Khemjira: A Thai shaman and his students find boyfriends, with a "Power Ranger" demon, muscular ghosts, magic bees, a play, and p*nises

 

Link to the n*de photos

When Thai tv series Khemjira (2025) appeared on my Netflix recommendation. I thought it might be another Thai BL series, like Love Like a Bike.  Fast-forwarding through the first episode, I saw only a boy-girl romance, plus someone who looked nonbinary.  So I'm going to review Episode 7; maybe the gay romance will heat up.

Our Story So Far: The Spirit Ramphueng, who looks like Rita Repulsa from Power Rangers, has cursed a family: every boy born will die before his 21st birthday. Khem's parents give him a girl's name to fool her, but it doesn't work; demons keep attacking.  So they send him to Ubon Ratchatthani province, near the Laotian border, where Shaman Pharam can protect him.

He befriends two of the shaman students: Red-haired, effervescent Jet, and shy, quiet Cham. 

From left to right: Cham, Jet, Khem

Scene 1: Shaman Pharam, who is very young (the actor is 25), brings the guys to a real  outdoor performance, "Remembering the Holy Men." In 1901, followers of the Phu Mi Bun religion started a rebellion against Siam and French Indo-China.  After some skirmishes, Siamese troops stormed their camp and killed over 300 men. 

Khem sees some of the spirits; very muscular.  But he also sees Ramphueng, and worries that she will use them to attack.  So Shaman Pharam gives him an additional locket for protection.

Scene 2: While Jet and Cham choose a paint color ffor an offering to the spirits, a girl who dated or had a crush on Shaman Pharam ten years ago tries to get with him again, but Pharam isn't interested.  

Scene 3: The performance.  Chalked men and women wave tapers with multicolored smoke and run back and forth, grab tall poles, bleed red ink, carry each other off, and finally fall dead.   

 

Uh-oh, there's Ramphueng again!  She tries to control the very muscular spirits, but they are too powerful, and make her choke and evaporate.  

Only Khem and Shaman Pharam see this.  Everyone else just applauds as the performanc ends. 

Cut to Ramphueng: "I may have failed this time, but I'll get you, My Pretty!"

Scene 4: As everyone is packing up, the girl with the crush on Shaman Pharam stops by to say goodbye and give him a gift.  Khem, eavesdropping, thinks they are dating, and walks away morosely.

Shaman Pharam notices and calls him back.  "Anything wrong?" "Oh...no, not at all, Master.  Bye!" 

"Then give my my protection amulet back."  "Grr...yeah, sure, I guess."

Scene 5: It's a busy day: next up Rich Guy Pong, who wears a Bethany Nazarene College t-shirt, arrives to take the guys to the Temple Festival. 

Hey, I grew up Nazarene.  Hard-core fundamentalist. There's a Bethany Nazarene College in Oklahoma.

Rich Guy Pong asks Khem to sit up front -- um, to check the map. He agrees.  Jet and Cham gossip about whether the two are an item.  

As they pull out, Shaman Pharam stares despondently.  Jealous, dude?  He summons two child-appearing spirits, and orders them to watch the group and report back if there's trouble.

"And if they split up, who do you want us to keep an eye on?  Anybody special, giggle giggle?"

More aftr the break

Arturo Castro: The gay Guatemalan roommate and gay-subtext gangster, with the c*ck that got censored.

  

Link to the d*ck pics

When I posted a d*ck pic of gay-subtext gangster Arturo Castro on my review of Mike + Nick, it got a "sensitive warning" exclamation point that wouldn't go away.  Wait -- isn't every post on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends sensitive? .  

So I'm going to try again, and put the post so far down that I won't see the exclamation point.

Guatemalan actor Arturo Castro is best known for Broad City (2014-19), the New York gal-pal sitcom.  He plays Jaime Castro, Ilana's pocket-gay roommate, in 25 episodes.  Most of his centrics involve being fashion conscious and shy, but eventually he begins dating Johnny (Guillermo Diaz, right).

There's a c*ck pic of Guillermo Diaz on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends.

