spunkless
Magical; GMMTV's best BL yet
I think everything good has already been said in the other reviews and in the comments. We waited more than a year for A Tale of Thousand Stars to air, and I am so glad to say, the wait was definitely worth it. I only have the following takeaways:
1. Before ATOTS, Earth was never in my radar as a leading man material. He's got the body, yes, but acting and appeal wise, I thought he had none. ATOTS changed my perspective of him, and I could not imagine any other actor from GMMTV's slate that could play Phupha better than he did. It is his best work, and his performance is definitely one of the greatest I've seen. What I loved the most about his version of Phupha is he does not really communicate through actions but through his eyes. Earth did it so well, and very few actors can do that.
2. For Mix, I would say that he's still got some room for improvement, but that does not mean his performance was bad. In fact, he carried the show so well. It wasn't hard to sympathize with Tian because Mix just transformed himself into the role smoothly. But there were still some moments in the series where I felt he was lacking. However, if GMMTV can give this guy more opportunities to improve, I have huge faith that Mix will turn himself into one of the studio's most treasured leading men. Just watch the old trailer of 1000 Stars and you can see how much he has improved in the span of a year.
3. ATOTS was a refreshing take on the Thai BL genre, which after 5+ years of feeding us student-student relationships, has grown quite bleak and tiresome. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is probably the first GMMTV BL that is not set within university walls? The point here is, ATOTS highlights that the idea of making a boys love series not involving students can actually work. I am very excited in seeing how ATOTS' success will impact the studio's future lakorns. Will we finally get our wish to see a BL between two grown men? A BL set in the workplace? We'll just have to wait and see.
4. I think 1000 Stars had the best set of supporting characters and actors. I loved how they utilized some actors on the GMMTV slate that have not been getting any good roles lately. For instance, I haven't seen P'Champ in a series since My Dear Loser: Edge of 17, and that was way back in 2017! I like the fact that despite not having much lines, he was still largely present throughout the show. There's also Nammon, who played Dr. Nam, probably the best character in the entire series. This is another guy I do not see often lately. It is unfortunate that he already left GMM, but I find it amazing that he gave the studio his best work in his very last project for them. It is such a fitting ending to a career he's held with GMM for many years. Drake was given a surprisingly small role, too small that they did not even bother including him in the show's poster. This was a guy who had been getting main roles in the recent past, I wonder what made him settle for less? I don't have much to say about his character of Rang because his time in the series was just too limited. Nevertheless, Drake can give a solid performance if he is given the right material, you can check out Cause You're My Boy that was aired back in 2018. P'Thanom's performance as Khama is very reflective of his long experience in the industry. His last scene in the drama where he was on the verge of tears was my favorite moment of his. Aye and White, despite their very short screen time, were also effective as Torfun and Tul, respectively. And Khaotung, thank God he rebounded quickly from that Tonhon Chonlatee travesty. His performance as Longtae is so far my favorite of his own work. Although I think he is getting a bit typecast as that caring, sensible friend to the show's leading man. And we should not forget about Tian's students. Each of them had his/her own charm and was completely indispensable in the story.
5. I don't care much about songs, but ATOTS's soundtrack is too incredible to be ignored. Among all the songs linked to GMMTV series, I only liked two: Gun Napat's title song here and Gawin Caskey's song in Dark Blue Kiss. Gun's song may even move you to tears if you understand the full context of the show that it goes with. Moreover, one thing I noticed about P'Aof's past series is that he tends to overuse silly sound effects. I guess he learned how those SFX can ruin the mood of his dramas, so he minimized them significantly in ATOTS, which I truly, truly appreciate.
6. The location was shot so beautifully, it almost feels as if you have been transported to Pha Pun Dao. I noticed that P'Aof does out-of-town scenes particularly well. From In and Sun's episode in Our Skyy to ATOTS, not only did he capture what the scenario looks like but also how it feels to be there. What contributed to this feat was that the ambient sounds in the mountains were captured very well. I also loved the lighting for the nighttime scenes, which does not look artificial (in itself, this feat is superb because lakorns (at least from what I have seen) usually suck in making nighttime lighting look natural!). The production design was just the cherry on top. Heck, this is the first time I actually commented on a lakorn's production design! That just shows how groundbreaking this series was!
7. The only negative comment I can give is related to some unresolved conflicts in the story. The one that really sticks its head out was: what happened to Sakda's men? After all that gunfire, I could not believe it just ended right then and there. There was no resolution to his story at all. In addition to that, the problem regarding the village losing its major source of livelihood was also left open. When the stocks of those teabags were burned down along with the school, the issue was not brought up again. Although I understand that we were never given closure about these two key issues in the story since the drama's priority is Tian and Phupha's relationship, these issues are quite serious and we can't just pretend they never happened.
