"Rainbow Boys", a Thai movie based on the series of novels by Mexican-American writer Alex Sanchez, was heavily publicized among the gay community in Thailand as a rare independent film that would show what it was like to be gay in Thailand. Although everyone seems to be doing their very best, "Rainbow Boys" is definitely an amateur effort by all involved. Tat and Nat are two upper-middle class best friends and university students who are both gay. Nat is effeminate, out and proud while Tat is still closeted to his friends and family. Tat develops a crush on popular jock, Ake (Ek), a nice guy with an abusive father, who Tat ends up tutoring. Ake is curious and confused about his sexuality, and is starting to lose interest in his beautiful girlfriend. What results is a cute, but ultimately amateurish paint-by-numbers "gay teen film". Nat is a funny guy, and Ake is beautiful (one wonders why he becomes interested in the dorky-looking Tat....) and it's interesting to see this kind of a story handled from a non-Western filmmaker (although it's fairly obvious that it's based on an American story), but it's not a great film. 5/10.
4 Reviews
Strange but not altogether unsuccessful adaptation
Havan_IronOak15 April 2011
Watching this film was a strange experience. Though filmed entirely in Thailand with a Thai cast, the story began as one of my favorite young gay novels in the USA. In the original novel the three chracaters were something of American Stereotypes. The closeted nerdly highschool swimmer who wore braces and was crushing big time on the all-American basketball star. The out and proud, queeny best friend who was being raised by a single mom, and the latino basketball star who had a girlfriend but was beginning to have doubts about his sexuality.
The movie follows the book pretty closely but has that unmistakable low-budget cachet of an indie film.
What's strange is the way that the characters translate. The queeny best friend seems almost toned down. But that's more to the number of Asian films with over the top queeny men that I've seen.
I often find myself in the "The book was SO much than the movie" club and am not really surprised to feel that way here as well. I'm often distracted by details included by the author and left off the screen or bits inserted into the film that don't work that cause me to wonder why they were added. That happened in this film as well. For example, the story begins when the straight jock walks into a gay youth meeting only to be surprised that two people that he knows are there. The nerdly high schooler, upon spotting his love interest awkwardly upsets a stack of folding chairs and his attempt at a stealthy entry backfires in a spectaular and quite cinematic way. In this film the meeting is there, the stack of chairs is there, the protagonists are there and yet the joke is omitted. That puzzled me.
This movie is also interesting in that it made me question just how a story is affected by the national culture vs how much a story is affected by translation from print to film.
I think that there were a number of mist-steps of both types here but overall I'd recommend this film to anyone that loved the novel and is curious about the kind of film that it would make.
The movie follows the book pretty closely but has that unmistakable low-budget cachet of an indie film.
What's strange is the way that the characters translate. The queeny best friend seems almost toned down. But that's more to the number of Asian films with over the top queeny men that I've seen.
I often find myself in the "The book was SO much than the movie" club and am not really surprised to feel that way here as well. I'm often distracted by details included by the author and left off the screen or bits inserted into the film that don't work that cause me to wonder why they were added. That happened in this film as well. For example, the story begins when the straight jock walks into a gay youth meeting only to be surprised that two people that he knows are there. The nerdly high schooler, upon spotting his love interest awkwardly upsets a stack of folding chairs and his attempt at a stealthy entry backfires in a spectaular and quite cinematic way. In this film the meeting is there, the stack of chairs is there, the protagonists are there and yet the joke is omitted. That puzzled me.
This movie is also interesting in that it made me question just how a story is affected by the national culture vs how much a story is affected by translation from print to film.
I think that there were a number of mist-steps of both types here but overall I'd recommend this film to anyone that loved the novel and is curious about the kind of film that it would make.
Usual Difficulties of Coming Out
larapha11 January 2016
The movie presents three students in different levels of coming out. The first is a complete Sissy, accepted by his mother in his flamboyant way of living. The second, friends to the first, has a tranquil acceptance of his homosexuality, but still hasn't had the nerves of discussing the matter with his family. As for the third, a successful basket player, we have a complete closeted case. The three meet, almost to the dismay of the closeted case, at an encounter of the rainbow group, where coming out strategies will be discussed by the members. The meeting will have healing effects for the three of them, specially the closeted one, for it will open ways of disclosure The film has the merit of showing a situation set in Thailand, where we are shown that things aren't significantly different from what is seeing in the west. Including, the novel in which it's based is American. It's a good film, acted with little artistry by the leading actors.
LGBT life in Thailand/Bankok
ksf-26 October 2016
Warning: Spoilers
Currently showing on FilmRise channel. I think the real point of this one is how parents are dealing with their LGBT children. The film gets extra points for highlighting how the parental units react to their offspring; one parent is completely accepting, one is mean, and another couple has mixed feelings - in typical fashion, the mom is more accepting, while the father is just bigoted and mean. We also see a wide range of LGBT folks - in the "Rainbow" group, there are girls, boys, people that are "out", and people who are not. The school jock with a girl-friend even shows up, then regrets it, and quickly leaves. One of the dudes has decided to make it his own pet project to get the jock to come out and be his boyfriend. It's a mixed bag of acting ability. Some funny, clever, bitchy lines, which are delivered with mixed success. This seems to be director Thanyatorn Siwanukrow's first project. Would like to see more projects from this team... I like seeing films tackling tough subjects from countries where these things are probably not discussed, especially in 2005 ! It's pretty good.
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