Multilicus
Poland
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Not a BL nor a period drama… What even is this?
Let’s start with the title of this show – or rather with its translation to English: “ปาฏิหาริย์รักร้อยปี” means ‘a miracle of centennial love’ (according to Cambridge University online translator), which – considering the plot and script – makes more sense than ‘century of love’.
The misleading English title is just a small problem; the unspecified genre is my main concern. I wanted to watch a Thai BL – what I got instead was a mix of action, supernatural, straight romance, comedy, family drama and several other things. There is a BL aspect, but up until the end of ep. 5 (which means for at least the first half of the series) it is either entirely absent or heavily sidelined by other plot threads. Once the boy love part gets going in ep. 6, drama and obstacles emerge – but since there are only 5 episodes left, everything needs to be rushed, including the ending. Bad pacing is not helped by far too many flashbacks.
The script feels like a first draft, with plenty of inconsistencies and weird/unnecessary twists, while basic characterization and world-building are missing. I will give three examples of that.
1/ Who is the reincarnated Wat? First we are told, that Tao calculated both time and place where San and Wat will reunite – Tao even points the direction from which the reincarnated Wat will appear; San and his relatives follow Tao’s calculations and meet Vee. At this point everyone except San is convinced that Vee is Wat. This is confirmed by more calculations, this time based on Vee’s date of birth. Apparently all these calculations were meaningless, as Vee can either be Wat or someone else, but sharing Wat’s fate – whatever that means. Despite of another proof – Vee’s presence stabilizing San’s condition – Tao changes his mind about Vee once Watfah appears. Why is he so easily swayed? We also learn of another method of verifying who Wat reincarnated as: using the stone. Why wasn’t this method used before, when San was doubting Vee? And why is this method so useless? What’s the point of all this back and forth and why is so much of the series about that and not about San and Vee getting together?
2/ San’s condition and how everyone reacts to it. The present-day part of the series begins only several short weeks before the 100 year deadline – and San still has not found Wat. This means he has only several weeks to live – and yet his family does not seem overly concerned. However, when the stone is gone, consumed to save Vee, San’s family is suddenly sad and devastated – realizing their ancestor will actually die. How exactly do these two situations differ? Were they all convinced that reincarnated Wat will show up at the last moment, feed the stone to San and save him? Or have they accepted that San will die and that why they were so calm at the start of the series?
3/ San’s actions and attitude. Initially he wants to find reincarnated Wat because he loves her and wants to be with her – but also because her feeding him the stone is the only way he’ll live. Once he falls for Vee he no longer cares who is Wat reincarnated (he discovers he no longer loves her), he even parts with the stone – which basically means he will die (even if Vee is Wat, with no stone they can’t reverse the curse). Is this resignation, some weird frame of mind or just poor writing?
As for acting, I immensely enjoyed Offroad and his performance: Vee is playful, witty, cute and goodhearted; he truly cares for those he loves. Daou’s performance was less enjoyable, probably because of how convincing he was as old, inflexible San – the same performance, however, unveiled a different, much softer face of San: that of a caring, loving man. Daou and Offroad have great chemistry and the series would benefit from having more of them together on screen; together they created a handful of good scenes I’d like to rewatch – which I cannot say about the rest of this series.
I do not mind the special effects (criticized in some reviews as cheap), as – for me – the show was about something else; the music, on the other hand, is dreadful: too loud, too dramatic and poorly chosen – in general off-putting.
The misleading English title is just a small problem; the unspecified genre is my main concern. I wanted to watch a Thai BL – what I got instead was a mix of action, supernatural, straight romance, comedy, family drama and several other things. There is a BL aspect, but up until the end of ep. 5 (which means for at least the first half of the series) it is either entirely absent or heavily sidelined by other plot threads. Once the boy love part gets going in ep. 6, drama and obstacles emerge – but since there are only 5 episodes left, everything needs to be rushed, including the ending. Bad pacing is not helped by far too many flashbacks.
The script feels like a first draft, with plenty of inconsistencies and weird/unnecessary twists, while basic characterization and world-building are missing. I will give three examples of that.
1/ Who is the reincarnated Wat? First we are told, that Tao calculated both time and place where San and Wat will reunite – Tao even points the direction from which the reincarnated Wat will appear; San and his relatives follow Tao’s calculations and meet Vee. At this point everyone except San is convinced that Vee is Wat. This is confirmed by more calculations, this time based on Vee’s date of birth. Apparently all these calculations were meaningless, as Vee can either be Wat or someone else, but sharing Wat’s fate – whatever that means. Despite of another proof – Vee’s presence stabilizing San’s condition – Tao changes his mind about Vee once Watfah appears. Why is he so easily swayed? We also learn of another method of verifying who Wat reincarnated as: using the stone. Why wasn’t this method used before, when San was doubting Vee? And why is this method so useless? What’s the point of all this back and forth and why is so much of the series about that and not about San and Vee getting together?
2/ San’s condition and how everyone reacts to it. The present-day part of the series begins only several short weeks before the 100 year deadline – and San still has not found Wat. This means he has only several weeks to live – and yet his family does not seem overly concerned. However, when the stone is gone, consumed to save Vee, San’s family is suddenly sad and devastated – realizing their ancestor will actually die. How exactly do these two situations differ? Were they all convinced that reincarnated Wat will show up at the last moment, feed the stone to San and save him? Or have they accepted that San will die and that why they were so calm at the start of the series?
3/ San’s actions and attitude. Initially he wants to find reincarnated Wat because he loves her and wants to be with her – but also because her feeding him the stone is the only way he’ll live. Once he falls for Vee he no longer cares who is Wat reincarnated (he discovers he no longer loves her), he even parts with the stone – which basically means he will die (even if Vee is Wat, with no stone they can’t reverse the curse). Is this resignation, some weird frame of mind or just poor writing?
As for acting, I immensely enjoyed Offroad and his performance: Vee is playful, witty, cute and goodhearted; he truly cares for those he loves. Daou’s performance was less enjoyable, probably because of how convincing he was as old, inflexible San – the same performance, however, unveiled a different, much softer face of San: that of a caring, loving man. Daou and Offroad have great chemistry and the series would benefit from having more of them together on screen; together they created a handful of good scenes I’d like to rewatch – which I cannot say about the rest of this series.
I do not mind the special effects (criticized in some reviews as cheap), as – for me – the show was about something else; the music, on the other hand, is dreadful: too loud, too dramatic and poorly chosen – in general off-putting.
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