All in all, a highly recommended show. SOTUS and SOTUS S have just been dethroned as the best BL that GMMTV can offer. It will take the studio a long time to upend this feat.
1. Before ATOTS, Earth was never in my radar as a leading man material. He's got the body, yes, but acting and appeal wise, I thought he had none. ATOTS changed my perspective of him, and I could not imagine any other actor from GMMTV's slate that could play Phupha better than he did. It is his best work, and his performance is definitely one of the greatest I've seen. What I loved the most about his version of Phupha is he does not really communicate through actions but through his eyes. Earth did it so well, and very few actors can do that.
2. For Mix, I would say that he's still got some room for improvement, but that does not mean his performance was bad. In fact, he carried the show so well. It wasn't hard to sympathize with Tian because Mix just transformed himself into the role smoothly. But there were still some moments in the series where I felt he was lacking. However, if GMMTV can give this guy more opportunities to improve, I have huge faith that Mix will turn himself into one of the studio's most treasured leading men. Just watch the old trailer of 1000 Stars and you can see how much he has improved in the span of a year.
3. ATOTS was a refreshing take on the Thai BL genre, which after 5+ years of feeding us student-student relationships, has grown quite bleak and tiresome. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is probably the first GMMTV BL that is not set within university walls? The point here is, ATOTS highlights that the idea of making a boys love series not involving students can actually work. I am very excited in seeing how ATOTS' success will impact the studio's future lakorns. Will we finally get our wish to see a BL between two grown men? A BL set in the workplace? We'll just have to wait and see.
4. I think 1000 Stars had the best set of supporting characters and actors. I loved how they utilized some actors on the GMMTV slate that have not been getting any good roles lately. For instance, I haven't seen P'Champ in a series since My Dear Loser: Edge of 17, and that was way back in 2017! I like the fact that despite not having much lines, he was still largely present throughout the show. There's also Nammon, who played Dr. Nam, probably the best character in the entire series. This is another guy I do not see often lately. It is unfortunate that he already left GMM, but I find it amazing that he gave the studio his best work in his very last project for them. It is such a fitting ending to a career he's held with GMM for many years. Drake was given a surprisingly small role, too small that they did not even bother including him in the show's poster. This was a guy who had been getting main roles in the recent past, I wonder what made him settle for less? I don't have much to say about his character of Rang because his time in the series was just too limited. Nevertheless, Drake can give a solid performance if he is given the right material, you can check out Cause You're My Boy that was aired back in 2018. P'Thanom's performance as Khama is very reflective of his long experience in the industry. His last scene in the drama where he was on the verge of tears was my favorite moment of his. Aye and White, despite their very short screen time, were also effective as Torfun and Tul, respectively. And Khaotung, thank God he rebounded quickly from that Tonhon Chonlatee travesty. His performance as Longtae is so far my favorite of his own work. Although I think he is getting a bit typecast as that caring, sensible friend to the show's leading man. And we should not forget about Tian's students. Each of them had his/her own charm and was completely indispensable in the story.
5. I don't care much about songs, but ATOTS's soundtrack is too incredible to be ignored. Among all the songs linked to GMMTV series, I only liked two: Gun Napat's title song here and Gawin Caskey's song in Dark Blue Kiss. Gun's song may even move you to tears if you understand the full context of the show that it goes with. Moreover, one thing I noticed about P'Aof's past series is that he tends to overuse silly sound effects. I guess he learned how those SFX can ruin the mood of his dramas, so he minimized them significantly in ATOTS, which I truly, truly appreciate.
6. The location was shot so beautifully, it almost feels as if you have been transported to Pha Pun Dao. I noticed that P'Aof does out-of-town scenes particularly well. From In and Sun's episode in Our Skyy to ATOTS, not only did he capture what the scenario looks like but also how it feels to be there. What contributed to this feat was that the ambient sounds in the mountains were captured very well. I also loved the lighting for the nighttime scenes, which does not look artificial (in itself, this feat is superb because lakorns (at least from what I have seen) usually suck in making nighttime lighting look natural!). The production design was just the cherry on top. Heck, this is the first time I actually commented on a lakorn's production design! That just shows how groundbreaking this series was!
7. The only negative comment I can give is related to some unresolved conflicts in the story. The one that really sticks its head out was: what happened to Sakda's men? After all that gunfire, I could not believe it just ended right then and there. There was no resolution to his story at all. In addition to that, the problem regarding the village losing its major source of livelihood was also left open. When the stocks of those teabags were burned down along with the school, the issue was not brought up again. Although I understand that we were never given closure about these two key issues in the story since the drama's priority is Tian and Phupha's relationship, these issues are quite serious and we can't just pretend they never happened.
All in all, a highly recommended show. SOTUS and SOTUS S have just been dethroned as the best BL that GMMTV can offer. It will take the studio a long time to upend this feat.
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