Ton Hon Chon Tee (2020)

Homophobics and the heir obsessed prejudice

Just finished the last episode and what a mess that was; I don't buy the plottwist about Tonhon always loving Chon since childhood with the way he acted throughout the series. Also the message that it sends about women; How Tonhon's dad spoke to the daughter and telling her to focus on making him grandchildren..didn't sit right with me and how he looked down on Miriam for being a call girl at one point. The only ones I could truly stand were Chon most of the time, Pang, Miriam, AiNi and Na. By the end I was over Amp gold digging, self absored ways and didn't care what happened to the father who apparently knew about Tonhon anyways but yet had such a visceral reaction. Hell I was even enjoying Chon giving Tonhon a hard time and calling him out on his ego satisfying. I only cared if Na was going to end up happy or not.

As far as actors go they all did great, they have no fault for the terrible writing. I very much enjoyed the friendship side of it.

Soundtrack is great also.

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Qu'est-il arrivé au script ? Comment d'une idée aussi simple, cela peut-il devenir aussi absurde ?

On part d'un gars amoureux de son voisin. Voisin qui n'est pas amoureux et qui d'ailleurs n'est pas gay. C'est loin d'être original, mais on peut toujours composer quelque chose. Et pourtant... À chaque fin d'épisode, je ne pensais pas que le prochain pouvait être pire. J'avais tord !

Thonhon est supposé être un adulte, d'accord ? Alors pourquoi se comporte-t-il comme un fichu adolescent stupide ? Comment peut-il ne pas comprendre que deux hommes peuvent être ensemble sentimentalement parlant ? Fallait-il lui faire un dessin ou quelque chose du genre ?
Chonlatee était un adorable et timide garçon. À quel moment est-il devenu aussi ridicule ? Tous les complots afin que Thonhon tombe amoureux de lui étaient plus gênant les uns que les autres. Pourquoi agit-il ainsi ? Pourquoi semble-t-il paniqué lorsque Thonhon lui porte un soudain intérêt ?
Je me demande, quel est le problème des personnages ? Au sens général, j'entends. Quel était leur fichu problème pour dérailler à ce point ?

Une partie de moi (la partie maso - nous en avons tous une, soyons honnêtes) avait l'espoir aussi infime qu'il soit que les choses changent. Ce n'est jamais le cas. Même le jeu des acteurs en devient grinçant, c'est pour dire...

C'était mauvais. Je sais que certains défendront ce drama et c'est ok. Vous en avez le droit. Laissez-moi juste avec ma propre idée aussi.

Leia Mais

What a mess

Chonlatee was honestly a mess. The show had a strong start. Interesting characters which had their quirks. Na (Neo) was my favourite so adorable and funny. Production wise the show was pretty good. I had no problem with the quality of filming. The script started off alright but unfortunately went from worse to disaster by the end of the show. Quite bad pacing. Character's unrealistically changing or accepting situations no mad person would accept.

What completely destroyed the show was the ending for me. It was as bad and problematic as you can get. The resolution to Ton's homophobic father is finding out he just wants an heir, so Miriam has a baby with Ton as sort of a surrogate to satisfy him but Ton and Chon can be together. It's honestly fucked up. Also Chon is the god father??? Like idk what sort of family they are planning to raise the kid under and the relationship Ton and Chon would have. Who will parent the kid, Mirian, his parents, Ton and Chon??? It is framed as a happy ending but honestly some deluded person thought this is an uplighting way to end a comedy. I would have preferred Ton and Chon not end up together honestly or they could have adopted when they were ready to have kids??

There were many other issues but I've seen other reviews cover them.

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not everyone's cup of tea, and it is okay if you like the show

By all means, this review is a personal opinion. For future viewers, read this at your own risk and this review should not make you watch the series or prevent you from watching it. To be honest, I watched this series weekly and I admit that it got boring at some point but I did watch this again from episode 1 until 9 just before the final episode and I have to say that the story was better when I watched this series continuously.

