RIGHT BY ME

Director: Thanyatorn Siwanukrow

Stars: Jackie, Palat Ananwattanasiri, Pimpong Isarasena na Ayudhya

Year: 2005

Rating: NR

(in Thai w/English subtitles)

I know this is going to make me sound gayer than a picnic basket, but I really fell in love with this film. I read the novel "Rainbow Boys" by Alex Sanchez several years ago, and had no idea it had been made into a movie - much less one in Thailand, where (from what I've read) I believe the book is pretty darned popular. So when I discovered Right by Me (called Rainbow Boy, at least in Thailand) on accident and read its synopsis, I had to give the DVD a try.

The story is about three very different young college boys (high school it was, I believe, in the novel). First you have Nat (Pimpong Isarasena na Ayudhya), a cute and fairly effeminate young gay man who's been physically and verbally abused for being "different" by his peers from his first day at school. Nat's father left the household when he was still young, but Nat's mother has always stuck by and loved her son, no matter what. Now, as a young man barely in college, Nat is incredibly secure with himself, and doesn't care too much about what anyone else thinks...

With the possible exception of his best friend, Tat (Jackie), whom Nat has idolized and secretly crushed on since they were children. Tat is a good-looking nerd type with glasses who's still a virgin and so far has only come out to Nat. There's no way in hell his parents can ever find out he's gay, and Tat is constantly being derided by both his father and the other students at school for hanging out with a "fag" like Nat - but Tat tries his best to ignore both, and has even himself being roughed up at school for defending or siding with Nat. But Tat is a devoted friend, and though he has no idea of Nat's true feelings for him, you couldn't ask for a better friend than Nat so Tat's into things for the long haul; nothing can make him turn on his friend...

Even though, for years now, Tat has had the biggest crush on one of the most popular jocks in high school (now college), Ek (Palat Ananwattanasiri). Ek is an accomplished basketball player with a hot girlfriend and a (seemingly) perfect life. He's tall, dark, handsome and masculine - everything Tat wants in a boyfriend; his ideal. So much so, Tat even keeps a book of loose photos of Ek that he secretly goes when in his room alone at night, wishing for the impossible.

And when Nat and Tat one day attend a meeting of the Bangkok Rainbow Club - a club for gay young people and their struggles with coming out - the boys (especially Tat) are freaked when who should show up but Ek. Ek, very nervous and untalkative, sort of freaks himself upon seeing two guys he knows there, and quickly bolts from the meeting ... but not before igniting both Nat's jealousy, and Tat's hopes that maybe the impossible just might be possible, after all.

The film is shot in a very amateurish style, looking almost like the attempt of a first-year film student at making his own movie ... but as the story went on, I actually found this more of a help than a detriment to the film. Somehow, it made the situations and settings and sometimes-less-than-stellar acting all the more real; documentary-like in style (though again, very amateurish). The three leads are all cute, very different from each other in character, and immensely likable - the story the film has to tell very simple, but not without emotional impact. It's the kind of movie that, afterward, you will think about the characters and their world for some time - and if you're a total wuss like me, you'll even have a tear or two in your eye. It might not be for non-gay or non-gay friendly audiences, but if you fit into either of those categories it'd be hard not to love this love story. Even with its flaws, somehow it all works beautifully. **** - Reel Awesome