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wen-kexing-apologist · 1 year

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Moonlight Chicken is For the Queers

Ok I started my rewatch of episode 8 and figured out what I want to talk about for this series' finale: intentions and resolutions. This post will be about intention, and how I truly feel that Moonlight Chicken is a gift for queer people. Why? Well, there are many reasons, but for the purposes of this post, I will simply present the following title card.

Moonlight Chicken, Chapter 8: The Self-made House and Home

(if you are expecting this post to be anything other than a jumbled mess of my personal experiences with no clear through-lines or relevant transitions between sentences, thoughts, etc. then turn back now)

Whatever we want to say boy loves started as, fetish or otherwise, queer people are still able to see themselves or get comfort and representation. But coming from watching literally 25 boy loves in the last four months, this show feels different from most (not all) of them, to me, because of how strongly this show centers around built community, rather than romance, as it's central theme.

And yeah while any standard friend group in BL could be considered community in the abstract, the idea that they are a community is never quite presented. It's Team taking food from Pharm and all three of the gang teasing each other, it's Kuea and Diao spending most of their time talking about their relationships, it's Porsche forgetting Pete exists because he's so caught up in Kinn. More often than not we are building towards and hoping for declarations of love between two characters. And do not get me wrong, that is all well and good, and always what I'm rooting for in those shows. And we get something akin to that in Moonlight Chicken too, which is when you finally have Li Ming and Jim calling Heart and Wen (respectively) their boyfriends.

But the "I love you" we get in Moonlight Chicken? That isn't between the couples, it's between Li Ming and Jim.

Because the thing that makes Moonlight Chicken different from other BLs is the emphasis it puts on queer elders raising queer youth. It's about queer youth learning from queer elders and queer elders learning from queer youth. It's about how home and birth families don't always fit quite right, and how you build families and homes despite. And it's applicable to many people, children in abusive homes, disabled people, etc. too. Which is why P'Aof adds strained parental relationships and deafness in to this piece. But because this is fundamentally a BL show, I'm viewing this more through a queer lens.

So naturally, this also means I am informing my analysis of this show through my feelings as the only (known/out/visible) queer person on either side of my family. When I was little, a decade or more before I realized I was queer, I asked my mother one night if I was adopted. I'm not, and I know that, but why did I ask? Because I never really felt like I fit. Not the way I was supposed to fit, not the way family was supposed to fit together. My house never felt like a home.

And it's why I love this exchange between Wen and Jim at the end of episode 2

"I want home," "Don't you already have one?" "I don't." "A person like me doesn't fit to be anyone's home,"

And technically we know this isn't true. Wen does have a home, he has a condo, he has a place to sleep. But emotionally is where the problem lies. Wen is living with his ex, the apartment is cold, he has work colleagues and a friend that he and his ex both know and that's it. And as he tells Jim in episode 7, all his friends are straight. And then he meets Jim, and there is a spark, and maybe it's possible for home to grow there.

Literally, physically, I have a home. I have a family. But the more I embrace my queerness, the more I understand and am comfortable with myself, the more isolating and cold that house and family feel. I'm such a different person now than I was, and there are homophobes and transphobes on both sides of my family, and that makes it hard for me to feel like I am loved. Even when logically I know I am. But it's hard, when your mother says she accepts you and has yet to use my pronouns properly despite me being out to her for over a year and having three separate conversations about it. When your uncle spends twenty minutes or more complaining about trans people, when your cousins don't think trans people should exist. That's my family...technically. That's my home...technically. But it hasn't felt like that in years. So I understand what Wen means here, Wen's definition of home is not a place it is a feeling.

And Jim? We know Jim is already everyone's home. He is home for Li Ming, he is the closest thing to a parent that Leng has in his life, he makes sure the community not only has food, but has as much as food as they could possibly eat. He is first and foremost a community caretaker. But he is so wrapped up in his grief about Beam, his self-hatred, his stubbornness, his exhaustion that he is not able to believe that about himself. Home is a place and not a feeling for Jim, because he can't allow it to be.

The key to Wen and Jim's relationship is finding and building that home.

Home, Family, Community. These are incredibly important themes to Moonlight Chicken and those themes are incredibly important aspects of being queer.

