A sadly realistic glance behind the scenes of a glamorous industry

There is a BL subgenre which I call “BTS BL“, because it makes viewers glance behind the scenes of the entertainment, and especially the BL industry. The first movie that focused on this topic was “Fuccbois“ (Philippines 2019), which was based on a true story of two young men who fell victim to politicians who abused and destroyed them, and who took revenge by murdering one of them. The movie boosted the careers of Kokoy de Santos, Royce Cabrera and Migs Villasis.

Whereas “Fuccbois“ depicted the Filipino pageantry scene, Aam Anusorn’s series “Call it What you Want Seasons 1 and 2“ (Thailand 2021) showed the downside of the Thai BL industry, from aesthetic surgery to secret love stories among actors and abuse of actors by bosses.

In 2026, three series center around the same topic. “Deep In“ is a Chinese series that stands out for the quality of its writing. The series follows the shooting of a movie about a psychiatrist and his patient, who fall in love just as the lead actors. Sometimes the line between acting in the movie and the real life of the actors is blurred, as both relationships are strictly forbidden, and the actors are sometimes so “deep in“ their characters that they even call each other by their characters’ names when they are having sex.

The Chinese series “A Winter Sun Wakes the Wind in Spring Hills’ Dream“ also depicts the lives of young, gay men, some of them actors, whose love is not only obstructed by the rules of the industry, but also by their families. This series is so unique in writing, directing, cinematography, coloring, and acting, that for me it is the best BL series ever made – it is like epic poetry turned into epic pictures.

If “Winter Sun“ is the best BL series of all times, “Payback“ is certainly one of the best Thai BL series ever made. It is not poetic, but shocking, brutal, and yet full of love and positive emotion.

I’ll keep the synopsis short as most of you will have watched the series anyway. Sun (Min Thanakorn) is a young man who does all kinds of jobs from delivery driver to debt collector to fund his mother’s medical treatment and his little brother’s education. His brother is killed by one of Sun’s debtors, and when Bank (Fuaiz Thanawat), Sun’s boyfriend and cohabitant, steals Sun’s money, Sun’s mother dies as he can’t pay for better treatment.

When Sun notices that Bank, who has changed his name to Sunny, has become a popular actor, he decides to take revenge by entering the same production company, Dream Entertainment, to destroy Sunny’s career. By coincidence, he meets Jay (Toptap Jarukit), the CEO of Dream, who is also the influential and mysterious director Arthur. Jay becomes Sun’s backer, secretly supervising and sponsoring his first steps as an actor. None of them realize that they have met before, when Sun in the disguise of a rabbit mascot had rescued Jay after he was attacked. They also had sex at that time.

Sun’s path in the industry faces lots of obstacles from being bullied by participants of a workshop to rape by dirty old men, sponsors of BL productions, led by Songphon (Claude Athaseri), who force young actors to have sex with them. Sun’s most dangerous enemy, though, is Sunny, who cooperates with Songphon after realizing that Sun is his ex and senses the danger that Sun poses to his status. Sunny does literally everything to please Songphon and thus keep up his popularity, and this “everything“ includes killing another actor with his own hands.

Sun, however, is secretly protected by Jay, and supported by his manager Kajorn (Khunnote Jirapat), his co-actor Sky (Shogun Paramee), top photographer Pakin (Boss Chaikamon), bodyguard Suchat (Pu Yasaka), and Jay’s uncle Jo (Gandhi Wasuwitchayagit)**.**

Jay/Director Arthur has a tragic backstory, too. His mother founded Dream Entertainment, but was killed by her rival Konkiat (Kumron Jivachat). Nobody in the board of Dream knows that Director Arthur is her son, and that he still secretly holds a majority share in the company.

All’s well that ends well, they say, and it is true with respect to the “good ones“ like Jay, Sun, and Sky, but it is not for the “bad guys“ – Songphon dies of a heart attack, Konkiat is shot, and Sunny loses everything.

The writing (Sammon and Ki Amnat), a weakness of many Thai BL series, is excellent. First, the series is a thriller with several arcs of suspense which speed up the plot and keep viewers invested. Second, there is a variety of dark, serious, violent and disturbing scenes, which are balanced by comic relief and scenes of true friendship and love. Third, there are NC scenes of very different kinds – Jay and Sun’s passionate love, ugly rape, and deeply erotic scenes involving Boss, Min and Shogun. All these scenes come across very naturally, both in negative and positive sense. Fourth, it’s the pace - it doesn’t happen often in Thai BL series that after an hour of average runtime of the episodes it feels like it was over in ten minutes, which of course makes viewers impatiently wait for the next episode.

