“Love Syndrome : The Beginning” is the self-indulgent reimagining of the recently released “Love Syndrome 3”. Recently deceased director and writer F. Nontapat Sriwichai put his heart and soul into this hour and thirty minute feature film and it truly shows. Glistening well-made sets, close up shots of the men that pepper the film with unique, stand out acting (everyone besides Def Rattanan, whose Day was the worst part of the film in my opinion) do a phenomenal job.

Bix Tagon as Itt was a nice surprise as he brought a lot to the minimal script he was given. Tiger Tanawat as Day’s brother Night was another standout performance. The lithe young man played the sexually charged man perfectly. Hernfah Sorawit as the typical seme Gear was adorable when not being a complete asshole with regard to Night. Six months before the film takes place Itt bet that he couldn’t sleep with Night. That bet and what follows act as the cornerstone of the film’s plot.

The pacing for the film was confusing as it moved from Day and Itt to Gear and Night respectfully. The craft and skill that Sriwichat placed on Gear/Night scenes before being juxtaposed with Day/Itt scenes that play like torture porn were dizzing and frustrating. The music between the two scenarios and the script itself seems to give more care and substance to Gear/Night while the scenarios for Day/Night are just blunt statements that don’t make much sense, even with a rewatch.

Example: Night appears at the bar where all the characters hang out (there is no context for this, he just walks in looking gorgeous like a pearl among rocks) all eyes are on him. Even Gear on the second floor who was drinking with Itt and two buxom women is drawn to him; leading to a taut confrontation between the two in the bathroom. Night’s dialogue and Tiger’s acting perfectly summed up the situation in less than six minutes. While Day kidnapping Itt was the opposite, he tinkered with his car. Then offered to take him to his home to pay for it. Only to slip him a tampered with can of drink to knock him out.

The knock out drug takes a bit long to kick in, and we get to experience the writing taking a nose dive as repeated phrases, versus Def’s passionless delivery of his lines take away any sense of revenge, or menace for me. Instead, as he promises Itt to inflict 100 times the pain inflicted onto Night, Itt’s question of why he’s coming to him as his subject of revenge hangs in the air. Now the aspect of the movie that confused me the most was the pacing.

The film focuses on Day, Itt. Gear, and Night more than the other character which is all well and good; despite the fact that it’s adapting a book with two other characters in a similar circumstance but the focus isn’t on Day romancing Itt (rape to love). The film literally had them in the background of the club scene from the start of the movie and very little anywhere else. Instead, it chooses to space out scenes of Gear courting Night over the course of a couple of days versus Day raping Itt for however long. A “3 days later” time placer finds Itt still chained to the bed, while Day random lines “You’re my emotional punching bag til I’m satisfied” stand out the most. Actor Def mostly seems bored instead of menacing which the scene called for.

Having the cute stereotypical BL storyline of Gear and Night every other scene while Day and Itt spend a lot of their time doing the rape to love story dance was a bit jarring. As it became clear the distinction of time for Day/Itt was near non-existent. Nor were there scenes showing Day’s version of growing fond of Itt. Fond enough to let Itt out of his chains, walk around un-chaperoned. Instead, when Max (one half of the couple with nearly no scenes) informed Day about Night and Gear (it just randomly comes up no preamble for this scene.), Day gets angry and begins to yell. Itt comes out of the bedroom complaining that he can’t sleep because of how loud they are.

The film hasn’t shown much of Day and Itt’s interactions outside of the initial rape for days portion, so when Day acts the way he does in the book (the whole Max and Day scene is word to word from the book). I was very confused why Day reacted abusive Itt wandering around. This is because the movie picks and chooses the most iconic moments from the book but doesn’t spend the time setting them up for the viewer, which is my issue with the film. What’s the point of choosing the most violent aspects of Day/Itt if you’re not going to show anything else? The conversations in the book, Day growing affectionate towards Itt, even the scene where he wants to make Itt suffer by offering the man to Max before changing his mind are all missing. Which made me wonder why they chose to include him at all?

The rest of the film moves at a super fast speed for the Gear/Night story line as Day catches them and takes Night by force forbidding him from ever speaking to Gear again (while Itt is absent from the house it seemed) only for Gear to steal Night away to come to his families’ resort. This scene would have been romantic if the subtitles for this section weren’t terrible. The film than showcases the iconic beach scenes fans have come to expect from this series for a fair amount towards the ending of the film.

This would of been great if it wasn’t the side couple getting the bulk of the attention and screen time. It leads me to wonder if the movie intentionally tried to downplay Day/Itt and focus on Gear and Night as the leads instead. The movie honestly picked and chose what crucial moments from the book to display. That makes the final scene so emotionless for me. Despite Tiger’s amazing acting as he expressed Itt’s panic at Day going to find and kill Gear. Day’s facial expression as he picked up a gun without even checking or loading it is just as emotionless as the cliffhanger.

If the film was just Gear and Night with the adorable and random side couple they met at the beach resort, it would have been a much better film. But including Day and Itt’s rape to love story line, even showing the bare minimum of it (they were the bulk of the novel) ruined the film. Their scenes were so random and scattered throughout the film. Their scripts are so random and feel disconnected from Gear and Night’s story line, I would dare say they were unnecessary.

Gear and Night- Part 4 out of 5 stars

Day and Itt- Part 2 of of 5 stars

The reason I split the stars is for Gear and Night. The chemistry of the characters sold me as Night took control of the situation involving Gear. The way he played with Gear’s emotions as the spy was the perfect means to make Gear jealous. But as it is with both sets of couples, the film doesn’t explore the situation much, we don’t see anymore of Night’s involvement with Fuse. The movie makes a real point to use the seemingly random moments and characters who interact with them as simple plot devices.

Day and Itt’s portion got 2 out of 5 for me because the film doesn’t give the actors enough to do. A large portion of the film is the initial trapping and rape scene. But it doesn’t show how Day comes to care or trust Itt enough to be walking around without his supervision. Nor do they have many meaningful conversations outside of Day rushing to Gear’s which was the plot device but the film chose to end the moment he got there, there wasn’t much point.

Overall Rating- 3 out of 5

Streaming on- WeTV