Love Sick Season 1 Episode 8

[Raikantopini….! I am back! 😊 I hope to keep the blog going now at least until the beginning of January!]

They kiss!!! Yes!!! MCOT dealt with a backlash because of this scene but more on that later!

Moan is sick. Mo has a home economics assignment she needs to finish, an embroidery in a pair of jeans. She takes it to Golf to finish it for her while she takes Moan to the hospital. Good boy that he is, Golf finishes it for her. He is so domesticated. When is Mo going to dump Moan for Golf! (Warning: I watched only the BL cut of season 2 so I myself do not know how this ends! This time I hope to watch the entire season 2 and we will learn together what happens!).

Noh gets home from his date with Yuri. He is still struggling to understand why Phun is behaving the way he is. After rolling around in bed, he decides to go see Phun. Outside Phun’s house, he sees Pang who lets him in. Pang asks him if they had a fight because Phun is not eating and is all mopey. Pang says that Phun really loves Noh because he has never brought anyone to the house before and because he now “laughs louder than he use to”.

Noh goes upstairs to Phun’s room. He lets him in without saying a word. Phun asks Noh if he is hungry, then he stops himself: “That’s right, you already eat with Yuri”. Noh replies back, “and you ate with Aim”. I will go back to this exchange in my analysis because I think it is a clever metaphor of what’s going on between them.

Phun and Noh drink beer and watch TV. (I have always been pretty surprised by how loyal this scene is to the novel. In both the novel and the series, Phun and Noh watch Tom and Jerry cartoons). I am pretty sure that Noh is drunk here, because as we will learn later, he is a lightweight.

Noh remarks to Phun that Pang “believed this about tricking her”. He then takes a sip of his beer and tells Phun that he has been annoyed all day that Phun has been ignoring him. Phun says nothing is going on and Noh then says that Phun is “so difficult to understand” (Prophetic words from Noh: This will be pretty much their entire dynamic all the way to the end of season 2). They argue some more and Phun asks Noh to forgive him but Noh doesn’t accept his apologies. They keep arguing and drinking until they are both inebriated. Sitting on the floor, they lay against the bed. Phun tries to explain to Noh how his world has come crashing since he started “fake dating” Noh. His world was Aim, now he can’t stop thinking about Noh. He asks Noh to let him be for a while because he can’t be around him without wanting to be with him. He tells Noh that it was wrong of him to try to kiss Noh. Phun cries. I want to hug him.

And then it happens…. The scene that made me fall in love with this show and the exchange that made me cry the first time I watched (more on why I cried in the analysis section). Phun says to Noh not to worry because “we are both guys. I have Aim. You have Yuri. I don’t want things to get worse than they are”. And here is where I cry and I am getting emotional as I type this… Noh grabs Phun’s hands and he says “If we ignore all those reason and we stop thinking about who we’re supposed to be, then what is that you want to do?”.

Phun then simply says, “I want you Noh”. (FUDANSHI SCREAM!).

Then comes the scene that change it all… The historic, PhunNoh kiss. MCOT got in a lot of trouble for this scene. The kiss is short but it is real and I believe part of the controversy was not just that it was two guys but that Captain was 16 or 15 when this was filmed. BTW note the little goldfish swimming on the tank. I will explain what that means later.

At the convent, the girls are surprised to see Mo’s embroidery assignment. I guess that Golf has a lot of other talents that Mo doesn’t know about yet. He clearly is husband material. I wonder if this means she will finally see that Golf is a better man that the no-good Moan.

Back in the gay school, I mean, the all-boy school, Phun and Noh are walking to class. Do you see the after-sex glow that Phun has and Noh’s walk of shame? “Do you think what we did is wrong?” Noh asks. Phun jokes about it and they happily walk to class. If you don’t get that they just had sex, well, you are very innocent.

At the convent Pang argues with her friends about Aim. She doesn’t like Aim and her friends keep bringing her up. Fed up, she let it slip that Aim is not Phun’s girlfriend.

Back at the school Per and Noh have a short conversation while Per is eying the box with the money the students have collected. I believe that Noh is not aware of this money being there. Anyway, Noh gets a call from Yuri that she is at the school. A very worried Noh runs out to find Yuri, leaving Per with the money which he takes.

Back at the convent again, Pang starts the rumor that Phun is not really dating Aim and that he has someone else who she has met. As soon as she opens her mouth, she realizes her mistake but it is too late. The rumor mill has just gotten started.

Outside Friday College, Yuri fends off a bunch of horny boys who keep harassing her. Finally, Pete (August Vachiravit, nowadays a well-known Thai actor and model) shows up and shoos the boys away. Watching this scene, you get a hint that maybe these two are destined to be together. Are they? You will have to stick all the way to the end of Season 2 to be as confused as I was about Pete’s true sexuality.

