Mister Interntaional 2023: A New Era, as staged by Pradit Pradinunt's group, was a bright, splashy affair as expected, though I have to note that the scale of the stage is disappointingly small in relation to previous events held at Ayutthaya. The opening number showcased the 36 candidates parading in Thai-designed casual wear and streetwear that was later described by the hosts as being made of recycled materials. The candidates brought bright energy to the proceedings, though I wish the fashions were more refined than the hodgepodge we witnessed in the show. After this segment they announced a first batch of special awards and sponsors' prizes.
Normally after that sequence there would either be another fashion parade or they already call out a Top 20. But this time, probably because of public demand, they decided to have all 36 candidates parade in striped swimwear for the swimsuit competition. Most of the audience seems delighted by this, and after a second round of special awards, this is when they finally announced the Top 20.
I got 17 of the Top 20 correct. I thought VIETNAM (Pham Minh Quyen)'s track record and typical strong ties with Thailand would help sustain this country's streak, but it turned out he didn't make a convincing-enough impression to make the cut, especially since he ended up not winning any special award, too. So he's my 1st runner-up for the Lucas Malvacini Award.
The winner of the Lucas Malvacini Award is NORTH CYPRUS (Suleyman Mullahasan). Every pageant fan and pundit thought this handsome blond has secured a Top 20 slot but it turned out he fell short and only had a random lucky prize as a consolation for his journey.
It's interesting that JAPAN (Koki Sakata) and TAIWAN (Chen Chien Yu) missed the cut but garnered two special awards each. Both were given the "Most Attractive" special awards, and also garnered a sponsor's prize from cosmetics firm HYA called "Shining Bright", with TAIWAN having the upper hand being considered the primary winner of this prize. Could these two actually are the ones bubbling under the Top 20 over VIETNAM and NORTH CYPRUS? It's shocking for me in the case of TAIWAN as he was totally outside of my radar, while JAPAN was one I actually expected to make the cut but a bit glad that other worthy guys made it instead of him.
One guy who was unlikely to make the cut but was fortunate to win a special award was NEPAL (Prajwol Tamrakar) who won Mister Congeniality.
I did include him in my "Bubbling Under" list so I'm not that shocked that THE BAHAMAS (Vjaughn Ingraham) made the Top 20. He is worthy of belonging in this group. The other two I missed actually went farther...
Though they didn't garner any special awards, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC (Ovarlyn Torrers) and PUERTO RICO (Joshua Maldonado) were always in the Top 20 radar and it's no surprise to see them making the cut.
Though I'm not into his boyish looks, it's no surprise that SWITZERLAND (Elson Bytyqi) won over some fans and insiders as he got two special awards: Mister Charming and is one of the five rated Most Attractive Men.
CUBA (Daruma Almenares) and GUINEA-BISSAU (Gabriel Monteiro) were given special awards as Smart Guys. It probably meant they made the strongest impression in interview, though I have to note they are also both total packages who held their own in the looks department.
I was expecting CZECH REPUBLIC (Alexandros Panayi) to make much more of an impact than he actually did, but as strong as he was, others were receiving more buzz as the days wore on so I knew he would be my first miss out of the Top 10. It is conceivable he might have been outranked by CUBA, GUINEA-BISSAU and SWITZERLAND. In terms of special prizes, his consolation is the random lucky prize he won alongside his fellow islander*1 NORTH CYPRUS and CANADA (Rennel Ricketts)
*1 Because Alexandros' father is Greek Cypriot.
KOREA (Ho Sun Kang) also won the Smart Guy special award and I thought he delivered enough charisma to make the Top 10, but it looked like he fell a bit short and ended up bubbling under the hallowed group instead.
The pageant made a citation for the awkwardly named title, "Most Charisma Men" (to be grammatically correct it should have been "Most Charismatic Men") and with the exception of one, they were my predicted Final Five. The one exception was MEXICO (Brian Eduardo Ceballos), who pipped out SPAIN for that honor. I'm not surprised by the award as I thought he was Top 10-worthy, but he's also a shock shut-out for the Top 10.
The biggest shut-out of the Top 10 is LEBANON (Seif Al'walid Harb). Besides garnering Most Popular in Ayutthaya and Most Charisma Men awards, he also won Best in Swimsuit. And considering that he probably shone in the swimsuit rounds in the preliminary competition and was no slouch in the other categories, why was he shut out of the Top 10? Was his interview so weak that it drag down his preliminary scores? Was he penalized by Pradinunt for cozying up with COO Pawee Ventura? Many fans are still outraged by this exclusion and hope his fortunes improve as he's expected to see action in the next Mister World pageant, reported to be held here in the Philippines early next year after an almost five-year lull.
