Yani Xander: Headless ghost, Speechless body double, Telugu cop, hottest guy on the planet has a boyfriend and a tree trunk-sized d*ck

  

Link to the n*de photos

When I was researching the beefcake on the British Ghosts tv series,  I found Yani Xander listed as Headless Humphrey: a Tudor nobleman who was accidentally beheaded, so as a ghost his head keeps falling off his body.  Except Humphrey's head is played by Laurence Rickard.  You never see the incredibly gorgeous Yani, because at 5'3", he is inside Humphrey's body. 

One of the hottest guys I've ever seen, and 5'3"?  Sign me up!

He was born in 1997 in Burgos, Bulgaria, a resort town on the Black Sea about 4 hours from Sofia, which gives me an excuse to dip into my photos of n*de Bulgarian guys.  

After graduating from secondary school, Yani moved to London to study at the City Academy ((2017) and Anthony Meindl's Actors Workshop (2018).  He started getting roles in short films, like A Different League (2017), Alice and Jack (2017), and Refugee Point (2018).

Hey You (2019), only about five minutes long, has gay interest:  Two guys (Noel Samuels, Dmitri Spodobaev, top photo) are arranging a hookup. Yani plays a third guy (I'm guessing a bottom).

In 2019, Yani starred a starring role in the Telugu series Erra Gulabhila Govindu.  He plays a cop.  Wait, Telugu, the Dravidian language spoken in South India?  What's Yani doing there?    What's he doing in southern India?  And learning Telugu?

Next came three episodes of Alex Rider (2020), featuring a teenage James Bond (Otto Farant), his goofy best friend (Brennock O'Connor), and the Girl of His Dreams.  Yani plays the son of a Russian baddie. 

And two episode of Dangerous (2020), a "bland and cliched" Bollywood crime series.  So you're still in India, but learning Hindi, not Telugu

And 21 episodes of Ghosts (2019-23).

Also Yani was the stand in for J.J. Dimeo, the Speechless guy (Micah Fowler) when the gang went to London, and a body double for Joshua McGuire (left) in Cheaters.  Yes, he showed his backside (on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends)

His most recent work is the British-Indian sci-fi movie IRaH (2024), a weird spelling because it's an app devoped by Hari Singh (Rohit Roy).  It falls into the wrong hands, and chaos ensues. Yani's character does not appear in the plot synopsis.

What else has he been up to?

A lot of traveling!

 Bali

Japan

Abu Dhabi

Denmark

Cambodia

Greece

Many more countries and c*ck shots after the break

"This Love Doesn't Have Long Beans." But does it have any d*cks? Thai BL with cooking and evil schemes. Plus Japanese and Himalayan dudes

Link to the n*de dudes

I 'm seeing more and more Thai BL series on Netflix.   I like the universe where everybody is gay or bi, and the settings are  sometimes interesting, but the multisyllabic names make research difficult. Try typing "Sailub Hemmawich Kwanamphaiphan" and "gay" into your search engine. And when you do, they never have n*de photos available; I have to make do with random n*de dudes.  I think this one is Japanese, not Thai.  But who can resist a show called This Love Doesn't have Long Beans?

I checked: Long beans, fak yao, are legumes, denser and less juicy than Western green beans, and they grow up to three feet long.  No proverb that I could find.  

Scene 1:  Influencer Prawan is reviewing the No Long Beans Basil House. He only reviews restaurants that specialize in basil stir fry, pad krapao.  This one is unique because they don't include long beans, a traditional ingredient in the dish.  

He praises the atmosphere, the plating, and the food, loudly, annoying the other customers, until Chef Oab, the "Hellfire Chef," asks him to leave.  Then he hates everything, insults Chef Oab, and tries to fight him.  Waiters hold him back.

"You think because you're a great chef, and incredibly handsome, that you can push people around! Well, I'll get even.  I'll leave a bad review, and none of my 13 followers will come to your restaurant."

Scene 2: Shirtless musclemen posing for the camera.  Influencer Prawan bursts in late, and then won't take off his shirt.  "It's a commercial for a weight loss clinic.  We asked for a model with a six pack." "Well..um...I can act."  The director kicks him out.

Next he gets a text from the electric company: he has to pay his bill today, or they're cutting off his power.  But he only has 99 baht (about $3.00) in his bank account.   What can he do?

