PiranianRose This is a gentle little film with a big heart. "I don't know why I have to learn piano," asks young Mew early in the film. "Maybe one day, you can use it to show someone how you feel." Flash forward to present day, teenage Mew is the handsome lead singer of a band asked to write a love song. Everyone thinks it's cake but he struggles, as he doesn't know what it feels like. Enter Tong, Mew's childhood-separated neighbor. They hit it off immediately, and melody of love now comes to Mew naturally as he writes one song after another expressing his feeling about Tong. It's a joy to watch Mew fearlessly fall in love. His magnetic smile especially blossoms at Tong's presence. You can feel how drawn he is to Tong, especially when he sings to him. Unfortunately their love is interfered by an external force. Without the feeling, Mew can no longer sing authentically. It is heartbreaking precisely because we saw how happy they were together.I've focused on the romantic relationship, but I fully concur with the reviewer who said it is the integration of this and the family subplot that makes it more whole than most gay-themed movies. In fact, that subplot dominates the second half of the movie.Music is not only a central theme but the gentle OST is also used to great effect throughout the movie. The main imperfection for me was Mario's acting as Tong. He basically sleepwalked throughout the film. I get that he is supposed to be unsure about his sexuality, but he looks monotonically bored in most of his scenes.

manoguru I just finished watching this movie. And what a movie!! I had no idea what this film was all about, and had picked up the DVD on a friend's recommendation. I'm glad I took his advice. The film centers around an family and how their relationships change when they lose their daughter. The son falls in same sex love with his childhood friend and neighbor who happens to be musically gifted. The father falls into alcoholic depression. The mother desperately tries to keep everything together. There is a great naturalness and easy in this movie. And the subject it explores and treats is a breath of fresh air. I particularly liked the scene where the two boys are lying on the bed and talk about loneliness and love. It felt like somebody just spoke my heart out loud.This is a brilliant film and will be loved by any intelligent moviegoer.

tamperedmind Love of Siam is so many things to different people. Cynics would hail it a piracy of their lives. Romantics would view it as one complex but fascinating puzzle. Realists would declare it an honest mirror. Absurdists will proclaim it as a study of stark reality. Every acclamation about this multifaceted composite of modern relationships is well-earned. The movie never loses its rhythmical series: brisk, sly, funny, bleak, cruel, honest, blunt, unapologetic and above all, mystifying. This is the kind of rabid writing that makes people like me insecure. It never revels on profundity but you feel the looming sadness, the yearnings, the melancholy and the imminent gloom hovering above the characters' heads. You root for them, you want them to be happy, but like you, they are as confused, fumbling around, making the most of what they know. They are no longer confined in celluloid fiction. They inhale the same air, their breathing, rising and falling to the slow rhythms of your pulse. You are one with them in confusion and desperation.

shizofree I am normally not a fan of romance stories. It's deluded and fantastical that it raises the viewers' expectations for their own sweet and happy ending. It's a pessimistic point of view but that's the reality I've seen so far, I'm used to it.Rak Hang Siam (The Love of Siam), a Thai film by Chookiat Sakveerakul, tells an amazing story that cross cultural differences, and this maybe the prime reason why the movie is amazing.Despite it being located in Bangkok, familiar food, traditions and even localities makes it transcendent towards a broader audience, especially in the Philippines. It feels like a Filipino film without overacting and overrated actors doing their own dramatic sequences. This movie is grounded in subtlety and silent epiphanies, which we never do.At 2 hours and 59 minutes (Director's Cut) and 2 hours 30 minutes (DVD release), the movie tells about a story about neighbors Mew (Witwisit Hiranyawongkul) and Tong (Mario Maurer) who are separated after the loss of the latter's sister, Tang (Chermarn Boonyasak). Five years later, they cross paths in a commercial district named Siam Square. This district becomes a meeting point between all the main characters. Even in that length of a movie, it's justifiable for its capability of developing the characters involved.The movie's cinematography is its weak point. Chookiat may be used to horror and thriller films that it sometimes shown within the film, but it's unnoticeable at first. Some metaphors he used could've been better shown in a horror film. Scenes mostly alternate between schools, rooms, studio and Siam Square. It may be that way to express the universality of this film. Product placements are subtle and funny but it fits within the film, iMacs and Pepsi Max mostly.The cast is amazing. Young Mew and Tong closely resemble the older counterparts while still making Tang and their mother Sunee (Sinjai Plengpanich) look like they are related. Tong's father, Korn (Songsit Rungnopakunsri) looks like a man on the verge of alcoholism. The acting of each character is remarkable. Sinjai, most of all, played an extremely broken woman but still manages to keep her family intact. Witwisit and Mario had noticeable chemistry while still keeping it subtle. I sometimes think that they may be playing characters too young for them. But age was never stated so I forgo the suspicion. The character development is the movie's highest point.The music is why I watch it repeatedly. As one of the characters are musically inclined, the melodies involved in this movie should be amazing, which I think it is. The movie delivers the music as part of the movie, but not as to intrude the realism. It's not a musical yet, the feelings of the characters are said thru music. Ticket (Day Trip) by Chookiat Sakveerakul & August Band is the arguably the best track of the movie and the OST, followed closely by Gun Lae Gun กันและกัน (Acoustic) sung by Witwisit during the movie but not available in the album. I may not understand the lyrics but the melody itself is enough to make me listen more.Rak Hang Siam proved itself as an effective film that tells the story of the reality of love. Situations maybe different, but the main point is there. There's always the meeting and a separation, no matter what kind love exist between them.