Ai Long Nai (2022)

Not Amazing but better than a lot of other Thai BLs

Let's start with getting all the bad stuff out of the way first:
1. A lot of plot points are not well fleshed out. There are tons of conflicts that should be discussed and resolved better but most of them either gets resolved hastily or are just not talked about anymore. To be fair though, I'd rather have this compared to hugely prolonged conflicts.
2. Acting is subpar. But then honestly that's the case for a lot of Thai BLs except for the very exceptional few.
3. They are still clinging on to a lot of heteronormative gender roles and tropes. Especially with Nai taking on the "wife" role and having that typical reluctance to sex, naggy, and needing to be saved type of character. This is supposed to be an LGBT drama guys, we can do better than this. Although I have to say, Nai getting lost and being forgetful isn't that farfetched, he might just need an ADHD assessment.
4. No real character development. But again the characters started out more emotionally developed and less annoying than most main male characters at the end of shows so I didn't really mind.
5. Ai being attracted to Nai because he reminded him of his stepdad is kinda weird BUT it's literally just Freud's theory in action. And Freud is a psychologist (a weird one but a psychologist nonetheless) so who am i to question his theories.

Now onto the good stuff:
1. Both boys are so proud of their relationship. It's so refreshing to have a drama where both parties are not so deeply entrenched in internalized homophobia. Both Ai and Nan are actually so proud that they bagged each other and that is absolutely adorable. Love it when Ai's dad told Nan that he knew about him because Ai kept bragging about how amazing his boyfriend is to his dad. Seriously, we need more of this in BLs.

2. Friendship group is adorable. I know some people find the friends underutilized and had no real development, but I honestly just love seeing BL leads have actual friends man. I find a lot of Thai BL friendships very stilted in picture (this one is a lil stilted too but better than most).

3. Older gay couples!!!!!! Love seeing Ai having two dads who are still so in love. I also love seeing how supportive and adoring households lead to kids who are generally well adjusted (for the most part).

4. Generally an enthusiastic consent on a lot of aspects of the relationship. I am not only talking about sex in this. I am talking about how Nai, although has not ever considered liking men before, was so open to the idea of "trial dating". The moment he acknowledges his feelings for Ai, he was instantly all in. Yes, Nai gets that "more reluctant to sex" character but he does initiate a lot of intimacy. He also tells Ai that he IS flirting with him and wants Ai to get his hints. In an ideal world, we will have a BL couple who actually displays enthusiastic consent to things but honestly this is a step up compared to other Thai BLs.

5. The other love interest does not get villainized!!!! Sometimes a girl gets infatuated and let's go when she realises that it's not gonna happen. This drama gets the memo. We need to stop turning girls into villain just because of a man!

6. Skinship feels more natural than most other Thai BLs I see. I love how there's a lot of non-sexualized skinship happening in this relationship. The cuddling, hand holding, and the casual side hugs!!! Those things are better to me than sex.

7. Ai's actor is hot. I'm a sucker for that hairstyle man.


Anyways I like this, not enough to recommend to my family and friends, but enough to recommend it on this site.

Leia Mais

It just went downhill

It started out pretty good... with a decent first episode. Unfortunately, there are just too many problems with the overall storyline. Parts of the story become a jumbled mess with characters coming and going. The jealous girl storyline disappears, and other characters emerge. Side stories and side couples are introduced way too late in the series and basically go nowhere. Someone had a good idea but did not know how to turn it into a complete series, so they just kept throwing in a bunch of unnecessary scenes to keep the story going. And unfortunately, the writer did not even know how to keep any excitement about the two mains going either, their dialogue and actions were repetitive, boring and juvenile.

I totally blame the failure of this series on the writer, because the actors were not given much to work with. If the script is dull, the series will be dull as well, no matter how good everything else is.

Once again, I am disappointed and sad by the bl's that have come out this year. Most of them have been nonsensical or boring or have not really been bl's at all. Let's hope the year 2023 brings about some new writers and fresh ideas.

Leia Mais

Fun, Cute, Fluff

Don’t go in with any high expectations and you will have fun. It’s a low budget show but I think it still does a great job. There isn’t very much plot at all besides a boy falling in love with another boy on first sight. The second lead Ping was only 17 when filming and this was his first role. I think he does a really good job and so does the other main lead Meen. They are just to adorable and this show always made my day happy. You don’t get answers to some of the questions that come up but I could care less. It’s a fun time if you just want something cute to watch.

Leia Mais

Cute and sweetest drama

I’m actually regretting why couldn’t I watch it before because of negative comments I kept on postponing but this drama is actually so good and cute I really want to have Ai character as husband 😂❤ anyway I enjoyed this drama a lot it was really cute both actors acting and chemistry was awesome I couldn’t get move on with drama hope to see same couple again with similar script but I couldn’t able to see his friends love story I felt like a bit fast or incomplete but they were also good and here we can see bl couple as parents too and parents and friends who support bl couples happy with the series all the best ❤

Leia Mais

the reviews can be misleading...

