BLISS RATING: ★★★★★
“No one ever fell in love without being a little bit brave.” – Mario Tomasello
This BL is really about bravery. In the sense of admitting when you are in love and letting go when you are not. This story is one of the most remarkable BLs in redefining the concept of what love, is or at lease perceived, especially how we see it between men. It reconceptualizes its beauty, enhances its endurance, redefines intimacy, and solidifies the virtue of a relationship. And does this all through the magic of fantasy. This narration broke down all the traditional stereotypical Thai BL stories and told a saga so deeply personal and profoundly moving that you became a part of its journey.
It is the life’s journey for a rudderless, and aimless individual named Kewi (Krist Perawat). Kewi is a hapless soul, seemingly no matter how hard he tries, simply cannot get what he wants or feel successful at much of anything. One of his few friends in college is Pear (Aye Sarunchana Apisamaimongkol) who takes him under her wing but misinterprets her actions as ‘liking him’. In wanting to impress her, he buys her a musical crystal ball since she was his ‘secret buddy’. However, before he can deliver it to her, he is bumped, drops it, and it is broken. Just another example of the string of misfortunes in Kewi’s life. The person who comes in to save the day and swoop Pear off her feet is Pisaeng (Fluke Gawin).
Fast forward 12 years, Kewi is still lonely, bitter, forever feeling the loser-type individual. He gets an invitation to the wedding of Pear and Pisaeng and begins to become pensive and angry and wishes for a do-over. By chance, he finds the musical crystal ball, but no one will repair it.
Lamenting on a park bench, he meets a mysterious, enigmatic old man (Pu Montree) who asks Kewi what would he really do with it, if he fixed it for him. Kewi says pensively he wanted to go into the past and give it to someone so he could fix something. The old man makes good on his promise and does indeed repair the musical crystal ball.
Thus, Kewi’s odyssey to finding how to ‘fix’ his past begins. By fortuitously twisting the crystal ball, he is transported back 12 years where he thinks he can now fix his journey in the way he wants it. He learns that attempting to change the past is not like what he expected. No matter how hard he tried nor how many times he went back, there are just some things within his ambit he cannot change because they were not broken nor were they ever meant to be. In other words, there was nothing to ‘fix’. Nor were they in his destiny to be so. His destiny led in another direction with the crystal ball inducing him to see that path.
Kewi learns to love but not in the way he was expecting nor conceivably even seeing. Yet, a slow inexplicable force was moving him towards someone who he least expected to love. Perhaps because this person had an unconditional and undying love for him, despite all Kewi’s foibles and faults. It was Pisaeng. No matter how many twists and turns to the crystal ball that were made, it always led back to Pisaeng. Not out of inevitability but because of unshakeable and unqualified love. This is the most purist of love stories I have ever seen.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? Unquestionably, one of the finest acting performances I have seen in a BL is in this series. Krist Perawat as Kewi is remarkable, truly. He never overplays the characters and gives Kewi just enough angst, pain, and sorrow to bring him to the edge of falling down but somehow, he manages to stay on his feet. His bravado and caustic personality, while annoying and irritating, is a smokescreen and only hides his pain. Ever so slowly, those walls come down, and he is able to see, show and commit his love to Piseang. In a way that makes sense only to him and totally accepted by Piseang. Krist’s mannerisms and expressions remain so true to his character that at times he seemed so frighteningly real to me. I never saw Krist; only Kewi. That is so rare for me to not see the performer, but only the intensity of the performance and that is a true work of artistry. A very strong Honorable Mention must and should go to Aou Thanaboon as Max, Kewi’s only friend in college. In one of his journey’s back, Kewi was able to ‘fix’ his issue with Max and repair the damage he had caused between them. Thus, maintaining a life-long friendship between the two of them which is as strong as two brothers would be. His performance, while not frequent, commands the scene. He portrays an image of confidence, strength, insight, and perception. First and always a friend to Kewi, no matter how much Kewi might unravel. His is a magnificent performance that is more subtle, perhaps subdued, but so vital and effective to Kewi’s growth and to the story itself. I would love to see him get his own series. He is that good.
Generally, I do not like time-travel as it tends to get gimmicky and too much time is spent on theatrics. But this is an exception. The importance of the time travel becomes less important as the story progresses and as the love between Kewi and Piseang strengthens. The old man finally disappears when both Kewi and Piseang realize that the journey was about them. Always about them. And the only thing that they could change was to strengthen their love. As the old man said, “You can’t destine luck.” The things that were meant to be, will be. He was only given the opportunity to right his wrongs. The ones that he had control over. Nothing more, nothing less.
Despite Kewi’s gruffness, Piseang’s gentleness and softness gave Kewi the safe zone he needed to feel. Piseang never gave up on him and if there is such a thing as a ‘marriage’ made in heaven, this series shows that. It screamed of connection. Of understanding each other. More importantly, accepting each other with their number one premise – never keeping anything from each other. In other words, talking, communicating, and listening to one another. The basic tenants of a good solid, lasting relationship. The beauty of this series is we see Kewi and Piseang 12 years after they met, still together. Not necessarily riding off in the sunset on a white horse and Kewi still being argumentative about the kind of marriage ceremony they are NOT going to have, knowing full well Piseang has made up his mind to have one. I would have expected nothing less!
This is just a beautiful and magnificent love story with twists and turns, ups and downs, filled with some good and some bad people. There is sadness but it is tempered or mitigated with a whole lot of joy.
It finally showed the splendor of love – gay love – as softly as two people holding hands on the beach.
This is a soulful BL that perhaps slipped under the radar but will be on my Top 10 Best List of BLs for 2023 and perhaps my number one pick for Best Series. There should also be gobs of praise for the remarkable acting of Krist Perawat as Kewi. Someone much greater than I need to recognize this performance for what it truly is. It is as incomparable as you can get.
Take the time to absorb the true beauty of this series and its enraptured love story.
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