BLISS RATING: ★★★★★
“Life isn’t about trying to hold onto the same happiness and success forever. Learning to accept and understand the things that change, to live with those changes, with grace, and to make the best of what we have.” – Quote from The Edge Of Horizon
If I am being honest, I had almost given up on Thai BLs as of late. They, for the most part, have become cliché, formulaic, and standard. I started this one because I simply love period pieces and from the beginning, it captured me. Totally. Completely. And on the strength of the grand acting by all the performers, I became intrinsically immersed. There are simply not enough acolytates to go around for how mesmerizing they all were. Perhaps it was the content of the story or the nature of the theme, but literally everyone seemed to have put their heart-and-soul into this series. We did not just see the characters; we felt them – even those who we may not have agreed with. We understood them. The lines of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ became blurred into different degrees. Even from those who were considered the ‘haves’ from those who were the ‘have-nots’ – not necessarily always so clearly, however. It is the nature of human existence to want more while privilege feels as if it is theirs by nature.
This is a love story beautifully woven into a political advancement, with great earnestness and with a sense of inseparability and destiny. We can see that the love between Prince Thinnakon (Ongsa Theethuch) and his servant Phob (Inn Jakkrasin) is not your typical relationship. Phob has an intimacy with Thinnakon that goes beyond merely serving him. Over the years, the Royal family has been good to Phob and his mother who are commoners and servants of the household, treating them with respect and even providing Phob with an education. Because of the closeness between the two, a bond beyond friendship developed and the two slowly recognized that their feelings for one another were stronger than mere friendship. It began to spill over into a physical intimacy.
Phob’s mother started to suspect and then discovered Phob and the Prince was having an affair. She takes Phob and relocates far away to keep them apart, as she knows her ‘place’ and wants Phob to know his. She is of the caste system where the Royals can do no wrong, and their class is merely to serve them. “The sky is high and the ground is low,” she constantly reminds Phob. They are on the ground while the royals are in the sky, high above them. She thinks and hopes that by separating them, somehow their connection will be severed. It does not. In the 10 years that Phob was gone, he studied, worked, and challenged his way to becoming a Captain in the new Army that is now positioning itself as an entity to change the current form of government which is controlled by the Royals.
With Phob’s return, the Royals which includes Prince Vasin (Chai Chartayadom), the father to Thinakon, and Thinakon’s grifting brother Prince Chat (Pond Ponlawit) are less than thrilled with his return and still see him as nothing more than a servant beneath their feet. However, there is one in the Royal family who has a different perspective and sees the world as changing and represents a point of view for reform. She is Prince Vasin’s mother, Patthamapriya.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? Literally, there are no bad performances in this series. It is a matter of who outshines, and in this case for me, it is Eed Duangjai Hathakarn, as Patthamapriya, the matriarch of the family. She goes beyond the role of being a grandmother and a Royal. She is the epitome of kindness and acceptance and, while we are not sure of her upbringing, becomes empathetic/understanding to the political upheaval that is happening in Siam. She also readily accepts the physical relationship between Thinnakon and Phob with no judgments or restrictions. Not only that, she also gently tries to persuade others to see that their love is genuine, real, and honest. She gives a whole new meaning to the term nobility. Also, when all is lost and the Royal family literally loses everything, she pitches in to earn the money necessary for the family to survive. Living up to the proverbial phrase that if life gives you lemons, she most assuredly made lemonade. Eed Duangjai played the regal princess with a quiet dignity yet humbly accepted the reality that life changes and one must learn to adapt with it, if one is going to survive. She provided both a moral compass to the story as well as a nurturing component that Thinnakon gravitated towards for comfort and peace. I cannot imagine this story without her. I have seen my fair share of grandmothers in BL series, but Eed Duangjai’s portrayal of this remarkable character is one of the finest in terms of genuineness and sincerity. Her sacrifice to willingly give up all her treasured possessions to Thinnakon so that he could be with Phob was not just magnanimous, it was a total selfless act for love. A quiet, wonderful woman played outstandingly by a preeminent actress. Kudos.
This story is enthralling from beginning to end. While Thinnakon seems at times naïve, he was never gullible. His innocence, sweet as it is, was his strength, not his weakness. He chose to see good when perhaps he should not have. He saw light when there was nothing but darkness. His apparent trusting nature was his strength. He believed that goodness would prevail. He too, like his grandmother, was able to adapt and begin to see his lifestyle as privileged. And he believed his love for Phob would be endearing even if it seemed like only a dream. Thinnakon was incapable of loving anyone else in life except Phob. Conversely, Phob was meant to and focused on loving no one else except Thinnakon. From the beginning, it was destined; it had to be.
The treasure of this series is that it is so much more than just a love story. The love story comes along for the ride. The story is about the political upheaval of the time and, more importantly, the inability of the Royal heirarchy (ruling class) to understand that their time in power was over. The story powerfully dictated the inevitable outcome of their folly to try and regain what they had lost. All of it is intertwined with change. However, the kind of change and its extension is still expanding and not yet fully realized. What we witnessed is merely its inception.
I loved everything about this unfolding lakorn and the love story within it. I wept more than once. I gained a better understanding of the process of how insufferably slow the process of change can be. And we have had heroes, like Patthamapriya, along the way that have gone unrecognized. And we have had love, deep passionate love between two men, as represented here, all along as well. We need to stop, reflect, and pay homage to all those who came before us who had the courage to love who they wanted. Sure, I know this story is fictionalized. But with any tale, we know there had to be truth. Thinnakon, Phob, and Patthamapriya once were; perhaps now forgotten. Yet, we should not forget their contributions to making their society just a little bit better.
This is a series that will indeed stick with me for a long time because it is representational. There is a particularly poignant father-son moment between Prince Vasin and Prince Chat that is not just touching but encapsulates the morality of finally seeing the folly of privilege over the needs of family kinship. Neglected but now realized. Realized too late. A sad moment that is one of the most powerful junctures in the entire series. It was quite memorable and bittersweet. And also, one of the most delicately and unsurpassably acted scenes.
In addition to being beautifully choreographed, it has a sharp, clean, crisp screenplay with surprising cinematography. Its story has just the right weight combination of love, political intrigue, and the Royal sense of folly connected to entitlement. It makes you grasp the moral dilemma of how much should we be grateful to others before we can indeed stop bending the knee to them. This story blends/blurs/answers that concept through love. Phob never stops calling Thinnakon ‘His Highness’. And Thinnakon never really refused the honorific. This story admirably and beautifully displays the complexities of a relationship between a commoner and a royal. Even though those terms at the end essentially mean nothing.
The ending, to be honest, was a bit Pollyanna, but for once, I did not mind. There was just enough angst for Thinnakon to be convincingly grieving while the story itself settled. In those days, it is not too far-fetched to believe that a mistaken identity would have occurred during that period. Since this was an obvious lakorn, the ending had to be convincing and, frankly, I thought it was just that. So, I overlooked its obvious theatrics and granted its one moment of fun.
Without hesitation, this is one of the best series for this year and certainly one the best BLs to come out of Thailand in quite some time. Everything about this series is exceptional and has to be considered for the top spot. A Magnum Opus.
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