by Frank Hecker, Okazu Staff Writer

Believe it or not, there are Thai yuri novels written by Chao Planoy that are not part of the GAP extended universe; Pluto: The Series (streaming on YouTube) is an adaptation of one of them, from the powerhouse Thai production company GMMTV (who also produced 23.5: The Series). Unlike the other Chao Planoy adaptations reviewed here (GAP, Blank, and Affair), Pluto adds a mystery to the typical romance plot—though whether that’s an improvement is debatable, as we shall see.

Aioon (Namtan Tipnaree Weerawatnodom) is a tomboyish slacker working as a motorcycle courier. Ai is estranged from her younger twin sister Oaboom (also played by Namtan), and is thus surprised when right after Oom’s wedding (to wealthy heir Paul) Oom asks Ai to pretend to be her and break up with her ex-girlfriend May (Film Rachanun Mahawan). That night Paul and Oom are in an auto accident that kills Paul and leaves Oom in a coma. Ai feels compelled to carry out her sister’s last wish, goes to see May, and finds, first, that May is blind and, second, that she herself is becoming attracted to May. Ai decides to continue pretending to be Oom and not go through with the promised break-up. And thus the game is afoot.

The ensuing mysteries are many: Why did Oom decide to break up with May? How did May lose her sight, and is there any hope of her regaining it? What’s the connection between May, a lawyer, and Ai’s “motorpunk” friends? Will Oom ever come out of her coma? And most notably: Why doesn’t May figure out that Ai is not Oom, and why does Ai think she can get away with the pretense? The answers to these questions are revealed in the following episodes, so I won’t spoil them here. However, I will note that the series depends on a series of coincidences, connections between characters, and plot resolutions that are mostly implausible and contrived and therefore also mostly unsatisfying.

The appeal of the Pluto: The Series instead rests on the characters themselves and the actors who portray them. Here the series does better: both Namtan and Film are TV and film veterans, and both have challenging roles that they execute reasonably well, Namtan portraying twins with separate personalities and Film portraying a woman who’s lost her sight. Film also rescues May from being thought of solely as a victim of unfortunate circumstances, and shows that she has a scheming and conniving side as well, as befits a successful lawyer. As for their portrayal of the relationship between Ai and May, Namtan and Film can’t match the level of sensuality displayed by Freen and Becky in The Loyal Pin (or, for that matter, by Faye and Yoko in Blank), but they do make for a very affectionate and appealing couple, and they nail the occasional scenes of extreme emotion.

Finally, while I enjoyed Pluto: The Series for the most part, its existence does make me wish that Thai production companies would find more novels from other authors to adapt. Even the best screenwriters can do only so much with Chao Planoy’s novels, filled as they are with plot contrivances and sensationalistic elements. Other Thai authors surely deserve a chance to have their yuri novels become successful live-action series.

Ratings:

Story — 5 (too many complications, coincidences, and implausibilities)
Characters — 8
Production — 8 (the usual GMMTV professional work)
Service — 2
Yuri — 10
Overall — 7

Pluto: The Series is an enjoyable but uneven watch that struggles to overcome the implausibilities and contrivances of its source material and doesn’t completely succeed in doing so, despite the best efforts of Namtan and Film.

by Frank Hecker, Okazu Staff Writer

After GAP and Blank we now have Affair, a recently completed Thai live-action yuri series available on YouTube. Like those series, Affair is based on a novel by Chao Planoy, interconnected with the other two, although the connection is rather minimal and barely touched on. It tells the story of Pleng (Sonya Saranphat Pedersen), the pampered daughter of a wealthy family, and Wan (Lookmhee Punyapat Wangpongsathaporn), the daughter of Pleng’s family’s housekeeper.

The two girls are fast friends, and perhaps more than friends: Wan is besotted with Pleng and openly declares her love. Pleng—though clearly in love herself—is more hesitant, and pushes Wan to get a boyfriend, in the person of fellow student Ek (Pop Pataraphol Wanlopsiri), who doggedly pursues Wan every chance he gets.