If you are confused if you should watch this after all those reviews both negative and positive...
you should!!!
BUT!
Only if you are looking for something reaaaallly lighthearted no brainer show to calm down after all those heart breaking emotional rollercoasters in drama these days!!! I honestly loved it , it was like 12 eps of happiness and fluff
sometimes its actually nice to sit back and have some fun🤷🏻‍♀️ ppl don't have char development irl, there are no dramatic villains who is out to get u, sometimes its jus fun!
so yeah if u r not looking for nail biting show on a weekend this could be it! if that's not ur cup of tea skip there wont be much of a "plot twist" but it was not boring (personal opinion)
AND the only unrealistic thing abt the show i gotta agree with everyone else is how nhai is in aerospace dept with z̶e̶r̶o̶ single braincell...😅

Leia Mais

Aiyaret Long men Chen Nhai

This was okay. It wasn’t that bad. Not a lot of thought, so it was an easy watch. I’m writing this review on my iPad too. First of all Ai and Nhai look so similar it is not even funny. It’s because of the hair, because in the special clip episodes the actors look nothing alike, at all, but the hair and the fact they are both tall, they look so much alike. Like only going based on side profiles you can’t tell the difference. And Ai with his hair styled and with it not styled are two different guys, you can’t change my mind. Sorry, uh the plot was pretty lack luster, not a lot happened. The acting was mid, but overall it’s a light watch and I needed that. I’m gonna go by couple, or “couple.” Because yeah. The plot had a lot of potential but it didn’t reach that potential at all.

Ai and Nhai. Ai is the slightly buffer more laidback version of Nhai and Nhai is the more annoying and skinner version of Ai. They have some pretty good chemistry, I’ll give it to them. Nhai is a little cutie and I fell in love with his annoying and needy personality. I did not expect them to start their love story the way they did. Very much not expected. We had a love at first sight, for one of them at least (Ai) and a “am I gay?” Downwards spiral for the other one (Nhai). They were cute and I liked the, together. Love me some tall men too. AI’s legs are literally longer than Nhai’s, but the most of the plot was furthered by everyone being in love with his long legs. I mean me too. Okay onto the next couple.

Ton and Chon. Okay wait I am pretty sure Chon was a high school student, I’m hoping a high school senior and assuming based on him going to the university to see what major he wants to do next year. And ton is in his second year of university. That kinda didn’t sit right with me. Chon had that weird stalker vibe to him, but we never really saw that come to truth. And wait Ton was in an 8 year relationship? Bro so he was in the same relationship since 7th grade? Or I just can’t do math whatsoever and I think university is different over there. That’s it for these bozos.

Nine and FM. We got some half one sided love. From who is the one sided love, I don’t know. They had max 2 minutes of screen time in this lol. Not a lot to say besides one sided love but which side has the love, I guess we’ll never know.

Sippakoron and Jaonan. I’m just gonna say it Nhai looks nothing like Nan, like at all. But that’s okay because it’s cute. These two were very cute. Raised Ai very well. Love them, nothing else to say,

In and Song Khwan. “Hey I know we had some potential, im gonna move to America for the next 6 to 7 years and probably come back with a wife and two kids, and I’m not going to tell you that I liked you. See ya.” And In was like bro what and Song just walked off. Yeah nothing to say about them.

You can probably skip this one. There’s nothing really special about it. It’s like work and pretty short actually. I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s a decent watch though. Now im watching AiNhai. That’s it for this review. Okay bye!

Leia Mais

Cute University story

It's a cute University, coming of age type story. It's not deep or needing a lot of logic to follow. The MCs are cute boys - one if them being a player, who instantly falls in love with the other boy who has only be interested in girls but is interested in his new friend.
I wish they had done more with Ai's toxic mother and that whole situation with the half-sister.The sister kept popping up only for the whole situation to fizzle out after lack luster confrontation that nothing came of other than them never showing up. Also wish they had also shown the dad's meeting, it was just mentioned to happen but then there is a fast forward.
The show is cute, certainly worth a rewatch but just because the general story isn't bad and boys are adorable.

Leia Mais

Nothing special, but nothing overly bad

So this is going to be a short and simple review, just cuz there's nothing much to say about this series.

The main cp are quite cute at some times, but also really pisses me off in many many scenes. Nhai acts like a spoiled brat most of the time (which I get is his character), and Ai loves him for that, which I'm totally fine with. But Nhai my boy please do grow up just a bit? It usually seems that the relationship is really one-sided, as Ai is the one who pampers Nhai to no ends, but Nhai does reciprocate sometimes.