I don't know how Thailand is re: homophobia and transphobia, if kids risk the same chance of getting kicked out of their homes for being queer, etc. But that is a very real possibility for many queer people in the States. But I'm thinking of homelessness in queer youth, how 28% of queer youth have reported experiencing homelessness in their lives. I'm thinking of ballroom and ball culture and how participants in the Ballroom scene were parts of Houses with mothers and fathers at the head of them who acted as mentors to their queer children. When I think about queerness and what it means, I think about ballroom. I think about connection, I think about community.

But that community is often forged from necessity borne out of isolation. What do I mean by isolation? I mean the isolation that Li Ming feels in school, around his school friends. I mean the faces Li Ming makes when his friends are talking about girls:

I mean the physical barriers the show places between Li Ming and his school friends.

It is the isolation that comes with queerness, with poverty, with everything about Li Ming. Beyond the fact Wen is a little younger than Jim and thus better able to understand and see Li Ming's desires to be seen as an adult. I think it is this state of listlessness in Li Ming is also something Wen recognizes. I think at this point Li Ming is so desperate to get away, to go to America, to be listened to and respected by Jim.

Jim who is too caught up in constant stress to see the home he has built for himself, Li Ming who is too caught up in wanting to be understood to appreciate that he has a home to run from. Wen who is working as a go between for Li Ming and Jim because he wants them to be his home. Heart who has been trapped at home and found his freedom because Li Ming understands the frustration of misunderstanding, and the importance of community.

I'm thinking about how so much of the final episodes are dedicated to showing community, showing family, showing the audience that home lies in the collective.

We see it in how many people rush to help Mrs. Hong:

We see it in the people who help you carry your grief:

We see it in how deeply and broadly the pain is felt when community pillars are lost:

We see it in the end of and era:

We see it in the olive branches:

And in new beginnings:

Very few people in these shots are connected through blood, but they are a family. And when I look at these shots the only thing I can think about is how I felt the night I threw a party for all my trans friends. All I can think about when I see these shots of everyone sitting and eating together is how many times I would look over to my friends and see them beaming. How many times someone came up to me to excitedly say this is the first time they felt like they could fully be themselves. How everyone kept asking to do an event like this again. How everyone kept asking to be added to a group chat at the end of the night so they could keep in contact.

And I remember how it felt for me to realize that I had built a community for myself in a place that I have really been struggling to feel was home. Because I had spent so much time in school and work, barley able to scrape together enough money to cover expenses, exhausted and stressed and unable to see what I had sitting right in front of me.

And I think about other queer people I have met, who light up when they see someone else who is gay, who talk about how lonely they feel because they only have one other queer friend. How immediately the need to invite them out, to introduce them to people, to make sure they have community strikes.

I think about how I worked at a summer camp out of state, and got to try out my pronouns, and figure out who I was, and then a few months later, I had to return home. Where I wasn't out yet, where I was going to get misgendered, and how quickly I came out to all of my close friends about my gender identity to try to mitigate how much my mental health tanked when I had to be someone my parents thought I still was. How at the same camp, the queer kids flocked to all the queer staff, how desperate they were to bond. How much lighter they got to be when they were away from their parents and allowed to be themselves around people who also understood not only them as people with the identities they held, but also their struggles existing in a household that didn't see who they were.

I think about how, in the States at least, "are you family?" is/was used as code for "are you gay?"

It's why it is so important to me that Moonlight Chicken ends with the line: "I just built a home. I don't want to move anywhere."

Because Wen has finally built his home. Because he has found his family, his queer community, his home. And yeah, we get the romance, yeah we get Li Ming and Heart holding hands, and Jim and Wen making out, but the emphasis of the final episode is moving forward, being brave, allowing yourself to love, and allowing yourself to stop, look around, and realize that you've made a home for yourself that is built of the people you love who love you in return.

Community building is a huge part of life for literally everyone, but it vital to the survival of marginalized communities. And when I think about my own relationship to queerness, one of the most sacred and important aspects of being queer is building the family you need.

