Watching the recently premiered Thai lesbian flick Yes Or No 2.5 is like seeing someone trying to enter an incorrect passcode at an ATM machine — three wrong tries and finally the card is devoured by the money-dispensing hole in the wall.
In the 108-minute movie, after too many unrequited attempts, the supposedly entertaining impression is slowly chewed apart until in the end it is completely hard to swallow.
Yes Or No 2.5 tells of the tangled love story between Wine (Suppanad Jittaleela), a butch lesbian, who is still in love with her ex-girlfriend Pim (Pimpakan Bangchawong). Pim's parents always reject same-sex romance, forcing her to have a new boyfriend. Heartbroken and hopeless, Wine is afraid to love and be loved again. Her tomboy roommate and best friend Pii (Sunanta Yoonniyom) keeps encouraging her to start a new relationship with Fah (Chansakorn Kittiwattanakorn), who is actually a friend of Pim's, without realising that Fah actually likes her, and she also has feelings for Fah too.
The plot of Yes Or No 2.5 is partly based on Red Wings, a Thai-language romantic novel published by Come On publishing house, which was later adapted to the big screen.
A scene from Yes Or No 2.5.
Suppanad is actually not new to lesbian movies as she starred in Yes Or No (2010) and Yes Or No 2 (2012) as the lead character. After becoming a teen heart-throb in China after the two films, this time she appears in Yes Or No 2.5, which apparently does not serve as a sequel to the original two movies but rather a spin-off given its unconnected storyline and completely different set of actors and actresses. All the three Yes Or No's are, however, Come on Sweet productions.
Even in her third movie, Suppanad's acting still shows no signs of improvement. Despite the fact that she herself is a lesbian, her acting is so emotionless that she cannot encapsulate female-to-female romance through her role. Completely new to lesbian screenplays are three other lead actresses — Pimpakan, Sunanta and Chansakorn. The last two do much better in terms of adding colour and good humour to the story.
Thai gay movies are rare. Thai lesbian movies are even rarer. So the release of Yes Or No 2.5 is sure to slightly raise people's expectations about creating more public understanding towards people with gender diversity. This is supposed to be achieved through a clear storyline and the way each character chooses to solve and react to their gender-related obstacles.
But the production team chose to incorporate too many plot lines in the story — a love triangle, parental rejection towards kids with sexual diversity and even same-sex marriage. And this unfortunately makes all the issues highlighted in the movie turn out too weak and shallow.
What's most disappointing about Yes Or No 2.5 is the script. While the dialogue spoken throughout the entire story seems to be perfectly created with wording carefully chosen, the meticulousness and the idea of being too flawless in speech makes almost every character look like someone from literature. Many parts of the script are not realistic and when this somewhat unreal dialogue is played out by robot-like actresses, the whole thing is completely humdrum.
Camera angles and a good number of images in the movie are wonderfully crafted but again many of them are way too beautified to the point that they do not look real. The film's sweet soundtracks Rak Dai Ik Krang (Love Again), featuring Suppanad and Ter Pu Ngod Ngam (You Are Beautiful) by Chansakorn from Academy Fantasia Season 10, are among the few things in the film that deserve recognition.
In all, Yes Or No 2.5 might be a yes for the LGBT teen audience who wish to experience a movie about lesbian love. But for straight people, this film is definitely a "no".