Pete leaves and Noh finally gets there. He asks Yuri why she showed up at his school without giving him a heads up. She replies with a question: “Noh, do you know what’s going on with Phun?”. Didn’t I tell you that the girls at the Convent are good at gossiping? Apparently Aim has heard the rumor that Pang started and has asked Yuri to ask Noh what did Phun do yesterday. Yuri asks him directly, who was Phun with yesterday? Oh Yuri, you don’t want to know honey. At this point, I am imagining Noh’s thoughts like this: “Will she be OK if I told her the truth, that he was INSIDE me?”

Noh lies and tells Yuri that Phun is not seeing anyone else. Yuri confesses that it was Pang who started the rumor. I can hear Noh’s thoughts again, “HIA! Pang!” LOL BTW Did you all notice how dark it got in like 1 second in this scene? Noh and Yuri go from standing outside Friday College in broad daylight to sitting somewhere nearby in the dark of the night.

Noh goes home in a bus (is this how he normally goes home?). He is clearly disturbed by what’s going on and feels guilty about Phun betraying Aim with him. In the book, he is clearly tormented and torn by what he feels for Phun and how he feels about the girls. Noh is a very decent man who does not enjoy toying around with the girls’ feelings.

The music club meets outside in Siam Square to do a live concert and collect money for the club so that the club president doesn’t have to sell his body to the student council’s secretary. Little they know that said president and said secretary have already done the dirty deed. The short montage that follows is typical Love Sick stuff: you can’t tell if they are acting or just having fun.

Moan and Mo coincide with Golf at a nearby eatery. We learn that Moan and Golf both use to attend Friday College but got kicked out because of their big mouth. Well, Mo clarifies that Moan was kicked out but Golf left of his own accord. Mo and Moan argue and Mo leaves. Golf offers to pay for Moan’s meal. I guess they don’t really hate each other that much. Sometimes I wonder if Mo just likes drama.

Noh goes to see Phun. He has a bag with him. Is it me or did the cleaning lady got really excited to see Noh? I think she is a PhunNoh shipper.  Noh takes over Phun’s computer (again, you really don’t think they had sex? You are innocent if you still think that!) and sees that Aim is asking Phun if he still loves her. Aim is so needy. Ugh. Phun asks Noh if he wants to go somewhere. Eventually, Phun convinces Noh to go with him to eat somewhere near the beach. Ahhh…. Young love!

Foreshadowing what will happen in the next episode, we hear the song Passed by Gunsmile as the two lovers leave the room and head downstairs to the car.

Closing Quote: Rule #722 of a relationship “Even though the person you loved and you didn’t end up together, be happy with the fact they were once a part of your life.”

Favorite quote of the Episode: Phun to Noh, “I want you Noh!”. To me this quote encapsulates Love Sick in one sentence. We all want Phun to be with Noh. We all feel Phun’s torment. But this also marks a sort of emancipation. More below!

Favorite Scene: Noh and Phun’s kiss of course! Short, sweet, but honest. You got to admire the director for getting such young actors to commit like this to their role.

Episode rating: 4/5. This episode is entertaining and has some important dialogue. It is a bit slow at times but it is done deliberately to set the mood. The convent story line is not as boring as usual. The acting is very good. Sound editing is decent. The kissing scene is a classic.

Analysis

The exchange that Phun and Noh have right before the kissing scene about Noh eating with Yuri and Phun eating with Aim is interesting. It is a clear metaphor for the boys being in a relationship with other people when they really should be eating each other out. Wait, did I just say that out loud? Sorry, I mean they should be eating with each other. In any event, food seems to be an important metaphor for Phun’s and Noh’s love so watch out, you will see that food is almost a metaphor for sex. Noh is constantly horny, sorry, there I go again, I meant to say hungry and Phun is constantly feeding him. You get the gist of how it works, right? As the Seme, Phun is always asking Noh if he is hungry, he literally spoon feeds him several times in the show, and the boys always seem to get jealous whenever one is eating with the “girlfriend”. Additionally, Phun uses food to sort of show his affection for Noh. Season 2 really takes these food metaphors to some extremes. Stay tuned and you will see what I mean!

After he sits down with Phun on the floor, Noh grabs the remote control. He complains about whatever Phun is watching because it is “retarded”. He flips channels until he finds Tom and Jerry, which Phun remarks is equally “retarded” (I have no idea what Phun was watching before). I think this exchange, and Noh’s choice of programming, reflects both Noh and Phun’s internal conflict. Dealing with their sexual awakening means leaving behind their childhood. They are no longer kids able to simply watch silly cartoons. They now see the world as it is. They are entering adulthood.

For my analysis about the kissing scene and its preable, see the section below on why I cried when I watched this episode for the first time.

