looking for Thai & JFilm friends

Disclaimer: I am by no means anything remotely like an expert. I'm just an old woman living in Scotland who loves particular veins of Thai comedy and wants to understand it all better. This isn't even to a rough draft stage, just an on-going attempt to collect and organise thoughts. They will change, this will be updated. Aside from this first time, it won't bother your reading lists. But likewise if anyone here is interested, you'll have to make a point of returning to the post.

I'm rewatching some of my favourites and it will be useful to be able to incorporate them while they are still fresh in my mind. Series and movies which will likely make it in here eventually include: May Who?, The Shipper, Tonhon Chonlatee, I'm Tee Me Too, A Boss and a Babe, UMG, Cause You're My Boy, He's Coming to Me, 1000 Years Old, Ghost Host Ghost House, Low Season, Full House. Possibly Matalada, 55:15, Bad Buddy, The Warp Effect and Duean in FUTS. I hope this list will grow and am always looking for suggestions.

Attempting to find words to talk about Thai comedy and how to usefully distinguish it from western comedies.
Someone on Letterboxd (review for May Who?) described Thai humour as "so goofy it's pure" and that's the best I've come across. Goofy, playful, joyous, exuberant, fun, accepting, unabashed, at least slightly mad, chaotic, madcap, self aware but not self-conscious, with lightness and freedom. Often intelligent writing and clever creativity hidden under seeming nonsense. Nonsense plot lines which actually work because everything is edge of your seat exaggeration anyway, except for the emotions which can be quietly very real. Sometimes exceptionally well-written and well-crafted. Other times it whole-heartedly dives into and embraces wonky production values and plot lines. Both a refusal to take itself seriously and often very serious bits woven in, like the number which include trauma or grief narratives.

And always, always, full of warmth, kindness, generosity, acceptance and love.

Can you tell I adore this way of doing things?


( Read more... )

Chaotic Boy Energy - Notes for a series which will never be made

First review!!!: "The literary equivalent of shooting paint from water pistols at a camera lens and calling it art."

"An eccentric fork of chaos composed by someone who makes shit up."

Moving again but even more a work in progress. See rule 4.
Comments always welcome.

Probably time to let this go. Real life stresses made this impossible for a few weeks and with that distance, I see how poor much of this is. It was fun whilst I was immersed in it, and good for my mental health, and that was its only real purpose. Leaves a big hole but I can't find my way back.


Beginning is rather rocky right now as I'm trying to develop some things I've always struggled to write with any real detail. Current process is to build a scaffolding of relatively gentle, or at least tempered, chaos to work moments of friendship development and early flirting into. There's a lot to balance. Since I've started doing this I've realised that the original less-detailed writing of the beginning functioned a sort of on-ramp to ease an unsuspecting hypothetical reader into the commotion of the rest. So I'm trying to learn new ways of imagining and writing those ideas too. Trying to convey early not-yet-relationship-but-interested feelings and actions in a subtle way is tricky, far beyond both my life and writing skills.

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The characters and I are *still* in negotiations as to their names. It is proving to be an increasingly chaotic process. P'Nut is changing his to Zazen, his nong chaai Zhao Zen is still Zen unless he's Ohm, and Aon and Aof are still on strike. Until this is resolved, which may take some time given the fun they're having with it and their exceptional ability to sidetrack the process, I'll just use the names of the actors whose work originally inspired them. If you're familiar with these actors you'll be able to imagine in more detail than I can successfully write as well and it gives some of the feel of watching a series with the duality of known actors who've worked together before and the characters they're playing now.


When this started, it was just a scattering of things I'd imagine to cheer myself up when bedbound by chronic illness. The beginning point was Title (Drake Laedeke) and Jim Bae's (First Kanaphan) chaotic boy energy friendship in Blacklist. It was a lot of fun and I thought it would be grand to see more of it. Didn't care what kind of series it was, just as long as the lads were smiling and goofing off.

My brain one midnight: Vampires. Drake is a vampire.

How could anyone as chronically bored as I am just set that aside? From that the rest, mostly through collage-ing familiar things and asking questions, though Neo's character has a way of bursting into other people's scenes on his own. What's the setting? NOT a university. A boarding house maybe. Who else lives there? If First, then Khaotung. What's his story? How does he fit in? But no crying, every director makes Khaotung cry. What's happening now, what else is going on, how can we add more fun?

These are the rules:
You cannot undead Khaotung.
You cannot make Khaotung cry.
This is very important.

Drake is a vampire.

The rest is negotiable and subject to change.



This is the story so far.

Drake and First are best friends. They have a band called Chaotic Boy Energy. Drake often wears a t-shirt with their logo. Their philosophy of music does not involve practicing.

They live in Mrs Hong's boarding house. She has bright blue hair.

( Continue the story )