En of Love: Love Mechanics (2020)

After two episodes I can judge with a clear conscience because this drama is so different from the novel that I just want to bow to the person who is responsible for it. So, director, scriptwriter, or anyone who has decided that Vee and Mark's story must be shown differently: thank you!

We'll start by saying that if you haven't read the novel, you shouldn't do it. Really. I read the novel before I watched the drama and I deeply regret it. The relationship between Vee and Marek in the drama is very easy and pleasant to watch them. But the original story is not sweet at all. The relationship between Vee and Mark in the novel is toxic and revolves around rape, Vee's intentional cruelty to Mark, and Mark's diminished self-esteem because of Bar's rejection and Vee's actions and words. This novel broke my heart. I am so grateful that drama is so different. It kept the best moments from the novel, changed the character of Vee, it gave Mark some of the luck he deserved. Thanks to this it is even better than TOSSARA.

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If you've watched through all 4 episodes of Tossara then this series will not disappoint because in comparison to it's previous mini-series, this one is an upgrade in more than one ways!

STORY:
The starting does poses certain questionable morals. A sexual encounter to start of the series is okay but if it's with a drunk (and therefore non-sober/rational) party that mistakes you for someone else, then no! Not a good idea. But apart from that, the story was okay. Nothing special that stands out. Just your regular straight guy who has a girlfriend, get's shaken by his feelings after a one night stand with another guy and how they try to make the relationship work after that encounter. What's good though is that the emotions portrayed in this series surpasses my expectation from the previous series and the story at least makes a bit more sense to me.

ACTING/CAST:
War Wanarat is absolutely amazing! Every close-up scene that requires his change of reactions from a simple smirk, a tightening of the jaw, a stolen smile he wishes to cover up to the gritting of his teeth... Everything was on point! I was blown away by his ability to be in control of every minute muscular movements. That is really professional to me. The way he portrayed his character was good and it was obvious to the viewers his change of heart from Bar to Vee just through the way he expresses his emotions just through glances. I give him a 10/10! Also he is good looking and a definite eye candy!

Vee's character portrayed by Yin Anan is also done really well. While I was constantly shaking my head at Vee for the silly things his character did, Yin carried out those emotions very well. From the frustration, to the tiredness to feeling peacefully at ease and in love. He was able to capture it all well on camera! Of course Yin looks good too so that's a bonus. However, Vee as a character sometimes makes me wanna slap him! Lol, he is hurt because Ploy cheated on him but when really, you slept with someone else too. Not once and most probably not even twice. You're literally in a relationship there so to watch the character development, it was pretty good though I felt it was a bit too much to squeeze into 4 episodes.

MUSIC:
Again, I can't really recall much music so nope!

REWATCH VALUE:
I'd give this a 6.0 because honestly, I wouldn't mind watching it again for the two main actors. And 4 episodes is just nice! Not too lengthy!

OVERALL:
A great upgrade from Tossara! Definitely room to expand and to improve but a good watch still :)

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I like the way they connected the show, and the starting is nice, the scene has gravity in it (one of the protagonists is heartbroken). However, as the series goes, the story went from logical to very illogical. Some scenes are quite blunt and makes no sense. Especially, the third episode and fourth, I have to rewatch those to parse what actually happening in there. Even though the story has problems in it, the actors did a good job. I like the performance of both the protagonists. I am very much interested in seeing the sequel of this show provided that they have good script.

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OK BL, but doesn't seem like anything special

Note: I'm reviewing only "Love Mechanics" (4 episodes) without having watched the earlier part of En of Love (TOSSARA) that have the same characters but feature other couples as the main characters. As Love Mechanics has a page of its own here, I hope this review will be be useful for those who may want to watch Love Mechanics without watching the other parts. If I watch the other related parts and change my views, I will add my thoughts after the initial review.

Initial Review:
If you haven't watched En of Love: TOSSARA, which came out before Love Mechanics, you may find the beginning of Love Mechanics abrupt and even bizarre. My guess is that watching the earlier part of En of Love will help make Love Mechanics a bit more appealing.

