Love Sick 2024 Trailer

In early 2023, there was a rumor going around of a remake of Love Sick: The Series. I honestly did not take it seriously. For years, people have been talking about a third season, a remake, or a spinoff. The spinoff we did get, Thank God Its Friday, was not really connected to the story, so it was a big disappointment. Recently however, Tia51 released several promotional photos of a 2024 remake. They have now released two trailers, a regular trailer and an extended trailer. Here are my thoughts on the two trailers, the casting, and my expectations and hopes for this remake.

The Trailer: Synopsis

We start with a shot of Noh’s scooter in the rain. The song ขอร้อง (“Please don’t!”), which was song by Captain in the original series OST, plays in the background. Noh and Phun run into each other in the rain. Noh mutters something to Phun, which is not subbed, as he continues on his way to what we can only assume is music club practice. Phun has a yellow raincoat on, wireless headphones and is wearing his school uniform, the classic blue shorts with the bluish-white shirt. Noh has one of those transparent umbrellas and is carrying his briefcase. He is also wearing his school uniform. Phun stops to look at his cell phone. He has a message from Aim. “Phun, Aim is waiting in Siam. Hurry up.”(I assume she refers to Siam Square). As he is about to text her, his battery runs out. The background song changes now to the familiar “Shake”. Phun runs to the school theater were he finds Noh and the music club practicing… something? Phun asks if it is OK to charge his phone there. This part is also not subbed, but the extended trailer did include a sub for this part. Phun sits down and stares innocently at Noh, and Noh seems to also lock eyes on Phun. We see a montage that shows them talking and running around the school, with Noh leading Phun.

The extended trailer adds a couple of scenes, including a scene with Earn and Noh, and the iconic scene where Phun tells Noh that he wants to have him. The extended trailer also suggests that Phun falls asleep in the theater and then dreams of Noh leading him around the school. This scene seems to end abruptly when Noh’s hand slips and Phun disappears, leaving Noh alone. Noh looks for him around the school. The soundtrack changes to “Passed”, a song that viewers of the original series know too well was associated with the separation of the lovers. Noh goes to the student council office and watches his past self and Phun when Phun asked Noh to be his boyfriend. Past Noh walks out in disgust. Present Noh smiles and tries to go into the office, but he is stopped by Earn. They have an awkward hug and Noh pulls away, as if saying “you are fine”. He walks into the office and once more, the scene cuts abruptly to Noh and Phun sitting in a bed, in what is a really beautifully composed shot:

This of course is that famous scene in which Phun confesses to Noh. The scene here begins from the moment Noh asked Phun what he wants. However, before we get to hear his answer, we jump to another scene in which Noh seems lost in Siam. He runs into Yuri, Earn and Jeed. We then jump back to the confession scene, with Phun telling Noh the answer to his question: “I want you Noh”. Back in Siam, Phun comes in and steals Noh from Yuri, Jeed and Earn. However the three of them follow Phun and Noh, stopping them from running away. They all laugh together, as if it was just a joke that Phun wanted to steal Noh from them. We then see the group playing music together. We then get a final montage, in which we get to see the iconic scene of the boys washing each other while they wash Noh’s scooter.

The Trailer: Analysis

When I first watched the teaser trailer, I thought it was interesting that Phun was wearing headphones and had the yellow raincoat. My immediate though was that perhaps they would reverse the roles and Noh would be the one who was the student council secretary and Phun would be in the music club. Usually, yellow is a color that is associated with royalty and purity. In most BLs in which yellow is used as the character’s main color, the character is a stereotypical Uke. However, the extended trailer made it clear that Noh is still the music club president in this version of the story. Phun is still with Aim. I think the wireless headphones indicate that Phun is wealthy enough to afford them and/or that this series takes place in the present (the book to place in the late 2000s).

We get a glimpse of Earn, Jeed, Aim (there is a small picture next to her message), and Yuri. We also get what seems like a dream sequence or a montage that shows us that in this version, we will get a similar scene of Phun asking Noh to be his boyfriend and Noh walking away. We also know that once more, Earn will try to step in and convince Noh that he is a better alternative. In the extended trailer, the scene at the end of the battle of the bands, in which Phun comes in and takes Noh away from Jeed and Yuri, is recreated in Siam Square. I should point out that Earn was not in the original scene, but he has been added to the scene in the extended trailer. The scene becomes a visual allegory of the disjunctive that Noh finds himself through out the series, having to decide between Earn, Juri, Jeed, and Phun.

Mydramalist seems to think the two female characters above are Yuri and Aim. I think this is incorrect. First, I am pretty sure based on the text message, this is Aim:

This text says “Phun, Aim is waiting in Siam. Hurry up.”. Now, this could be another person who is texting Phun to tell him about Aim, but we know that Thais talk in third person, so we can assume it is Aim. So unless she changed her hair color, or unless they changed the actress who plays her, neither of the two girls in the Siam Square scene is Aim. Furthermore, I think Mydramalist has the actress who plays Yuri wrong. This is Yuri:

You can tell because of that doll clipped to her purse, which I assume is the doll that Yuri and Noh buy when they are in Siam shopping together in one of the early episodes of season 1.