How about ask his agent for a loan?  No way -- he got Prawan that modeling job, and he was kicked off the set for not being in shape.  "You promised that you'd be in model shape by the beginning of the year!  

Prawan begs for another chance.  His influencer career isn't working out -- no one is paying him to review restaurants.  Maybe if you expanded beyond pad krapao?   

"Just get me one more job."  

"No, you're hopeless."

Scene 3: Back home, Prawan is inundated by bills from creditors and disconnect notices. He goes to his friend JJ's house and announces that he's staying there.

"Only for one night.  After that, you go home."

"But my power's been cut off.  I can't go home."

"I've paid your electric bill."

"Oh...well, they've turned off the water, too..." Har-har.

Scene 3: Chef Oab reviewing a commercial for his restaurant.  First, as one of the celebrity judges on Kitchen Fire Thailand (logo in English), he screams that the pork is undercooked, and tastes awful. Cut to praising how he selects the ingredients for the world's best pad krapao.  Most important: no long beans. Shouldn't that be a matter of taste?  

He's not going to use the commercial.

"But why?  We can make any changes you want."

"Because I'm closing the restaurant.  I've lost my passion."  

"Is it because of your ex girlfriend?"   Cut to him and his girlfriend hugging, gazing at each other, tasting food, and opening their restaurant, with "no long beans" because she is allergic to them.  

"Yes, and also I need money.  I'll sell to the first person who meets my offer."

More after the break

Khemjira: A Thai shaman and his students find boyfriends, with a "Power Ranger" demon, muscular ghosts, magic bees, a play, and beneath-the-belt stuff

  

Link to the n*de photos

When Thai tv series Khemjira (2025) appeared on my Netflix recommendation list. I thought it might be another BL series, like Love Like a Bike. But 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; in the U.S., they postpone outing gay characters until near the end of the season, so maybe a gay romance will start heating 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 "Remembering the Holy Men," a real performance piece memorializing the 1901 m*ssacre of over 300 men who were rebelling against the Siamese government.   

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 for 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 down.   

 

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

"Love Like a Bike": three gay romances, a lot of hot physiques, four d*cks, and a view of Pattaya. Plus s*x work and human trafficking.

Link to the n*de dudes 

Netflix just dropped a Thai tv series called Love Like a Bike (I think; I am not familiar with an expression about life or love being like a bicycle).  The blur promises "three siblings raised in different countries reunited," but the illustration shows six men , so doubtless at least one of them will be gay.

Scene 1:  Pattaya, a resort town about two hours by car from Bangkok.  A slightly cross-eyed young man named Sailom (Tanapol Jarujittranon)  is walking on a path overlooking the shore, when a guy asks for directions and grabs his hand.  He freaks out, screaming "Don't touch me!", and runs into the path of a bicyclist, who is thrown off.  He falls to the ground,  the bicyclist on top of him, mouth to mouth (I don't understand the trajectory -- did the bicyclist, going forward, somehow manage to fall backwards and spin around?).    He yells "Don't touch me!" again and runs away.  Dude must be on the autism spectrum.  And he's obviously gay. That was fast.

He runs into a cafe (English sign) and tells his brother and sister what happened.  They must be the three siblings. Darn, he lost the necklace that his Mom gave him.  They go back to the shore and look around, but can't find it.

The Brother, James, is played by MJ Teachin Paksa (on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends)

Scene 2: The bicyclist, Nubnueng (Masu Junyangdikul), ends up at a Mental Health Clinic (sign in English and Thai), where he works as a psychiatrist.  He talks down an angry husband who claims that Nubnueng encouraged his wife to dump him. I'm going to start calling him the Doctor.

Masu's d*ck is on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends.

Scene 3: Next stop: The Life Like a Bike Coffee Shop, run by the Doctor's mother and baby sister.  Uh-oh, in the accident, he lost the ring that he planned to use to propose to his girlfriend, but he found a necklace; he'll use that. 

Cut to that night: the Doctor and his girlfriend are having dinner.  They simultaneously tell each other, "I have something to say." He pulls out the necklace, but asks her to go first.  Gulp...she's going to dump you, isn't she?