Then their life together is interrupted by a series of tragic events that separate the girls. Wan goes on to become a doctor while Pleng tries to make a living as a musician, until their paths cross again thirteen years later. In a perfect world the two women would mutually declare their love, resume their relationship, and live happily ever after. However, at this point we’re only four episodes into an 8-episode series, and there’s a lot more drama (and melodrama) to come, courtesy of Wan’s and Pleng’s bruised feelings, battered by the circumstances of their separation, the presence of Ek, who’s still hanging around like a bad case of the flu, and Wan’s mother (Um Apasiri Nitibhon, as toxic here as she was as Lada’s mother in The Secret of Us).

Lookhmee and Sonya (collectively “LMSY”) play well together, one of the better couples in Thai live-action yuri. Lookhmee has a delicate beauty that the camera loves, and particularly excels in portraying Wan’s times of anger and despair—which occur fairly frequently. Sonya has more of a “girl next door” vibe, a vibe she subverts as Pleng and Wan tease and flirt with each other—again, the show has a lot of that, and they do it well. Lookmhee and Sonya both do a good job of portraying characters who are flawed in various ways: Wan, traumatized by her separation from Pleng, is overly possessive and prone to fits of jealousy, while Pleng often hides her feelings and is reluctant to commit.

Affair was produced by Change2561, a sister company to BL powerhouse GMMTV and the same company that produced Love Bully. The production is high-quality, with often inventive cinematography, good background music, and a blessed absence of annoying sound effects and “comic” relief. However, being based on a Chao Planoy novel, Affair has more than its fair share of over-the-top drama, including a would-be kiss interrupted in the most melodramatic manner possible. Like season 2 of Blank, Affair also hits its peak short of the finish line, frittering away some of its remaining time on a pointless BL moment and one last bit of interpersonal drama.

Ratings:

Story — 5 (not one [redacted] by [redacted] scene but two, and a [redacted] subplot to top it off)
Characters — 7 (some of both Wan’s and Pleng’s behavior is hard to understand at times)
Production — 8
Service — 4
Yuri — 10
Overall — 7 (1 point deducted for the Ek subplot)

Affair is a worthy companion to GAP and Blank in the Chao Planoy Extended Universe, although those allergic to melodrama should note that Affair goes harder on it than either of those series.

It’s been less than two years since Rebecca Patricia Armstrong and Freen Sarocha Chankimha put Thai live-action yuri on the map with their appearances in GAP: The Series. GAP racked up hundreds of millions of views and inspired a host of other Thai yuri series seeking to match its success. Becky and Freen have now returned to put to flight the pretenders to their throne, in their new series The Loyal Pin, based on the novel of the same name by Mon Maw. (The Loyal Pin is currently streaming on YouTube; this review covers the show through episode 7 of 16.)

The “throne” is almost literal in this case, as The Loyal Pin, a period piece set in the 1950s on, tells the story of Princess Anin (Becky), a member of the Thai royal family, and Lady Pin (Freen), her childhood friend and (as the series progresses) lover. Unlike GAP (for which its production company Idol Factory famously had no sponsor), The Loyal Pin is lavishly funded (by the Thai Ministry of Commerce, among others). Every baht of that shows up on the screen, from the beautiful sets to the top-notch cinematography to the lovingly-photographed Thai cuisine. As befits what is in many respects an advertisement for Thailand (part of the Thai government’s “soft power” strategy), The Loyal Pin also presents an idealized view of a (fictional) Thai royal family, depicted (at least thus far) as uniformly nice people.

To put it simply, The Loyal Pin is a romantic fantasy of a princess finding true love — except that in this case the princess is a lesbian. Princess Anin and Lady Pin have been extremely close since they were children, when Pin was adopted by her aunt (another princess) after the death of her parents. While Pin is attending university, Anin returns from studying abroad in England to express her “burning desire” for Pin. Pin, an introverted young woman (and outranked by Anin to boot) is initially reluctant to respond in kind, but eventually gives in to her own desires. But trouble is on the horizon: now that their studies are over, Anin and Pin will no doubt be expected to marry eligible suitors arranged for them. Anin has rejected a multitude of hopefuls thus far, and may escape that fate (there is real-life precedent for this), but it’s likely that Pin cannot. The remaining episodes of the series will presumably see this drama play out.

