BLISS RATING: ★★★
“The knot must be untied by the very hand that bound it.” – Quote From Love Upon A Time
This is another in a long-line of time travel BLs that is honestly, as a plotline, getting a bit overused and frankly dishonest. That does not take away from the theatrics of this production, however. It is a beautifully produced series with spectacular sets, scenery, and settings. Yet, it could not quite figure out how to simplify the complexities of its time jumps. What also diminished the impact of this story for me was the obvious false presumption of the time frame that the main protagonist jumped into. How much more entertaining it would have been HAD the time travel been based on actual facts. Homosexuality was not thought of as taboo or morally wrong or frowned upon 400 years ago in Thailand. So, the whole and entire premise of this story is fallacious.
Is the story entertaining? Of course, it is. The entertainment portion of this series is not in question (well, at least most of it – some of it was down-right silly). I love period pieces and the cinematography, costumes, scenes, and times of this period are my romantic fantasyland. I also love time travel if it logically comes to a sensible and believable conclusion that is formed by some sort of rational inference. This unfortunately just did not pragmatically make sense. It twisted itself into a pretzel trying to explain reincarnation through time travel.
Nakun (JJ Radchapon), a college student, when he goes home to visit his mother, is transported back to the Ayutthaya Kingdom (which according to historical records accepted gender-diversity and same-sex relations). There he meets Prince Phop (Net Siraphop) who mistakes him for his friend and obvious close companion Klao. It seems that Nakun and Klao are one and the same person. It does appear that Nakun transported back as Klao to complete some unfinished business. That unfinished business was to solve who was responsible for the wrongful set-up and eventual murder of Klao’s father as a drug dealer and Klao’s murderer.
The story goes through quite a bit of drama and trauma in the creation of the relationship between Klao and Phop. To be sure, their re-establishment of a relationship is interesting and is presented from the standpoint that Klao had ‘disappeared’ and had come back as essentially a new person because his personality is so different and his memory is gone. In reality, however, Klao had been murdered and Nakun is Klao and only bits and pieces of Klao comes back to him in dreams as distant memories. The overriding question is if Klao’s murder and his father’s set-up as an opium dealer set up are by the same person. Nakun as the new Klao must figure out who are the perpetrators. He senses, however, that if he does, he is more than likely going to transport ahead to his own time where he belongs. As time passes, he develops stronger and stronger feelings for Phop; he does not want to leave him.
Phop has a physician friend by the name of Jom (Latte Thanutchon) with his devoted friend/assistant named Kaew (Kim Pongsaton). When Nakun initially arrives back, he mistakes them for his college friends Pun and Thi. Jom, an astonishingly handsome and well-built young man, has a difficult time expressing his attraction that he obviously has for Kaew. Kaew, on the other hand, is more open about his feelings. Unfortunately, he is overtly effeminate concerning his mannerisms, which causes more gossip from the community. This then drives Jom further away from making any kind of declaration of love towards him because of social stigmas. With the help of ‘new’ Klao, who is obviously aware of future perspectives and actions, is able to get the two of them together.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? For me, I was not really impressed with the protagonists in this series. The story is a rather mundane, time travel story that has been endlessly told in various formats. So, who creates a more comprehensive picture of what is dynamically happening are the minor characters that honestly do ‘steal’ this series as their impact is vital and important. Everything from the cooks to the servants to the antagonists. One in particular just intrigued me. He was the one who was instrumental in both Klao’s death and the framing of Klao’s father for opium distribution. Cherd, played by Nont Sadanont, is such a central figure. Sure, he is awful but there is a rationale behind how he got to be who he was. The story in a way presented him as a deeply flawed character but worthy of our pity and in a sense his actions were understandable. Not excusable; just understandable. He is one of the few antagonists that they gave a personality to and a background history too, which allowed us to understand his actions. In a sense, I felt sorry for his character. I honestly felt the most sincerity and depth from Nont Sadanont’s for his characterization of Cherd. We could continuously see in his face and actions that he was fighting his own demons. Had a few different breaks come his way, Cherd might not have turned out as nefarious. He of all the characters became a deeply complex figure and one I felt empathy for. We could see as he spiraled deeper into a personal hell as his involvement deepened. He could not get out no matter how much he might not want to go down that road. Kudos to Nont for making his character of Cherd feel worthy of understanding and complexities that gave him a connection to humanity.
The story is obviously quite compound and gets deep into the weeds with details. The narrative itself is mediocre and predictable. Some of the fringier characters were simply down-right silly and became caricatures and added nothing to the story or plot. Not even humor. I found their antics not in the least bit funny. For me, the love story between Klao and Phop is certainly consequential. It put a modern Westernized spin on their relationship when it did not need to be, which is unfortunate. If the story had been based upon a more accurate reflection of the actual times, I think the narration would have been way more creative and certainly would have gone in a totally different direction. Nonetheless, their love story has fidelity with a number of their scenes together being heartwarming and touching. There is no doubt that JJ Radchapon and Net Siraphop have very good screen chemistry. But it takes an insufferably long time to develop a ‘relationship’ and is deliberately and unnecessarily blocked by Phop’s family when in fact, it would have been more than likely accepted. Why not tell a truthful story about the past? How wonderful that would have been.
I did not like the relationship between Jom and Kaew at all. Ironically, I liked how each presented their characterization. Both actors went deep into their individual roles and made each of the characters thoughtful, personal, and full of inner emotions. What I disliked is the way the director made them present their overall relationship. One was ‘masculine’ while the other was ‘feminine’. The production went overboard to present this dichotomy, which I deeply resented. As if gay relationships HAD to be paradoxical. One has to play the man while the other has to play the woman. I despise the way either directly or indirectly that message is conveyed or shown. As if gay relationships are hyper-dualized. They are not. Quit portraying gay relationships into what is stereotypically thought of as acceptable roles, especially for the past which is factually untrue. How about just allowing two gay men meet and let them decide how their relationship should play out.
The entertainment value of this series is certainly off the charts. The costumes, sets, and milieu were just so spot-on and added to the romance of the entire setting. But the jump in time for Phop just logically did not make any sense and was too neatly projected into a Pollyanna resolution. When you have time-travel and need to spend so much time trying to explain how someone from the past has been resurrected into the present, you always have problems with story continuity and logic. It is best to just let it happen. After all, this is a fantasy and a love story. If the love story is intense, who is going to care how they got together. We just want them to be together. And I wanted them to honestly be together as the story did make it sufficiently interesting enough for me to want them to have a happy ending. Here again in another ironic twist, I thought the handling of Jom and Kaew as Pun and Thi was handled much better when Nakun returns. It was presented logically and tethered to an honest way a struggling relationship just might develop, if two people were willing and wanting to work on resolving an issue between them.
I certainly liked this series. I did not love it as much as I thought I would. Too many plot holes and at least for me, the romance was not as impactful or as intense as I think it could have been. For reasons that I am still trying to understand, I found the persona of Cherd to be the most formidable individual in this series, and he will be the character I shall remember the most about the story.
It would be not just entertaining but informative if a time-jump story actually went back and presented a factual picture of what life was like 400 years ago and not based upon modern-day, Westernized sensitivities. Or a time-jump story in reverse – a gay couple from the past jumps to the present and them trying to deal with our prejudices, bigotries, and discriminations.
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