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telomeke · 1 year

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MOONLIGHT CHICKEN – ASSISTANT DIRECTOR AU KORNPROM'S CAMEO (BUT IT'S ACTUALLY A CALLOUT TO MY SCHOOL PRESIDENT)

When Assistant Director Au appeared in Moonlight Chicken as a bubble tea vendor at Ep.5 [2/4] 2.05, it got me wondering whether it was simply the cast and crew having a bit of fun (as with a number of the vendor cameos in Bad Buddy), or whether there was any greater significance (as with GMMTV producers/directors and their cameos in other series before – see this link here).

After all, Au Kornprom Niyomsil is not the director of Moonlight Chicken. But the cameo, while brief and unannounced, reads like a purposeful flourish – Director Aof saved Assistant Director Au's appearance for just a few seconds in the very last half-minute of the scene, so as to maximize the impact of this Aha! moment. This lends the cameo some weight, and I think there is meaning behind it too.

It’s especially significant that the one buying the bubble tea (chaa nom khai mook, or ชานมไข่มุก) is Fourth, in character as teenager Li Ming. And what Li Ming says to Jim at Ep.5 [2/4] 1.57 ("It's not for you") is significant too.

The connection that Fourth and Assistant Director Au have is that the latter is Fourth's director in My School President, which not coincidentally also broadcast its finale the same week as Assistant Director Au's cameo in Moonlight Chicken.

Now MSP is a feelgood vehicle clearly directed at a younger crowd. It's been crafted for maximum teenybopper appeal (does anyone still use this term though? 🤷‍♂️), with photogenic leads, lots of earcandy songs, cutesy sound effects, gigil/geram-inducing props (that chinchilla hoodie! 😍), uncomplicated storytelling and loads of sweet, affirming moments. All formulaic elements that management and marketing must be beaming at, that are likely to up MSP's money-making popularity in the teen segment and bring in cash from associated sidelines as well (young teens being the most willing to fork out cash for collateral merchandise, or so the current wisdom goes).

I'm not intending to suggest that teens are incapable of appreciating darker, heavier fare, mind you. But I do think the studios are keenest on less demanding, inoffensive output that they can then spin out into all sorts of income streams (music and merchandise being the most obvious, but also concerts and fanmeets as well). This would be logical for any commercial enterprise (which is what they are, after all) but if any among their stable of writers and directors are approaching their work with social consciousness too, well, there are bound to be clashes when pressure mounts to go in a lighter direction.

So to me, MSP is a bit of a rainbow-colored unicorn, a rare confluence of both these drivers (commercial orientation and social conscience, albeit applied with a gentler touch). Underneath its sugary BL theatrics are also positive messages aimed at bolstering the self-esteem and awareness of LGBTQ+ youth still coming to grips with the realities of their identities in cishet-dominated society. That its primary audience is not made up of adults may align nicely with management directives on the commercial front, but it also allows for its underlying message to be targeted as well.

When Li Ming says (a little too smugly) "It's not for you", with MSP's director then handing him the boba, the message is that it's the younger crowd that's being prioritized (not in Moonlight Chicken, ironically, but in My School President).

MSP is especially for teenagers just starting to find their own way in life, not so much older adults who've already figured out (at least partly) who they are and how they fit into society (although everyone is quite welcome to watch along; one message of BL is surely "no gatekeeping" as long as you carry no ill-intent 🥰).

So this is the message of Assistant Director Au's cameo, I think – just as his bubble tea vendor persona is providing teens Li Ming and Heart with a sweet, tasty treat that they will enjoy, as director of MSP (and possibly future projects in the same vein) he's doing much the same thing by delivering a carefully-crafted confection designed to be especially palatable for a younger audience.

And just as bubble tea is known for containing its addictive pearls, teen-oriented BLs like MSP (created by Director Au's hand) will also contain something more substantial for you to chew on within (noting that the word khaimook or pearl also carries the connotation of precious value).

