"My mom said if I like someone I’d feel like there’s a hundred butterflies in my tummy."
— Pie
Yes or No is a 2010 Thai LGBT dramedy-romance film directed by Sarasawadee Wongsompetch and starring Sucharat "Aom" Manaying and Suppanad "Tina" Jittaleela. It’s a G-rated lesbian flick, the first in Thailand to feature a “Tom” character, a woman who dresses and acts in a masculine way, derived from the English word “tomboy”.
Pie hails from an upper-middle-class background in Thai society, one which adheres strictly to traditional values, including values related to sexuality. She’s at college studying fisheries and in a relationship with P’van (A man. This is important.). All is well in the world.
Enter Kim, a farm girl studying agriculture. Only she’s not too girly. She’s a Tom, which gets Pie’s back up straight away. However, the more time they spend together, the more Pie sees that not only are her family’s prejudices about Toms and sexuality not worth her time, but there’s something about the way she feels about Kim that she just can’t deny...
Followed by a sequel subtitled "Come Back To Me" in 2012.
This film contains examples of:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Van always introduces himself as Pie's boyfriend, much to her discomfort, and she repeatedly tells him to stop telling people that. In reality, he's just a family friend that Pie's mother is trying to set her up with, so she feels that she can't just get rid of him. Pie does occasionally use him to make Kim jealous, however, despite stating on multiple occasions she feels nothing at all for him.
- Ambiguously Bi: Auntie Inn has some masculine mannerisms, Pie asks Kim if she’s a Tom after their first meeting, the staff at her café all appear to be Toms, and she knows Kim is gay even before Kim seems to know it herself, talking about it very openly and casually. It’s only in the second film that she turns up at Kim’s internship crying over a man she fell in love with and who broke her heart.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Pie comes to Kim's home, saying she loves her while also apologizing tearfully over denying it earlier.
- Animal Motifs:
- Butterflies. A recurring element in the first film. First mentioned in the figurative sense of butterflies in the stomach, then they are physically seen at key moments where Pie finds herself falling in love with Kim, though the butterflies are clearly CGI, making it unclear whether they are actually there or just in Pie’s mind.
- The theme continues in the sequel, where Kim gives Pie a butterfly necklace with a hidden message at the beginning of the film.
- Armored Closet Gay: Pie constantly brings up her dislike of lesbians, but her dislike of more masculine-presenting ones in particular, as she seems to take no issue with Jane, who is a more feminine-presenting one. It's implied to be because she finds them attractive that she is so vocal about her bigotry.
- Bigot with a Crush: Pie, thanks to her upbringing, has internalized quite a bit of homophobia, and externalizes it regularly at the beginning as well. However, she is clearly attracted to Kim, and this seems to bring out more of her bigotry until she is finally able to accept herself.
- Boyish Short Hair: Kim has a short, masculine haircut like most Thai men, which makes her often get called a tomboy and suspected of being a Butch Lesbian. She however denies being either at first. It turns out that she really is a lesbian though. Other butch lesbians shown also have the same style.
- Butch Lesbian: Kim is pegged for one by most people from the get go due to her masculine appearance, but denies it initially. She turns out to be one though. Kim has very short hair, wears shirts (whose sleeves she rolls up) and jeans. There are also other butch lesbians with similar looks in the films.
- Closet Gay: Even after acting on her feelings for Kim, Pie's afraid to be public with their relationship, since she fears how people might react. Kim reluctantly goes along with this. She later comes out at the end of the first film.
- Closet Key: Pie and Kim both say they've never been in love before. Falling for each other makes both realize they like girls.
- Creepy Good: Nerd, Jane's roommate, is The Voiceless and The Stoic, and her appearance is often accompanied by creepy effects and/or soundtrack, which is Played for Laughs. However, she's shown being a bona fide member of Pie's friend group, and she cares about Jane enough to stop her from self-harming.
- Even the Girls Want Her: Kim seems to have this effect on people without even trying.
- Falling-in-Love Montage: Pie and Kim are shown playing around, watching movies, handing out with each other etc as they grow closer. Over time, it's shown they've fallen for each other.
- First Kiss: After Kim sadly tells Pie she can't be the right person for her, they return to their room and tenderly kiss, then sleep in each other's arms afterward.
- First Love: Pie and Kim both tell each other they've never been in love before. The two fall for each other during the first film.
- Flamboyant Gay: Boy, aka Pey, Pie’s Gay Best Friend. Especially in the sequel, where he is never seen without a wig of some description.
- Gang of Bullies: A bunch of boys who hang around the downtime areas of the college, verbally abusing everyone who goes by, especially Kim for being a tomboy.
- Gay Best Friend: Boy, known as Pey in the sequel. Boy seems to be this for Pie’s whole friendship group in the first film, but in the sequel it’s clear that Pie is his real best friend, as she cannot even contemplate doing her internship without him.
- Gayngst: Pie is very anxious over what her mom will think after she's fallen in love with Kim, who's her tomboy roommate, as her mom's homophobic, though she tearfully does indicate she's attracted to a girl later with her mom. Before long though she denies her love for Kim in front of her mom, as she's too afraid. At the end, a voiceover shows Pie at last admitted to her mom that she loves Kim, while pursuing a relationship with her.
