Fast & Feel Love Review: Self Maturation of a Stacking Sport Athlete.A successful Thai comedy drama that churns the stomach as well as gives meaning.
After the success of his previous work “Happy Old Year” (2019), Thai director and screenwriter Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit has re-emerged with his latest work “Fast & Feel Love” (2022).
At first glance, when we first see the film poster we will think this is an action film. Even the title and poster font itself is similar to “Fast & Furious”. However, after watching the film, we will know that “Fast & Feel Love” was deliberately made as a comedy-drama film with many movie references in it. In fact, this film can be said to be the best work of Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit so far.
Between Passion & Self Maturation
“Fast & Feel Love” tells the story of Kao (Nat Kitcharit) who is an athlete in sports stacking, also known as cup stacking. Kao spent his entire life training to break the record for the fastest stacking sport in the world.
Kao's obsession with sport stacking makes him forget the presence of the people around him, including his girlfriend Jay (Urassaya Sperbund) who has always accompanied him to become an international sports stacking athlete .
Problems arise when Jay decides to end his relationship with Kao. Jay feels that he has wasted so much time taking care of Kao that he has forgotten to make himself happy.
The breakup of Kao and Jay changes Kao's life. Kao must focus on preparing himself to compete with the new rising stacking sport challengers. But at the same time, Kao also has to learn basic daily life skills such as ironing, washing clothes, mopping, repairing a water pump and other basic skills.
Such a simple job may seem easy to others, but for Kao who has dedicated 30 years of his life solely to the sport of stacking sports , such homework is a disaster. Despite all that, the most difficult task for Kao is to win back Jay's heart.
This film is said to have succeeded in flicking the problems that are often experienced by many people, namely about self-maturation. We will be shown the weight of the maturation process of a Kao who is too dependent on Jay all his life.
Kao, who only knows about sport stacking techniques and only relies on Jay as her boyfriend to take care of the housework, is a perfect illustration of how important the maturing process is for everyone.
In addition, as a comedy drama film, "Fast & Feel Love" has also succeeded in carrying a drama element that is quite relatable for audiences in today's era. Through Kao's character, we will see how important it is to live a balanced life and passion .
Kao is obsessed with sport sacking. He spends so much time on the sport that he forgets the presence of the people around him who faithfully accompany and support him. Kao forgets his own mother's support and prayers, Kao also forgets Jay as his girlfriend who always takes care and supports him to become the fastest sports stacking athlete in the world.
Successful Screenwriting, Comedy & Reference
“Fast & Feel Love” managed to become a Thai comedy film worth watching this year. The jokes in this film are successfully conveyed creatively through verbal and expression of the actors.
Of course writing the script by Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit is the main life in this film. Nawapol's creativity in writing scripts makes films with cliche premise more interesting, meaningful and original. Nawapol plays a lot in the metaphorical aspect, which is enough to make the audience instantly reflect on themselves.
Then another reason "Fast & Feel Love" deserves to be the best comedy film this year is the director who embeds many references to other films as a form of respect. An example is the embedding of references to “Parasite” (2019) by Bong Joon Ho, “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back” (1980)”, “Ip Man” and several other films. Uniquely, this reference placement does not seem cringy, in fact it adds to the comedy level of “Fast & Feel Love” itself.
In the end, the narrative of this film tries to explore the self-maturation that we have to face as we get older. Whatever our passions and ideals, we still need to pay attention and appreciate the people around us. “Fast & Feel Love” can be watched on Netflix.