To older folk who might not quite appreciate the offering for what it is (like when Jim says "I don't want it" at Ep.5 [2/4] 1.53) – well, a teen show is not really intended for you anyway (which is the meaning behind Li Ming's retort – he's not just being sassy, although that does have significance for Moonlight Chicken's plot too 😊). Jim's of course welcome to consume it if he wants or likes. But I think his tastes swing toward the more meaty and savory anyway; this is Moonlight Chicken after all. 💖

At the time of writing this, I still hadn't watched Episodes 5 and 6 in full. But this scene was giffed and commented on so much I had to at least watch this bit. I was waiting for Director Aof to put in a cameo too, so this is what I wrote at first:

I think there's a strong chance it will happen. But what will it mean though? 🤷‍♂️

Well, we now know that it actually happened too, within the same episode! Thanks to @hughungrybear for pointing this out – see this link here. 🥰

I'll save Director Aof's cameo for another post though. I have thoughts about it – something rings ominous about how it was presented, and I'm not sure yet if we should wait for more to be revealed. 🤔

#moonlight chicken #gmmtv cameos #au kornprom niyomsil #fourth nattawat #my school president #aof noppharnach chaiwimol

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telomeke-bbs · 2 years

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BAD BUDDY – OH, THE ALLEGORY OF IT ALL

This write-up was inspired by something that the ever-incisive @miscellar posted on 27 Sept 2022 regarding Bad Buddy's lack of homophobia (linked here), by the resurfacing of Pran's guitar during my rewatch of Ep.3, and also by a post from the thought-provoking @faillen (which unfortunately I can't track down and link to – my apologies!).

I really wasn't planning to do another write-up of this kind for some time, since we're now in the Bad Buddy rerun season and for the next few months I was only planning to list observations (not any kind of analysis) while going through the episodes in chronological order. Just a bit of light (if long-winded) reporting, avoiding (what amounts to, for me at least) any kind of heavy lifting to do with the messaging behind the media.

I'm actually far more interested in the social, cultural and linguistic aspects of any media I consume, and Bad Buddy is so rich in these it's possible to ignore its weightier content. My preference is for entertainment media to be lighter on the political front, since real life can be heavy enough to deal with. And I've been actively avoiding the heavier stuff in Bad Buddy, for these and other reasons.

But now I think it's time. 😉

It should be clear to everyone by this point that Bad Buddy is very much an allegory for the experience of growing up queer in queer-hostile environments.

The series is fronted by the out, proud and wise Khun Noppharnach Chaiwimol after all, so some aspect of queer messaging was always going to be inevitable in the mix.

(above) Aof Noppharnach Chaiwimol

And part of the genius of Bad Buddy is that its queer themes are interleaved within layers of fulfilling (and sometimes even exquisite) TV drama craftsmanship from all those involved, from the crew, to the writers, to the directors and of course to the actors (with a couple of exceptions perhaps, and I think we can/should forgive the inexperienced newbies among the cast). The queer themes are there, but they're not the eyewhacking coat-of-arms in the center of the tapestry – they're woven unobtrusively into the main fabric instead.

As homophobia is basically absent from their fictional universe, the fact that PatPran's relationship is (eventually) a gay one is – on the surface at least – totally immaterial compared to the other issues dealt out by the narrative.

For example, they have to hide their friendship behind a fake rivalry at university, because their faculties are at war. And then they have to face the hostility of family members – their parents – because their relationship (romantic or otherwise) is forbidden due to the enmity between Ming and Dissaya.

We see Pat trying to live his life as a do-over of Ming's, according to the rules set by Ming himself, rather than on his own terms. And Pran fights to contain the expression of his musical talent, as symbolized by his guitar-playing, because of Dissaya's displeasure with it (I've written-up Pran's side-story in greater detail in my previous post, linked here).

To deal with the pressures that their families and social circles put on them, Pat and Pran are forced to be a certain way, to act a certain way, and to conform to established norms or the needs/wants of others. They deny their authentic selves and their illicit relationship, burying their true natures, in order for there to be peace in their lives and so that they can go about the basics of just living.

But that comes with always looking over your shoulder (that's Pran at the wonton noodle stall in Ep.3!), and resorting to lies and subterfuge in order to get things done (Let's build the bus-stop together! It's for a good cause! But we can't let them know the whole truth, that we're really friends!).

There are so many examples. It's everywhere in Bad Buddy. And if any of this sounds familiar to LGBTQ+ viewers, well of course it's intentional. Because Pat and Pran's lives basically depict – metaphorically – the hostility, hiding, self-denial and performative deception that so many LGBTQ+ people have to grapple with on a daily basis.