- Heteronormative Crusader: Pie's mom dislikes gay people and tomboy women (whom she disapproves of for their gender nonconformity, with some also being butch lesbians), which rubbed off on Pie, explaining her attitude starting out even as she falls in love slowly with Kim, a very masculine girl. She's afraid of her mom finding out as a result. Kim is brought to tears later by overhearing Pie's mom diss her appearance.
- Hidden Buxom: Pie asks Kim what part of her is in any way feminine, and Kim pulls up her shirt. We don't see anything outright, but from the way Pie's eyes widen and she looks down at her own chest (which isn't small at all by Thai standards) in disappointment, we can assume that Kim's a lot bigger than she outwardly appears.
- Holding Hands: One sign of Pie and Kim growing closer is them doing this, at first as friends, then while they're falling in love too.
- If It's You, It's Okay: Despite her feelings for Kim becoming very apparent throughout the film, Pie never actually comes out as gay, she just happens to be a girl in love with another girl. Kim, on the other hand, while conflicted in the first film over whether being a Tom automatically makes her gay, openly tells Yongkao she’s a lesbian in the sequel.
- Inconvenient Attraction: Much of the premise of the film comes from the fact that Pie’s wealthy background and the prejudices of people of said background would make a relationship with Kim very problematic. Pie’s Character Development is based around embracing that what she feels is genuine love and damn what her parents think.
- Interrupted Suicide: When Jane finally realizes that Kim is not interested in her, she grabs a Stanley knife from somewhere (honestly, she doesn’t even move from the spot Kim left her and it’s suddenly in her hand) and is about to cut herself when her roommate Nerd appears and Dope Slaps her for being so stupid as to attempt self-harm.
- Jerkass: Pie’s ‘boyfriend’ P’van talks about Pie’s mother’s and his own opinions about homosexuality being unnatural to Kim’s face, after seeing some Tom-Dee couples passing by. It’s heavily implied that this is purely to make Kim upset and keep her away from Pie.
- Lady Looks Like a Dude: Pie is initially confused about if Kim is a boy or girl due to her masculine appearance. She says nothing about Kim seems girlish. After this, Kim flashes her breasts to Pie.
- Lipstick Lesbian: Pie (and Jane) to Kim's Butch Lesbian. The Thai equivalent to this is 'Dee', derived from 'lady', a lesbian who conforms to Thailand's standards of femininity.
- Love Confession: Kim declares her love for Pie once they act on their feelings for each other.
- Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple: Girly Pie and masculine Kim gradually become a couple, realizing they like girls from each other. Some other couples with the same dynamic appear briefly in the background too.
- Mistaken for Cheating: When Kim is sick in bed with a migraine, she wears a blindfold while she recovers. Jane seizes the opportunity for a sneaky cuddle and Kim, thinking her to be Pie, reciprocates. Then Pie walks in. Per usual romantic drama cliché, Pie reacts in anger and storms out before getting an explanation from Kim, so it takes some time for her to clear this up.
- Pet Monstrosity: Conversed. Pie tells Kim she wants to keep a jellyfish as a pet someday, but says it's too impractical. Kim remembers this when shopping for a present for Pie later in the film, and buys her a jellyfish-themed lamp.
- Right Behind Me: A non-comedic variation on this trope. Jane seems to have the uncanny ability to turn up out of nowhere just when Pie and Kim think they might get some quality time alone together. Actually Played for Laughs earlier in the film when Pie is applying to switch rooms away from Kim while complaining loudly to the building’s receptionist about how "inconvenient" it is to have to share a room with a Tom. She looks up to find the building’s Butch Lesbian manager standing there, and gets chewed out over her prejudices.
- Romantic Spoonfeeding: Used several times throughout the film, but most prominently by Jane when enjoying some rare Kim-time at a point where Kim and Pie are starting to seriously contemplate their feelings for each other.
- Security Cling: Kim has a habit of doing this to Pie when things scare her. First seen when a cockroach scuttles over her foot after first meeting Pie, causing her to run and grab Pie, who is only wearing a towel, and gets a kick to the gut for her trouble. A much sweeter variation occurs later when the lights short out in their dorm during a bad rainstorm, and Kim, who’s afraid of the dark, grabs Pie again, only this time Pie just laughs about it. The sweetness of this scene is turned up to eleven as Kim is shown clinging shyly to Pie’s shirt as the latter lights candles to help her be less afraid. This marks the beginning of the Will They or Won't They? Plot Thread of the second act of the film.
- The Stoic: Nerd, Jane's roommate, walks around as if in a trance for most of the film, until she arrives in the nick of time to prevent Jane from self-harming with a Dope Slap.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Kim’s Tomboy to Pie’s Girly Girl. To be fair, this would be true of any of Kim’s friendships/potential relationships across the two films.
- Transparent Closet: Auntie Inn talks to Kim about her relationships as though the only person who doesn’t know she’s gay is Kim herself.
- Tsundere: Pie is a Harsh Type towards Kim, especially in the beginning, where she can be seen smiling with her face away from Kim while she tells her off, and when she tells Kim her cooking is "just okay" when she clearly enjoys it quite a bit, just to name a couple examples.
- Your Favorite: Doubles as a Call-Back. Kim remembers Pie telling her how much she likes jellyfish and buys her a jellyfish lamp as a present. Pie finds this out following a row with Kim by looking through her shopping bags and goes out in the rain to look for her. Cue their First Kiss.
"Thank you for having the courage to love me."
— Kim
