Review: Yes or No? So, I Love You

• Directed by Sarasawadee Wongsompetch
• Starring Sucharat Manaying, Supanat Jittaleela
• Released in Thai cinemas on December 16, 2010; rated 15+
• Wise Kwai's rating: 3/5

Cloyingly cute and so light it's almost inconsequential, Yes or No, Yak Rak Kor Rak Loei (Yes or No อยากรัก ก็รักเลย, also Yes or No, So I Love You) is distinguished from most other youth-oriented romantic comedies by being "that lesbian film".

Beneath the surface there are at least a couple of meaningful messages. One is that love is pretty confusing, even moreso if you are unsure of your sexuality. The other is that entering into a relationship takes courage, and you need double the usual amount of bravery if such a relationship goes against what is deemed normal.

The girly-type girl is Pie, a sweet college co-ed who's just moved into her dorm room. While she's taking a shower, her roommate comes in. Upon leaving the bathroom, the towel-wrapped Pie is surprised by the new arrival, who looks like a young man. Then a cockroach runs over the short-haired person's foot and the "guy" screams like a girl, and jumps into the arms of the terry-cloth swaddled Pie.

The tomboy's name is Kim, and Pie doesn't like her. She lays a line of red tape down the middle of the room, one that Kim shall not pass.

But eventually the roommates become friends, bonding over meals Kim prepares in her rice cooker. Kim serenades Pie with her ukulele and these best friends forever pass the time playing shadow puppets. Tentative friendship gradually becomes something more, and that red line is ignored as the roommates' two beds are pushed together.


Both hold out, though, on the question of whether they are gay. Kim swears she's not a "tom" even as she gives Pie long, significant, puppy-dog-eye glances.

The first half of Yes or No clips along at an enjoyable and humor-filled pace. There's the stock stereotypical supporting characters, like a wise-cracking effeminate gay male friend and a weird girl named Nerd who steals scenes in her strange, quiet way. Pie has a bland boyfriend who wishes he could be more to her. The slower-paced melodramatic last half is filled with tears, misunderstandings involving a pushy "dee"-type lesbian neighbor girl and running in the rain.

As with the celebrated gay-teen romantic drama Love of Siam, Yes or No has a parental figure disapproving of the relationship. The finger-wagging mother is there to raise the stakes for the two girls and act as a surrogate for Thailand's cultural watchdogs who worry about the immorality and disturbance to public order that films might pose. Who knows, without that disapproving mother to give her little speech, everyone who watches Yes or No might turn gay and bring Thai society to ruin.

So it's up to Pie and Kim to show they have the courage to go against that message. But will they? Yes or no?


Previous posts:

• Are they or aren't they? Yes or no?