Yep: cut to the Doctor in a bar with neon Bible verses on the wall, morosely dangling the necklace.  Sailom and his friends drop in.  He recognizes the necklace, and accuses the Doctor of stealing it.  

"I didn't steal it -- here, I'll give it back."  He presses it into Sailom's hand -- hey, no flinching.  

The argument draws security guards, who start manhandling Sailom.  He has a full panic attack, but the Doctor talks him down, and invites him to come to the mental health clinic whenever he needs to.

Later, Sailom takes a bath (some beefcake) and wonder why touching the Doctor was ok.  

Scene 4:  A bike shop.  A customer is harassing the bike guy  (Us Nititorn Akkarachotsopon), demanding that he work faster.  He's interrupted by a news story on his phone: on this day last year, an airplane on a  Bangkok-Chiang Mai flight crashed, killing a young girl.  The bike shop guy was the Pilot!  

 Nititorn (on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends) is gay in real life.  Have we got three gay characters so far?

Scene 5: Dindin (Ta Nannakun Pakapatpornpob) is taking tickets for a boat tour, when two toughs, one named Aish, approach him.  Their boss needs his money right away!  Dindin ditches them and runs down the streets of Pattaya, while they discuss how much trouble they'll be in if they don't get that money to the boss.  As he is running, he gets a phone call.  So he stops to take it?  They want him to sing at the bar tonight.   He also sees a job ad for a baker at the Life Like a Bike Cafe.  So, are you a singer or a baker?  I think I'll call you the Baker.

 I couldn't find n*de photos of Dindin, so I posted a random Thai guy.

More after the break

Nhut Le: Actor, model, potter, superhero. With a Thai guy bonus

   

Link to Thai guy bonus

Ten things you should know about Nhut Le:

1. The Vietnamese-American actor (pronounced "Nuh Lee") studied drama at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and honed his comedic skills in the Groundling.  

2, He has 15 credits on the IMDB, including several gay roles, such as Gay #2 on Los Feliz 90027.   

3. He is gay in real life.

4. He wrote, produced, and starred in Gey Gardens (2018), a gay parody of the tv soap Gray Gardens

5. He played the Judomaster on two seasons of the Superhero comedy Peacemaker.  Judomaster is a mean-tempered, spiteful supervillain who is trounced by John Cena's Peacemaker.  And he's gay!  On a TV series based on DC Comics!

6. Nhut is also a writer, a gamer, and a potter.  

7. The bestsellers on 3CirclePotter, on Etsy, are a sweetheart mug and a ghost face mug.

8. He came to the 2017 San Diego Comics Con as the Marvel Comics superhero Iceman.

9. Nhut is deeply involved in gay and Asian activism. In 2022, he presented on Diversity in Comics, TV, Film, and Games at Wondercon.

10.  He has never been n***de on screen, that I know of.  But there are lots of other n***de Asian guys out there.  And on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends.

See also:

Zev Andros: Tony's gym boyfriend, Phuket diver, ball player, bodybuilder, grandson of a Hollywood legend.   With some Thai guys

Pretty Dudes: Gay Asian erasure, Spiderman, a car hookup, and hamburger stuff

One Night in Bangkok, Three Hundred Nights at Mugi

From 1985 to around 1993, I was in Mugi, the gay Asian bar in Hollywood, at least once a week, sometimes twice.  Probably 300 times in all.   And every single time I was there, they played "One Night in Bangkok."  It was ingrained into my brain; even today I often catch myself singing:

One night in Bangkok, and the world's your oyster.
The bars are temples, but the pearls ain't free.

Oddly enough, when I visited the real Bangkok in 1988 to "rescue" Alan, I never heard the song once.

I guess the owner was a little short on Asian-themed pop songs.  "One Night in Bangkok" was composed for the musical Chess (1984).

Yes, there was a musical about chess.  It was based on the match between chess superstars Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky at the 1972 World Chess Championships,an American and a Russian, one of the epic battles of the Cold War.

I haven't seen it -- reviews complain that it is over-long, over-wrought, clunky, and exceedingly dull.  And it sounds rather homophobic. .

Chess champion Freddie Trumpeter (played by Murray Head in the British version and Philip Casnoff in the American) must face gay "accusations."  His father states that he's "probably queer," and his Soviet opponent, Anatoly (Tommy Korberg, David Carroll) calls him a "fruit" (a "nut" in the American version), and steals his girlfriend.