What I like about the show:
1) It may be weird to some, but I kinda like the OST, it does relate with the story.
2) The acting is above average, not too bad, not too great since I can say most of the actors are "experienced" actors. Some actors did show well how the characters supposed to behave like Khaotung playing as Chonlatee (a cute and innocent guy) and even Pod is great in this (that's why most people hated him because he managed to show how Tonhon supposed to be from the novel and screenplay). I like Na and Aunt Nam characters the most.
3) The whole "satire" idea of this story. And here are my takeout from this series:

The intro of this drama (The Untamed parody) showed that this drama is completely a satire and a satire is “the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices” (https://literaryterms.net/). This shows at some point exaggerated some issues like homophobic character and crazy ex girlfriend to a point that it doesn't make sense. And for me, this is exactly what this shows want to show to the audience and it was executed brilliantly. One example that I noticed and I am also not sure about this (this is random observation) but remember how Miriam kept on telling people that she is virgin? And in the end she is pregnant and assuming that she is still virgin at that point, what she will be called when she delivers the baby? Exactly, a virgin Miriam (LOL). Okay that is not a main issue. One of the main issues is Ton's father being homophobic entire 10 episodes just because of heir issue and at the end surrogacy is the solution to this? Exactly, this is ridiculous. You see, being homophobic is ridiculous and sometimes people become homophobic because of ridiculous reasons. All you need is a solution to make people understand and the solution can be any (in this case, they propose an extreme solution which is surrogacy).

Like I said, not everyone will like this because of the "stereotype and cliche" plot and the drama showed a lot of heavy issues (such as effeminate villain character, crazy ex girlfriend, homophobic characters, toxic masculinity, attempted rape and etc). For me, all issues were addressed well in the drama, you may need to pay a little attention to what the characters said in the drama. Whether or not you think the issues were properly addressed, you already have the answer. Watching drama is supposed to be as simple as this: "Oh, this character behavior is bad and he is homophobic". Good, you notice it, don't be like them. And if you like the character because they show good behavior, it's great, be like them in real life.

I learn and gain something, well kinda a lot from this drama. In short, I am a simple person, if I like what I watch, give me good times and I laugh out of it, I am happy. Because life is too short to take all things seriously. And sometimes, I need this kind of drama to remind me that these people and even these issues exist in real life. As open as Thailand can be, there are still people who are homophobic and prejudice towards gay people, it is a never ending problem. But just like they said in the series, gay is not a virus, it is not infectious. Live well!

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had potential

i was really excited to watch this because it has some of my favorite bl actors, and while the acting is pretty good, the writing is awful. tonhon is an awful, irredeemable person, he's so homophobic and oblivious. the stuff with his dad wasn't in the book so i don't know why they added it, it doesn't add anything to the story. ai and ni pretty cute, but the scene where they forced chon to come out to them was shitty. and it doesn't make sense that ton didn't know they were dating like he did in the book. it could have been a cute story about childhood friends to lovers, but it ends up as an awful hot mess.

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The pacing was terrible!

This BL is generic with the usual university and ex-girlfriend scenario. The issue I found with this show is the pacing. The build-up to this event is so prolonged that there is not enough episodes to explain and fully grasp the event. All of this drama being built up isn't suited for how many episodes this BL has. Ton's homophobia in this BL doesn't bother me, but the way they addressed it. Tonhon's character development was thought out poorly and the novel doesn't even contain that. If the character was going to portray this idea, at least not have it rushed at the end without any consequences. He didn't even apologize for his homophobia but brushed it off because Ai and Ni are his bestfriends. The only visual thing that showed that ton was changing his ways was the beach scene. I get that they tried to make it realistic, but execute it right.

Ton's homophobic actions shouldn't last half of the series then to have another arc of him realizing his feelings. We are on the last episode and he is still telling people they are actually dating. Where is the couple arc? Where is the relaxing? The acting/cast was great, but that can't substitute bad writing.

