This review may contain spoilers
The haunting of a gentle passionate love
Jom has been haunted his whole life before he even started seeing visions of himself, haunted by the souls and karma that he becomes entangled with from his future past. Unlike the others who move through different lifetimes, Jom seems uniquely caught in the torrent of time within the same life, slipping through, though his gut feeling of familiarity may indicate perhaps a cycle of the same lifetime that's occurred more than once. Perhaps the time slip is triggered by some sort of magic that is tied to his life being endangered and the ancient warrior lifetime version of Yai appears to save him. Answers that won't be answered in this series with the end suggesting another story to fully explore the connection between Jom and warrior Yai and perhaps how even all the 1920s souls around Jom was connected to him from this earlier life time. It's fitting that his first real physical connection is the breath of life that the warrior Yai gives him when pulling him out of the water from 2023 into 1927/1928 into the past where he will meet the 20 year old Khun Yai. While Jom recognizes him as the man in the photos he's seen and the ghostly visions, Yai instantly feels in his heart being pulled towards Jom at first sight.
It's a shame that there's no possibility of Jom having more than one boyfriend because both Yai and James are respectful gentleman green flags from the 1920s that people in the 2020's should emulate. I love how both of them confessed to liking Jom while telling him that there's no pressure or expectations if he doesn't feel the same way. I do like that Jom got to have an intense and real love with Ohm before meeting Yai as well, though it ended poorly. It's interesting that Ohm probably felt indebted in a way to Jom from the past life and the appreciation carried through into a romantic love into the modern life, but Ohm's love and previously interrupted fate with Khaimuk, the reincarnated FongKhaew superseded it. It's still on Ohm for cheating on Jom for maybe the entire two years when he should have broken things off sooner. Both Yai and James even frequent the same secret lgbt friendly club that Yai takes Jom to. James is able to navigate the various social group including with the abusive Robert, which is how he's able to help Jom's group gain the information needed to put Robert and the devious Uncle Dech away.
Though Yai had grown up rich, he has zero haughty airs and is grounded and kind, especially towards his boyfriend. It's helpful that he has his own quote unquote little house that's still a mansion compared to the residences of mere mortals that's far off away from the others where he can live out his romantic life. The depiction of Jom and Yai's intimate moments is truly refreshingly sophisticated in how they express desire and sensuality. A lot if not most queer romance stories conflate maturity with being explicit, which turns into soulless , repetitive actions rather than conveying the feelings of the characters and the progression of their relationship. The olive oil skin care scenes of Jom applying it on Yai's back in tandem with the scene of Jom applying it on himself while thinking back to what happened with Jom technically has nothing explicit happening, but the yearning for each other is powerfully apparent.
Yai is always gently affectionate and respectful with Jom in both actions and words in their everyday life. Always taking care to check that Jom actually wants to do something. The actor for Yai portrayed the depths of love for Jom really well. There is one particular scene where Jom is delivering a heartbreaking monologue of acceptance that though they love each other, Yai has to go through the accepted heteronormative actions of getting engaged to a woman of his parent's choosing and Yai gingerly touches Jom's lips in a way that says how could such sad words be spoken through the lips of the man who is his heart. The actor for Jom is also good at maintaining that line between sweet and cutesy but not childish and also having intelligence.
I wish the show just verbalized if they weren't going to show what in the world Ming saw in their boat that made them flip over, it's so randomly lazy moment in an otherwise story that was made with care, when the character could just exclaim, "a spider!" or anything to facilitate Jom an Khun Yai physically connecting in the water when Yai dives to retrieve him. Ming is the MVP the reason Jom was able to survive long enough to meet Yai, saving this random man from the water and giving him a place to stay and a job intro until Jom is promoted to majerdomo and eventually boyfriend to Yai. Ming is a true friend to gays, going out of his way to help Muey even after finding out she doesn't feel the same way about her and when she was outed. He understands the pain of love is universal after seeing Muey and Jom, two people he cares about a lot suffer.
There's so much trouble that Jom could have avoided if he would just stop hanging out on the pier at night, where so much drama happens. Jom keeps seeing what he shouldn't see and he keeps doing the same thing. It's still understandable that he feels he should go there in case he can gain some understanding in how he time travelled through the water and how he can return. The actors for James and Robert can speak English, but I feel so bad for them for having to deliver what sounds so much like poorly machine translated Thai to English lines. It's a shame that no one advocated on their behalf to edit the lines to make them sound more sensible for speaking. I'm impressed that there didn't seem to be any apparent product placement in the show. You may think a period drama would preclude that, but some may try.
Euengphueng goes from being Jom's sister in law to become his beloved younger sister Jeed. Euengpheung and Fongkaew experienced marital rape and Engpheung also the additional trauma of finding out she was pregnant as a result. I'm glad the show went through with Euengpheung being able to make the decision to abort, even telling her girlfriend Muey she is telling her of her decision because she loves her and is not asking for permission. It's so good to see a woman character get agency in getting an abortion and get to stick with the decision. It's so sadly rare in media depictions. Euengpheung leaves the house with Muey, Fongkaew leaves with her mother without Khamsaen, and Yai goes off to law school in France in that lifetime, but they all return to Jom's life in their next one. A man in modern clothes looking exactly like Yai with his memories appear to to reunite with and hug Jom, but there's no peace for poor Jom, because seemingly no sooner after this moment, Jom in the same clothes awakens to an even more far off past of Thailand to the time of Warrior Yai. It seems like there is a hope and intention to continue the story to explore that part of the romance between their souls and perhaps how Jom got wrapped up in the time travel in the first place, but it's been two years since the show aired as of this review writing. I hope the same leads and production team will get to finish out the story sooner rather than later.
