BLISS RATING: ★★★★
“Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.” – Quote from LORD OF THE RINGS
This is a remarkable series that had such a great message to only lose it in the end. It is a mixture of ‘Harry Potter’ and “Lord of the Rings’ in the realm of ‘Hunger Games’. It is a fantasy of wishes being granted by a Unicorn but always with serious consequences and conditions. It has the flavor of Harry Potter in the sense that it takes place in an academy of students complete with magic books to convey inner thoughts and everyone seeking the magic from the Unicorn. It also has weird but loveable instructors who teach some basic people skills in novel and interesting ways. What made this story so interesting is that the fantasy and story seemed natural and common. It made us feel as if this is what happens every day.
The contest at the end of the school is a virtual smorgasbord of individual scenarios for each of the contestants. That portion is beautifully done, and the story kept me captivated until the end, when unfortunately, it all fell apart. I could suspend beliefs throughout this story because the characters kept me engaged and I could get into the fantasy with them but then at the last moment they turned what could have been a BL fantasy masterpiece into a trite, sanitized ‘love’ story because they were afraid to take the one step further in their characters’ developments.
The story revolves around a female individual named Love (New Chanyapuk). She inadvertently helps a wounded Unicorn, and it grants her a wish. Her wish is to be with her love who is Vier (Ice Paris). Vier is a two-time champion winner of the Great Men Contest at the Academy, and she is in love (enamored) with him. While her wish is being granted, she is thrust into the lake by the power of the wish grant and by chance Vier rescues her. What Love does not realize initially is that she is now a male and is confused as to why she has turned into a male to be with him.
Puzzlingly for sure. As part of the condition of her wish, she must dip in the lake before midnight every day she is a male to turn back to her original self as a female. (By re-dipping back into the lake, she can return to being a male). Inexplicably, she becomes a male and the question is why?? Is Vier secretly attracted to males? Why this arrangement? It is never clear. This unknown factor became an intriguing factor. The story is very intricate and is best told through its characters.
A comment on the male version of Love (James Teeradon). This is an unenviable role as he must be female in a male body without being overtly effeminate and NOT gay. The story made it very clear that his part was NOT gay (my emphasis). Unfortunately, this fell apart at the end and why I ended up disliking this series, even though I LOVED 95% of this series. James played the part with a total commitment, and I thoroughly enjoyed his acting. He showed great emotional ranges and his dance scene to prove that he was dressed as a girl when he first met Vier was only part of a school dance routine was pure joy and hysterical.
He in some sense was a sad figure who had life-changing roadblocks put up in front of him, but he never succumbed to them. The only thing I found absolutely hideous was his hair style. It was just awful, and it simply accented his dorkiness unnecessarily. There is no reason to go overboard in trying to make them look younger. This simply overdid it and I found it incredibly distracting.
Since Love is nonetheless a female, he is still attracted to Vier but Vier seems, at least initially, to be disinterested. But as Vier’s best friend, Tangmo (JJ Krissanapoom), becomes interested in Love. Vier seems also to become drawn to Love as well. But it never intensifies, and Love senses that Vier continues to not be interested in him. At this point, Love still appears to be unable to discriminate her ‘love’ for Vier as a female in a male’s body and indeed a different look in Vier’s eyes when he sees Love (as a man).
Here is where the story begins to bog down. It seems obvious that Vier has secret feelings for Love and is jealous of the relationship that Love and Tangmo have which causes Vier to display some petty jealous behaviors that really are beneath him. Vier’s liking of Love is also noted by his former girlfriend Rose (Frung Narikun) who comes back into the picture. In a bizarre and twisted subplot, she has also been granted a wish by the Unicorn (sometime in the past). She lost the relationship with Vier and wants him back at any cost. She, like Love, has turned into a male to befriend Vier and to remain close to him. She becomes Sean (Captain Chonlathorn).
This is an interesting role, and I liked his portrayal of this role. It could have been a very sinister role, but it never crossed too much into darkness. He is somewhat laconic and never displays any overt attraction to Vier as a man. He simply tries to get Vier to like his sister (who he is) by talking her up. You can see the painful expressions on his face as he begins to realize that Vier is simply not interested in her except as a friend and they will never have an intimate relationship together. It is a profoundly sad conclusion with Vier never seeming to understand that Sean was Rose. In the end, Rose realized that Vier is never going to be with her and he likes Love, perhaps without Vier being conscious of it himself. She makes the painful decision to move on with her life and never see Vier again either as Sean or Rose.
A very sad and painful outcome of trying to be something that you are not and realizing that no matter how much you might wish, dream, or want, you simply cannot make someone love you, ever with magic. There is no magic here. Very sad and I felt real emotion for this character as to do otherwise simply invited more pain and more inevitable rejection. She chose to leave.
There are other complicated interactions in this series that are just too many to respond to and, should be seen to be appreciated. Some of these interactions are beautiful, warm, and sensitive especially with Love and his/her mother and brother Good (Porsche Sivakorn). From the beginning, I was able to embark with them into the fantasy portion of this series as it was so cute and flowed, I thought, very nicely. These actors are some of the most handsome guys in any BL series and are quite beautiful. Their smiles are infectious and can charm even the most cynical. Nuclear (Third Lapat), is stunningly handsome and his reality check to Vier is exactly what Vier needed to hear. Somehow this coming from him made it much more powerful.