But the strife in Bad Buddy from the warring faculties and families, Pat re-living Ming's glory days for him, and Pran's side-story with the guitar, are all allegorical in their messaging of the queer experience – none of the drama or conflict springs from anybody actually being LGBTQ+.

So in the end, making the trauma queer-adjacent rather than queer-centric, all while cloaked in the comfortable fleece-lined coverlet of a Thai BL rom-com, means that even non-LGBTQ+ viewers will be able to identify with Bad Buddy's themes of alienation and othering, as it applies to their own lives.

If you've ever had to face familial, social, religious, or any other kind of pressure because you are different in some way, even if you're not LGBTQ+, it wouldn't be difficult to be empathetic about PatPran's predicament. The fact that the queer aspect is right there embedded in the fabric of the show, without being the cause or focus of the angst, still alerts any viewer to the issues faced by the community, simply by osmosis.

And that's a gentle, yet powerful way of getting the message across, that everyone deserves to be treated with respect, including members of the LGBTQ+ community of course, but really it includes anybody who's disenfranchised, marginalized, or discriminated against for arbitrary, unjustifiable reasons.

I've said it before, and I think it bears repeating, that perhaps Bad Buddy's greatest gift is its normalization of the LGBTQ+ experience, while demonstrating that so many struggles of the human experience are common to us all.

For in looking past our differences to the commonalities that bind us, we take the first step toward creating a world that allows for differences to exist, without the discrimination that harms so many.

Pat and Pran found a way to surmount the opposition in their lives and live their own truth, and in doing so found their way to a very satisfying ending for their love story.

The message to us is that we can live our own truth too – and not only that, but also that we should live our own truth. Because ultimately it's what we deserve – just like everybody else. 💖

#bad buddy #bad buddy analysis #bad buddy allegory #bad buddy queer allegory #aof noppharnach chaiwimol #lgbtqia+#telomeke #patpran

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bunnakit · 4 months

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OH NO I NEED LIKE 2O MORE

#aof noppharnach #backaof noppharnach #i need everyone to know i spent ages agonizing over if i should use aof - backaof - or noppharnach chaiwimol

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dribs-and-drabbles · 1 year

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I'm not even three minutes into 10 Years Ticket and I'm crying already. What sorcery is this?

#producer: aof noppharnach chaiwimol #ah...that might be it #10 years ticket #I already think this might be the series that breaks me each week #fun times #also...do you know what's exciting already?#the director - fon kanittha kwunyoo - will also direct 23.5!#anyway...#back to the ep...

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guntapon · 1 year

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Heart. Is he your boyfriend? [EP08] Moonlight Chicken (2023) dir. Aof Noppharnach Chaiwimol

#moonlight chicken #heartliming #heart x liming #fourth nattawat #gemini norawit #thaidrama #*#mlc*#gemfourth*#big fan of when a character gazes adoringly at a loved one from off to the side as they do something endearing or characteristic #so thank you for delivering in such a sweet and palpable way mr. nattawat #li ming's got heart eyes- literally

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jimmysea · 1 year

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Have you had a boyfriend before? Never. You? No.

Gemini Norawit as HEART & Fourth Nattawat as LI MING MOONLIGHT CHICKEN THE SERIES (2023) Aof Noppharnach Chaiwimol

#moonlight chicken #moonlight chicken the series #heart x li ming #heartliming #usertaeminie #userjaehwany #usermor #usernuria #hipranparakul #geminifourth #gemini norawit #fourth nattawat #marigif

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namchyoon · 6 months

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Oh, Kao. Yes? I trust you with Sun. All right. But there's one thing I ask of you. No matter what, don't lie to me.