The quality of the directing (Woodie Pongchaiphat) shows in the way the plot is transferred into pictures, which is done masterly in this series. It also shows in the quality of the acting, and Woodie makes his actors perform brilliantly. The editing supports the pace and the development of suspense. One department that is rarely ever mentioned in reviews is the casting, and here even for smaller support roles the cream of Thai BL actors have been hired.

Min Thanakorn, almost a rookie, is a fantastic actor. He doesn’t play, he **is** the brutal debt collector, the caring son and brother, the guilt-stricken angry young man, the determined crusader of revenge, the reliable friend, and the passionate lover. Strong, weak, humble, dominant – Min can do it all. There is one scene that proves his enormous talent – when he stands on the edge of a high-rise building, concentrating for the stunt to jump down, there is suddenly a faint smile on his face. That’s what I call acting.

One wouldn’t believe Toptap Jarukit is a rookie, but he is. He said in an interview that he was about to quit acting before he was given the role of Jay. Like Min, he meets all the requirements of his role, from the hurt son of a brutal father and a mother, who left him much too early, to the mysterious director Arthur, the passionate lover, and the dedicated fighter for winning back control of his mother’s heart’s project, Dream Entertainment, and to pay back the crimes committed by those who killed her and tried to steal Dream. He is always reserved, even cold, except in intimate scenes with Min. I had to get used to his voice, though, which sometimes sounded like it was done by a voice actor.

In this series, the support actors are almost as important as the leads, and they are all up to their jobs.

Fuaiz Thanawat has been one of my favorite Thai actors ever since I saw him as a child actor in “Project S: Side by Side“, and he was brilliant in “DFF - Dead Friend Forever“, “4 Minutes“, and especially as Wut in “Shine“. In “Payback“, he hides his character’s cold brutality behind an angelic mask, and yet the viewer feels that he is a weak, insecure person. It is hard not to hate Sunny, but at the same time I feel deeply sorry because he, too, is a victim of he system.

Shogun Paramee has improved a lot since “Deep Night“, where he had mainly relied on his good looks. In “Payback“ he pulls off the caring, friendly colleague as well as the anxious, almost neurotic actor who is afraid of the camera.

I loved Khunnote Jirapat as the zookeeper in “Caged Again“, where he proved a great comic talent, which he again displays in “Payback“. His character, manager Kajorn, overestimates himself, but is shy in a way. He’s a loving dad, and he also loves his actors a lot. In comedy, timing is the key, and he has great timing.

Tor Atagorn plays the role of lovely Two-O absolutely convincingly, and when he is raped and beaten up, you just want to hug and protect him. I liked him as Dew Nitikorn’s partner in “For him“, an awful series I only watched to the end because I loved the leads. After that, he only played in a short vertical series, so I’m happy he’s back, and I hope we’ll see more of him soon.

It was interesting to see Boss Chaikamon in two series airing at the same time. In “Crazy Love, Moo-Moo“ with his usual partner Noeul, he played a goofy, rich, slightly retarded hotel owner, giving him the chance to prove that he can do comedy, too. In “Payback“, however, he personifies the senior top photographer, who helps Sky overcome his neurosis, but what really strikes me is the sizzling eroticism he pulls off in scenes with Min and Shogun.

Claude Athaseri plays the evil old man in a way that makes viewers’ blood run cold. You wouldn’t want to meet this bad person or his numerous minions in a dark street or anywhere else. The biggest reward for the actor of a villain is the hate of the viewers, and according to comments in social media, everybody hated Claude’s character, and at the same time praised his acting.

Pu Yasaka accomplishes something special. When he is introduced as Kajorn’s assistant (and Sun’s bodyguard), he is the laughing stock of the series. But in his action scenes he turns into a tornado, and in the few moments he is seen with Jay’s mother and later Jay himself, one believes that he is a focused and reliable bodyguard and friend.

I have saved the best for last - Gandhi Wasuwitchayagit. Holy cow, this guy can act. He was amazing in rather mysterious, ambivalent roles in “Spare me Your Mercy“ and “Leap Day“, and terribly evil in “Shine“, but here he personifies the somewhat crazy, yet caring Uncle Jo perfectly. His scenes are highlights in a series that is full of highlights anyway.

To sum up, “Payback“ is a series you cannot miss. It isn’t for the faint-hearted, and there are scenes that hurt the viewers as much as they must have – literally - hurt the actors. But it’s a sadly realistic look behind the scenes of a glamorous industry, brilliantly executed in every respect.