BTW Love Sick was aired in MCOT, a channel that is partly or wholly owned by the government of Thailand. The kissing scene caused such a huge uproar that MCOT removed any kissing scenes from the remaining episodes of Love Sick. I remember reading in an interview with Captain or White that they had recorded several kissing scenes and that they did not used camera angles in any of them. It seems that only two made it to the final cut and one was cut by censors. So here you have the only kissing scene in season 1 that aired in MCOT. I will tell you about the cut scene in the next next episode review (it was supposed to be in Episode 10). BTW Season 2 also had another kissing scene that was cut out of the show. When is LINETV when you need it? 😛

This leads me to the importance of the goldfish scene. Many fans ask if Noh and Phun ever had sex at all in the first season of the show. The short answer is yes. MCOT couldn’t show Phun and Noh having sex. That would have been too controversial Instead, they showed us the two goldfish swimming around in the tank to symbolize the two lovers moving around in the the bed. The following morning we do get an exchange that hints to them having had sex but it is so subtle that if you blink you miss it. If you want to know, the book is very explicit about this. Phun put his hands all over Noh, making his intentions very clear. They used condoms. If I recall correctly that is a major plot pint in the novel because the condoms were for Phun to use with Aim. Anyways, I clearly recall that in the novel, the next morning Noh talks about them having had sex. The novel also established Phun as the top and Noh as the bottom even though they do occasionally “flip”.

At the convent, we see how Pang’s love for Phun and dislike for Aim results in her letting it slip that Phun is seeing someone. That will have some important repercussions down the road. We learn that Golf and Moan used to attend Friday College. If I remember correctly, in the book Golf also used to attend Friday College but I can’t remember why he left. Mo and Moan are not in the book. The Moan/Mo/Golf story is clearly your classic Asian romantic triangle in which we know that one guy will end up with a broken heart. I don’t have any foresight into this story since I watched the BL cut of season 2 but it would not surprise me if Mo and Moan end up together even when Golf is clearly the best of the two. Remember, Moan is not only portrayed as lazy and a troublemaker but he also slapped Mo in the very first episode. It is interesting too that the writers of the show choose to show us the softer side of Golf by having him do some embroidery. You could see it as him showing his affection for Mo but I think it is a deliberate choice by the writers to show us that Moan is a rough guy and Golf is the polar opposite. I think the actor who plays Moan is sexy but I am #TeamGolf all the way!

What is the central theme of this episode? In both the Moan/Mo story and the Phun/Noh story you have insecurity, jealousy and people who hide their true feelings. Golf likes Mo but he hides his feelings because Mo has a boyfriend. Noh likes Phun but he tries to hide his feelings because Phun has a girlfriend. Aim is insecure about Phun and I think that Moan is insecure about Mo, which is why he acts like a douche with Golf. For Mo, Golf is an alternative to Moan. For Phun, Noh is an alternative to Aim. It is the old and familiar versus the new and untested. I think Golf has been in love with Mo for a while just like, according to the novel, Phun has been in love with Noh for a while. The episode closes with a quote about how you should be grateful about the time spent with people who you loved but didn’t end up with. This is a clear foreshadowing of what will happen with Phun, Noh, Aim and Yuri and perhaps foreshadows what will happen with Golf, Mo and Moan.  

Why I cried when I first Watched This Episode

This is one of my favorite episodes of the show. The first time I watched, I cried real tears when Phun confesses his love for Noh. Why? This is the FIRST Thai gay movie or series I watched after watching Love of Siam almost 10 years before. Love of Siam is my favorite LGBQT movie. To this day, the ending makes me cry and even sometimes listening to the OST makes me cry. If you haven’t watch it, go watch it. It is a work of art and a work of love.

Anyway, spoiler alert for Love of Siam follows, so be warned!

In Love of Siam, the two male leads, Mew and Tong, can’t be together because Tong love for his family takes priority over his love for Mew. Mew is happy that Tong loves him. He feels complete because he is not lonely anymore. I read that this is how it is in Thailand: Gay men often have to balance their love life with their family life. Love of Siam, despite being a beautiful movie, traumatized me. I didn’t watch Thai romantic movies afterwards.

Then my Netflix suggested this show, Love Sick. I knew it was from the same country as Love of Siam. I read online it had a happy ending. I gave it a go. So here I was, still thinking of Mew and Tong. So when Noh says to Phun that if they forget who they are supposed to be, what would Phun really want? it really hit me: this was an emancipation of sorts. Noh is giving Phun the get-out-of-jail free card that Tong didn’t get from his mom. When Phun then answers back that he “wants Noh”, it is a big statement. He is free of the shackles of tradition and in that emancipated state, his first action is to declare his love for Noh. I cried for Noh, for Phun, for Mew, for Tong and I cried for all those young gay men who never saw their love life fulfilled.

This is why Love sick stuck with me. This is why I became obsessed with this show. It is that simple statement that love knows no gender and that we should be allowed the freedom to love who we want and not who we should.