MAKE IT RIGHT THE SERIES - REVIEW

I hadn't planned on being hooked to Make It Right The Series (MIR), because its trailers had promised a formulaic follow-up to the hugely successful (and iconic) Love Sick The Series (LS) which ended last year (also by Thailand's Mcot Station). As predicted, MIR has hewed lazily to the boys' love genre conventions, casting a few extremely pretty boys to enact what is less of a plot than a trail of tropes: Confused Uke (Fuse) ensnaring Passionate Seme (Tee); Nerd (Book) falling for Younger Flirt (Frame); Out&Proud converting Straight-for-Now, and in these combos, throw in some third parties (in Thai, these are called "third wheels"); and then stir in a few disposable girls into a sweetly fluffy meringue of a story (MIR, like LS is adapted from a Thai online novel). 

After watching the first four episodes (subtitled in English by fans), I can assure you that the story is just as twig-thin as any of the cast's scrawny arms. It's hard not to compare MIR with LS, as the two are almost identical - I would go so far as to say that MIR is the production team's attempt at getting LS right, ironing out some of its wrinkles and creases and smoothing out the edges (for instance, they made MIR a lot more racy, with sex in Ep 1, and lots of skin - whereas LS muddled along and it wasn't till towards the end of Season 1 before Noh and Phun actually got down to business). However, because of its similar territory, MIR suffers in comparison, possibly because it comes later, and thus carries the weight of having few/no surprises/ novelties. It's obviously mining a formula (as many are doing - even the recent Chinese webseries Addiction was inspired by LS) that had proven successful - I hope that I will be proven wrong in due course with a compelling twist or two - but I'm not holding my breath.

Of course what's really working, and credit should be given where it's due, is the excellent casting as usual. The four main leads (plus quite a few more in the supporting cast) are spot-on heartbreakers (but then Thailand is like a factory that keeps churning impossibly cute boys out - I need to take out all my savings and move there pronto!) that give MIR its sparkle and life. Again, this is like LS - you don't really watch it for the plot, but for those coyly seductive moments and intense looks of longing that only the really young can carry off - that's the heavy lifting there. The rest is merely working out the various moments/situations where Peak, 16 (as Fuse), Boom, 15 (as Tee), Ohm 15 (as Frame) and Toey, 20 (as Book) these looks can dart those deadly stares into the camera or wrap their nubile limbs fetchingly around each other. For now, Tee has emerged the real star - he's like the new Captain isn't he? Tee represents a new type, very Chinese-looking with the most sculpted of noses and full juicy lips. 

I think fans are watching because MIR fills the void that LS left - it's a pale shadow of LS, but it's a familiar shadow. MIR has to make it on its own merits to matter, and to prevent any more comparisons to LS. 

