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elisheva_mI've just watched an excellent Thai series called 55:15 Never Too Late. It's on GMMTV's official youtube channel and well worth some time.
The premise is that five people who've turned 55 get their 55+ ID cards photocopied and then all wake up one morning as their 15 year old selves.
Except it's still the current year so they have to learn how to be modern teenagers, navigate smart phones and everything else that's changed in 40 years. The episodes (2-6) where their individual, but sometimes interlinked, stories are set up are my favourites. There is some stellar writing, directing, editing and acting in this.
It also has the best roles for women, younger and older, that I've seen in Thai series*. There's some great humour and well, not going to spoil any of it. Even though the chances of anyone reading this are functionally zero.
*At the time of writing. They're still amongst the best I've seen.
If anyone is though, I can't recommend it highly enough. These are characters you will care about and their stories are very skillfully told.
Which makes some things cut deep. Will think out loud about them under a cut lest they show up in search for a stranger.
My sell by date came early, it is too late for me, so the endings of the two characters I resonated most with hit hard. I was braced for not feeling represented at all, but not prepared for the pain of their endings. Jarunee's death especially. A teacher who has to leave work because of illness, cervical cancer (they had me in for frequent pap smears because of anomalies-they were watching for pre-cancerous cells-before the hysterectomy), cares for others, tall, very thin, glasses. I was nowhere near as beautiful or talented as View or Nok and chronic illness has aged my body unattractively, but yeah, finally a woman character I can otherwise see myself in. She did what she needed to do regarding her regrets... and that was it.
It was an accurate representation of life that Jaya, who had so much and treated it poorly, got it back simply by learning to take responsibility and Jarunee barely got to experience anything. They can pass that off as at least she was happy for a wee while but it's the kind of thing people say to comfort themselves and each other. It was an unfair and shitty end. And yes, life is unfair. That's a given.
There was much I loved about Songphon/Paul's story, especially the actors. Kob and Khaotung were a brilliant pairing to play the role at the two ages. Prigkhing was perfect as Songphon's niece, both for the contrast of her exuberant enthusiasm for EVERYTHING with his closeted shyness and for the delight of seeing her and Khaotung pull off uncle and niece. Likewise Khaotung and Piploy when their younger selves became real friends. I wasn't keen on all of his fanboying though. Maybe it's just a cultural thing I've never been a part of but for me the writers took it too far. Songphon/Paul could have been a supportive fan without being a devotee for 40 years, especially for a Jaya who didn't deserve the devotion. It's like the writers were lazy with Paul's story and used him to fill a hole in Jaya's.
The meta-text of Khaotung discovering BL was great fun, as was his being asked to audition for a BL role. This ties into the complications of the possibilities of a young romance with someone he couldn't fall in love with though and was really just a pretext to have them kiss regardless. The writers/director walked a very fine line with all of that and fortunately they had an actor of Khaotung's caliber to pull off the necessary conflicts of emotion. But they truly should have kept all that pointless stereotypical old queer queen lusting after young meat crap they wrote for Songphon's only gay friend very far away from Paul's story. Like in the trash can in the writers' room for another series on another network with other actors. And then yeet it into the sun.
Because the series was so good and so much of it was skillfully executed, that strange and unneeded interjection was painful.
I know Songphon/Paul couldn't have ended up with either Mathee or Pipu but the writers could have given him a more optimistic outlook than saying he was cursed and talking about the importance of loving over being loved. I got through most of my adult life by focusing on loving and valuing that more than having it returned. Now I'm a bit older than Songphon and staring directly at how much it sucks to have that unfillable hole in my life. It's too late for me because life is unfair and everyone's life is already overfull with their own struggles, but given how well the writers negotiated complications in the other story lines, they didn't have to be lazy with Songphon's. Just changing a couple of lines to show he's on his way to being ready to move on from what couldn't be to a more fulfilling and requited future. That's all they needed to do for him.
Ok, these thoughts are written down now and it's not locked away in the silence of my head or my hard drive, so it's time for me to make use of my aging glitchy oestrogen-depleted low oxytocin postmenopausal chronically fatigued memory to forget all of this and just remember the good parts of this mostly brilliant piece of story telling.
