Right By Me

By: Amos Lassen

New from WaterBearer Films is a wonderful story of young love from Thailand. Three college friends are all at different stages of coming out, both to themselves and to others. Tat is both handsome and studious and he is having a fairly easy time of the dealing with it. He regularly goes to coming out meetings with hid friend Nat who is out and proud. Tat develops a crush on Ek, an athlete and Ek surprises the boys by showing up at one of the meetings. He questions his sexuality and when he turns to Tat for advice, a very sweet and nice relationship begins to develop between the two. This of course throws Tar's relationship with Nat a bit out of whack. The three guys know that in order for things to be ok for them, they must not only deal with Thai homophobia but rise above it.
The movie is based on the novel "Rainbow Boys" by Alex Sanchez which was quite popular in Thailand and the movie shows what it is like to be gay there. The movie is amateurish but that seems to add to the film rather than detract from it. The boys are very cute and they perform well and young love is always a pleasure to watch. The three gays are as different as can be. Nat is effeminate and way out in contrast to Tat who is in the closet to his family and friends. Ek is just the regular nice guy who suffers from an abusive father and he is confused about his sexuality.
Everything in the film is predictable but the story is interesting and worth watching, especially to see the way the non-Western world deals with homosexuality.