Long Live Love (ลอง ลีฟ เลิฟว์) is a Thai family comedy drama film directed by Piyakan Bootprasert. The screenplay is co-written with Pongsuan Choop and produced by Piyaluck Mahatnasab. It was initially released in Thailand on Jun 29, 2023, and has been made available globally on Netflix now. It has a runtime of about 2 hours and 15 minutes.
The ensemble cast of the film includes Sunny Suwanmethanont as Sati, Araya A. Hargate as Meta, Rebecca Patricia Armstrong as Namo, Niti Chaichitathorn as Peach Santi, Nopachai Jayanama as Nakrob Chanarat, Sadanont Durongkhaweroj as Jensanam, Munin Kangsathein, Pannawit Pattanasiri and others.
Long Live Love Review
What would you do, if you found yourself in an upside-down crashed car? Probably ask for help or start taking selfies of yourself for social media? Sati chose the latter and even asked host bar girls to perform by him on a stretcher and record it all on a video. This scene gives us a preview of what kind of a show-off and womaniser he really is. At the same time, his wife Meta decides to leave him for good and move to Bali for a job. She assured her 15-year-old daughter, Namo that she would send her a ticket once she settled & gets on her way to the airport.
But when the hospital calls, Meta and Sati’s brother Peach, find him comatose. Miraculously, he wakes up when Meta jerks his body in anger but realises that he has lost all his memory. Told as Retrograde Amnesia, Meta finds it as a good opportunity to turn her life around & pretends to be Sati’s sister instead. Moreover, their own daughter has to portray herself as the housemaid. They think that they can change Sati for good by fabricating a picture-perfect life & personality.
However, everything goes to waste when Sati tries to take a picture of his cat with the camera and gets transported to an event in the past, when he might have taken a similar picture. He realises that his real life is quite different from what his family has been telling him. Therefore, he decides to create the same scenes from his past pictures and remember everything that happened in that moment. Slowly, he starts to unravel what kind of life he lived from a third perspective and witnesses how his life fell apart.
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Reading the film’s description and looking at its poster, it’s difficult to analyse what the film would be about. Initially, I thought it would be like where the protagonist falls into a coma and witnesses what’s happening around him & in the past by becoming a ghost-like entity. Something similar also happens here but the protagonist, Sati is present at the moment and feels in a trance where the past, screens on his mind like a movie. As he explores the moment from whichever picture falls in his hand, we get to know what went down in the couple’s marriage.
In a way, it’s a creative way to bring his memory back and add a fantastical element as well. Instead of a simple flashback, we are transported to the moment and witness everything from an overview. In life, we don’t realise if we are in the right or not when being in the moment. However, once we exclude ourselves from it and view it from the outside, we can easily analyse what’s wrong and right. That’s what Sati feels when he sees how he misbehaved & disrespected his wife and daughter.
Fairly speaking, the story and execution could have gone another route, if not for the commendable acting by Sunny Suwanmethanont and Araya A. Hargate. While the duo are well known for their craft, the character of the daughter also keeps up with them well. Unlike the usual, she wasn’t shown as unnecessarily rude and rebellious kind. Despite growing up in a dysfunctional family, her character portrays the warmth that every child needs and how she seeks from each of her parents.
Although on a personal level, I don’t agree with the ending considering what kind of a person Sati consciously was. However, the film does a good job of reflecting how often in marriage, people forget those initial moments and feelings that made them commit to each other. Considering the subject, it could have become a serious drama but the director presented the story with an equal balance of humour, emotions and sensitivity. Long Live Love! is definitely a good suggestion to watch with your loved one or in general.
Rating: 4.5/5
Long Live Love! is available for streaming on Netflix.
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