2/5 stars
The on-screen coupling of Freen Sarocha Chankimha and Rebecca Patricia Armstrong, known collectively as “FreenBecky” to their legions of adoring fans, transitions to the big screen in Uranus 2324, a sprawling sci-fi romance charting the love affair between two young women across the endless expanses of space and time.
The film is the latest offering in Thailand’s booming GL, or “girls’ love”, genre of romantic fiction foregrounding same-sex female protagonists, while also laying claim to being Thailand’s first space movie.
The set-up is promising enough. Kath (Becky) and Lin (Freen) are romantically involved until the death of Kath’s father prompts her family to move to America.
Lin follows her dream of becoming an astronaut and is selected by Nasa to join the International Space Station. Her mission coincides with Kath’s return to Thailand, to compete in an Olympic free-diving event.
While in space, a freak solar flare incident almost destroys Lin’s ship. Somehow the same anomaly simultaneously affects Kath while deep underwater, sending her on a cosmic odyssey through parallel worlds, in search of a timeline where she and Lin can be reunited.
