The first thing I noticed about Wine Vetaka was her eyebrows. They expressed so much sadness and earnestness in the trailer for Enemies with Benefits in scenes that were ostensibly supposed to establish her as this intimidating and strict character. The way she lifted them while expressing pain, or confusion or just clarifying a procedure, I anticipated a softer character than was being advertised.
When I watched the first episode, I found more and more clarity about her character and the strange dichotomy of her austerity and gentleness. The way she and Lal met at the printer, her eyebrows said more than her words. When Lal, the new Sales manager, mistook her for an intern, calling her nong (younger one), Wine was surprised, eyebrow line soft but confused. She didn’t confront the odd address in that moment. Even though she knew they were colleagues, fellow managers of different departments. Wine doesn’t embarrass people casually. She protects their face (sense of ease in an interaction) as well as hers. A concept that in Thai is called kreng jai. It describes a form of consideration for another person’s feelings and comfort, particularly the desire not to impose on or embarrass them.
It carries over into their next interaction when Lal goes to talk to her, thinking she’s meeting the scary Accounting Manager everyone talks about, someone she’s never met. So, when she runs into the same woman she confused for an intern, she is perplexed when the intern doesn’t just direct her to Khun Wine when she asks. Wine is still protecting Lal’s face here. Not trying to push her into an embarrassing situation and she’s also unaware of why Lal seems not to understand what’s happening. It isn’t until Tangkwa calls Wine by name that Lal recognizes what happened. And Wine takes this moment to introduce herself, eyebrows raised as she adjusts her glasses, betraying a nervousness Lal doesn’t realize is there.
Later, inexplicably, Lal calls her Phi (older one) while Wine tends with burn cream to Lal’s coffee burn. The title makes her startled, a bit flustered. Her eyebrows up again. Gentle. She looks at what she is doing, continues applying the cream. Then it happens again. She suppresses a microsmile “Khun Lal kha?” she teases softly “We’re the same age. 32.” she continues “are you an only child?” Lal is stunned. Wine continues her dry teasing “you seem desperate for siblings. Calling me nong. Then phi.” her eyebrows raise playfully. She doesn’t correct her directly or confront it as an issue. More of an observation. And a gentle way to tease a girl who keeps embarrassing herself around Wine. She takes Lal’s hand which she had been holding to apply the cream and tells her to keep the cream and not overwork herself so that something like the coffee spill doesn’t happen again. Then she turns around and walks away, leaving Lal feeling as though she was scolded. But this is the manut-jai (human center) of Wine: she is contained, gentle, prepared and often misunderstood as feeling angrier or more uncomfortable than she is.
In watching the first episode, aside from the gentle conveyance of her eyebrows, I was quite surprised by one image in particular as well as one phrase. First, the image. This scene did more for my internal map of Wine than anything else in all ten episodes. Wine Vetaka, the fearsome austere business woman, sitting in her office chair, sipping on a juice box with a small smile. The contradictory aspect of the characterization by which she was known and what the idea of a terrifying and strict figure sipping a juice box conveys clarified so much of her character for me.
She’s the type of woman who cares about competence, procedure and reliability and who terrifies people with that very understandable profile as a worker. Who, despite the image of the austere businesswoman she is supposed to embody, sips a sweet little juice box in her big office chair with pursed lips, a smile and a sigh of contentment. And when interrupted, addresses the issue and goes right back to her juice box. Contained. Drawn to sweetness, prepared for emergencies and happy to just allow little indulgences.
Then there is the line she utters that causes me to retroactively reassess everything she does in episode one and every episode in the future. She’s drunk in Lal’s condo. Wine teases Lal that Lal is apparently so geng (skilled) at drinking that she has a set process for addressing the consequences. Lal bites playfully back “Well, I’m at least more geng than you.”
Wine turns around, takes in Lal’s face with mock indignance. Then her face softens. She sets down the drink Lal prepared to help Wine stave off hangover and sidles over to Lal. “Who could be as geng as you?” She steps towards Lal as Lal backs up. “You’re sociable.” She gets her closer to the room, “Suay gaw suay” (beautiful is beautiful) she whispers. And can’t help but let out a chuckle at her face. She’s still pretty even confused! Lal slips up and drops the Khun address for Wine, then corrects herself. Wine sees that she is affecting Lal. Then we learn how Wine sees Lal. Lal expresses concern about Wine being drunk.
And Wine pouts. “You want me to leave, huh?” she steps closer to Lal, face inches from hers. “But I still don’t want to leave.” Lal, panicked, trying not to expose how much she wants this says “Didn’t you say you weren’t that drunk?” Then Wine says the phrase that changes everything. “I’m not that drunk, really.” Lal stammers “then why are you acting like–” and Wine interrupts her “Even when I’m not drunk, I still want to do this.” This retroactively affects my read of everything Wine has done up to this point. This is not a new desire for her, she’s been wanting this.
It also clarifies how she behaves going forward. Though after they sleep together in this scene, she expresses wanting it to be seen as a mistake, she does not like when Lal suggests, with sadness in her voice and eyes, that they consider it a one night stand. Instead, Wine comes up with an idea. Her eyes widen almost comically, eyebrows shoot high above the rims of her glasses. “Or, do you want to be friends with benefits?!” They’re not friends yet really. They barely know each other. Their departments are natural enemies. But, in that moment, so much of Wine distills to this, she doesn’t want to lose the closeness she has just experienced with Lal, who she has been thinking about more than we had realized.
And as the story expands, we see all the ways in which Wine expresses how singularly she wants Lal as a person, not just as an FWB. Wine needs a container to put the feelings in. One they both can survive. And she continues to adjust and define the container throughout the show until eventually, what she has with Lal feels like a home she has never felt allowed to know.
#CharacterAnalysis #CharacterInteriority #EmbodiedAnalysis, #EmbodiedStorycraft, #EnemieswithBenefits #KrengJai #LetThemEatCrow #Manut-jai #MediaAnalysis #ThaiGL #WineVetaka #WineWaythaka
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