"One Night in Bangkok" appears on the night before an early match between Freddie and Anatoly.  Freddie wanders around town, trying to stay focused.

He dislikes Bangkok, "Oriental city," with its "muddy old river," its decadence, and its evil: "I can feel a devil walking next to me."

He disapproves of the drag queens: "the queens we use would not excite you."

And especially the feminine gay men: "you'll find a god in every golden cloister, and if you're lucky, then the god's a she."

Not the message you want to send to patrons of a gay Asian bar!

But at least gay people and transvestites are mentioned, a rarity in the 1980s.


See also: The Theme Song of 1000 Nights in a Leather Bar.

"Bangkok Love Stories": Lots of cute Thai guys, but no temples or gay bars

Of course I'm going to watch a tv series in the Thai language, which is not related to Chinese, Vietnamese, or any other of the major languages of East and Southeast Asia.  Even if it has a stupid title: Bangkok Love Stories: Innocence.

My first thought: there's nothing innocent about these twinks falling in and out of love with each other.

My second thought: where did the rest of the world get the idea that Bangkok was just about s*x? Sure, it's is an essential part of any trip, but Bangkok has enough cultural treasures for a month of sightseeing:  the Grand Palace, home to Thai monarchs from 1782 to 1925; the Suam Pakkad Palace: Wat Pho, with its 148-foot long Reclining Buddha.

None of which appear in the first episode.  There are no interesting location shots.

My third thought:

So no one told you life was gonna be this way
Your job's a joke, you're broke, your love life's D.O.A

(I often have no choice but to watch Friends on the treadmill at the gym).

This group of zany friends are:

1. Rachel...um, I mean Claudia (Nida Patcharaveerapong), who has a terrible job at a salad bar, where she has to fend off handsy customers all day.

2. Joey...um, I mean JC (Kawin Manonukul, top photo and left),who has a terrible job at a KFC, but his real passion is parkour (urban acrobatics).  He's into Claudia.

More after the break

Zev Andros: Tony's gym boyfriend, Phuket diver, grandson of a Hollywood legend. With Phuket penises

  

Tony announces that he has recruited a new God Squad member.  He probably means a gym buddy, or gym boyfriend, or gym buddy that he treats like a boyfriend.

  Link to the nude dudes

I can't give the real name of a non-actor, so I'll call him Zev Andros: an  EMT, divemaster with the American Divers of Phuket, baseball player, and bodybuilder.   I wonder if he can attest to the veracity of that "Cowboys Do It Better" cap.

Zev's grandfather was Charles Aidikoff (1915-2016), who ran a famous screening room on Rodeo Drive  in Beverly Hills.  Movie stars, producers, and critics came to the 57-seat auditorium to see early versions and works in progress. eat the candy that he provided -- Mars Bars and Red Vines -- and exchange Hollywood gossip.

 

Charlie claims that he screened  50,000 films between 1966 amd 2011, when his grandson Josh took over the screening room. It closed with his death in 2016.

His Facebook memorial page contains photos of him with Betty White, Raquel Welch, Peter Fonda, Danny DeVito, Mel Brooks, Ryan Gosling, Wes Bentley, Ice Cube, King Charles...well, everybody.

But let's get back to Bodybuilder Zev, who grew up in Phuket, the gay capital of Thailand, and now lives in Los Angeles.  Some highlights of his social media pages:

Zev: "The posing room goes hard."  I can see why, buddy.

 "Fitness motivation."  Yours, or ours?

More Zev after the break

"Girl from Nowhere": She Knows All Your Secrets

 I don't usually watch tv series with "girls" in the title, but the Thai drama The Girl from Nowhere had an interesting premise: A mysterious Girl from Nowhere arrives at a different high school in every episode, and helps a victim of bullying, sexual harassment, or some other problem get revenge -- or else she eliminates the middleman and wreaks revenge herself.  

I watched Episode 4, because it doesn't mention hetero-romance, and the victim who needs justice is a boy, Dino.  Maybe he's gay.

Prologue: The Girl -- Nanno -- burning an American $100 bill with her picture on it.  She smiles and asks "What can money buy?"  