It's a shame that there's no possibility of Jom having more than one boyfriend because both Yai and James are respectful gentleman green flags from the 1920s that people in the 2020's should emulate. I love how both of them confessed to liking Jom while telling him that there's no pressure or expectations if he doesn't feel the same way. I do like that Jom got to have an intense and real love with Ohm before meeting Yai as well, though it ended poorly. It's interesting that Ohm probably felt indebted in a way to Jom from the past life and the appreciation carried through into a romantic love into the modern life, but Ohm's love and previously interrupted fate with Khaimuk, the reincarnated FongKhaew superseded it. It's still on Ohm for cheating on Jom for maybe the entire two years when he should have broken things off sooner. Both Yai and James even frequent the same secret lgbt friendly club that Yai takes Jom to. James is able to navigate the various social group including with the abusive Robert, which is how he's able to help Jom's group gain the information needed to put Robert and the devious Uncle Dech away.
Though Yai had grown up rich, he has zero haughty airs and is grounded and kind, especially towards his boyfriend. It's helpful that he has his own quote unquote little house that's still a mansion compared to the residences of mere mortals that's far off away from the others where he can live out his romantic life. The depiction of Jom and Yai's intimate moments is truly refreshingly sophisticated in how they express desire and sensuality. A lot if not most queer romance stories conflate maturity with being explicit, which turns into soulless , repetitive actions rather than conveying the feelings of the characters and the progression of their relationship. The olive oil skin care scenes of Jom applying it on Yai's back in tandem with the scene of Jom applying it on himself while thinking back to what happened with Jom technically has nothing explicit happening, but the yearning for each other is powerfully apparent.
Yai is always gently affectionate and respectful with Jom in both actions and words in their everyday life. Always taking care to check that Jom actually wants to do something. The actor for Yai portrayed the depths of love for Jom really well. There is one particular scene where Jom is delivering a heartbreaking monologue of acceptance that though they love each other, Yai has to go through the accepted heteronormative actions of getting engaged to a woman of his parent's choosing and Yai gingerly touches Jom's lips in a way that says how could such sad words be spoken through the lips of the man who is his heart. The actor for Jom is also good at maintaining that line between sweet and cutesy but not childish and also having intelligence.
I wish the show just verbalized if they weren't going to show what in the world Ming saw in their boat that made them flip over, it's so randomly lazy moment in an otherwise story that was made with care, when the character could just exclaim, "a spider!" or anything to facilitate Jom an Khun Yai physically connecting in the water when Yai dives to retrieve him. Ming is the MVP the reason Jom was able to survive long enough to meet Yai, saving this random man from the water and giving him a place to stay and a job intro until Jom is promoted to majerdomo and eventually boyfriend to Yai. Ming is a true friend to gays, going out of his way to help Muey even after finding out she doesn't feel the same way about her and when she was outed. He understands the pain of love is universal after seeing Muey and Jom, two people he cares about a lot suffer.
There's so much trouble that Jom could have avoided if he would just stop hanging out on the pier at night, where so much drama happens. Jom keeps seeing what he shouldn't see and he keeps doing the same thing. It's still understandable that he feels he should go there in case he can gain some understanding in how he time travelled through the water and how he can return. The actors for James and Robert can speak English, but I feel so bad for them for having to deliver what sounds so much like poorly machine translated Thai to English lines. It's a shame that no one advocated on their behalf to edit the lines to make them sound more sensible for speaking. I'm impressed that there didn't seem to be any apparent product placement in the show. You may think a period drama would preclude that, but some may try.
Euengphueng goes from being Jom's sister in law to become his beloved younger sister Jeed. Euengpheung and Fongkaew experienced marital rape and Engpheung also the additional trauma of finding out she was pregnant as a result. I'm glad the show went through with Euengpheung being able to make the decision to abort, even telling her girlfriend Muey she is telling her of her decision because she loves her and is not asking for permission. It's so good to see a woman character get agency in getting an abortion and get to stick with the decision. It's so sadly rare in media depictions. Euengpheung leaves the house with Muey, Fongkaew leaves with her mother without Khamsaen, and Yai goes off to law school in France in that lifetime, but they all return to Jom's life in their next one. A man in modern clothes looking exactly like Yai with his memories appear to to reunite with and hug Jom, but there's no peace for poor Jom, because seemingly no sooner after this moment, Jom in the same clothes awakens to an even more far off past of Thailand to the time of Warrior Yai. It seems like there is a hope and intention to continue the story to explore that part of the romance between their souls and perhaps how Jom got wrapped up in the time travel in the first place, but it's been two years since the show aired as of this review writing. I hope the same leads and production team will get to finish out the story sooner rather than later.
Was this review helpful to you?