Freen and Becky’s previous appearances in GAP and other works and their history as an Idol Factory-promoted khu jin or “imagined couple” have given them a level of trust and comfort with each other that makes their characters’ on-screen romance completely convincing. Becky has improved her acting since GAP, and effectively portrays a princess who can be imperious with servants and would-be suitors, and dominant in her love scenes with Pin, but who is ultimately subject to the constraints of her position as a young woman in a patriarchal family.

Freen has less dialogue and the character of Pin is shy and retiring, but she compensates for it using her eyes, facial expressions, and gestures to convey Pin’s emotions. The camera focuses on her when Pin finally confesses to Anin, and rightly so — it’s an achingly romantic scene. Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Nam Orntara Poolsak, who plays Anin’s maid and confidante Prik. Nam, who played Sam’s friend Jim in GAP, is truly hilarious as the wingman for Anin and Pin’s relationship; she deserves to have a lead role someday in her own show.

Ever since GAP, fans have been waiting for “FreenBecky” to appear on screen again. Another production company featured them in the science fiction film Uranus 2324, but that movie has not yet been widely released outside Thailand. Now with The Loyal Pin Idol Factory has created a more than worthy successor to GAP, one that further cements Freen and Becky’s position as Thai yuri royalty.

Incredible production values, an affecting story, and solid performances by Freen and Becky make The Loyal Pin the best Thai live-action yuri series to date, a sapphic storybook romance that should delight their current fans and attract new ones.

Another day, another Thai yuri “love team.” Today it’s Lingling Sirilak Kwong and Orm Kornnaphat Sethratanapong, better known to fans as “Lingorm.” They star in The Secret of Us, an 8-episode series that aired on Channel 3, Thailand’s oldest commercial broadcast channel, and is streaming with English subtitles on YouTube, the 3Plus Premium service, or Netflix, depending on the country.

Based on the novel of the same name by Mee Nam, The Secret of Us features the lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers story of Fahlada (Lingling) and Earn (Orm), who meet and fall in love as university students. After a particularly cruel parental intervention, Earn is forced to break off the relationship. Stung by Earn’s rejection, and not knowing the cause of it, Fahlada is unpleasantly surprised years later to find that Earn, now a successful actor, has been engaged to film a commercial for the private hospital owned by Fahlada’s family, in which Fahlada now works as a doctor and of which she’s the presumptive future director.

While Fahlada wants absolutely nothing to do with Earn, and is slated to be engaged to a handsome fellow doctor, Earn regrets the break-up and tries to persuade Fahlada to open her heart to her once again. And here lies the major problem with this series: although Earn wants to reconcile with Fahlada, who was severely traumatized by Earn leaving her, Earn never bothers to explain to Fahlada exactly why she left her in the first place, and we as viewers aren’t provided any clue as to why Earn doesn’t provide that explanation. It’s a particularly egregious example of a story that wouldn’t exist if the people involved bothered to talk to each other.

The Secret of Us has other plot problems: The end of the series features a clichéd plot twist (one that’s already been employed by at least two other recent Thai yuri series) that serves to force a family reconciliation that comes off as more than a bit unearned. (It’s apparently a standard theme in Thai dramas that happy endings require that initially-recalcitrant elders be appeased.) There’s also a cringeworthy BL subplot that is not in the source novel and was clumsily shoehorned in, presumably as a sop to BL fans.

