Siamly Love

Been to tutor Pat amidst heavy rain. We finished late, about 8pm, and I dunno, I found it, uhh, tepid (?) to go home. And so I took the bus and went to Gateway instead and see if there's any Cinemanila film still good to see. Kimie and I planned to watch Diving Bell and the Butterfly but schedules won't fit.

Anyway, so I went there and made sure to really watch one. I bought ticket for The Love of Siam with really no idea about it. What I only know is that it has an IMDb rating of 8.3 (so high!) but with only 500 votes (as Kimie told me).

Lifted from IMDb.com:

Two young boys are best friends living quiet family lives in Bangkok. Their lives are disrupted when one boy's older sister goes missing on a jungle trip. The shattered family moves away, separating the boys. Years later, now in their late teens, the boys meet again. One of them is now the leader of an aspiring boy band whose managing assistant bears a striking resemblance to the lost sister. The boys must deal with their family and social lives and their feelings for each other.

First impression was that I would be watching some teen romantic comedy of the likes of Juno. Yeah, Juno-type romantic comedy with still art in it since it's Cinemanila. And it turned to be a romantic comedy! But a gay romantic comedy. Yup, gaaaaaaay. I expected My Sassygirl romance movie but no, it's gaaaaaay. Would you expect a gay movie with that poster? It's just like your date kilig romantic movie! Not gaaaaay!

But still not the type of Coco Martin gay movies (though I haven't seen one), it's still teenybooper with the atmosphere of Kim Chiu-Gerald Anderson but with the level of John Lloyd-Bea. Ok, so much for description.

Quite dissapointed at first of course. Poor acting, unrealistic details, bad flow of scenes, cheesy and cliche shots. Well, I was expecting art. Oscar's type. But then, I realized, you don't have to outsmart it. It's a teen movie, what do you expect.

The fact that it's gay is really a big twist. Sheesh, the actors were merely 16-year olds doing a gay film! They should be cheesy with the likes of Gimik, or Click, or TGIS, or Abt Ur Luv or Ur Lyf 2 (nagWikipedia pa ako niyan) or whatsits teenage Star Magic series. And the girls, oh poor girls. They're so cute but the cute boys like each other so those girls are left behind, crying. Hahahahahaha!

Anyway, the movie presented an overwhelming amount of conflicts that you'd really feel the director had a hard time stitching them together. The two boys and their girls, the lost (literally) daughter, the drunk father, the hopeless mother, the band members. As if they each have their own stories. And for that, the movie was extraordinarily long in 2.5 hours. You'd be tired and ask when will this end. You'd check your watch and it's 2 hours past and still feel that it's far from ending. But I think the director pulled it out right. You'll never feel hanging after. Everything solved.

There's a hint pala of My Girl extraterrestrial idea there. Hahahaha. You know, that Korean telenovela. But they concluded that right naman. Just cheesy at first.

All in all, this is just your typical Star Cinema romantic movie you'll enjoy. Not too artsy. And you'd even think it's Filipino since the actors look like Filipino. Only that they're not speaking Filipino. And Star Cinema won't do a gay movie.

Watch it!