En of Love: Love Mechanics (2020)

I'm so pissed

Warning: this is one angry review

I didn't watch this normally, I subtitled it but I watched it at the same time so it counts. This was so unbearable and I forced myself to finish it. It was awful. The story was meh. The acting was okay. The characters!! Especially Vee, are awful! Vee is one of the worst characters I've seen. He took advantage of Mark right at the start! He hurt Mark. And he kinda apologised or something and Mark forgave him right away and took him back?? His personality is annoying. He doesn't let Mark take his shirt off because he doesn't want anyone to see what "belongs" to him and he's a prick. The fans were so annoying! Especially that one girl who made those videos. "We like it when you have a girlfriend. You guys were so cute, you shouldn't have broken up". B!tch what?? AND THIS PROBLEMATIC DETAIL. He calls him "his wife". I hate it when they do that. Why woukd you call your boyfriend your wife?? And other people were calling Vee daddy or something right? I literally felt no connection between the characters through the show as well. The story was bad too. The opening is the only good thing about this show. It's also boring. There wasn't a single moment the characters didn't piss me off. MARK DESERVES BETTER
This thing was bad and I think there are so manu better things out there to watch. A HUGE WASTE OF TIME

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Sweet and cute, but too fast!

I watched this drama before watching Love Mechanics 2022. I really enjoyed it and the leads have immense chemistry together. I do have a few issues however, that I hope will be resolved om the 2022 version (but I fear....). For one, we never get any explanation on how Mark went from liking Bar to Vee. The first scene gives us the impression that Mark mistakes Vee for Bar, but afterwards we learn that he has liked Vee for months? Second, al of a sudden we have skipped a year, where it first appeared to be just one or a few months. Thirdly, there is no making up scene. Vee confesses and the next scene is Mark with his friend questioning him on why he gave in so easily. That's what I wanted to know!!!
And lastly, there is no real ending. Yes, the story is sort of wrapped up, but there is no real "end scene" and that bothered me. So, why rate it a 7.5 after all that? That is all due to the acting, butterflies and chemistry, mostly on Vee's part. The heart brokenness really got to me and my heart ached for him. There was just too much goodness to put in just 4 eps.

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Great Cast, sub-par story

Even the guy who played Vee thought Vee didn't make sense. (See interview at end.) Who doesn't care when their girlfriend cheats? Who gives her a final kiss when he's planning on being with someone else? And then he pines for a month (later they made it sound like two months had passed--one of many confusing things for me. I also thought that Mark may have admitted that he liked Vee even before he liked Bar, but I'm not sure because it wasn't clear. I felt that was kind of important--did Mark really want to sleep with Vee that first time? Maybe there was more information about Bar and Mark in another series--it felt very vague in this one.
The actor playing Mark did such a great job in the bar scene when he was so cold to Vee--but, again, the story failed by not providing more. Vee says "I love you," Mark looks touched, and the scene changes. But they can waste precious time out of the 4 episode series to have completely unimportant conversations among the friends.
The cast was great, although the actress who played Ploy couldn't even squeeze out one tear during the breakup scene. The actor playing Vee, on the other hand, was great at crying.

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Better than what I thought.

For those who are wondering, this is a *happy ending, *

Let's start first with things that I didnt like about the series, because it is soo few:
- When I first watched this series back in 2020, I stopped at Tossara because I didnt like the premise of Love Mechanics much, but when I am glad I watched it now. Though I dont think I like their ost compared to how much I liked Tossara's.
- Vee is an a*hole. I do not condone cheating, even if your other partner is cheating too. End things properly first. Mark needs a ton of hugs in this series.

Now to things I really love about this series:
+ Supportive friends. Get a friend like James.
+ Expressive acting. Maaaan, War can act with just his eyes. I really felt bad for him and at the same time find him sooo adorable. We must protect him at all cost.
+ Chemistry between leads.


Storywise, it all revolves the dorm, the bar and their love story. Not much regarding them being both engineers, which is good. It gives a different kind of feeling. I think overall, this part is better than Tossara.

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en of love: love mechanics

okay, okay this thai bl drama. I love the actors with all my heart but they just didn't do the boys justice like mate did they have to make him so damn fucking toxic. like bro it makes no sense and all the toxcity wouldn't have happend if he hadn't kissed him at that bar. we he was thinking of bar. like oh my days all of this toxicity is vee's fault. and mark deserves a happy ending and i'm scared to watch the second love mechanics because apparently vee is a lot worse. and that girl i think her name is ploy is the biggest pick me girl. and poor mark he waited and waited for vee to break up with ploy and then vee got made at him it just doesn't add up mate, like mark had the right to get mad at vee every single step of the way. and vee should've just shut his mouth when it comes to dating.

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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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