Arturo has 95 other acting credits listed on the IMDB, but I don't recognize any except Narcos (2015-17), a biography of drug lord Pablo Escobar, and The Menu (2022), about a chef whose posh creations involve the deaths of his dinner guests. As far as I can tell, none of his other characters are gay

Although he does show his physique in a 2019 episode of Room 104, the anthology series featuring paranormal problems bedeviling guests who stay in that room.  Craig (Arturo) suffers from a debilitating skin condition that gets worse and worse, no matter what he tries.

Shaving his stuff doesn't help.

But he never gives up hope, which is why he continues smiling even as his body falls apart.

We see his backside, too.

Nice.  Too bad you're not into bottom stuff.  With guys, anyhow.

More after the break, including the c*ck that got me censored.  

"The Last Beergin": Filipino Dark Night of the Soul, with JC Santos as a priest who might be gay. Plus Zaijian Jaranilla's two gay teens

 

Last night we watched the Filipino movie The Last Beergin (2025) on Netflix.  A play on "The Last Virgin?"  A very precise English pun for a movie in Tagalog, and it's about gin, not beer:  as two men argue over the last bottle of gin at a convenience store, a rich girl screams and makes them drop it, and crash into a display case.  The boy who has been staring at her offers to pay for the damage, and I forget why a middle-aged woman gets involved, but they all end up at a restaurant, drinking, playing ice-breaker games, and eventually going through a Dark Night of the Soul:

The bellicose Hilo (Pepe Herrera, far left) has a gambling problem.  He took out a mortgage on his in-laws' house, without their permission, to finance a bet.  Then he lost it all.

Rich Girl Sandy has a spending problem, which caused her parents to cut off her finances.  Now how can she support her three boyfriends?

Sullen teenage Isaac (Zaijian Jaranilla, center) is in love with Rich Girl Sandy, but she doesn't notice him.  Also, he had a life-threatening disease, and his parents promised God that if he got better, they would force him into the priesthood.  But he doesn't want to be a priest.

Middle aged Tere has been married for many years, but is still a virgin.  Her husband is paralyzed, and unable to perform in the bedroom.

The morose RG (JC Santos, top photo and right) moderates the others' confessions and offers advice.  He is particularly interested in Isaac, which makes Hilo suspicious: "Do you have a crush on him?"   

When Teenage Isaac runs to the bathroom to cry,  Reticent RG follows and hugs him.  This enrages Hilo: "Are you gay?"

"Why do you have to be so insulting?" RG counters.  "Are you homophobic?"  You're the homophobic one, buddy, thinking that "gay" is an insult.

"Of course not!  I support the LGBTQ+ community."  He actually says the "plus."  The guy knows up-to-date acronyms.

Later the two guys get so chummy that I thought they were interested in dating.  Especially in the morning, when everyone else leaves, but RG and Hilo stick around.

Reticent RG offers to host the next meeting of the newly-formed friend group.  To everyone's surprise, the address he gives is a church.  He's a priest!

He explains that he was having a crisis of faith, not sure if he wanted to stay in the priesthood.  But counseling the others at the restaurant convinced him to return.

"I'm so sorry, Father," Hilo exclaims.  "I called you a pervert!"  Ok, that's homophobic. Didn't you know the proper acronym five minutes ago?

Wait -- RG was staring intently at Isaac before he told the story of his parents forcing him into the priesthood.  Is he gay after all?  That is never established.  

To get a better idea, I checked to see if any of the male actors played gay characters before, or are gay in real life.

JC Santos (Morose RG): Straight, but he starred in the Filipino tv series Till I Met You (2015), about a boy (James Reid, left), a girl, and a "closeted homosexual" who fall in love with each other.  Whoa, the  "homosexual" slur, and the contention that they are not men. I'm disgusted. 

The Philippine Entertainment Network is utterly shocked: "JC Santos doesn't mind playing GAY and kissing a GUY!!!!!!!!"

Pepe Herrera (Bellicose Hilo): Straight, but he's been in several Filipino tv series that get complaints like "Why do they have to make every tv character  gay?  Nobody wants to see that!"  I can't tell if he's one of the gay characters or not.