Keeping and Chucking

Strangely invigorated after more than an hour of being pulled, thumped, pinched, ground, elbowed and beaten beaten to a pulp by a 23 year old Shenyang boy at my local Wan Yang (maybe he transferred all his angry energy to me?), I decided to start a spring clean exercise, one closet at a time. First, the lower left, two-shelf commode where I store my modest CD collection (yes, whoever heard of CDs anymore? I haven't played one since... six months ago?). Let's see what lurks there shall we?
1. Greasy almost full bottle of Clarins Eau Dynamisante Huile Satinee Body Oil. Missing cap. Oh, so this is where you've been hiding. And I thought BG had stolen it. What is it doing in my CD closet? (Shampoo and store in shoe closet, can mist over legs when I wear sandals.)
2. Nokia phone warranty booklet and instruction manual (Chuck. I haven't used the phone since 2006)
3. Ipod earphone sponge covers, not in a pair. One in black, one in orange. (Chuck. Both disintegrate when I tried to get it out of tiny plastic pocket.)
4. Nicholas Tse VCD (Chuck. Have not watched it ever; Lay Leng gave it to me in 2001.)
5. Two Breakfast at Tiffany's DVDs. Why do I have two? Mysteries never cease chez moi. (Keep one, give one to Blake, so he can give to horrid actress girlfriend.)
6. Audio book of Jane Austen's Persuasion (read by Geraldine McEwan). I bought this hurriedly from Borders ages ago, by mistake: I thought it said read by Ewan McGregor. (Give to Jacq)
7. 1999 verte Tiffany & Co calfskin diary, contains many gems. Sample: "Coconut Lagoon for curry lunch (what else?). Wonderful feeling of being amongst nice people. Boys playing football in a inner courtyard. Think saw Maggie Cheung in villa. Think architecture has something to do with it." I went to Kerala that year. (Can't possibly chuck this!)
8. Formula 17 VCD. (Chuck!)
9. Keeping Mum DVD: It's got my faves Maggie Smith and Kristin Scott Thomas - how can two such brilliant women end up in this slack movie? (Chuck!)
10. Tony Bennett CD The Art of Romance. (Chuck - someone must have given it to me - don't believe I've even ever played it. Do not like Tony Bennett.)
11. Can of OFF! half empty. (Chuck. Smells disgusting.)
12. Classical CD Poeme. (Can give to P)
13. Mad post-massage rubbish buy - Oriental Wisdom from the Mandarin Oriental Spa, 12 track CD. (Give to P)
14. Gwen Stefani CD Love. Angel. Music. Baby. Must have bought it in fit of trying to be hip and young. Never played. Disgusting waste of money, very unhip. (Give to B)
15. 'Lost' DVDs: Penelope and Innocence. (Watch when free, then recycle)
16. One Duchy Originals teabag (chamomile) in a CD book. (Use immediately)
There. Much better...

Prima Deli Uniform

From BG:
Today taxi uncle ask if I wear uniform I ask what uniform?
I was wearing a Fred Perry baby blue short-sleeved shirt with my new DSquared khaki pants.
He said Prima uniform.
I was so angry. I ask what Prima.
He said Prima Deli.

From GB:
Today Malay taxi uncle stopped me a mile off where I asked him to.
I was getting off phone talking to BG about Shenyang Boy he accosted under Cannon Ball tree (who was carrying Nuskin paperbag).
Taxi uncle say he like to hear what I talk to friend.
I ask why cos mostly asked what Shenyang boy did to BG and Shenyang boy's proportions.
Taxi uncle say he like to hear what I was talking because he is a man.
I was late so no clever rebuttal but as I hand him fare taxi uncle say your hand very smooth.

Notes: The Couroupita guianensis

1. Stefane asked me to look at something really special which I have never seen before and brought me at length to this Cannon Ball tree. He said it was the only one such in the whole of Seychelles, and would have me take a picture of it.

And then I told him that we have Cannon Ball trees aplenty in Singapore but he said he has been in Singapore many times but never seen a Cannon Ball tree.

But they are all over I said.

I was thinking of the Cannon Ball tree under which BG said he accosted the Shenyang boy who was carrying a pristine Nuskin paper carrier. (I forget what it contained but it was some paperwork or something: I asked).

2. I do not believe that Stefane's Cannon Ball tree is the only Cannon Ball tree in the entire Seychelles since he can't even recognise a Cannon Ball tree in Singapore, numerous as they are here.

3. BG says that the Cannon Ball tree under which he accosted the Shenyang boy is not the one on the curb outside the Outram MRT station. He said he will show me where next time but it is somewhere in Chinatown. So I'm actually not very far off.

4. I always see people carrying the Nuskin paper carrier but have never actually known people using this product making me suspect that Nuskin only makes the paper carriers.

5. RY's Shenyang boy is vegetarian and therefore, he says, smells nice. It seems a little contrary that Shenyang boys should have dietary prohibtions given their occupation, but there you go: Different strokes for different folk.

Blogging with Jac

And then the new year was suddenly born.

I was outside throwing out stuff and looking at my grapevine when I heard the karang guni tooting. Turned out to be a Shenyang youth, shambling down the corridor, his hair flopping over his eyes. He tooted his horn again saucily and smiled, a face-splitting smile, and asked me if I had old computer or stereo for him. I must have been staring, because as he rounded the passage and bounded up the steps, he turned and winked.

And then suddenly the year didn't seem so bleak after all.