The Yearbook (Movie) (2022)

enjoyed the movie version more than the series

Overall: A slower paced/subtle romance dealing with a realistic problem. I would suggest watching this instead of the series. Watched on Youtube.

Content warnings: none I can think of

What I Liked
- a more realistic reason for the drama
- supportive siblings
- focused on 1 couple
- countryside setting
- the music
- Mean's cameo (he is also the director)

Room For Improvement
- the poor communication still bothers me but they were in high school and Phob was in a stressful situation
- cutting the 350 minutes of run time to 150 minutes of run time was a vast improvement for the very slow pacing, although I still watched it at a faster speed
- they did cut down on the number of flashbacks and flash forwards which was good but still too many flashbacks
- lack of doctor/patient confidentiality
- the ending: still think we could have used a certain something to end the series

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in short - wonderful

Very sad but in some ways also uplifting. Reminded me so much of my own times, recognising myself in both roles. So perhaps a series/movie for those who are being introspective.

Beautifully shot, great photography and this is perhaps the movie's greatest success. Sadly some of these shots linger a little too long and some are repeated more than once. Better seen in the movie version for this reason alone. Even so, the story is told as much by these visual shots than the acting out of the story.

An unusual plot for BL drama and a breakaway from traditional forms. The love is there from the outset and there is no chasing or feeling of unrequited love - though this is not expressed in any sexual way at the outset as this is very much a drama of innocence shattered instead. Ultimately the two leads come together and love is requited without undue drama.

A very interesting and technically beautiful series/movie.

In short, wonderful. Thank you

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Both versions are good in their own way.

I placed spoilers at the end of this review.

The movie/series: For a low budget production, it was an enjoyable and cute series. It had a great story concept, but the execution was not the greatest at times. It had a good script, but it was a little disorganized and had some inconsistencies. Although it had one of the most annoying story elements to me, it was used in the correct way and had a purpose to the story. Because this was a low budget production, it had some audio and camera issues. The majority of the actors did a great job with their characters. There are a few big differences between the series and movie version involving the editing. I noted these in my spoiler alert section.

The series: I watched the series on Viki. My main criticism is the series wasted a lot of screentime in many of the episodes by using too many flashback scenes. There were also a few flashback scenes with a flashback scene which was not needed. Another miss use of screentime was many of the episodes started with reshowing the previous scene from the last episode which added up to 4 minutes of wasted time. The episodes on Viki are actually around 35 minutes long and the last episode is only 28 Minutes long. After the closing credits of each episode, they show you behind the scenes footage and actor interviews. They also did not edit out the in between credits.

The movie: I watched the movie on Ultimate Troop’s YouTube channel. Overall, they did a good job editing this into a very cohesive movie. Even the parts that were edited out within the same scene was not choppy and had a smooth transition. It was able to weed out one unneeded side storyline from the series. There were a few scenes that were deleted that I wished they kept, but I understand they had to take time into consideration. However, the material they edited out had no negative impact on the movie.

Random Notes:

The series on Viki had better English subtitles, but the movie on Ultimate Troop’s YouTube channel had better sound quality.

You will get a great experience with either version you decide to watch. I will stick with the series version when I rewatch this. I just like the scenes that were edited out for the movie version. I also know what parts I can fast forward, lol.

******Spoiler Alert******

The differences between the series and movie:

They cut all of the scenes involving Prem Warut Chawalitrujiwong’s character (Puen) which was not a big deal for me. He’s a great actor, but this was an unnecessary storyline that was used to fill screen time for the series.

They also cut out most of the scenes with Nut’s brother Note (Tonnam Piamchon) and boyfriend Tar (Get Sorawut). I understand they had to do this due to timing, but I enjoyed their scenes, Note’s interactions with Nut, and the additional info the scenes provided.

There is no 1-year time jump at the end in the movie version.

The series ended with a small cliffhanger involving the side BL couple (Note and Tar). Maybe they were planning on doing another series involving them as the main couple, but I’m guessing that fell through.

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