At the beginning, Mark is drunk and mistakes Vee for a guy he is in love with (Bar). Bar has rejected Mark, and the drunken mark ends up having a one-night stand with Vee. Vee is not drunk, but inexplicably has sex with Mark. It turns out that Vee already has a girlfriend. (Those who have watched TOSSARA will probably already know that Vee has a girlfriend.)

What doesn't quite make sense for me is how Mark and Vee develop affections for each other. I doubt watching the other parts helps with this--after all, Mark has been in love with Bar for some time, and Vee seems to have a reputation for being a faithful boyfriend.

I feel that watching Love Mechanics as a standalone series doesn't make me feel much for the the main characters, Mark and Vee, in the first two episodes. By the time I found myself caring more about their relationship, it's the middle of Episode 3 (and only 2 of the 5 parts of the last episode, Episode 4, actually continues the story).

It's not hard to figure out what's going on after a short while watching Love Mechanics, but this production from Studio Wabi Sabi seems to be rather bland, especially in comparison with the really good (imo) Until We Meet Again. To its credit, the approach of dividing En of Love into different series that can roughly work as standalone mini series on their own may be a good thing. Many Thai dramas suffer from the "Too Many Characters" Syndrome, making the shifts in focus rather disorienting (and not in a good way). Also, at the very least, it hasn't put me off watching the other parts of En of Love.

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we're slipping deeper into BL mediocrity

Toxic relationships being regurgitated on loop. Zero storytelling, disjointed character arcs. Series tested formulae of non-helpful, interfering friend circles, engineering students and misplaced music are applied to this show. The only good takeaway was the actor who played Mark. With Taiwanese, Korean, Chinese queer themed and/or BL dramas producing more in-depth, engaging shows and Filipino web series with a firm grip on contemporary issues during COVID-19; the Thai 'BL' industry needs to wake up.

So glad that Nadao's I told Sunset About You has started streaming.

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Confusing Romance but the friendship is AMAZING!

So basically found the main romance very confusing, I never could follow the development of their feelings towards each other. However, the relationships that really shine in this series are the friendships, especially surrounding Mark’s friends. This the first in the “En Of Love” series I watched so I think I was missing context for a lot of it, but when Vee ultimately did what he did and everyone was defending Mark, it was amazing to see! I heard an expansion of this story is being developed and I think that’s great, the romance could definitely benefit from an expansion. But I just hope they keep the strength of the friendships intact, because that’s definitely where this story shines.

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Chemistry and Story of Series

En of Mechanism is a Continuation of En of Tossora where mark was in love with bar, In this Series it shown that Love can happens again also vee has a Gf but he is getting effected by Mark for no reason. Somehow he is getting jealous by having a word with any guy and mark started fall in love with vee unfortunately vee cheats him with his ex GF, but mark misunderstood that he cheated on him and he started to hang out with his new friends. Vee's friends started to conceal mark about vee, at the end mark forgives vee started to date, also updated status as a confirm relationship in Social media so that others should know that Vee is not a single, And Lastly vee gives a beautiful memories of Mark and vee as a present to mark as he accepted as a BF

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I don't want to talk about how this is a "spin off" or short. I want to talk just about the story on its own.
And here it is...
...
Wow. There are some parts that were great and most that were... frustrating.
It was incredibly hard to follow, especially timelines and characters. They tried to sum it up too quickly by telling us how character feel.
The acting was good. I liked it. I believed it.
The story? Christ. Sorry, but like... fuck Vee? Yeah... yeah. Fuck Vee.
I can't forgive and I certainly can't forget. I've known stories where the cheating is on the gray line and this one is not. Because you didn't make it FACEBOOK OFFICIAL doesn't mean it's okay to do that to a person who is clearly very smitten with you. What kind of heartless toad are you, Vee?
I loved Mark. I loved this character and sweetness and the actor... I felt like he deserved more. He deserved not to like a man who didn't fully, completely, unconditionally like him back.
---
Overall, would I recommend this? I watched this between bigger dramas.
And no, no I would not. It made another 5% of my hair turn gray.
Mark deserves better.

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