BLISS RATING: ★★★★★
“Sun has gone back into his heart and fallen into a deep sleep. It’s like he chose to let me have my life from now on.” – Quote From Love Your Teacher
To be honest, this is one of the best BLs to come out of Thailand in a very, very long time. Not only is it entertaining from the beginning, it maintains its entertainment value throughout. The storyline is creative and novel, and I honestly looked forward to every episode because each was fresh and original. The story’s theme was not just saturated in love but decidedly rich in devotion, reverence, and fidelity to one another. It has been a long time since I have been wholly impressed with a Thai BL; this gave me hope that they can indeed get back to making quality series again.
Pobmeck (Perth Tanapon) and Solar (Santa Pongsapak) are a couple, having met in college. Solar is an elementary school teacher while Pobmeck has recently been hired as one also, only so he can be near his boyfriend. Ironically, Pobmeck really does not like children and admits he is not good at dealing with children. Solar is a model teacher, well liked by his students and fellow teachers as well as the acting principal Sodcheun (Sammy Samathia).
Unfortunately, one day, Solar had an accident and ended up in the hospital. He loses consciousness. When he finally recovers, however, he thinks he is a 7-year-old-boy named Sun. Partly neurological, partly psychosomatic. The etymology of why Solar latched onto the name Sun is in essence the foundation of his split in his personality. To complicate this even more so, the schism in his personality occurs every other day. On those days he does not think he is Sun, he is Solar and acts and functions just like Solar. But retains no memories of what Sun did. And vice versa.
The unfolding of the story is gently presented and told from the perspective of Sun. With Sun being the younger version of Solar, the question became why. Why would Solar not want to fully return to being Solar? Why was he ‘stuck’ at that age? That is the real magic of this series. It tells this story fully and completely. Not just with a superficial understanding of what we think it is, but what it really is. We find that it is a complex journey of sadness. A journey of internal pain not just for Sun, but for his mother and his father. All three suffered. One died. One ran away. One lived on remaining always in the mind of a little child. This odyssey is presented more like a purification journey. What we think was, is perhaps not. Yet, it is emblematic of an example for us to follow when we get stuck in the past. Even Pobmeck had to confront his own detachment and learn how to find his place as a functioning adult in society.
It is an extraordinary soul-searching and sensitive journey for Pobmeck. His level of sacrifice he had to endure becomes front and center to an unrecognizable responsibility of duty. Dealing with the man he loves one day and a child the next. What it did teach him was to surrender to dedication and tenacity. In essence, he learned as much about himself as he did about what made Solar/Sun tick. In that process, he became a ‘teacher’.
Solar was hiding so much of himself under the façade of smiles and good-natureness. Underneath, he was just a scared little boy feeling the weight, a horrible weight, and guilt, that somehow, he was the one responsible for his mother’s death. That kind of encumbrance will someday shatter the person who is retaining that much pressure. And in this case, Sun came out as an alternate personality to Solar. They needed to be put together again.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? Every single one of the young child performers, especially the young boy who played Sun. It is just astonishing how young players seem to understand the nature of the characters they are representing. Young Sun with just his strong emotional face made me weep more than once. I do not think you need to give children much direction to be children. It comes naturally to them. Their innocence, whether natural or manufactured, just feels so right when you see them portray it. When they cry or laugh – it all looks so sincere. And feels genuine.
There is an astonishing strong performance by Perth. Having to play the thankless and unsung role of caregiver to a ‘child’ and feeling guilty for having to do so showed extensively real and genuine emotions. It is not easy to be a parent one day and a lover the next all with the same person. And having a sense at times there was no hope that Sun would ever become Solar permanently again. That took a lot of courage and strength on his part, in addition to being so caring and empathetic to solve with Solar what the roadblocks were that were stumbling from him becoming whole.
Santa as Solar always having to hide his troubled past and frankly bury it deep inside him, until Sun released it. He made him liberate himself; he had to deal with what was troubling him yet not destroy the essence of who Sun was. Until Solar was able to fully expose his panic attack and what caused him to hide behind Sun, he would always remain split. When Sun is confronted with the pain of reexperiencing the trauma of his mother’s own mental health issues as well as her heroic efforts to save Sun’s life, he begins his healing. He had to reconcile not only with his previous memories but with his father’s considerable pain.
The juxtaposition of the two personalities and the way the series meshed the same character into a blended figure was remarkable and took it out of the realm of a trite or cliché BL story. It was creative and original.
The slight drawback was at time juvenile responses of the acting principal Sodcheun (Sammy Samantha) and Teacher Jee (Kay Lertsittichai). Both played such surprisingly supportive roles in helping Pobmeck deal with his inner struggles as well as supporting Solar on the days who could teach and on the days he was Sun being a student. These two are rather accomplished character performers and deserved a more elevated presentation. They were important people in both the lives of Pobmeck and Solar/Sun and therefore deserves higher statuses. However, there were just too many times when they were both relegated to almost buffoonish behaviors or character portrayals for comic relief. That is an unnecessary ploy with the children giving way more joy and fun to the series than anyone realizes.
The story is told consistently well and at an even pace. It probably did not need to be as detailed and in this case, maybe could have been shortened a bit because it did drag a bit. Nevertheless, this is one of the few BLs that presented a serious mental health issue with respect and dignity that it deserves. It did not shy away from the issues or the underly causes. They faced them with frankness and openness and for that it richly deserves our praise. Its ending is also remarkably original and novel and here again showed a continuation with the same theme throughout. One of the best endings to a series I have seen in a very long time.
This is clearly a “must see” for everyone. Unquestionably, it should also be considered a nominee for Best BL of this year. The full devotion of its simple message to love, devotion, and dedication and the simple smart and entertaining way it delivered was astonishingly effective. It also shows the importance of recognizing the role of mental health in the development of healing our bodies. I might suggest in the future that the series not be afraid to ‘label’ the conditions that are being expressed, rather than merely painting a visual picture. It is “okay” for us to deal with real conditions that hinder us from moving forward in living and let those who love us and our communities support us in our efforts to improve. We must no longer feel ashamed or afraid or embarrassed. We are who we are.
This is a BL series that will stick with you for a long time.
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