Based on the pacing of the scene, the lack of dialogue and the fact that Earn is present and that they all end up laughing at the end, I think that this montage is meant to be more like an introduction to the actors who will play these characters rather than actual scenes lifted from the storyboard. I think this is very typical of Thai series and how they put together the trailers for the series.

My thoughts on this Remake

Mydramalist users seems to be extremely concerned about the age of the actors. I am not sure I understand why. I remember reading an article in which Captain said he turned 15 on the set of Love Sick. Most of the other cast members were 16 or 17 years old, but I believe a few may have been younger than Captain. Thus, I feel it is a bit hypocritical to say that this series is wrong by casting actors who are 14 or 13 years old. This is because the series hasn’t started shooting yet, and I am sure by the time it starts shooting these group of actors will be in the same age group as the original cast. Thus, this remake is staying true to the original series.

Considering the average age of the cast, will they kiss in this version? After the first kiss between Noh and Phun in the original caused a stir, Thai censors edited out all the kissing scenes in Love Sick between Noh and Phun. I assume some things have changed since then, but I also know that censorship still exists in Thailand. It is hard to know what the producers of Lovesick 2024 plan to do and how they will work with any limitations imposed by censors. For example, in Love By Chance, the fact that Perth was 17 didn’t prevent them from showing explicit scenes. In the original Love Sick, Noh and Phun kissed at least twice, including a very passionate kiss that did not air. Have Thai sensibilities changed enough to allow these scenes to air? Another interesting example is Make It Right, in which all the kisses between Peak (Fuse) and Boom (Tee) were done using angles and other camera tricks. However, the scene in the first episode in which Tee and Fuse have sex, and subsequent scenes in which Fuse complains about GI symptoms, is explicit enough to make it clear that the characters had anal sex. Boom was 15 and Peak was 17. Thus, there are ways to portray queer material in Thai TV without triggering censorship.

I think another important question is whether the series will attempt to reimagine the original, give us a new take on the novel, or if it will be just the same exact series but slightly updated and with a different cast. Based on this trailer, I believe this series will be a reimagined version of the original. Furthermore, I think that the fact that they have already casted Ohm, Mick, Per, Win, Pete and Earn, means that they will try to bring closure to the secondary character arcs that were left open in the original series. I also think that it is unlikely this series will be a 2 season series. I think they will most likely cut the heterosexual stories out of the series, as those were not in the book. If they re-do the stories of the secondary characters, they will have a lot of lee way since those stories were not in the novel. In the novel the PerWin, EarnPete and OhmMick stories are all hinted at but we never know what the true nature of these relationships are, with OhmMick being the only one that gets more than a passing mention (I think it is noted several times in the book that Ohm has feelings for Mick).

I will like to note that the producers of Lovesick 2024 seem to have secured the rights to at least some of the songs in the original soundtrack of the show. As we all know, the Love Sick OST is perhaps among the best of any BL series. In my book, this is a big plus.

What chances do I give this show of succeeding? The biggest challenge this show has is that it is trying to remake an iconic series that has a special place in the hearts of many of us. Love Sick is “the mother of all Thai BLs”. It is the series that opened the doors to what is now a very lucrative industry. It was a groundbreaking series at the time it was made. Comparisons will be inevitable and people will probably find the remake lacking in some aspect or the other.

However, I find that the original series had so many technical issues. This now become improvement opportunities. Here are some ways in which the remake could easily improve on the original:

1. Sound. Almost every outdoor scene in the original had terrible sound. Making sure they have a good microphone and a good sound editor will really make a big difference.
2. Editing. The original series had a lot of scenes that seemed out of place, lacked an “establishing shot” or didn’t seem to fit in the story. Hire a good editor and make sure to storyboard the entire episode before shooting!
3. Hetero scenes. The original series tried to appeal to the wider audience by having many heterosexual couples that were boring or didn’t add to the main story. If this series is a reimagined version of the book and they stick to the characters in the book, this will already be an improvement over the original.
4. Writing. In the original, some side stories are completely disconnected from the main story. These scenes were not in the book. By staying faithful to the novel and by not trying to pad the running time with inane side plots, the series will be much improved.

Where can this series fail? I think casting will be the most critical element in the production of this series. Noh is probably the most difficult role. His character has to appear playful and childish in front of his friends, while showing a lot of maturity and seriousness when he is alone with Phun. In the original series, it was Noh who got me to tear up the most. I think the actor who plays Noh has to look believable when he cries. He will also have to show good on-screen chemistry not only with the actor who plays Phun, but also the actor who plays Ohm and the actor who plays Earn. Also, if the series wants to succeed in developing its secondary storylines, it will also need a good actor to play the roles of Per, Win, Ohm and Earn. These three characters are key to the various secondary storylines in the series.

Bottom line: This was a really good trailer and this remake has a lot of potential. I am very excited to watch it. I will be blogging each episode here!