She finds out as she is being shown around her latest school: the botany lab, the fashion studio, the spacecraft simulation room, all donated by rich parents. Hey, she could buy a room!  She pulls out a wad of cash and magically transforms an empty room into a sanctuary, complete with a huge stained glass window depicting the Virgin Mary. 

Scene 1: Rather svelte Dino (left) comes to class loaded-down with souvenirs from his latest trip to London.  He's competing with another boy, To, to see who can bring back the most souvenirs -- and he wins!  

Scene 2: Students being interviewed about Dino: arrogant, very rich, a show-off, tries to buy friendship.

Cut to Dino asking To why he didn't accept an invitation to dinner: "Duck at the Four Seasons."  Being gay is definitely not this guy's secret: he's right out there.  

The teacher passes out the grades from last term: Dino got a 3.46, very high.  The other students are jealous.

Scene 3: Meanwhile, Nanno is using her room as headquarters for a new company, Nanno Ltd.  

A blond boy worries that, due to his poor grades, he won't get the motorcycle his parents promised.  Nanno can arrange for him to get it, for a small fee (1500 baht, about $50 US dollars).  I thought she was going to use magic, but she hacks into the school's computer system and changes his grades.

Scene 4: Kids are lined up to pay Nano to fix things -- not just grades.  "My girlfriend cheated on me!"  The boy gets beat up.  "My Dad insists that "I get a girlfriend!"  Nanno hires one.

Scene 5:  Nanno offers to take on Dino as a client, but he doesn't need anything: he's rich, smart, and "doesn't have a girlfriend problem."  How about a boyfriend problem? 

Dino's four friends, a girl and three boys (one a ladyboy, a Thai third gender), ask Nanno to arrange a visit to a Buddhist meditation camp.  They invite Dino along, but he refuses.  You'll never get a boyfriend like that, dude!  Instead, Nanno suggests going to Dino's house.  He's bragged about the snooker room, the tennis courts, the swimming pool, the stables with horses.

(This is the only beefcake photo of a cast member that I could find.)

Dino keeps refusing, but they insist, so finally he says "Fine! Tomorrow!"  He leaves the school and gets into his chauffeured limo.

Scene 6:  Hey, it's not a limo, it's an Uber!  Dino lives in a crappy apartment in a bad neighborhood, with parents who have a work-from-home job packing boxes.  He's poor, just pretending to be rich!  Then how can he afford tuition at the elite school, the gifts for his friends, the daily Uber ride?

He goes into his crappy room, lies down on the bed, and gets lots of texts from his friends, all excited about the visit to his mansion. 

Ulp -- now he needs Nanno's help!  "Find me a house like the one I described."

Sure, but the processing fee will be 200,000 baht -- $6400 USD!  How is a poor kid going to get that much money?

Coincidentally, Dino overhears his parents talking about 200,000 baht that they've borrowed from a loan shark to pay for his tuition.  They'll have to pay it back right away, or the loan shark will kill them.  Ulp -- surely Dino won't steal from his parents, just to impress his friends.  But he imagines them ridiculing him, and...the ATM is 1.5 km away.  Feeling guilty, he takes the money.

Dad is played by Nuttapol Kumata, a member of the Babymime comedy mime ensemble.

Scene 7:  Morning.  Dad knows that the money is missing, and is yelling at the bank for its "error."  Feeling guilty, Dino puts on his shoes and leaves.

Scene 8: Nanno shows Dino the palace she's rented.  Geez, it's enormous.  There's a sign out front -- it must be a familiar Bangkok landmark.  

Later, the friends arrive.  The ladyboy is in drag. Dino rings for the servants Nanno has hired -- ulp, they're his parents! They pretend not to know him.

Nanno asks them to go get a photo of Dino's "parents," the ambassador and his wife. Oh boy, humiliation upon humiliation.

Scene 9: Dinner.  Dino asks for whiskey, but his parents/servants refuse to provide it: "You're too young to drink."  His friends find this odd. so he insists: "I'm your boss.  Do as I say."  

Nanno suggests "Since there are no adults around to supervise, let's smoke some weed."  While Dino's parents are right there, unable to act!  

When the "maid" spills wine on the girl's dress, she is irate.  "Fire her!  Fire her!"  

