Hometown's Embrace (2021)

Good intention

Before I start nagging about the many flaws of this series, let me say I liked it, for more than one reason. I'll keep this short, because I think everybody have to make up their mind about the show themselves. I only want to give you some clues.

The message
This series, unlike most other Thai BL-series, addresses the social and political situation in the country, like corruption, killings of non-corrupt politicians, or the threat of gang crime. The message behind it is to encourage people to not accept these circumstances, to stand together and fight against crime and injustice. In this sense, the series can be called patriotic, especially in the last episodes. Given the overall situation in Thailand, it seems brave to produce a show like this. So the intention is good.

The plot
I won't spoil any details here. A young man returns to his home village in the North of Thailand where a local gang blackmails and kills residents. He teams up with some other young men to fight the gangsters.

The script
Here's the first big problem. Many scenes are unintentionally comic with a high level of ridiculousness. You get a rough idea what the writer intended, but the execution is often unrealistic if not illogical. One example among many others is the acceptance of boys' love by the villagers, with parents encouraging their son to have sex with his boyfriend. And in real life it would be nothing short of suicide, if a bunch of inexperienced, if not naive young men stand up against gangsters who have killed average citizens as well as politicians. Fortunately, the gangsters are mere caricatures who don't recognize their enemies although they have seen them several times before. They even don't wonder why a guy they think they have killed is suddenly alive again.

The cast / acting
This is the second problem. I have given 8 stars, but this is a compromise: a 10 for the cast, but a 6 for acting at best. There are some very attractive young men, like Kawaii (Din) or Andew (the teacher). But: after some of the boys showed their amazing physique in bathing scenes in the first few episodes, this promise is not fulfilled, as they stay completely dressed in the later episodes which is a pity. More importantly, and unfortunately, most of them have no acting skills at all, making dramatic scenes unintentionally comic.

The setting / cinematography / soundtrack
The story is set in a rural surrounding in Northern Thailand. Cinematography and production are surprisingly good, and the ost is beautiful.

Product placement
I understand you need a lot of money to produce a series like this, and most Thai BLs have more or less product placement. It's nice to have the boys praise a brand of soap while they are taking a shower, but I wonder if it has to be a bleaching soap. When it's about painkillers or sauce, just regard it as a comic intermezzo, and it doesn't hurt too much.

Rewatch value
Whether you will want to rewatch the series or not obviously depends on how much you liked (or hated) it. As I liked it, and as the title song keeps hanging in my ear all the time, I may rewatch it some day, when there's no other BL series to watch. I also guess one may discover some hidden messages at a second glance only.

There have been better series than this, but it's definitely not the worst. All in all, despite the flaws mentioned before, in my opinion watching this series is no waste of time.

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Watched for the Messages

I loved this series. Many of us (including me) do not understand rural life, especially in the countryside of Thailand. In Northern Thailand they have tours where tourists visit people in villages to see their lifestyle tp bring in some money. I did not go because as with the elephant industry, I had no idea who is getting the money. So I cannot judge a series that like this that needs to raise capital, even with intrusive product placements. The series is trying to send a message, even if the execution is not flashy, preachy with other the top drama.

Watching the scene where Mongkon's parents are welcoming Mek into the family, was so touching. I looked at the bed that was resting on wood blocks, so different from the luxury condos and villas we see in Bangkok-based series, yet showing that even people who do not have much can be very happy. Hometown's Embrace also shows that even in rural areas, LGBT people can be accepted, and are part of the community. The heroes were a bunch of gay men and a trans-woman!

The casting was well done. The young actors from the the province so maybe they do not have the polish of the Bangkok-based actors, but they did a fine job.

I'm hoping to see more from this team and the actors. I look forward to future projects from this team.

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A Both Sweet & Violent Story Set in the Countryside

Content Warnings: violence, tragedy (not between m/m)

It begins as a fairly typical BL series, but does have some pretty dark twists. The first 3 episodes are kind of stand alone as each focuses on 2 guys, but starting in the 4th episode they start to connect more.
 
What I Liked
- the more rural setting
- talking about some of the issues like corruption, education issues, poverty
- the actors are very attractive and their acting is fine
- the cute moments

What I Didn't Like
- the violence was a bit too explicit at points in my opinion, it felt like whiplash
- maybe check if someone is okay with being your fake boyfriend before you go down that path
- the promotion of skin lightening soap, I understand that they need to get funding but skin lightening soap feeds into colorism...

Hope they are able to do a season two or the actors can star in more series

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I think this is a nice little low-budget film and it is worth watching.

I am attempting to not spoil things here with the following, so forgive me for being a bit vague at times. There seems to be a lot of criticism here regarding the actors, and the story. I will try to address them one at a time.

