By Siti Sarah Sofea
Edited by Syafiqah Suhaimi
Remember the dramatic ending of some movies when the taxi driver asks the protagonist, ‘where do you want to go’ and they answer with ‘home’ as they stare into the void? The word home in the context is ambiguous—it can be a physical home or a sense of belonging, which often leaves the audience with various emotions and interpretations.
While this trope of a movie's ending makes us ponder the meaning of home at the end of the movie, Home School (2023), a Thai TV series produced by the renowned television production, GMMTV, invites the audience to ponder the complex meaning of home throughout the series. Following the journey of the characters, you will find yourself thinking, “What is home? Is it a house? Is it people? Or myself? My belief?”
At the beginning of the series, a group of teenagers are presented as attending an interview together with their parents in order to be accepted to a prestigious school called Home School. Home School presents itself as this excellent and mysterious school that is exclusive to students with great talents and backgrounds (a part of the audience might be reminded of GMMTV’s other series, 'The Gifted'). Horror strikes the students who initially thought they only need to study hard and perform well in exams as the school acts abnormally—located in the middle of a forest with forbidden areas, strict rules, strict punishment, and a weird curriculum.
The question of ‘home’ starts to become more apparent when the students demand to go back to their home as they feel mistreated and abused by the curriculum of the school. After going back and forth between exams and rebellions, they were finally allowed to go back to their home, only to face the harsh reality of their ‘home’. The rest of the plot is intertwined between solving the mystery of the school itself and finding a home within themselves.
A lot of the characters in the series can be found struggling with the concept of home. Maki, the protagonist, is an orphan with a brother as her only remaining biological family, experienced different groups of people: an adopted father who leaves the siblings traumatised; an orphanage that provides her with support when her brother left her; and Home School where she faces challenges with her newly founded friends and mentors.
The character that I find resonates deeply with the theme 'redefining home’ is Pheng, who is used to lying to gain attention from her busy mother. In Home School, she uses the same trick and lies to everyone that she is sick in order to be voted as the one who deserves to visit her house (all of the students were clamouring to go back to their house). She also lies to herself, thinking her mother actually cares about her, when in truth, she’s left at the boarding school because her mother has more concerns about her career than her daughter. Being woken up from the lies she weaved, she finds herself unloved and not deserving of care, but eventually heals through her friends’ compassion and forgiveness. As time goes by, she even learns to protect her friends despite her delicateness. It’s heartwarming to see her find her worth and sense of belonging among the people she initially took advantage of.
Each of the students also faces various issues, like being abused due to autism, twin feuds caused by parents, negligence, being abandoned for different morals, being mistreated for being born as a daughter, being framed by relatives as a murderer, and many more. As we go through the series, we will find a lot of morally grey characters, the experiences that shaped them as they are, and their growth as individuals and ‘family’.
Another element that I love about the series is the quotes that succinctly describe the plot and lessons of each episode. These quotes at the end of each episode help the audience to reflect on and memorise the events and themes of the story and the growth that the characters go through. As someone who watches something and forgets about it right after, the quotes added after the last scene of each episode help me to keep track of the story as a whole. Most of the quotes are also closely related to the theme of 'redefining home', touching on aspects such as finding home in friendship (episodes 1, 6, 7, 9, and 18), discovering oneself (episodes 2, 4, 5, 8, 11, 12, and 14), and promoting security by controlling hatred and violence (episodes 9, 10, 13, 15, 16, and 17).
All in all, while the series brands itself as a thriller/mystery, I find the theme of ‘redefining home’ compelling and worth exploring; you'd be unable to ignore this theme considering how recurring it is throughout the series. For those who enjoy uncovering deeper lessons beneath the labels of genres, I recommend watching this series. It’s a beautiful mix of thrillers and self-growth.
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