The premise is that five people who've turned 55 get their 55+ ID cards photocopied and then all wake up one morning as their 15 year old selves.
Except it's still the current year so they have to learn how to be modern teenagers, navigate smart phones and everything else that's changed in 40 years. The episodes (2-6) where their individual, but sometimes interlinked, stories are set up are my favourites. There is some stellar writing, directing, editing and acting in this.
It also has the best roles for women, younger and older, that I've seen in Thai series*. There's some great humour and well, not going to spoil any of it. Even though the chances of anyone reading this are functionally zero.
*At the time of writing. They're still amongst the best I've seen.
If anyone is though, I can't recommend it highly enough. These are characters you will care about and their stories are very skillfully told.
Which makes some things cut deep. Will think out loud about them under a cut lest they show up in search for a stranger.
My sell by date came early, it is too late for me, so the endings of the two characters I resonated most with hit hard. I was braced for not feeling represented at all, but not prepared for the pain of their endings. Jarunee's death especially. A teacher who has to leave work because of illness, cervical cancer (they had me in for frequent pap smears because of anomalies-they were watching for pre-cancerous cells-before the hysterectomy), cares for others, tall, very thin, glasses. I was nowhere near as beautiful or talented as View or Nok and chronic illness has aged my body unattractively, but yeah, finally a woman character I can otherwise see myself in. She did what she needed to do regarding her regrets... and that was it.
It was an accurate representation of life that Jaya, who had so much and treated it poorly, got it back simply by learning to take responsibility and Jarunee barely got to experience anything. They can pass that off as at least she was happy for a wee while but it's the kind of thing people say to comfort themselves and each other. It was an unfair and shitty end. And yes, life is unfair. That's a given.
There was much I loved about Songphon/Paul's story, especially the actors. Kob and Khaotung were a brilliant pairing to play the role at the two ages. Prigkhing was perfect as Songphon's niece, both for the contrast of her exuberant enthusiasm for EVERYTHING with his closeted shyness and for the delight of seeing her and Khaotung pull off uncle and niece. Likewise Khaotung and Piploy when their younger selves became real friends. I wasn't keen on all of his fanboying though. Maybe it's just a cultural thing I've never been a part of but for me the writers took it too far. Songphon/Paul could have been a supportive fan without being a devotee for 40 years, especially for a Jaya who didn't deserve the devotion. It's like the writers were lazy with Paul's story and used him to fill a hole in Jaya's.
The meta-text of Khaotung discovering BL was great fun, as was his being asked to audition for a BL role. This ties into the complications of the possibilities of a young romance with someone he couldn't fall in love with though and was really just a pretext to have them kiss regardless. The writers/director walked a very fine line with all of that and fortunately they had an actor of Khaotung's caliber to pull off the necessary conflicts of emotion. But they truly should have kept all that pointless stereotypical old queer queen lusting after young meat crap they wrote for Songphon's only gay friend very far away from Paul's story. Like in the trash can in the writers' room for another series on another network with other actors. And then yeet it into the sun.
Because the series was so good and so much of it was skillfully executed, that strange and unneeded interjection was painful.
I know Songphon/Paul couldn't have ended up with either Mathee or Pipu but the writers could have given him a more optimistic outlook than saying he was cursed and talking about the importance of loving over being loved. I got through most of my adult life by focusing on loving and valuing that more than having it returned. Now I'm a bit older than Songphon and staring directly at how much it sucks to have that unfillable hole in my life. It's too late for me because life is unfair and everyone's life is already overfull with their own struggles, but given how well the writers negotiated complications in the other story lines, they didn't have to be lazy with Songphon's. Just changing a couple of lines to show he's on his way to being ready to move on from what couldn't be to a more fulfilling and requited future. That's all they needed to do for him.
Ok, these thoughts are written down now and it's not locked away in the silence of my head or my hard drive, so it's time for me to make use of my aging glitchy oestrogen-depleted low oxytocin postmenopausal chronically fatigued memory to forget all of this and just remember the good parts of this mostly brilliant piece of story telling.