The actors are inexperienced, and you see it occasionally. But I thought they did a decent job considering they are young and this is their first or one of their first professional (or at least credited) performances. I am sure they (and the studio) don't have the resources that a large studio like GMM does for acting coaches, workshops, and all that. For me, it wasn't a big deal. I think they overall did a better job than Gun did in Golden Blood. Now THAT was some cheesy acting!

Going along with that, some complained the couples didn't have much chemistry. I wasn't bothered by that much either, they all had just met, they were just beginning their relationships, it was not much more than dating. I didn't expect them to be doing much more than holding hands or giving each other "the eyes" at this stage. To me, that felt pretty realistic, more so than how some other dramas have portrayed people who are in the first stages of a relationship.

The story was a little thin at times, and occasionally felt rushed or like parts were left out. I don't think this is a huge deal if you accept that this is not a large budget picture with tons of writers, producers, and all that. It really isn't fair to compare this to SOTUS, Tale of a Thousand Stars, or anything of that nature. The message is what is more important here, and that was very clear. And it is an important message to get out there, and admirable they tackled this topic in an LGBT+ drama. I think a good editor could have made this a lot more slick, and resolved a lot of peoples complaints about this series, but it would have lost the charm.

There were some things that were a bit silly. or didn't fit in quite right. The fight scene with the gangsters being one. Maybe I am reading too much into this, but I think they were trying to avoid a violent show here, and these bits of comedy while they seem out of place, served a function. The ex-girlfriend and the other teacher is another that were sort of out of place and the story would have been fine without them for the most part. It would have left more time for other things if they were cut. The product placements were a necessary evil, but a bit annoying and disrupted the flow, although we did get some nice shirtless scenes out if the soap ad.

I would like to see a follow up of a few episodes or a 2 hour long movie to see if things improved in the village, and how the couples did after maybe a year (TV year, not a real year).

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Clumsy try

Ok, first of all... don't expect this to be a series that will wow you and leave a lasting memory... actually, don't expect much because it doesn't have the budget of a GMMTV or Nadao series and the actors are for the most part inexperienced and it lacks a good writer/director/acting coach to help the story.

First, some of the good:
1. The setting is a village in Northern Thailand so at least is nice to get a different setting than Bangkok or Chiang Mai or any other big city.
2. Din's grandmother is the best character of the story. She plays the role of a frail woman that wants to have her grandson nearby and is afraid of losing him or him leaving her alone. She gets emotional after not seeing him for a few days and brings some comedy when she criticizes Din's cooking in front of Than.
3. The initial plot has some merit as all the characters want to seek justice to their own causes and also help the villagers improve their economic and social condition.
4. As someone already mentioned, it exposes some of the common problems poor people have to face in rural communities. The lack of options to make some money forces them to either leave for a bigger city, engage in some illegal activities or take out money from loan sharks who take advantage of them because they lack the knowledge. The series highlights the bad that is happening and the will of the main characters to change this.

Now, some of the bad:
1. Acting is a mess... only X (who plays Dan) has some previous experience acting (in the very mediocre BL series "The Cupid Coach") while the rest are new to the acting industry. And boy oh boy, it is so obvious they are new! They lack the emotion to convey a sad scene or a serious scene and they are not funny enough to convince me in a comedy scene. Kawaii (who plays Din) does a decent job when his grandmother is crying because she misses him and, as he hides from her, he cries and promises to always be by her side. Outside of this scene, the rest were not delivered very effectively by anyone.
2. The plot, that started out with some good promise, ends up being a total mess. The 6 guys take on gangsters with such an ease that is amazingly ridiculous to watch. They plan to take down the bad guys in about 3 minutes of the 6th episode and they execute their plan in about 7 minutes of the 7th episode, it just makes no sense how quickly they ended up beating everyone, the police arrives and catches the bad guys and everyone is happy in the end.
3. The 3 couples (Than-Din, Dan-Khet, and Mongkorn-Mek) don't develop as much as we would have expected or wanted. All have some sweet scenes with some shy glances/smiles, they hold hands, but nothing really develops in terms of their relationship as the plot of improving the lives of the locals seems to take priority. They do get more or less similar airtime with the first 3 episodes being nearly exclusive of each couple and then alternating in the rest until they all gather for episodes 7 and 8.

