Thai films do this thing where the first half or more is wandering around their wee world, getting to know the characters while slowly adding in the things we need to know. And then there’s a moment - sometimes it’s gradual, sometimes it’s a revelation or something happens to change things - when the film reveals its poignancy.
In theory I know it’s coming, but every single time by the time it happens I am so caught up in the characters there is still that gasp as I realise what it’s really about and it catches me in my heart. It’s why I love this way of story-telling so much.
There is as much depth and emotion as faster paced fare from other countries, often more, but it is so much more gentle and relaxing to get there.
One Day - The space it gives to emotions, how unhurried it is, the shift into its poignancy, the scenes with only the two leads. And the soundtrack.
The Undertaker - Slow and quirky, at times surreal. Slice of life with humour, a ghost and love.
Things I love about two hour Thai movies, represented by
Fluidity of tone and ‘genre’. Thai story-telling flows from one tone to another as needed. There are genre norms but they’re different from western ones, and used very differently.
Tears of the Black Tiger takes this a step further. Genres - Thai and western - become a riotous palette of textures, colours and emotions to play with. It is fascinating work.
Warm hearted and accepting, There is a lot of warmth and kindness in Thai titles, one reason it is such a refuge from the deluge of tension, negativity and cynicism elsewhere. It works particularly well with youth series and coming of age.
May Who? Equal parts clever, intelligent and goofy. Super-charged teenage emotions rendered as literal electricity.
Teacher’s Diary - Quietly perfect. Humour, heart and kindness, so much kindness.
Unrushed pace. Two hour Thai movies tend to amble along. They’ll get wherever it they’re going whenever they get there and it will be exactly right. There’s obviously more planning but it never feels that way.
Nearly every title on this page could be used as an example here.
The Cursed Land - Atmospheric and creepy, not really horror. And it refuses to rush anything, just layers on the What is going on? until it’s ready to tell us.
Exploring their wee world. And often that ambling is literally exploring. It makes for wonderfully relaxed story-telling, with the things we need to know slipped in as they wander around a city, the northern mountains, other countries, wherever.
Low Season - Delightfully goofy Thai humour mixed with perfectly set up jump scare ghosts but never too scary mixed with a sweet friendship/love story, breath-taking tropical forest settings, great music and a female lead who wears glasses.
One Day, Friend Zone
Emphasis on emotion rather than events. Western filmmaking often crams so many events into 90 minutes it’s exhausting. Deconditioning myself from that has been so good for my attention span too. Thai films, especially the longer ones, aren’t event-driven. Far fewer things happen. Instead emotions are given time to develop, expand, breathe and be felt. It’s a bit like listening to music and letting it take you wherever it goes.
Saeng Krasue is a simple enough story, but oh does it let its emotions breathe. If I could see one piece of media again for the first time, it would be this because its emotional timing and development is exquisite. Sometimes painful, sometimes beautiful, always grounded and real.
Dew is a more complicated story, being a remake of a S Korean film. It was my first real exposure to Thai melodrama and the immensity of its emotions overwhelmed me, enough that I let myself be swayed by negative comments from others. And my conditioning was still primarily western-orientated so I hung my upset on plot points, not knowing what else to do with them, not understanding how Thais tell their stories, use melodrama and work with emotions.
But 17 months, 16 lakorns, 60 some Thai movies and the deeply problematic SK original later I was able to recognise that Dew is a magnificent film. It will always be heart-wrenchingly difficult given the utter immensity of its emotions, but my goodness what they did.
This is the one which just will not let me go. I will hold these characters in my heart for a long, long time.
Ghost stories which aren’t scary and turn out to be about love or grief.
There are many. The sad, gentle comfort of Dek Hor. The Undertaker. Anong (My Boo). This is supposed to be ten and I will go over so I’ll stop. But I couldn’t write about Thai films without mentioning Nang Nak, the 1999 retelling of a legend from the 1800s which has been adapted and retold so many times - straightforward, comedy, coming of age, sensuous, lakorns, a movie about making a Mae Nak movie. The more of these I see, the clearer it becomes how much love Thai filmmakers have for Mae Nak and her love story, and how skilled they are at adapting aspects of it to move our emotions.
Two hour Thai films do this thing where the first half or more is wandering around their wee world, getting to know the characters while slowly adding in the things we need to know. And then there’s a moment - sometimes it’s gradual, sometimes it’s a revelation or something happens to change things - when the film reveals its poignancy.
In theory I know it’s coming, but every single time by the time it happens I am so caught up in the characters there is still that gasp as I realise what it’s really about and it catches me in my heart. It’s why I love this way of story-telling so much.
There is as much depth and emotion as faster paced fare from other countries, often more, but it is so much more gentle and relaxing to get there.
One Day - The space it gives to emotions, how unhurried it is, the shift into its poignancy, the scenes with only the two leads. And the soundtrack.
The Undertaker - Slow and quirky, at times surreal. Slice of life with humour, a ghost and love.
no subject
Date: 2026-02-03 01:45 am (UTC)There are genre norms but they’re different from western ones, and used very differently.
I love hearing about this kind of stuff; there's such a mindset around 'how we do it here is how everyone does it' and that's not true.
I love how you describe this though, it feels like these films take you and wrap you up in a blanket and then transport on a slow, wandering journey where you have plenty of time to look around and take everything in for a while before they show you where they're going, and it just sounds so nice, like even for the horror films. We could all do to slow down a bit.
I really liked this list - thank you for sharing it!
no subject
Date: 2026-02-04 09:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-02-11 03:12 am (UTC)Ooh, your list has made me interested in Thai movies. I will see which of these are available on my country's Netflix and give some of them a shot :) Very interested in Dew and May Who?
I love your take on the theme! I agree with 90-minute movies feeling too fast; I like it when a movie takes its time to tell the story it needs to tell, and it's nice to know that Thai films don't shy away from that.
no subject
Date: 2026-02-13 01:00 pm (UTC)May Who? is pretty easy to find, it's on several platforms. I can watch it again if you want to chat about it.
Is Netflix your only subscription? If you want something sweet, light and funny, look for My Boo. I know they have (or had) that one. It isn't a "horror" film at all - imagine a kitten trying to roar mixed with gag props, goofy comedy and a lot of love.
Everything on this list I've found a way to watch and can point you to them.
Dew is full-on melodrama and VERY intense. I love it dearly but it is a lot.
What sorts of movies do you like? I may be able to suggest some specifically for you.
Thai films embrace taking their time. I hope their way of telling a story works for you too, finding them has given me so much <3
no subject
Date: 2026-02-13 08:07 pm (UTC)Yes, I only have Netflix; sometimes shows get cycled out or are region-locked, so I may not have it even though it's available elsewhere. I just checked and Dew and May Who? are not available in my Netflix, but My Boo is.
Thank you for the offers! I can probably find the movies elsewhere as well if I try looking hard enough XD I just prioritize those on Netflix since it's installed on our smart TV so the watching experience is much better.
no subject
Date: 2026-02-15 01:56 pm (UTC)There will be plenty more Thai on Netflix too. Feel free to ask if you have any questions or just want to chat about them.