Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
If you believed in reincarnation, how long do you think you could wait for the love of your life to be reborn after an untimely demise? San, the protagonist of the Thai romantic-fantasy series “Century of Love” (original title: ปาฏิหาริย์รักร้อยปี/Patihan Rak Roi Pi), waits almost 100 years to see his deceased lover Wat be reincarnated. A magical stone allows him to retain his youth for a century, but if he doesn’t find Wat within 100 years, he will die a tragic death and suffer for eternity.
Directed by Mi Thanawat Panyarin and Wo Worawit Khuttiyayothin (Laws of Attraction), “Century of Love” stars Daou Pittaya Saechua as San, who is willing to go through hell and back for love. Episode one begins in 1920s Thailand, where San falls in love with Wat (Cookie Yada Suwanpattana), a beautiful young woman from a wealthy noble family. But the lovers are torn apart by Wat’s father, and she dies while trying to run away with San, taking a bullet meant for him. So there’s plenty drama, heartbreak and tears in the first few minutes to keep viewers invested. The twist in the tale comes when, after waiting for a century, San finds out that his beloved Wat has been reincarnated as a young man called Vee (Offroad Kantapon Jindataweephol). San is shocked, outraged, and wonders if the Gods are playing a joke on him, but his instant connection with Vee is no joke.
The plot for “Century of Love” is somewhat reminiscent of the Korean mini-series “First Love Again,” which also features a man who remains ageless for over 300 years to have a “happy ending” with his reincarnated lover. However, over three centuries, the protagonist’s lover keeps dying before they can establish a stable relationship, until she is finally reborn as a man.
I had seen the trailer for “Century of Love” and am completely on board with the whole reincarnation fantasy plot. However, episode one has a hilarious CGI scene where San is injured by a bullet (much before Wat’s death) and a priest heals him with the special stone. The bullets magically travel out of his arm, and the special effects were so unconvincing that I almost choked laughing. It would’ve been much better if the creators had just injured him with a stabbing and healed his wound—a situation that happens to him multiple times throughout the series anyway, and the special effects for those scenes are a tad bit better.
It’s pretty easy to overlook the not-so-great CGI since this isn’t a big-budget series, plot-wise, but the creators should’ve given Cookie Yada Suwanpattana’s Wat more screen time in the first episode to sell us San’s love story. She is only there for 10 minutes before she tragically dies. Wat and San’s brief moments make it feel like a rushed version of Romeo and Juliet, where the boy meets the girl for 2 minutes, falls in love, and they decide to die for each other in the next four days. Okay, only one of them dies here, but you get the gist.
After the tragic death and the magical-fantasy bits, “Century of Love” gets quite comical and light-hearted in the second half of episode one. Offroad Kantapon Jindataweephol is blindingly bright and cute as Vee, a young, cheerful convenience store worker, who has a dramatic meet-cute with San in 2024. The grocery store job is bound to remind fans of “Love in Translation,” a light romantic series where Daou Pittaya Saechua and Offroad Kantapon Jindataweephol played lovers and had great chemistry. Their onscreen chemistry continues to be impressive in “Century of Love,” so that’s a definite plus point for the show.
Episode one ends with a surprisingly spicy twist, although San’s character isn’t convinced that Vee could be his reincarnated lover. Both episodes focus on slowly building their romantic subplot and maintaining suspense over whether the two will end up together, since San has a hard time accepting Vee. Considering San is from the 1920s, his disbelief and discomfort over showing affection for a man is believable and is executed without any offensive lines. Although some of the other primary conflicts in the tale are obvious, one involves the magical stone that San possesses.
The first two episodes have a generous amount of fight scenes, and Daou Pittaya Saechua pulls them off with aplomb as San. His body movements and strikes in the close combat scenes are very clean and convincing. However, he has a short haircut that is very unflattering, and it’s also weird that San has had the same cut for 100 years. They could’ve made Daou wear a wig or given him some extensions in at least a few scenes; the short hair is most likely due to the actor’s stint in the military, which must’ve been close to his shoot days for “Century of Love.”
So far, the show seems entertaining enough, even though some of its tropes and conflicts are slightly childish. For instance, San has lived for 100 years, but he tends to behave like an entitled brat who thinks his reincarnated lover will simply fall into his lap (although, ironically, that’s what happens) and remember everything about her past life with him. Also, the makers seem to be banking too much on Offroad Kantapon Jindataweephol’s smile, which, of course, is like watching a rainbow appear on a gloomy day. However, they make him smile and laugh for no reason at all, which is borderline creepy and weird, except Offroad is very good-looking, so it doesn’t seem as creepy as it would’ve if it were a different character doing it.
Episode two has a rib-tickling twist regarding San’s curse, which I totally didn’t expect. So despite its predictable moments, the writers of “Century of Love” seem to have a trick or two up their sleeves. Unlike the first episode, the second one also ends with a major cliffhanger, which introduces a new antagonist for the show, who may or may not prove to be a formidable adversary for San. I will be following this series; it’s a lot more interesting than a few other current shows, and the promising chemistry between the leads is a big selling point for me. If you are a fan of the reincarnation trope and enjoyed watching “The Sign,” then you might enjoy “Century of Love” too.
The series is available on Netflix Thailand and YouTube.
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