Chase You to the Heavens – Episode 1

I mean, come on, even the title speaks to love in the epic proportion. Chase You to the Heavens? This is a romance novel coming to life. How could I not tune in?

Channel 7 is starting the week strong with Lah Rak Sud Kob Fah, starring Mr. Tall Dark and Handsome Weir Sukullawat and Min Pechaya, reuniting after a previously successful lakorn together, Pin Anong. One that I did not partake, insert any valid excuse.

It’s been awhile since Channel 7 has lured me in – and I wanted to hold out until Prao with Aump Patcharapa (for no reason other than I adore her) – but the premise of this story is intriguing, and the set up of the story is delicious enough to go back for seconds. Yum.

EPISODE 1 SUMMARY: How a Bodyguard Meets the Princess

KAMIN (Weir Sukullawat) is a highly skilled, personal bodyguard to the Crown Prince of Raya, a very small country neighboring Thailand. He takes his job seriously and is loyal to a fault. So much so, that he opts to take the Prince’s place in the coliseum-like competition, while Prince Makee hightails out of the palace to visit his newest belle. Kamin wins of course, which takes everyone by surprise because Prince Makee is neither keen nor adept at combat.

But his efforts get revealed by Witoon, (the Queen’s relative), and the Queen – who finds him a thorn in their hide – and claims that he brainwashed the Prince into taking his spot so that he can look better than the prince. But Kamin is the King’s loyal subject and the King knows his son better than anyone. Without punishment, how else will the Prince learn?

Oh but there is a way. Witoon reports that news is spreading about the Prince’s behavior, which may impact the country’s credibility, and suggests that the only way to sober someone up – force someone to grow up so to speak – is marriage. Witoon’s motive is clear, he doesn’t need to spell out that his daughter is ripe for the taking. He would become powerful in the Kingdom if he were the Crown Prince’s father in law on top of being the Queen’s relative. Talk about keeping it in the family.

The King is well aware of Witoon’s intentions, and so he summons Kamin to execute a top-secret mission: he must compel the King’s old friend’s daughter to marry the Prince as soon as possible. The King shares that it is due time that he seizes the promise made twenty years ago with his Thai college buddy, Thamarak. His buddy is a good man, and the King surmises that the apple does not fall far from the tree. Thamarak’s daughter would be the Crown Princess as promised.

MATANA (Min Pechaya) could not be happier if she could be born a monkey in a tree, but as it is, she’s a noble Lady. As her mother likes to remind her, she has the King’s blood in her and she must comport herself as such. But one thing Mat hates more than anything in the world is to be a mannequin, a doll, or even a puppet where people dictate her life, tell her how to dress, how to act and even how to behave. She’s her father’s daughter and craves freedom more than anything. We see her personality from the onset: feisty, argues every bit of the way with people who try to boss her around, and gives it back as good as she got towards men who use their status and money for their personal benefit. Her weakness though, is her mother, who tainted the noble blood by marrying a commoner, her father. Thus, the family is set on Matana making a good match and not letting history repeat itself.

Mintra, her confidante, or maybe even her lived in Governess reminds her that she’s born a very lucky girl. People would envy her position.

What I find interesting is that both the Prince and Mattana are in very similar situations. They don’t want to be where they’re at. The Prince has mentioned to Kamin that he wished that Kamin could take his spot because it would make his father happy. While Matana’s mom indicates that if Mat has half the ladylike mannerism as Mintra, she would be happy. And as far as we can tell, Kamin is loyal to a fault and would never imagine taking his Prince’s spot. While Mintra on the other hand, we don’t know how far she can be pushed or prodded. We just know that she’s one of those girls that envy Mat’s lucky life.

It is a comfortable life at that. Her father dotes on her, well until he gets a call from the King who wants his promise back. What’s a dad to do? For one, he worries that Mat isn’t Princess material (ha) and secondly, how could he convince his baby girl to marry when they could barely tell her to go to her own birthday party? Mom is on board though because she’s had it with her daughter’s shenanigans, not a day goes by without the gossip column catching wind that Matana is at it again: shaming the family. But Mat isn’t going to marry someone she’s never met – not even a PRINCE. Dad tries to convince her that they owe a great deal to the King who invested in dad’s business from the ground up and that his promise is golden. There’s no backing out now.

Oh but Mat has her ways. She sneaks out of home and hightails to the airport, where she runs headlong into Kamin as she’s trying to evade her Auntie. Kamin notices the plane ticket that she dropped – which spelled out her name and he immediately sniffs his target. Earlier, the King had showed him a picture of the future Crown Princess and it’s a face he isn’t likely to forget. He gives a small smile and follows her. Kamin has such an air of authority when he walks, he simply takes the breath away.

Dad enlists the help from the enforcements to find his daughter. Her accomplice is his employee – her trusted senior whom she has forced to swear that he wouldn’t tell anyone. I like him already too because he’s well aware that she’s out of his reach, and treats her only as a friend.

Trying to evade her Auntie for the second time, Mat runs into Kamin again who returns her plane ticket. She pretends to be overly thankful and embraces him (squeal!) as a mean to hide from her Auntie. She leans her cheek against his chest, and pleads for his help. Mat fabricates a story that her dad is trying to force her to marry a mafia who has several wives. Little did she know that Kamin is well aware of who she is and questions ‘he has several wives?’ Weir’s exasperated look is classic.

As the search party disappears, Mat takes off her sunglasses and thanks Kamin for his help. She wonders where he’s from and he merely explains that he’s from a very small country. Mat surmises that in spite of the small country, he has a very kind heart, and that she’s unlikely to forget it. Adorable.

Kamin suggests she wait in the restroom until the coast is clear and he would alert her. Ha, but turns out, he alerts the search party instead and Mat finds herself whisked back home to partake in her own birthday party!

Kamin googles our girl and smiles adorably at her pictures. Dressed like the prince charming, he shows up at the birthday party pretending to be a newly minted reporter, where he acquires more information about the future Crown Princess (even if said information didn’t come from the best source.) Our hero is already smitten…. and thoroughly entertained because Mat gets a bright idea from Mintra that if she truly wanted the marriage talks to go south, she need only convince the other party that she’s not fit, so Mat does what she does best, create shenanigans.

Oh, I can watch her shenanigans ALL day. For example, Mat is supposed to dance traditionally for her spectators, but she opts to do a funny shake while wearing a mouth guard instead. Buahaha. But Kamin is two steps ahead of her since one, he already knows what she truly looks like and two, he’ll do his due diligence to discover the real her.

As the funny pauses, the suspense climbs. A man dressed as a server pulls out a gun, and Kamin notices said gun as it is aimed directly at Mat….

Show knows how to end an episode!

What I find intriguing as much as the premise itself, are the two leads. I wondered why Mat mentioned earlier that not all rich people are good people. What happened in her life that made her think that way? And for our hero, is the responsibility ingrained in him, or does he have a past that propels him to act that way? All good things though.

For a first episode, this show does a great job keeping me invested. After all, we have a feisty, but sensible heroine, and a hero that is simply swoonworthy.

Pictures credit to Lah Rak Sud Kob Fah’s FB