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Started out good!

This is a show that starts out with a few good episodes and quickly goes downhill from there.

The script is a mess, the stereotypes are mixed up, the premise is not believable, and the side actors are mostly annoying.

I watched this all the way through, but it was really a waste of time after the first few episodes. I have seen worse, the only thing this show had going for it was there were no screeching, hysterical side characters. I think if the script had been better written, perhaps the actors could have had something to work with, but the script is bad, nothing else works.

I don't recommend a first watch of this one, let alone a rewatch. So sad.

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Serious social commentary wrapped in comedy wrapped in lakorn

Did all the reviewers panning this for depictions of bad behaviour fail to realise how many of them were called out, whether in the dialogue, reactions, context or consequences? Sometimes the call outs were gentle, like Chon's maa telling him something he did was wrong, sometimes they were bold, like Chon's maa in the last episode. Always appropriate to the context.

It's a clear critique of toxic masculinity in several forms, including misogyny, objectification, peer pressure, outdated attitudes and of course homophobia. It's full of good messages and positive examples too.

This deserves to be watched with more attention than most here seem to have given it, including those who see it only as light-hearted fluff. It's laugh out loud funny, with the warm, open-hearted generosity of Thailand's best comedy, but it's also delivering some important messages.

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It did not try hard... and that is okay.

I feel like your liking of this drama is going to depend on what other dramas you have previously seen.

TC was a very simple drama with nothing too crazy to find unique or memorable. However, because I have seen other dramas that have failed due to intricate stories with confusing writing and plenty of plot holes, the simplicity of this one was appreciated.

~ Story:
Simple and clear. Anyone could write a story like this, but that doesn't make it bad. I found myself enjoying it a lot more thanks to that specific fact. The writing was decent, the pacing was decent, there was not too much going on focusing mostly on the most relevant and necessary parts of the story for a clear understanding of the events. Honestly, you're not going to find a drama that's clearer to understand than this one.

~Cast:
Decent. I feel like all these actor learned in the same acting school because I don't know how many times I've seen the exact same reactions.

Tonhon/Chonlatee: I liked them. They both had good chemistry and most of their acting came out somewhat natural. I think Khao did better than Pod, but it was them together what made their best moments.

Ai/Ni: Good support couple. They came directly from 2gether, so their chemistry was the best of the entire drama. What I like the most about this series is that these support couples had enough screen time but no separate plot. Their story was just part of the same main plot, which made it more coherent with everything else. Toptap is the love of my life and seeing him on screen fills me with joy. He needs a lead role, y'all.

Female characters were actually really good too. I like that their place within the story was solid and didn't shake even at the end. They remained strong throughout the whole thing.

~Final episode:
Probably the worst thing about this drama. It was so terribly cliche that I had to stop watching for a while because I couldn't take the cringe of it all. Tonhon's father is such a terrible actor that almost gave me nausea.

All in all, this is a decent drama. If you're looking for a very simple, low budget, and cute story with equal levels of fanservice and plot, then this is totally for you.

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Consitpation

Looking for something where they ravage each other and provide sexual content? TURN BACK! Looking for something with an amazing storyline/plot? LEAVE NOW! Looking for something so cheesy you'll get constipated af? LOOK NO FURTHER!
As an experienced BL fan I've seen it all...the good, bad and ugly. It wasn't necessarily "bad" I think the cheesiness and the rush of suddenly everything going in every direction it shouldn't, is mind blowing. It has it's cute and funny moments of course and there's sweetness with sadness. It had potential but I don't feel the MC had good chemistry. I wouldn't recommend for someone starting into the BL World but I guess it's decent enough to watch. I actually liked it more in the beginning then suddenly it went into the abyss then came back up but shot to the stars and crashed landed in a black hole. The ending tho is...satisfying?
To each their own....

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