Finally, the bizarre, ugly, or just plain weird:
1. Product placement is clumsy at best, with awkward moments to introduce the medicines for Mongkorn's father and Din's grandmother and also the magic soap that appears everywhere. True, we got to see all of the actors shirtless so they can shower and use the soap but some scenes were particularly long and unnecessary when the actors had to explain the benefits of the dragon's pill or Than reminding Din's grandmother to take the diabetes pill everyday and how all magically feel much better after taking the pills.
2. For such a low-budget series, it sure had a lot of guns and murders. Than's mother getting run over by a car driven by one of the gang members, Dan's parents being shot in front of him, Khet's mother also being shot under a bridge... It was weird to have so many murders and all executed with so much cruelty (and yes, this also highlights the plot of the series of how a few bad apples take advantage of a whole village). Then when the 6 guys want to stop the bad guys they bring more guns but each ends up fighting, which leads me to...
3. The sound effects were simply hilarious. When the boss is attacking Dan with a knife and missing, they added "whoosh" sounds and each kick or punch had their own sounds as well but all sounded so out-of-place and like the sounds were done by amateurs who had to improvise with a piece of cardboard or other junk they had around to make the noise.
4. This village is VEEEERY accepting and open-minded with all the couples. Episode 8 has all the villagers celebrating the 6 guys and they all seem very comfortable with the fact that all the guys are couples. Mongkorn's parents approve of his relationship with Mek so quickly it was bizarre to see after having all the Thai BL clichés of the parents opposing fiercely to their son being gay and in love with another boy. Mongkorn's parents are so the opposite that they even give their blessing to the relationship (ep. 8). Din's grandmother also suspects of Din and Than's relationship and she tells Than to take care of Din when she is no longer with them. Even the school kids are so happy when Mongkorn starts courting Mek and gossip like true fujoshis shipping their teacher with Mongkorn.
5. We had the crazy jealous female character like in nearly 95% of all Thai BLs when a girl tries to get Mongkorn's attention and then does not believe he likes Mek. And now, we even added a jealous male character that comes out of nowhere in episode 6 and asks Mek to write a love poem for him and then awkwardly confesses his love. We end up with crazy jealous girl and crazy jealous boy confronting Mek and Mongkorn until they end up revealing they do like each other.

So, another low-budget clumsy BL series with good looking actors that need a lot of help to improve and a writer/director that went a bit crazy with the storyline. Some parts are re-watchable and is not the worst BL out there, but after watching it once, you can do better.

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So much right for a first time production and hopefully more to come

This easily gets a spot in my top 10 favorites for the BL genre. Sure it's rough in places, but it's their first go at it and I really liked the story overall. It's only 8 episodes long and honestly it could have used another episode or two to really sell why they had to resort to protecting the village themselves instead of the other villagers helping them.

It's great to see a series that isn't full of all of the typical locations, stereotypes, and BL fan service, although they did of course still just have to get all the sound effects in there that it could have done without.

Overall it's worth giving it a chance and they have the series on their official youtube channel so please support it there first. The other great thing about this series is it's story first, BL second whereas many are so BL focused with a sprinkle of shallow story mixed in.

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o abraço? era o mais confortável desse mundo.

São series como essa que gritam pra toda a indústria do cinema que é possível sim fazer um OTIMO trabalho com pouco recurso e sim, grandes produtoras estão em um loop cansativo de historias mornas e previsíveis. Essa serie é realmente uma obra prima, é um abraço que te aquece e te faz sentir conforto, tanta simplicidade com uma historia direta, plots bons e atores talentosos, são de fato os pontos mais fortes dessa serie. Fico muito feliz por ter acompanhado e com certeza voltarei pra assistir mais vezes, indiquei para todos os meus amigos. Com um começo tocante e um final incrível essa historia deixou sua marca esse ano, espero ver muito mais! o abraço? era o mais confortável desse mundo.

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A completely different BL series than the others. I only felt the similarity with 1000 stars. The thirty-two-year-old director chose 6 BL series unloved boys aged 19-21 for the main roles. They tried very hard, so I rated them a 10 for the selection and a 6 for the acting, so overall an eight, and the "something" they showed towards each other in connection with the almost perfect music really evoked something nice in me.
On the other hand, a big disappointment regarding the other two aspects of the evaluation. If you play the music videos that are listed in the link I share in the Comment, you will see the director singing the theme song directly, and he can't open his mouth properly while singing. Just as he can't articulate properly and doesn't even open his mouth, that's exactly how he directed this series. The processing is literally lousy, very below average, I deducted 7 points from perfection, the inconsistencies are glaring. The fights with the "gangsters" in the seventh episode reminded me of caricatures of bickering three-year-olds in the sandbox. It's a shame that the creators weren't inspired by the series Golden Blood ... The biggest sex between guys is holding hands, I don't need anything physical, but here the guys were calling for something closer, more intimate. There was tons that could have been used from the story itself that remained hidden. Damage.


