What a view | Why Bangkok Love Stories: Hey You! is not the Netflix show you expect it to be
- The 13-episode series explores relationships, romance and gender roles in the Thai capital
- Wanida Termthanaporn and Isariya Patharamanop star as the central couple around which the action orbits
Shame on you. I know what you’re thinking. Just because a show is called Bangkok Love Stories: Hey You! it doesn’t mean you can salivate at the prospect of table tennis-inspired variety performances and jaunts up the neon alleys of Patpong.
On the contrary: so innocent is its exploration of relationships, romance, sexual orientation and gender roles that this largely joyous Netflix series borders on twee, occasionally almost overdoing its mannered naivety. It’s not without humour though, or a Bollywood-esque set piece or two, particularly the song-and-dance routine that lights up a vast food market in episode one and sets the tone for the 12 following instalments.
Assuredly wearing the trousers from the outset is series star Wanida Termthanaporn as the sleek, glamorous, affluent Belle, who is determined to open a restaurant. Her chef will be her boyfriend, Kram, supremely talented king of the kitchen, played by Isariya Patharamanop. But the course(s) of true love never did run smooth: Belle is pushy, Kram is a pushover; she demands Asian fusion, he dreams of traditional Thai; and while he may have dominion over his pots and pans, she is the domineering, entrepreneurial wannabe who manipulates his every thought and action. He can’t even stamp his foot – literally – to contradict her. Whatever do they see in each other? And will they become mortal enemies by founding rival establishments?
If anything brings Kram to the boil it will be the threat to his cuisine: having been taught by his departed mother, it’s sacred to him. And it is so significant in the show that recipes and cooking shots are cleverly worked into the narrative, giving the Thai tourism board complimentary advertising.
Table tennis does feature, by the way, as does that comic relief, thanks to a couple of dweeby erstwhile colleagues of Kram, who dress in gear worthy of pantomime season. “I’ve always thought we were nerds,” says one, without irony. Non-threatening nerdishness might be the key to such a show, without bile, flesh or violence. And it’s refreshing to see Bangkok by daylight for a change.