Fortunately, things look better when we turn from plot to characters: Orm (who resembles a young Scarlett Johannson from certain angles) is quite winning and winsome as the brown-haired extroverted member of the standard yuri pair, while Lingling cuts an elegant figure as the scorned and sensitive black-haired beauty. They play well against each other, both when angry and upset and when being cutely affectionate with each other—although those looking for the raw eroticism of GAP and Blank will be disappointed. Three other characters stand out from the crowd: Russamee (Um Apasiri Nitibhon) is an ice-cold villain and formidable final boss who won a “most hated” award on Reddit. Engfa (Ying Anada Prakobkit), one of Earn’s fellow actors, is consistently interesting as she alternately pines for Earn and helps her reconcile with Fahlada. And Earn’s manager Suzie (Eclair Chatsak Mahata) is so unabashedly herself, in her colorful outfits and ever-changing hairstyles, that she transcends the comic relief role that the script has assigned to her.

Unfortunately, the relatively weak scriptwriting in The Secret of Us often puts otherwise compelling characters into situations that don’t make sense given the context, as with some of Earn’s more forward attempts to win Fahlada back. Lingling and Orm deserve a better vehicle for their considerable talents.

By Frank Hecker, Staff Writer

Two of the most impactful scenes of season 2 of Blank: The Series featured a fictional version of the real-life Thai show Club Friday, in which people call in to tell the hosts and audience their relationship problems. Club Friday is so popular that it spawned a long-running live-action spinoff Club Friday The Series, with plots based on those calls. Its current season (titled Hot Love Issue) includes the four-episode yuri series Love Bully, now streaming on YouTube.

CW for this series: homophobia, transphobia, and sexual assault.

Love Bully stars Engfa Waraha and Charlotte Austin, both former beauty pageant contestants turned actors, who previously starred in the beauty pageant yuri series Show Me Love. The first thing to say about Love Bully is that it is literally a soap opera: one of its sponsors is a maker of detergent (featured in one of the most hilariously out-of-nowhere instances of product placement I’ve ever seen). Love Bully lives up to that description, its plot featuring family secrets and corporate intrigues, with characters dressed to the nines.

Charlotte plays rich party girl and lipstick lesbian Irene, who befriends Night (played by Engfa), the bartender at Club Joanne, a bar owned by “Auntie Jo” (Uan Return), a trans woman who has a hidden connection to Night. Irene is being groomed to assume the CEO role at the real estate firm headed by her imperious mother CJ (Meenay Jutai), who is most displeased at the possibility of her daughter having a lesbian relationship, especially with someone of Night’s class and family background.

Complicating matters further are Fey (Gift Sirinart Sugandharat), Irene’s conniving corporate rival, and her lover Thul (Namo Thanapat Phiukham), who also happens to be Irene’s executive assistant and Night’s ex-boyfriend. Fey is a delightful example of an evil mastermind whose plans for world (or at least corporate) domination are continually ruined by an incompetent minion. As played by Gift she’s the best thing about this series — I found myself counting the minutes impatiently waiting for Fey to have another scene.

But, wait, you say, wasn’t there supposed to be a hot lesbian romance? And what about the quest to make “Englot” a top-tier “love team” to rival “Milklove” of 23.5, “Fayeyoko” of Blank, or perhaps even “Freenbecky” of GAP? Well, about that . . . Charlotte and Engfa’s characters’ interactions in Show Me Love were brought down by Charlotte’s relatively flat acting opposite Engfa. She’s improved a great deal since then, and to her credit gives an expressive performance in Love Bully. However, I still found the central love story to be unconvincing.

That may be because the four-episode runtime leaves little space for Irene and Night’s relationship to develop naturally: from Irene’s point of view the first scene in episode 1 is almost literally “Hi, I just got off the plane from LA, I need a drink! I love the drink! I love you! Please be my girlfriend!” Or it may simply be that the actors lack that most elusive and hard-to-describe factor, on-screen chemistry. Charlotte and Engfa will no doubt get another chance to star in a Thai yuri series, and perhaps third time’s the charm. But at this point I’m not that motivated to find out.

Story – 6
Characters – 7 (Fey ups the score)
Production – 7
Service – 5 (short skirts, bunny suits, and for BL fans a shirtless Thul)
Yuri – 10
LGBTQ — 7
Overall – 5

Love Bully is a competently produced and acted high-gloss soap opera with some fun moments (especially those featuring Fey). However, it’s not a “must see” for anyone but diehard Englot fans.