Naprosto jiný seriál BL než ostatní. Cítil jsem pouze podobnost s 1000 stars. Třicetidvouletý režisér si vybral do hlavních rolí 6 kluků BL seriály nepolíbených ve věku 19-21 let. Ti se moc snažili, takže jsem si je výběrem ohodnotil na 10 a herectvím na 6, celkově tedy osmička, a to "něco" co předvedli vůči sobě navzájem ve spojitosti s téměř dokonalou hudbou ve mě vyvolalo opravdu něco hezkého.
Na druhé straně velké zklamání, co se týče dalších dvou aspektů hodnocení. Pokud si pustíte hudební videa, která jsou uvedena v odkazu, který sdílím v Komentu, tak tam uvidíte zpívat ústřední píseň přímo režiséra, a ten neumí při zpěvu pořádně otevřít svou papulu. Tak, jak neumí správně artikulovat a neotvírá ani hubu, tak přesně tak i zrežíroval tuto sérii. Zpracování doslova prachbídné, hodně podprůměrné, odebral jsem z dokonalosti celých 7 bodů, ty nesrovnalosti bijí do očí. Rvačky s "gangstery" v sedmém díle mi připomínaly karikarury hašteřících se tříletých kloučků na pískovišti. Škoda, že se tvůrci neinspirovali v seriálu Golden Blood ... Největším sexem mezi kluky je chytnutí se za ručičku, nepotřebuji nic fyzického, ale tady ti kluci přímo herecky volali po něčem bližším, intimnějším. Ze samotného příběhu se daly využít tuny, které zůstaly schovány. Škoda.

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Well...

During the summer of 2021 the BL offerings were not the greatest. I found myself watching six of them and felt that 1) a couple of them were pretty good, and 2) the others were disappointing but I watched anyway, due to lack of other options. For me, Hometown's Embrace falls into the latter category. Here are my pros and cons:

PROS

CUTE GUYS. We had three main couples and, in my opinion, four of the actors were real eye candy.

MUSIC. It had a kind of "Tale of a Thousand Stars" quality that was pleasant enough.

TRANS CHARACTER AND HER "WIFE." It was at the very end of the last episode, but I appreciated that the writers broke stereotype by having the usual "seme" guy present himself as being the "wife," while the trans ladyboy would be the "husband." It may be rare, but this actually does happen in real life from time to time. Different strokes for different folks!

CONS

STORY. It was all over the place, it was really hard for me to keep track of what was going on, and why certain things were going on. The three couples looked to have established themselves without any real reason as to why. And whatever happened to the poetry writing guy and the ex-girlfriend of Mongwhatshisname?

LACK OF INTIMACY. I'm a gay guy, so I don't particularly need to see kissing and sex in BLs. However... this series was so weak, and the guys were (mostly) so hot, some kissing and skinship would have gone far to save it, in my opinion.

DULL. Much of it was boring. I found it hard to stay focused.

3.5 from me. Definitely not something I plan to ever rewatch.

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Too bad, really too bad.

The intention of the film is wonderful, the images anyway. Unfortunately, the implementation still has a lot of room for improvement! For me, the film does not manage to transport the feelings of the story. The scenes seem partly drawn out, the facial expressions are well intended, but do not work (feelings). The story itself needs a lot of development and is rather superficial. I have seen many series where all these points worked. The music is very nice, but is constantly repeated. At the end, you get the impression it had to end quickly now. Overall, the story seems immature to me, too short and often incoherent (past, future). The boylove theme is presented as the main relationship in the film. Without corners and edges. For the fact that the harsh reality in the poorer regions of Thailand should be portrayed here, I miss the certainly existing conflict here. One could get the impression of wanting to win viewers with the boylove theme.
Too bad, really too bad.

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Difficult to watch

This was for me was really difficult to watch, mainly because firstly it didn't really grab my interest fully, but I wanted to see it, and with an open mind of what really happens in the village (if this is true).

It seemed to have to the right message, addresses the social and political situation in the country, like corruption, killings of non-corrupt politicians, or the threat of gang crime. The message behind it is to encourage people to not accept these circumstances, to stand together and fight against crime and injustice. In this sense, the series can be called patriotic,. Which is why i said its really difficult for me, as I am not clued up o the understanding of what really happens in the political or village front.

Overall, the story seems immature to me, too short and often incoherent (past, future). The boylove theme is presented as the main relationship in the film. Without corners and edges. For the fact that the harsh reality in the poorer regions.

I don't think I will go back to watch this, and very honestly I didn't actually finish the whole series I think got to 6 or 7 and I had to give up, I know i had only 1 more episode to get through but I just felt like it was a waste for me.

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Theme - Social Justice

Everything you read about this series is probably accurate. But there is just SOMETHING about this series that is so incredibly endearing and fun to watch. Its message, plain and simple, is social justice. Kudos! They presented that by introducing 3 cute and adorable BL couples. Realistic? No, but so much fun to watch. It is implausible, silly at times, but so entertaining. There is also something about the series in Northern Thailand that makes them so genuine, real, and simply fun to watch. It is not deeply character driven but I did not care. The story is poignant even if it is unrealistic. The relationships are slow to develop but again, I did not care. I related to all of them in some way. In addition, watch it simply for Grandma. I want her as my Grandma! Pay no attention to any of us - just watch and be entertained!
If you want to see my full review, go to BLBliss.com.

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