BLISS RATING: ★+
“I’d rather be unlucky, if unlucky means having you.” – Quote From Unlucky Bae
This series simply baffled me. I just did not get its point; other than it was merely another fluff BL and a pedestrian one at that. I felt bad for the young actors who had to perform in this pointless dramatization. It was an awful story with a completely banal and rather doltish premise. To make matters worse, the secondary couple altogether and wholly brought this series down to a level of abjection. In my living memory, I do not think I have ever seen a worst execution of a secondary couple than what was displayed here.
This story begins on a sour note and hardly improves. Rin (Mac Nattapat) is looking forward to celebrating his birthday with his boyfriend, Krit (Aun Napat). Unbeknownst to Rin, Krit has been planning on breaking up with Rin and does so – rather callously and maliciously during his party.
Unquestionably, that is a low blow by anyone’s standard of conduct. Heartbroken, Rin decides to get even. Since he comes from a long line of family members of sorcerers, he puts a curse on Krit. He is able to do so because he thinks he has a possession of Krit’s that he believes he owns, which is a pen. Unfortunately, Rin is wrong. Krit borrowed the pen from an individual named Khobfa (Tham Tupthong). Thinking he put a curse of ‘bad luck’ on Krit, it is now firmly attached onto Khobfa. Or, in Rin’s mind, that is what he believes. Of course, what reinforces Khobfa’s own sense of being cursed anyway is a bunch of unfortunate circumstances that have previously happened in which he has convinced himself that he is ‘bad luck’ (mainly due to psychological abuse by another). Now Rin tries to “right’ his “wrong”.
Honestly, the interactions between Khobfa and Rin are at times cute and are filled with pre-pubescent silliness; yet are charming now and then. These two did the best they could with a mediocre script. Their supposed relationship drones on and on and on and on. It is as if they are in a mindset of pre-teen boys playing in a sandbox rather than young adults facing young adult issues. This is strictly because of the way this series was written and directed.
The story of the secondary couple gets way too bombastic to really be enjoyable. And to be frank, they are not a likeable couple. Their relationship is essentially based upon a falsehood. Krit starts out being a jerk and pretty much remains that way throughout. He apparently concocted a scheme to make Rin jealous by establishing a charade. He along with his other friend, Mochi (Stamp Panachkorn) enacted a scheme where they pretended to be a power couple. Sadly, the three of them once had been childhood friends. Secretly, Mochi liked Krit until he and Rin became a couple. And then he was ruled and dominated by jealousy. Mochi remained that way throughout the story and was essentially an unlikeable character ubiquitously. Frankly, the actions and behaviors that Krit and Mochi displayed were disreputable and deeply self-centered and selfish. Of course, there are acts of contrition at the end and they become friends again. However, the reality is I think that was the wrong message. Their actions from the beginning were dishonest and unscrupulous. The fact is they should not have been so easily forgiven and brought back into the fold. They literally suffered no consequences for their despicable behaviors. I am sorry, but that is a wrong message. Friends simply do not do that to friends.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? While it is a particularly small role, Rin’s mother, played by Dear Tuangtip Na Nakorn, was a rather inventive one. They had a unique relationship between the two of them that I wish had been more ardently explored, however. His mother was a globe-trotter, always seeking the next adventure and never wanting to get very specific about answering the questions that Rin had. Almost like she was hiding a secret she did not want to reveal. I liked the way their relationship was presented – talking over the phone but feeling like they are next to each other. It gave them a sense of intimacy yet with no real connection. It felt close and yet sad at the same time. Rin, sometimes desperate for guidance, usually got little from his mother. All the same, he seems to accept her notion of having to stand up for himself and resolve his own issues and to think for himself. But in the end, when he needed her the most, she did return, unannounced. As if she knew he needed her. The interactions between them were conveyed more in nuance terms rather than with words, since they honestly did not know each other. I thought it was an odd way of reflecting a mother-son relationship. Yet she literally had lied to Rin all these years about the family and rather than making it a meaningful moment, the production chose to simply allow Rin to hug his mother in forgiveness. A lost opportunity to have a meaningful mother-son moment and making it more of an adult connection.
Perhaps if the story was merely about Rin and Khobfa with Rin having some occult abilities, this narrative might have been original and creative and way more entertaining. There certainly are cute moments in the story and honestly, I have nothing bad to say about the acting by the main protagonists. At the same time, I do not believe that these actors were challenged much in these roles. The secondary couple could and should have been absent from the story. They added nothing to the story except cringeworthy moments and constant irritation. So much time was wasted in revengeful activities and thoughtless comebacks.
To say there was cherubic screen chemistry between Mac and Tham would be a fair statement. Would I say there was a romantic chemistry between them – no. They acted it but I never felt it. It never jumped out to me. We got nothing close to any real sense of intimacy between them and every time there might be that moment, there were the usual interruptions, or it was not the right time, or the phone rings, or the doorbell goes off, or someone walks in, etc. Nothing felt honest or genuine; all of it felt staged and contrived.
The production qualities of this series went off in tangents that I could not relate to and were your standard trite formulaic outcomes. Can we have something besides ‘band contests’, please? I am so sick of seeing band or musical contests, most of which are just simply awkward and forgettable.
We always know who is going to win anyway. The shenanigans of Krit’s immediate family were beyond the pale; only at the end for the father to make a complete 180-degree turn-around and accept his son’s choice for a career. Without doubt, this made zero, and I do mean, zero sense. To have a “bait and switch” pulled on the audience into thinking that perhaps Rin did have some magical powers, only for the mother at the end to admit, all of it is a fake is yet another example of poor direction and a sloppy screenplay. Khobfa’s uncle ought to be shunned and shamed by his entire family for being cruel and heartless. His behavior is both emotionally and psychologically abusive towards Khobfa. Mochi’s complete moral collapse at the end in recording a private conversation that Rin had with his friends and using that as a way to get even was just such a low point in this series. In my book, that almost became an unforgiveable sin and personally, I would want nothing more to do with a person who would so easily violate someone’s privacy in such a cavalier way.
This series had no real depth to it. I did not find it all that entertaining. It also, as usual, treats, young gay relationships as a pre-pubescent romp in the playground. There was no real serious thought to making it look, act, or feel like a serious relationship. As much as I disliked the relationship between Krit and Mochi, they at the very least treated their liaison in a more adult fashion. They had sexual exploration and conflict and went through a process of trying to decide the kind of romance they were going to have. Meanwhile, Rin and Khobfa played in the sandbox. Treating what they have like they are swinging on swings in the playground, refusing to get serious with each other. Just enjoying the feelings with no critical thought about what happens after they get off the swings and have to go home to reality.
This is a childish, immature look at gay relationship with only limited screen connections between the protagonists that made the whole story minimally cute. The secondary couple, with their fixation on trying to topple Rin and Khobfa and trying to make everything all about them, got obnoxious. The story is all over the map with no clear focus on what it wanted to encapsulate.
Regrettably, this is going on my Bathos list. It is not for a lack of trying on the part of Tham Tupthong as Khobfa and Mac Nattapat as Rin. There is just no thought by the studio to see these characters as representing real people dealing with real life situations, even if it is a comedy. They make gay love look and act like a comic strip from the Sunday newspaper. Please stop.
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