More after the break

"Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice": Time traveling gangsters, a cannibal assassin, a gay party, Jimmy Tatro, and Arturo's d*ck

 

Link to the n*de dudes

Hulu recommended a movie with a title so stylized that I couldn't decipher it, but the icon featured two guys, and I don't have enough movie reviews here, so I clicked on "play."  It's Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice (2026).

Scene 1: A Wacky Scientist (Ben Schwartz) working in a room full of old-fashioned desktop computers and dot-matrix printers.  The quantum stabilizers are engaged, so he wolf-howls with joy and sings a rap song about being the greatest person on Earth (but really, aren't all rap songs saying that?).   Continuing his song, he heads to the chalkboard and finishes his equation.  

Uh-oh, the portal starts to glow, and a figure appears.  Wacky Scientist pulls a gun to defend himself, and accidentally shoots himself, and sets the lab on fire.  Must be him from the future.

Scene 2: A sixth birthday cake, and a lot of people yelling "Welcome back, Jimmy!", but Jimmy is at least 80, unless the old guy they're cheering is someone else.

Yep, Jimmy is off to the side, not the guest of honor at his own party; everyone is cheering his Crime Lord Dad (Keith David).  And it's not his birthday: he's out of prison after six years.  Director: why have the guest of honor off to the side, while everyone cheers his father? Do you have any idea how confusing that is?

Jimmy yells "Get loose, biatch!", whereupon everyone applauds, and a cute Short Guy yells "Awright!"  They must be responding to his catch phrase?

Crime boss Dad notes that someone in this room is responsible for Jimmy going to prison, and he'll be dealt with tonight.  But for now, have fun.

Scene 3:  A Sleazoid, standing at the bar, gets flirted with by a lady, while a Posh Guy glares at him; three ladies smooze; the Short Guy flirts with a sleeveless Muscle Hunk, then walks off with him.  A hookup!

I checked the cast list:

Slezoid: Mike (James Marsden)

Posh Guy: Nick (Vince Vaughn)

Short Guy: Dumbass Tony (Arturo Castro, left) 

Muscle Hunk: Roid Rage Ryan (Lewis Tan, top photo.).

Posh Guy is glaring because the lady flirting with the Sleazoid happens to be his wife, Alice.  She asks if he's going to the after-after-after party.  He's not, because he hates her, so she turns her attention back to the Sleazoid.

Scene 4:  Sleazoid, with flowers and wine, walks through dim blue-lit hallways.  It looks like a s*x club, but it's actually a regular hallway in this hotel (crazy!), leading to a regular (albeit extremely dim) suite.  He calls Posh Guy's Wife to tell her that he left a key at the front desk for their hookup.  

There's a knock on the door.  "Holy shit!" Sleazoid exclaims.  It's Posh Guy -- did he catch on that Sleazoid is cheating with his wife?  "I know you're in there!!! Open up!!!"

Sleazoid texts the Wife.  "Don't let him in!  If he knows about us, he'll kill you!"  

Turns out that Sleazoid is an enforcer, breaking legs and murdering people, and Posh Guy has a job for him: "it might get heavy and weird."   

"But I wanted to go to Jimmy's after-after-after party."

"Nope, this is too important."

"I'm planning to leave the business, so no killing. But I'll beat someone up for you."

Scene 5: They drive to Posh Guy's house.  He tells Sleazoid to take some chloroform and knock out the person who answers the door, no matter who it is.  

Arturo Castro's backside is on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends. I didn't have enough to make a full profile, but you're going to get his d*ck before this review ends.

The door is answered by: Posh Guy himself!  Wearing another outfit.

The chloroform doesn't work. They fight.  There's fireplace pokers, photos of wives, aquariums, and a trophy, and finally Posh Guy is killed.  

Scene 6: Our Posh Guy arrives, and is not happy to find the house destroyed and the Other Posh Guy dead.  Plus  "The Crime Boss will be here soon, and he can't see you."   

They clean up just in time for Sleazoid to hide.

Crime Boss arrives, and tells Posh Guy that he knows who ratted out his son Jimmy to "those pig c*cksuckers."  Homophobic slur, in 2026!  I am disgusted.  You get one more before I'm outta here.

More after the break