Though all 36 candidates paraded in swimsuits, I have a feeling the judges already knew who the Top 20 was and judged accordingly, and then the Top 20 paraded in formal wear of their own choosing, but considering how quickly they then whittled the list down to a Top 10, that formal wear round probably was not included in the tabulation and instead served as a score for the subsequent rounds of competition. Though this doesn't explain LEBANON's exclusion from the Top 10 (especially considering he should've topped the swimsuit round), from the Top 10 round forwards the judging rounds were properly synchronized. With the above shock boots, this resulted in some surprising inclusions. I got 6 of the Top 10 correct. After a chit-chat after the Top 10 were selected, the Top 10 then changed into uniform tuxedoes and walked the catwalk. After a few deliberations, the Final Five was announced.
Admittedly I underrated SINGAPORE (Joshua Hee) as I couldn't figure out finding room for him in the Top 20 over the likes of JAPAN, NORTH CYPRUS, and VIETNAM. But it turns out not only did he outshine those aforementioned guys, he generated enough goodwill to make the Top 10 and overtaking the likes of KOREA, LEBANON and MEXICO. He garnered a Most Attractive Man special award and actually did very well in the chit-chat portion of the Top 10, where he compared Thai food to Singaporean food and loved the Thai food.
I'm pleasantly surprised by PHILIPPINES (Jefferson Bunney) making the Top 10. I thought making the Top 20 and being listed among the Most Attractive Men would be achievement enough but I'm glad the judges took a strong enough liking to him to pip past powerhouse contenders like LEBANON and MEXICO to make this hallowed list. I'm glad the eventual winner didn't hog up all the spotlight that there wasn't room for this guy to shine.
Now, I did expect COLOMBIA (Daniel Garcia) to finish in the Top 10 and indeed this is where he ended up. He proved to be a strong communicator during the chit-chat that I thought there might be a chance he makes it further, but at least six others were also strong communicators also so it was indeed highly competitive to choose from this group on who would advance to the Final Five. He at least got a special prize from the major sponsor, Chat Cosmetics, as the Chat Influencer awardee.
Though I expected SPAIN (Borxa Ramo) to be amongst the "Most Charisma Men" and he didn't make it, at least he got the honor of winning Mister Photogenic. I also thought he did well in his chit-chat and found him very elegant in tuxedo so I expected him to make the Final Five, but the judges seemed to have other ideas...
Being listed as among the "Most Charisma Men" was expected for PERU (Joel Farach), and he still delivers on charisma all throughout the evening, but admittedly I thought he was overshadowed a bit in the chit-chat round and tuxedo round so maybe that was the reason why he was pipped out of the Final Five.
Admittedly I only got two of the Final Five correct as some of my big favorites like LEBANON, PERU and SPAIN fell by the wayside to make room for others. Are they worthy of shooting past those big favorites?
FRANCE - Lucas Schlachter. Though he is undeniably handsome, his kind of handsomeness is not the sort I gravitate towards and I thought his lack of facility in English and his relatively reticent personality as a result of his lack of English skills would prevent him from making the cut. But the insiders and judges took a strong liking to him, and I understand better his appeal after seeing him play piano, as he is undeniably very talented. He did win a sponsor's prize from HYA called "Shining Bright" alongside JAPAN and TAIWAN (the main winner of the award). Still, because he could barely speak during the Top 10 chit-chat as no translator came up to join in, I thought he should be penalized and not advance further but it seemed it made him win sympathy with the judges and that might have been the factor why he managed to advance further to the Final Five. Now, the shocker is for the Final Five Q&A, he was asked a poorly-phrased question "What do you tell people about beauty pageants being beauty privelege promotion?" Somehow, the translator made sense of the question and this guy actually delivered a well-thought-out, sincere and eloquent answer about how pageants these days may still factor in physical aspects but they now look deeper into that, into the values a contestant holds and the qualities to uphold those values. Based on that answer alone, he could've snuck into the Final Three, but well, to be honest I'm glad he didn't go further as for me based on overall impression and performance the guy who eventually made it was worthier.