DARK BLUE KISS (2019) dir. Aof Noppharnach Chaiwimol

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smittenskitten · 11 months

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A TALE OF THOUSAND STARS (2021) OUR SKYY 2: BAD BUDDY X A TALE OF THOUSAND STARS (2023) .dir - AOF NOPPHARNACH CHAIWIMOL

#a tale of thousand stars #bad buddy #thaidramaedit #asianlgbtqdrama #our skyy 2 #atots #our skyy x bad buddy #earth pirapat #mix sahaphap #ohm pawat #badbuddyedit #atotsedit #long post #prangon gifs #i am here for the parallels

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guzhufuren · 1 year

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Moonlight Chicken (2023) dir. Aof Noppharnach Chaiwimol

#moonlight chicken #moonlight chicken the series #midnight series #earthmix #earth pirapat #mix sahaphap #mine #mygifs #userjap #mjtag #userboots #taggingmarion #usermor #usertph #userspicy #kiwitracks #usergooseras #please p'aof i trust you with my life do not disappoint me

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ardentlytess · 1 year

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- What happens tonight ends tonight. - I'm not sure about that.

MOONLIGHT CHICKEN (2023), dir. Aof Noppharnach Chaiwimol — episode 01

#moonlight chicken #gmmtv #bl drama #thai bl #earth pirapat #mix sahaphap #bldramaedit #asianlgbtqdrama #boyslovesource #mine #usermare #vishingwell #thoresque #userlotad #uservid #mjtag #userpuentalay #tuseralexa #for the love of all that is good & holy in the world please only look at these on tumblr mobile

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wen-kexing-apologist · 1 year

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First of all, love all your metas and the sign language index and everything, I've been eating it upppp Second, I'm curious what your opinion is, cos I got the feeling watching the end credit scene that it was happening out of time and was supposed to come somewhere in the middle of the episode but it interrupted the story so it got moved to the end. Cos he calls him his boyfriend and they kiss, the two things we've been waiting for the whole season, but Jim's already announced Wen as his boyfriend at Jam's house several scenes ago? And in that moment it felt like we'd missed a step in the process a bit? idk curious what you think And last thing: any thoughts on the color green that's introduced for Wen in this episode? Anyway, it's been a beautiful ride, and now I'm gonna go back and watch the whole series again from the beginning

Hi Anon!

I do have thoughts on many things!

First of all, thank you and I'm glad you are enjoying my posts. Not many shows have caught me the way Moonlight Chicken has and I just want to talk about it all the time because then I can pretend like it didn't just end.

My opinion on the end credit scene is that it is exactly where it is supposed to be. I don't think it was filmed with the intention of putting it in the main plot of the episode, I think it was specifically designed to be placed at the end, because the point of the show is not Wen and Jim getting together, the point of the show is Jim finally realizing that he needs to stop living in the past, and start allowing himself not only to love, but to allow himself happiness in his connection to his community. I think Jim is enough of a little shit that he fully waited to call Wen his boyfriend until he was at dinner with Jam and then I think he's just re-establishing with Wen at the end there that he is being serious. And I think it's supposed to go there because the poignant part of that scene is the close up on the declined promotion, which is a perfect ending to this story.

And about the color green...I went running right to @respectthepetty when I saw the green because it's so good. First of all, Wen's alternate, non-blue color is yellow, which he wears a lot in the last two episodes.

Here's two examples, but there are more.

And Jim's alternate, non-red color is green. His truck is green, he often wears a green shirt, and in the flashback between him and Beam when Beam gets on the ferry, the colors they are wearing are purple and green.

When I originally saw this scene I thought Beam's color was green and Jim's color was purple, and Jim started wearing green after Beam's death as a way of remembering him (consciously or unconsciously). And that may still be true, but it's also possible that Jim has always been green and Beam was always purple and they are in each other's colors at this point because they are in love. Personally, I think it's better if green is Beam's color and that despite all Beam's flaws, Jim loving this color means he will always have love for Beam, even though he's ready to move on.

So that is something that is always in the back of my mind when I see Jim wearing the color green. For Episode 8:

I love that Wen asks Jim what color he should paint the walls, because it starts off like he's asking for advice, luring Jim in to a trap where suddenly Wen is able to tell him that he wants this to be their home. He wants Jim's presence to be here whether or not Jim is physically there, and the best way he can do that is through colors. And Jim says..

Green.

Green is the color of home. And Jim is Wen's home now, so the next time we see Wen and Jim together, naturally Wen is wearing...

Green.

And he wears it again when they all go to Jam and Tong's house too :)

And Jim sells his green truck, and with that he buys...

