Puff’s Review of Love By Chance
GMM One: GMM25
Original Soundtrack Original Music Video:
ไม่ว่าอะไร (Wish this love) – ดิว อรุณพงศ์【OFFICIAL MV】
Directed by: New Siwaj Sawatmaneekul
Novel Written by Mame
Puff’s Review: 8/10
After watching SOTUS on Netflix, Puff learned that there were many Thai BL dramas on Youtube for International Fans. Cake, Puff’s friend, was watching Dark Blue Kiss at the time, but its was not completed, and had to wait for weekly episodes. Puff caught up to Cake with Dark Blue Kiss, and was trying to figure out what to watch in between episodes.
One day he came upon Love By Chance. He scanned through and saw that all the episodes were on Youtube and the show was, indeed, completed. Well, over one weekend, Puff watched the entire series.
The story in Love By Chance is adapted from a Novel, and focuses on Ae and Pete. Ae, is a short, scrappy Freshy who plays soccer, portrayed by Perth Tanapon and Pete, a mild, quiet Freshy in the International school, played by Saint Suppapong. There is a great cast of supporting characters, including the Queen of BL Samantha Melanie Coates, Mean Phiravich, Plan Rathavit, Pineare Pannin, Earth Pirapat, and Cooheart (Earth 2) – among a whole host of others.
Sammy, Pineare, Earth, Mean and Plan- no strangers to BL series lend the chops to boost the newcomers Perth and Saint and immediately elevates this series into a contender for one of the most popular BL series to premiere. The story is based on a Novel that is quite long, and has a lot of ships. The Novel is also the basis for the hit show TharnType. The Director, P’Neww is no stranger to BL series, having worked on Make it Right, and War of High School, before his big hits Love By Chance and Until We Meet Again. P’Neww has a great relationship with his cast. He seems like he genuinely cares for them in a way that looks after their health and mental well being. He brings his cast from one show, and always offers them roles in other shows (We see this with the 10 or so cast members from Love By Chance that also make it into Until We Meet Again — Same with Ohm, Toey and Boom from Make It Right being in War of High Schools).
But with all of the groundwork to be a 10/10 – Love By Chance failed to capitalize on its foundation for the widespread success that you would see in other shows like TharnType and 2Gether the series. Sadly, most of that had to do with Offscreen issues and the drama that didn’t allow the show to achieve even greater success. (The fan drama will be discussed in a different post).
The Story in Love By Chance, chronologically, take place after the events in TharnType. While some of the characters are played by the same actors, most are played by different actors. But if you have watched TharnType, then Love By Chance will give you some context on some of the other relationships. Keep in mind, there are multiple books in the Love By Chance/TharnType universe, so there is a lot of information.
LBC follows the relationship of Ae and Pete mainly. Ae is a short, soccer player who comes from a middle income family. He’s a typical sporty guy who happens to run over Pete on his bike by accident. (There are a few accidents that happen – and this story is sometimes called “My Accidental Love Is You”).
Pete is timid, quiet, and shy. He’s also gay, and knows it. He isn’t figuring it out like Ae is. He comes from a wealthy family and was used for his money by an ex who continues to harass him. As the story unfolds, P’Neww does a really good job of showing Ae’s progression into accepting he is gay. The use of Pond, the overly straight, porn addicted roommate in contrast to Ae’s stoicism is really well done.
As we learn more characters, other pieces of information start to come together, and other side stories really start to take hold. The Second ship with Tin and Cantaloupe is probably one of my favorite side ships. Mean and Plan pull off one of the best enemies to lovers portrayals out in the Thai BL world.
The one problem with the show though, is that the universe of characters is so complex and developed through the books, that it is hard to focus on the main and side story. Other portions of the universe have to be brought in. So, while Cooheart and Title play Tar and Tum, their side story is not really essential to the Ae/Pete and Tin/Can story we are ultimately watching. Tum is seemingly thrown into the mix as he is singing at a cafe Type and Techno are in. Type and Tar have issues with each other, but we don’t really know why in Love By Chance. If it wasn’t for TharnType series, we wouldn’t really know any of those details. But, Tar, played by Cooheart, was my first with him as an actor, and after Love By Chance, I began watching Until We Meet Again, and immediately got hooked on that show. Cooheart does an amazing job as Tar, but I don’t think it is necessary, as his character isn’t developed, nor is his relationship with his brother, Tum.
Similarly, the Techno/Kengkla issues (well, the rape) was just kind of throwing off the rest of the shows vibes. We get that there was a sexual assault with Tar because it gets explained towards the end (but again, do we need that side story?), and we know Type was raped as a child in TharnType (we get much more details of Tar/Tum and Tharn/Type in that show) – so there’s no real need to bring in this fourth ship.
It’s hard to adapt an entire set of books into a series. Also, Love By Chance came out before TharnType, so it may be difficult to know what to cut out, especially on a series that is so well known. It’s like focusing on only one portion of the story in Game of Thrones for a mini series, and having an episode about the Starks. I guess you have to mention them (which they successfully did with Tharn). But I am not so sure that it had to be included.
So back to the main stories. Ae/Pete and Tin/Can. This entire storyline is extremely well done. I understand some people were annoyed with Pete’s character being so…. polite (Khrub), especially if you watch this after watching Why R U? But each character is very different. From all the ships/possible ships in the LBC universe, none of the mains have the same personality. Ae/Pete/Techno/Kengkla/Tar/Tum/Tharn/Type – All of them are very different from each other. This allows for the show creators to really develop their characters. And they have a book to use as a template. The way Tin/Can’s story ends in Season 1 is heartbreaking. This show really made you feel for the characters and just want to yell at Cantaloupe. Even though we all felt Tin was a jerk in the beginning, his character growth and changes are really well done by the Director, Script Writers, and of course Mean Phiravich as an actor.
I’m not sure the goal was to have a second season, as most thai BL’s do not have a second season. They are usually self contained with few exceptions. Add this to the issues of the studio, and the managers of the cast members, there wasn’t EXACTLY a sense that they would be able to continue the stories in Season 2. Thankfully we will get a season 2!
Overall, the story P’Neww tells with Ae/Pete and Tin/Can are worth giving this show a look. There is an entire book based on Techno/Kengkla, so hopefully Season 2 will fix the issues with Season 1, then we can look at it as a whole. And I am most looking forward to 2Wish as Tin and Cantaloupe again. Their story ended with so much pain. Also, Perth and Cantaloupe are so cute! Wow Plan has grown up from his Make It Right days!