INDIA - Shashwar Dwivedi. Though I thought his predecessor was better in all aspects than him, I wasn't that shocked that he made it this far. I did rate him as a shoo-in and thought he would be pipped out of the Top 10 because of the strong likes of KOREA, LEBANON, and MEXICO. But the insiders and judges still regard him as a strong interview hence he was one of the "Smart Guy" winners, and that aura of intelligence (despite his youthful 20 years of age) helped him overshadow other worthy contenders and advance into the Final Five. For the Final Five Q&A he was asked if he thinks an aging population is a problem--this is an issue in East Asian countries like China, Japan, and Korea as they are seeing population declines. Understandably he could only answer in terms of his own country's perspective so he said it's not a problem as with their culture they take care of their elders. Well, of course it's not a problem in India as their birth rates are still above the 2.1 replacement threshold and this contributed to India finally overtaking China as the most populous country in the world. I will not severely penalize him for his answer but it's admittedly the weakest answer among the Final Five. Still, based on overall performance I would still rank him higher than FRANCE overall.
After the Final Five finished their Q&As, they were whittled down to a Final Three where they were asked a question referencing the Miss Universe pageant, about their recent removal of maximum age limit. From there, after a final look the winners were decided.
2ND RUNNER-UP: BRAZIL - Edward Taiye Ogunniya. He's earned a special award as one of the five "Smart Guys", alongside CUBA, GUINEA-BISSAU, INDIA, and KOREA, but I dare argue that this dusky guy has more things going for him than his intelligence and communication skills. He's loaded with heady sex appeal with his buffed physique and has oodles of charisma with his striking dusky complexion. With LEBANON, PERU and SPAIN fallen on the wayside, this paved way for this guy to shine, and he made a smashing impression with the initial chit-chat and was able to navigate a very tricky question asked of him, "Sex worker or sex creator--should it be internationally legal or not, and why?" He gave a very diplomatic answer about people deserving to have the freedom to express themselves but he tempered it with the fact that they must respect the cultures they are in. Considering how tricky and touchy that question was, this diplomatic approach, though wishy-wishy at the surface, is the best approach to deal with this question. For the final question about removal of age limits, he of course answered in the affirmative and gave a solid answer connecting his broad experiences interacting with other cultures is connected with how experience can be an asset, but obviously the Top Two favorites are just too formidable.
1ST RUNNER-UP: VENEZUELA - William Badell. He is out to improve on his 2nd runner-up showing at Mister Supranational 2021 and in a certain way, he did accomplish his mission as he got one rank higher. Sure, he didn't win it all, but what he achieved was worth celebrating. He was undeniably focused all throughout the competition and left no stone unturned. He delivered buffness, sex appeal and charisma all throughout (and yes, he earned the "Most Charisma Man" award). But what made him one of the biggest front-runners in this competition was his communication skills, and in all three rounds he never did disappoint. For the Final Five, he was asked with all the strides towards equality, what type of equality has yet to be achieved. Admittedly he gave an obvious answer about the wage gap between men and women, but it's a correct answer and he explained it well. For the final question he did also answer in the affirmative about removing the age limit, stressing that if that person has all the characteristics to represent his country in this competition, his age should not be a hindrance in bringing pride to his country.
MISTER INTERNATIONAL 2023: THAILAND - Xolophong Mareeduwennya Kim Thitisan Goodburn. With his modern British RP accent, he easily chamred the powers that be that as host candidate he is also one of the big favorites. Sure, lookswise I prefer the likes of LEBANON and VENEZUELA over this guy, but well, we know his looks is bankable especially with his resemblance to Cobra Kai and Blue Beetle star Xolo Maridueña. As such he was awarded "Most Charisma Man" plus winning Best National Costume and the Fan Vote award, which was an automatic ticket to the Top 20. But of course he shone the best during the Q&A rounds as he's savvy in how to approach things. For the Fianl Five Q&A he was asked about conscription to the armed forces, if it should be voluntary or compulsory. He spun it as part of one's civic duty to fight for one's country so he doesn't mind compulsory conscription--the type of answer which no doubt pleases the powerful Thai army. For his approach to the final question about age limit removal, he talked about the primary qualities being sought for a winner, like being charismatic, empathetic and the will to bring about social change, and that age is nothing but a number if one fits all those qualities. It is undeniably well-composed, so indeed this is how he clinched the win.
There are some pageant fans and pundits who dismissed the hometown win as a "cooking show" but for me I do see merits in letting this host candidate win. Yes, he's not as appealing to my taste compared to, say, LEBANON or VENEZUELA, but I felt he earned his win here. I have to commend that in terms of the quality of the answers delivered, I'm amazed how this batch mostly delivered strong and thoughtful answers, unlike batches in previous editions where the quality of the snswers were uneven at best. And I know this pageant's blatant aping of the Miss Universe pageant format has been a long-held ambition even when the founder Alan Sim was still alive, so in that respect it is hewing true to the original founder's vision. Could this be the quality that would distinguish this over Mister Global? And now, I'd like to see how the other camp would counter this thus far successful staging.
JUST ME!
JOSEPH
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