equanimity
the miracle of Tofu, was itself more meaningful and significant to me than his ending.
This was not just another BL drama on the relationship of a gay couple nor simply a story about a teddy bear who turned into a human. It also touched on first love, Alzheimer’s disease, explored the relationship between parent and child, past love and in them, trust, delusion, acceptance, jealousy, understanding, an encompassment of many complex emotions.
90 minutes each episode was, to be honest, hard to endure at first. Nevertheless, it started off interesting, apart from Nut’s mother getting delusional and Nut’s frequent outbursts of wrath. At episode 5-6, the story picked up and 90 minutes actually flew by with Tofu getting used to being human, Nut getting used to him in the house and gradually liking him. There were also sweet moments between Tofu and Nut and the talking objects and items in the house which only Tofu could communicate with were comical.
After 10 episodes or so, the drama started to feel ‘heavy’ when they explored Nut’s growing-up years with a soldier father who adamantly wanted him to be masculine and saw Nut’s homosexuality as fragile, while his mother seemed passive throughout, but was instead misunderstood as taking sides with his father in the eyes of Nut. This part also gave us flashbacks of Nut’s meeting with Tatarn (Nut’s first love) and them falling in love. It took empathy to understand the emotions of Nut and his mother, what they were going through and why they behaved the way they did. At that point in time, Tofu became a mediator between Nut’s mum and Nut.
At around episode 12 onwards, just after the mother and son saga died down, we were faced with another issue – the cause of Tatarn’s accident and the connection with Tofu’s turning into a human being.
The last 5 or 6 episodes, there were a lot of complex emotions involved and things were not said explicitly, I had to try to understand why the character behaved the way he/she did and I would say there was depth and substance in the entire story where social issues in Thailand were touched on and it was not just a mere fantasy story about a teddy bear who became alive.
However, for me, the execution in these last 5 or 6 episodes was excruciatingly slow. Every movement became slow, even the way the characters talked. There were lots of sitting down (on the bench) talking and the content of the conversations, as far as I saw, did not mean much and did not move the story forward much. I struggled to continue watching at this point in time, bearing in mind that it was 90 minutes per episode, and as I inched forward, I felt unbelievably glad that I was near the end.
One of the reasons I continued watching though was definitely because I was waiting for a revelation about why and how Tofu miraculously became human from a teddy bear and what would become of him in the end.
Not revealing any spoilers, the ending regarding Tofu might not have been the best, but I could accept it and I thought it was befitting of the drama title, ‘The miracle of teddy bear’ and miracle it was indeed.
Though I could not quite accept the ending regarding Nut and Tatarn, this was before I read the comment section of the drama in MDL, after reading comments posted by a viewer on what the scriptwriter or novel-writer said, I could appreciate a little of the ending of Nut and Tatarn better, because I saw Tatarn’s heartfelt intentions. This was also perhaps the best ending for Nut, considering Tofu’s ending. I also understood from the comment page that lots of editing were made to the last episode, so some explanations were never made clearly, but to me this was editing issue and nothing to do with the story, of course it did affect the flow and logic of the ending, but it did not take away the uniqueness of the story for me.
ACTING
Overall, teddy bear-turned-human, Tofu acted by In Sarin, was adorable and goofy. He was convincing enough to make us believe he was a teddy bear-turned-human: new to the human world, innocent and naïve. I personally liked his narration to the viewers as well. It definitely brought viewers closer to him as a result.
As for the other male lead, Nut (Tofu’s love interest and ‘owner’ when he was a teddy bear) acted by Job, I was a little disturbed by his behavior at first – constant shouting at his mother, always getting sensitive and agitated easily, but as I watched on, I began to understand the reasons behind his behavior, it was a realistic portrayal as a result of the trauma he had gone through during his youth, though to be honest, I still found his acting a little awkward at times, not sure if this was what his character required him to be or his acting was not natural enough, I needed to see more of him in other dramas before I could decide.
The chemistry between Tofu and Nut was well, not particularly exceptional and off the charts to me, but natural enough as both friends and lovers.
If I were to nitpick, I would say that I did find the acting of some (definitely not all, most of the support leads are good) of the support leads a little lacking or unnatural sometimes especially in their immediate reactions to something that happened and I was quite sure it had nothing to do with the Thai culture after watching quite a few Thai dramas.
OST
I liked the opening song of the drama. It was melodious, cheerful and bright. The ending song was just so-so, in fact it sounded quite similar to many BL OSTs. My all-time favourite, however, was the song played during the sad scenes, Tee Thanapon - Waiting For You.
MY VERDICT
Basically, my only gripe of this drama was the slow execution in the last 5 or 6 episodes. I personally found the story unique because I have never watched a drama in which a teddy bear could turn miraculously into such an absolutely lovable human and I really liked In Sarin’s portrayal of Tofu. It was very natural and believable.
Yes, the ending was not the most ideal, but I looked at it from a different perspective, considering the analogy, ‘the journey is as important if not more important than the destination itself’, the miracle of Tofu, the teddy bear-turned-human – the fact that he had once existed and the impact he made on the people around him - was itself more meaningful and significant to me than his ending.