What drives this series off the rails is the relationship between Love and Tangmo. Previously mentioned, as Tangmo gets closer to Love, he is falling for him. When he finally confesses to Love (as the male) that he likes him, Love is put in a predicament. His female self is confused, and he says to Tangmo that he is a male and Tangmo replies that “he likes that he is a guy”. Love cries and screams, “I am not gay.” This sends Tangmo into a tailspin with not really understanding.
Let us jump to the end when, while Love wins the contest, he wishes for the Unicorn to save Tangmo from a life-threatening medical condition, rather than return him to being a female. This is an incredibly magnanimous decision. When Love sees, Tangmo in the hospital, he tells him who he is and what happened, but he (as male Love) does ‘like him’.
BUT when next year rolls around, he will be in the contest again in the hopes of winning so he can change into his ‘true’ form as a female. He asks Tangmo the obligatory question if he could like him as a boy or girl. And Tangmo mutters some non-sense about how he could not do otherwise since he (she) saved his life. Here is where I crashed and burned and wanted to cry. This great series now just crossed over into pablum nonsense and societal acceptability. They took the easy way and made everybody ‘feel’ good. Here again the story drifted in the nonsense that you ‘love’ the person not the gender. Frustrating! How do you deny the gender of the person you are falling in love with? That is the PART of them and that is sexual. I am not trying to psychoanalyze this, but Tangmo SAID he liked him because he is a guy! Tangno is GAY and he admitted that he was gay earlier. He is gay. You do not suddenly switch that off. The question becomes is Love confessing his liking Tangmo as a ‘male’ or ‘female’? Does Love ‘like’ Tangmo in the same way he ‘liked’ Vier?
None of that is explained and Tangmo seems disinterested in finding these answers out (as the story ends and the screenwriters choose not to deal with it). I am incensed as a gay man that you would treat how one man feels towards another so lightly. This ending might make the audience feel good about this ending, but it is all wrong. Tangmo is gay and to say he can switch from one to the other like switching a light on or off is insulting and simply not true. I am getting tired of stories who convey the idea that gayness is somehow magical and is triggered by one individual and can be turned off just as easily. It does not and cannot.
So, I am angry with this story. Love cannot continue to live the lie of being a woman trapped in a man’s body and to use Tangmo as a playmate. Is Love liking Tangmo as a ‘straight’ or ‘gay’? If straight, that may be fine if Love remans a male as Tangmo is gay. What happens if Love wins either next year or the year after (he has two more tries) and he becomes female again. How does Tangmo deal with that since he now has at least one perhaps two years with Love as a male (and I am assuming they will have sex, duh).
Further, what if Love does not win and remains as a male. Is he now gay or a frustrated straight woman? I KNOW I am overanalyzing this, but I detest when these stories try to make for happy endings when none should exist. Again, gay relationships are in essence ‘bad’ and there is hope he (she) will turn back to being ‘normal’. Why could you NOT have taken the step in one of two ways that would have equalized the whole idea of having a gay relationship as ‘normal’, rather than trying to sanitize it.
Tangmo should have looked at Love, as painful as it would have been, and SAID, “While I deeply appreciated your gesture to save me, and the fact that you like me makes me feel good, but I fell in love with the male Love. Let us wait until you decide what you really want to be or what is your own reality will be and we can then decide where to take this relationship. Otherwise, we can just be friends because I am in love with the male Love.” Or, Love could have accepted his new identify and said, “I am that I am and I like you now as male Love. I am not ashamed or afraid or wanting to change because I now have you in my life.” Stop pretending! Stop trying to pound a square peg into a round hole. Either of the two ending scenarios (or some other realistic approach) would have been painful for one or the other but it would have been realistic AND put gay relationships into the forefront without “having to hide behind the skirt of “loving the person not the gender” principal that in reality is utter nonsense and makes excuses for developing relationships really gay. As a gay person who has lived a long, and sometimes painful life, I want and need more reality in these series to show gayness as acceptable, real, and here in any and all societies, cultures and countries.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. the series? There were several actors who I thought stood out. JJ Krissanapoom as Tangmo did an outstanding job and (Third Lapat as Nuclear in his innocent look but strongly moral character were contenders. But I had to go with (James Teeradon as male Love. As I mentioned above, this role was not easy, but he made it look easy. Here is a male playing a female pretending to be a male (talk about shades of ‘Victor/Victoria’ — again look it up if you are unfamiliar with that movie). He exercised the part with such conviction that it was easy to believe he was a female in a male’s body. When he needed to be tender especially with the interactions with his mother, he was convincingly female without being overt about it. But in the contest, when he had to be all-in male, he did so with an almost Spartan-like commitment. James did so without once appearing to either overact or underact or even give away his ‘true nature’. That I thought deserved special recognition. Kudos!
Because the production and cinematography are first rate in this series which adds to its believability in the sense that it all seemed so ‘ordinary’ along with excellent acting, this series had the basis of being a real classic. While the overall story is good, for me it was destroyed by trying to make it fit into societal norms rather than personal norms. I hated that approach, and I am sorry if this offends those that liked this series. But the ending simply disappointed. Frankly, it is unacceptable from the perspectives of every gay person who has had to struggle, fight, and claw their way to acceptability and equality. How about finally giving us this in these stories for a change. Stop saying it is only the person and not the gender when, ALL gay relationships are about the gender too! That is part of the person as well.
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