The new Thai film 1448 Love Among Us is a male-directed film about a lesbian couple. The movie poster contains the tagline "A girl-on-girl relationship is something men would never understand". The story is reminiscent a female-made American TV movie If These Walls Could Talk 2, whose first part, titled 1961, starred Vanessa Redgrave and Marian Seldes. It should be noted that If These Walls Could Talk 2 never advertised itself as a story certain groups of people would never get.
1448 Love Among Us
Starring Apinya Sakuljaroensuk and Isabella Lete. Directed by Arunsak Ong-laor. In Thai with English subtitles.
Here's how 1448 and If These Walls Could Talk 2 go: two women are in a relationship, but when tragedy strikes, the strict law of the lands end up costing one person's life, a home and destroying the life of the one left behind.
It is rather predictable. Pim (played by the ever-talented Apinya "Saiparn" Sakuljaroensuk) is unsatisfied with her man and when he chooses to leave her to study abroad, she makes sure all ties with him are cut. Enter another woman, Pat (played by Thai-Belgian actress Isabella "Bua" Lete). The two embark on a relationship almost too quickly. They go as far as having a wedding, in which Pat's parents refuse to attend.
Pat and Pim also run a coffee shop together, but everything is under Pat's name. I think we can guess how the story goes from this point onward, especially if you have watched If These Walls Could Talk 2, or know the significance of the number 1448.
Under Thai Civil law, article 1448 states that only men and women over the age of 17 can be legally married. This affects the LGBT community greatly since the law cannot bind them together as husband and wife — they cannot ask for a bank loan as a spouse, for instance, or they cannot sign a release form should their partner need an emergency operation. So, should something happen to one, the other could potentially be left without a single baht.
The LGBT community and gender activists are currently trying to push for the civil partnership bill in a hope to fix these problems. But in the end, does it all come down to money and benefits? Is that the sole purpose as to why article 1448 should be all inclusive, and not be limited to only straight couples?
The film succeeds in reflecting these issues that are facing LGBT couples. Unfortunately, it doesn't succeed in many other things. Audiences are pretty much being suffocated by tie-in products and service advertisements. Some are discreet, but some are just so shamefully obvious. A lot of plot developments and situations feel unconvincing, unnatural and unintentionally funny. I don't really feel the chemistry between the two lead actresses and even someone as talented as Saiparn can't salvage and string the pieces together to make this film work.
1448 Love Among Us is far from being flawless and I wonder if it actually inadvertently delivers on what the poster promises: a story that men (and a lot of women) wouldn't understand. Due to Saiparn's acting ability, however, I believe the film is at least able to touch some hearts towards the end of the movie. The final scene elicits spades of sympathy, which is perhaps a road to understanding what a lot of people in this country are experiencing, just because of a single, ancient law.
When the law still refuses to bind two people together legally, regardless of their gender, this is the problem we will continue to see. These are the kinds of issues being faced by the LGBT community in Thailand, as well as other parts of the world.