Yellow. Wen's color, and he's wearing it too. They've progressed from the reds and blues in to the greens and yellows. Green and yellow is the future they are stepping towards, red and blue is the past. And the red and blue scheme is still there, the signs are still red, the lighting is still blue, but they support the yellows here, they are not the main event. To me, it's mirroring one of the lessons of the show. We need to honor history, tradition, the past but we cannot let ourselves get stuck in it, we need to step forward in to the new age, we need to grow, to allow ourselves to be brave, adapt, and try again regardless of how old we are. Red and blue is for the Wen and Jim that could not be together, green and yellow is for the Wen and Jim that can be.

Also a fun thing? Alan and Wen's apartment walls are also green and yellow. Which like, okay Alan is also wearing a yellow shirt here, which is what he wears when he finally tells Wen that he can walk on his own. He too is moving forward. But I can't help but feel like the (haha pun intended) the writing was on the walls a little bit in Alan and Wen's relationship. That Wen and Jim were always going to be together.

So in summary, for me:

Green = Home

Yellow = Future/Progression

Red and Blue = Past

___

More thoughts about episode 8 will possibly be coming tomorrow/this weekend, the themes I'm focusing on are intentions and resolutions. But right now I'm tired and going to bed. Thank you for your ask! I hope you enjoyed my thoughts :)

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telomeke · 1 year

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MOONLIGHT CHICKEN EPISODE 7 – THE FUNERAL WREATHS

Even though Moonlight Chicken ended yesterday, I'm still way behind on watching it. So anything I have to say about the series that's not just surface observation (and I do have some thoughts percolating) will only get posted days or even weeks from now after I've had a chance to digest things.

But in the meantime, this scene's caught my eye–

(above) Ep.7 [3I4] 6.35

Among the floral tributes at Mrs. Hong's funeral are some displays that are remarkably unusual – they incorporate items such as steel trays and spoons, clocks and timepieces, and also electric fans. (The fans aren't so obvious in the screenshot above, but you can clearly see one at Ep.7 [3I4] 6.26.)

Apparently, in Thailand, household items such as those mentioned above, as well as other items like bedlinen, traditional loincloths, woven mats and even bicycles are sometimes given in lieu of wreaths made up only of flowers – see these links here, here and here for some examples.

Interestingly this is a relatively new phenomenon (dating back only a few decades maybe?) that was promoted by Thailand's Department of Environmental Quality Promotion as a way to reduce the volume of waste created by the gifting of floral wreaths.

Elaborate displays of flowers are popular gifts in Thailand, not just for funerals but also to temples. However, since they are typically thrown away (i.e., they literally become garbage) after just a few days, they are a major source of avoidable refuse. Replacing some (if not most) of the flowers with usable items means that anything unwanted by the receiver can be donated to the poor or to monasteries in need (donation culture is a big thing in majority-Buddhist Thailand).

Some more explanation linked here if you'd like to read more: Wreaths for a Good Cause and Please Use Electric Fans as Funeral Wreaths.

So this explains the unusual displays at Mrs. Hong's funeral – kudos to the Moonlight Chicken team for this nod to environmental awareness, as well as for showing international fans another interesting facet of Thai culture. 😍

But there's also one more little detail hiding in there for us fans of Moonlight Chicken, and it's pretty heartwarming – among all the messages of condolence is one that reads "ขอแสดงความเสียใจ จากครอบครัวชัยวิมล" – it's the one on the extreme left of the screenshot above, below the stainless steel plate/tray.

The translation reads "Condolences from the Chaiwimol Family". 💖And Chaiwimol (ชัยวิมล) is exactly the same surname as that of Moonlight Chicken's director Aof Noppharnach Chaiwimol – it looks like the props department was having a bit of a giggle again. 😂

And you know, it's more than likely that "Chaiwimol Family" in the message is a reference to the Moonlight Chicken cast and crew – I like to think that they saw themselves as one family under their loong Aof, just like so many characters in Moonlight Chicken the series looked upon Jim as their kindly patriarch with a conscience and a heart. 🥰

#moonlight chicken #thai funerals #thai funeral wreaths #the chaiwimol family #aof noppharnach chaiwimol

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