![\"\"](\"http:\/\/test.qwoc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Yes-or-no-cute-pic.jpg\")
<\/a>The film “Yes or No” \u00a0is a story about two Thai girls in college (Pie and Kim), complete strangers, \u00a0who become lovers through their year of rooming together.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/strong>Pie comes from an upper middle class Thai family that adheres to traditional thought and customs, including the very vocal disapproval of homosexuality. \u00a0She has the sweet personality and good looks that would easily grab the attention of your typical straight male. Kim, on the other hand, carries herself with \u00a0deliberate masculinity that defies convention and intimidates Pie upon first encounter,\u00a0so much so that she immediately\u00a0requests a roommate change which the college promptly denies. \u00a0In response, Pie \u00a0draws boundaries in the room to separate her space from Kim\u2019s to avoid as much \u00a0contact as possible.<\/p>\n However, As Kim and Pie spend increasingly more time together, those “boundary lines” disappear and Pie finds herself drifting away \u00a0from her then boyfriend, to Kim. \u00a0As luck would have it, as Pie’s feelings grow, \u00a0so do those of Kim\u2019s good friend Zhen who falls head over heels for Kim and actively pursues her.<\/p>\n The drama (and hilarity) that ensues triggers mutual jealousy and sadness and ultimately leads to Kim\u2019s declaration of her love for Pie in the rain, \u00a0a dramatic “storming off” scene and a coming out confrontation.\u00a0(We will leave the ultimate fate \u00a0of this pair of star-crossed lovers’ \u00a0for for you to discover).<\/p>\n Among the numerous queer Asian films that have been produced, Yes or No<\/em>\u00a0stets itself apart in that it portrays the most normal and happy image of Asian lesbians\u2019 love life. This film is a romantic comedy, and throughout, joy and laughter are ubiquitous. There is jealousy, hate, laughter, rejection, competition, and everything that constitutes a meaningful relationship between Pie and Kim.<\/p>\n Although there are some somber moments, the film heavily relies on humor as a storytelling tool. For example, in one scene, Kim is working at a garden with her classmates, and Pie secretly passes her a love note and runs away. The entire scene was filmed in the style of a romantic comedy, \u00a0something that effectively lightens up the conversation\u00a0while still\u00a0addressing their inability to publicly display mutual affection.<\/p>\n In another instance, a group of boys at school jeer at Kim masculinity. \u00a0Pie immediately comes to her defense and rebuts with a string of unforgiving insults that drive the audience to laughter. Again, the film broaches a sensitive subject and portrays the very real scenario of bullying, but injects humor via Pie’s choice of insults, and in this way makes a sometimes difficult topic easier for the audience to digest.<\/p>\n Herein lies the power and brilliance of this film – using laughter, it works its way around the silence that pervades<\/a> in response to Thai, and many \u00a0other Asian cultures, sensitivity\u00a0to the subject of queerness. Like Pie\u2019s mother, it is typical in Asian cultures to ignore the discussion of anything LGBT related all together or to openly condemn homosexuality<\/a>. By employing humor, the film is able to bring these taboo subjects to light and makes these topics much less intimidating to it’s core audience. This ultimately contributed to the film’s positive reception by popular media outlets and is one way media can be a powerful agent of change. \u00a0Yes this is just one film, and yes attitudes in Asia at present remain critical of LGBT persons, but hopefully, via films like this one, the future can change and every LGBTQ couple can achieve their own happy ending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We review A story about two Thai college girls falling in love against cultural norms in the midst of laughter and tears.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,20],"tags":[122,421,435,601,641,808,980],"class_list":["post-6101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment-and-culture","category-reviews-film","tag-yes-or-no","tag-film-2","tag-gay","tag-lesbian","tag-lgbtq","tag-queer","tag-thailand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/test.qwoc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/test.qwoc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/test.qwoc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/test.qwoc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/test.qwoc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/test.qwoc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/test.qwoc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/test.qwoc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/test.qwoc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/test.qwoc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}