I would recommend this drama if you are looking for something not just focused on BL, but also touched on family, relationships and a little on fantasy, but do take note that the ending may not be the most ideal for you.
90 minutes each episode was, to be honest, hard to endure at first. Nevertheless, it started off interesting, apart from Nut’s mother getting delusional and Nut’s frequent outbursts of wrath. At episode 5-6, the story picked up and 90 minutes actually flew by with Tofu getting used to being human, Nut getting used to him in the house and gradually liking him. There were also sweet moments between Tofu and Nut and the talking objects and items in the house which only Tofu could communicate with were comical.
After 10 episodes or so, the drama started to feel ‘heavy’ when they explored Nut’s growing-up years with a soldier father who adamantly wanted him to be masculine and saw Nut’s homosexuality as fragile, while his mother seemed passive throughout, but was instead misunderstood as taking sides with his father in the eyes of Nut. This part also gave us flashbacks of Nut’s meeting with Tatarn (Nut’s first love) and them falling in love. It took empathy to understand the emotions of Nut and his mother, what they were going through and why they behaved the way they did. At that point in time, Tofu became a mediator between Nut’s mum and Nut.
At around episode 12 onwards, just after the mother and son saga died down, we were faced with another issue – the cause of Tatarn’s accident and the connection with Tofu’s turning into a human being.
The last 5 or 6 episodes, there were a lot of complex emotions involved and things were not said explicitly, I had to try to understand why the character behaved the way he/she did and I would say there was depth and substance in the entire story where social issues in Thailand were touched on and it was not just a mere fantasy story about a teddy bear who became alive.
However, for me, the execution in these last 5 or 6 episodes was excruciatingly slow. Every movement became slow, even the way the characters talked. There were lots of sitting down (on the bench) talking and the content of the conversations, as far as I saw, did not mean much and did not move the story forward much. I struggled to continue watching at this point in time, bearing in mind that it was 90 minutes per episode, and as I inched forward, I felt unbelievably glad that I was near the end.
One of the reasons I continued watching though was definitely because I was waiting for a revelation about why and how Tofu miraculously became human from a teddy bear and what would become of him in the end.
Not revealing any spoilers, the ending regarding Tofu might not have been the best, but I could accept it and I thought it was befitting of the drama title, ‘The miracle of teddy bear’ and miracle it was indeed.
Though I could not quite accept the ending regarding Nut and Tatarn, this was before I read the comment section of the drama in MDL, after reading comments posted by a viewer on what the scriptwriter or novel-writer said, I could appreciate a little of the ending of Nut and Tatarn better, because I saw Tatarn’s heartfelt intentions. This was also perhaps the best ending for Nut, considering Tofu’s ending. I also understood from the comment page that lots of editing were made to the last episode, so some explanations were never made clearly, but to me this was editing issue and nothing to do with the story, of course it did affect the flow and logic of the ending, but it did not take away the uniqueness of the story for me.
ACTING
Overall, teddy bear-turned-human, Tofu acted by In Sarin, was adorable and goofy. He was convincing enough to make us believe he was a teddy bear-turned-human: new to the human world, innocent and naïve. I personally liked his narration to the viewers as well. It definitely brought viewers closer to him as a result.
As for the other male lead, Nut (Tofu’s love interest and ‘owner’ when he was a teddy bear) acted by Job, I was a little disturbed by his behavior at first – constant shouting at his mother, always getting sensitive and agitated easily, but as I watched on, I began to understand the reasons behind his behavior, it was a realistic portrayal as a result of the trauma he had gone through during his youth, though to be honest, I still found his acting a little awkward at times, not sure if this was what his character required him to be or his acting was not natural enough, I needed to see more of him in other dramas before I could decide.
The chemistry between Tofu and Nut was well, not particularly exceptional and off the charts to me, but natural enough as both friends and lovers.
If I were to nitpick, I would say that I did find the acting of some (definitely not all, most of the support leads are good) of the support leads a little lacking or unnatural sometimes especially in their immediate reactions to something that happened and I was quite sure it had nothing to do with the Thai culture after watching quite a few Thai dramas.
OST
I liked the opening song of the drama. It was melodious, cheerful and bright. The ending song was just so-so, in fact it sounded quite similar to many BL OSTs. My all-time favourite, however, was the song played during the sad scenes, Tee Thanapon - Waiting For You.
MY VERDICT
Basically, my only gripe of this drama was the slow execution in the last 5 or 6 episodes. I personally found the story unique because I have never watched a drama in which a teddy bear could turn miraculously into such an absolutely lovable human and I really liked In Sarin’s portrayal of Tofu. It was very natural and believable.
Yes, the ending was not the most ideal, but I looked at it from a different perspective, considering the analogy, ‘the journey is as important if not more important than the destination itself’, the miracle of Tofu, the teddy bear-turned-human – the fact that he had once existed and the impact he made on the people around him - was itself more meaningful and significant to me than his ending.
I would recommend this drama if you are looking for something not just focused on BL, but also touched on family, relationships and a little on fantasy, but do take note that the ending may not be the most ideal for you.
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