Scene 10: They go into the study, angry and upset.  Why is Dino acting so weird?  Why won't he let them have fun?  Nanno suggests Russian roulette -- but aim for the arm, not the head, so you won't die.. This is what Thai teenagers consider fun?

They actually start playing, but when it's Dino's turn, Dad/Butler rushes in and stops them and starts yelling: "Your parents spent a fortune to raise you, and you're gambling it all away!"  One of the kids gets angry and hits him in the head; he collapses.  Mom/Maid, distraught, grabs the gun, but he attacks her, too.  They're both dead!

Nanno starts laughing hysterically.  She's gotten her revenge.  

Scene 11:  Dino goes home.  Mom and Dad are there, slightly bruised but otherwise fine.  They ask "How was the Buddhist meditation camp?"  Huh?

Flashback explanation: Dino came clean about being poor.  Nanno gave Mom and Dad enough money to treat their wounds and replace the 200,000 baht, on the grounds that they "never talk about it."  So they're going to pretend it never happened.

Nanno faces the audience and asks "What do you think money can buy?"  

Postscript: The students being interviewed: "Money is the most important thing in my life."  "How could I live without money?" "Money can buy anything, even people!"

Beefcake: Some of the guys are cute.

Other Sights: Just the mansion.

Gay Characters:  Dino and his three male friends are all gay.

Supernatural:  No.  Nanno gets everything done through computer hacking and throwing money around.  But in other episodes she is killed and comes back (several times), so she's definitely a supernatural being.

My Grade:  Very impressive.  Excellent production values, excellent acting.  Some problems with motives -- why, exactly, did Nanno want revenge on this boy?  But that might be due to cultural differences.   A-

The King and I: Bare Chests and Shaved Heads

The King and I, the 1951 Rogers & Hammerstein musical, can be played as a heterosexual romance, like the 1956 movie version:

Young widow Anna Leonowens goes to Thailand in 1861 to tutor the many children of King Mongkut.  Their culture clash results in romantic sparks, and they fall in love.

Or, with barely any tweaking at all, it can be played as two strong-willed people developing a non-romantic friendship based on mutual respect.

Which, by the way, was the case in the original novel, Anna and the King of Siam (1944), based on the memoirs of the real Anna Leonowens: she became language secretary to King Mongkut, but didn't fall in love with the man 40 years her elder, and in fact found him unpleasant to work with.  She had quit her job and was on her way back to England when he died.

So it's worth checking out the nearest high school drama club, community theater, or summer stock production of The King and I, to see which direction they're taking it.

Also, the King and his son Chulalongkorn are usually portrayed shirtless, so they'll be looking to cast the actors with the most smooth, muscular chests they can find.

Sometimes the actors go for the full Yul Brynner effect and shave their heads, too.  Sometimes not.

The Naked Ghost Festival of Thailand

When I visited Thailand, I was busy dealing with my ex-boyfriend Alan's drama.  So I didn't have time to drive 6 hours north of Bangkok to Dan Sai, near the Laotian border.

It's a small town with a folk museum and a famous pagoda, but not much else to draw tourists away from Bangkok and Pattaya.  Except for the Phi Ta Khon Festival ("Ghosts with Human Eyes"), held every year at different times depending on the spiritual conditions (in 2014, on the weekend of June 27th).

It commemorates an event in the life of the Buddha's last incarnation, Prince Vessantara.  He fell asleep, and his followers thought he was dead.  They decided to celebrate his escape from samsara, and made so much noise that he woke "from the dead."

The festival begins begins with a Buddhist ceremony that invokes guardian spirits, followed by a procession of the men in the village, nude except for rice-husk loincloths, covered with river mud, waving giant wooden phalluses of various sizes and shapes.

The male spectators wave phallic charms (paladkik) or giant phalluses of their own, inscribed with characters meaning "Big Man."  Apparently guardian spirits likes penises.

On the second day, there's another parade (Hae), with more semi-nude men, but generally more elaborate costumes of ghosts and monsters, with ornate masks.  Crossdressing is common.  As are penises so large that they're hard to carry.

There are prizes for the best costumes and dances.  Plus phallic rockets (Bangfai Ko) and partying all night.

The third day is devoted to Buddhist sermons, prayer and meditation.