Mainly what I liked about the cp is that they do talk, and misunderstandings never last long, so there is no angst at all (not sure if that's a good thing since some people love angsty stuff). But I don't really like both characters on their own, Nhai as I mentioned acts like a child, and for Ai, I was just particularly disappointed with him in ep10 when he went of the rockers and started blaming his adoptive dad brainlessly. A good point about Nhai is that he can always stand his ground, and never gets bullied by bishes (ahem .. iykyk)

Side cps are basically non-existent in the series, probably only starting around ep11, which is the penultimate episode.

There is not underlying plot, as Nhai and Ai's relationship is the plot. I admit that I started losing a whole lot of interest starting the second half of the series, there just wasn't much to look forward to. Overall, i think giving it a 7 was already me being quite generous.

Leia Mais

If you're looking for a Tonhon Chonlatee storyline, forget it. But this show is good, I liked it.

First I was afraid Porsh would do another character like the one from Together With Me, but I was very glad to see him as a married father (also his husband in the series is his husband in real life, I thought this was really cool). The main couple is really sweet and I love them for the cuteness and the fact that they are basically married. The relationship between them and their families is very sweet too (except for the crazy biological mother) and the lack of homophobia is great for me. There's a few problems like the secondary couples are very little explored and have no closure and the toxic trait about the main couple that you can see in one scene where Ai makes Nai change his shorts cause "nobody can see his legs, only him". Later on they went back to being so cute that I almost forgot about it. When it comes to Tonhon and Chonlatee, well... There's almost nothing. They have so little screentime, we know nothing about them but the good news is Tonhon is not a terrible person like the original.

Leia Mais

Sweet

This is a very different story than Tonhon Chonlatee. Do NOT expect to have it be consistent with the original or even close really. The character names are the same, but that's about it.

As noted in other reviews, this show will not be winning any awards, but it is a great "in between" watch. Not too serious, just a sweet and straight forward love story. I love that Ai is very clear about what he wants. I love that once they are together, Nhai doesn't waver. I love that he also handles Ai's mother issue so well.
There are many unanswered questions; why does Nhai get so sick so easily? What happens with the mother? What happens with Nine and FM? What happens with Ton/Chon? Because it's not consistent with the original story. What's happens with Intha and Song?

Overall it's a nice watch without too much drama. I enjoyed it.

Leia Mais

Another "Middle of the pack"

While this wasn't the best show I'd ever seen, it wasn't bad enough for me to drop it. To be honest though, I'm still trying to figure out why.

The show gets repetitive... like, SUPER repetitive. I feel like they had the same conversation in every episode. There were so many situations thrown into the show that just never got resolved or mentioned again after their initial introduction and the main couple's reaction to it. It was like the writing team sat around a table and just listed off a bunch of "cute moments that new couples have together" and they tried to squeeze them all in without any real context or purpose. Then when they try for some serious drama (mainly everything surrounding Ai's parents) it's even more frustrating because they STILL don't resolve the issues, meanwhile they were pretty big and vital to get some closure.

What I did like, however, was the honesty between the main couple throughout. As far as they were concerned, there wasn't a whole lot of the typical misunderstandings and miscommunication you normally find in these kinds of BL stories. Nhai was very honest and upfront about his confusion from the beginning, not wanting to give Ai hope while Ai constantly checked in to make sure Nhai was okay. For all of the reason and sense this show was lacking, they definitely made up for it with the MC's relationship.

I was kind of disappointed that they set up side stories with the rest of the group of friends but then they were just completely forgotten like everything else in the series except the MC. I realized after the fact that there was already a series centered around Ton's relationship though it looks like it is not quite the same seeing as it was made by a different studio and cast. To be honest, I don't know if I can watch it now having seen this first. Which is a shame because they were my favorite set up side couple. And who knows what ever happened to In and Nine's set-up because, again, they were just dropped out of no where. It's okay if they don't get a whole lot of screen time but, damn, if you're going to introduce their potential story-lines, then stick with it. Now, again, they may very well be planning to make side stories or separate series with these characters but I have no idea.

The mother... really, just.. that's all I can say. Like.. WTF was the point of that whole mess?

A part of me thinks that a lot of the issues I had with this series could have been due to lack-luster translations because even the best ones I could find were not great. That's the catch with these kinds of shows that the dialogue could really either save it or hinder it and, unfortunately, I think it was more the latter in this series.

All that being said, I enjoyed it enough to finish it. Mostly because I was waiting for some resolutions which never came, but there is still the special episode to watch so maybe there will be some loose ends tied up there. Fingers crossed though I won't hold my breath.

Leia Mais